Thanks to my reviewers
Thanks to sirpudding and MrWrong, who reviewed this article as a draft on the forums!
MEMORANDUM 009 REGARDING PROJECT 736 / Discussion
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This is the discussion related to the wiki page MEMORANDUM 009 REGARDING PROJECT 736.
A few points:
- I like how the Foundation works here and ORIA relative to it. It feels like a parallel to the RL rise of Iran and American backing down from the Middle East region.
- I feel it might be unnecessary for the writer to explicitly state that Maryam is "secular, Kurdish, lesbian". In-universe, it could be assumed that the receiver knows all that. I feel it might be better to leave it vague, so that readers (we) can fill up the blanks about why Maryam could be a so-called threat to ORIA "values".
Overall, this is a valiant attempt of updating SCP-036 to the times. Initially, I did fear that the Daesh parable might render the work preachy. While it is less preachy overall, it does feel distant from the SCP setting and feel more grounded in reality than I would like to imagine.
That said, I still feel that you have underused SCP-036 here. It could be better incorporated into the article, or that ORIA can give a different perspective on the SCP than the Foundation (think of ORIA's study of Eastern Samothrace for example).
Couldn't follow this at all. I got nothing past "Yazidis" and "Kurdish lesbian", and I'm not even sure who Maryam is supposed to be. I won't say it's bad, just confusing. Though it seems there's an extra "classified" header in the middle.
She's an ORIA operative within the People's Protection Units of the Federation of Northern Syria-Rojova (YPG). ORIA is the Office of Reclamation of Islamic Artifacts, a Foundation-verse GOI based in Iran. The YPG is a real world rebel army.
al-Tamarrud al-Fawdaa - Arabic translation of "The Chaos Insurgency."
YPG - As sirpudding has pointed out, the military organization of Rojava, a primarily-Kurdish de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria.
Pershmerga - The military forces of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Asayish - Kurdish militia and police organization.
Sutoro - Assyrian militia and police organization.
kiras guhorîn - Reincarnation pilgrimage previously described in SCP-036.
Jahannam - Hell.
Nasrani - Christian.
Daesh - Arabic acronym referring to ISIS.
Tawûsê Melek - A divine being also known as the Peacock Angel, who is revered by the Yazidis. He was said to have refused to bow to Adam, so Muslims and Christians identified him with Satan.
Dar al-Islam - Division of the world where Islam is dominant, and the religions of the People of the Book (Christians, Jews, and others) are tolerated to a certain extent.
Qataniyah and Sinjar - Sites of ISIS massacres of Yazidis.
Pershmerga
Literally "those who face death", which may be the best name for a milita currently in use anywhere today. These guys are absolutely terrible at guard duty, smoke like chimneys, and they all have like six cell phones for some inexplicable reason, otherwise way better in a fight then the Iraqi Army, IME.
Tawûsê Melek
Interestingly enough, Yezidism is related to Gnosticism and Tawûsê Malek is essentially the head Archon whom God left to rule the universe in his name, equivalent to the Ophite Yaldaboath, who should be familiar to readers here, but rather than be a jerk about it Tawûsê Malek is trying to do the best job he can.
Also in my experience, because Yezidism is a mystery cult, and persecuted besides, educated Westerners are actually likely to know more about the theology of the faith than most Kurds, even many Yezidis, who haven't been inducted into the mysteries.
Unfold
Re: A glossary of potentially confusing terms for your benefit by 
sirpudding, 11 Jun 2016 00:29
I am still neutral on this, it doesn't really do anything suprising, and it mostly lacks narrative tension. Conflict is hinted at but immediately dismissed, and the policy is exactly what I would expect from the ORIA. It isn't any surprise that an organization of the Iranian government especially an organization dedicated to preserving antiquities would oppose a group who's primary goals include destroying Iran and Shia Islam, and whose activities notably include the willful destruction of artifacts.
27 SEPTEMBER 2014
They'd use the western calendar, but isn't it traditional to also give the islamic calendar date alongside?
al-Qāi'dah-SCP
Would they use a literal translation of "Foundation" in the sense of "Basis", as opposed to "thing founded"? In English we generally use the verbal noun to refer to both the action, and the result - eg. we construct a house, this is an act of construction, and the resulting house is…a construction. Arabic grammar isn't my field, but I don't think it works like that.
Nasrani and Muslim alike
IIRC, the Nasrani are an indian christian sect. I don't think the word is generically used for all christians. Use Kafir instead?
They'd use the western calendar, but isn't it traditional to also give the islamic calendar date alongside?
Putting in the Islamic calendar date in the box thing at the top breaks the template, unfortunately, although the Islamic calendar date is included at the bottom.
Would they use a literal translation of "Foundation" in the sense of "Basis", as opposed to "thing founded"? In English we generally use the verbal noun to refer to both the action, and the result - eg. we construct a house, this is an act of construction, and the resulting house is…a construction. Arabic grammar isn't my field, but I don't think it works like that.
My choice of using this translation was influenced by previous ORIA format articles, which also use al-Qāi'dah-SCP or variations on it. While I suppose that this may not be the greatest translation, it does convey a negative sentiment towards the Foundation by associating it with al-Qaeda something most English speakers would regard as bad.
IIRC, the Nasrani are an indian christian sect. I don't think the word is generically used for all christians. Use Kafir instead?
Nasrani is, in fact, an Arabic word for Christians. Kafir, on the other hand, just means people who aren't Muslim, which is insufficiently specific in this context, since it is specifically Christian and Muslims observers who have regarded Yazidis as devil-worshippers.
Although I wonder why ORIA would use Arabic for their internal documents anyway, instead of Farsi.
The justification given in the ORIA Hub is that since ORIA has widespread influence throughout the Middle East, Arabic and Farsi are used equally internally. This makes sense to me, since ORIA is not intrinsically linked to the Iranian government, even though it has been based in Iran for a very long time.
I'm really glad you've done this. I know ISIS's actions are terrible, but because of -036 the genocide of the Yazidis brought that conflict home for me in a very specific and bizarre way.
I wanted to write something, but I couldn't think of a tactful and worthwhile way to address it. Although I don't usually follow the OIRA, I think this accomplishes that quite well.
Can't believe I never commented on this when I first read it. It's a good piece of writing. I don't think I have much else to say besides good job.
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page revision: 3, last edited: 22 Sep 2018 03:57
