charleneferlay

[charleneferlay]

working title :'')

Some design ideas for Maia, an Arcadian mountain nymph and mother to Hermes.

*squints at the thumbnail*

Eldest daughter of Atlas and Pleione

Shy earth goddess/nymph

lives alone in a cave near peaks of Mt. Kyllene

Mother of Hermes by Zeus

um, she was actually topless in the original drawing but I had to censor this for tumblr because they hate naked boobs here.

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Hephaistion and Alexandros by Lysandreasaelo!

I was still toying with their color palette. While Hephaistion sticks to dark blue and silver because he's a Hunter of Artemis, I didn't stick with Alexandros' gold and blue and switched to beige, bronze and dark red.

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Phil wants you to meet his smol Alexander under the cut !

Okay so first here is Phil behind really sad about Amyntas' murder.

But he's 47 already he needs boy. So he gets married and then meets the perfect mistress in Constantinople: meet Dionysia, who is very fertile.

Obviously that's a sign from the gods.

And now Phil's lover dies:

Okay so Phil lost his two sons, one daughter, a wife, Makedonia has been burnt from the ground and NOW his imperial lover is DEAD. The man can't get a break!

So he went to a tourney he was invited to and apparently Philippos is a great bowman, who would have thought?

Phil goes home and his wife delivered twins.

TWIN GIRLS.

Okay darling but I really need boys so I home Dionysia will give me a boy and BEHOLD!

Look at him he's okay looking, vigorous and smart! He's a bastard but who cares, Phil didn't go on pilgrimage for nothing and he's the best friend of the Patriarch of Constantinople. God will forgive us!

The official wife is pregnant again and finally some luck so welcome baby Karanos :

Macedonia is still burning so Philippos had to find money elsewhere. He's started a business in spying and bullying and is now stealing money from everyone else and blackmailing them. If we can't have the gold from the gold mine, we got to get it from somewhere, right?

Time to play Crusader Kings III again!

Philippos is back from the dead to lead Macedonia to glory (or at least to have good feasts and unleash chaos on this world).

Though he's 100% legit the game believes he's over powered so Phil cannot make me win any Steam successes!

No matter, let's take a look at Macedonia under the cut !

So apparently we're part of the Byzantine empire now. It's the 9th century and we have a nice red cloak.

In live Phil believes in money, armies and bedding everyone he can bed who can be useful. Since his lands have few soldiers and not a lot of money, for now he'll specialized in getting in other people's bed.

But of course Phil ain't going to just sleep around with anyone. Turns out Basileios (wtf this name lol), our beloved Basileus, is bisexual!

We're going to be a big, loving family because our friend Basil has an ex wife...

That's her! And they have two kids.

Phil decides to marry her. Being the stepdad of two of Basil's kids seems like a good idea.

Phil is trying to convince Basil to send him Konstantinos, his wife's boy, so he can raise the smol boy. Turns out it takes so long his new life Maria had time to fall pregnant. So here is smol Amyntas, Philippos' first boy!

After a few day, it's obvious baby Amyntas is a genius (I don't know how they know that, can he count already ?)

Basil finally agrees to send Phil his boy. Great, Konstantinos (hopefully the next emperor) and smol Amyntas wil be raised together!

It's now time for Phil to start his love story with the emperor. He doesn't want a one night stand, that's the *emperor*, what Phil want is his love for LIFE so he can make good use of it.

Now that they slept together, it's time to become the love of his life.

One big family, I said, and next what? Phil would probably like to sit in council or become his lover's regent. I mean why not, he's already the husband of the man's ex wife, his lover and the tutor of his son!

But there's many people to win to Phil's cause, and one important thing to remember, getting caught with a man, in Anno 871, isn't good.

So let's go on a pilgrimage to convince everyone Phil really is a good christian !

Now that Phil proved he is really pious it's time to ask the Church for *money* because money is always good!

But before he left Constantinople, some drama hit him and his imperial lover:

A thief!

Phil having saving his boyfriend, he is now the Love of his Life. Great! Now the regency, please ?

More drama to come in later games !

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Kept playing a bit. Game was going well.

And then: peasant uprising of hell while Phil was away doing stuffs with the Emperor, wife killed, boys killed (RIP Amyntas and Arrhidaios), Makedonia burned down, and the Emperor died one month after that.

So Phil drank himself senseless for a month and now he's back in the game, I mean being 47 with no son and half your family murdered is no reason to quit, time for some polygamy to get those sons FAST.

Time to play Crusader Kings III again!

Philippos is back from the dead to lead Macedonia to glory (or at least to have good feasts and unleash chaos on this world).

Though he's 100% legit the game believes he's over powered so Phil cannot make me win any Steam successes!

No matter, let's take a look at Macedonia under the cut !

So apparently we're part of the Byzantine empire now. It's the 9th century and we have a nice red cloak.

In live Phil believes in money, armies and bedding everyone he can bed who can be useful. Since his lands have few soldiers and not a lot of money, for now he'll specialized in getting in other people's bed.

But of course Phil ain't going to just sleep around with anyone. Turns out Basileios (wtf this name lol), our beloved Basileus, is bisexual!

We're going to be a big, loving family because our friend Basil has an ex wife...

That's her! And they have two kids.

Phil decides to marry her. Being the stepdad of two of Basil's kids seems like a good idea.

Phil is trying to convince Basil to send him Konstantinos, his wife's boy, so he can raise the smol boy. Turns out it takes so long his new life Maria had time to fall pregnant. So here is smol Amyntas, Philippos' first boy!

After a few day, it's obvious baby Amyntas is a genius (I don't know how they know that, can he count already ?)

Basil finally agrees to send Phil his boy. Great, Konstantinos (hopefully the next emperor) and smol Amyntas wil be raised together!

It's now time for Phil to start his love story with the emperor. He doesn't want a one night stand, that's the *emperor*, what Phil want is his love for LIFE so he can make good use of it.

Now that they slept together, it's time to become the love of his life.

One big family, I said, and next what? Phil would probably like to sit in council or become his lover's regent. I mean why not, he's already the husband of the man's ex wife, his lover and the tutor of his son!

But there's many people to win to Phil's cause, and one important thing to remember, getting caught with a man, in Anno 871, isn't good.

So let's go on a pilgrimage to convince everyone Phil really is a good christian !

Now that Phil proved he is really pious it's time to ask the Church for *money* because money is always good!

But before he left Constantinople, some drama hit him and his imperial lover:

A thief!

Phil having saving his boyfriend, he is now the Love of his Life. Great! Now the regency, please ?

More drama to come in later games !

[charleneferlay]

Time to play Crusader Kings III again!

Philippos is back from the dead to lead Macedonia to glory (or at least to have good feasts and unleash chaos on this world).

Though he's 100% legit the game believes he's over powered so Phil cannot make me win any Steam successes!

No matter, let's take a look at Macedonia under the cut !

So apparently we're part of the Byzantine empire now. It's the 9th century and we have a nice red cloak.

In live Phil believes in money, armies and bedding everyone he can bed who can be useful. Since his lands have few soldiers and not a lot of money, for now he'll specialized in getting in other people's bed.

But of course Phil ain't going to just sleep around with anyone. Turns out Basileios (wtf this name lol), our beloved Basileus, is bisexual!

We're going to be a big, loving family because our friend Basil has an ex wife...

That's her! And they have two kids.

Phil decides to marry her. Being the stepdad of two of Basil's kids seems like a good idea.

Phil is trying to convince Basil to send him Konstantinos, his wife's boy, so he can raise the smol boy. Turns out it takes so long his new life Maria had time to fall pregnant. So here is smol Amyntas, Philippos' first boy!

After a few day, it's obvious baby Amyntas is a genius (I don't know how they know that, can he count already ?)

Basil finally agrees to send Phil his boy. Great, Konstantinos (hopefully the next emperor) and smol Amyntas wil be raised together!

It's now time for Phil to start his love story with the emperor. He doesn't want a one night stand, that's the *emperor*, what Phil want is his love for LIFE so he can make good use of it.

Now that they slept together, it's time to become the love of his life.

One big family, I said, and next what? Phil would probably like to sit in council or become his lover's regent. I mean why not, he's already the husband of the man's ex wife, his lover and the tutor of his son!

But there's many people to win to Phil's cause, and one important thing to remember, getting caught with a man, in Anno 871, isn't good.

So let's go on a pilgrimage to convince everyone Phil really is a good christian !

Now that Phil proved he is really pious it's time to ask the Church for *money* because money is always good!

But before he left Constantinople, some drama hit him and his imperial lover:

A thief!

Phil having saving his boyfriend, he is now the Love of his Life. Great! Now the regency, please ?

More drama to come in later games !

[charleneferlay]

New chapter of the adventures of Philippos being a punk brat in Thebai.

In which Parmenion and Epaminondas don’t get along *again* and seriously discuss whether a stray black dog is an omen or just a stray dog.

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New art for my novel! Pausanias of Orestis being his usual disaster self, by the.angel.incarnate!

Probably 10% of Book 1 is "Pausanias NO", the rest being split between "Philippos WHY?", "Alexandros I'm not sure that's a great idea" and "Hephaistion YOU SHOULDN'T" lol.

One note: Pausanias's "plotline" starts a few years after the point when it did historically, so I could better involve Alexandros and Hephaistion in the whole thing. So he was with Alexandros in Mieza at some point, and started his affair with Philippos when Alexandros, aged 16, received the regency.

***

"I don't understand you, Hephaistion - why would you fuck a nobody, an hostage no one likes, when you could have much better?" "We don't fuck," I hissed.

"Well," Pausanias said, "is that relevant? Poor Alexandros believes you do."

"So? What I do in my bed is none of his business."

Pausanias leaned against the wall. Watched me, puzzled and then amused, as if he had suddenly understood the funniest thing.

"Oh my, Hephaistion, you're unbelievable... you haven't noticed? Not at all? Let me spell that for you: Alexandros is th-i-rst-y for you. How can you not know? Everyone in Mieza noticed!"

Well, I hadn't, and I didn't care: I had a man to kill tonight and this wretched party was keeping me from my mission - this whole stupid talk was.

"I'll pass," I said, trying to walk away, only for Pausanias to grab my arm.

"Just picture what you're missing, Hephaistion: you're from an obscure family and new to Makedon. Alexandros could bring you money, power, status. And for what price? He's a pretty boy."

"You're welcome to him," I said, breaking free of his grip. Maybe the real Hephaistion would have hoped for all that, but as a Hunter of Artemis, I couldn't care less.

I hoped Pausanias would understand, then, that I was busy and in no mood to talk to him. If I couldn't leave to hunt, I least I could pretend to do my job as a page and go back to serving plates and wine. But no, he kept close, and told me with a grin:

"Thank you but no. I'm tired of dating fumbling virgins - I want a man while I still can... and I'm quite sure by the end of the feast, I won't be sleeping alone."

He flashed me another smile and then mouthed: think about Alexandros, before we were engulfed in the flow of servants.

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So it's friday. I should be writing the Serious Novel but it's like the endlessly gray weather is sucking out what energy I have left.

Maybe that's a sign that this weekend is SmolPhil's weekend and I should be writing nonsense on the spinoff, I mean Philippos has been waiting for some time now for an update and he's got some cursing to do. And a boyfriend to woo.

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I am now the happy owner of a medieval fanfiction that involves Alexander flying in the sky with griffins and diving in a glass submarine!

The small book is the full text in old French and French. The bigger one doesn't have the full story, but comments various pictures from a manuscript from the XIII century.

The text itself is from the XIIth century and part of a tradition that includes retellings of the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Eneid and the Thebaid. Those stories existed allongside the Matière de Bretagne (King Arthur and his Knights) as well as the Matière de France (Charlemagne and his Knights), and didn't care much for historicity.

I encountered the Alexander stories when I was working on my arthurian novel, with one of the main character (Gawain) being a huge fan of the Alexander Romance - though he probably did not read the medieval text, since Gawain knows of Hephaistion as Alexander's Special One, and I doubt "Festion", the friend who shows up once in a while, will have any role at all.

My first glimps was not this text at all, but two medieval Welsh poems from the Book of Taliesin : "The Marvels of Alexander" and "He ranged the whole world". That one dates at leas from the XIIth century. It's interesting that in the Marvels, we get exactly what is on the cover of the two books I own :

He of strong swordplay Went under the sea; Under the sea he went In pursuit of learning. Whoever seeks learnings Must be of bold mind. He rode on the wind Between two griffins To behold what they saw. He saw a vision: The world a whole.

This is just an extract, but still: more griffins and diving under the sea!

I'll end this post with two pics: the first one is King Phelippes (or Phelippe, or Phelis, or Phelipons, what are names I wonder) buying Bucifal the Man Eating Horse (because he needed a man eating horse to eat the criminals in his kingdom apparently) and young Alixandre taming the beast (Bucifal has two horns, not one but two, because unicorns aren't good enough for Alixandre, he deserves two horns). The second one is Phelippe giving his son to Aristote. You're free to guess at the identity of the three "friends" behind Alixandre, who looks super mean on ALL the pictures.

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Today sucks so here, have a Teen Philippos in his Bad Hair Era with his Macedonian kausia hat!

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Xmas doodle for friends of mine because of course in a modern day AU, Philippos would wear ugly sweaters and like hot wine.

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So there is now a community. You may request to join, I believe, instead of needing me to invite you. That makes my life a lot easier.

I am very likely to approve you (especially if I already know you), but I will glance through Tumblrs for those I don't recognize. I've tried to keep the topics associated but fairly broad.

I DO want folks who I don't know able to find the group and join.

What I don't want are porn stars, alt-right crazies hyped on antiquity, ultra-nationalists, or lazy students who want us to write their school essays. If you're coming for a laugh, serious discussion, pretty art, or community, hop on. If you're coming for a fight, go back to "X" or Truth Social.

Please read the welcome message. I think most of it is pretty common-sensible.

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So I counted how many Alexander novels I read this past year and I'm over 15.

One thing I love is to see how different authors will portray the same characters in very different fashion, as well as events and relationships. In some way it reassuring to know that even with same starting material, authors will still tell very different stories.

If you are a writer, you may have read the words "every story has already been written, but no by you", and I feel this is very true with all the Alexander novels.

I also like to discover which characters were included or not. It's funny how some stories will devote a lot of time to Philip but completely erase or rewrite Pausanias (because no one is allowed be gay or bisexual in those novels), how some books will go at length about Alexander and Hephaistion being lovers but others will be like THEY WERE FRIENDS, NO HOMO. Amyntas is often barely mentionned, if he exists at all. Some authors pay attention to the women of the family while others will restrict themselves to Olympias being a witchy bitch.

Oh I have finally, FINALLY found a Philip who's a red head lol. Took me more than 15 novels! Still no blond Philip though !

I'd love to know in the comments and/or reblogs if you have read several novels about the same events, and what you thought about characters and events being written differently!

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I have started reading In the company of friends by Argent Wood and I like it, it's cute and the characters feel like real people.

It's self published and not well known, so if you want to read some Alexander stuffs and help a small author, consider giving it a try!

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Full circle this morning: I started researching Alexander because I was writing an arthurian novel, and the Romance of Alexander is one of the best seller they read (Gawain is also extremely fond of the Iliad, his mom is translating latin stuffs for him). At some point, the young Arthur gets a vision of Alexander while taking the sword, as Alexander is the previous incarnation of the legendary king, and there is one line from him that open a whole can of bad dialogues in my mind:

[Arthur] "Who are you?" "Alexander. You, in many ways. The promised one, the one that turns into legends." "I know you." "Do you? I doubt you do. They lied so much about me when I was alive, I guess they did much worse after I died."

Then their conversation goes on about other things, but in some other alternative universe it could have gone like this : Arthur : Why do you have horns Alexander : That's because I am a god, like Dionysus Arthur : But I though Bucephalus was the one with horns Alexander : Wait what Arthur : That's why he's called Oxhead you know, because he has two horns Alexander : Bucephalus doesn't have horns Arthur : And he's eating people Alexander : No Arthur : Is that true that your father is actually an Egyptian magi who was a pharaoh of Egypt ? Alexander : WTF Arthur : And that he took the form of a dragon to bed your mother? Alexander : Please stop Arthur : Do you really have a flying machine with gryffins and a glass submarine, can I get a rid in the flying machine Alexander : NO

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Pros of having my own Discord server is that I can have emotes of my characters. Another character got all the happy and nice vibes, and Alex turned out to be the server mascot for all the violent and judgemental faces.

Bonus Philippos and Hephaistion are in the trash bin because 90% of the dumb drama of La Flèche d'Artémis comes from them being equally terrible.

Which Small Alex is your fav ?

[charleneferlay]

More Alexander books

Reading update!

I finished rereading Mary Renault A fire from heaven. It took me a long time because it's well written but I really struggle to connect with her Alexander AND her Hephaistion. I really feel like Hephaistion's whole personnality is Alexander, and that Alexander is too "remote".

BUT it's really well written, I love how she describes mood and landscapes and places. Those people aren't likeable but they feel real.

I started The Shadow King from Harry Sidebottom. I was hyped because I used to read his Warrior of Rome books. It was a decade ago and I still have very fond memories of those books. I am, sadly, disappointed with the Shadow King for several reasons. The first one is that there is too much Alexander&Philip in this book. By that I mean that the main character barely has a life outside of them (but Philip just died so *maybe* Alexander of Lynkestis will finally get a plot of his own).

The second reason is that while it's sometimes better to know of Alexander prior to reading some novels about him... that's not the case he. One example of this is A choice of destinies from Melissa Scott, there are a lot of characters and most of them barely get any attention. There isn't a lot of character development, so I felt like being already invested in them was good.

Here, the problem is that Philip can't go anywhere without stumbling on an historical anecdote and frankly, I found that a bit annoying and pointless, especially since the story didn't need it. There was a moment when Alexander of Lynkestis has a scene with Philip, Olympias and Philip's mother Eurydice. And I was like "oh great, we get a bit of her backstory, we never see her in novels, it'll be a nice change !". But no, Eurydice will NEVER appear again... so what was the point of telling us about her life and Philip liking her? It felt like gratuitous info dumping.

Some anecdotes were also slightly modified and tbh, not in a good way. There's a famous story about Philip going for a hunt because he's bored of doing kingly stuffs. A random grandma tells him to hear her case, but he wants to leave for his hunt and tells her he doesn't have time for that. She reprimands him, saying that if he doesn't have time to hear her, then he doesn't have time to be king. He sits down again and listen to her. In the novel, we get the same thing except Philip wasn't leaving to have fun in the woods, he was living for Dion for some sacrifice to the gods... so it's really not the same situation? He's king, sacrificing to the gods is part of his job? Oh and of course this scene doesn't serve the story at all, it's there because it's "historical" I guess.

I feel like I would have liked this book better if I knew less about the characters. Maybe the anecdotes would have sounded more interesting.