#Dragon-bodied

[ashitakaxsan]

Dragonar Fort.

TEHRAN – A recently finished archaeological excavation,on the ruins of a massive fort is southern Iran,reveals the monument was initially used in Sassanid era and later during the early Islamic epoch up to the late Qajar era.

Covering some 20 ha in area, Qale Ezhdeha-Peykar, whose name literary translates into ‘dragon-bodied’ fort, is situated on a mound in Lar county of Fars province, southern Iran, Mehr reported on Tuesday.

The [archaeological] site consists of three ridges on the north, middle, and south, and was surrounded by a defensive wall in which watchtowers were built at regular intervals, the remains of which can be seen today.

The excavation indicates the history of settlement in this area stretches to the Sassanid era (224–651) and then it continued to be inhabited from early Islamic centuries until the end of the Qajar period (1789-1925).

Conducted under the supervision of the Research institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, the dig makes the first archaeological season on the fortress, the report said.

The Sassanid era (224 CE–651) is of very high importance in the history of Iran. Under Sassanids, Persian art and architecture experienced a general renaissance. Architecture often took grandiose proportions, such as palaces at Ctesiphon, Firuzabad, and Sarvestan, which are amongst the highlights of the ensemble.

Crafts such as metalwork and gem engraving grew highly sophisticated, yet scholarship was encouraged by the state. In those years, works from both the East and West were translated into Pahlavi, the language of the Sassanians.

The Sassanid archaeological landscape also represents a highly efficient system of land use and strategic utilization of natural topography in the creation of the earliest cultural centers of the Sassanid civilization.

The Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab conquest of Iran, led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire of Iran (Persia) in ca. 651 and the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion. The rise of Muslims coincided with an unprecedented political, social, economic, and military weakness in Persia.

In 2018, UNESCO added an ensemble of Sassanian historical cities in southern Iran — titled “Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars Region”-- to its World Heritage list. The ensemble comprises eight archaeological sites situated in three geographical parts of Firuzabad, Bishapur, and Sarvestan. It reflects the optimized utilization of natural topography and bears witness to the influence of Achaemenid and Parthian cultural traditions and Roman art that later made a significant impact on the architecture and artistic styles of the Islamic era.

Source:https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/490340/Dragon-bodied-fort-in-southern-Iran-dates-from-Sassanid-era

[theinsaneum]

[muffinlance]

Consider: Post-canon Zuko wakes up in the body of his childhood self, the morning of That War Meeting. Would he still speak against the plans, knowing his fate? What do you think he would do differently the second time around?

"Turned away at the doors, Zuzu?"

"Shut up, Azula," her brother sulked. But sulked weirdly, after staring at her too long and too wide-eyed, not like she'd surprised him but--

But like he hadn't expected her to be there. At all.

He turned away. ...He turned back. "Hey, Lala? Do you think you could help me practice that one set?"

He didn't meet her eyes.

She narrowed hers. "Which set?"

"The one I'm bad at."

She scoffed. Pushed away from the wall she'd been leaning against. "That's all of them, Dum-Dum."

He didn't shout or stomp or yell about the nickname. His lips twitched.

"It's okay," he said. "If you're afraid you won't be a better teacher that my instructor..."

It was the most obvious manipulation ever.

Perhaps if he proved an adequate firebending student, she'd work on his courtly survival skills next. Honestly, it was good that not even Uncle Gets-Cousins-Killed had been fool enough to take Zuko into that war meeting. She could only imagine how terribly that could have gone.

"Keep up," she said, and turned her steps towards the training grounds.

He did. There, and during the katas she ran him through.

Azula kept her eyes narrowed.

"Hey," he asked, "do you know how to bend lightning yet?"

As if he could have missed it, if she'd been able to get more than sparks. "I will soon," she said.

"You will," he agreed, and flowed through his next set. The one she'd only just mastered.

Father didn't notice how weird Zuzu was being. Uncle never noticed anything. Zuko ate dinner and asked a servant for seconds and didn't stutter or flinch or lose his appetite when father asked, coolly, what he'd done with his day. Azula's shoulders tensed, because one mention of how she'd squandered her own training time teaching him--

"Azula hogged the training grounds. For hours," Zuzu scowled, exactly like a petulant thirteen year old.

Exactly like he hadn't been acting all day.

By the time Father was looking her way, Azula had her usual smirk in place. "I'm sure there would be room for both of us," she said, "you're not afraid of a little friendly fire, are you, brother?"

Zuko sulked. And ate his seconds, like he was enjoying each bite. There was something in his eyes, like a joke no one else was getting.

---

Father died that night. A heart attack. There were the faintest of burns to either side of the treacherous organ; the royal physician hypothesized that he'd grabbed at his chest, fingers burning hot in his final moments; so hot they'd only exacerbated the problem.

The royal physician would never have been brought any victims of lighting strikes. Those that occurred in the capital did not generally require a doctor in the aftermath.

Zuzu ate a hearty breakfast.

He didn't order seconds. Azula gave him points, at least, for not being tacky.

---

The sages named Iroh as regent.

They named Zuko as Fire Lord.

"No," the tiny Fire Lord in his perfectly miniaturized Fire Lord robes said, sitting at the head of his war council. "We're not doing that. And I'll be reviewing all recent battle plans, as well. What's this I hear about a division of new recruits being deployed to the front?"

He did not mention how he'd heard of the 41st Division. No one asked.

"Prince Iroh, surely--" one of the generals tried to appeal.

The young Fire Lord's regent was looking as startled as the rest of them, for a moment. Then he sipped his tea, and smiled.

"Your Fire Lord is correct, of course. A change in our leadership--a change the other nations may mistakenly view as weakness--will necessitate a change in our strategy."

"Now," said their lord, "what, exactly, is our overall objective in this war?"

War, the new Fire Lord decreed, was not an end unto itself.

---

The new Fire Lord continued to have time, to pretend to be trained by her. Azula watched him. Adjusted her footwork. Did not tolerate, and was not offered, any commentary on who was teaching who.

"What did you do with my brother?" she asked, as they flowed from one set to the next. As her hands, poised to throw fire, just so happened to be pointed his way.

He missed a step. It didn't look like an act.

"I'm, uh. Right here?"

She didn't bother to dignify that.

He didn't bother to look worried about her hands, one movement off from a true attack.

He looked around, then grabbed her sleeve, and tugged her further from any walls that may hide ears. The royal family's private training grounds were wonderfully large, and wonderfully open.

"It's me," he said. "It's still me. Just. More of me? Longer of me?"

She narrowed her eyes. A familiar expression, by this point. "Explain."

"...I found the Avatar," he said. "And this is definitely his fault, but--but I guess it started at a war meeting, when I was thirteen."

Azula listened. It was a very Dum-Dum story.

[littlespider-art]

bioware: giggling and kicking their feet like school girls while giving us the most inconsequential bulge slider and nudity toggle.

larian: you will have sex. pick a penis. there are 5. you will see it at least once. probably more. this is a threat.

[maaagpie]

another lucanis!

[sanctus-ingenium]

look at my creature

[chappellsroans]

You couldn't handle this. Mm, you'd be surprised.

Agatha All Along (2024) The 100 (2014 - 2020) House Of The Dragon (2022 - ) Killing Eve (2018 - 2022) Jennifer's Body (2009) Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003) Black Sails (2014 - 2017) Lucifer (2016 - 2021) Once Upon a Time (2011 - 2018)

[pcktknife]

that damn chicken

[felassan]

Albert Urmanov: “Long time no post. Some concepts I did for Arlathan forest in The Veilguard. Some poor travelers got turned into trees...” [source]

Art by Albert Urmanov.

[rookanisstuff]

coming home

[odetokeons]

toxic yuri + 🔪🔪🔪

[aamuusva]

Ghilan'nain, Mother of the halla

[yokemaxxing]

Tsunami except I forgot her royal wing markings FUCK😭😭

[rrredgi]

Advisors

[funktechnisch]

sometimes a family is rook his boyfriend and his boyfriend's son he steals every night

[elgarwhore]

I (might have) found the in game subtitles font and I'm going insane using them.

This tweet is also always on my mind too lmao.