#Great Northeastern War

[wordswithkittywitch]

Back from GNEW.

The man who stood in the middle of the marketplace and bellowed, "Oh what a day what day what a day what a lovely day! Good morning, and what a day!" every fucking morning at six fifteen is only alive because I can't move that fast before my sleep meds wear off.

[lewmagoo]

i smile at the moon | rhett abbott

description: in which two wild souls become knit together as one

warnings: 18+ only, werewolves, violence, animals fighting, perry abbott slander, mentions of death, family drama, mentions of blood, smut, breeding kink, unprotected sex (basically a mating ritual lol), possessiveness, creampie, biting, scratching, all around animalistic themes

pairing: werewolf!rhett abott x f!werewolf!reader

notes: yeah so this started out as me wanting to write naughty werewolf smut and then it turned into a 10k+ word story complete with my own werewolf lore. thanks to @lovinglyeternal bc they basically created this monster by sending me a werewolf rhett concept. you are responsible for my insanity ;-)

He could smell you. 

Each inhale of your scent was intoxicating. Stronger and sweeter than anything he’d ever smelled before. Citrusy, in a way. Warm and spicy like a hot cider. 

All his life he’d been told that the scent of one’s mate was unique and indescribable. The most wonderful, appealing, all-consuming scent. Before he found you, he’d tried to imagine what it would smell like. His mama’s brown butter chocolate cookies, fresh out of the oven? Cotton candy, from the county fair? The comforting sweetness that hung in the air of his favorite childhood ice cream shop?

However, all of those scents paled in comparison to you. It hit him like a freight train the first time he met you. His knees went weak, his spine tingled as if he’d been struck by a bolt of white-hot lightning. It hit you just as hard, overwhelming your every sense. At that very moment, both of you knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you were made for each other. The Fates had brought you together and your bond would never be severed. 

You would never forget that first meeting in the woods. You were part of a neighboring pack. New to the region, having recently migrated from your old home because tensions between your pack and a rival one had grown to concerning levels. 

To avoid a full-blown war, your pack had moved out west, hoping to start fresh. And a fresh start was exactly what you found. But little did you know that it would also lead you to find the one you were destined for. 

You met him the day his pack came to make a formal introduction and welcome you to the region. The Northeast Wyoming pack was comprised of the Abbott family descendants. 

However, the pack was not as great as it had once been. What used to dominate the entire northeastern region of Wyoming had been reduced to a very small family of wolves. Royal, the alpha. His wife Cecelia. Their son, Perry; the eldest and next in line for alpha status, and their younger son, Rhett. Finally, there was Amy, Perry’s young daughter. 

Rumor had it Perry once had a wife, but she’d ultimately left the pack and chosen to become an omega. Or, so you’d heard. 

When you heard the pack was coming to welcome you to the area, you had no idea what to expect. These were potential allies, but if something went wrong, they could very quickly become your enemy. You hoped it wouldn’t come to that. You were tired of fighting and wanted nothing more than to finally enjoy a season of peace. 

Little did you know that you were about to meet the one you would mate with for life. 

They came at sunset, bearing gifts. Food for your table. Good bottles of wine. They even brought a few toys for some of the small children in your pack.

Cecelia did most of the talking. She was warm and friendly and gave you a hearty welcome, informing you that she was so happy to have new neighbors in the region, and was looking forward to rebuilding the community they’d lost over the years. 

Silently, you wondered why their pack was so small. Yours had nearly twenty members. Theirs had five. Perry had a child, an heir, already. Which left Rhett, the only one who hadn’t furthered the bloodline yet.

Of the whole family, he was the last one to arrive that night. Royal made an offhanded comment about him always being late, and how he was just being lazy. The comment rubbed you the wrong way. Especially since Rhett wasn’t even there to defend himself. You didn’t even know the man, but you already felt a strange sense of protectiveness toward him. 

Odd, you thought. But instead of dwelling on it, you simply turned and joined the rest of your pack, ready for the evening’s festivities to begin. 

Rhett arrived a little while later. A rickety old GMC Sierra pulled into the gravel driveway, and it caught your attention. You glanced over to see a young man climbing out of the driver’s side. You couldn’t quite see his face yet, but you could tell he was handsome. 

That’s when you caught it. The breeze blew in your direction, and a scent unlike anything you’d ever smelled before filled your entire being. Deep and musky, like pine and woodsmoke, yet sharp and fresh, like the air after a rainfall. 

It pulled the deepest of gasps from you, and you dropped the stack of plates you’d been carrying out of the house for the outdoor supper. You vaguely heard your mother calling your name, asking what was wrong, but you hardly registered it. Without another thought, your legs were moving of their own accord, carrying you straight for the brunette-haired man walking up the lane. 

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a figure quickly approaching. But that wasn’t what caught his attention. It was the scent. Sweet and spicy and delicious. He tensed, his eyes widening as his nostrils flared slightly. He’d never been hit with something so strong and irresistible. Suddenly his world was spinning off its axis as he realized what this meant. 

His heart began to pound in his chest. His palms grew clammy. His knees went weak. And then, suddenly, you were in front of him, eyes glowing yellow, bright as the sun, and he thought he was going to suffocate right then and there as the breath left his lungs. 

You weren’t sure who moved forward first. But all at once you were in each other’s space, like two lovers reunited after years apart. 

Rhett leaned in and pressed his nose to the side of your neck, breathing in deeply. You buried your face against his chest and inhaled sharply. This was customary for wolves. Especially ones mated to each other, to greet one another by taking in the other’s scent.

When you parted, you realized that his eyes were glowing, too. 

“It’s you,” he whispered, awestruck. His chest heaved. He could hardly take in oxygen. 

You barely knew what to do with yourself. You were so overwhelmed that all you could do was stare at him, drinking him in. The one you had dreamed of since you were small. Your hands lifted of their own accord, and you ran them over his face. Down his neck. Across his chest. Feeling that he was in fact real and that this wasn’t a dream. 

Then, when you found your voice, you breathlessly spoke. “I’ve been waiting my whole life for you.” 

Rhett finally found the breath he needed, and a disbelieving laugh brushed past his parted lips. He could hardly believe his eyes. Here you were, standing before him. The one he thought he’d never meet. He’d been certain that he was cursed to go through life without a mate. Yet here you were, standing in front of him, and an all-consuming sense of elation buzzed through him, like fizzy champagne in his veins.

You watched as he took a step back, his boots crunching against gravel as he threw his head back, face turned to the sky. He took a deep breath and let out a deep wolf howl, sounding through the wilderness. It echoed off the trees and it shook you to your core.

You couldn’t help the laughter that began to pour from your mouth. Laughter of disbelief. Laughter of joy. Laughter of love. “It’s you!” You repeated his own words from moments prior, still laughing, so happy you could barely contain it. 

He looked back at you, his eyes, back to a thrilling and human blue, framed by smile lines as he grinned at you. His howl had alerted the rest of your pack, and his own, and moments later, they were all gathering in the clearing to see what was going on.

You grabbed Rhett’s hand, holding it up high as your fingers intertwined. “I’ve found him!” You cried. “I’ve found my mate!”

That night, what had started as a friendly dinner between new neighbors turned into a celebration that lasted well into the night. It was a joyous occasion, to find one’s mate, deserving of an extravagant celebration. 

You swore you didn’t stop smiling for the entire night. The realization that in a moment of divine fate, you had met the man you were going to spend the rest of your life with. Your soulmate. The half to your whole. Suddenly, all the strife that you’d gone to just to get to this point seemed all worth it. Because now, here was this beautiful man beside you, rugged but gentle, with kind eyes and a shy smile. And he was everything you’d dreamed he would be. 

Your families gave you time alone that night, and you walked beneath the light of the half moon, side by side, straying away from all the activity to find a quiet spot. 

You sat in a clearing in the woods and you talked for hours. You told Rhett all about your pack, and the unrest that had forced you to move all the way out here to Wyoming. You spoke of each pack member with such reverence and respect, and it sent a pang of envy through him. 

He revealed to you that he did not have the most positive relationship with his family. 

“We’ve, uh, we’ve been through some shit, the last few years. It’s put a strain on the pack. ‘specially my relationship with my brother.” He gazed out across the expanse of the woods, and in the silver light of the moon, you saw a sadness in his eyes. “His wife Rebecca left him and Amy. He didn’t take it very well.”

“That’s sad,” you whispered sympathetically. “Do you know why she left?”

Rhett’s eyes remained trained toward the distance, and you didn’t miss the way his jaw tensed. “Don’t tell my folks I said this, but he ran ‘er off. I saw it comin’ from a mile away, but everybody else seemed blindsided when she wound up running for the hills.”

“Were they mates?” You questioned. 

“Nah. Perry said they were, but they weren’t. He didn’t want to wait to find his mate. Went against pack customs just so he could have Rebecca for his own. She went along with it at first. Even had a baby with him. But when I tell you I ain’t never seen a more unhappy woman in my life. She was a nice gal but she was fuckin’ miserable with my brother. Eventually it got so bad that she up and left. Didn’t even take Amy with her, that’s how bad things were,” he explained. 

Your eyes widened at the thought. You’d always been told that the bond between mama wolves and their pups was unmatched, running deeper than even the lowest depth of the sea. For one to just up and leave her baby was unheard of. It made you shudder to think just how terrible things must have been to push Rebecca away like that. 

You shook your head. “Poor Amy.”

Rhett hummed in agreement. “Her mama’s been gone a year now. She’s adapted okay, but she seems kinda lonely. Kids at school can’t relate to her because they ain’t wolves like she is.”

“I guess it really was fate that brought us here then, huh? All my little cousins will befriend her, she won’t have to worry about feeling as alone anymore.”

He smiled softly, glancing at you. “Sure am thankful to that Fate fella. I’ll have to thank him if I ever meet him face to face. Thank him for bringin’ you to me.”

It was your turn to smile, and you turned your face away, hiding the shy glimmer that lit up your eyes. But Rhett reached out, hooking his fingers under your chin and turning your face back toward him. “I know we’ve got some more formalities to go through before we’re joined together, but I want you to know that right here, right now, I’m pledgin’ myself to you and only you for the rest of my life.”

You closed your eyes, breathing in deeply again, letting his intoxicating scent wash over you once more. “And I pledge myself to you,” you replied. 

Your gaze remained fixed on his own, and his hand shifted, moving to cup your cheek. His eyes flickered to your lips, then back up to your own eyes, as if asking permission. You gave the tiniest of nods, and he leaned in, so close you could almost taste him. 

Until, suddenly, a sharp whistle sounded through the woods. You broke apart abruptly, and Rhett sighed, rising to his feet. “That would be my mama.”

You couldn’t help but giggle. “Guess we should head back then.”

And so you did, walking hand in hand back to the house. You knew from that moment on that everything was about the change. You would soon begin the ritual of preparing for your wedding, a formality in which your packs would be joined together through your matrimony. Everything you had been dreaming of for your entire life was finally coming true, and it all felt so close, yet so far. 

That night, after you bid goodnight to Rhett, you went to bed with a smile on your face and warmth in your heart. You fell asleep dreaming of the life you would lead together. A future that held many unspoken promises. A home of your own. A growing family that would carry on your bloodline, one of the greatest honors that could be bestowed upon a wolf. 

In the following weeks, much preparation was made. You began the process of getting to know Rhett, spending many nights going on walks, learning the inner workings of one another. And then came the week just before your wedding. A night on which the moon hung low and full-bellied in the sky. The night you shifted beneath the glow of that very moon, sharing the very special and intimate moment of transforming into your wolves.

Rhett’s wolf was deep brown, almost black, with the softest fur you’d ever felt. He was breathtaking, and as you shifted into your own wolf, you found yourself nuzzling into him, letting him know you were there, that you were with him until death did you part. 

And then, finally, your wedding day arrived. It was a beautifully warm day. The sun filtered through the trees and cast dapples of light all over, like rays of magic falling from the sky. You’d kept things simple, as wolf weddings normally were. A crown of flowers placed delicately upon your head. A simple, flowing dress. Bare feet so you could feel the forest floor beneath you.

You stood before Rhett, underneath the swaying leaves of a century-old weeping willow, where you spoke your vows to one another, and joined yourselves, and your packs, as one. 

As you pledged yourself to your mate, you wept tears of joy, and when he kissed you, so tenderly and reverently, you held onto him tightly, as if he might disappear if you let go. Now that you’d found him, you never wanted to let him go. 

“I’m yours,” he whispered against your mouth. 

“Forever,” you echoed. 

The celebration that followed was grand. Music and dancing, old folk tales told around a bonfire whose flames seemed to touch the very sky. It was the most wonderful night of your life, and nothing could steal your immense joy away. 

And so, your life together began. Your union brought your families together, and gave the Abbotts a sense of community that they had not previously had. Just as you’d hoped, Amy made friends with the young ones in your pack. Your parents developed a strong connection with Royal and Cecelia. The rest of your family was warm and welcoming. 

As you became integrated with the Abbotts, you made the decision to live on their property. Before you’d even met, Rhett had been in the process of converting the old barn loft into an apartment. It soon became a project that you worked to complete together. A home built with love, filled with love. 

Through that process, while you waited for the apartment to become livable, you took up residence in Rhett’s childhood bedroom. It was small, but it was comfortable, and it smelled like him, your favorite scent in the whole wide world, so you were content. 

Living in the house allowed you to grow closer to his mother, and especially to his niece Amy. Your heart ached for the little girl and all that she had been through. You longed to be a comfort to her if she needed it. And much to your utter joy, she took well to you. 

“I’m happy you’re mated to Uncle Rhett,” she told you in earnest. “I’ve never seen him smile so much before. I can tell he really loves you.”

Her words made your heart warm in your chest. “I’m happy, too,” you replied. 

The girl’s face fell a little as she looked down at the napkins she was folding for the dinner table. “I wish my mama and daddy had looked at each other like that.”

And in an instant, your heart was breaking in your chest. 

The absence of Rebecca Abbott weighed heavily on the entire family. Cecelia still held out hope that she would return. Royal liked to claim that she’d gone and “shacked up with a good-for-nothin’ lowlife.” Perry liked to insist she was going to come back any day and beg for his forgiveness. 

Rhett believed otherwise. “I don’t think she’d ever come back here in a million years. Either she found another pack, or she’s out there still runnin’ around as an omega,” he told you. 

Rhett’s belief that she wasn’t coming back, and Perry’s insistence that she was, often caused tension between the brothers. They both tried to remain civil for Amy’s sake, but it seemed that Perry was only growing more restless as time went on. 

He would get especially agitated just before the full moon. Which was natural for any wolf, but with him, it seemed to increase tenfold. And when his anger and bitterness reached its breaking point, he would take it out on whoever was in his path. Usually, it was Rhett. 

You would never forget the first time you witnessed him blow up at your husband in front of you. There was one thing you were certain of in that very moment: it was going to be the last time he ever did it. 

A perfectly quiet family dinner in the Abbott kitchen was disrupted when the conversation turned to Rebecca. It was Perry who brought her up, claiming that he was certain she would return soon, that he could feel it. 

It was very common for wolves to be able to feel when their mate was near. You always felt Rhett’s presence when you were apart, and it was that much stronger when you were together. 

However, you and Rhett both knew what utter bullshit it was for Perry to claim he could feel her when they weren’t even mates to begin with. And his comment pushed Rhett to react. 

“Quit sayin’ she’s gonna come back. You and I both know she won’t ever come back here again, Per.” The moment he said it, Rhett wished he could take the words back. Not because of his brother, but because of Amy. 

Her wide eyes flickered up from the plate that she’d been staring at. But instead of looking at Rhett, she looked at her father. 

“Is that true, Dad?” She asked, her voice small. 

Perry clenched his jaw as he glared at his brother. “Now look what you did. Got my daughter all upset.”

Rhett sighed. The child needed to hear the truth. “Look, Ames. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. Your mama isn’t coming back.”

Without so much as a warning, Perry shoved his plate away, which bumped his glass of water and sent it spilling across the table. You tensed beside Rhett, afraid of what was coming. 

“Perry!” Cecelia exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at her son’s outburst. 

He stood up from his chair, its wooden legs scraping against the linoleum. “What’d I fuckin’ tell you, Rhett? You’re really gonna upset a little girl like that and rip away the last shred of hope she had left?”

Rhett sighed deeply, shaking his head. “It’s better than you lyin’ to her about it.”

“Fuck you!” He shouted. “Ever since you brought this bitch into our home you’ve been subscribing to her fuckin’ ideals.” He motioned toward you. “She probably put you up to this, didn’t she? Told you to destroy what hope my daughter had left.”

At the derogatory comment directed at you, Rhett shot out of his seat, quick as lightning, his eyes glowing. You followed suit, immediately on the defensive. 

“Alright, enough!” Royal barked. But even his authoritative tone didn’t get the attention of his boys. 

“Don’t you dare talk about her like that!”

“It’s true! She’s fuckin’ changed you, man. Turned you into someone I don’t even recognize.”

“Yeah, she changed me! Into a better man! Which is more than I can say Rebecca ever did for you! Oh wait, that’s because she wasn’t even your mate to begin with!”

“Stop!” Amy cried, already in tears. “Just stop!”

But it was too late. Perry had been pushed over the edge, and before anyone could even register what was happening, he was lunging. Cecelia tried to grab him, but he was too quick, and in seconds, he was crowding Rhett’s space.

But he didn’t get very far. Much to your own surprise, you moved faster than you ever had in your life, placing yourself in front of your husband. Your body burned with the overwhelming desire to protect. Your eyes flashed yellow, and you bared your fangs, growling lowly. 

“Touch him and I’ll drop you right where you stand,” you snarled. 

Perry growled right back at you, his eyes going bright yellow to match your own. You knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if he made another move toward Rhett, you would go for his throat. 

“Dad, stop,” Amy spoke up. She got up from the table and ran to stand between you both. She let out a little growl of her own, entirely non-threatening, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t want to see her family fighting. “Please. Everyone just stop! I don’t want you to fight!”

“Listen to your daughter, Perry,” you spoke out. You could feel Rhett against your back, ready to act if need be. 

A beat passed. You held Perry’s gaze, unwilling to back down. Another beat. Then, finally, he surrendered, stepping back. He knew it wasn’t worth it. It was suicide to go up against another wolf’s mate. When it came to protecting what was yours you would fight to the death. Perry seemed to know he wouldn’t stand a chance. 

He had no idea what it was like. He’d never experienced that deep, primal, territorial need to protect. Not with Rebecca. He had it with Amy, but that was different. She was his child, it was natural to protect her. But he had no idea how deep the bonds of two truly mated wolves went. He couldn’t bond with Rebecca in that way because she’d never been his to begin with. 

Rather than fight a losing fight, Perry stalked away that night, leaving the rest of you in the kitchen to process what had just happened. And Amy, who remained in front of you until her father disappeared from the room, finally turned, and rushed into your arms. 

Your heart broke as she began to cry. “I’m sorry!” She whimpered, apologizing for her father’s behavior. 

It only made you angry, because it wasn’t fair that this 9-year-old little one had to apologize for him. You hated all she had been subjected to in her young age. And that was the moment you pledged to always look out for her. If her mama wasn’t going to do it, then you would. And you would do a damn good job of it, too. 

After that night, Perry steered clear of you. He seemed to realize that if he were to ever challenge you, you would kill him. No hesitation. He didn’t stand a chance. Rhett knew that you had his back, and you would always stand by him, even when faced with adversity brought upon him by his own family. 

That protectiveness was a two-way street. Rhett looked out for you just as fiercely as you did him. And while you were busy defending him against his brother, he was going to bat for you against other things. You would never forget the first time you saw him physically defend you. It was seared into your mind like a brand.

You were out on a hike with Amy. It was blackberry season, and she was desperate to pick them while they were perfectly ripe. Her grandmother was too busy with other gardening endeavors to go out into the woods to help her pick wild ones, so you offered to go instead. 

Before the heat of the day grew too overwhelming, the two of you set off, with you leaving a kiss against Rhett’s lips and a promise that you’d be back in time to join him for lunch later that day. Amy was so excited, babbling excitedly the entire hike up into the woods. 

She was fascinated by all things nature, and she knew the area like the back of her hand, so she was well aware of where the very best berries grew. She led you deeper and deeper into the woods until you came upon an entire gathering of sprawling blackberry bushes, ripe for the picking.

“See? I told ya!” She excitedly said, running on ahead of you, her tin bucket swinging in her hands. 

You couldn’t help but smile at her eagerness, quickening your steps so you could catch up with her. What followed was an hour-long blackberry picking process, and after the fact, that bucket was full to the brim with ripe, juicy berries. 

“Grandma’s gonna be so happy! She can make her blackberry preserves! And blackberry pie! And blackberry syrup for pancakes!” She spoke a mile a minute, informing you of all the ways the berries could be used, and how she couldn’t wait for you to try them all. 

However, you found yourself growing distracted when the wind carried a strange scent in your direction. You paused, lifting your head and breathing in deep. Something didn’t feel right. Amy noticed this, and she eyed you curiously. 

“What’s wrong?”

“I smell something,” you replied. The hair on the back of your neck stood on end. 

Amy turned, sniffing at the air. Then, suddenly, she gasped. “Cougar,” she said. 

You glanced around. You couldn’t see it, but you could tell the animal was close. You’d never had an encounter with a cougar. While you knew you could hold your own against an animal like that, having Amy in tow only made you nervous that the cougar would try to harm her. Surely it would be able to sense that you were wolves and not normal human beings. But maybe that would only make things worse. 

You wrapped your arm around Amy’s shoulders. “Let’s just go. Maybe it’ll leave us alone.”

But no sooner had you spoken than you heard a bone-chilling growl, and you turned, catching sight of a large cat just ahead of you. Your blood turned to ice in your veins, and on instinct, you pushed Amy behind you, keeping a hand on her as you slowly backed away.

You locked eyes with the cougar, flashing your golden irises, hoping that would be a deterrent. However, the cat only bared its fangs and crouched back on its haunches. Your heart began to hammer in your chest. There was no time to hesitate. 

“The second he jumps, I want you to run,” you told Amy.

“But I don’t wanna leave you!” She exclaimed, trembling with fear. 

“You can’t shift yet. You’re safer running than you are staying here with me,” you emphasized. Amy was just a baby, her wolf hadn’t even made its appearance yet, and even if it had, it would only be a pup. Not strong enough to fight a fully grown cougar. 

“But-” she never had a chance to finish the sentence, because in a flash, the cat was lunging at you. Amy let out a shrill scream that carried through the trees. 

On the Abbott ranch, Rhett’s head snapped up when he heard the scream. He had been hard at work trying to finish up the project of converting the old barn, but at the sound of his niece’s shriek, he dropped the tools he was holding. 

A shock of what felt like electricity rippled through him, and he grunted, realizing that you were in danger. Without a moment’s hesitation, he was running, hyper-focused on the area that the sound had come from. As he ran, his body shifted and transformed, until, moments later, he was no longer a man, but a sleek, black wolf, running fast as the wind. 

In the woods, you were preparing to fight for your life. You physically tossed Amy out of the way so that when the cat landed, it would hit you instead of her. You didn’t even have time to shift into your wolf. Or, rather, white-hot terror blossomed within you when you realized you couldn’t shift. 

Your fangs had elongated and your claws had come out, but your body remained in its human form. And when you realized this, it was too late. 200 pounds of muscle crashed into your chest, sending you back toward the forest floor.

You screamed, growling as threateningly as possible, but it didn’t seem to do much to scare the animal. You thought for certain that this was it, that you were going to die right then and there. But then, in a flash of black fur glinting in the sunlight, an earth-rattling roar ripped through the air, and in a split second, the cat was no longer on top of you.

Gasping sharply, you sat up, eyes wild as you took in the sight before you. There was Rhett in his wolf form, and he had the cougar by the neck. Beside you, Amy let out a sob as she scrambled toward you. You grabbed her, wrapping your arms protectively around her, turning her face away so she wouldn’t have to watch. 

The cat snarled and hissed, clawing at Rhett’s wolf, and it caught him on the side, at which he let out an agonized yelp that made you flinch. But he quickly regained dominance and in seconds, the cat let out an inhuman screech and quickly scrambled away from the wolf, turning to hiss once more before running off, wounded, into the woods, clearly realizing it was not going to win this fight.

Rhett followed after it to make sure it was long gone. In the meantime, Amy was crying against your chest. “Is it gone?!” She whimpered. 

You ran your fingers through her honey-colored hair, soothing her softly, even as your own body still trembled with fear. “Yes, baby. It’s gone.”

She sat upright, glancing around. “Where’s Uncle Rhett?!” Her voice was panicked, terrified.

But you didn’t have to reassure her, for seconds later, the wolf returned. Amy scrambled to her feet and ran to him, falling to her knees as she threw her arms around his neck. The wolf whined lowly as he nuzzled against the girl, sniffing at her to make sure she was unharmed. 

As you approached, he locked eyes with you, and you knelt beside Amy, reaching out to run your hand over his fur. You could tell he was hurt. The slash in his side from the cougar’s claws was bleeding crimson. But he wouldn’t rest until he saw you both to safety.

“Thank you,” you whispered, and he rested his head upon your shoulder before he finally pulled away. He pointed his head toward the trail home, wanting you to follow, and so you did. Amy gathered up her half-spilled bucket of berries, grabbed onto your hand, and followed Rhett’s wolf out of the woods and back toward the house. 

It was only after he made sure that you and Amy were safely returned home that he allowed himself to shift back to his human form. As Cecelia fussed over Amy, Rhett trotted after you into his bedroom upstairs, and as soon as the door was shut, his fur faded away, giving way to pale, smooth skin. Within moments, there was your husband kneeling bare before you, all signs of his animal form gone. 

“Baby,” you breathed, falling to your knees in front of him, reaching your hands up to hold his face. “You’re hurt.” The claw marks along his ribs looked even worse in his human form. 

He shook his head. “I’m fine. I’ll heal,” he replied. Then it was his turn to check you over for any harm. “Did that son’bitch hurt you?”

“I…I don’t think so. Just scared me, is all. I couldn’t shift, and by the time I realized that, it was on top of me.”

Rhett’s brow furrowed as he frowned, large hands coming up to rest against either side of your neck. “It’s ‘cause you were scared,” he whispered. “It’s happened to me before. I froze up, got so fuckin’ into my head that my wolf didn’t wanna come out.”

“Really?” You asked, a little relieved that you weren’t alone.

“Yeah. She’ll come out again, don’t you worry.”

You hummed in understanding, happy that Rhett knew exactly what you were dealing with, and that it was nothing to worry about. Then, the time for realization kicked in. The realization that it all could have been so much worse, and you were lucky that Rhett stepped in when he did. 

“Thank you,” you whispered, after you’d both finally stood, allowing Rhett to gather a clean set of clothes. “I feel so fucking useless, not being able to protect Amy the way I needed to. I hate that I froze up. I’m just so relieved you heard us and got to us in time.”

Rhett shook his head, stepping toward you as he finished pulling on his jeans. String fingers tilted your chin up. “You did your best in a fuckin’ scary situation. Hell, you were ready to sacrifice yourself so Amy would be safe. That’s not you bein’ useless. You protected her just like any mama wolf would protect her pup.”

His words brought unexpected tears to your eyes. When he saw them glimmering along your lash line, he smiled softly, thumb stroking over your cheek. “You did good, little wolf.”

The nickname, which he’d dubbed you after the first few weeks of knowing you, made you smile, despite the tears running down your cheeks. 

After that encounter, it seemed that your bond only deepened. You grew even closer than before, your hearts knit together by an unbreakable invisible force. And as your love blossomed and flourished, you crossed the threshold of new milestones together. 

One of those milestones was finally moving into the old barn that you’d been renovating together. It had gone from a barebones wooden shell to a cozy home with room for your family to grow. It allowed you to still remain near the rest of your combined pack, but also gave you a haven of privacy. Gone were the days of sharing his childhood bedroom and trying to stay quiet while in a house full of wolves with keen hearing. Now you had your own space to do whatever you pleased together. 

Although moving into your own space was a very big milestone for you, it was nothing compared to what was coming your way. 

There was a very special and celebrated time that took place between werewolf couples. Much like regular wolves, werewolves had a mating season. The first season shared between mates was pivotal in their relationship. 

You and Rhett had yet to experience that season yet. On your own, you had endured heats before. It was only a natural occurrence. But you had heard that the heat you experienced on your own was nothing compared to that first one you would experience with your mate. 

Secretly, in your own mind, you had fantasized about what it might be like. You were already insatiable enough as it was during heat. The thought of it being increased tenfold was unimaginable for you. 

You knew the pattern of your cycle. It was easy to follow. You would enter into heat twice a year. Once in the springtime, and once in autumn. Each time it would last around 7 to 14 days. 

Your marriage to Rhett took place in early summertime. Which meant, along with the changing of leaves and the cooling of the air, you would soon be entering into that heat stage. You knew it was coming. It was marked in red on your calendar. 

You were nervous, to say the least. While you were eager to experience it with him, it was all so new. Sex was not a foreign concept between the two of you. You’d had it plenty of times since your marriage. But this was different. This was a primal, instinctual ritual. One that could potentially result in your bloodline being continued. 

You were entirely unprepared for just how intense it would be. As the season turned, your body prepared itself for another cycle. It started subtly at first, but soon grew into so much more. 

Possessiveness and protectiveness over your mate was the first thing you noticed, increased even more so than usual. That possessive streak reared its ugly head when an unsuspecting human girl tried to flirt with Rhett. You found yourself pulling him against your side and quite literally growling at her. It was not your proudest moment, but you could not control the wolf inside you. She did what she wanted. 

The protectiveness came when anyone disrespected him. It didn’t matter who. Although Perry generally tried to steer clear of running his mouth at Rhett in your presence, there were times when he slipped up. And this time around, you found yourself with your claws at his throat when he made a comment under his breath. 

“Say it again,” you hissed, baring your sharp canines. “Go on, say it!”

It took both Rhett and Royal to pull you off of him. That instance, however, you were not sorry for. You would never be ashamed of defending your husband. 

Soon, the irritability and possessiveness melted away into something else. Your every sense was heightened. Your already keen wolf senses were increased to the point where you could hardly even bear it. 

And then came the desire. 

Nothing in the world could have prepared you for how all-consuming it would be. It hit you like a freight train, slamming into your body and sending you into orbit. It started as a dull ache that very quickly began to spread throughout your body. 

The first day you woke up with it, you were animalistic. It drove you out of your slumber and sent you shooting upright in bed, growling as you pressed your hands against your lower abdomen, where the ache had settled. 

Much to your utter dismay, Rhett was not in bed beside you. He was more than aware about your approaching heat, and he tried to spend as much time with you as he could. But that morning, his father had called him out of bed at an ungodly hour to handle an issue with an injured calf. That took him away from you, and when you discovered he was gone, you let out a pained yowl, curling into a ball. 

“Rhett!” You desperately cried out, hoping he was still nearby. But you were met with no answer. 

Groaning, you dragged yourself out of bed, and you gasped sharply, placing a hand over your mouth when you realized that your need had soaked straight through the panties you’d worn to bed. They weren’t just damp. They were drenched. 

When you stood, your knees almost buckled, and your hand shot out to steady yourself against the bedpost. “Holy fuck,” you whimpered. You had never in your life felt such a sensation. 

It was an ache so strong that there were no words to describe it. An agony that was not quite painful, but maddening nonetheless. And there was only one way to soothe it. Rhett was the only one capable of easing the burning fire. The only one who could act as a soothing salve. But he was nowhere to be found. 

How could he just leave? In your agitated state it only served to upset you all the more. He knew you were coming up on your heat. He knew you needed him. How could he leave you all alone to deal with it?

Of course, he hadn’t done it on purpose. That morning when he’d woken before the sun, he could smell you. Your scent had increased, its spicy sweetness making his head spin. But he knew how Royal would get if he refused to help his father with the issue at hand, and he wasn’t in the mood to deal with the man’s contrariness. 

Leaving you in bed that morning had been incredibly difficult. But he left with the hope that this project wouldn’t take long, and he’d be back with you before you ever woke up. 

But that was four hours ago, and he was still dealing with an injured calf, a distressed mama cow, and one irritated Royal Abbott. The situation had given Rhett a distraction, but back at home, you had none. 

You swiped your phone off of your nightstand with the intent of calling him to see where he was. However, when you dialed, you were alerted to the sound of ringing coming from his own nightstand. He’d left his phone at home. 

You growled in frustration, tossing your phone onto the bed, just as another surge of molten need vibrated through you, sending you to your knees. Your body trembled, and the intensity was so great that you could feel yourself beginning to shift. 

Your claws lengthened from your fingers, ripping shreds into the side of the duvet as you held onto the mattress for support. You felt out of control, and it was a scary feeling. You hadn’t felt this way since your first full moon, and even that wasn’t comparable to how intense it was now. 

The full moon didn’t leave an agonizing ache in your cunt like this. No, this was solely the result of your body’s natural drive to mate. But how on earth were you meant to do that if the one you were mated to wasn’t even here?

Tears welled in your eyes, and you forced yourself to rage deep, ragged breaths. Maybe if you could just get to the bathroom, you could put yourself under a cold shower and hopefully snap yourself out of this feverish state. 

You stood on unsteady legs and stumbled toward the steps, which you rushed down until you made it to the main floor area below the loft. You burst into the bathroom and immediately turned on the shower to a cold spray, stripping out of your shirt and panties and jumping in. 

You hissed as the chilly water enveloped you, cascading down your heated skin. It provided a small amount of relief, but it didn’t take the discomfort away completely. 

You knew that you couldn’t relieve the ache yourself, but that didn’t stop you from trying. You reached a trembling hand between your thighs, running your fingers over your center, your legs nearly giving out as you brushed against your swollen, thrumming clit. 

You let out a sharp whimper and jolted forward. You tried to soothe your need to be filled by using your fingers, but they were nothing compared to Rhett. His fingers, his cock. They didn’t reach that spot inside you that made you see stars. You were left feeling unsatisfied and even needier than before. 

In frustration, you leaned back against the shower walls squeezing your eyes shut and trying to steady your breathing. You imagined this was how wolves felt in the wild. You hardly felt like you could exercise your human control anymore. You’d heard of werewolves shifting permanently into their wolf bodies and giving in to their wild nature. It didn’t seem that far-fetched that it could happen to you. 

In the midst of your plight, Rhett had just looked at the sky and realized that the sun’s placement must mean it was nearly 10 o’clock in the morning. His eyes widened. He hadn’t realized how much time had passed since he’d left early that morning, but it had been almost five hours. He knew you were awake by now, and probably desperate as all get out. 

He patted his jeans for his phone, but found his pockets empty. And then he remembered, he’d accidentally left it behind that morning. “Shit,” he cursed. He snatched up his Carhartt jacket that he had draped over one of the stall doors. “Dad, I gotta go,” he called out to his father.

“Hang on,” Royal replied, but Rhett shook his head, already halfway out the barn door.

“M’ wife needs me, I gotta get back. Ask Per for help if you need it.” And then he was gone, scrambling out into the cool October morning. His mind was spinning as he pictured you home alone. You were likely at your wit's end. 

Sure enough, when he finally made it to the house, it was your scent that nearly knocked him flat on his ass as he walked through the door. He grunted as if he’d been kicked in the gut, stumbling back against the wooden door. 

His every sense was overwhelmed by you. Deep, spicy, sweet. Irresistible and divine, all at once. His heart rate began to quicken in his chest, and he gasped as he straightened, hastily kicking his boots off by the door. “Little wolf?!” He called out.

At the sound of his voice, a sob of relief tore from you. You had just climbed out of your cold shower, towel wrapped around your body. “Rhett!” You wailed, your voice coming out as a desperate, animalistic yowl. 

He knew exactly where you were, he could hear the pounding of your heart, the shallowness of your breath. He was drawn straight to you like a moth to flame, and within seconds, he was at the bathroom door, just as you flung it open.

“Rhett!” You wailed again, throwing yourself into his arms as sobs wracked your body. “Wh-where were yo-you?! I needed you and you were gone! Why did you leave me?” 

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry baby. Dad needed help and I didn’t think I’d be gone that long, but that was five fuckin’ hours ago. I’m sorry.”

You clutched at his shirt, and he gasped when he heard a rip, only to find that your claws had torn through the fabric of his flannel. “Shit, okay, hold on,” he told you, pulling you back to look fully into your face. Your skin was damp, but it wasn’t from the shower you’d just taken. You were sweaty but also hot to the touch, as if you had a high fever. 

Your eyes were glowing gold, and through your parted lips he could see your fangs. And oh, how you trembled. So much so that he had to hold you steady so you didn’t fall. “Please,” you whimpered, “it hurts so bad, please, I-I can’t take it anymore! I feel like I’m on fucking fire!”

Rhett was overwhelmed. You smelled so good, like the natural scent that had drawn him to you when you first became mates. But there was something else, something that could only be described as sex. It felt like it was altering his very brain chemistry.

Then he growled, deep and low in his throat, and pressed his nose to your neck, breathing in deep before he began trailing lower, in search of the source. He ripped your towel away from your body and nuzzled at you until he finally stopped between your thighs, pressing his nose against your cunt and inhaling. 

You gazed down at him, and his own eyes flashed yellow to match yours. Possessively, he nipped at your inner thigh. “I’m here now, little wolf,” he assured you, “I’ll take care of you.”

“Please,” you sobbed, “I can’t…I don’t know if I can…” but the words died in your throat. 

He straightened back up, leaning in to kiss you deeply as he quickly shrugged out of his shirt, tossing it aside before you reached for his belt, trying to unbuckle it, but quickly growing tearful and frustrated. He shushed you with another kiss and unbuckled the belt himself, shoving his jeans and underwear down his legs all at once, freeing his already hardening cock. 

As soon as you saw it, you mewled, dropping to your knees and rubbing your face against the velvety skin. Rhett grunted, his head spinning at the sight of you nuzzling your cheek against his dick. You were so far gone, and it was dizzying to him. 

“Need it so bad,” you whined, kitten licking the tip as the shaft hardened. “Need it so deep inside me.”

“I’m gonna give it to you, promise,” he rasped. Then he hauled you to your feet, with the intention of pulling you up to your bedroom in the loft, but you never made it. You couldn’t wait another second, and in a flurry of desperation, you grabbed onto him, tugging him hard and sending you both to the floor. 

He landed on his back as you climbed on top of him, but in true wolf fashion, he snarled, wrestling you until you were the one lying on your back on the floor. In this way, he showed his dominance over you, securing his right to be your mate.

“Gettin’ big for your britches, little wolf,” he muttered as he ran his nose over your flesh, inhaling you. You had very quickly turned to putty in his hands, especially when you felt his cock against your inner thigh.

“Need it! I need it, please! Please, please, please!” You wept, entirely forgetting your little fight for dominance that had taken place moments earlier. The ache between your legs had increased all the more. A throbbing, burning, crushing ache that made you feel like you were suffocating, as if you’d die if you didn’t become one with him in the next few seconds. 

Rhett looked down and he saw why you were so desperate. Your cunt was puffy, and with the sunlight that was streaming in through the windows, he could see how wet it was. You’d only been on the floor for a few moments but your arousal had already dripped down onto the hardwood. “Oh my god,” he whispered in amazement. 

He couldn’t contain himself if he tried. He placed his hands on the floor, at either side of your head, and nudged his hips forward. When you felt the blunt head of his cock against you, you whimpered. It burned, it burned, it burned. Until, suddenly…

“Oh!” He was inside you in one fluid motion. Every last inch of him, filling you to the brim, fitting inside you like he was created to. Because he was. You were two unique souls made perfectly for each other. 

“I’ve got ya, sweet baby. I’ve got ya,” he assured you as you whimpered and whined at the fullness. 

And suddenly, all at once, that terrible, gnawing ache began to fade. It felt like a healing salve to a grave wound. You gasped, your eyes widening as you gazed up at your husband. “Rhett,” you squeaked.

“I know.”

Tears filled your eyes as you finally felt relief for the first time that day. Those same tears began to track down the sides of your face, and you couldn’t help but let out a breathless sob. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders and clung to him as he began to slowly move. 

With each push and pull of his cock within you, your body reacted accordingly, providing you with even more lubricant until he was moaning, gasping at the feeling. “Shit, darlin’, you’re dribblin’ all over me.”

“S-sorry,” you peeped, squeezing your eyes shut. “Ca-can’t help it. Feels too good. Feels…oh, feels so fucking…good…”

You threw your head back as he built a rhythm, slow at first, but the pace soon quickened. Back and forth, faster and faster, until it could only be described as rutting. You felt so fucking full, and he kept you that way, barely pulling his hips back, instead fucking you in a pulsing motion. It was too much and not enough. You started to grow desperate again. The ache was gone, but it had been replaced with molten heat, as if your insides were melting. 

“Harder, harder, harder!” You cried out.

He obliged, grunting laboriously as he drove into you harder. You wrapped your legs around his waist, keeping him close as he plunged his cock into you repeatedly. The sounds escaping both of you were animalistic. Growls and snarls and hisses, the wild animals caged within you trying to claw their way to the surface. 

He was so deep inside you, every ridge and vein of his cock creating such divine friction within you that it felt like you were being burned alive in the most wonderful, indescribable way. 

Your claws dug into the tender flesh of his back, and he gnarled, snapping his teeth at you, but not in a threatening way. He nuzzled into your neck, the sharp tips of those fangs pressing against your pulse point, and you whined, leaning into the pleasurable pain. 

His teeth drew blood, and as soon as the crimson blossomed against your skin, he used his tongue to soothe over it, licking up your lifeblood. The bite mark healed quickly, as injuries normally did, but you could still feel the sting even after it was gone. 

And then, something else happened. It was common for werewolves to shift partially, where their eyes, fangs, and claws became visible. But it was also common for them to grow a little in stature, too. 

You could feel it. His muscles rippled beneath your touch, expanding. His shoulders grew broader. And something else, grew, too. When you felt it, you let out a wolfish yip, jolting against him as his cock swelled within your cunt.

“R-Rhett,” you squeaked, and he shushed you, kissing you languidly.

“You’re okay, little wolf. Feels good, don’t it?”

You managed to nod despite yourself. Your tears kept falling and they wouldn’t stop. But they weren’t tears of pain. Quite the contrary. It didn’t matter that he was growing inside you. Your body was designed to accommodate it. The feeling was incredibly pleasurable, and it sent an intense shudder through your body.

You screwed your eyes shut and mewled as he kept rutting into you, stretching you, filling you, completing you. This felt right. This felt good. This felt like the most natural thing in the world. And it was. Your bodies were joined as one. One force, one soul, one heart. 

“You feel so good,” you repeated yourself, unashamed of the tears still streaming down your cheeks. “So good, so good, so good.”

His hips quickened within you. His hands remained at either side of your head, and you could hear his claws gouging into the hardwood. He’d be pissed about that mark later, but right now, he couldn’t be bothered to care. Nothing else mattered but this. Fulfilling this natural, primal, raw desire to claim, and be claimed. 

The intensity mounted, like a kettle beginning to boil. You held onto him so tightly, encouraging him to go deeper, faster, harder. And he did, until it felt like he was fucking you into the floor. 

He leaned back to watch you, admiring the way your eyes rolled back in your head, the way you shuddered so powerfully, as if you’d just been struck with a bolt of lightning. It felt like you had, because each nudge of his cock in your slick walls sent sparks surging through your core. 

His eyes flickered further down, to the place where your bodies met. Where your cunt clasped him in a vice grip. “Takin’ me so well,” he gruffed, at which you whimpered. Then, you felt his big, warm hand splaying against your lower abdomen. “Gon’ fill you up, little wolf.”

“Please,” you squeaked. 

“Yeah?” He leaned in close, and you opened your eyes, finding golden irises gazing back at you. “Yeah? Want me to get you full of me? Take all my seed like you were made to?”

You cried out, jolting against you when he thrust forward particularly hard, sending your body vibrating with ecstasy. “Need it so bad!” You practically shrieked.

“I’ll give it all to you. Get this pretty tummy nice an’ round. Full of my pups.”

At his words, your entire world tilted on its axis. Your brain went blank with white-hot pleasure. All you knew was “yes, yes, yes!” That was what you wanted. That was what your body was begging for. To mate. To be bred. 

Rhett kissed you again, swallowing your babbled pleas. You felt as if you were not of your body. Like you were floating over yourself, watching your husband fuck you. It was unlike anything you’d ever felt before.

Your body shook and shivered. Your eyes rolled back in your skull. You couldn’t speak. You could hardly breathe. It was immeasurable. Indescribable. You were certain you were going to pass out from the ecstasy. It surged through you from head to toe, sizzling and sparking, illuminating the very edges of your soul, sending you into orbit.

You swore you did black out for a moment. How was it possible that something could feel this good? You had experienced all-consuming pleasure before, multiple times. Rhett was a generous lover who always made you see stars when he fucked you. But this was different. This was mind-bending, soul-shattering, earth-shaking.

You didn’t realize you were repeatedly chanting his name. It left your lips like a prayer, breathlessly whispered up to the heavens. He spoke to you, but you couldn’t hear him. You were deafened by searing pleasure, ringing in your ears, rattling your very bones to their marrow. 

You barely registered his mouth at your neck again, teeth nipping into tender flesh. All you knew was that you were existing on an otherworldly plane. And then you felt it. That flame that had been burning inside you was growing. Hotter, bigger, more intense.

Rhett could feel it. You were trembling uncontrollably, body convulsing as if you’d been struck by raw electricity. Your cunt kept pulsing around him, tightening so intensely that he almost struggled to move within you. 

“Let go,” he rasped, knowing that he, too, was nearing his end. He could feel it, crackling to life at the base of his spine, thrumming within his heavy, aching balls. He was driven by his need to fill you with his very essence. 

“I-I’m c-co-” but you couldn’t speak. The words wouldn’t come. They were impossible. So you simply cried and wailed beneath him, so certain you were about to burst into flames, reduced to nothing but ash.

But you didn’t burst into a fiery inferno. Instead, every nerve, every neuron, every atom of your body was consumed with something you could never, ever describe with mere mortal words. 

Your eyes went wide as you locked your gaze with Rhett’s. Mouth open, chest pressing into his as you jerked forward. And then it hit you. Hard, deep, stretching over every inch of your body. You let out a carnal howl, which surely echoed for miles outside of your home. 

You fell apart around your husband’s cock, keening, sobbing, consumed by blazing euphoria. You felt as if you were part of the universe, an explosion of blazing stars, scattered brilliantly across the universe in a blinding, breathtaking array.

You thought it would end, but it didn’t. Your eyes flew open when you realized you were still coming. “Rhett!” You shrieked. “I-I c-ca-can’t stop!”

His mouth fell open as he gasped sharply, grunting as your body continued to undulate beneath him. But he couldn’t reply, for suddenly, he was overcome. His own release rushed through him in an overwhelming surge, and his grunt turned into a yowl. The heat of his release flooded the very core of your being, filling you until it spilled out around the edges of his cock, dripping down to the floor beneath you.

It took what felt like an eternity for you both to come back to yourselves. You weren’t sure how much time had passed, but once Rhett regained feeling in his extremities, he gingerly lifted himself from where his body had fallen against your own.

His eyes were back to their familiar human blue, so brilliant and comforting all at once. His face was soft with concern, and he lifted his hand to gently stroke your tear-dampened cheek. “Y’ okay, little wolf?” He asked. 

You couldn’t find your voice, so you simply nodded, sniffling softly. He soothed you, leaning in close to kiss you deeply. “That was…fuck, that was a lot,” he continued on. 

“I-I know,” you whispered, barely audible. 

Gently, he eased his cock out of you, and you let out a heartbreaking cry at the emptiness. One that he soothed with another kiss. He brought his hand down between your legs, cupping your dripping cunt, soothing any pain he might’ve caused. But you weren’t in pain. Far from it. 

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here. Got a call from Dad this mornin’ about a calf that got hurt, had to go deal with that and it took all fuckin’ mornin’, and by the time I realized what time it was, it was too late. I know I shouldn't ‘ve left you all alone like that, and I’m sorry.”

You shook your head, reaching up to cup his cheek. “It’s okay. When I was crying at you about it I…I don’t think I was in my right mind. I’ve never felt like that in my entire life. Felt like I could crawl out of my own skin. Hurt so bad, I needed you somethin’ fierce. I’ve had heats before but nothing could ever compare to this.”

Rhett hummed, lifting his own hand to place over the one you’d rested on his cheek. “From now on, I ain’t leavin’ you. Don’t want you goin’ through that alone again. I’ll stay with you until it’s over.”

You nodded. “I’d like that.”

You spent a few more moments on the floor, catching your breath and processing what had just taken place. Rhett glanced at the claw marks he’d left in the hardwood and groaned in annoyance. “Next time you wanna fuck like animals, let’s do it in bed, where I can’t mess up the woodwork I broke my back tryin’ to get perfect,” he grumbled.

You couldn’t help but giggle. “Noted,” you said. 

You allowed him to help you up off the floor, and he pulled you to him, naked bodies pressed together. His gaze grew serious. “I love you, little wolf. I’m gonna take good care of you while you go through this, alright? Don’t want my darlin’ sufferin’ on my watch.”

You beamed at him and bumped your nose against his. “I know you will. You always do.”

Again, he kissed you, and then he guided you back to the bathroom from whence you’d come. There, you showered together, cleansing yourselves of your previous activities. For the time being, you were sated, and that terrible, gnawing ache was gone. What followed was this strange sort of floating feeling. Your bodies were producing special pheromones which intensified the bonding process immediately following sex. 

You felt so connected to Rhett, even more so than you ever had before. It was a little overwhelming. After your shower, you refused to part from one another. You stayed close, curling up in bed for a little rest after such an exhausting morning. Rhett lovingly wrapped you in his embrace, your still bare bodies intertwined. 

He traced patterns on your skin with his fingertips and told you all the things he loved about you. He confessed how grateful he was that you were his mate, and how he’d been lost before he met you. You spoke of your future together and what it might entail. Including the little ones you might add to your family if the Fates smiled down upon you.

You connected on an entirely new level, and it only served to knit your hearts closer together. And then, you drifted off into a peaceful slumber, cuddled in each other’s embrace.

But your body would soon wake you again, and you would be reacquainted with that all too familiar ache. This time, however, Rhett was with you. You found yourself whimpering, crying for him as you shook him awake. 

He remained perfectly calm as he soothed you, kissing you so lovingly as he arranged your body into position. Slowly, steadily, he eased himself into you again, joining your bodies as one. 

“You’re okay, little wolf. I’m right here. I’ll always be right here.”

And you knew he would.

-

tagging (a mix of those already on my taglist/those who might be interested):

@cdauni @gothamrots @happyrebelruins @bobfloydsbabe @myfandomchangesalot @mikpieboo @petersunderoos96 @eighthwvnder @yanna-banana @bradshawsbaby @bradshawsbitch @sebsxphia @basiccortez @thesluttyarchivist @rhettabbotts @milesmillergf @briseisgone @laluneveillesureux @gohnspants @bobfloyds @wkndwlff @damrlova @withahappyrefrain @michaego

[ms-lirio]

"You hurted yourself. Again."

"I guess I should say: I am deeply sorry."

"Do not act so reckless, Alfred."

"—Promise. And you should take a rest, you look tired."

"I am fine. Do not worry about me."

I have MANY pending books to read, whether diaries, reports, story books, Brazilian Pracinhas and Nurses and much more.  But to save time, I decided to just read a few quick articles to prepare this post.

All pointed here is in a historical view.

Brazil was officially the only South American country to send troops to the conflict under its flag.

Historically, Brazil's actions prevailed in Italy.  It was where Brazil sent its troops, and its participation in the war was delayed as Brazil wanted to maintain its relations with both sides and remain neutral throughout the conflict.  After German and Italian attacks suffered by Brazilian ships, Brazil gave up its neutrality, siding with the Allies.

American military bases were built in the Northeast region of Brazil and Brazilian troops received American training.

"In 1939, with the beginning of the Second World War, Brazil remained neutral, in continuation of President Getúlio Vargas' policy of not defining itself by any of the great powers, only trying to take advantage of the advantages offered by them. Such "pragmatism " was interrupted at the beginning of 1942, when the United States and the Brazilian government agreed to transfer air bases on the island of Fernando de Noronha and along the north-northeast Brazilian coast to receive American military bases (if negotiations had not result, with Vargas and the military insisting on maintaining neutrality, the US had plans to invade the Brazilian northeast, codenamed Plan Rubber).”  (WIKIPEDIA)

"Natal, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, in northeastern Brazil, has a very important strategic global geographic position. This fact made the city host the two main American military bases during the Second World War: the Naval Base and Parnamirim Field – at the time it was the largest US Air Force base on foreign territory.”  (WIKIPEDIA)

// Getúlio Vargas flirted with the Fascist ideology even tho, he went to ALLIES' side. 💀

HCs: (don't take them too seriously)

⚠️ Remembering the following content: we are still talking about Hetalia, so my HCs and lore are not absolute truth, but my perception of my oc's participation during the conflict.  Even though it has a historical basis behind it.  And also, this is historical fiction (ofc, it's hetalia).  WWII is an extremely sensitive topic to many. I ask for caution, I will be careful with what I have to say.

— Alfred used his charm and charisma to make Mayara fight alongside him (Good Neighbor Policy). What worked and they formed an alliance based on a mutual exchange of interests.

— Mayara had developed a strange feeling that intensified for Alfred (something between admiration and wanting to be like him, a complex feeling, which perhaps was confused with platonic love and which sought certain privileges in that alliance), even if she was reluctant to give end her neutral stance towards the conflict (something similar to what happened in WWI).  She would later do this after torpedoing of vessels by German and Italian submarines, retaliation due to Brazil's accession to the Atlantic Charter;  thus, she broke ties with the AXIS and declared war on Italy and Germany.

— In my universe, Mayara also served as a nurse, and spent most of her time with Alfred, often tending to his wounds.  Sometimes just chitchatting together or learning about militarism and things like that. He trained her. He was the one who supported her.

— I changed my conception of another topic, which was May's direct participation on the battlefield.  I think that Mayara, in addition to serving as a nurse, also fought on the front line when necessary (due to the fact that she was the representative of Brazil) and needed to be on the front line.  In my former HC she didn't go to the front. (I disagree with the 2021 me xd).

—  I don't believe that Alfred reciprocated any kind of feelings for May. She was an important piece for him, and so he courted her, to secure a new ally.  It was a benefits relationship.

— Besides Alfred.  There were FEW times where dialogues with England took place, this was due to the participation of Anglo-Brazilians on the English side (if I'm not wrong, in the area of ​​aviation, but I need to delve deeper into the topic).  An almost tiny interaction compared to the prevalence of Alfred's actions, which was immensely greater and also generated impacts.

PS: I don't ship BrAme/AmeBra, they are just friends.  However, Mayara, as I said, had strange feelings for him at some moments in history (I was reading an article about diplomacy 🇧🇷-🇺🇸, I realized that Brazil had a greater interest in getting closer to the USA for economic and regional power, that is, an admiration that aimed for benefits/just as the US aimed for strategic support/Mayara would support Alfred in anything, as she thought she would get support in return).

I used the word "courtship" as it was stated in this old History book (which I no longer have).  Alfred... used his charm against May. Lol.

Evidence of a strange obsession with Alfred:

Meet the United States of Brazil:

(I showed this damn flag to my dad he got disgusted lmfao)

[bestworstcase]

tin hats on. let’s talk about the great war.

first, a general point about the relevant world of remnant spots: qrow narrates all of them. i think this is important to keep in mind when assessing the information provided, because he editorializes constantly, and i do not believe that we are meant to take qrow’s obvious biases at face value. rather, this is a narrative choice to introduce us to this history through a very distorted lens; qrow is ozpin’s man, loyal to the bone before to the revelation of ozpin’s lies, and it is also very likely that he had no formal education prior to his enrollment at beacon academy.

#1: the pre-war kingdoms.

vale sits on the northwestern coast of sanus, sandwiched between “steep mountains” and “waters too shallow for any real monsters to pop out of.” throughout the kingdom’s history, every attempt to expand the kingdom’s borders past the mountain range has ended in “colossal failures”—the most recent of which is mountain glenn, in the post-war period.

however, vale was also engaged in a different expansionist effort in the century preceding the great war: the kingdom was building settlements on “the small islands and peninsulas” of the northeastern coast.

to the north of vale lay the kingdom of mantle. qrow does not give a lot of detail regarding the settlement of solitas, just that “at some point, a group of settlers were crazy enough to venture out into the northernmost continent,” but i submit that the founders of mantle came from northern sanus. why?

mantle’s location at the southwestern tip of solitas is geographically closest to the island of vytal, just off the north coast of sanus; had the settlers come from northern anima, they would have more likely landed on the eastern side of the continent.

qrow says this: “the harsh weather conditions proved to be just as useful as the mountain ranges when it came to keeping the creatures of grimm at bay,” and while anima does have mountain ranges, they’re not remarked upon in WOR: mistral. it is vale that depends upon “steep mountains” to bulwark its eastern flank against the grimm, and vale that has made repeated, unsuccessful attempts throughout its history to expand its borders beyond those mountains.

it is unclear how long mantle existed as an independent state prior to the great war, but we know that it’s not very old; qrow also states that the century preceding the great was “filled with so much tension” that it might as well be “lumped together” with the great war. meaning almost certainly that there were smaller-scale conflicts throughout the whole period. sometime during that century, vale began to build settlements in northeastern sanus. mantle was settled “at some point” by “a crazy group of settlers”—and “i guess when you’re that desperate,” qrow opines, “a frozen hunk of rock doesn’t seem like such a bad place to call home.” mantle is geographically closest to northeastern sanus. there are—there have always been—people living outside the kingdoms, who do not want to be part of the kingdoms.

you do the math. or i will: mantle was founded by people displaced from northeastern sanus by valean expansion, probably in the neighborhood of a hundred years prior to the great war.

meanwhile, mistral was conquering anima. notably—because qrow doesn’t like mistral, particularly—there is less ambiguity on this point than on vale’s settlement of northeast sanus: this expansion was an imperial project. a conquest. mistral was (and based on the language used in the present, still is) an empire, meaning its “territories” are all conquered people or polities from whom the imperial core extracts resources, which—both historically and in the text of this story—includes slaves.

so, argus. during the century preceding the great war, mistral’s attention turned to northern anima. according to jaune and ren in 6.7, mistral’s expansion into the region was stymied by the cold until forming an alliance with mantle; qrow describes mantle as an “unlikely friend” to the empire. the goliath in the room that none of these characters acknowledge (and may not know, given their upbringings—bandit, orphaned young, & very sheltered) is that the region was probably not uninhabited at the time.

empire. conquest. controlled territories. you cannot have these things without also having conquered people. what stymied mistral’s expansion into the region was likely not the cold per se but the logistical burden the cold imposed upon military action here; invading a cold region with an army in the wintertime is famously not a good idea. and, if mantle was founded by people displaced by valean imperialism… well, that explains both qrow’s view of it as an “unlikely friend” and why mantle would make such an overture of alliance to mistral in the first place; vale and mistral were the great world powers, and for mantle—a small, vulnerable, dust-rich but otherwise resource-poor state with every reason to fear its closer southern neighbor—cozying up to mistral would have been just rational politics; hug one great power to insure against invasion by the other.

and then there’s vacuo.

WOR: vacuo is easily the least factually trustworthy episode in the series to the point that i think it is probably all but worthless in terms of the historical narrative given; it’s worldbuilding the modern day cultural narratives about the conquest of vacuo, not the actual history.

(the CFVY novels, i believe, support this reading: in the present, many city vacuans believe the narrative qrow offers here that the old kingdom of vacuo was a “paradise,” but “comfort breeds weakness” and its people were complacent, soft, helpless to defend themselves from invaders from more hardened kingdoms… but the first king of vacuo was a man called malik the sunderer, shade’s history teacher states that it’s been centuries since vacuo was conquered and the real history has been so obscured and distorted by myth that it’s impossible to know what it was truly like, and desert vacuans—the nomadic peoples who don’t live in the kingdom—have a starkly different cultural outlook on hardship that is much more in line with the story’s themes and also reality, valuing community, hospitality, and resilience over “strength.”)

but there is one kernel of very interesting information in this episode: “after the great war, a formal government was finally established.” meaning there wasn’t a formal vacuan government before the great war.

vacuo was not a state before the great war.

of vacuo’s entry into the great war, qrow says this:

Up to this point, Vacuo had done its best to stay out of the fight. Mantle and Mistral, having both already established a small presence in Vacuo territory years before promised to leave them alone, provided they didn't interfere. Soon, those talks evolved. It went from "Don't side with them" to "Side with us and you'll be safe". Vacuo did not much care for that, and they came to the conclusion that if Vale were to fall, there'd be no one left to stop Mistral and Mantle from conquering them next. So they did what they considered to be the logical thing. They drove Mantle and Mistral out of Vacuo and told Vale they had their backs.

at this point in history, vacuo did not have a government. at this point in history, vacuo was not a state. the kingdom of vacuo had been conquered centuries ago (by “more developed kingdoms,” qrow says—by whom?), and according to rumpole (<- an actual authoritative source, given she teaches history at shade!), “few documented accounts or records remain from that far back.”

the conquest of vacuo predated the conflicts of the prewar century (and probably predate the existence of mantle). this illustration in WOR: vacuo implicates all three of the other kingdoms—blue for mistral, white for mantle, green for vale:

so there is no question that vale participated in the butchering of vacuo; it did. but this illustration is also impressionistic, ahistorical, not a literal representation of how vacuo was conquered.

by the time of the great war, vacuo was a territory occupied by mantle and mistral, but vale does not seem to have had a significant presence there. in the present, vacuans harbor a lot of resentment for mistral and atlas, less for vale. vale is also, by virtue of being located on the same continent, the kingdom best positioned to invade vacuo if it so chose.

(qrow asserts that vacuo was conquered by “more developed” kingdoms, but it was also dust-rich—the CFVY novels confirm this—and there is a clear correlation between technological innovation and access to an abundant source of dust. it’s possible that a scarcity of, say, iron inhibited ancient vacuo’s technological development and put it at a military disadvantage, but generally i think it’s more likely that qrow is regurgitating historical propaganda there.)

the point being: vale conquered the kingdom of vacuo and then either withdrew or lost a war with mistral for control over the territory at some point prior to the great war.

regardless of the finer details, the historicity of qrow’s account regarding vacuo’s entrance into the war seems… pretty suspect given that vacuo did not have a government. what sort of “talks” do you suppose the mantle-mistrali bloc was having with the non-state actors of vacuo? what kind of “presence” did mistral, the empire that conquered all of anima, actually have in the vacuan territory?

hmm. i wonder.

vacuo “drove mistral and mantle out” and threw in their lot with vale; meaning, the vacuan side of this war was really a war of independence. vacuo wasn’t “doing its best to stay out of the fight” so much as it was under mistrali control until the vacuan people rebelled, then sided with mistral’s enemy.

#2: salem?? ?

ozpin—and qrow by extension—believes that salem ignited the war with a false-flag op in northeastern sanus (“to this day, no one knows who shot first” + “salem’s smart. she works in the shadows, using others to get what she wants, so that when it comes time to place the blame, we can only point at each other”). much of the fandom not only takes this at face value but also assumes without… really any basis at all that salem was responsible for the “incident” in mantle that the mantelian government used to justify a raft of draconian censorship laws.

but… authoritarian regimes can and will use any pretext to justify repressive new laws whose real purpose is to punish dissenters and strengthen control over the populace; banning art and all forms of self-expression is not a move that anyone would think with any seriousness would protect people from the grimm. qrow is either being disingenuous in purpose or (more likely) just doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about because four years at the monster-hunting college is the sum total of his education: “the people of mantle had come to believe that they would be much safer from the grimm if they could only keep the emotions of the masses in check” is the kind of bullshit nonsense you would expect if the guy doesn’t know how government works, either the modern-day democratic councils or whatever system prewar mantle had; what is the distinction between “the people” and “the masses?”

in. the. unreliable. narrators. show.

mantle’s autocratic government found a pretext to crack down on subversive speech and pumped out a massive body of propaganda to the tune of “we’re just doing what we must for the good of the people :)”—that’s what happened. that’s why mistral imposed the same laws on its territories but not in the imperial core, and why mantle didn’t have a problem with that “selective” enforcement.

maybe salem sent some grimm to attack mantle, maybe she didn’t. maybe there was a public protest that got angry enough to attract grimm. maybe there was a protest that got too rowdy, and who’s going to openly question the government officials claiming that officers on the scene opened fire into the crowd because a grimm jumped out of the sewers? grimm evaporate when they die. kind of a hard thing to fact check.

and in a similar vein… vale’s king rolled out a welcome mat for mistrali colonists who came to colonize valean settlements. it is beyond nonsensical to think that there was no violence involved. colonization is an inescapably and inherently violent process. and remember, the rioting began shortly after mistral imposed draconian censorship laws on its occupied territories, which absolutely would have included parts of eastern vale.

it was inevitable and completely predictable that this situation would explode. might salem have sent someone to fire the first shot? sure? but why would she bother, when the fuse was burning down all on its own?

(and that’s assuming she even had an interest in provoking a massive war at all, which seems rather unlikely given her apparent disinclination to engage in wanton destruction; see also her consistent choices to limit civilian casualties by pulling out of vale quickly / planning a surgical strike on haven academy / not attacking mantle / not sending grimm into the subways of atlas.)

but. but–

they did put her in the thumbnail. the point of this is presumably to imply that she did, in fact, do something to influence these events.

specifically.

they put her in the thumbnail superimposed over the leader of the vacuan rebellion, who:

led what must have been a pretty desperate fight against steep odds to drive an industrialized global power out of vacuo,

kept that coalition together after they won and formed an alliance with vale, and

was a faunus.

ozpin is superimposed over the king of vale because he was the king of vale. so: is the choice to position salem in this way similarly non-arbitrary?

looks into the camera like i’m on the office.

salem is a faunus. she identifies herself as such (“your grace” is the mode of address for menagerie’s chieftain) and she has been socially understood as a faunus for thousands of years (in a time when faunus were hunted and caged like animals, the stories about the witch who lived in the woods among “beasts and monsters” were, uh, probably not referring to wild animals; “beasts” was a euphemism for the people the ones telling those stories hunted and caged.)

to this day, ozpin associates the faunus with salem. he suspects blake of being her spy; he similarly singles out velvet after the massacre of lower cairn (and we don’t get to see what he actually says, only that velvet is in tears by the end). at haven, leo more or less says “the council overruled me and my hands are tied,” and ozpin immediately decides to freeze him out and insinuates to the kids that he suspects leo might be a traitor; meanwhile james “two votes” ironwood is closing atlas’ borders, cutting off the global supply of dust, recalling his troops from an allied state, and behaving so erratically that mistral is evidently anticipating a fucking invasion, and ozpin instructs qrow to take the lamp to atlas anyway. lionheart is a faunus; ironwood is human. the tea set ozpin gifted to lionheart is a replica of salem’s tea set. math.

so the fact that salem is superimposed over the faunus leader here does not seem coincidental; the narrative is very consistent in linking salem to the faunus because she is herself a faunus.

in WOR: faunus, qrow describes the appalling treatment of faunus by humans throughout history (first ostracized and hunted down, later enslaved and exploited) before to the great war and states that, after the great war, “the world was desperate to find compromises that would ensure they'd never see the likes of it again; the faunus were awarded equal rights as citizens of remnant, and as an apology, they were given an entire continent of their own to do with as they pleased. there were some that saw this as fair and just, but many saw it for what it really was: a slap in the face from a nation of sore losers. and so menagerie was born.”

and from the great war:

But whatever the reasoning, everyone bowed to the King of Vale by the time it was over. The Great War had ended. The world was ready to live under the rule of Vale. But the King refused. The leaders of the four Kingdoms met on the island of Vytal, and it was there that they worked together to form a treaty and establish the future of Remnant. Territories were redistributed, slavery was abolished, governments were restructured, and the Warrior King, the last king Vale would ever have, founded the Huntsman Academies and placed his most trusted followers in command of each Kingdom's school.

a few things to unpack here.

first: ozma as the king of vale would have had quite a lot of power to drive the vytal negotiations in the direction he wanted them to go; the other three leaders were given at least a notional say, but these were people who had just seen ozma unleash the horrifying powers of the sword of destruction upon their armies and bowed to him in abject terror—and that’s before getting into the possibility that ozma may have used the crown of choice to compel agreement.

second: “territories were redistributed” mostly appears to mean that mistral was forced to relinquish control over conquered territories that did not want to be part of mistral; vacuan sovereignty was formally restored (…on paper) (shade academy is the de facto government and has been since the war ended, which is worth raising an eyebrow at), parts of western anima were liberated, and… menagerie was given to the faunus.

(menagerie had to have been a mistrali colony before the great war ended, otherwise the framing of “a slap in the face from a nation of sore losers” is nonsensical.)

third: note the implication that awarding the faunus equal rights and giving them an island was a desperate compromise to insure against the perceived threat of a second war. it’s of a piece with ozma’s attempt to appease mistral and avoid war by “sharing” eastern vale with mistrali colonists.

the vacuan leader—his ally in the war—was a faunus, but it sounds very much as though ozma saw her kind as adversaries, at least in potentia, whom he made it a point to appease in the hope of avoiding a war. which is irrational on its face but does make sense in conjunction with ozpin’s clear inclination to imagine connections between salem and faunus, however baseless that suspicion might be.

and on that note, qrow also says this: “a lot of settlements were lost during those years, and most were never reclaimed. rations on food and dust were put into effect, development of technology accelerated, humans and faunus who fought alongside one another became closer and every day, mankind grew more and more efficient at destroying itself.”

pay attention to that rhetorical structure.

many settlements were wiped out

food and dust were strictly rationed

technological (military) development boomed

humans and faunus grew closer

mankind grew ever more efficient at destroying itself

one of these is not like the others.

qrow’s framing of these events likely comes from ozpin, whether directly (things ozpin told him) or indirectly (ozpin’s influence as headmaster over beacon’s curriculum). so the inclusion of “humans and faunus who fought side by side grew closer” into what is otherwise a list of ways mankind “destroyed itself” is perhaps telling of ozma’s mindset at the time; which in turn supports the implication that ozma perceived the faunus as a potential threat to appease after the war.

now!

the question is, how was salem involved—and why?

well. we know that salem is inclined to revolution; she rallied people to rebellion against the brothers millions of years ago, and in her war against the academies in the present, she aligns herself with groups like the white fang. she refers to the global order ozma established through the vytal accords derisively as “your so-called ‘free’ world.”

and we know that salem herself is a faunus, and thousands of years ago she was present enough in faunus culture that their creation myth is just a refraction of her story—transformation into something new by a choice to leap into magical waters.

we know that the faunus did not have rights in any of the four kingdoms before the great war, and mistral in particular is noted for its reliance on (presumably, mainly faunus) slave labor. reading between the lines of qrow’s slanted narration, vacuo was a mistrali territory back then, and in the CFVY novels it’s mentioned that vacuan faunus were regularly enslaved in mistrali-operated mines within that territory.

and we can guess, based on their leader being a faunus, that the vacuan rebels who drove mistral and mantle out of vacuo were predominantly faunus, plus humans willing to follow and fight for the faunus.

in the present, salem preferred sienna khan over adam and dropped adam like a hot potato after he assassinated sienna; she also clearly has no intention to attack menagerie, where the grimm notably do not seem to be a serious problem. salem also implicitly identifies herself as a faunus (“your grace”). so there are grounds for thinking that she does consider the faunus to be her people.

vacuo’s part in the great war was a war for independence. salem is both pragmatic and ruthless; she understands that nothing forces people to cooperate quite like the threat of a common enemy; she has the means to turn the tide of any war by the simple expedient of directing her grimm against the side she wants to lose. if she was in communication with the vacuan rebels—or just had spies—she could have coordinated grimm raids to sever supply lines or winnow defending forces in advance of attacks planned by the rebels, tipping the odds in their favor.

she knows ozma. if she was paying attention to the war, she would have known it began with his futile effort to appease mistral by giving away parts of vale; she has to know he sees her in the shadow of every faunus. the vacuan rebels—most of them faunus, led by a faunus—saved his bacon by joining the war he very much seems to have been losing (the frontlines were in vacuo by the end of the war; all of eastern vale was destroyed, and the king of vale and his army made their final stand in vacuo; vale itself was… probably under mistrali occupation at the time).

i am sure salem did not want, particularly, to throw ozma a lifeline. but she does care about freedom in the abstract—“your so-called ‘free’ world”—and she may think of the faunus as her people. once the war began, once it became clear that vale was losing… well, either vale would fall and mistral would rule the world, which would be undeniably worse for the faunus, or she could grit her teeth and accept helping ozma as a fair price for a shot at liberating the faunus.

and the only thing she would have to do to influence the war’s outcome is use her grimm to disrupt mantelian/mistrali supply lines and specifically target their forces on the battlefield. such attacks wouldn’t stand out against the backdrop of regular grimm activity—there are a lot of grimm in the world beyond her control—but a sustained, deliberate campaign of grimm attacks focused on one side would absolutely add up over time to a significant advantage for the other. especially given that the logistical burden of waging war on a foreign continent is already so much higher than defending your home.

if salem could also keep wild grimm off the backs of vacuo’s and vale’s armies to some extent, a la the apparent absence of a grimm problem in menagerie, that advantage would be even sharper.

…although she probably did not anticipate that ozma would use the sword of destruction to crush everyone who opposed him, or the crown of choice to do… whatever it is he did with it. you win some, you lose some.

[nanshe-of-nina]

Favorite History Books || Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire by Eckart Frahm ★★★★☆

… This birth of Assyria in the proper sense of the term— its emergence as a land that included great cities such as Nineveh, Calah, and Arbela, and soon others much farther away— marked the beginning of a new era: the Middle Assyrian period. Now a full-fledged monarchy, Assyrians started to see their land as a peer of the most powerful states of the time, from Babylonia in the south to Egypt in the west. During the eleventh century BCE, the Assyrian kingdom experienced a new crisis, this one caused by climate change, migrations, and internal tensions. It lost most of its provinces, especially in the west. But when the dust settled, it managed to rise from the ashes faster than any of the other states in the region. A number of energetic and ruthless Assyrian rulers of the Neo-Assyrian period (ca. 934– 612 BCE) took advantage of the weakness of their political rivals, embarking on a systematic campaign of subjugation, destruction, and annexation. Their efforts, initially aimed at the reconquest of areas that had been under Assyrian rule before and then moving farther afield, were carried out with unsparing and often violent determination, cruelly epitomized in an aphoristic statement found in another of Esarhaddon’s inscriptions: “Before me, cities, behind me, ruins.” . . . During the last years of Esarhaddon’s reign, Assyria ruled over a territory that reached from northeastern Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean to Western Iran, and from Anatolia in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south. Parks with exotic plants lined Assyrian palaces, newly created universal libraries were the pride of Assyrian kings, and an ethnically diverse mix of people from dozens of foreign lands moved about the streets of Assyrian cities such as Nineveh and Calah. Yet it was not to last. Only half a century after Esarhaddon’s reign, the Assyrian state suffered a dramatic collapse, culminating in the conquest and destruction of Nineveh in 612 BCE. Assyria’s fall occurred long before some better- known empires of the ancient world were founded: the Persian Empire, established in 539 BCE by Cyrus II; Alexander the Great’s fourth-century BCE Greco-Asian Empire and its successor states; the third-century BCE empires created by the Indian ruler, Ashoka and the Chinese empero, Qin Shi Huang; and the most prominent and influential of these, the Roman Empire, whose beginnings lay in the first century BCE. The Assyrian kingdom may not have the same name recognition. But for more than one hundred years, from about 730 to 620 BCE, it had been a political body so large and so powerful that it can rightly be called the world’s first empire. And so Assyria matters. “World history” does not begin with the Greeks or the Romans— it begins with Assyria. “World religion” took off in Assyria’s imperial periphery. Assyria’s fall was the result of a first “world war.” And the bureaucracies, communication networks, and modes of domination created by the Assyrian elites more than 2,700 years ago served as blueprints for many of the political institutions of subsequent great powers, first directly and then indirectly, up until the present day. This book tells the story of the slow rise and glory days of this remarkable ancient civilization, of its dramatic fall, and its intriguing afterlife.

[urabrask-the-hidden]

Khelos

Khelos (WUB) is the Domain of domination. Decrepit cities fill its dark mires, where the undead elite of the Dread Council use fear to maintain power. The citizens are fed hyper-nationalistic propaganda, and are kept afraid of the "Unworthy"- whomever the Council needs them to be, but especially outsiders and dissenters. The Council itself is a web of intrigue, deception, and betrayal with each member vying for power, and at the top of it all is Kevronok, the first lich, lord of Khelos and architect of its totalitarian regime.

GOD OF AUTHORITY

In life, Khelos was the god of leadership, rule, and order. Depicted as a regal, bearded man (and occasionally as a vampire), it was he who crowned Kevronok, the first king of Xalior. His name was considered the ultimate source of authority, invoked by peacemakers and tyrants alike. 

It was said that Khelos held mastery over all things, even death. Indeed, certain sects associated him with necromancy- a controversial topic, to be sure, yet undeniable. After all, he aided Kevronok in the creation of the practice, leading the king to become the first lich.

Khelos-the-god is still worshiped in some way, with most towns having a temple to the dead god (although this worship is largely synonymous with reverence for Kevronok). Khelos-the-god is seen as the great history they all share, a source of strength and pride. 

However, they believe that Khelos-the-god was ultimately too weak. He could not control Venhi, god of change, who the Khelosians believe both started the War and killed the God of Order. But his death was necessary, allowing Kevronok, his Heir, to rise and build a stronger society, more resistant to the forces of disorder.

LANDSCAPE

“Beyond these walls lies only silence. Beyond the silence are the Unworthy. Here, under our watchful gaze, is the safest place you can be.”

Khelos is a bleak realm, dominated by vast, empty moorland. The sky is perpetually overcast; rain is frequent, though storms are rare. Perhaps the Domain’s most distinctive feature is how quiet it is. Wind and wildlife are seldom heard, and all but the sound of voices seem muffled or distant. 

Lonely, mud-streaked roads crisscross the moors, leading to settled areas- stretches of farmland, small villages, or the occasional walled city. Even these places feel quiet and empty, with most people keeping to themselves. Khelosian infrastructure is poor, mostly run-down. The dwellings of the elite, however, are grand and opulent. 

Khelos sits on the northeastern coast of Xalior’s great continent. Its main borders are with the dark estuaries of Nyduul to the north, the ashen fields of Orathir to the west, and the volcanic hellscape of Morax to the south. 

Major Locations: 

Ebonhold, capital of Khelos, where the Lich-King rules from the Obsidian Citadel

Volaak’s Landing, the greatest port city, governed by Lich-Lord Volaak

Zostania, most fertile part of Khelos, where most of its food is grown

Mistwater, the greatest stretch of moorland between settled areas

THE LOYAL FLOCK

“The Unworthy are all around us, my friends. They despise us for our perfect society, a thing they could never build, and so they seek to tear it away from us.”

Khelos is inhabited by humans, vedalken, tessians (ratfolk), and vampires (unique to Khelos). They are fearful and suspicious folk. They fear strangers and outsiders, Unworthy of Khelos’ glory. They fear their neighbors, who may be dissenters or foreigners in disguise. And they fear the Dread Council and what awaits them should their loyalty be found wanting. 

Despite this, the Khelosians believe their society is perfect. And why shouldn’t they? It’s all they’re told, from the day they were born until the day they die. The law may be cruel at times, yes, but it is necessary for the sake of order and their own safety. 

Class is very stratified in Khelos, with little room for upward mobility. Vampires, who live only in Khelos, often receive a degree of special treatment, and are more common among the upper classes. At the bottom are farmers and manufacturers, then artisans, merchants and other landowners, mortal necromancers and government officials, lich-lords, the Dread Council, and finally the Lord of Silence, Kevronok himself.

RULE THROUGH FEAR

“There is much in this world for you to fear, but Khelos is strong. The Council is strong. Kevronok is strong.”

Fear is how power is maintained, and so the Dread Council works to ensure that fear is inescapable. News of people outed as Unworthy is shared far and wide, and the wars with the other Domains is constantly at the forefront of politics. Wherever there are people, there are guards, soldiers, and the Silent Ones- secret police. The Baleful Eyes- undead crows which report directly to the Lord of Silence- are always watching. Ghouls are frequently paraded through the streets, and public tortures and executions are a regular occurrence. Self-expression, the source of disorder, is regarded as anathema. 

The Council itself is made up of 26 of the oldest and most powerful lich-lords, many from before the Great Reshaping. The inner workings of its hierarchy are quite complex, and power is in part derived from Kevronok’s favor. All liches covet the seats of the Dread Council, and all Councilors covet the positions of their own superiors. The constant scheming, backstabbing, framing, and deception are an open secret (though not one the populous is privy to), and investigations into misconduct are only to ensure the perpetrator’s tracks were covered. Above it all is the Master of the Dread Council, his position untouchable, with his subordinates too distracted by their schemes to plot against him.

THE LIVING DEAD

“The weak shall be made to serve. The righteous shall be made to lead. The strong shall be made to rule.”

Kevronok invented necromancy, and the practice of raising the dead as zombies remains a fixture of Khelosian society, both as a punishment and a reward.

Zombies of Khelos come in three varieties. First are ghouls, undead slaves controlled by necromancers (living or otherwise). This is the fate of the Unworthy; outsiders, dissenters, prisoners of war, all are slain and revived as ghouls in service of the Lord of Silence. They provide most of the menial labor in Khelos, and are frequently used in its army (they are particularly fond of fighting a Domain with their own dead).

Wights are non-spellcasting mortals who have been rewarded with undeath by a lich. Retaining much of their intelligence yet lacking free will, they lead the Khelosian forces on the fields of battle and serve as the personal bodyguards of the liches who control them. 

Necromancers of sufficient power, ambition, and loyalty are permitted to become liches, interring their soul within a phylactery kept by the Lich-King. Most continue their necromantic duties, with greater status awarded by their undeath. Some may become lich-lords, high-ranking government officials ruling over cities and large plots of land.

KEVRONOK, HAND OF TERROR

“You are not loyal to each other. Your allegiance lies only with the Lich-King.”

The first king. The first necromancer. The first lich. He is Kevronok, the Hand of Terror, Lord of Silence, Master of the Dread Council, Keeper of the Obsidian Citadel, Lich-King and Heir of Khelos.

In life, Kevronok was obsessed with perfection, seeking to build a kingdom that would only know order and would never fall. Believing that he alone could achieve this, and recognizing how long it would take, he created necromancy in pursuit of immortality, leading to his lichdom. When his kingdom inevitably fell, he retreated to the shadows of his hidden fortress, the Obsidian Citadel. Time and again he returned, intent on building a newer, better kingdom, yet each time was vanquished. He always learned from his mistakes, though, and when Khelos died and named Kevronok his heir, the lich was able to achieve what he longed for. All that remains is for the rest of Xalior to fall.

Withered flesh clings to his ancient bones, his beard is long and white, and his eyes shine with a pale blue glow. A dark, twisted crown sits atop his brow, and his robes are dark grays and muted blues. Deathly as his appearance may be, his voice is strong and clear. He is cold, cruel, calculating, and endlessly patient. Yet he is possessed of an obsessive need to be in total control of everything around him, for it all to be precisely as he wishes. As with all the Chosen, his arrogance knows no bounds.

RELATIONS WITH OTHER DOMAINS

“Fools, all of them. They deny our self-evident right to rule.”

Given its political disposition, Khelos is seldom friendly to the other Domains. Their closest allies are Orathir and Nyduul, and they will occasionally trade with Morax and Zalsu, but these relations are tenuous even by Xalior standards. They despise Rystan, Adient, and above all Venhi.

Xalior/Khelos/Morax/Rystan/Adient/Ebrius/Zalsu/Igovic/Nyduul/Orathir/Venhi/Hinterlands

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Hello 🕵🏾 this is totatlly an investigator, i'm wondering if you could share your wisdoms in the subject of ; the nature of the relationship between the USA and his states? much appreciated, thank you XOXO

[HIhihi! i really like your art and statetalia hcs <3]

🥹❤️ ahhhhh thank you that means a lot, I’m glad you like my art and my nor’easter au (statetalia) ❤️🥹

😈 Ok this is going to be a rather lengthy response. To make it easier to read, I’ll give a high-level overview of how I interpret the US states (&cities) and their relationships to Alfred. Under the cut, I will then provide a brief description of significant states/cities’ relationship to Alfred.

Clarifications:

While my Alfred begins as Plymouth Colony, his current position as the United States of America exists because his states agreed to enter into a union thus creating Alfred’s role. Thus I interpret the states to have a great deal of agency & influence over Alfred. Especially throughout early US history, the federal gov (which Alfred is representative of) isn’t centralized thus Alfred especially early on, is beholden to his states. This starts to radically change after the US Civil War. Tbh even to this day, while Alfred has more power than he has ever had, at the end of the day, his states still hold some power.

Subsequently, I do not interpret the states to be Alfred’s children. Only 4 of the states are related to him. He’s also not brothers to Matt.

Alfred may look to some states & cities to offload certain responsibilities, divide tasks, and to ask for advice.

I do not determine the physical & literal ages of a state by their admission into the union. Thus there are states that are older than, or near the same age as Alfred. The way I determine the age of each state depends on the state. There’s no sound system. Also not all states were initially British Colonies (ex: Jennie/NY stems from the New Netherlands colony).

Not all states are created equal, and some cities hold more influence over and have a more significant relationship to Alfred than others.

Overview:

The Original 13 States are the states that essentially created Alfred’s role. While Alfred is the same literal age as many of them, he didn’t grow up as quickly physically and his existence itself was unclear following the dissolution of Plymouth colony. So when he officially ascended into his role, Alfred was like 13 physically whereas many of his states were older teens (15-17). So they viewed him more like a little kid than their equal. Also when Alfred took on this role, he was quite immature. He’s exceptional in the battlefield, hence why they eventually agree upon him to be their figurehead (they weren’t really expecting him to take on real responsibilities either). Yet Alfred largely prefers fighting to politics- so up until the Civil War, Alfred himself is primarily partaking in various wars & skirmishes with Indigenous nations, Mexico, or what becomes Canada. Following the Civil War, Alfred takes his responsibilities more seriously and he also begins to be treated more like an equal by these particular states.

The northeastern states are his home base. He’s related to most of the New England states (made a post abt some of this). States like Jennie/ New York & Elise/ New Jersey are close family friends. While he cares for them all, sometimes family can be a lot especially when they’re very critical, controlling and have a hard time expressing they care about you (lollll as a northeastern asshole, we aren’t good with emotions).

Southern states can be a mixed bag, but his relationship to them can be uneasy especially with states like Carl/South Carolina as he’s the one to lead the southern states into the Civil War. I don’t think I’ve posted too much about Carl on tumblr and there’s a WHOLE HOST of reasons why Carl & Alfred don’t get along, but Alfred is the one to give Carl his facial scar because Carl was a traitor.

Appalachian states , for Alfred nowadays this relationship isn’t the greatest for a number of reasons (the Civil War + cultural attitudes towards the region). Even historically it erred on more exploitative. But given the Appalachian influence on American culture, and military participation in the expansion of the US westwards- Alfred was historically friendly with these states. Hell even his first girlfriend, Maisie/ North Carolina is mostly in this region. I made a post discussing some of this. X

The Midwest, the Southwest, & Rockies are areas I haven’t done as much research on as of now. But largely from what I can tell, his relationship to these states tend to be more exploitative in nature than him viewing them as equals the way he views states like Jennie/ New York.

Alaska & Hawaii are two states I haven’t created or work on yet. Broadly speaking, probably not the greatest. Hawaii was a separate nation that was forced into the union by Alfred- gonna go on a limb and say Hawaii is not Alfred’s biggest fan. Alaska I will have to do more research on to determine the exact nature of the relationship. I don’t mind different interpretations at all like if people see the states as kids cool for the most part idrc , and I rarely hate other headcanons except I absolutely hate the idea of Hawaii as Alfred’s kid, or Alaska being a RusAme love child. It’s blasé and in poor taste.

Ok now to some states that I think Alfred has a significant relationship to:

lol this artwork is from September 2023 btw

I believe these states + city personally have the most influence over Alfred and his decision-making. I’ll keep it as brief as possible cause lol I think I’m yapping too much I’m so sorry 😭

Going clockwise:

Elaine/ Florida is a wildcard of an individual that Alfred has begun to rely upon in more recent years for assistance as it regards to trade with Latin America (Miami is often considered the gateway to Latin America), but also he just finds her to actually quite a funny even tho he is a bit scared of her cause he can never quite predict her next move.

Henry/ Massachusetts is his older cousin and was his guardian. Henry raised him, but Henry can be overbearing, honest to a fault, hypercritical and rather argumentative. While Alfred loves Henry, and still looks up to Henry, sometimes Henry can be a lot. I have a few posts discussing his relationship to Henry, but this summarizes it the best.

Rosalie/ Rhode Island & Josh/Connecticut (who I lol did not include in this drawing) are tbh just like emotional support. He goofs off with them, they know his darkest secrets yada yada.

Mona/ California generally assists Alfred when it comes to his public image. He didn’t trust her much at first, or expected her to amount of anything, but she proved her loyalty during the Civil War and he began to trust her with more responsibility. They eventually developed a bit of a friendship, and now they’re dating….however they aren’t the best fit for each other.

Rob/ Texas is like highkey his best friend (sometimes his enemy) , and highkey they match each other’s freak in a platonic way. He looks to Rob for financial assistance, and Rob needs Alfred to execute his own financial interests (in oil). They weren’t always friends tho. Rob was initially better friends with states like Betsy / Tennessee. It wasn’t until after the US Civil War that they started to really become besties.

Rich/ Virginia is someone Alfred has never fully trusted. It’s the New Englander in him lol (+ the fact Rich was a traitor). But Rich could have easily been in Alfred’s role, given the fact Rich was well-respected and looked up to by his fellow states as a leader. Alfred does look to Rich to understand how to be a better politician. Rich has a natural charisma about him that Alfred lacks. And while Alfred isn’t necessarily Rich’s biggest fan, he does respect Rich’s experience and knowledge.

Illinois is a wip of character by my friend ekuos.art. I think out of the midwestern states, Illinois does gain the most respect at a national level- I don’t have specific right now, but this is an individual Alfred would rely on.

Jennie/ New York is actually one of the other main characters besides Alfred in my nor’easter lore lollll. The short version is, Alfred didn’t like Jennie at first especially cause Jennie isn’t English lol. But she proves her loyalty, resourcefulness, and her intelligence during the American Revolution, and also with the creation of the Erie Canal. She doesn’t really have an isolationist position like her peers, so for a number of years, I think he gives her the tasks regarding diplomatic and trade relationships with Europe— she later trains him on how to be a diplomat when he decides to take his role more seriously. Jennie is also a close family friend having been “married” (annulled) to Alfred’s older cousin Henry. Jennie is also someone who can tell Alfred the hard truth (albeit not in an overly harsh way like Henry) and he does genuinely appreciate her skill set, but also her loyalty and friendship (even tho she treats him as if he were an annoying younger brother) all these years.

Aurelie/ Louisiana belongs to my friend ekuos.art. Short version is Aurelie didn’t trust Alfred at all at first, and he wasn’t exactly the most accepting of her given she’s a francophone first. Alfred did have a bit of a crush on her cause she just has a magnetic personality and she’s pretty, but lol this is not reciprocated. They do develop as friends over the years, Aurelie is the queen of the Gulf! She’s a skilled trader, but also just a fun person to be around.

Carl/ South Carolina is someone I have not talked about much publicly, but I probably should soon. The short version is Carl wanted Alfred’s role, and they also have MANY disagreements and different values (esp. in regards to slavery)- all of this comes to a head with the Civil War. Carl was a traitor. While Carl has changed over the years, I don’t think the scars of the civil war have ever truly healed as many of the root issues we still see in our politics today…but that’s another story. Their relationship is best described as “keep your enemies close”.

Lynn/ Manhattan, NYC is another main character in my lore. She and Alfred don’t really know each other personally until post-Civil War. He mostly knew Lynn as Jennie’s friend. But he quickly comes to learn and respect Lynn, just for her natural charisma, her intelligence, and her ambitious and go-getter (rather ruthless girlboss if you will) attitude. And he comes to rely on her to take on diplomatic and trade roles. Also she’s fun to hang around.

And that’s where I’m gonna end it for now 😭 cause I could yap forever I really tried to condense everything as much as possible w/o leaving out vital context. I have more I can add on in regards to race, gender, differences in state cultures, & relations to indigenous nations, but I left that out for this response cause it’d take too far off topic and it’d be even more lengthy lol 😔🙏

[mariacallous]

In the waters of the South China Sea, Chinese coast guard vessels have clashed with Philippine ships. In the air above the Taiwan Strait, Chinese warplanes have challenged Taiwanese jet fighters. And in the valleys of the Himalayas, Chinese troops have fought Indian soldiers.

Across several frontiers, China has been using its armed forces to dispute territory not internationally recognized as part of China but nevertheless claimed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In August 2023, Beijing laid out its current territorial claims for the world to see. The new edition of the standard map of China includes lands that are today a part of India and Russia, along with island territories such as Taiwan and comprehensive stretches of the East and South China Seas that are also claimed by Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

China often invokes historical narratives to justify these claims. Beijing, for example, has said that the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, which it claims under the name of the Diaoyu Islands, “have been an inherent territory of China since ancient times.” Chinese officials have used the same words to back China’s right to parts of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The Chinese government also claims that its sovereignty over the South China Sea is based on its own historic maritime maps.

However, in certain periods since ancient times China has also held sway over other states in the region—Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Vietnam. Yet Beijing is currently not laying claim to any of these.

Instead, Beijing has embraced a selective irredentism, wielding specific chapters of China’s historical record when they suit existing aims and leaving former Chinese territories be when they don’t. Over time, as Beijing’s interests and power relations have shifted, some of these claims have faded from importance, while new ones have taken their place. Yet for Taiwan, Chinese claims remain unchanged, as the fate of the island state is tied to the very legitimacy of the CCP as well as the vitality of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s political vision.

Many of the CCP’s territorial claims have roots in the 19th and 20th centuries during the late rule of the Qing Dynasty. Following diplomatic pressure and repeated military defeats, the Qing Dynasty was forced to cede territory to several Western colonial powers, as well as the Russian and Japanese empires. These concessions are part of what are known in China as the “unequal treaties,” while the 100 years in which the treaties were signed and enforced are known as the “century of humiliation.” These territorial losses eventually passed from the dynasty to the Republic of China and then, following the Chinese Civil War, to the CCP. As a result, upon the CCP’s establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the new Chinese state inherited outstanding territorial disputes with most of its neighbors.

But despite the humiliation the Qing Dynasty’s losses had caused, the CCP proved willing to compromise and reduce its territorial aims during times of high internal unrest. Following the Tibetan uprising in 1959, for instance, the CCP negotiated territorial settlements with countries bordering the Tibet region, including Myanmar, Nepal, and India. Similarly, when unrest rocked the Uyghur region in the 1960s and ‘90s, Beijing pursued territorial compromises with several bordering countries such as Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. In the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward in the early 1960s and the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, the CCP also pursued territorial settlements with Mongolia, Laos, and Vietnam in the hopes of securing China’s borders during times of domestic instability. Instead of pursuing diversionary wars, the CCP relied on diplomacy to settle border and territory disputes.

But China has changed quite a lot since then. In recent years, the CCP has avoided the inflammatory domestic political chaos of previous decades, and its once-tentative hold over border regions, such as Tibet and the Uyghur region, has been replaced by an iron grip. With this upper hand, the CCP has little incentive to pursue peaceful resolutions to remaining territorial disputes.

“China’s national power has increased significantly, reducing the benefits of compromise and enabling China to drive a much harder bargain,” said M. Taylor Fravel, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In this context, the CCP has expanded its irredentist ambitions. After the discovery of potential oil reserves around the Senkaku Islands, and the United States’ return of the islands to Japan in the 1970s, Beijing drew on its historical record to lay claim to the islands, even though it had previously referred to them as part of the Japanese Ryukyu Islands. Similarly, though Beijing and Moscow settled a dispute over Heixiazi Island, located along China’s northeastern border, in 2004, the 2023 map of China depicted the entire island (ceded, along with vast Pacific territories, by the Qing Dynasty to the Russian Empire in 1860) as part of its domain, much to the ire of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Collin Koh Swee Lean, a senior fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, argues that the Chinese mapping of Heixiazi Island shows that Beijing holds on to certain core interests and simply waits for the opportune time to assert them.

“Given the current context of the war in Ukraine and Russia’s increased dependence on China, it might have appeared to Beijing that it has the chips in its pockets because, after all, Moscow needs Beijing more than the other way around,” Koh said on the German Marshall Fund’s China Global podcast.

This raises the question of whether territorial disputes that were settled during times of CCP weakness can be revisited and become subject to irredentist ambitions should power balances shift in China’s favor.

According to Steve Tsang, the director of the China Institute at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, there is currently a limit to how far the CCP will push territorial claims against Russia, since President Xi will need Russian support to sustain his grand ambitions for Chinese leadership on the global stage.

Although it would be a long shot, even Russia may not be safe from these ambitions indefinitely. Given that large swaths of Russia’s Pacific territories were part of China until 1860, “China could claim back the Russian Far East when it deems the time is right,” Tsang said. Such control would grant Beijing unrestricted access to the region’s abundance of coal, timber, tin, and gold while moving it geographically closer to its ambition of becoming an Arctic power.

While there is plenty of historical evidence pointing to former Chinese control over the southeastern portion of the Russian Far East, the historical record is less unequivocal about Chinese control over Taiwan. Anything resembling mainland Chinese control over Taiwan was not established until after 1684 by the Qing Dynasty, and even then central authority remained weak. In 1895, the Qing Dynasty ceded Taiwan to the Empire of Japan following the First Sino-Japanese War, and by the time Chinese authority was restored in 1945, Taiwan had undergone several decades of Japanization.

These details have not prevented the CCP from claiming that Taiwan has been an inalienable part of China since ancient times. Yet more than any other irredentist claim, Xi has made unification with Taiwan a major component of his vision to rejuvenate the Chinese nation.

Unification, however, has little to do with ancient history and more to do with the challenge that Taiwan presently poses to Xi’s aims, according to Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor who teaches about Chinese foreign policy at the National University of Singapore.

“The CCP pursues a Chinese nationalism that emphasizes unity and homogeneity centered around the CCP leadership while they also often claim that their single-party rule is acceptable to Chinese people,” Chong said.

In contrast, Taiwan holds free elections in which multiple political parties compete for the favor of a people that have increasingly developed an identity distinct from mainland China.

“The Taiwanese experience is a clear affront to the CCP narrative,” Chong said.

Control over Taiwan is also attractive to Beijing because it is key to unlocking the Chinese leadership’s broader ambition of maritime hegemony in waters where almost half of the world’s container fleet passed through in 2022.

As with the case of Taiwan, the CCP’s historical arguments regarding its claims on island groups and islets in the East and South China Seas are likewise much weaker than many of its land-based claims.

Instead, Chinese territorial intransigence in the maritime arena is more about a strategic shift in the value of the seas around China, Fravel said.

Today, it has been estimated that more than 21 percent of global trade passes through the South China Sea. And beneath these waters are not only subsea cables that carry sensitive internet data but also vast estimated reserves of oil and natural gas.

Although it may say otherwise, Beijing’s unwillingness to let up on its tenuous territorial maritime claims suggests that China is pursuing long-held ambitions and global aspirations rather than attempting to reverse past losses. So long as the CCP wields its historical record selectively and changeably to serve its aims—and is willing to back its claims up with military action—China’s neighbors will remain at risk.

[usafphantom2]

Ukraine Just Captured One Of Russia’s Most Capable Aerial Electronic Warfare Pods

Russia’s lost Khibiny-U electronic warfare pod that flies on its advanced Flanker fighters will be a prize for foreign intelligence agencies.

Joseph Trevithick Posted on Sep 12, 2022 7:27 PM EDT

A Russian Su-30SM fighter jet with at least one wingtip pod associated with the Khibiny-U electronic warfare suite, as well as a centerline electronic warfare pod. KNIRTI / via Twitter

Ukrainian forces have been capturing significant amounts of Russian materiel of various kinds as they keep pushing eastward and southward as part of their ongoing counteroffensives. These spoils of war now reportedly include a relatively intact example of an RTU 518-PSM self-protection jamming pod. This pod is associated with the latest version of the larger Khibiny-U electronic warfare suite used on the Su-30SM Flanker-H, and its capture holds potentially great intelligence value.

Pictures of the front end of the pod in question began circulating on social media earlier today. It was reportedly discovered among the wreckage of a Russian Su-30SM, with the serial number RF-81773 and bort number Red 62, that was shot down earlier in the conflict near the city of Izium (Izyum) in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. It would appear that Russian forces had made no serious attempt to locate what was left of the aircraft, and remove or destroy it to prevent their capture before the area was recently liberated.

As the Russian Army couldn't be bothered to remove the wreckage of Su-30SM 'RF-81773' that came down in a formerly Russian-controlled part of Kharkiv Oblast, Western intelligence agencies are now the proud owner of a slightly dented SAP-518SM 'Regata' jamming pod. pic.twitter.com/9BN5dPNQvi

— Oryx (@oryxspioenkop) September 12, 2022

As installed on Russia’s Su-30SMs, the RTU 518-PSM is part of a larger suite referred to as Khibiny-U. The entire “complex,” as it is referred to in Russian, consists of the SAP 518-SM, made of up one RTU 518-PSM pod on the right wingtip and an RTU 518-LSM1 on the left wingtip, as well as the internal KS REP system, according to a 2021 paper from the Kaluga Scientific-Research Institute for Radio Engineering. Better known by the Russian acronym KNIRTI, this is the manufacturer of all of the versions of the Khibiny family of electronic warfare complexes.

As already noted, the RTU 518-PSM is understood to contain an active jamming system, while the companion RTU 518-LSM1 is believed to be a passive receiver that detects threatening electromagnetic spectrum emissions, such as those from hostile radars. In its primary role as a self-protection system against enemy air defenses, the complete SAP 518-SM subsystem, also referred to as Regata, reportedly has the ability to spot and then jam and otherwise confuse an opponent’s radars – including seekers on incoming radar-guided missiles – in various ways. This may include the ability to generate false emissions to try to help mask the actual aircraft using Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) technology, which you can read more about here.

There are also indications that the SAP 518-SM subsystem is focused on protecting against mid-band threats, while the internal KS REP subsystem is optimized against high-band ones, giving the overall complex a broader range of capabilities. This is based on what is known about the function of slightly different pods as part of the older Khibiny-10M system for the Su-35S. Another earlier version of Khibiny, the Khibiny-10V, also includes distinct pods and is used on the Su-34.

The Su-30SM can carry an additional pod, known as the SAP-14, that can reportedly provide escort jamming capabilities for larger groups of aircraft, on the centerline. It’s not immediately clear if SAP-14 is a component of Khibiny-U or not, though it clearly can be used together with other elements of that system.

A Russian Su-30SM with at least one of the SAP 518-SM wingtip pods and what appears to be the SAP-134 centerline pod. KNIRTI

In addition, the U in Khibiny-U is believed to stand for unifitsirovannyi, or unified in Russian, suggesting it may reflect an effort to create a standardized version of the system that will work with multiple types of aircraft as an offshoot of developing an electronic warfare suite for the Su-30SM. The Russian Ministry of Defense first hired KNIRTI to develop the Su-30SM’s new electronic warfare complex in 2013, a year before the Khibiny-10V became the first version of that system to enter operational service on any platform.

Russian SU-30SMs were first seen with Khibiny-U in 2018. However, there is evidence that Russian Su-30SMs in Syria flew on at least some occasions as early as 2015 with the wingtip pods from the Su-34’s Khibiny-10V system.

The possibility of gleaning new details about what the jammer inside the RTU 518-PSM pod, as well as the rest of the Khibiny-U system, can and cannot do is exactly why its capture is significant. Elements of all three known versions of Khibiny have almost certainly been recovered in the country of the fighting already, including from the remains of an Su-35S that came down in the vicinity of Izium back in April before Russian forces initially captured the area. However, this newly captured example of the RTU 518-PSM pod appears to be in especially good condition.

The potential intelligence haul could be even greater depending on the condition of other components of the electronic warfare suite on the crashed jet, as well. If it is indeed from the wreckage of Su-30SM Red 62, that aircraft could also have been fitted with the L150 Pastel radar homing and warning system (RHAWS), which is used for self-defense and for helping with the targeting of Kh-31P anti-radiation missiles, as well as UV-30MKR chaff/flare dispensers.

There’s potentially more for Ukrainian intelligence personnel, and almost certainly their foreign partners, such as those in the United States, to pick over here than just the hardware, too. Any surviving data storage systems with any software used to run portions of the Khibiny-U could actually be more valuable, especially given the reported DRFM signal mimicking functionality.

The actual subcomponents, including computer chips and other electronics, used in the RTU 518-PSM and any other elements of the associated electronic warfare complex could provide valuable industrial intelligence, too. As The War Zone, among others, has reported in the past, the conflict in Ukraine has exposed just how reliant Russia’s defense industry is on foreign-sourced parts.

The apparent decision on the part of the Russian military to make no efforts to do anything about the remains of this aircraft, possibly due to the belief that their positions in this part of Ukraine were relatively secure, can only add insult to injury.

The war in Ukraine has already been a massive boon for foreign intelligence services, especially when it comes to Russia’s most advanced electronic warfare and air defense capabilities. Many captured systems may well have already been sent outside the country for further analysis and evalution. Even before the current conflict, Ukraine had been an important source of Soviet-designed hardware, including fighter jets and large radars, for the U.S. military’s so-called foreign materiel exploitation (FME) enterprise.

Whatever the case, an important component of an entire family of Russian aircraft electronic warfare suites, one of the most modern such systems that the country has and it uses on a number of its front-line combat jets, now looks to be firmly in the hands of its opponents.

Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com

[satellitebroadcast]

The US military has transferred large amounts of weapons and military equipment, including defense systems, to its illegal bases in Syria over the past month in an attempt to prevent the recurrence of resistance attacks against its bases and soldiers, Al-Akhbar reported on 7 September.

Local sources speaking with the Lebanese newspaper revealed that "in the last month, the Americans brought 22 batches of weapons and equipment to the bases in Hasaka and Deir Ezzor, including 19 batches that arrived by air to the Kharab al-Jir, Al-Shaddadi, Conoco, and Al-Omar bases, and three batches that arrived by land via the illegal Al-Walid crossing with Iraq."

The sources added that "most of the weapons transported are surveillance and monitoring systems, in addition to equipment designated to confront close air targets such as drones and medium and short-range missiles." [...] "the American bases used laser systems for the first time in missions to monitor, observe, and target drones and missiles.

In addition, the US has carried out additional military exercises. The sources stated that "the [US] coalition carried out more than 15 live training exercises on the use of these weapons and selecting their readiness, most of which were at the Omar field bases and the Conoco gas plant."

The sources believed that "these unprecedented movements in Syria, at least in terms of density, reveal American intentions to strengthen Washington's military presence in Syria," adding that "there is a great focus on the need to curb the resistance factions in Syria and Iraq, and neutralize their weapons."

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) coalition, made up of Iraqi resistance factions who banded together in October last year, began attacking US bases in Iraq and Syria following the start of the war in Gaza. US efforts to reinforce its forces illegally occupying Syria follow attacks carried out by five Iraqi resistance factions against US bases in Syria during the month of August.

On 10 August, a drone attack on the Kharab al-Jir base in northeastern Syria injured several US and coalition personnel. In late August, resistance factions targeted a US patrol consisting of six vehicles with direct gunfire on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in the Deir Ezzor countryside. The Syrian army controls territory in the same area on the western bank of the river.

Despite the attacks, US Assistant Deputy Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and the official in charge of the Syrian file at the US State Department, Ethan Goldrich, said on 5 September that "US forces will not withdraw from Syria." When asked whether there was a timetable for the withdrawal of these forces, he said: "Currently, our focus is on the goal, which is to prevent ISIS from reappearing."

US forces in Syria rely on support from US forces in neighboring Iraq for support and resupply. The US has used the presence of ISIS in eastern Syria and western Iraq as a pretext to maintain troops in both countries despite having covertly supported the terror group in its blitzkrieg conquest of territory in 2014.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani has stated multiple times this year that ISIS is no longer a threat to Iraq and has been leading negotiations with Washington for the withdrawal of the US troop presence in Iraq.

However, Washington has been reinforcing its presence in Iraq, including in oil-rich Kirkuk, and recently suspended negotiations with Baghdad over the US troop withdrawal, amid the ongoing possibility of a regional war between the US and Israel on the one hand, and Iran and the Axis of Resistance, on the other.

[pureamericanism]

Compared to ecologically and topographically similar regions of Europe or east Asia, the northeastern United States is unusually heavily forested. One might think "well, yeah, the U.S. hasn't been settled by agriculturalists for as long and is less densely populated, obviously there's going to be less percent land cleared for farms," but this is not so! Everywhere in the northeast, our forests rise from what were once old fields. In 1860, for instance, Maine was only 60% forested by land area. Today, that proportion is closer to 90%.

We owe our current landscape to two great waves (and several smaller ones) of farm abandonment. The first happened in the decades after the Civil War, when for various reasons* northeasterners (mostly from New England) packed up their pitchforks and decamped to the midwest. This had been going on before the war too, of course, but up until then it had not been in numbers enough that the northeastern farms stopped being worked. There was always a son or two left to till up more stones from the Vermont field. But that changed after the war, and the fields started to revert to oak and maple and pine. Indeed, much of the early formal scientific study of American forestry and ecology happened in these old Yankee fields and young Yankee forests, by outdoorsy young men from Harvard with names like a Lovecraft protagonist.

The second great wave was in the Great Depression and World War 2, when for various reasons** people from all the rougher sorts of terrain the east has to offer - from West Virginia to Indiana's Brown County to the Ozarks and back to the Catskills - left their farms to come down and seek work in the then-thriving industrial cities. Much of the hilly landscape of the east that had previously been dotted with small subsistence farms, full of exactly the barefoot gap-toothed hillbillies who captured the imagination of urban popular culture with their exotic poverty and folkways when they suddenly appeared in Cleveland, or wherever, in 1933.

These pulses of farm abandonment have left very specific patterns written in the ecologies of the northeast. For instance, the fact that the poor ridgetop farms that were once extremely common in Southern Ohio and Indiana were nearly all abandoned in the 1930s and '40s means that the forests that now grow there are uniformly approaching their first century (excepting, of course, where there's been logging in the meantime.) This is almost exactly long enough for the process of ecological succession to complete itself, and the forests to move into their mature phase.

And so you read books written in the '50s, '60s, or '70s about these areas, and you notice how common early successional species are, everywhere chokecherry and black birch. Whereas today the only evidence you may see of the forest's relative youthfulness is a few very large bigtooth aspens nearing the end of their lives, surrounded by tulip poplars and chestnut oaks that will endure for many years after all the aspens are dead.

*Young men returning from war with a restlessness and a desire to leave home again; those same young men posted far from home during the war and realizing just how awful the New England soil is, lmao; Republican government policy writtrn explicitly to favor small homesteaders heading west; the late 19thc. crash in agricultural prices (as, in a few short decades, the Great Plains, the Australian wheat belt, parts of the Kazakh and Siberian steppes, the plains of South Africa, and the Argentine pampas were all put under the plow for the first time, and during an era of global free trade) making many small farms entirely unsustainable.

**Years of erosion on fields carelessly laid out on steep terrain; the Great Depression making running a small farm, ah, difficult; economic modernisation making staying as a subsistence farmer a damn foolish thing to do; new roads and automobiles making fleeing to the city easier than ever; and the TVA and other federal land grabs displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

[racefortheironthrone]

How would the food supply chain work for city states in in places like Ancient Greece and more recently, the Italian City States? Would they control agricultural land, or would they have to buy food from nearby (or perhaps not so nearby) agricultural regions? What measures would they take in times of war to avoid having their food supply cut off?

Great question!

To answer "How would the food supply chain work for city states," I would answer by answering your other question "Would they control agricultural land, or would they have to buy food from nearby (or perhaps not so nearby) agricultural regions?" by saying: it's both.

Paradigmatically, a city-state consists of a metropole (the city in question) and the periphery (subordinated lands and territories under the city's control). (Or metropolis and hinterland, if you prefer). To further break this down, the periphery consists of a mix of different lands, including both overseas colonies and tributaries, conquered (and thus lesser and weaker) city-states and their peripheries, and the agricultural hinterland around the metropole. To take just this last category, we can think of the relationship between Athens and Attica, Rome and Latium, Venice and the Mestre and Veneto (everyone always focuses on Venice's overseas empire, but it's rarely remembered that Venice at its height basically controlled all of northeastern Italy and fought Milan for northcentral and parts of northwestern Italy), or Florence and (eventually all of) Tuscany.

How far that agricultural hinterland extended beyond the city's walls depended a lot on transportation technology. Brett Devereaux has very good (but lengthy) explanations of the difficulties of overland grain trade here and here, but the TLDR is that, as a rough rule of thumb, "the price of grain doubles every hundred miles it is moved overland." Those kind of price increases aren't really affordable, so I think if you're looking for a rough rule of thumb, a hundred miles is probably a good maximum radius for an agricultural hinterland, whereas the minimum radius is probably around 7-12 miles (based on medieval urban regulations for agricultural markets), which was roughly how far a cart could travel in a day.

However, certain factors can change the effective radius of the hinterland:

The more and better roads you have, carts can move faster and come from more directions/places, which effectively expands that cart/day radius.

If the city is on a river (and this is one of the main reasons why most historic cities were on rivers, if they weren't on coasts), you can use river-barges to transport grain. Sail-barges could travel 14 miles an hour in good winds, and tow- or pole-barges could do 10-40 miles a day (depending on whether they were going upriver or downriver). Moreover, because of buoyancy, barges can carry much heavier loads than carts, which makes them much more eficient in transporting bulk goods like grain.

Finally, the population density and degree of urbanization matters, because it raises the possibility of making partial trips, because smaller population centers will act as local metropoles and more efficiently bring in grain from rural areas allowing for more efficient routes; also, higher density and urbanization allows for the creation of a network of granaries that allow you to store grain along the way so that you can make partial trips rather than covering the whole distance from the city to the very edge of the periphery.

However, the hinterland usually wasn't enough on its own to supply the city-state, but the same advantages of wind-speed and buoyancy also meant that a long-distance overseas grain trade was absolutely viable in both the Ancient and Medieval worlds. So for example, Greek city-states would draw on grain from southern France, southern Italy and Sicily, the Black Sea, and Anatolia; much of Rome's grain supply came from North Africa and Egypt; and so on. Moreover, as Fernand Braudel points out, the interconnected grain trade of the Mediterranean was the indispensable foundation for southern European urbanism from the Middle Ages through to the Early Modern period, and the geospatial dynamics of that system did not really change that much until the invention of the steam engine.

To answer your final question - "What measures would they take in times of war to avoid having their food supply cut off?" - it was usually by a mix of metropolis/hinterland logistics and long-distance trade. A well-organized city-state would have granaries set up both in the city and in the more urbanized areas of the periphery and would have contingency plans to harvest and transport as much grain as possible to the city to use as reserves in a time of crisis. (You'll note that this leaves the periphery in a really bad situation in times of crisis, and this prioritization of the metropole over the periphery is one of the main reasons why it sucked to be in the periphery, which is why there was so much competition over who got to be the metropole and why there were so many rebellions on the peirphery.)

At the same time, if the city-state had naval supremacy over its enemies, it could pretty much indefinitely hold out against its enemies as long as it could maintain a lifeline to the sea. This is why Athens was able to hold out against Sparta for so long during the Pelopennesian War, why Constantinople won so many of its sieges, and why Venice was able to take on most of Europe and still come out on top most of the time.

[thatemperor]

Cover of my novel, Quicksilver, released today from Fenris Publishing!

PICK UP YOUR COPY HERE!

Synopsis: Following a catastrophic global war, humanity has been reduced to a handful of densely populated cities dispersed among vast swaths of arid wasteland. Great Hill City, a towering metropolis of silver skyscrapers and technological prowess, crouches upon the rocky Northeastern coast of what was once the United States, dazzling in its bustling modernity and safety amidst a ravaged world. That is, of course, only if one obeys Great Hill's draconian laws. The price of safety in Great Hill's metallic arms comes at the lofty cost of one's own mental and physical freedom. Tammy Anker, a human-feline hybrid, works as a Freerunner – a member of a secret society that shepherds hybrids and their sympathizers out of Great Hill and off to kinder cities and towards kinder futures. However, Tammy's heart grows weary of the danger, stress, and fear associated with years of Freerunning, and now she plans to leave the job behind forever. That is, until she meets Jet, a jackal hybrid with fragmented memories and no home to call his own. Spurred by compassion, Tammy takes him in as her final Freerunning gig. With his easy-going personality and willingness to cooperate, she assumes getting him out of Great Hill will be the easiest job she's ever had. However, strange tidings seem to follow Jet everywhere he goes, and together they find themselves tangled up in a plot more terrifying than anything either of them could have ever imagined.

Art by Maritime Mutt

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Greg Lukianoff

Published: Nov 2, 2024

Anyone who confuses speech with violence has likely never been punched in the face. I have been many times, and I have to tell you: It hurts in a way no insult ever could.

Unfortunately, not everyone understands this. In a disturbing new poll, my organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, has found that 80% of Americans agreed at least slightly that "words can be violence." 

But it’s even worse than that. Nearly half of Americans say the phrase "words can be violence" either "mostly" or "completely" describes their thoughts.

I know intimately why this is not just wrong, but a real threat to our democracy.

The scariest moment of my life happened in my sophomore year of high school. I remember the exact date: March 14, 1991. I walked out of school to see one of my friends covered in blood. 

He had picked a fight with a kid and had been badly beating him. Turns out the kid had been bullied a few too many times. He snapped, stabbing my friend close to his sternum. I was pretty sure my friend was going to die – and if the knife had gone in at a slightly different angle, he would have.

This was not a battle of words, and that almost cost my friend his very life.

Whether or not we have personally experienced violence, we are all uncomfortably close to the unparalleled bloodshed of the 20th century – the trenches of World War I, the bombings of World War II, the Holocaust, the Great Leap Forward, and so much more.

Violence is real, and it is horrible. 

That’s why it is an insult to anyone who has ever suffered from it to argue that words can even compare. I’m not saying words aren’t potent and powerful. I wouldn’t do the work I do defending freedom of speech if I thought that. Words have the power to change the world.

And I’m also not saying physical pain is all that matters. I’ve been very open about my own struggles with depression and suicidal ideation. But words don’t draw blood or break bones, and that difference is critically important.

FIRE has been tracking this "words are violence" phenomenon on campus for years.

We saw the argument made full-throatedly in the wake of the violent response to conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in 2017, when a student paper at UC Berkeley – the school where the free speech movement was born – published article after article arguing that Milo’s hate speech demanded violent retaliation. 

That same year, Northeastern University psychology professor and author Lisa Feldman Barrett penned an op-ed in The New York Times arguing that because words and violence can both cause a stress response, there’s no clear distinction between the two.

In 2021, an editorial in Case Western Reserve University Observer reasoned that protesting outside an abortion clinic is "inherently violent." In 2022, Cornell students disrupting an Ann Coulter event shouted, among other things, "Your words are violence." Just last year, the pride office at the University of Colorado Boulder warned that misgendering could be "considered an act of violence."

But if you’re among the 8 in 10 Americans who agree that words can be violence, I ask you to consider this: Words remain the best alternative to violence ever invented. 

In July, a would-be assassin’s bullet came within a fraction of an inch of killing one of our two major presidential candidates. It tragically ended the life of a firefighter and father – and shortly after, the shooter was killed as well. All this happened before the eyes of supporters and even children.

That alone should remind us that speech – even horrible, hurtful and hateful speech – is not violence. Violence is a very different thing. And when that violence turns political, all bets are off. 

One of the core differences between a liberal democracy and authoritarian states is that we don’t settle our differences with violence. We do so democratically with words. We must preserve this at all costs. 

Tensions are high in the nation right now, which is why it’s even more important to remember the difference between words and actions. People get understandably heated in the final days of an election, but confusing words for weapons ensures violence. This is a recipe for disaster, particularly when six in 10 Americans fear post-Election Day violence. 

We must remember in these tribal times that the bright line between action and speech is one of the best things humankind has ever devised. As an unknown thinker adored by Freud once said, "Civilization began the minute someone hurled an insult rather than a stone." 

If most Americans forget this distinction, it’s going to hurt way more than we expect. 

Greg Lukianoff is president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and the co-author, along with Rikki Schlott, of the new book, "The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All—But There Is a Solution."

==

Words are words. Violence is violence.

The people who tell you "words are violence" are telling you that if you say something they don't like, they're going to claim the right to physically attack you.

“My own view is that words are words and bullets are bullets, and that it is important to keep this straight. For you do not have to be Kant to see what comes after ‘offensive words are bullets’: if you hurt me with words, I reply with bullets, and the exchange is even.” – Jonathan Rauch, “Kindly Inquisitors”

[bestworstcase]

In tdt, do the faunus have their own language?

gestures vaguely

Five or six little kids, jabbering in a language Oak doesn’t think is Valean, bustle importantly around a heap of dirty, dissolving snow plowed off the intersection of the main road with a narrow cross street. […] Lanthorn’s east bank is quieter. Small cabins and nondescript wooden buildings fan out from the river, arrayed like spokes around the hub of an old stone hall. Carved into the lintel, weathered to bare whispers, are words in neither Vytali nor Valean.

being as i’m not bound to the limits of what is practical for an animated web show, most everyone is speaking a common trade language (vytali) but within vale alone there are about six different widely-spoken languages with varying levels of mutual intelligibility other than the official national language (valean).

atlas is the only state where this is largely not true (pre-war mantle having been an ethnostate founded by one specific group of people displaced from northeast sanus into an uninhabited frozen tundra; most everyone who lives in atlas/mantle speaks the state language—tumakian, a heavily mistrali-influenced dialect of alenboic, which is still widely spoken in northeastern vale—as a first language, and both vytali common and mistrali in school. there are some neighborhoods in mantle where that are exceptions but overall atlas is much more homogenous language-wise than the rest of the world)

so there isn’t a Fauni Language per se, although there are languages predominantly spoken by fauni (e.g. in vale a huge majority of rinnian-speakers are fauni + there’s been a push in atlas lately to get rinnian taught as an elective language in schools, because a lot of fauni living in mantle today are descended from enslaved fauni brought to tumakian from northeastern sanus, before tumakian was abandoned and vale annexed that region and disrupted the slave trade, and the language those fauni spoke was viciously suppressed in both tumak and mantle but has seen a popular revival in fauni communities since the great war.)

qilin (<- this is the fauni ethnostate founded on menagerie because while i was changing up the history of how that state came to be i decided i might as well not do the australia thing) was named after the khimeric liturgical language, which is one of the oldest living languages in the world.

i just think that if anything the fact that grimm are the dominant lifeforms and make inter-civilization commerce and travel so much more difficult ought to mean that language is very fragmented. a bunch of slightly mutually-intelligible tongues clustered in a large region is a sign of massive success for any given civilization because it means you’ve made it safe for people to travel around there.

[dawn-of-worlds]

Sparks of Genius

(T8, second age: Zoreinak has 4 + 3 + 2d6->5 = 12 points)

Zoreinak ought to be joyful, not? Mortals had willed and warred. Aims had been declared, sacrifices made, a final victory achieved. In the end, the side of war unending had lost.

To reach down now and wipe out the resistance would be impermissible. To save the conquerors' lives, likewise. The Curse was a resolution - the world choosing peace at great cost - and it would have to be respected.

And yet... a world of Man and only Man? That sort of uniformity was unacceptable as well. And so Zoreinak acts, this time not to spark war, but to make the world more interesting.

A storm of unprecedented size takes form above the inner sea, then slowly drifts inland. Heedless of the Cradle's mountains, it floats over the Tolinakka heartland. Strong winds destroy countless homes: groves are struck by lightning and burnt to ash. Then, after days of this devastation, as the curse takes hold of the Cradle, lightning strikes hundreds of Tolinakka within a single moment.

They don't survive. But as they die, something else is born.

The Vottaina are sapient ball lightning trapped in shells of long-dead chitin. Their control over their forms is rudimentary: enough to fly and produce a screeching sort of speech: not enough to precisely control their body or exert significant force. They are as intelligent as the Tolinakka were, and similar in personality, but think at a much faster pace and thus appear geniuses to some.

Much of their time is spent dwelling in the upper atmosphere, though in time many will take an interest in mortal matters and become anything from diplomats to scheming advisors. They seemingly have no need for air, food, or drink, and it is unclear whether they reproduce, though a Vottaina might change so much within mere years as to be considered a wholly different person.

A single place is seemingly sacred to them: the encircled lake on the northeastern continent, where conditions conspire to create frequent lightning storms. There thus lies the Vottalanak, the Home of Sparks.

(Create subrace 12-4 = 8)

Meanwhile, the Quiet City, devastated by war as it might be, greatly advances its study of curses. The study of doomed Tolinakka, and analysis of Ainko's desperate gift, results in an advanced theoretical understanding of curses and blasphemies. Some are turned towards productive ends: a school of medicine figures ways of selectively cursing parasites and germs. But others might just as easily be turned towards more martial ends, should the need arise...

(Advance city 8 - 4 = 4)