#Historical post

[autumnmobile12]

For the sake of curiosity, I’m going to talk about witch trials and how they relate to the events in Castlevania.

The time period is accurate.  The earliest documented case of witch trials in Europe is believed to be the Valais Witch Trials, taking place between 1428 and 1447.  What makes Lisa’s situation worse (and the Bishop more evil and insane) was amount of time that passed from when she was first arrested to her burning in Târgoviște.

We see in the premiere of Season 2 that the Bishop’s cronies burned her house to the ground, but in the very first episode, Dracula finds the fire extinguished but still smoldering.  So Lisa can’t have been gone more than a day.  And also note that it was raining that night.

Witchcraft was a serious accusation, and in most cases, the accused were assumed guilty and no one dared to prove them innocent for fear of being accused of witchcraft themselves.  However, in most cases, the authorities needed a confession from the alleged witch and would resort to any methods to obtain one.  Given a proper time frame and ‘investigation,’ Lisa likely would have been tortured within an inch of her life, given time to recover, and then the process would have repeated until she admitted ‘guilt’ if only to make the pain end.  However, since she was apparently burned less than twenty-four hours after her arrest, none of this could have taken place.  Besides, given her character’s personality, she definitely would have held out as long as she could until her husband or son rescued her.

Conclusion:  The Bishop in his ecclesiastical fanaticism had reached a point of political power and religious corruption that he was able to bypass ‘the process’ and commit an act of vigilantism with impunity.  This bastard had friends in high places, which is all the more terrifying and impressive in the most twisted way when you take into account the religious context of Catholicism not being the dominant religion in Wallachia.  In fact, Catholicism and the Pope were largely treated with suspicion.

Note for clarity:  Wallachia was greatly influenced by the dying Byzantine Empire (Eastern Orthodox Christians,) and when Constantinople was on the verge of being invaded by the Ottomans, a man by the name of Lukas Notaras famously declared, “I would rather see a Turkish turban in the midst of the City than the Latin mitre.”  So yeah, the Wallachians were not fans.

[autumnmobile12]

This is an interesting and really vague line, and it’s unfortunate Zamfir’s arc is probably the most rushed subplot in the series.  (I mean, I didn’t really care for what Sumi and Taka had going on, but at least they got a brief flashback explaining their motives.)

So let’s dive into the historical context here:

Since it’s founding in 1310, Wallachia was ruled by the House of Basarab, a family that some historians believe may have migrated from Asia.  Wallachia’s first ruler on record was Basarab the Great.

After the death of Mircea the Old in 1418, a direct descendant of Basarab the Great, the ruling family split into two factions:  Mircea’s descendants through his sons known as the Drăculești and the descendants of his brother, Dan I, known as the Dănești.  This split would become the defining feature of Wallachian politics for this time period.  During the last years of Mircea’s reign, he named his only legitimate son Mihail as co-ruler to ease the transition of power after his death.  Within three years of ruling on his own though, Mihail was overpowered by the Ottoman Empire and the boyar lords under him defected to his cousin Dan II and Wallachia broke into a civil war.  Mihail was killed in the spring of 1420, after which several of his illegitimate half-brothers took up the Drăculești line’s bid for power, fighting the each other as much as Dănești faction.  It’s like Game of Thrones but even more chaos and the bastards are 100% valid players in the eyes of the law and society.

Castlevania takes place in 1476, so in between this year and the year of Mihail I’s death, rule of Wallachia (the Voivodate) would change hands 24 times and see a total of 10 separate rulers, only one of whom would die of natural causes.  (In comparison, England’s throne saw three different occupants in the same amount of time.  Although, one of those three was a usurper and one died under mysterious circumstances of the ‘probably murder’ variety.) So Sypha coming out and guessing that Zamfir is the last of the nobles is thought-provoking in that the royal court was already a hostile place even without Dracula bearing down on the capital.

Zamfir’s psychosis may have deeper roots than what happened when Dracula attacked, and I really want to explore that further.  ‘Last person of noble birth’ can have a few meanings.  The Wallachian nobility were the boyar lords, whose power and influence was dependent on wealth and/or land.  At court, there was the princely council who advised (or schemed against) the ruling prince, and there were also a few court positions that weren’t part of the council.  More to the point, Wallachia’s society behaved the same way as most European nations did at the time: ‘You have no power for you are but a woman.’

As for the mummified corpses in the Underground Court, in the interest of loose historical accuracy, the dead prince could only be Vlad III Dracula of House Drăculești.  In November of 1476, Vlad III usurped the throne from Basarab III, who had held it since 1474 after killing his predecessor Radu III (Vlad III’s younger brother, actually.)  In December of that year, Basarab III returned to Wallachia and took back the throne, killing Vlad III in the process.  Basarab III would live another four years.  In addition, the capital of Wallachia was moved from Târgovişte to Bucharest this same year.  So intentional or not on the creators’ part, the show roughly matches up with the historical timeline.  There’s also the fact that it’s not entirely clear exactly how Vlad III died and there is some speculation by historians that Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the historical Dracula only share the same name and the latter was not the actual inspiration for the former.

It’s a bit of a stretch to say Vlad III Dracula and the vampire Vlad Dracula Ţepeş were intended to be two separate people in the series, so I won’t go out there and make that claim.  The mummified royals are probably just nameless artifacts for the plot and we are definitely in speculation, headcanon, string and thumbtacks territory now.

Still, the ‘last person of noble birth’ line does have me wondering what Zamfir’s connection to the court is aside from ‘leader of the Târgovişte resistance.’  Daughter of a courtier, daughter of a council lord, or daughter of the ruling prince himself?

[tariah23]

White people are miserable, racist losers period. They’ve even been getting mad at Japanese people for correcting them about Yasuke as well.

[shotgunyuris]

“Good luck. And DON’T fuck it up.”

[ssleeping-in-a-coffin]

I just learned this fact and I can't help but share it with you!!!

In 13th-century European castles, separate fortresses were rarely built. Instead, one of the towers was significantly larger than the others and served as sleeping quarters for the lord or the king and his family.

Medieval life was full of changes and conflicts. Periods of peace were often interrupted by wars and sieges. To protect the ruler and his family, spiral staircases were built in the towers, winding clockwise. This design made it harder for attackers, as defenders could strike while using the wall as a shield, whereas attackers, especially right-handed ones, faced difficulties.

Additionally, the steps were uneven in height and length, making it easier for defenders, familiar with the layout, to move quickly. Attackers, in heavy armor and unfamiliar with the stairs, risked losing balance. This design significantly complicated sieges, particularly when climbing upward, giving defenders an advantage.

Thus, clockwise spiral staircases were not only convenient but also a crucial part of defensive strategy.

[thethirdromana]

Broke: vampires are vulnerable to the trappings of Christianity only, particularly Catholicism, no matter how dubiously applied. (See: Van Helsing's Communion wafer grouting).

Woke: vampires are vulnerable to sincere faith of all kinds, and atheist vampire-hunters need to believe very strongly in the Power of Friendship or their love of Star Trek to get by.

Bespoke: vampires are vulnerable to the faith that they followed when they were alive, and hunters tracking down an ancient vampire are obliged to learn about Neo-Babylonian theology or Middle Palaeolithic bear cults.

[toxxtt]

playing around with some historical french fashions on furina (+ neuvi).. I think she should always get big silly hats

18th+19th century mens fashion is one of my fav fav fav things is ever so this was fun 🫡 love being fashion history neurodivergent

[autumnmobile12]

In 1462, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed the Conqueror, decided to try his luck expanding his lands into Europe, invading through Wallachia.  In the past, many of Vlad III Dracula’s predecessors would have either stood aside and let the Ottoman forces pass through their land unhindered, or they might have committed Wallachian soldiers to the invasion force out of self-preservation.  Dracula instead chose to resist and, in the face of the Ottoman’s significantly larger and better trained army, he conscripted every able-bodied citizen he could.  This included men, women, and children aged twelve and older.  Making use of terrain they knew better than their enemies, the Wallachians resorted to guerrilla war tactics, scorched earth, and even early germ warfare.  When Wallachian soldiers became ill, they were often sent into enemy camps in an attempt to spread the disease and weaken the Ottoman forces.

In the brief glimpse we have of Isaac’s past, we see his tormentor wears a white tunic with a red cross, the Cross of St. George, which is famously associated with Europe’s Crusades against Islam.  As if his life wasn’t miserable enough, Isaac was likely born in a frontline Ottoman province and was captured/enslaved, and possibly orphaned, by Christian soldiers.  Yikes.

The ruler of Wallachia was known as a voivode, which we often translate as ‘prince,’ but a more accurate meaning is military governor or warlord.  Serving under him was a council of boyar lords and advisors known as the princely council, or sfatful domnesc.  These officials, the dregători, managed everything from court logistics to military endeavors to lawmaking.  Whether or not the Judge was a direct member of the council or an assistant to one of the members is up for interpretation.  As for his reference to ‘doing just well enough that he was sent back to Lindenfeld,’ the Judge maybe, on account of the voivode and other claimants to Wallachia’s throne consistently overthrowing/murdering the shit out of each other, found himself on the wrong end of a regime change and found it prudent to skip town while the going was good.  Or, you know, before somebody important found out about his ‘little pleasures.’

Straying into headcanon territory with this one, but a lot of it is backed up by historically accurate presentations of how a medieval household was generally managed.  Firstly, a medieval household was huge, and an estate of this size would have been maintained by a large staff, including but not limited to:  the steward, a stable master, one or more groundskeepers, a cook, laundresses, personal attendants of family members, page boys running messages all over the estate, and one or more nursemaids watching over the infants and younger children.  This is broad speculation, but I will point out that in England around the same time, it was common for high-ranking nobles to employ an average of 240 to 500 people.

In a Wallachian household, the education of a boyar’s son would have been handled largely by the women of the house, as well as the occasional tutor for more specified subjects.  This would have included etiquette, penmanship, arithmetic, politics, history, etc.  So Trevor’s domestic education likely would have been overseen by his mother, aunts, and possibly his grandmother.  Combat training would have been supervised by his father and uncles.

In short, I like to imagine some of the people from Dănești were survivors from his family’s estate and knew him as a child.

[too-much-alphabet-soup]

The fanfics that changed my life were on ff.net

My life

full offense but none of you would have ever survived fanfiction.net in 2009

[rowzien]

The Trans Court Suit

This was my big project I made over the summer! I am beyond proud of and happy with the coat.

The first initial project I wanted for this was a pink waistcoat. I grew up liking pink and most of my stuff was, but that (along with growing up in a hot pink room) made me start to resent pink a lot especially as a teenager. (I think a lot of trans guys have similar stories.) But of course pink was very popular for men throughout a lot of European fashion history. So in many ways this was a self healing project for me, at least in that regard. Which I think was a success!

I actually found the first two portraits after I started working on the outfit, they looked perfect! The first especially is super close to my hair.

The silks for the coat as well as the linen interfacings were second hand or scraps in my stash. The cotton sateen was from Burnley and Trowbridge. This is the first project I fully drafted myself. The waistcoat and breeches were made from an 1820s manual and the coat was primarily taken from Period Patterns by Doris Edison, using also Agreeable Tyrant for interfacings and The Taylor's Complete Guide (for shape reference).

This is also the most hand sewing I’ve done for an outfit. Both of the fronts of the coat and waistcoat are completely by hand. Most of the coat is by hand with machine for structural/backstitches, mostly the seams but not the edges. In total there are 22 buttons.

I made the waistcoat straight across for two reasons A. So I can wear it with my other stuff B. I didn’t have any more trim, that was it. I’ll probably make a more 18th century style waistcoat out of white for this (at some point).

The breeches ended up being too small for my thighs so I started getting frustrated with the fit and rushed them by the end so I could move on. (I accidentally sewed the buttonholes on the wrong side).

[bittsandpieces]

forgot to post this one the other day

[bands-of-joy]

the manwhore au by @anniflamma has a chokehold on me just bc it’s so funny

this should be the next saga in the au after thunder saga bc eurycholus needs it desperately

[theriu]

IS THIS THE ORIGINAL BREDLIK POEM?!

[yourdailyqueer]

Lucy Salani (deceased)

Gender: Transgender woman

Sexuality: N/A

DOB: 12 August 1924  

RIP: 22 March 2023

Ethnicity: White - Italian

Occupation: Veteran, activist, entertainer

Note: Only known Italian transgender person to have survived the Nazi concentration camps.

[anglerflsh]

"people didn't get canceled before these sjw" Dante put all the people he disliked in literal hell

[magicomens]

Ah yes. Anthony Justdontgetstabbed Crowley.

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