#Lionize

[driftward]

Title: FFXIV Write 2023 - Free Day 4 - 24. Lionize Characters: Aemilia sas Valentina, Katerina van Tullia, Nyx Blackmoon Rating: Teen Summary: On the right side of history, just at the wrong time Notes: Incomplete.

Her career started quietly.

A full blooded Garlean citizen of no note, joined the military to make a difference. Grew up under the shadow of Emperor Solus and his Magitek miracles. A few sorties, some success, canny intelligence, honorable but vicious.

No especial note was made of her. Another ambitious officer.

She climbed the ranks, if not easily, at least steadily. She learned from her errors and corrected her mistakes. She was a reliable part of the Garlean war machine, moving with her legion into new territories, conquering in the name of the Empire, forwarding the cause of Garlean hegemony.

Notes began to be made and compiled. It was important to know who she was, where her loyalties lie, guess at what she would become.

She gained a reputation as Garlemald gained its empire, and soon she was not a part of her legion, she was her legion, and then her legion was hers by right and in name, its Legatus, and she rode forward to victory, iron will riding her steel pride.

Now of course she was known, and the instruments of the Empire were at her disposal. The Iron Lion had become.

Conquering done, she switched to rule, and in this, the steel hammer was replaced with the velvet glove. While the rule of the day was to command with an iron fist, the Iron Line did no such thing. She was merciful in her leadership, showing an uncommon compassion to her subjects and subjugated. Work programs were put forth that paid fair wages and provided paths to, if not citizenship, at least comfortable and safe homes. Conscripts were treated well, and their tours were kept short. She did not turn on her populace with secret police and harsh adjudicators, instead allowing them largely to manage themselves, only the most egregious of offenses drawing the ire of Imperial ruthlessness. Many Legatuses on her position expanded, but the Iron Lion instead consolidated, and slowly, her province went from a war torn land to a rich source of food and material with which to feed the empire.

The Iron Lion no longer roared, and as she handed off her fiefdom to another Legatus - one hand picked by her to continue her efforts - she changed her aims, from military to political. With a groundswell of popular support and the loyalty of those who had known her, the Iron Lion sued for a spot in the Senate, and won.

The Frumentarium, of course, took careful note of this new trajectory.

An empire was not built in a day, neither Garlemald nor a more personal one. The Iron Lion, retired from a life of duty, now took up a life of service, as Katerina van Tullia. She took her place among the Imperial senate. Her power base was small, at first, buoyed by a successful military career and popularity at home. However, her views proved popular with an increasingly progressive Garlean citizenry, grown fat on military conquest and now warming to a life of leisure, as well as a sense of burgeoning responsibility, as conquerers now enjoying the fruits of their labors.

Power flowed and some with power began to view their privilege with a sense of noblesse oblige, and chief among those voices was that of the former Iron Lion.

"How are we to show the savages the value of civilization if we do not allow them the chance to participate in it? How can we uplift them from their dependence on their false gods if we cannot share with them the fruits of Imperial rule? We conquered them, yes, not only to retake our ancestral homes, but also, to prevent the ravaging of the land by their dread Eikons. But we must turn our faces towards the future, and I would reach out a hand, and offer it to them. Show them the benefits of being free, free from false worship and false deity. Then, I assure you, we need not conquer them anymore. They will come, of their own free will. This I decree!"

Katerina raised a hand to a cheering crowd, gray mane framing a proud face. The Iron Lion roared, and her voice could still be heard, it seemed.

Aemilia sas Valentina was amongst the crowd, and she clapped along as they cheered, even if somewhat less enthusiastically. No frown creased her forehead, because she was a professional. But she looked around, noting several in the crowd, noting how this meeting had been larger than the last, and larger than the one before that. Despite herself, she did allow herself to spare a glance up into the ceiling. High above the meeting hall, she looked - and saw.

In the dark, a gleam. The silvery ring of the eye of the lever she would need.

She sighed. Well. The Empire needed yet to grow, and to continue to do so, it seemed it would need some pruning.

[thefreaklovesmusic]

Lionize - Nuclear Soul

[paula-li]

Got a little carried away

[australet789]

Hazbin Hotel: TLK AU: The Hazbins

More with TLK AU, this time with the Hotel staff!

Vaggie's flower is a Petunia and yes, it was a gift from Charlie

Alastor is going to have his own post btw, i didnt forget about deer boy

[lucius-morningstar]

GalacticJaguar was the lovely artist of this piece ^^

[mollysunder]

The funniest thing about Jayce is that while yes, he's juggling other peoples' interests/loyalties, he's only sort of malleable and mostly kind of uncontrollable. People can tell Jayce something and he will in fact listen to it, absorb the new information, but it's a genuine gamble to guess what he does with that information.

Heimerdinger tells him exactly how to avoid punishment for his trial and Jayce DOESN'T do it. Jayce decides to defend himself and the merit of his work. The Medardas want hextech weapons (for varying reasons), Viktor says no, meanwhile Jayce already has blueprints laminated and framed in his room.

Jayce didn't ask to be a Councilor, but he immediately throws himself into rooting out corruption. When Mel tells him he's gonna need to play ball to stay alive politically, Jayce goes, "Ball is life". Then Jayce manages to amass enough political capital to kick off HEIMERDINGER of all people.

Second to Jinx, Jayce is the character that asserts the most agency in the cast. People really try to pull Jayce in this and that direction, but his character, his morals, just who he really is pushes at any supposed binary others try to place him in. The choices he makes always align with his core, and it inevitably puts others in a position to accept the consequences of bringing up the issue to him in the first place.

[amanrafromveranda]

BES scraps

[elbiotipo]

Heyo! You made a post about the insane impracticality of super soldiers and super soldier programs and as a certified lover of the trope (or I guess, as it exists in my head) I could not agree more. I think the only way a supersoldier program makes sense is specifically a eugenicist vanity project for powerful Evil Empire type factions, where its specifically framed as insane waste of time and money but pursued anyway for Ideological Reasons. The Space Marines, as you mentioned, could be a great example of The Emperor fucking around on another one of his grand science experiments rather than doing anything actually useful and a massive drain on imperial resources to keep functioning despite limited to no practical purpose. But, you know, we could go on all day about what Games Workshop could do to make Warhammer into an actual satire/subversion of fascism instead of just continuing to produce one of the most nakedly fascist franchise ever, but then we'd be here all day lmao. Anyway keep up the Good Posting! As a writer and fellow worldbuilding enthusiast you are a joy to follow!

Aw thank you, that's so nice to hear, seriously!!!

And I'm glad you liked my rant, I plan to expand on it. To me what's interesting is that on a tactical level (in real life, I'll get to that) you have little need actually for super soldiers, because the trope of a ultra-fortified position you need to assault with though armored soldiers is pretty much a fantasy. Even sieging a castle with knights (which I believe are the origin of the trope) was very different from that, and it's especially different today where fortifications are worn down with artillery and airpower. Not only that, but guerrillas have proven once, and again, and again, and again, and AGAIN, to be incredibly effective against expensively trained and equipped soldiers, even when facing overwhelming firepower.

Now of course WH40k isn't real life at all, for some reason space and air power isn't an option and you have giant evil demons which can justify the need for Space Marines (which are again, basically the armored knight trope with all that implies). And you have to sell figurines of course. I could understand then Space Marines as an elite force that fights against those threats, and maybe a mass-production program since those threats also are army-sized. But even then, for me, wars are won by logistics and geopolitics (astropolitics?) not tactics. Even when assuming something ridiculous as a company of space marines conquering an entire world of billions of people because they're so super (pretty sure the lore is full of that), let's say that your ultra-badass Astartes clear up the world from whatever demonic threat was there. Who stays behind to deal with the guerrillas, to put on efficient governance, to rebuild the aftermath of a battle. The Imperium's answer seems to be 'barely nobody' and that does explain some things. Nerdy nitpicking? Of course, but still worth pointing out.

It would be interesting to indeed recontextualize the Space Marines as a vanity project of the Emperor, as a kind of demi-gods the rest of humanity would swear feudal loyalty to (very fitting to WH40k modern and troubling aesthetic) while he neglected actual governance and logistics that would have allowed him to build a proper government. Because relying on a handful of super-dudes that CAN and ARE killed isn't enough. In fact, that might be one of the reasons why the Imperium is such a failure. But to say something like that it means implying Space Marines (the enforcers of a fascist theocracy) aren't as badass and heroic, and Games Workshop, as you said, has already moved on to portray the Imperium as 'the good guys' almost unironically.

[silverskye13]

I get how Wels is really protective of the Hermits, but I think part of that has given Tango some prejudices about the Helsmets. I feel like he thinks of Tanguish as a defanged lion or something, like "oh Helsmets are dangerous, but mine's not so I can hang with him" and he's trying to convince his "parent" to let him keep the wild animal he's found. I feel like Tanguish trying to convince him the other Helsmets don't mean any harm is never going to work, but Tango is also not aware of some of the struggles the Helsmets can go through and doesn't realise they are capable of actually being nice to each other without tearing the other to shreds.

Tango has made one of my favorite blunders in media: he has mistaken no intent to harm with harmless. A harmless thing couldn't hurt you even if it wanted to. A thing with no harmful intent could do a great amount of harm, but does not wish to.

I think you're very right in saying he treats Tanguish like a tame lion. He isn't really a person. He's certainly more of a person to Tango than he is to Welsknight, but he's still a step down. Tanguish is his pet hype man, a rubber duck that happens to occasionally have opinions, a toothless predator.

Personally! I think this is less a flaw of Welsknight's influence, and more a flaw in Tango. Welsknight has done a lot to heck up the situation, don't get me wrong, but his has more to do with making Tango doubt his relationships. Tango didn't treat Tanguish like his own person before Wels found out about him.

[dr-retard]

I refuse to give OP notes, so here

Reminder that people like this

Are cowards, and they cannot even begin to imagine or understand someone actually choosing to give up their life for someone else

Have absent/ineffectual fathers, so they cannot imagine anyone else's dad being better than their own

Want people like this man rendered broke & suicidal by societal ostracization because of how they believe he thinks. They will never offer anything except the least charitable interpretation of his actions.

Just be prepared for more hot takes like this

[taohun]

most of the arguments and fearmongering against ai art on this website fall apart when you subscribe to my belief that artists are not ensouled and never have been

[so-i-did-this-thing]

I am begging people to learn who the credible independent reporters are within a marginalized group, especially if you share that marginalization.

Yes, verify, verify, verify, and get those primary sources. But if you are only getting your news from traditional outlets, it is coming in too little, too late, and often with a ton of bias baked in.

[jdrider02]

silly transformers related twitter doodles

10-20-2023

[paula-li]

There are gay cats living nearby

[australet789]

Lion King AU with Lucifer and Charlie!

[lucius-morningstar]

She's trying to do her job Charlie.. But it's okay, Charlie is just rewarding her for working so hard, Vaggie is doing everything not to break that stoic stare. She's not going to break, it doesn't matter how cute Charlie is being, or how loving she is. Vaggie will do her job. She keeps telling herself she has good self restraint, But Charlie is doing her best to prove her wrong. She's coming very close to succeeding. Art was done by the amazing creator rainorld on DeviantART.