#Mongol Tyrant

[theshippirate22]

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏manifesting a Crowley/Genghis Khan interaction for S3 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[hallabaloo]

New Fanfic: The Complete History of William Lucipher

Heya!! Since a few people seemed interested in the Gravity Falls fic I'm writing, I thought I'd share a bit of what I have planned so far! Currently, it's going to be a 5 part series that will amount to roughly 100k words. Just note that this is still the planning stage and all of this could possibly be changed, although this is still the bare bones so probably not much would be altered.

PS---Ford and Bill in the first few parts won't have their canon names because they didn't exist in the time period I'm writing about. That's why I refer to Bill as "fallen god" and Ford as "the mortal" so frequently.

Premise: Bill Cipher is a fallen god who is striving to gain his godship back. In this journey, he repeatedly meets reincarnated versions of Stanford Pines, the only person who can seemingly help him.

Part One: Alexandria 49 BCE

In the height of Alexandria's fame and being full of knowledge-seekers, a fallen god walked unnoticed among them, searching for his own wisdom of which he had searched far and wide to find yet all was futile. So, regretfully, he stood in front of the well-known library. Here, he met a mortal with outrageous beliefs being kicked out, his prestige inadequate to enter the building. Yet the god recognized unknown truth in his words. How could such a poor man as him know of that?

Part Two: Rome 509 BCE

The fallen god recalls upon a memory of meeting such a man before. At the time, he had influenced the tyrant Roman king for his own pleasure and power, but that king thought himself better than the god. Obviously, the god has to now put the arrogant man in his place, so with the help of a little mortal investigator, he does just that.

Part Three: Byzantine Empire 700 AD and Mongol Empire 1200 AD

The fallen god decided to visit the now split Rome, but ill memories of his past followed him wherever he went. His mortality was haunting him at every turn. He had to leave. He fled to what is now known as Mongolia, where he eventually rose an emperor which united the region, as he'd done twice before. But he still had not ran far enough. You cannot get away from what is inside your very being.

Part Four: England 1692 and 1901

The god had now meddled with humans so often that a name began to identify the influence he had: Lucifer. Under this name, William Lucipher was unbeknownst to him the cause of witches and hysteria. Of course, he couldn't let this horrid lie be spread. Years later, his attempts became forgotten, and a certain society arose to defeat him and anyone associated with him, although they did not last very long.

Part Five: Gravity Falls 1974

It ends where it began.

~~~

There we have it!! Now, a good bit was omitted because, you know, spoilers and what-not, but I hope it still sounds interesting and fun to read!! Also, if anyone has any information they'd like to share about any of these places and/or time periods, feel free to comment them! I would love to learn more!

I think I've researched more for this fic than any essay I've had to write lmao ★

[syaal]

Celestial ramble(Spoilers for Blood of Tyrants)

When I saw the tidbit about Celestial("Divine Wind") eggs being stolen from Japan during the mongol invasions - when in actual history the conquest was mainly thwarted by typhoons called "Divine Wind" by the Japanese - I thought it was a nice bit of actual history crossed with fiction, although since the Japanese named the kamikaze attacks after it I was almost in a bout of colonized-nationalist paranoia(i figuratively break out in hives whenever westerners put "kamikaze" in cool stuff) just for a second

But also, I'm a bit confused bc the Yellow Emperor is supposed to be a Celestial, but he is a mythical god-emperor that dates like four millennia ago(or two millennia ago, according to the books where he supposedly helped found the Han dynasty) so he might be of a primordial breed that later split into several lines, one of them being Celestials? The actual Yellow Emperor might or might not have had Divine Wind, and was originally named Tien-Lung and after millennia, seeing that similar-looking breed that has cool powers one might go "ooh the mythical breed does exist" like how the Ming dynasty saw giraffes as qilin(麒麟)

Then again we only have one person's dialogue for "Celestials are from Japan," or not even that - just that the last Celestial egg was stolen from Japan, and living Celestials were all killed.

So two possibilities:

One, Celestials originated from Japan, the Yuan dynasty stole an egg and killed the rest. The description of the Yellow Emperor in the records had some similarities to Celestials, but they aren't actually related. Imperials are probably some dominant-gene mutant?

Two, Celestials of East Asia all shared the same ancestral breed, but since China took "Celestials only in royal lines where we want it" very seriously they killed the Japanese lot - which is bit unbelievable considering their near-worship of Celestials, but since the Yuan dynasty was Mongolian it might be possible that their attitude differed from the Han people or the Manchus(in this theory, Yongxing refusing Lien's egg to be sent to Mongolia gains even more context??).

Or there might be a different explanation but I don't have any ideas for now

[czerwonykasztelanic]

I'm very much aware that I complain about it every time I leave a bookstore (so: on an almost monthly basis), but popular perception of historical and contemporary events alike is a product of siege mentality.

In Poland, specifically: a keen but suppressed awareness of the West's decline and inevitable collapse, paired with a visceral fear of the nebulous Orient, leads the average citizen of this liberal Christian democracy to believe that he must seek out a Noah to build him an ark, lest the coming deluge drown him alongside the unenlightened. He sees the downfall of the prevailing order as a natural outcome of his class's social decomposition, of its descent into mindless self indulgence, and perhaps of its too-lenient attitude towards deviants and saboteurs. His fortress will succumb to the horde of infidels because its watchmen abandoned their posts and opened the gates to carriers of the plague; it is a conquest well-deserved. For all that, the impending catastrophe may still be averted, but only through the advent of a Great Man, this long-awaited tyrant Noah, an individual force capable of delivering the ingenuous townsfolk from the Mongol swarm, rallying a holy legion against the rotten of the Earth. He will be crowned patron saint of the enterprising and lord-protector of industry. And he will reign over the besieged with an iron fist, turning boys into men and men into machines, crushing underfoot anyone who refuses to bow before him, paying no heed to the cries of the destitute, weeding out the weak and lathering himself in gold. All this - in the name of an abstract freedom. Triumphant! Order prevails in the Western world. The citadel becomes an empire.

And so the bookshelves are lined with the works of the prophets du jour, variations on the theme of Why China is going to destroy us and War with the East; right next to them, the biographies of Hitler, Mussolini, Churchill, Bismarck and Bonaparte. Voilà the free market.

[backinthejurassic]

Back in the Jurassic LORE FACT #2 - Oh, the Taxonomy!

In the Back in the Jurassic world, dinosaurs came up with their own genus and species names long before mammals dominated the world!

But how did they come up with these names? And why do most of them end with "-saurus" when they're not lizards??

It all started long ago in the triassic. Dinosaurian knowledge was only just beginning to blossom and the relatively primitive dinosaurs of the time thought they came from a pantheon of lizard-like dragon gods. The king of the pantheon was named "Sauria," and so much like humans naming planets after Greek deities, the archosaurs started including these ancient mythological deities in their scientific names even long after the religion became simply mythology.

Beyond that, the genus and species got their names from their appearance, location, culture, notable (early) members of the species, or accomplishments of said members.

Some examples include...

Barapasaurus tagorei was named from the sauropods' stunning long legs and a famous early barapasaurus poet named Tagore (IRL, the species was named after Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore)

Velociraptor mongoliensis got its name from the most famous early velociraptors being passionate olympic runners and their early ancestors being dromaosaurian desert nomads that simply called themselves "the mongols" long before humans who occupied the same area would also call themselves that (IRL, their name literally means "swift thief from Mongolia" after their thin build, carnivorous diet, and country of origin)

Tyrannosaurus rex was named after "King Rex," a wrestler (with a very redundant name) that rose in popularity very fast from his unprecedented level of raw strength and the use of royal themes for his brand (IRL, the "tyrant lizard king" simply got its name from its large size and assumed dominance of the cretaceous food chain)

And so on. However, much like IRL modern taxonomy, there is debate in what actually counts as a different species or even genus in the mesozoic world. Groups that wish to be their own independent genus are sometimes only granted a different species name while other groups that are used to sticking together are informed that they are now suddenly considered two different species.

An example of the former would be Dyno's species rhodiensis. They were originally considered a species of Coelophysis, making them Coelophysis rhodesiensis. However, Coelophysis as a genus doesn't exactly have the sophisticated reputation that the species wants. So they insist that they're actually their own species and genus: Megapnosaurus rhodesiensis.

Whether their claim is valid or not has been debated ever since.

[nicklloydnow]

“In the same way, if I abominate tyrants, I nonetheless see that they constitute the warp of history, and that without them the idea or the course of an empire would be inconceivable. Superlatively odious, of an inspired bestiality, they suggest man driven to his limits, the ultimate exasperation of his turpitudes and his virtues. Ivan the Terrible, to cite only the most fascinating among them, exhausts every nook and cranny of psychology: as complex in his madness as in his politics, having made his reign, and to a certain degree his country, into a model nightmare, prototype of a perennial hallucination, a mixture of Mongolia and Byzantium, combining the qualities and the defects of a khan and a basileus, a monster of demoniac rages and sordid dejection, torn between bloodthirstiness and remorse, his joviality enriched with taunts and crowned with sneers, he had a passion for crime; as have we all, insofar as we exist: transgressions against others or ourselves. Only in us it remains unslaked, that passion, so that our works, whatever they may be, derive from our incapacity to kill or to kill ourselves. We do not always acknowledge as much, we are glad to ignore the cozy mechanism of our infirmities. If I am obsessed by the tsars or the Roman emperors, it is because such infirmities, concealed in us, show quite plainly in them. They reveal us to ourselves, they incarnate and illustrate our secrets. I think especially of those who, doomed to an awesome degeneration, turned on their own and, fearing to be loved by them, sent them to their doom. They were powerful, yet they were wretched, unsatiated by the terror of others. Are they not a sort of projection of the evil genius that dwells in us all and tempts us to believe we must leave nothing standing around us? It is with such thoughts and such instincts that an empire is formed: in it cooperates that subsoil of our consciousness in which are hidden our dearest faults.

(…)

Abandoning this corner of the world, the notion of empire would find a providential climate in Russia, where it has always existed, moreover - singularly on the spiritual level. After the fall of Byzantium, Moscow became, for the Orthodox consciousness, the third Rome, heir of the "true" Christianity, the true faith. First messianic awakening. The second had to wait until our own day and age; but that awakening is due, this time, to the resignation of the West. In the fifteenth century, Russia profited by a religious void, as she profits today by a political one. Two major opportunities to absorb her historical responsibilities.

(…)

Russia's claims to turn from vague primacy to distinct hegemony are not unfounded. What would have become of the West if she had not halted and absorbed the Mongol invasion? For over two centuries of humiliation and servitude, Russia was excluded from history, while the Western nations indulged themselves in the luxury of tearing each other to pieces. Had Russia been in a condition to develop unhampered, she would have become a first-rate power on the eve of modern times; what she is now she would have been in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. And the West? Perhaps today the West would be Orthodox, and Rome would enthrone not the Holy See but the Holy Synod. But the Russians can still catch up. If they manage, as there is every reason to expect, to execute their plans, it is not out of the question that they will arrange matters with the sovereign pontiff. Whether in the name of Marxism or of Orthodoxy, they are fated to foil the Church's authority and prestige - they cannot tolerate its aims without abdicating the essential point of their mission and their program. Under the tsars, identifying the Church with an instrument of Antichrist, they offered prayers against it; now, holding it to be a Satanic tool of Reaction, they overwhelm it with invectives rather more effective than their old anathemas; soon they will overcome it with all their weight and all their power. And it is not at all impossible that our age may count among its curiosities, and in the form of a frivolous apocalypse, the disappearance of St. Peter's last successor.

By sanctifying History in order to discredit God, Marxism has merely rendered Him more peculiar and more haunting. You can stifle every impulse in humanity except the need for an Absolute, which will survive the destruction of temples and even the disappearance of religion on earth. The core of the Russian people being religious, they will inevitably gain the upper hand. Reasons of a historical order will have a good deal to do with this triumph.

By adopting Orthodoxy, Russia manifested her desire to stand apart from the West; it was her way of defining herself, from the start. Never, outside certain aristocratic circles, did she let herself be seduced by the Catholic - as it happened, Jesuit - missionaries. A schism does not express the divergencies of doctrine so much as a will to ethnic affirmation: what appears in it is less an abstract controversy than a national reflex. It was not the absurd question of the filioque that divided the churches: Byzantium wanted its total autonomy; Moscow a fortiori. Schisms and heresies are nationalisms in disguise. But whereas the Reformation merely assumed the appearance of a family quarrel, of a scandal within the West, Orthodox particularism, acquiring a more profound character, was to mark a division from the Western world itself. By rejecting Catholicism, Russia delayed her evolution, lost a crucial opportunity for civilizing herself rapidly, while gaining in substance and in unity; her stagnation rendered her different, made her other; this is what she aspired to, doubtless foreseeing that the West would one day regret its head start.

The stronger Russia became, the more aware she grew of her roots, from which, in some sense, Marxism will have alienated her; after a forced cure of universalism, she will re-Russify, in favor of Orthodoxy. And, moreover, she will have stamped Marxism with a distinctly Slavic character: Marxism enSlaved. . . . Any nation of a certain scope that adopts an ideology alien to its traditions will adapt and denature it, inflect it in the direction of its own national des-tiny, distort it to its own advantage, ultimately rendering it indistinguishable from its own genius. A people possesses a necessarily distorting optic all its own, a defect of vision which, far from disconcerting it, flatters and stimulates. . . . The truths it avails itself of, whatever they may lack in objective value, are nonetheless vital and produce, as such, the kinds of errors that constitute the diversity of the historical landscape, granted that the historian - skeptical by métier, temperament, and option - is stationed, from the start, outside of Truth.

While the Western nations exhausted themselves in their struggle for freedom and, still more, in that freedom once acquired (nothing is so wearing as the possession or the abuse of liberty), the Russian people was suffering without self-expenditure; for one expends oneself only in history, and since the Russians were excluded from history, they were obliged to submit to the infallible systems of despotism inflicted upon them: an obscure, vegetative existence which allowed them to gain strength, to accumulate energy, to amass reserves, and to draw from their servitude the maximum of biological advantage. In this, Orthodoxy was a great help - but a popular Orthodoxy, admirably articulated to keep that people apart from the course of events and opposed to the official Orthodoxy which oriented the government toward imperialist aims. The double face of the Orthodox Church: on the one hand it militated in favor of the somnolence of the masses; on the other, as an auxiliary of the tsars, it wakened popular ambitions and made possible enormous conquests in the name of a passive population. Fortunate passivity, which assured the Russians their present predominance, fruit of their historical belatedness. Whether favorable or hostile to them, all of Europe's enterprises hinge on them; once she puts them at the heart of her interests and her anxieties, she acknowledges that they have the potential to dominate her. Thus is virtually realized one of the Russians' oldest dreams. That they have attained it under the auspices of an ideology of foreign provenance adds the spice of a further paradox to their success. What matters, finally, is that the regime be Russian, and entirely in the traditions of the country. Is it not revealing that the Revolution, a direct product of Occidentalist theories, was increasingly oriented toward Slavophile ideas? Moreover, a people represents not so much an aggregate of ideas and theories as of obsessions: those of Russians, whatever their political complexion, are always, if not identical, at least related. A Tchaadaev who found no virtue in his country or a Gogol who mocked it pitilessly was just as attached to it as a Dostoevsky. The most extreme of the Nihilists, Netchaiev, was quite as obsessed by it as Pobiedonostsev, procurator of the Holy Synod and a reactionary through and through. Only this obsession counts. The rest is merely attitude.

For Russia to adapt to a liberal regime, she would have to weaken considerably - her vigor would have to decline; better still: she would have to lose her specific character and denationalize in depth. How would she manage this, with her unbroached internal resources and her thousand years of autocracy? Even if she were to achieve such a thing in one bound, she would instantly disintegrate. Even more than a nation, an empire, if it is to survive and to flourish, requires a certain dose of terror. France herself could invest in democracy only when her springs were beginning to loosen, only when, no longer seeking hegemony, she was preparing to become prudent and respectable. Her First Empire was her final folly. Thereupon, accessible to liberty, she would become painfully accustomed to it, through a number of convulsions, unlike England, which - a bewildering example - had free relations of long standing, without shocks or dangers, thanks to the conformism and the enlightened stupidity of her citizens (the country has not produced, to my knowledge, a single anarchist).

In the long run, time favors the fettered nations which, amassing forces and illusions, live in the future, in hope but what can be hoped for in freedom - or in the regime which incarnates it, constituted of dissipation, serenity, and spinelessness? A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb. Life has meaning only in democracy, yet she lacks life. . . . Immediate happiness, imminent disaster inconsistency of a regime to which one does not adhere without falling on the horns of an agonizing dilemma.

Better furnished, more fortunate, Russia need not face such problems, absolute power being for her, as Karamzin already remarked, the "very basis of her being." Ever aspiring to freedom without ever attaining it - is this not her great superiority over the West, which, alas! has long since attained to it? Russia, moreover, is not ashamed of her empire; quite the contrary, she dreams only of extending it. Who more than Russia has hastened to profit by the acquisitions of other peoples? The achievements of Peter the Great, even those of the Revolution, participate in an inspired parasitism. And it is true that she endured even the horrors of the Tartar yoke with a certain ingenuity.

(…)

Whether she has provoked or suffered, then, Russia has never been content with mediocre misfortunes. The same will be true of her future: she will fall upon Europe by a physical fatality, by the automatism of her mass, by her superabundant and morbid vitality so propitious to the generation of an empire (in which a nation's megalomania is always materialized), by that health of hers, crammed with the unforeseen, with horrors and enigmas, allocated to the service of a messianic idea, rudiment and prefiguration of all conquests. When the Slavophiles asserted that Russia must save the world, they were employing a euphemism: one hardly saves a world without ruling it. As for a nation, it finds its life-principle in itself or nowhere: how would it be saved by another? Russia still thinks - secularizing the Slavophiles language and their conception - that it is her task to ensure the world's safety, the West's first of all, toward which, moreover, she has never experienced a clear-cut feeling, only attraction and repulsion, and jealousy (that jumble of secret worship and ostensible aversion) inspired by the spectacle of a corruption as enviable as it is dangerous, contact with which is to be sought - but still more to be shunned.

Reluctant to define himself and to accept limits, cultivating ambiguity in politics, in morals, and, more seriously, in geography, with none of the naivetés inherent in "civilized men" rendered opaque to reality by the excesses of a rationalist tradition, the Russian, subtle by intuition as much as by the age-old experience of dissimulation, is perhaps a child historically, but in no case psychologically; whence his complexity as a man of young instincts and old secrets - whence too the contradictions, exacerbated to grotesquerie, of his attitudes. When he decides to be profound (and he succeeds quite effortlessly), he disfigures the slightest fact, the merest idea. It is as if he has the mania of a monumental grimace. Everything is dizzying, dreadful, and ineffable in the history of his ideas, revolutionary or otherwise. He is still an incorrigible amateur of utopias; now, utopia is the grotesque en rose, the need to associate happiness - that is, the improbable - with becoming, and to coerce an optimistic, aerial vision to the point where it rejoins its own source: the very cynicism it sought to combat. In short, a monstrous fantasy.

That Russia is in a position to realize her dream of a universal empire is a likelihood but not a certitude; on the other hand, it is patent that Russia can conquer and annex all Europe, and even that she will proceed to do so, if only to reassure the rest of the world. . . . She is content with so little! Where to find a more convincing proof of modesty, of moderation? The tip of a continent! Meanwhile, she contemplates it with the same eye with which the Mongols regarded China and the Turks Byzantium - with this difference, though, that she has already assimilated a good many Western values, whereas the Tartar and Ottoman hordes had only a wholly material superiority over their future prey. It is doubtless regrettable that Russia has not passed through the Renaissance: all her inequalities derive from that. But with her gift for making up time, she will be, in a century, perhaps in less, as refined, as vulnerable as that post-Renaissance West, at a level of civilization that can be outdone only by descending. History's supreme ambition is to record the variations of this level. Russia's, inferior to that of Europe, can only rise, and Russia with it: which is as much as to say that she is doomed to ascent. By rising, however, does she not risk, unbridled as she is, losing her equilibrium, bursting into ruins? With her millions of souls kneaded by sects and by steppes, she gives a singular impression of space and of claustration, of immensity and of suffocation, of the North in short, but of a special North, one irreducible to our analyses, a North marked by a sleep and a hope that make us tremble, by a night rich in explosions, by a dawn we shall remember. No Mediterranean transparency and gratuitousness in these Hyperboreans whose past, like their present, seems to belong to a different duration from ours. Facing the West's fragility and renown, they experience an embarrassment, the consequence of their belated awakening and of their unemployed vigor: this is the inferiority complex of the strong. . . . They will escape it, they will overcome it. The sole point of light in our future is their nostalgia - so secret and so intense - for a delicate world of deliquescent charms. If they accede to it (as appears to be the obvious direction of their fate) they will be civilized at the expense of their instincts and - delightful prospect - they too will be infected with the virus of liberty.

The more humane an empire becomes, the more readily there develop within it the contradictions by which it will perish. Of composite demeanor, of heterogeneous structure (the converse of a nation, that organic reality), an empire requires, to subsist, the cohesive principle of terror. If it lays itself open to tolerance, that "virtue" will destroy its unity and its power, and will act upon it in the manner of a deadly poison it has administered to itself. This is because tolerance is not only the pseudonym of freedom, but also of mind; and mind, even more deadly to empires than to individuals, erodes them, compromises their solidity, and accelerates their collapse. Hence it is the very instrument an ironic providence employs to destroy them.” - Emil Cioran, ‘History and Utopia’ (1960) [pages 21 - 33]

[mustela28nivalis]

Nicknames for borzois

From time immemorial, it has been customary for borzois to give nicknames that carry a certain semantic and emotional load. These traditions continue to this day. True, the “theme” of nicknames has changed significantly over time.

Since past centuries, the speed, vigilance and dexterity of these dogs have traditionally been reflected in the nicknames of borzois: Bystryy(fast), Veter(wind), Veterok(breeze), Vikhr'(whirlwind), Zorkyy(sharp-sighted), Krylat(winged), Lovkiy(dexterous), Polyot(flight), Prytkiy(quick), Bystra(female version of fast), Lyotka(flying), Krylatka(female version of winged), Provorka(agile), Pul'ka(bullet), Rezva(frisky), Shustra(nimble).

The nicknames given by the names of birds echo this theme: Berkut(golden eagle), Krechet(gyrfalcon), Korshun(kite), Sokol(falcon), Oryol(eagle), Strepet(little bustard), Golubka(female pigeon), Ptashka(birdie), Chayka(gull).

One of the indispensable qualities of the old Russian borzois - anger towards the beast - was reflected in the nicknames: Zver'(beast), Zlobach(vicious), Lyutyy(fierce), Svirep(ferocious), Lyutaya(female version of fierce), Tiranka(female tyrant).

A very peculiar approach of ancient hunters to the names of borzois is visible in the use of imperative verbs: Dogonyay(catch up), Doyezzhay(reach),Zamechay(notice), Nakryvay(cover), Porazhay(hit), Primechay(take notice), Raskiday(scatter), Sokrushay(crush), Khvatay(grab). Thus, hope was expressed for the future outstanding qualities of the dog.

Often the nickname was supposed to reflect the prowess and courage of the dog, which, of course, does not give the beast a descent during the persecution: Karay(punish), Katay(ride), Obizhay(offend), Nalyot(raid), Pobedim(win), Udaloy(daring), Shvyrok(throw), Nalyotka(female version of raid), Otvaga(courage), Raskida(female version of scatter), Slava(glory), Udalaya(female version of daring).

Oriental nicknames have always been quite popular with Russian borzois: Abrek(is a North Caucasian term used for a lone North Caucasian warrior living a partisan lifestyle outside power and law and fighting for a just cause), Agakhan(is a title held by the Imām of the Nizari Ismāʿīli Shias), Alan(In honor of a nomadic tribe in Asia), Anchar(antiaris), Bulat( 1)male name of Persian origin, which was borrowed by the Turkic peoples. The etymological meaning of the name is "steel". From the Turks, the name Bulat came to Rus', where it was used before the spread of Christianity. 2) is a type of steel alloy known in Russia from medieval times), Kuchum(was the last Khan of Siberia who ruled from 1563 to 1598), Lezgin(In honor of the Dagestan people, one of the indigenous people of the Caucasus), Nayan(was a prince of the Borjigin royal family of the Mongol Empire), Sultan, Turkmen(are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia), Shaitan, Gulji(Presumably a goat), Fatma(Arabian woman name).This partly indirectly confirms the hypothesis of the eastern route of penetration of sighthounds into Russia. Well, after quite a lot of oriental sighthounds were brought in the 19th century, as already noted, the number of such nicknames naturally increased.

Many nicknames displayed character traits, one might say, desirable for a borzoi: Azarnoy(venturous), Nakhal(smart aleck), Razboy(robbery), Retivyy(mettled), Smelyy(brave), Buyana(brawl), Zadira(bully), Nagla(Insolent), Plutovka(cheat), Shel'ma(rogue), Shalun'ya(naughty). And this approach is understandable and traditional.

However, among modern nicknames, characteristics that are not very desirable for a greyhound began to appear more and more often: Dikar'(savage), Dobryak(kindley), Dikarka( female version of savage), Laska(caress), Nedotroga(touchy), Tikhonya(cuiet).Of course, the owners have always cherished and protected their dogs.

And an indicator of this attitude are the nicknames that emphasize the value of the dog: Bestsen(priceless), Dorogoy(dear), Podar(gift), Lyubim(loved), Serdechnyy (hearty), Yakhont(one of the obsolete names for the red and blue jewelry minerals corundum), Almazka(diamond), Biryuza(turquoise), Brasletka(bracelet), Nagrada(award), Serebryanka(silver), Yashma(jasper).

The spectacular appearance of sighthounds, especially Russian borzois with their luxurious coat, impresses even the inexperienced. And it is not for nothing that a fairly large number of nicknames, both in the past and now, emphasize this beauty. Here are just a few of them: Krasavchik(handsome), Ladnyy(fine), Prigozhay(comely), Blyostka(Glitter), Divnaya(marvelous), Igrushka(toy), Krasa(beauty), Krasotka(beauty).

In our times, nicknames taken from the names of plants of our homeland have become widespread among borzois: Bagul'nik(Labrador tea), Klyon(Maple), Kovyl'(feather grass), Lyutik(buttercup), Shalfey(sage), Beryozka(Birch), Yolka(Christmas tree), Kalina(guelder rose), Medunitsa(lungwort), Melissa(lemon balm).

As well as lakes, rivers and other geographical names of Russia: Baikal, Valdai, Don, Sayan, Angara, Volga, Katun.

Borzois, like some other domestic breeds of hunting dogs, often have nicknames that reflect natural phenomena: Grom(thunder), Iney(hoarfrost), Rassvet(dawn), Tuman(fog), Volna(wave), Groza(thunderstorm), Dymka(mist), Metel'(blizzard), Purga(snowstorm).

It can be seen under the impression that the Russian nobility was engaged in hunting with borzois in past centuries, a lot is now found among borzois and "titled persons": Barin, Knyaz', Sudar', Tsarevich, Tsar, Boyarynya, Grafinya(Countess), Knyazhna, Printsessa(Princess).

Borzois are considered an ancient Russian breed, the personification of old times. And, probably, the appearance of nicknames that came from legends, fairy tales and from the names of historical figures is connected with this: Berendey, Yermak, Kudiyar, Leshiy, Orlov, Sadko, Bylina, Skazka, Snegurochka.

[the-wizard-cat-lair]

Orcs

Onde tudo começou- aqui um overview da sociedade

Introdução Geral

A sociedade orc descrita aqui é fortemente inspirada pelo Império Mongol, mesclada com elementos do mundo de Forgotten Realms. Essa sociedade é expansiva, militarista e estruturada em clãs que seguem tradições rígidas e códigos de honra que variam entre as subraças. Com um panteão de deuses que refletem seus valores de força, sabedoria e resiliência, os orcs vivem em um mundo onde a sobrevivência e o domínio sobre outros povos são objetivos primordiais.

Estrutura de Governo e Liderança

Orcs das Montanhas: Governados por Warlords que mantêm um poder quase absoluto, a estrutura hierárquica é rígida, com um Conselho de Anciãos que oferece conselhos mas sem poder decisório. A sucessão ocorre através de desafios físicos ou combates rituais.

Orcs das Planícies (Gray Orcs): Liderados por Khans, esta sociedade nômade possui uma liderança mais flexível. Decisões importantes são tomadas em um Conselho dos Clãs, onde o consenso é vital. A sucessão é frequentemente pacífica, baseada em alianças matrimoniais ou consenso.

Orogs (Orcs do Underdark): Governados por um Tyrant com autoridade absoluta, os Orogs mantêm uma estrutura autocrática e opressiva. A sucessão é marcada por violência e traição, com a Guarda Pretoriana garantindo a segurança do Tyrant.

Economia Interna e Moedas

A economia dos orcs é baseada em um sistema de troca que varia entre as subraças, com cada uma adaptando seu sistema monetário às suas necessidades:

Orcs das Montanhas: Usam tokens de metal (ferro, bronze) e lingotes de mithral para transações importantes.

Orcs das Planícies: Utilizam moedas de couro endurecido e contas de ossos ou pedras semi-preciosas, refletindo sua natureza nômade.

Orogs: Dependem de lascas de gemas e chits de metais raros, que são altamente valiosos no Underdark.

Relações com Outras Raças

A sociedade orc vê as outras raças com um misto de respeito, desdém e interesse pragmático:

Elfos: Admirados por sua habilidade mágica, mas vistos como arrogantes e frágeis. As diferenças culturais e ideológicas fazem com que os orcs considerem os elfos como potenciais inimigos.

Tritões: Respeitados pela sua conexão com o mar, mas considerados distantes e pouco compreensíveis. A relação é de respeito mútuo, mas sem grande interação.

Halflings: Vistos com um misto de curiosidade e desdém. Os orcs reconhecem sua engenhosidade, mas desprezam sua aparente fraqueza física.

Gnomos: Respeitados por sua inteligência e habilidades técnicas, mas considerados pequenos e frágeis. Os orcs veem os gnomos como úteis, mas não os consideram iguais em termos de poder.

Anões: Considerados rivais e, em alguns casos, inimigos naturais. Os orcs respeitam a habilidade dos anões em forjar armas e construir fortificações, mas os veem como obstáculos ao seu próprio domínio.

Tradições e Costumes

Casamento e Monogamia: O casamento entre clãs é uma ferramenta de aliança e integração, e é comum ver orcs casando-se com membros de outras raças, especialmente em sociedades expansionistas. A monogamia é a norma, mas com espaço para poligamia em casos de alianças políticas.

Divórcio e Adultério: O divórcio é permitido, especialmente se o casamento não cumprir seu propósito político ou social. Adultério é visto como uma traição grave e pode resultar em punições severas, incluindo a morte em algumas subraças.

Prostituição: Varia entre as subraças, mas em geral é tolerada, especialmente em tempos de guerra onde a moralidade é mais flexível.

Militarismo e Expansão

A sociedade orc é expansiva por natureza, buscando constantemente expandir seus territórios. Os orcs valorizam a força militar e a conquista, com um grande foco em treinamento marcial desde a juventude. A integração dos povos conquistados é feita através de alianças matrimoniais, adoção de costumes orcs e a incorporação das elites locais na estrutura de poder orc.

Religião e Panteão

O panteão orc é composto por deuses que representam aspectos fundamentais da vida orc:

Tengrash, o Olhar Celestial: Deus da Luz e da Estratégia, guia os orcs com sabedoria e força.

Torgu, o Senhor dos Rebanhos: Protetor da natureza e dos rebanhos, garantindo a prosperidade dos recursos naturais.

Noyan, o Senhor da Guerra: Mestre da estratégia militar e liderança em batalha.

Oyugun, o Artífice da Terra: Deus da construção, resiliência e metalurgia.

Khanara, a Mãe dos Clãs: Deusa da vida, fertilidade e proteção familiar.

Sharlag, o Caçador Sombrio: Mestre das caçadas noturnas e da furtividade.

Conclusão

Esta sociedade orc é complexa, organizada e adaptada para sobreviver e prosperar em um mundo hostil. Suas subraças desenvolveram sistemas de governo, economia e cultura que refletem suas necessidades e ambientes específicos, criando uma diversidade interna rica que, ao mesmo tempo, mantém uma unidade através de valores compartilhados, tradições militares e uma visão expansionista do mundo.

[dragoneyes618]

Almost anyone who has graduated from college in the last 50 years has repeatedly heard the statement, “More people have been killed in the name of God than in the name of anything else.” And most of them believe it.

It would take a long essay to respond to this claim. I will therefore only note here that if by “God” the people who make this statement are referring to the God of the Bible, and therefore to Christians (Jews rarely had enough numbers or power to persecute anyone), the statement is simply not true.

Yes, Christians killed Jews (though it was never official church doctrine to do so). For example, whole communities of Jews were slaughtered by Christians on their way to fight in the Crusades. And tens of millions of indigenous people in the Americas were killed as a result of Christian invasion and settlement — though most of those deaths were caused by European diseases to which people in the Americas had no immunity. And Christians killed fellow Christians who had a different theology. Between 1618 and 1648, in what became known as the Thirty Years’ War — a war between Europe’s Catholics and Protestants — somewhere between five and eight million people were killed.

But there are few other examples of largescale killings by Christians as Christians (as opposed to people who happened to be Christian killing people, as in the two world wars). For example, during one of the most widely cited examples of Christian killing, the Inquisition, no more than 5,000 people were killed — a number both Jewish and non-Jewish historians agree upon.

The number of people killed by Christians in the 2,000-year history of Christianity is far exceeded by the number of people killed in the Mongol invasions of Europe and China in the 13th century alone — approximately 40 million and 60 million respectively.

It is also dwarfed by the number of people killed by Muslims, mostly Arabs, from the advent of Islam in the seventh century. During the thousand-year Muslim rule in India alone, at least a hundred million Hindus were killed. (The Indian government rarely speaks of this for fear of introducing civil strife between its Hindu and Muslim populations.) With regard to the staggering number of Hindus killed by Muslims, historian Will Durant, in his magisterial 11-volume “The Story of Civilization” (co-authored with Ariel Durant), wrote: “The Mohammedan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history.”

Given that those who say, “More people have been killed in the name of God than in the name of anything else,” are referring to Christians, it is not intellectually honest to include the Muslim murder of Hindus as those who have killed “in the name of God” without specifying that most of that killing was done by Muslims.

Finally, and most importantly, there is something in whose name more people have been killed — in the last century alone — than in the name of anything (except Allah). And that thing is “equality.” Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and other communist tyrants killed at least 100 million noncombatants and enslaved a billion others. All in the name of “equality.”

And that is inevitable. While “all men are created equal,” as the American Declaration of Independence put it, based upon the biblical, Judeo-Christian origins of the American Revolution, it is not possible to achieve equality without violence. That is why the French Revolution, rooted in “equality,” led to the guillotine, while the American Revolution, which was not rooted in equality, led to the freest country ever created.

Why egalitarianism is a monstrous ideology is the subject of my next column.

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

1260, Persia: Due to the efforts of the great Genghis Khan, the Mongol Empire covers a vast portion of the known world. In the shadow of his grandfather, Hulagu Khan, ruler of the Ilkhanate, is determined to create a single empire that covers the entire world. His method? Violence. His youngest son, Temujin Khan, struggles to find his place in his father’s bloody rule. After another failure, Temujin is given one last chance to prove himself to Hulagu, who is sure there is a great warrior buried deep inside. But there’s something else rippling under the surface… something far more powerful and dangerous than they could ever imagine… Reduced to the position of one of Hulagu’s many wives, the famed Blue Princess Kokochin is the last of her tribe. Alone and forgotten in a foreign land, Kokochin is unwilling to spend her days seeking out trivial pursuits. Seeking purpose, she finds herself wandering down a path that grants her more power than a wife of the Khan may be allowed. Kaivon, the Persian rebel who despises the Mongols for the massacre of his people, thirsts for revenge. However, he knows alone he cannot destroy the empire. When given the opportunity to train under the tutelage of Hulagu, Kaivon must put aside his feelings and risk his life for a chance to destroy the empire that aims to conquer the world.

"One day, our country will be free". Stephen Aryan's The Judas Blossom is a solid historical fantasy dealing with the Mongol conquest of the Persian Empire. Set in the Thirteenth Century, this sprawling epic tinges history with a dash of magic, giving an arcane and strange power to one of the main characters. Will it be used as a means of conquest, or for a just purpose?

I don't know nearly enough about this part of history to know if real events are followed closely, but through the four main characters we see first-hand the ugliest parts of war, while seeds of rebellion are planted and shadow organizations attempt to steer the course of history.

I do have a gripe with the narration, very didascalic for my liking. Events are described as if in a treatise, rather than a novel. The dry narration doesn't allow the characters' inner lives to shine, only expounding the facts.

One of the main characters is a princess sold into marriage to a Khan; lost amongst the tyrant's many wives, she will find elsewhere a place for herself, and, too, a romance with a woman who is more than she seems.

The Judas Blossom is an intriguing first installation in a series that promises fireworks.

✨ 3.5 stars

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

[shorkar]

Genghis Khan, the greatest warrior in history! The story of the world's most cruel, brutal, inhuman dictators

"History's Unforgettable Tyrant: Genghis Khan!

As an answer to this question, one will take the name of Adolf Hitler. Some will disagree and say the name of Genghis Khan. Someone can say Maximilian's name again. Now who was more ruthless can be debated. But there is no disagreement about the fact that they all made life miserable for the common man.

"History's Unforgettable Tyrants: Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, and Maximilian" In the annals of history, certain names stand out as symbols of ruthless power and brutality. Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, and Maximilian, each in their own way, left indelible marks on the pages of time. While debates may rage about who among them was the most ruthless, there is no denying the immense suffering they inflicted upon humanity. Adolf Hitler: A Dark Stain on the 20th Century Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany, is a name synonymous with the horrors of the Holocaust and World War II. His vision of a racially pure world led to the genocide of millions and a conflict that engulfed the globe. Hitler's reign brought untold suffering to those he targeted, and his legacy remains a haunting reminder of the depths to which humanity can sink. Genghis Khan: The Conqueror of Empires Genghis Khan, the 13th-century Mongol leader, is known for building one of the largest empires in history through unparalleled brutality. His armies swept across Asia, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. Genghis Khan's conquests reshaped the world, but they also brought untold suffering to those who resisted his rule. Maximilian: The Ill-Fated Emperor Maximilian, the ill-fated Emperor of Mexico in the 19th century, faced a tumultuous reign that ended in his execution. His rule, propped up by foreign powers, was marked by resistance from Mexican forces seeking independence. Maximilian's short-lived reign brought political turmoil and violence to a country striving for self-determination. While it may be debated who among these leaders was the most ruthless, there is a consensus that their actions made life miserable for countless individuals. These figures serve as stark reminders of the consequences of unchecked power and the importance of learning from the darkest chapters of history to ensure a more just and peaceful future. Read More...

[weirdlookindog]

Frank Frazetta - Mongol Tyrant.

Creepy #27 original cover art,1969

[epica-fantasia-ilustrada]

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “I Have Seen.”

Wrote something easy and more similar to my original stories today. I hope you like it. 

I have been thinking about taking a couple days off from writing these stories, since I have been working non stop on this and the book for over a year now, so I am considering taking a break for about a week so I don’t burn out. I haven’t decided yet, so we shall see, but I hope you all have a great day.

I have a job no one knows about.

I don’t think anyone would be surprised if they heard about my job. I don’t even think they would care all that much.

None of this explains why my work station is in the basement of a nondescript government bunker on a death planet…. A!36. I can’t explain why I need three codes to get into my office, or why I go through five locked doors, or why I am not allowed to tell anyone what I do on pain of termination and imprisonment. 

You would assume, perhaps that I am a spy, and involved in some covert cloak and dagger espionage against other species and nations: you would be wrong.

You might assume I am a weapons developer, but you would also be wrong.

Perhaps you think I spend my time wire-tapping on important calls between species and recording important information.

None of this is really the case.

In fact, what I do is quite safe and relatively simple, plenty of other non-humans are doing it of their own accord and plenty more humans do it on a regular basis. What I do is not illegal, it is not espionage, it wouldn’t even phase you.

If that is the case.

Why do so many of my coworkers go missing?

Why are there absent desks every few months?

Why can I not make any lasting friends?

Management always give excuses to those of us who are left.

They left for mental health reasons.

THey moved on to a different job.

They are moving up in the company.

They had to be let go.

All things generic and all things that wouldn’t generally raise suspicion… unless they happen so frequently as us.

You may be wondering at this point, what it is I do for a job.

Perhaps, you think, it is very boring and unfulfilling that I would go insane from sheer boredom.

No, I actually find my job quite interesting.

Perhaps you think my job forces me to watch very disturbing and violent things…. And I suppose that could be close to the truth, though no one forces us to watch the videos if we don’t want, and no one makes us read the material if we cannot handle it. In fact, there are those of us who specialize in that sort of thing.

I do.

I am a specialist in historical xenopsychology.

I study human history.

When I say that I study human history, I do not mean as in a passing fancy. I do not simply read their school children’s textbooks and accept everything I see as truth, no, every day , I come into work and it is my job, to learn about everything that has ever happened in human history, to the best of my ability.

It is my job to know the good, the bad, the ugly, and the monstrous.

I work from day to night, cataloguing and filling my brain with all the information I can before recording it as a lecture on aura drives, which are then stored away for future use in a deep backup system under the surface of this planet.

I have followed human history since the beginning of time.

And I have marveled at it.

Much of my research is flawed, I know. Human history has always been biased, history being shaped and molded by the winners of conflict. Much of what else I know stems primarily from scholarly work humans have done on their own species, looking back the centuries and making assumptions about what they were doing.

While this is a good insite -- humans trying to explain the behavior of other humans-- it isn’t necessarily correct.

For this reason, it is my job to study every piece of information that comes across my desk.

Due to a government agreement between the galactic assembly and the United Nations of Earth, I was given access to the rebuilt library of Alexandria and all of its electronic files which include photos and information on the original documents that they keep in sealed vaults below the library.

I have read every account of human history, and every second hand interpretation of human history that I could possibly find in my time working here.

I have read Darwin and his early theory regarding evolution. I have examined his evidence, which include images and diagrams of the human body spanning centuries. My determinations were made just the same as the rest of them. Humanity was a tree-living species that found its evolutionary niche through walking and the use of opposable thumbs.

This ability to walk, in tandem with the use of hands eventually gave rise to the slow swelling of the brain in comparison to other animals. Human evolved primitive tools, and even more primitive religions, societies and rules.

They developed art early on, painting on the walls of their caves, in the darkness of night surrounded by their fires.

I have read about their befriending of animals in that same darkness. Man’s slow molding of the wolf into the dog - a species designed specifically for the needs of man.

I have attempted to read every account of every atrocity ever inflicted on humanity.

I have read of wars, and battles, Marathon, Thermopylae, Kadesh, D-day, Vietnam, Korea, Russo-Japanese, World wars I, II, III,  and IV and the Panasian War. 

I have witnessed in images and first hand accounts the chilling discoveries of natural disasters gone back thousands of years. Pompeii, Mt. St Helens, Katrina, Tsunamis, earthquakes, the fire of london, 1887 yellow river flood, the 3130 California earthquake, and Haiti earthquakes. 

And I have studied and witnessed every atrocity man has ever committed on its own people. The Mongol hordes, the crusades, Mayan and Aztec sacrifices, The Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, mustard gas, 9/11, slavery in the America, the Trail of Tears, The Bataan Death March, the Berlin wall, Civil war, the French revolution, Nanjing, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I tore a hole in humanity and looked inside to see your rot. 

I study the maggots that crawl under your skin.

Don’t confuse me with someone who fears you, or is even disgusted by you. You have committed thousands of horrors, yes this is true. But humanity is not a polished gem, it is an uncut stone marred by dirt and debris, but beautiful in a way that can hardly be explained.

You scrub away the rot only to find more underneath, yet you continue to scrub, in a futile attempt to better yourselves.

It is a beautiful thing if not in vain.

I do not judge you for your crimes because I have also seen your achievements. I watched you survive  the dark ages, I learned your philosophy from the greek world which brought the beauty of democracy and equity in later forms. I watched the enlightenment of the Renaissance, and have seen your beautiful artwork from each period of time. 

I have witnessed your great nations and empires rise and fall, Assyria, Byzantine, Rome, Britain, Egypt, Mongole, Aztek, Soviet Union, The chinese Dynasties and the Communist parties. The United States, and the Asian Co-Prosperity Collective

I have seen your bravery and your loss.

I have learned about the good that walks your earth.

Humans who stood up to tyrants.

I have even examined your stories of creation, of deities who molded humans from clay or dust, watched your world come into form in seven days, or ride on the backs of giant animals. I have seen the gods gift you with fire and learned the teaching of your martyrs over the centuries. Men and women slain and stoned or pulled away by spirits. I have learned of crucifixion, death and rebirth as well as reincarnation and a return to the very fabric of the universe itself.

I see everything.

I see everything. I see it all in my dreams laid out before me like a tapestry following each woven thread through the ages. I thought if I looked back, I could know as much as I possibly could. If I dug deep enough, I would be able to see your secrets.

And I have discovered you.

I see you hiding in there.

I know what you are.

Come out, come out.

And I won’t stop until it is all over and your cities crumbled into dust and bone.

…

…

I am being called into my manager’s office. Perhaps I too am ready to go up in the company.

...

I will be back soon…

Deus 

[dontgiveupukraine]

What you have to know about Russia - Bogdan Pankevych

A couple of days ago Bogdan Pankevych wrote a small piece for ‘foreigners’ about his view on the relationship of Russia and Ukraine. Mr. Pankevych will be my guest next Thursday on our Don’t Give Up Ukraine talks: “Thirty Years of Hope”. 

What you have to know about Russia - Bogdan Pankevych

Why does Russia want to attack Ukraine? The threat of a great war, Russia's ultimatums to NATO and the United States have made the world pay attention to Ukraine. Russian propaganda has created a misunderstanding of the state of affairs in Central and Eastern Europe. And now everyone is scared. It is worth taking this opportunity to talk about the causes and historical roots of the danger from Russia. Some will believe, some will not, but they will at least give it a thought. I would like to use the opportunity for helping people outside Ukraine to understand the real Russia, its motives and priorities. And make them understand that this threat also applies to them. 1. Historical aspect - Russians believe in the historical falsification they have created, spreading it all over the world for a long time already in denial of the actual truth.The Russian state emerged and was formed thanks to the Golden Horde of the Mongols, having adopted their authoritarian foundation and the way of exercising power. Independent Ukraine, which has a long history beginning from the medieval European State of Rus, by its very existence denies this false identity invented by the Russians, thus harming their self-esteem.Therefore, the Russians are trying to persuade the whole world that there is no separate Ukrainian people at all.

2. Economic aspect - The values of the Russian government are not integral and European - like, prosperity of their people and development are not priorities for them. Poverty of their own citizens is useful to the government, they assure maximum dependence on the state. Poor, dependent people are easy to manage and manipulate. Foreign investment is used as a tool of influence on the countries of investors. The security and profitability of investments depend on the loyalty of the respective governments to Russia and Putin. Therefore, the crimes of the Russian authorities are often overlooked or justified. 3. Political aspect - Russia claims world leadership. To exercise it, Russia resorts to intimidation, to the threat of aggression of a nuclear country, as well as energy blackmail. Russia has no other effective instruments of influence. The example of a successful democratic Ukraine refutes the claim that only an authoritarian type of government is possible for post-Soviet countries. Ukraine's success is a threat to the existence of this Russian government. Angela Merkel's sincere surprise when Putin became president again after Medvedev’s tenure, demonstrated a complete lack of understanding by Western elites of the peculiarities of Russia and the nature of its power. 4. Religious aspect - The Church in Russia is completely subordinated to the secular authority, sacralizing it and helping to keep the people in subjugation. The Moscow Patriarchate claims leadership in the Orthodox world, using financial and political leverage.The Moscow Church in Ukraine has always been an instrument of colonization and spiritual enslavement of Ukrainians. Almost half of the human and financial potential of the Moscow Patriarchate is concentrated in Ukraine. That is why Russia is strongly opposed to the independence of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. 5. Mental aspect - Ukrainians are democrats. Russians are autocrats. Ukrainians are individualists. Russians are much more communal. Ukrainians are freedom-loving. The Russians obey the tyrants. Ukrainians have the European mentality. Russians are closer to the Asian mentality. 6. International aspect - Putin understands very well the mentality of the civilized world, their desire for peace at all costs. He observes that Western governments are increasingly prioritising the GDP growth, even at times at the cost of fundamental principles and values. When freedom, democracy, independence of other countries can be sacrificed for the welfare and peace of their own citizens. The world did not react properly when Russia attacked Georgia in 2008. This prompted Putin to annex Crimea and attack Ukraine in 2014. The world hardly reacted to this international crime either. The infantilism and toothlessness of the civilized world are prompting Putin to commit new crimes. It now threatens Europe's security. Ukraine has given up the world's third nuclear capability for peace and security. The security guarantees given to Ukraine in return turned out to be null and void. This example encourages other countries to develop their own nuclear programs without relying on any global security guarantees. Conclusions - Russia's goal is to destroy Ukraine as an independent European democracy. Ukraine must exist as a vassal of Russia, completely dependent politically and economically, where the government will be elected by agreement and instructions from Russia. Russia is using all means to achieve this goal, including the 2014 military aggression. Ukraine's civil society will never allow the Ukrainian government to come under any pressure from Russia or other countries to the detriment of Ukraine's independence, its European path of development and its prospects of joining NATO. We will defend our freedom with weapons in hand, not succumbing to the temptations of a comfortable and peaceful life at the cost of losing even a small part of our own freedom and sovereignty.

[engelspolitics]

History of Chinese Emperors

https://www.grunge.com/199249/the-tragic-history-of-chinese-emperors/

Chinese emperors existed for 4000 years; 49 dynasties, the longest of which lasted 289 years and the shortest lasted less than a year

About half of all emperors died in office/abdicated by choice; the rest was assassinated, forced to abdicate or commit suicide

Some emperors were very powerful absolute rulers; others basically gilded prisoners

Qin became first emperor of unified China in 221 BC through Total War and killing of his enemies, including brothers and sisters

Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) is widely regarded as the greatest of China's dynasties but their system of succession was so unstable that 12 direct heirs to the throne didn't survive long enough

Murdering happened into the last Quing dynasty (1644-1911)

Even unified China fell apart every now and then

As the Jin dynasty collapsed (266-420 CE) in the fourth and fifth centuries, China fragmented into multiple competing kingdoms.

Only one emperor in Chinese history was monogamous (Hongzhi)

Some emperors were insane

Fu Sheng → "one-eyed tyrant," half-blind; forbade the words like "missing" or "without," killing anyone who said them in his presence. He was deposed and killed in just two years for drunkenness, idiocy, and needless cruelty.

Liu Shan, abdicated in 263, was so incompetent his name is now idiom for idiot

Being related to an emperor was dangerous → long-standing Chinese tradition to execute entire generations of your enemy's family

Uprisings and rebellions were usually led by people eager to cull the imperial herd

Not safe in own home; concubines often murdered emperor or family members

Lives of concubines

As early as the Jin dynasty (266-420 CE) concubines were conscripts, chosen according to the particular criteria of that dynasty or emperor. For over fifteen hundred years, women and girls were kidnapped from or given away by their families

Foot binding was mandatory

Harems were full of jealousy and rivalry, and attacks/murders were common

Concubines belonged to emperor, who could kill him if he wanted

As part of the royal household concubines were often subject to purges as well and could be killed by competing sons or warlords

Well-performing concubines could be buried with the emperor upon his death

Four beauties → most beautiful women of ancient China (one may have been fictional)

Their stories come from four different dynasties and epitomized Chinese ideals of beauty

Xi Shi was sent by a rival king as revenge; so beautiful that fish would forget how to swim and sink below the surface upon seeing her reflection in the water

Bao Si was of surpassing beauty but never smiled apart from when the king repeatedly lighted the signal towers warning the kingdom of invasion. This aggravated his allies and when an invasion did happen he was left to his fate.

Wang Zhaojun sent away on accident

Diaochan so beautiful the moon would shy away when she looked at it

Foreign invaders ended many dynasties.

Qin Shi Huang began construction of the Great Wall to keep out the Xiongnu, who only vanquished after over 200 years of war

It took Genghis and Kublai 60 years to complete invasion and takeover of China

The Yuan dynasty they established lasted over 200 years.

The last Qing Dynasty, ended partially after a century of aggression and meddling by other imperial powers and is now known as the "Century of humiliation."

However also internal powers also brought down dynasties

without even counting events of 20th century, 4of the 10 bloodiest wars in human history were Chinese civil wars.

Most Chinese dynasties dealt with too many rebellions and revolutions to count

Especially uprisings of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE) The Han (206 BCE-220 CE) and Qing (1636-1911 CE) dynasties

Song dynasty (960-1279 CE) is known by historians as economically prosperous and culturally dynamic but not politically stable

Six rebellions occurred in the Song's first 80 years, the country split in two by 1127, and was overwhelmed by internal unrest for decades on end before finally succumbing to the Mongols.

China's emperors were beset by religious and ethnic independence movements simmering for centuries before boiling over

The Han put down the Red Eyebrow rebellion, faced the Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion, and was then taken down by the Yellow Turbans.

The White Lotus, a political and religious group started during the Song dynasty, helped weaken the Qing before the anti-foreign, anti-imperialist Boxer rebellion ultimately exposed incompetence and the empire fell forever in 1911.

The Tang dynasty's (618-097 CE) Empress Wu Zetian was the only outright female monarch in Chinese history

Became a royal concubine at 14, finagled her way into the position of first consort, then empress consort, then empress dowager, before ruling openly as emperor.

Accomplished this by murdering her own infant daughter and blaming the emperor's wife who she then had killed too

After China was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War the emperor pursued the Hundred Days of Reform to modernize the country and reshape the government.

The Empress Dowager Cixi disagreed with this and supported a coup against her own son, reversed the reform policies, and took power, ruling from behind a literal screen) until her death in 1908.

Reformist Emperor Wang Bang, only emperor of the ill-fated Xin dynasty (9-23 CE) was killed by a peasant uprising for his efforts.

China's emperors were anointed to lead as the literal Son of Heaven.

Anyone approaching, or approached by, the emperor had to kowtow → prostrate on their knees with their forehead touching the ground.

Emperor had fleet of custom-carriages and personal roads no one else could use

Emperor had own unique first-person pronoun.

The colour yellow had been associated with nobility since the Han but the Ming and Qing made it illegal for anyone else to wear.

Forbidden City consisted of 98 separate buildings, thousands of staff, and was a city functioning on its own

The Mandate of Heaven bestowed on all China's emperors was not a birthright but was earned and could be revoked → if emperors let country fall into poverty and chaos or lose face they were removed by force, frequently by their own generals.

Song dynasty was started by a military coup, then neglected the military and focussed on art but after centuries of fragile peace the empire fell to the Mongols.

There were massive coups involving millions of people and going on for years, like the one led by general An Lushan against the Tang dynasty which lasted eight years and cost up to 36 million lives.

A failed coup against Qin Shi Huang solidified his position as King of Qin, allowing him strength to become the first emperor of a unified China.

Gift-giving (guanxi, meaning relationships/connections) has been widespread in Chinese politics and business

Illicit income in the Ming and Qing dynasties was calculated by University of Missouri to be 14 to 20 times as much as official income.