#a lay of ruinous reign

[gwyns]

they better fuck out all this tension in disillusioned btw

[historia-vitae-magistras]

Arthur and anglo saxon poetry fucks me up. We call it the Dark Ages because of a dearth of sources, but we have a melancholy poem describing the ruins of Aqua Sulis, or Bath, in the centuries after the Roman Collapse. I might make this into a fic someday, but Arthur is only a boy half-grown and roaming through the anglo-saxon heptarchy, a world he still can't quite wrap his head around, Cumbrian, a Celtic language, still first to cross his lips as he stares up at a ruined city. But more and more of what will one day be English rolling around in his mind, two languages with so few loan words there is nothing in English we can use to construct his mother tongue. Walking through a city, what was once a real and robust city and now lays dead and decaying, he wonders.

Who's bones are these broken beams? His own? Were he and Alasdair and Rhys something once called Britannia, now faded? Are they Rome's, who died thousands of miles away in a place Arthur hasn't seen for centuries? His mother's? She ruled and represented nebulous things, these borders shifting and flexing. Rome made a desert and called it peace, but she ruled it anyway, lady of the waters and the north. Maybe. He's unsure. He touches fallen tile and broken stone and knows what he knew when she drew her last. The end of a world that began failing long before. He'll never be able to sort the losses out; the words he may have once used to describe them are dead and gone by the time there are experts enough to study it. All that once made sense has been forgotten under the weight of a thousand years.

This masonry is wondrous; fates broke it courtyard pavements were smashed; the work of giants is decaying. Roofs are fallen, ruinous towers, the frosty gate with frost on cement is ravaged, chipped roofs are torn, fallen, undermined by old age. The grasp of the earth possesses the mighty builders, perished and fallen, the hard grasp of earth, until a hundred generations of people have departed. Often this wall, lichen-grey and stained with red, experienced one reign after another, remained standing under storms; the high wide gate has collapsed.

and

Far and wide the slain perished, days of pestilence came, death took all the brave men away their places of war became deserted places, the city decayed. The rebuilders perished, the armies to earth. And so these buildings grow desolate, and this red-curved roof parts from its tiles of the ceiling-vault. The ruin has fallen to the ground broken into mounds, where at one time many a warrior, joyous and ornamented with gold-bright splendour, proud and flushed with wine shone in war-trappings; looked at treasure, at silver, at precious stones, at wealth, at prosperity, at jewellery, at this bright castle of a broad kingdom.

[vigilantempathy]

Why Crowley can’t go back to Heaven and can’t be restored as an angel…

…using Satan’s soliloquy from Book IV of Paradise Lost by John Milton.

Because I have a deep-below-lower-deep unholy decade-long obsession with Paradise Lost and Good Omens S2 has prompted a re-read.

(Quoted from the UPenn online version, linked below.)

Broad Context: In Paradise Lost, Satan fell because he “trusted to have equaled the most High”—he pushed for equality with God, challenged the idea of Omnipotence, and led war against Heaven trying to prove that God was not supremely powerful and if he and his forces could achieve victory, that they deserved power, too. But they lost, Lucifer fell and became Satan, and everyone who fought with him was cast Down as well. He wasn’t claiming to be above God, but challenging God’s supremacy was an act of hubris. There are TONS of themes, language, and visuals from classical/Hellenic myth and epic poetry and Satan reads largely as the hero of a Greek tragic epic. He follows Aristotle’s Poetics ideas of peripety and discovery: he massively fucks up his own life, leading to his own tragic downfall, and only realizes too late that all his ruinous problems are his own damn fault (pun intended). People have debated since publication the degree to which Milton knowingly or unknowingly had sympathy for the devil (cue Rolling Stones) but tend to agree that Satan isn’t a typical obvious bad guy villain.

Kind of like how Good Omens’ Heaven/Hell dichotomy isn’t really about Good/Evil and its main characters are a demon who is a bit of a nice person and an angel who is enough of a bastard to be worth knowing.

Scene Context: Post-Fall, Satan struggles with the understanding that he fucked up his own life, that he fucked up the lives of everyone loyal to him because they were all punished for that loyalty, that he deeply regrets his choices knowing now how they worked out and wishes he’d never Fallen, but that he can never go back to Heaven or to being “some inferior angel” knowing what he knows now.

SCENE SETTING (Lines 17-31)

And like a devilish engine back recoils

Upon himself; horrour and doubt distract

His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir

The Hell within him; for within him Hell

He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell

One step, no more than from himself, can fly

By change of place: Now conscience wakes despair,

That slumbered; wakes the bitter memory

Of what he was, what is, and what must be

Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.

Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view

Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad;

Sometimes towards Heaven, and the full-blazing sun,

Which now sat high in his meridian tower:

Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began.

SATAN’S SOLILOQUY (Lines 93-113)

“But say I could repent, and could obtain,

By act of grace, my former state; how soon

Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay

What feigned submission swore? Ease would recant

Vows made in pain, as violent and void.

For never can true reconcilement grow,

Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep:

Which would but lead me to a worse relapse

And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear

Short intermission bought with double smart.

This knows my Punisher; therefore as far

From granting he, as I from begging, peace;

All hope excluded thus, behold, in stead

Of us out-cast, exil'd, his new delight,

Mankind created, and for him this world.

So farewell, hope; and with hope farewell, fear;

Farewell, remorse! all good to me is lost;

Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least

Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold,

By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;

As Man ere long, and this new world, shall know.”

Good Omens Read:

For many of the same reasons as Satan in Paradise Lost, Crowley can’t return to Heaven. He can’t trust it anymore. He knows what it did to him and others like him. He can no longer abide the lie that Heaven is the side of the ang— the side of the good guys. Good guys don’t do the things that God and Heaven have done. Heaven and Hell take similar, parallel actions throughout Good Omens but at least Hell doesn’t pretend to be righteous about their destructive, cruel, unjust actions. Hell is awful but at least it knows that. Better the devil you know, if the alternative is the angel who is fundamentally dishonest.

If Crowley returns to Heaven, he’ll saunter back downwards immediately and there will be nothing vague about it the second time. He doesn’t trust it, he can never trust it again, and he has 6000 years of anger towards Heaven for his own Fall, which are 6000 years of viewing Heaven as the enemy, even if only as lipservice to maintain professional courtesy.

But now he’s been cast into a deep personal hell, (“a lower deep;” the internal turmoil that makes a shitty external situation orders of magnitude worse) because now Heaven has taken Aziraphale from Crowley.

And Heaven can hurt him. They’ve tried to destroy Aziraphale before. They tried to destroy Gabriel by destroying everything that made him Gabriel. They’ve been threatening “extreme sanctions” and removal from The Book of Life and Crowley only recently learned that was a real possibility and not a made-up horror story.

Crowley hadn’t trusted Heaven in 6000 years, but Heaven hurting him and Heaven hurting Aziraphale are incomparable metrics to Crowley.

Contrast Crowley’s typically cool responses to being personally threatened with his incinerating rage at anyone threatening Aziraphale.

Crowley responds to threats to his own personal safety and well-being (Hastur, Ligur, and Shax all threaten Crowley himself and Crowley responds with one-liners, sarcasm, cinematic threats that makes a cheap plant mister sound like a ‘44 magnum, and, you know, holy water) without breaking a sweat. But threaten Aziraphale and there isn’t a one-liner to be found. He can’t pretend to be unaffected when Aziraphale is in trouble. He sputters. He trails off. He shouts. He snarls.

Noting also that when Crowley forgets to act cool is a good indicator that something has deeply rattled him. Ex. Soaking wet, ash-streaked, screaming, sobbing, knocked on the ground, grief-wrecked Crowley in the bookshop fire. So when Crowley doesn’t have a quip ready, he’s actually scared. In the moments that matter, Crowley is as cool as crocs with mismatched socks.)

Crowley hasn’t trusted Heaven I’m 6000 years because of what it did to him. He could never have gone back.

But now Heaven has taken Aziraphale and can hurt him. So now Heaven, through the Metatron, offers Crowley the possibility of return.

The Metatron knows as well as Crowley does that Crowley can never go back. The Metatron knows it as well as God knows the same to be true of Satan in Paradise Lost:

“For never can true reconcilement grow,

Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep:

Which would but lead me to a worse relapse

And heavier fall: (…)

This knows my Punisher; therefore as far

From granting he, as I from begging, peace.”

There was never an honest offer to restore Crowley to Heaven. He could never have trusted Heaven, even if he’d returned, and he’d have Fallen again immediately. That’s why the Metatron offered. Because Aziraphale still wants to trust Heaven and Crowley never can again. Because the Metatron knew Crowley would say no. And the Metatron knew that even if Crowley accepted to stay with Aziraphale or to protect him, Crowley would be cast back Down in short order anyway. (“Does anyone ever ask for death?” The Metatron asks Nina.)

Would Crowley have chosen not to Fall, knowing what he knows now? Probably. But he did. He can’t go back. Neither could Satan.

Satan’s soliloquy after the Fall, or Crowley’s pining melancholy drunk divorce rant after Season 2:

“So farewell, hope… all good to me is lost.”

[sylkana]

Top 5 book series (fantasy if you need narrowing down)

oooo thank you for this 💕

1. unfortunately i'm not going to say my top favorite publicly because i WILL get bullied on this blog

2. bloodleaf trilogy by crystal smith

3. a lay of ruinous reign by brianna sugalski (shhh ignore the fact that only book one is released at the moment)

4. falling kingdoms by morgan rhodes

5. the riyria revelations by michael j. sullivan

ask me my top 5 anything

[tinadonahue]

Brianna Sugalski is here to tell us about her fantasy romance Disillusioned, book 2 A Lay of Ruinous Ruin. Read on for details... _________...

[traciesbookspot]

Blog Tour: Disillusioned by Brianna Sugalski

DisillusionedBrianna Sugalski(A Lay of Ruinous Reign, #2)Publication date: October 8th 2024Genres: Adult, Fantasy, RomanceAs she settles into her throne, Lilac finds herself in the midst of preparing for her coronation ball, fully intending on keeping her promise to Kestrel. But when the faerie king is absent at her Accords meeting, a ghoulish messenger arrives in his place with a new demand:…

[thetldrplace]

Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 9- Piracy and Revolution

The second half of the 1400's saw two cataclysmic events: The fall of Constantinople to the Turks and the expulsion of the Moors from Spain. Those events saw a proliferation of rootless vagabonds that turned to piracy. Lots of rootless vagabonds appearing in a short time can be a real problem, 'cuz a guy's gotta eat after all, and if your job gets eliminated and your desperate... stealing might start to look like the only viable method for procuring what you need. 

Sicily, due to its proximity, had maintained friendly relations with North Africa. But after the fall of Constantinople, the conflict between Spain and Turks, the two remaining powers in the mediterranean, was inevitable. The ultra-conservative Spanish King Ferdinand refused any kind of dealings with the infidels, so legitimate trade between Spain and Ottoman was out. Kheir-ed-Din Barbarossa was the principal pirate threat during the early 1500's. Sicily suffered, because of that aforementioned proximity, and no town within 10 miles of the coast was safe. Charles V, the Spanish king, was bored with the Barbary coast and recognized that 1) it could not be reconquered, and 2) was ruinous in lives and finances to try and protect against it. He left Sicily unprotected and shifted his attention towards northern Europe. 

Sicily no longer had a navy, and given their lack of independence, had little incentive to try and build one. But, in this age of flourishing piracy, they had discovered another highly lucrative trade: slaves. 

Sicily under Spanish domination had remained largely lawless. Brigands ran free in the interior where the Spanish officials never bothered going. The interior peasants lived as they always had. If it was corrupt, it was probably no more corrupt than the colonial governments. If it was violent, it was no more violent than the baronage.  

And then there were the genial fun-lovers instigating the Spanish Inquisition. They were actually separate from the Church, and had their own police force, largely operating without interference. From the author John Julius Norwich: 

"Sicily was a desperately unhappy island. Only once in her long history had she been united and independent, and that was during the time of the Norman kings, whose successive reigns lasted less than 70 years. Since then, thanks to her Angevin and Spanish masters, she had become hopelessly demoralized and deeply corrupt. She had no national pride, no loyalties, no solidarity, no discipline. In consequence, she vegetated, suffering much and achieving nothing apart from the occasional unsuccessful revolution...." 

Sicily's hero in the early 1600's was one Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna. He arrived in Palermo in 1611, was appalled by what he saw, and set about to make some changes. He had cleaned up the streets within two weeks. Then he turned his attention to defense and ordered new ships. After that, he set about reforming the economy. He found one-third of the annual revenue was unaccounted for. So he instituted tight controls and within a few years had restored government credit. But he left in 1616.  

In 1624, an outbreak of bubonic plague hit.  

Almost as disastrous was the Thirty Years War, starting in 1618. It started as a protestant/catholic dust-up, then became an excuse to revive some age-old feuds across Europe. None of this would have meant much to the Sicilians, except Spain was busy scraping them for every penny it could get. 

But, "From bad to worse" being the unofficial motto of Sicily, the economic situation worsened and dissatisfaction grew. By Feb 1648, revolt broke out. Order was restored by the maestranze, guilds that had developed into social networks. 

If the first half of the 1600's were bad, the second half was worse: Chronic food shortages, constant tax demands from Spain, and the refusal of the barons to pay their share. This last lay, perhaps, at the heart of Sicily's suffering.  

The situation was only aggravated by the old rivalry between Messina and Palermo. Messina claimed ancient precedence. Palermo had the old-school aristocracy, while Messina were more merchant/nobles. But Palermo was grander and more elegant. But since times of old, each city had considered itself the more important and had learned to hate the other's guts whenever one got some slight bit of advantage. This self-destructive attitude; rejoicing in the degradation of your rival even if it meant the entire island would suffer, including yourself, could serve as another bullet point for the island's problems.  

[booklovingpixies]

AUDIO BOOK PROMO TOUR - Disenchanted (A Lay of Ruinous Reign Book 1) by Brianna Sugalski

Title: Disenchanted Series: A Lay of Ruinous Reign Book 1 Author: Brianna Sugalski Genre: Romantic Dark Fantasy/ Vampire romance; quest fantasy; Arthurian fantasy; touch her and die; one bed romance; Elder Scrolls, Buffy, and DnD inspired Audiobook Release Date: January 22, 2024 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201615251-disenchanted Audiobook Narrators/Producer:  Krys…

[joyffree]

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𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘𝚍𝚊𝚢!

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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝘂𝗳𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗵 𝗝. 𝗠𝗮𝗮𝘀' 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗼𝗻-𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘄𝗿𝘆 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗼𝗿, 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗿𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲.

Lilac Trécesson is a prisoner in her parents' castle after a most wicked secret was revealed on the eve of her fifteenth birthday. Years later, her Accession looms upon her father's decision to abdicate, and between the riotous townsfolk and scheming noble bent on snatching her throne, she prepares for the worst… Until a letter arrives from The Witch of Lupine Grotto, containing a curious offer to banish her curse forever.

She begrudgingly trades her coronet for a cloak and ventures into the forest Brocéliande, only to find herself cornered by a bloodthirsty barkeep who demands her help in exchange for protection against the even deadlier forces of the woods.

With only the protection of her inherited dagger—and unsolicited help of the sardonic stranger who inserts himself on her quest—Lilac must find the impious enchantress and return in time to claim her crown. Pity the fool to underestimate the girl with subpar blade skills but the spite to make up for it.

This is the tale of a cursed princess,

A crestfallen killer,

The town that wants them to burn,

And the witch who can save them both.

Also available in eBook & Paperback

→ https://books2read.com/DisenchantedbyBriannaSugalski

Hosted by Enticing Journey Book Promotions

[gwyns]

you know it's true love when the girl stabs the guy in the heart <3

[romwrit]

Disenchanted by Brianna Sugalski

DisenchantedBrianna Sugalski(A Lay of Ruinous Reign, #1)Publication date: January 23rd 2024Genres: Adult, Fantasy, RomanceThe Princess Bride and Buffy the Vampire Slayer meet Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass in this Breton-inspired fantasy debut brimming with wry humor, epic adventure, and an irresistible romance. Lilac Trécesson is a prisoner in her parents’ castle after a most wicked secret was…

[therealimintobooks]

#BlogTour ~ Disenchanted by Brianna Sugalski

Disenchanted Brianna Sugalski (A Lay of Ruinous Reign, #1) Publication date: January 23rd 2024 Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance The Princess Bride and Buffy the Vampire Slayer meet Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass in this Breton-inspired fantasy debut brimming with wry humor, epic adventure, and an irresistible romance. Lilac Trécesson is a prisoner in her parents’ castle after a most wicked secret…

[foibles-fables]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction 😅

⭐ for 'make treaty with the moon'. I absolutely love that one, and it's inspired me to attempt the dreaded 2nd person POV so I'm really curious what your thoughts on it were/are!

Ohhh boy. 1) THANK YOU for asking about this one and 2) you are IN FOR IT. Gonna put this one under a cut, just to be safe, because it might get long.

So. I have a lot to say about the soon-to-be-continued make treaty with the moon. This silly thing has been rotting my brain since late January, just before I finished the game. It's one of those multichapter fics that has been built specifically around one (1) scene, which has definitely not happened yet. The general idea of this defining scene started off as an inkling for a post-Grave-Hoard one-shot. But then, Aloy's stint in the Sun-Ring happened, and I played through to the Bitter Climb. I went to bed with that ruinous synth voice section of "A Wanderer's Work" playing over and over in my head. That One Scene scene changed entirely--location, mood, all of it. And a whole story started to coalesce around it, in a totally unexpected way. Talanah deserved more than thirty minutes of plot relevance. I want to give it to her.

And the story I want tell with this one is twofold--one, an in-game evaluation of a question posed much later in the comic: what do you do when you lay the past to rest? And two, a more in-depth backstory for her, revealed through nonlinear flashbacks. Our girl's got trauma (the checklist of the dead family, years spent in exile from her home, a dead mentor, sexism that leads to associates wanting her dead, too, both in word and in action). She’s taken a position of power under a very interesting and difficult circumstance–coming off of three years of a performative tough exterior in an organization in which at least a small majority Very Clearly Does Not Want her. That, of course coupled with all of the knowns and unknowns during Jiran’s reign of terror through the Liberation, very likely modulated the way she kept herself (and her trauma response) in check with single-minded pursuit of a specific goal. And as far as coping goes, that’s not always for the best. At the end of her quest, she's become the Sunhawk. The entirety of her sublimation endgame is met and…then what’s left standing between her and any of the response that she’s maybe stamped down? (read: lots of anxiety and control issues and a CRIPPLING fear of abandonment.)

Then throw in her...friend? right? only narrowly escaping the fate of her father and brother. That's gonna bring some shit up, for sure. For SURE. Basic plot outline, for those interested: I send Talanah chasing after Aloy as the latter heads for the Sacred Land, and then eventually accompanying her there to diverge the plotline of The Heart of the Nora, while highlighting hidden moments and parallels in their journeys thus far. And yeah of COURSE there's gonna be gay yearning and gay more-than-yearning, look who you're looking at.

Stuff to look forward to when this continues, soon:

1. Ahsis is even more of a fucking douche than the game says he is 2. The Girls Are Fightingggg!!! in so many ways 3. Talanah is a hypocrite 4. and Aloy is kind of an asshole but she's got plenty of excuses 5. Tarkas 6. Ilsadi 7. the "and Talanah is also SCREAMING" moment in my outline 8. Angst 9. Spice 10. Feelings

As far as specific passages so far, from the first chapter:

Until that humid summer morning, when smoke and ash billowed in the northeast. A rupture where there was once a distant mountain, so much dust bleeding into the clear sky. An unreadable omen that shifted all things. Your life, caught up in its windswept drifting.

(You remember it with surreal clarity. It was eight years to the day since the High Sun-Priest held you up, newborn and wailing, to your first daybreak. You watched the debris rise as you sat on the roof of the servants’ house at your family estate, cross-legged, muscles tired from the usually-forbidden climb. Everyone else was fretting, and the celebration of your birth was momentarily forgotten in the turmoil. That didn’t matter to you. You were too transfixed to care, utterly calm, daytime stars swimming in your gaze as you witnessed that which was not sky becoming one with it. By the Sun, you whispered to yourself. But though the Sun was bright that morning, it had claim to none of your attention. Just the smoke, how it reached for you across the heavy-aired expanse, and the unexplainable sweet desire you felt deep in your throat to look and look and look at it until it made spots in your vision just the same.)

Talanah's birthday coincides with a very significant event. And the visual brought forth here will become a theme.

[joyffree]

The Princess Bride and Buffy the Vampire Slayer meet Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass in this Breton-inspired fantasy debut brimming with wry humor, epic adventure, and an irresistible romance.

Disenchanted (A Lay of Ruinous Reign Book 1) Dark Romantic Fantasy by Brianna Sugalski is now available in Audio!

This is the tale of a cursed princess, A crestfallen killer, The town that wants them to burn, And the witch who can save them both.