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pilferingapples · 1 year ago

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(only answer this if you're in the mood for it of course) If you had to choose one colour and one single object for each of the five books in Les Miserables, which ones would you choose and (optionally) why?

oooh what a fun complicated question, I love this question! SHOCKINGLY I got long-winded about symbolism in the Long Winded Symbolism Book:

Tome 1: Fantine Color: Gold/ yellow gold for Fantine's hair, and also as a color strongly tied to wealth; no other volume is going to focus quite as much on finances as this chapter, from the Bishop and the wealth he rejects, to Valjean and his rising economic status, to Fantine and the commodification of her life to gain a few gold coins here and there. Object: a cart-wheel. I thought about the candle-sticks, and jet beads, and ships, and even teeth,but it's gotta be a cart-wheel. The wheels that carry the passengers and drivers of society but have no energy of their own; the wheels that crush anyone who falls underneath them, that take enormous force and energy and even demand the risking of life to move, break and splinter when needed to right injustice, and block all progress when stilled. The cart-wheels that stop when the horse dies, block off all hope of success at the Waterloo Inn, crush Fauchevelent and almost stop Valjean from saving his own soul. Frigging cart wheels.

Tome 2: Cosette Color: Black the color of a night in the dark forest, the inside of a grave or sunken road, Paris in the silence of a dark chase, a nun's habit. The color of despair, sure, the color of imprisonment, yes, but also the color of concealment, meditation, the unknown, peace. Object: I also considered: a water-bucket, a broken chain (for Cosette and Valjean both in this Book!), and Catherine the doll-- but it has to be a coffin. I'd say a tomb, but a coffin is more visually iconic and , of course, more immediately relevant to JVJ . LM is full of tomb and coffin imagery, but this is THE Tome of Tombs and coffins -- the impromptu tombs of the sunken road of Ohain, the chosen symbolic tomb of the convent itself (the nuns have to symbolically die and be reborn to fully enter!), the literal and ironically lifesaving coffin that Valjean is buried in. Tome 3: Marius MAN THIS ONE WAS SO HARD

Color: Green I REALLY AGONIZED ON THIS , it was Green or Blue though ; but the only real strong Blue imagery here is it being part of Marius' vision of Cosette

Green though! the color of growing things and spring and little seedlings just starting to grow, and flowers and Flora, and of Marius' secondhand coat , which looks black at night. New beginnings hidden in mourning , despite the losses of the past; flowers and growing things as signs of loss and loss as a beginning! It's what this Tome is all about, growth from grief and loss, and the grief and loss that comes from growth. Object: a piece of paper, folded into a letter. We won't get Marius' Epic Love Note until next Tome, but letters have enough of a starring role here as is! The letters Gillenormand burns to keep Marius apart from his father; the letter that doesn't burn that sends Marius to his father's deathbed; the note from his father that becomes his talisman (until lost); the letters that Thenardier sends to beg (and extort?) money, that connect Marius to Eponine and then Cosette again; letters as proof of status, proof that " we weren't meant to be like this--" ; letters as proof of identity, as love, as warnings, as traps. Letters as connection across time and generations and class and death. Tome IV: The Idyll and the Epic Color: Red Object: The Barricade look maybe both these options are stereotypical here but they are also correct. There's a whole song and years of Tumblr jokes about everything Red symbolizes and it's all in play here. It's desire and dawn and wine and warmth and death and revolution and warning and blood and fire and flowers and love. Especially love.

And the barricade is not just the single biggest Symbolic Object in the novel, it's especially the symbol of everything together, every loaded Symbolic Object in the whole book, wagon wheels and windows and doors and letters and stones and carts and yeah, probably coffins, the way this part of the novel is everyone's storylines coming together. A heap of joy and a heap of sorrows, all coming together to fight desperately for something better. Sometimes things are iconic for a reason.

Tome V: Jean Valjean Color: White White for dawn that's not the hour of waking; for Cosette's wedding gown; for a bottle of ink; for untouched marble and stone after the writing is washed away. Object : THE CANDLESTICKS I almost went with these for Tome I but no!! they belong here! in Valjean's Book! HIS symbols, that he finally gets to pass on , and oh geez if I get going on that I will NEVER post this, but you get it anyway right? you get it. It's gotta be the candlesticks, here at the end.

Thank you ! this was very fun to think about!!

#answereds #Object symbols #I banned myself from living things on this #and from Light Sources #yes there's the candlesticks but the not the CANDLES it is DIFFERENT #this was so fun to think about #STILL NOT SURE ON THE MARIUS COLOR #OPEN TO DEBATE #long post

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katyahina · 1 year ago

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Some (potentially) useful remarks on Healing Church clothes and weapons

1) Situation with Ludwig's sword(s) might be less simple than we used to think!

(I will be using retranslations document ( x ) by Last Protagonist as usual, to avoid losing some nuances)

So, we know that Ludwig was using the 'normie' silver sword that hunters of his type were using as well - the normal one that you stick in a 'sheath' to make a big one, replicating Holy Moonlight sword's transformed design but not glowing. The simplest variant is, of course, that he found Holy Moonlight sword but since he was so jealous and secretive of it, he was MOSTLY using the 'normal' blade. Perhaps, Holy Moonlight sword was only used on special occasions, or treasured away from most people and "consulted" for advice until later when he went mad. I would not say that this description comes from the fact that untransformed versions of the blades are the same, because... they are not:

And I think it mostly works, and it is worth pointing out that as epic as fanart of Ludwig swinging that turquoise-colored shiny sword is, and as simpler as memes using that sword are to get, but within the story it was not likely to happen consistently! But also:

This bit about description of Guidance rune makes things a bit more strange. If he, say, has been exploring the dungeons and found the sword that later inspired him to mass-produce similar swords, what it is about closing his eyes? Is this really about Ludwig just falling asleep before the sword or something? :')

@val-of-the-north suggested there is a possibility that Ludwig was shown the sword by superior forces - likely by Flora / Moon Presence herself, especially since Ludwig was close associate of Laurence, who was, in turn, beckoning Flora for creation of Hunter's Dream to begin with. For one reason or another, Ludwig could have seen the vision of the sword, that inspired him to create a very similar one under inspiration and become Laurence's knight this way. God- For all we know, Laurence might have planned to ""enlighten"" him!! And then, either himself or the hunters he inspired would go to the Chalice Dungeons and discover the REAL thing on their way. It could even be additional justification for why Executioner type of hunters are roaming the dungeons! Speaking of...

2) It is likely that Ludwig never wore Tomb Prospector set!

We know that Ludwig was THE first hunter of the Healing Church, who were a different type of hunters than Old Hunters of Gehrman's type. But at the same time, description of the Executioners clothes says that they were the very fist prototype for ALL following clothes of the Healing Church hunters, especially having inspired the trademark holy shawl:

So, FIRST was the garb of Executioners, THEN came the garb of Tomb Prospectors, at least as we know it!

(Source for Ludwig's model is Bosses Up Close video by XTrin: ( x ))

Additionally, whereas Tomb Prospector set is bought using the Radiant Sword Hunter Badge, it marks people using this badge as 'descendants' of Ludwig:

So, again; first was Ludwig, in Executioner drip, and then Tomb Prospectors, and their attire, were inspired by him. I... see the only way around it; that Ludwig was wearing Executioner clothes initially, and later wore Tomb Prospector set on his adventures, but when he was back, he also was wearing his normal set.

Interestingly, though, clothes of Executioners keep hinting at Rogeriusz/Logarius, despite him being... well, at the very least, SECOND known Healing Church hunter.

Whatever is the reason of Logarius being met in drastically different clothes, but the statue implied to be him, to which Alfred lays a crown at the end of his mad quest, IS depicted in Executioner clothes. Albeit, with far more robe-like feeling to it than how we see it on Alfred's example. Maybe for a different vibe, maybe Logaius always has been a bit more wizard-like, whichever you think it is!

It is hard to say which one is true, as we are with two variants:

one. Logarius was not the first hunter, but he was the first staff (court wizard?? lol), therefore set the trend of clothes, that Ludwig took upon as a hunter.

two. Ludwig is accursed, he fell from grace and was hated and forgotten as blood-possessed beast; meanwhile, Alfred alone is a good proof that Logarius is still honored and respected! So, perhaps, these clothes came to be associated with Executioners of Logarius instead, since Logarius (undeservingly so) pushed Ludwig from the place of admireable figure! Was it just society's sentiment, or a deliberate political action, hard to tell...

I am more fond of the second variant, and funny enough, this brings me to the next point I want to make:

3) It is likely that Healing Church's saints started wearing crowns thanks to Logarius.

Alright, this one is also slightly lost in translation, since not only the name of the item is different (which can be distracting), but also a sentense is missing in English localization.

Healing Church "sacrificing" someone would imply them giving away something treasured for them, so odds are, they would give away bodies of their saints to them roaming Pthumerians in the dungeons, instead of doing proper burial! The 'they are oddly stimulated by the stench of dead saints' also makes me think of this bit:

(Interview with Miyazaki ( x ))

If this was very special quality of blood what Pthumerian Watchers are after, then sure the saints would be the best; not only as very avid consumers of the holy blood, but also as those 'holding back' on transforming into a beast the most, which would sure make it special.

Additionally, you could use this intention, though it is a bit more vague: when Bloodborne was still a sequel for Demon Souls, Laurence's skull was going to not only look more human, but also have a crown on it:

youtube

Yeah, the simpler times when we had demon-like enemies, when Gasc and Mico would say 'Umbasa', all that.

But even cut content aside, the lore as we have it specifies that there were saints who worn crowns (and fancy rings and wrist accessories)! My lucky guess is that after Cainhurst was massacred, the saints of the Healing Church were... to put it in the most blunt way possible, qualified to declare themselves new aristocracy/rulers/whatever. Maybe it was to establish theocracy and their reign as new most influental figures, maybe it was to honor Logarius who started wearing the crown of the murdered King after his crusade, maybe it was both.

...besides, it means there were so many important saint figures in the Healing Church in the timespan from Cainhurst falling to Paleblood Hunter arriving. We seem to meet Emilia/ Amelia at the very end of whatever authority Healing Church still had, with no seen successors, and current Healing Church hunters chief being Cleric Beast on the bridge... Before this point of time, though? It is an aviary for OCs of the size I can't even describe x)

4) There is a reason why Black Church Servants have a more "dangerous" weapon despite 'black' being lower rank to 'white'.

I am talking about these guys, and their annoying Crucifix weapon that activates Frenzy buildup.

It did not quite make it in the final game, presumably because there were only so many ways to make a proper mace-like weapon, but in the concept, Bloodletter was looking a lot like this as well:

I just want to point out that the 'expelling bad blood' aspect is QUITE important here! Bloodletter causes the user to get Frenzy buildup, much like the Crucifix used by Black Church Servants. And the reason it is believed to "help" with the "bad" blood? The fact that Frenzy is connected with the hunt!

I talked about it more in this ( x ) and this ( x ) post, but TLDR; Frenzy spears are literal weapons manifesting from the person's very blood solidfying, Oedon the Great One is inextricably tied with the bloodshed and bullets and the Hunt itself, and blood itself seems to solidfy into those spears bit by bit.

So, they might have ended believing that what deliberately causing Frenzy would do is to unleash whatever it was in person that was getting corrupted - and thus, more subjective to beasthood. Especially, that would work with Black Church, who were "preventive":

4.1) Just like that, White Church Servants correlate with what White Church Doctors do.

The lamp is especially interesting detail, as it is harmless, and only hurts you with the Arcane projectile when you have enough Insight. Meanwhile, Frenzy does hurt stronger the more Insight you have... Truly, in Bloodborne, the Hunt and Eldrich Truth, the Beasts and Kin are simply two sides of the same coin... Just two outcomes in the same corrupt deity's vicious plan.

5) Use or not, but male Church Doctor clothes have weird similarities with 'foreigner clothes'.

It is hard to confirm of deny anything here... Brador has five buttons but Black Church Doctor has four; similarly, the foreigner set our Hunter arrives in has five buttons and White Church Doctor has four. They're the same striped type of a vest though, and they have the same type of buttons, athough Church's is sewn with dark threads but foreigner is with brighter.

It could have been an intentional reference that either was abandoned or is so hard to decipher that we will never get there. We only have subtle hooks towards Paleblood Hunter being not loreless; such as Cainhurst summon we find in the room we woke up at having OUR name written in it, with one of the Cainhurst portraits featuring Golden Pendant adn Church's necklace. I am always lost with the ideas of what might have went down in the past..... or whether 'we' are secretly related to Brador or his land, bwahaha!

6) They ARE, all in all, DOCTORS clothes.

I find it a bit... harder to tell what DO hunters of the Healing Church wear? We find only so many of the NPCs that wear Healing Church Doctor clothes: for black set it is two black hunters in Research Hall (female and male), one guy in Nightmare Frontier and Adella who has no hunting weapons, for white set it is a praying lady in Research Hall and Imposter Iosefka + likely real Iosefka too, that also doesn't hunt. Seven characters, FIVE of which are confirmed to be associated with medicine (...six if being a Blood Nun counts...?); three characters in Research Hall, one is stated to be a doctor, one is a nun, one does Kin experiments that originated from Research Hall.

Would not put the Black Church guy in the Frontier as a drastic contradiction. What I am saying is, they might not even qualify as hunters. Logically, they'd have weapons and get some self-defence skills as they HAVE to kill (people, less so beasts!). Iosefka is never confirmed to fight, Adella uses normie dagger and not even a legit weapon, and four from the remaining five are reclused to the indoors places.

Mostly, I am thinking as I am writing it, as there is an interesting character - Henriett! She is wearing the clothes descending in design from Old Hunters type (not Healing Church type!), yet she has Church weapons (Repeating Pistol and Kirkhammer) and helps to beat Amelia, Ludwig and Laurence. I always felt like she used to be Healing Church's hunter but found something she should not have and detracted... And I presumed she used to wear Black Church clothes (trousers variant to be practical). Buuuuut.

I might actually take this back. Depending on the interpretation, the current hunters of BEASTS, not of PEOPLE that "might" be beasts etc, could either 1) wear Executioner garb like Alfred does 2) wear unique clothes that is yet to be designed, but might be similar to Executioners garb, for example, design mix of doctors' and Executioners, or TOTALLY unique clothing like Gascoigne for example 3) actually wear 'Hunter' set like Henriett and our Paleblood Hunter from promo materials after changing their foreign garb.

On the other hand, Henriett having been one of them paranoids eliminating people falling for beasthood and then snapping out of it could make such a mess of a character's backstory. Not to mention that some Black "doctors" (and occasional White ones) did blend in with Huntsmen mobs, in chaotic mess of no longer being able to tell where is a friend and where is an enemy. No longer caring for those 'showing' signs of beasthood but only those who fully turned. And foreigners, of course! Like, maybe the 'they are not hunters but so-called "doctors" point USED TO be relevant in Old Hunters era, but during the game events it is not relevant ANYMORE, as Yharnam is basically anarchy now.

----------------------------------------------

Alright, I think I compiled what I had to say!

Mostly, I made this post for the reference to myself as an artist and a writer, and for my friends that might find it useful, but I decided to put it here just in case if someone else could find something here! Also, a headcanon: whereas Ludwig's Holy Blade was based of the OG Holy Moonlight Sword, the Kirkhammer instead was based off the hammer the Pthumerian creator of Holy Moonlight Sword used to forge it! It was discovered waaaay down there. Because Loran already met Yharnam's fate once. Maybe, somewhere in Yharnam, there is still the 'original' Hammer. And it glows in red upon tranforming, rather than how the sword glows in turquoise!

#bloodborne #bloodborne theory #ludwig the holy blade #old hunter henriett #black church servant #white church servant #brador church assassin #bloodborne observations #not art #text post #hhhhhhh sorry i barely use this blog anymore #i always sit in my personal for some reason.....#don't know how to get in the swing of getting to post here regularly like i used to...#after 2022 life simply turned somewhere wrong #Youtube

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talonabraxas · 6 months ago

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🌼🏵️🌼🏵️☀️🏵️🌼🏵️🌼 Green Man, May Day and May Pole

The Goddess of what is now May Day goes back to ancient times, in Anatolia, Greece, and Rome. Spring goddesses came to be venerated at two Roman holiday festivals that led to our May Day. The Roman Empire is important here because it took over much of Europe and the British Isles. Its mythology, associated rituals, and holidays spread there and merged with local conditions, mythologies, holidays, and customs.

The first of these goddesses of spring holidays was the Hilaria festival (from Greek hilareia/hilaria (“rejoicing”) and Latin hilaris (“cheerful”), held between the vernal equinox and April 1. It goes back to when the Phrygian goddess Cybele was introduced to Rome, at the end of the 3rd century BCE. In her myth, she had a son-lover, Attis, a dying-and-rising god who was mortally gored by a boar. Cybele knew that he had not died for eternity but that his spirit simply had taken refuge in a tree for the winter, and that he would be reborn from the tree in the spring, on the vernal equinox. When Cybele was introduced in Rome, she was given her temple of Magna Mater on the Palatine hill and a also a holiday with corresponding rituals. In her festival, a pine tree (that of Attis) was cut and stripped of its branches, wrapped in linen like a mummy, and decorated with violets (Cybele’s flower, because in the myth violets were said to have sprung from the blood of Attis).

It was then brought before Cybele’s temple on wagons in what resembled a funeral cortege, since Attis was “dead” inside the tree. This was followed by days of frenzied grief and mourning (including scourging) known as the “blood days,” when the tree was symbolically buried in a “tomb.” Attis then resurrected (rose out of the tree) on the day of Hilaria and was reunited with Cybele, symbolizing the beginning of spring. The tree was then erected before Cybele’s temple, and the people celebrated around it. The celebrations ended on April 1, which may be the origin of our April Fool’s day (the people were having a “hilarious” celebration). This has obvious parallels with the Maypole and May Day celebrations.

The second of these holidays was the Floralia, named after Flora, goddess of flowers and spring. Originally she may have been a Sabine goddess, about whom we know nothing other than that she had a spring month named after her on the Sabine calendar (Flusalis, linguistically related to Floralia) and that supposedly an altar to her in Rome was established by the Sabine king Tatius during the legendary period of his joint rule of Rome with Romulus. But none of her Sabine mythology has survived. In Rome Flora acquired her entire surviving mythology from the Greek spring goddess Chloris (from chloros – “pale green”),

who, as Ovid tells us, was originally a beautiful nymph in the Elysian Fields catering to the pleasures of the fortunate dead. There she also attracted the attention of Zephryos, the god of the West Wind and of spring, who quickly had his way with her. But then he married her, in what turned out to be a happy, loving marriage. As a wedding gift he filled her fields (her dowry in the marriage) with a flower garden, the flowers in which were said to spring from the wounds of Attis and Adonis. Zephyros, as the West Wind, brings the spring rains that grow the flowers. Thus, Virgil wrote that “the meadows ungirdle to Zephyros’s balmy breeze; the tender moisture avails for all.” Chloris also bore from Zephryos a son, Karpos, in Greek meaning “fruit” or “crop.” Through Zephyros’s wedding gift she became the goddess having jurisdiction over flowers, which she spread (by spreading their seeds) all over the earth, which until then was monochrome. She became goddess of spring. As Flora in Rome, in the late 3rd century BCE a festival was instituted in her honor that lasted from April 28 to May 2. It included theater, a sacrifice to Flora, a procession in which a statue of Flora was carried, as well as competitive events and other spectacles at the Circus Maximus. One of these involved releasing captured hares and goats (both noted for their fertility) into the Circus, and scattering beans, vetches, and lupins (all fertility symbols) into the crowd. The celebrants wore multi-colored clothing symbolizing flowers and spring, as later was customary on May Day in Europe. It was a time of generally licentious behavior. Flora also had a rose festival on May 23.

Holy Marriage Beltane can be seen as the feast of Holy Marriage or else as the feast of fertilization in nature. The Goddess is at her best in an array of flowers and flowers. The God is green and horned. This marriage takes place in nature around us, it takes place between the God and the Goddess, between man and woman, but it is also an inner marriage of the male and female energies within you. This is the feast of the actual cosmic orgasm, which is only achieved in complete indolence or in complete unification. It is the mixing of the red stream of the Goddess, with the white stream of the god. At the most plastic this is (menstruation) blood and semen. But it is also the descending and ascending, the incoming and outgoing energy flow. When these currents are in harmony with each other, unification arises and thereby fertility and creativity.

The Goddess by Talon Abraxas

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paganimagevault · 2 years ago

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Scythian gold belt buckle of figures resting under a tree 4th-3rd C. BCE. H. 12.3, L. 16.1 cm, Wt. 465.04g. Southern Siberia. & Wooden headdress with pigtail. Pazyryk barrow no. 5. 252-238 BCE. Wood, leather, hair, wool, felt, silk. H. c. 40, diam. 17.8 cm. See 'Scythian mummy tomb (fifth Pazyryk kurgan), Pazyryk culture 4th-3rd C. BCE' post on my blog for more info on this burial.

On the Scythian gold belt buckle: "This outstanding and very famous object has been published many many times, as its imagery contains much that is synonymous with what we know about the Scythians. This scene is often referred to in literature as 'resting under the tree', and parallels may be drawn to surviving costume, hairstyles and weaponry of the Scythians. However, it should also be examined within a mythological context, as the presence of anthropomorphic characters in the art of the ancient nomads had a high degree of semantic significance, as did the special status of their owners. This is why the female deity, associated with the earth and flora - the tree in this scene is an allusion to the 'Tree of Life' - may represent the 'Great Mother', who was a giver of life but was also associated with underworld powers. Wedding rituals went hand in hand with ideas of death and funerary rites in archaic communities. The central quiver hanging from the branches of the tree recalls Herodotus' account of the important role the quiver played in the wedding symbolism of the nomads: 'There, when a man desires a woman, he hangs his quiver before her wagon, and has intercourse with her. none hindering' []. It appears that this entire scene may refer to a mythical story where the death of the protagonist parallels his marriage to the 'Great Mother'. This sacred union was seen as a requisite for the renewal of life and the completion of the full cycle of birth, death, and rebirth of all living creatures."

...

On the Scythian wooden headdress: "The base of this female headdress is a flat-topped wooden cap. Rectangular grooves on either side originally held thin ear-like plates with a smooth edge along the bottom, of which only the right one survives. The flat top of the cap was covered with leather. Two circular holes measuring 1.5-2cm across were made in the nape and four more in the crown (one in the centre and three around the edges). On either side of these are two short hollow cylinders covered in silk and attached to the wooden base by sinew passed through small holes. A row of small holes was drilled through the back, and three of these still contain scraps of sinew. It appears that the headdress originally had a nape cover made of soft material, either cloth, felt or leather, and the entire headdress may have been covered in cloth. This headdress was attached directly to the dark blonde hair of the woman who wore it. Her hair was largely shaved off but left intact on the crown. This portion was then divided into two braids looped through circular holes in the centre of the wooden cap, and wrapped around a black horsehair cord. Wool thread with thick, light-colored felt strips secured the entire headdress to the top of her head. Another braid, about 37cm long and made from the hair of the same woman with two woolen cords, was tied to the top of the headdress with twine and knotted at the top and the bottom.

Despite some similar features, the wooden base of this mid-third-century BCE headdress-wig from burial mound 5 at Pazyryk is different from earlier wigs. It most closely resembles the female headdress depicted on the belt plaques with the 'under the tree scene' from the Siberian Collection of Peter the Great. It is possible that the woman who wore this was a foreign consort of the chieftain buried in the fifth burial mound at Pazyryk, and this is supported by the fact that her tattoos include designs which are uncommon in Pazyryk imagery, but instead resemble those found to the west."

-Scythians, warriors of ancient Siberia. Edited by St. John Simpson and Svetlana Pankova. The British Museum.

#scythian #scythian gold #pazyryk #siberian #hestia #tabiti #pagan #artifacts #antiquities #antiquity #museums #history #ancient history #ancient art #4th century bce

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le-roi-des-bulgares · 3 years ago

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Frederick and Mary Magdalene

Just came across this piece of info in an essay about Watteau which set I-

After the conclusion of the seven years war, Frederick decorated a room (probably in his own apartment) in the Potsdam city palace with 11 paintings, of which four Watteaus, five Lancrets, one Pater -- all fêtes galantes (courtship parties), which in Frederick’s younger days was his favorite genre to hang in private rooms -- AND one copy of Correggio’s Penitent Magdalene (or Magdalene reading/in meditation), made by a Berlin painter Romandon in 1695.

It’s such a deliberate and meaningful arrangement, and such a sight to imagine, that amongst the lovely country scenes by Watteau and pupils, there’s a hermit Saint Mary Magdalene, retreating into a secluded place to spend the rest of her life alone... In a word, I believe that Fritz was full-on identifying with her.

If we take the traditional (read: medieval) backstory of Magdalene before she was converted - that she led an extravagant life, then we can perhaps even interpret this arrangement further: that in this room overlooking the Lustgarten-turned-parade-ground in front of the palace, he, like her, devoted himself into the pursuit (and pleasure) of study, yet was always surrounded by faded dreams of a past filled with lost and irrecoverable love.

The Potsdam city palace was destroyed in 1960. The copy of Correggio’s Magdalene is now lost (I assume the original is lost too, since i can’t find pictures of it after the 1910s?), but I’ve found a few copies and prints to illustrate what it may have looked like:

Engraving of Mary Magdalene reading in the desert, Johann Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Knolle (x)

A Meissen porcelain plaque from 19th century, after the Correggio in Dresden (x) (i’m just impressed with the fact that this is porcelain)

A 1854 photo reproduction of the painting, in The choicest master-pieces of the picture-gallery of Dresden. (x)

Pompeo Batoni, After Correggio (if im not mistaken Batoni added the skull in there, and her head recalls Caravaggio. it’s interesting to see that the original had neither the skull nor the crucifix, which are common in most penitent Magdelenes, but rather just a woman happily reading, with her breasts out)

Also this page from Turner’s sketchbook which I find cute (??) (x)

source:

Helmut Börsch-Supan, Friedrich der Große und Watteau, in Watteau, 1684-1721, exhibition catalogue by Graselli and Rosenberg, 1984, pp. 553-562 (x)

Matthias Oesterreichs, Beschreibung aller Gemählde, Antiquitäten, und anderer kostbarer und merkwürdigezr Sachen, so in denen beyden Schlössern von Sans-Souci, wie auch in dem Schlosse zu Potsdam und Charlottenburg [...]. 1773. A detailed description of the arts in Fritz’s three palaces. The room & the paintings in question can be seen in Nr. 547-557. (x)

#im simply shocked as to how many female figures in literature Fritz identified to...#like #we know he likes the Leda and the Swan motif #and i've seen a scholar linking him with a statue of Cleopatra at the terrace of Sanssouci #also a Flora statue at his tomb #now Magdalene #idk how often men of this period do this but #this man...#I'm curious that if he owned more paintings of a similar subject #also was this copy a war loss?#many researches to be made...#long post

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princediavolos · 4 years ago

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every clue in endless summer, explained

technically the title is kinda misleading because some clues simply have no explanation, they just are. still, there’s a lot of pieces to be put together over the three books, and there are clues found in the first book that aren’t explained till the last one. (if you’re confused about the clues, here’s the fandom wiki for book 1, book 2 & book 3.)

before i dive in, here’s some clarifications:

i’ve used mc’s default name, taylor, and neutral pronouns wherever i’ve referred to them. the endless is also referred to by neutral pronouns.

acts 1, 2 & 3 fall under book 1

acts 4, 5 & 6 fall under book 2

acts 7 & 8 fall under book 3

each act has one bonus scene, so if i’m referring to bonus scene 5, it implies to the scene shown after act 5.

ok so unnecessarily long exposition under the cut!

ACT 1

i. tranquilizer dart: found by taylor and diego upon landing on the airstrip. presumably used on the sabretooth, t'kal, to keep it docile. likely done by rourke or his henchmen, but it is also highly possible the endless tranquilized t'kal in order to keep it from killing everyone.

ii. strange creature: a colourful flying seahorse, found by quinn and taylor along the beach in a premium scene. as shown in bonus scene 1, rourke knows of the creature, as he examines it with interest through his binoculars.

iii. weird lights: lights resembling the auroras displayed at the control tower, found by taylor and jake. it is later explained in book 2 chapter 10 by grace, that the lights are caused by the doppler effect, due to the dilation and contraction of time around la huerta. the vaanti call it the lights of vaanu, said to bring them good luck.

iv. vintage wine: if taylor goes to the ballroom with zahra, quinn notes that every bottle in the room predates 1924. as revealed in book 3 chapter 7, the wedding in the ballroom was that of flora and arthur, and group arrived there due to the time anomalies of the island.

v. sharp tooth: found by grace by the pool, near the fence. according to her, the bars were all twisted. presumably belongs to t'kal the sabretooth.

vi. old note: a note found by taylor and diego in one of the upgraded honeymoon/rainforest suites. it was written by flora sullivan to eugene rosencraft, before her wedding to arthur barnaby. it also references neptune cove, where the second half of the island's heart is found in book 3.

vii. pirate coin/wolf symbol: can be obtained either by going to the waterfall with quinn, or by hiking the cliff with jake. the doubloon is probably a remnant of malatesta and yvonne's loot, while the wolf symbol could have been left behind by the endless. the symbol also matches the stamp on jake's dossier.

viii. shoe prints: a set of muddy shoeprints were found by the celestial's shelter. no solid explanation or implication towards who these belong to.

ix. gas mask: found by taylor underwater in the cavern. it looks very old, and as noted by diego, probably from the world war times. it would have probably belonged to kele, a world war ii soldier who paddled his way into la huerta while escaping from the germans.

x. padlock: the unbroken padlock to the burning hangar, which implies that the hangar was unlocked and jake's plane sabotaged. in one of the memories taylor receives from the endless, lila is shown to deliberately sabotage the plane in order to keep everyone on the island, implying she may have done it in this timeline, too.

ACT 2

i. cufflink: lila is discovered pocketing the cufflink in rourke's office, which she probably did to discover his whereabouts later on. in bonus scene 2, rourke is shown to remove all his clothing, including his cufflinks, before he steps into the containment pod. the cufflink can also be used in book 1 chapter 10, where rourke's dna on it reveals a footage video of him complaining about strange occurrences on the island.

ii. dossiers: files containing data on sean, grace, raj and estela are found in the paper shredder, intact. each of them is stamped with symbols of the constellations aquila, cygnus, centaurus and draco respectively. the symbols are left behind by the endless.

iii. whiskey notes: a note discarded by rourke in the vip lounge, referencing the satellite uplink at the la huerta observatory. this is also shown in bonus scene 2.

iv. frying pan: a frying pan embossed with the centaurus symbol on it, which raj says he feels very drawn to. this was also left behind by the endless. he also uses this pan to deflect a sedative dart aimed at taylor in book 1 chapter 16.

v. arrowhead: an amber arrowhead is found lodged inside the king crab's shell, as found by taylor and estela. as the vaanti have been shown to use amber weaponry (as well as in other ways, such as the catalyst idols), it is implied that one of them may have attacked the guardian with an arrow.

vi. dossiers: files containing data on jake, zahra and diego found in the room inside the observatory. they are stamped with the symbols of the constellations lupus, corvus and canis. symbols left behind by the endless.

vii. strange gun: a futuristic gun found by either estela or jake. in book 1 chapter 16, it is revealed to be a tachyon accelerator, used to move objects forward in time. in bonus scene 5, lila refers to the gun as a temporal perforator.

viii. star map: a holographic display of constellations, as seen by taylor and sean as they go up the pod. sean points out that the stars in the sky over la huerta don't have the usual constellations, and that the stars have not looked like this for a million years. this is confirmed in the book 1 epilogue, when aleister notes that atropo's eruption has caused la huerta to go back to the hadean eon.

ACT 3

i. dossiers: files containing data on quinn, michelle and craig found by taylor and diego by the marina. they are stamped with the symbols of the constellations delphinus, pavo and ursa. symbols left behind by the endless.

ii. rourke's ship: if taylor and lila venture into a familiar-looking boat, they will discover it is rourke's ship, the daedalus. he was seen on the ship in bonus scene 1, and he presumably destroyed it along with the other boats on the marina immediately afterwards.

iii. plastic explosive: the semtex explosive is found by taylor in the back of the boat. it's what was used to blow up the other ships in the marina, but this one malfunctioned.

iv. strange shell: a blue-purple coloured shell that repeats the speaker's words over and over. in one of the memories taylor receives from the endless, varyyn is seen tearfully listening to the shell echoing diego's voice, saying 'i'll always love you, varyyn' over and over again as it gradually fades away.

v. telepathic vision: varyyn telepathically communicates with taylor, showing them what would happen if the catalysts didn't go with the vaanti. it is later revealed to be a depiction of atropo erupting, setting the whole world on fire and destroying it.

vi. numbers: in the wine cellar, 1908 refers to a lever to the underground tunnel, disguised as a vintage wine bottle, as well as the cheat code to rourke's arcade game, most wanted 2. rourke also uses an override program on iris called the directive 1908, explained in book 3 chapter 9, which makes iris prioritise the goal she was created for -- to utilise imogen rourke's knowledge on cloning to provide an heir to rourke. another program, directive 8091, forces estela into the omega mech cockpit in book 3 chapter 10, as she is rourke's 'true' heir.

vii. dossiers: files on taylor and aleister are found inside the security centre, both stamped by the endless with symbols of constellations andromeda and serpens. aleister's dossier is newer, printed recently by iris upon discovering that he was aboard the plane to la huerta.

viii. healing plant: leaves of the plant, when wrapped around aleister's bleeding palm, heal it with unnatural speed without a trace. grace and aleister theorize this may be due to some cellular reconstructive properties the leaves may contain.

ix. necklace: worn by varyyn in book 1, the necklace is seen to have time travelling properties, as it brings back jake/estela/sean/quinn/diego back from the dead. it is unknown if the endless facilitated its use or it is associated with rourke.

x. pirate cutlass: the cutlass was forged by malatesta and was stolen from him by admiral higgenbotham, who was presumably killed alongside malatesta's crew in the flashback taylor experiences, by the vaanti. yvonne then stole the cutlass from higgenbotham's corpse, naming it chouchou. it is unclear as to how the cutlass ended up on a display case at the celestial.

ACT 4

i. hydra caduceus: a staff found in rourke's library, which when placed in the statue's hand in the atrium, turns it into a sundial. iris says that the caduceus is the only item in the library she cannot find the origin of.

ii. crimson glove: a futuristic, yet battered metal glove put on display in rourke's underground museum; taylor realises that the person's arm was probably cut off. the glove belongs to the endless, who tells taylor that they learnt very soon that 'the laws of time can be very unforgiving' with reference to their loss of limb.

iii. shotgun shell: michelle and taylor find the 12-gauge armor-piercing shell casing, as identified by jake, during the time loop. he notes that whoever shot this meant business. the shell probably came from one of the arachnids who were on the island searching for jake.

iv. snowy hills: taylor, with either jake or estela, finds snow on the hills and by the lake on a hot and sunny day, indicating time is in disarray throughout different parts of the island, much like the northern and southern parts of the island.

v. wedding ring: a wedding ring is found on the hand of a statue of a masked bride, in the valley of tombs by jake and taylor. the statue is of flora sullivan, and the ring was given to her by eugene rosencraft which she had turned down. it was after this she wrote him the note found in act 1.

vi. tattoo: uqzhaal has a back tattoo of the legend of the threshold. it is the place where yvonne finds the endless in bonus scene 5, and where yvonne, taylor and uqzhaal meet the endless after collecting all the catalyst idols and solving the puzzle.

vii. words on the wind: the voices at the singing cliffs tell taylor that something is coming across the sea, destroying everything in its path. this could either be an immediate reference to yvonne's arrival the next morning, or a vague prediction about the omega mech used by rourke in book 3.

viii. musket ball: yvonne concedes the gold musket ball at sharktooth isle in exchange for their services to find her 'treasure.'

ix. antique compass: yvonne's said treasure turns out to be an antique compass which she tries to conceal; malatesta made her walk the plank for stealing this compass, which she did in order to find the fountain of youth. the compass also leads her to the threshold in bonus scene 5.

x: oath blade: seraxa's gift to taylor for saving taari, saying that debts must be repaid in accordance with vaanti culture. she is shown to threaten the catalysts with this blade in book 2 chapter 4.

ACT 5

i. silver sap: the sap that drips from elyy'stel's tree aids the catalysts to walk in between dimensions. it is the consumption of this sap by eugene and flora that gradually turned them feral and eventually into the vaanti.

ii. deep fissure: if taylor keeps rewinding until they can't go any further, right up to the ancient sea, the catalysts witness the forming of a fissure in the ocean bed. this fissure was caused by vaanu crash-landing on the earth, and it eventually becomes mount atropo, and forms the bubble surrounding la huerta.

iii. the island's heart: one half of the island's heart, which was formed right in the crux of the volcano, found by the catalysts in the base of elyy'stel's tree.

iv. the mask maker: the masks worn by the vaanti bear the name of their maker, rosencraft & sons, 1921. this explains the masks worn by guests at flora and arthur's wedding, which also took place in the rosencraft manor. the rosencrafts were said to be bankrupt, and that the estate belonged to the banks.

v. burning shard: a burning crystal shard that glows green and reacts the same way that quinn did while possessed by the island's heart. it is one of many crystal shards scattered across the island, originating from the crux of the volcano.

vi. mansingh crater: a crater found near the chasm bears the name of mansingh transglobal tech, the company run by grace's mother, blaire hall. it is suspicious to both taylor and grace, as it implies blaire hall was somehow involved with rourke. no further explanation has been made about the crater.

vii. newspaper clipping: a scrap of an article is found by taylor in the elysian lodge, detailing the deaths of arjun and subhanu sethi due to a car accident, also killing their son and putting their daughter in a critical condition. this daughter is lila, and this article implies that rourke (or someone else) was doing a background research on lila.

viii. rourke's note: an old note written by rourke to look into the new junior researcher, as they look familiar. this is most likely a reference to olivia montoya, although it is not known where he recognises her from.

ACT 6

i. rourke's plan: out of agitation, lila blurts out rourke's plan to save the world through a machine at the masada facility. this machine turns out to be the omega mech, and rourke's plan happens to be controlling the world and its people's existence on his whims.

ii. tracking device: a tracking device is found by taylor, attached to the yeti's fur. this was placed there by the arachnid. this tracking device relays location details back to them, as seen in the military humvee by michelle, jake and taylor, where the code name for the yeti is arktos.

iii. garbled message: a distorted voice reveals the date and coordinates of jake's location, received by the arachnid through an anonymous transmission, which is how they came upon la huerta in the first place. this voice belongs to jake himself, who did so using a 'time-phone' in order to merge realities and help them escape through a helicopter from the masada facility.

iv. crashed satellite: varyyn, while talking about shooting stars, says a satellite once crashed to the ground from the skies. it is probably a stray satellite that got caught in the la huerta time bubble, or it belonged to rourke.

v. omega mech: olivia montoya demonstrates rourke's plans for the omega specimen, aka the endless, through a vr headset. she urges the viewer to understand the destruction the specimen, and rourke, are capable of.

vi. missing guests: rourke claimed that the guests at the celestial were evacuated in time at the beginning of the book, but it is shown that he had them put in containment pods. as seen in bonus scene 4, lundgren and the other arachnids were a part of these guests, but were released by rourke upon striking a deal with him to capture jake.

vii. charred skeletons: skeletons of people are found in the flames and ashes at hartfeld, proving that people did not escape the eruption.

viii. havana cigar: lundgren's cigar at the masada facility implies that he was snooping around where he shouldn't, and that he didn't trust rourke. this distrust is confirmed in bonus scene 6.

ACT 7

i. temple/ancient map: if taylor, yvonne and uqzhaal find the endless, they will give the whereabouts of no'ox naj temple to yvonne, where the fountain of youth exists. if they don't find the endless, taylor and yvonne find a carving of the la huerta map on the walls at the threshold, also hinting towards the temple. the whole group meets the endless for the first time in this temple in book 3 chapter 4.

ii. scout: a mechanical spider with a spy camera is found by taylor while they go windsurfing to win malatesta's bet. like the tracker on the yeti, this was also placed by the arachnid to track down their locations.

iii. padlock: a weathered padlock bearing the inscription, 'no land, no sea, no one will keep us apart. flora & eugene, 1920,' found by taylor in a coral reef. after turning down eugene's proposal (the ring clue, book 2), she tried to make it up to him with this padlock and by asking him to show up at neptune cove (the note clue, book 1). when he failed to show up, flora gave up on him and somehow ended up in a forced marriage to arthur barnaby a year later.

iv. pen: a tarnished silver pen bearing grace's name is found in the shrine at no'ox naj temple. it is implausible that she was at the temple, as she was under rourke's custody the whole time. it is also the same pen seen in grace's catalyst idol, returned to her by aleister and ultimately found near professor diaz's car which she had smashed up.

v. silver sap: one of the drinks served at the anachronists' party at quarr'tel is the silver sap from elyys'tel's tree. the creation of the vaanti myth, which is said to have started at a masquerade theme wedding, is that of flora and arthur's, where the former gets shot after confessing her love for eugene at the wedding. in an attempt to save her, eugene gives her some of this sap. this consumption eventually turns them into the feral vaanti.

vi. spirit's identity: the anachronist, clockmaker, refers to the faceless spirit as vaanu. in reality, vaanu is simply an alien being from another planet (the prism dimension) who crash landed on earth when its planet was destroyed. upon communing with vaanu, taylor discovers they are vaanu's creation, made for the purpose of returning la huerta to its normal state, allowing vaanu's departure.

vii. aleister's note: aleister writes a note to grace, apologising to her, and how he feels genuine remorse over his betrayal. he mentions that he hopes to redeem himself in her eyes.

ACT 8:

i. painting: at the rosencraft manor, there's a painting titled 'depiction of the divine' portraying rourke writing the ten commandments dressed in roman attire. the attire probably matches the statue of himself in the atrium, which opens up the sundial to his museum.

ii. communicator: the anachronists provide sean, raj and michelle with antique communicators which lets them coordinate the attack on cetus.

iii. path to the core: vaanu shows quinn the way to the core of the volcano, where the island's heart belongs. this core is the place where vaanu landed on earth.

iv. molten crystals: a crystal orb with claw markings in it, made by the oryctoraptor that dwells inside the volcano. referred to by varyyn as the deep guardian, it is the most reclusive of the four. it is also responsible for the orb found in the cavern in book 1 chapter 5, and possibly the orb that causes the time loop in book 2 chapter 2.

v. the endless' musings: zahra finds a diary belonging to the endless at the base of the volcano, in which they speak of how the sentience of the crystals probably drew the four guardians (cetus, king crab, yeti, oryctoraptor) to establish order on the island, but they were driven mad. the endless also believes it is possible the crystal created the creatures. this is possible, as it would explain the existence of the colourful seahorse, t'kal and furball (although they have not been affected like the guardians have.)

vi. closing words: the closing words spoken by seraxa during the handfasting ceremony, which is customary as 'it was for the first bride and her beloved.' they are the same words that were engraved in the padlock that flora made for eugene.

#if any of you have ANY doubts or you think i'm wrong anywhere please hmu!!#anw i know a lot of this is paywalled content but there are worse paywalls ://#at least we having fun here paying diamonds and watching our friends die 😁#endless summer #playchoices #*

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reallifesultanas · 4 years ago

Text

What brought Suleyman I to Hungary in 1566? How did he die? What caused his death and how they preserved his body?

This post is a translation of this article: https://24.hu/tudomany/2020/09/12/szulejman-hurrem-turbe-szigetvar/?fbclid=IwAR2uhezx-9l3UutOZEW5j7VCTjYpNgcagNjx0W7xtJ3bzDCdetfvFScTDqI

The joint project of the University of Pécs (PTE) and ELKH BTK ends in Szigetvár with a Saturday presentation of two summary study volumes and the film Life in the Shadow of the Turb. The main result of the eight-year, multidisciplinary work carried out in wide-ranging domestic and international cooperation was the discovery in December 2015 of Sultan Suleiman's tomb in Szigetvár, ie the tomb (türbe) erected above the place of his death. Suleiman I (the Great) is one of the greatest figures in universal history, known worldwide, and of the 36 Ottoman sultans, he is surrounded by the greatest reverence in modern-day Turkey.

The announcement was a world sensation, and by no means only in professional circles: the international “lay” press also wrote for weeks about Szigetvár and the discovery of the research group.

Although this was the main goal of the “Suleiman Research Group,” looking back from today, it still seems to be just the initial, first step. Over the course of eight years, almost the entire complex, which included the türbe and was surrounded by a complex, was reconstructed, the settlement organized around it - unique in the area of Turkish occupation - was discovered and, they outlined the destruction of Turbék (hungarian town), the death of Suleiman, the fate of his corpse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjewdiFTdXk

Needless to say, the results have been the subject of numerous books and scientific publications, and about four-fifths of the area is yet to be explored. The continuation is almost certain, and we asked Dr. Norbert Pap, Professor of Historical Geography of the University of Pécs, the head of the research to look back for more interesting details.

Building complex above the tomb

The challenge in 2012 began with finding exactly where the türbe was set up at the site of Suleiman’s death stood. And this could decide a more than 100-year-old debate. The most serious theory put the türbe in place of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Turbék or Turbékpuszta, as proclaimed by a sign on the wall of the church, while another in the area of today's Hungarian-Turkish Friendship Park. After archival research and the search of the area with modern geophysical tools, the remains of the buildings facing Mecca were finally located underground on the outskirts of Szigetvár, deviating to the right from road 67, near the dirt road to Turbék and Zsibót.

"Through targeted research, we first excavated the turbe itself, then the mosque, found the dervish lodge, the barracks, and the northern plank wall. The excavations took place on an area of about half a hectare" - Norbert Pap tells 24.hu.

The site of the türbe lies in a hill where the Sultan's military camp stood during the siege of the castle in 1566. In the center of the camp was Suleiman's tent, or rather a tent palace - more than 1,500 square meters - where he was temporarily buried after his death, then the türbe erected above from here surrounded by the other elements of the complex in a rectangular fortress wall.

The türbe became ready by 1576-77, but it was later built more (more parts of the complex) and beautified. It became an important and busy place of pilgrimage. For example Kara Mustafa also went there to draw strength at the head of his 4,000 horsemen before he embarked on the siege of Vienna in 1683.

The holiest place

In this capacity, the complex was really attractive to Muslim craftsmen, tradesmen, hopers for a better life. This is how from the travellers from Balkan, from the families of soldiers, the city of Turbek developed. Later, a Christian population also arrived - Croatian Catholics - but they settled separately, on the outskirts of the city, the civil settlements could only be identified in 2019. Further research will still have plenty to do: mosques, cemeteries, warehouses, Christian houses of worship, and the ruins of many residential houses may still be hidden by the earth.

Moreover, based on direct and indirect evidence, the professor believes there may be one more, but there may even be two türbes in the area, namely the mausoleums of Muslim martyrs. Sources suggest that the graves of Sheikh Kasim, a “holy life” who died during the siege of Szigetvár in 1566, and the first chief of order of the Turbék dervishes, Sheikh Ali Dede Bosznavi, who also died in 1598 during a campaign.

It is also worth mentioning here that although the body of the great sultan was laid to rest in Istanbul in 1566 according to its order and manner, his “empty” monument in Szigetvár, where he rested for only 42 days, was still revered in the Muslim world. The reason for this is that here, in this place, he suffered martyrdom, Suleiman became a sheikh, that is, a martyr of the faith.

Source of the picture: original article. Work of Nirbert Pap and Máté Kitancs

A thorough exploration of the city can hide unparalleled information for several disciplines. In the words of Norbert Pap, it is an “unparalleled, unique laboratory”, for it is the only known urban settlement of occupation that the Ottomans did not occupy and simply moved in there, but created themselves according to their own tastes and needs. Environmental history research has also been carried out so far, which already outlines the flora of the area reflecting the eastern influences, and we get a picture of the fauna that prevailed 450 years ago, which refers to the characteristics of a cooler climatic period.

The depressed Sultan

Let's continue with Suleiman the Great himself. The oft-repeated question about him is: at the age of 72, tormented by several diseases, why did he personally lead the army? Both external and internal factors contributed to this, and it must also be borne in mind that, although he was anxious, he was not at all as weak and fallen as posterity holds him in the last months of his life. It is true that he often carried himself on a chariot, but he did part of the journey on horseback, which suggests that he could not have had such a bad physique at the beginning of the campaign.

After the death of Hürrem, Suleiman became depressed, plus his family life was not in the slightest order: one of his sons was even executed, the other, the heir to the throne, was deeper and deeper in alcoholism. So with the years Suleyman turned more and more towards spirituality, the expert explains. He adds that the spiritual leader of the sultan, Sheikh Núreddínzáde Muszliheddín, had a great influence on him, he also played a role in convincing the ruler to personally lead a campaign against the unbelievers. He may have tried to get rid of gloom as well, but he was mostly trying to ease the growing internal tensions of the empire.

Constant conquest was a fundamental expectation from Suleiman, who connected vast territories to his empire and led 13 triumphant campaigns during his reign. By 1566, he had been on his throne for 46 years now — more than the average length of human life at the time — and the last years had been spent in peace, so the subjects grumbled. There were worrying news from the outside as well. In the eastern half of the Carpathian Basin, the Habsburg military invasions of the territories ruled by the Transylvanian prince John Sigismund threatened to lose the vassal principality. In the west, the raiding troops of Miklós Zrínyi wandered from Szigetvár to the Sava, endangering the safety of the Danube military road. Together, these projected the loss of the Hungarian conquests.

Thus, in a situation of domestic and foreign policy, military and spiritual crisis, the ruler had to prove that he still had to demonstrate a vigorous, powerful leader.

The campaign of 1566 was successful in terms of its goals, two of the three most important Hungarian border castles, Gyula and Szigetvár (Eger was the third), were awarded the werewolf flag, the vassal status of Transylvania was secured and the conquest was consolidated. However, Suleiman no longer returned home, he died in the last hours of the siege, at dawn from 6 to 7 September, around one or two o'clock in the morning.

He loved unhealthy food and had liver disease

It was disputed what diseases and organ problems led to his death in addition to his age, and this could not be solved completely. According to Professor Pap, several factors may have contributed, in addition to physical exhaustion, we know that he had severe gout, had problems with his liver, and could not benefit from his “greed”: He also consumed an astonishing amount of sweets from Ragusa during the campaign. In addition, disentery raged in the camp, which may have reached the Sultan also.

However, progress has been made during the research in what happened to his body after his death. For several reasons, it was very important that its deterioration and decomposition be postponed as long as possible, but at the same time classical mummification is forbidden by Islam. Since it is not known from any other sultan that his corpse should have been preserved, it has not been clear for some time what practice the Ottomans followed.

In the case of four sultans, who were left buried for a relatively long time, the researchers looked at how they treated their bodies and drew conclusions from them. There are several ideas about “treating” Suleiman’s body: for example, that they were wrapped in cloth, which was then smeared with honey and tar, sprinkled with strong perfumes to cover up the deterioration, but these ideas were shattered by the analysis of the book now published: that couldn’t be enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXKbSDtHY5k

They had to keep his body in good condition

Based on an examination of the soil and climatic conditions, the possibility of temporarily preserving it with ice, which had worked for a short time for two other sultans, could not be attempted. In the soil under the sultan's tent, at a depth of two meters, the temperature was 12-14 degrees. In the case of a corpse buried for 42 days, any ice (if any) placed with it meant nothing because it would have melted very quickly. However, it was not normally possible to transport unobtrusively - without preservative treatment - and this was key. On October 24, that is, well over six weeks after his death, he was shown in front of Selim II, Suleiman's soldiers, his successor, and the leaders of the army in Belgrade.

“It was like a play, but a very essential act: Selim was surrounded here, taking over the ruling power from his dead father, before the‘ eyewitnesses ’of the masses. We believe that Suleiman's face must have been recognizable, and perhaps even dignified. Later, in Istanbul, 83 days after his death, after a transport of 1,270 kilometers, he was made public again before the final burial, ” - explains Norbert Pap.

The expectations for the condition of the corpse were obviously similar: the sight had to be bearable.

A forensic expert was involved in the research to clarify: could the use of available tar, honey, or other materials mentioned in the sources have been sufficient for preservation? The expert found that if they had not been treated with the right method and expertise and the internal organs had not been removed, the corpse would have arrived in Belgrade in a horrorist state, unrecognizable, practically liquefied.

The body was preserved by the Egyptian method

What could have happened? There are several indications that they used a method has been used in Egypt since ancient times. In doing so, the internal organs of the deceased are removed, and bags filled with salt are put in their place: in this case, it is typical to leave it for 40 days, the salt absorbs most of the moisture, significantly slowing down the deterioration and further decomposition. At a later stage, the body is filled with dry sawdust and sewn together.

We know from written sources that Suleiman was “prepared” in an unspecified way at the dawn of the seventh of September, then placed in a coffin and buried in a pit dug in the tent palace. Forty-two days later, he was picked up from there, “treated” again, and sent on his way to Belgrade. The remaining documents silently listen to the exact content of interventions that are not accepted in the Islamic world, but dictated by real political necessity. At the same time, the method used in the wake of political crisis management is very similar to the above method used in the Eastern world for millennia. It is not an incidental circumstance to know that Suleiman's body was treated by an accompanying doctor, a member of the old Egyptian medical dynasty, Ibn-i-Kajuni - so he had the necessary expertise.

Based on this, it can be assumed that the legend spoken in the broadest terms that the internal organs of the sultan were buried locally has a basis in reality. During the excavation, experts took a plentiful sample of land from the cavity dug into the temporary tomb and its surroundings, which is located right in the middle of the dungeon, two meters deep and two meters long - the chest had just fit. If human DNA is found in the samples, research could gain new momentum.

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bigfootmountain · 4 years ago

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Dr. Burkhalter of the French society of prehistory, wrote in 1950 in the Betouth museum review that the existence of giants in the Acheulean period is an established scientific fact.

During excavations in the Caucasus in 1964, one finds in a cave of Alguetca, near Mangliss, skeletons of men measuring from 2.80 meters to 3 meters. German journalist Ernst Probst writes about giants. He mentions the existence of a painting painted by a certain Bartholmaus Sarburgh, exhibited at the Museum of the History of Bern. The painting reproduces a giant femur found on the banks of the Rhine, in Oppenheim sur Mainz

In 1895, a fossilized giant over 3.70 meters was discovered by a gold miner in County Antrim. He is exhibited and photographed in the London and North-Western Rallway Company’s Broad Street freight depot, then in Liverpool and Manchester.

What has become of this 3.70 m fossilized giant exhibited in a London depot in 1895? Analyzes could today provide us with invaluable answers.

Throughout all eras, under the Roman Empire, in the Middle Ages, in the 19th century and even today, all over the world, scientists, archaeologists, men of the Church, travelers, historians testify, seek, compile in very dense documentation the traces and the proofs of the existence on Earth of the giants, these men having sometimes measured up to more than 4 meters.

Goliath has always been considered a legendary figure, just like the giant Tom Thumb. Until neurologist Vladimir Berginer hypothesized that he really existed. Its disproportionate size (which Berginer estimates at three meters) is the result of a tumor in the pituitary gland, a condition called acromegaly-gigantism.

According to the Bible, Goliath was from a tribe in the Refaim Valley, in present-day Bashan. However, on the heights of the Golan, which overlooks their former territory, still stands today a 5,000 year old monument, the Gilgal Refaim.

Five concentric stone circles (the outer circle has a diameter of 159 meters), strangely resembling the site of Stonehenge, which we imagine to be the work of giants.

In addition, several elements from ancient sources seem to point to the existence of giants - if not myth - at the time: representations of giants on seals and in temples, mentions of giants in Syrian and Egyptian legends , etc.

Since the late 1980s, British researchers have been on the trail of evidence. At the Tell es-Sa’idiyeh burial site in Jordan, archaeologist Jonathan N. Tubb and his collaborators at the British Museum uncovered surprisingly large human bones. Proof of the existence of giants in Antiquity?

As these 2 representations attest, the Sumerian Gods were also giants.

We find the trace of giants in almost all cultures, and I am wondering if these statues and representations of giants that we can still admire today, would not ultimately be very real representations, a homage to true giants who would have populated the Earth in ancient times, all the old constructions are of gigantic sizes, and dedicated to the giants, which the less than 2000 years cannot know!

Examples: The Moai of Easter Island, the Colossi of Memnon, the statues of Abu Simbel, the great Buddha, giant statues of Bamiyan, in Afghanistan, The heads of Nemrut Dagi in Turkey, the giant Sumerian gods, the giants lying down from Agrigento, giant heads in San Lorenzo southern Mexico etc…

But let's continue ...

The Indians who live in the region of Tianhuanaco, in the Andes (20 km from Lake Titicaca) say that the colossal stones that built this megalithic city were transported by giants. They are described as very intelligent, fair-skinned men.

Excavations have found remains of bones, skulls and skeletons of men over 3 meters tall. The most prestigious and fascinating discovery is that of underground tunnels stretching for miles and leading to majestic halls as large as airplane hangars.

The Indians explain that these underground passages cross a large part of South America.

In the 15th century, the Spanish captain Francisco Pizzaro was the first to discover these underground galleries in the mountain of the Incas. Still in Peru, unexpected discoveries, such as in Ollantaytambo or Sacsayhuaman, raise the question of the civilization of disappeared giants having certainly had forgotten and particularly elaborate scientific knowledge.

Oddly, in some of these places we find representations of dinosaurs. The megalithic sites permanently refer to a civilization of giants. This is the case of Carnac, Stonehenge whose Celtic name Chior gaur means "the dance of the giants", or its equivalent in the north of Israel, in Gilgal Refaim.

Two years ago, in Bosnia, pyramids were discovered under forests and vegetation. Legends still speak in this specific case of giant builders.

We also find in the world enigmatic pyramids which are the subject of the greatest scientific silence, as in central China, in the plains of Qin Chuan. One of them, nicknamed the "Great White Pyramid", is about 300 meters high, twice the size of the most imposing pyramids in Egypt.

One of these Egyptian pyramids, Cheops, according to manuscripts belonging to the Coptic tradition, was built by a race of giants.

The study of giants overturns our understanding of the world. Because it is possible that these giants existed at a time when everything was gigantic.

Indeed, we scientifically approach all forms of gigantism, in the flora, with the dinosaurs and including for the monkeys with the Gigantopithecus and the Meganthropus. Why then have we forgotten the giants of the human race?

We could logically assume that gigantic men could have lived in a time when everything was gigantic and know the dinosaurs. This is all the more disturbing that in his book Buried Alive, Dr. Jack Cuozzo goes in this direction. It shows the photograph in the Bernifal cave (France) of a fight between a mammoth and a dinosaur.

Likewise, Fran Barnes, a specialist in wall art writes that in San Rafael Swell (Utah), there are drawings from prehistoric times that resemble a winged reptile, a pterosaur.

The ancient people of Sumatra also produced many pieces of art with creatures with long tails, long necks and crests that appeared to correspond to Hadrosaurs. One of these pieces is on display at the Ethnographic Museum in Budapest.

Roman Empire mosaics dating back 200 years BC depict marine dinosaurs, Tanystropheus. In 1571, the conquistadors reported that strange creatures were found on Inca burial stones. Dr. Javier Cabrera has authenticated over a thousand.

In 1496, Bishop Richard Bell was buried at Carlisle Cathedral, in England. Dinosaurs are drawn on the copper parts that cover his tomb. Another very interesting case. In Queensland, several accounts of Aboriginal tribes describe creatures resembling plesiosaurs.

In the north of this Australian region, the Yarru (or Yarrba) speak of a similar creature living in the caves of an equatorial forest. This painting is very interesting because it shows Indians or men around a plesiosaur and represents the entire digestive, gastrointestinal tract of the animal.

Does this allow us to think that the Aboriginal hunters would have killed and butchered this dinosaur? Did these large animals really die 70 million years ago?

It is relevant to envisage a time when men and dinosaurs would have cohabited, but the study of the giants calls into question Darwinism and evolutionism, the foundations of contemporary science ... And this is also why the question of their existence is neglected, ignored, ridiculed by modern science and as if crushed under a lead screed!

However as we see, they existed, and all the ancient cultures and civilizations, pay homage to them, with gargantuan statues and constructions…

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homenum-revelio-hq · 5 years ago

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Welcome (again) to the Order of the Phoenix, Amos!

You have been accepted for the role of non-biography character MAURICE CREEVEY with the faceclaim of Tom Sturridge! We really enjoyed reading through your application! The idea of a Muggleborn character who is actually not all that excited about going to Hogwarts is awesome! He’s resentful that he was taken away without a choice - resentful that he can’t go back and be the same person. We’re so thrilled to have him as an addition to the cast!

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Amos

AGE: 22

TIMEZONE: GMT

ACTIVITY LEVEL: You already have a pretty good idea of my activity. There is also plenty of time when I’m around and could be writing but I am either caught up on Fab or don’t have quite the right muse for him, so hopefully this new charrie can fill those gaps!

ANYTHING ELSE: nope

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Maurice Creevey

AGE: 24

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Male, He/Him, Homosexual. Gender isn’t something he’s really ever thought about. He’s pretty content in that respect. He is quite unapologetically gay though.

BLOOD STATUS: Muggleborn

HOUSE ALUMNI: Ravenclaw

ANY CHANGES: This is where you can request a FC change or a change from something in the skeleton bio.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY:

To sum Maurice up very concisely, he’s angry. He hasn’t always been. He was a relatively happy go lucky child, full of endless energy and enthusiasm. Then he was plucked from his life and sent away to a school to learn magic. At first that was pretty cool, after all, every 11 year old wishes they had magical abilities, the difference being they get to grow up and forget those wishes and live normal lives. He has to live with his childish fantasies for the rest of his life. And apart from that, he appears to be in a world where muggleborns are being hunted and killed by an evil wizard and his crazy cult. To make things worse, they can’t escape back to their muggle lives because of all the damn secrecy laws. So yes, he’s angry, and a lot of his actions are fueled by that. Make no mistake though, Maurice is no Gryffindor, he doesn’t use his anger in brash reckless ways, he is more calculated. You may catch it crackling under the surface occasionally, but it would take a lot to make him properly explode. Even slurs like ‘mudblood’ would only make him roll his eyes and perhaps give a snarky retort.

Maurice is a Ravenclaw. He is a big believer that knowledge is power. He did fairly well at his subjects in Hogwarts considering he didn’t try all that hard. He did not choose this path and as a consequence, resented it. He would often get his brother who was a few years older, to send him muggle textbooks when he’d finished with them. He was fascinated by science and maths and history. Of course he had some curiosity for his lessons at Hogwarts, and the things he and his magic was capable of, but the element of choice was important for him. It felt like by attending Hogwarts, a whole area of understanding was suddenly off limits. As anyone knows, forbidden knowledge is the most desirable.

He likes to ask questions about as much as any other Ravenclaw, but he is also a big observer. He likes to take time to gather information before jumping into a lot of things, especially interactions with other people. He by no means stalks people, but a few minutes, to watch, take someone in, before starting a conversation is quite usual for him. It’s all about making informed choices. As a consequence, unexpected interactions can throw him, making him more awkward than he’d like.

He can be arrogant, he has a conviction in his beliefs that can come across as condescension if viewed the wrong way. He can get frustrated when someone is not following his thinking quite as quickly as he’d like, which is why he’d make a terrible teacher. However, this works equally in the opposite direction. His frustration can be palpable when he doesn’t understand something, and these moments are when he is least in control. A lot of his acts of protest come from anger, sure, but also the frustration of not being able to fathom how things got so bad, why they can’t just make them better now, why people can’t see it for themselves. But usually he is quiet. Unless he is invited to speak, or is so damn angry the words won’t stop, he can keep his thoughts to himself until someone is listening and his words can have an impact.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY:

Until the age of 11 Maurice grew up in a very normal, working class family in the midlands. His mother was a typical housewife, loving but somewhat distracted, staring out of windows whilst doing the washing up, leaving the dinner in slightly too long when listening to the radio. Maurice didn’t mind, he barely noticed, and she was excellent at bedtime stories, so what was there to complain about? His father was a miner, a tough, but humorous man. He worked hard, and he always came home dirty, but played football with them in the garden the weekends.

He has one older brother. Not the brightest bulb, but the kindest person Maurice knows. Maurice always thought him brave, in a quiet way. There is no one Maurice has ever looked up to quite like his big brother, even if they squabbled and scrapped as much as any other loving siblings.

Perhaps this happy set up, along with glowing school reports and a nice bunch of friends, was why he has always resented being ripped from that life and that path.

When he was a child, he dreamed of being an astronaut, an archaeologist, a doctor, a lawyer, and what’s more, none of these were stretches for him, with his brain and desire for learning, he could have done it, he could have gotten out of the rows and rows of back to back terraced houses that he and his family were confined to. He could have taken them with him. But he was torn away and sent to Hogwarts, and his parents only vaguely understood, were proud, but in a distant way. His brother became a milkman, a job he enjoyed, but not one that paid well. He married young, his school sweetheart, and they are expecting their first child. They all seem happy enough, they have the things that matter, enough food to eat, a roof over their head, love, but Maurice can’t help but feel he could have saved them. The terror of living paycheck to paycheck, the mundanity of their terraced hells, or just never being able to treat yourself to that little bit extra. He remembered as a child, when his father would be on strike, the unspoken fear that filled up their home. He had wanted to save them from that.

When he would return home for the summer, he would act like nothing had changed, he wouldn’t speak of Hogwarts, or of his magic. He would pretend like he was no different from them, but something had changed and something had broken, and eventually he realised that something couldn’t be fixed. Getting his Hogwarts letter had been the beginning of the end for Maurice. He hated it when summer would end and he’d have to go back, but he also hated going home in the first place.

OCCUPATION:

Maurice works as a sound engineer at the Wizarding Wireless Network. It was not something he expected of himself, more something he fell into. A job at the Ministry would have gone against all his principals. A deep hatred for ‘the man’ but also the wizarding world in general, he wasn’t about to go work in a place trying to keep it all ticking over, and bore himself to death in the process.

He considered more academic positions, but he’d had a hard enough time concentrating at Hogwarts. Trawling magical forests for new flora and fauna, or raiding tombs and breaking their curses had no appeal to him. Which largely left working class positions or the arts. It was not a tricky decision.

The newspaper was an option, but the fact that the Daily Prophet seemed to have a monopoly on journalism in wizarding Britain didn’t sit well with Maurice. Without another widely available newspaper to oppose their horribly biased reporting, what was the point? He would not be a puppet for their propaganda. For a while, he tried to write his own pieces, publish them independently, but that wasn’t entirely successful. The pieces were convoluted, preachy, and he had no audience, no one to either agree nor criticise him.

Eventually he wound up at the Wizarding Wireless Network. Again, it irked him that there was only one major company broadcasting, but at least they had a bit more variation, and whilst they did broadcast the news, the purpose leaned towards entertainment. It’s not a cause Maurice is particularly passionate for, but it’s not one he opposes.

As a sound engineer, he’s around for recordings and broadcasts, cleans up pre recorded audio, fixes equipment, just whatever needs doing that seems like it fit within his job title. Most of it he learned on the job, but it was fascinating enough to capture his attention, and similar enough to muggle radio not to infuriate him. It also introduced him to the world of pirate radio.

About 2 years after he started at WWN, his friend and mentor quit, and in his last few days, confided in Maurice that he was leaving to start his own show. Technically WWN was the only official broadcaster on wizarding radios, but if you knew how to get a frequency, you could broadcast whatever you liked. He and some friends were setting up a station out of someone’s garage, mostly to play the music the WWN spurned.

The idea lit a flame in Maurice. Of course, the fact that it was ever so slightly against the rules, and possibly the law, made it exciting. But the idea of broadcasting whatever he liked, even if there was no one listening, putting something out there, finite and unique.

So that’s what he does with his evenings at the weekends, he broadcasts late into the night and the early mornings. The Order gives him a focus, not just long rambling opinion pieces that sounds like the inner thoughts of a paranoid conspiracy theorist. He has found a purpose now. His show, it helps spread news, it helps spread information, it helps spread hope. Of course there is the tricky business of making sure the wrong ears don’t hear it, but he’s a smart guy, there’s a way around everything.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:

Maurice joined the Order with best friend, Daisy Hookum. He was at the same Squib’s Rights March, right in the middle of the rioting, and landed square in the Order’s gaze because of it.

Maurice has always been an activist, even before graduating Hogwarts, he would hold small demonstrations, conquering whatever stage fright he might have for the greater good. Standing up on tables at breakfast to make impassioned speeches, chaining himself to statues and refusing to go to class, he even came very close to slashing a painting once before the painting’s occupant managed to talk him out of it.

Maurice has taken a lot of inspiration from muggle strikes and demonstration techniques. He remembers picket lines from his childhood, and grew up with the punk movement. He even had a bright red mohawk once before Daisy told him it really didn’t suit him.

These energies are what he hoped to bring to the Order. He recognises that Voldemort and the Death Eaters are the main enemy, but in his eyes, the Ministry are accomplices, and he feels just as violently about them. The Death Eaters may be the ones directly killing people, but the Ministry are letting them do it, even helping them to a certain degree. The fact that so many squeaky clean Ministry employees come to the Order to ‘do their part’ indicates to him, that there are just as many who are going over to Voldemort for the same reason. He wishes more of their actions were against the Ministry directly, but he can also do that in his own time.

Day to day, Maurice is generally a pretty good foot soldier, he isn’t crazy about the actual violence part, but he’ll do it if he has to. He’d like a louder voice at the table, but he knows how these things work, and he knows too many cooks spoil the broth. The fact that they are organised is enough for him. There is a system, and if he ever feels he needs to take something to the top, then he knows how to do that.

He has also brought his pirate radio platform to the Order. It’s a good way to spread news to people such as those being helped by the dissendium task force, and a good way to organise large groups of people. And also quite simply, it can raise spirits. Assuming that people tune in to listen. Maurice doesn’t think it’s quite being used to its full potential, but it’s getting there. The Order function on secrecy, whereas Maurice wants to inform the masses. There is clearly a conflict of interest.

(I see this radio show as being very similar to the Potterwatch of the second wizarding war, and if it isn’t quite at that structure yet, then building it up to that during the game.)

I think although he is happy to fight with the Order, and be on the front line of the fight against You-Know-Who, his main motives are doing something about the International Statute of Secrecy, even if he is a little distracted by other things and other causes, it all really comes back to him having the choice to fight, to flee, to live his life where he pleases, taking the elements of both cultures and combining them. And he wants that choice for others as well. A lot of his anger and frustration is on a very personal selfish level, but he does recognise that he’s fighting this cause for people other than himself.

SURVIVAL:

Being both muggleborn and publicly vocal in his opinions, does put a bit of a target on Maurice’s back. He’s had a few close scrapes in the past, but luckily that’s as much as they were. Making enemies with a lot of purebloods perhaps isn’t the most efficient way to survive this war. He doesn’t move around a lot, thankfully he’s never been traced to his home address and he wants to keep it that way. He rents a little place in Muggle London, clean and comfortable enough, but out of the way and non-descript. He wards it heavily, and takes great lengths to make sure he isn’t followed home.

He isn’t too bad at dueling, but it isn’t his greatest strength. Mostly he relies on quick thinking rather than brute strength. And paranoia. He’s seen what the other side is capable of, and he’s heard enough of Moody’s lecture like speeches to know how to watch his back.

Still, he can lay awake many nights, realising there that if he continues to fight like this, there is a large chance he won’t survive the war. Is it worth it? He usually falls asleep before reaching a conclusive answer. Needless to say, as a 24 year old, he is terrified of dying. He is just also too angry to let that stop him.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Daisy Hookum: Friends since first year, he and Daisy have a special bond. There are very few people who know him as closely as Daisy knows him. Even his family, who he loves dearly, can’t understand him the way Daisy does. They may have been brought together by class timetables and group projects, but what bonded them was their shared views of the world. Particularly as they got older, they could talk for hours and hours about their politics. They didn’t always agree on every point, but respected each other enough to hear the other out. Of course this wasn’t the only thing that kept them friends. They could have fun together, let loose, forget for a little while that things were so bad, forget how angry they were.

They joined the Order together, as they did so much together. But then Daisy left for her year in the muggle world. Since then the relationship has been strained. He understood better than most what she was trying to do, but the reality is still that he felt abandoned, and jealous, that she could go off and live her ‘muggle’ life. It’s become obvious since her return that Maurice’s idea of activism is now split from hers. She wants to take a more passive role, and Maurice couldn’t bear that.

Caradoc Dearborn: Caradoc is someone Maurice begrudgingly looks up to. On the one hand he is everything he despises, wealthy and pure blooded. But the way he conducts himself is something that Maurice admires. He can’t help but want to be in Caradoc’s good books. If he had an issue within the Order, he would most likely take it to Caradoc.

Mary MacDonald: Mary is a more recent friend. They were a few years apart at Hogwarts and so only got to know each other after they both joined the Order. A lot of Mary’s politics match up with Maurice’s, and apart from that they are very compatible on a personal level. She is one of the lucky few Maurice has let in. Of course it helps that she is muggle-born as well, he feels that with so few of them inside the Order, they really have to stick together.

He has never been the most social of people. It is not that he doesn’t enjoy company, more that he doesn’t settle. If he is going to spend time with someone, properly invest in them, he wants to be sure they are the right person. He does not do this consciously you understand, but he is constantly assessing and reassessing the people in his life. First impressions, as he’s found, are often misleading, but that doesn’t mean doesn’t heed them. He’s more inclined to search out the red flags than give someone the benefit of the doubt. The people who slip through the cracks however, get the best of him. The warmth, the wit, everything he’s been desperately been bottling up waiting for the right vessel to pour it into.

Generally, Maurice is going to feel some animosity for the richer, pure blooded members of the order, but he’ll tolerate them. He’s also going to be fairly uninterested in those who aren’t as active in the cause, or any cause for that matter. So maybe he’s made a few enemies within the Order, or at least brushed some people the wrong way. Or perhaps he’s been pleasantly surprised by others.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: No ships or antiships, I’m really open to anything. I do see Maurice as gay, so I think relationships with women would be unlikely, but I’m a sucker for some unrequited love plots, or maybe some confused one night stands. Basically anything is on the table.

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?

Well Maurice is a white male, so let’s start with that. I don’t think feminism is high up on his rank of causes, or racism, simply because I don’t think it’s played a huge role within his personal life experience. He probably doesn’t even realise a lot of the privileges he has as a white man.

He’s also gay, and whilst he is quite unapologetic about that, his sexuality seemed to be more of an issue in his muggle life than in the wizarding world, so it isn’t something he feels the need to fight about all the time. Again there are more important causes right now.

As a person who grew up in a working class family, he generally just resents the wealthy, and he won’t give them much chance to prove themselves to him either. This definitely stems from growing up poor, but perhaps if he’d been able to make his own fortune and save his family from their poverty, then he wouldn’t feel as strongly. In that sense it’s quite hypocritical. Now it’s also tied to the fact that the wealthy are the ones in control, both in the Death Eaters and their reign of terror, and at the Ministry, making and enforcing the laws that keep them all trapped and helpless. It hasn’t missed his attention that most of the wealthier wizards are pureblooded, so he’ll often lump them in with his disdain.

This works the other way as well. He’s willing to overlook a lot of shit that his working class/muggle born acquaintances get up to, forgive a lot of their sins. I don’t think he realises he does this, but it certainly happens.

He doesn’t necessarily hate the people who work for the Ministry, even if he has a dislike for the establishment and the way it’s run. He understands everyone has to work, and most don’t get the privilege of doing something they like or agree with entirely. There is a bit of time though where he’ll figure out their motives before he really trusts or likes them.

Law enforcement isn’t particularly in his good books either, but that is perhaps more linked to his view of how muggle police act towards protests and demonstrations.

When it comes to the issues of half-breeds, he’ll go along to the marches, he’ll sign the petitions, he’s probably up to date on all the latest views and opinions, but again, it’s not at the top of his priorities.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? You already know I love this roleplay. I’m looking forward to being more active hopefully, interacting with a wider range of characters, playing someone who is quite different to Fab as well and stretching those writing muscles.

PLOT DROP IDEAS:

I would love to see his pirate radio show have an effect somehow, either positive or negative (but maybe more positive at least at first, I’ve already done a lot of disappointing the Order with Fab).

I would love to see how his bloodstatus affects him. If he is genuinely more in danger for being a loud annoying muggleborn, it might be nice to work that into the larger plot somehow.

ANYTHING ELSE? I haven’t put whether he’s low level or mid level in the Order, I’m happy for either, wherever you think he’d fit best.

EXTRA FOR NON-BIO CHARACTERS:

PAST:

Maurice Creevey grew up in the midlands, part of a typical working class family. His mother was a housewife, and his father a Miner. The strikes and picket lines his father was a part of were some of his first experiences with activism, and the spark didn’t stop there. Maurice was rudely torn from his happy muggle life by the revelation he was a Wizard and the letter ‘inviting’ him to study at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. With no choice but to follow this path, Maurice has resented it ever since. He didn’t waste his time there by any means though. This was when he got his first taste for activism, protesting in the great hall and demonstrating in classes. These habits followed him faithfully into adulthood, developing until he found real urgent causes. At the top of his list, was tearing down the Statue of Secrecy that traps all muggle-borns in the wizarding world whilst an evil wizard and his cronies are attempting to pick them off one by one, and also prevents the muggles from fighting back on their own terms.

PRESENT:

It’s his activism that brought him to the attention of the Order. He is a good soldier for the Order, willing to do what has to be done and follow orders dutifully. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his own intentions. Maurice works for the Wizarding Wireless Network, and a few nights a week he hosts his own pirate radio station. Sometimes his broadcasts can get hundreds or thousands of listeners, all scared but hopeful, wanting to hear what no-one else is telling them, the news the papers won’t print, the the stories the WWN won’t air. The Order value their secrecy, but Maurice knows information is power, and knowledge gives you a choice. He knows he can use his show to the Order’s advantage if only it’s given a chance.

FC CHOICES: top choice is Tom Sturridge, I’m not very good at fcs so if you don’t think he fits I’m happy to go with recommendations!

#homenumaccepted

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onstarsandiron · 4 years ago

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This is a master post of all the settings for Heart of Iron and Soul of Stars!

As always, let me know if there’s something here that you’d like added/dug up!

Hope the picture quality isn’t too bad, it is admittedly a screencap via my laptop

[Image description: A black and white map of a solar system labeled “The Iron Kingdom” with the sun on the left center edge. Each planet is set on a dotted line indicating its orbit. An area indicated to the lower right of the sun is labeled as “The Starpass”. The closest planet to the sun is Eros, a dark circle with a marbled texture; there is a leader at the top of the planet indicating Resonance, as well as one at the bottom left of the planet indicating Neon City. Around the planet circles its two moons, Juniper and Luna, the latter of which has a leader pointing to its lower right indicating The Iron Palace. To the right of the orbit of Eros’ moons is a small dotted line indicating the orbit of Nevaeh, represented as a dark hexigon. The next planet is Iliad, a dark circle with a cloudy texture and a ring of stars just inside its bounds. A leader at its bottom right indicates Zenteli; Iliad has no moons. The third planet is Cerces, a dark circle with a water-stained texture. Cerces is orbited by Calliope and Palavar. Beyond Cerces is a dotted band that indicates the asteroid belt that encircles the Iron Kingdom, upon which Xourix, a dark pentagon, lies. Between Iliad and Cerces, but lower on the page than either of them, is a cloudy area marked “Haven’s Grave”. End description]

The solar system is as described above. We’re not really given much information about the orbit rates of the planets or the moons or anything aside from Ana’s (originally Erik’s) coronation day being the day all three planets align in what’s known as “Holy Conjunction”, which just so happens to be the thousand-year-anniversary of the Iron Kingdom. The story starts exactly one week (presumably 7 24-hour days, though it is unclear how they keep time standardized in the Iron Kingdom) before this event.

It’s implied that the planets are broken up into districts and ruled over by Ironblood families (consistent with the classification of the system as a Kingdom) by the line, “The Valerio family was the wealthiest in the kingdom and ruled over twenty-three districts on Eros and Iliad, and a mining continent on Cerces, so they were expected to present themselves with a certain flair—especially at parties.” (HoI, I: Iron Thief, Robb)

Erosians are seemingly distinguishable from Cercians, though if it’s just due to Cercians’ tribal markings or if there’s further physical traits that distinguish the two, it’s not made clear. It’s implied that there is no life native to Iliad, but the Solani people all hail from Zenteli, as that’s where their ark crash landed 1,000 years before the story’s beginning, though they have of course since spread to the other planets and intermarried with the Erosians and Cercians.

Eros

The planet closest to the sun, this is where the Valerios evidently hail (Robb is often characterized as having an “Erosian” accent), as well as the location of the Academy of Iron and Light, the tomb where the goddess was buried, and Neon City. Heart of Iron says Eros has three moons, but the map in Soul of Stars only indicates Juniper and Luna. “Eros took up most of the starshield, a blue-and-green planet wrapped in layers and layers of bone-white clouds.” (HoI, II: Iron Ships, Jax) Siege has, “…knockoff tapestries of the rolling landscapes of Eros…” (HoI, II: Iron Ships, Ana), and it’s said to typically have a, “Dreamy, green landscape.” (SoS, I: Starship, Ana). Robb’s blue eyes are described as “Erosian blue” many times, implying either that Eros has a very particular blue compared to the other planets, or that the other planets have sky colors other than blue, which would indicate different atmospheric conditions between the three.

Neon City: Located on Eros, it’s noted as distinctly not like the rest of the planet. “Located in the southern quadrant of the planet, Neon City constantly smelled like damp cement, sewage, and fresh rain, but from a distance the city was beautiful—outlined in lights that reflected in the puddles and through the mists that drifted along the streets. Buildings jutted up into the sky like piercing daggers, slick and glittery with rain. It gave the city an eerie, haunted radiance. In the outskirts where Ana walked, darkness clung to the streets.” (SoS, I: Starship, Ana). It’s implied that it’s always raining in the city. It’s full of dive bars, cement buildings, and steel sky scrapers. There’s a lake somewhere nearby named Lake Leer.

Resonance: A town nearby the Academy of Iron and Light and right by the tomb of the Goddess. “Koren Vey raised her hands again, and up from the ground came hills and valleys that reminded Robb of the backs of those scaly lizards Erik used to put in his bed as a child to scare him, but then he recognized the strange-shaped pool of water in the valley. “Hold on. That’s Lake Myriad. And that pass in the mountains is the Rigid Bone. I know these landmarks. It’s in the Bavania Range”—Robb motioned to the mountains—“because that’s the valley near …” He went very quiet. “The valley near … ?” Ana prodded. “Near the Academy.” (Sos, II: Starless, Robb).

Luna

A moon of Eros, Luna is the location of The Iron Palace. Nothing besides the palace is mentioned to be on Luna, but that doesn’t mean such is so.

The Iron Palace: “The Iron Palace looked like a shard of black glass against the otherwise pale landscape of the moon, a gloomy fortress. The North Tower looked like the other three, but it stood as a hollow shell with burned insides. It had never been rebuilt, and instead the doors were locked – the halls never to be trod in again. The rest of the palace, however, was immaculate in its marble walls and golden trim - the pinnacle of opulence. Surrounding the palace lay terraformed gardens blooming with moonlilies, and in the largest garden stood the kingdom’s first Iron Shrine. … Royal Captain Viera led them into the palace gates and through the empty square, the palace towering over them like a shard of black glass. The palace doors opened into the great hall, lined with pillars as thick as three men.” (HoI, II: Iron Blood, Robb) The palace is largely lit by floating lanterns that fill the halls and rooms, though most likely there are other lighting options such as lamps, overheads, etc.

The palace is also described as a real maze for those who don’t know their way, with identical hallways that Ana only found her way around once she learned which vases and paintings were in which halls. There’s also a system of servant passages that allow servants to move seamlessly through the building and attend to matters unseen. These passages are used by Robb to visit Ana, Malifare as she poses as Ana’s handmaid, and Ana when she was lured into the North Tower.

Messiers stand at every corner, in the gardens, and at the palace doors. They by-and-large don’t do much.

Bonus: The Iron Throne: “The throne swallowed the [Grand Duchess]. Large steel beams spiked out from the chair’s back like sun rays, and she the center.” (HoI, II: Iron Blood, Robb)

Nevaeh

Nevaeh is a space station city whose orbit lies between Eros’ and Iliad’s. “The cityscape of Nevaeh passed below, a grid of grimy, dilapidated buildings. Nevaeh had been the only safe haven from the Plague twenty years ago, so everyone who was not infected had moved here – including Ironbloods, who created the gardens to separate themselves from the citizens. An extra layer of protection from the Plague. But soon the space station fell into disarray, with too many citizens and too little space and no money left to buy land on-world on Eros or Iliad after the Plague was eradicated.” (HoI, I: Iron Theif, Robb).

Astoria: Astoria is the Valerios’ garden estate. As stated above, the Ironbloods took refuge from the Plague in Nevaeh as everyone else, but installed for themselves floating garden estates which hang above the city. Astoria is filled to the brim with exotic flora, including hedge mazes, thorny bushes, and plenty of room to host events.

Shrine: There is a large, prominent shrine on Nevaeh in which Ana’s adventure begins – attempting to steal the coordinates to the Tsarina from Robb – and ends – in a fight against Malifare that is eventually won by her, Di, and Siege. “At the head of the shrine stood the statue of the Moon Goddess, seven men high, her arms oustretched as she looked to some distant point in the domed ceiling, where murals of the Moon Goddess’s story, the kingdom of shadows and the girl of light, were painted. The entire space station of Nevaeh felt empty in the shrine, as if the world only existed between the alabaster pillars and stained-glass trappings, so quiet she could hear the electric hum of Di’s wires and functions, as soft and soothing as a song.” (HoI, I: Iron thief, Ana)

There are 999 candles lit in the shrine, representing the 999 years of the Iron Kingdom (one (1) additional candle is added after the 1,000th anniversary). Even the statue of the Goddess was covered in candles, Ana having to navigate them to get to the heart in the Goddess’ hands. In Soul of Stars, the shrine’s tomb has been damaged and the shrine itself set alight during Malifare’s search for her heart, but efforts to reconstruct it were already evident when Ana came back to retrieve the heart from its hiding spot.

Iliad

Iliad is the second planet from the sun, the only to be described as having rings, and hosts the city of Zenteli, where the Solani ark crash-landed 1,000 years prior to the story. Iliad’s cities are said to be “Crime ridden” (HoI, I: Iron thief, Ana). Not much is known of Iliad other than it having fighting rings where Lenda fought and Di – and presumably the rest of the Dossier – was shot at by mercenaries there once, earning him a ding to his chassis. Iliad is also where Di visited a mechanic and found out his memory core was malfunctioning, a malady for which there was no fix.

Zenteli: “Zenteli was a city unlike anywhere [Robb had] ever been before. It shone alabaster white in the sun, almost indistinguishable from the clouds surrounding it. The city was one of the last safe havens away from the HIVE and Messiers, because of an age-old treaty with the kingdom that barred kingdom influence in the Solani city. Located on the peak of a mountain range near the northern pole of Iliad, it should have been cold, but the sunlight kept the city warm and comfortable. Beneath the mountain was a valley where the original Solani ark had crashed over a thousand years ago. As the Dossier broke through the clouds, the sight of the ruined ship was monstrously large—more like the carcass of a living creature than a ship at all. … While the outer walls of the city were made of sandstone, most of the buildings built into the top of the mountain were made of marble. The city was clean and well kept, far older than most cities on Eros. It also had one of the only Iron Shrines that still stood untouched, a shard of white blending in with the rest of the buildings.” (SoS, II: Starless, Robb)

The most impressive feature of the city is the Shining Spire, which appears to function as a Solani palace. The Spire is multi-purpose, being the place where Jax was taken to the med bay, the crew were kept in prison cells, and the Elder counsel met. The spire features a lovely garden that overlooks the ark’s valley, which would have been lovelier if they’d visited when Jax wasn’t actively dying. Inside the spire, “Cloudy crystalline walls separated one room from another, the doors clear as glass. It was so bright, [Robb’s] eyes watered. The medical ward looked more like the inside of a star.” (SoS, II: Starless, Robb) On every wall in the Spire are etched names, presumably of Solani who have died – perhaps only Solani royalty or those of importance, but that’s unconfirmed – and also Jax’s name, carved when he was on his deathbed.

The Ark: Called the allahlav in the Old Language, “It had taken only an hour or so to get down the side of the mountain, with the help of a few pulleys and antiquated zip lines hidden in the foliage. The last bit of the trail was a hilly descent into the valley, and the ark already looked impossibly big. It had once housed hundreds of thousands of Solani—but Ana hadn’t realized how big it was until she was halfway down the mountain and the bones of the ship stretched from one side of the valley to the other, like the skeleton of some great beast of lore. It wasn’t a natural valley, but a crater made from its impact.

The ancient ark stood in all its ghostly glory. It was so much larger than Ana could have anticipated, its crystalline structure reminding her more of fossils found in the earth than a ship at all. Great vine-covered pillars curved inward, reaching five hundred feet in the air to make a sort of rib cage for a great beast. The ark spread out in both directions, so long it faded into the trees on either side. It was like nothing in the Iron Kingdom because it wasn’t made of iron or copper or gold. It was ivory and ancient.”

The ark was like a cool giant sky whale but also a controllable ship – even Elara isn’t entirely sure on the details – and was the last of its kind, transporting the last of the Solani from their galaxy to escape the Great Dark that sought to consume them.

Haven’s Grave

It was a graveyard of sorts, halfway between Cerces and Iliad, where derelict ships congregated through some strange cosmic magnitism, and in the center of the graveyard was a waystation only a few knew about.” (SoS, IV: Starcrossed, Ana)

Cerces

Cerces, third from the sun, is a desert planet infamous for its mineral mines, and features two moons: Palavar and Colliope. Imprisoned people outfitted with vox collars – to prevent unions and uprisings – mine the gem-rich world until they die. “It was a planet of deserts, and underground cities built of topaz and emeralds, and the infamous prison mines that supplied rare jewels to the rest of the kingdom.” (HoI, II: Iron Ships, Jax) It’s also home to the Cercians, though little is described of them except that they wear markings – presumably tattoos – that indicate which clan they belong to.

Palavar

Cerces’s dark moon. It orbited around the third planet from the sun in such a way that it always fell into the planet’s shadow. No light reach it – and that meant no energy. Ships couldn’t function for long, tech would power down.” (HoI, II: Iron Ships, Jax) There are mentions of ruins being on the moon, hinted at being over 1000 years old, perhaps in an age when Cerces was in a different location compared to the sun the Palavar saw light.

The Tsarina

Known later as The Murder Ship, the Tsarina was the only ship docked in the moonbay that wasn’t accounted for after the Rebellion. “The Tsarina was a Class-4 Armada retired thirty-four years ago for private use, but it did not show its age. On its side, in royal purple, was the Rasovant family crest, a nine-tentacled octopus.” (HoI, II: Iron Ships, Di)

“The halogen lights popped on one at a time, illuminating the long corridor. It was white, lined with silver doors glowing with red keypads. Locked. At first glance, the ship looked immaculate, but there was a thin layer of dust on the tiled floor, showing their boot prints as they traveled down the corridor. … The Tsarina could easily fit five Dossiers. At full capacity, the ship could house two, maybe three hundred people. She’d never been on a ship this big.” (HoI, II: Iron Ships, Ana)

The Dossier

“The Dossier was a ship of beauty.

The Cercian-7 transportation vessel was from an era before Metals and Rebellions. Close to a century old, the black-and-chrome girl was retrofitted, so it looked like a patchwork of old parts and new spares. Too many firefights had run its three black solar sails ragged, and still it kept sailing like a dead man in the night. The ship wasn’t as fast as newer models, but it was quiet and durable and its solar engine purred sweet as nectar. It was finicky to fly, so most pilots couldn’t handle it properly, but Jax flew it like a dream.

The cargo bay could fit a skysailer and crates for goods and their latest haul, connecting to an infirmary and an engine room. Up a rickety set of rusted stairs was the crew’s quarters, the galley, the captain’s room, and the cockpit where Jax spent most of his time. The ship constantly hummed from the golden solar energy core at its heart, a sweet and low song that Ana couldn’t sleep without, and the ship always smelled like recycled air, rust, and gunpowder.

There was never enough privacy, the showers were always colder than the darkest recesses of space, and you could hear someone whisper from anywhere on the ship. But her bunk was warm, and her mattress lumpy to fit her curves, and the crew was like her—forgotten, exiled, orphaned, refugeed. Her family. Home.” (HoI, II: Iron Ships, Ana)

#heart of iron #hoi #sos #reference #settings #soul of stars

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scotianostra · 6 years ago

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On March 5th 1790, Flora MacDonald, the Jacobite heroine, died.

Flora is still one of the most romanticise figures in Scottish history, much has been written about her helping Charles Edward Stuart after his escape from Culloden when he was the most hunted man in Scotland.

Flora Macdonald was born at Milton, on South Uist, where you can still see the ruins of her childhood home. She grew up in the household of the chief of the Macdonalds of Clanranald, who firmly supported the Jacobite cause. When Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped following the Battle of Culloden in 1746 he went into hiding, depending on supporters to shelter him and hide him from his Hanoverian pursuers led by the Duke of Cumberland. At length, he arrived on the island of Benbecula, where it was decided that he should move on to Skye.

The island was under travel restrictions, and the prince could not take the risk of being spotted. A Jacobite supporter and distant kinsman named Captain Conn O'Neill asked Flora to help Charles escape. Macdonald herself did not support the Jacobite cause, but she was moved by the plight of the Jacobites after the Battle of Culloden, and at length she agreed. She later said that she acted from charity, and would have helped the Duke of Cumberland had she found him in a similar situation.

She obtained permission from Hugh Macdonald, commander of the local militia and her stepfather, to leave Benbecula. She was allowed to take two servants, and a crew of six sailors. Bonnie Prince Charlie was dressed as an Irish spinning maid named Betty Burke, and in that guise he sailed with Flora to Skye on 27 June 1746.

Unlike the scene made famous in the popular 'Skye Boat Song', the Prince did not leave baffled foes standing on the shore, and managed to make the crossing unchallenged. From Skye, he made his way at length to Moidart, where he boarded a French ship and escaped to refuge in Europe.

When Flora Macdonald's role in the escape came to light she was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Though she had committed treason by helping Bonnie Prince Charlie, the public, even staunch Hanoverians, regarded her as a heroic figure, primarily because she was a woman, I have little doubt if it had been a man that helped the Prince in a similar way, he would have been executed.

She was released from the Tower in 1747. She married Allan Macdonald of Kingsburgh in 1750 and settled at Flodigarry on Skye, where she raised a family. In 1774 the couple and their 5 children emigrated to North Carolina. Her husband Alexander joined a regiment of Royal Highland Emigrants in the American War of Independence, where he was captured. He was released in an exchange of prisoners and took up a command in Nova Scotia.

In 1779 Macdonald returned to Scotland, braving an attack by privateers on the way, and settled on Skye where her husband joined her after the war was over. She died in at Kingsburgh in 1790 and was buried in the graveyard beside the 16th-century church at Kilmuir. Tradition says that she was buried in a shroud made from a bed-sheet used by Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Given her popularity as a Jacobite heroine, it is not surprising that a large memorial was erected by her grave, which became a popular destination for tourists. The original monument to Macdonald was destroyed in a gale in 1871. It was replaced by a new memorial designed by Alexander Ross in 1880. Ross's design includes a 28 foot high Celtic Cross of granite, rising above a slender rectangular chest tomb, also of granite. A marble plaque was added in 1922.

The epitaph reads, 'Her name will be mentioned in history and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour'. It was written by Dr Samuel Johnson of dictionary fame, who met her during his famous tour of the Hebrides with James Boswell.

In 1884, just 4 years after the monument was erected, the Skye Boat Song was published, and the popular ballad ensured that Macdonald's fame would not fade.

Here is a less well known song about not just Flora by Brian McNeill, you can tell through the song that Brian has not got a high opinion of the Prince, but holds Flora in the highest esteem as a strong woman.

Pics are of Flora's grave and the statue of the lady herself at Inverness Castle that I took in 2014.

There's a moment of your story That has always haunted me When you set out in yon open boat To help the poor man flee Was Charlie Stuart's future Already plain to see Did you know he'd be a waster on his days

If you did, I'd give the world to find A single tear you cried From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas You showed us one and all The courage you could call From the tears that would not fall From your eyes

And after thirty years After all that you'd been through us been marriede haven' been a Just a memory to rue As you watched your husband putting on His coat of scarlet hue To go and fight for German Geordie's crown

But you never tried to hide behind The dreams of days gone by From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas You showed us one and all The courage you could call From the tears that would not fall From your eyes

And there's times I think I see you When I find that kind of face When a woman's independence Has kept a woman's grace Where confidence and pride Refuse to know their place Or hide behind the easy tricks of beauty

For to me your lights are like the chimes Across the stormy skies From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas You showed us one and all The courage you could call From the tears that would not fall From your eyes

From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas Strong women rule us all With the courage that they call When the tears refuse to fall From their eyes

#Scotland #Scottish #heroin #Jacobites #History #strongwomen

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ahsjcu · 6 years ago

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Trip Review: Tarquinia and Tuscania

On Saturday, April 6th, the Art History Society organized a trip that took us back in time, yet not that far away from Rome, to Tarquinia and Tuscania.

Most visitors to Rome believe they are visiting the ancient heart of culture on the Italian peninsula. Few realize that the Romans were preceded by an earlier civilization of Etruscans who flourished in pre-Roman Italy. The Etruscans broadened their influence in the Ancient world because they traded goods across the Mediterranean. The elite, richened by the flow of material wealth and cultural influences, developed distinctive traditions and iconography to express their identity. The monuments most visited in Central Rome are largely imperial or religious monuments, grand marble testament to the glory of the Roman and Catholic empires. The Etruscan art in Tarquinia, however, is the art of lived culture, of families, of fishing, hunting, and banqueting, of celebration and mourning.

First, we visited the Etruscan Necropolis of Tarquinia. The word necropolis means “a city (polis) of the dead (necro).” The Etruscan Necropolis in Tarquinia is not a cemetery as one knows a cemetery today, but a network of underground house-like structures that ancient Etruscans regularly visited to spend time with their deceased relatives. In the Necropolis, there are over 200 tombs with wall paintings dating as far as 7th century B.C, that show elite banquets, gardens, games, sports, dancers, demons, and spirits. For instance, we were astonished by the Tomba della Caccia e Pesca (the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing), where the first room was lavishly decorated with several kinds of plants, bushes, and trees, giving a sense of being back above the ground level, around the green hills and woods of Tarquinia. In the next room, the walls were painted in a seascape, which reminded us of a sea we saw before entering the tomb. The wall painting showed a sea full of swimming and jumping fish, that are being caught by men on a boat, and a sky full of flying birds in different colors. There was even a rocky coast with a man jumping off a cliff into the blue water of the sea. Among many, we especially admired Tomba dei Giocolieri (the Tomb of Jugglers), as well as the most famous two, Tomba degli Àuguri (the Tomb of the Augurs) and Tomba dei Leopardi (the Tomb of the Leopards). We could look at the same wall paintings that Etruscans looked at 2500 years before us.

The National Museum of Tarquinia (Museo Archeologico Nazionale Di Tarquinia) houses most of the best preserved and most beautiful of the objects found in the Necropolis. The museum is located in Renaissance Palazzo Vitelleschi, built in 1436 by Cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi, overlooking a little piazza. In the museum, we encountered Etruscan sarcophagi that were originally placed in many of the tombs. The sarcophagi were extraordinary ornamented, for instance with flora and fauna reliefs, as well as richly painted. Moreover, their lids were made to resemble statues of the deceased. The deceased were depicted as sleeping, reclining, eating fruit, and smiling at the viewer. We even found one sarcophagus that depicted a man who perkily braced his head on his folded arm, with his gaze stuck at us. As the Etruscans were trading with other Mediterranean civilizations, we saw not only the examples of Bucchero, a ceramic type specific to Etruscans, but also artifacts from ancient Greece and Egypt.

Once one ventures to Tarquinia, it would be a shame not to visit nearby Tuscania, which has one of Italy’s most fascinating churches. The church of San Pietro overlooks the hilly landscape of the province of Viterbo. San Pietro is a combination of a Gothic and Romanesque style, surrounded by towers, ruins, and grass. In fact, with help from Professor Hansen, we managed to find Roman ruins from ca. 2nd century A.D. We could hardly take our eyes away from the façade of San Pietro, that was filled with complex symbolism and iconography, ranging from exotic animals to Christian saints. The contrast of the white marbles with the brown bricks and green grass made it seemed unreal, almost as from a movie set.The breathtaking rose window seemed to be made out of lace rather than a stone. The interior, filled with cold air, was as impressive as the outside. The floor was decorated with geometric mosaics, while the columns set along the aisle were a fabulous mixture of styles. Each capitol was different, with some of them being ancient, some made for the church itself. Next, we left for the center of Tuscania. We climbed the narrow streets to reach the elevated park and to marvel at the panoramic view of the green hills, impressive city walls, and breathtaking architecture.

The Art History Society organizes at least one trip each semester to visit some of the less well-known, but absolutely amazing art sites just outside of Rome. Many places are still on our list, and we will keep you posted.

~ AHS Social Media Coordinator Natalia Stanusch

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flyingcarpettours · 6 years ago

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Cairo, Nile Cruise and Sharm El-Sheikh Holidays

If you are a Nile-lover, our Cairo, Nile Cruise and Sharm El Sheikh Holidays would be the best! Get a thrill out of cruising the Nile River in Egypt to explore Cairo, and enjoy many amazing sailing trips from Luxor to Aswan, visit the most popular historical places in Egypt that will make you get back in time of the Pharaonic era, explore their culture, lifestyle, civilization and know more about their gods and goddesses. You will also enjoy exploring the majestic nature of the underwater in Sharm El-Sheikh. Also, you will be amazed by exploring the coral reefs and the rare fish, take photos of underwater scenes, fish, coral reefs, flora and fauna of the Red Sea. With our Cairo and Nile Cruise and Sharm El Sheikh Package, you will get the chance to enjoy our Pyramids of Giza Tour! The Great Pyramids of Egypt or The 7 Wonders of the ancient world: Cheops, Chephren, and Mykerinus. Besides the breathtaking view of the Sphinx, which is a body and a head of a king or god that symbolize strength and wisdom. Additionally, you will be entertained to attend our one-hour Sound and Light Show which is a great show that will take you back to the time of Ancient Egypt where the kings narrate their aesthetic pharaonic stories along with the Pyramids and the Sphinx being illuminated in multi-colored lasers and visual projections. Don`t miss our Camel Riding or Horse Riding at Giza Pyramids, we promise you an amazing and unique experience like no other! You will also get fascinated by visiting the gorgeous Egyptian Museum and its artifacts and learn about the mummification in Ancient Egypt. Moreover, the museum contains many tombs filled with amazing statues and paintings of Egyptian Gods that would help the mummy in the afterlife, protect them against tomb robbers, and pay homage to their religious symbols. They also contain messages and magic spells to ward off evil and furniture to use in the afterlife as they thought.

If you are an architecture-lover, don`t worry! We got you covered! Citadel of Salah El-Dein, an Egyptian old fortress that was built to protect Cairo from the enemies, which highlights the medieval warfare, as it shows many fabulous monuments and weapons. It was also used as a major headquarter for the King Salah El Din and his government in Egypt. Also, you will be amused by the beautiful designing of Mohammed Ali Mosque or the Great Alabaster Mosque, as it has a square shape and every side of it is 41m. It also contains a central dome in its roof that stands on four huge arches and supported by huge piers. People from all over the world have been fond of its charming decoration that is mainly Ottoman and Islamic. Old Cairo is also considered by many archaeologists as one of the oldest stunning places in Egypt. With our Old Cairo tours, you will feast your eyes by visiting the Hanging Church, Abu Serga Church, and Ben Ezra Synagogue. Moreover, you will attend a Tanoura Show at Wekalet El Ghouri, one of the most spectacular shows that you shouldn`t miss! Sail to Aswan and explore the fabulous attractions in Aswan besides enjoying the beautiful nature, where you will feast your eyes by watching the glory of Philae Temple, which contains many ancient Egyptian sanctuaries and shrines, like For Millennia, the Bed of Pharaoh or Trajan’s Kiosk and more. You will also visit the High Dam and the Unfinished Obelisk, which was built by the Queen Hatshepsut, and it shed light on its marvelous designing, as it was going to be the largest Obelisk in the world. Then you will sail to Kom Ombo to visit the glorious Temple of Kom Ombo; you can walk through the temple of Haroeris and the Temple of Sobek, those temples show the importance of the Ancient Egyptian priests. Get excited with the Temple of Sobek, where you will find many mummified crocodiles, gorgeous inscriptions on the walls and beautiful clay coffins. However, the Temple of Kom Ombo is surrounding by amazing gardens of corn and sugarcane, therefore Kom Ombo is an amusing agriculture town and there were a lot of Nubian people that were living in it before the Nile flooding has affected badly on their lands. In addition to Edfu Temple; a great chance to explore the Ancient Egyptian civilization by watching the marvelous Pharaonic inscriptions on the walls of Edfu Temple, which gave us a lot of information about the Pharaonic history, myth, religion and ancient languages. Stroll at the Temple of Edfu, which was dedicated to Horus and Hathor, therefore it was the center of many ancient Egyptian festivals to sacred to the Horus, The building of Hypostyle Hall has a lot of amazing decorations, which are consisting of a description of the Feast of the Beautiful Meeting and the universal reunion between Horus and his beloved wife Hathor. There are also the first pylon, which is situated in the entrance of the temple and it has many beautiful inscriptions, the Temple of Edfu is spiritually has a connection to the Hathors Temple at the Dendera complex. If you are looking for a more archaistic and antiquated thing, don`t worry we got you covered! You will get amazed by the aesthetic pharaonic spots in Luxor! Have you ever heard of Luxor`s origin? Well, Luxor was once known as "Thebes" during the New Kingdom, but ancient Egyptians were calling it “t-apt”, which means “the shrine”, as it was the most important religious Pharaonic capital, then the Arabian travelers called it Al-Oksour, which means “site of the palaces”, and then it slowly became Luxor. It`s where you will feast your eyes by the Ancient history that`s clear everywhere: tombs, temples, museums, walls and pyramids! Enjoy the fabulous Karnak Temple in Luxor with the huge Pillar where the sun`s light is focused upon it to create a mesmerizing sight. Beguile your eyes with the Temple of Hatshepsut, known now with the name of El-Deir El-Bahary which lies on the Nile`s West Bank. Don`t miss the Valley of the Kings, which is considered as one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. People from all over the world are infatuated by the fabulous Sound and Light Show at the Temple of Karnak; where pharaohs narrate their stories in a poetic and aesthetic way while the music is playing in the background. Passing through the gates of Luxor, you will be astonished by the glory of the two huge statues; known as Colossi of Memnon. Know more about the mummification in Ancient Egypt by visiting the Mummification Museum. It also displays lifestyle of the Pharaonic kings and how they cared about the afterlife. Have fun with Flying Carpet Tours in Sharm El Sheikh and experience an exciting tour in the Red Sea! Enjoy diving at Tiran Island and Ras Mohammed, enjoy exploring the sea with its fancy fish types and the marvelous coral reefs that you will never find anywhere else except Sharm El Sheikh. Wander at the charming resorts and bays such as Soho square and Naama Bay. Discover Sharm El Sheikh at night as it has many fancy dancing cosmopolitan nightclubs and you can explore the Bedouin’s life and have a BBQ dinner while listening to Arabian beautiful music or enjoy shopping and buying souvenirs as a memory for a remarkable experience.

For more info about Cairo, Nile Cruise and Sharm El Sheikh Holidays: Tel.: 01099906242 E-mail: [email protected]

#cairo #cairo nile cruise package #cairo tours #nile cruise #red sea holidays #holidays in sharm elsheikh #sharm el sheikh holidays #sharm el sheikh packages

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hoenn-hakase · 6 years ago

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TPP Flora Sky Summary Day 3

Bits of weirdness aside, yesterday had been pretty chill outside of our meeting Team Aqua, or at least a single grunt, who seemed very adamant about obtaining a PokeDex. Having returned that to Wally, we’re hanging out in Turzoro City for our next big gym match! Ah now, it’s a new day and a new grind! Because where we last saw our host, Hannah was doing some dedicated planning and training in preparing for her match against Wattson after changing out some teammates. I’m gonna miss Watchog and Comma but especially Bowza. RIP ;o;

We begin the day with Hannah going against Wattson for a purposeful blackout since the Voices were more intent on the PC than healing the team. She immediately goes back to challenge him for the first time with her new and improved team only to get DEMORALIZED by having him one-shot her first Pokemon (Ninjask) and when she switched in for Shedinja to spam some Double Team, he also switched in for an Emolga with Aerial Ace making both the attack and all her hard work on raising Nincada to Shedinja a total waste. At least… for this match. His flying rodent then goes on to basically DESTROY the rest of her team in a feat of fury. Egads! How did A.A. do this with only a weaksauce pair of Pokemon???

In shock at the loss, Hannah goes RIGHT BACK TO HIM with basically the same results. Okay, Voices…. What now? Well given their determination to get to the PC, that is exactly the first place they go. We immediately deposit Bitty the Ninjask and head for the desert to find us a Gound-Type. However, Hannah gets distracted by realizing that not too far from the desert is a whole new area she hasn’t discovered yet and heads over the ledge into Route P and eventually wanders her way into the ~mysterious~ Hippowdon Temple. 8O

There doesn’t actually seem to be anything to this place, but it does eventually dump her back into the desert of Route J where she finally catches her a Trapinch! Emerald Veterans are internally screaming and cracking up. Turns out the cave entrance was just a taste of what’s to come as she sees at the other end of this desert alcove is the REAL Hippowdon Temple! An ancient and massive looking structure of stonework sitting hidden away by the edges of the mountains and sandstorms that surround it. She goes inside to find the place eerily well lit for a potentially long since abandoned building and walks up to the altar which is lit by nearby torches and guarded by equally ancient statues that look down on her. Strangely, the offering in place seems to be… an escape rope? What’s so special about that? As soon as she picks it up though THE FLOOR DROPS OUT FROM UNDER HER AND CASTS HER INTO THE ABYSS! At least she managed to get the Escape Rope into her bag so it wasn’t a total waste XD

Waking up in the darkness, Hannah pulls out her lanturn to cast a small bubble of light. It sure would be nice to have Comma right now though… She checks her PokeNav to see that while there’s no signal to call anyone, the map app is still working. Despite the place having teleporters it seems she is most definitely still on Route J. Okay… time to go exploring then… She finds her way to a teleporter that warps her into another treasure room, and leery as she is after the last one, she goes up to investigate as it’s the only possible means to proceed. Sure enough! As soon as she picks up the Red Shard… Nothing happens! Cool! We spend quite a lot of time poking around on the PokeDex and Hannah zooms in on her map to find out that this temple isn’t even listed (spoopy D8 ) before heading back to the teleporter which… spits her out at the entrance. Okaaay???

Well since she got kicked out by the temple itself, Hannah decides she’s had enough adventure for one day and heads back to Route P for some serious Badger Hunting! 8D

After finally blacking out and going back to town, we head straight for the PC and while I could explain, I couldn’t do better than this XDD

Hannah is so disgusted with US, she runs and runs and runs and doesn’t stop running until she gets stopped by Gabby & Ty, NEWS NEWS NEWS folk extraordinaires! Ty brings up that Hanna looks like a really tough trainer and wonders if she’d be willing to show off for them with the camera rolling. …. Now really isn’t a good time, but y’know what? Sure. Beating up someone sure would make her feel better right about now! Despite having only Miss Tea and Aga (and an unconscious Penguin), the small team does pretty well in… Losing. Ah well, back at the Pokemon Center, we head up to the PC, casually grab Shedinja out of “timeout”, and head for the desert to restock our lack of Ground-types.

Okay, not that it’s important, but it’s pretty funny. There’s this hill in the Route J desert that requires the Mach Bike to get up to get on top of the cliffs that surround it. Last time we came across this thing, Hannah actually had a blackout trying to climb that hill and she’d tried to scale it every time she passed it to no avail before the Voices gave up and moved on or she passed out. We FINALLY got up there this time just to find an Ultra Ball as the only noticeable thing of interest. Worth it. XD

Now back to the desert, we continue with The Grind in preparation for the gym but we also catch a Gible! Tiny dragon named AAAAAAAAAT! Also we catch a Gligar named AAAAABBNNB. I think I shall call them… Ninat (9 As and a T?) and Abner less someone has an actual nickname that was used OR they do something to earn a name otherwise. ^ w ^

We head into the fields of Route L where we try to talk to the Azurill Gang, but alas. This isn’t Blazed Glazed, so Hannah has no idea what their beef is. At least she can still continue training her newest members in the nearby grass where we have Aga the Ralts become Aga the Kirlia! 8D

Unable to coordinate enough to heal, Hannah just goes to Wattson for a new black eye and heads out to The Grind once more.

Despite getting dark out, Hannah decides in all her desert wanderings to head BACK to the Hippowdon Temple to see how she and her new teammates will fare before getting kicked out again. Heading back to the Red Shard chamber, we find one of the memorialized Hippowdon to catch for ourselves before coming across a very angry mummy who decided she’d rather destroy herself by cursing Ninat than join our ranks. Smart move, Cofagrigus. Smart move. XD Seems there’s really nothing more to see here, so we head on back to town to heal and take our Grind to the mountains of Route P.

At long last WE CAN AFFORD THE SAFARI ZONE! There’s a lot to see around here, but most importantly, we find a fat man in a Rest House who tells Hannah that once she gets the Turzoro City Badge, he’ll give her a reward. Oooh reward! All the more motivation to kick Wattson’s butt now!

But not before he gives us a THROUGH butt kicking himself as Hannah decides she’s sick of training and plows her way bullheaded against him AT LEAST 8 times in a row. She takes a breather outside the Pokemon Center when she gets a call from Lao, the Ninja Boy from Dark Cave! In actuality he called to vent to her about getting bested by a Wingull, though I’m sure she was glad to do some venting of her own. After a few more attempts at Wattson (gaining the team quite a few levels actually) I wonder if she was actually trying to learn from him or still failing to destroy him. Either way, she did come close a few times and headed for the fields to the north of town for the big finish!

Miss Tea evolved into Linoone and learned Mud Sport! Ninat evolved into Gabite! 8O

I have lost track, but I believe we are up to ROUND 18 against Wattson, but this time we’re back to playing for keeps and not points. Putting Ninat in front, the match is on as our dragon OBLITERATES EVERYTHING WITH DRAGON RAGE! Oh, except Lanturn cause we ran out. XD But even then, it was the slow death of Ninat using Sand Tomb and Sand Attack while Wattson could do nothing but keep throwing potions at Lanturn to stall us out. And failing. The old man isn’t mad though and is actually pleasantly surprised as he bursts into laughter at just… SO MUCH HOW??? How did it take us this long to do that? How did he mess up so badly to get SWEPT after how good he’d been doing? At the very least, seeing Hannah’s tenacity and determination in finally besting him at his own game. We won the Dynamo Badge! \ O / We can now use Strength outside of battle! And we got TM34 Shock Wave! And Wattson’s number!~ Vohiyo …. Wait D8

Wattson says he swells with optimism to see a young trainer like Hannah as there’s hope for the future in these kids. Good luck, little one, it’s time to head north! Erm, after we go claim our prize from the Safari Zone that is. PAY UP, FAT MAN! WHAT IS IT~? It’s HM04 STRENGTH! \o/ We can now get through SEVERAL of the passages we’ve seen before including Dark Cave and Mt. Fullmoon! But since we’re here, let’s get to Badger Hunting!

Back in town we run into a woman who claims to be a master of making PokeBlocks and asks if Hannah would like to learn. Hannah just waved her off that she don’t really need any lessons. The woman warns her she shouldn’t try to do everything on her own though before sending us on our way.

We head out for Route K and slip into the caves that bear no name. It is right here at the entrance that perhaps Hannah was struck by a strange curiosity or maybe it just happened. Either way, she was told how the Dynamo Badge made her Pokemon faster, but what about her? After slipping through the cave entrance, she FOR SOME REASON ended up scaling the walls and walking the ceiling D8

Getting back to scaling the mountain path normally, Hannah makes her way through the pouring rain to come across the quaint little town of Habutest! Habutest Town may be small, but it’s got a lovely little outdoor Marketplace she had to look but not touch due to being flat broke. On the upside, one of the merchants tells her about how many of the folks around here love ~Secret Power~ and if she can prove she’s found out what that means, he’ll make a deal with her. … Intriguing. Definitely keep that in mind.

Healing up at the Pokemon Center, Hannah continues to explore when she comes across an old sailor who calls himself Mr. April. Mr. April is having a very big problem since it seems a great heap of debris has ended up in front of his house. He’s too old to be dealing with this, but perhaps if Hannah could use Strength AND Rock Smash she could clear it out? Certainly! It’s show time for Abner and Miss Tea as we display their destructive power and get to work! Mr. April is so stoked about her helping him, he wants to reward her! … But how? He doesn’t really have much to offer, but he does have a Lapras that could take her out to a snow covered island. Wouldn’t that be a wonder for her to see? 8D <3 Actually, while she should be careful of the strange old man who doesn’t speak good English, she’s far too curious about this mystical place, so she agrees!

Off we go, to the beach! To the Lapras! Speeding along Route M! Route N! And FINALLY we land on the icy shores of Searound City! He tells her to “find her pleasure at here” and decides to wait with his Pokemon while she goes exploring. See? No worries!

The main hub of Searound City seems to be nice though, paved streets filled with snowmen among the snowfall. She finds one building that seems to have some, uh…. Oh look it’s more people who look like that odd thug she fought for Wally’s PokeDex. She hasn’t checkpointed in town yet, and since her only means to get here was Mr. April, it’d be best not to risk a battle and get stranded. Hannah just as quietly heads back to the streets where she runs into a woman who invites her into her home for warmth and tells her a bit of a secret. That building Hannah just came out of? That’s the entrance to the Underground, a tunnel that connects to the island to Charpos City! Say… didn’t Wally say that’s where he’s originally from? What does Team Aqua have against this kid??? Suspicions and protectiveness rising, Hannah feels something rising up in her again. Envy thanks the woman for the information and heads back out into the snow…

Envy stealthily sneaks into a few other places to see about getting information on the situation as to why the Underground is being closed off by these goons and eventually finds the Pokemon Center. Great! But before going back for those Aqua Grunts just yet, we head to the Gym to perhaps warn the Gym Leader of what’s going on. (Or maybe he just wants to kick Leader’s butt for not doing anything. Or for teh lulls. There’s no telling with this host. XD ) No surprise, the gym happens to be Ice themed, complete with the slick floor, large icy pillars, and a general frosty haze that hangs over the place. What IS surprising though, is the place seems to be surprisingly…. Empty.

Envy makes it through the sliding puzzle though to find a back door to the place that leads into yet another puzzle. Cool gimmick but shouldn’t there be someone guarding the place? Trainers? The Gym Guide? Someone? HELLOO...o…? We make our way deeper into the freezer when we start to find a series of ladders in this increasingly surreal building when suddenly A TRAINER! Envy really has no issue with the girl, but it seems we’ve found the REAL challenge to this place! Just about the time the Gym Leader is in sight ah….oops?

Hannah manages to shake it off though and storms up to Pryce (gee, who saw that coming? kappa ) who says that he doesn’t want to hear WHY she is here. Let their swords Pokemon do the talking! …. Blackout.

Well we learned a few things. 1) You’re a bit of a jerk in this game, aren’t ya, buddy? XD 2) NO FAIR, OLD MAN, WE WEREN’T READY! >O 3) Curious if he knew or had anything to do with the blip we suffered just before meeting him. Let’s try this again!

Making our way back to Pryce, Penguin the Prinplup seems to share in Hannah’s fury as he tears down the first two Pokemon with Metal Claw before being whittled down through team effort. In comes the Shedinja who, despite not getting to show very well in the last gym, goes on to (slowly) wreck the remaining team members with Fury Swipes and Wonder Guarding everything! We won the Icy Badge which lets us use Cut outside of battle! Eat it, old man! >O Pryce admits his luck seems to have run out when faced with such a trainer like Hannah and gives her TM49 Iceberg! With that display of ferocity he says surely she’ll become the Chapion. … Whatever that is.

Does it mean “Ninja Master of Butt Whoop”? Because that is exactly what Hannah is going to continue to do. With Pryce being NO HELP AT ALL, she follows her senses (or Us really) straight to the Oceanic Museum where Team Aqua is everywhere and in need of some pants kicking. Hannah carefully manages to avoid fighting anyone though as she makes her way to the upper level where she finds a woman looking only slightly different from the other Team Aqua members. Shelly musing to herself how after stealing these blueprints to the Submarine Explorer, Team Aqua will be able to reach Kyogre! Hannah may not know what that means, but NINJA SNEAK ATTACK!

Shelly is shocked to have someone come in on her like this and receives help as a pair of Aqua Grunts bursts in on the scene to attack Hannah instead! Miss Tea quickly comes to Hannah’s defense against the first man, but the team struggles to get passed the next! Just when she could get some air, Shelly herself decides to attack and has her Sharpedo rip into Aga leaving only Ninat left! RELEASE. DRAGON. FURY! (Not gonna lie, that actually had me worried) Shelly is again in shock to find herself defeated and Hannah practically dancing with Ninat for his saving them. But celebrations are all too soon as even MORE Team Aqua members show up, this time with a man in all black and a gold chain. Clearly the leader of these vagrants, which he fully admits in introducing himself as Archie, head of Team Aqua. He doesn’t feel like fighting a mere child and explains to her that Team Aqua are sea loving people. She’s clearly not with Team Magma, so why does she want to go picking fights with them? All life needs water, all water returns to the sea. And by working to expand the seas, surely Hannah must see they are part of a noble endeavor! …….. ….. ….. …. … Bah, maybe she’s too young to understand. All the more reason not to fight her. Seriously, fellow Aqua, she’s a CHILD. However, he does warn her that this is no game they’re playing. If she should come after them again, there will be actual consequences. Shelly can argue with him all she wants on the way home about how this girl is a serious threat, and no child to be taken lightly, but for now they all just disappear. Leaving Hannah all the more confused, angry, scared, and determined that whatever it is they’re planning, it can’t be good.

We go to heal up and restock our Poke Balls (and buy the whole team cake or something, that was way too close for comfort) before heading to the Underground to continue onward. After doing a bit of jump exercises on the couches, Hannah gets jumped but Ninja Boy Jaiden who, I assume mistook her for an Aqua due to her all blue outfit and bandana. XD The other trainers of the Underground at least seem friendly in the usual sense of attacking as is custom of two trainers meeting. The Underground is a bit of a maze, but we manage to get through all the trainers in sight, including the ones guarding HM01 Air Cutter and at last enter Charpos Island! 8O … That we can’t actually enter due to the entrance / exit to the Underground being so overgrown, it needs Cut to escape. Dang, Aqua, how long were you barricading the place???

Surely we missed something though, and Hanna heads on back into the Underground to fight more trainers, find more dropped items, and talk to an old man who can’t get enough of the gorgeous weather outside. Hannah could just about slap herself to realize that Air Cutter is the same as Cut in this region. For all her exploring, seems Flora still has a lot to learn about…

Charpos City is a gorgeous, yet tropical island that seems such a far cry from Snowround it’s hard to believe they’re so close together. We head on into the first large gaudy building in sight and discover the Pokemon Fan Club where the Chairman explains to Hannah about the wonders of the Contest scene! Eh, maybe someday, but for now she’s just gonna stock up on Poke Balls and heal. As we get to exploring the rest of the town, Hannah also stumbles across Wally’s house and gets to meet his parents. Wally isn’t home at the moment, but it’s still nice to always meet some of his friends considering, due to his sickly nature, he doesn’t have many. But, his dad says, the boy sure has been doing a lot better since they moved to this beautiful place. We also find the Bike Shop 2 where the questionably mobster the shop owner points out that if Hannah already has the Mach Bike, then he’ll just take that off her hands and give her an Acro Bike. Sound good? Uh… Sure!

We end the day off by aimlessly wandering the place and just taking in the sights. The cliffs looking out to sea, running in the waves, raiding the fridge of EVERY house we enter, and of course playing with the settings on the outdoor PC with the clock and lottery segments. Is all good and calm and relaxing after the LOOOONG day our Host has had. <3

#twitch plays pokemon #flora sky #Hannah N. Vee #Envy #summaries

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andistewart · 4 years ago

Text

Ghosts (Part 1)

(Part 2)

There is a difference between the silence that is experienced above the ground and below. Above ground, silence is light and alive. The noises that breaks through are always familiar even if they are unexpected. When it is quiet below ground; however, it is dead and heavy. It envelops and suffocates like a tomb. The noises that can be heard here bounces around walls and comes in echos. The sound is caught, but carries an uncertainty of character.

It was a basement silence that held in this non-descript room between the therapist and patient. Echoing between the two was the last question asked: "How are you doing?"

Therapist or not, he always struggled with a response. He plumbed around attempting to find the right answer. He sat on the drab blue couch leaning against the back rest and his head tilted downwards. He blinked his eyes as they were fixed on the carpet and the generic pattern of muted blues and grays so often found in offices. He did not trust what immediately bubbled up. "I'm fine", for him was true and it was not. He could usually feign "fineness" to fit with the dynamics of the interaction. Most of the time, he felt nobody was really concerned with how he was doing. Responding otherwise would break that societal trust.

Here was a person that was asking in earnest, and he wanted to respond in kind.

≈≈≈≈

My pace was frenetic and haphazard. Lights. Windows. Did I have everything? Oven. Patio door. Did I check the oven? Shoes. Keys? Keys. I had shut the front door and subsequently pushed the handle hard a few times. I flipped up my apartment's mailbox lid. It was a Saturday. It seemed that I was on autopilot now and under the influence by the shadows of my anxiety.

It was just before half past eight at night. The birthday party invite was an hour ago. I was biking fast, but soon reminded myself to slow down. It's just a birthday party of some people I barely know: this isn't worth dying for. I then coasted slowly through stop signs and in between French-Canadian brick rowhouses. I pondered why I'm late so often; someone I dated once told me I'd be late to my own funeral.

I was headed to Baldwin Park, a popular green space in the city which lay on the eastern edge of a neighbourhood called the Plateau. An area that had been reincarnated many times throughout its history. In the nineteenth century it started as farming estates for the ruling bourgeoisie. At the onset of the twentieth, it densified to become a working and middle class area. From the thirties it transformed into a hub of tenant immigrants and poorer Quebeckers reaching an apotheosis in the sixties with the seperation referendums. When the eighties came artists flooded in for the cheap rents and it began turning from rundown-bohemian to renovated-cosmopolitan. Now it's a posh neighbourhood with tree lined streets, expensive apartments and upscale boutiques inhabited primarily with French expats and Anglophone university students. Despite all this change, the bones of its past are still visible. This is why I moved here.

I arrived at my destination with the early September sun having set sometime ago. In the dusk of the early evening, I saw it was still thronged with groups of people. I also am reminded that despite having spent so much time at this park before, it still is my favourite one in the city. I forget too easily so many things, one of them is how secluded, peaceful and beautiful this place is.

The park in itself is not anything special; it's as large as a city block with maple lined tree paths extending in a star from a central fountain. However bordering the park are small, speed bumped, one-way only streets; when cars do appear they have to go slowly. Opposite the park on all sides are walls of three story brick rowhouses built at the turn of the century. They are all lived in with the fauna and flora of urban life: plants, patio chairs and people.

There's something celestial about lying down in the middle of this park and looking up. The unnatural city dissolves with the sashaying of the swaying trees and murmurs of nearby people. The sky becomes like the eye of God with an iris canopy of branches and leaves.

In a way reality had disappeared. This still was the year of the pandemic and there were groups of every size throughout. All huddled together atop blankets and drinking beer. Some with guitars, some with djembes, some grilling food, some slacklining between trees. A virus wasn't going to stop parklife.

I found the gathering at the north eastern section of the park. They congregated around a bench with some sitting on the grass in socially distanced patterns. As I approached I only recognised three people out of everyone. I slowed my pace.

"Bonne Fête Guy!" I called out as I was in speaking distance. We knocked elbows.

"Ey! Merci man! Thanks for coming. Ça va?" he responded back with a voice that had a slight nasal tone but a heavy spanish accent. His real name was Guillermo but in a play and homage to being in a French region, we called him Guy. He had immigrated a few years ago after meeting a Quebecoise back in Chile. Their marriage had turned toxic a few years in and they seperated. He enrolled in French school soon after; both to get better at the language but to also meet new people.

"Ça va, ça va, I'm alright," I said. We circled around small-chat topics slowing the conversation down to a staccato. Soon his partner Kristen joined in. She had blue eyes, a round chin and a slight space in between her front teeth. She wore loose fitting pants as well as a sleeveless shirt. It was the type of clothing pattern you could find at stores that sold all things "eastern"; crystals, buddha statues, and incense. They had both met in French school. I wasn't close to Kristen either.

"So ... how do you feel? Day is almost over, how did the birthday day go?" I asked.

"Pretty good, but man, Weird. You know, I got a text from my ex. We haven't spoken in mmmmm ...." He often hummed when he needed to think; "... three years?"

"Well, that's nice." I paused, then added "... I guess?"

Kirsten, laughs and rolls her eyes. "Yeah, it's nice alright. Pandemic year and all the exes come out of the woodwork."

"Nooo," Guy tells her, extending the vowels of the word. "She's not like that."

"Anyway", she sighs, "Yes, it's 'nice'".

The energy of the conversation quickly died and was then replaced again with awkward silences. We were all haunted by the fact that we had run out of topics to talk about. Guy excorcised the situation by waving his arm towards the group: "So yeah man, grab a beer, sit down, meet some people. Everybody's nice! I'm happy you came!"

#cesfemmes #personal essay #nonfiction #ghosts #women #therapy #psychology #mothers #exgirlfriends #jazz #haunted

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