#as opposed to what I will call for lack of a better term noble savage orcs

[supreme-leader-stoat]

You know, I'm pretty sure I've seen at least three different American frontier analogue fantasy settings that go the "orcs = native americans" route, but has anyone considered:

Humans, halflings (optional), and dwarves = settlers, with dwarves being weighted more heavily than anyone else towards being prospectors

Elves = native tribes

Orcs = Chinese migrants

[wisteriafield]

Had a thought again, the saying "yesterdays heroes are tomorrows enemies" which was a sentiment about how tons of tankies back in the cold war would dispose of their muscle to remove the risk of being upended themselves after they did the dirty work or any other possible dissidents

But suddenly i thought of an original gundam story that could use that phrase in multiple contexts as a tagline for its story

I was thinking about how colonization and loss of collective identity create nationalist movements and 0079 paralleling that with Japan, i feel a similar thing happened with Vietnam

During WWII the US trained vietnamese soldiers to harass Japanese troops stationed in Vietnam and the people who volunteered (like ho chi minh) saw it as an opportunity to try to vouch for their peoples independence after being a french colony, but after the war the US treated vietnam like property to be returned to the french because that was their terms to agreeing to join NATO, which greatly angered them and caused them to be disillusioned with the us and became radicalized

Its often told that despite leading a movement, minh would eventually be cast aside from his own peers for their own ambitions once he became too old.

Notes about this series

Main character is a girl, with tan skin closer to how southeast asians look

The earth-a-like would be referred to as "the central planet" as earth federation is parallel to the US, the moniker refers to the US's spotlight in world politics as well as their own self absorption

The planet to parallel Vietnam is a dense two layered canopy jungle planet called Verdia because im brainstorming right now, and is a colony of the central planet

The first episode shows disturbing normalized things in the girls life as she runs an errand like carrying water; she memorized the location of land mines on the road as well as being completely unfazed by the sounds of battle nearby and constant bombing runs of mobile suits dropping bombs or burning trees in the upper layer canopy for better visibility, because the 2nd layer obscures even mobile suit vision by being just as tall as them. Shes heard stories of bombs that were dropped but didnt explode and how some of her friends died by getting too close to them out of curiosity and then suddenly exploding and knows to steer clear of ordinance even if it looks already used

Most of the central planet soldiers are around her age too, one night in her village she has an uncomfortable encounter with two of them wandering, obviously inebriated or on something else, and has to fight them off and steals one of their mobile suits and has to kill them to survive. The stress of having her idealized perception of central planet soldiers that was shown to her and being forced to kill to narrowly avoid sexual violence and death causes her to physically break down in the cockpit once the fight is over.

She is eventually found by a guerilla bloc that opposes the central planet and works with them, her uncanny survival ability owed to her understanding of the ecosystem (such as using firmer trees to make harder turns than MSes normally can) as well as the instinct shown in the beginning thats kept her alive up to this point. While she has a mass produced grunt suit (eventually customized), the gundam of the story itself is piloted by who would be her rival

Her rival embodies the idealization of Lyndon B Johnson’s “Hearts and Minds” program. A conscientious, compassionate soldier who truly wants to do good by the native population of the Verdians, but has misinformed convictions of what he’s been told the enemy is due to a lack of perspective. Disciplined to a fault, his rigid but noble nature clashes with those under his command, leading to a fragging attempt later on. He allows a private journalist to shadow him, with his naivety thinking that he can be a positive and benevolent force among his peers.

His MS is the only with beam tech, in particular there is an anecdote of one of his men wish he’d just use the beam saber to cleave down the jungle so they can get a better visual, reminding him in a time of which he did exactly that, which caused a mudslide that decimated a nearby village. The rest use machetes and ballistic weapons

The central planet has plenty of enemies beyond their reach, some of which fund the guerillas on this planet, but to avoid stretching the span of the plot this wouldn’t be too heavily focused on.

By virtue of a proxy war, the central planet has trained locals who believe in their cause to fight their own kind, in order to minimize casualties of their own

While they skirmish a few times before, a major turning point in the middle of the story is a parallel to the My Lai Massacre, his men organizing bombing runs and sortieing their MSes behind his back on a village due to their frustrations, betrayed expectations of wanting to go hunting for enemies rather than protecting and supplying locals, fueled by distrust and xenophobia for Verdians. The girl and the rival decide summarily that they have to work together, fighting together at first, and then she leaves the rest to him so she can try and protect some civilians, taking some children into the cockpit with her. Though she tries her best, many still die needlessly, causing her to cry uncontrollably clutching her head and pulling at her hair. The children make themselves small and hold each other, like walking in on a parent in a moment of emotional weakness they know they should not be looking at. The event ends with them having a tense and uneasy but mutual respect for one another.

The rival becomes disgusted beyond reconcile and deserts, realizing he could never have disciplined by example nor led by virtue, and that the attitude the central army has towards verdians is fundamentally wrong to its core (in which he recalls his CO who resembles General McArthur speak of verdians as savages whose natural state is chaos and evil)

The girl begins to doubt her place among the guerillas as they yearn to “reclaim” a national identity which they have not been able to call themselves true Verdians having been colonized by multiple nations with deeply vested interest in their resources, or being used as a staging point to reach the central planet. The movement for freedom begins to turn into a call to establish superiority by a show of strength, boldly planning to make a move to annex the capitol to prove it.

In the end of the story, rather than fight a battle trying to beat the central army, she needs to deliver the recorded proof of atrocities that took place on verdia to the journalist that the central army tried so hard to bury, in a 3 way battle between her, the central army, and her former allies she no longer wishes to associate with in the destruction waged in the capitol city during a mass evacuation effort, scenes mirror the infamous images of people clinging to helicopters taking off as they fill the helipad

The central forces eventually leave due to political backlash, but the planet is a smoking crater, cities ruined, millions of her own people dead, and despite her efforts, her own fellow verdians would later be consumed by propaganda from the central planet and defend their actions despite everything she did by the time she becomes an old woman coping with her trauma

The rival is publicly awarded by his government for heroism for his intervention during the massacre, but in private is court martialed and dishonorably discharged, while government officials lament the plummeting of their outside image while alluding to the Domino Effect.

[darrowsrising]

Darrow and Vlad: #astrearants #maybeboring #youhavebeenwarned #historyandshite

By unpopular demand (and because @sevroaubarca ’s probably a fan of Vlad the ultimate muderous babe) I am writing a post about Darrow, the Reaper of Mars from Red Rising, and Vlad, the Impaler of Wallachia, historical person. I am not an expert. I will say only what I have learned at school and from extensive reading (I am a history nerd and Ion Bulai and Neagu Djuvara are awesome to say the least). Also, as Djuvara says in almost all his book, history is subjective so there is no way historians can be objective 100%. The are a lot of suppositions and hypothesis etc.

To me and romanians, Vlad was a ruthless, but fair monarch who protected his people and his throne by any means necessary, to Ottomans, he was a cold blooded monster, to the rest of the world, he is a serial killer, a cruel ruler etc. You get the idea.

Fitchner au Barca states in Red Riding that students at the Institute can be as ruthless as Vlad Dracul as long as they don’t lose like he did.

And I was like, dude, Vlad lost because people betrayed him. His plans weren’t that bad for a feudal monarch surrounded at all corners by mighty states. Here’s a brief history lesson:

He was first born to his father Vlad II Dracul and supposedly the daughter of the then Moldavian Prince.

His father won the throne with Ottoman support, but many boyars (romanian nobility) always conspired against him and the Drăculești dynasty.

Don’t get it wrong. Vlad Dracul won his throne, but he wasn’t an usurper. It was believed his dynasty had Mircea the Old as ancestor. It’s the ‘law’ of the royal bone. If you were related to someone who had the throne then you had the right to demand the throne.

The rulers of the romanian countries (Transylvania is debatable, because it was under other countries’s control over the centuries with little to no autonomy) are called Princes in english. But the actual term is 'great voivode and domn’. The first term means total military power. The second comes from “dominus”. Leader, master, ruler etc.

Vlad Dracul made a pact with The Order of the Dragon to ensure that the Ottomans won’t sack and conquer Wallachia. He wasn’t a great leader and his impossibility to deal with the Sultan cost him the respect of his people and his heir.

Vlad and his little brother Radu were given to the Ottoman Empire. It was a safety enssurence, but Vlad was trained to become a eniccesery in the Ottoman army. It was a normal practise then. The Romanian Countries paid tribute in gold and children so the 'merciful’ Sultan won’t conquer and sack their lands. The enemies of the Empire risked to face their own brothers, sons, nephews etc.

Vlad and Radu were kids then. But Vlad was the one who opposed the most. He was mercilessly tortured into obedience. Here it is were he learned how the Ottoman Army works and the most gruesome torture practises.

Radu The Handsome will become, as rumors has it, Mehmed II’s lover.(the old sleeping with the enemy thrope.). Hence 'the handsome’ (gay).

Vlad will go back to his beloved Wallachia. He will rule it on and off for short periods of time. He will quickly become feared through out the region.

His best tactics were made to compensate for the lack of men he had compared to the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire was a huge empire. Wallachia was a small country. Almost a quarter of Romania’s actual size (almost, search Wallachia map for more info). A small kid against a huge giant. But this isn’t David and Goliath. Vlad managed to hold the empire in check. He killed emmisaries and diplomatic convoys from the Ottoman Empire so their corpses will decorate the gates of the keeps. (It was easier to instill fear than reinforcing the keeps). He personally arraged the head of the Pasha and his sons on the iron spikes of the gates to reinforce fear and the myth of the bloodthirsty monster from Wallachia.

He got rid of ploys to dethrone him by inviting the conspirators at dinner then locking them in and setting the place on fire.

He ordered hangings, stakings and decapitatations of rapists, desertors, spies etc.

When the Ottoman Empire responded with armies and conquering, he ordered the salting of the earth, the poisoning of wells. It was a well known practise (nothing new, but very effective). The sad part was that many people thought the same with their boys: better dead than in the hands of the Ottomans. And even sadder it is that the Romanian Countries weren’t the only ones living under the shadow of the Empire. The Balkan countries were in the same position and worse, they were considered parts of the Empire.

In June 1462, Mehmed II himself went into a expedition to dethrone Vlad. Vlad set on fire half his army in a savage night attack with his army dressed in Ottoman clothes.

He had to retreat in the mountains and wait for help from Matthias Corvin, half romanian - half hungarian voivode of Transylvania. Matthias betrayed him, but instead of giving him to the Ottomans (Iancu of Hunedoara, Matthias’s father was the one who supported Vlad’s ruling fron the start of it), he arrested him and held him at Buda for 14 years.

The thing which also held back Matthias was, in my opinion, the fact that Vlad was married to Ilona Szilágyi. A noble hungarian woman, Matthias’s cousin and the Queen mother’s granddaughter - Elizabeth Szilágyi.

When Vlad tried again to gain back his throne, not only Mehmed II jumped out of his arse, but the boyars started to militate for Radu as the rightful ruler. There were many fights for the throne, but with Mehmed as his supporter and some noble families backing him up, Radu won, but only because traitors eventually stabbed Vlad in the back.

Btw, Radu (who is Vlad’s little half-brother and who converted to Islam while in the Sultan’s care) didn’t have a great rule either, he battled for the throne with a no-one-cares-about and he was killed by Mihnea the Bad, Vlad’s only surviving heir. (Proud papa is smirking fron hell).

Darrow uses the Reaper myth to instill fear, to freeze his enemies, to make them play after his rules.

He was trained and taught by the Society he was trying to break (and eventually did break).

People he considered brothers turned against him (Cassius and Roque, although in Vlad’s case we can only talk about Radu and someone from his enturage whom he trusted, but we can’t compare them to Cassius and/or Roque).

There were many situations when Darrow had less people in his army than his enemies, but he always found a solutions around that.

Radu The Handsome was indeed handsome. Vlad on the other hand had a savage appearence: wild, wavy, soulder lenght, black hair, crooked, acviline nose nose from fights, black moustache, high cheekbones, black, deep set eyes. Darrow is described as being handsome in a savage way. Cassius and Roque have classic beauty, which is inviting, trust worthy, maybe intimidating a bit. But Darrow’s beauty is wild. He is has this aura of restlessness, anger. He is not only intimidating, he is scary; there are even rumours that he eats glass.

After infiltrating in the Society he eventually comes back to his roots, not longer a child.

Some historians think that Vlad was married to a romanian girl before Ilona. There was speculation that after their children died in either childbirth or because of illnesses, she threw herself down a tower’s spiral stairs. On the other hand, Vlad’s love with Ilona is recognized and it’s supposed to have been happy. Vlad’s cousin, Ștefan the Great, Prince of Moldavia (and in my opinion a tad more badarse than Vlad), had enough daughters if Vlad wished to strenghten his ties with Moldavia. Radu married one of those daughters to assure his throne and allies. Vlad and Ștefan helped each other a lot, but they were also rivals. But instead of forcing bonds, Vlad chose Ilona (he didn’t have an extraordinary relationship with Matthias Corvin and the Hungarian Kingdom either, because the majority of the population in Translyvania was romanian and they were discriminated against). So to say he might have loved her isn’t exactly a stretch.

Darrow’s marriages aren’t totally similar to Vlad’s, but there are some elements here and there which match.

Mihnea is the only child which was recorded from the marriage of Vlad with Ilona. There aren’t notes of bastards (the concept isn’t really that of the western view. Radu has as much right to the throne as Vlad and they were half-brothers. It’s called the 'law’ of the royal bone (os domnesc, the bone of the dominus), not the hereditary law.) Just like Pax is the only child, Mihnea was the only one to carry his father legacy.

The difference is that Darrow learns that people need a reason to follow you. And that using them and using only cruelty and fear will get you stabbed in the gut. Vlad didn’t have Ilona at his side or hidden in the woods to mend his wounds like Mustang did to Darrow. So it was too late for Vlad to fix things.

I admit that by the standards of today, Vlad is a serial killer. But Ștefan, for example, wasn’t too far either: he killed people because they were getting on his nerves, he hated when people were more talentated than him (he killed a teenager for hitting a target with an arrow, a target he couldn’t hit), but he was a good ruler, a strong diplomat, a great strategist. His people prospered for 47 years under his rule and protection. Vlad didn’t really managed to have a constant rule.

Anyway, I wrote this because 🇷🇴 #pride and because there are a lot of instances where Darrow is compared with Achilles, with Mars, with Ares, with Selenius au Lune (indirectly. He is compared to Iron Golds and Selenius was considered an Iron Gold), with Scipio, and a lot of other people of legends and myths and reality. I just wanted to put my favorite character face to face with one of my favorite historical figures.