#free wales army

[llyfrenfys]

"Fascism and Welsh Nationalism", or "Stop Fawning over the FWA you cont"

This is inspired by things I've been noticing around Aberystwyth lately while out and about.

Some mfer is putting up Free Welsh Army (FWA) stickers and I have to keep on pulling them down. Why? You ask.

Fascism.

Because of the not so subtle links between the FWA and fascist movements (of which those links are quite frankly underdiscussed) this post is necessary.

So, starting with the stickers:

This is just one of three identical stickers I've pulled down this last week in Aberystwyth. They appear more to be car stickers than anything else and must have cost a pretty penny to print and/or purchase. They appear to have been bought directly from a website using FWA imagery and slogans - yet does not claim to be the FWA (that I can see, at least). I'm not going to link to it because they don't need any more web traffic. But we will get onto why this is significant in a bit.

Anyway, returning to the stickers - I pulled down the first one off of an electric box on North Road, opposite Vaynor St in late November. I pulled down the second (pictured) also in late November on Penglais Road off the bus stop near the hospital. And in early December I pulled down the third one off of a wall near the Spar at the end of Vaynor Street. Right off the bat we can assume the guy who wasted a lot of money on these stickers lives local to where the stickers I've found so far were. So they're lazy, for one - not venturing much further than their own front door by the looks of it.

Iconography:

I've written about the iconography of the FWA before here but it bears repeating that if fascists approve of your iconography, then that's a sign your movement is already overrun with fascists.

This is the sticker design which I've been noticing about town. Top to bottom we have "Cymru Rydd/Free Wales" which on its own is fine. No qualms with that. But between the Welsh and English text is a symbol. This one:

Now, this was the symbol of the Free Wales Army. Note that I say *was* because the FWA doesn't exist any more. Yet various actors have tried to resurrect its very unsuccessful corpse over the years. These stickers seem to belong to a new organisation which is the latest to try and capitalise on the ghost of the FWA. Now, if you're like me, you'll have already noticed this design is, for lack of a better word, a bit dogwhistley. The angled, blocky, swastika-like stylisation of what is supposedly an eagle, the black and white void of any other features and the very fact it *is* an eagle depicted all seem a bit *too* similar to the iconography of the Third Reich, don't you think?

Their design choice is no accident. It is a design which appeals to fascists while also has enough Welsh cultural reference for apologists to hide behind with a plausibly deniable reason for why their eagle Looks Like That. The white eagle is a reference to the 13th C. poem Mab Darogan, in which Myrddin prophesises that "a king shall come with heroism from among the Welsh people" and that "generous men shall be reborn of the lineage of the eagles of Snowdonia". The eagle could have literally been drawn in any way. But it rather specifically was drawn like this. That choice is not accidental.

Now this new organisation which is trying to reanimate the corpse of the FWA (we'll call them EW) has incorporated the FWA symbol into their sticker. An endorsement of the failed so-called 'paramilitary' organisation on their part, to be sure. EW also have included a different style of white eagle on their sticker as well - which is blatantly stolen from Wikipedia (the copyright is expired, but 0/10 artistic effort on their part even so). Also not to nitpick but the eagle on the sticker is grey not white so that's also a fail.

Artistic criticisms aside, the sticker is loaded with dogwhistley iconography all round. The Celtic knot border isn't necessarily problematic, however, fascists and/or neo-nazis love to slap Celtic knots onto things because they associate Celticity with whiteness. The colour scheme may also be a coincidence, but it does remind me of the fascist symbol which is the 'Flag of Kekistan" which uses the same colour scheme.

Why does this matter and who were the FWA?:

The FWA were a Welsh nationalist (supposedly 'paramilitary') outfit which formed in Lampeter in 1963 and disbanded in 1969 (just 6 years of activity). They took a lot of their cues from the IRA and were effectively fanboys of them. The group was never really considered a threat and mostly consisted of middle-aged men playing paramilitary dress-up. They did claim to be funded by the IRA and that they had dogs trained to carry explosives. Their claims remain unproven.

HOWEVER - and here's where things get sticky. A lot of the issues the FWA were publicly concerned with were and are actually valid issues (e.g. the drowning of Capel Celyn, the Aberfan Disaster etc.). The problem is that fascists or fanboys of fascists love to get their foot in the door by addressing genuine issues. But what happens is that invariably a minoritised group is blamed for the existence of said issue and naturally that leads to discrimination and violence.

The police started to get a bit antsy with the investiture of then-prince Charles as prince of Wales and the possibility of the FWA doing some terrorism. So some of the FWA's leaders were arrested just prior to this. The group officially ended in 1969.

The nationalism advocated for by the FWA was of the 'blood-and-soil' type. Not just your common or garden nationalism (which still has issues but given context is perfectly able to exist in a non-fashy way). And that's why the idolisation of the FWA in years since is sus. It appeals to romanticised nationalist notions of brave men in uniforms helping free Wales - when in reality they did little terrorism and little to actually further the Welsh nationalist cause. In fact, the leadership of the FWA fell apart after they started to disagree on whether their actions were damaging the cause rather than helping it.

Julian Cayo-Evans founded the FWA and ran it with Dennis Coslett and Gethin ap Gruffydd. Gruffydd went on to found other youth nationalist organisations after he left the FWA due to disagreements with its direction - e.g. he founded the Patriotic Front in 1964 which was later outlawed by Plaid Cymru in 1966. It goes without saying names like 'Patriotic Front' are deliberate nods to other, similarly named fascist organisations like National Front.

Legacy and The Present:

FWA's only legacy is the sycophantic fanclub which ressurects the corpse of the FWA every few years to parade it around and relive the 'glory days' of paramilitary cosplay. But aside from functionally being useless, their iconography and politics are still very much under the fash umbrella and that must be resisted at every opportunity (hence why I'm tearing down their stickers - I don't want fascists to feel welcome here). Part of why people may turn a blind eye to the FWA/sympathise is that they may not be aware of the history of the FWA or see the dogwhistles laden in their work and symbols. Some may even just assume without any other context that they're just another Welsh-language preservation group and may even support them without realising the deeper nature of the organisation beyond just preserving the Welsh language.

Which brings me back to EW. I'm going to put the rest of this under a cut, I do encourage reading the rest though and reblogging to get the word out that

It is always morally okay to tear down fascist propaganda

If you see some in your town, don't hesitate to let fash know they aren't welcome here.

EW:

So, onto the latest in a long line of paramilitary wannabes who idolise a long-dead organisation from the 60s.

The EW website seems... sketch. Lots of banners and sections asking to 'donate now' and 'take action' (with money). So right off the bat this looks like a cash-grab.

Secondly, from their own 'About' section they claim that the Welsh Independence movement has "become inundated with authoritarian Marxist entryists who regard Welsh independence as merely a vehicle for furthering their own political agendas". Which is pretty bold stuff coming from an organisation trying to do The Exact Same. There's also a LOT of emphasis on youth involvement and youth nationalism.

There's also a lot of ahistorical claims in the About section too. E.g. on the prophecy of Myrddin "From this legend derives the very name of Cymru’s greatest mountains, with ‘Eryri’ meaning the ‘Seat of the Eagles’ in Cymraeg." - this is contested as there is no one agreed upon etymology of Eryri. To claim that this is The Etymology suggests that they picked this one just because it conveniently fits the version of the mythology they're presenting. They also claim that "Owain ap Gruffydd, would adopt three such eagles as his royal coat of arms" - this is blatantly incorrect as Owain ap Gruffydd lived before the Age of Heraldry and the three eagles are actually later attributed arms.

In EW's FAQ there's a section on supporting their organisation - with one paragraph saying that you can buy stickers instead "If you aren’t eligible or willing to commit to becoming an activist". Lol at 'if you aren't willing to fully commit to our FWA fanboy club you can put up some stickers instead'. Also the button to buy stickers suggests you pay via paypal "We’ll accept quick payments using PayPal and will have them shipped to you First Class" - which *totally* sounds legit (what do you bet they ask people to pay via 'friends and family instead of through business means?).

And... that's it. There's very little else on their website. It *looks* like they're trying to be a movement, but appear to lack substance (and money, judging from how many different Donate Now buttons are plastered all over the site). A hollow organisation blatantly bending history and mythology to fit their narrative, proudly using symbols designed to appeal to fascists while asking people to trust them with the future of Wales?

Dim diolch.

For further reading on why we should guard against fascism in Welsh language revival and independence, see my other post here.

Reblogs welcome for an antifascist independent Wales.

[whencyclopedia]

Order of the Garter

The Most Noble Order of the Garter is the highest order of knighthood in Britain and the most exclusive with traditionally only 24 knights as full members at any one time, along with the reigning monarch and the Prince of Wales. Created by Edward III of England c. 1348 CE, the chivalric order was one of the first of a growing trend where rulers and noble knights sought to differentiate themselves from the increasing number of knights in the late medieval period. The order's annual gathering at Saint George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, with its magnificent procession of members and retainers in full regalia, maintains the traditions of pomp and pageantry for which the Middle Ages are rightly famous.

Origins

The Order of the Garter was created by the English monarch Edward III (r. 1327-1377 CE) around 1348 CE and dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint George. The king was still in a celebratory mood after England's famous victory over a much bigger French army at the Battle of Crécy in August 1346 CE and was eager to further emphasise the nation's martial prowess by creating an elite order of knights. In addition, by the 14th century CE, the number of knights had greatly increased so that the upper ranks of the nobility began to look for some way in which they could differentiate themselves from other knights and create a sort of private members club. These elite brotherhoods were designed to also pull together the greatest fighters and most useful military knowledge and experience so that in times of war the order would prove a useful part of the army's command structure. Finally, such secular chivalric orders were a good way for a sovereign to ensure the loyalty of their best knights who otherwise may have joined an order whose members, instead, swore allegiance to the church (the then-defunct Knights Templar being an example of such an order).

The Order of the Garter was the first of such chivalric orders in England, but there had been several already formed elsewhere, notably the Order of the Sash by King Alfonso XI of Castile and Leon (r. 1313-1350 CE) and the Order of Saint Catherine in France, both founded during the 1330s CE. The pomp and ceremony of the Order of the Garter was something more, though, and it would spawn many other famous orders at home and abroad such as the Order of the Golden Fleece, created by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy (1419-1467 CE) in 1430 CE.

Just like the legendary Round Table of King Arthur, the order of the Garter was, from the outset, intended to be a very exclusive club indeed. Its first two members were Edward III himself and his son, Edward the Black Prince and Prince of Wales. Alongside this pair were 24 knights, known as Companions of the Order of the Garter, all of whom had fought at the Battle of Crécy. Each member was granted the right to wear a dark blue garter as a symbol of their membership and new rank. A specific coat of arms was created for the order, which includes the flag of Saint George enclosed in a circle made up of a garter. Besides the knights, there were 26 priests and 26 'poor knights' (faith and charity being great chivalric ideals) who were expected to pray for the souls of the more illustrious full members, although they did receive free clothes, food, and lodgings at Windsor castle.

Continue reading...

[the-torchwood-archive]

Torchwood Timeline (May 2024)

This is my canon timeline for the Torchwood TV stories, novels, and audio productions. It's fairly similar to the wiki timeline with a few small tweaks. It's also completely spoiler free, unlike the wiki timeline.

Some entries have firm dates, some have months, some have general decades, so I've tried my hardest to fit them into where I feel they fit. If anyone spots anything that I've missed or sees any glaring problems let me know and I'll try to suss it out. New stories will be added as they are released.

1879:

TV: Tooth And Claw

1885:

Torchwood Cardiff is founded

December 24th 1894:

Audio: The Empire Man

1897:

Audio: Infidel Places

1898:

Audio: Save Our Souls

December 24th 1898:

Audio: The Crown

1899:

Scenes from TV: Fragments

Jack joins Torchwood

May 17th 1899

Audio: The Victorian Age

1908:

Torchwood Glasgow is founded

1915

Audio: What Have I Done

Post TV: COE Day 5 in Jack’s timeline

1940s:

Audio: Curios

Audio: The Dying Room

1953

Norton Folgate projects himself to 2016 for Audio: Ghost Mission

1955:

Norton Folgate is projected to 2009 for Audio: Outbreak

1956-1959:

Audio: Goodbye Piccadilly

Audio: Madam, I’m

Audio: Parasite

Audio: Ashenden

Audio: The Unbegotten

Audio: The Black Knight

1965:

Scenes from TV: Children Of Earth Day Four

First contact with the 456

1970s:

Audio: The Dollhouse

1973:

Audio: Double

Torchwood Los Angeles severs all ties

1978:

Audio: Dead Plates

1980:

Scenes from Prose: Trace Memory

Toshiko’s scenes

16th-22nd August 1987:

Past scenes from Audio: Disco

1999:

Alex Hopkins kills his team and Jack Harkness becomes head of Torchwood Cardiff

2000-2004:

Audio: Piece Of Mind

Ben Brown hired by Jack Harkness

Suzie Costello hired by Jack Harkness

Ben Brown deceased

2001-2004:

Scenes from Prose: Trace Memory

Owen’s scenes

2004:

Scenes from TV: Fragments

Toshiko’s scenes

Late 2004:

Audio: Blind Summit

Ianto returns to Wales

Audio: Suckers

February 2005:

Ianto is hired by Torchwood London as Junior Researcher

Scenes from Prose: Trace Memory

Ianto’s scenes

26th March 2005:

Audio: One Rule

Ianto is working as Yvonne’s PA

2005:

Audio: The Last Love Song Of Suzie Costello

Audio: Tube Strike

Audio: New Girl

Audio: Through The Ruins

Audio: Uprising

Audio: My Guest Tonight

Audio: Lola

Audio: Less Majesty

Audio: The Law Machines

Audio: 9 To 5

Sebastian Vaughn hired at Torchwood Three

Audio: The Vigil

Late 2005:

Scenes from TV: Fragments

Owen’s scenes

March 2006:

Owen Harper is recruited into Torchwood Cardiff

TV: Aliens Of London

April-September 2006:

Audio: Sync

September 2006:

TV: Boom Town

Jack confines the team to the Hub

September-December 2006:

Audio: Wednesdays For Beginners

Audio: Crush

Audio: Retirement Plan

29th November 2006:

Audio: Moving Target

January-Feburary 2007:

Audio: Locker 15

Audio: Dinner For Yvonne

Present day scenes from Audio: Disco

Audio: By Royal Appointment

Audio: Nerves

Audio: The Rockery

February-March 2007:

TV: Doomsday

TV: Army Of Ghosts

Scenes from TV: Fragments

Ianto joins Torchwood Cardiff

Audio: War Chest

February 2007-September 2009:

Audio: Coffee

Scenes take place between TV: Army Of Ghosts and TV: Children Of Earth Day Five

August-November 2007:

TV: Everything Changes

TV: Day One

TV: Ghost Machine

Prose: Another Life

Prose: Slow Decay

TV: Cyberwoman

Audio: Broken

Scenes take place between TV: Cyberwoman and TV: They Keep Killing Suzie

TV: Small Worlds

TV: Countrycide

Audio: The Great Sontaran War

TV: Greeks Baring Gifts

Audio: Restricted Items Archive Entires 031-049

Audio: Instant Karma

Audio: Ex Machina

Audio: Drive

November 2007:

TV: They Keep Killing Suzie

November-December 2007:

TV: Random Shoes

Audio: The Last Beacon

Audio: The Conspiracy

Audio: Fall To Earth

Audio: Uncanny Valley

Early events of Audio: The Office Of Never Was

18th-26th December 2007

TV: Out Of Time

Audio: The Grey Mare

December 2007-Janurary 2008:

Audio: SUV

Audio: Missing Molly

TV: Combat

Audio: Hidden

TV: Captain Jack Harkness

TV: End Of Days

January-May 2008:

Audio: Zone 10

Audio: Lease Of Life

February 2008:

Prose: Kaleidoscope

14th February 2008:

Audio: Dinner And A Show

February-August 2008:

Audio: Sigil

May 2008:

Torchwood goes to Tibet

Jack returns to Cardiff after TYTNW

TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

TV: Sleeper

Audio: Serenity

20th June 2008:

TV: To The Last Man

June-July 2008:

Prose: Something In The Water

Audio: Everyone Says Hello

Prose: Trace Memory

TV: Meat

29th June 2008:

Audio: The Lincolnshire Poacher

July-August 2008:

Audio: torchwood_cascade_CDRIP.tor

Audio The Office Of Never Was

Audio: In The Shaodws

TV: Adam

Audio: Tropical Beach Sounds And Other Relaxing Seascapes #4

August 2008:

Prose: The Twilight Streets

August-October 2008:

TV: Reset

TV: Dead Man Walking

TV: A Day In The Death

August-December 2008:

Audio: Corpse Day

Audio: The Hope

Audio: The Three Monkeys

Audio: Gooseberry

31st October 2008:

Prose: Pack Animals

November-December 2008:

TV: Something Borrowed

Prose: Skypoint

TV: From Out Of The Rain

TV: Adrift

Audio: Believe

TV: Fragments

TV: Exit Wounds

Audio: Expectant

Prose: Into The Silence

Audio: Lost Souls

January-February 2009:

Prose: Bay Of The Dead

Prose: The House That Jack Built

Prose: Almost Perfect

Audio: Department X

February 2009:

Audio: Ghost Train

May-September 2009:

Audio: Dissected

Audio: Rhys And Ianto’s Excellent Barbeque

TV: The Stolen Earth

TV: Journey’s End

Audio: The Sin Eaters

Prose: The Wrong Hands

Prose: Virus

Audio: Asylum

Audio: Golden Age

Prose: Consequences

Audio: The Dead Line

Prose: Risk Assessment

Prose: The Undertaker’s Gift

Audio: The Devil And Miss Carew

Audio: Submission

Audio: Outbreak

September 2009:

TV: Children Of Earth Day One

TV: Children Of Earth Day Two

TV: Children Of Earth Day Three

TV: Children Of Earth Day Four

TV: Children Of Earth Day Five

Late 2009:

Prose: Long Time Dead

March 2010:

Audio: House Of The Dead

Events of TV: The End Of Time and Audio: One Enchanted Evening in Jack’s timeline

March-June 2010:

Prose: First Born

June 2010:

Prose: The Men Who Sold The World

October 2010:

Audio: Poppet

18th-21st March 2011:

TV: The New World

22nd March 2011:

TV: Rendition

March-July 2011:

TV: Dead Of Night

TV: Escape To LA

TV: Categories Of Life

TV: The Middle Men

TV: Immortal Sins

TV: End Of The Road

September 2011:

TV: The Gathering

TV: The Blood Line

September-December 2011:

Audio: Army of One

Audio: Fallout

Audio: Red Skies

Audio: Mr Invincible

2012:

Prose: Exodus Code

Audio: Cadoc Point

November-December 2012:

Audio: Dog Hop

Late 2016

Audio: Forgotten Lives

Audio: Visiting Hours

Audio: More Than This

Audio: Ghost Mission

Audio: Made You Look

January-June 2017:

Mr Colchester joins a rebuilt Torchwood

Audio: We Always Get Out Alive

Audio: Night Of The Fendahl

Audio: Smashed

Ng joins Torchwood after this point

Audio: Driving Miss Wells

Audio: Sonny

Audio: Changes Everything

Audio: Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy

Audio: Oor

Audio: Superiority Complex

Audio: Love Rat

Audio: A Kill To A View

June 2017-October 2018:

Audio: Zero Hour

Audio: The Empty Hand

Audio: Poker Face

Audio: Tagged

Audio: Escape Room

Audio: Herald Of The Dawn

Audio: Future Pain

2017-2018:

Audio: The Man Who Destroyed Torchwood

Takes place between TV: Superiority Complex and TV: Herald Of The Dawn

October 2018:

Audio: Cardiff Unknown – October 2018

October-December 2018:

Audio: See No Evil

Audio: Night Watch

Audio: Flight 405

Audio: Hostile Environment

Audio: The Green Life

Audio: Sargasso

Audio: Another Man’s Shoes

Audio: Eye Of The Storm

January-March 2019:

Audio: A Mother’s Son

March-August 2019:

Audio: Scrapejane

Audio: Day Zero

Audio: Thoughts And Prayers

Audio: Red Base

Audio: Aliens Next Door

Audio: Colin Alone

August 2019:

Audio: Misty Eyes

2021:

Audio: Goodbye Piccadilly, Audio: Ashenden, and Audio: The Unbegotten for Andy’s POV

Early 2022:

Audio: The Red List

2022:

Audio: Moderation

Audio: Propaganda

Audio: At Her Majesty’s Pleasure

Audio: Cuckoo

Audio: Pariahs

Audio: How I Conquered The World

Audio: The Five People You Kill In Middlesborough

Audio: A Postcard From Mr Colchester

Audio: Death In Venice

February 2023:

Audio: Doomscroll

2023:

Audio: Heistland

Audio: The Apocalypse Starts At 6PM

Audio: Thirst Trap

Audio: Another Postcard From Mr Colchester

Audio: Sabotage

Amendments/Additions:

Feb 2024: Moved Audio: The Vigil from 2007 to 2005

April 2024: Added Audio:Another Postcard From Mr Colchester and Audio: Sabotage to 2023

April 2024: Added Audio: Tube Strike to early 2005

April 2024: Added Audio: Missing Molly to early 2008

May 2024: Moved Audio: Wednesdays For Beginners, Audio: Crush, Audio: Retirement Plan from 2007 to 2006

May 2024: Added Audio: Dinner For Yvonne, Audio: By Royal Appointment and Audio: Nerves to January-February 2007

May 2024: Added Audio: Disco to August 1978 and January-February 2007

May 2024: Moved Audio: Hidden from November-December 2007 to December 2007-Janurary 2008:

[darkmaga-returns]

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer’s reign is akin to how America would have looked under a Kamala Harris presidency. The people have lost their ability to speak freely, and citizens are facing legal charges for speaking against Starmer’s regime. The New World Order is beginning right before our eyes.

A British Army veteran was convicted of expressing “disapproval of abortion.” This man spent 20 years proudly serving his nation. Yet, the Public Spaces Protection Order has deemed him a criminal for silently praying outside an abortion facility. He has been conditionally discharged and forced to pay a $12,000 (9,000 pound) fine for daring to pray in public.

The above video shows how disillusioned the authorities have become. “What is the nature of your prayer?” the police asked, to which the man replied he was praying for his deceased son. He was then told that he was praying in a “censorship zone,” where even your THOUGHTS can be criminalized.

Censorship zones were enacted in England and Wales on October 31, 2024. The zones are deemed “safe access zones” or “buffer zones,” and often span 150 meters around abortion clinics and hospitals. Protesting in any manner, handing out abortion alternative pamphlets, and any form of prayer – including silent prayer – is strictly prohibited. Scotland and Northern Ireland also implemented similar zones this October.

Another woman by the name of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested twice in Birmingham for silently praying in a buffer zone. Father Sean Gough has his day in court for the same crime. Both individuals were acquitted but now the government is no longer issuing slaps on the wrist.

The public is absolutely outraged. The army officer has received a petition with 60,000 signatures in his favor. Keir Starmer has failed to make a direct comment about the public outcry. People are understandably concerned over the government’s increasingly authoritarian policies. The Labour government has done away with the Freedom of Speech Act (2003) that was intended to protect free speech on university campuses. Starmer is looking for new methods to crack down on how people communicate online, and is not considering an amendment to the Online Safety Act that would punish people for speaking out against the government’s agenda online. Starmer has deemed any speech that goes against his wishes “misinformation” that must be criminalized.

Why are all the Build Back Better nations racing to eliminate free speech? The World Economic Forum (WEF) listed misinformation and disinformation as the most severe short-term global risk in its 2024 Global Risks Report. Schwab’s alliance demands international cooperation to stifle free speech. It calls for a “multi-sectoral approach” to ensure all media and tech companies carry out the government’s plan to defend the people against themselves.

[scotianostra]

On June 4th 1977 Scotland beat The Auld Enemy 2-1 at Wembley Stadium and decided to take some souvenirs home with them.

Up until its culmination in 1983, the Home International Championship was the oldest international association football tournament in the world, and contested between Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Around two-thirds of a 98,103 strong crowd at Wembley Stadium belonged to Ally’s Army, on a day that would live on in the memory of many a Scotland fan that had the privilege to be there.

The initial stages of the game passed without producing much. As half-time approached, Scotland began to press and as the only team creating chances, an inevitable first goal came from Gordon McQueen off the back of a free kick emerging from a hand ball.

Dalglish sealed the deal with a second and ensured this famous Scotland side left Wembley triumphant, despite a late penalty allowing England to claim a goal.

As the final whistle blew exuberant Scotland fans brought their celebrations down from the stands and onto the pitch. Even Sir Rod Stewart, donned in Scotland attire, could be seen sailing atop a sea of tartan.

One story emerging from the revelry was that of 21-year-old Alex Torrance, who became a national celebrity after being pictured atop the crossbar amidst the jubilations on the pitch, before it famously snapped in half. When Torrance passed away in 2010, Rod Stewart was one of those to send his family flowers all those years later.

The game itself and the jubilant aftermath in the summer of 1977 has gone down as an iconic moment in history for Scotland fans, binding them together in a way that only football can.

[head-post]

King Charles to visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of liberation

King Charles has accepted an invitation to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in January, joining representatives from 20 countries to mark the 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation.

The King, who visited Auschwitz in 2020 while still Prince of Wales, has long-standing ties with surviving prisoners, many of whom, despite now being infirm, are expected to take part in the commemorative ceremonies. During his visit in 2020, he warned that “hatred and intolerance still lurk in the human heart.”

Although he himself is not in the best of health, he continues his weekly treatment for cancer, King Charles is strongly opposed to anti-Semitism and intends to attend the historic event on January 27. It will almost certainly be the last such event attended by Holocaust survivors.

Organisers say he will be the first British monarch to visit Auschwitz. His mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, made her last overseas trip in 2005 when she visited Bergen-Belsen.

Although Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Union’s Red Army troops, it is thought there will be no official delegation from Russia at the ceremony.

Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum, said the presence of Russian representatives at the celebrations was “difficult to imagine” due to disagreements over “European values.”

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić expressed his position on the subject, calling it perverse that Russians would not be invited to the celebrations. He said:

“Now there will be events on the occasion of the liberation of the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Those who liberated it, which were Russians, will not be invited. I assume that those who created the camp will be invited. Everything in our world is, how can I put it, so as not to sound rude, perverted in the opposite way. And this is very strange.”

The King has long been a supporter of the Jewish community, especially in Poland, where his close association with World Jewish Relief led to the opening of a Jewish community centre in Krakow. He remains a patron of the charity.

The UK government has announced additional funding to support the commemoration for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, of which the King is also patron.

The main events will begin at 4 p.m. in a specially constructed marquee above the gates of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp with its infamous, deeply cynical Nazi slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei,” or “Work makes you free.” A freight wagon will be placed in front of the gate as a powerful symbol of remembrance.

To mark the anniversary, people across the UK will take part in a special nationwide project called 80 Candles for 80 Years. The event will be the start of several commemorative events, culminating in the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day on May 8.

King Charles’s grandmother, Princess Alice, was named Righteous Gentile for sheltering a Jewish family in Athens during the Holocaust.

Read more HERE

[rangercorpstherapy]

Au where Halt is in the IRA and Crowley is a representative of the free wales army come to buy some guns

And uh. Pauline is Gerry Adams

x

[arcticdementor]

Every time the subject of a possible US civil war or national divorce comes up I hear the same micron deep takes. America couldn’t break up because the division isn’t by state, its Urban Vs. Rural. Or that Urban vs. Rural isn’t the divide, even then people of different politics are mixed up together. Or that for every clear red or blue state there’s a purple state. None of which is in any way relevant to anything until you recognize the naïve mental model many of these people are working on... These takes betray a belief that a second civil war would be some kind of conflict between coherent independent states who’ve started identifying with/against the idea of union such as happened in the 1860s… or that somehow there’d be a series of tidy Quebec style referendums resulting in a clean division such as exists in so many meme maps:

…

The truth is any post-breakup map of America would not resemble an electoral map following state lines, nor even a redrawing of state boundaries, such that the fantastical greater Idaho or Free State of Jefferson might exist as part of a wider Confederation of Constitutional Republics, or a Breakaway Philadelphia city-State join a Union of Progressive Democracies…  No. It’d be nothing so comprehensible or easily mapped to modern politics. A post breakup America would probably look closer to this:

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(I really do apologize for all I’m going to have to digress) For our purposes we can broadly divide history into 2 types of period… Periods of Centralizing trends, and periods of Decentralizing trends.

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Centralizing Eras are consistently defined by big Heroic (classical sense of the word) figures that lead great armies or great nations and either win and centralize control under themselves or lose and get centralized under another. Alexander, Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, Julius Caesar, Agustus, Wolfe, Horatio Nelson, Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington, Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Grant, Lenin, Trotsky, Woodrow Wilson, Mussolini, Hitler, Rommel, Churchill, Montgomery, FDR, MacArthur, Stalin, Zukav, Mao… On and on we could list the names.

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Normandy and England’s William “The Conqueror” captured England (but not Wales, Scotland or Ireland) creating a unified kingdom on both sides of the English channel…in a feat every English schoolboy has memorized ever since (1066 and all that)… And William’s total Domain was less than 1/20th what Alexander had achieved 1300 years before. Likewise Shakespeare immortalized Henry the 5th as the very avatar of Mars…Achieving the English dream and conquering France! Only to die of dysentery within the year and have his territorial gain be entirely lost within a generation. Likewise Charlemange’s 8th and 9th century unified empire of France and Germany broke apart within a generation. And as late as 1718 Charles XII’s extraordinary military victories and revolutionary tactics couldn’t save the Swedish empire’s decline from great power status.

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Centralizing eras are marked by finicky, barely technological, advances that A) are not evenly distributed and allow the powers which have them to dominate the powers that don’t, and B) require vast numbers of hierarchically organized people working together in sophisticated coordination to make it work at all, often with extensive infrastructure than can only be worked by such a bureaucracy. Napoleonic Divisions, 5000 man Aircraft Carriers, trans-Continental railway or telegraphs, and massive continent severing canal systems (Suez/Panama) are prime examples. Decentralizing eras are the opposite. Decentralizing eras are defined by sophisticated capital and skill intensive weapons that can be utilized by relatively few people, and which are widely distributed (it being far easier to get even ridiculous amounts of money to invest in tools or skills, than it is to get 10,000+ all obeying at once you). We “sea” this with the very first decentralizing era: The bronze age collapse.

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the medieval era is defined by 3 iconic technologies:  Heavy warhorses with advanced stirrups, castle/keeps (and the ranged weapons such as crossbows that lose most of their effectiveness when not defending them), and the Knights armor.  This is the iconic image of the medieval period. All three are capital intensive technologies wielded by small numbers of wealthy men. Later Castles could be held against a force of hundreds by a mere dozen men, warhorses and advancing armor made knights sometimes 10-20 to 1 more effective than ordinary footmen. Within the span of 500 years major historical battles went from 100s of thousands of people in great migratory armies crashing against empires of millions, to 20-60 incredibly wealthy men, all named in the record, facing off against a similar force. Hell individual duels often decided the fates of vast swathes of country side. This is how totally heavy cavalry, armor, and castles just destroyed the very possibility of large complex states and the attendant armies. Now ask yourself… Which type of era are we in?

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None of our leaders are analogous to the great conquerors. Rather they are like the Persian and Lydian kings and courtiers of the Pre-Alexandrian period, or the late Roman Emperors and generals, or the thousands of European kings and Courtiers, endlessly fighting grinding wars that achieve remarkably little. Their ultimate achievement being that they might be mostly forgotten as merely mediocre… instead of screwing up monumentally and going down in history like Varus, or Commodus, or Croesus of Lydia whom the oracle told he’d “destroy a great empire”… but whose wars only destroyed his own. These are the kinds of people our elite are doomed to be remembered as… if they’re remembered. McNamara’s tenancy as Secretary of Defence isn’t remembered for him creating a fighting force to rival the Myrmidons or Napoleon’s old Guard, he’s remembered for McNamara’s Morons (Decent Review). . If current trends continue we’re on a fast track to eventually hit the apex of decentralization: Neo-Medievalism.

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The above is a map of the Holy Roman Empire, one of the Successors to Charlemagne’s empire which, depending on the dating, lasted from about 800ad-956ad (its very debatable when you date the “start” of the empire) to its final dissolution by Napoleon in 1806. Meaning it lasted longer than the original Roman Empire… Naively we might think this empire is a great counter example to my “decentralizing eras” thesis… Except for one thing: This was never “THE MAP” of the Holy Roman Empire. The above map comprises every territory that was ever part of the “Empire” none of which were ever all in it at the same time… And none of which were ever really part of the same political unit… Its really hard to know if there was even a single year every polity nominally within the empire recognized each other, or were even meaningfully at peace. Indeed the “Holy” in the name was a source of countless wars and conflicts, given It was adopted and maintained (grossly simplifying) as part of a double play, the Emperor at various points wanting to use his title as “Holy” Emperor of Rome to annex the Papal States and assume authority over the Catholic Church, and various Popes aspiring to use their religious authority to place their chosen allies in control of the “Empire”. The Emperor bounced back and forth between being God’s appointed supreme ruler on earth, literally crowned by the Pope, and being the Supreme enemy of the Pope in turn. Its a mess.

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You know how everyone gets confused by the electoral college or how American senators worked before they were elected… imagine that confusing mess x100, and the results determined who’d be civil waring with who, whether you’d be going to war with the Pope under the banner of the Antichrist, and later whether Protestants or Catholics would be going under the boot. So Voltaire’s quip that the Holy Roman Empire was “neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire” was very bitingly true… it often warred with the Popes, far from being Roman on at least one occasion it invaded and sacked Rome, and far from being an empire it was more a loose federation that elected its “Emperors”… But even that’s a simplification because at various points the pope was literally crowning the emperor, Rome was part of the empire, and the Crown was hereditary! It simultaneously was and wasn’t Holy, was and wasn’t Roman, and was and wasn’t an Empire. Seriously, this is the map without any simplifications:

Now tell me, is there another 3 word national title that’s hotly debated? To what extent is the USA really United? States? or America? The meaning of all 3 have shifted massively since the founding… the Union is unrecognizable from what the founders envisioned: becoming a Nation after the civil war, instead of the loose federation they set out to create. The states have gone from being almost fully sovereign republics to interchangeable imperial provinces, and are now again asserting increasing amounts of that lost sovereignty. And of course “America” neither comprises the whole of the Americas.. nor is it wholly within the Americas. ( we cannot forget Hawaii) Might there come a day we quip the USA is/was neither United, nor States, nor America? Hold that thought.

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The reason the HRE is so confusing and the reason most Medieval and early modern history is so confusing, is Medieval states… really aren’t states. Fans of Game of Thrones or Shakespeare understand the concept of feudalism and the military hierarchy of Knights answering to lords answering to kings, and Hollywood has taught most people to appreciate how that chain of command can become very conflicted and prone to rebellion or schemes, especially around a succession crisis (do you support the old King’s son, brother, or cousin to succeed him? Well who’s going to give you the better deal?) These stories make great hour and half dramas… But even as all these dynamics did happen, the actual medieval system was vastly VASTLY more complex.

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Multiple factions and entities within the same very small stretch of land might all wield some form of sovereignty and ability to make laws or rules, formal and informal, and enforce them with violence… all commanding some version of legitimacy. An individual town might have: 1. a Mayor or sheriff elected by some fraction of the propertied townspeople able to pass laws and have them enforced, even to the point of violence or death sentences;  2. An ecclesiastical order empowered to enforce its own laws upon the members of its order, maintaining armed retainers, and empowered (depending on the era) to root out and deal with heretics, (also at various points they owned and/or regulated brothels and vice crime);  3. local lodges of various guilds that variably are empowered to enforce their monopolies, collect debts, and deal with thieves, fraudsters and embezzlers in their midst, possibly including networked merchant guilds that across their various lodges might have more armed men than all but the largest individual towns; 4. Noble families that maintain arms and loyal retainers, with ancient rights and customs, including discretionary power to deal out violence to those who intrude, insult, or otherwise conflict with them… including dueling with their equals, or just brutalizing members of the lower class who insult them (imagine the brawl that starts off Romeo and Juliet, or the internecine fighting throughout, and how restricted The Prince is in setting any consequences for the Capulets and Montagues for their semi-open warfare); 5. A Knightly Order that maintains oaths, loyalties, obligations and interests distinct and separate form the nominal official chain of military command (think Templars, Hospitallers, Teutons); 6. An individual ward which a powerful alderman runs as a fiefdom/racket with a very reliable collection of thugs at his call; 7. All of the Above all over again multiple times, because we’re talking about a city that’s a conglomeration of smaller towns such as London, and the whole thing’s still organized as if it were 7 distinct entities. 8. The actual lord or governor who “rules” the town and answers to the king… on days he feels like it, and all the retainers and support people he uses to “govern” the place. There is no coherent unified monopoly on violence like we imagine the state to hold in this situation. Instead various factions and institutions have all amassed various forms of legitimacy: cultural, political, and practical…and have all carved out their little niche in which they can deal their own version of law, violence and justice. If you are a lawyer or have to deal with politics or government, or regulation, you might already be starting to see why I’m predicting this for the future but for those who are less versed in American governance:

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But they were both of them deceived. For neither the English or French monarchies truly understood the power they had wielded, nor whom had granted it to them: It was not the Crown itself that wielded absolute power, but rather the central government, and the central government was not a collection of neat hierarchically delegated power… the lawyers and bureaucrats were not gaining their power from the crown, the crown was gaining its power from the lawyers and bureaucrats. And as soon as the crown was impeding the Lawyers and bureaucrats centralization and concentration of power in their class, the bureaucrats and upstarts rebelled… Thus the English and French revolutions. Thus the state consumed the sovereign, great men were still able to wield the state like Napoleon or later Hitler, Stalin, FDR, Churchill and Moa… But the leaders now needed to appease the state, not the paper pushers the other way… then by the 1960s it had become basically impossible for even great men to control the bureaucracies beneath them. Stalin may have been killed, Kennedy was killed, Kruschev and Nixon soft couped… And no nation has had a great man leader since… the most successful leaders have been those who most effectively surrendered the last rememenants of their executive power… The executive branch and the “office of the president” is more powerful than it has ever been. The executive branch has never employed more people, nor the Whitehouse. The PERSON of the president though has never been weaker.  Trump was besieged unable to fire any of his “executive” branch “employees” and now Biden physically embodies the state of things… The man who sits in the oval office is puppeted by the Whitehouse, and the Whitehouse by the executive branch… a complete inversion of how the organization is supposed to work.

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Whilst there have been many unitary states in history for whom any and all power and authority, at least officially, formally, came from one centralized institution and myth, Whether that be absolute monarchism, where it is concentrated in one person, or Unitary Republics where the “voice of the people” is 100% and only concentrated in one single assembly, The US is slightly more… sophisticated.

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This balance of powers is not dissimilar to how hard it was for a duke to control or discipline a petulant lord... Sure there was some hypothetical mechanism to remove him or wage war… but the incredible effort required means you’d rarely if ever do it for any except the worst offender. But all this becomes fractally more complicated when we zoom out. The US federal government receives its authority officially from the constitution… where does the constitution receive its authority? In an absolutist monarchy or French/Russian style revolutionary “republic” the origin of political power would be simple. The king or Director would answer to “God” or “The People” and it would be understood that the government’s continued existence meant God and “the People” were pleased and not to be consulted further on the matter. But when the American Constitution says “We the people” it actually refers to bodies and organizations entitled to represent them and give consultation. Namely the states, who all have their own assemblies, governors, courts and constitutions.

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But even this only scratches the surface because there are also hundreds of territory holding recognized sovereign nations within the US. Namely the 326 federally recognized Tribal Indian reservations each of which have their own treaties establishing rights and semi-sovereign powers derived not from the constitution, but from their own pre-existing sovereignty (if they didn’t have this congress wouldn’t have made treaties with them… they’d have just unilaterally passed a law). And these are real powers… they have armed native police, perhaps 10s of thousands of armed men collectively, who answer to the Band Councils alone.

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Is it any wonder the bureaucrats have been able to carve out such scrutiny free power for themselves? but of course informally for most of its history the map of real power looked nothing like this.

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Remember those 377 officially recognized top level governments with constitutional sovereignty in America alone?  Forget that, that’s a fiction… The real number that exercise violent power, Ie. Real Political Power, is somewhere in the thousands if not tens of thousands. The City of New York is not included on that list (officially it is answerable and dissolvable by the state of New York, LOL)… and the city of New York has 36,000 armed and ready police officers at it’s beck and call (as many as Napoleon had when he invaded Italy). Likewise every dinky little city and county has its own police departments, often with elected sheriffs who functionally have independence that rivals state governments, and are only really removable by a process of impeachment at the state level. And this is before we get into the Cartels, militias, ideological movements, and collections of friends who are all shockingly armed and in many cases better trained and versed in infantry and low intensity warfare than about 90% of military personnel or police.

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I’ve by no means covered everything I want to on this topic. Mapping out the future of what a Neo-Medieval post national regime, and how we’d get from here to there is likely to be my life’s work. Both in that I’m going to be writing about it for the rest of my life and that we’re going to be living it. But one of the thing’s I want to emphasize as it would be a mistake to think of these developments as merely the rise of a “Mad Max” warlord driven world. Far from it, whatever successor institutions, aristocracies, and duchies devour the modern welfare states in a orgy of map redrawing and private fortune making will probably find that there is a great deal of economic and technological low hanging fruit just lying about. I doubt it will offset the scale of the disruption globally, but things like Cheap automobiles, cheap bush planes, cheap housing construction, low taxes, no DEI mandates, and a whole host of other things now criminalized by “Democracy” will suddenly be opened up and we’ll probably see a massive change in settlement patterns and ways of living as a result.

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We are seeing the inevitable conclusion and failure of the “Liberal Democracy” born into the world around the French Revolution. “Democracy” has expanded to the point where more people have a hypothetical right to vote than exist in the country and governments import them to vote which way the state likes, whilst “Liberal” civil rights have expanded to the point where everything is a right: Healthcare, Schooling, to get hired for jobs, to have your feelings defended… Everything is a right… Except for any of the liberties actually established in and of the founding documents or revolutions of the 18th century. Those are now forms of hate and terrorism. To speak your mind is no longer a protected right, but to be protected from someone speaking their mind about you demands the full armed response of the state.

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This is an introductory essay. A justification for my ideological projects to come. What is going to happen is largely inevitable but how long we live through the chaos of the fall or how quickly we settle on the equilibriums that will hold with the new balance of powers will be a matter that could take a 30 or 100 years war… or it could wrap up into a stable equilibrium in 5-15. I hope by digging deeper we can shorten that window, speedrun the new order, and limit the damage these abominations of governments can do on the way out.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

Hello! I just read "i go uncrownd" and lost it when Alfred called his gun Rita. That was such a good touch. Do you have weapons headcanons for other characters like that?

Oooooh. Yes, I do. So it's going to range drastically based on the era and the situation, so I’m going to go with the ones that are kind of the most iconic. Rhys and Arthur are longbows. They were, like King Arthur and about half of what is considered proto-typical Englishness, originally Welsh. Their mother taught them both to shoot. The traditional narrative is that during the Norman invasions of Wales, one of the Edwards incorporated the Welsh system of archery into the English army and proceeded to fuck the French right up with it at Crécy and Agincourt later.

Rhys is stocky and better with a sword, so he balanced a bow and a sword for distance and hand-to-hand combat. He likely used a shield and spear before inheriting his mother’s sword, but he never let go of it once it was his. They were long-bladed weapons, with the curves serving to focus the force of the user’s strength into a smaller area for more damage. They were primarily slashing weapons, with some, like the ones shown below, having a point with a strong two-groove blood-tapestry in the center. There was also a trench knife with a background that was supposed to be taken from a medieval Welsh sword but has more or less been disproven, but there are certainly familiar design elements here too!

Pre-Norman Arthur was younger and smaller but more accurate and was more likely to perch himself somewhere defensible and fire as he ran to give himself time to disapear. His bow was his primary weapon and he probably only had a seax to defend himself for anything too close for the bow until he was older. The Seax is where the Saxon’s got their name and was a very important symbol for freemen to carry, with women often depicted wearing them as well. They were part tool, part sword and could be used as something like a one edged machete. The one here was found in the Thames in the 19th century and was probably from 900 something. The ‘broken back’ shape of the sword is part of where I got my headcanon for Arthur still having back pain from the Viking invasions even 1000 years later. This one was probably way to big for Arthur to have been using and there are much smaller ones but I had to use this one lmao. Lives in my head rent-free.

Alasdair always preferred to be at the forge or easel, but where Brighid was usually the head of government, at the foot of their mother's throne, as the firstborn son, he was the acting defender. He was large and did well with a shield and sword, later the broadsword and shield, often wielding the shield with the dirk (Dearg in Scots Gaelic) in the same hand to use if he lost his broad sword. He’s a very tall, broad man, so Claymore isn’t off the table either. He was also very good with an axe. The Scottish version of a poleaxe, the tuagh-chatha, was a semi-moon axe blade on staff and fucking lethal. He could clear a space with that thing, let me tell you. The sword and shield combo is also how he was killed the day their mother died, engaging the Saxons and Jutes who had made it over the bridge before he destroyed it, buying Brighid just enough time to escape across the Irish sea.

[llyfrenfys]

Some really good notes from my post courtesy of @margridarnauds about that person accidentally using a white nationalist slogan to support the Welsh language:

I know someone who is doing a PhD on the Far Right and the co-option of cultural movements and these tags are bang on. Its the difference between a healthy nationalism and an unhealthy nationalism. A lot of this goes for Irish nationalism as well as it does for Welsh nationalism.

There's nothing wrong with (and arguably a lot right with) minority language preservation. It can be used for great good (strengthens community ties, preserves culture) but if co-option is not guarded against readily, it can also be used for great evil (see: using minority language struggles as an argument against immigration, for example).

The Far Right sees the cultural preservation of anything (white) and it's like a bat signal. These things are magnets for white supremacists and assorted fascists of all kinds. Which is why it is so goddamn important to be vigilant against people like that hijacking your movement.

I see a worrying amount of Welsh nationalists use (accidentally or not) the language of the far right to argue for Welsh language preservation. It can be as innocuous as advocating for a Welsh Academie Francaise to as obvious as insinuating that Wales must be kept "ethnically" Welsh in order to keep out foreign influence on the language. I see this go unchecked all the time in various Facebook groups for Welsh independence (most of which I've left since admins of these pages either don't know or don't care that people use their groups to share these sentiments).

Nationalism ≠ Fascism - but if you don't keep an eye on the company you're keeping, any well-meaning nationalist/independence or language preservation movement can be hijacked to promote hate. I only know a scant amount because I was only vaguely considering joining Yes Cymru a few years before they all went sideways (but I remember Owen Exie Hurcum talking about this on Twitter at the time) but the leadership of Yes Cymru began to squeeze out minorities from the group- nonwhite folks, gay people, trans people etc. Whole thing put me off from joining. I don't remember the full details but from the testimonies of others, the group was hijacked and steered into a reactionary way of being. Considering a large amount of Welsh nationalists also idolise groups like the FWA (Free Wales Army - a Welsh nationalist group formed in 1963 which tried to emulate the IRA in Ireland, with little success- mostly just playing paramilitary dress up) - whose symbol is this flag:

Even if the flag itself is based on Welsh folklore and is supposedly an entirely innocent, non fash design- it still is like a beacon to the Far Right who will take any amount of symbolic validation as a cue to join your movement and derail it for their own ends.

Which is why Celtic scholars, people with casual interest in Celtic languages and/or their respective cultures and civic nationalists alike need to be vigilant against those who would co-opt the field for their own twisted hate campaign.

So, one final thought,

Returning to my original post responding to that American chiming into Welsh politics from overseas. Please PLEASE be careful when wading into politics that isn't yours. Where the Far Right are involved, it doesn't take much to cause a dumpster fire - if you aren't 'on the ground' with these issues so to speak, you aren't in the firing line if your comments go sideways and enable/provoke the Far Right in this country.

If you have an interest in Celtic languages, countries and politics- you have a duty to be responsible with what you do and say. This isn't to say that you cannot engage with these topics- but that you should exercise caution lest you accidentally worsen an already delicate situation.

This has been your regularly scheduled Celtic anti-fascist tedtalk. Please reblog to make sure more people become aware of how delicate things can be and how to prevent fascists from getting a foothold in this field. Thank you.

[mickeyheartian]

Randomized Fig Tag Game!

I’ve been wanting to do this since I first saw it - thanks @mickeysgaymom and @lupeloto for the tags 🩵

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rules (more or less): use this au generator to assign you an au, this fanfiction trope generator to give you a trope/situation/sometimes another au, feel free to keep clicking until you get something that inspires you.

then try to come up with the title, plot, vibe, and details of a fic including whatever the generators gave you. you don’t actually have to write it, just put the concept into the world! this is basically just a thought experiment.

AU generator gave me: online dating AU

Fic trope generator gave me: write a modern royalty AU + Torture us with an almost kiss

So I got two good ones with the second generator… let’s see where this goes!

Title: Resolution of Royalty and Aminosity (? I suck at titles)

Plot:

* Mickey is the Prince of Wales, but that isn’t how he grew up. He had his usual south side upbringing, and at 18 was informed he was next in line for the throne. The current king and his queen escort never had kids of their own, but it was later found Mickey was the illigitamate son of the king when he was on tour in the army in his youth.

* He is immediately sent to England to learn his royal duties so he is ready when the current king passes. He’s been living in London for 4 years at this point.

* Ian is in the army, stationed in London. He’s active on the newest dating app (which I can’t think of a name for) and comes across a dark haired boy with piercing blue eyes.

* They begin to message daily, but Mickey doesn’t reveal who he is and his links to the throne, as he knows he isn’t allowed to date outside of his social class.

* Ian doesn’t make the connection himself, but one of his troop mates does as they’re face timing one night - the first time they ever face time. And after Ian hangs up asks him how he knows the prince of Wales.

* Ian keeps his knowledge a secret, not wanting to scare Mickey off.

* After a few months of talking, Mickey agrees to meet Ian. He sneaks off from his security and they meet in a coffee shop.

* They have a cute first date, but when Mickey leans in to kiss Ian, his security have found him, and grab him by the collar dragging him away from the cute redhead he met online

* Ian messages Mickey that evening and Mickey tells him this can’t work, they’re from different worlds. He’s expected to marry a woman of his social class

* Ian keeps trying to message Mickey over the next month. Never getting a reply

* After many messages from Ian, and a talking to from Mandy Mickey messages Ian back. Fuckers can go fuck themselves he didn’t ask to be fucking king anyway

* Mickey keeps sneaking away from his security to meet Ian, but gets caught every time and never gets to actually have that kiss

* Mickey gets called into a royal meeting with the current king and asked what the fuck he’s playing at and does he want to get killed. The importance of being around his security is emphasised. They already don’t like Mickeys upbringing, he never feels like they wanted him there to begin with, only needing an heir to the throne.

* Mickey tells them to go fuck themselves and he can date who he wants

* He’s told the public can never know he’s gay. It would be bad for the crown.

* Mickey storms out of the room and out of the palace, his security following him. Fuck this. He’s sick of being told for his whole life who he’s allowed to like. He meets with Ian in a very public place and kisses him in broad daylight. Can’t keep that a secret

* The king is furious but the public love Mickey

* The palace further try to stop their relationship, but there is public outcry. Why can’t the future king have a boyfriend!!!

* The palace gives in and allows Mickey and Ian to be together

* Final scene: Mickey and Ian several years later at Mickeys coronation. Mickey the king and Ian the king escort

Ahh I had so much fun doing this!!!

Not sure who to tag, if you wanna do this and haven’t been tagged then I’m tagging you!

[horizon-verizon]

Rhaenyra's children have never been legitimised. Even though the king has claimed them as his grandchildren, even though corlys claimed them as velaryons. And even though laenor claimed them as his children. Even though they were claimed in front of multiple witnesses including the entire court, they’re still not legitimised. because they were never acknowledged as bastards in the first place. They have always been claimed as 'true born' children, not as bastards, and of course you can’t legitimise a true born child.

This better be about Fire and Blood, anon. I’m working from the assumption that it is.

I get your point, anon. I’ve both heard it and debated about it myself many times.

You're saying that even though Viserys and Corlys accepted them, by the rules of legitimization and acknowledgment they are and always will be bastards and illegitimate. People would have to have the official revelation for Viserys to publicly legitimize them.

My thing is that:

in real life, what determined a child’s legitimacy in Europe was nebulous right from the start and had to do with property and changed according to the needs of the people involved. In Wales–before the Norman conquest of it and its incorporation into “England” around 1093–had “bastard” meaning a child whose father doesn’t acknowledge them. All children acknowledged had equal legal rights. That included the right to share in the father’s inheritance. The real-life House of Tudor, Elizabeth I’s house, was a house that ruled England after Henry VII took the throne through conquest and after presenting himself as a candidate to those opposed to the Plantagenet York House. The Tudors weren’t a “big” house compared to these houses. And yet it produced notable people…. including Elizabeth I. William the Conqueror was not mocked for having unmarried parents, but specifically for his mother not having a good or illustrious lineage.

In Westeros, riverman Benedict Rivers/Justman/”the Bold” and Orys Baratheon (last one rumored bastard) loyally or dedicatedly lead armies for other lords or lead loyal soldiers themselves, completely negating the idea that bastards are inherently “monstrous” or “treacherous”, which is the bulk of disdain and trepidation for illegitimate people. Benedict Rivers, a bastard born from a Blackwood and a Bracken, became a King over all the riverlords and lead the riverlords into years of prosperity and peace. Orys founded the very house that currently rules Westeros (the irony is not lost on me, but that’s because Robert himself is a fucker and patriarchy).

illegitimacy doesn’t exist as a reality and an independent fact without political context; it must be actively enforced by the active decision of the people around to have any actual true effect

Rhaenyra, as a woman giving birth to children not her husbands’, would be getting a stronger even maybe deadly punishment for something that a man would get off scot free for, and her kids -- through no fault of their own -- would also have their lives taken or ruined. And for what? Something that has no real substance in of itself and is more conviently hidden for power if done right? [go to point #4] -- the further political and personal ramifications are is why the V boys’ parentage will never be admitted....just as her adultery would never be admitted (we don’t know if Book!Rhaneyra did the arrangement with Laenor of HotD)

both women and men have had affairs and lovers for millenia in ancient and medieval cultures....why? Because marriage is about resources and joining families together for power/security, not love or intimacy. And both men and women want love and/or real intimacy, or just horny. This means that there is a higher possibility for there to be "unexposed" "illegitimate" children on either side than you might think or have clear archealogical or otherwise historical evidence for. 

Sometimes affairs and illegitimate kids were tacitly and publicly known already ( @the-king-andthe-lionheart), but if a person were to want to gain something from a princess', noble lady's, queen’s reputation falling or outright removal...then whether or not she actually cheated on her husband or slept with others, they could engineer claims of her “ruination” and “treason” 

Jon Snow. Enough said.

Power is the thing that is really sought for, not moral righteousness. Alicent & Criston both are so out of the loop for this. Bastardy is a societal excuse and invention. It is a tool to be used, to flaunt, to slice others, to hide, etc. How you use it and for what purpose determines your ethical status. Add in circumstance and that will determine whether you will “win” or not.

EDIT: As what la-pheacienne says HERE, Viserys I, Corlys, and Laenor all tacitly/silently accepting Rhaenyra's sons is legally valid, as it is in all legal contexts, so yes they are all legitimate.

Aside from how Viserys and Corlys both voluntarily decide so, never revealing anything.

[atisundaridarshanparadise]

Sovngarde is the Battle Anthem Song of King Harold Godwinson's Anglo-Saxon England Epic in 1066! Harold Godwinson is the Dovakhin! Edyth Swannesha is Sovngarde! Harold Godwinson is the Sun! Edyth Swannesha is the Moon! Harold Godwinson's Battle Flag is the Wessex Wyvern! Anglo-Saxon Knecht 🦢 of Orfeo Power and Glory Sidney Empire and Glory 🦢⚜️❄️⛩️🦉💎 Harold Godwinson's Anglo-Saxon Imperial Huscarl Armies Fought like Lions the Epic Battle of Fulford, the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the Battle of Hastings, the Battle of Wales, the Battle of Northumbria and Defended the North from Guillaume le Batard's Cruel Harrowing of the North! Sovngarde is the Magic Battle Song of Queen Edyth Swannesha, the Anglo- Saxon Arch Witch of the Universe, Hexe of Anglo-Saxon England and the North, Gospodarka na Slavata i Svobodata, Lady of Mercia and Sussex and the Realm for the Anglo-Saxon War against the Norman Arch witch in the Norman Camp below Senlac Hill! Queen Edyth Swannesha Had Gothic Astral Drakoness in the Air Like in Van Helsing! Edyth Swannesha is the Dovakhiness! I'm Sent Here by Goddess Freyja! I'm Sent Here by Divine Providence and Lords of Light! Vladitsite na Nebesata! I'm in Samadhi Superconsciousness and Kaivalya Power! Sovngarde is the Anglo-Saxon War Song of Eorl Edwin and Morcar, Eorl Gyrth Godwinson and Eorl Leofwine Godwinson, Lord Siward, Hereward the Wake and Robin of Locksley and Wat Tyler and Thomas Wyatt the Younger's Battles' Wars, Skirmishes and Campaigns even in Uprising were for Liberation of England from the Normans and the Spaniards! Sovngarde is the Battle Anthem of Sir Philip Sidney's Divine Star Society and Order of the Drakon fov the war in Holland against Spain! The Revenge War for the Fate of Queen Jane Grey and King Guildford Dudley of England, Wales, Ireland and France! It's a Samadhi Heaven Song! Sovngarde is the Battle War Song of King Sigismund von Luxembrourg's Crusade of Nicopolis of a Pan-European Crusader Army Mainly French and Hungarian against the Turks of Sultan Bajaseth for Liberation of Bulgaria and the Saving of the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople! All of My Crusaders are Dovakhins and Samurai Knights, the Knights of the Drakon! It's 624 Yearss of Greatness of the Order of the Drakon! Bulgaria is a Free Country for 142 Years! I Live in Sofia, Bulgaria and I am a Free Man! The Dovakhin is an Archangel and a God! Az sam Gospodar na Slavata i Svobodata! Sovngarde is the Battle Song of Emperor Timur the Great's Timurid Army and Horde for the Battle of Angora in Which He Decisively Defeated the Turks of Sultan Bajaseth, Captured the Cruel Sultan and Put Him in a Cage! It was the Revenge of King Sigismund von Luxembourg and Count Jean de Nevers for the Decisive Crusader Battle of Nicopolis, and the Treatment and Fate of My Knights and Army by the Cruel Turks! I Shall Conquer with Angels and with Gins, with Archangels and Knights and Ladies for Everything that Has Happened to Me in Bulgaria! Beowulf el Elyon Shall Love and Defend Me! This is Knight Tervel Kamenov's Epic War Song the Mount Kailash Pan-Gaian Epic, Alone with Mikael the Great, Like Vlad Dracula, Gabriel, that Saved Gaia and the Universe! Beowulf Loves and Defends Mount Kailash! Let the Echoes Become Your Strenght! What You Do Echoes in Eternity! Let Your Actions Echo in Eternity! Hail Goddess Crystine Slagman, final Crystine! Hail Sovngarde Lord and Bard Orpheus, Jeremy Soule! I'm Always on the Side of Divine Providence and Divine Providence is Always on My Side! Promote Only Nobility, People! Fight for Love, Freedom and Nobility! Hail Goddess Crystine Slagman! Reward! Nagrada! I'm the Lord of Fortune Better than Boethius! Rex Tvmundos Majestatis, Qu Salvandos Slava GRatis, Salva Me Fons Pietatis, Salva Me Fons Pietatis! O King of Tremendous Majesty, who Save s wwithout Price Those Destined to Be Saved, Save Me Font of Piety! I'm a Legendary Hero of Hoary Glory, Lord of the Anglo-Saxon Folk and Nation, Kingdom and Anglo-Saxon Empire Worldwide, the British Empire!

[scotianostra]

July 23rd 1773 saw the birth of Thomas Makdougall Brisbane near Largs.

Decribed as a tall, handsome and benevolent-looking, sincerely religious, perfectly impartial, rational and far-seeing, an intellectual and scientific man and a patron of science..

I like this man's gib, and at a time when most notable people from this era are accused of historical crimes against the indigenous people of Australia and the likes, Sir Thomas seems to be a man with an unblemished character.

Brisbane was born at Brisbane House in Noddsdale, near Largs in Ayrshire, Scotland, the son of Sir Thomas Brisbane and his wife Eleanora (née Bruce).

Having studied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Edinburgh, Sir Thomas joined the British Army in 1789, enjoying a distinguished career in Flanders, the West Indies, Spain and North America. Indeed, such was the impression he made that it was the Duke of Wellington himself who made the recommendation that Sir Thomas serve in Australia in 1821.

As Governor of New South Wales – a post he held until 1825 – he immediately began working on a series of reforms to tackle the problems of a rapidly expanding colony. This included improvements to the land grants system, currency reform, and experiments in growing tobacco, cotton, coffee and flax.

His Edinburgh studies served Sir Thomas well. His keen interest in science led him to become the first President of the Philosophical Society of Australasia (now the Royal Society of New South Wales) and he established the colony’s first agricultural training college, also assuming the role of first patron of the New South Wales Agricultural Society.

It was during this period that the famous city that now bears his name was established, a fact that is entwined in the history of the transportation of convicts to the area from Britain.

Sir Thomas was looking for a new site to house repeat offenders and was shown an area around a large river at Moreton Bay. By 1824, convicts had moved in and both the river and the area became known as Brisbane. By 1839 it had become open to free settlement.

Beyond his military and civil service, Sir Thomas’s great love was for astronomy, an expertise he had honed at the University of Edinburgh. The observatory he had constructed at his first home in Australia recorded the first detailed observations of southern hemisphere stars from the continent and was where Enke’s comet was discovered in 1822. Remnants of Sir Thomas’s books and equipment are still held in the Sydney Observatory.

After returning to Scotland, he was elected President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1832, succeeding Sir Walter Scott, and was created a baronet in 1836. While continuing his astronomical research, he received honorary degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge universities, and was President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

He regarded his greatest achievements, however, as those that benefited his own community. He established the Largs Brisbane Academy to give local children the opportunity of a better education, and made provision for a new sewage system in the town to clear the streets of dirty water. This effectively reduced the prevalence of deadly diseases in the area, including the scourges of cholera and typhoid. He is remembered in the town today in the names of Brisbane Glen, Brisbane House and the Thomas Makdougall Brisbane Bridge.

On his death in 1860, Sir Thomas was rightly lauded: dedicated military leader, effective governor and celebrated astronomer. His memorial can be seen today in the grounds of the kirk in his hometown of Largs.

With no fewer than 10 locations named in honour of Sir Thomas – including one of the Moon’s craters and the much-loved Australian city – his influence during his relatively short tenure as Governor is clear, and as I pointed out at the start ofthis post, a man of great character.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.29 (after 1920)

1920 – Construction of the Link River Dam begins as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project. 1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. 1932 – Great Depression: In Washington, D.C., troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans. 1937 – Tongzhou mutiny: In Tongzhou, China, the East Hebei Army attacks Japanese troops and civilians. 1945 – The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music. 1948 – Olympic Games: The Games of the XIV Olympiad: After a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, open in London. 1950 – Korean War: After four days, the No Gun Ri Massacre ends when the US Army 7th Cavalry Regiment is withdrawn. 1957 – The International Atomic Energy Agency is established. 1957 – Tonight Starring Jack Paar premieres on NBC with Jack Paar beginning the modern day talk show. 1958 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 1959 – First United States Congress elections in Hawaii as a state of the Union. 1965 – Vietnam War: The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay. 1967 – Vietnam War: Off the coast of North Vietnam the USS Forrestal catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134. 1967 – During the fourth day of celebrating its 400th anniversary, the city of Caracas, Venezuela is shaken by an earthquake, leaving approximately 500 dead. 1973 – Greeks vote to abolish the monarchy, beginning the first period of the Metapolitefsi. 1973 – Driver Roger Williamson is killed during the Dutch Grand Prix, after a suspected tire failure causes his car to pitch into the barriers at high speed. 1976 – In New York City, David Berkowitz (a.k.a. the "Son of Sam") kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks. 1980 – Iran adopts a new "holy" flag after the Islamic Revolution. 1981 – A worldwide television audience of around 750 million people watch the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London. 1981 – After impeachment on June 21, Abolhassan Banisadr flees with Massoud Rajavi to Paris, in an Iranian Air Force Boeing 707, piloted by Colonel Behzad Moezzi, to form the National Council of Resistance of Iran. 1987 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel (Eurotunnel). 1987 – Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and President of Sri Lanka J. R. Jayewardene sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord on ethnic issues. 1993 – The Supreme Court of Israel acquits alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free. 1996 – The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act is struck down by a U.S. federal court as too broad. 2005 – Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris. 2010 – An overloaded passenger ferry capsizes on the Kasai River in Bandundu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in at least 80 deaths. 2013 – Two passenger trains collide in the Swiss municipality of Granges-près-Marnand near Lausanne injuring 25 people. 2015 – The first piece of suspected debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is discovered on Réunion Island. 2019 – The 2019 Altamira prison riot between rival Brazilian drug gangs leaves 62 dead. 2021 – The International Space Station temporarily spins out of control, moving the ISS 45 degrees out of attitude, following an engine malfunction of Russian module Nauka.

[xjulixred45x]

Carmelide/Cameliard Headcanons/4kota

I want to stay up all night and that's why I bring something like a small section where I dropped all my Headcanons and ideas from certain worlds/Fandoms just because, because I can. Opening with the concept of the kingdom of Carmelide/Cameliard from Nanatsu no Taizai or 4KotA.

(besides, I hate information gaps about potentially interesting or little-explored places, so let's go)

I'll take some references from the original King Arthur legends and what little we could take from the series. We'll see.

Cameliard in the Arthurian legends

Both the NNT and 4Kota characters are inspired by the legends of King Arthur and we can even get several spoilers or ideas from these, characters like Meliodas, Ban, Merlin, etc. They are references to their counterparts from the legends.

There is also talk of the kingdoms, but only today we will focus on Carmelide or Cameliard, as you prefer.

The only official information of Cameliard to date in the manga is only that it is the kingdom where Guinevere comes from (the Loli of my nightmares). And nothing else, literally nothing. So let's go directly to the Headcanons

According to Arthurian legends, Cameliard would be located near Wales, that is, quite close to what would be the city of London.

It is a country with little climate change, it is almost always raining or cloudy, there is quite a breeze and it is usually quite cold.

The kingdom's main raw material is its Sorcerers and Wizards, similar to the giants, they lend their best wizards to fight battles for a price.

The wizards in Carmelide have a magical level above the average person, as well as spiritual.

It is a super Catholic country, but I would not say that in a homophobic(?) way, since they accept Adelfopoiesis practices (marriage or ceremony for the union of two people of the same sex).

They have marked gender roles as to what each gender offers to Carmelience society.

The most marked example is in the monarchy, the women who ascend to the throne are vigorously educated in the areas of politics and strategy, they are highly educated and even if they do not reach the throne they are responsible for generating alliances and peace treaties with other women. nations.

Women are given a leadership role in the sense that they are the brain of the population, they are attributed to intelligence, class, elegance and order.

It's a pity that because of this they are not usually trained in the direct offensive area, they are highly guarded.

There is a certain paternalistic governance structure...

Men, on the other hand, are trained from an early age to be able to defend themselves and their brothers or sisters, are mainly instructed in war and physical and mental training for battle.

They are nicknamed the war machines.

They tend to make up most of the armies and velic posts of the court, giving them heavy and bloody jobs.

They have a magical control of another level, the especially strong ones are sent to "lend" to help the kingdom's allies.

The man usually has a more powerful, strong and fierce connotation, they mainly represent the brute force and aggressiveness of the kingdom.

But sadly they are considered very rude for political issues or treaties of any kind.

It tends to be generalized that most men are more brawn than brains.

Due to the mostly cold climates, both royals and citizens tend to be heavily covered, although royals are free to have more revealing clothing ensembles.

The wedding within royalty is usually arranged, but at least they have the offspring to present the fiancés before the engagement to see if they get along.

Lovers are absolutely prohibited, both for kings and queens, they will be considered guilty of adultery.

Despite being a fervently Catholic step, they continue to worship the king/queen, it could be said that they combined the position of Pope and that of the ruler to make it less confusing.

The official language is British English, but the highborn learn French and even Latin.

The kingdom's flag has a red/green dragon on its shield.

Royalty often wears a lot of jewelry like emeralds for men and quartz for girls, though they can be exchanged for rubies and sapphires respectively.

Its architecture is based on the Gothic cathedrals of the Renaissance era, with domes, columns and pediments similar to the Greek ones and a lot of space and care with interior details, the murals telling stories of the creation of the kingdom or the bible are the most frequent.

It is not exactly necessary to be the son or daughter of the king or queen to be considered a prince or princess, it is enough to be a descendant of the same generation as the same, moreover, if the youngest son of the heir to the throne has children before the aforementioned, that child has the right to inherit the throne when his uncle dies, even if he has issue later.

The privilege to the throne is relative in that aspect, basically whoever has children first wins (and no, they are not valid if they are adopted).

Sports such as horse riding, croquet and sport hunting are practiced.

Wow, this was more fun than I thought, maybe I'll do something similar with other animes, what do you think?