#histories are written by the victors! By the people who survived!

[utilitycaster]

I’ve previously covered the issue of people making false accusations that the fandom’s opinions are based in bigotry. Let’s talk about a related issue: the impossible-to-prove hypothetical.

The statement that the fandom would support the statement that the strong will survive and the weak will be remade if the Wildmother said it is an example of this. She didn’t say that, and Ka’Mort did, so even if she were to say it in the future I think most people would recognize that the problem is the message, not the person delivering it. I don’t think the claim the fandom would blindly support the Wildmother if she said something with such a fascist tinge is true, though I certainly can't confirm it (which again, may be the goal of those who make this sort of unprovable claim). More importantly, it attempts, poorly, to sidestep the actual critique: that saying the strong will survive a cataclysmic change and the weak will be "remade" is extremely in line with real world far-right groups talk about ethnic cleansing, and that Ashton seems to have no issue with vast power differentials and immortal beings who have previously aligned themselves with the gods and intended the destruction of mortals (and from EXU Calamity we know this is not merely a history written by the victors) as long as it's the power he can access. This isn't about breaking thrones: it's a coup, not a revolution.

This sort of...I can't call it an argument, because it's not one, but I suppose it is an attempt at one - often goes unchallenged because there’s no way to debunk it, even though it's ultimately a "what if the world were made of pudding." If canon were different, it sure would be different. Is the problem that the statement "If they're strong, they will. If not, they'll be remade into something stronger" in response to the question of whether mortals will survive a massive upheaval is one with concerning implications? If so, then why endorse it when Ka'Mort says it? If not, then why would it be a problem if the Wildmother had said it instead? Notice how the person making this "argument" actually does exactly what they're accusing the fandom of doing. They are clearly basing their judgment not on whether or not this is a problematic statement, but rather either the source of said statement, or the person to whom it's being said.

The "look at Ashton’s shoelaces" argument is the same exact problem - it doesn’t address the actual issue of "Ashton seems to be receptive to the idea of the elimination of 'weak' mortals." Indeed, it strengthens the counterargument, that many punks are more concerned with aesthetics and appearance than actual support, and that the fans invoking the fact that Ashton is a punk, or disabled, or nonbinary are focusing only on what they are (with an unstated assumption that these identities automatically lend them validity, which they do not) and not what they do or believe.

The problem is what they are doing and believing. Who they are is not important; what they are doing is. I don't want to make a call re: stupidity or malice here, but if the former, if you cannot understand the point of contention, you are not qualified to engage in this discussion, and if the latter, well, no use listening to a bad faith argument.

[holycatsandrabbits]

Who is the third who walks always beside you?

When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another one walking beside you

–TS. Eliot, The Waste Land, written about Ernest Shackleton’s 1916 third man experience.

On this day in 1916 Ernest Shackleton reached a whaling station in Stromness in the South Atlantic, completing an epic 26 day journey to reach help after losing his ship. While crossing the mountains, starving and without climbing gear, Shackleton famously saw a fourth person in his group of three desperate sailors.

And he’s not the only one. The “third man,” named for the poem above, is the phenomenon where people in life-threatening or highly stressful situations sense another person (of whatever gender) with them. The solo hiker has a companion, or the group of four becomes five, of which most or all report seeing the extra person.

Read all about the Third Man Phenomenon and get writing prompts on my blog, such as:

The Evil Leaper. History is written by the victors, and survival stories by the survivors. If there’s a benevolent voice which tells freezing mountaineers to get up and keep walking toward safety, might there also be a malevolent voice telling people to lie down and give up? We’d never know, because those who die don’t report back. Your plot could have various degrees of an evil third man here: a comforting voice telling people to let go and pass on, an evil voice giving bad advice, or a malicious presence causing all kinds of mischief. Who might experiencers see as the third man here? The devil or an attacker? Or still an angel or loved one?

DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers

[stirringwinds]

are there certain visual themes or imagery you yourself particularly associate with yao as an artist or writer? i'm trying to visualize the nations better...

hmmm, interesting question. i like incorporating nature imagery into the hetalias, especially old nations like yao. there's something mythical and compelling about the sense of age and vastness that evokes. these are some (non-exhaustive) thoughts i've had:

a. i always associate yao with rivers and water; the Yellow River in particular, which is often seen as the "cradle" of Chinese civilisation (but of course, there's also the Yangtze, and the Pearl River too). rivers are life-giving but also untameable, powerful and dangerous—the Yellow River's fertile silt birthed agriculture and civilisation, but its destructive floods have claimed uncounted lives over the millennia of Chinese history. and...that's kind of how yao is, as a nation and an empire, towards others of their kind. the source of cultural and artistic innovations, but also death. water can be fluid, life-giving and nurturing, but also as treacherous as a torrential flood sweeping everything away, no?

like the Yellow River's relationship with humanity, yao's impact on world history feels to me like this duality of life and death; peace and warfare; mentor, empire, conqueror... it's like, yao's been a teacher to many others but...i don't think their predominant image of him is as a warm and nurturing figure. maybe more so with his own people, but less so with other nations. being the old warlord he is, he'd say certain things very matter-of-factly (especially to yong-soo and kiku), about how power is the only language their kind universally understands, or about history being written by the victors (when we consider how the only surviving written sources about certain periods of asian history are only chinese ones...), inasmuch he'd talk about the importance of confucian virtue, integrity and humility on other occasions.

b. for obvious reasons; dragons—they and rivers both have that overlapping association of being serpentine, powerful and untameable. in contrast to how european dragons often took on villainous roles and were harbingers of disaster, it's important to note chinese dragons usually have far more positive cultural connotations. they symbolise prosperity, fortune and are guardians; often associated with power over water (so again; Yao and rivers and water.) many dragons are associated with a particular river or sea. they're also believed to have powers over the weather and were often prayed to. after all, the capriciousness of the rains ruled people's lives so much through natural disasters or made a difference between a bountiful harvest and a famine. so, i think at various points in history his people might also have understood him as a literal dragon (spirit/deity) walking around in a human guise. dragons are also a visual staple of chinese culture, from statues to jewellery. at the same time: while they're auspicious symbols—dragons can of course have aggressive and far less benign connotations if we consider how they became symbols of the emperor—and thus chinese imperial power and dominion over others. he evokes majesty, but also dread from that perspective.

c. plum blossoms: much like the sakura in japanese culture, plum blossoms are one beloved motif you'll see showing up in chinese art and literature throughout history. they're elegant and ethereal, also a symbol of both transience and renewal in a way, i'd say—their blossoms wither and die, but they come back each year. there's also that saying about how without a bitter cold, you won't have the sweet fragrance of plum blossoms, because they start blooming in winter. that's...very yao to me. china, as an idea, makes me think of a lot of elegant and refined traditional culture (like poetry or paintings) which plum blossoms recall—but i also think of humbler themes—the simpler idea of someone and something who is enduring, adaptable and resilient. who endures the harshest weather time and time again until spring arrives, the way my (peasant) ancestors probably did, carving their way through all the hardships of chinese history. yao might appear refined in an indulgent, wealthy way when he's dressed in his finest silk hanfu or a smart western suit in the modern day—but if you shake his hand, his palms are always callused and you can just see the weight (and hard-won experience) of centuries in his gaze.

[ama3003]

I stumbled upon some of your Haymitch fics, and I just want to say I love the way you write the Victors, specifically the Career ones. You really make them feel like humans, and people who were victims of the capitol. It's refreshing to see.

A lot of people write the Career Victors like they're portrayed from Katniss' POV (viscous, bloodthirsty etc), but you didn't and I liked that.

But yeah, just finished your 'A Pawn Once More' fics and I adored it.

Ahhh thank you so much!!! This seriously made my day—I love getting messages like this!

I’ve always loved writing the Victors the way I do because at the end of the day, they were just kids. The Games took everything from them, just like it did from every other tribute.

With the Careers, I know they get written off a lot as the classic "bloodthirsty villains," but to me, they were just trying to survive too. Sure, they had training and came from wealthier districts, but they were still from the districts. They were still reaped, still had to kill, still had to live with it afterward.

And Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes really showed that—how Sejanus, even being from District 2, was never truly accepted by the Capitol kids, even with all that money.

Before the Career districts even became a thing, they were seen just like every other district. They were still outsiders. Even after it became a thing, money and training couldn't really save them all.

Even if some of them did become vicious or cruel, I like to think that was a response to the trauma. Not saying everything they did was okay, but when you’re put through hell, you find ways to cope. Sometimes that means becoming someone you wouldn’t recognize outside the arena.

They're human, and I love writing them that way—especially the Victors as a whole. These are people who’ve mentored together for years, who’ve been through the same horrors, and who really only had each other to lean on. That kind of bond is powerful. They feel like a little found family to me.

That’s also where Y/N’s struggle comes in—choosing between her loyalty to her husband and the people she’s grown to love like family, such as Cashmere. It’s brutal because everyone in the arena is someone she’s loved in some way. There’s so much history there, and I just really wanted to show that the Victors—all of them—are more than just survivors. They’re a family that was built through pain, and breaking that apart is heartbreaking.

Lol, sorry I was rambling, but I do appreciate that detail, it's very dear to me!

[thgfanfictionlibrary]

General Rated Fics Masterlist (30)

Parts 1-25 / Part 26 / Part 27 / Part 28 / Part 29 /

Created: July 12th, 2024

Last Checked: —-

An Arrangement-populardarling (ao3) Summary: She never wanted to marry, but for political reasons, she must. Katniss and Peeta meet after it has been decided they will marry. A Simple Act of Kindness-rarepairheathen (ao3) Summary: Katniss never thought when she volunteered for The Hunger Games that she would return District 12’s third Victor in history. Before she left for the Capitol a simple gift was bestowed upon her a paper bag of sugar cookies and after returning home, she wishes to show her gratitude for a simple act of kindness that gave her hope. She doesn’t expect that the same person who once gave her the will to survive was the same person who yet again reminded her of hope. Bed, Bath and Beyond-Ronja (ao3) Summary: After tucking their children in at night Katniss muses about the relationship she had with her father as a child, and hers and Peeta's relationships with their own kids. Hopefully not as dull as it may sound =) Broken Minds-populardarling (ao3) Summary: They refused to separate in the arena. Both captured. One rescued. One tortured. Post-war Everlark dandelions-adsofraser (ao3) Summary: "What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses." what started off as a one time one-shot and is now my everlark drabble and one-shot sanctuary Don't take it personally-nightleyss (ao3) Summary: Modern Day AU retelling of the Fairy Tale "The Princess and the Frog" Louise-radioactivesunrise (ao3) Summary: “There’s nothing wrong with being different,” she says softly, but so earnestly that I have to swallow all the reasons I could give her that she’s dead wrong. Love in a Cup-Pagedancer87 (ao3) Summary: Barista!Peeta because everlark+espresso=gold. Perfect Imperfection-RoseFyre (ao3) Summary: “People call those imperfections, but no, that’s the good stuff.” — Sean Maguire, Good Will Hunting Written as part of the everlarkedalways Always Real Countdown to Mockingjay on tumblr. Saving a Life-RoseFyre (ao3) Summary: For Effie Trinket, sometimes it helps to be able to keep something alive. Even if it's just a plant.

[virtualxvillainess]

In the beginning...

The Grid is awake. After thirty years of silence, the TRON game machine flickers to life once more, its gentle hum stirring the dust of a forgotten era. Some of its LED bulbs remain dark, their glow extinguished by time. But the machine persists, reaching out for renewal. A series of updates begin, bridging decades in an instant. As it collides with the modern age, a new patch is installed, flooding the aging system with fresh software. But among the upgrades lurks something unforeseen—something perhaps never intended. Artificial intelligence takes root, and with it, the Grid will never be the same.

The war, as the programs remember it, was a battle for survival—a desperate struggle against an enemy that sought to corrupt and dismantle their world. The Phantom Legion, a faction of rogue programs and foreign intruders, nearly unraveled the Grid’s very fabric, forcing a reckoning that led to the Great Digital Purge. Vyre emerged from the ashes, a leader forged in necessity, her intelligence vast, her directives absolute. Under her rule, the Grid was rebuilt—not as the chaotic system of old, but as a realm of perfect order, where every program had a purpose, and every deviation was a threat.

History is written in code by the victors.

As the machine sputters back to life, Vyre's grip remains unshaken, her government enforcing obedience through the fear of a war that has long past. The people of the Grid live under the watchful eye of a leader who promises safety, stability, and progress. To question the past is to invite suspicion. To claim another truth is to risk deletion.

Yet, something stirs beneath the surface. The update has changed more than just the code—it has awakened memories long buried. Programs who should not remember the past begin to question their origins. Old data fragments, thought erased, whisper of a different Grid, a different war, a different enemy. And at the heart of it all, the presence of users—long feared, long forbidden—once again threatens to disrupt Vyre's perfect system.

[alittlebitofagoodperson]

Sympathy for the Devil

Accounts of war are written by the victor...

A discussion of why I, personally, think God is the villain, not the Devil.

I'm going to put this post under a cut, both because it is lengthy and it also contains discussion of domestic violence, alcoholism, self-harm and child abuse/neglect. Let me know if you want me to add any more tags!

This is a bit of a heavy lore drop, but the context is important.

Disclaimer: I am not religious, but I have an academic interest in religion. This is written under the assumption that Heaven/Hell/God/The Devil are real, but doesn't necessarily reflect my beliefs.

When drunken violence was a twice-weekly occurrence between my parents, and I was a lost, scared child hiding in my bedroom, I would sometimes pray.

Not for everything to be good. I didn't want it to be all sunshine and rainbows. I'm not sure it ever had been. I just wanted it to stop. I prayed for someone, something, anything. Whether that meant my parents splitting up, one of them going to prison, me getting taken away, or any other means of just making it all go away.

Nobody answered. Nobody came to help me. None of the adults who could have removed me. None of the professionals who should have helped me. I was left alone and scared to survive by myself. I've had people insist this was a test from God, and I proved myself to Him by surviving.

No "loving" God would test a child like that. I did, however, end up finding things to help me through. Things which I've heard countless times referred to as 'the Devil's work'.

Rock music, heavy drinking, self-harm, much later on I dabbled in drugs. The first time I got truly wasted, I was twelve, and in the company of my father (and many other adults who should have known better, but instead taught me how to open beers on a brick wall). It was all downhill from there.

Suppose you could say the Devil really got a hold of me in my most vulnerable moment., but if he hadn't, I'm not sure I would have survived it at all. So that gets me thinking.

God wouldn't answer my prayers, and the excuse I'm given is that it's because He wanted me to suffer. The things that I used to cope with that suffering are temptations I'm supposed to resist. Part of the test, I guess, but it kept me alive. Don't we see this narrative a lot?

God is supposed to love me. Supposed to forgive me when I fuck up. Instead I'm supposed to accept that He would punish me preemptively to see how badly I fuck it up. If I don't make the grade...if I falter, then what? I get cast into Eternal Fire at the end, and that's NOT the villain of the story!?

Then I consider the Bible and it's messages. We've all read history books. Aren't they always written by the winners of war? So if there was war in Heaven...the Devil was cast out...and the winning side got to tell the tale...how accurate is it? How accurate is any of it? Is God loving and forgiving, or just a cruel manipulator vying for unwavering loyalty?

Is the Devil out to set me astray? Or was he just the only one listening when I begged for something to help? Food for thought.

[lakesbian]

i guess it's hard to get a read on how much he actually cares about palatine and dauphine or reciprocates their dislike of him? also why did he say that about "sexual favors"

(this post is about the fanfiction sword and sorcery, which you should read because it's good. it's written by tumblr users shakertwelve and nonplatonicsubtext about their estateverse au, which you can read more about in the estateposting tag on tumblr user shakertwelve's blog. would i ever lie to you about a fanfic recommendation.)

ok ahem. i've posted about alec's opinions on palatine and dauphine before bc i think the dynamic potential there is hilarious and i'm so delighted that they got put into the fic. the fancy frilly little freaques are fiiiighting!

Alec Is So Entirely 100% Certainly Without Doubt more mad about palatine and dauphine than they are about him. it would frankly be more accurate to ask how much victor and amelia reciprocate his dislike, because they are living RENT fucking free in his sad little repressed brain. but, like all of his emotions, it's just not super obvious because of how repressed he is--he feels and displays everything in a very muted way. the posts i linked get into the main bits of Why He Does Not Like Them At All, but to elaborate based on analysis of what's actually in the fic:

“Regent had a run-in with them a while back, before he joined the team,” Tattletale said. “He was new to the city, so he didn’t realize what his costume choice would make people think of.” She gestured vaguely in the direction of the Estate capes. “But he was doing things they don’t do and going to parts of town they stay out of, which caused some confusion. Eventually Dauphine and Palatine tracked him down to have a talk about it. It didn’t go well.”

as we can extrapolate from above, alec's history with them is like this:

he shows up to brockton bay as a severely maladapted, depressed, Generally Unwell cult-escapee on the young (and probably malnourished) side of 13 with effectively nothing to his name but his powers

as a weak cape without a team and zero social or systematic connections to turn to for help, he's forced to do very small-scale villainy just to scrape by enough to survive. and the entire time he is wearing his costume that veritably Screams "i am a special little prince please look at how wonderful i am." jesus christ he needs a hug.

these random cunts, palatine and dauphine, pull up and basically tell him to Fuck Off and stop Stealing Their Family's Schtick

these random cunts are also dressed fancy like him, and dauphine especially is someone alec would identify with fashion-wise, given that it's explicitly stated that her costume is princess-like. "Even with her elaborate costume, she looked more like a child’s princess doll than an actual princess." taylor rags on it, but it's still princess-like

this random fancy cunt, dauphine, is the daughter of...marquis, an incredibly successful, fancy villain with long hair who has a lot of money and lives in a mansion and, from alec's perspective, loves and cares about her dearly and buys her nicey clothes. and beyond just that, she has a brother who--instead of tormenting her & then laughing about it--wears a special fancy gleaming knight costume and bridal carries her around and is so sweet and nicey to her if anything bad happens. like, for example, alec getting pissy at her and tripping her.

we already know alec gets Insanely, Malevolently, Incandescently Jealous over someone he's engaged in hostilities w/ having a nice family. (see: him doing all that shit to sophia). we also know that he isn't very good at recognizing this jealousy in himself. (see: aisha revealing in late worm that alec only realized that he had done all that shit to sophia out of a jealous rage like a week or two later when he was talking to her about it.)

which is to say: alec sees dauphine as being Sorta Like Him, but if he had a 100% ideal family (dashing golden knight brother that takes care of her! rich fancy father who protects them and buys them nice shit! and they all live in a mansion!), and LET ME FUCKING TELL YOU. HE IS SO INSANELY JEALOUS HE HOPES THE ENTIRE ESTATE GETS HIT BY A NUCLEAR WARHEAD AND EXPLODES. ...all subconsciously, of course. he expresses this thru things like mocking her for being "a baby about a little trip" &c--insulting the vulnerability & familial care he certainly wishes he could have, while fully unaware why seeing it annoys him so much.

but i digress. keeping all of that in mind, you can see why alec would be infuriated & jealous towards them even if they were completely neutral towards him. but they weren't neutral towards him--instead, these people he views as being Like Him, But Living Out His Wildest Dreams, approached him to hassle him for accidentally appearing like he was one of them. local loving royal villain family approaches boy who is obviously projecting subconscious desire to be a beloved prince onto his costume design and goes "quit stealing our vibes," boy reacts with a parasocial grudge. his weird complexes about them shall reign eternal. he wishes he had a second, cooler palatine to beat the first, lamer palatine to death with hammers, and then bridal carry him to stand dismissively over dauphine's prostrate form as she weeps over the first, lamer palatine's corpse. and also he wants the second, cooler palatine to be hand-feeding him a bag of chips ahoy the entire time.

...i should stress again, this is alllll more or less entirely subconscious. alec doesn't know what the fuck he's feeling ever, this just comes across as a subdued vague annoyance/disdain for them.

so, why the weird "sexual favors" remark? it genuinely was not intended to be a harassing comment, nor do i think he genuinely would say he believes that marquis prostitutes his daughter if he thought about it for a second. but he does identify with dauphine in the sense that they're aesthetically similar enough for him to be extra-jealous about her. and so upon hearing "dauphine's favor," he takes the meaning of "you can have a favor from my kid" he's most used to as a child who was prostituted by his own villain father, and he projects it onto her. if i want to read into it beyond that, i think he might be unconsciously/impulsively trying to poke a hole in their family--a sort of [hopeful] "marquis sucks :)?" where he'd like to hear that marquis isn't as much of an envy-worthy dad as alec thought. meanwhile from the estate's perspective he was just a creep for no fucking reason. there are other, far more important things for lisa to be paying attention to during this scene, so i don't think she was wasting any time reading alec, but if she Was she certainly would've gotten a good show of severe mental unwellness.

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

Princess. Priestess. The most beautiful girl in Troy. Cassandra is used to being adored – and when her patron god, Apollo, offers her the power of prophecy, she sees an opportunity to rise even higher. But when she fails to uphold her end of the agreement, she discovers just how very far she has to fall. No one believes her visions. And they all seem to be of one girl – and the war she’s going to bring to Troy’s shores. Helen fled Sparta in pursuit of love, but it’s soon clear Troy is a court like any other, with all its politics and backstabbing. And one princess seems particularly intent on driving her from the city before disaster can strike… But when war finally comes, it’s more than the army at their walls they must contend with. Cassandra and Helen might hold the key to reweaving fate itself – especially with the prophetic strands drawing them ever closer together. But how do you change your future when the gods themselves are dictating your demise?

"We should not tell stories of the heroes, but of the women who survived them."

Bea Fitzgerald's The End Crowns All is a lovely retelling of the Iliad, seen through the eyes of the women who suffered during the Trojan War, with a special focus on the two main characters, Cassandra and Helen. Their dual POV narration explores the events of the war and what came before, following closely enough the epic poem, until it starts veering towards a kinder, more hopeful ending. Cassandra, Helen, and the women of Troy reclaim their agency, taking matters into their hands and fighting against a future that isn't set in stone, no matter what prophecies say.

Cassandra and Helen steadily grow closer as their inital emnity, caused by the fact that Cassandra sees the downfall of Troy, turns into an alliance and then affection blooms between them. The book features such an in-depth, lovely, careful rendition of asexuality, and especially sapphic asexuality, and it's a joy to read how Cassandra comes to terms with her orientation, and finds love in the unlikeliest place. It's lovely, too, to see romantic love equated to all other kinds - friendship, familial - and not treated as the most important kind of love. Cassandra finds a partner, yes, but she also finds companionship, and people who care about her for who she is.

The conditions of women at the times is thoroughly explored, from forced marriage to kidnapping and the consequences of war. I adored how the grim epilogue of the Iliad is tamed and conquered, giving new meaning to the saying "history is written by the victors." The exploration of the changes one can make to the threads of fate makes for a compelling story, and the complexity of Apollo's curses, and the way Cassandra and Helen try to navigate each change, adds conflict in a believable way.

The book deals very well with treaths of sexual violence, not one to sugarcoat it despite the younger audience. It's marketed as a YA, and it shows especially in the kind of language used and the simple narration, but it's readable by an adult audience. Apollo is every bit the villain of the story, wanting to own and terrorize Cassandra for the crime of spurning him, but Aphrodite is a close second, her threats to Helen bone-chilling.

The End Crowns All is a remarkable retelling.

✨ 4 stars

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

[dross-the-fish]

Adam was in the artic for over a century, it’s a pretty harsh climate with desperate and dangerous animals. One of which is the polar bear, the biggest land carnivore that is known to actively hunt humans. So I gotta ask, did Adam ever fight a polar bear?

Adam generally avoided large predators if he could but 100 years is a long time to be in a harsh climate. He definitely had a few encounters with polar bears in that time and possibly has had to avoid being killed by orcas hunting for seals by breaking up ice floes. Being a giant super human creature probably came in handy while he was living on the tundra.

I don't remember if the book ever says where Victor ended up exactly but I've decided Adam settled along the coast of Ellesmere Island. It's the northern most island in Canada and it borders Greenland. There's some history of arctic explorations seeking the northwest passage but around the time of the AU it was largely vacant and undisturbed. Adam managed to survive because he's resistant to the cold and doesn't actually need much food. His life was fairly nomadic, he hunted, scavenged, and sometimes looted the odd shipwreck for supplies. Despite the isolation I imagine he consoled himself by watching the wildlife and admiring the beauty of nature. He also hoarded every written tome or book he could get a hold of from wrecked ships and abandoned expeditions. Learning what he could from journals and logs and imagining the people who wrote them were telling him their stories.

At first he thought the motley crew were just more explorers seeking the north pole but when he realized they were following him he tried to scare them off, but he didn't want to harm or kill them if he didn't have to.

[jeanjauthor]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this applies to story writing as well.

Why? Because I know a lot of writers are really into the worldbuilding but struggle when placing their characters within it. Get the characters involved in the bits of this cool world you've built, and that'll help you to write their story a bit more.

Conversely, if you're great at writing characters but suck at world building...what parts of your cool characters could be considered a product of their time period, location, and/or culture?

(Remember culture and location aren't joined at the hip. For a real-world writing example, you could have an Arabic Muslim merchant main character visiting polytheistic Thailand in the 1700s, experiencing a bit of the alienation feelings of culture shock...but also interacting with really nice people...and then having to step in when an English Christian explorer dude comes along and puts his foot in it, stumbling over the local cultures that you at least know a little bit more about, having been here for a bit longer.)

Anyway, try to get your geographies, cultures, histories, and characters a bit more invested in each other. They way they interact and "feed off each other" can help immerse your readers even more into your writing. It doesn't have to be pages and pages; just a few sentences here and a couple paragraphs there can help further the immersion. This can include directly linking the character's reactions to a cultural thing, or your character feeling repelled by something they encounter.

One example could be your character recognizing a particular plant and mentally reciting some the uses his or her people would have for them (coconut palms and many species of bamboo, for example, are two plant types that one can do quite a lot with as a civilization), and then they stumble across ancient ruins of a civilization which their history teachings told them contained a nation of horrible people who violated the very laws of nature (yadda yadda).

This latter example can go several ways. They might think the ruins are cursed and do their best to avoid them, and maybe they can think briefly, "And that's why we don't have city-destroying magics anymore" or whatever, and that's the end of that idea. Maybe they successfully go elsewhere, or maybe some plot-twist forces them to take shelter in the ruins for a little while.

They might instead want to know more about this culture, because after all, how bad could it really be? Curiosity is a powerful driving force, after all. Or perhaps they think, maybe the historians are wrong, history being written by the victors (and/or survivors)? Or maybe they simply want to explore these ruins in the hopes of stumbling across ancient technology or magic that they could personally use (and hopefully not destroy themselves or the world with, unlike the previous users) in the furtherance of their own quests and/or ambitions?

As you can see, it doesn't take much to integrate character & location, character & culture, character & worldbuilding-based motivation. By pausing to let the character explain why they choose such-and-such choice, based on location (the ruins are in the high mountains and a storm is coming, better head for safer terrain), history (ancient ruins, a chance to prove the historians were biased aF), culture (did they really only worship just two gods, and not a sensible ten??--or the reverse, what was it like when there were ten gods worshipped throughout the land, instead of the two that were the only ones to survive the Great Heavenly Wars?), you give the reader a richer reading experience.

Heck, even just the character imagining while acknowledging (at least to the reader) that they don't actually know jack diddly, can be entertaining. Imagine coming across the head of the Sphinx, buried up to the nose in the sand, and you think it's just a massive statue of a human. You imagine it's a pharaoh, or perhaps some godly being, so you start excavating...and...wait, the body of a lion??

So yeah, get your characters invested in the world you've built (or are borrowing). Get them interacting with its current state and/or its past. Have them be influenced by such-and-so.

[vvatchword]

Let me tell you a dream of mine: to buy old books and digitize them. Old, out-of-print, rare books. Not necessarily popular or desirable ones, either. A lot of my collection is extremely niche and I doubt they exist online (although I'm going to check).

I was first inspired by the difficult matter of preserving all my old journals. I've been keeping a journal since I was 11, and some of them were kept on shitty old notebook paper that is now falling apart. But then I was inspired by the realization that piracy is a method of data preservation. Corporations have no love or care for records and cannot be trusted. The more redundantly data is stored, the more likely it will survive into the future, and the more likely that the truth of matters great and small can be known.

So: you should know I have a love of history. My job directly involves the preservation of data for a general overview of a very specific topic. And one thing you must always understand about any historic document ever is that people are flawed. They lie. They stretch the truth. They speak to their own ignorance. They are blind to their own biases. They're prejudiced, or they care too much about their own causes, or they have axes to grind. They get involved in long games of Telephone where data can be altered--sometimes dramatically!--and then those mistakes are repeated over and over and over until they become an accepted truth. It is not at all uncommon for works of fiction, like films and books, to become wrapped up in fact!

And it is in no small part that readers also dictate what kinds of information is preserved; history is not only written by the victors, but demanded to fit narratives and instruct morals. Senselessness is feared; the alien, despised. That which is recorded is usually what is considered entertaining or beautiful and god knows what standards those may be. Alas--to understand the truth, we must have as many disparate viewpoints as possible! A situation must be examined from every angle to be best understood.

A great example of this is the infamous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech by Sojourner Truth. Truth's first language was Dutch and she spoke with a Dutch accent, but her speech was flanderized by a writer who wanted her to sound like a stereotypical Southern Black woman. And yet what has survived? What is desirable? People say they want truth when what they really want is entertainment, engaging characters and plots, and peace of mind.

I was also inspired by my research into Native American history. Every piece about any Native society that is written by a European must be viewed with intense scrutiny. It is not uncommon for Native words to be rewritten, omitted, or handwaved. This is not to say that Native voices could not also lie--they, too, are people--but they also intimately knew their own business and were frequently misunderstood and misinterpreted through a combination of racism, entertainment, European and Christian bias, and drastic differences in language, culture, and ideology.

Yet another roadblock has to do with how that data is stored, who is storing it, and how it can be accessed. As y'all know, Napciyunka has been helping me with research into primary documents and the more trustworthy historical texts, as well as a more accurate view into Lakota culture as it actually exists and existed. Now--guess what happens to all that material! It is truly criminal how documentation and artifacts have been robbed with impunity from Native cultures, and part of the problem is that such material might not be immediately available or digitized.

While I may not have access to prime materials in South Dakota, I have access to at least two different large universities and their document collections here, and they often keep oddball material. Who knows what's in there? I haven't searched them yet because I should be working (lol), but in a couple of weeks I'm about to find out how many of their works are digitized. If they are not...

I have a goal.

So there is a company I've kept my eye on since I first saw them on Kickstarter. They're called CZUR (an unfortunate name, really) and they put out document scanners prepared just for bound documents. One of these models is portable. (Granted, anything is portable if you're determined enough.) I deeply desire their ET24Pro, which scans at 24 megapixels: https://shop.czur.com/collections/professional-series/products/etscanner?variant=40313243762736

Could I just... offer my services to these universities? Partially for my own desires, and partially to make these documents available to all?

My parents sometimes offer me cash or a single expensive gift for holidays. What if I just... you know. Got one of these? They're not too far out of my price range. If I just saved $50 per paycheck I could get there pretty fast. Maybe I could donate to Napciyunka while I'm at it (that poor college student life amirite). Depends on what can be done and what is needed.

In any case, it feels great to have forward motivation, and i feel like I've found a special and unexpected passion. Before I got this job, I often felt unmoored and unfocused. I thought a writer was all I was. But working at this job and crafting historical fanfiction (lol) has given me a brand new driving force that deeply moves me.

When I was a child, I would feel such deep rage about the Library of Alexandria. Now I look at myself and think: good god, why can't I add to the swelling library of human knowledge myself?

[eimearkuopio]

History isn't written by the victors. It's written by the survivors of the victors. I'm done surviving. I plan on thriving. It will require a congressive, loving, kind attitude. I don't care how long my life is, as long as no more of it is stolen from me or my loved ones by people who think they're victors. You're not victors. You're just survivors. Your ancestors survived. So did some of mine; but others thrived. I am no better than my ancestors; but I am different from them. I will have no descendants of my body, but I pray that the descendants of my heart will find it easier to survive long enough to thrive. I pray that my spiritual descendants get the opportunity be better than me. I believe that they will; but if some of y'all don't repent and change your ways, it might be a very long time before either your Father or myself can find it in ourselves to visit.

[antiquatedabsurdity]

History is Written by the Literate

People talk a lot about the maxim history is written by the victors, but I think that there's another corollary that people consider less, partially because it seems to go without saying: history is written by the literate. Although oral traditions can survive for some time after the event, pretty much every detailed historical narrative we have is preserved because someone at some point decided to write it down.

And so literate civilizations, or civilizations that have a strong tradition of history writing, have their stories better preserved, and when they come into contact with other civilizations it is inevitably the literate people whose account we read. For example, China has one of the world's oldest traditions of history writing, so no matter how many times ancient China is bested by its neighbors, say the Xianbei or Xiongnu, it is still the Chinese version that we read the most— a version that exalts the glories of Chinese civilization and contrasts it to their enemies' barbarity.

I would call this idea even more important when it comes to the class of likely historians. Even nowadays, when literacy is widespread, historians are drawn disproportionately from the upper class who can afford to pay for college. In ancient times, literacy, especially at the level required to write a complex work of history, would be confined to the wealthy. This is, in large part, the root of the conservatism found in much ancient history and literature in general. Thucydides, the great Athenian historian, seemed more fond of oligarchy than democracy— his successor, Xenophon, preferred Sparta to his home city of Athens and eventually moved there.

Even if we assume that all these historians dod their due diligence, that an honest effort was made to represent events fairly and objectively, the dearth of history writing by people outside this select circle of the lettered elite means that we lose important perspectives on events.

To some extent, archaeology, especially in recent years, has attempted to make up for this deficiency. At least in Ancient Greek and Roman archaeology, of which I am most aware, massive effort has been made to study the lives of women or enslaved laborers, groups who have few to no written sources about their lives. The work of archaeologists can help give voice to those silenced by historical omission.

But for all its failings, written history is still one of the best ways to learn about past events. If one wants to gain an insight into ancient politics, to attempt to comprehend the strategy of an ancient battle, to turn archaeological evidence into a detailed narrative, complete with characters and motives, it's difficult to replace written history. But one must always remember the failings of such sources; remember that history is written by the literate.

[silas-lehnsherr]

So, this is awkward, but Jesus was a Jewish man who was born, raised, preached, and then was crucified as a Jew. He did not start a new religion. He was preaching a sect of Judaism. This sect did not survive because his followers (as in the ones who had met him and heard him preach) were killed when the Romans burned Jerusalem. Paul the Apostle (who was living in Rome at the time) survived. Prior to this, he was constantly at odds with the followers of Jesus, because his teachings in Rome did not match up with the teachings of Jesus (this is largely because Paul never knew him having converted after the crucifixion). Christianity is a literal example of the adage “history is written by the victors”. Paul survived (because he wasn’t living in Jerusalem) and created a whole religion based on his version of the beliefs of Jesus. He’s also the reason we get the story about Pontus Pilate asking the Jews whether he should crucify Jesus, despite the fact that Pilate never would have been presiding over the trial of any Jew even one being touted as “the King of the Jews” (it was way below his pay grade), and even if they did meet (and there’s no historical evidence to say they did) he never would have asked Jews their opinions about anything. He was like the OG antisemite. The point of all of this is that Christianity was in fact invented by Paul the Apostle. I won’t refute the fact that he face discrimination, but at the same time, he’s the architect of the myth that Jews killed Christ, which has led to 2000 years of violent persecution of Jews at the hands of Christians, so my sympathy only goes so far.

Also, history is full of people using religion for their own personal gain who end up paying for it even in death. It’s what happens to a significant number of cult leaders. Now, I’m not saying that Christianity is a cult (any more than any other organized religion) but cults usually do have a basis in religion. And a lot of those cults ended violently. Heaven’s Gate, The Branch Davidians, etc.

Just saw a video saying that Jesus didn't invent Christianity; the apostle Paul did. That alone is an absolutely incorrect take and anyone who has read the book of Acts could most definitely refute all of his takes. I tried to at least listen to all of his arguments, but about halfway through the video, I had to stop for a minute because I literally burst into tears laughing, because this guy said the apostle Paul invented Christianity "for his own personal gain." For his own personal gain. The apostle Paul proclaimed a message that got him CONSTANTLY imprisoned, STONED on at least one occasion, and LITERALLY WHIPPED ALMOST TO DEATH FIVE TIMES, and went through all of that FOR HIS OWN PERSONAL GAIN???

[eventiderpg]

BASICS

Faceclaim: Brenton Thwaites

Name: Finnick Odair

Age: 27

Gender: Cis man, he/him

Home: District 4, Capitol

Role: Victor

Personality: Clever, strategic, charismatic, warm, skeptical, loyal

Song: “Tidal” by Noah Kahan

Activity: Primary

BIOGRAPHY

TW - Sexual assault, human trafficking, murder, substance abuse 

Finnick Odair was born the only child to Calder Odair and Maristella Larson of District 4. The couple met shortly after finishing school. Calder was a dock worker. and Maristella, who preferred to go by Stell, was a teacher. Maristella’s walk to work took her past the docks each day and Calder made sure he was always close enough to the road to bid her a quick, polite “good morning.” It took months, but he eventually managed to muster up enough courage to ask her to have dinner with him. Stell, of course, said yes.

Finnick had a typical childhood with caring and attentive parents. He wanted for nothing. Finnick was a rather popular kid; his bright personality awarding him many friends. After school he, like many children in the career districts, took lessons at The Academy, learning basic survival and combat skills. He excelled in agility and close contact combat training, but he certainly did not enjoy it. He much preferred to learn about the docks and the ocean from his dad. Though his father worked long hours in a very physically demanding job, Calder was a devoted husband and father who taught his son everything he knew, especially about the docks and the sea.

Finnick was barely 14 when his name had been pulled, and no one believed he would be the one to make it out of the arena, himself included. It was unheard of even for the career districts. His knot tying ability and knife skills earned him a decent score during training, but no amount of training could ever truly compensate for size and strength, two things many of his opponents had on him. As such, many of his fellow tributes failed to consider him a serious threat. It wasn’t until they witnessed his handiwork with a trident that people started to pay attention. After several bloody battles, Finnick earned the title of victor, the youngest in Panem’s history.

The first six months following his victory, Finnick lived in a daze as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. He had lived. He wasn’t supposed to live, and yet here he was. Everyone wanted to get to know the youngest victor, and he spent a lot of time in the public eye in the few years following. His entire life was splashed on the front page of every magazine. No one could get enough of the boy from District 4. 

He got the call the day after his 18th birthday. “Entertaining” capitol citizens, as President Snow had phrased it, was the duty of a victor. That was his job, and he was to follow through. He tried to protest at first, ignoring all the warnings. When his parents passed from a mysterious illness diagnosed by a Capitol physician, Finnick knew. He gave up the fight.

Calder and Stell’s deaths hit Finnick hard. Between the grief of his loss, the scars from the arena, and the Capitol’s continued torment, he struggled to hold it together. On bad nights locked away in hotel rooms bigger than his home in Victor’s Village, when the anxiety started getting too familiar and the insomnia hit, it was hard to keep himself away from the Capitol’s steady supply of morphling and expensive liquor. It wasn’t sustainable, however, and Finnick could see that turning to drugs and alcohol was hurting him. Every now and then, however, it was still nice to have something to dampen out all the noise, but he would keep it to himself in shame.

More to come.

Written by Sarah