#imperial place

[revindicatedbyhistory]

do anglos know wrt the malvinas situation that argentina was a neocolony of the uk for a good chunk of post independence history

[serpentface]

This was going to be a panel of a little comic but I got too invested in drawing minute background details so, here.

[ludinusdaleth]

with the obligatory precursor statement of "the gods are not based on any earthen pantheon and thus cannot be drawn directly to any of our dieties, but downfall is heavily intentionally pulling from religious imagery": it is insane (in the best way) of nick marini to show up to critical role for his very first time and play pelor as the messiah shepherd giving food & shelter to poor refugees. whilst boarding a ship of regufees. to nuke the city that harbors them

[vorbarrsultana]

i finished rereading the first four vorkosigan books (+ "the flowers of vashnoi" because ekaterin!!!), and you really have to feel for piotr vorkosigan because what a nightmare life, truly.

imagine you are born just in time for your world to be unified by dorca vorbarra and rediscovered by people from wider galaxy. things are finally looking good, for the first time in 600 years of isolation there is no more feudal infighting, and the promise of galactic medicine and technologies being available lightens everyone's perspectives. sure, your grandpa is called count pierre "le sanguinaire", but who doesn't have terrible relatives?

then you are 15, and suddenly your planet is attacked by the aggressive eugenecist space empire hell-bent on subjugating your people and turning them into disposable material for unethical genetic experiments. you flee into the mountains, away from your family, and create guerrilla forces from locals sworn to your dad, and it's really terrible for a very long time. you have no high-tech weapons and no food, you sleep in a cave in the dead of winter, and the cetagandans try everything (from carpet bombing to chemical weapons) to murder you.

but hey, at least you now have your bff ezar vorbarra, and (from the bff's words on his deathbed) it sounds like you two had so much fun between unimaginable horrors and despair, and it's not surprising, since no one really believes in death after life at 20. then the emperor makes you a general at the tender age of 22. fortunately for him, you & bff make a frighteningly competent dream-team, and the joke's on cetagandans.

then, several years later, you ask the emperor for weapons, because you still sleep on the bare cave floor, there are little resources, and every ghem on the planet is trying to murder you. he offers you the hand of his granddaughter instead, like it's some sort of twisted fairytale, but you grow to love your olivia more than anything, and the tide of war is finally turning, and you allow yourself to entertain the idea of peaceful life, and then...

the space eugenecist empire nukes your hometown, killing your mom, dad, surviving brothers, and two hundred thousand of your people. plus your bff (ezar) gets a radiation doze large enough for it to cause severe cancer thirty years later. great.

but you win! your district is in shambles, your capital is an irradiated crater, your castle is in ruins, but you win! the old dorca dies, and yuri ascends the throne, but politicking is secondary to the fact that you are alive.

yes, you are probably not entirely sane, and you've long forgotten what the peaceful times look like, but you are alive, just under 35, and your entire life is ahead of you. olivia is alive too, and ezar, and you now have three wonderful children, and the extended vorpatril-vorbarra family that hosts regular get-togethers. sure, your mom-in-law is a betan with all sorts of crazy ideas in her head, but she is not pierre vorrutyer. small mercies.

but then the new emperor goes mad, and decides to murder your entire family overnight. your brothers-in-law are gone, one of your sisters-in-law too, and all your nephews and nieces except little padma. but all of this pales in comparison to the facts that olivia is murdered, and that your heir and daughter lay dead beside her.

all you have left of her, of your house, of the family you've lost in vashnoi not a ten years ago, is aral, whom you keep by your side throughout the bloody civil war to put your bff on the throne.

but you win again. you are 43, and ezar vorbarra is now the emperor. you are responsible for the imperium's entire ground forces. you are also responsible for a severely traumatized boy of 13, and the only children you've interacted with without olivia's genle guidance were little messengers of guerilla companies.

what a mess.

[lieutenantselnia]

Excuse the poor quality, but Piett's waist in this shot though😩🤲

[grub-karkat-in-strange-places]

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my matesprit gave to me...

Twelve trolls trolling, eleven Dirkers Striding, ten lords a English, nine Jadies dancing, eight maids a miiing, seven drones a culling, six girls a gaying, five fucking rings, four Caliborns, three French-ish girls, two turtle Daves and a grubkat in a pear tree.

[beep-beepster]

I feel like there is a strong correlation to Frank Hubert’s initial subtext with Dune (its islamic religious themes, a premise setting an empire against local populaces, the attention towards ecological developments in desert environments with a bias towards temperate zones from outsiders wanting to “enrich” the land), and all of the recent developments in Gaza and its history, both with the original influences to Hubert’s novel and the timing of a blockbuster adaptation happening while international focus grows towards Palestine, that is going unmentioned outside of the usual jokes and memes

[supportershy]

Feng Xin - Imperial Bodyguard

Today's rant is of course about Feng Xin.

(Some data + headcanons, of course)

I think we don't talk enough about Feng Xin as the imperial bodyguard. I mean, we just accepted as normal that a bunch of grown ass men chose a child, a teenager, as the one in charge of the security of the Crown Prince himself.

Have we stopped to think about the huge responsibility that matter implied for Feng Xin? Also, the incredible ability he should have had to be selected for such an important job? He should have been really talented to earn it!

But imagine that this boy has over his shoulders the safety of the Crown Prince, one of the jewels of Xianle. It was too much! And he took it with the seriousness and responsibility needed. We don't see him complaining or fooling around with it! It wasn't a game or some temporary position he was set to.

Now, let's say (and I'm already babbling) that it wasn't like he was the only bodyguard but instead he was part of a "guard of bodyguards". It makes more sense in realistic terms, does it take away his merit? No at all, because he was still chosen at 14 (or 15 max) to be the shadow and protector of Xie Lian. He would be next to Xie Lian all the time, not only in training sessions but also in all the prince's duties. He probably learnt a lot about traditions, politics, social affairs, etc. Just by being there. He didn't seem to care about that, at least we don't see that in any part of the book. He had to be alert and paying attention all the time. It wasn't something easy, but it was his duty and he accepted it.

Also, as the imperial bodyguard or as part of an important guard, he needed to train continuously, those perfect shots weren't going to get by themselves, right?. He was probably trained militarily too. So, training and guarding the prince consumed his entire time. That needed discipline and of course, an out of the ordinary teenage years. He wasn't like others.

I just can't stop thinking about the amount of bravery it took him to do this job. We don't know much about Feng Xin's story, but I believe we should take more into account this part of his life.

The years Feng Xin spent as Xie Lian's bodyguard (before his ascension) molded his personality, tastes, ethics, etc.

Being Xie Lian's imperial bodyguard was the most important thing that happened to Feng Xin in his short life, and it changed that life for ever.

[skyrim-forever]

Thedora Viticius Moodboard

[pearlescentplums]

one absolutely grating thing about mainland chinese spaces is how they co opt orientalism to literally do phrenology on their own fucking people. i didn't realize that having small eyes, tan skin, a broad face, or freckles brought "shame" to the nation. i didn't realize that these features are all inherently racist and orientalist to have.

[anonymous-ace72]

Do you think that where the triumvirs are geographically would affect what kinds of demigods end up being drafted into their households? Like, Nero might have a higher number of Greek demigods due to his vicinity to Camp Half-Blood, Caligula might have more Roman demigods due to being so close to Camp Jupiter, and Commodus has a mixture of both since he's directly in the middle of both of them.

I know that demigods come from all over the place but it makes sense to me how while they're headed in one direction or the other they might end up getting caught up into them on the way there.

[cdr2002]

Deep Space Nine forced the mirror universe to evolve as a concept and explore the idea of inverting the characters on a more individualistic level and opening deeper questions of who each of us could have been if our lives turned out differently and I’m tired of that being abandoned and ignored to cling to the familiarity of the Terran Empire.

[thousand-winters]

It's all fun and games and "I know english" until you're looking for a tutorial to do this or that and it suddenly feels like it's another language.

[lanabenikosdoormat]

baby.. baby jed the beloved

[grub-karkat-in-strange-places]

On the tenth day of Christmas, my matesprit gave to me...

Ten lords of English, nine Jadies dancing, eight maids a miiing, seven drones a culling, six girls a gaying, five fucking rings, four Caliborns, three French-ish girls, two turtle Daves and a grubkat in a pear tree.

[vrisbian]

Im sorry in the world where this ALLY (not servant, not inferior) of my SUPERIOR OFFICER put herself out of the way to save my ass multiple times by being a bit quirky, maybe just work around her oddness!

Like between this and the absolute worst thing of one of the soldiers calling Eursulon slurs and asking why hes not a SLAVE Im absolutely sick of this!