#its a situation that is sort of like how some people believe king arthur existed and ruled somewhere

[darabeatha]

<- the shepherd in question

[supacutiepie]

New RWBY Theories and Old Hidden Plotlines

So far, with the new lore and old lore- this is what the general world of remnant looks like in terms of symbols and the maidens and relics and plot.

Right off the bat, I don’t think that Ozma and Salem’s children are the maidens. Simple because they don’t actually match up to the maidens once laid out in these ^^^ terms.

Color wise, they don’t match, age wise, they don’t. Clearly, the oldest daughter is Blue- to the maidens it is Fall (orange). So I think the maidens are in fact the Wizard’s way of grieving and moving on from his daughters loss, and his way of getting back on track with the god of lights task.

With these four women, he can bring the world closer to it’s judgement and hopefully passing it with connected seasons and powers to help bring people together.

I believe, that the girls weren’t just killed in the fight between Os and Salem. I think that there was a lot of rampant magic being thrown about by two careless parents- and that the girls were changed because of the battle. They had magic too, perhaps it was the only way to save themselves or one of the girls tried to protect her sisters (Blue most likely) and therefore, the girls became powerful but uncontrollable beings. Jinn is a VERY powerful being, but she is ultimate trapped due to her form and such.

Which, therefore- the girls became one with the relics.

(for the sake of ease, I’m giving them nicknames based on possible story connections of elements of the relics)

Blue became Jinn, who was combined with the Lamp of Knowledge Relic. And then, to protect her, was safely stowed away in the vault of Haven. But clearly, the reincarnations traveled a lot, and the younger Ozpin must have located the relic, but we can assume that each 100 years the current reincarnation would seek out the lamp. It’s just coincidence it ended up in Haven at the end of the line? Hardly.

I think Ozpin is and has always been a bit sad, and keeps asking the same questions expecting new answers. It’s likely, that he finally had to stop- and then trusted the lamp to lionheart’s academy to be its guard (without outright telling lionheart surely, but this was also something had to learn which I’ll explain in more detail soon)

Gold became Caliburn, a spirit combined with the Sword of Destruction Relic, which we believe is the weapon that the Vacuo King used in the last great war to cut down the thousands of soldiers etc. She was then, put away or is somewhere in the Shade academy. Possibly being used? Or, more likely for story effects, placed in stone like some kind of Caliburn. This could make for a fun narrative of one of our girls (RWBY) trying to pull the sword from the stone (LOOK ITS RWBY YOU KNOW THEY WOULD MAKE ANOTHER MYTHICAL STORY REFERENCE)

Third daughter is Pink, which ironically DOES fit with Atlas’ relic symbol. The Paintbrush or possibly a staff or stave. Look at her, she looks like Rapunzel, who is semi-famous for painting. There are so many instances in which Rapunzel is associated with painting I.E. Creation. She became the relic of creation, and is somewhere in “Atlas”.

Theory 1--- I bet that she is actually with Weiss’ grandfather, who has been hinted at being the main engineer of Atlas’ military concepts and of Atlas as a whole as the genuine patriarch of the Schnee family name. 

((Rapunzel, the girl trapped in her tower by not her mother, but someone who stole from her mother. (It does fit rather well).))

But let us not forget, the biggest clue that Atlas is of creation...

Theory 2 -- Or, that once upon a time, Atlas wasn’t even existing. It was in fact, a barren wasteland And not until Alsius flourished did it exist. When Mantle lost the capitol status, and when Atlas became Atlas as a whole, the relic could have very well been left behind in the old kingdom of mantle, or moved through the war. We won’t know until we get there of course.

Which leaves Laurel. 

The last daughter, the relic of vale. A Crown of Choice.

This one is basically confirmed location wise simply because of what we’ve seen so far. RWBY is a team of self made choices, Pyrrha as the fall maiden to-be MADE HER CHOICE to face off against Cinder. Vale is the home of Ozpin who is now synonymous with “make a choice, make a choice, MAKE A CHOICE” (between the gods, the witch, and everything from rwby s1-3 this is a solid theory)

Laurel was the youngest, most likely the least bit skilled in magic. (This is paired with the Fall Maiden being the oldest). It’s most likely that when she was turned into a being, she was the least put together. Possibly the most fragile, and most necessary to baby over. Oz took personal watch over her relic.

But, there is a chance, that while Oz knows he is connected to the relics, he doesn’t recognize them if they are his lost daughters. Clearly, with each reincarnation, things got fuzzier and more cloudy about past and reality. His body hosts didn’t even recognize themselves in the first few reincarnations.

Who’s to say it even is Ozpin in RWBY V4-6. What if he only thought he was? Clearly, with the newest reincarnations some of the lines have blurred. What if Ozma has been the one in control from the beginning and even Ozpin didn’t know anymore..

Regardless, The relic in beacon is either the most powerful or least controllable, highly volatile perhaps.

Where these relics are is clear, the academies.

But, the hints of these objects locations is the most interesting bit.

We we’re told of Jinn before she even arrived, through the Haven statue.

So the question becomes (and what we should be on the look out for) what are the other clues??

I think, we have one.

Ozpin said that the Beacon Relic was, “A challenge to find”. And what’s more hard to find than whats in plain sight?

I do want you to take note that Blake is narratively connected with THIS statue. Like how Yang is connected with the Haven statue (chasing her mother etc)

But she isn’t the only one.

Both of these characters are inherently, DEEPLY, connected with the idea of Choice. Not just choice, but Vale’s symbol is that of choice between the fist and the open hand of leadership and such. It would make A LOT of sense for either Blake or Jaune to deal with this artifact. But, I think it’s Blake, and you’ll see why...

The statue itself is in the court yard, its the place that Raven choices to speak with Yang in. Which we STILL don’t know what happened in the rest of that dream btw.

Atlas, might be right in our faces. Or, we already know part of the story.

As we can sorta tell, RWBY as a whole will play their parts toward finding and reclaiming the relics. Yang found the Lamp, Blake will find the Crown. Which leaves Weiss and Ruby.

We know the next relic is the paintbrush, and that its in Atlas. As previously stated, I think that maybe old man Schnee will know where it is, or know of it. And that Ironwood will be necessary to accessing it. In regards to the show, and to Weiss- this would pull together some very nice loose ends and create some good character development.

Weiss will not only get to know her grandfather, she will learn her true powers. like how Yang learned her mother was the spring maiden and finally let some of her grief go. I think, that in parallel, Weiss will reclaim the Staff/Paintbrush as well as deal with her family as a whole.

It’s really important though, to know that Atlas was once Mantle. And therefor, we are missing key parts of its founding. The relic may not even be in Atlas, and since our heroes are currently a little lost in the land that was once Mantle, they may just happen to stumble upon its true location.

Or, Maria will be helpful in this case. I think we’ll be finding out soon.

Vacuo is the Sword, and as I stated before, the sword could become a very Caliburn situation simply because its not in use. We know its not because Vacuo isn’t currently waging war with the literal sword of Damocles  in the story right now. Which means most likely, it is either safely hidden or the current leaders of Vacuo have it carefully guarded. We won’t know until the show finally takes us to Vacuo. But I believe this won’t come for a while.

The sword is meant to be the most dangerous weapon. But, it’s also a symbol. Of the king, the knight, of war. And when connected with the Summer Maiden, of Change. Deep and intrinsic change.

When the Summer Maiden came to the Wizard, she changed him. she set him on the path. When the king took up the sword, he changed the face of the great war. It changed things.

Which is why Ruby will claim the sword.

Think of it, Ruby is the main force of change in this show. the Chosen one, our Arthur. It makes total sense that even though the others find the relics, SHE is the one who will use them. She’s the silver eyed warrior, our plot pusher. And the one Ozpin already saw something in.

She is the one the god of light set in motion.

When Ozma was given his task, it was said he wouldn’t have to do it alone.

I believe, that Silver Eyed Warriors are VERY specific to their Oz’s. The two children for the reincarnation before Ozpin were important to that Oz because they taught him something, family and what to fight for. And other before them had their own uses and values.

I think, that Summer Rose was Ozpin’s silver eyed warrior, and that the story of what happened to her will ultimately make a lot of sense in how the current story has developed. Whatever happened to her, whatever sort of mission Oz had for her, it set in motion major events which have led us here...

Like inspiring her daughter to become a huntress, or giving reason for her children to be who they are today. But ultimately, I think that the truth will be far sadder. And that when it comes out, Qrow will be the one to deal with the major fallout. We’ve had many hints and teases that Summer Rose meant a great deal to Qrow, and we know now the Ozpin didn’t tell Qrow the major things, the real truths.

If Summer died at the fault of Ozpin, the blame and regret will have a devastating effect on Qrow.

But Ruby? Ruby isn’t Ozpin’s Silver Eyed Girl.

She’s Oscars.

There is no inherent say to who becomes the next Warrior/Wizard. Simply that, with each reincarnation something must be learned.

Ozma, he learned of the fate of the world. He accepted to task. The first reincarnation learned the hard way that Salem must be defeated. From there, each reincarnation has learned something else that will ultimately come together in time.

The Wizard learned that he could not just sit by and let the world turn. That he had to move forward. He was so OLD. He held onto the reincarnation for centuries. Refusing to die, to put the power out into a new mind. He learned how to change. The maidens taught him that, and when he gave them the powers, it made a new possibility show up- a way to defeat Salem.

Ozpin couldn’t defeat her, because that was not his task.

He was meant to bring the world together. And he was meant to find the forces that CAN defeat his witch.

Which is exactly what Ozpin did.

It’s clear that the final moments of the world are coming. That RWBY began at the end of the world. With all the songs and stories and the show explaining how a peaceful world suddenly became a war zone.

The time for the judgement is coming, Salem knows and is finally acting. And somewhere, deep in the immortal part of Oz that is still Ozma, that is the man brought back by the God of Light, he knew it was coming too.

So now, Oscar is here. the youngest reincarnation, the youngest because this battle may take a while. And, something new to learn.

I’m sure he isn’t the first, clearly not- but Oscar defied Ozma. He not only stopped Ozpin, but outright acted out. He learned how to fight as himself and not as the reincarnation.

And we know that, ultimately, that the Ozma in the reincarnations takes control. Each reincarnation so far has not only taken over the life of a stranger, but changed it. Like possession, and Oz played the roles of his bodies but he was still the one in control.

Even with the man and his family, Oz was the one in control. He just simply playing the part of the father and crafter and huntsman, but still listening to the man who’s family he know protected.

It’s important that this family gets some story. Because they became this Oz’s responsibility. His plans and his greater purpose had to be put the this side in order to do the right thing. (thats what he learned in this form)

But Oscar? Oscar is not only pushing back against the reincarnation possession, but WINNING.

“and it was in that moment, that the wizard knew what should be done”

Oscar is the exact opposite of the Wizard. He is young, he is fighting back, and he is taking control. But, at the same time- he still has help.

From his four maidens, from his silver eyed warrior.

I think, that the show is about to REALLY REALLY REALLY kick off. and not a damn one of us are ready.

Now, I wanna talk about the Faunus.

The god brothers ARE faunus. I don’t see anyone else freaking out about this. A stag and a ram faunus. The God of Light is playing right into old school witch stories about the Horned One and the Old God. While the God of Darkness plays into the more modern idea of the “devil” with the ramhorns. Both were once the same thing, but time and people have made them unique concepts.

Either Salem told every new human about the gods appearance, and also told them about the old history of the world and such- or some people survived who knew what the gods were like.

This is an odd plot point. It gets confusing.

If the god of darkness really did destroy all humans, and the moon- then how do people know anything about the gods at all. Surely, the world would have decayed in the time it took for Humans to grow back out of evolution. And that alone is a weird narrative plot because it implies that Humans just, sprang back up... and ignores that they needed to grow.

So I think, that in fact, we should operate on the idea that Salem DID teach people about the world before. At least she did before she became corrupted..

The World of Remnant.

Before Salem was revealed, the world of remnants were her stories.

Of course, since parts of the show are new concepts- its hard to count each and every one of  world or remnants and other such stories as part of the whole story..but I find that the VERY first story is VERY telling.

In the VERY FIRST episode of RWBY, Salem is introducing the story. It’s very important to realize that what she says, with the new information explains SO MUCH. But, its interesting to note that for the majority of it she sounds calm and gentle, kind and sad even. and then angry, and righteous and cynical. As though she goes from someone kind, to someone spiteful. (A young maiden in a tower to a blood thirsty angry and deeply sad immortal)

But then Ozpin speaks. And what he says is kinder and hopefully and while not reprimanding..it does try to smooth over what Salem says.

Its as though, they were telling a story together.And she fell back into a twisted sense of reality..and Ozma corrected her..as though they were telling a bed time story and he was keeping that viciousness in her at bay. (they’re albeit short time together in the first reincarnations life)

The world of remnants are their daughters bedtime stories. And when they were gone, and when all Salem had left was the newborn humans, she kept telling stories.

Taking the WOR into account therefore --

The Moon shattering wasn’t just a coincidence.

In the first story, Salem explains that man is born of Dust. In the telling of WOR Vol 2.- Salem explains that animals are also made of dust.

The God of Darkness intentionally destroyed the moon, used the fragments to rebirth humans, and what was left became our dust shards.

A fascinating fact.

But, in the new world, Faunus existed for the first time.

I think, that with the moon shards (what else do I call them lol??) some of the shards took on the appearance of the gods. As thought the god of darkness had purposefully used his own image to rebirth the humans.

“ According to Qrow Branwen, the Grimm were created by the god of darkness in order to destroy his older brother's creations of life. Eventually, the brothers ended their feud and both created Humanity, however, despite the younger god's involvement in creating Humanity, the Grimm were still left to roam Remnant and prey on them. “ -RWBY Wikia

I think, that as a little minor haha take that, when the god of darkness killed the humans and brought them back, he made them look like himself to spite his brother who had previously created the animals (hence why they look like the animals themselves)

It’s interesting to note that the God of Darkness was kinder to the humans than his brother. Where as the God of Light put priority over their children, the God of Darkness was empathetic, and when he wiped the planet he did so quick and painlessly. Whereas his brother continued to cause pain to Salem, and even went back on what he said to make his own ends meet.

Both are not very good beings. And lack the basic understanding of Love. A common theme in RWBY. Love and Compassion are what create purity and strength. And the brothers of grimm were VERY quick to not only turn on each other but also quick to destroy their “experiment” of a world. To the Gods, the world of RWBY is but a play thing and like a weird ant farm.

But back to it- The humans are both of the gods creations, but the faunus are specifically the god of darkness’ kiddos.

Which somehow...translated over to modern times.

I’m curious to know where along the line this happened. But I think that either Salem’s story about the gods created a distaste for the god of darkness, and therefor his children, Or Salem herself had a hand in it. I think it’d be the former, since she seems to still be considerate of people’s plights and doesn’t outright like suffering. I don’t think she would have started the whole, “Lets destroy the faunus”

Salem is not Cruel. She is corrupted and quick tempered, and yes she is careless in her rage, but she is not a cruel thing. She is even capable of being gentle and kind to a degree, when it suites her but still.

She might have seen Cinder as something like a daughter, something that the dormant mother in herself would connect with. Which may be interesting seeing as once again, due to her actions her child is dead.

Some of this may be off, I’m brushing up on all the world of remnants and back stories. But for the most part, the world of remnants have their own places in the narrative. And if you think it might be a symbol, chances are, IT IS.

Like the fact that Mistral looks like the dragon brothers side by side, or that the lands above vacuo are SUSPICIOUSLY dragon shaped.

Or that the color combos are insanely matchy matchy.

Or that every song ever has been foreshadowing and RIDDLED with spoilers and back story.

Go back and listen to to Salem’s songs, and now you’ll see them in a new light, Like Divide which was then Salem to Ozpin, but now is Salem to Ozma AND the Gods. Infact, a small portion of Divide can be heard when Salem and Ozma reveal themselves to the humans.

Sacrifice, “falls from grace are never elegant, stars will fall and drop out the sky”

“show them gods and deities, blindly keep the people on their knees”

I once thought that Sacrifice was a story between Salem and Ruby, but now its SO MUCH MORE.

The song isn’t about ruby at all, its from Salem TO the GODS.

[kendrixtermina]

The Twelfth Princess Character Sheet

This is as yet incomplete List as most of them don’t even have names yet, though the basic concepts are already pretty decided - The basic premise is that the story will follow the lives of your classic big old’ “Big & screwed up Royal family” with all the royalty tropes, in particular the titular 12th Imperial Princess and her ancencion from the single lowest-ranked member of the royal family to establishing a place for herself in the makings of the empire. 

Inspirations were drawn from diverse Anime & Manga (I think the influence of Magi is quite visible, though I hope this will be less the case once the work is actually written & details get decided on the fly), all manner of old-timesy hero myths (King Arthur, King David and the Mahabharatha say hi) and a recent book I read about the double-edged role that the concept of an Empire has played in human history. 

The world is more a Naruto-esque “Anachronism Stew” than a straightforward “Land of Myth” or “Medieval Stasis” scenario (and indeed changing times will eventually become a theme), but there’s magic, and there’s specific kind of magical known as “Blessed Artefacts” (notable in that even non-mages can use them) created by various supernatural beings - There are legends and fairytales circulating according to which they can be obtained in your standard Ancient Deathtrap Ruins leftover from a previous legendary Empire, and that they are basically “Sword in the stone” style super-powerful weapons.

They’re actually less like weapons and more sort of like the Crests from Digimon, in that the “Magical destiny marking” is their main function - their forms are actually abstract & surrealistic so that the characters at first aren’t sure WTF it is or how to use it, though they can take a “familiar” form once they’ve accepted & adapted to their user - it doesn’t even have to be a weapon & depends on the user’s personality. Also as in Digimon, each of the Artifacts stands for a certain quality that a candidate must possess in order to gain them - typically it’s a pair of qualities that could be seen as contradictory, or, perhaps one positive-ish and one negative-ish that may or may not be thought of as being related. It’s considered rare or anyone to obtain more than one but of course the main characters are the main characters and everyone with a serious shot at the throne has at least two, though this creates a situation much like the Death of Alexander the Great, where he said the empire was to go to the „worthiest“ and suddenly you were faced with the biggest, most disorderly pile of „Worthy“ fellows you'd  ever see...

Main Characters

Princess Tsuyu

Originally the youngest daughter of the Emperor’s youngest brother, by a common prostitute, and, as such, barely considered royalty or nobility at all. As such, she could, at best, expect to be married off to some low-ranking knight or influential commoner in need of rewarding, or perhaps stay in the palace as a courtesan or Lady-in-Waiting, though even that seemed unlikely - The Servants and attendants put in charge of looking after her resented being assingned to a low-ranking post, generally disdained her because of her origins, and without any extended family looking out for her, she went mostly neglected, and spent the first years of her life left to her own devices in a corner of the palace, listening to the servants running their mouths about how she didn’t matter anyway - for no one ould know for sure if she was really the Emperor’s niece, and if she were, she didn’t have the slightest chance of inheriting, unless the whole royal family suddenly died in a fire. 

All of this changes when the Emperor and his three elder sons die under mysterious circumstances and his one remaining son is practically still a toddler - to squash any further doubts about the line of succession, two of the 3 or 4 serious-ish contenders for the top spot - The Emperor’s widow and his younger brother, that is, Tsuyu’s father - shock the court by declaring that they’ll marry each other  while their brother-slash-husban’s funeral pyre is still burning, and that all of her new husband’s many, many children by his many wives, concubines and consorts shall be adopted by the Queen, a curious move that leaves her own surviving children far behind her new step-sons - This catapults Tsuyu from a dirty lettle secret of the palace to the status of the Twelfth Imperial Princess, a role for which she is now to be prepared and educated, and, for that purpose, is moved to the main Imperial Palace to begin a new life along with her nine brothers and nine sisters. (all of them half-siblings) 

Personality wise, she is well-meaning and sweet, which can cause people to underestimate her, in part because she’s somewhat shy, insecure & resigned in her early years, but she eventually turns out to have a drive to prove herself & do something for the Empire once she realizes that she has the capacity to do something, and can be quite fierce in that capacity, though she never completely noses the quality of sweetness, at least in private. 

Because she never expected to inherit and a background of feeling lonely and less-than, she views her family a little different than, say, the elder Princes, not seeing potential rivals, but a potential brothers & sisters that she wishes would just all get along.

For much of the story, she holds and primarily uses the Blessed Artifact of Kindness and Isolation, though in the late parts of the story she also acquires the Artifact of Heartbreak and Resolve.

Tsuyu’s Attendant

The son of a trader or artisan (or othewise city dweller of modern means perhaps a bank clerk?) and a sort of tansparently sneaky young man. Established a tiny business as a youngster in order to purchase some education, then licked boots and kissed ass with his wealthier & more influential customers until he was put in charge of an actual Princess - even if it is only a Twelfth Princess who seems ill-prepared for her role as such. 

A politically savy, mildly devious and unabashedly ambitious cynic, his plan is to maneuver Tsyuyu (and by extension, himself) into ever-more powerful positions for kind of greedy reasons, though he probably does believe what he phrases to Tsuyu as inspirational speeches about getting ahead in life. Dynamics wise he offers a counterpoint to Tsuyu’s personality as well as a confidant for her to discuss things with.  

Tsuyu’s Maid

An older servant lady in charge of waiting on Tsuyu, dressing her,bringing her to places etc. also a kind of parental substitute or surrogate grandmother. A more down-to-earth and more openly caring counterpoint to the attendant who at times chides him but also tends to believe that he lowkey has a good heart. She has seen some stuff, worked at the Imperial court for many years and, in the process, come to know about the existence of mystical powers - She’s also a good judge of character. 

Others

Other figures (aside from the Imperial Family) of significant import that are fairly shadowvy apart from the basic idea are include: 

Tsuyu’s eventual husband - Bastard Son of a nearby nation’s king, sort of represents the opposite perspective as a small country that tries to defend its Sovereinty and Culture; The whole Debacle ends in a marriage of convenience to Tsuyu in which the two see each other as mostly friends, at least at first. Holds the Blessed Artifact of Penance and Humility.

His girlfriend, a fierce supporter of his cause (it’s a marriage of convenience but with a twist)

His 2 best friends & allies of different social backgrounds and degrees of cynism

A shady Rival King (or perhaps President of a democratic Federation?) whom Tsuyu first views as a sort of hero  but who ultimately dissillusions her. As an antagonist, he probably embodies hypocricy and, once he does something to harm Tsuyu’s brothers, becomes something like her private arch enemy. Holds a number of blessed artifacts to the point that he's positively decked out in them & gets to fight in a whole armor made of blessed artifacts. – he's got all of Eight, themed after the Deathly Sins/ Cardinal Vices. (the Easter Orthodox version includes an eighth sin, „Sadness/Despair“. Yup, that's christianity for you. ) 

A Warrior Princess from a smaller Rival nation, a person of sharp tongue & quick temper whom Tsuyu & her brothers occasionally has to deal with but whom Tsuyu also lowkey admires. She, too, eventually marries into the Imperial family once a peace is negotiated. Comes to hold the blessed artifact of Aggression and Preseverance. 

Rival Emperor (actually just a Prince when he first shows up)  - Heir and eventual Ruler of some upstart new power that is, at first, too far away to come into direct conflict with the main characters, who learn of their exploits from a distance (though Tsuyu and her entourage run into him on an expedition to acquire himself some magical objects) Claims one or two Blessed Artifacts(Namely, that of Impudence and Innovation), but trusts good ol’ technology as much as, if not more than magic.I’m considering “Gilbert, “Viktor” or “Michael” as possible names for him.

The Vermillion Empire’s Court

The Grand Emperor

More of a backstory character who’s long deceased by Tsuyu’s time - He was from a long-standing and glorious royal dynasty to begin with, but it was him who first unified a bunch of warring states into the current form of what became known as the Vermillion Empire (previously he was “only” a King) - as such, he was a man of renowned power, influence and strategical accumen and just as famed as a just lawgiver, already a legendary figure  by the time of his grandchildren, complete with rumors of his being a demigod which may or may not be fabricated. 

He is the paternal Grandfather of the royal “siblings” and, in some cases, the only relative that they actually have in common. 

When he ascended the crown, his elders arranged for him to marry a pair of sisters (royalty gets multiple wives in his native kingdom), each of which bore him a son - The eldest one was not considered a fit ruler because of a minor disability, so the title of crown prince passed onto his brother, who would go on to become the Second Emperor. Later on, he also took a mistress, a Nymph from the mountains, and it’s from her that the youngest son was born, the one who would become Tsuyu’s father and the Third Emperor after his brother’s demise. He and his descendants are all distinguishable by bright, unnatural, hair colors that are frequently described as “jewel-like” and attributed to the blood of their supernatural ancestress. 

Though she went back to her own abode after her partner’s death, she is theorethically still around, as should be whatever deity may or may not have been the Grand Emperor’s parent. 

He also had numerous daughters with both his two wives and a couple of concubines, who may or may not become relevant. All in all, he has 72 descendants from his 3 sons, all of which are, for various reasons,  theoretically in line for the throne and being raised as “siblings” in the palace, through a fair number of them are, strictly speaking, cousins (through half-brothers, at that) - but there can be only one Emperor...

The Second Emperor and his Family

The Grand Emperor’s second son. Was made Emperor because his older brother was seen as unsuitable. He pretty much continued what his father started and upheld the family’s reputation for badassery and righteousness, improving on his father’s reforms by taking his ideals even further, causing some - especially those oppressed by the previous systems he abolished or improved - to regard him as grander than his father; In any case, both he and his three older sons were very respected, until they all found their deaths under highly suspicious circumstances. 

The Empress

Formerly the Second Emperor’s Wife, now married to his half-brother, the Third Emperor. The obligatory wicked stepmother/ vain sorceress/God Save Us From The Queen - Her marrying her husband’s younger brother soon after said husband’s death to consolidate power already sorta implies a certain wickedness but she’s not that overt about it, she’s sort of god this sugary sweet, sacharine affectionate facade going on that almost everyone knows to be a lie, but almost everyone also knows she’s powerful af and that her power might well secure victories for the Empire - there’s a certain level of ”everyone loves sausage but no one wants to know how it’s made” going on, even though even the more morally ambiguous court member’s agree that she gives them major creepo vibes. Like any Vain Sorceress worth her salt, she still looks pretty & youthful even though the fact that she had multiple adult children (the late princes) would imply that she’s at least in her forties. 

There must be a twist somewhere, or perhaps the story of how she was corrupted or how the ostensibly honorable Second Emperor ended up married to her, but the Details aren’t clear to me yet. 

“Morgana” is a bit of an obvious name but I don’t have a better idea except perhaps “Jezebel” or “Getrude”.

The Third Princess

The Empress’ and Second Emperor’s only daughter, who perhaps exceeds even her father in her confident idealism and determination,  even though she’s old enough to clearly remember a time when the First Prince served her rather than the other way around and has some lowkey mixed feelings about that, she supports the elder Princes’ visions and edeavors and even seeks to improve them. Her Father’s death has only increased her desire to live up to his legacy and make the Vermillion Empire not just some selfish conquering superpower, but a force for actual good - Though very much skilled in the art of strategy and her use of her Blessed Artifact, she’s the type to prefer peaceful solutions whenever possible and so, over time, becomes quite a skillful negotiator willing to listen to the other party. Her calling toward the causes o the Empire lead her to pursue a path rather different from that of a traditional princess

Tsuyu is mildly intimidated by her in a “sisterly rivalry” kind of way and initially has a negative opinion of her as the Empress’ daughter, but this is by no means mutual, nor guranteed to last, as Tsuyu eventually comes to admire her and hold her in great esteem 

(in general her relation to the other Princesses brings out... well I don’t want to say Tsuyu’s “character flaws” because the idea that you need to tach a clearly defined vice onto character for them to acceptableis  such a cliched, simplistic concept I don’t agree with on principle, but Tsuyu’s investment in proving herself to rise from insignifacance, while mostly an interesting & beautiful thing,  comes with the potential for feeling threatened and having your view distorted by that; Tsuyu gets over it eventually, it’s called “the normal growing up”)

She holds the Blessed Artifact of Conviction and Compromise

The Thirteenth Prince

Formerly the Fifth, after his late brothers and the current Sixth Prince,  - despite this, The Empress’ youngest son and, with that, officially the baby of the family - despite this, he (or his sister, for that matter) would technically have had a better claim to the throne than his uncle or mother, and indeed, the possibility of having him suceed the throne with the preexisting regent Lord as steward was discussed, until the Empress’ new marriage restacked the deck.

Bit of a Hamlet-Esque figure - Having experienced the murders of his father & brothers at a young age, he’s a shy, sensitive and nervous young boy whom few really understands and who struggles to measure up to his brothers, both his late, biological ones and his new step-brothers. Along with the 11th and 12th Princes, he’s the only member of the royal family younger than Tsuyu, though he hasn’t been because of his general reserve & his attachment to the Third Princess, his last remaining full sibling, making him somewhat reluctant to accept anyone else as “sister” - Tsuyu doesn’t see any harm in trying, though.

Takes the longest out of his brothers to get a Blessed Artifact but eventually obtains two: That of Weakness and Sincerity and that of Vengeance and Purification.

The Sixth Prince

Inspired by how in Rome, the emperors would sometimes “formally adopt” a worthy person to be their sucessor if their blood relatives weren’t suitable, but the character concept ultimately ended up going in a different direction... He’s  still adopted, in his case he was still fairly young and the Second Emperor ended up taking him in out of noble obgligation after he failed to protect his parents, who’d come to him for protection. 

The boy is a prodigy mage and a good learner of commendable temperament, and the Second Emperor likely wouldn’t have minded for him to take over if his sons were to die, but the Third Emperor and Empress saw things differently, perhaps for self-serving reasons, or perhaps the question wether a mage not actually related to the Emperor would be accepted as a ruler, and wether he wasn’t too young to rule may have been legitimate concerns, but that discussion, too, was shut down when the two married.  The Empress likely agreed to his adoption because she saw his magical prowess as potentially very useful, if only she could get him under her control somehow - She certainly is, to some extent, the one teaching him magic, but as long as he’s not wholly under her control nor blind to her machinations, she’s keeping him away from any serious chance of gaining the throne, but just in case, allowed him to retain the title of “Prince”. 

In any case, it’s not very likely that he’d end up ruling, though he was allowed to keep the title of “Prince” and continues to study dilligently and fervently, perhaps being set for a high-ranking rule as a royal advisor, scholar or court mage, in part out of great curiosity, but he also holds a certain sense of obligation toward his adopted family for taking him in & being generally awesome, including the desceased Emperor and his late sons, probably holding more sophisticated memories of what their opinions and antics were really like than the Empress’ two surviving children who were relatively young when their father and brother kicked the bucket. 

Though one might think that his non-royal origins would make him humble, he’s actually quite spoiled and does mostly what he wants (in part because the Empress generally lets him), though what he wants tends to be decided by a certain playful curiosity - which usually tends to be mostly to further study magic, and to witness the antics of his “siblings”.

He holds the Blessed Artifact of Faith and Intoxication.

The Regent Lord and his Family

The eldest of the Great Emperor’s sons, passed up in the line of succession because of a disability; His elders made that decision, his brother (The Second Emperor) disagreed and, indeed, decreed that they would share everything they owned, that they would both be adressed with all honors, and that each would consider the other’s children as their own - indeed, while he might not be able to physically fight, the older brother proved quite capable of handling  the adminstrating and seeing suuplicants, and if he hadn’t appointed his brother to serve as the designated Regent while he’d be out campaigning and/or attending to the provinces, the Second Emperor may not have been able to be as sucessful as he was. 

In turn, the Regent Lord’s own children were to be considered Imperial princes, eligible to be given the crown if they ended up outranking the Second Emperor’s own sons in age or merit, and indeed, the Regent Lord’s eldest son could be said to have just as much of a right to the throne as the Second Emperor’s children if not more so, given that he was the eldest son of the eldest son - Also, because their mothers were sisters, he’s a bit more closely related to the Second Emperor than the, plus, he’s the child of an elder, lawful wife rather than a consort, his kids would theoretically come before his other brother’s. 

That arrangement worked fine until the Second Emperor met his untimely death - With the three older princes dead and the current Sixth Prince being an adopted child, the Regent Lord’s eldest - currently considered the Fourth Prince - might have been considered the next in line, though he was, like the Sixth Prince and the Second Emperor’s two surviving biological children - likely too young at the time. In the end all three of those options, and the possibility of the Regent Lord taking over as king were discarded in favor of a joint rule by the Empress and the Regent Lord’s younger brother, though they continued the previous arrangement of leaving the oldest brother to handle the capital in times of war. 

Given that he’d demonstrated his capacity by this point, the Regent Lord was none too thrilled about being passed up a second time for something he couldn’t help, given that he’d always harbored a lowkey bitterness about the first time- which is perhaps why he’s been hesitant to curb his sons’ ambition of being king, after all, if he were to be passed up just because his father was, it would be because someone deliberately made that decision.

Despite this, to further complicate things, his feelings towards his numerous niblings aren’t all sour - As he’s usually found in the palace, attending to the affairs of the state, he and his wife interact with them none too infrequently and there’s a certain mutual fondness. In his private life, he's a surprisingly emotive, sort of sensitive man who likes tea, excusions, walks in the forest and reading, and he can often be found composing poems on a braille typewriter.

In contrast to his younger brother's vast „harem“ and the cringey awkwardness around the Empress and her biological children, the Regent Lord's family is rather close, devoted to each other and spent most their lives in close proximity, which is not to say that they're without their shortcommings and dirty little secrets – For one thing, the Regent Lord is rather lenient with his sons and occasionally turns a deaf ear to their less savory acts, at times crossing from fatherly support into indolent indulgence seeing in every accusation the unfairness perpetrated against himself.

There's also the secret of their birth – The Regent Lord has, in total,  47 children (note the  number symbolism!), but how can that be? His younger brother has „only“ nineteen, and they were spread over a number of wives, consorts and concubines. whereas the Regent Lord's kids are, save for one exception, his wife's. Besides, they're too close in age, and almost all boys...  Plus, the oldest, at the very least, has no belly button, and although there are perfectly harmless explanations for that, there is a rumor among the senior palace staff: The Regent couple was trying in vain to conceive for a long, long time, but when the Lady finally got pregnant, she miscarried – and the king couldn't accept that. He contacted his brother-in-law, a man of dubious reputation with connection to black magic, who, for an unspecified price, did something, and after a while, the Regents introduced the court to a baby boy whose arrival was heralded with a litany of bad omens – the Regent was advised to give the brat the whole „abandoned in the bullrushes to avoid the prophecy“ treatment, but unlike many a fictional royal (and indeed, another one in this very story), decided to keep the child, and the unexplained babies just kept coming for a while, and it's widely known that the powers that be rarely grant extraordinary favors without some sort of equally extraordinary purpose...

The Regent Lady

The Regent Lord's devoted wife, and (by partially magical or artificial means) mother of 46 children. Learned, wise and renowned for a certain degree of enlightenment before her marriage, she dutifully supports her husband in his position and sees supporting him in his hard lot in life as a privilege rather than a burden and has pretty much the same attitude to the absurdly many children she's found herself responsible for.

Though she's somewhat more aware of her son's character flaws and occassionally unsettling nature than her husband is, she, too, has a serious soft spot for her son that sometimes clouds her judgement. She's also somewhat friendly with the consorts of her brothers-in-law, though she's accepted that some of them can't be wholly trusted or talked out of their follies. She can also be found giving the princesses (including Tsuyu) the occasional bit of life advice.

The Regent Lady’s asshole brother

Your classic Evil Uncle, possibly with twists later , but more in how he's handled. A cunning man of dubious reputation.

Former Second Prince of his home country – with his older brother on the throne and his sister married to someone with little chance of ever becoming the actual Emperor, he resorts to sheming, manipulating, cheating and a little bit of black magic – his latest pet project was to install herself on the Imperial Court and try to get his Nephew, the Fourth Prince, both under his sway and on the throne; As such, ge generally serves as a bad influence enabling his more unpleasant sides.

Ironically, he has a very low opinion of the Fourth Prince's beloved father, half-brother and best friend, but the Fourth Prince doesn't know that, & his maternal uncle is smart enough to keep it that way...

The Fourth Prince

A... complex figure for whom I have a bit of a lenghty multiphasic character arc planned.

In childhood, we was rather bratty and a tad entitled (which his father often indulged with the excuse that a prince ought to be pround) and tended to lowkey give people the creeps, being the sort of kid who's innocently say something completely unacceptable and might be found tearing the wings off an insect or sneaking something potentially poisonous into the lunch of someone who annoyed him – he was quite huffish and pouty & displeased when the Third Emperor's children were moved into the palace and he himself expected to defer to the older three and adress them as his older brothers. His father never had the heart to squash his hopes of being emperor one day – but he's painfully aware (through his father's example) that what he as the eldest son of the eldest son views as his birthright could be easily taken away from him.

He's not all talk though: While the Second Emperor took his sons with him to his campaings to have them nearby and trained them there, the Fourth Prince spent his days studying and training in the capital city and winning the people's approval there. He knows how to charm people and, perhaps due to having to look after his 44 younger brothers, already has a certain skill in leading and organizing and telling people what to do, and has an odd knack for always saying what will disarm the person he's talking to the most when he's pleading or something he wants.

By the time he's an adolescent, he's matured somewhat... or at least realized that being overtly bratty or sinister won't get him what he wants, though the inheritance situation still somewhat taints his feelings about his „brothers“/cousins (probably more than they realize) and, at times leads to rivalry. He's got a well rehearsed public smile he can summon on command, dedicated himself to learning everything about the worlds of politics, economics and warfare (including its more unsavory aspects) and become something of a shemer or at least, somewhat calculating – He doesn't exactly like sneaky, „dishonorable“ tactics, but he's surely not above using underhanded strategies when they bring victory (especially when advised thus), though he's  not exactly bad in a fair fights, being an agile fighter with great technique not lacking in courage.

Under his facade, he's inherited a bit of his father's dramatic streak and has a lot of feelings about the perceived injustices and misfortunes he felt he experienced, his envy for his cousins and the subtle ways in which people have treated as a potential harbinger of bad luck. Though they're sometimes not enough to outweigh the bad or the passionate in him, he does have his strong points; Because of his and his father's situations though there's a certain oportunistic quality about how much he'd let this show, that is, there's a pragmatic motivation in that an useful commoner is still useful wether he's a commoner or not. Though he can be petty when slighted and mercilessly degrading to his enemies, he's big on Villainous Valor and the traditional „Bad Guy Virtues“,  and he's generally a fair and egalitarian ruler/commander to those who haven't personally slighted him; Even during his childhood as a little satan brat he was always very generous and gracious with his friends and can generally be expected to keep his word; Also, though it may be self-serving to an extent, he's not overly awed by agic or destiny and doesn't believe that involvement with such things automatically makes one better or worse.

Despite his misgivings towards her brothers, he doesn't mind Tsuyu, perhaps because he doesn't see her as a potential Rival, though he may feel inclined to feel an affinity to her because, in a sense, she, too had to endure distrust because of the circumstances of her birth.

I'm saying it right away: All the obvious „evil tropes“ and references to various mythological villains, from the subtle to the glaring, are supposed to set up an „Obvious Judas“ to distract from who the real turncoat is gonna be, which doesn't mean that this guy is completely tame.

In terms of his name, I'm considering (among others), “Mallory“ („ill-fated“), „Desmond“ („gracious defender“) or „Christopher“(derived from a story about helpful generosity), it'll have to be something that can be seen as having a story behind it. He eventually inquires some fearsome ephithet (perhaps „The Truculent“) that was at first a mockery that quite annoyed him, but which he eventually adopts and embraces.  

He, too, has been sucessul in the Blessed-Artifact collecting, coming to hold those of  Resentment and Equality, and that of Valor and Destruction.

The Seventh Princess

The Regent Lord's only daughter. She's the youngest of her many siblings, almost as if she had been an afterthought. If the Fourth Prince is the closest to his father, then she's the closest to their mother,  thuugh to their credit, the Regent couple manages to treat their many children with remarkable equality & distinct attention given their large number.

Instead of sharing the same palace wing with Tsuyu and her half-sisters, she has distinct quarters Most ironically, she's a nice, somewhat ideosyncratic girl who isn't the best judge of character (in the sense that she seldom suspect ill motives).

The “Last” Prince

The Regent's bastard son, conceived when the Regent Lord wasn't sure if his wife would be able to give him children. In the end, the Fourth Prince ended up ...well, showing up... before he was born. His parentage is an open secret, he and his mother, a servant in the palace, are always given the lightest work and treated well, his father being somewhat supportive and taking care to get him a good education. He's technically in line for the throne, but he'd inherit only if all 59 other male heirs were to kick the bucket  (heck, he'd probably have to outline a couple of the princesses as well before he'd be considered) so he's sort of Tsuyu's equivalent among the princes.

Early on, some of his brothers would occasionally pick him on for his mother's lesser birth, but the Fourth Prince, at times a champion of egalitarianism (or unwilling to let an asset slip through his hands as his half-brother was pretty skilled and intelligent), put a stop to it and promoted his half-brother into his inner circle, made him one of his right hand men, and treats him much like he treats his other 44 brothers... which means vaguely like a lackey, really, but he does look out for them.

As a person, he's a polite, dilligent young man, though probably significantly more scrupulous than his brothers and not the type for unquestioning obedience.

He holds the Blessed Artifact of Silence and Forethought.

The “Zeroth” Prince

I would hardly have kept my promise of „Royalty tropes galore“ without that Chosen Oneprince descending from or at least brought up among commoners who makes into the palace by sheer badassery and magical destiny-ness.

Well, this is him. He's actually an elder son of the Empress (and as such possibly eligible for the throne through her), probably not from the Second Empire but from either a previous relationship or begotten by magical means to be a „weapon“ (kind of what the Sixth Prince ended up being), except she got a prophecy that rather than help her in her evildoing, this child would kick her butt. In true Evil Monarch manner, she abandons him in th woods and, how else could it be, he's taken in by a humble kindly couple of nonmagical citizens and raised as their own until he was old enough to seek out his magical destiny.

Usually this changeling setup serves to introduce us to the 'verse gradually and create a character who is both relatable and special, but we have Tsuyu for that so with this guy we're going full-on „The Ace“ to elaborate on this whole idea of a person „obviously standing out“ because of their magical-ness and not in a „no one understands me“/“finding yourself“  manner either.

This dude is 1337, and despite not being a prince nor accompanied by armies, mages or other helpful allies and ressouces a more pivileged person would have access to, manages to grab some of those Blessed Artifacts, baffling the local royals and Chosen Ones just by showing that this „supposed“ nobody has every bit as much a right to claim dibs on the magic as everybody else.

He's ridiculously, infuriatingly good at a lot of things, honorable, helpful (if terse), loyal, efficient, down-to-earth (which does not mean humble) and generally impressively stoic though he suffers insults poorly... not to mention so good-looking you'd want to punch him. Also religious and a adherent to its better teachings, though he can get (incosistently) judgy when angered.

He doesn't give a rat's ass about where his abilities come from or who his bio parents or relatives are, all he wants is to test his mettle and to get some respect, in particular for the things he's good at – and this is where the Fourth Prince comes in. When he figuratively„pulls the sword from the stone“, that is, collects his first Blessed Artifact and in particular, one that implies he technically has a right to the kingdom, the reactions are... unfortunate, though it was a bad moment/complicated etc, though this is where the Fourth Prince waltzes is, makes a speech about how merit matters more than birth and promptly makes our Chosen One his vassal, personal champion, and a popular figure with the people.

At first, there may have been some calculation to it, but despite their contrasting personalities, the two go on to be genuinely best friends, eventually sealing it with a blood pact (basically like marriage but for friends instead of lovers, in that it's somewhat binding, supposed to continue indefinitely and, in this setting, legally makes the people part of each other's clans; Such blood brother pacts show up at several other points of the story)

Note the contrast here: One person destined to of a villain and was abandoned, someone destined to bring trouble who was kept, The shining Ace and a „dark“ individual and they're best friends.

In terms of names I've entertained „David“ or „Jonathan“ (although really the Fourth Prince would be the Jonathan in that relationship), though there's another character that I've considered this for. „Hyperion“ is a possibility but then again that's too obviously fancy and I'd want something more second-glancey that ppl actually name their kids.

In terms of Blessed Artifacts, he holds those of Destiny and Dominance, that of Mastery and Solitude as well as that of Distance and Consacration – Yep, that's more than most of the „recognized“ Princes.

Napping the first one was a particularly big deal as the corresponding temple was located on the Empire's cental ancestral land from its days as a simple kingdom, which is not only a sort of equivalent of pulling Excalibur from the Stone, but also lead to him showing up the Princes who were all charging into an ancient death trap in a contest to see who could capture it, only for a complete nobody to walk away with the magical thingy, making them all swallow a humble Pie.

The Third Emperor and his Family

The youngest of the Grand Emperor's sons, who ascended to the throne after his brother's death and his own marriage to said brother's widow, ostensibly under the guise of taking her in and providing for her, but likely it was more about access to her power and sucession rights for his bloodline, which does have the distinction of containing not one, but two magical ancestors, and she likely has her own agenda as well.

While his brothers found wives they were more fairly devoted to, he made ample use of the privileges that Royalty affords him, resulting in ten daughters and nine sons – far too many Concubines and kids for him to really keep track of or have much in terms of personal involvement with, his offspring mostly sees him at functions and celebrations.

When he isn't busy with debauhery, he's actually quite renowned (or perhaps rather infamous) for his fierceness as a conquerror.

Children from his Consorts

The First Prince

After the death of the Second Emperor's elder sons, he's the oldest surviving descendant of the Grand Emperor, at least insofar as anyone knows. Though many people in and around the royal family have different ideas, he's the person whom most people, consider first in line for the throne, especially among the armed forces, where he eventually goes on to not just prove, but firmly establish himself.

Exceptional and impressive from a young age, he's pulled off a multitude of impressive feats, helped by acquiring an exceptional number of Blessed Artifacts, leading him to be widely respected by his allies, feared by his enemies and damn near worshipped by his siblings – at least the ones that actually are his (half-) siblings, when it comes to his step-siblings and/or cousins, the fact that he's sheduled to take what each faction sees as 'their' throne does create some tension. He's an idealist in vision but a pragmatist in his choice of means, which is reflected both in his goals and interaction with his family – He does not wish to fight his brothers (including the „brothers“/cousins), but at the same time, he can't turn a blind eye to machinations that might threaten the stability of the Empire.

In private, he's a... not really a „closet nerd“ but certainly a deep-thinking person with a sholarly bent and a greed for knowledge and more introverted than one would think, though not the most expressive fellow and generally serious, he does have his silly or self-conscious side, especially around the Second Prince, though he knows that he has an image to mantain.  

His mother, whom he shares with the Second Prince,  was a Lady General and before that, a gifted strategist who worked under the Third Emperor and was at one point largely the brains to his brawl, which likely explains the exceptional intelligence of both her sons.

His position is cemented by having managed to obtain more Blessed Artifacts than anyone could possibly need, some of them at a startingly young age.

His collection includes the following artifacts:

Wisdom and Warfare

Power and Sacrifice

Mercy and Detachment

Discipline and Wanting

Certitude and Contemplation

Bit of a 5-Elements Theme with the resulting powers.  

The Second Prince

The First prince's full sibling and master strategist, devoted to his brother's cause and the advancement of the environment. Though he respects his brother as much as most of his siblings do,  their being closer in age and having been raised together for a long time leads to a more open dynamic where critizising each other doesn't require a huge formality.

He's a bit a reverse of his brother in that his „nerdy sleepyhead“ side is on the outside and his „sharp skills“ are more on the inside – As a child, he'd frequently appear uninterested & lazy about the extensive lessions and preparations that the four elder princes (considered to be the ones with the most serious chances of inheriting)  had to go through, frequently citing that one of the others was going to become king anyway and that a „spare“ to the throne was hardly necessary with so many capable heirs; Despite this, he's probably the most intelligent of the princess, and a dedicated sidekick and planner in service of his big brother.

He holds the artifact of Hope and Vigilance, as well of that of Excellence and Inquisition.

The Fourth Princess

Daughter of a politician/ minister(the Empire is not quite a constitutional monarchy but there are „civilian“ coucils with some influence and chance of becoming ministers, vaguely like rome's Tribunes)

a sister of the above-mentioned Lady General, and, like her, an involved „sidekick“ from the Third Emperor whom he ultimately fooled around with, but granted both sisters the status of imperial consort once they got pregnant. Both are descended from an influetial noble who made a name for himself under the Grand Emperor, that is, in the previous generation. Both assisted the later Third Emperor in a lot of his early endeavour, one in court and the other on the battlefield (which may have reduced the expected awkwardness.)

As such, the Fourth Princess is the First and Second princes' Three-Quarter sibling and, like them, a level-headed person with a sharp analytical mind, though she doesn't really share her brothers' ambition, though she's always down to troubleshoot their plans and help them here and there, she's not really that invested, preferring to observe and describe the world as it is than to rearrange it by her own hand.

She doesn't really care that much about her duties or privileges as princess but doesn't really resent them, either – much of the time she's content to follow them just enough to a satisfactory degree so that she can spend her remaining time hiding out in the library or otherwise doing basic introvert activities, and she'd be content to continue that wherever life will sweep her, though she privately has opinions & observations about a lot of matters, if not necessary about her immediate surroundings – even so, she's often the sober eye of the storm when her sisters are displeased or upset.

As a name, I've considered „Shona“, kind of deliberately underwhelming/ „normal“. Her artifact is that of Curiosity and Seclusion.

The Tenth Princess

One of the younger daughters, born from the Emperor's liason with an influential Businesslady. Though she was granted the title of consort and assigned rooms in the Third Emperor's castle and later the imperial palace, she didn't see fooling around with a nobleman as a reason to quit her job & only stays there if she's visiting the Third Emperor.

Having grown up spending as much if no more time at her mother's manor as in the palace with the other princesses, the Tenth Princess isn't eally that big on the princess thing and indeed thinks its a bit archaic, perhaps because being a rich person's child comes with all the same advantages and none of the obligations – As such she doesn't take her status that seriously and is frequently seen in more practical, „ordinary“ (though still expensive & designer-y) clothing, sort of having her own world to exist in outside of the castle walls, something that her mother supports her in, and with her many sisters around, it's not like there's a shorttage of princesses.

Confident and not easily impressed, she nonetheless knows to make use of her royal blood when there's an advantage to be gained by it, but she approaches the whole thing from a different perspective, though her different sort of influence does put her in a position to help out her folks

Comes by a blessed artifact, though by somewhat unusual means (Not decided yet but she might simply have her mother buy it – The one she obtains is, correspondingly, the one of Whimsical Luck, but also the one of Confidence.)

His Wives and their Children

The Third Emperor’s First Wife

Though age and many pregnancies have led her to be a bit out of shape, she used to be a proud warrior princess and very much still has the attitude, being a proud yet pragmatic and ressourceful lady with a clear sense of purpose about what her sons are capable of doing – Unlike many other of the Third Emperors' partners who left their daughters to be raised by attendants, nannies and servants, she is a very active presence in the life of her three sons and took good care to instil survival skills, teamwork and life experience into them so they wouldn't grow up to be spoiled and surely kick butt on the battlefield – because of this, the four of them are a lot closer than many others in the royal family and form their own sub-faction among the Third Emperor's kids.

As far as she is concerned, she's certain that her sons, whom she gave pompous mythological names befitting her ambitions for them, are meant for great things, and her mission is to ensure that they get there – she always hope that she could end up as Queen if her brother-in-law died on his many campaigns, but she knew that she owed her title of „first wife“ to her influential family more than any preferential treatment by her husband who generally preferred his consorts. She once planned to claim that as first wife, her sons should technically receive the throne instead of their older half-brothers, but knew to shaft that plan once the two proved capable as generals; even so, she pushes her sons to get ahead as far as they can and, always, stay loyal to each other.

Unlike the Empress who presumably keeps herself looking young through dark magic, this lady is visibly middle-aged; While there was a time long ago when both the women got along, her option of her (at-the-time) sister in law eventually soured, not in the last because she felt she should have had the title of empress herself, but though she doesn't trust her one bit and advises her kids accordingly, she understands the role that marriage played in securing her husband and, by extension, her sons into power, though she believes that they could have done without the alliance.

The Third Prince

His mother's firstborn. Like his two older half-brothers, he's quite intelligent, but less on the street smarts side, being more on an idealist, respected for his fair, upstanding character, honesty and a certain wisdom even if he can be naive in some respects.

Though an exeptional fighter by common standards, he's not quite as martially oriented as his brothers, being instead more inclined toward peaceful solutions and more rational than rash. In childhood he was wise beyond his years, as an adolescent quite aware of the serious burdens his position implied and feeling them keenly. Like his older brothers and eldest cousin, he's being put through a rigorous training regimen and often sent to help with affairs of the state, since he and the other elder princes have the greatest chance of actually inheriting the Empire.

His moher and brothers are positive that he'll make a wise and just Emperor... (or Royal Grand Duke, if someone else were to get the crown). Physically, he's tall and lanky fellow with a mop of curly hair.

His blessed artifacts are those of Death and Thruthfulness and Purity and Folly

The Fifth Prince

A large and muscular hercules/Samson-esque figure, quasi barbarian, long-haired and boisterous, basically an incredibly tough person who can take down several armed men at once.

He's a fierce supporter of his older brother (sometimes more than he'd like) and later on makes a place for himself running the imperial military. Copared to his idealistic brother, he's the one to suggest the straightforward, „cuting the knot-esque“, down to earth solutions and seldom hides it if he finds someone unlikeable or suspicious, though he generally doesn't go against the word of his mother or brother.

Through somewhat violent and always ready for a fight, he is capable of great tenderness where his mother, full-siblings or later,   girlfriends are concened.

He holds the Artifact of Violence and Protection

The Seventh Prince

Lucky seven is in full effect here. Gallant, chivalrous and heroic, he's considered quite loveable by the public, having a reputation for being brave, but not so stubborn as to not resort to clever trickstering when faced with overwhelming foes, and though he can be a bit proud and spiteful when jealous, for no one is perfect – as the youngest child, his mother and brothers doted on him quite a lot and couldn't stay mad at his face for very long.

He's generally the very image of a prince charming and a darling of the people with a pechant of wiggling his way out of tight situations.

He holds the Artifact of Heroism and Pride

The Third Emperor’s Second Wife

A snotty, high-ranked noblewoman  and socialite, often found enjoying entertaining guests at royal banquents; Big on etiquette and chitchat.  Not very much into that whole mothering thing.

The First Princess

The eldest of the princesses and as such often in charge when the sisters attend events together; appointed herself to the job of teaching her sisters how to Prncess and isn't very forgiving about it,  sharing her mother's belief in ettiquette and social acceptability & status but being more uptight about it – has a lowkey complex about winning her parent's approval despite being very different from them in personality, though this sometimes expresses itself as her acting snotty, haughty and mean toward the lower-ranked princesses, including princesses ten through twelve, or even the third one, for being a „leftover“ from the previous emperor.

For someone so big about the virtue of demureness she can be rather charge-taking and bossy, through a lot of her younger half-sisters admire her precisely because of that reason, seeing her as a competent authority figure looking out for them.

The Tenth Prince

His mother's favorite child, which she hardly makes a secret about; She goes out of her way to shelter and spoil him and smother him with compliments, attentions and inroductions to influential people, though he views it as rather annoying and generally doesn't really care that much for her antics, at times feeling treated like a baby, doll or pet and wishing she didn't keep dragging him to ridiculous events, actually finding her overprotection and fussing at times a bit annoying, often trying to sneak away from her to get a bit of privacy and finding her a bit superficial, which isn't entirely false, but, there is also a misunderstanding between introverts and extrovets at work here.

He has a bit of a semi-apathetic and lowkey snarky personality, prone to rolling his eyes or teasing sarcasm, but he's more observant than one would expect of a snarky person. Due to his mother's favoritism, his relationship with his sisters isn't overly good (though still civil), but while he may not always show it, he does tremendously admire his older half-brothers and supports them in their endeavors – though they are half-brothers, he identifies more with them than with his mother or sisters.

The Eleventh Princess

What her sister and mother consider the black sheep of the family, though they simply don't often what to do with her. She was a rebellious, difficult child, though she may have grown out of it if her mother and governesses had handled it better – the reaction was somewhere between forcing her to go along, hiding her away or letting her go ignored, until her acting out got to a level where they had to reprimand her harshly, which sure didn't help matters, and though she was a firece, loud child, she grew into a repressed, uncertain, overly-proper person with a somewhat sadistic side to her and a lot of pent-up frustration.

She obtains the blessed Artifact  of Wilderness and Severity

The Third Emperor’s Third Wife

A foreign princess whom the Third Emperor was awarded as a prize or diplomatic token on a military campaign. Her father still rules in her old homeland, providing an interesting and potentially useful connection for her children.

The Second Princess

The oldest sister among her full-siblings and one of the older Princesses, being sort of the Zelda-esque „wise“ version of Princess Classic.  As part of some contract or tradition, was sent to spend some time with an order of priesteses mit magical powers to win their favor for the kingdom – hence her serious, oracular, if slightly strict quality and lowkey mysterious reputation.

She's a relatively mature person not fond of minor squabbels, who tends to keep the big picture in mind.

The Fifth Princess

Closer to Pricesses 6 through 10 in age. Like older her sister,  she's relatively serious and magically gifted, though hers is a more hermetic, non-religious magic; curious and studious, though the kind to keep passion hidden under a serious demeanor; Looks up to her sister but doesn't always manage to be as calm as her.

The 11th Prince

Twin of the twelfth prince and among the youngest of the royals, being just a few months older than the Thirteenth Prince.

Like his brother, he's a boy of many talents, goo-looking, inteligent and somewhat wiser than his years; The twins are highly intelligent, sometimes surprising people around them with unchildlike insights or big vocabularies. They have a close bond amoung themselves and often discuss their course of action together, hardly revealing that much of their inner thoughts to others.

They love to tinker and are often found instigating mischief throughout the palace.

As names for the brothers's I've practcally fully decided on „Apollonius and Endovelicus“. He's Apollonius. Between the two, he's often the more assertive one, pushing to go father but being slower to forgive.

His artifact is that of Transgression and Ingenuity

The 12th Prince

The 11th Princes' identical twin and the second-youngest of the many princes.

Like his brother, he's very smart, talented at many things, and possesed of an otherworldly beauty, perhaps having gotten an extra helping of those nymph genes supposedly in the family bloodline. Despite all this, he and his brothers respect & support their older half-brothers.

As names for the brothers, they'll likely be „Apollonius and Endovelicus“. He's Endovelicus. Among the two, he's the wiser, „softer“, more cautious one, but also a little more sensitive.

He holds the blessed artifact of Discovery and Providence.

The Third Emperor’s Fourth Wife

The youngest of wife and one of his favorites (at least among the wives) – because of her young age she sometimes seems more like a kind of friendly older sister than a aunt or maternal figure.

She was the daughter of a lower-ranking nobleman or knight and used to be the Emperor's retainer and/or charioteer ar some point.

The Eighth Prince

Her son. Like many of his half-siblings, he's quite loyal to his older half-brother, and though some in his family would like him and his mother to use her position as the favorite to usurp the throne, he'll have none of that & seems apalled by the very notion.

He's a passionate, sometimes kind of melancholy youth, a very emotional person though he may appear severa at first glance. He likes having philosophical conversations with his three oldest half-brothers and often comes to them for advice, not necessarily realize how much of the appreciation goes both ways – nonetheless, he tries his best to do his duties and tends more to push himself to do them than to neglect them in favor of a visit to his personal emo cloud.

He holds the Artifact of Love and Chaos

The Thirteenth Princess

Is only born a long way into the story as a child of the Third Emperor and the Empress, his fifth wife, making the „patchwork family“ complete. As child of the current ruling couple she is, though being much younger, higher in rank than, say, Tsuyu. The Empress presumably had her to cement her position, although there might be something more to it – one would think she'd be too old for another child.

She is a quiet, observant and curious child, though one wonders how long she'll stay that way with her parents being the sorts of bad influences they are.

The artifact she eventually acquires is that of Dreams and Disillusionment.

Children from his Concubines and others

The Ninth Prince

A young teen (later man) with a reputation as an eccentric, collector of the strange, lover of the grotesque with a strange choice in subordinates, but though people may be mildly weirded out by him, they generally humor him because he's a prince, and a kickass one as well – if the Empire's enemies fear him, that makes him an asset, though no one seriously thinks he'd be emperor material.

In truth, once you get to know him, he turns out to be lowkey adorable and the sort of person to protect the misunderstood, the downtrodded and underdogs and give everyone a chance.

He was born to one of his father's concubines, who later ended up being secluded in the palace because of an unspecified illness that destroyed both her body and her mind – Both his eccentricity and unexpected kind side may be related to having to help taking care of her from a young age, though he's also inspired by the way his older half-brothers looked after him, wishing to share that fortune with others. For that same reason, he's very loyal to his older half-brothers.

Holds the Artifact of Madness and Beauty

The Sixth Princess

She shares a mother with the ninth princess. Princess classic, the slightly stuckup version – looks up to the first princess and can be a bit haughty in the „apha bitch-ey“ way, something Tsuyu winds up at the receiving end of, at least at first. Despite her flaws, she's eager to please as far as doing her duty as a princess goes and a natural at the „smile-and-wave“ part and preserving the imperial family's reputation.

Eventually, she and her sisters get over their prejudice toward Tsuyu.

The Ninth Princess

She shares a mother with the sixth princess, whom she is pretty close to & enerally listens to. Princess classic, but a more nicer, naive version thereof, though this also blinds her to her sister's occasional meannes, leading her to generally think that if she says someone is bad news, it must be so, though she'd hesitate a lot more before seriously speaking ill of someone.

Though she wasn't the best to Tsuyu (at least at the beginning) and may be a little sheltered as of the full reality of the Empire's problems, she has a good heart, especially after some growing up happens.

The Eighth Princess

Very close to Princesses Six and Nine to the point that one would easily assue her to be her full sisters. Strats out a lot like them, though somewhat quicker to act – but though occasionally reprimanded for moments of rashness she tries eagerly to live up to the whole Princess ideal. Of course, having a decisive & tough side (and not just in the „socially confident“ way) eventually turns out to be an asset (which is to say she'll kick butt in disguise one, though she views it as the necessary taking care of a problem more than an act of rebellion. )

In the process, she comes by the artifact of Action and Necessity

The Twelfth Princess

(Tsuyu, though described above, would fit here. As the daughter of a common prostitute, she's the single lowest-ranked of the Grand Emperor's offspring. For her to get the throne, all 71 other princes and princesses would have to kick the bucket including the non-blood related Sixth and „zeroth“ Princes. Surely, such a great misfortune could never take place, right?...)

[saucywenchwritingblog]

Traps and Tips for Character Development

We all have the same goal as fiction writers—we want to transport our readers inside the pages so that they feel like a part of the story. Characters are an extremely important part of making that happen. And characters don’t just transport the readers; they drive the story, or at least mine do. In fact, I’ve learned to listen to them when they argue with me.

So how does one develop effective, memorable characters? To begin with, it might be helpful to examine what distinguishes an effective character from an ineffective one. In my experience, most writers like to read, so you can probably think of characters that are particularly memorable for you and also some that you didn’t feel any connection with. Let’s look at five potential traps that can lead to ineffective characters. You’ll notice they are all connected, because one often leads to another, and some characters are guilty of all five: they’re one dimensional, they’re stereotypical, they’re too perfect, they’re inconsistent, or they’re dull.

Five Traps

One-dimensional characters don’t seem real. They’re flat. You get one-dimensional characters when you don’t devote enough time to character development. Of course, you should bear in mind that not every character deserves or merits equal development. All novels have their main characters and their secondary characters, and you can’t develop each and every one of the secondary characters or your books will be thousands of pages long. It may be okay for a character to be one-dimensional if that character’s role is not significant. But if it is significant, that character needs to be fleshed out and developed. For example, let’s say there’s a character in your book who is a detective, and he’s married to a woman who is described as a Midwestern housewife. She may be described physically, but if all we know about her past, her personality, and her motivations is that she’s a Midwestern housewife, that’s not very much to go on. We only know that she can cook a pot roast. That character is going to fall off of the stage of our memories in a hurry, and we’re not going to care what happens to her one way or another.

Stereotypical characters are uninteresting because they’re not unique. It’s important to note here that being stereotypical is not the same thing as being consistent. Your characters should behave in ways that are consistent with how you’ve developed them, but that’s not the same thing as being stereotypical. Imagine all of the rich people in your stories are shallow, greedy, and uncaring. All of the wealthy women are tall and extravagantly dressed, and they’ve all had plastic surgery. Or imagine you’re writing a fantasy story and all elves are haughty and all dwarfs are gruff, and they hate each other. Those are stereotypes. It’s when a character breaks free of the stereotype that he or she becomes believable and memorable. Real people rarely act according to stereotypes in every respect. Everybody is unique in some way. You don’t want your readers to think, Didn’t I just see that character in so-and-so’s work, only now he’s got another name and brown hair? You want your characters to be uniquely memorable.

The too-perfect character tends to make your reader’s eyes roll. Sometimes it’s okay to have a character who is perfect in every way, especially if you’re doing a parody. But perfection doesn’t exist in real life, so it shouldn’t usually exist in your writing. It’s hard to empathize with a perfect person, because none of us is perfect. Everyone, no matter how noble, is flawed in some way. For example, an effective character might be someone who is heroic in almost every way—he’s a good fighter, he’s nice to look at, he rides well and shoots well, and he’s brave and compassionate—but he’s totally indecisive, so if he has to take command in a battle, everyone’s going to die. It’s much easier for readers to relate to someone with a flaw, because they can say, “Yes, that’s just like my buddy Jeff. He’s a great guy, but he can’t make up his mind to save his life.” There’s also a particular kind of too-perfect character that I refer to as the Mary Sue or Gary Stew character. This kind of character is the writer’s idealized version of himself or herself. Usually this character comes from humble beginnings, achieves impossible goals, ends up saving the galaxy, and then dies in the arms of King Arthur after having become the first female knight of the roundtable. How is anyone going to relate to that except the author? The author is living out his or her fantasies. We all do that to some extent, but Mary Sue is the extreme version of that kind of wish fulfillment, and we need to be careful about it.

Inconsistency in your characters will jar your readers mightily. In fact, it will probably jar the reader out of the story more quickly than almost anything else. You have developed a character in a certain way. Readers are expecting that character to behave in accordance with his or her personality and motivations as you have defined them. If that character behaves in a way that doesn’t make sense, your readers will notice it every time. Consistency applies to everything from small things, such as a character’s hair color, to big things like the character’s manner of speaking and important choices. If a character has brown hair in chapter 1, she’d better not have red hair in chapter 5. If a character speaks like a high elf one minute and uses street slang the next, that’s going to take the reader right out of the story. Or if a character slaughters a bunch of kindergartners and then goes on about the evils of child abuse, that’s also inconsistent. The fictional characters that we create need to feel like real people to the reader. If you don’t have a firm picture of them in your mind, they’re going to become shaky on the page. You should be able to see them and hear them speak and watch them go through their actions. And because you know them that well, they will be consistent, and you won’t fall into that trap.

And then there are dull characters. Of course, some characters are supposed to be dull, but in that case they’re usually foils for more interesting characters or events. If you think you might have a dull character in your book, the first thing you should ask is whether you need that character at all. Why is that character there? What is his or her role in the story? If you can’t come up with an answer, then that character is just stage dressing. Some stage dressing is allowed, but if you don’t even need the character for stage dressing, maybe its time to do away with that character completely. Another option is to make a dull character come alive by adding some unique traits. Perhaps your drab character has a secret fantasy life or an intriguing hobby, indicating that he or she is much more interesting than appears on the surface. That sort of thing will give a character life.

Let’s assume for a moment to avoid these five traps; your characters are three-dimensional, unique, flawed, consistent, and interesting. Here are five tips that can make them even better.

Five Tips

First, the devil is in the details. There’s a tendency for some writers to throw too much at the reader all at once—to give a full physical description, tell the life story, and reveal the innermost thoughts of a character as soon as he or she is introduced. But that’s not necessarily the best approach. Think about a character you’re introducing as someone the reader is meeting for the first time. When you meet someone for the first time, you do take in that person’s physical appearance, but only on a fairly superficial level. If I think about the people I met today, I don’t necessarily remember very much about them except that she had dark hair and he wasn’t very tall. I don’t remember every detail about what they were wearing; I didn’t notice. Unless they were wearing an ostrich costume, in which case I would remember that, and it would certainly be worth including in a story. So we don’t notice everything at once when we meet a new person, but we do usually notice a few details that can give us some idea of that person’s personality and life situation: Is the character well dressed? Does he bite his nails? Does she have acne scars, heavy makeup, a professional manicure, any nervous mannerisms? Does the character make eye contact? These are all the kinds of things we might notice during a first meeting. Then, we interact with people and observe them interacting with others, and that’s how we really get to know them. That’s true of characters too. When you first introduce them, you should include a few details, but the rest of their personalities, motivations, and back stories should be revealed gradually through their actions.

Another tip is to base characters on real people. Some writers think this is cheating, but I do it all the time. I take a fantasy character and give him or her the personality of someone I know, and because I know that real person very well, all I have to do is imagine what so-and-so would do in a given situation. It’s a way to flesh out a character very quickly. It makes it easier to stay consistent too, because you have a fully developed idea of the character’s personality right from the start. I also like to observe human behavior. You can also base characters on real people who you don’t know as well. I like to watch people, and I like to go to places where people congregate and observe them—how they talk, their mannerisms, what they wear, their attitudes and body language. I can incorporate all of that into my stories. Third, remember that everybody has a history. Where we came from shapes us and molds us. And even if you don’t reveal your characters’ pasts to your readers, you should know about them, at least for your main characters. You should have full biographies of your main characters in your mind so that you understand what drives them. Why is this important? Because if you don’t understand a character, your readers won’t either. Let’s look at an example of an effective character history. Captain Quint’s backstory in the movie Jaws is great. In one scene, the three heroes, Quint, Chief Brody, and Matt Hooper, are in the cabin of Quint’s fishing boat, and they’re comparing old scars. Quint has a tattoo that was removed, and Brody innocently asks him about it. In response, Quint tells the other characters a horrific story about many of his friends on the USS Indianapolis being eaten by sharks, and all of a sudden it’s easy to understand this man and why he is the way he is. I can’t imagine that film without that backstory.

Fourth, don’t neglect your secondary characters. Sidekicks can be some of the most likeable and interesting characters in the story. Often, they are the readers’ favorites. One example of this is the Boba Fett phenomenon. Everyone loves Boba Fett; he’s certainly just a secondary character, but he enriches the Star Wars setting. In the same way, well developed characters can enrich your book. They’re sort of like the supporting instruments in a symphony. I love my secondary characters. They can be a gold mine, and every one serves a purpose. Some add color or assist in world building, and some are foils for the main characters. Foils are characters who can’t stand your hero or your heroine and do nothing but gripe about them behind their backs. They can be great fun. I make sure I know a lot about my secondary characters even if I don’t end up revealing it all to the reader.

Finally, devote plenty of attention to the villain of the piece, without whom the story would not exist. Often, I hear authors tell me that the villain is their favorite character, the one they love to write about. I know that’s true in my case. Bad guys can be very tough to do well, and it can be even tougher to get readers to empathize with them. Whenever you write a villain, keep in mind that he or she needs to be just as well developed as your main characters. Instead of being flawed, however—because obviously all villains are flawed—the villain should be imperfectly bad. In other words, the villains should have redeeming characteristics where our heroes have flaws. Gollum in The Lord of the Rings is a great example of this. We empathize with Gollum, and we feel sorry for him sometimes. We have hope for him. We wish that he could be redeemed. And then we loathe him, and despise him, and wish somebody would just squash him like a bug, because he’s so annoying. Poor Gollum is a character who is definitely ruled by evil most of the time, but he also is in many respects a victim, and so we can empathize with him. He is a great antagonist. These can be among the most difficult of all characters to create but also some of the most satisfying.

There they are: five traps and five tips. Whether you write good characters or poor ones will determine whether your readers stay with you to the end of the journey or get off at the first stop. If the characters fail, the story fails. Hopefully this article will help you avoid that, but if it does happen, pick yourself up, write the next book, develop your characters better the next time, and all will be well.

x

[agentdagonet]

Echoes, Ch. 32

Find it here on AO3

Find it here on tumblr:  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Fic Summary: Feet dangling off the edge of the bed, hands still resting on the earpieces of his glasses, Eggsy opened his eyes.

And promptly shut them again, screwing them shut like a child who had the distinct misfortune of biting into a raw lemon. Breathing harshly in his nose and out his mouth, trying to stave off whatever delusional panic had befallen him, Eggsy reopened his eyes.

‘Harry?’

Or: The Hologram Story Nobody Asked For

          ‘Galahad and Arthur are the least likely to get made.’

           ‘They can’t keep their eyes off each other-’

           ‘Exactly. They’re always staring at one another but neither of them seems to notice the other. They’re oblivious to each other, but are hyper aware of others and that’s precisely what we need.’ Roxanne had a point, one that he was reluctant to acknowledge, but he knew that they needed the intel.

           There was a woman, Kelline Grisham, who had been tied to one of the hundreds of groups that stole remains of V-Day victims and pressed them into diamonds to then sell on the black market. Which in and of itself wouldn’t be too heinous, but of late victims’ families were disappearing as well- and human trafficking on a global scale, seventeen families last week alone, was a fair bit more up their alley. Grisham was rumoured to be a local Collector in New Zealand- drugs, secrets, bodies- if it was of interest to someone it was of interest to her, and that made her a lynchpin between many groups. She certainly didn’t stage herself that way but it was known, in the way all unseemly things are, that she was the one to go to if there was a need of a darker sort.

           Luckily for them, and hopefully unluckily for her, she enjoyed a night on the town enough for there to be a trail to follow- and she was set to be spending the following weekend in Christchurch, if the pattern was to be believed. Grisham was a fan of both drink and drug, though not to the point of indiscretion, but she was known to have a certain taste in men: younger, rougher, with a disregard for the law and a distinct lack of connections. Kingsman only had one agent who could pass as such, that was obvious, but the nature of the mission meant that very little of their tech could be on Eggsy at the time of engagement.

           Backup would have to be sent, though Merlin was wary at sending Harry and Eggsy into a situation like that. Where one would have to watch the other attempt to seduce a target when they were on such strangely entwined terms themselves. But Percival, Gawain, Bedivere, Gareth, and Bors were all engaged in other missions, and Roxanne, unfortunately, would be more noticable solely for her gender. 

           Grisham was the woman who was the centre of the room, and if she was not she would find a room she could be the centre of. Another woman getting attention simply would not do- but another older man at a bar would be nothing to notice.

           ‘You’re right- I don’t like it, lass, but you’re right. And we both know they’ll jump at the chance to be of some use, no matter the more personal consequences.’

           ‘I think you’re underestimating them, Merlin- they’re both skilled, professional, Knights who know the difference between their lives and the Work.’

           ‘We’ll see.’

           The pair stood from the table, hovered awkwardly in one another’s space for a moment before parting ways, Merlin toward the Dining Room and Roxanne to the range. Ever since Harry’s miraculous return, and Eggsy’s subsequent leap from Existing to Living, the two had taken to talking over any potential proposals to either of the men before actually speaking to them. It was partially due to a desire to avoid conflict, but mostly it was a way for them to reconcile the seeming replacement they’d faced in the two men’s lives.

           For too long they had been the only true support the other men had had- Eggsy had relied on Roxy for any of a thousand things: a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, an outlet to vent to, a target to aim at when everything else was too much to process. Sometimes, having a companion on a Path, even one as different as Roxy was from Eggsy, was worth its weight in gold. Harry had lost everything in the course of their antagonistic friendship- for all that they had hated each other at the start, each loss they suffered had brought them together. By the time Harry’s parents had passed, they were all the other had left- and now it was no longer so.

           So Merlin and Roxanne had turned to each other to try and fill that void- though they were loathe to use such a term. Or even acknowledge that that was what they were doing.They were fully capable of existing outside of those relationships- but the adjustment was still a long and difficult one to make.

           Perhaps they all had a fair bit of growing to do, as Michelle would say. Merlin mentally tallied that thought for later, and strolled into the room, tossing a paper-clipped folder in Harry’s general direction before taking his habitual spot in the corner.

           ‘Afternoon, Arthur.’

           ‘You know better than to use that tone with me, Merlin. We’ve known each other long enough.’

           ‘It’s work, Harry- you and I both know better than to be lax in our professional lives.’

           ‘I suppose so. Well, what do you have for me today, Merlin?’

           ‘We have a lead on Grisham, and we think Galahad’s the agent for the mission.’

           ‘We do, do we?’

           ‘He’s the youngest of us, knows both sides of the fence well enough, and happens to fall in line with the rest of her requirements for companionship.’

           ‘I’m to assume that there’s more to it than that?’

           ‘Yes; unfortunately, the requirements of such an engagement, considering the setting,’ Merlin paused, ‘we don’t think we will be able to equip Galahad with enough of our more combative tech to be safe- we must prioritise the surveillance and cloning equipment, which would leave Galahad in potential danger.’

           ‘All of our Knights are in danger in every mission, what about this mission in particular has you toeing a line about an issue?’

           ‘... Grisham is known for commanding a room, and for making a spectacle of herself and her chosen companion. If she does not think she has an audience, she will leave an establishment- and we cannot afford to set this stage twice if we expect to get anywhere.’

           ‘So you’re requesting an extra agent be sent along to, ah, give her the audience she desires?’ Harry couldn’t help the flash of not quite rage that went through him, thinking of some other person with their hands all over Eggsy, but he knew that Merlin never made decisions lightly. The fact that he was asking instead of demanding meant that he knew how it would affect him, and was attempting to be delicate. Which was a waste of energy, as delicately talking around an issue had never been part of leadership.

           ‘Yes, sir.’ Merlin looked him in the eye, face betraying nothing, but one hand tapped lightly at the clipboard he wasn’t actually looking at. He was truly concerned for the answer, then. 

           ‘Granted.’ Would he truly have answered in any other respect?

           ‘You haven’t even heard me all the way through, Harry.’

           ‘I don’t need to to know that you’re worried for our Agent and are attempting to give this mission the highest rate of success you can- which is our priority. You don’t need my permission to give our people the tools they need to succeed- even if they happen to be people as opposed to gadgets.’

           ‘I didn’t expect you to refuse me, Harry- you know better than to ignore my requests as a bit of folly,’ both men grimaced at one another, reminded for a moment of Chester King’s way of running things, ‘but I thought you would wish to know who I was asking to send along before agreeing.’

           ‘I expect it will be Lancelot- a fitting competitor for Grisham’s target: young, beautiful, wealthy, and perhaps a little dangerous.’ Harry spent a moment to observe Kelline’s features- tall, dark hair and light eyes, form trim but not bony, the beginnings of laugh lines showing through her minimal makeup. She would certainly have her pick of suitors in any setting.

           ‘While your breakdown of what our planted competition needs to have is correct, your conclusion is incorrect.’ Merlin put the clipboard down on the table, both hands splayed on the surface as he looked Harry in the eye. ‘I need you on this, Harry.’

           ‘You need a greying nearly-sixty year old man with a very distinctive scar to be the audience to the attempted seduction of a woman who wants to know she has an audience?’

           ‘Yes.’

           ‘... Well, in this respect I must acquiesce to your expertise.’ Merlin could tell he had more questions, but thankfully did not have the chance to ask them before the door swung open and Eggsy walked into the room.

           ‘Well, speak of the devil.’

           ‘Thought I felt my ears burnin’- you talkin’ shit?’ Eggsy took the seat to Harry’s right- the same seat he’d been in the day he’d killed Chester King, the seat Harry himself had often occupied during briefings with the man, and Harry marveled at the differences between those moments and this one. Eggsy’d kicked the chair up at an angle, balanced precariously, and it took a bit more than he was willing to disclose to not knock the man over for sheer cheek.

           ‘The opposite, actually,’ Harry said, flipping closed the folder and turning it in Eggsy’s general direction before sitting back in his chair with a purposeful air of indifference. Both excitement and dread were equally dooming in interactions like this- Eggsy would base his reactions based on his own, sometimes- not often enough for it to be an issue, but Harry wanted Eggsy to be making judgements for himself. It was a lifetime’s habit to break, gauging a room before reacting, and too useful a skill to want to erase entirely in their line of work. But, at least in their off time, Harry desperately wanted for Eggsy to learn how to react for himself and not for the sake of someone else.

           ‘This a real honeypot? I though’ those were made up for them Bond films.’

           ‘They’re far rarer than anyone would assume. But, sometimes, when the cards are right, it’s the best play to make. She seems to do things more for show than a true desire for companionship, and you tick all her boxes.’ Merlin was matter of fact in his delivery, though he inwardly cursed the pair before him for their inability to react the way others would. The pair of them were built to drive him mad.

           ‘So what’s the plan, then, if she’s in it for the show?’

           ‘We’ll send you and another agent into the venue, obviously unaffiliated; you will make yourself noticeably available and interested, and allow for her to make contact. Over the course of the evening, when the opportunity presents itself, you’ll plant at least one bug on her person. More is generally better than less, but it’s more important that they not be discovered. The information gathered by those will determine the next step Kingsman takes concerning these Ash Diamonds. Any questions?’

           ‘We legit calling them Ash Diamonds? For real?’

           ‘That’s beside the point, Galahad. But yes, that’s the term we’ve decided upon. Do you have any real questions?’

           ‘Nah- get in, make it worth her while, and bug the fuck out of her- that’s the gist, yeah?’ Merlin sighed, one hand pinched the bridge of his nose, and Harry stifled a chuckle. To see Merlin driven so quickly spare with little of his own influence was wonderful.

           ‘We’ll be sending the two of you to Christchurch Wednesday next to get settled in and set yourselves up as visitors only there for a short while. Better to have an alibi already in place, should you need to escape quickly.’

          ‘The two of us?’ Eggsy let the chair fall forward, elbows on the tabletop, one hand pointing between himself and Harry; surprised, but not offended.

           ‘Yes, Eggsy- it seems that a man like me is precisely the kind of audience she prefers.’

           ‘Well you’re fit as fuck so that ain’t no surprise, but I gotta say I was expectin’ to be sent with Roxy.’

           ‘As was I, but Merlin is quite convinced that we are the best team for the job.’

           ‘Well, brilliant, love missions with you.’ It was earnest, but not in the way that made one think of a puppy looking for a belly rub. It was in the simple sincerity, the kind of thing one could only achieve with blatant honesty and no ulterior motive.

           Merlin found it frustrating. Harry found it delightful.

[emmagreen1220-blog]

New Post has been published on Mythology.net

New Post has been published on http://mythology.net/mythical-creatures/fairy/

Fairy

What is a Fairy?

A fairy is a magical creature who resembles a human. Beyond that, defining fairies is almost impossible. Their legend is as old as European civilization itself, and they come in all colors, sizes, and temperaments. No two fairy encounters are quite the same!

Characteristics

Physical Description

If you saw a picture of an ancient fairy, you might mistake it for an elf or even a troll! The first fey people certainly weren’t as delicate as the fairies we know and love today. Most were the size of children, although some of them could be as tall as adults. They all looked human, but they ranged from supernaturally beautiful to hideously deformed. Some of them had traits that clearly set them apart from humans, like pointed ears, webbed fingers, missing noses, or green or blue skin.

During the Romantic Period, fairies took the stage in plays and operas. Ugly fairies fell out of fashion and were replaced by gorgeous creatures, whose connection to nature was made obvious by their flowery clothing and woodland companions. Conveniently, these new, beautiful fairies were human-sized and prone to falling in love with mortals!

During the Victorian Era, fairytales for children became popular. Fairies were shrunk down to a tiny size and given adorable, tailored outfits complete with tiny shoes and hats. Fairies with wings also became more popular, especially after the publication of JM Barrie’s Peter Pan.

Personality

The fey people are as diverse in personality as they are in appearance. Their most common traits are a quick wit, a love of parties. Beyond this, they come in all habits and tempers.

Some fairies are helpful. They guide travelers who are lost in the forest back towards home. They help with household chores, often going to work overnight, so that their hosts wake up to a happy surprise. If they are particularly fond of you, they might even lead you to treasure, give you magical gifts, help you win your true love’s hand in marriage, or cast a lucky charm over your life.

Others are mischievous. They delight in misleading travelers or luring them into exhausting dances that go one for days. They also like to taunt domestic animals, pinching horses to make them gallop, stealing milk from cows, and playing cat-and-mouse with cats.

And then there are some fairies who are dangerous—so dangerous that, for centuries, they were called “the good folk,” “the little people,” or “the neighbors” because people were too afraid of them to say their name aloud. These fairies usually live in hierarchies, where the king or queen is the most dangerous of all. They don’t just get travelers lost; they lead them into deadly bogs. When they take a liking to a human baby, they don’t cast a charm over its life. They steal it from its cradle and replace it with a sickly “changeling.” And if they ever share their dances or treasure with you, be sure that the gift comes with a curse. The most dangerous fairies can declare ware over small disputes. Fortunately, they are more likely to go to war with other magical creatures, like pixies or trolls.

It’s important to be aware that most fairies have fluid personalities. They can go from helpful to mischievous quickly, and despite their cleverness, they don’t have to have a reason for their decisions!

Special Abilities

As magical creatures, fairies have almost unlimited power. They can fly. They can make flowers bloom. They can conjure up gold. They can glow in the dark. They can create and cast new charms for any situation, and their curses can last for hundreds of years.

Fortunately, there are some measures you can take to keep fairies at bay. Marigolds, primroses, rowan wood, four-leaf clovers, and St. John’s wort can all be worn or hung over doors to repel the good folk. Iron is even more powerful. An iron nail in your pocket or a horseshoe over your door will provide long-lasting safety.

If you’re hoping to gain a fairy as a friend, leave a saucer of milk, cream, butter, or ale for the fey people to enjoy at night. If you do this on a regular basis, you might be rewarded!

Cultural Representation

Origin

Although the word “fairy” comes from old French, the concept behind these magical creatures cannot be traced back to a single source. Various Celtic and Germanic traditions merged together to create the fairies we think of today.

Many scholars believe that fairies are the modern-day version of ancient, pagan deities. Most regions that have a rich oral tradition, dealing with fairies, have a legend about the fey people being “driven underground” by Christian missionaries. These stories might symbolize a very real historical fact: worship of local deities was suppressed by Christians. Gradually, as people accepted Christianity, they turned their deities into lesser magical creatures, thus preserving their traditions in a way that was compatible with Christian monotheism.

A handful of bolder scholars claim that “fairies,” a prehistoric race of people who inhabited western Europe, really did exist. These people were driven out of Europe by the Celts and, gradually, transformed into legend. The childlike size of fairies corresponds with prehistoric humans in other parts of the world, and their fear of iron could be a cultural memory of how iron weapons were used to conquer a race of people who only had stone age weapons.

Greco-Roman Influence

The arrival of Romans in Europe was a double-edged sword. On one hand, they began changing the ancient culture almost immediately. On the other, they began writing down the region’s oral traditions, thus preserving ancient folklore for future generations.

Long after the first waves of Roman colonization, Rome continued to have a profound effect on fairies. First, Christianity, which was enforced by the Roman Catholic Church, limited the powers of the fey people and associated them with demons and witches. Later, the nymphs form Roman mythology were blended with fairies, turning them into beautiful creatures with strong bonds to nature.

Literary Appearances

The first definitive text about fairies was written in the eleventh century. Since then, they have found their way into many of history’s most beloved legends.

In Le Morte d’Arthur, Morgan, Guinevere, and Merlin are linked to the fey people. Later versions of Arthur’s story state that he was crowned by fairies and, upon death, taken to the fairy realm of Avalon and buried under a fairy hill.

Shakespeare plays with fairies in A Middsummer’s Night Dream, where he describes the beautiful dances and meddlesome impulses of fairies.

By the mid-seventeenth centuries, fairies had even earned their own category of literature: fairy tales. The Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson included the good folk in countless stories, as did other writers. The Victorian Era saw a sort of fairy-mania that spilled into poetry and painting, as well as children’s literature.

But it wasn’t until the end of the Victorian Era that the most iconic fairy of all came along. JM Barrie published Peter and Wendy in 1911, and Peter’s fairy, Tinkerbell, immediately stole the hearts of all his readers. From thereon out, the word “fairy” would bring a tiny, fussy person, glowing with light and held aloft by delicate wings, to mind.

[yes-dal456]

House Republicans Weigh Another Health Care Amendment

WASHINGTON ― House GOP leaders, unable to find the votes for their health care bill simply by pressuring reluctant Republicans, are now considering changes that will win over moderates.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) began a closed-door meeting on Tuesday by telling members, “Now is not the time to decide what to do or how to do it; now is the time to do it,” according to a Republican present.

But just hours later, after it was clear that strategy wasn’t working, leaders were toying with an amendment that would add more funding for the high-risk coverage pools that states would set up to insure people with costly pre-existing conditions.

“Obviously some members are looking for changes, but we’ve not made any at this point, and don’t know that we will,” AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told HuffPost.

If the current legislation isn’t doing the trick, however, the need for an amendment may become obvious.

According to the last Congressional Budget Office estimate, Republicans have roughly $150 billion in savings over the next 10 years that they could dole out to bolster the high-risk pools and mollify centrists. But that assumes other changes in the bill won’t reduce those savings.

It’s unclear how the Congressional Budget Office will score other GOP modifications, partly because the office would have to predict whether states will opt out of the protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Some members believe that lowering premiums for healthy young people could increase the number of people taking advantage of the government’s tax credits, thereby increasing the overall cost of the bill and eating into the savings.

And while Republicans argue that high-risk pools would work for sick people, that historically hasn’t been the case. The Center for American Progress estimated on Tuesday that the Republican health care plan falls $200 billion short of sufficiently funding high-risk pools.

Either way, leaders are considering how to shore up support from moderates. And while there isn’t any firm proposal at this point, some moderates on the fence could probably be won over with additional funding for the high-risk pools.

“That sounds good,” Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), who is undecided on the bill, said when HuffPost asked him about adding money to the high-risk pools. “That sounds positive.”

Another undecided Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), said he’d be willing to look at that change, and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), also undecided, said that sort of amendment “might help.”

(Young also told HuffPost on Tuesday that he thought the GOP health care bill, which would change how rural states are reimbursed for costs, “hurts Alaska,” so his vote might be more difficult to get than leaders think.)

Those members are just undecided, however. When HuffPost described the potential amendment to Republicans who have taken firmer stances against the GOP health care bill, it didn’t seem to entice them much.

Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) said that sort of amendment probably wouldn’t change his vote and that he was “not really in play” at this point. Former Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who came out in opposition to the bill on Tuesday, also said the proposal wouldn’t change his mind if Republicans didn’t fix the protections for people with pre-existing conditions. “More money does not do the trick,” Upton said.

When HuffPost asked Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) about how an amendment adding money to high-risk pools would affect his vote, he interrupted, raised his hand and said, “I’m just ‘No.’”

Still, the margins on this bill are so tight that any proposal that flips even a few members may make a difference. Various whip counts show a very tight situation.

One constant, however, has been a number of hard “No” votes that do not seem to be moving. If Republican leaders can’t start flipping those members, they may never be able to pass the bill. They can only lose about 22 Republicans ― depending on absences ― and they’ve already lost about 20.

“Seems to me that adding money to the high-risk pools is probably the easiest way for leadership to attempt to coax some moderates without losing the Freedom Caucus,” one senior GOP aide with a sense of the vote told HuffPost. “The question is, does it flip your hard ‘No’ members, or continue to just help with the undecideds? Seems like at some point, they need to pick off a few of the ‘No’ and ‘lean-No’ members.”

Many moderates are having a hard time with a number of the bill’s provisions. The legislation would allow insurers to charge seniors five times as much as young people (currently they can only charge three times as much) and would cut $880 billion from Medicaid over the next 10 years.

CBO projects that 24 million more people would not have health insurance in 10 years if the legislation is enacted ― to say nothing of these latest changes, which could dramatically increase prices for sick people and undermine what’s covered by health insurance.

Moderates also worry that handing the conservative Freedom Caucus a win, particularly when this legislation doesn’t look like it’d go anywhere in the Senate, is a dangerous precedent to set in lawmaking.

“There is a concern that this is going to be the model: Try to placate the hard right and get these bills out of the House knowing they have an uncertain fate in the Senate,” said Charlie Dent, the chairman of the moderate Tuesday Group. “Because we know darn well that the bill on the rebound from the Senate won’t satisfy those on the hard right.”

“All this political capital is being expended on the first launch, knowing damn well that on the battle that matters ― the last one ― you won’t get the support of those very same people,” Dent added.

The other complication with an amendment that adds money to the high-risk pools is that GOP leadership could lose some conservative support, though conservatives seem relatively happy with the bill after the latest changes. While Freedom Caucus members have always said this bill should cost less than Obamacare, that’s never been the primary reason they want to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“That’s important,” former Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said of saving money. “But what’s most important is we keep our word ― which this bill doesn’t quite get there, but it’s a good start ― and that we lower premiums. That’s been our position from the beginning. That’s most important.”

Jordan reiterated that the Freedom Caucus would have to review any new changes, but he seemed to support tweaks if they’ll get the legislation over the finish line.

It’s just a matter of whether more changes actually will get Republicans there. As it stands now, the current bill appears to fall short.

As Dent said on Tuesday, “if they had the votes, we would have voted.”

Here is the current HuffPost whip count on the latest version of the GOP health care proposal. This whip count is based on conversations with lawmakers and staffers with knowledge of how members are voting. Not every lawmaker on this list has confirmed how he or she will vote ― this is our best guess:

No (20) Mark Amodei (Nev.) Andy Biggs (Ariz.) Barbara Comstock (Va.) Ryan Costello (Pa.) Jeff Denham (Calif.) Charlie Dent (Pa.) Dan Donovan (N.Y.) Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.) Walter Jones (N.C.) John Katko (N.Y.) Leonard Lance (N.J.) Frank LoBiondo (N.J.) Billy Long (Mo.) Thomas Massie (Ky.) Patrick Meehan (Pa.) Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) Chris Smith (N.J.) Fred Upton (Mich.) David Young (Iowa)

Lean No (8) Paul Cook (Calif.) Carlos Curbelo (Fla.) Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.) David Joyce (Ohio) Michael Turner (Ohio) David Valadao (Calif.) Daniel Webster (Fla.) Rob Wittman (Va.)

Undecided (13) Justin Amash (Mich.) Mike Coffman (Colo.) John Faso (N.Y.) Darrell Issa (Calif.) Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) Steve Knight (Calif.) Erik Paulsen (Minn.) Bruce Poliquin (Maine) Dave Reichert (Wash.) Ed Royce (Calif.) Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) Kevin Yoder (Kan.) Don Young (Alaska) Lean Yes (13) Rod Blum (Iowa) Ted Budd (N.C.) Bradley Byrne (Ala.) Tom Emmer (Minn.) Rick Crawford (Ark.) Jeff Fortenberry (Neb.) Rodney Frelinghuysen (N.J.) Peter King (N.Y.) Hal Rogers (Ky.) Peter Roskam (Ill.) Scott Tipton (Colo.) Glenn Thompson (Pa.) Lee Zeldin (N.Y.)

Arthur Delaney and Laura Barron-Lopez contributed to this report.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from http://ift.tt/2qvA2XP from Blogger http://ift.tt/2pukeps

[ongames]

House Republicans Weigh Another Health Care Amendment

WASHINGTON ― House GOP leaders, unable to find the votes for their health care bill simply by pressuring reluctant Republicans, are now considering changes that will win over moderates.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) began a closed-door meeting on Tuesday by telling members, “Now is not the time to decide what to do or how to do it; now is the time to do it,” according to a Republican present.

But just hours later, after it was clear that strategy wasn’t working, leaders were toying with an amendment that would add more funding for the high-risk coverage pools that states would set up to insure people with costly pre-existing conditions.

“Obviously some members are looking for changes, but we’ve not made any at this point, and don’t know that we will,” AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told HuffPost.

If the current legislation isn’t doing the trick, however, the need for an amendment may become obvious.

According to the last Congressional Budget Office estimate, Republicans have roughly $150 billion in savings over the next 10 years that they could dole out to bolster the high-risk pools and mollify centrists. But that assumes other changes in the bill won’t reduce those savings.

It’s unclear how the Congressional Budget Office will score other GOP modifications, partly because the office would have to predict whether states will opt out of the protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Some members believe that lowering premiums for healthy young people could increase the number of people taking advantage of the government’s tax credits, thereby increasing the overall cost of the bill and eating into the savings.

And while Republicans argue that high-risk pools would work for sick people, that historically hasn’t been the case. The Center for American Progress estimated on Tuesday that the Republican health care plan falls $200 billion short of sufficiently funding high-risk pools.

Either way, leaders are considering how to shore up support from moderates. And while there isn’t any firm proposal at this point, some moderates on the fence could probably be won over with additional funding for the high-risk pools.

“That sounds good,” Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), who is undecided on the bill, said when HuffPost asked him about adding money to the high-risk pools. “That sounds positive.”

Another undecided Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), said he’d be willing to look at that change, and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), also undecided, said that sort of amendment “might help.”

(Young also told HuffPost on Tuesday that he thought the GOP health care bill, which would change how rural states are reimbursed for costs, “hurts Alaska,” so his vote might be more difficult to get than leaders think.)

Those members are just undecided, however. When HuffPost described the potential amendment to Republicans who have taken firmer stances against the GOP health care bill, it didn’t seem to entice them much.

Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) said that sort of amendment probably wouldn’t change his vote and that he was “not really in play” at this point. Former Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who came out in opposition to the bill on Tuesday, also said the proposal wouldn’t change his mind if Republicans didn’t fix the protections for people with pre-existing conditions. “More money does not do the trick,” Upton said.

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), the chairman of the moderate Tuesday Group, said that even with that sort of amendment, he still would have a number of concerns. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said she was concerned that Republicans were making coverage for people with pre-existing conditions “in name only,” and that even $50 billion in new funding for high-risk pools would be “a little baby down payment.”

When HuffPost asked Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) about how an amendment adding money to high-risk pools would affect his vote, he interrupted, raised his hand and said, “I’m just ‘No.’”

Still, the margins on this bill are so tight that any proposal that flips even a few members may make a difference. Various whip counts show a very tight situation.

If they had the votes, we would have voted. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.)

One constant, however, has been a number of hard “No” votes that do not seem to be moving. If Republican leaders can’t start flipping those members, they may never be able to pass the bill. They can only lose about 22 Republicans ― depending on absences ― and they’ve already lost about 20.

“Seems to me that adding money to the high-risk pools is probably the easiest way for leadership to attempt to coax some moderates without losing the Freedom Caucus,” one senior GOP aide with a sense of the vote told HuffPost. “The question is, does it flip your hard ‘No’ members, or continue to just help with the undecideds? Seems like at some point, they need to pick off a few of the ‘No’ and ‘lean-No’ members.”

Many moderates are having a hard time with a number of the bill’s provisions. The legislation would allow insurers to charge seniors five times as much as young people (currently they can only charge three times as much) and would cut $880 billion from Medicaid over the next 10 years.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that 24 million more people would not have health insurance in 10 years if the legislation is enacted ― to say nothing of these latest changes, which could dramatically increase prices for sick people and undermine what’s covered by health insurance.

Moderates also worry that handing the conservative Freedom Caucus a win, particularly when this legislation doesn’t look like it’d go anywhere in the Senate, is a dangerous precedent to set in lawmaking.

“There is a concern that this is going to be the model: Try to placate the hard right and get these bills out of the House knowing they have an uncertain fate in the Senate,” Dent said. “Because we know darn well that the bill on the rebound from the Senate won’t satisfy those on the hard right.”

“All this political capital is being expended on the first launch, knowing damn well that on the battle that matters ― the last one ― you won’t get the support of those very same people,” he added.

The other complication with an amendment that adds money to the high-risk pools is that GOP leadership could lose some conservative support, though conservatives seem relatively happy with the bill after the latest changes. While Freedom Caucus members have always said this bill should cost less than Obamacare, that’s never been the primary reason they want to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“That’s important,” former Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said of saving money. “But what’s most important is we keep our word ― which this bill doesn’t quite get there, but it’s a good start ― and that we lower premiums. That’s been our position from the beginning. That’s most important.”

Jordan reiterated that the Freedom Caucus would have to review any new changes, but he seemed to support tweaks if they’ll get the legislation over the finish line.

It’s just a matter of whether more changes actually will get Republicans there. As it stands now, the current bill appears to fall short.

As Dent said on Tuesday, “If they had the votes, we would have voted.”

Here is the current HuffPost whip count on the latest version of the GOP health care proposal. This whip count is based on conversations with lawmakers and staffers with knowledge of how members are voting. Not every lawmaker on this list has confirmed how he or she will vote ― this is our best guess:

No (20) Mark Amodei (Nev.) Andy Biggs (Ariz.) Barbara Comstock (Va.) Ryan Costello (Pa.) Jeff Denham (Calif.) Charlie Dent (Pa.) Dan Donovan (N.Y.) Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.) Walter Jones (N.C.) John Katko (N.Y.) Leonard Lance (N.J.) Frank LoBiondo (N.J.) Billy Long (Mo.) Thomas Massie (Ky.) Patrick Meehan (Pa.) Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) Chris Smith (N.J.) Fred Upton (Mich.) David Young (Iowa)

Lean No (7) Paul Cook (Calif.) Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.) David Joyce (Ohio) Michael Turner (Ohio) David Valadao (Calif.) Daniel Webster (Fla.) Rob Wittman (Va.)

Undecided (13) Justin Amash (Mich.) Mike Coffman (Colo.) Carlos Curbelo (Fla.) John Faso (N.Y.) Darrell Issa (Calif.) Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) Steve Knight (Calif.) Bruce Poliquin (Maine) Peter Roskam (Ill.) Ed Royce (Calif.) Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) Kevin Yoder (Kan.) Don Young (Alaska)

Lean Yes (14) Rod Blum (Iowa) Ted Budd (N.C.) Bradley Byrne (Ala.) Tom Emmer (Minn.) Rick Crawford (Ark.) Jeff Fortenberry (Neb.) Rodney Frelinghuysen (N.J.) Peter King (N.Y.) Erik Paulsen (Minn.) Dave Reichert (Wash.) Hal Rogers (Ky.) Scott Tipton (Colo.) Glenn Thompson (Pa.) Lee Zeldin (N.Y.)

  Arthur Delaney and Laura Barrón-López contributed to this report.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

House Republicans Weigh Another Health Care Amendment published first on http://ift.tt/2lnpciY

[imreviewblog]

House Republicans Weigh Another Health Care Amendment

WASHINGTON ― House GOP leaders, unable to find the votes for their health care bill simply by pressuring reluctant Republicans, are now considering changes that will win over moderates.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) began a closed-door meeting on Tuesday by telling members, “Now is not the time to decide what to do or how to do it; now is the time to do it,” according to a Republican present.

But just hours later, after it was clear that strategy wasn’t working, leaders were toying with an amendment that would add more funding for the high-risk coverage pools that states would set up to insure people with costly pre-existing conditions.

“Obviously some members are looking for changes, but we’ve not made any at this point, and don’t know that we will,” AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told HuffPost.

If the current legislation isn’t doing the trick, however, the need for an amendment may become obvious.

According to the last Congressional Budget Office estimate, Republicans have roughly $150 billion in savings over the next 10 years that they could dole out to bolster the high-risk pools and mollify centrists. But that assumes other changes in the bill won’t reduce those savings.

It’s unclear how the Congressional Budget Office will score other GOP modifications, partly because the office would have to predict whether states will opt out of the protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Some members believe that lowering premiums for healthy young people could increase the number of people taking advantage of the government’s tax credits, thereby increasing the overall cost of the bill and eating into the savings.

And while Republicans argue that high-risk pools would work for sick people, that historically hasn’t been the case. The Center for American Progress estimated on Tuesday that the Republican health care plan falls $200 billion short of sufficiently funding high-risk pools.

Either way, leaders are considering how to shore up support from moderates. And while there isn’t any firm proposal at this point, some moderates on the fence could probably be won over with additional funding for the high-risk pools.

“That sounds good,” Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), who is undecided on the bill, said when HuffPost asked him about adding money to the high-risk pools. “That sounds positive.”

Another undecided Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), said he’d be willing to look at that change, and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), also undecided, said that sort of amendment “might help.”

(Young also told HuffPost on Tuesday that he thought the GOP health care bill, which would change how rural states are reimbursed for costs, “hurts Alaska,” so his vote might be more difficult to get than leaders think.)

Those members are just undecided, however. When HuffPost described the potential amendment to Republicans who have taken firmer stances against the GOP health care bill, it didn’t seem to entice them much.

Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) said that sort of amendment probably wouldn’t change his vote and that he was “not really in play” at this point. Former Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who came out in opposition to the bill on Tuesday, also said the proposal wouldn’t change his mind if Republicans didn’t fix the protections for people with pre-existing conditions. “More money does not do the trick,” Upton said.

When HuffPost asked Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) about how an amendment adding money to high-risk pools would affect his vote, he interrupted, raised his hand and said, “I’m just ‘No.’”

Still, the margins on this bill are so tight that any proposal that flips even a few members may make a difference. Various whip counts show a very tight situation.

One constant, however, has been a number of hard “No” votes that do not seem to be moving. If Republican leaders can’t start flipping those members, they may never be able to pass the bill. They can only lose about 22 Republicans ― depending on absences ― and they’ve already lost about 20.

“Seems to me that adding money to the high-risk pools is probably the easiest way for leadership to attempt to coax some moderates without losing the Freedom Caucus,” one senior GOP aide with a sense of the vote told HuffPost. “The question is, does it flip your hard ‘No’ members, or continue to just help with the undecideds? Seems like at some point, they need to pick off a few of the ‘No’ and ‘lean-No’ members.”

Many moderates are having a hard time with a number of the bill’s provisions. The legislation would allow insurers to charge seniors five times as much as young people (currently they can only charge three times as much) and would cut $880 billion from Medicaid over the next 10 years.

CBO projects that 24 million more people would not have health insurance in 10 years if the legislation is enacted ― to say nothing of these latest changes, which could dramatically increase prices for sick people and undermine what’s covered by health insurance.

Moderates also worry that handing the conservative Freedom Caucus a win, particularly when this legislation doesn’t look like it’d go anywhere in the Senate, is a dangerous precedent to set in lawmaking.

“There is a concern that this is going to be the model: Try to placate the hard right and get these bills out of the House knowing they have an uncertain fate in the Senate,” said Charlie Dent, the chairman of the moderate Tuesday Group. “Because we know darn well that the bill on the rebound from the Senate won’t satisfy those on the hard right.”

“All this political capital is being expended on the first launch, knowing damn well that on the battle that matters ― the last one ― you won’t get the support of those very same people,” Dent added.

The other complication with an amendment that adds money to the high-risk pools is that GOP leadership could lose some conservative support, though conservatives seem relatively happy with the bill after the latest changes. While Freedom Caucus members have always said this bill should cost less than Obamacare, that’s never been the primary reason they want to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“That’s important,” former Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said of saving money. “But what’s most important is we keep our word ― which this bill doesn’t quite get there, but it’s a good start ― and that we lower premiums. That’s been our position from the beginning. That’s most important.”

Jordan reiterated that the Freedom Caucus would have to review any new changes, but he seemed to support tweaks if they’ll get the legislation over the finish line.

It’s just a matter of whether more changes actually will get Republicans there. As it stands now, the current bill appears to fall short.

As Dent said on Tuesday, “if they had the votes, we would have voted.”

Here is the current HuffPost whip count on the latest version of the GOP health care proposal. This whip count is based on conversations with lawmakers and staffers with knowledge of how members are voting. Not every lawmaker on this list has confirmed how he or she will vote ― this is our best guess:

No (20) Mark Amodei (Nev.) Andy Biggs (Ariz.) Barbara Comstock (Va.) Ryan Costello (Pa.) Jeff Denham (Calif.) Charlie Dent (Pa.) Dan Donovan (N.Y.) Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.) Walter Jones (N.C.) John Katko (N.Y.) Leonard Lance (N.J.) Frank LoBiondo (N.J.) Billy Long (Mo.) Thomas Massie (Ky.) Patrick Meehan (Pa.) Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) Chris Smith (N.J.) Fred Upton (Mich.) David Young (Iowa)

Lean No (8) Paul Cook (Calif.) Carlos Curbelo (Fla.) Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.) David Joyce (Ohio) Michael Turner (Ohio) David Valadao (Calif.) Daniel Webster (Fla.) Rob Wittman (Va.)

Undecided (13) Justin Amash (Mich.) Mike Coffman (Colo.) John Faso (N.Y.) Darrell Issa (Calif.) Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) Steve Knight (Calif.) Erik Paulsen (Minn.) Bruce Poliquin (Maine) Dave Reichert (Wash.) Ed Royce (Calif.) Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) Kevin Yoder (Kan.) Don Young (Alaska) Lean Yes (13) Rod Blum (Iowa) Ted Budd (N.C.) Bradley Byrne (Ala.) Tom Emmer (Minn.) Rick Crawford (Ark.) Jeff Fortenberry (Neb.) Rodney Frelinghuysen (N.J.) Peter King (N.Y.) Hal Rogers (Ky.) Peter Roskam (Ill.) Scott Tipton (Colo.) Glenn Thompson (Pa.) Lee Zeldin (N.Y.)

Arthur Delaney and Laura Barron-Lopez contributed to this report.

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from Healthy Living - The Huffington Post http://huff.to/2oVlXpt

[kendrixtermina]

Kenny Reacts to: Ramayana (& Hindu Mythology in General)

So, for those who don’t know, “Ramayana” is one of the big epics of Hindu Mythology, comparable to the Illiad or other legendary Kings such as David or Arthur, centering around Prince/King Ramchandr, one of the Avatars of Vishnu

My boyfriend (who happens to be Indian) introuced me to a TV show based on it, and I, being a mythology nerd, couldn’t resist...

Since a lot of people actually believe in this as a religion, first a disclaimer: I’m a complete atheist with no belief in the supernatural whatsover, but I’m a huge believer in the value of storytelling (and a writer - the more mythological references the better, at least if you’re aiming for as much of an ‘universal’ flavor as possible) and do hold that myth holds an important place in the human experience. I will be approaching this completely from a literature perspective. 

My boyfriend is not a believer either, though he used to be an actual Hindu growing up & still has it as a cultural background (I know myself that the stories you’re brought up on do influence you just by the archetypes and poetic shorthands they make available to you) - apparently he found it quite interesting to see me react to it & see it properly from start to finish. (though it has actually caused a resurgence in childhood song earworms)

So, with that out of the way, let’s get to the actual “review”

What did I watch

It’s a somewhat older show from the 80s or 90s so the special effects could have been better - but I say that only because with a concept like “Demons versus monkey people” and “battles with dark sorcery and vaguely described divine weapons” there is a lot of potential for creative visuals. 

In this implementation the style of costumes was more “historical” overall, but great care was taken nonetheless. 

Indeed, though childhood nostalgia filter my boyfriend likes this particular version because it was made by an 80 year old dude who dreamt all his life of making a TV show out of this story & worked hard to make everything ~just right~ - there have been never, fancier interpretations since but they tend to be more generic & plasticy in terms of the actual screenplay (my boyfriend, though biased by childhood exposure, says that “You don’t get the feeling that you’re looking at Ram, you’re looking at a supermodel”) whereas in this one, the director took great care to write all the songs & handpick the actors - 

Which, with those mythical, ‘archetypical’ characters is quite important, they have to have the right ‘aura’, ‘presence’ or ‘atmosphere’ around them to connect to the larger-than-life timeless ideas they’re intended to embody. They made sure to cast tall, wry dudes as the monkey people, had some really good acting, made sure supposed relatives actually look alike etc. 

This adaptation (at least insofar as I’ve watched it) seems to have gone with the “good ending”, that is, the version where the Prince & his wife live happily ever after returning to their home city (for a change, the original/older one... though it makes little sense to debate about the true version of a myth, it’s their very nature to be passed around & reinterpreted and for each listener & reteller to put their own spin on it) - there’s a second one that’s much more anal about social divisions, harder on the mysoginy and ends with him disowning her ass, though there’s some ring to the idea of the Princess returting to whence she came (mother Earth) in humiliation. It depends on what sort story you want though it doesn’t seem to fit with Ram’s characterization as the type who always looks to resolve things peacefully & reasonably & think before acting, & he may lose some of what makes him interesting if you take that away. 

Indeed the director saw the need to sanitize even the orginal “chastity test by fire” scene - more than I would have done even if I wanted the Prince to keep looking heroic, I suppose, a lot like how many Christians will explain away many inconsistencies in the bible (and pretty much everything in the book of Judges) because they need their headcanon to be consistent with what they associate with the deities. 

The Cosmology

One of the interesting parts about this particular ‘verse that got me more interested in it beyond my initial watching of that show is the rather complex makep of the world -

In most places religion has gone though certain discrete stages in accordance to the civilization that thought it up, with the various ideas (animism, polytheism, dualism, monotheistm etc.) all influecing each other subtly by the need to react to each other but in this case you had this evolution happening gradually without the previous being completely discarded.

So you have river spirits, sacret trees, elemental monsters, demons,  titan/jötnar like entities, your basic greek style deities,  a big head honcho lord of the universe, concepts of self-enlightenment and pantheist universal unity all coexisting in the same setting.

It’s basically a religion kitchen sink. (and I mean that in a good way, though I get why some may prefer the more ‘streamlined’ ideas of modern Christianity or Islam)

Impressions & Surprising things

Very interesting - because of my familiarity with mythic universals & certain shared cultural roots ( They even have their own wandering handsy thunder god! -  though he’s squarely in the middle of the cosmic hierarchy and seems to be the designated Worf Effect recipient) , I could count down all the tropes and see a lot comming but because of different cultural ideals there were many points where I REALLY didn’t know what was going to happen next

Also, it was a veritable soap opera and I did not expect the feels. The heroes were more adorable than I’d ever have thought. 

The level of “Honor Before Reason” and “Because Destiny Says so” is about comparable to the ancient greeks, but the “humble sinless all-loving hero come to earth for an ardurous mission” might remind one of Jesus, especially in the conception that “The Hero”, in the most archetypical sense, is to be not just badass but moral - though rather, Jesus resembles Ramayana because Ramayana came several centuries first; Just a sign IMHO that there myths come from the human mind and humans everywhere are more similar than different.

Funny thing is, since christian apologetics have this complex to prove how “special” their religion is (I mean it is unique in that no one has the exact same combination of traits but that’s true of every religion and the elements are universal), they spend a lot of time dismantling Islam (often with bonus racism) but usually completely dismiss Hinduism because “Well, they’re polytheists” when the two religions actually have a lot of ideas in common - indeed a lot of beievers will speak of the Hindu Trinity (or their favorite part thereof) or the Mother Godess much like the average dualist or monotheist would talk of their god, like, “O supreme being that dwells in all goodness” etc.

Unlike Jesus (who, despite his popular interpretation,  in the original bible had quite a temper) Rama’s patience & forgiveness is a bit less of an informed ability, though you do get the sense that this comes from a warrior culture as well as a very stratified society where living up to your given social role (including that of a wife) is everything - in a Western work Ram probably would’ve seized the city with the support of the citizens. XD

One could comment that Ram & his brothers are still royalty & that the focus is on that whereas Jesus deliberately took the shape of an ordinary dude, though Ram still gets to spend years as a hermit & Jesus is still convolutedly made to be descended from David - the Jesus myth being the way it is probably has more to do with the political circumstances of its origin (conquest by rome) than the nobler meanings ascribed to it later. 

Another, subtler/ less apparent aspect of the destiny trap thing is that if everyone has their fate, no one can be blamed all too badly. (Deathbed redemptions galore) Nonetheless, as the prover goes, “karma is a bitch” and these people invented it.

That said, tough still a simplistic story (that purtports there’s only one clear universal law everywhere and that the good guys always win - That’s an air castle if there ever was one, we need to work for that) I was actually surprised by the sophistication of morals & politics at times, it went into specific questions (hypocrite accusations, hypocratic oaths, how to charioteer, what a good king should be like etc. )

This is probably an artefact of being written from the PoV of royals & warriors, or just an indication of the great asian civilizations having existed so long & relatively unbroken compared to the many shifts in where things where going on in the nothwest. 

This is the first time in ANY mythical story that I’ve seen anyone raise the concern of preserving the innocent citizens of the enemy faction and how to stabilize the political situation afterwards (after dethroning the local evil overlord, they put in his turncoat brother who joined the good guys for damage control), something that I haven’t seen a SINGLE time in the Bible (and I’ve read the whole thing), though the heroes steer clear of the line to “simplistic stupid good” if you discount the “honor before reason” parts.

There’s 4 ways you can do ‘archetypical’ characters: Wholly & completely stick to the simple archetype, bring the archetype to full circle & detail while milking it for maximum symbolism, “not what they seem/contrast” and giving them depht without having them ever stop to be their archetype - it’s the latter that was done magnificiently here, especially in terms of 3Dimensional antagonists, they have enough redeeming qualities for it all to strike you as a tragic waste of life, but not enough to let go of their pride and avert the divine punishment. 

(The “wicked cultured” Dark Sorceror Evil Overlord being interesting is a given, but of all characters, the cocky big mouthed Demon Prince was the last one I expected to have hidden dephts)