#its also secundus

[sayitaliano]

Italian names of fingers

HAND'S FINGERS:

The official names are: pollice = thumb indice = forefinger or index medio = middle finger anulare = ring finger mignolo = little finger or pinkie

We learn them easily since when we are kids (something that doesn't happen with foot's fingers). We also learn that "dito" = finger, is masculine at the singular but has a double plural: the masculine plural "diti" can be used only when we refer to one type of finger (eg. "i diti indici" = the index fingers) while when we consider all the fingers of the hand, we use the feminine plural "dita" (eg. "le dita della mano" = the fingers of the hand)

-

FOOT'S FINGERS:

The more official name list is the one originating from the Latin digiti pedis (basically the one used in English too):

primo dito = hallux (lat.: digitus primus or hallux) secondo dito = second toe (lat.: digitus secundus) terzo dito = third toe (lat.: digitus tertius) quarto dito = fourth toe (lat.: digitus quartus) quinto dito = fifth toe (lat.: digitus quintus or minimus pedis)

...with the generally accepted exceptions of alluce (also called pollicione or ditone or dito grosso del piede in informal context) for the first finger, and mignolo (or mignolino, again in informal context) for the fifth.

This said, online you can find another list (its names may vary a little tbh, but these are the most common ones):

alluce illice (or melluce) trillice pondolo mellino (or minolo)

This list doesn't seem to be accurate or scientific (source) but it was found since the early years of 2000's used in several occasions and even some non-traditional medicine books.

[sharenadraculea]

so since you‘re offering: imperium secundus. Scene drops off before sang agrees to become emperor and jump straight to the proclamation. Any chance you wanna write him making the decision and what follows in private with them? Lion and Rob swearing fealty to their Emperor (and staying on their knees for a different reason if you feel like nsfw). Or even showing a snippet of how their relationship changed post coronation or just why Lion of all people was willing to crown Sang and only Sang. There must be a story there

i‘d love it if you went for it. No hard feelings if you don’t though, its your time after all

love allyria/lieara

I finally got around to writing more prompts! I hope you‘ll forgive the wait! I was in the mood for something cute and fluffy

The Best of Us

„Why?“ Sanguinius asks quietly, pressing his nose against the nape of Lion‘s neck.

„I allready told you.“ He squeezes the angels hand. „You are the best of us.“

Sanguinius sighs, closing his eyes and snuggeling closer against his brother. „I‘m not. At least not for this job. You just keep telling me this so I don‘t feel as bad.“ 

„Now, don‘t say something this stupid.“ Roboute looks up from his book, gently petting Sanguinus‘ hair. „The people love you. You are beautifull and charismatic and…“

„So you have chosen me for my looks.“ The angel can‘t stifle a small laugh.

Roboute pouts but doesn‘t stop brushing through Sanguinus‘ curls. „You didn‘t let me finish! You are also a fantastic statesman, you are able to stay calm in arguments during which Lion would comitg murder, you care about people so much!“

There is a playfull smirk on Lion‘s lips. „Well, your looks did certainly play a large role. I mean, could you imagine Roboute‘s face on all those posters and films?“

„He doesn‘t look that bad…“ Sanguinius gently protests. 

Lion grumbles. „Roboute looks boring - don‘t look at me like this! You on the other hand… I mean just look at your wings.“ He presses a kiss on Sanguinius‘ hand. „And also, consider how it would look if he declared himself Emperor over Ultramar.“

„I know…“ The angel mumbles. „You would have still been a better Emperor than me…“

Roboute closes his book before laying down too. „Do you really think leaving Lion in charge won‘t end with all my bureacrats massacred?“

„I guess it would be a possibility.“ Sanguinius presses a kiss on his brother‘s neck in a attempt to stop him from grumbeling. „Maybe I‘ll consider a try at beeing Emperor…“

[iapetusneume]

Director's Cut: Dualitas Hastarum

Oh dear.

So, when I write something, I will (on average) have 0 - 2 people look at it before I post. For 40k stuff, pretty much everything I write Lieara sees before I post it. Sometimes I grab a beta, sometimes I don't.

This time, I had 4 people look at the Google Doc at various points. This doesn't include the questions I asked in the Discord Server. One could argue that with other people's help, that number goes up to 7 or 8. I don't remember the last time I've needed so much assistance.

Dualitas Hastarum

Sanguinius had cautioned Guilliman and the Lion that his change would be soon. Shapeshifting was peculiar like that. He'd once described the sense of the change as if an old human could feel the drop of barometric pressure in their joints. “Its not painful,” he had clarified, “but there is the sense that it is time. I can feel it. The change is needed, and will happen.” “Do you know what form you'll take?” the Lion had asked. Sanguinius chuckled, and shook his head. “Not specifically. Sometimes I have no clue. Sometimes, I have an idea.” When he had told them the change would happen soon, his smile was full of secrets. Sanguinius had an idea, and he kept it close to his chest. (Alternatively, Sanguinius can change his hair color and eye color. What if he could change more than that?)

I don't think it's something many would expect, either, that this fic was very difficult to write. I wanted it to be sweet, sexy, and simple. I didn't want a lot of "extra" plot. I wanted the reader to feel the love and trust between the three of them.

And yet.

This is the first piece of smut that I've posted anywhere that involves a vagina. I have an unfinished scene for a longer work, and I've RPed it plenty. When i realized this was where a lot of my anxiety was coming from, it made sense, but was also hopelessly frustrating.

Then my anxiety shifted to the actual logistics. As in, word choices. I have a lot more experience writing about cocks than I do vaginas, and I found myself getting hung up on words. So much of writing smut is "what feels right," which is so hard to do when the words escape me. I frequently found myself having a name for a body part but just not liking it at all in the prose. When I write, I try not to let word choices slow me down. I will put an approximation in &ALLCAPS, and then highlight it in yellow so I can't miss it. And well, this fic was littered with them before I started doing my editing.

There's also a phenomena with a lot of fic writers who have vaginas often struggling with writing about them. Something about it being too personal. I certainly felt that here, and then me struggling with the language that I feel like I really should know was rough.

I made a distinct decision to not change Sanguinius' pronouns in this story. I see him as being nonbinary/genderfluid, but more like... he doesn't really care about what pronouns are used? Or, alternatively, the pronoun he prefers to use is something specific to Aenokhian that doesn't translate into Low Gothic. I also see him using male pronouns in Low Gothic because of partial anxiety when dealing with Big E since he said he had sons. And Sanguinius has battles to fight and he doesn't care enough about this one to put up a fight. He has other things he's worried about.

But that's angsty. And even a more positive spin on gender presentation would start to make this fic feel heavy, and that's not what I wanted. And while I'd love to explore Sanguinius' gender expression and identity, that's not what I wanted for this story.

I kept running into these hurdles, in terms of angst. This is set during Imperium Secundus, which is already prone to angst, since it's during the Heresy. I wanted to make a reference about Sanguinius learning how to shapeshift from Magnus, but no, can't do that. That would bring up a traitor brother and at best it would be bittersweet. Same problem with Horus, whom Sanguinius has definitely fucked in this form. I'd even considered making an offhand remark that Sanguinius had fucked Jaghatai like this, but at this point in time the three of them do not know that Jaghatai is still alive.

I am a fan of angst, but that's not the goal of this story.

I was also running into a lot of moments where I was using gendered language. At first I was beating myself up over it, but then I just had to accept that it would be something I fixed in a later draft. This is not a Rule 63 fic. This is not a fic where Sanguinius is binary trans. I struggled with the tags on this for this reason as well, because I know how much it bothers a lot of people to see fic/art tagged as "female" because the person in questions has boobs and a vagina. Luckily Ao3 has a ton of variety of tags, and I think I was able to get around that hurdle.

I know my writing won't be for everyone, but I want to be respectful of this in my work. I also want to do it in a way that doesn't feel like an After School Special.

I also didn't want to get too deep into Guilliman or Lion's sexual identities in this. I HC that Lion is demisexual, and Guilliman is either bisexual or pansexual. They both don't have experience with tits and pussy because Lion just never felt very strongly about anyone who had them, and Guilliman was concerned about hurting his partner.

Due to a lot of reasons, I feel like I break out in hives whenever someone is terribly naive about sex in fic. It's often done for laughs, and I don't find anything funny about it. This is something else that's a bit personal and I won't get into here, but I was determined for Lion and Guilliman to not come off like that. What to do, then? I thought using the surprise and wonder angle was a good way around that. They're excited, and no they don't know what to do, but they're going to figure it out.

When they're looking at Sanguinius in this form, they are attracted to him for different reasons. Lion just sees Sanguinius, the person whom he loves so much, and his form is different. So what? And Guilliman sees Sanguinius in a different body, but this is another body that he finds attractive. Guilliman has yet to find a form of his he didn't like.

They love each other, they respect each other, they have fun. Sanguinius feels comfortable enough around Guilliman and Lion to show that he likes a wide variety of bodies, and Guilliman and Lion love Sanguinius no matter what body he decides to wear. It's sweet, it's cute, it makes me go "awwwwwww."

And I realize that I never got around to my idea about Lion reading romance novels in this, but I feel like that deserves a different post.

[victorluvsalice]

Helo yes, I just want to say that I found your Forgotten Vows verse again, and also your Secundus verse, because of @thesatiricaldemon 's "Beneath A Broken Sky" and all I have to say is:

... how dare you both, now I have two AU fic ideas that sprouted from them because of inspiration! [Positive] (Actually three, but that one is just an afterthought)

*snrrrk* How very dare we XD But hey, I'm glad that both my fics and SatiricalDemon's have been inspiring to you! Love to know more about what percolating in your head! (And hey, don't dismiss that "afterthought" idea -- my ORIGINAL idea for an Alice: Madness Returns / Corpse Bride crossover after the release of the former was for them to meet after Alice killed Dr. Bumby and Victor had gone through both the "corpse bride" incident and its aftermath, but while I was sorting out that, I had a stray thought of "but what if Victor's parents hadn't believed him and instead sent him to Dr. Bumby to force him to forget the whole thing...and we see where THAT ended up. XD)

[nebmia]

Reviewing every rpg book on my shelf: 7, Wolves of God

Wolves of God by Kevin Crawford is a game about adventuring in early anglo-saxon england and its prime virtue is in how thoroughly (and for the most part accurately) it develops that time period and attempts to place players in the outlook of those people. I happen to have a particular love for the early middle ages and for the anglo-saxons in particular, which places me directly in the target demographic for this game, and as far as I am concerned it delivers.

Mechanically Wolves of God is built on the same fundamental system as Kevin Crawfords other ‘without number’ games: So an osr type game with a greater than usual quantity of character build options and a particular focus on sandbox play.

The first thing you notice when you read the book is the framing device. The book is treated as if it was a manuscript written by a monk in 710AD (the rather opinionated Brother Cornix) documenting anglo-saxon gaming practice that has been unearthed and edited by Kevin Crawford. This lends the whole book a very unique and (to me) entertaining voice. For illustration here is a section from character creation:

The rules in these pages will show you how to make your bold adventurer, but do not be a thrall to man-marked ink on pale parchment. If your band of gamesmen has their own thought to the right way to manage a matter, then let it be done as you and your companions think best. Listen, then, and I will tell you how to make an English hero. From the first strong sinews of the mortal body to the crown of reason and high ambition, you will learn what makes a mighty champion of our people.

The styling as a medieval manuscript does, however, mean that many standard features of modern layout are absent, such as bullet points being replaced by paragraphs starting ‘primus’, ‘secundus’, ‘Tertius’, etc and that overall the text is much wordier than most contemporary rpgs. However, there are footnotes and sidebars from ‘the editor’ which summarise important rules or discuss some of Brother Cornix’s biases, and I find that, overall, the writing style is worth it for the level of immersion in the culture that it provides.

There are three classes you can use to create your ‘English Hero’ (plus an option for multiclassing): the warrior, the saint, and the galdorman. These are broadly analogous to the original D&D fighting man, cleric, magic user line up but each has twists to place it in the setting. The big point is that each classes has a set of ‘glories’ and ‘shames, which determine how they gain (or lose!) xp. These do a lot to place your character within the outlook and value system of the early middle ages. For instance the saints shames tie them to follow the law of the church, while a warriors shames relate to oath breaking or betraying your lord or friends. An interesting feature is that, while warriors or galdormen can escape shame if no one knows what they did, a saint always suffers the penalty as ‘God knows all things.’

Which is a good segue for talking about christianity and how deeply enmeshed it is in the setting. The book spends almost as many pages detailing the essentials of early medieval christianity as it does describing the rules for combat, and then goes on to spend twice as many pages describing monasteries and giving rules for generating them. Basically, religion was really important then and also quite unlike how we as modern people understand it.

Among the other things that were important to people then but unfamiliar to a modern audience are: Cattle Raids, Feasting etiquette, a gift economy, and the weight placed on fate. All of which Wolves of god sets out rules and procedures to guide you though. Outside of what is rendered in the rules to book also lays out an expansive description of anglo-saxon england covering the legal system, customs, farming practice, history and the main kingdoms. In contrast to games (D&D) where you play as essentially modern people in an essentially modern world wrapped in medieval aesthetics, Wolves of God is a game where you simply must inhabit the alien world that is the past.

Apart from the areas where is does deviate from history, which is primarily in the transformation of old roman ruins into portals to pocket dimensions (or ‘arxes’) created with ancient roman magic into which the romano-british retreated. What with it being, at its root, a dungeon crawling game I can see why there was a need to add magical dungeons and a treatment of roman ruins is definetly appropriate as the remnants of roman civilisation is deeply important to this time period (see the old english poem ‘the ruin’) but there is still fundamentally something about the inclusion of arxes that does not work for me. I think it is, perhaps, that the existence of dungeons and the delving off them is too big a thing to add without it dramatically changing the setting. A world with dungeon delving adventures is inevitably drawn into the sphere of classical D&D fantasy and away from the early middle ages. Fortunately, I can simply choose not to have any arxes and instead focus on more historical adventures with the odd mythical creature or barrow delve thrown in (don’t ask me why a barrow feels different to an arxe. It just does, ok)

A final note: My copy is the deluxe edition, which is unfortunately no longer available. I think the only difference with the print on demand version will be a less premium binding and printing and not having the red cover with gold

[parchmentleaves]

Lady Essiala Ariathia ban Vor'cle

No game this week, so a brief entry about Lady Essiala instead. Who is the lady behind this journal? Linked above or copy-pasted below.

Lady Essiala Ariathia Sorjiik den Morgenstern ban Vor’cle is the Navigator Primaris of the void-ship Gloriosa Lux Misericordiae Imperialis, a role she has held for just over a standard decade. She is a bookish and reserved woman who prefers the solitude of her library to the hubbub of human interactions, and uses her noble bearing as a mask to conceal her terrors and inner loneliness.

Child of Vor’cle

Essiala is a scion of House Vor’cle, an ancient and vaunted House of the Navis Nobilite that eschews sector and planetary politics in favour of broad-ranging interests and connections throughout the Imperium of Man, including at the very heights of power. Vor’cle Navigators guide ships of nobility, adepta of the mighty Adeptus Terra, Rogue Traders, and even the dreaded Inquisition. The House maintains its own fleet of void-clippers – fast courier voidcraft that crisscross Sectors, Segmenta and even the Imperium itself bearing information too dense, complex or secure to risk astropathic communication, as well as individuals wishing swift and unobtrusive transport across the stars.

She was born on one of these void-clippers, the lean and ancient Morgenstern, and is a child of an esteemed and stable gene-lineage that has been free of genomic instability for over a millenium. Children of the Sorjiik lineage tend to a greater height, leanness of build and paleness of skin than even most void-born, with many also possessing entirely black eyes well-suited to finding even the fainest of lights in the darkness of the void. Essiala shows all these traits and, like many children of her line, prefers her quarters set to lower local gravity and dimmer lumination than ship standard.

House Vor’cle is less hidebound than many great magisterial Houses of the Navis Nobilite who might rely on their breeding and connections to secure contracts of navigation. The Vor’cle instead educate their scions and inculcate a deep curiosity about the universe into them. They in turn record everything that they encounter on their long-ranging travels across and beyond the Imperium and send their reports back to the House archives, where they may be used to further the obectives of the House and its allies. This cavalier disregard for the virtue of ignorance has led to multiple long term feuds between the House and factions of the Ecclesiarchy.

Dark Apprenticeship

Decades of scholarship and apprenticeship taught Essiala well the lessons of her House. She served as a Navigatrix Tertius and learned the practicalities of navigation aboard multiple ships with distinction and no issue save for a short-lived daliance with a bright-eyed void-mistress that ended when Essiala ascended to the rank of Navigatrix Secundus and was assigned to the void-ship Revenance.

Her years aboard the Revenance took her into the Halo Stars beyond the frontiers of the Imperium. She saw strange aetheric phenomena and curious alien ruins, decimated remnants of fallen civilisations far older than that of Man, and steered the ship through terrible warp storms to find safe refuge in the light of the Astronomicon once more. An incident occured on one voyage where she had the honour of steering the ship while the Navigator Primaris was recovering from injuries following a skirmish with Orkish pirates. The ship’s Gellar field, likely suffering some minor damage in the prior engagement, fluctuated during a turbulent ana-surge within the Immaterium and something attempted to coalesce through the cracks into the Navis spire.

A shapeless darkness with a voice of ash and burning violet eyes appeared on before Essiala and begged for her to open disable the safeties on the Aciens Horrens, the heavily warded portal through which the Navigator views the Immaterium, and allow it inside. It offered power, knowledge, all the sweet temptations fit to lure her into obeying its pleas. She refused and, in a moment of righteous anger, tried to turn the power of her Third Eye on the blasphemous thing. The entity simply laughed in amusement and departed, leaving her with words.

“Such fire you have. And such fires you will see Beyond. Three and three and all will burn as bright as you. May they consume you by delightful degrees.”

Essiala found herself marked and shaken by this dreadful encounter. All food tastes of ash in her mouth and her dreams echo with the three-eyed entities mocking laughter. In response she threw herself into studying all she could find about such blasphemous foes, so that she might face and destroy the entity if she encountered it once more. And to this day she takes great care to maintain a personal shrine to the Emperor in her quarters, praying to Him on Earth and all His Saints each morning after a night of fitful, restless sleep.

Navigator of the Gloriosa Lux

The incident on the Revenance earned Essiala her elevation to the rank of full Navigatrix, after sufficient psychoexamination and deep testing to ensure that the entity had left no taint upon her soul. She was assigned to fulfil House Vor’cle’s contract of navigation with the Void-ghast Dynasty, an ancient rogue trader family now fallen from the heights of their past glories, and she assumed the duties of Navigator Primaris aboard the Void-ghast’s only true void-ship, the Sword-class frigate Gloriosa Lux Misericordiae Imperialis.

Lady Essiala worked well with the Gloriosa Lux and her Lord-Captain Eleazar Void-ghast, steering the vessel on nearly a dozen expeditions into into the wild space of the Koronus Expanse and bringing her home safely each time. Each voyage brought new wonders and new terrors, and always the subtlest hints of some meaning behind the words and the sinister laughter haunting her nightmares.

Lord Eleazar’s sudden and unexpected death upended everything. Gloriosa Lux was forced to return to anchorage, spending nearly a year in limbo waiting for the heir to the Dynasty, the Writ of Trade, and the Lord-Captaincy to be found. Essiala spent the time reading, writing notes for future memoirs, and attempting to make sense of her dreams. She could feel a pattern forming, though it was still too diffuse and subtle to fully grasp.

Finally, after interminable politics and delays of transit, Lazarus Void-ghast was declared Lord of the Dynasty and the Gloriosa Lux Misericordiae Imperialis has set sail once more into the Koronus Expanse…

[pactargent]

We are pleased to inform after our long absence from communications that the former BISS Collozi has completed full refit to Pact naval specifications. As per regulations, it has also received a new identification: The LSV Bavia’s Folly.

The vessel will be assigned to internal defence duties once its shakedown cruise has been completed, ostensibly Defence Group Secundus in the Kaltaer System.

On another note, our 1st Expeditionary Group has returned after a several month-long mission, charting the sectors and systems to the galactic north-west. The ships of the group have subsequently been reassigned to the ongoing Bavian conflict. That is all.

Pact Eternas.

[40klog]

The Sleeping Scorpion

Chirurgeon’s Log, MD-1011101.  Indecipherable Complexity’s Chirurgeon Saphillex Koth reporting.  Input from Sacred Mars indicates that the lost Symphony of Data might lie somewhere in the Probai subsector, and Indecipherable Complexity is investigating, system by system.  The Eukestren system lies in the fringes of a warp storm, and Indecipherable Complexity has sent Shuttle-001, rather than risking the entire explorator ship.  Explorator Secundus Aukane Theta commands the shuttle, and I have accompanied him, along with a squad of Skitarii.  We are now scanning Eukestren’s major satellites.

Chirurgeon’s Log, supplemental.  As we approached and scanned Eukestren V, we spotted an unknown vessel (UV-1011101-01) in orbit of it.  The vessel was emitting a greeting signal, while also emitting some violent directed energy at the planet below.  As we watched, Eukestren V exploded, and the vessel ceased all energy emissions and transmissions.  I convinced Explorator Secundus Theta to approach, and scan. ¶ The ship matched the configuration of certain pre-Imperial vessels previously known to Mechanicus records.  At my insistence, we boarded. ¶ We saw visions of the ship’s former crew flickering in and out of the gaze of our personal sensors, and no apparent sign of their physical forms.  The situation had an air of the Immaterium.

Chirurgeon's Log, supplemental.  We have met the horror at the heart of UV-1011101-01.  The interior of the vessel shifts and changes behind our backs, and the path back to Shuttle-001 is blocked off.  We ventured deeper into the vessel, and found the crucified remains of the crew, long since decayed.  Eventually, we stumbled into a blasphemous cathedral, dominated by the towering cradle of an Abominable Intelligence.  It sent rotting servitors against us in force, managing to strike down Theta.  I managed to stabilize him, while the Skitarii facilitated a fighting retreat to a smaller, defensible chamber.

Chirurgeon's Log, supplemental.  We thought ourselves momentarily safe from the AI's influence in our side-chamber, but both Explorator Secundus Theta and the Skitarii began to succumb to some blasphemous illness; I managed to preserve them by siphoning off my own homeostatic tincture for them. ¶ Theta deployed the Skitarii for a well-coordinated assault on the AI, but collapsed with nightmare hallucinations before he could carry it out.  I commanded them in his place and, Omnissiah be praised, we were victorious over the beast, and I was able to download its core database.  But the ship itself grew violently unstable.  With the AI destroyed, the ship's corridors ceased their shifting, and I was able to lead us back to the shuttle. ¶ I find myself back on Shuttle-001, plotting a course to rendezvous with Indecipherable Complexity, and preparing to perform extensive purification rites.

[midnightactual]

Rukongai is Salusa Secundus

I keep referencing Dune for a reason and I can now explain to you why Rukongai is set up the way it is through analogy with the Imperial House, the Sardaukar, and Salusa Secundus.

A people known as the Sardau rise to primacy on a terrible world called Salusa Secundus. They eventually get off-world, become mercenaries, and due to external circumstances manage to become the Imperial House of the Known Universe, House Corrino. House Corrino still needs more troops to maintain its primacy though. So what to do?

Well, they take whatever prisoners they acquire, dump them back on Salusa Secundus, force them to endure all the hardships that they themselves experienced, and simultaneously stamp their culture and traditions onto them, while at the same time preventing any efforts to make the planet more bearable.

"In this way, they manufactured a deadly environment of near-anarchy that naturally trained battle-ready forces. Recruits would be drawn from their ranks by special selection practices. Those few who were chosen to ascend were released from their bonds of imprisonment and welcomed as brethren by the Emperor, who spoiled them with lavish treatment."

Is this starting to sound familiar?

This is exactly how Rukongai is managed, right down to the unnaturally persistent and smooth conditions of anarchy. Actually, the forces of the Seireitei have an even more organic system, as they don't even have to select recruits—recruits self-select by venturing to the Seireitei themselves.

The whole thing is a prison camp for recruiting Shinigami, and the quality of those recruits is increasing with time. Just look at all the commoners from Rukongai who know Bankai in the present era, something unheard of in the past.

The system is working perfectly.

Now you might be wondering why the Great Nobles would set up a world like this when they bound the Soul King and created multiple realms, and the answer to that is in Dune too: they're playing the Bene Gesserit. They're breeding superior forces.

While the Nobles have to finance a bunch of dumb technological solutions like Hollowfication to try and catch up with them, the Great Nobles can just snatch up whatever awesome commoners appear and integrate them into their bloodlines directly, or make them into vassal Houses on merit and thus also dilute the power of the Nobles by stacking their ranks with more and more servants. Either way they win.

[canadianno]

[[IGNORE: THIS HAS NO RELATION TO THIS BLOG AS A WHOLE]]

Sanguinius, The Red Angel

"Angel born in hell"

Also known as the "perfect child", the most beloved of all the primachs, atleast to the public eye, Sanguinius represent all that is pure and noble about humanity

His capsule did not crash against a planet, insted it was moon, "Baal Secundus" (strange name i know), the moon of the planet that later could be the base of the Blood Angels, his sons, but thats going to much into the future

Long ago the two moons of Baal were a beatiful place, even more for the standarts of the Dark Age of Technology, but as you can guess it didn't last during the Old Night, we don't know how, but both the two moons of baal were infected with enormus amounts of radiation, probably result of some kind of weapon against the man of steel

Soon the few survivors had to live in the leftovers of its monuments and cities, ending with horrible mutants created for the radiation, basically fallout in space

When a group of humans first found the "angel", the people of the place tried to kill him, why?, because this was perfect child only with a tiny defect, he had wings, yeah that part of being called and angel it was literal btw

The people thinking he was a mutant, the people was gonna end short his life. Now why did Sanguinius had wings????, some say it was for the radiation, some others said it was the design of the Emperor (maybe even the Chaos gods), the thing is that even the own Primach didn't know, he supposed it was some kind of "phych" manifestation cuz even him knew that it was completly imposible having wings due to his you know, 4 meters tall demigod-

I mean he was a Primach and all, so he thought that, but he still could feel the wings so he kinda eventually just roll with it, lets leave it there (that and the Emperor himself never really answer that)

In the end of the day it didn't matter, the people of baal couldn't put the child down due to feeling his "primach vibes" and being a motherfucking child, so they adopted the child and just ignore the wings that were there-

With time Sanguinius grew and so did his wings, and with time we was surfing over the skies like an angel, not only that but he grew up to became a nice person to knowing and understanding the necesity and value of the people of Baal that with each day they pushed forwad to live another day

Until one day, an army super mutants could attack Sanguinius campament to kill everyone in it, seeing how the people of Baal died to such beast Sanguinius entered in an blood rage, destroying the bodies of the mutants and eventually leaving nothing of them

In the end all that was left was Sanguinius in the middle of a battle and being covered in the blood of his enemy, any person would have been horrified at this vision, but when you live at a place like that, this was the perfect man to being at your side

Soon Sanguinius conquered his world and purged all the mutants out of it, soon the hope came back to Baal Secondus and soon came the Emperor and meet his son and his legion, the Blood Angels....

Who unlike their genetical Father

They were a bunch of super sociopaths cannibals addited to the blood traumatized from the wars on terra

"Ah" said the Primach, "lmao" said the Emperor

In the eyes of the Imperium, the Blood Angels were at par with legion of Angron, the world eaters, at least in how the were despicted, Sanguinius seeing this decided to send his legion to therapy but to change them all by himself

And he did it, Sanguinius managed to convert an entire legion worth of monsters into one of noble warriors with honor, from monters to heroes of the imperium

But with a small problem, the Blood Angels were had the called "black rage" (or something like that i forgot) which turned the Marines into monsters once again, Sanguinius did his best to hide this information from the public and even other primachs and the Emperor due to his fear of his legion being probably replaced with another

This genetical problem could never be resolved

Sanguinius, Primach of the IX legion, The Blood Angels for the Imperium

-alz, 13/18

-alz, also the Blood angels were extremly loyal to their Primach

-alz, the only other person that knew about the black rage was Horus Lupercal.

HELLNYEAH

[vodkacheesefries]

I know its been a minute since I posted any history Sims, but the game has had a couple updates and broke a couple of my mods. So I haven't been able to play them and advance the story. That said I think I'm *finally* in the clear, so onto the next household we'll be frequenting:

Emperor Rabirus - Self Assured, Ambitious, Loner

Rabirius didn't exactly want to be emperor, but it fell to him regardless. He trusts his friend, Laelius, with his life. Time will tell if this is a wise decision. He enjoys his wife's company, but given he won't stop flirting with Laelius or Finn, I don't actually think he has a preference for women. Regardless, they have three children, whom he loves, and he cares for Lucretia deeply even if it isn't romantic.

Lucretia - Family Oriented, Foodie, Loner

Lucretia didn't exactly want to be married to be the emperor's wife, but since he wasn't married and she had reached the end of her 30 year service as one of the Vestal Virgins, and the Pontifex was determined to find a worthy match for her--ta daaaa! Lucretia and Rabirius get along well enough and she loves their children, but she'd rather take her pension and retire to the country side. She's tired of politics and prophecies. At least the food from the Emperor's larder good.

To be honest I don't have much planned for their kids (had triplets on the first go) since I don't think I'll be in Tartosa much past when they've aged up into adulthood, but they're cute so here they are:

Rabirius I - Hot Headed

Secundus - Adventurous

Tertius - Squeamish

Rabirius is my backup for the political goal for this era, and as emperor he and Lucretia will be throwing parties to contribute to the "throw 50 parties" goal. Lucretia is also going to try and master cooking for one of the goals as well.

Other households:

The Gladiators

The Frugi Family

[jayjtheunsuspiciousmelodicathem]

Raised Roman Catholic of the Polish variety, although nowadays I don't really give much thought to my religious beliefs.

On a "formal" level, I'd say that the Pope is probably the thing that separates roman catholicism from other sects and religions, in that he's both a political figure and the top religious authority in christianity (kind of like the Dalai Lama). To the Polish people - to whom I belong - papacy is even more important, at least historically, because of pope Jan Paweł II (Iohannes Paulus Secundus, John Paul II), whose becoming pope was a major morale boost during the age of the PRL (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa - Polish People's Republic; the communist era).

But to give a more everyday example, I think that roman catholicism differs from other western christian sects (western when looked through the lens of the Great East-West Schism of 1054, so both catholicism and protestantism) in several core aspects. First: the architecture. Catholic churches are ornate, opulent, beautiful, while protestant churches are more down-to-earth following Luther's sola fide (faith alone) principle. Even the churches of my hometown (which is very small) and the nearby village my grandparents live in are all very beautiful, there's art everywhere, ornaments, gilded motifs etc., not to mention the gothic churches in my college town. Protestant, and especially American churches, are much more tame in comparison (which is also the reason why catholicism made its churches so beautiful - it was all part of the counter-reformation: catholics put more money into art to show the glory of GD, and how much more glorious catholicism is compared to other churches).

Roman Catholics also exhibit a strong cult of St Mary - should you ever drive through Poland, you will find small roadside shrines with a statue of Virgin Mary with lots of flowers and colourful ribbons, sometimes in the spot where a driver died in an accident. Locally the cult of other saints might be stronger, but personally I've never met a person who actually invokes any saints in their prayers or blessings. Also fun fact: the patron saint of Poland is King (or Queen, but formally king) Hedwig of Poland, the first woman to be head of state of Poland!

Also from what I've seen, confessionals - small booths or rooms where you anonymously confess your sins and transgressions to a priest so they can prescribe you a bunch of prayers to get absolution for those sins are apparently not a thing in other denominations of christianity??? Like, I get it, sola fide, and confessing your sins to GD personally through prayer if you're protestant but like y'all are missing on a powerful literary motif.

I could also get into holidays, since more of them are generally observed than in other denominations (and if you're not observant to them, you might find yourself in quite the predicament, like when I wanted to go to the grocery store but didn't realise it was Corpus Christi that day, and couldn't buy my groceries :c ), but that varies from country to country.

And as for inherently catholic/catholic coded? As I said, confessionals feel very inherently catholic, and anonymously confessing to someone in a piece of media invokes that imagery to me.

As much as catholic guilt is often brought up when talking about religious trauma, and maybe it's just American catholics, or the religious education in my hometown just had good teachers (priests, catechists), but here I personally have never seen anyone feel bad for enjoying themselves, no matter how devoted they are to religion. Like, to diverge from the subject a bit, in elementary school we were taught Sex Ed by our religion teacher/catechist, and it wasn't sanitised, nor was there any demonisation of LGBT or contraception and stuff (although there are clergy in this country who do demonise those things, but that's the case for every single Abrahamic faith).

Anyway, personally I don't feel like catholic guilt is all that catholic - maybe some people experience it, but in Poland catholicism generally isn't as puritan as stereotypes make it to be.

Crucifices on walls and icons/paintings of St Mary with Baby Jesus. I haven't been in a household of a religious family and haven't seen at least one crucifix and St Mary with Baby Jesus.

Calling All Catholics!

Weird thing for a Jew to post I know I know but hear me out here.

I would like to hear from Catholics (current and ex/raised),

what do you feel separates your religion from others (both other sects of Christianity and other religions as a whole? what feels unique or specific to you/your culture/your beliefs/your church? this can be theological beliefs, practices, or even aesthetics

what things feel "inherently Catholic" or "Catholic coded" to you?

if you don't mind, would you also include what subset of Catholicism you are/were raised in (Roman, Byzantine, Irish, Opus Dei, etc)?

As you may have guessed, this is for research, and I personally only have experience with Roman Catholicism (and limited experience at that, more cultural than truly religious). I would love to hear from a larger subset of people. My family is extremely Italian Catholic but that's just one very specific version, and I don't have much/any experience with any others. I'm curious to see what the common ground is.

Reblogs/signal boosts are appreciated as I doubt I have like a SUPER broad Catholic following myself lol!

[victorluvsalice]

Merry Christmas Ace!

@ace-of-tales Hope you're doing well! I remembered your request from ages ago -- another installment of the "Klaus, Leona, and company end up in Secundus" series we've been doing for a few years now, showing the Libra team battling a Blood Breed in the city and everyone being very impressed and intrigued by their battle skills. Enjoy!

Also That Is Too Much Blood For One Person

“I have to say – I really did not expect there to be so many ways to fashion weapons out of your own blood.”

“It is extremely impressive, isn’t it?” Alice said, watching as Klaus hit the “Blood Breed” – a tall, pale man sporting claws, fangs, and an expression suggesting he wished he was anywhere else right about now – with. . .well, to her it looked like an axe, but as Klaus kept smacking the Blood Breed with the bit she thought of as the “handle,” it was probably an overly-fancy blood sword instead. “They really know what they’re doing.”

“I should say – did you see the white-haired one? Zapp, I believe?” Christopher said, pointing him out as he darted away from a swipe of the Blood Breed’s claws. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone slice up a monster so quickly! And with a sword technically made out of liquid no less!”

“It looks like it crystalizes once it’s outside their bodies,” Richard said, extending his neck to get a better look at the action. “Though, in that case, you’d expect all those blades to be a lot more fragile. They seem to be able to take quite a few hits!”

“Honestly, I’m most impressed with Steven,” Victoria admitted, looking over at the Blood Breed’s minions, currently standing literally frozen in place on the sidelines. “I still don’t know how he did that, but – goodness me, he barely even blinked, and they were just completely out of the fight!”

“Leona told me that that particular party trick involves him turning drops of his own blood into little needles that burrow into his victims, allowing him to flash-freeze them,” Alice told her. “Which is – disconcerting, to say the least, so we should all be grateful he’s using it on the side of good.”

“Really,” Victor agreed, before flinching away as another gigantic spray of blood came very close to his face. It formed into a fancy wall, then slammed into the ground, just in time to halt the Blood Breed as he tried to flee. “I think we can say that for all of them, frankly.”

“Indeed – we’re very lucky that they’re all as keen on fighting and eliminating monsters as I am,” Christopher said, puffing out his chest slightly. “And that they were here for the day when this particular one showed up! I don’t know how well my own sword would have done against this beast.”

“I’m sure you would have been just fine,” Victoria said, with a loyal, loving smile.

“I just wish they’d end it already,” Emily squeaked, half-hidden behind Richard. “I do not like the size of the teeth on that creature!”

“I think they’re trying to weaken it in preparation for the final blow,” Doc assured her, as Richard put his arm around her. “What did Leona say? They need to learn the Breed’s true name before it can be sealed?”

“Yup – that’s her job, to try and learn the name from its aura with her special eyes while the others keep it busy,” Alice said, then spotted a small figure running up to the hulking Klaus. “And if I don’t miss my guess, I think she’s just figured it out. . .yup, here comes the dramatic blood again. . .”

A few more words shouted in a language none of them understood, and suddenly Klaus’s blood wrapped around the Blood Breed like mummy bandages, forcing his form into a T-shape before shrinking down and solidifying into an elaborate metal cross. Klaus picked it up, tucked it away, then turned and waved to the onlookers. “You’re all right over there?”

“Fine!” Marty yelled back. “Awesome work!”

“Quite the show!” Alice added.

“Very impressive!” Christopher agreed.

“How are you not all anemic?”

All eyes went to Richard. “Hey, it’s a fair question,” he said, shrugging. “None of the blood ever seems to go back in their bodies.”

Emily facepalmed. “Richard. . .”

“Uh – never really thought about that?” the one called Zapp said, blinking. “Until now, anyway?”

“Don’t start having existential crises now,” Alice called down. “How about some tea instead?”

“Indeed! My treat!” Richard said brightly. “I think we could all use some!”

“That’s for certain,” Klaus mumbled, then gave them a small smile. “All right then – lead the way.”

[bowen80]

The only surviving eyewitness account of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius was written by Roman senator and writer Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, more commonly known as Pliny the Younger. He was seventeen years old in 79 AD and watched the terrible event unfold from the home of his uncle in Misenum, (modern day Miseno, across the Bay of Naples.

English translation of Pliny’s account:

"Meanwhile, my mother and I had stayed at Misenum. After my uncle left us, I studied, dined, and went to bed, but I slept only fitfully. We had earth tremors for several days, which were not especially alarming because they happen so often in Campania. But that night they were so violent that everything felt as if it were being shaken and turned over. My mother came hurrying to my room, and we sat together in the forecourt facing the sea.

By six o'clock, the dawn light was still only dim. The buildings around were already tottering, and we would have been in danger in our confined space if our house had fallen down. This made us decide to leave town. We were followed by a panic-stricken crowd that chose to follow someone else's judgement rather than decide anything for themselves. We stopped once we were out of town, and then some extraordinary and alarming things happened. The carriages we had ordered began to lurch to and fro, although the ground was flat, and we could not keep them still even when we wedged their wheels with stones. Then we saw the sea sucked back, apparently by an earthquake, and many sea creatures were left stranded on the dry sand. From the other direction over the land, a dreadful black cloud was torn by gushing flames and great tongues of fire like much-magnified lightning.

The cloud sank down soon afterwards and covered the sea, hiding Capri and Capo Misenum from sight. My mother begged me to leave her and escape as best I could, but I took her hand and made her hurry along with me. Ash was already falling by now, but not very thickly. Then I turned around and saw a thick black cloud advancing over the land behind us like a flood. "Let us leave the road while we can still see", I said, "or we will be knocked down and trampled by the crowd". We had hardly sat down to rest when the darkness spread over us. But it was not the darkness of a moonless or cloudy night; it was just as if the lamps had been put out in a completely closed room.

We could hear women shrieking, children crying, and men shouting. Some were calling for their parents, their children, or their wives and trying to recognise them by their voices. Some people were so frightened of dying that they actually prayed for death. Many begged for the help of the gods, but even more imagined that there were no gods left and that the last eternal night had fallen on the world. There were also those who added to our real perils by inventing fictitious dangers. Some claimed that part of Misenum had collapsed or that another part was on fire. It was untrue, but they could always find somebody to believe them.

A glimmer of light returned, but we took this to be a warning of approaching fire rather than daylight. But the fires stayed some distance away. The darkness came back, and ash began to fall again, this time in heavier showers. We had to get up from time to time to shake it off, or we would have been crushed and buried under its weight. I could boast that I never expressed any fear at this time, but I was only kept going by the consolation that the whole world was perishing with me.

After a while, the darkness paled into smoke or cloud and the real daylight returned, but the sun shone as weakly as during an eclipse. We were amazed by what we saw because everything had changed and was buried deep in ash like snow. We went back to Misenum and spent an anxious night switching between hope and fear. Fear was uppermost because the earth tremors were still continuing and the hysterics kept on making their alarming forecasts.”

Source:

https://igppweb.ucsd.edu/~gabi/sio15/lectures/volcanoes/vesuvius.html

[bagajewsky]

Finnaly something what i made in more whan one hour and i even love it. Not so much as i love him, of course...

Some russian general vibes they said... Well maybe, i just wanted my man to look like a nice emperor. Эполеты круто.

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

@secundus-cinaedus #men should simply stop having sex if they're not ready to be fathers. and vice versa#screw prophylactics there's still a risk. and if you're not willing to take that risk then don't#and similarly don't put the woman you want to sleep with in that situation. if you're gonna sleep with her you should respect her that much#surely?#stop being sluts (men inclusive) challenge#the sexual revolution and its consequences#rfv12pol3#add ons#orpr0

You have very much misunderstood the intent of this post. I am absolutely good with non-procreative sex. What I'm not good with is constant male irresponsibility. I am not about calling women sluts, even you are also calling men sluts. I think it's perfectly fine to have sex when you don't want to be a parent. PIV, however, needs to be decentered as the end-all and be-all of sex, and when it does occur the male should glove up. Abortion is not a problem I'm trying to stop. Neither is sex. Male sexual coercion and resultant unwanted pregnancies (which is hell to go through even if it's just for a few weeks) is my problem.

What I will say is this: abortion is good and necessary but the fact so many of them are happening reveals a huge problem with irresponsible and sexually coercive men. And I think that gets buried in the discourse over whether women should even be allowed to have abortions. Personally I think the laws should be on mandating condom use for men. It wouldn't stop all sexual coercion resulting in pregnancy, but it might stop some. And it would be nice to see men squirm and whine about it, tears in their eyes, crying "my freedom! my body, my choice!"