#nepo lady

[eskildit]

i have just realized that pash is probably in her thirties. late twenties at a minimum. like on my first read i thought she was obnoxious and brash in the way that you are when your frontal lobe isnt fully developed but that math doesnt math. shes nine or ten in wakes photo which was taken at least twenty years before nona takes place. plus, pyrrha first guesses shes wakes sister. pash is fully grown. this is the best news

[g1deonthefirst]

not gonna lie i think it's a little insane the way this fandom has run with "pash is an incompetent nepo baby coasting on her aunt's fame" all because princess coronabeth tridentarius accused her of benefiting from nepotism

[melancholygirl111]

[shybiii]

TMAGP is a very fun commentary on government institutions in that the OIAR is almost presented as this grand, sophisticated organization with rigorous bureaucracy, official-sounding departments and job titles, a para-military branch, and broad censorship of information in the name of keeping the powers over the world at bay. It is nonetheless almost completely impotent. There has been maybe one statement where they actually stopped someone from coming to harm. They actively collaborate or at least play nice with violent, dangerous individuals like Bonzo or Lady Mowbray most likely because it serves their interests to keep them around, despite the fact that taking them out would absolutely benefit innocent people in the long run. Their censorship has all the subtly and grace of a blunt instrument.

If they are genuinely attempting to keep the powers at bay, they are doing a monstrous job of it. Despite their 'attempts' at suppression, these incident reports keep cropping up. Random wizards like Ink5oul, Needles, the movie guy, and the dice guy are just running amok. That giant ritual thing at the Hilltop charity nearly went off without a hitch before the OIAR managed to bring in the SWAT team and nearly killed a civilian in the process. They posture as this efficient, authoritative establishment who, in reality, seem to barely know what the hell is going on. The most they can do is intervene after everything has already gone pear-shaped and write up a report after to catalogue it.

What I generally suspect is that they are not really there to stop anything or help anyone. After all, they actively dissuade employees from thinking too hard about the terrible things happening right in front of them. They are there to keep the status quo instead of actually bringing about change for the better. They are there to catalogue information and file it away with the satisfaction that they have translated a reality-defying threat into government-assigned categories, and that this might make them Less Unknown and Less Threatening if they can be classified with numbers and ranks and the language of bureaucracy. It's useless. Kafka-esque. Despite putting snappy labels on the incident reports, they don't actually seem that close to understanding most of it. At least not enough to actually stop danger before it starts. However, having this information gives them the illusion of control, and this acts as a deterrent for its dissemination toward the masses. Without all that super secret info, what do they really have going for them that gives them authority? Not much. These people are actively floundering, with their only strength being that knowledge is absolute power as long as there is someone who hoards it.

[pacey-bunce-loves-joey]

I can’t let my child shiver in the self made cold, ok???

[ianthesmells]

love that corona calls pash a nepo baby... girl u are not even a necromancer!!

[vigilantejustice]

got a good grade in work today (sold $1300 worth of swimwear in a single transaction and the regional manager told my store manager to tell me she’s impressed)

[hvbris]

CAESAR FLICKERMAN: And what did you say to her... in the end? KATNISS EVERDEEN: I told her that I would try to win. That I would try to win for her. CESAR FLICKERMAN: Of course you did. And try you will.

THE HUNGER GAMES (2012) dir. Gary Ross

[archduchessofnowhere]

How many ladies-in-waiting did Empress Elisabeth have during her tenure as empress/queen?

Hi! I’m really glad I got this ask because lately I’ve been really interested in the people “behind the scenes” of Elisabeth’s life. But before answering this, we need to add some context and terminology, because “lady-in-waiting” is actually a very vague term.

First of all, who could access court?

The Habsburg court was extremely conservative on who could access it. While the courts of France or Prussia allowed the access of the rich bourgeoisie, to enter the Viennese court you needed to have an impecable noble background:

This small group of old nobility made up “court society”. They were the elite who passed all the tests of “ancestral lineage examination” with flying colours, who were permitted unlimited entry to court based on the pristine purity of their ancestral background. This exclusive group did not need to shine through achievement, it already possessed the requisite glamour from their heritage as princes, counts or barons. Whoever could prove eight maternal and paternal ancestors stemming from a noble line of flawless credentials and whose own ancestors had not broken this longstanding chain through marriages with partners beneath their standing could legitimately lay claim to the seal of approval generally dubbed ‘admissable at court’ (hoffähig). (Winkelhofer, 2012)

The women that were allowed to “wait” on the empress belonged to this exclusive group of nobles made up of about 400 families in the empire. “Rebel/low class woman infiltrates in court and becomes Elisabeth’s lady-in-waiting” is a trope that appeared in both RTL Sisi and Netflix Die Kaiserin, but that would’ve been simply impossible. There was a department in charge of checking everyone’s backgrounds, investigating every paper register and historical family tree. You either had the proper ancestry, or you weren’t allowed entrance.

So what was exactly the role of a “lady-in-waiting” at the Habsburg court?

There were two types of what we usually call “lady-in-waiting”: hofdamen (court ladies) and palastdamen (palaces ladies). Palastdamen were the aforementioned women who had access to court due to their noble status. Having access to court didn’t meant, however, that you just popped up at balls whenever you wanted. Even if you had an illustrious family tree you still needed to obtain official court recognition in order to be able to obtain a place at official occasions (for women, according to Winkelhofer, this was receiving the Order of the Starry Cross). Also Franz Josef was very strict on the nobility, and he demanded that nobles attended regularly at court to fulfill their duties; if someone didn’t appear in a long time they had to answer an inquiry as to why they had been absent, and the emperor could go as far as revoking their right to appear.

The compulsory duties of the nobility were, first, to pay their respects to the Emperor on 1st January at the New Year’s Day Reception, and later to attend to the two official balls that took place weeks later: the “Court Ball” and the “ball at court”. The next mandatory appearances were the holy day festivities; the most important event at court was the Corpus Christi procession:

The traditional procession the court at Corpus Christi - fondly dubbed “God’s Court Ball” by the Viennese - was the most significant festive day on the calendar to the imperial family, since this holiday celebrated and demonstrated the longstanding close ties of the dynasty to the Catholic Church. Everyone had to appear at the procession, including those who were not assigned to march in the parade itself, since the emperor viewed this as his foremost representational duty. (Winkelhofer, 2012)

Meanwhile, being a hofdame was a paid job. Unlike palastdamen, who entered court by their status alone, hofdamen had to be personally appointed to the position. Their main job was to keep company of their mistress all the time, which Elisabeth found annoying (“She says herself that it is not unpleasant to her to see us occasionally, but it is odious to her to have us in waiting” [Corti, 1936]). Being a hofdame, however, wasn’t cheap, since they always had to have new gowns for every official occasion, which their salaries usually couldn’t cover, and needed the support of their families (x). Also, a hofdame always had to be single, so when she married she lost the job.

As Empress, Elisabeth had her own household. The Oberhofmeisterin (a title that is usually translated as “Mistress of the Robes”) was in charge of controlling the household, hiring and firing staff, enforced discipline and etiquette, and replaced the empress at official events in case she couldn’t attend. She was the highest-ranking noble women at court, and unlike the aforementioned hofdamen, she could be married. During her 44 years tenure as empress Elisabeth had four Oberhofmeisterin:

Countess Sophie Esterházy (née Princess of Liechtenstein)

Countess Paula Königsegg (née Countess Bellegarde)

Countess Marie Goëss (née Countess Welsersheimb)

Countess Maria Theresia Harrach (née Princess of Thurn und Taxis)

In Elisabeth’s household there was also an special position, created exclusively for one woman: Ida Ferenczy. She is often called a “lady-in-waiting” (even myself on this blog called her that), but this isn’t correct. When Elisabeth was learning Hungarian in 1864, she asked for a lady who could help her practice the language. A list of ladies was created, which included Ida, and she was chosen. However, there was a problem: Ida wasn’t from nobility, but from the gentry, and therefore she couldn’t be made a hofdame. How did she even got on that list without having the right ancestry is a mystery to this day. But Elisabeth liked her and wanted to keep her in her household, so a position for her was created: “vorleserin”, the reader. She became one the empress’ closest confidents and remained in her service until her death.

Now, to finally answer the question: how many ladies-in-waiting Elisabeth had during her 44 years of tenure as empress?

Sadly I can’t give you an exact number. However, we can have an idea of how many and who they were. The Hof- und Staatshandbuch des österreichischen Kaiserthumes (renamed Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie after 1873) was the official guide of the Austrian empire, published from 1806 until the fall of the monarchy in 1918. These guides contained, among other things, lists of the complete staff of the imperial family’s households, as well as list of who had access to court. The Austrian National Library has available for free most, although sadly not all, of these guides. And yes, who were Elisabeth’s hofdamen each year is mentioned.

The years missing sadly correspond to Elisabeth’s first years as empress, as well as almost all of 1860s. Since I’m mainly following the official guide, there may be some mistakes; some ladies weren’t in the guide but I found the info about them in biographies (this was the case of Mathilde Windisch-Graetz). Anyway, these were some of Elisabeth’s hofdamen!

Countess Pauline “Paula” Bellegarde (served from 1854 until her marriage in 1857, Oberhofmeisterin from 1862 until 1868)

Countess Caroline Lamberg (served from 1854 until her marriage in 1860)

Countess Josepha Wallis (served since at least 1856 until 1858)

Countess Sophie Coudenhove (served since at least 1856 until ?)

Baroness Ludovica Sturmfeder (served since at least 1856 until 1866/7)

Princess Helene of Thurn und Taxis (served from 1858 until her marriage in 1871)

Countess Louise Bombelles (served from 1860 until ?)

Countess Caroline “Lily” Hunyady (served from 1861 until her marriage in 1871)

Princess Mathilde Windisch-Graetz (served from 1861 until ?)

Countess Mária “Marie” Festetics (served from 1872 until Elisabeth’s death)

Countess Ludovica Hedwig Schaaffgotsche (served since at least 1872 until 1877)

Miss Mary Throckmorton (Valerie’s governess, served from early 1870s until 1874)

Landgravine Therese of Fürstenberg (served from 1877 until 1889)

Countess Sarolta Máilath (served from 1883 until her marriage in 1890)

Countess Janka Mikes (served from 1892 until her marriage in 1896)

Countess Irma Sztáray (served from 1894 until Elisabeth’s death)

Some things about these ladies:

Lily was the niece of Countess Esterházy, the empress’ first Oberhofmeisterin.

Mathilde was a widow; as far as I could find, she was the only widow to ever serve Elisabeth as a hofdame.

Helene was the daughter of Elisabeth’s Oberhofmeister from 1854 until 1857, Prince Friedrich Hannibal of Thurn und Taxis.

Paula and her husband Count Alfred Königsegg were appointed at the same time as Elisabeth’s Oberhofmeisterin and Oberhofmeister respectively. Paula resented the growing Hungarian faction around the empress and openly complained about them, which made her fell from favor. She and her husband were finally dismissed in 1868.

Marie Festetics was first a hofdame of Archduchess Clotilde.

I had literally never heard of Ludovica Hedwig until I went through the guide, and I could find nothing about her outside of it.

Mary Throckmorton was recommended to Elisabeth by her sister Queen Marie of the Two Sicilies; I’m not really sure if she was actually a hofdame since her job was being Valerie’s governess, but she appears as a hofdame in the guide. Go figure.

Therese was first a hofdame of Archduchess Sophie. After she left service (seemly for health issues), all of Elisabeth’s hofdamen were Hungarian.

Sarolta was chosen as a hofdame because she was in a good physical shape that allowed her keep up with Elisabeth’s walking speed.

Irma entered service in 1894 but only appears as a hofdame since 1896. Go figure again.

Sources:

Corti, Egon Conte (1936). Elizabeth, empress of Austria

Das spanische Hofzeremoniell - Hofetikete, on Mythos Kaiserin Elisabeth

Hof- und Staatshandbuch des österreichischen Kaiserthumes (1856-1860, 1866, 1868)

Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie (1874, 1876-1898)

Winkelhofer, Martina (2012). The Everyday Life of the Emperor: Francis Joseph and His Imperial Court

[urwendii]

Late WIP Sunday.

We're heading into Lost Tales territory babes. Eönrien but make it Fionwë x Urwendi.

"It is a strange thought." Fionwë exclaimed, feeling a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Obviously, Urwendi would not be aware of the hidden humour in this, a little something Varda loved to tease his father with - an off comment from his part during an exchange with Yavanna.

"I suppose so?" The Maia answered, confusion plain on her face and he bowed his head down, briefly explaining how the Valarindi were not necessarily as different as the Maiar order.

[mazojo]

Jared is a nepo baby reality tv edition

[melancholygirl111]

[fortjester]

next time i get a commission done it's gonna be pash so i can make her my pfp and inflict her on you all daily bc i love her so much

[cak31ssuperi04]

Ask and you shall receive @likesaly

Tobari

(ripping this one from the tags of my other hc post since I'm not sure if anyone reads those)

-That said she actually was practicing coding before she ran off, although the hacking was a more recent development.

-Growing up she had a tendency to jump between hobbies before getting bored and moving to the next one. Her family was rich enough to pay for classes and tutors so it was feasible, even if they found it annoying. Learned some of her trades while freelancing but she already had a pretty sizeable skillset.

-Between her and the other hackers, she empathizes the most with Mikado, having been deemed unreadable and difficult to understand herself. Which isn't to say she necessarily likes or goes along with him, but she goes easy on him.

-Perpetually winking because she's blind in her right eye.

-Familiar with Momori's work and admires her as a designer(<-mentioned this under the relationship chart post but dropping it here for posterity's sake)

-Has gotten into an argument with Kotora over whether tea was better than coffee(although neither of them dislikes the other, they do have, preferences) and it was the singular time Kirai and Nomiya were actually scared of either of them. Mikado insists milkshakes are superior to both and hell is unleashed on him.

-Does typically get along with Kotora though, finds more common ground with him than Kirai or Nomiya on account of both of them being the Mature Reasonable Adults of the group(even if she thinks he's a pushover and he thinks she's a little too easygoing about the crime stuff)

-Worked at the drugstore with Shitara at one point. Both big gossipers. While Tobari may not have been as good at seeing through the twins' bullshit as she was her resolve was unwavering, the prank that ends up getting to her(and even then she only gets frustrated, but it's enough to scare the twins) ends up being something completely trivial.

-Takes up work at Flower Bee after her stint as a hacker is over(tea buddies with Chino and omitted a Lot of details about her line of work). That goes about as well as you'd expect, with Haruya being one of the hackers' targets (Haruya is incredibly suspicious around her but they warm up to each other, sort of. Tobari helps Haruya learn to stand up for himself at least)

Shinobu

My Nanashi-Shinobu hc is 10 other hcs in a trenchcoat so it's a bit hard to get into that but a couple of somewhat unrelated ones are that

-He reads a lot, but is partial to mystery novels. Has a knack for trying to replicate cases from them.

-Shitsuna actually was influenced by Shinobu into saying she wished Merue had died(re. at one point she mentions the garden being her favorite area in the hotel. I'm thinking Shinobu finds out that their relationship had gotten a bit rocky after the accident and used that to his advantage). -The fatcats are chillgoing enough but Shinobu is bad with pets by default. They just don't like him. Either avoids them entirely or puts them under some weird kind of pet trance. -Started working at the hotel soon after Misane and Nanase placed their reservation there. Don't ask how he got the info.

-The Shinobu Kasuga alias was based around "Izuchi Nasuga" (in a similar sense as the Mikado-Misane deal) hence him being the only side character who makes a reappearance despite not having any plot relevance. (this one is related I just wanted to mention it)

Misane -Plushie collecter! Partial to cats ofcourse, big fan of whatever the 1bit equivalent of Hello Kitty is(maybe it is just hello kitty. Maybe Hello Kitty is timeless). Kind of embarrassed about it so Toukai and Nanashi are the only ones who know about it but that won't stop her from staring one of them down into buying her one whenever they come across a novelty plushie rack. -Mother died when she was fairly young, so she only has spotty memories of her. For how professional and pragmatic Toukai may appear he did spoil her a bit growing up. He's not perfect but he's trying. -While it wasn't the last or even necessarily the one that convinced the higher ups to take her on as an apprentice detective, her mother's death was one of her first big cases and the one that pushed her to trying to become an actual detective. It was essentially a cold case she dug up and solved behind Toukai's back, and is to some extent the root of her strong sense of justice. -Other than that she was more isolated to local cases, finding missing pets and lost jewelry and the whatnot(with maybe some more serious stuff sprinkled in. Kid sticking her nose where it doesn't belong with an alarming success rate type beat). Looked up to her dad a lot and was really perceptive for how clumsy she was. -It still took a lot of persistence to get him to let her though, since she was so young. Was 13 when she became an apprentice. While he may not be entirely aware of how it affected her(growing up too fast and all) he doesn't doubt her skill. -Most of her work as an apprentice is supposed to just involve following other detectives around and helping them out/observing them, even if she does have a tendency to take charge when she comes across a case on her own. -The pressure of trying to live up to the position only amplified how nervy she was and caused her to fuck up a lot(enter her speech about Nanase being there for her). -Also a big reader! Always has been but she also. Is partial to mystery, although after she starts pretty much living that life she finds them kind of predictable anymore and sees herself drawn to more escapist stories(fantasy and the like). -Tendency to climb up into trees to clear her mind when she gets frustrated. Probably has gotten stuck a couple of times but now just skitters up and down like it's nothing. Falls asleep up there sometimes. -Toukai was worried about her falling out but despite her assertions that it was Fine he resolved to build a treehouse for her. Which basically ended up going unfinished for the longest time because he can't build for shit. Nanashi does eventually help finish it(can't really build either but probably knows someone who does. And hey, two heads is better than one) but alas, while Misane appreciates the sentiment she just continues falling sleep on the adjacent branches. Uses the house more to store snacks than anything. -Carries cat toys everywhere in case she meets a cat. Always ready always prepared. (Tends to find herself fidgeting with them herself but shush. they're for the cats) -Has 2 cats herself! I haven't decided their names yet but they're there. -Reconnects with Natsukage and Miumi after the events of XXX.

[sirnica]

Since I'm bad at video games (one might have called me a noob a decade ago), I decided to cheat a bit.

according to a trusted friend, I accidentally cheated through the most important Sylvanas scenes.

Ups.

[thedeadthree]

if i buy cyberpunk again this time on pc what if i did