#no gods no kings only Theodora

[theaustinstollhaus]

Byzantine history be like:

In 874 Emperor Kostalogous IV ascended to the throne after blinding sixteen nephews, and married his wife, Theodora.

However, he soon ran afoul of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Theopelagionikus, and his wife Theodora.

In 895 he was deposed by his general, Justiniapelomaxorianous II, and his wife Theodora.

This created nine new church schisms.

[everythingroyalty]

As per usual the BRF put on a shambolic display of precedence at Constantine's Service of Thanksgiving 🤡

First let me start out by requesting an answer as to how the FUCK Sarah Ferguson and her nonceband take precedence over A REIGNING KING AND QUEEN?

As much as I enjoy seeing my girl Lady Sarah Chatto take precedence over the play pretend royals that are Pavlos and MC's children, can you even imagine how slighted the BRF – let alone their stans – would've been if the tables were turned and Princess Alexandra of Greece and Nicolas Mirzayantz took precedence over Charles and Camilla?

On to the seating:

How exactly do you have Andrew (a non(ce)-working royal 🤡) take precedence over the Duke of Kent (a working royal)? 🫠 Honest to god, looking at the BRF front row, it looks like he ACTIVELY snatched Edward's seat because it makes zero sense for him to be seated behind the Gloucesters but ahead of the Kents 🙃

This is also just to say: Make no mistake, the next time Harry attends a BRF function and is seated five rows down "because hEs nOt a wORkiNG rOyAL DUH", remember how these weirdos are clearly more willing to let a sexual predator back in the fold than a man addressing the racism his wife endures 🫶

And then we return to Sarah, live-in (non-royal) divorcee – the only one of her kind that apaz assumes the precedence of her (royal) child at an official function – let alone takes precedence over her 🤡 Are we supposed to take this as a sign she and the Duke of Nonce have remarried? Because I dare you to name another royal family where she wouldn't be placed bang last.

On the... family(?) side, we have Alexia, Theodora and Olympia taking precedence over their younger brothers (except for Pavlos taking precedence over Alexia - we can't let the plebs know what they've missed out on by honouring actual birth order) which is... fair... though not exactly reflected in the primogeniture the GRF observes but whatevz 🤪 But then... the spouses of Constantine's children (all aside from ✨ Marie thee Chantal ✨ obvs) take precedence over Odysseus and Aristides? What does that even mean? 😭

Princess Alexandra of Greece (second cousin) and Alexander of Yugoslavia (first cousin once removed) take precedence over Elena, Cristina, Gustav and Alexandra (nieces and nephew) – but somehow not over Felipe and Letizia (thereby honouring Felipe's position as reigning monarch – a position that would since be shat on by Lord 4th on I'm a Celeb 2022) who take precedence over JC and Benedikte (brother- and sister-in-law). Queen Noor (unrelated 🤪) takes precedence over both Gustav and Alexandra (nephew and niece)... but NOT over Elena and Cristina (nieces).

And don't even get me started on the precedence somehow afforded to Chantal Miller... 🤡

[koubu6841]

Danse Macabre, Rise

DRC25 - INK13

The inspiration for this piece is the San Vitale Basilica's wall mosaic (shown below) depicting Justinian I (6th century Eastern Roman Emperor) and his retinue.

I shall try my best to explain the Byzantine complexities that are present here:

Toyosatomimi no Miko (Shoutoku Taishi) as Justinian I: The most obvious reason here is that they were both kings who reigned in the 6th (7th) century AD. Even though Justinian passed away before Shoutoku came to power, I took creative liberties with bypassing this fact - Shoutoku's true contemporary, Heraclius, only has his face depicted on a coin - which is anything but sufficient. Mononobe no Futo (Mononobe no Moriya?) as Flavius Belisarius and Soga no Tojiko (Soga no Umako?) as Narses the Armenian: The relations between these two and Miko are not unlike Justinian and his generals. Even Belisarius and Narses quarreled with each other, much like the friction between the Mononobe and Soga clans in Shoutoku's reign. Matara Okina (Hata no Kawakatsu / Matara-jin) as the bishop Maximianus of Ravenna: Both of them served the king, and both of them had religion-related professions - those are the only connections I could find. Other than the aforementioned characters, the remaining people depicted on the mosaic could not be identified with anyone in particular; rather, they were simply generic elements of the king's retinue. Thus, I also took creative liberties in depicting them: Eternity Larva (Tokoyo-no-kami): This kami (god) is Matara Okina's enemy, as indicated by Okina's dialogue in Hidden Star in Four Seasons' extra stage (Cirno's scenario). Kaku Seiga, Miyako Yoshika (Miyako no Yoshika): Their dynamic needs few explanations. Seiga is the master, Yoshika is her undead servant. Moreover, Yoshika is depicted in her living form - inspired by the fan-work "Suikakasen" by Joyfull.

As for why I did not choose Theodora's mosaic as a reference, I simply forgot about its existence until much later. Even so, I found Justinian and his retinue to have much in common with Shoutoku and his contemporaries.

[what-if-queen-camilla]

Chapter 32

1st December 1995 - part 2

"After further testing has been undertaken and professionally evaluated in accordance with the latest and newest scientific research, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales cannot be excluded as and is therefore considered the biological father of Ms Theodora Elizabeth Anne Parker Bowles, born on 4th August 1987. This may not affect the line of succession in any way.", the official announcement from Buckingham Palace read and, somehow, Camilla felt dehumanised, not only on her own, but also on her daughter's behalf. It sounded like a random scientific discovery, completely disregarding the fact that all of this was about an innocent, eight-year-old child who's world had been turned upside down within the blink of an eye only just about a week ago.

"Don't worry, darling, that's just the official announcement.", Charles had tried to prepare her on the phone earlier that morning. "My statement will follow about five minutes later and Granny tells me she's got something to say as well…"

And, this time, the heir to the throne did, indeed, release a statement, breaking with all old traditions and values of "never complain, never explain", completely u-turning his attitude compared to the interview he had given one-and-half years ago, freely and proudly stating:

"I am delighted to officially acknowledge Ms Theodora as my daughter, happily taking on all rights and obligations that paternity brings about. Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles, Ms Theodora's mother, and I, have been knowing each other for over twenty years and she has been my best friend for almost two decades; she has always been the one person who understands, supports and encourages me when nobody else does; and, eventually, after both our marriages to other people had already broken down irrevocably, we realised that we were more than just friends, we fell in love and became a couple and our wonderful, sweet, little daughter is the most beautiful product of the greatest love of my life.

I know that not everybody in this country will approve of this, I am well aware that these revelation will undoubtedly cause controversy - but today I'm not only speaking to you as the future monarch of a country that needs to be guided into the 21st century - today I'm also speaking to you as a father, who loves all of his three wonderful children equally, as a man who just wants to be with the woman he loves - the one woman who's been my strength and stay through some really tough times, who's suffered all different sorts of scrutiny, judgement and humiliation - though the majority of you have never even met her. So, today, I'm kindly asking you - the people of the countries I have always loved so much and of which I - God willing - one day shall have the great honour to be King: have compassion. Together, let us follow the holy commandment of forgiveness, let us 'charity' be more than just a fine word; together, let us create a society in which nobody has to be afraid or feel ashamed or excluded because of whom they love.

As announced by the Palace Office earlier, this will not affect the line of succession in any way. But it will affect my life and those of the people I love, including all of you, but I trust that, together, we can find a way to cope with these things as best as possible, not only for my and my family’s own sake, but for everybody in our society who already is, or might one day find themselves in a similar situation. It might not be ideal, it's not what anyone ever would initially plan or wish for, but it's what happens, in the United Kingdom, across the Commonwealth and, eventually, the whole world. Last but not least, I'd once more like to appeal to your sympathy; sympathy for my three children, their respective mothers, and my partner's children from her first marriage. Be compassionate, be kind. Don't blame them. None of this is any of their fault. I can only hope this will not affect your trust in me and my connection to all of you across our beloved Commonwealth."

He closed his statement with "Your always loyal servant Charles"; he had recorded it himself, his soft, vulnerable voice only further underlining the pain he was feeling on behalf of everybody involved, and listening to him caused Camilla more than just a few tears: it had been broadcasted on the BBC, followed by "Everybody hurts" from R.E.M., (obviously, in order to create the most dramatic atmosphere imaginable), before the moderators started analysing it all "exclusively" in an "exclusive" special, where people from across the country were invited to join via telephone and share their thoughts and opinions; and to her very surprise, apart from a handful of negative comments, the majority of reactions were actually… positive. "I think it's a good move of him to be honest!", one person said, and another one agreed: "He's been very brave and we should appreciate that". Someone else added: "I've never heard him talking so passionately about anything or anyone. It must be real love, and who in their right mind could ever be against that?" And, eventually, before they closed the programme with Phil Collins' "Against all odds", somebody else concluded: "I think he'll be a good King! Just what our country needs." Camilla had been following it all on her own in the guest room at Annabel and Simon's house she was currently living in, only just accompanied by a Gin and Tonic and a few cigarettes to prevent herself from losing it completely; she couldn't deny that it'd done something to her, that she was touched, beyond moved, if she was honest, that she'd never loved him more and wanted nothing more than to fall into his arms, hold him tight and kiss him as if there was no tomorrow…

As if on command, somebody knocked on the door at that very moment. "Yes?", she asked, rushing over to open it. "Milla, here's… a visitor for you…", Annabel explained and, before she could've added something, the door flung open and Camilla was in Charles' arms. "Oh my God, darling!", she sobbed, almost forcefully pressing against him. "That was brilliant. You were brilliant!", she praised him with a teary voice, between desperate kisses and heartbreaking sobbing. "I love you, darling.", she whispered into his ear, a mixture of pride, adoration and lust in her voice. “I love you, too, darling,” Charles replied, his eyes full of love for Camilla. He could easily get lost in her bright blue eyes and her wonderful face, framed by her cheeky blonde curls. It had been quite some time since he’d last seen her so unbothered, almost happy and cheerful. Maybe, after a long, dark winter there’d finally be a wonderful spring and a warming summer for them, filled with sunshine and bees and happiness. Maybe, after all they’d gone through, their time was finally about to come. They both were surely hoping so.

[abookishdreamer]

Character Intro: Aidos (Kingdom of Ichor)

Nicknames- Mouse by Iapetus

Goody Two Shoes by Prophasis

Age- 10 (immortal)

Location- Mykonos, Olympius

Personality- She's generally quiet, introverted, & soft spoken- always keeping her emotions bottled in.

She's the goddess of shame, modesty, respect, and humility. At the tender age of 10, her powers/abilities include limited vitakinesis (healing), sensing the feelings of embarrassment & shame in others, and being able to make some beings submit to her will (this ability doesn't work on deities more powerful than her or her younger cousin).

Aidos is the only child of Prometheus (Titan god of forethought) and Pronoia (an oceanic nymph). She has an older half brother named Deucalion (Deuce). She was born & raised in the state of Achaea. Her brother would stay with them on the weekends and holidays.

Aidos is currently dealing with some serious stuff. Her dad was recently punished by the King, sentenced to serve his term in the Underworld.

Crumbling under the backlash and overwhelming attention, her mother ended up having a nervous breakdown. Pronoia is now temporarily committed in a mental hospital.

Aidos' temporary custodial parents are her paternal grandparents Iapetus (Titan god of mortality, pain, & death) and Clymene (Titaness of fame & renown).

She lives with her paternal grandparents at their estate in Mykonos. The place is a lot more grand & opulent than her family's cozy brick house. Aidos has gotten really close with her grandfather Iapetus. He sometimes stays in the Underworld to help and support her father. She's been too scared to ask him how her father is really doing.

Aidos and her grandfather go to the Silver Owl Bookstore together and they also stop by Hollyhock's Bakery to enjoy a few cream puffs! Iapetus also accompanies her when she visits her mom at the mental hospital.

She doesn't really have much of an opinion on her grandmother Clymene because she's barely met her! She's only caught glimpses of her due to her busy schedule, but she does admire her beauty, especially her long red gold hair. One instance where her grandmother had some free time, she took her to the Mall of Olympius. Aidos nearly fainted when Clymene bought her a 300 drachma silk cotton crop top like it was nothing.

Fond memories of her life that Aidos likes to revisit are the times when her & her parents would pop popcorn and roast marshmallows at their fireplace. She'd join her father at his kiln in the basement and she'd go to jewelry making classes & sailing with her mother. Aidos left her best friend behind- a mortal girl named Theodora, though they still keep in touch through texting & video chatting.

She usually wears her long curly dark brown hair in a ponytail or a low tight bun. She likes using the Glory's Crown sweet almond curling glaze.

Aidos is currently looking forward to the annual Achaean Beignet Festival, where her grandfather is planning a trip for them, Deucalion, and Prophasis.

Her go-to drink is a large hot chocolate from The Roasted Bean. She also likes lemonade, pomegranate juice, ginger ale, iced tea, berry mix juice, and lemon-lime soda.

She loves listening to The Gypsy Bells, M9, & Pale Blu. She also enjoys classical music and was even appreciative of Clymene when she signed her up for piano lessons- being taught by Mousika (goddess of studying & music).

Aidos & Deuce have been leaning on each other a lot since their father's punishment. She also likes the fact that his mom Celaeno (one of The Pleiades) has been offering her support as well.

As far as her extended family, she has only spent significant time with her uncle Epimetheus (Titan god of afterthought), his wife Pandora (her aunt), & their two kids (her cousins)- Prophasis (goddess of excuses) & baby Pyrrha. Aidos thinks that Prophasis is a spoiled brat and a bit of a troublemaker. She adores Pyrrha and her pink cheeks, even knitting her a onesie.

Aidos briefly met her other uncle Menoetius (Titan god of rage, violence, & rash actions). She thought that he was a scary mass of muscles & tattoos! She did end up enjoying the steaks he made on the grill.

Aidos is aware of her other uncle, Atlas (Titan god of strength & endurance) as well as his kids (her cousins) The Hyades and Calypso, but so far, she hasn't met them.

Aidos' favorite frozen treat is chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream!

She's currently on break from from school. Aidos attends an esteemed elementary school in New Olympus. Aidos has made a few new friends like Ersa (goddess of morning dew), Calleis (goddess of allurement), and Eulabeia (goddess of caution), but she has gotten especially close to Melete (goddess of thought & meditation). Aidos is also friendly with the fourth grader Xenia (goddess of hospitality). She's aware of the younger deities- the third graders Caerus (god of opportunity & luck), Paidia (goddess of play & amusement), Aceso (goddess of healing), her cousin Prophasis, Mneme (goddess of remembrance), Hebe (goddess of youth), Myrízei (god of smell & gases), and Physis (goddess of nature).

At school her favorite classes are literature and history. Aidos hates how sweaty she is after gym class.

A guilty pleasure for her is a slice of mushroom and olive pizza.

In the pantheon Aidos admires Sophrosyne (goddess of moderation, temperance, & restraint), Leto (Titaness of demurity & motherhood), Hestia (goddess of the hearth), Aletheia (goddess of truth), Eikono (goddess of iconography & literature), Hera (goddess of women & marriage), Athena (goddess of wisdom), Dike (goddess of justice), and Aeschyne (goddess of modesty & honor).

Her favorite meals used to be her dad's sausage penne and her mom's steamed mussels. Now, she's gotten to like her grandfather's garlic bread grilled cheese sandwich (made with mozzarella cheese and sprinkled parmesan cheese on top). She also likes the lobster mac n' cheese with beluga caviar that her grandmother had brought for dinner one time.

Aidos has even grown fond of her brother's pet dragon Nemirys. Deucalion constructed a two seat saddle so she could ride along with him!

She was surprised a day after she moved in with her grandparents when Clymene gave her the latest smartphone from iCHOR Tech. Later that night, she heard her grandparents' notably loud argument about it.

In her free time, Aidos loves reading (books of many genres) and issues of Regalia and O Dianooumenos. She also enjoys knitting, sewing, doing lanyard, pottery, & has even become quite the painter.

She once did a gorgeous painting of her mother and when she presented it to her mom, Pronoia burst into tears.

"Why is there a choice between being pretty or being smart?"

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Thu., Feb. 25, 2022

February 25_February 11

THE RIGHTEOUS EMPRESS THEODORA (867)

Theodōra is the feminine version of Theodore, which derives from the Greek words θεός, theos, "god" and δῶρον, doron, "gift"

As for the renowned Empress Theodora, she was from Paphlagonia and was the daughter of a certain Marinus, the commander of a military regiment. While being the wife of the Emperor Theophilus, the last of the Iconoclasts, she adorned the royal diadem with her virtue and piety; as long as her husband Theophilus lived, she privately venerated icons, despite his displeasure. After his death, she restored the holy icons to public veneration; this is commemorated on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the First Sunday of the Great Fast. She governed the Empire wisely for fifteen years, since her son Michael was not yet of age. But in 857 she forsook her royal power and entered a certain convent in Constantinople called Gastria, where she finished the course of her life in holiness and reposed in the Lord. Her sacred incorrupt remains are found in Corfu, in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Cave, in the capital city of the island (see also Dec. 12).

Source: Orthodox Patriarcate of Antioch

MARK 15:1-15

1 Immediately, in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council; and they bound Jesus, led Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate. 2 Then Pilate asked Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" He answered and said to him, "It is as you say." 3 And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing. 4 Then Pilate asked Him again, saying, "Do You answer nothing? See how many things they testify against You!" 5 But Jesus still answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled. 6 Now at the feast he was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them, whomever they requested. 7 And there was one named Barabbas, who was chained with his fellow rebels; they had committed murder in the rebellion. 8 Then the multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do just as he had always done for them. 9 But Pilate answered them, saying, "Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?" 10 For he knew that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd, so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. 12 Pilate answered and said to them again, "What then do you want me to do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?" 13 So they cried out again, "Crucify Him!" 14 Then Pilate said to them, "Why, what evil has He done?" But they cried out all the more, "Crucify Him!" 15 So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified.

1 JOHN 4:20-5:21

20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is He who came by water and blood-Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. 9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. 10 He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. 11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. 14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. 16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. 18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

[ares-vallas]

ARES VALLAS, MALE, HE/HIM, BISEXUAL, 653 is a PURE VAMPIRE in Hollywood. Some say that they resemble RICHARD MADDEN. This one is known to be INTELLIGENT but can be CRUEL. They work as a OWNER OF CRIMSON PAPYRUS PUBLISHING. They have TAKEN their Oath with the Society. We hope that you’re prepared to do what you need to for fame.

Ares was born with a golden spoon in his mouth. The firstborn to Vallas royalty, the little prince never lacked for anything. He would spend his childhood riding horses, going on adventures and learning how to hunt. Of course, being a prince meant there was boring duties as well, especially as he got older. He had to learn business and how to conduct himself as a Vallas. He quickly found that he had a knack for the business part, though. It was during these years that he discovered his love of reading, as well. He would devour every book in the Vallas library, only to reread them all when he finished.

If there was one thing that he lacked, perhaps, it was attention – and love – from his mother. It wasn’t that she was ever cruel to him, she just usually couldn’t be bothered with him. So, Ares did anything he could to try to please her, to gain her favor. He would bring her little presents, drawings as a small child, game he had hunted when he was older. But he never quite seemed to get the love he so desperately wanted from her. She only really loved her lover, Yelena. Yelena felt little love for the young boy either, so Ares got most of his affection from his father. It wasn’t what he wanted, but it would have to do.

While his father taught him business, his mother taught him ruthlessness, superiority, and the desire for power.

Named after a God, Ares was quick to develop a complex in which he believes he is better than anyone – with the exception of his mother.

His father started to tire of his role as a king as Ares became an adult, and he would often delegate tasks to his son. Ares didn’t mind doing them, but the boredom that his father felt rubbed off on their relationship, made it strained. It clearly had the same effect on his parents’ relationship, the two of them arguing more often than when he had been a child.

About one hundred years after his own birth, his first sibling came along. Ares was torn. He didn’t like the thought of having to share his parents’ attention, but he was – something he would not admit to anyone – lonely and the idea of a sibling, of an equal, was admittedly not all bad.

With Kanopia’s carelessness for her children, and with her often being away with Yelena, Ares oversaw a lot of Theodora’s upbringing. He started to grow restless in the Vallas estate, however, and longed to explore the world like his parents had. So, once Theodora was old enough to take care of herself, he left home.

He quickly found that, like his mother and her lover, he thrived during war. Perhaps it was his destiny, being named after the God of War. He loved being able to slaughter mindlessly without repercussions, to drink as much and as deeply as he wanted without having to dispose of the bodies. He traveled all over Europe, visited all the libraries it had to offer, bedded many creatures, and killed just as many. He would have likely stayed there for an even longer time, if it had not been for the news that reached him that his father was dead.

Learning that Kanopia had killed her husband because he bored her installed fear in Ares, a feeling entirely unfamiliar to him. He who had never been afraid of anything, now feared a similar fate. He has never voiced this concern to his mother, but has done everything he can to please her, to keep her happy and content, since – even more so than he already did as a child.

While he’s had many lovers over the years, Ares has never been in an actual relationship. After seeing how his parents’ marriage ended, he’s unsure whether he believes in love, and besides, he has been engaged to the oldest Charbonneau daughter for as far back as he can remember. He doesn’t really mind the engagement, as he has no plans to marry elsehow, and he knows it’s a good match politically. As long as his fiancée lets him sleep around, he’s happy.

Back home in America, Ares knew that he couldn’t just fight and fuck for the rest of his remaining days. Remembering he had a knack for business and an appetite for literature, he decided to combine the two which is how Crimson Papyrus Publishing came to stand. With the connections his family held, it was easy to make the publishing company a household name in no time.

A younger brother followed, but this time, Ares was too busy with his own life, too tired, to help raise the child and he never quite connected to him as much as he had to Theodora. Though Ares has always held love and respect for his family – at least the people he considers his real family.

He was upset when his family was extended with ex-humans and wards, thinking that neither deserved to be associated with the vampire name. According to him, only pure vampires were worthy and so he has always had a strained relationship with both his ex-human siblings and the Vallas wards. Over time, he has started to tolerate them, though, finding that especially Linus was someone he could appreciate.

With the increasing hunter activity in the east, as well as the rising power of the Charbonneau’s in the west, his mother decided to send her children to Hollywood. And while Ares was not keen on upping his life, there was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. He opened a branch of Crimson Papyrus in Los Angeles, the publishing company growing even larger. Under the Charbonneau’s rule now, he’s trying to learn how to navigate believing himself to be the best yet having to serve a family that he barely knows, aside from the many stories he’s heard.

Random facts:

Has a pair of real angel wings on display at his home in Hollywood (he brought them with him from New York) that he definitely obtained by shady means

Is a mama’s boy through and through

Don’t even try to nickname him, he is Ares only

Cares a lot about fashion and always dresses nicely

Always seen with a book in hand

Like his brother, he’s a fuckboi, but he’d like to believe he has more class than Linus does

Smokes too much

Many tattoos

Was good friends with a lot of great writers throughout history

Finds it unlikely he’ll ever be king, as it would require someone to kill Kanopia and he doesn’t believe anyone can

[evolutiontopeacefulmystic]

Quotes by Saint Rachel Held Evans:

“As a Christian, my highest calling is not motherhood; my highest calling is to follow Christ.”

“God's ways are higher than our ways not because he is less compassionate than we are but because he is more compassionate than we can ever imagine.”

“What a comfort to know that God is a poet.”

“This is what God's kingdom is like: a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, because they said yes. And there's always room for more.”

“I have come to regard with some suspicion those who claim that the Bible never troubles them. I can only assume this means they haven’t actually read it.”

“I explained that when our gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender friends aren’t welcome at the table, then we don’t feel welcome either, and that not every young adult gets married or has children, so we need to stop building our churches around categories and start building them around people.”

+LORD JESUS YESHUA THE MESSIAH CHRIST, SON OF GOD/ALLAH, THROUGH THE POWERFUL PRAYERS OF Saints Mary Magdalene the Apostle, Mother Maria Skobtsova the New Martyr of Paris, Mother Walatta Petros, Father Moses the Ethiopian, Holy Byzantine Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes The Merciful, Pulcheria the Holy Byzantine Empress, Coretta Scott King, Maya Angelou, Mary of Egypt, Marsha P. Johnson, Rachel Held Evans, Bayard Rustin, Florence Li Tim-Oi, Father Sophrony Sakharov of Essex, Gorazd Pavlik of Prague, Grigol Peradze, Gabriel Urgebadze, John Maisuradze, George-John Mkheidze, Joseph Kottis the Hesychast, Gabra Manfas Qeddus, Takla Haymanot, Yared of Ethiopia, Herman of Alaska, Peter the Aleut Cungagnaq, Alexander Schmemann, Anthony Bloom of Sourozh, Archpriest Stefan Wu Zhiquan, Raphael Hawaweeny of Brooklyn, Silouan Antonov the Athonite, Olga Michael of Alaska, Archangel Michael, Archangel Raphael, Archangel Gabriel, Archangel Uriel / Archangel Ariel, Archangel Selaphiel, Archangel Jehudiel, Archangel Barachiel, Archangel Raguel, Archangel Jeremiel, Archangel Anael, Archangel Jophiel, Archangel Zadkiel, George Perry Floyd Jr., Theodora of Vasta, Seraphim Mouraviov of Vyritsa, Seraphim Moshnin of Sarov, Barsanuphius Plikhankov of Optina, Dimitri Klepinin the New Martyr, Ilya Elias Fondaminsky, George Yuri Skobtsov, and Andrei Rublev, HAVE MERCY ON US SINNERS & ON THE WHOLE COSMOS! + Lord Jesus Yeshua the Messiah Christ, Pre-Eternal Patriarch, Pre-Eternal Bishop & Son of God, through the most powerful prayers of your most Holy Mother the Theotokos (and First Woman Priest), have mercy on us sinners!

[dani-luminae]

Sorry, i'm new to your blog and i'm intrigued by your oc's but also kinda confused. Can you give me a quick rundown of who's who? (Like their names, parents, etc)

Okay then!

Most of them are Descendants OCs, but I have crossovers into Sky High, Marvel, Once Upon a Time, The Kingdom Keepers series, and Disney ZOMBIES. I’ll try to get everyone in one list! I hope this answers your questions.

I’m also gonna put this under a cut because it’s gonna get long. I blame an overactive imagine for many of these guys.

Feel free to send asks about any of them if you want! Lia and Zeraphina are my two most popular talked about on this account, but I welcome the excuse to talk about any of them!

My personal favorites on this list are Lia, Bianca, and Haley.

Lilith “Lily” Lokidottir: My very first Descendants OC! A crossover with the MCU (or, my version of it) she has four books and counting (starting with the Isle of the Lost book and also two other crossovers!) She’s the daughter of Loki from the MCU, who, due to a mix-up and lots of problems, ended up on the Isle of the Lost, where she was raised by Maleficent. Her love interest is Jay.

Selina Oceana: My second Descendants OC! A daughter of Ursula, who’s first book was literally just the Descendants movie with Selina replacing Mal - but I’m proud to say I got much more original for her second and third book. Her love interest is Ben.

Aza: my third Descendants OC! A daughter of Aladdin and Jasmine, who ends up falling in love with Jay. It’s all a bit cliche... until a whole curse from Jafar comes into play. 

Aria Crownsend: Another Descendants OC. She’s a daughter of Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip in Auradon. Aria is pulled into the world of the Kingdom Keeper series in order to act as a sort of character spy, as her own Disney Princess character, in the Disney Parks.

Reign Queen: this one’s an OC for Descendants and Ever After High. She’s the daughter of Descendants’ Evil Queen (and twin sister of Evie) who, along with another Auradonian, was kidnapped and taken to the world of Ever After in hopes that the two of them could disrupt Ever After’s reliance on the Storybook of Legends and forcing their destinies on their kids. She’s a Rebel through and through, even if she really is supposed to have a happy ending to her destiny. She’s dating Adam Beast II. 

Adam Beast II: The second of my Descendants-Ever After High OCs. A prince of Auradon (son of King Beast and Queen Belle, twin brother of Ben) who, like Reign, was kidnapped and taken to Ever After with the intent of disrupting the world’s reliance on the Storybook of Legends. Unfortunately, that’s where their story gets complicated, as Adam was cursed with a twisted version of the Beast Curse in hopes of forcing him to follow his dad’s destiny. He’s dating Reign.

Carly De Vil: Another Descendants OC. A daughter of Cruella De Vil and twin sister of Carlos. Carly’s story was a request, with an unusual love interest: Chad Charming. I’m proud to say I did it well, and Carly’s trilogy is one of my favorites to write. Her third book is inspired by the OG Descendants 3 teaser and involves the identity of hers and Carlos’s father.

Roseleta Mercier/Nara Dracona: Another Descendants OCs. A daughter of King Beast and Queen Belle, she was kidnapped by Queen Narissa (the villain of Enchanted) and taken back to the Isle and raised there. Years later, as Nara, she returns to Auradon as part of Ben’s proclamation, and rediscovers her family and her true life. Her trilogy is on its third and final book, The Dragon That Cannot Fly, which features Naros, a version of Ben if he was the one who was kidnapped and raised on the Isle instead of her. Nara’s love interest is Evie, while Naros/Ben’s love interest is still Mal.

Rose: Another Descendants OC, whose story crosses over with the Once Upon a Time series (only the first five season of it though.) Taken from Auradon and her parents, Rose is transported to Storybrooke, where she is one of the two Saviors necessary to break the curse and restore Storybrooke.

Jackie Sparrow: a Descendants OC, daughter of Captain Jack Sparrow and Angelica (from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides!) Truly her parents daughter, Jackie is a devoted pirate, though her trip to Auradon teaches her that “not all treasure is silver and gold.” Her love interests (polyamory!) are Jay and Theodora (an OC.)

Royal: (Okay technically Royal is not my OC. She’s technically adopted. She was created by my cousin, and then dumped on me to write her story. My cousin has since dropped all interest in Royal and her story, but I do love Royal and so she’s basically mine now. With that out of the way), Royal is another Descendants OC! Royal is born out of a love spell that Maleficent cast on King Beast, and so obviously Royal’s got some pretty peculiar parentage. Royal grew up on the Isle with her little sister, Mal, but when Royal basically invites herself along to go to Auradon for Ben’s proclamation, things definitely get more complicated. Uncertain of her own worth to either of the families she could possibly belong to, Royal is a very complicated character who feels more like she exists to be a pawn more than a person. Her love interest is Nik Goodwin, an OC.

Adam Mercier: the son of Royal in an AU of her story where Ben’s proclamation never came and she and all the others remained on the Isle. Adam is named after his mother’s father, and is a combative, impulsive character who loves his mother fiercely. When Ben’s son, Alexander, finally makes a successful proclamation to get some kids off the Isle of the Lost, Adam is one of the kids chosen to leave, alongside his cousin Malachi, his god-sister Carla, and Fairen and Jayra.

Chloe Charming: the older daughter of Cinderella and Prince Charming, from the same story as Royal. One of Royal’s best friends now.

Skalja Bjorgman: the daughter of Anna and Kristoff, from the same story as Royal. One of Royal’s best friends now. Also, my first canonically autistic OC!

Bianca Mercier: Another Descendants OC! She comes from Dark Haven, a version of Auradon where good and evil are flipped. King Beast and Queen Belle, the Rulers of All Evil, rule a kingdom of evil, while Maleficent is the Mistress of Goodness, exiled to the Banished Land with the rest of the heroes. Bianca is the Princess of Darkness, as the daughter of King Beast and Queen Belle, and looks forward to her future as a queen of evil, but when she’s unfortunately placed in the Auradon that we know, her views of evil and good are unfortunately challenged and complicated. Her love interest is the Dark Haven version of Mal.

Lia Hawkins: Another Descendants OC! The daughter of Jim Hawkins (from Treasure Planet), Lia is also the princess of the far-off planet of Solasar. With a compassionate and determined personality and the powerful ability to create and manipulated light itself, Lia is the perfect foil for Mal, who she finds herself at odds with only a day after her accidental arrival in Auradon. Lia’s love interest is Ben. She’s one of my favorite OCs.

Haley Olympia-Graves: Another Descendants OC, whose story also crosses over with the world of Sky High! A daughter of Hades kidnapped from the Isle of the Lost, Haley ends up being raised by a mortal foster-mother in Maxville. Haley’s magic is mistaken for superpowers and she is taught at Sky High, the school for superheroes, but eventually, she discovers the truth about her parentage and who she is. Haley’s love interest is Layla.

Gwyn Carlye/Barkowitz: Another Descendants OC, and her story crosses over with Disney’s ZOMBIES series! While Gwyn was raised as a perfectly human cheerleader in Seabrook, there’s some things off about her. Her green eyes can glow. Her hair is white, for some reason. And she’s fascinated by the full moon. When she turns out to be the Great Alpha that the Werewolves are looking for, their search for the moonstone leads them into Auradon, where Gwyn discovers the truth about her origin. Gwyn���s love interest is Willa.

Zeraphina McAlyster: A Disney ZOMBIES OC! Zeraphina is half-Zombie and half-human, loves football, and loves to challenge the rules. She attends Seabrook High (after the events of the first movie) and shockingly enough, actually ends up dating Bucky, the cheer rockstar.

Cassia Larsen: A Sky High - MCU crossover OC! The daughter of Loki, she grew up under the radar in Maxville, raised by her human mother, where Cassia’s seemingly-simple abilities - the ability to create and control ice - could easily be passed off as superpowers. Of course, things don’t stay hidden and simple for long. Cassia’s love interest is Warren Peace.

Belladonna Valaise: an OC for a Disney-fandom-in-general story, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Belladonna, a talented apprentice briefly stripped of her magic for a miscast spell gone horrible wrong, ends up teaming up with a certain mouse-like apprentice in order to recover a powerful magical item from an evil magician. I don’t talk about her much on here, but she’s still around.

[reallifesultanas]

Portrait of Osman I / I. Oszmán portréja

Everyone know that Osman was the founder of the House of Osman, he remembered as the first of the Ottoman sultans. No one knows when or where he was born, and for a long time not a single artefact existed that could be confidently dated to his lifetime. There are two coins (which I already mentioned in the previous post about Ertugrul) from his time, and there are some legends, some descriptions about him, but we don't know too much about him still. So we know Osman was a historical person, but who was he?

His early life

Legends say he was born around 1260 as the son of Ertugrul Bey and Halime Hatun, and was from the Kayi tribe. It seems he had at least two brothers, Gündüz and Savci, who were both older than him. But there are no evidences for these legends. Yes based on the coins he was the son of Ertugrul so it can be true. 

He became the bey of his tribe after the death of his father. Some chroniclers hint that after Ertugrul’s death Osman’s uncle, Dündar became the bey, but Osman didn’t want to accept, so he rebelled. Otheres says Osman ebcame the leader and it was Dündar who didn't accept him. Anyhow most chroniclers agree that Dündar and Osman had a fight and in the end Osman killed Dündar with an arrow. The modern sources stay silent about this, because they find it not too glorious to kill your own uncle for the throne. It's hypocrite in my opinion, since fratricide and civil wars were main part of the Ottoman History. So in my opinion there was nothing wrong with this act (if Osman really did that) in such circumstances. Anyhow he became the leader of his tribe at a relatively young age.

Osman's dream

Osman at first was loyal to the Seljuks, but then he began to act independently around 1299. The reason of this act is not known. But the legends say that the whole idea of the Empire – and so his kind of rebel againsts the Seljuks – began quite literally with a dream:

"One night, the first sultan, Osman, was sleeping in the house of a holy man called Edebali when: „He saw that a moon arose from the holy man’s breast and came to sink in his own breast. A tree then sprouted from his navel and its shade compassed the world. Beneath this shade there were mountains, and streams flowed forth from the foot of each mountain. Some people drank from these running waters, others watered gardens, while yet others caused fountains to flow. When Osman awoke he told the story to the holy man, who said “Osman, my son, congratulations, for God has given the imperial office to you and your descendants and my daughter Malhun shall be your wife”." 

So after this dream Osman decided that he will creat his own Empire and will not be a servant of another state. Most probably this is just a legend, because these kind of „dreams” have a history with the Central-Asian origin nomad people. For example in the early Hungarian history there is also a dream like this, called „Emese’s dream”. This one is basically the same and story. Emese was the wife of Chief Ügyek, and she was impregnated by a turul bird. The turul appeared to her in a dream and told her that from her womb a great river would begin, and flow out over strange lands. According to dream interpreters, this meant that she would give birth to a son who would lead his people out of their homeland, and that her descendants would be glorious kings. Emese's son was named Álmos, whose name derives from the Hungarian word "álom", meaning dream, thus "Álmos" can be interpreted as "the Dreamt One". And it happened like that, because Álmos became the founder of House Árpád. Interesting fact is that the name Emese had a türk origin, originates from the Old Turkic eme, ana or ene, which mean mother. 

So we clearly can see, that these kind of drem-stories can be found in any Central-Asian origin nation's legends and they aremostly have the same meaning.

Osman's life after his dream

Most probably it didn't happened like, Osman had this dream – or not – and he started to build an Empire... Most probably he never even dreamt of such a huge Empire, what later happened to the Ottomans. Most probably he just wanted to make his own beylik, with his own cities.

His first indisputable evidence comes from a Byzantine chronicler, who tells the story of a battle at Bapheus, quite near Nicomedia (Izmit), in July 1302, in which Osman and a force of nomad archers defeated a Byzantine force accompanied by Alan auxiliaries. It is possible that badweather upstream and a rare flood of the Sakarya river downstream made it attractive to Osman and other türk beys to seek to recoup damage to their herds in the lowlands. At this time Osman was no more powerful than a number of other minor beys.

Within a very short time, türk raiders had reached the Sea of Marmara. A contemporary Byzantine chronicler describes how news of Osman’s victories spread and attracted Türks from other areas of western Anatolia to join his following, and how his force was strong enough to defeat a Byzantine army near Nikomedia (Izmit). From their base in the Sakarya valley, where Osman had occupied the old Byzantine fortified places, his men plundered the countryside to the west, forcing the inhabitants into the walled towns. These remained secure, since Osman obviously lacked the military skills to undertake formal sieges: his assault on Nikaia failed. He did take several other fortresses and fortified towns in the Sakarya valley, using them to store his plunder. In a similar manner he destroyed the countryside around Bursa, but also failed to take that city.

His personal life and family

Osman had at least two wives. One was Edebali's daughter for sure, as his dream also suggest. She was named Rabia Bala, or simply Bala but sometimes called Malhun as well. She was the mother of Alaeddin Bey and maybe had other children also. It seems she may had problems with the nomadic lifestyle or her relationship with Osman went wrong, because she spent the last years of her life with her father. She died in Bilecik in 1324 and was buried next to her father’s tomb.

Osman's other wife was Mal Hatun, who possibly was the daughter of the ruler of the Umuri or Amouri principality. According to a Byzantine historian “a son of Umur fought with Osman in one of his first raids against local Byzantine lords”, which may explain the marriage between Osman and Mal Hatun as a political alliance. Mal Hatun was the mother of Osman’s successor Orhan, and she actually outlived her husband as she was buried in the family tomb around Osman’s grave in Bursa. It is not known when she died.

In the first sentence I said at least two wifes... Well yes "a historical tradition regarding the acquisition of one of Osman’s wives calls to mind the Turkish nomadic practice of acquiring women through raids on neighboring tribes. As the story goes, one day on his way to Eskisehir. Osman caught sight of a woman in the village of ltburnu, fell in love with her, and, without telling his father, sent someone to ask for her in marriage. She refused on the grounds that she was not worthy of him, although this may have been an excuse, since there were rumors that Osman intended only a brief dalliance with her. Osman was spurred to kidnap the woman when an erstwhile ally of his, listening to his description of her manifold virtues, decided to take her for himself. Although the sources confuse this woman with Mal Khatun and Edebali’s daughter, she was clearly a person of lesser status. The details of the story indicate that the kidnapping occurred when Osman was quite young and before he had gained more than a local reputation. Women of standing themselves, selves, Edebali’s daughter and Mal Khatun probably married a more mature and powerful Osman."

Osman had at least eight sons and one daughter. 

Osman's eldest son - whose name is unfortunatelly unknown - was given to the Selcuk Sultan Gıyasuddin III Keyhusrev to be raised in his household when Ertugrul stipulated a peace treaty with him. He had descendants who were alive at the time in which Bayezid I conquered Malatya. The fact that this son of Osman was sent to the Seljuk Sultan during Ertugrul’s life, suggest that he maybe was born to the women, who Osman captured. 

His second son most probably was Orhan, who was born around 1281 and became the second ruler of the Ottoman dynasty. During Orhan's reign the little principality began to acquire a more settled aspect. Osman’s territory had contained no large towns. But in 1326, however, the city of Bursa succumbed to starvation and became, from this date, the first capital of the Ottomans. In the next year, following an earthquake which damaged its fortifications, Orhan’s men occupied the Byzantine town of Lopadion (Ulubat), towards the Dardanelles. Moreover Orhan was the first one who established an Ottoman bridgehead in Europe. He achieved this by exploiting a civil war in Byzantium between the rival Emperors John [VI] Kantakuzenos and John [V] Palajologos. Kantakuzenos sought allies among the Turkish rulers of western Anatolia and, in 1346 formed a pact with Orhan by marrying him to his daughter Theodora. The strategy was successful and, in 1347, Kantakuzenos entered Constantinople and proclaimed himself Emperor, with the other John as his co-regent. So beside his great victories Orhan was the first to use marriage as a tool to get himself supporters. His successors used to do this until Mehmed II, who changed the tradition and stopped the sultans from marrying noble women.

His third son was Alaeddin Ali Bey, who was born around 1290 and later he was made governor of Bilecik. He had a son Kiliç Bey, and their last descendant died in 1530. Aleaddin also built a mosque complex in Bursa. He didn't lived a long life, sources don't agree, but most probably he died around 1330.

Osman's other children are less knowns. We don't know anything for example about Savci Bey, just that his son married one of the daughters of Orhan 

I. Melik Bey is also not known, we only know that he had a daughter. 

Çoban Bey was surely Osman's son, because he built a mosque in Bursa, and by his complex it is known who he was. 

Osman's other son was Pazarli Bey, who was the commander of his brother Orhan I for years, so maybe he was the closest to Orhan? Pazarli Bey also had a daughter, and two sons. 

Osman also had another son, Hamid Bey, but we have zero information about him.

Osman had most probably more than one daughter, but we only have evidence for the existence of one. Fatma was named in the foundation deed of later Orhan I, so we know that se existed, but nothing else.

It seems like we know a lot about Osman, isnt it? But actually, even his name is the subject of some controversy!

A Greek historian gave us the description of the Sakarya flood and is the one contemporary writer to mention Osman ’s name, did not call him Osman at all but rather Ataman. The surprising notion that Osman had another name finds support in two later sources. Ataman is a Turkish name or maybe Mongol, while Osman is impeccably Muslim. This has led to some suspicion that Osman, or Ataman, the Ottoman, might have been born a pagan, that he may have taken his new name Osman later when he became a Muslim. But if this were true, if Osman were indeed a convert to Islam who changed his name, why would his sons have kept their genuinely Turkish names, who were Muslims beyond any doubt? From what the greek historian wrote, about the only thing we can surmise of the Turk he called Ataman is that he was a warrior.

Osman's death and legacy

The date of Osman's death too is uncertain. He probably died by 1324, the date of a trust deed registered by his son Orhan. The Moroccan world traveler Ibn Battuta, who visited the area in 1331 - 32, wrote that Osman was buried in the mosque of Bursa, probably the former Church of Saint Elias. This church is no longer standing, due to an earthquake two hundred years ago. Osman's remains now lie next to those of Orhan, father and son in suitable twin mausoleums erected in 1863. All in all it was Osman who was the founder of the Ottoman Empire, and who was to give his name to the Ottoman – or Osmanlı – dynasty.

Used sorces: Colin Imber - The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650; Peirce -   The imperial harem; Faroqhi - The Ottoman Empire and the World; Fleet - The Cambridge History of Turkey, 1071-1453; Howard - A History of the Ottoman Empire; Öztuna - Devletler ve Hanedanlar Cilt 2; Uluçay - Padişahların Kadınları ve Kızları

*     *      *

Azt mindenki tudja, hogy Oszmán volt az Oszmán-ház megalapítója, és úgy emlékszünk rá, mint az első oszmán szultánra. Azonban senki sem tudja mikor és hol született, évszázadokig létezésére sem volt bizonyíték. Azóta előkerült például két aranyérme, melyeket ő veretett (és amelyekről már szó esett a korábbi, Ertugrulos posztban); ismert néhány leírás is róla, azonban nem tudunk még mindig túl sokat. Tehát akkor ki is volt Oszmán?

Korai évei

A legendák szerint Ertugrul Bég és Halime Hatun fiaként született 1260 körül a Kayi törzsben. Azonban nincs erre bizonyítékunk. Igen, itt vannak az érmék, melyek arra utalnak, hogy Oszmán apja valóban Ertugrul volt, de semmi mást nem tudunk biztosan. 

Apja halála után vált a törzs fejévé. Néhány történetíró szerint Ertugrul halála után annak öccse, Dündar lett a bég, amelyet Oszmán nem fogadott el és fellázadt ellene. Más források szerint épp fordítva történt és Oszmán lett a bég, Dündar pedig fellázadt ellene. Akárhogyan is, abban egyetértenek a történetírók, hogy Oszmán és Dündar harcoltak egymással, melynek végén Oszmán egy nyíllal megölte Dündart. A modern források csendben maradnak ezzel kapcsolatban, hiszen méltatlannak érzik, hogy a dinasztia alapító ilyen véres családi küzdelem árán lett bég. Ez véleményem szerint nagy álszentség, hiszen tudjuk, hogy a testvérgyilkosság és a polgárháborúk milyen komoly részét tették ki a birodalom több évszázados történelmének. Véleményem szerint tehát a körülmények ismeretében semmi rossz nem volt abban sem, ha Oszmán valóban így ragadta magához a hatalmat. Mindenesetre azt tudjuk, hogy Oszmán kifejezetten fiatalon vált a törzsét vezető béggé.

Oszmán álma

Oszmán törzsfőként eleinte hűséges volt a Szeldzsuk Államhoz, azonban idővel, 1299 körültől függetlenül kezdett el cselekedni. Ennek oka ismeretlen. A legendák szerint az egész birodalom alapítási ötlet - és ezzel együtt a Szeldzsuk Birodalom elleni lázadás ötlete - egy álommal kezdődött. 

"Egyik este az első szultán, oszmán egy szent ember, Edebali házában aludt, amikor:"Azt látta, hogy a hold a szent ember mellkasából a magasba emelkedik, átlebeg az ő mellkasára, majd belesüllyed. Ezekután testéből egy fa nőtt ki és behálózta a világot. Lombja alatt hegyek voltak, folyók folytak azok lábainál. Néhány ember a folyókból ivott, mások kertjüket locsolták, míg mások szökőkutat alkottak a folyók vizéből." Amikor Oszmán felébredt, elmondta az álmát ennek a szent embernek, aki erre eképpen felelt: " Oszmán, fiam, gratulálok, Isten téged választott, rád és utódaidra bízta a dicső feladatot. Leányom Malhun legyen a feleséged."

Ezután az álom után döntötte el Oszmán, hogy birodalmat alapít, nem pedig más birodalmakat fog szolgálni. Nagy valószínűséggel ez csak egy legenda, hiszen a hasonló álmok kifejezetten gyakranjelennek meg a Belső-Ázsiai eredetű nomád népek hiedelem világában. Például a korai magyar történelemből is ismert egy ilyen álom, Emese álma. Ez alapvetően szinte ugyanaz, mint Oszmáné. Emese Ügyek felesége volt és egy turul madártól esett teherbe, aki álmában meglátogatta és azt mondta neki, hogy méhéből hatalmas folyó fog áradni, mely új vidékekre is eljut. Az álomfejtől szerint ez arra utal, hogy ő fogja világrahozni azt, aki elvezeti új hazájába népüket és, hogy utódaik dicső uralkodókká fognak válni. Emese később világrahozta fiát, aki az Álmos nevet kapta, utalva Emese álmára. Külön érdekessé teszi Oszmán szempontjából a történetet az, hogy maga az Emese név is türk eredetű, amely az ősi török eme/ana/ene szóból ered, mely anyát jelent.

Egyértelmű tehát, hogy ezek az álom-történetek megtalálhatóak a legtöbb Belső-Ázsiai nép legendái között, és szinte minden esetben alapvetően hasonlóak, hasonló jelentéssel bírnak.

Oszmán élete az álma után

Nyilvánvalóan az álom után nem az történt, hogy Oszmán hirtelen birodalmat akart építeni (már ha álmodott egyáltalán)... Valószínűleg még csak álmodni sem mert arról, ami valójában történt leszármazottjaival, hogy ilyen hatalmas birodalmat hoztak létre.Valószínűleg ő csak egy kis bégséget akart magának, néhány városkával.

Első kétségtelen bizonyíték Oszmán uralkodásáról egy bizánci történetírótól származik, aki leírta Bapheus-i csatát, mely Nicomedia (Izmit) közelében történt 1302 júliusában. Eszerint Oszmán és nomádokból álló íjászai legyőztek egy csapat bizánci katonát. Lehetséges, hogy az időjárási körülmények nagyban felbátorították Oszmánt. Ekkoriban ugyanis hatalmas áradás zajlott a Sakarya folyó mentén, amely miatt Oszmán és csapatai szükségét érezték a terjeszkedésnek, hogy legyen hol legeltetni és hová menekíteni állataikat. Ekkoriban azonban Oszmán nem volt több, mint egyike a sok kicsi törzs vezetőinek.

Rövid időn belül azonban győzelmének híre elért a többi türk táborba is, elkezdték őt csodálni és egyre több türk tábor csatlakozott hozzá Nyugat-Anatóliából is. Így a türkök már a Marmara tengerhe is elértek nemsokára. A Sakarya völgyben táboroztak, és innen indultak újra meg újra lerohanni a környező területeket. Valóban sikerült ezzel területet, legelőket szerezniük, azonban egyetlen fallal körülvett várost vagy erődítményt sem sikerült bevenniük. Oszmán megpróbálta Nikaia-t is bevenni, ám nem járt sikerrel, mint ahogy a Sakarya-völgy más városainak esetében sem. Hasonlóan járt Bursával: bár a környéket sikerült meghódítania, a várost magát nem tudta bevenni.

Magánélete

Oszmánnak legalább két felesége volt. Egyikük Edebali Seyk leánya volt, akire az álom is utalt. Rabia Balának, Balának vagy Malhunnak hívták. A források nem értenek egyet nevében. Az bizonyos, hogy ő volt Aleaddin Bég anyja, de lehetséges, hogy más gyermekei is születtek. Úgy tűnik, hogy idővel kapcsolta megromlott Oszmánnal, vagy a nomád élet nem volt nekivaló, de utolsó éveiben visszaköltözött apjához. Bilecikben halt meg 1324-ben és apja mellé temették.

Oszmán másik felesége Mal Hatun volt, aki feltehetőleg az Umuri vagy Amouri területek urának leánya volt. Bizánci történészek szerint "Umur fia Oszmán mellett harcolt, amikor azelőször győzte le a bizánciakat", ami megmagyarázná a valószínűleg politikaiházasságot is Mal és Oszmán között. Mal volt Oszmán örökösének, Orhannak az anyja. Bizonyosan túlélte Oszmánt, ám pontos dátum nem ismert haláláról. Végül családi türbébe temették Bursa közelében. 

Az első mondatban azt írtam, LEGALÁBB két feleség... Igen, a történészek szerint Oszmán egyik feleségét a nomádokra jellemző asszony-rablással szerezte. A történet szerint Oszmán egyik nap Eskisehirbe tartott, amikor meglátott egy gyönyörű leányt Itburnu falujánál és azonnal beleszeretett. Apja (Ertugrul) engedélye nélkül odaküldött valakit, hogy kérje ki neki a lányt. A lány elutasította azzal az ürüggyel, hogy nem méltó a férfihoz, ám ez valószínűleg csak kifogás volt. Oszmán ezekután elrabolta a lányt. Sok forrás összekveri ezt a lányt Edebali lányával vagy Mal Hatunnal, azonban egyértelmű, hogy egyikük sem lehetett, hiszen mindketten jóval magasabb rangú nők voltak. A történet részletei arra is utalnak, hogy ez még Ertugrul élete során zajlott, tehát Oszmán igen fiatal volt és nem volt semmiféle befolyása. Edebali leánya és Mal Hatun egy már érettebb Oszmánhoz mentek feleségül.

Oszmánnak legalább nyolc fia és egy leánya volt.

Legidősebb fiát - akinek neve sajnos elveszett az idők során - a Szeldzsuk Szultán, III Giyasuddin Keyhusrev nevelte. A fiúval pecsételődött meg Ertugrul és a szultán béke megállapodása. A fiú Szeldzsukoknak való átadásának idejéből következtethetünk arra, hogy talán az elrabolt parasztlány volt az anyja? Mindenesetre a fiú utódjai egészen I. Bayezid uralkodásának idejéig Malatya környékén éltek.

Második fia valószínűleg Orhan volt, aki 1281 körül született és később ő lett a második oszmán szultán. Orhan uralkodása alatt a kis bégség, melyet Oszmán hozott létre sokkal kifinomultabbá vált. Oszmán ugyanis nem tudott elfoglalni városokat, Orhan azonban 1326-ban sikeresen kiéheztette és elfoglalta Bursa városát. A következő évben pedig egy földrengés után Orhan seregével sikeresen tudta elfoglalni a megrongálódott Lopadion (Ulubat) városát a bizánciaktól. Mindezek mellett Orhan lett az első, aki az európai politikai színtérbe is bele tudott avatkozni. Kihasználta a háborút, amely két rivális között, VI. János Kantakuzenos és V. János Palajologos között zajlott. Kantakuzenos egyezséget kötött Orhannal, ennek megpecsételésére pedig hozzáadta feleségül saját leányát, Teodorát 1346-ban. A stratégia sikeres volt, 1347-ben Kantakuzenos belépett Isztambulba, és császárrá nevezte ki magát. Tehát győzelmei mellett Orhan volt az, aki először kötött jelentős politikai házasságot is. Utódiai egészen II. Mehmed uralkodásáig rendszeresen használták a szövetségkötésnek ezen módját.

Oszmán harmadik fia Aleaddin Ali Bég volt, aki 1290 körül született és életében Bilecik helytartója volt. Született egy fia Kiliç, akinek leszármazottjai még 1530-ban is jelen voltak. Aleaddin emellett mecsetkomplexumot és építtetett Bursában. Nem élt sokáig, a források szerint 1330 körül hunyt el.

Oszmán további fiai kevéssé ismertek. Nem tudunk például semmit Savciról azonkívül, hogy született egy fia, aki később feleségül vette unokatestvérét, I. Orhán leányát. 

Oszmán, Pazarli nevű fia Orhan mellett tevékenykedett annak parancsnokaként, tehát lehetséges, hogy a két férfi közel állt egymáshoz. Pazarli bég gyermekei is ismertek, legalább egy lánya és két fia született. 

Oszmánnak volt egy Hamid nevű fia is, akiről sajnos nincs semmi információnk.

Oszmánnak mindezek mellett valószínűleg több lánya is volt, azonban csak egyikük létezésére van konkrét bizonyíték. Fatma ugyanis meg volt nevezve I. Orhan egyik alapítványának papírjain, mint Orhan testvére, így ő bizonyosan létezett és Oszmán lánya volt, ám semmi mást nem tudunk róla.

Úgy tűnik sokat tudunk Oszmánról, igaz? Azonban valójában még a neve is ellentmondásos!

Egy görög történész, aki a Sakarya folyó menti ütközetet taglalja Oszmánt nem Oszmán néven említi, hanem Atamanként. A meglepő tény, hogy Oszmánnak lehet egy másik neve is, két másik forrásban is bizonyításra lel. Ataman egy türk vagy mongol eredetű név, amely arra utal, hogy Oszmán eredetileg nem volt talán muszlim sem. Ebből történészek olyan következtetéseket vonnak le, hogy Oszmán talán idővel tért át az iszlámra és vette fel az Oszmán nevet. Azonban ezt cáfolja, hogy fiai kétségkívül muszlimok voltak, mégsem változtatták meg eredeti türk nevüket. Abból, amit a görög történész jegyez az egyetlen plusz információ Atamanról, hogy nagyszerű harcos.

Oszmán halála és hagyatéka

Halálának pontos ideje nem ismert. Valószínűleg 1324-ben hunyt el, mert fiának alapítványi papírjai ezt a dátumot említik. Emellett egy marokkói világutazó, Ibn Battuta 1331-32 körül meglátogatta Bursát és lejegyezte, hogy Oszmán Bursa mecsetjében nyugszik, mely korábban a Szent Elias templom volt. Mára a templom/mecset már nem áll, ugyanis 200 éve egy földrengés elpusztította. Oszmán földimaradványai most Orhan mellett nyugszanak egy ikermauzóleumban, melyet 1863-ban építtettek számukra. 

Összességében tehát Oszmán volt az Oszmán Birodalom alapítója és az Oszmán - Osmanlı - dinasztia neve is tőle eredeztethető.

Felhasznált források: Colin Imber - The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650; Peirce -   The imperial harem; Faroqhi - The Ottoman Empire and the World; Fleet - The Cambridge History of Turkey, 1071-1453; Howard - A History of the Ottoman Empire; Öztuna - Devletler ve Hanedanlar Cilt 2; Uluçay - Padişahların Kadınları ve Kızları

[zaffrenotes]

Sunday Six 03.15.20

Sidenote: this has been an extremely odd Sunday but I’m grateful for all the random bouts of laughter from chatting with friends. You have no idea how much I needed to laugh 😂and just forget about all the bad ish going on everywhere else. 

@loveellamae tagged me to share something I think she just wants to know more about elpída 😂so here ya go...

Intro to Part 2 of elpída, a TRH miniseries: 

After her sister and brother leave the room to give her some space to reflect, Crown Princess Eleanor Theodora Bailey Rys carefully walks over to the balcony in her ballgown. It’s a shade of deep blue, like Cordonia’s coastline; it was one of her mother’s favorite colors to wear for royal functions, and one of her father’s favorites as well. She looks out to the gardens from where she stands, seeing some faithful members of the court strolling through them before the evening begins. 

It’s been nearly a decade since she last set foot in the capital, let alone in the palace that was once her home. It’s been just as long since she remembers seeing her parents alive, and the memory of them threatens to cause more tears to form. Her throat closes and she grips the marble railing, eyes to the heavens, and she repeats her breathing exercise once more. 

from an untitled AU where Liam is a widow and MC is now OC Andromeda/Anna good GOD I’ve got to write shorter sentences!: 

During the early morning hours or shrouded in the darkness of night were the only times he seemed to take the crown off his head to relax and become Liam, instead of a king; when his shirtsleeves were uncuffed, and he wasn’t wearing a jacket to bind him into his position.

It was then and only then when she allowed herself to look at him differently, as he did to her. He would bring her strong cups of coffee when he’d find her at her desk before dawn, and began to keep her favorite blend of scotch in his bar supply if he caught her working late into the night, long after royal functions had drawn to a close. He liked the way she looked in understated evening gowns, seated at her desk. 

They could joke a little easier, talk to one another with less formality, and he looked forward to those moments. He’d sit at her desk while she typed away, taking dictation as her fingers hovered over the keys at mind-boggling speed while he toyed with the rotation of items on her desk – a miniature sandbox to make a zen garden or beach scene, magnetic balls to mold, and the functional miniature telescope, courtesy of her naval commander of a father.

Deja Brew AU: 

He clasped his hands behind his back, rocking lightly on the heels of his shoes, taking note of a slightly frazzled young woman fussing with her things at the pick-up counter. While there was a definite energy in the café, the petite woman seemed harried and stressed, compared to just being in a hurry. He watched as she flicked her wrist to check the time on her watch before eyeing the counter again.

A moment later, he watched as she pulled her phone from her pocket, catching a glimpse at the screen before darting his eyes away. It was some sort of celebratory announcement, from the smiling couple in the photo. He longed to capture a photo like that for himself, with a woman he loved by his side.

--

Perma + TRR/TRH Reader List: @annekebbphotography @ao719 @blackcatkita @brightpinkpeppercorn @desireepow-1986 @gibbles82 @innerpostmentality @loveellamae @smalltalk88 @thecordoniandiaries @alj4890 @aworldoffandoms @bascmve01 @bbrandy2002 @burnsoslow @custaroonie @darley1101 @dcbbw @hopefulmoonobject @iplaydrake @kingliam2019 @lodberg @lovemychoices @missevabean @mskaneko @omgjasminesimone @princess-geek @rainbowsinthestorm @ramseyandrys @superharrietsuper @texaskitten30 @the-soot-sprite

Andromeda AU thing: @queenjilian @vaticanwaltz

Deja Brew: @aestheticartwriting @queenjilian @isporticus1234

[atimefordragons]

Our Emperor stands astride this world  He'll vanquish every foe!  His truth and justice shine so bright  All hail his brilliant light!

☾♔; November 16, 2020 ☾♔; 5:30am ☾♔; sotd: The Master - Kotaro Nakagawa ☾♔; cotd: Cornelia li Britannia ☾♔; Into the Unknown ☾♔; Concept Board I guess? Idk

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Lyrics from "All Hail Britannia", I already picked it as my inspo song for Rhelgrad like 6 versions ago, so fitting that the Royal Imperial Family of Britannia becomes my basis for the latest version of Rhelgrad.

☆──════ ⋆ ☽ ⋆ ☾ ⋆ ════──☆

I'm calling it, Lelouch vi Britannia is THE most iconic shounen protagonist of the 2000s. There is no better hero nor villain, what a guy! Like, got a superpower and his immediate next thought was "time to figure out how to kill dad". Gave his suicidal best friend the command to live, and when he was abandoned by all his allies? He just laughed and went directly to kill his dad, assuming he'd be technically dead too. He slaughtered millions, not just for his plan, but to erase the name of Massacre Princess, literally made himself the singular focus of all hate in the world and planned his own death to save them. He destroyed the world and created it anew. Now THAT is a morally grey and fascinating character. The other shounen wish they had what he has. All of Ichigo's "I need to become more powerful" angst, like, calm down, just talk to people you stupid child. Naruto, yeah, okay, he had problems, but like, stop thinking about sasuke 24/7 sweetie, the world is ending here. Light? He WISHES he was as iconic as Lulu. Light made that whole "kill to make the world a better place" spiel, but he sought to become a god and remake the world as he saw fit with himself on top, Lelouch decided to make himself the last enemy that needs to be destroyed, the greatest enemy, so people would put down their swords and seek a more loving and kind world, the world he wanted to make for his sister. TTwTT None of the other bitches could do it.

Also, shout out to everyone in the sprint channel in the nano server. Competing with you guys really made my brain unlock and push itself to figuring out plotlines.

☆──════ ⋆ ☽ ⋆ ☾ ⋆ ════──☆

Okay, the Empire of Rhelgrad. Remade this one a few times for different versions of ITU and other groups, it always did have a dash of Britannian influence, but with my code geass marathon, went all in with it. Side Note: can't wait till I have all the 66 existing countries figured out, 'cause then I get to sort out all the international relations, let alone the histories. //sigh// I exhaust myself so much. Ya couldn't have lived with just 10 could ya, clara from over a year ago?

Emperor Karlheinz VII The worst. A total bitch, power obsessed, more warmongering than his predecessors, possibly all of them. Definitely a raging narcissist with a god complex.

First Prince Gilvahn vi Giesbach First in line to the throne, the only son of first Imperial Consort, Her Lady Excellency Ariadne von Karaez. Has a sweet and rather subdued nature unsuited for ruling, and despite the birthright, is not considered to be the next Emperor of the Rhelgradian Empire.

Second Prince Evrion vi Giesbach Second in line to the throne, only son of second Imperial Consort, Empress Bellara de Reux. Calculating and shrewd, a wolf in prince charming's clothing, of all the known to be living vi Giesbach siblings, he is considered most similar to the Emperor, and largely handles all the diplomatic and political issues that no longer seem to interest Karlheinz. While shady and ambitchous, he cares deeply for all of his siblings, though he does enjoy teasing them.

First Princess Belladonna vi Giesbach Third in line to the throne, and first daughter of third Imperial Consort, Empress Viala de Beauchêne, the greatest warrior of all the vi Giesbach siblings, she often acts as Prince Evrions right hand and enforcer, and is very protective of her younger siblings, particularly of her younger sister Princess Theodora, and before their disappearances Prince Veroth and Princess Rosalia.

Third Prince Reynaux vi Giesbach Seventh in line to the throne, only son of official mistress, Lady Mellara de Reux, making him the half-brother and cousin of Second Prince Evrion.

Fourth Prince Veroth vi Giesbach Fourth in line to the throne, only son and first child of the fourth and final Imperial Consort, Empress Amasyll la Ryence. After the murder of his mother, the Prince faked his and his younger sister's deaths with help from his elder brother Prince Evrion and gained protection from the Risanians, where he and his sister have lived since. Evrion alone knows that Veroth and Rosalia are still alive. While he otherwise lacks magic, Veroth was born with the Kings' Will.

Second Princess Theodora vi Giesbach Fifth in line, second daughter and last child of third Imperial Consort, Empress Viala de Beauchêne, like her eldest brother, she has a sweet nature, but being the younger sister of Princess Belladonna, she is determined and courageous, and has an incredibly strong will on par with, and arguably stronger than her older siblings.

Fifth Prince Luciano vi Giesbach Eighth in line, son of official mistress Lady Shara de Reiss, and elder twin of Prince Gilford, as well as the older brother of Princess Analiese. Grew up under the care of Prince Gilvahn and the von Karaez family.

Sixth Prince Gilford vi Giesbach Ninth in line to the throne, son of official mistress Lady Shara de Reiss, younger twin of Prince Luciano, as well as the older brother of Princess Analiese. Grew up under the care of Prince Gilvahn and the von Karaez family.

Third Princess Analiese vi Giesbach Tenth in line to the throne, claimed as the only daughter of official mistress Lady Shara de Reiss, but in truth the daughter of a noblewoman from an adversarial realm. Initially raised under the care of Empress Amasyll, but after her death was transferred into Evrion's care.

Seventh Prince Erwin vi Giesbach Eleventh, and last vi Giesbach sibling in line to the Imperial throne, son of unofficial mistress, Ser Alyanne Dulaque.

Fourth Princess Rosalia vi Giesbach Sixth in line to the Rhelgradian throne, and youngest child of Empress Amasyll, as well the Emperor's last child. Although the youngest, she ranks higher than a number of her older siblings in the line of succession as she is the child of a legal spouse, as opposed to being born to a mistress. She was a child and witness to her mother's murder, as well as collateral damage. The crossfire caused her, her speech as well as paralyzing her right arm. Once her brother realized they were unsafe, their deaths were faked and he escaped with her to Risan, where she still resides and is studying magecraft, as well perfecting single-handed mage magic. Apart from Veroth's unique power, she is the only vi Giesbach sibling to have magic, like their father.

[tantra1968]

A history of bestiality

Hani Miletski

Bethesda, Maryland, USA

Abstract

Human sexual relations with animals, a behavior known as bestiality, have existed since the dawn of human history in every place and culture in the world. Furthermore, an abundance of folklore, paintings, sculptures, films, literature and pornography exists dealing with bestiality themes. This article describes the highlights of the history of bestiality in various cultures, based on Miletski’s recent book (2002).

Based on the literature, bestiality—human sexual relations with animals, has been part of the human race throughout history, in every place and culture in the world. This article describes the highlights of the history of bestiality as it appears in art, folklore, religion, law, and in actual behaviors. All the facts and opinions presented in this article are taken from the literature (Miletski 2002). Most of the material reviewed and discussed is anecdotal, some is unbelievable, and occasionally authors provide conflicting data. It is important to take into consideration that some of the facts and views presented came from works that are questionable with regard to their validity. Nevertheless, the abundance of information from all around the world leaves no doubt that bestiality has been an integral part of human life.

Prehistoric Times

According to Rosenberger (1968), the practice of human–animal sex began at least in the Fourth Glacial Age, between 40,000 and 25,000years ago. Many discoveries of paintings and carvings showing humansand animals having sexual relations have been made in various ancient religious temples, indicating the pre-occupation of ancientman with bestiality. For example, according to Taylor, an engraved bone rod from the cave of La Madeleine, France, from the later Ice Ages (around 25,000 years ago), depicts a lioness lick-ing the opening of either a gigantic human penis or a vulva, and an Iron, Age cave painting from the seventh century BC, from Val Camonica, Italy, portrays a man inserting his penis into the vagina or anus of a donkey. According to Waine (1968), cave drawings of the Stone Age leave no doubt that our prehistoric ancestors enjoyed frequent and pleasurable sexual relations with animals.

Moreover, the fact that these drawings had an integral part in a clan’s family history, indicates it was a common act, or at least a desired act.

Ancient Near East

Archeological findings demonstrate that bestiality was practiced in Babylonia, the ancient Empire in Mesopotamia, which prospered in the third millennium BC. In his famous Code of Hammurabi, King Hammurabi (1955–1913 BC) proclaimed death for any person engaging in bestiality. At other times, according to Waine, during the Spring Fertility Rites of Babylon, dogs and other animals were used for maintaining a constant orgy condition for seven days and nights.

The Hittites, (around 13th century BC), the predecessors of the Hebrews in the Holy Land, had certain rules about which animals were tolerable to have sex with and which were forbidden and punishable by death.

The Book of Leviticus states that bestiality was very wide-spread in the country of Canaan. The Hebrews took issue with all the previous inhabitants of the Holy Land and their customs. Even depicting God with an animal’s head or an animal’s body was an abomination. The Hebrews considered sexual relations with animals a form of worshiping other Gods, as was homosexuality, and the bestialist and the animal were both to be put to death.

The purpose of these taboos was to help maintain and reinforce the boundaries of the group, and enable it to retain its distinctive identity under adverse circumstances. There are four references concerning men who have sexual contacts with animals in the Old Testament (Exodus 22:19; Leviticus 18: 22–24; Leviticus 20: 15–16; Deuteronomy 27:21), and two references concerning women (Leviticus 18:23; Leviticus 20:16). The Talmud, a commentary on the Old Testament, specifically forbids a widow from keeping a pet dog, lest she be tempted to have sexual relations with it.

Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians worshiped Gods with animal shapes almost exclusively in the pre-dynastic period before about 3000 BC. Animal–human sexual contacts are occasionally portrayed on the tombs, and bestiality was recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphics as far back as 3000 BC. Several kings and queens had a reputation of engaging in bestiality, most famous was Cleopatra, who was said to have had a box filled with bees which she had placed against her genitals for stimulation, similar to a vibrator.

Egyptian men often had sexual intercourse with cattle or any other large domesticated animal, while the women resorted to dogs. Sexual contacts with apes were further reported for both men and women, and most interestingly, the Egyptians are reported to have mastered the art of sexual congress with the crocodile. This was accomplished by turning the creature onto its back, rendering it incapable of resisting penetration. This form of copulation was believed to bring prosperity and restore the potency of men. The Egyptians were also known to engage in worshipful bestiality with the Apis bull in Memphis, Egypt and with goats at the Temple at Mendes. The goats were further used as a cure for nymphomaniacs. Having said all that, bestiality was however, punishable in Egypt, by a variety of torture mechanisms, leading to death.

Ancient Greece

Bestiality themes were very popular in Greek mythology. Most notorious are the stories of Leda and the swan (Zeus), and Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, King of Crete, who fell in love with a bull, hid inside a wooden cow and copulated with it. The worship of bulls as fertility symbols was widespread in Crete and elsewhere long before the Greek period in classical times, and the tone of the writers of the day leaves no room to doubt that bestiality was a fairly common occurrence in daily life. The ancient Greeks engaged in bestiality during religious celebrations such as the Bacchanalia, in honor of the God Bacchus, and in the Temple of Aphrodite Parne, the Greek Goddess of Indecent Copulation. As with the ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks believed bestiality cured nymphomaniacs. Bestial affairs were acted out on the Greek stage, and were the theme of The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius, the earliest Latin novel that has remained in its entirety, and has long been censored because of its Pornographic language and bestiality content. Bestiality was never punishable in ancient Greece.

Ancient Rome

Roman mythology is rich with bestiality themes, as is Greek mythology, and the Romans liked to view on stage scenes from the sexual lives of the mythological Gods, including bestial acts. Bestiality was wide-spread among shepherds, and Roman women were known to keep snakes which they trained to coil around their thighs and slide past the lips of their vaginas. It was the Romans who invented the rape of women (and sometimes men) by animals for the amusement of the audience at the Coliseum and Circus Maximus, and bestiality flourished as a public spectacle in ancient Rome. Emperors, such as Tiberius (AD 14–37), his wife Julia, Claudius (AD 37–41), Nero (AD 54–68), Constantinus (a.k.a. Constantine the Great, AD 274–337), Theodora (Emperor Justinian’s wife, AD 520s), and Empress Irene (AD 797–802), had been known to either engage in bestiality or enjoy watching others engage in bestiality, at the beginning of the Roman Empire, legal retribution for bestiality was required only for sodomy, under which bestiality was included. Later, bestiality was distinguished from sodomy and made punishable by death. In any event, as the Empire expanded and grew more powerful and corrupt, punishments for bestiality became almost nonexistent.

The Middle Ages in Europe

Bestiality was most widespread and accepted in Western society during the Middle Ages—from the fall of the Roman Empire in AD 476 to the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492. Animals were common, everywhere, and they often shared the same roof with their owners. Sexual intercourse with animals was further thought to have been healthy and a cure for many diseases. Nonetheless, bestiality was invariably connected with black magic and witchcraft. In the Middle Ages, bestiality received full attention from Catholic jurist-theologians, whose discussions of the matter filled volumes. One of the greatest problems involved the distinction between sexual intercourse with animals and sexual intercourse with demons, which often assumed animal form for the purpose of consorting with witches. According to Salisbury’s (1994) analysis of the relationship between the Church and bestiality, early Christian thinkers inherited two main traditions: (1) In the Germanic myths, heroes were described as having characteristics of strength as a result of having an animal ancestor, as was the founder of the Danish royal house who was said to have been the offspring of a bear and a woman. And, (2) in the classical Greco-Roman tradition, Gods appeared regularly as animals to have intercourse with humans. As the early Church fathers wrestled with this classical heritage and selected those elements suitable for Christianity, they shaped their Christian texts with the notion that humans and animals were separate, and humans should thus not have sexual relations with animals. They made the Hebrews’ laws against bestiality stricter, since bestiality did not serve reproduction, and formal conciliar decrees began regulating sexual behavior, prescribing various penalties for bestiality. The early pagan Germanic secular law did not prohibit bestiality. However, as soon as Christian legislation appeared, prohibitions against bestiality emerged, suggesting that the activity was indeed going on. The penitentials began in Ireland as a way to offer the Churchmen manuals for “healing” the souls of sinful parishioners. The early Germanic world viewed animals primarily as property and food, and this attitude was reflected in the view of the early Irish penitentials, which ranked bestiality close to masturbation, making it a mild sexual sin. For example, an early Welsh penitential, the Preface of St. Gildas (495–570), required a year of penance to expiate the sin of bestiality.

However, if the man had been living by himself when he “sinned,” three 40-day periods of fasting served as sufficient penance. Factors of age, marital status, and ecclesiastical rank served to increase or decrease penances for all sexual sins. The casual attitude toward animals and sexual relations with them began to change as the conciliar legislation from the East began to influence the penitential compilers. The Council of Ancyra equated bestiality with homosexuality, and this association reached Visigothic Spain as early as the late sixth century with Martin of Braga. This shaped the Spanish penitentials from the seventh or early eighth centuries, which gave a 20-year penance for those who committed either sodomy or bestiality. The later Irish penitentials slowly became influenced by the Council of Ancyra. Equating homosexuality with bestiality not only increased the penalty, but it communicated a change in the way people looked at animals. Instead of being an irrelevant object, the animal became a participant as in the equivalent of a homosexual encounter, and it became important to kill the animal, in order to erase any memory of the act.

A major question, which pre-occupied the inquisitors, judges, theologians, and those who condemned witches, was whether the union of male or female witches with the Devil, under the disguise of an animal, was able to produce any offspring. Twelfth-century people seemed to worry more about demons than before, and tales about halfhuman births, which resulted from such unions, began spreading.

By the 13th century, the animal world seemed much more threatening than it had been in the early Middle Ages, and penalties for bestiality increased. The idea that sexual union between man and animal may result in offspring shaped the composition of the Summae Theologica, by Thomas Aquinas (1224–1274), which represented the highest development of medieval thought. St. Thomas identified four kinds of unnatural vice: the most serious sin against nature was bestiality, followed by homosexuality, intercourse in an “unnatural position” (anything other than the missionary position), and masturbation. The attitudes of St. Thomas tended to dominate all thinking on sexual behavior to the end of the Middle Ages, resulting in classifying as deviant any kind of non-procreative sexual activity. Although the courts were more preoccupied with prosecuting homosexuality, Dubois-Desaulle, Niemoeller, Evans, and Dekkers describe the various types of torture accused bestialists endured, usually in the town square in front of a crowd, until they died.

The Renaissance Period in Europe

During the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, authorities were actively prosecuting homosexuals and bestialists, and the high point of bestiality trials coincided with that of the witch-hunts. During the 15th and 16th centuries, sexual relations with animals formed one of the main topics for preachers, and by 1534, bestiality became a capital crime in England and Sweden. In 1683, Denmark passed a law making both homosexuality and bestiality punishable by burning. In 1711, it was decided that those convicted should be strangled as well as burned. During the 17th century, the incidence of bestiality between young boys and cows and sheep became so prevalent that the Catholic Church tried o ban the employment of male herdsmen.

Hundreds of reports have survived from the boom in bestiality trials from the 16th to the 18th centuries, demonstrating that bestiality was well-established in ordinary life in Europe. Tales about monster-Looking births continued to spread, as well as myths about the connection between bestiality and sexually transmitted diseases. One of the persistent legends of history attributes the death of the Russian Empress Catherine the Great to an accident while attempting to have sexual relations with a bull or a horse. The sling broke, and the weight of the animal crushed her.

Europe in the Modern Era and Today

Parisian brothels were known to provide turkeys for their clients. As the men were about to experience orgasm through having intercourse with the turkey, they would break the bird’s neck, causing the bird’s cloacal sphincter to constrict and spasm, clamping down on their penises and creating pleasurable sensations. A similar activity was enjoyed by ancient Chinese men, whose animal of preference was the goose. In 19th century France, bestiality became an organized practice, and at the time of Napoleon III, bestiality was said to have been one of the allied activities of the Society for the 1994), although certain acts continued to be punishable, if they involved violence or occurred in a public place. Many western countries, with the exception of a few such as England and the United States, had followed suit, at least in the elimination of the death penalty.

In 1821, the law in England called for the death penalty for any person who committed the crime of sodomy, either with a man or with any animal. This law was revised in 1861, and the sentence reduced to life imprisonment (L’Etalon Doux 1996). Nevertheless, since in England bestiality has been lumped together with homosexuality as “sodomy;” the prosecution of the former has declined with that of the latter. In 2002, the United Kingdom’s Home Office reported the sentencing to be reduced to a maximum of two years of imprisonment.

According to Dubois-Desaulle, the Hungarian penal code of 1878 carries the maximum penalty of one-year imprisonment for sexual relations with animals. The German penal code of 1871, revised in 1876, in its Article 175 states that acts against nature with animals shall be punished by imprisonment, and the convicted individual shall be deprived of his civil rights. Bestiality stopped being a crime in West Germany in 1969 due to “lack of use”. In the former Eastern (communist) half of Germany, bestiality was not considered an offense. During World War II, human–animal breeding experiments were conducted by the Nazi physician, Dr. Josef Mengele. He was reported to be obsessed with bestiality, and was bent on creating a hybrid that could eventually replace slave labor for menial tasks. He used the large camp source of young Jewish and Polish girls in the Auschwitz concentration camp for this purpose, and forced dogs and ponies on these women. Klaus Barbie, the infamous “Butcher of Lyons,” used to force female prisoners to perform sex acts with animals as a way of egrading them, according to war crimes testimony.

According to Rosenberger, bestiality is very common in Europe. As late as in the sixties, in Sicily and parts of France, Germany, and Poland, priests used to ask in the confessional if one had used an animal for “bestial purposes of sex”. In the forties and fifties, in Sicily and southern Italy, bestiality among herdsmen was said to have been of such proportions that it was considered a national custom. And, Aleister Crowley, the organizer of “Love is the law” cult in Sicily, was said to have his mistress and other female members of the cult engage in acts of bestiality with his selected sacred goat. According to a 10-year-old issue of The Wild Animal Revue, a specialized magazine about bestial sex, interested individuals can find sex shows involving women engaging in sexual activities with a variety of animals, such as dogs, goats, snakes, donkeys, bulls, and ponies, almost all over Europe: in Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal, England, France, Germany, Austria, Norway, and in the Netherlands. Denmark is probably the only place where bestiality videos are legally produced and distributed, while in Hungary, magazines dedicated to animal sex are sold openly in book-stores.

South and East Asia and Oceania

In its 17 volumes—Thousand Nights and a Night, translated by the British explorer and orientalist, Sir Richard F. Burton, and published between the years 1885 and 1888—bestiality among Chinese with ducks, goats, and other animals, is discussed, According to Waine, in China, sexual relations with canines prospered both in the past and present. In old Shanghai, the exhibit of a young virgin being mounted by a dog was regularly offered in the brothel’s sex shows, and Prince Chien, of the Han dynasty (221 BC–AD 24), was said to have forced women to have intercourse with dogs. Sultans and other leaders of the East were said to use animals to keep the women of their harems happy and satisfied. In ancient days, Pekingese dogs were bred and raised by eunuchs under close supervision of the Emperor himself. The royal preference for Pekingese probably precluded penetration possibilities, but the special treatment given to their tongues by the eunuchs, and the common practice of puppy breast-feeding by privileged ladies, indicate dog–human sexual attitudes “beyond the shadow of a doubt”. The Pekingese was replaced by the Chow Chow as Imperial Dog in following centuries.

As mentioned before, the wealthy and sophisticated men of the East, especially the Chinese, were famous for their intimate relations with geese and other birds, whose necks they wrung at the moment of orgasm in order to obtain added stimulation from the final spasms of the animal’s anal sphincter. In 1933, Dubois-Desaulle stated that bestiality was popular in the “Orient.” Before communism in China, almost any sex show could be seen in Shanghai. Yet, currently no animal sex shows are known to take place in China. However, relates that in Southeast Asia one can find sex shows with barnyard, domestic animals, snakes, and eels. Thailand is notorious for its human–animals sex shows, as are Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, and the former French colonies of the Pacific Islands. Although there is very little bestiality among the Japanese, the ultimate bachelor party extravaganza in modern day Japan is said to be an exhibit of a young woman being mounted by a dog, and underground bestial sex shows can still be found. In Australia and New Zealand, dog, goat, ram, pony, and bull sex shows exist. It is also reported that the Aborigines of Australia are known to practice bestiality. Bestiality was very common among the Hindus, and portrayals of animal–human sexual contacts frequently appear in temple sculptures all over India.

Although the Code of Manu, the first systematic coding of Hindu law, dating from about the first century AD reads: “A man who has committed a bestial crime... shall perform a Samtapana Krikkhra”, according to Donofrio, in ancient India, the belief in transmigration of souls between animals and humans was combined with acceptance toward bestiality. For example, Kautilya fined a person who copulated with animals only 12 panas, which was much less than for anal intercourse among humans. In India too, it was reported that pet dogs and monkeys were kept in harems to service the women. Tantrism often portrays man as a rabbit, bull or horse, and the woman as a doe, mare, or a female elephant, and among the supernatural powers promised to practitioners of various yogic disciplines are those by which a person could become a beast, so that he could have sex with animals and thereby experience sex in its totality. In an early legend, Prajapati was said to have cohabited with the dawn goddess Ushas, who tried to escape him by assuming hundreds of different animal shapes. It was through such copulations that all animal species were produced. In Hindu mythology, Mallika, the wife of Prasenajit, used a pet dog for her sexual gratification, and Prasenajit sought satisfaction with a goat.

According to the Hindu tradition of erotic painting and sculpture, a human copulating with an animal is actually a human having intercourse with a God incarnated in the form of an animal. Copulation with a sacred cow or monkey is believed to bring good fortune. During the Hindus’ celebrations at the Holi festival, to honor the Goddess Vesanti, open human sexual relations are said to be wildly practiced, and Hindu women are reported to masturbate and perform fellatio on bulls in order to be closer to God. “Many city youths have their first orgasm dangling from the rump of a sacred cow”, although in an article on sexual problems of adolescence in India, Nagaraja states that only one percent of the adolescent population suffers from the “abnormal desire” of bestiality. Sex shows with dogs, bulls, and water buffalos can be found in the Indian Ocean area and in the Indian Sub-continent (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sikkim). Among the Tamils of Sri Lanka, intercourse with goats and cows is said to be very common.

Arab Countries, the Middle East, and Africa

According to Rosenfeld and Rosenberger, the Arabs have long practiced bestiality. They practice bestiality primarily with goats, mares, sheep, sows, asses, and camels, if the latter cooperate. Arab women reportedly have oral sex and intercourse with dogs whenever men are not available to please them. Arab men believe that intercourse with animals increases virility, cures diseases, and enlarges their penises. The Muslims of Morocco have a similar belief, whereby fathers encourage sons to practice anal and vaginal intercourse with donkeys in order to make the penis grow. Boyhood masturbation is scorned in favor of bestiality, and the sight of a group of young Moroccan boys taking turns mounting a donkey is accepted as merely comical. Grown-up men are ridiculed for the practice, but are not punished as long as they perform the act with their own livestock.

Bestiality is considered better than “zina,” which is adultery or fornication. Muslims assume a man has sex with an animal only when he is depraved, or to prevent himself from committing “zina.” If discovered, the animal was to be destroyed and eaten further reports that Algerian boys have sex with she-asses because marital dowries are so high they cannot afford to get married and are deprived of sex with wives.

Although under Islamic law the penalty for sex with an animal is death, and in ancient times bestiality led to death by stoning of both man and animal, bestiality was tolerated in Islam and widely practiced (interestingly enough, according to Edwardes, Masters, and Ramsis, the Koran makes no mention of sexual relations with animals). A popular Arab saying is that “the pilgrimage to Mecca is not complete without copulating with the camel”. Among some nomad tribes, intercourse with cattle is still regarded as a ritual of passage for adolescent males. Bestiality is found only rarely among the Rwala Bedouins, occasionally in Central Arabia, and frequently among the semi-Bedouins of Northern Israel and Mecca. It was also reported that as recently as the early part of this century, the nomads’ practice of bestiality with their cattle constituted an ordinary feature of pastoral life among the Palestinian Arabs. During the 1978 American conflict with Iran, the Little Green Book, with extracts from the writings of Ayatollah Khomeini, was published. This book contains traditional ritualistically correct views on various issues, among them what to do with a sodomized camel. Bestiality is common among the Turks, who are known for having anal intercourse with mares. Some people regard bestiality as sinful only when it involves animals that are edible, such as cattle or sheep. Turks also believe that sex with a donkey makes the human penis grow larger. Today in Turkey, although enforcement of moral laws is very strict, pony, donkey, and dog sex shows are known to run from time to time. The last reported arrests for bestial activity were in 1993 and took place near the Kurdish refugee camps.

There are stories about the notorious side-shows in Aden, Port-Said, Cairo, and Alexandria which offer tourists sex exhibitions of humans and animals, and it is reported that brothels in Cairo provide sex shows of women and mule stallions. Egyptian shepherd boys are well known for engaging in sexual relations with animals in their herd. They especially favor fellatio, and rub honey or candy on the penis to encourage the suckling of lambs and goats.

In Lebanon, Beirut was known as a “hot place” for bestiality in the 1960s, and according to Dubois-Desaulle, in 1933 bestiality was still very popular in Syria. Sexual acts between humans and animals were not punished or even considered socially unacceptable among the Kusai and Masai tribes (inhabitants of Kenya and Tanzania). On the South Sea Island of Kusai, men are reported to use cattle occasionally as sexual objects, and Masai male adolescents frequently use female donkeys as a sexual outlet, and as practice, as they believe it improves their lovemaking. The Suaheli (Bantu people of Zanzibar/Tanzania) and Arabian fisherman along the coast of Africa, near Mombasa, Kenya, used to believe that unless they had anal sex with the sea-cows they netted, they would be dragged out to sea the next day and drowned by the dead sea-cow’s sister. Many people would therefore make the fishermen swear, by the Koran, that they did not have sex with the seacow they were selling at the local market. At El Yemen, trained baboons were popular sex partners for both men and women, and the women in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and the Sudan were said to smuggle dog-faced apes (girds) into the harem and have sexual relations with them. Among the Manghabei of Madagascar, bestiality with calves and cows has been observed to be practiced openly by children and adults alike. The people of the Hottentot tribe, nomadic people in southwest Africa, do not consider bestiality to be immoral; they do, however, regard incest in the same negative light as Western people. Sex with animals used to be a part of the Ibo (Nigerian tribe) male coming-of-age ritual. Every boy had to “successfully” copulate with a specially selected sheep, to the satisfaction of a circle of elders who witnessed the performance. Among the Yoruba (another tribe in Nigeria), there was the custom that a young hunter had to copulate with the first antelope he ever killed, while it was still warm. Many tribes in Central Africa believe animals to be the ancestors of human beings. In Voodoo ceremonies, as well as in some other religious and magical rituals, individuals believe themselves as transformed into animals, and have sexual relations either with other humans or with animals of the kind they believe themselves to be.

South and Central America

The Inca civilization extended down the Pacific coast, from Columbia to Chile and inland to the Andes. In their sexual mores, bestiality was punishable by hanging. Nevertheless, six percent of Inca archaeological decorated specimens, dated from before AD 1000, depict bestiality.

An ancient law in Peru forbade bachelors from having female alpacas in their homes because of the many reported cases of bestiality. Peruvian men who were unaccompanied by women were further forbidden from herding llamas. In South and Central America, bestiality was said to be so prevalent when the Spaniards arrived, that the priests included the “sin of bestiality” in their confessional protocol. According to Gregersen, sexual contacts with animals play an important part in the sex life of almost everyone in the Kagaba, an agricultural society in northern Columbiam. An ancient pre- Columbian belief among Indians of the Caribbean coast of Columbia relates that adolescent males will not achieve competence in marriage unless they practice intercourse with donkeys. In a study on the gaucho population living on the border of Brazil and Uruguay, Leal found the gauchos to understand bestiality as a legitimate practice within a group where the dominant cultural belief consists of mastering the wild. A sexual relationship with certain animals is not only a sanctioned practice within this group, but is seen throughout south Brazil as a herdsmen’s or rural tradition. “Barranquear” is the regional term used to refer to male sexual relationship with animals, usually mares. There is a sort of hierarchy of animals to be followed in the “barranqueamento.” The sequence starts with the chicken and culminates with the mare. Chickens are for small and young boys, and the act is subject to ridicule. For the gauchos, bestiality shows courage, and the wilder the animal in the animal hierarchy, the more prestigious is the act. Most gauchos do not engage in bestiality as a regular activity, although it is an important part of their sexual initiation. In the towns and cities of this region, bestiality is considered another form of sexual play among male teenagers. It is tolerated by society as part of growing up and as a necessary erotic experience. Bestiality within this more urban context is practiced with hens, ewes, sows, cows, mules, and mares, but not with cats or dogs. A group of boys will hold the animal while one of them has intercourse with it. There is no legislation against bestiality in Brazil, either under criminal or civil law. It is an offense only when it is done in a public area. Brazil is especially known for its sex shows, and some of the latest animal porn films are from this country. In an analysis of Latin American (Mexican, Cuban) pornography of the 1930s through the 1950s, Di-Lauro and Rabkin found that bestiality was a common theme. Films such as Rin Tin Tin Mexicano, and A Hunter and His Dog depict bestiality acts. The Wild Animal Revue further describes a series of 8mm stag films, which appeared during the early 1930s, known as the “Mexican Dog” series. Animal sex shows in Mexico have declined since the days of the 1950s and 1960s, but there are still rumors of the famous donkey shows. Sex shows with animals were common in the brothels of Cuba, but Castro closed down all the brothels. In Balboa, Panama, there used to be night clubs that featured a donkey having intercourse with a woman. There has always been an underground trade in bestiality videos and magazines, and United States Customs occasionally checks tapes coming in from Panama.

Native Americans, Canadians and Eskimos

Among Native Americans, bestiality varied from tribe to tribe (Rosenberger 1968). Married men, among the Navaho Indians (in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah), were known to occasionally engage in bestiality while out herding alone, and unmarried women engaged in bestiality, as well (Deutsch 1948 cited in Donofrio 1996). Bestiality was common among the Crow (native Americans who live in the upper basins of the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers, in eastern Montana) who had no scruples about having sexual relations with mares and wild animals that had just been killed in the hunt. Although all forms of animal sexual contacts are said to be taboo among the Ojibwa (native Americans and Canadians who live in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario), Ojibwa women were known to have sex with dogs, while Ojibwa men had sexual relations with dogs, bears, moose, beavers, caribou, and porcupines (Gregersen 1983). Cases of bestiality among the Mohave (native Americans who live along the Colorado river in Arizona and California) are known to have involved mares, female asses, heifers, sows, and hens Bestiality is fairly common among the Hopi Indians in north Arizona, who consider sex with animals socially acceptable. Hopi men are reported to have intercourse with burros, dogs, horses, sheep, and chickens, and Hopi boys are sometimes directed to animal contacts so they will leave girls alone. The Sioux (native Americans of the Great Plains) and the Apache (native Americans in south-west US and in north Mexico) had similar views. The Plains Indians (a number of native north American tribes that inhabited the Great Plains, and followed the buffalo) were known to experiment with colts and to use freshly slain animals for sexual purposes. In the Canadian Indian tribe of the Salteaux, sexual relations betwend women and dogs are reported. It is also reported that hunters have sex with moose and with female bears they have shot, before the animals get cold. Sexual acts between humans and animals were not punished or even considered socially unacceptable among the Kupfer Eskimos. Among the Copper Eskimos, intercourse between men and live or dead animals is not infrequent and is not prohibited.

The New World — The American Colonies

In Colonial America, a divorce law enacted in 1639, in Plymouth Colony, mentioned bestiality specifically as reason for divorce, and some sexologists and historians believe bestiality was widespread. Colonial laws against bestiality required harsh punishment, since the colonists believed these relationships could have reproductive consequences of monstrous offspring. Therefore, the colonists made sure both the person and the animal were executed. The Colony of Pennsylvania ordered life imprisonment and whipping of the person involved in bestiality, at the discretion of the court, and Colonial Virginia law prescribed castration as a remedy for bestiality. The first recorded cases of bestiality in the New World took place in 1642 in Plymouth and Massachusetts Colonies. Both men were sentenced to death, and the animals were slaughtered and burned

The United States of America

According to Kinsey, Pomeroy and Martin’s1948 study, one American man in about 13 had sexual experience with animals. The authors estimated the number to be eight percent of the male population in the United States. They also stated that animal sexual contacts were largely confined to farm boys, and added that over half of the rural males who had a college education had had some kind of sexual contact with animals. Almost four percent of the women interviewed by Kinsey et al. (1953) reported having had sexual contact with animals after they had become adolescents.

Rumors about orgies involving animals among swinging circles have been reported , and according to Dumont there used to be a guest ranch in Texas, as late as 1970, which arranged sexual relations between the guests and various horses trained for performing sexual acts. The Pet Book series, detailing bestiality fantasies, from Greenleaf Classics in San Diego, California, has flourished since the early 1970s. A full length, underground movie was reportedly shown in some San Francisco adult movie theaters about 20 years ago. The film was called Animal Lovers and portrayed the female star engaging in intercourse with various types of animals including a dog, a donkey, and a pig. There are also the Color Climax’ 8mm animal films, such as Dog Fuckers, Horse Lovers, and Horsepower, all from 1970. Another two 8mm stag films appeared in the early 1970s in which porn star, Linda Lovelace, had sex with a large dog. Lovelace, however, has denied her participation in such films. There have been reports of underground, private, local, animal shows in the United States and Canada, but nothing organized. At one mid-Western high school, the football team still gets a “goat show” after “home coming,” reportedly, a tradition for over 20 years. There were also reports about some wild animal sex shows during construction of the Alaskan pipe line. In 1962, Illinois became the first American state to revise its criminal code, and oral-genital contacts, anal intercourse between consenting adults in private, and sexual acts with animals, were no longer considered criminal offenses. In 1997, twenty-five states, the District of Columbia, and the United States Government outlawed bestiality. The sentences ranged from a mere fine of not more than $500 in Tennessee to an indeterminate life sentence in Michigan. The laws in the United States have been changing, and according to Richard, in 2001, three states—Iowa, Maine, and Oregon—passed laws criminalizing bestiality. The late Mark Matthews, in his book The Horseman (1994), helped increase awareness of the existence of “zoophilia” (i.e., in addition to engaging in bestiality, the zoophile, or “zoo,” also feels love and sexual attraction toward the animals). In recent years, the Broadway theater has been increasingly open in its portrayal of the full spectrum of sexual themes and activities. Productions such as, Futz and the very recent The Goat, have depicted the themes of bestiality and zoophilia.

The Internet

Alt.sex.bestiality (A.S.B.) was one of the first Internet news groups which started around 1990 as someone’s idea of a joke. Soon, A.S.B. grew and matured into a discussion and support group, providing information about health issues, laws governing bestiality, bibliographic references, “how to” guides, written, and pictorial erotica, and information about the “zoo community’s” events. Most people in this newsgroup had sexual relations with animals, and many were quite proud of it. There were also many others who have not had any sexual contact with animals, but who were eager to do so. According to Andriette, for most “zoos,” finding other “zoos” has changed their lives. It has given them a new self understanding, and connected them with like-minded friends. Stasya’s Home Page, which was about zoophilia, was initiated in September of 1995, and averaged a “hit” (a visitor) every three minutes. Stasya reported (in 1996) receiving anywhere from two to six messages per day from people saying “thank you for being there”. In January of 1999, according to the Humane Society of the United States’ web site, in one Internet search using the term “bestiality,” it found 85,771 documents. These days, one can find numerous web sites, chat rooms, and pet forums exclusively devoted to bestiality, zoophilia, and related pornography online. And Byrd points out that bestiality/zoophilia has never been more present, even in fashion magazine advertisements and television commercials.

Conclusion

A more in-depth exploration of the history of bestiality is beyond the scope of this paper. However, it is apparent and important to acknowledge that man has engaged in bestiality since the dawn of civilization, in almost every culture and place in the world. Although individuals have been punished, sometimes tortured and killed, for engaging in bestiality, the behavior and the pre-occupation with bestiality has persisted. Even more important are the reports that bestiality is still an integral part of many people’s lives, whether in myth, art, literature, or as actual sexual behavior. Although no one knows how prevalent sexual behavior with animals is, bestiality is unquestionably among us.

[diveronarpg]

In fair Verona, our tale begins with OLIVIO RIVERA, who is FORTY ONE years old. He is often called OBERON by the CAPULETS and works as their INITIATE. He uses HE/HIM pronouns.

Have you ever felt like you were PLUCKED from a world -- a wild world, a beautiful world -- and placed into another, where you knew not the language nor the customs but they demanded that you manage all the same? The world that Olivio believes he was birthed from was a wild one, where debauchery and comradery permeate the heavy summer air, and glory abounds in the form of grand adventures and tales where Death is a mere kiss away. Sometimes, when he lays his head to rest at night he can practically taste it; the overgrown greenery that saturates the air with the heady fumes of milkmaids and wild daffodils, rich, RIPE wine coating his tongue. Instead, he was born into a world that was far less glorious and romantic; upon the doorsteps of Rivera family he was placed, ushered into their villa in the arms of a hapless maid with a bleeding heart. Ever the ones to jump on an opportunity to preen under a philanthropic spotlight, they claimed him as one of their own -- though, throughout the years he has made it quite clear that he wishes they hadn’t. Vapid, bickering siblings -- frigid, bigoted parents. It was a far cry from warmth and COMRADERY that he longed for. But he wasn’t one to sit idle, wasn’t one to let the world go by untouched. If he could not belong to this world, then the world would then be razed, remade, and reshaped. It would soon belong to him.

His parents sent him off with little fanfare, his siblings not so much as blinking when he said his goodbyes. To the Escuela Naval Militar they sent him, the finest naval academy in all of Spain -- but little did they know that such schooling would make him far more of a force to be reckoned with. In primary and secondary school he had created his own little KINGDOM with his own little court, a round table of children who mirrored his ideals -- who longed for that comradery and the world that they had been robbed of. His reach began to extend so far out that others began to seek him out, the BOY-KING that could promise safety from the hands of their abusers and odd jobs that were better done at night. They were the feral, reckless few -- devils of the night that brought about fixings of white-powdery decadence and dreamy little tabs that melted on the tongue. His education at the military academy only made his mind a SHARPER weapon, tweaked and fixed his strategy until every decision he made was iron-clad, every word he gave never to be contended with. His parents sought to take away the power that he had -- had hoped to take away his spirit and break it, but they had underestimated how Fate favored him and the power that he had. Though he did not demand it, Olivio brought the people of the world to their knees. They were ready for him to raze, remake, and reshape the world that they once knew; they cried out for him to remake it in his name.

His discharge could never be anything less than HONORABLE, not with the weight of the name that he carried. The people loved him, but the world was still not the one that he longed for, the world that he came from, so his restlessness grew until he could bear it no longer. That is when he began to play his little game. The kingdom that he had built for himself in Spain was coveted, often by those closest to him. It did not take much to undo the tight bonds of brotherhood he had created -- a little word here, a well-tailored piece of GOSSIP there. Those who considered themselves his brothers-in-arms rebelled against him, thinking themselves greater together than whatever power he might manage to wield. And he let them rebel, let them think that this was the grand beginning of a revolution. But then he reminded them, making an example out of the leader of a COUP, how bloody and ruthless their self-made king could be. With their tails tucked between their legs, they bowed their heads and let him leave his kingdom gracefully, too cowed to think of haunting his steps. He wandered, lost and looking for his world -- stumbling into it by happenstance.

His former clientele had whispered of VERONA, half a hell and half a dream. He had not intended to find it until Fate itself dragged him there, coaxing him with its whispered tales of gore and glory. One night in the famed city and he was practically drunk on the danger and debauchery that occurred nightly on its cobblestone streets. With a bullet and a dead body he staked his claim on the city, calling to the Capulets so they might see their great and terrifying ideals personified in him and him alone. He turned the heads of the mobs of Verona, Montague and Capulet alike looking to him. The moment the CITY welcomed him, it was as though it were holding its breath. It was then that the smell washed over him -- the heavy summer air, saturated with wild daffodils and the broken stems of milkmaid. With him, they would do better, be better -- their glory and adventure would know no bounds so long as they recognized him for what he was: the legendary FAIRY KING.

THEODORA MOREAU: Sponsor. When he first met them, there was no hesitation -- only a clear, stark certainty -- that it was to them and their cause that he would bend his knee. It is clear to him that heir ingenuity knows no bounds, and he is able to see their heart, ready and weeping upon their sleeve. They dubbed him Oberon because they knew he was ready to take up their mantle, but even in all the heady glory of his newfound family and ties, he does not forget what they have forgone and what they have suffered. A loss is still a loss, no matter how time seeks to salve the raw and aching wound. Though Theodora is the one that brought him into the fold, it is he who stands guard over them and their half-stitched heart. 

VIVIANNE SLOANE: Achilles Heel. He is a man that prides himself on his ability to guard every weakness, to carefully cultivate an infallible armor around his heart and his mind. There has never been any need to divulge it or place it into the care of another. Though there have been those who have managed to tug on its strings, none have ever been so lucky to claim it as their own. Save for Vivianne. They met a lifetime ago, and he is not so foolish to think that she could ever remember him -- but since the first glance, the first smile that she cared to toss his war, he has felt his heart eluding him, being prized from his chest by the melancholy smile that tugs on the corner of her mouth. His armor, for the most part, is impervious to weakness, but by God himself, he knows he has been damned with this singular Achilles Heel. 

PAVEL LAM: Devil. There are very few that can rival Olivio in his ability to drink every man in a bar under the table, but Pavel, he has discovered, has a gift for it. They met on one of his first nights in the city, and it seemed that like called to like -- Pavel immediately honing in on Olivio’s more mischievous proclivities. Admittedly, their first night was something of a blur and if Olivio were capable of remembering it, he is sure that it would have been one to remember. High praise from a man who has lived life to its fullest many times over.The companionship that they found in one another was something he had not realized he sorely missed, especially since he had forsaken so many of them in Spain. And though their loyalties may not align, there is nothing to stop either of them from indulging in debauched fun. After all, no one can really say no to the Fairy King when he demands a night of unabated and unfettered revelry. 

BATTISTA TAHAN: Mockery. In truth, Olivio pities the Montagues -- one of the foremost reasons being that they have a rather misshapen crew of semi-capable soldiers and captains. Only one of them he knows has had any military experience at all and, from what he has seen, it is nothing to be greatly admired or noted. Upon entering the city, he thought that he might make note of who could feasibly be reckoned with and one of the names that had made it onto his list was Battista Tahan, supposedly someone of repute. Olivio had made the mistake of getting his hopes up, thinking that he might have finally found a grand and dangerous rival, only to be disappointed by the mediocrity that he found. Perhaps he will meet his great rival, someday -- someone to hold a gun to his temple and force him onto a bended knee. In the meantime, though, he will make do with what Fate has given him: a toy, to be broken and tossed away until the next one came again. 

Olivio is portrayed by OSCAR ISAAC and was written by ROSEY. He is currently OPEN.

[justtessasworld]

time after time - caspian x

Hello, this is a little something i wrote about Caspian and an oc named Elizabeth, i actually thought about making a few more parts of this so tell me what you think about it :)) love, tessa

warnings: just my english, i´m sorry it´s not my first language 

-

In which Elizabeth finally finds back to Narnia, and to Caspian.

-

Elizabeth was 6 when her mum left her dad. She didn´t remember much about him. He was mean, never voluntarily spending time with his daughter, or it seemed, with his wife, so when Beatrice left together with their daughter no one was actually surprised.

They tried living on their own after that for a year. A crappy apartment in the middle of nowhere until Beatrice decided she wanted a better life for her daughter.

A few months after Elizabeth turned 7 they moved to their grandmother, Beatrice mother, a mean and strict, old lady that lived in a mansion not very far from the city, with a massive forest in the backyard and no immediate neighbors. That time Elizabeth felt like the most lonely person on the world.

Shortly before her 8th birthday Elizabeth explored the forest, like she often did. That day she found a big group of trees near the lake, with a gait between them. Walking through it, Elizabeth suddenly found herself in the backyard of a small but friendly faun family.

That day Elizabeth found Narnia.

The family brought Elizabeth to their king, a handsome, young man with kind eyes and an even kinder smile. He told her about the magical land she had found and about the other siblings that had come there from her world.

When Elizabeth went back home, she didn’t feel lonely anymore.

She told her mother about Narnia, who smiled and nodded, even when Elizabeth knew she didn´t fully believe her.

After that, Elizabeth visited Narnia nearly daily.

The family brought her to the castle every time, and King Caspian spent all of her visits with her.

He showed her all of Cair Paravel and Narnia, taught her the Narnian history as well as royal duties so that Elizabeth felt more and more like a true Narnian princess, like Queen Lucy the Valiant or High Queen Susan the Gentle.

On special occasions, when Caspian didn’t have any very important duties and Elizabeth just didn’t stop begging, he even taught her some sword fighting and shooting arrows.

When she was 9 she was in Narnia again, sitting next to Caspian at the table, wearing Narnian clothing and picking at her bread. They did that often, just living their daily life together as if they didn’t come from different worlds.

“When will I be queen?”, she asked, tugging at her sleeves, that had become dirty while they had explored the village next to Cair Paravel. “I love Narnia so much but I guess I´m still to young to marry you, aren’t I?”  

Caspian coughed and set down his plate.

“You definetly are”, he laughed, smiling at her softly. “Let´s wait for marriage until you´re at least a few heads taller.”

She grinned at him, standing up from the table. “Well then you have to keep training me too, so that when I´m tall enough to marry you I can also kick your butt.”

A few days later, Elizabeth had a visitor at the mansion. The new girl from her class, Katie. She was small, even a head smaller than Elizabeth, with blonde hair and brown eyes. She became  Elizabeths only friend.

When she tried showing Narnia to Katie, they walked right through the trees, but stayed in their world. They tried it again and again but it never worked. Katie shrugged her shoulders, “maybe another time it would work and they could have wicked adventures in Narnia”.

But it never did. Not even when Elizabeth came alone.

Years passed and Elizabeth, now called Lizzie, didn’t think about Narnia anymore. It was just some weird game she had played with herself when she was feeling lonely.

She and her mother had moved out, Beatrice had a new and great job and could afford a small house away from her mother. And while Lizzie grew up, with new friends and new hobbies, she just couldn’t shake the feeling of missing something.

 “And why exactly did we agree to a Christmas eve dinner with the witch?”, Lizzie grumbed, leaning her head at the car window while they drove to their small town.

“Because she´s still part of our family”, her mother said, then mumbling:” and she´s probably dead soon anyway.”

Lizzie laughed softy, while it did sound evil, their relationship to the woman just hadn’t gotten any better since the stopped living with her. Still strict, mean and controlling, that was Theodora. And no, they weren’t allowed to call the mom or mother or grandma. No, just Theodora.

“It´s not too late, we can still run away and go home and watch Harry Potter”, Lizzie suggested when they were standing in front of Theodoras front door.

“Don’t temp me”, ringing the bell, her mother tugged at her dress. Any imperfection would be critizised by their hostess.

The door opened and Carla, the maid that worked for Lizzies grandmother, greeted them and showed them to the table in the living room.

“You´re late”, Theodora said, her wrinkly eyes cold and her grey hair pulled into a tight bun.

“But I shouldn’t expect any better from you two, now should I?”

Well, this was going to be fun.

“And what are you doing right now again?”, Theodora asked Lizzie, elegantly cutting up a potato.

“I´m still in university to become an elementary school teacher.”

Theodora lifted an eyebrow unimpressed.

“Well, like I already told you, you should definetly focus on a different part of your life, you´re nearly 23 already and you still don’t have a husband or even a boyfriend”, she shook her head disapprovingly.

“At this rate you´re just going to end up like you´re mother. A bad reputation, no husband and a daughter from some idiot that she couldn’t even keep.”

“Mother!”, Beatrice looked at her mother shocked.

“What, you know I´m right. Look at that girl, she´s not nearly as intelligent or pretty as she should be at that age. She´ll probably never find a husband.”

Lizzie dropped her fork. She knew how mean her grandmother could be but this was a new for her. Fighting the tears that welled up she put away her napkin, ignoring her mum that was yelling at Theodora.

“Excuse me, I´m going for a walk”, she whispered shakingly and left the room.

The cold air was biting at her nose but she ignored it, wrapping her coat tighter around her as she waked towards the wood.

The tears had already started falling, but she didn’t bother wiping them away.

How could someone be so mean to their own grandchild? She knew Theodora didn’t like her very much, but she still thought that deep down she cared about her.

“She will never find a husband”, Lizzie repeated angrily. “I don’t have to find a husband right now, you dumb witch”, she said to herself. “I´m 22 for gods sake. I still have plenty of time left!”

She kept walking, away from the lake and towards a group of trees, while she raged about her grandmother.

Stepping through a gait between the trees, Lizzie suddenly looked up.

The sun blinded her and she couldn’t open her eyes, why was the sun suddenly out? It was nearly 8 pm on a winter evening, and why was it suddenly this warm?

She knew this place. She didn’t know why but she remembered this place, a warm sensation bubbling up in her chest.

She blinked slowly, her eyes getting accostumed to the light, and when she opened them the memories came rushing back.

She was standing in the backyard again. The backyard of the faun family.

Lizzie grinned brightly, her heart feeling warm.

“Who are you?”, a voice said. Turning around Lizzie recognized Bandon, the faun boy, standing next to his mother Ariadne.

“Bandon”, Lizzie laughed, “Ariadne, it´s me: Elizabeth.”

Getting both of them to believe her took Lizzie nearly an hour. All those years Lizzie hadn’t been in Narnia had only been 2 for them, so it had been kind of a shock for them when she was suddenly an adult.

After a lot of crying and hugging and telling a summary about what happened in all those years, Bandon and Lizzie readied their horses and rode to Cair Paravel.

Lizzie couldn’t stop looking around, the view was nothing new but still, she knew that that was the part she had been missing. It seemed so unrealistic now, that she could have simply forgotten about this place, about these people, and she still didn’t understand why but right now, she was way too happy to be back to worry about it.

A guard greeted them and while Bandon and her were trying to explain what was going on a servant was already ordered to send message to the king.

“I can´t believe I´m back here”, Lizzie laughed, smiling at Bandon as they brought their horses to the stables.

“Elizabeth!”, someone yelled. She recognized the voice instantly, Caspian.

Beaming she turned around. He was running towards her, still tall and handsome, his hair a tad shorter than the last time she´d seen him and, confusingly, only a few years older than her.

He grinned from ear to ear and, as soon as he reached her, engulfed her in a tight hug.

Lizzie laughed softly, hugging him as closely as possible, her eyes filling with tears. God, she had missed that, she had missed him.

“You´re back”, Caspian said, slowly letting her go to look at her properly. She nodded, holding back her tears, she really shouldn’t cry again. That would be the third time today.

“You´re…”, he started, looking her up and down, and again.

“…older?”, she suggested, pushing her hair back. He nodded this time, still shocked.

“I can´t believe it, I- How long has it been? For you, I mean.”

Lizzie lowered her eyes.

“12 years”, she whispered.

She remembered everything now, especially the devastation she felt, when she couldn’t go back to Narnia, but she still felt like it was her fault. Had she done something wrong so that Aslan didn’t want her in Narnia anymore?

“So long? It only been two years here and I still-“, he stopped suddenly, looking at her again intently. “I missed you everyday.”

She nodded, wiping away a tear that had fallen from her eye. “I missed you too”, she whispered, trying not to cry completely. It was a lost cause.

“I missed you so much all those years”, she sobbed and Caspian pulled her to him, his arms tightly around her waist.

“It´s okay, you´re here now”, he said, burying his face too her neck. She nodded, it was true. Now that she was here, everything would be okay.

[aion-rsa]

Top New Fantasy Books in August 2020

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It’s summer. Lots of people are staying home. It might be a good time for a book. Here are some of the upcoming books we’re anticipating:

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Top New Fantasy Books August 2020

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson 

Type: Novel  Publisher: Tor Release date: Aug. 11 

Den of Geek says: The Baru Cormorant series features as its hero a mentally ill accountant with the fate of an empire at its fingers. The third book in the series promises more dark, twisty introspection and grim, creative world-building. 

Publisher’s summary: The hunt is over. After fifteen years of lies and sacrifice, Baru Cormorant has the power to destroy the Imperial Republic of Falcrest that she pretends to serve. The secret society called the Cancrioth is real, and Baru is among them.

But the Cancrioth’s weapon cannot distinguish the guilty from the innocent. If it escapes quarantine, the ancient hemorrhagic plague called the Kettling will kill hundreds of millions…not just in Falcrest, but all across the world. History will end in a black bloodstain.

Is that justice? Is this really what Tain Hu hoped for when she sacrificed herself?

Baru’s enemies close in from all sides. Baru’s own mind teeters on the edge of madness or shattering revelation. Now she must choose between genocidal revenge and a far more difficult path―a conspiracy of judges, kings, spies and immortals, puppeteering the world’s riches and two great wars in a gambit for the ultimate prize. 

If Baru had absolute power over the Imperial Republic, she could force Falcrest to abandon its colonies and make right its crimes.

Buy The Tyrant Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. 

Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley

Type: Epic Poem  Publisher: MCD x FSG Originals Release date: Aug. 25 

Den of Geek says: Headley got an intimate look at Beowulf in the modern interpretation The Mere Wife. She turns the intellect behind that inventive, scathing novel about complex and furious women to a translation of the poem featuring new research. 

Publisher’s summary: Nearly twenty years after Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf―and fifty years after the translation that continues to torment high-school students around the world―there is a radical new verse translation of the epic poem by Maria Dahvana Headley, which brings to light elements that have never before been translated into English, recontextualizing the binary narrative of monsters and heroes into a tale in which the two categories often entwine, justice is rarely served, and dragons live among us. 

A man seeks to prove himself as a hero. A monster seeks silence in his territory. A warrior seeks to avenge her murdered son. A dragon ends it all. The familiar elements of the epic poem are seen with a novelist’s eye toward gender, genre, and history―Beowulf has always been a tale of entitlement and encroachment, powerful men seeking to become more powerful, and one woman seeking justice for her child, but this version brings new context to an old story. While crafting her contemporary adaptation of Beowulf, Headley unearthed significant shifts lost over centuries of translation. Buy Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley.  

The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe

Type: Novel (Reprint)  Publisher: Tor Books Release date: Aug. 11 

Den of Geek says: Gene Wolfe is a modern master of fantasy. This reprint of a 2004 duology provides both original stories in one paperback package. 

Publisher’s summary: A young man in his teens is transported from our world to a magical realm consisting of seven levels of reality. Transformed by magic into a grown man of heroic proportions, he takes the name Sir Able of the High Heart and sets out on a quest to find the sword that has been promised to him, the blade that will help him fulfill his ambition to become a true hero―a true knight. 

Inside, however, Sir Able remains a boy, and he must grow in every sense to survive what lies ahead…

Buy The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe. 

Top New Fantasy Books July 2020 

The Book of Dragons: An Anthology by Jonathan Strahan

Type: Anthology  Publisher: Harper Voyager  Release date: July 7 

Den of Geek says: I’m always looking for a good book about dragons, and this incredible list of authors promises adventurous and unique stories. Anne Leckie, Zen Cho, Seanan Maguire, J.Y. Yang, Patricia A McKillip, Brooke Bolander … it’s an astounding, literary-flavored list of people qualified to write cool creatures.

Publisher’s summary: Here there be dragons . . . 

From China to Europe, Africa to North America, dragons have long captured our imagination in myth and legend. Whether they are rampaging beasts awaiting a brave hero to slay or benevolent sages who have much to teach humanity, dragons are intrinsically connected to stories of creation, adventure, and struggle beloved for generations. 

Bringing together nearly thirty stories and poems from some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers working today— Garth Nix, Scott Lynch, R.F. Kuang, Ann Leckie & Rachel Swirsky, Daniel Abraham, Peter S. Beagle, Beth Cato, Zen Cho, C. S. E Cooney, Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Kate Elliott, Theodora Goss, Ellen Klages, Ken Liu, Seanan Maguire, Patricia A McKillip, K. J. Parker, Kelly Robson, Michael Swanwick, Jo Walton, Elle Katharine White, Jane Yolen, Kelly Barnhill, Brooke Bolander, Sarah Gailey, and J. Y. Yang—and illustrated by award-nominated artist Rovina Cai with black-and-white line drawings specific to each entry throughout, this extraordinary collection vividly breathes fire and life into one of our most captivating and feared magical creatures as never before and is sure to become a treasured keepsake for fans of fantasy, science fiction, and fairy tales.

Buy The Book of Dragons by Jonathan Strahan on Amazon

Or What You Will by Joe Walton 

Type: Novel  Publisher: Tor Books Release date: July 7 

Den of Geek says: Jo Walton is a writer’s writer, highly praised but still generally skating under the radar. I found her 2014 My Real Children to not nearly live up to its very high concept, but she’s one of those authors with technical prowess who is at least worth checking out for context for women’s science fiction. The metafiction plot sounds fun. 

Publisher’s summary: He has been too many things to count. He has been a dragon with a boy on his back. He has been a scholar, a warrior, a lover, and a thief. He has been dream and dreamer. He has been a god. 

But “he” is in fact nothing more than a spark of idea, a character in the mind of Sylvia Harrison, 73, award-winning author of thirty novels over forty years. He has played a part in most of those novels, and in the recesses of her mind, Sylvia has conversed with him for years. 

But Sylvia won’t live forever, any more than any human does. And he’s trapped inside her cave of bone, her hollow of skull. When she dies, so will he.

Now Sylvia is starting a new novel, a fantasy for adult readers, set in Thalia, the Florence-resembling imaginary city that was the setting for a successful YA trilogy she published decades before. Of course he’s got a part in it. But he also has a notion. He thinks he knows how he and Sylvia can step off the wheel of mortality altogether. All he has to do is convince her.

Buy Or What You Will by Jo Walton on Amazon 

The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal

Type: Graphic Novel  Publisher: First Second  Release date: July 14 

Den of Geek says: The Adventure Zone is a wildly popular humorous fantasy podcast. It’s part of the big 2010s wave of Dungeons & Dragons coming back into the geek space. Especially for someone who might not want to listen to hundreds of episodes of a podcast, the illustrated version does a good job of smoothing out the story into a graphic novel format without removing the goofy chaos of the original podcast. 

Publisher’s summary: START YOUR ENGINES, friends, Clint McElroy and sons Griffin, Justin, and Travis hit the road again with Taako, Magnus and Merle, the beloved agents of chaos from the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novels illustrated by Carey Pietsch, The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins and The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited.

Our boys have gone full-time at the Bureau of Balance, and their next assignment is a real thorny one: apprehending The Raven, a master thief who’s tapped into the power of a Grand Relic to ransack the city of Goldcliff. Local life-saver Lieutenant Hurley pulls them out of the woods, only to throw them headlong into the world of battle wagon racing, Goldcliff’s favorite high-stakes low-legality sport and The Raven’s chosen battlefield. Will the boys and Hurley be able to reclaim the Relic and pull The Raven back from the brink, or will they get lost in the weeds?

Based on the beloved blockbuster podcast where three brothers and their dad play a tabletop RPG in real time, The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal has it all: blossoming new friendships, pining for outlaw lovers, and a rollicking race you can root for!

Buy The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal 

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