#north west frontier

[herprivateswe]

British troops on the North West Frontier 1917-1919. The campaigns of Mahsud and Marri Khetran.

[puntidifuga]

Lauren Bacall, 1959

[tourneurs]

North West Frontier (1959) dir. J. Lee Thompson

[batmonkfish80]

Police Academy: Mission To Moscow

Superman III

Robin Hood (2018)

Journey To The centre Of The Earth (2008)

Raffles (1939)

Robocop 3

The Amityville Horror (1979)

The Man With Golden Gun

The Exorcist: Believer

North West Frontier

[rwpohl]

north west frontier, j. lee thompson 1959

[khaperai]

Female medical students, Peshawar, early 80s

[rabbitcruiser]

Seward’s Day

Seward’s Day, which falls on the last Monday in March and takes place on March 31 this year, is named for then-Secretary of State William H. Seward, who was responsible for the purchase in the first place. This legal holiday (in Alaska) commemorates the day the Alaska Purchase treaty was signed. This day shouldn’t be confused with National Alaska Day, however, which marks the formal transfer of control of Alaska from Russia to the U.S.

HISTORY OF SEWARD’S DAY

A long long time ago — around the 18th century — Alaska was owned by the Russians. Then came the Crimean War. Fought for the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land (a part of the Ottoman Empire), Russia fought against the alliance of France, the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom, and Sardinia, and lost. Reeling from this, Russian Tsar Alexander II started exploring options to raise money for the country. He turned his gaze towards Alaska. Not only had the sea otter population vastly declined, but Alaska would also prove to be very difficult to defend in the event of a future war. Especially since the British forces were based out of neighboring Canada.

The Russians discussed this plan and were all for selling to the U.S. by 1857, in the hopes that their presence would deter the British from any attacks. Negotiations began; however, the American Civil War took precedence at this time and any plans for buying Alaska were put on hold. Following the Union win, Tsar Alexander asked for another round of negotiations. The U.S. Secretary of State William Seward negotiated with Russian Minister Eduard de Stoeckl. They agreed to a treaty on March 30, 1867, which was ratified by the U.S. Senate. At the time, they paid $7.2 million, or about two cents per acre.

They called this place ‘Alaska,’ changing it from the Russian name, ‘Аляска’ (or ‘Alyaska’). Most Russian citizens went home, barring a few — traders and priests, mostly — who chose to remain. They would eventually leave Alaska too, as records indicate.

The reactions to this purchase were largely positive, with people believing the added possession would create a base to expand trade in Asia. Seward’s political opponents coined the phrase ‘Seward’s Folly’ or ‘Seward’s Icebox,’ referring to Alaska as ‘useless land’’ Alaska would remain sparsely populated until the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896 when the region came to be seen as a truly valuable addition to U.S. territory. Today, Alaska stands as the U.S.’s 49th largest territory and is a booming tourist spot.

SEWARD’S DAY TIMELINE

1741

The European Discovery Of Alaska

A Russian expedition led by Danish explorer Vitus Bering — and including German Zoologist and explorer George Steller — sights Alaska; the land is already inhabited and has been since around 10,000 B.C., as per historical records.

1867

Re-negotiations

Russia enters into re-negotiations with the U.S. to sell Alaska; they approached America with this plan before the Civil War too.

1867

The Treaty Is Signed

William Seward and Russian Minister Eduard de Stoeckl agree on a treaty for the purchase of Alaska, which is signed at 04:00 on March 30.

1867

The Transfer

Alaska's ownership transfers from Russia to the U.S.; the Russian flag is lowered and the U.S. flag takes its place as American soldiers parade in front of the governor's house.

1959

We Have A State

Originally called the 'Department of Alaska,' the name changes to 'District of Alaska' (1884), then the 'Alaska Territory' (1912), before being admitted as a state in the U.S.; it gains the name 'State of Alaska'.

SEWARD’S DAY FAQS

What is Seward's Day in Alaska?

The last Monday in March is celebrated as Seward’s Day and commemorates the signing of the Alaska Purchase Treaty.

Why is Alaska Day celebrated?

Alaska Day celebrates the formal transfer of the territory of Alaska from Russia to the U.S. This event took place on October 18, 1867.

Is there school on Seward's Day in Alaska?

Seward’s Day is a paid holiday, so all state employees, all state, county, and city government offices, along with most schools and libraries, will close. Private businesses can close at their own discretion.

HOW TO OBSERVE SEWARD’S DAY

Read up on William SewardOn this day named after this guy, we recommend doing a little light reading on who he was and how he came to be in politics. It’s bound to be a fascinating story.

Watch a special about AlaskaOn Seward's Day, multiple channels air history programs about different facets of this state. Put on your favorite one or find a special documentary you want to watch, and settle down for some fun, educational screen time.

Learn more about the transferDid you know more than 150 years on, some Russians still have second thoughts about the sale? Find out more facts like these by digging into documents and articles centering on Alaska's transfer.

5 FACTS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT JOHN SEWARD

He was an abolitionist: Seward was a dedicated opponent to slavery and was a prominent member of the Republican Party in its formative years.

A house with a secret: Seward's home in Auburn, New York, formed part of the Underground Railroad and was apparently a well-regarded stop; the kitchen was one of its most popular stops, quoted an 1891 article in the “Auburn Herald.”

The unseen fruits of his efforts: Seward did not live to see his efforts to purchase Alaska turn very profitable; he died in 1872 before his foresight was commemorated as a legal holiday.

His efforts led to many memorials: These are found in Alaska and all over the U.S. — Seward Park in Seattle, Washington, the City of Seward in Alaska, and a figure of Seward in Ketchikan, Alaska.

He was almost assassinated: He was one of the targets of the 1865 assassination that killed Lincoln; he sustained grievous injuries, which took a long time to heal.

WHY SEWARD’S DAY IS IMPORTANT

We love Alaska: There’s the land, the weather, even the moose. Who doesn't love this place?

It was the best bargain ever! Sure, it might not have seemed like it at the time to some people. However, Seward knew a good deal when he heard one.

It's all about tenacity: Russians exhibited this tendency by coming back to the U.S. with their deal, and Seward stayed steadfast during the purchase, despite the detractors. The purchase, and Alaska's sheer magnificence, show us determination (and patience) does, indeed, reap rewards and influence change.

Source

[hissterical-nyaan]

Back on my "I hope all colonizing countries suffer immensely in this life" shit

[cryptotheism]

This picture activates my Uhm Akahully Autism.

Goetic seals are specifically constructed so the first letter of the name is aligned to the top, so when it's inscribed on the ground, it points towards cardinal north, the direction of dominion and navigation.

By aligning the first letter to the west, the direction of frontiers, ambiguity, and rebirth, you are improperly constructing the seal. Fake Goetia Fan.

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

Where Will All The Martyrs Go [Chapter 11: The Innocent Can Never Last]

A/N: Below are your guesses…let’s see how you did!!! 🥰😘 Only 2 chapters left 🥳

Series summary: In the midst of the zombie apocalypse, both you and Aemond (and your respective travel companions) find yourselves headed for the West Coast. It’s the 2024 version of the Oregon Trail, but with less dysentery and more undead antagonists. Watch out for snakes! 😉🐍

Series warnings: Language, sexual content (18+ readers only), violence, bodily injury, med school Aemond, character deaths, nature, drinking, smoking, drugs, Adventures With Aegon™️, pregnancy and childbirth, the U.S. Navy, road trip vibes.

Series title is a lyric from: “Letterbomb” by Green Day.

Chapter title is a lyric from: “Wake Me Up When September Ends” by Green Day.

Word count: 5.3k

💜 All my writing can be found HERE! 💜

Let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist 🥰

“You could have gone to California with them,” Rio says as he flips open the fuel cap of a black Nissan Frontier, parked in the driveway of a two-story brick house on National Avenue, not far from where Route 95 branches north of Winnemucca like an artery from a heart.

You squint up at the cumulus clouds to avoid meeting his eyes. You keep thinking you’re going to cry and have to suffocate it, drown it, slit its throat. “I didn’t want to.”

“Sure you didn’t.” Sweat runs in rivulets down his face as he slides in the semitransparent siphoning hose, the one with the little pump on it that Jace had when you found him in Iowa. Aemond gave this to Cregan; he kept the hose without the pump for himself. A small, curious sacrifice. You are fanning Rio with a magazine, Bow International. You had grabbed it thinking of Daeron, then remembered he wasn’t here to give it to. “Jesus Christ, it’s so fucking hot…”

“Djibouti was hotter.”

“Djibouti had a beach. And an air conditioning unit in every window.”

Cregan is waiting by the Tahoe and leafing through a guidebook he found at the Maverik gas station. Ice is lying on the ground and panting beside him, her shaggy grey coat filthy with dust and sand. “The town was named for Chief Winnemucca, who was born in the 1820s in what would later become the Oregon Territory. It either means ‘the giver of spiritual gifts’ or ‘one moccasin,’ depending on the interpretation.”

Rio says: “Damn Cregan, you can read?”

Cregan frowns down at the guidebook with feigned regret. “I really wish Trump had built that wall.”

Rio guffaws. “Cregan, man, I told you. I was born here!”

He continues: “Winnemucca was a stop on the transcontinental railroad.”

“Great. Let’s get that up and running again.” Rio groans as he squeezes the pump on the siphoning hose with increasing frustration. “Absolutely nothing. Not a drop.”

“We probably have enough to get to Denio Junction,” you say gingerly, knowing he’s suffering. It has to be over 100 degrees.

“Yeah, and what if there’s no gas there? How the hell are we going to get to Adel, Oregon?”

“We could walk if we have to.”

“85 miles? In heat like this?”

“In basic training we had to run—”

“We had water in basic training, Chips!” he snaps; and Rio never snaps. “And real food, and corpsmen for if we passed out, and also there were no fucking zombies running around eating people, remember that part?!”

You stare down at the dirt. You can’t cry; you can’t waste the liquid.

“Wait, no, no, no, I’m sorry.” Rio lifts your chin so you aren’t able to hide from him. “I’m…you know…I should already be there. I could be in Odessa in six hours, I could be with Sophie and the baby before sundown, and instead we’re stuck here in the desert and I’m thinking…what if what should take hours ends up taking weeks? What if when I get there, I’m too late?”

You nod, you understand. Out on the road, Cregan keeps his face buried in his guidebook, trying to be polite and pretend he can’t hear you.

“And, I’m also thinking…” Rio says, soft and low. “That I don’t want to be the reason why you miss out on a chance at happiness when the world could literally be ending.”

You gaze up at him, dejected, pathetic. “I can’t handle any virgin jokes right now.”

“I know. I wasn’t going to make one.”

“I didn’t want to go with them to California,” you lie. And then a truth: “And I would never leave you. I promised.”

Rio smiles. “You promised not to let me die alone, and I don’t plan on dying. You’ve gotten me most of the way already.” He glances towards the Tahoe. “I think Axe Boy would have rather stayed with them too. When he was asleep last night I heard him mumbling something about Helaena.”

Cregan? Helaena? Interesting. “Aemond doesn’t want me.”

“Oh, come on. You know he and his one eye are sobbing into a can of SpaghettiOs right now.”

“Be nice,” you murmur morosely.

“Why? He can’t hear me,” Rio says. “Look, Aemond’s fucked up. And of course he is. He went from learning how to save lives and deliver babies to watching his friends die horrible, preventable, completely meaningless deaths. That’s gotta suck. It sucked for me, and I barely even knew them, and no one expected me to be able to do anything about it. Aemond’s the one people trusted to protect them, and he couldn’t. So why would he be able to protect you?”

I never wanted Aemond to protect me. I just wanted him to take me away from here, even for a minute, even for seconds, one hushed stolen moment at a time. “I wish I had said something different back in Battle Mountain.” I wish I had told him I love him. But I didn’t, and now it’s too late.

“You deserve to have the whole wholesome normal family thing, the husband and the kids and the warm fuzzy holiday traditions. I know you’ve always wanted that.”

“If I choose the wrong person, I’m going to end up alone and miserable. And I’ll turn into a monster like my mother.”

“Hey,” Rio says, like he’s ready to fight you. And then he uses your real name, something he’s done maybe five times since you met him, just like you almost never call him Bryan. “You will never be like your mother. Okay? It’s not possible. You don’t have it in you. You’re not a parasite, you’re not mean.”

You want to believe him. “Okay.”

Then Rio chuckles. “Actually, you’re going to end up like my mom. Living in the middle of the woods, making your own soap out of goat milk, growing weed and knitting sweaters.”

You smile wistfully. “I have no idea how to knit. I want to build things.” Then you remember something from when you were fishing on Lake McConaughy in Nebraska. “Aegon said I look like someone who knits. Whatever that means.”

“It means you’re from Kentucky.” Then Rio asks, tentative: “So…what do you think about Aegon?”

This seems random. “He’s cool. I like him, obviously. He’s, um…I don’t know how to describe it. He’s so sad but so warm. It’s impossible to feel nervous around him, which is nice.”

Rio nods, giving you a teasing smirk. “Alright then.”

“Why?”

“Well I was just thinking that if he grows up a little more, he might be good for you.”

“Rio, he’s thirty.”

He bursts out laughing. “So give it another decade and he’ll finally be baby daddy material.”

“I’m sure he’ll be preoccupied with his drug dealing and brothel empire by then.”

“You aren’t even the tiniest bit intrigued?”

“I’ve never really thought about him that way.” And there’s another dimension to it that wouldn’t occur to Rio: Aegon is an addict. You know what it’s like to have to depend on somebody like that. You would never allow yourself to fall in love with him, not the way he is now.

Rio sighs and pivots. “You want me to give you a baby?”

Now you’re giggling. Of course, he’s not serious, just like he wasn’t serious when you were trapped on that transmission tower together back in Pennsylvania. “Stop.”

“I’m super tall and charming, and I was a great electrician back when electricity existed, and I have luscious curly hair that you can readily observe since the U.S. Navy isn’t around to make me shave it off anymore.”

“Sorry, I don’t reproduce with Enrique Iglesias fans.”

“You are so racist, and yet I’d still be willing to help you out with a sperm donation. I’d blindfold myself and struggle through it somehow.” He’s grinning, but his dark eyes are kind. “As long as I’m alive, you will always have a family. And Sophie gets that. Her parents were fuckups too. That’s why she’s so close with mine even though they’re insane.”

“They’re exactly the right kind of insane for the way the world is now.”

“Remember when my dad went through his ‘wifi gives you cancer’ phase and would only communicate with me via Republican-president-themed postcards?”

“The Ronald Reagan one was neat. So many eagles.”

“Truly an excessive amount of eagles.” Rio goes for the porch. “I guess we’ll scrounge whatever we can inside and check the rest of the cars on the street before we head north.”

“I ain’t seen any others without the fuel cap already open,” Cregan says from the Tahoe, dispirited but trying not to show it.

“If we end up having to walk, we’re going to need water or Hawaiian Punch or something. A lot of it. Maybe we can find some of that Pedialyte stuff Aemond got for Jace when he was sick.” Rio pounds one closed fist against the front door. “Hey! Anybody home? We’re looking for supplies. Not trying to cause any problems. If somebody’s in there, just give a shout and we’d be happy to keep moving.”

You’ve followed Rio up onto the porch. “If there’s no water inside, canned fruit will work. You can drink the syrup for hydration, and all the sugar gives you calories.”

Back by the Tahoe, Cregan is leaning down to pet Ice. She’s still panting hard, foamy saliva dripping from her muzzle. “Y’all, we gotta get moving,” Cregan says. “Princess needs to be back in the truck with the AC, and I don’t want to waste gas by letting it idle.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re working on it.” Rio kicks the door once, hard enough that you hear the wood split near the hinges, dry and cracking. He backs up to prepare to give the door another blow, which is all it will take. Then there is a muffled voice from inside the house.

“Get the hell off my property!”

Immediately, you are stunned by the boom of an explosion, shards of wood flying like shrapnel, the steel barrel of a shotgun jutting from the fresh hole in the center of the door. Rio is scrambling off the porch and dragging you with him. With your free hand, you grab your M9 from its holster and begin shooting before the man inside can fire again, before he can kill Rio or Cregan or you. Your bullets pierce through the blackness of the gaping wound in the front door. You hear shrieks of agony; you see flecks of blood painting the wood. Now there are people shooting from the second-story windows, and you feel the wind of bullets clip by as Rio pulls you towards the Tahoe. The engine starts; Cregan is already in the driver’s seat. You return fire until your M9 makes only small, hollow clicks when you pull the trigger. And by then Rio is shoving you into the truck.

“Go, go, go!” Rio yells at Cregan the second he crawls in behind you and slams the door shut. Cregan swerves away from the curb and barrels down the street, tires squealing, gunshots still ringing out from the house. Ice is barking franticly.

“Rio, I’m out,” you say, terrified.

“What?”

“Bullets. I’m out of bullets.”

“We gotta go,” Rio concedes. There are scratches on his cheeks from splinters of wood, sweat turning from clear to blood-tinged pink as it drips down onto his shirt. “We gotta get out of Winnemucca. If we have to walk, we’ll walk. At least there’s no one north of here to worry about for a hundred miles. Not living and not dead either.”

From the backseat, you glance over at Cregan. “Oh my God, Cregan, you’re hurt.”

“I know.” His right forearm is covered in blood. It’s a graze wound, but deep; when he turns the steering wheel, you can glimpse the white of bone as his shredded muscles open like a mouth.

“You need stitches!”

“Oh yeah?” Cregan replies as the Tahoe bumps over corpses in the street, bodies mummified by the wind and the sun. “And which of you two would be better at that, you think?”

“We’ll get supplies to patch you up,” Rio says, peering out the window, searching for someplace to stop. “And enough food and water to last us through the desert. Right there, hop on Route 95, and we’ll find a store at the edge of town before we’re in No Man’s Land.” Cregan jerks the wheel; the Tahoe veers onto Route 95 heading north. Boarded-up houses and graffitied overpasses and gnarled bristlecone pine trees and lifeless traffic lights and looted storefronts pass by in a blur.

You turn to Rio. “What if those people try to follow us?”

“It’ll only take five minutes.”

“Rio…”

“We don’t have enough to drink. If we get stranded in the desert, we’ll die. I’m not dying out there. I didn’t cross 3,000 miles to drop dead just a few hundred away from Sophie.”

He’s right. There’s no other option. North of Winnemucca is a wasteland, a boneyard. “Okay,” you surrender, helping him look for stores. “But we have to be quick.”

“I can be real quick, baby. You’d know that if you took me up on my very selfless sperm donation offer.”

Cregan raises his eyebrows; you can see his reflection in the rearview mirror. “Y’all have a mighty strange relationship.”

Rio is pointing. “Right there, Riverside Grocery & Liquor. Let’s give that a try. Cregan? You see it? By the Taco Bell.”

“Of course you’d be attracted to Taco Bells,” Cregan says as the Tahoe zigzags across the parking lot, but his voice is woozy. Blood pours from the gash in his arm. What if the bullet severed a major artery? What if he’s bleeding to death?

You ask: “Cregan, do you feel okay?”

“I’m alright. Don’t you worry about me, Miss Chips. You got enough worries already.”

“You don’t look alright.”

His eyes meet yours in the rearview mirror; they are fearful. “I think I need to get pressure on it.”

“We’ll take care of you, buddy,” Rio says. And as soon as Cregan shifts the Tahoe into park, Rio is out the door and striding into the small grocery store, his Remington 12 gauge in his hands. It’s unloaded, but still good for blunt force trauma. The glass of one of the front doors has been shattered. Rio steps inside, his boots crunching on broken glass. You are right behind him; Cregan lifts Ice with his uninjured arm so she can get inside without cutting her paws.

Harsh desert sunlight streams in bright enough that you can see reasonably well, dusk or dawn instead of midday. The air tastes like dirt and decay. The shelves of alcohol have been picked clean, but cans and bottles and cardboard boxes have been left strewn haphazardly around the rest of the store. There are several circular racks of souvenir t-shirts: horses, mountains, pine trees, I was a buckaroo on the Cowboy Corridor, #DesertLife, Straight Outta Winnemucca. You yank a white shirt with a rattlesnake on it off its hanger and tie it tightly around Cregan’s bleeding forearm, closing the ragged ends of his wound.

Ice is whining and nudging at Cregan. “There’s one in here,” he warns.

“Yeah, I got it,” Rio says. She staggers out of the stockroom hissing and growling, the flesh on her face almost completely gone, her exposed skull stained with clotted blood, her teeth chattering. Long strands of blonde hair hang in patches from the back of her head. She is wearing a red vest with a nametag on it. Once upon a time, her parents called her Jasmine. Rio strikes the zombie with his Remington so hard it is decapitated, and the corpse crumples to the filthy tile floor as its head rolls over towards the cash register. Then he slings the shotgun over one of his shoulders and begins shopping.

Cregan is tall enough to see the tops of shelves where items have been missed; he pulls down bottles of Snapple, Gatorade, Yoohoo, Jarritos soda and stuffs them into his backpack. You are on your hands and knees sorting through the debris on the floor, everything coated with a layer of dust and sand. You find cans of mandarin oranges, boxes of graham crackers, tuna pouches, and packets of Tylenol. Cregan will need them. He needs more than that, but you can’t give it to him. You’ve never been to medical school. You grab more souvenir shirts to use as bandages later.

Maybe there are doctors in Odessa.

Rio says excitedly from the other side of the store: “Chips, they got Cheddar Whales!”

Maybe there’s a life worth living in Odessa.

“Just hurry up so we can go.”

“Yeah, yeah…” He’s filling his arms with boxes and bottles, making a lot of noise. Ice is pacing and whimpering, panting like she can hardly breathe, drooling gluey strings of saliva. The grocery store is an oven. Cregan pops open a can of Arizona iced tea and pours it into her mouth to be gulped greedily down. Still, Ice’s yellow wolfish eyes dart around the room, vigilant, rattled.

“I think there’s another zombie,” you say, watching her. You reach for your M9 before remembering it’s unloaded.

Cregan replies: “Sure she ain’t just overheated?”

Somewhere close, less than a mile away: gunshots out on the streets of Winnemucca.

“Ready, kids?” Rio says, his arms overflowing, half a Slim Jim hanging out of his mouth like a cigarette.

“Yes sir,” Cregan agrees. The t-shirt you knotted around his forearm is splotched with crimson, but the bleeding appears to have slowed. Fragments of glass shatter as he crosses through the doorway and out into the parking lot, carrying Ice as she struggles and barks.

Rio pauses as he passes one of the other t-shirt racks, circles of metal that gleam like halos. He’s rearranging his supplies so he has a free hand to grab a shirt he likes. There are more distant gunshots outside, and the squealing of tires. In the parking lot, Cregan is starting the Tahoe.

You say distractedly, noticing an empty Twizzlers wrapper on the floor and thinking of Jace: “Rio, let’s go.”

“Hold up, this one has an elephant on it—”

The hand juts out from below the rack and seizes his ankle, claws up his legs, rips and tears at him, grey flayed flesh and screeches from rotting vocal chords, something that used to be a man or a woman and is now only a monster, half a body, nothing from the waist down but shred of black necrotic muscle, skin, intestines, too close for Rio to push away, already clinging to him like graffiti on concrete, like a pair of stainless steel dog tags hanging from his neck. Without thinking, without hesitating, you are across the store and trying to get it off him, screaming as your fingers rake through disintegrating gore, so deep you can feel the zombie’s ribs like rungs of a ladder, trying to get a grip on it, trying to kill it. Now Cregan is back with his axe and he’s hacking at the skull as best he can without hitting Rio, and Ice is barking, and Cregan is yelling for you to get away before you’re bitten, but you don’t listen, you don’t care; all your life you were homesick until you found homes with Rio thousands of miles from where you were born, and if he’s gone then so is the only place you’ve ever belonged. There is a surge of blood, hot and metallic, rot and iron in the air, and you don’t know whose it is.

He can’t be gone. If he’s gone, who am I?

An arm hooks around your waist and drags you backwards, so roughly you lose your breath for a moment and cannot fight them; over your right shoulder, you see a hand holding a Glock. Aemond pulls the trigger and the zombie falls to the floor, a mangle of decomposition and exposed bones, because wherever the others ended up they found bullets and gasoline…and then they came back for you.

Aegon is stumbling over the rubble that litters the floor to get to Rio. You can hear Daeron and Rhaena’s voices out in the parking lot, and the blasts of Rhaena’s Ruger, the revolver she once didn’t know how to use. Cregan is trying to help Rio up, but he can’t stand. He is slumped against bare shelves and holding a hand to his throat, where he’s hemorrhaging from a gaping, ragged wound, torn arteries and lacerated veins. He’s been bitten, but his transformation won’t take long. He’s bleeding out. His dark eyes are on you, and beneath the glassy sheen of catastrophic blood loss is disbelief and fury and grief. He will never see Sophie again; he will never meet his child.

Your voice is a whisper, a phantom. “Bryan…”

“It only takes once, right?” he says, weak and guttural, already fading, blood on his lips. Then his eyes drift to Aemond. “Get her out of here.”

“No!” you shriek as Aemond pulls you towards the door, his arms locked around your waist, his lips to your ear as he begs you to come with him, that you have to leave, that it’s not safe here, that Rio doesn’t want you to see what has to happen next. Aegon is sobbing as he touches Rio’s face. Cregan bows his head; but he’s already looking at the Marlin .22 that hangs by its leather strap from Aegon’s shoulder. “No, I promised, I promised! I promised I wouldn’t let him die alone!”

“He’s not alone,” Aemond tells you, and he doesn’t let go when you struggle, when you scream. Burning sunlight floods over you, and you are in the parking lot. Rhaena and Daeron are shooting down zombies as they lurch towards the grocery store, drawn by the commotion, the symphony of the dead and dying. Luke is using a siphoning hose to fill the Tahoe’s tank with the remaining fuel in the Ford Expedition. Helaena is moving their supplies into the Tahoe, weeping softly to herself, her long ghost-pale hair flowing in the desert wind.

The racks, you think, you remember. You can see Helaena shining the flashlight into your eyes like you’re back on a living room floor in Iowa. I forgot to remind Rio to check under the racks. And now he’s gone.

You’re screaming that it’s your fault as Aemond forces you into the Tahoe, and you don’t care what anyone says to you: Luke trying to tell you that’s not true, Rhaena swearing that you’re safe now. There is a gunshot from inside the grocery store. Your heart and lungs have turned to iron like the anchor of a ship, cold and still and heavy, unmovable, unbearable. You cannot breathe through your sobs; you cannot see, cannot speak. You curl up on a seat and wish you were dead. All your life you have been compelled by a blind belief that there are better places even if you cannot imagine them, that sometimes when it feels like the world is ending the only way out is through. For the very first time, you want to give up. You want to let all the poisons of this earth seep into your bloodstream until they stop your pulse and everything goes quiet, quiet, quiet.

Aemond is pouring bottles of water over you so he can wash away the blood and sand and gore. He is searching your skin for bitemarks. People are climbing into the Tahoe and a key turns in the ignition. The wheels are spinning; shadows fall over your face through the windows as you sail beneath overpasses. You hear voices but not words. You feel Aemond’s hands on you and do not flinch away.

Someone is putting pills in your mouth and telling you to swallow. “What is it?” you ask.

“Tramadol,” Aegon says. “It will take you somewhere else.”

And it does, this poison he doesn’t know you are starving for; it erases the future and the past until you don’t exist, you never have, and this is a relief.

~~~~~~~~~~

Glimpses through fogged vision, disjointed flashes like dreams: Aemond cleaning and suturing Cregan’s arm, Helaena’s fingers threading through Ice’s shaggy grey fur, smoke from smoldering Marlboro Golds billowing from Aegon’s lips and out through an open window, coyotes watching the Tahoe pass from the shoulder of the highway, mountains and barbed wire, clouds and useless power lines, land that turns from flat and vast and vacant to steep hills thick with pine trees, so many they block out the sun.

You are dimly aware that the Tahoe is stopping frequently, long lulls to hunt for gasoline in small towns, one gallon here, three gallons there, discussions over which routes to take as Aegon scrutinizes his map. Aemond is always with you, coaxing you to take sips of Gatorade and nibbles of Ritz crackers, feeding you spoonfuls of chicken noodle soup straight from the can, and each night when you fall into numb unconsciousness in a dead stranger’s bed he sleeps on the floor in case you need him, and eventually you do. You jolt awake from a nightmare, not death but cursed immortality, a bite he missed somehow that turned you into a monster, into a murderer, your raw skin and muscles sloughing off your bones.

“You’re fine, you’re fine, look at your hands,” Aemond says, taking your wrists and holding them gently. “No bites. You’re going to be okay, I promise. Hey, hey…” He cradles your face, he pleads for you to believe him. “I swear to God, you’re going to be okay.”

“It should have been me,” you whisper in the red glow of the candlelight. “I don’t have a family that would miss me if I was gone.”

“Yes you do,” Aemond says fiercely; and it takes your drugged, horrorstruck mind a moment to realize who he means.

The next day the Tahoe runs out of gas, and you know this because Aemond wakes you with a palm resting lightly on your forehead and an apology sighed through your hair. “What’s wrong?” you murmur.

“We have to get out and walk for a while. Can you do that?”

You force yourself to sit up, blinking at him. “Where are we?”

“Kingvale, California. In the Sierra Nevada Mountains.”

“We’re going to the beach house,” you realize.

“Yeah,” Aemond says, smiling a little. “Yeah, we are. We’re going home.”

On Donner Pass Road, following in the centuries-old footsteps of doomed westward migrants, someone always walks with you as you shuffle along in a daze. Aemond tells you about California, Rhaena reads aloud from Mockingjay, Ice licks your knuckles, Aegon talks endlessly about golf and yachting even when you can’t respond. His burned leg is still bandaged, but healing, and he’s found a Converse sneaker a few sizes too big to wear on his left foot; Aemond treats and wraps his wounds each morning and night, and Rhaena observes and takes notes so she can learn how to do it.

One afternoon just north of Beale Air Force Base, Daeron sneaks a Marlboro Gold out of Aegon’s backpack when no one is watching and lights it as he lingers in the back of the group. Aegon smells the smoke immediately and whirls, runs to him, snatches the cigarette from between Daeron’s lips and stomps it into the pavement.

“You’re not going to be like me!” Aegon shouts at him in the middle of the road. “Goddammit, you’re going to be safe, and you’re going to be happy, and you’re going to know that people care about you because I’ll break your fucking arm if I ever see you smoking again. You don’t get to poison yourself. You’re going to live to be a hundred years old. Got it?”

“Got it,” Daeron echoes, startled, petrified; and then Aegon hugs him, hanging on for a very long time.

~~~~~~~~~~

It is midnight in Meridian, a miniscule town founded in the 1850s on the banks of the Sacramento River, a relic from a time when travel meant ferries and railroads and wagon trains. Here, well outside the state capital, there are no sounds except the breeze through the trees—blue oaks, sycamores, willows, white alders—and the hoots of owls. The house is old, built in the 1950s or 60s, creaking steps and a screened-in front porch where Cregan and Daeron are playing Uno while keeping watch. The moon is new and invisible. The stars are bright.

Aemond appears in the doorway of your room. You are on the edge of the bed and staring at the wallpaper, flickering candlelight and scenes of galloping horses. Aemond is not letting you have any more Tramadol. He’s also not letting anyone load your Beretta, although you saw a box of 9mm bullets in Helaena’s burlap messenger bag. Maybe he’s worried you’ll try to shoot yourself. Maybe he’s not too far off.

He closes the door, crosses the room, and sits down on the bed beside you. In the firelit quiet, Aemond says: “I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to help you.”

“I can’t stay here. Take me somewhere else.”

At first, he doesn’t understand what you mean. Then you reach for him—for a life raft, for something to tether you to the earth—and the lines of your palm press against his scar, flesh he stitched back together himself, proof he can heal people, a reminder of how temporary any of you could be. Aemond lays his hand over yours and closes his eye, holding you there against his face, feeling your warmth and your forgiveness, your need to be close to him in a way that is suddenly so uncomplicated. There is no fear left in you. Perhaps there’s nothing left at all.

Aemond kisses you, and there are blooms of golden light through your darkness like what you call lightning bugs and he says are fireflies. You are entangled on the bed together, and all the sounds still ricocheting in your memory—screams, gunshots, bloodlust, hunger, anarchy—fade until they cease to exist. He is touching you, and you can feel lost pieces of yourself returning to you like rain soaking through parched earth, faith and resolve and desire. And now, and now…

Now Aemond is taking you far, far, far away, to bottomless blue water you can drown in, to where Diego Garcia lies marooned in the middle of the Indian Ocean, to the sun-glinting waves off the coasts of Chinhae, Corpus Christi, Key West, the Horn of Africa. He is between your thighs, and you want him through the pain, a razor-sharp fullness that seems so immaterial and so fleeting; and you lie to him over and over again because if he knows he’s hurting you he’ll stop, and in this world one cannot assume there will be second chances. Aemond stills once he’s inside you, giving you time to adjust but also overwhelmed by the intensity of it, his hands in your hair and trembling all over, kissing your face as the pain bleeds away and leaves a shade of craving you’ve never felt before, something deep and indistinct, something intangible like a spell or a myth. You move first, rolling your hips with a slow, cautious rhythm, and only then does Aemond follow you. It’s in his voice, in the reverence of his hands, in his iris like a clear secretless sky; you have taken him far away too.

“I love you,” Aemond says afterwards as his head rests on your belly, your fingers tangled in his damp hair and your skull hushed like calm seas. “And I can’t pretend I don’t anymore.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want you to.”

And in the morning, there is something different about the world: a hopefulness that makes you want to wake up, a radiance like moonlight on the wave crests of the Indian Ocean.

[devilscreekballad]

It's here, it's here. The long awaited Chapter 7 is here.

After the MC got knocked out at the end of ch6 they awake back at the hotel, with Charlie telling them of the rescue mission to get them back. And that an old friend of Lynwood's has joined them, albeit just temporarily. Or maybe he's meant to stay? Also there's a cat.

Play it HERE

-

Updates & Changes (Version 7.0; 10/12/2024)

Added Chapter 7

Added Interlude Chapters from Charlie, Mrs. Meadow's and Lynwood's perspective (Lynwood's is atm incomplete and will be added with the ch8 update)

Updated skintone options

Added option for whether MC swears

Added options to not reveal if you're trans/under the umbrella

Added options to say if you bind/pad your chest or if you are flat-chested

Various bug and prose fixes.

Total Wordcount of this update (with code) 46725 words, bringing the overall wordcount (according to twine) to ~219000 (not counting unused/notes passages).

Can't give an average, sorry, but might very well be around 100k per playthrough now.

Note:

With this update the Choicescript version is on ice, though if there's ever a change to how CoG handles publishing (and if CS gets expanded array usage), who knows what the future holds for a more mobile and screenreader friendly version of Ballad.

For those new to the game:

The West is Wild and the West is Weird. A new century is around the corner, and you are an outlaw traversing the towns and terrains of the Frontier, only to one evening get wrapped up in chasing down the means to stop a doomsday cult from bringing forth the end of days. You’ll face hustlers, grifters, gunslingers and vengeful brides as you make your way to the ghost town of Devil’s Creek to find answers, and hopefully get out of there alive.

What can you play as?

Ballad allows you to set your a broad variety of factor besides gender and age, all which will have a variety of impacts on the story.

Who can you romance?

Right now there are six possible ROs, with more going to be added later:

Charlie, your best friend and partner in crime

Seán and Tommy, and odd couple of outlaws happenstance put into your little posse (they can only be romanced together)

Lynwood, a Pinkerton Agent on Seán's trail

Mrs. Meadows, widow, sharp-shooter and doctor there to make sure you'll uphold your end of the deal

Isaac, former colleague of Lynwood's picking up the trail of a cold case

As this is a Weird West game, some Warnings do apply:

Death

Blood

Violence

Swearing

Alcohol

Smoking

Mindsets and Vocabulary of the late 19th century North America/Europe

Mentions/Discussions of

Sexual Violence/Abuse

Spousal/Parental Abuse

Racism, Sexism, other forms of bigotry

Miscarriage

Infertility

Murder

Animal Death/Animal abuse

Guns

Spiritism

Mediumship

Ghosts

Supernatural events

Capitalism

Pinkertons

Like what you're seeing?

You can support the author on Pat or Ko.

~+~

But now, have fun with the game.

Stay safe, stay hydrated, stay weird. <3

[yzegem]

Main lore of Encounters in the Frontier

In this pinned post I will introduce the main historical chronology and concepts of the setting.

Most of the events take place in a subcontinent with the general size, shape and latitude of India, wich is a penninsula of a larger megacontinent wich occupies most of the northern hemisphere. This subcontinent, wich I will just call the penninsula, has a shallow sea to the east, another to the west, steppe and large mountains to the north and a deep and vast ocean to the south, wich eventually leads to the land of alwaysummer. At the eastern sea are the twisted islands. The penninsula has dense forests to the northeast, jungles to the southeast and the western coast is more dry and desserted. the northwest has the plateau, a large elevated plains regions, spotted with forests and the centre of the continent is hilly and mountainous.

By this time the Empire controlled many religions and peoples, in some cases loosely, and revolts had to be almost constantly supressed in the western and southern provinces. The central mountain range, southwestern dessert, northwestern plateau and norterns steppe were their most unstable frontiers, as well as eastern pirates from the Twisted Islands.

The Sun Empire had a humble origin as a city state in the southeast wich fought for its independence and won against a nomadic invador from the north. The years of foreign control made them realize their vulnerability and they began to rapidly militarize. For the Sun Empire, the best deffense was a good offense and they rapidly annexed the nearests city states in a rapid expansion. In their culture, war justified itself. They generally arrived at a city and offered them to surrender in good terms or be suffer very bad taxations and treatment after their defeat. Many chose the first option. At this time, certain warrior families began to rise to power and formed a warrior class wich selected a military leader from among themselves. There was also a very powerfull priest class, wich ended up concentrating into a single dynasty and also chose a leader from among themselves (Although the role ended up being inherited mostly). These two roles complimented each other. The military leader managed external politics and the executive power, while the priest leader managed internal politics and the juditial and legislative power, as well as of course, managing religious festivities and such. These two roles were imagined as being a husband and a wife (the priest leader was often a woman, since politics is considered a woman's job), the state a family and their population their children.The Empire spread westwards and managed to control one of the richest cities of the penninsula, Odras. This city lays under the plateau and is a hub from inland commerce and connects the trade routes of the eastern and western seas. They retained their religion and strong identity, wich had significant influence on the rest of the Sun Empire. By this time the Sun Empire's religion was politheistic with the sun god as the head of the pantheon.

Now I will introduce the Twisted Islands and the magic system of the setting:

If you have ever been introduced to the concept of the fourth dimension or wormholes it was probably by the folded paper pierced by a pencil analogy.

This setting's shape is more like this:

Some parts of the world seem to be closer in the 4D plane than others, and wormholes are more likely to appear between them. Some regions have deeper folds and portals will be more common, while others are "flatter" and there will be almost no chance of one appearing. In this world, the Twisted Islands have the most and deepests "folds", so portals appear often, sometimes on their own and connect to many places.

The Twisted Islands are an archipellago of mostly very small atolls and poor in natural resources (except fish and shellfish I guess). Still, the portal's influence in the region is very apparent to the naked eye. Rock formations take impossible shapes, caves are larger than the cliff that contains them, trees grow upside down… so they attracted many sea peoples, wich settled in them for religious reasons. The islands often only held a small population of ascetic monks, wich sustained themselves with donations from pilgrims, wich mainly came from larger, less portal-active islands and lands, wich is where most of the Twisted Island's population is originally from, it's rare for people to be born in the islands proper.

Portals don't usually open on their own, and require energy input, such as a strong fire. Monks would place an offer over the fire, raise the temperature and the offer woud suddenly disappear with a flash of light, and sometimes something else would appear on its place (most often just rocks that don't match those of the island, but enough to impress anyone that sees it). Slowly, their methods became more refined and they could locate, open and predict where an object would go more reliably. The peoples of the Twisted Islands were also known as great sailors, good at sea trading and wich could venture into the open sea, while those from the Empire only sailed next to the shoreline.

Managing portals was a dangerous task, reserved only for the elite of the monasteries, trained for years. It could result in untreatable portal wounds, in wich a limb mantains it's function but becomes "twisted". This modified limb seemed useful in locating portals and their shape and angle, so some monks started modifying themselves on purpose, thought this is shunned by most.

Ok, so those were the basis of most regions before the Dragon Age, a period of ecological and political change. It started with the explosion of a megavolvano in a distant, unknown land, wich caused a volcanic night in the penninsula. This resulted in a widespread famine through the continent… then came the dragons

Dragons were probably native to the land were the volcano exploded and came looking for a new home. They eated cattle, wild megafauna and tragically often humans at an unsustainable rate. They mainly settled in the central mountain ranges of the penninsula and the northern steppe, wich caused mass migration from these lands. These migrations were often violent and caused great damage to the already in crisis Empire.

The first encounter with a dragon happened in a frontier fortress south of the plateau, wich was taken by a dragon at night and its inhabitants devoured. The dragon took the fortress as a nest to lay eggs. The Empire, after comunication with the fortress was cut, asumed it had been taken by a plateau tribe and sent a small platoon of soldiers to retake it (dragons were only a rumor atp). The whole platoon was massacred by the dragon.

At the north, the nomads united under a charismatic ruler called Saljar, wich conquered a big chunk of the Empire's land. In an almost suicide mission, the already desperate and decaying Empire went all in against this king from the north. This campaign was full of tensions and during their travel north, guerilla attacks from rebellious regions and dragons weakened both armies. The unpopular military ruler died right before battle (most likely secretly poisoned by the Ashiva, the priest ruler as the military leader was the one that made the bad desition of starting this campaign) and it seemed like all hope was lost, but Ashiva, took control and led the army into battle (a very desperatel move). During the battle two dragons started fighting eachother while flying on top of them and fell mid fight on top of the nomad troops, causing them to break formation and flee. Its said that Ashiva himself killed the feared Saljar. Ashiva became very popular and took supreme control of the Empire, claiming to be the Sun God personified.

Still, the Empire had many problems to adress, such as the dragons (all military efforts to hunt them ended in disaster) and the former army of Saljar, now dispersed in small armies, wich sacked the Empire's towns. Ashiva, proving to be a very capable diplomat, managed to organize a meeting with these warbands, where he recalled the fight of the dragons over their own armies, and claimed that, in the same way that these beast both died while fighting, so would they if they don't adress the dragons. Ashiva proposed that these war bands start to hunt the dragons and bring their heads to him, in exchange, the Empire would grant them power over their lands. The nomadic light camelry proved to be very effective at hunting dragons and they soon became powerful noble families and settled mainly in the frontier lands or rebellious regions of the Empire to "pacify them" (It's known that the natives of these regions considered their new rulers worse than the dragons).

It took about 120 years to hunt most dragons and end the dragon age. During this time the Empire was ruled by Ashiva's divine and absolute dynasty. The new Dragon Nobility became increasingly powerful and the danger of a coup d'etat was very real. The plateau and northern coast of Alwaysummer were conquered during this period.

During the mid Dragon Age, the most powerful monastery of the twisted islands learned how to reliably send objects through portals (if a living creatures is sent through a portal ir appears dead on the other side). The chief of that monastery sent a message through the portals to every other monastery of the archipellago, calling them for a meeting to show them how to do it. This meeting was known as The Call. The comercial use of the portals was immediatly exploited and the twisted islands unify and become the major hub of trade of this world. Diplomatic trips from the archipellago reached many distant lands to set portal openings and trade centers (the envoys were met with varied reactions, sometimes welcomed, rejected, or straight up killed). These portals were specially useful for sending messages and the rivalry between the Empire and the Islands only increased from now.

[fatehbaz]

About the entanglement of "science" and Empire. About geographic imaginaries. About how Empire appeals to and encourages children to participate in these scripts.

Was checking out this recent thing, from scavengedluxury's beloved series of posts looking at the archive of the Budapest Municipal Photography Company.

The caption reads: "Toys and board games, 1940."

And I think the text on the game-box in the back says something like "the whole world is yours", maybe?

(The use of appeals to science/progress in imperial narratives probably already well-known to many, especially for those familiar with Victorian era, Edwardian era, Gilded Age, early twentieth century, etc., in US and Europe.)

And was struck, because I had also recently gone looking through nemfrog's posts about the often-strange imagery of children's material in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century US/Europe. And was disturbed/intrigued by this thing:

Caption here reads: "Game Board. Walter Mittelholzer's flight over Africa. [...] 1931. Commemorative game board map of Africa for a promotional game published for the N*stle Company, for tracking the trip of Walter Mittelholzer across Africa, the first pilot to fly a north-south route."

Hmm.

"Africa is for your consumption and pleasure! A special game celebrating German achievement, brought to you by the N*stle Company!"

1930s-era German national aspirations in Africa. A company which, in the preceding decade, had shifted focus to expand its cacao production (which would be dependent on tropical plantations). Adventure, excitement, knowledge, science, engineering prowess, etc. For kids!

Another, from a couple decades earlier, this time British.

Caption reads: "The "World's globe circler." A game board based on Nellie Bly's travels. 1890." At center, a trumpet, and a proclamation: "ALL RECORDS BROKEN".

Same year that the United States "closed the frontier" and conquered "the Wild West" (the massacre at Wounded Knee happened in December 1890). A couple years later, the US annexed Hawai'i; by decade's end, the US military was in both Cuba and the Philippines. The Scramble for Africa was taking place. At the time, Britain especially already had a culture of "travel writing" or "travel fiction" or whatever we want to call it, wherein domestic residents of the metropole back home could read about travel, tourism, expeditions, adventures, etc. on the peripheries of the Empire. Concurrent with the advent of popular novels, magazines, mass-market print media, etc. Intrepid explorers rescuing Indigenous peoples from their own backwardness. Many tales of exotic allure set in South Asia. Heroic white hunters taking down scary tigers. Elegant Englishwomen sipping tea in the shade of an umbrella, giggling at the elephants, the local customs, the strange sights. Orientalism, tropicality, othering.

I'd lately been looking at a lot of work on race/racism and imperative-of-empire in British scientific and pop-sci literature, especially involving South and Southeast Asia. (From scholars like Varun Sharma, Rohan Deb Roy, Ezra Rashkow, Jonathan Saha, Pratik Chakrabarti.) But I'd also lately been looking at Mashid Mayar's work, which I think closely suits this kinda thing with the board games. Some of her publications:

"From Tools to Toys: American Dissected Maps and Geographic Knowledge at the Turn of the Twentieth Century". In: Knowledge Landscapes North America, edited by Kloeckner et al., 2016.

"What on Earth! Slated Globes, School Geography and Imperial Pedagogy". European Journal of American Studies 16, number 3, Summer 2020.

Citizens and Rulers of the World: The American Child and the Cartographic Pedagogies of Empire, 2022.

Discussing her book, Mayar was interviewed by LA Review of Books in 2022. She says:

[Quote.] Growing up at the turn of the 20th century, for many American children, also meant learning to view the world through the lens of "home geography." [...] [T]hey inevitably responded to the transnational whims of an empire that had stretched its dominion across the globe [recent forays into Panama, Cuba, Hawai'i, the Philippines] [...]. [W]hite, well-to-do, literate American children [...] learned how to identify and imagine “homes” on the map of the world. [...] [T]he cognitive maps children developed, to which we have access through the scant archival records they left behind (i.e., geographical puzzles they designed and printed in juvenile periodicals) [...] mixed nativism and the logic of colonization with playful, appropriative scalar confusion, and an intimate, often unquestioned sense of belonging to the global expanse of an empire [...]. Dissected maps - that is, maps mounted on cardboard or wood and then cut into smaller pieces that children were to put back together - are a generative example of the ways imperial pedagogy [...] found its place outside formal education, in children's lives outside the classroom. [...] [W]ell before having been adopted as playthings in the United States, dissected maps had been designed to entertain and teach the children of King George III about the global spatial affairs of the British Empire. […] [J]uvenile periodicals of the time printed child-made geographical puzzles [...]. [I]t was their assumption that "(un)charted," non-American spaces (both inside and outside the national borders) sought legibility as potential homes, [...] and that, if they did not do so, they were bound to recede into ruin/"savagery," meaning that it would become the colonizers' responsibility/burden to "restore" them [...]. [E]mpires learn from and owe to childhood in their attempts at survival and growth over generations [...]. [These] "multigenerational power constellations" [...] survived, by making accessible pedagogical scripts that children of the white and wealthy could learn from and appropriate as times changed [...]. [End quote.] Source: Words of Mashid Mayar, as transcribed in an interviewed conducted and published by M. Buna. "Children's Maps of the American Empire: A Conversation with Mashid Mayar". LA Review of Books. 11 July 2022.

Some other stuff I was recently looking at, specifically about European (especially German) geographic imaginaries of globe-as-playground:

The Play World: Toys, Texts, and the Transatlantic German Childhood (Patricia Anne Simpson, 2020) /// "19th-Century Board Game Offers a Tour of the German Colonies" (Sarah Zabrodski, 2016) /// Advertising Empire: Race and Visual Culture in Imperial Germany (David Ciarlo, 2011) /// Learning Empire: Globalization and the German Quest for World Status, 1875-1919 (Erik Grimmer-Solem, 2019) /// “Ruling Africa: Science as Sovereignty in the German Colonial Empire and Its Aftermath” (Andrew Zimmerman. In: German Colonialism in a Global Age, 2014) /// "Exotic Education: Writing Empire for German Boys and Girls, 1884-1914". (Jeffrey Bowersox. In: German Colonialism and National Identity, 2017) /// Raising Germans in the Age of Empire: Youth and Colonial Culture, 1871-1914 (Jeff Bowersox, 2013) /// "[Translation:] (Educating Modernism: A Trade-Specific Portrait of the German Toy Industry in the Developing Mass-Market Society)" (Heike Hoffmann, PhD dissertation, Tubingen, 2000) /// Home and Harem: Nature, Gender, Empire, and the Cultures of Travel (Inderpal Grewal, 1996) /// "'Le rix d'Indochine' at the French Table: Representation of Food, Race and the Vietnamese in a Colonial-Era Board Game" (Elizabeth Collins, 2021) /// "The Beast in a Box: Playing with Empire in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain" (Romita Ray, 2006) /// Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games (Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson, 2023)

[vugnasmineralblog]

Forsterite Var Peridot & Magnetite | Naran, Kaghan Valley, Mansehra District, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan

[blueiscoool]

A Rare Enameled Roman Brooch Found in Scotland

Researchers believe the brooch came north with Roman soldiers, possibly as a ritual offering or battle trophy.

Excavations undertaken in 2020 at William Grant & Sons Girvan Distillery at the Curragh in South Ayrshire revealed an Iron Age settlement where archaeologists discovered a rare enamelled bronze brooch, believed to have been placed in the foundations of a fortified roundhouse as a sacrifice to grant protection to the household.

The enamelled bronze brooch, thought to date from the late second century CE, may have been used in a foundation offerings ritual at the Iron Age fort, possibly as a votive sacrifice during the construction of the timber palisade around the roundhouse. According to The National, the brooch was recovered from the bottom of the foundation trench that held the timber palisade in place.

"It's difficult to say exactly why the brooch was deposited within the palisade trench, but we know that ritualised foundation offerings are observed across many cultures, typically enacted to grant protection to a household, and this is certainly a possibility here," said Jordan Barbour, who co-authored the report on the findings, according to BBC News.

he team of archaeologists discovered the remains of a timber roundhouse surrounded by a wooden palisade with a gated entranceway, likely the dwelling of a wealthy farming household. According to The National, the Iron Age settlement was situated at the top of a rocky plateau, with a steep slope to the immediate north, and the dwelling may have been sited here and enclosed with a timber palisade due to defensive concerns.

"These brooches were particularly popular among members of the Roman military forces, so it's likely that it came north of Hadrian's Wall on the cloak of a Roman soldier tasked with garrisoning the Empire's northernmost frontier," added Barbour.

The brooch is the only Roman artefact recovered from the site. "If the inhabitants had established regular trade with Roman Britain, we might expect to find a greater variety of Roman objects, but this is a solidly native context," stated Barbour.

He suggested that the brooch may have been obtained through ad hoc exchange with Roman troops operating north of Hadrian's Wall, or perhaps even taken in battle as a trophy. "There was no evidence that the brooch had been worn by a local Briton," he said, according to The National.

Conflict between the locals and Roman soldiers is likely to have been a recurring element of Rome's intermittent occupation of south-west Scotland.

Although there were no contemporary Roman forts nearby after the abandonment of the Antonine Wall earlier in the second century CE, an earlier first century CE Roman marching camp some two kilometres to the south-west attests to previous military presence in the area.

The brooch would have arrived in Scotland at about the time the Roman Empire was losing its grip on the south of the country. The Romans left Scotland around 210 CE but remained in Britain for a further 200 years.

Traces of even more ancient inhabitation were evidenced by the recovery of pottery dating to the early Neolithic period. During the early Neolithic period, a large timber monument was constructed at the site between 3700 and 3500 BCE.

[rwpohl]

rameau's nephew, buw 2023

footage sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcBrwCcBZSo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ02ikIQnjk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUOQZibgiqY