#pre-british india

[ahamasmiyodhah]

Mash'al-E-Mahtaab

Ilaahi kaisi kaisi sooratein tune banai hai, ki har soorat kaleje se laga lene ke qaabil hai..

Nargis Jaan "Nawabjaan"

The Queen of Shahi Baugh ✨

Gauhar Jaan "Nagma"

The poetess of Noor Mahal ✨

Mahnoor Jaan "Hoor"

The ambitious Half-Blood ✨

Firdaus Jaan "Bahaar"

The Paradise of Noor Mahal ✨

@harinishivaa @nspwriteups @vijayasena @let-it-ripperoni @kaal-naagin @hinsaa-paramo-dharma @janaknandini-singh999 @yehsahihai @whippersnappersbookworm @willkatfanfromasia @thecrazyinktrovert @celestesinsight @sowlspace @chemicalmindedlotus @arjuna-vallabha @thirst4light @jukti-torko-golpo @ramayantika @thegleamingmoon @deadloverscity @dr-scribbler

[allherfaeriesmeetinjuly]

obsessed with russian “doomed” music and german expressionism art rn

[metamatar]

This is maybe a stupid question but do you think there's any ties between like orientalist trends in western countries that glorify dharmic religions and Hindutva? Like I've heard 'Hinduism is the oldest religion on Earth' and 'Hinduism/Buddhism are just so much more enlightened than savage Abrahamic religions' and 'how could there be war and oppression in India? Hindus don't believe in violence' from white liberals and it certainly seems *convenient* for Hindutva propaganda, at least.

Not stupid at all! Historically, orientalism precedes modern Hindutva. The notion of a unified Hinduism is actually constructed in the echo of oriental constructions of India, with Savarkar clearly modelling One Nation, One Race, One Language on westphalian nationhood. He will often draw on Max Mueller type of indology orientalists in his writing in constructing the Hindu claim to a golden past and thus an ethnostate.

In terms of modern connections you can see the use and abuse of orientalism in South Asian postcolonial studies depts in the west that end up peddling Hindutva ideology –

The geographer Sanjoy Chakravorty recently promised that, in his new book, he would “show how the social categories of religion and caste as they are perceived in modern-day India were developed during the British colonial rule…” The air of originality amused me. This notion has been in vogue in South Asian postcolonial studies for at least two decades. The highest expression of the genre, Nicholas Dirks’s Castes of Mind, was published in 2001. I take no issue with claiming originality for warmed-over ideas: following the neoliberal mantra of “publish or perish,” we academics do it all the time. But reading Chakravorty’s essay, I was shocked at the longevity of this particular idea, that caste as we know it is an artefact of British colonialism. For any historian of pre-colonial India, the idea is absurd. Therefore, its persistence has less to do with empirical merit, than with the peculiar dynamics of the global South Asian academy.

[...] No wonder that Hindutvadis in both countries are now quoting their works to claim that caste was never a Hindu phenomenon. As Dalits are lynched across India and upper-caste South Asian-Americans lobby to erase the history of their lower-caste compatriots from US textbooks, to traffic in this self-serving theory is unconscionable.

You can see writer sociologists beloved of western academia like Ashish Nandy argue for the "inherent difference of indian civilization makes secularism impossible" and posit that the caste ridden gandhian hinduism is the answer as though the congress wasn't full of hindutva-lites and that the capture of dalit radicalism by electoralism and grift is actually a form of redistribution. Sorry if thats not necessarily relevant I like to hate on him.

Then most importantly is the deployment of "Islamic Colonization" that Hindu India must be rescued from, which is merely cover for the rebrahmanization of the country. This periodization and perspective of Indian history is obviously riven up in British colonial orientalism, see Romila Thapar's work on precolonial India. Good piece on what the former means if you've not engaged with it, fundamentally it posits an eternal Hindu innocence.

[mprgz]

Male Pregnancy Myths and Facts

(note, this is to be taken as the loose general lore of the content that I post. I may also edit/expand it at some point. Do not take this a criticism of your own head canon on the topic)

Despite being a basic part of human biology, pregnancy in men is often misunderstood and, in some cultures, even taboo subject. This article attempts to dispel myths regarding pregnancy in men.

To begin with, nearly all a higher vertebrates retain a male-pregnancy of sorts, or the ability of males of the species to produce both sperm and eggs, as well as carry the eggs to viability. This has been lost in a few lineages of reptiles and rodents, but is present in the vast majority of higher animals.

Simply put, it makes little evolutionary sense for one gender to be unable to preform the egg-producing and carrying role. With the evolution of of internal fertilization, the gap between the number of eggs versus sperm produced means that a population with a high proportion of males who could preform the the female role would result in a population crash.

You can see that in different mammal species. Those animals with long gestation periods and singleton births tend to have high rates of male pregnancy, while it is generally less common in animals with large litters. For example, if multiple intact male horses or cattle are left together, the dominant male will impregnate the others, even if their are mares or cows present.

In humans, males typically have a 3 month menstrual period. Due to how the blood is expelled from the body, many men aren't aware of their cycles.

Up until relatively recently, in the late 1980s, male pregnancy required that one man (or XY person) impregnate another man. However, surrogacy technology has allow men to carry babies concieved with their wife's egg. (Or that of another for that matter.)

Myth 1: Male Pregnancy is Unnatural

Male pregnancy is biologically possible, and has organs devoted to that specific purpose. There were historical arguments why men shouldn't get pregnant, but those don't apply today. The female body is more specialized for carrying babies, but the male body is perfectly capable, especially with modern technology.

A lot of the argument against male pregnancy centered on anti-polygamy arguments. Either a man would have to take a man as a wife, or a man would get pregnant outside of marriage. The former would produce a surplus of women who could not be married, while the later would result in awkward family arrangements. With father-surrogacy, such concerns are largely irrelevent.

Myth #2: Male Pregnancy is Dangerous

Under ideal conditions, female pregnancy has somewhat fewer risks of complications, but that is only under a pure apples-to-apples comparison. A pregnancy in a healthy man is much safer than a high-risk pregnancy in a woman. Likewise, the historical gap in pregnancy safety was due to the medical science of previous generations not studying pregnancy in men, viewing it as an oddity.

Myth #3: Only Gay Men get Pregnant

This is false. Natural impregnation does require natural intercourse, but the majority of men who get pregnant are heterosexual. Additionally, even before the invention of surrogacy, the process of male on male insemination was treated differently than casual homosexual sex in many cultures. For example, in pre-British India and pre-Christian Europe, if a woman was infertile, her brother would often impregnate her husband, so that she would not be childless. This practice lasted among the Irish until the 15th century, and survived in some parts of Lapland, Siberia, & India until the early 20th century.

However, the taboo on any type of male impregnation in the West has resulted in male pregnancies being concentrated in homosexual communities.

Myth #4: Male Pregnancy is Forbidden by My Religion (maybe)

This may be true, depending on your particular denomination. Although male pregnancy is forbidden by many denominations, most of the mainline churches permit it, as well as non-Orthodox Judaism and most Eastern and Traditional faiths.

Myth #5: Seeders and Carriers are Separate sub-Genders

This is false. Although some men suffer infertility with one or both systems, the vast majority of men are capable of getting pregnant or impregnating others. Some men naturally tend toward one or the other roles, but naturally effeminate aren't more fertile. This myth may be due to only bottoming men naturally getting pregnant.

Myth #6: Carrying a Baby Reduces a Man's Male Fertility

Again, this is false, likely based on observation bias or stereotypes. Men who get pregnant tend to not get other men pregnant. Pregnancy, either during the pregnancy itself or after birth, has no impact on a man's male fertility.

Myth #7: Some Homosexual "Omega" Men Go Through Heat

This is mostly false. All people experience greater or lesser degrees of increase libido during ovulation. As the male menstrual cycle is less frequent, these changes may be more noticeable. It was common practice for parents to compel their obviously homosexual male children to remain home during their ovulation periods to prevent pregnancy, resulting in misconception that homosexual males experience greater symptoms of ovulation. Bisexual men often experience a greater homosexual attraction during ovulation. Scientific studies have confirmed heterosexual men also experience increased libido, at similar rates to other demographics, but do not notice it. Myth # 8: Pregnancy causes Breast Growth and Other Feminine Changes in Men

This is mostly false. Pregnancy will cause weight gain, which in some cases, can make a man's look more 'feminine' in the sense of more body fat. But, that is only true if higher body fat is defined as feminine. Likewise, male breasts may swell slightly after birth, but after weaning the child, they return to normal size. The body of a man will change in some regards after pregnancy, similar to what happens in women. However, his body will remain clearly male.

Concluding Remarks

Male pregnancy is a natural biological process that shouldn't be feared. Men are not weird or abnormal if they decide to bare a child. If men weren't 'supposed' to get pregnant, why do they have the biological equipment for it? There is also an argument that the prevalence of male pregnancy in the previous few decades has increased the legal protection of pregnant women.

A person's decision to have children or not should be a personal matter.

[fatehbaz]

Tallying every single tree in the kingdom. Endangered South Asian sandalwood. British war to control the forests. European companies claim the ecosystem. Failure of the plantation. Until the twentieth century, the Empire couldn't figure out how to cultivate sandalwood because they didn't understand that the plant is actually a partial root parasite, so their monoculture approach of eliminating companion species was self-defeating. French perfumes and the creation of "Sandalwood City".

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Selling at about $147,000 per metric ton, the aromatic heartwood of Indian sandalwood (S. album) is arguably [among] the most expensive wood in the world. Globally, 90 per cent of the world’s S. album comes from India [...]. And within India, around 70 per cent of S. album comes from the state of Karnataka [...] [and] the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore. [...] [T]he species came to the brink of extinction. [...] [O]verexploitation led to the sandal tree's critical endangerment in 1974. [...]

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Francis Buchanan’s 1807 A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar is one of the few European sources to offer insight into pre-colonial forest utilisation in the region. [...] Buchanan records [...] [the] tradition of only harvesting sandalwood once every dozen years may have been an effective local pre-colonial conservation measure. [...] Starting in 1786, Tipu Sultan [ruler of Mysore] stopped trading pepper, sandalwood and cardamom with the British. As a result, trade prospects for the company [East India Company] were looking so bleak that by November 1788, Lord Cornwallis suggested abandoning Tellicherry on the Malabar Coast and reducing Bombay’s status from a presidency to a factory. [...] One way to understand these wars is [...] [that] [t]hey were about economic conquest as much as any other kind of expansion, and sandalwood was one of Mysore’s most prized commodities. In 1799, at the Battle of Srirangapatna, Tipu Sultan was defeated. The kingdom of Mysore became a princely state within British India [...]. [T]he East India Company also immediately started paying the [new rulers] for the right to trade sandalwood.

British control over South Asia’s natural resources was reaching its peak and a sophisticated new imperial forest administration was being developed that sought to solidify state control of the sandalwood trade. In 1864, the extraction and disposal of sandalwood came under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department. [...] Colonial anxiety to maximise profits from sandalwood meant that a government agency was established specifically to oversee the sandalwood trade [...] and so began the government sandalwood depot or koti system. [...]

From the 1860s the [British] government briefly experimented with a survey tallying every sandal tree standing in Mysore [...].

Instead, an intricate system of classification was developed in an effort to maximise profits. By 1898, an 18-tiered sandalwood classification system was instituted, up from a 10-tier system a decade earlier; it seems this led to much confusion and was eventually reduced back to 12 tiers [...].

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Meanwhile, private European companies also made significant inroads into Mysore territory at this time. By convincing the government to classify forests as ‘wastelands’, and arguing that Europeans would improves these tracts from their ‘semi-savage state’, starting in the 1860s vast areas were taken from local inhabitants and converted into private plantations for the ‘production of cardamom, pepper, coffee and sandalwood’.

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Yet attempts to cultivate sandalwood on both forest department and privately owned plantations proved to be a dismal failure. There were [...] major problems facing sandalwood supply in the period before the twentieth century besides overexploitation and European monopoly. [...] Before the first quarter of the twentieth century European foresters simply could not figure out how to grow sandalwood trees effectively.

The main reason for this is that sandal is what is now known as a semi-parasite or root parasite; besides a main taproot that absorbs nutrients from the earth, the sandal tree grows parasitical roots (or haustoria) that derive sustenance from neighbouring brush and trees. [...] Dietrich Brandis, the man often regaled as the father of Indian forestry, reported being unaware of the [sole significant English-language scientific paper on sandalwood root parasitism] when he worked at Kew Gardens in London on South Asian ‘forest flora’ in 1872–73. Thus it was not until 1902 that the issue started to receive attention in the scientific community, when C.A. Barber, a government botanist in Madras [...] himself pointed out, 'no one seems to be at all sure whether the sandalwood is or is not a true parasite'.

Well into the early decades of twentieth century, silviculture of sandal proved a complete failure. The problem was the typical monoculture approach of tree farming in which all other species were removed and so the tree could not survive. [...]

The long wait time until maturity of the tree must also be considered. Only sandal heartwood and roots develop fragrance, and trees only begin developing fragrance in significant quantities after about thirty years. Not only did traders, who were typically just sailing through, not have the botanical know-how to replant the tree, but they almost certainly would not be there to see a return on their investments if they did. [...]

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The main problem facing the sustainable harvest and continued survival of sandalwood in India [...] came from the advent of the sandalwood oil industry at the beginning of the twentieth century. During World War I, vast amounts of sandal were stockpiled in Mysore because perfumeries in France had stopped production and it had become illegal to export to German perfumeries. In 1915, a Government Sandalwood Oil Factory was built in Mysore. In 1917, it began distilling. [...] [S]andalwood production now ramped up immensely. It was at this time that Mysore came to be known as ‘the Sandalwood City’.

---

Text above by: Ezra Rashkow. "Perfumed the axe that laid it low: The endangerment of sandalwood in southern India." The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Volume 51 (2014), Issue 1, pages 41-70. First published online 10 March 2014. DOI: 10.1177/0019464613515533 [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Italicized first paragraph/heading in this post added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[dear-ao3]

bucket here

I’d just like to note that the instant I sent the ask I started writing in the hopes you would say yes and I like actually squeaked I was so happy when you did and also I’ve been writing nonstop since then so bear with me:

*takes deep breath* Safety restrictions were famously lax in F1 until the 1990s. The deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna within days of each other at the 1994 Imola GP sparked a huge movement for new safety systems, especially barrier changes. As Senna and Ratzenburger both died in accidents related to the fact that the safety barriers at the edges of tracks were just CEMENT WALLS, this was a huge push for many teams, drivers, and tracks. No one wanted the death of more legends on their hands. These accidents also inspired additions like headrests in 1996 and the HANS system (head and neck support), put in place in 2003. HANS can be seen when drivers get out of the car — it’s that space-age looking neck brace/strap on their shoulders and helmet.

Some safety systems that are much less talked about are things like the accelerometer, first used in 2014 and placed in the drivers ear. This measures the forces during impacts, and its location in the ear allows both for less invasive placement and accurate data on head/neck movement for drivers. This then leads to better safety systems capable of being studied, reasoned for, and implemented. The addition in 2016 of a camera that faces the driver also allows for safety teams to see exactly how the driver is affected during crashes, as well as giving fans a fun camera angle (which I can rant about as well, camera angles in F1 are a huge thing for me). 

Rapid fire safety systems (there will be a quiz):

Helmets were first introduced in 1952, but not required until 1977.

Seatbelts/racing harnesses required starting 1972.

Fireproof race suits have been required since 1975.

The safety car didn’t even exist until 1993 (trial runs in 1992, first seen in 1973 Canadian GP)

Pit lane speed limit introduced in 1994. Yes, before this they just ripped through as fast as they could; no, the pit crews didn’t stand any further away.

Wheel tethers introduced in 1999 after an unholy amount of incidents going back to pre-1950 (AKA official F1 start) where the wheels just came off and smacked drivers, marshals, and fans, usually killing them instantly.

The most notable safety system recently is the Halo and VSC (virtual safety car). The halo was put in place in 2018 and will hopefully never leave. It has been the savior of hundreds of lives throughout Formula series, but most well known in Formula 1 were Lewis Hamilton (2021 Monza GP, stopped Max Verstappen's car from becoming a permanent fixture in the side of his head) and Romain Grosjean (2020 Bahrain GP, pushed the crash fencing up away from his head as he hit the barriers), as well as possibly Zhou Guanyu (2022 British GP, flipped upside down and up over tire barriers into catch fencing) and Max Verstappen (2021 British GP, incredibly hard hit into a tire barrier — 51G impact at 160 MPH/257 KPH). 

There had been a number of close calls that brought up the possibility of halos, like Fernando Alonso almost having his head removed from this world at Spa in 2012 on lap one, and an incident between Michael Schumacher and Vitantonio Luizzi at Abu Dhabi in 2010 that left Luizzi’s Force India inches from Schumacher’s face.

Unfortunately, it took the horrific death of Jules Bianchi in 2014 at the Japanese GP and a number of junior driver fatalities for the Halo to be finally seriously considered and implimented. Bianchi’s incident also led to the Virtual Safety car, which was put in place in 2015 to keep accidents like his from happening. I can talk more about his incident as well if you’d like. It’s a masterpiece of administrative fuck ups and terrible oversights.

(Ask me about it and camera angles I dare you)

HELLO BUCKET

this is wonderful thank u thank u

i did know a little about the senna crash (tho not the concrete barriers) (i do know that when it happened they were trying to revive the drivers union which is awful) and the bianchi crash (i looked at that quite extensively for update post) but Yeesh yeah the safety stuff is Terrifying. pls. pls tell me about the camera angles.

[bantarleton]

Who Were the "Hessians"?

A good article from Facebook by Dr Alex Burns;

Myth 1): German troops were all Hessians.

Although most came from the mid-sized German state of Hessen-Kassel, troops from six different principalities (Hessen-Kassel, Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, Hessen-Hanau, Ansbach-Bayreuth, Waldeck, and Anhalt-Zerbst.) Indeed, the current leading progressive reenactment group portraying these soldiers represents Regiment Prinz Friedrich, essentially a garrison unit from Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel.

If you include the larger, global war outside America, fought in places like Gibraltar and India, troops from the state of Hanover (Braunschweig-Lüneburg) also fought for the British outside of the Holy Roman Empire (the pre-German territorial entity.) So, while over 60% of these troops came from Hessen, they really hailed from all over the western and central Holy Roman Empire. As a result, it might be better to call them something other than Hessians. "Germanic" has been put forward, but that usually conjures up images of the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Myth 2): They were mercenaries.

Imagine you are a soldier in the United States Army, serving in West Germany during the Cold War. You are stationed there because of longstanding agreements and alliances, which stretch back decades. The United States Government and the West German government have a financial understanding that helps maintain your presence in the region. Are you a mercenary? The situation was very similar for the German-speaking soldiers who fought in the American War of Independence, They had a longstanding relationship with Great Britain, stretching back decades. They had fought with alongside the British since the 1690s, both in continental Europe and in the British isles. As a result of the Hanoverian succession in 1714 (the British Royal family was drawn from Hanover) they had longstanding marriage connections with Great Britain. Horace Walpole, a British politician from the 1730s, referred to the Hessians as the Triarii of Great Britain.

These soldiers did not personally or corporately take on contracts from the British. they were members of state militaries: their governments were paid a subsidy by the British in order to fight in their wars. Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia, received subsidies from the British during the Seven Years War. As a result, the modern German term for these troops is *Subsidientruppen, *or subsidy troops. **Thus, it might be better to speak of the German-speaking subsidy troops, as opposed to calling them Hessians, or mercenaries. **Historians have argued that it might be fitting to call their countries "mercenary states". This is different from saying they were mercenaries.

Myth 3): They were sold to America because their princes were greedy and wanted to build palaces and pay for their illegitimate children.

The princes of the Western Holy Roman Empire lived in an incredibly dangerous world during the eighteenth century. Their territories were small, rural, principalities, trapped between the military giants of France, Austria, and Prussia. As a result, from the 1670s, these princes attempted to use subsidy contracts to build themselves larger armies, in order to preserve their independence. These subsidy contracts were a standard feature of European politics, diplomacy, and conflict resolution. They allowed the princes to better protect their small domains. None of the princes who formed subsidy contracts with Britain during the American War of Independence were doing something radically new or greedy. Instead, they were following on decades of practice which had allowed them to maintain their own independence. The Hessian (Hessen-Kassel) Landgraf Friedrich II actually used the funds from the contract, in part, to promote economic development and the textile industry in his territories. **Some of them had illegitimate children. Some had palaces. Portraying them as sex-crazed misers limits our understanding of the economic and security necessities which actually underpinned their subsidy policies. **Following the long-standing practices of their governments, princes in the Western Holy Roman Empire entered subsidy agreements to maintain the costs of their states.

Myth 4): They committed many brutal war-crimes in America.

The subsidy troops had been used in messy civil conflicts before. Hessian troops were used against the Jacobites in 1745-6, where they remarkably refused to take part in the repression against the Scottish Jacobites. Their troops were remembered in Perthshire, Scotland, as "a gentle race," and their commanding Prince (Friedrich II) declared, "My Hessians and I have been called to fight the enemies of the British crown, but never will we consent to hang or torture in its name." (Duffy, *Best of Enemies, *p. 133). English officers in the Seven Years War, noted that their troops were reprimanded for plundering more than Hessian forces. (Atwood, *The Hessians, *p. 173). In North America during the War of Independence, the Hessians once again behaved better than their British counterparts. Although there was a surge of fear about Hessian brutality early in the war, after the first few years of the war, Americans believed that the Hessians treated them better than British soldiers. Aaron Burr wrote of Hessian atrocities: "Various have been the reports concerning the barbarities committed by the Hessians, most of them [are] incredible and false." (Matthew Davis, *Memoirs of Aaron Burr, *Vol 1. p. 107). Comparing the brutality of the Napoleonic Wars with the American War of Independence, a Hessian veteran who served in both wars commented: "Everything which the author has subsequently seen in this regard greatly exceeds what one should term cruelty in America, which in comparison with more recent times, can be regarded as nothing more than a harmless puppet show." (Adam Ludwig von Ochs, *Betrachtungen Ueber die Kriegkunst, *60-61.) Hessian troops committed crimes in America, there is no doubt. What is clear is that these crimes were not excessive for an eighteenth-century conflict.

Myth 5): Many of them deserted to America, where life was better.

Many Americans claim Hessian ancestry. As a result, it is common to encounter the sentiment that these "mercenary" troops were simply waiting to switch sides. In reality, most of these troops returned to their homelands in the Holy Roman Empire. A very small number switched sides before the end of the war, a larger (but still small) percentage elected to remain in America after the war ended in 1783. Far from being an act of rebellion, the princes encouraged their subsidy troops to remain in America if they desire: this would cut costs, and make the process of slashing the military budget easier in peacetime. Most returned to celebrations, public parades, and being welcomed by loved ones. For more on exact data of desertions, as well as the subsidy-troops' return home, see Daniel Krebs' book, *A Generous and Merciful Enemy. *The majority of these troops remained loyal to their princes, and returned home to their own native lands.

Who Were the Hessians?

The experience of 37,000 soldiers mainly drawn from six small counties is not all one thing. There are elements of truth to each of the myths about the Hessians, but their story is more complex than the myths that are told about them in English-speaking circles in North America. They were drawn from a fascinating world in Central Europe with its own customs, practices, and traditions. They entered the American story, and as a result, it is worth taking the time to understand and remember their path in it in a complex way.

A "Hessian" Reading List:

Rodney Atwood: "The Hessians: Mercenaries from Hessen-Kassel in the American Revolution"

Friedrike Baer: "Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War"

Stephan Huck: "Soldaten gegen Nordamerika Lebenswelten Braunschweiger Subsidientruppen im amerikanischen Unabhängigkeitskrieg"

Charles Ingrao: "The Hessian Mercenary State: Ideas, Institutions, and Reform under Frederick II, 1760–1785"

Daniel Krebs: "A Generous and Merciful Enemy: Life for German Prisoners of War during the American Revolution"

[stromuprisahat]

I was watching this Indian series on Netflix about the life of courtesans during pre-independence India (it's called Heeramandi). It's not the best series, there are definitely historical accuracy issues and issues with the way the courtesans are written in moments, but one subplot I thought was interesting was one where one of the courtesans has a wealthy patron who's also her lover sort of, and the main reason she indulges him is because he gives her information related to how the British government wants to undermine the freedom fighters who are fighting for India's independence, and she then feeds this information to the freedom fighters because she's also one of them. I'm only bringing this up, because I was vaguely reminded of Genya from Shadow and Bone, and even though both stories have major differences, I really wish we had gotten an interesting subplot like this for Genya with interesting politics and Genya getting to do more interesting espionage related things instead of the plot we actually got. What are your thoughts?

Well, there are the obvious issues- Genya's too young to be satisfyingly trained, therefore not the ideal choice for intel extraction. Current Tsar's proclivities disqualify experienced personel for the job, but then again they make him unlikely to serve as a source of information. Or do we believe he speaks strategy, when raping a maid? Sure, he can be monologuing, but the whole seductive spies idea stands on ability to procure specific info, therefore directed interaction.

There's plenty of interesting AUs in it- Genya as the Royal mistress, helping to undermine the rule of the man, whose bed she shares-, but unfortunately those remain only AUs. What could've been canon-compliant, is her post-war station. I have no fucking clue, what's her official position supposed to be, but I disagree.

SHE should've been THE spymaster.

She has insight into politics, she's (suddenly permanently) Tailoring spies for their missions, she used to be intelligent and cunning, hell, she can have a semi-official diplomatic position to go with it!

Think book!Varys or book!Dijkstra in gorgeous outfits!

[ballads-for-kuni]

Genshin Timeline Confirmation

WARNING: REFERENCING OF GENSHIN FONTAINE 4.2 ARCHON QUEST ENDING. PLEASE TURN BACK NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE AQ, OR BE AT RISK OF SPOILERS.

GUYS

FONTAINE ESSENTIALLY EXECUTED FOCALORS, THE HYDRO ARCHON, VIA "GUILLOTINE" (OF SORTS).

AND FONTAINE IS CONFIRMED TO BE BASED OFF FRANCE.

WHICH MEANS THAT FOCALORS' EXECUTION IS EQUIVALENT TO THE EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, THE LAST QUEEN OF FRANCE BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

MARIE ANTOINETTE WAS EXECUTED ON OCTOBER 16, 1793.

SO THAT MEANS WE NOW HAVE A TIMELINE FOR GENSHIN'S HISTORY IN CONJUNCTION TO IRL HISTORY.

IT'S BREAKDOWN TIME!

WHAT HAPPENED IN COUNTRIES IN 1793

MONDSTADT = GERMANY = Holy Roman Empire (962-1806) LIYUE = IMPERIAL CHINA = Qing Dynasty (1636-1912) INAZUMA = SHOGUNATE JAPAN = Edo Period (1603-1868) SUMERU (RAINFOREST) = SOUTH ASIA + MIDDLE EAST = too many areas to cover, completely unsure (India: Early-Modern period, British occupation of majority of India, mass-industrialisation) SUMERU (DESERT) = EGYPT = Ottoman Empire (1299-1922) FONTAINE = FRANCE = End of the French Monarchy NATLAN = PRE-COLUMBIAN LATIN AMERICA + WEST AFRICA = unsure SNEZHNAYA = RUSSIA = Russian Empire (1721-1917) under Catherine II (overthrew her husband, Peter III; she ruled 1762-1796)

Let me know if you guys like and want more stuff like this, I'll go deep-dive for more research if you guys like it! ♥

[dailyanarchistposts]

To The Punjab Governor

Sir, With due respect we beg to bring to your kind notice the following:

That we were sentenced to death on 7th October 1930 by a British Court, L.C.C Tribunal, constituted under the Sp. Lahore Conspiracy Case Ordinance, promulgated by the H.E. The Viceroy, the Head of the British Government of India, and that the main charge against us was that of having waged war against H.M. King George, the King of England.

The above-mentioned finding of the Court pre-supposed two things:

Firstly, that there exists a state of war between the British Nation and the Indian Nation and, secondly, that we had actually participated in that war and were therefore war prisoners.

The second pre-supposition seems to be a little bit flattering, but nevertheless it is too tempting to resist the desire of acquiescing in it.

As regards the first, we are constrained to go into some detail. Apparently there seems to be no such war as the phrase indicates. Nevertheless, please allow us to accept the validity of the pre-supposition taking it at its face value. But in order to be correctly understood we must explain it further. Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the Indian toiling masses and the natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may be purely British Capitalist or mixed British and Indian or even purely Indian. They may be carrying on their insidious exploitation through mixed or even on purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus. All these things make no difference. No matter, if your Government tries and succeeds in winning over the leaders of the upper strata of the Indian Society through petty concessions and compromises and thereby cause a temporary demoralization in the main body of the forces. No matter, if once again the vanguard of the Indian movement, the Revolutionary Party, finds itself deserted in the thick of the war. No matter if the leaders to whom personally we are much indebted for the sympathy and feelings they expressed for us, but nevertheless we cannot overlook the fact that they did become so callous as to ignore and not to make a mention in the peace negotiation of even the homeless, friendless and penniless of female workers who are alleged to be belonging to the vanguard and whom the leaders consider to be enemies of their utopian non-violent cult which has already become a thing of the past; the heroines who had ungrudgingly sacrificed or offered for sacrifice their husbands, brothers, and all that were nearest and dearest to them, including themselves, whom your government has declared to be outlaws. No matter, it your agents stoop so low as to fabricate baseless calumnies against their spotless characters to damage their and their party’s reputation. The war shall continue.

It may assume different shapes at different times. It may become now open, now hidden, now purely agitational, now fierce life and death struggle. The choice of the course, whether bloody or comparatively peaceful, which it should adopt rests with you. Choose whichever you like. But that war shall be incessantly waged without taking into consideration the petty (illegible) and the meaningless ethical ideologies. It shall be waged ever with new vigour, greater audacity and unflinching determination till the Socialist Republic is established and the present social order is completely replaced by a new social order, based on social prosperity and thus every sort of exploitation is put an end to and the humanity is ushered into the era of genuine and permanent peace. In the very near future the final battle shall be fought and final settlement arrived at.

The days of capitalist and imperialist exploitation are numbered. The war neither began with us nor is it going to end with our lives. It is the inevitable consequence of the historic events and the existing environments. Our humble sacrifices shall be only a link in the chain that has very accurately been beautified by the unparalleled sacrifice of Mr. Das and most tragic but noblest sacrifice of Comrade Bhagawati Charan and the glorious death of our dear warrior Azad.

As to the question of our fates, please allow us to say that when you have decided to put us to death, you will certainly do it. You have got the power in your hands and the power is the greatest justification in this world. We know that the maxim “Might is right” serves as your guiding motto. The whole of our trial was just a proof of that. We wanted to point out that according to the verdict of your court we had waged war and were therefore war prisoners. And we claim to be treated as such, i.e., we claim to be shot dead instead of to be hanged. It rests with you to prove that you really meant what your court has said.

We request and hope that you will very kindly order the military department to send its detachment to perform our execution.

Yours

BHAGAT SINGH

[slyandthefamilybook]

aren't israelis colonizers? is israel any different from india with respect to kashmir?

I don't know enough about India and Kashmir to answer that part, so I won't

But in short, no, Israelis are not colonizers.

As a longer answer, I think first it's important to draw a distinction between colonization and colonialism. Colonization has a pretty broad application. In its simplest sense it means "people moving from one place to another place and establishing some sort of autonomy there". It usually involves the suppression of indigenous peoples, but not always. We talk about, for example, "colonizing Mars", even though there's no one up there as far as we can tell

In that sense, sure, you can call Israelis colonizers. You'd be ignoring the millions of Jews who are descended from the Old Yishuv (the Jews who lived in British Palestine prior to the establishment of the state of Israel), unless you think that pre-Israel Jews were also colonizers, in which case I don't think there's a discussion to be had. You'd also have to ignore the millions of non-Jewish Israeli citizens, such as Bedouin Arabs, Druze, Samaritans, Chinese, Arameans, etc.

You'd also have to ignore the roughly 850,000 Jews who were expelled from Arab-dominant countries and fled to Israel as refugees, not as settlers. "Israeli" is a pretty broad term, it turns out

In terms of colonialism it's pretty much impossible to fit any definition to Israel. Colonialism is the process of exporting a dominant culture from a centralized point at the expense of indigenous cultures. For example, when the British established colonies on Turtle Island, the colonizers brought their British culture with them. They spoke English, worshiped God and The King in that order, used British pounds, established settlements with names like "James' Town" and "George Town", followed English law, and generally made a mess of the place. In contrast, when the First Aliyah came to British Palestine, they shed their European names in favor of their Jewish ones. They abandoned English, German, Yiddish and Ladino in favor of Hebrew, the last surviving Canaanite language. They built cities named things like Tel Aviv, and Shmuel HaNavi. For the first time in centuries, they visited the tombs of our ancestors–Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'akov. They made pilgrimages to the very cities spoken about in the Torah, our founding document and the source of our ethnogenesis. They found Jewish artifacts thousands of years old. Some people call this "artificial self-indigenization", but they're wrong. It's not even re-indigenization, because indigenous identity has no expiration date. Jews may have assimilated into various cultures around the world to some extent or another, but our identity as Jews has always been tied to the Levant. No colonial project in history has viewed itself as a return to a place from which they originated.

This isn't to say that Israelis haven't committed atrocities against Palestinians, or that they don't continue to do so. Theft of Palestinian homes, the Nakba, the suppression of the rights and culture of Palestinians, all of that history is reprehensible and needs to be answered for. But violence does not a colony make.

here's a piece from the left-wing Israeli news outlet Ha'aretz talking more about it

[stephensmithuk]

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Three Broken Threads

Hat tip to @myemuisemo for another excellent post that covers much of what I was planning together:

Data protection was not really a thing back in 1889. However, paper hotel registers would be something filled in by the front desk staff, not the guest. They would contain details of extra charges incurred as well, all stuff generally done by computer, but you can still buy paper copies today. Particularly for the Indian market, where less than half the population have Internet access. These registers are generally mandatory and in some countries, the data will still be passed to the police when it concerns newly arrived foreigners. That's why they ask for your passport.

Newcastle upon Tyne, the one people generally talk about as opposed to Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, was at the centre of a major coal mining area in North-East England, the Durham and Northumberland coalfields being in close proximity. The industry was still employing children - boys as young as 12 could work in mines - and was still a pretty dangerous, not to mention unhealthy industry.

The British economy was heavily reliant on coal, especially the newly built electric power stations. While the railways had a big coal trade for internal transport for domestic purposes, boats also played a big role, either going via canal or down the East Coast of Great Britain to the London Docks. This route would become vulnerable to German attack in the World Wars, particularly in the second war from fast torpedo boats known to the British as "E-boats"; the East Coast convoys are a lesser-known part of the naval war, with Patrick Troughton having served with Coastal Force Command.

The Mayor of Gloucester, like most civic mayors in England, is the chair of the council, elected to a one-year term by their fellow councillors. The current holder is Conservative councillor Lorraine Campbell. It's a mostly ceremonial role involving going to various events while wearing a red cloak and a big hat:

Gloucester's Deputy Mayor is called the Sheriff of Gloucester. There is still a Sheriff of Nottingham, by the way.

The Anglophone Canadian accent was historically noticeably different to an American one and of course had its own varieties. They've gotten closer over the decades, especially due to television.

Sir Henry would have limited luggage space on the ship over, so three pairs of boots would be reasonable. He'd have to ship over anything else at further cost, so it could be cheaper to buy new in London.

Deliveries of telegrams that weren't in the immediate area of the office cost extra. Bradshaw's Guide for Tourists in Great Britain and Ireland would state the nearest telegraph office for a town, as the 1866 edition demonstrates:

Sir Charles' estate was worth around £80m in today's money, but that would not even get him onto The Sunday Times Rich List, which starts at £350m (Sir Lewis Hamilton, i.e. the F1 driver). It tops out with Gopichand Hinduja and his family at an estimated £37.2 billion, whose conglomerate is many focussed on India, but also are the biggest shareholders in US chemical company Quaker Houghton.

Westmoreland was a historical county in Northern England; it was absorbed into Cumbria in 1974, but its area became part of the Westmoreland and Furness unitary authority in 2023.

"Entailed" means that Sir Charles has stipulated in a legal document that the Baskerville estate would have to pass to Sir Henry's heir intact. This was a feudal era practice that has now been abolished in most jurisdictions, with limited remaining use in England and Wales. Simply put Sir Henry is not allowed to sell the house or the land, even part of it. He can do what he likes with the cash and probably the chattels, the movable property like the candlesticks and the toasting forks.

This page covers it in relation to the works of Jane Austen with relevant spoilers:

Borough is another name for the area of Southwark. It got a Tube station in 1890, when the City and South London Railway opened, now the Bank branch of the Northern line. It also is famous for Borough Market, then a wholesale food market under cover of buildings from the 1850s. Today it is a retail market for specialty food; kind of like a farmers' market.

In 1888, the 10:30 from Paddington would get to Exeter at 15:35, a journey of five hours. @myemuisemo provides route maps. I would add at this point, GWR services to SW England went via Bristol, adding a lot of time to the journey, while the LSWR route from Waterloo was a lot more direct. Wags dubbed the former "the Great Way Round". The construction of two cut-off lines allowed the GWR to go via Westbury and Castle Cary.

I will cover the modern day condition of the route in my Chapter 6 post.

The GWR still had some broad-gauge track at 2,140 mm(7 ft 1⁄4 in) left that Brunel had favoured, but this would be finally eliminated in 1892.

Finally, Holmes is referencing the sport of fencing when he learns the cabbie has been given his name. The foil is the lightest of the three swords used in competitive fencing, such as the Olympics.

In an age before electronic fencing equipment, point scoring relied on the eyesight of the umpire... and the honesty of the competitions.

I was in my fencing club at university. I can't say I was that great. I preferred the epee, which doesn't have the priority rules...

[kuhuchan]

one weird-ish thing in these old-ish stories is how much the british people in general treated india as some fantasy land far away with magic and everything exotic.

naming animals and objects indian names for the exotic touch, weird fascination to snakecharming, and tantric rituals and yoga, and spicy food etc etc

cant give specific examples rn but this is kinda the vibes i often get while reading stuff from that era

and its kinda weird reading from this perspective....... like no yall are supposed to be the weird looking ones with weird looking food and weird looking cloths lmao

not claiming racism or anything, ig this is what happens when two very different populations interact

An excerpt from Prostitution under the Raj which traces the evolution of prostitution in Bengal from pre- to post-colonial era. Seemed fitting.

[fatehbaz]

Whither the man-eater? This entity was once the prime interest of an entire league of famous sportsmen in colonial India, the engrossing content of many books [...]. [T]he man-eater was first constructed, and then dismantled [...]. This erratic rise and fall of the man-eater is descriptive of changing power relations, the ephemeral yet pervasive axis between the colonial and the post-colonial [...].

---

Jim Corbett was a case in point. [Around the time of independence, Corbett authored popular stories of his adventures in colonial India in the preceding decades, including Man-Eaters of Kumaon and The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag]. [...]

The man-eater was destined [...] to shine in all its ferocity at a certain moment in time and not any other.

Thus, [there is special] context within which specific 'meanings' get associated with animals, at certain times, and at the the hands of select actors [...].

[T]he engulfing realm of the printed word, especially the English book, gave astounding shape and clarity to the idea of a man-eater. [...] The man-eater was never thought of as a sub-species of Panthera tigris in the tables of natural history; rather the man-eater [...] was ‘out of nature’, and thus some kind of an addendum to naturalist understandings. [...] The making of the man-eater into a coherent animal category follows an arduous path. [...] [M]otor cars and other gadgets such as hunting lights had arrived on the scene. [...] [A British officer] who had served in the Central Provinces for quite a while after [1909] [...], commented [..] ‘With modern inventions it would be quite easy to be playing cards in the tent [,] and when the tiger turns up, kill him by pressing a button on a tent wall.’ [His] exasperation was evident [among] [...] [s]portsmen in the 1920s and 1930s [...]. [A] single species splits into undefeatable man-eaters and gentlemanly tigers worthy of observation alone. [...] Amid such lesser sportsmen the man-eater thus became a tactic of power which elevated its [colonial] victor over both the hunters of the past and contemporaries of the present. [...] But it is truly a question if this muzzle-loading gun in the hands of the native [...]. The implication was that sportsmen had a fairer sense of restrictions than the non-sporting classes. With the latter classes gaining political mobility, fears of an 1857-like massacre were also in the air. [...] [B]y the 1930s [...] a host of sportsmen [...] might have preferred to see natives handling a rickety muzzle-loader than an elegant express rifle; the man-eater was intended to remain at large for those ["superior" colonial sportsmen] in possession of the latter. [...]

---

This development of a sportsman into an author can be located within a history of the book. [...] The English novel as a genre [...] began to acquire greater circulation after [...] 1870. [...] [A] book on which the sportsman laboured was like a trophy [...]. For all such ongoing fuss about size [records], a man-eater was more about qualities: cunning, finesse, stealth [...]. If the difficulty of hunting a man-eater was what gave the sportsman a chance to prove the superiority of his skill [...], then this difficulty was the stuff of a story, not a [size] measurement or a mounted trophy. And [...] an aspect of photography. [...] It authenticated the effort of a sportsman and could not be bought of the market [taxidermy trophies available to simply purchase at local shops] except through a book that bore the author’s name. [...]

---

There were dimensions of imagination and power that accompanied this. The idea of a man-eater was such that it helped advance the long held belief that the natives were a hapless lot. [...] Pandian [...] shares how the man-eaters of the colonial period were equated with the ‘arbitrary monarchs’ of a pre-colonial era, which also the British sportsman as a symbol of ‘sovereign might’, would meet on its own grounds. [...] [Consider also] the manner in which the simultaneous depiction of the remaining tigers as ‘large hearted gentlem[e]n’ of the forests (a thing Corbett professed) went to convey the contrary image of a docile, tame and innocent nature that could come to be harmed by natives at the slightest instance.

Protecting the people gave the colonisers power over animals, and protecting animals gave it a power over people.

Notions of animality and criminality intersected at the site of the man-eater.

The entire continuum of man-animal relations was thus canvassed through this tactic, which also the medium of the book in the later colonial periods broadcasted to distant corners of the colony. [...] What perhaps distinguished the man-eater from any ordinary form of game hunting was that it was additionally a form of ‘language-game’. [...] [T]he man-eater was an account in which the ephemeral idea of an ‘India’ glimmered constantly in the background. But it did so largely in English. The man-eater was an English diatribe [...]. The side by side portrayal of the victims of the man-eater as ‘superstitious’, ‘rural’ and ‘ignorant’, only went to establish before the (civilised) readers the proof of an (uncivilised) mass waiting to be salvaged, assimilated or disciplined. [...] [A] mild perusal of Corbett’s My India, published about five years after India’s gaining of Independence, provides ample evidence of the above dynamic. The eventual autonomy of the British administration besides a celebration of the decision making capacities of rural masses (described as ‘real’ Indians) is legend in the pages of this book. The political reality of colonial rule is conflated with a nationalistic pride, which also the sportsman allocates to himself in the describing of his (my?) India. One is left to understand that the man-eater thrived at its best in a colonised India as much as an Indianised colony. As the tension between an emerging nation and an erstwhile colony acquired sharpness in the later colonial periods and a decade thereafter, the narrative of the man-eater came into its own.

The man-eater is thus a veritable creature of timing that shone at its brightest in the 1940s, even if it had been shot down 30 years ago by the likes of Corbett. [...] [Later in the twentieth century, there was a] transformation of the landscape from a designated ‘wasteland’ under colonial administration to a ‘World Heritage Site’ in Independent India. At the peak of such transitions in the 1970s [...], the tiger itself was assuming cosmopolitan proportions and being regarded as a ‘citizen’ by the state. [...] [This was an] emergence of [...] a 'cosmopolitan tiger' [...].

---

All text above by: Varun Sharma. "Rise and Fall of the 'Man-eater': The Changing Science and Technology of a Species (1860-present)". History and Sociology of South Asia Volume 10 (2016), Issue 1. First published online 8 December 2015. At: doi dot org slash 10.1177/2230807515600087 [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Text in the first paragraph of this post is from the article's abstract. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[aboardthescheherazade]

Inspired by @professorcalculusstanaccount's timeline posts, it's Roberto Rastapopoulos through the years! No little Greek boy don't grow up to be a massive shithead--

Rasta is a very difficult character to understand in canon, because so much of his lore is left unknown to the viewer. However, there were little bits and pieces, some in Herge's tertiary studio notes; over time I've wrung some water from that stone, and put together this timeline in my head. I went with a more condensed range than ProfCal (i.e. pre-canon up to canon, rather than into post-canon), since Rob does technically "die"/disappear by the end of the (finished) comics.

Headcanons and details under the cut:

According to speculative official notes, he was born in the 1890s in Leros. It's a beautiful island but also one with a turbulent history, as when little Roberto was born, that part of Greece was under control by the Ottoman Empire. His father was a sponge diver, which was a very viable career at the time. (Decades later, the industry would be ruined when the area's sea sponges were over-harvested by bigger diving operations.) His mother is basically unknown...many official outlets say Rastapopoulos is part American, so I imagine his mother was of Greek-American heritage who either met his father abroad or in America.

There were two real-world figures who influenced my timeline: Aristote Onassis and Aleister Crowley. Onassis was one of Herge's later inspirations when writing Rastapopoulos, and for good reason; much like Rastapopoulos's own immoral dealings, Onassis indiscriminately sold warships during WWII and can easily be considered an arms dealer who profited off of human atrocities. On the other hand, Aleister Crowley was my own connection. All the pseudo-Egyptian mysticism in Cigars of the Pharaoh and the Kih-Oskh Brotherhood seems to be a reference to the very real trend in the early 20th Century where the upper crust of western society became fascinated with esoteric beliefs. (Seances and the Ouija Board were also created during this era.) Crowley rose in infamy during this time, too, as a spoiled debutante who spent his inheritance on journeys through the MENA region to perform rituals and "adapt" Eastern religions for his own belief system. With Rastapopoulos making up an entire pharaoh and emblem for his secret trafficking club, it reminded me very much of Crowley's own endeavours, and the commodification of MENA cultures and iconography during this era.

Child (1897) - Canonically, he has three brothers and two sisters, so l envisioned him as the middle child amidst all that. Little Roberto was spoiled when he was little, but when his youngest brother was born, it left Roberto feeling like the attention had been stolen from him.

15 (1906)- The other siblings hoped Roberto would be just as enthusiastic as they were about the family diving business, but alas, he'd always been more interested in reading prose and classical plays. His favourite play is Gounod's Faust. Some days, he daydreams about what a deal with the devil could get him, thinking he'd be able to outsmart the devil and win his riches for free. Roberto was at a rebellious point in his life, and sadly, he'd come to be ashamed of his background, deciding sponge diving was "peasant work" and that he'd rather tell others he was British or American. Eventually, it became easier for the whole family to just send him to a boarding school. Deep down, Roberto's parents hoped he might become an actor, a writer, or some sort of scholar...but the night before he left, Roberto secretly took down his whole family's banking information.

20s (1910s) - Roberto is now in his "Aleister Crowley's world tour" phase. He throws around mysteriously large quantities of money, often putting it into investments, and taking many journeys through Egypt and India. (I also like to imagine he met the Fakir and Colonel Fuad around this time; maybe Zloty too). Rastapopoulos is an insufferable, preening dandy at this time, trying to carve out his own place among the societal elite. His Greek identity is only flaunted as a way to make him seem more "exotic" to strangers. He tries not to think about the bank accounts he's leeching from.

30s (1920s) - Several of his investments actually flourished. His shares in Arab-Air and Flor Fina yield enough profit to let him buy out the companies, and his decadence only increases as he reaps even more profits. With extra money going around, Rastapopoulos finally decides to foray into the movie industry...as a movie producer. His passion for theatre never died, and if he can't become an actor himself, then why not produce the kinds of stories he wanted to be in? By the time the Great Depression hits, Rastapopoulos has amassed more than enough wealth to stay afloat...and the drug ring he's started with a few good friends sure helps, too. He's more concerned with holding onto every millimetre of his receding hairline.

40s (canon) - By all means, Rastapopoulos could have disbanded the cartel and retired comfortably. Maybe he could have invested more in his own movies, and focused more on Cosmos Pictures's internal operations. And yet, he didn't. Bigger numbers are better, so Rastapopoulos kept amassing his dirty money, thinking he was too big to fall. He got messy and left behind some viable clues, which some Belgian kid happened to stumble across...

50s (1940s-early 50s)- "Roberto Rastapopoulos" may be out on bail and facing decades in prison, but "Marquis Dante di Gorgonzola" is just some mysterious financier with an offshore bank account. Some of the other societal elites recognize him, but they find the alter ego funny and play along; "Oh, here comes "the marquis"...! He's due back in Hong Kong!" He can't make money through drug trafficking anymore, he can't show his face in Hollywood, and he certainly can't go back to Greece. Unfortunately, some of his associates introduce him to a different kind of trafficking, one even more immoral, but just as lucrative... It's the climax of the Rastapopoulos family tragedy: the son of hard-working commoners has ground his family's name into dust thanks to his pursuit of power and decadence; he has now resorted to deceiving those same sorts of commoners, dooming them to unknown fates just so he can buy a boat. Later, he begins resorting to harebrained schemes and petty crime just to maintain that lifestyle. His Greek identity has long been buried in favour of a vague, exotic cultural identity meant to explain away his quirks and twitchiness.

I've long been torn on whether or not Endaddine Akass is Rastapopoulos's final form. Herge's notes do consider him surviving Flight 714 to Sydney by waking up in the tropics with some degree of amnesia...perhaps this is near Jamaica, where he'll meet Ramo Nash under a new identity. It also feels the most theatrical - Rastapopoulos is playing yet another role, and he has a grand finale planned for Tintin's murder. Additionally, the mysticism Akass totes in Alph-Art is inspired by the alternative religion fads of the 1960s-70s; Akass is evocative of some of those many cult leaders, like Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh or Father Yod.

And yet, I almost find it more fitting for Rastapopoulos to survive Flight 714 to Sydney with full amnesia. He only knows himself as some middle-aged vagrant, and he decides he just has to pick himself up, and find some odd jobs to make a living. He gives himself a new name; his family history has been wiped clean. He struggles to make ends meet, much like the family he bankrupted, though he'll never know just how ironic his life has become. The rest of the world knows Rastapopoulos as a bombastic, flashy debutante who died a pitiful death during a police standoff. Tintin feels like he saw him one last time, but it feels like a bad dream he had during a flight layover. The man who always wanted to be the biggest and best died quietly in the sea, his true fate unknown, his body forever missing.

I think that's why I find Rastapopoulos so fascinating as a character! You can either make him into Tintin's greatest scourge who fights to the death to maintain his status, or you can rip all that away and doom him to a humble existence.

[lunar-serpentinite]

Nandhini's Legacy AU : Family Masterlist

A directory for all the Magical families that have a role in my Tamil!Potters AU titled Nandhini's Legacy

Nandhini's Descendants

Status: Extant

House Words: The Forests Answer to Us

Residence: House of Serpents (Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India); Nagaraja Hall (Gloucestershire, England)

Insignia: Cobra (Lotus Eater), cow, elephant

Colour/s: Green and gold

Head/s: Nithila, daughter of Aathirai (Main); Lily Potter (British branch); ████████ (Italian branch)

A South Asian Magical family from Tamil Nadu, with known branches in the United Kingdom and Italy. The main branch in Tamil Nadu do not carry surnames but as a collective they refer to themselves as Nandhini's descendants or Aditya's descendants. The United Kingdom branch carries the surname Potter. There is little information on the Italian branch. Should the main branch members find themselves in need of a surname for whatever reason, they have their pick of either Nandhini, Aditya, or Potter.

They are known for their unique variant of Parseltongue, commonly known as Potter's Parseltongue in the western world, and their unique connection with snakes. Their estates are known to house an extremely rare type of Magical snake called the Lotus Eater cobra, which appears in their heraldry.

The British branch is also known for their contributions to the country's Potions field and their work in the Magical ceramics industry.

The title of the Head and Heir of the family is primarily passed down the female line but only in secret. In the eyes of the public and the law, they practice patrilineal primogeniture like most other families. This specifically stems from old survival tactics of their ancestors but in the present day, the practice is continued out of respect and fondness of tradition.

They are known to rarely marry outside their South Asian circles, if at all. Regulus Potter ne Black is the first person who is not of South Asian descent to have successfully married into the family.

Through marriage, they are connected to the House of Black.

Notable members: Harry Potter, James Potter, Lily Potter (nee Evans), Regulus Potter (ne Black), Nithila, Lathishri, Kadhir, Iniyan

More information on the family

More information on members (Harry Potter, Lily Evans Potter, others TBP)

The House of Black

Status: Extant

House Words: Toujours pur (Always pure); Birthed by Shadows, Thrive in Darkness

Residence: 12 Grimmauld Place (Borough of Islington, London)

Insignia: Hawk, three crows

Colour/s: Black and maroon

Head/s: ████████ (Main); Sirius Black (British branch)

An ancient and powerful family whose earliest ancestor has been said to have lived as early as pre-Islamic Arabia. According to their own members, the family donned the surname of Black because their ancestors survived and thrived in the shadows of great kingdoms and empires.

In the present time, it said that the House of Black is so massive that their influential reach spans from North Africa all the way to West Asia. Smaller branches have left Asia and Africa and have settled somewhere else in the globe. One of the most notable branches would be their British branch which consists of at least three sub-branches. They are primarily known for their natural talent and extensive knowledge and use of Mind Magic, as well as their open usage and mastery of the Dark Arts.

Despite their fame and influence, little is actually known about the House of Black as a whole. Individual branch seats, heads and members are known, but the House's main seat and head remain a mystery even to the most prolific information hunters in the underground market.

The family's British branch is considered to be one of the country's Sacred Twenty-Eight. The British branch as at least three known sub-branches. The head British branch is historically Egyptian while the other two known sub-branches are historically Levantine (Palestinian) and Persian. The British branch is also notable for their tradition of naming their members after various objects in the night sky, from constellations to stars to natural satellites.

Famously, they rejected Dark Lord Voldemort's offer of allegiance in his first campaign. Orion Black, the Head at the time, has been reported to have told him that their family has "seen more formidable and competent Dark Lords back in the day". However, the family also did not make any moves to stop the Dark Lord's campaign either.

Like the other pureblood families, they generally refused to marry non-purebloods.

Through marriage, they are connected to the Potter family, the Lestrange family, and the Malfoy family, among other families.

Notable members: Sirius Black, Regulus Potter (ne Black), Andromeda Tonks (nee Black; estranged), Bellatrix Lestrange (nee Black), Narcissa Malfoy (nee Black)

More information on the family (TBP)

More information on members (TBP)

Maison Malfoyenne

Status: Extant

House Words: Sanctimonia Vincet Semper (Purity Will Always Conquer); Mountains Bow to River Rapids

Residence: Château de Port du Rhin (Port du Rhin, Strasbourg, France); Nadder Court (Wilton, Wiltshire, England)

Insignia: Mute swan, serpent

Colour/s: Blue and green

Head/s: Cassian Malfoy (Main); Lucius Malfoy (British branch)

A French magical family who trace their origins back to Strasbourg, France and Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Historically and traditionally, they are a family of lawmakers, judges, and politicians. Their main branch in Strasbourg is noted to have a hand at shaping the French Magical Parliament to what it is today and members of the family continue to hold significant power in the Magical Parliament themselves.

This tradition continues with the British branch of the family. Armand Malfoy established himself as a pillar of the early Magical British community shortly after arriving in the country and receiving land and a title from King William I. His descendants would go on to become notable members of the governing bodies of the time. The family has produced a certain number of Chief Warlocks and a couple of Supreme Mugwump candidates.

The family has a fondness for establishing their family estates nearby rivers. The main family seat of Château de Port du Rhin is located near the River Rhine, while the British seat of Nadder Court is located near the River Nadder. They are also known for their mastery of water magic.

In the Dark Lord Voldemort's first campaign, Lucius Malfoy had joined the ranks of his Death Eaters but soon defected once his then-fiancee and current wife Narcissa Malfoy nee Black made him choose between her or the Dark Lord.

The Malfoy branch of the family was listed as part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Like the other pureblood families, they generally refused to marry non-purebloods.

Through marriage, they are connected to the House of Black, the Lestrange family, and the Lovegood family, among other families.

Notable members: Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy (nee Black), Draco Malfoy, Pandora Lovegood (nee Malfoy), Xenophilius Lovegood, Luna Lovegood

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Clan Weasley

Status: Extant

House Words: Roots Run Deep

Residence: The Burrow (Ottery St Catchpole, Devon, West Country, England)

Insignia: Rowan, oak

Colour/s: Orange and green

Head/s: Arthur Weasley

Historically a Scottish Highlands Pureblood clan, the Weasleys used to be protectors of a Magical part of the Caledonian Forest before they were driven out of their ancestral home around the time when the local Pureblood clan leaders were forced to hand over their authority to the growing power of the British Ministry of Magic. The Weasleys' portion of the Caledonian Forest was handed over to wandmakers under the Ministry and the Weasleys themselves were forced to relocate further and further away from their ancestral home until they settled in Devon.

The Weasleys' current residence is in Ottery St Catchpole where many of their relatives have also settled. Though they don't have the same power and strength they used to have, they were able to smuggle some saplings from their ancestral home and they have been caring for the trees that grew from those saplings in the years since.

Their Magic is closely tied to the earth and the trees they take care of. Many of them eventually end up in careers where they work closely with wood (carpenters, carvers, broom makers, Quidditch players) or the earth and the creatures that dwell in and on the earth (agriculturists, all sorts of animal caretakers, etc.)

They are also known to have fairly large family units, with their main branch currently having seven children in the youngest generation.

Notable members: Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley (nee Prewett), William Weasley, Charles Weasley, Percy Weasley, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Ronald Weasley, Ginevra Weasley

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The Park Clan

Status: Extant

House Words: Beware the Spider

Residence: Sangju Park Clan Ancestral Home (Hamchang-eup, Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea); Sangjeon Pavilion (Staffordshire Moorlands, Staffordshire, England)

Insignia: Fox, star, spider

Colour/s: White and blue

Head/s: Park Ho-Jung (Main); Aloysius Parkinson (British branch)

[WIP]

Notable members: Aloysius Parkinson, Primrose Parkinson, Pansy Parkinson

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