#star forts

[victusinveritas]

Like lingering ornaments, some medieval star-shaped cities in Christmas colors, seen from space.

Bourtange (Netherlands), Palmanova (Italy), Almeida (Portugal), Neuf-Brisach (France).

[jurakan]

Fun Facts that could be mine, you say? I'm demanding a refund if it isn't as fun as the advertisement seemed to make it...

No pressure, huh?

Alright, then, go big or go home, I guess. Today You Learned about an architectural conspiracy theory.

Star forts!

Or bastion forts, as Wikipedia calls them.

So if you've looked at fortresses throughout history, you may notice that there came a point in which Europeans started building fortresses like this, instead of like standard castles with rectangular or circular walls. The change was the advent of gunpowder, or rather, the wide usage of gunpowder on the battlefield and in sieges. See, if you're defending a fort, and someone comes with cannons... well, they can blow the wall apart quite easily. You can also try planting explosives at the base of the walls.

Walls like this, which were thicker and lower, allowed you to have less of a target, a more difficult wall to blast through, and gave your defenders a chance to fire down at people who walked up to the wall in a way that you can't do if you don't have a good angle on them.

Or something. I don't know, I'm not a tactician. Anyway there a butt-ton of these around the world. They fell out of favor as gunpowder weapons evolved, so they became obsolete. That's not the wild part. The absolutely wild part is that there are people who have conspiracy theories about these things.

So as pointed out in this article, there's a website called starforts.org, which claims that these fortresses are not, as they appear to be, structures built for gunpowder warfare, but are actually the remains of a long-lost civilization that spanned the globe before recorded history.

I promise that I am not making this up.

The claims are things that are obviously nonsense--that these somehow harness electricity somehow to make them ancient power generators that we've somehow forgotten how to turn on, or that they're used to transport people around the globe. These whackjobs insist that Europeans didn't build these--they found them out there in the wild, or something, and built over them to disguise how old they really are. There's one assertion that they're actually grown like living organisms rather than built like... buildings.

[Ohmygoshweareadoomedspecies]

Obviously, no, this is bunk. No, it's more than bunk, it's remarkably stupid. We have records of these forts being built. You can look up why they were built the way they were! Heck, you can visit them and see their foundations and walls and see that they're clearly not organic, or ancient, or power generators, or whatever!

They look really cool, though.

[frasohei]

Bit of a rant here, but I didn’t spend two and a half years, and an undisclosed amount of money to get a Masters Degree to let this sort of shit slide.

“Star Forts” ARE NOT remnants of a pre-mudflood super civilization. We have documentation as to when, and by whom they were designed and built. Often we have the original blueprints, we have treatises written by the architects describing how they were designed and built. And, I must make this perfectly clear, we know why they were built. They are not magical space batteries, they are not celestial sign points aligned with the cosmos, they are not waypoints for spaceships. They are fortifications, designed for warfare, built AFTER the 1453 fall of Constantinople. They are built on geometric principles because geometry was a big thing in Early Modern Europe. Their remains are found all over the world because Europeans went all over the world, and they took their architecture with them. They are ruins because that’s what happens to buildings that are not maintained, and they were not maintained because military technology passed them by. The mental gymnastics required to come up with these theories necessitates a complete disregard for the past and the people who study it with even a basic level of competence.

Okay, I think I’m done. I’ve left several page length comments trying to debunk this sort of shit on YouTube, but FUCK I am still soooooo angry right now

[thepunkpanther]

THE HOLIDAY (2006) dir. Nancy Meyers

[amandamadeathing]

Do you ever have a stupid idea that you just have to get out?

[chiliger]

Oh my god, it’s Cody with a chair!

Woo! Fan comic of @frostbitebakery ‘s Zombi-Wan fanfic: “Who Ordered the Resurrection Special” 💫💫💫 It’s a fun read, highly recommend.

[nataliabdraws]

Sabine and her wolves 🐺

Check out my shop for prints and stickers!

[ooowyn]

hold me tighter

[lion-buddy]

puka decora!! id been wanting to dress them up in something inspired by the style for a while, and i finally did! yay!!

[dizzybizz]

,,,mochi

[fantasticgothicpeachsludge]

Sam and Dean periodically remembering that Adam is in the cage feeling a split second of guilt: hm, we really did leave him in the cage with two evil bastards huh. Welp, nothing we can do about that now. Hope he’s not getting tortured too bad by Michael down there.

*Adam and Michael making out in their mind palace*

[victusinveritas]

Want book recommendations? Podcasts? What's your preferred learning modality if you've got time?

This was one of my introductions to military history. I was 14 and haven't ever really looked back. Big fan of star forts and Vauban.

[55sturn]

✮⋆˙star girl.intrl !

24, she/her, unlabelled.

star!

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[dogearedfriends]

art for Bare Your Faces of the Veil by @flippyspoon as promised!! the scanning process stripped the blue of some of its vibrancy, so as a consolation price, here are some exploratory sketches of them just making out on the ground 🖖

[jellyjynx]

Day 30+31- Final and Together

I really wanted this last one to look good

Redrew Mega Man's final smash :D

[starset-sarsaparilla]

fun fact: when i first went to the fort to kill caesar i completely forgot about the bunker. it was a stressful return trip