#the group who carried out the most significant act of rebellion in the history of this world were all women

[wraith-caller]

Never been a fan of people trying to shape the Golden Order into conservative Christianity. Reading fics where they talk about women needing to be "traditional" or seen but not heard, when the figurehead of the Order is a woman who has waged loads of wars, had two husbands, makes a point of examining her faith rather than submissively accepting it. Seeing posts that seem to say the GO is villainizing the use of sorcery, a way of deriding the carians, when one of the greatest champions of the Order himself studied sorcery of his own volition, and married perhaps the greatest sorceress ever known. There's nothing to indicate the GO ever had a beef with the practice of sorcery, and it's not like they shuttered Raya Lucaria after the union of the Moon and Erdtree. Cringing every time someone describes Fundamentalism as the "thoughtless extremist" wing of the Order when it's supposed to be about taking a scholarly approach to the examination of the laws of causality and regression.

Idk. It's just, there's so many reasons to be skeeved out by the GO, and it exists within a fantasy with a totally distinct history from our own world. While there are obviously influences from a wide variety of real-world sources on the mythology and world of the game, it's not a direct copy of reality. It's lame to see sth so full of opportunity for interesting world building from fans just turned into a watered down copy of what they despise in reality.

[3rdeyeblaque]

September 9th marks the 284th anniversary of The Stono Rebellion of 1739✊🏾

When an Angolan brotha called, Jemmy, led a band of 20 slaves into rebellion on the banks of the Stono River in Charleston, S.C., which put unprecedented fear in Whites. It was because of this uprising that laws were enacted that outlawd the enslaved from learning how to read, gathering in groups, & growing their own food. Thus, making it one of the most significant rebellions in the history of the U.S. colonies.

Jemmy & the rebel band marched southbound on a road toward the river, carrying banners that proclaimed their war very, "Liberty!". Their numbers swelled with more enslaved women and men as they went. By nightfall, 100 rebels had joined the cause. They broke into a local firearms store, arming themselves with guns & ammo. As they marched, they killed every overseer in their path and forced any reluctant slaves to join them.

From there the band marched toward the house of a Mr. Godfrey, where they burned the house & killed Godfrey and his family. It was just shy of dawn when they reached Wallace's Tavern. Because the innkeeper at the tavern was kind to his slaves, his life was spared. The White inhabitants of the next several houses in their path were all slaughtered. Those enslaved by a Thomas Rose reluctantly joined the rebellion, but not before hiding their slaver - of which they were later rewarded for. Still, many more rebels gladly joined the cause. By this point, a Lieutenant Governor Bull eluded the rebels & rode on horseback to spread the alarm. Once the band reached the Edisto River, Whites colonists set out in armed pursuit. Shots were exchanged across both lines. By dusk, about 30 rebels had fallen & at least 30 more had escaped. In the end, most rebels were captured over the next month, then executed. The remainder were pursued and captured over the following 6mo - all except 1 who remained a fugitive for 3 years. The few survivors were sold off to plantations in the West Indies.

The immediate factors that sparked the uprising remain uncertain. Many rebels knew of small groups of runaways had made their way from SC to FL, where they had been given freedom and land. There was also an ongoing malaria epidemic surging across SC. Ultimately, this unprecedented act of rebellion demanded unprecedented legislature. The European colonists finalized a Negro Act into law which aggressively limited the privileges & movement of the enslaved. No longer would slaves be allowed to grow their own food, assemble in groups, earn their own money, or learn to read. Some of these restrictions had been in effect before the Negro Act of 1740, but had not been strictly enforced. This also resulted in the forced indoctrination of slaves into Christian schools systems.

Let us remember Brother Jemmy and those who fought, willingly or not, against the colonizers. Their sacrifice may have set a great legal precedent in European colonizer politics, but it set an even greater one that would spark many fires and fan many more flames of rebellion, war, and freedom. Every step taken from this moment onward was a necessary one to achieve our "freedom" as we experience it today.

We pour libations of water (especiallyfrom the Stono River), speak their names, & offer prayers toward their elevation.

‼️Note: offering suggestions are just that & strictly for veneration purposes only. Never attempt to conjure up any spirit or entity without proper divination/Mediumship counsel.‼️

[bewaretheidesofmarchyall]

Soulmate Shenanigans Four: A New Shenanigan

I think you know what’s happening. If not, parts one, two, and three are here.

Basically, there were prompts for Soulmate AUs meant to be done in September. And now I’m doing them.

Midway through October.

Woo!

Prompt #4

There is a trail of color only you can see that marks out where your soulmate has been. 

Warnings for death mentions (less than normal, but still....it’s there)

World Building

Color trails had been around for all of human history.

Gods were invented to explain them, and maybe some of them even existed once.

The truth is, no one knows how they were created or for what purpose, some choosing to blame it on pheromones and some on divine will. 

This is despite all the scientific advancements color trails caused.

After all, Julius Caesar and Cleopatra knew they weren’t meant to be, so they never even tried. Therefore, Caesar never burned the Library Of Alexandria, which changed the course of human history forever.

Now, technology is on the up and up, and things are even more of a cyberpunk dystopia!

The Havens

No matter what happens over the course of human history, people are going to want to take solace in something. Corporations were able to isolate the basic things people seek and create Havens (special centers for the things).

To find Havens, there’s the cyberpunk dystopia version of a wooden signpost that points in different directions. The arms read:

This Way To Feel Safe

This Way To Feel Lucky

This Way To Feel Self-Righteous

This Way To Feel Content

This Way To Feel Beautiful

This Way To Feel Euphoric

This Way To Feel Nothing

Whoever controls a Haven controls the people, not the government. Everyone’s pretty aware of this, including the government, which spends most of their time in the Havens anyway.

Each of the main Havens is trying to become the only one, but it’s really a stalemate, since different people want different things. Their goal is to stop that pesky habit.

Characters

Virgil: Virgil really should be the famous hacker. After all, he’s pretty tech-smart, socially reclusive, and kind of scary.

Sadly, he’s too practical to be the famous hacker. If he was a hacker, he’d just hack stuff instead of leaving an honest-to-god calling card, which will eventually get any hacker caught.

No, Virgil’s just a petty thief in the sky.

He and Janus were trying to buy their way into a Haven, but they’ve gotten more and more expensive as the years have gone by, hence the thievery. Janus runs the scams on the ground while Virgil uses all manners of hovering to scale the buildings no one expects to be scaled.

That was the plan, until Jan went missing.

Virgil assumed that his friend abandoned him as soon as he got enough money for one person, so now he intends to find Janus in whichever Haven he ran off to and give him a piece of his mind.

But now he really needs money. Luckily, he knows where to find it.

He knows for a fact that his soulmate is, in fact, the famous hacker, and he has one hell of a bounty on his head.

Roman: In his defense, he didn’t know he was going to get famous. But he was loving it.

Roman started out coding games with his brother. They had a whole plan for the stories they’d create and tell to the world.

Remus went missing around when Janus did.

Now, Roman’s going to hack into every single Haven until he finds the one that took his brother. 

He’s pulled off a few stunts in the past, leaving his calling card (a diadem) every time, but they were just practice events. His next idea is hacking into the Lucky Haven’s system, but things get a little complicated.

The Actual Plot

Virgil noticed the glowing red trail at the first hacking site, but he assumed it was just a coincidence. But when the ground glowed red at the next five sites as well, he realized he’d struck gold.

All he had to do was follow the trail and turn in his soulmate, and he’d be able to find his friend.

He saw the red glow on the top of the skyscraper across from the Lucky Haven, and hovered to where his soulmate was. 

Meanwhile, Roman was furiously crashing through firewalls when he saw a guy hover up to the roof. He was going to run when he saw that his footsteps stained the roof violet.

He’d found his soulmate!!

Virgil had expected a lot of things. He expected a fight, he expected a chase scene. He definitely didn’t expect the 6th most wanted hacker to greet him like he’d known him for ages and flirt.

And, to be honest, he didn’t expect him to be this cute.

Roman was convinced that, if someone was his soulmate, their motives had to be pure. So, he’s treating this entire situation like a first date while Virgil tries awkwardly to mention the fact that he was trying to turn him in for a bounty, which is an interesting conversation starter.

Over the course of the conversation, Virgil finds out that Remus disappeared around the same time as Janus, as well as what exactly Roman’s been doing with that keyboard. He puts a few things together, and realizes that there’s a chance that they’re in the same place.

Virgil decides that he’ll help Roman, for now.

Unfortunately for him, that’s when he accidentally mentions the whole “turning him in for a bounty” thing, and Roman bolts.

It’s hard to run from someone who can see your footsteps, but not impossible. If you take an elevator, it’s impossible to tell what floor you get off on, and if you steal a bike, you’re home free.

Roman bikes as far away as he can, while Virgil curses at himself.

Where Have Janus And Remus Been This Whole Time?

Experimenting on people against their will is illegal. No one, especially a respected corporation, would ever do such a thing!

The Havens merely have an Anti-Non-Involuntary Focus Group, which is perfectly legal.

It’s like a normal focus group, but the participant’s leave times are postponed indefinitely.

Janus and Remus quickly became close friends because they’d been put in a room together once in the hopes that at least one of them would kill the other. No such luck. The two of them went on to do Crimes together, because if they weren’t going to be released from the focus group they’d make the focus group wish they were gone.

Back To The Actual Plot

Virgil searched for Roman, trying to find a way to say “hey, I was totally going to turn you in, but I changed my mind” that would actually convince him. So far, it didn’t work at all, but he kept trying.

Meanwhile, Roman planned to hack into the Self-Righteous Haven. He found yet another skyscraper, checking far and wide for violet glows. He pretended that he wasn’t thinking about Virgil, but...he was clearly thinking about Virgil.

He managed to bring down a significant portion of the Self-Righteous computer system and leave his diadem calling card, but here’s the thing about the Haven of the Self-Righteous:

They’re always on the lookout for someone to hate, and they carry plenty of weapons to get rid of them when they find them.

Roman found himself cornered on that roof, surrounded by sharp smiles and even sharper blades. He managed to fend some off, but eight against one is too tall of an order, even for a guy who knows how to use a sword.

At the last second, he heard Virgil call out to him. He was hovering along the edge of the building, and held out his arm.

Roman took it, and had the most terrifying few minutes of his life on the way down, clinging to Virgil like a young koala and screaming.

After they got their bearings and went on the run together for a little while, Virgil explained his plan.

Now that he had a feeling that Janus hadn’t left on purpose, he reexamined that day in a different light. Roman said that Remus had disappeared in a certain area, and that was around where Jan was at the time.

In fact, that block was a hotbed for mysterious disappearances. So, Virgil was going to get kidnapped!

Roman greeted this suggestion with a calm, “What the actual fuck, Virgil”

Virgil said that he was going to find Janus and Remus, then send up a signal. When the signal went off, Roman would hack into the doors and release him from...wherever.

It takes some convincing, as they’d been on the run together for weeks and gotten kind of attached, but the plan went into motion.

Virgil went and got himself kidnapped, but the plan went south fast when he was brought through physical, metal, non-electronic doors.

Non-hackable doors.

He was screwed.

Virgil found Remus first, because Remus is extremely hard to miss (can’t miss someone who’s literally lighting people’s feet aflame at random), and then got a wholesome reunion with Janus.

PRISON ANTI-NON-INVOLUNTARY FOCUS GROUP BREAK

The three of them and Roman find a clever way to escape the focus group. What is the clever way? Ask the me who actually writes the fic, not the me who’s writing this instead of doing homework she really needs to do.

The four of them later team up to weaken each and every Haven, travelling through a regular Dante’s Inferno that gets to call itself paradise because of good marketing.

They travel to those that get simulated safety, and luck, and self-righteousness, and contentness, and beauty, and euphoria, and emptiness

Of course, rebellions never rely on one or four people. There are a thousand small acts, thousands of straws pouring upon the camel’s back. But it cannot be denied that a hacker and a petty thief, alongside a scam artist and an agent of chaos, left a mark on the world, besides the glowing ones only they could see.

And when the two finally got around to a kiss, they could see their own reflection softly glow for weeks.

Now I need to do my homework

[adiwisaksonoadi]

SUPRIYADI

(Supriyadi is an Indonesian national hero who rose a revolt on 1945 against the occupying of Japanese in Indonesia)

Supriyadi was born in what is now Trenggalek, Dutch East Indies, on 13 April 1923. He attended junior high school, then a school to prepare him for government bureaucracy in Magelang. However, the Japanese invaded Indonesia before he graduated. He then switched to high school and underwent youth training (Seimendoyo) in Tangerang, West Java. In October 1943, the Japanese established a militia, PETA(Indonesian: Pembela Tanah Air, lit. 'Defenders of the Homeland') to assist Japanese forces against the Allies. Supriyadi joined PETA, and after training was posted to Blitar. He was tasked with overseeing the work of the Romusha forced laborers. The plight of these workers inspired him to rebel against the Japanese. When Supriyadi join with PETA, he was given the rank of shodancho or platoon commander.

Indonesia's huge population was not the only resources that the imperial Japan coveted. Indonesia was a country with the largest territory and richest natural resources, valuable for imperial Japan which was in the middle of fierce struggle of World War II. Japan's policy in Indonesia, therefore, were very economic-oriented as well. Japan used Java as its operation base for the entire South East Asia, thus Java was one of the most oppressed places in Indonesia during the occupation. The Javanese farmers were forced to plant rice and sell it only to the Japanese organization at a very low price. In consequence, the farmers had nothing much to eat no matter how great the harvest was. They also could not buy some foods in the market because of shortage of supply, since all farmers had to sell their rice to the Japanese organization only, and lack of money, for the farmers received very small amount of money in exchange for their harvest. At the end of 1944, more than 2.4 million Javanese died because of starvation. Nobody was an exception in the Japanese cruelty. Almost every man and woman in their productive age were recruited to join rōmusha(the Japanese word for Indonesian forced labourers). Many of them died helpless due to continuous working, illness without any proper food or medication. Looking at the miserable condition of their people, the PETA battalion personnel started to lose hope for an independent Indonesia with a bright future. They felt that neither the Dutch nor the Japanese had any right to keep Indonesian people suffering. In summary, the three main reasons of Supriyadi to revolt were “the plight of civilians and rōmusha, Japanese arrogance, and the need for real independence.”

Supriyadi, who was less than 22 years old at the time, started to gather some trusted members, and held secret meetings to plan the action starting in September 1944, which continued until the sixth meeting in 13 February 1945. In their last meeting, the rebels decided to attack the city divided into four groups. When nationalist leader Sukarno visited his parents in Blitar, PETA officers told him that they had begun to plan a rebellion and asked for Sukarno's opinion. He told them to consider the consequences, but Supriyadi, leader of the rebels, was convinced the uprising would succeed. In their last meeting, the rebels decided to attack the city divided into four groups. At the following day, the rebels attacked two buildings that usually were used by the Japanese military forces, aiming to kill every single Japanese they would meet. However, the attack was completely predicted by the Japanese military forces, thus all the buildings were abandoned before the attack began. After their attack failed, each group of the rebels quickly left the city to find other groups of the rebels, and range again against Japan. However, there were two main problems faced by the rebels to carry out their plans. First, Japan used other Indonesian personnel under the Japanese command to threaten the rebels. This was quite successful. The rebels did not want to kill other Indonesian PETA soldiers who were forced by the Japanese army to confront their revolt. Second, the Japanese military forces succeeded in isolating the Blitar battalion completely. The separation of the military command structure of PETA worked effectively, thus not many groups of Indonesian militaries even in the same region, would hear about the news in Blitar. All rebels were scattered, and many of them were persuaded to go back to Blitar, or chose to surrender to the Japanese. A few of the groups successfully killed some of the Japanese, but all of them were shot back and killed. Finally, fifty-five captured rebels were being sent to the military court after several sessions of interrogation, and six among them were sentenced to death, while Supriyadi, who disappeared without a trace now live in. Although the revolt was by no means successful, it left some significant influence to both Japan and Indonesia. 1945 PETA revolt in Blitar was an important event that indicating the changes of Indonesia's feeling toward Japan. In general, the revolt was the most serious attack on Japanese military forces during its occupation in Indonesia which opened the new revolutionary period for Indonesia and played a vital role in Indonesian independence by transmitting “the revolutionary energy”.

On 19 August 1945, in a government decree issued by the newly-independent Indonesia, Supriyadi was named Minister for Public Security in the Presidential Cabinet. However, he failed to appear, and was replaced on 20 October by acting minister Muhammad Soeljoadikusuma. To this day his fate remains unknown. If he was alive during his appointment, he would have been aged 22 and became the youngest ever minister in the nation's history.

Supriyadi was officially declared a National Hero on 9 August 1975, thus legally declaring him dead as it is a posthumous title.

All narration copied by:

en.wikipedia/supriyadi

en.wikipedia/1945_PETA_Revolt_in_Blitar

Picture:

en.wikipedia/supriyadi

[ivendarea]

The Nyr

A People Divided

The Nyr are Ivendarea’s natives, a people that lived in isolation for a long time but has an inherent thirst for exploration and knowledge. While not all Nyr are inclined to the further development of their magical abilities, they all have an innate magical potential within them and are perfectly adapted to Ivendarea’s magical peculiarities. This makes Nyr mages the most powerful in their homeland, and they have an easier time acquiring new magical skills.

Known to stick to themselves, the Nyr are tightly connected to each other, within their communities, and to their land. Originally consisting of a large variety of different ethnic groups and tribes the population has become more homogeneous ever since the nation was united by their first ruler, Iovana Neron. Still, depending on which region one travels to, remnants of these original tribes and their unique traditions can still be found cherished and celebrated today, as traditions are held on to tightly, and the Nyr are very proud of their cultural heritage and history.

Table of Contents:

History 

Rise of the Aman’a Valeethi

The Assadin Invasion

Revolution War and Present

Life in Ivendarea

Attunement

Coexistence with Nature

Nyr Society

Leaders and their Responsibility

Soul-Shaping

Rebellion and Corruption

The Importance of Knowledge

Customs, Traditions, and Rituals

Naming Conventions

Beauty Ideals

Biology, Genetics, Ageing

Physique and Outward Characteristics

Biological Cycle

Sex, Gender, Reproduction

Interspecies Relationships

The Nyr and the Assadin

The Nyr and the Darthonians

The Nyr and the Kitu

Continue reading below or on World Anvil

[Support the Project on Patreon]

History

Thousands of years ago the Nyr roamed the lands of Ivendarea as tightly knit tribes that lived partly nomadic, partly as settled down farmers in all corners of the nation. Waging war with each other for territory and resources from time to time, it was Wylaai leader Neron who first noticed similarities in the different groups’ believes, stories, and social practises, suggesting a strong link of spiritual nature between all Nyr, no matter their clan-affiliation.

Neron and his council of supporters and advisors founded the nation of Ivendarea over the course of several decades, building bridges, communicating between leaders, and uniting the people. The Nyr and Ivendarea began to prosper and it didn’t take long until new settlements and organizations were established to run the young nation.

Rise of the Aman’a Valeethi

Roughly 2000 years after Neron’s death Ivendarea had become a nation of explorers, while at the same time enjoying its solitude and wealth. This was when Aman was born, who would later not only become the centre of a cult that eventually developed into Ivendarea’s official religion, but whose thirst for knowledge drove them as far as to converse with the gods themselves – eventually joining their ranks. Tales of a mortal rising to godhood spread further than the Nyr would have ever dared to imagine, and more of the outside world became aware of the secluded nation.

A long period of peace followed Aman’s rise to godhood as their teachings began to spread and more and more of the Nyr joined the Aman’a Valeethi, Aman’s students and followers. It was also a period of great change in politics and law, as Aman’s Teachings preached the importance and significance of one’s own soul’s health and balance. Practises like the death penalty, that were still in place at the time, could do such permanent damage to a soul that it could prevent it from ever being reborn again. Rebirth though, and eternal growth and learning are essential to a life of harmony. The justice system experienced a general overhaul, and the former capital of judgement and justice, Saratheas, became a centre of belief and learning instead.

The Assadin Invasion

About 5500 years after Aman’s ascension, war struck the Nyr for the first time since ancient days – but not from within. Zerenda, warrior prince of the far away nation of Astairus, had come to conquer the fertile lands of Ivendarea on behalf of his father.

The Nyr – peaceful explorers, scholars, scientists, artists – were not prepared for the attack in any way, and despite fighting back with all they had, they were no match against the first devastating wave of warriors arriving at Ivendarea’s eastern shores. The city of Beldran fell within weeks, and Zerenda’s forces marched on to the nation’s capital where Iovana Fannyel was slain, his partner and child only barely escaping.

From a prospering nation the Nyr’s society began a rapid descent into chaos after Iovana Fannyel’s death, as something like this had never occurred before. No one was sure how to act or what would come next. Zerenda made the mistake of underestimating the Nyr’s willpower though, getting too comfortable when for a few years no-one fought against his conquering of Ivendarea’s eastern half. A few years though mean little to the Nyr, so while Zerenda was sure he had already won, the Nyr in fact only recovered after his first blow, prepared to remove the intruder. Against any later of Zerenda’s advances they put up massive fights and an unexpectedly strong resistance.

When Saratheas fell into the hands of the invaders all hope rested on the new Iovana Brestine, Fannyel’s child, who eventually managed to secure the nation’s peace again. Brestine’s Peace Treaty led to the interesting situation of having two different Ivendarean rulers present at once: an Assadin monarch on the throne in Saratheas, and the Nyr’s Iovana in Panthil. While officially all of Ivendarea was subject to the laws made in Saratheas, Panthil and Maan Garth had a special standing and enjoyed more freedoms in the name of upholding the peace.

Not believing in the occupation to last forever, given the short lifespan of the Assadin in comparison to their own, the Nyr decided to humour Zerenda and engaged in what they perceived as a waiting game. Their hope was that Brestine herself would eventually be able to take back the throne as soon as Zerenda’s bloodline died out, that even if not Zerenda himself, his successors would see reason and give up on the throne out of free will.

Revolution War and Present

It all came differently though. A rebel organization began to form, calling themselves the Omrai Omvalis. Believing their own Iovana had forsaken them, leaving the people under a foreigner’s control, they began to lead a revolution against the Assadin rulers on their own. Their efforts eventually escalated into the Revolution War, but instead of removing the Assadin from Ivendarea for good, the results were devastating. The Nyr lost even more of their territory, the ancient city of Maan Ganyr fell, and Maan Garth was completely split off of the Ivendarean Mainland entirely out of the sheer need for survival. After the war, the Omrai Omvalis were hated by both the Assadin and their own people, as they were seen as the main cause for the beginning of another era of unrest, and the destroyers of a hard fought-for peace.

Today the Nyr are a people of contradictions more than ever. Explorers who never stray too far for too long, deeply divided in their own nation especially in regards to politics, while at the same time standing together stronger than ever to keep their culture and traditions alive under the rule of the most recent Assadin king Leoros.

Life in Ivendarea

The majority of the world’s Nyr population resides in their native home country Ivendarea. They are perfectly attuned to the magical and natural conditions on the peninsula, and while there are small percentages of Nyr among the permanent population of other continents and nations, the majority usually always returns back home from any journeys or expeditions they undertake sooner or later.

Across Ivendarea, Nyr can be found in any of its many different climatic zones, from the icy north to the hot and humid south, in plains, forests, swamps, and at the slopes and tops of mountains. Even at sea the Nyr feel at home, venerating water as something almost holy, and having developed a quite lively culture around sailing and spare-time activities carried out in and around bodies of water.

Attunement

Given the large range of temperatures comparing Ivendarea’s icy north and subtropical south, the Nyr are adapted to a grand variety of climates at first glance. Notably though, there seems to be a natural “attunement” to Ivendarea’s inherent magic that is unique to the Nyr and might explain their comparatively easy adaption to the country’s different climate zones, while they struggle with similar climates on other continents.

While the same individual seemingly isn’t overly bothered by the cold of Canwyl’s ice-covered gardens, if they travel a few miles further north to the Darthonian border, their clothing will suddenly not feel suitable anymore to combat the cold, despite there being no difference in temperature. Similarly, the hot humidity of Maan Garth’s jungle might be bearable to them, but a trip to a similar jungle on Drua Shye or Atrana could be sheer impossible to endure for the same amount of time they last in the humidity and heat on Maan Garth.

The reasons for this strange phenomenon are still unexplained, yet it is undeniable that no matter how far the Nyr travel, they are basically non-existent as permanent residents on other continents. They always return back home, as if Ivendarea was the magnetic north pole to their inner compass, seemingly unable to exist without their homeland and its strangely unique magical currents.

Coexistence with Nature

Not only are the Nyr particularly attuned to Ivendarea’s magic, they also treat their homeland and nature with a lot of respect. Due to wide-spread religious believes the Nyr practise lifestyles that allow them to live in harmony with nature as best as possible, trying to not unnecessarily interfere or destroy the land’s wild and untamed beauty. Villages, towns, and cities alike are often integrated into their natural surroundings, complimenting each other, and using materials predominantly found in the area. There are exceptions, of course, but for the most part an effort is made to create sustainable living spaces. Wood is not a common building material, at least not from trees chopped down for the purpose of building – unless there really are no other options and it is an emergency. Instead driftwood or the wood of trees that fell in a storm or were struck by lightning are used. Where needed they are reinforced with glass, resin, or metal, and recycled almost religiously when a building using wood is torn down. An exception are the Veerali, an ethnic subgroup of the Nyr at home in the southern marshes and jungles on the nation’s mainland. But even though they predominantly live in wooden buildings, their homes are alive, consisting of trees shaped by magic in their growth into spherical rooms, bridges, and other constructs. The Veerali don’t interpret this interference with the trees as harming the environment, but rather finding new ways to be even closer to nature than other peoples.

A lot of Nyr settlements are also characterized by a variety of waterways, they have advanced systems for fresh water in all houses and for sewage, and make use of rainwater as well as deep wells. Water has a strong spiritual connotation for them, symbolizing life, rebirth, and a connection to the gods. Having clean water close by and cleaning it again after use to reuse it is therefore not only necessary for survival and well-being, but also essential for religious practises. Nothing should be wasted or destroyed, everything is part of life and an eternal cycle.

Nyr Society

A community in Nyr society – be it a family, a religious group, a village, a city – always sticks together and supports each other. This mentality dates back to the times when the Nyr still lived together in clans before the nation was united, fighting against each other and the wild and unrelenting nature of Ivendarea. Community meant survival, being alone was dangerous. Children in particular, since they are rare, often enjoy a very sheltered within their community – as some would say from personal experience, even to levels of feeling restricted. The concept of the lone wolf fending for themself is largely unknown in most of Nyr society.

Leaders and Their Responsibility

While there is a noticeable class-divide between different parts of society, it is perceived as less strict as in more authoritarian communities. Still, at the very top of the social ladder stands the Iovana, the monarchical ruler, and their family and council. While the Iovana is regarded as the head of the nation who decides over Ivendarea’s future in their perceived best interest for the people, they are not above the law and can actually be removed from their seat in the name of the gods by the religious order of the Avon Julanor. Also, while the royal family is treated with a lot of respect and enjoys various privileges, they also have the responsibility to care for the people in political, religious, social, and many other regards, or can very quickly lose the support of the community. Contrary to the belief of outsiders from other nations, those on top of the social hierarchy aren’t usually all wealthier than the rest, they only have more privileges for the price of many more duties for the community. Following the religious and social practises of Soul-Shaping devoutly, the Iovana as well as any other wealthy citizen uses their influence and income to further the development of their community. Education is important, as are achievements as an individual and a group, and the more educated a person is the better is their social standing. Financial wealth can open doors to such education, but amassing it during one’s lifetime for personal gain is frowned upon. Those who are financially well-off are expected to either directly give to the poor or create institutions to help those in need. They support the temples, or fund scholarships to name a few examples – basically to open the doors to education for those who can’t open them themselves.

Members of religious and other political institutions also enjoy a lot of respect and a higher standing in their community, but of course in return they are also expected to support the less fortunate even more so.

Soul-Shaping

A person’s time in this world is limited, no physical goods can be taken to the next life according to the practise of Soul-Shaping, as conceptualized by the prophet Aman. Compassion and knowledge on the other hand actually can survive the cycle of rebirth and permanently shape a soul for the better. Doing good in this life and supporting the community stabilizes a soul, attuning it to a peaceful life of harmony in and with this world. A stable soul in return makes a rebirth and the remembrance on one’s past lives more likely and effortless – and the more stable souls are reborn into a community, the more at peace this community will be, according to this theory, as more knowledge and wisdom survives the cycle of rebirth, too. Giving back to the community and enabling others to achieve higher education amongst other opportunities therefore serves the people as a whole, potentially across several lives lived. This would at least be the ideal situation.

Rebellion and Corruption

It has always been common practise for a Nyr community to dismantle a corrupt government and put someone else in their place that is considered more capable, should the need arise. In nine out of ten cases this even goes without violence of any kind, and the former leaders are assimilated back into the community as “regular” members. It is a rare occurrence to cast someone out of the community entirely, and it always causes an outrage. When it happens, something severe and unforgivable has to be the cause.

A recent example would be the banishment of Aella and Pirc from Maan Garth for the role they played in the The Revolution War – causing the death of hundreds, the loss of an ancient city, and the beginning of the worst period of political instability since Zerenda’s Conquest. It was a decision harshly criticized regardless, as the siblings’ family is deeply rooted on Maan Garth and they did indeed fight to abolish a corrupt and violent government. Iovana Panmorn who banished them was accused of acting selfishly and blaming them for the loss of his partner more than the loss of the lives and war. Others agreed that the situation was just though, as the rebel movement led by Aella and Pirc in itself seemed like a corrupt and violent institution that did not represent the people’s beliefs or values as a whole.

The Importance of Knowledge

Knowledge and wisdom are some of the most valued traits in Nyr society, a drive to learn, explore, and study is inherent to their people. Of course not everyone is smart or intelligent to the same degree, but knowledge isn’t purely about cognitive skills. The community encourages a child’s naturally given leanings, talents, and interests. Highly intelligent professors are just as rare among the Nyr as they are amongst other peoples, but due to the culturally inherent stimulation of natural talents and curiosity from an early age on, Nyr are known to have an above average percentage of renowned inventors, scientists, artists, mages, and athletes.

Customs, Traditions, and Rituals

The Vath’eran is without a doubt the most important and wide-spread ritual known to the Nyr. It marks an individual’s step into adulthood as well as it is a means of self-discovery and spiritual enlightenment.

The ritual of Soul Bonding is also inherent to Nyr culture no matter the surrounding communities, and it is rare to observe. It takes place when at least two individuals want to enter a relationship that goes beyond their current life – usually when they believe to have found their soulmate(s). The souls of the participants are magically tied to each other forever, which brings with it an inexplicable and deep feeling of connection and understanding with one another. But it can also end tragically, especially in the case of a premature death of one of the partners, as the survivor(s) will experience the loss to a much greater intensity over a much longer period of time than usual.

Depending on where the Nyr live on the nation’s ground, a variety of different festivals are observed particularly tied to the beginning and end of seasons, which dates back to the times even before the nation was founded.

Naming Conventions

Nyr’s first names usually have a strong symbolic connotation, often linked to the day of their birth, the hopes and expectations of their family, special cultural circumstances, or events of historical significance haven taken place on their birthday. Sometimes a child is named in honour of a living ancestor, but not by giving them the same name, as it would imply they are similar people in terms of personality and ambitions. Instead a name with a similar meaning is chosen usually to honour the relative. It is not common on the other hand to give children the names of deceased ancestors, unless there are adamant signs and evidence confirmed by a priest that the child in question is actually their revered ancestor reborn – but even then it is rare to give them the name they carried in a past life.

Once a child reaches adulthood they get the chance to accept or deny the name that has been given to them and in the latter case pick a new one. This happens as part of the coming-of-age ceremony held in the local temple on the young adult’s 75th birthday, the so-called Vath’eran. In cases where someone is particularly unhappy with their given name before they reach adulthood, a new name is chosen and used earlier. The Vath’eran makes the name-change official, and in 90% of the cases where a name gets rejected by its bearer during their childhood, this is common practise. Reasons as for why one might reject their name are many. It could be that they dislike the name’s meaning, their family’s wishes and expectations for them, or they feel that the name doesn’t fit the way they wish to be perceived by others.

Since their Nyr express gender a lot less strictly than some other cultures do, due to getting into contact with the outside world certain names have become more commonly associated with specific perceived physical traits, leading to accidental misgendering of individuals caused by their names.

Last names are not nearly as important in Nyr culture as in other nations, since lineage and belonging to a certain family branch or clan of old have little importance nowadays. What matters more are past lives lived and the deeds done in the current one. Following the ancient clan tradition from times before the kingdom was founded though, Nyr carry so-called “homenames” as their “last name”. A homename shows allegiance to the community an individual was born into, and the most common homenames today are based on the names of towns and cities: Panthil’y, Saratheas’y, Canwyl’y, Fandyl’y, and so on. In ancient days, homenames were based on the regions the family’s tribe was at home, e.g. “Sylaristrea’y” – “of the Skyreach Mountains”, or “Iven’y” – “of the Green River”, as this was the time before most big cities existed and the far scattered settlements had permanent names. The “y” attached to the name of the birthplace in this case can be translated as “of”. It is also possible that a homename changes over the course of a Nyr’s life, for example when someone loses or gives up their connection to their birthplace. In a traditional ceremony celebrating new beginnings and the cutting of old ties the name change is made official, the homename becoming relevant to the location where the individual found their new home.

These naming conventions lead to some of the following situations: Breella Panthil’y is named in honour of her grandmother Brestine Canwyl’y, who is still alive as her granddaughter is born. Breella means “the shimmering one”, Brestine “the shining/magnificent one”. Panmorn Panthil’y and Adoven Panthil’y are related to each other, but not to Aella Panthil’y. Adoven and Aella are both born in the city Panthil into different families. Panmorn was actually born in Saratheas but found his new home in Panthil, therefore deciding to change his homename. In return, Brestine Canwyl’y is the mother of Rava Panthil’y, so despite being related they don’t need to be carrying the same homename.

Beauty Ideals

Long, natural hair often worn in braids is regarded the most beautiful in many parts of Nyr society currently. In a way it symbolizes the connection to one’s own roots, traditionalism, commitment, and patience, all highly valued qualities especially by older generations.

A trend is surfacing amongst the youth though, especially rebel-sympathizers on the mainland and the politically interested young adults on Maan Garth, where overall the hair is kept long, but parts are shaved off bald. It is a way of demonstrating rebellion not only against the current political situation but against the old ways and tradition in general that rely on order and discipline. A similar trend had occurred during the Invasion War, when long hair was cut short for practicality or to symbolize a sacrifice for one’s home nation.

Still, keeping some parts of the hair long shows a still present connection to the people and home country, only a disagreement with some parts of the nation’s current state.

Body jewellery and piercings are also popular, as they are a means of individual self-expression in times where assimilation is a common topic in everyday conversations. They are beautiful enhancements of the body, and the painful process of obtaining them shows power of will and independence. Symmetrical designs or those with religious connotations are considered particularly beautiful and have been the most popular for a long time.

Biology, Genetics, and Ageing

Much is curious about the Nyr, beginning already with their outward appearance featuring long pointed ears, colourful eyes, to their dark skin. They also are known to defy many common gender norms, causing some confusing now and then with their androgyny or mismatch of outward appearance and pronouns used. Even processes as self-evident as ageing seem to not 100% apply to this inherently magical and extraordinarily long-lived people.

Physique and Outward Characteristics

Reaching a mean height of 170 centimetres tall and weighing a little over 70 kilograms according to latest statistics, the Nyr are within the average size range when looking across all the different modern Ivendarean peoples. Certain ethnic groups, such as the Sylai and Wylaai tend to be taller than average, and the Gaanar and Veerali are the shortest. Balance of body and mind is very important in particular to religious Nyr, therefore physically challenging training and games are a common spare-time activity to keep the body in good shape and the senses sharp. This being said though, not everyone is as fit or active as others, and physical health and feeling well in one’s body is considered a lot more important than having defined muscles or being physically strong.

The Nyr’s skin colour ranges from pale to dark grey tones, lighter colours being more common in the north and centre of the nation, darker tones more widespread in the south and on the island Maan Garth. Often the skin isn’t of a pure grey but usually has purple, green, blue, or brownish undertones. Although not related or to be confused with the Jali, natives of Drua Shye, the Nyr share their pointed ears. In comparison though the ears of the Nyr are quite long and flexible to a degree, giving them excellent hearing, and, particularly to be observed in younger individuals, can even express emotion by underlining the individual’s facial expression.

Probably the most outstanding feature of the Nyr are their eyes. The pigmentation of the sclera ranges from pure black to medium grey, and the iris can appear in a great variation of vibrant colours. From blue, grey, purple and red to yellow, orange, green, or brown, any colour or colour-combination seems to be possible. Usually, when the iris is of a brighter colour, so is the sclera, and vice versa with dark tones. The pupil of the eye is slightly oval and vertically-aligned with rounded tips. Contrary to common belief though the Nyr don’t have particularly great vision in dark surroundings, despite their unique eyes. It is more likely that in ancient days certain eye colours were attributed specific characteristics, or they showed the affiliation with certain tribes and family lineages, strengthening the sense of purpose and community in hostile and dangerous natural surroundings and conditions. Red eyes have been attributed to descendants of Iovana Neron for a long time, and while they are common among members of the royal family, they are no longer unique to them. It is true though that for example on Maan Garth one will look into golden or yellow eyes more often than elsewhere in Ivendarea.

The most common hair colour is black in both dark and fairer skinned individuals, but brown, red, and blond tones appear naturally, too, descending in frequency in this order. Some Nyr, about 30-45% of the population, are also capable of growing beards and/or display a more dense development of body hair in general than others.

Biological Cycle

The typical Nyr’s life expectancy is roughly 950 years, but rare individuals have reached ages of 1100 and beyond. Ageing in general is curious for the Nyr, as it isn’t necessarily a linear process. Infancy lasts for about 5-10 years, where children learn to speak, to walk, and to slowly be able to take care of themselves. In this period they are particularly vulnerable and therefore constantly cared for by family and community. They are treated as rare and precious because as mentioned before, birth rates are low and children are considered a gift, not taken as granted. In this phase a child grows very fast in comparison to the growth rates of their bodies throughout the rest of their lives. Particularly during the first five years the Nyr’s metabolism works immensely fast. It is taxing for them and for those taking care of them alike.

Following this stage of infancy is a long period of childhood: curiosity and personal growth. The young Nyr are shaped by their surroundings and grow into individuals with unique personalities. They are intensively taught, no matter if by family, private tutors, or at public schools with other children their age. Individual care, encouragement, and support of naturally given talents and interests is key, but an education in general life skills and history is considered just as vital. Hitting puberty at around 45-65 years of age, some young Nyr become sexually active around this time, but it will take a lot longer for them to become sexually mature and being physically able to procreate. This is the final phase of their childhood and their bodies growing and changing significantly on their way to adulthood.

At an age of roughly 70-75 years, depending on the individual and their personal development, the Nyr consider one of their own a fully grown adult. Reaching this milestone in their life is celebrated enthusiastically, usually by the whole community, and one of the most personally significant religious rituals is held at this point in life too: the Vath’eran.

A time of exploration follows during the Nyr’s’ young adulthood; morals and believes taught during their childhood solidify, change, or crumble entirely as they venture out into the world, usually for the first time on their own. At an age of 150-200 years the Nyr become sexually mature, and this is when most individuals wishing to procreate actively begin looking for potential partners to found a family together. Having children is not an essential part of Nyr culture, and while some wish to have a family of their own, a lot also devote their lives to their communities, to research and teaching, or to personal endeavours, and they never settle down or have permanent partnerships. All are valid ways of life that are equally supported.

Fertility starts to decrease again at an age of roughly 450-500 years, and pregnancies become less likely and more risky. At this age most Nyr have found a purpose in their life that they follow with great dedication, they become more calm and a little less adventurous, often returning to their old communities or settling down elsewhere in a new home.

At 600 years of age the Nyr’s eyes begin to change: the colour of the iris becomes duller, light colours paler, dark colours darker – this marks the point at which an individual starts to reach old age, showing actual physical signs of aging. With the reaching of young adulthood at around 70-75 years up until the age of approximately 600 years the physical ageing process of the Nyr is extremely slowed down compared to infancy, childhood, and puberty. As mentioned, ageing isn’t a strictly linear process for them as compared to most other species. It can actually be very hard to differentiate between a 150 year old and a 600 year old individual at first sight. What sets them apart from each other is their knowledge and wisdom, their achievements, and their social standing, not necessarily their appearance.

With the change of the iris colour, the first hint of ageing, other signs will appear sooner or later, too. Some individuals earlier than others will start to develop significantly more wrinkly skin, their hair might turn grey or white over time, height might slightly decrease and diverse pains and ailments of old age might show themselves sooner or later. The Nyr’s mind though will usually stay awake and sharp up until very old ages of 800 years and older – some even manage to stay physically active, seemingly unfazed by ageing altogether. Most commonly Nyr that grow this old actually drift off and die peacefully in their sleep, their bodies simply giving in after almost a millennium of work, life, and dreams fulfilled. Rarely they are plagued by illness – such things tend to cause death much sooner. It is general belief and a proven tendency that individuals surpassing the age of 900 years are less likely to get ill – their bodies went through so much already and survived, no sickness can truly harm them anymore if they truly are at peace with themselves and this world.

Sex, Gender, Reproduction

Looking at sex and gender, the Nyr’s situation is not only pretty unique but also hard to pin down. There is no distinct differentiation between various biological sexes or expressed genders as it is often practised in other cultures. Nyrval, the Nyr’s native language, has a multitude of words expressing a large variety of social genders and biological sex characteristics, including a person’s social status. There are numerous pronouns and other terms expressing how people see themselves in terms of sex, gender, whether they want children or already are parents (or not), and more, in a variety of combinations.

Most of these terms are difficult or sheer impossible to translate into any other language in a simple manner, as they express abstract concepts unique to the Nyr. This poses a slight problem sometimes when speaking or learning other languages with vastly different ideas of gender. With Ivendarea becoming more open to the outside world and when speaking in foreign languages, an individual might use words and pronouns of the foreign language that fit themselves the best, even if they don’t apply 100% to reality. A person might call themself “woman” in Trade, because they share some physical characteristics or have the social status associated with a different culture’s views on what a “woman” is – but in fact the Nyr in question might actually rather look like what the other culture would refer to as a “man” instead. This can now and then cause some confusion or surprises in everyday conversation.

Overall the Nyr population has relatively low birth-rates compared to other intelligent species, but this is compensated through their very long lifespans of approximately 950 years. On average families have one or two children. Pregnancies without complications last a year, and usually only one child is born at a time. Twins or even triplets are extremely rare, and it is sadly likely that only one of the children is born alive, despite all medical accomplishments and efforts.

Nyr are theoretically capable of procreating with Assadin, Aapha, and Jali, but a pregnancy even occurring is very rare – the proof in the form of children of such mixed heritage exists though. But, even while such unions are possible and can produce offspring, they are less common and in some communities even looked down upon due to historical social tensions between the different groups, particularly the Assadin and the Nyr.

Mixed children with a Nyr parent will often show the distinctly pointed ears and have a duller or pale skin tone compared to the other parent. The dark sclera of the Nyr’s eyes are usually not inherited, but the vibrant iris colours can be.

Interspecies Relationships

Ever since the first Darthonians landed on Ivendarea’s shores the Nyr haven’t been alone in their nation anymore. While they strive to live in a peaceful society in coexistance with other peoples, ethnicities, and nationalities, tensions are sometimes unavoidable.

The Nyr and the Assadin

This being said, to speak of “tensions” between Nyr and Assadin would be an understatement. The Assadin of the far away continent of Atrana came to the country not as explorers but as conquerors, violently seizing power a little over 500 years ago. To the Assadin this is a long time, as their lives are much shorter than the Nyr’s. In return there are Nyr still alive today who witnessed the conquest with their own eyes, participated in the fights, and lost loved ones to Zerenda’s army. Many were resentful towards even signing a peace treaty, and while most are convinced that Assadin rule won’t last forever, the uncertainty of their future causes even more tensions. Those Nyr born under Assadin rule are deeply divided, on the one hand knowing the stories of their elders and the suffering caused by the invaders, on the other hand holding on to the shaky peace with all their might, not wanting another outbreak of war. Branded traitors of their own people by “assimilating” into the Assadin way of life they feel like they belong to neither group. Most Nyr are convinced a true peace can only come when a Nyr is the sole ruler again. Their hatred isn’t even directed at those Assadin who followed their ruler into a more hopeful life on the peninsula, their own homeland torn apart by civil war. They are free to stay, but as guests of Ivendarea, community-members, not as rulers.

An important differentiation has to be made between the different sub-groups of Assadin and their particular relationships with the Nyr. The Kessem, originally of the now purged nation of Astairus are Zerenda’s people and descendants. The Kunae, also considered Assadin, but an ethnic subgroup from a tiny nation highly dependent on the Kessem, came to Ivendarea basically as work slaves who only slowly began to gain their independence here. While both groups are considered conquerors by the natives, the Nyr have a little bit more sympathy with the Kunae, who face similar discrimination in a variety of walks of life as the Nyr themselves.

The Nyr and the Darthonians

The Darthonians (or as they call themselves, the “Aapha”) share a long political relationship not always free of difficulties, but never marked by violence. Ivendarea’s northern neighbours are renowned seafarers and inventors. They were the first outside nation getting into contact with the isolated Nyr, and they themselves lived a very isolated life in their nation of snow and ice. Particularly in cities like Westpoint and Canwyl there is a large percentage of Darthonians among the population, with families almost as old as the nation of Ivendarea itself.

Tensions have begun to grow between the peoples only fairly recently with the marriage of king Leoros and princess Therstina of Darthonis. The politically motivated marriage brought up the question, why no Iovana of the Nyr had ever considered marrying a Darthonian royal to closer tie the nations together. Also, while both Nyr and Darthonians had been treated equal by Assadin rulership so far, ever since the union Darthonians have begun to receive advantages over their Nyr peers, creating more and more of a social divide in the less homogeneous communities where both groups are present.

The Nyr and the Kitu

After the Darthonians, the Kitu were the second group of outsiders to land on the shores of western Ivendarea. They are a subgroup of the Jali, sharing a strong natural magical inclination with the Nyr they immediately felt welcome and at home. A marginalized community in their own homeland Drua Shye they began to thrive in Ivendarea, but compared to the Darthonians they are a small group without much political influence and also not too keen on the Assadin rulers.

[Read on WorldAnvil]

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[crystalelemental]

suitsongirls replied to your post: I mean, I can’t exactly fault someone who’s...

See, I agree she definitely should have been a villain, but I think she should have been a semi-recruitable one. Not the first time you meet her, but later, after she’s spared. She turns up again, and you have the option of having Corrin speak to her, and she has the option of joining, but she’s not allowed to kill. Since she’s been defeated, she’s less feared, and all that jazz. But that’s giving the fates writers too much credit.

See, I don’t think she even has enough for that.  That would require redeemable characteristics, which she doesn’t have.

This is an odd equivalence, but given the recency of this exact issue near here, it’s what springs to mind: whenever there’s a school shooting threat or event, the most difficult part is convincing my colleagues that no, this situation isn’t a tragic mental health issue, and the person making the threats doesn’t need help in the sense you’re thinking.  It’s learned behavior.  It’s being part of a gun nut forum that’s constantly othering those not in your group and inciting violence against them.  That’s not a mental health break or something that needs a few sessions of therapy, that’s a behavioral process that’s leading to acts of wanton violence committed by someone who is very in control of their thoughts and actions.  They’re not crazy or mentally unstable, they’re just awful people who have made the conscious decision that this is okay and justified.

That’s Peri.  There is no mental health disorder in Peri.  There’s nothing in Peri but a bratty five-year-old who was always enabled and allowed to do whatever she wanted.

The only time they try to give a reason for her behavior is with Laslow’s supports.  In their A-support, she talks about how, when she was young, she found her mother dead, after one of their family servants had killed her.  After that, she would attack the servants when she was upset with them, and her dad never stopped her.  Her only positive traits is that she cooks really well, something she learned from her mother, and is kind of the memento she carries with her.

So it’s trauma, right?  She experienced something traumatic, and now she’s just reactively violent.  No.  No she is not.  There’s never reactive violence in his behavior.  She kills servants over small mistakes, kills random people for funsies, and throws a tantrum at Benny for bringing her sweet candy when she had initially asked for sweet but changed her mind to sour while he was getting her things, all because she threatened to kill random citizens if he didn’t do it.  There’s no trauma response here.  That’s just a sociopath who thinks killing is okay to get what she wants.

In the field of special education, we had a disability classification area called Significant Emotional Disability.  To qualify under that area, you need to rule out what’s called Social Maladjustment.  The behaviors within the two are similar, but there’s one big distinction.  The student with an emotional disability tends to be reactive, and doesn’t necessarily know the skills to interact with their social environment.  They can have explosive outbursts, but when calm are generally pleasant and can often be remorseful following an outburst, because they don’t really want to have this difficult a time, they just don’t know what the alternative is.  Social Maladjustment is intentional.  It’s saying, I know the social rules and expectations, this is just easier.  It’s that bratty, asshole child that constantly hits people and shows zero emotion over it, and will tell you yeah, they punched that other kid in the eye, they wanted the toy they had and they weren’t giving it to them. Peri is the second.  In theory, you can work with either to develop the skills, but the approach is different.  ED needs to be taught the skills.  SM, on the other hand, needs to be taught that what they want is obtained more easily if they follow rules, which personally I think is a lot harder to deal with.

This isn’t to say that Peri absolutely could not be redeemed.  But it is to say she’s not someone to be pitied.  She’s like this because she started attacking people, and her spineless asshole father let it happen, or worse encouraged it, until she became a violent monster.  She acts purely on her own desires, throws a baby tantrum when she doesn’t get her way, and approaches every problem with the mentality that overwhelming violence is a sensible solution.  She’s awful, and I absolutely hate her presence in the story.  She’s worse than most of the villains!  Hans kills innocent people too, and is treated as the transparent major villain alongside Iago and Garon.  But you know what?  Hans actually has a justification.  He falls back on it a lot, but he’s not wrong: Garon did order him to kill.  Yeah, he gets really into it, but the people he massacres are your direct enemies in war, and people in league with a rebellion against the throne.  He’s wrong for massacring people in this way and inciting the conflict, but he’s got way more justification for his actions than Peri does, and somehow he’s an irredeemable villain while Peri is fine to side with the heroes?  It’s so lazy and shitty.  And again, somehow, Xander, the guy who’s all about peace and order in the realm and keeping people safe, sees Laslow being overly flirtatious as a bigger image concern than Peri killing her servants for giving her a mixed bag of candies with the green ones in it because she doesn’t like the green ones as much.  She’s an active detriment to the story and the characters around her.  She is, unquestionably, the worst playable character in Fire Emblem history.

[commiemartyrshighschool]

A Brief History of Ace Combat’s politics:

There’s spoilers and typos in this brief primer for the events of the Ace Combat games, but it’s worth a read in my biased opinion. 

With the exception of one of the mobile games, Infinity, and Assault Horizon, the games all take place on a version of Earth fans have taken to calling Strangereal. Some of the continents and landforms are ones you’d recognize, and some of the oceans even have the same names. But the geopolitical landscape is entirely different.

The two big events that shaped the world happened in the 1990’s: The Belkan War and the Uylsses1994X04 Impact. The Belkan war was an attempt at expansion by a nationalistic state that’s reminiscent of Germany and saw it quickly overrun neighboring states before being pushed back by an international coalition that was spearheaded by the Osean Federation and the Union of Yuktobanian Republics. Osea is a US analogue, and Yuktobania is based on the USSR.

A mercenary air squadron, the Galm Team was responsible for many of the strategic victories over the Belkans, and the rapid reversal lead to Belkan high command nuking a series of cities to blunt an allied advance. This was the first use of nuclear weapons in history, and they were deployed mainly against Belka’s own civilian population. This shocking act failed to cause more than a mild delay, but it did lead to mass desertions on all sides and the formation of numerous terrorist groups.

Many of those groups included ace pilots from the allied nations, and Belkan weapons experts who were involved in the creation of advanced aircraft and super weapons like huge flying fortresses and the Sword of Excalibur, a powerful laser array. The most prominent of these groups called themselves A World With No Boundaries, and developed an anarchist ethos that saw the peace talks underway as futile and ineffective at preventing future conflict. They gained access to a secret ICBM silo and attempted to destroy every world capital simultaneously to reset society to “zero.” They were defeated, but many members escaped prosecution.

A purely Belkan group also went to ground, and formed a shadowy organization called The Grey Men. Their sole goal was vengeance, and they were very patient in their attempts to achieve it.

Around the same time, on the continent of Usea, numerous nations were planning to join together to create a continent spanning government to better counter super powers like Osea and Yuktobania. Unfortunately, significant elements from some nations in the South were opposed to the union, and were able to find sympathetic conservatives in the militaries of most other nations on the continent. They organized simultaneous coup de’tas on the morning of the signing ceremony. Mercenary air units and allied central government forces led a counterattack which quelled the rebellions, although they did in the end prevent unification. Instead the Usean Treaty Organization was founded to coordinate work between the continent’s governments.

As the war had raged, the rest of the world had been preparing for the arrival of Ulysses, an asteroid detected on a collision course for Earth in 1994. Many Belkan scientists found their services in high demand as countries scrambled to develop systems to defend against the asteroid.

Numerous railguns were constructed around the world, as were systems designed to redirect fragments away from populated areas. Rapidly built at the end of the Usean Continental war, a system known as “Stonehenge” was constructed in San Salvacion, a tiny nation with no standing military. Stonehenge consisted of a ring of high powered railguns with an unobstructed view of the sky right in the middle of the Usean continent, each paired with highly accurate targeting and tracking systems.

Stonehenge’s unique design wound up being particularly well suited to protecting against Ulysses, which wound up breaking apart as it entered the atmosphere. As a result, fragments rained down across the world, hitting many areas outside of the coverage of systems designed to prevent a single world ending event instead of numerous smaller impacts.

Among the hardest hit were areas that fell outside of Stonehenge’s cover in Usea, and the country of Estovokia, a small state on the Anean continent north of Yuktobania.

Erusea, one of the most powerful states on Usea, suffered a direct hit to hits capital city, rendering much of its downtown a flooded area with ruined skyscrapers poking out of the waves. In the wake of the impact, a fascist government took hold, and began closing its borders to refugees from other, worse afflicted areas despite UTO membership obligating it to do so. In response, widespread boycotts and sanctions by other Usean powers crippled the Erusean economy.

Backed into a corner, Erusea launched an all-out assault on the rest of the continent, seizing Stonehenge right away to establish almost continent wide air superiority in the first week. The militaries of the other UTO states reorganized into the Independent States Allied Forces, and ironically found themselves pushed back to the islands which had held the last holdout of the rebel forces just a few years before.

From there, thanks in large part to the efforts of the pilot Mobeius 1, the ISAF slowly re-established a foothold on the continent proper. The turning point came after a daring raid on Stonehenge where ISAF forces not only destroyed the installation, but also managed to shoot down a member of the now legendary Yellow Squadron, a seemingly invincible Erusean unit.

Eventually the Erusean capital fell, although holdouts would try to use the Megalith installation to redirect orbiting asteroid fragments towards ISAF units, and later capture a number of arms factories. Both attempts were foiled thanks largely to to Mobeius 1, and by the end of 2006 the continent was at peace.

That peace was largely global, although a mild cold war between Osea and Yuktobania did keep the arms industry innovating.

By the end of 2010, however, a series of incursions by drones and unmarked aircraft into both Osean and Yuktobanian airspace brought both countries to the brink of war. Yuktobania eventually declared war and launched a surprise attack on a key Osean harbor.

Both countries deployed super weapons in the opening days of the war. Yuktobania’s Hrimfaxi class super submarines were capable of launching sky-clearing burst missiles and deploying air forces from entirely unexpected locations. In response, Osea weaponized the Arkbird, a spaceplane originally built to host a G7 conference about bringing the world’s nations into the space age. The Arkbird’s global reach and powerful laser made it a capable counter to the Hrimfaxi. However, shortly after neutralizing the submarine, an explosive knocked the laser out of commission.

The leaders of both nations sought an end to the bloodshed, and plans were made to have a secret peace conference in the neutral country of North Point. Unfortunately, both disappeared en-route, which the second-in-command of both countries saw as reason to continue the war.

War Dog Squadron, a unit that had still been in training but saw action in the war’s opening days, made a name for itself in short order, but was accused of committing a war crime by attacking an engineering college shortly after Osean forces began their invasion of the Yuktobanian mainland. Recalled and put on trial, the War Dogs redeemed themselves after being sent to counter one of two retaliatory terrorist strikes on Osean civilians carried out by Yuktobanian commando units.

The squadron was sent back to the front, became something of a good luck charm for ground forces. Their reputation was furthered bolstered after they were sent to the arctic Razgriz Straits north of Anea to sink a second Hrmfaxi class sub. They became known as the Demons of Razgriz after their success, a name taken from a fairytale about a creature said to live in the straits but present whenever history undergoes a great change.

This unit would engage in numerous key battles and tipped the tide of the war in Osea’s favor, and were subsequently tasked with a flyover during a speech at a football stadium by the Vice-President. The VP’s speech was interrupted first by the gathered crowd, who broke out singing a pro-peace protest song, and by a Yuktobanian air unit attempting a decapitating strike.

Upon returning to their home base, the War Dog squadron was charged with treason and shot down while attempting to flee in trainer aircraft.

Shortly after that, a flight of black aircraft began making surgical strikes against both Yuktobanian and Osean forces. Bearing markings that labeled them the Razgriz Squadron, this mysterious unit engaged secret squadrons composed of Belkan aces that both Osea and Yuktobania had formed, and conducted operations in Belkan territory near the country’s uranium mines and the site of their nuclear strikes. They also engaged the Arkbird as it fell from orbit while in the hands of a terrorist organization.

They also played a key part in supporting a student uprising against the Yuktobanian government and were present on the aircraft carrier Kestrel when both the President and Premier re-emerged and denounced the Grey Men, a Belkan group that had installed itself in the governments of both nations and built up a sizeable military force of its own through ownership of Gründer Industries, Osea’s main military supplier.

Their announcement lead to a brief set of blue-on-blue engagements as Osean and Yuktobanian forces both dealt with competing orders from their commanders-in chief and the politicians they had been following for months.

In the end, Razgriz lead a combined Osean-Yuktobanian force on a secret tunnel running beneath the borders of Osea and Belka. They managed to destroy the control center for the SOLG, a massive orbital railgun Osea had abandoned building after the end of the Belkan War but which the Grey Men had completed in secret. Destruction of the control module led to the satellite being set on a collision course for Oured, the Osean capital. Razgriz managed to prevent the city’s destruction and also shoot down a final squadron of Grey Man fighters. What happened to them afterwards was classified.

Around 2015, Estovakia the country to which the Razgriz Straits belonged, emerged from a long asteroid precipitated civil war, with a militant faction victorious. They invaded their neighbors to the east, the Republic of Emmeria, and hoped to seize the prosperous nation’s resources for their own. They were eventually beaten back after initial success brought on by the use of Belkan technology in the form of a powerful flying fortress.

They engaged in a scorched earth policy in the final days of the war, attempting to use the Chandelier facility, a massive anti-asteroid railgun that had not been completed in time to prevent a disaster. A fairly short but devastating regional conflict, the Anean War also saw ancient artifacts and sloganizing play an unusually large part in enhancing the Emmerian fighting spirit.

In the 2020s, the technologically advanced nation of Aureilia in the south of the Osean continent was invaded by Leasath to the north on a pretense of promoting civil war in the neighboring nation. I don’t know much more about what happens there though, because it’s covered in a game that only came out on the PSP.

Ace Combat 7 will cover events in the mid 2020’s, I believe. It seems that at some point Osea built a space elevator, but that Erusea, which became a monarchy at some point after their defeats in the aughts, claims the land used for it as their own.

Ace Combat 3 actually takes place in the 2040’s, and involves AI and transhumanist terrorists, but the story was never translated for the versions released outside of Japan so that plot is also mysterious, although Gründer Industries becomes one of the world spanning corporations in the story.

[lizzybeth1986]

Earning Your Reign: Liam’s Fortune and Cordonia’s Future

“A Prince must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves” - Chapter 18, The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli.

When the group hear Liam’s fortune for the first time, their first reaction is not acceptance, amazement or even mere surprise. It is disbelief.

Hana finds the prediction odd, Maxwell jokes about being a fountain of wisdom (which Drake refutes) and the MC claims that the fortune teller “missed the mark on that one”. This is a time when things are looking up for the gang. The MC is freed from the weight of the scandal and has complete protection under the Crown, and the LIs have made significant enough progress in their journeys to be at a point where they feel secure. King Liam, especially, is confident about the MC being set free, about him being able to break the match, about their future being brighter and safer than it ever was. And boy, is he about to be proven wrong.

The Coney Island sequence itself, as I have mentioned earlier, comes in the transition period between the end of the investigation and the Homecoming Ball assassination attempt. This transition period allows the characters to be lulled into a false sense of security, gives them an opportunity to strengthen their bonds and have fun before tragedy finally strikes, making way for the next book.

Liam’s fortune serves several purposes writing wise. It paves the way for a sequel. It allows us to speculate on Cordonia’s future. It gives us hints of what Liam’s conflicts and overall character development will be like in Book 3. Book 2 - with its focus on the MC’s fight to clear her name - shows us very little of how Liam fares as a King, and focuses more on him as a devoted lover with small hints of what he does when he isn’t with the MC.

Now that the MC has made her choice, Book 3 may be the point where we get to see how Liam fares as a statesman and a politician. Given the fortune written for him and the tumultous Finale, it is clear that the road ahead won’t be easy. One cannot be sure what will happen in Book 3, but perhaps breaking down the fortune will give us an idea.

A Kingdom Lost

“...what are kings, when regiment is gone,

but perfect shadows in a sunshine day?” - Edward II, Act 5 Scene 1, Christopher Marlowe.

The phrasing of the fortune’s first half is such that it is difficult to ascertain whether it refers to the past or the present. It does not give us indication of when this kingdom was/is/will be lost, nor does it expand on how. There are two ways we could view this:

1. One is that Liam is in danger of losing this kingdom. This would work under the assumption that this loss refers to a future event. That is, that up until now the kingdom was under the control of the royal family. That despite all the attacks and court intrigue they were able to maintain power over it. This could be possible, considering Liam’s present confidence in the permanence of his position.

It is also important to speculate on what the ‘lost kingdom’ could refer to. It could manifest in a number of ways: one, a literal loss of kingdom (such as being overthrown in a coup) or second, a situation where the leader has lost the trust of the people - making it a more symbolic loss. Remember, the book ends in the midst of the chaos caused by the assassins’ entry into the ballroom, so we still don’t know what kind of a loss it will (if it is, indeed, a future loss).

2. Another view would be to perceive the 'loss’ as something that has already taken place. As the royal family having lost support already, and whatever may happen to Liam and his position in the finale is a manifestation of that. We don’t know much about Cordonia’s recent history, nor do we really know how the general public views them. What we do know is that Cordonia has been spoken of as being unstable for a while now, and much of this instability was under Constantine’s reign. During his time as King, we have seen:

a. A sniper attempting to attack the family (Constantine, Leo’s mother and Leo). Snipers shoot at long range, from very far off, ensuring that they can finish off the target without being caught. We are not told who was behind this, but we’re told they were hiding behind a tree, and were probably attempting to shoot from afar.

b. A thwarted rebellion from the Nevrakis family. We do not know whether Olivia’s parents were actually involved or framed by other enemies of the Crown, but it is clear that whoever was behind the rebellion wanted the royal family out of the way. Whatever it was, the royal family was able to quash this threat quickly and retain enough evidence to threaten anyone from the Nevrakis family if such an opportunity arose (and Constantine does exactly that to Olivia at the Coronation Ball).

c. The assassination of Liam’s mother, via poisoning. Again, we are not told who could have been responsible. I am assuming this is after the death of Olivia’s parents, as Liam usually refers to Regina by name and he does not do so when referring to his parents visiting the Nevrakis Chateau. This turns out to be the first successful attempt on a royal’s life.

d. We don’t know much about Drake’s dad Jackson’s death, except that he “died protecting the royal family” (Book 1 Chapter 15). As the King Guard, whoever killed Jackson had to have been targeting the royal family, possibly in a fashion similar to how Drake gets injured while protecting the MC at the Homecoming Ball.

d. An attempt on the royal family when the princes were adults, via gun violence. Back in Liam’s Trauma and Triggers essay, I speculated that the attack must have happened at close range, given Liam’s response to it and his subsequent trauma.

e. The latest attack at the Homecoming Ball is the boldest yet. The assassins infiltrate what we may assume to be a heavily guarded ballroom, and get close enough to the reigning king to warrant an actual tussle where he and his security detail are outnumbered. There are enough assassins to go around so that Liam can be surrounded from all sides, and enough to spare so that the MC can be taken out as well. To call this “close-range” would be an understatement.

Compare the last attack, to the first attempt on the royal family (where they had to employ a sniper). Constantine tells us that throughout his reign his enemies have grown “bolder and bolder”. What could be more bold than an attack on a public figure at such close range?

On the subject of occupying new territory, Machiavelli speaks in Chapter 3 of The Prince of how “…the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge”. That is to say, that if injury has to be inflicted upon an enemy, it should be so severe that even if they were to exact vengeance, one would not even need to fear them doing so. Leaving an enemy with lesser injuries allows them to recaliberate, reorganize and device other, better strategies to thwart you (In TCaTF, Azura makes such a mistake with Kenna and her entourage: she robs Kenna of her loyal guard, but leaves her relatively unharmed. In doing so she allows Kenna to make more allies, gather more weapons and discover safeguards against Azura’s magic). While this quote largely refers to occupying new territories and colonization, it is also applicable in general to how one’s enemies should be dealt with.

To me, the fact that Constantine’s enemies have grown bold enough to get this close to the royalty even with all their security measures, shows some measure of how much the royal family’s hold over the country has weakened through the years. Rather than crushing their enemies, the royal family has allowed them to grow further and further in power and numbers, allowed them to get powerful enough to bypass their own security and leave the court in such a state of chaos that even the newly-crowned king is not able to successfully contain it.

How does this reflect a lost kingdom? Consider this quote by Machiavelli from Chapter 18 of The Prince, where he speaks of how a leader can avoid internal insurgency: “A conspirator will have the courage to proceed with his conspiracy only if he believes the people will be satisfied when he kills the ruler. But if the people would be outraged by the ruler’s death, the conspirators will never have the gall to carry out the conspiracy.”

I believe that enemies become most powerful in an environment where there is already an air of discontent, for they can feed that negativity and use it to weaken the Crown’s power. While it is not explicitly stated yet in the books, Cordonia is going through hard times - the writers stated just before the release of TRR Book 2 that “if you look closely, you can see a subplot where Cordonians attempt to tackle the housing crisis and rising inequality”, and hinted at “dissenting points of view”.

We see tiny hints of this, especially in the sequence where Drake explains the impact the recent tsunami/earthquake had on Cordonia, but we never actually hear the ground reality from the common Cordonians. Our only points of reference outside the nobility are Drake (a commoner with some sort of secret role in court) and Justin (a PR officer who is valued for his vast, rich knowledge of Cordonian culture and history, especially of the nobility). But Justin is mostly valued for his inputs on how to deal with the court, dignitaries and media - so the general public doesn’t feature as much (yet) in his talks with us - and Drake, who straddles the fine line between the commoner and man-of-court, speaks from a point of view that is court-heavy. We don’t get inputs from the commoners on the street, but the fact that the writers point out that all in not well on that end hints at some level of discontent, and that could be a breeding ground for enemies to gain power.

It is a lot more possible, therefore, that Liam’s kingdom was already lost to him even before he became king, and that the tough task of regaining the lost favour of his countrymen now falls on him. If he is unable to regain the trust of his people, and his kingdom, he will lose the many things that form the core of his identity - he will become 'a perfect shadow on a sunshine day’, a mere reflection of past greatness.

Book 3 is where Liam can make sure - for certain - that this will not happen to him.

Wisdom

“Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies.” - John. F. Kennedy, on Canadian-American relations in his 1961 address before the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.

Within its personal context, the above quote is about two countries with largely amicable relations, and speaks of not letting those bonds break (something that, in politics, isn’t always possible), but it does highlight one important thing about the nature of alliances - that very often, they can be forged out of necessity and an acknowledgement of mutual benefit. One may find differences - at certain times irreconcilable ones - with the ally, but in a situation like the one Cordonia is in now - the need to unite against a force bigger than these individual conflicts-of-interest, is often deemed more important.

'Wisdom’, within the context of the fortune, may manifest itself in three possible ways:

1. Changes in the way Liam rules.

2. Gaining allies

3. Delegation within the core group.

I will discuss the above now in further detail:

Changes

The first involves the changes Liam can make to how the royal family rules the country. This is difficult for me as a reader to determine precisely because - as I mentioned earlier - we are shown very little about the ground reality in Cordonia, or of the relationships between the nobility and the civilians (whatever we see is largely from the PoV of the nobility, or from commoners who have spent a lot of time at court). We only know that as King, Liam has a great many ideas he would like to implement (some of the things he pushes forward during the engagement tour, his project of revitalizing older duchies and lands). However, all we have at hand so far is a blurry, vague picture of a politically unstable country that has been facing economic crises to an extent as well. So when it comes to policies and things he could implement, there isn’t entirely a lot we can predict here.

However, one thing is for certain. For Liam to be able to figure out what went wrong with his family’s way of ruling, and what he needs to change, he needs to look towards his past. I have mentioned, in my Wishing Well essay, that to really figure out what plagues Cordonia, he will have to explore his past, and the past of his country. Whatever changes he needs to make to his approach as a monarch, will possibly emerge from mistakes committed by the royalty in the past.

Allies

The second way 'wisdom’ could manifest, involves forging alliances. I have mentioned, at the beginning of this essay, Machiavelli’s quote about the Prince needing to imbibe the nature of both the lion and the fox: the lion possesses daring and physical strength, and can protect the fox from the stronger 'wolves’ that may attack them, while the fox possesses the cunning to avoid the snares and alert the lion to their presence. He uses the example of Septemius Severus, a Roman Emperor who was largely “feared and respected by all parties”, but also managed to avoid being hated by the army. Machiavelli speaks of him in Chapter 19 of The Prince as follows: “he who will, therefore, carefully examine the actions of [Septimus Severus] will find him a most valiant lion and a most cunning fox; he will find him feared and respected by every one, and not hated by the army…”

As can be seen by this example, part of the lion-fox combination involves being able to make and keep allies - people who can support the leader and protect him, and who will be protected by his power in turn as long as they hold their end of the bargain. Were a leader like Septimus Severus not cunning enough to gain and maintain the support of his army, he would not be able to achieve half as much support, if at all.

For Liam to regain his kingdom and consolidate his rule, he will have to forge a variety of alliances, and strengthen the allies he already has. But who could these possible allies be, and in what ways can they help him?

So far, the two major allies that Liam’s family seem to have, for certain, are the families from both the Lythikos (Nevrakis) and Ramsford (Beaumont) duchies. But both are not exactly viewed as advantageous allies it the moment, so Liam may need to strength them, and gain more alliances (especially ones with more power and influence) to help them out. There are a few people who I feel could be involved, and could contribute valuable resources to Liam’s cause in Book 3:

1. Justin: We do not know for certain what Justin’s future role may be, but we have ample proof across the entirity of Book 2 that he is a very valuable resource. If he remains an ally, he will remain a constant source of information and guidance to the MC and the Crown - but for me this is not where the true advantage of having him lies. It lies in his innate ability to navigate his way through both the world of nobility and the civilians. He often possesses more knowledge of how the Cordonian Court works than certain nobles themselves, is aware of the way the press works and how to maintain an image. If one wants to learn to be a 'fox’, there is no better man to teach you how than P. R. officer Justin.

2. Kiara and Penelope: Kiara and Penelope are seen as fringe characters who, on the outset, don’t seem to have much to provide. But there are hints given - at least in Kiara’s case - that they may be helpful in Book 3. Kiara is introduced as the daughter of a distinguished diplomat - a woman who has spent many, many years in court. But where I feel Kiara’s particular advantage may lie, is her connection to the media. In Chapter 7 of Book 2, Kiara’s activity is an exclusive photoshoot organized by Trend magazine. We learn here that her mother is friends with Ana de Luca, and that the latter agreed to set up the shoot as a personal favour. If Liam’s mammoth task is to win back the favour of his people, getting the backing of the media is an essential step, considering the Cordonian people depend on mediahouses like the CBC and Trend to formulate their opinions on the nobility. It is possible that an alliance with Kiara may result in more favourable press, which may result in further public support.

Penelope’s background and family have not been expanded on yet, but given the connection between the two women it is possible that if Kiara is involved, Penelope might also have some role to play in Book 3. Olivia speaks of Penelope as someone who can trace her ancestry back to "six hundred years of royalty”, and while she may not have the skills to completely survive court, her family may possess some amount of influence. Besides, given that Penelope’s role in Books 1 and 2 involved her in very shady behaviour, Book 3 may possibly be where she can turn things around and truly make amends for her involvement in the conspiracy against the MC.

3. The Duchy of Krona: A significant chunk of Book 2 focuses on getting approval from Countess Madeleine’s mother, and Queen Mother Regina’s cousin, Adeleide who is the duchess of Krona. Bertrand tells us, before we reach Applewood, that Madeleine is “practically royalty” from her father’s side, and Justin mentions that Adeleide weilds a lot more power than Madeleine does. She may not seem as adept in court as her daughter or cousin, but she is powerful enough that King Constantine will consider her, and her daughter, as an ally.

This doesn’t mean an alliance with Madeleine amounts to nothing. We do not know where she stands in terms of support to the Crown, we’re not sure yet if she is an ally or a potential enemy. But if she is an ally, she brings with her a whole lot of advantages. She is a court veteran, brilliant and skilled and a master of duplicity, has sufficient sway both in the court and with the media, and has the explicit backing of the CBC. Constantine was confident that support from her family and duchy would be adequate protection against the forces that wanted to destroy their family, and Liam tells us early on in the book that he chose her because of her court skills. Having Adeleide as an ally has its benefits, but having both women involved is definitely more advantageous.

4. Leo's Mother: This one is an unlikely ally, because she no longer has any connection to the court, or to the royal family, and for the most part seems to have no relevance at all in the story. Yet there are three things Leo tells us in RoE that hint at her possible presence in TRR Book 3: her being targeted by a sniper, her letter to Leo in RoE Book 4 which we never get to read on-screen, and the fact that Regina and Leo's mother still seem to keep in touch. The fact that her letter is kept a mystery to the readers makes it a possibility that she might have some information to share in Book 3, if she ever appears. While she may not exactly make for a useful ally in the long run, any information she may be able to impart that sheds light on the past would be welcome, and help Liam in his mission to uncover the people behind this conspiracy.

5. Xinghai Lee and Mrs. Lee: It is Justin who alerts us to Xinghai's potential as an ally, stating that when the time comes for the MC to be Queen (if she chooses Liam), she will require connections from all over the world. Hana's story with her parents seems to have ended -given the fight he had with Xinghai at the tea ceremony, and her abrupt departure afterwards - but their part in story is far from over. Xinghai is an extremely wealthy businessman with close ties to Cordonia, and Hana's mother is a noblewoman from a minor house. We have no idea what connections they may have, but given that we are given a chance to build our reputation to Xinghai and form some sort of alliance before the fight, there are chances that this interaction with him may prove to be fruitful in future.

6. Francesco: Francesco is the only person, besides Adeleide and Regina, to merit a diamond scene involving Hana’s assistance. He is also the only foreigner to have this, and one of the two people - outside Cordonia - who the MC is encouraged to impress during the tour (the only other person is Hana’s father Xinghai Lee). Gaining both his and Adeleide’s favour at the Homecoming Ball, consolidates further the MC’s position in court, and it is only in Book 3 that her hustle for their support can bear fruit. If Francesco is an ally, and not an enemy, he would be useful to have as a representative of Italy. His connection to Liam’s mother would make him even more of an asset, because it opens up possibilities that we may get information about Liam’s mother from him.

Delegation

A third possibility for wisdom involves Liam’s ability to delegate. Liam has proven to be extremely aware of his abilities and limitations, as well as of the skills of his closest supporters. Each member of the group is equipped with certain skills that will help Liam regain control of his kingdom:

Drake: We’re not completely aware of the true nature of his role in court, but given that he may have been working undercover all along, his skills as a spy/bodyguard could safeguard the members of the core group. Moreover, Drake possesses a unique perspective of the Cordonian court, as a civilian who plays a very seminal role there. He is a courtier in civilian clothes - simultaneously a part of the court and outside its influence. Like Justin, he straddles the two worlds, but in a manner more personal than that of Justin’s because he is actually close to the King himself.

Maxwell: Liam has made mentions of his perceptiveness and interpersonal skills at least twice in the story. Especially in Book 1, Maxwell is the first to alert us to the presence of people who would make a good allies. It is through Maxwell and Bertrand’s assistance that the MC is able to discover Penelope’s involvement in the conspiracy. It is Maxwell who, alongside Bastien, plays a huge role in tracking Tariq.

Hana: Hana’s role as an ally is the most obvious, and often her diamond scenes revolve around her ability to grab hold of an ally for the MC to influence. In both books, it is her incredible knowledge of culture and history that help us, and her ability to learn and keep track of things that may impress certain allies. She has a superior knowledge of both Cordonian and world culture, which allows her to navigate through court successfully even though she has lived a largely sheltered life.

Olivia: As a duchess, Olivia possesses enough money, power and influence to get her way when she sets her mind to a mission. She also possesses excellent deductive skills, as is obvious from her involvement in the bachelor party photo investigation - she was able to figure out who took those pictures even when Drake and Bastein couldn’t.

Liam possesses elements of all of these skills, but lacks certain freedoms that would make it easier to put those skills into use. He cannot go incognito like Drake, be candid like Maxwell, throw around his money and power like Olivia owing to his role. While he possesses a knowledge of Cordonia is vast and extensive as Hana’s, he cannot share it with the MC they was Hana is able to. Liam’s biggest asset lies not in these skills, but in his ability to delegate. This is never more clear than in the post-Coronation flashback scene, where he assigns roles to Drake and Hana, ensuring the safety of the MC at all times.

Wisdom could - in this case - refer to his ability to delegate, rather than to operate alone.

Earn Your Reign

“They [the nobility/Council/advisors possibly] will hand out the easy choices amongst themselves, like candy. But the real tough meat? The hard choices? They’ll save those for you [the ruler]. And you’ve got to swallow every one of them whole.” - King Luther to Queen Kenna, in The Crown and The Flame, Book 3, Chapter 13.

I use the above quote to introduce this section, because Liam’s father Constantine describes the weight of the Crown in almost similar terms. He, too, talks about having to make tough decisions for the welfare of the nation, and how the troubles plaguing Cordonia pushed him into extremes. While Constantine’s attempts were extremely harmful and have zero justification, he is correct on one point: the royal family is not completely equipped to tackle these enemies, whoever they may be. Not yet.

Liam may possibly need to go back in history to find solutions to his problems. Far, far back.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this prediction is its closeness to Queen Kenna’s situation in The Crown and the Flame. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the Coney Island prediction pretty much sums up the plot of TCaTF perfectly. Kenna’s mother Queen Adriana loses her power and her life after an attempt to forge alliances with the Five Kingdoms - leaving Kenna bereft of kingdom, family, even home. To regain her kingdom and consolidate her power, Kenna has to literally start over from scratch.

Kenna has to spend two years in complete seclusion, building up on her fighting skills with the monks of Rajkur. But what makes her story - and her journey from exile to Queen - even more interesting, is what she does after that monastery is destroyed.

From the beginning of her journey, Kenna is made to employ a whole range of strategies to get back her kingdom, and to eventually spread her influence across the Five Kingdoms and cement her alliance with them. I will not go into too much detail - as the parallels between Liam’s story and Kenna’s deserve an essay of their own - but her journey begins with this life-changing decision, taken on the eve of a duel set up between her guardian Gabriel and the mercenary Severin:

Up until this moment in the story, Kenna - and her predecessors before her - have been brought up to believe that they can depend on their guards (Gabriel, Leon) and their army to fight for them. But here, Kenna rrecognizes that her people have lost trust in the monarchy, and that what they need is a leader who will stand shoulder-to-shoulder and fight her battles with them. This moment is a game-changer for Kenna because it is where she truly sets herself apart as a ruler. In this sequence, and in her duel with Severin, she wins the trust of the mercenaries through a show of strength and valour. Here she is the lion, proving to her people through physical prowess that she is capable of protecting them.

Once she has gained herself a loyal army, she then makes use of multiple strategies to gain allies, acquire weapons and prepare herself for the wars ahead.

Physical Prowess: She rescues Annelyse and the Kingdom of Aurelia from Prince Marco’s clutches, thereby securing an ally and a spy (Raydan Lykel). She also rescues Tevan Drammir, who becomes her first ally and sends her an army. In the battles at the end of each book, every army/weapon/ally gained instills awe and fear in the enemy fleet - even an immensely powerful Queen such as Azura is forced to admit how powerful Kenna is if she has accumulated most of the armies and weapons in the books.

Wit and Cunning: She gains useful weapons from Whitlock through a test of wits, solving his most complicated puzzles and making her way out of the Technocrat Maze. She reveals her cunning in a number of sequences, but especially in the one where she successfully fulfills Adder’s mission of stealing Princess Zenobia’s necklace.

Compromise: She wins Queen Rowan’s trust, if she listens to Rowan two out of three times. This shows us that yes, Kenna will need to compromise with certain rulers, but the fact that the story allows her the space to refuse at least one demand shows that Kenna does not necessarily need to give in to every demand made of her. Her biggest compromise, however, lies in her joining forces with Luther, against Queen Azura of Ducitora. She is, however, firm and uncompromising in her stand that she will never fully trust him, and that “if you ever cross me, and look down to find my sword in your chest, I hope you’ll remember…it’s nothing personal”.

Understanding Her People/Allies: Kenna has the chance to do this twice in the story - once when the mercenaries invite her to join them in their revelry, and again when Kailani and Noa are encouraged to revolt against their leader Florian Tartassis through Kenna’s charisma and the promise of Heart Oak weapons. Joining the mercenaries makes it easier for them to relate to her, and working on easing Noa’s fears allows both him and his sister to contemplate on, and execute, a revolution in Panrion/Ebrimel. She gains trust just as much by lending a listening ear and following advice - this is clear from the decisions she makes concerning the Nevrakis family and the Abanthus army. A lot of the trust she gains from Diavolos is by listening to him and giving him a chance to see how problematic his upbringing is. The major game-changer for turning him to her side, stems from a suggestion by Zenobia, who maintains that Diavolos would make a better leader for the Abanthus army than Luther.

Affirming Power: Just because Kenna needs allies and has to use her interpersonal skills to get people on her side, doesn’t mean that she needs to grovel to do so. As a leader, it is important for Kenna to prove that she can be decisive and firm - someone who shouldn’t be messed with. The scene that most clinches this, is her exchange with Zenobia at the alliance meeting with the Nevrakis. If Zenobia insults her, and she reminds the princess that she has more power at the moment than the Nevrakis family does, Luther commends her for standing her ground and Zenobia joins her alliance almost immediately.

As can be seen here, Kenna imbibes the natures of both the lion and the fox to claw her way up from obscurity to power. She starts out an exile, and works her way up until she has won the trust of all the people who may have once doubted her ability to rule. Sometimes she wins through her skills as a warrior, other times as a tactician. Similarly, Liam (her possible descendent) will be required to work the hard way to regain his power, and win back his kingdom. He may or may not need to rethink his particular style of ruling - but he definitely needs to operate differently from how his father and his predecessors handled things. He may have to do things he is uncomfortable doing to gain allies and consolidate his rule.

The above-mentioned are just a few of the many strategies Kenna uses to win her battles and eventually gain power over the Five Kingdoms, and she is not alone in her fight. She delegates and assigns a role to each of her closest friends/LIs. Each of them has a purpose in Kenna’s journey as a queen-in-the-making: Dominic is her link to the castle/Fire Tribes. Val is an excellent warrior whose prowess, valour and courage can inspire the Fydorian army if the reader so chooses. Raydan is an expert spy and manages to give Kenna the information required to break through the walls of Azura’s magic. Tevan, if left alive, can provide Kenna with an army to support the Stormholt soldiers, and opens the doors of his library - where Raydan and Aurynn (Tevan’s sister) find spells to defeat Azura’s magic. Annelyse is a generous and skilled ruler, who supplies weapons and uses her knowledge of medicine and healing to help the wounded. Diavolos is an excellent warrior and an exemplary leader: if Kenna chooses him to lead the Abanthus army, and gains his trust by rescuing one of his soldiers, the army follow what he says as well. Similarly, as mentioned before, the core group in The Royal Romance all have different skills, that when put together, make an extremely powerful whole.

In short, Cordonia is an unstable mess at present, and Liam needs to rebuild public trust. He will have to claw his way up the ranks so his people can trust the monarchy again, look towards his past to be able to understand his enemies, and foster alliances from different corners so he will be prepared the next time they attack.

Unlike his predecessors, and very much like his ancestor Queen Kenna, he will have to learn from the mistakes of past rulers, and truly “earn his reign”.

(Note: The screenshots of Constantine from the hospital has been taken from the Abhirio channel, and all the TCaTF screenshots from Vika Avey’s. A lot of the quotes in this essay are from various portions of “The Prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli

Special Credit goes to @ladynevrakis for her valuable inputs on TCaTF and to @feisty-mary for her equally valuable help with Machiavelli's The Prince.)

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Story You May Have Missed

Crawford High more balanced racially now

SAT scores on verbal and math tests at Crawford in 1969 was 1015. In 1982 it was 871

After fourteen years I had only one uncomfortable moment, one feeling of small panic. It came halfway through the advanced English class I was monitoring as an observer. Maybe it was because the class was period two, home room — and since graduating from Crawford High School in East San Diego in the spring of 1969 I had forgotten all about the fact that we used to have home rooms. Or maybe it was that the day’s lesson on Greek drama was just the sort of thing that used to put a glaze over my eyes. Whatever it was, the teacher’s voice faded, and I became acutely aware of the clock on the wall, with its minute hand creeping upward one loud “click!” at a time. I heard the boy next to me ask his friend, “Did you find your homework yet?” and heard his friend answer, “I didn’t do it, so how could I find it?” And suddenly I felt lightheaded, as if I hadn't graduated at all, as if the teacher were going to call on me and I didn’t know the answer to the question.

I had come back to Crawford looking for a lot more than a feeling of deja vu. I wanted to find out what the students’ concerns and perceptions are, and how they differ from what ours were back in the days when the Rolling Stones were still young and the newspapers daily reported the latest total of American soldiers who had died in Vietnam. In a way, I suppose, I wanted to stash the school under my shirt, run off with it, pull it out once I got home, and leaf through it page by pungent page. Because you hear a lot of things about high school these days. You hear that students graduate without knowing the difference between words like “their” and “there.” You hear that sex is as common and meaningful as exchanging business cards, and that kids show up for class so saturated with drugs they can barely put pen to paper.

I had heard a few disturbing things specifically about Crawford, too. There were rumors of students threatening teachers for giving them bad grades, and of fights stemming from racial hostilities and gang rivalries. Some of the incidents were said to involve knives or guns. “I guess you’d need a gun to get by at Crawford now,” some of my old high-school chums would say, half jokingly, whenever the subject of Crawford came up. It sounded a bit different from the prim, strict high school I remembered, run like a cross between boot camp and a coed summer camp, where the most defiant act imaginable was to smoke (tobacco) in the bathrooms.

So I decided to go back and find out if all they can’t wear today “is a bathing suit or something,” joked Kelvin Ross, currently a senior at Crawford and a standout linebacker on its football team. Handsome and almost lanky, Ross carries 220 pounds on his huge frame and on the football field is the embodiment of the old saw, “For a man of his size, he has amazing quickness.” He was one of several students I talked to at length during a recent visit to the campus, and I found his mental quickness above average, too. But when I tried to explain to him how administrators used to measure girls’ skirts to see if they were inappropriately short, Ross simply shook his head incredulously and said, “Oh, wow.” (“We resisted liberalizing the dress code, but once you get away from the emotion of the issue, you have to analyze whether something like dress really has any impact on a student’s academic performance,” one district official told me not long ago. Apparently no relation between the two was found.)

Another striking change is the relationship between teachers and students. I saw a lot of students stop to banter with teachers in the halls between classes. At lunchtime the students are free to wander off the campus — and no one quizzes them when they return to see if they’ve been playing pool, guzzling beer, or smoking pot.

Near the lunch quad is a spacious drop-in counseling center and students are in it all hours of the day, talking with counselors or researching some career opportunity on their own. In the classrooms, many of the teachers wear casual shirts and jeans; they are no longer simply distant authority figures, and most of them seem to be having a genuinely good time with their students. “They treat you not as a student, but as a student and a friend,” explained Ross. “Plus, they seem to really care about what happens to you.”

It is a relationship we did not even hope for in 1969. We were a half dozen studious but restless individuals; we shared a grotesque sense of humor and a profound disdain for the educators who ran our school. In our view, they were unimaginative and hypocritical, and they gave us no measure of respect. They insulted us by saying we should attend proms and join the student government; what could have been more “irrelevant” (irrelevant was a key word that soon became a cliche) to the social and political turmoil engulfing the country? We thought the role of school should be to prepare us for life in the real world — and it was a world where people were getting drafted and sent to Vietnam to die for no clear reason at all. It was a world where college students were protesting the government’s policies in increasingly harsh terms; within eighteen months some of those students would be tear-gassed, beaten, and even shot while they were protesting. Blacks had rioted in the ghettos of Detroit and Los Angeles after 200 years of unequal opportunity. Elected officials were plotting coups and undermining foreign governments while publicly maintaining they were doing nothing at all — lying through their teeth, some of them. And in the midst of all this we were told that what was truly important was to keep our hair short and wear red, white, and blue to school each week on Spirit Day.

Our convictions were uncluttered by any real understanding of human nature. And they were definitely not shared by the vast majority of students at Crawford, who were caught up in the usual high-school concerns of dates, cars, and money. Those students accepted the role conceived for them by administrators, but we rebelled. We listened to the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane instead of our teachers. We started a group called the Student Action Corps, modeled on the radical college group Students for a Democratic Society, and circulated a petition with a list of demands that would give us a lot more influence in school matters. Along with such things as an open campus, no dress code, and better food in the cafeteria, we slipped in a few bombshells: true decision-making power for the students, politically significant movies in the auditorium. Two thousand students signed the petition in three days, although surely most of them were more concerned about the food than the movies. Teachers and administrators instantly grew apprehensive. “They want to take over the school!” one friend of mine heard a teacher say.

But abruptly, we gave up the whole fight. We were cynical enough to believe that the school “Establishment” would never give in to us, and a true revolution was doomed (even if we had advocated the use of weapons, we didn’t have any). The demands in the petition crumbled. I had written many of them myself, and I’ve always regretted giving up the fight for them so quickly, because we had the right people on the defensive, and for all the right reasons.

Most of the changes we asked for became realities within a few years after we graduated. We happened to be the beginning of a huge wave of student unrest and rebellion that swept through the area’s high schools in the early 1970s. But changes take time, and tensions at Crawford continued throughout the Vietnam War, according to Marion McAnear. McAnear was a German teacher at Crawford when I was there; I was a student of his for three successive years. He is still at Crawford, still teaches German, and has become the school’s soccer coach, too. A burly man whose hair is now going gray, he was and is an excellent teacher and a thoughtful man. “When I first came here in the Sixties we were a lot more straight-laced than we are today,” McAnear told me when I looked him up on the Crawford campus. “Teachers wore ties and jackets; classrooms were a lot more formal. There was a gap between the students and the teachers, and that was the way it was supposed to be.

“But during the Vietnam War, the whole atmosphere here was one of tension. There were so many kids . . . and they were rebelling. Cherry bombs were being blown up in trash cans almost every day at lunch. The battle lines were drawn,” McAnear said.

“When I was going through high school, it was sort of us versus the teachers,” agreed Chris Miller. At thirty-three. Miller is one year older than I am, and he encountered many of the same rules and frustrations at his high school in Phoenix, Arizona. He currently teaches U.S. history at Crawford and is the head football coach, and his rapid-fire style of talking is full of a coach’s enthusiasm. “We had a strict dress code, and our student government was a body that had no power at all,” Miller continued. “The teachers were sort of detached. They didn't try to get to know students.

“Today, we’re still authoritarian figures, but we listen to the student government. We treat the students with respect.” Or, as another teacher at Crawford, Don Mayfield, puts it, “The students don’t see the administration as the ‘Establishment’ anymore. They see the individuals.” It isn't utopia, but from what I saw, the relationship between students and teachers beats the hell out of the one that existed fourteen years ago, and that’s a fundamental change.

But it is a curious kind of change. It has been accompanied at Crawford by a resurgence of the old bromide, “school spirit.” In the last few years, such things as taking fierce pride in the school’s football team, currently ranked sixth in the county, have become increasingly popular. As I talked with Miller he told me I should wear red, white, and blue to school the following day, Spirit Day — a lot of the students and teachers would be wearing those colors, he said. The Crawford team would be playing arch-rival Lincoln High School that Friday afternoon in a game that could decide the Central League championship, and Miller and a lot of other teachers and administrators at Crawford encouraged me to go. “The football games are a big part of the overall scene here,” explained Bill Fox, Crawford’s current principal.

I wound up driving out to the game at Lincoln the next day with Fox, a boyish-looking man of forty-five. He has been principal at the school since 1981, and he told me that the re-involvement with school activities such as dances and football games comes after a long period when such activities received little student support at all. “I think you’ll find that [in that sense] students today are more like the majority of students were when you were in high school,” Fox commented. The resurgence of interest is due in part to the encouragement of top school district officials, who are hoping that an increase in “school spirit” will lead to a decrease in vandalism, drug use, and other problems that have plagued high schools throughout the county in recent years. Fox himself vigorously supports the idea, partly, he told me, because he thinks it is important for students to be exposed to various high-school social activities. He also believes successful events raise funds that can be used to lower the cost of student activities, enabling less wealthy students to attend.

Increasingly, the students seem to be buying the idea. Margie McDonald, Crawford’s current Associated Student Body president, told me that the number of people who attend A.S.B. activities has increased noticeably in the last three years. Many more students are doing things such as wearing school colors on Spirit Day and showing more enthusiasm at pep rallies, she said. (Mayfield told me that a few years ago it wasn’t uncommon for some of his brighter students to show their disdain for “school spirit” by coming to class on Spirit Day dressed in black.) “It sounds trivial, but attendance at the football games is up, too,” said McDonald, an attractive young woman who has the precocious, oddly disconcerting poise that high school A.S.B. officers traditionally seem to possess. She admitted with a laugh that the renewed support of student activities may be due to the fact that “we have a good football team. But I think [such support) is important, I definitely do, because getting into supporting the school creates positive feelings, positive activities. If you’re hating school, not getting involved in anything, it creates negative activities — like hanging out more, maybe getting into drugs.”

Fox and I parked in Lincoln’s parking lot and walked down to the athletic field, where the two football teams were warming up. The Crawford players looked awfully big in their white helmets, white jerseys, and blue pants, and the faces had changed from exclusively white when I was a senior to a more balanced mixture of black and white. (Crawford now has a black student population of 17.5 percent, nearly double the 9.9 percent average for city junior high and high schools, and far more than the 2.9 percent it had in 1969. White students currently constitute just under half the total student population, and the balance is made up principally of blacks, Asians, and Hispanics.) The Colts were favored to win the game, but Lincoln, a high school located on South Forty-ninth Street in Southeast San Diego, has a long history of upsetting favored Crawford teams. I got the feeling that as far as the Lincoln players were concerned, the Colts were just upstarts from uptown. After the opening kickoff Crawford’s team moved methodically down the Field to score. Then a Lincoln player ran back the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, and from then on it was a dogfight.

It was a hot day, but the stands on the eastern side of the field were jammed with Crawford supporters: teachers and parents as well as students. The students were wearing “Classy Colts’’ sweatshirts, “Go Colts’’ ribbons, and buttons that said, “Face it, Colts are Great,” exactly as their predecessors did fourteen years ago. The cheerleaders all had great legs, and they still had names like Andi and Buffy and Melinda. But you could occasionally smell marijuana smoke in the stands, and the cheers were a lot more soulful than the plaintive “Hey, hey, whad-dya say” stuff I remembered. They included things like “Boogie ’cross that line” and “Crawford don’t take no jive,” and more than once the crowd exhorted the team to “get down.” There was, in fact, a lot more cheering than game watching. The score at half time was 13-7 Lincoln, but in the second half, as the smog drifted in and the sun turned brown, the Crawford players finally put together another long drive. On a critical third-down play a tall Crawford receiver went up for a pass and managed to catch it despite the Lincoln player who tackled him instantly (he juggled the ball momentarily, but crashed to the ground clutching it firmly to his chest), and a few minutes later a muscular young player made a nice over-the-shoulder catch to give Crawford a 14-13 lead. The crowd screamed even louder, if that was technically possible, and I remembered that when I was in high school, I thought all this “school spirit” business was kind of dumb. I’m not certain I’ve changed my mind. If successful school activities somehow enable economically disadvantaged students to attend proms they might not otherwise be able to afford, I guess that’s great. What I object to is the small view that things like “school spirit” can engender. Shouldn’t we teach high-school students that compassion for your rivals is of far greater consequence than glee at having rubbed their noses in the dirt? And more than that, should we really be encouraging students to think that things like homecoming and pep rallies are important? It seems to me our time and money would be far better spent encouraging students to explore ways of bringing about nuclear disarmament, or easing world hunger, or putting an end to acid rain. Attitudes are important, and they’re certainly forming at the high-school level; why bother with “school spirit” when you can bring about changes that might save the human race from complete annihilation?

I suppose it’s part of our neurotic modem consciousness to be required by circumstances to face such questions, and to be simply unable to do it most of the time. I know I can’t. Hell, when Crawford scored that go-ahead touchdown, I felt a shiver of emotion, and I realized something: I wanted the Colts to win. It looked as if they were going to, too, right down to the point where only two minutes were left in the game. Then the Colts’ quarterback threw a low, flat pass that was intercepted by a Lincoln defender. Two plays later Lincoln’s quarterback scampered around left end, made a couple of neat zigzags, and was tackled at the two-yard line. The Crawford fans grew morose, and with thirteen seconds left, Lincoln scored to put the game away, 19-14. I felt kind of let down as I made my way out of the stands, but I noticed the girl next to me was crying. Down on the field some of the Crawford players were, too.

The changes in the ethnic makeup of Crawford’s students would be immediately obvious to anyone who attended the school in my era. We were a school that consisted of ninety percent white kids, nearly all of us middle class, and racial concerns and tensions were things that happened elsewhere. Today Crawford has achieved what school district planners like to refer to as racial parity; the remarkable thing is that the school has gone through this transition without having to resort to busing. Only about fifty students are bused to Crawford from other parts of the city, and they come to take advantage of special courses the school offers as a regional “magnet” school for business and accounting. “It’s very unusual to be balanced ethnically without a lot of busing,” noted principal Bill Fox. “Most schools are out of balance one way or the other” — that is, top-heavy with either minorities or whites. The reason Crawford is not seems to be coincidental; the school’s district, located smack dab between Southeast San Diego and the burgeoning suburbs north and east of San Diego State University, is a sort of melting pot of various ethnic groups. Housing in the district varies from run-down apartments to sprawling tract homes, and this is probably what has brought about the racial mix.

As Fox pointed out, one advantage of the district’s racial balance is that students of various ethnic groups tend to encounter each other as they are growing up, mingling in activities such as Little League. Their parents tend to see each other year after year at PTA meetings. By the time most of the students reach high school they are accustomed to mixing with people from other ethnic groups who are, after all, simply people from the same community. One teacher at Crawford, who formerly taught at Lincoln High School, told me that if I were to go to Lincoln I’d “probably find a lot of bused-in white kids sitting around in groups and hoping the black kids won’t beat up on them.’’ At Crawford most of the blacks and whites seem to get along fine. I saw them sitting together on the quad at lunch and joking together in classrooms when teachers were temporarily absent. Nevertheless, there is racial uneasiness at Crawford. “No, it’s not a cloud hanging over the campus, but yes, there are racial tensions,’’ as football coach Chris Miller sums it up. Nearly all of those tensions involve a new ethnic group in the area — the Indochinese.

The Indochinese, or Asians, as they are called in the school district’s official lingo, arrived in large numbers almost overnight at Crawford in the fall of 1981. Culturally and socially it was a shock wave the school is still struggling to absorb. The new students were Indochinese refugees, many of them “boat people’’ recently departed from refugee camps in Southeast Asia and resettled in the sea of stucco apartments and aging houses along University and Orange Avenues between La Mesa and North Park. “Within a matter of three months our population of Asian students skyrocketed from less than five percent to fifteen or eighteen percent,’’ said Fox (it is now about twenty percent, some 300 students in all). “It kind of rocked us.’’ With the influx of Indochinese refugees, Crawford became eligible for additional funds from the school district and the state, and administrators were given a week to prepare special classes and hire teachers and aides who can speak the native languages of the incoming students.

Many of the new students did not speak English, of course; some were illiterate even in their own language. It was not uncommon for sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds from Cambodia or Laos to show up for their first day of school at Crawford having never before attended a school of any kind. In the ensuing confusion, some of the new students were simply issued biology and history textbooks and told to start studying.

Things have become quite a bit more organized since then. The Asian students are now interviewed when they first enroll at Crawford to determine their educational level and knowledge of English. Some have performed extremely well academically from the start, and the list of students on the principal's honor roll now includes names like Pheuak Phanthao, Son Do, and Dao Hong Thi Tran. Most of the Asian students, however, are assigned to special classes designed to teach subjects such as biology, math, and U.S. history to students who are not fluent in English. The classes make use of simplified vocabularies, and material is covered more slowly. At the same time, the Asian students take special English courses to learn the language, moving up into increasingly advanced levels until they are fluent enough to transfer into the regular curriculum. But by that time, most of the Asians are already on the verge of graduating. There does not appear to be any immediate alternative to this method of educating the Asian students, but it is clear that most of them are graduating from high school far less proficient in almost every subject than their American classmates. The special classes (which many of the Asian students attend four out of six class periods a day) also tend to isolate the Asians from the rest of the student population — that is, even more than they already are.

Before school, the Asian students tend to hang out in clusters, often near the back of the cafeteria. During lunch hour they seem to disappear; there are small numbers of them on the quad, but almost none anywhere else on campus. There are no Asian students on the varsity football team (there is one, a halfback, on the junior varsity), and they are conspicuously absent from pep rallies and dances. Many Crawford students resent the Asian’s habit of hanging out in groups, but Ken Watson, a senior who works as an aide in one of the many English classes for Asians, explains that “they’ve just come over from Asia, so they want to stick together. There’s power in numbers. They can be intimidating if you let them, if you think of them as a dominant group. But I can see they might think of us that way.”

Watson said it is simply the language barrier that prevents many of the Asian students from mingling with others and taking part in school activities, a view shared by Katy Chang. Chang, a Laotian with coal-dark eyes and an eager, pretty smile, is currently a senior at Crawford. She has been in the United States for more than five years and speaks fluent English. “I try to go to things like, let’s see, homecoming?” Chang told me. “I should know about it. 1 like to have American friends so I can learn what they do and what they have. I’m going to graduate from high school and I don't know much about it.

“But it’s a problem. I think it might be an English problem. You have to study really hard [so you don’t have as much free time in the first place). And Asian custom is so different from American custom. [Americans’] personality is so different. They put on make-up, smoke ... I don't do those things, or go out with a boyfriend.” Nearly everyone agrees the friction between the Asians and other students reached its peak last year, and most of the incidents that took place involved black students and Asian students. Several teachers told me that the outgoing, high-energy personalities of many black students contrast mightily with the reserved, cautious personalities of most Asian students. But the differences go deeper than that; some of the black students also seem to resent the attention and money being spent on the Asians — an understandable if not exactly admirable reaction, considering the years of discrimination blacks have suffered. “From my viewpoint, [the Asians] are getting special classes and special teachers, and they’re taking away a lot of good teachers that could be teaching us,” one female black student pointed out recently. “Why don’t we have something like that? We need help, too. I’m not prejudiced or anything. But there is a lot of money involved ...” Whatever the differences between the two groups, fights between them broke out last year. One black student badly beat up an Asian whose locker was next to his, and not long afterward, five Asian students jumped a tall black student in one of the school’s bathrooms. Several other incidents were narrowly avoided. “More than one time I had to break up something because of what people thought was being said,” Fox noted. “Students would hear the Indochinese talking in their own language, and for some reason they’d assume [the Indochinese] were talking about them.”

Most teachers and students at Crawford say the tensions appear to have eased so far this year. But the school security officer, Don Donati, said he has been called to the scene of four near fights between black and Asian students in the last few weeks. One Asian student also told me that “just one week ago I was talking to a girlfriend, and this black guy came up and touched my head. I don’t like people touching my head. I tell him, and he started yelling. Not joking. I can tell he doesn’t like Asians or something.

“Some dark people are my friends. But many dark people, I don’t like their personality. They tease you, even though you didn’t say anything. They call you Nips. I try to get along with everybody, but sometimes I get depressed, and really mad.”

Some of the black and Asian students claim allegiance to bona fide street gangs, the blacks to the Crips and Playboy International, and the Asians to the Stray Cats. But Crawford is not considered a problem school in terms of gang activity by either the school district or the San Diego Police Department’s street-gang detail, and there has not been an incident involving known gangs reported from the school for more than six years.

Fox and other administrators insist the racial tensions at the school have not been that serious, and that they will fade in the coming years as the Indochinese refugees become more integrated into the cultural life of San Diego. Some teachers predict that the need for special classes will disappear in two or three years, too, partly because the Asian students come from a “success-oriented” culture and work hard to achieve what is expected of them. “It will take time,’’ said McAnear, the German teacher and soccer coach, “but I really believe that the Indochinese are going to put a shot in the arm of America. They’re polite, disciplined, relatively easy to teach . . .’’ He paused, and grinned. “And besides, some of them are damn good soccer players.”

One April night five years ago, an adult-school teacher was showing slides to a Spanish class on the Crawford campus when two sixteen-year-old boys sped up on a motorbike. One of the youths entered the classroom with a gun and got everyone’s attention by firing a shot into the blackboard in the front of the room. After that he robbed the students (mostly middle-age men and women) as well as the teacher, netting a grand total of about seventy dollars. He and his partner then fled on the motorbike, but were arrested two days later when an anonymous informant phoned police. Although McAnear was not present during the robbery, it took place in his classroom, and he told me with a shake of his head that his blackboard still bears a bullet hole from the incident.

The attempted robbery was a dramatic example of the trend toward violent behavior that occurred on many of the city’s junior high and high school campuses in the last decade. In that time, incidents of students threatening and assaulting teachers rose citywide, as did acts of vandalism such as breaking windows and looting lockers. Students sometimes walked out of classrooms en masse, and in at least one instance, a police car was burned at Lincoln High School. “For ten years violence was a big factor here,” McAnear said. At many schools, it still is. Although incidents such as burglaries and threats of injury declined throughout the district from the 1981-82 school year to the 1982-83 school year, incidents of battery and assault with a deadly weapon jumped sixteen and fifty percent, respectively, during that same time period. A spokesman for the board of education’s police services department also noted that throughout the district, violent incidents in October of this year have increased fourfold over the same month last year.

The police services department does not keep crime statistics for individual schools, but McAnear and other teachers and administrators insist that violence is currently decreasing on the Crawford campus. Still, the legacies of the past are everywhere. Crawford, like many high schools in San Diego, now has a security officer whose main function is to help prevent criminal acts from taking place on or near the campus. Most high school football games are played in the afternoons rather than at night, due to the number of fights that were breaking out after night games a few years ago. And a new law enacted by the state legislature last April has made a five-day suspension mandatory for any student caught fighting or possessing weapons or controlled substances on school grounds.

Fox thinks the increased violence stemmed from student frustrations with the slowness that characterized the response of school officials to the cultural changes of the ’70s. McAnear agrees; the violence was often a way of challenging authority, he points out, and challenging authority was a widespread phenomenon in all facets of society at the time. The school district finally adjusted to new concepts of behavior, appearance, and “relevant" curriculum, but McAnear isn't so sure those adjustments were always the right ones. “Discipline went out the window. We loosened up on too many things — homework requirements, for instance. Standards fell, and teachers got frustrated because a lot of kids wouldn’t do their homework. Eventually you were supposed to leave time to do the homework in class, but you can't do that, especially with thirty-five students” and the special attention that many of them require, McAnear complained. Attendance also became a problem as the school district placed less emphasis on being in class regularly. Fox explained that by attending summer school, some students at Crawford would complete twenty-four of the forty class credits needed to graduate by the end of their sophomore year. That meant they would have to attend an average of only four classes a semester (rather than the standard six) for the next four semesters, and many of these students would spend the two free periods a day wandering around the school or the nearby community. Simultaneously, the scores seniors were getting on standard tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test declined steadily. The average SAT score on combined verbal and math tests for a senior at Crawford in 1969 was 1015. In 1982 it was 871.

Today, echoing the swing back to more student involvement in school activities, there is increasing emphasis on the value of homework and attendance. Beginning this year, high-school students in San Diego are required to do two hours’ worth of homework each night, and attending six class periods a day is mandatory. At Crawford, teachers no longer greet students who are tardy to class with a shrug of the shoulders; they stand in the hallways between classes, exhorting the students to be on time and occasionally yelling at them when they are not. New districtwide guidelines for achieving minimum proficiency in English and math are being introduced, and next year, if seniors cannot demonstrate that they have attained these levels, they will not be allowed to graduate. Some of the students I talked to at Crawford are already grumbling about the homework and attendance requirements. “I’m a little offended by it,” A.S.B. president McDonald said. “It seems like they’re talking down to us.’’

But nothing ever comes full circle. Students have to attend six classes a day just as we did in 1969, but now they’re studying subjects such as computer programming and race relations. They still go to physical education classes, but now the girls’ and boys’ gyms are known as the male and female gyms. There has not been a single student cited for smoking marijuana on the Crawford campus so far this year, but drug use is still much more widespread than it was fourteen years ago. “It’s not the way it used to be,’’ McDonald told me emphatically. “There’s not a party without drinking. There are very few students who haven’t tried drinking or smoking pot]. There’s even a trend toward cocaine these days.’’

But administrators and teachers at Crawford insist that even though students are exposed to more information and experiences at a younger age, most of them still tend to make responsible decisions. They say students have, in effect, responded favorably to the increased independence they have gained since 1969. “The brighter kids don’t seem to get involved with drugs that much,” said Don Mayfield. “But they are, certainly, exposed to a lot more things [than high-school students used to be). They know a lot more. They know about homosexual bars, and the prostitutes along El Cajon Boulevard. But the kids are more open . . . and seem to be stronger.” Even Mayfield, however, conceded that high-school students “still have a lot of difficulty sorting it all out.”

“We’re taking a lot of steps [these days], but many of them are immature steps, like getting stoned or beating up other students,” senior Ken Watson agreed. “People are doing things like that just because they feel they can do them and no one will stop them. That’s kind of immature.

“Compared to Wally and Beaver, yeah, I guess I’m growing up pretty fast. I think it has gotten a little out of hand. Parents let their kids go out and get drunk. Some parents are even growing marijuana in their back yards. Maybe if they’d set some rules and regulations instead, [the current situation] wouldn’t have happened. But I don’t think we’ll ever return to the days when you come home from school and have cookies and milk. It’d be great if everyone could be like the Cleavers, but remember, this is the Eighties.”

And so it is. In the late 1960s Crawford administrators struggled to keep the controversy of the Vietnam War out of high school; today they struggle with the influx of Vietnamese students. We experimented almost daintily with drugs; today’s students seem either to worship them or consider them passe. We had to go to therapy groups to learn how to be “up front” and “get in touch with our feelings” (we even had to invent the terminology); students today are open and honest almost as a matter of course. They don’t talk about sex much — at least, not to reporters — but they do say it is a big part of the high school scene, another indication that things have loosened up considerably.

I did, however, discover one constant. During my recent visit to Crawford I made it a point to buy lunch at the outdoor window. We called it the cold lunch line back in 1969, and it was a place where you could exchange a few quarters for dry, stale sandwiches, grainy malts, and chocolate “cake squares” loaded with sugar and oil. On this visit I was surprised to discover for sale such “healthy” items as yogurt and pita-bread sandwiches. But my mission was comparison; I wasn’t interested in the contemporary stuff. I bought a piece of chocolate cake and a tuna sandwich. The cake was larger and fresher than the old “cake squares” we used to gobble up, and lighter in texture, too. But the tuna sandwich could have been left over from the last time I ate at Crawford: tuna-flavored paste compressed between two slices of doughy, alleged wheat bread, and decorated with a piece of aging lettuce. Some things never change. *Reposted article from the SD Reader by Gordon Smith of November 10, 1983

[valerie-royeaux]

Come on, don't be shy, answer the whole thing for Junia! XD

I have the best wife! ^^ (please, forgive the typos!)

1: How do they feel about the Anchor?

She loved it while she had it. Junia, throughout her previous life, always felt like a second class being, for being a dwarf. She is Andrastian, and always told by the humans she was not one of the Maker’s Children. So, after the Conclave, she embraced with joy and eagerness the mantle of Herald of Andraste. Even after Adamant her faith stood strong, despite the huge shock of meeting the supposed Justinia. After discovering that the Anchor is actually Solas’ magic gone wrong, she was glad that she was the one who ended up with it, and had been capable of carrying the Maker’s work. She knows she had to loose it after it became uncontrolable. But she actually misses it as much as she misses her left hand.

2: On which path did your Inquisitor choose to lead the Inquisition?

Her goal was to reestablish order in a word that was loosing it. The mandate of Inquistion was a holy one, and she looked at the organization as the hand of the Maker in a time of need. She was glad to bring the Templars back into the holy fold, and stand up when the Chantry was not in a position to lead. So the Inquistion acted both as a soothing hand and an iron fist. And always in the Name of Andraste and Her Herald.

3: Questioning Beliefs: How do they feel before and after the events? Do they doubt their belief or their religious perspectives at some point?

Adamant and the Fade were the most harrowing (pun intended) points for her. When Justinia revealed that she was the one who delivered Junia from the Fade in the Conclave, Junia lost her ground. She was indeed shaken, and her companions did most of the hard work in escaping. She was destroyed. She was a dwarf, and a mere accident and, as told throughout her life, not one of the Maker’s children. It was only after going through the events that she realized that it was a spirit, and maybe even one designed by the Nightmare demon to drain her out of her will. She is certain it was Andraste that saved her at the Conclave, and no one will tell her otherwise.

4: Alliance with the Mages or the Templars? Explain why.

Templars. More magic at the magic hole in the sky? And take a bunch of mages who allied themselves with Tevinter? She could not trust them all. It would take one to maybe make it even worse. Besides, as Andraste’s champion, it was her duty to return the Templars to heavenly guidance.

5: Describe their emotions and thoughts about the rebellion between Mages and Templars.

She is not against mages, not really. Solas, until the very end, was one of the ones she trusted the most. She wishes there could be a way for mages and the rest to coexist in peace. But she doesn’t see a way for that to happen without the Circles. Or the utter extinction of mages. Because, if let on their own, mages would rule. It is a simple consequence of people with powers being more powerful than people without powers.

6: What is their opinion of the Seekers of Truth?

A secret organization that got way out of hand. A lesson to be learned by the Inquisition. And great men and women!

7: Do they believe the Chantry functions as it is? What would they change?

The Chantry needs holy people at its head. Corrupt leaders caused its demise, Justinia first among the corrupt. When the Divine got corrupted, Andraste herself came down from the Heavens to hand pick Junia. To show that humanity failed in upholding the Chant. That a dwarf would save the world and lead the faithful. She would change it so it understands this. She thinks she should not be the Divine, though. Her role is of a reformer, not a permanent leader.

8: Which candidate did they support for the position as the new Divine?

Cassandra, undoubtedly. Cassandra is one of the holiest women she has ever met. Strong, fierce, incorruptible and untouchable. Junia admires Cassandra to an enormous extent.

9: How do they feel about the Chantry version of Tevinter?

Amoral heathens that deserve to be crushed. While she admires Dorian’s wishes for change in his homeland, she would see the Tevinters and the Qunari kill each other if she could. If Solas had not revealed himself as her next enemy, she would not have disbanded the Inquisition. She would aim it at bringing the true Chantry north.

10: Are there further beliefs/religious perspectives your Inquisitor is interested in or perhaps despises?

She despises all other religions that are not the Chantry. She would not enforce the Chantry, though, with the exception of the Black Chantry and the Qunari. She is content to let the Dalish and the barbarian tribes be, as they are not a threat. The Tevinter, though, are blasphemers, mages who usurped the word of the Maker, and the Qunari have already declared their ultimate intent of bending Thedas to the Qun. She would see them crushed before they even try.

Order & Politics

11: What did your Inquisitor think, when laying eyes upon the throne for the first time?

That she awaited that moment all her life. While with the Carta, she wanted to rise. She wanted to be a leader. She wanted power and riches. After the Conclave, that shifted to more spiritual goals, and sitting the throne of the Maker’s chosen was something she felt deserving of and prepared for.

12: How does your Inquisitor deal with traitors?

She is “kind”. She threatens through action, and is often forgiving, even if stern. She wouldn’t outright kill, or even mutilate. But she would resort to humiliation and try to bend a traitor’s will. Her methods are efficient and harsh, not unlike what one would expect of a organization named Inquisition.

13: Which factors play a significant role for them to recruit people for the Inquisition?

The genuine will to enact change. Faith helps a lot. One curious things, though: her titles is the “Grand Mistress” of the Inquisition. Her agents, second only to her, are the “Inquisitors”. Not unlike the actual Spanish Inquisition.

14: Which advisor did they listen to more often?

She doesn’t listen more to a particular one. While she admires Josephine’s ways a lot, she often sees the need to go with Leliana’s throat cutting and Cullen’s blunt fist.

15: What does your Inquisitor think about the Grey Wardens? Did they choose to banish the order?

Not really. As someone used to the Deep Roads, she knows the Wardens are needed. Plus, her history with the Hero of Ferelden makes her have them very dear in her heart. They were controlled, not unlike the Templars. She kept them with her, and she knew they would be fine once Corypheus was dealt with. All they need to do is have a better control of their mages. 

16: Did your Inquisitor let the Inquisition remain or did they disband it?

She disbanded it. Not all, of course - a small group remainded to go after Solas. Indeed the Inquisition itself became an institution that had accomplished its duty, and needed to go under Solas’ radar. As a huge organization, it would not be so efficient.

17: How did they solve the dispute between Empress Celene, Ambassador Briala and Grand Duke Gaspard?

By salving Celene and setting her as the sole ruler. Gaspard and Briala were executed, so no one would think Celene’s rule to be frail. While she is not particularly fond of Celene, she tell herself Celene wants no war. But the truth is that she feared for Ferelden if Gaspar led.

18: What does your Inquisitor think about “the Game”? Would they participate in it? Did they enjoy the time at the Winter Palace?

It is part of ruling. To a certain extent, the Carta had it, Ferelden has it, Tevinter has it, Orzammar has it. The Orlesians are the only ones to do something more colorful of it. So yes, she had a blast at the Winter Palace.

The Inquisitor & People

19: Does it bother your Inquisitor to be called by their name? Do they prefer being called “Inquisitor”?

She is called “Your Worship”, “Your Holiness”, “Grand Mistress”. Or simply Junia by those close to her. She does not mind the title outside formal affairs. Her agents are the Inquisitors, sent to work in the Name of Andraste and Her Herald.

20: Which abilities did they specialize themselves in? Explain how the trainers convinced them.

Well… In the game, Tempest, because it is the best for dual wield, purely mechanical reasons. The trainer had no bearing in it. In the more realistic setting of Blood & Dust, this would never happen. It is… weird. She’s a dirty fighter, and that’s it.

21: Which person did they flirt with for the first time? How did their relationship with that person evolve?

Cassandra. It evolved well, until Cassandra dropped the bomb. 

22: Which person did they involve themselves with and what drew them to that particular person? Did they go through a change of heart or did they remain at the person’s side?

Cassandra, Sera, and Josephine. Cassandra was her first crush in the Inquisition. But to Cass, Junia was her friend… And a woman. She then involved herself with Sera, but the age difference weighted in. Sera being really young and avoiding being serious when needed, they eventually grew apart. She finally found succor with Josephine.

23: Which members of the Inquisition do they stand closest to? And why?

Josephine, her lover. Cassandra, the one she admires the most. Blackwall, a friend who has achieved redemption, like her.

24 Who do they take with them on their journeys?

Cassandra, Blackwall and Solas, mostly. While Solas doesn’t always sees eye to eye with her due to her faith, she used to have absolute respect for his magical knowledge, and actually enjoyed his company.

25: Name a person they respect.

Solas. She truly likes and respects him. He saved her from the anchor, in spite of it all. She does not cherish having him as an enemy.

26: Name a person they do not feel connected to as much.

Vivienne. She feels Vivienne saw that being associated with the Inquisition would raise her status. Vivienne is cunning and a good asset. And while they share the same views regarding mages, they never became friends.

27: Name a person they are critical or suspicious about.

At the beginning, the Iron Bull. She does not like the Qunari, and never wanted to work with them. She saved the Charges gladly. And she was glad to see him out of the Qun. Only after that she relaxed around him. 

28: How do they feel about Vivienne calling them “Darling” or “my Dear”?

She really didn’t mind. When not in formal situations, she was really down to earth, feet on the ground. She only acts as the Herald, when the Herald is needed.

29: Which person would they lose the most coin to during a couple of rounds of “Wicked Grace?”

Josephine, of course. Coins and clothes.

Places & Travelling

30: Ferelden or Orlais?

Ferelden, big time. She is Fereldan, born in the Waking Sea. Even though she spent most of her life around the Free Marches, there is an innocence to Ferelden she really appreciates.

31: Have they been to Val Royeaux before? What was their first impression of the city?

Yes, and she loved it. Even if busy with Carta duties, visiting the Grand Cathedral was a cathartic moment to her. Hearing the Chant, non-stop, beaming from its towers was soothing and elevating.

32: What are their thoughts on Skyhold? Is there a stronghold they would prefer over it?

She loves it, absolutely loves it. Junia is very connected to the sky, and be the closes possible to it soothes her.

33: Which place at Skyhold does your Inquisitor spend the most time at?

The War Table, discussing with her advisors and friends. While she does visit the tavern, she also likes to spend some quality time alone, reading.

34: Which area or chamber would be most used for sexual activities with their loved one? Which person would most likely walk in on them?

The privacy of her room. Which would make messengers the most likely to walk in on them. So... Maybe Jim?

35: Does your Inquisitor enjoy travelling? How much does your Inquisitor stick to their map?

She doesn’t enjoy, but she doesn’t mind. She just doesn’t think about it. Most of her adult life she spent as a lyrium smuggler, so going everywhere all the time is just standard. Staying in Skyhold for some time was the change of pace. One she actually enjoyed.

36: Which part of Thedas does your Inquisitor enjoy the most venturing to? Which area would they rather avoid?

She hates the hot deserts and jungles too thick. Junia is Ferelden, and she loves the Hintherlands and the Storm Coast. Again, the Storm Coast is a good place for her memories with the Hero of Ferelden.

37: Which mount did they choose to accompany them on rides in the wilderness?

A hart. Majestic creatures! Hard to get up on, though. Master Dennet did a splendid job creating a saddle with stirrups that allow her to mount those tall, tall animals.

38: How do they feel about Dragons ruling over certain areas? Is there a Dragon, that fascinated your Inquisitor especially?

Kill them all! Leave a High Dragon alone for too long, Dragon Cults pop up. Majestic creatures, but essentially threats.

39: Does your Inquisitor feel threatened while travelling close to red lyrium? How do they feel about it?

She feels purpose. Of course the chosen of Andraste had to be a dwarf. Any other race would succumb instantly to the threat of red lyrium.

Sense for art

40: Mosaic or Fresco? Is there a painting, that impressed your Inquisitor the most?

Frescos. Solas’ paintings always endeared her. She liked watching him paint them.

41: Under which banner did your Inquisitor claim areas?

The Inquistion’s, of course!

42: Which bed does your Inquisitor sleep in at night (if they ever sleep)?

Free Marches bed, I think?

43: Which materials does your Inquisitor prefer for armor?

Steel and leather, good and resilent. Of course, unless dragon materials are available.

44: Which mineral does your Inquisitor consider the most beautiful?

Paragon’s Luster!

45: Herb Garden or Chantry Garden? Templar Tower or Mage Tower? Infirmary or Practice Ground?

Chantry Garden, because, see the previous 44 questions, lol. The same goes for the Templar Tower. And finally, Infirmary, so the wounded can heal.

46: Which books of the library do rest on your Inquisitor’s desk?

Plenty. Junia grew in a convent, surrounded by books. So, of course, other than the Chant of Light, she enjoys versed tales and poems.

47: Does your Inquisitor write letters as well as Josephine? Which color is their ink? Handwrite their signature.

Plenty of it. She writes a lot, including a journal. Usually black ink and...  Her signature? I’ll pass on this one, lol. I haven’t thought of this! 

[the-martial-law-thingy]

FULL TEXT: CJ Sereno: ‘These are times when everything that can be shaken is being shaken’

INQUIRER.net / 12:06 PM May 26, 2017

The following is the full text of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s commencement address before the Ateneo de Manila University, May 26, 2017.

THE ATENEAN FACING MARTIAL LAW

Thirty seven years ago, dear Loyolans, I stood in your place, about to take a place of honor and privilege as a graduate of Ateneo.

Three years later, Ninoy Aquino would be assassinated; by 1986, the dictator Marcos would flee the country. But on my graduation day in 1980, it was difficult to be certain of a future outside of martial law. I was at once optimistic and fearful. Optimistic about my career prospects as any Atenean would be, but fearful lest the long nights of martial law overshadowing our country never end.

I had actually prepared to talk with you in a more lighthearted and general manner on themes of justice, democracy and what it means to be an Atenean, but the declaration of Martial Law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in Mindanao this Tuesday impressed upon me a more urgent and specific subject matter. So yesterday I discarded my prepared speech and resolved that today I would try to address the questions that must be in your minds and those of your parents. I thought it behooved me to give you a lens through which you could view present events and make decisions regarding your participation in the making of Philippine history.

Allow me to guess at the questions in your mind: Will this Martial Law declaration bring back the human rights violations and the depredations that characterized the martial law regime of 1972? Will investors leave the country? Will young people still have enough good jobs? Will our labor force be squeezed into more painful contortions of diaspora? Will our voices still be heard? The answer, my dear graduates, is “It depends.”

Our hopes for the future depend on whether the Executive Department, led by the President, the leadership and the entirety of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, Department of Justice officials and prosecutors, the Chief Public Attorney and her public defenders will take sufficient care to abide by the Constitution and the laws even while Martial Law is in place. It depends on whether there will be abuse of the awesome powers that Martial Law gives the Armed Forces and the police.

It also depends on whether Congress and the Supreme Court will exercise their review powers appropriately over the declaration of Martial Law and the suspension of the privilege of writ of habeas corpus; and whether both houses of Congress and all courts will continue to function normally and well.

It also depends on whether certain independent constitutional bodies, namely the Ombudsman, the Commission on Human Rights, and the Commission on Audit will persist in discharging their proper functions.

Finally, it depends on whether you, my fellow Ateneans, together with the rest of the Filipino population, do your part to ensure that this declaration of Martial Law does not imperil your future.

Allow me to clarify that the powers to declare Martial Law and suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus are expressly granted President Duterte under the Constitution. When properly implemented, this should not by itself unduly burden our country. This power was granted to allow the President to resolve the situation “in case of invasion or rebellion, when the public safety requires it.” There may be questions before the Supreme Court regarding whether this can be extended to encompass situations akin to invasion or rebellion, and what circumstances constitute rebellion, but we will not venture into that for now. Suffice it to say that the Martial Law power is an immense power that can be used for good, to solve defined emergencies; but all earthly powers when abused can result in oppression.

If the Martial Law power is expressly granted the President, why are there fears expressed in some quarters regarding the declaration of President Duterte?

You must understand the history of a previous declaration of martial law, which occurred over forty years ago at the height of President Marcos’ power. Former Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee in Dizon v Eduardo described September 22, 1972 – the night Marcos announced Martial Law – as a dark evening when military authorities moved throughout the city to arrest and detain journalists and members of the opposition, upon orders of the President-turned dictator. Over the next two decades, enemies of the Marcos regime “disappeared,” were tortured or summarily executed.

The fears stoked by the terms “Martial Law” and “suspension of the writ of habeas corpus,” are therefore not surprising. But we must remember that these apprehensions were created by former President Marcos and the martial law that followed his 1972 declaration. If President Duterte and the aforementioned government authorities avoid the gross historical sins of Mister Marcos and his agents, then our country might reap the benefits of the legitimate use of the provisions on Martial Law in the 1987 Constitution.

You see, the 1987 Constitution in clear and unmistakable language rejects and absolutely prohibits the particular kind of martial law that began in our country in September of 1972. What do I mean by this? Allow me to refer to the decisions of our Supreme Court and other tribunals regarding the essential characteristics of the martial law dominating our country following its 1972 proclamation.

First, that period was characterized by widespread human rights violations in the form of murders, rape and other forms of torture, forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and illegal detention, and forced isolation or hamletting of villages.

In the case of Mijares v. Ranada, the Supreme Court described the deep damage dealt to our institutions and the very fabric of our society as follows:

“Our martial law experience bore strange unwanted fruits, and we have yet to finish weeding out its bitter crop. While the restoration of freedom and the fundamental structures and processes of democracy have been much lauded, according to a significant number, the changes, however, have not sufficiently healed the colossal damage wrought under the oppressive conditions of the martial law period. The cries of justice for the tortured, the murdered, and the desaparecidos arouse outrage and sympathy in the hearts of the fair-minded, yet the dispensation of the appropriate relief due them cannot be extended through the same caprice or whim that characterized the ill-wind of martial rule. The damage done was not merely personal but institutional, and the proper rebuke to the iniquitous past has to involve the award of reparations due within the confines of the restored rule of law.”

Perhaps the most specific recount of the human rights atrocities during the Martial Law period beginning in 1972 can be found in a U.S. Decision, specifically that of the Hawaiian District Court in the case of In Re: Estate Of Ferdinand E. Marcos Human Rights Litigation, Celsa Hilao, et. al v. Estate Of Ferdinand E. Marcos. The case was a class action brought by victims or victims’ family members against the Estate of Marcos, seeking compensation for torture, disappearance or summary execution. The court made findings of human rights violations including numerous forms of torture such as beatings while blindfolded, rape and sexual assault, electric shock, and solitary confinement. The court noted:

“All of these forms of torture were used during “tactical interrogation,” attempting to elicit information from detainees concerning opposition to the MARCOS government. The more the detainees resisted, whether purposefully or out of lack of knowledge, the more serious the torture used.”

Second, the period of martial law that began in September of 1972 was likewise characterized by its heretofore unprecedented scale of plunder.

The case of Presidential Commission on Good Government v. Peña described the rule of Marcos as a “well-entrenched plundering regime of twenty years,” with respect to  “the ill-gotten wealth which rightfully belongs to the Republic although pillaged and plundered in the name of dummy or front companies, in several known instances carried out with the bold and mercenary, if not reckless, cooperation and assistance of members of the bar as supposed nominees.” The Supreme Court in that case “noted the magnitude of the regime’s organized pillage and the ingenuity of the plunderers and pillagers with the assistance of experts and the best legal minds in the market.” The ill-gotten assets identified so far by both the Presidential Commission on Good Governance and the Solicitor General are valued at approximately 5 billion US dollars.

Third, the martial law following the proclamation of 1972 was extremely oppressive, concentrating power only in Mister Marcos and his group. At one point, the Supreme Court, quoting Chief Justice Teehankee, characterized the time as “a return to the lese majeste when the voice of the King was the voice of God so that those touched by his absolute powers could only pray that the King acted prudently and wisely.” The dictator amassed so much power as the Commander-in-Chief, that he was able to take “absolute command of the nation and… the people could only trust that he would not fail them.”

We know what happened. Marcos failed our people. Those of us who were alive at the time bore witness to the human rights atrocities and the corruption caused by such absolute power.

Fourth, the martial law period of 1972 put the Philippines in an economic tailspin that saw us go from the second most vibrant economy in Asia to its sick man. In Marcos v. Manglapus, the Supreme Court noted that excessive foreign borrowing during the Marcos regime stagnated development and became one of the root causes of widespread poverty, leaving the economy in a precarious state. In Republic v. Sandiganbayan, the Court described the economic havoc created by the authoritarian regime in this manner:

At the time that the government of former President Marcos was driven from power, the country’s debt was over twenty-six billion US dollars; and the indications were that “illegally acquired wealth” of the deposed president alone, not counting that of his relatives and cronies, was in the aggregate amount of from five to ten billion US dollars, the bulk of it being deposited and hidden abroad.”

These are only a few excerpts from some of the many decisions of the highest court of the land that memorialize for all of history the atrocities committed during the era heralded by the 1972 declaration of martial law. They may not be the most heart-rending of accounts due to the necessary haste with which I compiled them, but I encourage you to do further reading on these and similar cases. These excerpts together with unrefuted historical accounts are a testament to our country’s resolve to never again allow ourselves to return to those dark and terrible times.

Thus the 1987 Constitution clearly says:

A state of martial law does not suspend the operation of the Constitution, nor supplant the functioning of the civil courts or legislative assemblies, nor authorize the conferment of jurisdiction on military courts and agencies over civilians where civil courts are able to function, nor automatically suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.

As we face the days following President Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao, it behooves us to ask what we can do in the present, with the time that is given to us, to ensure that the horrors of martial law that followed the 1972 declaration do not happen again.

For if being an Atenean means anything, it is that each of us — individually, and as a member of the Ateneo as an institution — bears a great deal of responsibility for the well-being of this country. And this responsibility entails leading not by possessing power for power’s sake, but by sacrificial example, by dying to ourselves and taking up our crosses daily. If power is to be granted to an Atenean, then such power must be exercised the way Christ exercised his leadership, by being a servant first, to the Father, and to His brothers and sisters.

These are times when everything that can be shaken is being shaken, when institutions are being challenged to their very foundations, and basic ideas of decency and human dignity are being violated with great impunity. These are times more than any other that will sorely test the Atenean’s capacity to distinguish right from wrong and the Atenean’s ability to act in service of what is right, and true, and good.

Do not be discouraged, for you are well-equipped for the challenges of these times. You only need to look within and around you and reflect on the Atenean principles inculcated in you over the years –

Magis, or the constant pursuit of improvement and excellence, for difficult times require extraordinary people.

AMDG! For the greater glory of God — for these are times when our faith will be tested, our paths will be dark and full of shadows, and only by surrendering all our actions to God may we continue towards the light.

One Big Fight! More than a cheer used in our basketball games, One Big Fight embodies the wholehearted passion and dedication that must fuel all our actions.

But the most fundamental Atenean value today is that of being a person for others. To be an Atenean is to serve — compassionately, selflessly, with unceasing dedication. To be an Atenean is to constantly continue the work of addressing others’ needs; to think broadly, not merely in terms of impact on one’s self, but impact on one’s community and country. To be an Atenean is to deeply and completely understand that it is in service to others that our lives take on their full meaning. To be an Atenean is to forsake a life of self-centered safety for a life of service.

To be a person for others is to commit to a just and noble cause greater than oneself.

Given the present day, when the possibility of history repeating itself looms imminent, no cause requires your commitment as much as the cause of human rights, justice, and democracy, themes you have aptly chosen.

For today, people’s fundamental human rights and freedoms, the core of our democracy, face grave and blatant threats. The culture of impunity is on the rise. People are pressured to favor the easy choice over the right choice: expediency over due process; convenient labeling over fairness; the unlawful termination of human life over rehabilitation.

You need to make a stand, dear Ateneans. And to make a stand you must act. More than merely ruminating on the idea of justice, I call on each of you to confront the common injustices of our society and seek to address them. I urge you to speak out with truth even against the overwhelming tide of popular opinion and reach out to the oppressed and disenfranchised. When you face threats to the sanctity of human rights or the stability of our democracy, give your all to protect these freedoms. Give your all to protect our nation and our people.

Stand up and give One Big Fight. As I stated in my speech to the lawyers in the Integrated Bar of the Philippines National Convention last March 23, we are not fighting a person or an establishment but a culture, a pattern that pervades our society today. It is a pattern of apathy, rage, and despair: one that began when people learned to tolerate wrong, stopped hoping, and ceased caring.

I understand that the task before you is immense, but I have no doubt you are more than up to the challenge. For you have been honed over your years in the Ateneo to fulfill your calling in extraordinary ways.

That is why I do not feel only hope when I look at you – my heart is filled with grateful gladness. Throughout the countless calamities that have struck the country, Ateneans have always been among the first to respond and help. Unstintingly and without hesitation, Ateneans have reached out, time and time again, to complete strangers — giving of themselves to people they may never even meet.

Last year, when the history of our nation was subjected to attempts at revision, you were among the first to speak up. I saw young men and women from the Ateneo spill out into the streets, furious and indignant, speaking up against this distortion of our history and reaching out to show fellow Filipinos that they were not alone. As a fellow Atenean, I understood that this passionate outpouring of righteous anger sprang from a deep understanding of what it means to be a person for others.

Know that being a person for others and standing for human rights, justice, and democracy are one and the same. To stand for human rights is to value others’ freedoms as much as you value your own. To stand for justice is to oppose any attempts to value one group’s freedoms more than those of others. To stand for democracy is to love your country and your people so fully that you will act to ensure democratic processes are followed despite great personal cost. To stand for all of these is to sacrifice yourself so that others may know freedom, safety, and all the fullness of life.

Know that you are not alone. You will not be alone. Have the courage to stand.

My prayers are with you, young Ateneans. As you face this crossroad and move on to a new chapter of your lives, may the Lord bless and keep you; may He make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.

Mabuhay kayo, class of 2017! Make us proud!

Source: [INQUIRER.net]

[dipulb3]

The hard truth about the Facebook ad boycott: Nothing matters but Zuckerberg

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/the-hard-truth-about-the-facebook-ad-boycott-nothing-matters-but-zuckerberg/

The hard truth about the Facebook ad boycott: Nothing matters but Zuckerberg

But in recent days, Facebook has looked a little less invincible. The social network is confronting a new pressure campaign from advertisers unlike anything in its recent history. A growing number of big household names has joined a Facebook advertising boycott over its handling of hate speech and misinformation, culminating on Friday with the news that home goods giant Unilever would halt ad spending for at least the remainder of the year on Facebook, as well as Twitter (TWTR). The move was enough to tank both companies’ stocks and prompt speculation of a possible domino effect among large advertisers.

Unilever’s decision illustrates how quickly an ad boycott that began with socially conscious lifestyle brands, such as The North Face and Patagonia, has spread to some of the world’s largest corporations. The #StopHateForProfit campaign, which launched in the wake of Facebook’s decision not to take action on incendiary posts from President Donald Trump, is now a force Facebook cannot ignore.

In the past week, the company held a conference call to tell marketers it’s working to close a “trust deficit.” It sent out multiple emails to advertisers in hopes of containing the revolt. And on Friday, Zuckerberg himself addressed the public with new promises to ban hateful ads and label controversial posts from politicians. But despite the mounting pressure, Zuckerberg, the one person with the most power to decide what the company does next, did not address the boycott, a decision that may only strengthen his critics’ resolve.

In the weeks since Facebook decided not to take action on a series of controversial Trump posts — including one during the racial justice protests that said “looting” would lead to “shooting” — the company and its CEO have faced pushback from employees, politicians and even scientists backed by Zuckerberg’s philanthropic organization. But more than any of these other protests, the advertiser boycott could pose a deeper threat to Facebook and its core business. Nearly all of Facebook’s roughly $70 billion in annual revenue last year came from advertising dollars.

A significant chunk of that came from big brands, said Laura Martin, an industry analyst at Needham & Co. — and big brands have only become more vital to Facebook as smaller advertisers scale back or go out of business due to the pandemic.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement Friday after Unilever’s announcement, Facebook stressed the steps it’s taken to protect its platform, including banning hundreds of white supremacist organizations and investing in artificial intelligence to find and crack down on harmful content.

“We invest billions of dollars each year to keep our community safe and continuously work with outside experts to review and update our policies,” said company spokesman Andy Stone. “We know we have more work to do, and we’ll continue to work with civil rights groups, GARM, and other experts to develop even more tools, technology and policies to continue this fight.”

Facebook may be vulnerable, but Zuckerberg is not

As each new company lends its weight to the boycott, the economic pressure is growing on Facebook to change — somehow. The campaign carries echoes of a similar advertiser rebellion against YouTube in 2017. Then, as now, major household names announced one by one that they would reject YouTube’s platform over concerns that its algorithms were placing ads beside hate speech. And ad executives say it led to some changes, including more controls to prevent ads from appearing beside controversial content.

Despite some similarities, Facebook is less susceptible to outside pressure than most businesses, experts say. It’s led by a CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who exercises complete voting control over the company and can’t be removed by shareholders. And that could vastly complicate the campaign to hit Facebook where it hurts.

“Disney couldn’t do this, and Apple couldn’t do this. They’re run by committee,” Martin said. “If it was a company run by committee, they would have to react, because the committee — the board of directors — would be threatening to fire the CEO to protect revenue. That doesn’t have to happen here.”

Indeed, Facebook appeared to strike a defiant tone earlier in the week. “We do not make policy changes tied to revenue pressure,” Carolyn Everson, Facebook Vice President of Global Business Group, wrote in an email to advertisers this week obtained by Appradab. “We set our policies based on principles rather than business interests.”

Whether the boycott will even have a measurable impact on Facebook’s bottom line still remains very hazy. That’s partly due to the number of participating brands, the timing of the campaign, and ambient factors such as the pandemic that may make it challenging to link any potential dip in Facebook revenue directly to the boycott. Additionally, there are few alternatives in reaching audiences the size Facebook can offer, along with a nearly unmatched data trove for ad targeting. The earliest any impact could become apparent will be when the company reports its third quarter earnings results this fall.

Of the companies that have joined the boycott so far, only three — Unilever, Verizon and the outdoor equipment retailer REI — rank among the top 100 advertisers on Facebook, according to data compiled by Pathmatics, a marketing intelligence firm. In 2019, Unilever ranked 30th, spending an estimated $42.4 million on Facebook ads. Verizon and REI were 88th and 90th, respectively, spending an estimated $23 million each.

The highest-spending 100 brands accounted for $4.2 billion in Facebook advertising last year, according to Pathmatics data, or about 6% of the platform’s ad revenue. Topping the list were Home Depot (HD), Walmart (WMT), Microsoft (MSFT), AT&T (T) (which owns WarnerMedia, Appradab’s parent company) and Disney (DIS).

Much of the rest of Facebook’s ad revenue comes from small and medium-sized businesses, ad executives say. It would likely take tens of thousands of them, acting over a significant period of time, to put a big dent in Facebook’s bottom line.

The uncertain road ahead

Since the #StopHateForProfit campaign asks for businesses to pause advertising only during the month of July, companies that stick narrowly to the campaign will only deny revenue to Facebook for a matter of weeks. That may show up as barely a blip, if at all, in Facebook’s quarterly earnings, said Nicole Perrin, principal analyst at the market research firm eMarketer.

Nancy Smith, president of the advertising consulting firm Analytic Partners, said a driving factor for many of the participating companies is “brand safety” — the desire for their advertisements not to show up beside conspiracy theories or hateful rhetoric. As they stop investing in Facebook and Instagram, she said, many marketers will redirect those dollars. Unilever said Friday it would be shifting its own US digital ad budget to other platforms.

“For our clients, we would advise them to reallocate those funds,” said Smith. “Reallocating to other social media, potentially; reallocating to other digital publishers; reallocating to linear TV; reallocating to platforms like Hulu.”

Then there’s the pandemic, which has already driven a slowdown in the digital advertising industry this year. Companies scaled back dramatically on ad spending in March and April, and some, like Verizon and Patagonia, were just beginning to reinvest in Facebook ads when #StopHateForProfit began, according to Pathmatics’ research.

As Covid-19 infection rates begin spiking again nationwide, it’s going to be “extremely difficult to tease out” the reasons behind any slump in advertising numbers, Perrin said.

“It’s going to be a very political argument where folks on the boycott side will want to say they had an effect, whereas those on the other side will say the boycott didn’t really work,” said Perrin. “It’ll be tough.”

Until Zuckerberg himself decides to change the limits of free expression on his platform, Facebook may simply lose brands until only those that don’t object to the company’s conduct or who cannot survive without the platform’s reach are left, Martin said.

In that future, it would be hard to say whether the boycott truly “worked.”

[32flavasshoetique]

The New Way: Protestantism additionally the Hmong in Vietnam

The New Way: Protestantism additionally the Hmong in Vietnam

The transformation of Hmong people in Vietnam to Protestantism is notable not just for the size—with an expected 300,000 Hmong Protestants in Vietnam away from a basic populace of more than one million Hmong in Vietnam—but additionally as the first converts stumbled on faith through radio broadcasts. This guide examines such an account by way of a sociological lens. Tam Ngo lived with Hmong Protestants in north Vietnam. Her interviews and findings give you the history for the analysis. The guide provides unique source product for understanding conversion in Southeast Asia, specially among the Hmong in Vietnam.

It’s no effortless task to account fully for the Hmong Protestant motion in Vietnam. The easiest description is millenarian expectation in Hmong tradition blended well aided by the Protestant message. But comparable millenarian tendencies can be viewed in a lot of East Asia. Ngo reminds us of this Taiping Rebellion in nineteenth-century Asia along with the Hoa H?o movement in twentieth-century Vietnam.

Ngo concludes that no theory that is single account completely for transformation with this scale.

Yet as a suggestion that is tentative she proposes that Protestantism provides an alternative solution road to modernity for Hmong people, the one that bypasses the state worldview of Vietnam (10). Ngo recognizes that it is nevertheless maybe perhaps perhaps not the whole photo. Conversion is complex, along with her research illustrates just just exactly how initial good reasons for transformation may vary through the reasons individuals carry on when you look at the Protestant faith.

Chapter 1 describes the plight of contemporary Hmong in Vietnam. Ngo catalogues a few federal government programs built to civilize and manage Hmong groups. These have remaining the feeling that is hmong and belittled. For instance, as Vietnam transitioned to an industry economy within the late 1980s and very early 1990s (the D?i M?i reforms), the us government permitted for partial privatization of land but limited how big is household land plots to ensure that few Hmong had farmland that is sufficient surplus crops. Ngo spent amount of time in a village composed of Hmong who had previously been relocated into the 1990s from higher elevations. Provided the vow of better farmland, that they had relocated nearer to interaction tracks but discovered the advantage minimal. Vietnamese federal government officials, nevertheless, blame the Hmong on their own for his or her poverty because, they state, Hmong individuals refuse to completely enter the free market system. This mindset has added to Hmong distrust of Vietnamese leadership.

Chapter 2 details the very first conversions to Protestantism of Hmong in Vietnam through the preaching of John Lee on radio broadcasts sponsored because of the asia Broadcasting Company. Lee deliberately used Hmong people history interpreted through Christian language in the preaching. Hmong tradition currently had a Fall narrative, and Lee preached you can go back to the “god of heaven” through Jesus Christ (44–46). FEBC first found out about Hmong conversions in 1991 each time a Vietnamese magazine lamented that a lot of Hmong had become Christians through FEBC broadcasting. During the early 1990s, Vietnamese authorities attempted to impede a lot more of these conversions but without success.

Chapter 3 traces the transnational character of Hmong tradition as a factor that is significant Hmong transformation to Protestantism.

Diaspora Hmong Protestants in america as well as other nations have missionary zeal, which Ngo features with their breakthrough of contemporary life away from Southeast Asia. This results in a desire that is strong indulge in the evangelism of the previous homeland. But Ngo observes that this zeal is double-edged. By launching the transnational Hmong network of Protestants to the Hmong in Vietnam, Hmong coming back as “missionaries” also introduce methods of life characteristic associated with modern world that is developed. She concludes that Protestant Hmong in Vietnam may have difficulty keeping conventional types of life in the act.

Chapter 4 details the suspicion that Protestantism and millenarianism that is apocalyptic turn in hand. Ngo informs on how certainly one of her connections first heard the air preaching after which taken care of immediately neighborhood eschatological hype in 1990 by ceasing to farm for some time. In 1992 as soon as the radio instructed Christians to get hold of a church in Hanoi, but, he discovered Christian resources in Hmong and burned their altar that is ancestral in ceremony along with their descendants (85-87). This tale is typical and shows the clear presence of a millenarian tendency in Hmong tradition that may be along with Christianity in order for “little religious modification is needed” (95). But millenarianism is certainly not a beast that is tame. Because recently as might 2011, a sizable group including some Protestant Hmong collected in remote Mu?ng Nhe, partially provoked by the prophecy of Harold Camping about Christ’s imminent return. Ngo concludes that Protestantism could perhaps perhaps not include Hmong millenarianism. Through the chapter, nevertheless, she records that numerous Hmong Protestants deny that such radical millenarianism is just a force that is driving. As soon as 1992, Ngo’s connections started getting together with main-stream Protestantism. Ngo also visited a church team in 2007 that questioned her to be yes she had not been an apocalyptic preacher (99).

Chapter 5 explores the tangible reasons Hmong convert to Christianity. Specially in the first 2000s, these included certain financial benefits: eliminating high priced shaman rituals, eliminating bride cost, and a wholesome life style. Ngo concludes that the Vietnamese government efforts at changing Hmong tradition have actually unsuccessful while having alternatively exposed up the chance of alternative identities. Christianity, with a transnational message, offers a platform for identity that goes beyond the second-class situation of Hmong in Vietnam.

Chapter 6 details the intricate negotiations between church and state among the list of Hmong.

Constant surveillance and stress forced many Protestant Hmong to meet up in general privacy throughout the 1990s. Whenever church enrollment had been permitted in 2004–2005, Ngo reports that authorities denied numerous families from joining worship solutions simply because they weren’t formally registered in the neighborhood. Worship services had been under surveillance and had been necessary to occur exactly as was prepared. Protestant Hmong also face stress from non-Christian Hmong. Family animosity continues to be because Protestants will not participate in funeral rituals such as animal sacrifice.

Chapter 7 analyzes the changed stance that is moral Protestant Hmong, especially in regards to sexuality. Protestant conversion has visibly impacted marriage and courtship. Christians talk against key courtship very often involves sex that is pre-marital. Christians try not to exercise spending a bride price and frown regarding the tradition of bride-capture (frequently an orchestrated occasion). The language in Hmong for individual sin that is sexual also been broadened by Protestantism, although Ngo is ambiguous just what this may indicate. In quick, “Soul re searching, introspection, together with conception of sin be seemingly probably the most crucial areas of the Protestant contribution” (161).

Evangelical missiologists and theologians will see this text a complement with other sociological studies of transformation among cultural minority teams. Ngo resists the urge for a purely governmental narrative to describe Hmong transformation, although she prefers the storyline of the social trajectory linked to the modern developed globe. Protestantism offers a jump forward into contemporary identification structures for Hmong individuals, a jump that neither Vietnamese Communism nor conventional Hmong faith could offer. Although this can help explain specific areas of conversion, pragmatic reasons usually do not take into account the tenacity of several Hmong believers despite persecution during the early 1990s. In a single astonishing statement, Ngo compares transformation narratives in 2004–2005 to 2007–2008. Some people had stated that pragmatic considerations were foremost (e.g., not mail-order-bride.net – find your baltic bride enough a bride cost) in 2005, yet the exact same individuals explained that Protestantism had been superior as a belief system if they had been interviewed once more in 2007 (103). Let me reveal an understanding for missiologists and missionaries that are disciple-making. Burning one’s ancestral altar had been, when it comes to Hmong, just the start of transformation and maturity in Christianity.

Ngo’s work provides the opportunity for evangelicals to think on the observable, social, and also governmental nature of transformation. The recognition of public, gathered Hmong churches in communist Vietnam is really a testimony towards the power that is continuing of Christian message. As well, this sourcebook of Hmong expertise in transformation points out of the numerous actions taking part in changing one’s identity. The way in which one very very very first confesses Christ may alter after representation and engagement with Scripture together with global Christian community. Ngo’s work reminds evangelicals that many different human being facets make within the procedure of Christian conversion and serves as a resource that is helpful recording this history one of the Hmong.

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Terrorism – A Threat to Global Peace

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ABSTRACT

Nowadays, no one seems to be saved in the world. Terrorism, an ugly development which has compelled the world leaders as well as the public figures to spend millions of dollars beefing up their security, has become a global threat. Amidst this seemingly tight security and threat, thousands of innocent souls have lost their lives to the annihilation called terrorism.

Statistically, it has been proved that no country of the world is exceptional to terrorist attacks. Pius Odiaka writes on the palpable fear pervading world following the series of bombings in some countries. He declares in the Guardian Newspaper, Friday, July 29th, 2005, (page 24) that "No part of the world has been left without terrorist bloodshed. From Kenya, Algeria, Egypt in Africa to many countries in the middle East and the Gulf; Indonesia, Philippine, Pakistan and India across Asia; Washington and New York in America; Spain and now London in Europe, many innocent souls have been sniffed out of existence."

The paper will present how terrorism is a threat to Global Peace. It will enumerate the category of acts of terrorism. It will also examine the causes and implications of terrorism in human advancement especially in the area of peace building and keeping. Above all, it will provide recommendations by referring to the United Nations recommendations for a global counter-terrorism strategy. It concludes by affirming that the global peace can only be achieved if the world- the leaders and the followers-condemn terrorism in all forms and ramifications, and act unconditionally and justly in their quest to providing everlasting solutions to peace, as it constitutes one of the most serious threats to global peace and security.

Introduction

In human history, terrorism is widely recognized as the world most famous enemy of mankind. As history itself will admit that terrorism is annihilation with far-reaching and destructive effects, it is the cruelest of crimes against humanity. Its remains have turned neighbours into enemies and have made our societies and the whole world unsafe for living. Its aims and applications are global and uncompromising. Neither terrorism nor is perpetrators are new. Even though it has been used since the beginning of recorded time, not history itself can keep, with precision, the number of lives and properties lost to terrorism.

No doubt, terrorism with its destructive power has reshaped the world we live in. We now live in the world characterized by rising violence and conflicts. This, in turn, has led to the world of growing mistrust, fear, division and represents a significant new threat to international justice, peace and security. This ugly development thus made Amnesty International to observe in its 2004 Report the lasting effects of the crime on humanity. This report and others provide a valid point on how terrorism or terrorist acts have made the world unsafe and how it has threatened global peace.

Historical Background of terrorism

It is pertinent to recall that forms of society and governments in the past differ from what they are today, when describing the history of terrorism and the use of terror through time. Not until 1648 (Treaty of Westphalia), there was nothing like modern nation-states. More recent is the state's monopoly on warfare or interstate-violence. The absence of central authority gave many more players opportunity to participate in the game of warfare. However, this did not make the use of terror a method of affecting a political change. In contrast to the modern era, where only nations go to war, the involvement of players such as religious leaders, mercenaries, mercantile companies, national armies and many more was considered to be lawful and normal.

Terrorist acts or the threat of such action have been in existence for millennia. So, in narrating the history of terrorism, it is important to talk about the various types of terrorism and terrorist individuals and groups. Below is the summary of the history of terrorism.

Ancient World:

Sicarii Zealots

Political scientists see the radical Sicarii offshoot of the Jewish Zealots as one of the earliest forerunners of modern terrorism. Like modern terrorists, they intended their actions to suggest a message to a wider target audience: in this instance, the roman imperial officials and all pro-Roman and collaborationists

Al-Assassin

The Hashshashin (also Hashishin, Hashsshiyyin or Assassins) were an offshoot of the Isma ili sect of the Shiite Muslims. After a quarrel about the succession of leadership in the ruling Fatimide dynasty in Cairo around the year 1090, the losing Nizariyya faction was driven from Egypt. They established a number of fortified settlements in present day Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon under the charismatic leader Hasan I Sabbah.Persecuted as infidel by the dominant Sunni sect in the Muslim world; they sent dedicated suicide murderers to eliminate prominent Sunni leaders whom they considered "impious usurpers." The sect was decimated by the invading Mongols, their last stronghold being flattened by Hulegu Khan in the year 1272.Many scholars believe the term Hashshashin, a name given to them by their enemies was derived from the Arabic "hassasin(hashish user),which they are alleged to have ingested prior to their attacks, but this etymology is disputed. The sects referred to themselves as al-da-wa al-jadida, which means the new doctrine, and were known within the organization as Fedayeen.

Seventeenth century

Gunpowder Plot (1605)

On November 5, 1605 a group of conspirators, led by Guy Fawkes, attempted to destroy the English Parliament on the State Opening, by detonating a large quantity of gunpowder secretly placed beneath the building. The design was to kill King James1 and the members of both houses of parliament. In the resulting anarchy, the conspirators planned to implement a coup and restore the Catholic faith to England. However the plan was betrayed and then thwarted.

Eighteenth century

1.Sons of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty were an underground group opposed to British Rule in the colonies, who committed several attacks, most famous among these was the Boston Tea Party. No one was killed or seriously injured by any action that was taken.

2.The Terror (1793-1794)

The Reign of Terror ( September 5 1793- July 28 1794) or simply The Terror ( French: la Terreur) was a period of about eleven months during the French Revolution when struggles between rival factions led to mutual radicalization which took on a violent character with mass executions by guillotine.

The victims of the Reign of Terror totaled approximately 40,000.Among people who are condemned by the revolutionary tribunals, about 8 percent were aristocrats, 6 percent clergy 14 percent middle class, and 70 percent were workers or peasants accused of hoarding, evading the draft, desertion, rebellion, and other purported crimes.

Nineteenth century

1.Anarchism

Anarchists was the most prolific terrorists of the 19th century, with the terroristic tendencies of both nationalism and political movements of Communism or fascism still in there infancy. The disjointed attacks of various anarchists groups lead to the assassination of Russian Tsars and American Presidents but had little real political impact.

2.Tsarist Russia

In Russia, by the mid-19 th century, the intelligentsia grew impatient with the slow pace of Tsarist reforms, which had slowed considerably after the attempted assassination of Alexander II of Russia. Radicals then sought instead to transform peasant discontent into open revolution. Anarchists like Mikhail Bakunin maintained that progress was impossible without destruction. With the development of sufficiently powerful, stable, and affordable explosives, the gap closed between the firepower of the state and the means available to dissidents. The main group responsible for the resulting campaign of terror-'Narodnaya Volya' (people's will) (1878-81) - used the word 'terrorist' proudly. They believed in the targeted killing of the 'leaders of oppression'; they were convinced that the developing technologies of the age-symbolized by bombs and bullets- enabled them to strike directly and discriminately." People's Will", possessing only 30 members, attempted several assassination attempts upon Tsa. Culminating in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II on 13 March 1881, killing the Tsar as he was traveling by train.

3. Irish Republican Brotherhood

In 1867, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a revolutionary nationalist group with support from Irish-Americans, carried out attacks in England. These were the first acts of "republican terrorism", which became a recurrent feature of British history, and these Fenians were the precursor of the Irish Republican Army. The ideology of the group was Irish nationalism.

4. Nationalist terrorism

The Fenians/IRA and the IMRO may be considered the prototype of all 'nationalist terrorism', and equally illustrate the (itself controversial) expression that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter'. At least one of these groups achieve its goal: an independent Ireland came into being. So did an independent Macedonia, but original IMRO probably contributed little to this outcome. Some groups resorted to the use of dynamite, as did Catalan nationalists such as La Reixa and Bandera Negra.

5. John Brown

John Brown was an abolitionist who advocated armed opposition to slavery. He committed several terrorist attacks and was also involved in an illegal smuggling of slaves. His most famous attack was upon the armory at Harpers Ferry, though the local forces would soon recapture the fort and Brown, trying and executing him for treason. His death would make him a martyr to the abolitionist cause, one of the origins of American Civil War, and a hero to the Union forces that fought in it.

6. Ku Klux Klan (1865)

The original Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was created after the end of the American Civil War on December 24, 1865, by six educated middle-class confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee. It soon spread into nearly every southern state of the United States. The Klan has advocated for what is generally perceived as white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racism, anti-Catholicism, homophobia, and nativism. They have often used terrorism, violence and acts of intimidation such as cross burning to oppress African Americans and other groups. The name 'Ku Klux Klan' has been used by many different unrelated groups, but they all seem to center on the belief of white supremacy. From its creation to the present day, the number of members and influence has varied greatly. However, there is little doubt that, especially in the southern United States, it has at times wielded much political influence and generated great fear among African Americans and their supporters. At one time KKK controlled the governments of Tennessee, Indiana, Oklahoma and Oregon, in addition to some of the southern U.S legislatures.

Twentieth century

Suffragette, Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand (1914), KKK(1915),Irgun (1936-1948), World War II, Nationalism and the End of Empire,Cold War proxies,,IRA,,ETA, Aum Shinrikyo (1984-1995), Achille Lauro Hijacking (1985), Lockerbie bombing (1988), Umkhonto we Sizwe (South Africa 1961-1990), PLO (1964-c.1988), Columbian terrorist groups, Munich Massacre (1972),Matsumoto incident(1994), Sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway(1995),and Oklahoma City bombing (1995) are types of terrorism and individual terrorists and groups that operated in the twentieth century.

Twenty-First Centuries

The well-celebrated September 11 (2002) attack and the Beslan school siege are recent terrorist attacks of the twenty-first century.

Terrorism: Definition of a Phenomenon

As clearly stated above, terrorism has established itself as a world phenomenon before 1648. But then, it becomes imperative to look into the true meaning of the term.Although providing a definite definition for it has been accorded with series of controversies, etymologically, the term emanates from Latin, "terrere", meaning "to frighten" via the French word terrorisme, which is often associated with the regime de la terreur, the Reign of Terror of the revolutionary government in France from 1793 to 1794.The Committee of Public Safety agents that enforced the policies of "The Terror" were referred to as " Terrorists".

The English word "terrorism" was first recorded in English dictionaries in 1798 as meaning "systematic use of terror as a policy". The Oxford English Dictionary still records a definition of terrorism as "Government by intimidation carried out by the party in power in France between 1789-1794.

The controversial issue is that the vocabulary of terrorism has become the successor to that of anarchy and communism the catch-all label opprobrium, exploited accordingly by media and politicians.The difficulty in constructing a definition which eliminates any just cause for terrorism is that history provides too many precedents of organizations and their leaders branded as terrorist but who eventually evolved into respected government. This has applied particularly to national liberation movements fighting colonial or oppressive regimes, engaging in violence within their countries often as a last resort. Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya spent years of his life lobbying the British government before his involvement with the Mau Mau rebellion. Nelson Mandela, a hero in his continent and beyond, is another convicted "terrorist" belonging to this class.

Before making a valid point, it is important to say that this piece would like to consider further statements and criticisms on the issue and recognized that there are other valid arguments on these controversial issues. However, they are not within premises of this paper.

Arriving at a universally accepted definition of terrorism which narrows down to a specific method of conducting violence instead of "all its forms and manifestations" or which makes it possible to refer terrorist acts to an international court, as for genocide and other war crimes or which makes it impossible for individual countries to outlaw activities they choose to classify as terrorism perhaps for their own political interest is a great challenge in the study of terrorism.

While the United Nations has not yet accepted a definition of terrorism, the UN's "academic consensus definition," has been put forth for consideration. And they are available for public evaluation.

In final analysis, although, it is not clear the actual number of definitions of terrorism; but it is clear that terrorism does not have respect for human lives and values. It has claimed thousands of lives of innocent souls, rendered millions of people homeless and economically handicapped. Alas, it is clearer that terrorism has turned our world into a place conducive for its existence and spread.

Effects of terrorism on global peace

Indisputably, terrorism is a threat to global peace. As it thrives well in a world such as ours- where violation of human rights, rising violence and conflicts, ethnic, national and religious discrimination, socio-economic marginalization and extreme ideology, dehumanization of victims are prominently in practice, it has succeeded in disregarding human lives and values, launching war on freedom and peace, multiplying violence and conflicts, and posting challenges of solving the problem of injustice, insecurity and declining economy.

Recommendations

In accordance with the United Nations in a report titled: Uniting Against Terrorism-Recommendations for a global counter-terrorism strategy, this paper hereby presents the following recommendations;

(1)All stakeholders-the leaders and the followers, individuals and institutions must dissuade people from resorting to terrorism or supporting it. (2) All stakeholders, in all ways and at all levels, must deny terrorists the means to carry out an attack by: - denying terrorists financial support. -denying terrorists access to deadly weapons, including weapons of mass destruction. - denying terrorists access to travel. -denying terrorists access to their targets and their desired impact. (3) All stakeholders, in all capacities, must deter States from supporting terrorists groups. (4) All stakeholders must develop State capacity to prevent terrorism by: - promoting the rule of law and effective criminal justice systems. - promoting quality education and religious and cultural tolerance. - countering the financing of terrorism. - ensuring transport security. - preventing terrorists from acquiring nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological materials, and ensuring better preparedness for an attack with such materials -improving the defense of soft targets and the response to their attack. - promoting United Nations system-wide coherence in countering terrorism. (5) All stakeholders, collectively, must defend human rights in the context of terrorism and counter- terrorism.

Even though my recommendations are fashioned out of United Nations recommendation for a global strategy, they represent a holistic and realistic approach to fighting or countering terrorism. However, if these recommendations are given the opportunity to operate or if implemented and executed properly and continuously, they are effective strategies of countering terrorism and, at the same time, ensuring a world free of violence and conflict, violations of human rights, ethnic, national and religious discrimination, political exclusion, and socio-economic marginalization

Conclusion

As you will agree with me that terrorism affects all of us, our approach to fighting or countering terrorism and ensuring a safe and peaceful world must be collective. However, it is worth noting that the world leaders, followers and stakeholders have vital roles to play in the fight against terrorism and in achieving our goals of global peace and security.

For the world leaders and stakeholders, these roles transcend attending or organizing world summit, conferences, seminars, e.t.c on the topic, and consenting to Global strategy to counter terrorism on papers. They need to commit more resources, at all levels, to the cause, be more sincere and objective in their judgments, more practical in their approach, and create enabling environments conducive for justice, conflict resolutions, human right protection, equality, stability, unity, prosperity, tolerance, peace and security.Above all, they need to promote and support ultimately because that have respect for human lives and values.

For followers and individuals, we need to carry out the message beyond conferences that terrorism is inexcusable and unacceptable. We need to engage in one- to -one education or group discussions enlightening ourselves on the devastating and destructive effects of terrorism on our lives and values, and emphasizing that terrorism is not an effective way of championing a cause, whether political, religious or otherwise. We must recognize that peace is the most precious need of humanity.

[ad_2] Source by Azeez Olawale-Arish Yusuff

[lewepstein]

For Whom the Bell Tolls Part 1: First They Came for the Immigrants

For  Ernest Hemingway, the search for meaning involved life and death challenges and compelling narratives.  He hunted wild game in Africa, ran with the bulls in Pamplona and immortalized Carlos Gutierrez, his Cuban deep sea fishing companion, in his 1953 classic, “The Old Man and the Sea.”   “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” set in 1930s Europe during the Spanish Civil War is a different kind of novel.  It isn’t primarily devoted to Hemingway’s lifelong penchant for danger and adventure.  It also raises some deep, existential questions: “What are our moral and political responsibilities to others?” and  “What is it that impels us to become involved in a cause that takes us beyond our immediate needs and self interest,?”

When I reflect on my own political involvement,  I recall emotionally charged commitments to causes like the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and the anti-war movement in the 1970s.   From a youth spent in psychological and political rebellion, I can testify to the fact that viewing the world in black and white, either/or terms can generate a lot of zealotry and emotional intensity.  Sometimes it also fostered a sense of grandiosity.  It  inflated my personal sense of power and distorted my perception of what was possible to achieve.  

When bells toll later in life, as they are for me during this era of Trump, the volume is lower.  Their muted tones may reflect my disappointment in the ways that people continue to be manipulated by demagogues, clinging to their preferred prejudices, while ignoring compelling evidence indicating that those leaders who they are supporting are not acting in their interest.   I find myself ready to take some kind of action, while at the same time being less trustful of people in general and of the political process in particular.  My positive expectations about what is possible is tempered by the fear-based tribalism that I am witnessing in America at this time - the rigid polarizations and arrogant, self-righteousness that so frequently overrides reason and the desire to find common ground.  Sometimes It feels as if something ominous is descending upon us and that another dark chapter in human history is about to begin.  

As with most of us, I have found it easier to realize my obligations to the people I am closest to.  In that regard, I have a pretty good idea when I am rising to the occasion or falling short.  Family roles are fairly prescribed and the deep bonds that we form tend to reinforce the devoted efforts that we make.  When there is a call for some other kind of activity - something that might be called political or societal - the choices become hazier, involvement can feel more discretionary.

I have learned that unless someone is directly affected by a situation or is a prime mover in an organization or political movement, questions about involvement and commitment will invariably arise: “Is this really anything that has to do with me,?” or “Will this affect me personally?“  And even if something  politically and morally outrageous is unfolding in front of us, like Donald Trump’s recent “zero-tolerance policy” that separated migrants from their infants at the American border, questions can come to mind such as, “What am I being called upon to do,?”  “How much of a difference will my actions really make?” and  “In the larger scheme of things and with so many powerful forces out there, do my efforts even matter?”  But this is the point where psychology and social responsibility intersect - where the relationship between what is personal and what is political overlap.

Besides all of the mundane reasons we might offer for why we are not involving ourselves in political and moral struggles, there is one word that I believe underpins it all and that is Privilege.  As a retired, middle class, college educated, white, straight male receiving a fairly secure pension, social security benefits and government sponsored health insurance - while living in an environmentally safe, low crime area - I am indeed privileged.  History teaches us that people who possess even a little bit of privilege can feel superior to and be turned against those who have less.  The following is a list of some of the burdens carried by the less privileged among us, told from the perspective of someone in my position, who at this moment is less affected by some of the policies of the regime in power.

I am not a Muslim, so I am not  living in fear of increased hate crimes and government restrictions on relatives of mine trying to travel to the U.S.

I am not an immigrant trying to escape a life threatening situation, seeking asylum in the U.S. and separated from her children at the border.  

I am not a DACA recipient, brought to the U.S. by my parents as a child and living in limbo, not knowing whether or not I will soon be deported.

I am not a trans person in the military who has been marginalized by the president and told that I can no longer serve my country, or a member of the LGBTQ community knowing that I may become the next target in my president’s and the Religious Right’s war against gender diversity.

I am not a Mexican American living in the United States at this time, having been characterized by the president of the United States as a suspected “criminal and rapist,”  with my teenage children subject to chants of “build that wall” at basketball tournaments played with predominantly white teams.  

I am not African American in the United States during an era in which the president of my country fostered a nativist lie about the black former president to build his  political base, a man whose first senior advisor is a leader of the alt-right, a political figure who always remains in some proximity to  white supremacists and who regularly denigrates the intelligence of black athletes and politicians.  

I am not a poor person in America at a time when food stamps, Medicaid and other parts of the social safety net are under attack.  

I am not female in America at a time when women across the nation are losing their right to safe, available abortions on demand.  In not being a woman, I am also not subject to the fall out from being objectified by a president who is a serial philanderer and a sexually assaultive male who has boasted about his attacks on members of my group.  

I am not a worker in America at a time when my right to join a union and have it bargain collectively for my living wage and health benefits are being undermined.  

I am not a person with an illness or pre-existing condition seeking health insurance under this administration and I am not facing  financial hardship or bankruptcy because I have an illness.  I do not need to choose between food and medication as many do in this, the wealthiest country in the world.  

I am not an environmental victim of floods or fires brought on by global warming, living in an era in which my president and his political party deny the science of climate change and are rolling back environmental regulations that could endanger my own life and the lives of my children.

I am not a child or an adult suffering from asthma or other conditions that will predictably worsen because of the loosening of air quality regulations by an EPA run by the industries it is supposed to monitor.  

I am not a journalist in America at a time when my president has vilified me and called me “an enemy of the people,” making me vulnerable to the types of attacks that regularly occur under authoritarian regimes.  

Martin Niemoller was a Protestant minister who regretted not speaking out during the rise of fascism in Germany prior to The Holocaust and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in a concentration camp.  His famous quote about Hitler’s early scapegoats has important implications for Donald Trump’s America in 2018.  It may be significant that Trump has first targeted immigrants, the most vulnerable people in our nation - those with the least power to speak out and fight back:  

  “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -

   Because I was not a Socialist.

   Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -

   Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

   Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out -

   Because I was not a Jew.

   Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.

Connecting the historical dots back to Ernest Hemingway’s iconic novel about the Spanish Civil War, there may be important lessons to be drawn from 1930s Europe that can provide insight into what is occurring in the world today.  In 1936, Spain became the first battleground between the defenders of democracy and the reactionary forces of Europe prior to World War II.  The Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco, backed by the Catholic Church and the Spanish aristocracy, attacked the army of the Republic, receiving munitions, air support and soldiers from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.  Seeing this as an epic battle between fascism and democracy, tens of thousands of volunteers from around the world came to defend the Republic.  Among them were progressives, leftist intellectuals and writers like Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell.  The painting Guernica, by Pablo Picasso is a depiction of the horrors perpetrated by the Nationalist air force on civilians, the first time in human history that local populations were subjected to an aerial bombardment.  Without the support of the Western democracies, the International Brigades and other forces loyal to the Republic were overtaken by Franco’s Nationalists.  Emboldened by the fall of Republican Spain, Hitler’s army invaded Poland on September 1st 1939.  Two days later France and England declared war on Germany and the Second World War had begun.

The question remains, If bells had tolled even more  loudly and clearly for the progressive leaders and citizens of Europe during the 1930s, would Hitler not have been appeased, could the rise of fascism been halted in republican Spain and could World War II have been averted?  Most important, in what ways are these questions relevant to what is unfolding in America and the rest of the world today?

“For Whom The Bell Tolls,” Part II is subtitled “What Is To Be Done,?” and will be posted shortly.  It will take a closer look at some of the parallels between 1930s Europe and the world today and offer some suggestions about  the actions that we as citizens may take to avert the kind of human catastrophe that occurred just seventy five years ago.

[yngwrthr]

“Prior to November 9

The revolution began among the sailors of the German fleet at Kiel, the major Baltic port. They had mutinied during the summer of 1917 and were crushed: some were imprisoned, others executed. Like the workers, they organized their revolt through revolutionary shop stewards. They had established contact with the USPD Local (Dittmann), which then disavowed them during the repression of their summer 1917 revolt. They had also been in contact with the workers at the Kiel shipyard and the arsenal. At the end of October 1918, the High Command of the German Navy decided upon one last battle. The sailors refused to set sail and seized the ships, and later took over the city. A workers and sailors council was formed which took control of the city on November 4.

Their attitude and program were quite pacifist: peace, democracy and recognition of the workers. This was the program of all the councils which were born in that first phase. They took the form of the Russian workers and soldiers soviets. They were based on cities, neighborhoods or the various military units. Their form was unlike that of the enterprise or factory councils.

The Kiel council, with an SPD majority, elected Noske as its president, the same person who would later be called the “bloodhound” of the revolution; dispatched to the scene by the SPD leadership, he also took control of the local city government. This fact alone summarizes the whole period: the rebellion chose as its representative the man who had come to squelch it, and he would promptly organize its armed repression.

This tactic of the SPD proved to be more suitable under the circumstances than the one advocated by the government minister from the Catholic Zentrum Party, Erzberger, who proposed that Kiel should be militarily assaulted, but could find no one to carry out such a plan. This same Erzberger, who had presented the motion in favor of peace adopted by the Reichstag in July of 1917, would later be assassinated by the extreme right in 1920, at a time when the revolutionaries had other things to attend to than killing ministers: the good democratic souls of the “workers parties” would, of course, utilize the occasion to criticize the sectarianism of the “leftists” who refused to participate in the insipid campaigns in defense of legality, which is an internal affair of the bourgeoisie.

The revolution rapidly spread throughout the whole country, taking Hamburg and Lübeck on November 5. A general strike broke out in Hamburg after the Kiel revolt.[1] Huge crowds seized warships, the port, the trade union headquarters, the central rail station, and the barracks of the city’s regiment (after a gunfight that led to some casualties), and then armed themselves, without taking any further steps. The senate (the local city administration) and the council mutually recognized one another and functioned (or, more accurately, failed to function) alongside each other: it was by no means a situation of dual power. Instead of dealing with real problems (food, production in the interests of the population and the revolution, armaments, links with the outside), the council organized elections ... for the workers and soldiers councils, which would cost them three days to prepare. After having seized power, the council immediately relinquished it, seeking legitimacy instead. The president of the council was H. Laufenberg. The council proclaimed “the indissoluble unity of the Russia of the Soviets and the government of the Hamburg councils.” According to Laufenberg, it was the movement in Hamburg which transformed the Kiel revolt into a pan-German phenomenon, which spread to Bremen (where the ISD exercised a great deal of influence), Stuttgart (the first party section to split from the SPD), and later, on the seventh, to Munich.[2] The demonstrators in Munich proclaimed the Bavarian council republic and freed all political prisoners. At that time, when the councils were just being formed, this council republic appeared to be copied from the “council-republic” of Russia. Its president was Kurt Eisner (USPD).

Unlike the precedence of Paris in French revolutionary history, Berlin fell, under pressure from all the rest of Germany, on the ninth: a “division” of revolutionary sailors (the Volksmarinedivision) arrived from Kiel and demonstrators occupied all public buildings. Under the direct democratic pressure of the crowds, the republic was proclaimed by the SPD minister, Scheidemann. Ebert reproached him for such an undemocratic act, since a republic can only be proclaimed by a constituent assembly elected by the people. Scheidemann responded that, had he not done so, the demonstrators would have immediately rallied to Liebknecht. An entirely Social Democratic government was created, called the “Council of Peoples Commissars”, composed of three members of the SPD (Ebert, Scheidemann, Landsberg) and three from the USPD (Haase, Dittmann, Barth). Due to his popularity, Liebknecht had been approached, but had refused to participate: at the head of another demonstration, Liebknecht proclaimed the socialist republic.

Approximately 10,000 councils were established, electing leaders who were in their great majority members of the SPD. Both the leaders of the SPD as well as the Army encouraged this process and helped to form councils: “All power to the Councils”. The council was the form chosen to liquidate the subversive movement, from the very moment of its appearance. ...

he November Revolution took place in a totally unexpected manner for all the parties and groups which attempted to assume its leadership, including, among others, those who were closest to the rank and file, the RO, whose plan for an insurrection was rendered superfluous by the wave which spread from Kiel. But the social democracy knew perfectly well how to use this current in its favor, and was all the more pleased when it conformed to its desires. When social democracy took the power which the proletariat had granted it, and which the bourgeoisie was prudent enough to surrender to it, the democratic revolution was already over. The emperor had abdicated after nobody spoke of him anymore. The struggle against the social revolution was initiated and led by the “most powerful workers party in the world” and its peoples commissars, in the name of democracy, the councils and socialism. ...

The strategies and functions of the various organizations

As far as the bourgeoisie was concerned, the State was momentarily neutralized. Nowhere did the bureaucracy offer any resistance to the formation of councils which, although concentrating all power in their hands wherever they were established, left the old State intact, and demanded that the latter “recognize” them. The Army dissolved, although its officers managed its return to Germany in a more or less orderly and disciplined fashion. There was little fraternization with enemy soldiers. The soldiers who were not immediately reincorporated into civilian life formed councils throughout the country at all levels, from the barracks up to the army corps. They were mostly social democrats, but were utterly useless as a force for direct repression: their purpose was more to immobilize the movement, so as to make it expire from inactivity. Some officers attempted to reestablish the status quo in the Army but could only create the Freikorps, paramilitary formations led by officers and government employees. The bourgeoisie and its parties did not take any overt action and ceded political power. Under pressure, their parties changed their names; all of them introduced the word “peoples’” or “popular” into their titles.[4] Liberalism was weak in Germany: the bourgeoisie was not very unified. In 1918, it was not economically destroyed, but surrendered political power to the workers parties. Once again, under the Nazi regime, the bourgeoisie would not itself exercise political power, and Hitler was able to say: “I do the politics, you do the economy”.[5] Immediately after the First World War, the bourgeoisie was divided between republicans and monarchists, those who benefited from inflation and those harmed by it, etc. ...[6]

The SPD which had taken power had undergone a large reduction in its membership, which was in its eyes a sign of proletarian radicalization, although the masses allowed it to remain in power. Once it occupied the highest offices of the State, its membership as well as its audience rapidly expanded: it obtained 35% of the vote in the January 1919 elections. It was the “backbone of the new bourgeois State” (Wolffheim).

Although it had been formed by those who had been excluded from the SPD, the USPD never lost the hope of reunification. Since its leaders were primarily concerned with the exercise of power, they did not consider the possibility of assembling a council as the Spartacist left had desired. Having taken account of the obvious current of radicalization, Spartacus had to show that it had at least become a significant minority within the USPD. We must point out that “public opinion”, the press, etc., had at that time seized upon the term “Spartacist” as being more suitable than “left radicals”, “international socialists”, etc., for causing a sensation, and that the term was applied to the whole revolutionary movement, within which Spartacus was just one group among others, and which would constitute neither the majority nor the most radical current within the KPD. The term “left radical” was also used in an imprecise manner, designating not only the USPD left (without distinction) but also everything to the left of the USPD.[7]

On October 7, 1918, the Spartacists, as an autonomous group, convoked a national conference, to which they invited the groups of the ISD as observers. This conference launched the slogan, which had already been heard in certain places during 1917-1918, calling for the formation of councils everywhere following the Russian model. It adopted a democratic transitional revolutionary program which was presented as follows: ending the state of emergency, liberation of all political prisoners, expropriation of the banks, heavy industry and the mines, as well as of large and medium-size agricultural properties, and the completion of German unification. This last point was in conflict with Wilson’s “right of self-determination”, which was devised to weaken Europe and strengthen the United States, and to give rise to buffer States against the revolution. The conference refused to deal with the trade union question as a “secondary” issue, despite the appearance of numerous autonomous organizations in the factories.

Freed by the government at the end of October, Liebknecht met with the Berlin shop stewards, who elected him to their leadership along with Müller (ISD). Luxemburg, who was also imprisoned during the war, was freed by the revolution on December 9. On that same day, Spartacus published the first issue of its daily newspaper, Rote Fahne (The Red Flag), the future organ of the KPD, the right wing KPD and the VKPD. On the 18th, it became the “Spartacist League”, thereby demonstrating its movement towards autonomy in respect to the USPD.

Like Spartacus, the ISD also grew and multiplied the number of its publications: some of them would become the organs of the left wing which would be excluded from the KPD. On November 23, meeting in Bremen, the ISD would assume the name IKD: Internationale Kommunisten Deutschlands. This would be one of the names proposed at the founding congress of the KPD. Laufenberg and Wolffheim’s organization joined the IKD, which also led the Bremen council. In Berlin, a member of the IKD (Müller) was elected leader of the shop stewards. On December 1, the IKD of Saxony, with Rühle, held its founding congress: after a week of experiences it had withdrawn from all the councils dominated by SPD and USPD members. These groups would attend the national conference of the IKD on December 24 (see the next Chapter). After November, the IKD declared its full solidarity with the struggles and the slogans of the Spartacists and, together with the latter, proclaimed the watchword: “All power to the councils”. However, as could be deduced from the press and attitude of the Saxon IKD, the IKD, from its inception, unlike the Spartacists, judged that the workers and soldiers councils, so recently created, the products of a still confused movement, could not be the vehicles for the proletarian revolution. On this point the IKD was not the victim of a fetishism of the organization and the masses. It put forth as a specific task the clarification of the relation of forces throughout the country and, taken as a whole, played a much less well-known but more important role than Spartacus.

On a national scale, the revolutionary shop stewards seemed to constitute the trade union left. As such, they corresponded exactly to the USPD (following the old economic-political dichotomy which the revolution would try to overcome). The RO was ultimately the trade union organization of the USPD. It fully confirmed this tendency by providing itself with a trade unionist leadership: Ledebour, Däumig (both from the USPD) and Müller (of the Berlin shop stewards). Even after the revolution, the RO would still allow a place for the USPD. In Berlin, however, where the Spartacist tendency of the USPD was strongest, the RO elaborated the insurrectionary plan which would be short-circuited by the revolution itself.

On January 1, 1919, the RO refused to become the KPD’s economic organization, and requested, among other things, that the party abandon the provocative name of “Spartacus”.[8] As an expression of its radical-reformist base, the RO would be replaced during the struggles of early 1919 by the factory organizations and action committees, the precursors of the future AAU. After the end of 1918, left wing action committees existed in all of Hamburg’s factories.

Meanwhile, the anarchosyndicalists, although outlawed and reduced to inactivity during the war, had preserved their cadres. The Free Federation of German Trade Unions (FVDG) rapidly rebuilt its organization. During December 26-27 it held a conference and, most importantly, decided to invite its members to collaborate with the communist organizations (IKD) and the Spartacists, in support of the councils and the dictatorship of the proletariat.[9]

The “November Revolution” was not even a bourgeois revolution: ultimately, it was the political conclusion, carried out by the proletariat, of a bourgeois revolution which started in the 19th century. This “revolution” was not a revolution: it did not fight the essence of the State, which was only modified in a secondary manner. Eichhorn, a USPD member, who was appointed “chief of police” of Berlin, was by no means the real chief of police. And what kind of police was he supposed to lead? The police of the bourgeois state had not changed. The mere fact that the workers and the revolutionaries had mobilized in its defense was more than symbolic: it reflected the incompetence of the movement. To speak of the “German Revolution”, granting this term its most profound meaning, as Luxemburg did in her last article (January 14, 1919), is a dangerous illusion.”