#thinking about this cause of a paper i have on medieval europe

[professorxsmokesweed]

anyone else notice we have an odd amount of historical aus for cherik

[life-in-the-garden]

A Spell for Bisclavret

Introduction

I don’t talk about my academic life here much, so for those who aren’t in the know: I’m an undergrad in the US working towards an English degree (going part-time because I also have to work to earn my daily bread like the wage slave that I am). Last semester was… incredibly stressful, but I ended up really enjoying a class about romances written in medieval Europe. We started with eight of the Lais (long poems) of Marie de France, a woman writer of the time period, and one of those Lais was titled “Bisclavret.” If you aren’t aware, Bisclavret is an Old French word for “werewolf” AND is the name of the main character… since songwriters in the Middle Ages weren’t exactly subtle much of the time.

The spell I created��and am now sharing with you—was inspired by the character Bisclavret and his story, and draws upon the power of this knightly werewolf of yore.

image credit

If you want to read a translation of Marie de France’s “Bisclavret,” you can do so here. This isn’t a translation that I’m fond of (I think the rhyming is unnecessary), but it’s free to access and gets the gist across just fine. On the off chance that you want to read the translation that I actually recommend, which includes the Old French source text alongside the English, then check out The Lais of Marie de France: Text and Translation by Claire M. Waters.

If you don’t want to read a good many lines of poetry, here’s the summary: In his story, the knight Bisclavret is tricked by his scheming, adulterous wife into revealing his wolf form to her, whereupon she becomes frightened and hides his clothes. Therefore, Bisclavret cannot change back into his human form, and so lived in the wilderness as a wolf until found by King Arthur and brought to Camelot. There, in the court, he behaves so courteously that everyone remarks at how noble and regal the wolf is… until Bisclavret sees his former wife and her new husband, whom he attacks. Arthur, who believes that the wolf would not attack without reason, interrogates the human couple and learns the truth about Bisclavret. The werewolf’s clothes are returned, and he transforms back into a man as Arthur orders the exile of Bisclavret’s ex-wife and her husband from the realm.

This spell, titled "Garwolf," is a piece of baneful magic intended to punish a thief.

Garwolf

You will need:

1 or more pieces of paper for writing upon

a writing implement

a method of destroying the paper, ideally via fire (and all associated fire safety accouterments) or else via a shredder, scissors, or what have you

Method:

Think of a time where something was stolen from you. The stolen thing doesn't need to be a physical item; maybe an abusive parent stole a happy childhood from you, for example. This spell assumes that the stolen thing has been permanently lost in spite of your best efforts to retrieve it, and that you cannot find peace through mundane methods. If the only option left is magical retribution for the hurt you've undergone, then this spell is for you.

Take the paper and write a letter about the person who stole from you. (if you can't write easily or struggle to read your own handwriting, you are absolutely allowed to type the letter on a computer/phone and then print it out). Pour out all the hate in your heart onto the page. Describe how you were hurt, and how it made you feel, and how you want the target of this baneful working to feel and what they should suffer as recourse for the pain they've caused you. You are an entire human being who deserves respect, dignity, and safety; don't minimize your own feelings here. Let it out and hold nothing back. (This step focuses your intention).

When the letter is finished, fold it up as small as you can and carry it on your person for three days and three nights (approximately 72 hours). Shortly after each time you wake up during this period, read the letter aloud to yourself and ruminate on your feelings towards the target. Do the same thing before going to sleep. Remember that you are worthy and that nobody has the right to make you feel lesser. (This step charges the spell).

When the three days and nights are finished, read the letter aloud a final time and then destroy it with all the rage and hatred you can muster. Tear it to pieces! Burn it! Shred it! Render your words unrecognizable as you release your energy into the universe to carry out your will of bringing misfortune, hardship, and/or suffering upon the spell's target. (This step casts the spell).

(If destroying the letter via fire, remember to follow all applicable fire safety procedures and don't burn down your surroundings in the process).

To cool down from casting this piece of emotionally intensive baneful magic, practice some self-care. Make yourself a cozy beverage and/or take a luxurious bath or shower, for example, and remember that you have an innate worthiness that can never be stolen from you.

If you found this spell intriguing, please consider tossing some spare change towards my ko-fi so that I can continue sharing my magical work!

[gamerbot-22]

How I Think the Red Plague Works and Presents Itself

DNI

So I mentioned in that HC request that I was going to make basically a fake research paper on the Red Plague and it's effects because there's genuinely like. Little to no information about the symptoms aside from the red eyes and hands in canon. So this is that paper!

CW: Discussion of both irl and fictional pandemics, concept art of the Red Plague, death in general. Also spoilers! For like all of the routes!!!

Overview

So going off of the knowledge we have (came from bugs, the name, the mask Julian wears as a doctor, etc.) the Red Plague is pretty clearly based on the Black Death/Bubonic Plague which ravaged most of Europe in the 1300's (and still exists in other areas of the world but let's not dwell on that part.)

If you want the history of the Black Death in Medieval Europe I would actually recommend Watcher's "Life During the Black Death Pandemic" video which can be found here, but to sum up, the Black Death is a bacterial condition that comes in four different varieties (only three could be diagnosed during the pandemic in the 1300's,) with the most common and survivable type being the titular bubonic variety.

Transmission

So the Black Death has three ways of spreading: Bites from infected fleas (i.e. fleas carrying the bacteria Yersinia pestis,) contact with infected fluid/tissue (the example the CDC gives on their page on Black Death ecology is skinning and eating an infected rabbit,) and contact with infectious droplets caused by the pneumonic variant.

The only two transmission types we see in Arcana canon is bites from the red beetles and contact with the dye that is made from those same beetles. Personally I think that use or exposure to the beetle dye is similar enough to that infected fluid/tissue way of transmission. Like inhalation of the dye itself or wearing fabric that was dyed with it while there's an open wound on the body or using it to rub your face is enough to cause an infection.

Symptoms

Symptoms of the Black Death include:

fever

headache

chills

weakness

painful lymph nodes (buboes) near the infection site

abdominal pain

shock

possible bleeding into the skin and other organs

appendages like fingers, toes, and nose turning septic and dying

cough

bloody/water mucous

and looking at the symptoms of the Red Plague we can start to see even more similarities:

art source: The Arcana fandom wiki page "Red Plague"

As we can see in this image drawn by the developers, similar changes in the physique occur. Instead of septic fingers and puss-filled buboes, we have red pigmentation around joints (fingers, knees, shoulders,) orbital socket, lips and within the sclera. The only thing we know about this pigmentation is that it begins in the eyes and spreads outwards, so seemingly there's no change regarding infection type or method. There's also no explanation as to what the pigmentation is. It can't be blood, as that would just result in extensive bruising which appears black under the skin, not red. There also seems to be no evidence of the eyes being irritated or vision being impaired so it’s probably not a direct eye infection either. This can probably just be chalked up to the fact that this is a ✨magic plague.✨

The infection also seems to ravage any stores of fat or muscle on the patient, causing even a warrior like Lucio to become gaunt and frail. A deep cough is also a symptom Lucio exhibits, but it's unknown if he had that symptom due to his prolonged infection (Lucio had the Red Plague for several months while others died of the plague within days or weeks,) but given the spread of the Red Plague throughout Vesuvia I'm willing to bet that most patients developed a cough.

Doctors

The doctors of the time wore plague masks resembling birds, and these masks have basically become the symbol of the Black Death ever since.

image source: Wikipedia article "Plague doctor costume"

You might remember that Julian Devorak wears a similar mask:

Image source: The Arcana: A Mystic Romance App

This style of dress was thought to be effective in keeping doctors safe from the plague but I couldn't find any evidence to back that up for irl cases. My guess is it was just the covering of almost every inch of the body that kept the infection from spreading, as there was no easy way for a doctor to consume infectious fluids or make direct contact with infected patients. In the game this seemed to be an effective enough style, probably for the same reason.

Both masks are stuffed with a mix of different materials called Theriac (and I highly recommend you look here for a list of all the crazy shit that made up Theriac,) but in-game Julian only mentions that his mask is filled with herbs without listing any specific items. The reason for the Theriac was because of the popular "miasma" theory of the time, which suggested that it was bad air that caused the plague, and not the bite of a flea or eating infected meat.

Although Julian is the only plague doctor we see in his uniform, I think it stands to reason that most of if not all doctors employed by Lucio wore uniforms similar to what Julian wears.

Quaestor Valdemar is also seen wearing a more modern style mask around their nose and mouth. This less extravagant mask makes sense as Valdemar seems much more interested in doing autopsies than actually curing and interacting with a living infected patient that might cough infected droplets on them.

Image credit: The Arcana fandom wiki page "Valdemar" Treatment for the Black Death irl varies wildly, but by far the most popular way to try to cure the plague was a process called bloodletting, which was done by a doctor either cutting a specific part of the body and letting the blood run out or by attaching leaches to buboes and just letting them go at it. We can see references to leeches in The Arcana, as Julian is openly interested in them and often suggest using leeches as a way to tend to infection.

Death and Graves

During the Black Death Pandemic between 1347-51, an estimated total of between 75 to 200 million people died of the infection. It's unknown how many people died of the Red Plague in The Arcana but it clearly was enough as there are several mentions to people just dying in the street before they can make it to quarantine on the Lazaret.

The aforementioned Lazaret is an island in the ocean right outside of Vesuvia that was used specifically as a quarantine hospital, although that was short lived and the place basically turned into one big mass grave where the bodies of the infected were burned and the ashes were spread on the beaches.

In real life, bodies were disposed of in mass graves. Harrowing text from the time describes how no priests or services were provided for these mass graves, and if an entire family was killed by the plague it was extremely difficult to find someone willing to go bring the bodies outside the city for burial.

In Conclusion

So I guess my point here is that the Red Plague in the Arcana behaves very similarly to the Black Death irl, albeit with a few differences in origin, transmission, and symptoms.

I guess this entire post was kind of redundant but the Arcana brainrot is strong and this was the only way I could get rid of it. And it's nice for me to have a recourse to refer back to whenever I end up having to write characters infected with the Red Plague.

[promithiae]

[ID a reply by @alienjaes​ “I mean, I wanna hear the infodump. I think I know what you’re describing, but it’s also dependent on where  in the world your particular weather weirdness is and what it’s doing” /end ID]

ooooookay. So here’s a little bit of what was going on in the early 14th century. It is by no means a comprehensive summary, and there are so many more political and societal factors that I didn’t get into here. And I’m not actually a historian, so there is probably a lot I’ve gotten wrong. If anyone has any corrections lmk and give me more papers to read. The great famine might not be my actual area of interest (plague is) but it’s kind of a side shoot of it, so I’m still interested.

(cw: famine and food scarcity)

The year is 1315, and at 40 years old you have a bad back, a certainty in the grace of god, and the memories of a much warmer time. When you were a child, you remember the summers being warmer and longer, and you’re certain it isn’t just nostalgia. You remember being able to sow seeds by the feast of St. Agatha (feb. 5th), but the past few years it’s barely been warm enough to get seeds in the ground before the feast of St. Benedict (March 21st). 

But this year, things are different. The winter was colder and longer than before, but you were able to get seed in the ground some time around Easter. A shorter growing season would mean less time for grain to ripen, and less grain going into storage for the winter. It’s going to be another lean winter, but they all seem to be lean winters any more. And then in May it starts to rain. Rain in itself isn’t necessarily a problem, but this much rain, with this ferocity is. It rains all through the summer, washing away plants that are barely able to grow without enough sunlight, washing away topsoil and bridges and wharfs and entire towns. It continues raining through the fall and into the frosts of winter. What little grain has grown is brought inside in pots and urns to be kept dry. You will eventually eat the seed grain as well, leaving less to be planted in the nearly-as-wet summer of 1316.

But the rain does more than wash away crops. You can’t dry and cure hay for animal feed, wood never dries out enough to burn efficiently. Seawater can’t evaporate in the cisterns of France and Italy, leaving a scarcity of salt that means there’s no way to preserve any meat or fish you might have had access to.

To understand how Europe got to this utterly dismal production we have to go back a bit. About 400 years back, and the reason you remember summer in your childhood being better than they are now. The preceding 4 centuries Europe was experiencing a convenient atmospheric blip that caused the climate to be extremely warm (close to our current temperatures, though not anthropogenic in nature). The long, warm summers allowed for a population explosion, longer lives, and expansion of human settlement. At the height of the medieval warm period the grain yields were around 14-20:1. But by the 14th century population demands had exceeded the supply of land, and its production capabilities. The grain yields dropped to an average of 10:1 (some places, particularly those in the far north, were down to 1.5-2:1). People stopped letting fields lie fallow in the mistaken and misguided belief that planting more would lead to more available food. Most of you reading this will already spot the issue here- while they were still rotating crops between beans and wheat, without the year of rest to allow the beans and manure to decompose, nitrogen doesn’t get fixed into the soil and the depleted land just can’t produce as well. 

There are. Well, there are a lot of factors that go into the reason there was so much pressure to abandon tilling under the three field system, more than I have the time or energy to get into here. I mean I might be able to later but it’s like. Ok, Europe inherited Roman villa systems and adapted them into manorialism and eventually feudalism. After the fall of the Roman empire (itself a mess) Europe was an big old hot mess of vassal states and tiny kingdoms that were constantly at war with one another. And like, the system worked - kind of. It worked, as most systems do, for those that were in power and owned land. It definitely did not work for the serfs, vassals, or villeins. But anyway.

After the end of the MWP (and even during it, though not as precariously) Europe was balancing on a knife's edge of undernourishment. A single bad harvest could lead to a lean winter and a hard summer until the next year’s harvest. But generally, you would be able to make it through, and there would probably be some vaguely friendly neighbouring state or kingdom that would sell you food at an exorbitant price and see you through to the next year. But not in 1316. No one had food for themselves, much less food to sell to anyone else. The entire continent was starving to death. It wouldn’t fully recover until 1321. Some parts of Europe never would, and still haven’t been repopulated to this day.

I saw some statistics last week that showed how many hours we’ve had over 70* from Jan. 1- May 29th. Most years were around 80-90. This year we’ve had 5. Snow pack in the Cascades is well over 150% of normal right now. It was pouring this morning when I woke up. If it was 1317 and I had somehow survived the preceding 2 years of famine (unlikely) I would be fully panicking and convinced it was the End Times (it was always the End Times in Medieval Europe)

[emerald-books-llc]

Writing Tips For History

Thought I would share what I instruct my undergraduate history students to do in their writing. I think that particulars and specificities help historians make arguments and tell stories. Here they go!

Use the past tense to describe historical events.

Ensure your statement is specific. Never use such phrases as: “Throughout history” “Back in the day” “Mankind” or “humankind”. Designate the time and place of where you are talking about.

Never say “History shows…”

Gender: Never use “she” to designate a country. Never use “he” or “man” to designate an individual.

Treat religion critically. You are writing as historians—not about all Christians, all Jews, all Muslims, all Chinese. Think about the context—where and when?

ALWAYS make sure your story is situated in a specific time and place. Instead of “Christianity has a reputation for religious war.” Say “In Europe in the 1100s, Pope Urban II called on Europeans to fight a crusade in the name of Christianity. This was the beginning of centuries of wars that Christians waged on behalf of their religion.”

Correlation and Causation: It is a very common error to misattribute the cause of certain phenomena. “Christianity began losing influence in the 1500s, which prompted a religious war between Catholics and Protestants.” No. Instead state what happened that truly started the Reformation, according to what other researchers have found: “Historians tend to cite Martin Luther’s 95 Theses as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. His protest of indulgences resonated with many people, and began a movement that caused over 100 years of wars between Catholics and Protestants.”

If you don’t know why something happened, never guess. You may ask the question in your paper.

Avoid talking about religion in general unless you are discussing the secularization thesis or something.

Generalities: “religion” “history” “time” “people”—these words should never be the subject of a sentence.

Don’t try to connect everything together in a neat way. If they don’t connect, don’t force it. Or ask if they do.

After you write each of your example paragraphs, then add a sentence or two to transition from paragraph to paragraph.

Avoid the past imperfect—“Christianity has been blah blah blah throughout the years.” (Don’t make anything last from medieval Europe to now automatically.)

[the13colonies]

Hey, Rev. Since you are a history major, I wanted to know approximately how many hours of class do you have per week? And is it roughly the same for all 4 years, or do the hours decrease with each year?

Well, it depends how fast you want to graduate, where you are in your degree, specifically which classes you take, and which are required credits

This is continued under the cut:

The standard semester for college students in any degree is 12 credit hours per semester, or 4 classes. With the history major, if you go to a 4 year university with 12 hours a semester you will graduate in about 4 years depending on the program requirements. 2 years to do prerequisites you need to graduate, and 2 for your major and minor

A major is what you are getting your degree in. Since my major is history, I will graduate with a bachelor's in history. A minor is something that you take classes in on the side, but do not get a degree in. My minor is classics (ancient Greece and Roman studies) and most programs usually make you take a minor, history especially. Minors that go well with history is usually political science, international affairs, archeology, anthropology, classics, and literature. Some programs also have specific minors for history majors: my school has a Russian and East European minor, along with English history as another example

History majors have to take a specific number of classes in order to get the degree. This differs from school to school, but usually include a specific amount of world history, American history, diversity, and social sciences classes. For example, I need 9 credits of American history classes to meet the graduate requirement, which is 3 separate classes

As for classes during the week. Last semester I had 5 classes, but only one was history. This semester, I only have 4, but 3 of them are history.

Depending on your schedule, you could only meet once a week for a 3 hour class (DO NOT PICK THIS.), twice a week for an hour and 30 minutes, or three times a week for an hour. This is where the "credits" come in. If you have a class that's 3 credits, that means you spend 3 hours a week IN class. Some classes, like languages and sciences, will have 4 or 5 credit hours, since you are either in labs or have more class time to focus on the material

Most classes stay uniform throughout your tenure. Colleges offer you to take a minimum of 12 credit hours (4 classes) to be a full time student, and for upwards to 18 credits (6 classes) which you need special permission to take. I know classes seem like too little, but you're pending 12 hours a week in class, not to meantion the higher course work, so PLEASE take a standard 12 credit hour semester your first year in college to get the feel for it. I went went community College for a year so that is why I took 5 classes last semester

As for outside of school, I spend anywhere between 3 to 4 hours a day on homework and studying. This is NOT including my personal reading and masterpost creations. Last semester I spent about 4+ because of classes.

COLLEGE IS HARD. ESPECIALLY FOR HISTORY MAJORS.

History is a lot of writing. I have papers due every week. By the time you finish your first year in college (two semesters) you should be able to properly write, cite, and prove a thesis for your paper. You are required to take writing classes, so pay attention to those. It's saved my life

History majors are also expected to think critically for themselves. Sure, you can memorieze a bunch of dates, but you need to understand why, the causes and effects, and finally, how does it tie in to the modern day? Why does this specific event have significance in our lives?

This is why history professors on the higher level classes (3000s and 4000s) are not going to give you exams. They will assign you a fuck ton of papers. My history class last year had 5 mini essays, which were 600-700 words long each, and a final paper, 2000+. These teachers don't need to know if you know when the Americans declared independence, they want to know why it is important, how they got there, and why it happened to begin with

History majors are usually required to take a foreign language as well. Usually it's about three semesters worth. When studying history, try to pick a language that matches your preferred region you like to study. Like European history? Take German or French. Like South American history? Take Spanish. If you're like me and like American history and want to specialize in it, take Latin or Spanish. Personally, I'm doing Latin

As a history major you will study things you won't like. Ex: I studied medieval Europe last semester and this semester, hated every second, but got an A. Just try to remember that it is history, and there will be things that shock you, horrify you, bore you, and make you jump up and down

Grad school is a whole other thing so I won't get into it rn

[fardell24b]

Changes in Time and Space - Chapter 3 - Part 2 - P6Y-362

Part II – P6Y-362

Three hours after the Doctor had talked to General Landry, SG1 and the Doctor’s companions were ready to go on their mission.

“Remember, you have to follow my orders,” Mitchell said to the companions.

“I remember,” Tamsin snarked.

The other two nodded.

“Chevron Six encoded.”

“Watch this,” Mitchell directed.

Tamsin, Kiara and Felicia watched as the seventh chevron locked

“Chevron Seven, Locked!”

The wormhole formed within the Stargate with a kawoosh.

“Wow!” Felicia gasped.

“That’s putting it mildly!” Tamsin said.

“That’s nothing compared to the experience of going through the ‘gate,” Mitchell said. “Let’s go,”

SG1 and their assistants walked up to the gate. Mitchell walked through first, followed by Teal’c.

“After you,” Carter suggested to Tamsin.

“OK,” Tamsin said. She stepped forwards, through the event horizon...

P6Y-362

Tamsin emerged on the planet designated by the SGC as P6Y-362. “That was incredible,” she enthused.

“I told you,” Mitchell said as the remainder of SG1 and their accompanying ‘specialists’ emerged from the ‘Gate.

“Wow, it looks just like a Canadian forest,” Felicia said.

“Research suggests that the Ancients and the Goa’uld both preferred this type of biome,” Carter said.

“You mean that the Stargate is usually placed in a forest like this?” Felicia asked. ‘It is definitely a beautiful view,’ she thought.

“Statistically speaking, both here and in the Pegasus Galaxy, yes,” Jackson said.

“That’s interesting,” Tamsin said.

“You have been in Canada?” Mitchell asked.

“A few times with the Doctor,” Tamsin said.

“We had to stop Ice Warriors from taking over the Yukon Territory,” Kiara said.

“Tell us more,” Carter said.

Tamsin began to tell of the adventure in the Yukon...

They started walking away from the Stargate towards the nearby settlement.

“So, we’re here to see if the Priors have been espousing Origin here?” Tamsin asked.

“Indeed,” Teal’c said.

“You read the mission brief, that’s right,” Mitchell said.

Tamsin muttered.

“She’d like more background information,” Kiara said.

Carter looked at Dr. Jackson.

“The people on this planet were brought here by the Goa’uld thousands of years ago,” Daniel said.

“Yes, but what about the ‘Gate in Antarctica? Couldn’t the Goa’uld have brought them through there?” Tamsin asked.

“How did you find out about that?” Colonel Mitchell asked, surprised. That was ‘need to know’ information.

“She pestered the records officer,” Kiara said.

“After the Doctor’s psychic paper didn’t help,” Felicia said.

“Psychic paper?” Carter asked.

“I don’t want to know,” Daniel said, referring to Tamsin’s pestering of the records officer.

“I wasn’t that bad,” Tamsin said to Daniel.

“The Doctor has a piece of paper that he uses to get past problems with officials in various places,” Kiara said.

“How does it work?” Carter asked.

“I don’t know. It probably has something to do with the Doctor’s telepathic abilities,” Kiara said.

“Anyhow, Dr. Jackson, continue,” Tamsin said.

“A System Lord ruled from here for some time prior to abandoning the planet a thousand years ago. The Goa’uld continued to raid the planet for another five hundred years before leaving it alone. After that the locals advanced to a level similar to that of medieval Europe.”

“Cool,” Tamsin said.

“They have recently developed intricate clockwork,” Daniel began.

Tamsin hung on his every word.

While Tamsin was listening to Daniel, Sam asked Felicia; “Why did the Doctor stay behind again?”

“He wanted to do further investigation of the SGC...”

The SGC

Harriman called Landry to the control room. “What is this issue, Airman?” he asked.

“There is a slight power drain in the ‘Gate,” Harriman said, he called up a computer graphic showing it.

“Do you have any idea what is causing it?” he asked.

“None.”

“Investigate.”

“Yes, sir.”

P6Y-362

SG1 and companions entered the town closest to the Stargate.

“Looks deserted,” Cameron said as they started walking up the street from the main entrance.

“Impossible. This is a major trading town for this region of the continent,” Daniel said.

“So, SG1 has been here before?” Felicia asked.

“Yes, a few years ago,” Daniel said.

“We opened relations between this nation and the US,” Carter said.

“That’s good,” Felicia said.

“The contact has inspired cultural change similar to that in the Renaissance,” Daniel said.

“So the culture resembled that of medieval Europe?” Tamsin asked.

“It was similar, but only in the broad strokes, their pantheon was and is still inspired by the influence of the Goa’uld,” Daniel said.

“Swell,” Cameron said.

“It is similar all over the galaxy, CameronMitchell,” Teal’c said.

“Don’t have to like it,” Cameron said.

“Indeed,” Teal’c said.

“Of course,” Tamsin said, annoyed at the influence of the System Lords on the Milky Way.

“We’re almost at the central square, sir. We should be walking through crowds,” Carter said.

“I haven’t noticed anyone looking out of the windows,” Kiara said.

“You sure?” Tamsin asked.

Kiara nodded.

“Neither have I,” Cameron said.

“What would cause this?” Felicia asked.

“No idea,” Carter said.

“Not a plague, we would be seeing the corpses,” Daniel said.

Tamsin nodded.

“So where did they go?” Felicia asked.

“The nearest settlements are less than a day’s journey away, but they are just villages,” Daniel said.

“Do they use the Stargate?” Kiara asked.

“Not often. It hadn’t been used for centuries when we arrived the first time,” Carter said.

“We may have to go to one of those villages. Do you know where they are?” Colonel Mitchell asked.

“Not exactly,” Daniel said.

“There’s a library on the other side of the square,” Sam said.

“A good place to start,” Kiara said.

“There may be clues as to why this happened,” Tamsin said.

Fifteen minutes later, later the team entered the town’s library. The place showed much evidence of a hasty departure, with loads of papers strewn around the many reading tables.

“This is going to take some time,” Daniel said.

“I’ll help you. I’ve had some field experience,” Tamsin said.

“Thanks,” Daniel said.

“You’re welcome.”

Five hours later the sun set and the planet’s two moons bathed the town in coloured light.

“Quite strange. A red moon,” Kiara said.

“It has a similar composition to Mars,” Sam said.

“The fourth planet in Earth’s solar system. I have been there with the Doctor. Needed a suit outside the TARDIS and the colonial habitats,” Kiara said.

“That’s the same as our Mars, except for that last part,” Mitchell said.

“Colonial habitats?” Carter asked.

“We visited in the late 23rd century,” Tamsin said.

“Quite beautiful, but barren,” Kiara said.

“I agree,” Sam said.

Daniel soon returned with Tamsin in tow.

“Have you found anything?” Felicia asked.

“Yes, there are multiple references to a Prior being here saying their usual Origin espousing spiel,” Daniel said.

“Then the Prior left, travelling back through the ‘gate,” Tamsin said.

“So what happened here?” Carter asked.

“They had heard about the Ori from their contacts through the gate. Apparently the nation had been sporadically exploring through the gate. It’s possible that the Goa’uld had left behind a co-ordinate archive like the one that was on Abydos,” Daniel said.

“The first planet you discovered, go on,” Felicia said.

“Right. After the Prior had left; they set up guards near the gate in case the Prior came back,” Daniel said.

“So the Prior came back?” Cameron asked.

“Yes. The guards saw the Prior emerge from the gate in the distance and immediately ran to the town. That’s when they evacuated the town,” Daniel said.

“But wouldn’t the Prior be here?” Carter asked.

“We think that he may have gone to one of the other villages,” Tamsin said.

“Where some of the towns’ people may have gone?” Vala asked.

“Yes,” Daniel said.

“We stay here tonight, and then set out for the closest of those villages. I assume that the library has a map of the region?” Cameron asked.

“It does. However, I must say that that village is the most likely destination for the Prior after this town,” Daniel said.

“Noted, We’ll set out at first light,” Cameron said.

“Right, sir,” Carter said.

“The sun seems to be setting faster than on Earth,” Tamsin said.

“This planet has a rotational period of just less than 19 hours,” Carter explained.

SG1 then prepared for the short night ahead.

Second day on P6Y-362

They left the deserted town, early in the morning, whilst it was still shrouded in fog.

“How are we supposed to find our way to that village?” Felicia asked. She could barely see 100 metres ahead of her.

“I’ve brought a map from the library. It clearly shows all the landmarks we need to follow,” Daniel said.

“It’s not that thick,” Tamsin pointed out.

“Not compared to fogs in the Silverpeak Mountains on Tyria,” Kiara said.

“Sounds dangerous,” Felicia said.

“No more dangerous than what we usually run into with the Doctor,” Kiara contributed.

“I suppose so,” Felicia said, as they left the town out of the gate that they had entered through the previous day.

Three hours later they neared the next nearest settlement to the Stargate and the abandoned town. As they approached they could see that this settlement was not abandoned.

“Does that map show any public meeting places, Daniel?” Cameron asked as they approached.

“There are a few meeting places around the central square.”

“Lead the way,” Cameron said.

As they walked down the main road into the village, SG1 could see that many of the people were looking at them.

In the central square SG1 approached the nearest of the meeting places. Cameron, Daniel and Teal’c walked inside. “Does anyone have any news regarding the abandonment of the Trading town near here?” Daniel asked.

There was silence in the room.

“We would like to have an answer,” Teal’c said.

There was murmuring amongst the patrons of the establishment before a young lady slipped away from a group and approached the trio. “We don’t like talking about the situation,” she said.

“Indeed?” Teal’c asked.

“I’ll say more elsewhere,” she said.

“Let’s go,” Cameron said, as he noticed most of the other people in the room getting restless.

“Follow me.”

Sam and the companions saw the rest of SG1 come out of the tavern. “Any information, sir?”

“There was none. Apparently this lady is willing to divulge the information in the face of tremendous social pressure,” Daniel said.

“It’s not that bad,” the lady said.

“We haven’t been introduced,” Cameron said.

“I’m Aa’lsvaiii’ Ye, local leader of the Record Keeping Guild. Come to the Records Hall and I will fill you in on the situation,” she said.

They soon approached the Records Hall, a building which resembled the library that they had seen in the other town.

Aa’lsvaiii’ lead SG1 to a side entrance and opened the door. “We’re going into the restricted area of the Records Hall. Don’t touch the records without permission,” she said.

‘Of course, the Records Hall is a library,’ Kiara thought. ‘But that would mean that Aa’lsvaiii’ is a librarian.’

They passed through the non-public area, which on Earth would be called the ‘Stacks,’ to a large room on the other side of the structure. “This is the Recordkeeper Guild’s meeting room, but the other members are busy at the moment,” Aa’lsvaiii’ said.

They sat on various chairs as Aa’lsvaiii’ laid out some glasses of water.

“We heard from our contacts on various worlds of the Priors and this ‘Origin’ that they are espousing. We knew that it wouldn’t take long before they would get here,” Aa’lsvaiii’ began.

“And so a Prior came,” Cameron said.

“Yes, the people of Re’iav Lleag were frightened, but they sent messengers with the message that a Prior had come. So plans were put in place in case a Prior should come back. I have also heard that teams have gone through the gate in search of uninhabited worlds,” Aa’lsvaiii’ said.

“Impressive,” Sam said.

“Indeed,” Teal’c said.

“So the town was abandoned. But when we arrived there, there wasn’t any Prior,” Cameron said.

“If he found the town deserted he may have gone back to the gate,” Aa’lsvaiii’ said.

“No doubt that is what you’re counting on, but he may just journey to another settlement,” Daniel said.

“Then that settlement would be abandoned, too. We will not let them dictate to us, or enslave us as our ancestors were enslaved!” Aa’lsvaiii’ said. She grabbed a tome off a bookshelf. “I’m sure you are familiar with the subject matter,” she opened the tome and placed it in front of Daniel.

He read a paragraph from the tome before realising that it depicted the planet’s revolution against the Goa’uld. “But the Ori are worse than the Goa’uld! They will not give up as easily as the System Lords did,” Daniel said.

“We shall see,” Aa’lsvaiii’ said as she took a sip of her water.

Tamsin was about to interject when there was a knock on the door and another young woman, dressed similarly to Aa’lsvaiii’, came in.

“Sorry to interrupt, ma’am, but there is an urgent message,” she said.

“Let her in,” Aa’lsvaiii’ said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

The messenger paused upon seeing the team in the room with Aa’lsvaiii’. “Who are they?”

“They are Tau’ri. They can hear the message,” Aa’lsvaiii’ said.

“You sure?”The messenger asked. Aa’lsvaiii’ nodded. The messenger began delivering the message to her and the others.

“...And so the Prior is on his way here,” the messenger concluded.

“That’s not good news. Go and find the rest of the Guild,” Aa’lsvaiii’ said.

“Yes, Ma’am,” the messenger said, she hurried out.

Cameron then appeared to be in thought.

“What are your plans?” Aa’lsvaiii’ asked.

“We are going to intercept the Prior,” he said.

“We are?” Daniel asked.

“We are not going to let another village full of people leave their homes behind because of some idealistic plan,” Cameron said.

“We are leaving this village as soon as we can organise,” Aa’lsvaiii’ said. “In the meantime, you are welcome to look in the Records Hall,” she continued.

“Right,” Daniel said.

“Thanks,” Tamsin said.

Daniel and Tamsin were looking at various books in the Records Hall as Cameron and Aa’lsvaiii’ began to argue.

“I’m certain that this village will be abandoned,” Tamsin said.

“I agree,” Daniel said.

“But they are just going to leave all their stuff here?” Tamsin asked.

“Somehow I think they have that planned too. Send periodic expeditions to retrieve the artefacts that they had left behind,” Daniel said.

“Makes sense,” Tamsin said.

“Another question. How are you understanding the writings here?” Daniel asked.

“The TARDIS,” Tamsin said.

“The TARDIS, what?” Daniel asked.

“It’s translating the writing for me; same with speech in most places we go,” Tamsin said.

“Interesting, but how could that work over interstellar distances?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know. It could be using the Stargate Network as a relay for all I know,” Tamsin said.

“I think the SGC would notice that,” Daniel said.

“Probably,” Tamsin said.

The SGC

General Landry entered the control room.

“Sir, I have determined the source of the power drain in the Stargate,” Harriman said.

“And?” the General asked.

“It’s that TARDIS. It’s somehow tapped into the ‘Gate’s control circuitry.”

Landry decided to deal with the situation right away. “Call the Doctor to the control room, now!”

“Yes, sir.”

N’b, Ao Plaaileala, Tiloana (P6Y-362)

“I’ve also noticed that everyone is understanding the villagers, not just you,” Tamsin said.

“Yes, on most worlds, there is a translation matrix hidden in the platforms beneath the gate. It works in a radius of 100 kilometres,” Daniel said.

“Interesting,” Tamsin said.

Then Aa’lsvaiii’ entered the Records Hall from outside. “Preparations to leave the village are well underway. Colonel Mitchell is also asking for you,” she said.

“Right, let’s go,” Daniel said. Tamsin followed him out into a scene of frenzy. Villagers were running about trying to organise their departure. They quickly found the rest of SG1 close to the Records Hall.

“This is Lana Halaia. She will accompany you on your interception of the Prior,” Aa’lsvaiii’ said, indicating a nearby Record Keeper.

“That isn’t really necessary,” Cameron said.

“I insist, besides, she can hold her own in a fight,” Aa’lniii said.

“Right,” Cameron said, doubtfully.

Lana whirled her staff in the air and stopped a few centimetres short of driving it into Cameron’s face.

Seeing the tough expression on Lana’s face, Cameron pushed the staff down. “I see your point. Are all Record Keepers like this?”

“Not all, Tau’ri. Only after training in the Guild for more than three years,” Lana said.

“Good to know,” Cameron said.

Fifteen minutes later, SG1 left the rapidly emptying village in the direction of the Prior’s advance.

“We should intercept the Ori forces in less than an hour, Colonel,” Lana said.

“Remember, follow my directions, and don’t just charge into the formation,” Cameron said.

“I’m not stupid, Colonel!” Lana retorted.

Cameron sighed.

The SGC

The Doctor couldn’t been found anywhere in the SGC and hadn’t been noticed leaving. So there was only one place he could be; in the TARDIS. General Landry knocked on the TARDIS door. The Doctor opened it.

“Hi, I know what this is about. And answer is no,” he said.

“How did you know?” Landry asked.

“There is no other reason I can think of,” the Doctor said.

“What is the purpose of the power tap into the gate?” Landry said.

“Come inside and I’ll explain it to you,” the Doctor said.

“Fine,” Landry said. He stepped into the TARDIS. ‘The descriptions don’t do it justice,’ he thought.

The Doctor sat near the console. “I’m not drawing power from the gate, the TARDIS is sending and receiving signals via the gate to and from the planet.”

“For what purpose?”

“It translates the foreign languages into a language that my travelling companions can understand,” the Doctor said.

“Really?” Landry asked.

“Yes,” the Doctor said.

“But it doesn’t need to use the gate for that,” Landry said. He was about to explain that the gate already had a translation method, but the Doctor interrupted.

“No, it doesn’t. But it’s easier than projecting the signal at interstellar distances. Do you even know where the planet is?”

“P6Y-362 is over six thousand light years away,” Landry said.

“The signal will continue to use the gate. It won’t interfere with its normal operations,” the Doctor said. He pressed a control on the console. “There, the TARDIS is providing the power, rather than your facility.”

“Doctor, the gate already provides a translation method,” Landry explained.

“I’m sure it does, but whatever method that is probably doesn’t do text. It will continue until SG1 gets back.”

“Fine,” Landry said. He turned and then left the TARDIS.

Ao Plaailealan countryside, Tiloana

SG1 and their companions were moving wearily through a forest. “Are you certain this is the direction they are approaching from?” Cameron asked.

“Yes,” Lana said.

“She seems quite insistent,” Vala said.

“Right...” Daniel said, warily. They continued moving forwards.

They soon came to a clearing. Teal’c raised his staff weapon. “They are very close,” he said.

Lana gripped her staff with two hands. “I agree, Jaffa,” she said. She stood defensively by his side.

Kiara came up and stood at the ready to the other side of Teal’c, who activated his staff weapon.

The group was not prepared for who they would see next...

Two Priors emerged from the trees. “Hallowed are the Ori,” one of them said.

“Hallowed, my butt!” Lana called out.

“That is not necessary, Ms. Halaia,” Teal’c said.

Lana glanced at the Jaffa. “I will not be letting my energy be sucked out in worship!”

“How do you know that?” Daniel asked behind her.

“Alteran Lies!” the other Prior said.

“The Tau’ri are not the only ones whom have come into contact with the Ancients, Dr. Jackson!” Lana said.

“I guess not,” Daniel murmered.

A large group of Ori troops emerged from the forest and surrounded SG1 and their companions. Leading them was Adria!

“So, we meet again,” she said.

[crowfeets]

readmore for length, im mostly mad about how hard it is to find accessible historical info about not europe again

im soooo nervous about fucking up with this wip, i don’t want to bastardize other people’s cultures or hurt people. i am Determined to save and hire sensitivity readers. apparently it kind of starts at like a ballpark of 400-500 usd, this Matters to me, and i want to be able to do like minimum wage u know? fair compensation for labour dang it. and like crediting my readers in the work itself if they feel comfortable with that.

i’m also thinking like. if i get past draft zero. i want to figure out how to have a sfw and nsfw versions cause i think that would be like. more... like. not accessible, or is that what i mean? for more people, u know?

im just kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall but in further drafts i want to buckle down and research more historical stuff. it sucks, like trying to learn about the mughal empire in english with adhd? i’m going to have to read so many fricking research papers. i’ll happily do it to do right by this thing and more importantly by other people, like this is the bare minimum here,

but i’m so frustrated the only sources in english about non-european medieval stuff is like. a) dry academia b) random s.c.a. re-enactors’ blogs

meanwhile i can easily listen to the entire history of rome in podcast form.

[jewish-privilege]

The note jammed onto a windshield in Sweden in March last year was designed to terrify. WE ARE WATCHING YOU, YOU JEWISH SWINE, read the message to a retired professor, written on paper with the logo of the Nordic Resistance Movement, a Swedish neo-Nazi organization.

In the bucolic university town of Lund, with its cobblestone streets and medieval buildings, the threat seemed jarringly out of place. More notes followed. “I was really scared,” says the professor, a small woman of 70, who is too fearful about a further attack to reveal her name in print.

Finally in October, an attacker broke into the professor’s home before dawn and set it alight. By a stroke of luck, the professor was not there. But her living and dining rooms were reduced to ash. So too were the writings of her late mother, detailing her internment in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz. “For the first time in my life I have needed therapy,” she says, over tea in a sunlit café in Lund. “I have not known what to do with my life.”

The professor was targeted because she is Jewish, and in that she is not alone. Anti-Semitism is flourishing worldwide. Attacks on Jews doubled in the U.S. from 2017 to 2018, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in New York City. That included the shooting in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue last October, which killed 11 worshippers.

But the trend is especially pronounced in Europe, the continent where 75 years ago hatred of Jews led to their attempted extermination. The numbers speak plainly in country after country. For each of the past three years, the U.K. has reported the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents ever recorded. In France, with the world’s third biggest Jewish population, government records showed a 74% spike in anti-Semitic acts between 2017 and 2018. And in Germany, anti-Semitic incidents rose more than 19% last year. The findings prompted Germany’s first anti-Semitism commissioner to caution Jews in May about the dangers of wearing kippahs, the traditional skullcaps, in public.

Unsurprisingly, many Jews in Europe feel under assault. In an E.U. poll of European Jews across the Continent, published in January, a full 89% of those surveyed said anti-Semitism had significantly increased over five years. After polling 16,395 Jews in 12 E.U. countries, in a separate survey, the E.U.’s Fundamental Rights Agency concluded that Europe’s Jews were subjected to “a sustained stream of abuse.” With the decade drawing to a close, 38% of those surveyed said they were thinking about emigrating “because they no longer feel safe as Jews,” says the E.U. report.

European officials were stunned at the findings, but perhaps they ought not to have been. A complex web of factors have combined to create this moment in time for one of Europe’s oldest communities. Anti-Semitism has found oxygen among white supremacists on the far right and Israel bashers on the far left. Millions of new immigrants are settling in Europe, many from Muslim countries deeply hostile to Israel and sometimes also Jews. Exacerbated by the Internet’s ability to spread hatred, anti-Jewish feeling is surging in way that experts fear could result in a conflagration, if governments and communities fail effectively to tackle its causes.

...Not waiting for their leaders, communities across Europe have begun to take action themselves. Raised learning about Nazism, many fear what might happen if anti-Semitism is left unchallenged. In recent years, teachers, imams, rabbis and local activists have launched countless initiatives to break stereotypes, educate youth and forge links across religions. In several interviews with TIME, those fighting anti-Semitism caution that it is likely to take many years for their efforts to succeed. Still, they have begun. In Paris, Delphine Horvilleur, a rabbi and author of a recent book on anti-Semitism, says a young Muslim worshipper approached her in her synagogue after she presided over a joint Muslim-Jewish prayer service.

“He told me, ‘I grew up in a family where anti-Semitism was the music in the background,’” she says. Now, she says, “We have to ask ourselves, How can we make sure they have the ability to lower the volume?”

The horrors of World War II shamed the world into acknowledging the evils of anti-Semitism. But exposure did not cure it. Instead, say experts, the hatred simmered for years. “There was a consensus that anti-Semitism should not be voiced openly after World War II,” says Günther Jikeli, a specialist in European anti-Semitism at Indiana University, who is German. “This has gone away with time.”

The growth of the Internet provided new platforms for conspiracy theorists to circulate racist fantasies more broadly. After the financial crisis of 2008, for example, the ADL warned that anti-Semites were spreading lies on message boards that Jews were somehow to blame for the crash. One rumor went that Lehman Brothers, the vaunted U.S. investment bank founded by Jewish immigrants from Europe, had transferred $400 billion to Israeli banks prior to its collapse.

A decade on, those who monitor anti-Semitism believe each attack or conspiracy theory posted online, no matter how small, sets off others. As social media has become an ever greater and yet more unregulated part of our lives, hatred has proliferated. “It used to be that anti-Semitism peaked during times of conflict in the Middle East,” says Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission’s first-ever coordinator for combatting anti-Semitism. “Now the incidents remain at their highest level ever recorded.”

...Tensions sporadically erupt in violence. In Sarcelles, a French commune where Jews and Arab immigrants have lived alongside each other for decades, violence erupted during a pro-Palestinian march in 2014. Jewish businesses came under attack by demonstrators, many of them Muslim. Five years on, the Jewish residents of Sarcelles live with armed French soldiers on permanent patrol on their streets, in a measure of the government’s concern about further race riots. “We live with a sense of anxiety,” says René Taïeb, a Jewish community leader, sitting in a kosher café in Sarcelles. “We have a bag packed, ready to go, in the closet.”

But Europe’s most hardcore anti-Semites are arguably on the far right, and they are slowly joining the mainstream, as Europe’s political loyalties have fractured and polarized. In Hungary, the far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s campaign against Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros is regarded as thinly veiled anti-Semitism. And here in Sweden, ostensibly the most liberal country in Europe, a group of far-right extremists has achieved something close to political legitimacy.

...On the opposite end of the political spectrum, anti-Semitism has also flared up. During months of the so-called Yellow Vest protests in France, a handful of demonstrators in the crowd resurrected the stereotype of Jews controlling the levers of power. In February, a group of protesters accosted renowned French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut on a Paris street, screaming, “You are going to hell!” and “Go back to Tel Aviv!”

The problem is not always so overt, however. In the U.K., the opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has faced fury among some members over his alleged tolerance for anti-Semitism, especially regarding criticism of the Israeli government. The veteran leftist has said the party’s problem stems from a “small number of members and supporters,” and has pledged to stamp it out. But his defense has rung hollow to some. “The party is institutionally anti-Semitic,” says Luciana Berger, a Jewish member of Parliament who quit Labour this year over the issue. Under Corbyn, she tells TIME, “there is more of a permission for it to happen now.”

...Many Jews in Europe say it is not the major incidents but the minor ones that prove how widespread this problem is. They describe anti-Semitism as having seeped into quotidian life, in some ways complicating the effort to tackle the problem. “Unless it is very serious and you are physically attacked, there is a tendency not to call the police,” says Fredrik Sieradzki, spokesman for the Jewish community in Malmo, on Sweden’s southern border with Denmark.

...The more insidious effect is not at all visible: the choice by many Jews to remain discreet about their religious background. In numerous interviews, European Jews tell TIME that they avoid wearing a Star of David, and if they do, they tuck it under their shirts. Many also forgo affixing the traditional miniature prayer scrolls, called mezuzahs, to their doorposts, as many American Jews do, choosing instead to hang them inside. “Parents say to their kids, ‘Don’t tell your friends you are Jewish.’ Jewish teachers are afraid to tell kids they are Jewish,” says Shneur Kesselman, the Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi of Malmo, who moved from his native Detroit in 2004.

Kesselman recently installed bulletproof glass on his office window in Malmo’s synagogue, which dates from 1903. He says Jews have steadily adapted to low-level hostility. “We feel so long as our names are not on a list, we are O.K.,” he says. “There is a danger that we are accepting much too much.”

...Taïeb, the community leader in Sarcelles, says the best form of resistance might be to remind anti-Semites who Jews really are — their neighbors, and fellow citizens. He recalls watching the protest in 2014 spiral into violence and deciding to gather about 100 men to surround the synagogue. Instead of chanting Jewish prayers, as one might have expected, they decided instead to sing “La Marseillaise,” France’s national anthem. “We wanted to make the point that we are French, really French, who happen to be Jewish.”

...Yet, after a long period of feeling paralyzed by fear, the professor says she is finally venturing out. “Every day, I wake up and tell myself to go out and repair myself,” she says. Her home, rebuilt, now has security glass and alarms, far different from before the attack. “My house was wonderful, totally open, with big magnolia trees in the garden. The magnolia trees survived.”

[Read Vivienne Walt’s full piece in Time.]

[megahistorynut]

#BehindTheTruth #WorkingWithGov.

Part 3:

{The following morning, I got dressed and had some breakfast. I was looking over the papers I had. Something caught my eyes, it was the letter I had gotten from my mother. It was the one that detailed my father's death and how she was hidden when it had happened. It has been three years now that he was killed but I had not known who had done it. I had thought it was a gang never in a million years. I read the letter twice but the part of who really did it I read that part at least three or four times now. I couldn’t believe what I had read, I picked up the phone to call my mother to hear it from her but she didn't answer when I called.

My mother finally answers the phone and tells me she is outside of my door. I open the door and my mom Helena walks in. We sat and talked for hours about the letter I had and learned how my father was really killed. I couldn't believe that he was killed by a group of lesser whatever that is.

Later on that day I went to the Caldwell police station to file a report of the killing. Some of the police officers look at me as if I was crazy. I end up walking away from them till a man stops me to speak to me about what I was really doing to talk to these people. I learned his name is Mharcus and he will help me with my report. We left the station and headed to his place to talk, once we arrived we sat in his living room to talk.

I spent hours explaining to Mhacurs about what I knew about my father killing. Mhacrus looked at me as he was going to do something but stop. Mhacrus ends up offering me a job when I tell him all about the history stuff I know. I agree to his offer and work for him, it seemed like the best bet to work with him to get these people killed for what they did to my family.

After leaving Mhacrus place, the more likely one of his drivers took me home. My mother was still here when I told her about the job from this government agent. She was happy that I found someone to help her look into this. My mother and I spent hours on the information I had on vampires and what one of my colleagues had on them as well.

I had shown my mother the ancient symbol for the vampires, the Egyptian ankh. The look that my mother had told me something but I knew to not ask her till she was ready to tell me whatever it was on her own time. I knew that my mom knew what the symbol meant and I knew not to push her to tell me things. My mother was a symbology expert just as me and sometimes we work together. If this ankh was what my mother reminded me it could be, I still couldn't place this thing to them.

I wasn’t sure if this ankh was connected somehow to vampires. There had to be another way to prove this and I didn’t know how not yet anyway. The more I look at this ankh the more it looks like it was true. I went to my library to look for some books that I had gotten from my travels but these few books I had were written in some weird language which I still have not been able to figure out. I had even talked to my mother about them and she couldn't figure them out. I was thinking of either making a few copies and have one of my colleagues look them over to see if they knew of the language or not. I could tell it was old but whoever wrote it could use some kind of different way of writing.

I went over to my desk to see if I could remember where I had found these books. I was searching my papers when one of the papers caught my eye of ancient Babylonia that talked about one of its first demons that became a vampire. There was a legend of Lilith/Lilitu (and a type of spirit of the same name) originally arose from Sumer, where she was described as an infertile "beautiful maiden" and was believed to be a harlot and vampire who, after having chosen a lover, would never let him go. Lilitu (or the Lilitu spirits) was considered to be an anthropomorphic bird-footed, wind or night demon and was often described as a sexual predator who subsisted on the blood of babies and their mothers. Other Mesopotamian demons such as the Babylonian goddess Lamashtu, (Sumer's Dimme) and Gallu of the Uttuke group are mentioned as having vampiric natures.

Lamashtu is a historically older image that left a mark on the figure of Lilith. Many incantations invoke her as a malicious "Daughter of Heaven" or of Anu, and she is often depicted as a terrifying blood-sucking creature with a lion's head and the body of a donkey. Akin to Lilitu, Lamashtu primarily preyed on newborns and their mothers. She was said to watch pregnant women vigilantly, particularly when they went into labor.

Then there was more information in Ancient Greek mythology containing several precursors to modern vampires, though none were considered undead; these included the Empusa, Lamia, and striges (the strix of Ancient Roman mythology). Over time the first two terms became general words to describe witches and demons respectively. Empusa was the daughter of the goddess Hecate and was described as a demonic, bronze-footed creature. She feasted on blood by transforming into a young woman and seduced men as they slept before drinking their blood. Lamia was the daughter of King Belus and a secret lover of Zeus. However Zeus' wife Hera discovered this infidelity and killed all Lamia's offspring; Lamia swore vengeance and preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood.

Like Lamia, the striges feasted on children, but also preyed on adults. They were described as having the bodies of crows or birds in general, and were later incorporated into Roman mythology as strix, a kind of nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood. The Romanian vampire breed named Strigoï has no direct relation to the Greek striges, but was derived from the Roman term strix, as is the name of the Albanian Shtriga and the Slavic Strzyga, though myths about these creatures are more similar to their Slavic equivalents. Greek vampiric entities are seen once again in Homer's epic Odyssey. In Homer's tale, the undead are too insubstantial to be heard by the living and cannot communicate with them without drinking blood first. In the epic, when Odysseus journeyed into Hades, he was made to sacrifice a black ram and a black ewe so that the shades there could drink its blood and communicate.

Then there was more in India, tales of vetalas, ghoul-like beings that inhabit corpses, are found in old Sanskrit folklore.The vetala is described as an undead creature who, like the bat associated with modern-day vampirism, hangs upside down on trees found on cremation grounds and cemeteries. Pishacha, the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes.

The Hebrew word "Alukah" (literal translation is "leech") is synonymous with vampirism or vampires, as is "Motetz Dam" (literally, "blood sucker").

Later vampire traditions appear among diaspora Jews in Central Europe, in particular the medieval interpretation of Lilith. In common with vampires, this version of Lilith was held to be able to transform herself into an animal, usually a cat, and charm her victims into believing that she is benevolent or irresistible.However, she and her daughters usually strangle rather than drain victims, and in the Kabbalah, she retains many attributes found in vampires. A late 17th- or early 18th-century Kabbalah document was found in one of the Ritman library's copies of Jean de Pauly's translation of the Zohar. The text contains two amulets, one for male (lazakhar), the other for female (lanekevah). The invocations on the amulets mention Adam, Eve, and Lilith, Chavah Rishonah and the angels—Sanoy, Sansinoy, Smangeluf, Shmari'el, and Hasdi'el. A few lines in Yiddish are shown as dialog between the prophet Elijah and Lilith, in which she has come with a host of demons to kill the mother, take her newborn and "to drink her blood, suck her bones and eat her flesh". She informs Elijah that she will lose power if someone uses her secret names, which she reveals at the end.

There was so many in Various regions of Africa have folkloric tales of beings with vampiric abilities: in West Africa the Ashanti people tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwelling asanbosam, and the Ewe people of the adze, which can take the form of a firefly and hunts children. The Eastern Cape region of South Africa has the impundulu, which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightning, and the Betsileo people of Madagascar tell of the ramanga, an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles.

The Loogaroo is an example of how a vampire belief can result from a combination of beliefs, a mixture of French and African Vodu or voodoo. The term Loogaroo possibly comes from the French loup-garou (meaning 'werewolf') and is common in the culture of Mauritius. However, the stories of the Loogaroo are widespread through the Caribbean Islands and Louisiana in the United States.[80] During the late 18th and 19th centuries, there was a widespread belief in vampires in parts of New England, particularly in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. There are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the family, although the term "vampire" was never actually used to describe the deceased.

The deadly disease tuberculosis, or "consumption" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member who had died of consumption themselves. The most famous, and most recently recorded, case of suspected vampirism is that of nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown, who died in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death and her heart was cut out and burnt to ashes.

Legends of female vampire-like beings who can detach parts of their upper body occur in the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia. There are two main vampire-like creatures in the Philippines: the Tagalog Mandurugo ("blood-sucker") and the Visayan manananggal ("self-segmenter"). The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, thread-like tongue by night. They use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses off pregnant women. They also prefer to eat entrails (specifically the heart and the liver) and the phlegm of sick people. The manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim.

I had so many books on vampires that I picked up on my travels around the world, on my last trip I was in Alexandria, Egypt. I went to the great library of Alexandria well now it is called the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which functions as a modern library and cultural center, commemorating the original Library of Alexandrina. When I was there that was where I found a lot of the books that I was able to bring home with me just as long as I would send them back home. That was till I had a talk to the president of Egypt about my research I was doing on the books and that I would be using some of the books in my classroom. I would also teach a class of ancient Egyptian mythology to any of the students from Egypt. That is how I have these books, well some of them. The mysterious books that I did find were not in Egypt's great library but in two libraries one in London and one in Italy. The more I learned of this town, I learned that it had a mix of many cultures, from other countries.

I came out of my thoughts when my phone ping with a text message, it was from Mhacrus that he was asking me to come to the police station. I texted him back asking him what it was really about? I waited for his response, which was that there was some strange symbol that he wanted me to help explain what it is and what it means. I told him that I was coming in to see it and see if I can help him.

#WorkingWithGov

[fluffyunicornofdanger]

Her Royal Highness

A/N: Okay, so I really love the overall plot of this, but I feel that I didn’t do that great of a job getting my thoughts out. So, I’m sorry. I am thinking of making a second part but I’m not sure. Just depends on if you guys like it or not. So, let me know if I should. Thanks so so much to @waymorecake4me , who is like the loveliest human around, for helping me edit. I will have a few more one-shots out soon. Requests are open as always, so feel free to send them in.

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Masterlist

Brian May x Reader

Part Two

Summary: What’s the difference between lying and keeping things to yourself? A question that Y/n has to ask herself when the truth of about her family comes to light. And the answer may not be one that Brian wants to hear.

Word Count: 3.5k

Warnings: Language

(Disclaimer: Andorra is a real country in Europe, landlocked between France and Spain. It may be real, but it does not have an existing monarchy. So, please remember that this is a work of fiction. And I would appreciate it if you guys didn’t go around telling people that Andorra has a monarchy, it wouldn’t make you sound very smart.)

A light breeze blew through the second story window, gently tossing up loose papers that were stacked on a desk in the corner of the large bedroom. It was a lovely day, the sky a brilliant blue in the early morning with the warm sun beating down. A nice contrast to the cloud covered skies from a few days before. On a normal day like that, Y/n would be outside, either reading on the patio or gardening. But it wasn’t a normal day. Instead, Y/n found herself lying on her stomach, wishing the world would just swallow her whole.

In her hands, rested one of the many gossip magazines that London had to offer. It was one of those that could be found near the registers when going for groceries. She generally never cared for them, all being full of lies, as it was. But what donned the cover of the one in her hands was no lie. It read in large white letters, “Queen and the Princess: Is Andorra’s youngest princess really away at school?” Under the title was a picture taken a few weeks back of Y/n walking hand in hand with Queen’s guitarist, Brian May.

Y/n groaned, looking at the photo. What was she going to tell him? There was no doubt in her mind that he would catch a glimpse at the cover. He was sure to ask about it and it would do no good to keep hiding things.

Y/n and Brian had been dating for a little under a year, taking things nice and slow as Queen started to grow in popularity. She didn’t mind the pace, it gave her plenty of time to mull over information that was bound to come out. And she was used to a slower way of life, one where the media didn’t get in the way, something that was becoming a problem for Queen.

Brian had been afraid when they first started dating, that she would be thrown off by his rock star life. That she would think it was too overwhelming, too loud, and too wild. But only on occasion did those things ever cross her mind and it was generally at an after party when everyone was completely wasted. She was never allowed to be wild and free, never allowed to be more than a pretty face. So, she enjoyed being able to let her hair down every once in a while.

Therefore, she didn’t share his fears.

Above everything in her life, she feared the truth. Brian may have worried about how she would deal with being with someone in the spotlight, but he didn’t know who he was talking to. Her whole life, she had always been the center of attention. She couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without multiple people being by her side. She couldn’t be a normal person, live a normal life, without someone doing everything for her. And so, she feared that he would find that out.

With that large white heading, she feared that he would finally learn the truth and be hurt over the fact that he didn’t learn it from her. But what would it matter? He would probably be hurt either way. Being kept in the dark about something that big, that important, always brought along pain. But Y/n wanted to be more than her title. She wanted to be more than Her Royal Highness Princess Y/n L/n. She wanted to do more than what she was born into. She wanted to be a person, judged by her actions and her attitude rather than her money and standing. So, if she had to lie to get that, then so be it.

It’s not that she didn’t want to tell him when they first started seeing each other. Y/n had moved to London to study medieval history and experience the life of a normal college student. Her parents had allowed it, under the condition that she kept her heritage in the dark until she graduated. They were afraid that someone would try and take advantage of her because of her title and money. But Y/n knew that Brian wasn’t like that. And after a couple of dates, the thought of telling him the truth had crossed her mind. But she had yet to act on those thoughts.

Y/n tossed the magazine on her nightstand before slowly rolling out of bed. Throwing her legs over the side, her eyes met the warm spring day outside her window. She was supposed to go to lunch with Brian and the boys, something she had been looking forward to earlier in the week, but now came to dread. Standing from the bed, she went to the window, opening it slightly to allow more air in. The smell of lilies and orchids greeted her nose while she pulled clothes out of her wardrobe.

Once dressed, wearing an olive green skirt and a white blouse, and ready for the day, she made her way down to the kitchen. Putting the kettle on the stove, she decided to clean the kitchen, waiting for it to boil. As the kitchen was her favorite place to work in the house, with the most windows, all her notes and textbooks were strewn out on the counter. Gathering them up and stacking them in a neat pile, she simply moved them to the end of the counter. They were bound to be scattered along the surface later, so there was no use in putting them elsewhere.

Y/n gazed out the window, watching as the wind caught some of the flowers in her garden, tossing them around. Just then, the kettle came to a boil, the harsh sound stealing her attention away. She grabbed a cup and poured the steaming water in it before looking for a packet of tea. Once her tea was made, she made her way to a little window seat at the end of the hallway between the kitchen and the parlor. Settling down on the soft cushions, she was given a great view of her back garden, her peaceful refuge.

                                                       *~~~*

Long fingers ran through the thick black curls before getting stuck on a knot. Brian let out a sigh as he attempted to tame his hair. But it was no use, it had a mind of its own. And he really didn’t care anymore, not after Roger tossed him a magazine with a picture of him and Y/n on the cover.

“It can’t be true,” John stated, trying to assure his friend while tuning his guitar. It was an outlandish statement, they could all agree on that whether they believed it to be true or not.

Brian knew that it couldn’t be true, Y/n would never keep a thing like that from him. They told each other everything. He knew more about her than he did anything else. She probably just shared many of the same features as Andorra’s princess. A simple case of mistaken identity, that’s all it was. That’s all it could be.

Roger twirled his drumsticks around, looking to his friend, “But what if it is?” Freddie gave him a dirty look from where he was standing against the door frame before he continued. “I mean, would you go around telling people something like that. And we can’t know for sure unless we ask her. “

Everyone nodded. Believing that it wasn’t true and knowing for a fact that it wasn’t, were two different things, but Brian didn’t know what he would do if it was. Y/n was his best friend, sure he had his bandmates, who were like brothers, but he shared everything with her. It was easy for him to be open with her, she was kind and accepting. She never put down his feelings or overlooked anything he said. She was always listening and was always there for him. She made it clear through the tiniest of things that she loved him. And he thought that she wouldn’t keep something of this magnitude from him.

“What do I do if it is?” he asked, leaning back into the couch. They were supposed to be recording, but once Roger walked in, that became the last thing on their mind. Now, all the four men could think about was Andorra’s youngest princess and the woman that was claimed to be her.

The room went silent, all except for the sound of Roger’s drumsticks flying out of his hand and clattering on the ground.

No one was sure what to do if it was true. All they knew for sure was that if it was, everything would change. That was information that couldn’t just be glossed over. You couldn’t forget about it, only coming to mind every now and then, and you couldn’t change it. You could do nothing about it but accept it.

“Even if it is true, this doesn’t change anything between the two of you,” Freddie tried to sound encouraging. But what else could he say? If he said that everything would be in ruins over it, he would sound like a horrible friend, even though it was a possible outcome. “You darlings are clearly in love.”

John snickered, “Yeah, more in love than Roger is with his car.”

Roger chucked his drumstick at the bassist, missing by an inch and hitting the wall behind him. Freddie laughed at the comment, causing a drumstick to be thrown in his direction as well, missing once again as Roger didn’t have the best aim. It was a good thing that he was a drummer and not a baseball player.

Brian cracked a smile, the first since Roger flung a gossip magazine in his face. He always tried to stray away from them, always full of nothing but lies. They were cheap entertainment and why read one when he could afford better forms of entertainment? But just because it was cheap entertainment, full of lies and exaggerated truths, didn’t mean that the bold white heading didn’t hold some truth.

                                                      *~~~*

The light breeze from the early morning had grown stronger, blowing Y/n’s skirt around, making it difficult for her to walk to the restaurant she was supposed to meet the boys at. She prayed to god that Brian hadn’t seen a copy of the magazine that she had stuffed in her bag before leaving the house. Mentally, she wasn’t prepared to have a conversation on the subject, whether he found out from her or a stupid gossip magazine. But she knew that she would feel worse than she already did if he found out from someone other than her.

Y/n pushed the doors of the small corner restaurant open, her eyes wandering around before catching sight of Brian’s wild curls near the back. The place was nearly empty except for a few tables that looked to be finishing up breakfast. It was noon on a Thursday, not the ideal time for people to be out and about.

John was the first to notice her arrival as she neared the table, everyone else followed his gaze. As much as they tried to look happy and thrilled to see her, she could see that their eyes were weighted down by something.

Brian stood from his chair, pulling out the one next to him for her to take. Y/n gave him a smile before sliding into her chair. After pushing it in, he took his seat, causing a stiff layer of tension to overtaken the group.

He had seen the magazine.

She didn’t need him to say anything to know. She had grown up with that tension. It was always lingering when she would sit down for dinner with her family after doing something that her parents clearly said was off limits. Or when she would wear a dress that was just a little too short or the wrong color. There was always something and it was always her fault.

“We, um, ordered some tea,” Roger tried to ease the tension that everyone could feel. Y/n nodded, tea would be good. Maybe relieve some of the stress that was starting to build up.

“Y/n,” Brian turned to her, his tone stern. It was the one he often used in public when Roger would do something the rest of his bandmates disapproved of. Y/e/c orbs stared into his and he found himself at a loss for words. He cleared his throat as Roger, Freddie, and John waited for him to continue, sitting on the edge of their seats. “I-um… I saw a magazine cover this morning that was rather odd.”

Y/n sucked in a breath. Even though she knew he had, it was probably hard to miss, she still wished different. She ran her tongue over her teeth, thinking on whether she should pull the magazine out of her bag or not. It’s not like it would get her anywhere, he had already seen it. But she could play dumb and pretend that she hadn’t, but what good would that do? The truth always comes out in the end.

But what would was she to say? What was she to tell him? That it had slipped her mind? That she had meant to tell him from the start but was afraid of his reaction? How could she tell him any of that when she didn’t think he would understand?

Against her better judgment, she reached down to the bag that had been placed near her feet minutes before. Rummaging through it, her fingers grazed over the pages of the magazine before she pulled it out. Y/n took one look at the cover before placing it on the table in front of her boyfriend. “This magazine?”

Brian nodded, raising a brow. He hadn’t expected her to have seen it. Not when she always spent Thursday mornings at home as she had no classes. “Uh, yeah. That would be the one,” he pointed at it, taken back by her actions.

Before any more words could be exchanged, a waitress came over with a tray of tea, setting a cup in front of everyone. No one said a word as everyone filled their cups with their desired amount of sugar and cream. While Y/n spooned sugar into her cup, Roger eyed Brian, silently asking what he was going to do know.

And the answer was, he had absolutely no bloody idea.

Y/n took a sip of tea, tasting it to see if she put just enough sugar in, she set the cup down and looked at the pieces of paper that laid between her and the man beside her. “It is rather odd, isn’t it? I don’t remember seeing anyone in that generally direction with a camera,” she recalled, remembering the day the photo had been taken.

Brian rubbed the back of his neck, not quite sure what to say. He glanced at Freddie, looking for help, who only shrugged in return. Y/n seemed to be deflecting, but who could blame her?

“I don’t think that’s what he means, darling,” Freddie commented. Y/n gave him a small smile, she knew exactly what he meant. She knew what he was looking for her to say, but she wasn’t sure if she could. Once he knew the truth, she feared that he would treat her different. Act stiff and formal around her like so many other men that she had attempted to date. Y/n couldn’t have that. Not again. Not ever.

Thin, long fingers stole her hand away from the warmth of the cup in front of her. Her eyes trailed up to meet a pair of hazel ones and at that moment she could see the hurt building up in his eyes. She wasn’t even sure anymore why she didn’t tell him from the beginning. What would it change? It wasn’t like she held any power. She was only a figurehead in her family. She wasn’t next in line for the throne, she wasn’t in charge of any commodities or programs. She was just the youngest daughter of the King of one of Europe’s small countries. She was no one of importance. But she was important to him and knowing Brian, he would simply look past her title. She was a fool for thinking otherwise.

But she took into account the actions and behaviors of everyone that she had grown up around, the people that served her family and those that they interacted with during visits. Those people always acted stiff and proper, therefore, it was drilled into her mind that everyone acted that way around her when they knew who she was. But when she was a small child, going to a private school where people only knew her as Y/n, everyone was different. They were kind and open and treated her as they would treat anyone else. She craved that. She craved that type of interaction and that is what lead her to be sitting in a restaurant with the world weighing down on her.

Y/n sucked in a deep breath as Brian started to rub circles over the back of her hand with his thumb. “I-I, um… fuck,” she mumbled, trying to find a way to formulate the correct sentence. Was there even a correct way? In the end, she would still hurt him. She leaned back in her chair, the pressure of having four pairs of eyes trained on her wasn’t helping her think. “Okay, okay. What do you think of this?”

“Well, I think it’s wrong,” he drawled, clearly unsure where she was going with it.

Y/n nodded, grabbing the magazine. “And did you read anything besides just the cover?” He shook his head, causing her to flip through the pages before landing on two pages all about the topic on the front cover. She skimmed over the pages then set it in front of him. “What do you think now?”

Brian grabbed the magazine, his dark eyes analyzing the words in dark ink that were adorning the white, glossy finished pages. At the top corner of the first page was a portrait of what looked like Y/n in a baby blue satin dress and a tiara with dark blue sapphire gems. Underneath, it had a paragraph about the youngest princess of Andorra, who was supposed to be studying in London. Then beside the small paragraph was another picture of Y/n and Brian. The second page was full of more pictures of the two of them from different events they had gone to together.

“This is you?” he pointed to the portrait at the top of the page, getting a shy nod in response. “And why am I just finding this out?” As much as he wanted to be angry, his voice trembled slightly. He was afraid of the answer. Afraid that it would break his heart.

“Because it didn’t really seem to matter before.”

Brian released her hand, running it through his curly, slightly tangled locks. That was not the answer he was expecting, making his blood boil. “It doesn’t matter?” he seethed. “Because being honest doesn’t matter, does it?”

Y/n could see his glare out of the corner of her eye as she stared in front of her, trying to find the right answer to his questions. She hadn’t really lied to him. When he asked what her parents did, she told him that both her parents were in politics, which was true. When he asked about her siblings, she told him that they were in politics as well as that was the family business. That she grew up in the countryside, a true statement in the summer months when there was no school, and that she had gone to private school, as her parents could afford it. Everything she had told him was the truth, she had just left some bit and pieces of information out.

Roger gave Brian a sympathetic look. All the boys loved Y/n. She was a joy to be around and they saw the effect she had on their bandmate. She brought a smile to his face even when she wasn’t around. They couldn’t lose her. Brian couldn’t lose her, not like this.

Brian simply shook his head, waiting for his girlfriend to answer.

“A better question would be: did I lie to you or simply leave something out?” She gripped the handle of her teacup, bringing it to her lips. He was already angry and hurt, anything else she decided to add was just shoveling dirt onto her already sealed coffin. That’s the conclusion she came to.

“Which is it, Y/n?”

She brought the cup down, turning to face him. She could see how tense he was, and as much as she wanted to reach out to and cup his face, she knew that he would pull away from her. It pained her to see that she had caused such pain that was clearly written on his features. “I would never lie to you, Brian,” she stated, grabbing her bag and pushing her chair out. On the brink of tears, she was not going to continue this in a restaurant. Not when she knew that nothing she said would make it any better. There were many conversations that were meant to be had in private, and one about her family was one of those.

“Where are you going?” Brian stood, watching her walk away from the table.

“Home.”

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Permanent Taglist: @rexorangecouny @jennyggggrrr

(Please let me know if you would like to be added to the taglist and I would love to hear your thoughts on the fic.)

[somediyprojects]

Sharon Mossbeck | Forgotten Spaces exhibition 

Drawing upon the singular atmosphere of the basement as a contemporary art project, Forgotten Spaces presents an exhibition of new works by Sheffield based artist Sharon Mossbeck looking at prison cells, oubliettes, and dungeons of Medieval Europe.

Cross-stitch is a versatile medium rarely seen in the context of contemporary fine art and is here utilised by Mossbeck to depict the scale of these forgotten spaces. Working with Aida (cross-stitch fabric), an unforgiving material, and making the most of its similarities to graph paper, these works take on the manner of a blueprint and depict the torturous dimensions of these spaces, chilling in their cruelty.

Oubliette, Unknown Origin. Cotton on Aida. 2018

Little Ease, Chester City Walls. Cotton on Aida. 2018

Oubliette, Warwick Castle. Cotton on Aida. 2018

Pozzi, Doge’s Palace. Cotton on Aida. 2018

Oubliette, Bastille. Cotton on Aida. 2018

Forgotten Spaces

My exhibition Forgotten Spaces has taken a long time to come to fruition. As a lover of history I have come across many cruel dungeon cells, designed to torture the unhappy resident, and these stories have stayed with me. As an artist with a preoccupation with death, I have long wanted to make work about them, but the right way to go about this had never presented itself until now. By chance, one day I saw the word Oubliette in a completely unrelated situation. I remembered the word from the 1980’s classic film The Labyrinth, and realised that I had never quite looked up the exact meaning.

Oubliette: A secret dungeon reached only via trapdoor. From Middle French oublier "to forget”

The coldness of the meaning “to forget” only adds to the horror of such places, and it was this that jolted my project to life.

Thinking back to the dungeon cells I had read about over the years, I decided to create a set of work based on five of them. It is the torturous scale of these spaces which makes the most impact, and so I needed a medium which could reflect this.

A lot of my fine art practice consists of Contemporary Art Cross-stitch. This means Cross-stitch used in a contemporary fine art context. The work may have a conceptual basis, or simply be using cross-stitch in a way which makes best use of the medium. The grid-like fabric used for cross-stitch (called Aida) is very similar to graph paper. In fact, I plan my patterns out on graph paper when designing a piece of work, and have long been interested in using Aida as graph paper. In 2017 I made a small piece of work which mimicked architectural plans for a medieval gothic church window, stitching the 10x10 squared guidelines onto the cross-stitch fabric.

I decided that, in order to show the scale of these spaces, using Aida as graph paper would work well, and the actual dungeons would take on the appearance of blue prints, with a guide to the height of the average Medieval man to give a real sense of the practical scale of the spaces.

Oubliette, Unknown Origin. Cotton on Aida. 2018

The smallest dungeon cell featured in this series of work is from Chester city walls, and, as with all of the dungeons featured, is hidden deep underground. There is an interesting contemporary account of the size of this cell by someone who visited it as a gruesome tourist attraction, long after it was last used. They described it as a small space, carved out of the rock to fit the dimensions of a man. It had room for the head, and became wider to fit the shoulders and chest. When the door was closed on the person inside they had no room to sit or lie down. This type of cell is known as the “Little Ease”, and to make it even more torturous, wooden boards could be added to reduce the height of the space, meaning that not only could the prisoner neither lie down or sit, but now they could not even stand. They were contorted in a tiny awkward space. There is even an account of one particularly overweight prisoner who was squeezed into the tiny cupboard like space, and was said to have “burst” when the door was forced shut on him.

Little Ease, Chester City Walls. Cotton on Aida. 2018

Another small cell can be found at Warwick Castle, where once again the victim a cannot sit or stand, but this time they lie at an awkward angle underground with a metal grill closed above them, so that they are little more than a body trapped in an underground cage.

Oubliette, Warwick Castle. Cotton on Aida. 2018

A slightly different kind of cell, which perhaps looks more appealing than the others at first, is a Pozzi cell, found at the Doge’s Palace in Venice. Pozzi means Wells, and this is because they were wet. The cells were built from wood with a wooden raised bed in the middle and, depending on the prisoners’ height, there was possibly not enough room to stand. Because they were wooden, the walls creaked and oozed, and were infested with insects.

Pozzi, Doge’s Palace. Cotton on Aida. 2018

The largest dungeons featured are the Oubliettes. These were deep holes in the ground, already in the underground dungeons where there was no chance of seeing any daylight. The victim was tossed into the hole via a trap door in the floor, where they would fall and probably break some bones. One style of Oubliette is a long tube, and if the prisoner were capable, they could possibly climb up the walls, only to be greeted with a metal grill locking them in from above. In reality though, the injuries caused from the fall (not to mention any torture they may have already received before being imprisoned in the Oubliette) along with the malnutrition they would suffer there, would mean that there was no escape. The other type of Oubliette is bottle shaped, so that the hole in the floor through which the victim is tossed is the bottle neck and then the cell becomes wider. There would be no way out of this unless a ladder or rope was let down. Prisoners in these Oubliettes were possibly not fed and were left to die there. If anyone did pass by they would only see a grate in the floor, and so these poor people truly were forgotten.

Oubliette, Bastille. Cotton on Aida. 2018

[eatsomebuttercups]

Y’know as much as I don’t wanna seem like a nerd (Sky!), I do love history.

I love Japan’s history the most, I think. It’s a criminally short chapter at school so i’m gonna write about it here (this is medieval Japan).

Medieval Japan was mostly a Shogunate/warrior society. Japan becoming a warrior society meant wealthy women lost the right to own land and what little freedom they had to marry who they pleased. Poorer women had a greater say in marriage, but could never own land in the first place.

Japan being a warrior society meant the age of shoguns, daimyos, and samurai were upon it. The shogun was the military leader of all Japan-while the emperor was more of a symbolic position, being the shogun meant you more or less had all the power. The shogun would often behead his enemies. (We’ll come back to shoguns later.)

Daimyos were military lords who headed small territories-while the shogun owned all land, the daimyo ruled over a portion of it. The shogun would assemble all the daimyo in Edo-modern day Tokyo-every five or so years to keep an eye on them and make sure they weren’t starting any rebellions.

The relationship between a daimyo and his samurai-or the bond between a lord and his vassal-is feudalism. “Warrior society” Japan could also be known as feudalist Japan, and often is.

Samurai were warriors who followed the Bushido, or way of the warrior. They served the daimyo, their masters, and were skilled in horseback riding and swordsmanship. They were expected to be brave, honorable, courageous, and fearless. Oftentimes, samurai were zen Buddhists, as this form of religion allowed samurai to strengthen their body and mind through meditation and martial arts. Samurai bore leather strapped armor, helmets that would be molded to look much like a beetle’s horns and head, and two swords; one long and the other short. Samurai were expected also to fight until the very last breath, and if they could not win, to commit seppuku, a form of suicide in which the samurai would stab themselves in their gut and have their fiend behead them with their long sword. (I might revisit this later-remember also, that there were female samurai!)

Only about 20% of Japan was/is farmable, so the Japanese turned to the sea for food. The sea was a huge part of life in Japan-it provided protection, food, and isolated them from much of the world. Many Japanese dishes involve fish, crab, shrimp, or other forms of sea life because of their many fishing communities and small amount of farm land. The land that could be farmed was used to feed livestock or for rice and wheat.

Women in Japan often were mothers, farmers, craftsmen, or served as geishas, especially in the Edo Period. While these were the main roles of women, many were also successful poets, warriors, and even leaders. Murasaki Shikibu was a famous female writer in Japan who wrote The Tale of Genji-sound familiar?

The Edo Period was HUGE for Japan. It was an advancement in culture, food, lifestyle, and just-in general, the country evolved. Why? People-middle class people-craftsmen, farmers, etc.-needed things to do! Kabuki theater became huge, though the Tokugawa forbid women to act in Kabuki. Geishas-serving women who dressed in fine silk kimonos and played the samisen or flute for male travelers, often in the floating world, would perform and became more popular. Like I said-Japan evolved!

With industrial revolution, comes the need to read! Now-printing is a big big thing! For China, it was a nightmare. There were over 40,000 characters, so the movable type printing everyone nowadays is so used to is a nightmare. Japan borrowed everything from China-including government, religion, and printing. Japan used woodblock printing, which is exactly how it sounds. It took a lot of skill to carve the block, apply the colour, and let it dry, but the middle class loved it. They bought up printed paintings, woodblocks, everything-because they were affordable and nice.

This is an example of a very detailed woodblock print! This is Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave) by Katsushika Hokusai as part of the “Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji” collection!

The Japanese were closed off to the world because of the Tokugawa Shogunate, who cut off connections to the outside world, banned trading with Europe, and banned Kirishitans. However, in the 1880s-1920s, Japan opened up more. Europeans came to Japan and were inspired and delighted. They were dazzled by the women who wore white face paint and the Kabuki theater actors who were talented in what they performed. They were amazed by the art and the paper umbrellas and they brought it back to France, England, everywhere they could-and some Japanese people did. Not. Like. It.

There were multiple Shogunates. The Tokugawa just so happened to cut Japan off and made a huge difference in the economy. Among these different periods with the Kamakura shogunate period. The Kamakura period was started by the Minamoto clan. Shoguns exist because the emperor was afraid of the Minamoto clan seizing power from him and overthrowing the throne. (The Minamoto clan won the Genpei war between them and the Taira clan.)

The Mongols attempted to invade Japan twice. Both times, their boats were flooded due to winds flipping them over. The Japanese believed these winds were caused by kami, spirits, and thus called them “kamikaze” winds. Pilots in world war two that dove down and went on suicide missions were named after the kamikaze winds.

Shinto and Buddhism were the two main religions in Japan, and you didn’t have to choose between them. Shinto was a native Japanese religion that followed animism, the belief all natural things have spirits. They called these spirits “kami”. To worship Shinto, they want to shrines, where a holy gate called a torii stood. Often, people went to these shrines to give money or other Earthly possessions or to pray to the sun goddess, Amaterasu. Shinto involved daily life for the Japanese. Buddhism came from China and Korea after it was spread to them from India itself. The Japanese were fond of Buddhism because of Prince Shotoku, who built monasteries and encouraged Buddhist worship and beliefs. Buddhism involved life after death, or preparing for the life to come.

This is a torii! This happens to be in Kyoto-which used to be the capital. This is in Fushimi Inari Taisha, a district in Kyoto known for its Shinto shrines.

The Yayoi were the first people in Japan. They came to Japan from a land bridge, since Japan was not always disconnected from the main continent of Asia. They introduced farming in rice paddies, metalworking, and pottery to Japan. One of the branches or clans of the Yayoi, the Yamato, believed they were descended from Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and therefore had divine powers, and deserved to be emperor. The first emperor of Japan was a man named Jimmu. The emperor of Japan now has Yamato blood running through his veins.

Prince Shotoku is said to be a main influencer of Japan, though this has been put up to debate many times. It is said he took power from his aunt out of her own will and used it to make Japan more like China. He copied their government, beliefs-he sent scholars to China who studied their art, medicine, and philosophy. He is said to have written Japan’s first official constitution, though it has not been completely confirmed that he did.

Another large part of Japanese history in the medieval ages was poetry. The first form of Japanese poetry was tanka, unrhymed, short poems. Later on, another popular form of poetry-even now-was/is haikus! Samurai were expected to be good poets, too-don’t ask me why.

That’s really it! Honestly, I hope this helps SOMEONE with their history test! I’m learning Japanese now-it’s a bit difficult, but learning a language improves memory and other skills, so. Thanks for reading and please point out any misinformation/spelling mistakes so I can fix it! Also, feel free to add on/ask questions!

[warninggraphiccontent]

29 November 2019

Manifesto destiny

What do this year's manifestos have to say about data, digital, open government and technology?

While we wouldn't expect them to get into the finer points of digital government and better uses of data in government - not in themselves the most doorstep-friendly of issues - there's a fair amount in there. Online harms, cybersecurity, citizens' digital rights, using data to better understand barriers to diversity (very Race Disparity Audit) and general references to technology across various sectors all make an appearance. There's not that much on open data or open government (beyond an eye-catching Lib Dem promise on a citizens' assembly on algorithms), or much detail on the Conservative promise to improve the use of data, data science and evidence in government (#classicdom). We've got a summary here, the Ada Lovelace Institute have one here, and Peter Wells has a thread on each here.

It's interesting to compare with the 2017 versions. The Conservatives apparently promised some new bodies on the use and ethics of data, and geospatial data - whatever happened to those? - while Labour promised to keep the Land Registry and all its data under public control (repeated this time around) and extend freedom of information to private providers of public services (ditto). No mention of Freedom of Information in the Lib Dem manifesto for the first time in a while.

There'll be some more on manifestos on this week's Inside Briefing podcast. We looked at, or rather listened to, prime ministerial tenure last week.

And in brief:

It was a real pleasure to chair Will from Full Fact, Liz from Digital Action, my old boss Martin from King's and the chair of the Electoral Commission, Sir John Holmes, on whether we can trust our electoral system in an age of rapidly evolving technology. All killer, no filler, as the kids say - well worth a watch or listen.

And if you liked that, you may like some of our other #IFGElection2019 events, including one next week on other aspects of our electoral system.

Another important event: on starting a career in public policy. Thinking about a career in public policy? Never thought about a career in public policy? Want to get started in thinktanks, or still wondering what a thinktank is? Come and have your questions answered on Monday 9 December.

To the Argentine Embassy for the launch of the Bennett Institute's new report on digital government in Argentina since 2015. Excellent discussion, excellent report, excellent empanadas.

No Data Bites next week - we're hoping to get started again in February. But as well as watching all the previous ones back, you can join us for some drinks on Wednesday - get in touch via Twitter if you'd like to join.

RIP Clive James.

It's easy to forget in the midst of the election campaign but it is nearly Christmas. Come and celebrate with my choir, the New Tottenham Singers, on Saturday 14 December.

Have a great weekend

Gavin

Today's links:

Graphic content

Let's talk about MRP

The key findings from our MRP (YouGov)

Election Centre (YouGov)

MRP election poll: Boris Johnson heads for big majority* (The Times)

Poll forecasts Commons majority for Boris Johnson* (FT)

How do pollsters predict UK general election results? (FT)

Manifestos

Where does the climate emergency first get mention in the party manifestos? (Tortoise)

A chart based analysis of the text in the Conservative and Labour manifestos (Daniel Tomlinson)

Manifesto word count (me for IfG)

#GE2019, etc

Top target seats in the 2019 general election – interactive (The Guardian)

Meet Parliament’s class of 2019* (The Economist, via Tom)

What happens if a prime minister loses their seat in a general election? (IfG)

A New Class Of Angry Partisan Facebook Pages Are Dominating The Online War In The British General Election (BuzzFeed)

Trust in civil servants/politicians (me for IfG)

Veracity Index (Ipsos MORI)

We're now three weeks without a Secretary of State for Wales (me for IfG)

Long term trend shows decreasing concern over economy, unemployment, rise of Brexit (Ipsos MORI)

Women in parliament (Alice for IfG)

Tax and spend

This is how marginal taxes work (Mona Chalabi)

Explaining progressive income tax (Matthew Armstrong)

Divided and connected: Regional inequalities in the North, the UK and the developed world – State of the North 2019 (IPPR)

Elections elsewhere

Hong Kong election results mapped* (New York Times)

A Staggering Number of Candidates Are Running for U.S. President* (Bloomberg)

Who is ahead in the Democratic primary race?* (The Economist)

Everything else

How Do You Find Good NFL Defenders? By Measuring What’s Not There. (FiveThirtyEight)

A kaleidoscope of river pollution (The ENDS Report)

Die letzten Mieter (Zeit Online)

Pope Francis, globe-trotting at an age when other popes have eased up, is trying to transform the church through his travels* (Washington Post)

Data and #dataviz

Survey of public sector information management 2018/19 (data.gov.nz)

Make your own UK General Election maps (Flourish)

Lowering the bar (Full Fact)

Reddit's Bar Chart Race moratorium is a good thing for #dataviz. Here's why. (Andy Cotgreave)

Meta data

Poll position

How YouGov's 2019 General Election model works (YouGov)

FAQs about YouGov's 2019 general election MRP model (YouGov)

MRP Estimates and the 2019 General Election (Anthony B. Masters)

Why you should take YouGov's MRP with a pinch of salt; Six thoughts on YouGov's MRP model of the 2019 election* (New Statesman)

Brexit didn’t cause all our divisions (UnHerd - although...)

Forensic polling analysis shows how Boris Johnson is on course to win—and how he can be stopped* (Prospect)

What to make of the polls? (Will Jennings)

The hidden predictor? Council control (Ian Warren)

Four Problems With 2016 Trump Polling That Could Play Out Again in 2020* (New York Times)

Election 2019: Can we trust our electoral system? (Institute for Government)

Manifestos

General Election 2019: manifesto tracker (Institute for Government)

Manifestos still matter even though their promises aren't being delivered (Institute for Government)

Tech/data in the 2019 manifestos (Peter Wells)

How will data and AI work for people and society after the UK General Election 2019? (Ada Lovelace Institute)

2019 Manifesto - 'Towards a Better Future' (techUK)

The Startup Manifesto (The Entrepreneurs Network/Coadec)

Future of the web

Contract for the Web (World Wide Web Foundation)

Tim Berners-Lee unveils global plan to save the web (The Guardian)

Read Sacha Baron Cohen's scathing attack on Facebook in full: 'greatest propaganda machine in history' (The Guardian)

Platforms don't exist (Ben Tarnoff)

Internet Harms: We need a Regulator, not a Censor (Martin Stanley for the Bennett Institute)

Internet world despairs as non-profit .org sold for $$$$ to private equity firm, price caps axed (The Register)

Oil, data, data, oil

Oil is the New Data (Logic)

The Next Big Cheap: Calling data “the new oil” takes its exploitation for granted (Real Life)

Data, transparency, openness

Unlocking the value of London’s public sector data (Eddie Copeland)

What does transparency mean? (Understanding Patient Data)

Open government must be more than a commitment on paper* (Apolitical)

11 thoughts on Donald Trump, Transparency and Records (Ben Worthy)

Cabinet Office ignores court order to release secret fracking report (The Guardian)

Open Banking: Consumer consent frameworks around the globe (ODI/Equifax)

Thierry Breton to be in charge of leading new ‘EU data strategy’* (Politico)

Everything else

Better than ethics (Rachel Coldicutt, Doteveryone)

Help TheyWorkForYou make sense of Parliament (Crowdfunder)

Taiwan is making democracy work again. It's time we paid attention* (Wired)

Facebook’s only fact-checking service in the Netherlands just quit (The Verge)

OPSI Primer on AI for the Public Sector (OECD, via Marcus)

Opportunities

AWARD: 2020 Statistical Excellence in Journalism awards launched (Royal Statistical Society)

JOB: RESEARCHER/POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR, AI ON THE GROUND INITIATIVE (Data & Society)

JOB: Director of Standards & Interoperability (NHS England)

JOB: Senior Researcher: Court Monitoring and Open Justice (Spotlight on Corruption)

JOBS: 2020 US Election (FT)

JOBS (Luminate)

And finally...

Thanksgiving

The Ultimate Thanksgiving Dinner Menu (FiveThirtyEight)

9 charts to be thankful for this Thanksgiving (Vox)

Practice makes perfect: Carve this virtual turkey* (Washington Post)

Politics

How the UK are predicted to vote is... (@notstelfc, via Haydon)

Winning here. Hang on... (via Alasdair)

Medieval Catholicism nudged Europe towards democracy and development* (The Economist)

Irish parliament red-faced over printer too big to fit through doors (The Guardian, via Alice)

Fibonacci Day

Fibonacci Anonymous meetings this afternoon... (Moose Allain)

A poem (Brian Bilston)

Everything else

How Emojis Have Invaded the Courtroom (Slate)

The Big Data of Big Hair (The Pudding)

Same. (@kamal_hothi)

Day in the life of a data journalist. (David Ottewell, via Graham)

Warning: Reading the Wikipedia entry for the guy who invented the bar chart will give you multiple cases of serious whiplash (Tom Wilson, via Tim)

Hi, I'm Bill gates and today I will teach you how to count to ten (@OneDevloperArmy)

[religionandmoralityessay253]

college paper

About me

Cheap Essay Writing Service

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[profanetools]

okay sorry to be so..... sasha about this, but i have a million and one thoughts on this

prior to capitalism you still have a long history of peasants revolts and uprisings, life under feudalism (which encompasses a long time, lots of kingdoms, is a big generalisation, lots of societies were feudalist and they weren’t uniform in structure) was hardly harmonious and certainly wasn’t static, things like war and famine and plague would shape that as well and cause people turning up to the gates with pitchforks and torches. and honestly? as long as you have socioeconomic class divide, with some haves, and some have-nots, you’ll have class struggle, you’ll have socioeconomic groups agitating and struggling for control based on who has/hasn’t got resources. not all of that rebellion might not be particularly socialist in character, but certainly some of it will resemble that. some ML may take issue to this but I think it’s too dogmatic (& arguably eurocentric) to say capitalism is a necessary prerequisite to socialism. I don’t particularly want to get into a long argument on this point, but I don’t think there is a given narrative that economic systems must follow, and I think taking this view becomes potentially even more restrictive given we have a world that has magic, gods, & the undead.

of course, a medievalist fantasy universe (which TES is, roughly) that often is anachronistic is difficult to categorise, but either way, I’d honestly categorise the 3rd Empire, particularly Cyrodiil (easiest model to work off since Marx wrote a lot about England, and Cyrodiil is modelling off this pastoral romantic fantasy of medieval England in a lot of senses) as mercantile / early capitalist in some respects? like there’s no peasant commons and that land has been taken and divided up (the fact that bandit camps are classified as bandits, ie. illegal speaks a lot to that), you see people who own property & capital outside of feudal lords, guilds, or the temple (the Surilie brothers outside of Skingrad jump to mind)... like I think in multiple ways it sits in this nebulous, difficult to define middle period between feudalism and capitalism that possesses characteristics of both. In some way because it is inspired by a romantic pastoral vision of England’s past rather than the true rendering we get those details blurred due to a failure to acknowledge a lot of class violence – we see lords, but few peasants toiling in the lord’s fields, we see temples, but no extortionate tithes people have to pay, we see property-owning merchants but fewer underpaid workers, and we see, in Oblivion (Morrowind is notably different in this regard), very little evidence of imperialist occupation, violence, & colonialism, even if we have big old ships in big old docks.

additionally, I think the biggest divergence to medieval europe – asides from magic and the undead (which is.... another essay, I tried writing about it and it was hundreds of words) – is actually literacy. my literature bias is seeping in here but one of the reasons revolutionary ideas travelled quickly and picked up a lot of motion in the 18th & 19th and later 20th centuries in Europe was because of the invention of the printing press had led to the cheap production of pamphlets and papers and also a great increase in literacy, which led to radical ideas being circulated more quickly, outside of the control of the church and state. this is one factor amongst many - urbanisation, industrialisation, the rapid growth of metropolitan areas, the creation of social spaces for discussion of ideas outside of the church’s control, the beginnings of globalisation, are some amongst many. but I think the fact that most if not all people in the Elder Scrolls universe are literate, books are widespread, and the ability to write - to keep a diary, for example - is cheap and commonplace would allow for ideas to travel quickly, especially across a unified Empire with relatively uniform laws across provinces, more lenient border controls than separate states. The biggest hurdle here would be state control and restrictions, as if the Empire decides to clamp down hard on something, that said uniformity becomes a hindrance. Clearly, heretical, if not radical, books have been allowed to be published, shown by the multiple copies of the Arcturan Heresy you can find in games, but it’s quite possible that this had a limited print run, the publisher was shut down, and all the books you encounter in sunken chests and the like are old versions or even copies. Imperial control of literature notwithstanding, literacy and the cheap and accessible production of pamphlets, papers, and books does allow for ideas to circulate beyond their immediate geographical borders and also circulate in secret with greater ease in authoritarian conditions.

given all these factors, I think the question here is not ‘is it possible?’ and instead ‘why hasn’t there been more discussion of this [in universe]?’ the answer exists out of universe, and it’s in part because the writers are of a particular social class - white, upper middle class US americans, descendents of settler-colonialists, who have a vested interest, even if it’s subconscious, of not speaking about the elephant in the room that is class & race - but also their imagined audience occupies this profile (not necessarily true of their actual audience), and I definitely feel that a lot of people (mistakenly!) would consider it ‘anachronistic’ (never mind that TES has never been not anachronistic, it’s also, literally, fantasy) and reject it instinctively partially due to their own expectations (again, shaped by white, bourgeois hegemonic views that we see everywhere in culture) of what fantasy looks and feels like. we should of course, challenge those expectations. I think it’s perfectly possible to have characters in the elder scrolls thinking about socialism, even if they don’t use the word ‘socialism’ to describe what they’re thinking about. that isn’t conceptually locked away from them.

as for what it actually looks like? I’d need to sit down and write another mammoth post. some disconnected thoughts on variations of it:

- left anti-imperialist sentiment, particularly in elsweyr and in summerset during the 3rd and early 4th era (before the dominion tried to quash it as it posed an issue for them), and I think after the empire falls and when the 4th era begins you go through this period without imperial suppression of radical literature and radical organising, where the monarchs and leaders at the time are deeply unpopular and seen as septim puppets, and there’s a sudden space for anti-imperialist, anti-monarchist, socialist ideas to breathe and be spoken about again. in summerset i see this being taken down by the aristocratic institutions who side with fascism - but in elsweyr I can definitely see it taking hold much more readily, and only being supplanted by occupation & colonialism.

- orc clans are presented as highly conservative and patriarchal in make-up (which I think is again, creator biases filtering through) and I’d like to propose that, acknowledging that orc clans aren’t uniform at all and there are key differences between clans (something that should logically be true, yet the creators neglect often), there are orc clans in existence who are much more egalitarian in structure - in fact, the size of the clans and their ways of living would necessitate something more egalitarian honestly, and in a better world we’d see orcs who speak of strength in unity, who believe and practice “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs”, and I think there’s honestly a cultural & theological element when we consider malacath as the perpetual outsider who survives regardless of what everyone else is doing.

- the dwemer I’ve spoken about at length, and I love to headcanon as communists living heretically in their little heretical communes, but if we just put my views of things aside for a moment, I would be highly surprised, given the communal living quarters and spaces of the dwemer, given the extent of automation in their society, given that there’s very limited reason to believe they have a feudal system (or even, arguably, a monarchy) in place, given the extent of industrialisation and the development of technology there, if there has been no debate, no consideration, no discussion around these questions of how to organise our economy, how to distribute resources, in ways that don’t touch upon ideas resonant with socialism. I feel like some people’s conception of them as authoritarian, sadistic evil scientists with highly stratified and fixed social rank just has... little basis in what societies are actually like, especially small, clan-sized communities

do you think there's real fantasy leftist theory happening in the elder scrolls somewhere. lik while we're dungeon diving and casting fire ball a feudal peasant in wayrest is thinking about socialism