#which sets into motion the civil war within the empire

[poeticsofresistanceargentina]

Regional Background- Argentina

Argentina was colonized in the 16th century by the Spanish, before which the area that makes up the country today had roughly 300,000 people from the Chaco, Puelche, Tehuelche, Querandi, Diaguita, and the Incan empire (Calvert). Often, Spanish colonizers would marry indigenous women, since few Spanish women made the voyage from Spain. In 1806, Argentina launched an independence movement to escape Spanish governance. A few years later in 1808, a civil war broke out, splitting into two governments: the Napoleonic government, put into place by Napoleon and led by Joseph Bonaparte, and the Patriotic Juntas government, in the name of Ferdinand VII and aided by the British. By 1810, an autonomous government was established and declared independent in 1816, named the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, a conglomerate of different provinces (Calvert). By 1820, there were 2 main political parties, the revolutionary government in Buenos Aires, and the League of Free Peoples along the Río de la Plata. Both organizations soon collapsed, but Buenos Aires remained an important city for its ties to international relations. By then, each providence had an established military-political regime, including Buenos Aires, where the Party of Order had been established. During this era, a war began between Brazil and Argentina, all while there was an attempt to unify the providences within Argentina (Calvert). This attempt to unify the government slowly failed as the war progressed, and Argentina began to lose, Juan Manuel de Rosas was elected governor in an attempt to fix the mess that had accumulated with foreign relations and politics, in addition to the war. After a while, he became dictator, and a secret police group was started. He was overthrown in 1852, and soon after, unification was set into motion. In 1890, there was an inflation crisis that caused the birth of the Radical Civic Union, which allowed social unrest to spread further than before. There began to be calls for social and economic reform, and as a depression hit Argentina in 1930, the president was removed from office (Calvert). Soon after, World War II began, and Argentina stayed neutral until the president declared war on Germany in 1945. After the war, the inflation issues returned, which heavily impacted the middle and lower classes (Calvert). As for the involvement of women in government history and feminist movements, in 1900, the National Council of Women began to meet. It was the first women’s political organization in Argentina, uniting feminists, attempting to uphold their rights. The suffrage movement gained traction, and along the way, aided the movements for worker’s rights and education reform. In 1947, Argentinian women gained the right to vote (Hammond).  

Reproductive rights have dominated feminist politics in Argentina. The institutional fight for abortion rights was and is a difficult one in Argentina, which saw many setbacks before its eventual (partial) legalization in 2021. In Argentina, the fight to legalize abortion (and defend its legalization) can be seen as a microcosm of the feminist struggle within the Argentinian legal system.  

Mainstream (governmental) political action groups have fought for abortion legalization since at least the mid-2000s. The National Campaign for Free, Safe, and Legal Abortion first drafted and introduced a bill for abortion legalization in 2006, but it was not discussed in plenary sessions until 2018 (Ruibal and Fernandez Anderson 699). This bill was timidly allowed by then-president Mauricio Macri, who personally opposed it—it was accepted in the lower chamber and rejected in the upper (Goñi). Finally, after mass demonstrations (involving Ni Una Menos), a new bill was supported outright by then-president Alberto Fernández and was passed in both chambers (Politi and Londoño).  

During the twelve years of political stagnation between the initial official proposal and the first vote in 2018, Argentinian feminists created Ni Una Menos, a social movement against femicide. Women’s choice to have or not to have children has always been central to Ni Una Menos: it was formed after the 2015 murder of Chiara Páez, a pregnant 14-year-old killed by her boyfriend after she refused to get an abortion (Luengo 39).  

The movement to legalize abortion also includes a movement towards a separation of church and state. Pro-abortion legalization demonstrators use green handkerchiefs as their symbol (thus the movement is known as the Marea Verde, “Green Tide”), and pro-separation demonstrators use their symbol, an orange handkerchief (Felitti 197). Many protestors wore both colors during marches and demonstrations.  

Javier Milei, who succeeded Fernández as president in December 2023, has opposed both the separation of church and state and the legalization of abortion and has combined them by using Christian rhetoric to oppose abortion (Felitti 197; Belgrano 5–6). He considers feminism (including support for abortion) to fall under a broad group of currents he calls la Casta, “the Caste” or “the Breed,” along with scientists and gay rights activists. Members of his party introduced a law that would recriminalize abortion in 2024 (Lawmakers), and mass protests have been staged throughout 2024 against him (Phillips and Iglesia; “Argentina’s Police Step Up”).

[vultures-and-scavengers]

// umbris, lord of rage // calumnia the dread lord // cordatus, lord of prudence //

//umbris, despot of the shattered empire // caliga, empress of the forsworn betrayers // cordatus, lost to the ashes of ziost //

original below the cut:

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Machine learning's crumbling foundations

Technological debt is insidious, a kind of socio-infrastructural subprime crisis that’s unfolding around us in slow motion. Our digital infrastructure is built atop layers and layers and layers of code that’s insecure due to a combination of bad practices and bad frameworks.

Even people who write secure code import insecure libraries, or plug it into insecure authorization systems or databases. Like asbestos in the walls, this cruft has been fragmenting, drifting into our air a crumb at a time.

We ignored these, treating them as containable, little breaches and now the walls are rupturing and choking clouds of toxic waste are everywhere.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/27/gas-on-the-fire/#a-safe-place-for-dangerous-ideas

The infosec apocalypse was decades in the making. The machine learning apocalypse, on the other hand…

ML has serious, institutional problems, the kind of thing you’d expect in a nascent discipline, which you’d hope would be worked out before it went into wide deployment.

ML is rife with all forms of statistical malpractice — AND it’s being used for high-speed, high-stakes automated classification and decision-making, as if it was a proven science whose professional ethos had the sober gravitas you’d expect from, say, civil engineering.

Civil engineers spend a lot of time making sure the buildings and bridges they design don’t kill the people who use them. Machine learning?

Hundreds of ML teams built models to automate covid detection, and every single one was useless or worse.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/02/autoquack/#gigo

The ML models failed due to failure to observe basic statistical rigor. One common failure mode?

Treating data that was known to be of poor quality as if it was reliable because good data was not available.

Obtaining good data and/or cleaning up bad data is tedious, repetitive grunt-work. It’s unglamorous, time-consuming, and low-waged. Cleaning data is the equivalent of sterilizing surgical implements — vital, high-skilled, and invisible unless someone fails to do it.

It’s work performed by anonymous, low-waged adjuncts to the surgeon, who is the star of the show and who gets credit for the success of the operation.

The title of a Google Research team (Nithya Sambasivan et al) paper published in ACM CHI beautifully summarizes how this is playing out in ML: “Everyone wants to do the model work, not the data work: Data Cascades in High-Stakes AI,”

https://storage.googleapis.com/pub-tools-public-publication-data/pdf/0d556e45afc54afeb2eb6b51a9bc1827b9961ff4.pdf

The paper analyzes ML failures from a cross-section of high-stakes projects (health diagnostics, anti-poaching, etc) in East Africa, West Africa and India. They trace the failures of these projects to data-quality, and drill into the factors that caused the data problems.

The failures stem from a variety of causes. First, data-gathering and cleaning are low-waged, invisible, and thankless work. Front-line workers who produce the data — like medical professionals who have to do extra data-entry — are not compensated for extra work.

Often, no one even bothers to explain what the work is for. Some of the data-cleaning workers are atomized pieceworkers, such as those who work for Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, who lack both the context in which the data was gathered and the context for how it will be used.

This data is passed to model-builders, who lack related domain expertise. The hastily labeled X-ray of a broken bone, annotated by an unregarded and overworked radiologist, is passed onto a data-scientist who knows nothing about broken bones and can’t assess the labels.

This is an age-old problem in automation, pre-dating computer science and even computers. The “scientific management” craze that started in the 1880s saw technicians observing skilled workers with stopwatches and clipboards, then restructuring the workers’ jobs by fiat.

Rather than engaging in the anthropological work that Clifford Geertz called “thick description,” the management “scientists” discarded workers’ qualitative experience, then treated their own assessments as quantitative and thus empirical.

http://hypergeertz.jku.at/GeertzTexts/Thick_Description.htm

How long a task takes is empirical, but what you call a “task” is subjective. Computer scientists take quantitative measurements, but decide what to measure on the basis of subjective judgment. This empiricism-washing sleight of hand is endemic to ML’s claims of neutrality.

In the early 2000s, there was a movement to produce tools and training that would let domain experts produce their own tools — rather than delivering “requirements” to a programmer, a bookstore clerk or nurse or librarian could just make their own tools using Visual Basic.

This was the radical humanist version of “learn to code” — a call to seize the means of computation and program, rather than being programmed. Over time, it was watered down, and today it lives on as a weak call for domain experts to be included in production.

The disdain for the qualitative expertise of domain experts who produce data is a well-understood guilty secret within ML circles, embodied in Frederick Jelinek’s ironic talk, “Every time I fire a linguist, the performance of the speech recognizer goes up.”

But a thick understanding of context is vital to improving data-quality. Take the American “voting wars,” where GOP-affiliated vendors are brought in to purge voting rolls of duplicate entries — people who are registered to vote in more than one place.

These tools have a 99% false-positive rate.

Ninety. Nine. Percent.

To understand how they go so terribly wrong, you need a thick understanding of the context in which the data they analyze is produced.

https://5harad.com/papers/1p1v.pdf

The core assumption of these tools is that two people with the same name and date of birth are probably the same person.

But guess what month people named “June” are likely to be born in? Guess what birthday is shared by many people named “Noel” or “Carol”?

Many states represent unknown birthdays as “January 1,” or “January 1, 1901.” If you find someone on a voter roll whose birthday is represented as 1/1, you have no idea what their birthday is, and they almost certainly don’t share a birthday with other 1/1s.

But false positives aren’t evenly distributed. Ethnic groups whose surnames were assigned in recent history for tax-collection purposes (Ashkenazi Jews, Han Chinese, Koreans, etc) have a relatively small pool of surnames and a slightly larger pool of first names.

This is likewise true of the descendants of colonized and enslaved people, whose surnames were assigned to them for administrative purposes and see a high degree of overlap. When you see two voter rolls with a Juan Gomez born on Jan 1, you need to apply thick analysis.

Unless, of course, you don’t care about purging the people who are most likely to face structural impediments to voter registration (such as no local DMV office) and who are also likely to be racialized (for example, migrants whose names were changed at Ellis Island).

ML practitioners don’t merely use poor quality data when good quality data isn’t available — they also use the poor quality data to assess the resulting models. When you train an ML model, you hold back some of the training data for assessment purposes.

So maybe you start with 10,000 eye scans labeled for the presence of eye disease. You train your model with 9,000 scans and then ask the model to assess the remaining 1,000 scans to see whether it can make accurate classifications.

But if the data is no good, the assessment is also no good. As the paper’s authors put it, it’s important to “catch[] data errors using mechanisms specific to data validation, instead of using model performance as a proxy for data quality.”

ML practitioners studied for the paper — practitioners engaged in “high-stakes” model building reported that they had to gather their own data for their models through field partners, “a task which many admitted to being unprepared for.”

High-stakes ML work has inherited a host of sloppy practices from ad-tech, where ML saw its first boom. Ad-tech aims for “70–75% accuracy.”

That may be fine if you’re deciding whether to show someone an ad, but it’s a very different matter if you’re deciding whether someone needs treatment for an eye-disease that, untreated, will result in irreversible total blindness.

Even when models are useful at classifying input produced under present-day lab conditions, those conditions are subject to several kinds of “drift.”

For example, “hardware drift,” where models trained on images from pristine new cameras are asked to assess images produced by cameras from field clinics, where lenses are impossible to keep clean (see also “environmental drift” and “human drift”).

Bad data makes bad models. Bad models instruct people to make ineffective or harmful interventions. Those bad interventions produce more bad data, which is fed into more bad models — it’s a “data-cascade.”

GIGO — Garbage In, Garbage Out — was already a bedrock of statistical practice before the term was coined in 1957. Statistical analysis and inference cannot proceed from bad data.

Producing good data and validating data-sets are the kind of unsexy, undercompensated maintenance work that all infrastructure requires — and, as with other kinds of infrastructure, it is undervalued by journals, academic departments, funders, corporations and governments.

But all technological debts accrue punitive interest. The decision to operate on bad data because good data is in short supply isn’t like looking for your car-keys under the lamp-post — it’s like driving with untrustworthy brakes and a dirty windscreen.

Image: Seydelmann (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GW300_1.jpg

CC BY-SA: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[blueiscoool]

Victory Over Parthia and the Lost Roman Standards

While fighting the Battle of Philippi, Octavian vowed to avenge the assassination of his adoptive father Julius Caesar. Octavian set plans in motion to build a temple honoring the god Mars Ultor (“Mars the Avenger”). Mars was the god of war, protector of Rome, and second only to Jupiter in importance. Caesar had stated earlier that he wished to build a temple honoring the god, but was assassinated before planning could begin.

With the help of Mark Antony and Lepidus, Octavian won the battle and upon assuming the title of Augustus, began planning for the temple to be built in the forum, stating that it would be “greater than any in existence”. This temple served a politically strategic purpose as well, further linking himself to the Roman people’s love for Julius Caesar by continuing and improving upon Caesar’s original concept. However, construction did not begin immediately due to an unstable political situation in the region.

While Rome had succeeded in conquering nearly the entire civilized Mediterranean world, they had never succeeded in conquering Parthia. The Parthian Empire was spread across Central Asia and posed a formidable challenge to Roman control.

Rome fought and lost to Parthia three times, the most devastating of which occurred in 53 BCE. During this battle, Crassus, the leader of the Roman army, was killed and humiliated, and the Roman standards of the Legions were taken by the Parthians.

To the Roman military, the Roman standard held deep symbolic significance and each legion would go to great lengths to protect their standard. The loss of a standard was considered a moral defeat and the Romans were known to sometimes spend decades fighting to recover them.

Upon the loss of their standards to the Parthians, the Romans fought back, seeking revenge. Julius Caesar and Mark Antony both attempted to reclaim the Roman standards by force but failed due to heavy battlefield losses.

After ascending the throne, Augustus focused his attention on reclaiming the Roman standards. Through his conquering of Armenia, he was able to secure a strong offensive position against the Parthians due to its proximity to their kingdom.

Even though he had a strategic advantage, Augustus didn’t want war with Parthia. However, the Parthian king felt threatened, proposing a truce to Augustus, offering to return the Roman standards and any surviving prisoners of war. Augustus agreed and the two superpowers avoided further bloodshed. Augustus hailed the return of the roman standards as a major political victory against the Parthians and used his coinage to celebrate the coup.

This coin is from the commemorative celebratory issues, with the reverse showing a reclaimed standard in a triumphal chariot within the Temple of Mars Ultor. At the time of its minting, the temple was not yet completed, taking at least 10 more years to be built due to logistical issues. Augustus did not want to force the owners of nearby houses to move, so he needed to change his plans and purchase adjacent areas to accommodate his massive Forum.

When it was finally completed, the Temple of Mars Ultor was impressive. Modeled after the Temple of Venus but nearly twice the size, it was the focal point of the 8,000 square meter Forum of Augustus, built next to Caesar’s Forum.

The building became the official meeting room where the Senate would convene when decisions of war were required, as well as the departure point for commanders beginning their military service in the Empire.

Like the Temple of Venus, the Temple of Mars Ultor was built on a raised platform and lavishly decorated with fountains. Surrounding the temple were four-story tall Corinthian columns, eight on each side, three of which still stand today.

The exterior was constructed in white marble and the interior flooring was laid with a mixture of colored marbles. The temple housed additional columns made of purple marble and a variety of statues, all adorned with extensive decorations and gilded rosettes.

Even though the Temple of Mars Ultor opened forty years after its conception, it was well worth the wait and represented an achievement in Roman engineering as well as epitomizing the grandeur and respect with which Rome treated its important gods.

* * *

Augustus, 27 BCE – 14 CE, Denarius (Silver, 3.85 g 6), Colonia Patricia, 18. CAESARI AVGVSTO Laureate head of Augustus to right. Rev. Round tetrastyle temple with a triumphal car, containing a legionary eagle and a miniature quadriga, within the central intercolumniation; to left and right, SP QR. BMC 385. BN 1210. C. 279. RIC 115. Beautifully toned. Extremely fine.

By CoinWeek.

[laurenmm62017]

When You Find Your Answers, I'll Be There Chapter 2

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31111016

Here's the 2nd chapter! I don't think I nailed Kallus' POV so i appreciate any feedback!

Alexsandr Kallus grew up on Coruscant, the most populous planet in the galaxy. He knew about soulmates before he was even able to walk. He was surrounded on all sides by people talking about soulmates.

He absolutely hated it.

He hated that all he can see are shades of grey just because he hasn’t met someone he’s supposed to spend the rest of his life with. He hated that it wasn’t even guaranteed that he and his soulmate would be romantic partners, but they could be simply platonic (which would be fine with him) or even hate each other (which he was less fine with). He hated that he might not even meet his soulmate AT ALL. He hated how all of his family, friends, classmates, and teachers always made such a big deal about soulmates.

He was so tired of it.

Alex was 11 when he was bullied for these views so much that he was cornered after school and beaten up so hard, his ribs were bruised for a solid month afterwards.

He decided then that he would enlist in the Grand Army of the Republic when he came of age. Everything was grey on those giant Venators anyways.

He never really thought about who his soulmate could be. He pushed himself to be as strong, fast, and smart as possible. He pushed himself so hard, he passed out due to exhaustion every night. During a particularly grueling sparring session, he had pushed so hard, that his partner grew enraged and broke his leg to get him to stop fighting. Pain lanced up and down his leg as he screamed and writhed on the ground. Their instructor calmly, almost too calmly, called to the medbay on campus for a stretcher. Alex never really forgot that look of apathy.

When Kallus was 20, The Galactic Civil War ended and the Empire rose to power, with Emperor Palpatine at the helm and his second in command Vader at his side. The Grand Army of the Republic became the Imperial Army, and he was recruited into the ranks as a Commander. It took a long time for ranks and respect to cement into place, but by the time he and his troops went on their first real mission to Onderon, a former base for major rebellions led by Saw Guerrera, he gained the respect of all under his command. He regarded them all as capable soldiers and friends in return.

The mission went south, of course. It turned out that Guerera’s troops hadn’t left the planet yet because they had blown up his company’s transports. Kallus had been knocked out in the first blast, and woke up on his back on the side of the road. He attempted to stand up, but he found that he couldn’t move a single muscle.

Then, slowly, a tall, dark grey Lasat menacingly prowled down the path of destruction, executing every one of the soldiers who were still showing signs of life.

John, Lina, Corbyn, their medic, Stim, everyone.

Kallus’ eyes were as wide as can be, as the Lasat slowly passed by his position.

‘Don’t notice me, don’t notice me, don’t noti-’ He frantically thought, but it was in vain.

The Lasat’s head whipped around to look at him, paralyzed on the ground.

“Well, well, looks like I found the commander of the group. That’s some fancy armor compared to the others, isn’t it?” He purred dangerously. Kallus tried to open his mouth, but found he still couldn’t move.

‘If you’re going to kill me, just get it over with.’ He glared up at the Lasat.

“Ooooooh, look at those eyes. Tell me, have you found your soulmate yet, Commander?” He snickered, leveling his weapon at him, some kind of modified electrostaff. “Tell you what? I’m feeling pretty generous tonight, so I’ll let you live. But I gotta make it look good. So what should I do.... Heh, I got it.”

The Lasat swung down on Kallus’ leg and it broke cleanly. Kallus still couldn’t move but the pain of the same leg that broke a few years ago was so excruciating, he passed out.

When he woke up, he was lying in a medical bed. His superior officer, Admiral Yularan, was sitting in a chair at his bedside.

“Good to see you awake, Commander. The medical droids tell me you’ll make a smooth recovery. Whenever you are able, I’d like a full report of what happened down there.”

“My men?”

Yularan shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry, my boy. You were the only one we found still alive.”

He looked up at the ceiling, anger, guilt, and fear flooded through him. He felt so helpless. He was caught off guard, and as a result, everyone was dead.

Because of him.

In that moment, on that uncomfortable medical bed, he vowed that this would never happen again.

Kallus was 26 years old when he was recruited into the Imperial Security Bureau on the recommendation of Admiral Yularan. He was trained to be ruthless, unforgiving, and as stoic as a rock. He was first assigned to Internal Affairs in order to keep loyalty to the Empire. He was very good at this job. Because he garnered the respect and loyalty or his coworkers and subordinates, many of them were rather to get in his favor by reporting any disloyalty or traitorous activity to him. He was one of the most successful Agents in ISB at this time. However, he was becoming restless just staying on Coruscant every single cycle. He wanted to get out in the field, and assist the Empire from out in the stars. He requested to be transferred to Investigations.

That was where he first encountered his soulmate.

His Lasat soulmate.

For kriff’s sake, how cruel could the universe be? A Lasat? The very one who slaughtered his first unit? One of the species he helped hunt to extinction. Surely this was a joke.

That first time he made eye contact with him, however, was admittedly magical. The way that color seemed to first saturate within the Lasat’s eyes, and spread to his soft-looking fur, and then to his surroundings made him pause for a moment. He was so captured in his eyes, it was like the galaxy paused just for this moment.

But reality came back as a blaster bolt nearly caught him in the shoulder and he ducked back to cover.

In his free time, he learned the names of the colors of his soulmate. His eyes were bright green. He had light purple fur and dark purple stripes. His jumpsuit is dark green normally, as he rarely could disguise himself. He encountered his soulmate many more times in the span of a few months, but he was never able to capture him or his group of rebels.

And then they somehow crash landed together on that Geonosian ice moon.

~

Alexsandr sat on the ground, and watched his soulmate, Garazeb Orrelios, member of the Spectre crew, jog towards the Ghost and as his friends poured out of the ship to welcome him back.

He sighed and leaned back against the wall of the cave they had taken shelter in.

“When you find your answers, I’ll be there.”

That is what Zeb had said. But why in the galaxy would he try to find answers to questions he knows he won’t like the answers to?

For himself? For the galaxy? For Zeb?

He knew that no one in the Empire would run out and embrace him like Zeb’s teammates had. The most interaction he will have is with the medical team to fix his leg. He would simply send a report to a superior officer that he would make up.

Kallus was picked up by an Imperial shuttle long after the Ghost left the atmosphere. As he suspected, he is sent to medical, discharged after his leg is set, and sent back to his quarters. No one except Konstantine greeted him on the way back.

Alone in his quarters, he sat down heavily on his bed and stared at the grey floor, walls, bedsheets. It was as if he had never even found his soulmate at all. The only burst of color there was the small meteorite he smuggled back with him.

“It’s the same color as Zeb’s bo-rifle…” He thought, idly stroking his thumb along the crevices in the meteorite.

“I’m going to find my answers, Zeb.”

~

The next time he saw Zeb in person was right after his escape from the Chimera. He messed up. He got caught, and he caused a huge loss for the Rebellion. Would he really be welcomed into their ranks after everything he had done? He was genuinely not planning to ever join up with them. If he got caught, he figured he would never see the light of day again and he would die as Fulcrum.

He never expected Kanan Jarrus, of all people, to approach him after their first jump into hyperspace.

“Kanan.” He whispered, clutching his arm to his chest and shifting his weight to one leg. It still hurt even after the medical droid looked him over. “Thank you, for taking me in.”

Seeing Kanan this close, without his mask, Alexsandr could see why the Jedi usually wore his green face shield. The scars across his face were much lighter than the rest of his face, jagged and haunting. Kanan placed a hand on his shoulder gently.

“Thank you, for risking everything.”

“It wasn’t that hard. Once I found my answers, it was clear to me.”

“We’re glad to have you, Fulcrum.” Kanan smiled and dropped his hand back down. “Zeb is in the common room, if you want to speak with him. The debriefing is almost over.”

“Thank you. Kanan. And please. My name is Alexsandr.”

He smiled at Alexsandr. “Get in there, Alexsandr.” Then, he continued through the ship with the comfort of someone who has been in a place for a long time.

Alexsandr slowly limped up to the door of the common room, pausing for one moment before he opened the door. Inside was Hera Syndulla, General Dodonna, Sabine Wren, and in the far corner, his soulmate, Garazeb Orrelios. Their eyes met and for a moment, it seemed as if everything fell away. It didn’t matter that he just barely managed to escape from the Empire. It didn’t matter that he had been beaten down over and over. All that mattered was that he was safe here, caught in those sharp, bright green eyes.

Zeb motioned for Alexsandr to stand next to him, and he limped over as fast as he could. He leaned his weight against the wall  and Zeb placed his hand right next to his. He could feel the heat radiating off of Zeb, and in that moment, Alexsandr had never felt safer.

“So, did you find your answers?”

“I did.”

[thefallennightmare]

Dorogaya [5/?]

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Words: 2179

Warnings: Some swearing, maybe? A good amount of fluff. Some angst. 

Summary: It has been sometime since Y/N and Bucky went into hiding but now their past is returning. Can this new relationship survive the Civil War that’s about to happen?

A/N: As always, let me know what you guys think! Also, I’m torn on whether or not I should end these series at the end of Dorogaya or continue it through the whole Infinity War/Endgame saga. 

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” 

“It’s the only way, Sam. We’re the only ones that can help him.” 

The small talk went on for a few more moments, before a groggy voice interrupted them. 

“Steve?” 

My eyes fluttered open but I snapped them shut when I was hit with a rather large headache. 

“Which Bucky am I talking too?” 

“Your mom’s name was Sarah. You used to wear newspapers in your shoes.” A deep chuckle. 

“Can’t read that in a museum.” 

A loud scoff. “Just like that, we’re supposed to be cool?” 

“Where’s Y/N?” 

At the mention of my name, I fully opened my eyes with a large groan. “What brick wall did I get thrown into?” 

Slowly sitting up from the floor, I was met with three very worried gazes. Sam and Steve were standing a few feet in front of me and Bucky was sitting down, his metal arm trapped between some kind of machinery. 

“What’s going on?” I asked while trying to stand up. 

Sam gently grabbed my arm, helping me. “Take it easy. You’ve got a small wound on the back of your head.” 

“What?” My fingers brushed through my hair and felt a bandage. “What happened?” 

“What did I do?” Bucky questioned. 

“Enough,” Steve answered honestly. 

“Damn it,” I cursed while walking over to Bucky. “Are you okay?”

He reached for my hips with his free hand and pulled me into him. “I’m so sorry.” 

“It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault,” I hushed while placing a soft kiss on top of his head. 

“I knew this was going to happen. Everything Hydra put inside me is still there. He just had to say the damn words,” Bucky said. 

I ran my fingers through his hair, something I knew kept him calm when talking about his past. 

“Who was he?” I asked. 

Bucky shook his head with a slight shrug. “I don’t know.” 

“People are dead. The bombing, the setup. The doctor did all of that to get ten minutes with you. I need you to do better than I don’t know,” Steve demanded. 

My eyes sliced into Steve. “Back off, Steve. He said he didn’t know who he was.” 

Bucky pulled me closer to him, letting me know it was alright. “He wanted to know about Siberia. Where I was kept.” 

He felt my body go rigid with past memories of both of us being kept there and gave my hip a gentle squeeze. I hadn’t thought of those times for quite awhile, wanting to bury those memories deep within me, and the mere small conversation about it was enough to make my skin crawl. 

“He wanted to know exactly where I was kept.” Bucky admitted. 

“Why would he need to know that?” Steve wondered.

Bucky hesitated for a moment and I knew that whatever he was about to say was something that he didn’t want anyone to know, me included. 

“Because,” he sighed, “I’m not the only winter soldier.” 

I tuned them out as Bucky went into details about Siberia in 1991, long before I was held there. There were more of these super soldiers and if this doctor, whoever he was, woke them from their cyro-sleep it could be bad.

Very, very bad. 

“They had me train them to become what I was,” Bucky said. “They became out of control and froze them, for all these years.”

A loud gasp left my lips, the sudden realization slamming into me, and I pulled away from Bucky’s grasp. 

“When I was held there, if you didn’t help me escape, they would have turned me into one of you? Them?” I stammered. 

Bucky nodded. 

“And you knew what they were going to do to me?” 

He nodded again, ashamed. 

“Why do you think I helped you escape? That night, they had everything set up to inject you with the serum. They wanted us to be this couple of mass destruction.” 

“If the doctor got a hold of them, could he control them?” Steve asked. 

“Enough.” Bucky nodded. 

“He said he wanted to see an empire fall. With them, he could do it.” Steve admitted. 

Sam walked over to Bucky and freed his metal arm. I still stood away from the three of them, while Steve and Sam talked amongst themselves. 

Bucky knew there were more of him, deadlier versions, and he hid this from me for all of these years. He knew what Hydra was going to do to me the second they captured me. The sheer thought of being mind controlled and used as a weapon was enough to fill me with rage, fingertips spreading with warmth. 

“Y/N,” Bucky spoke softly. “Control it.” 

In an instant, the warmth was gone and I looked over to Bucky. He had a look of remorse on his face, feeling terrible for hiding this secret from me. 

“I didn’t want this life for you,” He admitted. 

I nodded while kneeling in front of him. “I know. But that didn’t mean you asked for this life either.”

His metal fingers played with the necklace that he had bought me. “Some birthday, huh?” 

A small giggle left my lips. “Eh, I’ve had worse.” 

The smile that spread across Bucky’s face warmed my heart. 

“I had another present I was going to give you,” Bucky 

“Really?” 

He sighed. “It was in my bag but I don’t know what happened to it.” 

“I can get it.” 

Looking over my shoulder, I smiled a thanks to Steve before looking back at Bucky. “I’ll be right back.” 

I stood and motioned to Steve to follow me and once we were out of the super soldier hearing of Bucky, I wrapped my arms around Steve in a thankful hug. 

“Thank you for believing me.” 

His strong arms wrapped around my back and I knew he had to fight with himself to not let go. “Of course.” 

“I know we haven’t had much time to talk with everything going on but I do want you to know that I was thinking about you,” I admitted. 

“You know,” He started while putting his hand in his pockets, “It took me a long time to be okay with the fact that you left with Bucky. It took a lot of talks with Sam and Nat to let you go. As much as I love you, I know I will never be what Bucky was and is to you.” 

I placed a gentle hand on his cheek. “You’ll find your someone, Steve. I’m sorry it wasn’t me.” 

We stood like that for a few moments and when I felt jealousy fill my veins, I looked over towards Bucky, who was watching our every move intently. I gave him a reassuring smile that everything was alright but I could tell that it did nothing. 

Sighing, I left Steve and walked over towards Bucky. 

“You do realize I can feel whatever you feel, right?” I reminded him. 

He stood and wrapped his arms around my hip and pulled me into him. His soft lips brushed against my forehead and I could physically feel his hard beating through his own chest. I sprawled my hands across his large back and took in his familiar musty scent; he always smelled like a campfire and I loved it. 

“What do you feel now?” He wondered. 

Pressing my cheek into his chest, I allowed myself to feel exactly what he was feeling; love. 

“You don’t have to say it for me to know, Buck.” I looked up at him and placed a chaste kiss on his stubble chin. 

“I know. I promise one day I’ll be able too,” He vowed. 

“Whenever you’re ready.” I smiled. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I laughed. “Really, Sam? This was the only car you could get for us?” 

“Hey, this is the only one I could find with the time I had,” Sam defended with his hands up.

The old blue buggy stuck out like a sore thumb. “You expect all four of us to fit in this car? With two super soldiers?”

“We don’t have that far of a drive,” Steve defended as him and Sam allowed Bucky and I to climb into the backseat. 

As Steve drove to our first meeting spot, I went over the plan in my mind. We were going to Siberia, a helicopter was waiting for us at the local airport. We were going to try to stop whoever this doctor was before he could wake up these other super soldiers. 

The long ride seemed to relax me and I felt myself slowly dozing off. Bucky, however, placed his hand on my knee and leaned towards my ear, his breath fanning over my neck.

“When this is all over, I promise you that we will be able to start our life; how we should have been able too.” 

I placed my finger underneath his chin and nodded. “We can go to our place in the mountains, just the two of us.” 

For the rest of the drive, Bucky wrapped his arm around me and I allowed myself to relax into his embrace. 

“Stay in the car,” Steve said as we put the car into park. 

We were in an underpass and a black car pulled up in front of us, Sharon hoping out. As they chatted, Bucky started to shift in the backseat and I noticed he was uncomfortable. 

“Can you move your seat up?” He asked Sam. 

“No,” Sam retorted back. 

Steve came back to the car, arm full of what we were here to pick up. After tossing them in the trunk, we were back on the road to our next meeting spot. 

“Did she bring it?” I questioned. 

Steve looked into my eyes through the rearview mirror. “Yeah, they still had it in lock up.” 

“They’re meeting us at the airport?” Sam asked. 

Steve nodded. “In the parking garage, we’re almost there.” 

Mentally, I tried to prepare myself for what was about to happen. We were preparing for the fight of our lives trying to get to Siberia however Tony Stark and Team would do whatever it took to stop us. 

Steve pulled up next to a white van and as we all climbed out, I was met with someone I hadn’t seen for years. 

“Clint!” I smiled while embracing him in a hug. “How’ve you been?” 

“Better, given the circumstances. Uh, this is Wanda.” He nodded towards the young girl next to him. 

I smiled while extending my hand. “I read a lot about you.”

“All good I hope,” she joked. 

“How about our other recruit?” Steve asked. 

Bucky stayed on the other side of the car and I snuck over to him, wrapping my arms around his back. We watched as our newest recruit shook Steve’s hand, over and over again, dumbfounded that he was meeting Captain America. 

“What do they call you?” I asked. 

“Uh, Ant-Man but you can call me Scott Lang. I know you, you’re great.” He said while pointing towards me. “Is it true you can shoot fire from your hands?” 

With a quick snap, the fire engulfed my finger tips. 

Bucky clasped my hand with his metal one and let out a sigh, “We should get moving.” 

Suddenly, a loud voice in German sounded over the PA system. 

“What are they saying?” I looked at Bucky. 

“They’re evacuating the airport,” he informed us. 

Sam and Steve shared a look. “Stark.” 

“Suit up.” Steve directed towards all of us. 

My finger shook as I laced up my boots, something I hadn’t had to do in over two years. I reached over my shoulder trying to zip up my suit the rest of the way but groaned when my fingers were too short.

Bucky came from behind and I felt his fingers pull the zipper up the rest of the way. His hand reached over my shoulder to hand me one of my lucky knives. 

“Thank you,” I smiled over to him. “I’m glad Steve was able to get it out of lock up.” 

I went to face Bucky but he gently turned me around so my back was to him again. His fingers brushed through my hair as he started braiding it back for me. I smiled fondly at him, the small gesture warming my heart. 

“My sister insisted I learn how to braid hair. ‘James, what if you have a daughter? You need to learn how to braid.’” Bucky indulged. 

I never heard about his past life before the war because he couldn’t remember. But now, I found my soul soaring that he was choosing me to share these secrets with. 

“She sounds lovely,” I said while finally turning to face him. 

He nodded. “She would have loved to meet you.” 

I fixed Bucky’s vest for him while nodding. “Ready?” 

It was his turn to nod. “Please be careful.” 

“You too.” 

Bucky placed a soft kiss on my cheek and giving him one final smile, I followed Steve getting ready to fight this fight. 

For our future.

TAGS:

@capstopavenger​ @just-a-littlebit-of-everything​ @empath-bunny​ @jeremyrennerfanxxxx123​

[alottanothing]

Left to Ruin: Chapter Twenty-Two

Summary: Kahmunrah returns from two years away, with new recruits the fight, as well as baleful news from their enemies. The queen consoles her king with a secret she hopes will bring him joy. 

Previous Chapters

Word Count: 6088

Warnings: A tad angsty, but mostly lighthearted.

Tag List:  @xmxisxforxmaybe​, @r-ahh-mi​, @hah0106​, @rami-malek-trash​, @diasimar​, @sherlollydramoine​, @flipper-kisses​, @ivy-miranda-2390​, @txmel​, @sunkissedmikky​, @concentratedsassandcandy​, @edteche2​

(Let me know if I missed you, or if you would like to be added to the tag list) 

A/N: Only 2 more chapters after this one 😬 I know right? I can hardly believe it myself. Also, word of advice, savor this one folks. What’s left isn’t gonna be pretty 🙃. As always, thanks for showing the last chapter love with your likes and comments and such. ❤️❤️ Once again as a disclaimer, I am not an ancient Egyptian expert and google only knows so much. So yeah, I took so historical liberties while writing this to make my life easier, but tried to keep it as “authentic” as possible.  As a helpful note Tahut-Mut is the top general of the pharaohs armies, and favors Kah over Ahk. There’s a lot of characters that don’t have major parts in this story but play a significant role. I should have made a glossary before I posted this. 

Kahmunrah was away from the capital for eighteen long months, and as promised, new garrisons of fighting men arrived almost weekly from the cities the new Grand Consul visited. Some were learned men—soldiers who were already skilled in the way of battle; others were boys—eager for the chance to learn lessons the pharaoh was never taught. Every new wave of able bodies fought against the ever-present sense of dread looming inside Ahkmenrah’s mind, and before long, a glimmer of hope replaced that baleful feeling war oft kindled.  

Even Nouke sang praise of Kahmunrah’s diligence, commending him for sticking to his word. It was a welcomed thing for the pharaoh to, at last, have unity within the whole of his family; no man was or would ever be as lucky as he was—Ahk was sure of it.

To show his gratitude to the fighters, the pharaoh held feast after feast to honor each squadron of recruits who arrived; the celebration curbed the reality ever-so-slightly. With full bellies and a drink in their hand it was easy to forget why it was they were there: to fight, protect, and die for their king.

Tahut-Mut always began those evenings the same: first escorting the new soldiers into the largest of the gardens leading them in a pledge of fealty to the true king of Egypt. Then, the stringent atmosphere melted away as the festivities commenced immediately after as if to quickly douse the flame of apprehension. No one thought of war with the allure of revelry.

As for the pharaoh, he loved every convivial moment he could spare not thinking about how murky Egypt's future was. Meeting people from far away cities he'd visited in his youth captivated his avid soul. Years caught in stagnation—bound by the chains of his station—Ahkmenrah's heart yearned once more to explore the sands of his great empire.

Nevertheless, Ahk found the most joy not listening to tales of distant oasis', but instead in the privacy of those grand gatherings which allowed the king and queen a moment to revisit the passion of the night they became man and wife.

As those months passed without so much as a whisper of war (apart from the weekly reminder of new soldiers, of course) Ahkmenrah found bliss in his life once more. He reveled in the pulsing of life all around him, from the Nile to the shifting sands, to the capricious winds that kept the world spinning. The king was glad for the thrill he found around him and in every breath that filled his lungs.

In those bliss-filled months, his little sister found her happiness too, marrying Satauhotep—who'd claimed the title of Consul of Montu with Kah no longer holding the position.

Seeing Setshepsut wed a good man who loved her, and who she loved in return, fostered the same achy tenderness that swelled in Ahk’s heart the day he married Nouke, a feeling that was almost suffocating, but in the best way.

As a gift, the king and queen had offered to build them a home, but Set insisted home was where her mother and her brother resided, and where her husband would spend most of his time as the pharaoh's Keeper of War. Ahk was only too happy to keep his sister close by and immediately called for the reconstruction of their quarters, promising them a grand suite like his own.

For eighteen months, Egypt and her king knew peace, but peace was a fragile wall that needed only the smallest of shoves to send it toppling into ruin.

*

Word of Kah’s return arrived three days before he did. The news sparked the pharaoh with delight and anxiety all at once, making sleep almost impossible, especially the night before he was to return.

There were so many stories Ahk longed to share with his brother, ones he looked forward to telling Kah during the meditative walks they took in the gardens—the pharaoh missed those hours of kinship with his big brother. Kahmunrah had missed so much: Setshepsut’s union to Satauhotep, Sekmenrah’s first steps, all the parties…mostly, Ahk couldn’t wait to thank his brother for the time he sacrificed in order to ensure Egypt was protected.

When news reached the palace that the Grand Consul was on his way back to the palace, Ahk was the first to stand and wait at the top of the stairs, listening to the distant sound of drums grow louder as his brother grew closer. Nouke joined him, taking his hand with a soft smile as she placed herself dutifully at his side. Her presence was always the most beguiling thing within Ahk's orbit and for a moment, the thrumming of drums meant nothing.

Tahut-Mut was there too, off to the side and stoic, moving only once Kahmunrah’s chariot came through the gates with a garrison of new men in tow. The general quickly shepherded the fresh recruits all in perfect formation to the training yard, allowing Kahmunrah the chance to properly greet Ahkmenrah and his queen.

The pharaoh forwent formality in favor of an embrace, pulling Kah into his arms with fervor, which his brother returned in a much more reserved manner.

“The gods are good!” Ahk exclaimed. “I am so very pleased to see you home again, Kah.”

He patted his brother’s shoulder in parting before stepping back to Nouke’s side.

“Likewise, brother.” Kahmunrah offered a tight-lipped smirk.

“We are glad you have returned safely,” Nouke said with a genuine tone, prompting a surprised expression to color Kah’s features. “Thank you for what you have done on behalf of my husband and on behalf of Egypt.”

Kahmunrah bowed respectfully, “Of course, my queen. Anything to better the future of this great empire.”

Ahkmenrah could barely contain his smile seeing them exchange civil words, and again, he was reminded of how lucky he was. He took Nouke’s hand in his, kissed it, and motioned for Kahmunrah to walk with them back into the palace.

“I insist you share stories of your adventure, Kahmunrah,” Ahk said, tossing his brother a grand, but slightly envious smile. 

True, the pharaoh’s heart yearned for a journey, but he would be content enough for a while just to live vicariously.

“Surely you found time to rest and enjoy the beautiful cities?” Ahk easily recalled the places he’d visited in his youth—how rich and different life was from city to city.

“Of course, brother. I have much I will gladly share.” Kah stopped, and a seriousness settled on his features that caused Ahkmenrah to stop as well. “But I also bring home tidings of an unfriendly nature that require your attention at once.”

“What is it?” the pharaoh asked, a portion of that peaceful barrier beginning to decay.

Kah’s gaze teetered from Ahk to Nouke twice before settling on the pharaoh. “Might I speak to you in the council chamber?”

He looked at the queen again, then back to Ahk.

“Alone?” he added.

Nouke’s grip on her husband’s fingers tightened with a quick “be cautious” squeeze of warning, and Ahkmenrah returned it as silent affirmation he understood.

“Certainly, brother. Allow me to escort my lovely queen back to our chamber, and then Kamuzu, and I will meet you in the council room after.”

The ghost of a frown darkened Kah’s expression, but he quickly hid it, nodding.

“Very well.” He bowed his head to both in farewell before marching off in the direction of the council chamber.

In his peripheral, Ahk could make out the look of scrutiny Nouke cast Kahmunrah as he strode away; he’d learned not to question his wife’s persuasion when it came to his brother. Her uncertainty towards Kah was a part of her, and Ahk loved every part of Nouke, even if he did not quite understand them all.

Instead of nagging, Ahkmenrah rolled his eyes fondly and brought the back of her hand to his lips for another kiss until the hard lines on her face melted into a smile.

Together they walked leisurely through the halls, both enjoying the tranquility, neither foolish enough to spoil it with words. Ahk wished every moment of every day could feel so profound.

When they reached their chamber doors, the pharaoh pulled his queen against him, pelvis to pelvis, with a mischievous smirk curled onto his lips. Nouke’s eyes sparkled catching her husband's simper and matched it, sweeping her tongue out to glaze her lips with a perfect sheen she knew would drive him mad: an act too enticing for him not to taste.

There was very little pressure to his mouth on hers, just a heated weight devoid of rapid movement and tongue as he memorized that feeling until he gasped softly into the kiss. Ahk pressed closer, angling his chin to orchestrate one of the purest, sweetest kisses either of them had ever known. His hands framed her face, and Nouke’s arms wove around him, locking them together.

When they broke away for air, Ahk gingerly brushed the tip of his nose against hers, unwilling to surrender her closeness.

“Rescue me in an hour or so?”

“Rescue you?” Nouke smirked as a manicured brow hoisted into an arch.

“Yes,” Ahk implored, his tone slightly more serious. “If it is bad news my brother brings, I will be in need of rescuing.”

Her smirk took on a softness that matched the glistening compassion swirling in her amber eyes as her looped arms squeezed him tighter.

“Mmm,” she hummed, peering deep into his eyes in a way that spoke oceans of her affection. “I will gladly rescue you, my sweet king. Now and forever.”

Ahkmenrah kissed Nouke again with the desperate need to hold her in his arms a little longer.

When he began to make his way back down the hall with Kamuzu at his side, Ahk spun deftly on his heels and walked backward as he spoke, levity in his tone once more.

“Give Sekmen a hug for me?”

Nouke was lingering in the threshold of their bedchamber when she caught his words and threw him a smile.    

“Perhaps I shall send Sekmen to rescue you, that way you may hug him yourself.”

“Perfect,” the pharaoh beamed.  

***

When Ahkmenrah entered the council room he was met with a sight that caused him to stop and stare. Kah and Tahut-Mut were hunched over what looked like a map sprawled across the table, exchanging whispers.

Puzzlement swiftly consumed the pharaoh’s features as he stepped closer, having difficulty making out what they were discussing. Ahk did, however, manage to catch the word siege, which was enough to twist nervous knots into his stomach.

“Oh! Brother,” Kah cast him a quick grin and hurriedly rolled up the piece of papyrus the two were so intimately studying before the king had walked in. “Welcome.”

Ahkmenrah stood gauging both men warily, suddenly too aware of the malaise in the room; he felt as though he had wandered in on something he should not have. He could see so in the mild shock on Tahut-Mut’s expression; Kahmunrah’s surprise was harder to read, though.

“What matter were you both discussing just now?” Ahk’s eyes narrowed. “Did I hear something about a siege?”

The pharaoh kept his composure tightly laced despite the onslaught of panic he felt brewing.

Kah was quick to provide an explanation that worked to alleviate some of the tension in the room.

“General Tahut-Mut came to ask my opinion as to where the new recruits should be stationed if a siege should befall the palace.”

“How best to protect the pharaoh, of course,” Tahut added with a bow, that seemed belittling to a degree.

The general hastily took the roll of papyrus inscribed with the map from Kahmunrah and left without another word.

Ahk’s eyes stayed trained on his brother, narrowed intensely until Kah sighed knowing he was about to be lectured.

“You are no longer my Keeper of War—you made sure of that before you left,” Ahk said making sure his tone stayed even. “Why would one of my generals still be seeking your counsel?”

Kah shrugged, seeming disinterested. “That is a matter between you, and your generals, I think. Perhaps they do not work well with the man you put in my previous position.”

The proud indifference with which Kah spoke crept into his entire demeanor. With a simple turn of phrase and callous tone, he was blatantly off-putting to be around, causing Ahk to clench his jaw in frustration. Already the power Kah had gained was starting to taint the man he had become. The smug simper on his closed lips and the way he held himself was a remnant of the man who hungered for the grandest power in all the land.

The notion alone made the pharaoh’s stomach churn; still, he held tight to his resolve, not wanting Kah to see him unravel.

“I will gladly grant you that seat back, should you want it,” Ahk bit out, his anxiety turning to irritation. “I know many good men who would be honored to relieve you of the stresses of your new position.”

Ahkmenrah watched his brother carefully, wanting to see if he would take the bait and lash out as the old Kahmunrah would have. Instead, Kah’s arrogant posture wilted, and he sighed—definitely not an old Kahmunrah reaction.

“It was not my intention to argue, brother.”

“Nor mine,” Ahk said, losing his steam.

“Good.” Kah threw him a pleased smirk and pulled out the chair at the head of the table, motioning for the pharaoh to take his seat. “There is much to discuss.”

Kah took the adjacent seat as Ahk placed himself in his usual chair, his heart beginning to race as reality quickly came to consume him. Life had been so blissful—a perfect illusion Ahk was not yet ready to give up. Dread grew like invasive vines in his gut, twisting and contorting until he felt sick, making his composure difficult to maintain.

“First,” Kah began, looking somewhat guilty. “I must confess that before I left the capital I arranged for men to travel south into enemy territory so that they could report whispers of war directly to me. Doing so made sure I could be back in the capital in a timely fashion.”

Kah paused long enough to take in Ahkmenrah’s reaction. “I know you detest the use of spies, which is why I chose not to share this information with you before now.”

The frown that worked onto Ahkmenrah’s face was one he didn’t want to fight; he wanted his brother to know how unappreciative he was of such dishonest actions. Still, the pharaoh held his tongue to spare an argument, the irksome itch running over his skin told him that there was more to Kah’s reasoning that was more important than a squabble between brothers. Although, Ahk doubted any excuse could negate what had been done.

“And what did your spies tell you?” Ahkmenrah asked cooly.

There was a downward curl to Kahmunrah’s lips that did little to curb the pharaoh’s trepidation, and the longer Kah remained silent, the itch grew worse until it burned out any nuance of the king's previous ire.

“I forgive you for the spies, Kah. Now I demand you tell me what you have learned.”

Kah took in a deep breath, his slow exhale somehow amplifying the tension in the room, and met his brother’s glance—a somberness shimmering in the dark of his eyes.

“It seems, dear brother, the Nehesyw have brokered an alliance with the nations of Mitiumi and Hatti. All three plan to invade.”

In a single moment, the atmosphere in the council chamber was suddenly suffocating. The torches burned bright along the walls but a shadow settled over everything in sight, and Ahkmenrah slouched under the weight of his brother’s news.

It should not have come as a surprise that other nations sought to conquer Egypt. The pharaoh’s empire was a grand and prosperous nation, and as such, a challenge to anyone who thought themselves just as powerful.

“Are your men positive this is what shall come to pass?” Ahkmenrah asked, filling his lungs with a breath in hopes to steady his fraying nerves.

“I’m afraid so, little brother.” Kahmunrah placed a comforting hand on the pharaoh’s shoulder. “It seems our hope of negotiations has fallen through before it even had time to begin.”

The genuine sorrow in his brother's eyes and the ruefulness of Kah’s features lent a thin sense of compassion that was just enough to make Ahk feel like he wasn’t going to be devoured by dread. Even so, a wave of helplessness crashed mercilessly against the pharaoh, eroding that felicitous shell he had been living in.

For the first time in all his years of ruling, Ahkmenrah felt like a failure; what would his father think if he let their glittering empire topple into ruins? A chill shook his body at the notion. Ahk could not let Egypt fall.

“What do we do now?” Ahk asked in a whisper, hoping the soft tone of his voice would mask the panic that was slowly forcing its way out. “Perhaps there is still time to speak with the Nehesyw--”

“The Nehesyw people are savages—blood is the only thing they will ever understand,” Kah recanted sternly.

A furrow twisted onto Ahk’s face, confusion causing his head to shake as he recalled his brother’s previous plans of diplomacy.

“But you said we could negotiate once you had returned—you’ve returned. Let us go speak with them before they attack!”

Kahmunrah let out an irritable sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose as he spoke, “We have missed our chance, brother. They’ve called to arms; now we must do the same. It would only show Egypt’s cowardice if we sought negotiations. We must stand.”

The pharaoh sank deeper in his chair, digging circles of pressure into his temples, trying to find logic. How could diplomacy be cowardly? Diplomacy saved hundreds, even thousands of lives. Was it wisdom with which his brother spoke, or was Ahk speaking to the blood-lusting, power-hungry man Kah used to be? Where did one end and the other begin?

Ahkmenrah couldn’t tell anymore.

If the Nehesyw were truly as savage as his brother made them to be, why had Kahmunrah led the king to believe there was ever a chance to reason in the first place?

Ahk’s head was spinning, and the knots in his stomach were so tight, he feared they would snap. Egypt was on the brink of war, and already it felt as though they were losing battles that had yet to be fought.  

As silence crept into the chamber, it drove the looming malaise deeper. Ahk lingered in the bottomless cavern of his own thoughts as the quiet stretched on—vision unfocused, each breath more shallow than the last. It wasn’t until he swam through the flood of his thoughts that Ahk found the energy to speak, his voice weak, and unrecognizable.

“I suppose the next question I should ask is: can our armies fight them?”

Kahmunrah sat back in his chair, his focus drawing inward, rubbing his chin as he considered his answer.

His stalling gesture did not foster much in the way of confidence, but Ahkmenrah did his best to hold onto the shred of optimism that remained.

“The forces we have gathered here at the capital against all three nations? No. The number of men I have acquired that are ready to fight could easily hold this palace—even the city. But they are not enough to fight a war against three peoples.”

Ahkmenrah frowned.

“However,” Kah continued, steepling his fingers. “The well-to-do lords and governors of our great cities are aware of our situation and have promised to send what remains of their fighting men to the capital should Egypt need such defenses. Three nations will be tough, but I am profoundly confident that Egypt will prevail.”

Ahkmenrah could only nod to let his brother know that he understood, his words lost somewhere in the tangled web of his thoughts. He trusted Kahmunrah’s knowledge: he’d trained from his youth to learn how to fight and protect. Still, the pharaoh longed for his father to stand at his side to help him make sense of everything. Even more than that, Ahk wished to ask Merenkahre why he’d taught him only how to swing a blade or throw a spear. Swordplay and war were two vastly different things, and the king felt as though he was treading water that was pulling him under.

Before his thoughts could completely drown him, the pitter-patter of tiny feet stole Ahk’s focus, and he turned to find his two-year-old son toddling his direction with a smile on his face. The pharaoh smiled back and quickly took the boy into his arms, reveling in the serenity the weight of Sekmen in his arms brought.

Nouke followed the little prince, but she lingered in the doorway with an affectionate mask and watchful expression that lent another soothing warmth to deter the king’s anxieties. It was amazing how the simple sight of his favorite people could make even the darkest cloud light once more.

Kahmunrah grinned at his nephew and stood. “Allow me to speak on your behalf at tonight’s council. I will inform them of what we have discussed.”

His glance fell to the boy in Ahk’s arms, then to the queen behind him. “Spend this night with your family, brother. I can think of no better distraction.”

Ahkmenrah stood, shifting Sekmenrah’s weight to one arm so he could extend a grateful hand to his brother. “Thank you, Kah.”

Kahmunrah shook the pharaoh’s hand with a nod and a smile. “Rest assured brother; Egypt has nothing to fear.”

Had Ahk not caught the slight arrogance in his brother’s voice, Kah’s words would have left him feeling more at peace. Something about his tone seemed misplaced, but the pharaoh couldn’t figure out why—it was simply a feeling.

He pondered on it, fighting back the sense of alarm until Nouke hugged herself to his side.

“Did we rescue you in a timely fashion, my love?” Her eyes were sparkling with ardor and her expression prompted a smile to stretch across Ahk’s face, alarm forgotten.

“You did.” He hugged her closer and kissed her temple. “Thank you.”

Silence settled around them, and while the atmosphere still held its ominous aura, with Nouke and Sekmenrah in his arms, it was not so crushing.

“It’s bad, isn’t it?”Nouke asked softly.

Ahkmenrah offered her only a doleful smile as a reply, conformation enough to cause her to hug him a little tighter.

“Let’s do something.” Ahk implored a moment later. He needed out of those halls that had told him all of his life duty would be his only purpose.

Nouke cast him a curious, single-sided smile. “Anything.”

***

The quiet interior of their chamber was drenched in orange and yellow hues as the sun sank into the horizon outside the open balcony. Immediately, Nouke could feel her husband relax beside her, the tense lines of his body melting under the cascading golden light.

She couldn’t help but relish his sight; holding their son, whose head rested upon his father’s shoulder, his sleep heavy lids blinking slowly. A soft smile pulled onto her features; such happiness they brought her. And more was on the way—a secret she’d been saving to tell the man she loved when he was most in need of something to remind him not everything was terrible.

Nouke took Sekmen from Ahk’s arms a moment later, humming the boy deeper to sleep in lulling tones as she tucked him snugly into his crib. Unlike so many other nights, the prince did not fight and drifted off easily, filling the chamber with soft snores.

The queen watched her sleeping son for a long while before her eyes drifted to where Ahkmenrah stood, meditatively removing all the golden barbles that made him a king. With each piece he shed, Nouke saw a little more of his burden dwindle away.

In a few steps, she crossed the room to help him, silently untying the fastenings of his wesekh and every other jeweled trinket he wore. Her fingers traced over his skin delicately, a purposeful intimacy radiating from her touch she hoped would steer away more of the anxiety Kahmunrah had brought home. Nouke felt the weight of his gaze on her, watchful, and praising of every tender gesture.

The last thing she removed was his polished crown, setting it carefully with all the other garments, and swept her fingers through Ahk’s hair until the curls fluffed into place.

His strong hands reached for hers with a feather-light touch that made Nouke’s heart swell, and he brought each of her wrists to his lips, kissing them gently to show his thanks. Ahk’s hands continued as he helped her out of the gilded finery she wore.

Every gentle touch he mimicked with the same finesse and amour, slowly removing her heavy jewelry to place alongside his own. His evocative touch made her heart race and her breathing shutter; every light brush of his fingers was both chaste and inherently sensual: a feat only he could have mastered. And once they stood naked of their duty—wearing the simplest of their garments—Ahk  pulled her into a deep kiss that chased away the remaining pang of worry.

Stardust was bursting behind his eyes, making their blue-gray hues sparkle with whimsy as she met them in the dim light of their chamber. There was so much life in her pharaoh’s soul, so much love in his heart it almost didn’t make sense for a singular being to harness so much in a mortal body. Ahkmenrah was truly ethereal, a god-king, and all hers.

The pharaoh called for Medjay and a maidservant to watch their son when he took her hand in his, pulling her towards the door. Nouke didn’t question where it was he wanted to take her, she trusted his sense of adventure too much.

A content smile stayed on his face as he led her through the halls, coaxing a similar expression to paint across her own features. That placid mask only grew more joyous when he pulled them into the beautiful garden of their youth; the lotus blossoms were in full bloom, perfuming the air with their nectary fragrance, and Nouke quickly filled her lungs with their cherished scent.

Ahkmenrah continued past the quietly trickling fountain at the garden's center, over the plush beds of grass and through the thick brush of green that lined the outer walls until they came to their secret passage into the world beyond the burden of duty.

It had been years since either had cause to escape through the hole in the stoney exterior and as the bricks came loose effortlessly, it seemed as though they were meant to leave their worries behind for the evening.

Whatever news Kahmunrah had brought was enough to shake Ahkmenrah to his bones; she knew him too well not to see through all of his masks. And while the ever-present feeling of distrust would always writhe in her gut at the mere mention of her husband's brother, Nouke was going to have to remember to thank Kah one day for giving Ahk an evening to himself when he needed it most.

When their feet kissed the warm sand on the other side of the garden wall, a thousand memories flooded into their minds; memories of their youth together, memories of innocence and freedom. Even the memory of how Ahk had saved her by saving her mother. All of it flashed so vividly in her mind Nouke had to blink away their shine.

So much was written in those ever-changing sands along the Nile that they felt more like home than anywhere else—especially with Ahk’s hand in hers. She knew he could sense it too, finding his expression the same, his face upturned to the setting sun, eyes closed as the breeze tasseled his dark hair.

The sight was enough to make her already full heart burst with affection. Ahkmenrah was never more beautiful then when he was stripped of his golden raiment, the sun making his unblemished skin glow; he was absolutely radiant and Nouke could hardly look away.

His heavy-lidded eyes fluttered open as he turned his head to gaze at her, bottom lip caught between his teeth as he smiled. They walked along the bank of the Nile with Kamuzu several paces behind (as he had when they were children), and it was just as magical then as it had been years before.

The palace was far behind them when they came to a patch of green shore that was their favorite oasis in their youth. The moment they found it, Nouke knew it was the perfect slice of tranquility to share the news she’d been keeping to herself.

With a calculated yank, she pulled Ahk onto the soft earth beside a towering palm and the wind-swept reeds, the look of shock on his wide eyes causing her to laugh.

“I have news to share with you.”

The grin on his lips faltered somewhat as a hint of concern creased his brow.

“What is it, my love?” he murmured, sitting in front of her on folded knees.

He took both of her hands in his lap, his thumb sweeping tenderly back and forth across her skin as though to soothe her from the impending tension. In the twilight glow, Ahk’s eyes looked more green than blue, smoldering as they searched her face for a sign.

“Whatever it is, we will get through it together.” His concern was heartwarming, and it made her smile grow.

Gingerly, Nouke brought his right hand to her lips, kissed each knuckle then pressed his open palm to the, barely-there, swell of her abdomen. 

It took the pharaoh a moment to work out exactly what it was she was telling him with the gesture; Nouke watched every expression with a smirk. From confusion to realization, to profound excitement, each one twisted on his features more vividly than the last.

Ahk’s question was in his smile, and Nouke cupped her hand over his as affirmation.

“The gods have blessed us again.”

Ahkmenrah’s mouth fell open as he glanced at her belly. From under the fan of his lashes, Nouke couldn’t tell if the twinkle she caught was a manifestation of whimsy or the welling of joyous tears. Either way, the sight filled her with warmth and love.

When he met her eyes again, his grin grew, and he crawled on his hands and knees to close the space between them with an enthusiastic kiss. Nouke hummed encouragingly and cradled the underside of his jaw with the tips of her fingers, drawing him closer until she was sprawled upon the soft earth, and he was looming over her.

Ahk’s face was a work of art, the sheen of his lips glistening while the rest of his beautiful face held a look of fascination, admiration, with the base of desire. Nouke traced the lines she found there, the natural pout of his lips, the cut edge of his jaw, the light scratch of his stubble tingling across her pads of her fingers.

Every texture under her touch, every gesture she made, and every slow, affectionate blink he cast upon her, Nouke logged to her memory wanting to save it for the years to come. He kissed her again, lazy like the movement of the clouds in the sky, and she memorized it too.

All of his love he poured into that kiss, and she returned it tenfold. With his body against hers, hands in her hair as their lips danced together, Nouke realized Ahk was far greater than a work of art or godly temple; he was the artist—the very architect of her happiness. It was him that painted the sun and the moon into the heavens, him that spilled into her heart colors of unimaginable hues. Ahkmenrah made her feel like she was a masterpiece.

He made love to her as the stars overtook the skies. Every piece of him crashed into her, and every piece of her crashed into him like waves unto the shore. In that shared moment of transcendent euphoria, Nouke swore that must have been how the universe was born.

As they came down from their highs, they chose to linger in the tranquility they found along the Nile, nestled in their oasis with no borders.

Ahk sat with his back against the trunk of a palm tree, Nouke against his chest, taking no moment for granted. His arms were around her, his open palm pressed proudly to her stomach, protecting the child he had put there. An other-worldly kind of peace encompassed her as the gentle rise and fall of her husband’s chest lulled her almost to sleep.

Nouke fought the temptation of slumber, however, not wanting to miss a moment.

“I would leave everything behind if you asked it of me,” Ahk confessed suddenly, his voice low.

The abrupt proclamation, coupled with his wistful bravado, fostered a new wakefulness that caused Nouke to shift in his arms to better study his expression. There was a soulful longing burning dim like embers behind the swirling color of his eyes—his gaze fixated on the distance. It was a mask that made her feel suddenly melancholy, weighing on the corners of her lips.

“I could leave it all to Kah—I doubt he would deny such a burden.” Ahkmenrah’s eyes stayed locked on the horizon as he continued to speak. “You…me…Sekmen. We could disappear. No more talk of war or duty—just us and a world to see…”

It was as though the boy she had grown up with was speaking: longing for a lifetime of endless adventure. Nouke had often considered a nomadic life, Ahk would have so easily fallen into it. But to leave Egypt to Kahmunrah? A changed man or not, Kah would never be the ruler Ahkmenrah was. Those days of childish dreaming had ended for them long ago.

Never-the-less, Nouke offered him a soft smile.

“What an adventure that would be,” she mused, playing into the whim just enough to deter some of the sadness in his features. “After all, you did promise to show me the pyramids, and the waters of the Mediterranean.”

Ahk’s eyes broke from the horizon to smile down at her, “I haven’t forgotten."

His gaze moved back to the horizon and when he sighed, Nouke could almost see the wistfulness billow out with his breath, tangling with the breeze.

“One day soon,” Ahk promised. “When we can afford to turn our backs on duty for more than an evening, I will gladly take you anywhere you wish to go.”

“I will count the days,” Nouke said with a soft smile, nestling back against him.

The abrupt shift in the atmosphere brought into mind a new wave of nostalgia Nouke couldn’t help but to mull over. Everything she held was precious; gifts she never would have imagined herself possessing or be deserving of, especially having come from a life of servitude.

“Sometimes I still feel more like that little servant girl when I roam the palace halls,” Nouke admitted, causing Ahk to sit up straighter with a look of bafflement contorting his features.

“My love, in the eyes of gods and men, you are a queen—my queen.” His hands cupped her face, and the adoration she found in his eyes was enough to chase away the feeling of lowliness forever. “Our son is a prince of Egypt, and in your belly, you carry another prince or princess. You are exactly who you were always meant to be.”

He kissed her again as if to seal his proclamation with an act of love to make it true.

“As are you, my king,” Nouke murmured, emphasizing his grand title so he knew he was exactly where he was supposed to be as well. It would have been foolish and greedy to abandon the roles they played.

Duty beckoned the king and queen back to the palace long after Khonsu’s light turned the waters of the Nile a glittering silver. And as they slowly strode back to the palace, they each wondered what life could have been for them free of the golden shackles they wore.  

[voltrontranscript]

VLD S8E13: The End is the Beginning

Season 8 Episode 13: The End is the Beginning

Transcript by @dragonofyang

Summary: As the Paladins and Honerva battle, they find themselves at the source of all realities in the final showdown for the very existence of the universe.

[Google Doc]

Keith: We have to take the fight as far away from here as--

Allura: Now let’s finish this!

Lance: Incoming!

Shiro: We can’t let this happen. She can’t get away. 

[Transition to the Atlas-Voltron mech floating in a black abyss lit by glowing white tendrils.]

Keith: Is everyone okay?

Lance: Yep.

Pidge: Here.

Allura: Yes.

Shiro: Does anyone have eyes on Honerva?

Lance: What is this place?

Allura: I--I’m not sure.

Honerva: This is the beginning. And the end.

Allura: Can--can you all feel that? These strands are…

Lance: The only remaining realities left in existence.

Pidge: This place is the source of time, of space, of…

Hunk: Everything.

Honerva: I will end this once and for all!

Allura: She’s destroying… all realities!

Keith: She’s destroyed everything. There’s only one reality left.

Allura: No, please. If Honerva destroys this final strand, all of existence will end with it!

[Scene change to a white abyss not unlike the rift, but it’s the source of all realities.]

Honerva: Where are we?

Allura: The connected consciousness of all existence.

Honerva: You think you’re safe here? Soon all will cease to exist.

Hunk: You have to stop this. All these worlds, all these realities, they deserve to live.

Honerva: Those realities are flawed and weak, living out the same pathetic cycle of war and pain.

Allura: There is beauty in their flaws. I lost my father, my mother, my planet to this war, but I’ve gained a new family and a purpose stronger than any I could have imagined.

Pidge: Humans began very flawed. There were wars, hate. But with each mistake, they learned and grew.

Shiro: And now we reach out to other worlds to pass on those same lessons and spread them across the entire universe. Like your people once did.

Hunk: And with every new world touched, the message grows.

Keith: Every world, every reality. We wouldn’t exist without the others.

Lance: Our differences are what make us stronger.

Honerva: You think your words mean anything to me? I’ve lived multiple lifetimes, and all of them filled with pain and loss. If I cannot experience the simple joys of life, why should anyone else?

Allura: There was a time when you loved more than just your family, a time when your fascination with how vast the universe is gave way to your desire to help and uplift others.

Lotor: The beginning of Altean alchemy.

Honerva: You tried to help him.

Lotor: ...the tales you grew up with…

Honerva: He was happy. He deserved better. Better than I could give.

Allura: Lotor may have been misguided, but ultimately he wanted to preserve life. Honor your son. Help me change this.

Honerva: I’m sorry, but the damage is done. There’s nothing left to save.

Allura: I can change the quintessence within your vessel. Your son helped me learn how to transform it from a destructive force into a life-giving force. But I cannot do it alone.

Honerva: But, that would require…

Allura: I know the risks. I’m afraid this is where we part ways.

Hunk: Wait, what?

Keith: Allura.

Lance: What?

Pidge: No.

Allura: This is our only chance to undo what has been done, to save all of existence. I have to take it. It is my purpose. Your paths go on. Mine ends here.

Hunk: But there is no Voltron without you.

Allura: Voltron isn’t needed anymore. The rest of the work is up to the people. And they’ll have you to guide them, Hunk. Goodbye, Pidge.

Pidge: I’m gonna miss you, Allura.

Allura: Remain curious and fearless.

Shiro: Most of them won’t know the sacrifice you made so they could live.

Allura: And they’ll never need to. Your selflessness taught me that. Thank you.

Shiro: You never have to thank me for anything.

Allura: Keith… I cannot thank you enough for all you’ve given me.

Keith: Allura, when you accepted me, it helped me to accept myself. Thank you.

Allura: There is greatness in your heart and in your actions.

Lance: No. Allura, there--there has to be another way.

Allura: There is no other way. This is all we have.

Lance: But you’re too important to the cause. You’re--you’re too important to me.

Allura: I’ll always be with you, Lance. And I’ll always love you.

[Transition to the two mechs once more as all realities explode from between the two of them and the paladins wake up.]

Keith: Is this…? Are we…?

Pidge: Yeah. It’s our reality.

Lance: She did it. She saved us all.

Hunk: I don’t remember that planet being there before.

Lance: It’s Altea.

[Timeskip transition, with the text reading “One Year Later…” as we open on the flame of Feyiv.]

Keith: With the return of Planet Daibazaal, the Galra Empire is at a crossroads. For too long, the people of this extraordinary civilization have been manipulated by a dictatorship that placed a misguided sense of self-preservation above all else. It was a tragic, unfortunate series of events that led us down this dark, never-ending path of power and greed. But now we, the citizens of the Galra Empire, have an opportunity to make right all of the injustices set into motion by our forefathers. Because of the sacrifice made by Princess Allura, we have been given a second chance to come together in rebuilding the Galra Empire by joining the Galactic Coalition and ushering in a new era of peace across the universe.

[Scene change to the IGF-Atlas flying through deep space.]

Male Chancellor: Your armies have attacked us at every turn.

Female Chancellor: If you had just agreed to our terms, the attacks would not be necessary.

Male Chancellor: You are occupying a peaceful settlement!

Female Chancellor: Our people were starving!

Hunk: Chancellors. Please, sit. Dinner is served. The filet of bandrillo, spiced with the seasoning from the plains of planet Mabo, alongside pilaf of long-grain forlongian brill from the vast fields of Antidoll. And it’s accompanied by a cider made from the petals of the Altean juniberry flower. Bon appetit.

Female Chancellor: Delicious.

Hunk: And it wouldn’t be possible without the cooperation of all three planets of the Xritoo system. Much like my cooking crew, comprised of aliens from all across the cosmos working together to bring you this delicious meal. Princess Allura, the very person we celebrate on this day, once said, “We are always stronger together.” If the people of your planets work together, so much more can be achieved.

Shiro: Honor her by following in her footsteps and walk in the path towards peace.

[Scene change to Pidge and Matt in a robotics lab as they build an android.]

Pidge: All done.

Matt: So, have you been thinking of any names?

Pidge: Yeah, I was thinking of Chip.

Matt: You and your puns.

Colleen: Katie, your father’s got the teludav all warmed up for you. Better get going. You don’t want to be late.

Matt: Don’t worry, Pidge, I’ll have Chip all ready to go by the time you get back.

Pidge: Just don’t initialize until I return. I want to witness Chip’s first moments of consciousness.

Sam: Have a good time, honey.

Pidge: I will, Dad.

[Scene change to New Altea, where a new Castle of Lions is being constructed.]

Merla: Construction is on course.

Coran: Ah, most excellent! How are the preparations for tonight’s feast coming? It has to be perfect. It will be the first Celebration of Allura. The first of many to come.

Merla: As soon as we can get access to the location, we can begin setup. But it’s currently occupied by your friend, sir.

Lance: And had Princess Allura not seen that there was still good left in Honerva, we most likely would not be sitting here today. She grew to understand that there is good in everyone.

Balmera Girl: Even Emperor Zarkon?

Lance: Yes, even Emperor Zarkon.

Balmera Girl: Do you miss her?

Lance: I do. Very much. But I’m reminded of her everywhere I look. So in that way, she’s still very much with me. With all of us, actually.

Altean Child: Now that you no longer pilot the Red Lion, what do you do?

Lance: Well, I help run a small farm back on my home planet with my family. It’s a simple life, just the way I like it.

Altean Instructor: Alright, everybody, I think Paladin Lance has somewhere to be in a few doboshes, and you all have class to get back to.

Kids: Aw!

[Scene change to the paladins and Coran all sitting at a table loaded with food in front of Allura’s memorial statue.]

Pidge: I mean, seriously, though, Earth has come a long way. It’s a hub for all alien activity now that my dad’s stabilized his teludav technology.

Shiro: That’ll make travel on the Atlas much easier. We’ll be able to reach so many more sectors with the improved mobility. Not to mention the supplies we’ll save with the shorter journey.

Hunk: Yeah, yeah! We’ll have so much more room for the cooking ingredients. People are just so much easier to reason with when they’re full. Man, this diplomacy thing isn’t nearly as easy as Allura made it look.

Keith: Right? But then, she did make everything look easy.

Shiro: Speaking of which, how are things going on Daibazaal?

Keith: We’re calling for an election to select the Galran representative for the Galactic Coalition. So that’s a step in the right direction.

Lance: Let me guess, they asked you to be their leader and you said no?

Keith: Yeah, pretty much.

Lance: Classic Keith.

Coran: Allura would be proud of your decision, Keith. I think she knew that you would always be the key to the Galra’s future. Just around this table, I see so many lives touched by her actions. For some of us she was a diplomat, a teacher, a leader, and a friend. But to those of us around this table, she will always be family. To Allura!

Paladins: To Allura!

[Scene change to Lance’s quarters in the middle of the night.]

Lance: Huh?

[Scene change to the epilogues, which are without dialogue. The text narration follows in order.]

The Holt family established the next generation of Legendary Defenders.

Hunk created a culinary empire, bringing the universe together, one meal at a time.

Lance continued to spread Allura’s message while surrounding himself with the things he loved.

Kolivan and Krolia became the Galra representatives to the Galactic Coalition.

Keith helped transition the Blade of Marmora to a humanitarian relief organization.

Shiro found his happiness and finally left the battle behind.

End.

[doomonfilm]

Ranking : Marvel Cinematic Universe - The Infinity Saga (2008 - 2019)

Outside of the Star Wars or James Bond franchises (or maybe even the longstanding BBC series Dr. Who), I am hard pressed to think of a bigger, more intricately connected set of films than those created by Kevin Feige for his Marvel Cinematic Universe (better known as the MCU to most people).  With the help of numerous established and upcoming stars, a vast range of directors, and a rich history of characters and events the studio could play fast and loose with, Marvel Studios spent roughly a decade transforming “comic book” films from gimmicks into legitimized artistic storytelling, forcing many studios to attempt and emulate the success of a connected “cinematic universe” without laying the groundwork needed to do so.

With WandaVision in motion on Disney+, and the release future of Black Widow still up in the air, the trajectory in which the MCU will move forward is still a mystery, but these properties firmly close the door on the initial three phases of Marvel Studios releases, collectively known as The Infinity Saga due to their connection to Thanos and the six Infinity Stones.  Individually, many of these pieces had impact, but as a whole, the overarching story that they tell is an epic feat yet to be matched. 

But enough preamble, I know what everybody came here for.  So, based solely on my opinion and nothing else, here is The Infinity Saga, as presented by Marvel Studios, ranked from least to most favorite...

23. The Incredible Hulk (2008) It’s a shame that my favorite Marvel character seems to be a conundrum when it comes to giving him a solo movie.  With a decent slice of these characters, it’s about casting the “normal” version of the character, and in the case of this film, as great of an actor as Edward Norton is, I am not sure if he can play enough self-sabotaging behaviors to believably provide us with a Bruce Banner that audiences can connect with.  As a result, The Incredible Hulk left us with an isolated protagonist (literally and figuratively) forced to carry audiences between long stretches absent of Hulk in his green glory.

22. Thor (2011) For a time, it seemed as if Thor was going to be the realm of the MCU where gravitas resided.  The Shakespearean approach to mythic heroes adapted by Marvel was fresh at the time, as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D. were around, but certainly more relatable.  Bringing Thor, Odin, Loki and a host of other legendary Asgardians into the fold broadened the world, but with the entire picture of this stretch now laid out in front of us, it is clear that Chris Hemsworth had not yet found his voice as Thor.  We knew he would have to earn his worthiness and his title as King of Asgard, but I doubt anyone anticipated Thor would become one of the consistently funniest aspects of the MCU... sadly, that was not yet developed in his first film, and as a result, his introduction falls to the lower realms of the list.

21. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

20. Ant-Man (2015) It was not my intention to lump the Ant-Man movies together, but in all honestly, they do work best in that capacity.  The events of both movies, for the most part, seem to satellite around the bigger nucleus narrative, and up until Avengers : Endgame, and appearance made by Ant-Man in the other films was cursory or meant to “balance the scales” (as in the case of Captain America : Civil War).  Don’t get me wrong... Paul Rudd is a fabulous addition to the MCU family, and listening to Michael Peña tell stories never gets old, but when it comes down to the big picture, Ant-Man and his two films are not the largest puzzle pieces on the table.

19. Captain Marvel (2019) The possibilities for an epic film were all there... Krees and Skrulls would finally get a chance at the spotlight, we were being teased going back in time without realizing how it would play into the resolution of our Infinity Saga storyline, and the final moments of the film made us question everything we’d been presented with up until that point.  Sadly, however, Carol Danvers turned out to be an extremely overpowered and dangerously self-unaware character, resulting in a lack of stakes or emotional connection ever really being established.  While Captain Marvel does have fun elements to it, much of the work that managed to stick was undone by her forced and underwhelming appearance in Avengers : Endgame.  Of all the properties in the MCU, this one seems to have the most whispers and rumors surrounding it in regards to its production and future within the MCU moving forward, but I will be curious to see how time treats this film.

18. Iron Man 3 (2013) Up through Phase Two of The Infinity Saga, Tony Stark was always positioned as the loner of the group.  With that in mind, it does seem a bit strange to me that his final solo film, and the first solo film after Marvel’s The Avengers, would find Tony back in isolation mode so vigorously.  In all fairness, War Machine is there (during his brief stint as The Patriot), and Pepper Potts is given the most room to play out of all three films, but as interesting as the antagonist structure for the film is, the convoluted nature of having at least three tiers of villainy almost begs the inclusion of at least one more Avenger.  Ultimately, the film does move Tony closer to the rest of the camp, but it’s odd that more Avengers weren’t involved in the actual film. 

17. Captain America : The First Avenger (2011) Of all the characters fans were presented with in the MCU, it’s hard to argue against the fact that Captain America received the most rewarding arc of any character in The Infinity Saga.  Every journey needs a starting point, and simply because it was the origin story, Captain America : The First Avenger was never destined to be the best of the MCU.  Visually, the MCU was still figuring a few things out, so some of the scrawny Cap scenes look awkward, but by the time this film is all said and done, all of the honor, character and heart needed to propel Cap forward was present and accounted for.

16. Thor : The Dark World (2013)

15. Iron Man 2 (2010) Maybe it’s a recencey bias thing, but I really enjoyed Thor : The Dark World and Iron Man 2.  Up until deciding to make this list, I’d not seen either of these films, and it was largely due to the negative reactions I’d heard from most fans and critics.  Thor : The Dark World gave us brief glimpses of where the Thor character was headed, it was a great look for Jane Foster (who is seemingly on her way back into the mix), it opened up some mystic doors that we will likely be exploring moving forward in the MCU, and due to these mystic elements, we may have seen the beginnings of S.W.O.R.D., who is already making its presence felt in Phase Four.  As for Iron Man 2, we are given the polar opposite Tony Stark from his introductory movie, and due to his seemingly unstoppable mission to erase himself, War Machine is given autonomy, and the beginnings of the Iron Legion are built.  Perhaps its a bit of a revisionist lens as well, hence these two being grouped together, but time seems to have been very kind to these two films, despite their flaws.

14. Spider-Man : Far From Home (2019) Avengers : Endgame would have been a perfect place to close the door on The Infinity Saga, but that monumental task was appointed to Spider-Man : Far From Home.  Perhaps it was that implied burden that made the film feel a bit buried under the weight of expectations.  There are certainly calls to a post-Tony Stark snap present throughout the film, but Mysterio’s plan runs seemingly independent of any previous events shown.  The mid and post-credit scenes certainly tease big things for the future, but even before COVID-19 flipped the script on the industry, it was uncertain where things where headed as the new phase unrolled.  This film was enjoyable, but almost feels like a stand-alone trapped on a bridge between two worlds of narrative.

13. Iron Man (2008) The one that started it all.  I’ve never been the biggest Iron Man fan, but I can certainly respect the large risk that Kevin Feige took by kickstarting his empire with a character seemingly caught between fame and obscurity.  Tony Stark has enough Bruce Wayne in him to make him an intriguing character, but Iron Man and Batman could not be more different from one another, which immediately gave the MCU a fresh feel in light of them using a Silver Age character.  The pool of household name talent was limited, as Sony was sitting on Spider-Man, the X-men and the Fantastic Four in 2008, but ultimately, Iron Man was a roll of the dice that paid off in a major way. 

12. Spider-Man : Homecoming (2017) Spider-Man is such an iconic character that it is sometimes hard to believe that he was not always involved in The Infinity Saga.  Tobey Maguire was the definitive Spider-Man to many fans, and Andrew Garfield was starting to build a cult following, but after a bit of legal ping-pong, Captain America : Civil War went from being an anticipated mess to possibly a shadow of its comic book counterpart when Spider-Man appeared in the trailer.  Tom Holland brought a pitch-perfect voice and sensibility to the character, and Spider-Man : Homecoming drove those feelings home (no pun intended).  It wasn’t like Spider-Man needed a boost in tandem with his entry into the MCU, but his introductory movie did most everything right (including assuming we were WELL AWARE of his often repeated origin story).

11. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Out of everyone that the MCU has introduced to the masses, it is safe to say that I knew the least about the Guardians of the Galaxy... in fact, my closest tie to knowledge of their existence came in the form of Howard the Duck, who shares that section of the Marvel comic universe with them.  Marvel Studios had already made me enjoy films about Thor and Iron Man, two characters I did not consider myself a fan of prior to their films, so I went out on a limb in hopes that Marvel could sell me on characters I had zero connection to.  Guardians of the Galaxy did provide another set of colors in the Marvel spectrum, and it helped open the door to Marvel’s space-centered stories, but it wasn’t until the sequel that I went back and really found an appreciation for Guardians of the Galaxy, which I will expound later.  That being said, Guardians of the Galaxy is another Marvel film that has been benefited by time and revisitation.

10. Marvel's The Avengers (2012) The main pieces had found their way to the board by the time Captain America : The First Avenger was released, and it only seemed like a matter of time before the big players would cross paths.  Rather than build to a mass collaboration via smaller duos and groupings, Marvel went all in to close Phase One by locking in The Avengers as the collective stars of The Infinity Saga.  Loki found new agency as their protagonist, but he was really just a smokescreen for the big bad of the entire saga, Thanos.  The entire run of 23 movies can be summed up or represented by the iconic shot that rotates around our heroes when they stand shoulder to shoulder for the first time, staring up at their enemy emerging from the sky.  There was no turning back at this point, and this is largely due to the wonderful execution of one of the MCU’s key films.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) I’m really not sure why Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t connect for me initially, but after watching Vol. 2, I felt a deeper understanding of Peter Quill, the relationship between Gamora and Nebula, and I came to love Groot and Drax even more (who didn’t immediately love Rocket Racoon?).  Kurt Russell was the evolved mirror to Chris Pratt that I didn’t know I needed, and the soundtrack contained more songs that spoke directly to me than the first film.  Some of the set pieces were downright beautiful in this film, I lowkey became a big fan of Mantis, and Yondu’s story culmination may have been the first time the MCU brought a tear to my eye.  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 may deceptively be the most emotionally powerful of all the MCU films, short of Avengers : Infinity War, and for that, it must be respected, considering it all came from a little known band of upstarts.

8. Captain America : Civil War (2016) While Marvel’s The Avengers may be the first true “event” film in the MCU, the first major “event” attempted in terms of historic Marvel stories was the infamous Civil War run.  A weird mix of anticipation and fear existed in the time preceding the film’s release, as a number of key players from the comic book storyline were either not available to the MCU or had not yet been introduced into the MCU.  Speculation between who would be emerging, omitted and adjusted flew back and forth, but in the end, we were not only presented with a riveting triangle of emotion between Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Bucky, but Spider-Man and Black Panther stepped into the spotlight (with a little dose of Ant-Man thrown in for good measure).  Had the MCU waited for a different phase, there’s no telling how many heroes and villains could have ultimately been involved, but considering what they had at the time, the MCU definitely exceeded expectations and created their own iconic version of a Marvel narrative hallmark.

7. Black Panther (2018) Outside of the final two Avenger’s, there wasn’t a more anticipated or well-received release (to my knowledge) than Black Panther.  After bursting onto the scene in Captain America : Civil War, it seemed everyone was ready for more of King T'Challa, Black Panther and Wakanda.  Chadwick Boseman became even more of a fan favorite than he already was, and Black Panther became the first MCU film to be nominated for Best Picture at the 2019 Academy Awards.  Marvel presented Wakanda, and Africa in turn, with the utmost cultural, historical and social respect, and short of a slightly underwhelming finale in terms of visual effects, it was hard to hang a complaint on Black Panther.  If the MCU had to pick a single film that they were most proud of, I would not be surprised if this was the one that was chosen.

6. Doctor Strange (2016) As a fan of science fiction, mysticism and overall weirdness, I was incredibly hype for the announcement and release of Doctor Strange.  Of all the active characters in the MCU at the time, Doctor Strange was the most obscure that I was already familiar with, and his introductory film did not disappoint.  The visual representation of the mystic arts was brilliant, casting Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One was a stroke of genius (despite many that voiced reservation to the choice), and the introduction of different dimensions and realms to the MCU hinted at the future that was to come.  With Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness coming in sooner than later, it is almost certain that I will be revisiting this film, and I hope that as time goes by, it finds a bigger audience with a deeper appreciation for it. 

5. Thor : Ragnarok (2017) If I think about it hard enough, I can probably find a character that will contradict this statement, but I’m hard pressed to think of a character than took a bigger personality jump between individual films than Thor did between The Dark World and Ragnarok.  We got shades of a new Thor in The Dark World, and he was really starting to come out of his shell in Avengers : Age of Ultron, but I’m not sure if anyone expected for Taika Waititi to not only turn Thor into possibly the most loveable Avenger, but make his third film a psychedelic masterpiece of fun.  Thor and Loki have never had better chemistry, Cate Blanchett was surprisingly well cast as Hela, and most everyone’s favorite MCU iteration of the Hulk came to life (not to mention a brief nod to Beta Ray Bill being present for keen viewers).  It may not be the best film in the MCU, but Thor : Ragnarok is almost certainly the one viewers gravitate towards if they make a quick selection.

4. Avengers : Endgame (2019) How do you end a story arc that spans more than 20 films?  Well, for starters, you bring every character to the table, collect every expectation that fans have for them, and then kick all of those expectations to the side and forge a completely wild, new and unexpected path.  For a large portion of Endgame’s runtime, it is tonally and stylistically different than any other Avengers film, but near the end, when the rubber hits the road, Thanos and his legions of followers take part in one of the most epically satisfying stands against our heroes already present, only for the world of the MCU to open up and rain the most enjoyable and acceptable fan service ever to be captured to film, including the most iconic Captain America moment of all time.  

3. Avengers : Age of Ultron (2015) For a long while, this film stood as my clear-cut favorite in the MCU.  I didn’t even know I was a Vision fan until he emerged from his chamber, and the introduction of Scarlet Witch has brought me nothing but joy.  David Spader brought some of the best antagonist personality in his powerful portrayal of Ultron, and the party scene provided one of my favorite non-action sequences in all of the MCU.  The interactions between the Avengers had the best balance of all their collaborative films during Age of Ultron, and Scarlet Witch took each of our heroes to the darkest corners of their mind.  Perhaps people had other ideas in mind when they learned that Tony and Bruce’s murderbot was due for a screen appearance, but for my money’s worth, Age of Ultron was the first Avengers film that blew my mind, and still stands as my personal favorite of the Avengers movies.

2. Avengers : Infinity War (2018) Easily the most epic of all the MCU films, Infinity War set the stage for a truly iconic struggle between the Earth’s mightiest heroes and the seemingly unstoppable Thanos that had been promised over many, many films, and in the opening rounds, Infinity War delivered.  For all of the combinations of characters we’d been provided, we’d yet to see Tony interact with Doctor Strange or Star-Lord, and each of those meetings yielded hilarious results.  The stakes had never been higher prior to Infinity War, and the costs had not been greater up to this point.  I personally remember people in theaters being nearly moved to tears when their favorite heroes (especially Spider-Man) began turning into dust, like they were watching Schindler’s List.  If the MCU collectively raised the bar for comic book movies, then Infinity War raised the bar for the MCU. 

1. Captain America : The Winter Soldier (2014) The MCU has more than a handful of classic films under their belt, but Captain America : The Winter Soldier is probably the sole film of the MCU that feels like a proper action/adventure suspense-thriller, like it was penned by John Grisham.  The connection between Bucky and Cap is kinetic in its swings between impending hope and tragedy, and the level of combat and action in the film is second to none.  This was the film where the Cap that the masses know and love stepped into his own as a hero and a leader.  Of all the directors that Marvel Studios has tapped, the Russo Brothers seem to have the secrets unlocked to make a great MCU film, and Captain America : The Winter Soldier is the pound for pound best they’ve offered yet.

[rwby-redux]

Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: History

In hindsight, I probably should have called this topic political sciences, or social studies, or the humanities. Literally any of those would’ve been more accurate than simply calling it history. Sort of shot myself in the foot with that one. Oh, well. I guess we’ll just have to make do.

History (as it’s defined by the Redux) is an umbrella term for human geography, economics, legal systems, global affairs, anthropology, civil rights, technology, and resources. Its primary concern is analyzing how all of these studies shaped the actions of people in the past, and the ripple effects that carried those societies into the present. Being an interdisciplinary topic, it’s nearly impossible to talk about any of these studies in isolation without accidentally overlooking crucial details. Anyone who’s ever opened a history textbook knows that with that complexity comes controversy, and RWBY isn’t exempt from that trend. As we’re told by Salem in the show’s debut, modern-day Remnant was forged by that forgotten past, by the omission of the gods and monsters that set things in motion.

It’s often said that history is written by the victors. And if history is indeed a book, then you’ll quickly find that RWBY’s has pages missing.

Let’s start by laying our cards on the table and talking about what facts we do have. RWBY’s canon can be roughly divided into three vague time periods: the era of Humanity v1.0, prior to the gods’ exodus; the era where Salem and Ozma’s first host briefly ruled together, several million years after Humanity v2.0 evolved; and the era characterized by the aftermath of the Great War, about several thousand years after the collapse of Salem’s and Ozma’s apotheotic kingdom. Anything in-between is obfuscated by the show, either accidentally (due to a lack of worldbuilding) or intentionally (as an attempt to make the series “mysterious”).

My first instinct is to start calling bullshit left and right. There is no justification for spoon-feeding your audience crucial lore through a spin-off series, and then waving your hand and saying that the show doesn’t have the time for worldbuilding. If I had to start pointing fingers, I’d lay the blame on the writers for prioritizing animating bloated fight scenes that ate up the episodes’ already-stunted runtime. I say this knowing that some people will balk at the accusation, because there exists a demographic of viewers that does prefer watching the fight sequences with their brains turned off. And I’m not above that. (I could spend an hour raving about the choreography of the fight between Cinder and Neo, or about the coordination of the Ace Operatives in their takedown of the Cryo Gigas. Believe me, I’m not knocking the absurd enjoyment of spectacle fighting.)

My problem is that RWBY’s premise is so deeply-entrenched in rule of cool that it left its worldbuilding malnourished by comparison.

But fine. Let’s, for the moment, give RWBY the benefit of the doubt. What in-world reasons would the series have for its history being believably underdeveloped? (And no, we’re not talking about the erasure of the Maidens and magic. We know that information was deliberately expunged from the annals of history. We’re focusing on the parts of Remnant’s history that deal with ancient cultures, defunct countries, and influential past events.)

The immediate solution that comes to mind is the Creatures of Grimm. As we’re told by numerous sources, the Grimm not only prioritize attacking humans and Faunus, but they discriminately destroy any of their creations. [1]

“With every alternative form of communication that was proposed, there seemed to be the perfect obstacle. The destructive nature of the creatures of Grimm severely limited the reliability of ground-based technologies.” | Source: World of Remnant, Volume 3, Episode 3: “Cross Continental Transmit System.”

This leads to the conclusion that Remnant’s past was physically destroyed, and any traces of it were removed by the Grimm. This would include archeological records—artwork, architecture, books, clothing, jewelry, burial sites, tools, ecofacts, and so on.

The issue I have with this explanation is that it’s not consistent. Throughout the show we see ample evidence of immediate-past and distant-past societies. The remains of Mountain Glenn and Oniyuri still stand, despite the high presence of Grimm at the former (and the presumed presence of Grimm at the latter). Brunswick Farms is relatively intact and provisioned with food and fuel, even though the Apathy are quite literally hanging out under the floorboards. The Emerald Forest even has the derelict ruins of an ancient temple that Ozpin incorporated into the Beacon initiation.

Petroglyphs (parietal stone-carving artwork) of early hominids fighting a Death Stalker. | Source: Volume 1, Episode 7: “The Emerald Forest - Part 2.”

If the Grimm are RWBY’s get-out-of-jail-free card, then they’re certainly not being used to their full effect. The examples I provided tell us in no uncertain terms that Remnant does have an accessible history in the form of archeological artifacts. For fuck’s sake, Oobleck is literally an anthropologist. He teaches history classes at Beacon Academy and has a PhD on the subject.

Similarly, if we assume the format of World of Remnant (a classroom lecture given by Qrow) to be applicable in-world, then that means the history of the last few centuries pertaining to the kingdoms is common knowledge. [2] The existence of this information tells us that Remnant has a flourishing history, and yet we see little of it represented in the show.

I chalk up the lack of history to a nasty habit of the writers. You see, CRWBY has this infuriating tendency to treat RWBY like “it’s like our world but…” It’s like our world but with magic; it’s like our world but with Dust; it’s like our world but with bloodthirsty monsters. You get the idea. As I said back in the Worldbuilding: Overview, if you make your fictional world a one-to-one analog of your own, you end up either ignoring, underdeveloping, or erasing the history exclusive to that setting. And RWBY is largely bereft of any historical identity that it could call its own. Here, let me pitch a few examples of what I’m talking about:

If slavery was only outlawed less than eighty years ago, why don’t we see Mistral creating legal loopholes to retain the system, like through indentured servitude or penal labor? An empire built on human rights violations doesn’t lose that disregard overnight. While we see plenty of poverty-stricken neighborhoods in Mistral, [3] and we’re told about its infamous criminal underworld, [4] these aspects of Mistrali culture seem rather disconnected from the recent history of the country, and ultimately have no impact on the main characters or the plot.

The Faunus Rights Revolution was a three-year conflict that (presumably) took place across all four kingdoms, and involved countermanding the reparations made to the Faunus after the Great War. From a chronological perspective, this was extremely recent. I know Rooster Teeth has a track record of poorly handling systemic racism. Usually this manifests in characters doing tokenly racist things, like using slurs or refusing to serve Faunus customers. But here’s the thing: a discrimination-based conflict this recent should have more bearing on current events. We should see examples of things like police profiling, higher incarceration rates, a lack of representation in media, social pressure to conceal Faunus traits or assimilate into human culture, fetishization, inadequate healthcare, forced sterilization, a lack of clothing retailers which stock apparel that accommodates Faunus traits, and so on. To put it bluntly: Faunus are an underprivileged minority, and immediate history should be influencing how that plays out in the show.

To reiterate: the Great War was eighty years ago. Meaning that there are likely still people alive that fought during it. How have their attitudes and beliefs shaped the world in the last few decades? Did they pass on any lingering hostilities or biases to their family members or community? What about in the present-day? Do people from Vale that migrate to Mistral ever deal with bigotry? Do people in Atlas harbor any lingering ideologies from that time? Is authentic pre-war artwork from Mantle considered priceless because most artwork was destroyed during Mantle’s suppression of creative expression? Did immigrants from the other kingdoms help rebuild Atlas’ cultural identity by supplying it with the values that they brought with them? What about shifts in culture? Did kingdoms have to ration resources like sugar or cream? Did this result in cultural paradigms, where nowadays drinking black coffee is more prevalent as a result of adapting to scarcity?

Because Vacuo’s natural resources were heavily depleted by invading countries decades before the Great War, did this have a major bearing on technology? Does modern Vacuo have wind farms or solar arrays to compensate for a lack of Dust? How does this affect their relationship with other kingdoms? Mistral loves to pride itself on its respect for nature. [5] Does this attitude ever anger Vacuites from the perspective of, “Yeah, I can really see how much you ‘respect’ nature. You respected it so much that you invaded our country and destroyed our oases.”

As you can see, history can’t be idly ignored. It has long-lasting impacts on the people who lived through it, and it continues to inform the attitudes, beliefs, and actions of people to come. What we get instead are traditions that only exist within the relevance of the immediate past, like the color-naming trend that emerged in response to artistic censorship. Anything which predates it, though? Remnant might as well have sprung into existence a hundred years ago with how little its history exists beyond that context.

It’s frustrating and disheartening. We know precious little about Remnant because its history either exists separately from the story (and is delivered supplementarily through transmedia worldbuilding), or it wasn’t developed in the first place. This doesn’t even take into consideration how much the writers deliberately withhold for the sake of artificially creating suspense. (A suspense, I might add, that frequently lacks payoff, either because it gets forgotten by the writers, or the characters never bother to seek out knowledge from available sources, like Ozma. Seriously, why do these kids never ask any fucking questions? They did this throughout all of Volume 5—Ruby in particular, who I badly wanted to strangle when she said “I have no more questions” back in V5:E10: “True Colors.”)

RWBY didn’t even bother to give us a calendar era, like the BCE/CE one used today. Hell, if the writers wanted to buck the system, they could’ve gone with something similar to Steven Universe or The Elder Scrolls, where eras are divided by significant historical events.

Sorry. I swear, I’m done dredging up examples. I’ve already made my point. As we talk about the other topics in their respective posts, we’ll be able to analyze these problems in greater detail.

Trust me. We’ve only just scratched the surface.

-

[1] Volume 1, Episode 1: “Ruby Rose.” Salem: “An inevitable darkness—creatures of destruction—the creatures of Grimm—set their sights on man and all of his creations.”

[2] World of Remnant, Volume 2, Episode 2: “Kingdoms.” Salem: “In the countless years that humanity has roamed the planet, civilizations have grown and fallen. But four have withstood the test of time: Atlas, Mistral, Vacuo, Vale.”

[3] Volume 5, Episode 6: “Known by Its Song.”

[4] Volume 5, Episode 1: “Welcome to Haven.”

[5] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 2: “Mistral.” Qrow: “There's one common thread that links all these people together, though, and that's their respect for nature. Particularly the sea and the sky.”

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.1

365 – The Alemanni cross the Rhine and invade Gaul. Emperor Valentinian I moves to Paris to command the army and defend the Gallic cities. 996 – Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk, Bishop of Freising, which is the oldest known document using the name Ostarrîchi (Austria in Old High German). 1009 – Berber forces led by Sulayman ibn al-Hakam defeat the Umayyad caliph Muhammad II of Córdoba in the battle of Alcolea. 1141 – Empress Matilda's reign as 'Lady of the English' ends with Stephen of Blois regaining the title of 'King of England'. 1179 – Philip II is crowned as 'King of France'. 1214 – The port city of Sinope surrenders to the Seljuq Turks. 1348 – The anti-royalist Union of Valencia attacks the Jews of Murviedro on the pretext that they are serfs of the King of Valencia and thus "royalists". 1503 – Pope Julius II is elected. 1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time. 1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage. 1555 – French Huguenots establish the France Antarctique colony in present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 1570 – The All Saints' Flood devastates the Dutch coast. 1604 – William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London. 1611 – Shakespeare's play The Tempest is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London. 1612 – During the Time of Troubles, Polish troops are expelled from Moscow's Kitay-gorod by Russian troops under the command of Dmitry Pozharsky (22 October O.S.). 1683 – The British Crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties. 1688 – William III of Orange sets out a second time from Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands to seize the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland from King James II of England during the Glorious Revolution. 1755 – In Portugal, Lisbon is totally devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between 60,000 and 90,000 people. 1765 – The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the Thirteen Colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America. 1790 – Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which he predicts that the French Revolution will end in a disaster. 1800 – John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House). 1805 – Napoleon Bonaparte invades Austria during the War of the Third Coalition. 1814 – Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars. 1848 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with the Boston University School of Medicine), opens. 1861 – American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as the commander of the Union Army, replacing General Winfield Scott. 1870 – In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast. 1893 – The Battle of Bembezi took place and was the most decisive battle won by the British in the First Matabele War of 1893. 1894 – Nicholas II becomes the new (and last) Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies. 1894 – Buffalo Bill, 15 of his Indians, and Annie Oakley were filmed by Thomas Edison in his Black Maria Studio in West Orange, New Jersey. 1896 – A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time. 1897 – The first Library of Congress building opens its doors to the public; the library had previously been housed in the Congressional Reading Room in the U.S. Capitol. 1911 – World's first combat aerial bombing mission takes place in Libya during the Italo-Turkish War. Second Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti of Italy drops several small bombs. 1914 – World War I: The first British Royal Navy defeat of the war with Germany, the Battle of Coronel, is fought off of the western coast of Chile, in the Pacific, with the loss of HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth. 1914 – World War I: The Australian Imperial Force (AIF) departed by ship in a single convoy from Albany, Western Australia bound for Egypt. 1916 – In Russia, Pavel Milyukov delivers in the State Duma the famous "stupidity or treason" speech, precipitating the downfall of the government of Boris Stürmer. 1918 – Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in US history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 102 deaths. 1918 – Western Ukraine separates from Austria-Hungary. 1922 – Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate: The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, abdicates. 1928 – The Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet, replaces the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet. 1937 – Stalinists execute Pastor Paul Hamberg and seven members of Azerbaijan's Lutheran community. 1938 – Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral in an upset victory during a match race deemed "the match of the century" in horse racing. 1941 – American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography. 1942 – World War II: Matanikau Offensive begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends three days later with an American victory. 1943 – World War II: The 3rd Marine Division, United States Marines, landing on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, secures a beachhead, leading that night to a naval clash at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay. 1944 – World War II: Units of the British Army land at Walcheren. 1945 – The official North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, is first published under the name Chongro. 1948 – Athenagoras I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, is enthroned. 1950 – Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman at Blair House. 1950 – Pope Pius XII claims papal infallibility when he formally defines the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. 1951 – Operation Buster–Jangle: Six thousand five hundred American soldiers are exposed to 'Desert Rock' atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary. 1952 – Nuclear weapons testing: The United States successfully detonates Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device, at the Eniwetok atoll. The explosion had a yield of ten megatons TNT equivalent. 1954 – The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence. 1955 – The establishment of a Military Assistance Advisory Group in South Vietnam marks the beginning of American involvement in the conflict. 1955 – The bombing of United Airlines Flight 629 occurs near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members aboard the Douglas DC-6B airliner. 1956 – The Indian states Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Mysore are formally created under the States Reorganisation Act; Kanyakumari district is joined to Tamil Nadu from Kerala. 1956 – Hungarian Revolution: Imre Nagy announces Hungary's neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. Soviet troops begin to re-enter Hungary, contrary to assurances by the Soviet government. János Kádár and Ferenc Münnich secretly defect to the Soviets. 1956 – The Springhill mining disaster in Springhill, Nova Scotia kills 39 miners; 88 are rescued. 1957 – The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at the time, opens to traffic connecting Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. 1963 – The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opens. 1963 – The 1963 South Vietnamese coup begins. 1968 – The Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X. 1970 – Club Cinq-Sept fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France kills 146 young people. 1973 – Watergate scandal: Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor. 1973 – The Indian state of Mysore is renamed as Karnataka to represent all the regions within Karunadu. 1979 – In Bolivia, Colonel Alberto Natusch executes a bloody coup d'état against the constitutional government of Wálter Guevara. 1979 – Griselda Álvarez becomes the first female governor of a state of Mexico. 1981 – Antigua and Barbuda gains independence from the United Kingdom. 1982 – Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of its factory in Marysville, Ohio; a Honda Accord is the first car produced there. 1984 – After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India on 31 October 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards, anti-Sikh riots erupt. 1987 – British Rail Class 43 (HST) hits the record speed of 238 km/h for rail vehicles with on-board fuel to generate electricity for traction motors. 1993 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union. 2000 – Chhattisgarh officially becomes the 26th state of India, formed from sixteen districts of eastern Madhya Pradesh. 2000 – The Republic of Serbia and Montenegro joins the United Nations. 2012 – A fuel tank truck crashes and explodes in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, killing 26 people and injuring 135.

[vezely-a]

Dark Sorcery and Sauronite Cults  or How Sauron Infiltrated the East (and South)

Disclaimer: As always, this is a mix of canon, The New Notion Club Archives/fomer-merp (non-canon), and headcanon. Links provided for reference

An idea posited in the book, Morgoth’s Ring, is that before Morgoth was banished, he melded himself with the world. The remnants or residue known as Mordo (Q. “stain, shadow, grotesque”) remained in Arda and sorcerers (black magicians, black witches, etc.) could call upon it to gain power. This secret knowledge was named Morgûl (S."Black Knowledge") or Guldur ("Sorcery"). Sorcerers committed to Morgûl-Magic were often pupils or worshippers of the Dark Lord; that is, Sauronites.

Lines of sorcerer-priests using Morgûl first appeared in Second Age Rhûn among the Shrel-Easterlings. They were called the Akshum-oymalv or Night-warders. Their legacy continued into the Third Age among the Logath tribe. Though a larger organization, the Fist of Dark Sorcery (Ul."Ramanin"), became active in Rhûn around Third Age 1600. They acted to bring Sauron's will into Middle-Earth, spawning castes such as the Guldur Sorcerers or the Kîshothî (B.S."Advocates").

As ambassadors of the Necromancer or his puppet-ruler, Khamûl, the second of the Nine, the Guldur Sorcerers infiltrated tribes through their own priests and priestesses. They spread reverence of spirits and the dead as well as spreading the prophecies of the Necromancer. Only within their own inner circle did they openly refer to Sauron as a deity, keeping his presence a secret.

Keep in mind, Sauron lay hidden while setting his plans into motion. The slow corruption of Greenwood into Mirkwood and the waning of Gondorian power in Rhovanion (which the Wainriders, Balchoth, etc. invaded) was phase one. Phase two was a mass migration of Easterlings into the region causing chaos for Gondor and deterring them from knowing of Mordor’s rebuilding. The sorcerer-priest were instrumental in playing out these phases and beyond.

Similar cults sprang up throughout the east and south, leading more warrior-chiefs, tribal leaders, kings, etc. to believe in the prophecies of the second coming, coming to revere him as a diety, whilst discrediting the worship of other gods.

Once Sauron revealed himself, this practice continued in Mordor. The Cult of the Eye became the primary religion of Mordorians dedicated to worshipping Sauron as a deity. The cults main agents again were sorcerer-priests who acted as clergy to help control client-kings and tyrants of Sauron’s empire. Many were sent undercover to regions of uncertain loyalty to infiltrate and corrupt the existing religions or sects. The high-priest of this cult was the Steward of Barad-dûr, the Mouth of Sauron.

As you can imagine, religion played a central role in many cultures. Priests were often sought in matters of decision-making, they held rulers’ ears, and Morgûl-Magic could control ruler’s mind. Not all rulers were easily swayed nor so willing to give up their pantheon of deities. There are numerous examples of divisions this caused among tribes.

The Balchoth

The Fist would eventually indoctrinate the Balchoth’s Cult of Sarshen Meltek (Ior. "Crimson Order"), bringing them under the shadow of Dol Guldur. The Balchoth was a confederation of initially 23 (later 60) Easterling tribes that called themselves the Pult or Pultai. They remain infamous in the Westlands for their invasions of Rhovanion, the Battle of the Field of Celebrant which ended in the oath sworn between Gondor and newly established Rohan, the slaying of Eorl the Young (the first king of Rohan) in a later battle on the Wold, and the occupying the town of Kravod (formerly a Gondorian border-fortress called Tirith Thoron).

Before any of this, these tribes worshipped Arud (a goddess of fertility), Koa (goddess of the river Talathrant), and Pael (a god of the hunt). Arud and Pael could be their names for Yavanna or Vana, or Orome or Eonwe respectively. Their worship was discredited by the priests who declared Maladûm as their war-god and solo diety (later revealed as Sauron). A war-god made it convenient to bring Sauron’s plans into fruition.

In terms of political structure, the principal head of the Balchoth was called the Bôm, who was an elder presiding over a council of patriarchs. Generally two from each tribe. Priests would be consulted in decision-making, to find if the decision held favor with their god. It is likely that the Necromancer via his sorcerer-priests swayed the Bôm into specific attacks on the Westlands.

Vezely and Religion

Vezely was adopted into the Balchoth when it was already under the sway of the Necromancer, thus she grew up around those engaged in the solo worship of Maladûm and as a warrior, became culturally predisposed to the rituals and regiments needed for reverence. Part of this was in the seeking of war and kills on the battlefield to honor her god.

Similarly, she believed in the prophecies of Sauron’s second coming and that those that aided him would be rewarded. She believed in the right of her people to the lands they invaded, and through each loss, her desire for revenge on the Westlands grew.

At the same time, an accumulation of losses for her people made her acutely aware that a god is not enough to ensure anything. As the Balchoth confederacy waned amid years of civil war (from a power vacuum created after accruing loses to Rohan and Gondor), she still strived to keep faith and maintain the old ways. And as a council member, her voice was heard and by priests especially. It would end up saving her life (I wrote more about her betrayal here) and also motivate her to continue her work for her god in Mordor.

Outside of being influenced, Vezely also came to see the men in cloaks in terms of instruments. Their voice was powerful, more powerful than her own, and could be used to move people if they believed. However, she was a pragmatist who worked with numbers and coin. The tangible aspects of building, clothing, feeding an army and slave population could not be offset with religious belief. As an overseer of Mordor’s trade, she worked in the material, not the spiritual aspects of Sauron’s empire.

This changed slightly when becoming an emissary as the war grew nearer. As with other members of her order, she was taken under the wing of Mordú (the Mouth of Sauron) and taught basic Morgûl-Magic to help influence leaders if need be. Think of Gríma Wormtongue poisoning of King Theoden into the doing the will of Saruman. These would be spells to open a host for Sauron to inhabit and bend. 

Also, it is practical for those corrupted by the Dark Lord to know some sorcery. For instance, Vezely already learned incantations to bring animals under her will (useful for when non-Mordorian horses are spooked by her presence).

Did she use Morgûl-Magic during this period? Yes, in Dorwinion. Does she use it after the war? Yes, with horses. Does she use in Rivendell? Hell no. Does Elladan know? Not sure. Should she tell him? ...But still, this is why she’s not in good shape kids. 

[recentanimenews]

J-Novel Club Licenses Slayers, Holmes of Kyoto, and More

  Light novel and manga distributor J-Novel Club were on hand today for Anime Expo Lite, the West Coast convention's answer to the current social distancing measures in place. During their industry panel, they rolled out an exciting slate of 13 light novel and manga titles, some of which are available to start right now on their website if you're a JNC member!

  Here's the full list of new titles:

  The Bloodline

publishing first on J-Novel Club

  After the fall of civilization, a hierarchical society was born where blood determines everything. The rich steal both the blood and lifespans of the poor, rejoicing in their now-eternal lives.

Nagi is a commoner fated to die, while Saya is royalty, gifted with eternal youth. When fate brings their unlikely paths together, their innocent love set the gears in motion to tear down the walls of a society built upon tremendous inequality and racial discrimination.

  Slayers

Beautiful and brilliant sorcerer girls just can't have nice things, huh? All I wanted to do was swipe a little bit of bandit treasure. Now suddenly I'm being chased around by icky trolls, nasty demons, mean mummies, and brooding golem bad boys. And for what? A tiny little artifact that can bring about the end of the world? Hah! I'll show them there's a reason you don't cross Lina Inverse…

  Start reading now

I Love Yuri and I Got Bodyswapped with a Fujoshi! (manga adaptation)

Meet Reiji Yoshida: a yuri otaku that loves yuri more than anything else in the world. All he wants is to enjoy his hobby in peace, but trouble ensues when he crosses paths with Mitsuru Hoshina, a fujoshi who is obsessed with boys’ love. Hijinks ensue, and a vengeful ghost residing in their school’s manga club swaps their bodies!

Polar opposites in both personalities and hobbies clash in this exciting first volume—follow the adventures of their comedic body swap experiences!

  Start reading now

My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me!

Awaking to absolute chaos and carnage while on a school trip, Yogiri Takatou discovers that everyone in his class has been transported to another world! He had somehow managed to sleep through the entire ordeal himself, missing out on the Gift — powers bestowed upon the others by a mysterious Sage who appeared to transport them. Even worse, he and another classmate were ruthlessly abandoned by their friends, left as bait to distract a nearby dragon.

  Although not terribly bothered by the thought of dying, he reluctantly decides to protect his lone companion. After all, a lowly Level 1000 monster doesn't stand a chance against his secret power to invoke Instant Death with a single thought! If he can stay awake long enough to bother using it, that is…

Start reading now

WATARU!!! The Hot-Blooded Fighting Teen & His Epic Adventures in a Fantasy World After Stopping a Truck with His Bare Hands!!

It's a wonderful day for Wataru Ito, high school student, master martial artist, honorable and humble teenager, and all-around awesome guy. During his daily run to school he happened to get hit by a large truck barreling around a corner.

Not that this is the kind of event that would be the end of the likes of Wataru, of course, but when a truck runs into you, you get sent to another world. That's just the way things are sometimes. Still, Wataru's not about to take this kind of thing lying down! The first thing he sets out to do is find who's the toughest hombre in this land and go up against the greatest challenges this new world has to offer!

Oh, and the greatest fighter in this place also happens to be the Demon Lord who is kidnapping people all across the kingdom in an attempt to wipe out humanity? Even better! Wataru's main interest is in facing a tough battle; saving the world in the process is just icing on the cake!

Start reading now

Record of Wortenia War (manga)

Ryoma Mikoshiba, an ordinary high-schooler adept at martial arts, one day finds himself summoned to another world. The ones who summoned him, the O’ltormea Empire, cite the fact that 'when those summoned kill another living being, they can absorb a fraction of their strength and make it their own' as their reason. But upon learning the empire uses those they summon to strengthen themselves by foul means, Ryoma is consumed by hatred and slays an important member of the O’ltormean court.

Attempting to escape the Empire's borders while keeping his identity a secret, he is accosted by two twin sisters— one golden-haired, the other silver-haired— in a meeting that sets the gears of fate in motion. The curtain rises on a record of the wars of a young supreme ruler in this other world fantasy!

  Start reading now

A Lily Blooms in Another World

a J-Novel Heart title

Miyako Florence isn’t sad when her fiancée breaks off their engagement after two years. It’s all according to plan! Whisked to the world of her favorite otome game, Miyako frees herself from a dull noble to pursue her true soulmate: the game’s villainess Fuuka Hamilton. Proud Fuuka only has eyes for their mutual ex-fiancée! Miyako confesses her love to Fuuka and proposes that they run away together.

Fuuka agrees on one condition: Miyako must make her say “I’m happy” in 14 days. With conniving nobles, strange diseases, and magical rituals pulling them apart, can Miyako win the villainess’s heart? A tentative bud blossoms in this twisting romance from the author of Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress!

Start reading now

Mapping: The Trash-Tier Skill That Got Me into a Top-Tier Party

  Note Athlon was really looking forward to becoming an adventurer with his best friend (and crush) Miya. That is, until he drew Mapping—a rare skill with practically no purpose. In other words, it’s trash. This kicks off a vicious spiral for Note, who plummets further and further into the depths of self-loathing despair when Miya leaves him. He now spends his days drinking away his earnings, wondering how things might have been different if only he’d pulled a better skill...

But little does he know his trash-tier skill is about to score him an invite to a top-tier adventuring party! Note’s now determined to find his way through life—and a dungeon!—in order to make something of himself.

  Start reading now

Mapping: The Trash-Tier Skill That Got Me into a Top-Tier Party (manga adaptation)

  Start reading now

The Sorcerer's Receptionist

a J-Novel Heart title

  In a world of everyday magic, Nanalie has always dreamed of becoming a receptionist at the prestigious Sorcerer's Guild. To achieve her goal, she needs to attend a magic school full of princes and the daughters of nobles. Determined to prove that a commoner can be the number one student, she must compete with Rockmann, the son of a duke. When she graduates, she lands her dream job and they go their separate ways.

Nanalie enjoys spending each day alongside her familiar Lala and her kind co-workers, but it seems that fate won’t let her escape her entanglement with Rockmann that easily...

  Start reading now

Black Summoner

Waking up in a strange new place with no memory of his past life, Kelvin learns that he’s bartered away those very memories in exchange for powerful new abilities during his recent transmigration. Heading out into a whole new world as a Summoner — with his first Follower being the very goddess who brought him over! — Kelvin begins his new life as an adventurer, and it isn’t long before he discovers his hidden disposition as a battle junkie.

From the Black Knight of the Ancient Castle of Evil Spirits to the demon within the Hidden Cave of the Sage, he revels in the fight against one formidable foe after another. Join this OP adventurer in an exhilarating and epic saga as he and his allies carve their way into the annals of history!

  Start reading now

Black Summoner (manga)

Start reading now

Holmes of Kyoto

a J-Novel Heart title

    Half a year after moving to Kyoto, high school girl Aoi Mashiro brings her late grandfather’s old scrolls to Kura, an antique store nestled in Kyoto’s Teramachi-Sanjo shopping arcade, for an appraisal. One thing leads to another, and she winds up working there part-time. The manager’s son, Kiyotaka Yagashira—nicknamed the “Holmes of Kyoto”—is uncannily perceptive, and together, they solve strange cases relating to the antiques brought to them by clients.

  Start reading now

    >> J-Novel Club Website

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[latter-day-saint-nick]

Here‘s a list of all the books with queer protagonists I’ve read this year. While I do actively seek those out, there are several books on here that I didn’t know had queer themes when I picked them up from the library and then I was pleasantly surprised by lesbians. I‘ll avoid spoilers except when discussing trigger warnings.

 Kaleidoscope Song by Fox Benwell

Neo, a South African teenager, is obsessed with music of any kind. Her love of music brings her together with the singer of a local band and they have a passionate relationship that they must keep secret. The descriptions of Neo‘s life and her tendency to hear music in everything are beautiful and dynamic. The author included a list of the songs Neo is listening to throughout the book, so I was introduced to a lot of cool music from South Africa and other places. TW: Corrective rape and Bury Your Gays. This is a book by a queer (albeit white British, rather than black South African) author writing about a very real problem that exists within our communities, so it feels different to when a cishet author kills off a queer character just for shock value. I still can‘t help feeling that he could have made the same point without having the character die – just have her be injured. Still, I loved pretty much everything else about the book, so it gets a tentative recommendation from me.

The Mermaid’s Daughter by Ann Claycomb

25-year-old opera student Kathleen tries to cope with the constant pain in her feet, nightmares about having her tongue cut out, and desperate yearning for the sea. With the help of her girlfriend Harry she delves into her family history to uncover the secret of a curse spanning generations of women. What’s nice about this book is that Kathleen and Harry’s relationship is accepted by all their family and friends without question, so if you want to read a nice wlw fantasy story with no homophobia, this one’s for you. TW: Some discussion of suicide, but nothing too graphic.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

A teenage lesbian is sent to conversion therapy by her religious aunt. This is basically a coming-of-age story as the title character comes to terms with her identity and the death of her parents. It’s considered an important work of LGBT YA literature, so I really wanted to like it more than I did. Most of the first half of the novel deals with Cameron’s everyday life in her small town in Montana, which was, to be honest, rather boring to me. The pace of the story picks up a bit once she gets sent to conversion therapy, but even then it’s slower and less eventful than I would have liked. But since it is a popular book, that’s probably just me. I did like that the two best friends she makes at the therapy camp are a disabled girl and an indigenous boy, two types of people that are not often represented in queer fiction, so that’s something. TW: Conversion therapy and self-harm.

Proud by Juno Dawson

This is a collection of poems and stories about queerness aimed at a YA audience, and each one is a pure delight! These stories detail moments of joy and pride that make you feel happy and hopeful about being queer. They include a high school retelling of Pride and Prejudice with lesbians, a nonbinary kid and his D&D group on a quest to disrupt the gender binary at their school, a magical phoenix leading a Chinese girl to find love, and gay penguins. All stories, poems and illustrations are by queer writers and artists. Seriously, I cannot recommend this collection enough!

Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

An Irish magical realist story about three girls who perform a spell to find things that they have lost. The spell appears to have wider consequences than they expected, bringing to light things that should have stayed lost. This book has three narrators, two of whom are wlw. It treads a nice line between fantasy and reality, and has some pretty good plot twists. Also, there’s a crossword at the end, which is awesome. More books should come with crosswords.

Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

A space opera trilogy set in the distant future about the embodiment of a ship’s AI who seeks revenge against the ruler of a colonialist empire who destroyed her ship and killed her beloved captain. This is not beginner’s sci-fi, as it is very complex and intricate, but if you’re fine with a bit of a heavier read, you’ll be rewarded with some very interesting concepts. What makes this series queer is that the Raadch empire has no concept of gender and uses female pronouns for everyone. This makes every romantic relationship queer by default, whether we are aware of the characters’ sexes or not. I found it particularly enjoyable when Breq, the protagonist, tried to communicate in different languages that have gendered pronouns, which she had to navigate carefully in order not to offend people. She tries to look for outward clues of gender, such as hairstyles, chest size, facial hair or Adam’s apples, but even then often gets it wrong, because these things are not always consistent. That is just a great depiction of how arbitrary ideas of binary sexual characteristics tend to be. Also, I guess technically Breq is aroace, but since she’s not human, I’m not sure if she can be considered the best representation, though she is a very likeable character that I enjoyed following.

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue and The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

These books are a lot of fun! They’re historical adventure stories with a bit of fantasy thrown in, featuring disaster bisexual Henry Montague, his snarky aroace sister Felicity and his best friend Percy whom he is secretly in love with. In the first book, the three teenagers are sent on a tour of Europe for various reasons, but they quickly abandon the planned route when they get embroiled in a plot involving theft and alchemy. The second book details Felicity’s further attempts to become a doctor, which leads her to reunite with an old friend and chase a tale of fantastical creatures.

The Spy with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

Technically I read this one late last year, but whatever. I just wanted to put it on the list to have an excuse to talk about it. It’s about two Jewish siblings with magic powers who are recruited during World War II to take part in a secret project to fight the Nazis. Both siblings turn out to be queer: the brother is gay and demisexual, while the sister is bisexual, and they each have a love interest. This book is an independent prequel to The Girl with the Red Balloon, which takes place in East Berlin during the time of the Wall, and is just as good, albeit not as gay.

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

This book tends to be classified as fantasy, because it takes place in an alternate, Latin-American-inspired world, with a distinct history, culture and religion, but there’s no magic at all, so I’m not sure it counts. But I digress. The country of Medio is built on classism and acute xenophobia. But by hiding her status as an illegal immigrant, Daniela, a girl from a poor background, manages to rise to the top of her class at her elite finishing school and become the first wife of one of the most powerful young men in the country. But her new comfortable status is threatened when she is pressured to join a group of rebels who fight for equality. At the same time, she also finds herself falling for her husband’s second wife. Obviously, this book’s political message is very topical, but beyond that, it’s just a very good story, with a well fleshed-out fictional world and great characters. This is the first in a series, with the sequel, We Unleash the Merciless Storm, coming out in February.

All Out: The No Longer Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages by Saundra Mitchell

A very nice collection of short stories about various queer teenagers in different historical settings, from a medieval monastery to an American suburb on New Year’s Eve in 1999. Most of the stories are realist, but there are a few ghosts and witches to be found in-between. What I found particularly notable about this book is that it featured several asexual characters, which you don’t often see in collections like this. I definitely recommend it.

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

This is a thoughtful, heart-warming life story about a woman growing up during the civil war in Nigeria. After Ijeoma, a Christian Igbo girl, is sent away from home, she finds her first love in Amina, a Muslim Hausa. Even after they are found out and separated, Ijeoma doesn’t quite understand what’s so shameful about their love. Still, as she grows older, she attempts to fit into a heteronormative society while also connecting with the things and people that make her happy. TW: Homophobic violence, including an attack on a gay nightclub. The novel makes up for this by having a remarkably happy ending.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

A young man in Victorian London finds a mysterious watch on his pillow, with no idea how it got there. This sets into motion a strange series of events, which leads him to a lonely Japanese watchmaker, to whom he finds himself increasingly drawn. This is an unusual novel that treads the line between historical fiction, fantasy and sci-fi. Most of the characters are morally grey and have complex motivations, but are still likable. I just really enjoy stories that take place in this time period, particularly when they are this thoughtfully written and don’t just take the prejudices of the past for granted.

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

A YA book about a transgender teenager, written by a transgender author. After her mother decides that she is not safe in her hometown anymore, high school senior Amanda moves in with her dad in a town where nobody knows her and she can try to go stealth. But even as she is making friends and experiencing romance for the first time, she constantly worries about what will happen if her secret comes out. It’s a fairly standard story about being transgender, really, but as it comes from a trans author, it feels a lot more personal and less voyeuristic than these stories tend to be when coming from a cisgender perspective. Amanda is a sympathetic and compelling character. TW: This book deals with a number of upsetting themes, including transphobic violence, being forcibly outed and suicide. There is a flashback to Amanda’s pre-transition suicide attempt, which I found particularly triggering. I also wish she could have come out on her own terms, instead of being outed in front of the whole school by someone she thought she could trust. It is still a pretty good book, but it can be very upsetting at times.

As I Descended by Robin Talley

A loose retelling of Macbeth that takes place in a boarding school in Virginia and involves two queer couples. The supernatural elements of the play are amplified in a wonderfully creepy way, and the characters are complex and realistic, so you understand their motivations, even when they do bad things. TW: Out of the five queer characters in the novel, three die, two of them by suicide.

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss and EG Keller

A charming picture book about the Vice President’s pet bunny who falls in love with another boy bunny and wants to hop around at his side for the rest of his life. This book was written as a screw you to Mike Pence, but even so it is a genuinely nice kid’s book that deals with homosexuality and marriage equality in a way that is appropriate for young children. The illustrations are incredibly cute as well.

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente

A very strange, surreal tale about four people (most of whom are queer in some way) exploring a magical city that you can enter in your dreams by sleeping with someone who has been there before. I wanted to like this one more than I did, because I really love Catherynne Valente’s Fairyland books for children. But while some of the dreamlike imagery is cool and pretty, I found a lot of it weirdly uncomfortable, along with the frequent sex scenes.

The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein

15-year-old Julia is home for the summer at her parents’ ancestral mansion in Scotland and gets involved with a plot about theft, disappearance and possibly murder. She also has her first crushes – on a man working at her parents’ estate and a young Traveller girl, respectively. This is a prequel to Code Name Verity, which has the same protagonist, though her bisexuality isn’t really alluded to in that, which is why I’ve kept it off the list, even though it is an excellent book. The Pearl Thief is pretty good as well, though it is a bit strange to read after you’ve already read Verity and know that this carefree teenage character is going to grow up to be a spy in World War II and be tortured in a Nazi prison. Do read both books, though. They are great.

Gut Symmetries by Jeanette Winterson

A young scientist falls in love with the wife of the man she’s having an affair with. There’s speculation about quantum mechanics and interconnectedness, all wrapped in very poetic language. To be perfectly honest, I really didn’t get it, so I have no idea what any of it means. But at least the main character is bisexual and polyamorous (and possibly genderfluid – I’m not sure).

Queer Africa by Makhosazana Xaba and Karen Martin

A collection of short stories by queer African writers, discussing themes like love, sex, marriage, family and homophobia. The attitudes towards queerness in these different countries varies. In many of them, homosexuality is illegal, even though same-sex relationships used to be respected before the interference of Western colonialism. In any case, these stories are an interesting and oftentimes beautiful examination of queerness from a non-Western point of view, some joyous and some tragic. TW: The second to last story is about incest.

[digital-arts-etc]

Explore the World's Largest Collection of Roman Mosaics

Over the course of 3,000 years, Tunisia has been home to many civilizations, and there's no better place to encounter them than at the National Bardo Museum. Housed in a former Beylic palace near the old city of Carthage, the museum is Tunisia's oldest and most important. Within its lavish halls, visitors find artifacts belonging to every era of Tunisian history, from a prehistoric altar to Hellenistic sculptures and Carthaginian jewelry.

While the Bardo Museum as a whole is impressive, one of the its main attractions is the staggering number of ancient mosaics that grace its walls and floors. Collected from Roman and Byzantine sites in Tunisia, the exceptionally well preserved mosaics occupy more than half of the museum’s display space and encompass the world’s largest collection of Roman mosaics.

Set in motion by the dissolution of Carthage, the era of Roman Africa was one of remarkable prosperity. After a century of Punic Wars, the Romans laid siege to Carthage beginning in 149 B.C., destroying the city and sowing its fields with salt. However, in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar reestablished Carthage as a Roman city. Soon, the fertile regions of northern Tunisia were responsible for much of empire’s grain production, and the region began to supply luxury items such as olive oil, gold, and even wild animals for colosseum shows to the empire. Having established its value as a territory, Roman Africa prospered through the turn of the fifth century. Cities were Romanized, monuments built and mosaics commissioned by wealthy families seeking status.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, which works to preserve mosaics abroad, notes that many North African Roman mosaics exhibit more vibrant colors than their Italian counterparts, a detail that has been attributed to the abundant supply of colored limestone and marble in the region. A shift in favor towards large-scale figural compositions, such as amphitheaters and hunt scenes, beginning in the third century A.D. has also been observed.

According to curator Aziza Mraihi, the Bardo Museum is "the major place to visit, to learn about the huge and rich history of Tunisia," and the mosaics offer a "unique" glimpse of life in Roman Africa. Depicting everything from mythological events to famous figures and day-to-day scenes, they function both as individual works of art and parts of a greater storyline.

The crown jewel of the mosaic and museum collection is the only known mosaic of the Roman poet Virgil. Dating to the third century, the mosaic was discovered in a villa at Sousse and depicts the poet writing his famous epic, The Aeneid, flanked by the muses of tragedy and history. Also from Sousse is the Triumph of Neptune depicting the god of the sea surrounded by the four seasons. Measuring over 100 square meters, it is one the largest preserved mosaics from the ancient world and hangs in the museum's entrance hall.

Other significant mosaics include a unique character portrayal of Diana the Huntress shooting a gazelle as well as a rare illustration of an Odyssey scene in which Ulysses resists the lure of Sirens. Explore these mosaics and more in the slideshow below, and head to the Bardo Museum's website to take a virtual tour.

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Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sponsored/national-bardo-museum-tunisia-worlds-largest-collection-roman-mosaics-180960204/#BKeu5mJx2Vcc7ywI.99

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sponsored/national-bardo-museum-tunisia-worlds-largest-collection-roman-mosaics-180960204/

[oldprimusthewizard]

New race for my Dragonstar the Sarrukh

Sarrukh [18 RP]

Many thousands of years ago, before the rise of dragons and the rule of the Dragon Empire, a vast Empire covered all of what would become the Dragon Empire. It was the Empire of the Sarrukh, a race of sorcerous serpent folk who ruled over the land. Theirs was a civilization of art and science, an enlightened culture that had become complacent, content to gaze at its own reflection. Much of the sarrukh philosophy dealt with cycles, and many seers and philosophers spoke of a time when the sarrukh race would fall into a deep slumber. Such a time was spoken of in the holy texts, but most sarrukh were too busy creating self-glorifying art and poetry to be concerned with warnings from old books. Despite the premonitions of three prophets, the sarrukh civilization went on in its decadent ways, until eventually the time known as the Great Sleep arrived. One by one, the sarrukh fell into a deep slumber, but most were unconcerned. They knew the greatness of their civilization would remain a thousand years, and so they allowed the Great Sleep to take them off into the uncharted realms of dream. When the sarrukh awoke, much of the universe had changed. Their great Empire had fallen, their tall buildings now in ruins like sand castles at high tide. The great wilderness that they had kept at bay had invaded and taken everything away. Their sorrow seemed complete until news arrived: a messenger from a new Empire, the Empire of Dragon, had arrived.

Physical Description: The sarrukh are medium quasi-humanoids with human-like torsos, a serpents head, their fork-like tongues, and a long serpent’s tail. Regardless of the size of the sarrukh, the torso is always approximately human-sized. Their ears and noses are flat, almost to the point of being nonexistent. While their eyes are those of serpents, except they are a gleaming red that strike fear into the hearts of all the scaly races. They are typically scaly and reptilian in appearance with the pattern that may reflect any of a variety of venomous snakes, a few of the sarrukh may have a cobra’s hood or a diamondback’s distinctive scale pattern. These features are usually consistent within a single bloodline of sarrukh, and often mark a bloodline’s status within a tribe. While active, a sarrukh’s height is about one-third of its total length. By coiling, a sarrukh can rear to a greater height, about two-thirds of its length, but cannot move along the ground in this position. Sarrukh move at the same general pace and endurance of a man, but their serpent form gives them an advantage that allows them to move fast in nearly any terrain. Unfortunately, they do tend to leave a distinct trail marking their passage. Like snakes, sarrukh shed their skin annually, and often celebrate this shedding as much as humans celebrate birthdays.

Homeworld: The sarrukh call Nibiru (called Aaris III in the Imperial Empire archives of known explored worlds) as their homeworld, located in the Kathol sector of the Badlands, and is connected to the worlds Brolsam, Charis, and Kolatill via hyperlanes. It is the homeworld of the Sarrukh, a race of snake-like humanoids. The Sarrukh had established an extensive civilization on the planet several thousand years before the Dragon War, but the society had all fallen into a deep sleep. Currently the sarrukh are rebuilding their ruined cites with the help of the Dragon Empire. Covered in heavy jungles and oceans, Nibiru is a lush blue-green planet when viewed from space. Long mountain ranges ran throughout the landscape, punching through the jungle cover and rising to several kilometers in height. Immense ruins, which are remnants of the native Aaris civilization, are located all over the planet, covering hundreds of square kilometers and hidden under the jungle canopies. A vast desert is located in the middle of the planet's equatorial jungle. Fauna is widespread across the planet, and Nibiru plays host to an abundance of animal life in both the jungles and oceans. The standard day on Nibiru lasted for nineteen standard hours, and the length of its year is two hundred and ninety-nine local days.

Society: The sarrukh are organized by bloodline (based upon the patterns of the sarrukhs scales), that live in relative peace with one another each controlling a single large empire. The heads of the bloodlines are very powerful individuals, their authority superseded only by the most powerful priests and military commanders. The acting leadership body of each empire is called the Sh'arrim and consisted of five to eight sarrukh drawn from each of the bloodlines. This group elected an emperor, called a Kudzar (who provides spiritual, strategic, and social leadership for the rest of the sarrukh), from its membership. Beneath the Kudzar are the Qamar, commander of the sarrukh army, and the Dashmar, the leading diplomat. The Sh'sarrim from the great empires occasionally came together on Okoth to form a council called the Kazim, but that body has authority over the entire race only when a unanimous vote could be achieved.

Sarrukh law, which is administered by judges known as Kleigmasters, is strict but flexible. Penalties are stiff, and the burden of proof fell to the accused rather than the prosecutors. The sarrukh disliked jailing citizens, so the preferred methods of punishment are death for more serious crimes and disfigurement for minor ones. Incarceration occurred only when the leaders felt that the offender had something important to contribute to the realm, despite his crime. Penalties are assigned on a case-by case basis for greater flexibility, but the system became corrupt over the years. The same crime might result in death for one defendant and only disfigurement for the next. In any case, even the highest-ranking kleigmaster, could be bribed into setting free the worst-offending defendant if enough money changed hands.

Relations: Only recently did the sarrukh start seeing the various races as more than just different Human bloodlines. While a very proud race, the sarrukh can be perceived as arrogant by the majority of races. The draka consider them to be lesser cousins and will sometimes listen to sarrukhs.

Religion and Alignment: Because of their strict tenets of unity, sarrukh tend to be Lawful. While there have been wicked, bloodthirsty sarrukh tyrants of the past, sarrukh are generally Neutral or Good.

The sarrukhs revere the Akasha as creator, sustainer, and destroyer of all things, wellspring and goal of life. The Akasha is the hive-mind of the sarrukh race. All sarrukh are connected to the Akasha, as it held each of their souls. Because of this, all sarrukh have a mystical connection to each other, always able to sense other sarrukh, wherever they might be.

Adventurers: Sarrukh adventures are extremely rare and are almost exclusively made up of those outcast sarrukh commoners who have struck out on their own. Because most sarrukh practice at least some form of magic, many sarrukh adventurers are spellcasters with sorcerers, oracles, witches, and druids being by far the most common. Sarrukh who are more combat-oriented become fighters or rangers, in many cases concentrating on mastering the scimitar. Some even wield dual scimitars. Many sarrukh adventurers combine the martial and magical arts through multiclassing.

Language: Draconic is the native language of sarrukh, much to the surprise of many a foreigner. Although the sarrukh have no actual experience with dragons, their forked tongues enable them to effortlessly speak many of the complex, hiss-like sounds that take mammalian races many years to hone and master. Although many sarrukh speak Draconic they also learn to speak and write in a common humanoid tongue of their choosing—this ensures that the sarrukh are capable of speaking with foreigners. However, sarrukh are noticeably poor at learning new languages, they often struggle at picking up additional languages, stubbornly (and incorrectly) applying pronunciations and inflections they already know to languages where it is not appropriate to do so. As a result, most sarrukh have strong draconic accents that usually manifest themselves as a loud hissing sound, much to the delight of irony-seekers everywhere.

Names: Sarrukh names granted to the males and females of their race often have subtle inflections of suffix that designate their sex, which many other races easily miss. This, combined with the difficulty of identifying sarrukh sex by mere appearance can often cause confusion, though sarrukh themselves are rarely embarrassed by this.

Sarrukh surnames speak to the strengths of their race. Others prefer more exotic names that may have some meaning in the sarrukh tongue or in some other forgotten language. Still others adopt titles purely for their intimidation value, or to assert claims to leadership. Their names often include many sibilants, Z’s and V’s.

Male Names: Sakrasis, Shezril, Velrash, Zoniss.

Female Names: Anna, Asprah, Charib’dishal, Scilla, Ursula.

Surnames: Darkscale, Rendclaw, Serpens, Stormbow.

Shared Sarrukh Racial Traits

Sarrukh are defined by their class levels. They do not have racial Hit Dice. They have the following racial traits.

+2 to Constitution, + 2 to Wisdom, -2 to Charisma [0 RP]: The sarrukh are a wise and hardy people, but they have difficulty interacting with those not of their race.

Bonus Hit Points [0 RP]: Sarrukh gain 6 hit points when created.

Medium [0 RP]: Sarrukh have no bonuses or penalties due to their size. A Sarrukh has a space of 5 feet by 5 feet and a reach of 5 feet.

Type [0 RP]:  Sarrukh are humanoids with the reptilian subtype.

Speed [1 RP]: Sarrukh have a base land speed of 40 feet. The sinuous motion of their coils allows them to move at a much higher speed than a human. Because of their serpentine bodies they can move with a low profile. This allows them to make a crawl action at full speed. They can also use double move, run and sprint options while crawling. The sarrukh do not use their hands to crawl, so they can carry objects while doing so. Sarrukh can rise from being prone up to their normal height either as a move action, or as part of another move action.

Low-Light Vision [1 RP]: Sarrukh have low-light vision allowing them to see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.

Armored Scales [3 RP]: Sarrukh have a +2 natural armor bonus from their scaly flesh.

Resistant (Ex) [2 RP]: Sarrukh receives a +2 racial saving throw bonus against mind-affecting effects and poison.

Serpent’s Body [1 RP]: Sarrukh do not possess feet or legs. They receive a +4 racial bonus to their CMD when resisting bull rush and can’t be tripped. They may not use magic items requiring the feet slot.

Serpent’s Bite [1 RP]: Sarrukh gain a natural bite attack, dealing 1d4 points of damage. The bite is a primary attack or a secondary attack if the sarrukh is wielding manufactured weapons.

Serpent’s Venom (Ex) [1 RP]: A number of times per day equal a sarrukhs Constitution modifier (minimum 1/day); a sarrukhs can envenom a weapon that it wields or bite a creature with its toxic venom. Applying venom in this way is a swift action.

 Venom   

Paralytic

Poison (Injury)

Fort DC 10 + the 1/2 sarrukh's Hit Dice +  the sarrukh's Con modifier

1/round for 6 rounds

1d2 Dex

1 save

Serpent’s Nature [1 RP]: Perception and Stealth are always class skills for sarrukh.

Serpent’s Sense (Ex) [4 RP]: Sarrukh receive a +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal checks against reptiles, and a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks.

Serpent’s Tongue [5 RP]: Although sarrukh have nostrils, just like humans, but their snake-like tongue is also very important. When a sarrukh flicks its tongue in the air, it picks up tiny chemical particles. When the sarrukh brings its tongue back into its mouth, the tongue fits into a special organ on the roof of the mouth that reads the chemical particles. This way of smelling the world can help a sarrukh avoid predators or help the sarrukh catch food. A sarrukh serpent’s tongue grants them the scent ability.

Horse Aversion [–2 RP]: Unless they are trained to accept them, horses tend to avoid the sarrukh, presumably due to their scent being similar to snakes. Sarrukh suffer a –4 penalty on all Charisma-based skill checks to affect horses and all Ride skill checks with horses. Horses starting attitude toward a sarrukh is one step worse than normal.

Languages [1 RP]: Draconic and Common (or any humanoid language). Furthermore, sarrukh with high Intelligence scores can learn any languages they want (except Druidic and other secret languages).

Alternate Sarrukh Racial Traits

The following racial traits may be selected instead of existing sarrukh racial traits. Consult your GM before selecting any of these new options.

Aberration’s Eyes: Though all sarrukh possess sharper vision than humans, some have exceptionally keen eyes, even by their standards. A sarrukh with this racial trait gains darkvision, allowing her to see in the dark up to 60 feet. In addition, she gains a +1 racial bonus on Perception checks. This racial trait replaces low-light vision and serpent’s sense.

Alter Body (Sp): A rare few sarrukh possess the ability to temporarily alter their appearance, transforming their serpent’s tail into a pair of legs. A sarrukh with this racial trait gains the ability to change shape for a number of minutes per day equal to her Hit Dice. These minutes need not be consecutive, but they must be spent in 1-minute increments. This ability functions as the spell alter self, except that the sarrukh does not adjust her ability scores. This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Charming Gaze (Sp): Strong in body and mind, some sarrukh possess supernatural powers of persuasion, allowing them to mold weak-minded races to suit their purposes. Once per day, a sarrukh with this racial trait can attempt to charm a single target, as per the spell charm person (caster level equals the sarrukh’s Hit Dice). The DC of this effect is equal to 11 + the sarrukh’s Charisma modifier. This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Constricting Tail (Ex): Some sarrukh have a strong tail and can crush an opponent, dealing bludgeoning damage, when it makes a successful grapple check (in addition to any other effects caused by a successful check, including additional damage). The amount is 1d6 + the constrictors strength modifier. This replaces serpent’s bit and serpent’s poison.

Deft of Body (Ex): Many sarrukhs train constantly to break free from grapples and pins as a measure of defense against their own tactics. A sarrukh with this racial trait gains a +2 racial bonus on Acrobatics and Escape Artist checks. This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Desert Serpent: Some colonies of sarrukh have been born and raised within desert regions. These sarrukh have a burrow speed of 30 feet through dirt, but not through rock. This racial trait replaces resistant.

Exotic Arms: Sarrukh favor a variety of weapons and often choose particularly exotic ones to specialize in. A sarrukh with this racial trait gains Exotic Weapon Proficiency with one eastern weapon as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Ferocity (Ex): Some sarrukh possess an otherworldly will upon the battlefield, and will fight until their final breath. A sarrukh with this racial trait gains the following extraordinary ability: If her hit points fall below 0 but she is not yet dead, she can continue to fight. If she does, she is staggered, and loses 1 hit point each round. She still dies when her hit points reach a negative amount equal to her Constitution score. This racial trait replaces resistant and serpent’s sense.

Flexible Scales (Ex): Though all sarrukh possess scales, some lack the rigidness that affords any meaningful amount of defense. A sarrukh with this racial trait gains a +2 racial bonus on Reflex saves and can move through an area as small as one-quarter her space without squeezing or one-eighth her space when squeezing. This ability replaces armored scales.

Gliding Snake: Gliding snakes can launch themselves from branch tips, spreading their ribs and laterally undulating as they glide between trees. These snakes can perform a controlled glide for hundreds of feet depending upon launch altitude and can even turn in midair. These sarrukh take no damage from falling (as if subject to a constant non-magical feather fall spell). While in midair, sarrukh can move up to 5 feet in any horizontal direction for every 1 foot they fall, at a speed of 60 feet per round. A gliding snake cannot gain height; it merely coasts in other directions as it falls. If subjected to a strong wind or any other effect that causes a Gliding snake to rise, it can take advantage of the updraft to increase the distance it can glide. This replaces armored scales.

Heavy Lifter: Sarrukh with especially broad bodies are capable of lifting far more then even their massive frames would suggest. A sarrukh with this racial trait treats her Strength score as if it were 4 higher for the purpose of determining her carrying capacity and her speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance. This racial trait replaces resistant.

Hypnotic: Sarrukh are skilled at entrancing weak-minded folk with simple spells and tricks. A sarrukh with this racial trait adds +1 to the DC for all saving throws against spells or effects she casts that inflict the fascinated condition. Once per day, when a creature rolls a saving throw against such an effect from the sarrukh, she can force that creature to reroll the saving throw and use the second result, even if it is worse. This racial trait replaces resistant.

Hypnotic Gaze (Sp): The sarrukh’s gaze is so intense it stops others in their tracks. Once per day, it can attempt to hypnotize a single target, as per the spell hypnotism (caster level equal to the sarrukh’s Hit Dice). The DC of this effect is equal to 11 + the sarrukh’s Charisma modifier. The effects of the hypnotic gaze only last a single round. This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Industrious: Sarrukh are known for being hardworking individuals, and take pride in their skills and crafts. A sarrukh with this racial trait gains a +2 racial bonus on checks made with any two Craft, Perform, or Profession skills of her choice. This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Mental Potency (Ex): Sarrukh are masters of manipulating the minds of others using the strength of their personalities. A sarrukh with this racial trait can affect more powerful creatures or a greater number of creatures than normal with mental effects. Both the Hit Die limit and the total number of Hit Dice affected by each enchantment or illusion spell the sarrukh casts increase by 1. For enchantment and illusion spells she casts that target a number of creatures greater than one, the number of creatures affected also increases by one (so a spell that targets one creature per level would be affected, but a spell that targets only one creature would not be). This ability stacks with the mesmerist ability of the same name. This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Outcast: Sarrukh that become ousted from sarrukh society learn to quickly adapt to their new surroundings. A sarrukh with this racial trait gain a +1 bonus on Bluff, Disguise, and Knowledge (local) checks and may add one of these skills to her list of class skills. This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Scholar: All sarrukh seek to better themselves; some choose to do so by studying. Sarrukhs with this racial trait gain a +2 bonus on any one Knowledge skill and this Knowledge skill is always considered a class skill. This racial trait replaces the serpent’s bite racial trait. 

Sea Serpent: Some sarrukh have particularly hydrodynamic bodies and are able to move as deftly through the water as they do on dry land. A sarrukh with this racial trait gains a swim speed of 30 feet and gains the +8 racial bonus on Swim checks that a swim speed normally grants. This racial trait replaces resistant.

Serpent Affinity: Sarrukh spellcasters with this racial trait and the Scalykind domain use their domain powers and spells at +1 caster level. This also applies to bloodline powers and bloodline bonus spells of the Serpentine bloodline. This increase is a racial bonus. This racial trait replaces resistant.

Serpent Magic: Sarrukh are magically inclined and possess powers that stem from their draconic and naga patrons. A sarrukh bloodrager sorcerer with the draconic or serpentine bloodline with this racial trait treats her Charisma score as 2 points higher for all sorcerer spells and class abilities. A sarrukh cleric with the Animal or Scalykin domain uses her domain powers and spells at +1 caster level. This trait does not grant her early access to level-based powers; it only affects powers that she could already use without it. This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Serpent’s Prowess: Many sarrukh are effective at using their bulk to intimidate foes both on and off the battlefield. A sarrukh with this racial trait gains Intimidating Prowess as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Serpent’s Venom - Life-Stealing (Ex): Some sarrukhs are born with a different type of venom then fellow members of their races. Instead of paralytic venom they have a life-stealing one. A number of times per day equal a sarrukhs Constitution modifier (minimum 1/day); a sarrukhs can envenom a weapon that it wields or bite a creature with its toxic venom. Applying venom in this way is a swift action. This modifies the serpent’s poison.

 Venom   

Life-Stealing

Poison (Injury)

Fort DC 10 + the 1/2 sarrukh's Hit Dice +  the sarrukh's Con modifier

1/round for 6 rounds

1 Con

1 save

 Serpent’s Venom - Weakening (Ex): Some sarrukhs are born with a different type of venom then fellow members of their races. Instead of paralytic venom they have a weakening one. A number of times per day equal a sarrukhs Constitution modifier (minimum 1/day); a sarrukhs can envenom a weapon that it wields or bite a creature with its toxic venom. Applying venom in this way is a swift action. This modifies the serpent’s poison.

 Venom   

Weakening

Poison (Injury)

Fort DC 10 + the 1/2 sarrukh's Hit Dice +  the sarrukh's Con modifier

1/round for 6 rounds

1d2 Str

1 save

Sibilant Spellcaster: Sarrukh channel their reptilian calm into mystical terror, increasing the save DC of spells they cast with the fear or pain descriptor by 1. This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Silent Hunter: When in pursuit of prey, some sarrukh are able to move as silently as a serpent. A sarrukh with this racial trait reduces the penalty for using Stealth while moving by 5 and can make Stealth checks while running at a –20 penalty (this number includes the penalty reduction from this trait). This racial trait replaces serpent’s sense.

Slapping Tail: Some sarrukh have trained in the use of their tail in combat. They have a tail they can use to make attacks of opportunity with a reach of 5 feet. The tail is a natural attack that deals 1d8 points of damage plus the constrictor's Strength modifier. This replaces serpent’s bit and serpent’s poison.

Tree Snake: Colonies of sarrukh have spent their entire life living in trees as they was born and raised within jungles and forest. Theses sarrukh have a climb speed of 20 feet, and gain the +8 racial bonus on Climb checks that a climb speed normally grants. This racial trait replaces resistant.

Venom Magic (Ex): Sarrukh spellcasters are adapt at casting spells that invoke or conjure poison, as befitting their serpentine heritage. A sarrukh with this racial trait gain a +1 bonus to the DC of any saving throws against spells she casts with the poison descriptor. Sarrukh with a Charisma score of 11 or higher also gain the following spell-like abilities: 1/day–detect poison, nauseating dart. The caster level for these effects is equal to the sarrukh’s level. The DC for the spell-like abilities is equal to 10 + the spell’s level + the sarrukh’s Charisma modifier. This racial trait replaces resistant.

Vitality: Sarrukh are often surging with life and are difficult to best in combat. A sarrukh with this racial trait gains Toughness as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces resistant.

Sarrukh Bloodlines

 To Come

Favored Class Options

The following options are available to all sarrukh who have the listed favored class, and, unless otherwise stated, the bonus applies each time you select the favored class reward.

Alchemist: Add +1 on Craft (alchemy) checks to craft poison and +1/3 on the DCs of poisons the alchemist creates.

Barbarian: Gain 1/6 of a new rage power.

Bard: Choose one bardic masterpiece or bardic performance that the bard knows that allows a save DC to reduce or negate its effects. Add +1/2 to the save DC of the chosen bardic masterpiece or bardic performance (maximum +2).

Bloodrager: Add 1/4 to the bloodrager’s effective class level when determining the power of his bloodrager bloodline powers.

Cleric: Add +1/2 to the cleric’s channeled energy total when healing reptilian aberrations, animals, and magical beasts.

Druid: Add +1/4 to the save DC of druid spells with the poison descriptor.

Fighter: Add +1 to the fighter’s CMD when resisting a grapple or trip attempt.

Gunslinger: Add +1/3 on critical hit confirmation rolls made with firearms (maximum bonus of +5). This bonus does not stack with Critical Focus.

Monk: Add +1/4 to the monk’s ki pool.

Ninja: The ninja gains 1/6 of a new ninja trick.

Paladin: Add 1/2 minute to the duration of the paladin’s divine bond with her weapon.

Rogue: Add +1/4 to the save DC of any poison that the rogue applies to her weapon.

Sorcerer: Add 1/2 to the sorcerer’s caster level when determining the duration of transmutation spells she casts that target the sorcerer or spells she casts with the poison descriptor.

Swashbuckler: Gain a +1/3 bonus on all critical hit confirmation rolls made while using the precise strike deed (maximum bonus of +5). This bonus doesn’t stack with those gained through Critical Focus and similar effects.

Wizard: Add 1 spell from the list of spells detailed by the naga aspirant’s aspirant bond ability to the wizard’s spellbook. This spell must be at least one level below the highest spell level the wizard can cast. This spell is treated as one level higher unless it also appears on the wizard spell list.