#but also it’s. he’s The most important person in the group politically bc hes King of Kings of the desert. but they’re Here.

[templeofoccultpractices]

Amun

Other names:Amon, Ammon, Amen, Amana, Yimen,

"The Hidden One", "King of the Netjeru"

Major cult center:Thebes

Symbols:two vertical plumes, the ram-headed Sphinx (Criosphinx), Solar disk, Blue, Nile goose, Lion, Lapis lazuli, Numbers 2 and 7, Shutt crown/Swty, Ammonis cornua, Mollusc animals

Domain:Sun, sky, Earth,

Powers: balance (creation and destruction), justice, protection, enlightenment, prosperity, revenge, vitality, healing, royalty, political power

Hybrid Gods:Amun ra, Amun min, Zues ammon, Jupiter ammon

Consort:Amunet, Wosret, Mut

Offspring:Khonsu

Greek equivalent:Zeus

After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I (16th century BC), Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, as Amun-Ra (alternatively spelled Amon-Ra or Amun-Re).

Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom (with the exception of the "Atenist heresy" under Akhenaten). Amun-Ra in this period (16th to 11th centuries BC) held the position of transcendental, self-created creator deity "par excellence"; he was the champion of the poor or troubled and central to personal piety.With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods.

As the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia. As Zeus-Ammon, he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece.

Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in the Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts.The name Amun (written imn) meant something like "the hidden one" or "invisible".

Roles

Personification of the hiddeness of the primeval waters. Kings of the gods and god of the wind,solar god,creator god and fertility god. God to call upon if you get stung by a scorpion or if you vemon from a scorpions tail.

Features

Part of the Ogdoad.He wears a crown of two vertical plumes, and is either human or has a ram-headed,or is a sphinx.His skin is said to be blue perhaps lapis.

Early History

Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period, under the 11th Dynasty. As the patron of Thebes, his spouse was Mut. In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother and the Moon god Khonsu formed the divine family or the "Theban Triad".

Female counterpart of the Amun and a member of the Ogdoad

Amunet

Other names:Imnt, Amonet, Amaunet

Major cult center:Thebes,Hermopolis (as a member of the Ogdoad)

Consort:Amun

Symbols:Egyptian cobra, snakes, vulture, red crown deshret

Hybrid Gods:Neith-Amunet

Amunet or Imnt is a primordial goddess in ancient Egyptian religion.Thebes was the center of her worship through the last dynasty, the Ptolemaic Kingdom, in 30 BC. She is attested in the earliest known of Egyptian religious texts and, as was the custom, was paired with a counterpart who is entitled with the same name, but in the masculine, Amun. They were thought to have existed prior to the beginning of creation along with three other couples representing primeval concepts.

Roles

Protector of the king,air and invisibility,hidden forces,female counterpart of Amun,part of the Ogdoad.

Description and History

Her name, jmnt, is a feminine noun that means "The Hidden One". She is a member of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, who represented aspects of the primeval existence before the creation: Amunet was paired with Amun—whose name also means "The Hidden One", with a masculine ending (jmn)—within this divine group, from the earliest known documentation. Such pairing of deities is characteristic of the religious concepts of the ancient Egyptians. In early concepts known as the Ogdoad, the primeval deity group to which they belonged as "Night" (or as the determinative D41 meaning "to halt, stop, deny", suggesting the principle of inactivity or repose),was composed of four balanced couples of deities or deified primeval concepts.

Speculation exists that Amunet may have been conceived by later theologians as a complement to Amun, rather than being an independent deity originally, however, the Pyramid Texts, the earliest known religious texts of Ancient Egypt, mention "the beneficent shadow of Amun and Amunet"

Draconian

Egyptian-Draconian Grimoire Asenath Mason

Let me clarify. The idea of Khepra being the Sun at midnight, or alternatively the Black Sun, is a new invention, only dating back approximately 120 years or so. Before that, historically speaking, he was the god of the sun at dawn, so the idea of him corresponding to the sun at midnight is a modern occultism invention. Amun was the original hidden god, dating back to ancient Egyptian antiquity. Before there was RA, there was Amun. Before the light there was the hidden one. Before the light came onto the scene, there was the hidden. Before the light is always the dark.

Amun was known as the chief of the ancient Egyptian deities, but is also one of the most mysterious in hindsight. He was the patron deity of Thebes, and the easiest way to think of Thebes is that it was the ancient city that was where Karnak and Luxor are located still to this day. He was known as the king of the gods, or the equivalent thereof, but also corresponded to protecting the king, self-creation, and fertility. Briefly, he was a deity that was so open to interpretation that it was up to the individual follower to define him, rather than a set list of correspondences for one to memorize and come into line with.

Amun is often times misunderstood as a solar deity, but in reality, as you can see above, he was actually a nocturnal deity. Well, even that is not true as he did not correspond to the Moon, but rather he corresponded to the nebulous and the hidden, the veiled, unknown, and subjective. Ile was in fact so popular that he was blended with later deities such as Amun-Ra, and to this day his name has still continued in the phrase "Amen." While Aleister Crowley has discussed his perspective on the word, we can confidently say that is only one perspective on it, as he did not address the draconian roots of the deity, but rather the aspects of him that fit his particular magical system. In this working we are going to look at his true ancient history and draconian roots, and make contact with one of the most ancient and veiled deities on the planet that can assist us in developing our dark sight and our ability to see into the hidden and the concealed.

──────⊰In Workings⊱──────

𖤓*Please know basic protections and energy work before attempting any deity work.*☾

*It is important to note that everyone's experiences are different and will work with spirits for different reasons. Some people may like a spirit while others will not and that's okay. Ask these spirits what they will work with you on as well as ask them if they can help you with whatever it is you need.*

Some people may believe Amun and Ra to be the same and some people may work with Amun-Ra. A combination of both deities.

Ideas for honoring and working with Amun may include

Altar

Set up an altar/sacred space for performing rituals or giving offerings. Items may include

⬩Altar cloth

⬩Cup or chalice

⬩Incense and incense burner

⬩Offering bowl

⬩Statues of Amun, ram headed sphinx, lion, snake, goose, or sun

For more information on basic deity work and altar setups check out the deity work post

Offerings: Bread, Lapis Lazuli, Goose figures, Frankincense, Ram figures, Lion figures, Myrrh, Snake figures, Solar charms, Solar stones, Vulture figures

Rituals

Ideas for rituals may include

⬩Fertility rites and rituals

⬩Honoring the life you have

⬩Honoring the sun

⬩Summer solstice ritual

Hymns to Amun-Ra

Lord of truth, father of the gods, maker of men, creator of all animals, Lord of things that are, creator of the staff of life.

Amon-Re "who hears the prayer, who comes at the cry of the poor and distressed...Beware of him! Repeat him to son and daughter, to great and small; relate him to generations of generations who have not yet come into being; relate him to fishes in the deep, to birds in heaven; repeat him to him who does not know him and to him who knows him ... Though it may be that the servant is normal in doing wrong, yet the Lord is normal in being merciful. The Lord of Thebes does not spend an entire day angry. As for his anger – in the completion of a moment there is no remnant ... As thy Ka endures! thou wilt be merciful!

All gods are three: Amun, Re and Ptah, whom none equals. He who hides his name as Amun, he appears to the face as Re, his body is Ptah.

The tempest moves aside for the sailor who remembers the name of Amon. The storm becomes a sweet breeze for he who invokes His name ... Amon is more effective than millions for he who places Him in his heart. Thanks to Him the single man becomes stronger than a crowd.

𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓𖤓

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[renegadessys]

Please info dump about Radiant Sun, I don't know what this is but it sounds fascinating and we're overdue for a new obsession

OK SO. FIRST OF ALL IM SO SORRY ITS NOT REAL. YOU CANT WATCH IT. :(((( It's a dnd campaign we played with our wife. SOMEDAY we might make it a show. Depending on how things go. BUT.

The Radiant Sun is the name of a D&D party in a home game we did. It consists of 6 people (as well as 40+ npcs) who are all batshit insane.

PARTY MEMBERS:

- Razor. The "main character" if a DnD campaign has one. Tiefling sorcerer who finds out later that he is secretly a member of the royal family and has special magic powers. MORE ON THAT LATER.

- Verona. Razor's bf who grew up as a captive in the same thieves' guild he was a captive in. They were friends since they were kids. She activated her own sorcerer magic (Divine Soul) and healed him when he got fucked up and tortured. She dies at one point early in the game and it is a catalyst for some Character Growth.

- Alixa. Batshit crazy 15yr old drow who was a custom homebrew class (knife artist, think rogue aesthetic but the whole point is doing cool shit w daggers). One of the central Problems in the world the campaign is set in is that there is a massive attempt by high elves to colonize the Underdark. She is the only survivor of her family who was killed/driven out. THIS WAR IS IMPORTANT BUT NOT FOR THE REASONS YOU THINK. Also she gets a giant pet lizard that can breathe fire. His name is Sparky.

- Avaciel. Former high elf noble who was cast out of her home city after it was taken over by Drow that wanted to find footing in noble cities to make the monarchy pay for the war/colonization effort. Became a bard who plays the violin like a badass.

- Shade. Shade is a demigod of The Shadow, one of the dark six in some dnd related pantheon that I don't remember the name of. She was created by that asshole as a failsafe measure in case her "dad" was ever slain by other gods, he set up his soul and powers to transfer into her body and planned to possess her and use her for his own purposes. She meets a demigod of another one of the dark six and eventually finds out that NEITHER of them are actually the kids of their "parents" they're actually kids of a DIFFERENT god and they're twins <3

- Aiyise. Personality and backstory wise a Straight Rip from another campaign we did but we wanted to fuck around with her so we gave her some totally different plot stuff and made her a cleric instead of a divine soul sorcerer. From a noble family who she believes to be great people until she gets un-modify-memory'd and finds out that they were actually horrible to her for her whole life and before she went out to adventure they wiped her brain. She is the tankiest motherfucker EVER. She's also the most uwu soft girl you will Ever meet.

PLOT STUFF.

Originally the party is called together by the Chamberlain of House Satra. House Satra is the ruling family over the continent the story takes place in. One of their daughters, Kyria, has gone missing! Oh No!! Party is told that several groups of adventurers have gone to find her and have all gone missing. They're a last ditch effort.

Notably. These kids are like 17 at oldest. Except for Shade who is weird and Avaciel who is like 23.

They do it anyway bc they are BROKE AS FUCK!!!!! And are promised lots of shiny money. And thus their adventures begin. They find Kyria, adopt her into the party, meet her "dad" (the "king" who is actually super super trans), are rewarded, and then are asked by the queen to go investigate a city that her brother is being held in for crimes she knows he didn't commit. Political bullshit. Whatever. These kids are incredibly hyped bc since all the official adventurers super died they have been appointed the Interim Defenders Of Toris TM. They feel all special. So they go.

While they are on the way, they are attacked by a Solar, a high angel of the Shadow who has been sent to retrieve Shade. Shade is not there when this happens so naturally the party, who have all known each other for like A Week, tell the solar that she's not there and they won't tell him where she is. So he tries to kill them all! And ends up killing Verona. Which makes Razor, understandably bc she is his not-quite-gf-but-hes-in-love-with-her, BIG MAD. They kill this asshole (Alixa is doing some insane called-shot/homebrew rules bullshit) and find out that these angels (because they are CR TWENTY ONE. AND RHE PARTY IS LEVEL FOUR.) are super powerful and drop super rare items. Including resurrection materials! So they continue their quest to their destination knowing that it's a big city and clerics can maybe help.

Other stuff happens in the interim BUT!

While they are in Faultline (the city) they find out Lots Of Insane Shit. Most notably, they find out that these things called the Draconic Eternals, basically giant ancient dragons that were sealed in a demiplane thousands of years ago, are still alive and trying to break out!!! They find out that there's a guy in the city who framed the queen's brother for killing a revolutionary who was actually his girlfriend so that he could get power over the city. The party subsequently kicks his ass and leaves the power in the hands of the revolutionary (who is not dead!!!) and her sister. Mostly her sister tho. Bc the revolutionary is busy kissing her fiance.

They go back and there's a big dance thing and Verona and Razor and Kyria see the "king" sneaking off somewhere with the chamberlain and decide to investigate. They follow them to a secret chamber and have the most insane series of stealth check rolls EVER and find out that. Uh. The king is working with the dragons. And killed his son, the prince, in order to help them break out. Because his son, you see, has this thing called the Soulscar. It's basically raw magic but super upgraded and powerful. And the only other person alive in the family line with the soulscar is mia and presumed never to return, and the soulscar is the only thing that could keep the dragons from coming back, sooooo they kill the kid! Kyria, notably, is Fucked Up about this bc that was Her Twin Brother.

You see where this is going from my character descriptions.

ANYWAY. After that horrible revelation they go back downstairs only to find that the oldest child of the royal family accidentally got Wish spelled into being like 16 and it can't be undone so she can't really be elected the next replacement for the king like the whole country was planning to do bc. Yknow. War Effort. And ALSO Avaciel's city's destroyer family is here. Or at least their son who she was supposed to marry is. And they are both super upset abt it!!! Because he's the only reason she's alive!!!! So Why Is He Here!!!!!!!

Their next quest is to go reclaim Avaciel's home city. Which they do. And then they go back to the main city.

And they play a game. With all their collected npc friends. Kind of like an icebreaker game. It's a staple of our campaigns tbh.

In that game, one of Razor's friends/the guy who watched over him and Verona at the thieves' guild, Hawke (who is also super a trans woman), is invited to play. And through a series of increasingly convoluted questions and a use of the Divination spell cast by Aiyise in order to find out what happened to Kyria's brother that was supposed to have died..... The Truth Comes Out. Razor is that kid. He was not killed. The king and his brother, the other person with the soulscar, created a plan that faked his death and saved his life but made him unfindable and hid him somewhere no one would ever look. And Hawke!!!! Is that "brother"!!!! And worked at the thieves' guild the whole time to take care of him!!!!!! AAAGHGHGH. Our entire party went INSANE when this was happening. It was crazy. So much shit made sense after that.

So Razor, now knowing everything, is taken to properly meet his family. He meets his actual parents in the context of being their kid. He finds out that they've saved presents for him for every birthday, memoirs, letters written to him etc in case he ever got to come home. Lots of tears etc.

And the "king" tells them about the dragon thing.

It turns out the draconic eternals have held blackmail over his head for like 3 decades. Just before the family's oldest kid was born they contacted him from their demiplane and said "if you do what we tell you we will wait until your family has died naturally before we descend upon your world and kill everybody. Otherwise we're doing it in like a decade lmao" and he, convinced he could find another solution with enough time, agreed to do what they said. And then they made him "kill" Razor (birth name Kyus) and he faked his son's death bc he couldn't make himself do it. He started the war at the dragons' bidding because he needed time to find a way to save the Entire World. And he didn't have that time without doing some genuinely horrible things. So he did them, and accepted that the world would hate him for it. Because he was protecting them from something much worse.

Then the "king" who I am now going to refer to as the queen bc she's trans and I feel bad decides that she is going to go against them. She can't do it anymore. So she arranges for a royal announcement to be made. She is gonna tell everyone about her son, about the dragons, about everything, and they will go from there.

Razor has known his family for like a day and a half btw. And he's about to be presented as a prince. And he doesn't want to go back to looking like he's "supposed" to. Which his family is fine with!!! But the kingdom maybe will not be. He doesn't do it anyway tho.

During that speech, the capital city is sieged by an assortment of "undesirable" races (orcs, drow, goblins, giants, etc) led by a tiefling who is so so so mad at the royal family and doesn't care what their excuse is. Uh oh! Razor recognizes him!! He knew him from the thieves' guild!

That's not important right now. What IS important is that he magically turns Razor's entire new family to stone and then drags them through a portal to God Knows Where. And Leaves.

And Razor jumps through after him. No time for the rest of the party to go.

He chases the guy with every ounce of his magic through an entire giant stronghold. And eventually he escapes. And Razor is So Mad.

He goes through an Arc Of Growth tm where he meets the giants' main god and is given a magical item that he will need to seal away the draconic eternals. There are 7 of those. The party already knows about one??? I think??? I deadass don't remember the timeframe on this. But they need to find all of them.

(Also at some point they find out one of the dragons didn't actually get sealed away bc he betrayed the other ones and he agrees to help them but that was an in between thing)

ANYWAY. Eventually Razor is reunited with the party and they go deal with All Of Those Guys' Bases. At one point in that whole thing Alixa finds out that she was chosen by one of the drow gods (NOT lolth) to be her champion and gets given a few bits of paladin magic as a treat. And also one of the important magic items!!!

They eventually stop all the guys and talk their leader down bc Razor and him used to be Buddies tm. And they get him to stop being Insane. And fix his family. And his family is back!!! But when they get back to the capital city they have to deal with the fact that the thieves' guild has taken over bc nobody was there to stop them. And Razor and Verona have TRAUMA tm around those guys. Esp Razor bc their leader tortured him because he knew something about Razor's magic (could see the soulscar via true sight) but Razor didn't know at the time so he just got beat up a bunch.

They fight them!! And win!!! Eventually!!!!!! And the city is (mostly) restored.

The party has a lot of stuff to do. At varying points, they are required to stop THREE separate apocalypses. An apocalypse based on the ancient elemental beings that a cult led by people including Aiyise's fucked up family are trying to resurrect almost happens but some of the party and friends (including Aiyise and her two besties from childhood) stop it. That arc includes a genius 15 year old basically inventing unsterilized open heart surgery on top of a mountain to save the kids of the crazy cleansing cult guys bc they had magical chips inserted into their hearts that had to be destroyed before they could kill the cultists. Necessity my beloved. <3

Eventually the Final Battle comes. The party fights its way through each Draconic Eternal in groups, boosted by the power of like 4 different gods. At the same time, 4/6 members of the Dark Six god group are trying to end the world in a different separate way than the dragons. So they have to fight 4 gods and like 12 fucked up evil dragons that are like ancient dragons dialed up to 15. But they have crazy magic items and are level 20 and have the blessing of, again, like 4 different gods. So they do it.

Holy shit. It's done. The Radiant Sun has just collectively stopped a triple apocalypse. Razor gets to be with his family, Verona gets to marry her bf, Avaciel goes home and rules over her city, Aiyise and her partners start patching up the damage done to their religion by training a new not crazy generation of clerics and paladins, Alixa gets to work as Eilistraee's champion, and Shade and her twin brother take over the roles of The Shadow and The Fury, their "parents" who aren't actually their parents. So they are gods now.

Everybody lives happily ever after.

For now...?

I'm sure there's a million other things to say abt them and I did NOT give the full details of every quest bc this was meant to be the overarching plot line so if you wanna hear anything abt specific people's personal arcs or anything I will answer all your questions ever. There is a chance that someday this post will be deleted off the internet because maybe this will be an Actual Animated Series someday and yknow. I dont want my whole plot online for everyone to see. But who knows!

Thank you so much for letting me infodump <3 ilysm

#infodump time yaaaay

[sofhtie]

hmm no thoughts head fásach “the most dangerous thing is to love”

#they just keep choosing love! #and it’s beautiful and a great character choice and so interesting but also *god* it’s stressful #of course either duty or love causes So Many Problems but like. choosing duty is sad for yourself love is possibly bad for Everyone #and how like. in crop it’s very easy to get into a mindset of being chess pieces instead of people #it’s just. hhhhhhhhh! #most dangerous thing not for yourself but for everyone else too #yeah! yeah. #crop #dnd hours #oh i forgot to finish my chess pieces thought. anyways it’s easy to get into that headspace but Fasach Never Does #which is GREAT sometimes it’s why he can care so much about cami it’s why their and sico’s friendship is So Important #but also it’s. he’s The most important person in the group politically bc hes King of Kings of the desert. but they’re Here. #it’s all just So Much to unpack at all times 😔 #fásach being the one more than anyone else to see everyone as People before they are chess pieces or weapons or instruments of war/peace is. #it’s A Lot #telling sparrow not to sacrifice herself for the bridge...... yeah. yeah! #stan bri it’s Such a strong choice i love it sm fásach just also Stresses Me Out

[earths-roots-grow-up]

Headcanons on Russia’s and Prussia’s relationship with France.

Russia:

I think that in the XVIII century a large chunk of Europe had a crush on France. French culture was widespread among European courts and the language was being used to communicate in a similar manner English is used today. Frenchness was just very IN at that time.

Those countries included Russia. At that time Peter the Great was westernizing his country, and injecting French-ness into Russian lives was a part of this process - Versailles and the French court impressed Peter immensely when he went to visit France and when he came back home, he began emulating many things he observed in the western country. Language, customs, widespread mirrors everywhere, architecture, gardens. You name it.

High-born Russians would talk to each other in French and give themselves French names. Lets note that French wasn’t the only foreign language that was widespread in Russia, so were others, like German and Latin [mostly used by the academia.

“(...) of  all  the  languages  which  began  to  have  currency  in  eighteenth-century Russia, it was French that acquired the greatest social, cultural, and political significance,even if it was not always so widely spoken as German“.

The two next generations of Russians grew up within this Francophile culture and viewed it as something natural, from their perspective it was no longer an exotic fashion, just the way thing always were. Therefore, this was something more than just a fleeting fascination that lasted as long as Peter ruled - and had lingering influence on Russian culture.

“The most important stimulus for the development of French-speaking in Russia, though, was the use of French as a court language from around the middle of the reign of Peter’s daughter Elizabeth (1741–61), who had learnt it in childhood from a French lady at her father’s court.“

And so it went on from there: “At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Russian nobility still preferred French to Russian for everyday use, and were familiar with French authors such as Jean de la Fontaine, George Sand (etc.). The influence of France was equally strong in the area of social and political ideas. Catherine II's interest in the writings of the (french) philosophers of the Enlightenment (...) contributed to the spread of their ideas in Russia during the eighteenth century.” and “ During the nineteenth century, travel in France was considered a form of cultural and intellectual apprenticeship. “.

(source) So the interest in French ideas and culture was strong in the second half of the XVIII century and in the XIX century.

So in other words, Russia had a crush on France - it was a total puppy love mostly based on superficial things, like aesthetic, nice smells and pretty, elegant European opulence but most of all: France was the ideal of what Russia was trying to become, the epicenter of European-ness, the “civilization” and Ivan was in the middle of this lowkey cultural revolution in which he was trying to re-invent himself as a modern, “European” country. So I think this crush was very much one of those "I wanna BE YOU" types of crushes, he was head over heels for what France represented - that’s why this hit so hard.

There was some more personal stuff there too, like France's eloquence, his literature and philosophy. Enter a lot of perfumed love letters! Even when the crush slowly withered away Russia still felt - and feels - strong admiration for France and honestly enjoys his culture a lot.

France himself enjoyed the crush but wasn't really that interested in  reciprocating - as mentioned above, large chunk of Europe was also crushing on him due to his culture just being in fashion, so it's not like Russia himself was standing out. But they did become friends and still have good personal relations with each other. They have a lot of passions in common, such as ballet, art, music, opera, Romanticism etc, so they still enjoy talking about this stuff together. It’s not a Deep friendship where they trust each other, don’t be fooled, they don’t trust one another at all! But they do like hanging out.

I also HC that the way both French and German were important in XVIII century Russia (as cited above: French with greater cultural significance and German more widespread) is representative of him catching feelings for both France and Prussia at this time, tho one of those wasn't just a crush.

Prussia:

My non-canon-approved hot take here is that I don't think him and France were ever friends. The exact opposite of that even.

It's true that Frederick the Great also had this hard-on for the French, and in effect Prussia speaks and writes excellent French. But after Frederick William II took over the throne, he took back all those Francophile preferences and began promoting German literature and language instead - something the educated classes of Prussia were thankful for. So because Russia shared his ruler's fascination with France his interest outlasted Peter the Great and became a more prevalent part of Russian culture for a long time, while Prussia never shared Fredrick’s fascination and therefore it got overturned as soon as the new king sat on the throne.

And that makes sense, bc in general Germans and French weren't very friendly with each other during their history. German- French enmity, also called the hereditary enmity, is an idea introduced in the XIX century, and it states that those two forces are natural enemies due to their inherently different goals and incompatible interests. Due tho this they keep bumping against each other throughout the ages. You can see echos of this sentiment it in the Napoleonic Wars, Franco-Prussian War, WW1, the Treaty of Versailles, WW2 etc. France was also the country that stood in the strongest opposition to the German Empire being created, so a big issue for Prussia.

It’s important to mention that this German-French enmity was often used as a  propaganda tool for wars and simplified the complex relations between those two groups. Of course it did, even Austrian/Prussian relations weren’t ALWAYS bad, even tho they were called ‘the biggest enemies’ by historians.

It is believed that the enmity ended after WW2 and no longer is a thing. To me that is a pretty great example of Germany taking over the reign and replacing Prussia. Prussian/France relations were bad, but German/France relations are pretty darn good. And it makes sense, because Prussia had different goals than Germany has, and they are very different individuals. I see France and Germany as friends due to their shared work in UE, tho I’m not sure if they would be something more than just work friends.

Anyway, this is Hetalia and not a historical-political deep dive - to me what counts in Hedcanon context is the general feel throughout history: were they generally allies or enemies? Were their interests clashing with one another or were they compatible, most of the time at least? The whole idea behind this “inherited” enmity is that French and German interests were incompatible, so it had to end with a conflict. And they did, many times over. I feel like the importance of the Napoleonic wars especially is often undervalued here - it was a HUGE conflict that would have a lasting impact on their relations, way bigger than the Wars for Austrian Succession, which are often cited as proof of their friendship. But they were an outlier in general Prussian/French relations.

That’s why I think Prussia and France are not, nor ever were friends, they view each other as enemies and dislike each other. Tho during the reign of Old Fritz their relationship was warmer and more amicable than during other periods, considering they actually had similar goals and fought together for a change - mostly because that was convenient for then, not due to some preexisting friendship. But I do like the idea that during this time they had some kind of difficult comradery going for a brief while and there was this fleeting “maybe in another reality we could be friends” vibe.

Due to the bad history, Prussia's dislikes of France can be seen in many small things that irritate him, like he just detests Francis' need to show opulence, his over-the-top rococo aesthetic and cuture-esque fashion sense, hight emotionality drives him bonkers and even the pastel flowery color palettes he often wears irk him. And don’t even get his started on the Revolutions! He’ll talk your ear off.

Tl’Dr: So Prussia and France don't like each other and are generally bitchy and passive-aggressive with one another. Russia and France are friendly and good acquaintances, while not exactly close. Russia just likes him - he still admires a lot of things about French culture, enjoys the language, cuisine, architecture, fashion etc, and used to have a crush on him.

Rusprus take:

Prussia in a confident, self-assured person, but when it comes to France, he can be surprisingly self-conscious. He still remembers that crush Russia used to have on him and WHY he had it -  because of many characteristics that France possesses, but Prussia doesn't. Like being romantic and sentimental, sensitive, emotionaly open, appreciative of beauty, artsy etc. Sometimes Russia finds that cute and endearing, bc it makes him feel wanted, but sometimes it's just... ridiculous.

APH Prussia: What do you wanna watch tonight, Vanka?

APH Russia: Hm... maybe that movie, Marie Antoinette?

APH Prussia: Ugh OF COURSE you wanna ogle HIM!

APH Russia: W... what.

APH Prussia: France! You wanna ogle that cheese-smelling frog-eater!

APH Russia: What... no! Gilya, Gilyushka, Gilynechka! That's absurd, I just want to watch a pretty period drama!

APH Prussia: Don’t you “Gilynechka“ me! And as if that's not enough...

APH Prussia: She was AUSTRIAN

APH Russia: Omg. Kill me now. When you have almost 1000 years of history together then even picking a Netflix show can be a minefield!

Anyway, they end up watching the movie but Prussia roasts everything in frame :D

#aph prussia #aph russia #aph france #hetalia #hws france #hws prussia #hws russia #ruspru #axis powers hetalia #hetalia world series #hetalia headcanons #historical hetalia #ivan braginsky #francis bonnefoy #gilbert beilschmidt #rusprus #rusfra #I feel like those HCs are getting longer and more ranty #and probably more boring #sorry for that! #I honestly dont know why it just gets out of hand #still hope at least one person enjoys them #if so its work it! :) #queque

[shima-draws]

So a couple people have asked me how Izuku and Todoroki met in my World Tree AU!! And that is a wonderful question

I haven’t worked out all the specific details yet (and I might change things later) but what I had in mind was this:

At this point, Izuku’s already training under Toshi, and has been for a few months. Toshi decides to bring Izuku to one of the big political meetings of all the fairy races! Here the head honchos of each race meet up and discuss territory disputes, general welfare, all that non fun stuff. BUT they also have some actual fun activities on the side—friendly competing between the races to see who is the best! All of the important leaders (heads of the races, town leaders, those who hold high positions in wealth, etc.) see this as a good opportunity to meet and chat with other fairies in a friendly setting, because most of the time they’re competing with each other despite that. These leaders tend to bring their children/heirs/chosen guests along with them to participate in the games—so coincidentally most of Class 1-A is there ;)

Izuku obviously meets Uraraka and Iida first and INSTANTLY clicks with them. Despite being different races they really don’t care for all of the petty rivalry and instead try to get to know each other based on personality and connections! Soon enough as they bounce around and chat with other younger fairies they eventually form a nice group made up of most of the 1-A kids. Together they spend a lot of time chatting and comparing their magical abilities and it’s a lot of fun!

At one point Izuku does notice Todoroki—it’s pretty obvious because 1. He has very distinct features and Izuku has seen photos of him before, 2. He’s standing by himself and apparently refuses to talk to anybody, and 3. He’s Enji Todoroki’s son, and Enji, being the leader of his own fairy race, is known worldwide, so it’s obvious that Todoroki would be well known too. Izuku’s kinda starstruck because Todoroki is very pretty and also because he’s famous so like. Celebrity crush, kinda? Lol. Of course they have the whole intense eye contact moment for the first time and Izuku nearly jumps out of his skin when Todoroki looks at him Like That. Izuku, too embarrassed and shy and nervous to actually approach him, skitters off like the stupid gay moron he is

Rest is under the cut because it got a little long lol

A little while after that, Izuku splits off from the group for a bit to go to the fountain and get a drink. He starts mumbling to himself about all of the magic he’s learned, and all the people he’s met—basically he’s standing there having a fanboy moment in the garden when Todoroki approaches him out of nowhere. Izuku understandably freaks out and accidentally soaks Todoroki with water from the fountain, making this an epic meet cute moment. Izuku apologizes profusely and Todoroki brushes him off, “I was the one who approached you without warning, so it’s fine”.

Todoroki starts questioning him because he noticed he came in with All Might—and of course I could not leave out the classic love child comment so he brings that up LMAO

Izuku starts laughing, and Todoroki thinks he’s being made fun of, but Izuku quickly corrects him and he’s like “There’s no way somebody like me could be blood related to All Might, that’s why I found it funny, I’m sorry!” And Todoroki’s confused like “If he chose you to come here with him, doesn’t that make you worthy enough?” Izuku promptly turns into a freckled tomato and it’s adorable. (Todoroki notices this and idly thinks he’s cute when he blushes.)

They start to chat and Izuku slowly gets over his awkwardness/nervousness. Todoroki asks him what type of magic he has and he explains, which leads to the question being turned around on Todo. Naturally he gets very sour at this and brings up Enji, and since I definitely can’t not bring canon into this situation he bitches about his magic (bc apparently he feels like he can trust Izuku enough to tell him after only just meeting him. It’s the cute charm). He explains that since he’s not only a prince, but also a dual-elemental (which are really really REALLY rare) people only care about his political position and his power and not about him specifically. They only seek to take advantage of him or suck up to him and he hates all of it;; And what makes it worse is that he didn’t even ask to have these abilities, nor to be cursed with his father’s magic.

Izuku very bluntly points out that wouldn’t it be your magic, your power? Children inherit magic from their parents yeah but it’s not always the same element—sometimes it can get mixed and become something different entirely, or they just get one element from one parent. Either way the magic is theirs, unique to them, something that they cultivate and develop and make their own, and it’s not something the parents can control anymore. Izuku says that Todoroki is the only one in control of his own destiny, and his own magic—that’s not something Enji gets to have a say in. And as for Todoroki’s prince position—shouldn’t that be something he should take advantage of? He can help and save a LOT of people just by being a prince—he can become a true hero that way, using his position for good, and ensuring the kingdom is healthy and safe and running well. Izuku says it’s his actions that will be judged—if Todoroki were a bad person Izuku wouldn’t support him no matter if he were the prince or not. “But the fact that you’re so concerned about it...I can definitely tell. You have a kind heart, Todoroki-kun! You can use that kindness to become a wonderful and generous king one day!”

Of course this is Todoroki’s Big Gay Awakening because this adorable little munchkin just flipped his entire worldview upside in a few WORDS. (Not a punch to the face like in canon LMFAO) He has a momentary existential crisis trying to figure out what this means for him and how important it is—and that’s when Izuku gets called back inside. Izuku hurries off and says he’s really glad he got to meet Todoroki and talk with him. It’s only after Izuku leaves that Todoroki realizes he never got his name and curses himself for being so stupid. He vows then that he’s going to work and change himself, figure out what to do, and meet Izuku again, and get his name!! (See, you can already tell he’s falling in love with him huh 😤)

Aaaaand that’s how they meet for the first time!! The Gay is strong

#BNHA #Tododeku #World Tree AU #Shima’s AUs #Todoroki Shouto #Todoizu #Midoriya Izuku #MHA #Boku no Hero Academia #My Hero Academia #Deku #Todoroki #Long post

[iconsumeheadcanons]

persona characters autism headcanons!

hi im autistic and i started my day with sun so now im !!!!!!!!! some of these headcanons are from elsewhere on tumbr, but i dont know where :(((  so i am hoping someone out there knows that n that everybody knows that i love them <3

(also go check out mollypaup and i think hypeswap if you havent already! they post some good stuff autism+adhd hc too!!! i think.. oh! and thieves-in-the-palace!!!)

P5

Joker

there was some artwork from someone on tublr..where they pointed out that he doesnt really talk outside the metaverse so--hes hyperverbal as joker and just near nonverbal as akiren

he stims ALL THE TIME. that phone thing, the pencil thing, the little tappy tap of his foot, pulling at his bangs when hes embarrassed/smug. someone get him a fidget spinner. he’ll prob learn to do tricks with it

he probably sucks at focusing in class, like i know its just the game design but hes always surprised out of his daily “star out the window at the nearby office building” when his teachers ask him questions

mona mentions when the pt is at Wilton for the first time (after they run into shido) that joker eats like shit, and that could have multiple causes at the start of the story of course, but when i first played i thought that joker was a picky eater and that the variety (and amount of food) at the buffet would be an Ordeal...

tho mona makes that comment bc joker looked pale after having a little ptsd moment from shidos voice, but i didnt know that the first time i played

maybe when joker makes a face at ryuji putting so much ginger in his gyudon? joker probably does not like pickled ginger lol

his favortive foods are all spicy, which is why the curry he makes for his friends is always ‘overly spicy’, and why kasumi makes him a curry bento and joker kept going “...?” .... “....?!”

overly reflective glasses have been a great plus for him bc now he never has to make real eye contact every again!

mona Soft. play with Ann hair. maybe Braid. nice

puns (Gorou the Goroumet)

he has so many options to be straight up rude sometimes in game. he probably no clue on his own, which is why he defaults to Not Talking. people probably mention his constant scary face, which is just him being nonexpressive, squinting at all the fucking bright lights, and Tired

executive function who? we do everything last minute folks

high pain tolerance, which is why he was the kid that was always climbing trees in elementary school to get basketballs unstuck from the branches

his sixth sense lets him see treasure and possible places to climb/crawl bc 1. Shiny? Steal it. Steal it Now. and 2. Could i fit in that? Time to Find Out

probalby a bit of a klepto too oops. he’ll return it tho!! but he has to do it dramatically or he’ll die

cant sit properly to save his life

smells and touch are Great, they can keep him grounded when his brain goes off to police or dead rivals or guilt or

if a friend hung out with him and gave him total reigns of the agenda, he would choose to nap on the floor while his friend does something off to the side quietly

hyperfocuses on handy tasks (i.e. lockpicks, coffee brewing, cleaning, his part time jobs) and some things like movies and books. everything else is a tossup

his (normal) navigation app is his most used app bc he still doesnt know where hes going, even though he only goes to the same few places in the city

hates being sweaty, literally cannot stand it. probably double exhausted during the summer

but Needs Compression so hes often Struggling

Futaba

paraphrase from p5d “i have no motor skills so i cant play rhythm games :(” need i say more? (i will regardless)

echolalia all the time, from anime, memes, the PT

those headphones she wears all the time? noise cancelling ear protectors babey

only talks about her interests, “normal” talking is Not Easy, but she is still communicative w others despite her worries. shes not “hard to understand” at all but she feels the anxiety nonetheless

only talks informally, cannot talk ‘politely’ with out imitating someone around her

shes had meltdowns and anxiety attacks in game :( i relate so hard

Technology. thats it

def had an egypt phase that pops up every few months. probably came from yu-gi-oh

has Immune to Bright Lights buff.  joker is very jealous

“Time to make like a tree and leave!” and 30 other iterations

video game metaphors are the only ones that makes sense to her

probably relates hard to robot characters in anime for their general androgyny and confusion about human emotions and connections

probably gets told that shes “too smart to be on the spectrum” by teachers >:( she fails their classes on purpose

wakaba’s autistic too that just how it is

the Connection that she establishes with Joker is so Warm. my life goals include adopting an older brother like futaba has lsdkfjslkfj

also eater of 5 foods only, i mean, she brings cup ramen to the beach. i just really admire her...

hides in small spaces for comfort

doesnt she have like uhhhhh hyperthymesia or something like that?

Yusuke

art

his entire social link is learning how humans work, which i relate

talks seriously all the time

“sarcasm? who is that? are you saying I was sarcastic?...how?”

cant remember to take care of his body, and madarame did not help with that either

lot of uncomfortable staring, hes overdoing the eye contact thingy

infodumps all the time, doesnt know hes doing it

needs a lot of support even if he doesnt think he deserves it. no one ever complains about helping him out tho

visual stims my friends

he didnt know that you could look up pictures on the internet but he does know you can stream live videos of waterfalls and fluffy animales!!

I am certainly in the mood

for something salty today.

he and joker are scared of math. numbers do not interact

Yusuke, futaba, and akiren are a trio and i know this bc their first day of non-thievery interacts is Akiren clearing Futabas room w/o permission, futaba hyperfocusing on destroying medjed, and yusuke rearranging futabas figurines so they are more visually appealing

morgana is a support friend for all of them bc igor knows they need it

P4

Souji/Yu

yes, he mostly wears gray semi formal clothes bc parents tell him to, no, he will not changes this

Schedule or Death

“sorry, could you repeat that?” “huh? oh yeah, i was saying that--” “yeah that’d be cool.”

cats, fishing, he just likes to be quiet. you can literally spend a day at the beach just to think if you want, and that is what yu want

has a lot of scripts for things (of which he shares with nanako!) but if he runs out he just stops talking..

inaba is a godsend bc its so fucking quiet and warm

he Yearns to hold his friends hands, but he shies away from a lot of touch (excepting yosuke, teddie, and nanako)

Cooking and Cleaning makes the world better. he and joker vibe together with this

unlike akiren, he strong arms any executive dysfunction into Be Productive or Else. his punishment is feeling the pure anxiety of having to make up for ‘lost time’. (another symptom of his workaholic parents)

writes everything down, notes are very neat, has pages dedicated for bad doodles when hes not feeling his usual Super Classroom Focus

Cannot handle secondhand embarrassment (most often caused by yosuke) and will quietly slip away to random cats or origami folding

hungry, crunch crunch folks. probably needs chewelry bc he used to chew on his shirt collars when he was younger.

cleans up after everyone in the food court, constantly worries about them accidently hurting themselves. likely spends half of group conversations watching peoples hands

he canonically eats expired food, nanako plz help your brother

really clumsy, but people only notice after they decide that he is a cool person

video games are too chaotic for him

exhausted every night from the pure amount of masking he does, if a friend spends the night (or is like yosuke) they will know his more comfortable weirdo self (tho everyone knows hes a weirdo eventually)

hyperempathetic, sometimes just understands animals and children better than peeople his age or older

Yukiko

her jokes

she and souji get in ‘trouble’ together, she and joker commit crimes together

she and chie have to coordinate outfits, its important

actually understands metaphors, but does not understand people

like me, had no clue that creepy kid was flirting with her

she is very angry when she has meltdowns that might involve slamming doors and shouting. her parents call these ‘tantrums’ and ‘unfitting for a polite daughter’ but really thats because her meltdowns tend to be caused by arguments w her family after a long day of school and TV world traipsing

the metronome meme, except hers goes between Loudest Person in the Room to Quietest Pin Drop in the Planet. she is completely unaware of this

her atmosphere brightens when chie appears. that is not only the lesbian energy within her, but also because chie is like her Favorite Person

Cannot wear Pants. No (tho she wants to try it! but she puts them on and her soul instantly squashes)

happy flappy lesbian! watch out!

Naoto

the pouty face. all the time lskdfjlasdkf

hes really snappy sometimes and i love that for him. he and akechi should fight just to see what would happen (please read Bang Bang Shoot Shoot on AO3)

“do not touch me or my hat, thank you”

no one has ever seen him shutdown and no one ever will (except for his grandpa)(and kanji)(and rise)

probably likes certain food textures and will stand for nothing less, probably feels embarrassed about his preferences with friends

constantly jumps between ‘everybody hates me so i should act like them so they dont hate me’ to ‘i refuse to be anything but very comfortable as myself, and i dont care that im making you upset sir’

he and souji are the king and queen of subtle stims, but for unhappy reasons :(

does not make jokes. cannot joke around. understand? yes, do? no.

loose clothes are the only good clothes, but all tags and obtrusive seams will be obliterated by kanji tatsumi

not very empathetic so he probably comes off as an asshole to strangers (like when he throws away his classmates confession letters without reading them) but he tries so hard to sound comforting when his buds are struggling.

his understanding of others emotions/reactions come from his learning as a detective, which seems cold+clinical to others, especially compared to souji, whos completely unexpressive but very introverted people person

P3

Hamuko/Minako/Kotone

big personality!! very people-oriented!! koromaru and her are buddies!! when shes having a real bad time, shes very quiet and expressions turn off

interrupts herself in the middle of conversations all the time. no one knows where shes coming from. her brains is thousands of km ahead of her body

bouncey legs, swingin arms, twirlly skirt, little somersaults! when will she stop? never!

very obvious music stims with her hands and arms! people are like “oh there she goes! happy as usual!” shes listening to minatos heavy metal playlist

switches from exhausted to excited within milliseconds. no one can predict, not even her

SEES has to ask her for context all the time cuz she’ll just continue shit from 2 weeks ago without warning

professionals will assume shes very childish bc of how chipper she is, but she is beyond mature for her age and only feels comfortable enough to have serious conversations if a person has proved themself able to handle it

collects every little thing. her room is a mess and she has to get rid of most of it every time she moves :(

hates cleaning! smells bad, feels bad hhhhhgggg

dont let mitsuru-senpai see her bedroom

gets lost in the middle of conversations with others bc shes thinking about a story connected to one(1) word that was said earlier

 no sense of time and place, she just sees her friends and goes “ah, this is the right place, then” but junpei and akihiko are also lost so now theyre all screwed

Minato/Makoto/Sakuya

no talkies, no walkies

his story in the movies is him literally learning how to function around people he cares for

doesnt get jokes, expressions, body language, empathy, subtlety, metaphors, physical contact, or eye contact. aigis is probably the only person he truly understands right away

he is still nice to people because he doesnt see a reason not to be, but also he has very limited energy so only his senpai and old people get his most polite-kindnesses

cannot describe feelings for the life of him. the team wont know hes injured or sick until hes passed out

everything is too loud, time to drown it out with my loud ass music

rocking and chewing stims, ryoji is the first person to point him out for these subtle stims (not accusingly of course, just general pure curiosity and love for the uniqueness of humanity)

likes to cover his face with whatever is available, lives like a bat in a dark dry cave

will wear anything that has pockets and his blue/gray/black palette

sleepy at all times bc he never has much energy

when he was younger he probably needed a lot of support, especially after his parents died, because he wouldnt communicate like a neurotypical and would shutdown for hours in the middle of school without warning. probably missed a lot of lessons and field trips out of pure overstimulation

eating at all times. no preference, just whatevers closest

his meltdowns probalby include humming whining noises and curling up in a ball, which makes people want to touch him, but that is the LAST thing he wants. put a blanket on him! play some music! do not talk and do not expect him to speak

aigis is the only person who can touch him normally bc her hands are cold and he likes cold

never nude, feels mmmmmmmmm without clothes and probalby wears a full robe in the hotsprings

will not do things that take more than one step w/o someone else walking him thru it, which Same

#my writing #p3 #p4 #p5 #persona 3 #persona 4 #persona 5 #ren #futaba #souji #hamuko #minato #vibes straight thru the sun #i sincerely hope the read more works #im so srry for grammar problems #i literally cant read rn

[mousehole5000]

more tgcf chapters 143-173 lets goooooo

PEI MING BOO HISS except actually okay he’s mostly funny i think but still boo hiss

“hey who’s this guy who’s really pissed at you?” “oh thats my sword. i broke it.” alright then!

i think i need to go back and reread the banyue pass arc bc im still confused as to whats going on with banyue and pei su

“Banyue dropped from the sky with two pots raised. Without a word, she plummeted with the mouths of the pots facing down, trapping and detaining the shocked Ming’guang and the roaring Ke Mo within.” - THATS MY GIRL

“It must be known that, to heavenly officials, it certainly was more than natural for kingdoms of the mortal realm to fight and annihilate one another; the acts of these plays progressing on endlessly. But when it came their own turn, it was often hard to let things go. If one must stand in the same court as the one who annihilated their own kingdom, and that man cavorted in the heavens, exceedingly flashy, then it must be vexing.” - hmmmm!!

“I’ve spoken too many words in this lifetime. What are you referring to?” - okay to be fair thats a mood

okay its nice to get some pei ming backstory and its funny that he and xie lian are bonding but also still whenever pei ming interacts with a female character my hackles rise like a cat lol

“Xie Lian watched as Banyue thought really hard before cheerfully pulling out a few long, wine-red scorpion-snakes, and putting them into the bubbling pot.” - THATS MY GIRL

“Although “smell” was something colourless and formless, the instant Banyue removed the pot cover, it was as if some mysterious physical object had twisted all the air around the mouth of that pot. The group stared at the sight within the pot for a long time. Their pupils reflected an endless, bottomless darkness; like it could pull them into the abyss. No words could describe the sentiment expressed within their eyes. A moment later, Xie Lian patted Banyue’s shoulder and gave a thumbs-up.” - like father-figure like daughter-figure. amazing.

“However, what if one day mortals discovered something completely new that ran faster than horses? Then, when this new invention overtook horses, worshippers of this heavenly official who controlled horses would inevitably decrease. Such heavenly officials, flashing by like shooting stars, made up the majority of the heavens.” - obsessed with this, genuinely. life and change. worship and its purpose. my religious studies diploma on my wall is screaming at me rn. ALSO i am once again thinking about celebrities

“...” It was only then that Pei Ming seemed to notice, and started to contemplate this question. A moment later, he answered, “A habit. In a dark, creepy place like this, isn’t it normal to hold women in your arms, to comfort them and calm their fears?” “I’m sorry, but I wasn’t scared,” Banyue said.” - BANYUE I LOVE YOU. I MISSED YOU SO MUCH. god this takes me back to every college party i ever went to

LING WEN BACKSTORY????? shoeseller chosen for godhood bc she wrote a political essay and got arrested...... and now she’s face to face with the official who appointed her..... do go on.....

“Ling Wen laughed out loud, seeming to be enraged, and her voice dropped. “Very well! You said I couldn’t reach that high. Then, might I ask you: had the prominence of the Palace of Jing Wen at its peak ever reached even the knees of my Palace of Ling Wen??” - GET HIM!!!! BOO HISS JING WEN

“Compared to you, I’m not that bad,” Ling Wen said. “You’d personally order me to stay in the Palace of Jing Wen until midnight, then turn around and say I shamelessly hang around ‘til late to harass you. Words murder without form; I was much nicer responding with blatant violence.” - ling wen im love you..... also this bit... feels Real

BLOOD RAIN BLOOD RAIN BLOOD RAIN!! FLOWER PETALS TRANSFORMATION!!! see hua cheng? look as how cool it can be when you leave the story for a little while!! bc then you get to return and make an entrance!!

“Not only can you bring forth bloody rain, you can also make flowers shower. I didn’t know that. How fun!” - cute!! and in that moment we were all xie lian

“Everyone was stunned by his deed, and Ling Wen arduously gave him a thumbs-up. ”Ol’ Pei, what a man!” Pei Ming gritted his teeth. “WELCOME!” - aww three two tumors buddies!!

okay yin yu is here and xie lian did the equivalent of asking someone when the baby is due only to find out theyre not pregnant at all. then rong guang taunts yin yu and no one says anything. i do love the amount of awkward moments in this book tbh sometimes there are no words.

“All around was sand and mud crushing at him, exceedingly suffocating. The sand and mud was also moving endlessly; the feeling was like he was swallowed into the stomach of a giant monster, and that monster had also eaten a bunch of other things besides him, tumbling everything in its stomach, trying to digest” - ooooh creepy!!! the red string thing... is cute.... also xie lian being able to see hua cheng’s butterfly vision by looking directly into his eye is kinda cool. and obviously homoerotic.

“Are lower-ranked heavenly officials below other people?” Quan Yizhen asked. “No,” Yin Yu replied. Were they not? It was obvious that he himself didn’t believe in his own words, and Quan Yizhen also noticed. A good while later, he said bluntly, “I don’t like it here.” Yin Yu said nothing.” - im having emotions. and then yin yu also saying he doesnt like it there either.... also idk how this scene is going to play out but as much as im enjoying quan yizhen being an icon i can also possibly see how yin yu could eventually get to the point of “i am tired of being nice. i do just want to go apeshit” even if he really cares about qyz. it happens </3

“Indeed,” Hua Cheng said. “Half a year later when Quan Yizhen actually ascends, he won’t find it so funny anymore.” “Can we watch that part too?” Xie Lian asked. “We can. Hold on,” Hua Cheng replied.” - quan yizhen king of taking things literally. also why did this turn into hualian having a movie night

jian yu seems like the kind of asshole who would purposely give someone regular soda when they specifically asked for diet soda. god yin yu is really having a bad day i really feel for him in the whole situation with the brocade immortal

awww okay at least jian yu tried to take responsibility. im still mad at him tho that was objectively a terrible idea. god this whole situation sucked :(

“Rocks and earth crushed at them from all around, forcing their bodies to press tightly against one another, their faces brushing, their ears warm. Although it wasn’t the right time, a thought flashed through Xie Lian’s mind: “‘To die buried together’ doesn’t feel so bad.” - okay... im kind of emotional.... gay people....

okay obviously these murals and the prince of wuyong have some connection (im guessing pretty direct) to xie lian and are important but everytime they start analyzing one i feel like im back in art history class fhadskfhskjdhf not that thats a bad thing!! i liked art history a lot tbh

“Don’t worry, they’re not human,” Hua Cheng said. “It’s precisely because they’re not human that we have to worry, alright….” Xie Lian thought.” - goth ghost bf problems

xie lian: well, there is one person i trust more than anyone else, someone who’s first in my mind hua cheng, oblivious: oh :/ xie lian, also oblivious: what? hua cheng: you shouldnt trust so easily its dangerous xie lian: oh. haha. yeah. well. wanna,,, know who it is? hua cheng: its :) fine :) it :) doesnt :) matter :) but of course you can tell me if you want to gege xie lian, internally: well now ive made it weird hua cheng, 5 minutes later: actually i need you to tell me. right now. its totally for your security me: gay people smh

“As they suspected, he had been captured by Qi Rong. Although no one was bound by ropes, there were balls of greasily green ghost fires hovering over every one of their heads.” - completely off track but anybody else remember the great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts song

“Could there actually come a day when Qi Rong was embarrassed that someone might see the manner in which he ate? Before Xuan Ji entered, she put Guzi down. Guzi, ta-ta-ta, ran in, rushing straight to Qi Rong’s side. But when he saw him, he pointed his finger. He cried, “Dad is eating bad things in secret again!” “I’m not!” Qi Rong retaliated.” SCREAM IS QI RONG LEARNING THE POWER OF LOVE NOOOO also god that poor man whose body he has im starting to doubt if he’ll ever be free jimmy novak flashbacks

everytime we get another ghost king power somewhere someone should be writing hua cheng the cyborg bf in a high tech futuristic au i think thats the only other potential setting that could truly capture this wild ride

“In truth, throughout history, there was no man in the world who didn’t love bragging. A breeze could blow the handkerchief of a brothel girl into a man’s hand, and he would turn around and say the most beautiful of renowned escorts had fallen in love with him; holding shoes and wiping benches for the emperor’s mistress’s uncle’s grandson’s cousin’s mistress would for sure become him being an important administrator at the residence of royal relatives, raising his status. Thus, men who didn’t brag were a rare species.” - SCREAM this is going in my favorite tgcf quotes folder god... mxtx come here let me shake your hand

read the story of rain master yushi huang’s ascension. why am i crying. also this bit im crying again me with my stuffed animals “Thus, while Yushi Huang was cultivating at the Temple of Yulong, every time when she went to seek water and passed that door, she would rub the head of that ox. The door knocker soaked in her essence of life, and when the Rain Master ascended, the ox ascended with her.”

okay thats enough for now i have 7 more chapters to book 4!!! woo!!!

#tgcf liveblog #bedtime now but im excited to be moving on #mouse mumbles

[pak24tv]

True History of Pakistan

Release

Pakistan is based on the North American element of South Asia. It's bordered by China in the North, Afghanistan in the North-West, Iran in South-West, Arabian Ocean and Indian Ocean in the South and India in the East. Pakistan, as evident, is situated at the crossroads of South Asia, Key Asia, and the Middle East making it a simple relating level between Key Asia and South Asia.

There were significant immigration actions, in the areas today constituting Pakistan since pre-historic times. The folks of Pakistan are descendants of different racial groups and sub-racial stocks, who entered the subcontinent in the last 5000 decades, mainly from central and american Asia from time to time. Yet unlike the favorite misunderstanding, it always maintained their personality and personality split up from their neighbor India who stated that Pakistan was an integral part of Aakhand Bharat (Undivided India) on the basis of history. Thus their partition from India is totally unjustified. But tens of thousands of decades of history of the sub-continent tells an alternative story. It shows people that the areas called Pakistan nowadays had regularly kept as an individual, compact and another geographical and political entity since historical times.

Few persons would be aware of the real history of Pakistan however; few might realize that the oldest rock instrument on earth, dating back again to 2.2 million decades was found at Rabat, about fifteen miles far from Rawalpindi and the largest hand Guitar was found in the Soan Valley. And to prime everything, the site of the very first settled life on the planet dating back again to the 8th millennium BC has been available at Mehergarh in the Sibi districts of Balochistan. Although Pakistan, as an independent state dates only from September 14th, 1947 and the state itself can trace their origins just to a couple ages before, the areas of Pakistan are heir to one of the wealthiest and the earliest civilizations and settlements of the world.

Indus Valley Society

The Indus Area Civilization or the Harappan Civilizationi is one of the very most intriguing and the oldest civilizations actually known. It flourished between 3000 and 1500 BC by the banks of Lake Indus or Sind in Pakistan. This civilization existed along the Indus Stream in current day Pakistan with its main stores at Mohenjodaro in Sind, Harappa in the Punjab, Kej in the Baluch place and Judeiro Daro in the Pathan region. It's usually believed that the inhabitants of Indus Area Civilization were Dravidians who came to sub-continent from western Mediterranean. pak24tv

This civilization reached their climax about both metropolitan centers of Mohenjodaro and Harappa. These cities are well-known for their remarkable, arranged and standard layout. These were the stores of arts and crafts. Based on Steve Marshal, the Harappan everyone was literate and used the Dravidian language ii that will be one of many world's first known languages. Their main occupation was agriculture and trade. The society is significant for its strong central government, sense for art and architecture and home planning.

Flood is regarded as being the destroyer of this lifestyle due to which agriculture got disrupted and industry routes affected which led most the people to migrate to other fertile lands. Those who were put aside dropped prey to the Aryan invasion. The society survived for fifteen hundred years.

Arrival of the Aryans

In about 1700 BC, Indus Valley persons found the arrival of new horse-riding nomads from Central Asia ultimately causing the final decrease of these prosperous and innovative Indus Civilization. The Aryans came in at the very least two important waves in Pakistan. The very first wave came about 2000 BC and the next wave came at least six centuries later. It had been after the 2nd trend of Aryans intrusion which they became dominant and their language spread over the entire size and breadth of the region. They joined through the Swat Pit from the northwest pile passes and forced the area persons or the Dravidians (the folks of Indus Civilization) southwards or towards the woodlands and mountains in north. They resolved first in Punjab and Indus Area and then spread eastward and southward. Unlike Indus people Aryans were uncivilized race. Their religious texts and individual stays claim that the Aryans were severe in their invasions. They killed the people and burnt their cities. The same view was opined by Stuart Piggot in his book Pre-historic India:

"The Aryan advent was in fact the birth of barbarians into a spot currently extremely arranged in to an empire centered on a lengthy established custom of literate urban lifestyle ".

Besides being durable practitioners Aryans were also experienced farmers and craftsmen. These were the worshippers of character and their religious publications were called Vedas. Aryans were tall, well-built and; had appealing features and good appearance while the people of Indus Pit were dark, smooth nosed and of short stature. The Indus persons published to the superior Aryans and became their slaves. This fact later became the foundation of Caste program so as of superiority such as for example Brahmans (priest) Kashatryas (warriors) and Vaisyas (business community and commoners). The Dravidians were put into fourth and termed as Sudras (slaves).

Persian Empire

In the 6th century BC, Darius invaded Pakistan and made the Indus plain and Gandhara part of his Persian Empire of the Achaemenid, together with his capital at Persepolis in Iran. It absolutely was from then onwards that the town of Taxila started to cultivate and the location found the rise of another great society named the Gandhara Society protecting most of the northern Pakistan with capitals at equally Pushkalavati (Charsadda) and Takshka-sila (Taxila).

Included in the Persian Empire, the region yet again rose to zenith. Trade with Iran and the west resumed yet again, economy flourished, tools and different things of day-to-day use were produced. Charsadda and Taxila became the stores of activity. Among the best universities of the ancient world was created at Taxila. It was only at that university that Chandra Gupta Maurya got his knowledge, who later created the Maurya Empire in South Asia. This affluent Achaemenian Empire that extended from Pakistan to Greece and Egypt, nevertheless, collapsed underneath the assault of Alexander of Macedonia.

Alexander's Intrusion

Alexander entered Pakistan from the upper course at Swat and conquered the Gandharan area between 327 and 325 BC. He reached Taxila first. The Raja of Taxila understanding Alexander's great army's status gave him a delightful in place of resistance. Alexander slept at Taxila for some time then came across Raja Porus who had been the ruler of the territories east of Jehlum. Then gone as much as Water Beas from wherever his military declined to get further, therefore then came down through the whole amount of Pakistan, crossed the Centre Lake near Karachi and departed for home desperate on the way. Alexander's intrusion produced Greek knowledge and research to Taxila.

Up until here it's notable that all through each settlements and invasions might that be of the Indus Area Civilization, Aryans or throughout the fifty per cent of a millennium period after Aryan's migrations and during the Persian Empire, Pakistan generally stood as a different entity from India and the period covered by these settlements is all about 2200 years.

Mauryan Empire

Alexander's premature decline at Babylon in 323 B.C triggered the breakup of his vast empire in to two components (The Byzantine Empire and Bacterian Greeks). The control of this area thus fell to the fingers of native dynasties and tribes. Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of Maurya Empire who marched in to the Gangetic plains, conquered the Nanda Kings and established a solid government at a place named Magadha (present Bihar). However, it must be observed he ruled from India but he was a boy of Potohar region and a Prince of Taxila. He followed Jainism. His grandson Ashoka was a Buddhist. 

[tarkhan]

#Tarkhan (#ਤਰਖਾਣ)

Tarkhan is a north Indian tribe which has been historically present in a Punjab and its nearby areas. Tarkhans are an ethnic minority and most of Tarkhans are followers of Sikhism and small number is a follower of Hinduism. Very small of number of ethnic Tarkhans are found in Pakistan, these Tarkhans are followers of Islam. Tarkhans are subdivided into various clans (ਗੋਤ).

Tarkhan #Occupations:

Tarkhan occupations are carpentry, blacksmithing, masonry and farming. The Lohars (blacksmiths) of Punjab are Tarkhans who work with metals and term Tarkhan-Lohar is also used. This diversity in Tarkhan occupations is very clear from Sikh history, where different Tarkhan-Sikhs had different occupations. For example: Baba Lalo Ghattaura, one of the first Sikhs of Guru Nanak was a carpenter, family of Baba BHAI Roop Chand has always been farmers, Baba Hardas Singh Bhamra made the famous nagni used to kill the drunken elephant, he was also scholar, and close associate of 10th Sikh Guru, and Mistry Des Raj Kalsi of Sur Singh played an important role in re-construction of Akal Takht after it was destroyed by Ahmed Shah Abdali. In modern day Punjab, every house, every building is made by Tarkhans, all machinery such as combines, ploughs and harvesters are made by Tarkhans including manufacturing of tractors, also welding and repairing despite being a small minority. Tarkhans are the only people in Indian sub-continent to be masters of more than occupations.

#Ancient #History of Tarkhans:

Kasgarli Mahmut was 11th century scholar from Kashgar. He explained the word Tarkhan in the following way: "It is a name given before the Islamic religion. It means prince (Bey, Umar) in Arghu language." It is clear the word Tarkhan was not pure Turkish and that it was adopted into Turkish from the old language of Sogdiana. This was proved in the Turkish dictionary Divan u Lugat it-Turk written by Kasgarli Mahmut. Sogd was a name of a nation who settled in Balasagun. These were of the Sogd race. Sogd lay between Bukhara and Samarqand. Sogdia (/ˈsɒɡdiə/) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization.

Historian H. Beveridge in his paper titled Tarkhan and Tarquinius points out that antiquity of Tarkhan is evidenced by the fact it's etymology is lost. He also states that Tarkhan was both a personal title and the name of a tribe. Bipin Shah in his paper titled Patali of Alexander, Sack of Nagar Thatta and Arghoon rule of Sindh talks about pre-historic central asian tribe named Tarkhan. Beveridge, Isaac Taylor, C. R. Condor and J. G. R. Farlong in their writings all agree that Tarkhan, Tarkan and Tarquin are same. Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, or Tarquin the Elder, was the legendary fifth king of Rome from 616 to 579 BC. Tarkhan was used among the Hittites (1700BCE- 1200BCE) to refer the tribal Chiefs. Also, the the Kassites (1531BCE-1155 BCE) had god called Tartakhan.

Khodadad Rezakhani of Freie Universität (Berlin) in the paper titled Continuity and Change in Late Antique Irān: An Economic View of the Sasanians writes (year is 560 AD): "These are the famous Nezak Tarkhans who claimed descent from the Alkhon king Khingila (Grenet 2002: 218). We know that these Tarkhans controlled the passes across the Hindukush both to Bamiyan and also to Kabul, via the Panjshir Valley (Baker and Allchin 1991). Based on the pattern of the earlier Hephthalites, they established and controlled formidable castles on both sides of the Surkhab River in southern Tokharistan, controlling the trade and military route from Bactria to Bamiyan (Grenet 2002: 218-20)."

In Eras of Humanity by Genealogy, Brian Starr writes about Kama Tarkhan of Huns. Hiuen Tsang, a Chinese traveller of 7th century AD also mentions various Tarkhans in Indian subcontinent such as Tarkhan of Samarkand, a meeting between king and 200 Tarkhans. Across the Hindukush of the First Millennium a collection of the papers by S. Kuwayama makes the mention of Chebishi Tarkhan who along with Tafu Tegin was sent to court of Tang Dynasty by King of Gandhara in 753 AD. Tarkhan Dynasty ruled over Gilgit in 7th and 8th century and was founded by a prince from Badakhshan. Further, founders of Maglot dynasty of Nagar and Ayash dynasty of Hunza were both Tarkhan princes. Tradition traces the origin of these Tarkhans to an imaginary Kayāni prince of Persia, by name Azur Jamshid, who is said to have fled here after the Arab conquest of Persia.

The town named Tarkhan in Egypt has been a site of various archeological diggings, some which were as old as 4000 BCE and oldest woven piece of cloth called Tarkhan Dress. In the town of Chal Tarkhan (Iran) many artifacts were found belonging to Sassanian Period (224 to 651 AD). Tarkhankut is name of peninsula in Ukraine and there are various places named Tarkhan in Russia. Tarkhans have been present in Indian subcontinent atleast since 6th century AD.

The ancient history of Tarkhans is also evidenced from the origin of various Tarkhan clans, such as Ubbi was a Germanic tribe and Bahra a Arabic tribe. There are places named after various Tarkhan clans in Iran (Panesar E-Takshan, Hunejan etc) and Tarkhan clans such as Siyan and Salh are also found among Kurds. Padam and Rattan being of native Indian origin. Menander 1 a Indo-Greek king was born in place named Kalasi (Alexandria of the Caucasusn) around 165 BCE. More than 90% Tarkhans have Tarkhan exclusive clans, only a very little overlap with others.

Some Tarkhan #Personalities:

• Jugde Dalip Singh Saund: First Asian to become Judge in US and get elected in US Congress. His son Dalip Saund Jr. served in US Army as a Lieutenant during Korean war.

• Satnam Singh Bamrah: First N.B.A player from India.

• Bardish Chaggar: First female Leader of the Government in the House of Commons in the history of Canada.

• Baba Sukha Singh Kalsi: There are 7 episodes dedicated to his bravery in Panth Prakash.

• Sir Mota Singh Matharu, QC: First Asian to become judge in United Kingdom.

• Lt-Colonel Kamal Kalsi (US Army).

𝗧𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗵𝗮𝗻 #𝗣𝗼𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:

According to 1881 census of British India there were 263,479 Tarkhan Sikhs. In the book The Crucial Decade by S.C. Sharma writes that Tarkhans too are found in all the three religious groups in this province, on 1921 their numerical strength in the (United) Punjab was 684,000. The small population of Tarkhans is also evidenced from the fact most of villages in Punjab used to have only three to four houses of Tarkhan families.

List of Tarkhan #Villages (Incomplete):

• Bhai Rupa (ਭਾਈ ਰੂਪਾ), Thathi (ਠੱਠੀ), Siriyewala (ਸਿਰੀਏਵਾਲਾ), Nehianwala (ਨੇਹੀਆਵਾਲਾ), Dialpura Bhaika (ਦਿਆਲਪੁਰਾ ਭਾਈ ਕਾ), Towala (ਟੋਵਾਲਾ), Samadh Bhai Ki (ਸਮਾਧ ਭਾਈ ਕੀ), Ravleri (ਰਾਵਲੇਰੀ), Lakhnor (ਲਖਨੌਰ)

• Sikhwala (ਸਿੱਖਵਾਲਾ) Kotha Rajasthan (ਕੋਠਾ ਰਾਜਸਥਾਨ), Kabool Shah Khubban (ਕਬੂਲ ਸ਼ਾਹ ਖੁੱਬਣ)

• Muktsar (ਮੁਕਤਸਰ): Tarkhan Wala (ਤਰਖਾਣ ਵਾਲਾ), Akalgarh (ਅਕਾਲਗੜ੍ਹ)

• Tarkhan Majra (ਤਰਖਾਣ ਮਾਜਰਾ) (Amloh ਅਮਲੋਹ)

• Garhi Tarkhana (Macchiwara) ਗੱੜੀ ਤਰਖਾਣਾਂ (ਮਾਛੀਵਾੜਾ)

• Channian (ਚਾਨੀਆਂ) (Nakodar ਨਕੋਦਰ)

• Jallandhar (ਜਲੰਧਰ): Tarkhan Majra (ਤਰਖਾਣ ਮਾਜਰਾ), Mothanwala (ਮੋਠਾਂਵਾਲਾ)

• Hoshiarpur (ਹੁਸ਼ਿਆਰਪੁਰ ਜ਼ਿਲ੍ਹਾ):Bhattian (ਭੱਟੀਆਂ), Chatowal (ਚੱਤੋਵਲ), Halerh Ghogra (ਹਾਲੇੜ ਘੋਗ ਰਾ), Choka (ਚੋਕਾ)

• Gurdaspur (ਗੁਰਦਾਸਪੁਰ ਜ਼ਿਲ੍ਹਾ): Rangilpur (ਰੰਗੀਲਪੁਰ), Dhadiyala (ਢਡਿਆਲਾ), Sada Rang (ਸਦਾ ਰੰਗ)

• Kapurthala (ਕਪੂਰਥਲਾ): Ahmedpur (ਅਹਿਮਦਪੁਰ), Tarkhanawali (ਤਰਖਾਣਾਵਾਲੀ)

• Phagwara (ਫਗਵਾੜਾ): Lohara (ਲੋਹਾਰਾ), Ramgarh (ਰਾਮਗੜ)

• Tarkhan Majra (ਤਰਖਾਣ ਮਾਜਰਾ) (Samana ਸਮਾਣਾ)

• Tarkhan Majra (ਤਰਖਾਣ ਮਾਜਰਾ) (Sirhind ਸਰਹਿੰਦ)

• Bagrian (ਬਾਗੜੀਆਂ)

• Vakilanwala ਵਕੀਲਾਂਵਾਲਾ (Ferozpur ਫਿਰੋਜ਼ਪੁਰ)

Tarkhan #Traditons

Tarkhans engage in ancestor worship in the form of Jathere (ਜਠੇਰੇ) and Matti (ਮੱਟੀ), different Tarkhan clans have different jathere However, this practice is now dying. Members within a same clan (ਗੋਤ) are related by blood. For marriages, Tarkhan practice class endogamy but clan exogamy i.e. they marry with Tarkhans only, however outside their maternal (ਨਾਨਕੇ) and paternal (ਦਾਦਕੇ) clans.

#Ramgarhia:

Some Tarkhan Sikhs identify with Ramgarhia as Ramgarhia Misl (Ramgarhia Confedration) was the one of most powerful Sikh Misl out of 12 misls. The founder and leader of Ramgarhia Misl was Maharaja Jassa Singh Bhamra, who was a Tarkhan himself and most of soldiers in Misl were from Tarkhan tribe. Strength of Misl is evidenced from fact that Ramgarhia Misl along with other sikh generals won Delhi and it was Jassa Singh Ramgarhia who dragged the Mughal throne from Delhi to Akal Takht, where it lies even today in Ramgarhia Bungas. In the Tawarikh Darbar Sahib by Udham Singh, it is written that Maharaja Jassa Singh of Ramgarhia Misl and his son Sardar Jodh Singh together contributed Rs 5 Lakh for construction of Ramgarhia Bungas.

#References:

1. Tarkhan and Tarquinius by H. Beveridge of The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

2. Anatolian Iron Ages: The Proceedings of the Second Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium held at İzmir, 4-8 May 1987

Edited by A. Çilingiroğlu and D. H. French, Page 115.

3. Era's of Humanity by Genealogy written by Brian Starr, Page 204

4. A Socio-Political Study of Gilgit Baltistan Province by Omar Farooq Zain.

5. THE WESTERN HIMALAYAN STATES by A. H. Dani.

6. A SHORT HISTORY OF AFGHANISTAN By Professor Abdul Hai Habibi, President, Historical Society of Afghanistan.

7. Across the Hindukush of the First Millennium: a collection of the papers by S. Kuwayama.

8. Continuity and Change in Late Antique Iran: An Economic View of the Sasanians by Khodadad Rezakhani of Freie Universität, Berlin.

9. FAITHS OF MAN: A CYCLOPÆDIA OF RELIGIONS BY MAJOR-GENERAL J. G. R. FORLONG, M.R.A.S., F.R.G.S., F.R.S.E., M.A.1, A.I.C.E., F.R.H.S.

10. THE HITTITES AND THEIR LANGUAGE BY C. R. CONDER, LT.-COL. R.E.

11. Patali of Alexander, Sack of Nagar Thatta and Arghoon rule of Sindh by Bipin Shah

12. PERSPECTIVES ON THE SIKH TRADITION, Edited by GURDEV SINCH, Foreword by KHUSHWANT SINGH

13. Tarkhan Nīzak or Tarkhan Tirek? An Enquiry concerning the Prince of Badhghīs Who in A. H. 91/A. D. 709-710 Opposed the 'Omayyad Conquest of Central Asia.

14. RAJ KHALSA PART - Iwritten by Giani Gian Singh.

[mikeshanlon]

Happy Pride! .... Like... more than halfway through the month lmao sorry, better late than never ig! I’ve compiled a list of some of my fave LGBT+ books, as well as a few I’m planning to read for pride/in the near future. Please feel free to reblog and add some of your own recs, especially for the sexual and gender identities that are lacking in my list!!!!!

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz: This beautiful, wholesome coming of age novel is pretty popular on tumblr and with good reason! It’s set in the 1980′s and follows Aristotle, aka "Ari”, as he grows up an tackles with his identity-- he feels like his story is written by someone else, that his path is not up to his control. Whether this is due to his complex relationship with his family, or societal expectations/stereotypes of Latinx men, or the fact that maybe his friendship with Dante might be more than that, and that kinda terrifies him. (Rep: Gay, Latinx, (I believe this is own voices) Warnings: it’s been a minute since i’ve read this but i believe some racism, internalized homophobia, and an instance of violent transphobia)

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston: LGKNLKNGRG okay this is truly one of my favorite books of the year so far and part of the whole reason i wanted to make this. This is a New Adult Contemporary romance set in sort of a like... parallel America where a woman won the presidential election. We follow The First Son, Alex Claremont-Diaz, who’s charming, smart ass, genius icon. Him, his sister June, and their best friend Nora are easily marketable and loved by the public for the most part, but when Alex and his rival Prince Henry of England get into a public spat at a Royal Wedding, Alex and Henry must pretend to be friends to patch up relations and public image for his mother’s re-election campaign. Eventually their fake friendship turns real, and then becomes more as they get to know each other, Alex and Henry begin a secret romance that we follow over the course of the re-election year. This book is fucking HILARIOUS (like I have so many tabs for funny moments and i was trying to be restrained), but it’s just so. Like full of love and hope and it’s so beautiful???? It’s definitely political escapism from our current situation in America but still deals with current issues such as racism and homopboia, etc, but gives the reader hope for future progress. Alex and Henry’s relationship is so fun, and sexy, and beautiful and the friendships are so iconic and Alex’s journey with sexuality is... chefs kiss. Also like. Casey McQuiston mentioned that she listened to Texas Reznikoff by Mitski a lot while writing this in the acknowledgments so. what more do you need... (Rep: Bisexual (Own Voices), Gay, Biracial-- Mexican/White (Own Voices), Warnings: Racism, homophobia, mentions of a past sexual harrassment/assault. Since this is a New Adult, there are smut scenes. I wouldn’t say it’s like. Super explicit or anything but there is sex, though it’s often during Important Moments of their relationships so it doesn’t feel like p*rn-- again the sex is happening but its not in hella explicit detail or anything or for the same goal as say an erotica. P much proceed with caution if it’s not ur thing but it’s not too wild!)

Blanca y Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore: This is sort of a Snow White/Rose Red and Ugly Duckling retelling following two sisters, Blanca and Roja, who’s family curse destines that one of the sisters will be trapped into a swan’s body, never to be seen again. (So this is magical realism lmao). We also follow two boys, Page and Yearling, who were wrapped up in the magic of the nearby woods, but have returned to society. Page is a gender queer trans male, and his whole arc that was so beautiful and made me cry, but in a good way (also warning that I’m cis so like. I would love to hear what gender queer trans individuals think about the rep in this book bc I cannot really attest to it.) This book is really about sisterly love and love in general, with all the complexities that come with it. (also wlw grandma’s who grow apple’s it’s p iconic) (Rep: Latinx-- colorism plays a huge role in the story as well (Own Voices), Gender Queer Trans, Queer (Own Voices) Warnings: Some transphobia, racism, and abuse). (I believe most of Anna-Marie McLemore’s books are magical realism and have some Latinx and queer elements to them as well)

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: god..... This (gay ass) novelization of The Illiad is just so tragically romantic and beautiful... We follow Achilles and Patroclus as they grow up and grow closer, and eventually fight the Trojan War. There are so many beautiful quotes and scenes but like. You will most likely cry so keep that in mind eklrgerg. (Rep: Gay Warnings: Violence, there’s like..... a weird r*pe/homophobic scene)

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan: YA Fantasy set in a world where there are three castes: Moon-- the highest caste, demons with animalistic features in a humanoid form, Steel-- humans with part demon physical features and abilities, and Paper-- fully human, the lowest caste. We follow our protaganist Lei, who despite being a Paper caste, has beautiful golden glowing eyes that end up garnering attention from the Demon King. She’s stolen from her home and forced to join The Paper Girls-- a group of paper caste concubines in training at the palace. As she tries to find a way to escape, she ends up falling for one of the other paper girls, Wren, who might be just the key to freedom. I love Lei and Wren’s relationship and I’m excited to see it play out in the sequel! (which i believe ngan said will introduce more LGBT characters) (Rep: Asian (Own Voices), WLW (I believe this is Own Voices as well). Warnings: As their role as concubines suggest, a large part of this book revolves around the patriarchy using women for power and sexual assualt/rape. There are no explicit rape scenes-- though they do occur ‘off screen’, however there are a couple attempted sexual assault scenes that I believe could be p triggering. This book is also largely about the Paper Girls taking back their power, and I don’t believe these scenes are done for shock value, however please proceed with caution. Subsequently, sexist and patriarchial views are present within the authority, though shunned by Lei, however there’s a lot of internalized sexism and objectification among some of the other Paper Girls.)

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell: I probably don’t have to talk about this one much since it’s super popular, but in what is like essentially Harry Potter but like gay and wholesome, we follow Simon Snow, the Chosen One who’s actually not that good at magic, his best friend Penelope, and his roommate and arch nemesis that’s totally a vampire but won’t admit it, Baz. (Except Baz is, like, totally in love with Simon and Simon’s just too dumb and wrapped up in his own shit to realize it). Truly just,... an iconic enemies to friends to lovers story that unfolds as the three of them try to uncover a mystery surrounding Baz’s late mother. Ik some people have found it confusing bc it’s sort of like starting the Harry Potter story off at book 7 and only getting some background info along the way but honestly I really enjoyed that lmao. Also there’s a sequel coming out this fall, Wayward Son. (Rep: Gay, Some POC rep. Warnings: not rlly any i dont think??? There’s  like. some Homophobia lmao bc we can’t have a gay book without it.)

Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins: This is a cute YA contemporary following Millie Quint who, post being cheated on by her best friend and wanting to have a fresh start, flies to Scotland to finish off her senior year at her Dream prestigous boarding school, joining a handful of other girls as the first female class in the institution’s history. Plus like. Cool Rocks and Scotland. Only problem is that her roomate is sort of a bitch and also the Princess of Scotland who she totally just told off. So yeah yet another royal gay enemies to friends to lovers with a dash of and they were roomates LMAO. This book could be like.... a bit cheesy and rushed but overall it was cute and like...... The Cover.... (Rep: Bisexual, Lesbian, Warnings: Some homophobia. Also this is a companion novel to Prince Charming but you don’t have to read that first, there’s just some references to the couple in that book as the Prince is well.... The Princess’ brother and where they end up so if you don’t wanna be spoiled read that first ig!)

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman: I talked about this some in this post, but I feel like I did kinda a shitty job so. A YA fantasy/paranormal series about the descendant’s of the town’s four founding families-- Violet Saunders, Justin Hawthorne, Harper Carlisle, and Isaac Sullivan (the most iconic one). The latter three have lived in Four Paths their whole lives, protecting the town from The Gray-- p much the Upside Down from Stranger Things lmao, using powers specific to each of their families. Violet and her mother move back after Violet’s sister died in a car accident, and she’s thrust into helping save the town as the Gray grows more restless and having to uncover the secrets of her family as well as all the history brewing between the other three. The Stranger Things and Riverdale comparisons are p valid, (but like. Riverdale in the sense of small town secrets and a bunch of tense history that the kids don’t really understand and must uncover, and some like love triangle but..... not Rlly Love triangles just a mess of ppl being like oh shit i like this person and this person.... Bisexual Chaos if u will... not like. The I’m cuckoo bananas for u let’s go get high and play dungeons and dragons and smash in a bunker LRGKJRLKGJ), the Raven Cycle comparison’s are kind of a stretch, I can see the abstract comparison’s if i squint but like. Don’t go into this expecting TRC lmao. I really enjoyed the theme of grief throughout this book and seeing the powers unfold (and one of the dynamics a lot) and while not perfect the series has a lot of potential and like. Bisexuals. So. (Rep: Bisexual (two mc’s are bi and say the word!!!!!!!! As well as some secondary characters), Disabled (one of the mc’s is missing one arm from the elbow down). Warnings: Grief, Violence)

The Gentlemen’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee: Also talked about this in this post and did a better job there, but to sum it up it’s essentially a friends to lovers, bed sharing, road trip au with a dash of magic but set in the 1700′s! There’s also a sequel/companion, The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy that I have yet to read but it follows Monty’s sister, Felicity, and I believe goes more in depth with her identity. (Rep: Gay, Black, Disabled, Aromantic, Asexual, Warnings: Period typical homophobia/biphobia, racism, ableism, sexism)

Simon vs. The Homosapien’s Agenda by Becky Albertalli: Like. I don’t think i really have to explain this one LRKGJJRG but added it just in case. YA contemporary following Simon as he e-mails another gay student at his school and falls in love. (Rep: Gay, Black, Jewish, Warnings: Homophobia)

All For the Game Trilogy (The Foxhole Court, The Raven King, The King’s Men) by Nora Sakavic: If y’all have been on my blog at all you know i’m back in aftg hyperfixation mode after another reread lmao. Is it a lil messy is it a lil dramatic... yes. but i love it!!! We follow our protagonist Neil Josten, who’s been on the run from his crime lord father, The Butcher of Baltimore, since he was young. After his mother dies on the run, Neil finds a new place and adopts yet another identity, and ends up playing high school exy (a made up sport but like we’re barely here for the sports lmao), something he used to play as a child. Despite playing a new position, he attracts the attention of the PSU Foxes, who’s coach David Wymack specifically recruits players with a troubled past to give them a second chance. Neil really shouldn’t sign-- it goes against everything his mother told him, it puts him at risk of being in the spotlight for his father’s men to find him, and puts him on the same team as Kevin Day, someone from his past that knows his true identity. Still, something draws Neil to joining the team, to finally try to live instead of just survive. UGHHHH like truly this book just makes u fall in love with all the characters and the beautiful and broken found family that develops over three books and one of the most iconic and amazing (ha....) slowburn relationships ever.... Also if i recall they’re super cheap on iBooks (at least when i bought them, the first book was free and the other two were $1.99). (Rep: Gay, Demisexual, POC, Warnings: MAJOR trigger warnings for like. everything bc all the foxes have fucked up pasts. But the biggest ones are probably rape, abuse/torture, and substance abuse)

Six of Crows Duology (Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom) by Leigh Bardugo: Idk how much I really have to talk about this bc it’s popular but I am physically unably not to reccomend this duology bc its just. So. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. The most barebones summary is that this is a YA Fantasy about six people coming together to perform an impossible heist. This is truly like...... a masterclass in developing characters and has one of the best m/f ships i’ve ever read... But also since it’s on here there is some gay shit going on, 3/6 mains are Not Straight and there’s a cute m/m couple! Also you don’t have to read the Grisha Trilogy to read this but u can if u want (I have yet to). (Rep: Bisexual, Gay, Disabled, POC, Warnings: Again these ppl have fucked up pasts, biggest are PTSD, past sexual abuse)

The Raven Cycle Series (The Raven Boys, The Dream Theives, Blue Lily Lily Blue, The Raven King) by Maggie Steifvater: Again i don’t think I really have to explain this one but like. In case you haven’t read this series it’s truly iconic..... Idk even how to explain this LKGJLJRG just like magical realism wonderfulness and found family and amazing relationships and shit.... (Rep: Gay, Bisexual, Disabled, Warnings: Abuse)

The following are books I plan to read for pride/in the near future. I can’t wholeheartedly reccomend them obviously, or fully detail all the rep/warnings, but I’ve heard some great things about these books and a lot of them have representation that the first part of the list is lacking, so I figured I would add them! (Also if I use ‘queer’ that’s because that’s the only label I have been given by the authors or reviewers, or the characters identify as queer)

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman: To my knowledge this is a really emotional YA coming of age/college story that has to do with like. A podcast? Idk a lot of people love it and side note I’ll be suing B&N bc they NEVER have it relkj (Rep: Bisexual, Demisexual, I belive Latinx.)

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand: I believe this is a YA horror-ish novel where there’s a monster stealing girls on and island. (Rep: I believe all three main girls are queer Warnings: Since this is horror im assuming. Horror stuff LMAO)

I Wish You all The Best by Mason Deaver: A YA contemporary romance about Ben who comes out as non-binary to their parents and gets kicked out, and moves in with their estranged sister. They soon are taken under the wing of a senior named Nathan Allan and begin to fall. (Rep: Non-Binary (Own Voices), MLM/Queer, Black (im assuming from the gorgeous cover lmao. Warnings: Misgendering, homophobia, anxiety, depression)

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno: YA Magical Realism about Georgina, who has yet to inherit the magical powers that have been passed down her family, including her twin sister Mary who, unlike Georgina, is coming into her powers. (Rep: Lesbian, Queer, Aro/Ace, Warnings: Rape and sexual assault, underage drinking, animal death, drug use.)

#books #lgbt #pride #lgbt books #idk what else to tag lmao pls feel free to add ur own yall!!! or correct anything i got wrong lmao

[wolgrahas]

tagged by: @falkreathh thank you!!  sorry for doing this so much later u_u’ tagging: whoever wants to!! (◡‿◡✿) 1. favourite game in the series ok... i don’t know if you already figured it out but my total fave is dao. why? maybe is the nostalgic feelings this game gives me or... i played it so many mcfucking times that i just get this hollow feeling inside my chest when i haven’t played it for weeks... idk. the trespasser dlc was spectacular too and gave my lavellan a lot of personality (what i thought the dai base game lacked, bc it made me feel like my inquisitor was an empty shell with no personality, solas’ romance save the dai base game to me tbqh). but... you can create such complex personalities in dao for your warden, and the relationships are so so realistic. i think (dao) is neat lmao. 

2. how did you discover dragon age? before being a dragon age fan i was a dark souls fan; i breath dark souls, i read dark souls, i ate dark souls, i was quite obsessed with dark souls, and before dark souls i was an obsessed skyrim fan (oNLY SKYRIM, not the previous games ashdgjasdgh) and with skyrim that was the first time i made video game oc's, like... they had such complex personalities and i cannot make complex character now... aNYWAY i'm getting carried away: i knew dragon age bc dai was being lunched and ALL the people i followed reblogged stuff about dai, and then i bought dao and loved it!! 

3. how many times have you played the games? hfgsdjfhsjfshd fffUCKKKK SHITT... alright... many mANY TIMES, but how many times i haven't finished my game?? countless times!! i think i finished fINISHED dao maybe... pls don't laugh at me... 10+ times. yes they are so so so many times, shame on me! shame on my cow! blah blah, but i lOVE dao. da2 maybe.... 3-4 times? and dai 6 times?? it's funny bc i played dao and da2 in many different ways but dai... m8, always the same, fuck you solas sdhfjdshjsdf 4. favourite race to play? qUNARIIIII!!! i lOVE tieflings so.. i obviously love the qunari too, but in the dai the first race i chose was qunari but then i talked to solas and i was like... bITCHHHHH i'm gonna create an elf to romance this egg, and then... my canon inky became an elf lol. and last favourite race are humans... ok don't hate me, it's not bc they are """boring""" or shit like that, it's bc they are the upper-class of thedas and i LOVE the "from zero to hero" trope... so... yeah agfshsdfhj 5. favourite class? mages!! bc i love the lore behind this class, it's fantastic, precisely blood magic. but if i didn't care about this, i would choose archer, tho in the first games it sucked but in dai is pretty cool :^) 6. do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time? as i've said before i have made many different decisions in dao and da2 but in dai are always the same lol 7. go-to adventuring group? origins: alistair/sten, morrigan, zev/leliana da2: aveline, anders, isabela/varric dai: solas, cassandra, cole/sera 8. which of your characters did you put the most thought into? i think prim/anika??(they're the same but one is a human and the other an elf lmaoo), she was my first da oc, and obviously the one i put most thought into bc i uSED to have a lot of creativity some years ago, what a pity my brain is useless now lmao 9. favourite romance? pfffff... solas, alistair, leli and cass!! i think?? idk i gotta play again dai bc i'm not sure :/ 10. have you read any of the comics/books? i've read aLL the books but not the comics :/, i want to read the comics but idk where i could read them online and free (sorry i'm poor lol), so... mi gozo en un pozo lmao 11. if you read them, which was your favourite book? my fav book was "the masked empire"!! patrick weekes is a good writer and i loved the orlesian politics, and i adored seeing these characters in dai! (tho briala was whitewashed lmao) 12. favourite DLCs? obviously: awakening and trespasser. these two dlc's were mcfUCKING AMAZING. i mean, with dao i expected the same quality of the base game, but trespasser was such an excelent and good experience, it gave a lot of insight to our inquisitors and also: sOOULASSSSS, so yep! i mainly lOVED trespasser and i hope weekes guides the team to make a game at least as good as this dlc! (tho, if ea is a greedy bintch this time [as always lol] it doesn't matter how many times the bioware time tries, ea will force them to do a shitty game :/) 13. things that annoy you how viv, anders and sera are written, i mean, i loved anders the first time i played da2 but his personality is obviously written to annoy the fuck outta you, tho i loved how he expressed his ideals freely (tho sometimes he even seemed too traidtional to me about topics like blood magic :/), but sera and viv were a lil harder to befriend and like, and i still don't like much viv, but i love her as a character, y'kno 14. orlais or ferelden? tbh, if i gotta live in one of those two places i would choose ferelden by fAR. but, now, if we're talking about which is more interesting; orlais. 15. templars or mages? like @/blckwall said: all templars are bastards :). i would love if thedas had independent magic schools, that there were no higher representatives or charges, that every village or city had its own magic school, and the crown would be the responsable of manage its needs. i haven't thought much about this so my thoughts are quite vague :/ 16. if you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one? they're from different universes, tho i'd love the idea of all of them being in the same universe, but some worlds states are incompatible with others. 17. what did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc) in dao: barkspawn (i'm extremelly predictable, sorry u_u') 18. have you installed any mods? all my dragon age games are modded as fUCK. i mean, i think dao is the most heavy modded game i have?? (mainly bc i cannot install many mods in skyrim lol) but when i have my gaming computer again i will mod the shit out of dai >:) 19. did your warden want to become a grey warden? prim had been working in the circle her entire live to be in the higher ranks, and then she saw how all her work was lost made her really conflicted: she didn't wanted to leave bc she yearned to be more powerful and make the circle a better place for mages (yep, she's deeply anti-circle bc of her traumatic past), and she was going to die if she refused duncan's offer. even so, she was never sorry for supporting jowan. and, she became the king of ferelden's mistress; she loved him obv, but she could also take some advantage of his power to make the mages and marginalize people's situation better, and gain fortune by that; alistair was well aware about her plans by prim's words herself, but he never objected. altho the main cause prim made alistair king is bc she wanted him to have a good life and not waste it as a grey warden, so... anyway, i got acrried away... this is long af ghdjsdgf 20. hawke’s personality? red mostly, tho he used to be purple/red in the first and begining of the second act :/ 21. did you make matching armor for your companions in inquisition? yes i did!! i lOVED to be fashionable in dragon age instyle!! 22. if your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change? prim : she would have tried to convince jowan and wait some months until she could convince him. also: sometimes she wishes she didn't make alistair king, mostly bc of her daughter (her daughter is the only heir to the throne of ferelden, and basically she doesn't even know that prim is her real mother, mostly bc anora adopted her bc alistair and she couldn't have children), sometimes, in her alone saddest times, thinks how things would have been if alistair was still a grey warden, they would have a happy family and wouldn't even had to hide inofensive stuff like a cheek kiss. but anyway, her duties as a grey warden are more important and doesn't have time to think about it. garrett hawke: he regrets not defending carver, he would have prefered to sacrifice himself instead of any of his siblings. he also regrets going to the deep roads with bethany, letting the grey wardens make her one of them (obv he doesn't know that if he didn't she would have joined the circle lmao). and obv her mother's death... if he had been there, with her mother, he could have done something... :'/ maia: she regrets not being strong enough when that shem tried to hurt her when she was a litte girl, that made her mother kill him to save her bc she was too defenseless, she should have been stronger, that caused her mother and she part ways, because now maia's mother was a criminal and she had more proabilities of getting caught, so maia should go on her way and find the next village, but she found the lavellan clan. she deeply regrets not going after her mother. she also think she was too stupid to not found out the true identity of solas and try to convince him that this world has meaning :'/ 23. do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon? mmmm... no? :/, i like my decisions to have consequences?? 24. are any of your characters based on someone? sahgdashsd pls don't make fun of me but in the first stage of prim's/anika's 'personality creation' was inspired by mother gothel, then she was inspired by...... mikasa ackerman dsfgdjsdf, i'm still inspired by that character tHO i know that shingeki no kyojin is nazi propaganda and i no longer watch that anime lmao. maia is inspired by... a mix of me and rapunzel (from tangled)?? she's basically a shy rapunzel :') 25. who did you leave in the fade? some of you will hate me bc i had to choose between hawke and stroud but i still chose hawke dsfgsdf. m8, hawke is just a 'figure' who isn't widely recognized in thedas, while the grey warden are 394789x more useful, idk i always put myself in the shoes of my characters even if their decisions hurt me (tho, tbqh, i'm not tHAT attached to hawke so this choice was easy lol) 26. favourite mount? royal sixteen!! she's so pretty!! ♡♡♡ thanks for tagging me!! ♡♡

#rami.txt #rami got tagged.txt #this was fun!!

[doomedandstoned]

To Helltown & Back: Electric Citizen’s Laura Dolan Speaks

~By Jamie LaRose~

Photographs by Sally Townsend

My recent visit with Laura Dolan, the commanding winger of Cincinnati’s Electric Citizen, was both enlightening and welcomed. She is a vegan, a lover of classic cars, and a well-experienced thrift store fashionista. I remember meeting Laura in 2014, when Satyress had the pleasure of playing a show with Electric Citizen and Fu Manchu at Dante’s in Portland, Oregon. I found the band to be a delightful, friendly, and talented bunch. Electric Citizen is currently on tour with Monster Magnet in support of the new album, 'Helltown' (2018 - RidingEasy Records). Their third album is reminiscent of their first, 'Sateen' (2014), with its raw, powerful sound. This is a great Cincinnati Northside-true album, written, recorded, engineered, and inspired by “Hell Town” itself. Get your dose of heavy psychedelic healing at one of the tour dates listed below and get your copy of Helltown while you're at it!

I don’t know if you remember, it’s been a while, but we’ve played a show together. It was the Fu Manchu show in Portland, Oregon in May of 2014.

I thought so! Yes, I remember your band. You were wonderful.

You, too! I remember meeting you and talking with you about essential oils.

I remembered it was Pentagram or Fu Manchu because we played the same venue, it was at Dante’s.

All of us at Doomed & Stoned are excited to get the chance to talk to you at this time of your new release 'Helltown.' I was interested in the meaning behind the name of the album and the band. I read that “Hell Town” is one of the names by which the neighborhood you live in is known. I would like to know a little bit about the relationship between that and the writing process for the band on this album.

Absolutely. I chose that name for several different reasons. I mean the most obvious is the translation of where the album was written and practiced, recorded. It just kind of made sense to pay homage to that. I also like that it can also take on these multiple meanings, which is something I really try to do with songwriting, as well. It can be a futuristic thing, or it could play into current times.

Helltown by Electric Citizen

As far as what our neighborhood means to us is this is where everything happens. The studio where we record is a stone’s throw away from our house, which is also where we practice and write all the music. It’s just this really great little neighborhood which is unique in Cincinnati where there’s a lot of different ethnic groups, and there’s a lot of artists, the LGBTQ community is strong here. All of these different types of people that we are surrounded by are hugely inspiring to me. I just have this very special place in my heart for this neighborhood, and the guys share the same sentiment. "Hell Town" is a nickname that was more commonly used in the 1800s when it was an entertainment district for the factory workers because we are in a very industrial area. So this is where they would go and hang out after they got off work from the factories and it was just known as "Hell Town." There were so many different things about it that are so meaningful that it just makes it the perfect title for this album.

Where do you find or draw inspiration in the process for the band or when writing any music in general?

I like to start by writing a track and feeling out where it’s going from the melody standpoint, and then trying to craft something meaningful into that. The melody is such a hugely important part of the song. There’s so much to draw inspiration from like today’s political state, relationships between people, our current times. I feel fascinated by the idea that we are living in this huge turning point, the dawn of the era of technology and how that’s affecting us as a human race. That’s something I love exploring. Every day is like an episode of Black Mirror. What’s going to happen to us? There are so many things happening right now that we’ve never experienced as the human race.

I can hear that questioning nature of inspiration in the lyrics and music. What type of challenges might you face while working together and making and recording music together?

Well, we’re pretty lucky in that we get along. That’s something I don’t take for granted because we’ve had a few different change-ups in the lineup, and we’re now kind of back to where we were at the beginning of the band. We had a great time with our other bass player, but the dynamic can be very different. Having the energy of the original band, and the relationships we all have with each other is a huge help as far as writing and making the music, as well as enjoying the process the whole way. I think we make it harder on ourselves by choosing to record analog; that’s definitely a much more tedious task than recording digitally. We have a pretty standardized process where Ross writes the basics of the song, and then we all start layering on top of that using a huge amount of editing. I think it’s a really important quality to have to be able to stand back and say, “You know what, I’ve created something and it sucks,” and I’m going to scrap it and try again. I think that self-reflection is really important.

It is the universal nature of some good work to be thorough. Speaking of the process of the mixing and the engineering, can you explain a bit about that process as used in the new album?

Unlike the process of the second album which may have been a bit more polished than we would mean, we knew on the third album that we wanted to try to capture what we had in the first album.

It sounds like everything about 'Helltown' was done in “Hell Town.” From the new tracks, I can see its relationship to the first album in its grittiness and more natural nature. What are the details of the release?

The album official release date is September 28th. It’s being released worldwide through Riding Easy Records. There is distribution all of the world, you can get it at Riding Easy Records in the states and of course we are also starting a tour with Monster Magnet on the same day so you can come get it from us at the merch booth.

What are some of your most successful accomplishments so far as a group?

Beyond what we’ve created, which is really the whole reason we’ve started doing this, I think that some of the bands we’ve gotten to tour with have been a huge accomplishment. There’s been Arthur Brown, a long-time hero he is the godfather of shock rock. He’s inspired so many different artists. We’ve opened for King Diamond, Joan Jett, Fu Manchu and this tour with Monster Magnet is a big deal for us. That’s a band that’s really made a name for themselves. Getting to tour Europe, I personally had never been over there before touring as a band. It’s great to go into a project like this having no expectations, and then having all these things happening. Every single one of them has kind of been mind-blowing for us. That’s one of the things I’ve learned growing older, have no expectations and life will exceed them all.

How have you grown as a singer and artist over the years?

When I was first starting out, singing in bands, I had such a fear for doing what I’m doing. As soon as I was able to release that and have the fearlessness of, “If I fail, I fail. If I don’t, I don’t.”, I would encourage anyone that’s going into any form of art; remember to have that fearlessness. It’s so freeing. I feel like that’s such an important message, especially to young girls that are interested in doing this and following in our footsteps, singing in a band or whatever it is. It’s just, "You have nothing to fear except fear itself!"

What is your message to the universe?

Oh wow, that’s a good one. Hmm, that is such an important question. I think really for me it comes down to… just be kind to each other. Everybody in this world is fighting their own fight, and I think it’s so important to remember to give room for people to behave like they do because you just don’t know what’s going on with their life. I think that ultimately what this world needs more than anything right now is kindness. I guess it would be just as simple as that. Be kind to each other. Maybe to ask everyone to love each other is too much, but if you can’t find that in your heart, just be kind.

Electric Citizen & Monster Magnet on Tour

10/02 - Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge 10/03 - Minneapolis, MN @ Cabooze 10/05 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater 10/06 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge 10/08 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater 10/09 - Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom 10/10 - Seattle, WA @ El Corazon 10/12 - San Francisco, CA @ Thee Parkside 10/15 - Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory 10/16 - San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick 10/17 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge 10/19 - San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger 10/20 - Dallas, TX @ Canton Hall 10/21 - Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall 10/23 - Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade 10/24 - Nashville, TN @ Basement East 10/26 - Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage 10/27 - New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre 10/28 - Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair

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#D&S Interviews #Electric Citizen #Cincinnati #Ohio #Hard Rock #Stoner Rock #Doom #Metal #RidingEasy Records #Jamie LaRose #Doomed & Stoned

[quranreadalong]

A TALE OF TWO CITIES KINGDOMS, PT 1/4

The next surah involves a long and very weird story about King Solomon, so I think this is a good time to dive into some sweet-ass Biblical history, like we did with Moses way back when. Specifically, this series of posts is going to cover the Kingdom of Israel and its southern neighbor, the Kingdom of Judah.

If you were raised Muslim, the distinction between Israel and Judah was probably lost on you. It was for me, at least, and it seems like it was lost on Mohammed, too. David and Solomon are presented in Islam as “kings of Israel” and then the story skips ahead quite far, bypassing virtually the history of Israel and Judah as covered in the Biblical books of Kings and Chronicles. And so you may have missed the fact that the stories of the Bible are, substantially, propaganda against Israel by their southern neighbors in Judah.

The Biblical history of the Jewish people starts with Abraham arriving in Canaan, goes through the years in Egypt and the return to/conquest of the “promised land”, then enters the period of the statehood of Israel in the time of King Saul.

Saul is described as the first king of Israel, living around 1000 BC, and he is succeeded by David, who is followed by his son Solomon, both of whom have roots in Judah. The kingdom at the time is given as a very large, very wealthy territory, with Jerusalem being its major city.

That part is familiar to most people, Muslims included. What happens next is less familiar. According to the Bible, Solomon’s habit of acquiring a zillion foreign wives greatly displeased YHWH, and he vowed to take the kingdom away from his lineage.

Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.  Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.  However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”

The son in question was named Rehoboam. The Bible says that Rehoboam was a bit of a dick and the northern half of the country was sick of his shit, declaring its independence from him and establishing a new kingdom. The newly-independent north was called the Kingdom of Israel, while Rehoboam’s descendants got stuck with the southern part, the Kingdom of Judah. The two were never reunited.

Archeology and historical records show that Israel was by far the more populous, developed neighbor, and remained that way right until its fall to the Assyrians centuries later. As we’ve seen, the Bible completely writes off the people of Israel after this point, describing them as foreigners imported by the Assyrians, with the original inhabitants of the land being deported to Assyrian provinces and becoming the “lost tribes”.

So how much of what the Bible says about all this is true?

The good news (if you care about this sort of thing) is that David was a historical person, or at the very least the idea of someone named David being a historical person is very old. This is called the Tel Dan Stele, an Aramaic block commemorating the victories of the King of Aram:

It’s broken, but one key phrase is not broken: The “House of David”, described as the ruling house of Judah. Israel is also mentioned in the stele, but their rulers are not described as “of the House of David”. The stele dates to the 800s BC. So Judah, at least, was in fact ruled by kings who claimed descent from this David fellow. What was Judah like in this era, and what was Israel like? Let’s start all the way at the beginning.

The first leader of any territory in Judah mentioned in historical sources is a guy named Abdi-Heba, who was in charge of the area around and including Jerusalem when the region was under Egyptian control in the 1300s BC. Abdi-Heba’s letters to the Egyptian pharaoh mention various other local chieftains in both the future lands of Judah and Israel, including one named Labayu, who ruled a region in what is now the West Bank. These men do not seem to have ruled large or particularly well-developed areas; they were local, tribal leaders, largely indistinguishable from other Canaanite chieftains. They often fought against each other in petty squabbles.

I’m gonna quote some parts of The Bible Unearthed by the archaeologist Israel Finkelstein here. The Tell el-Amarna tablets describe Abdi-Heba’s domain as:

a thinly-settled highland region, loosely supervised from the royal citadel in Jerusalem. … isolated from the main trade routes … Its economy was concentrated around the self-sufficient production of the individual farming community or pastoral group. [Abdi Heba] controlled the highlands from … Bethel in the north to … Hebron in the south

Abdi-Heba’s domain was less prosperous and significant even compared to those of his neighbors, and in their letters to the pharaoh, neighboring chieftains accuse him of infringing upon their territory to expand his own. Abdi-Heba’s own letters are mostly concerned with his petty conflicts with regional rivals and trouble with roving bands of bandits and mercenaries. What happened to Abdi-Heba or any other ruler between him and the time of David is unknown, but many changes were afoot in the region about a century later. The entire eastern Mediterranean faced challenges from a new threat:

Mysterious and violent groups named the Sea Peoples, migrants who came by land and sea from the west and devastated everything that stood in their way … [a text] frantically describes how “enemy boats have arrived, the enemy has set fire to the cities and wrought havoc … the country has been left to its own devices” 

Prosperous settlements were burned to the ground; others were deserted and turned into ruins upon the advance of the invaders. The “Sea Peoples” weren’t just one group, but many of them were people from the Greek isles, apparently intent upon wrecking shit. Egyptian depictions make it look like they were also really into tacky headgear (and yes the women were apparently bare-chested, they don’t seem to have seen breasts as sexual body parts).

Whoever the many “Sea Peoples” were, they caused a whole lot of damage in the 1300s and 1200s BC. Egypt held them off for a while, but the warfare, along with political instability at home, meant that they no longer had the resources or energy necessary to maintain full control of the Levant region. And so new civilizations sprang up to grab whatever power they could get their hands on. One such civilization was the Philistines--most likely Greek “Sea People”--who established colonies to the southwest of Judah. The entire map of the region had changed in a very short amount of time.

Not all of the changes were disastrous. In the highland regions of what is now Israel, nomads began settling into sedentary lifestyles:

a dramatic social transformation had taken place in the central hill country of Canaan around 1200 BC. There was no sign of violent invasion or even the infiltration of a clearly defined ethnic group. Instead it seemed to be a revolution in lifestyle … about 250 hilltop communities suddenly sprang up.

A large proportion of the first Israelites were once pastoral nomads. But they were pastoral nomads undergoing … the presumed shift from the earlier tent encampments to villages of similar layout in stone.

The communities involved small, basic dwellings of around 100 each, providing for themselves by growing food and raising animals. By 1100 BC the population was barely 50,000 spread out across the entire area, but that still reflected a huge change from the predominantly nomadic system of the region just a century or so earlier.

The villages in this early era do not seem to have worshiped different gods or spoken a different language compared to other Canaanites. They were unfortified settlements and there are no archeological signs of any serious conflict with their neighbors. In fact, the only thing that distinguishes these proto-Israelites from other Canaanites is.... they didn’t seem to raise pigs. Whether that was because of their particular religious customs or was retroactively explained by them, who knows.

The layout of their early villages was in the shape of an oval, with living quarters encircling a courtyard containing animals. This same layout has been found all the way from the Sinai to Jordan, and seems to reflect a region-wide settling of nomads. They plopped their tents down in the traditional manner, built basic houses where they sat, and kept their animals in the middle.

It's probable that this process was prompted by the collapse of Egyptian rule after the 1200s BC--and the stability it offered. Before, nomads provided settled peoples with meat and settled peoples provided nomads with grain and produce. But due to the aforementioned wrecking of shit, there were far fewer agricultural settlements remaining in the region. So nomads could no longer rely upon settled people for grain and produce... and they had to begin growing them themselves.

This was all far more noticeable in what would become Israel than in what would become Judah, which at the time was:

rocky and covered with dense scrub and forest … A mere handful of permanent villages were established there at the time of the Israelite settlement … Judah remained relatively empty

The difference in environment was the main reason. The land that would become Israel was simply more fit for small agricultural settlements than the future Judah was. Israel was also in closer contact with the many Canaanite cities to the north and east, which were slowly reviving themselves. It took nearly 200 years, but the huge economic and social blow to the region was slowly fading.

By the 11th century BC the Philistines, who had previously settled along the southern coast, consolidated the power of their cities. The Phoenician successors of the coastal Canaanites occupied the maritime ports of the north. … after a few decades of abandonment even the major sites were reoccupied, apparently by the same population … the most important Canaanite centers were rejuvenated

And so the future Israel began to slowly integrate itself into the newly-revived regional economy. Now we’re finally getting close to the presumed time of Saul, David, and Solomon. The stage seems pretty set for a united kingdom to develop, right? People are settling down, the nomadic way of life is ending, the economy is developing. But we have a couple of problems here. One: Judah is still essentially hicktown, even as Israel takes the first steps towards development. Jerusalem won’t be noted as an important city in any records for a very long time. Two: there are zero signs of any united kingdom. The “House of David” is solely mentioned in connection with leaders of Judah in all of the historical evidence we have. The leaders of Israel were separate people living a quite separate existence, with nothing clearly in common with Judah beyond the two having YHWH as part of their polytheistic pantheon (and as we’ve already seen, YHWH was worshiped in some other Canaanite city-states too).

It’s possible (even likely!) that some guy named David did exist as the early ruler of some part of Judah. But the reality is that neither he nor any of his successors are mentioned in any historical sources. And the sources that mention their alleged later descendants never suggest that there was ever a time in which Israel and Judah were united and ruled by one dynasty of Judean origins. In fact, for the next several centuries, it was Israel, not Judah, which would play the historically important role in Levantine history.

It began in the mid-900s BC with a bang, involving foreign invaders yet again wrecking shit. This time, the invaders were more familiar.

The northern cities would be destroyed by violence and fire … they never recovered from the shock. This was Canaan’s last gasp.

Egypt … was at last ready to reassert its power … the pharaoh Shishak, founder of the 22nd Dynasty … launched an aggressive raid northward. This Egyptian invasion is mentioned in the Bible [1 Kings 14:25-26]. .. Shishak struck at the developing network of early Israelite villages in the highlands as well. But Shishak’s campaign did not result in lasting Egyptian control of the highlands … yet the blow struck at the revived Canaanite cities … was terminal. This had enormous implications, since the destruction of the last vestiges of the Canaanite city-state system opened a window of opportunity for the people of [Israel].

The cities of northern Canaan were violently conquered by the new Egyptian pharaoh, who thought that now would be a good time to reclaim his ancestors’ old vassal states. This pharaoh was Shoshenq, who recorded his victories on the walls of a temple. This pharaoh, called Shishak in the Bible, is only mentioned there as having conquered Jerusalem in the time of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. But the Egyptian records say nothing of Jerusalem. They do mention plenty of places in the Canaanite cities, and in Israel. It seems that Jerusalem, and Judah as a whole, just wasn’t considered a place worth gloating about at the time, no matter how hard the Bible’s authors try to insert it into the record.

Regardless, the total collapse of the northern Canaanites gave Israel an opportunity. They had a fairly large settled population now, and a climate that was able to produce olive oil and wine, two luxury items. With their local competitors indisposed for the moment, they suddenly became important in regional trade. And with that came an influx of money, and with an influx of money came a need to establish some bureaucracy.

It was around this time that one of the most important Biblical dynasties was founded. ...I am referring, of course, to the House of Omri!!

⇚ previous day | next day ⇛

#quranreadalong #surah 27 #historylesson #an naml

[platitvdes]

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME: edward michael kaspbrak

NICKNAME(S): eddie, eds, spaghetti head, eddie spaghetti, spagheds, etc. by the losers/party. also wheezy, “sissy little queer boy,” and uh a bunch of other… more aggressive things by non–partylosers according to the book thanks a lot steve (king, not harrington)

AGE: eighteen

DATE OF BIRTH: september 3, 1976

HOMETOWN: derry, maine

CURRENT LOCATION: derry, maine

ETHNICITY: he white

NATIONALITY: americano

GENDER: cis male

PRONOUNS: he/him/his

ORIENTATION: het thanks!!!!! just kidding he’s a homoromantic homosexual

RELIGION: a good christian boiy. he was raised methodist. what is he really? who knows. fighting a giant clown monster demon thing makes you really question a lot about religion and he’s not willing to go too deep into it

POLITICAL AFFILIATION: left-leaning, but very moderately so, mostly influenced by his friends and also by the fact that maine has been a blue state pretty much for the entire time he’s been old enough to think about these things. his mom’s a democrat solely because she lives off the welfare system ( and because she finds bill clinton incredibly charming and charismatic ); otherwise she’d definitely be a republican

OCCUPATION: student, a sad small gay

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: he lives with his momma in a very toxic environment also his mom is lowkey a hoarder it’s not so bad that he’s embarrassed to invite people over but like she’s a hoarder

LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: english and…. english

ACCENT: um idk a maine accent

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

FACE CLAIM: timothée chalamet

HAIR COLOUR: dark brown

EYE COLOUR: hazel—sometimes more green, sometimes more brown, sometimes more weirdly gold-ish; depends on the day and lighting

HEIGHT: five feet, eight inches.

WEIGHT: one-hundred twenty-two pounds.

BUILD: skinny af and long-limbed ( for his stature ). not crazy short anymore, but still below average height

TATTOOS: LMAO

PIERCINGS: y’all. pls

CLOTHING STYLE: from my head canons, bc i’m too lazy to rewrite it: eddie often looks like he’s stepped out of the pages of a ralph lauren catalogue not because he is stylish or fashionable at all—he isn’t—but because he wears a lot of polos and shorts, though he doesn’t fill them out nearly as well as the ralph lauren models do. Especially pastel polos. he also frequently wears your good ol’ graphic tee and jeans combo, because you can’t go wrong there, right?

USUAL EXPRESSION: concerned tbh

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: slightly doe-eyed, extremely doe-bodied, a preppy haircut, an inhaler in hand, and also he’s probably getting squeaky-voiced about something and/or visibly shaking. like a chihuahua.

HEALTH

PHYSICAL AILMENTS: technically? none

NEUROLOGICAL CONDITIONS: LORDY okay so the number one most important one is munchausen syndrome and hypochondria courtesy of being the proxy of his mom’s munchausen by proxy; severe anxiety (including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder); clinical depression; and, finally, i believe the medical term for it is “FOMO"

ALLERGIES: supposedly pollen, animal dander, insect bites/stings, dust, latex, mold, wool, and, like, a bunch of other shit. he does actually have some allergies, especially to pollen/animal dander/dust, that aren’t super severe and therefore don’t necessarily present typical allergy symptoms and contribute to his constant feelings of general illness and malaise that heighten the aforementioned hypochondria. he also is actually allergic to latex. womp womp

SLEEPING HABITS: not the best but not the worst—eddie falls asleep early enough and wakes early enough, especially when left to his own devices, but he’ll often stay up later just to be in the group chat because of the aforementioned FOMO and also because richie will usually show up at his house and they’ll just talk for a while. but even then tbh he has a hard time staying up later than like 1 or 2, and even on the weekends he’ll wake up pretty early. so……… all this adds up to having ambitions of getting a good amount of sleep, not getting Terrible amounts of sleep, but also not getting Enough sleep.

EATING HABITS: you would think he would have some special diet and maybe in 2018 he would be raised eating nothing but kale and granola and gluten free shit but bitch it’s 1994 eddie eats hella processed foods

EXERCISE HABITS: that’s cute idk he gets exercise from running from bullies and riding his bike w his friends although they don’t do that as much anymore now that people have cars

EMOTIONAL STABILITY: 1 probably eddie is always on the verge of a nervous breakdown. in actuality he’s probably around a 7, which is much higher than you might think; as much as he is indeed constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, he’s done a pretty good job of pushing down literally everything into a well so deep that most people, including himself, can’t really tell what’s wrong or what’s going on, and it’s been that way for a long, long time. or anyway, repression is the only version of emotional stability he’s learned to manage and maintain, which probably doesn’t actually count as very stable, so who knows, maybe he’s a 3.

SOCIABILITY: not as introverted as one might think; he’s definitely an introvert and needs some time alone to recharge, but in general, he prefers being around his friends to not being around them and will go out of his way to be with the people he’s closest to

BODY TEMPERATURE: runs cold, typically, which also means he gets cold easily, which sucks when you live in fucking maine

ADDICTIONS: none

DRUG USE: a seasoned pill popper of all kinds of vitamins and various placebos. he’s also on like 35 different mental health related medications. i know this isn’t what you were looking for but this is eddie kaspbrak

ALCOHOL USE: fam, come on

PERSONALITY

LABEL: “the little nervous one,” according to me upon my first watch of IT (2017); the crepehanger

POSITIVE TRAITS: loyal, feisty, energetic, brave

NEGATIVE TRAITS: defeatist, anxious, rambling, hypocritical

GOALS/DESIRES: to overcome his biggest fears, mainly—which means to be able to leave derry ( and his mother ) behind; to accept that he is not some sickly boy in need of protecting; to feel comfortable in his own skin.

FEARS: disease, death, abandonment, intense feelings of any kind honestly, his sexuality, exposure of said sexuality, change, his mom, disappointing his mom, independence, failure

HOBBIES: comics, movies, spending fucking HOURS reading medical websites and learning that all roads lead to cancer, hanging out with The Gang™, annoying his friends, lecturing his friends, sneaking out of his house, super mario bros, is candy a hobby? it is now, not dungeons and dragons ‘cause he’s not a fuckin nerd

HABITS: nail biting, compulsive timekeeping, pencil chewing tbh but only at Home, ice chewing also…..it’s super bad for your teeth but man does he love it……., assuming death lurks around every corner and shouting at everyone else about it

FAVOURITES

WEATHER: he likes a sunny day in weather that is slightly crisp, like late september, bc he has seasonal allergies

COLOUR: blu. particularly a good royal blue. sometimes sky blue if he’s feeling festive

MUSIC: pop music mostly…………. he loves a diva. he is a Loud whitney houston stan but he keeps his madonna love much closer to the vest

MOVIES: comedies definitely. he doesn’t care much for movies that are like, cinematically renowned and artsy or whatever. he’s here for something stupid that’ll make him laugh. he really likes dumb and dumber, embarrassingly enough. he also loves bill & ted. it’s his favorite movie. good ol wholesome fun, there.

SPORT: tennis obviously

BEVERAGE: an arnold palmer he’s really wildin out here

FOOD: honestly? a fuckin ice cream sundae

ANIMAL: penguins they’re gay and they mate for life

FAMILY

FATHER: frank kaspbrak. he died of cancer when eddie was a wee bab ( he was five so not actually a wee bab, but wee enough )

MOTHER: sonia kaspbrak, a devil woman

SIBLING(S): none

PET(S): he had a goldfish named arnold once that’s it

FAMILY’S FINANCIAL STATUS: lower middle class. his mom doesn’t work and lives solely off disability checks and the like, but they never seem to be for lack of money for eddie’s extensive medical care or, like, food or shelter.

EXTRA

ZODIAC SIGN: virgo binch

MBTI: ISFJ ( the defender )

ENNEAGRAM: type 6 ( the loyalist ), but actually he’s a type 6 with a type 5 wing that’s almost balanced, which, hilariously, is also called the defender

TEMPERAMENT: melancholic

HOGWARTS HOUSE: GRYFFINDOR FIGHT ME

MORAL ALIGNMENT: lawful good

PRIMARY VICE: envy

PRIMARY VIRTUE: charity

ELEMENT: earth

#( m. — eddie kaspbrak. ) #( profile | eddie kaspbrak. )

[courferrevevo-blog]

l’amis headcanons

these are just my personal opinions but i do get most of my info from the Brick + basic history, message me if u have questions or a different opinion tho! Enjolras -v v gay -for Grantaire specifically -french native (via the Brick; his family were likely French aristocrats) -studying law when he’s not arguing with a teacher -literally incapable of writing an essay within the given parameters it's always at least a page too long enj tag

Grantaire -bi as fuk -loves enj with every fiber in his being -moroccan on his father’s side and romani on his mother’s, hopped on a boat to france one day bc he heard the wine was good -actually is a genius, studying art but he took one Popperian philosophy class and hasn’t stopped trying to falsify enj since. -reads too many Greek mythology books he Needs to Stop -he has severe depression and is an alcoholic (this is straight from the brick!! however, this is not ///cute/// in any way; i don’t romanticize it at all but it’s important to acknowledge that he has mental health issues) taire tag enjoltaire tag

Combeferre -hes jus doin his queer lil thing being bi -literally!!! cannot!!! express!!! his love!!! for!!! Courfeyrac!!! -his family are Cargèse la Grecque (Corsican Greeks) -double majoring in philosophy and physics as an undergraduate degree before med school -his blood is probably 95% coffee ferre tag

Courfeyrac -very pansexual and somehow?? everyone he flirts with is attracted to him -he mainly flirts with ferre tho because ferre is the Love of his Life -spanish, moved to France from Spain to study law -“study” law lmaO he has a fuckin bookshelf full of trashy romance novels that he calls his “legal library” jhsdbfjkhsdg -he brings his mother’s sangria recipe to every meeting and nobody drinks it but him and ferre because it’s  ridiculously sweet but ferre is a good supportive boyfriend and dutifully has one glass every time courf tag courferre tag

Feuilly -he makes fans thats…. rly gay -i guess u could say he’s BahoreL’S BIGGEST FAN LMAO -lil redheaded nerd from Poland (according to the Brick, “He had for his specialty Greece, Poland, Hungary, Roumania, Italy. He uttered these names incessantly, appropriately and inappropriately, with the tenacity of right. The violations of Turkey on Greece and Thessaly, of Russia on Warsaw, of Austria on Venice, enraged him.”) -English major with a minor in Eastern European history -he really went to the fuckin barricade with a sword :’) a fucking sword :’))) dramatic impractical femme ass bitch :’)) feu tag

Bahorel -gay are u kidding…. -forever trying to get Feu to arm wrestle just so he has an excuse to hold his hand :)) -his family probably originated from Port-au-Prince in Haiti before being trafficked into France via the slave trade– he reminds me a lot of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, who really was a general in the French Revolution -very lazy law student who is only in school to spite the system lmao -sdgfhjkdgh he literally has a ritual of cursing and flipping off the law school every time he passes by (“Every time that he passed the law-school, which rarely happened… he took hygienic precautions… He wasted a tolerably large allowance, something like three thousand francs a year, in doing nothing.”) -tends to get into fights easily especially when drunk… he needs 2 chill…. bahorel tag feuhorel tag

Joly -poly + bi -constantly trying to get musichetta and bossuet into medical cots if u catch my drift :)))))))) -i headcanon joly as chinese-french, since that’s currently one of the largest immigrant groups in Paris. however, this characterization would be difficult for canon-era since Chinese immigration began in early to mid 1900s. however, once the Chinese immigration wave did begin, it resulted in the popularization of Eastern medicinal practices in Europe, which goes along w the brick’s characterization of joly as a med student -majoring in biology for his pre med and when he had to dissect a cow brain he almost puked on it -canonically, has some kind of anxiety disorder, most likely OCD and/or severe germaphobia (again, not to be romanticized!!! it would be a legitimate issue that would realistically affect his life in some negative ways) -always trying weird teas and herbal medicines -he thought that grantaire’s crush on enjolras was symptomatic of a brain tumor for the longest time joly tag

Bossuet Laigle (Lesgle) -who the fuck knows lmao he’s poly and ????? pan?? all he does is make gay jokes -chetta and joly know :^) -his mother was probably one of the 50k+ free black people that migrated to Paris after Napoleon sold the Louisiana territory to the United States and most likely met Bossuet’s father after he was given the posting office in Meaux, Paris by the king (the Meaux part is canonical and results in one of the best puns in the brick) -he’s a year behind Bahorel in law school and honestly……… his grades are abysmal help him -its not even because he’s stupid he’s literally just lazy and his professors always???change due dates without him knowing lmao -let! bossuet! be! bald! bossuet tag

Musichetta -bi + poly -started dating joly and bossuet after L'Amis began using the Musain as a meeting place, maybe she hooks up with Éponine too??????????? idk -french native, light skin, dark hair and brown eyes (in canon, she is “…white and dimpled, with the eyes of a fortune teller,“ this may indicate Romani origin) -works as a bartender in the Musain (for modern headcanons I think she studies English on the side, since Joly describes her as “very literary”) chetta tag jolsuchetta tag

Marius Pontmercy -he’s literally the only str8 here lmfaO -i mean maybe one time courfeyrac convinced him to dabble but it didn’t work which is fine bc he is devoted to Cosette -french native; like enj, his family were rich and closely affiliated with the monarchy -he’s an English major working towards becoming a lawyer and is the epitome of the Poor College Student -!!! freckly and shy and full of LOVE (it’s canon that his Bonapartist views conflicted with the more extreme politics of the rest of L'Amis. he’s not a doormat in any sense, but he is a quieter character since he’s learning the way of the revolution from the rest of L'Amis) -he’s so fuckign dramatic jshdbfhjdsb once he stood with his head against a tree in angst while cosette cried in the background like thats in the text actually marius tag

Cosette Fauchelevent -bi and proud!! -Marius is her angel -french native, “chestnut” hair, blue eyes, v innocent look about her -majoring in political science and interning as a journalist (obviously i’m ignoring the sexism of canon-era, but this career choice fits her canon personality: “Cosette was not very timid by nature. There flowed in her veins some of the blood of the bohemian and the adventuress who runs barefoot. It will be remembered that she was more of a lark than a dove. There was a foundation of wildness and bravery in her”) cosette tag marisette tag

Jehan  (Jean Prouvaire) -nonbinary af, pan -they’re “married to Romanticism” jhsbjkfhe they’re like the Queen Elizabeth of L'Amis -french native, according to canon, he too came from an extremely wealthy family -poetry major who is never matching ever at all -,sjbkjhdhj they literally learned four fucking languages just to read their four favorite poets and their past times include “saunter[ing] through fields of wild oats and corn-flowers” they’re Extrá jdhvfjhds jehan tag

Éponine Thénardier -shez-a-lesbian and the mess w marius is compulsive heterosexuality, genderfluid imo -she’s totally over marius but cosette…. come 2 think of it cosette is kinda cute… -her grandparents were likely immigrants from the french territory of guadeloupe (this is possible in canon, give or take a decade, because France received an influx of black immigrants in the late 19th century. also, guadeloupe’s enormous amount of internal conflict would account for the Thenardiers’ crooked ways and affiliation with crime gangs) -she’s gotta be an english major bc her entire adult introduction in the brick is a scene where she shows marius how well she can read and write despite being a plebeian -KBFKJHB SHE HAS SUCH A DEEP VOICE (“It was a dull, broken, hoarse, strangled voice, the voice of an old man, roughened with brandy and liquor”) ponine tag

#les mis #l'amis #character study #victor hugo #les miserlables #enj #enjolras #taire #grantaire #enjoltaire #ferre #combeferre #courf #courfeyrac #courferre #feu #feuilly #bahorel #feuhorel #boss #bossuet #chetta #musichetta #jolsuchetta #jolssuet #marius #joly #marius pontmercy #mar #cos

[libertaridan]

Do We Live In A Democracy? Should We?

In my view many people today largely believe three false things about democracy:

That they know what it is;

That they should want to live in one as currently experienced;

That they do live in one.

We shouldn’t settle to live in a democracy as we currently experience it. It’s not a real democracy and emphasises all the negatives while diminishing many of the positives that ought to come out of living  in a democracy. It would be better, instead, to live in a Republic, but I’ll come on to that. Some people might say I’m splitting hairs and I’m happy to accept that, but I do think it matters.

Around 400 BC Plato rejected the Athenian manifestation of democracy because he believed it to be anarchic, lacking in unity, deferring to the impulses and whims of citizens, and run by fools. On virtually all of those points, if he said them today, he would be right.

According to Plato democracy mistakes anarchy (his use of the word) for freedom, and must degenerate into tyranny or mob rule (which I would argue is just another kind of tyranny).

In context – Plato was a statist, preferring rule by ‘philosopher kings’, a rare or mythical few who are wise but unwilling or lacking the ambition to rule over others. It is against this locus of power that he compares democracy and so we can understand why Plato called democracy anarchic – lacking a central plan and purpose and leader to ‘get the job done’. Perhaps if such wise and benevolent people Plato believed in could always be found, he might be on to something, unfortunately world history from ancient to modern times shows that such people are rare, and rarer still in positions of power. Instead the ‘man who can’ ends up being incompetent or a dictator. In most cases give someone a little power, as they suppose, and they immediately begin to exercise it badly to the harm of others.

It seems we can choose the tyranny of an all-powerful single ruler in a king or dictator, or the tyranny of mob rule in a modern unchecked democracy.

To highlight the inherent flaws in an un-checked democracy James Madison, one of the Founding Fathers of the USA, said this:

“…there is nothing [in democracy] to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” (James Madison, Federalist Papers Nos. 10 and 51)

According to him, if you want protection for weaker people, or people who think or believe differently, or who are outspoken, and if you want personal security, or to defend your property rights, you won’t get any of that certain in a democracy.

And he’s right, isn’t he? The form of democracy we live in hasn’t protected your property rights, has at various times and in various ways punished or coerced those who believe differently, or wish to live differently, to the great mass of people.

Here’s the thing, unchecked democracy allows people, you, me, our neighbours, our work colleagues, ordinary people, to use state power to do things to us that they couldn’t otherwise do. Things they wouldn’t dream of doing on an individual basis. None of your neighbours would dream of stealing money from your wallet every night to pay for their gym membership. But more than you realise think its OK to vote for higher taxes so you can fund the local leisure centre which you don’t use but they do.

Do you see what I mean?

Through democracy what is to stop your neighbours from voting higher taxes that rob you of your earnings? Or passing laws to tax the size of your garden until you have to sell up because you can’t afford to keep your own property? Or to ban things you like? Or coerce you to do things you don’t like? Where are the limits on this tyranny of mob rule?

There are none. And here is why.

Because the only limit on democratic mob rule comes through a limit on State power.

Why?

Because the result of democratic activity is enacted by state power. Limit the state, and you limit democratic mob rule or “collective force”. Instead of mob rule we might use the term “collective force”, it’s the same thing.

It is precisely for this reason that the Founding Fathers of the USA sought to address the criticism of James Madison, that “…such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property…”, by combining democracy with a republic (which is a State in which supreme power is held by the people, and flows up from the people to their elected representatives and elected President – rather than a monarch).

Within the republic framework, the Founding Fathers placed limits on State power within a written constitution. And this is important. Because where a government is limited, so is the opportunity for democracy to become tyrannical mob rule or of “collective force” likewise limited.

And we do want to limit that. Because without any limits democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. James Madison made that point very clear.

So, to use the two wolves and a sheep analogy, a government limited by a written constitution would not, for instance, have the power to kill the sheep to feed the wolves. It wouldn’t matter if it was two wolves voting against one sheep, or two hundred thousand wolves voting against one sheep, the government wouldn’t be allowed to do it, and so such a vote would be invalid, and have no effect.

And that’s really important for democracy, that’s how minorities, the weak, the outspoken, the ‘different’, you, your family, your freedom and your property are protected. Through a constitution that limits government, and which says government can’t hurt these people no matter how many people vote for it.

Bastiat, the French political philosopher, said the legitimate role government should be limited to as one that defends each person (their life), their liberty, and their property. The Law should be nothing more, and nothing less, than this. To him there is no place for “collective force” other than in defence of these three rights.

Such a government is indeed the aim of libertarians worldwide.

That’s what we want, right? We want to be protected. We don’t want to have to worry each election that this time we’re going to be the sheep being fed to the majority wolves. Right?

We don’t have such a limited government here.

According to Bastiat, in his essay “The Law”, governments as he experienced them, and it’s no less true for us today, governments have perverted the law. Bastiat says:

“…unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its proper functions. …it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. …to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.” (Bastiat, The Law)

And we will recognise the behaviour of our neighbours, and even ourselves, at the ballot box when we read some of his further explanations.

“…Man can live and satisfy his wants only by ceaseless labor; by the ceaseless application of his faculties to natural resources. This process is the origin of property.

“But it is also true that a man may live and satisfy his wants by seizing and consuming the products of the labor of others. This process is the origin of plunder.”

“…when plunder is organized by law for the profit of those who make the law, all the plundered classes try somehow to enter — by peaceful or revolutionary means — into the making of laws. According to their degree of enlightenment, these plundered classes may propose one of two entirely different purposes when they attempt to attain political power: Either they may wish to stop lawful plunder, or they may wish to share in it.” (Ibid.)

This is what happens when government perverts law away from defence of life, liberty and property.

Ezra Taft Benson, former secretary for Agriculture under Eisenhower, had this to say about legalized plunder:

“Once government steps over this clear line between the protective or negative role into the aggressive role of redistributing the wealth through taxation and providing so-called “benefits” for some of its citizens, it becomes a means for legalized plunder. It becomes a lever of unlimited power that is the sought-after prize of unscrupulous individuals and pressure groups, each seeking to control the machine to fatten his own pockets or to benefit his favorite charity, all with the other fellow’s money, of course. … With each group out to get its share of the spoils, such governments historically have mushroomed into total welfare states. Once the process begins, once the principle of the protective function of government gives way to the aggressive or redistributive function, then forces are set in motion that drive the nation toward totalitarianism.” (Benson, Former Secretary for Agriculture under Eisenhower)

The answer, says Bastiat, is to restrict the law… or, in our words – limited government.

Well, we want it, but we don’t have it.

Because in the UK, there are no such limits on government. There is no written constitution stating what those limits are. The limits are legislation which can be changed at any time. We’re living in such a time now, the Coronavirus Act, as it’s known, imposes some of the most tyrannical restrictions we’ve ever encountered – and you and I weren’t asked for our consent. Let that sink in. The right to assembly, freedom of association, freedom of religion, even the ability to work was stripped away just like that! We can argue about whether it was justified – but my point is that it happened without any reference to your views on the matter. This is unlimited government in action. (We found ourselves in the EU in the same kind of way, with no reference to us – bear that in mind too.)

In the USA, at least in principle they are a republic, and any and all powers not specifically granted to the Federal government a retained in the individual states, and then it’s down to the constitutions of each state after that. Texas is an example of a republic in the republic. But in the UK, we’re not a republic of any kind. The courts recently ruled, among all the fighting over Brexit, that Parliament is sovereign – not you, and not me. In my view that is something that needs to change.

But even in the parliament is sovereign ruling we’re neither a republic nor what I would call a democracy.

Think about what happens in elections? You vote, for a person. Then they do whatever they do until the next election. How much voice do you actually have? You only get a referendum when Parliament decides to give you one. The whole Brexit campaign, that’s still going on by the way, showed exactly how little democracy we actually have on one hand. But then the spending promises in an effort to buy your votes with your money and your neighbour’s money show how much we do have on the other hand. We have just enough democracy for those in power to legitimise and maintain their power – not much more, and probably less.

I put to you another definition of democracy, one which we don’t enjoy now, but which I prefer. It’s much closer to pure republicanism, and it’s certainly libertarian…

How about we let each individual in the country make their own choices for themselves? Millions of little votes each day, manifested by the actions they take, in the direction they prefer. What, for instance, is more democratic than the free market – instead of cronyism and subsidy, each business transaction is a real-time vote in favour of a product or service, those who serve their customers best – they succeed, those who don’t – they fail. There is no coercion in this, no state or government picking winners and losers, there is just millions of individuals voting by choosing to do business or not. That to me is the ultimate democracy. Each represents themselves, making choices they believe will help them meet their individual objectives in life.

We can have this. We can even have it here in the UK.

To achieve it we need to elect MPs who believe in this and are willing to start undoing things that have been done in the past. We need to shrink the size and reach and power of the state. Then, with all the state meddling gone, with all the trappings of former democratic decisions that represent people imposing their views on their neighbours in things that were none of their business, gone! Then we can have this.

To get it we need more people to understand the true nature of democracy, how in its really vital form it naturally exists when people are free in all of their free choices as sovereign individuals while protected in their life, liberty and property.

The unlimited government we currently experience robs people of these freedoms, ultimately limiting naturally occurring democracy to whatever Parliament permits while it overreaches and perverts the true purpose of law away from the defence of life, liberty, and property to maintaining and growing its own power.

On that basis, back to the question. No. We don’t live in a democracy. We must not be fooled by the fact we get to vote every so often. This is all theatre. What we currently experience as democracy is the activated perversion of the law, in which the power of the state increases as electors fight between themselves via the ballot box, who will be the next victim of the next perversion of the law.

I choose individual sovereignty and individual freedom – that is where real democracy is manifest, and nowhere else. Until we have that, we don’t live in a democracy.

#libertarian #democracy #election #vote