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the press going insane after andreil coming out because they finally after years!!! understand what neil means by "i swing towards the goal" that he says when a reporter asks about his sexuality

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king damianos of akielos, thinking about the love of his life;

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Laurent: *saying something offencive which is totally deserved by the way* Guion/ Govart/ The Regent (I really can't decide who of all those creeps): I'll not have my honor questioned by you! Laurent: I'm not questioning your honor. I'm denying its existence.

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Does anybody else also see Laurent in young Bjorn Andresen? Because the instant I saw a picture of him when he was young I was like WOW! That's exactly how I imagine Laurent of Vere! Am I going crazy perhaps?

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Found this little cutie from Kerropi and Friends on Pinterest and immediately thought of Smaurent. Now I need a little fic of him dressed like this.

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Laurent: Auguste!

Auguste: Yes?

Laurent: Can you close my closet door?

Auguste: Why?

Laurent: So monsters won't come out.

Auguste: What makes you think monsters can't open doors?

Laurent:

Laurent: *screams*

Hennike: AUGUSTE

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charls & makedon ADORE laurent the same amount but on complete opposite ends of the adoring laurent spectrum which are [laurent is a genius master of manipulation i wish i knew how his mind works] and [laurent is dumb like a baby deer how he survived this long in the wild is beyond me i simply must instruct him]

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Captive Prince Au Idea:

Laurent the Prince : I swear I will have my revenge for the death of my brother

Jord the Captain : You have my sword.

Damen the "Slave": And my strategy lessons

Lazar the Necromancer : And your brother

Inspiration :

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CAPRI FANFIC RECOMMENDATION

Hello, everyone! As the title says, please send me good fics recommendations from the Capri Universe. I'm specifically looking for stories where Auguste raises Laurent, but every other recommendation aside from this prompt is also very welcome. 🥰♥️

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Captive Prince: Historical References and Naming Conventions

Hi all! I've had this idea in my head for a while now, and I finally had some time (and an Ancient Greek dictionary), so I figured I'd give it a shot. I've always been fascinated by Pacat's worldbuilding, particularly the naming conventions, and as a classicist myself, I wanted to dissect them. So that's what this is. My focus is mainly going to be on Akielos since I don't have as in-depth a knowledge of French, but I'll go through some Veretian names too (je n'ai pas étudié le français depuis deux années, mais Arles… je voudrais parler d'Arles…)

I'm not approaching this with any kind of formal, academic structure, so if something wonky gets through, please let me know! And lastly, I have no idea how many of these are intentional on Pacat's part. This analysis is less about authorial intent and more about how the associations inherent in these names can lend to our interpretation of the work. I'll also be doing this analysis over a few different posts since there is a lot I want to cover. For post #1:

Country Names

This post will solely feature Vere and Akielos since that's already a lot, but I will tackle Patras et. al. later on. There's some very interesting stuff there that I would be remiss not to look at. Of our subjects for today, Vere is the simpler, and the one I am absolutely certain Pacat intended, so I'll start with it.

Vere

Disclaimer: I am in love with this choice. The word itself is actually a Classical Latin adverb derived from the adjective "vērus," meaning "true," and in Latin it's spelled "vērē" (though you will not see those macrons in extant texts, those are a modern pronunciation and differentiation aid). Vērē can be translated a handful of ways; often it's used for emphasis, and in that case it's usually translated as "indeed," but "truly," "rightly," "exactly," and "truthfully" all work in different contexts. Extrapolate vērus and its derivatives for around a thousand years and you get the Old French word "verai" (ouah c'est vrai !) which means, well, "true."

It's also close in spelling and pronunciation to the modern French "verre," which means "glass," which isn't entirely relevant, but is cool. It makes me think of shiny, fragile displays of opulence like the Galerie des Glaces in Versailles. 

The first reason I really like this name is that it calls back to Artes, the Roman-inspired kingdom that we're told once encompassed all of Vere and Akielos, while still fitting current Veretian (aka half-old-half-modern French) grammar and pronunciation. The second is, naturally, that it fits so well into the series' themes of truth, deception, and verisimilitude. The second we're introduced to Vere, and by extension Laurent, there's a subtle hint there that both he and his country are, at their core, more real, genuine, and truthful than Damen and Akielos. We're already building towards Damen's Kings Rising line, "I have never known a truer man." Even if you don't recognize the Latin, your brain will make the connection between Vere and verisimilitude later. It's perfect, 10/10 Pacat, could not have done it better.

And just for fun: a Latin example!

Commentarii de Bello Civili, 2:27. Latin and English available here. 

Hi, sive vere quam habuerant opinionem ad eum perferunt, sive etiam auribus Vari serviunt…

Loeb Translation: "Whether they convey to him the opinion that they really held, or whether they only flatter his ears…" (165)

Slightly more literal translation (by me): "Whether these ones truly convey to him the opinion as they held it, or rather are subservient to Varius' ears…"

Akielos

The name "Akielos" is a lot more… nebulous. I don't know if there is a Greek print of Captive Prince, but my guess is it would be spelled Άκιελος (modern Greek speakers please weigh in, I'm only a year or so into Ancient Greek so I haven't really touched accent marks). That doesn't map neatly to any modern or ancient greek word—at least that I know of. What is does remind me of is Ἀχιλῆος (Achileos) from Ἀχιλλεύς (Achilleus), aka, Achilles. They're so close that I actually realized lately I had unconsciously been pronouncing Akielos as "Akileos" for a while; and in fact, this makes the Veretian spelling "Achelos" make a bit more sense. English and French both use a hard "ch" to represent χ in Greek words; so I imagine, in universe, that the word might actually be spelled Άχιελος. It wouldn't even surprise me if this was the way Pacat originally wanted to spell it, but had to change it for ease of comprehension.

I did have some other interpretations of the name, but I think this is the strongest. Because in addition to the obvious association, the name Ἀχιλλεύς is thought to be derived from the words ἄχος, "distress/grief" and λαός, "people," making it either "the grief" or "grief of/to the people" depending on who you ask (you rely on cases for that sort of distinction in Greek and they're not exactly present here. iykyk).

I really like the idea of Akielos being associated with grief; we're first introduced to it as a country in mourning, and then later on, as the cause of grief in Delfeur. And then you have the association with Achilles, himself a prolific brother killer, who Pacat references later in 'The Fall of Inachtos,' our in-universe Iliad. Insane levels of grief on grief on grief. Plus, because it looks closer to the genitive form, I automatically associate it with the opening line of the Iliad:

μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος

menin aeide thea Peleiadeo Achileos

Sing, goddess, the anger of Achilles, Peleus' son

So we can throw a little rage into the equation. As a treat. 

Also important to note that the -os there is a masculine ending. It doesn't have the most bearing, but it does mean that if we want to be strictly accurate to Ancient (and modern!) Greek grammar, I have to throw a quick article in front of it, making our final "how do the Akielons spell Akielos?" answer: ὁ Άχιελος ("ho Achielos"). The ὁ here is equivalent to le in French, with the major distinction being that in French, you don't typically need an article in front of a proper noun, whereas you do in Greek.

That's it for today's analysis! See you guys next time around for Patras, Artes, and (maybe) Arles, Ios, and Delfeur/Delpha.

Part 2 >>

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One thing about Simon is he always has his priorities straight. Even in the face of doom, he will not give up clowning on his bestie.

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Jean hasn't unlocked the other line yet.

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I don’t think there’s a single soul who likes Theomedes…

•I know there’s not much new to say about King Theomedes of Akielos—we barely have any info to begin with—but I still felt like sharing my thoughts. Feel free to comment, I LOVE reading people’s takes!

•P.S.: I had to write the full analysis in a separate file because it got too long and I couldn’t share it properly here!

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Calling all the Capri fandom fanfic writers. I don't know if someone ever had this idea before, but I would ADORE to read an angst fic based on that scene where Laurent and Damen fight against each other, and Laurent reveals everything about his plan of avenging Auguste's death, only for Damen to confirm he would've killed him and Laurent just accepts the fact because, in his own words, Auguste was everything he had. Now I'm dying to read a story where this does actually happen somehow. And then, after Laurent is gone and the Regent starts to truly become a problem for Akielos, Damen discovers more about Laurent's life journey and why he went after him, what he indirectly caused by defeating Auguste. I wanted to read Damianos uncovering every secret and getting to know Laurent to the point of loving him, only to get crushed with the harsh reality that he killed the one who could've been the love of his life. Not only that, but realizing that, indirectly, he had killed Laurent years before his actual death in combat. I want a devastating fic about how Damen slowly realizes everything he thought about the "spoiled veretian prince" was wrong, and he actually killed a good man, just like Laurent's reaction to Damen in canon when he started to see Damianos was not the monster he idealized him to be. And I want to see Damen doing everything in his power to try and atone for Laurent's pain as he fights to free Vere from the Regent and restore both brothers' memories. So basically, I want a heartbreaking fic where Laurent haunts the narrative and Damen, all the way. Feel free to inspire yourselves and bring it to life if you want. I might even do it myself as well. Who knows.

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Damen during the first two books: Veretians are so dramatic with their stupid decorations and colours, it's sickening and useless.

Damen after seeing Akielons for the first time in months in book 3: Oh my fucking god, how long have we looked this drab and boring for???

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Too bad the prophet Cassandra never met Odysseus

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Alternate universe where I literally just to go to school forever (for free) so I can just learn about art and literature and history and languages for 100 years. No job skills. No credit requirements. No student loans. Just learning.