sporadicbrainstorm

[sporadicbrainstorm]

[sporadicbrainstorm]

Vaughen Holland

[sporadicbrainstorm]

Modern Male Witch Project, by Brenna-Ivy on Tumblr and Society6

[sporadicbrainstorm]

[sporadicbrainstorm]

ΔangelΔ

[sporadicbrainstorm]

Snowing at sea

[sporadicbrainstorm]

Oscar Wadsager

[sporadicbrainstorm]

Boring old werewolf instincts:

Sexual jealousy

Constant aggression

Rigid hierarchy

Must win sports

Homophobia And Sexism Is Normal™

Eat people

Cool new werewolf instincts:

There is no five second rule

Corvids are friends

Hang out as a pack

Karaoke

Gotta pee

[sporadicbrainstorm]

Me, feeling myselfie.

[sporadicbrainstorm]

his smile is life

[sporadicbrainstorm]

[sporadicbrainstorm]

Erin Mommsen

[sporadicbrainstorm]

Erin Mommsen

[sporadicbrainstorm]

Erin Mommsen by David Roemer, Essential Homme

[sporadicbrainstorm]

[sporadicbrainstorm]

Jackson Wang for Men’s Uno’s (China) September Issue

[sporadicbrainstorm]

How to create a country, 19th/20th century European style

Carve out an arbitrary block of territory from an old empire.

Decide on a language. Language is everything, and is totally fundamental to the existence of your nation. You will need to create a standard variety of the language to teach in schools. A good strategy:

Choose the language family that has the greatest geographical extension over the territory. Ignore the cities.

Among its varieties, choose the one that can be most broadly understood.

Or, alternatively, perform a little bit of linguistic reconstruction among the prominent varieties to create a compromise standard.

Decide on the name of your nation. You might keep an old appellation given by the former rulers, or you might draw upon a classical toponym, or have one of your literary geniuses (explained below) dig deep into the oral tradition for a suitably authentic name.

Have a writer go out to the countryside and gather folk tales. He will put them into formal verse and hopefully organize them into some semblance of a plot. This will be your national epic and the writer will be your national poet - your first modern national hero.

Have a composer go out to the countryside and gather folk songs. He will slice and dice and rewrite them into something more elevated, while still maintaining their authentic spirit. His final product will be (depending on the tastes of the era) either a symphony, a suite of dances, or a tone poem. He will then go on an international tour to musically celebrate the glorious spirit of your nation, becoming your national composer.

Select a capital city. Nobody is in the business of founding purpose-built capitals anymore, so you basically have to choose either the largest or most culturally prominent city in the territory.

Select the national religion. As with language, you probably want to choose the religion with the greatest geographical extension, no matter what they practice in the cities.

If you end up choosing anything but Catholicism, you must have a national church. If you are Eastern Orthodox, this will be painful, but it will be worth it.

Choose your form of government. Monarchy is the default, but some people are opting for a republic these days. If you’re off to a late start, communism or vaguely-fascist strongmanism could be interesting.

Assuming you go with monarchy, you have a few options. If you still have any local nobles lingering around from the storied days before the empire, you could elevate one of them to the throne. (For some reason, this doesn’t always go well.)

But the most popular choice is to import a young, handsome, well-bred prince from one of Western Europe’s most famous royal houses. If the outlined process hasn’t been going well, you may get stuck with a bargain-basement prince.

Ideally, he should convert to your religion. But he may prefer to remain Lutheran.

Design a national flag. Tricolors are the name of the game!

Choose another country as a national arch-rival. Yes, you have to have one! This may be the remnants of the old empire, but it can always be one of your new neighbors!

You’re pretty much all set! You’re now ready to set foot on the international stage. Maybe you can gain some territory, or produce a Nobel-winning scientist! The possibilities are endless! Hopefully you won’t get partitioned!