#EXCEPT THE VAST MAJORITY OF MARRIAGES IN THAT COUNTRY INCLUDING THIS ONE | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cienie-isengardu · 3 years

Note

The Lin Kuei? As far as social dynamics and structure. You probably have a lot of these questions answered already, so you might just have to consolidate them... but what do think the Lin Kuei social structure is like?

I know there's the Grandmaster whose above everyone, and the Master Assassins (game characters we know about) and Sifu above everyone else, and rank is probably determined by skill less than birth. Sektor doesn't seem to get any special protection or treatment despite his family tree.

But what exactly is the hierarchy among the members? Who out ranks who? Both in teams, and as a group? What are the inter Lin Kuei relationships like, who feels what about who? What exactly is the qualifications? (Cyrax who I admittedly don't pay much attention to, for example confuses me, since he doesn't seem very impressive as a fighter?) How is rank maintained? I know they probably fight for it, but fighting constantly or to the point of death / serious injury seems counterproductive, even in mk? How is peace maintained? How is punishment dolled out, what constitutes punishment in a aggressively combative society like that, and in such a brutal environment, what is punishment?

If there's other things you think of to answer that I didn't ask, answer those too please. I love how much thought you put into these. Your the best. 🥰

"RELEASE THE RAMBLES!!!"

First off, sorry it took me so long to answer. Secondly, thank you very much for such a wonderful ask! Hope you will not regret once the rambles are set free, because there is a lot to talk about :D

The safest way to analyze Lin Kuei social structures would be to start with some basic question: what is a Lin Kuei? And the answer will be of course a clan, more precisely, a clan using assassins and thieves as its main source of income. But there is also another thing about Lin Kuei that will play an important role in creating and sustaining social structures - the strong independence streak and the pragmatism born from it.

Because the vital part of Lin Kuei is their loyalty to themselves. They work for those who can afford their service, but they aren’t bound to any earthrealm government or outworld ruler. I mean, Shang Tsung/Shao Kahn probably had a long-lived deal with Lin Kuei that benefited clan and in MK9 Lin Kuei offered the emperor their loyalty and service, but we also known that cyber Sektor refused to serve Quan Chi/Shinnok [MKX] once he decided the sorcerer had failed to fulfill his part of contract. Which means at the end of the day, the Lin Kuei benefit was the major goal to achieve. Even Kuai Liang’s reformed Lin Kuei shows this tendency - Sub-Zero will work with other Earthrealm Defenders but he isn’t blindly following anyone and is willing to go against fellow combatants (seen especially in banters with Raiden [MK11] where Sub-Zero questions god’s competence to protect the realm).

Interestingly, Shirai Ryu in the past did offer their service to various Japanese leaders / shoguns and who knows, even in modern days the clan still could have served the government as some special forces in time of need (and in return, have some protection and/or supplies from government?). In contrast, there is little to none information of Lin Kuei being loyal to one country - I mean, the sources usually call Lin Kuei warriors the “chinese ninjas” but we have never seen them showing any sign of national pride, haven’t we? Their only pride comes from belonging to Lin Kuei and their own skills. Another point against connection to any government is the fact that Lin Kuei are operating world-wide and collect people with special powers from over all world (Cyrax comes from Botswana [Southern Africa], Smoke/Tomas Vrbada from Prague [Czech Republic] and even Ice Bros were born in USA in old timeline). So, the fact that Lin Kuei warriors are diverse in terms of their powers and appearance/ethnicity will also affect the social structures.

So, the social structures on one hand must create a society that blindly follows Grandmaster’s will, on another be enough A) elastic to adapt a vast number of different people and B) solid to maintain the clan independence from others, Earthrealm and Outworld alike.

The problem with independence is that Lin Kuei works for the best price which also means constant danger. For warriors sent on missions to the safety of the whole clan. Without a clearly defined loyalty to anyone but themselves, Lin Kuei would be left on its own in case of enemy attack or any other potentially dangerous crisis. So the members of the clan must stick to each other because no one else would do that.

Regardless of type or date of source, the clan headquarters - one or many existing at the same time? - is usually presented as located in a naturally hard-to-reach, isolated place and with a clear defensive character, as can be seen below :

Lin Kuei for ages used naturally hard to invade / attack places like mountain peaks separated from the rest of the world by abyss with a bridge that can be easily destroyed and solid, thick walls to protect the clan. But here is a thing to think about - as much as there were a lot of strong, cunning and skilled warriors, Lin Kuei operated world-wide, taking jobs in various parts of Earthrealm and Outworld and some missions could take months if not years to finish and there was no guarantee that everyone would return. Which means the warriors couldn’t always be available in case of an enemy's attack or other serious crisis.

So, to maintain the defensive advantages, especially in a naturally harsh environment, there should be someone to control and if necessary take care of the state of walls, the bridge(s), residential buildings and so on. Which means Lin Kuei would need access to natural resources (wood, stone, metal) for expansion or repair but also for experienced craftsmen. There is also a matter of access to drinkable water and food supply, the most basic requirement for a clan to survive and thrive.

On one hand, warriors could fulfill such roles too, especially if we take into account a paragraph from Mortal Kombat novel by Jeff Rovin (1995):

They [Lin Kuei] would kidnap children when they were five or six and raise them in secret caves or woods to become superb athletes, great scholars, and unparalleled fighters, able to use all weapons and to improvise arms from common objects such as paper rolled to a knife-point or sand packed into a sock. They would train the children, boys and girls both, to be masters of many trades: carpenters, fishermen, priests, and even beggars, so they could blend in and make themselves useful in different towns as they traveled on missions for their lords.

Many young people died during training: some could not hold their breath for five minutes and drowned, others weren’t fast enough to avoid the weapons of the masters, some starved or froze or dehydrated when they were stranded, naked, in deserts or on mountaintops and told to make their way home. But those who survived were the Lin Kuei.

On the other hand, to become masters of the traders mentioned above, those children needed proper teachers. And yes, the already trained warriors could pass the knowledge to the younger generation but warriors first and foremost were responsible for earning money for the clan which is why personally teaching kids anything other than martial arts seems like wasting a time they could utilize in a better (more profitable) way.

This is why I suspect the social structures of Lin Kuei included various groups responsible for different needs of the clan.

The leader

So, we have a Grandmaster, the ruler. In modern times, pretenders for this title needed only to defeat and kill the current leader to take over the clan. Like Cyber Sektor and Kuai Liang did. But such practice may be just an exception to the long tradition, because Cyber Initiative was an extreme project that divided and ultimately destroyed the old version of clan. Killing the previous owner of the title may have some value (as in, eliminating any potential conflict of interest) but at the same time choosing and teaching a successor sounds much more practical. Because leading such a big clan is no easy feat thus any preparation would be useful and beneficial for the clan’s future. Not to mention the possibility of some secret knowledge that should be passed alongside.

Sadly, we don’t have much information about the inner politics of Lin Kuei. From the crumbs here and there, we know about Sub-Zero and past-Grandmasters that:

→ they could have offspring (example: Sektor).

However the sources don’t define if that was required from them in the form of a marriage or just as a way to secure the continuing inheritance of power (a tradition that Kuai Liang could simply ignore) or from their own choice or if the procreation of a child was unplanned and just happened. Whatever the truth was, in the case of Sektor, “it was never in question that he would join the Lin Kuei.”

The line from MK9 Sektor bio suggests that being a child of a warrior does not give immediate status as a member of the Lin Kuei. This in turn could suggest that not every child begotten by Lin Kuei warriors would be forced to join the clan. Sektor, as the son of the Grandmaster simply didn’t have a choice in the matter and who knows, maybe there is some premature qualification should the child be taken or not.

Another interesting part of Sektor’s BIO is this line: “Though this mission will put his clan in good standing with Shao Kahn, Sektor's ultimate goal is to supplant his father as Grand Master of the Lin Kuei." which may suggests that Sektor wasn’t the designated heir after all so plotted to overthrow his father?. I mean, he was sent to the Mortal Kombat Tournament as a participant and then cyborgized while the Grandmaster himself stayed human with a handful of other members of the clan. Then again, Sektor’s ending suggests that Grandmaster wasn’t surprised much by Sektor’s attempt to take over Lin Kuei, so maybe the killing of the previous leader was in fact a necessary part of rite of passage between old and new ruler?

→ it was against tradition for them to personally train new recruits

Stated in Deadly Alliance, in Frost’s Bio:

The winner was a mysterious female named Frost who seemed to have freezing abilities similar to those of Sub-Zero. Breaking with Lin Kuei tradition, the new Grand Master, Sub-Zero, took it upon himself to train this new recruit.

Interestingly, the Grandmaster was supposed to be the absolute ruler yet there were some traditions that actually regulated his or her participation in daily life of the clan. Kuai Liang simply ignored those and chose Frost as his apprentice, who at least in theory, became his appointed heir. By that logic, Sektor shouldn’t be trained by father, at least not before he gained the official status of Lin Kuei and proved himself worthy of Grandfather’s attention.

→ but it was their duty (choice?) to teach advanced arts to a few selected warriors.

This is mainly seen in Mortal Kombat Conquest TV series. The third episode (“Cold Reality”) gave us Shang Tsung’s explanation about clan and its warriors:

“The Lin Kuei, an ancient sect. Their training is the deepest secret as is their code. They are silent, swift and always lethal [...]. For some, a select few… the Lin Kuei Grand Masters will continue their education into darker areas. Then death comes in more interesting ways.”

Then, through this and another episode, the TV series shows that Grandmaster in fact personally oversees the training of Sub-Zero. So, the training of the new recruits may be against the tradition, but passing the advanced knowledge and the final trials seem to be not. Or at least the trials of the warrior with special (ancient) abilities.

This suggests the social status of a warrior - or any clan member - is affected by Grandmaster’s favor or lack thereof. Those chosen will advance, become more powerful and thus sent on more dangerous yet profitable missions. With a successful streak of missions, their notoriety will grow between prestige clients and the Lin Kuei community for good strengthening their social position. And who knows, one day they could take the place of (grand)masters in the inner circle serving closely the leader? On the other hand, those whose loyalty or skills get doubted by the Grandmaster are punished in several ways.

Inner Circle / Ancient (?) Masters

The same as with Grandmasters, there is little confirmed information about Lin Kuei masters. Bi-Han/elder Sub-Zero seemed to be favored by Grandmaster who called him the “our most cunning assassin and thief” (Mythologies: Sub-Zero) but it doesn’t sound like he was one of the inner circle.

In Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (episode 5, “Old Friends Never Die”), Kuai Liang mentioned “Ancient Masters” who decided to change warriors into cyborgs, while in the Mortal Kombat Conquest TV show we could see that Grandmaster keeps talking to some men about Sub-Zero’s training and powers. Interestingly, those men had uniforms looking more like his own than of any warrior.

(If Lin Kuei co-operated with Shang Tsung for ages, their life-span could be extended by sorcerer’s magic. Or, their own special abilities allow for such a long life. Thus the name of ancient masters?)

I think it is right to assume those masters formed an inner circle that advised the leader and helped in training the chosen warriors and most likely oversaw specific operations / aspects of the clan's life. Most likely with Grandmaster, they made the higher command and were the law.

Warriors

In the simplest way, this is the working class that earns money and builds the reputation of the clan. The warriors were the main source of incoming profit for the clan, but it wasn’t just material goods from assassinations and stealing but most likely also important intelligence data that Lin Kuei could use for its benefit or sell on. Thanks to them, Lin Kuei was also feared and respected in Earthrealm and Outworld alike.

So, on one hand, being a warrior in itself was a prestige rank that gave a chance to gain fame. The skilled and smart could advance into higher positions (the master assassins and thieves) and maybe even get Grandmaster’s attention. On another the life of a warrior was the most dangerous and hazardous occupation in the clan with little prospects for a long life. The victory was paid in warrior’s blood and pain while punishment for failure was severe and harsh.

The easiest way to classified them would be those two categories:

→ the common ones,

in games and comics looking alike, without distinctive features. It is hard to tell, if they possess any special abilities, if they were blood related to each other, what kind of missions they took.

→ the master assassins and thieves,

whose uniforms and weapons are modified to their personal taste and style of fighting and who have greater independence than warriors from the first category. I think it is right to assume that named warriors should be classified as such. So we have Sub-Zero/Bi-Han, Tundra/Kuai Liang, Smoke, Cyrax, Sektor, Frost, comics!Hydro.

Yet, this division may be in fact disastrous due to lack of enough sources. I mean, the lack of individuality does not necessarily imply a lack of appropriate abilities and for all we know, the “nameless” members just wear proper uniforms for their duties. Something that maybe even the named characters would wear if any source actually showed their downtime between missions. Frankly, the classic “ninja look” also makes everyone look alike, with only proper colors to distinguish between characters. Like the old comics version of Sub-Zero and Hydro - the main detail to tell them apart was the color of their eyes because both wore the typical Lin Kuei blue and dark uniform.

There is a lot to say about Lin Kuei warriors, so I will focus only on the aspects most vital to the subject and the role and effect it has on the Lin Kuei social structures.

→ armors, uniforms and their colors

Lin Kuei seems to have various uniforms, from those with plain (“classic”) look to very ornamented ones. Like I mentioned earlier, there may be an established type of clothes the warrior should wear on duty between missions while during the job the uniform was personalized due to the owner's skills and preferences. Some more advanced designs could be also a sign of personal achievements and were given / passed down (as family heirloom?) to said warriors.

The most noticeable thing however is the color. Since most clan members shared some kind of blood-ties (thus specific set of genes), the color may represent their connections to a specific branch of the clan. For example, blue was used by cryomancers and those warriors who had water-related powers. At the same time, blue seems like the most common color used by Lin Kuei. It makes sense for Kuai Liang’s warriors to use such tone, as to honor their leader and maybe even cut off from the dark past of the clan but frankly, Sub-Zero’s freezing power was called “ancient one” in Mortal Kombat Conquest TV series that alone was set ages before the last tenth Tournament happened, so maybe the ice/water always played a big role through the history and Lin Kuei simply adapted it for its common use? As to combine the reputation of the clan with the terrifying powers of cryomancers?

There is also grey color used by Smoke that fit well to his special power and yellow worn by Cyrax. Albeit if that has any connection to his unique genes or is just a color for a specific branch of clan or just esthetic, hard to tell.

Then we have a red color that most commonly is related to fire, something that Sektor frequently used at least in the new timeline. At the same time, various Grandmasters used red / reddish or burgundy colors (examples: [1] Mortal Kombat Conquest TV series, [2] Mythologies: Sub-Zero, [3] Sektor’s Ending in Mortal Kombat 9). So the red accents on Sektor’s uniform may in fact be a sign of his blood-ties to the leader (or leading family?).

Whatever true reasons lie behind the meaning of colors, Lin Kuei warriors seem to be segregated in certain smaller groups. Interestingly, even if Sektor’s red color in fact symbolised his connection to Grandmaster, this played little to none role in the MK9 game. Of course, the source did not show much inner dynamic between Bi-Han, Sektor and Cyrax but even with so limited space, Sub-Zero was the central figure in the group screen time which makes an impression he was in fact the leader. Then, the argument about the Cyber Initiative project happened only between Sektor and Cyrax, which could also imply Sub-Zero outranked them so they did not want to bring attention of their superior to their personal conflict. Especially since disobedience to Grandmaster was a serious crime.

→ codenames

Mortal Kombat X and 11 provided information that Shirai-Ruy does have some system of official ranks including the term Chujin that in general was a middle rank between ninjas (Takeda Takahashi is a known example). Lin Kuei has complex social structures but as far as we know, they do not use analogous to Japanese ninja system of ranks and yes, I know I categorized the named characters as the master assassins and thieves but frankly, I don’t remember other warriors to refer to them as such. The warriors just called each other by codename and various sources say the codename wasn’t something that permanently belonged to one individual. The name of “Sub-Zero” is the best example since it was used by many warriors through the course of a long period of time.

In both timelines, Bi-Han and Kuai Liang come from lineage of cryomancers serving Lin Kuei

and currently have ongoing conflict to whom the codename truly belongs. Because apparently, the name is passed to new generations once the younger cryomancer will prove their worth, most likely, by defeating the present champion. This does not mean that one must die because frankly, “retired” cryomancer still could teach adepts or serve the clan in a meaningful way. Also, which is very prominent with cryomancers, their mastery over ice grew stronger with passing years, so Bi-Han and Kuai Liang’s Grandfather in fact could be a pretty powerful warrior even as an old man.

The important thing however is that, the codenames may determine the position in clan hierarchy. We don’t have a way to analyze the subjection between codenames and social status of Sektor, Cyrax or Smoke but names used by cryomancers may define their level of mastery over ice. The title of Sub-Zero has existed for ages and I think it is right to assume this is a codename intended only for the best of the best. Sadly, we don’t know how high in the hierarchy was “Tundra” but we can’t cross the possibility that Bi-Han at some point in his career used that name too, before he managed to earn the mantle of Grandfather’s name.

So, Lin Kuei may not use typical ranks and instead stick to codenames passed from one generation to another. Thus no one is addressing Bi-Han as the master assassin and thief but everyone knows that the person using the codename “Sub-Zero” is one of top warriors in the service of the clan.

→ combat experiences, teachers and retirement

Combat experience is something that affects a warrior’s position in a clan because no amount of training (even as hellish as training of Lin Kuei adepts) will be the same as real life and death struggle. The more experienced a warrior is, the more valuable become to the clan. At the same time, old age will slow down even the best of the best fighters at some point. Surprisingly, the first game mentioned (hinted) the idea of retirement in Lin Kuei in Sub-Zero’s (Non-Canonical) Ending:

"After receiving the title of Grand Champion, Sub-Zero disappears back into the shadows from which he came. His only goal in the tournament was...the assassination of Shang Tsung. He was paid a large sum of money by one of Tsung's wealthy enemies. With his mission accomplished, Sub-Zero will collect his fortune and retire from his dangerous profession."

The original Sub-Zero was usually described as 32 years old. Which doesn’t sound old, but if we take into account the previously mentioned passage from the book, the teachings started at the age of 5 or 6 which could mean Bi-Han already survived two decades of harsh servitude to the clan (that abducted him and his younger brother). No one leaves Lin Kuei but there is a possibility that at some age the warrior may step down from the dangerous profession. Then, such a “retired” fighter could train adepts and young, less experienced members of the clan and maybe even start a family that will produce offspring - preferable with special powers - to supply the clan with new recruiters.

Because of that I assume that warriors in their prime were used mainly to do the dirty job and get as much money and valuable items as possible. Once they survived to a certain age, they shared the gained wisdom with less experienced fighters. We don’t know how students and teachers (“sifu”?) were assigned to each other; it may be related to their family ties or similars powers (cryomancers teaching cryomancers, like Kuai Liang and Frost) or the veterans picked youngsters for certain skills or traits that made them worth the time and effort. Anyway, veterans, as those who survived years of service, should be placed high in the hierarchy. Because their experiences and wisdom help to shape a new generation of warriors earning money and fame for the clan.

→ they work alone, in pairs or in bigger groups.

We rarely see the “nameless warriors” working alone - in case of danger or mission, they form a small army and do as they are commanded by Grandmaster (MKX) or one of master assassins, like Bi-Han (Mortal Kombat 2021). In contrast various sources show that named characters usually worked in pairs (Smoke & Tundra, Cyrax & Sektor, Sub-Zero/Bi-Han & Hydro) or alone (Bi-Han, Frost) and in some special cases, commanded larger groups of warriors.

This is an interesting detail, because all the named warriors seem to be to some degree familiar with each other even though it looks like they were permanently paired. Of course, training together will have this effect, but Lin Kuei operated world-wide and in different realms so it is not guaranteed that warriors had time to hang out between missions or to be at the same time in headquarters. If they possessed diverse, opposing elements, after passing the trials and earning the title of warrior, they could be trained separately. Thus again, a smaller chance to form (forbidden) friendship. Which is why I think there must be some exercises that force fighters to cooperate or test their skills in some sort of tournaments. Partially to see how well they fare in fight (thus judge their usefulness to clan), partially to establish hierarchy between them.

Who and how decides about pairing certain fighters is completely a mystery. On one hand, Hydro (water) and Sub-Zero (ice) were compatible and probably naturally increased their own powers. But we also have Kuai Liang (ice) and Tomas (smoke) whose elements seem like not the best combination since Smoke’s power should work better with fire (at least his battle cry, “Where there is Smoke, there is fire!” suggests that) and there is Cyrax and Sektor who powerwise may work well, but their mindsets are extremely different.

Are warriors forced into such partnerships by their superiors or were they allowed to find the right partner, sadly we do not know. On one hand, the dynamic between named characters makes an impression they are in fact an equal partners - Smoke joined Kuai Liang in his quest for revenge on his own (MK9), Sektor didn’t manage to force Cyrax into submission before the man left the clan. Comics!Sub-Zero and Hydro were so close that “Bi-Han” wasn’t afraid to admit his fears of undead Scorpion relentlessly haunting him and Hydro was supportive all the time (“Blood and Thunder”). On the other hand, partnership could provide additional safety and increase the chances of survival during missions and maybe even uphold an already earned social position, so the warriors may seek each other for solely pragmatic reasons, even more since friendship was seen as a weakness and forbidden. I also suspect that though partnership between two warriors was based on mutual benefits, there could be fierce competition between pairs.

Surprisingly, all known to us partnerships are between male characters. There is no gender-mixed duo as far as sources are concerned (unless comics!Hydro was female, trans- or agender person and frankly, for 4 comics issues only one narrator box used the pronunciation of “he” for Hydro, while Scorpion was constantly called by Lin Kuei, other characters or narratives as “he”, which always makes me wonder about Hydro’s gender. Or did comics!Lin Kuei warriors talk about themselves in third person to not betray their and their comrades true identity / gender?). Regardless of the nature of said partnership, those working together share a strong bond. Kuai Liang and Tomas outright considered themselves very close friends (family) despite clan rules that forbidden friendship. Bi-Han was willing to show his weakness / fear to Hydro who in return was very protective of him and even Sektor shows a pathological need to keep Cyrax at his side despite all the oblivious signs how unwise this decision is. Frost, sadly, didn’t have any named partner (what may be related to her role of chief between female Lin Kuei warriors) and if she was included in an important mission, she partnered Grandmaster (MK: Deadly Alliance). And their collaboration was based on a master-apprentice relationship, so it had none of the equality that characterizes the previously mentioned duos.

Of course, ultimately, the warrior who works alone does not need to share the fame (and earning?) with anyone. Bi-Han is the best example of that (Mythologies: Sub-Zero, Mortal Kombat novel (1995) or his bio from the original game). And yes, every warrior should be capable of completing the job, but though weak Lin Kuei fighters may look superhuman in Earthrealm they will not last long in Outworld.

And that brings us to another important matter:

→ the place of activity.

Because those who work frequently in Outworld by default should be considered better in the combat area. But at the same time, Lin Kuei must have a wide and well organized spy network, to keep track of all potential recruits (Smoke and Cyrax), access to science research and laboratories and so on. So, especially in modern times, combat skills may not be the most appreciated feature anymore and some Lin Kuei warriors, no matter how weak they are compared to others, will still have their special value to Grandmaster’s plans. Due to the nature of spying, they could also work alone or in small groups far from their homeland. Thus, operate outside the social hierarchy established between other warriors.

→ Punishments

A warrior could die on mission at any moment, but also could be killed for various offenses, such as:

Leaving the clan - punished by death and this seems to be a consistent punishment in all sources. Of course a determined warrior could manage to successfully run away (like Takeda, the founder of Shirai Ryu or Kuai Liang did) but Lin Kuei does not forget such crime and will hunt down the fugitive for years. The best example comes from the Mortal Kombat book, in which Sub-Zero spent two decades hunting down his own ex-partner in crime to kill him in a brutal way in front of the man's family.

So even if someone managed to run away and start a new life, there was no escape from the clan's wrath. In the modern time, Cyrax was captured and cyborgized - for him, it was fate worse than death. This actually brings the question, if there were warriors responsible for hunting down fugitives or was it the duty of those whose partners broke the sacred rule of “no one leaves Lin Kuei”?

Failure of mission - another known major crime punishable by death yet most likely not applies to Kuai LIang’s reformed clan.

In the Conquest TV series, by Grandmaster’s order two warriors that failed the mission were killed by then current Sub-Zero. This was as much public execution to show others what happens once you fail as presenting the ice powers of freshly promoted cryomancer:

“Before you stand two who have failed. For this there can be but one consequence and it must come from within, within us. Earth, wind, fire, water. To control one element of the four that make up life is power. A twist of nature, an aberration, one who brings forth true killing force. Before you stand one whose ancestors have passed on such power to us. Remember this well. Behold... Sub Zero. [Grandmaster’s speech, episode 3, “Cold Reality”]”

This is just one example from the distant past but it may also be a suggestion that warriors with special powers played the role of executors.

Another example, from Mythologies: Sub-Zero, thus relative modern times:

Scorpion: Yessss... I am Scorpion. You killed me in cold blood.

Sub-Zero: I had no choice. If I had not stolen that map I would be the dead one.

Frankly this attitude is both inhuman treatment of subordinates (failure in itself is just another source of experiences and sometimes failed mission wasn't the result of someone’s mistake or incompetence but of independent circumstances) and unpragmatic (losing manpower). We may only wonder if warriors were punished for failing all kinds of missions or just selected ones. At the same time, a fighter that survived to old age should be really respected - with such harsh laws, not many members live to old age and those who did through the decades failed little to no missions.

Lin Kuei punished also impostors:

which brings us back to the point about codenames and their relationship with social position (and hey, Noob’s complaints aren’t baseless). We don’t know though what kind of punishment was used for such an offense.

Disobeying Grandmaster was also a big deal. I suspect this could be punished by death too although rather not in Kuai Liang’s clan:

“When Sub-Zero made historic peace with his clan’s enemy, Scorpion, defiant Frost challenged her Grandmaster as unfit to lead. Sub-Zero defeated and banished Frost. [MK11]”

In general, Lin Kuei laws were harsh and cruel and it was really easy to lose such hard-earned privileges and positions.

Recruits

In ancient times, children were abducted at the age of 5 or 6 and forced into harh training. Some didn’t survive but those who did became fully pledged to Lin Kuei warriors. In modern times, it seems like most adepts have some blood-ties to other members of the clan and usually are “given” for training freely. There are exceptions to the rule, like Bi-Han and Kuai Liang, who were stolen from home at a young age. Finally, there are people who seem to join Lin Kuei on their own (or at least they think it was their choice), like Smoke, Cyrax and Frost.

(Tomas and Frost are confirmed users of special powers. Cyrax most likely possesses some unique genes too or at least is capable of well controlling his own energy (chi) during fight. Frankly, it looks like Sektor is the only one named Lin Kuei who does not utilize any special power. Ironically, considering how Grandmaster (Oniro) from Defenders of the Earthrealm was shapeshifter. Who knows, maybe Sektor didn’t inherited father’s unique skills?)

So even recruits are a diverse group to begin with and include people ethnically totally different from the majority(?) who needed to learn a new language(s) and culture from scratch. This alone gives a ground for potential conflicts though there is little to none examples of racism between Lin Kuei adult members? I mean, Lin Kuei used to look down on everyone who wasn’t one of them all the same, with special hatred for Shirai-Ryu - not for being Japanese (different ethinc group) but just for being Shirai-Ryu.

The adepts were trained by older warriors and looking at Sub-Zero’s origin (MK9), some adepts trained with family members (Kuai Liang and Bi-Han and maybe even under their Grandfather’s eye?) and teacher (Sifu?) could train more than one student at the same time.

In a way, those coming from the lineage of warriors could be from the start at better social standing than those who were “no ones” or came from far away lands and needed to earn respect of others. Those blood-related to clan members either developed specific powers during training or at least possesed special DNA that could be passed down to the next generation. So, even if those children weren’t the best of best fighters, they still have something valuable to the clan.

At the same time, again, Sektor doesn’t seem to have any special privileges, not once in game(s) called his father as anything other than Grandmaster and in general, he did not have much presence (respect?) between other warriors. I mean, he freely spoke only with Cyrax who in the end did not listen to him at all and almost always fell silent if there were more people around. So yeah, how big an impact on social dynamic between fighters had their blood-ties is not sure.

I’m not gonna talk much about the life of adepts (and there is a lot to say about potential pathologies and harm done to the kids), but they for sure were the lowest rank in (warrior) hierarchy, at least until they proved their worth.

So, the Lin Kuei warriors could be separated in three categories, from lower social rank to the highest:

adepts (in-training, maybe assisting in missions under the watchful eye of their superiors),

warriors (the one earning income),

veterans (teachers)

and the circle was completed.

(For some reason, the circle of Lin Kuei warrior life resembles the “Three-field system” but I have weird associations, I guess).

Household?

When we talk about the Lin Kuei clan, the first association that comes to mind is its warrior nature. But with such a large organisation, warriors are just one social class rather than the majority. Because someone needs to feed them, cloth, arm, heal, which seems logical to assume that there were other specializations that keep the clan running.

I mean, Lin Kuei is an independent faction that as far as we know, has no ties to any earthrealm government. This alone suggests to keep that independence the clan have to possess their own source of food, water, medical supplies and access to other necessary resources, so no enemy could besiege their strongholds and starve them and so on.

⇒ The medics will be for sure an appreciated branch of the clan. And yes, warriors to some degree must have medical knowledge (if not to save people then at least to know how to successfully kill them) but at the same, with so many specific genes and used in fight elements, some Lin Kuei members may have different medical needs than normal people.

⇒ Armorers (and smiths?) provide clan additional defensive equipment and weapons. And we know that even in modern times Lin Kuei barely used firearms and relied more on shurikens, knives and swords.

⇒ Scientists, computer experts and researchers, especially in modern times when C.I. Project became a thing, most likely playing a big role in the clan, fulfilling Grandmaster’s wish to change warriors into cyborgs. May not be liked by the traditionalist members of Lin Kuei, but favored by the leader (so be untouchable).

⇒ Farmers and craftsmen, providing the clan with the basic needs. I doubt they had much impact on social dynamics and may not even live on the grounds of the Lin Kuei Temple / Fortress. I imagine them living in the surrounding villages (or at the foot of the mountains?), giving the Lin Kuei food and handicrafts (and maybe even their own children?) as a tribute, and in return get protection.

My conclusion is that, Lin Kuei have pretty complex social structures in which Grandmaster and his closes circle administrate the whole system, warriors, depending on their age and expertises, are responsible for earning money and prepare the new generation to replace them, while household is there to keep previously mentioned groups alive and in the best condition. Everyone plays a role that helps to maintain Lin Kuei independence and reputation.

So, finally I get to the main part of the question about the dynamic between characters.

Who outrank who is a good question. The Grandmaster of course is above everyone else and so are the “ancient masters” / inner circle. Bi-Han seems to be one of the favored warriors by Grandmaster, the only(?) one confirmed to be the most cunning assassin and thief and the use of a codename associated with “ancient power” only adds to that impression. So, in regard to the named five characters (him, Kuai Liang, Smoke, Cyrax and Sektor) I would say Bi-Han outranked everyone. At the same time, he does not act arrogant against his fellow clansmen. Okay, to be honest, he seems to not interact much with anyone but that is rather the abrasive, asocial nature of cryomancer than anything else, really. And we have examples from various sources that Bi-Han wasn’t always rude to people around him. (Noob is another deal, but even then he has a more passive-aggressive attitude toward his brother than outright hate / arrogance).

Anyway, Bi-Han outranked the others. And yet, he does not seem to perform any special social functions - except maybe at Grandmaster’s command executing those who failed. In contrast, in MKX intro vs. Sonya, Frost was described by Kuai Liang as “chief among [female Lin Kuei]” which implies her high rank and responsible position in social structures.

One may wonder why Bi-Han most likely wasn’t given similar honor but to be an effective chief, the person must be available and close at hand. Going with Mythologies, the elder Sub-Zero barely came back from one mission (stealing map of elements) to be sent right away for another difficult task (stealing Shinnok amulet and side trip to Netherrealm) and then next one (Mortal Kombat Tournament). Of course, the game due to its limited time and space, won’t focus on realism such as making a proper preparation for the job but even if Bi-Han was allowed little rest between one and another mission, it really looks like he didn’t spend much time at Lin Kuei Temple. Thus there was no point in giving him any big group to oversee, if he wasn’t available to control what was going on between his subordinates. Also, he seems pretty familiar with Smoke and Kuai Liang’s close relationship but there are not many hints that he tried to do something about their breaking clan rules forbidding friendship.

Then again, there is a possibility that Kuai Liang, Smoke, Cyrax and Sektor did in fact belong to Bi-Han’s own “cohort” what could explain

A) why all the five characters are always so closely tied up to each other while the rest of clan members are just a background and

B) why with Sub-Zero’s death everything went to hell between them.

(And again, the amount of duties to female Lin Kuei could keep Frost from leaving headquarters too often, thus no need for partnership with anyone. Because of that, she grew angry at Kuai Liang for “holding her back” and at the same time not respecting enough to grant her the title of Sub-Zero).

Pragmatic resolution to solving inner conflict would be some kind of neutral judge (chief) and the fight for rank and position most likely happened under watch of superior(s). As in, official challenge, especially for top ranks like Sub-Zero. The official fight did not need to end with someone’s death but this could be one of rare situations when a warrior could kill the other fighter - or even the hated teacher / master? - without much consequence. Of course, Lin Kuei proved pragmatism is not always a priority but I strongly believe the clan structures were based on discipline and so arbitrary fights were also severely punished. What is the point of having warriors if they can’t be sent to earn money due to unnecessary injuries? Also, corporal punishment in itself shouldn’t be that big deal for society growing up in brutal ways since early childhood - which is why I suspect that the punishments were administered in public. As a form of humiliation, to force the guilty people to earn respect of fellow warriors again from scratch.

I suspect that warriors could be separated into smaller groups - basing on their special powers or family connection? - that competed with each other. Age could also regulate how one person should act around the others; for example, like youngling around veteran or fully trained fighter. Not sure how this rule could relate to those representing “household”. Were there laws protecting them or could they be bullied/killed on whim? Could warriors even be involved romantically with “servants” / lower class? The good thing from such affair could be the birth of children given to the clan once they were old enough and well, sex with “outsider” in itself can be a good way to relieve the warriors growing tension / stress resulting from living in a brutal environment without complicating things between companions. To be fair, some warriors could have romantic / intimate relationships with each other as well but most likely kept them secret to avoid punishment.

There is also a matter of who and how chose warriors to represent Lin Kuei at Mortal Kombat Tournament. I mean, Bi-Han was always the first choice, supported by the first game and Mythologies but did he choose Sektor and Cyrax as his companions or they naturally were chosen as part of his group or did Grandmaster assign them to Sub-Zero on his own? Dunno but keeping the five named Lin Kuei warriors together through the course of years really makes me think they came from the same, for a lack of better word, a cohort.

Cryomancers most likely stuck together (Bi-Han and Kuai Liang) and Smoke tagged along. Cyrax looks like an easy going type of person who isn't afraid to speak his mind so I wouldn’t be surprised if he were either on good terms with most clan members or pissing the rest while human Sektor, in contrast, is much more introverted, or even withdrawn from social interaction. This is of course only my subjective feeling, but he lacks a dominant presence to make a big impression. Not like the older Sub-Zero or Cyrax. Then we have Tundra!Kuai Liang whose loyalty belongs first and foremost to an older brother than the clan itself and to honor Bi-Han he will get into all sorts of dangerous problems and conflicts not caring for consequences at all. A behaviour that may not sit well with Sektor (even more, if he never had such a strong bond with own father/other people?). Sektor and Kuai Liang have a long history of ideological conflict and I suspect they truly could agree only about not giving up Cyrax’s remains to anyone and whatever was going on, protect the body at all cost.

Interestingly, as much as Kuai Liang and Tomas or Kuai Liang and Cyrax were close and on good terms (especially after the fiasco of C.I. project), Bi-Han and Sektor seem to be much closer to each other. If not in the stricte emotional sense, they at least share the pride in Lin Kuei and strive for perfection (manifesting itself in accepting their drastic changes for example). Even with limited sources, the storyline never(?) put Sektor and Bi-Han against each other, either as humans or cyborg and wraith and I strongly suspect there may be something much deeper about their relationship that lack of interaction on screen could suggest in the first place (x)(x).

Then we have tradition vs technology.

This most likely is a modern issue that could be the basis for serious inner conflicts between warriors. Those taking jobs in Outworld for sure must be powerful fighters, especially since technology is not something working well there. Bi-Han in most if not all sources was a traditionalist who didn’t use much or outright refused to use technology and I wouldn’t be surprised if he worked in Outworld frequently (especially Bi-Han in the newest movie was presented as a close associate of Shang Tsung). For the weaker warriors, advanced technology could be a life-saver. Then there is the whole Cyber Initiative that divided (and ultimately destroyed) Lin Kuei. For such a project, the clan either worked with independent / private researchers and cybernetic experts or actually had its own specialists (another possible social group?).

From MK9 we know Cyrax spoke in public against Grandmaster’s plan. In Defenders of the Realm, Smoke and Kuai Liang run from the clan at the first occasion to avoid such fate. Logically thinking, Sektor (supporter of the advanced technology) should not get along well with Bi-Han (stubborn traditionalist), the same as he fell out with Cyrax, Smoke and Kuai Liang. And yet there is not much evidence suggesting any big conflict between them. Of course, Sektor could simply not speak against his superior(?) the same as he argued with Cyrax but in all fairness, I doubt Bi-Han’s lack of use of technology was a secret not openly critiqued by others. I mean, even comics!Kuai Liang said about his brother that Bi-Han was “stubborn in many ways, refused to utilize modern technology on his missions. A shame, really. He was among the Lin Kuei’s finest --although fast becoming obsolete”. If Sektor and Bi-Han (and the rest of the group) worked together on joint missions, the issue of technology would come sooner than later. Though I suspect that no matter what Sektor would say, Bi-Han outstubborn him anyway. On other hand, it looks like only Sektor needed/chose to use advanced technology (flame thrower) while the rest relied on their special powers. In that case, being Sektor between gifted people for sure was a hard deal.

So, if I have to rank them I would say Bi-Han → Sektor & Cyrax who most likely were at least a bit higher than Kuai Liang (younger cryomancer) and Smoke. In case of conflict, I think as long as it was possible, they solved their problems among themselves. Bringing authority (Grandmaster, one of chiefs(?) or Bi-Han)’s attention was never a good idea because it could lead to public punishment / humiliation. Bi-Han may or may not knock some sense into others if the inner conflict gets out of hand or at least told them into face how idiotic they are (and he is pretty famous for insulting/mocking even those he shouldn’t. Like Quan Chi, a powerful client. Which is why I doubt he would tone down his natural abrasiveness. Especially not for an idiot that actually deserves it ).

And yet, whatever conflict was between those five characters, they still stayed loyal to each other. At least until someone outright broke one of the most punishable laws, like leaving the clan.

For example, Cyrax and Sektor argued about C.I. project - and most likely it was already an ongoing argument between them. Cyrax even was “among those speaking out against the Grand Master’s plan”. Not a good thing for their partnership yet Sektor still vouched for Cyrax when Shang Tsung had his doubts about the man. Or how Bi-Han changed sides during Tournament (MK9) - otherwise his fight against Scorpion would have zero sense - and maybe he did discuss the course of his action with his fellow clan members. But whatever he told or not what was going on, Cyrax was absolutely ready to kill Scorpion to avenge fallen cryomancer (“Scorpion will pay for this!”). Then we have Smoke not abandoning Kuai Liang even though he was already turned into Cyber Sub-Zero and attacked his friend and of course furious Tundra interrupting the Outworld Tournament and literally demanding from the Emperor to bring him Bi-Han’s murderer to kill. Hell, even Noob and Cyber Sektor stick to each other despite everything that happened.

Those five were a really loyal group, weren’t they?

So, in general:

the social structures of Lin Kuei were diverse and complex,

the punishment was harsh and deadly - in some cases, executed by a fellow warrior in public.

Bi-Han most likely had a high position in clan hierarchy but he wasn’t outright called a master

and there is possibility Sektor, Cyrax, Smoke and Kuai Liang worked under his command.

Most of the Lin Kuei members share blood ties to some degree but experiences and skills seem to outrank any family bond. In contrast to friendship, keeping touch with family (within the clan) is rather not forbidden. There may be a conflict between friendship (a choice) and family matters (a fate / tradition of serving Lin Kuei to uphold).

Kuai Liang and Smoke broke clan rules forbidding friendship (and Bi-Han did nothing about that?).

Cyrax most likely were familiar with Tundra and Smoke enough to like / respect each other. In the case of Tomas, the additional factor for keeping together could be the fact that both were born as outsiders (different ethnicity, lack of blood ties to clan).

Cyrax and Kuai Liang had ideological conflict with Sektor, who in turn seems to be on good terms with Bi-Han.

Bi-Han on the other hand seemed to not have any conflict with the four named warriors? Kuai Liang was his brother (and there is no example he was abused in any way by the older sibling, I think?), MK9!Smoke may not be on a first name basis with Bi-Han (didn’t call him in game as anything else than Sub-Zero or Kuai Liang’s brother) but he was accepted as Kuai Liang’s close friend. At the beggining of Tournament, Cyrax was seen on Sub-Zero’s right side and there is the scene-parallel (with Sektor cut off from the frame, the impression is that we were shown the honorable/”good” Lin Kuei) and he showed protectiveness toward Sub-Zero.Then there is Sektor who somehow get along with Bi-Han (and Noob) without any complaints or problems. Of course, Smoke, Cyrax and Sektor could be smart enough to not get in any open conflict with abrasive Bi-Han. Kuai Liang is a whole different matter, I guess.

The named characters in fact didn’t need to like each other but they were taught discipline and loyalty to the group from the start. Though it would be really hilarious if the most abrasive cryomancer with little to no social skills was in fact the one that keep them all together and was a bridge between strong-willed/hotheaded Kuai Liang & Smoke, independent Cyrax and blindly loyal, withdrawn Sektor.

I’m not sure if such a mix of strong personalities was the norm between warrior groups or was it just Bi-Han’s luck to get involved with duos of Tundra-Smoke and Sektor-Cyrax at some point. Anyway, this is my take on social structures and dynamics between Lin Kuei.

Hope it satisfies your curiosity!

#mortal kombat #lin kuei #sub zero #bi han #kuai liang #cyrax #sektor #tomas vrbada #smoke #hydro #lin kuei grandmaster #my meta #my replies #lin kuei social structures #lin kuei social dynamic #what a great thing to talk about!#sorry it took so long #RELEASE THE RAMBLES ha!#only if anyone is ready for like 20 pages in google doc XD #thank you for the ask!#i don't have an idea how asocial bi han became (in my mind) the bridge between strong headed tundra smoke and cyrax #and withdrawn sektor but here i am #but no #seriously it makes sense that mk lore is all about sektor cyrax smoke and ice bros #if they were part of the same group #to begin with right?#i just don't have an idea who could look at abrasive asocial bi han and thought yep let give him some troublemakers and one withdrawn #and see how it will work!#i bet it was some sort of revenge for bi han's lack of care for manners and social norms

86 notes · View notes

thecandywrites · 4 years

Text

Blood For Gold Part 8

Get ready for some plot, and intrigue and conflict of interest. Again, thanks to @kriskukko for lending me the amazing picture of a regency era orc and letting me run wild. Thanks to @punkhorse96 for all the amazing feedback and everyone else who likes and reblogs this story. I appreciate it. Also do you guys have any idea how hard it is to find AN AGED regency couple? Thankfully Bridgerton showed that an older woman could wear the fashions of her own youth and didn’t necessarily have to keep with the most up to date fashions. So that allowed me to go find this pic of a qeen, Glenc Close in her movie Dangerous Encounters back in the late 80′s. I have never seen it, but IT’S THE AESTETIC. taking it, using it and lo and behold, we have our Gregori and Yalin, Ramsey’s parents who have taken a shine to Audra. But will their light shine on her so warmly when they find out the truth and find they might have less to gain than they thought? And will their wills be stronger than the Morrigans? And what will the Morrigans do to keep the status quo when their own past comes back to haunt them? We shall see.

Blood For Gold

Part 8

All the way to the Windsor Palace the Morrigans had nothing but “instruction” towards you and for Jane, all about minding your manners, acting in the utmost chaste conduct so that you would not bring shame or dishonor onto the family and to not leave each other’s side while they berated you for acting so “brazen” with the Dauphin for having eaten your dinner next to him as they accused you of practically shamelessly throwing yourself at him like a common whore by dancing with him for most of the evening, even though the Dauphin didn’t leave you with much of a choice. It was the Dauphin who practically dragged you to meet his family and the King and Queen, his uncle and aunt and their children and of course the host, which was Yalin’s sister, Infanta Evinelle DeuSavance and her husband the Infante Charles DeuSavance who was the king’s cousin and their children who were very nice and charming and welcoming as they all gave Ramsey a not so subtle nod of approval. And then at dinner, Ramsey dragged you to sit there between himself and his sister and Ramsey simply would not leave your side after Demsey dared to get you away for only a moment, Ramsey wouldn’t let that incident repeat with anyone, he capitalized on your time all night.

You didn’t even get to go to the restroom without his sister Charlotte and Jane following you like puppies with Lady Whitesale not being too far behind them, and you got the impression they were sent as eyes and ears for others and you barely got into a bathroom stall to get some privacy to breathe and even loosened your corset so that you could breathe easier because after two years, you had almost forgotten what it felt like to be the center of attention in a room full of people, you garnered more attention that even Calla and Bennie because of who you were with all night and the weight of their scrutinizing gaze was particularly heavy and now you were anxious just to get to Windsor just for the chance to breathe in the privacy of your room.

Ramsey’s behavior seemed to appear as instant infatuation or for the romantically inclined- ‘love at first sight’. But the feeling was far from mutual, you were simply not attracted to him, at least not physically, also there was a real sense of desperation in his manners. He was the one throwing himself at you and trying to make himself out to be the best possible prospect for you. Which you found odd, perhaps a little worrying and off-putting because you just couldn’t understand why he was so dead set on you. He was himself perhaps a decade out of his prime and just shy of twice your age, not that it made too much of a difference to you because Edward had been over three times your age, almost four actually, when you wed him. Moura women were brought up to think nothing of major age gaps between moura brides and their husbands outside of Dorierra and especially within the culture of the stables. In fact it wasn’t unusual for mouras as young and pretty and accomplished as yourself to go through the stables at least three to four times, gaining more and more value with each remarriage because each marriage was “experience”. There were some moura women who were on their seventh and eighth marriage but the obsession of “virgin brides” also had it’s universal appeal.

But after your disastrous marriage to Edward, you shuddered at the thought of going through the process again. That and Edward had known that you were hesitant to enter into that cycle even before you married him, that’s why he “bought you outright” so that you didn’t have to go back into that cycle, that once you survived him, you would be a free woman, free to do whatever you wanted to do, it was why he insisted that you drink pregnancy warding teas, and made sure to track your own cycle to make sure you would not concieve his child and be tethered to the Morrigans any more than you already were and made sure to afford you a comfortable living so that after his death, you’d have a good life, he had spent his whole life in service to his crown, country and king and business and at the end of his life, he was looking to set something free, instead of caging it forever, it was one of the biggest things you found to love about him. But sadly, he was one of the few people who really cared about what you personally wanted for yourself because he had genuinely cared for you and you felt, loved you, to a degree, at least in the beginning. But his own senility and madness soon erased it not long after.

With Ramsey though, he projected so much onto you. Because he had gotten not just the report that Edward had gotten, which each bride in the stables got a report, tailored to fit potential prospects, like cherry picking things on a resume but he had also gotten the master resume which had everything on it.

Moura brides usually had a very vast array of qualities and talents that were universal and the moura schools had some of the best teachers and professors in the world and as a child and up to a certain age, all moura children got the same top notch education that rivaled most scholars. However after the age of 12 or 13, schooling changed dramatically for the sexes. All men were pushed into either a service trade, commerce, engineering and technology or science or medicine, so that they all had a “useful” job within the country and of course military training but they were all pushed to serve in one way or another so that they could go into the many industries within the country, making goods and providing services and only the exceptionally musically talented men got to be “entertainers” which was an important service to the Dorierrian public.

Women on the other hand, since the moura stable’s exports was solely brides for foreign dignitaries, they were taught government and more importantly, how to govern everything from a household to a country should they need to be a queen some day, they were taught all the major languages, especially the common tongue and economics, business, because all government was business, but also the art of war, including self defense so that in the case of attack, they could defend themselves and their future families, but especially psychological warfare, intrigue, manipulation for future political court life, in addition to the usual music, musical instruments of all kinds, singing, dancing, composing, arts of all kinds, including acting, ceramics, drawing, painting, sewing, embroidery, fashion, culinary arts as well as some medicine and of course- what was taught across all sexes was childcare because even after the plague, moura mothers still had a successful birth rate of 99%, with very little to no birth defects in the babes, no matter the mix of species and fathers especially were brought up to be an equal parent in the household so that in addition to their jobs, they could still come home and care for their own households and families, especially since moura mothers always seemed to have a newborn at their breast or one or even two or three in the womb at a time and both partners were brought up to be completely devoted to their families and any hint of any kind of abuse was swiftly dealt with and never tolerated and the focus was on having a happy family life. So if couples were unhappy with each other, divorce was easily attained and granted. And even with that measure in place, most moura partners, when there was a love match, ended up being married for life. It was not uncommon for women to go off through the stables once, then come back in widowhood and settle down with a moura mate and stay in the country after that.

However there was an exception. For men and women who preferred sexual relations with the same sex as themselves, they could be entered into a smaller “private” school but it was for “concubines, consorts and courtisans”, otherwise known as 3C’s. that had all the training moura brides had but it allowed men to have the same higher educations women enjoyed if it meant that it prepared them for life as a king’s courtisan and concubine on their private privy council and it was usually only through 3C’s, that moura men were ever allowed to leave Dorierra under any circumstances other than war, which considering all the political alliances Dorierra had with every other nation in the world, was very, very seldom, but that didn’t mean Dorierra was lax, the moura brides were often Dorierra’s eyes and ears on the rest of the world and reported back to them accordingly. Even in the case of revolution where some royals and aristocracy could lose their heads, it was the morua brides and their children at least, who were always allowed to return to Dorierra unharmed and could be rescued in dire situations by either dragons, pegasus’ griffins, since Dorierrians bred all three.

So because of all of this education, which was better than most universities, a moura bride’s “resume” was very impressive and thus- cherry picked to suit the individual suitor based on the suitor’s culture. However all mouras had a master resume that accompanied their pedigree’s and lineage, which listed everything they had learned and had become proficient and excelled in. But even the master resume did not show what the individual moura really enjoyed and had a passion for.

And with Ramsey, you could tell he simply went off your own master resume. Just because you knew something or even excelled at something, didn’t mean you really enjoyed it. For instance, on your master- you were taught how to be a queen, navigate court, and rule it, but that didn’t mean you had the ambition to be a queen and you did not feel it was your destiny to be one either. Presiding over Mirador was more than enough to satisfy you in that respect. You had no desire for much more than that. But Ramsey seemed intent that you should have a more active political role and couldn’t wait to see how you would advise him to gain even more power and clout in the House of Lords as well as garnering the love and admiration of the common man so that he could have more political reach than he already had, the very prospect nearly sent you running, in fact it was that, that had sent you to try to gain some solace in the bathroom in the first place because you just felt he was dragging you into this and because of “polite society” rules for decorum, you couldn’t counter, you couldn’t really speak your mind to him. All you could do was simply hum and acknowledge what he was saying to you and agree with what you could, but that was all.

However to hear that Demsey, despite being a duke, was rarely ever in politics, in fact he seemed to spend all of his time and efforts into his family business, which to you was a very noble and honorable pursuit, had you even more drawn to him and make him even more desirable as a prospect to you.

By the time you got to Windsor, you were so relieved even to see Ramsey come get you from the carriage if it meant you could get away from the Morrigans as Ramsey had you on one arm and Jane on the other which the Morrigans were happy to see before the Dauphine and the Senior Dauphin came over to have a word with them.

“Well we must assure you that we will take the best of care of Jane while she’s here. And you must forgive our son, he’s been taken with the Sultana since her wedding to your late father Count Morrigan and then when he saw her when we went to the Savoy only a couple of weeks ago he has become quite obsessed ever since, in fact we were enjoying such a wonderful dinner there from our balcony at the Savoy where we seemed to look over your family in the main dining floor, however it was a shock and quite sad to see her eat so little that night.” Yalin noted with a frown to her husband.

“Oh she’s a moura, they have the appetites of birds, she rarely has any appetite since she lost Edward.” Agnes readily answered but the look Yalin gave her said that she didn’t believe that and made Agnes’ forced polite smile falter slightly because mouras were renowned for their healthy appetites and high metabolisms despite their petite frames but excellent body conditions, having a healthy ratio between strength, stamina but still retain some softness in their hips and bellies and for women, especially their breasts because that’s what the body needed to ensure healthy offspring and a moura’s mother’s milk was some of the most nutritious of all the species.

“Well we will certainly see to it she eats properly while she’s here, can’t have her growing malnourished can we? Because malnourishment leads to weak offspring and we can’t have that at all.” Yalin insisted to Gregori.

“Quite right my dear.” Gregori readily agreed.

“Oh, oh yes of course, we will also encourage her to eat well for the sake of her future.” Agnes reassured her, catching the Dauphine’s drift.

“What I found odd is that when Ramsey looked into the Sultana just after seeing her at the Savoy a couple of weeks ago and asked the stables themselves for her master resume, the report that he got back after Edward’s death when they re-evaluated her was most disturbing, for a nescia - or princess, to be downgraded to a shakan, such a demotion had never happened before except in cases of extreme circumstances, such as revolution and anarchy, is there any reason you can give for such an extreme change?” Gregori asked them pointedly as the Morrigans looked at each other, trying not to betray how worried they were at such an intrusive question.

“Well you see the Sultana is actually very, very delicate and mentally very weak, she took the decline of Edwards health so hard, and suffered so greatly from that loss that the stables gave her that, we surely didn’t have anything to do with it, in fact, we have done everything in our power to help her, including- moving her to Mirador and even increased the living that Edward afforded her so that she can live in the utmost of comfort, she even got to take her pick of servants from Broadcove that she grew fond of.” Richard tried to excuse as Gregori also gave him a look that he didn’t believe that either as Richard felt himself wither by Gregori’s intense gaze.

“Well then we will have to be careful with her as well. Ramsey has quite made up his mind about her which is a relief to all of us. And of course as long as there is no interference, especially on your end, it can go smoothly, and of course there might be a promotion of rank if it goes well, I’m thinking a Marquise at least, if not Duchy.” Gregori offered and the Morrigans practically had their jaws on the floor of their carriage and were drooling a river at the prospect as they gave each other a giddy look.

“Oh of course, of course, we will be giving every encouragement we can.” Agnes eagerly reassured them, because it was not uncommon for that to happen and it was just the opportunity they were looking for, because while they were disappointed that such a thing would be coming from you instead of Jane, they wouldn’t turn their nose up at such a prospect. Finally having a moura in the family would be paying off and worth it if it meant they could be Duke and Duchess and Jane of course could be eligible to be courted by all kinds of prospects and make the Dauphin Ramsey look like a lowly lord or knight, and a promotion such as that would push them onto the international Europa marriage market and could amasse even more power and money but from a much larger scale on an even larger stage.

“Well if that is the case, then it’s a very curious thing, why did Duke Voyambi insist to Ramsey that his whole family saw and heard you dictate a list to the Sultana about suitors to avoid. In fact when Ramsey pressed the Sultana for such a list, she was able to produce this very one, where Ramsey’s name is at the very top of the list of suitors to avoid. I understand that both of you dictated this list for Jane to write down. And then when we made other inquires of those who happened to be around you at not just the Savoy but all over London at various shops that you snubbed half the court. Of course if such a thing were to be handed over to the King and Queen I’m wondering how they would react?” Gregori asked his beloved wife as Yalin smirked at seeing the Morrigan’s pale and nearly shit bricks right there in the driveway as Gregori pulled the list from his own breast pocket and looked it over and pointed to where his son’s name was written down with a deep scowl before looking expectantly up at them to answer for it.

“Or heaven forbid Lady Bagum in the papers, surely if she got a whiff of this matter, she’d whip it up into quite the scandal, and if she ever got ahold of the list and if that ever got printed in the papers, I’m afraid what the repercussions of that would be, I would hate to see half of the court, and by that point, half of parliament, snub you publicly for such a thing.” Yalin added as Agnes and Richard looked worriedly to each other while they flushed with shame as Agnes and Richard both scrambled to find an excuse as they both instantly regretted everything they had said all evening and wishing they could take it all back and knew that the next time they got to speak with you, they would have to apologize and take it back and humble themselves before you, which was an act they loathed but it would save their skin. To gain a duchy in the future, they would make peace with being humble now.

“Well you see we did that because every suitor the Sultana does not go after is a suitor we can have for our sweet Jane, we were not trying to snub half the court, we were simply trying to keep the best of the best for our own dear sweet Jane, that is all, but who are we to stand in the way of love? If your Ramsey has set his heart on the Sultana, then so be it, please disregard that list and please tell the Sultana to disregard all instruction from us to withhold herself from the Dauphin, who are we to stand in the way of destiny? Please won’t you beg her on our behalf to forgive us for being so short sighted and so ignorant? Really we should have seen the Dauphin’s actions for what they were tonight, we were under the impression it was the Sultana who was pursuing the Dauphin too strongly and we didn’t want her embarrassing herself for others thinking she was too eager but we see now that was simply not the case and we will by no means stand in the way of the Dauphin and we will offer every encouragement possible to the Sultana.” Agnes quickly explained which those seemed to be the magic words that turned Gregori’s scowl into a pleased smile.

“Excellent, with your complete cooperation and no further interference, such a thing as this list and your simple misunderstanding could easily be forgotten, be dismissed as rumor and such evidence would surely find its way into a remote, abandoned trunk somewhere in a garbage heap or be ash in a fireplace, we wouldn’t want such damning evidence fall into the wrong hands would we?” Gregori offered as he put the list back into his breast pocket of his vest under his coat as Agnes and Richard knew that as long as you agreed to Ramsey’s proposals, it would be ok and forgiven.

“Oh, of course, we would never dream to presume to be anything but compliant.” Richard offered as Agnes nervously laughed as she nodded emphatically with her husband.

“Then you won’t be opposed to us looking into the Sultana’s welfare while at Broadcove, then will you? Because it is Ramsey’s dearest wish that she gain halmana status, which is for English- that of a dowager, like the queen dowager, or dowager empress, which surpasses even my own status of nescia and he can’t marry a moura with a status less than sayida actually. Also there is the very curious and honestly alarming and downright shameful fact that the Sultana’s correspondence with the stables and her friends within them has gone by the wayside and even their correspondence to her has gone awry, practically vanished into thin air and there has been a complete disconnect from the Sultana to her homeland.” Yalin began.

“According to Ramsey and the Czarina’s brothers that, even the stable masters have not heard anything from her since she wrote that she arrived safely to Broadcove immediately after the wedding, but absolutely nothing else ever since, even now at Mirador, her correspondence is going missing both too and from the stables and her friends within them, I wonder what kind of sum could be offered for every single piece of correspondence to be produced from wherever they might be at, we have investigators that are going through the Royal Mail Service as we speak, immediately dispatched the moment it was made known, in fact when it was made aware by the Czarina’s brothers and The Princesses brothers, they almost immediately pulled them both out of the ball and demanded to go home because such atrocities would never be tolerated and are demanding that such a thing be a crime punishable either in prison or public whippings and demotions which the royal family had no choice but to agree to.” Richard continued where his wife left off as Agnes and Richard gave each other a worried glance.

“And that’s because they had to pay a hundred and fifty thousand pounds just to get the new mouras out here, which was a non refundable fee, and one that the guilty party, when they are found, could be made to pay as well should that happen and the King and Queen immediately ordered for the matter to be investigated by the best detectives in the country along with Scotland Yard who at the very mention of bribes will immediately arrest and brought to the tower and will be investigating everyone who could possibly be involved, how many letters would you think a person can write in the span of two years?” Yalin wondered aloud and smiled wider when Agnes and Richard both faltered guiltily as they both seemed to fluctuate between pale and impossibly red.

“Of course if any of it has been ordered to be burned by either you or anyone in your household, even if that order were to be carried out within the Royal Mail Service, the royal family will have no choice but to hold you personally responsible and I believe that a sum of at least a hundred pounds up to possibly a thousand pounds, per letter, per every little piece of correspondence will be demanded from you since you are the Lord of the estate and it is you who is solely responsible for all things that happen within the estate. Especially since you are so rich, I’m inclined for the higher price, since you surely can afford it.” Gregori insisted to Richard whose eyes were about to pop out of his head and his own buttons on his waistcoat were about to pop off from the heaviness of his instant laboured breathing at such a prospect.

“But surely you can’t imagine that we would have anything to do with her correspondence going missing. We would never dream of doing such a thing or implicating the Royal Mail Service. Such a thing is madness and to hold us responsible for other’s mistakes.” Agnes pleaded, trying not to betray her own guilt.

“But this matter still involves the Royal Mail Service, which answers to their majesties and that they take immense pride in and is the mark of civilization in fact it was a charge of uncivilization that the Royal Mail Service was so profoundly broken that such a thing has occurred, such an oversight of one or two to go missing is understandable considering the volume, but for every single one to go missing, surely nothing but malicious intent is to blame and their royal highnesses are taking it as an affront and a personal attack and insult that a system that the monarchy put in place would fail it’s most valuable of subjects because they view that every moura in their society is a precious treasure and they immediately made that sentiment known to the Sultana and the other moura guests when they asked the Sultana about it directly and got confirmation directly from her.” Yalin countered firmly.

“Also in talking with the Sultana just this evening, she was completely unaware that there were moura social clubs in England, much less London, and had no idea of their existence, of course the belief that if you alienate one from others that you weaken the individual is completely false, if anything, it galvanizes the individual and can have very long lasting and far reaching negative effects because it’s the socialization that makes mouras more pleasant to be around and work with, but to deprive one of socialization is abject cruelty and will be something that their majesties are also looking into as well as the stables and such accommodations will make their ways into all future contracts instead of being implied because the honor of every Englishman is now called into question that we can’t even uphold our own rule of law and contracts which the Royal Family was affronted that such a thing has obviously been failed by you, which is why they are so intent on holding you personally responsible. So really, I can’t imagine the cost the royal family will demand for each piece of correspondence.” Gregori firmly insisted and his tone was almost snarling and had the Morrigan’s quaking in fear because he was after all, the brother to the King and had the commanding presence of his station as Yalin simply beamed proudly at her husband.

“H..how would you know such a thing of how many pieces of correspondence?” Richard paled as Gregori and Yalin simply smiled smugly.

“The Royal Family asked the Sultana directly to estimate how many pieces of correspondence, she estimated it in the thousands. So since it is the possibility of someone burning them, there are some magic practicing persons who can still be found, in fact they were sent for tonight during the ball and should be here in the next day or two and since the correspondances still at one point existed to begin with, they can be conjured up still. Such a thing is very costly but viable, and of course such a means can be used to pinpoint exactly who is responsible and of course if that is the case, the price for each one will double, even triple in value and be taken out of your income and out of your nobility since again, it is you who is responsible for all things at Broadcove and all your other estates and especially since it was your own servants that followed the Sultana to her new residence, they are now highly suspect as are you. And in such a case, may the gods themselves have mercy on your pocketbooks, much less your souls. And of course whoever else was involved in such a crime, is still viable to be denounced in court, all of their property go to the victim which in this case is the Sultana, and then they could be flogged, drawn and quartered in the public square, because the crime was committed against not just the Royal Mail Service but also against their majesties and a royal moura who after tonight, is closely associated with the royal family who just upon looking at her this evening have welcomed her into their fold and have gotten the nod of approval and the Queen herself said how “perfectly precious and exquisite she was, a sign of impeccable breeding”.” Gregori recited proudly.

“Oh yes, to get that kind praise from her, there are now two diamonds this season and one of them is halfway to being securely in Ramsey’s hands, really no safer place could be found in all of the court. And Ramsey is extremely protective of what is his.” Yalin practically cooed.

“Which Ramsey is looking to bolster up the protections for mouras in general, so that any abuse whatsoever will never be tolerated no matter the soil they stand on and no matter the status of the moura in question and of course we will also have to investigate all of your relation, for any evidence and any dishonesty will also have the same outcome. As we speak, Scotland Yard are on their way to your estate at Broadcove and to all of your other houses along with a special team of investigators who have come in from Dorierra just for the occasion. And any interference on your part will have some very serious, grave consequences.” Gregori warned.

“But of course, if you and your family are innocent, then you have nothing to worry about, just keep on encouraging the Sultana towards our Ramsey.” Yalin encouraged sweetly.

“Of course, of course.” Richard and Agnes shakily agreed.

“Goodnight then, safe travels, also if either you or any of your family try to flee the country, you will be hunted and brought back and imprisoned in the Tower of London and absolute guilt will be assumed and a public trial will immediately ensue and all details will be printed in every newspaper from here to Dorierra.” Gregori offered lowly as he stuck his head into the window to be eye to eye with Richard before he pulled his head out and patted the carriage and told the driver to drive the Morrigan’s home as Agnes nearly fainted.

“How long do you think it’ll take for them to start screaming at each other?” Yalin murmured as she and her husband waived them off and watched as the carriage drove away from their home.

“Oh they’ll probably wait until after they leave the gate.” Gregori mused with a chuckle.

“Have I told you that nothing is sexier to me than watching you flex your own power My Love?” Yalin cooed to Gregori.

“You can show me.” Gregori purred into his wife’s ear before he started kissing down from her ear down her neck which got her to giggle and gave her gooseflesh.

“Oh Gregori.” Yalin sighed dreamily as she pulled him into the palace.

“And?” Ramsey asked as you and Jane stood in the foyer with everyone else as you introduced Jane to all of your friends from the stables after Bennie and Calla had introduced their own brothers to Jane and the Voyambi’s as you were sure all of the Voyambi sisters were staring in awed wonder at Calla’s and Bennie’s brothers because they had never seen more handsome men in all their lives as even Kiera was hard pressed to find a single fault in them and staring at one had her ignoring every grudge she had accumalated against mouras.

“Well they didn’t sing like canaries, but we sure did dangle the carrot and practically walked themselves into a box to get it. And they will not be an obstacle anymore.” Gregori beamed happily.

“But we will still be pursuing it right?” Ramsey asked.

“Oh absolutely, they’re incredibly guilty and if Scotland Yard is on it, they won’t return without results, it’s probable cause at this point, and the fact that they made the Sultana sign a nondisclosure is proof that something very serious and most likely, very dangeorus to the Morrigan family name and honor transpired and I know the Morrigans will do anything to keep it buried and concealed, including continuing to pay the Sultana’s living after her marraige to you of course, and that dowry will set this family up nicely, give us a good chance to build for a glorious future, and with your verile seed in her young and ready womb, you’ll be father to a future King or Queen, because with the Sultana’s bloodline, that will keep us well out of too much inbreeding within the family. And give the DeuSavance’s a run for their money and give them some competition to put their heirs on that throne.” Gregori reassured his son with a firm clasp on the shoulder as Ramsey nodded nervously.

“It’s certain that the game is afoot and I’m wondering how many delightfully juicy scandalous things we’ll uncover and it would be a shame if any or all of it made it into the papers after it’s settled, everyone does love a good scandal after all, we will need some good gossip after all this business.” Yalin giggled as Gregori chuckled.

“For now, I think it best we keep the Sultana here for as long as we are keeping the Czarina and the Princess and of course we should keep the young Countess Morrigan here as well, since the Sultana insists on her innocence. We can’t go upsetting the Sultana now can we?” Yalin suggested to Gregori.

“I agree. It’s going to be a full house.” Gregori cooed before they decided to address the group.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for accepting our invitations, Sultana, you especially are more than welcome to stay here at Windsor for as long as the Princess and the Czarina are here as well, we know it’s been a very long time since you were with your friends and we want you to enjoy their company as much as you can.” Yalin announced as beamed a happy smile.

“Thank you, your excellencies!” You readily called back as Calla and Bennie were both on either side of you, all three of you hugging each other tightly.

“Also, we understand that the differences between Dorierra culture and English culture are stark and can be jarring, which is why for the six weeks the Dorierrans are here, the first two weeks will be spent in the Dorierra ways the following two weeks we will slowly shift from Dorierra manners to proper English manners and the last two weeks will be spent in English manners so that should any or all of the moura brides choose to stay, you will know what’s expected of you, also for our English guests, I petition you to keep an open mind and not take any offense in the difference in manners and culture but be respectful, and of course what happens here at Windsor stays at Windsor.” Gregori announced as all the Dorierrans beamed happily and excited smiles at each other.

“With that being said, it is quite late and we all should get some sleep. However if we may have a private word with Sultana Audravienne,” Yalin urged before the housekeepers came and took the group to their rooms that had been prepared for them as you bravely walked up to them.

“We just had a private word with Richard and Agnes Morrigan and they beg your forgiveness for advising you against the Dauphin and misunderstanding his actions and attributing them to you. They also agreed to no longer be a hindrance or an obstacle for you.” Gregori relayed which made you frown.

“May I ask what induced them to change their opinion?” You asked as you looked from Gregori to Yalin.

“Once they were made aware of Ramsey’s intentions towards you.” Yalin answered.

“I see, well, then their apology is accepted. Thank you so much for letting me know.” You thanked them before you curtsied again respectfully and returned to the group.

“What was that all about?” Jane asked.

“I’ll tell you later.” You promised her as you were shown your own room as you stole away in it and breathed in relief when you were finally alone as you happily stripped out of your clothes and slipped into your night gown and collapsed on the comfortable bed and barely got under the covers before you heard something click open which made your eyes snap open before you pulled a shall around you. If it was Ramsey you were going to lose your patience and beat him off with a candelabra. You couldn’t take another minute of him tonight.

“Who’s there?” You demanded because you sensed you weren’t alone anymore.

“It’s just us, Ramsey told us of the secret passages in this place, we wanted to talk to you without other eyes and ears listening and watching.” Calla informed you in marinai as she and Bennie came out from a secret door in the wall in the corner.

“Well come on in, the water is nice.” You laughed in relief before Calla and Bennie both climbed into the bed with you, leaving a candle by the secret door but otherwise left the other on the night stand as you hugged each other tightly.

“It’s so good to see you again.” Calla sniffled into your shoulder as you held her the tightest while Bennie hugged your back as three of you cuddled together in the bed.

“It’s good to see you too, and it’s great to see the boys too, I never knew how precious my time with my siblings was while I was at home, now, seeing them, makes me wish I could see my own brothers. I would give anything to see them again, even Axal.” You confessed as Calla finally withdrew from you as you all laid on your backs, admiring the mural on the ceiling.

“Why is a country so obsessed with propriety, show nothing but nudes on their ceilings?” Bennie asked.

“Psh, I don’t know, I’ve been here two years and English culture makes just as much sense to me as it probably does to either of you, which isn’t a whole lot.” You admitted as you burned with wanting to tell them more but you promised Ramsey that you wouldn’t. But at the same time, you couldn’t scare them off with horror stories just as they are getting here and getting to know these people, part of you still held out hope that your experience was a Morrigan thing, not an English thing.

“I broke into the stable master’s office.” Calla suddenly blurted out which made you and Bennie snicker a laugh.

“Why would you do such a thing?” You asked her.

“To read the report as to why you were demoted to a shakan. I almost didn’t answer the call to come here but once we found out it was to London and that you would be present, I couldn’t say no, not hearing from you, most of us have assumed the worst and with all correspondence to you going missing, because your parent’s health has declined dramatically since your demotion, when they demanded to know why they got different answers each time they asked, one was “it was in your contract not to return” another was “she has no wish to return” one even claimed that you requested that demotion so that you couldn’t return, which was clearly a lie, no one knows what to think.” Calla confessed as you guiltily bit your tongue.

“So what happened?” Calla pressed and you knew you would have to chose your words very, very carefully.

“While it is true that it was in my contract with Edward that he bought me outright and that when I survived him, I was free to do as I pleased, he afforded me a living of 15 thousand pounds a year, which is a very comfortable sum of money a year and more than enough to live on and I’ve managed to save a good portion of it, I’m able to live in comfort and peace with a whole house of my own. And if I were to go back to the stables, the cycle would just begin anew and I have no heart or stomach for it. I’m content with where I’m at and what I have. Besides, Edward stated in his will that when and if I choose to remarry, it will be love and I have every intention of honoring his wishes because they are my own.” You calmly answered.

“So why did the contract with Richard state that he would pay you thirty thousand a year?” Calla asked with a deep frown.

“Because of what transpired between him and I while I was married to Edward. If you read it then you know I can’t talk about it because it’s a non-disclosure. I’m surprised you came if you read it.” You returned.

“Ok, but just because you signed it and can’t talk about it, Calla, spill the beans, all the beans, I need to know now.” Bennie insisted as she sat up in bed and stared determinedly at Calla.

“Edward went mad shortly after Audra’s marriage to him. I consulted the new medical books after I read it, he had dementia, which is becoming common among the older ones and with dementia, comes aggression and violence, Audra suffered greatly at Edward’s hands. But Richard forbade Audra from telling anyone for fear of “tarnishing” the family honor.” Calla answered.

“And that’s why Richard doubled my yearly living, to buy my silence.” You sighed tiredly.

“But the Morrigans are rich, they could have hired doctors and nurses and caretakers to take care of Edward in that state.” Bennie argued.

“At first Edward did, but the more mad he became and the worse he got, the more the nurses demanded to care for him and instead of paying it, Richard dismissed them and viewed me as his already bought and paid for nurse and companion. But his decline was out of my depth. And all Richard did was imprison us both into Broadcove, I couldn’t reach out to anyone, even my messengerari wouldn’t work or reach out to anyone. He had some kind of disruptor in the house. But thankfully I was able to get some insurance against him, so that if he ever decides to stop paying for my silence, I can have a measure of revenge, so you see, never again will I ever be anyone’s pawn or play thing. And never again will I ever tolerate abuse of any kind. If I am to remarry it will be for love, no madness, no abuse, no control over me, no secrets, no intrigue, no disloyalty or unfaithfulness, I am a free woman, I do not answer to anyone and I have freedom. And I can’t go back to my old life, I refuse. I would rather be a free shakan than a caged nescia, no matter how big or gilded the cage may be. Even as one as nice as this palace. All I want is someone to love me for me, even as broken and jaded as I am, who won’t look at me and see wealth, or my dowry or even look at me and desire me for the sole reason that I am a moura, but will see just me, and be content with that.” You insisted sleepily as all three of you got comfortable cuddled together.

“Then I hope you get what you wish for.” Calla insisted sleepily too before all three of you drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile Demsey stared up at his own ceiling and huffed indignantly because he knew he was already beaten. How could his own estate of Whydahh had no hope of competing with the palace of Windsor. It had a hard enough time competing with Mirador and that was only because it had been built in just the last ten years and had all new, modern convenciences. His own London townhouse of Graveston didn’t really compare to Mirador at all. The Dauphin had...well everything, he was royalty for crying out loud and outranked him. What did he have that the Dauphin didn’t? What could he possibly offer a woman of taste and refinement and accomplishment such as yourself that the Dauphin couldn’t offer twice or three times over? Other than his own love, care and devotion? But call him a hopeless romantic, he wanted to try to woo you anyway. He had watched you all night and you didn’t give one genuine smile to the Dauphin all evening. You were polite but still so subdued. According to Amara when she too had followed you into the bathroom, you couldn’t even go to the bathroom in peace. And Lady Whitesale was so rude to Amara and all of his sisters. Before she had purposefully tried to befriend them as “sisters” but now that that seemingly was no longer a possibility, she immediately showed her own true colors to them and had turned all the other orc women in the court against them and had them shunned once they took up company with the jewel orc mouras. But what really sold him on you was how gracious you were in your own perceived defeat. You were still so kind and treated everyone in his family so wonderfully and respectfully and engaged with all of them while they were waiting in the foyer, especially his younger siblings. And even though Kiera had been begrudged against you, you were still kind to considerate to her. You were above reproach and you proved with your words and actions what an excellent woman you were and what he would give if he knew it wouldn’t start a scandal or call into question your own honor of just going to room and confessing all of his feelings to you this moment.

But as tempting as that sounded. That would surely insult your honor and compromise you, plus it would be unkind. He knew just by looking at you, that you were beyond exhausted. And having battled Ramsey’s affections all night and dodging the Morrigans meanness, it would be too much to try to battle his own advancements if you didn’t return them. You looked like you were ready to bolt out of the Morrigan’s carraige and you had sadly looked so relieved to even see Ramsey rescue you from their company, he wondered if you would have looked at him with equal relief if he had been the one to get to you first, but sadly he had been helping his Ma’ma out of her carriage.

But at the ball, just as you were leaving his side for the brief moment he was able to steal you away for, the way you held his hand, even for as brief of a moment as it was that evening, that simple touch had conveyed so much that words never could, but even now, he couldn’t put words to it’s meaning as he traced the outline your hand had been on his own hand, he almost didn’t want to wash his hands for fear it would wash your magical touch off, while it was true that the gold plague had ridden mouras of their magic, he could almost sense that at least a little bit still lived in you, it had sent the most delightful electric shocks through his whole being and had his soul craving more contact, just another touch, another glance, another anything. But Ramsey blocked him, all night. But despite Ramsey’s best efforts, the few looks you shared, especially over dinner, he was sure he saw longing and affection and dare he hope desire in your eyes when you looked at him. It had him feeling like you were the only woman at that ball that existed, let alone that mattered.

That being said he was keen to see you behave the way you were raised to and wondered what kind of differences there was between Dorierran customs and English ones. His brothers had talked about the Dorierran national sport, something that involved flaming swords. If he got to see you weilding a flaming sword, the Dauphin be damned, he was going to probably fall head over heels in love with you and probably propose to you as soon as he could. because at least in orcish culture, weapons were sacred and a shieldmaiden weilding a sword or a battle ax was seen as the epitome of sexy. Of course just thinking about it had his shaft rock hard, again, great, something else to satisfy again before he could get some sleep.

#Blood For Gold #Blood For Gold Part 8 #Oh yeah #now we are getting into intentions and interests and how those are gonna clash #mwahahaha #Regency orcs #regency era orc period drama #orc fantasy love story.#orc love story.#moura

11 notes · View notes

jeanjauthor · 3 years

Note

In mediveal times how long did a noble family have to exist for to be considered noble and not new money? 10 year, 50 years (son/grandson), 100 years (great, or great-great-grandson), or something so big like 200 years?

I'm going to be bluntly honest.

I have no frikkin' idea.

But we can think it through logically, at least a little bit, as well as draw parallels to modern or recent-era situations that are similar.

(This post ended up rather long, so I’m inserting a Keep Reading cut for the rest of y’all...)

We have a lot more writings on the Georgian/Regency eras (1700s onward) regarding the newly rich versus old money...but that's because there were more opportunities to garner new wealth, through the exploitation and colonization of explorers in the Americas, merchants traveling overseas over much longer distances due to better ship design and navigational charts, etc.

We have complaints about sea captains buying noble titles, giving money to their sovereigns who, for whatever reason, needed more income than they garnered from taxes, etc. People who were ennobled for enslaving foreign regions and extracting local resources for European consumption, so on and so forth.

Part of that was because prior to the boom in exploitative exploration & colonization, there was literally only so much land that could be parceled out to heirs or sold to the newly wealthy merchant classes, and land was still seen as the biggest economic stimulus point (the constant need for herds and crops to feed everyone, etc).

Even mining operations and foundries for smelting iron, etc, were still not advanced enough to be productive enough, because science and technology weren't far enough along for these things to provide enough metal to spark the Industrial Revolution until the turn of the 1800s and later.

We can conclude that the means to amass a lot of wealth was, therefore, difficult to acquire prior to colonization and industrialization. This was not to say that it didn't happen! There were always wars against one's neighbors, there was cross-country trade that could make one rich, someone could stumble across a gold mine (literally, a source of precious metals), so on and so forth. The Crusades were initially about Christian religious fervor...and the acquisition of the wealth of their supposed enemies, the Muslims (who weren't enemies to begin with, btw).

People in the Middle East were literally sitting at a crossroads of trade between Europe, Africa, and Asia, so yes, they had access to a lot more cross-continental commerce than anywhere else. And when the invading crusaders brought back some of that wealth--spices, silks, exotic jewels, dyes, decorative objects, and ideas (yes, those can be a source of wealth! Cross-pollination between different groups sharing ideas almost always leads to new innovations!)--it sparked avarice in the hearts of a lot of people who saw a potential opportunity for acquiring more wealth.

Those who came back with that wealth...possibly bribed their sovereigns, bought lands, became the newly rich...except back then there wasn't quite the same class divide barrier to break. Because those who could afford to go to the Holy Land to conquer & rob it of its wealth had to be able to not only walk themselves there, with enough funds to provision themselves along the way, but needed the equipment to be able to successfully capture rich targets. Horses, armor, weapons, so on and so forth.

They'd also have to attach themselves to some noble's entourage if they weren't noble themselves, and that meant they'd have to share their plunder, etc...or be counted a brigand at best. (Let's be blunt, the difference between sanctioned plundering and brigandry is having the approval of a big group of people regarding your actions.) This meant that most of those that made their wealth off of the Crusades often did so as second and third and fifthborn sons, who weren't going to inherit much anyway--or bastard sons, who by law couldn't inherit without their family jumping through legal and liturgical hoops.

The ones who profited the most off of these plunder campaigns were therefore most likely already a part of the ruling class--or at least the mounted warrior class, which was seen as close enough to being the same thing. Compared to the long-distance merchant classes, who rode or sailed long distances to trade items only produced locally (and thus rare elsewhere) for exotic ones they could bring back and trade at home, the bastards and fourth-born sons had an easier time getting to be acknowledged as "acceptable new money."

Most merchants who did get wealthy tended to do so in free cities, or in city-states that were already mostly democratic (albeit the kind confined to wealthy male citizens) in nature, such as Venice and Genoa, where they did not have kings, or did not have a strong kingly or nobility presence (unlike Paris or London, etc, which were the seats of monarchial power).

But there is one more factor to consider: The Black Death.

Prior to the first major sweep of bubonic plague through Europe in the 1340s, the vast majority of European medieval life was pastorally centered, with the vast majority of people being serfs legally obligated to work the farms for the local lords, a few freemen, the clergy (who were slowly focusing on attaining lots of wealth themselves), and the nobles who were supposed to watch over and protect everyone from outside marauders, etc (to various degrees of belief & efficacy; some were genuinely good leaders who wanted to protect and share the wealth, while others were exploitative SOBs, and most were at some stage in between those two extremes).

When a quarter to a third of everyone died, however...that left crops rotting in the fields, people were weakened and devastated, whole reams of knowledge were lost with the deaths of those who were the masters of their crafts, and...well, the wealthy staggered under the weight. IF they survived themselves, of course.

The vast shift in the availability of workers meant the surviving workers started demanding many of the freedoms they had been previously denied--they literally took their possessions and left their serf-bound homes to go work for anyone who was willing to pay them a lot more and give them more legal freedoms. (Modern folks really need to take notes!) And because all ranks and stations were being hit more or less just as hard as any other caste level, that meant those who could have enforced the peasants staying on their lord's demense-lands were unable to bring enough of them into play to herd the wayward serfs back to their quasi-slavery.

After all, if you had 100 warriors, 50 of which were needed to keep a watch out for brigands and guard the castle, you could afford to send out 20-30 of them to spread out, search for, and round up a stray serf who had run away, while keeping the remainder in reserve. (Remember, serfs who ran away to free cities and stayed there successfully for a year-and-a-day were considered free men and could not be dragged back to their farms...but that left 366 days in which they could be caught and dragged back.)

But if you lost 30 of your warrior-class, you'd still need 50 to guard the castle and its lands--possibly more in such restless times!--and you'd only have 20 to spare, period. Which meant in a practical sense that you'd only have 5-10 at most you could send out (needing to keep a reserve at your home base), which meant searches for runaways were far less efficient--either they'd have to search fewer areas with large enough groups to capture and return, or they'd have to split up, find the serf, run for help, and hope the serf was still in that same area when they got back with enough forces to capture the serf without risking injury to themselves or to the peasant in question.

Prior to the Black Death, upward mobility was a rare thing--you practically had to save the life of the king in battle, etc. This was of course easier to do in the 700s than in the 1200s, but still not an easy thing. And even then, you'd have to prove you were "noble enough" to be accepted by the upper classes. We know this upward mobility of the wealthy-but-not-noble was restricted because we do have increasingly stiff sumptuary laws--aka what non-nobles were allowed to wear.

Literally, wearing winter ermine--the white fur of the ermine mustelid with the black-tip tails--was reserved for royalty and very high ranked clergy and sometimes very high ranked nobility depending on timeperiod and culture. Indeed, a lot of furs became increasingly social-rank-dependent, to the point that only squirrel fur was considered "open for everyone." Yes, only squirrels, because even rabbits were considered to "belong" to the local lord, and poaching them for eating, never mind for wearing, became a punishable crime.

You had to have permission from your social betters to wear luxurious furs and other items....so we can conclude that upward mobility was not much of a thing...up until the devastation of the Black Death upended social order, and the vast majority of people seized back many of their natural rights and forced social status mobility upon those who held all the wealth and the power. (*ahem* Do Take Notes, People. *stares in Covid Pandemic* (Yes, I have no chill on this point, there are TOO MANY PARALLELS to what we're suffering today, socio-economically.))

Anyway! if you're thinking medieval pre-pandemic, there wasn't as much social mobility. Post-pandemic (and there were several waves of the Black Death and other plagues, btw, including a devastaing plague in 1655, not just the most famous one of the late 1340s/early 1350s), there was a lot more elbow room for jostling your way toward the top.

However, the best hope one could have for social mobility was to buy into a noble family. Usually via a marriage contract, wherein the non-noble brought in a great deal of wealth to a potentially impoverished noble family, with their offspring to be considered part of the noble family.

This was often done by someone with an ongoing source of wealth, such as merchant enterprises, or someone who could, say, create exceptional glassware, or whose family line held trade secrets in a lucrative profession, such as the thread-of-gold makers in London, ladies who were taught the secrets from an early age and whose skills were sought far and wide--or the lacemakers of certain regions in France, the Low Countries, southern England... Though to say it was "often" done isn't exactly an indication that it was done often, just that it was more likely a means to acquiring social status than saving the life of a king, etc.

So those are several of the possible ways to become wealthy and high in social status. As for "new rich vs old money"...that's a complex and lesser known subject. Most of the records we have from the medieval era were from legal documents and/or household ledgers, neither of which lend themselves to including personal annotations on things like, "A suckling pig and 2 pounds 16 shillings - Mercantile Atteborough paid this much to be included as an honored guest at the Feast of St. Barnabas in my southern manor keep."

Or maybe, "Goodwife Ashton paid 20 shillings to be able to wear a mantle lined with sable marten fur throughout the winter despite it being above her station, the rude hen" or "My son decided to give a length of silk to the village baker's daughter, even though I told him that she had no right to wear such things until after they were wed and elevated into the family fold..."

We do have a few sources mentioning such things from earlier eras, but writing was such a laborious process, the materials so costly (parchment is literally the inner shaved skin of an animal, often a goat or a sheep, and nowhere near as cheap as paper to produce...but paper breaks down so much faster than parchment over time), that most people tended to not meander about various subjects, but instead saved writing for "truly important" subjects--keeping monetary accounts, tallying things for tax-time, writing about God, and for those few scholars who had the wealth and support system, writing about the natural world, the dawning of science and reason, so on and so forth.

So we don't know how much these things were considered, only that they were considered to at least some small extent.

With all that said, we do know that the longer a family bloodline remains in power, the more determined they are to keep that power, which means concentrating it in the upper classes. (This is dangerous biologically, as inbreeding is...um...yeah. BAD.) In later years, those being allowed to join by marriage would be under heavy expectations to fit in, obey the head of the household/bloodline, and copy the manners and traditions of the class they were joining. But again, not many records of this.

Not all marriages were made for love. We see love as a marital concept among the higher classes only being developed after the rules of Courtly Love had been established for long enough that love as a possibility for high-ranked persons was considered possible. Prior to that, it had been as much or more a business transaction to increase familial power and wealth. But while for the common peasant a marriage was often made based on love and/or compatibility/mutual respect, there were still plenty of families in the in-between ranks who insisted on deliberately matchmaking or at least vetting "prospects" by how much wealth or social power each party or family held.

Again, we don't know how much the consideration of depth of a family's noble or wealthy lineage played into these calculations in the Middle Ages. We do know from the post-colonial era that many noble families back in Europe were scandalized by colonists & other overseas exploiters making loads of money and then not only trying to buy themselves a noble title, but in trying to act like they were the social equals ot the nobility.

"American heiresses" (or anyone from any overseas colony) would come to places like London to enjoy "high civilization." When they did so, their wealth would attract prospective grooms, but their breeding (aka, lack of it) would almost invariably scandalize the prospective groom's social peers and/or family members...until the Industrial Revolution created so many rich "commoners" that the nobles actually lost most of their social status power.

This nobility clout faded especially when America came to economic and cultural prominence on the world stage--a land that prided itself on having zero nobles...but that was not to say America didn't (and doesn't) have a ruling class. We just use different names, and we still have our own Old Money groups, who hoard the reigns of power for themselves and their heirs. Rockefeller is a family name known throughout the nation, as is any politician named Kennedy, for example--and now we have names like Gates and Bezos and Musk...though Gates is technically more old-money than the latter two. (Slightly.)

Unfortunately for the Old Money groups, it is now far too easy for "upstarts" to make billions, diminishing the Old Family names...but make no mistake: Most of these new billionaires still come from money, because they've leveraged their older family ties and associations to wedge themselves into these positions of visible economic power. (Musk bought himself into Tesla; he didn't actually found it. Gates, on the other hand, actually did found MicroSoft and did a lot of the actual programming work in his early days.)

...With all of that said, we only need to look at one more item to determine how long it would take Newly Rich to become Old Money: Time. Depending upon the region and the era...? About 3-4 generations would be my best guess.

Life was short and hard for many people in the Middle Ages, due to the lack of advanced healthcare, with a lot of people dying fairly early on from infections, illnesses, injuries, and the like. While the upper classes would have a lot more access to good food and be less likely to suffer from famines, giving them a better chance at a longer life due to having their nutritional needs met and their bodyfat being a little higher (it's a cushion against ilnesses and injuries, folks; stop being fatphobic!), they would still suffer, and often die much younger than a typical modern-day person might, even one living in modern-day poverty. (Wear your goddamn masks, people!! *ahem*)

When you live in a world where getting to live to be a grandparent or even a great-grandparent is a solid accomplishment, changes will be accepted much more quickly by each successive generation. Mostly because "that's the way it's always been" will have a shorter timeframe needed, due to the lack of grandparents raging on and on about "...that old upstart Timothy bought himself land and the funs to put up a keep on it! He's no more a lord than George the Goose Boy!"

The longer something goes unchallenged in the day-to-day lives of the people experiencing it, the more it seems like it should exist that way. (*STARES HARD AT THE LAST 40 YEARS OF ECONOMIC SUPPRESSIONS.*) And by that metric, given the average shorter lifespans even if you don't count early childhood deaths in mortality statistics across the broad span of medieval times in Europe...it wouldn't take more than 60 or so years for everyone locally to accept that New Money is now Old Money.

...Or that acceptance could happen even faster, if the New Money is clever enough to "share the wealthy" by investing their time, money, and effort in building good relations with their wealthy/high-class "neighbors." This would include publicly deferring to "their betters" and copying the social mannerisms of the upper class without mockery and without overstepping the bounds of what they could reasonably be allowed to do with their newfound status. Truly savy social climbers would be cautious and smart about flaunting their new power, planning for the long term haul rather than reveling too much in the moment.

Note that this statement is building good relations, not spending absurd amounts of money on lavish parties, ostentatious clothing, etc...which brings us to the Old Money side of the equation. Again, this is based in my observations on various peripheral socio-economic factors, and not on direct evidence.

The one thing that would irk the Old Money types pretty much every single time is newcomers being overly flamboyant with their wealth. Especially since the flamboyantly wealthy often end up the stupidly impoverished within a short span of time--to be accepted, the newly rich would have to understand the balance between claiming their wealth and status, and investing it to maintain that power. Wasting it wouldn't be viewed well by those who were raised generation after generation with lessons of how to maintain, expand, and increase their family's wealth and power.

It would be far better for a rising family to absorb and adopt higher-ranking privileges slowly and steadily, rather than greedily grabbing at all of it, all at once. And if they reach out to a neighboring Old Money family "for advice" and show some humility, moderate amounts of flattery (again, not in excess), asking to be treated like a nephew or niece in need of a mentorship, the Old Money family might actually take a proprietary interest in this upcoming family, giving them lessons, helping them get better access to things that were reserved for the upper classes.

Flattery is only good in the long term if there is some genuine sincerety behind it (or the one you are flattering is a narcissist, but they rarely hold onto power for long without serious help from outsiders). Instruction can be obtained with flattery, but also by in being respectfully attentive. And making sure you're not a rival to the Old Money neighbors around you can go a long way toward gaining their acceptance, too. By handling one's rise to power with these things in mind, it could actually allow the Newly Rich to be accepted that much faster, to within a matter of years or decades (with a great deal of luck), if not by one or two generations sooner than usual.

As mentioned above, sometimes Old Money doesn't actually still have the wealth that everyone assumes they have, and they need to accept New Money into their family--aka via an economically advantageous marriage. Sometimes they do have that money, but the sources of reliable wealth and political power are shifting, and the Old Family wishes to diversify its portfolio (so to speak). And sometimes they just want to diversify their power structure. This can include gaining access to up-and-coming industries, being able to have a say in how and where they're used (iron smelting, for example).

Just be aware of the fact that most of the time, if anyone accepted Newly Rich into their Old Money family, it was often an established male accepting a rich but socially-lesser female--aka the "American heiress" syndrome mentioned earlier. While the heiress wives would be...tolerated...if they toed the line, only their children would be considered "much more socially acceptable" because it would be presumed their fathers were raising the children in the Old Money Ways.

(Keep in mind that this is a worldwide trait for patriarchal cultures, not just European in nature. For far too many years, India's caste system allowed women from a lower caste to marry into an upper caste rank, but men were not supposed to marry a woman from a higher caste. This was a method used by the upper casts to deliberately focus familial power higher and higher on the social ladder. And, of course, it allowed high-caste males the social access/right to marry gorgeous low-caste women.)

Most females in a patriarchal society would not get the chance to marry into New Money unless they genuinely had a choice. Most often, they did not, because their families would want to continue concentrating their influence (including matrilineal! revisit this video I posted a while back on just how much influence a matrilineal family line could have on European politics: https://youtu.be/sl4WtajjMks ) into known avenues of power and influence.

...One last caveat: prior to the invasion of the British Isles by the Normans, who treated the local Anglo-Saxons, Celts, etc, as conquered peoples, replacing their nobility with incoming Normans who fight alongside William the Conqueror, many of whom were literally ennobled and given titles and lands etc, practically on the spot just for being a fellow Norman fighter...social mobility into the ranks of the nobility was easier.

If you had the money, the resources, the horses, etc...boom, you were a part of the local power structure. Afterward, there was a stronger incentive to diminish local power & wealth in favor of emphasizing incoming invaders' power and wealth, to be able to subjugate away those who were the original locals. This led to a lot of suppression of social mobility in order to retain power. Not just in the British Isles but elsewhere, as other regions heard of what the Normans were doing, and decided to do it themselves to their own people.

Prior to the 1066 invasion, it was possible for a warrior of commoner birth to go off raiding and looting, bring home a lot of wealth, and be lauded for his (or her!) rise in socio-economic standing. (Whether or not they were Northmen who went a-viking, since plenty of peoples did go raiding for wealth, etc; Scandinavians were just really good at it, far more so than most of the peoples they raided.)

Post-invasion, those in power started to choke down on who could do what, when, how, where, and with whomever else in order to consolidate their socio-economic power. (Seriously, sumptuary laws are mostly a post-1066 thing, along with strict laws of serfdom, up until the Black Death turned everything upside-down.)

So if you're writing a story set prior to the 1000s, there'll be much more opportunity for wealth-based social mobility and its acceptance. But afterwards, much less. But this exists on a continuum/spectrum that varies not only depending on what timeframe the story would exist in, but also where in terms of location, and what kind of social rise-to-power avenue is taken.

After all, someone gaining a lot of money in Genoa or Venice through trade would be heavily lauded by their home society, whereas someone doing the same in, say, Krakow (deep-continent) would be viewed far less companionably by the upper-classes, because trade was not as huge a part of their local culture--trade existed, but it wasn't central to how the locals & their rulers viewed themselves.

Like I said, I don't frikkin know for sure; there isn't enough hands-on documentation in common circulation. But humans have been humaning since before written records began, and we can make some reasonable guesses to help fill in the gaps.

(And if anyone claims you got it wrong, just cry "--IT'S FICTION!! It doesn't HAVE to be that accurate!!")

#answers #medieval moneybags #medieval new rich versus old money

4 notes · View notes

13yearslater · 4 years

Text

Rights in the UK

I don’t really know what I’m about to write as I start this, but I’ve been feeling some feelings lately about the social and political climate surrounding trans people.

I’m grateful to be in the UK, which relatively speaking is a fairly progressive and safe country for trans people compared to many others.

But I am still scared.

I’m not scared that I will be individually targeted and assaulted in the street. Although the 2,500 hate crimes against transgender people last year alone (a 210% increase since 2015/16) suggests that maybe my lack of concern is the privileged complacency of not being visibly trans, especially when we see that 81% of LGBT people don’t even report the hate crimes against them. That complacency lives on a tightrope however; I am one incident away, one incident of my trans status falling into the wrong hands, from realising that I am not immune to the abuse that I see my local trans sisters face on a daily basis.

And how confident would I be that any hate crime I were to experience would be dealt with appropriate and effectively? Well given that Scottish minister Humza Yousaf very almost pushed through amendments to Scotland’s Hate Crime & Public Order Bill that would directly exclude transgender people I may, perhaps naively, expect the police and courts to provide protection and justice for me now, but I am constantly reminded of just how fragile my protections are and how they can be snatched away at any given moment, and with public support.

What really scares me is the disregard for our rights and the increasing amounts of ‘anti trans’ pressure groups in the UK who are continuing to gain support and traction, including many that are LGBT based wishing to exclude us from their community entirely.

1. Gender Recognition Act

The Gender Recognition Act is one example I will address. This act is the means that trans people in the UK use to legally change their gender and acquire an updated birth certificate. This is a sixteen year old, heavily bureaucratic, expensive and lengthy process. It requires a payment of £140 and the following, many of which are also not free to obtain:

a) The requirement for the trans person to provide two medical reports, one evidencing a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and the other outlining details of any treatment received;

b) The requirement for the trans person to provide a range of documentation that proves they have lived in their acquired gender for at least two years;

c) The requirement for the trans person to submit a statutory declaration of their intention to live in their acquired gender until death;

d) The requirement for married applicants to obtain the consent of their spouse or end their marriage;

e) The cost to the trans person of using the GRA process

It’s the very reason that over a decade later, I still have not obtained my gender recognition certificate. And given that an average of 300 GRC applications are processed each year compared to the estimated 200,000 to 500,000 trans people in the UK, I suspect I’m not the only one.

So anyway, in 2018 there was a consultation about the Gender Recognition Act with over 100,000 respondents and promises to reform this act. The response was hugely positive with the vast majority supporting the reform. It highlighted all the issues with the process that is preventing trans people gaining legal recognition. We were all hopeful, and many of us who had been awaiting this moment to gain our own GRCs sat in wait. Unfortunately, two years later, the government announced that they had decided to scrap plans to reform the GRA altogether stating that this was not the priority for trans people. The consultation was also considered to be biased due to too many positive responses; despite only ~20% of respondents being trans themselves and ~20% being from all called upon by anti-trans groups such as Fair Play for Women.

2. The Keira Bell case

I don’t wish to get into the finer details of the case itself or my opinions on the matters involved, but to give a brief overview, a woman who transitioned and received puberty blockers at age 16, testosterone at age 17 and a double mastectomy at age 20. She later detransitioned and went on to sue the NHS (National Health Service) claiming that she was not challenged enough and that under 18s cannot consent to treatment such as puberty blockers with the aim to prevent the prescription of puberty blockers for all trans youth.

Long story short, she was successful and the Tavistock clinic, ie the only gender identity clinic in the UK that treats trans people under the age of 18, is no longer able to prescribe puberty blockers to anyone under the age of 16, with those between 16-18 having to seek approval via court first.

If we take a look at who was involved in this court case we see Keira Bell herself and her mother as the claimants and the Tavistock clinic as the defendant. For the interested parties who had direct input into this case we had “Mrs A” - the mother of a 15yr old autistic child displaying gender dysphoria who is firmly against her child being able to access a gender clinic (interestingly, any of her input was regarded as purely hypothetical since her child had never attended, nor would ever attend a gender identity clinic), we also had Transgender Trend - an anti-trans pressure group and finally, we have the University College of London who are not gender specialists. Meanwhile, groups such as Mermaids who are a well-known charity aimed at supporting trans children and Stonewall who are campaigners for LGBT rights in the UK both applied and were both denied access to this case. The judge of course did also not have any authority on the subject.

My issue here is yet again, how fragile my rights and protections feel and my ever waning confidence that government or legal processes are in any way fair and balanced. This was not a fair trial; there was no balance in stances, other than the defendant there were no gender specialists or even anyone heavily involved in the lives and care of trans people. The majority of interested parties were there with a firm agenda, and those that countered their beliefs were not allowed through the doors.

Puberty blockers are not an issue that affect me directly, but if a biased court taking the likes of “Mrs A” and her ‘theoretical’ input over reputable charities with a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise can be created to make such rulings and remove healthcare from an entire demographic of people then what is stopping that happening to my healthcare? Nothing, that’s what.

3. The census

Our census takes place every ten years and has always allowed transgender individuals to choose the sex that aligns with their passport. For me personally, selecting male feels like a far more accurate representation of my place in society, my legal status and my physicality along with the fact that I have been listed as male in previous census forms.

This year however, a second question was added. This questions asks “do you identify with your sex assigned at birth” with the options being yes or no and a box to enter further information when selecting no. The official guidance on the first question remained the same, stating that it was appropriate to select the sex that aligned with passports or legal documents. The first question allows data to be gathered on men and women, the second question allows data to be gathered specifically on the number of transgender individuals and other identities such as non binary - the two questions are entirely independent of each other and will generate separate sets of data.

But today, it came to light that anti-transgender pressure group, Fair Play for Women crowdfunded £100,000 to challenge this and bring it to court. This was successful and the official guidance has now changed to exclude all legal documents except a gender recognition certificate - which as previously mentioned, only a small percentage of trans people actually have due to the long, expensive and bureaucratic process involved in obtaining one.

Personally, I don’t really mind if I have to tick female to a question that asks my sex at birth. The question doesn’t explicitly ask for sex at birth however and is more aimed at showing the demographics of the UK for which female is absolutely not accurate for me. What bothers me is that a group have raised £100,000 from the public to ensure that we can’t select an accurate representation of who we are and our place in society and that it was approved.

4. The toilet provision

This has flown under the radar due to Covid-19 but the government recently held a consultation around public toilets. It seems fairly innocent at first glance. Except again, we’re seeing these anti-trans pressure groups calling for action amongst their followers, some with the call to ‘protect single sex spaces’. Could this be the beginnings of American-style bathroom bills in the UK?

---

So yes, I am scared. I’m scared by the fragility of my rights and freedoms; how easy they are to peel away bit by bit and how it passes by with little notice nor care, or in some cases with public support and even funding. I’m scared of the people who are given the power to make decisions about our rights based on no prior knowledge of experience of trans issues. I’m scared that we will be alienated and excluded from our LGBT spaces and supports. Will I be looking back in ten years, eternally grateful that I was able to transition when I did? Grateful for the gender clinics of today with their six year waiting lists? Will I live in a time where I must disclose my trans status on every document, at every job? Will I live in a time where I must provide my sex in order to use the gym? Will there be a time that I am not able to legally change my gender? I’m scared by the hostility of society, at times their vehement opposition to us existing amongst them, their disregard for the importance of our healthcare and all too often the anger that our ‘cosmetic’ surgeries are covered at all.

In a time that my life and rights feel like a debate, unimportant and constantly at the mercy of others, in a time that members of the public will raise huge amounts of money just to stop people like you ticking a box on a form, you’re damn right I’m scared for the future.

#ftm #trans #transgender #trans man #lgbt #lgbtq #sources included #text

9 notes · View notes

thewatchau · 3 years

Text

Lands Beyond Duilintinn: The Continent of Vaqone

Unlike previous posts in this compilation/reorganization series, only some of this next series of posts will be rewrites at first. Others will essentially be glorified masterlists, allowing me to do some organizing and put a bandaid fix on the disaster that is the current “Foreign Lands Beyond Duilintinn” masterlist. My goal is to create true compilation posts (or perhaps series of posts) for all of these countries, but for now, this will have to do.

Other Posts in this Series:

The Mortal Realm as a Whole •

The Continent of Tirónar • Duilintinn • Haneul • Halennor • Lantraeth • Borrike • Grancinco • Tandeli • The Island League • Leyfel • Fasithe •

The Continent of Effrens •

The Continent of Iontassia • The Iontassian Union • Las Buscadoras

The Continent of Senfara •

The Continent of Vaqone •

The Frozen Wastes •

The Unnamed Continent •

Souls and Magical “Energy” • Magic in Nature • Fae Folk, Fae Realm, Fae Gardens, and Imagination Dimension • Vaqone’s Soul-Bearing Beings

In This Post:

Summary

Foreign Relations

Administration

History

Geography

Ecology

Economy

Culture

Trivia

Additional Art

Concepts in Development

Bard’s Note: @theshapeshifter100 is the primary creative force behind the foreign continent of Vaqone. All I’ve contributed are a few ideas and the bit of lore that’s tied up with the lore of other continents. I know very little about the majority of the youtubers that these countries are based upon in the meta; the vast majority of this is @theshapeshifter100‘s work, so please, give her all the credit!

Summary

Vaqone is a continent in the northern hemisphere of the Mortal Realm.

Foreign Relations

The eastern part of the continent is mostly civil with Tirónar, with the exception of the territory beyond the mountains, which have had issues with Borrike in the past. However traders from the main continent do come to Tirónar, and leaders from the Random Encounters country has worked with and collaborated with various leaders in Tirónar, including King Mark, King Sean, Admiral Matthew, and Nathan of Fasithe. The western countries don’t really affiliate with Tirónar on account of distance, but traders looking for adventure make the trek.

There are four major southeastern islands that are considered part of Vaqone, and a couple of them have worked with the Grump Council of Halennor, Princes Dan and Phil of Lantraeth and King Sean.

The southwestern regions of Vaqone also have a trade relationship with the northeastern half of the Unnamed Continent, which has existed since the days of the Waldren Occupation.

Known Allies

Haneul, Duilintinn, Fasithe, Leyfel, Lantraeth, Halennor

Public Opinion

Generally positive or neutral in Tirónar. Still some issues with the T Series territories in Borrike

Administration

System of Government

Varied, mostly single leaders, with several kingdoms having joined in marriage to form one kingdom. The RandomEncounters country has a council, but it is very clear that AJ is in charge. In the north west where Tom Fawkes holds sway now used to be held by a combination of Chuggaaconroy, ProtonJon and NCS, then Tom gained enough power to hold what became enough land for his own kingdom, curtesy of three other leaders. NCS, Lucajin’s and ProtonJon’s territories have shifted a bit over the years to compensate for Jon and Luca’s union.

Currently FamilyJules and Adriana are interesting, since they are in a relationship, but their countries are split from each via the lake! It’s not common to see vessels from their countries going back and forth across it.

Military

Varied, some don’t have large armies, some do. Coastal countries and the countries bordering the lake have decent boat craft and navy. The countries surrounding the forest have excellent archers, as do the countries surrounding, but not in, the desert. They have more of a cavalry and mounted archers while the forest archers are on foot, or in trees.

Education

Varied. As a general rule history, performing arts, storytelling and music are all taught, but obviously not everyone goes for it. Various levels of intensity across the continent, some have formal schools, others learn as apprentices, all depending on where you are and what you are studying.

History

Vaqone’s history has not been elaborated upon in full yet in canon. However, a few details are known:

Cerca the year 0 on the Duil-Feadhainn Calendar, a large fleet of ships from islands north of Tirónar found themselves stranded in southern Vaqone after attempting to explore the Borrian Ocean. The languages and cultures of these people groups would combine with the native tongues and traditions of southern Vaqone to influence the region’s modern language and culture.

At some point during or prior to the mercantilist conflict between Senfara, Iontassia, and the southwestern regions of the Unnamed Continent, ships from southwestern Vaqone and ships from the northeastern Unnamed Continent encountered each other and began trade relationships between the two regions.

In the early 1610s, a nation on the eastern coast of Vaqone began expanding dramatically to cover the entire region east of the mountains and several of the islands east of Vaqone. In 1613, this expansion accidentally resulted in a territory dispute with Borrike of Tirónar over several of these islands. Though tensions were high for a time, the conflict was resolved within a year.

Geography

Major Geographic Features

The Desert:

Not so much sand as low precipitation. Dry baked earth with the odd oasis and high winds. The closer you get to the middle the hotter it gets and the stronger the winds become, kicking up dust and making it hard to see. It’s said that some of the oasis’s don’t stay in the same place, that they shift and move. People do live there (OSP): they tend to be focused on older myths and history, with a strong focus on education. It’s said that ruins and powerful creatures can be found under the dust and earth. Giant sand snakes, creatures made of rock, living cacti. No luck finding anything in the ruins so far though, every time a ruin is found it can’t be re-found.

The Lake:

It’s almost like another sea inside a continent, only the water is definitely fresh. There are marshes, fens and bogs all around the lake and populated islands inside it. These islands are mostly focused on story analysis, theories and rewriting. It is said powerful creatures sleep beneath the water.

The Forest:

There are definitely creatures in the forest. Whether of magical origins is uncertain, but forests that big attract stories anyway. People live in and around this forest anyway. Given it’s large size there is large shift in species and climate, moving from a roughly temperate forest in the north, to downright tropical in the south. The people who live here (8bitgaming and Dawko) have a specialisation in scary stories and horror. Which is interesting given that they are surrounded mostly by musicians.

The Mountains:

The range has various passages for traders and other travellers to go through. Other than the mountains are generally impassable. The temperature varies on either side of the range. The north is colder and gets more snow, the south more temperate and warm.

Islands:

To the east towards Tirónar are three islands who have ties to both Vaqone and Tirónar, the Jaden island being one of the closest to Tirónar, the other being the KickthePJ island. Jaiden’s island also has rich bird life and thick jungles while PJ’s is a bit more urbanised, but really embodies the storytelling that Vaqone loves. The middle island (Odd1sout) is more agriculture based, the closest to Vaqone island (BrizzyVoices) is known for mimicking voices, either through mundane skill or magic or both.

Climate

Variable. Colder in the north, warmer in the south. More specifically, the north west is on the same latitude as Tirónar so similar to western continental Europe (Italy, Spain etc). While as you move south it becomes much warmer. The desert is the first real heat spot, and while it does get warmer in places further south, there is more rain. Beyond the mountains it is generally colder than the rest of the continent.

There is an annual monsoon season that hits the south east and travels west as much as it can before petering out around the lake.

Ecology

Wild Species

Snakes. Snakes everywhere. Burrowing snakes, swimming snakes, gliding snakes. If you’re afraid of snakes, Vaqone is not for you. Although to balance it out, there are plenty of mongoose, no flying ones though.

There are various species of wolves, some can be found mostly in the north and along the mountain range, while a smaller, lighter variation can be found in and around the desert.

Tigers and similar large cats can be found in the south, and the further south you go the brighter the wildlife becomes.

Foxes and deer are common, along with small cat species, monkeys, penguins along the coast. Parrots, cockatiels, racoon dogs, giant squirrels (ratufa genus (bicolour, affinis, macroura, and indica) specifically), large birds of prey

Domestic Species

Pigs, ducks, dogs, cats, small horses, rabbits, silkworms. Silk is a popular export in some regions.

Economy

Agriculture

Dependent on location, rice can be grown around the coast, the lakes, and rivers, wheat, buckwheat and soy most other places. There’s fruit like peaches, plums and cherries in the north, pomegranate, lychee, and mangos in the south. Seafood and fish. Desert is a tricky place to grow things, they rely on the areas of their country furthest from the desert and imports from other countries for food. Duck and pork are common sources of meat.

Trade

Silk, rabbit angora, gemstones, dye, rice, spice, pepper, and peppers are popular exports from Vaqone. Coffee is also a thriving product grown in the far south. Vaqone has trade relationships in the northern half of the Unnamed Continent

Culture

Language

Common is spoken, especially along the east coast, but it is not the predominant language. There are a mix of languages across the continent, with a French like language in the northwest, with some Latin like based in there. Around the rest of Vaqone I would imagine languages similar to the variety in our East Asia would be found. This came about from the northern Tirónar islands in approx. Feadhainn year 0 decided to make the foolhardy journey to Vaqone and became shipwrecked there, and a version of their language combined with the native language of the time persisted in the southern regions of Vaqone.

Cultural Highlights

An imaginative and artistic continent, some focus more on art, some more on various forms of music and storytelling. Some countries have a louder population, some quieter, there’s no real directional shift, it really depends on the country. Attacking Tucans is particularly loud.

The Western half of the continent every year has a Coliseum, which is a weekend straight of events around storytelling, music, competitions, comedy. Stephen and Mal have another annual similar event. All of these events are in aid of raising money for worthwhile causes.

There are many stories that have common threads that persist across the continent, although no one telling is exactly the same. Common threads include giant spike turtle monsters, a reincarnating hero, princess and villain, doomed to battle throughout generations again and again, sentient weapons, and enlisting fae and magical creatures to battle in your stead.

The latter is so popular that there is a physical token and card game around it, most popular in the northwest, but has pockets of fans elsewhere. The leader of the Chuggaaconroy country has his own large collection. Some of these creatures are based on dragons fleeing the Dragon War who made it to Vaqone.

Perspective on Magic

Vaqone is the third most magical continent in the world, likely due to its proximity to Tirónar. However, this magical activity is not evenly distributed across the continent. Magical ecosystems and Fae Gardens tend to be more common in and around the forest, lake, and desert, so those bordering countries tend to have more Fae activity.

As a result, belief in and perspectives of magic vary heavily by region. Some believe it exists, some don’t. As a general rule, the closer you are to the desert, lake, or forest, the more likely you are to encounter magic. There are mages, and in working with the rest of the continent usually use it for performance, art and storytelling, but of course not everyone’s focus lies there.

The Fae are fairly common sights in the magical environments of Vaqone, under the right circumstances. However, they have a wide range of appearances, and it can be difficult to distinguish them from native, non-sentient magical creatures living in these same areas. One of the more well known forms taken by the Fae in Vaqone is that of a Baku, which is similar in appearance to a tapir and is said to eat nightmares.

Non-Human Soul-Bearing Races

See this post

Trivia

At one point, the tentative name for Vaqone was Muetju. That name will later be used for a country within this continent.

Another old tentative name for Vaqone was Keirfell. That name will probably end up as either the name of the currently Unnamed Continent or a country in Senfara

Additional Art

The following are a series of rough concept sketches of the layout of Vaqone. This continent is still very much under development and all of these images are likely some form of non-canon and/or subject to change.

Concepts in Development

@theshapeshifter100 is still developing some aspects of this continent. Here are some of the general ideas and meta info it will be based upon.

Meta List of Countries

A list of youtube content creators who the countries of Vaqone will be based upon:

Let's Play half:

Chuggaaconroy

ProtonJon

NintendoCapriSun

Luchajin

Tom Fawkes

StephenPlays (and Mal)

AttackingToucans

MasaeAnela

JoshJepson (and Brooke)

Marriland

Donnabellz

SuperJeenius

ACFan120

Ari Zona

Music Half

Adriana

Caleb Hyles

Peter and Evynne Hollens

Family Jules

Lindsey Stirling

Jonathon Young

Ellie Monty

Elsie Lovelock

Chris Holfelder

8-Bit Drummer

Random Encounters

CG5

Andrew Stein (Mando Pony)

Smooth McGroove

Seth Everman

In the Forest

8-bitGaming (8-BitRyan and Bazamalam)

Dawko

In the Desert

OverSarcasticProductions

In the Lake

SuperCarlinBrothers

Wotso

The Islands

BrizzyVoices

Odd1sOut

JaidenAnimations

KickthePJ

General thoughts and random lore

Most of the kingdoms with two names are ruled by a married couple, each have their own channels but for the sake of the AU they have mostly been combined. First we have Peter and Evynne Hollens, who were married in 2007, Stephen and Mal were married in 2011, Josh and Brooke in 2015 (1580*), Jon and Luchajin in 2018 (1611*). Because their marriage was so recent the kingdoms have not merged yet.

*Bard’s Note: I did look up the exact dates of each of these anniversaries to determine the correct AU date. However, we aren’t sure yet on how the first two dates will convert to AU years. If we go by the system established pre-December 1613 (AKA time moves 10x faster), that puts 2007 at the year 1498 and 2011 at 1537… which might not work, given the current year is 1616.

ProtonJon's kingdom will probably get the name Muetju, since I based that on the French language and he's Canadian. This is the same reason he's got the mountains.

Chuggaaconroy has mostly lived in desert or otherwise southern states throughout his life. He and MasaeAnela are irl in the same state, and are good friends. Naturally people ship them, although they have denied constantly they are a couple. This is my reasoning for them to be on opposite sides of the desert.

Stephen and Mal both live in a seaside city. No more explanations needed.

Chuggaaconry, ProtonJon, and NintendoCapriSun are the founding members of a group called TheRunawayGuys. They've had many guests (and not all of them are on this continent), but they are the core trio. Tom Fawkes did some animations for them and now he does stuff for them (I don't know exactly) So his kingdom exists as a sort of republic state between the three of them. A mix of TRG fans and Tom Fawkes fans that Tom has been put in charge of.

Tom Fawkes is possibly the only one in this lot I know of with an Ego of sorts. Lord Donator, an 'ego' who appears during the Coliseum and is basically Chaotic Good. He'll kidnap Lamp and hold them hostage so people will donate more to charity.

The only other person I can think of with an 'Ego' is MasaeAnela, with Chibi Masae. She may serve as her second in command, and the Chibi's violent urges have to curtailed every now and again.

Mases has animals from across the continent as her pets (IRL sugar gliders, ferret, dog and bird)

Masae and Jon both do streams, and sometimes those streams are raided, both have countermeasures. So this could translate to a friendly testing of each country's defences.

Chuggaaconroy is notoriously innocent and a bit frustrating sometimes. It is said in their get togethers that you can hear King Jon scream "EMILE!" from the other side of the continent.

AttackingTucans and JoshJepson are close together because they have a competitive Versus channel.

Marriland has helped out Chugga a lot, but is still very separate, hence why opposite him.

Stephen's parents feature prominatly in his vlogs, as do many of his friends. His friends I will probably cop out with and have them as a court of some sort. His parents were the previously rulers who abdicated, because that makes more sense honestly. That way the can still provide advice.

Every year the entire east side of the continent will stage a Coliseum event to raise money for charity. Other kingdoms will have their own fundraisers, but the Coliseum is a massive event that many people get involved with.

FamilyJules and Adriana have also appeared on Coliseum so that's why they're so close to the Let's Play half. 8BitDrummer has also appeared, I was just a goof about remembering which is why he's so far away right now.

Chris and Peter have collabed, which is why they're nearby.

Caleb and Jonathon often collab as well.

I tried to put people who have collabed with Random Encounters near them, as well has having RE on the coast because people off continent have collabed with them too.

Caleb's kingdom was once plagued by a Phantom of the Opera like figure, who kidnapped Caleb at one point to forcibly train him to be a better singer (this happened on the channel in 2015, before any serious ego stuff from Mark or Sean) (5, 6). He appears to have deleted most of the videos around this except from the two linked, the beginning and the end.

Proclamations in the East in general would be educational, since the style of Let's Play here is more walkthrough than reactionary. This is not always the case, but is a general rule.

In the West, mostly musical performances, big focus on the arts.

Stephen and Mal are kinda interesting, since they do daily vlogs, lps and Mal has an art channel (Mal Makes). Masae is also artistic, so art is often coming out of those kingdoms too.

As of the 19th April 1615, the third Coliseum, the Lamp commonly associated with Lord Donator appeared in Stephen and Mal's kingdom, lighting itself after being blown out, or when deprived of fuel, glowing red of it's own accord (7).

09.09.20, 9th September 1615, Emile posted his first video talking about his extensive Pokemon card collection (8), which I reckon can be transplanted to the AU. Pokemon can be Fey like creatures that appear on this continent, or at least, some of them.

#The Continent of Vaqone #Lands Beyond Tirónar #The Lands of The Watch #submission #seriously most of this is word for word holly's work

2 notes · View notes

pellicano-sanguino · 5 years

Text

Finland’s most famous graveyard must be Hietaniemi Cemetery. Many famous people are buried there, including presidents. And a whole bunch of artists. They have a separate area for them, the “artist’s hill.” But one famous artist didn’t get to be buried there among other great painters, sculptors and writers.

Helene Schjerfbeck.

One of the most famous Finnish artists wasn’t buried in the artist’s hill. She did get a grave in another part of Hietaniemi Cemetery, though. And that grave? Until very recently, was left unattended, growing weeds. It was only because there’s a movie coming out about Schjerfbeck that someone pointed out the sorry state of her grave. Everyone excited about the movie was making great speeches how her art being so loved internationally brought Finns national pride, and someone wrote an angry comment in the newspaper, pointing that it’s disrespectful for politicians and art patrons to claim they love and appreciate her work while her grave grows nettles and we can’t be bothered to pay for the caring of her grave from public sources.

Some organisation took taking care of Schjerfbeck’s grave as their responsibility. But it was still very disturbing to me how a female artist was treated so differently, even in death.

The reason I’m writing this is because I went to see Portrait of a Lady on Fire recently. The movie left me an emotional wreck, it touched me on such a basic, almost subconscious level that I’m not sure I’m able to write anything coherent about my feelings. But I will try. Though I think this is a movie one must see for oneself, nothing I say about it will be able to describe the experience properly.

This post contains spoilers for the movie.

The movie is set in 1770 France. A time when female artists were forbidden from painting men, but allowed to paint portraits of women. The protagonist Marianne is one such exceptional lady who had a father open minded enough to allow her an artist’s career instead of choosing from the remaining three options.

The remaining options? Convent, marriage or suicide.

The plot revolves around a woman, Heloise, who chose convent, but has that choice forcibly taken away from her after her sister chose suicide over arranged marriage and the family now needs to go for plan B and sell their second daughter to some man she has never met. Her mother needs a portrait of her to use as a selling tool, showing it to the man she intends to make her marry. Heloise resists and refuses to pose for an artist. So her mother hires Marianne, who is to pretend to be someone hired for keeping Heloise company, but secretly she is painting her portrait.

I admit I don’t often enjoy watching movies. It’s just not my medium of choice. But then again, most of the movies I’ve seen are Hollywood stuff or pretentious artsy films, and both of those can be too much for someone as sensitive as I am. I can’t handle violence or unnecessary sex scenes. Also, the vast majority of movies are stories made by men, about men, for men. Even the women in movies are seen through the eyes of men.

But this movie is made by women, about women, for women.

The absence of man’s eyes is notable in small details. How there are no important male characters in this movie, men only show up in the very beginning and end and even then they are just background extras. The fact that we don’t get sex scenes (a male director could never resist doing that when handling a story about lesbians). The fact that both leading ladies look rather plain, ordinary women instead of your typical Hollywood barbie-dolls. The last time I saw a woman in a movie with unshaved armpits was back in highschool when during Swedish lesson we watched some Swedish flick that had a loudly feminist character who made a point of not shaving.

There’s a scene where a woman goes to an old lady to get an abortion done. If this scene was done by a man, if it had been filmed in Hollywood, they would have made her scream in pain and showed the blood and discharge and feasted on every gruesome detail of the procedure. But the scene is calm, peaceful and intimately respectful. We don’t need to see any details. Focusing on what’s going on between her legs is unnecessary, seeing her face trying to keep calm but breaking into silent, suffocated cries is enough.

Women suffer silently. We have all been taught to grin and bear it, the harder it hurts, the harder you must smile.

The movie isn’t gloomy and depressing. The unpleasant truths jab at your heart without you noticing. Because they let the story speak for itself. No one needs to point out the unfairness of women’s fate in a world ruled by men. The doomed romance between Marianne and Heloise speaks loud enough. Their knowledge that once the portrait is finished, it’s all over. Heloise’s family home is situated on an island with steep cliffs around its shores and surrounded by the restless, ice cold waters of the sea. It’s all very symbolic. There is no escape.

The story builds slowly, patiently. I shouldn’t constantly compare this to Hollywood movies, but in an American movie you could never have this few spoken lines and take this long before the romance buds. Marianne knows she only has few days to finish the portrait, but she and Heloise don’t rush anything and live like they had all the time in the world. They are powerless to do anything to the fate looming ahead and instead spend their last days together without worrying about it. But the viewer is constantly aware of what is going to happen in the end. The tension builds, invisible hands are placed on my throat and slowly tighten their grip. When the last scene begins, I feel so choked by catharsis that I have to breathe through parted lips. I was happy for the movie theater’s darkness, so that neither of my friends sitting beside me could see the tears flowing down my cheek. Women suffer silently, I have been taught to hide my tears and be ashamed if they are discovered.

My friends gave me a ride back home and we talked about the movie. Tigel mentioned that she’d probably have to search the net for fix-it-fics to help her deal with her feelings. I responded that I probably have to call my mother and thank her for letting me choose my own fate and loving me just as I am.

I had to make a phone call like that once before. It was when I was reading Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall. At first I didn’t even like the book, or the main character. But slowly I began to notice similarities between myself and Stephen. They felt so familiar, so much more personal than any of the things het characters in other books did or said. I became frighteningly aware that this book wasn’t just about one specific person, it was about my people. I knew that the story wouldn’t have a happy ending (with a name like Well of Loneliness, what do you expect?) but I couldn’t stop reading. I felt as if I had a responsibility to read on, that I owed it to my past fellow lesbians. Stephen was a fictional character, but she was made to speak for us, to speak for the unfairness of a homosexual’s fate in a world ruled by heteros. For the silent suffering of women who were rejected by society.

When I got to the part where Stephen’s mother tells her that she wished she had never been born, I had to stop. The pain became unbearable. I had to put the book away and call my mother, seeking relief from the invisible hands choking me. I don’t remember that call very well, because I was an emotional mess during it. I remember telling her over and over again that I don’t take for granted the fact that she loves me despite knowing I’m a lesbian. That I am painfully aware that many have not been as fortunate as me. Even today, even in modern, civilized countries like Finland, there are countless gays and lesbians who are rejected by their parents. When you’re homosexual, being loved by your parent isn’t a default, it’s a matter of luck. I have been so very, very lucky.

Both the Well of Loneliness and Portrait of a Lady on Fire have touched me by making me aware of the history of my people. While some parts of our history is celebrated (all the great artists and other historic figures who were one of us), there’s the heavy weight of knowledge about our oppression, how in order for lesbians to live happily ever after in the past they had to be sneaky and so very, very lucky. Not all lesbians were Anne Listers, whose family was ok with not pressuring her to marry. I feel pain thinking how many women there must have been who were forced to suffer just like Stephen, just like Heloise.

Another reason why our history lies heavy on my mind is because so much of it is lost, hidden, denied and shamed because of heteros. They burned Sappho’s poems. Fire also claimed the love letters men sent to Philippe, brother of Ludwig XIV. While gay men were sentenced openly, lesbianism wasn’t even spoken out loud, out of fear that women couldn’t commit such a sin if they were unaware of its existence. Oscar Wilde was sentenced to prison and died in France, his legacy to the art of writing unappreciated by his countrymen. How many of our graves grew nettles, because we were the dirty secret that everyone wanted to forget? How many of us had uncared graves because the only thing lesser than a woman is a woman who refuses to center her life around a man?

Now I’m going to voice an unpopular opinion that’s probably going to give me hatemail but I’m going to voice it anyway. I don’t like it when people posthumously push trans identity to people who did not identify as trans in life. There’s no way around it, I find it disrespectful. The reason I’m mentioning this is, that despite not liking it, I completely understand why they do it. Trans folks long for a history. They want their own Sapphos and Oscar Wildes. They want great historic characters to look up to and think “We have always been here and despite the world being against us, we could achieve great things.” The weight of lesbian and gay history can be a painful burden, but it will also give us comfort, knowing that people like us have always been and will always be there, that even when heteros made attempts to silence us or wipe us out of existence, we clung to the surviving parts of our history and treasured them. We will never know what the full poem behind the fragment “Someone will remember us/I say/even in another time” was like, but even so those words are precious to us. I do not blame trans folks for wishing for a history, even small fragments to reach through time and give them comfort.

In case I will receive hatemail for this, I will make an announcement. I have no obligation to react to any message, comment or reblog sent my way. This is my blog, my house, my personal space. I decide who is invited in and who is not. If someone tries to contact me and I see they want to debate, before even reading what they’ve written to me, I will check their blog. A quick glance will usually be enough to reveal if the person in question is capable of intelligent and mature conversation or if engaging in debate with them will just be playing chess with a pigeon (the pigeon will knock the pawns over, bite your nose, shit on the board and then fly to boast to its fellow pigeons how well it won you in a game of chess). If I deem you a pigeon chess player, you will be ignored. I have no time to waste on useless debate. All terfhunters will be ignored as well, I do not wish to interact with the likes of them. However, just like not all gender criticals are radical feminists, not all trans folks are terfhunters. I am willing to speak with people I disagree with, but I will be choosing who I wish to speak with and who I won’t. If I see that you can’t behave, you are not welcome here.

#portrait of a lady on fire #lesbian #feminism

56 notes · View notes

arcticdementor · 4 years

Link

Today the richest 40 Americans have more wealth than the poorest 185 million Americans. The leading 100 landowners now own 40 million acres of American land, an area the size of New England. There has been a vast increase in American inequality since the mid-20th century, and Europe — though some way behind — is on a similar course.

These are among the alarming stats cited by Joel Kotkin’s The Coming of Neo-Feudalism, published earlier this year just as lockdown sped up some of the trends he chronicled: increased tech dominance, rising inequality between rich and poor, not just in wealth but in health, and record levels of loneliness (4,000 Japanese people die alone each week, he cheerfully informs us).

Kotkin is among a handful of thinkers warning about a cluster of related trends, including not just inequality but declining social mobility, rising levels of celibacy and a shrinking arena of political debate controlled by a small number of like-minded people.

The one commonality is that all of these things, along with the polarisation of politics along quasi-religious lines, the decline of nationalism and the role of universities in enforcing orthodoxy, were the norm in pre-modern societies. In our economic structure, our politics, our identity and our sex lives we are moving away from the trends that were common between the first railway and first email. But what if the modern age was the anomaly, and we’re simply returning to life as it has always been?

…

Most of the medieval left-behinds would have worked at home or nearby, the term “commuter” only being coined in the 1840s as going to an office or factory became the norm, a trend that only began to reverse in the 21st century (accelerating sharply this year).

…

Along with income stratification, another pre-modern trend is the decline of social mobility, which almost everywhere is slowing (with the exception of immigrant communities, many of whom come from the middle class back home).

Social mobility in the US has fallen by 20% since the early 1980s, according to Kotkin, and the Californian-based Antonio Garcia Martinez has talked of an informal caste system in the state, with huge wage differences between rich and poor and housing restrictions removing any hope of rising up. California now has among the most dystopian of income inequality, with vast numbers of multimillionaires but also a homeless underclass now suffering from “medieval” diseases.

Unfortunately, where California leads, America and then Europe follows.

…

Patronage has made a comeback, especially among artists, who have largely returned to their pre-modern financial norm: desperate poverty. Whereas musicians and writers have always struggled, the combination of housing costs, reduced government support and the internet has ended what was until then an unappreciated golden age; instead they turn once again to patrons, although today it is digital patronage rather than aristocratic benevolence.

A caste system creates caste interests, and some liken today’s economy to medieval Europe’s tripartite system, in which society was divided between those who pray, those who fight and those who work. Just as the medieval clergy and nobility had a common interest in the system set against the laborers, so it is today, with what Thomas Piketty calls the Merchant Right and Brahmin Left — two sections of the elite with different worldviews but a common interest in the liberal order, and a common fear of the third estate.

…

Tech is by nature anti-egalitarian, creating natural monopolies that wield vastly more power than any of the great industrial barons of the modern age, and have cultural power far greater than newspapers of the past, closer to that of the Church in Kotkin’s view; their algorithms and search engines shape our worldview and our thoughts, and they can, and do, censor people with heretical views.

Rising inequality and stratification is linked to the decline of modern sexual habits. The nuclear family is something of a western oddity, developing as a result of Catholic Church marriage laws and reaching its zenith in the 19th and 20th centuries with the Victorian cult of family and mid-20th century “hi honey I’m home” Americana. Today, however, the nuclear household is in decline, with 32 million American adults living with their parents or grandparents, a growing trend in pretty much all western countries except Scandinavia (which may partly explain the region’s relative success with Covid-19).

This is a return to the norm, as with the rise of the involuntarily celibate. Celibacy was common in medieval Europe, where between 15-25% of men and women would have joined holy orders. In the early modern period, with rising incomes and Protestantism, celibacy rates plunged but they have now returned to the medieval level.

The first estate of this neo-feudal age is centred on academia, which has likewise returned to its pre-modern norm. At the time of the 1968 student protests university faculty in both the US and Britain slightly leaned left, as one would expect of the profession. By the time of Donald Trump’s election many university departments had Democrat: Republican ratios of 20, 50 or even 100:1. Some had no conservative academics, or none prepared to admit it. Similar trends are found in Britain.

Around 900 years ago Oxford evolved out of communities of monks and priests; for centuries it was run by “clerics”, although that word had a slightly wider meaning, and such was the legacy that the celibacy rule was not fully dropped until 1882.

This was only a decade after non-Anglicans were allowed to take degrees for the first time, Communion having been a condition until then. A similar pattern existed in the United States, where each university was associated with a different church: Yale and Harvard with the Congregationalists, Princeton with Presbyterians, Columbia with Episcopalians. The increasingly narrow focus on what can be taught at these institutions is not new.

Similarly, politics has returned to its pre-modern role of religion. The internet has often been compared to the printing press, and when printing was introduced it didn’t lead to a world of contemplative philosophy; books of high-minded inquiry were vastly outsold by tracts about evil witches and heretics.

The word “medieval” is almost always pejorative but the post-printing early modern period was the golden age of religious hatred and torture; the major witch hunts occurred in an age of rising literacy, because what people wanted to read about was a lot of the time complete garbage. Likewise, with the internet, and in particular the iPhone, which has unleashed the fires of faith again, helping spread half-truths and creating a new caste of firebrand preachers (or, as they used to be called, journalists).

…

English politics from the 16th to the 19th century was “a branch of theology” in Robert Tombs’s words; Anglicans and rural landowners formed the Conservative Party, and Nonconformists and the merchant elite the core of the Liberal Party. It was only with industrialisation that political focus turned to class and economics, but the identity-based conflict between Conservatives and Labour in the 2020s seems closer to the division of Tories and Whigs than to the political split of 50 years ago; it’s about worldview and identity rather than economic status.

Post-modern politics have also shaped pre-modern attitudes to class. In medieval society the poor were despised, and numerous words stem from names for the lower orders, among them ignoble, churlish, villain and boor (in contrast “generous” comes from generosus, and “gentle” from gentilis, terms for the aristocracy). Medieval poems and fables depict peasant as credulous, greedy and insolent — and when they get punched, as they inevitably do, they deserve it.

Compare this to the evolution of comedy in the post-industrial west, where the butt of the joke is the rube from the small town, laughed at for being out of touch with modern political sensibilities. The most recent Borat film epitomises this form of modern comedy that, while meticulously avoiding any offence towards the sacred ideas of the elite, relentlessly humiliates the churls.

The third estate are mocked for still clinging to that other outmoded modern idea, the nation-state. Nation-states rose with the technology of the modern day — printing, the telegraph and railways — and they have been undone by the technology of the post-modern era. A liberal in England now has more in common with a liberal in Germany than with his conservative neighbour, in a way that was not possible before the internet.

Nations were semi-imagined communities, and what follows is a return to the norm — tribalism, on a micro scale, but tribalism nonetheless, whether along racial, religious or most likely political-sectarian tribes. Indeed, in some ways we’re seeing a return to empire.

…

The middle-class age meant the triumph of bourgeoise values and the decline of the middle class has led to their downfall, widely despised and mocked by believers in the higher-status bohemian attitudes. Now the age of the average man is over, and the age of the global aristocrat has arrived.

#ed west #unherd

2 notes · View notes

corkcitylibraries · 4 years

Text

Genealogy Series | Part 3

A step-by-step guide to researching your family tree by Senior Library Assistant, Johnathon Fehily

This is a four-part series, appearing every Thursday for the month of January. This week Johnathon looks at civil and census records.

Civil records of births, marriages and deaths.

All births, marriages and deaths in Ireland have been recorded by the state since 1 January 1864. Non-Catholic marriages have been recorded by the state since 1845. The General Register Office in Dublin has copies of birth, marriage and death registers for all of Ireland, excepting the six counties of Northern Ireland. The registers for Cork city and its hinterland are in the Registration Office of the Health Services Executive - Southern Area at Adelaide Court, Adelaide Street, Cork. Information included on Civil records can be viewed below:

-Information provided on a birth certificate:

Name of the child, date and location of birth

Names of the parents, their address and mother’s maiden name

Occupation of father

Name of the person who registered the birth, their address and the date

-Information provided on a marriage certificate:

Names of the bride and groom, their ages (note: full age denotes over 21) and their addresses at the time of the marriage

Date and location of the marriage, and date of registration

The occupations of the bride and groom

Names of both fathers, and their occupations

Names of the witnesses to the marriage

-Information provided on a death certificate:

Name of the deceased, sex, age, occupation and marital status

Date and place of death, and registration date

Cause of death

Name and address of the informant (person who registered the death)

Irish Genealogy – Civil Records Section

The Irish Genealogy found at www.irishgenealogy.ie is a website that allows users the opportunity to search a wide range of record sources in their search of their Irish Ancestry. The website is home to the on-line historic Indexes of the Civil Registers (GRO) of Births, Marriages, Civil Partnerships and Deaths. The site is maintained and run by the Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The digitisation of the entirety of the states Civil Records from a set variation of years affords researchers detailed records into their ancestry which can be located efficiently through the search function on the civil records section of the website. The search function allows genealogists to search for individuals using name, civil registration office, date range and record type. The vast majority of records also contain a link to scanned copies of the original document as well as a transcription page. While the vast majority of births marriages and records should have civil records, there are of course exceptions so one should no be too discouraged if records for their own ancestors are not available on the site. The date range of records available as of 2020 are as follows:

Births: 1864 – 1920

Marriages: 1864 – 1944

Deaths: 1864 – 1969

The website is consistently having records added to it with the 100-year rule being maintained for birth records.

State registration of all non-Catholic marriages in Ireland commenced in 1845. In 1864, civil registration of all births, marriages and deaths commenced. These records are held at the General Register Office (GRO) in Dublin.

Census records

The earliest fully surviving census returns for Ireland date from 1901. Both the 1901 and 1911 census returns are open to the public in the National Archives in Dublin. You will be able to see microfilm copies of the 1901 census at Cork County Library and microfilm copies of the 1911 census in the Local Studies Department of Cork City Library. You will need to know the address or the name or number of the district electoral division where your ancestors lived. There is no surname index available to the census returns. The 1901 and 1911 census are now available online from the website of the National Archives of Ireland; you will find the online census at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/. Census returns are among the most informative of all genealogical records. It is most unfortunate that almost all the census returns before 1901 were destroyed. Some of them were destroyed in the fire in the Four Courts in 1922 and some were destroyed earlier on the orders of the government.

Recently fragments surviving earlier Census have been added to the site from the years 1821 – 1851. These are quite rare and only provide a snapshot of what older census records would have resembled.

The basic topographical divisions for the census are: County; District, Electoral Division; Townland or Street. The household return was filled in and signed by the head of the household on Census night (31 March 1901 and 2 April 1911). There is one record for every household in the country.

The information sought was:

Name

Age

Sex

Relationship to the head of the household

Religion

Occupation

Marital status

County or country of birth

Ability to read and write

Knowledge of the Irish language

If “Deaf and Dumb; Dumb only; Blind; Imbecile or Idiot; or Lunatic”

In 1911 a significant additional question was asked: married women were required to state the number of years they had been married, the number of their children born alive and the number still living.

The next census to be released is the 1926 census compiled after the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Civil war.

Next Week: Learn how newspapers, directories and niche records can help you research your family tree - Thursday 28 January 2021

#corkcitylibraries #genealogy #irishheritage

1 note · View note

pamphletstoinspire · 5 years

Photo

Now Is the Time to Consecrate Yourself to Saint Joseph

I did not understand St. Joseph well enough, but that will change.

— St. John of the Cross

In the 16th century, St. John of the Cross humbly acknowledged that he lacked a proper understanding of the greatness of St. Joseph. Inspired by the tremendous love that his friend, St. Teresa of Avila, had for St. Joseph, St. John of the Cross made a firm resolution to get to know and love St. Joseph better.

What about you? Do you know St. Joseph? Do you feel you understand his greatness and love for you?

Saint José Manyanet, a priest in 19th-century Spain, fervently promoted devotion to St. Joseph and the Holy Family. He prophesied that a “time of St. Joseph” would soon arrive in the life of the Church. He wrote:

I believe that the true time of Saint Joseph has not arrived yet: after two thousand years we started only now to glimpse something of the mystery in which he is immersed.

Well, my friends, I firmly believe that in our day the Lord wants to direct our hearts, families, parishes, dioceses, and Church to St. Joseph in a major way. In 1961, St. Pope John XXIII made a profound statement about St. Joseph. He wrote:

In the Holy Church’s worship, right from the beginning, Jesus, the Word of God made man, has enjoyed the adoration that belongs to him, incommunicable as the splendor of the substance of his Father, a splendor reflected in the glory of his saints. From the earliest times, Mary, his mother, was close behind him, in the pictures in the catacombs and the basilicas, where she was devoutly venerated as “Holy Mother of God.” But Joseph, except for some slight sprinkling of references to him here and there in the writings of the Fathers [of the Church], for long centuries remained in the background, in his characteristic concealment, almost as a decorative figure in the overall picture of the Savior’s life. It took time for devotion to him to go beyond those passing glances and take root in the hearts of the faithful, and then surge forth in the form of special prayers and of a profound sense of trusting abandonment. The fervent joy of pouring forth these deepest feelings of the heart in so many impressive ways has been saved for modern times!

What the Vicar of Christ clearly stated is that now is the time of St. Joseph. We are living in modern times, the time in which the Church is witnessing an unprecedented era of devotion to St. Joseph. According to St. Pope John XXIII, God desires devotion to St. Joseph to surge forth in our day in the form of special prayers of “trusting abandonment.” This means one thing in particular: It’s time for total consecration to St. Joseph!

Here is a list a list of remarkable events that have taken place over the past 150 years that show St. Joseph’s increasing importance in the life of the Church. They clearly indicate that we are living in an unprecedented time of St. Joseph.

1868 — Blessed Jean-Joseph Lataste, OP, writes a letter to Blessed Pope Pius IX asking him to declare St. Joseph the “Patron of the Universal Church.” 1870 — Blessed Pope Pius IX declares St. Joseph the “Patron of the Universal Church.” 1871 — Founding of the Josephites by Cardinal Herbert A. Vaughan 1873 — Founding of the Congregation of St. Joseph by St. Leonardo Murialdo 1878 — Founding of the Oblates of St. Joseph by St. Joseph Marello 1879 — Apparitions at Knock, Ireland. Saint Joseph appears with the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Apostle, and Jesus (appearing as the Lamb of God). 1889 — Pope Leo XIII writes Quamquam Pluries, an encyclical letter on St. Joseph. 1895 — Blessed Petra of St. Joseph begins construction on a shrine to St. Joseph in Barcelona, Spain. It is consecrated in 1901. At her beatification in 1994, St. John Paul II calls Blessed Petra the “apostle of St. Joseph of the 19th century.” 1904 — Saint André Bessette constructs an oratory dedicated to St. Joseph in Montreal, Canada. It expands, is declared a minor basilica, and finally is completed in 1967. Today, it is known as St. Joseph’s Oratory and is considered by many to be the preeminent international center of devotion to St. Joseph. 1908 — Saint Luigi Guanella begins constructing a church dedicated to St. Joseph in Rome. It is completed and consecrated as a basilica in 1912. 1909 — Saint Pope Pius X officially approves the Litany of St. Joseph. 1914 — Saint Luigi Guanella founds the Pious Union of St. Joseph for the Salvation of the Dying. 1917 — Apparitions at Fatima, Portugal. During the last apparition on October 13, St. Joseph appears holding the Child Jesus and blessing the world. 1921 — Pope Benedict XV inserts the phrase “Blessed be St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse” into the Divine Praises. 1947 — Spanish Discalced Carmelites found Estudios Josefinos, the first theological journal devoted to St. Joseph. 1950s — The alleged apparitions of Our Lady of America given to Sr. Mary Ephrem emphasize a renewed devotion to St. Joseph, and St. Joseph himself speaks to the visionary about this devotion. 1955 — Venerable Pope Pius XII establishes the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, to be celebrated on May 1. 1962 — Saint Pope John XXIII inserts St. Joseph’s name into the Canon of the Mass (Eucharistic Prayer I). 1989 — Saint Pope John Paul II writes Redemptoris Custos, an apostolic exhortation on St. Joseph. 2013 — Pope Francis, echoing and fulfilling the intentions of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, inserts the name of St. Joseph into all Eucharistic Prayers. He also consecrates Vatican City State to St. Joseph. Whoa! Did you know all that? Most people are unaware of these remarkable events. Without exaggeration, the Church has done more to promote St. Joseph in the last 150 years than in the previous 1,800 years of Christianity! But why now? Why St. Joseph?

There are many reasons, but I believe there are two that are especially important.

First, we need the spiritual fatherhood of St. Joseph to help us protect marriage and the family. Marriage and the family have always been under attack, but in modern times, the threats have reached extraordinary heights. Many people no longer know what it means to be a man or a woman, let alone what constitutes a marriage and a family. Many countries even claim to have redefined marriage and the family. There is great confusion on these matters, greater confusion than in any previous era of human history. The Servant of God Sr. Lucia dos Santos, the longest-lived visionary of the Fatima apparitions, knew the seriousness of the times and made a powerful statement about this issue. She wrote:

The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about marriage and the family.

To combat and overcome Satan’s deceptions, the Church needs St. Joseph. His example and protection are the only way out of the confusing mess we are in. Who else can we turn to who can help us understand what marriage and the family are all about if not to the Head of the Holy Family and our spiritual father?

Second, the entire world needs to be re-evangelized, including the vast majority of baptized Christians. Saint Joseph was the first missionary. Today, he desires again to bring Jesus to the nations. Many nations and cultures that were previously Christian have fallen away from their Christian roots and are on a path of self-destruction. Countries once established on Judeo-Christian principles have become overrun by ideologies and organizations that seek to strip society of all that is sacred. Without a major turnaround, civilization itself is going to self-destruct.

In an apostolic exhortation on St. Joseph in 1989, St. John Paul II reminded us of the necessity of invoking St. Joseph in the work of re-evangelizing the world. He wrote:

This patronage [of St. Joseph] must be invoked as ever necessary for the Church, not only as a defense against all dangers, but also, and indeed primarily, as an impetus for her renewed commitment to evangelization in the world and to re-evangelization in those lands and nations where religion and the Christian life were formerly flourishing and are now put to a hard test.

Now is the time to consecrate yourself to St. Joseph! God is telling his Church that, in order to defend marriage and the family, elevate morals, recover lost ground, and win souls for Jesus Christ, we need to bring St. Joseph onto the battlefield. He is the Terror of Demons! With his powerful spiritual fatherhood, incredible love for his spiritual children, and constant intercession, the Church can be renewed as a light to the nations!

What exactly is consecration to St. Joseph? In other words, what does it mean for a person to be consecrated to St. Joseph? Well, it basically means that you acknowledge that he is your spiritual father, and you want to be like him. To show it, you entrust yourself entirely to his paternal care so that he can help you acquire his virtues and become holy. Total consecration to St. Joseph means you make a formal act of filial entrustment to your spiritual father so that he can take care of your spiritual well-being and lead you to God. The person who consecrates himself to St. Joseph wants to be as close to their spiritual father as possible, to the point of resembling him in virtue and holiness. Saint Joseph, in turn, will give those consecrated to him his loving attention, protection, and guidance.

Perhaps someone reading this has already consecrated themselves entirely to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and is wondering if they can consecrate themselves to St. Joseph and entrust everything to him, as well. The answer is a resounding “Yes!” God desires that all children be committed to the love and care of a mother and a father. You are not a member of a single-parent spiritual family. Mary is your spiritual mother, and St. Joseph is your spiritual father. The spiritual fatherhood of St. Joseph is extremely important for your spiritual growth. Total consecration to Mary is not diminished by total consecration to St. Joseph. Mary wants you to consecrate yourself to St. Joseph! Jesus wants you to consecrate yourself to St. Joseph! Everything you have given to Jesus and Mary can also be given to St. Joseph. The hearts of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are one.

So is there a book that offers a method of consecration to St. Joseph? Yes, there is! It’s called Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of our Spiritual Father and it follows a method similar to the tried-and-true 33-day preparation method employed by St. Louis de Montfort in his Marian consecration. The 33-day program can be done by individuals, parishes, and entire diocese. Through this program, I hope to spark the first worldwide movement of consecration to St. Joseph!

Consecration to St. Joseph has endorsements from Cardinal Raymond Burke, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Jim Caviezel, Scott Hahn, and many others. Get your copy of Consecration to St. Joseph and be part of the movement! Go to www.consecrationtostjoseph.org to find out more!

FR. DONALD CALLOWAY, MIC

#consecration to st Joseph

16 notes · View notes

bi-and-happy · 5 years

Note

i dare u to answer all the questions on the pride ask game ☺️☺️

Oh boy, here we go!

1. I am bisexual and I use she/her pronouns

2. I first realised I like girls when I was about ten years old, when I started secondary school. Because I also liked boys, I did some classic Repression^TM and convinced myself I was straight, which included a lot of internal homophobia, biphobia and bi erasure. It wasn’t until my second year of uni when I had my first boyfriend that I realised I was never going to have a good and healthy relationship with anyone, let along myself, if I didn’t come to terms with my sexuality and eventually come out

3. I am cisgender and I don’t look particularly androgynous so I have never been misgendered (except one time by a very embarrassed pizza delivery man)

4. The first person I told was my ex-boyfriend (see answer 2!) We had actually been broken up for about 8 months by that point but we were still friends at the time and he’s pansexual, so I knew he’d understand. He was annoyingly nonchalant about it and immediately made inappropriate comments but that actually worked out because we were in an airport so I couldn’t really have an emotional breakdown!

5. When I first came out (and then when I came out to my parents six months later) it was like I’d spent all this time and effort trying to hide this side of myself, and the effort of hiding just got too much. When I told my best friend (who’s a lesbian) it was super chill - I didn’t want it to be a massive deal so I found a time to slip it in, she was very excited that I’d finally told her (she’d known for about two years longer than I did!) and we immediately started talking about all the girls we had crushes on

6. I’ve kind of brushed on some people, but there were two main reactions: “That does not surprise me, I’ve suspected/known for a while” and “Wait? You like men?! I thought you were gay?” The only person who was surprised was my mum. She was very very quiet for a long time (although she gave me a hug so I knew she wasn’t mad) and let my dad do the talking (she did have some not-so-great things to say but it was nothing I hadn’t heard her say before so I had answers prepared). The next day, we had another chat, and she was a bit more positive then. It’s also worth mentioning that this is an ongoing process. I came out to them two and a half years ago now, and we’re still working some things out but we’re in the right direction!

7. Honestly this doesn’t come up very much, mostly because the vast majority of my friends are also bi, and I study performing arts so everyone’s at least a little bit queer. The question I get asked more often is how I can be an openly LGBT+ Christian (which is a whole other conversation which I would be happy to have if anyone is interested!)

8. Flannel. So much flannel. Also birkenstocks in the summer and combat boots (with rainbow laces) in the winter. I sometimes wear dresses (especially in autumn), and I do like pretty dresses/ballgowns when the occasion calls for it (which again, performing arts - sometimes I feel like I live in concert dresses). But my everyday look is fairly semi-butch. I’m working on my top butch energy

9. WHERE TO START. Okay, Jack/Bitty from Check Please; Jack/Ianto from Torchwood; Patsy/Delia from Call the Midwife; Callie/Aaron from the Fosters; Merlin/Arthur from Merlin; Lena/Kara from Supergirl; and my guilty pleasure, Harry/Cedric from Harry Potter (don’t judge me!!)

10. I very rarely leave the house without eyeliner and mascara on, but I rarely wear anything else unless it’s a special occasion. I’m generally of the opinion that if I can start the day with some killer eyeliner wings, you can make that day your bitch

11. Nope! Never experienced dysphoria

12. This isn’t the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, but it is stupid because it was said by a gay men. “All these kids these days, in their LGBTQWXYZ community... [goes on to deliberately misgender people]”. Again, I have lots of thoughts on the dynamics of this which I will not unpack unless someone asks me to.

13. My friends!! I only have about two straight friends. I love all my friends, and I love my queer friends, and I love how we’re always there for each other and we always support each other. Even if everyone needs to stop dating within the friendship group.

14. See answer 12! The politics about different identities really annoy me. Non-binary people exist! Ace and aro people are part of the LGBT+ community! Bi and pan are different but overlapping identities and neither is better or worse than the other! So much infighting! Bi girls will not leave lesbians for a man! So much infighting.

15. I have never been and I’m out of town this year as well and I’m absolutely heartbroken!! I usually spend my summers working on various week-long projects around the country, and they always manage to bugger up any pride plans I had!

16. Ooooh absolute favourite? Probably Stephanie Beatriz. Followed by Kristen Stewart. And Tom Daley.

17. I had a boyfriend for a short time in my second year, we met at uni. Otherwise, I’ve been a single pringle!

18. I HAVE SO MANY. Absolute, complete, 100% favourite? The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. YOU ALL HAVE TO READ THIS OH MY GOODNESS.

19. I’ve experienced more discrimination as a woman than as a member of the LGBT+ community! That being said, I was bullied in years 7-9 which included lots of calling me a lesbian, because children aren’t creative in their bullying and this was 2006. That definitely taught me to be ashamed of my feelings for girls.

20. Pride!! I love that film. Also Torchwood!

21. I’ll admit I don’t follow that many LGBT+ bloggers/vloggers... sorry!!

22. Queer!!! (And whether or not it should be defined primarily as a slur is also up for debate; again, I’ll expand if anyone wants me to.)

23. Yes yes yes! I have been to a grand total of three gay bars and loved all of them. Especially that last one. Because that was the one where I got drunk and snogged a girl which was great.

24. I’m a cisgender woman, and most of my thoughts about my gender link with my reading into feminist reading and my constant striving to become a better intersectional feminist!

25. I like the thought of having children. I do not like the idea of being pregnant and giving birth. For me, children is always something that comes as part of a relationship and probably marriage (spot the Christian upbringing!). I’m not definite either way; it’s a decision I would want to make with a future partner, as we created a family.

26. Bi people exist! You’re one of them! Stop hating yourself! Stop using your Christian upbringing as an excuse to ignore anything relating to your sexuality!

27. Gender roles are complete bullshit. Every couple is different, the strengths each member of the couple brings will be different, and it’s up to them to find their dynamic, regardless of how closely it resembles traditional gender roles.

28. Not really! Only that since coming out I’ve felt less pressure to be feminine

29. It’s bloody hard. Even if we’re loud and proud and yelling about it and having a good time, each and every one of us has been through shit to get here.

30. Because it’s who I am! I’m proud to be LGBT+ because it’s who I am, and it’s a community that has come so far and is still making incredible strives forward but is subjected to so much pain and yet we keep going. Much love to you all!

Wow, I’m exhausted after that. Feel free to ask any questions about anything I said there! I touched on a lot of stuff. Much love!! xxx

14 notes · View notes

4182015 · 6 years

Text

Age of majority

The age of majority is the age that children become adults by law. This means that they are legally in control over their own actions and decisions, and their parents are no longer responsible for them. When used this way, the word majority means having the full number of years to be an adult. The opposite is minority, which means being a minor or child. The law in a given place may never actually use the words "age of majority" when deciding when people become adults. The age of majority is a legally fixed age and idea of adulthood which is different in different places. It may not match the actual maturity of a person's body or mind. The age of majority is 18 in the vast majority of jurisdictions, but ages as low as 15 and as high as 21 exist in some.

Once a person reaches the age of majority, there are some things they can do that they could not do before. These may include buying stocks, voting, buying or drinking alcohol, driving cars on public roads, and marrying without having to ask for permission. The ages that these things can be done are different depending on where the person lives.

Even after a person reaches the age of majority, there may be other age-based rules that they still have to follow, such as the right to stand for office in elections or become a judge. For example, the youngest a person is allowed to purchase alcohol is 21 in all U.S. states even though the age of majority is 18 in most states. The age of majority in the Republic of Ireland is 18, but a person must be over 21 years old to stand for election.

Emancipation is when a child is freed from the responsibility and care of their parents or legal guardians before they reach the age of majority.

In almost all places, minors who are married are automatically emancipated. Some places also do the same for minors who are in the armed forces or who have a certain degree or diploma.

Ages of majority around the world

Age 15

* Iran

Age 16

* Cuba

* Kyrgyzstan

* Turkmenistan

* Uzbekistan

* Scotland

Age 17

* El Salvador (for females)

* Korea, North

* Tajikistan

Age 18

* All countries of the European Union (with exceptions as listed)

* Albania

* Afghanistan

* American Samoa, (United States)

* Andorra

* Argentina

* Armenia

* Angola

* Australia

* Azerbaijan

* Bahamas

* Barbados

* Belarus

* Bhutan

* Bolivia

* Bosnia and Herzegovina

* Brazil (though one may vote at the age of 16)

* Brunei

* Bulgaria

* Burundi

* Cambodia

* Canada (provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan)

* Chile

* China

* Colombia

* Costa Rica

* Côte d'Ivoire

* Croatia (16 if minor marries or has a child)

* Cyprus

* Czech Republic

* Djibouti

* Dominican Republic

* Dominica

* Ecuador

* El Salvador

* Estonia

* Fiji

* France

* Gabon

* Germany

* Greece

* Ghana

* Gibraltar

* Guatemala

* Guernsey

* Guinea (minors are emancipated upon marriage)

* Guyana

* Haiti

* Hong Kong

* Hungary

* Iran

* India

* Indonesia (minors are emancipated upon marriage)

* Ireland

* Italy

* Israel

* Isle of Man

* Jamaica

* Jersey

* Kenya

* Laos

* Latvia

* Lebanon

* Liechtenstein

* Lithuania

* Luxembourg

* Macau

* Macedonia

* Malaysia

* Malta

* Mauritania

* Mauritius

* Mexico

* Moldova

* Monaco

* Montenegro

* Nepal

* Netherlands

* Oman

* Pakistan

#map #anti map #longpost #important

5 notes · View notes

gottaenjoythelittlethingzz · 6 years

Note

13: Describe your OC’s living situation. For all of them!

Thanks so much for the ask! I love answering them. Oh boy, I can answer for quite a few! Let’s get into it shall we?

Living Arrangements in TROD:

Before Texas, Edward always lived very simply. One-room and one-bedroom apartments. Apartments, mostly, as he was always busy, always moving. He would never spend more than a few hours at a time in these small places seeing them only as places to sleep and he often opted to sleep in other places with friends or for work purposes up to days at a time.

After he moved to Texas to be with Samantha he wanted to give her everything he never had and everything he believed she deserved which included a proper house. Open layout, 4 beds, 5 bathrooms, and a huge backyard. Though Edward became very finically successful once he moved to Texas and spared no expense when purchasing and renovating what would become his family home, he’s always had a habit of saving and investing his money for a rainy day. This habit was passed on to his daughter Schuyler.

Aside from when she lived on campus and in an apartment a mile away while in college, Schuyler has always lived with her parents. She never felt a need to purchase her own home since she spent a majority of her time with her family. Due to the extra bedrooms, it was not uncommon for her brother’s to crash at her parents house (this is very much based on the childhood mentality of whoever has the biggest house and/or the coolest parents).

When Schuyler moved to California at the age of 28, it was the first time she had ever properly lived alone. Taking after her father, she purchased the cheapest single bedroom house/condo that she could find in town. The kitchen is nothing compared to her mother’s back in Texas. This isn’t to say she couldn’t afford more, but she has a habit of saving for emergencies or for greater expenses. This house is just a place to sleep, it is neither extravagant nor personalized. Her brother’s in both cities live very similarly with the exception of those who have wives and children living in slightly bigger homes intended to be forever homes.

As the story goes on and life continues to happen to her, a silver lining amidst all the continuous chaos is when she enters a relationship with two men. For a time the three sleep separately often alternating who sleeps where and who visits who while also enjoying their time apart since most of their days are spent together. However, it isn’t long before Schuyler is nearly forced to move in with her older partner. In this world, marriage is not required or expected in romantic relationships and Schuyler herself does not believe in it. Moving in together is a big step and very personal for both characters. Yet, when Schuyler moves in with Telford, it is into his two bed apartment, no more extravagant then the house she moves from. They spend little time there and the act of moving in together is to have a sense of safety. With the two of them no longer having to sneak around and travel it becomes easier for all three of them to be together when not working.

It isn’t until some time later, when Schuyler convinces Telford to purchase a house with her, specifically with the idea of moving their boyfriend in with them in mind. Though Schuyler always dreamed of living in a big city, she decides that the better course of action is to move out to the country vastly removing herself and her partners from their work and the threats that come along with it. She owns land and the layout is very reminiscent of her home in Texas. She will spend the rest of her life here and the three of them live very comfortably able to be themselves.

Living Arrangements for APD: (Honorable mentions though I’m not actively working on this project because I adore these houses!)

The main family, somewhere in the double digits, lives together in a vast mansion that the main character and matriarch Lacey built. She has a habit of bringing home strays and giving a home to those who do not have one.

Built in seemingly the middle of nowhere the nearest neighbor is nearly two miles away. Lacey owns nearly 5 square miles of land and the house is big enough to accommodate each person with their own bedroom. Though the world (separate from earth) is ancient, the technology is rather advance. She is constantly having it renovated and installing each new technological innovation as they become available. She does everything she can to make her family comfortable.

Her neighbors on the other hand, live a little more simply. The Munhalhrs, headed by the alpha Diag, have family linking back to the middle ages and have lived in the same house, now built up to rival castles, for nearly as long. The house is slightly smaller, but they also own a little more land including parts of the forest just past Lacey’s property.

The two families experience a bit of a culture clash, but Diag is able to guide Lacey’s transition into the foreign world and they bond quickly, sharing the space freely between the two.

#answered #my ocs #my wips #writeblr #writblr community #invade my inbox #send me anything #anons welcome #lets interact #answering asks today

1 note · View note

thewatchau · 4 years

Text

The Continent of Vaqone: Summary

Bard’s Note: We interrupt your regularly scheduled lore overhaul content for some brand new lore, from @theshapeshifter100 regarding the foreign continent of Vaqone! While this continent has been in the works for ages now, no “official lore” has been posted about it beyond this post showing the locations of all continents in the Mortal Realm. I know very little about the majority of the youtubers that these countries are based upon in the meta; the vast majority of this is @theshapeshifter100‘s work, so please, give her all the credit!

Author´s Note: This is covering an entire continent, the detail here will be very broad and focused on large regions rather than individual countries. It will also be heavily based on their relationship with Tirónar. Also none of the countries are named, so they will be referred to by the Youtubers they’re based on.

In this post:

Foreign Relations, including major exports, known allies, and public opinion

Administration, including government, military, and education

Geography, including major features and climate

Ecology, including wild animals, domesticated animals, and Fae presence

Culture, including language, cultural highlights, food, and perspective on magic.

Foreign Relations

There are four major southern islands that are considered part of Vaqone, and couple of them have worked with the Grump Council of Halennor, Princes Dan and Phil of Lantraeth and King Sean.

Major Exports

Silk, rabbit angora, gemstones, dye, rice, spice, pepper, peppers, coffee (in the far south)

Known Allies

Haneul, Duilintinn, Fasithe, Leyfel, Lantraeth, Halennor

Public Opinion

Generally positive or neutral in Tirónar. Still some issues with the T Series territories in Borrike

Administration

System of Government

Military

Education

Varied. As a general rule history, performing arts, story telling and music are all taught, but obviously not everyone goes for it. Various levels of intensity across the continent, some have formal schools, others learn as apprentices, all depends on where you are and what you are studying.

Geography

Major Features

Desert-Not so much sand as low precipitation. Dry baked earth with the odd oasis and high winds. The closer you get to the middle the hotter it gets and the stronger the winds become, kicking up dust and making it hard to see. It’s said that some of the oasis’s don’t stay in the same place, that they shift and move. People do live there (OSP): they tend to be focused on older myths and history, with a strong focus on education. It’s said that ruins and powerful creatures can be found under the dust and earth. Giant sand snakes, creatures made of rock, living cacti. No luck finding anything in the ruins so far though, every time a ruin is found it can’t be re-found.

The Lake-It’s almost like another sea inside a continent, only the water is definitely fresh. There are marshes, fens and bogs all around the lake and populated islands inside it. These islands are mostly focused on story analysis, theories and rewriting. It is said powerful creatures sleep beneath the water.

The Forest-There are definitely creatures in the forest. Whether of magical origins is uncertain, but forests that big attract stories anyway. People live in and around this forest anyway. Given it’s large size there is large shift in species and climate, moving from a roughly temperate forest in the north, to downright tropical in the south. The people who live here (8bitgaming and Dawko) have a specialisation in scary stories and horror. Which is interesting given that they are surrounded mostly by musicians.

The Mountains-The range has various passages for traders and other travellers to go through. Other than the mountains are generally impassable. The temperature varies on either side of the range. The north is colder and gets more snow, the south more temperate and warm.

Islands- to the east towards Tirónar are three islands who have ties to both Vaqone and Tirónar, the Jaden island being one of the closest to Tirónar, the other being the KickthePJ island. Jaiden’s island also has rich bird life and thick jungles while PJ’s is a bit more urbanised, but really embodies the storytelling that Vaqone loves. The middle island (Odd1sout) is more agriculture based, the closest to Vaqone island (BrizzyVoices) is known for mimicking voices, either through mundane skill or magic or both.

Climate

Variable. Colder in the north, warmer in the south. More specifically, the north west is on the same latitude as Tirónar so a similar so of western continental Europe (Italy, Spain etc). While as you move south it becomes much warmer. The desert is the first real heat spot, and while it does get warmer in places further south, there is more rain. Beyond the mountains it generally colder than the rest of the continent.

There is an annual monsoon season that hits the south east and travels west as much as it can before petering out around the lake.

Ecology

Wild Species

There are various species of wolves, some can be found mostly in the north and along the mountain range, while a smaller, lighter variation can be found in and around the desert.

Tigers and similar large cats can be found in the south, and the further south you go the brighter the wildlife becomes.

Domestic Species

Pigs, ducks, dogs, cats, small horses, rabbits, silkworms

Fae

Fae Gardens tend to be more common in and around the forest, lake, and desert, so those bordering countries tend to have more Fae activity. The Fae also have a wide range of appearances and appear openly in some cases. That said they can be different to separate from some of the native magical creatures that are not Fae.

One of the more well known forms of Fae in Vaqone takes the form of a Baku, which is similar in appearance to a tapir and is said to eat nightmares.

Culture

Language

Common is spoken, especially along the east coast, but it is not the predominate language. There are a mix of languages across the continent, with a French like language in the northwest, with some Latin like based in there. Around the rest of Vaqone I would imagine languages similar to the variety in our East Asia would be found. This came about from the northern Tirónar islands in approx. Feadhainn year 0 decided to make the foolhardy journey to Vaqone and became shipwrecked there, and a version of their language combined with the native language of the time persisted in the southern regions of Vaqone.

Cultural Highlights

There are many stories that have common threads that persist across the continent, although no one telling is exactly the same. Common threads include giant spike turtle monsters, a re-incarnating hero, princess and villain, doomed to battle throughout generations again and again, sentient weapons, and enlisting fae and magical creatures to battle in your stead.

Food

Perspective on Magic

Some believe it exists, some don’t. As a general rule, the closer you are to the desert, lake, or forest, the more likely you are to encounter magic. There are mages, and in working with the rest of the continent usually use it for performance, art and storytelling, but of course not everyone’s focus lies there.

#submission #Vaqone #The Continent of Vaqone #Lands Beyond Tirónar #Diversity in The Watch

3 notes · View notes