#byzantine af

[mirabritart]

"A Song of Ice and Fire" sounds like it could be a magical girl anime c'mon let's be real

Individuals below the cut!

[lactodebillus-bulgaricus]

avar khaganate: *has awesome long hair braided into braids with ribbons, it's shiny and strong and decorated with silver and bronze and gold applications, everyone in the steppes admires it, others grow their hair and braid it like his hair, even some byzantines try imitating avars*

a salty byzantine empire *writing down historical records* and so avar's hair is UGLY and MATTED and DRY and DIRTY and UNKEMPT and tied in a UNSIGHTLY KNOT

[beansprean]

Do you like good omens? I can imagine some Amazign interactions with Crowley and lazlo

i love good omens!!! i have surprisingly never really drawn them (one of those shows that gives me everything i want, so i feel less of a need to supplement) but that could def change if my brain decides to latch on! DEF feel free to send me your imaginings heheheehehe

crowley and laszlo would get along FAMOUSLY i feel - irreverent fancy lads who love to talk! aziraphale would enjoy his stories as well, though i think they would both be scandalized by his Tales of the Flesh lmao

surprisingly i think nadja and az would get along fairly well when steering clear of sex and violence talk lol - i can see him mentioning some historical event offhand, her struggling to repeat a word in response, and then him launching into a detailed story that has her RIVETED only to realize by the end that oh! she was actually nearby there at the time, she remembers! and they both laugh it up and bond enough that she can convince him to watch mamma mia 2: here we go again!

aziraphale would very much like guillermo when he is in familiar mode and feel he is a kindred spirit but guillermo would be so annoyed by him internally. feigned politeness and pained smiles and condescending stares that go right over az's head. crowley would think he is boring af until he does something unhinged and then he's delighted by him (az is horrified and scrambling for an excuse to cancel their teatime plans)

they would both find nandor exhausting. but he's also the only one of the vamps who remembers the byzantine empire, so.

[windermeresimblr]

Zoste Patrikia: A Middle Byzantine Propoloma Accessory for TYAEF.

It’s a new year, and I’m back on my Byzantine nonsense as a break from the texturing long-haul of the bustle project and to give myself a quick “ooh fancy fancy” project. So have a propoloma as a Tres Reyes/Epiphany/Twelfth Night gift!

What is a Propoloma? 

During the early Byzantine empire, the “propoloma” was a simple turban, as seen on the iconic mosaic of Theodora in Ravenna (1). While most depictions show it on courtiers or saints, because Byzantine art tended to focus on courtiers and saints, it is by no means improbable that a Byzantine woman with enough fabric and time on her hands could give herself a nice turban to wear. It could be worn by itself, if the fabric was nice enough, or worn under a veil. 

By the 10th century, it had somehow transformed into a fascinating trapezoidal/pyramidal cone, usually worn over one’s maforion, or over one’s hair, whether worn loose or styled (2). This ‘new’ propoloma was almost certainly a court headdress or upper-class headdress, if only for reasons of practicality.

The propoloma was usually white, although the zoste patrikia--the Empress’ most high-ranking lady-in-waiting--wore hers with a purple stripe, and ladies of the Imperial family wore theirs in solid purple (1). Because this is the Sims, of course, you can make yours neon pink with zebra stripes if you so desire. 

Although a propoloma of a similar shape and orientation on the head is worn in a Byzantine depiction of David’s entry into Jerusalem, as illustrated in the 1082 Vatican Psalter (3), and in the iconic Venetus A illuminated manuscript of the Illiad, circa 900-1000 (4), I would like to clarify that this is probably not the most historically accurate shape or style! Most reconstructions (e.g. Levantia and Anna’s New Rome) show the propoloma as fitted around the wearer’s head (1, 2). However, it’s extant, it’s documented, and I think it has a certain charm, so I’m sharing this with all of you.

I did not create this mesh; I took it from Bipsouille’s TS2 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace hair. You can see the original here; as you can probably tell, I took off the danglies and the earmuffs, and retextured it so that the propoloma is now fabric-textured instead of hair-textured. I also removed the original overlays and created five masks; the “x” and diagonal stripe are from the eleventh century (1001-1100) and the horizontal stripes and horizontal stripes with bezants are from the twelfth century (1101-1200) (5). I am unsure if the original Star Wars headdress was inspired by Manchu liangbatou headdresses, Russian kokoshniks, or a combination of the two, as I am not familiar with all the varieties of either of those headdresses.

Download your propoloma here!

Important Information

Polycount 86 Vertices, 168 Faces. 

Bone Assignment Head Dome. 

Recolorable? Yes, with one, two, or three channels depending on the mask. The mesh is curved, so some patterns may not “read” successfully.

Ages and Genders Teen through Elder females. You may use NRAAS or another mod to make this available for teen through elder males!

Categories Found in “Earrings” under Everyday, Formal, Career (for courtiers, of course), Makeover, and Maternity.

Custom Thumbnail? No, sorry!

EPs Necessary Base Game Compatible.

Credits

Bipsouille, whose original mesh I’ve hacked to pieces. Merci!

@aprilrainsimblr, whose linen texture I used to retexture the propoloma.

@ninjaofthepurplethings, @ice-creamforbreakfast, @sweetdevil-sims, and @simlicious for the models used (Penny O’Hare, Margaret Crabtree-Spencer, Helen Ray, and Aurora Brunetti). 

@danjaley for the poses (Medieval Story).

Mammut from the SimsZoo for the outfits (EF, TF, and AF Mittelalter).

@carversims and @procrasimnation for the veils (Carver’s Scarf Casual and one of the Aanhamdan conversions; Procrasimnation’s Sporty Hijab and LumiaLover’s Hijab).

Parsimonious for the patterns.

Recommended Downloads

My conversion of Wawa’s Byzantine crown (unisex)

My conversion of Wiccandove’s veil (female only)

Citations

(1) Syrakousina, A. D. (2015, January 16). The propoloma: A headdress of the ZOSTE patrikia and other high ranking women in the courts of Eastern Rome. Anna's New Rome. Retrieved January 2, 2023, from https://annasrome.com/2014/08/13/the-propoloma-a-headdress-of-the-zoste-patrikia-and-other-high-ranking-women-in-the-courts-of-eastern-rome/ 

(2) Dawson, T. (n.d.). A woman of the high aristocracy. Levantia. Retrieved January 2, 2023, from https://www.levantia.com.au/zoste.html. 

(3) Meyer, M. “DID THE DAUGHTERS OF ISRAEL COME OUT DANCING AND SINGING TO MEET... DAVID ? A BIBLICAL IMAGE IN CHRISTIAN-MACEDONIAN IMPERIAL ATTIRE.” Byzantion 73, no. 2 (2003): 467–87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44172607.

(4) Manuscript miniatures: Iliad (venetus A). (n.d.). Retrieved January 2, 2023, from https://manuscriptminiatures.com/4919/14628. 

(5) “Byzantine Clothing Inspiration Page.” House Capuchin 3, September 24, 2021. https://housecapuchin.com/clothing-inspirations/byzantine-clothing-inspiration-page/. 

[meerawrites]

Mermaids, Pirates, Vampire(ates) & queers...

Tagged by: I earnestly don’t remember, I sincerely apologize, but if they see this, thank you. 💞

Tagging: @theworldneedsocean, @queerstion, @mjjune & @how-absurd23rd (if you want).

Link.

plugging this because it’s about historical fiction and pirates.

Presenting: Anne Bonny (fictionalized because there’s so little information on morally questionable, probably bi, definitely cross dressing, pirate war crime commiter), Sylvia (a vampirate), Mastani (a pirate), Louise/Louis (a pirate) & Doria my mermaid.

Because they’re by me they’re all bi but they’re very different individuals. More info below.

Anne Bonny: I’ll just let you make up your own mind about her.

Read more.

Anne Bonny, Irish pirate, crossdresser, probably bi cause Mary Read and Calico Jack. My Anne sticks as much to what we do in fact know as possible (which is scarce cause records) but she’s bi, and she/her to allies they/them to strangers/enemies. Also my Anne never settled or died or “pleaded their belly” but my Anne is fiction and never got caught by the English.

When I was a child I really liked Anne Bonny, and Joan of Arc and Rani Lakshmi Bai. I guess it shouldn’t shock anyone that I can fence (though I’m out of practice) am genderqueer, and swing both ways, both with a sword and not.

Sylvia: antagonist and ex girlfriend of my oc, Livia, Byzantine Greek vampire pirate and goth chick with medium abilities. For VTM folk, she’s a Lasombra. (She/her)

Mastani: based on Mastani & Rani Lakshmi Bai. Golden age of piracy (early 18th century) south Asian Hindu pirate, bi af, can slash you apart, also skilled navigator of every ship she’s ever been on. (She/they).

Louis/Louise: known as Boucher or “the butcher” based vaguely on Max from black sails. He/she/they, known atrocity commiter and gaslighter. Haitian Creole from the golden age of piracy (early 18th century) would probably date Esmeralda the pirate queen and bring out the worst in her. Their two redeeming qualities are the fact they free instead of sell slaves as a pirate and their capacity to love. Genderqueer, bi af and definitely not white.

Doria: mermaid, I haven’t fleshed her out as much as the others, but she’s based on Ariel (in the novel by Hans Christian Andersen) bi, none human, maybe immortal-ish. Falls really hard and fast for people and such, usually ends up accidentally destroying them, or herself. I wanted to make a “monster” that’s very clearly “other” and not in the vampire uncanny valley sort of way but scary unless you look deeper. She can look human but she doesn’t frequently. Doria means “of the sea” in greek or “dark ocean” I just wanted to stress the universality of love. I genuinely do not know what the mermaid allegory is in this case, yet. (She/her).

[harrelltut]

OMMMMM… I.B.1698 MICHAEL [IBM] harrelltut.com Domain Creator [D.C.] ENVISIONING My Ancient Past [MAP] in Our Biblically Ancient [BABYLONIAN] Future of 1968 in 2023… as Eye 2024 Quantum [IQ] Gen X Leap... 2 2025 from the Mayan’s Spiritual 2012 Death Prophecy into ANU [PA] GOLDEN 2030 IGIGI SKY AGE of AQUARIUS… since Eye 2223 Quantum [IQ] Compu_TAH [PTAH] Architect [PA] of Astronomical [PA] PLUTO’s Highly Complex [ADVANCED] Ancient 9 Ether Cosmic Algorithmic [CA] Computation [Compton] STAR WEB GATEWAY Language Architecture [L.A.] Unveiling My Mysteriously Ancient Creative [MAC] Deutsch Hieroglyphs of Ancestral Readings Recorded & Encrypted by the Lunar Light [HARRELL] SKY Counsel of My Tri-Solar Black SUN Planet RIZQIYIAN Ancestors [RA] who Esoterically Memorized Inscription Communications by HERMES of Ancient Ægipt’s Lost [MICHAEL] 9 Ether [ME] ATLANTEAN Generation of 144,000 Ægiptian [MAGE] BYZANTINE PRIESTS… who JEHOVAH OKCULT BIBLE [JOB] STAR WITNESS 1968-michaelharrelljr.com @ The_Octagon_(Egypt) of kingtutdna.com’s Pharaonic MENES EMPIRE [ME] of 1968-michaelharrelljr.com’s quantumharrelltech.ca.gov… OMMMMM

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eye 1698 quantum leaped into 1968... as eye quantum [iq] leaped from 2023 into 2223... ya dig???

eye kingtutdna.com domain creator [d.c.] of harrelltut.com

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heil 1968-michaelharrelljr.com like adolf did

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© 1698-2223 QUANTUM HARRELL TECH LLC All LOST ANCIENT [L.A.] ATLANTEAN DNA [A.D.] DotCom [A.D.] + DotTech [A.D.] + Pre 1698quantumharrellgov.tech Domain Name Rights Reserved @ quantumharrelltech.ca.gov

[alexthepleb]

The other day, I met a customer who was wearing a Byzantine cross. I, being a huge Religious Studies nerd, commented on how cool it was. When he found out I'd visited his Orthodox parish before he got so excited. I smiled and we had a nice brief chat. I didn't have the heart to tell him I was an Agnostic and that Eastern Orthodoxy, while beautiful, is problematic AF. Bless him.

It really was a nice chat though!

[galaxyofhair]

Late Medieval Fantasy Is Kinda Boring...

...After a while, please don’t come after me lol I didn’t want to choose violence today I just wanted to rant about something on my soapbox for a minute.

So before I get into the meat of this argument let’s get one of the common responses out of the way: But it’s all fantasy, just let people do whatever pleases them and don’t critic them so hard!

Ok yes, it’s fantasy and at the end of the day it’s not real and doesn’t actually matter etc etc. However, I generally treat realism and fantasy not as divorcees but rather as more of a sibling rivalry situation: They’re different, but share a deep relationship and are secretly completely dependent on one another---IDFK

I had a longer argument for this but it essentially boils down to: Realism pleases me. Yes it’s completely possible to make fun fantasy that is 100% devoid of pesky realism and very casual and free, but if all fantasy was like that it’d be boring.

The thing I actually came here to say is this: The more I learn about history the more I’ve realized that almost all high fantasy (with a few notable exceptions) occurs in a universe that is roughly analogous to the Late Medieval Period: Plate armor, bastard and long swords, A wide range of weapons and armor types, early firearms or canons, rapiers, etc etc---Basically every D&D game, Game of Thrones, Witcher, and even the LOTR all range from the Late Medieval to the very early Renaissance. For me, plate armor is the big one---the moment you introduce full plate armor that’s clearly evocative of the “knights in shining armor” aesthetic it immediately jumps the technological development level of that fictional society up to the 1300s in my mind. To a lesser extent, claymores as well---Longswords and claymores were big popular in the Late Medieval, and Zweihanders got popular in the Early Ren---honestly I’m pretty sure it just had more to do with the quality of metals that could be produced than anything.

And again, there’s nothing particularly wrong with this approach: The LM/ER area of history is a veritable gold mine of fun, goofy, downright alien, and interesting af cultures/traditions/warfare/religion/politics---BUT, it gets boring after a while when this is the ONLY era fantasy takes place in, and it does get much better when the only option for something older than the LM is literally Classical Greece.

There’s SO MUCH COOL HISTORY---I want more fantasy that takes after some of these under-loved periods of history: I want more fantasy set in the Bronze Age, more fantasy set in the late antiquity and early medieval age---and OMG do I want more early medieval and high medieval fantasy. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla woke something up in me Dean Pelton style and I NEED more.

Give me more of the Islamic Golden Age, more of Byzantines, more Japan and China in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Personally I would love to see more from around the fall of Rome and the very beginnings of the Early Medieval period---the Dark Ages are truly a fascinating period.

At first one of the big disadvantages of writing in a non-standard fantasy setting is that there are limitations: You can’t just slap on plate armor anymore and call it a day, you gotta research and find out more about different kinds of mail, or how the Romans wore segmented plates, or how some cultures cut out metal entirely. You can’t always give your characters that bigass sword because older periods hadn’t invented that huge melting pot of weapons and armor later peoples had.

But at the same time, those limitations can be liberating and they can really help create a truly unique setting that stands out.

Of course, the other thing I would encourage when creating a fantasy setting is to mess around with weird shit that has no good analogy to history: Are the trees made of iron? Is everyone still using obsidian shards, or maybe they have weird crystals they can grow into the right shapes?

I definitely also occasionally get caught into the mood of doing the Standard Fantasy Setting, so like---I’m not here to shame. I say all of this because the right technology level paired with the right setting can be an incredible foundation for a unique world and more folks should be doing that.

[sheltiechicago]

Agnus Dei medallion, Basilica di Santa Prassede all’Esquillino, Rome by edk7 Via Flickr: Apsidal arch mosaic, Byzantine style, c820 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Prassede ---- Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8GII ED SWM VR ED IF _DSC2047 Anx2 Q90 Ap Q11 deskew autosmartfix autosharp crop f25

[subzeroparade]

A scion of the Golden bough // A martyr to Destined Death

Godwyn the Golden. Costume study from a 19thc painting of Saint Laszlo. Minus the Dragon/Erdtree sigil, obvs.

[spyskrapbook]

«Μουσείο Βυζαντινού Πολιτισμού», Θεσσαλονίκη / “Museum of Byzantine Culture”, Thessaloniki, Greece [1977-1993] _ Αρχιτέκτων: Κυριάκος Κρόκος / Architect: Kyriakos Krokos _ Photographs by Spyridon Kaprinis [16.06.2021]

https://www.ktirio.gr/el/%CE%BA%CF%84%CE%B9%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%B1/%CE%BA%CF%84%CE%B9%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%B1-%CE%B4%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%BF%CF%83%CE%B9%CE%B1-%CE%B5%CE%BA%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%B9%CE%B4%CE%B5%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B7%CF%82-%CF%85%CE%B3%CE%B5%CE%B9%CE%B1%CF%82/%CE%BC%CE%BF%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BF-%CE%B2%CF%85%CE%B6%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%8D-%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%B9%CF%84%CE%B9%CF%83%CE%BC%CE%BF%CF%8D-%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B7-%CE%B8%CE%B5%CF%83%CF%83%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%BA%CE%B7

[devil-baker]

Languages head canon

I realized that what with these boys being OLD AF, they’re bound to know quite a few languages from over the centuries, so...

Lucifer- Afrikaans, Albanian, Anatolian, Arabic, Armenian, Aymara, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burgundian, Catalan, Celtic, Crimean Gothic, Croatian, Danish, Domari, Dutch, English, Faroese, Fiulian, French, Frisian, German, Gothic, Greek (including Koine and Byzantine), Guarani, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hittite, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Kabyle, Ladin, Latin, Maltese, Nahuatl, Norwegian, Occitan, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Romani, Romanian, Romansh, Sardinian, Scots, Serbian, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Tamahaq, Tamazight, Tarifit, Tashelhit, Tocharian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vandalic, Russian, Yiddish

Mammon- Afrikaans, Arabic, ASL, Bengali, Burgundian, Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese, French, Frisian, German, Gothic, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Korean, Latin, Luxembourgish, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romansh, Russian, Sanskrit, Scots, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Yiddish

Levi- Ainu, Arabic, Blackfoot, Burmese, Chinese (including Cantonese, Mandarin, and Minnan), Cree, English, Filipino, Ganda, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese (including Hachijo, Late Middle, and Old), Kannada, Korean, Latin, Malay, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tulu, Vietnamese

Satan- Afrikaans, Arabic, Aymara, Burgundian, Cayuga, Choctaw, Cornish, Crow, Danish, Dutch, English (including Old), Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French (including Old), Frisian, German, Gothic, Guambiano, Guarani, Guyanese Creole, Hebrew, Hopi, Huasteco, Huichol, Icelandic, Inuktitut, Irish Gaelic, ISL, Kayapo, Kaiwa, Kalaallisut, Kogi, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mandarin, Maori, Mapuche, Mazahua, Nahuatl, Navajo, Norwegian, NZSL, Old Norse, Pipil, Polish, Portuguese, Plains Sign Talk, Quechua, Russian, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Shuar, Spanish, Sranan Tongo, Swedish, Tarasco, Terena, Tunumiit, Tzotzil, Warao, Welsh, Yiddish, Yucatec Maya, Zuni

Asmo- Albanian, Anatolian, Arabic, Armenian, Bhojpuri, Breton, Celtic, Creole (including Haitian and Mauritian), Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hittite, Irish Gaelic, Italian, Latin, Luxembourgish, Mandarin, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Tamazight, Tocharian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Welsh

Beel- Albanian, Anatolian, Arabic, Armenian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Celtic, Croatian, Czech, English, Estonian, Greek, Hebrew, Karakalpak, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Mongolian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Tajiki, Tocharian, Turkish, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Uzbek

Belphie- Afrikaans, Ancient Greek, Arabic, Burmese, Creole (bits and pieces of Gullah and Jamaican), English, Filipino, Hakka, Hebrew, Hokien, Igbo, Japanese, Khmer, Latin, Macedonian, Malay, Mandarin, Matsu, Mongolian, Navajo, Norwegian, Punjabi, Swedish, Taiwanese Sign Language, Tamil, Thai, Tibetan, Uyghur, Yoruba, Zhuang, Zulu

(If I spelled any of these wrong or got the terminology wrong, feel free to tell me. Or better yet, reblog with corrections/additions!)

[professorlizzard]

Thankfully I was kept sane yesterday by my overseas friends, as we were playing viking ck3 multiplayer...

I was Wellread af Buks, the smartest viking of his time, and he eventually used his knowledge to prove that he was the heir to Egypt. His heir merged his norse followers into the Egyptians people, creating the egyptian norse, and his heir has given up their pirate raider ways by becoming Copt Christians, and becoming a vassal to the Byzantine Emperor (who is also the descendant of a viking, who took over the Byzantines and merged with greeks to become the Varangians).

My current goal is to marry into the Copt Christian Nubia, and recreate the ancient egyptian kingdom through peace, and once we combine the culture of danish norse, egyptian and nubian to create the final culture: Danile...

[livlepretre]

Srry, this is probably a weird question (uninteresting?) but it interests me reading your fanfic wondering… do the Originals have any friends?

Or ‘friends’. Obviously no humans but. I mean what sort of people/witches/vamps would each gravitate to/be who they would (maybe frivolously)describe as a friend(even if most of us wouldn’t recognise it as such) or come closest to it? surely 1000+ years of living&travelling would lead to the odd alliance w someone they ‘enjoy’? Anyone but Stefan for Klaus? Kol would presumably have some dark witch-buddies over the years (in fact its implied they all do?) and would maybe be drawn to a fellow hedonist? Maybe the odd dalliance w a Darla/Drusilla figure? And Bex… I def hc that out of the people she’s turned the past millennia, that girl’s accumulated some crazy af stalkers over the years — even post the high Klaus mortality rate (though u obviously couldn’t call them ‘friends’ lol).

(In your wonderfully crafted fic universe I mean a out the friends thing haha… It just feels like your insight on these characters is always so 10/10)

That is so kind of you to say, thank you!

One of the things that really interests me is that they seemed to have friends in, say, the 1492 era flashbacks (they all know Scary Mary-- so she must've been someone they all hung out with? same for like Rose and Trevor?) but by the time they get to Nola things have shifted and they're no longer really holding vampire!court anymore so much as getting into weird and byzantine power plays with each other as well as various local power factions.

So, my general idea is that they originally did cultivate friendships, or at least a sort of court around themselves, the way you might imagine medieval lordlings cultivating courts-- these weren't friendships of equals, but there were people around them that they might turn into vampires if they liked them well enough and who may have persisted in influence with them for centuries. I think talented people-- wits, musicians and poets, and anyone who could devise a good way to entertain them-- especially Klaus-- would be welcome. I wouldn't be surprised if Eleanor of Aquitaine's influence in how she built her inner circle had reached the Original siblings, as her ideas and the culture she perpetuated in her courts had so much sway in general in western Europe.

It also strikes me that those first few centuries were probably the happiest time amongst the siblings, when they were all actually gathered together (most of the them anyway) to live in their little twisted Camelot.

It seems obvious that the rift came with Katerina Petrova. When their friends betrayed them, and they betrayed each other.

Things are different after that. Kol breaks away, to pursue his interests in the dark arts, and begins cultivating relationships with witches more than with vampires.

Klaus apparently eventually does forgive Elijah, but things are never quite the same between them again. They don't trust each other as they did before. And without trust between the brothers, how can they build any sort of new circle? We see again and again in the New Orleans flashbacks how as soon as someone gets close (Rebekah's lover the Governor's son, Celeste) Klaus goes out of his way to destroy them. They still end up cultivating relationships, but it's not like it was before-- it's more like Klaus and Elijah are resource hunting for the most talented individuals to be at their call should they need them for their power plays.

Rebekah probably pays the price most dearly for all of this. I don't really imagine she ever got to have her own friendships-- she's too much under her brothers' thumbs, especially Klaus's. Certainly there was never allowed a friendship or relationship that might allow her to escape the increasingly claustrophobic family circle. So, I think she's been very lonely, and doesn't really know much about having friends, especially about having platonic friendships, and maybe most of all platonic relationships with other girls (since she has no sisters to model that sort of relationship on, whereas she does have brothers to give her an idea of how to have a platonic relationship with a boy). (Well, and let's not get into how messed up the situation with her brothers is right now in terms of whether it's platonic or not...)

[lovergirl]

what r ur favorite art movements bestie

Hey bestie <3

My ultimate favourite would be rococo art because of how dreamy and extravagant it is

But also here are the top contenders:

Baroque, neoclassical, dadaism (bc of how insane everything is), romanticism, WHATEVER HILMA AF KLINT WAS DOING!!!!

I have to mention byzantine art here bc without it we wouldn't have the beauty that is the Hagia Sophia!!! And i know that the structure went through different periods, but i think it's mostly byzantine!!! But alsooo gothic architecture because i love how ambitious architects were during that time!!! To the point where the buildings they built were so impractical BUTTT all for the sake of beauty and reaching the heavens!!! I loved that!!! And also bauhaus architecture!!! BUT I PROPOSE A POTENTIALLY CONTROVERSIAL OPINION: imagine bauhaus buildings BUT IN PASTEL!!!! i think it would be cute!!!

[yocalio]

Geralt’s S2 armor is OC af but why are people losing their shit over the “abs”- have y’all ever seen historical Greek/Roman/Byzantine armors in your whole life? Like I’m not saying people have to find it aesthetically pleasing but why are they acting as if abs on armor is this outrageous thing that is unheard of lmao

I mean for me like you said it's out of character af. But also the time period for armor like that is way off lol. This is a medieval fantasy, not a Greek or Roman epic. Regardless, I get your point. I think they're equating it with the ridiculousness of the boobs on armor thing. We know they're there so what possible use would they have to protect the wearer? Its like a fashion, vanity thing which just makes it worse because that is not even remotely close to something Geralt would go for lol. The guy doesn't even wear plate armor. He has a studded jacket that smells.