#eudoxia

[toriangeli]

One of my favorite things about how Anne Rice writes historical fiction: she doesn't sugar-coat her characters.

As in, there was never going to be any way all these vampires going back 6000 years were going to align with modern sensibilities. They're not savory. They suck.

First off, any male of status from before the Great Depression probably did, in fact, look at an underage girl and think, "she LOOKS like she could grow up cute and interesting, but do I want to wait to ask her dad and risk someone else calling dibs in the meantime?"

Lestat: Killed majestic, beautiful animals that were only trying to feed themselves. To save the lives of people who were counting on him, yeah, but still.

Marius: Literally from ancient Rome, lots of ideals from that time, pederastic relationship with Armand, see above disclaimer about males from prior to the Great Depression.

Armand, Santino, most of the de Landens: I do feel like the Children of Darkness/Satan wouldn't have been founded in our time, as evidenced by Lestat so easily disbanding them with basic Enlightenment talking points, so I think it counts.

Louis: LITERALLY OWNED SLAVES. And not in a bullshit "but I treat them so nice and they'd just be owned by someone mean if not for me!" way, he legit believed this was what black people were for. Until he became a vampire and all humans looked equal(ly foodlike) to him.

Gabrielle: Let other people raise her kids while she became a library hermit.

Maharet and Mekare: Cannibals. Oh, sorry. Respectful cannibals.

Khayman: Nnnot even gonna be sarcastic about this one. He was as much a victim of it as Maharet and Mekare, hence them not blaming him in the slightest. But people today would be put on trial for following an order like that one, so I figure it belongs here.

Daniel: idk probably unprotected gay sex. It was the 70's.

Claudia: Gets a pass. She was five. All the bad shit she does is unrelated to her time.

Mael: Helped keep a vampire captive for years, then proceeded to kidnap someone and force them to become a vampire, all because "idk we're kooky druids and it's our religion."

Everard: Laughs at Benedict for being kidnapped and having his blood stolen. Victim-blaming at its finest.

Akasha and Enkil: I mean, we know what they did, but everyone hated them in their own time, too, so.

Eudoxia: Jesus Christ.

Davis: HAS NEVER DONE ANYTHING WRONG EVER IN HIS LIFE. /protects him forever #theonlyinnocentvampireprobably

And you know what? I'd take the worst of these over Bill Compton, Damon Salvatore, or Whassisface Cullen fighting for the Confederacy because "the greater good." Like bro. At least the dickheads above are being honest about it and we can judge those parts of them appropriately. You're trying to make us think you were doing something honorable by being vague. We know what you were really fighting for, and so do you.

Moral of the story: If you're gonna be evil, trying to be sneaky about it only makes it worse.

[inexplicablepeas]

So I realized that I never shared my Blood & Gold re-read thoughts due to shadow-ban issues on the old blog, thoughts under the cut! It's long!

It was interesting to read this immediately after TVA, it really highlighted Anne's talent for developing distinct voices for her characters as the two books are so different in structure and voice. Where TVA is fevered and rambling with tonnes of evocative metaphor this is logically ordered and somewhat detached. This has none of Lestat's conspiratorial chumminess interspersed with catastrophic existential crises, none of Louis' melancholy poeticism, we're just getting straight facts from Mr Marius . So Marius' voice is a bit drier than a lot of the other narrators in the chronicles but that does feel correct and it gives the book a bit of a cosier and more chill vibe than most of the other entries. It's like story time with Marius. 

It's interesting that this one isn't framed as a book being written for publication but as a quiet and private conversation between a lonely guy and a stranger who showed up on his door step happy to listen to him. I think that makes sense for Marius, he doesn't seem like he would publish his life story, he's too private and he would probably have been more tactful land less honest about certain things if it was for publication - less interesting for us!

You do still have to read a lot of his inner journey between the lines nonetheless. He's not really telling you how he was doing day to day after he abandoned Pandora entirely (following an argument about how to deal with the emerging cult of satan worshippers) then spent centuries in Rome pretending he wasn't dying for Avicus' (and Mael's?) company while letting partying mortals have run of his house as he painted the walls subconsciously with dozens of Pandora faces... but you can imagine, he's probably not feeling great!

It was fascinating to get more detail on how he was recruited to be keeper of the parents and to see his tense arms-length relationship with Mael play out over the years. Eudoxia is a great addition to the story as brief as her time in it is and getting his version of Armand's story is very welcome (and of course interesting to contrast with Armand's telling). Getting more Bianca was also welcome, she's such a big presence in TVA, I liked getting Marius' perspective there. 

I've got some of the same kind of complaints I had with TVA about what was left out. I guess that structuring a life story that spans millenia is no easy task and it's inevitable that some stuff is gonna get left out. Anne probably didn't want to rehash the same events form different perspectives over and over again but I really was disappointed that the narrative doesn't touch on his thoughts on his reunion with Armand in QotD, the brief Night Island coven times, how Daniel came to be in his care (???), his reaction to Armand's suicide attempt (!?), how was it that he and Santino ended up being the team on clean up duty together for that anyway (???), his reaction to learning that Armand was in fact alive(!) and his subsequent turning of Benji and Sybelle.

Marius:

And Pandora of course, I hadn't read her book at the time of reading this so I was disappointed about how little detail we get on the centuries they spent together. You can imagine his motivations for leaving a lot of this stuff out, it seems that some things are still too painful to talk about and he is also telling a specific story to a specific audience here (to influence a particular outcome, perhaps? *squints suspiciously at Marius*) so it makes sense for him to brush over or leave some things out entirely but it's not always the most satisfying result for a reader that's already invested in these characters and their stories.

The framing device with Thorne is great, I can't emphasize enough how immediately I fell in love with this guy, this stoic but sensitive viking titan of a vampire. I found the final chapter to be the most exciting really, I guess because where most of the story is Marius explaining from his perspective why he's alone (apart from Daniel who doesn't count because he's too obsessed with his model cities, sorry Daniel!), it's all a foregone conclusion where we're heading and we know what happens to most of the major characters but once we get back to Thorne's contemporary POV hey, anything can happen! And thanks to Thorne, stuff does happen! He's kind of the MVP of this book. We also get a teeny bit of Daniel in the framing chapters at the start of the book and hey, it's nice to see him alive and still sassy, if a little worse for wear.

Overall I find it a pretty enjoyable vampire chronicle. I do love the lore of Anne's vampire universe, how rich it is both with historical details and with her own world building and Marius is, of course, very key to it as guardian of the parents for millennia, so I do want to know everything about him and I'm glad this book was written to give us more of his story. His chronicle of his very lonely life, caused in no small part by his own stubbornness and terror of losing control is sad and often frustrating but I did find all of it a compelling read. He's a very strange guy and it really is fascinating to get more of his perspective, even if he doesn't quite have the zazz of a Lestat or the poetry of a Louis.

[kaelio]

is funny Marius was tromping around with Mael and Avicus (both of whom have the appearance of someone obviously younger than him) and then he runs into Eudoxia who is older than him and looks even younger than anyone in their troupe who then calls him out for basically being a perma-old-fart vampire, but luckily Marius is Never Weird About Looking Older Than Most Vampires ever again and never carries that weirdness into his decision making. anyway

[bubblegum-blackwood]

VC ladies! (some of them, at least)

We got Sybelle, Rose, Eudoxia, Zenobia, Bianca, Mona, Petronia, Rowan, Jesse, Gabrielle, Sevraine, Baby Jenks, Allesandra, Akasha, Merrick, Pandora, Maharet, Mekare, Aunt Queen, and Claudia

[monstersinthecosmos]

This bit in the Eudoxia chapter just says it all-

" 'A woman,' he said. I shall never forget. 'A woman' as if that were remarkable." "Sometimes, it is," I said. She smiled at me rather tolerantly.

[poxei]

eudoxia, cloven's mother

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[ukdamo]

Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits: this 10th CE Byzantine image of Agia Eudoxia, from the archaeological museum in Istanbul. 

[xxhellonursexx]

REQUEST FILL: "Marius meets Eudoxia" from Blood and Gold.

for  @comedyistdead

First of all, I have no idea if these clothes were anything like what anybody would have worn in approximately 576 A.D.

Second of all, if Eudoxia doesn't hurry up and stuff her head under Marius' robes, I'm going to do it.

[oh-yes-i-did-not]

I have not shared my children in a while~ Nothing new going on but they need to be out and about once in a while, to get some fresh air~

[ratsandfashion]

Euxodia and Zenobia from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, specifically Blood & Gold. I have a fuck ton of issues with the choices Rice made around them and their portrayal, but they’re the only canon textual f/f couple we get so I have a mega soft spot for them (and want better for them) They’re Byzantine, hence the details, and both turned at around 14 hence how young they look. But Eudoxia is extremely old and thus very literally white, whereas Zenobia has only been dead around 10 years and is described as still looking very human.

[mojoflower]

PAGE 2 for @eudoxiav

[homospockual]

feeling. unwell

[patriciawindham90]

History Births on July 07

[bubblegum-blackwood]

Can someone please help me out here I don't have access to Blood and Gold at the moment and the AR Wiki/Wikipedia are being unhelpful - I'm looking for Eudoxia and Zenobia's physical descriptions

[adini-nikolaevna]

The children of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria by Mihaylov.

[charmspectreinstitute]

Damara Eudoxia

Student from Miracle Flower Academy (the arcane institution of the City of Peace).

➽──────────────❥

Damara is kind and empathetic woman, also has a wise and stern side. She, moreover, is very respectful of her duties and will be tough when needed.

Likewise, she is a headstrong and independent woman, who doesn't afraid of show her dance on the spotlight. But she still keep her reputation stubbornly.

She is an intelligent and cunning, such as once she make a plan of the revenge to students from CSI, especially Philip.

She dislikes magic, including hers, though, and claimed they were evil, overestimating her vengeance against her past.

➽──────────────❥

Damara had a special fondness for goats, especially her pet pygmy goat Blanca. Probably because of their small size, she think they were cute. As for her reputation, Damara never bring Blanca to walk down the street.

Soon after, due to Philip's notice, Damara changes her mind and confidently bring Blanca with her. She keep to prevent her cold face slip in front of everyone while watching her goat galloping.

Damara is the illegitimate daughter of the dancer. She was doted on by her mother since she was a child.

She even had a pair of little red shoes made by her mother until she was abducted from her mother by a wizard, left behind a shoe and later started wandering after the death of the magician who raised her.

Since then, Damara believes that magic is dangerous, uncontrollable, and will not make life peaceful. She decided to take the revenge for her mother.

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Damara then stayed at the farmer's house. The mother goat had gave birth at the same day, unfortunately it died after the childbirth. The farmer asked her to took care of newborn baby goat, and she named it Blanca.

Soon after, she can have a study in the elementary school by the help of the farmer. She been work hard to every classes, which made teachers praised for her.

Although popular at school, Damara has experienced some shady harassment, but with the help and care of her teachers, she slowly changes, except for her long-held desire for revenge.

≿━━━━ ༺❀༻ ━━━━≾

Through the years, when she was a teenager, Damara finally can study in the academy where located at her former country.

Three years passed, she became a president of the college.

She took a target on Philip, who owns powerful magic. She invite him and his friends to the exchange at the academy she studied, and hid her secret plan of the trap.

≿━━━━ ༺❀༻ ━━━━≾

Just when Damara was about to complete her revenge plan, she was defeated by Diona's magic attack. Philip and Renard advise her against revenge.

The next morning, Philip and his classmates prepared a surprise. Damara was surprised that the song is the peom from the Maiden of Flowers.

During the ball, Philip asked Damara for a dance. She unexpectedly accept, though refused at first.

➽──────────────❥

Once Damara and Philip were enemies.

Philip's anger could not be suppressed, because he realized that all this was Damara's plan and was tricked. Even the trap set by her almost made Philip's girlfriend Mirette fall.

Over the days which after the festival, Damara have a little touch of unexpected feeling when inadvertently thinking about Philip. Still for her hatred of the magic, she hide all deeply.

Not only that, Philip also has the same problem, always thinking about her no matter what he does. He even felt his heart beating wildly.

Although there is a feeling of a crush between the two, there is still a certain competitive relationship between them.

➽──────────────❥

Her unique magic is "Dancing Petals".

The ability to conjure blooming flowers to create illusions, and opponents collapse into the deepest. Their magic gradually absorbing at the same time.