#hordings india

[postcard-from-the-past]

British Royal Hordes leaving the Government house after lunch during the 1911 Delhi Durbar, India

British vintage postcard

[taohun]

i do not need to see "desis" who live in fucking new york city talking about how india deserves to be nuked for ISRAEL asking for basically slave labor. you couldn't name a single implemented policy that has caused the tilt towards "india-israel relations" and you could not say out loud what the country's foreign policy is and you could not explain what hindutva is outside of hand-wavy "it's bad!". it is CRAZY to say that because you are some random who happens to be ethnically indian living in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA that 1.4 BILLION people deserve to be "carved off of asia and nuked because they're all pieces of shit". you're fucked in the head.

[australianwomensnews]

Medical research has a major problem: an alarmingly high number of trials are based on fake, fraudulent or misinterpreted data.

Research misconduct sleuths call them “zombie” studies. They look like real research papers but they’re rotten to the core. And when these studies go on to influence clinical guidelines, that is, how patients are treated in hospitals and doctors’ rooms, they can be dangerous.

Professor Ben Mol, head of the Evidence-based Women’s Health Care Research Group at Monash University, is a professional zombie hunter. For years, he has warned that between 20 and 30 per cent of medical trials that inform clinical guidelines aren’t trustworthy.

“I’m surprised by the limited response from people in my field on this issue,” he says. “It’s a topic people don’t want to talk about.”

The peer review process is designed to ensure the validity and quality of findings, but it’s built on the assumption that data is legitimate.

Science relies on an honour system whereby researchers trust that colleagues have actually carried out the trials they describe in papers, and that the resulting data was collected with rigorous attention to detail.

But too often, once findings are queried, researchers can’t defend their conclusions. Figures such as former BMJ editor Richard Smith and Anaesthesia editor John Carlise argue it’s time to assume all papers are flawed or fraudulent until proven otherwise. The trust has run out.

“I think we have been naive for many years on this,” Mol says. “We are the Olympic Games without any doping checks.”

How bad science gets into the clinic

Untrustworthy papers may be the result of scientists misinterpreting their data or deliberately faking or plagiarising their numbers. Many of these “zombie” papers emerge from Egypt, Iran, India and China and usually crop up in lower-quality journals.

The problem gets bad when these poor-quality papers are laundered by systematic reviews or meta-analyses in prestigious journals. These studies aggregate hundreds of papers to produce gold-standard scientific evidence for whether a particular treatment works.

Often papers with dodgy data are excluded from systematic reviews. But many slip through and go on to inform clinical guidelines.

My colleague Liam Mannix has written about an example of this with the hormone progesterone. Official guidelines held that the hormone could reduce the risk of pre-term birth in women with a shortened cervix.

But those guidelines were based on a meta-analysis largely informed by a paper from Egypt that was eventually retracted due to concerns about the underlying data. When this paper was struck from the meta-analysis, the results reversed to suggest progesterone had no preventative effect.

There’s a litany of other examples where discounting dodgy data can fundamentally alter the evidence that shapes clinical guidelines. That’s why, in The Lancet’s clinical journal eClinical Medicine, Mol and his colleagues have reported a new way to weed out bad science before it makes it to the clinic.

Holding back the horde

The new tool is called the Research Integrity in Guidelines and evIDence synthesis (RIGID) framework. It mightn’t sound sexy, but it’s like a barbed-wire fence that can hold back the zombie horde.

The world-first framework lays out a series of steps researchers can take when conducting a meta analysis or writing medical guidelines to exclude dodgy data and untrustworthy findings. It involves two researchers screening articles for red flags.

“You can look at biologically implausible findings like very high success rates of treatments, very big differences between treatments, unfeasible birth weights. You can look at statistical errors,” says Mol.

“You can look at strange features in the data, only using rounded numbers, only using even numbers. There are studies where out of dozens of pairs of numbers, everything is even. That doesn’t happen by chance.”

A panel decides if a paper has a medium to high risk of being untrustworthy. If that’s the case, the RIGID reviewers put their concerns to the paper’s authors. They’re often met with stony silence. If authors cannot address the concerns or provide their raw data, the paper is scrapped from informing guidelines.

The RIGID framework has already been put to use, and the results are shocking.

In 2023, researchers applied RIGID to the International Evidence-based Guidelines for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a long misunderstood and misdiagnosed syndrome that affects more than 1 in 10 women. As a much maligned condition, it was critical the guidelines were based on the best possible evidence.

In that case, RIGID discounted 45 per cent of papers used to inform the health guidelines.

That’s a shockingly high number. Those potentially untrustworthy papers might have completely skewed the guidelines.

Imagine, Mol says, if it emerged that almost half of the maintenance reports of a major airline were faked? No one would be sitting around waiting for a plane to crash. There would be swift action and the leadership of the airline sacked.

[fatehbaz]

hi! SUPER interesting excerpt on ants and empire; adding it to my reading list. have you ever read "mosquito empires," by john mcneill?

Yea, I've read it. (Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620-1914, basically about influence of environment and specifically insect-borne disease on colonial/imperial projects. Kinda brings to mind Centering Animals in Latin American History [Few and Tortorici, 2013] and the exploration of the centrality of ecology/plants to colonialism in Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World [Schiebinger, 2007].)

If you're interested: So, in the article we're discussing, Rohan Deb Roy shows how Victorian/Edwardian British scientists, naturalists, academics, administrators, etc., used language/rhetoric to reinforce colonialism while characterizing insects, especially termites in India and elsewhere in the tropics, as "Goths"; "arch scourge of humanity"; "blight of learning"; "destroying hordes"; and "the foe of civilization". [Rohan Deb Roy. “White ants, empire, and entomo-politics in South Asia.” The Historical Journal. October 2019.] He explores how academic and pop-sci literature in the US and Britain participated in racist dehumanization of non-European people by characterizing them as "uncivilized", as insects/animals. (This sort of stuff is summarized by Neel Ahuja, describing interplay of race, gender, class, imperialism, disease/health, anthropomorphism. See Ahuja's “Postcolonial Critique in a Multispecies World.”)

In a different 2018 article on "decolonizing science," Deb Roy also moves closer to the issue of mosquitoes, disease, hygiene, etc. explored in Mosquito Empires. Deb Roy writes: 'Sir Ronald Ross had just returned from an expedition to Sierra Leone. The British doctor had been leading efforts to tackle the malaria that so often killed English colonists in the country, and in December 1899 he gave a lecture to the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce [...]. [H]e argued that "in the coming century, the success of imperialism will depend largely upon success with the microscope."''

Deb Roy also writes elsewhere about "nonhuman empire" and how Empire/colonialism brutalizes, conscripts, employs, narrates other-than-human creatures. See his book Malarial Subjects: Empire, Medicine and Nonhumans in British India, 1820-1909 (published 2017).

---

Like Rohan Deb Roy, Jonathan Saha is another scholar with a similar focus (relationship of other-than-human creatures with British Empire's projects in Asia). Among his articles: "Accumulations and Cascades: Burmese Elephants and the Ecological Impact of British Imperialism." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 2022. /// “Colonizing elephants: animal agency, undead capital and imperial science in British Burma.” BJHS Themes. British Society for the History of Science. 2017. /// "Among the Beasts of Burma: Animals and the Politics of Colonial Sensibilities, c. 1840-1940." Journal of Social History. 2015. /// And his book Colonizing Animals: Interspecies Empire in Myanmar (published 2021).

---

Related spirit/focus. If you liked the termite/India excerpt, you might enjoy checking out this similar exploration of political/imperial imagery of bugs a bit later in the twentieth century: Fahim Amir. “Cloudy Swords” e-flux Journal Issue #115. February 2021.

Amir explores not only insect imagery, specifically caricatures of termites in discourse about civilization (like the Deb Roy article about termites in India), but Amir also explores the mosquito/disease aspect invoked by your message (Mosquito Empires) by discussing racially segregated city planning and anti-mosquito architecture in British West Africa and Belgian Congo, as well as anti-mosquito campaigns of fascist Italy and the ascendant US empire. German cities began experiencing a non-native termite infestation problem shortly after German forces participated in violent suppression of resistance in colonial Africa. Meanwhile, during anti-mosquito campaigns in the Panama Canal zone, US authorities imposed forced medical testing of women suspected of carrying disease. Article features interesting statements like: 'The history of the struggle against the [...] mosquito reads like the history of capitalism in the twentieth century: after imperial, colonial, and nationalistic periods of combatting mosquitoes, we are now in the NGO phase, characterized by shrinking [...] health care budgets, privatization [...].' I've shared/posted excerpts before, which I introduce with my added summary of some of the insect-related imagery: “Thousands of tiny Bakunins”. Insects "colonize the colonizers". The German Empire fights bugs. Fascist ants, communist termites, and the “collectivism of shit-eating”. Insects speak, scream, and “go on rampage”.

---

In that Deb Roy article, there is a section where we see that some Victorian writers pontificated on how "ants have colonies and they're quite hard workers, just like us!" or "bugs have their own imperium/domain, like us!" So that bugs can be both reviled and also admired. On a similar note, in the popular imagination, about anthropomorphism of Victorian bugs, and the "celebrated" "industriousness" and "cleverness" of spiders, there is: Claire Charlotte McKechnie. “Spiders, Horror, and Animal Others in Late Victorian Empire Fiction.” Journal of Victorian Culture. December 2012. She also addresses how Victorian literature uses natural science and science fiction to process anxiety about imperialism. This British/Victorian excitement at encountering "exotic" creatures of Empire, and popular discourse which engaged in anthropormorphism, is explored by Eileen Crist's Images of Animals: Anthropomorphism and Animal Mind and O'Connor's The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856.

Related anthologies include a look at other-than-humans in literature and popular discourse: Gothic Animals: Uncanny Otherness and the Animal With-Out (Heholt and Edmunson, 2020). There are a few studies/scholars which look specifically at "monstrous plants" in the Victorian imagination. Anxiety about gender and imperialism produced caricatures of woman as exotic anthropomorphic plants, as in: “Murderous plants: Victorian Gothic, Darwin and modern insights into vegetable carnivory" (Chase et al., Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009). Special mention for the work of Anna Boswell, which explores the British anxiety about imperialism reflected in their relationships with and perceptions of "strange" creatures and "alien" ecosystems, especially in Aotearoa. (Check out her “Anamorphic Ecology, or the Return of the Possum.” Transformations. 2018.)

And then bridging the Victorian anthropomorphism of bugs with twentieth-century hygiene campaigns, exploring "domestic sanitation" there is: David Hollingshead. “Women, insects, modernity: American domestic ecologies in the late nineteenth century.” Feminist Modernist Studies. August 2020. (About the cultural/social pressure to protect "the home" from bugs, disease, and "invasion".)

---

In fields like geography, history of science, etc., much has been said/written about how botany was the key imperial science/field, and there is the classic quintessential tale of the British pursuit of cinchona from Latin America, to treat mosquito-borne disease among its colonial administrators in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. In other words: Colonialism, insects, plants in the West Indies shaped and influenced Empire and ecosystems in the East Indies, and vice versa. One overview of this issue from Early Modern era through the Edwardian era, focused on Britain and cinchona: Zaheer Baber. "The Plants of Empire: Botanic Gardens, Colonial Power and Botanical Knowledge." May 2016. Elizabeth DeLoughrey and other scholars of the Caribbean, "the postcolonial," revolutionary Black Atlantic, etc. have written about how plantation slavery in the Caribbean provided a sort of bounded laboratory space. (See Britt Rusert's "Plantation Ecologies: The Experiential Plantation [...].") The argument is that plantations were already of course a sort of botanical laboratory for naturalizing and cultivating valuable commodity plants, but they were also laboratories to observe disease spread and to practice containment/surveillance of slaves and laborers. See also Chakrabarti's Bacteriology in British India: laboratory medicine and the tropics (2012). Sharae Deckard looks at natural history in imperial/colonial imagination and discourse (especially involving the Caribbean, plantations, the sea, and the tropics) looking at "the ecogothic/eco-Gothic", Edenic "nature", monstrous creatures, exoticism, etc. Kinda like Grove's discussion of "tropical Edens" in the colonial imagination of Green Imperialism.

Dante Furioso's article "Sanitary Imperialism" (from e-flux's Sick Architecture series) provides a summary of US entomology and anti-mosquito campaigns in the Caribbean, and how "US imperial concepts about the tropics" and racist pathologization helped influence anti-mosquito campaigns that imposed racial segregation in the midst of hard labor, gendered violence, and surveillance in the Panama Canal zone. A similar look at manipulation of mosquito-borne disease in building empire: Gregg Mitman. “Forgotten Paths of Empire: Ecology, Disease, and Commerce in the Making of Liberia’s Plantation Economy.” Environmental History. 2017. (Basically, some prominent medical schools/departments evolved directly out of US military occupation and industrial plantations of fruit/rubber/sugar corporations; faculty were employed sometimes simultaneously by fruit companies, the military, and academic institutions.) This issue is also addressed by Pratik Chakrabarti in Medicine and Empire, 1600-1960 (2014).

---

Meanwhile, there are some other studies that use non-human creatures (like a mosquito) to frame imperialism. Some other stuff that comes to mind about multispecies relationships to empire:

Lawrence H. Kessler. “Entomology and Empire: Settler Colonial Science and the Campaign for Hawaiian Annexation.” Arcadia (Spring 2017)

No Wood, No Kingdom: Political Ecology in the English Atlantic (Keith Pluymers)

Archie Davies. "The racial division of nature: Making land in Recife". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers Volume 46, Issue 2, pp. 270-283. November 2020.

Yellow Fever, Race, and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans (Urmi Engineer Willoughby, 2017)

Pasteur’s Empire: Bacteriology and Politics in France, Its Colonies, and the World (Aro Velmet, 2022)

Tom Brooking and Eric Pawson. “Silences of Grass: Retrieving the Role of Pasture Plants in the Development of New Zealand and the British Empire.” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. August 2007.

Under Osman's Tree: The Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and Environmental History (Alan Mikhail)

The Herds Shot Round the World: Native Breeds and the British Empire, 1800-1900 (Rebecca J.H. Woods, 2017)

Imperial Bodies in London: Empire, Mobility, and the Making of British Medicine, 1880-1914 (Kristen Hussey, 2021)

Red Coats and Wild Birds: How Military Ornithologists and Migrant Birds Shaped Empire (Kirsten Greer, 2020)

Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa: The Human and Nonhuman Creatures of Nigeria (Saheed Aderinto, 2022)

Imperial Creatures: Humans and Other Animals in Colonial Singapore, 1819-1942 (Timothy P. Barnard, 2019)

Biotic Borders: Transpacific Plant and Insect Migration and the Rise of Anti-Asian Racism in America, 1890-1950 (Jeannie N. Shinozuka)

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: Week 17 (September 22)

TLDR: I have too many unread books, and I’m asking tumblr to help me downsize. Pick one or none - it doesn't have to be something you've read, just the one you think sounds the worst! Comments and reblogs welcome, book descriptions below the cut. See my pinned post for more info.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska's ice. Thus was Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue's widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull

Jason Walker has often wished his life could be a bit less predictable--until a routine day at the zoo ends with Jason suddenly transporting from the hippo tank to a place unlike anything he's ever seen. In the past, the people of Lyrian welcomed visitors from the Beyond, but attitudes have changed since the wizard emperor Maldor rose to power. The brave resistors who opposed the emperor have been bought off or broken, leaving a realm where fear and suspicion prevail.

In his search for a way home, Jason meets Rachel, who was also mysteriously drawn to Lyrian from our world. With the help of a few scattered rebels, Jason and Rachel become entangled in a quest to piece together the word of power that can destroy the emperor, and learn that their best hope to find a way home will be to save this world without heroes.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

A bold translation of Nobel Prize-winner Herman Hesse's most inspirational and beloved work, which was nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read

Hesse's famous and influential novel, Siddartha, is perhaps the most important and compelling moral allegory our troubled century has produced. Integrating Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with psychoanalysis and philosophy, this strangely simple tale, written with a deep and moving empathy for humanity, has touched the lives of millions since its original publication in 1922. Set in India, Siddhartha is the story of a young Brahmin's search for ultimate reality after meeting with the Buddha. His quest takes him from a life of decadence to asceticism, through the illusory joys of sensual love with a beautiful courtesan, and of wealth and fame, to the painful struggles with his son and the ultimate wisdom of renunciation.

[whencyclopedia]

The Empire of Timur the Lame, c. 1404 CE

A map illustrating the empire and campaigns of Timur (from the Chagatai word for iron) at its biggest extent before his death in 1405. Timur the Lame (Timur-i Leng from Persian, Tamerlane as it had evolved in English or Timūr Gurkānī, son-in-law following his marriage into Genghis Khan's family) was a 14th-century (1336 – 1405) Muslim conqueror of a Turco-Mongol descent who, at the peak of his Central Asian Timurid Empire, had defeated the major powers of the day - the Mamluks, Ottomans, the Sultanate of Delhi, and the Golden Horde and invaded, among others, Persia, Mesopotamia, Russia, Georgia, India, Syria, and Turkey. After his death preparing to invade the Ming Dynasty of China, the empire, which was never more than an expression of his personal ambition and dominance, quickly fell into disputes and civil wars and crumbled.

Image by Simeon Netchev

[nikethestatue]

Chapter 1

London, England

1890

Elain Archeron

London’s Victoria Station greeted its new visitor with a cacophony of noise, chaos and excitement. Clutching the instructions and the address that she received from the stern and cold Mrs. Amren, who was the organiser of this wild scheme, Elain Archeron attempted to follow the directions inside the clamour of the train station, though it was proving to be difficult.

She’s never been to London before and now, the place terrified her. She was pushed and shoved without consideration for her gentler sex, those around her were shrieking, yelling, and shouting something all the time. There were people, whole families, whose skin tones were different from her own, whose fashions and outfits were odd and contradictory. There were people of different religions as well–she could tell Jews and Hindus and Muslims. She was educated and well-read, so she was not surprised to see those who came from Africa, and India, or even the Chinese, and scarf-clad women from Poland, or maybe Russia–but seeing them all in the flesh was overwhelming. She never imagined that people of so many various colours, sizes and shapes existed. 

She continued her walk through the station, jerked off her feet by the blaring claxons from the train, clutching her travel satchel close to her chest. It had her only possessions inside–her two dresses, her unmentionables, stockings, another pair of boots, hair ribbons and pins, her spare corset, and toiletries. 

Her walk was interrupted constantly, men offering rides and calling out “Miss! Miss!” to her. But she kept her eyes down and shouldered her way to the massive doors of the station. 

She must be mad.

Mad.

It had to be that!

To be doing this, she couldn’t be normal.

She was here, in London of all places, alone, to meet with some mysterious man.

What if he was Jack the Ripper?

She’s read the papers–Jack the Ripper was rampaging on the streets of Whitechapel and what if Mrs. Amren was his co-conspirator? What if she lured unsuspecting country girls to London, and into the clutches of Jack the Ripper?

Elain’s read and enjoyed the tales of Sherlock Holmes, that wiley intriguing detective, who solved crimes–but if she thought about it more, why was there so much crime in London? People stole and abused and murdered others. It was horrifying.

Where she was from, St. Margaret’s Bay, the biggest crime last year was Ollie Oswald stealing Mr. Clarence’s goat, and Maggie May becoming pregnant out of wedlock. That thought sobered her right up, though still, Maggie’s out-of-wedlock babe was hardly the same thing as a mad serial killer running around the streets of London and slaughtering women of ill repute.

Elain finally existed the station and stood on the street, all her senses assaulted by even more noise, the stench of manure, hordes of jostling people who were all rushing somewhere, paper boys who were announcing the latest headlines – another Ripper murder, apparently – vendors peddling food and all sorts of items, handsome soldiers, and every spoken language imaginable. Elain recognised everything from French and Italian, to some dialects that she was unfamiliar with, Slavic, German and even Scandinavian speech. She had a knack for languages, and having spent time in Dover, with her father’s ships, she’d seen sailors, merchants and visitors from every part of the world. Stupidly, she thought that Dover was a busy city. It had nothing on this monstrosity.

She walked over to where the cabs were parked awaiting passengers.

“Good mornin’ Miss, in need of a ride?” one of the drivers asked.

“Yes, this is the address,” she handed him the paper that Mrs. Amren had given her, which had the address and all the instructions. Mrs. Amren had also given her ten pounds, which was more money than Elain’s seen in a long, long time.

She could buy so much for ten pounds! Dresses and a pair of shoes, meat pies, maybe even a pastry, tea, lodging…Her whole family survived on four-five pounds a month, and here she was, with ten pounds, six shillings and 3 pence in her pocket. Mrs. Amren told her that the tenner had come from the gentleman who took care of her travel accommodations and spending money.

Once she was situated in the carriage, they took off,  the driver navigating the streets and the chaos of other cabs and pedestrians with expert precisions. Elain knew that they were going to Westminster, and she wished to see the cathedral, and the abbey, but she did not, though she was pleased that they’d be staying far away from Whitechapel.

“Dog and Hound, Miss,” the driver announced and then opened the door for her.

It was a public house and also offered lodgings and once Elain exited the cab, she thought that it looked presentable and clean. The facade of the building was well-kept, brick, with garlands of wisteria wrapping around the lower part of the building and the very large bay window. Once she paid for the ride, she walked inside–she’s been to public houses and taverns before–but this one looked very well kept, with a beautiful walnut bar, all sorts of hunting pictures and engravings on the walls, and burgundy and green seats. There were not many patrons milling around, but it was also only 10:30 am. 

Elain approached the proprietor, just like Mrs. Amren told her to do and said, “Good morning. I am here to see Mr. Arthur Johnson.”

The man straightened at the mention of the name, and then quickly and accommodatingly told her, “Follow me, Miss.”

“Where are we going?” Elain whispered, baulking at the invitation.

“Mr. Johnson is waiting for you Miss. My understanding is that he wished to have a conversation with you in private.”

Elain’s never been with a man in private, let alone in an unfamiliar city, but what choice did she have? She already felt like she signed her life away, when she was meeting with Mrs. Amren. The woman had a heap of papers and documents for Elain to sign, mostly about confidentiality and non-disclosure of any information that she was to learn. There were financial papers as well, but Mrs. Amren told her that they would be finalised should the contract be signed. 

They stopped at one of the doors and the proprietor knocked. A man’s voice answered promptly.

“Enter.”

“You may proceed, Miss,” he told Elain and then stepped aside.

This is where I die, was her only thought. 

It was definitely Jack the Ripper. There have been whispers that he came from the upper classes, maybe even nobility, and she was going to meet him right now and he was going to skin her alive. And then her body would be baked into meat pies, just like Sweeney Todd did it. They said that the mad barber did not exist, but Elain begged to differ. Stories like that didn’t just happen to be written due to someone’s fevered imagination. He must have existed.

So she would be abused, killed and then will end up in a pie.

-

He sat in a wingback chair.

That’s all she saw when she finally dared to enter the room. The man. The gentleman.

A very tall man by the looks of it, considering how far his long legs stretched. He was dressed in all black, elegantly, in a way Elain wasn’t used to seeing men dressed on a Thursday morning. His jacket was stylishly tailored and his boots were perfectly polished. However, it was the man’s face that gave Elain pause. He was handsome to an unusual degree, the panes of his face sharp and sensual at once. Large, slightly slanted eyes of a peculiar colour regarded her with detachment and mild scrutiny. When he licked his full lower lip, Elain couldn't help but notice the movement and she balled her hands at her sides, suddenly feeling tense and hot. He had the look of a foreigner about him–dark bronze skin, thick black hair cut unusually long on top, and those strange light hazel eyes.

“Elain Archeron, I presume,” he asked at last, and his voice was deep, low and just as sensual as the rest of him. Like a whisper of black silk in the wind. The accent was unfailingly upper crust. 

“I am, my lord,” she confirmed and curtsied.

“Please sit,” he gestured to the sofa across from his chair.

She did as she was told and noticed that he held a photograph of her in his fingers. His hands were large, with long, strong fingers, but surprisingly, the hands were covered in thick scars–burn scars from what Elain could gauge. Mrs. Amren said that the photograph was a requirement and Elain was forced to travel to Dover to have her photograph taken. It was expensive, and she needed to sit in the same position, unmoving and silent, for almost seven minutes. In the end, she didn’t even think that the photograph looked like her. But following her handing the photograph off to Mrs. Amren, she received an invitation to travel to London–-she supposed that it did the trick.

“How was your journey?” he asked politely.

“Very nice, thank you, my lord.”

“I wished to have our conversation first, if you don’t mind, and then you may rest.”

“Of course,” she agreed. Her fingers were shaking and she attempted to hide them in the folds of her skirt, though she was sure that he noticed it.

His tone was light when he assured her, “there is no need to be nervous. I believe we ought to have a talk first and you aren’t obligated to anything, and neither am I.”

She nodded and allowed him to talk, because it was just easier. Her throat was tight and her mouth dry. Her dress felt itchy against her skin and the collar borderline was suffocating. 

He stood up and she had to crane her neck to take in his full height–he was probably six and a half feet tall, and when he moved to pour water into a glass, she definitely noticed how thickly muscled his arms and shoulders were, and how slender he was otherwise, trim and lean and strong. He handed her the glass and then leaned against the desk, crossing his legs at the ankles and drumming his fingers on the surface.

“I am Azriel, Lord Night, the Duke of Velaris,” he announced simply. 

Elain’s hand stopped mid-way to her lips, as she stared at him wordlessly.

She’d assumed that he would be a nobleman, perhaps a baron, maybe a count, but a duke? The Velaris family was well-known: it was said that they came to Britain all the way back with William the Conqueror. It couldn’t possibly be the same Velaris? Could it?

“I am sorry, my lord,” Elain said softly. “You are the Duke of Velaris?”

He nodded, “the very same”.

“But…” she bit her lip, “I was under the impression that you were married, my lord? To Lady Morrigan?”

The lovely Lady Morrigan, Countess of Hewn, was renowned for her beauty. Elain had seen her in newspapers and other publications. The Velaris-Hewn nuptials was the society wedding of the year just a couple of years back. 

“I am,” he confirmed calmly. “And since you are bound by our confidentiality agreement, I will disclose that my lady wife had suffered a grave incident last year. She was thrown by her horse, and had broken her spine. Unfortunately, she suffered a brain bleed from her injuries as well. She is my wife and will remain so until she or I die. But alas, she is bed-bound and without sense or consciousness. Now, you must understand that her condition is not known to anyone, other than my most trusted servants and her nurses. It must remain so until I produce an heir. The child must be mine, and upon the birth, we shall announce that Lady Morrigan suffered compilation in labour.”

Elain sighed and murmured, “I am sorry, my lord. For you and your lady wife. It is truly tragic and I am…just sorry.”

He cocked his head and regarded her quietly for a while.

She’d only known him for about fifteen minutes, but she could already see how observant he was, methodical even. There was a calmness about him, an almost predatory stillness, and she sensed that he dwelled in some dark places inside his head. Perhaps it was the sorrow  resulting from his wife’s condition, or maybe something in his past, but this was a man of secrets and unanswered questions.

“May I ask some questions of you?” he inquired at last.

Elain sipped her water and nodded once.

He didn't use any props, not notes or correspondence, when he said,

“Elain Archeron, twenty-one years old, the middle of three sisters. Tell me, why are you, of all people, responded to my advertisement?”

“We need the money, my lord,” she admitted plainly. 

“There are other ways to get money,” he noted, his dark brow raised. “You are a maid of gentle breeding based on your family’s history–a merchant father, a mother who was from a well-to-do family. Surely you can think of other ways to…” he stopped and scrubbed his scarred hand over his chin, before continuing, “tell me, why?”

“My father has lost his fortune,” Elain explained, her voice quiet. “My younger sister has a disease of the stomach that makes her vomit and she is frail and weak. She needs medicines, which we cannot afford. My older sister is a proud woman and…” her voice trailed. How could she explain Nesta? She couldn’t. Nesta was smart, even cunning, but she was better suited for running an estate or even a business. Haughty, proud and demanding is what Nesta was. But she was not one for sacrifices. “And that leaves me. I…well, I answered the advertisement in The Times, and was contacted by Mrs. Amren. We met and discussed the offer…and,” she swallowed, “I am interested.”

“What do you understand of the offer and the proposal?” he asked seriously.

She tugged on her skirt and peered down, looking at the floor. 

Quietly, she answered,

“A gentleman requires the services of a female to produce a child, an heir. The gentleman is willing to pay ten thousand pounds for the child and…well, would pay all throughout the pregnancy…That is all.”

He sighed and turned, his movements measured and languid, as he walked to the window and clasped his hands behind his back, as he looked out on the busy Vincent Street.

“I fear, Miss Archeron, that you are underestimating the commitment that this ordeal would require of you,” he said, almost to himself.

Elain’s heart dropped.

He wasn’t interested.

He did ot find her comely or appealing or satisfactory. Perhaps he liked her photograph, but seeing her in person made him change his mind.

Ten thousand pounds was an astronomical amount of money.

It was enormous. At the height of their success, the Archeron family wealth was estimated at about fifteen thousand pounds, which made Elain and her sisters very appealing on the marriage market. To have a large portion of that fortune come back to them would guarantee a bright future for all–they could all marry well, they could cure Feyre’s illness, they could operate on their father’s mangled leg and send him to Italy or France to recuperate. They could have fine homes and wardrobes and servants. 

Currently, they existed on about four pounds a month, for the four of them. If they were lucky. 

“I don’t think that I am, my lord,” Elain found it in herself to answer boldly and firmly. “I understand what is required.”

“You understand that you must lie with me,” he was still not looking at her, and therefore couldn’t see her flaming cheeks, “and have relations with me as if I were your husband. You would be required to do so at my beckoning and pleasure, for at least six months,”

“What happens after six months?” she interrupted him, confused.

He turned his head and explained,

“I am willing to allot six months for the conception to take place. Children are usually not made in a day…it may take time, and I realise that. I feel that six months is an adequate amount of time for you to conceive. If you don’t, then we will part ways, since clearly we would not be compatible enough to create a child together.”

She chewed the inside of her cheek and then asked,

“And if I don't…conceive that is? What happens then?”

He shrugged,

“You will be paid five hundred pounds for your troubles and you will leave. Naturally, you will be bound by the non-disclosure agreement for the rest of your life. That extends to me as well, Miss Archeron. If we proceed with this…arrangement…whatever the outcome is, your name will not be mentioned or besmirched, so that you have a chance at a successful marriage with a man of your choosing.”

“I appreciate that, my lord,” she said sincerely.

He went back to the desk and gathered a stack of papers in his hands, though he did not give them to her yet. He was clearly still deciding on something, his brow furrowed. At last, he said,

“These are the financial terms of the arrangement, Miss Archeron. If we proceed, you will sign and retain a copy for yourself.

“Again, I urge you to consider everything with utmost seriousness,” he pressed. “This is not a trivial matter. Your involvement with me may last up to a year and a half. It is quite a long time for a woman of your age to dedicate to a…male. One who will not marry you in the end, and whom you shan’t see again.

“Furthermore, if there is a child, it will be wholly mine.”

A shudder ran through Elain and she suddenly became cold. When he put it like that, it did give her pause. Because in exchange for the money, she would be required to give up her baby. Theoretically she understood that–when she began corresponding with Mrs. Amren, and when they finally met, this was thoroughly discussed. But seeing this man in the flesh, even briefly imagining that there would be…coital relations involved, though Elain wasn’t quite sure precisely what it all entailed, and then there would potentially be a pregnancy, which was something that was often fraught with dangers, only to end in a painful labour, and then…the separation. Permanent separation from a baby that she’d give birth to. From the man too. Yes, he was strikingly handsome–to her great relief–but she knew that she was in danger of developing feelings for him, which he surely would never reciprocate. He had his poor wife and was devoted to her, and was only after an heir to carry his name and his legacy. Elain would be left without love, without companionship, without her babe, but with money. She supposed that she could have more children, but the idea of giving up her son or daughter seemed terrifying. Her firstborn. 

Azriel looked up at her and watched the warring emotions that danced on her face. 

“Would you like me to read out the terms?” he asked at last, his expression slightly softened, even kinder.

She swallowed and nodded.

He glanced at the first page and began reading.

“The female in the arrangement is expected to be an unmarried and unbetrothed maid, of good moral standing and a virgin. She is to be free of diseases and for the duration of the arrangement she may not be seen with a male or engage in any manner of relations with a male other than the Requestor.

She would enter into the arrangement willingly and would be required to have sexual intercourse with the Requestor at his bidding. The Requestor shall not physically hurt, slap, hit, abuse or force the female, and will not verbally insult or berate her. If the female is unwilling or unable to have sexual relations with the Requestor, she is to notify him immediately and provide an explanation as to the cause. Relations are not required from the female when she has her monthly flow. 

The female is expected to live on premises of the Requestor’s abode and accompany him upon his travels. She shall have her private room(s) at the dwellings. She is not expected to sleep with the Requestor or share his private quarters. The female is required to maintain her decorum at all times, and may not fraternise with the help. The female is not to divulge any part of the agreement to anyone, including her family. The female will not occupy a place at the servants’ quarters and will not partake in meals with them. The female will have a maid of her own to assist her with personal matters. 

Upon conception, the female is to remain at the Requestor’s home, under the care of his physicians. She is to maintain a healthy lifestyle, to ensure a successful pregnancy. She will be assisted during her labour by a midwife, a doula, nurses and physicians. Upon delivery of the child, the female will be allowed to bond and nurse the infant for up to one week (if she wishes  to do so). After one week of recovery, the child will be removed from the female’s care and presence. At that time, the arrangement would be considered fulfilled and would be terminated.

The Requestor guarantees the following payments:

£1000 for taking the female’s virginity

£50 weekly stipend, for up to six months of service

£50 weekly stipend for the duration of the pregnancy

£1000 for labour and delivery

£10,000 for the birth of a live child

All legal fees, room and board, wardrobe allowance, personal and beauty treatments, transportation, et cetera would be provided by the Requestor. 

The female may be allowed to spend Christmas with her family (up to one week), as well as one week of her choosing as a personal holiday.”

He did not ask whether she was agreeable to the contract, but simply handed it to her and said,

“Read this over and be thorough. Any questions, you should ask me.”

Elain didn't answer for a while, but he didn’t seem impatient, and wasn’t put off by the awkward silence between them. Instead, he went over to a sideboard upon which stood a decanter and some glasses and poured himself a drink of whatever it was.

She finally broke the silence and said,

“This is much more than ten thousand.”

It seemed that she took him by surprise with her comment and he looked at her with expectation.

“The contract was for ten…this is closer to twenty,” she pushed. 

“Is that a problem?” he queried.

“I just…” she blushed, “I don’t want to be unfair. I was fine with ten. Why a thousand for the virginity?”

He sat back in the wing chair and sipped his drink, before saying,

“Seems only fair. I would be taking something that doesn’t belong to me and isn’t intended for me to take. You ought to be compensated for that.”

Theoretically, what he was saying made sense to her, but it seemed so…transactional. And, of course, it was a transaction. There were no feelings involved. 

Craning his head side to side, he added after a pause,

“The pleasure is free, if that makes you feel better. I won’t be charging for it, and I won’t be paying for it either. You can enjoy it free and clear.”

If that meant to be a lighthearted comment of some sort, it didn’t land, because Elain looked at him, perplexed and said. “What pleasure?”

He chuckled softly, “Sexual pleasure, Miss Archeron.”

“There is no pleasure in relations such as those,” she argued primly.

He leaned back in his chair, relaxing into the leather and smiled at her, though the curve of his beautiful mouth was both challenging and sinister.

“And you are an expert then?” 

Her heart was beating wildly in her chest, and she couldn’t even believe that she was discussing this with a man she didn’t know.

“I am no expert, my lord,” she told him, “but what pleasure could there be? It is an act designed to propagate the species.”

He propped his head on his fist, crossing his long, muscular legs and swaying his boot-clad foot casually. A lock of his silky black hair fell on his forehead and Elain had the insane urge to go and fix it for him. His handsomeness didn’t help. Elain had feared that the man would be old and paunchy, sweaty and balding. Why else would one need to contract for a woman to give him a child? She figured maybe he was missing limbs, or had distorted features, or perhaps some unappealing trait…but she definitely, definitely did not expect Lord Night. She had some parameters that she had set for herself in regards to the arrangement–if the gentleman seemed brutish, if his looks made her squeamish, if he had a visible disease or if his visage repelled her, she would not have gone along with the scheme. As much as she needed the money, she also knew that she wouldn’t have a child with someone cruel or unappealing. She wanted her baby to live in a loving environment and with a parent who’d want them and care for them. 

The problem was that Lord Night’s appearance quickly overrode her good sense. It wasn’t something that she ever considered–that he would be so handsome and so titled that she’d forget all her common sense and all the expectations that she had prior to meeting him.

Stumbling a bit over her own tongue, she asked at last,

“What sort of pleasure is there?”

“Ahhmm Miss Archeron,” he smiled at her, “why do you think people have lost their minds and morals through the centuries over love?”

It was an excellent question, to which Elain did not have an answer. Why indeed?

“Well, perhaps, you will have the chance to find out,” he got up and straightened his jacket.

“I do not want love, my lord,” Elain insisted brusquely. 

He nodded slowly,

“Yes, yes. I know. You need the money.”

“I do.”

“Then don’t fall in love, Miss Archeron,” he suggested.

But why did it sound like a challenge.

“Take the rest of the day to think about everything,” he told her. “These rooms are yours for the night. You may order food and drink. St. John’s Gardens are not far–should you wish to take a stroll. 

“I will call upon you tomorrow, at 10 am, and I expect an answer.”

* UK £10,000.00 in 1890 would be equivalent to £1,644,035.82 in 2023, an absolute change of £1,634,035.82 and a cumulative change of 16,340.36%.

[darkmaga-retard]

Ben Bartee

Aug 30, 2024

“Once they give the Pakis passports and badges, it’s all over for the Old Country, boy-o” my Irish-Catholic Midwestern grandmammy once lamented to me over her morning ritual prune juice-Jameson cocktail.

It kept her regular.

This turned out to be another of her Nostradamus moments, as the diversity fire raging in Ireland is not likely to be quenched by hordes of new deputized “migrants” that the government is for some recruiting directly from places like Pakistan.

This story is absolutely insane, such that initially I could not believe it was true. Alas, it is.

Not only does Ireland recruit police from foreign countries that are EU member states; they also recruit so-called “refugees” from anywhere in the world.

Via Garda.ie (emphasis added):

Here is a representative of the Irish Garda appealing to Pakistanis in Pakistan, on Pakistani television, to come and police Irish citizens on their home soil.

They’ve currently got cops from Places like India, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.

[ruibaozha]

I thank you for answering my previous question! (I'm so glad there are people on social media who work together to share knowledge like this!)

One of things I guess I did get confused with in my research is Nezha's origin story. It does help that you clarified about the many versions being different but they all are a part of telling the story. I overheard a rumor that there was an official book that told the "original" version of his story, but that is what my research is mainly trying to solve. I see a few titles saying they talk about Nezha's backstory, but none that claimed to be original. So I suppose I could be wrong in what I heard. Again, I thank you fir answering my questions! It's been fun learning new things about these topics!

Hello Hello!

I see, I understand what you’re trying to get here. To the best of my knowledge the earliest version of Nezha’s origin myth comes from The Grand Compendium of the Three Religion’s Deities. There is an edition from the Ming Dynasty (1368AD-1644AD) and an edition from the Qing Dynasty (1636AD–1911AD), but both editions cover roughly the same information and the distinction isn’t necessary here.

When he was five days old, Nezha went bathing in the Eastern Ocean. He trampled over the [dragon king's] Crystal Palace. He somersaulted straight to the top of the Precious Pagoda. Because he had trampled over his palace, the infuriated dragon king challenged him to fight. By then, Nezha was already seven days old, and he could overcome the nine dragons. The old dragon had no choice, except complaining to the [Jade] Emperor. The General [Nezha] knew of his intention. Intercepting him by Heaven's Gate, he killed the dragon. Mounting the Jade Emperor's altar, Nezha took the Buddha's bow and arrows. He shot an arrow, unintentionally killing Lady Rock's son. Lady Rock raised an army to fight him. The General [Nezha] took the Demon-Felling Club from his father's altar and, fighting his way Westwards, slew her. Considering that Lady Rock had been the demons' chief, Nezha's father was infuriated. He worried lest his son's killing her would provoke the demon hordes to war. Therefore, the General [Nezha] sliced off his flesh and bones, returning them to his father. Holding fast to his inner soul (zhen ling), he hastened to the Buddha's side, pleading that the World-Honored One make him complete once more. Considering that Nezha could subdue demons, the Buddha snapped a lotus flower. He fashioned it's stem into bones, it's roots into flesh, it's fiber into tendons, and it's leaves into clothes, giving life to Nezha once more.

I do hope this was helpful in your search. It’s entirely possible this story was imported from India during the Tang Dynasty (618AD-907AD) or Song Dynasty (960AD-1279AD) or even as early as the Wei Dynasty (386AD-535AD)

A majority of literature about Nezha was written during the Tang Dynasty (618AD-907AD) which was followed by one (of many) instances where China was no longer unified in a warring states period. It would be (705AD-960AD) where China was not unified and no further literature about Nezha was either written or survived.

Nezha had of course existed before the 7th century, but in terms of a timeframe Nezha and any written record of him was brought to China some centuries before Tang Sanzang went to India. Figure he formally entered China around 266AD-420AD while Sanzang left for India around 629AD.

It is wholly possible a story like this existed while Nezha was still Nalakubara, third son of the Heavenly King Vaisravana. I’ve yet to locate anything like that yet but this post will be amended to reflect if new information has been found.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Digimon & mythology: the Warrior 10 and spirits

In the genesis of the Digital World there was the Warrior 10, a group of mighty Digimon who each represented one of ten elemental attributes. When Lucemon rebelled against God, the Warrior 10 fought him. In the end, they managed to seal away Lucemon at the cost of their own lives. While the Warrior 10 are long since dead, they passed their data and abilities down to the many Digimon types. In addition, each member left behind two spirits who can be taken up by others to become special Digimon.

Designed for the anime Digimon Frontier, the Warrior 10 and their spirit descendants go outside of the normal evolution methods. For each element there is two spirits: human and beast. The holder of the spirits can switch between human and beast forms. In addition, the holder can merge the two into a fusion form. All spirit Digimon are given the special level of hybrid, but in general human spirits are equivalent to the Adult/Champion-level, beast spirits to Perfect/Ultimate-level, and fusion spirits to Ultimate/Mega-level. In other media outside of Frontier, the spirits have been treated as normal Digimon. In addition, the spirits of fire and light can fuse with other spirits to take on a transcendent form. In the anime, only the holders of the fire and light spirits got to reach their fusion forms but the other heroic spirits (darkness, ice, thunder, and wind) from Frontier have been given their fusion forms in other media. The villainous spirits (water, earth, wood, and metal) have only been given their human and beast forms, which is a big missed opportunity. To fit with being the descendants of legendary heroes, the spirit Digimon have a lot of mythological themes in their names. A lot of these were changed in the English translation to avoid religious references. The concept of different elements that make up the world can be found in many cultures, including the classical elements originating in Greece (earth, air, fire, and water), the Chinese Wuxing (fire, water, wood, metal, and earth), and Hindu Pancha Bhuta (earth, air, fire, water, and akasha, which can be translated as sky, space, or ether).

The Warrior 10 member representing fire is AncientGreymon and it passed its abilities down to dragon Digimon. No real mythological references with it so we move onto the human spirit of fire: Agnimon. Agnimon is a flaming martial artist that hones its mind and controls its temper with yoga. Its name comes from Agni, the Hindu god of fire. In the Vedas, Agni brought light into the universe and frequently acted as the intermediary between humans and the gods, making him one of the most important deities. While later texts downplayed his importance somewhat, he is still a major deity and is invoked in many ceremonies and traditions. He also carried over into Buddhism and Jainism. Agnimon doing yoga is another reference to India. The beast spirit is Vritramon (eng: BurningGreymon), a ferocious dragon born from data produced by scientists researching volcanoes. Vritramon's name comes from Vritra, an asura (demon or evil demigod) who personified drought and was the archenemy of Indra, the king of the Hindu gods and god of the sky and weather. In the Hindu text Rig Veda, Vritra blocked all the rivers in the world to horde all the water and force the people to suffer. Indra then fought Vritra and eventually slew him, releasing the water and ending the drought. In one version of the story, Agni was originally on Vritra's side before being convinced to side with Indra, which may be why their Digimon versions are linked. While most early depictions of Vritra had him as a humanoid, some later adaptations made him into a dragon. The fusion of the spirits of fire is Aldamon, who combines the intelligence of Agnimon and bestial power of Vritramon. Its name comes from Ardhanarishvara (Japanese doesn't have the "L" sound and uses the "R" sound instead, which is how "ardha" becomes "alda"), which is a fusion of the Hindu god Shive and his consort Parvati. Usually depicted as male on the right and female on the side and represents a fusion of the masculine and feminine powers of creation and how the feminine and masculine principles of the divine are inseparable. While Ardhanarishvara is a fusion of male and female, Aldamon represnets the fusion of human intellect and bestial power. Aldamon's attacks are maned Brahmastra and Brahmashira, legendary weapons from Hindu mythology. The transcendent form of the spirit of fire is KaiserGreymon (eng: EmperorGreymon) and it doesn't have any real mythological references other than harnessing ley lines, a concept found in new age pseudoscience.

(left to right: AncientGreymon, Agnimon, Vritramon, Aldamon, KaiserGreymon). I have to compile images to stay under the limit

The Warrior 10 member representing light is AncientGarurumon, which passed its abilities down to beast Digimon. Once again, no mythological references so we'll move onto the human spirit. Wolfmon (eng: Lobomon) is a warrior empowered by a righteous spirit that contains a holy light. It doesn't have any real mythological references but its attack names are in German and the rest of the spirits do have a germanic and norse theme. Missed oppurtuinity to reference the faoladh, benevolent Irish werewoves, tbh. The beast spirit of light is Garmmon (english: KendoGarurumon), an extremely fast beast that hunts evil. It will never obey an evil creature, but will devote itself to a master with all its heart. Garmmon's name comes from Garmr or Garm, a wolf found in Norse mythology. It is described as a guardian of the gates of the bad afterlife Hel, giving it a similar role to the Greek Cerberus. Garmr is trapped by a chain in a cave called Gnipahellir and in the Porse Edda, will escape during Ragnarok where he and the god Tyr will fight and kill each other. Garmr is very similar to the more famous Fenrir and the two may be different cultural variations of the same legend. The fusion of the light spirits is Beowolfmon, a fighter who cooly measures up its enemy with human-like intelligence and tries to remain level-headed in combat. Its name comes from Beowulf, the hero of the germanic epic of the same name. In the epic, Beowulf slays the monster Grendel and then its mother and became king before dying in the process of slaying a dragon. The transcendent form of the light spirits is MagnaGarurumon, which again doesn't have any mythological references.

(left to right: AncientGarurumon, Wolfmon, Garmmon, Beowolfmon, and MagnaGarurumon)

Where there is light, there is darkness and the Warrior 10 member representing darkness is AncientSphinxmon, which passed its abilities down to mythical beast and demon beast Digimon. It is based on the great sphinx of Egypt. The Egyptian version of the sphinx was seen as a protector and was often associated with Ra, god of the sun. A bit ironic for the Digimon of darkness to be associated with a sun god. The spirits of darkness are unique in that there are two versions of each one, a corrupted and purified version. Also, I like that Digimon made the warrior of light a dog and the warrior of darkness a cat. The corrupted human spirit of darkness is Duskmon. It was born from the regrets of extinct Digimon species and exists to oppose holy Digimon. Duskmon doesn't have any real mythological references, but the corrupted beast spirit, Velgrmon, does. Velgrmon is a being of hatred as the proud Duskmon hates transforming into its ugly beast form. Velgrmon's name comes from Hræsvelgr, a gigantic eagle from Norse mythology that creates wind when it flaps its wings. The purified human spirit of darkness is Löwemon. It operates from within the darkness, but is not evil and instead hunts evil from the shadows. Löwemon wears a ring called Neeblinge, which comes from Der Rings des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), an epic music drama by Richard Wagner. In the story, various gods, monsters, and humans battle to obtain the title ring, that will grant dominion over all. The story is named after and partially based on the germanic epic poem Nibelungenlied. The purified beast spirit of darkness is KaiserLeomon (eng: JagerLöwemon, whos unique armor lets it be incredibly fast and sharp enough to cut apart whatever it runs through. No mythological references here, it just furthers the visual connection to sphinxes. Similarly, there is no real mythological connection in the fusion form Raihimon (eng: Rihihimon). Its a humanoid sphinx that is so skilled at stealth that few realize it even exists. The name "Raihi" is a corruption of the German "Reich", meaning "empire".

(left to right: AncientSphinxmon, Duskmon, Velgrmon, Löwemon, KaiserLeomon, Raihimon)

The Warrior of ice is AncientMegatheriummon, which passed its abilities down to mammal and icy snow Digimon. While it is not based on a myth, the megatherium is an extinct giant ground sloth. The human spirit of ice is Chackmon (eng: Kumamon). Its a cute tedy bear made of snow that carries military gear and claims to be part of an arctic defense force. No myths here so we go to the beast spirit of ice: Blizzarmon. Blizzarmon (eng: Korikakumon) is a ruffian with a love of battle that offers prayers to an ice god. There's no obvious mythological references other that it maybe being based on a yeti. The yeti is a mythical being said to live on the Himalayan mountains. It is supposed to be hairy and is associated with ice and snow at least. Weirdly enough, Blizzarmon's axes are named in the Igbo language of Nigeria, which is not a place known for snow. The fusion of ice is Daipenmon which not only has no connection to myths, it has no real connection to its prior forms. Not sure how two snowy mammals merge to become a mechanical ice shaver penguin dual-wielding popsicles.

(left to right,: AnceintMegatheriummon, Chackmon, Blizzarmon, Daipenmon)

The Warrior of thunder is AncientBeatmon (eng: AncientBeetlemon), which passed its powers down to insect Digimon. Digimon associates insects with electricity a lot. The human spirit of thunder is Blitzmon (eng: Beetlemon), a mechanical yet highly emotional electric wrestler with a heart of gold. Blitzmon is not based on mythology, but it is one of many references Digimon makes to the Japanese franchise Kamen Rider, which features a lot of martial artists wearing bug-themed costumes. The beast spirit of thunder, Bolgmon (eng: MetalKabuterimon) sacrifices mobility for incredible firepower as it turns itself into a tank. Its name comes from Firbolg, a mythical tribe of people who inhabited Ireland in the story collection Lebor Gabála Érenn. I found a few sources associating the name Firbolg with a thunder god, though as far as I can tell this appears to be a misconception. Bolgmon's profile also references scarabs, which were used in ancient Egypt that were used as seals and symbols of the sun due to an association with the god Kephri. The fusion spirit is RhinoKabuterimon. It's just an electric rhinoceros beetle. Nothing mythical about that. You may have noticed that the fire and light spirits have tons of references and the other spirits have a lot less. That comes down to the writing of Frontier where if you weren't the human holders of the fire and light spirits, the writers did not care about you and occasionally seemed to resent having you in the show to the point they turn you into a power-up for the heroes. The lack of interest in the other spirits and their holders is my biggest gripe with Frontier.

(left to right: AncientBeatmon, Blitzmon, Bolgmon, RhinoKabuterimon)

TheWarrior of wind is AncientIrismon (eng: AncientKazemon), who passed down its abilities to bird man and fairy Digimon. Iris is a minor Greek goddess who personified the rainbow and usually acted as a servant for other gods. The human spirit of wind is Fairimon (eng: Kazemon), a good-hearted gossip with the power to manipulate the atmosphere. Fairimon is based on modern interpretations of fairies. Fairies are found throughout European folklore, but are most famously associated with Ireland. The myths about them are highly diverse and they can range from benevolent to malevolent to having a completely alien sense of morality. More modern depictions of fairies often simplify them to small humans with insect wings and make them cute and friendly. This is the version that Fairimon is based on. Fairimon is also based on kamaitaichi, a form of yokai from Japanese folklore. They are associated with wind and dust devils and often look like weasels. The story about them says that they (often working in groups of three) will use sickles to cut people and then heal them so fast that the person will feel the pain of being cut but see no wound. One hypothesis to explain the origin of the stories was that minute vacuums in the air would make people feel pain with no wound. Fairimon is stated to be able to use is power over air to cause these vacuums. The beast spirit Shutumon (eng: Zephyrmon) is a mischevious trickster with the power to cast Mesopotamian spells. It is based on Shutu, a minor Mesopotamian god or goddess of wind. Design-wise, it also takes after two other Mesopotamian creatures. Lamashtu is a she-demon that appears as a fusion of human and various animals (fitting for a beast spirit) while Lilith was a demon (or class of demon) associated with women and birds. The fusion spirit is JetSilphymon, who can fly so fast it can't be seen and unleash hurricanes from its giant pinwheel. In the writings of the Swiss philosopher Paracelsus, Sylphs are elemental spirits of air.

(left to right: AncientIrismon, Fairimon, Shutumon, JetSilphymon

The Warrior of earth was AncientVolcamon (eng: AncientVolcanomon), which passed its powers down to ore and mineral Digimon. The human spirit of earth is Grottemon (eng: Grumblemon), a temperamental artisan who can summon hammers from the ground. Grottemon is based on European folklore of gnomes and dwarves, diminutive people who lived underground and were typically great craftsmen. The gnome was also used by Paracelsus as an earth elemental and Grottemon's design is based on garden gnomes and their pointy hats. The beast spirit of earth is Gigasmon, a gigantic and violent beast with earthen skin baked into armor. Gigasmon is visually based on some sort of troll or ogre, but thats the closest it gets to a myth.

(left to right: AncientVolcamon, Grottemon, Gigasmon)

The Warrior of wood is AncientTroiamon, who passed down its abilities to plant Digimon. It is based on the Trojan horse from the Odyssey and Aeneid. The story goes that during the Trojan war, the Greek forces could not breach the walls of Troy. Odysseus had the Greeks feign retreat and leave behind a giant wooden horse as an offering to the goddess Athena. The Trojans brought the horse into the city as a trophy and that night, a force of men hidden in the horse came out and opened the city's gates, allowing the Greek army to invade the city. The human spirit of wood is Arbormon, a seemingly emotionless puppet that is actually keenly aware of its surroundings. Arbormon is based on a karakuri doll, mechanized Japanese puppets that were able to move on their own. The beast spirit of wood is Petaldramon, a giant and hungry plant dragon.

(left to right: AncientTroiamon, Arbormon, Petaldramon)

The Warrior of water is AncientMermaimon, who passed its abilities down to aquatic Digimon. AncientMermaimon is based on mermaids. Human-fish hybrids has appeared in virtually every culture that lived around water, though AncientMermaimon is based on the common European image of a mermaids. It holding a trident and having power over water is similar to the Greek sea god Poseidon. The human spirit of water is Ranamon, whose mood is as changeable and temperamental as the sea. Ranamon is also based on fish/human hybrids, though is more humanlike than most mermaids. Its name comes from the Spanish ford for frog, "rana", which is why it's dumb that more recent English translations like the card game keep trying to change it to Lanamon. The Japanese L/R confusion strikes again. The beast spirit of water is Calamaramon, a witch who excels at offense and defense. It is based on more monstrous versions of the human/fish hybrid.

(left to right: AncientMermaimon, Ranamon, Calamaramon)

The Warrior of steel is AncientWisemon, who passed its abilities down to mutant Digimon. It is all-knowing due to having access to the Akhasic Records, a spiritual compendium of all knowledge found in Theosphy and new-age spiritualism. The human spirit of steel is Mercuremon (eng: Mercurymon), a genius tactician and philosopher. The beast spirit of steel is Sephirothmon (eng: Sakkakumon), a bizarre being that possess the power of all 10 elements. Sephirothmon is based on the Sefirot tree of Kabbalah, a school of Jewish mysticism that attempted to explore the relationship between the eternal, unchanging god Ein Sof and the finite mortal world. Kabbalah is an extremely complex subject that I can't do justice with the short amount of research I'm doing for this post. The Sefirot tree, which Sephirothmon takes the shape of, is a concept in Kabbalah intended to illustrate the 10 methods or emanations of God's work in the material world. Each emanation also may represent a metaphysical world that people can pass through as they try to understand God. While the 10 spheres of the Sefirot tree each represent one of the emanations and their relationship to each other, the 10 spheres of Sephirothmon's body each represent one of the 10 elements that make up the Digital World and presumable how they and their associated Warrior 10 member relate to each other. The Sefirot tree is also supposed to help one gain wisdom and they further understand God and AncientWisemon and the steel spirits are associated with knowledge and wisdom.

When the power of all of the spirits come together, they become Susanoomon, a god who presides over destruction and regeneration. When the Digital World descends into chaos, Susanoomon will appear and destroy it so that a new one can take its place. Susanoomon carries a weapon called ZERO-ARMS: Orochi. Susanoo is the Shinto god of storms and wind that has been portrayed as both a hero that slays monsters and a wild and dangerous god of storms. This with with Susanoomon representing both destruction and regeneration. The most famous story involving Susanoo says that he was banished from the heavens after his bad behavior terrfied his sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu. Now on Earth, Susanoo encountered an old couple who told him of a mighty, eight-headed snake named Yamato-no-Orochi who had devoured seven of their daughters and would be coming back for the eighth and final one soon. Susanoo agreed to help them and transformed the final daughter into a comb to keep her hidden. He then brewed strong sake (an alcoholic beverage) and offered it to Orochi. After the snake got drunk and passed out, Susanoo killed it. In Orochi's tail, Susanoo found a sword that he gave to Amaterasu as a gift, leading to the two reconciling. ZERO-ARMS: Orochi is based on the sword found in Orochi's tail. There is an Orochimon, but it debuted before Susanoomon and the two are not connected.

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 9.21

Holidays

Arbor Day (Brazil)

Battle of Kulikovo Day (Russia)

Biosphere Day

Bleeding Hearts Club Day

Celebration of Honors (French Republic)

Celu Press Freedom Day (Philippines)

Commemoration of th Declaration of Martial Law (Philippines)

Customs Service Day (Poland)

Daily Newspaper Day

Day of Inventors and Innovators Day (Ukraine)

Devil’s Nutting Day (UK)

Do You Remember Day (the 21st night of September; Earth, Wind & Fire)

Earth, Wind & Fire Day

Eleven Days of Global Unity, Day 11: Peace

Emoticon Day

Escapology Day

Farm Safety Day for Kids

Feast of the Ingathering (UK)

Founder's Day (Ghana)

George Harrison Day (Illinois)

Get Out Of Town Day

International ‘Ask a Satanist’ Day

International Biodiversity Day

International Day of Peace (UN)

International Day of Progressive Rock

International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Tree Plantations

Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day (Ghana)

Long Count Day

Medusa Asteroid Day

Miniature Golf Day

Myositis Awareness Day

National Brittany Day

National Cat & Dog Gut Health Awareness Day

National Day of Civic Hacking

National Day of the Radio Broadcasting Worker (China)

National Deaf Dogs Rock Day

National Disaster Prevention Day (Taiwan)

National Farm Safety Day for Kids

National Fisheries Day (Thailand)

National Garage Condo Day

National Gymnastics Day

National Hannah Day

National Imperfection Day

National Kristina Day

National Myositis Awareness Day

National New York Day

National Opioid Awareness Day

National Radio Day (Chile)

National Singles Day

National Surgical Technologists Day

National Volunteer Day (Ghana)

Observe the Speed Limit Day

Pause the World Day

Peace One Day

Pharmaceutical Worker’s Day (Ukraine)

Secret Note Day

Spring Day (a.k.a. Student’s Day; Argentina)

Sree Narayana Guru Samadhi Day (Kerala, India)

Student’s Day (Argentina; Bolivia)

Telegraph Pole Appreciation Day

Throw Something Away Day

Victory Over the Golden Horde in the Battle of Kulikovo (Russia)

Volunteer Day (Ghana)

Watticism Day

World Alzheimer's Day

World Day of Pagan Pride

World Day of the Plastic Artist

World Gratitude Day

World Minigolf Day

World Myositis Day

Zero Emissions Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Cask Ale Week begins (UK; through 10.1)

International Banana Festival

Juice Day (Russia)

National Chai Day

National Pecan Cookie Day

National Sponge Candy Day

Oktoberfest begins (Munich, Germany; until 10.6)

St. Matthew's Beer Festival Day (patron saint of publicans)

Independence & Related Days

Armenia (from USSR, 1991)

Belize (from UK, 1981)

Malta (from UK, 1964)

3rd Saturday in September

Abergavenny Food Festival (Wales) [3rd Saturday]

America’s Day For Kids [3rd Saturday]

Batman Day [3rd Saturday]

Big Whopper Liar Day [3rd Saturday]

Boys’ and Girls’ Club Day for Kids [3rd Saturday]

Curiosity Day [3rd Saturday]

Day of Love & Friendship (Colombia) [3rd Saturday]

Ember Day (Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches) [Saturday after 9.14]

German-American Steuben Parade [3rd Saturday]

Idaho Spud Day [3rd Saturday]

International Coastal Cleanup Day [3rd Saturday]

International Eat An Apple Day [3rd Saturday]

International Red Panda Day [3rd Saturday]

International Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura Day [3rd Saturday]

Locate An Old Friend Day [3rd Saturday]

National Cartonnage Day [3rd Saturday]

National Clean Up Day [3rd Saturday]

National Dance Day [3rd Saturday]

National Gymnastics Day [3rd Saturday]

National Hunting, Trapping & Fishing Heritage Day (Canada) [3rd Saturday]

National Lacrosse Day (UK) [3rd Saturday]

National Multivitamin Day [3rd Saturday]

National Neighborhood Day [3rd Saturday]

National Pool Closing Day [3rd Saturday]

National Seat Check Saturday [3rd Saturday]

National Sew a Jelly Roll Day [3rd Saturday]

National Singles’ Day [3rd Saturday]

National Tell a Police Officer ‘Thank You’ Day [3rd Saturday]

National Women’s Friendship Day [3rd Saturday]

Puppy Mill Awareness Day [3rd Saturday]

Qaumee Dhuvas (National Day; Maldives) [1st of Rabi I]

Quarter Tense (Ireland) [Saturday after 9.14]

Responsible Dog Owners Day (AKC) [3rd Saturday]

Sandwich Saturday [Every Saturday]

Sentimental Saturday [3rd Saturday of Each Month]

Six For Saturday [Every Saturday]

Software Freedom Day [3rd Saturday]

Spaghetti Saturday [Every Saturday]

Steak Saturday [3rd Saturday of Each Month]

Surgeon Day (Russia, Ukraine) [3rd Saturday]

Thank a Police Officer Day [3rd Saturday]

Usher Syndrome Awareness Day [3rd Saturday]

Von Steuben Day (New York, New York) [3rd Saturday]

World Clean Up Day [3rd Saturday]

World Marrow Donor Day [3rd Saturday]

World Pathfinder Day [3rd Saturday]

Weekly Holidays beginning September 21 (3rd Full Week of September)

National Farm Animals Awareness Week (thru 9.27) [3rd Week]

Oktoberfest (Munich, Germany) [thru 10.6]

Festivals Beginning September 21, 2024

Augusta Harvest Festival (Augusta, Missouri)

Bines and Brews Beer Fest (Monument, California)

Black Walnut Festival (Bethania, North Carolina)

Brew at the Bridge (Oswego, Illinois)

Brookston Apple Popcorn Day (Brookston, Indiana)

Cane Hill Harvest Festival (Cane Hill, Arkansas)

Cape Cod Brew Fest (Cape Cod Fairgrounds, Massachusetts)

Cider Days (Springfield, Missouri) [thru 9.22]

Colorado Mountain Winefest (Palisade, Colorado)

Crystal Lake Home Show (Crystal Lake, Illinois) [thru 9.22]

Cuba Garlic Festival (Cuba, New York) [thru 9.22]

Dublin Peanut Festival (Dublin, North Carolina)

Fair Oaks Chicken Festival (Fair Oaks, California)

Fall Family Festival (Kansas City, Missouri)

Fall Festival & 19th Smokin' Hot BBQ Challenge (Nisswa, Minnesota)

Festival of Grapes and Hops (Petersburg, Virginia)

Festival of the Sea (Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey)

Garlic Festival (Mystic, Connecticut) [thru 9.22]

Glassboro Craft Beer Festival (Glassboro, New Jersey)

Haralson Country 8th Annual Fried Pie Festival (Buchanan, Georgia)

Harvest Food & Wine Festival (Stonington, Connecticut) [thru 9.22]

The Hermitage Food Truck Festival (Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey)

Homemade Pie Baking Contest (Augusta, Missouri)

Idaho Spud Day (Shelley, Idaho)

Johnny Appleseed Festival (Fort Wayne, Indiana) [thru 9.22]

Johnny Appleseed Festival (Lisbon, Ohio) [thru 9.22]

Killington Brewfest (Killington, Vermont)

Lafayette Art & Wine Festival (Lafayette, California) [thru 9.22]

Lake City Uncorked Wine & Music Festival (Lake City, Colorado)

Lowville Cream Cheese Festival (Lowville, New York)

Manaki Brothers International Cinematographers’ Film Festival (Bitola, North Macedonia) [thru 9.27]

Montana Brewers Fall Rendezvous (Missoula, Montana)

NATO Days in Ostrava & Czech Air Force Days (Ostrava, Czech Republic) [thru 9.22]

’49er Festival, Chili Cook-Off! (Groveland, California)

NYC Hot Sauce Expo (Brooklyn, New York) [thru 9.22]

Oktoberfest (Munich, Germany) [thru 10.6]

Oregon Grape Stomp Championships & Harvest Celebration (Turner, Oregon) [thru 9.22]

Pacific Islander Festival (San Diego, California) [thru 9.22]

Pacific Wine & Food Classic (Newport Beach, California)

Paxton Swine 'n Dine (Paxton, Illinois)

Persimmon Festival (Mitchell, Indiana) [thru 9.28]

Preble County Pork Festival (Eaton, Ohio) [thru 9.22]

Pumpkin Fest (Caseville, Michigan)

Putnam County Wine & Food Fest (Cold Spring, New York)

Salem Food Truck & Craft Beer Festival (Salem, Massachusetts) [thru 9.22]

Sample the Sierra: South Lake Tahoe Farm-to-Fork Festival (South Lake Tahoe, California)

Seafood Throwdown Competition (Boston, Massachusetts)

Sugar Beet Days (Sterling, Colorado) [thru 9.22]

Taste of the Seaport (New York, New York)

Thresheree & Harvest Festival (Richfield, Wisconsin) [thru 9.22]

Tiel Fruit Parade (Fruitcorso Tiel) [Tiel, Netherlands]

VegTO Fest (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada)

Vintage Illinois (Utica, Illinois (thru 9.22]

Whiskey Wine & Fire (Cary, North Carolina)

Wild Rice Festival (Roseville, Minnesota)

Wine & Harvest Festival (Cedarburg, Wisconsin) [thru 9.22]

Feast Days

Adopt a New Phobia Day (Pastafarian)

Alban Elfred (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Athena Festival (Everyday Wicca)

Barbara Longhi (Artology)

Birthday off Athena (Greek Goddess of Wisdom)

Breakfast, Dinner, and Supper Day (Goblins; Shamanism)

The Bun-Bun Brothers (Muppetism)

Cigoli (Artology)

Edgar Valter (Artology)

Ephigenia of Ethiopia (Christian; Saint)

Fannie Flagg (Writerism)

Feast of Kuodor-gup (God of Riches; Siberia)

Feast of Nyamuzinda (God of Famine & Epidemics; Zaire)

Feast of the Divine Life (Filianism)

Feast of the Divine Light (Ancient Egypt)

Hans Hartung (Artology)

H.G. Wells (Writerism)

Jerry Garcia Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Julio González (Artology)

Kharisteria (Feast of Aremis Agrotera; Ancient Greece)

Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert (Christian; One of the Korean Martyrs)

Leonard Cohen (Writerism)

Light of the Water (Celtic Book of Days)

Lo (a.k.a. Laudus), Bishop of Coutances (Christian; Saint)

Lodovico Cigoli (Artology)

Matthew the Evangelist (Christian; Saint; Matthew’s Beer Festival Day) [publicans] *

Maura of Troyes (Christian; Saint)

Meán Fómhair (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Mielikki’s Day (Pagan)

Metastasio (Positivist; Saint)

Michael of Chernigov and Theodore (Christian; Martyrs)

Nativity of the Theotokos (Eastern Orthodox Church, Julian calendar)

Pavel Tchelitchew (Artology)

Sarcasm Day (Pastafarian)

Stephen King (Writerism)

World Peace Day (Baha’is)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Dismal Day (Unlucky or Evil Day; Medieval Europe; 18 of 24)

Egyptian Day (Unlucky Day; Middle Ages Europe) [18 of 24]

Lucky Day (Philippines) [52 of 71]

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [44 of 60]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 44 of 60)

Premieres

All Along the Watchtower, by Jimi Hendrix (Song; 1968)

All Apologies, by Nirvana (Song; 1993)

All of Me (Film; 1984)

Amadeus (Film; 1984)

American Idiot, by Green Day (Album; 2004)

Andor (TV Series; 2022)

As You Like It (Film; 2007)

Bat Out of Hell, by Meatloaf (Album; 1977)

Blindspot (TV Series; 2015)

Caroline in the City (TV Series; 1995)

Cold Turkey (Disney Cartoon; 1945)

Colonel Bleep (Animated TV Series; 1957)

Creep, by Radiohead (Song; 1992)

The Delivery Man, by Elvis Costello (Album; 2004)

Dog Day Afternoon (Film; 1975)

The Fire-Eaters or Hot Lips (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 304; 1964)

Fishbone, by Fishbone (EP: 1985)

The Fragile, by Nine Inch Nails (Album; 1999)

From a View to a Kill (a.k.a. James Bond and the Murder Before Breakfast), by Ian Fleming (James Bond Short Story; 1959)

Ghost World (Film; 2001)

Gold, by ABBA (Greatest Hits Album; 1992)

Herzog, by Saul Bellow (Novel; 1963)

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkein (Novel; 1937)

Hockey Homicide (Disney Cartoon; 1945)

The House with a Clock in Its Walls (Animated Film; 2018)

Il Sogno, by Elvis Costello (Album; 2004)

Into the Wild (Film; 2007)

In Utero, by Nirvana (Album; 1993)

Kiddie Revue (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1936)

The King of Queens (TV Series; 1998)

Madam Secretary (TV Series; 2014)

The Medium is the Massage, by Marshall McLuhan (Manifesto; 1967)

Message in a Bottle, by the Police (Song; 1979)

Miller’s Crossing (Film; 1990)

Millionaire Droopy (Droopy MGM Cartoon; 1956)

The Old Plantation (Happy Harmonies MGM Cartoon; 1935)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Film; 2012)

Places in the Heart (Film; 1984)

Presto, by Rush (Album; 1989)

Push and Shove, by No Doubt (Album; 2012)

Raising Hope (TV Series; 2010)

A Red Letter Day or Drop Us a Lion (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 303; 1964)

Road to Ruin, by the Ramones (Album; 1978)

Rushes, by The Fireman (Album; 1998)

SCTV (CBC TV Series; 1976)

Sidewalk Blues, records by Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers (Song; 1926)

Small Change, by Tom Waits (Album; 1976)

Spooks (Ub Iwerks Flip the Frog MGM Cartoon; 1931)

Rabbit (WB Cartoon; 2015)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson (Novel; 1962)

Will & Grace (TV Series; 1998)

Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchet (Novel; 2006) [Discworld #35]

Yankee Doodle Swing Shift (Swing Symphony Cartoon; 1942)

Today’s Name Days

Deborah, Jonas, Matthäus (Austria)

Jona, Matej, Matiša, Matko, Maura (Croatia)

Matouš (Czech Republic)

Matthæus (Denmark)

Lembit, Lembitu, Lembo, Lemmert, Lemmik, Lemmo (Estonia)

Mervi (Finland)

Déborah, Jonas, Matthieu, Mélissa (France)

Deborah, Jonas, Matthäus (Germany)

Jonas (Greece)

Máté, Mirella (Hungary)

Matteo (Italy)

Matīss, Modris, Nara (Latvia)

Mantvilas, Matas, Viskintė (Lithuania)

Trine, Trond (Norway)

Bożeciech, Bożydar, Hipolit, Hipolita, Ifigenia, Jonasz, Laurenty, Mateusz, Mira (Poland)

Matúš (Slovakia)

Jonás, Mateo (Spain)

Matteus (Sweden)

Maira, Maura, Maureen, Mayra, Mira, Moira, Moreen, Morena, Myra, Norna (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 265 of 2024; 101 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 6 of Week 38 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Muin (Vine) [Day 21 of 28]

Chinese: Month 8 (Guy-You), Day 19 (Wu-Zi)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 18 Elul 5784

Islamic: 17 Rabi I 1446

J Cal: 25 Gold; Foursday [25 of 30]

Julian: 8 September 2024

Moon: 82%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 13 Shakespeare (10th Month) [Schiller]

Runic Half Month: Ken (Illumination) [Day 15 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 94 of 94)

Week: 4th Full Week of September

Zodiac: Virgo (Day 31 of 32)

[postcard-from-the-past]

British Royal Hordes laying the foundation stone of the Museum in Bombay, modern-day Mumbai, India

British vintage postcard

[disacurveball]

Hello. Thank you for enabling this discussion. My apologies for this long message. I would like to address the person saying they love asakiku and afraid of being ‘judged’ for having a ‘different characterization of Kiku’. I would request that they place themselves in our shoes for a moment. Asakiku is a ship with many Asian fans. It is unpleasant for me to open fanfictions looking to enjoy a story, only to see white writers fetishizing Kiku with inappropriate racial stereotypes. Or to see other people praising such works. So there is no confusion, I am discussing historical hetalia fanfictions, not other genres where it is fine to have characters be very cute and ditzy in a romantic comedy.

A pattern I noticed is that some white asakiku fanfiction authors seem to dislike the possibility of Kiku having relationships with other Asian nations. It reflects a rather possessive orientalist desire to separate Japan from Asia. It is a white foreigner’s biased understanding of Meiji, Taisho and Showa Japan. What I am referring to is this tendency to characterize Kiku as an admiring Anglophile completely besotted with Arthur or NyoEngland. To such extent that he gives them a 'pass' for their imperialism against nations he has centuries or thousand year old relationships with like China or India. He experiences no personal conflict over the British colonization of Asia. One example is a fanfiction I read of Kiku and NyoEngland, where the white writer said Kiku had a ‘curdled love’ for China, but miraculously bore England no grudge at all for her imperialism or the Opium Wars, yet he dislikes Portugal for incidents centuries ago. In this fanfiction, Kiku repeatedly blushes, behaves bashfully and gratefully thanks NyoEngland when extraterritoriality ends and appears to be immediately taken with her beauty and femininity.

This is a racist fantasy that erases the agency of Japanese people and obscures British imperialism, not reality: people angrily fought for the end of the extraterritorial treaties because of the racist treatment of Japanese lives as worthless. British extraterritorial courts had ruled that British ship crews who had refused to rescue Japanese and other Asian passengers who drowned in multiple accidents up till the 1890s were not guilty of negligence and did not have to pay compensation. Can you see how erasing this perspective and making Kiku have an instant crush on the white nation responsible for all this mistreatment is racist?

It is a white fantasy because the acceptance of Westernization was the goal of avoiding being colonized or subjugated as India or China were. Even during the alliance, there was always a significant group of politicians and ordinary people who sympathized with Asian nationalists in other nations including India who were anti-British. I do not wish to excuse Japan’s imperialism over China, Korea, Taiwan and other Asian countries. I must emphasize Japan truly has to accept responsibility for that. But I am saying that in Kiku’s personal relationship to Arthur or NyoEngland, he absolutely would not be able to completely ignore all this racial inequality as distant 'politics' separate from his personal life in the 1900s. When a white author insists he can do that to justify such a rosy alliance, this is inserting a white perspective of race privilege over a Japanese/Asian man’s experience. Is this possible when whole nations were racialized? Even the most poor and vulnerable Japanese immigrant in the British colonies was seen as a Yellow Peril menace or ‘Asian horde’, alongside the Chinese. We see this awareness manifest in Japan's interest in the Race Equality Proposal for the League of Nations, existing alongside its contradictory imperial rule of Taiwan and Korea.

I am open to nations having a baseline of respect for each other more than humans do. I am not saying we must write nations hurling slurs at each other to be 'accurate'. But it is too much to completely erase Asian racial politics from the historical Asakiku relationship when the entire alliance is rooted in imperialism, when our ancestors could never avoid being 'raced' as 'not white' because the West wouldn't permit it. To not even permit Kiku to express discomfort or disagree with or challenge Arthur or NyoEngland meaningfully or express frustration, and instead illustrate him as a shy, bashful love interest who seems blind to and unaffected by British entitlement to Asia, betrays a racist need for an Asian character to be submissive and politically harmless to white privilege in order to be ‘shippable’.

This is not saying people cannot ship Asakiku as I myself enjoy exploring this ship. But many other ships with white characters like FR/UK or Rus/Ame accept rivalries, mutual suspicion and tensions as adding interesting depth to the pairing. Why can historical Asakiku not be the same? Refusing to allow that when this period of Japanese history strongly justifies that, is a double standard stemming from racism and fetishization of East Asians as being desirable only when we are submissive and praising whiteness.

Hello anon, thank you for taking the time to leave such a thought-out message. I have nothing to add other than thank you for sharing your perspective, and it’s very important for everyone to hear! Hoping everyone takes the time to read!

[millenial-net-utopia-2010]

Some_porcupine: why to work if pay is shit (not adjusted since idk 2003) (thanks reagan), inflation is absurd and there is no retirement but that same shit pay! Akenshi: Because you still need to pay the rent and eat. 6 minutes ago Akenshi: not to mention, all of us can be replaced with hordes of import people who have no concept of labor rights, standards etc. +1 2 minutes ago Some_porcupine: there is none. just wake up the mases. last one straw 2 minutes ago Akenshi: ergo the salaries will only go down 2 minutes ago Some_porcupine: Akenshi said: not to mention, all of us can be replaced with hordes of import people who have no concept of labor rights, standards etc. ikr. we need to colonize 1st world standards for this nonsense to fall 1 minute ago Some_porcupine: Akenshi said: ergo the salaries will only go down like they matter. your slavery is from soul, from need 1 minute ago Akenshi: well, the fact that people who move only move for the money, society will grow even more consumerist 1 minute ago Some_porcupine: no moving. we need to improve things in place. africa, india, pacifics… no more exploitation

[chiss-ticism]

Art by the wonderful @/bugcouncil!

I realized that I'd been on-and-off Percy posting without having actually laid the groundwork out for everyone else to see, lmao. Let's do something about that (salute emoji) Blood and Silicon players pwetty pwease don't read this: I may use Percy as a back-up character and wouldn't want you to be spoiled :)

His (current) character sheet is a mash-up between V5's character creation rules and some of V20's Merits/Flaws. I'd keep some of them for subtext were he to need a V5-Only character sheet. Just a heads up :)

BASIC INFORMATION:

NAME: Percival. Percy to allies. Sir Percival, Caine's Anointed in formal address.

PREDATOR TYPE: Alleycat.

CLAN: Ventrue [Antitribu]

GENERATION: 12th.

SECT AFFILIATION: The Sabbat. [Anarch Movement too, if Pauline dies or something.]

D.O.B: May 13th, 1900.

D.O.D: February 20th, 1942.

APPARENT AGE: Late 30s, Early 40s. [42]

HEIGHT: 5'6'' | 167 centimeters.

BACKSTORY

Boxer in life, a Templar in death; Percy's feverish devotion to the Hand's assortment of causes is, in no small part, exacerbated by the fact that he had the displeasure of being on the frontlines of the Week of Nightmares back in the Summer of '99. Tasked with aiding the Sabbat's (numerous) failed attempts at claiming domain within Asia, his (notably Ravnos) Priscus was called on for aid and what is a loyal knight to do but follow in her stead? This, unfortunately enough, put them on the frontlines for [Ravnos'] awakening a few miles over in India even if the pack never had the misfortune of laying eyes on the Ancient themselves. He and his pack spent the better part of three days attempting to watch over the torpid form of their packmate and leader within the winding, vacuous corridors of a hotel. They'd staked her with the intention of pacifying her until whatever illness besetting her took its leave, but there was only so much a handful of Cainites could feasibly do. In the end they were ultimately unsuccessful in keeping the veritable horde of her cousins away, on the verge of final death amidst all of the gore and viscera, Percy had a reaffirmation of faith in a wicked way. He's devoted the entirety of his being to the Sabbat and its overarching goals; [Ravnos]' blood plugging any holes the Sabbat's propaganda machine may've missed. He's not incompetent enough to go around shouting his allegiances from the rooftops, but his disdain for the Ivory Tower is as self-evident as the gray hairs that adorn his head. Timeline One [where I'm currently using him :)] - Percy's Priscus meets Final Death, unconsciously. Percy comes out of it in one piece and still serves the Sword of Caine dutifully. Timeline Two [Blood and Silicon, should it be necessary]: the Priscus was never staked and Percy himself was beaten into Torpor before being brought back to the United States for recovery once the fighting had ceased. He would've woken up, his Faith reaffirmed tenfold, to find that the Sect itself had all but collapsed during his nap. Their old haunts having been taken over by the Anarch Movement or, Caine forbid, the Camarilla and none of his sect mates to call upon for an update or guidance of any kind. A man out of time, wandering aimlessly, and forced to contend with the knowledge that there really are ancient evils in dire need of putting down, but with no feasible recourse against them. Languishing in the company of blind Cainites whose knee-jerk reaction would be to take his head if they knew what he truly was, a shell of his former self

NOTABLE ATTRIBUTES:

Strength (••••) You are a prime physical specimen, likely with very visible musculature.

Dexterity (•••) Your agility is impressive, and your coordination is as good as any trained amateur.

Stamina (•••) Several days of hard hiking with a backpack is no problem for you.

Wits (•••) You can analyze a situation and quickly work out the best escape route.

NOTABLE SKILLS:

Firearms (•••) You've been in the shit ("Seen the elephant" if you're older than a century) and come out the other side.

Melee (•••) Your skill with a melee weapon is known throughout the domain.

Awareness (•••) You can see through most disguises and sense concealed dangers or hidden clues.

Occult [S: Noddism] (••) [in regards to Noddism, specifically] You have firsthand experience of something inexplicable, even by Kindred standards.

MERITS/ADVANTAGES/FLAWS (a mix of v5/v20. will mark appropriately):

I Was There (•••) [V5] [Merit] [Loresheet: THE WEEK OF NIGHTMARES] You didn't just hear about it, you were on the front line. Your reputation as a survivor and on-the-spot veteran of the Week of Nightmares grants you Status among Kindred historians, occultists, Ravnos, and Gehenna cultists alike.

Blessed By St. Gustav [V20] [Merit] Many Ventrue antitribu replace their traditional affinity for Presence with an aptitude for Auspex by means of the ignoblis ritae known as the Prayer to St. Gustav. For your piety and devotion to the Sabbat cause, you have been especially blessed and have an affinity for both Disciplines.

Resources (••) [V5] [Background] Middle Class: nice apartment or small house, several cars, high-end equipment.

Nightmares [V20] [Flaw] You experience horrendous nightmares every time you sleep, and memories of them ahunt you during your waking hours. [Ravnos] raging, [their] flesh rending.

Tic/Twitch [V20] [Flaw] You have some sort of repetitive motion that you make in times of stress, and it's a dead giveaway as to your identity. He tends to tap one of his feet, normally his left, impatiently.

Eerie Presence [V20] [Flaw] Mortals have an unconscious awareness of your undead nature, which makes them anxious and ill at ease in your presence. He's too still & doesn't blink anywhere near as often as he should.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS:

July 1999: Ravnos Moment.

MISC.:

He'll refer to Cainites by their proper form of address, a Bishop as "[your] Excellency" for example, and would rather be damned a second time than do otherwise. He's exercising his freedom by choosing to adhere to the formalities.

His Sire supported the Lasombra War Effort during the Second Sabbat Civil War, making the mass defection smart that much more. He was Embraced 11 years too late to have actually partaken in it himself but he has Opinions.

[relic-seeker]

what do u think lemms favorite historical period would be. like. when and where

ok this is interesting. i've not rly thought about this since unfortunately i am not well versed in world history as the history course i've done focuses primarily on the west </3

BUT!!! lemm would be most interested in periods of history where the least amount is known or was all forgotten. i think he'd be a super nerd about the ancient past where we know it existed but there ain't enough to piece together a story & i think he would want to try (from his whole shabang about the worship of void before the moths). the only kind of thing i can say is his 'research interest' would be similar to professor charlotte potts of somerville college, university of oxford (this is the uni i'm going to but i won't be taught by her unfortunately)

of the things i know, i think he would like the mediterranean 'dark ages' & the mystery of the 'sea people'. he'd be like some crazy conspiracy theorist about it. or think about everything lost in the library of alexandria.

i think as well he would be particularly interested in historical periods with a lot of literature too. his whole thing is knowing stupid amounts of languages & translating for information. maybe something like the ancient babylonians & he would enjoy the library of ashurbanipal/nineveh. so many clay tablets... ea nasir....... insert tumblr joke....................... & he would probably horde everything like the british museum LOL

i couldn't pick a favourite for him because asking any historian what their favourite period is is futile!!! i love many many periods & what happened. but i certainly think while he obviously would like the stuff that's better known & research it, his proper favourites would be what nobody knows. he would be the guy who does it first but wouldn't even seek fame for it. just to know. (very much like prof charlotte actually now i think about it, although she is a joy to talk to, unlike lemm.)

i am by no means qualified to talk about this (the furthest i've studied into the east is india </3), but i think he would really like ancient korean history. just because the records are FANASTIC. get a little kick from them

also thank you very much anon this was a lovely question & it lets me nerd out about my future degree AND my favourite character of all time <3