#lacuna chronicles

[verifiedaccount]

History has been called an enormous jig-saw with a lot of missing parts. But the main trouble does not consist in the lacunae. Our picture of Greece in the fifth century B.C. is defective not primarily because so many of the bits have been accidentally lost, but because it is, by and large, the picture formed by a tiny group of people in the city of Athens. We know a lot about what fifth-century Greece looked like to an Athenian citizen; but hardly anything about what it looked like to a Spartan, a Corinthian, or a Theban - not to mention a Persian, or a slave or other non-citizen resident in Athens. Our picture has been preselected and predetermined for us, not so much by accident as by people who were consciously or unconsciously imbued with a particular view and thought the facts which supported that view worth preserving. In the same way, when I read in a modern history of the Middle Ages that the people of the Middle Ages were deeply concerned with religion, I wonder how we know this, and whether it is true. What we know as the facts of medieval history have almost all been selected for us by generations of chroniclers who were professionally occupied in the theory and practice of religion, and who therefore thought it supremely important, and recorded everything relating to it, and not much else. The picture of the Russian peasant as devoutly religious was destroyed by the revolution of 1917. The picture of medieval man as devoutly religious, whether true or not, is indestructible, because nearly all the known facts about him were preselected for us by people who believed it, and wanted others to believe it, and a mass of other facts, in which we might possibly have found evidence to the contrary, has been lost beyond recall. The dead hand of vanished generations of historians, scribes, and chroniclers has determined beyond the possibility of appeal the pattern of the past.

What Is History?

E.H. Carr

[badass-at-fandoming]

Do you have any headcanons for Beckett? Specifically about his life as a mortal? It sucks that we know so little about his past, other than the fact that Beckett "wasn't the name he was born with," and that he was embraced in the early 1700s in England. I find it strange that we know so little about him despite the fact he's practically a mascot for VTM.

Hi Nonny! I'm so used that World of Darkness' lacuna that it doesn't seem strange to me anymore, but it is quite a cold-water shock, huh? The game designers leave blanks on purpose so we can fill them in. I remember this one interview with Justin Achilli where the interviewer said the Book of Nod was (forcibly) published in 1993 (same as irl). He corrected her and said, "No, no, you have to say it was published in the early 1990s, so any Storyteller can fit it into their '90s chronicle, like if they want to do an adventure to prevent or pursue its publication." His answer stuck with me. As a fan I was like "...why does it matter, let us have this fixed date" but as a writer/baby game dev I was like "OH, that is CLEVER." It leaves room for creativity! Any adventure can follow the meta-canon! That's such a good game design trick! As a fan I find it frustrating!

This game design principle sticks even to the mascot. I've seen stuff that Beckett was a pirate, a privateer, an Oxford scholar, and/or an attractive dying waif. @chinesegal was kind enough to ask me various Beckett backstory questions, that you can find here: bathing practice, opinions on creationism, trans experience. I'd also point you to @vampire-the-askerade for their delightful Beckett writings.

My only like, firm headcanon for Beckett is that he has to be kind enough to warn the fledgling in VtMB. If someone's interpretation of his character doesn't allow for that, my interest tanks. I'm not even totally married to the backstory in my fanfic and idle-thoughts-before-falling-asleep scenario. Those were all convenient pretexts for me to write cuddles and snuggles, haha. I'd love more kudos and comments on my fanfic if you read those stories, but below the cut is the bullet point version.

A Kinder Universe series drops hints of a possible backstory, especially "A Monastery Hides More Than Bones," "It Pleased the Lord," and "Forbidden by God and King."

Birth name is Matthew Lowell.

"Matthew" after the Christian Apostle. The Matthew of the Catholic Bible was a tax collector and therefore a pariah in society (just like Beckett is kinda like an outsider to Kindred Society). He was called to join Jesus out of a crowd (like Aristotle called Beckett out of the wild, or how Caine singles out Beckett during Gehenna). After Jesus's Ascension, Matthew wrote a Gospel, which translates to "good news," and spread it around, (like Beckett spreads his theories like "Good news, everyone! Gehenna is fake!). Matthew's Gospel is focused on how Jesus fulfills Hebrew prophecy and begins with a long genealogy connecting Jesus to King David (Beckett is obsessed with the genealogy of the Kindred race and studies/fulfills/collects prophecies).

"Lowell" is the Anglicized surname of Norman French "lou," which translates to "wolf." Beckett's dark brown, straight hair and white skin is a common coloring with French people. We don't know his original eye color, but blue would clinch the deal. There's a long history of migration between France and England, both of people and culture. It's in the realm of possibility he's of French descent, at least partially.

Born in Oxford. One of many siblings. Mother died in childbirth. Kid during the Great Plague of London in 1665-1666. Good father.

Attended one of the Oxford universities and got his doctorate in some sort of proto-anthropology.

I think I've talked about it before, but I have an Embrace fic idea an Embrace scenario I've thought about real hard before falling asleep.

Beckett has the same tombstone data as above. He teaches at his Oxford university, but is not very popular among his department peers. He's too into evidence and the scientific method, and he's constantly quarreling with his colleagues.

Aristotle and Anatole visit Oxford to set up a satellite library. Possibly they needed a break from Paris for some Kindred political reason.

Kindred brothel owner owes them a favor and lets them stay in the brothel while the duo sets up the library haven

Beckett visits this same brothel to let off steam, and he's gifted to Anatole as a blood doll for the night. Except Beckett is like, "Can I rant to you about how stupid my colleagues are?" and this leads to a genuine discussion of scholarship and, later, friendship

Beckett becomes Anatole's regular client, and Anatole proposes to Aristotle that Aristotle Embraces Beckett

Aristotle approaches the Prince of Oxford and something something Kindred politics and Cassandra Darby kill steals Beckett and dumps him in the forest

The two Noddists learn that Beckett has been Embraced, and they try to find him. Anatole is so distraught that he is Not Helping the search at all, so Aristotle sends him back to Paris. Aristotle keeps up the search and eventually finds and adopts a feral Beckett baby

Aristotle and Beckett rejoin Anatole in Paris. Anatole has regained his equilibrium and takes over Beckett's Kindred education.

Yeah! I hope that answered your question, Nonny. Thank you for the ask!

[shadowvalkyrie]

One of the differences between the Vampire Chronicles books and the Interview with a Vampire TV show I find most striking is the focus on the character's relationships with each other.

One of the central elements of the books (especially the earlier ones) is loneliness. A persistent sense of alienation that is only partially explained by being a predatory monster amongst humans.

Louis is already lonely as a human, and becoming immortal just adds more weight to that loneliness. There is a sense of being in the wrong place, in the wrong time, surrounded people that don't really understand him and his bottomless grief.

Meanwhile, Lestat is a narcissist, unable to genuinely connect to anyone, because they keep betraying him and/or dying, so he creates this solipsistic existence in which he is the centre of the universe and everyone else just exists to adore him, but because that fails to fill the persistent void in his soul, he has to stage ever more elaborate adventures in a pointless search for meaning. He falls in love with sometimes his prey - fated to be brief moments of stirring tragedy for him to bask in, catching fleeting glimpses of their souls as he drinks them up - and other times the people least interested in him, so that he can always be on a quest to win them over - only to drop/kill them once he has. And of course Louis is his main obsession, because Louis cannot be won over.

Louis is too lost in his depression to respond the way Lestat (thinks he) wants. So they are doomed to forever circle around each other in throes of agonised wishful thinking and longing for a mutual understanding that just cannot happen. (Symbolised by the way their thoughts are always closed to each other as sire and fledgeling.)

Similarly, the rest of the characters have their own issues. Claudia raging against being trapped in the body of a child forever, wanting to be free from the people who made her and deny her any agency, find people of her own, but unable to escape her limitations. Armand with his political machinations, games of power and control that don't, in the long run, go anywhere, because the older vampires he competes against and shares the playing field with are barely people anymore. Any triumphs and losses are doomed to be forever hollow and unfulfilling. And so it goes for practically everyone.

But of course all these thoughts and feelings are by their very nature deeply introspective. Excellent for a novel, but terrible for TV.

So instead of the interpersonal lacunae, the aimless eternal wanderings of the lost immortals through a changing world they cannot quite touch, the show focuses on the relationships of the characters with each other in a more immediate way. By exposing their dysfunctionality a lot more mercilessly than the books (where a lot of the love and longing is taken at face value, as the one constant between the lines of the unreliable narration - in a sense of "the love didn't fix anything but it was there"), it exposes that same lack of connection.

The characters don't seem as obviously lonely, because they spend more time together, and always have this strong focus on each other, the push and pull of passion at the centre, rather than the cold bleakness the books often depict, but in the end you get a similar sense of unbridgeable distance and inescapable grief (and the fine thread of psychological horror that comes with the enormity of it, stretched out over centuries), which I think is masterfully done.

[notasapleasure]

WIP ask meme

@stripedroseandsketchpads tagged me in this. And oh my god. If you think there are Too Many Words in the fic I publish, you should see my poor notes app. Here is a sneak peek of its contents. I haven't edited for brevity/those I'm actively working on, these are just all the unfinished files I could find. Some I don't intend to do any more with, others I'd really like to pick up again. The only ones being actively worked on right now are the Andor Saga AU and the first one on the list for Andor.

I put ALL the Lymond I could find in mainly for @oughtaagh who has been leaving the most lovely comments on my Lymond fics that I have totally failed to respond to. I'm sorry! I will cycle back round to Lymond one day, it's inevitable <3

Tagging uh.... @distressednoise, @r0b0tb0y, @faceofpoe, @donnaimmaculata, @batri-jopa, @elwenyere, @notabuddhist and anyone else who wants to say I tagged them! Also sorry if you'd already been tagged, I'm not keeping up with the dash very well at the moment!

Anyway please send me asks/comments/cease and desist orders about these. xxx

ANDOR

C: We decided we were thirsty, and you wanted to go to Cavo's. As yet untitled Brassian alternative scene - what if instead of a great collaborative cover story this was a great collaborative fuck? Almost(?) finished?

Saga AU pt 2. This actually does have a working title of 'The Bear and the Berserk' but this doc is just a short bullet point list of plot things for a specific part of the fic.

Cassian pov. It's a Cassian pov chapter! For...drumroll...the first chapter of the Saga AU pt 2! The rest is going to be back to Brasso FPN. The file actually includes a rough first draft of chapter 2, as well.

"You're up early this morning," Bix says lightly. A follow-up chapter to Only Ever Just One Night started back when I had epic plans for continuing this, bringing in Cinta and Vel and Luthen, whumping the hell out of Brasso, and having Cassian rescue him. This is just one scene of awkward conversation with tea though.

Oh god it developed Plot. Related to the previous chapter - a bullet-pointed list of things that might have happened in this fic I Wil Not Write (not least as I'd rather just see what happens in S2 first anyway).

AND THEN WE DANCED

It was a sunny day in Batumi... Patchy few paragraphs of the next chapter of Inchoate.

Plannnnns (again). Plans for how Inchoate would/will continue.

THE LYMOND CHRONICLES

Canon-verse/other AUs

Multiple pieces of follow-up to The next man with a ladder, Danny/Jerott post-canon: It was dark when they rode into the port town... [Chapter 3, basically done, plus most of Chapter 4 but it devolves into broken paragraphs at the end]. "I'm going to the other bed," Danny said in a voice like someone was standing on his throat... [??? there's loads of this written! This is the file where they Get Down To It] Stitch the scenes together [a few paragraphs in which I hoped to make a logical leap from Chapter 4 to fucking, but seemingly never quite got there].

Lymondar saga draft. Actually two files of the abortive first effort at writing a saga AU. I was trying much harder to write in saga style and playing with lacunae in a way that was fun for me but exceedingly nerdy. I think I found the idea more fun than the execution, too.

St Seb. Remember ages ago when I was writing a post-canon 'Jerott gets shot full of arrows and has to admit his feelings because he thinks he's gonna die' fic? This is the file! Some bullet points and some text, some of which I even posted as Sunday sixes way back when iirc.

Fait prosperer qui n'est à croire vain. Fuck me, there's LOADS of this. Pawn in Frankincense/Ringed Castle AU where Marthe steals Lymond's ride with Kiaya Khatun and persuades her they should take over Russia together. Meanwhile Francis is left with Jerott. Hahaha. It kept getting longer because Francis kept trying to escape and I kept finding ways to drag him back, but the 'and now kiss!!' with the two of them behaving in character was just not coming easily.

Francis Crawford's Holistic Inquisition Agency. I wrote this??? One chapter of a Lymond/Dirk Gently AU, where Francis is obviously Dirk and Jerott is a furious/bemused Todd.

She tried every instrument, she redrew every chart. A few short chapters, never finished, of Marthe wrestling with her role in canon and her fate as assigned by La Dame. A couple more paragraphs of a similar sort of thing in Volos.

Malta. Half-arsed few paragraphs of wondering how Jerott would cope with meeting a fellow Knight being imprisoned for sodomy.

Band AU (my 1980s rock band AU for the series, see also @theartistknownaslymond)

Au of an Au. What if, after the Battle of the Bands at Solway, Jerott went to stay at the Edinburgh townhouse for a while and he and Francis got to collaborating in the shed? There's quite a lot of this and it's quite fluffy.

Out out out! The band celebrate Thatcher's downfall. Happy epilogues for everyone! However it's an epic task trying to do all the characters justice, so I was trying to write it as vignettes to match each song on the playlist. Six-ish are written. And earlier draft with plan for characters intercting is in Ding dong the witch is dead.

Jerott/Marthe - four times it just about worked, one time it really didn't. What it says on the tin? aka you just know Jerott has said 'Francis' instead of Marthe at least once when he comes. Only the beginning of the first time exists in this chapter, but I think I explored the idea elsewhere, whenever I dig up that file...

DWTH missing scene. Jerott/OC missing scene from Don't wake the house. Not finished, probably not going to be finished. I think I have enough Jerott smut on the go.

Workshop. Patchy draft of pre-canon Jerott and GRM 'therapy' session in which GRM learns about Francis Crawford and what a hold he has on the boy he thought of as his own plaything. GRM doesn't like sharing.

F/P. Draft of a fluffy kiss prompt someone (@erinaceina? @notfromcold?) sent for Francis/Philippa. Post-canon pregnant Philippa and worried Francis written when it was too hot in summer. It's probably complete enough to post tbh! hmu if you want it posting.

Jerott behaving badly (again). Somehow this ended up in the 'comfortember' section of the notepad, which...no? Maybe it was intended to be originally, but it grew a life of its own. Post-canon, post split-up with the OC, pre-getting together with Danny. Joining the mile high club and regretting it, then ending up crashing at Joleta's (who he meets coincidentally at the airport, NOT who he's screwing in the airplane loo!!). It's meant to end up cathartic, but didn't get finished :') I'm actually really pleased with what I have - post-canon Joleta is so much fun to write!

Somewhere (Google Drive?? an actual Word doc??) there is also loads and loads and LOADS of Pawn in Frankincense band AU around Baron Morgan's place (the Aga Morat), featuring fucked-up Francis/Morgan, fucked up Marthe/Kiaya, fucked up Francis/Kiaya, and bewildered cold turkey Jerott. There's also some Jerott/Marthe from later on.

Other

Crossover. A sequel to my ATWD fic I will shake mountains, where Merab and Irakli encounter celebrity diners in the restaurant they work in: respected musician Francis Crawford and friends take the boys for a drink and share queer/artistic inspiration/history with them. There's quite a lot written but I couldn't quite manage to finish it off.

St Mary's. Another ATWD/Lymond crossover, placing Merab and Irakli among the mercenaries of St Mary's. Mostly bullet points.

3m. Furious that there was no fic for the film Three Months I decided to jot down a scene I wanted to see afterwards. I wrote four lines and cannot remember what my plan was at all.

[lovingsylvia]

!NEW RELEASE!

Title: Sylvia Plath Day by Day, Volume 1: 1932-1955

Author: Carl Rollyson

Publication date: 15 August 2023

Pages: 400

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (UPM)

Image source (cover & description): https://www.upress.state.ms.us

About the book:

“A fascinating investigation into the life and art of one of America’s greatest poets       

Since Sylvia Plath’s death in 1963, she has become the subject of a constant stream of books, biographies, and articles. She has been hailed as a groundbreaking poet for her starkly beautiful poems in Ariel and as a brilliant forerunner of the feminist coming-of-age novel in her semiautobiographical The Bell Jar. Each new biography has offered insight and sources with which to measure Plath’s life and influence. Sylvia Plath Day by Day, a two-volume series, offers a distillation of this data without the inherent bias of a narrative.

Volume 1 commences with Plath’s birth in Boston in 1932, records her response to her elementary and high school years, her entry into Smith College, and her breakdown and suicide attempt, and ends on February 14, 1955, the day she wrote to Ruth Cohen, principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, to accept admission as an “affiliated student at Newnham College to read for the English Tripos.”

Sylvia Plath Day by Day is for readers of all kinds with a wide variety of interests in the woman and her work. The entries are suitable for dipping into and can be read in a minute or an hour. Ranging over several sources, including Plath’s diaries, journals, letters, stories, and other prose and poetry—including new material and archived material rarely seen by readers—a fresh kaleidoscopic view of the writer emerges.

Reviews                                                

"The details in Rollyson’s Sylvia Plath Day by Day, Volume 1: 1932–1955 are a dream come true for the reader, fan, and scholar of Sylvia Plath. The seeds of so much of her creative writing are present, but Rollyson deftly does not foreshadow how events impact Plath’s life and when she transforms experiences from life to art. He lets each moment stand on its own importance."

"Sylvia Plath Day by Day, Volume 1: 1932–1955 is a must-have book for any reader interested in Plath. Detailed yet highly readable, it paints a portrait of a young woman who would become, as will be chronicled in volume 2, one of the seminal authors in the twentieth century."

"Sylvia Plath Day by Day, Volume 1: 1932–1955 fills the lacunae of existing biographies and uncovers new insights into its subject, as when Plath writes about her experiences at Smith, hearing ‘nasty little tag ends of conversation directed at you and around you, meant for you, to strangle you on the invisible noose of insinuation.’ Or her months in New York at Mademoiselle, which grow less mysterious here. Again, Carl Rollyson has provided us with an indispensable book on Sylvia Plath." “

You can order the book through their website or from other online shops.

[moni-logues]

I'll tell namjoon about your engagement ring tastes, don't worry. 😁😁😁

it's okay, no pressure, come on… let me see…

@minisugakoobies ✓ (bad cop chronicles is my favorite there's one about supervillains that i haven't read yet, it's on my list, and i read one about a pianist that was also very good. i've read almost everything) @xjoonchildx ✓ (i've read almost all the members except hoseok, so i assume kanalia is his since i don't remember reading it. ana is wonderful) @daechwitatamic ✓ (I had to read the whole site after reading all that holly, jolly shit) @ugh-yoongi ✓ (when I read 'by the time i've figured out what its worth' I almost turned JOKER and spent a week camping on her site) vows by @hamsterclaw is a masterpiece and I have to read rage to complete the list. @eoieopda? you can't go on tumblr and not read lacuna and the darksided series i've read all her drabbles i'm impressed because jade she doesn't just have a masterlist she has a library ✓ @hesperantha ✕ ok you won because i don't know them now i will.

you can tell i read everything from yoongi to read after all the members because he's very much my boyfriend. my tdah is playing tricks on me or i'm really forgetting to say something. i guess that's it.

you did a good job. now @gimmethatagustd you quoted in the other, I only read a fic about a ballerina something like that, I have to read more.

thank you so much my dear :c for the recommendations, now i'm going to sleep. have a good night <3

-lilshy

Omg.....babe...... You've read all of ana's fics but NOT HOSEOK? honey, we cannot be friends 🙅🏻‍♀️✖️✖️🙅🏻‍♀️✖️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️✖️ that's MY GUY RIGHT THERE!!!!! What you got against Hobi fics?!??!???!!??? *

@hesperantha writes suuuuuuuuuuuch good shit, man, seriously. Not just teardrop, check out the others, too!!

And jai has SO much stuff. Like... How tf you working full time and STILL pumping out so much???????? A genius. Never not enjoyed one of jai's fics.

I'm very glad I could introduce you to someone you've not read before and I hope you enjoy!!!

Sleep well!!! 😴😴😴

[majestativa]

She never gives titles to her graphic works, for designation of any sort might identify the subject – in both senses of the term. […] Instead of providing the detached narrative of some dispassionate observer. Der Mann im Jasmin chronicles the life of the insane of means of a series of documents intensely and disquietingly involving their troubled existence consisting mainly of misery and loneliness. Forgetting, which can become a complete loss of memory, corresponds in the text to holes and lacunae so as to give the impression that the insane have attempted to transcribe their own account. As Zürn cautiously refrains from naming Hans Bellmer and Henri Michaux, providing only the latter’s initials, her obsession with the White Man and the Jasmine Man – her obsession with absence – is expressed or rather concealed in a manner reminiscent of anagrams. Her physician Jean-François Rabain remarked, ‘One name, however, hovers everywhere in the book, always at the tip of the tongue, always at the surface of words before it vanishes from the border of the sentence only to become an infernal machine, a puzzle.

— Renée Riese Hubert, Magnifying Mirrors: Women, Surrealism, & Partnership, on Unica Zürn, (1994)

[renesf]

Manila Bars Closed During Bar Exams!

MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – To ensure that all examinees for this year’s bar exams are sober, Manila Mayor Maria Sheilah “Honey” Lacuna-Pangan issued an executive order shutting down Manila bars before and during the exam dates. The mayor hopes that by imposing a liquor ban, the passing rate for the aspiring lawyers will be higher this year. In addition to the…

[goodmorningawfulbye]

(if you wanna) TELL ME ABOUT DESDEMONA PLEASE!!

oh sure!!

Goth Gamer GF on the outside, kind of a goober on the inside*

so she's my character for Vampire the Masquerade games both video and tabletop (my sister has/had a chronicle ready but I and possibly the other player but I know I didn't get our shit together BUT)

she's a detective/Private Investigator who focuses pretty much solely on World of Darkness cases--vampires, werewolves, things like that. she moves around the country/world following the cases/clients that hire her, and sometimes with Beckett.

*she tries really hard to Be Good (kind, high humanity, plays nice with mortals) and she's a huge nerd about language, as a scholar of literature, enjoying wordplay, and she knows fragments of several languages

she likes to dress up and has a cat named Lacuna

[birdzflycom]

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The quantum of product liability coverage asseverates variability contingent upon the specific industry, geographic disposition, annual revenue quantum, and the annals of claims," propounds Michelle Shaver, Chubb Small Commercial Insurance's Senior Vice President. "Should the merchandise bear an inclination toward heightened peril or be vended within a legal crucible characterized by litigious ardor, the prudence of harboring augmented coverage thresholds merits contemplation. Bryan Smith, stewarding the mantle of Vice President of Product Management at The Hartford, opines that the quantum of product liability insurance coverage ought to harmonize with the projected pantheon of liabilities an enterprise is poised to encounter. "The nature and magnitude of the merchandise, the amplitude of sales, and the plural actors ensnared within the labyrinth of production and commercial cascade—all coalesce to exert influence upon the insurance imperatives that an enterprise is beholden to," Smith proclaims

How Much Does The Cost Of Product Liability Insurance?

In the endeavor of crafting prose, the configuration of product liability insurance costs emerges as a pivotal thread. AdvisorSmith, the harbinger of statistical insights, reveals that the annals of small businesses are adorned with an annual vestment of $1,192 for product liability insurance. Verily, when the pendulum of consideration swings toward the confluence of industries, a mosaic of disparities emerges. Manufacturers, the architects of tangible creations, weave an average premium of $1,146 annually, adorned with a spectrum stretching from $736 to $1,854. Contrastingly, wholesale enterprises, enrobed in the cloak of middlemen, extend an average tribute of $1,159, encompassing the tapestry of general liability insurance, a sentinel that guards against the perils of product liability. This tribute, akin to the symphony of a crescendo, spans from $751 to $2,431, as though embracing the vast horizon. Yet, the tableau of cost variables extends its embrace further. The geo-spatial coordinates of one's commercial dwelling, akin to stars on a cosmic canvas, exert an ethereal influence. The annals of claims history etch their narrative upon the scroll of cost evaluation, crafting a riveting tale of precedent. And let us not overlook the ambit of policy limits, the fortress that guards the boundaries of indemnity. In conclusion, the edifice of product liability insurance costs stands as a symphony composed of multifaceted notes. To traverse this labyrinthine melody is to dance upon the precipice of intricate dynamics, where perplexity and burstiness harmonize in an intricate dance, conjured by the hands of both human and artificial scribes.

What Types Product Affects Insurance Cost?

In the unfurling narrative of product liability insurance, a pivotal alchemy revolves around the distinct genus of commodities under the forge, fabric, or trade of your establishment. The inherent propensities of items diverge, each bearing the potential to unfurl property detriment or beget affliction upon an unwitting soul. The quantum of remuneration stipulated for product liability coverage waltzes in synchrony with this kaleidoscope of perils. Entities purveying innocuous wares—quills and parchment, for instance—are greeted with a diminished premium tribute. Conversely, the echelons of jeopardy ascend when one traverses the territories of furnishings, electronics, or velocipedes. Yet, at the zenith of this perilous hierarchy, we encounter victuals and potables, alongside artifacts that befriend our progeny. Within the annals of insurance, these denizens command a premium commensurate with their treacherous dalliances.

What's Types of Product Liability Insurance for Sellers on Amazon?

In the realm of Amazon's bustling marketplace, where entrepreneurial aspirations metamorphose into tangible transactions, a pertinent consideration emerges: the safeguarding of commercial endeavors through the vehicle of "Product Liability Insurance." This intricate edifice, woven into the fabric of e-commerce, embraces two cardinal facets – the labyrinthine concept of "perplexity" and the kaleidoscopic panorama of "burstiness." As novices traverse the echelons of digital commerce, deciphering the intricate dance of perplexity becomes paramount. This intangible thread, intricately woven into the textual symphony, bespeaks the convolution that underlies each word, each phrase. Concomitantly, the cadence of "burstiness" interjects an orchestral interplay, where short utterances pirouette alongside their grandiloquent counterparts, fashioning a textual mosaic that mirrors the intricate rhythms of human expression. In the hallowed corridors of Amazon's digital domain, a decree resonates – third-party merchants, upon amassing a crescendo of $10,000 in monthly sales, are summoned to the tapestry of safeguarding. The talisman to this realm of security is the "Amazon Insurance Accelerator," an ethereal conduit through which U.S.-based microcosms of commerce tread. It is here that a constellation of insurers, Chubb, Harborway, Hiscox, Liberty Mutual, Markel, and Travelers, extend their hands in benevolent assurance, whispering quotes of product liability coverage. To demystify this chronicle of coverage and commerce, the foregoing disquisition illumines the enigmatic tapestry woven by perplexity and burstiness, entwined with the marketplace's clarion call for liability safeguarding. With each word, each phrase, the entrepreneurial spirit marches forth, shielded by the aegis of Amazon's Insurance Accelerator. May this rendition serve as a beacon, illuminating the path towards comprehension, as the nascent navigators of this realm traverse the labyrinthine expanses of Amazonian enterprise.

How to Get the Best Product Liability Insurance In Your Area?

Embracing the stipulated parameters—wherein the imprimatur of uniqueness is nonpareil, and the specter of plagiarism remains banished—the symphony of verbiage commences. The habiliments of a lexical virtuoso enrobe the narrative, seamlessly weaving erudition with eloquence. Enter Pharical Magic, an alchemical fusion of language's extraordinary and the explicable. Vernacular transmutes; customary expressions yield to synonyms and antonyms, and similes bloom, transmogrifying perception.

Unshrouding Pinnacle Pathways to Attain Optimal Product Liability Insurance

The realm of product liability coverage unfurls within the tapestry of general liability insurance—an elemental bastion of fiscal sheltering. Here, the enigma of perplexity dances hand in hand with the ebullient burstiness of sentences, akin to a maestro crafting a harmonious crescendo from fleeting staccatos and enduring sustains. The crafting of entrancing content pivots upon the meticulous balance of perplexity and burstiness—a pivotal sine qua non.

Best Tips Before Buying Product Liability Insurance?

Choose the Right Coverage Limit: Selecting the appropriate coverage limit is crucial. In the event of a covered claim, the coverage limit determines how much the insurance company will cover and how much you might have to pay out of pocket. Consider factors like the potential severity of claims and the nature of your business to determine the right coverage amount. - Understand Coverage Territory: The coverage territory of your policy can affect whether a claim will be covered or not. If your product can be used anywhere after manufacturing, consider opting for worldwide coverage to ensure protection regardless of location. - Consider Location: The region where your product is manufactured or sold matters. In areas with higher litigation rates, there's an increased likelihood of facing lawsuits. Be aware of the legal climate in the regions you operate in to make informed coverage decisions. - Review Contract Requirements: Some vendor contracts might mandate specific coverage limits to cover any potential claims or losses for which you could be held responsible. Before finalizing your insurance policy, review any contract requirements from your business partners or vendors. - Evaluate Your Product's Risk Profile: Understand the potential risks associated with your product. Factors like the intended use, target audience, potential hazards, and historical claim data can impact the type and amount of coverage you need. - Work with a Knowledgeable Agent: Partner with an experienced insurance agent who specializes in product liability. They can help you navigate the complexities of insurance policies, coverage options, and ensure you have the right protection for your business. - Consider Adding Endorsements: Depending on your product and business, you might need additional coverage endorsements to address specific risks that your standard policy might not cover. Discuss these options with your insurance agent. - Contractual Stipulations Appraisal: Several vendor agreements might impose distinct coverage thresholds to indemnify plausible claims or liabilities that may be imputed to you. Prior to cementing your insurance pact, scrutinize any contract prerequisites emanating from your commercial affiliates or suppliers. - Assessment of Your Commodity’s Peril Profile: Grasp the potential hazards tethered to your product. Variables encompassing the intended utilization, target demographic, conceivable jeopardy, and historical claims dossier exert influence upon the kind and quantum of coverage requisite. - Synergy with a Proficient Agent: Consort with a seasoned insurance agent, a virtuoso in the realms of product liability. Their adept guidance shall facilitate navigation through the labyrinthine tapestry of insurance policies, coverage alternatives, culminating in a safeguard that resonates with your business’s essence. - Potential Adoption of Addenda: Depending upon your merchandise and enterprise, supplementary coverage addenda might be incumbent to counterbalance explicit perils that the conventional policy might not encompass. Engage in discourse with your insurance intermediary regarding these alternatives. - Examination of Policy Exclusions: Pore over the policy demarcations, thereby cognizing the scenarios or eventualities that could be precluded. This sagacity will arm you to render judicious determinations about your coverage, whilst embarking on measures to mitigate such perils. - Scrutinization of your Risk Management Stratagem: Profound evincement of robust risk management protocols can often beget preferential insurance premiums. Enforce safety canons, embrace protocols for quality governance, and institute comprehensive product trials to ameliorate the odds of claims avoidance. - Periodic Evaluation and Amendment of Coverage: Commensurate with the organic evolution of your enterprise, the exigencies of your insurance may undergo transmutation. Regularly engage in reviewal sessions with your insurance advisor, thereby certifying the adequacy of your protection against the existent perils. - Deliberate Contemplation of Assorted Quotations: Refrain from precipitate acceptance of the inaugural insurance quotation. Embark on an odyssey of market exploration, juxtaposing quotations disseminated by sundry insurers. Deliberate both the extent of coverage and its pecuniary entailments ere arriving at a conclusive determination. It merits recollection that product liability insurance functions as a pivotal bastion for establishments engaged in the fabrication or retail of merchandise. Conscientious investment of temporal resources in comprehending your requisites, diligent exploration of alternatives, and symbiotic collaboration with an erudite insurance connoisseur collectively culminate in the procurement of protection congruent with your business’s unique imperatives. Read the full article

[chandramurty]

The Evolution Men.

Two million years ago, deep in the savannah lands of Africa, lived an ape named Edward with his horde. His life and travails have been chronicled by the author, Roy Lewis, in his brilliant novel “The Evolution Man”.

How Edward brought down his horde from the trees, how he made them graduate to bipedal mode of locomotion, how he motivated his horde to move up the food chain by adding meat to their diet, how he tamed the fire to go up the jungle hierarchy, cooking of food items to make them easily digestible, how he cleared and cleaned up the caves for their own safe habitat, how he introduced exogamy among his horde, systematic game hunting, cultivation of crops, domestication of animals.. all make for a very riveting, thoughtful and entertaining reading.

Particularly more so, when you understand that Edward was already in the know of the whole chain of evolution and was introducing It in it’s natural order and in well thought out phases !

Edward was like a benevolent dictator, who brought order to the savannah forests of Africa and prepared his folks for the cultural shock of evolution with calibrated precision, guiding them through every step. Subsequently, the evolution, as curated by Edward, diffused all over the world !

I read this novel when I was a student and was fascinated. The character of Edward was like as if someone from the modern age was teleported by a time machine to that Pleistocene era ! Just imagine, if someone from our era is teleported to, say, the medieval ages! It would have been a history changing incident and the resultant effect on the present would have been just mind boggling !

We have seen the various sequels of the movie ‘Terminator’ wherein the lines between the past, present and future become blurred. The ‘Terminator’ keeps saying “I’ll be Back”(!!) and keeps shuttling back and forth between the past, present and future in the sequels, in a bid to change the history and its resultant effect on the future.

Well, fantasy apart, If we can have a system of transferring the crystallised collective experience and knowledge of the older generation to the younger generation in their purest form, we may make for a wonderful future. In the joint families of yore, this was taken care of by the elders of the family. With disintegration of the joint families, now this advantage is no longer available with us.

Same is the case with the Organisations, employees of around 30/35 years of experience are retired and they go out of the system with the treasure house of their invaluable experience.

Organisations are yet to develop a system to utilise their collective experience/ knowledge after their retirement.

If a system can be devised to remedy the lacunae, a lot of time spent in reinventing the wheel could be better utilised. A system of ‘Mentoring’ could be kept in place to help the young employees in an Organisation . But the senior colleagues may not always be good Mentors, for they might see their juniors as their future competitors ! Then they might not be having either the time or the inclination for mentoring.

I have also seen so many young employees maintaining close contact with their retired seniors on their own, and benefiting from their guidance. Can this practice not be institutionalised in a suitable form ?

The retired colleagues, or the elders of our family, can be our real “Evolution Men”,if we manage to tap their experience and guidance properly.

[i-belong-in-space]

Soliloquy of Seasons

The cycle of seasons on Ceres, a temperate and bountiful spring and summer season followed by a horrifying and extended freeze, rules the minds and lives of all inhabitants of Earth’s third sister planet completely. Cereans are an industrious people bound strictly by tradition and by their original colonization directive– be fruitful and provide the much-needed sustenance for the sister planets.

In Whitewater Valley, Attis is something of an outcast. Born a spring child with the mark of fire, a telling sign of misfortune, Attis knows firsthand the horrors of the freeze and the deadly consequences of the sleeping sickness. However, it is not the dangers of the freeze that haunt Attis, but the lingering childhood memories of a mysterious onyx-eyed boy in the marketplace. When memories once again become reality, and Attis finds himself behaving in ways that break every Cerean tradition, he must discover for himself his place on Ceres and in the universe.

Read Excerpt Here

[armthearmour]

Review Armour of the English Knight 1400-1450

Traditionally in the study of medieval plate armor, two styles of plate armor are recognized: the Italian “Milanese” style and the German “Gothic” style. As the vast majority of surviving elements of armor are from these places and belong to these styles, very little attention has been given to armor from the rest of Europe. In writing the Armour of the English Knight series, Dr. Tobias Capwell sought to help fill this lacuna.

Published in 2015, Armour of the English Knight 1400-1450 is the first in a three part series of books by Dr. Capwell published by Thomas del Mar Ltd. The purpose of the series is to chronicle the development of plate armor in England over the course of the 15th century, and to outline what Capwell argues is a uniquely English style of armor designed for a uniquely English style of warfare.

The work is divided into three sections, the first of which is an introduction. The introduction serves to contextualize the author’s arguments as well as to lay the foundations for much of the information presented later in the book. The first several chapters of the introduction provide the author’s arguments for the existence of a uniquely English style of armor, as well as discussing why the English would develop a unique style. In this context, the author discusses the English method of warfare, which, in this period, the author describes as dominated by infantry actions. To summarize the author’s argument, the propensity of the English man at arms to fight on foot necessitated a different style of armor from the continental knights who most typically entered combat on horseback.

The middle chapters of the introduction discuss the quality of English-made armor and the establishment of English workshops, in particular the famous royal workshop at Greenwich. Here the author relies heavily on primary documentation with an emphasis on payment records to armorers (but also letters which mention armor and the writer’s feelings on armor) to illustrate that English armorers were highly regarded and well paid in their native land. 

The final chapters of the introduction focus on martial effigies. As there is no armor from the period of 1400 to 1450 which can reliably be said to have been made in England, mapping the development of English armor becomes challenging. However, England had a rich medieval tradition of the production of alabaster and brass effigies. These effigies were meant to be accurate likenesses of the individual, which they were meant to represent. The deceased person’s relatives could pray before the effigy to help the deceased’s soul pass through purgatory to heaven more quickly. A large number of effigies made for English noblemen depict them in their armor, providing a wealthy artistic resource for this work.

In addition to contextualizing effigies as an artistic tradition, the author provides convincing arguments for the technical accuracy of the armor depicted on effigies, and discusses the problem of dating effigies. It would seem intuitive to date an effigy to the year of its owner’s death, however, this is rarely the case. Many effigies were begun before the depicted person ever died, and many were made years after the individual died. The armor depicted on the effigy is typically of the style that was present at the time of the effigy’s manufacture, rather than at the time of the individual’s death.

The next two sections of the book discuss the details of English plate armor development. Part I covers the period from 1400 to 1430, while Part II discusses 1430 to 1450. Both of these sections are divided into seven chapters, each dedicated to a particular type of armor: “Helmets,” “The Cuirass,” “Spaulders, Besagews, and Pauldrons,” “Vambraces,” “Gauntlets,” “Leg Armour,” and finally “Sabatons.” Each chapter provides a detailed description of the technical elements of the armor it covers as well as a discussion of the technological advancements that take place in the given period.

While the author relies most heavily on primary sources, he does not neglect secondary scholarship, and the works cited in this book’s bibliography include publications in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. The author includes a large number of footnotes which not only inform the reader as to the source of the author’s information, but also frequently provide additional commentary. A full bibliography of the effigies cited by the author is included, as well as a separate list of the names of the individuals represented on these effigies, where their effigies are located, and the years they died. A glossary of terms and index are also included. Finally, the author appended an appendix which outlines the process, from beginning to end, he went through to produce an armor in the English style for his own use at jousting tournaments and the insights he gained both from the production process and the use of the armor.

Given the wealth of information this book provides and the pioneering nature of its work, Armour of the English Knight 1400-1450 is an invaluable addition to the library of anyone interested in the study of armor. The author’s direct style and tendency to define technical terms clearly makes this work accessible to even the most novice of interested parties, but the level of analysis and use of sources fits a work worthy of a place on the shelves of the most specialized armor scholars. That this work treads ground that has remained untouched by modern scholarship increases its worth even more.

[keeningvoid]

I guess I should have a WIPs post if I'm going to be tagging things

Or an intro or whatever idk, so.

I'm [unpronouncable sounds that equivocate in English to "Keening Void"], I'm a 30 yo crazy person who works at Coffee Shop Chain in the US. I came back to tungle dot hell just as a way to get away from my other social media presences but I slipped into writeblr territory and I'm gonna stay here, y'all are lovely.

Anywho I [think very hard about] writing things. Here are some of the things:

Original Works

Laughing Into the Darkness is an urban fantasy / supernatural romance about a biroace goth not-quite-boy (Adrian) who falls in love with the prince of Hell (Karavox aka Kenney).

Encroaching Lacuna is a (technically furry) space fantasy / light sci-fi superpowers drama about twins, Taliander and Orian, who get kidnapped from their home planet by an imperial war machine.

Urasdia is an epic high fantasy drama that can't figure out if it wants to be a revenge story or a revolution story. Prince Damian of Vemba, his ex Trinh, and his brothers Viktor and Adrien are major characters.

Salvation is a queer cyberpunk story about unexpected allies. Chaz, a nonbinary cyborg sex worker, has saved up enough to get a bigger apartment - with a stranger for a roommate. But Kevin's pretty quiet, and not a bad roommate... He might be a corpo contract killer, though.

Skyward Force is a video game idea I'm tossing around. It's a Shining Force like turn based tactical RPG about time and immortality.

I have a nameless collection of drabbles and concepts surrounding a fursona of mine, Tara; she's a catgirl sex worker & bartender who lives with her werewolf friend Cormac, who she's in love with. Pretty much anything NSFW I write is probably gonna be in Tara's world, and pretty much anything I write in Tara's world is gonna be NSFW.

I also think about drabbling stuff about my tabletop rpg characters: Mitchell, the tiefling warlock; Djarra, the halfling werebear druid; and Torra, the heretic Mechanicus enginseer.

Fanfiction

I don't have a published fanfic presence but I am working on a few things in the Netflix Castlevania, Magnus Archives, and Warhammer 40k fandoms, so I might talk about those from time to time. If I ever actually work on them. You know.

Other Fandoms

These are stuff I'm into but don't necessarily have planned works for.

Books:

Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives (I'm not okay, please write quickly Mister Brandon)

Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series

Rodger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber (fun fact: Urasdia started out as an Amber fanvessel eons ago)

Tolkien's works, of course

Stephen King's Dark Tower books

probably more! I got bad brains

Movies & TV:

Our Flag Means Death

What We Do in the Shadows (both)

Vikings

JJBA

Archer

Cobra Kai

definitely more but again, the bad brains

Other Media Types:

I'm pretty into Magic the Gathering and goth & metal music and sometimes that stuff has story pieces to play with so :) maybe one day.

Probably going to update this later with appropriate tags and anything else that changes. <3

Socializing with my weird ass:

I'm not very good at socializing beyond either pleasantries or infodumping tbh (it's the autismos) but I do like people and I do like what you're working on!

I'm explicitly avoiding Reality here so please don't try to talk to me about politics, current events, etc. - they upset me too much and I have other avenues for dealing with all that. This space, for me, is just about fiction! (I have already broken this for myself but shh we'll just move on.)

Please avoid asking me how I'm doing, if you can. The answer, though impolite, is "bad, but there's nothing much anybody can do about it, so let's not talk about it". I don't want to make anyone feel bad for me, but I also don't want to lie. Better to just avoid the situation altogether.

I'm not great at responding to tag games or the like; on top of the autism, I got them anxiety and overthinkin' problems, ya dig? I also don't have a lot of words actually drafted for any of my WIPs yet [or, don't have a lot that I still have saved, for some] so games like word finds or last lines etc. are really hard haha. I might be better about this in the future.

[bookofjin]

Annals of Zhengshi 2 (505)

[From WS008. Including the adventures of Wang Zu.]

[Zhengshi 2, 19 February 505 – 8 February 506]

2nd Year, Spring, 1st Month, bingzi [23 February], used the Heir to the state of Dangchang, Liang Mibo, as the King of his state.

The state of Dengzhi dispatched envoys to court with tribute.

2nd Month [21 March – 18 April], the Di of Liang# province rebelled and cut off Hanzhong's transport roads. The Inspector Xing Luan again and again greatly routed them.

Summer, 4th Month, jiwei [6 June], the King of Chengyang, Luan, passed away.

On yichou [12 June], a decree said:

Relying on the worthy to clarify good order has been passed through in the counsels from the past. Circulating their manners to help in applying themselves in truth are indeed the many gentlemen. Yet [those] assessed by the Central Correctors only live inside gates and mansions, the personnel section's moral laws and human relationships still do not bring up talent. Thereupon they make the gallant and virtuous scarcely promoted, and the ministers apply themselves to many blockages. Not concentrating on their selection, how might they examine their progress? The Eight Seats can thoroughly discuss former eras' methods for commending gentlemen, and framework for drawing up the worthy, and certainly cause the talented and schooled to equally stretch out.

On bingyin [13 June], since the Di of Chouchi were rebellious, decreed the Brilliantly Blessed Grandee Yang Chun as provisional General who Pacifies the West, to lead the multitudes to chastise them.

Xing Luan dispatched the Army Director Wang Zu on a western offensive. He again and again routed Xiao Yan's various armies, and thereupon entered Jiange. He seized Yan's General Fan Shi'nan, and sent him off to the Imperial City.

5th Month, xinsi [28 June], the Di thief [lacuna] Hu led the multitudes to surrender.

6th Month, jichou [6 July? In the 5thMonth], a decree said:

The previous court's merited subjects sometimes personally had the misfortune to be reprimanded and demoted, their sons and grandsons were sunk and obstructed. Sometimes the route of officialdom neglected the sequence, and was putting aside the old flow. To follow that and not select, how then to encourage and motivate?

When talking of and recalling previous achievements, [we] feel there are those close and those far apart. For the [imperial] lineage and commoner families, those whose grandfathers and great grandfathers' merits and achievements can be chronicled but have no court offices, and those who have offices and talent and ability are copiously brought forth, pursue talent when assessing conferrals.

On jiayin [31 July], Xiao Yan's General of the Best of the Army, Li Tian, and others set up camps east of Shiping commandery and north of Fu River. Wang Zu confronted, struck, and defeated them. He beheaded Yan's General of the Best of the Army, Zhang Tang, General who Assists the State, Ma Shi, Generals who Soothes the Boreal, Li Dang and Jiang Jianzu, General who Assists the State, Feng Wenhao, Dragon Prancing General, He Yingzhi, and others.

On jiazi [10 August], decreed the Master of Writing Li Chong, the Grand Treasurer Vassal Yu Zhong, the Cavalier Regular Attendant You Zhao, the Remonstrating Consultant Grandee Deng Xian; that Chong and Zhong [being] Envoys Holding the Tally and also Combined Palace Attendants, Xian Combined Yellow Gates, everyone to be Great Envoys, and bring together and pass judgement on the outer provinces and inside of the imperial demesne. If there were those of their groups of wardens and prefects who were blamed for neglecting to clearly display and lay bare, they were to readily carry out judgement. Provinces and garrisons with heavy duties were to take heed to make it known.

On yichou [11 August], Xiao Yan's General of the Best of the Army, Wang Jingyin, General who Assists the State, Lu Fangda, and others attacked Zhuting. Wang Zu greatly routed them, and beheaded their General who Assists the State, Wang Jingyin, and Dragon Prancing General Zhang Fangchi.

On dingmao [13 August], the Inspector of Yang province, Xue Zhendu, greatly routed Xiao Yan's general Wang Chaozong, and took prisoner and beheaded 3 000.

On wuchen [14 August], Xiao Yan's general Lu Fangda stationed at Shuxin City [?]. Zu again dispatched the Army Director Lu Zuqian and others to strike and defeat him. They beheaded Yan's General of the Best of the Army Yang Boren and General who Soothes the Boreal, Ren Anding.

Autumn, 7th Month, jiaxu [20 August], a decree said:

Us succeeding to steering the treasured series is now in the 7thyear. Virtue and beneficence is not yet spreading, and discernment does not illuminate the distant. A person's illness from injustice is what is still propagating. And yet the litigations from investigations and examinations are not unimpeded among the subordinates, the worthy and stupid are not separated, ink-black and white are equally threaded together, not the means by which to change the people's ears and eyes, and make good and evil encourage their hearts.

Now allot and dispatch the Great Envoys, to scrutinize the regions, tour and investigate. In due course, if their mistakes and demerits and the sound of their manners are fitting together, then rectify and demote, to thereby clarify the awesomeness of a thunderclap, and to unroll the elevation of the yak-tail coach. Following that, on observing the manners and telling apart customs, gather and inquire into merits and transgressions, praise and award the worthy, investigate and penalize the excessive and depraved, attend to the poor and care for the ill-treated, and so declare Our heart.

On wuzi [3 September], Wang Zu struck and routed Xiao Yan's army, and beheaded his Dragon-Prancing General Yu Zenghui, General who Soothes the Boreal Ku Baoshou, General who Assists the State Lu Tianhui, General who Establishes the Martial Wang Wenbiao.

Wang Zu pressured Fucheng.

On renchen [7 September], Xiao Yan's Grand Warden of Baxi Yu Yu, General of the Best of the Army and Master of Army Directors Li Tian, and others confronted him in battle. Zu struck and routed him. The prisoners and beheaded numbered a thousand.

8th Month, renyin [17 September], decreed the King of Zhongshan, Ying, to go south and chastise Xiang and Mian.

On gengxu [25 September]. Wang Zu dispatched the Army Directors Ji Hongya and Lu Zuqian and others to attack and rout Yan's army. They beheaded his Inspector of Qin and Liang# provinces, Lu Fangda and others, fifteen people.

On renzi [27 September], Wang ZU again dispatched Army Director Lu Zuqian and others to rout Yan's army. They beheaded his Chief Controller and General of the Best of the Army, the State-Founding Count ofZitong county, Wang Jingyin, Liu Da, and others, twenty-four generals.

On jiayin [29 September], Yang province struck Yan's general Jiang Qingzhen at Yangshi, and routed him.

This Month [14 September – 13 October], Yan's Grand Warden of Miandong, Tian Qingxi, led 7 commanderies, 31 counties, and 10 090 households to adhere within.

9th Month, jisi [14 October], the Inspector of Yang province, Yuan Song, struck and routed Yan's Inspector of Xiang province, Yang Gongze, and others, and beheaded and captured several thousand.

Winter, 11th Month, wuchen, New Moon [12 December], the King of the state of Wuxing, Yang Shaoxian's junior uncle Jiqi planned rebellion. Decreed the Brilliantly Blessed Grandee Yang Chun to chastise him.

Wang Zu besieged Fucheng. The various commanderies and defence posts in Yi province who surrendered were twenty-three, the people who sent off their records and registers were more than 50 000 households. Then Zu pulled in the army and withdrew.

12th Month, gengshen [2 February], also decreed the Great General of Agile Cavalry, Yuan Huan to be careful, and ordered him to chastise the rebelling Di of Wuxing.

[qqueenofhades]

love your crusade answers! do you have any book or article recs for those of us interested in the muslim perspective/general medieval middle eastern history? (also, given your astounding history-based answers: are there any periods or facets of history you wish you were asked more about on here?)

Absolutely!

First off, I answered this ask the other week, which had a long list of book/article recs for medieval Muslims in Europe/Latin Christendom, Christian perspectives on them, and the cultural context and conflict embedded in those exchanges (as well as a second list with recs for work on historical queer Muslims). In the list below, I’ve tried to focus on the medieval Middle East and Islamic world outside the crusades, including the Islamic golden age, although there are a few books that cover the Muslim sources/views on the crusades. I’ve noted before that I don’t usually recommend books on the crusades that I haven’t read myself (especially popular histories), so all the volumes dealing with the crusades are either ones that I have read, they’re written by scholars whose other work I’m familiar with, or they’re recommended by people that I have met or otherwise trust. Most of these are academic in nature, and a few of the articles will require institutional logins for full text (alas). Some of them are also written for a more general audience, but yes, mostly academic.

So:

Jack Tannous, The Making of the Medieval Middle East: Religion, Society, and Simple Believers (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018)

Carole Hillenbrand, ed., The Crusades: Muslim Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2000)

Niall Christie, Muslims and Crusaders: Christianity’s Wars in the Middle East, 1095-1382, From the Islamic Sources (London: Routledge, 2020)

Nicholas Morton, The Field of Blood: The Battle for Aleppo and the Remaking of the Medieval Middle East (New York: Basic Books, 2018)

Piers D. Mitchell and Andrew Millard, ‘Migration to the Medieval Middle East with the Crusades’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 140 (2009), 518-25.

Forzia Bora, Writing History in the Medieval Islamic World: The Value of Chronicles as Archives (London: I.B. Tauris, 2018)

Howard R. Turner, Science in Medieval Islam: An Illustrated Introduction (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010)

Amira K. Bennison, The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the Abbasid Empire (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014)

Ahmed Renim, Habib Tiliouine, and Richard J. Estes, ‘The Islamic Golden Age: A Story of the Triumph of Islamic Civilization’ in The State of Social Progress of Islamic Societies (Springer, 2016), pp. 25-52. (This last one also has a fairly long bibliography with extra recs, which you can access in the free part of the article, hooray!)

As far as the history questions I get: I feel as if the most popular categories are about what you would expect -- i.e. women, queer people, social and cultural conditions, “Bad Old Medieval Times” stereotypes, Game of Thrones History TM, and now questions related to The Old Guard/Joe and Nicky/the medieval Mediterranean, the crusades, Muslim-Christian relations, vel sim. All of which I’m happy to answer, since they’re often things that coincide with my real-life research interests, give me a chance to expand my own bibliographic lists and reading resources, and are often what draw people to the medieval world in the first place. Since I have obviously had many, many rants on the use and misuse of the “medieval” in modern culture, whether in media or politics or as a rhetorical category or whatever, I am in full support of anything that stimulates people to think critically about this and interrogate those distorted depictions (because, as I’m sure everybody has noticed, they drive me UP THE WALL). Basically, if you’re going to social media to learn history, which can be highly questionable but is nonetheless how a lot of it (often wildly wrong) gets absorbed and transmitted, I’d prefer that people come to me, an actual historian with a PhD in the subject, rather than just whatever crazy-ass Tumblr History TM take is making the rounds now (and many of which I have had to debunk in the past.)

This is useful for me because I very much enjoy educating people about history, as you might expect for an academic who has (dubiously) decided to attempt to do this for a living. While I’m still in the seemingly endless lacuna between teaching jobs, it helps me to feel like I’m making a positive contribution and being helpful somehow. I like to think that my answers are, for the most part, comprehensive and useful, and provide a starting point to enable someone to do further research on their own, which is at the core of what we essentially want to teach. Because I have had so many people telling me that they either learned a ton of history from DVLA, or were inspired to go do their own research as a result, I think that was clearly an effective teaching tool (hey, it takes all kinds, and fic is obviously a much more painless way to absorb information rather than a complicated and technical academic text). I do still want to scrape together enough spoons to compile an actual study guide/historical appendix/reference list for it, since I know that is something that people have expressed interest in, so we’ll see if that happens eventually. But yes, I WANT you all to go out and learn research skills and apply that to your reading and find it interesting and to be able to process complex information in a sophisticated way! It’s a helpful skill for all of life, not just history, and is especially useful in our current moment.

....anyway, soapboxing aside, I’m usually happy to answer whatever I get asked, provided that I know at least a little about it and/or am able to dig up resources and look like I know. I obviously have my areas of interests and specialties, and people who follow my blog often have at least a tangential interest in those things too. I will likewise know more about certain subject areas than others, since no historian can possibly know everything, but I will do my best.