#map of byzantine empire

[mapsontheweb]

Byzantine Empire, 600 CE.

[bumblesimagines]

Under The Moonlight

Part 16

Request: Yes or No

Summary: Seven years have passed since (Y/N) and the crew arrived to Constantinople. They've settled in since then, but life has not been easy for them.

CW/TW: Violence, war, religion bashing, vikings being vikings, period era situationships lmao, angst?, hurt emotionally and physically but barely any comfort, red flags? dont know her, (y/n) im begging you there's better fish in the sea

If you're new here and wondering where this came from, you can check out part one here and the masterlist here!

~~~

Seven years had passed since Emperor Romanos offered his sincere gratitude for ensuring the safe passage of his new wife, Eleana who they now were to call Empress Zoe. His gratitude reared its head through riches, rewards, and a place amongst his people, as well as a place amongst his army of men trained to kill and conquer the land of the empire's enemies. Constantinople was home now, even if temporarily.

They'd all settled in, although it'd taken time to grow accustomed to the vastly different culture and language. It'd been a difficult feat for (Y/N), his longing for his real home never dissipating amidst the heat and flourishing city. He missed his settlement in Greenland, his old friends, dearly missed his beloved mother who'd no doubt presumed him dead when he and his siblings hadn't returned home from their voyage. He longed for the cold and snow, the sound of the wind howling at night. 

Leif and Harald, ever the adaptable ones, slotted in perfectly with their surroundings.

Harald climbed the ranks with ease, finding himself a stranger no more to Emperor Romanos as his personal bodyguard and newfound general of his own army: the Varangians, an army full of Vikings and mercenaries in need of a home and money. It'd been expected from a Viking prince to slither his way up and coil around such an important role. He ensured the crew joined his army, and took part in the fighting and rewards. But it was never enough for Harald, no matter how many riches he acquired through the years. Nothing was ever enough for him.

Leif took to Mariam's old home and called it his own, his newfound thirst for knowledge only growing after he read through all her books and eventually began seeking it out in places called 'libraries'; rooms of knowledge, he explained. Each time they traveled to fight another war for Emperor Romanos, he sought out the writings and maps of those places, learning new information from ancient and modern times. The sciences of the world around them enthralled him, captivated him into an obsession. (Y/N) preferred it, though. He preferred his brother's eagerness over watching Leif lose himself in grief again. 

As much as (Y/N) found himself feeling out of place, fighting for the Byzantine Empire and calling Constantinople had given him much to do; and provided him with chances to see places he never would've dreamt of seeing. Such as the place they'd traveled to now, to defeat the Saracens at the urging of General Maniakes in Sicily. They'd been fighting for six months in what felt like an endless siege, and Emperor Romanos had begun growing antsy. 

(Y/N) squinted through the darkness as he walked through the tunnels they'd been digging for the past few weeks, a lantern tightly gripped in one hand and held before him. His eyes slowly grew accustomed to the darkness around him, allowing him to better see the crevices in the dirt walls around him. Short wooden beams and planks held the dirt in place, preventing it from crumpling and trapping those within. All a part of Leif's plan, as always. 

"How are we doing, Kaysan?" (Y/N) called out once the man came into view, flashing him a smile and being rewarded with a large one in return. Kaysan chuckled and wiped his hands along his pants, the subtle stink of sulfur lingering in the air around them. Foul-smelling enough to bring tears to one's eyes, but Leif insisted it was needed for his plan to work. 

"Your brother is working on the last of the sulfur we need. He says once it is ready, we can set the plan in motion." Kaysan answered, taking a step back to admire the combined work of the last couple weeks. Bundles of sulfur had been pushed into holes expanding across the wall of dirt, ready to be lit by a flame that'd bring down the tunnel and subsequently the wall of the fortress just mere feet above them. "I must admit I had little faith in his plan at first. But seeing what this powder can do when a flame is close to it..." Kaysan shook his head lightly, a twinkle of admiration in his dark eyes. 

"It is hard to match up to such a creative thinker as Leif." (Y/N) chuckled, his steps slow as he walked along the wall and took in the wall before him. He'd always known his brother had been destined for great things, whether on land or sea. Leif had inherited the best parts of his parents. No longer the savage son of Erik the Red. No, that title had fallen on (Y/N)'s shoulders, and he accepted it. 

"Come now," Kaysan gave his shoulder a small playful push. "You hardly need to match up to him, (Y/N). You're a smart man, and a loyal one at that; and, from what I've heard, you're quite charismatic when you wish to be."

"Have you been gossiping with the others, Kay?" (Y/N) questioned with a teasing grin, casting a glance at the man over his shoulder. It hardly counted as gossip, he supposed. Things with Harald never lasted long, whether he pulled away first or Harald did, but they always returned to each other in a desperate clash. It was vexing and tiresome, and he'd made up his mind a long time ago to put his foot down when it came to the charming prince. 

Kaysan gave a light shrug. "It surprised us, is all." 

The thumping of footsteps, soft panting, and clinking of lanterns swaying filled the tunnel, and (Y/N) had heard the panting noise enough times to recognize who it belonged to. He made brief eye contact with Kaysan and turned, raising his lantern high and smiling at the sight of his brother, although it faltered slightly when Harald appeared behind him. 

"Keeping an eye on things?" Leif asked, his hand rubbing affectionately into (Y/N)'s shoulder when he passed him by. The two Vikings carried sacks slung over their shoulder, no doubt the last of the sulfur they needed to ensure the wall would completely collapse and allow them within. (Y/N) gave a silent nod, feeling Harald's eyes burning into the side of his skull.

"Future King of Norway," Kaysan greeted teasingly, patting Harald's arm and taking the sack from Harald so he could insert the last of it into the dirt walls around them. Harald chuckled breathlessly in return, tearing his eyes away from (Y/N) to study the dirt room. (Y/N) allowed himself to watch him, taking in the grime and blood covering his exposed biceps and face. He'd ridden off to battle once more, no doubt a failure as all the battles before. 

"As soon as we take this castle," Harald murmured, his hands coming to rest at his hips. (Y/N) swallowed, his gaze sliding away from the beautiful prince as bitterness settled in his stomach. Despite the years that'd passed, Harald's mind never changed on what he truly desired above all else: the throne of Norway, one occupied by the son of a man Harald once considered a close friend. 

"Is there really as much treasure inside as you say?" Kaysan asked, voice strained as he worked to shove the rolls of sulfur into the wall with Leif's help.

"Enough to fund all our dreams," Harald replied. 

(Y/N) hooked his lantern on one of the wooden posts and crouched down beside him, rolling up the dark blue sleeves of his tunic and revealing the ink along his right arm. The creature his mother would tell tales of back in his youth; a sea monster that resembled an octopus but grew to be as large as a warship named Kraken.

The head and body of the began around his bicep while the tentacles expanded and wrapped around his forearm, stopping around his wrist. He understood why so many others covered themselves with ink, whether writings or designs. The Kraken reminded him of his mother, of all the times he spent on a boat watching his brother and father hunt for narwhals and other sea beasts. 

Dipping his hand into the sack, he wrapped his fingers around one of the rolls and carefully lifted it before he pushed it into one of the holes in the wall. He rolled it side to side, scrapping and mushing dirt until the roll was securely in place. He mimicked the movements with a few more rolls, absentmindedly listening to the three men speak about the plan until he finished, his fingertips lightly dusted in the vibrant yellow powder. (Y/N) stood back up and turned, nearly barreling into Harald's chest plate. 

"Can we speak?" Harald asked softly, and (Y/N) felt his skin burn at the knowing glances cast in their direction from Kaysan and Leif. 

"We have little to speak about, Harald." (Y/N) told him, scooping his lantern back into his hand and making his way through the tunnel. Harald followed him because the man never took an answer he didn't want, and (Y/N) largely ignored him until they reached the entrance of the tunnel and stepped out into the blinding light of the late evening. 

"There's much to speak about, actually. Starting with the most important thing-"

"The throne?" (Y/N)'s features scrunched up, his spotty vision slowly adjusting to the daylight around them. He blinked a few times and his vision finally focused on the bustling camp around them. His gaze darted back to Harald's face, catching the grimace that passed over his features at his words before the general cleared his throat. 

"No, I do not... I don't wish to speak of the throne. I know how you feel about it. You know how I feel about it." Harald frowned, his lips nearly covered by his thick beard. He took the lanterns from his hands and hung them up by the entrance, a heavy sigh escaping him. "You've done well in Constantinople for many years. I've seen you flourish. You're not as guarded as you once were. If you can do well in a court like the Emperor's, you'd do even better in a Viking court amongst your own people." 

"Except it'd be your court with Christian jarls and Vikings who believe me worshipping a god that isn't theirs is a crime punishable by death. Your religion loves violently, Harald, as do its supporters. They'd condemn you for everything you've done with me." (Y/N) scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief and walking forward deeper into camp toward his tent. They'd had the conversation many times over the last few years, a neverending dance of push and pull trying to tire each other out into admitting defeat. But they were Vikings, and Vikings never gave up easily. 

(Y/N) stepped through the flaps of his tent and released a heavy sigh, his feet guiding him to the basin sat on the table filled with warm water. He dipped his hands inside, cleaning the dirt and sulfur off his fingers until the water turned murky. The tent flaps rustled with the arrival of someone else stepping into his tent and he peeked over his shoulders, half-expecting to see Harald but only seeing Dorn. She smiled at him, her hands and sleeves of her blue tunic steeped in dark red. He crinkled his nose. 

"Trust me," She sighed. "I know how it smells." 

"Come wash your hands, then." (Y/N) smiled, picking up a rag and drying his hands with it as she stepped up and eagerly rinsed her hands clean of pig's blood. Her eyes flickered up toward him a few times, her lips twisting and teeth digging lightly into them. He tilted his head at her and took a seat at the table, reaching out to pluck a grape from the bowl in the center. "What is it, Dorn?" 

"Batu and I were speaking the other day, and the topic of you and Harald came up." She began softly, thumb roughly rubbing into the skin of her palm until the streak of blood disappeared. Dorn raised her drenched hands toward her face, wiping off the grime and splatters of blood that'd collected on her skin. "I always wondered what went wrong between you both. When we meet... it seemed as if you two had much unspoken business. Then, during our trip to Constantinople, it all became clear. You were lovers, or former lovers, it was hard to tell at times but you... loved each other. We thought you had reconciled from whatever had occurred and yet..." 

"I've come to learn that love is complicated, and at most times it's the worst thing that can occur. Harald is... a lot of things, too many things, truly. If you are worried that the same will happen between you and Batu, I can certainly assure you that it will not. Batu loves you, Dorn. I can see that you love him. You're happy together, content. Neither of you desires more than what you have now. Harald does. He hungers for far too many things, and it will eventually be his ruin. I do not wish to be dragged along with him." 

"But you love each other?" Dorn questioned, wiping away droplets of water from her chin and drying her hands on her pants. (Y/N) plopped the grape into his mouth and bit into it, feeling the juices explode along his tongue as he mulled over her question. He loved Harald, he knew that well, but part of him resented him too. Most days, Harald made him wonder if he loved him, or merely lusted after him.

"It's complicated." He answered quietly, and Dorn winced, giving a meek nod and turning on her heel to leave the tent. He watched her depart, a mixture of emotions coiling around his heart and constricting it. (Y/N) released a shaky inhale and ran his hand over his face, forcing away the thoughts of Harald and their odd relationship to focus on preparing himself for a good night's rest and a long morning. 

Seven years had passed, but it barely changed either of them.

The following morning, (Y/N) and the others awoke and began preparing for the day ahead before the sun had even risen over the horizon. They changed into clothes more worthy of battle, putting on their armor and chain mail before collecting their weapons. (Y/N) secured his dagger to his hip and retrieved a battle axe, a hefty yet powerful thing that'd do more swift damage than his dagger. By the time the sun rose, the Varangian army had gathered around awaiting instructions. 

"Ready?" Leif asked softly, instinctively reaching out to check the straps of (Y/N)'s armor. The younger man smiled and allowed him to do so without fuss, a soft chuckle leaving him when Leif gave an approving nod, his fingers running over the chain mail before his arms dropped back to his sides. 

"As always." (Y/N) sighed, glancing at Harald when the prince approached them. The deep furrow in his brows softened when they locked eyes, the determination in his gaze disappearing into a look of longing. Harald had grown over the years, all his training with a disciplined army making him stronger, and larger. His hair had grown, as had his beard, and on the days the two managed to keep the peace without arguments, Harald allowed him to trim them. He looked older, more king than prince, and it made his stomach churn to admit it to himself.

Harald walked past them with a nod, coming to a stop at the entrance of the tunnel and peering into the darkness inside where Batu and Kaysan waited for the right moment. They were to draw the attention of the soldiers and coax them into attacking first so the flames from their attack ignited the trail leading to the sulfur. Once ignited, the two had to run before the tunnel exploded and the wall fell. Harald raised his battle axe and lightly tapped the bell, the one Batu needed to ring when the plan sprung into action. 

"You never were good at waiting, were you?" Leif arched a brow, wrapping his fingers around the bell to stop it from swaying and tolling. A small, playful smile tugged at Harald's lips. "Patience. It won't be long now, friend."

"Patience is hardly one of Harald's best attributes." (Y/N) murmured, a hint of teasing in his voice that drew Harald's lips into a full smile. Harald's hand reached out toward him, his palm pressing over his hip and sliding over his lower back; fingers dipping under the silver armor and pressing into the fabric beneath. His touch always felt protective and safe, but it never failed to fill (Y/N) with a false sense of hope. 

"It has always been one of yours, though," Harald spoke softly, his fingertips rubbing the fabric into (Y/N)'s skin affectionately. His eyes crinkled, and despite everything that'd been bubbling up inside (Y/N)'s stomach, he returned the smile. The prince's hand moved to the base of his neck, squeezing the exposed skin there lightly. To any strangers, it may have come across as two close friends merely speaking. But it was simply because Harald couldn't touch his face in public as he desired. "We should speak after the battle, (Y/N). I cannot allow another day to pass without us having a conversation." 

Pursing his lips, (Y/N) gave a small nod and wrapped his fingers over Harald's wrist. "Fine, Harald." Harald's features brightened and he leaned in, pressing their foreheads together before he released him as the bell began to toll. 

The enemy had fallen right for Leif's trap, just as they had hoped. 

Harald clapped Leif's shoulder and trekked back to his post atop a mound of dirt overlooking his army of seven hundred men and women. He began his speech, his words of encouragement riling up the army into cheers and shouts, warrior cries and calls. (Y/N) lingered by the tunnel's entrance, searching the dark for any sign of Batu and Kaysan as the army erupted into more cheers and cries. He spotted movement and Batu emerged, his armor slightly singed and parts of him coated in ash. (Y/N) waited with bated breath for Kaysan, but he never emerged, 

"Leif," (Y/N) turned to look at his brother, giving a light shake of his head. Leif's jaw clenched and he inhaled sharply, tossing his axe to Batu and motioning for him to join the others before he entered the tunnel, the darkness swallowing him and voice echoing off the walls until it grew distant and hardly audible. 

The cries and war horns sounded off through the valley as the army moved, rushing toward the wall their tunnel had led to. The ground gave a light tremor, and through the darkness, Leif emerged with Kaysan leaning on his body, a trickle of blood seeping down from his temple as dark smoke escaped from within the tunnel. (Y/N) called over one of the healers, helping his brother hand Kaysan off to the older man before the two turned and spotted the wall crumbling into a heap of smoke and dust. General Maniakes' men sprinted into action, following after the Varangians and joining the battle. 

"Come!" Leif called to him, taking two axes for himself and running toward the fortress with (Y/N) hot on his heels. 

Stepping through the rumble of the fallen wall, all that could be heard were cries of anger and pain, the clashing of metal against metal, and the thumping of rushing footsteps as all armies hurried to fight and defend. (Y/N) moved forward, locking onto the first Saracen soldier he saw and swinging his axe. The soldier blocked with his shield and then pulled it away to thrust his sword forward, but (Y/N) anticipated the attack and dodged, raising his axe and embedding the blade into the side of the soldier's throat. 

Taking the shield for himself, (Y/N) used it to block attacks from other soldiers, shoving them back and into expecting Varangians who struck the soldiers down with cries and heaves. The first wave of soldiers fell easily and (Y/N) heard Harald's victory cry sound off throughout the air, the tight crowd dispersing throughout the fortress to attack, take, and conquer as they made their way to the castle. The people residing within the walls had quickly fled to the castle for sanctuary, leaving the place largely deserted apart from the second and then the third wave of soldiers. 

By the time they reached the castle gates, Emperor Romanos had joined them, and with his appearance came a plea for parley that momentarily stopped the fighting. (Y/N) found his way to Leif, standing beside him and Dorn as the gates into the castle slowly parted, revealing soldiers inside and the people that'd taken refuge watching from windows or along the roofs. Their ruler, the Emir of Syracuse, waited in the center, clad in clothes and robes of gold and black. He walked forward, and despite his city having been sacked, his face remained unreadable. 

"Emir," Emperor Romanos spoke, "We have reached your barbican and taken your city. Your castle is surrounded. I have come to ask for your surrender, to save your people unnecessary suffering and death." Leif stepped forward, beginning to repeat his words in Arabic but the Emir raised his hand to stop him.

"A translator is not necessary. I understand you perfectly." He said, waving Leif off before he turned his attention back to Emperor Romanos, his dark eyes studying the shorter man before him. "There will be no surrender. As we speak, a great Saracen army is on its way from Cairo and Alexandria to join us. When it arrives it will be you who is surrounded and destroyed."

"For your sake, you should hope it arrives soon." Emperor Ramons responded.

There seemed to be a certain smugness that passed over the Emir's features, finally breaking the serious stare. "We are not worried. We have food and supplies to last us many months."

"But no water." Leif piped up, and the smugness promptly vanished, the furrow in Emir's brows disappearing and the corner of his lips turning downwards. "Syracuse has six wells. I diverted water from five. Your supply will last a week at most." 

At that, Emperor Romanos grinned. "Perhaps your allies will reach you and destroy us before that happens, or perhaps they won't and..." His eyes raised and dragged over the people watching and listening, amongst them women and frightened children. The Emir's head turned and (Y/N) followed his line of sight to a woman with three children at her side, all of various ages. His wife and children, he assumed. "Syracuse will perish. But either way.. many will die. And all will suffer."

"Then I offer another solution," The Emir said, tearing his attention away from his family to look back at them. "Single combat between two fighters. If you are victorious, Sycaruse is yours and you have my promise that my warriors will not retaliate. If you lose, you must depart and not return. Either way, my people must not be harmed."

"And who would your warrior be?" The Emperor inquired with a slight tilt of his head. (Y/N) glanced toward Harald, and then General Maniakes. The brutal, hate-filled man had hardly done much to win his ruler's approval over the last days, at least in comparison to Harald who'd handed him the fortress on a golden platter with little trouble. The Emperor himself would never fight, but he'd certainly unleash his favorite dog on the enemy. 

"Me," Emir answered icily. "And yours?"

"I fight for the empire." General Maniakes deep voice rumbled as he stepped forward but Emperor Romanos raised his hand to stop him, shaking his head and turning to look over his shoulder at Harald. The corners of his lips twisted up into a smile, one that made General Maniakes scowl and glare viciously at Harald.

"You will fight my Varangian." Emperor Romanos responded, striding forward toward the Emir and giving a dip of his head. "And you have my promise. Your people will not be harmed and our agreement, honored."

(Y/N) remained silent the walk back to camp, his gaze bouncing between the floor and staring holes into the back of Harald's head as they entered Leif's tent alongside the others. He approached the basin and dipped a rag inside, roughly wiping his hands and face clean to distract himself from his churning mind. He could feel the irritation creeping up his back, an annoyance he couldn't quite pin on anyone. Batu sharpened Harald's axe in thought, the sound filling the silence while Kaysan helped Harald adjust his armor. 

"If we were in Novgorod, I could sell a thousand seats and make enough to retire," Batu said and laughed heartily, his words only reminding (Y/N) of the countless times Harald had thrown himself into battle without thinking. He scarcely had good memories of Novgorod, and the ones he remembered vividly were of Harald bloody and battered. 

Without thinking, (Y/N) sent Batu a glare sharp enough to get his friend to hurriedly clamp his mouth shut and wince. He cleared his throat and diverted his eyes, subtly motioning for Kaysan and him to make their exit. Kaysan nodded and stood up from his stool, giving Harald a pat on the shoulder as Batu handed him his axe back and smiled encouragingly before the two quickly slipped out of the tent; leaving Harald alone with the two brothers. 

"We can select three weapons. I'll start with the battle axe." Harald spoke, approaching the weapon's table and setting the axe alongside the rest. (Y/N) inhaled deeply through his nose and rubbed his fingertips against his temple to soothe the beginnings of a headache away before it could consume him. Leif remained equally as silent and it finally made Harald cave. "You're both quiet, which means you're either angry or worried about something. Perhaps both."

"I worry you underestimate him," Leif revealed with a sigh, raising his head to look at his friend with a growing frown. Harald scoffed, his brows furrowing as his eyes darted between the two brothers, almost as if offended they'd doubt him. (Y/N) squeezed the water out of the rag and set it aside to dry, finally looking up at the prince. 

"I underestimate no man who's trying to kill me." Harald retorted, turning his irritated stare onto the weapons spread out in front of him. "We'll both be fighting for our lives." 

"No, only you will be." Leif's lips formed a grim line, feet moving slowly as he approached his friend and motioned in the direction of the castle. "He is fighting for his people."

"As am I-"

"What people? Yours or Romanos's?" Leif questioned him sharply, arching his brows and drawing a scowl from Harald. (Y/N) leaned his hip back against the table, his arms folding over his stomach. Harald and his short temper... it was a mystery how the man had lived for so long without getting himself killed.

"I fight today for the same reason I've been fighting for the last seven years! For treasure." It stung, even if (Y/N) had seen it coming, piercing his stomach and sucking him dry of the false hope. "So I can return to Norway and assume the throne of my people, which is rightfully mine. Nothing else." 

"I am glad to hear my brother and I are hardly considered things you fight for, Harald, after we've spent the last seven years fighting and living in a foreign country for you." (Y/N) seethed, and the tension in Harald's shoulders disappeared, his eyes squeezing shut and a silent curse forming on his lips. His chest heaved with a sigh and he stepped past Leif, his arm extending to grab him but (Y/N) smacked it away with a scoff. "I can understand caring little for a bedmate but Leif deserves to be someone you fight for after everything he's done for you." 

"A bedmate- (Y/N), I-" 

"Enjoy your fight, General." (Y/N) shoved past him forcibly and rounded the table before Harald could attempt to stop him. He threw the flaps of the tent apart and stepped out into the sunlight, taking a sharp inhale of the fresh air to calm the fury and hurt dancing along his veins. His fingers wrapped around the handle of his dagger, allowing himself to take a few more steadying breaths. 

He'd made the right decision years prior, he reminded himself. Harald proved it to him time after time. He just needed a reminder every once in a while, even if it hurt.

(Y/N) avoided looking in Harald's direction once he finished preparing for the fight, only focusing on following Emperor Romanos into the castle where they'd set up an area for the fight. He broke away from the Emperor's tight crowd to stand behind the table where Batu placed Harald's other two choices of weapon: a smaller battle axe and a sword, with the larger battle axe being the one he walked into the makeshift arena with. 

"He didn't mean to say it like that," Leif said quietly, always the one forced to make peace between them. (Y/N) pursed his lips and clasped his hands in front of himself, his fingers wrapping tightly around his palm. "I know you called yourself a bedmate to hurt him, (Y/N). You've seen how desperate he's been these past three years; you've seen how he gets when he hears you have a new lover. You are much more to him than that."

"But not enough to desire a different destiny for himself." Leif fell quiet at that, his softened eyes gazing into the side of his brother's face before he sighed softly and looked forward toward the two fighters when they entered the arena and assumed their positions. Despite his lingering hurt, worry jabbed at his stomach for Harald. 

Harald moved first, swinging his axe upward to knock back the Emir's sword, but the Emir moved swiftly, turning on his feet and facing Harald before he could turn around. Harald's jaw ticked and he studied his opponent, switching which hand held the axe before he charged again, grasping the axe with both hands and taking a few swings at him; metal clanging through the air as the Emir swiftly blocked each swing with his sword until Harald turned his axe and slammed the blunt end against his chest, forcing him back a few steps. 

The Emir grunted and grabbed Harald's axe, shoving it back and mimicking his movement as he slammed the handle of his sword repeatedly into Harald's chest which forced Harald to stumble backward and just barely dodge a swing from the sword. The Emir charged, giving Harald hardly any time to dodge another swing but he managed to duck down in time and create some distance between them to reassess his approach. The Emir sneered, baring his teeth and grasping the handle of his sword with both hands. He was a good fighter, as all rulers had to be. 

Harald charged again, slamming the end and top of his axe repeatedly against the Emir's side before slamming the top near his armpit and forcing him back roughly against the stone wall. The Emir released a shout at the impact and shoved the axe away, slashing his sword at Harald and missing his chest plate by an inch or so. Harald swung again, only for his axe to slam into the wall and break in half, leaving him without a weapon. 

With the half still in hand, he managed to defend himself by blocking the Emir's attacks as he sprang and walked backward toward the table. He threw the broken piece at the Emir's head, nearly hitting his ear, and swiftly turned on his heel to snatch both weapons from the table. He faced the Emir once more, eyes narrowing when the Emir approached his own table and took two new swords into his hands. They stared at each other for a brief moment, catching their breaths. 

The Emir charged first with a cry - perhaps growing emboldened with the trickle of blood seeping from Harald's brow - and swung both his swords at him relentlessly, turning and swinging as he followed Harald's quick dodges. Harald nearly sank his axe into the Emir's face in a quick turn but the Emir dodged it in time. They continued back and forth, swinging and dodging hits from each other with grunts and cries. They moved viciously and relentlessly, switching between fighting offensively and defensively within seconds as they grew more enraged and desperate for a win. 

Harald managed to swipe at the Emir's feet and knock him onto the gravelly ground, the Emir's foot rising up quickly to slam into Harald's knee and knock him down into a kneeling position. The Emir moved onto his knees as well, the blows they swung at each other forcing them to remain kneeling until the Emir launched himself forward and Harald threw himself backward, both men rolling along the floor. Harald moved onto his side and attempted to stab the Emir in the side with his sword but the Emir slashed right through the blade, leaving him with a sword resembling a knife. 

The two men scrambled upright and assessed each other again, sucking in large gulps of air and staring each other down. Harald switched the way he held his broken sword and the swing-block dance resumed until Harald swung at the Emir's and was cut just above the elbow. He released a cry of pain and sound around, wincing as he touched his bleeding arm before looking up at his opponent. The Emir stared at Harald, his breathing turning wheezy and his feet staggering. (Y/N) caught the gleam of the broken sword jammed right below the Emir's armpit. 

The Emir raised his arm and stumbled forward again, a look of distraught passing over his features as he fell to his knees and slumped forward. While Emperor Romanos's men erupted into cheers of victory, (Y/N) couldn't help but look in the direction of the Emir's wife, watching the tears stream helplessly down her face. Her husband had fought bravely, not just for his people but for her and their children. (Y/N) bit the inside of his cheek. 

His father had fought and killed countless of men, simply because he could and felt like it, but at least in Greenland, when you killed a man it was because it was necessary. For food, shelter, to defend your family. But in Constantinople, they took lives to make an emperor richer. They killed for treasure they hardly used, and for little else.

(Y/N) grimaced. He missed home.

[whencyclopedia]

This map illustrates the rise and growth of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum (the name "Rûm" was a synonym for the medieval Eastern Roman Empire and its people, a usage that continues in modern Turkish. It originates from the Aramaic and Parthian terms for Rome passed down through the Greek Ῥωμαῖοι" Romaioi") – a culturally Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim state established over conquered Byzantine territories...

[lesssial]

Trying to figure out the year in Bram's/Fyodor's Backstory

So what I'm looking at is Vlad the impaler's timeline along with a few hints in the manga. But not much Dracula because I haven’t read the book, and also because the book takes place about 400 years later.

So the castle that Bram lived in, for people who don't know, is an actual castle in Transylvania Romania named Bran.

Basic info

-Bran castle was built between 1377 and 1388. (Vlad the impaler never set foot in it but Dracula lived there.)

-Vlad III ruled Wallachia

-Vlad the impaler / Vlad III lived from 1431-1476 (He was defeated by the ottomans not Romans and his head was shipped to Constantinople/Istanbul)

-Vlad III’s reigns; 1448 (For a few months), 1456-62, and 1476-77.

It is a bit hard to truly connect to two while they ruled two different regions (Transylvania & Wallachia)

The knights

In this panel, we can get a look of the types of armor these knights wore.

The majority of the helmets resemble a barbute helmet which was used in the 15th century

The rectangular shields (scutum) mostly disappeared by the end of the 3rd century

Mainly spears and Halberds (The spear ax things) with an occasional sword in the crowd of knights. (Spears were cheaper at the time)

The full body armor became popular between 1400-1500s.

Byzantine empire fell in 1453 while the holy roman empire fell in the 1800s.

What nation are the knights from?

This is the main question. Are these knights from the Holy Roman empire? The Byzantine empire before it fell? Most likely not the ottoman empire due to the amount of christian symbolism. It can’t be the Byzantine empire because they rarely if at all used Halberts. Also the Byzantine empire fell pretty early so it's unlikely they were associated with Bram’s defeat. It seems like the Holy Roman empire however they did not use rectangular shields, favoring a kite or heater shield instead. Then who else?

I couldn't find any good maps

Fyodor mentioned the North (Idk why Bram started blabbering about the west). Do you know what was north of Transylvania? The Kingdom of Hungary who also had a skilled army known as the black army that used rectangular shields and was big on spears and Halberd.

The Hungarian Black army (1458-1494)

From the evidence gathered so far, it must be 1458-76.

King Matthias & the Sultan

Here, Bram asks Fyodor who he serves, either King Matthias (The king of Hungary) or the Sultan (Leader of the Ottomans). Bram was suspicious of the Sultan for the reason that they started eyeing Europe once the Byzantine Empire fell, along with his history with them (Held hostage as a boy). The tension between King Matthias and Vlad III started when Matthias received a letter from the saxons allegedly written by Vlad III in which he offered support to the Ottomans. This was enough to convince Matthias of Vlad III’s treachery so he imprisoned him from 1463 to 1475. Vlad III was intercepted and captured by Matthias after he had escaped Ottoman capture and sought Matthias for assistance. This could be when Bram was defeated in the manga(?) So I guess the year may have been 1462-1463?

Some bonus info that I noticed is that Matthias signed a peace treaty with the Holy Roman empire in 1463. Maybe Bram was defeated after they signed the treaty so they could form some sort of coalition against him (This could explain why the knights all had religious imagery on their helmets).

Another thing is that Bram was impaled(?) alongside two other women. In the Dracula book, I believe it was mentioned there were three female vampires that the protagonist had to defeat before killing Dracula in the castle. This could hint towards the fact that Bram was in the castle when he was attacked and defeated.

(I'm having trouble mixing history and fiction. Fyodor definitely had a hand in this. No way he just came to warn Bram for no reason)

None of these images are mine (I'm sure you know, but just in case)

Yeah that’s all I got, please comment to correct me and/or let me know if you know anything. (Might edit later idk)

[caesarsaladinn]

every time the overall Byzantine empire is depicted with a pre-Heraclian map takes a couple weeks off my life. it wasn’t that big

[daenysthedreamer101]

Youngest Original ~ TVDU

Ch 9 - Old wounds never heal

Mikaelson!OC

Warnings: Esther being a bad mother/ANGST/self-harm, kinda (scratching)

A/N: When I first started writing this ch, I thought it would be a fun little filler ch...it did not turn out that way lol. I had a lot of feels while writing this one.

Masterlist

Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word. - George R.R. Martin

October 2010, Mystic Falls

The initial plan of leaving Klaus and Mystic Falls behind fell into the water the second their mother walked into the house. Immediately upon reuniting with her children, their mother started making order in the house.

Both Mother and Finn cut their hair, wanting to look more 'time appropriate'. To Bekah and Kassie's great pleasure, a big shopping spree was organized. Klaus wasn't so happy, since he had to pay for everything.

Kassie was overjoyed, now that her entire family was back together. She was more than happy to help Kol and Finn adjust to the 21st century. She spent hours with both of them explaining how certain machines work and how society has changed over time, and she helped them with learning modern English.

Kol was more or less familiar with most of the things she mentioned. Finn, on the other hand, was not. Back when he was daggered, the Byzantine Empire was still a thing and there was no electricity, no modern medicine, and no cars.

~

Finn was in the house library where Kassandra told him to wait for her. She was insistent on helping him assimilate to the 21st century and who was he to tell her no? Soon, he heard a click-clack sound fast approaching him. He would later learn it was because of her shoes. "I'm here! Sorry for making you wait." Kassandra said as she entered the room with many books in her arms.

She wore a black sleeveless top with a cowl neckline, blue bell-bottom jeans, and brown leather boots. Her long, dark curls fell freely down her back and a big smile was plastered on her face. Finn could see she was very excited about this.

She plopped herself right next to him, and he could see her bright eyes looking at him. Oh, how he missed her beautiful face. He missed how her eyes almost disappeared when she laughed, he missed her giggles, he missed the way she would scrunch her nose like a bunny from time to time. 

"What?" She asked with furrowed brows. He chuckled and shook his head. 

"It's nothing. I just...missed you, a lot." He confessed. 

"Aww...I missed you too, Finn!" She said, giggled, and did the bunny nose scrunch thing. At that moment, an image of a young Kassie weaving herself through his legs and begging to be carried flashed through his mind. He patted her on the head, just like when she was little. 

"Now...We have lots to talk about! Let's start with the Second Crusade!" Kassie then proceeded to tell Finn about 800 years' worth of European and world history. They were interrupted multiple times, mostly by Kol or Klaus. Kassie shooed them away every time, annoyed that they were disturbing her precious time with her eldest brother.

After Elijah, Finn was the brother she was closest to. Finn was 12 years older than her, so he always felt very protective of both her and Bekah. He was by far, the gentlest of her brothers and the quietest one in the family. 

As she was folding the map of Europe she used in her presentation, Finn observed her face - her eyelashes seemed to be covered in a black substance which made them darker and her eyelids appeared to shimmer. How? He didn't know. He gently grabbed her face and turned it toward him. He studied her face with furrowed brows, trying to understand.

She seemed taken aback by this, her eyes looking curiously at him. He lifted her chin and in that moment the sunlight covered her face, making the shimmer on her eyelids more apparent. "Why do your eyelids shimmer?" He asked, eager to know. 

She chuckled and grabbed his hand. "Oh, my dear Finn. It's called 'eye shadow'. It's a powder-like substance you apply to your eyelids. It comes in many different colors. The one I have now has these little crystals that make my eyes shimmer!" 

She explained to him the best she could. Old Norse didn't have words for glitter or makeup. But it seems he understood what she was trying to explain. He then asked about her eyelashes and she explained what mascara did. She enjoyed his childlike curiosity. 

~

After her study session with Finn, Kassandra went back to her room. There, she found Rebekah, who was rummaging through her closet. Kassie sighed softly before clearing her throat. Bekah spared her a glance but continued looking through her clothes. 

"What are you doing?" Kassie asked as she took a blouse from Bekah's hand and put it back on the hanger. 

"These are cute," Bekah said as she held up a pair of boots. "Can I borrow them sometime?" 

"Rebekah." 

Her sister sighed and jumped on her bed. Kassie followed and sat next to her sister. Bekah was playing with the sheets of the bed and some of the sunlight caught her golden heart-shaped ring, the one that matched Kassie's silver one. Kassie took hold of Bekah's hand. 

"What is it?" Kassie asked softly. 

"Mother is planning a ball, you know that?" Bekah said and Kassie furrowed her brows. Why was she always the last person in this family to find things out?

"Ok, and?"

Bekah gave her a look and rolled her eyes. She dramatically threw her hand in the air. "And? Well, we need some ball gowns, obviously. And you have none in your closet."

"So? We'll just go shopping. Plus, it will be a good bonding experience, seeing as we haven't spoken properly in over 90 years." Kassie remarked as she got up from the bed and started putting all the clothes back into the closet.

"Why is she even making a ball in the first place?" Kassie asked. 

"I don't know. Something about family bonding and healing old wounds, I wasn't really listening." Bekah said, looking at her nails. 

Kassie chuckled at her sister's snarky comment. She missed this; Rebekah was always a breath of fresh air, especially amongst their male-dominant family. She and Kassie were like two peas in a pod, you could not find one without the other. The two girls were only 14 months apart and in many ways, they thought of each other as twins who were supposed to be born together but were separated long before their creation.

"I missed you." Kassie blurted out before she could stop herself. She jumped back on the bed, grabbed Bekah's hand, and looked at her ring as she poured her heart out. 

"I missed your snarky comments. I missed your fashion advice. I missed you helping me with my hair. I had no one to confide in when Klaus got on my nerves...I was alone, for decades. It was horrible, Bex." Kassie confessed tearfully. 

Rebekah said nothing, for her own throat was tight and she herself was on the verge of tears. She pulled Kassie into a tight hug and they just held each other for what felt like hours. After a while, she pulled back and wiped off a tear from Kassie's cheek.

"No more crying. Now, how about that dress shopping?" Bekah suggested, trying to lighten the situation. 

Kassie sniffled and smiled.

The two sisters spent the entire afternoon shopping for the perfect ball gown. Once they settled on the ones they liked, they drove back home. Then, Finn informed them that Mother wanted to speak with Kassandra. In private.

Kassie was surprised but surmised it wasn't that odd. Her mother hadn't seen her in over 1000 years; it was natural a mother wanted to spend some time alone with her youngest child. She made her way to Mother's room. She knocked and slowly opened the door. She was met with the sight of her mother, now with shorter hair and dressed in modern clothing, standing over a table. 

There was a smell in the air; something herbal, Kassie concluded. She stood there, waiting for her mother to speak. "Mother?" She said after a while. Her mother turned, and Kassie saw she was holding a bundle of dried herbs. 

"It's just sage. For privacy, so that the others can't eavesdrop." Mother said calmly. 

She gestured for Kassie to sit down and she did. On one hand, Kassie was happy that her entire family was back together; it's just, that she never expected her mother to return. In all honesty, she was fine with her mother being dead. Yes, she was aware of how horrible that sounded. But in her defense, her mother conspired with their father to kill Kassie and her siblings, and then Mother turned them into blood-sucking monsters. No one could blame her for having a difficult relationship with her parents. 

"Why did you call me here?" Kassie asked as Mother sat down next to her. 

"I haven't seen my precious little girl in over 10 centuries. I just wanted to talk to you a bit about your life. Is that such a crime?" Mother said and then asked how the dress shopping went. 

"Um...fine. I chose a blue one. Bex chose a green one." Kassie replied awkwardly.

"Good, good. And who will you bring to the dance?" Mother inquired.

Kassie gave her a confused look.

"You know... as your date, as the people now say."

"Oh...Um, no one."

"No one? Kassandra, darling, you're a beautiful girl! It would be such a shame for you to be all alone." Mother commented, gently touching her knee. Kassie squirmed slightly in her seat. 

"Mother, I've been in this place for only a month. I don't know anyone good enough to invite them as my date." Kassie retorted.

"That's because you guard your heart like a fortress and let no one in. Daughter, it's been 900 years. Let him go." Mother told her gently.

Kassandra looked at her mother in disbelief. How could she say such a thing? Kassie felt confused beyond belief. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. 

"Excuse me? Let him go? The love of my life? My husband? You want me to let him go? Are...Do you hear yourself?"

"Kassandra, dear...You've been pining after him for centuries. You've been holding on to this false sense of hope and nothing good came of it. Get over him and continue living your life." 

"...Get over him? Are you mad!? Hope is the only thing that has kept me going. How could you say such a thing?" 

Her mother gave her a look of pity and Kassie could not bear it. She got up and paced across the room. "So this is why you called me here? To open old wounds and hurt me even more?" She accused, feeling rage coil inside her like an angry viper.

"Of course not! As your mother all I want is for you to be happy! You've wasted centuries searching for him and to no avail. You need to let him go." Mother said as she grabbed Kassie's hand. 

"If you truly were my mother, you would know how much I loved him and how much he meant to me. There is no peace, no happiness without him. I lost him centuries ago, but I still have faith. I know he will come back to me." She rebuked tearfully, pulling away from her mother. 

She glared at her mother but decided it was not worth arguing anymore. She stormed out of the stuffy room and slammed the door behind her.

~

Elijah was in his study when a loud bang echoed through the house. Suspecting Klaus and Kol or even Rebekah broke something, he walked out into the hallway to inspect what happened. To his surprise, he saw Kassandra storming down the stairs and out of the house. 

"Kassandra!" He called for her but she ignored him. He followed her outside and kept calling her. She got inside her car and he sped over to her before she could take off. He knocked on the window. She sighed but still lowered it. 

"Little dove, what happened? What upset you?" He asked, genuinely concerned for his little girl.

"Get in the car." She commanded. "I said. Get. In. The. Car." She repeated herself after she noticed his silent confusion.

He did as she said, not wanting to upset her further. She wanted to talk, or she wouldn't have invited him. Once he was in the car, she hit the pedal and drove them deep into the forest surrounding Mystic Falls.

~

Multiple times throughout the drive, he tried asking her what happened but she did not answer. A silent fury was brewing inside her, one that would not be silent for long. Tears kept on spilling down her face, blurring her vision, and all Elijah wanted to do was take her in his arms and hold her, just like when she was a little girl. But she was grown, no matter how hard he tried to ignore that.

Shortly after crossing Wickery Bridge, she made a sudden stop in the middle of the road. Quickly unbuckling her safety belt, she opened the car door, intending to get out, but Elijah stopped her. With a soft hand, he pulled her back into her seat. Refusing to meet his eye, she kept her gaze away from him, staring through the window. Putting her hands on the steering wheel, she gripped it, needing something to ground her.

"Am I a fool?" She whispered, still not meeting his eye.

"What do you mean?" Elijah asked softly.

"Am I a fool for wanting to believe he will come back to me, and that in the end, I was not wrong in upholding my faith in him?" She clarified and Elijah knew immediately whom she was talking about.

"And why would you think such a thing?" He inquired.

She shook her head, too upset to verbalize her thoughts. Taking a deep breath, she told Elijah about her 'talk' with their mother. 

"She said that I need to let him go...that I need to get over him...How-how could she say that?" 

"Kassandra-"

"Ugh, why didn't she just stay dead!?" Kassie yelled, hitting the steering wheel, and stormed out of the car. Elijah followed suit.

She paced alongside the car, her hands in her hair, while she tried steadying her breathing. She was losing control, she could sense it. Soon, she would spiral. All the negative feelings she had been harboring for Klaus and now her Mother, resurfaced. Then, she screamed in frustration and kicked a nearby tree, making the entire trunk shake. Elijah was by her side in a second and grabbed her shoulders.

"Doll, listen to me. Breathe. Calm down." 

"Wh-why are they hurting me?" She asked while grabbing his arms, her throat tightening. Elijah didn't seem to understand. 

"M-Mother and Klaus. Why are they hurting me? Always s-saying m-mean things to me and hurting my f-feelings..." She stammered, her voice breaking. 

She sounded so childlike and innocent. Elijah swallowed hard and gently took hold of her head. Kassie looked at him, her eyes wide and glossy, her face covered in tears. Her lower lips quivered as she asked "Don't they love m-me?" At that moment, she looked and sounded like a scared little girl craving validation and affection.

"Of course they do." He answered quickly. 

"I know he is alive Elijah, I know he is. In my heart and in my bones I know it. If he was d-dead...I would feel it, surely. If he were dead, I would die too." She insisted and Elijah had never heard her speak with so much conviction. 

Before he could respond, she removed herself from his arms. She turned around, looking up at the waning sun. God, she was angry. So, so, so angry. Vampirism only heightened her emotions, and now her rage was feeding into her bloodlust, making her hungrier than usual. Usually, she was able to keep it under control, to subdue the urge to kill and devour. But right now, Kassie could feel the grip she had on her passions slowly fading away.

In a desperate attempt to distract herself from the hunger, she started harshly scratching her bare shoulders and forearms, so hard she started drawing blood; though the wounds immediately healed. Her sharp nails pierced her skin, leaving behind a stinging sensation. Maybe if she focused on the pain, she would forget about the bloodlust.

"Kassandra, stop! Stop hurting yourself!" Elijah reprimanded with a raised voice, something he rarely did with her. 

He grabbed her hands and held them tightly. She squirmed in his arms, trying to free herself but he didn't let her go. Instead, he turned her around and pulled her closer. Her back hit his chest and he wrapped his arms around her middle. She thrashed and screamed and the sounds broke Elijah's heart. 

"Kassandra, please-" Elijah begged but his pleas were not heard. Kassie dug her sharp nails into his hands. He hissed in pain. If she continued like this, he would have to snap her neck. He decided he needed to reason with her, but, it was also obvious to Elijah that she had a lot of pent-up anger and it was crucial she let it all out.

Then, he pinned her up against a tree and pulled her arms behind her back. She screamed in anguish and at this point her true face was fully on display. Her long fangs were bared as she hissed in his face. Her face was twisted in anger, her red eyes stared at him. 

"Kassandra, listen to me. I understand you are angry and hurt. I know, better than anyone, how it feels to lose the love of your life. But you need to calm down. This is not you. You cannot let anger control you. You are better than this."

At these words, she stopped fighting him and seemed to relax in his arms. The fangs and black veins were gone, and her blue irises reappeared. She stared at him confused. 

"Lijah?" She uttered his name and just by her voice he could tell she was back to normal. Once the blindfold of rage was lifted from her eyes and she realized what happened, guilt overwhelmed her. She sank to her knees and wept as she tried apologizing. 

"I'm s-sorry...I'm s-so sorry, Lijah, I-I don't know what h-happened to me." She sobbed. 

"My sweet girl." He whispered as he crouched next to her and got down to her level. She threw herself in his arms. He shed a few tears himself.  

"Where's Elijah?" Klaus asked as he walked into the living room. He was out for most of the day and when he visited Elijah's study he was not there. Kassandra was also nowhere to be found. 

"He went after Kassie," Rebekah informed him as she filed her nails. 

"Went after her? Well, where is she? What happened?" Klaus asked. 

"Something happened with Kassie. I didn't see anything but I heard Elijah calling for her and then they stormed out of the house. I'm assuming it had something to do with her talk with Mother." Rebekah replied. 

Klaus hummed. What could their Mother say to hurt Kassie so much she stormed out of the house? There was only one thing that came to mind. He needed to make sure their Mother kept quiet.

~

They were now in the car and this time, Elijah was driving. She was in the passenger seat, looking out the window, her head tilted. The moon was rising and its light illuminated her tear-stricken face.

The car was silent. Neither of them spoke. Guilt and shame washed over her in continuous waves as she replayed her breakdown in her mind. She hurt Elijah, her favorite brother. The one person on this Earth who was always there for her. She sank deeper into her seat, covered her face with her hand, and wept silently. 

Almost like he was reading her mind, Elijah spoke up. "I'm not angry at you, Kassandra. I do not begrudge you."

She shook her head. This had nothing to do with his forgiveness because it did not matter. This was about her consciousness eating at her and her sense of shame for what she had done. His forgiveness did not make it any easier.

"I think death would've been easier than this...Cursed existence."

Elijah said nothing, but she knew he agreed.

Taglist: @ashaluuler

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Genuine question: you often talk about the West as if Greece wasn't Western and that leaves me in doubt… isn't it Western? I always see Greece referred to as such, so I figured it was. Like, I imagine there must be some details that don't completely fit into Western molds, but in general, isn't Greece Western and is it even considered one of the main origins of the West?

Hii! This is a very good question for someone who needs context!

In summary: Greece is not exactly Western. In fact, it has more things in common with countries that are considered Eastern. Greece definitely wasn't that "Western" in ancient times compared to the rest of the countries that are considered definitely Western today. Also, Europe has taken some stuff from Greece but most things it took are not Greek in culture, meaning they don't relate to us and we don't relate to them.

But from someone who's not from our general region and has little idea about our culture, there needs to be a big explanation, so all I have to say is:

Disclaimer 1: Let's appoint the US, the UK, and Germany as some examples of "definitely western" countries, as a guide. They are surely considered Western due to their geography and history.

Disclaimer 2: I'll speak in very broad terms about nationalities. In no way this is an attack on individuals who live in these countries. The statements are meant to be political and capture generic national sentiments. For example, the sentence "historically the Greeks don't like the Turks" doesn't mean that Greeks and Turks haven't lived (and continue) to live in peace under certain circumstances.

Everything exists within proper context and even I am using "Western" in a specific context. What is called "Western" today is a standard created by the European countries of Western Europe. And it doesn't make sense cause there are no clear limits between cultures. It's all a gradient, as I said in the past.

I also don't like how by "Western" we imply "progressive and technologically advanced". I haven't seen people fight about whether Albania is Western, although it's more Western than Greece geographically.

In fact, many a time I've seen maps like the one below isolate Greece and put it in the Western category but so many nations right above and west of Greece are not Western?? Notice how they show "West" = "pre-colonial/colonial nations/global empires (what I refer to as "the West" in my posts) + Greece" 😂 (Usually Turkey is also excluded, so I won't comment too much on that right now.) I mean... isn't this whole presentation... weird?? It's not even based on who is a NATO ally and who's not.

Greece is one of the most eastern European countries. Greeks existed in Minor Asia for thousands of years (Asian Greeks baby!) and we literally are right next to where Asia begins. Our capital for almost a thousand years was Constantinople which is in modern Turkiye, and Greeks still make pilgrimage there.

Our differences with the countries posing as the of the West are far greater than they want you to believe. The reason is that the western European powerful nations still want to claim the ancient Greek stuff as the basis of their national identity, and to do so they have to lump us in with their own kind. Only very recently they got "gracious" enough to do that. For most of history they claimed all things ancient Greek for themselves buuut they saw Greeks as "fallen from glory" and "mixed" and "these can't be the descendants of the ancients we admire!" (They had idealised our ancestors a looot in their minds, and by their own NW European standards) That's why maps such as the above exist.

The cultural divide in ancient times was much larger. We were kissing with tongue with Persians, Palestinians, Phoenicians and Lower Egyptians. The battle with Persians wasn't - as today west Europeans and the US want to frame it as a battle between East and West. The Persians were our freaking neighbours! 😂 Our cultures were - and still are - very similar. (Food, music, expression/openness, social politeness, phrasing)

Then came the old Rome, then came the Renaissance, and in these periods Western Europe got a bit more influenced by Greek aesthetics, for sure. But as I said the divide was greater when speaking about ancient times. Okay, our neighbors on the Italian and Iberian peninsula would be more like us, but the Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Norse, and Danish tribes were quite unrelated to the Greeks culturally. Even half of Italy (the Northern part) today don't see us as neighbors, because they are closer to other nations by land. (verified this with some friends abroad)

To go back to why I usually exclude Greece from "Western": "Western" is a standard term that former (and modern) colonial powers have created and choose to identify themselves and others with (if they deem them "worthy enough").

As I said, the term can be synonymous with power and progress, but it ignores powerful countries such as India, China, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iran which have greater industries and more power than Greece. (This is a 2017 map but it still holds, I feel😂) Notice that Greece is not even at the bottom.

Greeks also often feel we don't fit the Western mold. Usually, however, they use the term "European" to substitute the "Western" term but in our minds it's the same thing. Additionally, most Greeks growing up - especially with the rise of communication with other Balkanians through the internet - realise that we have most things in common with our geographical neighbours. The video below is an example of that.

So, why don't we feel that European/Western?

As I mentioned in the beginning, Europe is not Greek in culture. Few of the things West Europe took from us were partly influenced by the cultural climate at the time (like philosophy and the three-act structure of theater). What about the rest? What do trigonometry and astronomy and people voting have to do with one's culture? I mean are people supposed to understand my culture through functions and equations, or the 5th century BCE aesthetics of the human body?

(And to answer your question, no. They have no idea how our names, words, culture food, and music have been. They often confuse clearly Latin words with Greek words, and that's the pinnacle of their interaction with our culture😂)

We have more in common with Turks, Persians and Lebanese than we have with Germans and Swedes. Because Middle Easterners and Northeast Africans have been our neighbors for millennia. To further demonstrate the point, Greeks in Northwestern Europe feel more comfortable with Arabs, Turks, Persians and Indians than with anyone else. And they don't vibe with the Northwestern locals that much because the Greek culture is not close to theirs. (That's a generalization of course but you can't imagine how many Greeks I've heard stating that)

I don't find it unreasonable for someone to lump Greece with the Western countries because that's where our allies are at the moment. As a nation, we look to Western nations for infrastructure (Although it doesn't work too well for us sometimes because the compatibility isn't there. Like the EU gives us money to plant certain trees that are not good for our climate and how often shit catches fire here). And, of course, sometimes Greece happens to be… geographically western than many countries. So in this case "western" also applies.

At the same time, someone should bear in mind that Greece has existed under the pressure-ehhh influence of Western European nations for a long time. After the fifteenth century, they've been stealing our artifacts, fetishizing our struggles, not listening to our people in Greek cultural characteristics (such as the language), noting our "unattractive" looks (and skin sometimes) etc. I mean, they still do all of this stuff sooo… how are we supposed to feel comfortable in the same group as them?

Add the Turkish occupation from 500-600 years so there's additional Islamic and Middle Eastern influence, and cultural exchange from Greeks and towards Greeks in the Ottoman Empire.

There's also the matter of religion and East Europe is religiously and - to a large degree - culturally Orthodox. This plays a larger part in the cultural divide between West and East Europe. In fact, religion played a big part, a thousand years ago, in the schism between west and east Europe.

This difference in cultures, and the dismissive attitude of the West towards Greeks and other East Europeans, shows from Charlemagne's time. A thousand years ago and more, West Europeans were calling Greeks (and generally Eastern Romans/ Byzantines) barbarians and degenerates. Greece has been orientalised a lot in Western art over the past few centuries.

The first colonial "stock company" in History was in the Byzantine/Hellenic island of Chios in the 14th century, established by Genoese occupiers! The island was managed by a monopoly share-charter "Company", Maona. The Company held the monopoly of the world's unique Chiot mastic, as well as control of the import and export trade, while many locals became slave-workers. The "Latins" (Genoese) took hundreds of buildings and homes for themselves. Later the Maona company expanded in Cyprus.

It had come to a point where Greeks and Byzantines in general preferred to be conquered by the Turks rather than the Latins (Francs, Venetians, Genoese). You can find the full history of this conflict in this article.

One should also bear in mind Greeks have been through slavery on a national level (called "chattel" too), and faced oppression, assimilation, and genocide. What I mean is: If someone is representative of the Western Powers…. that's not us 😂 We only play pretend. We are not the ones making the rules or decisions. For example, our PM asked the state of Israel (with which we are supposedly allies under Western contracts) to not harm the Greeks in Gaza, then the Greek Orthodox temple was bombed and our Western allies didn't give a shit.

Greece smiles and nods along so it can sit at the table with the Big Boys. It's not a Big Boy and I doubt it'll ever be for a long time. It can't turn towards the East (because Turkey, the old political and religious enemy) so it turns towards the West. And it has become an obedient puppy of the US and Germany. And if we refuse to play pretend, there's always some type of punishment. I won't absolve our country from all political responsibility. I'm just saying that we usually lack the power for things to go our way.

The reason for our nation's existence is the Western colonial powers (in Greece we call them the Big Powers) wanting to destabilise the Ottoman empire. They didn't give a shit about the Greek state existing. I mean sure they appreciated having one more pawn in the area, but they mainly wanted the Ottoman power to dwindle. The Big Powers gave and took land from us as they saw fit, for their own interests. (They did the same with other nations, too, of course). Our country's debt to the Big Powers started before our nation formed when they sold us half-ruined ships for a very high price.

(Although our debt became significantly worse after 2009, when our people gave money to stabilise their banks.)

So I ask again, how is a Greek - politically and socially - to feel comfortable in the Western group? Especially when we have actual neighbors in the Balkans and the Middle East who are almost like us culture-wise? And, don't East nations have Mathematics and Philosophy and Democracy (most at least) and Theatre and Astrophysics? In the study of things coming from Greece they have nothing to envy from the West. They were studying this stuff waaaay earlier, too!

So the argument of "who has taken the most from Greece" is purely political because if we actually measured, our neighbors are the ones who have the most similarities to us. (Yes, the political and social corruption rates too, as I've been told 😂)

Not to mention there can be found colonial/imperial attitudes from Western European nations which Greece cannot identify with. Except for the obvious neo-colonialism and the pressure to have more military bases on our grounds, there are more.

Some of these attitudes are; refusing to communicate in English, refusing to use subtitles and insisting on watching everything dubbed, straight up altering the names of foreign colleagues to appeal to them more, nitpicking on shades of white and what shade of white is "bad", having the impression that the world is as safe and comfortable as their own country, only getting you out of second class in their minds when you start speaking their language fluently exhibiting one of the highest forms of assimilation, treating East European cultures like an exhibition or a theme park.

Don't be mistaken, the use of language is a power play. Greece also has colorism, but the NW nations take it to another level, trust. It would kill them to admit they might have the same skin tone as someone from China, whereas the Greeks (although not void of racism) wouldn't think to compare the skin tones as different. And they don't categorize slightly darker peoples compared to theirs as another "race" entirely.

I know I rumbled again but there are many things to consider when it comes to Greece's position on the map that's not limited to geography. I also want to put many disclaimers and explanations around because someone away from our area is missing context, and they might misinterpret our notions through their own lens. Hopefully, my answer covered the main points and gave a better picture of our identification.

[honesty-my-policy]

As promised @bright-honey

Quick timeline for you.

6000 BCE: First fortified settlement at Ugarit 4000 BCE: Founding of the city of Sidon 4000 BCE - 3000 BCE: Trade contact between Babylos and Egypt 2900 BCE - 2300 BCE: First settlement of Baalbek 2750 BCE: The City of Tyre is founded 1458 BCE: Kadesh and Megiddo lead a Canaanite alliance against the Egyptian invasion by Thutmose III 1274 BCE: Battle of Kadesh between Pharaoh Ramesses II and King Muwatalli II of the Hittites 1250 BCE - 1200 BCE: Hebrew Tribes settle in Canaan 1200 BCE: Sea Peoples invade the Levant (they are important) 1115 BCE - 1076 BCE: Reign of Tiglath-Pileser I of Assyria who conquers Phoenicia and revitalizes the empire 1080 BCE: Rise of the Kingdom of Israel 1000 BCE: Height of Tyre's power 965 BCE - 931 BCE: Solomon is King of Israel 950 BCE: Solomon builds the first Temple of Jerusalem 722 BCE: Israel is conquered by Assyria 351 BCE: Artaxerxes III sacks Sidon 332 BCE: Alexander the Great sacks Baalbek and renames it to Heliopolis 332 BCE: Conquest of the Levant by Alexander the Great who destroys Tyre Jan 332 BCE - Jul 332 BCE: Alexander the Great besieges and conquers Tyre 64 BCE: Tyre becomes a Roman colony 37 BCE - 4 BCE: Reign of Herod the Great over Judea 30 BCE: Egypt becomes a province of the Roman Empire 30 BCE - 476 CE: Egypt remains a province of the Roman Empire 6 BCE - c. 30 CE: Life of Christ 637 CE: Muslim invasion of the Levant. The Byzantines are driven out. 115 CE- 117 CE: Rome occupies Mesopotamia 117 CE - 138 CE: Reign of Roman Emperor Hadrian

We can stop there because that is where the name Palestine comes from. I've omitted a LOT of history here. These are just some main points. Now for some visual aids.

Take these as you will. While archeology evidence has been found to support the Bible, I'm not aware of maps being found but people tend to forget it isn't a document of fiction, real people made it. That being said there is a LOT of evidence of Sea Peoples

The Sea Peoples are very interesting and I highly recommend reading up on them. It has been theorized and is probably true that it wasn't a singular people but different people coming from the sea as different words were used to describe each set that attacked, 8 different versions have been counted so far.

Of the 8, one that has been seen in recorded archeological history was dubbed Peleset or Pulasati. Historians generally identify them with the Philistines - note these are not the same people as Phoenicians according to historians and other experts.

In fact, the first appearance of the term Palestine but in the 5th century BCE and it was by a Greek historian referring to of a district of Syria called Palaistine between Phoenicia and Egypt. This term was used later by other Greek writers and later on by Roman writers. Though, the region was clearly 'Syria' not Palestine. In fact, let's look at a map or two.

So where did Palestine come from? Remember Roman Emperor Hadrian? Yeah, that asshole. Rome had conquered a large chunk of the known world.

The Jews didn't let themselves be conquered sitting down. The Bar Kochba Revolt was actually at the start going well for the Jews but sadly, the Romans took a scorched earth approach to them and it ended with the destruction of the second Temple, as well as renaming the area known as Judea to Palestina to effectively erase all Jewish connections to the land, going so far as naming it after the historical enemies of the Jews.

This is ALL PUBLIC HISTORY.

[mapsontheweb]

The "Three Romes," Juxtaposed on Each Other

[buzzdixonwriter]

Jan. 30, 1968 / Oct. 7, 2023

Despite claims to the contrary, prior to the end of the Babylonian captivity circa 539-7 BCS, Judea was a henotheistic* society, not significantly different from its neighbors and rivals in the region.

Split off from ancient Israel following a civil war -- a rival Hebrew culture subsumed into Syria two centuries earlier -- Judea eventually fell prey to the Babylonian empire in 598 BCS.

Long story short, the educated ruling elite were either killed or enslaved, leaving only illiterate peasants behind in the ruins of Jerusalem and other Judean cities.

In 539 BCE it was the Babylonians turn in the barrel as the Persian empire crushed them.  By that time many -- perhaps most -- of the captured elite Judeans either assimilated into Babylonian culture, intermarrying and converting to their captors’ gods.

However, a hardcore remnant clung to their separate identity as Jews.  Whether they started as nationalists who became monotheists or monotheists who became nationalists is moot; by 537 BCE the ancient Jews hardwired two primary creeds into their culture: 

There is only one God

He gave Judea and Jerusalem to us alone

We’ll skip over a lot of historical detail for the next half millennia.  Like clockwork Judea fell to then rebelled against several foreign conquerors.  While these conquerors exerted great direct and indirect influence on Jewish culture, they did not enslave and remove them as the Babylonians did.   

Many Jews -- primarily merchants but also scholars and religious officials -- emigrated to other lands and established communities there.  While some assimilated, most retained their cultural identity.

Come the first century CE, however, things reached a boiling point in Judea again.  They rebelled against the Roman empire and the Romans responded by wiping Judea as a nation off the face of the earth, killing or scattering almost all the Jews in the region.

Non-rebellious Jews living outside Judea were regarded with suspicion but mostly spared.  The Romans erased the name of Judea from the maps and renamed the territory Palestine, a Latin derivative of Philistine, the ancient Hebrews / Israelite / Judeans long hated and despised ancestral enemies.

For nearly two thousand years, this remained the status quo.

While most cultures suffering defeat and captivity would collapse and either die out or be assimilated, the Jews retained their hardcore cultural identity.  Returning to Judea became baked into their cultural DNA:  ///”Next year in Jerusalem”/// became the byword at every Passover.

While never as evangelistic as their offshoot religion, the Christians, the Jewish faith did find many gentile converts and adherents in the first and second centuries CE.

The Christians, however, gained a significant recruiting edge by offering Judaism-lite: The same basic moral ethos minus the wienie whacking and dietary restrictions required to be fully admitted into the Jewish faith.

Again, we’ll skip over reams of historical detail to focus on these two facts:

Jews and Christians were rivals for converts and influence in the first and second centuries CE

Christians eventually became the official religion of the Roman and later Byzantine empires

Christians persecuted rival religious beliefs more vigorously than they’d been persecuted two centuries earlier,

By medieval times the Jews were relentlessly persecuted and victimized in Europe and either barely tolerated (if lucky) in the Islamic world or eradicated (if not).

Through all this, every Passover around the world included “Next year in Jerusalem.”

In Europe all this came to an ugly head in the 19th and 20th centuries CE.  “Antisemitism” was coined as a polite replacement for the older and more accurate “Jew hatred.”  By 1939 CE the Holocaust revved into high gear and by the time WWII ended in 1945 CE, at least six million Jews had been slaughtered by Jew haters.

While a few individuals and families found their way back to Palestine in the centuries before, Zionism -- i.e., a desire for a literal large scale Jewish resettlement of their historical homeland -- really got started in the 19thcentury CE.

By the start of WWII it proved a serious enough movement that it drew the attention of both the British empire (who controlled Palestine at that point) and local Islamic leaders (some of whom disliked Jews because of friction Mohammad had with some Jewish communities, others because they allied with the anti-British Nazis abd hey, the enemy of my enemy’s enemy is my enemy, right?).

Add to this mix some decidedly antisemitic British military and political leaders undermining efforts at a peaceful solution and you get an idea of what happened at ground level in Palestine in 1948.

Europe -- horrified at the inevitable outcome pf two thousand years of Jew hatred -- felt eager to give the Jews (particularly surviving European Jews) a homeland…

…outside of Europe.

A couple of places were suggested (with in consultation with native populations already living there) but ultimately the United Nations opted to divide Palestine into roughly four pieces and give two to the Jews and two non-adjacent pieces to the Palestinians already living there.

Any moron can see this was a recipe for disaster.

The Jewish refugees – many of them battle hardened bastards who just survived the Holocaust – wanted all the land their three thousand-plus year old culture promised them.

Many of the local Palestinians pointed out:

They occupied the land longer than the ancient Jews did and

since the Holocaust was a European problem maybe the Europeans should solve it in Europe.

In any case, the U.S. recognized Israel but not Palestine as a sovereign nation.  Irate Palestinians and Arab allies tried to overrun Israel, more than a few vowing genocide.  The former Jewish refugees now known as Israelis proved they mean it when they say “Never agaib” and a long series of bloody wars and uprisings and terrorist attacks began.

Which brings us to Oct. 7, 2023 and Jan. 30, 1968.

Let the record show that Hamas are a bunch of bloodthirsty genocidal hate mongers determined to wipe out Israel and are willing to do so in a manner than guarantees massive retaliation against the very Palestinians they claim to be trying to liberate.

Let the record also show that the current Israeli government is perfectly willing to kick and punch that tar baby, either unable or unwilling to acknowledge doing so plays right into their enemy’s hands.

Hamas committed atrocities aimed against civilians, deliberately targeting women, children, and families within Israeli territory who posed to direct threat to them.

Israel responded with attacks that inflicted ten to twenty to thirty times as many casualties on Palestinians who had nothing to do with Hamas’ attack.

Hamas, while absolutely not justified in their attacks on civilians, were responding to relentless provocation by militant Israeli nationalists; in particular, in the week before the Oct. 7 attack (which had been planned and put in motion long before this occurred), a group of Israeli militants stormed the Al-Asqa mosque in Jerusalem to disrupt a regularly scheduled worship service.**

On Jan. 30, 1968 the U.S. had been in active ground combat in Vietnam for three years, an escalation from previous “advisors” dating back to the 1950s.

Every day the U.S. was told we were winning, that the Viet Cong quivered on the verge of collapse, and their capitulation was just around the corner.

On Jan. 30, 1968 the Tet Offensive started.  It proved to be a massive tactical defeat for the Viet Cong…

…and strategically it won the war for them.

Make no bones about it, the Viet Cong were just as blood thirsty and as ruthless as Hamas, perfectly willing to provoke the U.S. into massive retaliation against Vietnamese civilians because they knew in the end the Vietnamese would side with the other Vietnamese fighting a foreign power.

Take all the time you need to let that sink in. 

Hamas has won this for the Palestinian people:  There will be an independent Palestinian state.

And they won’t be under Israel’s thumb.

If Israel follows its current policies, they simply delay the inevitable and give the rest of the world even less reason to support the existence of a Jewish state.

Cut your loses now while there’s time.

If the U.S. recognized this in 1968, we would have spared tens of thousands of American lives and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese.

“But Hamas and other Arab terrorists have vowed to destroy Israel.”

Yes, they have…

…and, no, they won’t.

Hamas and the rest of Palestine (and the rest of the Middle East, for that matter) needs to wrap theire brains around this face:  Israel has nuclear weapons.

The day Israel thinks there’s even a ghost of a chance they will be overrun is the day several  Middle Eastern population centers disappear in a flash of white hot light.

Think Mecca and Medina aren’t on that list?  Really?  You think after what was done to them over the last 2,500+ years that the Jews are bluffing when they say “Never again”?

Here’s the answer; none of you are going to like it:

Everybody gives up something.

Israel grabs their militant settlers by the ears (or other more delivate portions of their anatomy) abd drags them off Palestinian land.

That territory you grabbed in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War?  You’re going to need to give a lot of it back.

You don’t get Biblical Judea back, you get a new Jewish nation with new boundaries.

The Palestinians need to knock off all this “from the river to the sea” crap.

Ain’t gonna happen.

And be prepared to cede a lot of Palestinian territory to Israel so they can have on contiguous country.

You’ll get a bunch of territory Israel now controls, but that’s it.  Nothing more.

New borders need to be set and both sides need to stay within their own territory.  Draw a narrow DMZ from the Mediterranean through Jerusalem and let the U.N. administer it as a multi-national zone.

Nobody gets what they want.

But if they’re wise, everybody gets something their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren can live with.

  © Buzz Dixon

  *  Henotheistic means a culture with one supreme primary god – in this case Yahweh a.k.a. Jehovah – but several lesser gods, demi-gods, and heavenly beings.  While the primary god is dominant, it is not strictly a monotheistic culture.

**  How important is Al-Asqa mosque to Arab Muslims?  Imagine a bunch of atheists storming Notre Dame to disrupt mass.

[orthodoxadventure]

Al-Maghtas. The Place Where the Lord Was Baptized

In the Gospel the place where the Lord was baptized is called “Bethabara”, (בית עברה, meaning “house of the ford” or “house of the crossing” in Hebrew): These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing (Jn. 1:28). The early Greek manuscripts of the New Testament mention the toponym “Bethabara (Bethany) beyond the Jordan” in this verse. It is known that over its history the Jordan River has constantly changed its course, so it is extremely difficult to trace where it lay in the time of Jesus. - Anton Pospelov

Al-Maghtas

But it turned out to be possible to find the place which was honored as the Baptism site of Christ in the early Byzantine era. Thus, according to the account of Theodosius, a pilgrim from the West who wrote in about the year 530: “Five miles north of the Dead Sea, in the place where the Lord was baptized, there is a single pillar, and on the pillar an iron cross has been fastened, there too is the Church of St. John the Baptist, which the Emperor Anastasius [Anastasius I, the ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire between 491 and 518] built: this church is very lofty, being built above large chambers, on account of the Jordan River, when it overflows.” (The citation source: http://www.baptismsite.com/the-place-where-jesus-was-baptized/)

This and a number of other historical testimonies mention a little spot on the territory of what is now the Kingdom of Jordan called Al-Maghtas (المغطس in Arabic, meaning “immersion”), with a stream called Wadi al-Harrar running nearby. In the 1990s, an international team of archeologists carried out excavations there. The location was suggested by the famous and unique sixth-century mosaic map from St. George’s Church in Madaba (Jordan), which shows over 150 holy sites of the Holy Land, including “Bethabara, the site where John baptized” (Βεθαβαρα το του αγιου Ιωαννου του βαπτισματος). During the excavations the ruins of a Byzantine church along with the base of a column in the form of a square marble slab measuring two square meters were discovered. Five churches occupied this spot successively in the period spanning the fifth to the early twelfth centuries. As a result, in 2015 Al-Maghtas was added by UNESCO to the World Heritage list as a site associated with the Baptism of Jesus Christ.

Until recently the stream was filled with water. Alas, by the time of our visit in August 2018 it had dried up. [Source: OrthoChristian.com]

[kchasm]

Ryu Number Chart Update: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

Age of Empires II is the second installment in the Age of Empires series, a line of real-time-strategy games putting the player in control of various historical civilizations during various historical scenarios that play out portraying various historical events that occurred historically. Almost historically, anyway—real life doesn't care much for narrative arcs, so there's some conflation and approximation and whatnot for ludicity's sake. Imagine a movie adaption of some famous historical event—Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is usually at least that historically accurate.

The game abounds with a historical figures you can command around a map, but that's really just the tip of the enchilada. Occasionally, other historical figures who don't actually have a presence on a given historical map poke their heads out to toss dialogue your way—which also counts as appearances. Then there are the interstitial bits that provide context for the playable scenarios, and include illustrations of even more historical characters that don't otherwise appear in levels at all. That counts, too.

Admittedly, the appearances aren't always so straightforward. Take the following screenshot, for example. (You might have to click to zoom in on it. Sorry.)

(Credit: blasteg)

At first glance, it's some questionable meat—sure, it says "Byzantine Emperor," but which Byzantine Emperor? There were a lot of them!

Do a little look-into-ing, though, and it turns out there weren't that many Byzantine Emperors who were personally irked by Freddie "Barrel Boy" Barbarossa's local stopover—just the one, mostly. That almost definitely counts! Though, if you disagree...

Well, actually, it's totally fair if you disagree. Ryu Numbers can get a lot more arbitrary than you'd expect. I'm not changing my chart, though.

I'll be real: I went through approximately two hundred playthrough videos, so it really wouldn't surprise me to hear I've missed a uniquely-named unit or two (or three, or a handful, or a league). If you see anything I'm missing, please hoot and also holler.

(It doesn't help that various updates of the game have mixed things up—for example, a Soomra unit you had to kill in Prithviraj's campaign was at one point named "Dodo Soomro"—a real dude who ruled from about 1181 to 1195—but has since been retconned in subsequent updates to the generic "Raja." Do I count him? I guess not.)

(And of course there's the regular complications, like the research I have to do whenever a name appears to make sure they're a historical figure and not not a historical figure. An example of the latter is Togortac, who appears a few times in Kotyan Khan's campaign. There was a real Cuman figure of historical note named Togortac...)

(Komnene, A. (2009). The Alexiad (E. R. A. Sewter & P. Frankopan, Trans.). Penguin Group. (Original work published ca. 1143-1153 CE))

(... but he was active around a hundred years before when the setting of this campaign takes place, which suggests to me that the game character isn't supposed to be the Togortac and is more likely an original character created for the game that the writers named after the historical Togortac because coming up with non-anachronistic names for historical figures is really friggin' hard.)

As for Ryu Numbering yourself through that topologist's nightmare, though, it's not nearly as complicated:

What's a Teppen? Teppen (stylized "TEPPƎN" because somebody in Nigeria is shouting at you I guess*), is a mobile card game, except instead of numbers, the cards have Capcom characters. And also numbers.

This creates something of a quandary. Do you count (and I'm pickin' a random character here; don't at me) Zangief as appearing in Teppen if it's allowable (even strategically advantageous even) to have a hand stuffed with hella Zangiefy (He's Russian, so I think that's the pluralization)? Sure, he's in the game, moving about within the borders for his card, even... but he's no longer unique. In fact, you could argue that he's on the same level as a generic recurring video game enemy.

Teppen clarifies and complicates the issue by classifying certain cards as "Heroes," which means that you're only allowed one in your deck. These are easier to swallow as unique, Ryu-Numberable characters. Ryu is one Hero (natch), but Oda Nobunaga... isn't.

(Side note: Yeah, Oda Nobunaga—the Japanese dude frequently credited with revving up the unification of Japan after its collapse into a bunch of warring clans—counts as a Capcom character, owing to Capcom's Sengoku Basara video game series. If you've never heard of Sengoku Basara before... well, I can't help you, actually, because neither had I. Judging from a random minute of game footage I hauled up from YouTube, though, it looks a lot like something in the same ilk as Samurai Warriors.)

(... And suddenly, I strongly suspect I've pissed someone off.)

Anyway, the whole point is moot, actually (American definition), because for most of the Heroes, Teppen also has "Hero Stories," wherein the characters are characters, and not cards at all, and Oda makes a cameo in Amaterasu's story leading a demon army alongside Nōhime and Mori Ranmaru.

I have wasted your time.

*The Venn diagram of "People Reading This Post" and "People Who Understand This Joke" has an intersection that is at most the size of an atom, within which is fully contained a third circle titled "People Reading This Post Who Understand This Joke and Additionally Find This Joke Humorous." The population of this third circle is 1.

The Genpei War* was a late 12th-century civil war between the Taira and Minamoto clans over which one of them would be the power behind the Emperor of Japan. There was a lot of drama involved, but the end result was that the Taira lost, the Minamoto won, and the Japanese Emperor effectively became a figurehead with the shogun—Minamoto no Yoritomo, at this point—being the actual dude wearing the boss shoes (which is what you call a "shogunate").

Unfortunately, according to the Namco game Genpei Tōma Den, Yoritomo's tyrannical rule resulted in Japan becoming overridden with demons, and ultimately required the resurrection of previously deceased Taira samurai Taira no Kagekiyo in order to put the land (violently) to rights.

... Maybe forget that last paragraph before you take your history quiz or your teacher will be very annoyed at you.

But anyway that's why Minamoto no Yoshinaka/Kiso Yoshinaka appears in Namco × Capcom.

*Who was Genpei? Nobody was Genpei. If you take "Minamoto," i.e. "源," and "Taira," i.e. "平," and mash 'em together, you get "源平," which is pronounced... "Genpei." This is because kanji often have multiple pronunciations, including what's descended from the native Japanese pronunciation(s) they used and assigned that character to, and what's descended from the Chinese pronunciation(s) of that character.

Oh and Rollo was a Viking who did attacks on France. Then Charles the Simple (i.e. Charles the Straightforward, from the misleading Latin "simplex") of West Francia (sort of the precursor to France) was all, "Look, if I let you have Rouen (and you swear allegiance to me) will you quit it with the ruckus?" and Rollo was all, "'Kay," and that's how the Duchy of Normandy became a thing. He's also known as "Hrólf the Walker" (or "Hrólf the Ganger," which means "Hrólf the Walker"), and he's a skin in the Norse Mythology Mash-Up Minecraft DLC.

Look, sometimes it's not complicated.

There are a few points of curiosity attached to this game and the historical population within, that deserve attention, though. For example, there's the oddly overachieving Mr. Motamid of the Moors.

If you play through the El Cid campaign, the relevant bits go something like this:

King Alfonso takes advantage of the instability caused by a political assassination in Toledo, sending in his army—headed by El Cid—to fold the locale into his empire. While on the scene, El Cid meets Motamid of the Moors, who can only react with gratitude when he hears that the Emperor of Spain has come to restore order to the land.

On a side note, the primary function of the superior rectus muscles is to effect elevation of the eyeballs.

It turns out that Motamid is actually the lord of Zaragoza, which means that El Cid has somewhere to serve when he's exiled by King Alfonso. El Cid, ever-loyal to King Alfonso, eventually convinces Motamid to ratify a treaty that makes Zaragoza part of King Alfonso's empire as well, since, uh… well, the story doesn't actually give a reason for Motamid to have done that, but rest assured that it was a Good Thing That Happened!

Keep working those superior rectus muscles!

King Alfonso is still pretty leery about Motamid and El Cid being the cool kids in Spain, though, so he ends up sending an army down to Zarazoga anyway. El Cid, still loyal to King Alfonso for some reason, cannot fight against his lord/former lord/it's complicated, and so avaunts, forcing Motamid to seek help from the Almoravid Dynasty just past Gibraltar instead.

El Cid comes to King Alfonso's aid, driving back the Almoravid forces, and Alfonso recognizes El Cid's loyalty by, uh, exiling him again. El Cid, once more needing somewhere to hang out, ends up conquering Valencia for himself—Motamid's no longer in the picture, unfortunately, as when the Almoravid folks moved in, they sent Motamid on his own bout of exile into the desert.

When a piece of media gets adapted, it's not uncommon for characters to be simplified for the sake of narrative ease, but it feels a little hinkier when it's real history it's happening to. In this case, Motamid is an amalgamation of at least a coupla different folks:

Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud, the actual ruler of Zaragoza who was served by the mercenary troops of El Cid, and

Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad (note the name), the ruler of Seville and vassal to King Alfonso until the taxation got onerous, at which point he stopped paying and also asked the Almoravid folks for help to keep not paying. This ended up being a Very Bad Decision, as the Almoravid folks decided that the best way to help was by making Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad not the ruler of Seville anymore and exiling him to Morocco.

That said, the in-game character is at least named "Motamid," which I've ultimately arbitrarily decided means he's a vagarious portrayal of Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad rather than being a fictional character created by the writers to serve the function of multiple non-fictional characters. Don't at me.

Ludovico Trevisan and Pietro Giampaolo Orsini appear in Francesco Sforza's campaign, except for the fact that they don't appear in Sforza's campaign at all. What an apparently self-contradictory statement! Don't you feel the piquing of your interest?

If you've never heard either of these names before—which, fair—suffice to say they were a coupla folks around during the time when the Italian Peninsula was a buncha states jockeying amongst each other for power. Trevisan was a Catholic bishop, serving the Papal States—the Pope was basically another king, back then, with his own kingdom and whatnot—while Orsini was a condottiero, which is Italian for "worked for whoever paid him." Both men participated in the Battle of Anghiari in 1440, a battle immortalized by Leonardo da Vinci...

Or at least it woulda been. Unfortunately, da Vinci's The Battle of Anghiari was infamously unfinished and also infamously lost. The most notable remainder we have of the work is actually a drawing by Peter Paul Rubens (who, you might have noticed, is a totally different person)—a copy of a copy of the central portion, which would have featured, among other elements, a bunch of horses having a very bad time.

Now, I'm really not that learned in Italian history, or Italian art (or non-Italian of either of those, for that matter), but I've been informed by The Art Books that those two folks in the upper right hand portion of the sketch are, in fact, Trevisan and Orsini.

(Metropolitan Museum of Art. (2003). Leonardo da Vinci: Master draftsman (C. C. Bambach, editor). Metropolitan Museum of Art. Zöllner, F. (2000). Leonardo da Vinci: 1452–1519 (F. Elliott, trans.). Benedikt Taschen.)

Names are different, but those are the same guys. I'm pretty sure.

(Also, before anyone chimes in, I'm aware Wikipedia says the rightmost guy is Giovanni Antonio Orsini del Balzo instead, but the Wikipedia pages have no sources for that. If I'm gonna be wrong, I'm gonna be wrong post-doing-the-research, dammit.)

So why is this relevant at all to Ryu Numbers, considering that neither of these folks appear in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition at all, even plotwise? It's relevant because of the dude just to the left of those two, who, if you've read those little snippets rather than just taking my word for it, you already know is Niccolò Piccinino, who does appear in the campaign and the plot of the campaign. And when it came time to illustrate Piccinino...

(Credit: ClearSights)

(You could argue the faces look different enough to throw identification into doubt past the margin of error, and you know what? That's fair. I wanna give you the option, at least.)

Yes, Joan of Arc is in Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate.

(Credit: Xaldin)

That might seem weird, but it's already a game about significant historical and pseudohistorical figures from Japan's Sengoku period and China's Three Kingdoms Period getting isekaied into a temporary crossover thanks to the shenanigans of Greek deities et al., so sure, why not? She's actually in from a previous Koei game, Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War, which I'm given to understand is a Hundred Years' War musou and which I really have to watch at some point. It's on my List. I'll get to it. Eventually. Probably.

Point is:

Something something but it's weird that it happened thrice, right?

Wait, isn't Robin Hood in Fate/Grand Order?

No, he's not.

Yes, I know it says his name is—

Okay, listen. I know what it looks like, but this isn't Robin Hood. This is a totally unrelated guy who lived in a forest, dressed in green, used a yew bow, and fought against the local feudal lord.

If you're thinking that that sounds pretty Robin-Hood-like, you're not the only one who noticed. He ended up being another guy to bear that name, and was eventually betrayed (Robin-Hood-like) and shot one final arrow to mark his burial preferences (Robin-Hood-like!) before dying. All this Robin-Hoodedness was apparently enough such that when the Character Gacha Device went rummaging for any Robin Hoods it had in stock this guy met all the qualifications and got the moniker all slapped up on into him once more.

Look, I don't make this stuff up.

Speaking of Fate/Grand Order lore, Attila the Hun is—okay, actually, this is gonna need another tangent. Like, more than that Robin Hood stuff did. You know that part in Captain Underpants where the narrator's all, "But before I can tell you that story, I have to tell you this story"? Steel yourself.

In Fate/Grand Order lore, the "Velber" is an observational device created by an ancient alien race. It works on a set orbit, passing through the Milky War Galaxy once every fourteen thousand years, selectively targeting and destroying all intelligent life in its path. Why? lol aunno.

Inside the Velber are "Anti-Cells," organic life forms developed from the data of destroyed civilizations, which are specifically designed to be deployed and actually do the intelligent-life-destroying until there isn't any intelligent life left to destroy, at which point the Anti-Cell effectively starves to death.

One such Anti-Cell was deployed to Earth in 12,000 BC, where it proceeded to destroy much of Earth's earlier civilizations, including Atlantis. Fortunately for us (but unfortunately for you, since you have to read this explanation), the Anti-Cell was killed by a human wielding of Excalibur—yes, that Excalibur, the one King Arthur would end up lugging about later. It was made by fairies, but that's not important right now. Don't worry about it.

Bits and bobs of the Anti-Cell remained on Earth, giving rise to a number of mythological characters and mechanisms. One particular piece of the Anti-Cell was discovered by the descendants of the Xiongnu people, woken, and—yeah, you see where this is going by now—dubbed "Attila." Attila, acting on instinct beyond understanding, went on to destroy civilizations until expiration.

Also she was a girl, because Type-Moon keeps doing that. We probably can't stop them anymore.

Oda Nobunaga was a girl, too. That's right, scroll up. Bet you thought that was just a bishounen aesthetic, right?

Anyway, the only problem with counting Fate/Grand Order's Attila as Attila—okay, the only relevant problem—is: Does this count as "Attila," or does this count as "the Anti-Cell that already had a distinct identity, but was referred to as 'Attila' by the Huns"? (That is a difference, as far as The Chart is concerned.) Is this still the Anti-Cell? Would this be more like a piece of the Anti-Cell given its own ego? Does that make her a different character than the original Anti-Cell?

lol aunno.

But of course, you can neatly sidestep that entire issue by just going through Age of Empires instead.

I have wasted your time again!

Here's a question: Can we use Tamerlane to get to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem?

Context: Roberto Bianchi's level in Eternal Darkness starts off with him captured by a warlord and to ordered to apply his architectural knowledge to a monument the guy is having constructed. Spoilers: Things get worse for Bob.

The armor the warlord and his folks are sporting have a real Timurid inspiration about them, but the most Tamerlaney resemblance comes at the scenario's ending cutscene:

(Credit: NineWheels)

This admittedly awesome quote didn't come from anyone at Silicon Knights—it's a thing the real-life Tamerlane/Timur/whatever he wants to be called said himself, according to Bertrando de Mignanelli (and the guy who translated him in 1956):

(Fischel, W. J. (1956). A New Latin Source on Tamerlane's conquest of Damascus (1400/1401): (B. de Mignanelli's "Vita Tamerlani" 1416). Oriens, 9(2), 201-232. https://doi.org/10.2307/1579274)

Also an issue of Nintendo Power straight up says he's Tamerlane, so.

(Nintendo of America Inc. (2003, January). Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. Nintendo Power (164), 134-137)

There's kind of a serious issue here, though, which is that Timur died in 1405 (at nearly 70 years old), and Bianchi's level takes place in 1460. A couple of years off is one thing to overlook, but fifty plus is more than a little difficult.

"But you know, K.C.," I hear the version of you I made up entirely within my own imagination say and also it is past midnight so I am not feeling very gracious toward the construction of imaginary-you right now, "Eternal Darkness is a game where reality Gets A Little Wonky, including potentially time. Is there a possibility you can count this as Tamerlane nevertheless?"

And the answer remains a definite no for the most important reason of all: Whether this warlord is supposed to be Timur or not, it doesn't change the fact that—and spoilers, here—he doesn't exist. The dramatic irony, unbeknownst to Bobby (but beknownst to us), is that this warlord is just another identity taken up by Pious Augustus, who technically isn't the Big Bad of the game but is the closest thing the player has considering that his direct boss is one of three of four (of five?) eldritch Lovecraftian ancients. So no, that's not Tamerlane, even if it is Tamerlane. At best, that's Pious Augustus Who Has Taken On The Name of Tamerlane, and as far as The Chart is concerned, that's Different.

... I mean, not that you can't still get to Eternal Darkness anyway. You just can't use Tamerlane. You can use Charlemagne instead, since there's a whole level about catching up to him before he can get hit with All The Curse.

(Credit: Super Best Friends Play)

Spoiler: You fail, and he gets hit with All The Curse. Route still works, though!

Also you don't need Age of Empires in the first place. Just use Civilization.

I continue to waste your time!

(A non-Ryu-Number-related tangent, for a sec: Maximillian Roivas was voiced by the great William Hootkins, who appeared in the flesh in a bevy of supporting movie roles, but who you might especially remember as one of the many doomed X-wing pilots going through the Death Star run at the end of the original Star Wars. Specifically, he plays Porkins, who actually gets identified by name shortly before becoming unidentifiable. If you still can't recall (or if you're stuck the sound off and no subtitles), he's the pilot who, if you already knew one of the pilots was named "Porkins," you'd expect to be the one named "Porkins." Someone in production was mean.)

Finally, at the bottom of this post, I want to talk about a particular connection through Minecraft and The Cursed Crusade that isn't on the chart, actually, because it is Very Iffy At Best and iffy on two fronts besides. Why bring it up, then? Because this is my post, and I'm allowed to ramble fuddy-duddily about the things that interest me if I want.

Anyway, this one depends on two particular appearances: the "Grim Reaper" skin from the Minecraft Halloween Mash-up DLC, and, uh... this other guy from Cursed Crusade.

(Credit: LoadingReadyRun)

Right, so, who exactly is this guy? Well, the game calls him "Death," and he calls himself "Death," subtitled with a capital D and everything, but can you really say an armor-clad depiction of the personification of Death and the Grim Reaper are the same character? Yeah, they're both incarnations of Death, but are they really the same?

(Credit: LoadingReadyRun)

It doesn't help that The Cursed Crusade is so irritatingly vague when it comes to its own lore. For those who have never had the misfortune of experiencing this game, The Cursed Crusade takes place during the Fourth Crusade to Jerusalem, i.e. the one where they ended up sieging Christian cities for money. The protagonist of the game, Denz de Bayle, is Cursed, which effectively means that every now and then someone sets the "Hell" layer to visible in Photoshop and the guy with the slightly techno armor in the screenshots there starts hunting Denz down.

Alright, so that's the big obvious symptom of Being Cursed. But what is the Curse actually doing?

Game doesn't say.

Why is Denz Cursed in the first place?

Game doesn't say.

What is the nature of the knight of Death that seeks to drag Denz to Hell (if he has any nature, beyond simply "Death"), and what tasks him to this duty?

lol aunno.

... Yeah, no, that really doesn't work (hence the asterisk, which usually marks ungrammaticality, but which has taken a part-time job here). If you want to Ryu Number your Cursed Crusade, you have to get in the other way around:

The Cursed Crusade ends in a very And-The-Adventure-Continues! fashion, with the protagonist on his way to Egypt to find his father and said father in Egypt being confronted cliffhangerily by the game's primary baddie. It's all very Hinting At A Sequel, but considering that the game came out in 2011 and, more importantly, Wasn't Very Good, I seriously doubt explanations are forthcoming anytime soon. Or just "anytime," really.

Still, speaking as the dude who made a monstrous Historical Figures Ryu Number Chart in the first place, it's kind of a loss. The Cursed Crusade had a bevy of historical figures, and I can only imagine that a sequel would have done similarly—

(Credit: LoadingReadyRun)

On second thought we are all worse off for this game's existence.

... Wait, am I done? Hey, I'm done! This post took a lot longer than I thought it would to put together, and I thought it was going to take a long time in the first place. Watching two-hundred-plus Age of Empires II videos will make anyone's brain melt, even with the Firefox extension that lets you play YouTube videos at quintuple speed.

But you know what this means, right? It means I never have to watch an Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition video again. Thank goodness.

... Sorry, what's a "turnarome"?

"Return of Rome"? What's "Return of Rome"—

Oh.

Oh huh.

Motherf—

[thehomophobe]

Latest & Greatest Chapter 1: Moving Up in the World

"Commander (Y/N), you are to report to Commander Sylvester on the 9th floor in the conference room" A white, humanoid robot with a dark green military vest jump scares you in your office. The pencil you were using to write your report flung off your hand to God knows where your other hand clutches your heart. You turn around in your chair after you calmed yourself to respond to the robot "Alright I'll be there in a minute." The robot rolls out of your office as you grab your brown coat off the coat rack in the corner of your office and button it.

You head out of your office and see the neon cyan lights and industrial metal of the plex. As you walk along the cold shiny, floor more white bots haul storage crates filled with either food or ammo toward the east wing of the plex, mainly for storage. Passing by other commanders and bots, you head to the elevator. You wonder what Sylvester wants from you. It's a little strange since you just got out of boot camp a little over a week ago and you were still trying to figure out this place. Seriously, an underground bunker that's over 3 million square feet and 6,000,00 inches deep in the ground with amenities equipped for 1.9 million people, yeah no there's no way you can memorize this place by the back of your hand in a week. Besides, you don't want to ask a map bot for directions 'cause it embarrassing, and those guys are freaky. Not to mention, you're a lower-class commander who's never even been to the surface, no way were you being recognized by higher-ups now.

The elevator's ding snaps you out of your thoughts as you see a pristine ivory floor, bright ceiling lights, and several wooden doors with the names of other commanders. So this is where the elite commanders stay. Completely different from your office on the 5th floor, which was always smelling like garbage and the floors were  You walk to the wooden double doors, where you see a golden sign that says 'conference room'. You knock on the right door only later to be seen by a blonde-haired woman in a short, white lab coat peeking out. She opens the door fully and lets you in. At the center is a large table with a hologram of the entire plex stretching out. (If only you had this in your room).  Around it were some levitating chairs, In one of them was a lean-built, clean-shaven man in the same brown coat as yours as well as black slacks and dress shoes. "Ah (Y/N), nice for you to show up" Sylvester rises from his chair to greet you. You've known Sylvester ever since before the invasion happened. You became friends back in high school, him being involved in more military training groups and camps than you can even count. His father was a soldier, which kinda made him ride along with the whole idea. You haven't seen him until the invasion where you saw him on the big screens of the plex near the entrance.

"I didn't expect you even wanted me in the first place." You smiled.  

"Well, I didn't expect you to join the military, and yet here you are." Sylvester crossed his arms.

It's true, you were never the athletic type in school. (You have PTSD from getting hit with a baseball in the eye). You were more of a history buff, from the Byzantine Empire to WWII to the advancement of technology. Guess seeing Sylvester was alive and how androids had evolved made you believe you could join the military too. At least to see him more often than before. "I bet keeping you cooped up down here gave you a bit of cabin fever, so I asked the higher-ups to give you a mission on the surface." Your eyes widen. Finally, a mission on the surface. No more filing dumb reports about the simulation room. "Really?! Are you kidding?!" You really couldn't believe it. Sylvester smiled at your excitement. 'Course he knew you were tired of your routine. He's been mingling with the higher-ups. And surveillance is big in the plex so maybe he saw you bored out of your mind. "And I even convinced them to give you a little something extra." He turned to the corner of the room. "Vanessa will tell you more."

You look to where he was looking to see the blonde-haired woman, known now as Vanessa, in the corner of the room with her arms crossed, eyeing you. She stepped out of the shadows with a tablet in hand. "You can't be serious Sylvester, you're giving a rookie commander who probably still gets lost in here the newest F.N.A.F and let them go on the surface." "Vanessa, the bosses didn't mind me releasing the squadron early. And I trust them. All those years in the boot camp and simulation room helped them gain more experience." He's right, by now you've mastered survival techniques, first aid, and weapon handling like aiming sniper rifles and reloading rocket launchers at record speed. Vanessa huffed and eyed you again before tapping on her tablet.

"Over the past few years, F.N.A.F's were each installed with hard endoskeletons covered in hard casing and a weapon in their arms." She swipes up on the tablet to show the first-ever version of the F.N.A.F on the center hologram of the table. Four F.N.A.F's, a brown bear with a black bowtie and hat with an assault rifle for a left hand, a purple rabbit with a red bowtie and a double barrel shotgun imbed in his right arm, a yellow chicken with a cupcake with cute blue eyes and buckteeth in her right hand and a rocket launcher for a left arm, and a red fox with a hook in his right hand and a pistol for a left one. They looked pretty old and bulky, though it probably was a durability advantage against raptures on the battlefield. "Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. These were the F.N.A.F V.1. squadron. They were resistant to bullets and tough against scratches. Sadly after a battle on the surface, they withered. The raptures mixed with the storm tore these guys apart."

Vanessa walked to the table and swiped left to show the withered androids. Their bodies are exposed with wiring. Somehow Bonnie's face was ripped off and Chica's arms were gone. "Luckily, we used their parts to create V.2 of the F.N.A.F's." She swiped left to show the next squadron. V.2 had 3 slim models of the V.1. Each had the preferred weapons, though this time it wasn't replacing an arm, they were holding them like a human. She explains how the researchers decided to have them handle weapons as humans would to see if it would be better. She also mentioned that the fourth one was mangled up badly, the fifth one went missing, and the assistants were decommissioned for being unhelpful and annoying. Then move on to V.4 because V.3 went missing on the day of their first mission. V.4 was... something. Vanessa explains that the researchers tried to see if making the androids scarier would cause the raptures to flee quickly. It wasn't until they went rogue, joined forces with the raptures, and killed their commander.

V.5 or The Sisterhood was a completely different set from the previous ones. First, it didn't exactly follow the 'bear, rabbit, chicken, fox' order, it had more androids. A human-like girl with red pigtails, rosy cheeks, and some blue eye shadow in what looks like a nutcracker. She had a red and gold musket in her hands and surrounding her were baby dolls in the same attire. There was also another tall human-like android, but she was much slimmer than the first android. She had the same Nutcracker look, but her outfit looked less stiff than the rest. On her side was a sword in a detailed sheath and surrounding her were little mannequins. The rest were just another Freddy, Foxy, and Chica variation. Vanessa said that these were shipped to us from an unknown location. And when released into the battlefield, they were the best ones they had. She couldn't believe it had to take some random person to make the perfect militant androids. 

With their inspiration came V.6. Back to the 'bear, rabbit, chicken, fox' order but with a better outer casing and better weaponry. The research team also made extra F.N.A.F's like the Mechanical Melees, which consisted of a frog, a pig, an elephant, a hippo, and another bear; AI and assisting robots like the Helpful Engineer Learning Profession Youth or HELPY for short. They were the best teams they had since the casings were durable, quick reaction speed, and overall attack power. There were some flaws and malfunctions here and there but the research team had hope. Which came with the latest version, V.7.

"Unlike the other androids, Dr. Clawthorn wanted these guys to learn like humans. So, the researchers and I gave them the bare minimum of code and threw 'em into the boot camp with people like you." She pointed to you. "After they graduated, we added more armor, customized their weapons, and..." She swiped left showing the V.7 squadron or the Glamrocks. Freddy, the bear, was given a chest plate with a detailed orange and electric blue pattern with his signature black bowtie, darker orange shoulder blades and shin guards, and a custom electric blue M16 with a small symbol of his face in the corner. Chica, the chicken, now colored white with a pink leotard with some plating on her chest and a fluffy pink sweater covering it, some lime green shin guards and gauntlets with leopard print, and a pink scrunchie tying her "feathers" up. Zooming into the hologram shows her voice box that will help with distracting the raptures as well as fry their hearing systems. She wields a pink tiny copperhead with a symbol of her face on it. The next two supposedly replace Bonnie and Foxy in the series. Montgomery Gator, (You thought he was a crocodile) has a green and more bulky version of Freddy's armor except the shin guards are lower than Freddy's, and a belt of shells is wrapped around his waist. Vanessa mentions that his glasses help block flashbangs emitted from raptures. He uses a green Beretta DT11 with the symbol of his face. Finally, Roxanne Wolf, (She's kinda hot) has a red crop top with a black star-like pattern and denim bell bottoms frayed at the edges. Same shin guards but in purple and gauntlets in bright red with black spiked bracelets and a leather jacket hanging off her right shoulder. Her eyes are heat-seeking, so she can see raptures through walls. She holding a purple MG4 with a small print of her face on it.

Each of the Glamrocks is properly equipped with the best protection and unique features on the battlefield. And you, rookie commander you, was going to lead this new squad of the Final Nation to the surface. "I can tell by your face that you're excited." You look towards Sylvester with a grin. "Are you kidding? These are-" You were at a loss for words. Vanessa thinks she found them. "State-of-the-art quality soldiers that could lead us to reclaim the surface." She said matter-of-factly. "And you better not break them." She closes the table hologram off. "They cost a fortune to build, meaning you're paying if there's even a scratch." You promise not to break these guys. "So, where are there? When can I get to meet them?" You were like a kid on Christmas. "Well, they're charging after training in the simulation room. And since it's getting late. You need a good night's sleep for your very first mission." Sylvester smiled. You thank both him and Vanessa for everything and head out the door to your office.

This was it. You're moving up in the world tonight.               

[isabellehemlock]

Hi everyone,

In honor of my TOG fic “Their souls were knit together (and he loved him as himself)” reaching 10k (thank you readers!!) I wanted to compile my (80+) resource links I used during the plotting stage and throughout the fic - divided by category as best as I could manage.

In case you’d like additional resources, please check out @actualmermaid historical resource upload here, and/or the The Old Guard Character Resource Hub.  Here’s a list of books as well:

Genoa & the Genoese 958-1528 ( x )

The Crusade Indulgence: Spiritual Rewards and the Theology of the Crusades, c. 1095-1216 ( x ) - a post with excerpts linked below

Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages ( x ) 

The rest under the cut in case you’d like to avoid potential spoilers (nothing descriptive) 

For Genoa

San Siro ( x )

San Lorenzo ( x ) & St. John the Baptist ( x )

The Mahdia Campaign of 1087 ( x )

Nicolò as a Genovese crossbowman ( x ) ( x )

For Mahdia

Yusuf’s potential backstory with Mahdia ( x ) ( x ) and the Zirid dynasty ( x ) 

And his family’s intergenerational trauma in relation to the Battle of Haydaran in 1052 ( x )

For the Crusades

Some other ways a non noble Nicolò might have found himself in the Crusades ( x ) ( x ) ( x )

General timeline of the first crusade ( x ) 

The Siege of Antioch ( x ) ( x ) ( x ) ( x ) ( x ) 

The Siege of Jerusalem ( x ) ( x ) ( x ) ( x ) 

Visual maps of the city of Jerusalem and surrounding area ( x ) and general climate ( x )

For Constantinople

Daily life in the city ( x ) ( x ) ( x )

Procession of the Theotokos icon ( x ) 

Maps of the city from that time ( x ) ( x ) 

Their apartment and general housing ( x ) 

Little Hagia Sophia ( x )

Church of Sts Sergius and Bacchus ( x ) - and why that would have been meaningful to Nicolò ( x ) as the setting for their Adelphopoiesis ( x ) & here are the Byzantine instructions for it ( x ) 

For Islamic spiritual practices

Barzakh ( x ) & Jinn ( x ) (both referred to in a blink and you’d miss it sort of way)

Qur’an scroll ( x ) - technically a 19th century copy, but was using it as a visual reference

Islamic calendar for that year ( x ) & the significance of Yusuf’s first death of rajab ( x ) 

The verse Yusuf reflects on when he internally refers to Nicolò as his dearest ( x ) 

The verse Nicolò inscribed on Yusuf’s wedding present ( x ) 

For Catholic spiritual practices

Lay Orders (what used to be called Third Order) for Nicolò to be an oblate ( x )

Eleusa icon (a gift he received from Brother Gabriel) ( x ) - here’s a 12th century version ( x )

The cross necklace gift Nicolò received before leaving Genoa ( x ) 

Excerpts from the book linked above about how indulgences played a part in the Crusades ( x )

Lenten practices in the middle ages ( x ) 

Some Bible verses Nicolò reflects on during his love confession ( x ) ( x ) 

For some interfaith dialogue moments

The Canticle of Zechariah in the Liturgy of Hours ( x ) & Verse 95 for corresponding references to the dawn ( x )

Why Zechariah is important in both faiths ( x ) 

Encouragement for open dialogue and friendliness ( x ) the rights of Non-Muslims as laid out in the Constitution of Medina ( x ) and protection via the Testament of Muhammed ( x ) though there are some doubts to the authenticity 

Lent & Ramadan similarities ( x ) ( x ) 

Interfaith marriage rights between Christians and Muslims from Muhammed ( x ) 

For some other historical context 

Context for same sex attraction in the middle ages ( x ) ( x ) ( x ) ( x ) ( x ) ( x )

Some LGTB+ historical figures and Saints Nicolò might have been aware of ( x ) ( x )

Brother Gabriel from chapter two was based on Marina the Monk ( x ) 

Wiki about illiterate popes ( x )

11th-12th century trade maps ( x ) 

Tunisian Arabic ( x ) 

The Great Schism of 1054 ( x ) 

The Seljuk Empire ( x ) 

The Byzantine-Venetian treaty of 1082 ( x )

A poem by Abu Nawas that Yusuf reflects on before the love confession ( x ) 

For the Biblical references and significance to Nicolò of Gortyn/Crete ( x ) and some visual references ( x )

Why Chandax as a honeymoon site would have been comfortable for them both ( x ) & ruled by the Byzantine Empire at the time of their visit ( x ) 

The book Yusuf gave to Nicolò as a wedding present ( x ) & some context ( x )

[study-with-aura]

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

I love tag games! If anyone else is sent them and plays, feel free to tag me! The two I completed earlier were quite enjoyable! I also like to get to know others when I can, so feel free to send messages or asks. I think it can be a great way to get to know other members of the studyblr community.

Tasks Completed:

Geometry - Reviewed interior angles of polygons and exterior angles of polygons + learned about new theorems + honors practice

Lit and Comp II - Studied vocabulary + read about irony and foreshadowing + read "Federigo's Falcon" and took notes on the foreshadowing and irony

Spanish 2 - Reviewed vocabulary + practiced time expressions

Bible I - Read Exodus 1-2

World History - Watched a presentation on the Byzantine Empire + explored Byzantine maps + read about the Justinian Code + read about the Great Schism + read about the Byzantine Empire's rise and fall + answered questions + reviewed terminology

Biology with Lab - Read about diffusion and osmosis + watched videos on diffusion and osmosis + watched a video about cell transport

Foundations - Read more on deference + took a quiz on Read Theory + went through the first two steps of research

Practice - 60-minute piano lesson

Khan Academy - Completed Unit 2: Lesson 4 of World History + completed Unit 3: Lesson 1 of High School Geometry

Duolingo - Completed at least one lesson each in Spanish, French, and Chinese

Activities of the Day:

Ballet

Pointe

Journal/Mindfulness

-

What I’m Grateful for Today:

I am grateful for all of my followers here on Tumblr and the support of the studyblr community. The community makes studying that much more pleasing and exciting.

Quote of the Day:

As we journey under our individual umbrellas, we should not forget we all share the same sky.

-Doris Day

🎧Tannhäuser Overture - Richard Wagner

[iamthetruenhaz]

My downloads folder on my phone:

* portolan maps because that's my main obsession

* medieval Bulgarian, Serbian, Wallachian and Bosnian charters because I want to compare royal signatures

* photos of rhyta from Thrace, Greece, Persia and India because I want to look into cultural influences of Persia on the ancient Balkans

* Ottoman period architecture

* Medieval Western European, Eastern European, Byzantine and Muslim illuminated manuscripts

* more and more medieval maps

* Balkan rebel flags from the early 1900s

* medieval Western European, Polish and Ukrainian heraldry

* medieval coins from Bulgaria, Serbia, Wallachia, Moldova, Hungary, the Eastern Roman Empire, the Mamluk sultanate and the crusader states because reasons

yeah I'm a cell biologist by education and trade why do you ask