#need a tag for parisii

[historia-vitae-magistras]

I think Arthur’s origins are just soooo interesting! Especially his mother’s ties to the land - and then passing along to him and his brothers. I wonder if Arthur was a surprise to her? She already had 3 children in that time, what could another mean for her? What would raising 4 immortal children be like whilst also fending off invaders?

The usual caveat when I'm this far back into history and have to use archaeology and just general story telling to fill in detail: this is not a history book but perhaps just better informed than average historical fantasy.

I think Arthur was a surprise! And he’s a very welcome one at first. Her first three children are columns holding up her power. Brigantia was either a confederation of tribes united under a more powerful ruler or a series of clans and septs that just spread really far and got really important with an unusual amount of centralization by the time of the Romans. We’re not exactly sure. But, the Celts both on the continent and in Britain and Ireland had a very long tradition of hostage taking as political control. Brigantia’s hold on eastern Ireland, southern Scotland, and a nebulous area of England and Wales could have been very artificial and based upon holding her children. And hostage taking need not have been the only form of this purposeful political organization of their family life. Welsh, Scottish and especially Irish writings detail fosterage to raise children in other’s households as a way to create otherwise very rare political stability amongst the numerous tribes and petty kingdoms that otherwise defined political life in Iron Age Europe.

When Arthur first comes into being, she could have easily interpreted his existence as a sign she would soon be able to exert more power and create more social control over the more fertile parts of the island she can feel. Perhaps the Roman conquest of Gaul and the subsequent refugees will destabilize Britain just enough for her to campaign into the south and bring more land into Brigantia. She’s probably having a torrid affair with her neighbors in Yorkshire when the Parisii appeared and have links to the same culture that will give Paris its name. We don’t know how accurate the Roman accusations of how the Iron Age Britons practiced human sacrifice actually were but nonetheless, sacrifice and worship is powerful and there are many more people in the south who’s belief and blood could flow into her as power. The channel protects her southern neighbors and Rome was defeated by the those same neighbors the one time they crossed. And she is far more fearsome than they are, surely.

Her three eldest children aren’t entirely sure what their original relationship to her may have been but its also not something that bothers them overly much. Mother was a Celt at least by the end of her life, they speak Celtic languages. The mechanics are complicated but the results, at least to them, were not. Brighid especially had more of a mentor/menteé relationship with Eirian but she has no real issue with it being a mother/daughter bond. Eirian could have just been young enough with her first child that they had a more equal dynamic. But regardless of the specific circumstance with she acquired her first three children, they were very purposeful acquisitions. The ancient world understood everything to have a spirit. In her mind it would make more sense to have a child for every field and tree and spring and tribe but I’ve gotta limit characters somewhere so its usually just easier to write leaving large gaps where the historical accuracy could actually be lmao.

At the advent of the Roman invasion, they are a family of the same structure as are found in a wide range of ritual deposits that contain human remains and I’ve kind of borrowed from the concept. We don’t know what this significance was to the people who practiced the religions that deposited these bodies and bones but there seems to have been some relationship to fertility. The pattern seems to be one older adult, one young adult, an adolescent, a child and an infant.

One older adult: Eirian has been chilling since the Bronze age and might have initially made a solid base for herself as the primary tin dealer on the island. One younger adult: Brighid is nearly grown in the 1st century as she pops up around when the Celtic cultures of Iron Age Ireland form as La Tène culture explodes into importance. One adolescent: Alasdair is 12-13 and the ancient version of a lego kid as dry stone building and new technology seem to coincide with La Tène culture as well but with somewhat later adoption of bronze and iron and the curving art so he gets a date a little more in line with the Pictish art style coming into being. One child: Rhys appears about 5-6. He comes into being as a geographic distinction centered around the mountains between Wales and the rest of the country that to develop some kind of distinction in the material culture. One infant: Arthur is born just before the Roman invasion, as a new identity culture in Britain seems to form around new developments like coins, a move towards proto-towns and a seeming intensity in the archaeological record of an obsession with heads perhaps in response to Roman religious practices or just general upheaval.

When she’s raising these children, one already grown, one mostly there, two quite young its really a demonstration of both her pride, some arrogance, a whole ocean of realpolitik and the ability of Rome to grind her down over time.

Not long after Arthur is born, Eirian and the personification of Parisii I have yet to name but who gets a summer home in Yorkshire in the Iron Age (the Parisii of Yorkshire seem to be an offshoot of the Paris-Parisii) are sucking and fucking. They are both new mothers, Parisii for the first and only time, Eirian for the 4th and last time. Parisii moves back across the channel to her native territory when the Romans win. Francis’ ‘actual’ father is less her speed and she takes the opportunity given to her by the Roman invasion of Gaul to strike a deal with Lucius. She becomes one of his favorite mistresses and her boy one of his favourite ward/pseudo-stepchildren. Parisii tells Eirian if she was smart she'd just take Lucius up on claiming legal paternity of her two youngest sons. After-all, nothing is permanent.

Eirian absolutely fucking refuses. Lucius is not overly frustrated by this at first and justifies himself as no good Roman would take a child from the breast of a she-wolf. He’s content with a pragmatic half-defeat in the beginning, leaving Brigantia and Eirian as a semi-independent client kingdom. She’s fairly adept at keeping that for a long time and Lucius is patient, not immediately forcing her to hand her children over even when she quietly supports the resistance in Wales. But when Wales is largely pacified and the power centers of the Druids are largely gone, she might have ultimately betrayed the father of her third son and sent him packing to Rome to preserve her and the children’s independence. But whatever happens, the direct invasion of her lands begins. She loses most of her autonomy and the Romans become invaders on her land rather than neighbors she can have her do her bidding. Hadrian's wall goes up. She is forced to cut a deal with Lucius so that he can educate her two youngest sons as they age, with some kind of established legal relationship, perhaps fostering or wardship. Soon, he will set his sights on her firstborn.

And I'm going to stop there because I am about to speed run the entirety of Roman Britain and it is dinner time but she Boudicca on my destruction until I horizon.