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i-bring-crack · 2 years

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Song of Aquilles and Circe crossover because Tethis decided to bring Aquilles to Ea so he wouldn't go to war and now Circe just has to deal with a wildraging depressed gay separated from his lover until Circe snaps and is just like: "Fuck it Helios! I'm going to find this child's partner!" And they meet the Greek heroes along the way, who where trying to grab Aquilles and bring him to the war, so Circe has to turn a few men to pigs every five seconds unless they want to be discovered that they got out of land and kidnap Aquilles for themselves. Unknown to them Patroclus is in the care of Diomedes and Odysseus (more like under new management) trying to find Aquilles.

And then the Troyan war doesn't happen because of this cat and mouse game. Or eventually they have to due to the gods wanting Troy to end, but too late Aquilles already got a new mom and she pretty fucking powerful.

Ohhhh what if through all the traveling Odysseus and Patroclus find Cassandra through some means (probably Cassandra trying to stop them from attacking Troy but failing miserably) and start to notice that all of her false prophecies are becoming true or that her panic might be a little more than just hysteria so Odysseus finds a loophole (cue the Odysseus "my name is nobody" cyclops trick, therefore I believe her, edit: or better yet Diomedes, Patroclus, Cassandra and Odysseus with some of his crew members are forced into the Oddesy adventure waaaayyy too early where Odysseus does the cyclops trick to escape from said cyclops and during this Cassandra prophesied something like how Odysseus will say his name to the cyclops and therefore will anger poseidon for attacking his sons, and Odysseus is like "o my gods, I believe you").

Meanwhile Circe and Aquilles somehow get to Egypt and find Helen hidding in the temple of Harthor and proceeded to kidnap her back to Sparta— but oh Hey no Meneleaus is in Troy and oh no.

Edit: Adding on another crossover I want to see over the Goddess Hathor being the best Goddess of Love and Beauty and when Aphrodite comes to find Helen who has by that time escaped to Sparta, Hathor puts up with none of her shenanigans and and send her away. And aphrodite can't simply just go against this goddess who is the consort to the most powerful god of the Egyptian pantheon right about now....

#song of achilles #circe #circe by madeline miller #patroclus #patrochilles #odysseus #aquilles #the bronze age doesn't collapse?#I SEE THIS AS AN ABSOLUTE WIN #cassandra #helen of troy #ancient greek

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that-gay-jedi · 2 months

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The thing is that everyone everyone EVERYONE posting about Hector of Troy understands the two poles of his conflict (the household and the battlefield) but so so sooo many posts file off the nuances of where he actually falls between them.

It's not entirely inaccurate to say Hector is a family-oriented character who fights because everyone he loves and everything he knows will be destroyed if he doesn't. But it IS a simplification.

When Andromache confronts him on the way to the gates, she doesn't ask him not to go out to fight; they both acknowledge the absolute necessity of doing so. But she asks him to fight defensively, to stick close to the walls and to focus on not allowing the invading army to breach vulnerable areas therein.

And he denies her request.

He has to fight aggressively and with the intent to win glory, he tells her, because he cannot bear to show his face in Troy if he does anything else. Even knowing that at this point his death would almost certainly cost Troy the war, destroying everything he holds dear including Andromache herself, he can't bring himself to preserve his life if it means falling short of the standards of Bronze Age masculine virtue.

This would have been totally consistent with the way the internet reads him IF she had asked him to stay home and hide under the bed or something. There's a reason he's as much if not more a foil to Paris as to Achilles. But that's not what Andromache asked him to do.

Given the choice between fighting ONLY to defend Troy or fighting to achieve honour and victory in the defense of Troy, he chose the latter.

The tragedy of Hector isn't solely that he's a father and husband who is forced to be a warrior. It's that he's juuust enough of a family man to want to be one, but... not enough to risk being branded a coward for it.

At least, not until it was too late.

He wanted his wife to have a husband and his child to have a living father, he really did. He outran fleet-footed Achilles three times around the walls of Troy in what I can only imagine must have been as much a feat of desperation as of athleticism. To keep ahead of someone on foot, over that distance, wearing armor, sounds frankly painful- I say this as someone who used to love running.

If the gods hadn't decieved him into thinking he had help against Achilles, would he have run until he collapsed? Until some archer on the walls managed to either take down Achilles or at least force enough distance between them that Hector could escape? Would anyone have shamed him for it? Having faced the shame of cowardice and survived, would he have fought differently in the next battle, more defensively?

He died before we could find out.

#dont be afraid correct me if im wrong i will genuinely appreciate it #i have only lay knowledge & am acutely aware academic knowledge is a whole different animal #hector of troy #the iliad #andromache #trojan war

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avelera · 14 days

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thesis about the sea peoples you say? may i request an infodump about the sea peoples?

Heya!

So, basically in college (undergraduate) I got really obsessed with the questions around the Collapse of the Aegean Bronze Age, mostly because I wanted to set my big Magnum Opus historical fiction novel in that time, and the deeper I dug into the rabbit hole the more it appeared that no one, absolutely no one, actually knows why the civilizations around the Mediterranean all fell from a state of pretty sophisticated internationally-trading civilizations to literal Dark Ages (all except for Egypt which was substantially weakened and never really recovered), all at once around 1200-1100 BCE.

The Sea Peoples are the names of the only contemporary (Egyptian) account we have that names who might have been responsible if this collapse was due to an invasion. It's a popular theory because a viking-style invasion is a much sexier reason for a civilization to collapse so we all gather around it like moths to flame. But the thing is, there's a lot of contradictory evidence for and against and shading that hypothesis.

Suffice to say, literally no actually knows what happened and almost every answer comes up, "Some combination of these things, probably?"

But what makes the Collapse even more interesting from a modern perspective is that if there was a historical Trojan War (and I think there was) as fictionalized in the Iliad and the Odyssey (and Song of Achilles, for the Tumbrlistas), then it would have taken place within a generation of the entire civilization that launched the Trojan War crumbling to dust.

So like, if you're Telemachus, your dad Odysseus fights in the Trojan War, some even manage to get home, and then like... everything goes to shit. Catastrophically. And doesn't recover for 400 years.

Seriously, they lost the written word, like how to actually write things down and read them and it took 400 years to get it back. That's how fucked shit got during the Collapse of the Bronze Age.

So my thesis was asking: what if these two things were related? What if the Trojan War either led to the Collapse or it was part of the Collapse or it was a result of the Collapse? Because the timeline is so unknown and muddled that it really could be any of those and again, that's if the Trojan War isn't entirely fictional (which I don't think it is, but many academics disagree, it used to be a whole thing up until Schliemann dug it up, and many doubted it was ever a historical event even after that.)

Ok, so at the risk of writing 75 pages on this again, let me just say:

My conclusion (more of a hypothesis proposal ultimately since there are so many gaps in our knowledge) was that the Trojan War took place before the Collapse of the Bronze Age. But, it might have been launched in response to a wider breakdown in trades routes and resources, causing the Greeks to launch the campaign basically as a bid to replenish their own coffers because they were getting squeezed by what they didn't know was the first rumblings of a global domino effect.

Therefore, since taking out Troy didn't solve those larger trends and forces, they all went home and then got slammed by the REAL problem, which was all the people who had been displaced from further away by this rolling drought or invasion or whatever that was disrupting these delicate international trade routes.

But the Greeks might have been part of the Sea Peoples too! Our only record of the Sea Peoples is from the Egyptians in a highly propagandistic text which makes them sound like this big fearsome foe but that might have been because saying, "We slaughtered a bunch of desperate refugees at our border who were looking for shelter," didn't sound as cool. If the Greeks (or Achaeans or Ahhiyawa) got swept up in this slow-rolling collapse/displacement of people, then they absolutely could have been among those refugees who crashed against the shores of Egypt.

A lot of my evidence was based on looking at how Troy was sacked (it was stripped literally down the nails and there was a lot of evidence of a long-term siege, like what we read about in the Iliad) vs. how Mycenae (Agamemnon's city) or Pylos (King Nestor's city) was sacked, where they were burned and stuff was stolen but they weren't stripped, it looks more like a standard looting hit-and-run type thing. Which led me to believe that it was different turmoil that rocked Mycenae and Pylos than what led to the sacking of Troy, despite the fact these things happened within about 20 years of each other. (Helen being a made-up reason for a resource-driven war would only be the oldest trick in the book, as far as propaganda goes, after all.)

But really, the craziest detail I'll leave you with is: we just don't know! And then it gets weirder. Because the Hittites fell at the same time so the Hittites scholars say, "Nah, the Sea Peoples weren't Hittites, they were probably Greeks." And the GREEK scholars say, "It wasn't us, it was probably the Hittites or someone else. " and the EGYPTIAN scholars say, "Yeah it was someone north of Egypt, maybe the Hittites or the Greeks." and the LEVANT scholars say, "It wasn't from the Levant, we know what was going on there, it has to be from somewhere else."

Literally every single possible source of the Sea Peoples has the scholars who specialize in that location saying it's not them and it must be the guy next door.

It's maddening!

And then there's a big ol' gap around Bulgaria and the Black Sea because, oh yeah, the Soviet Union forbade archaeology in those areas to quash any local pride so those places that were behind the Iron Curtain are decades behind on scholarship that would allow them to say, "Oh hey, it was actually us! Yeah, the invaders came from Bulgaria and got pushed down by a famine." or something to that effect.

We also have some histories from the time saying that the Sons of Heracles returned not long after the Trojan War to lay Greece to waste! And it's really evocative and sounds like it fits what we've got of all these burned cities that happened right after Troy fell! Except that's in doubt now too!

The latest theory is that it was climate change that led to a massive drought. You can read about it in the latest and most popular book on the subject, 1177 BCE which I highly recommend because if it had existed when I wrote my thesis, I wouldn't have had to write it.

But I disagree with the conclusion! Or rather, I'm skeptical. Because very decade, the problems of the day have been hypothesized as being the cause of the Collapse. Like, in the 60s, there was a theory that maybe it was internal strife around a labor strike, like the French Revolution. And y'know when there's a world war, they think it's an invasion. And there was a theory that it was 'cuz of an earthquake (I think that one is nonsense, Mediterranean civilizations famously bounce back quickly from earthquakes.) And now that climate change is on our mind, I'm a little weary to see that it's the new theory because it feels way too much like we're just projecting our problems onto this giant question mark.

Was climate an aspect! I think so! I think it might have contributed to the break down in trade routes that made everyone in the Mediterranean really stressed out and hostile and warlike and led to a lot of displacement. I'm not sure if it's the only reason though and I think the book just kinda reiterates everyone else saying, "I think it was this but in the end, we just don't know, and it was probably a lot of things." which we've known for ages so it's just repeating all the same conclusions. *sigh*

... Like I said, I wrote my thesis on this so yeah, I could go on for a while lol.

#ancient history #bronze age #collapse of the bronze age #sea peoples #lots of generalizations here for brevity so don't jump down my throat if you are also familiar with this era plz

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llyfrenfys · 4 months

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Sooner or later I've gotta make a better post regarding the appropriation of indigenous terminology by proponents of (certain kinds of) Welsh nationalism. But for now here's a very whistle-stop version of that post. I have a degree in Celtic Studies so these topics are very near and dear to my heart.

[Note: I wrote this post originally during a migraine. I'm revisiting the draft while I'm ill but hopefully can fix this up into something somewhat understandable. As always, this is only a very brief description of the history and I strongly reccomend reading about these topics in your own time to develop a deeper understanding of them. These are topics not even well known in Britain, but if you can spend a short time just to read this, you can help to combat misinformation about British (particularly Welsh) history - and that could aid in preventing the misappropriation of history in the long run. Diolch eto for reading!]

Very often, (certain) Welsh nationalists use terminology that positions the Welsh as if they are an 'indigenous' population who have been 'colonised'. They use language (which in this climate) heavily draws upon the language typically used for peoples who are the victims of British colonialism (of which Wales was an active participant). There's multiple issues with this and many of them lie in whether its appropriate to use this language (regardless of its accuracy or not) as a country which was actively involved in the colonisation of much of the world. What I mean in short is that additional language is needed which doesn't step on the toes of endangered cultures and groups directly affected by British colonialism.

Wales not only participated in British colonialism as a whole (alongside Scotland, Ireland* and England) but itself colonised parts of patagonia in Argentina.

I can't think of any similar terminology to 'indigenous' or 'colonised' which would also get the idea which is meant across. 'Native' in certain contexts is permissible, e.g. 'native speaker' in the context of a Welsh speaker. But in other contexts other than langauge, things get tricky when you argue 'nativeness' (this is a topic I will come back to - especially re. Celtic as a language descriptor vs Celtic as a so-called ethnicity). When (certain) Welsh nationalists talk about being 'indigenous' , being 'native' or 'colonised' what is meant by that?

(Map of the expansion of the Bronze Age Bell Beaker culture circa 2400 BC in Britain and Ireland) - from this map

What makes a Welsh person 'indigenous' to this island that doesn't immediately disqualify other peoples who also have a deep history here? Historically, the island of Britain has been lived on by many, many peoples.

In the Bronze Age you had the arrival of the Bell Beaker people. Then in the Iron-Age, you had tribes speaking (mostly) Brittonic. I say mostly, because we have direct evidence that in the Iron Age Gaulish speaking tribes also moved to parts of Britain but later became integrated with the rest of the population (which, I will add, were not a united peoples but a scattering of different groups who often went to war against each other). Then the Romans invaded Britain (and much of Western Europe) and over time integrated into the local population. So now Britain is Romano-British. Eventually the Western Roman Empire collapses and Britain enters into the sub-Roman Britain phase of its existence. Kingdoms begin to form, with the population speaking Brittonic and British-Latin. So you have different kingdoms in (what would become Wales) and in (what would become Northern England and Southern Scotland) you have more Brittonic-speaking kingdoms.

These kingdoms were also not a united peoples. They shared a language - but it's like claiming that Ancient Greeks were a united people simply because they all spoke Greek. Sparta, Athens, Cornith etc. were independent of each other and the same is true of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd (the Old North) and the kingdoms of Wales. They all had a common language but also went to war with each other sometimes. Eventually, the Brittonic language began to diverge into different languages. Namely, Old Welsh and Cumbric (the language spoken in what is today Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland and Southern Scotland). The two languages were still very closely related but had diverged by a certain point.

At the same time this is happening, Anglo-Saxons begin to arrive in what is now Kent. They form kingdoms and the Britons living there are either displaced or become absorbed into the Anglo-Saxon populace. Then the Norse rock up and conduct viking raids around the coast before finally settling in parts of the country and forming their own territories.

So now Britain has several groups living on the island (keeping in mind even before settlement from the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse that the British kingdoms were already composed of different groups themselves). Northern Scotland was also having a time re: Picts, Gaels and Britons - but we'll gloss over that for brevity. Also, Ireland was also raiding the Welsh coast at this time too.

Then the Normans rock up and in 1066 William the Conqueror, well, conquers. More history happens after this point but I will try and keep this as brief and as non-messy as I can.

So, to recap:

One of the earliest cultures in Britain was the Bell Beaker people in the Bronze Age. They had their lands settled by the Iron Age Britons ('Celts'). Then the Romans came and the 'Celts' became Romano-Britons. After the Western Roman Empire collapses the remaining population forms kingdoms with distinct political identities. These kingdoms eventually find themselves fighting the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse. Then the Normans turn up and so on and so forth.

So- which group is the original native group to Britain? (Trick question - this question cannot be satisfactorily answered in favour of one group without leaning into claims of historicity which the other groups can also claim).

Which brings me to modern Welsh identity and those who came before.

Something I see in Welsh nationalist groups is a claim to the legacy (or even claims of direct descendance from) the Iron Age Britons (commonly called Celts for shorthand, but as I said before I'm gonna get back to that point). And this narrative is what the "Welsh people are native to Britain" argument is based off of.

It may seem like #praxis to argue the Welsh people are the true inhabitants of Britain and the English are evil invaders. But you have to make *several* logical leaps to get to that point if you're genuinely arguing that point.

For starters, many more people than just the Britons (read: Romano Britons/early Brittonic kingdoms) have called Britain home since the Early Middle Ages. For example, there's the settlement of Scotland by the Gaels, the Irish settlement of certain parts of costal Wales. You have (much later) Roma and traveller groups, Jewish diaspora and many more diverse cultures and peoples existing in Britain at this time. The Romano-British population, which developed into the Early Middle Ages kingdoms of Wales and the Hen Ogledd, was also multicultural. Many black Romans started families with white Britons. By the sub-Roman period, Britain was ethnically and culturally diverse.

But those who argue in favour of a such thing as 'Celtic ethnicity' in order to support the idea Britons (and only Britons) were native to these islands typically imagine that history as white. White Brits, white Romans, white Gaels. When we know this isn't true. Did you know that the Northernmost Ancient Egyptian temple in the world is in Yorkshire because Roman Egyptians in the military brought their religion with them? Mary Beard did a fantastic documentary about a Roman Soldier from modern day Syria who was stationed at Hadrian's Wall who started a family with a British woman. Point is, that some people like to imagine a purely white Britain that they can pine for. And I'm afraid it simply isn't true. The version of history many white supremacists look to simply didn't exist.

I'll quickly bring up one last point before I draw this to a close. And it's about Celtic as a linguistic term vs Celtic as a so-called ethnicity. You see, any first year Celtic Student would tell you that there is no such thing as 'Celts'. Crazy, I know from people studying *Celtic* studies. But hear me out - there is good reasoning why (beyond language groups) Celtic is not a good term for describing an ethnic group. Much of it relates to what I've already mentioned, but we categorise Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Mann, Cornwall and Brittany as Celtic not because of the ethnicity of the people living there (which I've mentioned is pretty diverse) but because they are all places where Celtic languages are spoken. It wasn't until Edward Llwyd (d. 1709) that the term Celtic was coined to describe these languages. Up until that point, nobody was thinking of Irish and Welsh as related because the languages do not sound like they have a common origin. By extension, people didn't think of the Welsh and Irish as being the same peoples (or Celtic) either. Its only in the modern day there is a sense of Celtic identity. The Iron Age Britons were not going around calling themselves Celts. There was no common Celtic identity. But very often people argue Celticness based on a pseudohistory which insists on a false and misleading interpretation of history. Whether or not Celticness exists now is a different matter entirely. But it sure does not rest upon race or ethnicity as a qualifier. This is quite foundational stuff to first year and above Celtic Scholars, but is not generally well known outside of academia because the misinformation is quite strong. So if you read is far, diolch mawr and please share this with anyone you think might be interested in it. Any amount of knowledge of these things would greatly improve understanding of what it means to be Welsh and what it means to speak a Celtic language.

Lastly,

all of that begs us to ask the question:

What does it mean to claim nativeness in a Western European context?

More under the cut

What does it mean to claim nativeness in a Western European context? Especially in a Western Europe post-colonialism.

It means, to me, to claim what isn't our right to claim. To argue and make our points with language that isn't ours and isn't designed to be ours. That this language of indigeneity may sound appealing, but is it improper to use this terminology when our country was directly responsible for the atrocities in which this very language became relevant?

What do we do in response to the misinterpretation of our culture instead of relying on language of indigeneity? These are the questions I want to leave you with and invite you to share your thoughts on. How do we build a Wales which advocates for itself without relying upon inaccurate language which betrays a reliance upon the ahistorical to make its point?

What kind of Wales do we want to live in?

#cymraeg #welsh #cymru #cymry #cymblr #Wales #welsh language #welsh nationalism #nationalism #indigeneity #?#white supremacist mention #white nationalism cw #please add on if you have any thoughts on the matter - I'd love to hear other's takes on the topic!#this post was also mostly made when I was ill/had a migraine so it may not be perfect #but gets most of what I want across well enough I think

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 months

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Molly McGhee’s “Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind”

Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind is Molly McGhee's debut novel: a dreamlike tale of a public-private partnership that hires the terminally endebted to invade the dreams of white-collar professionals and harvest the anxieties that prevent them from being fully productive members of the American corporate workforce:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/734829/jonathan-abernathy-you-are-kind-by-molly-mcghee/

Though this is McGhee's first novel, she's already well known in literary circles. Her career has included stints at McSweeney's, where she worked on my book Information Doesn't Want To Be Free:

https://store.mcsweeneys.net/products/information-doesn-t-want-to-be-free

And then at Tor Books, where she worked on my book Attack Surface:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531/attacksurface

But though McGhee is a shrewd and skilled editor, I think of her first and foremost as a writer, thanks to stunning essays like "America's Dead Souls," a 2021 Paris Review piece that described the experience of multigenerational debt in America in incandescent, pitiless prose:

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2021/05/17/americas-dead-souls/

McGhee's piece struck at the heart of something profoundly wrong in American society – the dual nature of debt, which represents a source of freedom for the wealthy, and bondage for workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/19/zombie-debt/#damnation

When billionaire mass-murderers like the Sacklers amass tens of billions of liabilities stemming from their role in deliberately starting the opioid crisis, the courts step in to relieve them of their obligations, allowing them to keep their blood-money:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

And when Silicon Valley Bank collapses due to mismanagement by ultra-wealthy financiers, the public purse yawns open and billions flow out to ensure that the wealthiest investors in the country stay whole:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/18/2-billion-here-2-billion-there/#socialism-for-the-rich

When predatory payday lenders target working people and force them into bankruptcy with four-digit APRs, the government intervenes…to save the lenders and keep workers on the hook:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/29/planned-obsolescence/#academic-fraud

"Debtor vs creditor" is the oldest class division we have. The Bronze Age custom of jubilee – the periodic cancellation of all debts – wasn't some weird peccadillo. It was essential public policy, and without jubilee, the hereditary creditor class became the arbiter of all social priorities, destabilizing great nations and even empires by directing production to suit their parochial needs. Societies that didn't practice jubilee (or halted it) collapsed:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/08/jubilant/#construire-des-passerelles

Today's workers are debt burdened at scales and in ways that defy comprehension, the numbers are so brain-breakingly large. Students who take out modest loans and pay them off several times over remain indebted decades later, with outstanding balances that vastly outstrip the principle:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/04/kawaski-trawick/#strike-debt

Workers who quit dead-end jobs are billed for five-figure "training repayment" bills that haunt them to the end of days:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Hospitals sue indigent patients at scale, siccing debt-collectors on people who can't pay – and were entitled to free care to begin with:

https://armandalegshow.com/episode/when-hospitals-sue-patients-part-2/

And debt collectors are drawn from the same social ranks as the debtors, barely trained and unsupervised, engaging in lawless, constant harassment of the debtor class:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/12/do-not-pay/#fair-debt-collection-practices-act

McGhee's "American Dead Souls" crystallized all of this vast injustice into a single, beautiful essay – and then McGhee crystallized things further by posting a public resignation letter enumerating the poor pay and working conditions in New York publishing, triggering mass, industry-wide resignations by similarly situated junior editorial staff:

https://electricliterature.com/molly-mcghee-jonathan-abernathy-you-are-kind-interview-debut-novel-book-debt/

Thus we arrive at McGhee's debut: a novel written by someone with a track record for gorgeous, brutally insightful prose; incisive analysis of the class war raging in the embers of capitalism's American Dream; and consequential labor organizing against the precarity and exploitation of young workers. As you might expect, it's fantastic.

Jonathan Abernathy is a 25 year old, debt haunted, desperately lonely man. An orphan with a mountain of college debt, Abernathy lives in a terrible basement apartment whose rent is just beyond his means. The only thing that propels him out of bed and into the world are his affirmations:

Jonathan Abernathy you are kind

You are well respected and valued by your community

People, including your family, love you

That these are all easily discerned lies is beside the point. Whatever gets you through the night.

We meet Jonathan as he is applying for a job that he was recruited for in a dream. As instructed in his dream, he presents himself at a shabby strip-mall office where an acerbic functionary behind scratched plexiglass takes his application and informs him that he is up for a gig run jointly by the US State Department and a consortium of large corporate employers. If he is accepted, all of his student debt repayments will be paused and he will no longer face wage garnishment. What's more, he'll be doing the job in his sleep, which means he'll be able to get a day job and pull a double income – what's not to like?

Jonathan's job is to enter the dreams of sleeping middle-management types in America's largest firms – but not just any dreams, their nightmares. Once he has entered their nightmare, Jonathan is charged with identifying the source of their anxiety and summoning a more senior operative who will suck up and whisk away that nagging spectre, thus rendering the worker a more productive component of their corporate structure.

But of course, there's more to it. As Jonathan works through his sleeping hours, he is deprived of his own dreams. Then there's the question of where those captive anxieties are ending up, and how they're being processed, and what new products can be made from refined nightmares. While Jonathan himself is pulling ever so slightly out of his economic quagmire, the people around him are still struggling.

McGhee braids together three strands: the palpable misery of being Jonathan (a proxy for all of us), the rising terror of the true nature of his employment, and beautifully turned absurdist touches that are laugh-aloud funny. This could be a mere novel of ennui and misery but it's not – it's a novel of hilarity and fear and misery, all mixed together in a glorious and terrible concoction that is not like anything else you've ever read.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/08/capitalist-surrealism/#productivity-hacks

#pluralistic #books #reviews #science fiction #molly mcghee #debt #graeber #capitalist realism #capitalist surrealism #dreams #gift guide

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markantonys · 3 months

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The show hasn't really gotten into the Breaking as much as I think they should have at this point. Which does kinda go into the fact that Lews Therin doesn't seem to be feared by the general public at least as far as we know? Which does make me a bit concerned as that is important. It does seem like the AOL flashbacks are leading up to Dragonmount and therefore the Breaking so maybe that's why it hasn't been addressed as much yet? Rafe did say there's less knowledge of the prophecies or at least less belief that they're 100% accurate since they're over 3000 years old and translated a million times so that might play a role too? Idk I'm curious for them to get into the prophecies more so we know what the world thinks and believes about the Dragon.

i just wanna say that as someone who studied ancient history and ancient literature, it is completely accurate that the current people of randland know very little about what happened 3000 years ago, that the average population outside of scholars doesn't care about what happened 3000 years ago, and that nobody is willing to put full trust in the accuracy of the few ancient texts and prophecies that survived to the present.

and mind you, i ran into all these things in my studies of events that happened only 2000 years ago. 3000 years, we are talking the late bronze age collapse in the mediterranean region - an event that's infamously mysterious precisely because we have so little surviving evidence to say what caused it.

when it comes to human history, 3000 years is a MASSIVE amount of time, and to be honest i don't think RJ/the books really understood just how massive (for example, randland should have been able to advance more, technologically, in 3000 years than it did, even considering how destructive the breaking was and how destructive the taint & false dragons & shadowspawn continued to be). the general population outside of scholars does not spend a second thinking about things that happened 3000 years ago or specific people who lived 3000 years ago. they just don't. realistically, lews therin shouldn't be anything more than a vague fable to the average population of present-day randland. of course they're not afraid of him. why would they be? he's insanely far-removed from and irrelevant to their lives - for now. i daresay they'll start to get nervous once they start to see true signs that the dragon has been reborn and that the last battle will happen in their lifetime. but until then, i cannot emphasize enough how much any dragon- & breaking-related shit is not on the general population's radar. they don't care about the bronze age collapse. they don't care about any sort of war or destruction or apocalypse until it starts to affect them personally (see: nobody caring enough to help falme in s2, just as nobody cared enough to help manetheren).

i will also add that as someone fresh from reading the books for the very first time, i can comfortably say the show is NOT lagging behind on Breaking Info-Giving compared to where the books were at this point. we had zero clue about the bore or any of that stuff until rand's rhuidean trip (and even then, i didn't really understand what the hell was going on in his visions until quite a bit later, and in large part due to learning some extra-book information that explained it better). as a show-only during s1, i can assure you that the 3000 years later flashback showing us a futuristic society made me go OH SHIT and hit home the full impact of the breaking far more than anything in the books, where we don't even see any AOL scenes onscreen aside from the rhuidean visions (which are very confusing to a first-time reader) and the dragonmount prologue (which isn't very useful since it's the first scene in the whole series and a first-time reader has zero context for anything learned there).

honestly, i think longtime readers forget just how much of our AOL/forsaken/breaking knowledge comes from extra-book sources like the companion, Word Of Jordan, etc; the books alone are very vague about so much of that stuff and i remember being repeatedly bewildered as to how you guys knew so much about the AOL when the books either didn't have those details at all or had them so vaguely that they flew right over my first-time reader head. i'm not 100% sure, but i believe latra posae decume isn't even MENTIONED in the books and comes purely from "the strike at shayol ghul", as do many of the details about the strike and the bore and the breaking. and so i definitely think the show has already included more information, and more CLEAR information, about the breaking than the books alone had by the end of TDR and in fact for much of the series.

#anonymous #answered #wot book spoilers

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charlesoberonn · 6 months

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I think we as people should write more of better timelines too like see that world can be better place sometimes then just feel scare of things that could go worst.

List of better timelines:

The Bronze Age Collapse doesn't happen

Hitler is never born

Penicillin is discovered centuries earlier

Al Gore wins the 2000 Presidential election

The Olso Accords create lasting peace between Israel and Palestine

NASA's budget is increased after the Apollo missions instead of slashed

Humans domesticate bears

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littlesparklight · 25 days

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Focusing a bit on Troy, here's how I arranged things, starting with the first sack:

1270 BC; the first/"lesser" sack of Troy. Priam is 26. I use the myth (in Diodorus Siculus) where Priam helps Telamon out of Troy after Laomedon imprisons him when he's sent on embassy by Herakles to request/demand the horses and Hesione, so Priam would be no child. Considering that the sons of Laomedon aside from Priam named in the Bibliotheke are the same ones seated with Priam in the Iliad, I also ignore the "Herakles killed all of Laomedon's sons". He clearly didn't! 1267 BC - Priam sends a delegation to Delphi to ask the oracle when it might be the right time to request Hesione back [it's not specified what the oracular question was]; the delegation comes back with Panthoos, Delphian priest of Apollo, who has come along to "interpret the answer given"/explain it to Priam. He ends up staying in Troy and is given the same position in Troy as he'd had in Delphi. 1258 BC - Priam assists his future father in law Dymas and his sons against an Amazon incursion, meeting Hecuba (~21) and getting married to her. [He divorces Arisbe and either he or her father then marries her to Hyrtakos.] 1251 BC - Paris is born, and exposed. I don't have him be the second son, but he's among the earlier ones. (Hecuba is also in general giving birth to a lot of multiples to squeeze 19 sons and a handful of daughters into the years required!)

For Paris' return to Troy, I went and played freely with things. Because I wanted to. So Paris is ten (1241 BC) when he returns to Troy, using none of the more "established" myths for that. However! If I was going to use the funeral games version I'd probably have him be ~18 (so he returns then in 1233 BC). The reason for this, aside from still giving Paris at least two years in Troy prior to the Judgment, is that Hyginus says he was come to "young manhood" when the funeral games and murder attempt happened, and the hypothesis for Euripides' Alexandros play specifies he was twenty. And since it's always floating when the Judgment happens (before or after recognition) having the Judgment happen at 20 regardless seems like a good spot to me.

And since I wilfully ignore the part where Paris has ships built, or Aphrodite orders ships built for him, because Troy would already have ships, and it'd take years for such to be built, Paris then leaves for Sparta in 1231 BC.

I do go with there having been ~5 years between Paris and Helen reaching Troy and the war actually starting. It makes sense, even if one doesn't use the full ten as both the Iliad claims and the Bibliotheke accounts for. So that means the Trojan war properly starts in 1226 BC.

Originally I'd gone with the most usual date for the end of the war (1184 thereabouts), deeming the other, earlier dates, as too early. But when I wanted to lean more into the Bronze Age collapse, which means certain cities (like Mycenae) have already been destroyed by 1184 BC, I moved things up to still be close(er) to the 1184 BC date but not close enough I couldn't accommodate later events to align with a date around there for the destruction of Mycenae.

#greek mythology #trojan war #trojan family

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yamayuandadu · 7 months

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is the deity mentioned in ugaritic sources milku a "predecessor" of some kind to the Ammonite deity milcom?

i know the neighbouring god chemosh might have have been a "successor" to the eblaite Kamiš. so i assume its a possibility?

btw im fully aware that the bible isnt a very accurate source when it comes to ancient near eastern theology (especially the cultures that were at odds with ancient Israel)

I actually do not think I've seen anyone address this in detail. Etymologically both seem to go back to the root mlk, same as a number of other theonyms. But Milcom was clearly a pantheon head and Milku is just one of multiple underworld deities. At the same time, it's worth noting it does seem Milku was associated with the Transjordan in Ugarit. Maybe he rose to prominence in the south after the Bronze Age collapse? It doesn't help that there is actually much less evidence from the south than from Ugarit or Emar in the Bronze Age. I cannot really give you a clear answer beyond "the names are clearly related", sadly. The connection between Chemosh and Kamiš is not actually proved, also. The recent discovery of the Akkadian-Amorite god list would indicate that there was more than one deity with a similar name. As noted by A. R. George and M. Krebernik in their commentary on this new discovery: "The equations of Kamiš with Enki/Ea in our text, and of Kammuš with Nergal in god lists, do not favour an assumption that they are all identical." W. G. Lambert already questioned if these are all variants of one name in the 1970s (source). Some more discussion can be found here.

#ugaritic miscellanea

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elamarth-calmagol · 6 months

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I'm listening to too many videos about ancient mysteries, and now I'm thinking about when the fourth and later ages ended in relationship to real world history. This is totally not researched beyond looking up dates. Research is exhausting.

I know that Tolkien thought the Third Age ended and the Fourth Age started about 6,000 years ago, and the Great Flood and the birth of Jesus was supposed to be the ends of different ages. He also said that he thought he was in the beginning of the Seventh Age in 1958 and that he thought the ages were coming faster than the Second and Third Age did.

6,000 years ago is about 4,000 BCE, which is when Adam and Eve were supposed to live. Noah's Flood is supposed to have happened (according to people who take the Bible literally, which I personally disagree with) in 2348 BCE. Of course, even if you don't believe that Adam and Eve were the first humans ever but instead just two representatives of the human race who lived in Eden, the story of Genesis doesn't fit into the Silmarillion story of Men, because the Fall of Men was supposed to have happened early in the First Age, not in 4,000 BCE. So we can't really take the Old Testament at face value if we want to unite it with either the Silmarillion or known history. Anyway, let's move in the history direction.

First we have Meltwater Pulse 1B (one of the channels I watch will NOT shut up about this). This is thought to be around 11,500 years ago, or 9,500 BCE. This is way too early to be related to the Fourth Age, though it might be a reasonable time period for the destruction of Numenor. It's a theory that stories passed down about Meltwater Pulse 1B is the cause of both flood myths and the idea of Atlantis, and we all know that Numenor (AKA Atalantë) is Atlantis. That would place the end of the Third Age/beginning of the Fourth Age around 6,300 BCE, which doesn't match Tolkien's ideas. But maybe the fourth age ends in 4,000 BCE, instead of beginning there. Or Meltwater Pulse 1B could be related to the destruction of Beleriand, though that one isn't as satisfying to me, putting the end of the Second Age around 6,000 BCE and the end of the Third Age around 3,000 BCE.

We also have the Black Sea Deluge Hypothesis, which is another theoretical origin for the flood myths, though it only affected the Black Sea and isn't even confirmed to have happened. Estimated dates are 6,800 or 5,600 BCE. Using 6,800 BCE for the destruction of Numenor would put the beginning of the Fourth Age around 3,600 BCE, the right general time period for when Tolkien thought it would begin. But the Black Sea is nowhere near where Numenor (or Atlantis) should be, so at best it's just an origin for a flood legend. Also, it is almost definitely too recent to be the end of the First Age.

You could also say that Meltwater Pulse 1B is the end of the Second Age and the Black Sea Deluge happened at the end of the Third Age in 5,600, but I don't know how that would be related to the destruction of Mordor. Incidentally, I don't know of any big volcanic eruptions in Italy (or elsewhere in mainland Europe) that would be around either 4,000 or 6,000 BCE, though I'd love to hear if someone could find one.

Then there's the Late Bronze Age Collapse. Now, this is a great one, because there were relatively advanced civilizations beforehand, and it took many centuries to get back to where we were before. It wasn't dramatic enough to erase all evidence of a place like Gondor, but it could help explain why we went backwards in technology after that point. Surprisingly (to me), the Late Bronze Age Collapse was only around 1,200 BCE. That would be a good end of the Fourth or Fifth Age. I'd prefer it at the end of the Fourth Age, so we can have Gondor be included in the collapse.

There's also the very rapid collapse of the Maltese civilization around 2,400 BCE (the article I read put the final death of the culture at exactly the same time as the Biblical estimate for Noah's flood??), which I've also heard as a source for the Atlantis myth, but that seems to be limited to a single island that definitely did not get sunk. Also that's way too recent to be the end of the Second Age, because then the Third Age would run past the year 0, so I'm throwing that one out.

Once we've gotten out of the BCE years, it's obvious what comes next. Tolkien would definitely put the end of the next age at the birth of Jesus. We can say that this age goes on until the modern day, but that seems to be too long, especially since Tolkien said that ages were getting shorter. I would end the next age in the thirteenth century with the Black Plague in Europe and Mongol conquest in Asia (actually, the Ages of the world are a very cultural thing, hence why the Second Age ends after a battle a hundred years after Numenor is sunk and the world is made round, so we can probably limit our events to Europe). Or maybe it's, I dunno, the Protestant Reformation (I mean, it was catastrophic from a Catholic point of view.) Then the end of the next age is either WWI or WWII. Or maybe the end of the Cold War, since that was sort of a continuation of WWII, but I prefer WWII because of the atomic bombs.

So here are my speculative timelines:

1a. Meltdown Pulse 1B causes the destruction of Beleriand in 9,500 BCE. The end of the Second Age is around 6,000 BCE and maybe related to the Black Sea Deluge but probably not. The end of the Third Age is around 3,000 BCE. The end of the Fourth Age is the Late Bronze Age Collapse in 1,200 BCE. The end of the Fifth Age is the birth of Jesus around the year 0. The end of the Sixth Age is in the 13th century. The end of the Seventh Age is at the end of WWII. We are currently in the Eighth Age.

1b. (pun intended) All of this is true except that the end of the Sixth Age doesn't happen until WWII, so we're in the Seventh Age right now, as Tolkien suggested.

2a. Meltdown Pulse 1B is part of the destruction of Numenor at the end of the Second Age in 9,500 BCE. The end of the Third Age is around 6,000 BCE, and maybe Mordor got flooded after the volcano went off, who knows. The end of the Fourth Age is Noah's Flood in... sometime. The end of the Fifth Age is the Late Bronze Age Collapse. The rest of the ages continue as it does in #1, and we're in the Ninth Age (yikes) right now

2b. The rest of the ages continues as it does in 1b, and we're in the Eighth Age right now.

This is all nonsense, of course, since I'm trying to put together two completely separate books and a collection of archaeological and geological hypotheses, none of which match. Not to mention it's a total mess of writing, but feel free to try to piece some of it together. There are probably also other worldwide cataclysmic events during this time period that I don't know about. But if you bring up Ancient Aliens in this thread in any way except as an example of pseudo-scientific and racist BS, I swear to Eru I'm going to block you.

#lotr #tolkien #unreality #history #meta #religion #mine #analysis

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eyesoverinfinity · 1 year

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Illuminati/super secret society Au

This is an Au where the Survivors works for the Illuminati! Or at least a super secret and shady society. I'll call them the s.s.s.s for now. (stands for super secret shadow society) The AU logo is also their logo:

They are the usual shadow organisation working to control the world in secret. Roles and backstory are under the cut.

(No I'm not mourning the fact Inside Job was cancelled, what are you talking about.)

A long time ago, two eldritch beings who wanted to rule the earth as gods. They looked at the world and saw it's dependency on a few powerful people and took them over. They were successful for 2 thousand years until their cult was found, overthrown and their power source, their worshipers, where slaughtered.

As this was in the mists of and maybe the lost cause of the Bronze age collapse, it was lost to history.

But the humans were too late, for these creatures had created something that they could not destroy, something that was reborn into the future, something that was destined to take over this world and unite it under its absolute rule.

They made Kethontia (k-eth-on-tie-a), their son. Now know today as Keith.

But enough backstory, here's our main cast (spoiler: they are a lot more corrupt then in cannon):

Ellis: He grew up with Keith before they knew he was god-like being, once they found out the prophecy he was happy to help his bud with world domination. He was the one who suggested a secret organisation instead of destroying a majority of humanity. He is Keith's right hand man and second in command.

Nick: He was a con-artist with nothing to lose, on account that Keith found him bleeding out from multiple bullet wounds in a back ally. He was given a second chance at life in this new job. He is half spy half lab rat. He goes onto missions and sometimes goes with powers that Keith gives him, and then they get to see if mortals (aka Nick) can actually handle them. He dies a lot, but Keith bring him back.

Coach: Coach was having a rough time when Keith found him. His injured leg had developed arthritis, the school he was working at was closing down in favour of a new private school none of the current students would be able to get into and on top of that he was having a crisis of faith. Keith stepped in to fill that void. Keith restabilized the school and fixed Coach's leg entirely, in return Coach became the main recruiter for the S.S.S.S. Although Coach refuses to put anyone under 20 on his list.

Rochelle: Ellis realised very quickly that if Keith wanted to control the world, He'd need a contact to control the media. He found Rochelle being mistreated in her workplace despite her clear skill and decided that she would be perfect. Keith contacted her and offered to make her the head of the news, but she only accepted when Keith pulled the 'I'm a god' card and proves it. Even then she joins more out of the fear that she'll be brainwashed or killed if she doesn't agree. She starts out unsure about the S.S.S.S but she gets used to it. (and the power gets to her head.)

Zoey: Zoey was failing college when she met Keith, the problem was that she wasn't really trying at making an actually good movie. (Her parents divorcing wasn't helping with concentration either.) Instead she was having a go at subliminal messaging so she could graduate, Keith would of been a idiot to pass this up. She was put in charge of producing subliminal messages and movies to go with it. Ironically, her movies are now really good even without subliminal messaging. Her parents don't know anything about the S.S.S.S and are happy for their daughter.

Louis: Louis was chosen for two reasons, one, he was incredibly skilled, two, he had a bone to pick with his boss. Who, very clearly, was not given Louis a promotion because the boss was a racist pig. His story is very similar to Rochelle's after that. He becomes the head of the biggest electronics manufactures in the northern hemisphere.

Bill: Bill's job fell into his lap by accident. Keith had recently found that he could use his incomprehensible power to brainwash people, so he saw Bill's skill and tried to convert him, but Bill was mysteriously immune (far too stubborn to fall)to his control. Embarrassed, He begged Bill to join his cause (and preferably never talk about this again). Bill accepted the first term, but talks about the story every chance he gets. He's a combat trainer and receptionist.

Francis: Keith met Francis at a bar while he was drunk (He's a god-like being, but he still has a human body,) and spilled the beans on the secret society. Francis, who was also drunk said he wanted to join in. They accidently made the first magickly binding deal since the bronze age and Francis is now the head of the criminal underworld of America. Like Bill, he also brags about it any chance he gets.

(Thank you to @punkasshunter for helping me develop this au. your help is deeply appreciated)

#l4d louis #l4d2 ellis #l4d2 rochelle #left 4 dead 2 #left 4 dead #coach l4d2 #l4d bill #nick l4d2 #l4d zoey #l4d francis #l4d au #l4d2 au #super secret society Au #l4d2 #l4d #valve #au april #keith l4d2

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wine-dark-and-honey-tongued · 2 years

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Howdy ! I saw in Ur bio that you have Ariadne in there. I'd love to learn more about her but am not able to find heaps of information on her . If it's not a bother do you happen to have any info ?

(feel free to skip if you feel so inclined to no pressure )

Omg hi!

I definitely don't mind sharing, I don't have much (haven't had the spoons for active worship/research lately) but I'm happy to oblige! There isn't very much out there as far as I've seen but I'll share what I've been able to find and utilise.

As always with this stuff, there are multiple versions of the same myths and many interpretations and I'm far from an expert, so take this with a grain of salt. There's also going to be a bit of history both bc I love that stuff and have a personal project that's setting is Minoan Crete, so I think it's relevant if for nothing other than context.

Ariadne, in mythology (summarizing), is a princess of Crete and sister of the Minotaur. She is put in charge of the labyrinth where the Minotaur is kept, and where 7 boys and 7 girls from Athens are sent as sacrifices. Ariadne gives Theseus a ball of thread/string to help him find his way back out of the labyrinth after slaying the Minotaur, leaving the island with him afterwards. She's then abandoned, intentionally or unintentionally depending on which version of the story you're looking at, on Naxos and is found by Dionysus and becomes his wife.

It's theorized in some circles that Ariadne was originally a great goddess of Crete known as the Mistress of the Labyrinth. Some also suggest she's the Minoan Snake Goddess. There's no concrete evidence for either of these claims as far as I've found, but I felt they're worth mentioning regardless given the island of Crete was taken over by the Mycenean Greeks after the collapse of the Minoan civilization in the Bronze Age and its very possible the Greeks could have adopted/absorbed bits and pieces of the Minoan's religious practices.

Some myths cover her death and subsequent retreival from Hades by Dionysus, who then brings Ariadne and his mother Semele to Mount Olympus to be defied. Depending what you read you may find conflicting accounts of what happened and when, but that's normal with Greek mythology I've learned.

Ariadne is commonly associated with thread/string, mazes and labyrinths, bulls, snakes, and in some instances I've also seen weaving (makes sense given the whole thread thing) and a crown listed (her diadem from her wedding to Dionysus was set in the heavens as the constellation Corona).

This next bit is UPG so please don't take this as cold hard fact, it's just what I've discovered in my practice.

Ariadne, to me, is a goddess of introspection/self reflection. A labyrinth is a single path curving in on itself until you reach the center, one way in and back out. I've come across folks talking about using the labyrinth as a metaphor/manner of thinking for a journey of self discovery, called (fittingly) Ariadne's Thread, and this is something I've adopted as well. The Minotaur can be interpreted in a number of ways; its typically some sort of conflict or hurdle one must confront in order to further their growth. It doesn't need to be slain, necessarily, but is something that must be dealt with in order to progress (kind of like working through something in therapy to find the source of a problem and how to handle it going forward). It's a vehicle for deeper self understanding, if that makes sense.

I think that's why I was so drawn to her when I first started researching Crete's history and wanting to progress with my knowledge and practice in hellenic polytheism; I needed to do some serious self reflection because I'd just gotten out of a terribly rough patch in life that started with following/using someone as a means of escape from a shitty situation and ended with me stranded, in essence, and isolated by my own hand. I felt a kinship with her and her story and have felt connected with her ever since. I've even got a little Snake Goddess pendant that I constantly wear for/as representation of her.

Hopefully that made sense and was helpful! I've included some links below to some sources, both academic and not, I refer to.

Ariadne summary on amino | Ariadne on witchesandpagans | Ariadne on theoi.com | Ariadne on Wikipedia (a great starting point for all the basic info imo) | blog post about Ariadne's Thread symbolism + application

#answered #ariadne #ariadne deity #hellenic polytheism #helpol #aurelia muses

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dreddedwheat · 11 months

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One thing that annoys me about "Historical is better" Total War fans is that they're only interested in like, three periods of history. That's Ancient Rome, the Medieval era and maybe the Colonial era (y'know, the late 1600s to late 1700s where Empire takes place in.)

Rant below the line.

Total War: Pharaoh is like Troy, but judging by the title is going to be a proper, massive game, not a spin-off like the Sagas series. But all people talk about is 'It doesn't innovate! I want more city-building! I want this! I want that!'

Like ffs, if Rome and Medieval 2 are so timeless, then why do people want sequels? Because they've played them to death so they're blind to the flaws. Hell, even Shogun 2 has aged quite badly in some areas imho, and it still uses a lot of the aspects that people complain about nowadays.

The New Kingdom and the Bronze Age Collapse are fascinating periods in Egypt, from both a warfare and cultural standpoint. But people nit-pick different aspects and downplay anything new in favour of bitching about the same fucking thing.

Yes, OG Rome had populations you saw grow in non-abstract terms. Yes it's cool you could build peasant units, then disband them in other settlements to quickly grow the populace. Does it change anything to have abstracted population values? No.

You go back to Rome and Medieval and the diplomacy is absolutely fucked. The AI is braindead and instead of looking beyond them people clamour for remakes and then complain when reworking a decades old engine isn't 100% perfect on launch.

And whenever CA does anything wrong, or there are bugs, people crow about 'Lazy devs'. Which is pretty much the Bat-signal for me to discard your opinion, because 'lazy' doesn't even come close considering everything they do right.

Also, "We want Empire 2!", is like...wasn't everybody complaining about that not too long ago?! I just see the same complaints and same things repeated over and over by people who can't get over the older titles.

#Total War #Total War: Pharaoh #Egypt #Ancient Egypt

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zero-is-nebulous · 2 years

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I have issue with the way Sega went about silvers character and apparently at one point in the past month I decided to rewrite his entire lore so

(Disclaimer: a lot is changed, this was note taking, and the original future timeline has shifted a LOT)

what if silver was created by eggman to be the ultimate weapon, a NEW take on Shadows construction. A biological lifeform that can channel chaos energy in NEW ways, and absolutely keep order to the eggman empire.

What if, when he was being created, he was left in stasis, forever a prototype with no test schedule. So now there's this incompleted glorified servalence and order organism, and he's got Psychoconesis so he doesn't have to get his hands dirty. He's a hedgehog because that's what shadow was and eggmans still working off of Gerald's ideals, and also isn't that just a KICK in the face to the fallen hero, in the end? He's not immortal. He could never quite figure that out, although his life force is strong in diffrent ways. The formation of telekinetic chaos abilities strengthens his brain, something that he would need to fix. Monitor. He needed him to NOT be as sentient and free thinking as shadow, and so, that sets back the project.

Silver is a passion project, named silver because while eggman is gold, the highest honorary position of leadership, this hedgehog will be his concluded victory. His second in command. Because eggman never was really a fan of dirty work.

Silver, project s. A being that, after the 'first apocalypse' went wrong, was let loose from his prison and introduced to the world. It was an accident. He wasn't finished yet, fixed yet- He grew up in less than a year because, well, he needed to survive. Eggman bots chased him, attempted to capture him, but he'd seen the world around him and the eggmans face plastered on every billboard. He'd seen families in alleyways cry, had mourned their world WITH them as they explained to him its condition.

He knows he was kept there, woken in a faulty crio pod in the wreckage of a collapsing base. Chalkboards with notes and diagrams were brushed over in place of keeping himself alive so he doesn't know much, but his glimpse of the lab gave him an idea.

And then little planet happens, just like it does every 11 months. And eggman attemps to colonise it, just like he did back then. Silver, after realising his abilities, is well on his way to gain some revenge, and some answers if he can help it, too. So he leaves for little planet and finds runes. The time stones, and yes. Time, a way to manage and bring ORDER to this apocalypse. A way to FIX things, once and for all and he knows, then, what he's going to do. He'll bring order. He'll maintain, and he will protect.

He has a run in with the eggman that created him as he gathers the last of the time stones into his quills for safe keeping. Eggman is excited to see him, sending his bots down to grab and contain him. But alas, as the adjustments to silver were incomplete under his care, he had neglected to understand his capability. His raw power, his raw DRIVE, and his undeniable sentience, reminiscent of Shadow himself just as the original scraps of arcs blueprints had detected. And boy was there little to go by, a coded text, kept locked in prison island and only UNCODED after years in his possession.

But, i digress.

Silver learns from eggman that he is imperfect, flawed, that the evil genius isn't FINISHED with him, and Silver is curious. He is a child to the universe and so, he asks questions. He gets few answers but he's smart, for his age, just as robotnic had designed him and so with little information the general image is formed regardless.

Silver then, vows. He vows to stop him, no matter what it takes, and then time stones are flinging silver BACK. Way, way back.

Over timeliness, silver learns of a golden glow that paints the sky in times of absolute distress. Legends, almost, through every year. Its in carvings on angel island, and its proclaimed with statues that flicker in and out of fallen futures. Memorials for their last hopes flame being snuffed out, more bronze than gold under the grit.

And then he meets him, and he is. He's gold, a hedgehog like himself, glowing and warm and smiling as he defeats their foe with a motion lost to his own eyes.

He is silver, and this hero, is Gold. The key to the future. And he was only ever really meant to be loyal to gold.

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kallistcs · 1 year

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Ganymede was absolutely actively grieving, as well as depressed, for a few hundred years after Troy fell. :') The Bronze Age Collapse with the societal and cultural upheavals around the same time would not have helped in the least.

He basically tied up a lot of stability/sense of connection to Troy/Wilusa, as country and Troy (as well as Dardanus) as a city, along with his family's descendants, existing. That is then removed, in such a drawn-out, political (on the divine level), emotional and ruthless manner, completely.

Which vaguely leads into thoughts on Rome/the Romans. Initially I've been thinking he was fond of them and the state of Rome general for the connection with the Trojans, but frankly, that doesn't make any sense. Rome is much too different from the country and culture he calls(/ed) his own, so while some of the families who had connections to Trojans (especially the gens Julia) were vaguely important/interesting to him, he didn't actually connect much to any stage of Rome as such, aside from the very earliest ones (what would be the entirely mythological ones in real life).

#most beautiful: headcanon

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voluptuarian · 2 years

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It's ridiculous the amount of research I've done for The Dancing Ground, because if and when I complete it, it'll probably weigh in at somewhere between short story and novella length. So like, a tiny sliver of a story to show for a decade of thought and years of study. But like, the stuff I've researched is so ridiculous sounding, even to myself. Like, what climate differences occurred in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age Collapse, so I can better represent the Cretan climate as it might have been during the Minoan period. How tree-covered Naxos might have been during the Bronze Age, and what kind of trees there would have been. Average seasonal temperatures on Crete. What kind of cattle the Minoans raised (it's generally believed they were aurochs, just in case you were wondering). Potential social structure in Mycenae and Crete, and potential manifestations of hierarchy, gender equality, inheritance, family makeup etc. within those structures. Tons of shit about Linear A and Linear B and lists of individual and city names in both. The names of the people chosen as tribute with Theseus. So much weaving and textile production information. Minoan worship poses, and shrine set ups. Pulling up Heraklion and Knossos on Google Maps and clocking the likely walk time between different points on the island.

I know I'm doing it in part because there are plenty of people out there who know these places intimately and I don't want to end up like the guy in The Decoy Bride, where the locals side-eye my stuff because it's clear I don't know jack about the places I'm writing about (which, I mean, I don't, but I'm doing my best). Part of it is because this whole story is an attempt at reconstructing something that no longer exists (a potential Cretan version of the Minotaur/Theseus story, as well as the possible worldviews and cultural ideas that accompanied it) so I have to read between the lines to draw conclusions wherever I can. And partly it's because I know the information is out there, so why shouldn't I use it?

But like-- I went and looked up whether the dogs native to Crete barked or bayed. Why did I need to know that. Why did I even think about that question? (And it was for one fucking throwaway line, it might not even make it in there by the time I'm done.) ????????

And I know that instead of long, uninterrupted hallways, Knossos' palace had strings of rooms with sets of doors between, which depending on how they were opened or closed could allow for the passage of sunlight through long distances of interior space, or similarly quickly throw whole areas into total darkness. Why do I know that? Idk. Does it really matter, and will literally anyone other than me care? Probably not. Am I going to use it in my story regardless? Obviously. Will this throwaway fact somehow lead to some other research question I will have to spend hours and days looking into that also doesn't matter to anyone but me? Doubtless.

I'm stuck like this, for whatever reason, and I don't know any other way to approach this particular story than the way I've been approaching it, but god I don't know why I'm approaching it that way. Maybe this is all the result of having a story germinate from a Wikipedia deep-dive, but here I am I guess.

#I think part of it is definitely my awareness that there are Greek people who could read this and not wanting to embarrass myself #or write something that reads as shamefully bad from a Greek perspective #especially my dear greek friend who will definitely be beta reading this thing if it ever gets finished #but like idk why I'm so weird about the rest of this shit #lore and more #the dancing ground

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