#vitruvian vault
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The Vitruvian Vault
Maximilien was wearing a tux that fit tightly around his built frame, and his handsome face made everyone’s heads turn and gawk at him. His charming smile made everyone watching swoon. What they didn’t know was that he wasn’t really that handsome, or muscular, or attractive, and that he wouldn’t be this if he never found the Vitruvian Vault.
Three months ago, Max was on the metro when he saw an envelope fall from another man’s pocket. He didn’t seem to notice that it fell, as he didn’t look back, and the doors were closing anyway, so Max looked around and carefully swooped it up and put it in his satchel.
Getting off at Seneca, he walked to his cramped studio apartment (which came with no bathroom, just a toilet and a sink) and rummaged through his satchel and slid the envelope into his hands. Opening it, he found an empty piece of paper and something else - a remote of sorts. It was a flat piece of plastic with a light at the end, with a singular button, emblazoned with a copy of da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.
“One button with the Vitruvian Man?” he asked, curious. He looked at his small flat screen, aimed the remote to it, and pressed it.
Nothing.
“So not a TV remote, I guess,” he said dejected, and accidentally pressed the button as the remote aimed at the front door. The wooden door glowed and Max gawked as atom by atom, it transformed into a metal one.
“Woah, what the–” his voice trailed off as the door shifted and morphed into metal. Max carefully approached it and turned the handle.
On the other side was not the corridor of his apartment floor, but a huge warehouse full of human-sized pods. The room was super bright, and as Max stepped in, he heard a voice from somewhere:
“Welcome to the Vitruvian Vault, Mr. Lopez,” it said in a flat, almost robotic tone. “Please close the door behind you.”
Max did as was told. He walked down the steps and took a close look at the pods. Each one had a screen, with pictures of beautiful people of all ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations.
“Wh-what is this place?” he asked to… well, no one.
Steam hissed from an area of the warehouse, and a humanoid robot was walking towards him. Max was frightened - it’s like seeing the robot inside the Terminator, about to kill him. Instead though, the android pressed a button on the screen of a pod, and it opened to reveal a handsome young man.
“Mr. Lopez-”
“M-Max,” he stammered.
“Max, call me Marwan. I’ll be your guide to the Vault.”
“So wait, this… this Vault thing, it houses bodysuits?”
“Not just bodysuits… well, it stores copies of bodies, but the ways you can use them are endless,” Marwan chuckled.
He led Max to an empty white room.
“This is where we scan you so the bodies can be calibrated to your… physical size? Yes, that’s it.”
Marwan positioned Max in the center of the room, and an oculus opened above. Lasers aimed all over his clothed body as the Vault’s AI measured every area of Max’s body (including package, which did not enthuse the ladies and gents), while also assessing the types of bodies Max would like. It took about ten minutes until the oculus shut itself.
He sighed, “So what now?”
“We pick out bodies we think you’d like,” Marwan smiled as he led his ‘master’ back out into the warehouse.
“Okay, so… here we have about ten specific bodies we think you–”
“H-him…” Max stammered, staring at a pod.
“Oh, this guy. Well, he’s of French origin, so you’ll be able to speak French very sexily in this vessel. I mean, you could speak anything sexily in–” Marwan said, interrupted by Max.
“What are the ways?” he asked.
The screen flashed five options:
Bodysuit
Avatar
Body swap
Permanent merge
“Which option would you like to take, Max?” Marwan asked, walking over to look into the pod.
“I choose…”
A year later…
Weird enough, he’s still a robot, and they’re both trying to find a way to make him human, but sometimes, it never mattered anymore. They love each other.
“Je suis Max,” he mumbled. He chuckled. He was indeed sexy, the very definition of pulchritude. The Vitruvian Vault gave him a new lease on life, and now, it was someone else’s turn. Luckily enough, he got to explore the whole vault to understand how it works, seeing all the bodies.
He dropped the envelope and walked away, smirking, knowing whoever picks it up will have a real adventure.
And that person is you. What do you plan to do with the Vault?
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Superbat beginning of some kind of fic?
The sound of smashing glass is shocking and unexpected—Bruce’s first thought is that a bomb detonated. Reflex has him upending his desk and taking cover behind it, but it only takes a few moments for him to realize that there is no heat. No blast. Not a bomb, then. Just a broken window—he can already feel a draft breezing in. The papers he sent flying off his desk flutter, unable to settle.
He pops his head above his desk to survey the room, wondering what in the world could have broken glass that is reinforced to withstand machine gun fire on the 70th floor of a skyscraper.
Bruce isn’t expecting to see a young man hovering in midair in front of the person-sized hole he presumably created. Bruce blinks, does a double-take, because surely he can’t be—but no—he is.
Hovering.
A foot above the floor.
Bruce takes his measure—fair skin, black hair, blue eyes. Early twenties. Wearing a pair of skintight black shorts, a thick metallic choker—also in black—and nothing else at all. He’s tall, perhaps 6’2, maybe 200 pounds (‘191cm, Master Bruce,’ he imagines Alfred correcting him, ‘90 kilograms’). His build is muscular—practically Vitruvian as far as Bruce can see.
But despite the objective perfection of his proportions, he looks ill. Skin sallow, dark rings under his eyes, limbs trembling. He’s hyperventilating, and his eyes are glassy with unshed tears.
“I can’t. I can’t,” he whispers to himself, breath hitching, voice hoarse as if he’s been screaming.
Everything about him exudes ‘unstable’ and Bruce can tell he needs to tread carefully.
Bruce carefully picks up his letter opener and slips it up his sleeve, before getting to his feet slowly.
“Can I help you?” Bruce calls, keeping his expression easy and open.
The man looks at Bruce with those unfathomably blue eyes, until tears begin to roll down his cheeks.
“Okay, I won’t,” he says nonsensically.
“Won’t what? Break my window? You did that already,” says Bruce, beginning to grow impatient.
“I’m sorry, I won’t.”
There is an audible click, and the choker around the man’s neck begins to glow green. The effect is immediate—the man drops to the floor like a leaden weight, landing heavily on his hands and knees. He writhes in agony. It’s an abrupt and alarming development.
Bruce vaults over his desk and goes to him. He almost expects to feel something when he gets close to that green glow—it’s obviously affecting the man terribly—but he feels nothing.
“What is this?” Bruce demands.
The man just pants and sobs, whimpering directionless apologies. Bruce decides he has to get that collar off him—clearly it’s some kind of torture device.
When he reaches for it, the man flinches away from his hands weakly. “You shouldn’t—”
“Will it harm me if I touch it?” asks Bruce.
The man shakes his head. “They’ll kill her if you take it off. They’ll kill her unless I kill you. I don’t want to, please don’t make me—I don’t want to.”
The man’s words are painting a terrible picture.
“Who will be killed?”
“My—my mom.”
“Who wants you to kill me?”
“I don’t know.”
Never mind—Bruce doesn’t need this man to tell him, he can figure out on his own who wants Bruce Wayne dead. He keeps an excel spreadsheet meticulously updated on that very topic.
“What’s your name?” Bruce asks, standing to quickly retrieve his laptop from the floor. He opens it impatiently and mashes the keyboard to wake it up, simultaneously pulling his phone out of his breast pocket to speed-dial Alfred. While the phone rings, Bruce begins the process of hacking the device around the man’s neck.
“Clark,” he chokes out.
He’s curled in the fetal position now, shivering violently.
“You got a last name, Clark?” asks Bruce, attention split between him and the lines of code on his laptop screen.
“Ke—” he’s cut off by a heart-wrenching sob. “Kent,” Clark forces out.
Clark Kent.
Bruce has never heard of him.
“Master Bruce?” comes Alfred’s voice, tinny through the phone.
“There’s a situation at the office.”
“Shall I bring a car around?”
“One with tinted windows please.”
While his programme runs on the collar—downloading any information it can pull, dragging specs and commands, trying to figure out how to take control—Bruce opens his web browser and searches ‘Clark Kent’.
The first result that pings is an article about his mysterious disappearance exactly two months previously. Bruce skims through and finds out that Clark Kent hails from Smallville, Kansas. He’s twenty-three, and recently graduated from the University of Metropolis with a degree in journalism.
The Batman hasn’t garnered his reputation for solving crime without his ability to find connections between seemingly discrete information, so he doesn’t believe it’s a coincidence that a week prior to the disappearance of Clark Kent, a mysterious figure saved people trapped on the top floor of a burning building in Metropolis.
#superbat#fanfic#my writing#not my usual fandom i know#clark x bruce#never written for this fandom before#just trying it out
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Some thoughts of Heart of Deimos.
I made a reddit post but I thought I might repost it here and see if the response is any different. Mild spoilers for Heart of Deimos, the most recent Warframe update, under the cut.
First off, this is a bit of an effortpost, and it will be quite meandering and confused, sorry about that. We are now two days into Heart of Deimos and I had some thoughts I wanted to put on paper as it were. There's a TL;DR at the bottom.
The Bad:
In all honesty, taking into account the usual DE release-then-fix cycle and the quick patching they've already done to things like the Son token costs, there's very little about this update that I think is objectively bad. Deimos might be the single best open world release of the set, lack of a catchy musical number aside. It's not any buggier than any other release, which may say more about DE's QA than anything, but I have fallen through the map a few times, and host migrations have broken multiple vault runs.
The combined token system is a pretty big departure from the other open worlds, and I found it very confusing initially. Without the prior context of using Ticker for bonds in Fortuna, I think it would be really opaque, particularly for new players who aren't already up to speed on how the open world resource loops are expected to work. Alongside the complex token system, it's also understandable that people are frustrated with the expectation that they -must- participate in mining, fishing and conservation to get the tokens, since these don't really leverage the well developed aspects of gameplay.
The initial quest was lackluster from a storytelling perspective, with some really nonsensical events, a lack of development for each individual beat, and a frustrating lack of building on the already existing lore in favour of introducing new lore. It was pretty blatantly a tour of the zone mechanics, though maybe we'll see a more engaging plot when the equivalent of the Profit Taker and Exploiter bounties are introduced over the next year. The new warframe being dropped in by Mother as an afterthought, without a scrap of context, almost felt worse than the way previous quests have just given us the blueprint with no explanation at all. Protea's quest felt a lot clearer so it's disheartening to see them taking a step back there.
Finally, prior to finding the Albrecht lore I thought the playable content of the update was quite short and uninteresting.
The Good:
The Family voice acting is really, really good. Some of the writing is a bit iffy in the classic overwrought DE sense (which IMO is charmingly earnest anyway) but the delivery is fantastic, and while initially I was put off by the characters being shallow, I came around on it - I will go into more detail under 'The Ugly'.
With regards to the grind: even though the resources from the open world minigames are mandatory, participation isn't - so far I've run conservation exactly once, for about an hour, and I am clear for the third rank up with the Entrati. The world drops and bounty loot are more than enough to cover the vast majority of other costs, which is honestly fantastic. For all the complaining, DE has definitely learned from PoE and Fortuna with regards to letting people dictate their own playstyle without handicapping their progress. You can focus down specific requirements with specific minigames, no trouble, or you can just play bounties and run and gun your way to incidental loot. The combined token system was really confusing initially but combined with the incidental drops it makes progression quite organic without forcing you to spend your time on any particular task (looking at you, pre-Thumper PoE). There also seems to be a pretty solid spawn chance for tokens in the caves of the open world, and since the rank ups are now 1 of each kind of token instead of 10, this is possibly now a feasible way to skip the conservation grind entirely.
With regards to the lore: despite my earlier complaint about narrative quality and disconnection, DE does seem to be tying Parvos, the Entrati and the Glassmaker together, which is interesting. Prior to finding the Necraloid area and hearing the excellent Albrecht Vitruvian lore (seriously, mad props to the writers and the VA, the fourth log gives me powerful Darkest Dungeon narration vibes) I was ready to drop the game until a few patches and more content was added, but now I'm fully willing to grind for a couple weeks to hear the rest. I'm curious to see where they will go with the Heart and the Man in the Wall, particularly in regards to stuff like the reliquary drive and how it relates to the Necraloids and pre-warframe Orokin technology in general.
The Ugly:
The Family are the ugly, get it? This bit is mostly just because I want to talk about the new characters and the themes of Warframe as a narrative.
There's a kind of tension around the family that I initially found offputting - here we have a family of immortal alien gods who made their name ripping secrets from the flesh of reality, literally sprouting from the meat flowers of an infested moon... and they act like the cast of Arrested Development, switching between lofty poetic proclamations and petty squabbling that wouldn't be out of place on a sitcom. At first it seemed like it was just bad writing. Over time though, with exposure to the wider plot and the various deeper interactions, I started to warm to it. It's really interesting how DE has juxtaposed the deformed appearance of the Entrati, their perfect-marble-statue-like Orokin aesthetic, the pulsating infestation, and this very human, very relatable behavior. It really pulls back the skin on the Orokin as a people and uses a bit of clever metanarrative to show us that even the Tenno remember the Orokin as being more than human, when they were just as flawed as anyone else.
The individual characters felt very shallow at first, like cardboard cutouts of the typical family transplanted into a blob of writhing meat, but the pleasant surprise of the relationships mending between Entrati rank-ups and the subtle undercurrents you start to notice when interacting with them over a longer timeline really turned that on its head. There's some really excellent combinations of writing and delivery that add subtleties to each character, like the Daughter's undercurrent of thirst for either the Tenno or for butchering mutant fish, or the animalistic yearning of the Son and his bleeding heart hidden under the callous and cruel facade.
Family, parenthood and belonging are arguably the core themes of Warframe's narrative - the Tenno are orphan children clinging to a single parental figure who herself is a stolen child, while their allies like the Ostrons and the Solaris are people who cling to their human connections and their shared culture despite outside forces, and draw their strength from each other. The grand enemies of the setting are collectivist empires who have shredded their humanity in pursuit of strength and profit respectively. Then you have the Orokin, whose grand flaw is hubris in isolation, and a deliberate abandonment of shared humanity in pursuit of impossible perfection. The entire Parvos questline related to blood, with Nef wanting to abuse it for gain and Parvos denouncing him. Even the Sentients, arguably the only alien culture in the setting, love their families and oppose the Orokin and by extension the Tenno largely in defense of their people.
DE has leaned hard on quite creepy, quite -relatable- strangeness to give the Family depth, which helps reinforce that they're demigods of a dead empire, even if they are also quite friendly and personable. It lends some real weight to the way the Orokin have been depicted as cruel, hollow people, since we now have direct evidence of how their culture and the expectations of their various roles tear at those interpersonal connections. There's a lot of heart and clear work put into developing these themes, and I think that it's a bit sad that the quality of the writing is frequently overlooked in the broader Warframe community in favour of focusing on the flashy mechanics and cool new novel features. DE's writers are some of the best in mainstream video gaming currently, and even with my complaints about the main quest earlier, this consistent ongoing thematic cohesion and the variety of individually good beats more than make up for incoherent feature-driven storytelling.
TL;DR:
Despite some teething issues and bugs Heart of Deimos might be the best open world update so far, the way DE presents the Family and develops on the overarching themes of the story are pretty excellent, and I am excited to see where they go with it.
Thanks for reading my incoherent and largely irrelevant thought-spew. Have a good one.
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What the Hell Universe
Entry 1 Montague
What the actual fuck universe. What have I done in a past life to piss you off so!? What have I done to you to make my life the multi headed dick Hydra that is my current life!
Everything is a burnt husk or ruin. If it's not burnt it's mutated if not burnt and mutated. I mean cockroaches the size of Corgis, angry murder fly-bees that shoot it's larva young at you. I swear if there are mutated spiders the size of dobermans, I'm ending it right now. I will eat that bullet with ketchup(if I can find some) damn nature you scary with a irradiated vengeance.
Okay where to start. first I need something to help get my thoughts in order so diary, Journal, log thingy ,or Incase someone finds this on my corpse out in this hell scape. We're about to get real personal real quick. So I guess I'll start with my name.
My name is Montague Alister Hawk, and I'm a time traveler for the year 2077 pre war America.
How is time travel possible you ask hypothetical reader. Well apparently its one part: ignore your best friend's advice and instincts, one part: submit to the peer pressure from your wife and one part: smooth silver tongue Vault Tec rep, and Two part: the fucking Chinese or American government nuking the shit out of each other! Mix with Corporate America mindset and a dash of Vault Tec experimentation. Poor over the iced tears of the working class and bam you get one maybe two possibly three time travelers.
Gods please let my wife and child be safe. Also thanks for keeping my last bottle of whiskey together for the past 210 years.
Okay so here's the thing, my psychologist doc Anders, said that in times of great stress with nothing to do, is to write down my thoughts or this case type them. So here I am, drinking a the last (possibly unirradiated) bottle Jameson. In the burnt out ruins of my home, with the computer (I scavenged from the drug dealer down the street), and with the hopes my wife and son are alive in this hellscape that is the Boston wasteland as Codsworth dubs it.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact when I woke up this morning in the year of 2077 and now it's 2287. In fact we went into vault 111 around 1000 hrs on Oct 23 and I came out of said vault on Oct 23 1100 hrs. And what's worse is today is still a blur.
It started like any other day, I was shaving my beard off in my preparation for the speech I was suppose to give at the VA. I remember Cods giving me some coffee and the knock on the door from that Vault Tec basterd, my wife pleading with me to just deal with him. Because it was free.
Pffpht nothing is free, "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.” that is the Law of Equivalent Exchange and I have yet to find a way to circumvent this law, but enough philosophy.
The next thing I remember is hearing my NORAD waring blare on my computer, gathering Cassandra and Shaun. Then booking it towards the vault. the air was thick with fear. There was air raid sirens blaring and vertibirds mobilizing.
If I wasn't in such a panic I would have recognise the first warning something was off. It was the Vault Tec rep having been denied at the gate. The second warning was when we were granted access to the vault even though we finished the paperwork not 30 minutes before. Gods hindsight is 20/20 and a bitch.
I felt it before it went off somehow, all the thing Cassandra and I feared most. The reason I joined the rangers and went to war, was to help prevent what we saw. The reason Cassandra went to law school and put up with those stuff shirts that made up the law community, was to prevent what we saw. All the hardships, late nights, ptsd fueled nightmares, our hopes dreams, and all the hours put to fight the injustice we fought against. All of that time and effort, went up in the ash and dust fueled, mushroom shaped cloud.
I still see it when I close my eyes. Still hear the screams.
Anyway I instinctively grab Cassandra hold her against me as we ducked down against the blast wind as we were lowered into the vault. We hit the bottom and all I can think is how much time we wasted to prevent the unpreventable.
The next hour was a blur again and the next thing I can remember is Cassandra handing me Shaun so she could change into her vault suit. I remember looking into his blue eyes and holding close. Silently promising him the best I could in this fucked up world. Then I looked at my Cassandra, my rock, my harbor in the storm. I looked into the stormy steel eyes and kissed her for all I worth. Hoping my unsaid message of love and devotion was noticed.
Then of course we were interrupted by some Vault Tec asshat in a lab coat telling us it's time to enter our individual decontamination chamber. Hince the third waring something was wrong.
Now thanks to my years in the Rangers I have seen a lot of things. New tech and research of Big MT things but this was no decontamination chamber I have ever seen. In fact it looked more like a sarcophagus pod than a decontamination chamber.
Of course my fears of the future and my small family standing in front of me (and my instincts of finding a safe and secure space for us) distracted my “IT'S A TRAP” instincts. Well that and the armed Vault Tec security officer standing behind the asshat in the lab coat.
We then of course follow instructions and get in to the sarcophagus of decontamination. Luckily Cassandra Shaun and I were able to get pods across from one another and see each other from across the hall via view ports. We hear the computer voice say “Decontamination start in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1..” as it hit one Cassandra and I reached for each other then the blackness took me.
The next thing I remember is hearing voices as I was coughing up liquid. Then I see these science types in light blue radiation gear with what looked like Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man as a symbol over their right breast, and a man that was definitely a mercenary.
They stop in front of Cassandra's pod, gods knows I tried to get out but I was weak. The merc took a fighting stance pointed his (I'm guessing .44) revolver at Cassandra's view port and nods to the DaVinci wannabe. They activated her pod and as it open I can hear Shaun's cry's. Of course I'm shouting and pounding on my viewport, trying to get people's attention to no avail.
Then the gun shot (definitely .44), and all I can see is Cassandra's shocked face. Then I hear this ungodly roar (I guess it was me by the way that merc and that DaVinci wannabe looked at me) and that fucking merc smiled at me. and I swear to all that is holy, I will find him and wipe that smile off his face with his own gun.
Then blackness again.
I don't know how long I was out but the next thing I hear is a kalaxian blaring over and over again. I shifted and cracked one of my eyes open to immediately shut it again as the low light seared through my brain. Igniting a headache that has yet to leave me. Then all that has happened to this point, slams through my brain. Panicking I look up to my wife's pod to find it empty!
As I slowly get up, ignoring the pain as my muscles scream for me to lay down again, and stumble to the empty open pod. As I reached the pod I fall to my knees, I rub my eyes a couple times in disbelief. Then all I see from my position is a small but dried blood smear and the bloody bullet lodged in the upper corner of the interior pod. I grabbed a flat head screwdriver form the nearby tool box and proceeded to attempt to dialogue the bullet. I can't tell you why it was important but it was.
After sometime I finally work the damn thing out and as it popped out from its position I missed the catch and it bounced to the floor. Wanting that bullet I went after it. Fate must have been with me because it landed next to a blood spot and the broken chain of Cassandra's pendant necklace that she inherited from her mom. As I pick up the pendent I realised that Cassandra rarely took it off and was often a favorite chew toy for Shaun.
The pendet Itself was shaped in the form of a mother (tigers eye) cradling a newborn (lapis lazuli). Behind it was my dented dog tags and behind those Cassandra's wedding band and engagement ring. Unfortunately part of the mother was broken as well my tags were bent from what looked like a bullet going through or at least ricocheted off them.
Hope then. Not much but enough to move forward.
I look around and see the vault in disrepair as well as the other pods. I get up stretching my muscles and walk to the next pod to the right of mine. The viewport was fogged up so I pull the release switch and the body of ole Bob fell out. He was dead from the looks of it (and no pulse I checked). He seemed to be dead for a while. Then the next pod down (left of mine) to his wife, same condition. So was the next and the next one after that. All dead. Then I see a computer at the beginning of the hall.
I turn on the monitor to see the screen blinking in time with the klaxon, saying cryo Lab 3 critical malfunction. I acknowledge the waring and the klaxon mercifully stop blaring. I continue to read the warning displayed on the screen and discovered that all residents of the pods pronounced were dead. With the exception of my pod and Cassandra's pod. However nothing was timed stamped or dated even.
Diary, Journal, log thingy, or hypothetical reader. I'm going to say right now, I been alone for a long time even during my military service but before I met Cassandra I could handle that feeling and let me try to describe that feeling.
It's like your hollow inside and nothing you do matters. You go through the motions of life, do what's expected of you, try not to make a fuss. Be that man your father wanted, be a pawn in his games. That pawn for the government. Of course I had ambition but it had nowhere to go and it kinda peters out. I joined the military to get away from my father in Texas. Went north to get away from that toxic family but it followed me here and everywhere I went. I was looking to die at the start of Anchorage.
Of course I wasn't wanting to go alone so decided to take as many of those invading Chinese bastards with me. But somehow I lived through that campaign. I was in Washington DC receiving my medals when I met Cassandra and that's the day I finally knew how to live, I wasn't alone anymore.
However in that moment after reading how Everyone in that bay was dead. That lonely feeling hit me full force and truthfully I don't know how I handled the loneliness before. Because for the first time in 10 years I remember what it felt like. I don't know how long I stood there looking at nothing but eventually I moved. Looking at the ground I saw more blood pointing out a side door.
Following the trail, it lead me to a side office that looked like a tornado ransack the place. If I had to guess it was my wifes doing. Because in all the mess was a bloody discarded vault suit, empty packaging of a new suit and the remnants of a first aid kit. I also noticed blood leading in but not out.
Good signs. Like Cassandra's uncle Nick always said, “If there ain't no body, then there ain't nobody dead.”
I proceed through the vault to see if there was any supplies missed, and proceeded after hopefully after Cassandra. As I continued through the vault I saw the evidence of Cassandra throughout the place. Bodies of well squished Radroaches, (which made tracking her easier) messy mess hall (phtb) and other signs of life. Eventually I proceeded to the overseer’s office ransacking what supplies I could along the way. At the overseer's office is where I found my first weapon and information about the vault.
Yeah I remember that dash of experimentation that I told you of for the making of a time traveler? Well it turns out vault-tec was doing social experimentation on us for the long-term effects of cryogenically freezing the human body.
Bastards
At the overseer got what was coming It seems that the security crew pulled a coup de gras after rations was getting low to leave the vault. I can summarize this because I'm standing over the bastards bullet-riddled skeletal remains and by the entries of his computer. Not even sorry
I then proceeded to the access tunnel that the overseer had and came into the supply room where I was able to find a Pip-Boy brand spanking new in the box. After starting it up and getting it tuned to my body I proceeded to the vault door into the entrance of this gods-forsaken tomb.
I was able to reach to the top of the Vault and finally see the destruction of those idiots. If my other description of how fucked our world is, see my earlier description of the world. I will say this however nature is slowly reclaiming what is hers I have no doubt that you'll be able to do it in the next couple thousand years or so. Because life marches on with or without humans.
However there is the problem of me losing the trail of my wife at the top of the vault. So naturally I thought she would head down to the house that we wants to live in that is now a ruin. Funny enough I come across our old robot codsworth still trying to do his programmed duties.so after a not so heartwarming reunion, I found out that Codsworth has not seen my wife and we sweep the neighborhood, looking for supplies and clues of Cassandra or of Shaun's kidnappers, until the sun was on the horizon.
I need to apologize to Codsworth, I don't think he appreciated my smartassery. Though Codsworth did say there was a rainstorm not to long ago but that makes tracking Cassandra that more difficult. However not impossible.
I pray that the gods are still with me on this journey. Lord Hades take the dead into your realm and give them proper rest. Also if you could thank Bob for me, his fallout shelter was still intact and relatively stocked hope he didn't mind. Lady Diana and Lady Freya guide me into the hunt for my wife and son, keep my shots square and true. Odin help me keep my knowledge and strength in this endeavor. Lady Athena help me keep my strategy sound and wit about me. And to Jesus grant mercy to those who stand against me for I will have none to give.
This is Hawk signing off
End entry Oct 24 2287 0107
(quote from Fullmetal Alchemist and Band of Brothers)
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Pygmalion Relations
Hair
Wandering in the public square, a lit lantern in hand in the middle of the day, […] A garden more inviting than Eden would […] meet my eye.[1]
Once you arrived, I studied you and was pleased with what I found.[2]
I went to see him the next morning, and received an invitation to dine there, which I accepted.[3]
He was of utter beauty, grazing perfection.
The reproduction of the image of the Vitruvian man […][4]
He was transparent but impenetrable.[5]
The situation of this house was beautiful, though chosen for convenience.[6]
So far as this technic expression of size and power are concerned, I look on the hall as nearly perfect, and were this the highest or even a high class of beauty we need not go further[7]
In this sense, it came closest to the idea of perfection, which is the starting point and goal of all art.[8]
His face was distorted[9]
And his nose was misshapen, too. Not much, to be sure […].[10]
But the perfect proportion and symmetry of his body and frame rendered him beautiful.
His skin texture was perfect, the individual hairs on head and body had been lovingly and intricately manufactured and placed.[11]
Oh, how beautiful and stately wast thou on the high couch reclining in the hall![12]
He had given great attention to realistic detail, rendering each feature with painstaking precision, whether or not it could in actuality be so seen within the image as a whole.[13]
The dishes gave as much pleasure to my imagination as to my palate; sometimes the little piece of nature from which they had been extracted, the rugged holy water stoup of the oyster in which lingered a few drops of brackish water, or the gnarled stem, the yellowed branches of a bunch of grapes, still enveloped them, inedible, poetic and distant as a landscape, evoking as we dined successive images of a siesta in the shade of a vine or of an excursion on the sea […]. [14]
This dinner, although without preparation, was splendid.[15]
And The evening was extremely calm and beautiful.[16]
After scaling a ruinous staircase I was shown a bed chamber,[17] where I was invited to stay the night.
Brain
After some passing of time, we had gotten to know each other, and found that we were perfect for each other. I gave him all that I could, while he did the same for me.
It was evidently a case of “love at first sight” […][18]
I had done everything that I could for him
I had already banished the shadow of the negative […].[19]
I had learnt that There is the care of the body to consider, health regimens, physical exercises without overexertion, the carefully measured satisfaction of needs.[20]
We would often spend the evenings in the living room, admiring each other.
Mouth
Everything happens, then, during the seconds of complete veiling. Hardly had it begun than a strange light, yellow and tawny, resembling nothing else, neither the evening nor the dawn, invaded the environment; the glory of orange light intercepted by the walls of my abode disappeared, giving way to a somber and magic bath […].[21]
The variant was the surprise bath, where I was taken down the corridors to the ground floor, and arrived in a square room with a vaulted ceiling, where a large bath had been constructed; I was then tipped backwards into the water. [22]
Mild water? I found suds forming on my body and I rubbed hastily here, there, everywhere, judging it to be the wash cycle and knowing it would not last long. Then came the rinse cycle. Ah, warm. Well, perhaps not warm, but not quite as cold, and definitely feeling warm to my thoroughly chilled body.[23]
If a man is covered by an eruption you will mix flour of malt little by little in oil, you will apply (it) and he will recover; if he is still not cured, you will apply hot simtum and he will recover; if he is still not cured, you will apply the warm residue and he will recover.[24]
If we employ extracts, they must have been recently prepared and preserved with great care.[25]
Oiling out, making out, polishing, scraping, etc.[26]
This new development came from the perfecting of the arts that imitate the human body.[27]
When he awoke, he looked at his body and found it clean as virgin silver, […] whereat he rejoiced exceedingly and his breast expanded with gladness.[28]
Stomach
Now for his diet: for lunch honey, for dinner a biscuit and vegetables, meat infrequently.... In this way his body kept the same condition, as if on a straight line, without being sometimes healthy, sometimes sick, and without growing heavier Even outside the strictly Pythagorean context, regimen was regularly defined with reference to these two associated dimensions of good health maintenance and proper care of the soul.[29]
You can imagine my surprise when I had discovered a tremendous thing, it seemed to me.[30]
The layout of a modern kitchen, […] designed to streamline all processes, from food storage and food preparation, to cooking on the stove and serving the finished meal on the dining room table, to dishwashing and the storage of cutlery and dishes.[31]
The Greeks were not wrong in showing us the immortals constantly feasting, drinking ambrosia, and laughing endlessly.[32]
And there were always drugs around—most notably, the jars of white crosses and other uppers that he kept in the fridge next to his protein fortified milkshakes.[33]
I experience food beyond the meal not only while consuming it but also in the selection of certain products over others in meal planning and preparation.[34]
In the succeeding month, our health improved [35] even beyond what I had thought was the limit.
Muscle
The most striking interior volume is the central, double height hall that at once evokes memories of medieval great halls and is bathed with light from huge windows. […][36]
Everything is mirror […] [37]
It contained all sorts of apparatus: an exercise bicycle, wall bars, a rowing machine, a massage machine etc.[38]
I begin by taking a mirror, look at my shoulders, examine my loins and thighs.
Entrance of the gymnast in gymnopedy, entrance of the gymnosophists, entrance of the professor of gymnastics.[39] How magnificent.
By gymnastic exercises it was intended to harden his body, to sharpen his courage, and to prepare him for the fatigues and dangers […].[40]
The double ecstasy of the muscular effort in the thighs and calves, a powerful, almost metallic leap, a pause in the air that seems eternal, during which the body assumes positions and performs.[41]
That there is absolutely no imperfection, is indeed, […], a proof of his being wanting in the highest qualities of architecture; […] and may well be studied for the excellence he displays in methods of levelling stones, for the precision of his inlaying, and other such qualities […].[42]
For almost nobody, except he be trained from the start and equipped with complete reason, can develop to perfect proportions, understanding when he should do certain things, and to what extent, and in whose company, and how, and why.[43]
No sculptor can possibly produce a first class work of art here on Gaia without a well-crafted Participation and the ones I produce of this particular type are considered excellent[…][44]
We seem never to be altogether prepared for the resulting distress. If we do not literally shake, as I did […], we may experience an internal shudder that is the subjective equivalent of the overt trembling that occurred […]. While my physical shaking […] was observable by anyone standing near me, the inner shudder at my own bodily pain may not be visible to others even though it is felt intensely by myself, and felt as foreign to me. Some part of my body has become alien to me, split off from a coherent and unitary sense of self.[45]
He clearly abused himself, but in so doing rendered a stature I had never before had the blessing to see.
Ideal form of excellence![46] But For what purpose?[47]
He seemed beautiful and strong because he was not like me. I had found a new fascination for this incredible man, a man who seemed to have the ability to do anything.
My eyes alighted by chance on the massive mirror that hung opposite and I let out a cry: our reflections in its golden frame were like a picture of extraordinary beauty. It was so strange and fantastic […].[48]
I had found the strong man I needed and was as happy with him as it is possible to be on this funny ball of clay.[49]
I had opened myself up to him.
We were now mutually bound together, the lighter being restrained by the heavier, so that he cannot fly off; while, on the contrary, from the lighter tending upwards, the heavier is so suspended, that I cannot fall down.[50]
But there remain a double door, behind which I had never been allowed to go. A secret he was hiding from me.
So these two beings lived in this manner, high aloft, with all that improbability which is in nature; neither at the nadir nor at the zenith, between man and seraphim, above the mire, below the ether, in the clouds; hardly flesh and blood, soul and ecstasy from head to foot; already too sublime to walk the earth, still too heavily charged with humanity to disappear in the blue, suspended like atoms which are waiting to be precipitated; apparently beyond the bounds of destiny; ignorant of that rut; yesterday, to day, tomorrow; amazed, rapturous, floating, soaring; at times so light that they could take their flight out into the infinite; almost prepared to soar away to all eternity.[51]
Heart
Here the day has come; here the week of the lectistemium had begun.[52]
The physical effort was small, but the mental effort of trying to control without controlling was enormously difficult.[53]
His only aim, his only possible aim, was to please me.[54]
I believed, however, that the soul could achieve temporary separation from the body in an ecstatic trance.[55]
Is it truly possible to think without arriving at beauty, without penetrating the secret place where life bubbles up, without the transfiguration of the body?[56]
Prepared?[57]
A single locus of sexuality was acknowledged in social space as well as at the heart of every household, but it was a utilitarian and fertile one: the […] bedroom. [58]
At the sight of him, I felt myself bewildered — every sense was absorbed in ecstasy.[59]
Then begins the body to body of discourse with and against silence.[60]
Air fills the thorax; ten liquids circulate through the vessels and pores; fire sets the heart, the genitals and the brain ablaze; the humus models the human.[61]
The glorious light makes us drunk with joy and our sense of wonder has no limits. This pleasure is truly divine! What pure happiness we feel in the bottom of our hearts at this spectacle! What ecstasy! No, we cannot possibly give expression to it! At this season nature’s work is done; everything is the image of perfection; everything has acquired a clearly defined form that is full blown, accurate and pure. Outlines are clear and distinct; their maturity gives them noble, majestic proportions; their bright, vivid colours have acquired all their brilliance.[62]
Then the engine was started, the machine ran along the ground, gathered speed, until finally, all of a sudden, at right angles, I rose slowly, […] as it were static ecstasy of a horizontal speed suddenly transformed into a majestic, vertical ascent.[63]
Now, drawn out from his body, his sinews formed a bundle of dark, shiny stalks, not unlike the bundle of lightning bolts that lay beside him, although these were bright and smoking.[64]
Now between the dry head,
more than dead,
almost abstract,
empty and dessicated,
suitably objectivized,
wholly exterior,
pierced,
visible,
nameable,
articulated,
analyzable,
between the skull and the rest of the world,
a circumstantial halo of light,
like the ones worn by the great saints,
replaces, at bone level,
the lining of flesh,
fat,
muscle,
organs,
skin,
veins,
tendons,
hair,
radiance,
charm,
beauty,
glory.
Thus the body thinks. The body thinks therefore shines.[65]
the body becomes an architectural structure,
moving masonry,
a ship;
the skeleton becomes a firm framework,
with tie beams and rafters;
the muscles form the wall and partitions.[66]
Moments are points of rupture —ephemeral, euphoric, revelatory of the total, radical, sometimes revolutionary possibilities latent in everyday life.[67]
Everything that I can see in this body produces in me ecstatic wonder.[68]
Then, having risen to so high a pitch, having been sustained with so much vigour, the chant, mingled with a murmur of supplication in the midst of ecstasy, seemed at times to stop altogether like a spring that has ceased to flow.[69]
This music makes me cry because I am not like it, not something complete, which turns toward the lost sweetness of life like a distant quotation. Happiness can only be thought of as something lost, as a beautiful alien. It cannot be anything more than a premonition that we approach with tears in our eyes without ever reaching it. [70]
I was absolutely in a state of ecstasy, and, involuntary, sinking on my knees, I passionately extended my arms towards him, certain he could not hear, and having no conception that he could see me; but there was a fireplace at the end of the room that betrayed all my proceedings.[71]
And when I got into the open air, I heard distinctly, as the night was still, the distant sound of a door unlocking.[72]
When the door in front of him finally opened, he stared straight into a hallway, [73] which seemed to stretch out into the infinite. At the end of this couloir, a door.
I prudently walked towards it.
Womb
As I opened the door, I heard a sort of echo in the roof; it sounded like voices and it began to shake my Roman courage.[74]
I entered and was taken aback by
The blackness, […] the vast emptiness stretching out infinitely.[75]
Deep, dark, dank, dismal silence.[76]
the infinite void of space[77]
But is that emptiness not also the ultimate plenitude?[78]
The darkness embraced him lovingly.[79]
There are beauties that are more palpable and explicable, and they are hidden and secret beauties.[80]
I walked into the vastness, the door closing behind me. I almost slipped after taking a step Because the ground was wet.[81]
His hands were stroking my body anxiously, but with care and love. And it did touch me in somewhat the same way; it also brought close to me things of the kind which we not only see with our eyes but feel also in our hearts.[82]
I felt my way along the moist walls, until I let go and walked freely. My feet touched something, laying on the floor. Something that felt like A small bit of steel.[83]
That was the little thing, or the beginning of the little thing, that was soon to become the big thing.[84]
[…] the ‘first chaos’, the absence of order in perfect order, the absence of all relation.[85]
Thus, the creation began.
A primordial action, statuary repatriates mass— strange, inevitable, ceaselessly returning, equilibrium and content of the world, first object—by unifying it, like a thing; by individuating it, like a body; by localizing or marking a space by its means; by stabilizing mass like a dead thing or body; by therefore stopping time; by giving mass limits it cannot leave, by defining it or even by inventing the act of defining.[86]
Through this technique, […] a new object was being formed; slowly, it superseded the mechanical body, the body composed of solids and assigned movements, the image of which had for so long haunted those who dreamt of disciplinary perfection.[87]
It shall be perfect therefore, as its Father which is in heaven is perfect.[88]
After Twelve years, three months, and four days,[89] it’s complete![90]
Finally, all the parts that have contributed to the perfection of the work which we admire[91] came together, forming the one,
most sublime,
most charming,
most graceful,
most splendid,
most touching
being.[92]
[…] more safely guarded by its walls,
more superb in palaces,
more ornamented in respect to temples,
more beautiful by virtue of its buildings,
more illustrious in its porticoes,
more splendid in its piazzas[93]
In an ecstasy of joy, […], we reiterated, stroking and patting it as though it were a horse that had just come first past the post: “You’re the most beautiful being we know, do you hear?”[94]
[1] Wollstonecraft, Complete Works
[2] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[3] Rousseau, Collected Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
[4] Hays, Architecture Theory since 1968
[5] Hugo, Les Miserables
[6] Wollstonecraft, Complete Works
[7] Fergusson, An Historical Inquiry into the True Principles of Beauty in Art
[8] Mallgrave, Architectural Theory
[9] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[10] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[11] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[12] Seneca, Complete Works
[13] Chilvers, A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art Oxfor
[14] Proust, In Search of Lost Time Vol III The Guermantes Way
[15] Rousseau, Collected Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
[16] Wollstonecraft, Complete Works
[17] Wollstonecraft, Complete Works
[18] Darwin, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
[19] Deleuze, Difference and Repetition
[20] Foucault, The History of Sexuality Volume 3
[21] Serres, Biogea
[22] Foucault, History of Madness
[23] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[24] Serres, History of Scientific Thought
[25] Laennec, A Treatise on the Diseases of the Chest and on Mediate Auscultation
[26] Gombrich, Art and Illusion
[27] Younes, The Historical Dictionary of Architecture of Quatremere De Quincy
[28] The Book of the Thousand and One Nights
[29] Foucault, The History of Sexuality Volume 2
[30] Serres, Hermes Literature Science Philosophy
[31] Teige, The Minimum Dwelling
[32] Serres, The Parasite
[33] Davis, High Weirdness
[34] Zimring, Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste
[35] Laennec, A Treatise on the Diseases of the Chest and on Mediate Auscultation
[36] Cruickshank, A History of Architecture in 100 Buildings
[37] Deleuze, Cinema 2 The Time Image
[38] Bourdieu, Distinction
[39] Serres, Genesis
[40] Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
[41] Serres, The Five Senses
[42] Ruskin, The Stones of Venice
[43] Seneca, Complete Works
[44] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[45] Casey, The World on Edge
[46] Wollstonecraft, Complete Works
[47] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[48] Deleuze, Masochism Coldness and Cruelty Venus in Furs
[49] Deleuze, Masochism Coldness and Cruelty Venus in Furs
[50] Pliny, Natural History Volume 1
[51] Hugo, Les Miserables
[52] Serres, Rome
[53] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[54] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[55] Schmitt, The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy
[56] Serres, The Five Senses
[57] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[58] Foucault, The History of Sexuality Volume 1
[59] Rousseau, Collected Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
[60] Serres, Hominescence
[61] Serres, Biogea
[62] Mallgrave, Architectural Theory
[63] Proust, In Search of Lost Time Vol V The Captive The Fugitive
[64] Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony
[65] Serres, Statues
[66] Serres, The Five Senses
[67] Hays, Architecture Theory since 1968
[68] de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
[69] Proust, In Search of Lost Time Vol III The Guermantes Way
[70] Sloterdijk, Critique of Cynical Reason
[71] Rousseau, Collected Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
[72] The Book of the Thousand and One Nights Supplementary Nights
[73] Kafka, The Trial
[74] Rousseau, Collected Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
[75] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[76] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[77] Serres, The Birth of Physics
[78] Foucault, History of Madness
[79] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[80] Harrison Wood Gaiger, Art in Theory 1648 1815
[81] Hugo, Les Miserables
[82] Proust, In Search of Lost Time Vol III The Guermantes Way
[83] Hugo, Les Miserables
[84] Zizek, Less Than Nothing
[85] Serres, The Birth of Physics
[86] Serres, Statues
[87] Foucault, Discipline and Punish
[88] Tyndale, Doctrinal Treatises
[89] Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
[90] Hovestadt Buehlmann, Quantum City
[91] Harrison Wood Gaiger, Art in Theory 1648 1815
[92] Frankl, The Gothic
[93] Smith, Architecture in the Culture of Early Humanism
[94] Proust, In Search of Lost Time Vol III The Guermantes Way
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Week 6- Architecture
The Milwaukee Domes are some of the most unique pieces of architecture in Milwaukee. All three of the Dome’s are the same size and are made of the same glossy, glass material. The glass is supported by what appears to be rib vaults branching along the inside of the domes. The domes are all symmetrical, meaning they all look identical and have the same patterns. The Domes are connected by a building about 1/4 the size of one of the domes. The center building has arches that present a unique twist on the domes. The domes represent the ideals of the Beaux Arts, Art Deco, and Modernist era.
The Potawatomi Hotel Casino in Milwaukee is unique in it’s architecture. On all sides are windows but they are not symmetrical with one another. They look random, because they appear to have no order. The windows resemble the sticks and mud that Indians used to make there huts. I do not know for sure if the architecture of the Casino and Hotel was meant to link back to Native American history, but I would be willing to guess it may be connecting historical Native American architecture to modern architecture. The hotel then has a top floor, completely separate from the rest of the hotel. The top floor is around the size of two of the lower levels combined.
The Fiserv Forum is one of the most recent additions that Milwaukee has added to it’s unique collection of architectural buildings. The Forum is about the size of the old Bradley Center. The Forum incorporates more modernistic ideals. The roof of the Forum branches down to one side in a curve, that appears to be made of tinted maple wood. The windows show no cohesion as they oddly loop around in different shapes. The only symmetrical part of the building is the curved roof and the windows on the side of it.
Saint Stanislaus in Milwaukee is one of the oldest churches in the area. It has two tall branching sections that bring the viewers eye to the center, where eventually the viewers eye will be led to the door. This church represents both Roman and Gothic ideals. It branches into the sky, showing that it connects this physical world with the heavenly world. All it’s points show it’s Gothic ideals. The outside does not compare to the beauty that lies within. The outside of the church is made of dark red bricks and grey bricks. On the inside are beautiful stained glass windows and paintings. The outside is meant to show the grittiness of the world and the inside is meant to show the perfection of heaven. The church’s shapes (circles and squares) show the utilization of Vitruvian design.
Miller Park is a modern piece of architecture. It’s arches open and close, either allowing the stadium to be open to the elements or not. 3 brave workers gave their lives to complete this beautiful piece of architecture. The roof arches are dark green and the base below is made of red and light-grey bricks. Miller Park is a great example of modernist architecture. It utilizes formalism, structuralism, and some elements of brutalism.
US Bank shows the modern ideals of architecture. It has symmetrical windows and symmetrical vaulting supports. Everything on the building consists of a pattern. It is made of black and white materials, representing an element of the Rococo. This was the tallest sky scraper until North Western Mutual built their skyscraper right next to it, shadowing it from the sun. Nonetheless, the US Bank skyscraper displays strong vertical lines and a sense of height compared to other buildings in Milwaukee.
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An interlude for you
The vein of horror panoramic
ophitic splinters like
crystals of feldspar through my navel
your aluminum filling cleavaged planes
Three of clubs hitting six six six
my lazy bat
and vitruvian hands uncoiled
I am the vapor in resins cavity
haunted by a polemic blur
lost and breathing flashes drift like crashing sirens
wiped along the cosmic gates, resurrected
clefts in shapes that gasp as a foot escaping sand
metallic like
your face becoming
pure as coming nothing
spine gripping porcelain
I salivate excess,
earth crust seafoam and marooned seraphs
on your clumping lashes
a fuzzy bat a blood bat dry hung I reek of screams, of nights
boomerang in gaping halls
vaulted shrines in rustled trees
I tap his nose and play
baby damp baby dripping
sleeping in his wings eating all my fruits
probing through starches of pink fig with his prong
please only observe by watching
I am the terror of black Madonna
I am the worst nightmare of my mama
please don’t be so sure so soon
mars exalted veils of silk in runes
your inhalation gagging drum shadow gunpowder=
murky belly of shark’s tooth and arrow
Milk in my mace slippery through clouds of
magnesia
to be the push the pull felt and known
dont give me a reason to stand alone
You called to me right
As my feet went blue
A breath of Mercury’s oxygen mint and dew
the only way out
is the only way through
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Ancient Nemausus was a city on Via Domitia, the first Roman road built in Gaul.
Now, hundreds of years after the fall of Rome, the monuments built here in the 1st century are as good as new. The extraordinary circular theater is still used as a stadium for festivals, while the Maison Carrée is a complete temple facade like any of the former Roman territories. Take your conquest of Nîmes even further by venturing to the Pont du Gard, part of the stunning aqueduct that supplied the city with water from 50 kilometers away, and locating the many other ancient vestiges scattered around this thrilling city. Fun fact: Did you know that the word, denim (De Nîmes) comes from this textile center, and has been produced in Nmes since the middle ages? Discover the best things to do in Nîmes.
[toc]
1. Les Arènes
The Roman amphitheater in Nîmes has proudly stood the test of 2,000 years and looks great for its age. The arena is still used for celebrations and concerts, and every May is a solemn scene in six days of bullfighting in Feria de Nîmes.
On a visit, there's plenty to immerse you in, because even the configuration of the stairs and galleries is impressive, and will allow 24,000 spectators to enter and exit in minutes without in danger.
From the outside, near the entrance, you can make out the sculpted heads of bulls just above the upper tier of arches.
2. Maison Carrée
An exemplary piece of Vitruvian architecture, the Maison Carrée is unrivaled in the previous Roman world because of its perfection. It has been here for more than 2,000 years and the only signs of age are a bit of weathering on the columns in the marvelous portico.
The temple was dedicated to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, two grandsons of Emperor Augustus who died in their youth. Over the next 20 centuries, it became a house, a granary, a church and a tomb built for the 16th-century Duke of Uzès, Antoine de Crussol. All these functions helped to keep the temple in one piece for so long.
3. Jardins de la Fontaine
Donate parks get much greater than these 18th-century gardens around the water where the ancient Nmes were founded. There are regal balustrades, wide stairs, marble statues, and vases, but there are also interesting Roman ruins, which we will visit later.
When Jardins de la Fontaine opened its doors in 1745, it was one of Europe's first public parks and appeared after trying to turn the natural spring that led to the discovery of a temple to Augustus and home. sing.
Come to explore more Rome and recharge your batteries on cedar and horse chestnut roads. To enter you have to pass through the majestic doorway almost seven meters in height and there’s a small, unadorned chamber showing a film about ancient Nemausus.
4. Temple de Diane
Almost hidden behind a copse of pines on the west side of the Jardins de la Fontaine are ruins of a chamber with a long barrel vault that caved in centuries ago. To the sides are passageways with centuries-worth of graffiti etched into the walls, and there are fragments of expertly-carved stonework in the main room.
The site is called Diana's Temple, although the exact purpose of the building is unknown - instead, it could be a library. Just by the entrance, there’s a plaque telling you the story of the site since medieval times, and how it was damaged by fire in the early modern age.
5. La Tour Magne
In its prime the tower at the top of the Jardins de la Fontaine would soar to 32 meters, dwarfing every other building in the city (it is now 18, which is high enough!). The tower is all that is left of the fortifications erected during the rule of Emperor Augustus in 15BC.
From its pedestal, at the highest point of Nemausus, it will be an important lighthouse and a plain watchtower tower.
You can enter to read the explanatory panels about its Celtic origins and climb up the stairs to the viewpoint at 18 meters where the displays show you how the panorama would have looked 2,000 years ago.
6. Musée des Beaux-Arts
Languedoc-Roussillon, the second-largest art museum, is a treasure trove of paintings from France, Italy, Flemish, and the Netherlands from the 1500s to 1800s.
The museum was founded in 1821 and was originally located at the Maison Carrée before going to this specially built hall on the Rue de la Cité focus in 1907. If you only need the headlines, head to the works by Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Rubens and Paul Delaroche.
Then you can admire the largest mosaic in Nîmes, measuring 8.80 meters by 5.94 depicting the “Marriage of Admetus”. Follow this with the beautifully glazed terracotta medallion of the Madonna and Child by renaissance sculptor Andrea della Robbia.
7. Carré d’Art
After Nîmes was struck by floods in 1988, the city decided to rejuvenate the square around the Maison Carrée and build a library and space for modern art. Norman Foster won a competition for architecture and his steel, concrete, and glass works were located across the street from the temple.
Although it has nine stories the building has a subtle outline because the lower floors are all underground. The galleries host temporary exhibitions by contemporary artists, while there is also a collection of 480 permanent works and exhibitions renewed each year.
Come to 20th-century movements from southern France and the Mediterranean, such as Nouveau Réalisme and Italian Arte Povera.
8. Pont du Gard
The wonderful building crosses the Gardon River 20 km from Nîmes but is part of the ancient city infrastructure. The aqueduct brought water all the way from the Fontaine d’Eure, bypassing the high plateau directly north of Nîmes with a 50-kilometer crescent.
Pont du Gard is the most astonishing section, standing at almost 50 meters, with three tiers of arches.
And despite the awesome scale of the aqueduct, there’s a difference in a gradient of just 2.5 centimeters from one side of the Pont du Gard to the other, 275 meters away on the opposite bank.
9. Castellum Divisorium
Behind the railing, onRue de la Lampeze is something you can only see in two parts of the world: Pompeii and exactly this location. It might not look like much, but as the information panel will inform you, this was the terminal of the Aqueduct of Nemausus.
It’s mind-boggling to remember that water would have traveled 50 kilometers to this location. Still visible in the structure is a ten-hole structure, in which fastened pipes provide water for public fountains, facilities, and homes that can be privileged.
10. Les Halles de Nîmes
You can say a lot about a French city at the stalls in its covered market. You might be amazed at the lavish display of regional produce, and in Nîmes, picholine olives and fish like bream or oysters caught overnight and sold from the fish stall a few hours later.
But since so much of the city does its shopping at Les Halles, you can see local people going about their lives in a way you can’t at more touristy sites. Delivers a sense of appetite because, at lunchtime, there are a variety of eateries with local dishes like brandade, cassoulet, and even paella.
More ideals for you: Top 10 things to do in Novara
From : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-nimes-709351.html
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Entry 6- Voce Sei
Italian art and culture is vast and widely renowned throughout the world. Leonardo da Vinci is one of Italy’s most famous and proud products as he is known for his talent in art and advancements in science. Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man will join several works at a blockbuster exhibition on the renaissance artist’s life at the Louvre after an Italian court rejected an appeal against the drawing being lent to the Paris museum. The Italia Nostra, a heritage group, recently filed a complaint saying the drawing, which is kept in a climate-controlled vault at the Academia Gallery of Venice, was "too fragile to travel” and risked being damaged by lighting in the Louvre if displayed for a long period. The last-minute legal challenge had threatened to disrupt an agreement between Italy and France for seven Leonardo works to be lent to Paris for the exhibition commemorating the 500th anniversary of his death. The exhibition is due to open on 24 October. As a symbolic gesture, Italy’s culture minister, Dario Franceschini, and his French counterpart, Franck Riester, signed the accord last month, ending a feud triggered by the previous Italian government over the loans. In return, France will lend Italy paintings by Raphael for events marking 500 years since his death next year.
Artwork is valued so highly that sometimes the eagerness to get it into the public eye overrides the need to keep is protected and secured.
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A Decade on, the Fate of Madoff’s Mansions
Gordon M. Grant for The Wall Street Journal
When real-estate agent Jason Haber first viewed Bernard Madoff’s penthouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in 2009, he saw Mr. Madoff’s personal belongings still in the apartment—as if the disgraced financier had just stepped out of the room. White polo shirts were stacked in a drawer. An electric shaver sat on the bathroom vanity.
“It was so awkward because you knew it was all his and it felt weird being there,” said Mr. Haber of Warburg Realty, who was vying to get the listing from the government. “There were federal agents all over the house inventorying everything. They asked me to surrender my phone because no one was allowed to take photographs.”
It has been almost 10 years since Mr. Madoff confessed to his sons that his investment company was basically “a giant Ponzi scheme,” estimated at the time to represent about $50 billion.
His confession set off a chain of events that led to the court-ordered seizure and sale of his four prime real-estate properties, including the Manhattan penthouse where Mr. Madoff had spent several months under house arrest. Proceeds from the sale of the penthouse, his Hamptons beach house, a Florida home and a villa in the South of France, among other assets, were used to pay restitution to his victims.
Today, Mr. Madoff is nearly nine years into a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to 11 counts of financial and mail fraud, money laundering and perjury related to the Ponzi scheme. Meanwhile, the properties, mostly sold at the bottom of the real-estate bust, have gained in value by millions of dollars, partly because of the real-estate recovery and partly because of improvements made by the homes’ new owners.
The infamous Manhattan penthouse where Mr. Madoff and his wife, Ruth, spent most of their time, for example, sold in 2010 for $8 million. Today, its estimated value tops $13 million, according to industry experts. Here is the story behind the sales, most of which were organized by the U.S. Marshals Service, with estimates by real-estate professionals of what they are worth today.
Madoff’s New York penthouse
Dorothy Hong for The Wall Street Journal
New York penthouse
Sold for: $8 million
Estimated value today: $13.268 million
Mr. Haber, who interviewed to get the East 64th Street listing but wasn’t awarded it, recalls the apartment looked dated when he toured it in 2009.
“I remember I said to one of the marshals, ‘Madoff certainly didn’t use the money to keep up the house,’” he recalled. “Whoever bought it was going to need to put a lot into it.”
The property had been purchased by Ruth Madoff in 1984 and was valued at about $7 million by the authorities. It sold for $8 million in 2010 to Alfred Kahn, the former chairman and CEO of 4Kids Entertainment and the executive behind the Cabbage Patch Kids phenomenon, and his wife, Patsy. Mr. Kahn said he thought the penthouse was a value proposition at the time.
“I thought no one would buy it, period,” he said. “The government was vetting everyone before they’d let you see it. I thought it would take out a lot of buyers who didn’t want to be vetted.”
The Kahns later divorced, and Patsy Kahn relisted the home for $17.25 million in 2013, later reducing the price to $14.5 million. It ultimately sold for the lower figure in 2014 to Lawrence Benenson, a real-estate executive, public records show. Mr. Benenson didn’t respond to a request for comment. Ruth Madoff, who was never charged with any crime pertaining to the scheme, couldn’t be reached.
The duplex apartment, located in a building dating to 1927, had Neo-Classic-style features, including Greek-inspired window frames, attenuated pilasters and a Vitruvian wave in limestone, according to a listing for the property from that period. It had three bedrooms and 4½ bathrooms and a sprawling terrace with triple exposures
Michael Graves of Douglas Elliman, Ms. Kahn’s real-estate agent at the time, said the Madoff name was good for publicity but also worked against the seller, because some prospective buyers found the connection off-putting. They couldn’t imagine hosting friends in the former home of the swindler who had possibly lost their friends’ money, he said.
“It was a complicated affiliation,” Mr. Graves added. “Over time, it’s gotten better. But at that time, it was a little more poignant. There were people still grappling with their losses. There were people who simply turned away from even looking at that home based on the historical context.”
Ms. Kahn recalled first visiting the home out of curiosity but quickly saw how she could improve it. “There were big awnings that hung over the windows, so you never saw a glimpse of sky,” she said. “It was as if he was consciously, or subconsciously, trying to hide.”
When she moved in, Ms. Kahn invited her friends over for a so-called smudging party, she said, where they burned lavender and sage, and recited prayers and poems, to rid the home of negative energy.
Mr. Graves said it helped that his client had banished the dark-colored drapes and brightened up the home with whimsical art. She also hosted charity fundraisers there and would have guests write their names on the door. “She had this rainbow collection of permanent markers everyone used as they came in,” he recalled. Anyone willing to see the home, he added, would be met with a cheerful image.
If the apartment were to sell today, it would likely trade for a similar price to its 2014 sales price, provided no further work has been done, Mr. Graves said. In 2014, the median price for a three-bedroom Manhattan home was $3.728 million, compared with $4.094 million in 2017, according to a report by Douglas Elliman.
Appraiser Jonathan Miller said the market for luxury New York sales—classified as the top 10% of homes—had dipped by about 8.5% since 2014. All other factors being equal, that would equate to a value for the apartment of about $13.268 million today.
Cap d’Antibes villa
Sold for: About $1.3 million
Estimated value today: $1.6 million
Mr. Madoff’s home in the Cap d’Antibes area of the South of France was a three-bedroom apartment in a Mediterranean-style villa with terra-cotta roof tiles and green shutters, according to Guillaume Turquois, the agent who represented Mr. Madoff in his purchase of the property.
It was located in the Chateau des Pins development, a luxury community with tennis courts and sea views. It has 24 apartments across seven villas, Mr. Turquois said.
The Madoffs bought the property in 2000 or 2001, according to a filing by Mr. Madoff’s lawyer in 2009.
It was sold by public prosecutors in France to a Russian businessman for about $1.3 million in 2009, Mr. Turquois said, confirming reports in the French press. Mr. Turquois didn’t represent the French government in that sale of the property.
Mr. Turquois said the apartment was unremarkable. “It was nice. I won’t say luxury fixtures. There was nothing extraordinary,” he said.
If it were to come on the market today, the apartment would likely be valued at roughly $1.6 million, based on current market conditions, Mr. Turquois said.
Madoff’s Palm Beach waterfront home
realtor.com
Palm Beach waterfront home
Sold for: $5.65 million
Estimated value today: $12.1 million
The Madoffs bought their Caribbean-style Palm Beach, Fla., property in 1994 and didn’t do much work on it. Mr. Madoff and many of his clients were members of the Palm Beach Country Club.
The real-estate agents marketing the property for the Marshals Service in 2009 called the five bedroom, roughly 8,800-square-foot property a “classic island home.” It had high vaulted ceilings, a covered loggia, a pool and a private deepwater dock for a yacht.
While it lagged behind the other Madoff properties during a weak Florida luxury market, the home was purchased from the marshals by the Texas-based Bray Children’s Trust for $5.65 million in 2010. The buyer hired Michael Perry of MP Design & Architecture in Palm Beach to renovate it.
The trust then resold the home in 2013 for $9.1 million to a Garden City, N.Y.-based company identified in public records as Algonquin Partners LLC. Records link that company to Austrian Prince Alexander von Auersperg. Neither the trust nor Mr. von Auersperg could immediately be reached for comment.
As for what the property might sell for today, prices for high-end homes in Palm Beach have risen substantially since the home last sold in 2013, according to findings by Mr. Miller. For luxury homes, defined as the top 10% of sales, they increased by 33%, meaning the home could be worth as much as $12.1 million, all other factors being equal.
Madoff’s Hamptons beach house
realtor.com
Hamptons beach house
Sold for: $9.41 million
Estimated value today: $21 million
The Madoffs’ Montauk, N.Y., home was decorated in a similarly dark aesthetic, with Formica countertops and dark oriental rugs.
Mr. Miller, an appraiser with Miller Samuel, recalled watching a video tour of the property offered to the media, and remembered that the host, a U.S. Marshal with a bulge from a firearm on his side, speaking of the property’s “understated elegance.”
Owners Steven and Daryl Roth bought the roughly 3,000-square-foot beachfront home, which has unobstructed views of a public beach and a gunite pool overlooking the ocean, for $9.41 million in 2009 and completed a huge renovation spearheaded by designer Thierry Despont. They installed a new staircase and moved the master suite from the ground floor to the second floor.
The Roths are selling because they have two other homes nearby in East Hampton and don’t have much time to spend at the Montauk property, listing agents Gary DePersia and Joan Hegner of the Corcoran Group previously told The Wall Street Journal. The property is on the market for $21 million. Mr. Roth is chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, a real-estate company. The Roths declined to comment.
Mr. Miller said he rarely saw a substantial premium or a discount on a property based on its connection to a boldface name such as Madoff’s.
“For every example that can be provided for someone that paid a premium, you can provide one or more examples of a discount,” he said.
The post A Decade on, the Fate of Madoff’s Mansions appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.
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assassins creed ii ps3
http://allcheatscodes.com/assassins-creed-ii-ps3/
assassins creed ii ps3
Assassin’s Creed 2 cheats & more for PlayStation 3 (PS3)
Cheats
Unlockables
Hints
Easter Eggs
Glitches
Guides
Trophies
Get the updated and latest Assassin’s Creed II cheats, unlockables, codes, hints, Easter eggs, glitches, tricks, tips, hacks, downloads, trophies, guides, FAQs, walkthroughs, and more for PlayStation 3 (PS3). AllCheatsCodes.com has all the codes you need to win every game you play!
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Official Title: Assassin’s Creed II
Genre: Action, Adventure
Developer: Ubi Soft
Publisher: Ubi Soft
ESRB Rating: Mature
Release Date: November 17, 2009
Hints
Perfect Harmony
This is an easy trophy all you need to do is go to romana and inside the little city you go to the Tailor and you dye your clothes Wetland Ebony, and Wetland Ivory it should only cost you up to 2,500 flurons so have fun getting this easy trophy.
Codex Pages
When all the codex pages are collected, they will be displayed on a wall in the villa. You will then have to solve the riddle that the codex pages hold. Hit O on the wall, then activate eagle vision to see the red figures on the codex pages. The outer most pages on the wall will make a boarder with the thin line that appears on them, connect the lines. The rest of the map is supposed to resemble a map of the world, with the Americas on the left, and Asia and Australia on the right most side. This needs to be completed to move on in the game.
How To Kill Brutes And Seekers Easy
First you need to have your fists out and when the brutes or seekers attack, time it right and counter attack them and once you have your weapon from them attack them and pull out your sword and maybe the weaker guards may start to run away.
Thieves With Swords
Get an Axe from a guard with your thieves and during the fight, do a special attack to your thieves and after the fight, make another fight and kill the guards and one of your thieves will get and have a sword.
Super Easy Kills
After stunning a group of enemies with a smoke bomb, simply switch to the hidden (DBL) blade and kill each guard one by one by sneaking up from behind. By the time the smoke clears; all or most guards should be dead.
Sequence 12,
Here you have to buy it from the play station store. there are 3 new enemies: The Orci Brothers and A black Mock. In this sequence There are 2 different Guard attacks one is the Green guards which they are your allies in this sequence and red guards which they are your enemies. you give Caterine the apple of eden but one of the Orci bros. has it and once you kill him, he stabs you and you had the apple of eden for 3 seconds but got stolen again and to continue the search of the apple of eden is to buy Sequence 13 from the Play Station Store.
How To Assassinate Borgia Easy
When you are out of bullets and knives (I did this), select the hidden Blade (s), lock on him then press Square and blocks the assassination. After that he will be near the Vault trying to unlock it. You fight him with your fist and once is health is down, press the buttons that is displayed and you have eliminated him.
1,2,3,4,and 5 Ezios
When Borgia blocks his death by an assassination, Ezio gets the apple of eden he will duplicate himself (Just like Al mulium did in Assassin’s Creed), his duplicates will help you defeat him. The armor that the duplicates have is Leather, Helmschmied, Metal, and Missaglias. You, well if you unlocked Altair’s armor, I think that is a good Idea to wear when battling with Borgia.
Altair Flashback
After finishing Sequence 6 you will eject from the Animus and you have to follow Lucy to the warehouse to practice to being an assassin. When you are finished with the training, you will be Altair again but you are not in the animus, in there you have to follow a person to a viewpoint in Acre and What! We have Maria, the Fake Robert De Sable in Assassin’s Creed. Altair mates with Maria.
Doctor
To get this trophy all you have to do is press R2 select your poison and try to find a archer poison him he will be to focused on the poison so he wont attack you then you climb on something around you and air assassinate him.
Street Cleaner Trophy
To get “Street Cleaner” Trophy is to hide 5 bodies in the hay just beat up 3 people and assassinate 2 people. (Do not assassinate 3 people because you will Desyncronize and I don’t know if you hide 2 more bodies, you might get the Trophy. ).
Hidden Blades In Combat
You only need to have about 5 easy guards, now they will block your assassination but not like in Assassins Creed, they block it with their swords. It was so easy but do not be near other guards including the armored guards.
No Hitter Trophy
An easy way for any gamer to get this trophy is quite simple, yes guards run away once you kill four guards in a group, but I found an easy way to kill ten guards in one fight without getting hurt. In the fourth DNA sequence you are to defend Lorenzo while defending lorenzo there are 12 guards you only have to kill like six guards the rest strike from there backs. If you fail just die and retry ( I would advise counter kills).
High Dive Trophie
In Florence you have to do a leap of faith on the Giotto Campanile. First of the building will stand out in the city it is white and dark blue. Now how I climbed onto the top is from the surrounding buildings. I climbed the building on the left of the Giotto and jumped and landed on the building then I had to climb until I found this broken window. Then you can climb in and there will be many things you can easily climb and the synchronize spot you can climb onto from the inside.
Disarm For Easy Kills
To kill guards easier just disarm them use your fists to block any attacks until your ready then disarm them and they have no way to attack you unless you give them a long enough chance.
Fighting Guards
When fighting guards with a spear, pike, or ax, you cannot counter their attacks. If you attempt to counter the attacks, you will most likely get your weapon knocked out of your hand. In order to kill the guards, hit x to strafe and then hit square to attack. Repeat until dead.
Cheats
Currently we have no cheats or codes for Assassin’s Creed II yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.
Unlockables
Unlockables
Bouchart’s Blade – Defeat Armand Bouchart in Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines
Dark Oracle’s Bone Dagger – Defeat the Dark Oracle in Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines
Fredrick’s Hammer – Defeat Fredrick the Red in Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines
Mace of the Bull – Defeat the Bull in Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines
Maria Thorpe’s Longsword – Defeat Maria Thorpe in Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines
Twins’ Blade – Defeat the Twins in Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines
Condottiero War Hammer – Collect 50 hidden feathers and the Condottiero War Hammer will become available in the blacksmith’s shop in the Villa Monteriggioni.
Auditore Cape – Collect 100 hidden feathers and then talk to Mario in the Villa Monteriggioni. He’ll award you the Auditore Cape.
Climb Leap Ability – Complete Rosa’s mission “Monkey See, Monkey Do” in Sequence 7 to earn the climb leap ability. With this ability, you can make longer jumps while climbing, letting you grab hand holds that’d normally be out of reach.
Disarm Combat Technique – Complete Mario’s “Evasive Maneuvers” mission in Sequence 5 to unlock the disarm technique. Disarms let you counter incoming attacks from weapons that are normally too heavy to counter (like axes).
Easter eggs
Currently we have no easter eggs for Assassin’s Creed II yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.
Glitches
Currently we have no glitches for Assassin’s Creed II yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.
Guides
Currently we have no guides or FAQs for Assassin’s Creed II yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.
Trophies
Trophy List
The Birth of an Assassin (Bronze) Be reborn as Ezio Auditore Da Firenze.
Arrivederci Abstergo (Bronze) Break out of Abstergo.
Myth Maker (Bronze) Find the 8 statuettes in Monteriggioni.
Vitruvian Man (Bronze) Unlock all 20 pieces of Subject 16’s video.
Street Cleaner (Bronze) Hide 5 dead bodies in a Bale of Hay.
Fly Swatter (Bronze) Kick a Guard while using the Flying Machine.
Messer Sandman (Bronze) Stun 4 guards at once by throwing sand in their face.
Doctor (Bronze) Perform an Air Assassination on a Poisoned NPC.
No-hitter (Bronze) Kill 10 enemies while remaining in conflict without being hit.
Kleptomaniac (Bronze) Pickpocket 1000 Florins.
Lightning Strike (Bronze) Sprint for 100 meters.
Sweeper (Bronze) Sweep 5 guards at once by using a Long Weapon.
Venetian Gladiator (Bronze) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside Santa Maria della Visitazione.
I can see your house from here! (Bronze) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside Torre Grossa.
Hallowed be thy name (Bronze) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside the Basilica di San Marco.
Prison Escape (Bronze) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside the Rocca di Ravaldino fortress.
Choir Boy (Bronze) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside Santa Maria del Flore (The Duomo).
Assassin for Hire (Bronze) Complete your first assassination mission for Lorenzo Il Magnifico.
Macho Man (Bronze) Defend a woman’s honor.
Steal Home (Bronze) Win a race against thieves!
Show your Colors (Bronze) Wear the Auditore cape in each city.
Handy Man (Bronze) Upgrade a building in the Stronghold.
I like the view (Bronze) Synchronize 10 View Points.
High Dive (Bronze) Perform a Leap of Faith from the Top of Florence’s Glotto’s Campanile.
Mailman (Bronze) Intercept a Borgia Courrier.
Tip of the Iceberg (Bronze) Use your Eagle Vision to scan a Glyph in the environment.
A Piece of the Puzzle (Bronze) Unlock a piece of Subject 16’s video.
Art Connoisseur (Bronze) Buy a Painting from Florence and Venice.
Podesta` of Monteriggioni (Bronze) Reach 80% of the your stronghold’s total value.
Perfect Harmony (Bronze) Tint your clothes with those colors: Wetland Ebony and Wetland Ivory.
In Memory of Petruccio (Bronze) Collect all the Feathers.
Red Light Addict (Bronze) Spend 5000 florins on Courtesans.
Man of the People (Bronze) Toss more than 300 florins on the ground.
Victory lies in preparation. (Bronze) Get all Hidden Blades, Item Pouches and Armor upgrades for Ezio.
Welcome to the Animus 2.0 (Silver) Enter the Animus 2.0.
The Pain of Betrayal (Silver) Complete DNA Sequence 1.
Vengeance (Silver) Complete DNA Sequence 2.
Exit the Son (Silver) Complete DNA Sequence 3.
Bloody Sunday (Silver) Complete DNA Sequence 4.
Undertaker (Silver) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside the catacombs under Santa Maria Novella.
The Conspirators (Silver) Complete DNA Sequence 5.
An Unexpected Journey (Silver) Complete DNA Sequence 6.
Bleeding Effect (Silver) Complete training and reenter the Animus.
The Merchant of Venice (Silver) Complete DNA Sequence 7.
The Impenetrable Palazzo (Silver) Complete DNA Sequence 8.
Masquerade (Silver) Complete DNA Sequence 9.
Blanca’s Man (Silver) Complete DNA Sequence 10.
The Prophet (Silver) Complete DNA Sequence 11.
The Vault (Silver) Complete DNA Seqeunce 14.
An Old Friend Returns (Gold) Escape the hideout.
Master Assassin (Platinum) Unlock all trophies.
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Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel
Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel
Florence, Italy / Opened 1433 / Architect Credit: Filippo Brunelleschi
Located in the first cloister of the southern plank of the Basilica di Santa Croce, the Pazzi Chapel represents the Renaissance architecture and ideals emerging in this time. The purpose of the chapel was intended to be a meeting room for governing chapters, as well as a classroom for religious enrichment. The province of Florence benefitted from this Chapel, as it functioned as a symbol for power and wealth for the city. The Chapel was built with masonry materials, such as concrete blocks with lime and manmade adhesives.
The floorplan of the Chapel had a predetermined size based on the walls of the adjacent Basilica di Santa Croce. This church has a plethora of Neo-Gothic motifs and stylistic elements that provide a contrasting architectural shell for the Pazzi Chapel. Brunelleschi was the architect behind the idealistic geometry of the floorplan itself. The main rectangular shape contains squares, which then contain diameters of perfect circles that form different spaces. Following the construction of the Pazzi Chapel, Francesco di Giorgio Martini conducted many surveys of the human body overlaid onto the floorplan of the Chapel and discovered the proportional harmony between the two. Brunelleschi’s work on the Chapel stresses the congruence between geometry, integrated shapes, proportion of the human body, balanced compositional weight, and the theory of Gestalt. Seen in Renaissance work, the Chapel itself portrays the “simultaneity of vision” in a “fundamentally simple and homogeneous” (Hauser, Vol 2) architectural whole. Another element of Renaissance idealistic design is depicted in the coherence in architectural language seen in the columns, pilasters, vaults, and arches throughout the Chapel.
Upon entering the Chapel, a decorative loggia highlights a Roman triumphal arch with Corinthian columns, barrel vaults, and a triangular gable on top resembling a pediment. The small dome and central cupola has a date of July 10th, 1461 stamped on it, indicating that this might have not been Brunelleschi’s work. The loggia out front is fairly different in fundamental principle of architecture, so this seems to make sense. Brunelleschi’s interior work displays a modular thought in architecture, focusing on height and simple linear elements in a contained colour palette. The white washed aesthetic is a common style of the Renaissance, adorned with geometric paneling or design. The Renaissance element of coffered and vaulted ceilings, some of which are flat timbered, are also noted in this Chapel design, arguably these elements are a revival of such styles seen in Gothic architecture.
The building itself can be broken into simplistic design elements, such as line, shapes, form, and volume. Using these ideas of blocking a building into shape, the Pazzi Chapel starts to become more geometric and mathematical. The lateral bays are half as wide as the central shape, making the horizontal and vertical shapes relative to each other in proportion. The architecture can be further broken into arches and circles, which all have the same undulating rhythm in terms of matching diameters and radii. This idea was later portrayed in da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man around 1490, showing the human body has a focal point around the golden mean of proportion.
The Pazzi Chapel has an exterior façade of the sacred world depicted by the terra cotta circular roundels of Apostles. Made by the Della Robbia family, this a clear delineation of Christian imagery and iconography. However, upon entering the interior of the Chapel, more focus is placed on the secular Renaissance world as it “remains closely connected with the scientific philosophy of the age” (Hauser, Vol 2). The shift away from the Neo-Platonic attitude of emblematic hierarchy is seen through the resurgence of classicalism based upon the mathematical way of interpreting the world. The architecture of this space jumpstarts the ideas of perspective, math, science, and spatial reasoning seen in many post-Gothic artworks and architecture. The surroundings of the Chapel, being so different than the interior, frame it in such a way that it appears to have a “hole in the wall” sentiment to it. This not only contextualizes the Chapel, but also gives its viewer a clear contrast of time period and idealistic approaches to architecture.
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The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu Abraham after a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris, when they become involved in a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus Christ having been a companion to Mary Magdalene. The title of the novel refers, among other things, to the finding of the first murder victim in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, naked and posed similar to Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a pentacle drawn on his chest in his own blood.
Book
The novel explores an alternative religious history, whose central plot point is that the Merovingian kings of France were descended from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, ideas derived from Clive Prince's The Templar Revelation (1997) and books by Margaret Starbird. The book also refers to The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) though Dan Brown has stated that it was not used as research material.
The Da Vinci Code provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and Mary Magdalene's role in the history of Christianity. The book has, however, been extensively denounced by many Christian denominations as an attack on the Roman Catholic Church, and consistently criticized for its historical and scientific inaccuracies. The novel nonetheless became a worldwide bestseller that sold 80 million copies as of 2009 and has been translated into 44 languages.
Combining the detective, thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, it is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel.
Angels & Demons. In November 2004, Random House published a Special Illustrated Edition with 160 illustrations. In 2006, a film adaptation was released by Sony's
Columbia Pictures.
Louvre curator and Priory of Sion grand master Jacques Saunière is fatally shot one night at the museum by an albino Catholic monk named Silas, who is working on behalf of someone he knows only as the Teacher, who wishes to discover the location of the "keystone," an item crucial to the search for the Holy Grail. After Saunière's body is discovered in the pose of the Vitruvian Man, the police summon Harvard professor Robert Langdon, who is in town on business. Police captain Bezu Fache tells him that he was summoned to help the police decode the cryptic message Saunière left during the final minutes of his life. The message includes a Fibonacci sequence out of order. Langdon explains to Fache that Saunière was a leading authority on the subject of goddess artwork and that the pentacle Saunière drew on his chest in his own blood represents an allusion to the goddess and not devil worship, as Fache thinks.
Sophie Neveu
A police cryptographer, Sophie Neveu, secretly explains to Langdon that she is Saunière's estranged granddaughter, and that Fache thinks Langdon is the murderer because the last line in her grandfather's message meant for Sophie said "P.S. Find Robert Langdon," which Fache had erased prior to Langdon's arrival. Neveu is troubled by memories of her grandfather's involvement in a secret pagan group. However, she understands that her grandfather intended Langdon to decipher the code, which leads them to a safe deposit box at the Paris branch of the Depository Bank of Zurich. Neveu and Langdon escape from the police and visit the bank. In the safe deposit box they find the keystone: a cryptex, a cylindrical, hand-held vault with five concentric, rotating dials labeled with letters. When these are lined up correctly, they unlock the device. If the cryptex is forced open, an enclosed vial of vinegar breaks and dissolves the message inside the cryptex, which was written on papyrus. The box containing the cryptex contains clues to its password.
Langdon and Neveu take the keystone to the home of Langdon's friend, Sir Leigh Teabing, an expert on the Holy Grail. There, Teabing explains that the Grail is not a cup, but a tomb containing the bones of Mary Magdalene. The trio then flees the country on Teabing's private plane, on which they conclude that the proper combination of letters spell out Neveu's given name, Sofia. Opening the cryptex, they discover a smaller cryptex inside it, along with another riddle that ultimately leads the group to the tomb of Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey.
During the flight to Britain, Neveu reveals the source of her estrangement from her grandfather ten years earlier. Arriving home unexpectedly from university, Neveu secretly witnesses a spring fertility rite conducted in the secret basement of her grandfather's country estate. From her hiding place, she is shocked to see her grandfather with a woman at the center of a ritual attended by men and women who are wearing masks and chanting praise to the goddess. She flees the house and breaks off all contact with Saunière. Langdon explains that what she witnessed was an ancient ceremony known as Hieros gamos or "sacred marriage."
By the time they arrive at Westminster Abbey, Teabing is revealed to be the Teacher for whom Silas is working. Teabing wishes to use the Holy Grail, which he believes is a series of documents establishing that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and bore children, in order to ruin the Vatican. He compels Langdon at gunpoint to solve the second cryptex's password, which Langdon realizes is "apple." Langdon secretly opens the cryptex and removes its contents before tossing the empty cryptex in the air. Teabing is arrested by Fache, who by now realizes that Langdon is innocent. Bishop Aringarosa, realizing that Silas has been used to murder innocent people, rushes to help the police find him. When the police find Silas hiding in an Opus Dei Center, he assumes that they are there to kill him and he rushes out, accidentally shooting Bishop Aringarosa. Bishop Aringarosa survives but is informed that Silas was found dead later from a gunshot wound.
The final message inside the second keystone leads Neveu and Langdon to Rosslyn Chapel, whose docent turns out to be Neveu's long-lost brother, whom Neveu had been told died as a child in the car accident that killed her parents. The guardian of Rosslyn Chapel, Marie Chauvel Saint Clair, is Neveu's long-lost grandmother. It is revealed that Neveu and her brother are descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. The Priory of Sion hid her identity to protect her from possible threats to her life.
The real meaning of the last message is that the Grail is buried beneath the small pyramid directly below the inverted glass pyramid of the Louvre. It also lies beneath the "Rose Line," an allusion to "Rosslyn." Langdon figures out this final piece to the puzzle in the last pages of the book but he does not appear inclined to tell anyone about this. He follows the Rose Line to La Pyramide Inversée, where he kneels before the hidden sarcophagus of Mary Magdalene, as the Templar knights did before him.
In the novel, Sir Leigh Teabing explains to Sophie Neveu that the figure at the right hand of Jesus in Leonardo da Vinci's painting of The Last Supper is not the apostle John, but actually Mary Magdalene.
Teabing says the absence of a chalice in Leonardo's painting means Leonardo knew that Mary Magdalene was the actual Holy Grail and the bearer of Jesus' blood. He explains that this idea is supported by the shape of the letter "V" that is formed by the bodily positions of Jesus and Mary, as "V" is the symbol for the sacred feminine.
The absence of the Apostle John in the painting is explained by knowing that John is also referred to as "the Disciple Jesus loved", which would be a code for Mary Magdalene. The book also notes that the color scheme of their garments are inverted: Jesus wears a red tunic with royal blue cloak; Mary Magdalene wears the opposite.
According to the novel, the secrets of the Holy Grail, as kept by the Priory of Sion, are as follows:
The Holy Grail is not a physical chalice, but a woman, namely Mary Magdalene, who carried the bloodline of Christ.
The Old French expression for the Holy Grail, San gréal, actually is a play on Sang réal, which literally means "royal blood" in Old French.
The Grail relics consist of the documents that testify to the bloodline, as well as the actual bones of Mary Magdalene.
The Grail relics of Mary Magdalene were hidden by the Priory of Sion in a secret crypt, perhaps beneath Rosslyn Chapel.
The Church has suppressed the truth about Mary Magdalene and the Jesus bloodline for 2000 years. This is principally because they fear the power of the sacred feminine in and of itself and because this would challenge the primacy of Saint Peter as an apostle.
Mary Magdalene was of royal descent (through the Jewish House of Benjamin) and was the wife of Jesus, of the House of David. That she was a prostitute was slander invented by the Church to obscure their true relationship. At the time of the Crucifixion, she was pregnant. After the Crucifixion, she fled to Gaul, where she was sheltered by the Jews of Marseille. She gave birth to a daughter, named Sarah. The bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene became the Merovingian dynasty of France.
The existence of the bloodline was the secret that was contained in the documents discovered by the Crusaders after they conquered Jerusalem in 1099 (see Kingdom of Jerusalem). The Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar were organized to keep the secret.
The secrets of the Grail are connected, according to the novel, to Leonardo da Vinci's work as follows:
Leonardo was a member of the Priory of Sion and knew the secret of the Grail. The secret is in fact revealed in The Last Supper, in which no actual chalice is present at the table. The figure seated next to Christ is not a man, but a woman, his wife Mary Magdalene. Most reproductions of the work are from a later alteration that obscured her obvious female characteristics.
The androgyny of the Mona Lisa reflects the sacred union of male and female implied in the holy union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Such parity between the cosmic forces of masculine and feminine has long been a deep threat to the established power of the Church. The name "Mona Lisa" is actually an anagram for "Amon L'Isa",
referring to the father and mother gods of Ancient Egyptian religion (namely Amun and Isis).
Sales
The Da Vinci Code was a major success in 2003 and was outsold only by J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Historical inaccuracies
Main article: Criticism of The Da Vinci Code
The book generated criticism when it was first published for inaccurate description of core aspects of Christianity and descriptions of European art, history, and architecture. The book has received mostly negative reviews from Catholic and other Christian communities.
Many critics took issue with the level of research Brown did when writing the story. The New York Times writer Laura Miller characterized the novel as "based on a notorious hoax", "rank nonsense", and "bogus", saying the book is heavily based on the fabrications of Pierre Plantard, who is asserted to have created the Priory of Sion in 1956.
Critics accuse Brown of distorting and fabricating history. For example, Marcia Ford wrote:
Regardless of whether you agree with Brown's conclusions, it's clear that his history is largely fanciful, which means he and his publisher have violated a long-held if unspoken agreement with the reader: Fiction that purports to present historical facts should be researched as carefully as a nonfiction book would be.
Richard Abanes wrote:
The most flagrant aspect... is not that Dan Brown disagrees with Christianity but that he utterly warps it in order to disagree with it... to the point of completely rewriting a vast number of historical events. And making the matter worse has been Brown's willingness to pass off his distortions as ‘facts' with which innumerable scholars and historians agree.
The book opens with the claim by Dan Brown that "The Priory of Sion – a French secret society founded in 1099 – is a real organization". This assertion is broadly disputed; the Priory of Sion is generally regarded as a hoax created in 1956 by Pierre Plantard. The author also claims that "all descriptions of artwork,
architecture, documents... and secret rituals in this novel are accurate", but this claim is disputed by numerous academic scholars expert in numerous areas.
Dan Brown himself addresses the idea of some of the more controversial aspects being fact on his web site, stating that the "FACT" page at the beginning of the novel mentions only "documents, rituals, organization, artwork and architecture", but not any of the ancient theories discussed by fictional characters, stating that "Interpreting those ideas is left to the reader". Brown also says, "It is my belief that some of the theories discussed by these characters may have merit" and "the secret behind The Da Vinci Code was too well documented and significant for me to dismiss."
In 2003, while promoting the novel, Brown was asked in interviews what parts of the history in his novel actually happened. He replied "Absolutely all of it." In a 2003 interview with CNN's Martin Savidge he was again asked how much of the historical background was true. He replied, "99% is true... the background is all true".
Asked by Elizabeth Vargas in an ABC News special if the book would have been different if he had written it as non-fiction he replied, "I don't think it would have."
In 2005, UK TV personality Tony Robinson edited and narrated a detailed rebuttal of the main arguments of Dan Brown and those of Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, who authored the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, in the program The Real Da Vinci Code, shown on British TV Channel 4. The program featured lengthy
interviews with many of the main protagonists cited by Brown as "absolute fact" in The Da Vinci Code. Arnaud de Sède, son of Gérard de Sède, stated categorically that his father and Plantard had made up the existence of the Prieuré de Sion, the cornerstone of the Jesus bloodline theory: "frankly, it was piffle".
The earliest appearance of this theory is due to the 13th-century Cistercian monk and chronicler Peter of Vaux de Cernay who reported that Cathars believed that the 'evil' and 'earthly' Jesus Christ had a relationship with Mary Magdalene, described as his concubine (and that the 'good Christ' was incorporeal and existed spiritually in the body of Paul). The program The Real Da Vinci Code also cast doubt on the Rosslyn Chapel association with the Grail and on other related stories,
such as the alleged landing of Mary Magdalene in France.
According to The Da Vinci Code, the Roman Emperor Constantine I suppressed Gnosticism because it portrayed Jesus as purely human. The novel's argument is as follows.Constantine wanted Christianity to act as a unifying religion for the Roman Empire. He thought Christianity would appeal to pagans only if it featured a demigod similar to pagan heroes. According to the Gnostic Gospels, Jesus was merely a human prophet, not a demigod. Therefore, to change Jesus' image, Constantine destroyed the Gnostic Gospels and promoted the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which portray Jesus as divine or semidivine.
But Gnosticism did not portray Jesus as merely human. All Gnostic writings depict Christ as purely divine, his human body being a mere illusion (see Docetism). Gnostic sects saw Christ this way because they regarded matter as evil, and therefore believed that a divine spirit would never have taken on a material body.
Literary criticism
The book received both positive and negative reviews from critics, and it has been the subject of negative appraisals concerning its portrayal of history. Its writing and historical accuracy were reviewed negatively by The New Yorker, Salon.com, and Maclean's.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times said, "it concisely conveys the kind of extreme enthusiasm with which this riddle-filled, code-breaking, exhilaratingly brainy thriller can be recommended. That word is wow. The author is Dan Brown (a name you will want to remember). In this gleefully erudite suspense novel, Mr. Brown takes the format he has been developing through three earlier novels and fine-tunes it to blockbuster perfection."
David Lazarus of The San Francisco Chronicle said, "This story has so many twists – all satisfying, most unexpected – that it would be a sin to reveal too much of the plot in advance. Let's just say that if this novel doesn't get your pulse racing, you need to check your meds."
While interviewing Umberto Eco in a 2008 issue of The Paris Review, Lila Azam Zanganeh characterized The Da Vinci Code as "a bizarre little offshoot" of Eco's novel, Foucault’s Pendulum. In response, Eco remarked, "Dan Brown is a character from Foucault's Pendulum! I invented him. He shares my characters’ fascinations—the world conspiracy of Rosicrucians, Masons, and Jesuits. The role of the Knights Templar. The hermetic secret. The principle that everything is connected. I suspect Dan Brown might not even exist."
The book appeared on a 2010 list of 101 best books ever written, which was derived from a survey of more than 15,000 Australian readers.
Salman Rushdie said during a lecture, "Do not start me on The Da Vinci Code. A novel so bad that it gives bad novels a bad name."
Stephen Fry has referred to Brown's writings as "complete loose stool-water" and "arse gravy of the worst kind". In a live chat on June 14, 2006, he clarified, "I just loathe all those book about the Holy Grail and Masons and Catholic conspiracies and all that botty-dribble. I mean, there's so much more that's interesting and exciting in art and in history. It plays to the worst and laziest in humanity, the desire to think the worst of the past and the desire to feel superior to it in some fatuous way."
Stephen King likened Dan Brown's work to "Jokes for the John", calling such literature the "intellectual equivalent of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese". The New York Times, while reviewing the movie based on the book, called the book "Dan Brown's best-selling primer on how not to write an English sentence". The New Yorker reviewer AnthonyLane refers to it as "unmitigated junk" and decries "the crumbling coarseness of the style". Linguist Geoffrey Pullum and others posted several entries critical of Dan Brown's writing, at Language Log, calling Brown one of the "worst prose stylists in the history of literature" and saying Brown's "writing is not just bad; it is staggeringly, clumsily, thoughtlessly, almost ingeniously bad". Roger Ebert described it as a "potboiler written with little grace and style", although he said it did "supply an intriguing plot". In his review of the film National Treasure, whose plot also involves ancient conspiracies and treasure hunts, he wrote: "I should read a potboiler like The Da Vinci Code every once in a while, just to remind myself that life is too short to read books like The Da Vinci Code."
Lawsuits
Author Lewis Perdue alleged that Brown plagiarized from two of his novels, The Da Vinci Legacy, originally published in 1983, and Daughter of God, originally published in 2000. He sought to block distribution of the book and film. However, Judge George Daniels of the US District Court in New York ruled against Perdue in 2005, saying that "A reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Code is substantially similar to Daughter of God" and that "Any slightly similar elements are on the level of generalized or otherwise unprotectable ideas." Perdue appealed, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the original decision, saying Mr.
Perdue's arguments were "without merit".
In early 2006, Baigent and Leigh filed suit against Brown's publishers, Random House. They alleged that significant portions of The Da Vinci Code were plagiarized from Holy Blood, Holy Grail, violating their copyright. Brown confirmed during the court case that he named the principal Grail expert of his story Leigh Teabing, an anagram of "Baigent Leigh", after the two plaintiffs. In reply to the suggestion that Henry Lincoln was also referred to in the book, since he has medical problems resulting in a severe limp, like the character of Leigh Teabing, Brown stated he was unaware of Lincoln's illness and the correspondence was a coincidence.
Because Baigent and Leigh had presented their conclusions as historical research, not as fiction, Justice Peter Smith, who presided over the trial, deemed that a novelist must be free to use these ideas in a fictional context, and ruled against Baigent and Leigh. Smith also hid his own secret code in his written judgement, in the form of seemingly random italicized letters in the 71-page document, which apparently spell out a message. Smith indicated he would confirm the code if someone broke it. Baigent and Leigh appealed, unsuccessfully, to the Court of Appeal.
In April 2006 Mikhail Anikin, a Russian scientist and art historian working as a senior researcher at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, stated the intention to bring a lawsuit against Dan Brown, maintaining that he was the one who coined the phrase used as the book's title and one of the ideas regarding the Mona Lisa used in its plot. Anikin interprets the Mona Lisa to be an Christian allegory consisting of two images, one of Jesus Christ that comprises the image's right half, one of the Virgin Mary that forms its left half. According to Anikin, he expressed this idea to a group of experts from the Museum of Houston during a 1988 René Magritte exhibit at the Hermitage, and when one of the Americans requested permission to pass it along to a friend Anikin granted the request on condition that he be credited in any book using his interpretation. Anikin eventually compiled his research into Leonardo da Vinci or Theology on Canvas, a book published in 2000, but The Da Vinci Code, published three years later, makes no mention of Anikin and instead asserts that the idea in question is a "well-known opinion of a number of scientists."
Parodies
The book was parodied by Adam Roberts and Toby Clements with the books The Va Dinci Cod, and The Asti Spumante Code, respectively, both in 2005.
A 2005 telemovie spin-off of the Australian television series Kath & Kim parodied the film version as Da Kath and Kim Code in 2005.
The 2006 BBC program Dead Ringers parodied The Da Vinci Code, calling it the "Da Rolf Harris Code".
South African political cartoonist Zapiro published a 2006 book collection of his strips entitled Da Zuma Code, which parodies the former deputy president Jacob Zuma.
A 2006 independent film named The Norman Rockwell Code parodied the book and film. Instead of that of a curator in the Louvre, the murder is that of a curator at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
The DiCaprio Code, a 2006, seven-part animated series by Movies.com and Scrapmation.
The book was parodied in the 2007 South Park episode "Fantastic Easter Special" and Robert Rankin's novel The Da-da-de-da-da Code.
The characters Lucy and Silas are parodied in the 2007 film Epic Movie, which begins with a scene similar to the opening of The Da Vinci Code, with Silas chasing the orphan Lucy.
Szyfr Jana Matejki (Jan Matejko's Cipher) is a 2007 Polish parody by Dariusz Rekosz. A sequel, Ko(s)miczna futryna: Szyfr Jana Matejki II (Comic Door-frame: Jan Matejko's Cipher II), was released in 2008. The main character is inspector Józef Świenty, who tries to solve The Greatest Secret of Mankind (Największa Tajemnica
Ludzkości) – parentage of Piast dynasty.
The book was parodied in the 2008 American Dad! episode "Black Mystery Month", in which Stan Smith searches for the controversial truth that Mary Todd Lincoln invented peanut butter.
In 2008, it was parodied in the second series of That Mitchell and Webb Look as "The Numberwang Code", a trailer for a fictional film based on a recurring sketch on the show.
The book's plot is parodied in "The Duh-Vinci Code", an episode of the animated TV series Futurama.
The book was parodied in the Mad episode "Da Grinchy Code / Duck", in which the greatest movie minds try to solve the mystery of the Grinch.
The book's theme of conspiracy theories is parodied in the 2007 MC Solaar single "Da Vinci Claude".
Release details
The book has been translated into over 40 languages, primarily hardcover.
In reference to Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent, two of the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Brown named the principal Grail expert of his story "Leigh Teabing", an anagram of "Baigent Leigh". Brown confirmed this during the court case. In reply to the suggestion that Lincoln was also referenced, as he has medical problems resulting in a severe limp, like the character of Leigh Teabing, Brown stated he was unaware of Lincoln's illness and the correspondence was a coincidence.
After losing before the High Court on July 12, 2006, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh appealed, unsuccessfully, to the Court of Appeal.
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assassins creed ii xbox 360
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assassins creed ii xbox 360
Assassin’s Creed 2 cheats & more for Xbox 360 (X360)
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Get the updated and latest Assassin’s Creed II cheats, unlockables, codes, hints, Easter eggs, glitches, tricks, tips, hacks, downloads, achievements, guides, FAQs, walkthroughs, and more for Xbox 360 (X360). AllCheatsCodes.com has all the codes you need to win every game you play!
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Official Title: Assassin’s Creed II
Genre: Action, Adventure
Developer: Ubi Soft
Publisher: Ubi Soft
ESRB Rating: Mature
Release Date: November 17, 2009
Hints
Dual Weapon
Press sword or dagger move your analog to walk press RT and press A (jump not run) in jump press the hidden blades so you got hidden blades and sword or dagger but the damage is hidden blades not their weapon. Have fun!
Easy Way To Catch Pickpockets
If you have been playing the game for a while you know there are pick pockets you can tackle/kill to get there money. I found that if you use 1 throwing knife (that makes contact) they will stop running and you receive their money (which is about 500 florines).
Easy Pickpocket Achievement
When you start the game pickpocket from every single person to easily get this achievement since guardshaven’t been introduced yet.
Sure Kill
When your allies are in battle and your not in combat and the enemy doesn’t notice/attack you just walk around and assassinate the enemy from behind and as lock as you don’t press LT and attack just with x with just the hidden blade and they’ll never attack you.
Easy Code Wheel Puzzle
As you know, there are glyphs that Subject 16 has placed throughout the game and you have to solve the puzzles. Well at a certain point a certain point you will start to get code wheels. At first they they aren’t missing any numbers/symbols (they will in time). I found that when the code wheel is missing 2 spaces (in the red area)You should align the missing spaces so that they co-inside with 2 of the numbers that in the code boxes (the gray part of the code wheel).
Easy No Hitter Achievement
One easy way to get the No Hitter Achievement is using smoke bombs since it practically renders them defenseless and you can walk right up to them and kill them and if the smoke starts to clear just throw another one down.
Complaining Guard
When you are in an assassin’s tomb with a chase sequence you have a chance to kill the running soldier before he can tell the others about you. If you do kill the soldier the o won’t now you are there and you can walk past them. Walk past the guards and then get to a spot close to them where they can’t see you and you can here one of the guards complaining. I found this in the Visitaione’s Secret tomb.
No Hitter Achievement
For the no hitter achievement you have to kill ten guards without getting hurt. The easiest way I know to get this achievement is on the fourth DNA sequence you have to protect Lorenzo from twelve guards. But when your doing this task you truly only have to fight six to seven guards the rest should be an easy strike to the back with your sword (I would advise you to get counter kills).
Cheats
Currently we have no cheats or codes for Assassin’s Creed II yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.
Unlockables
Unlockables
The Birth of an Assassin (20) Be reborn as Ezio Auditore Da Firenze.
Arrivederci Abstergo (20) Break out of Abstergo.
Welcome to the Animus 2.0 (20) Enter the Animus 2.0.
The Pain of Betrayal (30) Complete DNA Sequence 1.
Vengeance (30) Complete DNA Sequence 2.
Exit the Son (30) Complete DNA Sequence 3.
Bloody Sunday (30) Complete DNA Sequence 4.
Undertaker (20) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside the catacombs under Santa Maria Novella.The Conspirators (30) Complete DNA Sequence 5.
An Unexpected Journey (30) Complete DNA Sequence 6.
Bleeding Effect (30) Complete training and reenter the Animus.
The Merchant of Venice (30) Complete DNA Sequence 7.
The Impenetrable Palazzo (30) Complete DNA Sequence 8.
Masquerade (30) Complete DNA Sequence 9.
Bianca’s Man (30) Complete DNA Sequence 10.
The Prophet (30) Complete DNA Sequence 11.
The Vault (30) Complete DNA Sequence 14.
An Old Friend Returns (100) Escape the hideout.
Myth Maker (5) Find the 8 statuettes in Monteriggioni.
Vitruvian Man (20) Unlock all 20 pieces of Subject 16’s video.
Street Cleaner (10) Hide 5 dead bodies in a Bale of Hay.
Fly Swatter (5) Kick a Guard while using the Flying Machine.
Messer Sandman (10) Stun 4 guards at once by throwing sand in their face.
Doctor (20) Perform an Air Assassination on a Poisoned NPC.
No-hitter (20) Kill 10 enemies while remaining in conflict without being hit.
Kleptomaniac (10) Pickpocket 1000 Florins.
Lightning Strike (10) Sprint for 100 meters.
Sweeper (10) Sweep 5 guards at once by using a Long Weapon.
Venetian Gladiator (20) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside Santa Maria della Visitazione.
I can see your house from here! (20) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside the Torre Grossa.
Hallowed be thy name (20) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside the Basilica di San Marco.
Prison Escape (20) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside the Rocca di Ravaldino fortress.
Choir Boy (20) Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside Santa Maria del Fiore (The Duomo).
Assassin For Hire (10) Complete your first assassination mission for Lorenzo Il Magnifico.
Macho Man (10) Defend a woman’s honor.
Steal Home (10) Win a race against thieves!
Show your Colors (10) Wear the Auditore cape in each city.
Handy Man (10) Upgrade a building in the Stronghold.
I like the view (10) Synchronize 10 View Points.
High Dive (10) Perform a Leap of Faith from the Top of Florence’s Giotto’s Campanile.
Mailman (10) Intercept a Borgia Courrier.
Tip of the Iceberg (10) Use your Eagle Vision to scan a Glyph in the environment.
A Piece of the Puzzle (10) Unlock a piece of Subject 16’s video.
Art Connoisseur (10) Buy a Painting from Florence and Venice.
Podesta` of Monteriggioni (30) Reach 80% of your stronghold’s total value.
Perfect Harmony (10) Tint your clothes with those colors: Wetland Ebony and Wetland Ivory.
In Memory of Petruccio (30) Collect all the Feathers.
Red Light Addict (10) Spend 5000 florins on Courtesans.
Man of the People (10) Toss more than 300 florins on the ground.
Victory lies in preparation (10) Get all Hidden Blades, Item Pouches and Armor upgrades for Ezio.
Feather Rewards
Get 50 feathers to get the Condottiero War Hammer and get 100 feathers to get the Auditore Cape
Easter eggs
Currently we have no easter eggs for Assassin’s Creed II yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.
Glitches
Currently we have no glitches for Assassin’s Creed II yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.
Guides
Currently we have no guides or FAQs for Assassin’s Creed II yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.
Achievements
Currently we have no achievements or trophies for Assassin’s Creed II yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.
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