leaf excised from a psalter, c. 1260.
I saw that someone wrote some essay about how no one cares about what happened a thousand years go for fantasy building purposes unless they're a big nerd.
And honestly, um not true? Western Civilization has been fixated on Ancient Rome and Greece for more than 2,000 years in some creepy ways that end up with people trying to recreate the Roman Republic or Empire. People are still obsessed with Greco-Roman stuff and they don't even have to be actual history nerds. They can even get the facts horribly wrong, but it doesn't stop the events from being relevant in some way.
Fuck, this website celebrates the Ides of March annually. Also there's that whole thing with Jesus.
Like yes, know what a thousand years means historically, but also realize that little less than a thousand years ago (by a few decades) was when the Normans invaded England. This is still pretty foundational to the mythology of the current British monarchy. This is when the first buildings that would become the Tower of London were built.
Charlemagne is a couple centuries earlier and so many royal families claim a connection to him. A weird amount of European royal familes still live even if very few of them have any power if any.
These things still have a symbolic meaning to a lot of people. Yes, lots of things have changed but there are lots of countries whose founding mythologies are a thousand or more years old. Just because the United States has a mythology that is about 400 years old (if you start with the Jamestown settlement) doesn't mean it's that way for everyone.
People very often have a sense of their own history even if they only vaguely know about it and it's mostly background noise for most of the time. There may be multiple dynasties of rulers over the centuries, but they all love to pretend there's some sort of continuity between them and the distant past.
Anyways, the point is that history has layers and while you need detailed recent history for your world building, you also need to provide a longer sense of history than that along with a mythology of some sort.
For example in some places, there's the entire possibility that you can find unexploded ordinance from WWII, ruins of some medieval building, or even Roman ruins just by digging the foundation for a building. And you can't always predict which you'll get. Maybe you'll somehow find all three because that's just how archeology is sometimes. Cities often get built on cities. That's just kinda how they work.
(Also any of these can be used as really interesting story hooks if you want.)
Anonymous asked:
“Covid game me narcolepsy” no you fucking pervert it didn’t. You’re just a weirdo with a gross fetish. Covid didn’t make you suddenly want to fuck dead people. Keep that shit to yourself you gods damned weirdo
pirateprincessjess answered:
I have type 2 Narcolepsy. Studies have shown that serious viral infections can cause people to develop Narcolepsy if they are already genetically susceptible to having it. This includes covid. That is what happened to me.
You on the other hand might want to google the difference between Narcolepsy and Necrophilia….
Yall, I can’t believe that I have to do this, but I am going to say this in as clearly as possible
The anon was very confused.
I have Narcolepsy, which is a sleep disorder. Narcolepsy has nothing to do with Necrophilia. I am not into necrophilia.
I didn’t realize that one said “necropolises.” That’s actually so funny. I think that one must have been a joke
i think maybe my new favorite category of roman intaglio art is "insects doing human things" because it's so indicative of the human need for whimsy. now take a look at this 1st century BC/AD intaglio of a grasshopper in a chariot pulled by butterflies
dudes are like “I’m a 34 year old promising young doctor with a beautiful wife and 2 precious children, I have my entire life ahead of me and can do anything! I’m going to go hike in 8 foot snow in the Rocky Mountains and never be seen alive again and die very badly and my beautiful wife will have to identify my skeletal remains by my backpack.”
frankly, I think wives should be allowed to lock their husbands in the basement if they express their plans to go mountain climbing in subzero temperatures or cave diving in an illegal diving zone or whatever. you should be able to chain that guy up at that point.
also, just remember, if you’re doing this shit you’re not just endangering your own life, you’re endangering the lives of the search and rescue personnel who may have to come look for your egotistical adrenaline junkie self
