oh, stubborn love

[bndruidh]

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“SHE WAS INTOXICATING. — all honey-spun flames and crackling lightning.”

#𝐁𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐃𝐇. ── a private and selective, mutuals only writing blog for KARA NIC GALANAN, based on arthurian legend and early historic scotland. ── loved by kaia (she/her, 30+). also writes @saorsadh, @thornsyde & @nghtsistr ♡

est. july 2014. about. pinboard. playlist.

01. disclaimer – no affiliations. this blog is intended for roleplay purposes only. all headcanons, icons and graphics have been carefully curated and original content is clearly denoted and not for public use. 02. interactions – this blog is selective and private and activity will be slow. interactions will be limited to mutuals only unless otherwise stated. memes are usually the best way to interact. i rarely post starter calls due to some overactive social anxiety, so please hmu if you'd like to plot but be prepared to deal with my singular braincell. basic rp etiquette and respect required, please refrain from interactions if you are under 18. 03. writting & formatting – third-person limited pov. i value both one-liners and longer, in depth threads, generally finding a comfortable norm in one-para replies. light formatting; and not particularly finicky about it. please cut your posts. currently iconless. 04. shipping – i am open to exploring relationships; chemistry + some minimal discussion of the dynamic is all that's required. nsfw rare. 05. mun – kaia. 30+ she/her. bi. aest (gmt +10:00). stressed about life, but trying not to be. social anxiety. slow activity. chat any time, discord on request.

[bndruidh]

time clarkson is always such an approachable read.

[bndruidh]

“Victory on the battlefield and political success measured in tribute and booty secured the loyalty of secular élites for their king and their eligible successors; but for a life interest only. Defeat, if not fatal, weakened a king and exposed him to internal coup or external domination… The luck of the tribe was invested so heavily in the person of its kings that when they died any imperium that they might have exercised over rival kings was void.” Max Adams, The First Kingdom: Britain in the Age of Arthur, p. 398.

i'm just very obsessed with this concept.

[kathrynhoward]

SUMMER RICHARDS as KATHERYN HOWARD WOLF HALL THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT 2.05

[weltenwellen]

Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body

[lochiels-deactivated20180429]

Imogen Poots as Arianne in Centurion (2010)

[bndruidh]

“In Welsh tradition, Hueil mab Caw […] was a Pictish warrior and traditional rival of King Arthur’s. He was one of the numerous sons of Caw of Prydyn, and brother to Saint Gildas. […] The Latin Life of Gildas by Caradoc of Llancarfan describes Hueil as an “active warrior and most distinguished soldier”, who led a number of violent and sweeping raids from Scotland down into Arthur’s territory. As a result, Arthur marched on Hueil and pursued him as far as the Isle of Mann, where he killed the young plunderer.” from Wikipedia.

this is one of the pivotal sources of inspiration for this blog and has been since the beginning 😭

[bndruidh]

i think it’s really important that there’s really nothing that will redeem arthur in kara’s eyes. this is not me saying he is a generally irredeemable character, only that to her there really is too much water under the bridge, so to speak. even if you were to take away one instance, there are a dozen more things he’s done that are unforgivable in her eyes. and this is not necessarily some good vs. evil thing, but that they clearly have such different values there is no reality in which they could have been anything but enemies.

[receiptsofwhiskey]

send me questions you have about my character!

anything and everything. favorites. thoughts on people, on events. what they would do in a certain situation. how things would be different if something had/hadn’t happened. simple questions, complex questions. have at it!

[bndruidh]

"There is another theory proposed by Nikolai Tolstoy that also gives us a valid reason for the enmity between Arthur and Medrawd, as well as the cause of the raids and insults. In Tolstoy's argument connecting the death of Caw the Pict at the hands of Arthur with the sixth battle of Bassus, he proposes that this may have started a blood feud between members of Caw's family and Arthur's. That there is enmity between them is evident, for there are several instances in early British tradition where Arthur fights, maims, tricks, and eventually kills Caw's son, Hueil. But there is a further twist: in the twelfth-century Welsh Bonedd y Saint (Descent of the Saints), we hear of Cwyllog, daughter of Caw. Later tradition makes Cwyllog [...] the wife of Medrawd! [...] The evidence upon which this marriage rests is slender, [...] If Cwyllog was Caw's oldest remaining daughter, then Medrawd, as her husband, would have been ipso facto a king among the Picts. [...] If Arthur killed Caw during one of his northern battles against the Picts, and if Medrawd, as one of his British allies, were married to Caw's daughter, then the defender of Britain might indeed have had a potentially difficult situation on his hands. Blood feuds could pass down through generations, [...] If this were the spark that kindled the conflict, then it would seem that Camlann was a battle fought as a result of civil war." John Matthews & Caitlí­n Matthews, The Complete King Arthur: Many Faces, One Hero, pp. 173-4.

i know a lot of people out there are going to have their different ideas about medrod, etc., but i really really adore this story line (the blood feuds, the civil war, the pictish rebellion! it's everything).

[bndruidh]

#BNDRUIDH. ── “𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐛𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭.” mutuals only writing blog. kara nic galanan based on arthurian legend and early historic scotland. est. july 2014, remade april 2026; loved by kaia.

[mynormalapple-pielife]

[bndruidh]

KARA: HISTORY

kara was born on the first, stormy, pre-dawn morning of winter to rowena ní néill and caw galanan mac drust. her mother, an irish sorceress, immigrated to dál riata due to the spreading christianisation of ireland. her father was the second son of a pictish chief hailing from the isle of skye who, by the time of kara's birth, was a famed warlord and a petty-king on the rise, ruling over a small territory in cowal.

the northern borderlands is a patchwork of split loyalties. some bow to arthur pendragon, while others resist his claim to the kingship of all britain. successive revolts fail to decide the issue, and violent tension is exacerbated by an increasingly zealous christian faction empowered by arthur's laws. caw's fortress falls, forcing his family to make a desperate escape. the years that come are, for kara, tangled with grief; rowena is murdered by christian knights, caw is killed in battle against camelot's allies, and two brothers— bleidd and aneirin— are slain only moments apart.

fostered in the court of gododdin for her safety, kara becomes a surrogate daughter and protege to queen morgawse. avenging her parents, meanwhile falls to her eldest brother hywel, who has keenly taken up their father's mantle. his resistance is vicious and resolute, launching raid after raid into arthur's territory. when he is finally captured, arthur puts him to the sword himself. hywel's death devastates kara; and with his warriors now pledged to her, she vows vengeance on the pendragon king.

grief-stricken kara leaves gododdin. though her travels first lead her back to dál riata, she is soon swept up in the fervour of a group of pagan rebels that take her to camelot itself. posing as a dalriadan dignitary, she works to undermine arthur's kingship and strikes up a short-lived love affair with eira ní dhochartaigh. grief and fury fester until prince medrod of gododdin comes for her. while her losses have hardened her, her love for medrod still blossoms, and after some consideration she agrees to return home with him. they marry on a wind-bitten brae, purple heather tangled in kara's hair.

meanwhile, lot’s resistance has reached stalemate but not surrender, whatever arthur pendragon might believe. lot’s sons, taken hostage at the close of the second alban revolt, take their positions in their uncle’s court with a thin veneer of fealty, feeding information back to their father, until he is killed in battle against the saxons. his death, and the marriages of gwachlmai and egrevayn prompt kara and medrod to join arthur’s court themselves, and kara quickly busies herself aiding those evading camelotian authorities and seeking refuge in other kingdoms, and acting as a spy for her father-in-law. to arthur, medrod’s wife is unsuitable and politically inconvenient; widely rumoured to be a witch and barely disguising her disdain for camelot, there is no question she is in the way of the high-king fostering the loyalty of his nephew.

while kara may no longer intend on destroying arthur herself, and aims only to help her people, there are others who do not view her actions in the same light. their cousin, ywain, accuses her of treason and witchcraft and arthur has no choice but to bring her to trial. unable to convince his uncle of her innocence, medrod escapes with kara back to gododdin.

on their return medrod takes up the crown of gododdin with kara as his beloved queen. in camelot, egrevayn and guinevak reveal the affair of guinevere and lancelot — when the ensuing conflict results in the deaths of a number of his brothers, arthur’s transgressions can no longer be ignored and medrod claims the high-kingship of britain himself, declaring war.

[bndruidh]

DOSSIER

name: kara nic galanan meaning: kara — from gaelic cara, meaning 'friend'; nic — gaelic , contracted from nighean mhic ('daughter of the son of'), a prefix used with a woman's maiden surname; galanan — pictish, possibly meaning 'swordsman', related to gaelic galach, meaning 'warrior' pronunciation: kah–ruh nik gal–uh–nan aliases: cuiloc/cwyllog, clarissant nicknames: witch/witchling, cluaran/little thistle, little storm, cluaran mo chridhe titles & epithets: cluaran na h-alba, an cluaran ór, rígain na cluaran, rígain nan guotodin, (the last) witch-queen of gododdin, the storm-queen dob: 1 november 510ce pronouns: she/her orientation: bisexual place of birth: dùn ad, dál riata current residence: dùn èideann, lothian or camelot

eyes: green-grey, like hail storm clouds and deep lochs, shifting with the light; almond-shaped with long sweeping lashes; unflinching stare; flash pale gold as a reflection of her magic hair: flaxen blonde; thick and hip-long with soft curls; usually worn unbound and wild or in a loose braid complexion: fair, prone to blushing, several beauty marks height: 5'4" (164cm) notable features: noted to have inherited her mother's exceptional beauty; has a small, splotch of a birthmark on her left shoulder blade voice: lilting, clear and level, usually cool-toned; she carries an enchanting, almost heartbreaking tune when singing

religion: gaelic celtic paganism, particularly faithful to the cailleach languages: archaic irish, pictish, common brittonic, some latin, some old english; writes in vernacular using ogham script

astrological: scorpio (sun, moon, rising) positive traits: independent, determined, honourable, loyal, intelligent, brave, forthright, protective, passionate negative traits: cold, stubborn, proud, unforgiving, spiteful, vengeful, rebellious, headstrong

parents: caw galanan mac drust†, rowena ní néill† siblings: hywel mac galanan†, bleidd mac galanan†, aneirin mac galanan† significant other: medrod gwalhaved mac loth

main fc: imogen poots, jodie comer

[bndruidh]

tag drop 02.

[bndruidh]

tag drop 01.