“The British ministry have so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to believe them, and what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusetts? And can history produce an instance of a rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of its motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all and always well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive; if they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13 states independent 11 years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
...every thing in the city was tranquil, no mobs, no riots- no disorders... These Americans are a curious original people. They know how to govern themselves, but no one else can govern them.
British soldier describing Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783, the withdrawal of the British Army from New York City. Quoted in “Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World” by Maya Jasanoff, p. 21
Haven’t been here in ages and haven’t been playing vidya much since Deadfire, but I guess the DA4 trailer inspired me to dust off my Origin account and replay DAI with my best girl, Rahel Lavellan. Experiencing the game as a cohesive whole with the DLC was heartbreaking. Meeting Ameridan and learning of his and Telana’s fate, then the Temple of Mythal and Solas’ departure, and finally Trespasser with its revelations... gah! This story saved Dragon Age for me. I really hope it gets its due in 4.
Drawing of a Woman on Horseback (Watercolor and ink on laid paper), attributed to the “Sussel-Washington Artist” (1760–1785), probably Berks or Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, ca. 1775.
Drawing for Catarina Meyer (Watercolor on paper), Lincoln County, Ontario, Canada, 1829.
Ust-Taseyevsky idol, near Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. In the early medieval period, the face’s Scythian beard was removed and its features made to look more Asian in appearance.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
It’s been a while, but I couldn’t help myself. Couldn’t believe that there was no Durance porn out there. My deepest apologies to the venerable Chris Avellone who wrote him, but dammit, he’s my favorite character and grumpy, horny old men are my thing. Obviously NSFW.
I’m going to rant about guns. I like guns. You are fairly warned.
I’ve listened to a lot of chatter on social media about guns and gun owners, and here’s my piece. I understand that you are afraid and distressed. Some confess that the idea of owning guns, or owning just one gun, is alien to you. You can’t imagine why one would. People tend to react against things that frighten them and that they don’t understand. It’s also easy to want to tax and regulate things as long as the taxes and regulations never affect them.
I grew up in a house full of guns. At least two cases full, unsecured, with heaps of ammo nearby. It would not be unusual to see a loaded rifle sitting in someone’s car, or in our garage. Everyone I knew had cases full of guns. Meanwhile, our doors didn’t even have locks, and the murder rate was non-existent. Occasionally a hunter come in from the city would shoot at someone’s dog or cow, but otherwise I never heard of an accidental shooting. People in my home area are all trained to use guns and respect them, from a young age.
You talk about the gun violence rate, but what you’re really talking about is the violence in urban areas which are mostly run by the gun grabbing type of politician. Mass shootings grab a lot of headlines, but are a blip statistically. A lightning strike. Somehow you all remember this if the perpetrator is Muslim, but suffer mass amnesia if the shooter is a white male. You think your proposed gun legislation is going to stop gang violence? If you want to see mass incarceration go up, stiffen the gun penalties. Hint: It’s not the rural white male who’s going to suffer the most.
If you don’t personally know anyone who owns a gun, go to your local range and attend a gun class. Talk to the people there. In my women’s-only concealed carry class, there was a nurse whose colleague had been raped in the hospital’s parking lot. I met a mother and daughter who had suffered a home invasion. Guns do save people’s lives and property, all the time. You just don’t hear about it, because the media is not invested in that narrative. Again: It’s not the rural white male who’s going to suffer most if gun permits become harder and more expensive to obtain.
One thing we maybe can agree on: The populace needs to be trained in gun safety and civil defense. In my public school, hunter safety (which was really gun safety) was mandatory. It should be for all schools. I am in favor of a mandatory military or civil defense service for both men and women, on the Israeli model. Because here’s a fact of life: Guns are here to stay. They’re a part of American culture, and it’s going to stay that way. Terrorism is also here to stay. You’re not going to end mass shootings with legislation. You’re just not. Give up that notion. You’ll feel better if you accept it and deal with reality instead of fantasies.
So far I’ve only spoken about practicalities, but there’s also a philosophical element. Self defense is not just a right enshrined in our Constitution, it’s a human right. Read a book on the armed Civil Rights movement. Civil rights weren’t achieved by non-violent means alone. Pacifists had the luxury of preaching non-violence because someone else was holding the guns. Gun control legislation was often aimed at these armed minorities, just as it would be today. And when I talk about armed resistance, I don’t mean the random bashing by mutants like Antifa. I mean individuals protecting themselves and their property.
Property rights are the basis of freedom, and property rights are nothing unless the individual has a right to protect them, independent of any authority who may be corrupt or incompetent. This is what the 2nd Amendment means. Don’t believe those who argue that it was about the establishment of a standing army. Read contemporary sources about how the founders understood the concept of militia. It was about each ordinary citizen having the right to protect herself and hers, not in competition with but in cooperation with local authorities, though independent of them in the event that they’re not coming through. You can choose not to exercise that right if you wish. I respect that. Owning a gun carries responsibility. However, you don’t have the right to deprive another of their rights. This is why we fight tooth and nail against gun legislation authored by people who seem to have little grasp of this.
Some compare gun laws to abortion laws and I agree, there’s some correlation, even though there’s no enumerated right in the Constitution to kill one’s offspring. However I support legal abortion in the first trimester and think the procedure should be available in any hospital. Life is not clean and tidy. Even though we’re in “civilized” societies, the red tooth and claw aren’t far from any of us. When it comes down to it, each individual has to be given leeway to do her best to survive.
Again, these were some notes I took about the Elder Scrolls novel Lord of Souls. These two novels are really one story. Didn’t get too far with my note taking here, maybe I’ll go back to it someday.
PART ONE
PT ONE Prologue
- The worst thing someone on Umbriel can imagine is stasis
- The high lords of Umbriel are immortal
- Annaig killed Glim with a drug that caused his body to form a crystal like a soul gem to trap his consciousness inside
- Clavicus Vile looks like a 13 or 14-yr old boy with a paunch, horn above his right eye and festering sore above the left; has a white dog named Barbas
PT ONE Ch 1
- Letine Arese has a wolf’s head tattoo on her hip, which is worn only by the Medes’ inner circle
- Colin’s last name is Vineben
- For ten years Mede had no suspicions about Hierem, though he placed Letine in the ministry to watch over him as a general precaution; Hierem began testing her in order to establish his own intelligence circle
- Letine: “the emperor has survived because he waits until he knows where all the forces are and their strengths before he strikes”
PT ONE Ch 2
- Annaig extracts emotions from living substances to use as cooking ingredients, using the same principle as subgradience (the chemical is a vessel shaped by the soul stuff it contains)
PT ONE Ch 3
- Colin’s supervisor is Intendant Marall
- Colin: “Thalmor agents continue to harass the refugee communities in Sentinel and Balfiera—there has been a series of murders we can pretty confidently assign to them. The pattern is typical—the victims were all of mixed blood or had associations considered by the Aldmeri Dominion to be unclean. It’s much worse in Valenwood—our supplies are no longer reliably getting to the rebels there. Sixty were caught and executed last week, along with four of our own men. There’s a leak we don’t know about, someplace. They know too much about our movements.”
- details about Umbriel leaked out when Attrebus sent letters to his biographers before disappearing to go to Morrowind, these were put up in broadsides on every street
- Gideon and Stormhold were also destroyed, meaning the undead armies don't need to be near Umbriel (b/c it went straight from Lilmoth to Vvardenfell)
- Colin says he has no evidence the Thalmor are even aware of Umbriel let alone coordinating it
- Umbriel is a pocket of Oblivion, not an invasion (which is impossible after the OC)
- "the Synod and College of Whispers, who never agree on anything" -Marall
- "the Thalmor have a plan, a plan laid out in decades" - Colin
- "The lizards? They're entirely parochial. Even if they could muster the sort of arcane knowledge this would require, why would they bother? They're content in their swamps." (Marall) "They invaded Morrowind." "For revenge. They stopped their advance decades ago, and haven't showed the slightest interest in doing anything since then." "Except keeping the Empire from reclaiming their territory." "To my knowledge, we've never invaded Black Marsh. Who wants it?"
- Colin: the An-Xileel are "entirely nativistic in their views, interested only in purging the former colonial influences and returning Black Marsh to whatever state they imagined it had been before it was ruled by foreign powers."
- wonders if the Sload could have done it, b/c they were supposed to be powerful sorcerers
- Colin gets intelligence from Black Marsh that has been collected remotely by the Synod and College of Whispers (by magic), and some on-the-ground reports of Umbriel transmitted mostly by sorcery
- Colin sees a group of Khajiit tumblers performing in Talos Plaza, juggling torches
- Hierem made a secret trip to Black Marsh the previous year, supposedly to negotiate with the An-Xileel, and didn't want the emperor or anyone else to know
- Varus Mountains separate Morrowind and Cyrodiil
PT ONE Ch 4
- Glim gives Fhena some kraken barnacles, like edible clams, which he says are native to the Lilmoth area
- the trees on Umbriel can make any substance, and talk to the Umbrielans
- the Argonians spines go rigid and they give off an odor when they're about to fight
- when they're named, they take Hist sap and are changed, "sometimes a little, sometimes very much"
- they count in twelves
- the Hist called Argonians back to Black Marsh during the OC and changed them, making them more warlike, stronger, faster
- the rogue Hist began to sing to the trees in Umbriel to call the city forth to Tamriel
PT ONE Ch 5
- Colin "opens his spectral eyes" and can see a ghost
- ghosts move on except in places with power to keep them
- an attack from a ghost feels like death spasms overtaking the muscles without physical damage
- Colin is able to cast a spell by reaching "into the middle of himself, where his little star was, the tiny piece of him that had come from beyond the world and even Oblivion, from Aetherius, the realm of pure light and magic"
- the language of redguards is Yoku
- Hierem performed some sort of ritual at the City Tree in Lilmoth
- Delia Huerc describes the City Tree as enormous, the only one bigger she'd seen in Valenwood but the Hist was more massive, more spread out- it had a palpable presence
- she describes Lilmoth as festering and putrid; the An-Xileel sang to the tree- a cacophonous chant, Hierem joined in as a counterpoint and lit a brazier, then did something magical- in his younger years he was a leader in the Mages' Guild; he called the name Umbriel many times
- summoning daedra means touching their minds- they can influence the summoner with violent passions
stormborns
theartofmadeline
andulkaphoto
