#genesius

[11000deadsaints]

11,000 Dead Saints Chapter 1

[the-lunar-library]

TO THE RAVENS

All of the character portraits together -- all of the major-ish characters. I'm really pleased with how this series came out, and it's so nice seeing them all collected like this.

Akantha / Alexandros / Genesius

Kokkonas / Tanais / Buca

Brixia / Karyai / Pas

Lykedon / Galana

[francisplaysffxiv]

More old scribbles and prompts

[baileyartblog]

it's ya boy.... genesius of rome

[patricianandclerk]

Thunder rolled amidst the clouds outside, and Marcellus felt Genesius shift in his sleep, sliding closer on the delicate silk sheet of the bed, one harm slung low over Marcellus’ naked hip, his nose, his mouth, brushing against the base of Marcellus’ neck. 

“Are you sleeping?” Genesius asked, his voice a low rumble, nearly lost beneath the thunder’s distant groan.

“No,” Marcellus murmured, and he played his fingers through the long cascades of his master’s hair, feeling the silken threads slide over his palm, curl between each gently grasping digit. “The thunder is too loud.”

“Your heartbeat almost serves to drown it out,” Genesius said. His voice was slow and drowsy, imbued with some quiet daze that would be lost when he came to wakefulness, and Marcellus leaned in, catching Genesius’ lips beneath his own. The kiss was languorous, and still Marcellus’ head spun with the ease of it, now natural it felt that their mouths should fit together in such a way, now naturally Genesius’ body should touch against his own. “You would have me lay with you?” Genesius asked, slow and soporific.

“You are laying with me,” Marcellus replied. “Sleep, if sleep beckons.”

“You beckon more prettily,” Genesius mumbled, but even as he did, he fell upon his back, pulling Marcellus with him as a blanket, that he might fall upon his master’s breast, his face to the skin there, inhaling the delicate scent of it. 

“He says,” Marcellus murmured, “from his stupor.”

“Stupor?” Genesius repeated sleepily.

“Torpor, even. Lethargy.”

“Mmm...”

Marcellus looked at Genesius’ face, at the flutter of his delicate eyelashes as his heavy eyelids drooped close, peace slackening his aristocratic features, and oh, how beautiful he was, how enchanting... Laying his cheek against Genesius’ breast, he gripped the other tightly, and slipped after him to the land of dreams.

[the-lunar-library]

TO THE RAVENS

Genesius, a respected Roman soldier. Born in Carthage with Aithiopian roots, he's come to have many misgivings with his role in the imperial army, but he serves as a chance to gain full citizenship. Analytical, cautious, and agnostic, he knows Alexandros is no prophet. He wishes Akantha weren't caught up in Alexandros' plot – but it's the strength of those feelings that keeps him from stopping her.

Click through to learn more about the conflicted soldier with the nice smile.

Genesius was another character who came along very early in the process, though for the longest time he had no name. I wanted an outsider perspective on Alexandros' cult, and I think he's very important as a narrative counter-point to Alexandros; Genesius is someone who's skeptical without being condescending, who has a lot of humor while still being thoughtful and full of common-sense, who's proven himself fiercely on the field of battle, but who actually retreats from personal confrontation.

I also wanted a character who was somewhat based on Lucian himself, my historical source for the cult that inspired this novel. Now, Genesius isn't a point-by-point stand-in for Lucian – Lucian was Syrian, not Carthaginian-Aithiopian, and Lucian was (possibly) a government official under Rome rather than a soldier in its army. But at times I toyed with making Genesius a traveling rhetorician, as Lucian was. Like Lucian, Genesius was born in a Roman colony, attempted to make a go of things as a sculptor, and was sufficiently educated to have a great deal of Greek and Roman literature, as well as Greek rhetoric, at his fingertips. And, most tellingly, he's a religious skeptic with a strong sense of the absurd, though an agnostic rather than an atheist and altogether humbler about it than Lucian was. Fans of Lucian will also note a few more key similarities to Lucian as the novel progresses.

Genesius is interesting to me because he exists halfway in a number of spaces. As a soldier, he carries some Roman privileges and authority, but isn't yet a citizen. He has no choice but to remain enlisted despite having a debilitating injury to his right arm. His life isn't at all his own, but he has the freedom to come and go throughout the city, having the trust of some influential people without much direct power of his own. He realizes Alexandros is a fraud, but doesn't overtly oppose him, which increasingly becomes a point of conflict in his own heart.

For some reason, naming him was really difficult. I never considered naming him Lucian or any variant of it. I thought about using Nekas (Greek, “a heap of slain”) as a professional nickname for him, an appellation speaking to his fighting ability, but which he personally dislikes, but I decided against it. I liked Celsus as a name; Celsus the Epicurean (not the more famous Celsus) was another skeptic and a correspondent of Lucian's. In English, I hear it with a soft c, which I like, but in Latin it would either be a k or ch sound, which I didn't like so much. One name that hung on for a while in the notes, if not definitely decided upon in my own mind, was Zopyron. Which is a really dorky name. But it means “spark”, combing zoe (“life”) and pyr (“fire”), and I thought that was really neat. But he escaped that clunker of a name.

One day in frustration, I told my mom I was having difficulty naming the third most important character in the book. She has some grounding in Greek and Latin names, and she lightly tossed off “Genesius!” And there it was, the shaft of celestial light, the singing of angels. It fit immediately. It's a good name. There's a lot of syllables, but they bounce rather than clunk. I pronounce it with a soft g, which probably isn't correct, but at this point I don't care. The only difficulty is making sure not to type Genesuis or Genesis.

Anyway, there's Genesius for you. I love him. I think he's a great character, and I always looked forward to his scenes.

[francisplaysffxiv]

Some very-old-not-rly-accurate-now misc doodles of friends and concepty things I drew that never made it here till now, oops

[rampantwing]

From William to Genesius

From William to Genesius

Life as a Proddy This is my 59th year on the planet, which I will recognize officially in July. Growing up in southeastern Michigan, most of my neighborhood was composed of Catholics and Protestants, of which my family belonged to the latter group. All I knew growing up is that some of the Catholic kids went to the school at St. Sebastian’s, attended Catechism—which we pronounced “catty…

View On WordPress