hc + zodiac, snapchat, filter, dogs, myth
a headcanon meme
tw for animal deaths under dogs and myth i guess
zodiac
Gabriel is a Libra! October 5th \o/. He doesn’t really care about astrological signs and horoscopes and all that however. Some Libra traits he has are carrying grudges forever, social, loves the outdoors, diplomatic. Gabriel was more interested in the Chinese Zodiac when he learned about it than the Western Zodiac, although he’s not quite sure how he would fit into it as he can’t even remember his birth year and it’d be a lot of calculating to figure out which animal that was even if he did. He’d likely use 1905 as his ‘birth year’, which would make him a Snake (fitting, with the Ophiussa myth and the serpent imagery on the coat of arms). Also I’m laughing that it says for unlucky colors: white, gold, brown. Half his clothes are white or brown and he wears gold earrings half the time. Some fitting Snake traits for him being passionate, smart, sympathetic, humorous, nonchalant (VERY), and jealous. However his interest in the Chinese Zodiac faded due to his complicated relationships with China and the fact he’s just not interested in astrology in general.
snapchat + filter
Thank you to @stadslichten for the adorable idea of Gabriel struggling to learn Snapchat because I LOVE IT. Bear with the old man as he tries to overcome his tech incompetence. His favorite filter is the cat filter! He has a picture of it saved away because he thinks he looks pretty good in it. He prefers his photographer’s black-and-white camera over his phone’s camera, he did however learn how to use the phone camera even before Snapchat for the purpose of sending nudes.
dogs
Gabriel is more of a cat person than a dog person, but! He once had a dog as pet during his lifetime. This was as Lusitania, little Marinus adopted a stray dog he found trying to steal bread in the marketplace. As a stray who also had a habit of stealing bread, he felt an instant connection to the poor dog and named him...Canis. Latin for dog. He named the dog Dog. Little Marinus wasn’t too good at coming up with names yet, forgive the poor boy. But he loved little Canis with all his heart, and fed him scraps even when he was hungry. He did his best to keep Canis far away from any fighting he got into as well, and spending time with the dog was a welcome reprieve from the rigors of rebellion. However little Canis was a smart dog (probably nation magic affecting him) and soon figured out his owner leaving often meant his owner coming back hurt all over, so one day he followed Marinus, who got into a scuffle with a Roman legionnaire who’d caught him stealing bread, and the legionnaire accidentally killed Canis when the dog got in between him and Marinus growling. This broke poor little Marinus’ heart, and he wouldn’t have another dog again.
myth
THERE IS...a lot to say here. To start with, Gabriel, or Lugus at the time, cared absolutely zero about the gods of his people. Not the one he was named for, not the head god, not even the god of war. Sometimes he’d participate in the goat sacrifices, or say a prayer with the warriors to Cariocecus (a Lusitanian god of war) before battle. He knew the legends of the horse goddess Epona very well because of his sister Luisa’s (at the time Ebora) insistence on the story of having been born by the goddess. He does admire the myth of Ophiussa (where Greek mariners discovered Port’s coast and gave it the name meaning ‘Land of the Serpents’ because of the peoples’ worship of a snake goddess) and the serpent imagery it inspired in his coat of arms. He learned basically nothing about the Punic religion from his father, and cared even less about it than his own gods.
As Lusitania he played along with the pagan festivals but refused to worship the Roman gods because of how he hated the Roman rule. And then came Christianity, and woo boy. It wasn’t until the Visigoths came in and set up their little kingdoms that Gabriel (Alaric at the time) first started to be faithful, as he had finally gotten away from the Romans, with Rome getting sacked as the cherry on top. So he became a casual Christian up until the Caliphate came in.
Under the Islamic rule, Christians were allowed to still practice their religion but were basically treated as second-class citizens and encouraged to convert. And, well, Gabriel (now Malak) at the time had a tendency to do the exact opposite of what any authority figure wanted him to do. So here he went from a casual to a fervent Christian, and by the time of the Reconquista was a full on Christian knight and threw himself headfirst into his faith.
Here is when he took up the name Gabriel, in part because of his love for the story of the Virgin Mary (also because he’s vain and secretly liked being called angel so Gabriel was a sort of continuation of that). It’s a very powerful story to him and throughout his life he’s venerated Mary as a sort of mother from above. He didn’t really have many mother figures in his life, his mother is a cliff, so that’s how he connected to Mary. Also as a sailor, he was quite superstitious and believed many of the tales of sea monsters and witches and such. Gabriel will also always claim that The Lusiads happened just as written, especially the part where Vasco da Gama’s crew (which he joined with) had an orgy with all the Nereids.
As for today, Gabriel is still a faithful Catholic but has had a few crises of faith over the years and doesn’t go to mass regularly anymore. He got a bachelor’s in classical studies as a way to connect with his roots since as a child he didn’t really pay attention to what was going on outside of fighting Rome. He’s learned all he can about the Celtiberian gods, particularly Lugus where he got his first name, and the Roman god Lusus (who was sometimes conflated with Lugus) where he got ‘Lusitania’ which became an important legacy for him and his people.