#metahistory

[earthflaxmachina]

The Metahistory of David and Aurèle

Requested by an instagram user.

They're only from 2022 but they have a funny contextual origin lol. once again I wont be including every single image of them cuz most of them are on derekdemetripoo.

Edit: I was going to title this a "Brief" metahistory but it's actually almost as long as Paz's so it's not so brief actually.

HONOURABLE MENTION 1 - LIFE: 5th August 2021

Figure 1. Death and Life | Figure 2. Death and Life bio, both 5/8/21

This has no relation to David or Aurele per se, but it should be mentioned the similar themes of opposites and yin and yang. Plus none of this is on derekdemetripoo so I might as well archive it. This was after Devil's Adequate era during early office era. Death had a sibling that was supposed to contrast with him. Hence, Life. I mostly wanted to do something with the reflected wound infliction trope. Later on she would become Devil.

HONOURABLE MENTION 2 - DEVIL: 4th September 2021

Figure 3. Devil first appearance (4/9/21) | Figure 4. Death and Devil (5th September 2021)

I reconceptualized Life to be a bigger contrast, hence the dark grey skin opposed to Death's light gray skin. Also: red vs blue. Still twins by now. More Devil art:

Figure 5. Death and Devil bio (8/9/21) | Figure 6. Death and Devil smoking lead (9/9/21) | Figure 7. Death and Devil commenting on Harlow's picture (13/9/21)

Figure 8. Devil reading (29/9/21) | Figure 9. Genderbend Devil (20/1/22) | Figure 10. Devil's origin (20/1/22)

In Figure 6, they're meant to be sitting on something, but nothing's there so it looks weird. Also they were aroace (see: the flag), but now I don't think much on Derek's (Death) sexuality. The girl with the crop-top in Figure 7 was originally an adopt named Kehlani, but I don't have much use for her anymore so I'm trying to resell her on toyhouse.

Figure 9, as bad as it looks, Death is supposed to be in shock. Even though Death has the ability to shapeshift, he probably didn't do it as much or to the same degree that Devil did. As implied by Figure 10 (a rewrite of Devil's origins), Devil has a bit of an identity problem because he wasn't born as his own person, but rather a clone of Death, so he probably shapeshifted pretty liberally to make up for his lack of individuality. Pretty interesting concept, too bad it's not canon anymore. By Figure 9, we had already made it into early TBOD development. This would be the end of Devil. The only relevance he bears now is his shared tail shape with Aurele.

AURELE'S CONCEPTION: 11th September 2022 (hashtag never forget)

Figure 11. What would eventually become the basis of the au (11/9/22)

Almost exactly 2 years ago I drew this doodle of Aarum with short hair. The idea was to draw him and Derek with swapped hairstyles (Aarum short and Derek long) but I gave up on Derek because he looks ugly w long hair. This was also supposed to be a roleswap au, so that's why Aarum has a weird choker instead of his scar. In the end since I gave up on drawing swapped Derek it just looks like Aarum wearing a choker, which is ooc. lol

AURELE'S CREATION: 19th October 2022

Figure 12. Aurele's first ref (19/10/22)

So this was when I decided to actually start cooking up the swap au. You can tell at this time Aurele was more like Aarum instead of a separate identity. The part about emotions doesn't really make sense because if he were what Derek is, he wouldn't have any to begin with, but maybe he chose to turn them on.

The pet panther thing does carry on to modern Aurele. Here is name is "Aurélien" and it was later that I gave him the nickname Aurele for short. Whether or not his name is still Aurélien I don't really care, I'm gonna keep calling him Aurele.

DAVID'S CREATION: 20th October 2022 (my birthday!!!!)

Figure 13. David's first concept | Figure 14. David's first bio, both 20/10/22

On my 17th birthday, I created David!!!! So he shares his conceptual birthday with me, but his canonical one with Derek. To this day I still love the David I drew with his bio, it's so insanely sexy even though it was the first time I'd properly drawn him. Very proud of that. He has never looked as good I'm afraid.

Now the swap au was complete. Back then I gave David the same surname was Derek because they're the same, duh. I later changed it to Demos to separate them as different characters. Since this was an au there was no kind of canon within it, whatever I happened to draw of it had little relevance or weight. Also, the infamous gay sex angst:

Figure 15. First sex on main (14th November 2022)

I still chuckle about how serious I was when I posted this. Needless to say it's not canon at all. It honestly reads better as David x Aarum than David and Aurele.

AURELE REBRAND: 10th December 2022

Figure 16. Aurele redesign (10/12/22) | Figure 17. Aurele and Derek (14/12/22)

Now came the era of true Aurele. He was no longer an Aarum copy but his own, chaotic person. Ultimately this is a way more interesting take on the swap au because if you had that much power you'd turn out different too. Also taking into account the sheer lack of social interaction that comes with it, making him more dense than Aarum is.

Figure 18. Derek and Aurele again (11th March 2023)

From time to time I would draw Derek and Aurele together as a funny hypothetical situation. It was never canon.

SIDEBAR: DAVID'S INTERESTS PT 1

Figure 19. David and The Muppets (1/02/23)

It was around this time that I got hyperfixated on The Muppets so I made it one of David's interests. Weirdly enough, he had the kermit tie when I first drew him (before my Muppets fixation), so that interest was already there, but it was an arbitrary decision. I only amplified it after it became a hyperfixation. By the way, I have his tie irl. I don't have that exact watch, but a close one. I hid it somewhere in my room because the ticking was driving me insane, I think it's still somewhere there.

THE WHITE HOLE THEORY: 27th November 2023 onwards

Figure 20. First concept of the White Hole theory (27/11/23)

The caption on the original instagram post:

"essentially this theory suggests dereks universe was actually created by aurele destroying his (inspired by an existing take on the big bang) bc he wanted to give david all his power to see what he could do w it. which was basically a reset but w david (now derek) in power and having forgotten everything. aurele was still sprinkled around in the new universe, thats what aarum is. he is as much aurele as derek is david. which is to say, sort of, in essence!. so yeas. i guess u could say. love endures 😊❤️! i also like this theory bc it implies derek isnt alone in that aurele was like him before the restart. but they cant ever meet in their true /essences/. only with one being sort of a reincarnation of themself this isnt to say both universes are exactly the same, bc theyre not. for one, derek's universe is actually a multiverse. bc derek created the multiverse (youll see why in the book), whereas aureles was just one this is not canon lol im just having fun, call it dubiously canon...."

That's about it. It basically still holds up to modern development. Now there was some weight to this au, in that it might not even be an au! it might be the u! but before the u even existed. Fun!

Figure 21. Aurele painting (26/8/24)

DAVID LORE UPDATE: 4th June 2024

Figure 22. David facts (4/6/24)

Felt it was somewhat relevant to include this. A bit more about David's origins however his birth year here is 1935 instead of 1937, so he would've been 34 when he died. Maybe it was a mistake, or maybe it was a lore change. Not sure. I think I like 32 better.

SIDEBAR: DAVID'S INTERESTS PART 2

Figure 23. David and Aarum (15th May 2024) | Figure 24. First appearance of David's art (11th August 2024)

I had already been entertaining the idea of David being interested in animation (like me~~~~) and I eventually made it canon (Figure 23). From that interest, he'd also know how to draw and maybe even animate (Figure 24), his art style was inspired by Hanna-Barbera cartoons & The Beatles cartoon, both of which were around when he was alive.

From Figure 24, I began to think of another plot point in David's afterlife, from the patreon:

"if u didnt catch the august request dump, davids fake imaginary girlfriend is charlotte and i think after he died aurele would offer to make her real but it wouldnt work out bc of the ethical concerns."

Figure 25. David and Charlotte (22/8/24)

Everything after December 2023 is pretty streamline, so there's no need to really talk about those individually. There is actually a bit of plot in David & Aurele's life, but I never wrote it or drew it or even talked about it. I just thunk it. I will probably get into that in the future. Now I'm really sleepy after writing all this.

Figure 26. David and Aurele by David (21/8/24)

Hope you enjoyed, goodbye.

[historyandphilosophy]

Hayden White

HAYDEN WHITE WAS AN AMERICAN HISTORIAN IN THE TRADITION OF LITERARY CRITICISM.

[contentoftheform]

Burckhardt professed to find in history an intimation of the truths of Tragedy, but his conception of Tragedy was that of Schopenhauer. The only moral he could draw was the depressing conclusion that "it were better not to have been born at all." He looked forward to the possibility of a rebirth of culture in the future, but he held out no hope that men might contribute to that rebirth by any positive action they might take in the present. He consigned the immediate future to a series of wars between the various representatives of the current political reality, wars from which he expected nothing positive to result. His view of the future was precisely the same as Spengler's, though arrived at by different means. The only action that the sensitive soul could take was to go underground, cultivate his own garden, remember things past, and wait for the current madness to dissipate itself by its own resources. Then, possibly, on the far side of the holocaust, culture again might be revived. In the meantime there was only withdrawal from the city to the countryside, waiting, cultivated conversation with a few chosen kindred spirits, and a consistent disdain for the activities of "practical" men.

Hayden White, “Burckhardt: Historical Realism as Satire” in Metahistory, the Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Johns Hopkins, 1973

[earthflaxmachina]

The (Brief) Metahistory of Ben-Gal

Yet another instagram request. Bengal hasn't gone through much change because PH development is pretty recent. But still, good to keep an archive of these things.

Note that Powerhouse is a comic in the works so obviously I can't share every detail about certain plot points because where's the fun in that?

Let's a go!

CREATION: 19th September 2020

Figure 1. First drawing (19th September 2020) | Figure 2. Second drawing (23rd September 2020) | Figure 3. Third drawing (30th September 2020)

Before he was Bengal, he was my AMONG US SONA!!!!!!!!!!!! Also Powerhouse didn't exist yet. That's it.

A NEW NAME AND A NEW STORY: 6th December 2020

Figure 3. Bengal concept art (6th December 2020)

Now he was no longer a sona, but alive! His story (aka Powerhouse) was called Orbital Immolation at this time. You can see he is quite scrawny and scared. The story was pretty consistent to what it is now, being that he escaped from his work prison and is trying to find his way back to his family and sister, Grizel. Kasper was created around this time too. Since this is a post about Bengal, I'm not going to go the extra mile of mentioning other PH characters (unless someone wants that) despite being made the same time, because I'm tired. More Orbital Immolation art (with Bengal in it) below.

Not dating these individually but they were from December 2020 to June 2021, in order of creation.

By the way, it was called Orbital Immolation because I had the idea to make Bengal blow himself up to save the world in the end of it, hence, Immolation. At this time, I also had an idea for a sequel that would center around Grizel in the future still grieving over Bengal, as you can see in that picture with her and Robot Bengal.

In the 7th picture, there is a cat-looking girl. She was supposed to be Kasper's niece trying to avenge him after Bengal killed him. I don't remember exactly when I decided Kasper was a robot, but at that time he probably wasn't one because he had a niece. Or she was a robot created by a sister company of Kasper’s engineers, hence making her a cousin? Idk. Also you can see Cain in the 5th picture!

Also back then, Bengal was aroace.

From Bengal's toyhouse page (roughly December 2020):

"Bengal is a worker for MADA Space Corp, a prison-like space station floating in the middle of Mezuno. He boarded the ship when he was 16 to make money for his sickly mother, as well as provide tuition funding for his sister, Grizel, so she doesn't have to end up like him, rotting in manual labour. Bengal would describe himself as hardworking, nimble, and expendable. He has had the same routine for 12 years hoping his effort has paid off and that there may be a slight possibility he could return to his home planet. Little does he know, Isari had been destroyed for 2 years now, along with its culture and inhabitants. The only Isarians alive now are either refugees or had migrated to different planets before its destruction."

Interesting part about his planet, which probably isn't still canon. I had forgotten about that.

POWERHOUSE: 19th October 2021

Figure 4. First Powerhouse poster | Figure 5. First Powerhouse poster (sketch), both 19/10/21. A day before my birthday!

Here was when I decided to change the name of the comic because Orbital Immolation was Not Catchy. By now I had established the role of Reckoners in the story and wanted a technology-related title that also reflects something about our protagonist. I had 2 ideas for names: 1. Live Wire, and 2. Powerhouse. My lovely oomf helped me choose, so you have her to thank. Imagine calling it Live Wire.

Besides a bit of a personality change (he's silly now) and a workout, that's about all that's different from modern PH. I told you it was brief. Let's just look at the evolution of Bengal illustrations to finish this off.

Figure 5. What would become the basis of "Jailbreak" (28th June 2021) | Figure 6. "Snack" (18th July 2021)

Figure 7. Supposed redraw of "Snack" (23rd August 2021)

Figure 4. (19th October 2021)

Figure 8. "Murder Machine" cover (24th November 2021)

Figure 9. "Jailbreak" cover sketch (4th February 2022) | Figure 10. "Jailbreak" cover (2nd May 2022)

Figure 11. Powerhouse title sketch (17th July 2023) | Figure 12. Powerhouse title (7th August 2023)

Ohhh they grow up so fast.

Bye!

[geopolicraticus]

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

White on Metahistory and the Role of the Historian

Saturday 12 July 2025 is the 97th anniversary of the birth of Hayden V. White (12 July 1928 – 05 March 2018), who was born in Martin, Tennessee, on this date in 1928.

White is particularly known for his book Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe, which has been very influential, but also widely criticized. I discuss some of these influences and some of the criticisms, especially in relation to the role of the historian in the construction of history, which remains ambiguous despite attempts, like those of White, to clarify the problem.   

Quora:              https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/ 

Discord:           https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:               https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:     http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Text post:        https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/white-on-metahistory-and-the-role

Video:              https://youtu.be/9YwolQr1zjM

Podcast:          https://open.spotify.com/episode/6U9iy2RUVhSWWxnxsUVzZK?si=7kTE2ZgzQTGow46L7D2gpQ

[earthflaxmachina]

The Metahistory of Paz

A user on instagram requested I talk about how Paz/Rumi were before modern tbod development, and since I actually made Paz around the time I made Derek (Dolan, at the time) in early 2019, there is enough content for a long post, so I want to tackle that first. Rumi was created in 2021, so she hasn't gone through as much change outside of personality.

Note that for the sake of saving space on this post (only 30 images allowed), I won't be including much of what is already public on derekdemetripoo or something.

Let's gooooooooooooo!

Note: around September/October 2019, my hard drive where I keep all of my art got corrupted so I had to get it fixed and they managed to recover a lot of my files but not all of them, because of this all the metadata (e.g date of creation) of the files was lost. All dates before 5th October 2019 are approximations based on what date it was saved on my phone/what date I posted it on toyhouse, etc.

Notex2: Also, when I mention Derek's old self, I will refer to him with his name at the time, Dolan, and also Paz by her old names.

CREATION: approx. ~26th January 2019

Figure 1. Paz's first design and appearance (Heller) | Figure 2. Heller's icon on toyhouse (~4/2019)

Around this time I started making demon ocs, one of which was Paz, or at the time she was Dolan's (Derek) half-brother, Heller Luq Urhis. No cultural inspirations for that name, I literally made up words. Heller was based off my friend's backpack (Figure 1). Dolan's full name was Dolan Sol Urhis. I think they both had a thing for Cerise (if you remember seeing me draw a pirate lady, she was from this era as well but less piratey). Not much I can say about Heller's personality because I don't remember and I never wrote things down. I think he was pretty serious to contrast w Dolan. This post is only about Paz so I won't go deep into other characters.

Something I remember about Heller is that, at some point he wasn't born a demon but was actually turned into one after he died, and that his starry poncho was handcrafted by him so he could remember what stars looked like (there are no stars in Hell). This contradicts the idea of him and Dolan being half-brothers, so I think this was canon before I made them brothers.

Fun fact: at this time, both this story - Devil's Adequate, though I named it in March 2020 - and Wence happened in the same world. I think. I know that Harlow had a connection to Luciano's brother.

DEVIL'S ADEQUATE V2: September 2020

Figure 3. Heller redesign portrait | Figure 4. Heller redesign reference, both from 7th November 2020

This was when I decided to make Devil's Adequate a more "serious" (it was corny) story about morality and heaven and hell, as you can see Heller has a bit of a priest/nun look. At this point he wasn't Dolan's brother anymore but an unrelated character. I think he was a fallen angel who was in denial about being Bad, so he kept up the priest thing in Hell. Quite an interesting concept, given the rest of the story was your average Maybe The Hell And Heaven System Is Flawed (sound familiar? lmao I was 15 by the way. This is a concept a 15 year old comes up with. cough)

I had quite a bit of worldbuilding for Devil's Adequate, like names for places and races of demons/angels. The comprehensive text on the worldbuilding is lost because it was a description for the toyhouse folder I later deleted. All I have left to work from is Dolan's toyhouse profile and maybe the draft script of Devil's Adequate however short. For example, Heaven was called Ecstasis instead.

According to Dolan's toyhouse profile,

'During [Dolan's] years as a secretary he met one of the Fallen Angeli, Heller - they became close friends, very close that Heller was enticed by him and developed feelings, of which are unrequited.'

Interesting! So now he was a love interest. This love interest thing would continue into early TBOD. I would get into the whole Devil's Adequate lore but I think that's more suited to an essay about Dolan/Derek's metahistory because he Was the protagonist.

NOT QUITE DEVIL'S ADEQUATE, NOT QUITE THE BOOK OF DEREK: July 2021

Figure 5. Pascal's new biography (23rd July 2021)

Figure 6. Pascal and Death (4th August 2021) | Figure 7. The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse (6th August 2021)

At this time, Dolan was no longer Dolan, he was now Death. This story didn't really take place in Heaven or Hell but in some kind of Purgatory office where Death and the other 3 horsemen had to collect souls of people who died like reapers. Each horseman would have their "department" and would collect souls of people depending on how they died. For example, Pascal (no longer Heller), being the horseman of Pestilence, collected souls of people who died by disease. I named him (yes, still a man) Pascal because it was close to Pestilence and I was trying to get the names close to their role. The exception was Cerise (horseman of War) because she was trans and chose her name. P.S. his gloves weren't a fashion choice, he poisoned everything he touched, except for Death.

In Figure 5 it says:

“[His] first big debut was the Plague”

This means he started working when the Bubonic Plague started, because of the overwhelming mortality rate the higher ups (whoever they are) decided there needed to be a horseman of Pestilence to handle those. See image below for Death and Pascal’s first meeting when he made his debut.

Figure 5 also states he is the “3rd Horseman” meaning one of the other two horseman started working before him, since Death is the 1st. It was Fergie, aka Famine.

At this point, there was a tsundere quality about him and the implication of yaoi was latent. As you can see from Figures, he had a one-way rivalry with Death and was simultaneously jealous and in love with him.

Too lazy to date these individually just know they were from 23rd July 2021 - 18th October 2021, in order of creation.

EARLY TBOD: October 2021 onward

Figure 8. Paz first seen as a girl (23rd February 2022) | Figure 9. New Paz info and first instance of being called "Paz" (18th April 2022) | Figure 10. Paz and Aarum (also 18/4/22)

Around this time was when I ditched the office idea and came up with the idea of Derek (named on 12th September 2021) wanting to have a child with a human. Paz's crush was now a crazy obsession, and also she was in a relationship w Aarum for a while. Canonically, at some point, they broke up some time during Derek's human life. Overall this era in her development was really weird and I'm ashamed of it.

In Figure 9, Paz mentions Derek's "corpses", this is referring to the fact that when Derek first became human he died a lot because he wanted to try different ways of getting hurt and also dying so there were lots of his corpses after he kept dying and coming back. This idea does not carry onto current TBOD because, why, lmao.

There was a plot point where Derek BURIED HER ALIVE for a couple of years (she couldn't die bc she was already dead) because she convinced Aarum to kill Derek earlier than they planned. So weird. This also does not carry onto current TBOD because it's stupid.

Figure 11. The trio celebrating Derek's loss of virginity (18th May 2022)

Quickly all of that weird violence got retconned away and we forgot all about that. Until June 2022 she still had that weird crush that feels like she was cheating on Aarum emotionally. After June, she was a fujo but still dating Aarum, at least the crush wasn't there anymore. I think everything from October 2021 onward is public on derekdemetripoo if you scroll far enough, so I won't include many images.

MODERN TBOD: October 2022 onward

Figure 12. First instance of what would become Paz's new design (23rd October 2022) | Figure 13. Current Paz ref (2nd August 2024)

Figure 12 was never posted because I planned to draw Derek and Aarum there too but got lazy. It was an au where Paz had Derek's role, because at the time I also entertained with an au where Aarum had Derek's role - and from that came Aurele. This drawing was meant to have all 3 of them as gods sitting on chairs. Her chair says Patricia because like Aarum was called Aurele, she needed an au name too. Her dress was inspired by the Haitian Karabela traditional dress iirc because she's Haitian.

I think by now I had gotten rid of the idea of her and Aarum altogether, never dated, just friends. Because Aarum was gay now and Paz was now somewhat romantically/sexually apathetic. Also her and Derek were now more friendly, and she doesn't call him sir anymore. Maybe she did when they first met because he was this weird celestial being, but once they got to know each other she dropped the formalities. Happy ending!

It was always planned that in her past life she was a Haitian volunteer nurse who died by disease in the 1800s. But that was during slavery and I don't feel fit to write a character in that situation.

At the time of writing this, I still don't know when she died. But I've been entertaining the idea of around the 70s-80s because of the way she dresses. It's probably her old clothes from when she was alive. Maybe it was AIDs. Maybe she accidentally got poked by a non-sterile syringe while volunteering. Who knows. She was 25 when she died and that has been a consistent fact since early TBOD.

Fun fact: I always intended for her to be neurotypical, but I guess things just have a way of happening, she doesn't really give neurotypical anymore. And that's okay. I think it's funny that Derek's only friends aren't normal people either.

I think that's about it for Paz's metahistory! This took a while. A lot of these facts I've just been storing in my head cuz I never made a habit out of writing oc stuff I just remembered it. Which is not a reliable way to store lore.

I've got a couple of requests for other ocs' histories, so I look forward to going down memory lane again. I might even do one on Derek's full metahistory. I tried that once but the max image limit was 10 and also it had stupid commentary. So I might remake it.

Hope you enjoyed reading if you actually read all of this! If you skimmed, this doesn't apply to you. TASER TASER TASER!!!!!!!!!!

[sileana]

Mindblowing to watch a show from 2005 on Roman shipbuilding and have the PhDs acting like Suetonius’s account of Caligula are 100% factual, complete, unbiased, and accurate.

[bormgans]

THE YEARS OF RICE AND SALT - Kim Stanley Robinson (2002)

THE YEARS OF RICE AND SALT – Kim Stanley Robinson (2002)

One has to admire Kim Stanley Robinson for the breadth of his work. He has published 19 novels, 2 works of non-fiction, 8 short story collections and 4 novellas. If you just look at the novels, you see a wide variety of angles. Still, his topics remain steadfast: the evolutionary & ecological nature of humans, what human societies could amount to  – progressive, utopian thinking – and how science…

View On WordPress