don't worry I very much continue to be on my TOG linguistics bullshit. today's installment: what is Nile's hieroglyph
The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος. Beyond that, however, the etymology is disputed. Homer called the river Αἴγυπτος, Aiguptos, but in subsequent periods, Greek authors referred to its lower course as Neilos; this term later became generalized for the entire river system. Thus, the name may derive from Ancient Egyptian expression nꜣ rꜣw-ḥꜣw(t) (lit. 'the mouths of the front parts'), which referred specifically to the branches of the Nile transversing the Delta, and would have been pronounced ni-lo-he in the area around Memphis in the 8th century BCE. (source)
the mouths of the front parts hehehe >:) alternate literal translations include the naked mouth (hehehehe), the mouth of the neighborhood, and my personal favorite: the mouth of abundance
our abundant Nile ✨
none of the hieroglyphs for those are especially pretty though, and our Nile's an emoji user, she doesn't need the etymology to be flawless, she needs her icon to be iconic. so I present to you:
nꜥrt
conventional anglicization: naret
a sacred tree
the main shape is the tree heiroglyph: 𓆭
supported by a throwing stick: 𓌙
and a loop of rope: 𓍲
the throwing stick is thought to be one of the hieroglyphs that were borrowed and transformed to become the Phoenician alphabet, specifically gimmel, which went on to become Hebrew ג, Arabic ﺝ, Greek gamma Γγ, and eventually English Gg.
g as in gulp. y'know, that thing Booker does whenever he thinks about drinking from the sacred, abundant Nile >:)
Welcome to my favorite game "Not actually an OC," in which you choose a character with Zero description or characterization and just make it the fuck up. Vaughan is my current project.
So based on the fact that he transforms into an osprey, which is a sea bird, I'm giving him water magic, but I think he's particularly connected to storms and thunder. His main weapons are a pair of sickles, bc i think it's cool af and it remindes me of talons. I also imagine him to be *ancient* which I've represented through his long fuckoff hair. It trails behind him when he's walking. We're trying to keep the cryptid vibes while also fleshing him out a bit.
(Enjoy my drawing of what I think Vaughan looks like)
One of the many things that facinates me about the Cadre is the potential within their inter-personal relationships. Now, admittedly I'm going to be getting into a Lot of my personal HCs about the Cadre's history and place as a part of Maeve's court, especially Vaughan since there is quite literally nothing about him except that he's a sea bird and is a master of not confronting the issue (U go girl, give us nothing to work with) so, this is not to be taken as just an interpertation of canon (though there will be some of that), but as my personal "what I wish we got."
Alright, with that disclaimer over, the Cadre is *old.* Canonically, Gavriel is it's oldest living member at about 600 years old, but by no means is he treated as it's founder. He was not the first bloodsworn, and as a fairly prominent character, especially in relation to Aedion who IS the founder of his own unit, the Bane, I feel it would have been mentionned or alluded to if that were the intention. So, the Cadre is old as BALLS. My guess is that they were formed during the first vlag conquest, and thus the original members of the Cadre would have been contemporaries of Brannon Galathynius and Athril.
My personal headcanon is that while Gavriel isn't a founding member of the Cadre, Vaughan is. Vaughan was there when the first oaths were sworn. He was the youngest of his cohort to swear, an abandonned child turned squire, and has served faithfully ever since. He served for centuries before Gavriel was even born. He's lived longer that any creature, even fae should, and his mind cracked under the pressure. He could not handle the weight of his own memories, and so his mind protected him. (Does the oath sustain him? Does it trap his soul in a body that can barely breath? Is his magical well just *that* deep?) He has raised and trained generations of bloodsworn, lived so long that their names, faces, deaths blur together.
And just like his own mentors, the original members of the cadre who first swore blood oaths to Maeve, he wasn't gentle. He didn't really know how to, even when he tried to be. And that was fine with adults, with men who had been chosen from the ranks of Maeve's army and guard, like Gavriel. But Lorcan wasn't an adult. He wasn't a blooded soldier when Maeve chose him, and put him in Vaughan's care. He was still a child, who'd never had stability, never had a safe haven, or a gentle guiding hand.
He got one of those from Vaughan, and it was stability, though he needed the other two just as desperately.
And it all got so much more complicated after Vaughan's mind started falling apart, and he started both forgetting how he treated Lorcan and basing his attitude towards Rowan (and Lorcan) on observations of how Gavriel taught. How Gavriel was gentle and patient with his teaching, while still staying firm. Lorcan resents Vaughn for the way he was, is glad he was different for Rowan, is grieving the loss of a man who took care of and understood him more than clean cut gavriel or noble-born Rowan ever could. Which comes right back around to resenting Vaughn for his "weakness" of mind and the precieved abandonnement, while being glad that vaughn can't remember the vulnerabilities Lorcan let him see when he was younger. And I think, Lorcan, deep deep down, envies Vaughn the capacity to just forget everything they've done and everything that's been done to them. Because Vaughn no longer wakes up screaming, and so many of his old triggers (triggers Lorcan once knew like the back of his hand) are just gone.
The Old Guard (comics + movie) Comprehensive Timeline
Edit: 14 July 25- updated to comply with TOG 2
I spent way too much time spent researching the comics one night resulting in this, my TOG magnum opus, including every confirmed event up until the beginning of the first movie. If there's anything I missed let me know. This is mostly for my own purposes, but absolutely feel free to use it for your own fics/art/meta/etc
Also thank you @yumekuimono for the putting together the photographs on Copley's hyperfixation board, which inspired me to make this.
It's long, so it's all under the cut. Enjoy!
4500s BCE:
Andromache is born in the Western Steppe, later known as Scythia, now known as the Ural region, mostly. Fifteen or so years later her mother(figure) gifts her an axe, naming Andy as her successor instead of her sisters. Five or so years later Andy's mother plans to have her killed out of jealously. Andy doesn't die, though her mother is killed in the conflict. Andy kills her attackers in revenge, then goes back to lead her people as a pseudo-god for an unspecified number of years.
500s BCE:
Quỳnh (Noriko) is born in modern day Vietnam (Noriko in Japan).
330ish BCE:
Lykon is killed for the first time following Alexander The Great to Judea. Andy meets him not long after (comic only canon, the movie doesn't specify when Andy and Lyon meet except to say it's after she meets Quynh).
630s CE:
Andy meets Quynh in Alexandria while fighting with Amir ibn al-As. They become inseparable and travel with Lykon and Yitzhak for a time as roaming soldiers (anything about Yitzhak, so far, is comics only canon)
Note- There's no firmer information on Yitzhak aka Isaac Blue at this time, apart from him being Jewish, a contemporary of Lykon, having been with Andy in the year 1950, and now living in Alaska. There's a wonderful analysis of his likely timeline by @nevermindirah who places him around the time of the Second Temple, somewhere between 500 BCE and 70 CE.
1066:
Yusuf ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn al-Kaysani called al-Tayyib is born in Maghreb, North Africa, to a family of merchants
1069:
Nicolò di Genova is born in Genoa, Italy
1099:
Joe and Nicky meet and kill each other and, according to word of god (aka Greg Rucka), get on to the more pleasurable type of physical relationship very quickly after.
1100-1230:
Andy and Quynh are spotted around the crusades, likely to find Nicky + Joe
1200s:
Noriko (comics only canon) is killed many times fighting rogue samurai around feudal Japan
1550-1600 (Renaissance):
Lykon dies for the last time. Joe saves a young artist from a fire in Genoa, forcing them to avoid Italy for 100 years
1500s (late):
Quynh and Andy attempt to free people from the witch trials and are caught themselves, leading to Quynh's underwater imprisonment.
Andy is then freed by an immortal she has yet to meet, Tuah
(In comics canon, Noriko is lost after falling off a ship somewhere near the Horn of Africa during a storm)
1700s (late):
The Guard are in London for a time. Joe saves a coffee shop owner from the stocks, Andy gets a new axe (that is still very much the same axe, to her).
1770:
Sébastien LeLivre is born in Marseilles, France.
1789-95:
Andy, Nicky, and Joe are at the Paris Commune. Nicky and Joe aren't speaking at the time.
1790s:
Andy meets a former West Indies slave turned British soldier turned highway robber named Achilles. Andy follows him to Australia, starts a life in a small town.
1812:
Booker dies in Russia while following Napoleon. He's hanged for desertion. The Guard meets up with him a few years later. (Note, it's very likely Booker was conscripted in the place of a richer man in exchange for a fee, or as blackmail material, given that married men were exempt from the Grande Armée and even the Imperial Army's levée en masse. My theory is he was caught by a banker or shop owner for his forgeries, and was therefore forced to take the man's place in the army).
1830s:
Booker hangs out with his youngest son Jean-Pierre, likely towards the end of his son's life, at a Parisian restaurant. Andy leaves Achilles for an extended amount of time to go to Jamaica, likely for the Baptist War. She comes back to find him dead, killed by their neighbors. She then razes the entire town in retaliation.
1834:
São Paulo. Joe jumps through a window as a distraction for reasons as yet unknown.
1853:
1850s:
Joe and Nicky spotted on the ground of the Crimean War.
All four are together for a mission involving a hedge maze, a cannon, and a beheading.
Joe, Nicky, and Andy in Rome for the Italian Risorgimento (reunification).
1863:
Nicky goes undercover of sorts in the American Civil War as a Confederate soldier in Pennsylvania. Joe is helping the slaves Nicky frees along with the Quakers in York. The Guard appear at the Battle of Gettysburg
1870, September:
Booker and Andy meet in San Francisco after Booker unknowingly saves Merrick's great grandfather in a frontier town because of an inexplicable feeling he should stay to help
1887:
Nicky and Joe save a young person in Zanzibar, presumably the victim of a hate crime
1904:
The Guard prevent a coup in Haiti
1914-18:
The Guard fight in The Great War. Joe saves a little girl who becomes the youngest Nobel Laureate in Medicine. Andy fights in the Gallipoli campaign and in France
1916:
Andy saves a refugee family in Montenegro, one of whom goes on to develop early diabetes detection.
1917:
Andy takes part in a battle in Passchedaele, Belgium, and adopts an orphaned boy, Zeus
1932, November:
Joe and Nicky go to a bar in Berlin, run into the person they saved in Zanzibar, and punch a Nazi.
1944:
Andy is involved in the French Resistance in WWII
1945, August:
The Guard prevent a third atomic bomb
1950:
Andy and Yitzhak eat a meal made for them by Zeus somewhere not in the US
1956-59:
Joe, Nicky, and Booker are spotted helping the Cuban Revolution
1968:
Nicky and Andy appear at MLK speeches separately. Joe and Nicky rescue a man from a cave (poss. Onyx Cave, AZ in Oct. or Gory Hole, IN in Nov. -US cave incidents are very well recorded)
1969, July:
The Guard take down a pedophilic serial killer in Minnesota (possibly based on Stanley Rice). Nicky and Booker stay to track down everyone who knowingly let the killer go free. Joe and Andy head on to San Francisco to watch the moon landing at a bar.
1970s:
Andy and Booker in Rome
1975, April:
Andy helps in Operation Babylift in Vietnam
late 1970's:
Andy lands in Cleveland, not knowing where she is after a job. Coincidentally, she cleans herself up in a restaurant owned by Zeus, who she hadn't seen in decades.
1978:
Booker gets captured by a cult of murder- and sex-obsessed nuns in NYC. Three months later Andy rescues a reluctant Booker from the nuns' compound in Guyana
1989:
Andy helps people escape East Germany
1992:
Booker serves as a combat medic in Sarajevo. Nicky attends university under the name N Smith (likely a graduate school given the wording of the ID. My guess, either for medicine or computer science, both of which were rapidly evolving at the time)
1994:
Nile Freeman born, South Side of Chicago, IL
2000s:
The Guard rescue children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are also linked to the US 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan.
2005:
Nile's dad killed in action on the ground as a Marine
2012:
The Guard take a CIA assignment in Surabaya, Indonesia, with Copley and Booker as the point persons
2013:
Andy goes by the alias Alexandra Black in the Czech Republic
2014:
Joe goes by the alias Joseph Jones in Germany. The Guard is seen in Syria near an USAF F-22 bombing site.
2019:
Andy takes a break to travel. Joe and Nicky travel to Eastern Turkey. Booker is contacted by Copley on behalf of Merrick Industries.
2020:
Nile dies for the first time in Afghanistan at the hands of an enemy insurgent. Official record has her killed in action. The events of the movie (aka comics Opening Fire 1-5) commence. Booker returns to Paris in his exile, where he receives occasional grocery drops from Joe, and is later kidnapped by Quynh.
2025:
Events of The Old Guard 2 (a complete break from comics canon)
There’s no way Dorian is not immortal, or at least capable of making himself immortal. I refuse to even consider it.
You’re telling me, the human boy more powerful than any living Fae in the known world, whose powers can match (and daresay overpower) the Demi-fae heir of Mala, is somehow perfectly human??? All that power and might, condensed into a mortal body when he inherited it from a Demi-fae herself some thousand years ago.
Aelin having all that power in a partially fae body, who could shift forms since birth, and destined to settle by her twenties, and yet the only person who could match that might unquestionably…is an untrained mortal boy barely older than her.
No. There’s no way he’s purely human. Either those Fae genes are gonna wake up at some point, or all that magic will keep him young. Sure, he has less magic than he did before the Lock. But what remained, if trained the way Aelin was trained, I daresay is still more powerful than even Rowan.
I have a hard to answer question how does one handle in a fanfic tog not going after shitler with Jewish!booker on the team without them coming off like assholes in regards to the human cost as well as the personal cost to booker, cause I'm drawing a blank
hi anon!
this is a super duper big large heavy question, and it's also one that might, depending on the context of your fic, have a very simple answer: the immortals are, other than their immortality, human, and therefore they can each only be in a single place at once.
they don't have superhuman strength or speed, they don't have magic, they don't have access to time-travel technology. I'm not an expert in ww2 military strategy but I'm sure allied governments looked into assassinating Hitler, and nobody managed to do it until the shitstain killed himself. the immortals are highly skilled and well-connected but not at the level of for example the agency that would go on to become the CIA, so who's to say they'd be successful in this assassination if they tried.
there's also the matter of when and for what reason the immortals might decide that killing this particular shitstain should go at the top of their to-do list. it's so easy for us to say in hindsight that a catastrophic volume of suffering could've been averted with this one person's death 10-15 years earlier than what happened in our timeline, but even with the strategic benefit of that hindsight, none of us can predict exactly what would've happened after a successful assassination in 1939, 1932, or even earlier. killing one leader doesn't ensure the movement he leads will stop with his death; someone even worse could have stepped in under the banner of a martyr.
things had gotten bad for Jews in a lot of places many times before things started getting real bad again in Germany. again, I'm not an expert, so I don't know when anyone outside of Nazi senior leadership knew anything about plans for the Holocaust — but would any of the immortals have learned about it sooner than international news media did? would they have known about it early enough that it was possible for a group of four immortals to stop? would they have believed such horrific plans if they'd seen them on paper? there's historical evidence that US officials didn't believe early reports could possibly be true.
there are photos on Copley's wall showing the immortals in Europe at several points during ww2 and there's that one panel from one of the comics of some of the boys being involved in liberating one of the camps. but we don't know details beyond that, and we don't know what the immortals were up to in the 1930s. they may have been very, very busy doing what they could to protect people from Japan's horrific war crimes of the same era, which started several years earlier than the Third Reich.
none of that is to say it would be easy for the immortals to know that the Holocaust was happening and not stop it. I'm sure it was devastating for all of them, who'd already seen so much needless painful death in their long lives, to see the ruthless mechanized efficiency of Nazi mass murder. it would be especially devastating for Booker, even without the Jewish Booker headcanon, bc his children died hating him bc he could not save them no matter how much they begged and no matter how hard he tried.
so my hope for the fic you're working on is that you'll show at least a little bit how their inability to stop these horrors weighs on the immortals. show the personal cost to Booker. do the others get why such horrors happening to his people, who are specifically being targeted because they are Jews, hurts him so badly? or does Andy make dark jokes about how God really must not exist or what did Booker do to piss him off.
does Andy make dark jokes like that bc she sees Quynh's face in every woman they rescue from the Japanese army's rape campaigns? it would have been just as impossible for the immortals alone to save every one of them as it would've been to stop the Holocaust. might their personal connections to victims thousands of miles apart in a war causing overwhelming suffering across most of the planet wear on the immortals' relationships with each other? they can only do but so much. how the hell do they choose which people to try to save?
now that I've thought about it, writing a fic where they do kill Hitler might actually be easier. you can just handwave the deeply frustrating logistical realities and make it so that conveniently killing the nightmare in charge happens to cause the whole house of nightmares to fall apart. (you can also handwave that in your new timeline non-Jews across Europe welcomed their Jewish neighbors home with open arms, when very often the opposite happened irl.)
this topic is so rich for all kinds of exploration in fic. you could end up with a long and plotty meditation on how painful it is for the immortals to have to choose between so many people who need their help. you might have only been asking for the sake of some references to this era of the past in a fic set during or after the movie where the historical timeline is set in stone, in which case I hope what I've shared here leads you to writing those passages with appropriate seriousness and care, even if it's ultimately a small part of a story mainly focused on other things.
this was hard to answer, but not intellectually, this kind of analysis is how my brain works. it just hurts my heart to think about how much my people have lost, how much pain so many people have suffered, and how much suffering is happening right now that there's so little I can do to stop. if I were immortal right now how the hell would I choose between Palestinians and Massalit people and Uyghurs and Rohingya and the multitude of Latin Americans suffering at the US border, all the Black Americans suffering systematically in US prisons, all the other people whose catastrophic suffering I don't even know about?
but I'm glad you asked bc this is such an under-considered element of TOG that's very worth the spotlight. I hope my thoughts here help you, and maybe others will see this and think about it as well.
She’s fallen in love with mortals before, but it’s different with them. Hector. Achilles. As hard as it is, she knows she’s going to outlive them. Their days are numbered. A lifespan is something Andy can wrap her head around.
But then Booker shows up and it’s fucking terrifying.
How long do they have? Will he be like Lykon and die before her? Bleeding out in her arms? Will she finally be able to let Booker into her heart, only to get cut down the next day? Will he be ripped away from her like Quỳnh was?
Or will they have something good, at least for a few good decades. A hundred years? A thousand?
Death she can count on. But the uncertainty that comes with letting another immortal into her heart? That must have scared the hell out of her.
Cannot stop thinking about how, even if Booker didn’t have the most tragic backstory possible, his ultra-traumatic death (which would have taken anywhere from 15-20 minutes and is undeniably the worst of the Guard’s OG deaths) would have had him clawing his way out of immortality by itself
