Author: stevenattewell

It’s been a while since I’ve spoken any German, but I’m pretty sure you don’t want ‘world’ and ‘prophesy’ to be one word. I’d have thought something like “Daenerys ist die Manifestation der Hengstes-der-die-Welt-besteigt Prophezeiung” would be the way to go. (Prophezeiung is feminine, so it’s ‘der’ in the genitive case).

You should notify trust Google translate, unless you want funny outcomes…which ist what you got. Thema German Translation basically says that He is ihe stallion that mounts the worldprophecy😂

Shrug. If people want to send me asks in a language I don’t speak, they’re going to have to put up with AI mistakes in translation. 

For those of us who can’t read German, could you tell us what you were asked in the previous post, and your response? Also, how many languages do you speak (besides English)?

I can’t read German either, I was using Google Translate. (I learned French in school and was reasonably fluid if not fluent, but I’ve lost most of my vocabulary and grammar over the years.)

I was asked why the Dothraki and the Dosh Khaleen will follow Dany. I responded because she’s the manifestation of the Stallion Who Mounts the World prophecy. 

If Robert had brought Mya Stone to King’s Landing, what sort of social status/lifestyle could she have had there? Can you give any historical examples of royal illegitimate daughters that were significant figures in their fathers’ court?

goodqueenaly:

cle-guy:

goodqueenaly:

racefortheironthrone:

I think it would have counted against Mya that her mother was not merel a commoner but a servant to boot, compared to Edric Storm’s mother being a lady of House Florent.

In terms of royal illegitimate daughters – well, depending on whether we count Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, given that their illegitimacy was more a political issue and many people didn’t accept them as such – it’s hard to go wrong with the prolifically promiscuous Charles II’s many, many illegitimate children. With Barbara Villiers (Duchess of Cleveland), Charles had Charlotte Fitzroy, who would become Countess Lichfield, and Anne Fitzroy, who would become Countess of Sussex; with Elizabeth Boyle (Viscountess Shannon), he’d have another Charlotte FitzRoy who became the Countess of Yarmouth; and with Moll Davies (actress), he had Mary Tudor, and married (although later divorced) the Earl of Derwentwater). 

Any other prominent royal illegitimate daughters, @goodqueenaly?

If we’re talking specifically about illegitimate daughters of royalty born to non-noble parents, then my first thought would be Margaret of Parma. The daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (he of the elaborate heraldry), Margaret was born in 1522 from his affair with Johanna Maria van der Gheynst, the daughter of a Flemish tapestry maker, who was a servant in the household of Charles de Lalaing, Governor of Oudenaarde (whom Charles V had visited). Although illegitimate, Margaret was formally recognized by the Emperor, who saw her as a means of advancing Habsburg interests through a dynastic marriage (befitting the line of Latin poetry so often associated with the Habsburgs: bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria, nube). She was raised in Flanders under the supervision of her great-aunt Margaret of Austria (Charles V’s paternal aunt) and her aunt Mary of Hungary (Charles V’s sister), appeared regularly at court, and was given lavish presents of lace, jewelry, and silk (albeit given, as the account books noted, to “the little bastard”). In 1533, Margaret traveled to Italy as part of her betrothal arrangement to Alessandro de’ Medici, Duke of Florence, whom she married in 1536; when he was assassinated the following year, Margaret married Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma (himself the grandson, via an illegitimate son, of Pope Paul III). In 1559, Margaret was named Governor of the Netherlands by her half-brother, Philip II of Spain, and she served capably in that role for eight years; when her son, Alexander Farnese, was appointed Governor in 1578, she returned as co-governor and adviser until she again retired, in 1582, and died four years later.

Even with Mya having a lowborn mother, Robert theoretically could have done more to raise her as a member of the nobility in all but name. Had he installed her, if not at court (where Cersei almost certainly would have had her killed), as a ward of a high-ranking Vale or Stormlands House (a la Larence Snow), and lavished her with gifts and attention, Mya might have been able to make a good marriage, at least to a minor nobleman. However, Robert did not really seem to care what happened to Mya after he left the Vale: her “Stone” surname seems more due to her parentage being an open secret in the Vale than any formal recognition by the king of his eldest daughter, and his suggestion of bringing her to court more a way to make himself feel better about the emerging monstrous nature of Joffrey than any true affection for Mya (and I tend to think that it was Jon Arryn who quietly gave little Mya to be raised as a servant of the junior House Royce). Consequently, poor Mya was doomed to a life of servant’s work, though perhaps brightened by a match with the low-ranking but good-hearted Ser Lothor Brune.

Does this make Joy Hill of House Lannister unusual?

Unusual in that she has been raised presumably more or less comfortably (materially speaking, at least, since she’s thought of by Jaime as a lonely child) at her paternal seat, and in that we actually have some idea of what her marital fate could be, perhaps. But this may be less because of Joy herself and more because we have very little information on a number of highborn bastard daughters, particularly recognized ones. Few of the ones we know of have led privileged lives: the Sand Snakes have been raised largely as Oberyn’s trueborn daughters in all but name (even if Arianne has to remind Elia Sand to play her maidservant in “Arianne II” TWOW), but Falia Flowers was a domestic servant in her father’s castle, Sylvenna Sand was a prostitute in King’s Landing, and Ellaria Sand was “almost a whore” when Oberyn made her his paramour (though this description could be an exaggeration based in anti-Dornish racism/exoticism, especially since Ellaria seems to have a decent enough relationship with her father, Lord Harmen Uller, to go to the Hellholt with little Loreza Sand as of TWOW). However, there are still more whose fates are far less known: we don’t know what happened to Melissa Blackwood’s two daughters by the king, Mya and Gwenys Rivers, though it’s entirely possible that they, like their brother, benefited from their mother’s sterling reputation at court (and the incomes provided by their half brother Daeron II) and made fairly good matches; Alys Rivers shows up almost out of nowhere in “The Princess and the Queen” (though in the Dance rewrite I have been working on with @warsofasoiaf, I made her a bastard of House Strong and servant in Harrenhal) and disappears without a trace after the duel above the Gods Eye; Shiera Seastar appears to have been raised at court (and certainly had an excellent education, since she spoke a dozen languages and was an avid reader) and certainly made a place for herself there as Bloodraven’s paramour and ally, but again we have know idea what became of her; and Jeyne Waters, the bastard daughter of Princess Elaena by Alyn Velaryon and twin of Ser Jon Waters, is only known by name, as are the bastard daughters of Walder Frey. 

The fact is, there are far more known bastard boys than there are bastard girls, which means we have a better idea of the sort of careers bastard sons can have and whom they could marry. As with anything in Westeros, I suppose it would probably be circumstantial what happened with a bastard daughter in any particular case.

Regarding why Mya Stone became a servant…I think the issue is that Robert sired her when he was still a ward in Jon Arryn’s household, so the decision of how she was to be raised was more in Jon Arryn’s control than it would have been if she’d been sired at Storm’s End. And in the more socially conservative Vale, the daughter of a servant was going to be raised as a servant.

That being said, Robert could have done more for her when he became king, but Robert tends to lose interest in children when they’re no longer cute babies, and is happy to let others make the decisions about them. 

Running a tabletop RPG in sub-Roman Britain

opinions-about-tiaras:

racefortheironthrone:

opinions-about-tiaras:

xxxdragonfucker69xxx:

yourphysicsiskarkatrocious:

ancient-rome-au:

Pros

  • impress your friends with your pronunciation of unfamiliar Welsh phonemes
  • it’s your campaign, so you can retcon druids as having never been exterminated by the Romans because they had magic
  • druids and bards are not just character classes but actual social roles
  • many good opportunities for NPCs to say “What have the Romans ever done for us?” and “Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!”
  • no need to come up with your own map; Google has you covered

Cons

  • horrify Welsh people with your extremely bad pronunciation of common Welsh phonemes
  • extremely sparse contemporary literary sources for the period; what little we have is problematic in its reliability
  • the druid class in Dungeons & Dragons is laden with two or three centuries of ahistorical baggage
  • Arthurian canon is a mess

@xxxdragonfucker69xxx

#surely Arthur is considerably post Roman?

NOT ACCORDING TO GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, WHOSE HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIAE HAS ARTHUR FIGHTING IN GAUL AND PREPARING TO MARCH ON ROME ITSELF, ONLY TO BE DISTRACTED AT THE LAST MINUTE BY HIS USURPATION BY MODREDUS (BETTER KNOWN TODAY AS MORDRED).

oh well if we’re listening to monmouth then anything goes

Hey, he’s still better than T.H White, whose Arthur is not just post-Roman, but post-Norman.

If you’re looking for good sourcebooks for such a campaign, TSR put out some historical sourcebooks for AD&D 2nd Edition (reading them as a kid helped to start me down to the road to a history PhD, so watch out, you might get hooked). 

The Celts sourcebook has some more “grounded” Druid and Bard classes, and there’s some useful stuff for the sub-Roman period that you can cobble together between the Vikings sourcebook, the Rome sourcebook, and the Charlesmagne sourcebook.  

Also too, Pendragon. Just… Pendragon, man.

It’s so good.

Never played Pendragon, but I read of it. 

I’ve always liked the little detail (I think it’s Bran that recalls it) of Ned bringing lower members of his household — like the castle smith or the kennel-master — to dine with his family and talk. Within Winterfell it seems like that would be a great way to stay informed and win over your subjects (but I like to believe that Ned’s virtue is the only explanation). What do you think they talked about? Do you think other Northerners knew? When did he start doing this, and how did Cat react?

 It’s Arya who remembers it. 

Back at Winterfell, they had eaten in the Great Hall almost half the time. Her father used to say that a lord needed to eat with his men, if he hoped to keep them. “Know the men who follow you,” she heard him tell Robb once, “and let them know you. Don’t ask your men to die for a stranger.” At Winterfell, he always had an extra seat set at his own table, and every day a different man would be asked to join him. One night it would be Vayon Poole, and the talk would be coppers and bread stores and servants. The next time it would be Mikken, and her father would listen to him go on about armor and swords and how hot a forge should be and the best way to temper steel. Another day it might be Hullen with his endless horse talk, or Septon Chayle from the library, or Jory, or Ser Rodrik, or even Old Nan with her stories.

Arya had loved nothing better than to sit at her father’s table and listen to them talk. (Arya II, AGOT)

As you can see from the quote, Ned talked to them about their jobs and learned a bit about their work, as part of his philosophy of enlightened paternalism.

This is something of a classic move of noble/commoner interaction; before the term “condescension” became a pejorative, the ability of a nobleman (especially a king) to be polite to the lower orders without erasing the social distance between them (such “overfamiliar” behavior, it was believed, would give rise to either contempt and the loss of aristocratic mystery or overfamiliarity and social climbing) was seen as a necessity for elite behavior. Hence, it’s something of a cliche in the U.K to write about royals pressing the flesh with their subjects and saying things like “Hello, what’s your name? And what do you do? That’s so interesting! And how long have you been a(n) ______? Jolly good!”

Ned’s better at it than that caricature, but there’s still a political motive behind his custom: from later in the chapter, “Her father used to say that a lord needed to eat with his men, if he hoped to keep them. “Know the men who follow you…and let them know you. Don’t ask your men to die for a stranger.” As I’ve said elsewhere, Ned’s person-focused theory of politics is a disadvantage when it comes to being Hand of the King, but if you look at the long run, it inspired loyalty from beyond the grave.

In terms of where he learned it, I don’t think he learned it from Jon Arryn – the Vale is far too socially conservative for that to be Jon’s M.O. Rather, I think it’s something that Ned learned from his father, that it’s part of the Starks’ unique relationship with the people of the North. I think Cat was initially scandalized, but eventually accepted as part of the Northern way.Â