Between the Permian and Triassic Periods, all of the continents were fused together into one supercontinent called Pangaea. At the same time, all of the oceans were fused together into a single global super ocean. The climate of a supercontinent is quite unusual and extreme. The edges of the supercontinent would be lush with forests and jungles due to being close to the moisture of the ocean. However, the center of the supercontinent tends to be dry desert due to being so far from the ocean. Unfortunately, as the supercontinent started to divide, the resulting earthquakes and volcanic activity caused two mass extinctions, one of which surpassed the extinction of the dinosaurs. They say that the amount of lava that was spewing from the Earth’s crust was enough to fill the Grand Canyon seven times! Some scientists theorize that a new supercontinent would form two hundred million years in the distant future.
Because of the constantly changing nature of our planet, the atmosphere was never the same composition all the time. Before there was terrestrial plant life, the Earth had an atmosphere with a lot more carbon dioxide, which made it impossible for modern terrestrial life forms to breathe. On the other hand, the atmosphere of the Carboniferous Period had twice as much oxygen as today. Because of the high oxygen levels, insects and vegetation were allowed to grow to massive size. Unfortunately, the high oxygen levels increased the chances of forest fires, which is why so many scorched fossils were found from that era. In addition to giant insects and colossal plants, the Carboniferous Period was ruled by amphibians the size of crocodiles and saw the evolution of the earliest reptiles.
I remember something I heard about Genghis Khan, creator of the Mongol Empire. The Mongol Empire was the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen, stretching as far east as the Pacific and as far west as eastern Europe. It turns out that Khan sired over a thousand children and as a result a large percentage of the world population is a descendant of Genghis Khan. I am thinking of doing something similar with the main character of my third fantasy book. By the end of his reign, he will have 127 legitimate descendants, which include 7 children, 21 grandchildren, 63 great grandchildren, and 36 great great grandchildren. In addition, the main character will also have hundreds more illegitimate descendants. Just as a large portion of the modern world claims descent from Genghis Khan, a large portion of the Gradaian Empire’s population will claim descent from the main character after a few generations. From those descendants, the age of magic will return to the world.
In the aftermath of the English Civil War, 59 commissioners signed a death warrant for the execution of King Charles I. At first, this death warrant was considered a legal and legitimate document for the new Parliamentarian regime. However, when the monarchy was restored and King Charles II was crowned, this document became a signed confession to regicide and high treason. Shortly after he was crowned, Charles II and his loyalists hunted down everyone who was involved in the murder of Charles I. Most were rounded up to be executed while a handful fled into permanent exile in the American Colonies. Even the commissioners who were already dead were not spared. One prominent example was Oliver Cromwell, the mastermind of Charles I’s execution. When he died, Cromwell was given a funeral fit for a king, but when the monarchy was restored, his body was exhumed, hung from chains, and posthumously executed. Cromwell’s head was mounted on a spike just outside of London as a warning to anyone else who dared defy the monarchy again. In addition, the traitors and their families were stripped of all wealth, titles, and lands through bills of attainder.
It may be too soon to say, but I believe I have acquired enough medieval inspiration for my fantasy books for a while. For my third fantasy book, I will be drawing inspiration from the English Civil War of the 17th century, which saw the English monarchy going to war against Parliament. The war started due to unpopular taxes to fund wars with Scotland and Ireland, land from the Commonwealth being seized by noble landowners, and Puritans clashed with Catholics. At the end of the war, Parliament won and King Charles I was subsequently executed. However, Charles’s death turned him into a martyr, resulting in the royalists regaining control of the government and establishing Charles II as King of England. For my third fantasy book, I will depict an attempt to overthrow the imperial monarchy due to unpopular policies. The main character will be forced into exile while his followers wage a years-long war to reclaim the Imperial Throne in his name. In order to write this story, I will need to rewrite my original outline. Also, some of my more extreme story ideas will be discarded and replace them with ideas grounded in realism.
This post is fitting considering what is happening in the world today. When diseases such as the Black Death spread across medieval Europe, there were individuals who wandered the streets of ravaged towns. These people possessed an appearance that was the stuff of nightmares. In reality, these people were doctors, more specifically plague doctors. Plague doctors wore masks that made them look like ravens. This may look frightening, but it had a very practical design. The beak section of the mask was filled with sweet-smelling substances that were meant to keep viruses from infecting the doctor. Essentially, the plague doctor’s mask was an early version of a gas mask while their hoods and cloaks were an early version of hazmat suits. In my third fantasy novel, the main villain will be wearing a mask that resembles that of a plague doctor.
In previous posts, I spoke of a man named Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick AKA the Kingmaker. Warwick is famous for making Edward IV King of England, but was discarded shortly afterwards, which resulted in him betraying Edward three times. I will focus on Warwick’s first betrayal, which almost destroyed England as a kingdom. Warwick’s first betrayal involved him orchestrating tax riots in northern England, which were fueled by rumors that the king’s in-laws were taking tax money for themselves. Later on, Warwick published an open letter that not only repeated the accusations against the king’s in-laws, but also invited anyone who shared this opinion to rally at Canterbury and take up arms against the king. After Warwick’s allies gathered, they defeated and captured Edward IV. However, Warwick captured and imprisoned Edward without a coherent plan to replace and to kill him. This resulted in the fragile peace Edward IV built to collapse with astonishing speed. During this time, Warwick took his frustration and hatred in a killing spree meant to exterminate as many of Edward’s in-laws as possible. In addition, the unrest Warwick engineered in the north backfired on him and spread south like wildfire. Desperate to restore order, Warwick tried to rally other nobles to his cause, but they just laughed at him because he arrested the king and started all the trouble in the first place. In the end, England could not function without a king to lead it and Warwick’s scheming and wounded vanity drove the kingdom into anarchy. For my third fantasy book, I will be heavily draw inspiration from Warwick’s first betrayal in order to portray the villains’ actions.
I have been rewatching the documentary known as Superheroes: Decoded, which gives a detailed description of the origins of the modern superhero genre and how it reflected the past century of American history. Even though there were several pop culture heroes such as The Shadow, Doc Savage, and Zorro, the first true superhero was Superman, who was introduced to the world in 1938. After Superman, comic book companies tried to make something that could rival Superman in terms of popularity and there were countless failures that are largely forgotten. However, the next major superhero to follow Superman was Batman. Batman was created to reflect the urban fears of the gritty city. The thirties were a time when the Great Depression struck America hard. While Superman was meant to give people hope in the face of the Great Depression, Batman was created to reflect the grim reality of crime-ridden cities. From this perspective, both Superman and Batman represent opposing sides of the human psyche with Superman signifying the ego and Batman signifying the dark subconscious. Even Batman’s origin story, which is the most unchanged out of all major superheroes, represented what could happen to you in a crime-stricken city.
I traced my ancestry on my father’s side more extensively and I realized that I am descended from strong and fierce people. As I mentioned in previous posts, my father and I are descended from Vikings and possibly the Anglo-Saxons and the Rus. Wonder what these Dark Age cultures have in common? They are all descended from the Germanic tribes that constantly resisted the conquests of the Roman Empire. I am thinking of introducing several barbarian tribes in my fantasy series that will be based on the various Germanic tribes of the Dark Ages. I already paid homage to my Celtic ancestors when I created the Welts so it is only fair that I give my Germanic ancestors a chance. For centuries, these tribes were divided and were only capable of small scale raids in villages and fiefdoms. However, as a result of the War of the Gilded Beasts and the subsequent regime change, these tribes will be gaining a new sense of cultural identity and will become more bold in their attacks on their more civilized neighbors. Dealing with these tribes will be one of the main challenges the young emperor will face.
One of the most commonly featured helmets in my fantasy series is the barbute helmet, which is a 15th century Italian design. Numen the Slayer and his traveling companions wore barbute helmet throughout their journey. I like featuring this helmet in my fantasy series because it looks similar to the Corinthian Greek helmets, which are like the helmets worn by the Spartans.
