https://preview.redd.it/1oqpqpbe8e1d1.png?width=1914&format=png&auto=webp&s=e6dd9d42e82c0db0924cf6d712f582db77d8ba97
What's up guys! It's your friendly Genshin overthinker Inotia King. As always before we begin I just want to make sure new readers have checked out my first topic which is the basis for all my theories. So if you haven't checked that out yet please click here.
The new story's come and gone now and it seems to just be a reinforcement for what we've seen previously. We did already know that Remus tried to pull a Deshret but now we're seeing how far people go to achieve this flawed idea. Both Remus and Deshret before him realized just a little too late that preserved eternity was never going to work and dissolving everybody's consciousnesses into a collective goo was a bad idea. The Golden Slumber didn't save anybody and neither would melting people into Ichor, shoving their bodies into statues and then shoving them into a magical musical score. Ei lucked out in this sense. She had Yae pulling out all the stops to prevent it, using the Traveler to push Ei into place for Makoto to finally show her what she'd learned herself.
So while it isn't groundbreaking to know that Boethius was wrong just like Rene would also be wrong centuries later I think this quest series gave us a few more details and showcased more of the research the miHoYo devs do for these regions. Therefore just like I did last year with Farakhkert I want to discuss a few of them.
https://preview.redd.it/3et7oxo79e1d1.png?width=494&format=png&auto=webp&s=044bdf3b50882942127e2457a31d3298f8edc333
https://preview.redd.it/y1qe7t1x8e1d1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=670151ea2bada74662e50f24ed78a153e73d8887
We've actually known about this city (town?) for a long time. I think it's actually the first Fontaine city we learn about, all the way back when Inazuma first released. I don't think anybody really thought too much about it either but now it's name really makes sense. Petrichor is made from the two Greek words petr and ichor so in terms of Genshin it's very on the nose. Remus literally turned his people into ichor by dissolving their Oceanid bodies with the Primordial Sea and then shoving the resulting goo into statues, the petr or stone. In real life petrichor is just the smell of rainwater on dirt and the word ichor is actually what the Greeks called the blood of gods. From a Genshin perspective it was in a way what Remus intended the Ichor to be, a way for humanity to break free from fate which they believed was the power the gods had over them.
But what is actually new is where Petrichor is. Previously we didn't even know that Fontaine was on an artificially raised platform so there was no reason to believe Petrichor would fall into some weirdly separated space yet still be called part of the region. Our oldest information about it was just that it's waters were very pure and it was beautiful. Yeah that's pretty much all of Fontaine though. In fact we knew so little about Petrichor back then that even by v4.3 Xavier, who is a local never talked about how it wasn't actually located on the Fontaine plateau but rather some separated area where even the drown-proof aspect of Fontaine's waters didn't reach. So what is this area of Fontaine called? Nostoi which is Greek for "return." In our world it was part of the story about the Trojan War, preceding Homer's the Odyssey and acts like a prologue for that part of the story, the return of the Greek heroes besides Odysseus back from the war. (There's an "Ajax" who dies in this story though he's not the same Ajax that Childe is based on.)
Side Note: This timeline placement might also be important but that's a topic for another day.
There's actually a French connection to Petrichor too probably to justify it's inclusion in a French region lol. If you talk to Xavier's childhood friend (and girl next door) Goldoni, her possessing Remurian tells you about Petrocorii a territory of Remuria that fell to barbarians. In our world the petrocorii were Gauls that opposed the Roman Republic during Caesar's time. Unlike petr-ichor, petro-corii is Gallic for four (petro) armies (corios) with corii acting as a common suffix for their tribes.
Actually this connection to Gauls keeps going. In the same dialogue that Goldoni tells us about Petrocorii she name drops Lucius Septimius Sebelius which is a reference to Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus. (Sebelius is likely just an intentional bastardization of Severus but Sebelius is a real surname too.) Severus is notable for being the founder of the last Roman Dynasty before the Crisis of the Third Century, when Rome was temporarily defeated by the Gallic Empire. I actually brought up this part of Roman history in another topic about something that should have been totally unrelated lol. It was about how religion was historically tied to currency on our side of the world.
Side Note: Goldoni herself may be a reference to the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni. I bring this up because it's a common theme when it comes to Remuria but that's also a topic for another day.
Finally when possessed Goldoni calls Xavier, Xaverius. This is a reference to Franciscus Xaverius or Saint Francis Xavier, the first missionary that went to Japan before it went into Sakoku. The name Xavier is interesting by itself though. It actually predates most of these references because it's a Latinized version of the Paleo-European (Basque) surname Echevarria meaning new house. The Basques are the last surviving ethnic group native to Europe (current Europeans are all some form of Indo-European, including the Celts, Romans, Germanics) and their modern populations are located in Spain and France, influencing both nations over time. Who knew our engineefilmmaker would be such an interesting reference to his hometown which also is a preceding ancient culture that heavily influenced the modern French-inspired one?
Side Note 1: After completing the Remuria World Quest it's discovered that Petrichor is stagnating. The elderly are increasingly closed off and the young find the town boring and are starting to leave. This might be a reference to the Vatican which has the world's oldest median age. As the headquarters of Catholicism it's also very traditional and young people have been leaving it too, though part of the reason is disillusionment of religion over the many scandals plaguing the church. (That said the young Petrichorians might wanna stick around. If Mecantre and Babisse are brainstorming what I think they are then Petrichor might become really interesting one day.)
Side Note 2: Geographically Petrichor would more likely be based on Corsica but there is no shortage of self-importance as a stereotype of the Corsicans. No young people are going to ditch that town anytime soon. It was the birthplace of Napoleon after all. However that could actually be the link to Petrichor, to the pre-World Quest version where everybody is a proud Remurian. According to a friend I have who is part French, as arrogant as the rest of the world see the French, the French see the Corsicans. And certainly that was the vibe we got upon speaking to all of the Remurians.
https://preview.redd.it/1jm7n40dee1d1.png?width=494&format=png&auto=webp&s=3747aeab86048a6a0dbc56f2f210c44a40d40f9b
https://preview.redd.it/25piz3xdee1d1.png?width=1758&format=png&auto=webp&s=146010da267fa6b19482b04f3d7d8a709cedacdf
Yes the previous section was just the name of the region and all the stuff we can gather from just that. That's how miHoYo's devs do things haha
Now for a speed round. Hortus is the Proto-Indo-European for garden while euergetis is Greek for a worker who does good work. Together it probably means Garden of the Good Worker. However Euergetis can also be a title applied to good leaders specifically female leaders of the Hellenistic world. (Euergetes is the masculine form) Cleopatra III was also called Cleopatra Euergetis for example. The "garden" can only be reached by doing the World Quest so it's likely this garden honors Sybilla who does have the merits to justify the title.
With Caesareum Palace I'm pretty sure miHoYo was going for the specific Caesareum of Alexandria so they mean a temple but that's not was Caesareum actually means. It just means Julius Caesar who of course doesn't exist in Genshin. (although going off of Rene's Root Cycle stuff he's supposed to show up sooner or later lol)
Collegium Phonascorum is probably the easiest to match with the theme. It's just a group of music teachers. Since the whole thing was getting people ready for the Grand Symphony it makes sense to have some teachers teaching the music stuff. That said it's not actually a group at all. It's the name of a place and that makes sense with its real name 谐律院 or Courtyard of Harmony. Actually 谐律 is really fitting. The term does mean harmony but in both the sense of being united in peace and in terms of musical harmony, being in tune with each other. It's a very nice allusion to what the Grand Symphony was meant to do.
That said Phobos is such a red flag lol! Phobos aka phobia is the God of Fear. (alongside brother Deimos) No wonder this genius plan failed.
https://preview.redd.it/k2lmfvgafe1d1.png?width=1364&format=png&auto=webp&s=bd55e79583981fdd6931c63f78390870e79fedf2
Wasn't Fortuna the man's boat? Can't have a physical device double as an abstract concept my friends. That said if Fortuna actually means fate then it fits even better with the Stella Fortuna thing Ashikai came up with before, but she'd have to forego the connection with sun gods.
Sebastos is the Greek version of Augustus. But I don't think Sebastos Remus is correct syntax. If this was Latin then honorifics come after the name so Remus Augustus. It would be just like the Guuji Yae issue. In English the localization team went with Guuji Yae but Raiden Shogun. Raiden Shogun is correct but because of that the correct syntax would be Yae Guuji, surnames followed by titles. In Greek we have Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannus so the titles do come after the name and therefore it should be Remus Sebastos. But I read somewhere that modern Greek puts the titles first like keerie Remus would be Mr. Remus and not Remus keerie. If there are Greeks reading this please advise thanks!
Osse the cat first named himself Ouranides of Ouranopolis. Ouranides is just the name for the first generation of Titans because they were the children of Ouranos. I'm not sure what that was trying to reference for the game. Ouranos would be Saturn so he's one of the Classical Planets that have come up before. It is interesting to note that the children of the sea, the Oceanides were the second generation of Titans. Maybe Osse was trying to suggest that Remurians were the first generation of Fontainians while the ones we know of today (the former Oceanid humans) are the second?
Anyway Ouranopolis is a real place or it was. It's just south of Macedonia. Today there's a small town there called Ouranopoli with a very lovely beach. Pretty sure that's not what Remus was going for when he called it the city of the future.
And of course we learn that our keerie Ouranides is really Cassiodor based on Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus who was born in Scylletium. Probably just a cute reference. Scylla himself is a reference to a monster from the Odyssey sometimes described like a hydra. (S)he was the lesser of two evils because the seemingly weaker Charybdis sucked up water and anything that happens to be floating on it. We have a reference to Charybdis too all the way back in the Narzissenkreuz World Quest when we go to Fort Charybdis Ruins.
Anyway Cassiodorus was a contemporary of Boethius and actually replaced him as magister officiorum when he was accused and executed for conspiracy against Rome. Gee if only Remus had let Romulus run things huh? The Romurian Empire would've seen Boe-boe coming a mile away. That said his charges were trumped up. Real life Boethius was a good guy. He was trying to reunite the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. (albeit it probably wasn't going to happen since the "Western Roman Empire" we're talking about is Germanic Rome and even today we have trouble accepting that Rome.) Cassiodorus himself lasted much longer probably because he was stationed in the Eastern Roman Empire and became more focused on education than politics. Finally, he would retire to Castellum not a golden castellum but a monastery where he continued supporting education.
Before we dive into the Faded Castle part there are NPCs that are also significant. First you have Contarini Tiepolo a cop whose name is actually made up of two surnames from important Venetian families. She interpreted some of her lingering memories from being possessed as the Liliacruces Ordo. This is another fiction actually. The Liliacruces Ordo is based on the Narzissenkreuz Ordo and was popularized in Fontaine's mystery novels that Paimon likes so much.
Her father Tiepolo is the Doge. It's not bit currency but Italian for the Latin Dux or leader. It was a title used in the Republic of Venice and he's actually based on the first Duke of the city-state, Jacopo Tiepolo. Duke is also a form of Dux.
https://preview.redd.it/wmrqpr1rge1d1.png?width=494&format=png&auto=webp&s=c698b4b939e1f17e689557259a88af8e50722dc7
https://preview.redd.it/utbsvbprge1d1.png?width=1912&format=png&auto=webp&s=875aac379c99d89c07c190a0e2e0a22786fc1168
We already knew Cassiodor was a Harmost but now these Remurians are calling him Dominus. Harmost is Greek, specifically Spartan for a military leader. As it relates to what Remus did during his conquests the Spartans used the Harmosts to undermine Athens push for democracy with the Delian League. Similarly Dominus is a title used by Roman Emperors only after the Crisis of the Third Century when it started declining and becoming more authoritarian. Dominus actually translates to head or master like that of a household. For instance Roman slaves addressed their masters as Dominus.
And it's the household thing that plays out in the next term: Domus Aurea or the Golden House. (A dominus is the head of the domus.) It's cute to think this is some kind of link between Remuria and Liyue. Ashikai would love this kind of detail for her God King theory. But I don't think it's what it is. The Golden House in Liyue is literally just the Golden House 黄金屋 whereas Domus Aurea was 黄金的大宫. 大宫 is much more glamorous than 屋. For example the White House is 白宫 and 故宫 is the Imperial Palace. The real Domus Aurea relates more to that latter example. It was Nero's second home after he supposedly burned down Rome in 64AD just to have it built. Sounds about right with who we're dealing with in Genshin's version.
Side Note: Actually could that be why there's a Caesareum Palace? I mean Caesar did burn down Alexandria. And then after he died Cleopatra built the Caesareum to commemorate him. So it could relate to Nero and then our Remus. What do you guys think?
To get to Domus Aurea we're told we need to breach the Initium Iani. Initium means entrance and in the original Chinese it's door which actually works really amusingly with Iani or the Roman god Ianus because he's the God of Doors. Well pretty much all definitions for initium parallel what Ianus was so we could translate Initium Iani as the Doorway of the God of Doorways, Entrance of the God of Entrances, Transition of the God of Transitions, etc. The point was that Ianus represented a change in something like when you change rooms by going through a door, the changes in season every year or changing of the guard between historical periods. It's like the miHoYo devs just wanted to throw in a cute easter egg only nerds would get, the doorway to end all doorways lol
Side Note: Also because their names are so close to each other apparently Janus (alt spelling for Ianus) got mistaken for Juno (Iuno is the more accurate spelling*) sometimes confusing which god represented which month. It's funny because I had previously brought up Juno (and the Golden House actually) in that totally unrelated topic about the Gauls and the history of currency. Again this is all probably just coincidental. I just found it funny.
\or* Yuno for us anime fans. Rome's version was probably more stable though. Then again she is based on Hera so....
https://preview.redd.it/fu82a3crie1d1.png?width=494&format=png&auto=webp&s=447a161bd6c1adea6908d93765ac861528fa6373
And that was all the references I found interesting from the new quest. It's really long so I think I'll leave it at that and save the lore deep dive for next time.

https://preview.redd.it/pkcgps4c8e1d1.png?width=1914&format=png&auto=webp&s=312db7fe238952a8655cc950fee2efcea965aeb4
What's up guys! It's your friendly Hoyoverse overthinker Inotia King. As always before we begin I just want to make sure new readers have checked out my older topics which my newer theories are built upon. So for the Genshin ones you can click here. And for the Honkai related ones you can click here.
The new story's come and gone now and it seems to just be a reinforcement for what we've seen previously. We did already know that Remus tried to pull a Deshret but now we're seeing how far people go to achieve this flawed idea. Both Remus and Deshret before him realized just a little too late that preserved eternity was never going to work and dissolving everybody's consciousnesses into a collective goo was a bad idea. The Golden Slumber didn't save anybody and neither would melting people into Ichor, shoving their bodies into statues and then shoving them into a magical musical score. Ei lucked out in this sense. She had Yae pulling out all the stops to prevent it, using the Traveler to push Ei into place for Makoto to finally show her what she'd learned herself.
So while it isn't groundbreaking to know that Boethius was wrong just like Rene would also be wrong centuries later I think this quest series gave us a few more details and showcased more of the research the miHoYo devs do for these regions. Therefore just like I did last year with Farakhkert I want to discuss a few of them.
https://preview.redd.it/artw51tn8e1d1.png?width=494&format=png&auto=webp&s=1e61c4a97f75fe96cbea3e2a7e1da3031bb91e08
https://preview.redd.it/qme302ih9e1d1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c5cd8cc8e95d4b374c26dc3a5eb294a5af2ab5d
We've actually known about this city (town?) for a long time. I think it's actually the first Fontaine city we learn about, all the way back when Inazuma first released. I don't think anybody really thought too much about it either but now it's name really makes sense. Petrichor is made from the two Greek words petr and ichor so in terms of Genshin it's very on the nose. Remus literally turned his people into ichor by dissolving their Oceanid bodies with the Primordial Sea and then shoving the resulting goo into statues, the petr or stone. In real life petrichor is just the smell of rainwater on dirt and the word ichor is actually what the Greeks called the blood of gods. From a Genshin perspective it was in a way what Remus intended the Ichor to be, a way for humanity to break free from fate which they believed was the power the gods had over them.
But what is actually new is where Petrichor is. Previously we didn't even know that Fontaine was on an artificially raised platform so there was no reason to believe Petrichor would fall into some weirdly separated space yet still be called part of the region. Our oldest information about it was just that it's waters were very pure and it was beautiful. Yeah that's pretty much all of Fontaine though. In fact we knew so little about Petrichor back then that even by v4.3 Xavier, who is a local never talked about how it wasn't actually located on the Fontaine plateau but rather some separated area where even the drown-proof aspect of Fontaine's waters didn't reach. So what is this area of Fontaine called? Nostoi which is Greek for "return." In our world it was part of the story about the Trojan War, preceding Homer's the Odyssey and acts like a prologue for that part of the story, the return of the Greek heroes besides Odysseus back from the war. (There's an "Ajax" who dies in this story though he's not the same Ajax that Childe is based on.)
Side Note: This timeline placement might also be important but that's a topic for another day.
There's actually a French connection to Petrichor too probably to justify it's inclusion in a French region lol. If you talk to Xavier's childhood friend (and girl next door) Goldoni, her possessing Remurian tells you about Petrocorii a territory of Remuria that fell to barbarians. In our world the petrocorii were Gauls that opposed the Roman Republic during Caesar's time. Unlike petr-ichor, petro-corii is Gallic for four (petro) armies (corios) with corii acting as a common suffix for their tribes.
Actually this connection to Gauls keeps going. In the same dialogue that Goldoni tells us about Petrocorii she name drops Lucius Septimius Sebelius which is a reference to Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus. (Sebelius is likely just an intentional bastardization of Severus but Sebelius is a real surname too.) Severus is notable for being the founder of the last Roman Dynasty before the Crisis of the Third Century, when Rome was temporarily defeated by the Gallic Empire. I actually brought up this part of Roman history in another topic about something that should have been totally unrelated lol. It was about how religion was historically tied to currency on our side of the world.
Side Note: Goldoni herself may be a reference to the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni. I bring this up because it's a common theme when it comes to Remuria but that's also a topic for another day.
Finally when possessed Goldoni calls Xavier, Xaverius. This is a reference to Franciscus Xaverius or Saint Francis Xavier, the first missionary that went to Japan before it went into Sakoku. The name Xavier is interesting by itself though. It actually predates most of these references because it's a Latinized version of the Paleo-European (Basque) surname Echevarria meaning new house. The Basques are the last surviving ethnic group native to Europe (current Europeans are all some form of Indo-European, including the Celts, Romans, Germanics) and their modern populations are located in Spain and France, influencing both nations over time. Who knew our engineefilmmaker would be such an interesting reference to his hometown which also is a preceding ancient culture that heavily influenced the modern French-inspired one?
Side Note 1: After completing the Remuria World Quest it's discovered that Petrichor is stagnating. The elderly are increasingly closed off and the young find the town boring and are starting to leave. This might be a reference to the Vatican which has the world's oldest median age. As the headquarters of Catholicism it's also very traditional and young people have been leaving it too, though part of the reason is disillusionment of religion over the many scandals plaguing the church. (That said the young Petrichorians might wanna stick around. If Mecantre and Babisse are brainstorming what I think they are then Petrichor might become really interesting one day.)
Side Note 2: Geographically Petrichor would more likely be based on Corsica but there is no shortage of self-importance as a stereotype of the Corsicans. No young people are going to ditch that town anytime soon. It was the birthplace of Napoleon after all. However that could actually be the link to Petrichor, to the pre-World Quest version where everybody is a proud Remurian. According to a friend I have who is part French, as arrogant as the rest of the world see the French, the French see the Corsicans. And certainly that was the vibe we got upon speaking to all of the Remurians.
https://preview.redd.it/e9ofcf17ee1d1.png?width=494&format=png&auto=webp&s=e9190ca1982f1a26a5da9cddd8d0ab759021f829
https://preview.redd.it/3hszv0d9ee1d1.png?width=1758&format=png&auto=webp&s=b8834124768ced11508cd89137bab9521ccec2d2
Yes the previous section was just the name of the region and all the stuff we can gather from just that. That's how miHoYo's devs do things haha
Now for a speed round. Hortus is the Proto-Indo-European for garden while euergetis is Greek for a worker who does good work. Together it probably means Garden of the Good Worker. However Euergetis can also be a title applied to good leaders specifically female leaders of the Hellenistic world. (Euergetes is the masculine form) Cleopatra III was also called Cleopatra Euergetis for example. The "garden" can only be reached by doing the World Quest so it's likely this garden honors Sybilla who does have the merits to justify the title.
With Caesareum Palace I'm pretty sure miHoYo was going for the specific Caesareum of Alexandria so they mean a temple but that's not was Caesareum actually means. It just means Julius Caesar who of course doesn't exist in Genshin. (although going off of Rene's Root Cycle stuff he's supposed to show up sooner or later lol)
Collegium Phonascorum is probably the easiest to match with the theme. It's just a group of music teachers. Since the whole thing was getting people ready for the Grand Symphony it makes sense to have some teachers teaching the music stuff. That said it's not actually a group at all. It's the name of a place and that makes sense with its real name 谐律院 or Courtyard of Harmony. Actually 谐律 is really fitting. The term does mean harmony but in both the sense of being united in peace and in terms of musical harmony, being in tune with each other. It's a very nice allusion to what the Grand Symphony was meant to do.
That said Phobos is such a red flag lol! Phobos aka phobia is the God of Fear. (alongside brother Deimos) No wonder this genius plan failed.
https://preview.redd.it/0jlk5qv7fe1d1.png?width=1364&format=png&auto=webp&s=d8fe58f58d7b768153daa7568573b3b3fa008410
Wasn't Fortuna the man's boat? Can't have a physical device double as an abstract concept my friends. That said if Fortuna actually means fate then it fits even better with the Stella Fortuna thing Ashikai came up with before, but she'd have to forego the connection with sun gods.
Sebastos is the Greek version of Augustus. But I don't think Sebastos Remus is correct syntax. If this was Latin then honorifics come after the name so Remus Augustus. It would be just like the Guuji Yae issue. In English the localization team went with Guuji Yae but Raiden Shogun. Raiden Shogun is correct but because of that the correct syntax would be Yae Guuji, surnames followed by titles. In Greek we have Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannus so the titles do come after the name and therefore it should be Remus Sebastos. But I read somewhere that modern Greek puts the titles first like keerie Remus would be Mr. Remus and not Remus keerie. If there are Greeks reading this please advise thanks!
Osse the cat first named himself Ouranides of Ouranopolis. Ouranides is just the name for the first generation of Titans because they were the children of Ouranos. I'm not sure what that was trying to reference for the game. Ouranos would be Saturn so he's one of the Classical Planets that have come up before. It is interesting to note that the children of the sea, the Oceanides were the second generation of Titans. Maybe Osse was trying to suggest that Remurians were the first generation of Fontainians while the ones we know of today (the former Oceanid humans) are the second?
Anyway Ouranopolis is a real place or it was. It's just south of Macedonia. Today there's a small town there called Ouranopoli with a very lovely beach. Pretty sure that's not what Remus was going for when he called it the city of the future.
And of course we learn that our keerie Ouranides is really Cassiodor based on Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus who was born in Scylletium. Probably just a cute reference. Scylla himself is a reference to a monster from the Odyssey sometimes described like a hydra. (S)he was the lesser of two evils because the seemingly weaker Charybdis sucked up water and anything that happens to be floating on it. We have a reference to Charybdis too all the way back in the Narzissenkreuz World Quest when we go to Fort Charybdis Ruins.
Anyway Cassiodorus was a contemporary of Boethius and actually replaced him as magister officiorum when he was accused and executed for conspiracy against Rome. Gee if only Remus had let Romulus run things huh? The Romurian Empire would've seen Boe-boe coming a mile away. That said his charges were trumped up. Real life Boethius was a good guy. He was trying to reunite the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. (albeit it probably wasn't going to happen since the "Western Roman Empire" we're talking about is Germanic Rome and even today we have trouble accepting that Rome.) Cassiodorus himself lasted much longer probably because he was stationed in the Eastern Roman Empire and became more focused on education than politics. Finally, he would retire to Castellum not a golden castellum but a monastery where he continued supporting education.
Before we dive into the Faded Castle part there are NPCs that are also significant. First you have Contarini Tiepolo a cop whose name is actually made up of two surnames from important Venetian families. She interpreted some of her lingering memories from being possessed as the Liliacruces Ordo. This is another fiction actually. The Liliacruces Ordo is based on the Narzissenkreuz Ordo and was popularized in Fontaine's mystery novels that Paimon likes so much.
Her father Tiepolo is the Doge. It's not bit currency but Italian for the Latin Dux or leader. It was a title used in the Republic of Venice and he's actually based on the first Duke of the city-state, Jacopo Tiepolo. Duke is also a form of Dux.
https://preview.redd.it/gvsq8yjlge1d1.png?width=494&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d9cf8a593be810b6c1f09a94878311c0740f06c
https://preview.redd.it/es9h30umge1d1.png?width=1912&format=png&auto=webp&s=b4840644e1d63c375239b43cccb7063649fdcbb0
Once we dive down it turns out that the little harp thing we grabbed was part of a series that tells Remuria's history in the Ancient Autoharmonic Music Box.
The first piece of this melody is the Locus Amoenus or lovely place in Latin. The rest though are actually part of the Sequentia section of Mozart's Requiem which is of course a musical piece to honor the dead and also how we stop the Phobos. Sequentia is followed by the sinners being saved and brought to salvation in Offertorium, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei. (Agnus Dei is an allusion to Jesus and there's another really obvious one in this quest too.) Mozart actually didn't complete his Requiem and died while only completing the introduction. Joseph von Eybler is the one that actually finished the Sequentia parts and then a guy by the name of Franz Xaver Süssmayr finished the salvation portions. Franz Xaver. Hmmmm. Yes Franz is Germanic for Franciscus or Francis and Xaver is the Germanic for Xavier. Cute that one of our first Fontainian NPCs and also a native to Petrichor has such a large role in its history, at least in real world references.
Before heading into the painting portal thing to get to memory world Remuria we can find a few choice books in this castle. I'll get more into them later but for now there was one term that's interesting. Cunicoricus is the predecessor to Erinnyes of Aremorica. In real life he's Welsh and the adoptive father of King Arthur in local legends. Last week I brought up Clervie and Crucabena who are also Welsh (and Irish) characters and King Arthur has been referenced a few times now with relation to Khaenri'ah.
https://preview.redd.it/yfit75i9he1d1.png?width=1908&format=png&auto=webp&s=56556c8d13132fec87e7d29600de5d3ec7300d4e
We already knew Cassiodor was a Harmost but now these Remurians are calling him Dominus. Harmost is Greek, specifically Spartan for a military leader. As it relates to what Remus did during his conquests the Spartans used the Harmosts to undermine Athens push for democracy with the Delian League. Similarly Dominus is a title used by Roman Emperors only after the Crisis of the Third Century when it started declining and becoming more authoritarian. Dominus actually translates to head or master like that of a household. For instance Roman slaves addressed their masters as Dominus.
And it's the household thing that plays out in the next term: Domus Aurea or the Golden House. (A dominus is the head of the domus.) It's cute to think this is some kind of link between Remuria and Liyue. Ashikai would love this kind of detail for her God King theory. But I don't think it's what it is. The Golden House in Liyue is literally just the Golden House 黄金屋 whereas Domus Aurea was 黄金的大宫. 大宫 is much more glamorous than 屋. For example the White House is 白宫 and 故宫 is the Imperial Palace. The real Domus Aurea relates more to that latter example. It was Nero's second home after he supposedly burned down Rome in 64AD just to have it built. Sounds about right with who we're dealing with in Genshin's version.
Side Note: Actually could that be why there's a Caesareum Palace? I mean Caesar did burn down Alexandria. And then after he died Cleopatra built the Caesareum to commemorate him. So it could relate to Nero and then our Remus. What do you guys think?
To get to Domus Aurea we're told we need to breach the Initium Iani. Initium means entrance and in the original Chinese it's door which actually works really amusingly with Iani or the Roman god Ianus because he's the God of Doors. Well pretty much all definitions for initium parallel what Ianus was so we could translate Initium Iani as the Doorway of the God of Doorways, Entrance of the God of Entrances, Transition of the God of Transitions, etc. The point was that Ianus represented a change in something like when you change rooms by going through a door, the changes in season every year or changing of the guard between historical periods. It's like the miHoYo devs just wanted to throw in a cute easter egg only nerds would get, the doorway to end all doorways lol
Side Note: Also because their names are so close to each other apparently Janus (alt spelling for Ianus) got mistaken for Juno (Iuno is the more accurate spelling*) sometimes confusing which god represented which month. It's funny because I had previously brought up Juno (and the Golden House actually) in that totally unrelated topic about the Gauls and the history of currency. Again this is all probably just coincidental. I just found it funny.
\or* Yuno for us anime fans. Rome's version was probably more stable though. Then again she is based on Hera so....
https://preview.redd.it/aqnfnffnie1d1.png?width=494&format=png&auto=webp&s=2f786562b452b0c8ef56ee70a658ca4c5c67ce5e
And that was all the references I found interesting from the new quest. It's really long so I think I'll leave it at that and save the lore deep dive for next time.

Quantum Leap: History of Vacheron Constantin Calendar Watches Part 3.3
by Alex Ghotbi, 12th of December 2011, 11:03 - click on scans for larger view
Malte Perpetual Calendar Minute Repeater
In 2006 Cal 1755QP (as for Quantième Perpetuel – perpetual calendar in French) was used in the now defunct round shaped Malte (41mm case) in rose gold giving it a more modern and masculine look. In 2010 the last 8 Cal 1755QPs were cased in a round Malte case but this time in platinum.
​
https://preview.redd.it/iybdrxc2ae1d1.jpg?width=895&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b4c6a0701f7f91213de80f606f02a555220a8ba
https://preview.redd.it/63g7qdncae1d1.jpg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f74c8580ad38cf8d277922bf194c0628a1aba74f
https://preview.redd.it/w2y0wqcfae1d1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=42839f07fd683a72674cb7855bf5cf429de8adb7
Malte Perpetual Calendar Chronograph Collection Excellence Platine
Normally, the Excellence Platine collection consists of platinum case and dial versions of existing models however this version launched in 2007 is a one shot as it did not exist as a regular production model making it even more rare and desirable! Made in only 50 pieces it houses the manual wind cal 1141QP.
https://preview.redd.it/wfk1h6uxae1d1.jpg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f0180121cfc465ca91d04232cc8618bdd98ed18
https://preview.redd.it/qi4db5uxae1d1.jpg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ec21eb085a568f63ee05a9df26f4def2759fb63
https://preview.redd.it/uktjn3uxae1d1.jpg?width=1321&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26a2b9d3e065e3a349dd44f933850feedde26989
Patrimony Traditionnelle Calibre 2755
Presented in 2007 the Patrimony Traditionnelle Caliber 2755 (how’s that as a dry name for such an amazing watch?) is currently Vacheron Constantins most complicated timepiece (610 components). However, it’s just not “just” a perpetual calendar, tourbillon minute repeater but the greatest sounding repeater I have ever heard thanks to a centripetal speed-regulator in the striking-mechanism, an original device which eliminates the noise interference normally experienced with pallet systems (the bzzz often heard when the repeating mechanism is activated).
As with the ref 30020 and 30040 the case has been carefully designed and manufactured to give the minute repeater a remarkable resonance, which is optimised by the ingenious use of a stud linking the case to the striking mechanism. And, thanks to its high copper content, which gives it its colour, the pink gold case adds to the quality of resonance.
In 2010 the Cal 2755 was also launched in platinum with an opaline and a slate grey dial, the later having an even more contemporary look. Normally platinum is a metal which “absorbs” the chimes but the watchmakers at Vacheron Constantin have done a fantastic job and the chimes are almost as loud and pure as in the rose gold version.
I have to admit that the Cal 2755 has the most amazing chime I have ever come across (a close second being the Patek Sky Moon tourbillon), the first time I heard it, it was in a room with people talking and music in the background and still the chimes could be perfectly heard.
The Cal 2755 for me is a condensed representation of what Vacheron Constantin is: a beautiful design which is classical yet with a twist, perfect proportions, technical mastery and drop dead amazing movement finish. Techniques have not been sacrificed for design and there is no compromise in the design for the sake of techniques
The cal 2755 is assembled from A to Z by the same watchmaker who also tunes the gongs (by filing away on the base of the gongs) to achieve the perfect chime. As Chrystian Lefrançois, master watchmaker at Vacheron Constantin says “achieving the perfect chime is extremely difficult as you need to adjust the gong by filing the metal and at one point you know that you have reached the best possible sound and one file too much and you go from the best chime to the dull sound of a spoon hitting a pot!”
About less than one Patrimony Traditionnelle Cal 2755 come out of the ateliers of Vacheron Constantin per month, considering that it can take 3-4 months to fine tune and assemble. It exists in rose gold and platinum (with opaline or slate grey dials), a limited edition with a gorgeous chocolate dial was made for Parisian retailer Dubail as well as a pièce unique for the New York Boutique.
https://preview.redd.it/6gategfabe1d1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5470cafa19d2ad2c97870312376143ac93a86bf9
https://preview.redd.it/a3ob6jfabe1d1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0fcc38356a9cef2609865bee14d7dc2b7deb4347
centrepetal regulator
https://preview.redd.it/1h66583tbe1d1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8556826210034e6c841b23bf0164be26af44da35
https://preview.redd.it/wzk5c33tbe1d1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8b21b489e1f730a3ca8599b6863d5229b5b89622
Dubail
New York Boutique
https://preview.redd.it/pg11n1l3ce1d1.jpg?width=590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a088c0f3f9d03cf242fa22788c24be79610769a4
click for video
​
Metiers d'Art: Les Masques
Rarely have the words art and masterpiece been used so correctly. My first reaction to this collection was the same as being thunderstruck: breathless, speechless, heart beating fast and wobbly knees! It’s hard to define the divine but you can recognize it when you see it and for me the hands of the gods guided the designers at Vacheron Constantin to create such original, bold and daring pieces.
At an epoch where originality resides in the use of carbon fibber and black PVD or the most improbable partnership with cars, motor cycles and boats Vacheron Constantin opened a whole new untreaded path where art and horology met.
The concept was to use an art form still little known to the general public: the so called primitive arts. Geneva has the chance of housing one of the most prestigious collections of primitive arts: the Barbie-Muller Museum and collaboration between the museum and Vacheron seemed therefore unavoidable. The museum lent a certain number of pieces to Vacheron for replication but the great difficulty resided maintaining the proportions in a miniature version. Different techniques were tried but the final results were unsatisfactory. Vacheron Constantin finally turned to the Geneva Engineering School for help in making a three-dimensional image of each mask. By putting the plans together on a computer, they were able to modify the volumes point by point and find the best angle for fitting the whole mask into the case while safeguarding the harmony of its forms. It was thanks to the magic of laser technology that the miniaturisation of the masks became possible.
The time is read by means of four discs indicating the hours, minutes, days and date in windows. A clever technique using transparency and specially-treated glass creates the impression that the masks are floating. Each sapphire crystal has a different tint, obtained by a unique metallisation process, so that it sets off the colour of the mask.
Michel Butor’s (a contemporary French poet) short poems dedicated to each mask circle the sapphire dial in letters of gold and can only be read when the light strikes it from a certain angle. This effect is achieved by vacuum metallisation, a sophisticated technological process in which the gold letters are sprayed onto a sapphire crystal.
The effect is amazing and depending on the inclination of the wrist the sapphire crystals hues vary as well as the coloring of the letters. There is such subtility and depth in the dial that you can almost drown in it and spend hours just staring at it mesmerised by its sheer beauty.
This series launched in 2007 consisted of 25 sets of 4 watches each. A new set was also launched in 2008 and 2009.
Set 1: 2007
https://preview.redd.it/cwf3vmsgce1d1.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dcff6981dbb5b413b28f10d0f8f17546b0a68696
Set 3: 2009
https://preview.redd.it/hnhygo4oce1d1.jpg?width=590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e8ba35df4828ac7f33ae4abc7d03118e60259241
click for video
part 10 to follow soon ...

https://preview.redd.it/9bfsdkrscd1d1.png?width=3901&format=png&auto=webp&s=791b6f10f6d33c7c491ca77d019c8fdbef0a27b5
Evie Blight, Emira and Viney's daughter as well as Azura and Manuel's second cousin. (And by second cousin, I mean they have more than one cousin, not that Evie is separated by two generations away from them.)
So Evie is named after the initials of her mothers being put together E+V.
So did you know Emira is played by the same voice actress who also did Loona from Helluva Boss? That is what inspired me in drawing her design. She has some dark green hair with brown streaks in them. She wears a vest and skirt colored like Emira while having an undershirt and boots like Viney.
She likes putting on a real cool girl vibe, acting like nothing fazes her and has a sharp remark for any situation. However, as the eldest of the children in the Noceda-Blight family she takes it upon herself to act as a source of comfort and support like her mother Emira has been. She acts as a voice of reason for when the children show their worst flaws such as Azura's Perfectionism, Calla's competitive spirit, and Manuel's excessive imagination.
She takes great pride as a Fashionista, trying to keep up with the latest trends on Penstagram.
So her magic is Illusion and Healing like Emira. I wish I could put Beastkeeping as well but I don't see her pursuing taking care of animals as a career. Although she does pitch in to help in her mom's Veterinary Clinic when she has the time. As much as she tries to hide it, she does indeed have a weakness for cute fluffy animals. Though for her mother's sake, she begrudgingly tolerates the more grosser creatures like spiders and worms.
I chose Illusion and Healing because she could serve as a tutor for both Azura and Manuel regarding those fields of magic they specialize in. Also she is not really into fighting, preferring to sneak by and trick people through the use of Illusions. Healing because she wants to fix up the people she cares about as well as herself.
Her Palisman is also a Wolf pup, another nod to the whole Loona Allusion I have going on. I thought it would be a nice reflection of Ghost, a Dark Gray Wolf to a pure white cat.
So what do you guys think?

I’m enjoying them both so much!
These are my second and third pens, and my first gold nibs. One was a birthday present from my husband, and the other was a birthday present from myself.
The Pilot 823 WA is so smooth and writes very well at my steep writing angle. I was worried it would be too heavy, but it feels fine after a few pages of continuous writing. I can certainly feel the nib’s quality- it feels slightly soft and gentle on the paper. This nib is a real winner, and I expect it will become the standard that I judge all other smooth nibs by. The barrel looks like it will be difficult to clean; I expect I will fill this with one colour only, and stick with it to avoid cleaning. The ordering process was straightforward. Tokyo Quill Shop Pen replied to my quote request email within a day, advised they had it in stock, then after I paid via PayPal they shipped the pen the next day, and it arrived in Australia less than a week later.
The Sailor PG EF definitely has that famed toothy, pencil-like feedback, which will take some getting used to, but I love the colour, how light the pen is, and how incredibly thin the line is. The pencil-like feedback allows me to write softly without losing grip on the page. The two-tone nib is stunning. I got this second-hand, and it’s in perfect condition. I have only dip-tested it so far, but it wrote pleasantly and reliably at my high writing angle, and one dip was enough to transcribe a whole poem (I think it was Ozymandias).
While this is incredibly subjective, I think Sailor make the prettiest pens, and Pilot make the best writers. I’ve certainly got my eye on some other Pro Gear colours for a future birthday, and maybe an 823 PO nib too.

Intro

Bleach is often criticized for its overabundance of characters, and I think nowhere is this criticism more evident than with The Visored. They aren’t treated as individuals (except Shinji and Hiyori) but rather as a group, which is what results in the feeling of there being “too many of them”. So far, I’ve done my best to individualize each one of them, give them a role to play in the story, but even I have trouble doing so for one particular character.

Aikawa Love

https://preview.redd.it/navq9ecn2d1d1.png?width=1328&format=png&auto=webp&s=243e9768aa8d19038818f462e10bf19d452cf7f5
Love is such a fascinating phenomenon. When his fellow Visored Captains returned to their old positions after Aizen’s defeat, Love was left behind, and once his old position of the 7th Division Captain became vacant, he was yet again left behind. Despite his impressive performance against Primera Espada, it is Iba, a character we barely saw in action that gets to fill in the vacant Captain position. It also doesn’t help that Love’s whole “deal” was co-opted by Kubo for another character in the story. You might have noticed this but both Love and Zaraki’s abilities are both based on an Oni.
https://preview.redd.it/zgyl1lvo2d1d1.png?width=3047&format=png&auto=webp&s=b14b89e6c2c6369d19bcda455b1ca630feb9efe5
Oni (Ogre/Demon) are kind of a Yōkai from Japanese folklore who wield massive weapons (iron Kanabō clubs) which both Love and Zaraki can be seen wielding in their respective Shikai (giant mace for Love, giant axe for Zaraki). Oni also have short horns on their foreheads, like the ones Zaraki can be seen having in his Bankai and the one Love has on his Hollow Mask. Even Love’s “base design” is quite uninspired: he wears sunglasses like Iba, wears a tracksuit like Hiyori, and he even shares his love of Manga with Rose and Lisa.
So, if Kubo has already cannibalized Love so much, why not go all the way? Why not just merge his character into another lackluster character as if they were one; a character like Rose.
https://preview.redd.it/ws3i595q2d1d1.png?width=639&format=png&auto=webp&s=b7eb8751203f9473a7d5b1b698b1d04af3914593
I’m sure there is a fan of Love out there, but he honestly brings nothing to the story. And it’s not that removing him is what necessarily makes the story better, but relocating his actions to Rose would make for a more complete one (their actions are already incredibly similar anyway). Instead of having two lackluster characters, have just one that is great.

Rōjūrō “Rose” Ōtoribashi

https://preview.redd.it/tm5ctehx2d1d1.png?width=1328&format=png&auto=webp&s=00753f9f7516c59ab655d7b4adaaff0d082a342f
Rose gets very little play in the story. I once described him as the “background Captain” because whenever he appears in the panel he is the one character always seen in the background; the fight against the Primera Espada is framed as a fight between Love and Starrk with Rose playing the supporting role. So, let Rose shine more against Starrk. Why prioritize Rose over Love, who gets a bigger focus and more impressive portrayal; because Rose eventually returns as a Gotei Captain (while Love doesn’t).
https://preview.redd.it/qbnf50413d1d1.jpg?width=665&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1e56c8771dae0da50dacad117a4bfe23e0178a1a
Make this fight something akin to a showcase of abilities for Rose; a little preview of Rose’s capability as a fighter that would make us go “Yeah, I get why this guy is a Captain”. It’s far more impressive to Solo fight the Primera Espada, even if you don’t end up winning, than it is to do so in a Duet. The fight still goes down the same with Shunsui finishing off Starrk, but Rose looks more impressive now since there is no Love to split the achievement with.
The major focus of this fight would obviously be Rose’s Hollow Mask, and his Shikai, Kinshara. Kinshara is a golden whip that is meant to represent a giant piano wire, and with it Rose uses an attack called “Golden Sal Tree Sonata Number Eleven - Sixteen Day-Old Moon Rose”, which implies the existence of at least 10 other attacks (Sonatas). Instead of seeing multiple Shikai using just one ability, we will now see just one Shikai using multiple abilities. I think 3 is a nice number that also parallels Rose using 3 Dances in his Bankai.
I would love if one of the attacks used by Rose is \"Golden Sal Tree Sonata Number 14 - Moonlight Rose\", named after the Moonlight Sonata.
There is no need for a story to be told in a fight between Rose and Starrk because a story is being told between Starrk and Shunsui. Rose is the supporting act and will get his due later…

The Musician

For the real world occupation, I figured Rose would obviously be a Musician; a mix of a Composer, Conductor, and Pianist, to be more specific. Rose’s entire character heavily revolves around music, not just in his appearance, but also in the appearance and abilities of his Zanpakuto. One of the abilities of Rose’s Bankai, Kinshara Butōdan, is called „Ein Heldenleben“ („A Hero’s Life“), named after a real life tone poem composed by Richard Strauss in 1898.
https://preview.redd.it/0kbyplt74d1d1.png?width=712&format=png&auto=webp&s=7700f6b5e63986314dc38e10ba3c0276649b1e1f
In the World of Bleach, this tone poem is going to be composed by Rose after his banishment from the Soul Society, since the timeline perfectly lines up. The events of Bleach take place in 1999, the year the first chapter is released, and the final chapters of the Turn Back The Pendulum mini-arc are set exactly 101 years before that. „Prometheus“ and „Sea Drift“ are also based on real life poems, each by a different musician: „Prometheus: The Poem of Fire“ (1910) and „Sea Drift“) (1903-04).
https://preview.redd.it/8y4ltqux4d1d1.png?width=2090&format=png&auto=webp&s=c4ced9aae3969ec1d6b39840efdfd3c3418bcb48
During one of Ichigo’s classes (Chapter 51), his teacher will hold a lecture about a bunch of different poems commonly believed to have originated from the same artist, under different names, who used the call-sign of „Rose“. However, this theory would be dismissed because there is no realistic way for the same person to compose all the poems as their timeframe ranges from the 17th (the period Rose lived in) all the way up to the 20th century.
https://preview.redd.it/q2gdzxzb4d1d1.png?width=937&format=png&auto=webp&s=8844d703220713107fe124c4ceeeffa9d24f9298

The Baseball Player

I know I said Love gets cut out of the roster, but I decided to give him an occupation as well, for the sake of your entertainment. Due to the nature of his Shikai being a giant club, I think Love being a baseball player is the most fitting occupation for him. He even dresses “sporty”. Love is also going to be the inspiration behind Jinta’s weapon of choice; Jinta is going to mention him by name as he fools around in front of the store.
https://preview.redd.it/5ilfkn3d4d1d1.png?width=1328&format=png&auto=webp&s=43e6ab037c27af49c65e505dafdab5bcfaed770c
Other than this, the only other suggestion I have is, if we were to keep Love as a character, to make him take up his old position of Captain of the 7th Division, after it becomes vacant. Love would go to the Royal Palace alongside the rest of the Visored, reveal his Bankai in the fight with Gerard, and later on become a Captain again. Iba really doesn’t do anything in the story to make it a satisfying conclusion for him to become the new Captain (this might change in the future). He can stay as a Lieutenant; he even makes for a nice duo with Love.
https://preview.redd.it/8gttatqh4d1d1.png?width=1408&format=png&auto=webp&s=3eb1bbdfbe7773f493ff0368e9b175c8708255de
The issue with Love is that he gets almost no characterization, so if anything were to change it would be giving him more character moments while keeping his portrayal against Starrk.

End of Part 3

If you enjoyed reading this post make sure to upvote it, leave a comment, and share it since it helps the sub grow! Also, you don't forget to give me a follow!

Decided to use my poems for the AI to interpret into an image, here are some of the results

Not that GPT-4o is available, I thought I’d run through the same examples given on the demo website to try and recreate them. What I receive is nothing like what is shown on the demo and almost the same as 6 months ago so I don’t realise what is so special about the 4o apart from the speed. The results are dramatically different, even though they supposedly use the same model.
Recent Tests with ChatGPT: (Prompts copied from GPT-4o demo site) https://openai.com/index/hello-gpt-4o/

1. Font Showcase: I requested a demonstration of text in a futuristic retro font. While the result was interesting, it was mostly rubbish compared to what is on the GPT-4o demo site. 2. 3D Rendering of the OpenAI Logo: The generated image was okay but nothing special. 3. Diary Entry Poem: The handwritten poem was gibberish and it didn’t match the readable, realistic handwriting samples I saw on the demo site 

1. Blocks just don’t make any sense

These differences got me thinking: why can’t ChatGPT replicate the same high-quality results as the GPT-4o demo, even though they’re based on the same underlying model?

I did not entirely intend to end up this deep down a rabbit hole, but here we are!

The other night after reading the wonderful The Eras Tour Follies post-GO READ THAT POST, everything in there relates to ALL of this as Loie Fuller was a modernist choreographer and so her art relates strongly to everything I will be discussing. Pretty much everything I present here emphasizes the idea that Taylor is leaning into a very specific type of performance art. Anyway, after reading that, facebook suggested to me a post from a page with follies in the name and between that and the line “my swift imagination”, my attention was captured. From the post-
“‘You shall not prison, shall not grammarise / my swift imagination.’ So declares a poem Nancy Cunard wrote in 1919, at the age of twenty-three. The speaker of “In Answer to a Reproof” casts herself as “the perfect stranger / outcast and outlaw from the rules of life”. Conveying something of Cunard’s defiance of social norms, the poem seems to prophesy her later cutting of ties to both her mother and her country. For Jane Marcus, it constitutes “the declaration of independence of female modernism”.Cunard began her writing career as a poet, and her long poem Parallax was published by Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press in 1925.”
Jane Marcus wrote a book called Nancy Cunard: Perfect Strangers which was released in 2020 (post-humuously, the book was finished by her research assistant.) It seems like it was a small university press type deal and not widely available in print, though it seems sites like jstor may have it available in its entirity. The book summary-
“Nancy Cunard: Perfect Stranger reshapes our understanding of a woman whose role in key historical, political, and cultural moments of the 20th century was either dismissed and attacked, or undervalued. Here, Jane Marcus, who was one of the most insightful critics of modernism and a pioneering feminist scholar, is unafraid and unapologetic in addressing and contesting Nancy Cunard’s reputation and reception as a spoiled heiress and “sexually dangerous New Woman.” Instead, with her characteristic provocative and energetic writing style, Marcus insists we reconsider issues of gender, race, and class in relation to the accusations, stereotypes, and scandal, which have dominated, and continue to dominate, our perception of Cunard in the public record. In the wake of inadequate histories of radical writing and activism, Nancy Cunard: Perfect Stranger brings its subject into the 21st century, offering a bold and innovative portrait of a woman we all thought we knew.”
I was mostly going to get into her poem Parallax, but after having looked up the entirety of “In Answer to a Reproof”, I HAVE to bring that up as well. Her work isn’t super widely available online, but I did find this weird little poorly formatted archival site that seems to have the full text of her collected poetry . I haven’t read it all (yet), but to start with I’d direct you towards the poems “Outlaws”, “Monkery” and “The Love Story”, but when I read the opening lines to “In Answer to a Reproof” my jaw DROPPED.
“Let my impatience guide you now, I feel
You have not known that glorious discontent
That leads me on : the wandering after dreams
And the long chasing in the labyrinth
Of fancy, and the reckless flight of moods —
You shall not prison, shall not grammarise
My swift imagination, nor tie down
My laughing words, my serious words, old thoughts
I may have led you on with, baffling you
Into a pompous state of great confusion.”
“The long chasing in the labyrinth” “shall not grammarise my swift imagination” (grammarise or gramarize can mean to analyze or describe), are both lines and ideas resonate a lot with what we know about Taylor and her work. The poem is saying, "you will not hold me to these interpretations you have of me, even if I was the one using my words to lead you on and confuse you.”
“...I have concluded we are justified
Each in his scheming ; is this not a world
Proportioned large enough for enemies
Of our calibre ? Shall we always meet
In endless conflict ? I have realised
That I shall burn in my own hell alone
And solitarily escape from death”
The burning imagery, the implications of a deep emotional rift between enemies who might be lovers? This poem, and honestly a lot of her others, have that sort of vibe. This part is justifying the need of enemies in the world and bringing attention to the role of destiny in the fate of two such adversaries. The poem text is available the collected poems I linked above, there is also this handwritten original from Yale’s archives on Nancy Cunard (had to go to the original to figure out what word she was using for solitarily because the formatting was so wonky on the other, lol)
Let’s move on to Parallax! As mentioned above, the poem was originally published by Virgina Woolf’s literary press. It is a long form poem based on the The Waste Land, also a long form poem by T. S. Eliot. This is from the wiki page on The Waste Land-
“widely regarded as one of the most important English-language poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry…The Waste Land does not follow a single narrative or feature a consistent style or structure. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy, and features abrupt and unannounced changes of narrator, location and time, conjuring a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures.”
These ideas are all VERY important in modernism. And modernism is VERY relevant to the idea of what Taylor does, but ESPECIALLY what she is currently doing with TTPD.
Modernism was about rejecting the old ideas of things, and trying to rebuild, especially in the aftermath of WW1. Artists,writers, and musicians strongly embraced the idea of the visibility of the artist in their work. They no longer felt compelled to uphold the status quo and traditional methods (of poetry, of painting, of music, of literature, of architecture), they experimented with forms and processes that would be visible to the viewer in ways that had not been common or fashionable in the art world in the past.
Stream of consciousness writing, unreliable narrators, and multiple points of views were new things being explored, especially in writing (A Room of One’s Own by Virgina Woolf being a great and relevant example of this, also go check out the first edition cover-Midnights much…). The artists wanted to invite deeper thought about what was being said and by whom.The way modernism referenced the past was also very relevant. Modernism was known for creating entirely new interpretations of traditional works. Rewriting traditional narratives, creating parodies, satire, incorporating aspects from many other sources and being referential to those sources (the idea of artistic collages, and incorporating old media into new works was being heavily explored).
The definition of Parallax is “the apparent displacement or the difference in apparent direction of an object as seen from two different points not on a straight line with the object”especially : the angular difference in direction of a celestial body as measured from two points on the earth's orbit.”
Okay so I honestly have a hard time wrapping my head around this, but…put your finger in front of your eyes, look beyond your finger, and then alternate closing one eye at a time. The way your finger appears to jump? That is an example of parallax. The closer an object is, the more drastically it appears to move when observed from different places. The further the object, the less it moves. (I find it interesting that Taylor’s shows have been speeding up and going faster? Almost like as she gets closer to…whatever she’s heading towards, the faster, the more drastic the change?)
These are typical visual representations of parallax
https://preview.redd.it/qk5mz85a8b1d1.png?width=1141&format=png&auto=webp&s=22232367790ba25ca7bbab72a39fdffe9e96d703
https://preview.redd.it/ry2565v38b1d1.png?width=733&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c820f59ffcf5307910723217a64dd3e54b986a6
Which majorly reminds me of this.
https://preview.redd.it/jzdd6h4e8b1d1.png?width=1892&format=png&auto=webp&s=613b0265f22a95ddbde729ea23907dabd395f3f3
And I know that there’s only so much one can do with lights on a stage, but I find the visual parallels and the different perspectives during the TTPD set interesting.
https://preview.redd.it/hdepna4h8b1d1.png?width=2134&format=png&auto=webp&s=9fcd00f1e7bd6f72918634100b8cf32bd4e7a9a2
https://preview.redd.it/kmedb1di8b1d1.png?width=1793&format=png&auto=webp&s=a03fe6fbb2e238d15c4858f3f797a7602a9d94de
https://preview.redd.it/7zm1varj8b1d1.png?width=2091&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d3797ec39235a046429f5164e7d995af4fe53e5
And from the lyric video of “I Can Do it With a Broken Heart”
https://preview.redd.it/98d87po19b1d1.png?width=1886&format=png&auto=webp&s=43d6f598c1493d88f2a3cf94f30dbb25a15cff21
https://preview.redd.it/ex2ew8349b1d1.png?width=1888&format=png&auto=webp&s=7069f52988b92e60edd03f76ff8ffe812c1ff7c7
Let’s get back to the poem!
Here is Parallax by Nancy Cunard
Scan from google books of the original printing of the book.
A website with an easy to read full text version.
It's long, but it's WELL worth reading. Very very rich imagery and themes which seems to go along with Taylor's use of similar themes and images
“Provisioning of various appetite.
Midnights have heard the wine’s philosophy
Spill from glass he holds, defiant tomorrows
Pushed back.”
\*
“Think now how friends grow old—
Their diverse brains, hearts, faces, modify;
Each candle wasting at both ends, the sly
Disguise of its treacherous flame . . .
Am I the same?”
\*
"Without prompter for the love-scene or the anger-scene.
And . . . You and I,
Propelled, controlled by need only,
Forced by dark appetites;
Lovers, friends, rivals for a time,
thinking to choose,
And having chosen, losing."
Again, long but well worth reading.
For a couple years, Nancy had a relationship with a man named Lois Aragon. I found this research paper about Aragon’s personal interest in fairy tales and in the author Lewis Carol. Cunard was instrumental in assisting Aragon to create a printed French translation of the Lewis Carol nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark. The paper includes this bit, (part of?) a poem Aragon wrote for Cunard during their first trip together-to London. It is a love poem which uses ideas and imagery from Alice in Wonderland (the pdf of this pastes to nonsense so, screenshot.)
https://preview.redd.it/s2fc5indab1d1.png?width=944&format=png&auto=webp&s=bb1970d7e6a9ae102351ade13bff00e321c9f2b5
So as interesting as I found all of these connections, I did at many points wonder if I was in fact thinking about all of this way too much.
BUT THEN.
BUT THEN.
I decide, I’m just…gonna google Nancy Cunard and Taylor Swift. See if anything, at all, comes up.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11956353/Taylor-Swift-films-new-bank-robbery-themed-music-video-Cunard-Building-Liverpool.html
The Cunard Building. She filmed the video for I Can See You. In. The. Cunard. Building. The Cunard Building, which was built for the Cunard Steamship Company. Nancy Cunard’s family.
So now I officially feel like I’ve lost my mind, but I am even more interested in…where this is going and what is the POINT of it all? All of this suggests to me that TTPD has been HIGHLY HIGHLY staged and planned and executed in ways which seem to encompass all of the ideas of modernism, while making reference to modernists and their work (Louie Fuller, Virginia Woolf). She is using herself and her life, as well as them and their works, as the references for the writing. Leaning into the unreliability of her narration, the parody, and the multiple points of views from switching narrators.
And that concludes my post on...introducing Nancy Cunard as a highly probable (in my opinion anyway) inspiration for Taylor's work and life, as well as giving even more context and understanding to what we already knew-she's performing. But trying to be sophisticated about it? And trying to point at a lot of references in order to make us think about the deeper meaning.
I'm EXHAUSTED. And so happy I've finished this. Thank you thank you to this sub for the assistance, moral support, brilliant information, and incredible connections that make us all more knowledgable and better critical thinkers. <3 <3 <3