(last update -main text or comment: O7.31."12) 
Monte-Cristo is not intended to be an ‘active’ member of the Emperor vs Elector campaign, merely to provide a setting where agents (official, unofficial and officially denied) of the ‘real’ countries can occasionally meet and interact in any way (overt or covert, from mutually beneficial exchanges to assassination). Perhaps some umpire-controlled free lancers could complicate the Game?
'Real World™' models were: –the Bahamas (memories of James Bond movie[s]) with a sprinkling of Caiman Islands; –Liechtenstein as a miniature version of Switzerland, where the secret preliminary meetings can take place before any official Geneva conference; –Monaco for the climate and general location, the Casino and the fruitful ‘warmly friend to all belligerents’ type of neutrality. That all three models are fiscal havens and industrial dirty money laundries is more than coincidental.
The peculiar mores and laws of Monte-Cristo (the constitution, the casual nudity of the youth) come straight from a ‘frivolous’ novel «Les aventures du Roi Pausole» published in 1901 by French writer Pierre Louÿs – an ode to freedom and an humorous but a fierce attack against excessive prudishness, puritanism and bigotry.
At first omitted, the ruler’s 366 (because of leap years)
wives were soon reintroduced with a new and greatly improved status: inspiration coming from the Vatican’s secret agent wonderfully interpreted by Monica Bellucci in the French movie «Le Pacte des Loups».
Additional intents, and sources of inspiration to give more 'flesh' to the culture of Monte-Cristo, have been posted in the O9.12."08 message. This Lace Wars Imagi-Nation being intended to be quiet and peaceful -quite an anomaly in the 'Emperor vs Elector' world- what I try to describe as a character is the Monte-Cristan population, with its peculiar customs and way of life. To give some depth to its 'personality', I try to built Monte-Cristan culture / mentality like an onion: to reach the heart of it one has to dig through layer after layer, each more... pungent than the previous one.
And, as always of this freak of a blog, I add to this post in the form of comments below.
Btw, Presipacy as suggested by Otto of SOCDAISY would have been a far better translation of French Presipalite.
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That hound of mightiest deeds,
Which was irresistible in hardness of combat,
Was better than wealth ever known,
A ball of fire every night.
(She was so pretty! We were hoping -rightly- to become teachers. No one knows in advance the consequences of a butterfly effect. We were high in marvels for years, a fairytale, then we fell and I aged in exile: why? A moment of weakness, an understandable reaction; regrets, wishes, hopes, calls... and NOW, since that April 16, 2008...)
During the temps des copains we did not know we were only building souvenirs ; but somehow we bungled and were unable to repair. At least deep friendship remained -we met now and then to 'take a cup o’ kindness for auld lang syne'- until...
Nevermore...
Trypheme, as this other fictional 'Occitan / Catalan' Imagi-Nation of literary origin, Poictesme, received full attention in 'Emperor vs Elector' (with discussion of possible flags and uniforms) during the autumn 2011.
'Real World™' models were: –the Bahamas (memories of James Bond movie[s]) with a sprinkling of Caiman Islands; –Liechtenstein as a miniature version of Switzerland, where the secret preliminary meetings can take place before any official Geneva conference; –Monaco for the climate and general location, the Casino and the fruitful ‘warmly friend to all belligerents’ type of neutrality. That all three models are fiscal havens and industrial dirty money laundries is more than coincidental.
The peculiar mores and laws of Monte-Cristo (the constitution, the casual nudity of the youth) come straight from a ‘frivolous’ novel «Les aventures du Roi Pausole» published in 1901 by French writer Pierre Louÿs – an ode to freedom and an humorous but a fierce attack against excessive prudishness, puritanism and bigotry.At first omitted, the ruler’s 366 (because of leap years)
wives were soon reintroduced with a new and greatly improved status: inspiration coming from the Vatican’s secret agent wonderfully interpreted by Monica Bellucci in the French movie «Le Pacte des Loups».
The word ‘Presipality’ comes from the French satiric TV series «Groland».
Additional intents, and sources of inspiration to give more 'flesh' to the culture of Monte-Cristo, have been posted in the O9.12."08 message. This Lace Wars Imagi-Nation being intended to be quiet and peaceful -quite an anomaly in the 'Emperor vs Elector' world- what I try to describe as a character is the Monte-Cristan population, with its peculiar customs and way of life. To give some depth to its 'personality', I try to built Monte-Cristan culture / mentality like an onion: to reach the heart of it one has to dig through layer after layer, each more... pungent than the previous one.And, as always of this freak of a blog, I add to this post in the form of comments below.
Btw, Presipacy as suggested by Otto of SOCDAISY would have been a far better translation of French Presipalite.
Note that Monte-Cristo shares many features with Tanelorn. While 'currently' (first 3 quarters of the 18th C.) anchored to the Mediterranean shore somewhere between Toulon and Nice, it exists in diverse avatars of the 'Emperor vs Elector' Multiverse *at different times*. 'Nominally' / by default during the year of Fontenoy, but at the end of the WSS in the world of Defiant Galatea (and, seemingly, the hereditary mortal enemies Herrschaden & Langdouc) and by SYW times in the world of Beerstein, Cavenderia, Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn, Tippelbruder and Waldreck...
Yet always with all the same characters of unchanged age!
Fortunately, Time and Space are very elastic in the 'EvE' Multiverse.
Yet always with all the same characters of unchanged age!
Fortunately, Time and Space are very elastic in the 'EvE' Multiverse.
.Souvenir de Monte-Cristo
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Later -and while trying to stay 'in character'
- I posted links to numerous musical videos I specially like; and I simply could not resist the urge to insert a few references -of extreme personal meaning- to my 'Real Life': such as the addition of the Jour-Denise to the Monte-Cristan festive calendar and the photos of my Border Terrier little companion.
- I posted links to numerous musical videos I specially like; and I simply could not resist the urge to insert a few references -of extreme personal meaning- to my 'Real Life': such as the addition of the Which was irresistible in hardness of combat,
Was better than wealth ever known,
A ball of fire every night.
During the temps des copains we did not know we were only building souvenirs ; but somehow we bungled and were unable to repair. At least deep friendship remained -we met now and then to 'take a cup o’ kindness for auld lang syne'- until...
Illumination then a heartache: so long ago yet as close as yesterday...
Vint la Mort...
La Mort chevauche un étalon de jais ;
le visage masqué,
quand les garçons marchent au combat
elle trotte à leur côté.
La Mort chevauche une jument de neige ;
belle comme un ange du ciel,
lorsque les filles vont danser
elle se mêle à leur ronde.
La Mort chevauche un étalon de jais ;
le visage masqué,
quand les garçons marchent au combat
elle trotte à leur côté.
La Mort chevauche une jument de neige ;
belle comme un ange du ciel,
lorsque les filles vont danser
elle se mêle à leur ronde.
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Trypheme, as this other fictional 'Occitan / Catalan' Imagi-Nation of literary origin, Poictesme, received full attention in 'Emperor vs Elector' (with discussion of possible flags and uniforms) during the autumn 2011.
....
The Elector Spiritual of the Reich of the Germans in Pangaea, as caricatured by those hostile to the 'revolutionary' ideas he brought back from Monte-Cristo:
5 comments:
Posted on SOCDAISY; shows how my perception of Monte-Cristo evolved (and, hopefully, gained in ‘depth’) over a few months.
«As for the influences underlying Monte-Cristo, I had very modest, limited ambitions as ruler of an Imagi-Nation. I 'created' M-C only 'virtually', initially as an excuse to join the EvE 'collective' blog. I was somehow tired of acting merely as a leech and benefiting 'passively' from the work of other, 'active', Imagi-Nation builders: too typical of the elderly to be content watching younger people doing what himself can no longer do!
Then I confess to have enjoyed to give later some 'flesh' to the Presipality and its blog.
By then, Snickering Corpses of Hesse-Engelburg was suggesting the implementation of a 'spies vs counterspies' quasi-RPG in parallel to the wargaming & diplomatic campaigns on the 'Emperor vs Elector' "collective blog". Spies, James Bond, the Bahamas...
To be set in Europe, thus Monaco was the almost uncontournable model of a tiny micro-country "warmly friend to all belligerents" - and a fiscal haven / industrial dirty money laundry to boot. Perfect place for spies to interact and secret diplomacy to occur.
Then I remembered a charming French 'frivolous' (at 1st glance) novel dating from 1901, Pierre Louÿs' "Les aventures du Roi Pausole" set in a pastiche of Monaco. This gave me the Constitution and several 'odd' mores of the Country – and the 1st name of the current ruler.
The French TV satirical series "Groland" is set in a 'Presipality', I recycled the name and deducted from it the political system .
A. Dumas' "Monte-Cristo" was an obvious name for a mythical tiny place on French mediterranean shore.
The setting was quite light-hearted and frivolous at first; then -having too much free time to waste?- I tried to give more 'flesh' and 'character' to Monte-Cristo by adding a darker 'immerged part of the iceberg'. King Pausole had 366 wives (because of leap years): remembering the Vatican's secret agent marvelously acted by Monica Bellucci in the movie 'Le Pacte des Loups' / 'Brotherhood of the Wolf', I turned the Prince-President’s wifedom into a continental-scale web of secret messengers, spies, go-between, seductrices-then-blackmailers, assassins and agents of any species and role of the Presipapal diplomacy. Other 'dark' underground activities were added, such as the benevolent 'Gardes' moonlighting as Presipapal assassin and keeping alive the very grim secret traditions of a mercenary warband of the Wars of Religion...
More the fun of it, I introduced also a few 'Lacepunk' elements in the guise of (totally inefficient, but don't repeat it, the patents are for sale!) prototypes of machineguns, steam-powered wagon and warboat, war balloon...
To give credit where credit is due, the concept of 'The Holy (*) Sisters of the Order of St-Jezebel' (and their associated 'Brothelhood') was born on this very List.
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*: sometimes written 'Holly': Monte-Cristans are very unconcerned about religious matters. Actually they are very unconcerned about almost everything excepted their easy / lazy / cosy way of life. But, would they feel it (or its not-so-pretty sources ) threatened, these gentle 'peace & love' herb-smokers would turn to bloodthirsty fanatics.
No Monte-Cristan army as yet, and, I fear, none intended. I gave up active wargaming, dismounted my table-tennis table, packed up my 1000-some Amazons minis & decors more than 15 years ago and at 63+ lack the ambition / motivation / courage to start again from scratch... I've always been an awful painter ('like a color-blind parkinsonian' according to my lovely daughter - & using ultra-fine felt pencils instead of brushes for eyes, lips & nipples..), and I hate to think what I could do now! »
OUR SETTING PUT TO GOOD USE
Due to wargame campaigning retirement Monte-Cristo is a freaky anomaly in EvEurope: a peaceful and officially demilitarized statelet. Rumours of spies / counterspies ‘games’ were milling around then and hopefully some of such interactions would take place in the Presipality. Thus it is extremely gratifying that a fellow Ruler –and a gifted storyteller at that, also adding a lot to the setting- sends agents to take advantage of the modest but peculiar facilities our little country has to offer.
Did Cardinal Maximilian resume his interrupted chaotic journey?
Last time we heard of His Eminence his ship was coming to Monte-Cristo. In all likelihood the good Cardinal, shuning our traditional welcome of prestigious guests, in a self-imposed righteous quarantine, adamantly declined to disembark.
But then… Opinions kept in the dark elsewhere as ‘unconventional’ / ‘controversial’ are free of censorship here. Thus, at least our scholars don’t ignore that a few ‘historians’ claim that Shakespeare was just Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban,’s figurehead, and that Joan of Arc did not deserve her designation as ‘Pucelle de France’ – and was not burnt at the stake. Some members of this ‘school’ also maintain that Saint Louis did not die from plague at all, but deserted his own Crusade to settle down incognito in Tunis with a comely Fatma. Given such precedents, who knows?
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PRESENTATION TRÈS SOMMAIRE 'IN FRENCH'
sur un forum hexagonal :
- du bonhomme et de son passé d'amateur d'uniformes / wargamer,
- de son goût pour le 18ème siècle ,
- du pseudo,
- du blog et donc de l'"esprit" dans lequel a été conçue la Présipauté.
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DEATH OF A COUNTRY
Monte-Cristo, like Atlantis, Ys and Lyonesse before, sunk under the waves - and in its case to total oblivion. This, partly because the Presipality always strove to be as widely ignored as at all possible -you will not plan to invade what you only remember, and that rarely, as a kind of negligible Italian (free ?) harbor not far from Genoa. But chiefly because the catastrophe occured during the French Revolution, and thus amidst general indifference. The peninsula did not disppeared overnight, fortunately, and most of the survivors took refuge in the pleasant and genial kingdom of Trypheme (sometimes still known by its old name of Poitesme -or Poitain- de la Mer): Monte-Cristan cultural influence was strong in this little sunny country , where for instance the young and fair followed in their (lack of) dress the same fashion as in Monte-Cristo. Then, Trypheme in turn sank in the Mediterranean Sea -fittingly, in early august 1914, at the very end of the 'Belle Epoque'...
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THE ROSE
A lifetime comes and goes
And as my friend the rose said only yesterday
"This morning I was born
And baptised in the dawn
I flowered in the dew
And life was fresh and new
The sun shone through the cold
And through the day I grew
By night-time I was old"
"At least there's never been
No, you have never seen
A rose more bright and gay"
A lifetime comes and goes
And as my friend the rose said only yesterday
"The good lord smiled on me
So why then should it be
I feel I'm falling now
Oh yes, I'm falling now
My heart no-one can save
My head begins to bow
My feet are in the grave"
The rose God smiled upon
Tomorrow will be gone
Forever gone away
A lifetime comes and goes
And so my friend the rose was dead at break of day
The moon is shining bright
And in my dreams tonight
Beneath the starlit sky
My friend the rose goes by
He has seen my dreams I see
A soul that wouldn't die
Still watching over me
Whatever fortune brings
I'll hope for better things
Or life will just be grey
"A lifetime comes and goes"
That's what my friend the rose
Said only yesterday
Bibliography:
- Françoise Hardy:
. 'Mon amie la rose'
. 'Le temps de l'amour'
. 'ma jeunessse fout l'camp'
- Sylvie Vartan:
. 'En ecoutant la pluie'
. 'Gong gong'
. 'Deux enfants'
. 'Parle-moi de ta vie'
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