(even in this post many entries below have been complemented a posteriori...)
For new entries and added comments please scroll down:
latest: O1.11."10
April 16 2008:
Such is life… on the very same day,
Louys learned the death of his first wife and the birth of a great-niece… (see O4.19."08 comment to
next post).
I had so many dreams
That tomorrow would be better than yesterday
- Less worse than today
Up to my prayers.
I was a woman full of dreams
With so many doubts
But little of hatred.
But all crumbled down when I learned
From the doctors that I was comdemned.
I am of those so few ones
Who know when their deadline expires:
From now on I live as in a cell
In the Death Row.
I want to have a last chance
G*d to review the sentence
But I don’t have any choice
Compelled to live with *that*
But why?
I do not deserve it.
.
(Soprano –
'Derniere Chance')
Death rides a jet-black stallion
Face hooded
When the boys march to battle
Walks at their side.
Death rides a snow-white mare
As beautiful as an Angel from Heaven
When the girls go dancing
Enters their ring.
.
(Anonymous , Flanders 1917 -
"Der Tod reit't")
I am the Dark One - the Widower - the One Beyond Solace,
The Prince of Aquitaine of the ruined Tower:
My only Star is dead - my once constellated shield
Now wears the Black Sun of Melancholy.
(Gerard de Nerval - "El Desdichado")
Chante, rossignol, chante,
Toi qui as le cœur gai.
Tu as le cœur à rire,
Moi je l'ai à pleurer.
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime,
Jamais je ne t'oublierai.
.
.
._._._._._._.
. Bittersweet memories... .
Maybe I was still vaguely dreaming of a
possible future?
but-
SO BE IT…
Henceforward new updates will be posted below.
News, updates, videos and a resume
- LAST UPDATE: january 11, "10: more Monte-Cristan girls in the Beerstein Foreign Legion: the appeal of this prestigious Corps to our adventurous maidens (see april "09 entry below) is such that the Reich Duchy could form a
light artillery section from the excess of vivandieres volunteers.
._._._._._._.
- August "09
updates:
. 
Good and bad news from the (South-)East: while the
Presipapal 'Service' scored a nice
move in
Herrschaden, unfortunately its agents' efficiency remains unsatisfying in the
Langdoucian arch-enemy of this atheistic country, that
Ecclesiarchy "La Chiesarchia (della Ordia) dels Sanguineus Martirs dou Langdouc" -the quasi-independant State of the semi-monastic Order of the Bloodied Martyrs (a big mouthful of a name, commonly shortened as 'La Chiesarchia dou (or 'en') Langdouc': the Order uses dou, its rival barons en).
Madly fundamentalist
La Chiesarchia is known in Monte-Cristo as
"La Chaisachier".
-°:
august 15, "09:. -day of
la Fada Esterella in Monte-Cristo- great foreign
musical groups are invited to publicly
perform, friendly compete in the rendition of the same
same (Britton, here)
merry dance, accompany the recitation of
unforgettable poems, and conclude the
night by
playing together.
In the afternoon a company from the Far East had played the deeply moving
Tombeau des Lucioles.
-°
: Monte-Cristan(s) spotted abroad? Likely in Batrachia, possible in the Soweiter League.
-°:
Diplomatic Affairs: Great Ball
last night in the Palace in honour of
Countess d'Anis, just returned from a pilgrimage to
La Santa Bauma, Mary Magdalene's Holy Cave in Provence.
On her way back to Monte-Cristo the charming
Cavenderian ambassador visited
the military harbor of Toulon, touring at length the defenses of the town. Given her perfect mastery of the French tongue, the
Gardes escorting her (in civilian clothes) did not have to explain why the 'locals' claim the
huge naked statue on the main wharf to be that of
Amiral de Cuverville.
Some maliciously noticed that the nature of her escapade did not prevent Lady Patronelle and Herr Hermann Geldversteckt of
rationalist Herrschaden from spending most of the evening together.
.
-°:
Muliple identities:
When
Louys wants to immerse himself in the good and merry Monte-Cristan population, he assumes -since late april of last year- the innocuous identity of Dolent de Samaison. Some of his short ranting billets published abroad are signed Abdul -a reference, NOT to
Abdul El Bulbul, Emir, but to Abdul Alhazred the Mad Poet -though Louys emphatically claims to have never fancied himself gifted in any manner by Clio or Erato ("Je ne poete pas plus haut que le trou de mon luth!"). Yet, some of his works gained the attention of the
Imperial Court of Vorlund, earning their anonymous author the envied (and totally inappropriate, in this case) title of Corresponding Court Composer, henceforward known in these distant lands under the name of Schmerzhaft von Hausseinem.
._._._._._._.
.
july: -°: posted an example of attempt to
'logically design' the appearance of an imaginary army.
.
-°: The
'Oversea' file edited and significantly updated.
._._._._._._.
_°_
May 15:
2nd Jour-Denise in the Presipality
(see May 15 "08 entry below).
._._._._._._.
_°_ April: Festivities and pride in Monte-Cristo:
the Presipality is currently honoured by the visit of the
‘Royal Tourists’, Reich Duke Wilhelm and Reich Duchess Lynda of
Beerstein accompanied by young King Basil of
Morea, who arrived
safely here after some unpleasant
contretemps and
encounters. Their coming was of course celebrated by a series of public and private
feasts! (
O4.10. "9 comment): our Visitors seemed to
appreciate our hospitality. They will be missed and remembered as specially
pleasant and merry Guests: we wish them a safe and enjoyable journey.
Fortunately the timely arrival of Lady
Patronelle d’Anis, the
Cavenderian Representative, will allow us to prolong the
festivities uninterrupted (
O4.23. "9 comment).
.
Shady visitors with a
variety of
undeclared goods and
obscure agendas are more a matter of routine (O1.15. "9 comment below). Yet it is our pride and pleasure that, regardless of the circumstances of their arrival, foreigners seem always so
reluctant to leave. Even
prelates from very distant lands feel restored and indeed
enlightened by a sojourn in the Presipality.
.
Reich Duke Wilhelm published from Monte-Cristo the edict establishing the
Beerstein Foreign Legion: several adventurous Monte-Cristan maidens enlisted as cantinieres (governments loaning their soldiers as a rule forget to provide this essential component of a well-kept force).
Seven of nine joined the
Royal Tourists' caravan (an additional escort of a kind?),
two went straight to Beerstein as harbingers.
(For
miniature vivandieres or, more generally, Lace Wars ladies in feminized uniform / semi-military dress (
daughter of the regiment / regimental god-mother / inhaber's wife / honorary colonel Prinzessin…) -on foot or
mounted- see
O5.07. " 9 comment.
)
Life in the Presipality being basically
quiet and uneventful, the only ‘News from Monte-Cristo’ deserving to be reported here or in
EvE Gazette come from such
foreign initiatives – or
accidents. Actually 'nothing ever happens' here, so without our foreign visitors the heraldic device of Monte-Cristo, rather than a deep pink mermaid, could well be a
yellow lemon tree!
._._._._._._.
- December "08 updates:
.-°: Merry Winter Soltsice! Monte-Cristans are collectively areligious,
but extremely fond of festivities. Thus, among the twelve uninterrupted holidays covering from the Winter Solstice to New Year’s Day,
Calendau (‘Noël’ in French - Xmas) is remembered as the date of the
Gros Soupa with its 8 special dishes and concluded by the
13 desserts (though very, very few Monte-Cristans would think of it as a rememberance of ‘The Last Supper’ –instead they would guess it refers to the year and its 12 months).
The Winter Feasts are the most frantic period of the
rich festive calendar of the Presipality – Monte-Cristans managed to practically double the 12 days traditional elsewhere.
Actually the
Winter festive period begins long before, on
nov. 15 (the old date of traditional
Avent), a day of frolic and heavy eating (although the following 40 fasting days are ignored here!) when each familiy builds a crown of holy or green oak (corresponding to the Christian ‘Advent Wreath’, but with 7 small candles, since in Monte-Cristo the
Avent runs to dec. 31; the last 2 candles will be lighted on dec. 24 and dec. 31 at dawn). On this day children under twelve run through the fields and orchards blowing in whistles, playing drum with spoons on saucepans, brandishing torches to set fire to bundles of straw, and thus ‘driving out such vermin as are likely to damage the crops’.
Then on
dec. 6 (
St Nicolas– elsewhere in Provence this ritual takes place on dec. 4,
Ste Barbe) children scatter wheat seeds on watered white cotton in 9 (3 x 3) cups carved in pine cones: germinated, they will decorate the table of the
Gros Soupa. On the same day children collect moss, little twigs, stones and bits of pine bark to complement any model house, well, fountain the family may own, and the scenery of the
Creche is set in place, then each child receives a small
Advent Calendar with 47 brightly colored candied pine seeds. In the afternoon children organize races of the typical goat-drawn minicarts. The following night is the
Nuit des Lumières (‘Night of Lights’), also called
Nuit de la Croix-Rousse and
Vogue aux marrons, when numerous short candles set in colored glasses are placed at each window, while individual performers –musicians, mimes, jugglers, firebreathers… play in the streets –specially in the normally quiet
Rue de Nuits. On that special night the
marchandes de coco sell roasted chestnuts.
(On the evening of dec. 13, Jour des Lumieres, the girls having reached puberty in the year wear a crown of ivy with candles that are lighted at sunset -a day oddly omitted from the 'canonical' list of Calendar festivities preparing the turning of the year, certainly because from a cultural tradition alien to that of the Calendau of Provence.)
Dec. 21 is the first of the
12 consecutive official holidays of the Winter Feasts, each with its special type of small cakes, exchanged as gifts. In the morning a wickerman,
le Pape des Fous (the Fools’ Pope) is erected in each commune (the secular equivalent of parishes). At home the ‘major characters’ and the faeries are placed in the
Creche. At lunch the servants eat first, attended by their employers. At dusk all males and many women shoot their firearms to the sky ‘to chase the clouds away from the poor sun’, then perform an
‘armed dance’. Then takes place the ritual of
cacho-fio, symbol of the new fire / new year: the eldest member of the family seizes a log of oliver tree, thrice pours new wine on it and, holding it with the youngest member of the family, turns three time around the table while everybody sings
"Alegre, alegre, cacho fio ven, tout ben ven, a l’an que ven se sian pas maï, que fuguen pas mens". Then he lays it in the hearth and starts the fire with
eau de vie and a firebrand from the previous year ‘calendal’ log, set to fire at previous noon. The new fire cooks
Ouassaille, eaten with gingerbread characters. Late in the night children fly kites carrying small lights (lack of winds is unauspicious) and people dance outdoor around bonfires. The fire in front of the
Pape des Fous is kept burning from dusk to dawn.
On
dec. 24 the
Padre and all ‘minor’ characters are placed in the
Creche. Adults exchange gifts just before the
Gros Soupa – children will discover theirs when awakening next morning.
On
dec. 25, first day after the six day solar standstill of the winter solstice, traditional sarcastic pantomimes are played; the following night is
La Nuit des Mères, the 1st of the
12 ‘Saintes Nuits’ – the ‘Mothers’ depart on jan. 6. Seemingly these -12?- ‘Mothers’ came from a different tradition than the 3
Matres -
Mater Suspirorum,
M. Tenebrarum,
M. Lacrymarum- whom Monte-Cristans are so oddly reluctant to discuss: the 3rd is known to be associated with the
Jour des Morts, the day after the
Samhain night.
On
dec. 31 at dusk children burn their Advent calendar and the candles are removed from the evergreen wreath, which is then hanged on a wall. Nobody sleeps during the dec. 31 – jan. 1st night!
Jan 1st is the last of the 12 consecutive holidays of the ‘turning of the year’, but while the advent wreath is removed at midday the
Creche is kept up to jan. 13.
Jan. 6 is both the
Jour des Lumieres / 12eme Nuit and the
Jour des Rois. The rituals attached to the first title are secret. The
Magi and their caravan are added to the
Creche. At noon each family ‘draws’ its
Roy (‘King’) with a
feve (broad bean) concealed in a special cake. What equals best to a political division in Monte-Cristo is the difference between the families using a
brioche and those conceling the
feve in a frangipane
galette. The reign of the ‘king’ ends at midnight – when the wicker
Papes des Fous are joyfully burned.
On
jan. 13, the day of
Rangement, the
Creche is packed for the year. This ends the festive period of the New Year, though the pancakes of
Chandeleur (Candelmass) –
crepes at lunch,
mattefins at dinner– and the
bugnes -
tuiles at lunch,
rondes at dinner– ten days later extend it as for the familial festive meals and luck-bringing rituals for the New Year, and the
Fete des Ecoliers (jan. 28) as for the gifts to children.
Monte-Cristo being an extension of Provence, its inhabitants passionately follow the local tradition of the
Creche (Crib /
Nativity Scene) with its
santibelli / santouns of brightly painted baked clay – but with striking peculiaties. First
Marie (the name is kept)
La Bonne Mere (‘The Good Mother’) looks suspiciously like the Late Roman figuration of
Isis, when her cult what competing with that of Mithra and Christianism to be the official monotheistic religion of the Empire, and she is dressed in greens. The wraped up newborn child she’s holding (and suckling) is called
Lannnovo, an obvious deformation of ‘the new year’. Joseph (cuckolds’ patron saint) is conspicuous by his absence, being replaced by two women, an auburn-haired
Marie Baizlabbé in blues and silver, a Black
Marie Charazé in yellows, orange and gold (very deformed details from the legend, so popular in Provence, of
‘The Three Holy Maries from the Sea’?). The ox is actually –and *obviously*– a bull; the donkey is obscenely male and a stork stands on its back. These five pieces –the seated
Bonne Mère, the two Maries, the bull and the donkey with its stork– are the ‘major characters’ of the crib. No
angels, but tiny well-endowed barebreasted Tinkerbell-like faeries of painted tin or glass. Then the
Padre, the Monte-Cristo ruler (in ¾ armour over a fancy rendition of the late 17th C. uniform of the
Gardes de l’Etrier), presents the population of the Presipality to the
Bonne Mere –the young ones in traditional Monte-Cristan nudity. The shepherds with their sheeps, of course and all the characters compulsory in any
Creche in Provence: the
tambourinaire, the
cabrettaire, the
commune mayor, the
crieur public, the postperson, the (beret?) hunter all dressed in brown… The traditional
ravi (the village idiot) is here in his typical attitude of marvelling surprise, but in Monte-Cristo his clothes are black and he wears a large cross hanging from a necklace – children craw when placing him the Crib. Peculiar to the Presipality, a goat-pulled minicart decorated with roses and loaded with cabbage. Then representatives of the various trades and classes, with a special emphasis on that of the household – being Monte-Cristans, younger characters wear no more than some kind of shoes, and often some form of apron – their trade being indicated by the tools they bear, and sometimes a peculiar headgear, the traditional white hat (here worn soft, almost beret-like) of cooks, the black
faluche of female students… If a child was born to the family in the year, and is still alive, a ceramic baby (with the first name and the year engraved on his back) is placed in a tiny model of a straw-lined cradle in front of the
Bonne Mere: thus the child is blessed to make a good start in life next year. The tiny charm end in a ring, and most Monte-Cristans wear their
pitchoun their whole life long on a string at their neck. The 3
Magi (again, one of them Black [*]) and their camel and/or elephant are added on
Jour des Rois.
The
santouns are traditionally 4 inches hight; the major characters are of far better quality and workmanship, often very nice pieces of porcelaine, and their base is painted a golden ochre, while that of the other characters is green – the
Padre enjoys an intermediate status, being of the same making as the
Bonne Mere but with a green base.
The
associated story (devoid of any overt religious content) explains the gap between the astronomical (solstice), traditional (Xmas) and calendar (New Year’s Day) dates of the same event, the turning of the year (and thus, incidentally, the discrepancy between the 12 official holydays and the 12 ‘Nights’). It tells that the
Bonne Mere began to gave birth on dec. 21 at dusk, but the labour lasted to dec. 24 at midnight, when the first cry of the baby was heard; but the mother forbade to cut the umbilical cord, which dried and felt on dec. 31 at midnight….
- - - -
[*]:
«3 characters, 1 of them Black»: Antiquity knew
3 continents (‘Lybia’ = Africa). Then, Asia (minor) had yet to know the Arab and Turk expansions and had been hellenized for centuries, so ‘Asiatics’ were as ‘white’ as, say, Greeks; Africa on the other hand was characterized by Blacks. Thus «3 characters, 1 of them Black» means that ‘the Whole World’ is involved (the 3 Maries) or is attending the event (the 3 Magi).
.
-°: Exciting developments on the
other side of the world. Interestingly, the Australian Powers field
'regular' female regiments, quite a novelty in 'our' avatar of the Multiverse (the fabled Amazon Corps of
Neo-Byzantium is of a very different type).
.-°: Foreign shady emissaries in Monte-Cristo? See 12.12."08 comment below.
.-°: Monte-Cristan intelligence in the Adriatic Sea? See 12.10."08 comment below.
.-°: Biography of an interesting (?) Monte-Cristan character posted as 12.05."08 comment to
next post.
._._._._._._.
- November "08 updates:
.-°:
B3! and a pure gem of Battlegaming poetry: see 11.27. "08 comment to
next post.
.-°:
de Saxe's "Mes Reveries" has been numerized by
Google. They are also on-line (
*including Tome 2*) at
Gallica, the on-line library of French
Bibliotheque Nationale: maybe less easy to navigate than the Google rendition, and the plates are reproduced in B&W - but, seemingly on larger format? And it appears you can download pages...
.
Really
weird uniforms: no Imagi-Nation builder would have dared to be so… creative, I guess! The
legionary looks like he forgot to put his trousers on –in ample skirt, vest and socks, like the classical ‘lover hiding in the wall cupboard’ of early 20th C.
boulevard comedies!
The decoration of the
helmet is specially intringuing, seemingly as 'mysterious' as Mickey Mouse's ears (from whatever angle you look at them, they appear as disks - yet they are NOT spherical...): seen from the side it seem to go rather backwards, yet it is not covered by the hood of the 'Turkish coat'...
.
The
Duchy of Strackenz will field an army based on the
Reveries -since no commercial mini is available as a suitable basis for conversions, the ‘Duke’ will sculpt and mould his own soldiers: cheers!
.-°:
Imaginations: glad to add 2 new 'Fict' links, to the Duchy of Strackenz and to the Grand Duchy of Kolanhom.
.
.
-°: Just received "The War Game Companion" by C.S. Grant, son of the author of the seminal ‘The War Game’ (cover left above). Did not known it before opening this book, but I’ve be waiting for it for more than 35 years –and not only for the nostalgia value! Worthy of the title, really a ‘companion’, a complement to the first volume, exciting, informative and inspirational - and a specially mouth-watering OOB of the army of the Vereinigte Freie Städte. Now, 'The War Game' already had a "Companion" par excellence (largely ignored since its nature doesn't show up in the title): C. Grant's '
Battle of Fontenoy'...
.
-°: A little early for the ‘Lace Wars’ as I understand them, and a little fuzzy, but impressive and eye-candy: 2 short videos travelling across an
Allied and a
French armies of the WSS.
._._._._._._.
- October "08 updates:
.-°: A Monte-Cristan soldier of fortune
settled down in Cavenderia? Descending from a Bohemian mercenary of the Black Company, Jean Kullaceck prefers, for some reason, to be known as Jean de Florette. Capitain of the Free Company he had joined as a mere private ten years earlier, he soon turned it into a famed Free Battalion. After brilliant services during the War of Polish Succession (albeit on the losing side), a private feud with the Salvation Army of the
Anabaptist Bishopric of Zenda –and a drinking duel with young baron Munchausen concluded by a snoring draw– he finally managed to have his outfit ‘regularized’ by Prinz Geoffrey as (the
nucleus of)
Cavenderia IR-5. For the facing color of the new uniform, Jean chose a so-slightly-orangeish pink he describes as ‘the color of dawn’, the regiment being named in homage to a mysterious ‘Dame Aurora’: according to companions of his adventurous youth, a lovely goddaughter of Aurora von Koenigsmark and lady-in-waiting of
Catherin II?
-°: An
excellent blog (but
in French, be warned) devoted to (mainly civilian) life in the 18th C. and its modern renditions in movies, TV series, comics, novels… with a lot of links (to ‘civilian’ reenactors, e.g.).
._._._._._._.
- September "08 updates:
.-°: 'Alternate' America: updated the
Oversea Colonies post with a sketchy description of the diplomatic situation in the New World. Most of the Imagi-Nations there appeared (generally by pair) on an ‘alternate Earth’ (wargame campaign setting), in an 'alternate' universe, parallel to ours, where they constitute the main difference with 'our' reality. Yet in the infinity of the Multiverse there must be at least one ‘parallel universe’ where they *all* coexist – with some divergences from their ‘original’ setting, including possibly displacement in location and time of founding, owing to the additional interactions between them: I try to propose such an inclusive avatar.
.-°: Monte-Cristo introduced in Saxe 'n Violets:
‘Otto’, owner of
the
SOCDAISY Yahoo group, *prints* (
yes, on paper!) a Society Journal,
Saxe ‘n Violets. There he kindly published, to introduce Monte-Cristo, an edited and improved version of the text posted here when I started this blog. I reproduce it as a
comment to the
original post so that you can appreciate Otto’s additions and humour. «
Presipacy» is actually a far better translation of French ‘Presipaute’ than my own ‘Presipality’, now unfortunately sanctioned by usage. Yet I deny, with the uttermost indignation, that in Monte-Cristo total nudity of the young and / or fair of both sexes is restricted to the beaches! And when reading this Daisyesque prose, remember that Monte-Cristo is part of Provence, and that from Tarascon to Marseilles and Toulon, people there *love* long-winded stories, specially when fetching them to gullible strangers...
.-°: A wonderfully illustrated
amateur site on (napoleonic) uniforms: wish I’d be able to do the same for the 19 imaginary armies (some 750 regiments) I clumsily describe here in the posts (main text and comments) labelled
uniforms! Now -with 5 more handwritten drafts of armies to type and the generals- it would represent some 1000 pages each with 10 – 12 uniforms, plus the flags, drum decorations, kettledrum «aprons»… Even with infography at 64.5 I’m definitively too old by at least 40 years for such a project – and for several other exciting ventures also, alas!
.-°:
Imaginations: glad to add a new 'Fict' link, to the Landgraf of Mendelstadt, a new member of the 'Emperor vs Elector' campaign.
Update: added links to Bizercca, Cavenderia and Frisland, and a more friendly one to Kopf-Schlager.
..
-°: Monte-Cristo, as always, is ready to
welcome graciously any
prestigious guest.
.-°: Monte-Cristo:
Louys, who sometimes signs lampoons and rants as ‘Abdul’ (an hommage to the poet Abdul-al-Arzed), greatly enjoyed to learn the drinking song
«Abdul el Bulbul Emir». Note that ‘Abdul’ is a wrong rendition by Westerners, since ‘Abd’ means ‘servant of’, and ‘ul’ is missing in Arabic (
«Il manque ‘ul’ en Arabe»).
-°: A very enjoyable and so well illustrated
"Carribean adventure" (AWI, it's true... I'd prefer FIW uniforms...) AAR (Sharpe's Practice rules). There, set in the same area but earlier in time,
Black Bob the infamous pirate captain’s quest for the legendary Treasure of the Mayans and
descent on El Diablo .
._._._._._._.
- July updates:
.-°: added a new 'Fict' link, this one to Scoatia, where a Lace Wars campaign stems from a fantasy Arthurian one! I’ve not yet the official clearance from Lady Ann, the blogmistress, to publish the url, but since I’ll be away and cut from Internet access for the month… Hope the Lady will pardon this ‘anticipation’.
.-°: Reminder: in the 2nd half of July check
Der Alte Fritz’s blog for the AAR of the
second battle of the
Jacobite campaign. Several members / Imagi-Nation rulers of ‘EvE’ sent
one or several
mini(s) /
character(s) (even
a small unit from across the Pond) to be present at this fateful event. Update: 2nd Jacobite victory: look at the spectacular
battle report (tremendous terrain!). For some reason the unobtrusive Monte-Cristan
observer(s) attached to the Jacobite army nicknamed
Pipe Major Sean MacLeod "
Couillu le Barbu".
._._._._._._.
- June updates:
.-° Eye-candy and inspirational
'historical' battle reports: Prussian victories over the Frenchs at
Oberon, over the Austrians at
Ostendorf and
Chotusitz, and against the Russians a tactical draw turning into a strategical success at
Gross Jagersdorf.
.
-° Imaginations: glad to add a 'Fict' link, this one to a new blog devoted to the Kingdom of Aschenbach and its ongoing struggle with its contentious neighbor the Rheinstadt der Luftberg. Thanks to Jeff of
’Emperor vs Elector’ for emailing me its url.
._._._._._._.
- May updates:
.
May 15, the day (commented upon on
next post) of Ste
Denise, is henceforth added as the
Jour-Denise to the rich
Festive Calendar of Monte-Cristo. An Holyday of
remembrance without official ceremonies, orations, sprays of flowers, or tears, but everywhere the
joyful traditional
tunes,
merry dances and simple but delicious dishes Louys’
first wife brought us from her native
‘Land of the Thousand Springs’, the Limousin Highlands. Young
‘Bourree’ dancers will mark the beat with a ring of bells at an ankle according to the tradition of Limousin bagpipers and hurdy-gurdy players.
Torte a boursadas daus Oussines (a chestnut flour-based pork pie),
calhada (wildly evolved curdled cow milk),
clafouti (a kind of thick custard: whole black cherries cooked in pancake dough) and specially
tourtous (large ‘buckwheat flour and whey’ pancakes, rolled around ham or bilberry jam) will be associated with this Day.
..-° A very pleasant 'tricornes'
battle report ('historical': a 1st Silesian War-inspired well-constructed
scenario), at the same time interesting and inspirational for veteran players and informative, illustrative for newcomers: enjoy!
(
-° The Wars of Faltenian Succession: some ten years after the founding fathers of fictitious Lace-Wargaming, C. Grant and P. Young, published 'The Wargame' and 'Charge!', Henry Hyde rekindled the flame with his
‘Fictitious Wars’ article in a popular magazine. Henry’s
Wars of the Faltenian Succession are the archetypal mid-18th C. campaign between imaginary countries. It’s thus with great pleasure that I add a
‘Fict:Faltenland’ link (the 72nd 'Fict' link, btw!) to the series of
‘WFS-labelled’ posts he just started on his blog: enjoy! And remember to peruse on his
Battlegames site his ‘Old School’ fictitious Lace Wars
battle reports,
regiments,
forteress…
.-° Links to short mp3 of French military music –unfortunately played on modern instruments: 18th C.:
Aupres de ma Blonde,
Marche Lorraine,
Marlborough,
Fanfan la Tulipe; Napoleonic, still not too ‘out of character’: Infantry:
Marche Consulaire,
La Charge; Cavalry:
Etendards,
Cuirassiers; contemporary but almost ‘in character’, owing to the peculiar slow pace of the Foreign Legion:
Le boudin; almost atemporal,
The British Grenadiers, then 'fife & drum' interpretations of
the same and of
Gary Owen.
.-°
Oversea situation folder updated with reference to
Neue Sudland, on the North-Western coast of 'our' Australia.
.
-° Jacobite victory in the '
EvE' alternate Europe: enjoy the
battle report and its eye-candy illustrations on Der Alte Fritz Journal.
.
-° Monte-Cristo Home Defence capacity:
added as a
comment a crude pidgin English translation of a 'Resistance' war song, with a link to the corresponding video.
Now,
this poem reflects the Monte-Cristan attitude towards war since the Wars of Religion, unless imposed on the Presipality.
In the same vein,
this tune is a favorite of the
Carabiniers’ band: in typical Monte-Cristan fashion, the beat don't keep 'military' for long, soon turning into a dance! '
Farandole' is indeed the traditional dance here, generally played by a 'tambourinaire' (pipe and high drum) and a 'cabrettaire' (because the bag of his bagpipe is of goat {cabra}'s skin). Louys' first wife Denise brought the '
Bourrée' from her native 'Land of the Thousand Springs' Limousin Highlands, arousing a local revival of the
vielle a roue (hurdy-gurdy). {As for bagpipes, Monte-Cristan cabrettas keep their traditional pattern and tuning, but now receive the exquisite ornamentation of Limousin chabretas: mountings of bone, ivory and different colours of horn inlaid with pewter on all pipes, and specially that very particular mosaic of tiny mirrors set in pewter decorating the chanter/tenor drone stock}. As for Louys,
for some reason, he tried
then to
learn guitar ...
Then, Monte-Cristo demonstrates the most genial eclectism in all festive matters, and thus
warmly welcomes
and eagerly
assimilates any
novelty that can make its numerous Fertility Feasts even more frentic and joyful.
._._._._._._.
- April updates:
.-°
Oversea situation folder updated with the
"Tradgarlander possessions in the
Indian Ocean" entry.
.-° Imaginations: great series of original flags and uniforms for the Electorate of
Hannunter.
.
-° The
Mermaid puts to High Seas:
while Monte-Cristo never had a Navy –
customs officers don’t even have revenue boats of their own– to everyone’s surprise the Palace just rented a corvette. A French ship, complete with her crew (captain Adrien-Paul Sanlaville, regarded as a future Admiral), contracted for 5 years renewable. Renamed La Petillante, she is currently being armed en-flute. A detachment of Carabiniers from the (reinforced last october, see below) Palace ‘company’ under Lieutenant Sebastien Mouafaure-Labitt will embark as Marines. According to the old sea dogs on the wharfs «It’s clear, she’s of the kind to –hopefully– reappear after years of silence». Other Monte-Cristan comments, referring cryptically to a ‘drink’ and ‘the Fountain of Youth’, have -
it's clear- to be a kind of ‘private joke’ rooted in old parochial culture rather than in to-day reality, and understandable only by the locals: ?
.
-° Bodicious -or is it bodylicious?-
Pirettes! Surely a few Monte-Cristans swashbucklers among them.
.
-° Links to a great (historical)
battle report posted on the TMP: numerous and excellent photos of a diorama-like tabletop and hordes of ‘tricorned’ minis; but, where were the proud regiments of Kopf-Schlager?
.
-° Discussion of Vizier Evidya's new aggressiveness (re. the
Emperor vs Elector diplomatic blog) added as a comment to this very post. A
new star *may* be rising under the Crescent, and the Lys *may* have given the
initial push.
.
-°
Surprising news from Monte-Cristo: the Palace just announced a substantial increase of the Carabiniers’ band. What is most
commented upon is the origin of the additional instruments: all are typical components of the Turkish
Mehter Takımı. Observers doubt that the cooccurrence of this announcement with the recent spurt of tension in the East is merely coincidental. If a form of diplomatic message, suppositions about its significance vary widely, but all agree that the officially unexpected presence of a Monte-Cristan envoy at the grandiose reception of Ambassador Said Effendi by Louis XV, a few years ago, for the solemn renewal of the
Capitulations of 1536, is to be remembered in this context.
«Intelligence & Action» specialists in the service of the
Mermaid: (one of) our agent(s) -as
'Baronne Evangeline Trelawney'- in Britannia, another just
back from Istanbul, one
on her way to… ?
another one… well, already
somewhere else.
After the successful completion of their dangerous missions, it has
just been revealed that at least two Monte-Cristan agents recently infiltrated the ‘Services’ of Major Powers: valorous Catherine Aca-Selene acted -as ‘
Anna Zigeunera’- for the Austrian Secret Police in
Transylvania / Transcarpathiana; while Monique Quirican di Castillo had been ‘
Sylvia La Lupa’, in ‘errand’ for no less than (one of?) the Vatican’s secret service(s) , the dreadful
Opus Dei (in this context, nobody would expect the Spanish Inquisition).
Foreign observers in residence wonder about the ‘why’ of such a leak; Monte-Cristan diplomacy has been again
commented upon recently. An experienced diplomat compared it to an
onion: you have to decorticate layer after layer to go the heart of it; but, he added bitterly, while the surface is sweeter than honey, the heart tastes worse than garlic.
.
-° Imaginations: 70 'Fict' links! Last additions: to
Hannunter, and to
Schloss Neuhaus where the public and 'backstage' history of Ober Nord Westfalen during the WSS is currently unfolded.
.
-° Keep treating most of this blog as a 'directory' with several 'major' posts as so many 'folders', their content increasing by alterations to the main text but mainly by addition of new 'files' in the form of comments; devoted these weeks mainly to the '
Oversea' and '
Lace Wars Sci-Fi topics, now converging to that mysterious Land designated by the Justified and Ancient name of Mu (the erroneous denomination
‘Mu-Mu' comes from the last mumblings of a dying shipwrecked sailor, poor soul); to progress one step beyond would be
madness, of course.
._._._._._._.
- March updates:
-° Minor additions to the
Lacepunk and
Oversea posts.
.
-° A very pleasant WG week-end
photo report, with several ‘tricorned’ games.
.
-° Imaginations: added Dreikoller, Beerstein, Krussia,
Lichtengrein and
NordMark (this last not exclusively LaceWars), and a link to
Simplissimus' 'better than true' biographies; links to (mainly Napoleonic)
Ober Nord Westfalen and to
Ruritania (1837) are recorded on the
web resources page - I should be glad to have them among the 'Fict' ones if the 18th C. history and uniforms receive attention (done early April).
._._._._._._.
- February updates:
-° Updated the review of 'current'
Oversea siuation with the addition of 5 statelets in North America (may their creators pardon this qualification, but I had to pack them in a Half-Continent soon to be overcrowded!); added (a pitiful attempt of ) a political map of this Half-Continent; updated the description of Bon Mondiale, the Huguenot republic.
.
-° Added the date of the latest update (of text or as a new comment) as a header to the 4 main 'non–Monte-Cristan' posts:
Fict. LW armies,
Fict. LW uniforms,
Oversea and
Lacepunk: minor additions / corrections being not reported here.
.
..
..
-° Monte-Cristo feverishly hopes to be spared by the eruption of violence threatening the
W. H. O. R. E. .
..
-° Imaginations: 59 'Fict' links! Added Saint-Vignobles, Steglitz,
Neue Sudland, Nova Orkjeynar
and Granson: 'we' are 60! Added later a link to a battle report displaying Lutelanders (while waiting for a blog of their own), and substituted Trojania with Taurusheim, the actual name of the Imagi-Nation; posted links to Ober Nord Westfalen (Napoleonic) and Ruritania-1837 on the
Web Resources page under V-D.
.
.
-° Nostalgia: the
Miniatures Museum on Phil Olley’s site.
.
.
.-° Fictitious Lace Wars uniforms: added, as
comments, the description of 5 legions and 2 whole armies; also expanded the possible uniforms of the hypothetical army of
Saxe-Chambord.
The illustration below is here only as an inspiration for colorful uniforms (of course! What else?) -the anachronical colored tricorn excepted.
You know the trick: click on the thumbnail to get a better view.
._._._._._._.
.
- jan. 19
.-° Added the
Bishopric of Kopf-Schlager as the 53rd ‘Fict’ link –unfortunately not to a blog but to a post on a forum, so keep an eye on the
‘Cardinal's Picture Room’ and also on this
Lounge. The 4 *asterisked* links are currently dead, I leave them in the hope the corresponding blogs will reappear. Owners no longer interested in one of their ‘specialized’ blogs really should NOT delete it: other people can find the posted material interesting and inspirational. Yet, with the addition of Hesse-Marburg (O1 21), 50 working links to Lace Wars Imagi-Nations is a gratifying and encouraging number. Wish it will *double* during this new year (a potential –hopefully– blog may be announced in that same TMP thread where I discovered Kopf-Schlager)!
-°
18th C. Imagi-Nations: a call to blogging (Tried to collect information through messages on
various TMP
boards) With the recent reprint of
‘The Wargame’, and its forthcoming
‘Companion’, the interest of the wargaming community to
Imagi-Nations, specially
Lace Wars ones, will be
boosted.
.
Yet they are
already less rare than their limited presence on the Web may suggest. While I have some 50 working
‘Fict’ links to blogs or sites at least partly devoted to (at least) one
fictitious 18th C. country, a cursory browsing of the TMP and 3 Yahoo groups revealed
78 (yes,
seventy eight!) other gamers with that same interest:
I publish their list as a comment to this post. A new imagination and an additional potential (hopefully) blogger discovered since on the
TMP; and I realize I forgot John 'OSW' Preece who is building a 'yet to be named
OSW mythical army of vintage figures': an update will be posted as a comment to next post .
Please peruse this list: I had more than a single one motivation to post it.
-If you know of
another wargamer (yourself or a fellow player) interested in Lace Wars Imagi-Nations, with or without a blog / site, please post his / her coordinates: thanks in advance.
.
-If yourself (mentioned on the list or not) share this game setting, discovering how many ‘we’ are, realizing that you are not alone, not some kind of freaky ‘drop out’, hopefully will decide you, not only to make your ‘outcoming’, but also to ‘take the plunge’ and
launch *your own BLOG* (it’s free and, believe me, incredibly
*easy*). We all to gain in the mutual encouragement, inspiration and learning provided by published personal experience, photos, comments… Thus
don’t be shy and openly join the ‘Virtual Brotherhood’! What you created deserves to be known and will inspire and encourage others. And remember, among the 6+ billions of persons in Earth,
only YOU can publish your creations, they are your –totally original and unique– brainchild; to let them stay in oblivion is like letting an endangered species die out; nobody but
you can publish them. The more numerous we will be present on the Web, the richer will be our exchanges (even if only ‘virtual’), and the (bio-like) diversity of the Imaginary 18th century.
On-line Albums such as Photobucket are nor very convenient: ‘eye-candy’ as the pics may be, they are disconnected from any description (painting or modelling hints, background, battle report…) -unless carefully 'linked' to posts on a blog. We are drowned under the overflow of information on the web, messages posted on Discussion Groups and Boards (such as on the TMP) pass by and are soon forgotten, buried under layers and layers of new messages: these forums are marvelous for instantaneous exchange of information, but far from ideal when it comes to perusing their Archives –so much the more as none I know allows to search by date. Thus within a few days it becomes difficult to link pictures and text –unless the poster cared to quote in the legend of the illo. the # of the corresponding message, or to archive the ‘written part’ in a ‘Files’ folder with the same name as his ‘Photos’ one. Additionally access is restricted to members, so to post a direct link to photos or files archived in a Group is almost useless.
Only on *blogs* do illustrations and text stay together, and searching their archives is far easier (specially if the blogger cares to label his posts). No support is as reader-friendly and convenient as a blog, and blogging is NEITHER more difficult NOR more time-consuming than posting files or images on a Group: thus…
[Setting up a blog is *nothing*; maintaining it is a chore only if you see it as a *diary* (such blogs are too often long-winded, time consuming, and frankly boring): you feel guilty if it is not regularly updated. Not so if you treat your blog as a 'specialized folder': you come back to it *only* if and when you have something new to post; nothing like 'duty' or 'work'.
And if your interests change? So what? Among the sites referenced on my blog a *lot* have not been updated for years (among the 'uniformology' ones, or the funny but rich
'Duke Elector King’) and are still enjoyable, informative and inspirational.]
.
If you feel tempted by the idea of designing your own Imagi-Nation (or group of warring neighbors), its (/their) geography, natural resources and economy, its history and current political situation, deciphering the Court gossip to disclose plots, 'characterizing' noteworthy individuals with some RPG-like events thrown in... you can take the plunge
before having a single mini! You would not be the first (nor the last) Imagi-Nation creator to launch his blog before buying the first miniature soldier for its army – browse the
‘Fict’ links for stimulating examples.
And of course owning only fully historical miniature armies it perfectly compatible with their use as the
Armed Might of an Imaginary Country: it corresponds to the ‘1st’ (Neil Cogswell’s
‘War of the Bombar Succession’) or ‘2nd’ (The
Grand Duchy de Lorraine in ‘The Wargame’) levels of ‘unhistoricity’, with inspirational and respectable precedents.
.
Similarly, as soon as your country(ies) has(ve) a name and a little 'character', you can enter the exchange of diplomatic missives on the
'Emperor vs Elector' collective
blog (with currently 40 members).
You don't need to have your own blog or site to contribute: send a mail to the blog owner /
coordinator and he will give you a blogger IP allowing to post and comment on the blog (and, I guess, to post comments on any blog).
.Personal involvement varies freely from 'lurker' to 'regular poster', with individual contributor but also with time, current main object of interest, mood and pressures from 'The Real World™'. But you are then recorded in the 'links bank', and the blog is a very enjoyable, friendly and stimulating meeting
meeting point for Lace Wars
Imagi-Nations Rulers. Contributors are pleasant fellows who share their knowledge in the kindest way.
With its
‘battles by proxy’, ‘EvE’ offers isolated wargamers an opportunity to
break their isolation and have their
solo battles a precious part of a common effort.
.
The Laws of Physics are relaxed in our Multiverse:
Space is elastic, with e.g. already 3 'France';
Time is extensible and Malburian as well as AWI countries and armies coexist there (even a few Napoleonics –feeling so lonely among the ‘hardboiled historical’ Napoleonic
Great Vocal Majority).
.
Not all the 78 wargamers listed are currently rulers of an ‘active’ Imagi-Nation: some are just starting, other have switched their main field of interest but have a long, inspirational and enjoyable experience to share. A few did not built a whole fictitious army, but ‘spiced’ their ‘historical’ one with colorful imaginary
Freicorps. One or two only converted minis into quasi-historical (de Saxe’s
‘daydreamed’ Legion) or historical but mythical-looking (
Schaumberg-Lippe Carbiniers) troop types. But
*ALL* have done an original work that fully deserves to be published for the ‘education’, inspiration and enjoyement of the community.
._._._._._._.
.
- jan. 14, 2008: -° added Clove-Hamhock, Kitschberg (40th contributor to the 'EvE' campaign) and Trojania (provisional name) as the 50th to 52nd 'Fict' links; messages on the OSW group allow to hope for a few more soon. 2008 is full of promises!
.
-° Cosmos 1745: toyed with a few ideas about Mars and the Earthling presence there by the mid-18th C.; added the resulting elucubrations as comments (6, currently) to the
relevant post (and no, it's NOT
"Oversea Colonies: one step further" -not yet!).
.
-° Fictitious Lace Wars uniforms: added, as comments to corresponding posts, sketchy descriptions of imaginary uniforms (text only -sorry, no drawings yet: I miss know-how, software and mainly energy to use David's templates, presently at least). 9 'armies' are described: 4 annexed to the
'Oversea Colonies' post: 2 Spanish in 'mythical America' (1 for Antiglia, 1 for 'Brazil': posted O1 05), those of the Jacobite Kingdom in Acadia and the New-Irish Country (posted O1 09, with French and British supplements); 5 annexed to the
'Fictitious uniforms' post: 1 for an army developped from a few uniforms in a literary source (posted O1 07), 2 post-Culloden victorious Jacobites (posted O1 12), 2 for a pair of mythical Principalities able to replay the GNW by the mid-18th C. (posted O1 14, with an -unsollicited & unauthorized- Togarasian supplement; armies that can also be used to increase the 'military biodiversity' in North America, maybe even adding a new Country there?).Thus, together with sketchy outlines of the armies of the 4 major
North American Imagi-Nations and gathering the imaginary units depicted in the various 'Uniforms'-labelled posts (text &/or comments), the description of the equivalent of 14 (rather large) fictitious Lace Wargame armies has now been posted. Nonetheless, keep periodically 'throwing an eye' (as we say in Monte-Cristo) to the comments attached to these 2 posts and the
'Fictitious Lace Wars armies' one: I still have 10 'mythical' armies and several Poldevian and Ruritanian mixed Legions up my sleeve (I started compiling notes on fictitious 18th C. uniforms some
50 years ago...)!
.
-° 6 months of blogging: bilan appended as a 'comment' to this post.
._._._._._._.
.
- dec. 26:
-° 50! Fifty! No, it’s not *not* my birthday – I know now that I was still *young* when I was only 50!
I just added the 49th ‘Fict:‘ link to the Monte-Cristan blog: with the Presipality itself there are now 50 repertoried websites or blogs partly or totally devoted to a
Lace Wars Imagi-Nation (or to a ‘bubble’ of fictitious warring neighbors). 36 of them are contibutors to the ‘
Emperor vs
Elector’ ‘collective’
web campaign.
I notice that at least 18 of these blogs –often devoted to a ‘theatre of operations’ involving at least 2 fictitious countries– used David’s SYW
Uniforms Templates to display the uniforms of their mythical units. Still only a minority, yet an encouraging factor of ‘visual homogeneity’, propitious to the eventual compilation of a ‘
Funcken of Lace Wars Imagi-Nations’.
OK, I DID cheat a little: a few blogs are currently rather ‘dormant’ (the pressure of ‘The Real World ™’!), two are provisionally closed – hopefully they, or their content, will reappear one day, or at the very least the
Tradgarlander army will eventually include a contingent from
Altberg and a mixed force of
Togarasian exiles.
But Argoz-Bern, Ardoberg-Holstein and Rubovia are abundantly documented in the folders of the
OSW Yahoo group, Saxe-Burlap und Schleswig-Beerstein, The Grand Duchy with No Name and now The Levitzer Rabbinate in those of the
SOCDAISY: this more than balances that! And several other Lace Wars Imagi-Nations have at least their army described in the archived messages of these two Groups.
.
There is an overflow of information on the web, messages posted on Groups and boards (such as on the TMP) pass by and are forgotten, many interesting references and links with them. Thus, in my small, petty, pet domain –fictitious Lace Wars
Armies &
Countries, and
Lacepunk– I try to act as a specialized archivist. Hopefully the blog may be of some interest for a few newcomers, at least for its bibliography / ‘virtual library’. Then
everything (& everybody) decays, videos are removed, links are changed or die. I try to patch this, but feel it’s some kind of hopeless rearguard action against the Dorian Gray syndrome.
.
While some skill at blogging came with experience, and while, all posts having been checked and updated, I find the result now bearable, drastic improvements are certainly in order: comments, criticisms and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
._._._._._._.
.
- dec. 19:
-°
Oversea Colonies: added references to the Oberbindlestiffer Jungferninseln -or in good German Mädcheninseln Oberbindlestiffs?- and to the possessions of the Levitzer Rabbinate in Asia.
.-° Glad to welcome Raubenstadt as the 48th 'Fict' link!
._._._._._._.
.
- nov. 17:
-° Rainbow Warriors: (mis)used again that unlucky Grassin template, this time to toy with 'colors modifications' utilities; I used the (quasi-psychedelic) result to 'adorn' an
old post with (too?) much text but regrettably few pictures! (At the end of the 'Light Troops' § under II- Other Arms).
-° Daisyesque?: added to the discussion of
de Saxe's ±mythical uniforms a link to an old French musical video; relevancy excessively marginal (to say the least), but I find the images rather funny.
-° Greetings to Mitteland (a Kreis of 7 Nations) as the 47th 'Fict' link! 2 more and with MC we will be 50!
-° Added a § on 'Female Lace Wars Soldiers'
to the
Lace Wars Sci-Fi post, how 'weird' being that very idea!
.
-° Go on a Grand Tour of the Presipality: all 38 previous posts have now been checked (horrified by the density of typos!), edited and (hopefully) somewhat 'improved'; many received additions, were expanded in the text and / or by a comment, often more than once -specially the 10 labelled 'Uniforms'. I tend now to treat this blog as a poor man's website, with a 'What's New?' page (this post), and a few 'thematic' pages each scattered along several posts with same 'label'; it began when I posted the 'salvo' of 6 'Lace Wars Sci-Fi' messages backwards, so that they appear in reading order in the archives. Thus every post, regardless of its date of creation, may be updated at any moment -indeed, almost everyday there is a minor correction / addition to a post or another, not reported here. Comments, criticisms and suggestions welcome!
._._._._._._.
.
- nov. 15:
-°
First (clumsy) attempt of a crude sketch of a Monte-Cristan uniform, that of the Carabiniers, (mis)using David's Grassin; added to the 2 relevant posts. -° Three good
battle scenes (
GNW) from the Russian movie "The Sovereign's Servant" already mentioned on sept. 26 below.
-°
Found a better image of an early 19th C. vision of a French invasion using a tunnel under the Channel, to illustrate what the ‘
Taupe-Behemoth’ can dig.
-°
Found the ‘long’ version of the French SYW-set musical video, but unfortunately cut up in two parts: 9’35 (
female agents in action in the last 2.5’) and 8’15 (with most of the
battle scene).
._._._._._._.
.
- nov. 03: -° A short description of the Monte-Cristan cult and Sisters of St Jezebel has been attached as a comment to the most
relevant post, and also to both
De Saxe, the POPP’s best penpal and
MC Mil R&D I-Weapon Systems; to this
later post I added, also as a comment, a link to a short extract of The Scarlet Empress.
-° A few links to short videos ± relevant to the 18th C.:
*Four links to short 'battle' extracts of (IIIrd Reich?) B&W movies about Frederick the Great:
Der Choral Von Leuthen-1,
Der Choral Von Leuthen-2,
Der Grosse Koenig – Kunersdorf and
Fridericus – Battle: thanks to the TMP!
*Far less 'military': - first
Marie-Antoinette (but cut the sound).
- Here
Munchausen meets
Catherine II.
- Several scenes from the French movie «Le Pacte des Loups»: in this
scene of action, the fighters in tricorn and raised collar could well be Operatifs of the Monte-Cristan
BSN;
Monica Bellucci gives a good depiction of a Mont-Cristan
‘matrimonial’ agent (indeed she / her character may well have been a major source of inspiration). A good scene of bare hands
fighting: the ‘hero’, just as
Oumpah-pah, followed a French friend to Europe. This next video is oddly used to illustrate an
‘Old_School’ song. A very modern music as background of these images of the
‘Bête du Gévaudan’. In the last two sequences, the young
tricorned amazon with restricted
manners could look a little like
Lady Pettygree.
- Next to the 'Brotherhood' is the
Company of Wolves. As a step further in the same direction, I added links to 18th C. werewolves to the post dealing with the possible addition of a little Sci-Fi or
Fantasy ‘spice’ to Lace Wars-gaming.
- oct. 30 : Unfortunately the sculptor of these great
‘artisanal’ 28mm SYW minis produces them for his personal use only! But it’s good to see that NPI somehow survives – even if for me I’ve been unable to go to this page from the
NPI site?
._._._._._._.
.
- oct. 28: New meals become popular in Monte-Cristo - The potato -locally known as 'ground apple'- is now currently offered in the streets in 'squid & fries' ("calamars-frites") as a form of 'fast food', while restaurants have added 'brandade' to their menu and housewives 'rapee' to their cooking routine. As for the 'sweet potato', Monte-Cristan confectioners compete in trying to adapt to it their successful recipes of candied rhubarb, marrons glaces or honeyed banana jelly. Rice is imported from far away (cultivation is now attempted in friendly Kamarg) mainly as a source of flour for exotic ravioles. 'Indian corn' (maize) flour is now of common use for quicly cooked creams and sauces. Ah, and among new drinks, cocoa in coconut milk -hot or cooled- is all the rage. Such are the major concerns here in Monte-Cristo, while so
many other
countries in
our Europe
know war or
expect it.
._._._._._._.
.
- oct. 21: -° Having discovered the blogging possibilities of Firefox (I'm on Mac, and Safari is rather blogger-unfriendly), I improved the layout and lisibility of a few previous posts, specially the august description of a possible
mythical North America by the mid-18th C. (with, as an addendum, a preliminary reference to a Stirling (Draka)-inspired Huguenot South Africa), and the july discussion of how
Fictitious Lace Wars armies can 'look right'; the (ca 50) links provided in this last post under V
- Web resources have been updated and are now directly working ('clickable'); note that several of them, to sites specially devoted to a given historical army during a short period, to galleries of 'historical' minis or to 'generalist' wargaming sites, do not appear at blog level (left) individually: but here (<-) the link Gen:Various leads to this page.
-°d Compliments, Wishes and Apologies d
We, Louys of Monte-Cristo, offer Our most sincere wishes and compliments to the newly wedded
Grafein of Zolms-Braunburg and
Graf of Zolms-Braunwald. Let their union be happy and blessed with peace and prosperity.
We present to Our Dear Young Cousins Our deepest regrets for the unjustifiable absence of any special Monte-Cristan Representative of high enough Status at the wonderful Ceremony. Our diplomatic (and
other)
"Agencies" failed miserably to keep Us informed in due time of the situation in the
Furstschaft of Zolms: some heads will roll (figuratively speaking, of course: let no blood spoil this union! And, as any Monte-Cristan, We have a visceral hatred of any violence - obviously)!
A group of young Monte-Cristan ladies, carrying this Letter, will immediatly depart from the Presipality to present the Newly-Weds with pine-seed dragees and other typical Monte-Cristan delicacies, and two richely illustrated old books of
appropriate nature from the Presipapal Library.
With all Our Paternal affection,
written by Our Own Hand and signed
Louys
d d d
P.S.: with Zolms, the number of
'Fict' links is now of 46.
-° A premiere thanks to the
"Emperor vs Elector" web campaign: to-day oct. 21 a battle is to be fought in British Columbia with
Murdock and his ‘Marauders’ acting as
‘proxies' for the rulers of
Frankzonia and the
Soweiter League, who live in Arkansas and Southern California respectively! More details posted as a comment to my july post
From Solo Wargaming to World-Wide Campaigns where I proposed the idea. Oct. 31: Murdock posted a juicy
report of this BATTLE OF OFFENBACH, with eye-candy photos as usual. Update on Nov. 03 : following this successful ‘premiere’, another ‘battle by proxy’ –this time a ‘neutral’ solo wargamer controlling the forces from 7 other players scattered across whole North America– will take place near the town of
Tippelbruder.
-° The illustrations are better ignored, the orchestration is too 'modern', but this
French marching song dates from the 17th C. and was a favorite by Lace Wars times «At the sound of their fifes and drums, Mr de Turenne's fierce dragoons crossed the Rhine, burned down Koblenz and looted the whole Palatinate»... (video removed : try
here, or a sung version
here)
-° Want to hear the singing style of the Monte-Cristan Guards? Links to
modern interpretations (mostly in
French) of a few songs have been added to the
corresponding post; actually the Gardes de l’Etrier sang on an even slower, more majestuous and almost funeral rhythm. Also added a few relevant links to YouTube - ignore the visuals, and the modern pace.
._._._._._._.
.
._._._._._._.
.
- oct. 15: Tremendous report (
part 1,
part 2) of the
Battle of Preisserstadt –the OSW American Big Game- on
Der Alte Fritz Journal: 'historical' armies, but a must see nonetheless!
._._._._._._.
.
- oct. 12:
Surprising news from Monte-Cristo - The company of
Carabiniers attached (officially as firefighters) to the Presipapal Palace had its strenght recently trebbled "following the tradition of the Capitain's Own Troop in the Black Company". Since this company is the only entirely professional outfit of Carabiniers, this represents a substantial increase of the Monte-Cristan 'professional army'.
Comments vary, but most Monte-Cristans point out that this decision was taken when the Academy of Sciences began building prototypes of
advanced weapon systems, who need to be guarded, isolated from indue curiosity and also manned / crewed. This led to more general
comments about the true military strenght of Monte-Cristo, its population and area, larger by far than generally believed.
._._._._._._.
.
- oct. 04: -° added (below, in the 09/26 §) a pic of all the the A.A. 'Flintloque'
Dark Elves Light Infantry'men': on second thoughts certainly the part of the whole Elvish range most immediatly usable as humans in the army of some 'Tricorn'
Imagi-Nation. Could very well pass for 'velites' of de Saxe's
daydreamed Legion! Wonder if a handswap with the Eureka100 Grassin bugler could be endvisaged to complete the unit? I just perused the 'Foundry' site: Alternative Armies 'Elves' look as human as many H&M Foundry historicals! Update nov. 14: AA deeply modified their site, links to photos are now 'dead'.
-° Never seen
wargamers in action, and curious? Thanks to this video (link relayed to the TMP and the OSW group), you can
watch (and hear) them! Take also a look at this very impressive (historical) SYW
wargame using the floor (H. G. Wells fashion) of some dancing hall instead of a playing table!
-°
"Reality is for those who lack Imagi-Nations!": this very brilliant phrase is from the Grand Duke of
Hetzenberg.
-° Another remarkable series of
mythical uniforms and flags: on the
Duchy of M'Uedail.
._._._._._._.
.
- sept 26: Just (re)discovered the full 'Flintloque' range: their
Elves of Armorica (initially known as 'Crystal Elves', long ago) are quite 'realist' and could be used as 'humans' on a tabletop. I'm suggesting, I repeat,
*not* to use them as 'Elves' in some 'Castle Falkenstein 1745' setting, but as
*HUMANS* in original uniforms, with new types of headgear, adding variety to a fictitious 18°C. army (well,
de Saxe did it, a respectable historical precedent!).
Update nov. 14: AA deeply modified their site, links to photos are now 'dead'.
Most cavalry types, being helmeted rather than in shako or bicorn, could fit in the army of a Lace Wars Imagi-Nation: on the
L'Esprit Du Garde (left) the helmet already looks more 'de Saxe' than Napoleonic). The 'Gardes Dragoons' (command right) look quite de Saxesque indeed! For the
hussars, filing down the peak would turn the shako into an acceptable mirliton / busby with bag. More generally, removing the peak from their helmet gives instantaneously a more ‘mid-18° C.’ look to late 18°-early 19° C. helmeted cavalrymen: try to vizualize it on e.g. the
Gardes Dragoons to the left. Too bad they do not offer a sprue of heads (e.g. 2 - 3 types, total = twice the number of minis) with their sets: the 'Polish schapska' is too typed, but their
Lanciers Rouge all in fatigue cap would make interesting Lace Wars light cavalry. Among their Dark Elves of Catalucia, the
Cabaleros could also be used, once mounted on ‘historical’ hussar horses.
The Dark Elves Light Infantry (above), in 'exotic' and thus less 'chronologically tagged' dress, are probably the most immediatly appropriate to a Lace Wars army; filing down the peak of the helmet (de Saxe's 'original' ones, later so widely copied, had none) would give them a definitively mid-18°C 'look'. Too bad the officer is bare-headed, headswappings don't look easy on these minis.
Note the mountain artillery, which may be interesting as
battalion guns, but the range offers also interesting
field cannons,
howitzers and
Siege guns. And you find even a grim
field hospital vignette.
Elves are always the less caricatural, cartoonesque non-human fantasy minis, and generally can pass easily for humans on the tabletop .
At least, the Flintloque Elves are *not* more caricatural / non-human than many Foundry 18° C. minis! But I wonder if their size would make them compatible with a popular SYW range?
._._._._._._.
.
- sept 24: Not a musical video, but a spectacular
battle scene from Barry Lyndon (thanks der Alte Fritz!).
-° added links to:
° a pic of Da Vinci's "bike" in a comment to this very post,
° a suggestion of a possible conversion of Eureka "Triumphapedes" to Lace Wars armed coveyances (with the option to equip them with Da Vinci's 'mangrinder' -illustrated) as a comment to
MC Mil R&D II-Ground Mobility;
-° added an illustrated 'possible' system of air mobility control to the post
MC Mil R&D IV-Air Mobility;
-° added a pic of Da Vinci's "machine gun" to the post
MC Mil R&D I-Weapon Systems.
-° For an initiation to wargaming fictitious Lace Wars armies, for beautifully painted minis one could do worse than looking at
Pils-Holstein and
Leder-Hosen (not that I make any form of ranking!), while very impressive plastic armies are on display in
Alsatia-Franconia and
Lagerburg-Slobbovia; other appear in Henry Hyde’s
‘Old School’ battle reports: and see them parading in front of a
‘star fort’ model.
Here, straight in the tradition of C. Grant and perfectly illustrating his reference to «the pleasing 'visual effect' of wargames», a
spectacular re-fight of the battle of Mollwitz. Again on Phil Olley's site, on the
'Classic Wargaming' showcase page, nice photos -with some marvelous models of buildings- illustrating his preparation ofthe 'Sittanbag 2006' Old School demo game. Take also a look at the Photos folders of the
OSW and
SOCDAISY groups, among other to the armies of Ardoberg-Holstein & St. Maurice and Saxe-Burlap und Schleswig-Beerstein, respectively.
Albeit displaying 'historical' armies, the fully illustrated battle reports on
Ioannis Mavromichalis '"wargames-etc" site are enjoyable and instructive examples of 'Lace Wars' tabletop battlegames. Update: Murdock posted a juicy
report of the fictitious BATTLE OF OFFENBACH, with eye-candy photos as usual; see also Der Alte Fritz’ tremendous report (
part 1,
part 2) of the
Battle of Preisserstadt: 'historical' armies, but a must see nonetheless!
Historical but nicely painted ‘Lace Wargame’ units and flags on
roly’s and
eric’s sites.
Very pleasant series of imaginary uniforms using David’s
SYW uniforms templates are on display on several blogs, the most recent being
Hetzenberg.
From a quite different approach,
M'Uedail offers the extremely humorous ‘novelized’ history of a mythical Duchy, illustrated again by a great series of original uniforms and great flags.
._._._._._._.
.
- sept. 22: Monte-Cristo ready to launch a new type of mercenary outfit on the international market: the 'Frei Corpse'?
(right, Alternative Armies figurine 55518_b; left, Blackcatbases Skeleton Navy)
._._._._._._.
.
-° New illustrated ideas added as a comment to the
Lace Wars Sci-Fi?'Cloudships of Mars' post; I managed again to add (only) links to photos in the 'comment' - clumsy, but they work! Too bad I could not insert the photos themselves, this blog lacks pictures (hence that at left!), and one cannot edit comments, afaik. The link (tinyurl) to the , as possible inspiration for 18°C. war balloons modellers, for some mysterious reason does not work: corrected here, these impressive modellers deserve to be known.
-° 'The reply of Monte-Cristo to Tradgarland' inserted as a comment to this post; failed to post a ('dystopian future') illustration, but this time managed to place a *working* link to it - not sure to known how I did it....
-° Links to Parroom Station and ‘Dead Earth’ Bronze Age Minis added to the
Lace Wars Sci-Fi? post; also added a pic of the 'Women Warriors' set from the Bronze Age Minis site: I do like female minis - and this blog cruelly lacks photos of minis, anyway. The RAFM 'official' Cosmos 1899 Martians could not be used in a Lace Wars setting without a few modifications -at least filing out or covering the breast pockets- since they look even more WWI than Victorian. Anyway they are bland, unimaginative and the range is limited to privates: you'd have to convert some to create your sergeant, officer, musician, standard bearer...
-° links here-> to 2
musical videos in ± relevant costumes (
movie scores... bof...):
-° Links to musical videos, relevant here as displaying (±approximative!) mid-18° C. costumes, were added to two posts:
° In
Currently at the Casino a link to "A gothic drama retelling a popular German legend" is directly visible (a link to a larger screen version is inserted in the text); while the link to "An amusing (if somewhat controversial by foreign standards) comedy" is inserted. A link to a trailer (set a little early for 'our' time, according to the wigs) is associated with 'a smaller theatre'. A visible link to a musical video with mid-18°C. gamblers ends the post.
°In
'How I catched the virus (of fictitious Lace Wars uniforms)' a link to the video "supposed to feature 'SYW British infantrymen'" is given in the text (for the longer version see nov.15 update above); a link to a battle scene from French 'Fanfan' inserted; the link to the video (*not* showing Lace Wars costumes) that gave me the color pattern for the uniform of the Carabiniers de Monte-Cristo is directly visible. Also a few illos added, including scans of the 1945 book 'Voyage en Absurdie'; my 'ideal army list' posted as an annex at the end.
-° The description of a possible fictitious North America by the FIW times in the August post
Oversea colonies: one step further' has been updated, and will be again when I know more about Ny Tradgarland and the semi-independant colonies of Maroon (French) and Mind (British) -if their creators agree, of course. Maybe other fictitious settlements in North America will appear on the Web?
A new image just received from Nouvelle France and which -with reference to descriptions from the most reliable source- in all likelihood presents Ny Tradgarlander militiamen in training, has been inserted.
The possibilty to update old post with relevant new matter is IMHO very handy, avoiding to have the information related to a given topic scattered along the Archives. Indeed I'm now inclined to treat this blog, not as a diary, but as a kind of directory with each post the equivalent of a folder devoted to a given subject. Thus I prefer to add a comment to an old post rather than posting on the same topic as a new message -how many people comment on their own blog? I'm progressively adding links between posts, to make the exploration of the blog -and the discovery of Monte-Cristo- easier. Yet I understand this use may be somehow reader-unfriendly, specially toward people using tools such as Google Reader, which checks for new posts.
.
BTW, a reminder of the intents behind the creation and background of the Presipality of
Monte-Cristo:
Having a passion,
since childhood, for fictitious Lace Wars uniforms and since the mid-seventies for wargaming with such armies, I envoyed for some time to passively watch on the Web the achievement of several
‘active’ players. Then, eager to join the
‘Emperor vs Elector’ web campaign, but without either a Lace Wars army or –at 63– the will to built one, I chose to create a minuscule, totally neutral,
Imagi_Nation.
More or less a
parody of Monaco, with a strong input (the liberal constitution, the nudism of the youth, the easy and pleasant life) from Pierre Louys’ ‘
Les aventures du Roi Pausole’ (1905), itself set on the Côte d’Azur. Thus from the start Monte-Cristo was not intended to be an active player in the campaign, merely a setting where agents of the Active Countries may, more or less secretly,
interact in the preparation of either official Peace Meetings at Geneva or some High Treason. The current Prince-President had the Thermal Baths and
Casino (a good place to meet 'accidentally', a convenient way for laundering dirty money, an excellent excuse to give huge quantities of gold as "gambling debts".... ) built to provide an excuse to visit the retired Presipality. Besides, being State-owned, their income helps to keep the tax burden on the citizens very light. Of course, the State itself could play the part of a go-between in the diplomatic campaign, would other countries / players wish.
The basic idea behind the Monte-Cristan foreign policy is that the independence and freedom of such a tiny, indefensible Nation can survive only under the tacit, but firm, protection of the International Community. Hence the lucrative ‘warmly friend to anyone’ type of neutrality: the aim is to have Monte-Cristo so useful to most Major Powers that they, collectively, would deter any threat against the Presipality. The famous secrecy of the Presipapal Bank (for Sustainable Developpment and Constantly Increasing Profit) is part of the plan: with People of Power and Influence everywhere in Europe having numbered account(s) here, nobody would tolerate an invasion of Monte-Cristo.
Then I tried to flesh out the country, to add some depth to its character, by playing on the contrast between the blatant and the less obvious. At first glance, Monte-Cristans are gentle, kind and welcoming people with a reassuring ‘Peace & Love’ / ‘Flower Power’ ethos: naturists quietly growing their smoking dream-herb and selling candied fruits and perfumes. Yet the submerged part of the iceberg is far darker.
Monte-Cristo is fundamentally a
shameless leech of continental proportions: its easy / lazy way of life lays on the obscenely exaggerated prices of the exported luxury (i.e. basically useless) goods. Thus the Monte-Cristan welfare comes from the cynical exploitation of people in other countries (not an unique practice, truth to say). Presipapal
Assassins fiercely protect the secret recipes of these exported goods. In his obsessive desire to be ahead in the international affairs (due to his paranoid fear to have the independence of his country alienated) the POPP has permanently
agents by the hundreds across whole Europe, to play vicious diplomatic games, watch, eavesdrop, spy, blackmail and spread rumours. In order to keep the taxes on Monte-Cristan citizens as light as possible, the State diversifies its sources of income by auctionning plans of
advanced military technologies. The whole population -female and male alike- is traditionally well trained in individual weapon handling, and ready to fanatically wage a guerilla war against any invader threatening its freedom and 'deviant' way of life. The Gardes de l’Etrier, the only –and microscopic– real ‘army’ of the Presipality, look like benevolent and jovial middle-aged men in uniform; yet, since more than a century and a half, they keep alive all the grim and gloomy
traditions of a bloodied mercenary Free Company from the cruel and maddening Wars of Religion. This, during secret ceremonies with perhaps
Neo-Pagan, not to say Luciferian (or
Cthulhuesque), overtones. In Monte-Cristo Aug. 15 is dedicated, not to Virgin Mary, but to the dim memory of an
Elder Goddess. As for the Monte-Cristan Holy Sisters of St Jezebel… see this
comment. Another, more recent
comment suggests that even by its very
*size* the Monte-Cristan population would be very different from the deliberately misleading image spread (thanks to the geographical isolation of the peninsula) in other countries by the Presipapal diplomacy.
These five short videos may, albeit in a very distorted manner, give a glimpse of some aspects of the ambiguous Monte-Cristan atmosphere, at least as perceived through the eyes of a
prejudiced stranger.
Ah: in the case it passed unnoticed, I tried (in the Old School tradition?) to spice the whole with a pinch of (too often dirty & purely Batrachiophone?) humor, here and there!
Presently I intend to use this post as the ‘Presentation’ page of this «poor man’s website», and to keep using the previous one as the ‘What’s new ?’ page (last update -main text or added comment : O1.11."10 - but, minor additions / corrections being not reported there, 'major posts' display their own date of latest modification): please warn me when it takes inconveniently long to load!
Presently I intend to use this post as the ‘Presentation’ page of this «poor man’s website», and to keep using the previous one as the ‘What’s new ?’ page (last update -main text or added comment : O1.11."10 - but, minor additions / corrections being not reported there, 'major posts' display their own date of latest modification): please warn me when it takes inconveniently long to load!
– the presentation of a Lace Wars Imagi-Nation, Monte-Cristo (posted mainly in jul.-aug. 2007 - last update O2.24."10),
Of course, these subjects provide excuses to describe other imaginary uniforms.
Of course, these subjects provide excuses to describe other imaginary uniforms.
Don’t be misled by the dates of posting: in order to keep all informations relevant to a given topic together (rather than scattered along numerous posts), I (ab)use the possibility to edit the posts later, and I use comments (on O6.13."09 29 to the Lace Wars Sci-Fi post, 13 to the Oversea, 10 to the POPP's Secret Service, 10 to the Traveler's Guide to Monte-Cristo and 19 -devoted mainly to Monte-Cristan culture and diplomacy- to the News from Monte-Cristo ones!) as a handy way to add an annex or endnotes to the main text: those not in the habit of reading comments should read the ones here: practically all are mine, and now account for ≥ 4/5 of the text I posted on this blog.
Given the length of some posts, particularly the 3 extended by several long comments (volume already more than trebled), loading all the posts under a given label may be inconveniently slow: probably better to load one post at a time from the Archives [seemingly one cannot set a ‘menu’ for each label as there is one attached to each month]. 
of which 55+ ‘overspecialized’ or 'too general' don’t appear on the list at the left, but are presented on a ‘web ressources’ sub-page. Not counting the numerous links to illustrations inserted in the text and comments of the 'uniformology' posts.
rendition of Fontenoy, the older Fanfan la Tulipe & two other excerpts; Prussian Grenadiers from ‘Minna von Barnhelm’ and 3 excerpts of Der Grosse Koenig (1942); a deleted night battle scene from Last of the Mohicans, re-enectors at Fort Niagara and Alamansa; Baron Munchausen rides a cannonball and meets Catherine the Great, The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934 movie, 1:32:54!), Catherine gaining the infailing devotion of her army and the fantastic upstairs mounted charge that led her to power, a Grande Duchesse who 'loves militarymen', German Friedrich Freiherrn von der Trenck, then Hellraiser in the time of tricorns, Lieutnant Kije (?), Jeanne Poisson, Marquise de..., Madame de Pompadour, Bloodrayne (whispers in the dark: 18th C., obviously), Dick Turpin, Fritz Lang’s "Moonfleet", a ‘detective story in tricorns’; the Chevalier de Maupin, two excerpts of seemingly (?) the Elisa di Rivombrosa TV series; a bar brawl and a popular brigand, a rescue and an ambush, another popular smuggler-cum 18th C. Robin Hood type and a nursery rhyme rendition of 
his story; [while we are discovering old French songs, not all military, in this same style Malbrough (17th C.), Aupres de ma blonde, Ah vous dirai-je Maman, A la claire fontaine, Fleur d’epine, Colchiques dans les pres, La marche des anges, La marche des Rois, Les prisons de Nantes and the more joyful Les filles de la Rochelle (do you guess what this ‘advantage’ she lost may be?)]; back to more seriousness two moments of young Marie-Antoinette at Versailles; ‘The Duchess’ movie has various trailers and teasers; three excerpts from ‘Beaumarchais l’insolent’; ‘Mon oncle Benjamin’; and, of course, ‘Brotherhood of the Wolf’ (+ 5 other links below, at the end of the §). Military matters in the North: the battle of Fraustadt (Swedes vs Saxon-Poles), skirmishers on skis in Flames of white; the battle of Battle of Poltava part1, part 2, part 3 from The Sovereign's Servant; earlier (but did their costumes changed that much?) Cossacks in With Fire and Sword. Tricornes again, if in a fantasy setting –and also Spanish soldiers in morion as in my ‘alternate’ Antiglia, in Pirates of the Carribean. A diversion of Barry Lyndon, or how a duel can give 'satisfaction'; there you can ‘play’ Barry Lyndon, and another duel. Late for 'our' period, but with not-so-usual uniforms: Raclawice 1794; even more late (bicorns and some shakos!) but a *good* amphibious assault: Admiral Ushakov.
on YouTube a great series of Chansons Historiques de France ‘Historical Songs of France’ –280 by jan. "10 (seemingly not indexed as a channel: other 'search' links); covers more than 4 centuries but many of those from before or after the 18th C. are also interesting, some really stirring; among thoses relevant here Le roi a fait battre tambour, A la claire fontaine, Auprès de ma Blonde, Malborough, Margotton, Les trois Dragons, Fontenoy, Les adieux de la Tulipe, Le soldat mecontent, Les reproches de la Tulipe , Brave marin. Then a series of ± irrelevant videos: "The Highwayman" reminds me of RPG set in the 1745 (should buy the ‘Gloire’ rules), one musical 17:46 long with fictitious SYW uniforms and female agents (if deleted, a (shorter ?) version 
is still available) with a 10:53 prelude also in 18th C. dress or -very Monte-Cristan- lack of), finally one relevant only by the tricorn; of diverse relevance and nature Mesmer, Une soirée à Breteuil, Bloodrayne, Les Folies d'Espagne, The pirates gospel, Vivaldi: Winter (in Venice). 
(‘in the pop charts since 1526!’) and a marvelous (imho) *celtic* rendition of Poe's "The raven" -then the Twa Corbies; then 2 interesting (each in its own way) 'goth' renditions of ‘Fear of the dark’ (Cradle of Filth-like) and ‘Nothing else matters’ (almost gregorian!). By its enthralling, exhilarating warlike beat, Britton An Alarc'h may be less irrelevant here -melody later used for he Scottish Twa Corbiez (German translation, britton-sounding - then by association the Three Ravens and in German two renditions of its translation and an adaptation). The next one to suggest that, despite the current scimitar rattlings South-West of the ‘Emperor vs Elector’ Europe, some form of syncretism is hopefully possible. From Limousin (but in French here) the lament of the blind beggar girl and two interpretation of the Canto del Boie; French Pierre de Grenoble and a very pleasant 'medieval-sounding rendition, the Prince d'Orange ("cursed be war!"), Marion s’y promene, Mon cœur s’y repose, Quand je menai mes chevaux and La fiancee du timbalier; Occitan Se Canta and a 'karaoke' rendition (let's sing all together!), two that are probably not 'pure' Occitan, yet 'sound' righ; a Scandinavian band playing a non-Wagnerian rendition of the Nibelungenlied and an old Britton song.
14 videos in rememberance of Monte-Cristan taste for feasts and merry dancing (sometimes oddly very old-fashioned), barbarian foreign musicians -often showing a laudable syncretism, playing tunes from Brittany and supporting quasi-Maghrebin performances- in spontaneous oecumenical parties, and of its unprejudicied eclectism; then four other renditions of Britton An Dro and other music from Keltia that would be greatly appreciated in the Presipality.
A series of musicals, the first two with (fanciful) Lace Wars uniforms: the Grande Duchesse of Gerolstein, all others in theory at best marginally relevant, and the videos are best ignored as without tricorns: Pelot d’Hennebont with a reference to the Roy Louis (and probably to Fontenoy), Song for ye Jacobites, the moving Loch Lomond, Mo Ghile Mear, Scotland the Brave; military: Marche des Mousquetaires Noirs, Les dragons de Noailles, Marche de la Garde Consulaire, another very good interpretation of the Marche de la Garde Consulaire, La Victoire est à Nous!, Les Cuirassiers, more recent: A degüello, Les Fusiliers, Imnul legionarilor cazuti, Come Out Ye Black And Tans, The Foggy Dew, an interpretation of Bella Ciao with a somewhat 'celtic' sound (!), Der Tod in Flandern, Wenn alle untreu werden (ignore the anachronistic visuals: Max von Schenkendorf poem of 1814 is sung on a pleasant (French!) 18th C. hunting tune), Ich hatt einen Kameraden = J'avais un camarade, Anne-Marie (Mein regiment, mein Heimatland); here comes the cavalry with Garry Owen, She wore a yellow ribbon and The girl I left behind me; back to real 18th C. songs, with Will Ye Go to Flanders, High Germany, Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya (antedated but already so relevant!),, Plaisir d'Amour and Au 31 du mois d'août («Let's drink to the King of France, and merde to the King of England»), then -in a ‘nursery rhyme’ rendition- the story of the 15 years old girl who dressed in sailor clothes to join her bethroded aboard and Trois jeunes tambours; back to the sea with Jackaroe, John Riley and by association Fennario; moving backward in time –and away from military subjects- drumming again in Le Roi a fait battre tambour («The Queen had a bouquet done / of beautiful lily flowers / and the scent of this bouquet / killed beautiful Marquess») and a 'curse on war' -very fitting for peaceful Monte-Cristo; File la laine, Le Beau Robert, Demons et Merveilles, Se Canta; then Le Roi Renaud («Renaud comes back from war / holding his guts in his hands») and La Blanche Biche (doomed by the Fays to change to a white doe every night, she is tracked down, killed and eaten by her brother and his hunt of barons and princes…). Wishing for a lighter tone and tricorns? Try this 18th C. Little Red Riding Hood or even - at your peril- Adam and the Ants.
Finally, back to the 18th C., ± at first, now with the Pirettes -a whole ship crew of fighting girls: for sure a few at least are from Monte-Cristo!- then with Treasures Island and three excerpts of Cutthroat Island; at last with 'Ridicule' -how a women can turn a grown man into a bewildered puppet- and ‘really’ with these five excerpts from ‘Le Pacte des Loups’ / ‘Brotherhood of the Wolves’ with Monica Bellucci. Update: numerous links to musical videos added to previous post (main text and comments) in late april and then specially to the 'Monte-Cristo Home Defence' may entry, then a *lot* more on may 15, mainly in comments to this post (mostly 'out of character' musicals) and to the previous one.
rendition of Fontenoy, the older Fanfan la Tulipe & two other excerpts; Prussian Grenadiers from ‘Minna von Barnhelm’ and 3 excerpts of Der Grosse Koenig (1942); a deleted night battle scene from Last of the Mohicans, re-enectors at Fort Niagara and Alamansa; Baron Munchausen rides a cannonball and meets Catherine the Great, The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934 movie, 1:32:54!), Catherine gaining the infailing devotion of her army and the fantastic upstairs mounted charge that led her to power, a Grande Duchesse who 'loves militarymen', German Friedrich Freiherrn von der Trenck, then Hellraiser in the time of tricorns, Lieutnant Kije (?), Jeanne Poisson, Marquise de..., Madame de Pompadour, Bloodrayne (whispers in the dark: 18th C., obviously), Dick Turpin, Fritz Lang’s "Moonfleet", a ‘detective story in tricorns’; the Chevalier de Maupin, two excerpts of seemingly (?) the Elisa di Rivombrosa TV series; a bar brawl and a popular brigand, a rescue and an ambush, another popular smuggler-cum 18th C. Robin Hood type and a nursery rhyme rendition of 
his story; [while we are discovering old French songs, not all military, in this same style Malbrough (17th C.), Aupres de ma blonde, Ah vous dirai-je Maman, A la claire fontaine, Fleur d’epine, Colchiques dans les pres, La marche des anges, La marche des Rois, Les prisons de Nantes and the more joyful Les filles de la Rochelle (do you guess what this ‘advantage’ she lost may be?)]; back to more seriousness two moments of young Marie-Antoinette at Versailles; ‘The Duchess’ movie has various trailers and teasers; three excerpts from ‘Beaumarchais l’insolent’; ‘Mon oncle Benjamin’; and, of course, ‘Brotherhood of the Wolf’ (+ 5 other links below, at the end of the §). Military matters in the North: the battle of Fraustadt (Swedes vs Saxon-Poles), skirmishers on skis in Flames of white; the battle of Battle of Poltava part1, part 2, part 3 from The Sovereign's Servant; earlier (but did their costumes changed that much?) Cossacks in With Fire and Sword. Tricornes again, if in a fantasy setting –and also Spanish soldiers in morion as in my ‘alternate’ Antiglia, in Pirates of the Carribean. A diversion of Barry Lyndon, or how a duel can give 'satisfaction'; there you can ‘play’ Barry Lyndon, and another duel. Late for 'our' period, but with not-so-usual uniforms: Raclawice 1794; even more late (bicorns and some shakos!) but a *good* amphibious assault: Admiral Ushakov.
on YouTube a great series of Chansons Historiques de France ‘Historical Songs of France’ –280 by jan. "10 (seemingly not indexed as a channel: other 'search' links); covers more than 4 centuries but many of those from before or after the 18th C. are also interesting, some really stirring; among thoses relevant here Le roi a fait battre tambour, A la claire fontaine, Auprès de ma Blonde, Malborough, Margotton, Les trois Dragons, Fontenoy, Les adieux de la Tulipe, Le soldat mecontent, Les reproches de la Tulipe , Brave marin. Then a series of ± irrelevant videos: "The Highwayman" reminds me of RPG set in the 1745 (should buy the ‘Gloire’ rules), one musical 17:46 long with fictitious SYW uniforms and female agents (if deleted, a (shorter ?) version 
is still available) with a 10:53 prelude also in 18th C. dress or -very Monte-Cristan- lack of), finally one relevant only by the tricorn; of diverse relevance and nature Mesmer, Une soirée à Breteuil, Bloodrayne, Les Folies d'Espagne, The pirates gospel, Vivaldi: Winter (in Venice). 
(‘in the pop charts since 1526!’) and a marvelous (imho) *celtic* rendition of Poe's "The raven" -then the Twa Corbies; then 2 interesting (each in its own way) 'goth' renditions of ‘Fear of the dark’ (Cradle of Filth-like) and ‘Nothing else matters’ (almost gregorian!). By its enthralling, exhilarating warlike beat, Britton An Alarc'h may be less irrelevant here -melody later used for he Scottish Twa Corbiez (German translation, britton-sounding - then by association the Three Ravens and in German two renditions of its translation and an adaptation). The next one to suggest that, despite the current scimitar rattlings South-West of the ‘Emperor vs Elector’ Europe, some form of syncretism is hopefully possible. From Limousin (but in French here) the lament of the blind beggar girl and two interpretation of the Canto del Boie; French Pierre de Grenoble and a very pleasant 'medieval-sounding rendition, the Prince d'Orange ("cursed be war!"), Marion s’y promene, Mon cœur s’y repose, Quand je menai mes chevaux and La fiancee du timbalier; Occitan Se Canta and a 'karaoke' rendition (let's sing all together!), two that are probably not 'pure' Occitan, yet 'sound' righ; a Scandinavian band playing a non-Wagnerian rendition of the Nibelungenlied and an old Britton song.
14 videos in rememberance of Monte-Cristan taste for feasts and merry dancing (sometimes oddly very old-fashioned), barbarian foreign musicians -often showing a laudable syncretism, playing tunes from Brittany and supporting quasi-Maghrebin performances- in spontaneous oecumenical parties, and of its unprejudicied eclectism; then four other renditions of Britton An Dro and other music from Keltia that would be greatly appreciated in the Presipality.
A series of musicals, the first two with (fanciful) Lace Wars uniforms: the Grande Duchesse of Gerolstein, all others in theory at best marginally relevant, and the videos are best ignored as without tricorns: Pelot d’Hennebont with a reference to the Roy Louis (and probably to Fontenoy), Song for ye Jacobites, the moving Loch Lomond, Mo Ghile Mear, Scotland the Brave; military: Marche des Mousquetaires Noirs, Les dragons de Noailles, Marche de la Garde Consulaire, another very good interpretation of the Marche de la Garde Consulaire, La Victoire est à Nous!, Les Cuirassiers, more recent: A degüello, Les Fusiliers, Imnul legionarilor cazuti, Come Out Ye Black And Tans, The Foggy Dew, an interpretation of Bella Ciao with a somewhat 'celtic' sound (!), Der Tod in Flandern, Wenn alle untreu werden (ignore the anachronistic visuals: Max von Schenkendorf poem of 1814 is sung on a pleasant (French!) 18th C. hunting tune), Ich hatt einen Kameraden = J'avais un camarade, Anne-Marie (Mein regiment, mein Heimatland); here comes the cavalry with Garry Owen, She wore a yellow ribbon and The girl I left behind me; back to real 18th C. songs, with Will Ye Go to Flanders, High Germany, Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya (antedated but already so relevant!),, Plaisir d'Amour and Au 31 du mois d'août («Let's drink to the King of France, and merde to the King of England»), then -in a ‘nursery rhyme’ rendition- the story of the 15 years old girl who dressed in sailor clothes to join her bethroded aboard and Trois jeunes tambours; back to the sea with Jackaroe, John Riley and by association Fennario; moving backward in time –and away from military subjects- drumming again in Le Roi a fait battre tambour («The Queen had a bouquet done / of beautiful lily flowers / and the scent of this bouquet / killed beautiful Marquess») and a 'curse on war' -very fitting for peaceful Monte-Cristo; File la laine, Le Beau Robert, Demons et Merveilles, Se Canta; then Le Roi Renaud («Renaud comes back from war / holding his guts in his hands») and La Blanche Biche (doomed by the Fays to change to a white doe every night, she is tracked down, killed and eaten by her brother and his hunt of barons and princes…). Wishing for a lighter tone and tricorns? Try this 18th C. Little Red Riding Hood or even - at your peril- Adam and the Ants.
Finally, back to the 18th C., ± at first, now with the Pirettes -a whole ship crew of fighting girls: for sure a few at least are from Monte-Cristo!- then with Treasures Island and three excerpts of Cutthroat Island; at last with 'Ridicule' -how a women can turn a grown man into a bewildered puppet- and ‘really’ with these five excerpts from ‘Le Pacte des Loups’ / ‘Brotherhood of the Wolves’ with Monica Bellucci. Update: numerous links to musical videos added to previous post (main text and comments) in late april and then specially to the 'Monte-Cristo Home Defence' may entry, then a *lot* more on may 15, mainly in comments to this post (mostly 'out of character' musicals) and to the previous one.
I started it when tired to enjoy passively, 'as a leech', what other people –e.g. the members of the ‘EvE’ group– were posting. I confess the progressive creation of Monte-Cristo gave me an *enjoyable* summer. Then, being now retired, with (too much) free time, I started typewriting decades of handwritten notes. Part of what is now recorded on my harddrive I post, slightly edited, on the blog: the equivalent of saving back-up files on an external HD, which happens to be publicly accessible, in the -very unlikely- case a 'newbie' could find it of some use as a souce of inspiration (incl. in setting, army building and 'unorthodox' painting) and references, but chiefly as a 'virtual micro-library' and a bank of relevant links.
Regarding my (so limited) contribution to the ‘Emperor vs Elector’ collective blog, I gladly (proudly?) joined this «League of Lace Wars Imagi-Nations», but I have to confess that, without ‘tricorned’ minis to play with, not even a 'paper & pencil' campaign to report, I’m more of a lurker there. Well, it’s the fate of the elderly to be content watching younger people doing what he no longer does himself :) …'In character' translation: "Life in Monte-Cristo being quiet and uneventful, the Presipality is rarely mentioned in the International Gazette -and then mainly when foreigners come to visit it.
Toyed again with the GraphicConverter ‘color permutation’ utility; started with 3 of David’s templates, initially colored by AJ of Hetzenberg (3rd column from the left).
