//”Oh, hush now. Be a bood boy, open up and drink.” Armand decided that it was time for Nicolas to take a break from composing, since the musician tends to forget to feed and then proceeds to breaking havoc in the streets of Paris once he realizes he’s half starved. Of course, the Grand Maître can’t have that and, out of the pure kindness of his heart, shares some blood. He doesn’t need an excuse to pin him down, okay?
“No, no, don’t let my vulnerable heart share in this sacrifice to lust!
Let him disgust me before pleasing me! Let him be what others have been,
an instrument that I can break before becoming the echoes of its
vibration.”
THIS IS AN AMAZING IDEA and I sat on this in my inbox for a long time because I don’t know that much about D&D and I wish I had more to add to this situation. But like, YEAH like D&D Night at Trinity Gate, third Wednesday every month, sounds perfect. Everyone can come over. I’m more partial to the idea that it’s Armand & Friends and that Lestat comes over and crashes the party and acts like a douche but yeah man I think this DEFINITELY HAPPENS.
Oh man. A small selection because apparently my brain took this and ran with it a bit
“No, Lestat, being a bard does NOT mean you sing all your dialogue”
Daniel as DM because he’s the only one who’s even remotely unbiased
“I am going to smite you SO hard, you won’t even know what smote you. Say bonjour to my TWO-HANDED BROADAXE, you little goblin shit!” *rolls a critical miss*
“Oh, that’s great. Just great. I can’t believe you just said that. We have ONE healer in this party, so do you think just once you could keep your big mouth shut and try NOT to get us all killed?”
“Well maybe if St Francis over here *jabs thumb in Louis’ direction* had picked some USEFUL skills instead of “talking to animals” this wouldn’t have happened”
“Pardon? My charisma stats alone have saved this mission like three times THIS EVENING”
//meanwhile Armand is a min/maxing munchkin who number crunches all his stats and barely misses breaking the game
//Nicolas rolls bard and insists Lestat reroll priest/cleric “if he wants to be so ‘good’”
//totally. Spends points and money with extreme deliberation and keeps absolute track of his gear and any and all bonuses so he never forgets to make use of them at opportune moments
//y e p. Meanwhile Lestat playing chaotic neutral or some shit just so he can fuck with Armand with impunity
//I have no idea how to play D&D but you know I am ALL about COVEN GAME NIGHT!!!!!
Most men would simply wear a simple large shirt tucked into breeches.
Some men wore linen drawers if they could afford them, which were more or less just thinner breeches.
Because of all the layers of clothing, breeches (knee-length capris) opened in the front without having to actually drop them or undo the waist. Their width at the knees often buttoned tightly to stop stockings from rolling down if the garters at mid-thigh didn’t hold.
Put on some clothes, Lestat! Those scenes where Lestat is just wearing a shirt and breeches? Technically he’s only wearing underwear! Usually even at home, a proper gentleman (like Nicolas) would wear a banyan (an East Asian-inspired robe). When going out, a gentleman would wear a tight frock coat.
All of this goes out the window for the Third Estate, who pretty much only owned two sets of clothing for their entire lives.
While I don’t roleplay as any Italian Renaissance characters, it is one of my areas of knowledge and I have many books that I think would be helpful or useful to the roleplayer who wishes to add historical, political, economic, and intellectual context to their work.
Lisa Jardine & Jerry Brotton, Global Interests: Renaissance Art Between East and West
Highly recommended for any Armand player. Explains how Ottoman Empire and Venice interacted through economic and cultural exchange. Lots of stuff to be learned here, and just a great and easy read. If you can’t get to anything else in the book, at least get the preface and the first chapter (I think; it’s been years since I’ve read it though I remember all the lecture slides), which give a great summary and taster about the topic and the authors’ approach. You probably would want to continue after that. This is one of my favorite books.
Gene Brucker, Florence: The Golden Age, 1138-1737
Tons of pictures, giant book, great survey of the feel of the time period.
Joanne M. Ferraro, Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice (2001)
Venetians be suing each other, guys, all the freakin’ time, over marriage contracts. First-person stuff, lots of records, it’s awesome and lively and oh my god how sassy must Armand have gotten?
Okay to be honest, it’s mostly legal gossip, actual depositions, legal records, etc. Give it a skip if you really don’t care about he-said-she-said.
Jerry Brotton, The Renaissance Bazaar: From The Silk Road to Michelangelo (2002)
Really lively read about how Armand probably shopped, told by a recently deceased scholar who was a giant of European Renaissance history. Really cool depiction of how East and West exchanged culture and also created some serious problems that we deal with today.
Ulinka Rublack, Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe (2010)
Because Bianca’s pearls in her hair and Armand’s hose and doublet meant something. Also, lots of fun pictures here, and you can imagine the various costumes Marius would have used to disguise, perform, and hint at a different identity.
Lisa Jardine, Worldly Goods
Super awesome street-smart history (with pictures) about how multicultural the economics of Ottoman Empire-infused Italy was. Just super cool and wide-reaching.
Heather Gregory, Selected Letters of Alessandra Strozzi
Probably the best book for figuring out what Marius would have nagged Armand and Ricardo about. It’s this awesome Italian lady who just writes letters to her sons nagging them about stuff they forgot to do.
Francesco Petrarca (trans. David Marsh), Invectives
Stop giving Armand boring essays to read for homework, Marius.
Jon Thiem, Lorenzo de’ Medici: Selected Poems and Prose (1992)
Lorenzo really liked making dick jokes. Let Armand write some, too!
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists and Painters
Pretty much Vasari going around Italy throwing shade at everyone and gossiping.
Paolo Uccello really hated cheese and Michelangelo was a dick who snatched really nice pieces of wood from competitors by auctioning early.
Peter Robb, M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio
To be honest, this is a pretty controversial biography of Caravaggio, or as Robb claims, “Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio”.
It’s Caravaggio shittalking, dueling, and fucking his way across Italy until the fuzz finally comes after him. Oh, and he apologizes to his patrons a lot and then paints horse butts next to priest faces, so this book kind of made him my childhood hero.
Books I have NOT read but know of:
Guido Ruggerio, The Boundaries of Eros: Sex, Crime, and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice
Find out if Marius (and those gold-painted giggling guys testing Armand) were legit.
Judith Brown, Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy
I think this is just a fun title about an important topic that probably gets ignored a lot.
Michael Rocke, Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence
I have more sources I can recommend, but these are nice to get started and were sitting on my bookshelf.
Some have expressed interest in what sources I use for references to the Royal Maréchausée or Nicolas’ political views or assignat inflation debates or les Amis de la Verité. Much of it is an accumulation of a lifetime of interest, but here are some good sources to get started:
Maria Linton, Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution (2013)
How do a bunch of well-meaning dudes end up guillotining people who just look at them funny later?
Mark Darlow, Staging the French Revolution: Cultural Politics and the Paris Opéra, 1789-1794 (2012)
Really amazing archival research showing how cultural discourse via performances were key to forming public opinion, even though the state had a super-monopoly on what got to be performed.
Remember how Lestat talks about how Renaud’s isn’t really legit and the Comédie Française is where all the legit actors perform? It’s because of the government, y’all.
William Doyle, Aristocracy and its Enemies in the Age of Revolution (2009)
Traces the beginning of the decline of nobility and the effects of naming a particular group “the aristocracy”.
He also wrote a very short history called Old Regime France that’s worth a read if you care about 1648-1788 France, back when Lestat’s dad would have been important.
William Doyle’s actually kind of the ultimate first word in French Revolution survey work. He wrote the Oxford History of the French Revolution and he wastes no time with presenting really accessible detailed information that will give you a good feel for the era.
Jeremy Jennings, Revolution and the Republic: A History of Political Thought in France since the Eighteenth Century (2011)
Really huge survey of intellectual history, political theory, sociocultural history, and political economy.
Charles Walton, Policing Public Opinion in the French Revolution: The Culture of Calumny and the Problem of Free Speech (2009)
Really impressive analysis of how censorship during the French Revolution really messes up ancien regime and new republic troubles.
If you don’t have a lot of time, the Very Short Introductions series has great brief reads on aristocracy and the French Revolution.
Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris
Super sassy and gossipy exploration of Paris from the very beginning. Great research but lots of in-jokes about Bourbons and Plantagenets and stuff and not enough teasing of the Carolingians but I’ll deal. Not great for a first-time history read, but good if you have some foundational knowledge of French history. Just a fun book.
Joan DeJean, How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City
I haven’t read this one! But it’s on my reading list.
Baroness Emma Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel
A novel! But very good for the feel of an era. Also known as the further adventures of Lestat. Very fast read, guilty pleasure, dashing about France, and it even has mistaken identity comedy!
Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche
Another novel! Basically Nicolas tries to avenge a friend’s murder and fucks up really badly.
Books I haven’t read but mean to:
R.R. Palmer, The Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution
Yes, that Robert Roswell Palmer, the guy who wrote the Palmer & Colton European history textbook everybody lugs around in high school. He’s a fantastic and engaging writer with just the right amount of information to make you feel like a native in that time period. I can’t wait to read this book.
I think he wrote a book called Catholics and Unbelievers about the same period.
Simon Schama, Citizens
Apparently really comprehensive from pre-Revolution all the way through Thermidor.
Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution
He wrote this huge 4-part history of the world and I hear it’s a great way to contextualize what was happening in France. So, probably use this for figuring out what Nicolas felt about Italy and England, and why Lestat sent Renaud’s troupe to good ‘ol Blighty.
I-want-my-IWTV 