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Luminian Race by GeekFireLabs

“Harley is like a magpie — if it’s shiny, she’s going to like it. So there’s a lot of shiny looks and fun things and candy necklaces and sequins and this and that. Harley’s look was like a sensory overload, which I think is appealing.” — Margot Robbie on Harley Quinn’s outfits in Birds Of Prey (2020)

Oats

yall ever worked in retail

Let me introduce you to Anna Comnena! She is considered the first female historian, but she also had MANY other talents. She was born on December 1, 1083, into the Byzantine Empire’s MOST prominent family of the time, the Imperial Family of Komnenos. That’s right, she was a PRINCESS that wrote history books (*so* cool). The important part about her being a princess is that she got a classical education that typically only men received. She was the MOST noble of the nobility and came from a LONG line of imperial descent starting with her mother who was a member of the imperial family of Doukai. Anna makes mention of her lofty credintials in her historical texts stating that she was “born and bred in the purple.” Purple has historically been a significant color for the wealthy, and wearing the color represented a higher status. For example, the Roman Magistrates wore a stripe of purple on their otherwise white togas or robes. It has always been a color of imperial power since the dyes used to create the color were EXTREMELY expensive to reproduce. The color came from a particular sea snail and was used to dye the cloth or clothing item (DEFINITELY not vegan). Since it was so pricey, only the VERY wealthy could afford to wear it. BUT why is that all relevant to Anna? Oh, she was casually born in the biggest, most luxurious room in the whole empire that was, you guessed it, COMPLETELY PURPLE. It was completely built out of purple porphyry which is a type of igneous rock. SO, just to recap, Anna, princess of Byzantine empire, second in line for the throne, born in the most expensive room in EXISTENCE, and hasn’t even started her LIFE yet in 1083 and is ALREADY more qualified than me. @disneyanimation where is her movie tho? Anyway, so she’s born and then betrothed (no there’s no time that passed in between that, she was literally born betrothed to someone) to Constantine Doukas, BUT in a crazy twist of fate, his mother who had basically RAISED Anna tried to de-throne Anna’s dad and then Constantine DIED in 1094 after her baby brother was born so she got married to someone else instead! His name was Nikephoros Bryennios who was a soldier and a historian (those things kind of went hand-in-hand back then). BUT he was really only important because he was believed to have encouraged her intellectual endeavors that led to the writing of her father’s history. Nikephoros was planning to actually write the history books himself, but he died in 1137 and Anna wrote them instead (or at least that’s what she TOLD people). She lived out her days in a convent BECAUSE she felt cheated that her younger brother inherited the throne and together with her mother, plotted to kill her sibling. Since she was almost CERTAINLY involved in many other plots against his claim, she forfeited all of her land and estates. Most scholars believe the main reason for the writing of the 15 volumes of The Alexiad was to emphasize her qualifications and pedigree over her younger brothers in an attempt to shed a better light on her own true claim to the throne.