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Post by devilinthedetails on Jul 28, 2021 0:34:52 GMT 10
Title: Impressive
Rating: PG-13 for references to slavery.
Word Count: 100
Summary: Kaddar tries to impress Kalasin with Carthak's ancient tombs and temples.
Impressive
“These ancient temples and tombs are impressive.” Kalasin stared at the alabaster pillars and tile mosaics towering over her. The artwork was breathtaking, but somehow Kalasin couldn’t stop seeing the suffering that had created it. “Yet they’d be more impressive if they weren’t built from the blood, sweat, and tears of slaves.”
Her husband’s jaw tightened. He had obviously meant to awe her with the beauty and power of Carthak and its long history. “The Old Ones in your country constructed their villas, roads, and aqueducts on the beaten backs of their slaves. Every great empire is built on slaves.”
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Post by mistrali on Jul 28, 2021 0:42:54 GMT 10
Title: Impressive Rating: PG-13 for references to slavery. Word Count: 100 Summary: Kaddar tries to impress Kalasin with Carthak's ancient tombs and temples. Impressive “These ancient temples and tombs are impressive.” Kalasin stared at the alabaster pillars and tile mosaics towering over her. The artwork was breathtaking, but somehow Kalasin couldn’t stop seeing the suffering that had created it. “Yet they’d be more impressive if they weren’t built from the blood, sweat, and tears of slaves.” Her husband’s jaw tightened. He had obviously meant to awe her with the beauty and power of Carthak and its long history. “The Old Ones in your country constructed their villas, roads, and aqueducts on the beaten backs of their slaves. Every great empire is built on slaves.” Kaddar’s rejoinder is so pithy, and so true. Obviously, Carthak still has some slaves, but Kally doesn’t have any grounds to criticise its ancient monuments. I like fics that slant against the Tortallan/‘Western’ bias of the books.
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Post by devilinthedetails on Jul 30, 2021 3:29:07 GMT 10
mistrali, thank you so much for reading and commenting, as always! I'm so happy to hear that you found Kaddar's rejoinder pithy and so true. I'm like you in that I like to challenge the Tortallan/Western bias and look at things through the perspective of other cultures. With Carthak especially, I think there is a lot Tortall could learn from that empire and by quite a few marks of civilization I'd rank Carthak ahead of Tortall. Like Tortall is just getting around to establishing a university and Carthak has had one for centuries. So anyway, I find Carthak really interesting and worthy of exploring with depth and sensitivity in fanfic!
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