Mad Kings and Queens: Raving Royals and How to Survive Them. -- Wednesday, May 14th, 2nd Period

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima was sitting on her desk, absently eating lemon drops as she watched the students wander into the room.  Once the last of them had arrived, her face lit up with a smile.

"Good morning," she said, her voice carrying effortlessly.  “I am Lady Ghanima Atreides, and this is Mad Kings and Queens: Raving Royals and How to Survive Them.  If you have not had one of my classes before, you may call me Lady Ghanima, Miss Ghanima, or Miss Atreides, whichever you are more comfortable with.  The first person to call me Lady Atreides gets detention," Ghanima announced, smiling.  "Lady Atreides is my grandmother, and I will not answer to it.  I am much younger and prettier than Jessica."

"This is a class intended to give you a basic grounding in the history of royal insanity here on Earth, as well as providing a few tips on how to survive an unstable monarch, should you ever have the misfortune to encounter one."  Ghanima hopped off her desk to wander along the rows of desks.  "We will not be covering every ruler who has been termed 'mad', if we tried, it would take years rather than a single summer session."

"If you have a weak consitution, this is not the class for you.  We will be discussing mental illness, torture, sexuality, violence, and murder.  While I do not intend to sensationalize the topics, I will not sugar coat them for you either.  I will not think any less of anyone who chooses not to return next week, I prefer that you are honest with yourself about your ability to handle the subject matter."

"That said, you’ll have a syllabus next week.  I probably won't pay much attention to it, as anyone from my previous classes can tell you, but I hear students like to have them.  Possibly for passing notes on instead of paying attention during the lecture." 

"You may think that madness is rare," Ghanima mused, drifting down the rows of seats as she spoke.  "It is not.  As the Roman philosopher Seneca once said, 'There is no genius free from some tincture of madness.'  He was correct." 

"Caligula of Rome had his father, mother and two brothers killed to become emperor. Nero had his mother and first wife killed. These two emperors were hated so much by the people that all references to them were deleted from official Roman documentation."

"The first French king, Clovis II, went mad after stealing the arm of a martyr. His great-grandson, Childeric III was known as "the idiot". The mother of Louis IX complained that he was "not sound of mind". And his younger son, Robert of Clermont went mad after being hit on the head with a sledge hammer.  Then there was Charles VI, called Charles the mad, who ruled France from 1380 to 1415. At stages, he believed that he was made of glass and inserted iron rods into his clothing to prevent him from breaking." 

"The Habsburg Kings of Spain descended from Queen Juana la Loca of Castile, who was mentally unstable. Her ancestors increased her inheritance by inbreeding. These incestuous marriages resulted in the mentally and physically handicapped King Carlos II of Spain, who had an enormous, misshapen head, and a chin exaggerated to almost caricature-like proportions rendering him unable to chew and barely able to speak." 

"No European country was immune from the dangers of royal inbreeding.  Several British kings went mad as a result of a blood disorder that causes gout and mental derangement. The most famous was Mad George III, who ruled England in the 18th Century. George was afflicted with porphyria, a maddening disease which disrupted his reign as early as 1765. Several attacks strained his grip on reality and debilitated him in the last years of his reign. He died blind, deaf and mad at Windsor Castle on 29 January 29 1820. In those years, the British Princess Caroline Mathilda married, at age 15, the deranged Christian VII of Denmark."   

"Very very few of these people were stupid," Ghanima said sternly.  "Inbred, yes.  Perhaps challenged.  However, you do not hold a throne by stupidity, but by ruthlessness, fear, and a good dose of violence.  To hold that balance intact takes at least a shrewd cunning, if not a reasonable intellect." 

"Now that all of that is out of the way, I am in the market for a TA or two," she said.  "Hands up, those of you whom have already had to deal with a power-mad leader of some sort or another."  The grin on her face as she took count was not exactly reassuring.  It was not meant to be.  "Fantastic.  Now, out of those of you who raised your hands, anyone interested in the position can come see me in a few moments." 

"First, however, I will bow to tradition, and ask you to introduce yourselves to your classmates.  Why don't you give us your name, summer cabin, and the reason you signed up for this class?"

[OOC:  Please wait for the OCD is up!  Go mad!  If more than two people want the TA job, it will be chosen OOC by the RNG of DOOM.  His name is Fred.  Go Fred go!]

Comments

Sign-In

[atreideslioness]

Madly!

Re: Sign-In

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice Liddell

During the Lecture

[atreideslioness]

Boggle, pass notes, take notes. Just be aware that Ghanima has limited tolerance if you're blatantly disregarding the lesson.

Re: During the Lecture

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice was taking notes. Detailed ones, while she tried to remember which of these subjects her governess had covered.

Re: During the Lecture

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Jack was boggled. He had no idea why he was signed up for this class, but it sure as hell beat his other history classes.

Re: During the Lecture

[solo_sword]

Huh. Jaina hadn't really had any expectations for this class, but she was figuring this would have exceeded them anyway. And she definitely respected anyone who would give the information straight like that.

Re: During the Lecture

[raspberryturk]

Reno was... actually listening intently, for once.

In-breeding. Huh.

Looking at the guys he's worked for, that really explained so very much.

Re: During the Lecture

[makescherries.livejournal.com]

Cimorene was taking notes, carefully to get everything down since she's never heard of any of these people.

Re: During the Lecture

[ella-obeys.livejournal.com]

Ella listened intently, and wondered if there was a way she could delicately raise the subject of inbreeding the next time she wrote to Char.

Re: During the Lecture

[minnesota-teen.livejournal.com]

Amber listened intently and took detailed notes. This stuff was really quite interesting and she thought, that in it's own way, the class might actually help her get into the mind of the character she was portraying in the upcoming play. Tamora, for all her seemingly sinful and degenerate ways, was actually quite intellegent and ruthless in her everyday endeavors as empress.

Re: During the Lecture

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

Savannah was taking notes.

Re: During the Lecture

[sixstandingby.livejournal.com]

Gavin paid close attention. He wasn't sure if the leaders of his world had been inbred or were just fanatical but he figured knowing all possibilities could help.

Re: During the Lecture

[lordofthecats.livejournal.com]

Lion-o felt sick to his stomach as he listened. He was glad that the lion clan of Thundera showed no apparent signs of madness.

Re: During the Lecture

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Chad was taking...lots and lots and lots of notes.

Good thing he had practise in taking lots and lots and lots of notes for everything.

Introductions

[atreideslioness]

"As I stated previously, I am Lady Ghanima Atreides. I have chosen to teach this class because I have a sneaking suspicion that many of you will find yourselves in need of such information, and I have intimate knowledge of the effects that royal madness can have on a population. My office hours are on Tuesdays, and please feel free to stop by."

"You. Next," she said, randomly pointing at a student.

Re: Introductions

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice stood, folding her hands behind her back and squaring her toes.

"My name is Alice Liddell, and I'm in the cabin called Cygnus. I believe that's a swan. I chose to take this class because I've been mad and I've been a royal, however briefly, and it seemed interesting to study the intersection of the two notions. As for my experience with dangerous royalty, I argued my way out of an arrest warrant issued by the Queen of Hearts, and stopped the nonsensical banquet that the Red and White Queen insisted on perpetuating. Later, when the Red Queen turned Wonderland into her dark, macabre playground, I took up blade and carved a bloody path to her door. Queens bleed just as easily as everyone else."

She sat again, adjusting her skirt and lifting her pencil for further notes.

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

"I'm Jaina Solo, from Andromeda," she began, used to introductions on the first day of class by now. "I've sort of known a few royals in my day, and I've seen some of what happens when things get out of hand." Oh, Hapes. "I just figured I could get some useful information from this."

Re: Introductions

[raspberryturk]

"Name's Reno, livin' in Lupus for the summer." He smirked faintly. Heh. Lupus. "Took this class because I got a boatload of experience with crazies who got power. Figure maybe I can learn some kinda copin' strategy or somethin' for the next time they decide to go all ape-shit or whatever on the world."

He wasn't holding his breath. But it never did hurt to be prepared, did it?

Re: Introductions

[makescherries.livejournal.com]

Cimorene stood up, automatically straightening her skirt. "I'm Princess Cimorene of Linderwall and I'm staying in Caelum this summer. I am a princess myself, and though I have no plans of ever being Queen, I much prefer Chief Cook and Librarian, I do deal with royalty on a daily basis. I doubt any experience in dealing with them will go amiss."

Re: Introductions

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"I'm Aravis," she said, standing up and lifting her chin slightly. "Lady Aravis, if you feel so inclined. I'm in Sirius. I'm taking this course because I'm a grandfather-as-a-younger-son away from being a princess, and my best friend is a prince. Might as well verse myself in the ways to defend myself against ones that aren't so friendly."

Re: Introductions

[ella-obeys.livejournal.com]

"My name is Ella and I am in Lupus cabin," Ella said. "I took this class because we have royalty at home and, while they are rather pleasant, I was interested in what happens at a court when one in that position becomes mad."

[OOC: Very very SP until 4-ish.]

Re: Introductions

[minnesota-teen.livejournal.com]

"Hi, I'm Amber Atkins and I live in Scorpius for the summer. I took this class not only because of its historical distinctions," she paused, grinned, "I like history no matter its content, but anyway while I have no apparent royalty to confer to, I have dealt with the crazy. Ruthless and evil crazy and Gladys Leeman is out there. Just waitin' for me, yah. She wants to off me, but -" Amber tapped her temple. "- I am one step ahead of her because I am here, hidin' from the psycho." She thought that was important to point out; the hiding part.

Re: Introductions

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

"My name is Savannah Levine, I'm an upcoming Junior and I'm staying in Cygnus Cabin. I took this class because I enjoyed the last class I had with you and the subject matter seemed interesting considering the people I have to deal with back at home."

Talk to Ghanima

[atreideslioness]

For she is here for the chatting!

Talk to Ghanima: TA Job

[atreideslioness]

For some strange reason, you think being her minion would be fun. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

OOC

[atreideslioness]

Third verse, same as the first, but a whole lot louder and a whole lot worse!

Re: OOC

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

*deepbreath* Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'm 'enry the aith I aaaam...