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fandomhigh2008-05-13 10:52 pm
Mad Kings and Queens: Raving Royals and How to Survive Them. -- Wednesday, May 14th, 2nd Period
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."
"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!]
Re: Talk to Ghanima: TA Job
Presumably leading a class would be less dangerous than acquiring an army, and with less fatalities in the end result. Perhaps she was being morbid.
Re: Talk to Ghanima: TA Job
Re: Talk to Ghanima: TA Job
"There was to have been an army, of those who could still be roused to fight," Alice said, clasping her hands behind her back, as she always did when worried she would fidget otherwise. "I was left standing at the end; all the others fell along the way. It seems poor testimony to my leadership skills, that my allies never reached Her Majesty's door."