Mad Kings & Queens: Raving Royals and How To Survive Them (Wednesday, 4th Period)

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima was sitting on her desk, absently eating lemon drops as she watched the students arrive. Once the last of the students 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 semester."

"If you have a weak constitution, 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, Miss Daenerys Targaryen?" she asked. "The office has submitted a request stating you are to be my teaching assistant."

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

[OOC: OCD up.]

Comments

Sign-In #1

[atreideslioness]

Madness!

Re: Sign-In #1

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Anakin Solo

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

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Anakin was paying close attention. Diplomacy had never been his favorite aspect of what Jedi were expected to know, but with a former Chief of State as a parent and a close family friend as the princess of the Hapes Cluster he could hardly ignore it.

It . . . sort of made him feel bad for Tenel Ka, really. Not because he thought she was mad, but he'd always thought her family situation was bad enough without considering that some of its members might be.

He did raise his hand at Ghanima's question. He sort of figured, with Palpatine's clone's obsession with him, he'd been dealing with those since before he was even born.

Re: During the Lecture

[wwiii]

Warren had hesitated for a moment when Lady Ghanima had asked for the show of hands. And then a second later, his own had gone up like a rocket.

If Magneto back home didn't count, or even the President who had ordered the weaponization of the cure, then Trigon probably did. Or Brother Blood. Or Sander Cohen in Rapture, who had unleashed all the splicers on them with that creepy music playing in the background...

Yeah. Hand up.

Re: During the Lecture

[knight-fatali.livejournal.com]

Seifer didn't look around as his hand went up. It was old news to some by this point.

Re: During the Lecture

[nothornlessrose.livejournal.com]

Cassidy was listening and taking notes. She was also trying to decide if that Jareth person who had gone around kidnapping people and trying to take over the island was power-mad or just stupid.

Re: During the Lecture

[life_inshadow]

Tara was interested, but a bit sheepish. She had a fear this was going to be one of those classes where middle-class girls from modern America were very much in the minority.

Her hand did not go up.

Re: During the Lecture

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

Dany, who had signed up for this on the basis of trying to avoid her own destiny (and because of rumors of Joffrey's rule) was dumbfounded at the idea of assisting.

Dumbfounded, but pleased. She did not wish to think of her father poorly, but it was what it was, and Mad King Aerys had provided a legacy that Viserys would have embraced but she would not. This would be an important class, indeed. She quietly raised her hand, thinking not only of the twelve year-old unrightful king at present, but of his father, who had killed her father, who had been mad.

Who were they to judge madness, though, when they were lobbing off heads and tongues left and right?

Re: During the Lecture

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

Darcy was actually paying rapt attention. This class sounded interesting and she had even recognized a few names, though she wasn't actually sure if she was right about her guesses.

Re: During the Lecture

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall raised his hand at Lady Ghanima's question. Ultimecia, through her puppets, had been worse than anything this world could possibly muster.

Re: During the Lecture

[serial-quitter.livejournal.com]

Ryan was paying close attention. She found the lecture to be pretty interesting and was glad she'd pick this particular class.

Re: During the Lecture

[wasthecuteone]

Petra took careful notes during the lecture, inserting commentary such as After?? at the bit about the guy who went mad after stealing someone's arm. At the request for a show of hands, she paused.

Ladybird Hope. Momo B. ChaCha. Taylor Rene Krystal Hawkins from the Great State of Texas.

Yeah, Petra's hand was definitely going up.

Re: During the Lecture

[glacial_queen]

Karla was just going to raise her hand. Yeah. Hobart, she was looking at you. Or, well, thinking about you.

And imagining his head on a spike. Even if the Blood didn't actually do that, a girl could dream, right?

Re: During the Lecture

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara did her best to keep her face impassive as she raised her hand in response to Ghanima's question.

Introductions

[atreideslioness]

"As I stated previously, I am Lady Ghanima Atreides. Many of you may have had a class with me before, or know my twin-brother, Leto, from his time as a student."

"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 Mondays, and please feel free to stop by."

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

Re: Introductions

[wwiii]

"I'm Warren Worthington," he announced as he pulled himself to his feet for his introduction. "And I signed up for this class because odds are pretty high that I'll end up involved in nothing short of a revolution sometime after leaving Fandom. So this... looked like it was going to be a pretty helpful class."

Re: Introductions

[knight-fatali.livejournal.com]

"Seifer Almasy. And I took this class because the history of this world is pretty damn fascinating and leaves me wondering how it still exists," he started.

"Plus, been there, done that, barely survived."

Re: Introductions

[nothornlessrose.livejournal.com]

"My name is Cassidy and I'm taking this class because I have enjoyed your other classes, but also because from the things I am learning about my world, this kind of knowledge would be good to have."

Re: Introductions

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Anakin stood and did the Picard Maneuver tugged at the hem of his tunic as he spoke. "I'm Anakin Solo, and I'm in this class because I'm a Jedi Knight, so I'm inevitably going to have to deal with some, um, probably difficult political leaders." Preferably more effectively than he'd done with the Dantooinian tribal leader on that mission with Mara. Definite room for lots of improvement there.

". . . more than I already have," he added, but watch him not elaborate on the whole Palpatine's clone thing. Look, it creeped him out enough.

Re: Introductions

[life_inshadow]

"Hi, I'm Tara Maclay," Tara said, talking slowly to avoid her stammer. "Um ... basically I'm in this class because I like history? I don't really know a lot about ... power-mad monarchs, unless the last president counts."

Re: Introductions

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

"Daenerys Targaryen," she offered quietly. "My rightful title is Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, though at present there is one siting on my throne already. He is there because his father killed my father, who was known throughout the kingdom as the Mad King Aerys. I am here because I have lived my life in exile, thinking only of regaining my throne, and do not wish to fall into the madness that enshrouded my father."

Re: Introductions

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

"I'm Darcy Lewis." Darcy said, almost cheerfully. "I'm here because I actually like history and I kind of am interested in politics and dealing with crazy leaders comes with that and all."

Talk to Ghanima

[atreideslioness]

Before or after class!

OOC

[atreideslioness]

It's cleaning day at the library, which means I am on MASSIVE SP until about 6CST. Will answer as able!