DARKSIDE CAMELOT UND DER HITLER UND HENCHPEOPLE CONNECTION





PATHWAY OF THE HIGH PRIEST AS DEMENTED DEATHMASTER:
Storyline: The unbalanced ubermonster lays his long shadow across the middle of the 20th century in a great purge of the world’s darkness, while persecuting his/story’s most acute storytellers to make sure his tale will long be remembered.
Darkside Arthur - Early British chieftain of both myth and loose record, who maintained the legendary court of Camelot, with 12 warrior/apostles as his Knights of the Roundtable. Served as the personality of power for one of western Christendom’s most romantic myths. Archetype of deeply wounded central leadership, be it of the light or the dark.
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) - German Nazi Führer. Outer: Carried the ‘AR’ of Arthur in the beginning and ending of his name. Son of a Bavarian bureaucrat, who was a custom’s inspector with a penchant for drink and a violent temper that he employed to abuse his son unmercifully. Father was illegitimate, and had married and widowed twice before, before wedding his niece and ward, who was 20 years his junior. 7 children all told from his unions, with his famous son the youngest. Had a strong attachment to his passive mother, and grew up sullen and alienated, with dreams of his own glory to compensate for his profoundly unhappy childhood. At his sire’s death, when he was 14, he went to live with his mother, who pampered him for 5 years, allowing him to dream and dawdle, before her own demise when he was 19. Left home and lived a raggedy existence in Vienna as a failed artist, before serving in WW I as a corporal, where he reputedly lost a testicle during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. 5’9”, 150 lbs., pallid and slightly knock-kneed, with large piercing blue eyes and long eloquent fingers. Wounded and decorated, he underwent an epiphany during a brief period of blindness, allowing his larger darkness to walk right in. Through his readings, he was familiar with Nostradamus’s predictions, and read himself into them. Became politically active after the war, usurping a worker’s party and turning it into the base for the Nazi (National Socialist German Workers’ Party), attracting an inner coterie who would remain with him throughout his rise’n’fall, while becoming their Führer, or leader. Initially, he had a high thin voice, although he lowered its register through discipline, and also developed his lungs, much like an opera singer. Instigated a failed beer hall putsch in Munich in 1923, was incarcerated and put down his perfervid political philosophy of racial dominance on paper, dictating Mein Kampf to fellow prisoner Rudolph Hess. Released after a symbolic rebirth of 9 months, he continued organizing and making speeches, playing off of the economic chaos of the German republic by appealing to the baser instincts of the populace. Wrote a second secret book, later authenticated, in which he labeled America as his primary enemy because of its Nordic root and unlimited resource. The singular love of his life was a young niece, Angela Raubal, who committed suicide in 1931 to get out of his control. Extremely interested in occultism, he saw himself as a figure of world destiny, and was supported in that view by the secret societies he consulted, who viewed his throat as an organ of enchantment. As his Nazi Party steadily increased its influential, he was reluctantly appointed chancellor in 1933 by Pres. Paul von Hindenburg (Dan Shomron), despite a strong mutual dislike by both, after coming in second to him the previous year. Staged the Reichstag (Parliamentary) fire the same year, blaming it on the Communists, to cement his right-wing dictatorial rule, then organized mass book-burnings to add thought control to his need for absolute dominance. Following von Hindenburg’s death in 1934, he assumed his uncontested dual role as Führer and chancellor over Germany. Kept a highly erratic schedule, avoiding office routine, and rising late, while doing whatever pleased him at the moment. Subsequently eliminated all possible competition within his party, including potential rivals Ernst Roehm and Gregor Strasser the same year, in what would become known as the Night of the Long Knives. Afterwards, he surrounded himself with largely uninspired generals and toadies and flatterers, while purging the army so as to totally control it. Broke up the labor unions and any other group that could challenge him, while winning the grudging support of workers by providing employment through rearming. Through powerful oratory and huge operatic pep rallies, he began to seduce the country into thinking of itself as martially ready to redeem itself from the humiliation of WW I. Also had his thugs and secret police implement his corollary dream of Aryan racial purity for Germany by rounding up Jews, gypsies, Slavs, socialists, homophiles, cripples and other adjudged inferior groups for internment in camps. Sponsored the 1936 Olympics in Berlin as a testament to Aryan superiority, and, while Germany handily won the most medals, African-American sprinter Jesse Owens would be the star of the show, much to his chagrin. Secretly applauded by the world business community, many of whom felt there was nothing like a good old-fashioned headbanger’s ball to get everyone’s economies rolling again. With a wink from them, he annexed Austria in 1938, dismembered Czechoslovakia, and then precipitated WW II with an invasion of Poland in September of 1939, as the global war machine began to crank up in response for part II of the War-to-End-All-Wars. Unmarried, his singular relationship was with a bland former photographer’s assistant, Eva Braun. Felt he needed someone stupid beside him who wouldn’t interfere with his work. With his one testicle, which became part of a Nazi rite, he supposedly experienced arousal only when making speeches. Initially successful through 1939 and 1940, when France put up virtually no fight against him, he soon made numerous military blunders, including involving America in the war following Pearl Harbor, and invading Russia, leaving his troops without winter clothing, since he thought the Soviet Union would fall quickly. His decision-making became considerably clouded after 1941, and later speculation was that he may have suffered from Parkinson’s disease, as evinced by a tremor-ridden left hand, which crippled his ability to think clearly, and is also a sign of strong internal rigidity. Inspired the wholesale extermination of some 12 million he considered undesirable, including 6 million Jews, as well as gypsies, gays, the handicapped and others he deemed social undesirables. Withstood several plots against him, but grew ever more out of touch with the reality of his situation the more the war progressed. Finally disappeared into his own Berlin bunker in early 1945, to become the ultimate underground man. Fearing he would be displayed naked in a cage by the Russians, he issued one last blast of blame on everyone else, poisoned his beloved dog Blondi and her pups, then killed himself via cyanide and a Walther pistol to the roof of his mouth in his bunker along with Eva Braun, whom he had married just prior to their double suicide. Had his body burned in a Viking funeral afterwards. A children’s playground was later built over the bunker. Inner: Tunnel vision visionary filled with enormous internal rage, which, in turn, tapped into the fury of a defeated and demoralized nation. Charismatic rug-biter and occultist with an affinity for children and a hatred for Jews, whom he deemed as unholy competition for his Master Race because of their longevity. Extremely health conscious, he claimed to be a vegetarian, although indulged in particular meat dishes and had bad breath. Narcissistic, filled with a host of phobias; hysterical, malevolent and malignant, as well as a colossal bore. Had a strong sense of the theatrical, and was a great lover of the booming Teutonic music of Richard Wagner (Werner Herzog), while preferring sentimental kitsch. A bibliophile as well, he housed a library of some 16,000 volumes which supported his nationalistic and anti-Semitic views. Deliberately self-sabotaging, he surrounded himself with buffoons to unconsciously insure his failure. Seig hell lifetime of taking on the darkness of the world and making it incarnate, a reverse Christ appearing at the near end of the 2000 year Piscean Age to bring forth all the intolerance and depraved excess of that epoch in 12 symbolic years of tyranny, genocide and infamy, as a summation of the dark side of the last two millennia.
Ludwig II (1845-1886) - King of Bavaria. Known as “the Dream King.” Outer: His kingdom held the ‘AR’ of Arthur. Eldest son of the king of Bavaria, Maximilian II, mother was the daughter of a German prince. The latter nurtured his taste for the theatrical, noting he loved dressing up as a nun and acting, while his father gave him toy bricks rather than soldiers, which fostered his subsequent building mania. Far more interested in the arts than rule, and was ill-prepared when his sire died prematurely in 1864 to succeed him. Ascended the throne at the age of 19, inheriting an extremely stable kingdom. Handsome, viewed as a young Adonis, and initially well-loved by his subjects, but with no aptitude or desire for rule, preferring his own romantic fantasy world. Devotee and admirer of operameister Richard Wagner (Werner Herzog), rescuing him from debt and producing his operas, while building a theater for him at Bayreuth that became a European center for his productions. Proved to be an aggressive and enthusiastic patron of the arts, and sponsor of a series of fantastic fairy-tale castles designed to suit his varying moods, despite bankrupting the country in building them. Redecorated his apartments to resemble the boudoirs of the French Bourbon kings and staged lavish theatrical productions with himself as the single audience. Broke off an engagement to the sister of a cousin with whom he was infatuated but had rejected him, and gradually turned into a total recluse, ignoring affairs of state. Only went out at night for rides surrounded by torchbearers. Lavished expensive jewelry and gifts on a young actor, with whom he had fallen in love, as he receded further into his own dreamworld. Eventually became fat and bloated with blackened teeth, and was ultimately pronounced insane. Also had a deranged brother, Otto I, who had to live under restraints. Drowned himself, taking his doctor down with him, shortly before he was to be carted away. Inner: Extremely self-indulgent, with a huge bankroll to satisfy his obsession with art and architecture. Less and less connection with any realities outside his own as he matured. Loony tunes lifetime lived almost entirely on the inner, as a counterbalance to his usual outer excesses, in a suffocating attempt to open up his creative side and experience the nascent feminine within.
Jean-Baptiste Carrier (1756-1794) - French revolutionary. Outer: Held the ‘AR’ of Arthur in his last name. From a small village, he became a county attorney and saw the French Revolution as an ideal instrument for acting out his own pent-up pathological rage. His combination of emotion, elocution and electric anger gave him entry into the inner circles of the most radical groups of the Revolution, eventually gaining him election to the National Convention in 1792, and helped set up a tribunal against counterrevolutionaries. Voted to execute the king, and took a prominent part in the overthrow of the moderate Girondists before going to Normandy as an emissary of the revolution. Although relatively moderate in his execution of duties there, the atrocities he witnessed seemed to unbalance him, so that when he was sent to Nantes in the fall of 1793, he was completely over-the-edge in his execution of several thousand, many of them tied naked together and put in boats with holes in them, so that they would sadistically drown. When his excesses, which were called the Noyades of Nantes, became known, he was recalled to Paris by Robespierre (Joseph Stalin), whose downfall he helped precipitate. Afterwards, he, himself, was brought before the Revolutionary tribunal, convicted of mass murder and guillotined. Inner: Sadistic figure who derived great delight in the execution and torture of others. Self-appointed grand inquisitor lifetime of giving play to his ongoing pathology, as a dark-side John the Baptist, who would condemn himself to the same drowning fate his next go-round as a highly public figure.
Felipe II (1527-1598) - King of Spain. Outer: Oldest son of HRE Charles V, who was also Carlos I of Spain (Gregor Strasser), mother, isabella, was the beautiful daughter of the king of Portugal. 4 siblings. Afflicted with Habsburg homeliness, including a prognathous jaw, a pouting lower lip, and distinctive unhandsome nose. His father taught him to distrust everyone, and told him he was an instrument of God, advice he took most seriously. Married at 16 to a cousin, Maria (Angela Raubal), who died in childbirth, leaving one son, Don Carlos (Heinrich Himmler), a murderous mirror of himself, whom he ultimately imprisoned and probably poisoned. Given the regency of Spain whenever his father left the country. Ascended the throne at the age of 29 on the peaceful abdication of his sire. Never went abroad after his first 3 years as king, and used the Spanish Inquisition as a political tool to consolidate and centralize his power. Total autocrat, fanatically Catholic, but his religiosity took a distant second to politics and Earthly power. A painstaking ruler, he insisted everything be on paper, and constantly craved information, to the most minute detail. Had designs on the English throne, and married Mary I (Rose Kennedy) of England in his mid-20s, but rejected her, finding her physically repellant, despite her devotion to him. Later rejected by her sister, Elizabeth I (Mae West). After Mary’s death, he married the daughter of the king of France in his early 30s, 2 daughters from the union, including the Infanta Isabella (Magda Goebbels), before his wife died in a miscarriage in 1568. His 4th and final marriage after once more becoming a widower, was to Anna, the daughter of his cousin, the HRE Maximillian II (Darryl F. Zanuck), 5 children from the union, with 4 dying young, and the last, of whom he thought little, became his successor Felipe III (Ehud Olmert). The singular issue he trusted was Isabella, who remained his closest confidante throughout his life. Continually interfered in continental politics, overtaxing the population with his nonstop wars, while achieving only some of his aims. Had a pathological distrust of even his most faithful servants, felt he had to do everything himself down to the smallest detail of state. Maintained a bitter and faction-ridden court, through his own imbalances. Conquered Portugal in 1580, and moved his court to Lisbon for nearly 3 years, but returned to landlocked Castilian Spain, dooming his empire from ever having hold over the seas. The subsequent failure of the Spanish Armada against England in 1588 was a bitter blow to his ambitions, despite being forewarned of its inadequacy, and he retreated afterwards to his mausoleum/palace at Escorial, where he became more and more isolated from reality. Died after a long and painful illness, which he stoically bore in seclusion. Covered with boils and in a verminous state at the time of his death from cancer, while, ironically, the most powerful monarch in the western world. Inner: Distrustful, suspicious and paranoid. Dignified, serious, sullen, moody, autocratic and disciplined. Affectionate father, but viewed as a monster by everyone else. Lover of books and knowledge, adept at gathering information, inaugurating Spain’s literary golden age. Obsessed with details, not only affairs of state, but etiquette, nuances of grammar and titles of court. Generated more paper than any monarch in his/story. Rey rigido lifetime of being given royal control, only to run mad with it and ultimately disappear into his own unloving darkness.
Louis XI (1423-1483) - King of France. Outer: Of the House of Valois. Oldest son of Charles VII (Leon Blum), mother was the daughter of the duke of Anjou and king of Naples. Raised in austere seclusion, he grew up to be suspicious, secretive and extremely distrusting, but with a powerful will and a ruthless nature to carry it out. Fat and ugly as a child, he fared little better in looks as an adult. Had rickety legs, piercing eyes, and a hooked nose, which he would later top off with an old felt hat that he always wore, as if to underline his plainness. In his teens, he was constantly in revolt against his father, causing him to be exiled several times, although he learned from his mistakes and the opportunities of lesser rule given him. At 13, he was married to Margaret (Jean Seberg), the daughter of James I (Richard Burton) of Scotland. Despite her charm and intelligence, he took a dislike to her and she died unhappily 9 years later, after having lived apart from him most of that time. Chose his 2nd wife, Charlotte (Eva Braun), the daughter of the duke of Savoy when she was just a child for her dowry. Married her when she was 12, and he was in his mid-30s, 7 children, including his successor Charles VIII (Hermann Goering), and his eldest daughter Anne de Beaujeau (Magda Goebbels). Had as little interest in his second wife as he did his first spouse. Ascended the throne at the age of 38, after 5 years of impatient exile and endless spying on his father’s final illness. Known as ‘the universal spider,’ through his continuing intrigue. Centralized the authority of the crown, and was an efficient statesman and diplomat, but highly eccentric. Made a prisoner during the revolts of his nobles, but ultimately broke their power. After his release, he was involved in English affairs. Surrounded himself with men of humble birth to feel more regal, while traveling his kingdom in plain dress, to be a literal part of it. Imposed heavy taxes, diminished all threats to his own power, and traveled frequently and restlessly throughout his kingdom, while maintaining a thick network of messengers to keep him abreast of everything. Eventually taxed his frail constitution with overwork. Greatly feared assassination and ended his reign, once again, in seclusion, suffering a series of strokes and dying of cerebral arteriosclerosis. Laid the foundation for absolute royal rule that would last until the French Revolution. Inner: Superstitious and extremely parsimonious. Dressed in shabby clothing, abstemious on sex, food and drink, while displaying a sadistic, cruel streak, particularly with caged prisoners. Adroit and intelligent, gifted in diplomacy, tireless worker. Spoke rapidly, sometimes for hours at a time, and demanded absolute obediance from one and all. Roi rigide lifetime, once again, of royal rule, mad eccentricity, and ultimately disappearing into his own unloving darkness.
Cola di Rienzi (Nicola di Lorenzo) (1313-1354) - Renaissance Roman populist. Outer: ‘AR’ of Arthur loosely in his name. Son of a Roman wineshop owner, mother worked as a washerwoman. At the age of 10, when his mother died, he was sent to live with peasant relatives, then returned to Rome, where he somehow acquired an excellent education, with a deep knowledge of Latin classics. Through them, he became imbued with a sense of the greatness of early Rome. Married the daughter of a notary, and adopted the same profession. After being sent on a mission to the papal court at Avignon, he won the support of the Avignon pope, Clement VI (Abraham Lincoln), who was greatly impressed with an eloquent oration he gave on the desolation of Rome, and he returned to the Eternal City as a papal votary in 1344. Won great popular support and was given dictatorial powers in the pope’s name. Titled himself as tribune of the sacred Roman republic, promoted reforms and sought an uprising to return Rome to its grandeur of old, as capital of a reunited Italy, with himself as emperor. The nobles rose against him, and he was defeated and fled in 1347, becoming a hermit for 2 years. Sought aid from the HRE Karl IV (Chaim Weizmann), who thought him a madman, and was jailed and sent back to Avignon to face the Inquisition. Absolved by the new pope there, he returned to Rome in triumph as a senator, but his brief rule was arbitrary and violent. After unsuccessfully addressing a riotous mob, he peeled off his armor and wrapped himself in a ragged cloak, but his gold bracelets gave him away. He was seized, held in awe for a moment, and then stabbed to death, with his head ripped from his body afterwards. Inner: Megalomaniacal, imbued with own sense of destiny and greatness. Alchemical existence, mixing the potency of the past with the instability of the present. Demagogic lifetime of giving play to the emperor-within in a reality that would serially support and deny that fantasy to further temper his experiences of rule. Adolf of Nassau (c1250-1298) - German king. Outer: From the minor nobility. Father was a count of Nassau, and he succeeded him to the title in his late 20s, while earning the reputation of being a fierce mercenary soldier. In 1270, he married Imagina of Isenburg-Limburg, who would survive him by almost two decades, 8 children, most of whom died young. As a cousin of one of the German electors, he was chosen to be king of the Germans so as to deny the House of Hapsburg a hereditary hold on the German crown, despite having little real influence or power. Crowned king in 1292, he then had to face the high-priced demands of his electors, as well as the wrath of the heir of the House of Hapsburg, Albrecht (Ernest Roehm), who refused to be denied the kingship. Seized Meissen as a vacant fief, then purchased the right of succession in Thuringia from Albrecht. Made an alliance for cash with Edward I (JFK) of England against France, then used it to defeat the landgrave’s disinherited sons. His growing power frightened the electors, and they decided to give the crown to the eager Albrecht, and he was deposed. Their armies met on the battlefield to settle the issue, and because his was greatly outclassed, he drove his horse to a sword’s length of Albrecht and demanded single combat. Having earlier lost his helmet, he faced his adversary bareheaded. The duo exchanged angry words, then Albrecht speared him in the cheek and levered him from the horse, before dispatching him on the ground with a ballock-knife, and rose, drenched in blood, to reclaim the crown. Inner: Brave, cruel and fearless. Sword-in-hand lifetime of giving complete vent to his warrior sensibilities, winning repute as a fierce soldier, but far too power-hungry to be an effective ruler. Berengar II (c900-966) - Italian margrave and usurper. Outer: Of Lombard descent. Inherited the northeastern Italian march of Friuli, from which his grandfather had earlier maneuvered himself into the kingship of Italy. Married Willa di Toscana (Unity Mitford) in his early 30s, at least one son from union, Adalbert (Rudolph Hess), as well as a daughter. Staged a successful uprising of northern Italian nobles around 945, which concentrated power into his own hand, leaving the kingship a largely nominal post. Following the death of Lothair II, the king of Italy, in 950, he took on the title for himself. Took the latter’s wife, Adelheid (Margaret Sanger) captive in 951, in order to marry her to his son to further legitimize his rule, although she asked the Germanic king Otto I (Mohandas Gandhi) for help, and he not only rescued her, but married her. Made a vassal of Otto afterwards, and was deposed, as Italy reverted to the Germanic states. In 960, he and his son attacked Pope John XII, who also called on Otto’s help, and he was once again defeated by him, while Otto took advantage of the situation to be crowned emperor. Spent his last 3 years as a prisoner of Otto’s in Germany. Inner: Power-tripping lifetime of grabbing as much as he could, before running into a martial force far superior to his own, and winding up a prisoner of his own overextended ambition, a familiar position of his.
Justinian II (c669-711) - Eastern Roman emperor. Outer: Son of Constantine IV, whom he succeeded at the age of 16. Made a treaty with the Arabs, which they later broke, after a successful foray into the Balkans, where he conscripted many Slavs into the Byzantine army. During his first reign, he married Eudokia, about whom little is known. One daughter from the union. Lost territory to the Arabs in 692 through military defeats, and offended the pope by undercutting his ecumenical council rulings. Proved to be a tyrannical ruler, with a corrupt officialdom beneath him, and in 695, his nose was cut off in a revolt, earning him the nickname ‘Rhinotmetus,’ as a new emperor was proclaimed, and he was banished to the Crimean peninsula. Donned a gold nose in replacement. When he learned he was to be arrested on the emperor’s orders, he fled to the khan of the Khazars. In 703, he married the khan’s sister, Theodoria, who warned him that her brother had been bribed to kill him and he backtracked to the Bulgar kingdom. With the aid of their khan and his army, he marched on Constantinople, and retook his throne. The second time around he reconciled with the pope, inviting him to Constantinople, but his need for revenge overwhelmed him, and he lost considerable support after massacring his opponents. A revolt, aided by the Khazars broke out in his former place of exile, and he and his family were slaughtered. His body was thrown into the sea, but his head was displayed in Rome and Ravenna. Inner: Cruel and tyrannical, inviting his underlings to equal displays of disregard for the common weal. Nose-rubbed-into it lifetime of excesses in the royal realms, in his ongoing education in the ineffectiveness of exercising far too much will and far too little compromise. Chilperic I (c539-584) - Frankish king. Outer: Father was Clotaire I (Oswald Mosley). Half-brother of Sigebert I (Joschka Fischer). After his father’s death in 561, he shared in the division of the kingdom with his 3 half-brothers, receiving the poorest section, the kingdom of Soissons. Saw the church as a rival to his wealth and power, and went out of his way to treat his bishops contemptuously, often selling sees to laymen. Married Audovera, by whom he had 4 children, although he ultimately killed his only son, Clovis. Also imposed large and unfair taxes on his constituents to fill his own pockets. Added the best part of his brother Charibert’s lands on his death in 567, which would make up the later kingdom of Neustria. In 568, he repudiated his wife, or wives (he may have made more than one) so as to marry Galswintha, the sister of his sister-in-law Brunhild (Sara Roosevelt), who was married to Sigebert. Murdered Galswintha soon afterwards to marry an earlier mistress, Fredegund (Leni Riefenstahl), who matched him in venal, violent duplicity. A son from the union, Clotaire II (FDR), would succeed him. The two brothers immediately went to war, with Sigebert clearly gaining the upper hand, although he was summarily assassinated in 575 on orders of Fredegund. Blocked from seizing his foe’s lands, he made an alliance with Sigebert’s son Childebert II, against his third half-brother, Guntram, although it proved to be short-lived, and a year later he was stabbed in the stomach by 2 assassins on Fredegund’s orders, to protect herself and her lover. Inner: Violent, bloodthirsty, venal and debauched. Had pretensions of being cultured, wrote abysmal poetry, and had 4 letters added to the French alphabet. Grasping lifetime of taking his Roman sense of self-aggrandizing rule to a much more backward kingdom, allowing the darkside of his nature free reign, only to be undone by the machinations he had unleashed in accruing to his wealth and power.
Maximinus II Daia (270-313) - Roman emperor. Outer: Mother was the sister of the emperor Galerius (Rudolph Hess). Originally a shepherd, then a guardsman. Married, one daughter from the union, with the names of both unknown. Rapidly rose in the army to the rank of officer in the imperial guard, thanks to his uncle, ultimately becoming a military tribune, before Galerius adopted him. When Diocletian (Alfried Krupp) and Maximian (Ernst Roehm) abdicated in 305, he was elevated to the rank of Caesar, and invested by the former with the same purple robe that he had worn. Married his young daughter to the son of Galerius and was given the easternmost provinces of Egypt as his own. Continued Diocletian’s persecution of the Christians with extreme severity, while demanding that everyone should sacrifice to the pagan gods. Forced his subjects to attend the public rituals and eat the flesh of the victims, whose blood was sprinkled on everything sold in the markets. Disappointed when Licinius (Reinhard Heydrich) was promoted over him, and in 310, he had himself proclaimed Augustus by his troops. His uncle was forced to agree, and the following year died. Had an unbridled lust for women, and issued an order that no one around him could marry without his sampling the perspective wife beforehand. Annexed Asia Minor, but came to a truce with Licinius, while both competed to win support for other contenders for the throne of Rome. Despite Galerius’s deathbed plea for some measure of toleration for the Christians, he continued his repressive policy, including forged anti-Christian documents, and a restructured pagan church with a similar hierarchy to its Christian parallel. Grudgingly complied with Constantine’s (Mohandas Gandhi) dictum that all persecutions must stop after the latter’s victory in 312. The following year, after suffering famine, failed harvests and widespread epidemics, he marched on Licinius with a force that outnumbered his enemy 2 to 1. His troops, however, were physically exhausted and suffered total defeat. Escaped disguised as a slave, then punished the pagan priests who had promised him victory. With the army of Licinius pursuing him, he fell ill in the summer heat at Tarsus, ironically the home of St. Paul, and wasted away to a skeleton, became blind and died. May have perished from poisoning, while his wife also died with him. Inner: Cruel, perverse, boorish, uneducated, but had intellectual pretensions. Arrogant, with an extravagant sense of vanity. Quiet and addicted to wine. Realized, however, the power of structure behind the Christian Church, and understood the importance of pagan literature, in the last official gasp of that tradition. Also had the administrative ability to make his edicts public acts. Jackboot lifetime of giving play to his unadorned male side in the same madness of power as his earlier go-through in a similar, albeit far less masculine cast, under similar anti Judeo-Christian auspices.
Nero (Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus) (37-68) - Roman Emperor. Outer: Son of an extremely noble and ancient family, mother was Agrippina the Younger (Unity Mitford), the daughter of Germanicus (JFK) and Agrippina the Elder (Jacqueline Kennedy). Father, Domitius Ahenobarbus (Heinrich Himmler) was dissolute and disgraced and died when he was 3, and the emperor Caligula (Gregor Strasser) banished his mother for taking part in a conspiracy when he was 2. She failed to persuade the general Galba (Reinhard Heydrich) to marry her, then killed her next husband to inherit his wealth, before marrying the emperor Claudius (Joseph Goebbels), her uncle, in 49. Had him adopt her son the following year, who was dubbed Nero afterwards. Married Claudius’s daughter, Octavia in 53. The following year, at the age of 16, he succeeded Claudius, after his mother had poisoned the emperor. Several months later, Claudius’s son came to a similar end. With no training for the office, he showed poor judgement, initially having his mother act as regent, with his tutor Seneca (George Bernard Shaw) as his principal adviser. His mother exerted enormous influence over him, to the point of having an incestuous relationship in order to control him. Evinced early sincerity for liberal reform, but after his reforms were thwarted, he pursued sexual and artistic pleasures, turning his energy towards orgiastic excess, singing, acting and chariot racing. Roamed the streets at night with his friends, mugging people, attacking women and stealing from shops and stalls. Had mock marriages with 2 homophile lovers, one of whom was a boy he castrated. Wrote poetry and had a strong interest in painting, sculpture and architecture, including a spectacular palace built for himself. Had his mother murdered in 59, then had his first wife exiled and put to death when he developed a passion for the wife of Otho (Alfred Rosenberg), Poppaea (Magda Goebbels), and married her in 62. The duo had a daughter who only survived a few months, then while she was pregnant, he kicked his wife to death in a temper tantrum. Married again the following year, but took up with his castrated young lover, because his spouse resembled his 2nd wife. His reign, which was marked by stability descending into disorder, reflected his own continually plummeting psyche. Half of Rome burned in a fire he ordered set for a backdrop for his poetry reading in 64, with Christians made the scapegoat for it, while saints Peter and Paul were put to death in the capital as part of his inauguration of their sect’s persecution. Forced Seneca to kill himself in 65, after accusing him of complicity in a conspiracy. Although hated by the senate and those close to him, he retained his popularity with the common people. Made only one foreign trip during his reign, to Greece, and competed in the Grecian theatrical festivals, with no one allowed to leave while he was performing. In the wake of a revolt, he died by stabbing himself in the throat with a dagger and announcing beforehand, “what an artist the world is losing in me,” while soldiers came to arrest him. Inner: Depraved, debauched and detested by all who personally knew him. Affected effeminate dress and deep love for Grecian culture. Gave free expression to all of his impulses, no matter how irrational or depraved, in his exploration of the madness of the feminine, rather than his usual ubermasculine mask. His death was an act of further opening up his communication center for future lives. Lavish and lascivious lifetime of releasing the creative/destructive forces within him as a center/stage world figure, who would become the paradigm for mad destructive rule for the millennia to come.
Herod the Great (73-4BZ) - King of Judea. Outer: Son of a family of great wealth and influence, whose father, Antipater (Alfried Krupp) was made a procurator of Judaea and a Roman citizen, which he passed onto his family. A practicing Jew, he was made governor and later tetrach of Galilee. Forced to flee to Rome when civil war broke out, he was appointed king of Judaea by the Roman senate and given an army to back up his title. Ascended the throne at age 36 and ruled for over 3 decades, even after supporting close friend Marc Antony (Marquis de Lafayette) in his losing struggle with Augustus Caesar (FDR). Locked the Jews into the Roman administrative system, thereby ripening the province for its ultimate takeover the next century. An enthusiastic builder, he had many cities, edifices, fortresses, aqueducts and theatres constructed, and generally maintained a prosperous kingdom, pleasing Rome with his rule. Harbored a passion for Greek culture and institutions, and was a genuine, albeit cruel protector of his realm. Divorced his first wife Doris to marry a Hasmonean princess, Mariamne, thereby uniting that priestly family of leaders with his own interests. Ultimately had 10 wives and 14 children, and his competing families led directly to his ruin. Descended into madness the last part of his life, as a result of the plague. Ordered the massacre of all innocents in Bethlehem, over a prophecy that a new king of the Jews had been born. Had 3 sons, as well as other members of his family executed, including the only wife he truly loved. Died after an unsuccessful attempt at suicide. Later speculation posited he died of gangrene, brought upon by kidney disease, which may have accounted for his madness. Inner: Cruel, paranoid builder/destroyer. Genuine gifts for authority, but far too out-of-control underneath to countenance any threat to his rule. Apart-at-the-seams lifetime of living out his own madness as secular king of the Jews, in preparation for threading his obsessiveness with that religious crew through the coming era in more and more grandiose manner.
Gaius Marius (157-86BZ) - Roman general and statesman. Outer: Probably from a plebian family of equestrian rank. Father was a farmer. Physically unprepossessing, he originally fought in Spain, and rose from the ranks to become an officer. Helped by the powerful Metelli clan, he became a tribune, proving himself a populist, and willing to confront his betters, winning much enmity among them. At 40, he married Julia, the patrician aunt of Julius Caesar (Charles de Gaulle), which gave him elevated social status, one adopted son. Held various offices in a solid but unspectacular political career, beginning in 115BZ. Fought in North Africa, then returned to Rome and criticised the commanding general, Quintus Metellus (Boris Johnson), and his conduct of the war in order to win popular support. Elected consul in 107B.Z., in an unusual display of power from someone of his modest background, then, after raising an army culled from the ranks of the indigent, returned to command the successful conclusion of the North African war, but was jealous of rival Sulla’s (FDR) capture of the enemy king, and the two became bitter enemies. Returned to Rome, and was elected consul several more times, in an unprecedented display of power, while continuing his campaigning and reforming the army, making it a professional force, rather than one of citizen/soldiers, and loyal only to its leaders. Also drew his cavalry and light-armed troops from foreign areas, so as to initiate the idea of mercenary forces, while his own soldiers knew only the trade of war. Helped create the subsequent martial personality of rule of the later empire, and by 100B.Z., he was seen as the savior of the state. Elected consul for a 6th time that year, but after turning against his former associates, he alienated his popular base, and saw that war was his only recourse in regaining it. After his political policies were defeated, and Metellus returned from exile, he left Italy in 97B.Z., and traveled in Asia for 5 years, looking to stir up hostile action there. Returned to fight in the Social War, but, despite a victorious command, he was forced to flee for his life when Sulla recaptured Rome with his legions, and he eventually found refuge with his old veterans in Africa. Returned with fellow general Cinna (Joschka Fischer) and an army in 87B.Z. and captured Rome, before both ruthlessly massacred their political opponents. Elected consul for a 7th time, but died of a fever 13 days later, a completely unloved figure. Inner: Saw himself as a simple countryman. Extremely puritanical, never embraced the decadence of the aristocratic life. Violent, superstitious, fanatical and vengeful. Used soothsayers and prophetesses for his counsel. Good tactician, able commander, far more the soldier than politician, with an innovative sense to his martial artistry. Roller coaster lifetime of delving into rule without a throne behind him, while evincing the same virulent trademarks that all his lives of command have manifested. Cambyses II (?-522BZ) - Persian emperor. Outer: Eldest son of Persian emperor Cyrus II (Mohandas Gandhi). Some question exists as to who his mother was, may have been a Median. Married the daughter of his mother’s brother, and if that were not incestuous enough, later married two of his sisters, one of whom, Atossa, would wed his son, Darius I (Jawaharlal Nehru), to complete the tight family grouping. Appointed king of Babylonia in 1530, so as to be present during their yearly ceremonial festivals, which his father could not be, thereby cementing Persian claims on the kingdom, although initially he and his men were armed during it, which was forbidden and quickly corrected. Spent only a year in this position, and then resigned for some unknown reason, which may have had something to do with his profaning the ceremony. When his father died campaigning in Asia the following year, he became emperor, and secretly killed his brother Smerdis (Hermann Goering) to insure he would not be usurped, before setting out to finish Cyrus’s conquest of Egypt. While he was gone an impostor, Gautama the Magian, who claimed to be Smerdis, seized the throne. Successfully invaded Egypt, and received key assistance from a variety of quarters, so that by 525, after a key victory, he had achieved his goal, and went on to capture the Egyptian capital of Memphis after a long siege, capturing the pharaoh. Recognized as the new pharaoh, he behaved accordingly, like an all-powerful sungod-king, while the land suffered under him. Gave every man in his army an Egyptian slave, and subsequent accounts of his tenure vary, thanks to deep prejudices against him by the country’s priests, who accused him of great cruelty and impiety. Began planning against the other empires of northern Africa, although he failed to capture Carthage when his Phoenician sailors refused to do battle against their former colony, and fell victim to a sandstorm, when he tried to overcome a West Nile oasis. Only his foray into Nubia was partially successful, although he had to return when he ran out of supplies. When he came back from Egypt, he heard of the revolt and the usurpation, and either died by accident, from an infection from an accidental sword wound, or committed suicide. Succeeded by one of his leading generals, who became Darius I (William Randolph Hearst), one of the empire’s greatest rulers. Inner: Varying accounts, some very prejudicial against him, exist of his life, although it probably was as cruel and unusual as he has been in all his go-rounds of leadership in this series. Resurrection lifetime of returning to a kingdom which had earlier rejected his memory, to make sure they would not forget him a second time, through his overbearing and oppressive conquering presence.
Akhnaton (Neferkheperure Amenhotep IV) (?-c1336BZ) - Egyptian pharaoh. Outer: Of the XVIIIth dynasty. Second son of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III (FDR) and Queen Tiy (Doris Kopf-Schroeder). His father had declared himself a god, while still alive largely for political purposes in curtailing the power of the Amun priesthood. The move broke with tradition but it would give his son the opportunity to take that concept to a whole other level. After an older brother died prematurely, he succeeded his sire to the throne c1353B.Z., as the 10th king of his dynasty. May have served as a co-regent beforehand, since his sire was in poor health towards the end of his long reign. Probably had some sort of glandular disorder, making for a very self-obsessed character, while giving him an elongated skull, and a propensity for heaviness. Married Nefertiti (Magda Goebbels) before his accession, who may have been the daughter of his vizier Ay (Joseph Goebbels), which would make her a non-royal like his own mother. Her role was far greater than her predecessors and she seems to have been supportive of his beliefs, although she was probably forced to retire before the end of his reign, and may have outlived him. 6 daughters from the union. Also fathered a short-lived son by one daughter, and married another one, who would later wed his son Tutankhamen. Had two more wives as well, one of whom produced the aforementioned Tutankhamen. Unlike other national figures of his time, he strongly celebrated womanhood, seeing them as fecund manifestations of his singular deity. Moved the Egyptian capital from Thebes to 175 miles north and founded the well-planned out city of El-Amarna in the 4th year of his reign, a previously unoccupied area between the royal cities of Thebes and Memphis. Claimed divine guidance from the Sun God Aton, with himself as that deity’s Earthly manifestation, introducing the concept of One God to the pantheistic heavens of Egypt, and vigorously suppressing and persecuting all other cults. Aton was represented as a sun disc, rather than the human or animal form of the other gods. Changed his name to Akhnaton, or servant of Aton, in the fifth year of his reign, and used the title, which was unprecedented, of “high priest of the sun god.” Rather than creating a new god, he appropriated an existing one, raising it to a level over all other gods, much as the Hebrews had done in elevating their nature deity Yahweh to supremacy in the heavens. Intertwined his own being with his creation, and built many temples, while his obsession with monotheism intensified throughout his reign. His stance completely undercut the power of the priesthood. Desecrated and destroyed the worship sites of the rival god Amun, and took over the revenues of his closed temples, which raised the ire of many who were directly affected, although the pharaoh’s edicts had little effect on the ordinary populace. Had little interest in foreign affairs, wars or other traditional matters of state, leaving his diplomats and governmental officials to their own corrupt devices. Drew his court from the lesser ranks, including the military, and both his father-in-law Ay, and his military commander Horemheb (Ernst Roehm) were the two most powerful people in his kingdom, and both would eventually follow him to the throne. At the time of his wife’s disappearance from the records in the 12th year of his reign, he took on a co-regent, who may very well have been she. May have been killed by his half-brother or son and successor, Smenkhkare (Hermann Goering). His memory, his city, his temples and all his icons were razed with such savage fury after his death, that little real record of him exists. His name and that of his god were also completely erased, so as to make him ultimately a nonperson. Inner: Obsessive, tyrannical and thoroughly imbued with his own godhead and godhood. Revolutionary road lifetime of giving the solar sense of individual personality its theocratic grounding, only to be completely denied by his immediate reality, as the demented progenitor of an idea whose time was yet to come.
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PATHWAY OF THE RULER AS SELF-OBSESSIVE CARICATURE:
Storyline: The warped warrior bloats himself with self-importance to become a cartoon of the martial artist, evincing the same megalomaniacal self-interest that has blunted most of his lives on the battlefield and in his contests for rule.
Darkside Gawain - Knight of the Round Table. Son of Morgawse, nephew of Arthur. Alternately viewed as a flower of chivalry in early Arthurian romances and treacherous and brutal later on. Archetype of the dualistic hero who is capable of both dark and light.
Hermann Goering (1893-1946) - German Nazi general. Outer: Son of a former cavalry officer who became a German consul general in Haiti. Grew up in a small castle, was educated at elite officer cadet schools, then was commissioned a lieutenant in the infantry and switched to the air service to become a highly decorated fighter pilot in WW I, during which time he was wounded. Worked as a Scandinavian pilot, after becoming disgusted with Germany’s civilian treatment of its army officers. Found it difficult to adjust to civilian life, while working for an aircraft company and doing other air-related jobs, before becoming a commercial pilot for a Swedish airline where he met and wed an epileptic, unhappily married Swedish countess with an 8 year old son, Karin von Katzow, following her divorce. Her family was horrified with his morphine addiction and for a while, refused to have anything to do with them. Didn’t have to work because of her money, and through her, he met Adolf Hitler and joined the Nazi Party in 1922, becoming a leader of the SA (Sturmabtellung or Storm Detachment). Took part in Hitler’s 1923 beer hall putsch, where he was severely wounded in the groin by police bullets, then fled to Sweden for several years, while becoming addicted to morphine. Spent some time in a lunatic asylum there, where he developed a morbid fear of Jews. Returned to Germany in 1927, following a general political amnesty, and was elected to the Reichstag 2 years later as one of the first Nazis to achieve political recognition. Crushed by his wife’s death in 1931, he later married Emmy Sonnemann, a provincial actress in 1935. Was devoted to both women, and had one child by the latter, while growing to enormous size. After the Nazi victories of 1932, he became president of that parliamentary house, playing an important role preceding Hitler’s assumption of rule in early 1933. Afterwards, he rose swiftly in the Nazi hierarchy, becoming Chancellor and President, and managing the mass execution of the SA in 1934 when it threatened Hitler’s absolute control of the party. Made a full general in 1936 and in effect, economic dictator of the Third Reich, with vast power over property and industry. Condoned the persecution of Jews and forced them out of the economic life of the country. Appointed commander-in-chief of the Air Force, as well Hitler’s successor, and in 1940, he was made Reich Marshal, the world’s highest-ranking military officer. Founded Hitler’s concentration camps, as well as his secret police, the Gestapo. Enjoyed spectacular air success in the early years of the war, while he filled his walls with art plunder and lived on a hugely luxurious scale. Discredited after the failure of his air force in the Battle of Britain in 1940, when he failed to take out the British radar stations, and his authority began to plummet. Eventually deprived of authority by Hitler, and lapsed into subservience and playing the scapegoat for the remainder of the war. Captured by American troops at war’s end, he became the chief defendant at the Nuremberg trials, losing some 80 pounds in the process. Defended himself well and denied complicity in Nazi atrocities but was convicted to be hanged. Bribed a guard and committed suicide by cyanide capsule instead, shortly before his date with the hangman. Inner: Hero turned fat buffoon, acting as a virtual caricature of the greedy ostentatious militarist, while appearing almost childlike in his behavior. Loved elaborately costumed uniforms and titles, extremely extroverted, with the ability to laugh uproariously at himself. Pleasure-loving morphine addict, with the capacity to love those close to him. Thought Hitler was the reincarnation of the Roman emperor Tiberius (Lucien Bonaparte). Brave in battle, tireless energy, but without the strategic and tactical capabilities of waging modern warfare. Bloated lifetime of allowing vice, bombast and egocentricity to overwhelm his natural military abilities, a martial artist painting himself into a dark corner of exaggerated self-caricature.
George Boulanger (1837-1891) - French general. Outer: Father was an attorney. Attended the Saint-Cyr Military Academy, and entered the army in 1856. After seeing considerable action in Italy, Algeria, Indochina and the Franco-Prussian War, he was wounded in the revolt of the Paris Commune in 1871. Rose to the rank of brigadier general in 1880, and 2 years later he was made director of the infantry. After being recalled from his post as army commander in Tunisia because of differences with its political resident, he entered politics and in 1886, he was made minister of war. His popular reforms gave him a hero’s status, and he came to be looked on as the avenger for France’s humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, sparking a Boulangist anti-republican movement. Known as “the man on horseback,” to his ardent supporters. Appealed to royalists, Bonapartists and other conservative elements, while republicans saw him as a potential military dictator. Forced from his ministry and deprived of his command for fanning discontent through covert and blatant activities. Elected a parliamentary deputy several times, but resigned when his reforms were rejected. In 1888, he was wounded in a duel with an elderly minister. Despite these humiliations, he returned to office the following year and was implored by his supporters to take control of the government on the day of his re-election. Spent the evening with his mistress Marguerite Crouzet, instead, and was soon prosecuted for treason. Fled Paris, was tried and found guilty in absentia, and his whole movement collapsed. 2 years later, he blew out his brains over the grave of his mistress, who had died a few months earlier. Inner: Highly ambitious, although a poor public speaker, and unable to effectively act save in defined military situations. Exposed lifetime of bringing his strong character defects to the fore, and exposing the weakness of dictatorial fantasies to a public mass still transforming itself from the dreams of empire to the realities of republican rule.
Charles Dumouriez (1739-1823) - French general. Outer: Son of an army commissary. Traveled with his father to Hanover during the 7 Years’ War and volunteered for service in a cavalry regiment in 1758. Twice wounded and captured, he was released and discharged in 1762. Went to fight for Pasquale Paoli’s (Antonio Banderas) Corsican rebels, and later joined a French expedition to Corsica. Sent on secret diplomatic missions to Scandinavia for Louis XV (Mikhail Gorbachev), but was imprisoned for 2 years for his intrigues. Made port commander afterwards until the outbreak of the French revolution in 1789. Joined the Jacobins and was appointed minister of foreign affairs in the Girondin government in 1792. When war was declared on Austria, he planned a quick victory and the overthrow of the government by his army, but military reverses curtailed his scheme. Very briefly made minister of war, then led the Army of the North in a series of initial victories but ultimate defeat. Concluded a peace treaty and then planned once again on marching on Paris and overthrowing the provisional government in 1793. His troops deserted, however, and he negotiated with Austrian Col. Karl von Mack Leiberech (Albert Kesselring) to go over to the Austrians, and lived out the rest of his life in European exile. Refusing refuge in Russia, he lived in Switzerland and Germany before being granted a pension by the British in 1800. An adviser in Spain on guerrilla warfare and then was a consultant to the Duke of Wellington on his invasion of France in 1814. Refused re-entry into France on the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, and went to England where he died. Inner: Competent tactician and strategist. Intriguer and military adept, undone by his continual thirst for personal power over a chaotic environment far too complex for his limited overview. Failed lifetime of acting out the excesses of thwarted ambition, with a long 3 decade period of reflection to put them in some sort of inner perspective.
Matthias (1557-1619) - Holy Roman Emperor. Outer: Of Hapsburg descent. 3rd son of HRE Maximilan II (Darryl F. Zanuck), and brother of Rudolph II (Rudolph Hess) and Albert (Alfred Rosenberg). Received no lands on his father’s death in 1576, and embarked on a career of intriguing for power, first in the Netherlands as governor-general in 1577 and then as governor of Austria in 1593, receiving little popular support. Began as an opportunistic friend of Protestantism and just as easily shifted to being an ineffective champion of the Counter Reformation. In 1611, he married an Austrian noblewoman, Anna of Tyrol, but the duo were childless. As his brother became more unbalanced, he won the backing of a rival faction of the nobility to replace him, and spent the rest of his sibling’s life struggling with him for supremacy. As an imperial commander, he showed a general military incompetence, but gained peace with the Turks because of political reasons as well as the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, which his brother initially refused to recognize. Recognized in 1608 as acting head of the Hapsburg dynasty, he managed somehow to stumble from one inept move to the next, before ascending the throne in 1612 on his sibling’s death. Caught between the rock of Catholicism and the hard place of the Protestant states, he proved far too conciliatory for the hardliner Catholics of his dynastic family. Unable to counter the dominating moves of his brother Archduke Maximilian, he withdrew from public life because of ill health, and died at the outset of the Thirty Year’s War. Succeeded by his cousin, Ferdinand II (Kurt Waldheim). Inner: Slow-witted, indecisive, unreliable and continually looking for his own personal gain. Given short shrift by his own family, and affected a strong sibling rivalry with his unbalanced brother, whom he hated. Inept lifetime of intriguing for power within a royal household only to share with his sibling a genetic darkness that considerably curtailed his abilities, allowing him to experience the shadow rather than the substance of power.
Charles VIII (1470-1498) - King of France. Outer: Last of the Valois line. Only surviving son of Louis XI (Adolf Hitler), mother was the daughter of the Duke of Savoy. Assumed the throne at age of 13, under the capable regency of his older sister, Anne de Beaujeu (Magda Goebbels). In 1491, he married Anne (Jessica Mitford) the self-interested daughter of the duke of Brittany, 4 children, but all died in infancy. Short, slow-talking, ill-shaped and ugly, with little temperament for rule. Reputedly had 6 toes on each of his misshapen feet. Undertook a military expedition in 1495 to claim the kingdom of Naples, which he had inherited. After an initial success with little resistance, the Holy League formed against him and he was driven out, introducing the Italian Renaissance to France in the process, while plunging his country into a half-century of fruitless wars there after his death. Accidentally struck his head on a stone doorway and died. Left no direct heir and the crown passed to a cousin of his father’s, ending the Valois line. Inner: Intellectually backward with an enormous head in proportion to the rest of body. Enthusiast for Italian art, and inadvertent cultural disseminator. His disproportionate physique was his ultimate undoing, a symbol of an unintegrated body and mind. Disintegrated lifetime of unconsciously integrating cultures through the actions of his own unintegrated person.
Aurelius Valerius Maxentius (c283-312) - Roman emperor. Outer: Father was the future emperor Maximian (Ernst Roehm), mother was Syrian. Granted a senatorial rank, he was awarded Valeria Maximilla, the daughter of Galerius (Rudolph Hess) as a wife, although he was not given a consulship or a military command, 2 sons from union. In 306, when Galerius raised 2 others to Augustus and Caesar, he revolted, and a rebellion was launched in Rome which won the backing of the praetorian soldiers, as well as the common citizens of Rome, protesting against a recent tax decree. Invested with the purple in the fall of that year, although he possessed few troops of his own, forcing him to rule with great caution. Nevertheless, he was able to hold Rome for 6 years. Failed to win the approval of Galerius, although did gain the nod of Constantine (Mohandas Gandhi), until Spain declared for him. Even though his father also decided to turn against him, his fortunes still held. When all the Augusti and Caesars met in 308, they declared him a public enemy, although they could not destroy his position inside Italy. Proved to be an extremely energetic builder, including the Basilica Nova, a monument to paganism, as well as his own imperial villa, a circus and a huge family mausoleum. Ambivalent towards the Christians, while in the habit of pursuing the wives of powerful men, and sexually abusing and insulting them. When the acting praetorian prefect of Africa declared himself emperor, the stoppage of grain caused a famine in the capital, and a subsequent loss of 6000 lives in street-fighting. Lost his son and heir in 309, then won back Africa in 311, but in 312, Constantine crossed into Italy, and even though he was outnumbered 4 to 1, defeated him at the Milvian Bridge across the Tiber. Drowned trying to swim to safety, along with thousands of his soldiers. The battle has subsequently been seen as the final victory of Christianity over paganism. Inner: Indolent, dissolute, rapacious, cruel and a sexual tyrant. Lustful lifetime of evincing all his shadowy traits without the unbalanced madness to go with them, before drowning in his own darkness.
Aulus Vitellius (15-69) - Roman emperor. Outer: Son of an adviser and consul to Claudius (Joseph Goebbels). Father was 3 times consul and censor. Spent his youth as part of the Emperor Tiberius’s (Lucien Bonaparte) troop of young males on Capri, where he earned the nickname of ‘Spintria’ or male prostitute. Through his flattery of subsequent emperors, he served as consul and proconsul of Africa before being made commander in Lower Germany, in 68, despite having no real military talent. Had some knowledge of letters and some eloquence. Evinced a basic dishonesty and a tendency towards vice in his various posts. Unusually tall with an alcoholic flush, a huge paunch and a crippled thigh that had been run over by a chariot that Caligula (Napoleon Bonaparte) had been driving. Married in his early 30s, to to Galeria Fundania, the daughter of a consul, and tradition has it he killed the son from the union, feeling the latter was a potential parricide. His second union, to the daughter of an ex-praetor, was far more stable and produced a son and daughter. Debt-ridden, with a particular liking for actors and chariot-drivers. In 69, he was made emperor by his own men, who marched on Rome, although he followed later, in what was described as a drunken, undisciplined celebratory feast, proclaiming his 6 year old son as his successor in the hopes of beginning a new dynasty. Given the purple by the Senate after his armies proved victorious over a rival claimant, he began a victory procession to the capital, incurring much violence in his wake. His brief rule was marked by civil war, and the burning of the capital, before he was ultimately captured by soldiers. Dragged to the Forum and brutally beaten repeatedly with heavy blows, his body was unceremoniously tossed into the Tiber, while his head was carried around Rome. Inner: Gluttonous, crude, cruel, indolent and perverted, although not entirely untalented in rule, with good traits of leadership. His lasting reputation also may be the product of his enemies, who saw little good in him. Hedonistic lifetime of building on his military experience, although far more interested in the pleasures of the table than the battlefield, before becoming a dismembered meal for his displeased constituents. Smerdis (?-c529BZ) - Persian prince. Also known as Bardyia. Outer: Son of Cyrus the Great (Mohandas Gandhi), and younger brother of Cambyses II (Adolf Hitler). Reputed to be the possessor of great strength, sowing himself to be the only one who was strong enough to draw a bow sent to the court by an enemy. At the death of their father, Cambyses contrived to have him killed, to protect against a usurpation when he was off campaigning in Egypt. During his absence, however, an impostor, a look-alike Magian rebel named Gautama claimed to be he and seized the throne in 522BZ, only to be killed by Darius I (Jawaharlal Nehru), who then assumed the throne himself. Later another Persian claiming to be the real Smerdis seized the Persian palace, but was ultimately crucified for his troubles. Inner: Victim lifetime of falling prey to his longtime cohort’s paranoia, only to oddly resurrect several times in the guise of impostors, as, perhaps, his own ongoing posturing around power, and inability to integrate his abilities with his deeply flawed character.
Smenkhkare (?-c1333B.Z.) - Egyptian pharaoh. Outer: Shadowy figure, may have been a son or half-brother of the pharaoh, Akhnaton (Adolf Hitler), and may or may not have been instrumental in his death, after that much-hated sovereign imposed his will of a One God heaven over the Egyptian pantheistic empyrean, to the resistance of his nation. Succeeded Akhnaton, and married his eldest sister, Merytamon, while ruling for about 3 years, without leaving any noticeable imprint, before being succeeded by either his brother or nephew, Tutankhamen (Heinrich Himmler). His cause of death remains a mystery, since his mummified corpse showed no signs of disease. Inner: Shadowy lifetime of either bringing a despot down, or serving as a bridge figure to bring the XVIIIth Dynasty to conclusion, before more assertive and talented rulers could resurrect it.
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PATHWAY OF THE RULER AS DISINFORMATION-MASTER:
Storyline: The improper propagandist employs his reptilian tongue in the service of distorted truths, but remains consistently loyal and true to the disinformation he so dearly loves to espouse.
Darkside Bedivere - Knight of the Round Table, and loyal adherent of King Arthur. Threw Arthur’s sword Excalibur into the Lake at dying king’s request and bore his body to the barge which took him to Avalon. Archetype of loyalty, be it to the light or the darkness.
Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) - German Nazi propagandist. Outer: Grew up in a pious Catholic household, where his father was a foreman in a textile plant, while his mother was the daughter of a blacksmith. Educated in Catholic schools, he went to 8 different universities, before finally receiving a Ph.D. from Heidelberg in 1921. Intended to be a writer, but his early works were rejected, as were his romantic intentions, making him into a compulsive seducer later on, despite being a virgin until the age of 33. Lost his Catholicism as a penniless student and unemployed doctorate student, holding only one job his entire life, that of a bank clerk. Morose and self-pitying as young man, he thought of himself as a poor cripple, from childhood osteomyelitis, which left one leg shorter than the other and caused a lifelong limp, preventing him from service in WW I. 5’4”, and around 100 lbs. Fought a lifelong battle against suicidal depression, which was ameliorated by the sense of purpose he gained around National Socialism, and the new Reich it offered. Joined the Nazi Party in 1924, after being awestruck by Adolf Hitler, feeling he was reborn under the spell of his cant. Further groomed by Gregor Strasser, working initially as a propagandist under him, until the former and Hitler began to have serious misgivings about one another. Made gauletier of Berlin in 1926, and became Hitler’s accomplished minister of propaganda and the stage manager for his rallies. Probably the singular person most responsible for Hitler’s rise. In 1931, he married Magda Quandt, an upper middle-class woman who was divorced from a Jewish businessman, and had 5 daughters and a son whose names all began with the letter ‘H’, in honor of Hitler. His wife was an ardent Nazi, although he sabotaged the marriage with his need to seduce other women with his power, while she probably had affairs as well, and would probably have preferred to be the spouse of Hitler. Excellent speaker, with a deep, booming voice, also an effective journalist, serving as a bridge between Nazi ideology and the masses. Put the Party into an his/storical context, and gave it a mythos and palpable destiny. Organized Hitler’s 2 campaigns for the presidency in 1932, and was instrumental in getting party members elected to the Reichstag. Constantly at odds with other leading Nazis who resented his intimate relations with the Führer. During the war, his main task was maintaining high morale in the German fighting force, which became more and more difficult as the German position became more and more untenable. Particularly effective at war’s near end, in altering the face of Germany’s imminent defeat. The singular high official to stay with Hitler until the bitter end, with no desire to continue in a Germany that was not lead by his idolized master of the Master Race. Conflicting accounts cover his and his family’s final exit. Arranged a Viking funeral for his beloved leader, then either had his six children poisoned by lethal injection or cyanide capsules, declaring there was nothing left for them to live for without the Third Reich, before having an SS officer dispatch both himself and his wife with a shot to the back of the head. Inner: Courageous, loyal, hardworking and cunning. Transformed himself from a nervous and lethargic misanthrope with a low self-image, into a fire-breathing propagandist of worldclass stature, consumed with the pure power of language. Despised by one and all who knew him, for his deviousness, save for his Führer. The passionate loves of his life were the emotions of hatred and its embodiment in Adolf Hitler. Silver-tongued lifetime of metamorphosis and exploring the intoxicating passion of words and actions combined, regardless the consequence.
Joseph Gobineau (1816-1882) - French writer and diplomat. Outer: Mother, Anne-Louise Magdeleine de Gercy (Magda Goebbels), was the Creole daughter of a tax official, and descendant of Louis XV (Mikhail Gorbachev), who also served as lady-in-waiting to Pauline Bonaparte (Diana Mitford). Eventually she would become both a novelist and memoirist. Father was an officer of the French Royal guard. Had a Catholic upbringing in a tension-filled household, before his mother left his sire to elope with another man, when he was 14, and took him and his sister to Switzerland. Slim, dark and pale. Studied Oriental languages and German, before preparing for a military career, at his progenitor’s behest, which he did not want. Went to work as a clerk before becoming a hack writer, then a novelist and a playwright in his late 20s. In 1846, he married Clemence Monnerot, the daughter of an influential Parisian family, one daughter. Became cabinet head for foreign minister Alexis de Tocqueville (Raymond Arons) in 1849 and was assigned to the Bern embassy, which he disliked. Wrote his best-known work in his late 40s, on the inequality of the human races there, a polemic later embraced by the Nazis for its praise of the superiority of the Aryan race, although it was poorly received at the time. After being transferred to Frankfurt in 1854, he inherited his uncle’s wealth the following year, and began to enjoy an aristocratic lifestyle. Held several more foreign ministries, always appreciating Aryan countries, such as Persia and Sweden, and continued his prolific writing. Rarely got along with his diplomatic confreres, whom he regarded as his inferiors, and in 1877, he went into compulsory retirement. Traveled, separated from his wife, and died of apoplexy while in Italy. Inner: Conceited, with a natural eloquence, and name rhythm that directly reflected his later life. Eloquent, willful, and monumentally judgmental. Peripatetic lifetime of wide travel, and a highly prejudicial outlook, that would inspire the distorted racial views which would be his cloak of power in his next directly connected go-round.
Jacques Hebert (1757-1794) - French revolutionary and political journalist. Outer: From a bourgeois background, his father of the same name had a goldsmith shop and also held some municipal office. The family’s fortunes were subsequently destroyed by a lawsuit, and his sire, a ruined man, died when his son was 11. Came to Paris in 1780 and spent a poverty-stricken decade under great hardship, trying to become a playwright, while working in the theater, although his plays were never produced. After the onset of the French Revolution, he began drawing some attention to himself, when he unleashed a bitter torrent of journalistic satires under the pen name of Pere Duchesne, a stock character of the French theatre. Beginning in 1790, he published a newspaper of that name, whose foul-mouthed diatribes against the aristocracy and clergy proved extremely popular with the uneducated mass. Married a former nun, Marie Margareite Francois (Magda Quandt), one daughter from the union. Became the central figure of the Hebertistes, an anti-Christian, anti-clerical, left-wing crew who would come back intact as 20th century Nazis. As a member of the Revolutionary Commune, he helped plan the popular insurrection that overthrew the monarchy in August of 1792. Elected assistant procurator general of the Commune, which became the governing body of Paris. An enthusiastic supporter of the Temple of Reason, which opposed the theistic cult of the Supreme Being, a Jacobin substitute for Catholicism, which he sought to destroy. Also joined the Jacobins, and was a pivotal figure in the overthrow of the Girondins in 1793, becoming the official spokesman for the will of the sans-culottes, the lower classes. Arrested in mid-1793, because of his anti-Girondist rants, but was soon released, thanks to the restive nature of his unwashed enthusiasts, who were known as enragés. Organized Parisian workers to implement the Reign of Terror, but eventually was viewed as a danger to the Robespierre (Joseph Stalin) clique after calling for an uprising, and he and his followers were arrested and guillotined. Quailed and went visibly shaken to his death, to the jeers of the mob, and his wife followed him 20 days later. Inner: Angry, filled with bile and enamored of his own power. Minor, peripheral figure raised to exaggerated importance through the distortions of the written word. Forked tongue lifetime of learning about the uses and abuses of propaganda and how to manipulate the public mass.
Lorenzino de’ Medici (1514-1548) - Italian writer and assassin. Outer: Member of the one of the cadet branches of the powerful de’ Medici family. Inherited a hatred of tyranny from his mother, while showing himself to be extremely resentful of his secondary role in an extended powerful family. Slightly built, with a perpetual leer, and a tendency towards obsequiousness. Classically educated, he had a fascination with Greco-Roman antiquity, and became a writer of note, producing several plays, including the Aridosio, which came to be considered a classic of his age. Also showed an equally destructive side, knocking off the heads of statues in Rome, in a display of contempt for the imperial past. Arrested and brought before the infuriated pope Clement VII (Joseph Bonaparte), who threatened to hang him, before banishing him to Florence. Allowed himself to be drawn into the depravity of his much-hated, ducal cousin, Alessandro de’ Medici, (Heinrich Himmler), in his desire to gain prestige and position for himself, while the latter, as master of Florence, saw in his intellectual companion, a fellow debased sot who could serve as his procurer. The unhealthy pair outdid one another in the latter’s pursuit of excess, including visiting their sexual presence on convents, as well as private homes. Often rode the same horse with him in public, all the while seething within. When the debonair cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici was poisoned at Alessandro’s behest, he vowed revenge, attacking his cousin’s sleeping form with an accomplice in a violent struggle, then appended a patriotic note to the bloodied sheets that quoted The Aeneid. Fled to Venice, and tried to get the Florentines to rise, then fled to Bologna to await the outcome of the uprising he instigated, which failed. Traveled incessantly afterwards, and was finally murdered in Venice. Wrote an Apologia for his untoward behavior, claiming that a love for liberty induced him to turn on his relative and instigate revolution. Inner: Cultured, albeit unbalanced, with an entwining of his own personal sense of prestige with that of liberty and justice. Excellent writer, but filled with far too much of a self-destructive force to allow his creativity to stand alone. Warped lifetime of trying to transform a profound resentfulness into high art and high political drama, only to ultimately become a victim of the latter ambition. Stefano Porcaro (?-1453) - Roman conspirator. Outer: From a wealthy family, and well-educated. As a bitter enemy of the clergy, he was obsessed with freeing Rome from papal slavery and making it into a republic. Became a friend of the humanists, and proved himself to be a graceful writer. Traveled in France and Germany, before returning to Rome, where he occupied several magistracies in Italy for a number of years in the 1430s, and also held positions of trust under the papacy as a Roman Knight. After the death of Eugenius IV (Francois Mitterand) in 1447, he led a conspiracy to liberate Rome, making an inflammatory public speech exhorting the Romans to rebel against priestly government and restore the Roman republic, in the spirit of Cola di Rienzi (Adolf Hitler). Pardoned by his successor Nicholas V (John Paul I), who thought of him as a harmless lunatic, particularly after his exhortation drew no response. Made governor-general of the Campagna and coastal regions of Italy, but began agitating anew. Banished with a pension to Bologna, but after feigning illness, he escaped to Rome, where he planned to capture and execute the pope and cardinals during the feast of the Epiphany. He was captured, however, imprisoned and hanged for his troubles. Inner: Humanist at heart and a good communicator, but with a overweening penchant for intrigue and a complementary ineptitude in carrying it out. Pushing the envelope lifetime of playing the role of deliberate provocateur and propagandist so as to force a martyred ending that accomplished nothing save for making him a footnote to Roman theocratic his/story. Theotecnus (?-313) - Antioch governor. Outer: During the reign of Maximinus II Daia (Adolf Hitler), he rose from civic office to the provincial governorship of Antioch. Willingly and enthusiastically followed the edicts of the emperor in his persecution of Christians. Created an oracle of Zeus Friend of Men as a divine pagan authority, so that the persecution would have some heavenly ballast. After his imperial patron died in 313, he also fell from office and was tortured to death by those he had persecuted. Inner: Strongly anti-Christian lifetime of experimenting with propaganda in the service of a twisted theology, only to receive circular recompense when his authority was summarily pulled out from under him.
Claudius I (10BZ-54AZ) - Outer: Roman Emperor. Nephew of the emperor Tiberius (Lucien Bonaparte), uncle of the emperor Nero (Adolf Hitler). Father was Nero Drusus (Joseph Kennedy, Jr.), who died shortly after he was born. Mother was Antonia (Rose Kennedy). Younger brother of Germanicus (JFK). Tall, well-built, but probably suffered from polio and cerebral paralysis as a boy. Seemingly retarded, with jerky movements and a speech impediment, as well as a tendency to drool, but with a sharp mind. Received little love from his mother, who considered him a monster, and he spent his youth drinking, gambling, and slavering after women, while immersing himself in his/storical research, writing several his/stories, an autobiography, all penned in Greek, and ultimately lost to posterity. Because of his perceived incompetence, he was saved from exile or political assassination, so that his liabilities ultimately proved to be assets for his relative longevity. In his late teens, he married Plautia Urgulanilla before divorcing her in 24, when she proved adulterous and was under suspicion of murder. Their son choked on a pear that he had thrown in the air and caught in his mouth, while their daughter was disowned as a child, when he suspected she wasn’t his. Made a senator and given a consulship in 37 but little respect came with it, thereby assuring his ongoing continuance, since he was a threat to no one. Accepted humiliation and contempt as a matter of course, during the reign of Caligula (Napoleon Bonaparte) and married Aelia Paetina around 28, before divorcing her a decade later when he met a more prestigious bride, one daughter from the union. At 50, he wed Valeria Messalina (Leni Reifenstahl), who was 18 at the time. 2 children from the union, a son, Britannicus, who was killed by Nero, and a daughter, Octavia, who married him. Messalina was notoriously unfaithful and used her position to destroy many influential figures, although her husband was seemingly unaware of her infidelities and treasonable activities. Hid in the palace after Caligula’s assassination in 41, was discovered behind a curtain, dragged out and hailed as emperor by the praetorian guard at the age of 51. The Senate hesitated in empowering him, then finally did so, much to his everlasting resentment. Well aware of the violent death of his predecessor, he took elaborate precautions to avoid a similar fate. All those entering his presence were searched for weapons, although several attempts were still made on his life. Established the ominous precedent of the power of the praetorian guard, giving the martial element of the empire, rather than the legislative, ongoing say in who the succeeding rulers of Rome would be. His reign saw the annexation of Britain, which would be his greatest territorial achievement, as well as several spectacular public works and judicial reform. Acted quickly and cruelly whenever he saw his life threatened, executing 35 senators and over 300 knights. Also executed Messalina in 48, after she astonished him by marrying a consul designate, while probably thinking of staging a coup. To top off his marital life, he incestuously married his niece Agrippina (Unity Mitford), the daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder (Jacqueline Kennedy) in 49. She had previously been twice married, killing her 2nd husband so as to enjoy his wealth, and had also been banished and restored by him. After her marriage, she enjoyed tremendous power, and had her son Nero adopted. Died from poisoned mushrooms administered by her in the desire that her son be given the royal purple, and was succeeded by the latter. Inner: Uncouth, cruel, impetuous, stammered, slobbered and had difficulty in coordinating his thoughts, despite having innovative, creative traits. Allowed himself to be dominated by both his wives and his freedmen. Dualistic character, continually doing battle with himself for coherence thanks to a childhood marred by serious ill health, which saved him from assassination for his adult career. Expressed himself far better on paper than in public. Salivating lifetime of creative expression impaired by physical disability, while inadvertently empowering the martiality of Rome as the ultimate arbiter of its successive rulers, in an odd go-round that literally mocked his superior interior with a body so deeply wounded that he could never fully emerge from it. Baogas (?-336BZ) - Persian minister. Outer: Served as a eunuch at the court of the Persian Achmaemenid emperors, and steadily rose in power to become the favorite of Artaxerses III (Ernst Roehm). When the emperor returned from his successful conquest of Egypt in 343BZ, he was the effective ruler of the court, and began to hunger for even more control. In 338 BZ, he saw his opportunity and had both the king and his elder sons killed, so as to put his youngest Arses (Heinrich Himmler) in power, in order to exert complete sway over the throne, while the new emperor took on the name of Artaraxerses IV. The regicide caused extreme upheaval, and two satrapies revolted, while the king of Macedonia, Philip II, attacked Persian possessions in Asia Minor. In addition to the deep divide, the young emperor began to complain about his tyrannical overseer, and attempted to poison him. Instead, he did away with the newly crowned emperor, and invited a distant relative, who would become Darius III (Rudolph Hess), to take the throne. Having successfully committed two regicides, he inspired little confidence in his replacement king, and as soon as the latter started asserting his independence, he plotted to poison him, only to be forced to drink the fatal brew himself, an act that gave the beleaguered kingdom momentary rest from its divisions. Inner: Grasping, cunning, and absolutely ruthless. Regicidal lifetime of exercising naked will on a ruling royal family, in an exercise of supreme will that could only result in his ultimately being consumed by his overreaching grasp.
Ay (Kheperkheprure Ay) (?-c1319B.Z.) - Egyptian ruler. Outer: Origins are obscure. Probably pursued a military career. May have been a close relative of Queen Tiy (Sara Roosevelt), or one of his wives may have been the mother of Queen Nefertiti (Magda Goebbels), the wife of the pharaoh, Akhnaton (Adolf Hitler), while a second acted as her stepmother, after the former’s premature death. Had a close relationship to the royal family, and was known as “god’s father,” indicating a familial connection to the ruling clan. Since Akhnaton had little real interest in rule, he became one of the most powerful men in the kingdom during his contentious reign, as vizier and grand chancellor. After Akhnaton’s death, he served his successors, Semenkhere (Hermann Goering) and Tutankhamen (Heinrich Himmler), becoming the latter’s vizier and regent, enjoying enormous power, while garnering further titles, although he remained loyal to the royal family, helping to expunge his progenitor’s memory and failed experiment in raising the Sun God, Aton, over all other deities, and overseeing the removal of the capital to Memphis. Officiated at Tutankhamen’s funeral as his successor, and probably married his widow against her wishes to cement his position, although kept his wife as his titular queen. May have also been involved in Tutankhamen’s death. Already at least 70 at his succession, his reign lasted 4 years, during which time, he continued with the policies of his predecessor, and since he had no son, he was succeeded by the general Horemheb (Ernst Roehm). Inner: Power hungry, but loyal and competent, served as a don’t rock-the-boat transitional figure between the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties. Duty-bound lifetime of giving a sense of continuity to the God/King throne of the Egyptians, allowing it to be passed into very competent hands, thanks to his own keen instinct for power.
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PATHWAY OF THE RULER AS MACABRE SORCERER:
Storyline: The demented doppelganger serves as a shadow double for his dualistic mentor, apotheosizing the banality of evil in his ability to invest and infest himself with the true darkness of humanity.
Darkside Mordred -Son of King Arthur and his half-sister Morgawse, in an act of unconscious incest. Led a revolt against his father in which both were mortally wounded in the final battle of Camelot. Symbol of the weak and/or willful seed that brings a line to its end.
Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) - German Nazi Gestapo chief. Outer: Son of a middle-class Catholic schoolmaster, he was the middle of 3 brothers and raised in a devout home where he became deeply imbued with the his/story and mythology of Germany. A poor athlete as a youth, which gave him a sense of inferiority, and also made him ill-at-ease around women. Had recurring health problems as a child as well, including a life-long chronic stomach disorder, emblematic of an unintegrated sense of power. Kept a diary at his father’s insistence, which led later on to his methodical approach to even the most heinous of activities. At 17, he joined a Bavarian infantry division as a cadet-clerk, although saw no fighting. Had the look of a schoolteacher, thin-lipped, receding chin, pince-nez glasses and a neatly trimmed mustache, while giving off the appearance of being meek and harmless. After the war, he studied at Munich Technical College, where he received a diploma in agriculture, and became active in the Freikorps, freebooters at odds with Germany’s loss in WW I. Joined the Nazi party, and quickly came to the attention of Adolf Hitler, while participating in the latter’s failed Munich beer hall putsch in 1923. Became acting gauletier in Lower Bavaria in 1925 and Upper Bavaria the following year. In 1928, he contracted a loveless marriage to to Margarethe Boden, an unattractive, divorced former nurse and daughter of a Protestant west Prussian landowner. The union produced an adored daughter and an adopted son, but once he became enmeshed in politics, he had little interest in his home life, and the duo separated in 1940, although never divorced. His wife, who was 7 years his senior, awakened his interest in homeopathy, mesmerism and herbalism, and despite his sub-humanity, he always had a love for plants and nature. Also fathered 2 illegitimate children, a son and daughter, by a staff secretary who became his mistress following his separation. After becoming a poultry farmer near Munich, Hitler appointed him the head of his SS, his personal bodyguard, and from that position, he was able to cement his stance as the prime deathmaster in the Nazi hierarchy, particularly after the Blood Purge of 1934, when his SS massacred Ernst Roehm’s SA, thereby eliminating the left-wing movement of Nazism. As a fanatic racist and cold-blooded bureaucrat, he went on to control the terror and death organizations of the Nazis, gradually becoming chief of the Nazi’s varied police forces, and making them rival the army in their combined power. Reached his apex of authority at the outbreak of WW II, where he began designing the means for mass extermination of Germany’s perceived enemies. Organized and ran the concentration camps, and was principal architect of the Jewish, homophile and gypsy Holocaust. Became minister of the interior in 1943, and the following year, after the failed assassination plot on Hitler, he was viewed as the 2nd most powerful man in the Third Reich, running Germany’s domestic venue. Ultimately saw Germany’s inevitable defeat, and at war’s end, he secretly tried to negotiate the German surrender, and was expelled from the party. Tried to escape disguised as a one-eyed ex-Gestapo agent, but was captured by British troops and swallowed cyanide, declaring at the very end, “I am Heinrich Himmler!” Inner: Utterly depraved, sexually perverted, and a black-heart sorcerer, the very personification of the illusory packages that total darkness can inhabit. As a practicing occultist and believer in reincarnation, he saw himself as Heinrich the Fowler (Jawaharlal Nehru), a predecessor of the Holy Roman Emperors. Colorless nonentity who absorbed enormous personal power for himself through his slavish devotion to Hitler and his administrative talent. One of his favorite words was, ‘merciless.’ Suffered from psychosomatic illnesses his entire life, including severe headaches, hysteria and stomach pains. Depraved lifetime of fully exploring the depths of his darkness on a mass scale as the very embodiment of evil as total banality.
Heinrich von Treitschke (1834-1896) - German historian. Outer: Father was an aristocratic conservative monarchist of German-Czech descent, who ultimately became ennobled and a general in service of the Saxon monarchy. After contracting measles and glandular fever, his son developed a hearing impairment as a boy, which ended his hopes of a military career, and ultimately estranged him from his sire. Studied at 4 different universities, and became a his/story lecturer for 5 years at the Univ. of Leipzig, beginning in 1858. Published two volumes of poems the two years prior to that position. Appointed professor of his/story at the Univ. of Freiburg in 1863, after he found the political atmosphere at his first post uncongenial. Imbued with the idea early on of a unified Germany under Prussian leadership, he became an ardent nationalist, and embarked on a writing career towards that end, winning fame for his stances. Abandoned his earlier constitutional liberalism during this period, as a warmonger in favor of a powerful expansionist state, that would be the equal of all the other European powers. Forced to leave his post at Freiburg in 1866, because of his pro-Prussian sympathies, and, after several other professorships, he eventually settled in Berlin, where he became an extremely popular teacher, shouting from the lectern because of his hearing disability. Despite having a goodly number of Jewish friends, he was an active anti-Semite in the late 1870s, per the beliefs of the time. Served in the German Reichstag, from 1871 to 1884, as a conservative independent, but was limited by his inability to hear. After unification, he was appointed the official his/storian of the Prussian state in 1886, despite a complete lack of critical distance in his writings. Continued his support of the autocratic state, a la the Holy Roman Empire and disparaged western democracy. Deafness and approaching blindness curtailed his later activities. Wrote his/stories, essays and a volume of patriotic poems, while his five volume his/story of Germany in the first half of the 19th century, wound up in many of the country’s middle-class homes. Although his influence lessened after his death, it was revived by Nazi ideologists, with a particular emphasis on his unbridled nationalism. Inner: Unswerving German nationalist and idealist, forging many of the ideas that would later be implemented by the Nazi regime. Felt men made his/story, rather than his/story making men, while held to an aristocratic overview of society. Served by dint of his strong pedagogical personality as an emblem of German glory. Impaired lifetime of not listening to and ultimately not seeing his own Germanic tunnel vision, in an incarnation of viewing the present through the lens of an unrealistic, idealized past.
Anarchsis de Cloots (Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grace, baron de Cloots) (1755-1794) - Prussian/French revolutionary. Outer: From a noble Prussian family of Dutch extract. Born in a baronial castle, he was heir to a great fortune. Sent to Paris at the age of 11 in order to complete his education, and was influenced by an uncle who was an abbe, philosophe, and diplomat at the court of Friedrich II (J.P. Morgan) of Prussia. Put in a military academy in Berlin by his father, but dropped out at the age of 20, in order to travel throughout Europe. Pursued his own pleasures, thanks to his liberal allowance, while supporting the ideal of a universal family of nations. Contributed to Denis Diderot’s (Edmund Wilson) Encyclopedia, during this time, then returned to Paris in 1789, on the eve of the French revolution. Joined the Jacobins and styled himself as “The Orator of the Human Race,” adopting the pseudonym of Anarchsis, which was taken from a popular philosophic romance of the time, while dropping his title of baron. Became a naturalized citizen in 1792 and advocated a revolutionary crusade to liberate the world from all tyrannies, most especially that of religion, under the auspices of the cult of Reason. The same year, he was elected a member of the National Convention, where he voted for the regicide of Louis XVI (Lex Barker). A member of the radical Jacobins, until expelled by their leader, Robespierre (Joseph Stalin). Identified strongly with the Hebertistes (Joseph Goebbels) and their anti-Christian rhetoric, and was arrested along with them, being suspect because of his Prussian origins. Wrote several works limning his over-the-edge political ardor, and tried to exonerate himself in print, but was guillotined along with them, much to the delight of the viewing crowd. Inner: Bizarre figure who saw himself as a world savior. Messianic lifetime of giving uninhibited expression to his peculiar blend of monomaniacal madness in an otherwise bland package, an ongoing theme of his, acted out on this go-round under the auspices of hyper-violent revolutionary times.
Don Carlos (1545-1568) - Heir to the throne of Spain. Outer: Father was the king of Spain, Felipe II (Adolf Hitler), mother died giving birth to him. Didn’t see his royal sire until he was 14, save for a short interlude. Murderously jealous of his progenitor, so that Felipe barred him from succession, before his homicidal mania and intrigues forced his imprisonment, where he died. Probably poisoned by Felipe. Rumors flew afterwards of an incestuous relationship with his stepmother, based on his great desire for her. Inner: Sickly and violent, the personification of sheer power lust. Clouded mirror lifetime of playing the Oedipal role to the hilt, in order to externally separate his flawed character from his even more perverse longtime mirror in the hopes of exposing it to both of them, so that it could be destroyed.
Alessandro de’ Medici (c1510-1537) - Italian nobleman. Outer: Illegitimate child of the de’ Medici clan, whose paternity was officially assigned to Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici, the usurping Duke of Urbino. Brother of Caterina de’ Medici (Indira Gandhi). Dark-skinned, with a low forehead, curly-haired and thick lips, he was viewed as a little monster of Moorish blood. Rigorously trained by order of his uncle, Cardinal Giulio (Joseph Bonaparte), who became Pope Clement VII in 1523. The duo later were subject to rumors of a homophile relationship, because of the fascination the latter had with the former. Arrived in Florence in 1525, and was received with reluctant honors by the cardinal regent for him, and a 2nd illegitimate heir, Ippolito de’ Medici. Created Duke of Tuscany by the emperor Charles V (Napoleon Bonaparte). Fled when revolution broke out in Florence, after Rome was sacked in 1527, and remained in exile, until Charles returned his family to power in Florence and the city was successfully besieged. Returned in 1531, with the benediction of Charles as head of state, and the following annum, he was created perpetual gonfalonier of the republic and was initially perceived as a standard-bearer of justice, winning popular support. At the death of Clement VII in 1534, he felt his previous restraints could now be cast off, and he began orchestrating orgies that reflected back on the most depraved days of ancient Rome, while also manifesting his sense of absolutism, lining his pockets with taxes and sexually violating whomever he pleased. His exiled opposition tried to replace him with Ippolito, now a cardinal, although the latter was poisoned, probably at his instigation. In 1536, he married Margaret (Coco Chanel), the illegitimate daughter of Charles, to cement his relationship with the emperor. The following year, however, a distant cousin, Lorenzino (Joseph Goebbels), with whom he engaged in many of his excesses, brutally murdered him in his bed with the help of an accomplice, and his head was later displayed. Inner: Dissipated, corrupt, self-absorbed in extremis, and wanton, with little real interest in rule, and much fascination with sating his insatiable erotic appetites. Tyrannical lifetime of running wild under the banner of rule, with little thought to the ultimate consequences of any of his actions.
Konrad von Marburg (c1180-1233) - German inquisitor. Outer: Of noble birth, he was commissioned by the pope in 1214 to pursue the Church’s internal crusade against the heretical western European Albigenses, a sect which did not acknowledge its primacy in all things Christian. Led a series of bloody massacres in the name of a holy purge, and by 1226, held an influential position at the court of the landgrave of Thuringia, after becoming confessor to the latter’s wife, whom he brutally beat with impunity for her transgressions. After her death in 1231, the papacy made him the chief inquisitor in Germany, with the instruction to root out all heresy and reform monasteries. His zeal, however, so far exceeded his assignment, that the German bishops begged the pope to remove him from office. In 1233, he overstepped his station by accusing a high-ranking noble of heresy, after the latter had rankled him, and both the clergy and the nobility rallied round the accused, declaring him innocent. As he rode to demand a reversal of sentence, he was murdered. Inner: Unabashed destroyer in the name of God. J’accuse lifetime of having the power of the papacy behind him, and allowing his sadistic nature complete expression in the name of purging the spiritual body politic of Germany. Gundovald (?-585) - Frankish pretender. Outer: Claimed to be the illegitimate son of Frankish king Clotaire I (Oswald Mosley). On demanding recognition from his father, he was denied and had his long hair, a sign of Merovingian kingship, shorn. Forced by the act to take on the lowly task of being a wall painter to survive. After his putative father’s death in 561, he grew his hair long again, made another stab at recognition, only to have horse dung flung at him and his envoys, on their departure from his uncle’s palace. His other uncle, Sigebert (Joschka Fischer) forced him to shear his hair once again and sent him as a prisoner to Cologne. Escaped and went to Italy, where he was favorably received, and then moved on to Constantinople, where he lived in an honored state as a the son of royalty for 15 years. Received backing by the Frankish aristocracy, thanks to the treasure bestowed upon him by the Byzantine emperor. Also won the support of some bishops and one general, and made his martial return. Tried to get a saintly relic beforehand that would assure him of victory, but it broke in the duplicity of attempting to secure a copy of it. Took hold of a fortified town in the Pyrenees, which was besieged by the soldiers of his rival kings. Tricked by his general to leave the town and go to his enemy’s camp, he was pushed into a ravine and clobbered with rocks, one striking him in the head and killing him. His body was then dragged through the camp, all his hair was pulled out and he was ignominiously left to rot in the sun. Inner: Opportunistic and unsavory. Manipulative lifetime of being denied power, thanks in large part to an unprepossessing persona, although able to enjoy some measure of wealth and prestige before getting a final inglorious comeuppance.
Elagabalus (Varius Avitus Bassianus) (204-222) - Roman Emperor. Outer: Son of a Syrian-born senator and related to the ruling House of Severus (Bonapartes) through his mother, Julia Soaemias (Unity Mitford). Held the position of the hereditary chief priesthood of the sun god, El-Gabal. Proclaimed emperor by rebellious troops at the age of 14, through a scheme by his mother’s lover, Gannys, and because of a physical resemblance, he was passed off as the bastard son of Caracalla (Napoleon Bonaparte), one of his predecessors. One of his first acts was to execute Gannys. Derived his name from an Emesene god. Re-introduced Sun worship into Roman custom, with a black phallic meteorite as the sacred idol of the realm, and built a huge temple, the Elagaballium. Sacrificed large numbers of sheep and cattle every morning at dawn at the temple, while senators and equestrians stood by. Wanted to create a new kind of monotheism, and participated in the rituals of several religions to symbolize their sub-ordinance to his Sun God. Also sacrificed and tortured children. A bisexual transvestite and exhibitionist, he married and divorced 5 wives in succession during his brief, bizarre reign, including a vestal virgin, whom he divorced and married again, claiming that godlike children would sprout from their loins because of their mutual priestly status. Ceremoniously ran backwards facing his icon on a 6-horse chariot, holding the reins while gazing rapturously at it. Actors, dancers, charioteers and athletes all were given positions based on their prodigious sexuality, as well as their penis size, while he plied the taverns at night, dressed like a woman, and frequented the brothels, playing the role of prostitute himself. Also expressed a desire to be turned into a woman. Felt threatened by a cousin, Alexander Severus (Sonny Bono), whom he had adopted as his heir, and was plotting to kill him, when his troops became so disgusted with his behavior, that they murdered him while he was hiding in a latrine, then killed his mother. Both were beheaded and dragged naked through the streets of Rome before he was tossed into the Tiber, a traditional punishment for criminals. Inner: Cruel, treacherous and totally self-absorbed. The most bizarre figure ever to head the Roman Empire. Depraved lifetime of expressing extreme deviance through the combined mantle of religion and politics, allowing him to fully actualize the excesses of self-worship.
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (17BZ-40AZ) - Roman consul. Outer: From an old, highly distinguished family, and closely related to the ruling Julio-Claudian house, as well as many number of prominent 1st century Roman figures. Had two sisters, one of whom became the mother of the empress Valeria Messalina (Leni Riefenstahl). Managed to do nothing but disgrace his family’s name, murdering at will, and committing acts of barbaric willfulness, earning him the reputation of a most foul fellow. As praetor, he would cheat and swindle anyone he could, while thrusting his depraved person on anyone he desired. In 28, he married his 13 year old cousin, Julia Agrippina (Unity Mitford), and the son from their union became the emperor Nero (Adolf Hitler). At the latter’s birth, he correctly opined that any child of and his wife’s would have a loathsome nature and prove a public menace. Made a consul in 32, and a commissioner 5 years later, but despite his high office, he was charged with treason, adultery and incest by Tiberius (Lucien Bonaparte), but was mercifully saved from execution when the emperor, died. Exiled, he died of dropsy when his son was 3. Inner: Loathsome and then some. Act-out lifetime of uninhibited excess, in his ongoing struggle with power and purpose, and the unrelieved darkness within him. Artaxerxes IV (Arses) (?-336BZ) - Persian emperor. Outer: Youngest son of Persian emperor Artaxerses III (Ernst Roehm). When his father’s grasping chief eunuch, Bagoas (Joseph Goebbels) killed his sire and his older brothers in 338BZ, he was thrust upon the throne to serve as a puppet monarch for the ambitions of the former. The regicidal act caused a huge rift in the empire, as two satrapies that his father had won, revolted, while the Macedonian king, Philip II, began to make incursions on the empire’s cities in Asia Minor. His singular act was to begin the restoration of some sacred Babylonian temples, which Philip’s son, Alexander the Great, would complete. Objected mightily to Bagoas heavy hands upon the throne, and plotted to kill him. Wound up poisoned instead, along with his family, falling victim to the eunuch’s greater cunning and wile. His brief reign would be most noteworthy for signaling the coming fall of his dynastic house, after over two hundred years of rule. Inner: Outfoxed lifetime of being thrust upon a seat of power well before he was ready to defend himself upon it, and summarily knocked off it again, by the same person who had enthroned him.
Tutankhamen (Tutankhaten) (c1345-1323 B.Z.) - Egyptian pharaoh. Outer: Of the XVIIIth dynasty. Of royal birth, father was Akhnaton (Adolf Hitler), mother was probably one of his secondary wives, Kiya, although his origins are not clear. Suffered from a fusion of the neck with his vertebrae, so that he could not turn his head without moving his whole body, and also had a club foot and a cleft palate. 5’6”. His half-brother was his predecessor Smenkhkare (Hermann Goering). As a child, he married his half-sister Ankhesenamun, one of Akhnaton’s daughters, who had also wed her father, in order to legitimatize his claim to the throne. To no surprise, the incestuous pair later produced two failed pregnancies. Assumed the throne around the age of 8, but because of his age, the affairs of state were run by his regent, Ay (Joseph Goebbels) who made him move to Memphis in order to obliterate Akhnaton’s cult of the One God, which had died with the latter. Changed his name to Tutankhamen, and through his regent, reversed all the religious edicts of Akhnaton, restoring the old gods and temples and effectively erasing Akhnaton’s memory, as well as his experiment, in monotheism, which had been born of monomania. Died suddenly in his 19th year, and was succeeded by his regent.Initially thought to have been murdered, since his tomb was so hastily constructed, although later forensic investigation proved he did not succumb to a blow to the head as was long theorized, but died instead from a combination of malaria and complications of a broken leg. Would have been a mere footnote in his/story, but his splendid burial chamber remained intact and safe from grave robbers until its discovery in 1922, allowing the modern world access to the riches of its Egyptian past through his mummified remains and their surrounding icons of wealth, ironically making him one of the best known of the pharaohs as King Tut, despite having no other claim to fame. Inner: Preserved lifetime of somehow having his name and artifacts magically preserved as a testament to the sorcerer's power that this curious non-entity has wielded again and again down the dank corridors of power.
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PATHWAY OF THE RULER AS TUNNEL VISIONARY:
Storyline: The chameleonic channel hooks his fortunes to an idealized view of the Germanic past, and becomes a royal chamberlain to the fantasies of a conquering and conquered nation, serving up slabs of reheated myth and denial as a banquet of thought to his ongoing revisionist audiences.
Darkside Uther Pendragon - Father of King Arthur. Seduces Ygraine through a Merlin spell where he takes on the form of her husband. Is killed before his son’s rise to power. Archetype of the disconnected patriarch.
Ernst Zundel (Ernst Christof Friedrich Zundel) - German/Canadian writer. Outer: May have had Jewish ancestors on his maternal side, a charge he would vehemently deny later on in life. Father was a lumberjack who also served in the German army during WW II as a medic, before being captured by the Americans. 4th of 6 children. Raised both a Christian and pacifist. Painfully shy, starving and frequently ill, he suffered Germany’s defeat as a little boy, while showing himself to be a good student, and a gifted artist. Served an apprenticeship in a Graphic Arts Institute in a bombed-out city, before working in northern Germany. Emigrated to Canada in 1958 from West Germany, in order to escape conscription in the German army, without speaking English or knowing anyone there. Settled in Montreal and supported himself as a commercial artist, photographer and photo retoucher. In 1960, he married a French-Canadian whom he had met in a night school for immigrants, Janick Larouche, divorced 17 years later. Two sons from the union. Applied for Canadian citizenship in 1966, but was rejected. Obsessed with the possibility of Jewish ancestors, he returned to Germany in the 1960s, looking for his family’s Ariemachweiss, a Nazi-era certificate of Aryan ancestry, but could not find one. Founded Samisdat Publishers, Ltd. in 1977 in Toronto in order to promulgate his view that the Holocaust never existed, and although he wrote under his middle two names, Christof Friedrich, he was outed the following year by a Canadian Broadcasting Company journalist. After the exposure, he continued publishing his pro-Nazi, anti-Shoa diatribes under his own name, becoming Canada’s leading Naziphile, targeting European ethnic minorities there, such as Poles and Ukrainians, as his core audience. Also penned several books, including “The Hitler We Loved and Why,” as well as publishing the tomes of others in accord with his white power, pro-Aryan views, all of which would make up much of the revisionist pro-Third Reich literature of the post-WW II period. Headed two one-man organizations dedicated to the same regard, while also becoming obsessed with UFOs, feeling they were Nazi secret weapons. Sold Nazi and Neo-Nazi memorabilia, which, along with donations, enabled him to run a world-wide operation, with his focus on Canada, the U.S. and West Germany. In 1980, he began feeling governmental heat in both Canada and Germany for his activities. The following year his postal privileges were suspended in Canada, although two years later the ban was rescinded. After a pipe bomb and arson attack against him, he went to trial in 1985 for “knowingly publishing false news,” which brought forth both Holocaust survivors and deniers, and much attention through his innate sense of theater. Ultimately convicted and sentenced to 15 months in jail, followed by 3 years probation. Appeared at his sentencing in blackface, claiming a white man could not receive justice in Canada, allowing his antics to garner him a ton of publicity, which his critics had feared. The conviction was later overturned, and a second trial ensued, replete with his coterie of fellow deniers. Received a nine month sentence at the end of it, and reported to jail in a striped concentration camp outfit. Released on bail after a week, and once again maximized the publicity through his contributions to various fringe journals. Eventually the Canadian Supreme Court made the law he was convicted under unconstitutional. Applied for Canadian citizenship a second time in 1994, but was denied it once again, after much court activity. Married Irene Margarelli in 1996, divorced the following year. At the same time, a website that bore his name came under attack from Canadian authorities. It was run by Ingrid Rimland, a German-born and Paraguay-raised émigré, several years his senior, who lived in California and would eventually become his third wife in 2001. Rimland claimed the “Zundelsite” was her own creation, although his estranged second wife testified to the contrary. Even though he eventually lost the case, it could not be enforced since the site originated from America. It did, however, establish Canada’s right to control what was said on the Internet when it violated Canadian law. In 2001, he moved to Tennessee, where he lived for two years, expanding his Zundelsite with Rimland, to include attacks on Israel and the U.S. war on terror, until he was deported to Canada in 2003, where he was held for two years as a foreign national and security risk, despite applying for refugee status, and claiming failing health with a chest tumor. Deported to Germany in 2005, where he was immediately arrested and tried in a state court for inciting racial hatred and Holocaust denial, a national offense. In 2007, he was convicted and sentenced to 5 years in prison, the maximum he could have received. A later appeal was rejected, and the verdict and sentence were upheld. Inner: Obsessive, delusional, confrontative Teutonophile, with a moral compulsion to revise and rewrite his/story according to his own precepts. Self-obsessed with an unbending sense of mission. Part zwei lifetime of following a longtime émigré pattern of being a stranger in a strange land, while directly supporting his beliefs of his previous go-round in this series, when he was the unofficial prophet of the incipient Third Reich and investor of its messiah and future führer, Adolf Hitler.
Houston Chamberlain (Houston Stewart Chamberlain) (1855-1927) - English/German occultist and writer. Outer: British-born son of an English admiral and nephew of a field marshal and 2 generals, as well as statesman Neville Chamberlain. His mother, who was a captain’s daughter, died when he was a year old, and he was initially raised by a grandmother in France. Although destined for a military career, per his sire’s wishes, his delicate health dictated otherwise. Received his early education in England, then was taught on the continent, first in France, followed by Switzerland. Harbored ill feelings towards his native country and all things English for the rest of his life, visiting it only briefly in 1873, and then 20 years later. At 15, he came under the spell of a Prussian tutor who taught him German and filled his head for 4 years with the glory of the Teutonic race. Became an ardent admirer of both Richard Wagner (Werner Herzog) and German culture, and moved to the Fatherland, becoming an intimate member of the Bayreuth Circle, a group of Wagnerian nationalists. Fell in love with a fellow neurotic 10 years his senior and married her. Subject to nervous breakdowns because of his hypersensitivity, he felt he saw demonic presences who pushed him in his pursuits, as he became an omnischolar, ranging over all fields in his absorption of information. Initially interested in the natural sciences, he became more and more preoccupied with philosophy and his/story as he grew older, with an absolute obsession about race. Moved to Dresden, and at the end of the century, published his hysterical, his/storical analysis, The Foundations of the 19th Century, a 2 volume work written in German, his preferred language of exposition. It was highly praised by the kaiser, Wilhelm II, since it promoted the Teutons, or Nordic people, as the creative force behind civilization and the Jews as their degenerative antithesis, since their gross materialism obviated any elevated thought from them. Fascinated by race, he considered all northern peoples, including the Celts, Germans and Slavs as blessed by superiority, and the true inheritors of ancient Greece and Rome, which had been bastardized by inferior peoples. Based his bias on the writings of Joseph Gobineau (Joseph Goebbels) and the theories of Wagner. His numerous other works lauded Teutonic culture, while he claimed Jesus was an Aryan and gave impetus to the Nazi ideal of Germanic supermen. His “Foundations” brought him fame in Germany, particularly among the aristocracy. Enjoyed the confidence of Wilhelm II, and became a spiritual adviser to the royal court. Also wrote on Goethe (Thomas Mann), and Emmanuel Kant (Edmund Husserl), showing far more insight into their dualities than his dominant/degenerative racial theories. Married a 2nd time to Wagner’s daughter, Eva, settling with her in Bayreuth, and becoming a naturalized German citizen in 1916. Spent his last 13 years crippled by an incurable paralysis. Met Adolf Hitler in 1923, and though in extreme ill health, pronounced him the messiah of the new race, while the latter, without undue prejudice, called him the true prophet of the Third Reich. Became a member of the budding Nazi Party and wrote for its periodicals, before expiring right before the Party goose/stepped its way into his/story. Inner: Romantic fantasist and Teutonophile. Channeler who would work in a trance-state, driving himself to exhaustion with his inner visions of the gloried past, and then spewing it out on paper in the same demonic-driven state. Had the ability to integrate information from a variety of fields into his own peculiar warp. Tunnel visionary lifetime of partially actualizing the romantic notion of the seer as world-shaker. Adolf Ludwig Follen (August Adolf Ludwig Follen) (1794-1855) - German political poet. Outer: Father was a legal counselor and judge. The oldest of 3 brothers, including Karl, a radical and poet who emigrated to the U.S., as did his youngest sibling. Fought as a Hessian volunteer in the Napoleonic Wars. Afterwards, as a student at Giessen, he founded the German Reading Society, but was expelled in 1815 for his romantic political views of an idealized medieval Christian Teutonic empire. Went to Heidelberg, where he continued his fascination with the past, and along with his brother, he became a leader of a radical student group known as the Uncompromising Ones, whose ideas led to the assassination of the cynical playwright, August Kotzebue (Berthold Brecht) in 1819. Published a series of songs the same year that propounded a united Christian republic for Germany. Brought to political trial, and spent two years in prison before being banished from Germany in 1821. Taught in Switzerland afterwards, and continued exploring the romantic idealism of the Middle Ages through both poetry and prose, limning his projections on both his/story and mythic figures of the literary past. Did some farming, and ultimately retired to Bern. Inner: Romantic idealist, with the ability to stir young minds. Looking backwards lifetime of preferring the fantasies of his beliefs to the realities of his/story.
Rudolph Raspe (1737-1794) - German scholar and adventurer. Outer: Father was an accountant in the Hanoverian state dept. of mines and forests. Mother was a Prussian gentlewoman of the Junker class. Originally wanted to be a lawyer, then studied science and philology at 2 German universities, before becoming a junior clerk at the Royal Library of Hanover, evincing a skill at unearthing forgotten works. Always lived beyond his means, and in 1763, gained attention via a geological work on the volcanic nature of terrestial change. Made secretary of the library, and continued his varied publications, then was appointed custodian of a German noble’s collection of gems and coins in 1767, as well as professor at the Collegium Carolinum in Cassel. Became interested in the poetry of an old Gaelic warrior named Ossian, although the poems were thought to be a spurious invention, and were later proved to be the conjuration of Scottish poet James Macpherson (John Cheever). With his reputation as a scholar insured, he was elected to the English Royal Society in 1769. Lived well, piling up debts, and continually lying to creditors, while working constantly to enhance his reputation. Wed the 18 year old daughter of a wealthy Berlin physician in 1771, in order to deal with his amounting arrears, although ultimately abandoned her, when he became overwhelmed by his illicit actions. Began stealing from his employer’s gem collection, and got caught because of his earlier careful cataloguing of it, before fleeing to Holland and then England in 1775 to avoid arrest. Unceremoniously booted from the Royal Society, when his depredations became known, he took to writing for his livelihood, and became a store-keeper at a Cornish mine. While there, he anonymously published the braggadocio of one Baron von Munchhausen, a tall tale teller he had met in Germany, although much of it was a product of his own imagination, and the 2nd half was created by a German poet and translator. Ended his career with a swindle scheme by pretending to discover gold and silver on a Scottish estate, causing him in 1791, to flee to Ireland where he died of scarlet fever, while still masquerading as a mining expert. Inner: Surreal scholar, and self-proclaimed underground expert. Chronic liar and manipulator, with a wild imagination, and a desperation to be recognized for his scientific genius. Sticky fingers lifetime of much mischief in the name of channeled literature, capping his feats with the flying feet of the fugitive.
Friedrich III (1415-1493) - Holy Roman Empire. Outer: Son of Duke Ernest the Iron of Austria and Cymberga of Masovia. Both parents had enormous physical strength, his mother could crack nuts with her hand and hammer nails into boards with her clenched fists. One of 2 brothers, he laid the foundation for the Hapsburg line on the Austrian throne. Tall, pale and massive with a pendulous lower lip, although without the animal vitality of his parents. Known as ‘Friedrich the Fat.’ Inherited his parents’ inner Austria Hapsburg possessions in 1424 on his father’s death. Elected German king in 1440, after the death of his warrior cousin Albrecht II (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and spent all his reign fighting relatives and his rebellious nobility. Had better relations with the Church, and in 1452, he was the last Holy Roman Emperor to be crowned by the pope, aping the earlier coronation of Charlemagne (Napoleon Bonaparte) in its pomp and ritual. Well aware of the symbols of power, he appropriated the Heilige Lance, the ‘Spear of Destiny’ that supposedly pierced the side of Christ before becoming a symbol of world rulership, as part of his coronation ceremony, which included triumphantly parading through Italy beforehand. The same year, he made a political marriage to Eleanor, a Portuguese princess, although it turned into a warm union of love, 5 children from union, 2 reaching maturity, including his heir, the future Maximilian I (Charles de Gaulle). Elected German king in 1440, after the death of his warrior cousin Albrecht II (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and spent all his reign fighting relatives and his rebellious nobility. Had better relations with the Church, and in 1452, he was the last Holy Roman Emperor to be crowned by the pope, aping the earlier coronation of Charlemagne (Napoleon Bonaparte) in its pomp and ritual. Well aware of the symbols of power, he appropriated the Heilige Lance, the ‘Spear of Destiny’ that supposedly pierced the side of Christ before becoming a symbol of world rulership, as part of his coronation ceremony, which included triumphantly parading through Italy beforehand. Created a stimulating, cultivated and lively court, and had an active interest in magic, astrology and alchemy. Traveled to the Holy Land and hung with the humanists, showing a lively intelligence, despite his failings in other realms. Failed in stopping the Ottoman Turks from encroaching on his eastern borders through his own financial and military weakness, although the House of Hapsburg would see itself as defender of eastern Europe from heathen incursions afterwards. Tried to exploit Albrecht’s son’s claims to the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia, but was thwarted by the nobles of those domains, and when his nephew died in 1457, he temporarily lost both. Continual disputes with the nobility in Germany and his inability to carry out his reforms, forced him to withdraw completely from German affairs, which made for several rivals to the throne, including his brother Albrecht, a far more attractive character, who died in 1463. Eventually saw the Hapsburg possessions reunited, although not through his own doing. Married his son Maximilian to the daughter of Charles the Bold (David Lloyd George) of Burgundy, which greatly enhanced his own house’s domains. The latter part of his reign saw rival European empires encroaching on his territory, as he lost his capital, Vienna, to the king of Hungary. Made Maximilian co-regent and king of the Romans in 1486 at the insistence of the German princes, and his son was able to recapture Austria and put it back in the Hapsburg territorial portfolio. Died from eating too many melons on a hot summer’s day. Inner: Greedy, cold, phlegmatic and cheap. Iron-willed, with a visionary consciousness, that was very into the mythical and legendary antecedents of his house. Often visited ancestral shrines while being entranced by the mystical symbols of rule. Alchemical lifetime of being more interested in the mysticism and symbol of rule than the actualities, concentrating on his own interior, while external affairs worked themselves out according to his dictum, “Happiness is to forget what cannot be recovered.”
Marcus Cocceius Nerva (30-98) - Roman emperor. Outer: His great-grandfather was consul and his grandfather was close to the royal household. His father was also a wealthy, talented legal counsel. Didn’t share either of their skills, although he had a modest talent as a poet. Little is known of his upbringing, other than it was non-martial and nonpolitical. Held a number of priesthoods, and as a praetor-designate in 65, revealed a conspiracy against the emperor Nero (Adolf Hitler). Thin-faced, long-necked, with a long, hooked nose. His close friendship with Nero, and the ability to ride out imperial changes, helped advance his career. Following the latter’s death in 68, he switched his allegiance to Vespasian (Alfried Krupp), and was made a co-consul with him, and held the same post later with his son Domitian (Ernst Roehm) in 90. Loyalty to the ruling establishment seemed to be his main attribute, since he was neither an administrator nor a martial adept, although he was a capable negotiator, and always maintained good political connections. Probably involved in the plot to assassinate his predecessor, Domitian, to save his own life. Made a stop-gap Emperor at the age of 66, on the day Domitian was killed, since he had no children, and posed no threat of dynasty. Old and feeble at the time of his ascendency, with a tendency to vomit up his food. Completed the work of his predecessor, through the help of the gerontocracy, but left little legacy of his own. Swore to the senate he would stop killing their members as his predecessor had, although when he did not deify Domitian, his praetorian guard took him hostage demanding he hand over the latter’s murderers. Totally compromised and unable to stand up to the army, he adopted its best soldier, Trajan (George C. Marshall) as his successor, which turned out to be his singular achievement, in choosing the best person available to follow him. Suffered a stroke, and three weeks later, died of apoplexy. Inner: Moderate mediocrity whose singular attribute was a nose for powerful and influential friends. Strong-willed but weak-bodied. Modest lifetime of being rewarded with extreme power for his sense of loyalty and support, while exhibiting a mild skill for exposition, which would eventually become his main claim to subsequent fame.
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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS AMAZON POWER/TRIPPER:
Storyline: The wide-eyed warrior narrows her sights onto her artistic goals, and refuses to see anything that does not allow her to focus on her narrow, albeit exquisitively-developed, vision.
Darkside Guinevere - Wife of King Arthur. Daughter of a king, who created the great court of Camelot with Arthur. Betrayed the king through her passion for his most trusted knight, Lancelot. Seduced by Mordred, fled and took the veil, as the kingdom shattered in her wake. Archetype of the inconstant feminine.
Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003) - German photographer and filmmaker. Outer: Daughter of a middle-class autocratic who ran a plumbing business and beat her, while disapproving of her artistic ambitions. Close to her equally put-upon mother all her life, who may have been partly Jewish. Excelled at sports, studied painting, wanted to become an actress, then a dancer. Had an extremely controlled childhood, her progenitor didn’t allow her to date or go to the movies alone until she was 21. Haughty and handsome, she entertained the fantasy that all men were wildly in love with her, which fed into a calculated promiscuity that was always geared towards aiding her achieve her ambitions. Also employed tears and tantrums to similar selfish effect. Became a ballet dancer, despite her late start at 23, although a cracked kneecap curtailed her career, which had been promising. Plagued by ill health her entire life, including severe bladder problems, although her ambitions superseded her infirmities and she ultimately became a centenarian. Her earliest sponsor was a Jewish banker, who begged her to marry him, then was ultimately forced to leave Germany. Became an actress, with the ambition of going to Hollywood and being a major star, despite a noticeable lack of talent. Made her debut in 1925, in Ways to Strength and Beauty, in which she appeared nude. Subsequently learned how to shoot movies watching on the set. Despite her histrionic limitations, she was able to exploit her athleticism in mountain climbing films, a popular Germanic genre of the time of heroic striving, which she did without stunt doubles, all the while seducing and abandoning writers, directors and costars. Moved behind the camera in 1932 with The Blue Light, yet another in that mode, and won Adolf Hitler’s support when the Nazis came to power. Later rumored to be the Fuhrer’s mistress, although it was probably untrue, despite their mutual admiration society. Made 2 celebrated propaganda films in the 1930s for the Nazis, The Triumph of the Will in 1934, a paean to the Nazi party Congress in Nuremberg, and Olympia two years later, a pictorial record of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, as dual odes to fictive Aryan supremacy, and the romance of Fascist chic. Hitler himself chose the title of the former, and gave her all the resources she needed for both films, so that she could re-stage elements in the studio and splice them in, while also employ a host of imaginative vantage points from which to shoot. In her early 40s, she married Peter Jakob, a faithless army officer, but had a genuine sense of devotion to him. Her marriage later unraveled during her post-war downswing, and the duo divorced a year after WW II ended, at which point she claimed never to have been a Nazi Party member. Worked as a photojournalist during WW II, but never made another film following the conflict, save for finishing a kitsch-laden one she had started during it. Instead she had her homes seized, and her equipment confiscated, as she suffered a long period of poverty and hardship, including being imprisoned and put in an asylum by the French, all the while protesting her ignorance of Nazi excesses. Finally cleared by a de-nazification court in 1952. Re-established herself as an artist in the 1970s, with photographs of Sudanese Nubians, with striking shots of these physical adepts and their grotesquely huge genitalia. Took a course in scuba diving and became an impressive underwater photographer in her 70s. Ended her working-life as a photojournalist, while desperately trying to defy age with hormone injections, wigs and facial surgery. Spent her last years cataloguing her life’s work, and published her autobiography, “Five Lives,” in 2000, although it was halted for 4 years because of protests around her intimate Nazi involvement. Suffered broken bones in a helicopter crash in 2000 in the Sudan, but continued traveling for her underwater photography until she became a centenarian, when she suffered depression and difficulty sleeping for the first time in her life because of her injuries. Made it to her 101st year, and died peacefully in her sleep at home. Inner: Extraordinary visual talent, without the capacity to really see the world around her, thanks to an emotional blindness. Obsessively driven to succeed, workaholic and perfectionist. Political naif with an instinct for courting power, without understanding the consequences. Felt jealousy and betrayal were her undoing, and that her films were art, not propaganda, and cast herself as a victim of the politics she had largely ignored. Triumph of the will lifetime of blinding herself to the abuses of power, in her own drive to become an equally powerful esthetic force, without the humanity behind it.
Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun (1755-1842) - French artist. Outer: Daughter of a minor pastel portrait painter. Mother was of peasant origin, and a hairdresser. Learned to read and write in a convent, spending 5 years there. Studied under her sire, until his death when she was 12, and was largely self-taught afterwards. Extremely precocious, she became a successful portraitist of the Parisian aristocracy before she was 20, earning enough money to support her remaining family by 15. At 20, she married Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun, an extravagant picture dealer, 2 children from union. Summoned to Versailles in her mid-20s to paint Queen Marie Antoinette (Lana Turner), she began a long and highly successful career as portrait painter to the rich and powerful. Witty, charming and well-socialized, she fit in well in aristocratic circles. Insinuated herself as an intimate of the queen, and when the French Revolution broke out, she escaped to Italy the night the king and queen were arrested, living there for 3 years. Spent the next 2 years in Vienna, then traveled to St. Petersburg, staying there for 6 years. Returned to Paris after the turn of the century, but, despite a warm welcome, went to England for 3 years, arousing the jealousy of many English artists, because of her unadulterated ambitions for both money and power. Spent 2 years in Switzerland and finally settled in Paris, with a country retreat in Louveciennes. Her husband was a continual drain on her finances as long as he lived, which was until 1813. Both her children died in the next decade, and she was cared for by 2 nieces for her last two decades, while her productivity declined after 1810. Always a favorite of high society, she exhibited a strong interest in the personalities of her sitters, despite noting in her diaries about their general vacuousness. Produced her best work when dealing with friends. Published her memoirs in 1835 and 1837. Inner: Extremely ambitious, and endlessly inventive, one of the dominating female artists of her age. Flattered all her female sitters, including herself in her self-portraits. Ardently aristocratic, sharing the same values as her clientele, but with a far greater instinct for self-preservation. Allowed her own feelings for her subjects to come through in her paintings of them. Self-sustaining lifetime of exerting enormous influence through her social and artistic skills, which were employed to aggrandize the powerful and the rich, while keeping her own eyes firmly focused on opportunities as heads around her were rolling.
Sofonisba Anguissola (1535?-1625) - Italian artist. Outer: From the newly aristocratic Cremona family. Father was of the minor nobility, and her mother, who died when she was four or five, also came from an affluent family. Oldest of 7 children. Along with 5 younger sisters, she received an excellent education, which was unusual for the time, studying reading, writing, music and languages. All the daughters became painters. Engaged in several years of study with two local artists, along with a sister who became a nun. Initially did self-portraits, as well as paintings of her large family, while training her younger sisters. Quickly bypassed her teachers, who limited her to copying church murals and their own works, and went to Rome to perfect her understanding of anatomy. Probably stayed with relatives, and became a pupil of the aged Michelangelo (Henri Matisse), who saw promise in her work. Her portraiture drew good notice, and brought her commissions throughout Italy. Ultimately became a court painter to Felipe II (Adolf Hitler) of Spain for a decade during the 1560s, holding the position of lady-in-waiting, then returned to Sicily as the wife of a Sicilian nobleman. After his death, she embarked for home, but met an aristocrat Genoese merchant captain on board and later married him, settling in Palermo. Became rich, and internationally celebrated, living a long and productive life. Blind towards the end, but still sharp-witted. Probably died of the plague at the advanced age of 93. Inner: Worked almost exclusively as a portraitist, with a particular interest in herself as subject matter, indicating a highly self-involved persona. Pioneering lifetime of taking full advantage of a privileged position to lead a unique painterly and adventuresome life, establishing a tradition of women artists at a time when they were a distinctly minority phenomenon, while exploring herself intensely through paint.
Fredegund (?-597) - Merovingian queen. Outer: From humble origins. Worked as a servant for the Merovingian king Chilperic I (Adolf Hitler). Convinced him to reject his first wife, Audovera, and then kill his second, Galswintha, replacing her on the throne and in his bed, 4 sons from union. Galswintha’s sister Brunhild (Doris Kopf-Schroeder), swore revenge, igniting the Frankish kingdoms of Neustria and Austrasia into internecine warfare for the next 40 years. Had Audovera’s children killed, after accusing one of them of doing in her trio of heirs, who had actually died of the plague, and also engineered the death of Brunhild’s husband, Sigebert (Joschka Fischer). When her own mate was murdered in 584, she grabbed his money and ran, taking her surviving son, Lothair II (FDR) to Paris and asking for sanctuary. Proved quite loving and protective of her progeny, the singular figure she gave her heart to, in an otherwise murderous go-round of uninhibited expression of will. Induced the nobles to recognize him as legitimate heir, then served as his regent, while continuing her adversarial position against the serial kings of Burgundy, unsuccessfully trying to orchestrate their removal, as well as her longtime adversary, Brunhild, while protecting her own son’s claims until the end of her life. Inner: Indomitable, murderous, sadistic, monstrously self-serving. Self-inventing lifetime of rising to power from an obscure base, and then doing everything within her considerable power to remove any and all who interceded with her will.
Messalina Valeria (c22-48) - Roman noblewoman. Outer: Only daughter of a patrician family, which was maternally related to Rome’s first emperor Augustus Caesar (FDR). In her mid-teens, she became the 3rd wife of her second cousin, the future emperor Claudius (Joseph Goebbels), son and daughter from union. The latter, Octavia, would become the wife of the emperor Nero (Adolf Hitler). On her husband’s ascension to the throne in 41, she became notorious for her cruelty, avarice and intrigues, while her spouse remained blissfully unaware of her various perfidies. Once had a sexual competition with a prostitute as to who could consume more lovers in a night, and easily outlasted her opponent, who quit after 25. Allied herself with her husband’s freedmen secretaries, while showing no bounds in her lusty acquisitiveness, taking lovers by the score, while using her position to put to death anyone who repulsed her advances, or fell into her disfavor. Denounced many members of the Senate, and was responsible for their execution, creating tensions galore between the executive and legislative branches of the empire. Had the unbridled audacity to marry one of her lovers, a consul designate, and was exposed to the startled emperor as lusting after his office by one of his freedmen secretaries, who hurriedly had her executed before her husband could rescind the order. Tried to kill herself at the end, but her hand shook too much to do it, while her husband’s response to her demise was asking for another glass of wine at dinner. Her infamous name has become synonymous with a wanton woman. Inner: Rapacious, lascivious and totally uninhibited in her avarice and lust. Wanton lifetime of testing the limits of power and intrigue, before finally falling victim to her own outrageous excess.
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PATHWAY OF THE HELPMATE AS PERENNIAL PARTNER OF SINISTER MEN:
Storyline: The wily wife serves as the longtime cohort of a dark coterie of mates, sharing in their fanaticism and giving social ballast to their clumsy asociality, only to suffer for her tunnel vision, and inability to see beyond her own equally dark designs.
Darkside Morgan le Fay - Fairy sister of King Arthur. Seductive enchantress, who was untouched by time, but gradually descended into a mortal state and had to use her magic to keep from aging. Alternately seen as the dark power of beauty, and the limitless lady of the lake enchantment of the eternal feminine.
Magda Goebbels (Johann Maria Magdalena Ritschel) (1901-1945) - German political helpmate. Outer: Father was a cultured engineer, mother had been a chambermaid, and the duo may or may not have been married before her birth. Their imbalance caused them to divorce when their daughter was three, and her Catholic mother went on to marry a Jewish manufacturer. Educated at a very strict Catholic convent school in Brussels, then moved back to Germany at the outbreak of WW I, when her mother divorced a second time. Small, blonde and large-eyed. In 1921, she married Gunther Quandt, a much older multi-millionaire industrialist, who was all business, very self-involved and totally lacking in social graces. One son from the union, who became a Luftwaffe pilot. Her husband proved to be extremely jealous, and a tightwad when it came to her, while a spendthrift for his own purposes. Came to intensely dislike him while proving to be a disloyal mate, although he gave her a generous divorce in 1929. Among other swain, she was involved with a nephew of American Pres. Herbert Hoover, until suffering a serious auto accident with him, which ended their potential marriage plans. After hearing Joseph Goebbels speak at a Nazi rally, she became entranced with him, and before long the duo were an item. At the same time, she had been involved with a young Jewish Zionist, the brother of a close friend, who, when discovering her infidelity, fired a bullet at her, although missed, and later was assassinated in Palestine. Married Goebbels in 1931 at her ex-husband’s farm, with future Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler as their witness. Supposedly far more in love with Hitler than her husband, although he was far too wedded to his career to take on a mate of her intelligence and abilities, much preferring the passive and totally nonthreatening Eva Braun. Five daughters and a son from the union. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Goebbels were displayed as the ideal Aryan couple, despite the fact that her husband, an unattractive and ill-liked man by all who knew him, used his position to continually seduce young actresses. As a result she became involved with one of his deputies. After feeling betrayed once too often by him, she asked Hitler if she could divorce her husband, although he adamantly refused to give permission. Stuck out her sham of a marriage, while remaining a Nazi stalwart throughout the rise’n’fall of the Third Reich, right through its last days, even to the point of refusing to interfere when her stepfather was sent to the Auschwitz death camps. Despite her public support, privately began having doubts about the Nazi effort later in the war, and developed a very painful nerve affliction in her face, which made her bedridden for stretches. After Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker, she dressed all her children in white nightgowns, then watched as a doctor gave them a fatal injection of cyanide, feeling that there was no future for them in a world that had moved beyond the Nazi dream of a thousand year Reich. The next day, both she and her husband were dispatched by a gunshot to the back of the head by an SS officer in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, and their bodies were subsequently burned. Reportedly went to her death shaking uncontrollably. Inner: Well-socialized and a skilled hostess. Fanatical in her beliefs, with an instinct for and great love of power. Had a fascination with the French seer Nostradamus, seeing Hitler in his predictions. Heilish lifetime of intertwining herself once again with the same dark group that has always fascinated her, only to be hoisted, like them, on her own petard of petulant superiority and being made to pay the self-immolating consequences of her ongoing hubris. Anne-Louise Magedeleine de Gercy (fl.19th century) - French/Swiss writer. Outer: Supposedly the daughter of a natural son of Louis XV (Mikhail Gorbachev), who became a French tax official. Mother was a native of Santo Domingo. Married a staunch royalist and government official, in what would prove to be an unhappy coupling. A daughter and son from the union, including Joseph Gobineau (Joseph Goebbels), would go on to fashion a career for himself as a writer who promulgated the Aryan race. Attached herself to the Napoleonic court as a lady-in-waiting to Pauline Bonaparte (Diana Mitford), while also putting pen to paper, publishing a sentimental romance, “Marguerite d’Alby” in 1821. In 1830, she eloped and fled with her children to Switzerland, to begin a new life there. Later published her memoirs, “A Woman’s Life Tied to the Events of the TIme.” Inner: Adventurous and attracted to power. Self-celebrating lifetime of serving in a maternal role to one of her longtime cohorts, while also developing her communication skills within the context of her times.
Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, Archduchess of Austria (1566-1621) - Spanish regent, then governor of the Hapsburg Netherlands. Outer: Descended from the French royal House of Valois-Orleans and the Austrian imperial House of Hapsburg. Father was Feliipe II, king of Spain (Adolf Hitler). Mother was his third wife, Elizabeth of Valois, a French princess. Younger half-sister of Don Carlos (Heinrich Himmler). Older sister of Catalina Micaela, and older half-sister of Felipe III (Ehud Olmert), her sire’s eventual successor. Her mother had originally been engaged to the unstable Don Carlos, before marrying his father, instead. After a miscarriage of twin girls, she gave birth to two serial daughters, and then died in 1568, in a miscarriage of a son. Raised by her stepmother, and extremely close to her father, proving to be the only confidante he trusted, while serving as his primary caretaker his final three years, when he descended into a reclusive, grossly verminous state. Promised at two to her cousin Rudolf II (Rudolph Hess), the deranged HRE, who later rejected any thoughts of marriage. Although her father tried to manipulate her onto the French throne, through her mother’s descent from the Valois-Orleans kings, it came to naught, as the crown passed to the House of Bourbon in 1594. Following her sire’s death, she married her cousin Archduke Albert of Austria (Alfred Rosenberg) the younger brother of Rudolf and his successor Matthias (Hermann Goering). Two sons and a daughter from the union, all of whom died in infancy. Prior to his death, her father had renounced his rule over the Spanish Netherlands in favor of his daughter, with the proviso that if she had no children, it would revert to the crown. In 1601, she and her husband began their joint rule there. The first stretch of their reign would be dominated by war, where her spouse proved an unsatisfactory commander. By far, the dominant figure of the pair, she eventually showed herself to be an extremely effective ruler, bringing stability, peace and prosperity to the ten Catholic provinces of the Southern Netherlands over which they held sway, while also furthering the arts and culture of the area, through an active patronage of the Flemish Baroque movement. Unable to unite the entire 17 provinces of their larger domain, because of the military skills of their primary stadtholder, Maurice of Orange (Napoleon Bonaparte). Nevertheless, her court at Brussels would serve as both a political and artistic center during the early decades of the 17th century, attracting both the high and the low to the Low Countries, while acting as an extremely important diplomatic link and communication center, in the Hapsburg continent-wide chain of influence. On the death of her husband in 1621, she became governor-regent in the name of her half-brother, when the regency reverted to the Spanish ruling house. Joined the order of the Sisters of St. Clare, following her spouse’s demise, and ruled alone for a dozen years, before being succeeded by her half-nephew. Inner: Highly competent, and very much her father’s daughter, with a sure instinct for rule, even when coupled with a relatively incompetent mate. Also a skilled archer, among her many accomplishments. Regent lifetime of continuing her association with her longtime crypto-karmic family, and acquitting herself handsomely in the realm of rule, showing a sure touch in the cultural, political and diplomatic life of her adopted land.
Anne de Beaujeu (1461-1522) - French regent. Known as Anne of France. Outer: Eldest daughter of Louis XI (Adolf Hitler) of France. Her misogynistic sire would later claim she was the “least stupid women in France.” At 13, she married Pierre de Bourbon, one daughter through the union. Served, along with her husband, as regent for her brother, Charles VIII (Hermann Goering), during the 7 years of his minority, and was able through her dexterousness to step in and deal with the unrest in the country due to the oppressive legacy of her father, pacifying the excluded nobles of his notorious reign. Also lowered the taxes of the common people, and crushed several revolts. Removed the king’s old favorites, and oversaw the crown’s victory over rebellious magnates. Added Brittany to the royal domains through marriage diplomacy, but when Charles came into his majority, his new queen, Anne of Brittany (Jessica Mitford) resented the repercussions of her political power. Ended her career administrating the lands of her husband after his death, protecting them from royal encroachment. Proved to be a shrewd manager of her own estates, amassing a great fortune, and earning the complimentary sobriquet, “Madame La Grande,” in the process. Died on one of her estates. Inner: Extremely clever, cunning, energetic and competent. Had the same iron will as her father. Easily dominated her husband, and was able to make her will felt despite living in a patriarchal age. Sure-handed lifetime of exercising her administrative skills within a royal framework, with a familiar cast of characters as both support and opposition, and getting her way, until greater powers than hers prevailed.
Poppaea Sabina (30-65) - Roman empress. Outer: Grew up in a wealthy household, courtesy of her grandfather, who rose from humble birth to become an imperial proconsul. Only child of a mother of the same name, who was a noted beauty. Father was a quaestor, and a minor figure, before an involvement with the manipulative Sejanus (Richard Nixon), destroyed his career and he died when his daughter was one. Her mother subsequently married a consul who became a senator. A half-brother from the union followed in the same career steps as his sire. At 14, she married Rufrius Crispinus, an equestrian, who was head of the Praetorian Guard during the reign of Claudius (Joseph Goebbels). Her husband soon ran afoul of palace intrigue and was ultimately executed by the emperor Nero (Adolf Hitler). One son from the union who would also fall victim to Nero’s paranoia, following her own death at the latter’s hands. When she was 17, her mother was forced to commit suicide after being caught in the jealous intrigues of Valeria Messalina (Leni Riefenstahl), despite her innocence. In a scheme to join the emperor’s circle, she married Marcus Otho (Alfred Rosenberg), a longtime friend of Nero. The emperor soon coveted her, and sent the former off to a far province to be governor, in order to have her as his own. Became the acknowledged mistress of Nero, while keeping her eye secretly on the throne of Rome as his official wife, and began plotting against any and all rivals for influence over him, beginning with his mother Agrippina (Unity Mitford), who was eventually beaten to death in 59. Exploited the unstable emperor’s dislike of his wife, Olympia, but reluctance to divorce her, by underlining the latter’s barrenness. By 62, her machinations had worked and the latter was banished. Subsequently married the emperor, before prevailing upon him the same year to have Olympia dispatched, thus playing a pivotal role in the elimination of the two primary female figures in her husband’s life. The following annum she had a daughter who died at the age of 4 months. Became pregnant again, and rumor had it, Nero kicked her in the stomach, and killed her in a fit of distemper. Instead of having her burnt, as was the custom, however, she was embalmed, and given a lavish public funeral, with the mournful emperor himself delivering the oration. A temple was erected in her memory, and her perverse widower subsequently married again, only to reject his wife because she looked too much like her predecessor, so that he took up with a young castrato, Sporus, instead. Inner: Highly manipulative, and fond of pomp and luxury. Extremely vain, she went to great lengths to preserve her beauty, with reputedly, 500 mules milked daily to provide her with her bath. Excessive lifetime, per usual, of giving play to her propensity for intrigue and beguilement, in the intimate company of her longtime cohorts, as a female counterpart to their deadly machinations.
Nefertiti (c1311BZ-c1341BZ) - Egyptian queen. Outer: Some question lingers as to her true parentage. May have been the daughter of Ay (Joseph Goebbels), the king’s chief minister, who would one day become pharaoh himself. Her mother remains unknown, and may have died soon after childbirth. Raised by a second wife of Ay. Also may have been a daughter of Tiy (Doris Kopf-Schroeder), the mother of her future husband, making her his stepsister. Her name meant “beautiful woman has come,” and she became famous during her time for her comely personal esthetic. Became the wife of the pharaoh Akhnaton (Adolf Hitler), 6 daughters from the union, 2 of whom became queens of Egypt. Enthusiastically supported her husband’s cult of the One God, Aton, even in the face of opposition, when the introduction of such a radical concept was resisted by adherents of the old order, who lost all their power through Akhnaton’s singular usurpation of it. Seems to have enjoyed far more status and authority than her queenly predecessors, as evidenced by the numerous depictions of her in the reliefs of the time. Probably played a priestly role in the Aton cult, taking on the status, along with her spouse, as part of the primeval couple, and as such, an object of veneration by the rest of the Egyptian multitude. Although seemingly beloved by the populace at large, the priests and record/keepers felt differently, feeling she exerted too much influence on her husband, thereby negating their own power. Considerable question remains around her ultimate fate, since she disappears completely from the official record during the 12th year of Akhnaton’s reign. Some speculate that she became a co-regent, and changed her name accordingly, but in all probability, despite being a virtual goddess and immortal, she was betrayed by her mortality and died. Her name was subsequently erased from the public record, and her image defaced. She was preserved, however, for the ages by a splendid painted limestone bust, revealing a handsome, intelligent face. Her body has never been discovered, but the bust was unearthed in 1912, returning her to his’n’herstory after a three thousand plus year absence. Inner: Figure largely of speculation, with numerous stories appended to her actual existence, including the possibility of succeeding her husband under the name of the half-brother of her son-in-law, Tutankhamen (Heinrich Himmler). Imperious lifetime of tasting Sun God rule, only to ultimately prove merely mortal, in her ongoing intriguing around the primacy of individual will.
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PATHWAY OF THE RULER AS EARLY EXITER:
Storyline: The compromised cousin is wed by fate by to a powerful monster/master, but keeps opting out of his controlling reach at the first opportunity she gets.
Geli Raubal (Angela Raubal) (1908-1931) - German suicide. Outer: Daughter of the same-named half-sister of Adolf Hitler, Angela Raubal. Went to Berchtesgaden in 1925, his Bavarian mountain retreat, along with her mother and sister to help keep house for him. Golden-tressed, with a pleasant singing voice, and the desire to pursue that vocation on the operatic stage. Hitler fell in love with her and rented an apartment in Munich, bringing the trio to live with him. Took her everywhere, showing her off as his notion of Aryan beauty, but was far too possessive to allow her her dreams of a career. The duo often quarreled bitterly: he felt she was engaged in a clandestine affair with his bodyguard, while she thought he was preparing to marry the daughter-in-law of his musical idol, Richard Wagner (Werner Herzog). She wanted to leave him and go to Vienna to pursue her ambitions, but he forbade it. When he left for Hamburg, he reiterated his confining demand, and she spent the day carrying a dead canary, symbol of herself, and the next morning she was found shot to death, through the heart with a revolver. Hitler cried genuine tears at her grave, and never gave his heart to another, while the mystery of her death remains, although she may have been killed by the future Führer himself. He became a vegetarian afterwards, claiming meat reminded him of her corpse. Inner: Sweet and gentle, albeit with a volatile temper. Canary in a coal-mine of playing the caged songbird, only to fall victim to a far cagier handler than she could ever manage to handle. Maria (1527-1545) - Portuguese queen of Spain. Outer: Daughter of the king of Portugal, mother was a Castilian princess. Married in 1543 to her cousin, Felipe II (Adolf Hitler), but died in childbirth two years later, one son from union. Inner: Short straw lifetime of falling into the wedded clutches of a disagreeable monarch, only to quickly disappear from the stage as soon as she did her maternal duty.
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PATHWAY OF THE RULER AS COMPLIANT BUT DISCONTENTED COW:
Storyline: The hidden hausfrau has difficulty in reconciling being used with being loved, as she trades off her freedom for the constraints of being a grasping powermonger’s main squeeze, and still manages to love him despite his cold, cruel heart.
Eva Braun (1912-1945) - German political helpmate. Outer: From a middle-class Bavarian household, father was a school teacher. The middle of 3 sisters, and possibly a hermaphrodite at birth. Studied dancing, was a good athlete, and also took a business course at a convent, showing herself to be an average student. Blonde and blue-eyed. Employed by Adolf HItler’s photographer, while a teenager, and the future Führer was taken with her physical grace, her shyness and most importantly for him, her complete lack of interest in politics. She, in turn, fell immediately in love, despite their near quarter century difference in age and wished only to serve him, making for a perfect fit. Having earlier dreaded intimacy with women because of the suicide of his niece, Angela Raubal, he saw in her the apotheosis of the bourgeoisie Nazi world. On two occasions, she, too, would make attempts on her own life, the first time in 1932 following the death of her father, and the second in 1935 with sleeping pills, which actually brought her and AH closer together. He subsequently fretted over her health, and forbade her to fly, while insuring her a handsome income, via rights to his photographs. Installed at his Bavarian mountain retreat, Berchtesgaden, she was purposefully kept in the background, never appearing in public with him. Spent the war years as a virtual prisoner there, reading, and brooding, while the two had an actual love life, thanks to potency pills he took, amidst much later conjecture about his abilities at arousal. Smoked in secret, as well as surreptitiously wore make-up, which were both pure Nazi non-nos, as unreflective of healthy Aryan womanhood. Not allowed to go to Berlin until the final 2 years of her life. Joined Hitler in his suicide bunker, refusing to leave him, despite his orders to do so, and married him before the Führer went off to dictate his will and final political testament. Took poison with him, and died by his side. Inner: Never flagged in her loyalty to her beloved, although later research would show her as independent and capricious, with a mind of her own. Had an interest in architecture, and wanted to help AH turn his native Linz into the artistic capital of the Reich. Imprisoned lifetime of living for the attentions of her jailer, while directly evincing her ongoing independence at the very end of their 12 year relationship, by insisting in being united in death with him, since life without him held no meaning for her. Charlotte (c1445-1483) - French queen. Outer: Father was the duke of Savoy. Married to the future Louis XI (Adolf Hitler), at the age of 12 in a union that was arranged for her dowry, 7 children including her husband’s successor, Charles VIII (Hermann Goering). Her mate was 2 decades older than she, and showed little interest in her, leaving her to her own royal devices. Lived apart from him in a largely loveless marriage, and died a few months before he did. Inner: Loveless lifetime of an unhappy alliance with a longtime mate on the royal level, in an ongoing saga of someone who likes to be near power, despite her powerlessness in its grasp.
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