Sanguen Vitae: Hunter

As a young girl, princess Tamina was trained to become a guardian as all of her ancestors did before her. She was trained to become a capable fighter but most of all, she was trained to protect the powerful relic, the Dagger of Time. It was her duty and that of Alamut’s royal family to protect this and the Sandglass of the Gods. She was taught that it was her sacred calling, her destiny to protect the dagger no matter the consequences, even if it required her death.

When the Persians attacked her holy city of Alamut, princess Tamina went to the high temple to pray and retrieve the Dagger of Time. As the Persians invaded the city, she entrusted the Dagger to Asoka, one of her soldiers to make sure it would be kept safe. However the Dagger fell into the hands of Prince Dastan who took it, thinking it is an ordinary knife. As the soldiers invade the chamber, she is captured and offered to be married to Tus. At first she refuses, but after noticing Dastan with the Dagger, she accepts. She is later presented to the King of Persia.

When Sharaman is killed by a poisoned robe given to Dastan by Tus from Nizam, Tamina helps Dastan escape after he is accused of murdering the King. Along the way, Dastan and Tamina make camp where she tries to seduce him into kissing her, thereby giving her a chance to steal the dagger. Dastan notices and they fight with one another until he accidentally presses the jewel hilt and reverses time to when she was trying to seduce him.

She once again is caught trying to steal the dagger but manages to wound Dastan with her sword. He reverses time once more and stops the fight prematurely, showing her how he knew it could reverse time. She refuses to answer him when asked if there was more sand, by saying there was no more of this sand.

They go through the Valley of Slaves in an attempt to get to the King’s funeral. She feigns death and knocks Dastan out with a large bone. Later, she is seen trying to pour sand hidden in a jewel around her neck into the dagger but is stopped by the Sheik and Dastan, who sold her into slavery.

They all travel back to the city where she mentions that Dastan is always leaping to assist her. He denies it but she mentions how he can never take his eyes off of her. She then is taken and made to serve water in the ostrich racing the Sheik has set up along the roads. After Dastan is caught and the Dagger is taken, she frees the Ostriches and the weapons cache, allowing Dastan to regain control of the Dagger and the both of them to escape.

They finally make it back to the royal city where Dastan gets Nizam, the King’s brother, alone with him to show him the Dagger and its powers. The Dagger is gone and Nizam arranged for Dastan to be killed, but failed. Dastan later catches up with Tamina who is travelling through the desert to the Dagger’s sanctuary in India. Before they get there, they are captured by the Sheik once more and have an encounter with the Hassansins.

They reach the sanctuary where Tamina asks Dastan for the Dagger so she can return it to the mountain, since she is the guardian of the Dagger. He does not return her the Dagger but goes with her. They are ambushed by Dastan’s brother but are forced to fight together when the Hassansins attack again. Tamina manages to slip into the mountain where she must pierce the rock with the Dagger, killing herself and sealing the Dagger away forever.

As she is about to do it and the two are about to kiss, a Hassansin attacks, knocking Tamina unconscious and the taking the Dagger away. It was taken by the chief Hassansin back to Nizam while the rest of the party decide to pursue him in Alamut. Tamina manages to slip away with Dastan into the palace after having regained control of the Dagger to show Tus its power.

Dastan, along with Tamina, confront Nizam about the dagger, that it’s only to fix one moment in time. It doesn’t go back further. He refuses to believe him, and holds down the mechanism only to be transported to the moment when the two entered the room.

He screams in fury and slams the dagger into Tamina, and as he turns to run, his hand is grabbed and the dagger pulled from him. Dastan demands they save Tamina. The man dressed in Medjai clothing shakes his head, saying Dastan has only the power to save her now.

Dastan holds her to him, not sure what he means but acts on instincts. Fangs he had no idea he had dropped, she smiled at him, stating she knew their destinies were intertwined.

Sanguen Vitae: Member (India)

Ashoka was born to the Mauryan emperor Bindusara and a relatively lower ranked wife of his, Dharma. He was the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, founder of Mauryan dynasty. The Avadana texts mention that his mother was queen Subhadrangi. According to Ashokavadana, she was the daughter of a Brahmin from the city of Champa. Empress Subhadrangi was a Brahmin of the Ajivika sect, and was found to be a suitable match for Emperor Bindusara. Though a palace intrigue kept her away from the emperor, this eventually ended, and she bore a son. It is from her exclamation “I am now without sorrow”, that Ashoka got his name. The Divyavadana tells a similar story, but gives the name of the queen as Janapadakalyani.

Ashoka had several elder siblings, all of whom were his half-brothers from other wives of Bindusara. His fighting qualities were apparent from an early age and he was given royal military training. He was known as a fearsome hunter, and according to a legend, killed a lion with just a wooden rod. Because of his reputation as a frightening warrior and a heartless general, he was sent to curb the riots in the Avanti province of the Mauryan empire.

The Buddhist text “Divyavadana” describes Ashoka putting down a revolt due to activities of wicked ministers. This may have been an incident in Bindusara’s times. Taranatha’s account states that Achare Chanakya, Bindusara’s chief advisor, destroyed the nobles and kings of 16 towns and made himself the master of all territory between the eastern and the western seas. Some historians consider this as an indication of Bindusara’s conquest of the Deccan while others consider it as suppression of a revolt. Following this, Ashoka was stationed at Ujjayini as governor.

Bindusara’s death in 272 BCE led to a war over succession. According to Divyavandana, Bindusara wanted his son Sushim to succeed him but Ashoka was supported by his father’s ministers, who found Sushim to be arrogant and disrespectful towards them. A minister named Radhagupta seems to have played an important role in Ashoka’s rise to the throne. The Ashokavadana recounts Radhagupta’s offering of an old royal elephant to Ashoka for him to ride to the Garden of the Gold Pavilion where King Bindusara would determine his successor. Ashoka later got rid of the legitimate heir to the throne by tricking him into entering a pit filled with live coals. Radhagupta, according to the Ashokavadana, would later be appointed prime minister by Ashoka once he had gained the throne. The Dipavansa and Mahavansa refer to Ashoka’s killing 99 of his brothers, sparing only one, named Vitashoka or Tissa, although there is no clear proof about this incident (many such accounts are saturated with mythological elements). The coronation happened in 269 BCE, four years after his succession to the throne.

Buddhist legends state that Ashoka was bad-tempered and of a wicked nature. He built Ashoka’s Hell, an elaborate torture chamber described as a “Paradisal Hell” due to the contrast between its beautiful exterior and the acts carried out within by his appointed executioner, Girikaa. This earned him the name of Chanda Ashoka (Canda Asoka) meaning “Ashoka the Fierce” in Sanskrit. Professor Charles Drekmeier cautions that the Buddhist legends tend to dramatise the change that Buddhism brought in him, and therefore, exaggerate Ashoka’s past wickedness and his piousness after the conversion.

Ascending the throne, Ashoka expanded his empire over the next eight years, from the present-day boundaries Assam in the East to Balochistan in the West; from the Pamir Knot in Afghanistan in the north to the peninsula of southern India except for present day Tamil Nadu and Kerala which were ruled by the three ancient Tamil kingdoms.

While the early part of Ashoka’s reign was apparently quite bloodthirsty, he became a follower of the Buddha’s teachings after his conquest of Kalinga on the east coast of India in the present-day states of Odisha and North Coastal Andhra Pradesh. Kalinga was a state that prided itself on its sovereignty and democracy. With its monarchical parliamentary democracy it was quite an exception in ancient Bharata where there existed the concept of Rajdharma. Rajdharma means the duty of the rulers, which was intrinsically entwined with the concept of bravery and dharma. The Kalinga War happened eight years after his coronation. From his 13th inscription, we come to know that the battle was a massive one and caused the deaths of more than 100,000 soldiers and many civilians who rose up in defence; over 150,000 were deported. When he was walking through the grounds of Kalinga after his conquest, rejoicing in his victory, he was moved by the number of bodies strewn there and the wails of the kith and kin of the dead.

His victories and ability to unit all of India, caught Alexander’s attention. He made his way back to India, to talk to Ashoka. He was there to witness Ashoka convert to Buddasm and changing his ways. Seeing the man grow and change, he offered him immortality.

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Sanguen Vitae: Member (India)

Sappho was a Greek lyric poet, born on the island of Lesbos. The Alexandrians included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Little is known for certain about her life. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, has been lost; however, her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments.