Historically Accurate Old Guard Headcannons

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the old guard as text posts 11/?

Asher Perlman for the New Yorker

Nicolo and Yusuf, early days.

I keep hate-reading plague literature from the medieval era, but as depressed as it makes me there is always one historical tidbit that makes me feel a little bittersweet and I like to revisit it. That’s the story of the village of Eyam.

Eyam today is a teeny tiny town of less than a thousand people. It has barely grown since 1665 when its population was around 800.

Where the story starts with Eyam is that in August 1665 the village tailor and his assistant discovered that a bolt of cloth that they had bought from London was infested with rat fleas. A few days later on September 7th the tailor’s assistant George Viccars died from plague.

Back then people didn’t fully understand how disease spread, but they knew in a basic sense that it did spread and that the spread had something to do with the movement of people.

So two religios leaders in the town, Thomas Stanley and William Mompesson, got together and came up with a plan. They would put the entire village of Eyam under quarantine. And they did. For over a year nobody went in and nobody went out.

They put up signs on the edge of town as warning and left money in vinegar filled basins that people from out of town would leave food and supplies by.

Over the 14 months that Eyam was in quarantine 260 out of the 800 residents died of plague. The death toll was high, the cost was great.

However, they did successfully prevent the disease from spreading to the nearby town of Sheffield, even then a much bigger town, and likely saved the lives of thousands of people in the north of England through their sacrifice.

So I really like this story, because it’s a sad story, because it’s also a beautiful story. Instead of fleeing everyone in this one place agreed that they would stay, and they saved thousands of people. They stayed just to save others and I guess it’s one of those good stories about how people have always been people, for better or worse.

It gets better.

Here’s the thing. One third of the residents of Eyam died during their quarantine, but the Black Plague was known to have a NINETY PERCENT death rate. As high as the toll was, it wasn’t as high as it should have been. And a few hundred years later, some historians and doctors got to wondering why.

Fortunately, Eyam is one of those wonderful places that really hasn’t changed much in hundreds of years. Researchers, going to visit, found that many of the current residents were direct descendants of the plague survivors from the 1600s. By doing genetic testing, they learned that a high number of Eyam residents carried a gene that made them immune to the plague. And still do.

And it gets even better than that, because the gene that blocks the Black Plague? Also turns out to block AIDS, and was instrumental in helping to find effective medication for people who have HIV and AIDS in the 21st century.

Here is a lovely, well-produced documentary about Eyam and its disease resistance. It’s a little under an hour. Trigger warning for general disease and epidemic-type stuff, but also, maybe it will help you have some hope in these alarmly uncertain times.

The Old Guard + popular tumblr text posts

So peaceful Souvenir. A brother singing ancient Andalusian song in Al-hambra palace.

Unmute

The right amount of melancholy

This is one of my most favorite Andalusian muwashshahat (an Arabic poem that’s specifically written to be sung). It was written in the 3rd century by an Arab poet from Granada, so it’s not very far fetched that the song has been sung at some point in that very palace centuries ago. 

These are the lyrics in Arabic and English, in case anyone’s interested. 

When he appeared with a sway in his walk  My darling infatuated me with his beauty Oh, my fate and my confusion Who will have mercy when I complain Of anguish in love Except for the holder of beauty?

لما بدا يتثنى حبي جماله فتننا وعدي و يا حيرتي من لي رحيم شكوتي فى الحب من لوعتي إلا مليك الجمال

andy and mammoths...

Andy says she knows a place and takes Nile under the permafrost for some steak

“I was winning,” local woman tells paramedics after getting hit by bus while fighting alligator

Back in the early days...

Dialogue loosely based on this fic!

Nicky always carrying 50 things at once but they’re at a supermarket and Nicolò “we don’t need a shopping cart” Di Genova is balancing enough food for a small army in his arms, eggs on the verge of falling and holding way too many carrots between his head and shoulder, with only the power of spite on his side

Nile: Hey Nicky, you need help bringing in the groceries, or...?

Nicky: Nile, I am a nine-hundred year old undying warrior, don’t worry yourself with me.

Also Nicky:

Yusuf will totally forgot what happened last day.

I am not a woman, I’m a god I am not a martyr, I’m a problem I am not a legend, I’m a fraud So keep your heart ‘cause I already got one (x)

“Live, Laugh, Love?” Nah…           [insp]

Idk why I’ve only got this notification now but THANK YOU FOR THIS IMPORTANT INFORMATION