Imagine yourself in a world where the Fourth Crusade and sack of Constantinople led to a revolution in what we now call mainland Greece. The society that arose out of that revolt is unlike any other in Europe: pagan, libertine, consciously inter-dependent yet insisting on individual rights, the people of the Hellenic Commonwealth and Polity are a self-made experiment in self-governance. Here you will meet, among others: Master Xenos, a great swordsman who teaches at the Red Warrior Skolo, ...

A.M. Brosius writes fiction and nonfiction: “history, real or feigned”; political-economic and cultural theory; and the history and techniques of swordplay. He is an amateur historian, with varied interests including: Pristine Civilizations, Hellas and Byzantium, Medieval Europe, the Labor Movement, Dada and Surrealism, Lettrists and Situationists. He has studied and practiced swordplay for over thirty years. The Commonwealth in his novels reflects all of his many hobbies and interests. Th...

Mr. Ambros Rothakis is going to the Country Fair. On the run from various enemies, he hopes to disappear into the Fair for a few days. When he stumbles across the unbelievable, and disappears from the Fair, mayhem and madness ensue. Join him on his adventures in Alternate Histories: even in the mysterious Hellenic Commonwealth Line!

When Stephan Dragutin, Crown Prince of Serbia, violates his father’s safe-conduct for an Embassy of Hellenes, all hell breaks loose. The Commonwealth decides on a nearly unprecedented course: a punitive Incursion into Serbia. The Hellenic Muster gathers at the border. Can Nikos restrain Eleni as she seeks revenge on those who tortured and murdered her friends? Can he master his own desire for vengeance? In Athens, two young women recently freed from bondage in Serbia beguile Selos. His qua...

Nuns. With Guns.Nuns. With Guns.I challenged folks to give me a story with that as their theme. Here are nearly twenty authors who answered that crazy call, ranging from fantasy to science fiction. Modern. Historic. Urban fantasy and gritty realism.Come with us now on an amazing journey into other lands and other minds, as we explore what it means to first become a nun, and then to take up the sword.Or the gun.----Part of the Blaze Ward Prese...

This book examines the complexities of lifestyles of the upwardly mobile middle classes in India in the context of economic liberalisation in the new millennium, by analysing new social formations and aspirations, modes of consumption and ways of being in contemporary urban India.Rich in ethnographic material, the work is based on empirical case-studies, research material, and illustrations. Offering a model of how urban cosmopolitan India might be studied and understood in a trans...

The only book of its kind to cover both the Achaemenid period and the thousand years following Alexander's conquest, The Persians explores the period from the seventh century BC, to the seventh century AD, and presents a comprehensive introduction to ancient Persia.Incorporating recent research, and translated sources from a wide range of corpus material, Maria Brosius explores the history of Persia, and brings a new understanding of Persian society and culture and the str...

Her journey into adulthood was just beginning. Then, a vampire hero changed her life forever. This is Clarabella's story.This is a steamy virgin heroine/protective hero paranormal romance with themes of Christianity.Nothing extraordinary ever happened to Clarabella Moore...until the night a vampire came to her rescue. But Chasis was no ordinary vampire. A member of the Brotherhood of Sacred Light, Chasis has a duty to protect Clarabella. H...

A king marked his hand. A queen marked his heart.An arranged marriage tainted by sorcery.A torrid affair that leads to deadly consequences.A magical mark that brings back the dead.Welcome to The Wastelands, where two lovers on the run from the king's greatest huntsman will encounter hidden treasure, long-buried royal secrets, monstrous mutated beasts, and reanimated corpses. Will the couple survive the perils of their journey long enough to dis...

No person simply desires to be a pilgrim. It is the pilgrimage, an ancient art of visiting a holy place, which calls to the pilgrim-- Draw nigh o'er chapels, come hither this place awaits your presence, shrines erected, majestic mysteries reveal thy heart's anchor. Oh pilgrim! Lo, fear forges thy shackles holding courage's step. The pilgrimage is long and difficult. The journey's toil wears a pilgrim's body, mind, and spirit--so much so, he or she has little time to contemplate deeply that...

Today, hardly anything moves as fast across the globe as images and media. This fact opens new avenues to explore social and cultural change, but also poses new theoretical challenges of how to grasp and better understand these changes and flows. Moreover, such movements across geophysical and cultural borders have a historical depth that enables us to explore globalisation and localisation in new ways. Transculturality is still a relatively new field of research in the Humanities through ...

This book explores the importance of ritual and ritual theory to discourses of authenticity and originality, thereby deepening our insight into concepts of cultural heritage, identity and nation in a globalised world. The volume is the first interdisciplinary attempt to understand the significance of rituals and related performative traditions in the creation of grounded cultural identities, ‘home’ and heritage as geographically experienceable locations. It assembles perspectives from soci...