a.c.e's past lives are real, historically accurate, and can be placed at an exact point in history: a thread

(warning: kind of a long one, but i promise it's interesting)

so i was taking a scroll through the past lives videos, and it got me interested in seeing if they actually made any sense. i've done some research on yuchan and byeongkwan (since donghun's was a no-go, sehyoon's was a bit too vague, and junhee is clearly a medieval fool)

firstly there's yuchan. the basic points of his life were:
- he was a farmer named "mac"
- lived around 1400
- spoke a germanic style language
- experienced a bomb dropping in his town

now, when i first heard of the bomb dropping i got a bit sus since bombs in the 1400s didn't really add up. so i did some digging, and i discovered that gunpowder as an explosive was invented in china back during the tang dynasty of the 1000s.

they weren't bombs so much as cannons filled with gunpowder. this, combined with the fact of his life happening 400 years later, makes some sense. but then i asked myself...where could they have used these early cannons? where the hell are we that he could be hit by china???

at this point, i started to take into account the language he was speaking and the names of the important people in his life. just listening to the words tells me it's a slavic language, meaning somewhere in eastern europe.

i did some of digging into gunpowder use in the Middle Ages, and came across this fact. by the late middle ages (where 1400 falls in history), Europeans became affected by gunpowder violence due to the Mongol conquests. one of the places hit hard closest to 1400 was Russia

although i can't translate Russian, the words he used that meant "sorry" didn't seem to match with modern translations. HOWEVER, with some research into the history of the language, it had been reformed time and time again from before 1400 to centuries later, so it's hard to tell

so i was all down for the agenda of yuchan being a Russian farmer in the Late Middle Ages, but there were two things holding me back. First were the names, Mac and Fabio, as well as the wife Swan. There was also the point yuchan made about Swan having his mother's eyes.

so once again, i dug into name history. when looking for mac, i found the name mechislav. traditionally Russian, a medieval era slavic name that, when said and shortened to mech, sounds quite a bit like Mac

now, fabio and swan. fabian is a name of slavic descent around the 1500s (but i'm this far in and beggars can't be choosers). as for swan, there isn't a record of that as a first name anywhere in the world, however the two highlighted below are the most similar i could find

so the names line up too. finally, there's the eyes point. this one stumped me for a second, and actually had me looking into not only history but also genetics (and i hate science).

Mongols invaded Russia between 1223-1240 which brought them gunpowder. conveniently around that time, Mongols also invaded Korea (1231-1259). these had lasting effects on both countries, and we can assume (without diving into deep Korean history) that some Mongolians stuck around

at this point, i was all for this and took a look into genetics (because i'm too dedicated). turns out that, when tested, there were hints of all kinds of countries in korean genetics due to invasions in history and whatnot. one of the more common hints is (drumroll)...mongolian.

SO BASICALLY, yuchan's life is 100% historically accurate. A Russian farmer from the Middle Ages named Mechislav. At some point in family history, they crossed paths with a Mongolian who would have come years prior, explaining the genetic similarity to today’s Chan and his mom.

....and that was the least convincing one of two. byeongkwan's can be traced to exact dates.

actually, i'm gonna do byeongkwan's in less detail since it's one of two incidents

so here's what we know about byeongkwan:
- Roman knight
- involved in war where Rome lost
- died with emperor after being caught
- lost to people with sky blue flag

i've searched the depths of ancient roman wars and invasions and genuinely can't place my finger on a time where the leader/emperor was killed in an invasion. i did, however, found a couple of matches for deaths in war. only two make sense, but each have a reason for not working

first (and most likely) is the Battle of Cannae fought August 2nd 216 BCE, one of the most historic losses of the Roman Empire. It was a battle fought between the Roman army led by consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro, and the Carthage led by Hannibal.

there's a few critera the battle needs to meet. It needs to:

- be as close to an invasion as possible
- result in the capture and death of an emperor
- be fought by a country with a sky blue flag
- involve a leader named "fabric"???
- have access to a seashore (bk's view)

The Battle of Cannae was fought in Italy when the Carthage army moved from African territory, which could be considered an invasion.

Although no emperor was harmed in this battle, one of the consuls, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, did in fact die during this battle.

The region Apulia is a coastal region, with access to a seashore which could match BK's initial description (see below)

finally, the flag of the opposing side, the Carthaginian Empire, does split half white and half sky blue (i'm sorry for the shit quality, they really don't make ancient flags like they used to)

the only issues i see with it being cannae is that there was nothing about a king with the name similar to fabric, since the two co-consuls had very distinct names without a single f involved

on the other less convincing hand, there is the Battle of Carthage fought on April 12 238 CE. The battle was fought near the coastal region Carthage, giving us a seashore. It also fits the same flag description, since one side of the fight had been occupying African Province.

we lost two emperors in this battle, Gordian I and Gordian II (his son). i could easily say this makes the most sense considering an actual "king" was lost, but their circumstance makes this one feel inaccurate.

Gordian II personally led the charge of his military and died in battle. His father, struck with grief, committed suicide. neither match the description we got of an escape route from a palace. However, there's one key piece of info that keeps this one in the running -- "fabric"

obviously, neither of the emperors share that name. instead, enter Fabia Orestillia, the potential wife of Gordian I and mother of Gordian II. The coincidence is there, but idk if i should choose to believe it since the source is, and i quote, "notoriously unreliable".

so yeah, in conclusion byeongkwan's past self likely lived to experience the Battle of Cannae on August 2, 216 BCE, or experienced the Battle of Carthage on April 12, 238 CE.

i was supposed to study for a midterm tomorrow and did this instead, pls appreciate it