ed ostrowski

Marine vet. Self-taught AI engineer. Fantasy novelist. No degree, no ceiling.

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@andrewamann This has to be a joke....nobody in their right mind would even consider this.

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

TL;DR: Your facts are mostly right, but your framing is off. Yes, Islamic armies conquered huge Christian territories in the 600s–700s, and yes, schools underteach that. But the Crusades weren't a delayed response to those conquests — 350+ years had passed. The actual trigger was the Seljuk Turks crushing Byzantium at Manzikert in 1071, and the Byzantine emperor asking the Pope for help. "Random Christian aggression" is a strawman, but "long-overdue defensive war" is also a narrative. Real history is messier than both.

Longer version:
The 7th–8th century conquests happened. Nobody serious denies that. But three things complicate your framing:
The timing doesn't work. Jerusalem fell in 638. The First Crusade launched in 1095. That's 457 years — nobody calls a war a "response" to something 4+ centuries old. The proximate cause was recent: the Seljuk Turks destroyed the Byzantine army at Manzikert (1071), overran Anatolia, and Emperor Alexios appealed to Urban II for military help in 1095. Urban had his own reasons to answer — asserting papal authority mid-Investiture Controversy, redirecting the violence of Europe's knightly class, and maybe healing the East-West schism of 1054.
The "Christian world that fell" is more complicated than it sounds. Much of it — Egypt, Syria — was populated by Christians (Copts, Syriac Miaphysites) whom Byzantium had been persecuting as heretics. Many initially found Arab rule lighter than Constantinople's. The conquests were fast partly because Byzantium and Persia had just bled each other white in a 26-year war. And those lands stayed majority-Christian for centuries afterward — conquest was fast, conversion was slow.
The Crusades stopped looking defensive almost immediately. The First Crusade opened with massacres of Jews in the Rhineland — nowhere near any Muslim army. And in 1204 the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople, the largest Christian city on earth, permanently breaking Eastern and Western Christianity. Hard to fit that into a "defense of Christendom" story.
So you're right that starting the story in 1095 is a narrative. But starting it in 638 and skipping to 1095 is also a narrative. Both flatten the actual causes: Seljuk expansion, Byzantine desperation, papal politics, and knightly land-hunger. History rarely gives us clean heroes.

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

Misleading statement...below were found in their respective Pyramids.
· Pyramid of Merenre I (Saqqara, 6th Dynasty): a mummy was found in 1880, generally attributed to Merenre, though the identification is contested.
· Pyramid of Hor at Dahshur (13th Dynasty): intact burial with mummy.
· Nubian pyramids at Meroë and Nuri: many contained mummified remains, though these are much later (Kushite, ~700 BCE onward) and smaller.

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

GROK THIS PEOPLE!: The Tongva themselves are relatively recent arrivals (NOT THE FIRST!) in deep-time terms. Linguistic and archaeological evidence connects them to the Uto-Aztecan language family, and the prevailing reconstruction places their migration into the LA Basin somewhere around 3,500 to 2,000 years ago, likely displacing or absorbing earlier populations already living there. Before them, the region was occupied by peoples associated with what archaeologists call the Millingstone Horizon (roughly 8,000–3,000 years ago), characterized by heavy use of seed-grinding tools. These weren't Tongva — they were culturally and possibly genetically distinct populations.

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@ReadC50370 Sent you a message..

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

Looking for beta readers for my debut sci-fi thriller 👀
THE KEY THAT HUMS: A machinist from Texas receives an ancient artifact that won't let him go. Within a week, he's in Egypt, hunted by factions who've waited centuries for someone like him.
90K words. Da Vinci Code meets The Martian.
Using BetaBooks for easy reading and feedback. DM me your email if interested!
#WritingCommunity #BetaReaders #AmWriting #SciFi

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@AuthorMae18932 Thanks for reaching out! Please send me a chat with your email address and I can send you the Beta Books link.

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@read_scribe123 Understood, I sent you the Beta Books link.

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@hafixreader yes please! the more the merrier :) please send via chat your email and I can send you the Beta Book invite.

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@LeoHart820529 thank you! really looking forward to your feedback. also, feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@Billygates2022 @MattDonnellyFF Then don't call it the pro bowl, call it the Fan Bowl. Big difference there. Used to be the best players now its complete shit. Change the name and I wont bitch :)

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

this has to be the most scripted game of this post season....also, why the hell did the defender run away from the football giving that last touchdown? makes 0 sense..... #LARvsCHI

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@Diptish09 lol, GROK isnt free you know...

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@espn Typical Jerry trying to stay relevant after another disappointing year. He really doesn't want to win, he just wants to stay in the news cycle.

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@AshtonForbes Interesting timing of this huh....

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@AntiWokeMemes Saggy

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@Wisdom_HQ Forgotten. Alone. Forever.

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@DonJohnIV @DudespostingWs if that is the case get rid of your modern bow and attire. go back to wearing real leather and animal skins as your clothing. make your own bow with a stick and string. hey, just trying to stay within your way of thinking here...

[ed ostrowski @eddyo78]

@elonmusknews30 👋