Ayzintion City Tourism Guide
Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:58 pm
I am a big fan of Nathan's stories on the archive. If I'm remembering right, it was one of his stories, found via Google search, that first led me to eunuch.org several years ago. I go back and reread many of his stories periodically, especially (though not exclusively) several in the Ayzintion City series. I owe him a ton of feedback, gratitude and appreciation for the enjoyment his stories have provided me over the years... Since I am terrible with e-mail correspondence, I thought I might instead "kill two birds with one stone" and make a thread here in the forums which would serve both as a place for me and others to discuss the Ayzintion City series, and as an opportunity to put up an annotated list of the stories so that those who haven't yet read these excellent stories can more easily find ones that are most to their own taste, and those who have read the stories before can more easily find their favorites for re-reading.
Even the biggest fan of this series (who may or may not be me
) is bound to have trouble keeping track of which story is which, as there are now thirty-seven stories in the series and his track record suggests that the number will hit 40 sometime in 2010 or 2011.
Unlike most series-type stories, the Ayzintion City "series" isn't a bunch of chapters or parts that combine to tell a single, sequential story when read in a particular order. Rather, they're linked by sharing a single setting, the fictional Ayzintion City (which Nathan has said was inspired by another archive author's stories set in the historical city of Byzantium) where slavery is part of the social structure and male slaves are frequently, and often publicly, castrated. (Non-slaves, mainly criminals, are occasionally castrated also.) Few characters appear in more than one story, however. Here's the introduction to the series that appears at the beginning of each story*:
Ayzintion City is a place like no other place on earth. It is city where the slave traders come, and the slave buyers come, and the entire city with its ancient buildings and associated businesses are all linked to the trade. It is a place where the Eastern Province and the Southern Province converge, and sometimes the slave auctions will trade as many as a thousand boys in a single week. Ayzintion City has existed since the first maps were drawn, and while it is well known among those that deal in human flesh it is almost unheard of outside of that elite circle. The city is hidden in the mountains, and it is surrounded by water and deep ravines. Unless you know the way into the city, you would never be able to find it. The majority of all slave trading that is done has its roots to Ayzintion, and if you are interested in buying or selling or you need to find a boy to own it is there that you will be drawn.
On the archive, whether one looks at the listing by author page or the listing by story title page, the series doesn't appear in chronological or alphabetical order, due to Nathan having used a variety of dash formats to separate "Ayzintion City" from each story's subtitle, and the otherwise-alphabetical (by subtitle) listing is thus broken up into clusters depending on whether the subtitle is preceded by a hyphen -, double hyphen --, en dash, em dash, etc. and the use or omission of spaces around the various dashes. Another reason I was motivated to create this listing was to have a handy place for quickly finding stories by date or (sub)title without having to resort to browser search.
Here is a list of all the Ayzintion City stories, ordered alphabetically by subtitle:
Boy with the Golden Cream, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_145136ayzintio.htm) (03/12/2003)
Brothels, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_195353ayzintio.htm) (12/06/2004)
Castrated Cutter, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_163846ayzintio.htm) (09/04/2002)
Contest, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_4919ayzintio.htm) (01/23/2002)
Crucifixion, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_205703ayzintio.htm) (02/10/2004)
Cutting Festival, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_21656ayzintio.htm) (02/15/2002) -- not to be confused with The Fuckfest (2008) or The Harvest Festival (2003)
Cutting of a Slave, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_0846ayzintio.htm) (06/01/2001)
A boy enslaved at 13, now 16, is re-sold after his previous owner loses patience with his behavior, and castrated post-auction at the direction of a new owner who has used the pain of castration to break strong-willed slaves before; the new owner's daughter both observes and participates in the castration.
Double Purchase, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_181817ayzintio.htm) (01/05/2003)
Eateries, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_84538ayzintio.htm) (01/05/2005)
Father's Gift, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_121903ayzintio.htm) (01/29/2004)
Fathers and Sons (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_0516ayzintio.htm) (12/03/2001)
Five for the Knife (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_121934ayzintio.htm) (01/31/2007)
Free Lesson, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_120221ayzintio.htm) (03/08/2007)
Friend's Dilemma, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_160358ayzintio.htm) (08/13/2003)
Fuckfest, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_110316ayzintio.htm) (03/30/2008) -- not to be confused with The Cutting Festival (2002) or The Harvest Festival (2003)
Glances (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_143022ayzintio.htm) (02/27/2009)
Harvest Festival, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_55150ayzintio.htm) (08/05/2003) -- not to be confused with The Cutting Festival (2002) or The Fuckfest (2008)
Just a Little Bit Too Much (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_1614ayzintio.htm) (01/27/2002)
Just Another Gelding (story 3 of a series) (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_0903ayzintio.htm) (11/26/2001)
Making of Slaves, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_1453ayzintio.htm) (01/18/2002)
New Technique, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_114409ayzintio.htm) (05/18/2004)
No Match for a Knife (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_55949ayzintio.htm) (08/20/2008)
One Slaves Viewpoint (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_1739ayzintio.htm) (12/05/2001)
Price of a Lesson, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_01351ayzintio.htm) (01/16/2003)
Punishment of Two Thieves, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_1258ayzintio.htm) (09/14/2001)
Sights, Sounds, and Smells from the Slave Yards (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_81851ayzintio.htm) (10/15/2004)
Slave called Messner, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_154300ayzintio.htm) (09/12/2002)
Soldiers of Misfortune (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_162052ayzintio.htm) (02/07/2003) -- not to be confused with "The Three Prisoners" (2001)
Stealing a Young Slave's Balls (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_00135ayzintio.htm) (01/09/2004)
Stringmaker, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_41635ayzintio.htm) (10/06/2005)
Sweet Revenge (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_222207ayzintio.htm) (02/11/2002)
Teaching of a Lesson, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_150758ayzintio.htm) (05/30/2002)
Three Prisoners, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_0853ayzintio.htm) (12/21/2001) -- not to be confused with "Soldiers of Misfortune" (2003)
Tricutter, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_5500ayzintio.htm) (11/28/2001)
Twisted Trail of Slight Miscalculations, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_151558ayzintio.htm) (12/11/2009)
Wrong Balls, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_215032ayzintio.htm) (06/07/2004)
Youngest Cutter, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_3925ayzintio.htm) (01/02/2002)
Yes, clicking on the title of a story in the list will take you directly to that story on the archive.
My original plan was to include a list of elements included in each story as I annotated them, since there are numerous recurring themes in these stories and the list would be useful to those looking for (or looking to avoid) certain themes or elements, as well as for fans of the series looking for a particular story whose title they can't recall. Now that I've made a list of elements for the first story in the series, though, it's clear that -- even in a story containing only a single castration -- the lists of story elements will be too long to be included in the list of story titles without making that list too confusing to use. Instead, I'll post each story's list of elements in a separate comment in this thread, and add a link to that comment from the story listing for easy reference.
If anyone notices I flubbed a URL somehow, or if there are other pairs or groups of stories that you have a tendency to confuse (as I often do with the "festival" stories), or if I've overlooked a story element you would find useful, please comment (or PM me) so I can make changes. The whole point of this listing is for it to be useful to people besides me -- otherwise I'd just keep it on my hard drive. 
A list of the stories in the series in chronological order will follow in a separate comment as soon as I post this one. It won't immediately have hyperlinks to the stories on the archive (boy, did doing that take longer than I thought it would!) but I will edit those in later.
I know that people have been commenting on the various Ayzintion City stories, as well as other stories of Nathan's, on this board already. Rather than everyone having to start their own threads as they read the individual stories, though, I thought it might be nice for there to be the option to discuss the series as a whole in an ongoing thread. I'm sure there are threads going back many years, and the older they are, the less likely anyone is to see them when they want to comment on an older story they've just read or re-read.
* The introductory paragraph is missing from the second (in the order they were posted to the archive) story. Later stories preface the first sentence with "As a reminder," and about midway through the last decade (Nathan began the series in 2001!) the following lines began to appear before the original introductory paragraph as well:
This story forms yet another tale in the series that has come to be known at Ayzintion City. The series is written in such a way that it doesnt really matter which story you read first, yet even so, they all form the tale and they are all written about the same, magical place that is found only in my mind.
Watch this thread for annotations for the other stories in the list, which will be added into the listing as I get to them...
Even the biggest fan of this series (who may or may not be me
) is bound to have trouble keeping track of which story is which, as there are now thirty-seven stories in the series and his track record suggests that the number will hit 40 sometime in 2010 or 2011.Unlike most series-type stories, the Ayzintion City "series" isn't a bunch of chapters or parts that combine to tell a single, sequential story when read in a particular order. Rather, they're linked by sharing a single setting, the fictional Ayzintion City (which Nathan has said was inspired by another archive author's stories set in the historical city of Byzantium) where slavery is part of the social structure and male slaves are frequently, and often publicly, castrated. (Non-slaves, mainly criminals, are occasionally castrated also.) Few characters appear in more than one story, however. Here's the introduction to the series that appears at the beginning of each story*:
Ayzintion City is a place like no other place on earth. It is city where the slave traders come, and the slave buyers come, and the entire city with its ancient buildings and associated businesses are all linked to the trade. It is a place where the Eastern Province and the Southern Province converge, and sometimes the slave auctions will trade as many as a thousand boys in a single week. Ayzintion City has existed since the first maps were drawn, and while it is well known among those that deal in human flesh it is almost unheard of outside of that elite circle. The city is hidden in the mountains, and it is surrounded by water and deep ravines. Unless you know the way into the city, you would never be able to find it. The majority of all slave trading that is done has its roots to Ayzintion, and if you are interested in buying or selling or you need to find a boy to own it is there that you will be drawn.
On the archive, whether one looks at the listing by author page or the listing by story title page, the series doesn't appear in chronological or alphabetical order, due to Nathan having used a variety of dash formats to separate "Ayzintion City" from each story's subtitle, and the otherwise-alphabetical (by subtitle) listing is thus broken up into clusters depending on whether the subtitle is preceded by a hyphen -, double hyphen --, en dash, em dash, etc. and the use or omission of spaces around the various dashes. Another reason I was motivated to create this listing was to have a handy place for quickly finding stories by date or (sub)title without having to resort to browser search.
Here is a list of all the Ayzintion City stories, ordered alphabetically by subtitle:
Boy with the Golden Cream, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_145136ayzintio.htm) (03/12/2003)
Brothels, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_195353ayzintio.htm) (12/06/2004)
Castrated Cutter, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_163846ayzintio.htm) (09/04/2002)
Contest, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_4919ayzintio.htm) (01/23/2002)
Crucifixion, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_205703ayzintio.htm) (02/10/2004)
Cutting Festival, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_21656ayzintio.htm) (02/15/2002) -- not to be confused with The Fuckfest (2008) or The Harvest Festival (2003)
Cutting of a Slave, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_0846ayzintio.htm) (06/01/2001)
A boy enslaved at 13, now 16, is re-sold after his previous owner loses patience with his behavior, and castrated post-auction at the direction of a new owner who has used the pain of castration to break strong-willed slaves before; the new owner's daughter both observes and participates in the castration.
Double Purchase, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_181817ayzintio.htm) (01/05/2003)
Eateries, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_84538ayzintio.htm) (01/05/2005)
Father's Gift, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_121903ayzintio.htm) (01/29/2004)
Fathers and Sons (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_0516ayzintio.htm) (12/03/2001)
Five for the Knife (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_121934ayzintio.htm) (01/31/2007)
Free Lesson, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_120221ayzintio.htm) (03/08/2007)
Friend's Dilemma, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_160358ayzintio.htm) (08/13/2003)
Fuckfest, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_110316ayzintio.htm) (03/30/2008) -- not to be confused with The Cutting Festival (2002) or The Harvest Festival (2003)
Glances (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_143022ayzintio.htm) (02/27/2009)
Harvest Festival, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_55150ayzintio.htm) (08/05/2003) -- not to be confused with The Cutting Festival (2002) or The Fuckfest (2008)
Just a Little Bit Too Much (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_1614ayzintio.htm) (01/27/2002)
Just Another Gelding (story 3 of a series) (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_0903ayzintio.htm) (11/26/2001)
Making of Slaves, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_1453ayzintio.htm) (01/18/2002)
New Technique, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_114409ayzintio.htm) (05/18/2004)
No Match for a Knife (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_55949ayzintio.htm) (08/20/2008)
One Slaves Viewpoint (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_1739ayzintio.htm) (12/05/2001)
Price of a Lesson, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_01351ayzintio.htm) (01/16/2003)
Punishment of Two Thieves, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_1258ayzintio.htm) (09/14/2001)
Sights, Sounds, and Smells from the Slave Yards (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_81851ayzintio.htm) (10/15/2004)
Slave called Messner, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_154300ayzintio.htm) (09/12/2002)
Soldiers of Misfortune (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_162052ayzintio.htm) (02/07/2003) -- not to be confused with "The Three Prisoners" (2001)
Stealing a Young Slave's Balls (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_00135ayzintio.htm) (01/09/2004)
Stringmaker, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_41635ayzintio.htm) (10/06/2005)
Sweet Revenge (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_222207ayzintio.htm) (02/11/2002)
Teaching of a Lesson, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_150758ayzintio.htm) (05/30/2002)
Three Prisoners, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_0853ayzintio.htm) (12/21/2001) -- not to be confused with "Soldiers of Misfortune" (2003)
Tricutter, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_5500ayzintio.htm) (11/28/2001)
Twisted Trail of Slight Miscalculations, A (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_151558ayzintio.htm) (12/11/2009)
Wrong Balls, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_215032ayzintio.htm) (06/07/2004)
Youngest Cutter, The (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/A/ea_3925ayzintio.htm) (01/02/2002)
Yes, clicking on the title of a story in the list will take you directly to that story on the archive.
My original plan was to include a list of elements included in each story as I annotated them, since there are numerous recurring themes in these stories and the list would be useful to those looking for (or looking to avoid) certain themes or elements, as well as for fans of the series looking for a particular story whose title they can't recall. Now that I've made a list of elements for the first story in the series, though, it's clear that -- even in a story containing only a single castration -- the lists of story elements will be too long to be included in the list of story titles without making that list too confusing to use. Instead, I'll post each story's list of elements in a separate comment in this thread, and add a link to that comment from the story listing for easy reference.
If anyone notices I flubbed a URL somehow, or if there are other pairs or groups of stories that you have a tendency to confuse (as I often do with the "festival" stories), or if I've overlooked a story element you would find useful, please comment (or PM me) so I can make changes. The whole point of this listing is for it to be useful to people besides me -- otherwise I'd just keep it on my hard drive. 
A list of the stories in the series in chronological order will follow in a separate comment as soon as I post this one. It won't immediately have hyperlinks to the stories on the archive (boy, did doing that take longer than I thought it would!) but I will edit those in later.
I know that people have been commenting on the various Ayzintion City stories, as well as other stories of Nathan's, on this board already. Rather than everyone having to start their own threads as they read the individual stories, though, I thought it might be nice for there to be the option to discuss the series as a whole in an ongoing thread. I'm sure there are threads going back many years, and the older they are, the less likely anyone is to see them when they want to comment on an older story they've just read or re-read.
* The introductory paragraph is missing from the second (in the order they were posted to the archive) story. Later stories preface the first sentence with "As a reminder," and about midway through the last decade (Nathan began the series in 2001!) the following lines began to appear before the original introductory paragraph as well:
This story forms yet another tale in the series that has come to be known at Ayzintion City. The series is written in such a way that it doesnt really matter which story you read first, yet even so, they all form the tale and they are all written about the same, magical place that is found only in my mind.
Watch this thread for annotations for the other stories in the list, which will be added into the listing as I get to them...