In AsciiDoc, the double ----
lines signify ListingBlocks, which only preserve certain formatting aspects of your text (line and whitespace formatting), according to the AsciiDoc documentation on Delimited Blocks ( with the exception of using [subs="quotes"]
, as you noted in your answer).
Other ways to include bold formatting in a delimited block include the "Admonition Block", ExampleBlock, OpenBlock, QuoteBlock, and SidebarBlock options.
Example Blocks:
**Admonition Block:**
[NOTE]
====
here *is* my text
====
**Example Block:**
====
here *is* my text
====
**Open Block:**
--
here *is* my text
--
**Quote Block:**
[quote, quote author]
____
here *is* my text
____
**Sidebar Block:**
****
here *is* my text
****
Example Blocks Output: