#( i will not be nothing ; lissar )

[talysalankil]

Fabula Nova Crystallis: The Mythology

I was trying to dig this video up to show a friend and it occurred to me that holy shit, it's become almost impossible to find this video that Square Enix only showed once at a conference in January 2011, and we're lacking in a proper English translation for it.

So I'm going to put it here for archival purposes and hope tumblr doesn't take it down, along with a translated transcript. I'll be working off Lissar's and FFWorld's translations of the video, using the canon names for the various entities (yes I know "soul" is technically a mistranslation of 心 heart but it is the canon one so hush).

Since I had extra time on my hands, I also put it up on Vimeo with subtitles on. I can provide the srt file (the syncing isn't super tight but since there's a lot of blank space around each line I decided to leave each subtitle for longer than necessary), if anyone's willing to work on translations, you can DM me.

The full transcript is under the cut:

Fabula Nova Crystallis, the new tale of the crystal

Once upon a time, the god Bhunivelze ruled the world. Bhunivelze defeated his mother, the goddess Mwynn, and took control of the world for himself. Mwynn disappeared into the unseen realm.

Bhunivelze was troubled: the world he now ruled over was destined to die. He believed this was a curse laid on the world by his mother Mwynn. He knew he had to destroy her to lift the curse. To do this, he set out to search for the door to the unseen realm where his mother waited. Using his will alone, he created the first fal’Cie.

First, he created the fal’Cie Pulse. The Focus he gave him was to clear out the world, and search for the door to Mwynn.

Next, he created the fal’Cie Etro. But it was a mistake. Unknowingly, he created her exactly in the image of Mwynn. Bhunivelze feared her, and gave Etro no power of her own.

Instead, he created the fal’Cie Lindzei. The Focus he gave him was to protect Bhunivelze from all who might seek to destroy him. Bhunivelze gave Lindzei one special duty. To wake him once the time came. Then he turned to crystal, and fell into an endless sleep.

Pulse wished to expand the world, so he created many fal’Cie and l’Cie.

Lindzei wished to protect the world, so he created many fal’Cie and l’Cie.

But Etro was powerless, and could make nothing of her own. Lonely, she thought of her mother, who she so resembled. Etro tore her own body apart, letting her blood flow to the earth, and disappeared from the visible world. From that blood, torn from her body, sprang humankind. Creatures that were born only to die.

The destruction of the visible world was no curse, only fate. The world was divided into two halves, the visible and the invisible. If the balance between these two were destroyed, the world itself would be destroyed.

The goddess Mwynn could do nothing to stop this fate. She was being swallowed into the chaos of the unseen realm. Just before her last moment, Etro came to her side. Mwynn told Etro that she must protect the balance of the world, before slipping into the chaos forever. But Etro was ignorant of the meaning behind Mwynn’s words.

Etro was lonely, but she felt affection for those humans who live only to die. As they died, she smiled, and gave them chaos. The chaos Etro gave them, the humans named “souls”. Their hearts would become their power, but the humans did not yet know this.

Soon, they called Pulse the all powerful ruler. Lindzei they named their protector, and Etro they named their goddess of death. The humans lived on the world, hold chaos inside their hearts. Because they held chaos so close, the world once again was in balance.

And Bhunivelze still sleeps in crystal stasis. Until the end of days, awaiting the right time.

[showmeaheroarchive]

“then marry me,” said ossin. “for i love you, and i do not believe there is anything so wrong with you. you are fair in my eyes and you lie fair on my heart. i--i was there, this morning, when you--when you showed the scars you wear, and i accept that you bear them, and will always bear them, as--as ash bears hers[...]”

“it is not like that,” she whispered. “it is not like that.”

“is it not?” said ossin. “how is it not?” and in his voice, strangely, was the sound of running water, and of bells.

[finalgirlfall]

@lissar tagged me to post 10 books i want to read in 2022! these are the books i’m currently planning to read for this year’s storygraph genre challenge. titles and authors follow below:

if beale street could talk, james baldwin

dead girls: essays on surviving an american obsession, alice bolin

parable of the sower, octavia e. butler

pass with care: memoirs, cooper lee bombardier

the ferryman, jez butterworth

braiding sweetgrass: scientific knowledge, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of plants, robin wall kimmerer

arsenic and adobo, mia p. manansala

you all grow up and leave me: a memoir of teenage obsession, piper weiss

the sentence: a novel, louise erdrich

say nothing: a true story of murder and memory in northern ireland, patrick radden keefe

oh! almost forgot to tag people... tagging: @kirstensleepey @savagegoodboy @jubileealbum @engulfes :-)

[letterful]

tagged by my darling girl @lissar 🌻💛 (ages ago... yikes!)

three ships: i really dislike the term “ship”, but oh well. heer halewijn/princess machteld (dutch folklore), asmodeus/sarah of media (the book of tobit), ares/athena (greek mythology)... and yet, elia/rhaegar (a song of ice and fire) are still the most formative love story gone wrong i’ve ever encountered. i hold them very close to my heart, always. 

last song: if i were/same but different by vashti bunyan... you know how some songs just give off the vibe of embarking on a bittersweet but necessary to your personal growth journey? on an early morning train? and you are looking out the window at the passing fields lit by the rising sun while pondering your uncertain fate? well. that song might as well be playing in the background. 

last movie: uh, does a documentary film count? i just finished get me roger stone on netflix, which i watched after binging that qanon documentary on hbo. i am... somewhat invested in the american political scene. cringe, i know. 

currently watching: ah, not anything? i want to start cowboy bebop, though. and either hbo’s rome or carnival.

currently reading: the remains of the day by kazuo ishiguro! :-) and one of those little oxford books—geopolitics: a very short introduction. i love the entire series, another one (on behavioural economics) is already waiting on my shelf. (don’t get me wrong, i want nothing to do with economics or business studies—i’m a humanities major—but u gotta know’em if u wanna beat’em)

currently craving: mulled wine :-(

[showmeahero-a]

Gilded Cages by Ashelflaed

[meerschweinchen-archive]

tagged by the etheral and evergreen @lissar thank you my liege <3

last song listened to: tiger teeth by walk the moon, kings and queens and sovereigns its a good song! 

last movie watched: coraline on halloween as tis the season

currently reading: an introduction to germanistic linguistics and the psychology of language lmao also destined to witness by hans-jürgen massaquoi, on earth we’re briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong and days without end by sebatian berry but im snail pacing my way through all of them as per usual

currently watching: other than the assortment of cooking videos i watch while (guess what) eating in between online lectures... nothing. for once. partially bc i binged through the queens gambit too quickly and everything else seems dull in comparison but mostly because with staring at my screen all day to study, starring at my screen to relax just doesnt really do it anymore :/

currently craving: a good walk. cool air in my lungs legs striding... tomorrow is the last day of my pandemic house arrest and ill be awaiting it like the princess in the fairytale in her high tower, chin in my hands, hair blowing out the only window deeply sighing for my rescue to arrive and climb up my braid

currently working on: my fitness hes my witness (oh, wee) fhgjghfjd no but really i want ot be... strong,,,, Be the knight! lift up the damsel in distress and carry her up the stair like oh tis but a cinch, you are as light as a feather dear

currently playing: other than the fool? nothing *shrug*

tagging if you should feel so inclined, @3rdplace @harlotrouscorduroy @skogenflicka @ithvka @djotzi @voirlvmer @engulfes @sealeaves @greneknyght @tensorflow @letterful

[avgustea]

tagged by lovely @titians, thank you so much! ❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎

last song listened to:  ORTIES - la boum or IC3PEAK - плак плак, my playlist stories can’t reach consensus on that one.

last movie watched: lulu wang’s the farewell (2019). absolute gold, both heart-warming and profoundly sad.

currently reading: nothing... i can’t concentrate on anything, starting from page 10 onward...and it makes me SO frustrated, because i have the time rn, but zero concentration whatsoever.

currently watching: i’ve been re-watching the magicians as a background noise these days. absolutely hilarious, esp when each scene is followed by a comment from my poor ukrainian mother who, when she first saw mayakovsky’s character, immediately said “nah that’s bullshit, he’s supposed to be a russian wizard and he walks around in WHITE? nastya, what kind of things do you even watch, господи...”

currently craving: some hot borsch with a generous dollop of sour cream in the middle. the one that’s been cooked the night before and was left on the stove to get thicker. with some buttered bread and garlic, preferably.

currently working on: work-wise, i’m just trying to figure out a study plan for this kid i’ll be tutoring. we’ll see how that one goes, lmao, i can’t help but feel slightly intimidated, to be very honest. and in general, i’m still studying italian and korean 👌

currently playing: i’m re-playing DA: Inquisition LMAO. i’ve remade my inquisitor and now i’m just vibing after watching all those run-through vids (...and i still don’t understand half of the things happening....)

aaaand i’m tagging @7000s, @achlles, @lovlettres, @fatallist and @lissar. of course, feel free to ignore if you’re not feeling like it 💛

[showmeahero-a]

chara. tag drop, pt. 2;;

[showmeaheroarchive]

tag drop; lissar

[showmeaheroarchive]

          this is princess lissar, from robin mckinley’s novel deerskin. it is a retelling of the perrault fairy tale donkeyskin. please refer to the tagged triggers before reading further. 

          lissar’s mother was known as the most beautiful woman in seven kingdoms. her courtship with lissar’s father was the thing of fairy tales. lissar’s parents were, however, vain & neglectful. she hardly knew them & when her mother died, she couldn’t even bring herself to mourn. her mother’s death also brought ash, her beloved fleethound, into her life, when a prince from a neighboring kingdom sent her the pup as a show of condolence. ash quickly became her first & truest friend. left mostly to her own devices, lissar spent her time reading & gardening, learning about medicinal herbs from a local woman called rinnol.

          things changed when her father, half mad, got it into his mind to marry his daughter. on her deathbed, the dying queen had made him promise that he would only marry one who matched her in beauty. lissar, her spitting image, was the only candidate. she fought off his advances for as long as she could, locking herself away in her rooms, but her father alone held the keys to the garden gate. mere days after her seventeenth birthday, the king forced his entry in the dead of night, clad in armor. ash tried to protect lissar, to no avail.

          both half dead, they managed to escape into the snowy mountains before dawn & found an abandoned cottage that became their home. five months later, she suffered a miscarriage that nearly killed her, & was saved by the moonwoman, a spirit of local legend who protects those who cannot protect themselves. the moonwoman changed lissar’s appearance so that she would be unrecognizable when she returned to civilization, & gifted her a white deerskin dress that remains forever unsullied.

          ash, too, was transformed, her coat lengthened so that nobody would recognize her as the princess’s beloved dog. traumatized, lissar repressed her memories & remembered nothing of herself, save that she & ash had escaped from something terrible. even her name was forgotten & she began to call herself deerskin. 

          she eventually found herself in the kingdom of prince ossin, who had given ash to her. she & ossin quickly bonded over their deep love for dogs, as she helped him to nurse several weak pups back to health. as thanks, ossin gave them to her. 

          because of her strange appearance, many in ossin’s kingdom believed deerskin to be the moonwoman & came to her for aid, which deerskin found she was able to grant. along with her dress, it would appear as though the moonwoman had given her another gift: the ability to know where she is needed, to help others in need as the moonwoman had helped her.

          when she saw a portrait of the princess lissar, sent to ossin years earlier, deerskin remembered her past. she fled, at first, frightened of her feelings for ossin & ashamed of what had happened to her. but, in the end, she resolved not to spend the rest of her life hiding away. she returned to ossin’s kingdom just in time to save his sister from being married to her father, denouncing him in front of a horrified crowd:

“i was no child, for you and my mother gave me no childhood; and my maidenhood you tore from me, that i might never become a woman; and a woman i have not become, for i have been too afraid.

“but i return to you now all that you did give me: all the rage and the terror, the pain and the hatred that should have been love. the nightmares, and the waking dreams that are worse than nightmares because they are memories. these i return to you, for i want them no more, and i will bear them not one whit of my time on this earth more.”

i write lissar primarily during her time as deerskin & afterwards, when she is happily betrothed to ossin. i take minor inspiration from the source material donkeyskin & the grimm story allerleirauh. 

kristin stewart is lissar’s fc. emilia clarke as daenerys targaryen is deerskin’s fc.

SHIPS: lissar x ossin, lissar x chemistry ORIENTATION: bisexual