#CITY OF STRIFE

[aroaessidhe]

Aromantic Adult Books - High Fantasy (mostly)

ARO WEEK 2023

KAIKEYI /  historical fantasy/retelling / aroace MC

MOONSHINE /  1920s-ish fantasy / major side character who has some POV is aro bi

THE LANGUAGE OF ROSES / fantasy novella / aro MC

AN ACCIDENT OF STARS  /  upper YA/adult portal fantasy / secondary MC is a polyam married aro woman

A DAY OF FALLEN NIGHT  / high fantasy / apparently one of the MCs is aroace, haven’t read it yet!

CITY OF STRIFE/ISANDOR SERIES / high fantasy / last cast includes multiple aroaces, demiros & greyros

THE WOLF AMONG THE WILD HUNT  / fantasy novella / centres a QPR between and aroace & enby

THE ORACLE STONE / NA high fantasy / one of the three MCs is aro pan

THE BRUISING OF QILWA / fantasy novella / MC is aroace

*as a note, some of these only briefly explore aromanticism, and/or explore the ace part of the aroace character more. If you want more details on how much things are explored, see my database!

[little-red-fool]

I wanna learn about silver tongue I love abyss lore

Heehee I’ll gladly talk about Silvertongue and his backstory. I don’t know as much about Forgotten Realms lore as I would like to so correct me if anything seems inaccurate, also I haven’t fully fleshed out his lore yet but this might still be quite long because I like rambling lol so I’ll try to summarise it a little (also I might have changed some of the Dark Urge lore to fit his backstory too whoops).

*cracks knuckles* Ok so as a bit of an overview of his character, Silvertongue originally started off as a half-elf bard when I made him, he was also chaotic good but I was able to develop his character a lot more when I decided to ship him with Raphael and made him chaotic evil instead because I thought two evil bards would be really funny, which then led me into researching into Forgotten Realms lore; I found out that cambions can also be half demons in some versions of D&D so that’s why he’s like how he is now.

I’ll talk a bit about his backstory now that you have a brief summary of his character. Whilst Silvertongue’s a half-demon cambion, he’s still a half-elf in game so I decided to make his mother a high elf, although like other cambions she died during childbirth, and I like to think that the reason is because like some animals (such as spiders) he ate his way out of her womb rather than being delivered naturally. Although he was born in Blood Tor, he was very quickly transported to Toril where he grew up in an orphanage in human society (possibly in Baldur’s Gate but I haven’t decided), and for the most part his demonic heritage wasn’t prominent and he fit in well with the other children despite the odd outburst and rampage which were few and far between and wouldn’t last long—he was always drawn to music as a child which lead him to learning how to play violin and flute, and that started his career as a bard when he was a teenager. As he grew older though it became harder to hide his heritage and his urges grew stronger and more difficult to manage, he became more malicious and deceitful, as well as more sadistic, which then escalated and led to him attacking and killing a few people. After this happened he was hunted down like an animal when people discovered his heritage so he fled the city. It wasn’t long after this that his father—a demon—managed to track him down and bring him to the Abyss, saying that he would fit in better there and that his talents would be appreciated more.

This was when he came back to Blood Tor, where he spent his mid twenties to his late fifties. Whilst there he was a vassal to Beshaba and served as a manservant in the court, sometimes directly assisting Beshaba. When he was older he was drafted into the Blood War as a soldier and was trained to fight. He was originally sent on raids with other demons to the City of Strife to steal souls from the Wall of the Faithless, but later on he was sent into proper battles in Oinos, and much later he was stationed in Avernus up until recently. Whilst Silvertongue had a few mortal friends on Toril, he didn’t really have any in the Abyss due to the untrusting and malicious nature of most demons, however he was close with a couple of other cambions that also served under Beshaba at the same time as him. They were also drafted into the Blood War alongside Silvertongue, however one was killed during a baatezu attack in Bloor Tor, but he managed to save his other friend from an orthon attack, however this meant that he suffered many injuries and his clothes were tattered—he still wears the coat he wore from the orthon attack as he views it as a symbol of pride and a reminder that he saved his friend. Silvertongue is probably around 300 or so years old (give or take) so he served in the Blood War for over 250 years, and he was a decent soldier. He was often picked on due to his diminutive stature compared to the other demon soldiers, however what he lacked in strength and size he made up in agility and stealth. That isn’t to say he’s weak though he could still easily rip a human in half.

Now that I’ve given you most of his backstory I’ll talk about the events that took place recently to when BG3 starts. This part is also linked to the Dark Urge backstory, which I altered a bit for Silvertongue’s backstory. Although he was still fighting in Avernus, he started going on missions to Toril in order to disrupt devils from gaining souls from mortals, and for this he went to lots of different cities, one of these being Baldur’s Gate. This is when he ran into the cult of Bhaal, and long story short he ended up becoming involved—he didn’t worship Bhaal but he thought that having the Bhaalists on his side would be useful. Not too long after he met Gortash, and he found out about his affiliation with Bane, and learned about the Crown of Karsus and the Elderbrain, which is when Silvertongue forged the plan to use the Elderbrain and the ilithid tadpoles to turn the people into mindflayers as it would completely destroy the devils’ ability to recruit mortal souls as mindflayers were soulless. Him, Gortash and Ketheric carry out the plan etc etc and during these times Silvertongue keeps occasionally returning to Avernus to continue fighting in the Blood War.

This is right before the events of the game, as he was in Avernus when the nautiloid passed through it at the beginning, and due to being half-elf and therefore somewhat mortal he was swept up by the nautiloid and infected by a tadpole. Similar to some of the other companions—such as Wyll and Gale—Silvertongue’s stronger abilities and a lot of his power were sealed due to the tadpole’s influence, and he was trapped in his mortal aspect with very little magic. His current goal, like the other companions, is to get rid of the tadpole in order to regain his demonic aspect and his powers so he can continue to fight in the Blood War, although reluctantly—he recognises that it’s his duty and it gives him the opportunity to maim and kill others, but he’s still quite connected to his mortal lineage and he likes the thought of retiring, or at least living in Toril rather than continuing to fight in the Blood War.

Alright now on to him and Raphael (and a bit of Haarlep). Their first meeting was interesting, Silvertongue immediately clocked Raphael as a devil and tried to attack him, whilst in my interpretation of Raphael he’s never fought in the Blood War himself and has only witnessed it from afar so he can’t easily distinguish a demon when they’re not in an easily recognisable form, so he just thought Silvertongue was a bit jumpy and paranoid. I haven’t gotten Silvertongue past Act 1 yet, so whilst these events haven’t taken place yet I’m still going to refer to them in past tense for ease. Raphael manages to figure out that Silvertongue’s a half-demon at Last Light and that he was a soldier in the Blood War, which is what prompts him to get Silvertongue to kill Yurgir. In Act 3 I think Raphael’s contract would be slightly altered for Silvertongue, instead offering to remove his tadpole rather than giving him the Orphic Hammer. In exchange Raphael still receives the Crown of Karsus. Since Silvertongue has spent most of his life in the Abyss and hasn’t encountered any devils in a peaceful or conversational setting, he doesn’t really know how tricky they are and the weight of their contracts and how binding they are, so he signs Raphael’s contract; Raphael keeps his word and removes his tadpole. Unfortunately, with Silvertongue having grown attached to his companions and hating authority figures, he decides to break into Raphael’s home to nick the Orphic Hammer so he can free Orpheus, but he doesn’t take his contract as he just thinks it’s some old piece of paper, he doesn’t think that it actually holds any power over him or his soul. As you might know if you break into Raphael’s home without stealing your contract he, uh, incinerates you. My interpretation of this is that the player character then becomes one of his debtors trapped in his house, which is exactly what happens to Silvertongue. Fortunately his companions were able to escape with the hammer, however Helsik then closed the portal because let’s be real who wants a rampaging devil chasing after you into Toril, so essentially Silvertongue is stuck there as his soul is bound and his companions currently had no way of breaking him out.

Raphael doesn’t have as much power over Silvertongue as his other debtors due to his Abyssal heritage and not being fully mortal, so Silvertongue still has some freedom and is (mostly) sane (or as sane as he was before becoming a debtor), he’s mostly just bound to the house and unable to harm Raphael. Silvertongue is not happy about his situation and spends the first couple of weeks essentially throwing a huge tantrum and destroying half the furniture. He meets Haarlep during this time and since I headcanon Haarlep as being an enslaved tanar’ri (thanks to this post which completely hey this place isn’t too bad, it’s warm, I get a bed aechanged my outlook) they hit it off well pretty quickly, so they became quite close and shit-talked Raphael. It took a few weeks but Silvertongue realised that hey this place isn’t that bad, it’s warm, I get a bed and free food and I’m not constantly praying for my life and I don’t have to kill devils 24/7 for hundreds of years so he very quickly becomes a lot like a house cat, although he also realises that whilst he might be stuck with Raphael, Raphael is also stuck with him, which gives him the motivation to be an absolute prick but in a petty and mischievous way rather than an overly destructive and murderous way. Raphael absolutely hates this at first but over time they get more comfortable with each other and less antagonistic, which then evolves into a slight fondness (well more of a mild love-hate relationship), and I think that’s all up-to-date.

I’m so sorry that was so long ajdnshdndn but I really enjoyed infodumping about Silvertongue’s backstory, thank you so much for this ask!

[bookstagramofmine]

BBNYA Semi-Finalist Spotlight Tour ~ City of Strife by Claudie Arseneault

BBNYA Semi-Finalist Spotlight Tour ~ City of Strife by Claudie Arseneault @BBNYA_Official @Foliosociety @The_WriteReads #BBNYA2022 #BBNYA #BookTour #Bookish #BookBlog

BBNYA Semi-Finalist Spotlight Tour This is my first year on the BBNYA Panel and I’m so excited to also be part of the Semi-Finalist Spotlight Tour! Even though you’ve probably seen all our posts on joining the Panel, you haven’t seen much else! That’s because we don’t want to tell anyone which books we’re reading and how we liked them! We do that to keep things fair because it’s interesting to…

[a-flaming-triple-a]

My library sent me an email saying they decided not to get either of the books I recommended which were Baker Thief and City of Strife by Claudie Arsenault. Ugh so aphobic 🙄

[meteortrails]

fundamentally aerith and cloud are two extremely autistic people in very different ways and it’s why they form such a strong connection so quickly. aerith, our beloved autistic girlprophet who is so compassionate and loving but seems to struggle with making any sort of meaningful open connection with her peers, sees cloud crash into her flower bed and immediately sees a) the ghost of her long disappeared first love and b) someone who might in his own way be able to accept all her oddities and understand her isolation. and cloud responds, does his best to sort of reciprocate and meet her where she’s at, bc this is one of the first times in a while that someone has made an earnest effort to connect with him without any weight of expectations or past history. frankly what they have is too weird and important to be romantic they have to be super weird lowkey destined by fate besties forever or the world is gonna end or smthn

[rocketbirdie]

chocobo ranchin'

[betterbooksandthings]

"The best asexual and aromantic fantasy books are packed full of magic, monsters, and mayhem. In a genre where we can imagine anything from unicorns to unique political systems to new approaches to gender and sexuality, these books take on the assignment and expand further than we thought possible."

[cassettemoon]

Misc ff7 wips

[grassoftunnel]

My greatest wish is for Natsuhi to be happy and indulged okayyyy

bonus

[proffbon]

You're killing me, Bioware...

[acornerofnowhere]

Seven seconds until the end.

But what will you do with it?

Let's see.

[aroaessidhe]

aro & ace Books: Assassins

The Perfect Assassin - ace mlm MC

The Butterfly Assassin - aroace MC, aspec side characters, canon in book 2.

Assassins: Discord: ace side character, grey-ace MC in book 2

Foul Lady Fortune: demisexual MC, aroace side character

City of Strife: one of the MCs is a demiromantic assassin (various other aspec characters)

Mask of Shadows: aro side character (mentioned in book 2)

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

[un-pearable]

the kyoshi flashback in Avatar Day and the sheer scale of ba sing se in comparison to…. literally everywhere else in the world really has me thinking about the politics that lead to such distinct “nations”. it makes way more sense for a land as vast as the earth kingdom to have once been earth kingdoms with local land disputes between feudal lords - as we see with the conflict kyoshi ended - only for a world-spanning war to have driven first the lords to unite under ba sing se’s banner for protection, and then as the war continued, increasing waves and waves of refugees and oma shu standing as the only remaining hold out due to their unique position (top of a mountain - most other earth kingdom towns we see are in valleys) such would explain how many ruins and ghost towns we see throughout s2 but also the improbability of a land that big to be unified under a single leader for that long

[geopvnk]

cannot wait to play a dwarven veil jumper in da:tv can't wait for varric to be like you do WHAT. and VOLUNTARILY?

[frankie-the-bad-guy-lupelli]

its just strange to see a crook and a "hero" getting along like that, being family, even

… you don’t know many crooks do ya. They do have friends and family that ain’t involved yknow.

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #1155: Welcome to New Donk City!!☆ (Super Smash Bros Ultimate)

5:12 p.m. in New Donk City......

Pit/Sora: (Walks Out of the Bus Together Along with Everyone Else in the Smash Family with Awe Struck Looks on Both Their Faces as They Start Looking Around the City in Front of Them) Woooooooah........

Sora: So this is New Donk City? It looks even more bigger than I imagined.....

Pit: Right? It's been one of top two places I've always wanted go to for the longest time now.....

Sora: (Turns to Pit) What's the second place?

Pit: The Polar Express.

Sora: Awesome.......

Pit: (Let's Out a Very Loud Gasps Before Moving Sora's Face to What he is Now Pointing at) Sora, look!!

Sora: ('GASPS') The Christmas Tree.......The Declarations.......Christmas Chrouses!

Christmas Chrous: (Happily Swinging Their Heads From Side to Side While Singing in the Public Eye in a Near Perfect Harmony) We wish you a Merry Christmas~ We wish you a Merry Christmas~ We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year~

Viridi: (Walks Out of the Bus Along with Kairi and Riku) First day of December and they already got everything prepared for the holidays.

Pit: (Already in Tears of Joy along with Sora) I know, right? ('Sniff') It's so wonderful......

Sora: Amazing.....('Sniff') Sight to behold for- (Eyes Suddenly Starts Widening) suuuuuuoh my God! (Moves Pit's Face To Where's Pointing At) Pit, look!!

Pit: (Gasps Loudly Again as He Sees a Group a Man Out Walking Oit of a Building One By One, Wearing White Beards and Red Wintery Like Attires) SANTAAAAAS!~

Sora: There's so many of them!~

Kairi: You....guys do know that we've already met the real Santa in the past, right?

Viridi: Yeah, what make any of those fake ones any different?

Pit: (Turns to the Girls with a Very Excite Smile on his Face) They're the very first Mall Santas we've see in the long time that aren't Uncle Dedede for once!

Sora: (Grabs his Chin While Thinking) I wonder if they accept photo requests....

Viridi: (Shrugs) If money's involved maybe.

Kairi: ('Sigh') I just hope they don't charge us too much.....

Riku: Let's worry about all of that after we settled ourselves in for. (Starts Yawning a Bit) That plane ride got me more sleepy than usual.....

Dedede: (Scoffs While Walking Out of the Bus Alomg with Cloud and Tifa Behind Him) Bunch of posers. What kind of Mall Santa would charge someone to take one picture with them?

Tifa: There are few other malls I can think of, that actually does that kind of thing actually.

Cloud: I'm surprised you never thought about doing it as well, De.

Dedede: Why would I? It's the holiday! I ain't never gonna be the one to try and crush people's dreams of wanting to meet St. Nick for few a dough, especially since OUR mall starting to up charge the prices. (Turns to the Couple) Did y'all know they charge nutcrackers sixty dollars now?

Tifa: (Eyes Widened in Genuine Surprise) Sixty dollars?

Cloud: (Raises an Eyebrow in Confusion) For a nutcracker?

Dedede: Yeah, sounds stupid, doesn't? It ain't even that special looking either! We have people working hard on their grind to try and buy games, gift, subscription cards, and rare looking action figures that cost just as much and then some, and y'all expecting people to pay that much for a regular looking ass nut cracker? Hell Nah!

Daisy: (Gently Grabbing onto Luigi's Hand Walking Next to Them Out of the Bus) I'm telling you, babe, you have nothing to worry about here. You folks seems like nice people from what you told me about me.

Luigi: ('Sigh') Yeah, but they can be a headache sometimes. Uncle Arthur and Tony especially. I can't TELL you how many times they kept pestering me about not having a girlfriend and boyfriend......

Daisy: (Forms a Confident Smirk on her Face While Hugging on her Boyfriend Arm) Well, luckily, you got yourself a kick ass girlfriend who's more than willing to stand by your side throughout all of it. I could even brag a little if you want.

Luigi: If it helps get those two to back off a bit, then I say go for it.

DK: (Walks Out of the Bus Along with Diddy While Sigh) I don't know, Diddy. Are you sure Pauline's not gonna be mad me for what happened?

Diddy: (Gives DK a Reassuring Smile on his Face) That was a long time ago, big guy. She don't seem like the kind of lady who hold grudges from what I heard.

DK: ('Sigh') I guess. (Smiles a Bit) It's cool have an entire city named after me at least.

The duo then starts noticing a few city folks glaring harshly at the big ape in question, causing him to swallow his confidence down with one gulp.

DK: Even if everyone here does hates my guts.....

Diddy: (Pulls the Front of his Shirt to the Side in Awkwardness) Sheesh.....

Peach: (Struck in Awe at the City in Front of Her) So this is New Donk City.......It's so.....big, vibrant....(See a Few Cars Driving By with the Multi Sounds of Horns Starts Ringing her Eardrums) A lot more busy than Smash Town even.

Mario: (Chuckles Lightly as He Walk Up Next to Peach) That's the city life for you. It used to look a lot different when Lu and I were raised here, but it still feels as homey and recognizable as it always been. Pauline did a really good job taking care of this place.

Peach: Yeah. That's.....(Frowns a Bit) Great.......

Mario: (Turns to Peach with a Bit of a Worried Look on his Face) Is everything okay, Peach? You're not having tummy ache again, are you?

Peach: (Giggles Softly) No baby~ I'm find. Really. I just got myself lost in my own thoughts again is all.

Mario: (Stares at Peach for a Brief Second Before Sighing) If you say so. (Points at Himself with a Grin on his Face) Just know I'm always here if you wanna talk and vent, okay? I'm serious.

Peach: (Playfully Rolls her Eyes) Yes, Mr. Mario, I hear you loud 'n clear~

Mario: (Playfully Cringes a Bit) ('Ugh') Please. Mr. Mario is my father's name thank you very much.

Peach: Then what do you want me to call then?~ Honey? My Knight and Shining Armor? (Leams Closer to Mario with a Somewhat Seductive Look on her Face) My one and only Teddy Bear?~

Mario: (Shrugs) Whatever makes you happy, dear. Just....don't give Ma any ideas on the nicknaming department. She goes overboard with it real quick.

Peach: (Giggles Softly) I try!~

?????: Mario!~

The couple turns to see the Mayor of New Donk City, Pauline, walking over and happily waving at them.

Mario: (Smiles Brightly at his Old Friend) Pauline, hello! (Walks Over to Pauline and Gives her a Hug) It's so good to see you.

Pauline: (Hugs Mario Back) Likewise!~ (Forms a Teasing Smirk on her Face) I see you're looking a like a pipsqueak as you've always been.

Mario: (Smirks Back at Pauline) Hey, I've grown a least a few inches in the last few months or so!

Pauline: Really?~ Then how come I see still see the top of your head after all these years, hm?~

Mario: Hey, we can't all have crazy growth spourt like you do, Mayor Paulidonna~

Pauline: I thought I told you never to call me that.

Mario: (Playfully Shrugs) Ooops~

'A-HeH HAM'

The duo turns to see Peach staring at the both of them before quickly putting on a sheepish, awkward smile on her face.

Peach: S-Sorry! Didn't mean to interrupt the reunion, but my name is-

Pauline: (Smiles Brightly at the Princess as Gives her Welcoming Handshake) Princess Peach!~ Mario told me so much about you in the past. It's truly an honor to finally meet you in person.

Peach: Yes, likewise~

Samus: (Watches the Trio in the Distance While Sighing) Oh boy. There's that look again......

Rosalina: (Raises an Eyebrow in Confusion While Standing Next to her Along with the Other Certified Mom Members) What look?

Samus: The jealous kind.

Bayonetta: Seems like our pink princess is slowly starting to succumb to the jealousy side.

Palutena: Not too surprising. We all been down that road at least once before.

Lea: I don't think ever have a hint of jealousy in my system.

Aqua: Neither do I now that I think about it.

Palutena: (Turns to the Keyblade Warriors) Give it some time. It'll come around eventually.

Samus: Let's just hope this doesn't go haywire in the long run.

Moms: ('Sigh') Yeah........

Christmas Journey Continued.......

@cyber-wildcat

@ma-lemons

@albion-93

@bestpony666

@theweebmaster31