#Nona Grey

[imjustheretomooch]

Hilarious things about this the Book of the Ancestor series

-the 12 year old main character and all her friends dislike a woman’s vibes SO intensely that they paralyze her, seal her in a wine barrel, and ship her away for literally no other reason than that they dont fw her

-Kettle and Zole just chill out in the cave system of the world's most deadly assassins for TWO DAYS without anyone noticing AFTER having killed like 6 of them walking in. how? theyre literally in the walls

-Joeli failed so badly at bullying Nona that she literally had to sell her to the Spanish Inquisition 

-Nona swallowing a pill given to her by the woman known as ‘the poisoner’ who has a history of constantly poisoning her students, then being surprised that it was poison, in addition to admitting to have a crush on said Poisoner (in addition to her bombshell best friend and a random dude who beat her ass once). And then, years later, forming a shadow bond with the Poisoner's gf and getting flashbanged with images of them together

-Nona killing one of the strongest characters in universe by drowning him? she literally lures him into a cave and then empties a lake on his head and it's not even that important??

[best-nun-tournament]

Round 1, Match 10

Sister Hedwig (Misericorde) vs Nona Grey (Book of the Ancestor Trilogy)

Hedwig is a Benedictine nun, and a former anchoress.

Nona Grey is a novice at the Convent of Sweet Mercy.

Sister Hedwig

No propaganda submitted.

Poll Runner's Note: Hedwig was forced to touch grass at the age of 30 and she's being so brave about it. She finds talking to people face to face confusing. She feels incredibly guilty whenever anyone is kind to her. Sometimes she gets so upset she throws up and passes out.

Hedwig's Note: Tunc ait illi Iesus converte gladium tuum in locum suum omnes enim qui acceperint gladium gladio peribunt.

Nona Grey

Peasant girl becomes Warrior Nun. Although this line is not talking about Nona, the first line of the book is literally: "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size.” Epic.

[anti-subtle-b]

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT RED SISTER BY MARK LAWRENCE

I love this book. I've read it like 7 times.

Nona, our protagonist, is small. She’s cold. Of course she is though, because she lives in the tiny strip of land around the equator of a world that is otherwise covered in ice.

I love her. I love her anger.

Our girl has sensory issues. Our girl has rage. Our girl has dedication. Our girl has friends. She's so autistic coded I could scream and I love her.

She doesn’t understand what friendship is when we first meet her. She’s only 8.

Reading about Nona gives me hope honestly. Life starts out so bad for her, her mom is bitter from her dad’s death, she’s doesn’t fit into her village where everyone looks different than her and doesn’t understand why she’s quiet, she’s sold to a child taker for nothing, when the narration starts the only person Nona considers to be her friend has been hung for murder, and Nona is next. Things get worse, and they also get better. She loses people, she’s betrayed, but things get better. And she feels like me, not understanding how friendship works, desperate to win, plagued by a cold world, bisexual, loyal to her friends, and persistent. I love that things end up with her choosing a life for herself that she didn’t expect. Despite all the loss in her life she still ends up with people who care about her and who she cares about.

There are lines that I like. Lines that catch me. Where Nona thinks about the fact that she doesn’t understand how people’s emotions work, when she says she feels like there is a piece of her that is missing, when she calls herself a monster. And people still love her. In the last chapters of the first book there is a scene where Nona finally tells her friends that she killed people who tried to kill her first friend, and how he abandoned her because of it. How her mother abandoned her because of it. She says she thinks she is unsafe, and asks her friends to help her do the same thing again as they are caught and soldiers are preparing to murder them. 

After the carnage is finished Nona expects them to be afraid of her. Nona is prepared for them to be horrified, to abandon her. But she looks up and they, too, are covered in the blood of their enemies and she sees the CONSONANCE they have with each other in victory. “If you are a monster then so are we. Your monstrosity is now mine.” 

They howl out their victory, and when another man comes, stronger and more dangerous, they all try to save Nona as she tries to save them too. It makes me cry. There are people who will fight for you just as much as you fight for them. There are people who will see all of you and they will still STAY.

[vavuska]

The dead of Loraille do not rest. Artemisia is training to be a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so that their souls can pass on. She’d rather deal with the dead than the living, who point and whisper about the odd girl who was once possessed by a violent spirit. When her convent is attacked by possessed soldiers, Artemisia fights back by awakening an ancient spirit bound to a high saint’s relic. It is a revenant, a malevolent being now whispering in her head. Wielding its extraordinary power almost consumes her in body and soul. But death has come to Loraille, and only a vespertine, a priestess trained to wield a high relic, has a chance of stopping it. As Artemisia investigates a mystery of saints, secrets and dark magic, an ancient evil is stirring. Can an untrained girl, tormented by the burden of containing the revenant’s devouring power, have any hope of defeating it?

The complete Book of the Ancestor Trilogy, a stunning epic fantasy series by Mark Lawrence! Red Sister: At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In some few children the old bloods show, gifting rare talents that can be honed to deadly or mystic effect. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls. Grey Sister: Behind its walls, the Convent of Sweet Mercy has trained young girls to hone their skills for centuries. In Mystic Class, Novice Nona Grey has begun to learn the secrets of the universe. But so often even the deepest truths just make our choices harder. Before she leaves the convent, Nona must choose which order to dedicate herself to—and whether her path will lead to a life of prayer and service or one of the blade and the fist. Holy Sister: The ice is advancing, the Corridor narrowing, and the empire is under siege from the Scithrowl in the east and the Durns in the west. Everywhere, the emperor’s armies are in retreat. Nona Grey faces the final challenges that must be overcome if she is to become a full sister in the order of her choice. But it seems unlikely that she and her friends will have time to earn a nun’s habit before war is on their doorstep.

This two books are very similar: both the protagonists, Artemisia in Vespertine and Nona in The Book of Ancestor, are orphans raised in a female-dominated holy place, trained in their ways. Both became possessed by devious spirits at some point of the story and both are reluctantly call to save the day. Both the characters are highly influenced by the traumas they endured (physically and psychologically) but while Artemisia — at the beginning of the book — is more isolated and lacks of friends, Nona, despite her more feral nature, is more easily going with people who became loyal friends to her. Both in Vespertine and Book Of Ancestor Trilogy there's a great curruption in the secular and religious hierarchies, but while in Vespertine those religious authorities are victims in their own way, in Book Of Ancestor the corrupted spiritual leaders are more mundane and their action are plotted by the political plans and ambitions of the royal family members.

The main difference is that Artemisia is not a warrior herself: when the convent is attacked by possessed soldiers (Revenants), she takes up a reliquary kept by an elderly nun and, thanks to the spirit that resided there, she runs into the fight, saving the day. Afterward, she is arrested by a priest — probably a future love interest — in conflict with himself and his religious beliefs.

There are a handful of supporting characters with their own special traits: a soldier who experienced a similar trauma to what Artemisia went through as a kid, whom she's able to connect with and help; a fellow nun from the convent who is very different from Artemisia (I appreciated their enemies-to-friends relationship, and her cleverness); and a grouchy but powerful elder who you can't help but adore (which is very similar to the cunning Abbess who took Nona under her care) .

The Revenant is an interesting character, who is supposed to be evil, and it is in some ways, but it’s also caring: it's the revenant that taught Artemisia to take care of herself, to consider herself worthy of being cared for.

Artemisia isn't as kickass as Nona ––many of the badass moments were due to the revenant controlling her––but she has her strengths. I appreciated that she grew to trust and care for the revenant despite how she was raised, and that she was able to push out of her comfort zone at times. It's nice to see how people in similar situations can turn out differently based on their individual experiences.

Book of the Ancestor, on the other hand, follows the growth of young Nona Grey, adopted into a convent of nuns known for their martial and magical skills. Nona and her friends must learn how to utilize the magic of their world to hopefully save their empire. Nona’s story, as she taps into her own potential and makes peace with herself — and the violence within her — is well-written and the self-immersion in her thoughts is cathartic and immediate.

The world of Book of the Ancestor deserves special attention. It is, in my reading, wholly unique. Giant ice sheets are slowly covering the world, squeezing nearly the entire population of the world into a narrow strip of land. It's a fascinating concept and becomes a major part of the series.

Overall, I enjoyed the series. It's fast-paced with characters that I came to enjoy (more on that in a moment). The books have a fun magic system that leads to excellent pay-offs in each of the books, and Lawrence plays with time, too, keeping the tension high throughout the stories.

I'm not a huge fan of magical academy tropes, which are very prevalent in Book Of The Ancestor (like the first book of the The Poppy War Series by R. F. Kuang). There are occasional moments of familiar tropes (there is a brief period where the book seems like it is aping the story of the first Harry Potter book beat for beat; luckily, that quickly fades out), but in the end, Nona and her friends more than turn this into their own story…helped by the fact that this most definitely isn’t a Chosen One story. Indeed, within the first few chapters, it’s revealed that the Chosen One prophecy of this world is hokum designed to distract people – and it’s that sort of decision that makes Book Of Ancestor a great trilogy.

In Book Of Ancestor, magic and supernatural abilities are more common and accepted, while in Vespertine is more marginal, at the point that only elderly nuns have a deep knowledge of the precious powers of the reliquary that they kept.

Nona Grey is also very similar to Rin from The Poppy War Series by R. F. Kuang: high skilled warriors, dominated by their fury, but loyal to their friends, used as weapons by powerful authorities. Even if Rin, at the end, falls victim of her rage and is more eager to be manipulated than Nona, who seems to be unaware of the deeper meaning of her own battles all the time and just follows the Abbess' indications.

And also the detailed distinction made by Lawrence of the four tribes and their powers reminds me of the one created by Susan Dennard in her Witchlands saga, in which every nation has their own elemental-related talents.

[bandfrmlyf]

To those unsatisfied by the Epilogue of Holy Sister, remember the Prologue of Red Sister:

Hers the unvoiced everything of first love, tongue-tied, ineloquent, the refusal to sully so sharp and golden a feeling with anything as blunt as words.

No further words are needed to appreciate the special bond between Nona and Ara.

[scharfzahn]

Nona Grey from the series Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence

This I see as Nona in the second book, Grey Sister

[quokka33]

Sweet Mercy - Fanmade opening title

What if 'The Book of the Ancestor' by Mark Lawrence was adapted into a series ? Coming from that, I tried to design what the opening title of said series would be. Now, it's your turn to play : who would you like to see in it ? ;) Song : Agnès Obel - Fivefold (edited) Created with Blender

[blondie-drawings]

can't stop thinking about those skeleton lesbians (pt 1)

[tiffanyachings]

Matching T-Shirts for You and Your Weirdly Codependent Cousin

based on this excellent post by @casgirl

[imjustheretomooch]

just finished Red Sister by Mark Lawrence! Its not anything groundbreakingly new to the 'young girl is extremely talented in high fantasy world's magic school' genre, but its a solid fucking entry with a cast that's 95% woman, really cool world building, and well written friendships

really fun book! and it's a trilogy!

[best-nun-tournament]

Loser Bracket Round 1, Match 15

Nona Grey (Book of the Ancestor Trilogy) vs Adriana (The Demon Prince Goes To The Academy)

Nona Grey is a novice at the Convent of Sweet Mercy.

Adriana is a Priestess of Towan/Tu'an

Nona Grey

Peasant girl becomes Warrior Nun. Although this line is not talking about Nona, the first line of the book is literally: "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size.” Epic.

Adriana

Adriana started the story as a second-year Paladin of the Towan Order, which worships the Goddess of Purity & forbids relationships with men. She was raised within an abbey closed off from the rest of the world until she joined the Academy. Adriana struggled with some people liking her & others getting hurt by those people liking her, eventually dropping out and returning to her abbey until she was pulled into religious politics (aro queen, btw).

[lvsifer]

if ya like the fandoms I'm blogging about, there's a good chance I made art or writing for it!

currently: Dune, The Locked Tomb, Silmarillion, Iwtv

AO3 + writing tag

art blog: @summeringminor

some of the stuff you’ll find there:

(consistent art style who?)

the pieces above as posts:

curufin & celegorm | corona | gideon

hobi | necromancer!mairon | mairon

loustat | hobi | kyo

inspo @narziss-drowning 🩸

This blog is 18+. I love unhealthy & fucked up dynamics for my fictional faves, so if that’s not your cup of tea, this is your cue to leave.

I don’t often use TWs unless for real life issues, but you can always send me an ask/suggestion if you’d like something tagged.

No terfs, racists, homophobes etc of any kind. I will block & report on sight.

[reflection-s-of-stars]

alright mermaid au! does this have anything to do w the jellyfish imagery?

It was a little bit inspired by that, yeah! It’s kind of inverse to canon: instead of a human (or at least someone with legs) who loves the water it’s a mermaid (a siren technically but cmon) who loves the land.

[bandfrmlyf]

Nona sat up, wiping her face on her blanket. “Lucky the name worked! Sounds like in another minute you’d be […] trying a kiss like that prince in the old story.”

Ara looked quickly down at her feet.

“You didn’t!” Nona jumped out of bed, reaching for her skirts.

Ara flashed a grin.

— Red Sister

Damn the subtext is THICK.

[gideonisms]

I've become an abstract painting person this year and now I've started a collection of paintings that all look like the depths of the ocean. This would be classy if I was not equally obsessed with cheesy beach decor that has little painted boats and tells you how nice it is to live by the beach (correct)

[inkdragon1900]

The way each pov in the locked tomb series is from the view point of an unreliable narrator drives me crazy in the best way.

Gideon is an unreliable narrator because it’s so dependent on her first impression of a person. For instance Ianthe, Coronabeth, Palamedes and Camilla compared to everything we learn later. Even her viewing of Harrowhark feels so jarring compared to Harrow’s view of herself in htn. She also knows very little about necromancy so everything feels less like science and more like something out of her magazines.

Then we have Harrow. Who literally has gaslit herself and trying damn hard to gaslight the audience that the last book never happened. Everything is a lot less black and white compared to GTN but her shades of grey still feel muddy. her depression seeps through every interaction she has that by the time it switches back to Gideon’s pov I literally felt like I had whiplash.

in NTN we have the John chapters and Nona.

Nona for her part seems like she see’s everything in black and white but as we see her mentally mature instead of seeing just shades of grey she see’s everything in vivid color. She loves everyone the good and the bad. She’s an unreliable narrator in the sense that because she loves Cam, Pal, Phyrra and Corona in a black and white fashion in the beginning she does not acknowledge their flaws in their choices. It’s only when she’s emotionally matured that she can see everyone she loves for the three dimensional people they are.

John for his part is so unwilling to forgive that we see that it doesn’t stop at B.O.E or the trillionares it extends to the unwillingness to forgive himself for a situation that I genuinely think no one could have handled. He refuses to look at himself for what he is and what he was in that moment, a scared man with to much power. (Unlike the Lyctors who were quite on quote “playing with the reflection of stars in a puddle and thinking it’s space.” He’s thrown into space and rapid fire has to learn how to tread or die drowning.) He lies because he doesn’t want to appear insane or weak or horrible not realizing that by doing that he’s removing the sympathetic parts of himself. Like Mercy and Augustine said they most likely would have forgiven him if he had just told them he fucked up. His point of view is so similar to Gideons black and white thinking that it works so well contrasted with Nona’s pov.

I can’t freaking wait for Alecto