#Richard St. Vier

[slimemanagement]

My beloved Richard St. Vier from Swordspoint

[squeeneyart]

[Image description: Several digital colored drawings of Alec and Richard from Swordspoint. Alec is a tall skinny man with long brown hair and green eyes in a black robe. Richard is a shorter, more muscular man with dark curly hair.

First image, Top left: Sketch of Richard helping Alec out of his shirt. Alec looks tired, but looks down at Richard with a smile. Text pointing to him says "High off his ass". Alec is saying something, but the speech bubble is empty.

Top right: Alec with short hair, looking shocked and blushing. He holds a small ring in his hand. Someone offscreen says "He still wants you".

Bottom right: A small drawing of Richard holding up a sword while Alec flips off whoever is looking at them from behind. Text points to him reading "Started the fight".

Second image: Richard kisses Alec while grabbing his shoulder and touching his cheek. Alec's eyes are open, and he has one hand on Richard's waist and the other on his upper back. They're saying something, though the speech bubbles are empty. End id]

/waves hands/ mad bad lads

anyway. made a 2 hour playlist. i live here now. gonna punt alec into the sun

[impishtubist]

Okay but in all honesty, is there a Swordspoint fandom active anywhere???? It's pretty quiet here on Tumblr. Have you all moved to Discord? Are you still clinging to the LJ community? Dreamwidth? Do you not exist at all and I am shouting into the void????

[fengtianshi]

Oh come on, tell him! He won't care a single word of your angsty reasons!!!

Alec and Richard from "Swordspoint" by Ellen Kushner

[do-you-ship-it-polls]

Do you ship it?

reason: Guarded swordsman who's never learnt to read and expelled scholar with no survival instinct fall in love. The rest is history (read the fucking book)

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Frances Janvier- Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Jude St. Francis- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Nick Nelson- Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

Richard St Vier- Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown, round 1 of bracket one

Propaganda:

For Richard:

Context : Swordspoint was published in 1987. Several characters are explicitely gay/bisexual, including... the main character (well, Ellen Kushner is part of the community. I met her once at a signing and I was so awkward and she and her wife (who cowrote the third volume of the series) were so nice. She's also on tumblr. What a wonderful world)

So, let's go back to Richard, who lived in the country with his mother and learnt his trade for a weird guy who eventually died. Richard is a sword prodigy (he also started quite young and trains constantly - natural talent is a thing, hard training is another)

He lives in the "poor" part of the city, where prostitutes, thieves, innkeepers and seamstresses prolifer

Richard does learn the blade and eventually goes into the city. Where he becomes a swordman for hire. Famous, respected and feared, Richard isn't exactly the chatty signing-autographs type. People with good sense leave him alone because the ones stupid enough to challenge him didn't live to tell the tale

But one day... Alec happens. Alec's a penniless ex scholar with a feud with the University, a sharp tongue and absolutely not the means to defend it in ill famed places, which is the ones he prefers since he's always looking for trouble dur to his self-destructive tendencies. The first time they met, Alec tries to get on Richaed's ndrves so the other man would kill him. However, Richard finds this man unafraid of him quite amusing. Word's eventually gegs around ghat the gwo are lovers and people din't get on Alec's bad side if they can prevent it (not easy, Alec has Issues. Capital I.) to avoid having todeal with Richard's protectiveness. I mean, I wouldn't want to anger a professional swordman either

Alec teaches Richard how to read because he never knew how to m. He's the perfect damsel in distress until he isn't because his help is needed [mod note: end of propaganda- part one . Didn't leave it as a wall of text since it'd be harder to read]

The archetypal gay (bi) swordsman: he was one of the few queer characters in fantasy fiction back in the 70s when the first book was published, yet he's in an explicitly romantic and sexual relationship with a man, and he is The terrifying swordsman, infamous, terrifying, and frequently hired for his skills. Also the plot of the book revolves around him using his sword skills to rescue his lover and getting rescued back. So. Y'know.

For Dominique:

This traumatized mess of a vampire is So. She's SO. She's bi and fights with a sword and has a dead twin and a fwb relationship with her childhood friend and a badass girlfriend and a "bonding over their mutual feelings for her childhood friend" thing going on with another guy. 

she's gay she's a vampire she has a sword and I love her 

[do-you-know-this-queer-character]

Do you know this queer character?

Richard is MLM and uses He/Him pronouns!

[victor-frankensimp]

This is a PSA for everyone to read “Swordspoint” By Ellen Kushner

It’s so casually queer and everyone in it is a messy bitch.

[mlmshipbracket]

ROUND 1: POLL #31

Alec x Richard art by poontanam-blog on Tumblr

ROUND 1 POLLS [HERE]

PROPAGANDA BELOW

Richard St. Vier/Alec Campion:

A lone skilled swordfighter and the depressed provocative scholar with not an ounce of self-preservation 

Palm/Nuengdiao:

they're two incredibly lonely teenagers, one who is an heir to a big company and watched his father get murdered on his birthday (Nueng) and one who is uprooted by his absent father to come be the guy's bodyguard (Palm). They're both incredibly traumatized 18 year olds who are like so in love with each other it makes them crazy.

like this video shows it well imo

[squibkin]

hello swordspoint readers i forgot i drew this

[cover-art-showdown]

Oh, it's recommendations time ? Well, I'll use it to thank you for all your work first, your polls are very entertaining and something I'm always looking forward to

And now I'll make my case :

You should read Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner.

The author's on Tumblr. I met her in real life in a Paris' library once and she's charming ! Her other books are also a threat.

Swordspoint is a fantasy of manner, which means it's not about dragons and magic but has to do with political intrigues and duels in a world different from ours. It has a great medieval like atmosphere. The main character, Richard St. Vier, is an illiterate swordsman living in the "bad part" of town with his companion. Alec's studied at the University and has no regard for his personal safety or good manners. Their relationship is a mess and I Iove it. Anyway, Richard's the best swordman in town and is regularly hired by noblemen to show his skills. Except, it's becoming a shadier business than it used to be and for once, Richard could face real danger.

Absolutely seconding the recommendation for Swordspoint! I read this one because of the cover in the tournament and I was not disappointed — it really is great. The political system is fascinating and the relationship between Richard and Alec has so many issues, it's brilliant. There's swords, there's murder, there's fireworks, there's fish, what more do you want?

[squeeneyart]

cw suicide mention

[Image description: Series of digital greyscale drawings of characters from Ellen Kushner's Riverside series, including Richard St. Vier, a slightly short man with curly black hair and some scarring and stubble in a plain cloak, Alec Campion, a tall skinny man with long hair tied back loosely with a ribbon in long student's robes, and Katherine Talbert, a young woman with wavy hair tied into a ponytail wearing a swordsman's jacket.

Top left text: Whoops I read Ellen Kishner's Swordboy Yaoi

Top left to right: Richard looks to the side as Alec talks to someone off-camera with a hand on his hip. Text by Richard: This gary stu bitch has purple eyes.

Katherine writing a letter determinedly. Text near with an arrow: Swearing to defend an innocent lady's honor while rp'ing her favorite book's leading man.

Bottom left to right: Alec looking over his shoulder in disgust. Alec and Katherine in t-shirts that say, respectively: "If you mention my ex I'll kill you and then myself" and "I tolerate my gay uncle but just barely".

End ID]

i say swordboy yaoi but dont worry katherine is working out her swordgirl yuri as well

anyway i read swordspoint and the privilege of the sword by ellen kushner. im just. im just gonna be like this for a minute dont mind me and please do not look at how much ive drawn alec specifically its fine im gonna punt him into the sky

[nothwell]

Did you enjoy Jane Austen or Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell but wished for more murderhusbands?

Do you think any book could be improved with swords?

Do you prefer your characters queer until proven otherwise?

Some have called Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner a "cult classic," which is a fun way to say a book is criminally underappreciated. It's a perfect blend of fantasy, intrigue, romance, and edge-of-your-seat action. This forerunner of the mannerpunk (or fantasy-of-manners) subgenre is a marvelous balance of Austenesque social ritual with bloody consequences. A wealth of worldbuilding-through-implication is packed into this shockingly slender volume that leaves the reader ravenous for more.

While it contains far more grit and gore than your average romance, it is still at its core a romance, and a queer one at that - almost every twist of the ever-coiling plot is a direct result of romantic desire either thwarted or indulged. Our heroes, the low-born master swordsman Richard St. Vier and his mysterious academic lover Alec, form the core of this Gordian knot. Though I prefer a Happily-Ever-After over a Happy-For-Now, I concede that Swordspoint's conclusion puts the punk in mannerpunk and thus feels wholly appropriate for this one-of-a-kind story.

tl;dr - read Swordspoint and come scream with me, pls.

[fengtianshi]

#2 - Your fight indeed...

Richard St. Vier from "Swordspoint" by Ellen Kushner

[twofoursixohjuan]

will admit though. slightly confused by all the soft-boy-ifying of alec "i'm going to pick fights just so i can watch you kill someone who thought i was an easy target" campion and richard "of course. anything. i'll get my sword" st. vier