#The Elenium

[incorrect-elenium]

Aphreal voice over: This is Sparhawk. *cuts to a close up of Sparhawk’s face* He likes his personal space. And this is Kalten. *pans out to show Kalten hanging on to Sparhawk like a Koala to a tree* He also likes Sparhawk’s personal space.

[litcityblues]

'The Sapphire Rose' --A Review

I have no idea how to feel about this book. For some reason, this book is the only one of the original trilogy that we had when I was growing up, so it's the one I'm the most familiar with, but reading back through it. Wow. Let's just say that we've got some slightly awkward things to discuss.

Picking up where The Ruby Knight left off, Sparhawk, Kurik, and Sephrenia are in Ghwerig's cave and they've got the Bhelliom. Sparhawk uses the two rings-- both his family's ring and the ring of the Elenian Monarchs that he was given by the ghost of King Aldreas at the end of the first book-- to control the Bhelliom and tucks it safely away to make his way back to Cimmura- with Thalesian Thief Stragen along for the ride. Once there, they cure Queen Ehlana and Sparhawk, being a stand-up guy, returns her father's ring to her. She thinks he's proposing marriage and that's where it all gets a bit awkward.

Ehlana is 18. Sparhawk is decidedly not.

To be fair, Sparhawk does his best to dissuade her of this notion. He's way too old, too broken and she deserves a younger guy to keep her happy and keep up with her. Ehlana is having none of that, however, and he spends the first third of the book fighting a valiant rearguard action against her marital intentions. He gets a reprieve by riding with the Church Knights to Chyrellos to prevent Annias from becoming Archprelate. Cluvonus finally dies and after a mourning period, the election begins-- but quickly goes sideways when a huge army shows up to lay siege to the city. A 'Crisis of Faith' is declared for the duration of the crisis and eventually, King Wargun's armies show up to relieve the siege and drive the attacking army away. The Kings of Eosia-- and the Queen, who also shows up much to Sparhawk's displeasure also arrive and an election is held.

Ehlana gives a passionate speech and while not naming any names, generally points the Hierocracy in the direction she would like them to go. (Because heaven forbid they listen to a woman!) She faints at the end of her speech and is carried to safety where it's revealed that she's just fine and the Hierocracy turns around and elects Dolmant Archprelate.

Newly elected, attention then turns to Otha and the mass of Zemochs on their borders. They all agree that a mission to Zemoch to destroy Azash is the best chance at a permanent solution- but Ehlana balks at the thought of Sparhawk potentially being killed and refuses to give up her ring. Dolmant strikes a bargain with her: the ring, in exchange for marriage with Sparhawk.

His fate sealed, Sparhawk marries Ehlana and becomes Prince Sparhawk and then the companions all set out for Zemoch and the final showdown with Azash. They make their way into Zemoch and break into Azash's palace/temple complex and all accounts are settled- but it costs Kurik, Sparhawk's friend and squire, his life. Sparhawk and Martel duel and Sparhawk wins. He destroys Azash himself, who takes Annias and Otha with him.

They make their way home to find Ehlana is with child and they settle into their lives as a family. The world seems a little gloomier, which they put down to theological problems amongst the world's various deities-- after all, a God did die and that made them all a little uncomfortable, but eventually, Sparhawk figures out that his daughter, Danae is none other than Aphrael. She gathers the companions again and breaks the gloom, bringing in spring once more.

Overall: The age gap thing is awkward and maybe even sketchy, but I will give credit to Eddings for at least having Sparhawk acknowledge just how awkward it is. Ehlana is Queen, so it stands to reason that if her childhood was a lonely one where she had to learn how to survive in her father's court- especially after Sparhawk was exiled, I'm okay with making her be more mature than you'd imagine your average 18 year old to be. (Also worth noting that in past history, with lower life expectancies, people got married much younger than that, so it's not... entirely out of the realm of possibilities.) It's just awkward.

I will say this: I have read this book many, many times, but man, when Kurik dies and Talen rushes to his body and says, "My father's dead" oh, that got me right in the feels. Was not expecting that reaction this time out- and I've read this enough to know what was coming.

But other than that, this works. It's Kraft Mac N'Cheese. Comfort food. No overly complicated world-building or mythology, just a very no-muss, no-fuss fantasy trilogy here. There's a problem, they gotta find a thingy-ma bobber to fix the problem. Then they've got to use the thingy-ma bobber to go and solve an even bigger problem. Then they all go home. It's really hard to argue with any of it.

How do I feel about the Eddings of it all? I still don't know. I enjoyed reading these books again. I enjoyed the characters. They're still good, easy reads and there are only three of them, as a posed to the ever-expanding number of works in things like The Cosmere or the fourteen volumes of The Wheel of Time. Part of me thinks, hey, they were found guilty and did the time in jail and then they got on with their lives. Does it seem fair that when they moved on with their lives they did so by becoming best-selling authors and making a boatload of money? Not really. But, life isn't fair. I feel like you can separate art from artist though-- I read these books. Maybe I'll read more of his work and see how I feel about it then. My Grade: *** out of ****

[thelonebookman]

Just watched Conclave. Very good movie, beautiful, thoughtful, quiet but not slow. Enjoyed it a lot.

Amusingly, the thing I was most put in mind of (beyond Angels & Demons) was the election of the Patriarch in The Sapphire Rose in David Eddings' Elenium.

[christinaroseandrews]

I unironically love David & Leigh Eddings' books. I read those books so much growing up that I wore them out and had to buy new copies. I also appreciated that a David eddings knew how not to infodump and didn't feel the need to give me the entire world's history all at once. The world felt lived in. In much the same way that Star wars felt lived in. Yes the prologues of the books sort of provided that info up but it was done in a way that sort of felt like we were getting a sliver of those worlds books. Again he knew how to pass on world building without it becoming boring.

I also absolutely loved the fuck out of his characters. Especially his female characters. Growing up in the '80s and '90s finding solid female characters in fantasy and science fiction was tough. Especially coming from what I knew was a male author. It wasn't until the Seeress of Kell came out that it was acknowledged that his wife had been the co-author of these books. Because sexism was alive and well. (And still is...) And one of the things I really liked is that throughout his books he got better at the isms. The Murgos and the Malloreans became more well-rounded and less caricature and more character.

And there are scenes that live rent free in my head to this day. The whole Archprelate election from the Elenium. "Do you like X?", "Yes.", "I like him too." Then there's the section in the Mallorean where it describes how a plague spreads.

The Eddings books are also books I recommend for any author who wants to learn how to nail dialogue. Eddings dialogue is so spot on in each of his characters sound distinct from one another. Yes, he tends to repeat character archetypes across the different series but each archetype sounds different.

About a decade before the books were published, he did some horrible things to his kids. As did his wife. They served their time and returned to society. Some people can't forgive them for what they did and that's fine. But knowing people who went to jail for shitty things they did when they were younger, and how they have become much better human beings with a fuck load of therapy makes me more willing to give people a second chance. I have no idea if David and Leigh Eddings became better people afterward. It doesn't matter much anyway Both he and his wife are dead now, so boycotting his books because he was a problematic human for part of his life is not going to do him any harm. If you don't like the books that's fine. But this isn't a JK Rowling situation. I don't know who or what benefits from his royalties now think his estate was given to a university. But ultimately I kind of have the philosophy that if the author is dead, then my reading their books isn't going to benefit them and if I excise every single author who had done something problematic in their life then I wouldn't be able to read anything written ever. Because people are problematic, there is no one who is absolutely perfect and squeaky clean because the goal posts keep moving. And in the terms of society and progression it's important that these goal posts keep moving. (I am 100% here for people not being declared legal adults at the age of 12 for women and 14 for men, and that it's totally legal for a woman to have a credit card in her own name.) But because the goal posts do move and change, no one is ever going to be perfect; no one is ever going to get it perfectly right. So it's okay to read things that were messy or contain stuff that is not okay now--looks pointedly at Agatha Christie and her antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, and orientalism--just so long as you understand going in that those concepts are going to be present and understand that they are to some degree of products of their time.

So yeah love Eddings. They are some of the easiest to read fantasy novels that I've ever come across and they are to some degree the standard to which I hold a lot of other fantasy novels to. And I think anyone who puts down people for liking something that was written by a "problematic" author or contains "problematic material" needs to seriously take a hard look at their own faves and make sure that they're completely pristine and pure. And then look again in 40 years and see if they are still pure.

The Eddings books were good for their time. Buffy the vampire Slayer was great for its time. Star Trek was also good for its time. All of them have problematic creators and some pretty bad-isms. It still doesn't mean you can't enjoy them.

This rant brought to you by the purity police in the notes of this post.

Tell us about a childhood favorite you've never talked about on this blog?

Oh, that's a hard one, considering I've got zero filter, haha.

Hmm. Probably The Belgariad series by Leigh and David Eddings. It's dated now, in terms of racism and probably a few other isms, but it was one of the first fantasy series I read on my own after my dad finished reading LotR to me.

It's a classic hero's journey/coming-of-age story where an unlikely hero (a farmboy named Garion) winds up being the chosen one fated to restore goodness to the world. And he's going to kick and scream about it the entire way while surrounded by his very own D&D party of friends. (Understandable, if someone told me I needed to save the world, I would also do the very non-heroic equivalent of hitting the snooze button and asking for five more minutes before I need to get up and avert the apocalypse.)

It was easy to read, if a little waffly in places (as 80s fantasy often was), and I liked that it didn't shy away from being silly and humorous. Which was nice, for me, because all the fantasy/sci-fi was turning to grimdark when I was growing up. It was nice to have something that didn't take itself too seriously.

Also, the Rivan Codex is an excellent example of how to track your own world-building. It's by no means a "how to" (it's literally just a codex of everything in the world), but seeing it all mapped out like that makes you realize he had his world-building and lore locked in.

[ajaneofmanytalents]

Characters I wish I could introduce to each other:

Pheris Erondites and Eugenides, from Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series

Mags, from Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series

Diana Hyde, from Theodora Goss' Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series

Silk and Velvet, from David and Leigh Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean pentologies

the goddess Aphrael, from David and Leigh Eddings' Elenium and Tamuli trilogies

Call it the Convention of the Sneaky Bastards (affectionate) :)

[mask131]

I have such a love-hate relationship with the Eddings fantasy series. I tried to explain it in a post... But it turns out either into an insanely long dissertation, into a completely unhinged rambling that sounds like pure chaos. But it is a good reflection of how complex and frustrating it is to deal with these series.

So for now I will just say that these series have so many good things for them, and have a key part in the evolution of fantasy literature... And yet have just as many things to be hated for, and so many reasons to be disliked.

I think the most important point is that the Eddings couple was good at two things. On one side, the subversion and twist of fantasy tropes - well, what WAS at the time fantasy stereotypes and cliches - and as one reviewer said, the Eddings would have probably produced better books if they were fantasy parodies or humoristic novels. On the other side, they are excellent at character concept, basic worldbuilding and iconic scenes... but fail when it comes to complexity or plot-building/narrative-flow. Which is why, as I said previously, the Eddings would have been excellent at writing campaign scripts. Just take the Malloreon: it feels SO MUCH like a campaign manual rather than an actual novel series...

Note: By the Eddings series, I refer specifically to The Belgariad, The Elenium and The Malloreon. I do plan on reading the Tamuli at one point, but I am NOT speaking about The Dreamers because I went through more than half of the first book and its shit. Pure shit.

Back to the topic... Yes, the Eddings series are so frustrating as a whole.

They are funny, but very dated. They have cool concepts and ideas, but they have typical 80s-American-prejudices and vaguely pedophile tones (not so much The Belgariad, but the Elenium and Malloreon have... worrying stuff). They subvert Tolkien's work and changed the game in fantasy literature - but then repeat themselves in a drab and dreary way, robbing their own inventivity. They are weirdly positive and weirdly negative at the same time.

And if the books themselves weren't complex in their over-simplicity and problematic in their strange worldview, there is also the big problem of the audience/fandoms literaly not understanding what the books are about. Like people missing out completely that the Elenium is supposed to be "dark fantasy", not "high/heroic fantasy" like the Belgariad ; and there's also something to be said about a very interesting double-standard people have when it comes to the use of "races" in these works - but that will be for another time.

For some, the Eddings series were a "gateway fantasy" to have a short and simple introduction to archetypes, plot beats and the general ambiance of "typical" fantasy. For others, they are a "comfort read" to enjoy something while shutting your brain off. And I agree that this is what these series ultimately are: they were never meant to be high or great literature, and they are very simple and dated, and I personally used them as "waiting reads". Because these are books I can easily get in or out of when waiting for my computer to start, for my train to arrive, for my class to begin. It's a "snack-read". I did feel involved in The Belgariad because everybody agrees that it is the best of all the four series - when the Eddings really struck something good. But by the Elenium and the Malloreon, I literaly was not as invested and I just read it because. To see the characters, and the ideas, and the concepts. Because no matter how poor these series can become, they are always a BIG source of inspiration for fantasy material.

Even The Dreamers, which is pure shit, had one of the most interesting concepts of a fantasy "big villain" thrown to us in the first pages, and this is why I even stepped so far into the book, before giving up by realizing the rest was just... garbage.

[incorrect-elenium]

Kalten: *winking at a pretty lady nearby, but is very drunk so he does it badly*

Tynian: Was that a wink?

Kurik: It’s all he does.

Sparhawk: It’s a nervous tick.

[mask131]

I originally wanted to hijack this post, but I think I'll rather make a separate post for my thoughts about the Eddings books - but this is a most excellent prelude.

And in the original tags there was a mention that a Belgariad/Elenium RPG campaign would be cool... And this is my EXACT THOUGHTS! The Belgariad-Mallorean-Elenium worlds literaly feel like a campaign put into a book (sometimes in a good way, other times VERY badly), and they have such a perfect material for campaigns, because Eddings' strength always had been character concept, iconic scene and basic worldbuilding, while the weakness comes from the plot (among other things). By transposing them as a campaign, you can keep all the key good stuff, while literaly changing a lot of the weak or irritating things: you just keep the good layout and good ingredients, but you can re-adjust them in ways that sometimes are MUCH more satisfying than what we actually get...

For all the many many many many problems with the Eddings books (which I inhaled as a teenager), they were vivid enough that it's a real struggle not to name my blessèd yet sketchy D&D snake lady Salmissra.

[litcityblues]

'The Diamond Throne' --A Review

Can you separate the art from the artist? The question is a little heavier picking up these books again because The Belgariad was my childhood. I devoured The Mallorean. I read this trilogy and its follow-up, The Tamuli more times than I could count. (Underrated one-volume work of his/theirs: The Redemption of Althalus.) But then, a few years ago, old reports surfaced: both David and Leigh Eddings adopted two children and then lost custody of both of them and served a year in jail after pleading guilty to 11 counts of physical child abuse.

I'm still not sure how to feel about it. So many of their works deal with family and children and growing up and becoming adults, it's hard to wrap my head around this news. Plus, it happened in 1970, so you know it had to be pretty goddamn bad if they both landed in jail for a year for it. But after that, it seemed like they moved to Denver and started writing and must have drawn some kind of short straw, because despite the fact their jail time was not at all a secret (there was plenty of coverage in South Dakota newspapers at the time), none of this resurfaced until after both of them had died.

I'm still not sure how to feel about it. When the news resurfaced, I had kids. My siblings are adopted and our Eldest Spawn is adopted and I know plenty of people who have been adopted so the fact that these kids were adopted also was an extra twist of the knife. I haven't touched my copy of The Belgariad since. I'm really not sure I'm ready too.

I don't want to say 'Hey, other people have done worse' and have it seem like some kind of an excuse. I don't know the full extent of the abuse-- I haven't dug that deeply into it, but the fact that they were both punished for it helps and it doesn't appear that they got custody of their children back or adopted any more of them. Was justice done? More so than other cases-- like Alice Munro or Marion Zimmer Bradley. Do I think they should have just been able to turn a page and write a whole new chapter which involved them churning out bestsellers and making a ton of money doing it? I genuinely don't know. My childhood would have been very different without these books, I know that much.

So, I'm picking The Elenium up again just to see how I feel about this, and believe me, I'm looking at it with a far more critical eye than I used to.

But all that being said, let's talk about The Diamond Throne:

Sparhawk, a Pandion Knight returns home to the capital city of Elenia, Cimmura after ten years of exile in the desert nation of Rendor. The Queen's Champion, his queen, Ehlana has fallen ill due to poison. She would have died, but twelve Pandion Knights along with their tutor of magic, Sephrenia cast a spell to encase the Queen on a throne of diamond. This buys them time-- a year exactly, to find a cure.

Setting out to find a cure, they head to the holy city Chyrellos, where they meet with the other orders of the Knights of the Church. They send their champions along: Sir Ulath of the Genidians, Sir Tynian of the Alciones, and Sir Bevier of the Cyrinics. Kalten, Sparhawk's childhood friend and fellow Pandion joins them along with Sparhawk's squire Kurik, a young thief they've picked along the way, Talen, and a mysterious little girl, whom they name Flute.

They make their way first to the University of Borrata in the Kingdom of Cammoria but their journey then takes them back to Rendor and there they discover that the only way to cure Queen Ehlana is with magic-- specifically, the mysterious jewel, Bhelliom.

Oh, Eddings... if you've read The Belgariad, parts of the map of Eosia are going to feel very familiar to you. (Pelosia is obviously Algaria, Thalesia is Cherek, etc.) And Eddings does have a particular rhythm to his dialogue that's pretty hard not to recognize if you've read any of his stuff before. All that being said:

I've forgotten how good these books are. Despite the fact that I already know that Eddings is going to do another trilogy where we go to the referenced but unseen continent and find out there's an evil jewel to fight the good jewel, just The Elenium itself feels like a departure from The Belgariad. For one, world-building is a lot better: nations/people aren't built around characteristics like they are in The Belgariad. (Sendarians= Farmers, Arends= stupid, but chivalrous, Tolnedrans= greedy, but love money, etc.) here, everyone's an Elene but there are also Styrics.

Styrics have their own religion and deities and are portrayed as having dark hair and can do the magic. The Elenes have one deity and no magic- though interestingly, the Church Knights get a special dispensation to learn. (Relationships between Styrics and Elenes also have some overtones of how a lot of Jewish communities were treated over the years, with Styrics being subjected to pogroms.) The Church is also interesting: there's a Holy See analog (Chryellos) and a Papacy that people are maneuvering to get once the old guy in place finally dies, which people assume will be soon.

Eventually, the story gets to Rendor, which features the Eshandist movement, which believes that the Church has been taken by heresy and they want to reclaim it. (It's not quite an Islamic analog, but it's a desert culture and has some overtones to it. You could also pick probably any number of gnostic Christian sects that were eventually declared heretical in the early Church and be just as close-- but it's also the first time we see Eddings bring in a culture/nation like this.

It's a little grittier and grimier than The Belgariad in many ways. There are thieves and whores, there are depraved people who sell their souls to evil and diddle children to boot. Sparhawk and his Knights do a lot of killing and they're not particularly shy about doing so if the situation demands it.

Overall: I like that it takes time to get the quest going-- it's not an immediate, "Oh go find the magic MacGuffin." I love the politics, the maneuverings, the threat of invasion-- there's so much to like about this series. It feels different and feels... more mature might not be the right word, it feels like an advance from the world of The Belgariad and The Mallorean. My Grade: *** out of ****

[hanzajesthanza]

my attempts to avoid thoughts of geralt's hanza continue to fail, as sapkowski talks about them in front of my face.

(from manuscript, on the subject of the hero and the quest):

On this expedition, the Hero (Simple or King) is accompanied by others who are stereotypical-canonical fantasy characters, in other words - clichés:

Wizard-Mentor (the aforementioned MERLIN, Obi-wan Kenobi, Gandalf, Allanon, Belgarath, Sephrenia or Moiraine, who supports the hero with advice and help); Faithful Servant (in the case of the King, literally, in the case of the Simple, rather a childhood friend, Sam Gamgee. He serves the plot to recite wise folk maxims and prove that the simple people are the most morally healthy; or to save the ass of his master/friend where magic and a sharp sword will not help, and common sense and a strong, faithful arm will suffice). Good Knight (charismatic LANCELOT, always loyal and ready to fight, sometimes with some dark secret in his life); Worse Knight (always with some dark secret in his life, ambitious like Boromir, in the clutches of Evil, secretly collaborates with Evil, regrets betrayal, undergoes catharsis, perishes); Trickster - Conniver (see LOKI in "Materia Magiczna"**), cheerful, but can cause trouble, which attracts like a magnet; Damsel in Distress, who is saved from danger on the way and included in the team. Usually a princess in disguise. For several volumes of the cycle she does not like the Hero, in the last she becomes his wife.

* Type A = Percival, a hero who does not have power and is searching it, and Type B = King Arthur, a hero who has lost his power and wants to regain it. in other words, Type A = Reynevan and Type B = Geralt :)

** another chapter of the book, "Materia magica, or the Little Magical Alphabetical Lexicon," it's a glossary of various myth and legend. in loki's entry, he recounts some myths of loki and equivalates him with other figures across various traditions: Odysseus, Pryderi, Bricriu, Mordred, Alyosha Popovich, Coyote, Anansi, Maui). then he lists a few fantasy/spec fic characters he categorizes as trickers: Cugel (Dying Earth), Kickaha (World of Tiers), Coyote (Coyote Blue), Peter Lake (Winter's Tale), Moonglum (Elric of Melniboné), Nifft and Haldar (Nifft the Lean), Random (Chronicles of Amber), Saruman (Lord of the Rings), Shimrod (Lyonesse), Silk (The Belgariad and The Malloreon), Gray Mouser (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser), Talen (The Elenium).

my thoughts:

pretty obvious assignments here, for the most part.

regis is the Wizard-Mentor, but, as he soon loses his mystique, his intellectual, philosophizing manner becomes mundane and irritating than providing magical provenance. he advises incessantly, answering questions before they're asked, giving guidance when no one asked. he only appears to be omniscient, and the others may think he's so smart because he's hundreds of years older than them, but is really just a guy, a middle aged man with a troubled youth which he learned from. his advice is not magically guided and for this reason is fallable, mortal, human. maybe the cliché is also played with in that he's a vampire, not a wizard, sorcerer, or priest, "‘I see.’ The poet sighed. ‘Is Regis a sorcerer?’ ‘No. No, not a sorcerer.’" ... as vampires are typically evil and regis is decidedly a force of good. (on this topic, @wampirzielarz once compared-contrasted gandalf and regis and it was super interesting :))

dandelion is a combination of the Faithful Servant and the Trickster. he's geralt's best friend, and doesn't fight alongside him with sword but his presence is necessary to our hero for moral support, that all makes the first part an obvious assignment... and... sapkowski lists a wide variety of tricksters of various moral alignments, but amongst them are some heroes and some best friends of heroes (and anti-heroes). and asides from being geralt's closest friend, dandelion is, after all, a rascal, who uses words and good looks to get what he wants from people. "a cynic, a lecher, a womanizer and a liar." (also, because i think szarlej also fits this double-definition as well, i won't hesitate to give them to dandelion, as they serve pretty similar functions alongside their respective heroes).

milva is the Good Knight, "always loyal and ready to fight" describes her perfectly, and her 'dark secret' was her pregnancy and plans for abortion. (though, the attribution of lancelot... well, maybe this is why some keen eyes saw a potential in yenva). anyhow, the playfulness with the cliché comes from the fact that she's a woman, which is supposed to be surprising that the hero's strongest ally is a woman. i think the "charismatic" attribute is also supposed to be played with here, as milva is simple and not too well-spoken, only so in her cursing. in other words, she's a peasant woman, and not a born-and-bred nobleman. also, for her gender, she is a play on another trope sapkowski mentions a couple of pages later, but i can't go into it now because it's too funny.

cahir is the Worse Knight, though perhaps in reverse, for all of his associations with Evil was in the past and shed like sports colors when he changed teams. he has no betrayal, "I will never betray you, witcher," all of his ‘betrayal’ was before he was even allied with the hero. but of course, for these sins, he "undergoes catharsis, perishes".

the Damsel in Distress is evidentially angouleme, being "saved from danger on the way and included in the team." the rebuking of the cliché, of course, is that geralt is "genuinely angry, genuinely confused, genuinely embarrassed" when she offers her "gratitude" to him. also, that she is no princess in disguise, just an ordinary girl, though she is confused for the princess they're after (who also happens to be another play on the damsel in distress cliché). and again, like milva, i think angouleme is related to another specifically female character cliché sapkowski calls out; but i'll save it for another post.

[duckprintspress]

Yoinked from @profiterole-reads

Make a poll with five of your favorite books (...series...) and let bookblr pick its favorite out of those, and tag five more.

Tagging, hm. @battyaboutbooksreviews @spacefruitpress @qbdatabase @lgbtqreads and @thedisabilitybookarchive

[such-a-random-rambler]

maybe there was something before, but both F'nor from Pern and Berit from the Eddings books were earlier and immediate 'whump the blorbo's' even if their actual parts were very very small (looking at you Eddings, who never made a side characters with any depth at all)

In the vein of whump awakenings, I'm curious. If you remember, reblog/comment on this post: who was your first whumpee?

[dailydegurechaff]

Honestly, Zettour, Rudersdorf, Ugar, and Lergan all trying to co-parent Tanya is good culture.

Zettour is the indulgent one that's far too much like her for the other comfort.

Rudersdorf is the dotting one enabling Tanya and Zettour.

Ugar is the one that spoils her rotten with gifts and tries to invite her to his family's dinners.

And Lergan is the token responsible one whose attempts at discipline are sabotaged at every turn.

In my eyes, every character in the Imperial Army is just one massive found family dynamic. No you cannot change my mind.

I thought just a bit too hard about all of their differences in trying to take care of Tanya, and suddenly instead of drawing, something else came out. Oops. This isn't edited very strongly, very sorry.

Through the walls, I can hear the sound of voices arguing. It’s getting late, and I really would prefer to be sleeping right now, but here I am listening to the unpleasant sound of annoying old men. This sucks.

“I’m just saying, with the way you act sometimes, I find it hard to believe you have her best interests in mind!”

“Oh would you relax, Lergen? You really need to take that stick out of your ass, I’m only letting her have a little fun.”

It seems that tonight’s two combatants are Colonel Lergen and General Zettour. I sincerely hope it stays between just them, but I get the feeling my hopes are going to be for naught.

“A little fun? You’ve been letting her have unimpeded access to your wine cellar! It’s completely irresponsible—”

“Tanya knows how to moderate herself.”

“Does she now? She’s still just a kid, you know!”

“Well, even if she doesn’t, she’ll only make the mistake once after giving herself a horrible hangover.”

“Have you considered you may end up making her an alcoholic?”

Ugh. I’m not sure why they’re arguing in just the next room over like this. It’s not their intention I don’t understand, I’m pretty sure I get that part. I think they might expect Tanya to feel bad if she overhears them fighting over her, so they’re trying to shelter her from it. It’s a nice thought, even if doesn’t technically matter because I don’t actually care. No, the confusion I have is stemming from their choice of location. Do they know how thin these walls are? I don’t think they do because I can hear just about every word perfectly fine.

“Oh, don’t think you’re completely off the hook, Rudersdorf! While we’re on the subject of things we shouldn’t be allowing Tanya to do, you need to stop bringing her to live fire exercises and weapons tests.” Oh, it sounds like Lergen’s moved onto the next target to harangue.

Rudersdorf is quick to clap back and argue his defense, “What? Why? Do you really someone like her could possibly get hurt watching a few little tests?”

“Yes, actually! Because the second Tanya walks onto the grounds, everyone is clamoring for the famed ‘White Silver’ to participate!”

“That only happened once!”

“Once that you told me! I have it on good authority you keep doing it!”

“Tanya herself said she loves flying!”

“Yes, well, she doesn’t like nearly getting blown up by experimental weaponry!”

“Who told you about that?”

I’m wondering about that myself. Lergen honestly has the tendency to be a bit of a mother hen, so I’d avoided telling him about it. Really, it was also for his benefit as well as mine, the poor guy gets terribly sick when he’s anxious. I thought I was being merciful when I decided to tell only Zettour that I’d recently flown for Elenium Arms again.

Ah, wait a second. Zettour. He’s been suspiciously silent now, hasn’t he? He hasn’t said anything in a while, so he’s probably just listening to Lergen and Rudersdorf argue. Considering he was just getting reamed out for the whole ‘letting Tanya have wine’ thing, he’s probably enjoying the fact that Lergen’s anger isn’t directed at him anymore. I wonder if it was him…

“Oh, Zettour, you bastard!”

Ah, it seems that Rudersdorf caught on to the same realization I did. Now the two generals are going to argue. What a joy. Lergen at least has the decency to keep his volume at normal conversational levels, even if his tone gets rather accusatory. The generals do not have that decency, so this is going to devolve into a shouting match. I really do not want to, but I’m going to have to go out there and tell them to shut up, aren’t I?

Uger, the only person speaking at a low volume and therefore the only person who I can’t hear well, says something unintelligible. Following that, I just barely hear Lergen’s sigh and the resigned words, “Alright, go ahead…”

In the next few seconds, I hear footsteps and then my door opens. Colonel Uger appears in the doorway.

“Tanya… are you still awake?”

“Yes, sir. Did you need something?”

There’s a loud noise, like someone just slammed a table with their fist, and Uger hurries to step inside the room and shut the door behind him. It does very little to mute the din of the argument.

There is a beat of silence as we both listen. Uger looks like he’s cringing.

“It’s uh… Have you been able to hear this whole time…?”

“Yes, I have.”

“L-Listen, Tanya… you should know that this isn’t your fault. They love you, and want the best for you. It’s only because they care so much that they disagree—”

Knowing where this conversation is headed, I cut off the incoming lecture he’s about to give me, “It’s fine. I know they’re only arguing out of love for me.” A bold-faced lie came out of Tanya’s mouth just now. It’s not something I believe at all, but I also know saying that will end this conversation as quickly as possible.

“Right… so long as you understand—”

“Oh, shut the hell up! What would you know about parenting?!” Uger’s kind words are unfortunately interrupted by one of the Generals yelling.

There is another awkward pause.

After a second, it seems like Uger has come up with a resolution, “Uh… You know, Tanya, my daughter has been wanting to see you again. Did you want to have a sleepover with her tonight?”

Yeah, I’ll take hanging out with a toddler over listening to this go on for who knows how long. You know it speaks to the maturity level of those old men that a little girl is more well-behaved than them.

Mind made up, I give him my assent, “Yes, sir, I think that’d be pleasant.”

“Alright, I’ll give you a second to get your things together while I go talk to them about the new plans.” With that Uger leaves the room, a stormy expression on his face.

Ahh, now they’ve done it. You know it’s bad when even kindhearted Colonel Uger gets irritated. It’s because he’s so compassionate that it’s always the worst getting reprimanded by him. If you can manage to piss him off, it generally means you deserve what’s coming.

I hope he doesn’t take too long guilt-tripping them, I really would like to go to bed soon.

[sky-blaze]

I'm sure there's some WH40K fans about the place. I'm looking for some help. A friend is running a Dark Heresy comapgin. Wants me to join.

My basic concept is a Sister of Battle based on Patriarch Bergsten from The Elenium book series.

For those not familiar, Bergsten is a priest who used to be a Church Knight. He still wears chain mail and carries a massive battle axe, but will hear you confess your sins and help you work towards redemption. He believes that suffering (in moderation) will help cleanse a troubled soul. Am I going the right direction with what is basically a female version of him?

[afatlotofchance]

Time to continue my series of posts about fatness in fantasy! Thought I was done? Far from it!

Another example of how fatness randomly creeps in into the fantasy genre is the Eddings books. It's another example of a set of stories with recurring elements that we could pick apart.

For those of you who don't know, there was this series of novels in the 80s called "The Belgariad". This series was one of the best-sellers of 80s fantasy, and in many way it gave a new push to the "Tolkien mania" at the time, because the entire point of this book series was to take back all the Lord of the Rings archetype, beats and plot-points, but recreate it into something new and fresh, while playing around the cliches and expectations of the "tolkien genre" (unlike for example the Sword of Shannara book which was made to be much more of a pastiche and imitation). Today most people know the Belgariad as a "gateway fantasy", as in a book series that introduced them as children or teenagers to the high fantasy/epic fantasy genre.

There isn't really anything fatness-related here except of a few elements - for example there is a secondary character, King Rhodar, the uncle of one of the co-protagonists, who is explicitely described as very fat and his largness is very much insisted upon, to the point that by the sequel-series he is said to have died due to the consequences of his obesity.

There's a sequel series to the Belgariad, calle the "Malloreon", which is... if you ask me it is a very bad series. The Belgariad can be read easily, and it works on its own, and you know, it's a classic that influenced the genre. But the Malloreon is... plain bad. Which is too bad because it does quite important stuff (like fighting the inherent racism of the first series...), but it is wrapped in just bad writing, atrocious plots and the flanderization of characters. I will only mention this series because in its beginning, one of the characters of the Belgariad returns (I think it's Cho-Hag? I don't recall the name, it is one of the "rider people" obsessed with horses) and the other characters point out how he literaly got a dad bod (as in, he gained weight after becoming a dad).

The Eddings couple, the authors of the Belgariad/Malloreon, wrote much later a stand-alone fantasy novel, "The Redemption of Althalus", which I did not read, but which contains characters such as a warlord so renowned for being fat that is name is literaly "Big-belly" (or Fat-belly), and a co-protagonist who is explicitely said to be a young man with an enormous appetite and rarely satiated, until the end of the book when he finally has a normal hunger. This plot device has been use before by the Eddings in another book series of fantasy, the Tamuli series, where one of the co-protagonist, due to being a teenager fully growing into a young man with an intense growth spurt, gains a large appetite (though no weight gain involved).

But the real series I want to evoke is "The Elenium" (to which the Tamuli is a sequel). After writing the Belgariad/Malloreon, the Eddings created a different fantasy series called The Elenium. It takes back elements, plots and types from The Belgariad, but whereas the Belgariad was meant for a more epic fantasy, the Elenium is more dark fantasy. It is not as good as the Belgariad, though much better than the Malloreon - the inherent flaws and problems with the Eddings are very much appearing here (while they could pass well-hidden in the Belgariad), and... anyway you'll see for yourselves if you ever go read it. BUT! There is one very important character if you want fatness in fantasy, and he is the epitome of "fatness as evil" in this kind of genre.

It is one of the main antagonist, the powerful sorcerer-king Otha. He only appears in person in the third book of the series (it is a trilogy), after organizing conspirations, sending monsters and causing wars all throughout the two previous books. And what is supposed to be one of the "twist reveals" of this series is Otha's appearance. Because the Eddings basically wrote Jabba the Hutt before Star Wars did. The backstory of Otha is revealed that he was a simple, poor, not that bright shepherd young man in ancient days, until he found the idol of an evil god who offered him powers and riches. Being a simple-minded, regular man with quite a mean streak to him, he simply became a decadent and hedonistic tyrant, helped with the magic and immortality offered by the evil god he served. But the result of living for centuries while eating endlessly (he always was a glutton) and never leaving his palace was a terrifying body modification, as he became so fat and enormous his limbs literaly became atrophied, and he also ended up losing his hair and becoming all pale and sweaty, leading to him looking like a sort of grotesque, gigantic, bloated worm of a man. So it comes as a shock to the heroes when they see what the dreaded evil overlord they have been fearing all this time looks like - the mighty warlock of evil is just a lazy oaf and a fat fool so big he can't even walk on his own, and has to be carried around by a dozen of very muscular slaves.

If you are an enjoyer of this type of character, I know that a similar idea was used by Glenn Cook in one of his short-stories companions to his famous dark fantasy classic "The Black Company". I do not remember which short story it was, but it talked of a mighty and evil god-like sorcerer called "The Master", who ended up bound and trapped into some sort of underground cave millenia ago. Unable to leave his lair or to do anything, he simply spent all of his time eating until he became monstrously obese, and - since this is a dark fantasy - he has servants of his regularly bring him copious amount of food... Or human beings if he is feeling it, because it's still meat in the end.

[queersknight]

Spargawk and Ehlana vibes

my bravest knighttt... come hither ..... mmmwah !! ok you are dismissed