#Warrior Bards

[book--brackets]

Hi! I would like to submit the Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier, and if I can do two No One Noticed the Cat by Anne McCaffrey

Added them both! Harp of Kings is under Warrior Bards since that's the series name

[theimaginatrix27]

Don't mind me, I'm just really happy about Swan Island

I recently acquired Blackthorn and Grim and the Warrior Bards, both trilogies by Juliet Marillier and set in the same universe as Sevenwaters, though at least a couple centuries removed.

I don't know if any other factors make this apparent, but the really obvious one is Swan Island!

SWAN. ISLAND!

Bran and Liadan founded Inis Eala so Bran's band of warriors could have legitimacy and purpose and safety, and they brought my son Finbar I to the island for his safety and to give him a peaceful, isolated place to stay. The island was named in his honor (something a fellow fan had to tell me because I had no idea what the name meant.)

And hundreds of years later, Swan Island is still a thing! They train warriors and spies there! It's still going Bran, Liadan, Finbar! It is still going! Your legacy reaches on into the future and I know you'd love Blackthorn and Grim's babies! I love them!

I didn't know until the other day that these two trilogies were connected in this way, but as soon as I found out, I had to get them! If nothing else, this is an Expansion the Sevenwaters Infinite Loops can't leave unaddressed, even if there has to be a separate Anchor (more likely two, I wouldn't make poor Blackthorn do that alone!)

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

Thought you ought to know that I saw that Warrior Bards fic you reblogged last night and now I've splurged seven credits on Warrior Bards, Blackthorn and Grim and the sequel to Wildwood Dancing. I could, theoretically, drop most of my remaining credits on the rest of the Juliet Marillier audiobooks as well. Still mad they don't have 'Twixt Firelight and Water yet!

That's great! :D I ended up buying the first Warrior Bards book after seeing/reblogging that fic post and I really enjoyed it! I bought the second book right after I finished the first one and I'm reading it now. :D Also it looks like the books are set in the Sevenwaters-verse which is exciting! :D I think they're definitely worth checking out!

I haven't read Blackthorn and Grim but I might try it again once I'm done with Warrior Bards. I also haven't read Cybele's Secret, because I didn't enjoy Wildwood Dancing.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

The Next Generation

The Warrior Bards novels are to the Blackthorn and Grim trilogy as Star Trek: TNG is to Star Trek TOS. This is literally the next generation in this world, and it's exploring the lives of Blackthorn and Grim's children, both bioloigcal and adopted. What is absolutely wild to me is that where Blackthorn and Grim felt like more traditional, older-style historical fantasy (think like, 1980s Tamora Pierce or Mercedes Lackey) despite being published from 2014 to 2016, the Warrior Bard books feel very modern and very much what I would expect for historical fantasy published from 2019 to 2021. And yet despite the style changes, both series still manage to sound like Juliet Marillier. Let's talk Warrior Bards.

The Harp of Kings introduces us to Swan Island, a training ground for freelance spy/mercenaries, and main characters Liobhan, Brocc, and Dau. Brocc and Liobhan are Blackthorn and Grimm's children, and they are in training on Swan Island. This book follows them on what is technically a training mission, but it's a very, very live mission. You can't crown a king without a magic harp, after all. Dau and Liobhan are set up for their rivals to lovers arc throughout the trilogy, and Brocc is very, very clearly set up to end up on an intertwined but related path to his sister--there are fae involved.

A Dance with Fate has been mentioned on this blog before, in the very first post. It has a very complicated relationship with disability and the magical cure trope, which I won't go into too much depth here; the TLDR is that on principle, I hate the magical cure trope (seriously, disability is not a life-ender. You can live and live well with a disability, it does not HAVE to be cured), but this book does some interesting work with the grief that can come with acquiring a disability and the absolute fuckery that acquiring a disability can throw your relationships (of all kinds, but especially family ones) into. The previous book wasn't not character driven, but this book is CHARACTER DRIVEN, and I love that about it. It makes the stakes higher and the actiony, plot-y sequences weightier.

This book also really divides its time between Dau and Liobhan and Brocc, who is off in a Fae stronghold and very much on his own romantic journey that has some tragic-feeling tendrils woven through. Brocc is not my favorite part of this trilogy, but he is central to it in a way that, while reading, I was never mad about spending some time with him, especially because while he is geographically separate from Dau and Liobhan, they're deeply connected in terms of in-world geopolitics and plot. It's just beautifully balanced.

A Song of Flight takes all the threads that have been worked through the first two books and opens with a kidnapped prince, who's bodyguard is Brocc and Liobhan's elder brother, Galen. Swan Island turns out to find the prince, and Dau, Brocc, Liobhan, and Galen have to save both the magical and mundane worlds.

This trilogy is excellent, and does not require reading the Blackthorn and Grimm books before reading, and if you don't discover Juliet Marillier through the Wildwood books, I would actually recommend starting with this trilogy (unless you are a massive classical fantasy fan, then Blackthorn and Grimm might be a better place to start; your mileage may vary).

[hearts-a-heavy-burden]

Giving a guy (pov character) a marriage and divorce arc with a fairy in a historical Celtic setting is one of the most unexpected things I’ve read recently.

Granted even from the first book I was wondering where it was going because it was like watching a friend get into a bad relationship but not THAT bad, so it’s not like you can say anything. And then by the end you are relieved by the divorce because it never really got any better, but it still stinks it happened at all.

[cubbihue]

Hey if Hazel, Dev, and the gang play DnD, what do you think they would play as.... and how who would be the fortunate(or unfortunate) DM?

When I was 10, my older brother would play massive D&D campaigns in the living room. He tried teaching me the mechanics but it was too much and too boring for my small brain. Instead, I was far more fascinated with things like Warrior Cats.

Apparently Warrior Cats has a d&d game though. So. The kids would all play that instead!

Dev would eventually be roped into joining. Mainly because when you're sitting with a table of kids doing storytelling, you end up getting very invested, and very frustrated when they make the very wrong choices!!!

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[teacup-of-earl-gray]

Ok, here's a fantasy game because I want to feel nostalgy (there was a period of time, when my dream №1 was becoming an elf)

So, here we go

1) take this quiz

2) make your own character, based on the result, using this piccrew (the character can look whatever you want)

3) repost with your quiz result and your character. Don't forget to tag somebody

Feel free to take part even if you weren't tagged :3

I'll go first

I'll tag: @sparrows-my-abhorred

[genshinimpactresources]

Genius Invokation TCG | Arcane Legend Cards: Borderless

Day of Resistance: Moment of Shattered Dreams

In Every House a Stove

Covenant of Rock

Joyous Celebration

Fresh Wind of Freedom

Ancient Courtyard

Passing of Judgement

Download Link (Google Drive)

[ydteus]

Commission for Carter on Instagram!

[whenfatecollides]

Gabrielle going against her beliefs and deviating from the path she wanted to take in life in order to save Xena | bonus:

[drewpicturesani]

The Traveller

So Chants of Sennaar is a good game-

[carmendeiact2whenplz]

Things we don’t know about Old Mondstadt (that Hoyoverse refuses to tell us)

Aka things that haunt me (and probably many other old mondstadt fans)

(keep in mind- not all of these may be entirely unanswerable as of now, some have partial/vague canon answers, while some may have completely canon yet relatively obscure answers)

(for the sake of making things easier to write, i will refer to venti’s dead friend/the nameless bard as “nb” and the red haired warrior as “rhw”, and specifically wisp venti as “wispti”, and i will be referring to the group of wispti, nb, rhw, gunnhildr, and amos (and maybe decarabian too if he’s relevant in that context) as the “old mond gang”)

Note- lots of paragraphs ahead

1- why is nb nameless? does he just… not have a name? does he have a name that he either intentionally or unintentionally kept secret? did he have a name that he used openly and oftenly, but it was forgotten by history as time went on? if anything, did he at least have some sort of nickname people used for him (so we can stop calling him “some nameless guy or smth idk”)?

2- While nb being, well, nameless, may be a bit more justified, what about rhw? did he also have some sort of name? would calling him “ragnvindr” (or similar) be entirely un-canon? did he at the very least have some sort of code name/nickname?

3- what is the timescale of the rebellion? did it take weeks, months, years? decades? how long ago did thoughts of revolution start in old mondstadt? were the people always unhappy, or did old mond use to be a better place?

4- what is nb’s role in the rebellion? did he start it? is he just a leader in general? or is he just there for the moral support? was he on the front lines or in the distance, playing his lyre to rally the troops? is he a strategist? has he ever directly fought anyone on the opposing side?

5- actually, how old is nb anyway? pretty sure most people agree that the rest of the old mond gang are adults (not wispti but like. i’ll touch more on that later), but i’ve seen stories/theories/headcanons about how old nb was (at the time of death) ranging from around 14 to 23 years old- that is not a small range by any means. (according to a poll i made a while ago, 16 was the most common answer on what people thought their age was (my headcanon too), but there was definitely a lot of range in the answers)

6- If Amos and Decarabian’s romantic relationship is so toxic (for lack of a better word), how any why did they get together in the first place? Did amos enter the relationship aware decarabian was against some of the things she wanted most in life? did she enter the relationship purely to try to “fix” him? was he abusive towards her, or was it just a lack of attention/affection/caring about other things more than her? or was it that he never loved her/was attracted to her romantically at all? were they still in a relationship even until the very end, or did they eventually split up when they both knew they would have to fight eachother and that things wouldn’t work out between them?

7- according to the “biography of gunnhildr” book (i think that’s the name), it says they worshipped the wind spirit barbatos and treated it like a deity, while other sources say wispti was nameless and was like. just kinda there. is one of them the truth, or both, or neither?

8- does wispti have arms and/or legs of any kind? can he talk/communicate with people? if so, how does he go about doing so?

9- it’s implied in “a drunkard’s tale” (an ingame book) that the wind spirit that transformed into a fox and helped create wine is the same wind spirit as well. wispti. if that means wispti can shapeshift, to what extent can he do it? can he even become a human/humanoid (not to the same detail and/or time extent that modern venti/barbatos can do so but still)? if so, how does that impact his relationship with nb and/or the rest of the old mond gang?

10- how long did the members of the old mond gang know eachother? did most of them meet in relation to the rebellion, or did some of them know eachother before they got to that point?

11- what is the order of events between amos dying, nb dying, decarabian dying, barbatos getting the gnosis, barbatos taking nb’s form, the end of the fighting, and rhw leaving/abandoning (for lack of better words) everyone? how much time took place between all those happening?

12- what exactly are the purposes of the tower? is it just a living space/government building for decarabian and amos, or is there more to it? did other people live in the tower too? if the circular ruins/symbols seen in the tower present-day were also there back then, why and how are they there? are the light actuators in the tower related to anything involving decarabian’s power/immortality and/or the storm wall?

13- how impenetrable is the storm wall, really? is everything restricted from going in or out, or are some people able to move freely? what is the immigration/emigration rate of the city? how often are things imported and exported? does the wall have any intended purpose other than for keeping the blizzard out?

14- how did amos get her bow? why is it so (hypothetically) powerful? where did she get it and how did it “retain its power” to this day?

15- how “old” is wispti? he could theoretically be any “age” between “manifesting into existence shortly before his first interaction with nb” and 14 billion years old/as old as time itself(and you thought nb’s theoretical age range was large.) how much did wispti truly know before getting involved with the rebellion? was he technically a toddler (in terms of knowledge/mentality), or does he actually have thousands of years of knowledge?

16- to what extent did the imunlaukr (i probably spelled that wrong) and lawrence clans participate in the old mondstadt rebellion? were they involved at all? should the old mond gang be eventually expanded to include more people? (lawrence, venerare, etc)

17- HOW DID DECARABIAN LOOK LIKE? HOYOVERSE PLEASE. IF YOU WONT GIVE US HIS FULLBODY DESIGN WITH MULTIPLE POSES AND FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AT LEAST GIVE US SOME CRUMBS ABOUT HIS APPEARANCE (how tall he was, hair color, outfit style, special accessories he wore, weapons he used, etc)

18- what is the relationship of the old mond game to eachother? were they friends? found family? or were things far more complicated than that? (and what was their reaction to knowing amos, one of their biggest allies, was also the lover/partner of their (the old mond gang’s) enemy?

19- did some of the genshin weapons with lore relations to old mondstadt actually get used during old mondstadt? (aka did nb get to use freedom-sworn as an actual combat weapon)

I probably left out a lot of things so i may go back later to edit, but there are just. SO many things hoyoverse keeps behind the lore basement. If anyone would like to add onto this list, or provide personal headcanons and/or canon answers to the things mentioned here, i highly reccomend doing so.

@honorary-fool @amarisrosalette @gierosajie @lanternlightss @arson-n-quwubilder @littleblueberryartist @lilyandthegenshinbrainrot @elysianheresy

@goyayato @lordofthetower @nellfe-the-feral-creature @thatonenerdinyourclassroom

@yume-shirokuro

(if anyone tagged would not like to be tagged, please let me know)

[theimaginatrix27]

Reviving a classic meme

Looks like they could kill you but is actually a cinnamon Roll: Grim, and also Dau from the second trilogy.

Looks like a cinnamon roll but could actually kill you: Blackthorn (seriously people like/trust her unless she's actively pissed them off).

Looks like they could kill you and would actually kill you (if you crossed them): Liobhan.

Looks like a cinnamon roll and is actually a cinnamon roll: Brocc.

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

My thoughts about the Warrior Bards trilogy

I finished reading the Warrior Bard trilogy a couple days ago, and I have some thoughts that I want to share about the books.

I'm putting this under a read-more because spoilers.

What I liked:

The spy missions. I really enjoyed seeing the Swan Island teams in action and the suspense of not knowing whether they were going to be found out.

Brocc being forced to create a Crow Folk army for Sciath, and his secret plan to deceive her and help the Crow Folk fly home instead. Also Brocc fixing the Crow Folk problem by trying to communicate with and understand the Crow Folk. It reminds me of Finbar's words in Daughter of the Forest, about how they should seek to understand their enemy instead of always fighting them. I do think Finbar would be proud of Brocc and what he achieved.

Brocc and Eirne's baby Niamh, and how much Brocc loves her. :') Also love Conmael's reaction to seeing Niamh (who is potentially his granddaughter) for the first time.

The Sevenwaters references -- I love that Inis Eala is still going strong. I love how Bran's Blade is a thing and how Bran is revered as a strong and compassionate leader long after his death. Also Brocc going into the seer's cave and seeing a reflection that's not his in the water is also a reference that I really love. :')

One thing I thought was strange though was that there was no reference to the Sevenwaters family or the Sevenwaters forest. I get that Juliet Marillier probably wanted Blackthorn and Grim and Warrior Bards to be its own thing separate from the Sevenwaters series, but it's weird that these two trilogies are set in the same world as Sevenwaters and yet Sevenwaters is never mentioned.

What I didn't like:

After book 1, it felt like Liobhan was less proactive in the main plot. Book 2 had her just acting as a bondservant and Dau's personal nurse, and in Book 3 she stays on Swan Island until she and Elka saw that vision in the seer's cave and Liobhan decided to 'break the rules' to rescue Brocc. It was disappointing -- I really liked Liobhan's central role in Book 1 and I'd hoped that she would be given similar focus in the other two books.

There are no lasting consequences. Dau loses his eyesight in Book 2? Don't worry, he gets it back via magic cure by the end of the novel and gets to go back to Swan Island with Liobhan. Liobhan doesn't have to complete the year of bondservice she agreed to because Dau is no longer blind. Liobhan breaks the rules again in Book 3? Don't worry, she's not kicked off the Island because she's too valuable to Swan Island (though she does get a slap on the wrist).

Swan Island's rules. I hate how restrictive they are, and how they limited Liobhan and Dau's potential as characters. Especially the "you must exercise restraint" rule. There were many times in Books 2 and 3 when I wished Liobhan would act out and stop restraining herself so much. Also I wished Liobhan and Dau would leave Swan Island by the end of the trilogy because of the rules and was disappointed when they stayed there.

I hated Eirne a lot. She was such a bitch and treated Brocc badly and it's sad that it took so long for Brocc to see how awful she was. I was so happy when he finally left Eirne's Realm.

Questions I have:

What happened to Sevenwaters? Is the family and keep still around or were they destroyed at some point?

Do the Swan Island community remember Liadan? She isn't mentioned at all when Liobhan is thinking about the history of Bran's Blade and how Swan Island was founded.

When exactly are these books (and the Blackthorn and Grim books) set? How many centuries after the Sevenwaters series? I've tried to come up with a rough timeline based on the kingdoms shown in the books but I haven't been able to figure it out yet.

[contresixted]

CM FOR @karoiseka !

VGEN / DISCORD

[thelostgirl21]

One thing I really want to see happen in Season 4...

Valdo Marx: Nice to see you again, Joseph!

Jaskier: *Heavy sigh* That's -

Yarpen: *Stepping in front of him protectively.* Julian Alfred Pankratz to you, you dying sounding beached whale! Only his friends call him Joseph!

Jaskier: Ah, actually, that's Jaskier.

Yarpen: *Dismissively.* Yeah, I KNOW.

Jaskier: *Getting all teary eyed.* I know you do.