#Wizard of Legend II

[hardcoregamer]

Humble Games’ 2023 Showcase Reveals Another Lineup of Heavy Hitters

Last year, Humble Games held a special showcase in March in order to reveal some new games, deliver a few updates and developments, and just let us know how things were doing in general. Unsurprisingly, given the quality of the games they were publishing, things were going quite well. So expectations were high in my eyes when it came to this year’s showcase, especially as it serves as a miniature kickoff for summer’s gaming showcase season. But they were able to deliver, once again highlighting another crop of promising games for everyone to place on their radar.

Go see!

[g4zdtechtv]

Cinematech's Trailer Park - Wizard of Legend II (PC)

Journey to the Floating Lands.

[larrytheflute9]

The Prince of Hyrule

[sunbirdbooks]

Sunbird Books - A fundraising project

Hello everyone,

let me introduce our fundraising project, created with the purpose to raise funds for five displaced Palestinian families.

These campaigns are all verified, our team is directly in contact with them and share constant updates about their campaigns, needs and any other important update.

What do we do?

Our goal is to provide donations to these families but in a direct way, which means that we won't receive any of the money nor we touch them in any way. So, how do we do that? It's quite simple, you can reach out to us on our accounts (you can find us on X with the same username) choosing one of our e-books and we will assign you to one of the five families.

How do we work?

Once you reach out, telling us which e-book you want, you will be assigned to a family, you will make a 10$ donation to their gofundme, so the money will go directly to them.

We only require a screenshot as proof of donation and you can cover your name for privacy, then you can provide us an e-mail so we can send you the e-book or you can ask for the direct link to download it by yoursel, if you prefer not to share your e-mail.

You can request more than one e-book, but keep in mind that 10$= 1 e-book.

About our books

Now, let's talk about our books.

First of all, all of our e-books use public domain works and resources, so it's completely legal. We also have six books which were donated to us by an indie author.

All of our e-books are created by us, meaning that we make covers and we also make original books using selected works, such as poems from different countries and in different languages.

We also offer a selection of books for children, that can be printed so they can colour them (or you can convert the file so they can colour with any colouring app/paint on tablet/computer).

Our available books

Here's a list of our available books so far, our collection is constantly expanding to provide more genres.

Check out the covers and details on our X account

Books for children:

Dinosaurs Colouring Book

Unicorns Colouring Book

Fairytales Colouring Book

Animals Colouring Book

Princess Tales

Other Books

Sudoku & Puzzles

Poems From The World

Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures - Vol.I

Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures Vol. II

Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures Vol. III

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Innermost by Jamila Mikhail

After Anderson by Jamila Mikhail

Don't Let Me Go by Jamila Mikhail

Through The Years by Jamila Mikhail

Soul Speaking by Jamila Mikhail

Ink On A Page by Jamila Mikhail

The Grimm Tales

The Phantom of The Opera (available in English, French and Spanish)

Mandala Colouring Book

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Lastly, here you can check our five adopted campaigns

[galedekarios]

that interview is driving me insane i've been thinking about it for the past hour and i still can't wrap my head around it. i think what really gets under my skin is it just... contradicts with the text of the game. the most positive possible reading of the ending where gale blows himself up is that it was an unavoidable tragedy dictated by fate but even that's a stretch. to say it's a good ending?? or a satisfying conclusion to his arc?? i call bull. it's more infuriating because there is such a clear good ending for gale's character arc and it's the professor ending! his arc was about learning to accept himself as he was, to value who he is as he is flaws and all, and he's done that in the professor ending! and the god of ambition ending is a bad end for him but still ties into his overall arc in a satisfying if sad way (imo). the ending where he dies just... doesn't. which is fine as a tragedy but to imply it isn't exactly that, a tragedy, is wild to me. and it being so blatantly contradictory to the actual events of the game makes me think that whole thing was just catering to people who hate gale which like... why? people who don't like him don't care about his story so why pander to them like this?

uhg. i am sorry for blowing up your inbox like this i just feel like i'm gonna rip my hair out and need to express that to a fellow gale appreciator. i love gale's epilogue SO MUCH it made me feel for a bit like maybe the writers had actually changed how they felt about him but. nope! silly of me to hope for that. wish i could memory wipe that whole interview from my brain dark urge style.

don't be sorry at all! 🖤 i feel the same way in a lot of ways. altho i feel the need to mention that gale's writer, jan van dosselaer, was not involved in this interview.

i started to make a meta post about this yesterday, but reading things like this from gale:

act ii [after elminster] Player: An old man with a craving for cheese. Hardly the great wizard of legend. Gale: A wizard doesn't reach Elminster's age without enjoying their home comforts. Those who seek danger over cheese don't tend to live as long. Gale: For Mystra to have sent him... The severity of her bidding could not be clearer. Or weigh more heavily on me. devnote: reflecting on mystra sending elminster, of all people - a powerful individual, becoming reflective. Gale: Time seems so infinite when you are young... a month is an age, a year is a lifetime... it is a strange feeling, to realise how little of it one might have left. Player: You're seriously considering doing what Elminster said?   Gale: Of course - he offered the clearest solution to our problem. All I have to do is find the right place and time, close my eyes, and let go... devnote: Trying to sound upbeat, not fully engaging with what he's saying (that he's going to kill himself). Gale: Then the slate will be clean, wrongs will be righted, the Absolute will be gone... devnote: Trying to sound upbeat, not fully engaging with what he's saying (that he's going to kill himself). Gale: ...and I along with it. devnote: Still trying to sound upbeat, though this time the reality that this means he will die weighs a bit heavier

and:

act ii [act ii romance scene] Gale: I am terrified - I will not claim otherwise. My face could scarcely conceal it even if my words sought to deny it. nodecontext: Hushed, vulnerable Gale: There is no point in running from the inevitable. Better to meet it, on my own terms. nodecontext: Resigned

as well as this:

act ii [act ii friendship version] Gale: Yes... but there is so much to live for, and so few moments in which to house it all. Gale: Damn you. Damn you for giving me so much to care about. Our friends, our adventures... this would have been so much easier if it was just me. But it isn't. Gale: If there is a way - any way - to save all that's grown dear to me, I want to seize it. I just cannot fathom what that might be, other than to fail Mystra and condemn the world. Gale: Stay with me, will you? I don't want to think of it any more, but I don't want to be alone either.

act iii [before the netherbrain] Player: Gale... I think we should consider using the orb as Mystra intended. To blow up the Netherbrain. Gale: I'm getting rather tired of how often those I care about seem to reach the same conclusion.

when you have this:

and i just... couldn't finish the meta.

it's absolutely beyond comprehension for me how anyone could try to frame this as an ending that is the right one in "many ways", as the "guy who starts off annoying everyone", eating your "most priced possessions", having to "give back to the world".

for the founder of the company to say he wasn't "ready" the "first time", but he's finally "ready" now.

gale's death isn't only unnecessary, an instruction given to him by his former mentor on the behalf of a goddess, who would've sacrificed not only him but thousands of others to achieve her own goals, he doesn't want to die. he's terrified. he wants to live. he is offering this because he believes that his time has run out. because he wants his death to have purpose if it must happen. because he feels he made a mistake far bigger than he can ever make up for. because he doesn't want others to waste their chance at life like he feels he has. the will he leaves behind in the epilogue if he sacrifices himself isn't finished because he thought there would be more time. i could go on and on.

and again, the question is too... for what exactly does he need to "give back to the world"?

being perceived as annoying after coming out of what is presented as isolation and depression? asking for help with a now chronic impairment that feeds on his very soul and wreaks havoc on his body? for making a mistake? by that logic every companion deserves the same fate.

which brings me to the contrast to how most of the other companions are framed in this interview: k*rlach, "the labrador of the party". l*e'zel, "she's so young". ast*rion, "much of what he does it out of fear". sh*dowheart, "the jason bourne" and "victim of religous trauma". w*ll, "the true baldur's gate hero".

the difference is staggering. there's empathy here. there's at least a surface level understanding and/or appreciation of the characters there.

...and then you have gale.

it's alienating and disappointing to see devs have so little respect and care for their own character, as well as for the parts of their fandom who have grown attached to the character exactly for the strengths and flaws he has, for the struggles he faces and for the healing journey he can have if he is helped and lives.

[joshuasumter]

Onward II Exandria: Sir Barley and Sir Ian and The Legend of Vox Machina' (aka 'Onward to Critical Role')

SYNOPSIS: The two teenage elf brothers - Ian and Barley from Disney/Pixar's 'Onward' - are back! This time, swords and sorcery just got real as they've been crossover to the world of 'Critical Role', full of real magic, real epic adventures, and real wizards, bards, and no modern technology!

Life's still full of magic and wonder for Ian and Barley Lightfoot in the city of New Mushroomton after their epic, extraordinary journey to bring back their late father. Now the Lightfoot brothers became closer together than ever and they can't wait to see what new adventures will bring as they are ready to explore a world full of wonder together. But during another ordinary day, everything around them began to twist, turn, and swirl around them when one magical mishap led to another, and the Lightfoot brothers suddenly find themselves magically thrown into...Critical Role's Exandria, a whole other world that exists in the Material Plane full of real fantasy and beyond.

But getting back home won't be so easy as Ian and Barley. As they explore and investigate their bewildering, new surroundings while adjusting to it since they can't go back to their own world, Ian and Barley tried to play out their part and make sense of this strange new world since this may or may not be unlike anything similar to Barley's favorite historically role-playing board game, Quests of Yore.

There, amidst a sea of seriousness and crazy bar fights, Ian and Barley accidentally got involved and changed the campaign of the unlikely, boisterous, ragtag crew and band of unlikely heroes, misfits, and adventurers known as Vox Machina -- twin half-elf siblings, the quick-witted Vex'ahlia "Vex" Vessar and the cunning Vax'ildan "Vax" Vessar; charming gunslinger Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III; clever cleric Pike Trickfoot; half-elf red-headed druid Keyleth of the Air Ashari; gnome bard Scanlan Shorthalt; goofy goliath barbarian Grog Strongjaw; and their giant grizzly bear, Trinket.

At first, Ian was a bit off by the wild behaviors of this rowdy group, but he and an excited Barley allow themselves to be joined by Vox Machina and chose to do what they can to help save Exandria from the evil and destruction of dark, magical forces, terrifying power couples, and even a group of not-so-friendly dragons.

Despite all the epic dangers, magical surprises, comedic fun, and even the heartwarming romance of such an epic saga in another world, will Ian and Barley ever make it back home to their own world in one piece? Or they aren't so sure anymore as their fate of being isekai'd and stranded in Exandria began to change...forever?

Then, Ian and Barley find themselves in yet another saga when they are joined by another group of criminals and misfits – The Mighty Nein adventuring party, comprised of Veth Brenatto, Caduceus Clay, Fjord, Jester Lavorre, Beauregard Lionett, Yasha Nydoorin, and Caleb Widogast.

A list of inspirations for the crossover:

Disney/Pixar's Onward

Critical Role

Critical Role's The Legend of Vox Machina and the upcoming animated Mighty Nein series

Scoobynatural

Disney Channel Original Movie, Teen Beach Movie

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): Fast Forward (Season 6)

Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

DreamWorks' The Road to El Dorado

Jeff Smith's Bone

Dungeons & Dragons: The Cartoon, the classic TV show from the 1980s. (Including The Adventure Begins! (Dungeons & Dragons) (Little Golden Book) and Dungeons & Dragons: Saturday Morning Adventures)

Iron117Prime's Frozen Turtles

Hero Central's Ben 10 and She-Ra: Heroes of Power

[shadowwizdaily]

The Shadow Wizard of the Day is the Player Character from Wizard of Legend I & II!

[thisisnotthenerd]

got infected by the brainrot of creating d&d characters so:

leverage as d&d characters

note: the setting doesn't involve magic and only has combat encounters in very specific circumstances, so there's an obvious lean towards classes that go hard on the rp based on their abilities. they're thieves. they're a bunch of rogues fundamentally. if a character has magic, the assumption is that it's filtered through the setting, i.e. sophie using disguise self or hardison using remote access.

level wise, the original team is rocking at level 15 minimum in the original series. they’re some of the best of the best before they start working together. think of it this way: the reason they’re so high level is for rp reasons, not for combat, except for eliot. they’re trying to avoid encounters and solve puzzles through various means, not beat up a dragon. plus, given a low magic world, i’m assuming scaling of power is adjusted to the reality these characters exist in; they don't have the hp of a dnd adventurer, but they have the proficiency bonus and ASIs.

obviously there’s potential for better systems / systems that are more suited to heists than combats. i'm most familiar with dnd, so that's what i'm using atm.

first, the obvious:

parker: thief rogue. the base abilities allow for bonus action sleight of hand checks as well as no reduction to climbing speed. i would also add the opportunistic thief feat, as well as the acrobat feat because of her extensive training.

highest stats are dexterity and intelligence, with above average wisdom and constitution, average strength, and charisma is her dump stat. proficiency / expertise for the skills she needs: perception, survival, but not insight. over time with the crew she improves on wis/cha by working with sophie primarily.

nate ford: inquisitive rogue. all about seeing through people, digging into the cracks and finding what’s missing. i considered adding a dip into paladin for oath of vengeance, but one can commit to a code of honor without getting magic for it, so i'm sticking to pure rogue for nate.

i would add inspiring leader, and maybe the acolyte background for his background in seminary school, or city watch investigator for his work with iys. high mental stats, average physical, though intelligence and charisma are higher than wisdom for nate.

sophie devereaux: eloquence bard/mastermind rogue multiclass. both have really good abilities wrt talking to people which is her whole deal. she's often the one talking the group through grifts; if that's not bonus action help i don't know what is. plus jack of all trades allows sophie to work with a ton of different scenarios.

i'd say high mental stats again; max charisma, high wisdom, above average intelligence, with expertise in history, insight, persuasion, and deception, and average physical stats. disadvantage on performance when not on the con.

eliot spencer: another multiclass: fighter/rogue. base is battlemaster fighter, with a hefty dip into assassin rogue for expertise and uncanny dodge, etc. he gets a bunch of ASIs as a fighter, so he can be very well rounded and add feats to round out his rp e.g. chef, athlete, observant/alert. for combat, add the tavern brawler feat, unarmed fighting style, and the mercenary veteran background and you have yourself an eliot spencer.

highest stats are strength & wisdom, followed by charisma & constitution, then intelligence & dexterity, though all of them are above average, because he starts off with good physicals and builds up the mentals with ASIs.

alec hardison: a little tricky, but i’d make him a multi class of arcane trickster rogue and divination wizard, with a heavier emphasis on the rogue than the wizard. filtered through his use of tech, this man basically spams remote access, identify, arcane eye, scrying, rary’s telepathic bond, legend lore, locate object/creature, etc.* i would tack on the skilled feat because he picks up forgery and a bunch of other skills along the way.

highest stats are intelligence and wisdom, followed by charisma, with average physical stats, though his dexterity is higher than his strength and constitution.

*technically he can't cast some of the higher level spells on that list without getting up to 9th level in wizard--i'm handwaving this as him utilizing permanently enchanted items to work around it with his own 5th level spell slots. which he can get with the 9-6 split i set him at. it works with him being limited by location--hardison is at the top of his game in lucille, but when he doesn't have access, it's a little harder to work around.

harry wilson: courtier background to start; he has expertise in the law and its applications, but starts leveling in inquisitive rogue when he starts working with leverage. alternatively, it would be really funny if he starts leveling in lore bard by virtue of being guided by sophie. i could see him fitting into something like the scholar class from SW5e, but that's not what we're doing here, is it.

highest stat is intelligence, followed by wisdom, then charisma, with average physical stats. i would say that he starts off lower level—no higher than 5. the point is that he provides contrast and his specific expertise in the law.

breanna casey: arcane trickster rogue/artillerist artificer multiclass, but more of an even split than hardison to start. leaning towards artillerist, given the nature of the world and the fact that she would love an eldritch cannon. she starts leveling in rogue more after joining up with leverage and working with parker.

highest stats are intelligence and charisma, then wisdom and dexterity, then average strength and constitution. starts around level 8, by contrast to harry, but is still learning and leveling up with the leverage crew.

[thecreaturecodex]

May I ask what reference materials you have at your disposal?

This list includes only books about monsters that I own and have used for the Codex at some point. It does not include books I've gotten from libraries (I have access to an excellent university library and one of the best public library systems in the country), nor does it include RPG books or books about science and nature. We'd be here all day, and this list already took like 90 minutes to collate.

A Field Guide to the Little People—Arrowsmiths and Moore Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials; Barlowe’s Guide to Fantasy—Barlowe The Dictionary of Demons—Belanger Monsters in Print—Benedict Ghosts Monsters and Demons of India—Bhairav and Khonna The Mwindo Epic—Biebuyck and Mateene, ed. The Beast of Boggy Creek; Momo—Blackburn Bigfoot: Life and Times of a Legend—Buhs The Hidden—Christopher and Austin The Unexplained!—Clark Ghostland; The Unidentified—Dickey Prehistoric Monster Mash; Dinosaur Memories II—Debus After Man; The New Dinosaurs; Man After Man—Dixon Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology—Eberhart Welsh Monsters and Mythical Beasts—Ellis The Book of Yokai; Pandemonium and Parade—Foster Encounters With Flying Humanoids—Gerhard The Leprechaun’s Kingdom—Haining Meeting With Monsters—Hlioberg and Aegisson Dragons—Hogarth and Cleary Monster Atlas Volume 1—Hyland and Kay The Field Guide to Extraterrestrials—Hyughe Bestiarium Greenlandica—Kreutzmann Evil in Our Midst—Jones The Natural History of Unicorns—Lavers Legends of the Fire Spirits—Lebling Travels to the Otherworld and Fantastic Realms—Lecouteaux and Lecouteaux Cowboys and Saurians 1 and 2—Lemay Medieval Monsters—Lindquist and Mittman The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures—Matthews and Matthews The Night Parade of 100 Demons; The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits; The Book of the Hakutaku; The Fox’s Wedding—Meyer Hunting Monsters—Naish Cryptozoologicon Volume 1—Naish, Koseman and Conway Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology—Newton The United States of Cryptids—Ocker Chasing American Monsters—Ofutt Iberian Monsters—Prado The Creatures of Philippine Mythology—Ramos A Wizard’s Bestiary—Ravenheart Giants, Monsters and Dragons; Spirits, Faeries, Leprechauns and Goblins—Rose The Encyclopedia of Monsters—Rovin Bad UFOs—Schaeffer JaPandemonium Illustrated—Sekien, translated by Yoda and Alt Dragons: A Natural History; A Manifestation of Monsters; The Beasts that Hide from Man; Flying Toads and Snakes with Wings; Extraordinary Animals Revisited; Mirabilis; A Menagerie of Marvels; The UneXplained—Shuker Dangerous Spirits—Smallman Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginies—Smith Monsters of the Gevaudan—Smith A Chinese Bestiary—Strassberg Mummies Cannibals and Vampires—Sugg The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters—Weinstock, ed. Mythical Creatures of the USA and Canada—Wyman The World of Kong—Weta Workshop Mystery Animals of China—Xu

Appearing on this list does not necessarily constitute a recommendation. Carol Rose's books, for example, has a lot of gaps and are responsible for a number of myths and misconceptions that have circulated around the internet. And A Wizard's Bestiary by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart is more worthwhile as a curiosity than as reference material.

There are a lot of internet sources, of course, but I'm linking my top choices. If you're not already aware of A Book of Creatures and Yokai.com, you need to be.

[bloedewir]

Avowed is slowly killing me with every news I get

Note: It's set in Pillars of Eternity world. And y'all remember Aloth Corfiser don't you? But if you don't know who he is just imagine Solas (Dragon Age) + Gale (BG3) + voice inside his head is like Oghren/Sera (Dragon Age).

Ok, back to topic. As we know Avowed won't have romance options at all.

And then they introduced the companions:

Giatta (ocean human, wizard)

Mara Junot (Ikora Rey in 'Destiny 2', Zuri Abara in 'Starfield', Player in 'Remnant II')

Marius (mountain dwarf, ranger).

Scott Whyte (Player in 'Remnant II', Rathma in 'Diablo IV')

Yatzli (hearth orlan, wizard).

Anjali Bhimani (Commander Natara in 'Starfield', Rampart in 'Apex Legends')

Kai (coastal aumaua, fighter).

Brandon Keener.

Garrus freaking Vakarian

WHAT IN THE HELLS you're doing to me XBOX?

You gave us Brandon Keener's voice after all these years and for the second time the character isn't romanceable?

(First one is Sharp-as-Night, The Elder Scrolls online Argonian companion).

Am I back to Mass Effect 1 frustration issues? Again? Oh Eothas have mercy...

And if you ask yourself how tf it is related to Bioware answer is simple: Garrus Vakarian is from the Mass Effect series, as is Liara T'Soni. Liara voiced by Ali Hillis who is also the voice of Lace Harding in DA4 (and shaper Valta btw). Boom, dots connected.

[mask131]

The fantasy in modern Arthuriana (2)

This is a loose translation of Claire Jardillier’s article “Les enfants de Merlin: le merveilleux médiéval revisité” (The children of Merlin: Medieval magic revisited), for Anne Besson’s study-compilation.

II/ Wizards and witches

The fantastical elements within modern rewrites are often embodied in the most visible way by a few key characters. First and foremost among this magical cast is, of course, Merlin the enchanter, but also regularly the bard Taliesin, despite his lesser presence within the Matter of Britain. Taliesin indeed only appears obviously tied to Arthur within the Welsh sources, especially “Preiddu Annwn”, where he is part of the expedition led by Arthur to steal away the cauldron of resurrection from the Otherworld. We can make the hypothesis that is it because of the historical rewrites of the Arthurian legends that the character of Taliesin gained such an importance, since it is in the Welsh sources that he is most frequently seen, sources that modern rewriters especially love due to judging them more ancient and thus more “authentic” and more Celtic than the chivalry romances and knighthood romans of France and England. Since Wales resisted more strongly to the Saxon invader, then to the Normand influence, modern novelists like to use the “Mabinogion” and the Welsh poems to historicize their Arthur. Taliesin usually stays within his traditional role of bard, in accord to the historical and bibliographical information we have about him. While quite brief, these information naturally designate him as the symbol of the Arthurian legend within a “realistic” rewriting, as a character between the history and the myth.

[In the “Hanes Taliesin” mainly, translated by Lady Charlotte Guest and which follows her “Mabinogion” translations, we discover the two births of Gwyon Bach/Taliesin, is exploits as a bard within the court of prince Elphin, and some of his poems. The historical Taliesin seems to have been a bard at the court of Urien Rheged during the 6th century, and the poems attributed to him were preserved within the “Llyfr Taliesin” (The Book of Taliesin). It notably contains the famous “Cat Godeu” (Battle of the Trees) and the previously mentioned “Preiddu Annwn”. These Welsh poems, like many others, were translated and published by William F. Skene within his “Four Ancient Books of Wales”]

As such, within Fay Sampson’s “Daughter of Tintagel” cycle he becomes one of the five narrators that relate the life of Morgan. A first-person narration that give a voice to a secondary character of the medieval corpus is a fundamental trait of modern Arthurian literature : as such, we can hear Kai, Pelleas, Bohort, Rhys or Bedwyr, characters whose point of view is rarely given in legends, alongside the manifestation of more novel characters, such as Derfel, a shadowy warrior turned saint in the 6th century who narrates Bernard Cornwell’s “Warlord Chronicles”. [Respectively, Kai is heard within Phyllis Ann Karr’s The Idylls of the Queen and John Gloag’s Artorius Rex ; Pelleas within Stephen R. Lawhead’s Arthur and Courtway Jones’ In the Shadow of the Oak King ; Bohort within Dorothy Jane Roberts’ Launcelot my Brother ; Rhys within Gillian Bradshaw’s Kingdom of Summer ; Bedwyr within Catherine Christian’s The Sword and the Flame and Stephen R. Lawhead’s Arthur.]

Within Stephen Lawhead’s works, the role of Taliesin is more developed since he becomes the father, and so the precursor of Merlin (within Marion Zimmer Bradley’s, he is Merlin’s first incarnation). In his trilogy, the bard Talesin paves the way for Merlin, who will surpass his father in his role as the companion of the major hero, Arthur king of Britain. It is precisely this dimension that is often used by modern Arthurianists. [Stephen R. Lawhead wrote in reality five novels, the last two being a flash-back to episodes from between book 2 and 3. This Arthurian cycle is especially concerned with the questions of filiation, legitimacy and predestination. As such, Taliesin announces and foreshadow the coming of his son, a sort of messiah for the Britons, but Merlin himself works for the coming of Arthur, the savior of Britain as much on a spiritual level (the writings of Lawhead are distinctly Christian in tone) as on a political level. It is probably why we also see here a weird and exceptional element introduced, as Arthur is made the posthumous son of Aurelius, and not the bastard of Uther. Here Arthur is the product of an union blessed by the Church, and as such he descends from the first High-King, not from his replacement out of a “side-branch” of the family.]

We also have to note that modern rewrites love to tell what happened during the life of characters in the form of prequels – in this case, the youth of Merlin, which is rarely detailed in the Middle-Ages outside of his birth and his encounter with Vortigern. It was the case within Mary Stewart, the first author who was concerned with the wizard’s youth, and who sems to have deeply marked modern Arthurianists, since the same pattern can be found in other novels, including those of Stephen Lawhead. This concern with “what happened before” is not exclusively Arthurian, and can be seen within other contemporary sagas – Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Blueberry… It is a tradition as old as the various “Childhoods” texts of the Middle-Ages. [Mary Stewart wrote “The Crystal Cave”, “The Hollow Hills” and “The Last Enchantment”. As a proof of the intertextuality of Arthurian novels, “the last enchantment” is an expression reused and exploited by Bernard Cornwell in the last part of his trilogy, where a dying Merlin, entirely devoured by his own student Nimue, preserves a “last enchantment” to allow Arthur and a few others to escape the battle of Camlan]

Be it Taliesin or Merlin, the first way the question of the magic implants itself within the narrative device is about the relationship between the king and his wizard. The magical element is thus tied to the political power, weighed down by a reality which, if not historical, is at least coherent. This heirloom is directly tied to the medieval sources, even if it is not obvious at first. The idea of an Arthur raised as a boy by Merlin owes much more to T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King” than to the medieval texts, where only a slow and complex evolution allowed the association of those two characters now seen as undividable. [White’s work is a set of five novels, first published separately, then compiled as one work in the 50s, and to which the last novel, The Book of Merlin, was added in 1977. This work is a precursor of all the rewrites that happened from the 60s onward, especially the first book that tells of Arthur’s childhood and his education by Merlin. It was a best-seller, and the adaptation of this first novel into an animated movie by Disney (63’s The Sword in the Stone) amplified its impact]. Indeed, within Geoffroy of Monmouth, Merlin and Arthur follow each other in the text… but never meet. It was within later rewrites, Wave, Lawamon, and in the French “Lancelot-Graal”, that the king and the enchanter will develop a more intimate relationship, culminating within Malory’s Morte Darthur. [In Geoffroy’s tale, the two characters at least never meet within the context of the tale. A doubt is allowed since in most of the manuscripts, Merlin makes a brief apparition at the very end of the “Historia”, where an “angelic voice” talks to Cadwallader, telling him that “God wishes that the Britons stop ruling within Britain until the moment that Merlin prophesized to Arthur” ; this sentence implies that Merlin might have been the king’s prophet, a role that will become more and more obvious in later rewrites]

This is due to the two characters, Merlin and Arthur, originally belonging to two distinct traditions. Once they became connected thanks to Geoffroy’s Historia Regum Britaniae, the two characters got closer and closer, and gained many interactions, just as Merlin’s interventions became more and more fantastical. This is very clear when we look at an episode shared by all the medieval Merlinian tales: the moving of the stones of Ireland to create Stonehenge. Within Geoffroy’s, it is a mechanical process. Within Wace, an unexplained way. Finally, within Lawamon, it becomes a powerful spell that makes the stone “as light as feathers”. Modern authors follow this tradition and often reuse this episode, or a similar one, in what we can call “the motif of the dancing stones”. In the same way, within Lawhead’s novel, a child Merlin proves his powers to an assembly of druids by making the stones of a cromlech levitate. Stonehenge plays an important role for Cornwell: it becomes the place of a ghost-filled ceremony during which Merlin gives Excalibur to Arthur. Even among comic books, Merlin makes stones dance before amazed mortals. [It is within the first volume of the BD series “Merlin” by Jean-Luc Istin and Eric Lambert, “La colère d’Ahès” (The Wrath of Ahès). The dancing stones of Istin and Lambert are quite similar to the ones described by Lawhead, and the scenarist confessed having read the “Pendragon Cycle”. We find in this “Merlin” the same habt of syncretizing religions as within Lawhead’s works (father Blaise is a former druid, and offers Merlin as a symbol of the union of religions).]

We find back here what we said before: the historicized Arthurian literature of the 60s-80s greatly deprived the medieval text of their fantasy, and since the 80s-90s we have a slow re-appropriation of the medieval magic within novels that still, however, wish to be historical. In other terms – the stones are dancing again, but they are always dancing in a mentioned 6th century.

Before Lawamon, Merlin only acted during the lifetime of Aurelius and Uther, before disappearing for no reason after Arthur’s birth. However, the encounter between those two historical characters was too tempting to be avoided, and we can see a true shift between Geoffroy and Malory (for example), which today leads to the many tales in which Merlin acts as the teacher, tutor, or even adoptive father of Arthur. This filiation is helped by two elements. On one side, that is an elliptic moment covering Arthur’s childhood in medieval texts, and we go from him as a baby to him as a young fifteen-year old king. [We find within Lawamon the beginning of an explication: child-Arthur was raised by elves at Avalon. This idea was reused by Parke Godwin within the novel “Firelord”.] On the other hand, we can see that all of his next of kin die around the same time. In front of this absence of parents, it is very tempting to remove Ector (the father of Kay and the tutor of the royal child in the tradition) and put in his place a more familiar and impressive character, Merlin the wizard.

We talked before of the habit of “prequels”: the cyclical temptation of modern novels, which in a way mimics the Arthurian medieval tradition of a condensed and fractioned writing of the whole Arthurian legend (usually in three volumes), favorizes the writing of the origins, of the “before Arthur”. The introduction of Merlin, but also of Taliesin, proves this attraction for what Anne Besson calls an “Arthurian prehistory”. For Stephen Lawhead, the link between the various generations (Taliesin, father of Merlin, Merlin spiritual father of Arthur) insists upon the greatness and the predestination of the king of the Britons, the bearer of Light. Even when the Arthurian tale is limited to a single novel, it is not unusual to see it begin with the generation before Arthur: it was the case with Victor Canning’s “The Crimson Chalice”, where a third of the novel follows the events that led to Arthur’s birth (even though here Arthur’s parents are named Tia and Baradoc, and bear no resemblance to Igraine or Uther).

To all the reasons described above, we must add the fictional temptation of having characters coexisting to allow a powerful confrontation. But this temptation also bears a prevalent trait of the modern Arthurian fiction, and of its dialogue with the sources. Indeed, it is not uncommon to see a rearrangement, to various degrees, of the links that traditionally unite the characters. As such, in most sources Ygerne is the wife of Gorlois and the mother of Arthur, but she can be his half-sister and the mother of Medraud within Rosemary Sutcliff’s “Sword at Sunset”. The same Ygerne becomes Gorlois’ daughter, not his wife, in Stephen Lawhead’s work, as the author plays with the writing of the myth, has his Merlin-narrator laugh about the mad rumors that circulated about the siege of Tintagel “I have even heard it said that Ygerna was Gorlas’ wife – Imagine that!”). The marvelous does not escape this kind of more-or-less extreme shifts: the case of the female characters, of their relationship to magic, and of their role within history is especially revealing.

[g4zdtechtv]

Cinematech's Trailer Park - Wizard of Legend II (Multiplatform)

Prove your spellcasting prowess!

[queeringclassiclit]

Masterlist of Previous Polls

And Then There Were None - Philip Lombard

Anne of Green Gables series Anne Shirley Anne & Diana

Arthurian Legend Lancelot du Lac Arthur & Lancelot Morgan le Fay Guinevere & Morgan Gawain The Green Knight

As You Like It - Rosalind & Celia

Beowulf - Beowulf

Breakfast at Tiffany's - Holly Golightly

Brideshead Revisited - Charles & Sebastian

Carmilla - Carmilla & Laura

The Catcher in the Rye - Holden Caulfield

The Chronicles of Narnia - Edmund Pevensie

The Count of Monte Cristo - Eugenie & Louise

Crime and Punishment - Raskolnikov & Razumikhin

Dracula Count Dracula Jonathan Harker Mina & Lucy

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Jekyll/Hyde

The Divine Comedy - Dante & Virgil

Emma Emma Woodhouse Emma & Harriet

The Enchanted Island of Yew - Prince Marvel

The Epic of Gilgamesh - Gilgamesh & Enkidu

Eugene Onegin - Onegin & Lensky

Fahrenheit 451 - Guy Montag

The Famous Five series - George Kirrin

The Fate of the Crown - Valcour & Francisco de Paola

Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein Victor & Henry Captain Walton

The Great Gatsby Nick Carraway Nick & Gatsby Jordan Baker Daisy & Jordan

Hamlet Hamlet & Horatio Rosencrantz & Guildenstern

The Haunting of Hill House - Eleanor & Theodora

Herbert West–Reanimator - Herbert West

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Huckleberry Finn

The Idiot Myshkin Rogozhin

The Iliad - Achilles & Patroclus

The Invisible Man - Jack Griffin

In Memoriam A. H. H. - Alfred Tennyson & Arthur Hallam

Jane Eyre - Jane Eyre

Jasper Jones - Charlie & Jasper

Jeeves and Wooster series - Jeeves & Wooster

Jude the Obscure - Sue Bridehead

Julius Caesar - Brutus & Cassius

Les Misérables Enjolras Enjolras & Grantaire Javert

Little Women Jo March Laurie Lawrence

Lord of the Flies - Piggy

The Lord of the Rings series Frodo & Sam Galadriel Boromir Fingon & Maedhros (The Silmarillion)

Macbeth - Lady Macbeth

Mansfield Park - Fanny & Mary

The Merchant of Venice - Antonio

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Puck

Moby Dick - Ishmael

The Most Dangerous Game - General Zaroff

Mrs Dalloway - Clarissa

Much Ado About Nothing Benedict Beatrice

Oliver Twist - Oliver Twist

Orlando - Orlando

Othello - Iago

The Outsiders Ponyboy Curtis Johnny & Dally

Peter Pan - Peter Pan

The Picture of Dorian Gray Dorian Gray Dorian & Basil Henry Wotton

Pride and Prejudice - Charlotte Lucas

Richard II - Richard II

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Rosencrantz & Guildenstern

Romeo and Juliet - Mercutio

The Secret History - Richard Papen

A Separate Peace - Gene & Finneas

Sherlock Holmes Series Sherlock Holmes Sherlock & John James Moriarty which adaptation is the most queer?

The Talented Mr Ripley Tom Ripley Tom & Dickie

The Tempest - Ariel

To Kill a Mockingbird - Scout Finch

Twelfth Night Viola Corsino Olivia

Ulster Cycle (Celtic Mythology) - Cú Chulainn

Waiting for Godot - Vladimir & Estragon

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Dorothy Gale

[sailorgokaidecade]

All Quaternary Kamen Riders:

Kaoru Kino (Kamen Rider Another Agito)

Takeshi Asakura (Kamen Rider Ouja)

Yuji Kiba (Kamen Rider Orga)

Mutsuki Kamijo (Kamen Rider Leangle)

Zaomaru Zaitsuhara (Kamen Rider Zanki)

Sou Yaguruma (Kamen Rider Kick Hopper) & Shun Kageyama (Kamen Rider Punch Hopper)

Gaoh (Kamen Rider Gaoh)

King/Bat Fangire (Kamen Rider Dark Kiva I)

Natsumi Hikari (Kamen Rider Kivala)

Katsumi Daido (Kamen Rider Eternal)

Sou Fueki (Kamen Rider Wiseman/"The White Wizard")

Takatora Kureshima (Kamen Rider Zangetsu)

Zoruku Tojo (Kamen Rider Lupin)

Edith (Kamen Rider Dark Ghost II)

Kiriya Kujo (Kamen Rider Lazer)

Gentoku Himuro (Kamen Rider Rogue)

Alpina/"Tsukuyomi" (Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi)

Gai Amatsu (Kamen Rider Thouser)

Yuri (Kamen Rider Saikou)

Hiromi Kadota (Kamen Rider Demons)

Michinaga Azuma (Kamen Rider Buffa)

Houou Kaguya Quartz (Kamen Rider Legend)

[halloween-central]

🔮 Spooky Watchlist 🔮

I figured I’d share what I tend to watch around this time of year! This includes a wide range of shows/movies ranging from family friendly to rated R stuff so there’s something for everyone! That being said, I know not everyone will like everything I listed, please be kind!

Shows:

Over the Garden Wall

Buzzfeed Unsolved

Scooby Doo

Scream Queens

What We Do in the Shadows

X Files

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Halloween/ Spooky Episodes:

BTVS:

season 2 episode 6 (Halloween)

season 4 episode 4 (Fear Itself)

season 4 episode 10 (Hush)

season 5 episode 1 (Buffy vs. Dracula)

season 6 episode 6 (All the Way)

Suite Life of Zack and Cody:

season 1 episode 19 (The Ghost of Suite 613)

season 3 episode 12 (Arwinstein)

Simpsons TreeHouse of Horror

(I’m not gonna list all of these because there are over 30)

That 70s Show:

season 2 episode 5 (Halloween)

season 3 episode 4 (Too Old to Trick or Treat, Too Young to Die)

Wizards of Waverly Place:

season 3 episode 2 (Halloween)

iCarly:

season 1 episode 7 (iScream on Halloween)

Zoey 101:

season 2 episode 4 (Haunted House)

Movies:

Scream (1996) (franchise)

Halloween (1978) (franchise)

Twitches (2005)

My Babysitter’s a Vampire (2010)

Halloweentown (1998)

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Corpse Bride (2005)

The Addams Family (1991)

Addams Family Values (1993)

Scooby Doo (2002)

Scooby Doo Monsters Unleashed (2004)

Scooby Doo Camp Scare (2010)

Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost (1999)

Scooby Doo and the Goblin King (2008)

Scooby Doo on Zombie Island (1998)

Scooby Doo Abracadabra Doo (2010)

Scooby Doo Alien Invaders (2000)

Scooby Doo Legend of the Vampire (2003)

Coraline (2009)

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Van Helsing (2004)

Blade (1998)

Underworld (2003) (film series)

Practical Magic (1998)

Clue (1985)

Zombieland (2009)

Zombieland Double Tap (2019)

Happy Death Day (2017)

Freaky (2020)

Fear Street (film series starting in 2021)

Ready or Not (2019)

A Quiet Place (2018)

A Quiet Place II (2020)

It (1990)

It (2017)

The Omen (1976)

Poltergeist (1982)

The Shining (1980)

The Evil Dead (1981)

Evil Dead II (1987)

The Exorcist (1973)

Horror of Dracula (1958)

Vampyr (1932)

The Birds (1963)

Rear Window (1954)

Vertigo (1958)

Psycho (1960)

Silver Bullet (1985)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

I know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

Prom Night (1980)

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

Jeepers Creepers (2001) (this is a series but I’ve only ever seen the first two)

American Psycho (2000)

The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

Cloverfield (2008)

Paranormal Activity (2007) (also a series but I’ve only seen the first one)

Blair Witch Project (1999) (tbh I have never seen this I’m too scared)

Feel free to add anything you think I might have missed!

[roleplayfinder]

((Forgot to add my age, sorry!)) ⚠️💋 Heyo!! 18+ roleplayer here!! I was wondering if anyone would want to roleplay with me? I have a number of fandoms and I will list them and who I can play!! I would prefer a OC x CC double up, but I will also take CC x CC! I do not do OC x OC!!!

☆Fandoms☆

☆Criminal Minds☆

Who I can play: Spencer, Aaron, Derek, Emily, JJ, Struass, David, Gideion, Luke, Matt, and Garcia

☆Avatar the last airbender☆

Who I can play: Anyone from the Gaang, Jet, Azula, Ty Lee, Mai, Iroh, Ozai, Roku, Hakoda

☆Legend of Korra☆

Who I can play: Korra, Asami, Mako, Bolin, Tenzin, Pema, Lin, Iroh II, Bumi, Kya, Zaheer, Gazahn ((idk if I spelled that right)) Jhu Li, Varrick

☆Teen Wolf☆

Who I can play: Derek, Peter, Chris, Stiles, Scott, Lydia, Allison, Jackson, Ethan, Aiden, Kira, Malia

☆Helluva Boss☆

Who I can play: Blitzø, Moxxie, Millie, Stolas, Striker, Crimson, Barb, Ozzie, Fizzie, Loona, Verosika, Vortex, Bee

☆Hazbin Hotel☆

Who I can play: Alastor, Angel, Charlie, Vaggie

☆Glee☆

Who I can play: Quinn, Brittany, Santana, Finn, Rachel, Sebastian, Artie, Puck, Marley, Kitty, Will, Emma, Sue

☆Stardew Valley☆

Who I can play: Sebastian, Alex, Haley, Shane, Harvey, Abigail, Robin, Demitrius, Gus, Pierre, The Wizard

☆The Flash☆ ((CW show))

Who I can play: Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, Iris, Joe, Harry, Hunter, Henry, Nora, Wally

☆Supernatural☆

Who I can play: Dean, Sam, Benny, John, Mary, Bobby, Rufus, Garth, Castiel, Crowley, Jo, Ellen, Anna

I can roleplay on discord or tumblr! Like this and I'll come to you!

.