#ancestral trolls

[artstar1997]

Trolls: Origins

Long long ago, in a more peaceful time, all the troll tribes lived together in harmony. At the eve of silence, the trolls created the strings and life became one big party. Each troll formed a tribe based on the music they love, pop, funk, classical, techno, country, and hard rock, but one tribe stood out. The hybrid trolls came together and formed the platinum tribe, one tribe that loved all kinds of music. All of the tribes look up to the elders, who lead them in their everyday lives. Each elder is known for their excellence and skill. 

“Elder Bass, you are here!” A funk troll said. 

“I have troubles, Elder Thunder!” a hard rock troll asked his elder.

“What can I do, Elder Scylla?” a techno troll asked hers.

It was all well for the trolls as generations of elders that came were always there for the tribes when they needed help but in that particular era, everything is going to change. A wedding was held for two pop trolls, their current pop elder Brook and her husband. All of the trolls were celebrating their wedding in a huge party like no other. 

“Congratulations!” one of the country trolls said. 

“We are so proud of you,” a funk troll added.

The trouble started on the night of the Pop Elder’s wedding. Elder Brooks’s cousin Tansy stood on top of a pillar and addressed the crowd of trolls. He was an orange Pop troll with blue hair wearing a striped mantle and maroon dhoti pants. Actual tansy flowers decorated his mantle. He announced to them;

“Ladies and gentle-trolls, give it up for the bride and groom!” He gestured to the stage behind him, on which sat the sacred harp with the six strings of the oldest and most powerful tribes. In front of the harp, Elder Brook and her new consort Leaf stepped before it. Both of them wore matching gold and white robes. The crowd cheered for them as they raised their clasped hands together. 

Brook had pinkish purple skin, a pink nose, teal hair and eyes with yellow sclera and green irises. Leaf was solid green over his entire body, save for his eyes which were violet. 

“Congratulations!” They all cheered. 

Joining the happy couple onstage was the Grand Priest Cygnus. He is a white haired troll with pastel purple skin, pastel blue, golden tattoos, and silver eyes, wearing a pastel rainbow colored robe and a swan feather headdress.

“By the power vested in me by the Platinum Tribe and by the Great Creator Harmonia, I bless this Union! And now, let the couple’s first dance commence!” Upon saying this, he strummed all the strings on the harp. A beautiful stream of music notes floated over the happy crowd. 

Soon, Brook and Leaf danced together, and were soon joined by the other tribal elders and their spouses. Tansy watched them from his perch as a rose gold haired troll with soft pink skin and a flamingo pink nose, wearing a luminous, hologram-colored tube dress with silver tattoos, approached him.

“Hey Tansy, aren't you gonna dance with me?” she asked him. 

“Lyra, you're here? Aren't you supposed to be with your brother?” he asked her. 

“He’s fine with Miri,” she answered as she watched Cygnus dancing with his fianceé, a bipedal seafoam colored funk troll with emerald hair, turquoise stripes, and violet limbs, wearing gold jewelry.

“So, are you up to dancing with me?” he asked her. 

“Lead the way,” she answered and went to the party to dance. 

They danced an elaborate waltz to the music. Their feet felt lighter than air, like the winged Classical Trolls. 

“This is wonderful,” Tansy exclaimed. 

“Yeah it is,” Lyra agreed. 

Onstage, Elder Brook pressed herself against Leaf’s shoulder as they danced in circles. 

“Truly you are the only one who understands me,” Brook whispered in his ear. 

“Of course I do, I will do anything to make you happy,” he responded. 

“I know you will,” she said as she kissed him. 

“It’s so nice that Brook finally found someone,” Cygnus said to Miri. 

“They are very lucky,” the classical elder added.

“I wish I could be next,” the country elder squealed. 

“I'll be the first one to get it!” the hard rock elder bragged. 

“No, me!” the techno elder giggled. 

“Just be patient guys, love will find a way for us,” the funk elder told them. 

As time passed by, their happiness was prolonged when Brook and Leaf were finally expecting and the tribes celebrated them for the achievement when the egg was laid. A few weeks later, Tansy watched Elder Brook give a speech to her fellow Pop Trolls. 

“While the other genres pride themselves on their distinct sounds and unique melodies. We have something I like to call “Mass Appeal”. We don’t settle for a niche fanbase, we aspire to satisfy everyone! That’s why our music has such a wonderful blend of elements, best best parts of all the genres. We must never forget that or fail to be proud of it.” 

“Oh, Brook,” Tansy sighed. 

“Your cousin is quite the talker,” said Cygnus as he came up next to him. 

“Yeah, she always talks about how great pop music is,” he sighed. 

“I love all kinds of music but it often depends on my feelings and expressions,” Cygnus said. 

“My brother is right about music,” Lyra agreed.

“Sometimes I worry about her,” said Tansy. “She always has to be right about everything.”

“What is wrong?” she asked him. 

“It’s Brook,” he said. “Lately she’s been saying some creepy things about the harp and accessing its ‘full power’.”

“But that's not right!” Cygnus gasped. “Nobody can play that harp because if anyone from our tribe plays the strings there, they'll take over all of the music.”

“I know,” said Tansy. “I thought marrying Leaf would snap her out of it, but I guess he can’t get through to her.” 

“All of the elders of the platinum tribe passed the warning from parent to child, and I have a bad feeling about what might happen if it ever happens,” he said. 

“Calm down, brother, we just have to be prepared, in case this happens,” Lyra said as she tried to calm Cygnus.

“Maybe we should get the other elders to talk to her,” Tansy suggested. “She might listen to them.” 

“All this nonsense, there’s unforeseen consequences when anyone plays the strings,” Cygnus complained.

“How did you know?” He asked his best friend.

“The secret was passed down from our parents to us, which spanned way back to our ancestors,” he answered.

“Since Cygnus and I are the current tribe leaders of the Platinum Tribe, we are the only ones who know about the secret of the strings,” Lyra added. 

“I’m worried about Brook, maybe we should meet up with the other troll elders to discuss this,” Tansy said. 

“Got it,” the siblings agreed with him.

Soon, the three trolls gathered with the other troll elders to discuss Elder Brook’s delusional speeches. 

“This is getting suspicious,” the funk elder said. 

“What is this meeting about?” the techno elder asked them.

“Elder Brook is turning the Pop Trolls against the other genres,” Tansy told them all. 

“I knew it!” the hard rock elder shouted. 

“But why would she do that?” the classical elder asked her. 

“I don't know but whatever she is planning, we’ll be ready,” Cygnus said. 

“She’s not planning anything,” Tansy insisted. “We just need to talk to her. Stage an intervention. Make her see reason.” 

“Ok, how will we do it?” the funk elder asked him.

“First, we’d better include Leaf in the plan…” Tansy began speaking but was interrupted by a tremor in the earth. All the trolls were stunned by the quaking earth. 

“What is happening??” the techno elder gasped. 

“Everybody, whatever we do, don't get out,” Cygnus warned them. 

Tansy and Lyra held hands and braced themselves against the quake. After a few hours, the shaking stopped.

“Oh my goodness,” gasped the country elder. “That was terrifying!”

“Is everybody okay?” Tansy asked them. 

Cygnus looked around at the others. “I think so,” he said. 

Suddenly, two trolls ran into the meeting place. They were a lesbian couple; one a blue colored rock troll with a leopard print top and leather jeans, the other a pop troll with mint green skin and swirly lilac hair, wearing a dress made from a lace doily. 

“Come quick! There’s been a horrible tragedy!” one of them shouted. 

“What happened, Fira?” Tansy asked her. 

“There was a landslide near Pop Village, and Leaf was swept away!” Fira's wife answered. 

“Willow, lead the way,” Cygnus said. 

They went to the site of the landslide and there, a lot of trolls huddled around it. Some were digging through the dirt, trying to find a body. 

“I'll go and help them,” The rock elder said as she rushed to help them dig. Soon, they are able to find Leaf but he is already dead.

“Oh no!!” Cygnus gasped. 

“It's too late,” Lyra added.

“OH MY GOD!!!” Brook screamed as she threw herself onto Leaf’s body. She sobbed heavily, her body shaking. Around them, trolls were bowing their heads in mourning or pressing their hands together in prayer. At one point, Brook looked up and noticed a techno troll floating nearby. 

“YOU!” she screamed as she pointed a finger at him. “You were with him gathering wood! This is your fault!” The techno troll flinched away at her accusation. 

“Cousin! You know that’s not true,” Tansy said as he clasped her hand in his. “No one could have seen this coming. It was an accident out of our control.” 

“Yes, nobody can manipulate death and nature because it happens randomly, we cannot bring him back, it has to happen,” Cygnus added.

“Oh shut up you stuck-up self-important…” Brook broke down crying again before she could finish. Tansy patted her back and helped her stand up. 

“Come on, let’s get you to your pod,” he told her. The crowd parted for them as he led her away. 

On the day after the incident, a funeral was being prepared by the troll tribes as everybody was pitching in to arrange it but Elder Brook stayed behind in her pod. Tansy went to see her, and found her sitting on the floor muttering to herself, surrounded by pictures of Leaf.  

“Brook,” he spoke as he approached her. “The funeral is being prepared. You should come say goodbye.” 

“I can fix it,” Brook muttered. 

“What?” Tansy asked. 

“I can fix it,” Brook said as she jumped up. “The sacred harp can be used for healing, right? We can use it to heal Leaf!” 

“No we can’t! There’s no bringing back the dead! That’s unnatural!” 

“How do you know? No one’s ever done it before.” 

“Because it’s wrong!” 

“No, it’s because they’re all cowards! Not visionaries like us!” 

“Us? Don’t tell me you’re including the tribe in this idea?” 

Brook stood completely still for a second, like a wild predator caught in the act of hunting. Then she laughed cheerfully and told him, “Of course not. It was just a thought. I wouldn’t really do something like that.” 

“Okay,” he said warily. “Don’t scare me like that again. I know losing him is hard but you still have so much to live for. You guys had an egg right? That egg’s going to need all the love you can give it.”

“Right, of course.” Brook said as she glanced at the colorful troll egg sitting on her bed.

“I warn you Brook, nobody can bring anyone back from death,” Tansy warned her. “It’s not natural.”

“Yes, yes. I understand,” she responded without paying attention. 

“So, you’ll come to the funeral?” he asked her.

“I'll think about it,” she answered.

As the preparations were on the way, Brook was thinking about something. She wandered deep into the forest until she wandered to the other side of the woods. There she saw a massive, almost tree-sized stone. 

“What’s this?” Brook wondered out loud. She explored around the stone and on one side, she saw an elaborate inscription. 

HERE BE THE INSTRUCTIONS ON CALLING BACK THE DEAD FROM THE ETERNAL AFTERPARTY. 

“Calling back the dead? As in resurrection? So it is possible!” Brook said as she smiled a terrible smile. “And if it’s possible, that means it's natural. Which means I can do it!” 

She wrote down the instructions and started preparing for the ritual. She went back to her pod and listed the ingredients that she would need for it. One of the ingredients was something called “the perfect musical harmony.” Well, she knew exactly what that meant! All she had to do was get the harp. 

Meanwhile, at the funeral, everybody was preparing to say goodbye to Elder Leaf. Everybody wore black and were carrying flowers to place around Elder Leaf’s coffin.

“Tansy, I’m sorry for your loss,” Cygnus said. 

“Thank you,” said Tansy. “It’s such a loss. He was such a good troll.” 

“It’s alright, we’re here for you,” Lyra added. 

“All of us are,” Miri nodded.

“Is Elder Brook here?” Cygnus asked his best friend. 

“I don’t know, she’s been heartbroken and disillusioned at the same time,” he answered. 

“I tried to visit her but she wasn’t there,” Lyra added. 

While they were talking, no one noticed a figure in a black veil, making her way to the sacred harp. She lifted the entire thing with her hair and played an eerie chord. 

“Come with me, my Poppets!” She called out, and some of the Pop trolls in the crowd became hypnotized by the music. Everyone at the funeral gasped and covered their ears.

“Brook?” Tansy asked but she paid no attention to him. 

“Pick up Elder Leaf’s coffin and bring him with us,” Brook instructed her mind-controlled subjects. They did so. And before anyone could stop her, she played a rondo on the harp. Then she and her followers disappeared in a whirlwind of hair. 

“Don’t tell me that Brook is going to revive her husband? That’s not the natural way of life!” Cygnus gasped as he removed his headdress in anger and gathered the remaining elders with Tansy, Lyra, Miri, and the other troll tribes in his pod. 

“She is crazy and disillusioned, so she would go through that forbidden process to do it,” a hard rock troll agreed with him. “I say we will fight them and take back the harp!” 

“No, we will each steal the string,” the hard rock elder answered. 

“But elder Storm, why do you want each of you to get the string representing your music?” Another rock troll asked him. 

“But why do the tribes have to separate?” One of the pop trolls butted in.

“It’s the only way we won’t let the resurrection ritual happen again,” Cygnus answered. “We have to stop Brook’s madness once and for all.” 

The five elders, led by Cygnus and Tansy went into the caverns and began the forging. The funk and techno elders provided the metal. The rock elder heated the fire and the classical and country elders helped beat the metal. Cygnus and Tansy worked together to shape the blade, flatten it, heat and cool it with the hard rock and techno elders, sanding the blade, and strengthening and sharpening it. When they finished creating the hilt, Lyra showed Cygnus a box of gems, in which a round, white gem stood out. The platinum troll embedded the round gem on the hilt and the elders used their magic to combine the sword. As the round gem itself was embedded with magic, the others gems were empowered with magic as well. Now, it is finally ready.

“It’s ready,” Cygnus said when he held it up. 

“But who will wield it?” Tansy asked him.

“It should be Cygnus of course,” said the classical elder. 

“But I don't know if I can lead the trolls, the only thing I did were spiritual duties, I don’t know how to fight,” Cygnus responded in fear.

“But Cygnus, you were always there for me when I was down and you supported me through my struggles and trials,” Lyra said. “You're the best older brother that I have.”

“And the best friend I ever had,” Tansy added.

“You believe I can lead all of the trolls?” He asked all of them.

“We don’t just believe,” said the funk elder. 

“We know you can,” finished the rock elder. 

“Thank you all,” said Cygnus as he held the sword. “Alright, time to make our move!” 

Soon, the troll elders and the other trolls are sneaking into the location where Elder Brook and her followers are.

“Oh no, we’re too late!” Tansy gasped.

“But not for long,” Cygnus said as he took the sword and led them to the place where Elder Brook is conducting the resurrection ritual. She was playing a haunting melody on the harp. Cygnus called out to her. 

“BROOK!! Stop this madness!” 

Brook glanced up from her playing. “Hello Cyg,” she said calmly. 

“I can’t believe you’re doing this!” Tansy growled out of hate. “What you are doing is going against the circle of life!” 

“What I’m doing is improving the circle of life. I’m going to free us all from death and war.” 

“Improving? No! You’re doing it the wrong way, death is a part of life,” Tansy added. “And when you bring someone to life, Leaf will never be the same when he is raised from the dead!” 

“And how do you know that?”

“I know about this because it was a warning that my parents told me,” Cygnus said as he used his sword to fight her. She tried to defend herself with the harp but he knocked it away with just one slash. 

“Defend me, my subjects!” Brook called to the mind-controlled Pop trolls. They all came and stood in front of her. 

“This is gonna be fun!” The rock elder smirked as he, Tansy, Lyra, Miri, and the elders blasted them away with their musical instruments.

“Thanks guys!” Cygnus said 

The troll elders continued to use their music against the mind-controlled pop trolls while Tansy, Lyra, Miri, and Cygnus continued their forward. 

“Tansy, it’s been so long since we fell in love, if our tribes separate, I’m afraid I won’t see you again,” Lyra said. 

“No, I can’t let go of you, you are the only troll I loved and if the tribes were to separate after this, we would always be together and you’ll join us,” Tansy said. 

“I know, I’ll tell Cygnus about my decision to be with you,” she said. “I love you.” 

“I love you too,” Tansy said as they both kissed and continued fighting the mind controlled pop trolls. 

When Cygnus reached Brook, he started to fight her as she tried to continue the ritual but she couldn’t because of Cygnus’s attacks.

“I can’t believe all this just to get Leaf back from the dead? You are nothing but a delusional idiot!” Cygnus said as he used soundwave attacks on Brook. 

“And you are a backwards thinking priest pretending to be king,” Brook said as she dodged his attacks. “Your opinion means nothing to me.” 

“Too bad I’m the king of this troll kingdom now,” he said as he kicked her into the center of the resurrection ritual while the troll elders sneaked in and stole the strings from the harp. Tansy grabbed the harp while the remaining five pulled the strings in different positions.

“YOU!” Brook screamed as she faced them, her hair flailing out like blue fire. “Give those back!” With those words, she leaped at them, looking vicious and frightening. 

“Not a chance!” Cygnus said as he swung his sword at Brook to protect his best friend and the troll elders but as soon as the strings were forcefully removed, one of them emitted a lightning bolt that completed the ritual. Leaf’s corpse gasped as breath returned to his body, and he sat up in his coffin. 

“Leaf!” Brook cried out as she ran towards him. All the fighting came to a halt as the mind-controlled pop trolls were snapped free from the trance. 

“Brook, that’s not Leaf!” Tansy tried to warn her. 

As soon as Brook went to her resurrected husband, the corpse took a bite on her arm. Tansy and Lyra both gasped in shock. 

“This is why bringing someone from the dead is evil,” Cygnus said. He used his sword to emit a huge blast that disintegrated the corpse but it also killed Brook as well. 

“What happened to Elder Brook?” One of the pop trolls asked them. 

“She did the most taboo thing by trying to raise Leaf from the dead and paid the price, let this incident be a lesson for all of us,” Cygnus said. “Her delusional leadership will be an example for all of us leaders, and, I will not only be the leader of my tribe, I will be the leader of all the trolls.” 

“What?” asked a pop troll. 

“You’re lying!” Yelled another. 

“He has a sword!” A female shouted. 

“Stay away from us!” A male screamed as most of the Pop trolls ran away from Cygnus. 

“Wait! Come back!” Tansy called to them, as they tried to run away as they bumped into the six troll tribes who arrived at the place where the resurrection ritual was held. The trolls tried to spread the lies to the other trolls but Tansy appeared behind them. He is now wearing his new king regalia with Lyra beside him. 

“Because you don’t know the truth why he killed Brook, she made you all help her resurrect Leaf, which is just an anomaly that is meant to be locked away and never learned,” he said. “He did this to save you all from being eaten by the corpse.” 

The pop trolls stopped when they saw Tansy and Lyra together.

“But the sword in Cygnus’s hand?” the female pop troll explained. 

“Me and the troll elders forged it so that we can stop Brook’s plans in disrupting the balance of nature,” Tansy scolded them. 

“All of you were manipulated into following her delusional plans and look at what happened, her actions have led to her downfall and she only brought shame to our tribe” Lyra added. 

The pop trolls felt ashamed for what had happened and looked at Tansy and Lyra. 

“If Elder Brook is gone, who will lead us?” The male pop troll asked him. 

“Our beloved Elder Brook is dead, now it’s a new era for all the trolls,” Tansy announced to them. “The pop trolls needed a leader who would not be swayed by delusions or corruption, a beacon of light in these dark times……..I will be your new king.” 

All of the pop trolls bowed before Tansy and Lyra in respect upon realization. Meanwhile, the new high king of the trolls was filled with hate towards Brook because of her misdeeds and King Tansy went to see him. 

“High king Cygnus, or should I say, brother,” Lyra said. “My love here wants to see you.” 

“Cygnus,” He said as he approached the new high king.

“King Tansy of the pop tribe,” the new high king responded.

“Cygnus, Elder Brook must be given respect and honor, the rites must be observed,” King Tansy said. 

“There will be no rites,” King Cygnus responded. 

“But Elder Brook…” King Tansy stammered. 

“She is a traitor, she stole the strings just to bring Leaf back from the dead and her selfishness only led to our tribes’ further separation!” He explained angrily. “She must be made an example, we will burn her.” 

“No, Cygnus, don’t escalate this tension just because of what she had done, it would only make things worse,” he said. “For your first act as the new high king of the troll kingdom, please grant me the permission to handle the proper funeral rites for Elder Brook.” 

“Very well then, do what you can, and let her story be an example for all of the troll tribes and the troll leaders so that this mistake cannot be repeated again,” Cygnus agreed.

“Thank you Cygnus, you are a true best friend, and I want to ask permission and your blessing to marry your sister, Lyra,” he added. 

“You don’t need my permission and you already have my blessing to have her, please take care of her for me,” Cygnus said. 

“I will,” he answered. 

Soon, Tansy did what was necessary to make sure the rites were observed as everybody attended the funeral. He told all of the trolls the whole story to the crowd and explained how Brook’s delusional thinking and selfishness had led to the scars that they cannot escape from.

“Because of Brook’s deeds, all of the resurrection rituals will be deemed as a taboo because of what would happen, may her story be told for generations to come so that this mistake won't happen again,” He said. “As a beginning of this formation of the troll kingdom, I want to give this as a gift to the first high king, Cygnus.” 

Everybody gasped in awe as he showed the new high king a golden crown. It has eight rays that look like flower petals and pointed with drop pearls adorning the tips. There are also eight rounded etchings at the middle of each petal. 

“Is that the….” Cygnus gasped. 

“The crown of harmony,” Tansy answered.

“We want to give this to you as a thank you,” The new funk king said.

“Wait, I don't know if I am worthy to wear it,” he said.

“Of course you’re worthy to wear it,” said the new rock king. “You united us to protect our people as well as yours.”

“You value all forms of music and the trolls that play them,” the classical queen added. 

“We’ve all decided you are the best possible leader,” the techno king told him. 

“Awww, everybody, thank you for having faith in me,” King Cygnus said as he cried tears of joy while Miri comforted him. 

After Brook was given the rites to be at peace, all of the troll tribes were assembled as the first coronation of the first high king was conducted. Tansy, the new king of the pop trolls and the troll elders, now kings and queens placed the gems on the crown of harmony and finally, the high king, Cygnus was officially crowned.

“Because of Elder Brook’s actions, we have no choice but to take our tribes in separate ways for the sake of our strings to be kept safe,” he announced. “We will choose what lands will they settle and build our kingdoms there. The leaders will only come together when my future heir or any heirs will select a bride or groom and when a new high king or high queen will be crowned. As my first act as the high king of the troll kingdom, I will entrust the formerly sacred harp and the pop string to my best friend and my sister.” 

With that, King Cygnus held the white harp that still has the pop string in it and gave it to King Tansy. 

“We will protect it with all our might,” Tansy said as he and Lyra held the harp up. 

Everyone cheered for their newly crowned royalty. 

“King Tansy, fellow troll leaders, please protect the strings so that we don’t let the same mistake happen again,” King Cygnus said. 

All the troll leaders promised to protect the strings with their lives before they gathered their respective tribes and go their separate ways. It turned out to be a story that Queen Rose was telling to the kids and all of her friends in the prism castle.

“And so, the trolls lived separately in different kingdoms with Tansy marrying his best friend’s sister, Lyra, and King Cygnus has his wife, Miri as his queen. The troll leaders also got married and had kids. When the high king’s eldest son, the crown prince, came of age, the troll leaders selected eligible trolls to marry him, and it became a new tradition,” Queen Rose read the book. “King Cygnus ruled his people wisely and he lived up to a good old age until his death, where the crown prince had the jewel beetles take seven of the gems and have it delivered respectively to each of the six troll tribes but the green gem is always entrusted to the subtribe trolls that the heir is trusting with. As the years passed by, each generation of leaders came to the throne and the troll tribes never lived in harmony. It had been that way for so long, up until now, when Queen Barb’s rockpocalpyse eventually led me to take back the throne and unite all of the troll tribes under my reign as the high queen, leading the troll kingdom to the age of unity.” 

“Wow, Rose, you seem to have a sharp memory when it comes to history,” Queen Poppy complimented her. 

“Thanks, my tutors loved to tell me this story when I was a little troll, it reminds me that selfishness and delusions would only lead to irreparable consequences,” she answered. “The story is told over and over to the next generation so that we don’t forget the past and never repeat the mistakes that Brook did.” 

“Is that why you fought so hard to defeat Barb when she stole the strings?” Queen Poppy asked. 

“Yes,” said Queen Rose. 

They looked at the statue of King Cygnus, which stood in the middle of Platinum City as it shows the first high king of the trolls, pointing his sword upward, overlooking the entire troll kingdom proudly. 

Thanks @georgi-girl for helping me make this fanfic.

[secretlizzycookie]

and if these ancestors somehow got corrupted and this problem will pass through generations

Maybe that same corruption ended up killing them, and would occur in current trolls when they repress strong negative emotions.

How does this present itself physically? maybe a mutation, if anything like, they get stressed and turn into somewhat omnipresent monsters, they would be considered dangerous but not exactly unconscious (?

Edit

I will still take out the drawings of the other ancestors👍

[creatureheart]

Made an updated version of this with a bit more info on things and a few tweaks, so go check out that version here!

I've made a few posts talking about things in the nonhuman and alterhuman communities recently, mostly just brief looks into them, so I thought I would share this one.

The info may not be all that much, and could easily be expanded upon, but I did my best for a simple bit of info for certain things.

All pictures have ALT text included, but I shall post the text also here, under a cut, cause it's a bit long, lol

Nonhuman as an identity: To identify as not human either fully or partially. (hate/trolls will be reported and deleted)

Reminder: These are all personal identities and why someone identifies as nonhuman and what term someone decides to use for themself is exclusively their business. In the end it is what makes the most sense to the individual and not up to others. Now, onto some of the communities that are included under the nonhuman identity:

Otherkin: from the term "otherkind" - an identity which typically encompasses being wholly or partially a nonhuman entity. Usually understood to cover those who identify as mythical creatures and other fantastical things. Also covers those that fall outside of beings and creatures.

Examples of non-being or creature based identities: Conceptkin: an identity where one identifies as a concept such as the concept of night or fire. Objectkin: and identity where one identifies as an object. Songkin: an identity where one identifies as a song.

Examples of being and creature based identities: Therianthropy: usually shortened to therian - where one identifies AS a nonhuman animal. Some will say that this term refers to only earthen animals, living or extinct, but it has never only encompassed earthly animals. The community's language came from those who identify as werecreatures. Theriomythic: an alternate identity term for one who identifies in some intrinsic was as a mythical creature. Paleotherian: an identity term for one who identifies as a now extinct earthly animal, like a dinosaur or mammoth.

Cladotherian or Cladokin: an identity term for one who does not identify as a distinct species, but a broader identity encompassing an entire genus or larger grouping. Cladomythic: an identity term for one who identifies as a group (clade) of animalistic mythical creatures.

Fictionkin: an identity term that covers all things fictional. For those who identify as something fictional like characters, animals, species, objects, etc. These can be from books, shows, video games, etc, but not always! Original fictional characters and such are also possible.

There are many other identities that fall under the nonhuman umbrella which is why it's important to do your own research to figure out if a certain term works for you. All these identities share the trait of being involuntary. You cannot choose to be therian, otherkin, or the other mentioned identities.

While the already mentioned identities are involuntary, there are some identities that fall under being voluntary. Otherlink: an identity where one voluntarily identifies as nonhuman. Copinglink: an identity where one voluntarily identifies as nonhuman to copes with things such as trauma, stress, etc.

A lot of people may also say that it is impossible to become a therian, otherkin, etc. While the identity is involuntary, things like trauma and neurodivergence can cause an individual to take on a nonhuman identity when they had not had one previously.

Most will usually see people explain that these identities are spiritual or psychological, but these are only some of the ways that individuals may experience them. Some other experiences of nonhumanity: Symbolic Metaphorical Ancestral Physical (Yes this is an actual reason for some and they are just as much a part of the community as anyone else. Physical and Ancestral nonhumans are part of the community's history and some of its founders.)

For those looking for more information, and community places, here are some places to check out! Werelist Nonhuman National Park Alterhuman Archive The Chimera's Library. The above are forums and archives of information on the community. Most archived information is thanks to who-is-page, liongoatsnake and frameacloud on tumblr.

While this is a brief look into the nonhuman identity that I could share, I do hope it has been helpful in some way. Remember to be true to yourself, and don't let anyone tell you how to feel. Ignore, report, delete and block the haters!

Yeen out~

[ledesaid]

Thank you for your purchase...▼±▼

The Grand Market of the Magical Community is the place with the most folklore, culture, and ancestral language gathered in one space.

It is beautiful, but expensive.

Extremely expensive for many of the creatures that walked by Billy.

And even more expensive for a homeless child.

But no one knows Billy Batson and his thousand ways to make money with small jobs. Only you and Freddy knew.

"Are you done picking up the silk yet?"

"Yes!" Billy handed over a white ball.

Moon spider silk was a highly prized commodity among Trolls and Dryads. It was usually sold by these small creatures with large glowing eyes. Captain Marvel didn't know exactly which creatures they were, due to the long cloaks that protected them from prying eyes and malicious spells.

But make no mistake, the apprentice wizard's target was not in this area of the market.

"That'll do, human whelp. Take your payment."

Twenty grams of mermaid scales.

"That's too much!"

Billy wasn't sure about conversions and the value of magic currency, but twenty grams was too much for just picking up silk.

"Don't get excited over trifles, pup of man," said the creature. "Our Lady has requested your presence in her tent."

Billy hoped he had done nothing wrong; these creatures were kind to him for his good work and asked him no questions.

Billy already knew her; her tent gave off that mystical air and she was no slouch. But she was never unfair in her commercial bartering, which didn't solve Billy's doubts about overpayment.

"We like you, pup of man."

She differed from the others only by her booming voice and at this moment by the box, oak carved with runes, in her hands which she held out to him.

"It's an honor," said Billy, a little hesitantly, as he received the box.

"I've got a special cloak, it's better than the one you're wearing now, pup of man. It will only cost you ten grams, it's a good deal for my employees."

Billy couldn't help but look at his own cape; he had found it in the Rock of Eternity... surely at some point it was worn by one of the previous champions. But, as the current champion and human of the twenty-first century, he knew that, as with technology, magic evolved.

He was practically getting it for free, for the extra payment, and he couldn't help but take it; he didn't want to disparage his employer. It wasn't like him.

"I'll put it on, thank you, Chief Erret."

"No big deal, thanks for protecting us, champion. After all, you have to watch out for watchful eyes like mine."

Needless to say, Billy bolted from the scene, but now he has a favorite cape.

[spot-the-antisemitism]

Henlo,

Did you know Jewish Witches exist (I know, took me a while to understand Christian or Muslim witches too! 🤯) and acknowledging relationship to a sibling, evil or not, is just embracing facts as real and not labeling character traits to you yourself? Or am I just supposed to be a good Goy and shut up about how my spirituality is directly harmed by Abrahamic colonizers of my ancestral land like y’all complain about how The West did to you? How about the part where Palestinians are also Semitic? Or how about the weird “othering” y’all do to Goyim for literally just being born different? Sounds kinda sus to me. Feels weird, my dude. Being Jewish seems hellah fun in a Kabbalah sense but uh… the rest of seem cliquey and judgey as fuck. Even for you being as “lib” as you are. You okay fam???

Listen here you little troll,

your lack of principles which I assumed was nuance is actually your as Satrean antisemite. You gimmick is whataboutism, gishgallalopping, antisemitic shock jock humour and triggering the libs.

“You’re a lib” - you think I don’t read enough theory and think I should die in the revolution

“Jewish witches exist” and they’re still Jewish dumbass. Their witchcraft is not satanic or pagan or for your to appropriate

“should I be good goy” - I refuse to be an ally when it’s difficult for me

“I was oppressed too” - Yes but you act like I have priveledge over you

“my ancestral land” - Bro I have receipts that you said decolonization is leftism gone too far, stop pretend you care about that

proof I’m not lying

“y’all other and oppres goyim for how we are born” — JEWISH SUPREMACY BELIEVER ALERT! Oooh “Jews see goys as cattle”! No sweetie me not letting you oppress and bully me is not me oppressing you. Me not letting you appopriate Jewish culture is not oppressing you.

“Jews are inherently suspicious” - hmm sounds like don’t like Jews

“Palestinians are semites too” wrong! Semites as a concept was invented by racists to group non-white people. It’s a colonialist eugenicist concept that both groups hate. Same with your precious label of caucausian

“I’m jealous of your use of kabballah” - I’m jealous that I can’t appropriate it without converting because I don’t want to be the sus religion

“You ok?” - yes You’re projecting your unhingedness on me

you are not a leftist, you are a shockjock funnyman who years for the 00s when you could call a person a slur for the funnies and the 20s when you send your neighbors to the gulag to steal their stuff

tankie punk fuck off,

Cecil

[autumnalfallingleaves]

Okay, so I've been thinking. Season 3 gave us so much in terms of magic and the origins of magic, specifically, which got me thinking-- it's stated that all magic originally came from Fairy Country, and, following that, all magical creatures came from there, which should include things like trolls and nisse, right? But young Johanna states that the sun never truly sets in Fairy Country, which wouldn't work for trolls, unless they were constantly in hiding. However, that wouldn't really seem good evolution-wise. Seems kind of weird, right? And nisse are another matter-- they are spirits, which suggests Wild Magic, but are primarily found in domestic spaces, thus suggesting a use of at least some Domestic Magic. Last I checked, Fairy Country doesn't seem to really have any houses (save for Phinium and Lydia's) or uses for house spirits. So what's the common denominator for two species that don't seem to have any common threads? And why do trolls and nisse seem to stand out in particular for being specifically not geared to Fairy Country, evolution notwithstanding?

One word: giants.

What about them? you ask. For that, we need to turn to the original Hilda: Hildafolk's Hilda and the Midnight Giant.

In the back of the graphic novel, we are presented with a visual guide to the mountain giants, which you can find me yelling about here. In that guide, we get this guy:

Who is named Björg, and, according to the book, was "the outcast of the group. He was fearful of the other giants and not well liked. When the others left he went into hiding. Trolls and nisse are descended from him." So this guy is the common link, giving trolls and nisse a common ancestor and a reason for why they may be the outliers in terms of magical beings. The mountain giants are now show canon, per the Faratok Tree episode, and seem to be lifted nearly 1:1 from the book.

From left to right are Halldór, Sigmund, Einarr, Valfreyja (who actually has a slightly different design from the graphic novels), Gertl, Aldinn, Bliða, Heimskr, and Jaðarrok. This basically confirms that all the giants listed in the graphic novel exist in the show, which means that we can extrapolate that Björg also exists, and seems to be in hiding, as the blurb suggests. I'm also thinking, based on the fact that the giants were on Earth really before humans were, that they left Fairy Country thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of years ago, shaping Earth to their liking through the years. This may mean that, while the other giants stayed together, Björg went off and did his own thing, which, I'm thinking, perhaps may have been creating the species that would go on to split and become trolls and nisse respectively.

With the two species being so well-suited to Earth, my guess, taking all of this, is that they were created and Earth and were never native to Fairy Country-- they've got ancestral roots there, but it was never their true home. That's how we get a species that can only live in the dark, and evolved to do so, and a species that has a symbiotic relationships with humans and their houses, which create Nowhere Space.

Now, to go further, my guess is that nisse evolved into their own species later than trolls, as trolls were likely present before humans. The nisse branched off as their own species likely when a particularly small, particularly hairy, and particularly magical troll managed to get into the newly-created Nowhere Space and made a home out of it, which then became the nisse as we know them now.

Anyway. This magic system. I've got Thoughts™️

[eugeneplace]

I proudly present to you... My most recent writer delirium... And a thing me and @2blueberrylover2 made together...

"You've Haunted Me All My Life" Au

Summary:

Branch has been the only guardian of the Pop Trolls for many years... but what happens when he's in danger?

It is time for the other spirit guardians to return... and save their little brother

Okey so- Basically, Branch and his brothers have this whole... "Being the vessels of ancestral guardian spirits of nature" thing going on(?

They left to live their own lives (Literally), thinking that he had not inherited the curse BLESSING. Buuuuuut...

Yeah, you can see how that went down

Oh! And grandma is alive in this one! She made the blanket that Forest Spirit Branch uses as a cape

[aeshnacyanea2000]

Koom Valley wasn’t really a place now, not any more. It was a state of mind. If you wanted the bare facts, it was where the dwarfs had ambushed the trolls and/or the trolls had ambushed the dwarfs, one ill-famed day under unkind stars. Oh, they’d fought one another since Creation, as far as Vimes understood it, but at the Battle of Koom Valley that mutual hatred became, as it were, Official, and as such had developed a kind of mobile geography. Where any dwarf fought any troll, there was Koom Valley. Even if it was a punch-up in a pub, it was Koom Valley. It was part of the mythology of both races, a rallying cry, the ancestral reason why you couldn’t trust those short, bearded/big, rocky bastards.

-- Terry Pratchett - Thud!

[dingodad]

i want the whole latter half of homestuck 2 to be a protracted rosemary custody battle. do you see my vision

the middle act will be an extended sequence figuring out how to reconcile the human and troll legal systems for this unique case.. there will be laughs (resurrection of his honorable tyranny who becomes the group's lovable animal mascot, everyone pretends they can understand what he's saying) there will be loss (they have to put his honorably tyranny down when they realise you can't really put a big hungry monster in a position of care over children) but most of all there will be the lingering feeling that if we put vrissy in a family court situation her ancestral urges may kick in and prompt her to kill everyone in the jury before running away to a pirate sanctuary in the middle of the ocean

[mariacallous]

In mid-September, Russians at War, a documentary by the Russian Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova, was supposed to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. At the last minute, after protests from the Ukrainian community and the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the festival first pulled the picture, only to return it to the program a week later.

What made the documentary so controversial was that, although many films have chronicled the devastation caused by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, including the Oscar-winning 20 Days in Mariupol, Trofimova’s work focused on the invaders. The filmmaker, embedded with a Russian unit for seven months, humanized Moscow’s troops as lost, confused, and disheveled. The men joke, miss their families, and even criticize the Russian government, though they never speak against Putin. A love-on-the-front-lines plot trains the viewer’s sympathy on the soldiers, even while the film avoids any reference to atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.

So is Russians at War a propaganda film, as its Ukrainian critics argue? Financed in part by the Canada Media Fund and produced in partnership with Ontario’s public broadcaster TVO, Russians at War avoids the trope of “Russian savior liberates ancestral lands from NATO invaders” that is typical of Kremlin propaganda. But all of Trofimova’s previous documentaries, filmed in Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Iraq, were made for RT—the Kremlin’s global propaganda network. In an interview with Deadline, Trofimova claimed that she embedded with a Russian unit without any military authorization, and just “stuck around.” In a country where a Wall Street Journal reporter gets sentenced to 16 years for merely handling a piece of paper, an independent filmmaker roaming the front lines, filming military installations, and interviewing soldiers without facing repercussions raises questions. Trofimova did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

One thing that the confused response to Russians at War makes clear is that eight years after the revelation that Moscow attempted to influence a U.S. presidential election, most Westerners still don’t really know how Russian propaganda campaigns work. Americans have become familiar with AI botnets, salaried trolls tweeting in broken English about Texas secession, deranged Russian TV hosts calling for a nuclear strike on New York, and alt-right has-beens. But what to make of a French and Canadian documentary, tucked between Pharrell’s Lego-animated film and a Q&A with Zoe Saldaña, that seems cozy with the Russian military and blurs the line between entertainment and politics?

Here is a clue: The Kremlin’s information war in the West is reminiscent of the one it fought—and won—on the home front. I know this because I was in that earlier war, and, regrettably, I fought on the wrong side.

I began working for Kremlin-linked media during my junior year in college. At the time, the Russian government was apparently hoping that by leveraging high energy prices, it could regain a bit of the influence it had lost after the Cold War. The state called this being an “energy superpower.” In practice, high oil and gas prices abroad translated into more Michelin chefs, German cars, and Italian suits for the select few at home.

In 2005, a close friend introduced me to Konstantin Rykov, known as the godfather of the Russian internet and, later, the man who revolutionized digital propaganda in Russia. In 1998, he launched a website called fuck.ru, which included a provocative magazine and mixed Moscow nightlife, humor, and art. With a blend of pop culture and media savvy, Rykov built an empire of news websites, tabloids, and even online games.

Rykov’s latest endeavor at the time of our meeting was The Bourgeois Journal, a glossy luxury-lifestyle magazine aimed at Russia’s affluent class. He hired me to head up the St. Petersburg bureau, not because of my background in student journalism, but in large part because I grew up in Boston, meaning that I was fluent in English and, apparently, the ways of the West. During my interview (a sushi-and-vodka breakfast), the word Kremlin never came up.

Rykov made the Journal available, for free, only at the most exclusive restaurants, gyms, private clinics, and five-star hotels. Inside, between ads for Richard Mille watches and prime London real estate, were interviews with figures such as Vladimir Medinsky and Alexander Dugin—now the ideologues behind Russia’s war in Ukraine. In a single issue, you could read a review of a restaurant located in a 15th-century building in Maastricht, an essay about the West’s fear of a strong Russia, and a report from Art Basel. The Bourgeois Journal used luxury to mask propaganda aimed at Russia’s elite.

Like many people working in Russian propaganda at the time, I didn’t agree with the narrative that my publication was spreading. And, as most people in propaganda will tell you, I was simply doing my job. I was there a little over a year—selling ads, reviewing restaurants, and occasionally interviewing a Western celebrity. The tedious essays on Russia’s place in the world were outweighed by the benefits of running a magazine for the rich: private palaces, private parties, and escapes to the Caribbean sun—something that the birthplace of Dostoyevsky had little of.

After the success of The Bourgeois Journal, Rykov launched Russia.ru, the country’s first online television network, in 2007. Here, pro-Kremlin news ran alongside obscene reality shows, attracting nearly 2.5 million viewers a month. The network’s slogan, “Glory to Russia”—now a battle cry in Russia’s war in Ukraine—demonstrated just how seamlessly Rykov blended patriotism with entertainment to reach an enormous audience.

Building on this, Rykov introduced ZaPutina (“For Putin���), a movement designed to help Vladimir Putin secure an unconstitutional third term. The project included an online platform that aggregated news from various sources, including original reporting from its own correspondents; a ZaPutina campaign bus to take Kremlin-loyal bloggers across the country; and attractive women—proto-influencers—who attended press conferences, introducing themselves by name and their outlet (“For Putin”) before asking their questions.

My biggest contribution to Russian propaganda came in 2009. By then, Russia was positioning itself as an inventive, Western-oriented economy. Vladislav Surkov—an adman, a poet, a columnist, and a Kremlin ideologue—dubbed this period one of “managed democracy,” which will likely be remembered as the midpoint between Russia’s post-Soviet anarchy and its modern-day fascism. Political parties were numerous, but all controlled from the Kremlin, as was almost every form of media. Yet the country sought a veneer of freedom. That’s where Honest Monday came in—a prime-time talk show that I co-created, wrote, and co-produced.

Our remit was to reach the sorts of viewers who ignored the in-your-face messaging of broadcast talk shows. Each week, the Kremlin assigned these shows a topic it wanted highlighted, and most would comply in a very blunt fashion: Do this, vote for that, Russia’s great. With a young host and a flashy studio modeled on French TV, Honest Monday took a different approach. Every week, I wrote up a summary of the left, center, and right perspectives on the topic we were given; I also delineated a viewpoint that reflected the Kremlin’s stance on the matter and sketched a justification for why this view was better than the other three. The producers would then scour the country for guests whose views reflected each of the three perspectives. The three speakers—politicians, celebrities, or pundits—had to defend their stance to, say, a factory worker we flew in from Siberia whose experience was relevant to the topic we covered. The debates were real, many of them heated, and with views contradicting the Kremlin’s. Still, the house always won.

Toward the end of our first season, the ratings for Honest Monday dipped, and the Kremlin’s tolerance waned. The network introduced a new director. As I recall, he outlined for us his vision of the show’s future: “When the viewers tune in, the first thing they should do is shit themselves.”

The Kremlin instructed us to take aim at the powerless Russian opposition, and in a matter of weeks, the messaging turned into outright bashing of everything that stood against Putin. I resigned—publicly—by sanctimoniously calling the show’s producers and host “Kremlin shills.” A couple of years later, two people connected with the Russian propaganda machine lured me outside and assaulted me in broad daylight (one of them later tweeted that he was motivated by a personal issue rather than a political one). When I hit the ground, half a mile from the Kremlin, I was finally out of the game.

Perhaps Rykov’s greatest contribution to Russian propaganda remains his cadre of media managers and propagandists, who now grace Kremlin corridors (and U.S. Treasury sanctions lists). One such protégé was Vladimir Tabak. Formerly a producer at Russia.ru, he rose to prominence in 2010, when he organized a now-infamous birthday calendar for Putin, featuring 12 female students posing in lingerie and captioned with quotes like “I love you,” “Who else but you?,” and “You’re only better with age.” The calendar, designed to create buzz and cultivate Putin’s image, dominated the news cycle for weeks. In an interview with the model Naomi Campbell, Putin even commented on how much he liked it. Legend has it that Surkov personally approved the project.

Although Tabak’s initial endeavor may have seemed playful, his later efforts illustrate just how insidious his propaganda techniques have become. Since 2020, Tabak has led Dialog, a powerful, Kremlin-affiliated organization tasked with controlling and shaping all social-media narratives in the country. If someone uses social media to criticize, say, the mayor of a small town, Dialog knows about it. According to a joint investigation by the independent Russian outlets Meduza, The Bell, and iStories, the organization took on a significant role during the coronavirus pandemic, virtually monopolizing the flow of COVID-related information in Russia by launching the website Stopkoronavirus.rf as the primary source for daily pandemic updates (the investigation report notes that Dialog denies being associated with this site).

At the height of the pandemic, the Kremlin decided to hold a vote on constitutional amendments that would allow Putin to serve two more terms, and Dialog immediately shifted to encouraging people to go to the polls, downplaying COVID-19 concerns. Later, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Dialog was reportedly tasked with spreading fake news about the war not just in Russia, but in Ukraine. Some of the narratives included Ukrainian soldiers selling their awards on eBay, high-ranking Ukrainian officials owning expensive property in the European Union, and Kyiv ordering the mobilization of women.

Tabak’s organization has become a key player in Russia’s digital warfare abroad, including in its most recent campaign targeting Western audiences. On September 4, the U.S. Justice Department seized numerous internet domains allegedly involved in Russia’s Doppelganger campaign—an influence operation designed to undermine international support for Ukraine and bolster pro-Russian interests. The domains, many of them made to resemble legitimate news outlets, were linked to Russian companies, including Dialog. According to an unsealed affidavit, the goal of the operation was to spread covert Russian propaganda, manipulate voter sentiment, and influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

Doppelganger appears to be a sophisticated operation that used deepfakes, AI, and cybersquatting (registering domains designed to mimic legitimate websites). But the Kremlin’s real innovations were those it employed in Russia in the 1990s; in the West today, it is simply repeating the same playbook using new technology. Washingtonpost.pm, a fake news website created to spread Russian propaganda, was an evolution of the fake newspapers that circulated in Russia during the ’90s ahead of elections. The purpose of those outlets—made to resemble legitimate media but filled with kompromat, gossip, and propaganda—was to get the right people elected.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian propaganda has churned out absurd and repulsive lies, such as that Ukraine has biolabs where NATO scientists are working on a virus that targets Slavic DNA, and that Zelensky, who is Jewish, presides over a neo-Nazi regime. Yet, in a way, it has become honest with itself—at least for the domestic audience. There’s no longer a need for platforms like Russia.ru or The Journal, because the message is clear: This is who we are, and you’re either with us or against us. And yet, the entertainment aspect didn’t disappear. Rather, it was absorbed into the propaganda machine through the Institute for Internet Development.

Founded in 2015 with Kremlin backing, and currently under the direction of the former Journal producer Alexey Goreslavsky, the IID helps direct state funds toward producing everything from box-office releases to YouTube videos, blogs, and video games. With a yearly budget of more than $200 million, it dwarfs any private film studio or streaming platform in Russia.

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the institute has become the go-to hub for content. Initially, its output was dull and overtly propagandistic, but that has changed. Its catalog now includes 20/22, a TV series about a soldier fighting in Ukraine and his anti-war girlfriend, as well as A Thug’s Word, a 1980s period piece about a street gang, which became the No. 1 show in Russia and surprisingly popular in Ukraine—much to the dismay of the Ukrainian government. A Thug’s Word contains no politics, no war, and no Putin, yet IID—a propaganda organization—considers it its greatest success, because it legitimized the institute in the world of popular entertainment, which it fought so hard to break into.

One reason Russian propaganda is running circles around the West is that the internet was one of the few domains where the Russian state arrived late, forcing it to co-opt those who understood it. RuNet, the Russian segment of the World Wide Web, was created—and run—by people like Rykov: artsy 20-somethings, filled with cynicism, post-Soviet disillusionment, and a cyberpunk mentality. The collapse of the Soviet Union taught them that truth was whatever they wanted it to be, and that survival was the ultimate goal. The advertising executives, philosophy students, and creatives who once made video art, lewd calendars, and scandalous zines are the same minds who in 2016 said, “Let’s make memes about Hillary Clinton,” and in 2024 suggested using AI to flood X with believable comments. In many ways, this confrontation mirrors what’s happening in Ukraine: This time, however, the West is the massive, unwieldy force being outsmarted by a smaller, more tech-savvy adversary.

The good news is that the Kremlin is a graveyard of talent. In time, every gifted person I knew who went behind its brick walls was devoured by deceit, paranoia, and fear of losing one’s place in the sun. Konstantin Rykov was exceptional at his job, so much so that the Kremlin offered him a seat in the Russian Parliament when he was just 28. He accepted the offer. But being a member of the Duma Committee on Science and High Technologies and the Committee for Support in the Field of Electronic Media wasn’t the same as being the editor of fuck.ru. Despite being involved in some foreign influence operations, Rykov, now 45, hasn’t produced any significant work for Russian audiences since he joined Parliament.

Asked by an audience member in Toronto whether Russia was responsible for the war in Ukraine, Trofimova replied, “I think there are a lot of other factors involved. Yeah, like they are definitely sending troops in to solve whatever grievances there are.” Even if it wasn’t financed by Moscow, Russians at War reminds me of a Rykov production: slick, scandalous, and with a ton of free press. The message the film conveys is that war, not the country that started it, is bad in this scenario. Trofimova seems to portray Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the astonishing scale of the atrocities it has committed there, as something impersonal and inexorable, like a tsunami: We can only accept it and sympathize with the victims, including Russian soldiers.

I stopped working for the Kremlin long before the Russo-Ukrainian war, and whatever I did as the head of a magazine bureau and as a talk-show producer pales in comparison with what some of my former colleagues are doing today. Still, I know that in every bullet flying toward Ukraine—the country where my parents were born—there’s a small part of me. I wonder if Trofimova sees that she’s part of it, too.

[chronotopes]

thoughts on a govy and nora swap au?

well, that you've asked an awesome question, first and foremost.

i think imagining a govy fleuré/nora lenoir swap is really fun in part ecause those two trolls in particular are so inextricable from their circumstances as i've written them. what is a nora who has to go real work like? a govy raised by terift? somehow i've never considered laterally swapping the pairs of stratum foils in atp, but i sure am considering it now. time to contemplate!

(contemplation below the cut but also some drawings and a snippet of writing, if you'd like to skip my yapping and just go straight to those.)

i honestly took all day at work thinking about this and then came home, chanced doodling them, and immediately Got It. so here are my tentative thoughts. ftr the signclade of the retainer names eldest daughters with a Li____ scheme (liseta, linora, lianna, etc.) and Lenoirs name their kids Vaguely Russian Sounding Names (dimtry, vadmir, igovya) but for the sake of having to stop somewhere i've kept their names as linora and ygovia. with that said.

NORA LENOIR is shyer and more reserved than either canon nora or canon govy. much like canon nora and much like canon govy, she is Sort Of Best Friends With Her Dad. however: govy's relationship with her older brother is playfully antagonistic but loving, think "lmaoooo vadmirs stupid ass was too lazy to do computer science", whereas nora's would carry some fairly genuine resentment. nora's skillset and abstract Interest In Doing Real Work is a lot better suited to the kind of useless managerial role that terift holds than the concrete and fairly consequential work that govy has been doing for her entire young adulthood. as such, this nora is a lot more quiet and stressed out, a lot more likely to attract 'wow she's so vulnerable and brave'-coded admirers than 'wow her tits are so great' variety admirers. it's nora, though – regardless of timeline, she can't always resist leaning into whatever trope makes her desirable and sympathetic to others. if this nora met aivide, aivide would have met nora's dad and brother very early on. and it's not impossible that eventually nora lenoir would run away to santerre in order to be more free of The Weight Of Social Expectations – but the disappearance would never be as formal and lengthy as nora fleuré's is, she would go back to visit a lot more often and she would insist on taking aivide with her when she could. this nora has never dated falmes or any of the other extremely similar-to-nora violets, and i think that honestly instead of spietés, she and govy fleuré were moirails who smeared ashen sometimes. nora lenoir is combatable because her brother made her learn but doesn't keep up with it the way canon govy does. her specibus is sabrekind.

GOVY FLEURE grew up earning the same kind of Omg What A Pretty Pretty Princess adoration from older violets that nora got as a kid but grew tired of it a lot faster. she's more tomboy-adjacent growing up than canon govy is, partly because there is just something uncomfortable to her about her proximity to the kind of Collected In-Your-Face Femininity that is expected from an eldest fleuré that bothers her in a way that figuring out her own fashion sense isn't for govy lenoir, whose family doesn't really have the same kind of strict ancestral self-presentation standards as the fleurés. (govy, universally, does not like being told who to be or what image to project.) this and govy's general sense of irreverent adventurous curiosity about the world – even if it's sort of dimmed by The Weight Of Expectation – really give her a lot of friction with her dad. as she grows into being a teenagers, she starts observing her dad at galas and his interaction with sub-board members and other arhinn violets and comes to the conclusion that nora is very reluctantly arriving at in atp – most other violets who matter don't really respect terift at all. this pisses her off (like it does nora) but it also gives her a sort of freedom – if terift disinherits her, like he loves calmly threatening to do every time govy skips class or goes to prom with a purple or shows up to a gala in a suit, there are other arhinn violets to gain favor with and ways to be useful without having a title. there are civic title opportunities for violets and i think she's picking up internships and generally ingratiating herself to people who can get her there pretty actively throughout her twenties, still with a sort of exploratory mindset, while doing a lot of favors for terift in the process because ultimately govy's dad is still kind of her best friend too, even if / when he sucks.

(UGH THERE WAS A PARAGRAPH HERE ABOUT THEIR DYNAMIC BUT TUMBLR IN ITS INFINITE WISDOM DELETED IT. PLEASE STAND BY UNTIL TOMORROW)

bonus: here they are!

bonus bonus: here they also are. (takes place at the start of the party scene from chapter two)

[deathbydarkelves]

I figured out how elves got their two extra fingers

I need to lay down some basic concepts in irl tetrapod evolution real quick though.

The basic plan for real Earth tetrapods is five digits on each foot/hand. And in evolution you can only modify what you already have. You cannot spontaneously create entirely new structures. In real life, all extant tetrapods have five or fewer unique digits. They either retain the ancestral condition or lose/fuse digits. That, of course, presents a problem when it comes to the evolution of five-fingered elves from three-fingered ancestors. Until now I had to settle for an unsatisfying "it's magic" explanation.

BUT THERE'S A WAY.

Each of those five digits in real tetrapods has a distinct genetic identifier that differentiates it from the others. We can tell, for example, that birds (which have three forelimb digits max) specifically retained digits 2, 3, and 4 by looking at those markers.

Look at a limb of Acanthostega, an extinct stem-tetrapod and one of the first vertebrates to develop pronounced limbs:

Look at all of those digits. This is what happens when you have a limb that's not quite done being a fin. Fish fins have a lot of repeating structures to fill out their form. They're not made of a bunch of unique pieces. For structures like that it's much easier to just duplicate one piece over and over again (in that case, fin rays). All animals are segmented in some way. Our spines are the most obviously duplicated part of us, for example, and snakes are so long because they duplicate their vertebrate so many more times.

And that's what's happening in Acanthostega; those inner five digits (the colored ones in the right image) are the five unique digits tetrapods have today. The three other uncolored ones are just duplicates of digit 1 (on the left) and digit 5 (on the right). It's simply "intentional" polydactyly. (("Intentional" is in quotations because genetics and evolution have no intentions, they simply exist))

And I'm explaining elf hands with that same concept. The Well of Eternity's arcane radiation induced polydactyly, specifically of the second and third digits. Thus on a genetic level, elves only have three distinct digits. This is what the hands of the first "stem-elves" likely would've looked like, with the digits numbered:

The duplication was much more obvious. Also, digits 2 and 3 probably didn't start duplicating at the same time lol. It was probably one and then the other but that's not super important.

Eventually the digits started changing length*, but are still duplicates and genetically identical to their origins (and you can see different lengths in Acanthostega). If you could put colored markers on the genetic identifiers of the developing digits in an embryo, you'd see the pointer and middle are the same and the ring and pinky are the same. For completion here's your typical modern elf hand with the numbered digits:

This also means it's probably not unheard for some elves to be born with fingers that are all about the same length because in the womb -- for whatever reason -- they went through the duplication step but not the length adjusting step, at least not fully. Something like this:

Just some super minor individual variation that hints at this sort of evolutionary history. There are probably some who are only born with three fingers because they didn't get to duplication in the first place. Embryology is sort of a microcosm of evolution, it's fascinating.

I LOVE this shit, I love when irl evolution does these sorts of weird things. This solution to this old problem is making me lowkey giddy. There's something so satisfying about it for me.

*In real primates our different finger lengths are for grasping branches better, being arboreal or derived from arboreal ancestors. This could be carried over 1:1 if elves were derived from forest trolls or were arboreal, but they're not. Perhaps it's classic structural reduction to keep the hand smaller and improve fine motor control? If they could make smaller tools they could have a slightly different diet and fill a different niche than trolls. Not implying troll hands are somehow inherently inferior, just that they're perhaps better for larger tools for larger jobs. Maybe early elves with their smaller hands and smaller spears/etc. were better at handling deer while their troll neighbors with their bigger weapons took the local megafauna instead. I hesitate to get too deep into "selection pressures" and such because these are sentient beings and that can get... weird quick, but to me this feels reasonable enough. I'm not an archaeologist or anthropologist though, and maybe if I was I'd have more to say on that.

[raventroll80]

G/T July Day 2: Studying

(aka) Doom Vignette 1

First entry for G/T July! Wooo! For this entry I'm trying to get back into the swing of things for the troll au! Here we get a small glimpse into Slayers time on Argent D'Nur.

It was a quiet day at the Slayer’s keep, folks were winding down from a recent deployment. Valen was writing up a report, his son was sparing in the courtyard with some other soldiers. The Slayer however, was nestled deep withing the castle sprawled atop his makeshift bed. Great blankets and furs were strewn about, though only one fur was atop the Great Slayer, his cape, and wrapped within that cape was his dearest of Sentinels. The Argenta in question wore a dark green-teal tunic and warm brown pants. His hair was tied back revealing a face littered with small scars. The man occasionally glancing up at the massive beast.

In his hands sat a sketchbook, and on its pages were various drawings of the Slayer in various stages of sleep, though there was also the occasional anatomy sketch of what the man though his skull would look like. The Argenta was familiar with the anatomy of beasts and man alike, but Verndar was a weird mix of both. He was similar in ways to the Ancestrals, but still too different to be one. Not even the Slayer himself knew what he was, though he didn’t mind. The Slayer yawned; his massive teeth were exposed as his jaw opened wide. The Argenta stared intently, watching in awe, and suddenly he figured out what the subject of his next study piece.

Carefully the young man scooted forwards, careful not to wake Verndar. Good thing the big guy slept like the dead. Gently, Arve placed his knee on the Slayer’s chin, and with his hands he gently opened his mouth, revealing the Slayer’s teeth. His massive teeth gently reflecting the soft light from fire. His incisors were like that of any Argenta, but that was where the similarities ended. His canines were huge, Arve reckoned each one was about the length of his hand. The bottom canines appeared almost tusk-like in appearance, jutting forwards ever slightly. The premolars were similar to that of a wolf or bear’s, jagged like a mountain almost, meanwhile the molars themselves were broad and flat, and Arve had seen him use them to crush both bone and plant alike.

As Arve continued to sketch Verdar’s teeth he was continually drawn to the giant’s canines time and time again. Gently he closed his notebook and set it aside before leaning even closer, the Slayer’s warm breath washing over him. Ever so gently, Arve reached out his hand and placed it on the Slayer’s tooth. The tusk felt strong and sturdy, yet also somewhat worn from years of use though certainly not dull. As Arve continued to study the tooth, inspecting how it had almost become dyed from blood and tubers, when the Slayer’s jaws gently closed on Arve’s hand. Arve tried to gently remove his hand from Vern’s mouth and just as he was about to free his hand a large tongue ran up his neck and face.

“AUGH! Verndar you cheeky feral bastard!”

The massive man let out a deep chuckle before scooping Arve up in his arms and rolled over onto his chest, pinning the man into a bear hug.

“Mrrph, you were awake this whole time, weren’t you.” Arve asked, but all he got in response was a contented huff from the Slayer before the giant flopped his head down on Arve’s chest, seemingly ready to actually go to sleep.

Arve sighed and pressed his forehead against Verndar’s before settling down himself for a proper nap, the deep steady hum emanating from the giant lulling the Argenta to sleep.

[apenitentialprayer]

Okay, I could get behind "Ancestral Sin and Original Sin are different," even if no one could explain to me the difference... ... but "the Immaculate Conception is a Roman heresy, but some Orthodox believe in the Dispassionate Conception" really does make it sound like you're trolling us, guys :/

[bracketsoffear]

Thud! Propaganda, a passage from the book

"Koom Valley wasn’t really a place now, not any more. It was a state of mind. If you wanted the bare facts, it was where the dwarfs had ambushed the trolls and/or the trolls had ambushed the dwarfs, one ill-famed day under unkind stars. Oh, they’d fought one another since Creation, as far as Vimes understood it, but at the Battle of Koom Valley that mutual hatred became, as it were, Official, and as such had developed a kind of mobile geography. Where any dwarf fought any troll, there was Koom Valley. Even if it was a punch-up in a pub, it was Koom Valley. It was part of the mythology of both races, a rallying cry, the ancestral reason why you couldn’t trust those short, bearded/big, rocky bastards."

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