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thetygre · 6 years ago

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Arthurian D&D Books

So before the tumblrpocalypse hits us all, I guess I better belt out that mini-review of D&D books that deal with Arthurian legend for @magitekbeth, @fuckyeaharthuriana, and @lucrezianoin. These are specifically 3rd Edition books since that was the edition I started with, and it also had the greatest body of material to work with. 3rd was famous for its glut of books by third-party publishers, and Arthurian mythology was a recurring subject under the Open Source Rules (OSR).

That being said, Arthurian legend has always had some form of presence in Dungeons and Dragons. It is very openly an inspirational source in the fantasy gumbo that is D&D. The original 1st Edition Deities and Demigods included ‘Arthurian Heroes’ in it, along with gods from just about every pantheon. 2nd Edition had a supplement detailing Arthurian legend, though for the life of me I can’t find it.

But let’s start cracking on the 3rd edition books. Atlas Games’ Love and War isn’t necessarily about Arthurian legend, but it is about knights, particularly the romantic characterization of knights that is attached to a lot of versions of Arthurian legend. The book is built around the four concepts of knightly virtue (love, valor, piety, and loyalty), with special knightly orders and character options for each one. It expands outward into fantasy rpg territory a bit more by also offering race-specific concepts for knights, such as orders specifically for dwarves and elves.

Since it doesn’t have to explore Arthuriana, that also gives Love and War more room to explore knight concepts that other books here typically don’t; female knights, knight duos, fallen knights, etc. And as is standard for most of the books mentioned here, Love and War also introduces a variety of subsystems for a chivalric setting, including tournaments, piety, honor, and renown. Interestingly, one of the subsystems is courtly wit, which is a non-combat system meant to emulate the verbal sparring and social maneuvering present in stories about nobility and knights. Again, not Arthuriana, but recommended.

I’ve already talked about I, Mordred before, and it’s what got me thinking about this list again. Like I said there, I just feel like the premise of fighting an evil King Arthur alongside Mordred as the good guy just didn’t go far enough. If nothing else, Morgan le Fay should have been at least Neutral instead of still being cast as Evil. Really, everybody needs to be some kind of Neutral to really get an ambiguous setting of competing factions with no clear ‘right’ choice. Personally, I still want to see a version that goes super-hard with the alignment flip; paladin Mordred and white witch Morgan versus the half-demon warlock Merlin, his puppet king Arthur, and the death knights of the round. But then again, subtlety was never exactly my forte.

But this is where we get into the real good stuff, the books committed to Arthuriana. Relics and Rituals: Excalibur is the book of choice for if you want to plop a faux-Arthurian Britain into a high fantasy setting. It comes at Arthurian legend from a perspective that inherently has multiple races, high magic, and wandering monsters. You can play as not just a human, but a sidhe elf, halfling, dwarf, or even hobgoblin. Even half-orcs have made it in, though reflavored to be their own race of ‘Wild Man’.

Like most extensive themed campaign books, R&R: Excalibur takes an extensive look at what aspects of the base Dungeons and Dragons systems stays the same and what changes. For instance, some player character classes like fighter, rogue, bard, and paladin fit right in to Arthuriana, while other like the oriental-themed monk and the spell-slinging sorcerer are right out. (Regular classical wizards are still fine, though.) And, as is to be expected, there is a new knight class, though the author does note that it can seem somewhat redundant with the fighter and paladin still around, and its use is optional. There are a few prestige classes, with the one sticking out most in my memory being the classic Green Knight, complete with chlorophyll and resistance to decapitation.

There are a variety of essays encompassing everything from tournaments to the importance of knightly decor to honor and, perhaps most importantly, how to manage D&D’s vastly overpowered magic system and magic items into an Arthurian setting. There are no less than two pantheons, one Faerie lords and the other of this new-fangled ‘God’ fellow. Me being me, I mostly remember the chapter on how to treat different kinds of monsters; I was particularly fond of the idea of making the Fisher King’s cursed kingdom filled with undead trying to enact a danse macabre of everyday life, complete with skeleton farmers driving skeleton horses to plow barren fields. But again, that’s just me.

Relics and Rituals: Excalibur is definitely a worthy book for lovers of Arhturiana. But that’s the thing; it captures the spirit and tone of Arthurian legend, but not Arthurian legend itself. There’s definitely an appeal to it; something novel about the idea of jousting on a chimera, or cockatrice fights at the local fair, but it’s not quite the same. It’s high fantasy D&D stepping into Arthuriana, not the other way around. For that, for the real Arthurian legend lovers, you’ve got to get the real gem.

*Slaps top of book* This bad boy can fit so many knights in it. This is arguably THE book for Arthurian mythology in Dungeons and Dragons. Legends of Excalibur: Arthurian Adventures is a love letter to Arthurian legend. It starts with an incredibly brief summary of the history of Arthurian legend, from Wales to La Morte D’Arthur to John Boorman. LoE:AA makes it clear that it’s up to the reader to go research Arthurian legend for themselves; all the book can do is point them in the right direction. After that, it’s right into the content.

There are some pretty drastic changes made to the base 3rd edition D&D core rules before really setting in. The Alignment system is gone entirely, replaced by a character’s honor score. What are the character race options? Get out of here with that; LoE runs old school, so it’s human or nothing. What you do pick, though, is your starting social class, and that can make just as much difference as whether you have pointy ears or not. All the base D&D classes are chucked out except for fighter, rogue, barbarian, bard, and druid.

All that uprooting is fast replaced by a host of new character options. Legends of Excalibur is smaller than Relics and Rituals, but definitely packs more bang for its buck. The new character classes include the fool (with a special nod to Arthur’s fool, Dagonet), the hedge mage (new general mage/spellcaster), the hermit and the priest (for divine spellcasting), the minstrel (meant to represent more traditional Celtic/druid bards instead of the base D&D one), the noble (so that you can finally live out the fantasy of being rich and respectable), the robber baron (which is like the noble, but with more stabbing and shaking people down), the skald (another bard, but for vikings), the yeoman (Robin Hood/archer type), and, of course, the knight.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are a metric ton of prestige classes. Some are fairly bog standard, like the alchemist or berserker, while others are meant very explicitly to play into Arthurian archetypes. Remember how there was actually more than one Lady of the Lake? Now you can be one too. Merlin? Court mage. Morgan le Fay? Fae Enchnatress. And knights? Oh, you bet there are knight prestige classes here. There are no less than SEVEN knight prestige classes, including Quest Knight (specifically for seeking the Holy Grail), White Knight (to replace paladins), Black Knight (to replace blackguards/antipaladins), and practically every color knight in between.

Legends of Excalibur also offers rules for characters that advance beyond the standard level cap in the Dungeons and Dragons system, into the ‘Epic’ character levels. This is actually one of the reasons why I feel like Dungeons and Dragons can be a good fit for Arthurian legend. A character can start out as little more than a wandering soldier and advance to become as powerful as a demigod. While the typical image of Arthurian mythology is of a fairly low-fantasy medieval Europe, the actual source material, throughout its multiple incarnations, isn’t stingy about giving its characters magic powers, legendary equipment, and impossible challenges to face. While it still needs to be toned down to some degree, there is definitely room in Arthurian legend for the kind of superheroic powers that the Epic rules can bring. (Or at least as long as the setting keeps spellcasters to a minimum.)

This book isn’t just a guide to playing Arthurian characters, but the Arthurian world. There is a complete map of Arthurian Europe that has to reconcile Arthur’s given time with accounts of him rebelling against the Pope and fighting in the Crusades before Islam even existed. It’s a wonderful little detail, trying to account for everywhere that Arthur or one of his knights or relatives supposedly lived in or visited. Another detail is accounting for the the timeline; Legends of Excalibur designates five important time periods in the Arthurian cycle, from just after Uther’s death to the Golden Age of Camelot to the civil war with Mordred. Each period has different effects on not just characters, but the geography, people of the land, and magic. Try to go into the forests just after Uther died, for instance, and a character is likely to run into monsters like dire wolves. Go back when Arthur is on the throne, though, and the forest and its animals will be tamer. It’s a world very committed to the idea of Divine Right, and how a king affects the universe.

Of course there are monsters. There’s the standards; white hart, Questing Beast, though some more obscure monsters like a variety of werewolves are here too. There’s individual entries for monsters to describe their individual place in Arthurian Europe; chimeras and manticores are rare, ogres and trolls are common, etc. The real gem of the monster section, though, is giants and dragons; giants and dragons are staples of knightly mythology, after all, so they get special treatment. Just like people, dragons and giants are categorized by class and bloodline; a noble dragon, for instance, will have scales the color of gold and be the size of a castle, where a lowborn dragon looks like the wrong end of a snake and an umbrella. Naturally, there’s more Honor to be gained fighting one instead of the other. It’s a great system that reflects how, along with the King, giants and dragons are tied to the land.

But the cincher, the real hook that I think makes this book worthy of a true Arthurian legend fan, is the sample adventures and appendix. I, Mordred gave you one shot of teaming up with Arthurian big names; Legend of Excalibur gives you three. Fresh adventurers can help Sir Balin kill the invisible knight, possibly even averting the grail cycle by killing the knight before he reaches Pellam’s castle. More powerful adventurers have to choose sides in the civil war, and Mordred is once again an option. But my favorite of the three adventures has the player characters helping a young Arthur claim a castle. It would be satisfying enough to rub elbows with the likes of Merlin or Sir Kay, but then there’s a side-quest where young Arthur sees Guinevere and is instantly smitten, so he conscripts the players into acting as his go-between for her. Players have to deliver Arthur’s notes Guinevere. They can read the love poems he writes for her; they’re awful. It’s just such a wonderful little detail that it’s hard not to love it.

And then, finally, there is the appendix; a whole cast of Arthurian characters statted out. It would be impossible to cover EVERYONE, but Legends of Excalibur makes a fair effort. LoE remembers some characters that typically get left behind; Dagonet, Morgausse, Sir Bors, etc. Some characters, such as Arthur, are presented at different stages in their life. All-in-all it makes a good roundout for what I’d call easily the best book about Arthurian legend in Dungeons and Dragons, if not one of the best tabletop roleplaying.

If you scanned past all that; this is the book to get for Arthurian legend in D&D. Legends of Excalibur is the beginning, middle, and end of the argument for Arthuriana with tabletop roleplaying. Even if you don’t play 3rd edition, or even D&D, it’s still a valuable resource in converting Arthurian Europe into a tabletop fantasy setting. The only way you could get more in-depth is if you made an entire RPG about Arthurian legend.

But maybe let’s talk about that some other time, huh?

#arthurian mythology #arthurian legend #dungeons and dragons #king arthur #arthuriana #long post

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thedefinitionofbts · 7 years ago

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Gifting you the stars

Pairings: Kim Namjoon x Reader

Genre: Romance, Fluff

Words: 7.5K

Description: While on your quest to find a book for East Asian History class, you meet a charming owner of an old bookstore who offers a helping hand. It is then that you learn about a story that is painted in the sky, uncovering a mystery you never knew existed.

The atmosphere just before it begins to rain is peaceful enough to freeze the world and humid enough to urge the thickly gathered clouds to condense and form the pellets of liquid that trickle down from the light grey sky. Traces of musky dampness are brought over by the breeze that drifts towards your face, lifting strands of your hair into the air and pushing the dried autumn leaves that have piled on the ground into swirls of dancing feathers. It was the signature of fall, a solemn reminder of the summer that had passed and the new journey that awaits.

Being a freshman in a new city and starting a new life at the beginning of the school year is enough to make you take a deep, sedative breath, quelling the anticipation of change and soaking in the unacquainted yet stimulating surroundings. The tree-lined avenues of the metropolis are bustling, everyone seems to have something to do, somewhere to go. Trickling here and there are the sounds of transient movement, the humming of car engines, the click of heels against the smooth pavement.

Passing by charmingly decorated antique shops, clothing stores, and cafés, a bookstore surely should not be difficult to find.

History of East Asia, a class that you were required to take as a History major, was starting soon, and the professor had sent all the students who had registered for the course an email last week explicitly stating that everyone needed to find a book before the first day of class. It was supposed to be a book that revealed some sort of belief the ancients had and give insight into their culture through their legendary stories. The instructions were vague, and you had absolutely no idea where to even begin looking, but you figured coming down to explore the city might give you some inspiration or at least allow you to stumble upon something interesting.

It seemed like a good idea in your head, but the weather clearly wasn’t in your favor, because just as you had predicted, a rumble originating from the sky signaled the beginning of the impending rain. Luckily it wasn’t pouring, but you knew if you didn’t find shelter soon, you would end up soaked regardless.

You stumble upon an old looking bookstore just as you were racing along the sidewalk to find cover. It’s glass window offered a glimpse of the inside, dark and stoic, a subtle reminder that in any other situation you probably wouldn’t have entered, but the rain was beginning to fall harder and it seemed like the best option at the time.

You cautiously push open the unlocked door; a ring of a bell, followed by silence greets you. You immediately notice the shelves worn with age, the narrow spiraling staircase that goes up to what you assume to be the second floor, and the disarray of books that looked like they were most likely used, rather than new. It must be one of those collectable shops, and you were thinking perhaps you lucked out because this place had to have some high-quality history books based on the look of it.

A hue of excitement churns in your stomach, but the eerily still ambiance hits you just as suddenly. The lights were dim, the air was dry, and it almost seemed like the store was empty. There wasn’t even a worker at the checkout counter.

“Hello? Is anyone here?”

You hear a painful grunt come from the upstairs, followed by the sound of a stack of books falling over. There’s a creak from the floorboard, shuffling of steps, and soon the figure of a man walking down the stairs, hand gripping on to the thin wiry railing as he descends.

He was tall, lean, and looked a bit too young to own such an old bookstore. He was wearing a dark navy beanie, a pair of khaki pants, and a short-sleeved button up that matched his attire.

“Hi there” He says when he sees you. A wide smile spreads across his face, causing a pair of lovely dimples to form on his cheeks.

“Hi.. sorry about that” You apologize for startling him and causing him to drop a stack of books or fall from a ladder from what it sounded like.

“Oh, don’t be. Happens all the time.” He laughs to himself slightly. “Can I help you with something?”

“Ummm, I was wondering if you had any books on urban legends of East Asia.” You inquire, looking around at the messy shelves and wooden walls.

“Hmmm...” He pauses to think. “I think there’s a pile of those somewhere around here.” He says as he peers around and begins heading for the stairs again. “Are you looking for any one in particular?”

“No, just something related should be fine. It’s for this class of mine.” You answer as you follow him upstairs. The steps creak, and for a moment you question if it’s even sturdy enough to carry the weight of two people.

“Oh, you go to school here?”

“Yeah, first year of university.”

“Nice.”

You’re met with a cramped attic-like space; a lone window off to the side tells you it’s still raining outside, if the pitter-patter of the water droplets against the ceiling wasn’t telltale enough. Your attention shifts to the piles upon piles of tattered pages and fall-apart bindings.

“These are all supposedly related to East Asian history.” He says as he stares at the unorganized stack of books in the corner. “Unfortunately I haven’t gotten around to organizing them yet. My father left them behind right before he left me this bookstore. He’s been collecting them for years, but you’re free to take a look.”

“Thanks” You breath out as you eye the books curiously.

“I’m Namjoon by the way.” He says, after realizing you guys haven’t had a proper introduction yet.

“Oh, I’m Y/N” You reply, turning to face him again.

He chuckles again, looking down at the ground and then back up at you.

“I can help you look through this mess.” He offers. “I was tidying this place up anyways.”

You smile. “Yes, please do.” You giggle. “I’d probably screw things up if I were left alone with all this.” You wave your arms, gesturing to the piles and piles of unopened boxes.

And so the two of you begin working your way through the piles and stuffed boxes. There were a lot of books covering the various dynasties of China, Korea, and Japan, the wars between the separately governed states, countless invasions and periods of peace, and even documentations of trade, new world inventions, and the evolution of languages throughout the region. None of it was really suited for what your professor had instructed and just as you were about to search through another box, one distinctively dilapidated scroll, hidden at the very bottom of the container you were rummaging through, grabs your attention.

You cautiously pick it up, untie the frayed string that was keeping it bound tightly, and watch as it unravels, a plum of dusk being released in the process.

“The Origin of the Stars” You read out loud as your eyes gloss over the title.

Namjoon’s ears perk up at the sound of your voice, and he moves over closer to you to take a peek at the item you were now gripping between your fingers.

“Hmmm, I’ve never seen that one.” He comments.

You turn to look at him. “I wonder what it’s about. It’s not exactly a book, but it sounds kind of promising.”

He reaches over, fingers gently brushing the surface. You can’t help but notice how long they were, and how elegantly they danced along the scroll.

“In the beginning there was only darkness…” He murmurs, reading the first line vertically. The artistic brushstrokes of the calligraphy were fading, but the characters were still very much readable.

In the beginning there was only darkness. Beyond the mystical hour of twilight, when the sun sets below the horizon, nightfall would bring a kind of darkness that was neither daunting nor worrisome, but simply natural. It was just the way things were since time first began. The gods from the sky would look down at the humans, watching them return to their cots at the end of the day and close their eyes until light from the dawn would cause them to awaken once again. This cycle continued uninterrupted until one day, out of pure curiosity, one of the celestial gods of the night decided to take on the form of a human to learn about and understand human emotion in the realm of the mortal.

On his first day, he came across a beautiful girl playing by a river. Even in ragged clothing and unkempt hair, she was breathtakingly gorgeous, more so than any of the goddesses he’s seen up in the heavens. The celestial god was confident that she would fall for his appearance as well, but upon introduction, it was clear that she was not interested in the way he looked but rather his innate curiosity. She would laugh at his astonished reaction to mundane things, unaware that he was not of her world. And he in turn, was captivated by her contagious delight and humble origins. He spends the entire day with her, running around the vividly green forest, catching fish in the cooling flow of the river, and finally watching her fall asleep as the blinding light from the sun disappeared.

On that first day, a single star appeared in the night sky.

“A single star appeared in the night sky?” You whisper, reading the last sentence of the scroll. “This doesn’t seem like the end of the tale.”

“There must be another scroll,” Namjoon says, as he turns and begins rummaging through more boxes. He lifts the box next to the one where you found the scroll and flips it over to dump all the contents out. A large plume of dust torrents throughout the room as the old books come crashing to the floor.

“Whoa there” You comment as you cough and attempt to fan the dust particles away from your face. “Shouldn’t you be more careful with those?” You smirk, as he turns and looks at you as if he’s done nothing wrong.

“Even if I didn’t tip the box over, these probably would’ve fallen out from the bottom right as I lifted it.” He replies, shaking his head.

“Sounds like it’s happened before, and more than just a couple of times.” You laugh.

“Ha, yeah, my friends used to call me the god of destruction” He states.

The two of you continue to search through the rest of the boxes and the piles of already organized books, but come out empty handed. It seems like this story was becoming a dead end, and you decide it’s probably best to just give up and look for something else for class. It was a real pity, because the title had sounded so intriguing and you really wanted to know what happens next.

“Maybe my dad kept part two in his library at home.” Namjoon says.

“You have a library at your house?” You ask surprised.

He nods. “If you want, you can come over someday.” He offers. “I know we just met and all, but I promise I’m not going to kidnap you.”

At that you laugh once again. “And I’m going to trust you based on your word alone?” You question jokingly.

“Yeah��I do sound kind of creepy.” He agrees, scratching the back of his neck.

“How about you take me to a library this weekend and see if we can find the rest of the story there?” You suggest, weighing the options in your head and deciding that it’s better to get to know him out in public before agreeing to go to his house.

Namjoon’s face instantly lights up at your suggestion. “Sounds like a plan” He responds with another flash of his dimple-framed smile.

…

You enjoy some peace and quiet that Friday night, most of the students haven’t moved back on campus yet, and it was mainly just the freshman that have already arrived the past week because of orientation and the need to tend to other required matters. Finishing you’re simple microwave meat that, like all microwave meals, falls short of satisfactory, you glance at your roommate’s empty bunk. She had contacted you, informing of her delayed move-in due to some summer job that hadn’t ended yet.

Amidst your unpacking, you came to realize the dorm room was way too small to fit all of the things you brought from home. Although you had attempted to place things in an orderly manner, they looked chaotically cluttered in the limited space that was available. Sighing, you decide to give up the unpacking until you address the issue of organizing everything more efficiently.

You slump back in your desk chair and look out the window. The sky was dark, nearly pitch black, with nothing but the crescent moon visibly bright enough to emit a distinctive glow. The lights of the buildings downtown in the distance were pretty, a vivid contrast to everything else in the background of the night. It pulled your thoughts back to the story, and made you wonder how impossibly dark the world must’ve been back in the day, before the discovery of electricity or the invention of candles.

Tomorrow you would be seeing Namjoon again. There was still so much you didn’t know about him yet, and it felt sort of crazy that you were making him help you find a story for East Asian History when you literally just met him two days ago. But you figured it wouldn’t hurt to meet new people, and he was nice, albeit a bit clumsy, but something hidden within his sweet smile made him seem nonthreatening. And you sincerely hoped you weren’t making a bad decision in trusting him.

…

You arrive back at Namjoon’s bookstore on Saturday, only to find that it was locked and there seemed to be no one inside. Maybe he doesn’t open this early in the morning. You silently think to yourself.

“Y/N!” You hear a deep male voice call from behind you. Whipping your head around, you see the vaguely familiar face of the bookstore owner approaching you.

“Hey, Namjoon” You respond, waving back at him.

“Sorry, I’m late” He says as he leans over and tries to catch his breath from the running you assumed he was doing to rush to the bookstore where you were waiting for him.

“Actually, you’re right on time” You say with a smile. He pulls out his phone from his pocket and glances at the time, a surprised expression flashes across his face.

“Damn, I could’ve sworn I was going to be late and you would’ve left.” Namjoon says, he chuckles to himself once again, thinking back one how frantic he was trying to get ready this morning because his alarm didn’t ring even though he had set three of them, each five minutes apart in the case he was tempted to hit snooze. “How depressing that would’ve been.” He mutters, thinking you couldn’t hear him.

“I think I could’ve handled that” You respond, assuming he meant you would’ve been pissed if he didn’t show up. Of course, it didn’t really matter; you would’ve just gone to the library by yourself in that case.

“Oh, I mean, me…” Namjoon says, face flushing.

You feel a small flutter in your chest at his response. Was he looking forward to this that much? After all it was just a trip to the library, but you underestimated how much this arraignment meant to Namjoon.

The two of you walk along the blocks of the city, past the parks that were constructed throughout the city to promote a greener way of life. It was something you had noticed the first day you were here, with the tree lined streets and trash separation bins. The sidewalks were clean, no litter on the ground and the blocks were filled with numerous interesting modern buildings designed by talented architects. It was a mild day; sunny with an occasional cool breeze, just chilly enough to know that fall was in the air.

“So I assume the bookstore is closed on Saturdays?” You turn to ask.

“Actually, we haven’t opened yet” Namjoon replies. “I just moved back home and decided to open it this month. Which is why I’m still in the process of organizing everything.”

“Oh, that’s why there was not one there.” You comment in realization, thinking back on how empty it was when you first entered.

“Haha, yeah” Namjoon chuckles. “I just graduated last spring semester, and since I’ve loved books ever since I was young, I decided opening a bookstore would be cool. Especially since my dad was planning on selling his collection.”

“A book lover. I see.” You nod, so you were right about him being young. For a second there you were mulling over this irrational fear that he was just a middle-aged man who looked like he was in his mid-twenties. “Is there anything else you’d like to reveal?” You throw him a sly grin.

“Well…I also like to compose music, and I was an underground rapper during my university days.” Namjoon shrugs as if it was no big deal.

“What? Ok, you just got ten times more interesting.” You laugh, perking up at his unexpected response.

“Do I not look it?” He questions, glancing at you with a grin.

“It’s not that” You return the action. “It’s just I haven’t had the chance to meet many underground rapper turned bookstore owners.”

Now it’s his turn to laugh. “Hey, rap lyrics can be very poetic.” He defends. “I’m just passionate about the arts. Music, poetry, books… they’re the things I gravitate towards, that which compels me to discover and create.”

“Same.” You respond, lifting your head and squinting at the bright rays of the sun cascading down. “Although my parents have always steered me towards the sciences, hoping I’d become a doctor or engineer.” You sigh, thinking back on how disappointed your father was when you told him you were going to major in history. “But I was always more of ‘right-brained’, drawn towards the stories told by people.”

“Your family too?” Namjoon raises an eyebrow. “My mom was exactly the same way, but I convinced her to support my self chosen endeavors.” Namjoon turns his head towards the sky as well. The two of you linger there, spacing out for a long moment, one that feels serene akin to the atmosphere right before it rains. “Science, medicine, engineering, those are all necessary pursuits, and I am by no means downplaying their importance, but the arts? It’s what makes us unique as human beings. It gives us reason to live, an incentive to push on no matter how hard life gets.”

You turn back towards Namjoon the same time he slowly turns towards you. There’s a second when your eyes meet, and you realize it’s the first time you’re actually focused on looking into his eyes, and in that infinitesimal amount of time, not even long enough for you to blink, the two of you linger just long enough to feel a connection, a “click” as most people like to call it.

“So, um, how’s class?” Namjoon clears his throat and diverts his eyes.

“It starts next week.” You respond, voice wavering ever so slightly and facing forward once again.

The library was an old building, located in the corner of a forest-like park. Hidden amongst the trees, you probably wouldn’t have found this place had Namjoon not been your guide. It had wooden walls and large glass windows, revealing the rows and rows of bookshelves within. Walking in, you immediately sense the familiar scent of paper and ink, mixed with the sweet, musky smell of the older volumes, wafting in the cool air-conditioned building. It was silent, minus the occasional sound of someone pulling a book off the shelf or the shuffling of feet on the carpeted ground.

“The history section is on the third floor,” Namjoon whispers. You follow him to the elevator, eyes still peering around and trying to soak in the details of the place.

You enter the noticeably smaller room, following to the East Asia section in the western corner. There were calligraphy paintings hanging on the walls, old maps from Western explorers and missionaries who went to the East to spread their beliefs, and dozens of manuscripts placed in glass displays. The place was almost more like a museum than a library. You and Namjoon roam around, keeping an eye out for anything that looked interesting or similar to the scroll back at the bookstore.

“Hey, that one looks like it’s made of the same material as the scroll you have.” You say, pointing towards one unrolled specimen displayed in one of the glass boxes. The both of you walk over to take a look.

“The Origin of the Stars” Namjoon reads. “I hope it’s part two.”

“There’s only one way to find out.” You respond as you begin to read.

On the second day, the celestial god approaches her once again and the girl immediately recognizes him by his voice, a trait that she will continuously use to identify the mysterious man who brightens her days and her nights, unbeknownst to her. Stars continued to appear in the night sky one by one, day after day. Each day the celestial god spent with the girl had him falling deeper and deeper in love with her. Her musical voice that would ignite a flame in him was powerful enough to cause five stars to pop up in one night, and her delicate fingers tracing along the curves and contours of his face would make him jolt in happiness, triggering another three stars to light up the nocturnal expanse.

As the years went by, the celestial god began forgetting about his life up in the heavens, even willing to trade his immortality to be with the girl. But one day, the emperor’s men came on horsebacks in search of a bride who would be the future empress. A woman who would give birth to the eventual heir to the throne, the missing link in the continuation of the current ruling family. The girl was immediately chosen due to her immense beauty, and even though she was severely lacking, the emperor didn’t care as long as the people of the state didn’t find out she had a prominent disability.

“Disability?” You flash Namjoon a questioning look after reading everything.

“That’s what it says.” Namjoon shrugs. “Man, leaving us with another cliffhanger.” He shakes his head.

“I wonder what it means by that. I mean, all of her physical descriptions so far seem to imply she was perfectly healthy. Why would it now bring up the fact that she had a disability? There must be missing pieces to the story.” You try to run through a list of possible explanations in your mind. Thinking that maybe she was missing a limb or hunchback, but the descriptions of her unmatched beauty suggest she had no outer physical shortcoming. Maybe she was unable to bear children, but that wouldn’t make sense because how would the emperor or his men know just by looking at her?

“She was blind.” You hear Namjoon whisper in realization. You turn to look at him, amazed by his conclusion. “In the first part, it mentioned she was not interested in the way the celestial god looked. It also mentions she doesn’t notice the stars appearing in the sky. I think it’s because she can’t actually see any of this happening.”

You look up at Namjoon in awe. “Wow, I’m impressed.” You smile; giving him a nod as a blush slowly appears on the apples of his cheeks.

“It’s just a wild guess,” He voices modestly.

…

As classes finally begin, you start to feel the stress piling on once again. Gone were the carefree days of summer when you didn’t even have to keep track of the days of the week, the passage of time blending everything into a blur of lazy afternoons and late nights. It was all replaced by homework, project due dates, long essays, and forthcoming midterms. Honestly they shouldn’t even be called midterms because the word midterm signifies the one exam taken around the middle of the semester, whereas these were designated midterm 1, midterm 2, and midterm 3. Like how does that even constitute a “midterm”? You contemplate it was probably just named that way to make students feel more accomplished, like “we’re a third of the way done!” or perhaps it was just to make the exam more intimidating than a “mere test”, a warning of “you better study hard or you’ll fail.”

You barely had time during the week to participate in other activities, even though your roommate, Jisoo, dragged you to a music festival once, in which you decided to invite Namjoon because you recalled he was into music and whatnot.

It was actually pretty funny, because Jisoo was the kind of girl who was like the dumb blonde in a group, kind of slow when reacting to new information and always lost in her own little world, so everything that came out of Namjoon’s mouth kind of flew over her head.

“He’s cute,” She said while you two were walking back to the dorm that night after the concert ended and Namjoon had left.

“Who? Namjoon?” You ask, raising an eyebrow. “Y-yeah, he is, I guess” You feel your face heating up at the mention.

“Are you guys dating?” She continues to inquire.

“Us?” You react in surprise. “No, no, we just met a couple of weeks ago.” You respond, brushing it off and trying to calm the strange feeling of excitement churning in your stomach at the thought.

“Aww, well what are you waiting for!” She exclaims. “You guys would be perfect together!”

“Jisoo, calm down, you barely know him,” You say, trying to subside the redness in your face before the lights of the building can make it visible to her.

It was the first time you had considered thinking about Namjoon in the way that Jisoo had mentioned. Although there was always that butterfly feeling in the pit of your stomach ever since the day you conversed with him on the way to the library and that little hint of fondness in the back of your mind, you chose to keep it at bay, absolutely certain that jumping on too quickly would only lead to disaster.

And though you were trying to take things slow, you found yourself gravitating towards him, and it didn’t help that he was so inviting and always offering help whenever you needed him. So throughout the fall, you continued to visit Namjoon at his bookstore on the weekends, often opting to do your homework there rather than at the university library. And it wasn’t just because Namjoon seemed to be knowledgeable about anything and everything, something you soon found out after complaining to him about how difficult some of your classes were, which lead to a long discussion about the Eastern and Western philosophy and metaphysics, but it was because you genuinely enjoyed his company.

He was funny, well-spoken, and at the same time, pretty adorable, getting excited over the most childish things while at the same time, maintaining a rather mature composure. He was someone who was the epitome of having a beautiful mind. His thoughts and opinions were intriguing, and you felt like you could listen to him talk for hours, something you wouldn’t be able to do for most of the people you’ve met in your life so far.

“It was an album showcasing the struggles of youth,” Namjoon says as he tosses you the box, a smooth, matte square, titled “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life”. He continues digging through the box, looking for other examples of his musical works. “I helped compose some of the songs, and my group of friends recorded them in the studio. It actually sold pretty well.”

“Wow, I’ll have to listen to this.” You exclaim, flipping the album over and reading the list of songs.

“Yeah, have a go at it and let me know if you like it” He smiles.

...

It wasn’t just that he was intelligent; it was because his interests were diverse and his personality had multiple layers. He definitely wasn’t the kind of person you would classify as one dimensional, like those people who were super predictable, with hobbies that fell within the spectrum of their personality and what society would label them as. Like the girly girl who loves makeup, acts overly cute, sucks at math, and wouldn’t go near a gym or the nerd who couldn’t dance to save his life. Namjoon was like the idol who was badass on stage but soft and fluffy in his day to day, he was the girl who carried a pink backpack to computer science, a rapper turned bookstore owner.

“Want to grab dinner?” You hear Namjoon’s voice penetrate through your reading.

You look up at the clock hanging on the wall and notice that it’s already 7:00pm on a Saturday night. Time had soared by once again, and you were feeling productive, like you always did when you were studying with Namjoon. It used to feel like a chore, but now you were slowly starting to appreciate the process of acquiring newfound knowledge, thanks to the guy with a dimple-framed smile.

“Yeah, I’m starving” You reply, closing your book and tucking it away.

Walking along the now familiar streets of the once foreign metropolis, the sounds of activity fill your ears once again. The cacophony of moving bodies, the indecipherable conversation of people strolling past, and the occasional music seeping through the opened windows of the cars driving by. With lite up stores and fancy restaurants paving the way, you’re attention is directed towards the familiar figure walking alongside you.

“Namjoon?” You murmur.

“Hmmm?”

“Did you always want to be a bookstore owner?” You randomly inquire, wondering if Namjoon had always followed his passions and had always known what he wanted to do ever since he was young or if there was more to the story. He always seemed like the kind of person who was introspective and knew himself inside out, but at the same time, maybe he also faced the dilemma of not knowing what path to choose in life, like everyone else who doesn’t have their life planned out from the get go.

“Truthfully? No.” He replies, sighing. “This might sound crazy, but I actually really wanted to be a musical artist back when I was in high school.“

“What happened?” You query.

“I decided to take another route in life.” He simple puts it.

You nod, thinking that he probably didn’t have much to say on the matter, but after an almost minute-long pause, he begins speaking again.

“I thought about all the people who’ve put everything they have into that sort of dream but ended up not making it to the top, and remember how hard it actually is and how unlikely it would’ve been for someone like me to have succeed in such a competitive industry.” Namjoon explains.

He sighs again as the two of you walk over a bridge, looking at the city’s skyline that has lit up to beautiful shades of yellow and red from the faint glow of the setting sun. Your eyes trace to the place where Namjoon’s were gazing at, that space between this reality, this world, and something beyond. As if there was something in the air, something out in the distance that his heart was yearning towards, but he knew deep down that he would never reach it.

“But sometimes when I listen to good music or see an artist that I admire, I still feel a tiny, tiny bit of regret. Like maybe I should’ve taken the risk, because it was something I was truly passionate about and haven’t really ever been able to let go of.” He says.

“Hence, the underground rapping and composer side gig.” You finish for him.

“Yup” He nods, turning back to you. The way his eyes land on yours makes butterflies churn in your stomach. There was a sparkle in them you hadn’t seen before, and it was the first time you felt such a tangible tenderness just from someone’s gaze.

“At least you’ve struck a balance.” You say, looking at the way his side profile casts shadows on the cement sidewalk.

“There are no destinations in life, but only endless intersections.” Namjoon states. “I know that no matter what road a person chooses to walk down, they can harness their passions and do great things.” He smiles, and it’s so bright you momentarily think the light emanating from his soul could probably replace the sun that had just dipped below the horizon. “But my first dream is still hard to forget about completely.”

“Like a first love?” You murmur.

“Yeah, exactly” He chuckles. “You seem to understand this so well.” He compliments.

“Nah” You reply. “I’m just blabbering.” Your face flushes slightly. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a dream, dream. Like something I really wanted to be when I was little, and even now I’m just as lost and clueless about life as ever.”

“You’ll find something some day.” He says.

“Perhaps in some alternate universe you are a famous rapper or composer.” You shrug. “It’s kind of what I like to think whenever I fail a test or don’t accomplish something I wanted to.”

Namjoon laughs. “That’s an interesting way of looking at it.”

“Yeah, like in some parallel universe there’s another me who aced that physics exam, and in another one, I’m like some professional athlete or something.” You think about all the times you’ve used this method of self-consolation, but hey, anything that makes you feel better about your failures, no matter how pathetic, is an A+ in your book.

“That’s actually really cool.” Namjoon comments. “So like in some universe I’m this super famous musician called Rap Monster, and maybe I’m in this group with my friends too, and we’re all super successful.” He closes his eyes as if he was watching the scene unfold in his mind.

“It’s not only possible. It has to be true.” You laugh at the dorky name he came up with. “Infinite number of universes means covering all the possibilities, right?”

“That’s awesome” He joins you in your laughter.

When the laughter dies down, there’s a moment of silence hovering between the two of you, one that is in no way uncomfortable, but rather perfect for the moment. Kind of like the calm after the storm, when sunlight finally breaks through the thickly gathered clouds after centuries of rain, or the way contrasting colors in flowery meadows and metropolitan lights make the entire world come alive, or simply the unspoken understanding only exhibited in soulmates.

“Y/N?”

“Hmmm?”

Namjoon laughs and does that signature thing where he shakes his head and looks at the ground. “I know you see me as this well-spoken and composed scholar, but you’re so amazing and my heart is beating so fast right now” He tentatively looks back up at you. “I don’t think I can form the words for what I want to tell you.”

You feel your own heart beat quicken, as you take a step closer to him.

“You don’t have to” You whisper into the crevice of his ear, knowing exactly what his heart is longing to convey.

…

“So, I found part three” Namjoon says one day while you were typing away on your laptop, frantically trying to finish the 10-page essay that you procrastinated on writing until the day before it was due.

It was nearing the end of the semester and your hectic university life had caused you forget the unfinished story that had first brought you and Namjoon together.

“Part three?” You repeat, lifting your eyes from your screen.

“The Origin of the Stars” He replies. “Found it in my dad’s library.”

“What? Really? Oh my god, I can't believe I totally forgot about that” You exclaim, shutting your laptop and momentarily forgetting about your essay. You were almost done anyways. “Can we go read it?”

“So now you’re willing to come over” Namjoon smirks. “What happened to ‘you might kidnap me’?” He jokes.

You punch him playfully in the shoulder. “I’d gladly be kidnapped by my boyfriend.”

Namjoon’s parents’ house is located on the outskirts of the city, in a suburb south of your university. You find out that they don’t live in a high-rise apartment like most modern households there days but actually own a house, one that looks more like an aesthetically designed vacation getaway. So he really wasn’t exaggerating when he said his father had a full-blown library in their living quarters.

Their backyard was just a grassy field, with a small stream and a lone tree, jutting out in the flat canvas that was the backdrop. It was tranquil, a perfect place to read, and you could only imagine how pretty it must be in the summer or spring.

The library was located on the first floor. It had a spiraling staircase reminiscent of the one back in the bookstore, but much sturdier and grandiose with marble beams and a fresh coat of white paint. One of the walls of the room was entirely made of glass, and although it seemed scary as nightfall crept over the land, Namjoon assured you that there was nothing out in the wild that would come crashing through the glass and attack you.

“Here it is” Namjoon says as he walks over from the shelf that he had retrieved the scroll from. You stare at the neatly rolled up manuscript, preserved as well as it possible can, it’s year of conception unknown.

The two of you sit by the fireplace that was turned on to provide light and warmth. There was nothing but the sound of the crackling flame as you began unraveling the third and final part to the story.

Even when the girl was taken into the palace, the celestial god would sneak in and spend the evenings with her. Secretly visiting her in the emperor’s gardens, listening to her sing, and feeding the koi fish in the pond hidden under the guise of the night while the rest of the world slept. This went on for many days and many eves, but it was not long before the emperor found out about the man who had been seducing his bride, and orders for him to be hunted down and executed.

The celestial god never had the chance to bid farewell to the girl. The death of his human body initiated the returning of his spirit to his former godly form, an attribute of the immortal. The only thing he was reluctant to leave behind in the realm of mortals was the girl who had captured his heart. And so as a last gift to the girl, he used his powers to grant her the ability to see.

She was unaware of why the mysterious man stopped visiting her, but one night as she awoke, opening her eyes to see the world for the first time. She walked out to her balcony, tilted her head up, and saw a sky full of stars.

“Ah, you were right about her being blind” You say after reading the last sentence.

Namjoon chuckles lightly. “Yeah, I guess I was.” He sighs.

“Well, that was a bummer” You voice, thinking about how long you spent hunting down the mystery of this story only to find that it was actually not that interesting after all. “It’s probably just one of those stories the ancients told to their children to explain where the stars came from. Like how your parents respond when you ask them where babies come from.”

At that Namjoon laughs. “Could be…” He trails off. “Or it’s just another love story”

“Yeah, love story…” You repeat, pursing your lips. You knew Namjoon wasn’t the type of guy to just brush it off as something trivial, but you were still hoping the story would be deeper than this.

Namjoon laughs, that signature chuckle that stems from his soul. “Not exciting enough for you?”

“Eh” You shrug. “It’s alright, I guess…”

He takes a minute to ponder over your statement. “I’d say people don’t give the concept of love enough credit. It always gets mistaken for sappy romance, but in reality, love comes in many forms. It’s the root of passion, the passion for innovation, design, and creation. It can be concealed beneath pain, sorrow, hatred, and it can just as easily shape itself into blissful happiness or calming nostalgia.” He explains, giving his honest opinion like always. “I don’t think any of us can survive without it.”

You turn to look at him, seeing that same sparkling clarity in his eyes when he’s deep in thought or about to let his heart speak for his mind that usually in control.

“It pretty obvious that the stars in the night sky represents the amount of love that celestial god had for the girl, and that’s probably why nowadays we like to say we want to gift someone all the stars in the night sky when we love them. But I think there maybe a bit more symbolism here than meets the eye.” Namjoon comments after you’ve made your doubt known. “Like even if she could see, her lonely nights would’ve still been dark.”

You continue to look at Namjoon, who was staring at the flames dancing in fireplace, their warm hues reflecting off his peacefully pondering face, ricocheting off the reflection in his dark pupils.

“By gifting her the stars, he was conveying something along the lines of ‘no matter if it’s day or night, your world shall be dark no longer’.”

…

As the semester was coming to an end and winter break was approaching, the stress from college life was alleviated, and you had way more time on your hands now that you’ve turned in your final paper. The snowy season had casted the world in blankets of white. The wind was painfully cold, but the air was crisp and cool, comfortable enough to take a drive up the cliff outside the city, where “artificial lights wouldn’t hinder the picturesque landscape” as Namjoon had stated.

He had invited you to a night of “stargazing” as he had put it, wanting to celebrate the end of the story as well as the end of your first semester in university.

You gaze up at the infinite pattern of the starry expanse, vast, endless, and the closest thing to an eternity that you could probably see from earth. The firmament was black, but something about the atmosphere made it seem like there was a tint of blue, a multidimensional type of black with layers of void, speckled with shimmery crystals and shiny trails of light.

“It’s telling you what I’m thinking.” Namjoon says, as walks up behind you.

“Your love that is forever?” You voice, throwing your best guess at why Namjoon decided to bring you here and show you the night sky.

He walks over and stands beside you, gazing up at the scene that your eyes were fixated on. “The stars are always there, even when you can’t see them. Their visibility changes, depending on where you are and under what circumstances you’re viewing them in, but they are always there. They slowly come into view during twilight mixing with the pink and lavender hues of the fading light, and gradually wane out as the baby blue and yellow tints of dawn approaches, but they are always there. They shine the brightest at night when you need them the most, and without them our universe would not exist.” Namjoon pauses, letting the breathtaking scenery soak in even deeper. “I can’t promise you a forever, but I want my love to be gifted to you as the stars.”

You turn towards him, standing on your tippy toes as you reach up as if you were plucking a star out of the starry expanse, and connect your lips with Namjoon’s. He leans down and returns the gesture with more fervor than you had initiated, wrapping his arms around your waist and lifting you off the ground.

“I love you too,” You voice in a breathy whisper, breaking away for half a millisecond before heading straight back in for more.

...

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