#author: celaenos

[stcries]

my god, WHY IS SHE SO PRETTY?? ...

[sqsupernova]

Title: and love's the best sensation, hiding in the lion's mane [manips] Link: Click Here To View and Comment Artist: Dragoon23 Find them on: -Twitter: -Tumblr: Drag-oon23

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Title: and love's the best sensation, hiding in the lion's mane Link: Click Here To View and Comment Author: celaenos Find them on: -Twitter: -Tumblr: banrions Rating: Mature Warning(s): No Archive Warnings Apply Words: 56k Summary: Regina takes a moment to study Emma. She wonders what form this woman’s dæmon would take, if it were outside of her and visible. She tries to find the traces of Henry in her. Tries not to reach out and strangle the woman and be done with it. It’s tempting. She’s wanted this woman dead since she was merely an idea blooming inside of Snow White’s womb. And now, she is here. She is Henry’s birth mother. (or, the one where it's a dæmon fusion au).

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Remember - writers and artists spent months creating the fics and art you enjoy, so it would mean the world to them if you commented to tell them what you liked! A creator who feels appreciated is a creator who is more likely to write or create art again in the future!

[aftercamlann]

ACBB 2023 MASTERPOST

Thank you to all our wonderful writers, artists, beta readers and hype readers who participated in this years After Camlann Big Bang! We hope you will consider participating again this year!

Below is the final masterlist for After Camlann 2023:

*** Title: This Remarkable Season Author: s0mmerspr0ssen Artist: PapySanzo89 Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, side: Leon/Morgana, Gwen/Lancelot, Gwaine/Percival, (temporary) Cenred/Merlin, surprise/minor pairings Rating: Explicit Word count: 79,313 Summary: Arthur Pendragon, Crown Prince of Camelot, must marry. King Uther expects him to choose a high-ranking noble, preferably a lady, from amongst the Camelot ton. But as fate would have it, the Prince finds himself drawn to Mr Merlin Emrys, an obscure gentleman from the countryside. Merlin, impoverished and desperate to save his family from complete ruin, must marry, too. Feelings are secondary, for the match must be an advantageous one. Soon, both Arthur and Merlin are caught between the pressure of expectations and what their hearts truly desire…

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: The Chough's Call Author: Aro_Tarot Artist: Winnett Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, Mordred/Daegal Rating: Teen and Up Word count: 85,861 Summary: When Arthur went back to his hometown to find his missing sister, he wasn’t sure what he would find. He simply hoped that there would be some clue that would lead him to her. A clue, he did find, but instead of pointing him in a direction, it led to him being knocked out and waking up in a different world, one with magic.

Taken, rescued, and now staying in a refugee sanctuary, Arthur was now not just searching for his sister but also the figure known in history and legend as the Once and Future King. As he works as an assistant to a sorcerer named Merlin, befriends a group of knights, and is accompanied with his childhood figurine turned living chough, Arthur starts to question if he would want to go home after all of this is over. Of course, that is only if the others and him can survive the prophecy, the return of the ancient evil known as the Ivory, and if Emrys can fulfill his part by finding the Once and Future King.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: I hear that deserts heal your history Author: Celaenos Artist: gramnel Pairings/Characters: Morgana & Arthur, Merlin/Morgana, Arthur/Merlin Rating: Mature Word count: 68,355 Summary: Morgana pushes herself up slowly, looking around. She is in the backseat of a car, in what looks like a vast and empty desert, pulled off against the side of a highway. No cars, no people anywhere that she can see. A blonde woman is sleeping in the front passenger seat. Morgana stares at her, confusion overwhelming, even as the dawning horror builds the longer that Morgana studies her features. The sharp edges are there: the tilt of her chin, the shape of her nose, the way that her mouth opens just slightly—it’s all there plain as day, and Morgana feels faint. Furious. Terrified. Why now, after all this time?

She crawls over, flinging open the backseat and vomits down into the dirt.

In the front seat of the Cadillac, the reincarnation of her brother wakes with a start.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Flicker Of A Candlelight, Heat Of An Inferno Author: lavender_spice Artist: MerlinLikeTheBird Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, Gwen/Morgana Rating: Teen and Up Word count: 93,168 Summary: When Merlin gets injured on a hunting trip, Arthur is forced to face his true feelings for his stubbornly loyal manservant. Merlin is everything he should not want, and yet Arthur struggles to keep his feelings at bay.

On top of all this, after learning of his father's lies and hypocrisy, Arthur hatches a plan to put an end to his people's suffering once and for all, finding unlikely allies along the way.

Can the two boys intertwined by destiny navigate their relationship amongst betrayal, secrecy, and a near-impossible mission?

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Charlatans and Ruffians Author: thenerdyindividual Artist: kairennart Pairings/Characters: Arthur/Gwaine/Merlin Rating: Mature Word count: 84,980 Summary: Merlin and Gwaine spend their days bopping around kingdoms, performing for the masses in exchange for petty coin. Sometimes they perform for room and board. When they perform at a tavern, the tavern owner gives Merlin a ring for payment, everything changes. Turns out the ring was haunted by the ghost of Queen Ygraine Pendragon. Now Ygraine is threatening to haunt Merlin for the rest of his life if he doesn't travel to Camelot to protect her son Arthur.

He goes to Camelot, and it turns out that Arthur is a huge pain in the ass. But he's also kind and does his best for his people, and that has Merlin and Gwaine falling for him.

If only Merlin didn't have to contend with a genocidal king and political plot involving the Kingdom of Magic.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: till our souls catch us up Author: EachPeachPearPlum Artist: griffonskies Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin (Merlin), Morgana (Merlin), Gwaine (Merlin), Lancelot (Merlin), Percival (Merlin), Leon (Merlin), Elyan (Merlin), Gwen (Merlin), Mordred (Merlin), Freya (Merlin), Uther Pendragon (Merlin), Morgause (Merlin), Nimueh (Merlin) Rating: Mature Word count: 47,641 Summary: "Everyone but Uther Pendragon will be allowed to live," the voice says, echoing through Arthur's bones, the raw power of it terrifying beyond anything he’s ever felt, and he knows that even if the owner of the voice can be trusted to spare his citizens, the offer of sanctuary does not extend to him.

Or: When Camelot falls to an army of sorcerers, Arthur expects to follow his father to the pyre. Instead, he’s surprised when the new king spares his life, although he’s not entirely sure death wouldn’t have been better than spending the rest of his days locked in his room, waiting for Emrys to get bored of having him around.

What follows is a tale of murder attempts, evil schemes, and a mysterious prophecy.

And destiny, of course.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: In A Land Of Snarky Dragons Author & Artist: BGN846 (bgn_846) Pairings/Characters: Merlin & Arthur Rating: Teen and Up Word count: Word Count: 48,369 Summary: Merlin is living the best life, learning how to raise dragons from his dragonlord father, Balinor, on their farm. This teenager has not a care in the world (magic is legal) until the local druids pay a visit. Merlin is not happy to discover he has a destiny featuring another person he’s never met. Once and future king his arse, not on his farm. Ignoring the prophecy with the mystery no named future king, Merlin tries to pretend everything is fine.

However, one giant, scaled, slightly bored troublemaker named, Kilgharrah, decides that this prophecy of destiny and kings is the perfect adventure to get his blood pumping. So the great dragon does what he does best, and proceeds to stir the proverbial pot.

Cue, kidnappings, rescues, attempted coups, and a fair amount of dragons all to keep destiny on track.

Story and Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: it’s a fated thing Author: fabledfrog Artist: a_star_is_here Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon - Arthur Pendragon, Merlin, Gwen, Morgana Pendragon, the Knights of the Roundtable, OCs Rating: Teen and Up Word count: 34,848 Summary: Merlin has a good life. He sleeps in the royal bed, sits on the king's right, uses magic out in the open, free and never again hidden.

He likes the first bit, is tired of the second, and is still awed by the last.

When he first told Arthur, he hadn't expected them to work together to destroy the destinies that had been written since the dawn of time; he hadn't thought that they would be able to change their path so drastically that everything would be different.

He hadn't even realised it, when all had been said and done. He'd only learned the truth of what they had done when he had gone to the Crystal Caves and they had shown him what his life could have been.

He'd thought they were safe from it; the cruel fate that had awaited them was averted.

Only, not everyone was happy with that.

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In which Merlin's magic is used to create problems for the future. Or the past. All time in general.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: We Are Made for Flying Author: remaymber Artist: CaughtInTheRa1n Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur, side: Morgana/Leon, Gwen/Lance, Percival/Gwaine, Freya, Hunith, Uther Rating: Mature Word count: 62,114 Summary: When Arthur sees Merlin for the first time at Camelot circus, he knows he is doomed. What makes his fate even worse is that Merlin seems dead set on hating him. But as destiny wants it, they find they need each other to solve the mystery that is Uther Pendragon to protect Camelot. As time passes and slowly the questions asked turn into answers with grave consequences, the final question remains: Do opposites attract, or will their differences be insurmountable after all?

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) Author: salamandair Artist: Stelle Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Rating: Mature Word count: 30,490 Summary: Seven years ago, Merlin and Arthur were engaged to be married. They were happy, in love and had plans to create a better future

Seven years ago, Arthur’s world was turned upside down and the lovers broke off their engagement.

Seven years later, Arthur Pendragon is now Albion’s youngest Prime Minister in history and hates anything to do with magic.

Seven Years later, Merlin Wyvern is now the leader of a rights group fighting for equal rights for magic users.

Now, their separate worlds collide as a decades-long fight finally comes to a head to change Albion forever.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Nerdboy and the Incredible Prat Author: bad_peppermint Artist: paintedpigeon Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon Rating: Teen and Up Word count: 34,828 Summary: The guy Merlin keeps running into at Comic-Con, wearing matching cosplay, just might be his soulmate. Too bad he’s kind of an asshole.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: The Reluctant Prince Author: Cookie Artist: Schweet_heart Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Rating: Mature Word count: 33,900 Summary: Arthur has never really wanted to be a prince, and the thought of being king in the future fills him with dread. But that is his destiny and not even falling in love with a stage magician called Merlin can change that.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Out of the Dark (Into the Light) Author: MyKingdomComeUndone Artist: Profiad Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur, Morgana, Gaius, Gwen, Lancelot, Mordred, Will, Sophia, Edwin, Valiant, Anhora Rating: Explicit Word count: 40,894 Summary: Instead of participating in a deadly drinking game by the sea to save Camelot from unicorn-related famine, Arthur finds himself in a cave, along with a bunch of total strangers. The catch? The only thing each of them remembers is their own name. Before panic can truly set in, an old man with a staff appears out of thin air to tell them it’s all part of a test: only the first of them to reach the exit will be permitted to leave. The others won’t be so lucky…

The quest sounds straightforward enough, but on the way, Arthur and his fellow amnesiacs are faced with wicked traps, dangerous creatures, and some threats that may even come from within their group. And as if that’s not enough trouble to face without his memories to guide him, Arthur also has to deal with his increasingly distracting feelings for a certain dark-haired sorcerer among their group, going by the name of ‘Merlin’…

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: A Smooth Sea Never Made A Skilled Pirate Author: Pearl09 Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, Merlin, Arthur, Leon, Gwaine, Lancelot, Uther Rating: Teen and Up Word count: 41,752 Summary: Arthur grew up in Camelot, next to the sea. However, he was never allowed out on the water. As the one thing out of his reach, it was the one place he yearned to be—even just to briefly experience the open ocean. When he finally decides to take his life in his own hands and hears rumors of a pirate ship nearby that might let him on board and out of the city, he has no idea what is really in store for him.

Story is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Chase the Sun Author: MerlinLikeTheBird Artist: wortvermis Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur, Morgana, Gwen, Gwaine, Leon, Freya Rating: Teen and Up Word count: 27,572 Summary: “We lived together before and we both survived, didn’t we?” Arthur doesn’t take the bait.

“Barely,” Merlin answers, picturing their uni days. The first taste of living with anyone other than his mother or sleepovers with Will. It all made for strange, dreamlike memories, for all that it has only been a few years past.

He feels like a very old twenty five most times. He shouldn’t be this age and so tired.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Take Me Up (cast me away) Author: sacredraisincakes Artist: Athena Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Rating: Explicit Word count: 58,975 Summary: In an effort to ease tensions between the kingdoms of Albion, Arthur plans a summit to bring together each of the monarchs to create a treaty between them. But schemes from within his own kingdom force him to change his plans ever so slightly.

"No one will believe us."

"They will... We'll start now, and over the next few weeks make it more and more obvious, until the moment we announce our engagement... Then once our visitors are gone, we simply end the betrothal. Everything goes back to the way it was."Edits for the main houses of sparringett's epic Merlin/GoT crossover fic (to be posted later, hopefully).

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: I Don't Know How to Start Author: thetreeofwillow Artist: Shadow_Hole Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur. Other characters: Gwen, Gaius, Morgana Rating: Mature Word count: 38,605 Summary: When Merlin collapses in a long forgotten hallway, Arthur has to fight for his life.

With Camelot still sitting on the edge of destruction following the dragon’s attack, Arthur should be preoccupied with reconstruction and resource management. Instead, Merlin has taken ill, and for some reason, Arthur can’t keep his mind off him.

What is Arthur to do with his kingdom in tatters, his whole world view shifting and his closest relationships rocking closely held beliefs? How is he to handle this while being drawn ever closer to Merlin? Merlin, whose condition is worsening by the day.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Sacrificing All Within Me, To Save Us Author: LadyDanielle Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon Rating: Explicit Word count: 55,286 Summary: In his second year as King of Camelot, Arthur has legalized magic and prospered the kingdom with Merlin's guidance. But rumors spread that Arthur is just a puppet under Merlin's control. Arthur begins to doubt himself - maybe he’s depending too much on Merlin's ideas instead of his own judgment. How can he push past expectations to rule as he chooses, including taking Merlin as his consort openly if he can’t rely on his own decisions.

To prove himself, Arthur makes a risky choice that could be the fall of Camelot. He decides to find out the hard way.

Story is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Fate has made you so Author: slantedknitting Artist: LFB72 Pairings/Characters: Arthur/Merlin, Arthur/Elena Rating: Explicit Word count: 29,351 Summary: It’s 1953, and Arthur is a young, up-and-coming architect working on rebuilding London. All he wants is to be successful and live his life in peace and quiet. All his boss wants is to find a good match for his daughter Elena, and he thinks he’s found that match in Arthur. Arthur agrees to go out with her to get ahead at the firm, but the person he’s really interested in is her friend Merlin, and it turns out Elena has her own purposes for being with Arthur.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Contact High Author: Leandra Artist: Papysanzo Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Rating: Explicit Word count: 84,292 Summary: After a toxic relationship, Arthur is afraid of getting hurt again, but then he meets Gwen, a scriptwriter he collaborates with in one of his film classes. To win her heart, he plans to cook her the best vegan food she has ever had. The idea would be brilliant, but Arthur is neither vegan, nor can he cook. In a desperate move, he enlists the help of Merlin, the obnoxious barista who works at his favourite coffee shop by day, and is a vegan food vlogger by night.

With his past as a young offender, and a history of addiction, Merlin can’t find a job as a chef, and his dream of opening his own restaurant someday seems unreachable. He pours all his passion into his food videos, but while his recipes and personality have what it takes, his video making skills are subpar at best.

Arthur and Merlin put their animosity aside and strike a deal: Merlin will cook for Gwen, and Arthur will claim he made the food, while in exchange, Arthur will help Merlin make better food videos. It seems the perfect way to meet everyone's needs …

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Where Gods Go Artist: mirayladraws Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Rating: Mature Word count: N/A - Art Summary: When Arthur Pendragon gets read in on the Animus project, the last thing he expects is to fall in love and get pulled into a war between Assassins and Templars.

Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Dave Author: Camelittle Artist: LFB72 Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur, side Gwen/Lancelot, side Morgana/Gwaine/Leon, early Merlin/Will, Various UK Panel Show Hosts, OCs, Rating: Teen and Up Word count: 60,342 Summary: Merlin - lover of crunchy fried snacks and secret admirer of his straight flat mate, Arthur - never expected to have a career in comedy. But after trying stand-up on a successful open mic night at university, he finds himself hooked. He and Arthur run a successful late night talk radio for a show for a while, but Arthur’s father intervenes. After a misunderstanding forces them into conflict, Merlin vows never to see Arthur again, to protect his own soft, pathetic, pining heart. Which would be fine, if the UK comedy circuit weren’t so small. But for some reason, they keep bumping into one another - at comedy festivals, and on radio and TV panel shows - and despite everything, the chemistry that made their radio show so popular in the distant past grows stronger than ever.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Reluctantly in Love Author: chaosgenes Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, minor Lancelot/Guinevere Rating: Explicit Word count: 29,923 Summary: Arthur has waited for Naming Day all his life, but could not be more disappointed when he finds out who the Soul Stone names for him. It isn’t the prisoner he meets in the dungeons, but his heart aches for him anyway.

Merlin has never thought about soulmates until they come knocking at his door in Ealdor. Convinced that there’s something wrong with the Soul Stone, he travels to magic-banned Camelot to end its influence. He never thought that he would be enraptured by the crown prince who comes to interrogate him.

Story and Art are here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: Of Oaths Made and Broken Author: Zorbo_Jorks Artist: aueth Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur, Gwaine/Mithian, Elena/Vivian, ft. The Knights, Gwen, Uther, and Morgause Rating: Teen and Up Word count: 48,323 Summary: Kilgwan just smiled— a gleeful presentation of far too many jagged teeth. He leaned forward on his throne and sang, “When the five of you I last did see, five promises you made to me! Three promises are broken now— one yet to test and one still sound.”

Arthur growled, and Morgana made a similar noise beside him.

“Are you serious?” she asked, “That was years ago!”

“A word given is a word to keep,” the creature sang back, ignoring the table’s shouts of dismay, “You sow lost words— dark gifts you reap.”

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As children, Arthur, Morgana, Gwen, Elyan, and Leon made vows to a creature named Kilgwan in the catacombs of Camelot.

Years later, on the even of Arthur's prospective betrothal, they are whisked away to make ammends for breaking them. Merlin and Gwaine must make up for the prince's sudden absence by disguising the latter as Arthur to court Princesses Mithian, Vivian, and Elena in his place, all while Merlin tries to find Arthur and his friends before any ill befalls them.

Amid this, Morgause schemes to kill the Pendragons and Merlin pines for his prince, convinced his love cannot be.

It takes very little for the delicate web of problems to fall into chaos.

Story and Art are here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: All Winding Paths Lead Back Author: Imagined Artist: feuxx Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Rating: Teen and Up Word count: 76,250 Summary: “You’ll give me magical training?” Merlin asks.

Arthur smiles. “Yes, and training in courtly etiquette. I imagine Ealdor doesn’t have nobles?”

“We don’t have nobles, but we do have pigs. And chickens,” Merlin says. When Arthur raises his eyebrows at him, Merlin flushes heavily with embarrassment. “Oh, shut up. My lord.”

“Don’t talk to your king like that,” Arthur says, but he doesn’t actually seem very upset about it, even though Merlin sort of wants to hit himself in the face. “Welcome to Camelot, sorcerer-apprentice Merlin of Ealdor.”

Or: Merlin is sixteen when he comes to Camelot, vying for the new position of court sorcerer that has opened under King Arthur—a noble king, golden and lionhearted, who is trying to legalise magic in all of Albion. Of course, Merlin doesn't expect to be chosen.

But he is.

Story is here | Art is here | Reblog on Tumblr here *** Title: And All the Bells Were Ringing (ARTWORK) Artist: SerpentineWizard12 Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur Rating: Explicit Word count: N/A - Art Summary: “When he grew tired of swimming, Arthur waded out onto the bank and flung himself down without self-consciousness, lying back on his elbows between the roots of the nearest tree. Merlin lingered in the water for some minutes longer, watching the prince’s movements out of the corner of his eye, the way the water collected in the dips and hollows of his body and threatened to run all the way down. There was something unguarded about Arthur when he was like this; Merlin could think of only a handful of moments in which he had seen the prince without his veneer of distance and authority, and each one stood out in his memory like keys to a puzzle box, unravelling the complexity of Arthur’s personality one layer at a time.

Story is here | Reblog on Tumblr here

[haveyoureadthisfanfic]

Summary: Petra swallows, remembering the night in the stairwell. Thinking about how it was the first time Jane had felt real to her since the day they met, and how she didn’t want it to end, and how that was so, so dangerous. To want like that. (Or, Jane marries Petra to save her from Milos. And things start to get real complicated after that.)

Author: @banrions

Note from submitter: LET'S GO WOMEN 👏👏👏

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Haha I was kinda in the same boat as the anon who wanted Lena centric blogs when I finished the show like a year ago, loving Lena more than anyone and just wanting more of her, but in the end your tumblr ended up like the only supergirl one I follow and I’m good with that. I don’t think there are many tumblrs that are only about SG anymore and sadly enough much less only about Lena. I do follow a couple of blogs for KMcGrath gifs but those are easy enough to find

I probably like supercorp much more than them but I still agree with what they wrote about much of the fics. if I might rec some authors that never annoyed me with how they write Lena it would be you, celaenos, inkedroplets, thornedrose44, searidings and I know they are more but those are the ones I remember rn

I can also attest to those authors. Fantastic writers.

[darkmaga-returns]

The Art and Craft of Edward Zwick

The enigmatic Librarian of Celaeno published a piece that focuses on the “reactionary subconscious” of director Edward Zwick, whose oeuvre includes one of my all-time favorite films, The Last Samurai. The author analyzes it alongside Glory, Zwick’s historical war drama about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the Union Army’s first African American regiments:

Edward Zwick is a Jewish boomer liberal from meta-central casting, the creative force behind TV series Thirtysomething and Once and Again: navel-gazing, female-oriented, slice-of-life prime-time dramas that are largely forgotten today. But he is somehow also the auteur behind some of the greatest period war films ever made. While on the surface his movies can appear to be- and have been critiqued as- self-satisfied white-savior mythmaking, they are in fact profoundly subversive of liberal cultural values and offer an incisive critique of modernity, especially the stories it likes to tell of its origins. In that regard, two in particular stand out, Glory (1989) and The Last Samurai (2003).

DEI: Here to Stay

News of the death of diversity, equity, and inclusion appears to be overstated.

A recent survey of Fortune 100 leaders by Windō found that though some companies have publicly distanced themselves from or altogether dropped certain initiatives, DEI has been thoroughly culturally embedded.

[pipermca]

My fic recs continued! Recommendations 5-10 are under the cut.

Please go see this post from @transformativeworks for more info about Feedback Fest and International Fanworks Day!

Audition by crabapplered (M, Jazz/Prowl). Summary: If one were to be delicate, one would say that Jazz and Prowl are incompatible. My comments: Way back when I entered the TF fandom, this was a) my first introduction to “plug and play interfacing,” and b) the first “smutty” story I read that involved an asexual character. Prowl’s efforts to win Jazz over - and the description of how he actually succeeds, and what it does for Jazz - is the hottest thing I’ve ever read that doesn’t actually involve humanized sexual organs. Reading and “seeing” Jazz finally let go and trust Prowl was so… Hnnnrgh. Love it.

Lab Partners by Celaeno (M, Portal crossover, GlaDOS/Shockwave). Summary: In which GLaDOS gets the best surprise ever, Shockwave gets a kick in the pants to solve the ‘whoops the AllSpark exploded and our species is going to die out' issue, and the Oracle Turret keeps being dead-on (but obtuse). My comments: So I saw this story get posted and thought, “Oh, a Portal/Transformers crossover fic. That sounds amazingly silly. I’ll give it a read.” Two and a half hours later, I was thinking, “That was freaking glorious!” Dudes, Shockwave and GlaDOS were made for each other, and it was great fun watching them grow to become friends. All the callbacks to the Portal games, Shockwave’s characterization, GlaDOS’ unique blend of psychopathy and curiosity, Shockwave’s reaction to Cave Johnson’s lemon rant (“bringing extinction’s champion down in a hail of fire and fruit”)��� I sat on my couch randomly cackling and reading good bits out loud. Definitely worth a read!

Spec Ops Mission 98: Jazz's Interrogation at Soundwave's Pedes by @kc-anathema (T, Jazz/ProwlSoundwave and permutations). Summary: Surrounded by the torrid fiction of his fellow Autobots, Jazz uncovers a Decepticon plot hidden amidst their written fantasies. Can the Spec Ops commander turn this plot of high treason into a narrative…of love? OR Jazz is surrounded by a bunch of perverted writers, and wouldn't you know it, one of them is a Decepticon. My comments: This story left me stunned… in a good way. I started reading it as a WIP because the premise sounded hilarious (hahaha, the bots and cons are writing RPF fanfic about each other, hahaha). But as the story went on, it turned into a LOT more. It became a story about love and trust, and forgiveness and boundaries, set against the backdrop of a brutal war. And then when it ended and we got the wrap-up of all the threads that we hadn’t even known existed… Wow. This was an amazing story, and I will definitely read it again someday.

Playing the Long Oddsby @bibliotecaria-d (NR, Prowl/Smokescreen). Summary: A.k.a. the Curious Incident of Too Many Prowls. Starscream will never look at Prowl the same, but neither will Smokescreen. My comments: I love this story in so many ways. First, the author mades use of the fact that Prowl, Bluestreak and Smokescreen were basically just recolours of each other… So could they pass as each other to fool the Decepticons? Then, there’s Prowl’s shyness, and his cringe-worthy lack of social awareness or relationship skills. Finally, there’s the adorableness of Smokescreen finally letting Prowl into his orbit and learning how to like him… And then more. Love it. Note: The last chapter is mostly just sex, and the author notes that if you want to stop at chapter 6 for a nice fluffy, smut-free ending, that works too. (But hey - the alt-mode sex is pretty awesome!)

The Echo Garden by @altraviolet (E/X, Rodimus/Shockwave). Summary: Soundwave's banishment to the shadowzone has been bleak, uneventful and unending. He hasn't been able to contact Megatron or the Nemesis. He's low on fuel. If it weren't for the emotion-suppressing protocols he implemented before the war, he would be miserable. And then one day a dimension-hopping Rodimus falls into the shadowzone and offers him a way out. “You'll like the Lost Light,” said Rodimus. “Everyone gets a second chance, there. You wanna stay here forever?” My comments: This story had been ongoing for quite some time, and just recently was completed (so I can finally add it to my rec list!) Its popularity exploded last year sometime, and with good reason. The author took an odd pairing (Rodimus from the IDW1 comics and Soundwave from Transformers: Prime), threw them together using a conceit adapted from the end of the IDW1 comic run (trans-dimensional travel), and turned it into an absolutely lovely fix-it fic for the end of the More Than Meets the Eye/Lost Light comic run. It has an absolutely stunning and convincing redemption arc for Soundwave, excellent world building, sparkling dialogue, and all the emotional beats you'd want in an epic story. Oh, and an aching slow burn that has a super satisfying payoff.

Feedback Fest 2024

In honour of International Fanworks Day (today! February 15) I am posting some fic recommendations that I've made in the past. (I am super swamped at work and can't write up any new recs, but I previously rec'd these over on my main blog over the past few years. I'm collecting them together again here on my writing blog!)

These ten rec's are in no particular order, and all are in the Transformers fandom (with some crossovers). Ratings and pairings (if relevant) are noted.

(I also had to split this list into two parts because I waxed too poetic about these fics. See my reblog for the next part. 🙂)

Frivolities by @neveralarch (G, Megatron & Starscream). Summary: “My correct form of address is in my ID tag,” snapped Starscream. “Use it or lose your tongue.” My comments: I love this story. I love it so much I’ve recommended it to people who would ordinarily never read Transformers fanfic, simply because I think they’d appreciate what the author is doing. They took canon and fanon, and from it alchemized a story of dysphoria and wanting to be seen and acknowledged in a way the character wants, and wrapped it up in a tidy package that hits like a truck, and have I mentioned I love this story! (makes fists) Read it!

Working Through It by @trinarysuns (M, Skywarp/Thundercracker/Marissa Faireborn). Summary: “TC,” Skywarp says, “I’m, like, ninety percent sure that humans don’t have interface cables.” Thundercracker squawks and almost knocks him over trying to get the script out of his hands. My comments: I can’t say enough about this story. I love it and it pushed so many buttons for me. Not even smutty buttons, just interaction buttons: humans interacting with giant alien robots, old loves reuniting, logitical issues of interspecies getting it on… Tumblr deleted my review of this story, (SIGH) so I reposted my review on DW here. It says a lot more about this fic!

The Soft Rush of Black Static by Monstrosibee (NR, Bluestreak/Prowl). Summary: Prowl doesn’t know a lot of bots on this newly salvaged Cybertron, and he definitely doesn’t know the bot intruding on his construction site. My comments: While this fic is essentially a fix-it fic for a story from the Aligned continuity, it just destroyed me. You can read the basics of what happened between Bluestreak and Prowl on TFWiki (at the end of Chapter 7 of The Covenant of Primus) but it was devastating to actually read how upset Prowl was by what happened. This short little fix-it brought all those emotions back and then healed them. I loved this.

Someone You Might Have Been by @astolat (T, Megatron/Optimus Prime.) Summary: I didn’t love him because he wasn’t you. My comments: I'm rec'ing this because it's just pure "this is exactly what I want to read!" for me. This is a delightful mashup of the Shattered Glass universe and G1, in which the Optimus Primes from each universe get (temporarily) swapped. It’s an amazingly heartwrenching MegOP story.

Crash Site by Slyboots (G, Breakdown/Knock Out). Summary: June Darby does not believe in aliens, or in haunted highways, or in government conspiracies, or in any other small-town folklore. The new mechanics in town are uncanny, all the same. My comments: I am a sucker for Transformers: Prime fics, and one of the (it's canon! suck it Hasbro) ships from the show that I love is Knock Out/Breakdown. But besides that, I just love the vibe of this story. You can feel Knock Out and Breakdown in it, even if June doesn’t really see them, except out of the corner of her eye. And I am SO HERE for the idea that the two of them got some lovely downtime together before the events in TFP.

[violet-bookmark]

The temple at Landfall, by Jane Fletcher

"Lynn is an imprinter, one chosen by the Goddess to receive her greatest gift, that of creating new life. So why does she feel like a prisoner in the Temple?

When Lynn learns that she is to be relocated to the temple at Landfall, the arduous journey seems more like a gift--her last chance to see something of the outside world. She does not anticipate the dangers and temptations she will encounter along the way, nor does she expect Lieutenant Kim Ramon, an officer in the squadron of Rangers assigned to protect her. Despite all prohibitions forbidding it, attraction grows between the two women.

Against them stand the powerful religious Sisterhood and their holy warriors--the Temple Guards. In a world ruled by the Church, what chance is there that Lynn can escape?"

Actually this world is female-only and everybody is a lesbian, so it's not as if it is ruled by the Catholic church or something, as the blurb seems to imply. And I don't think that catholicism could be so closely replicated in a society where only one sex exists, but I digress.

The romance between the protagonists was fine, I liked it even when I think they fell for each other rather quickly. I believe it from Lynn's perspective because she had been secluded in a temple since she was like 10, only surrounded by elderly women or priestess that were covered up to their eyes and rarely spoke to her, but from Kim's side... No. Maybe seeing more of the journey to Landfall from her perspective would have helped matters. Some of Lynn's quotes were very relatable and good (I believe I have posted some here) and her pain at thinking that she would not ever be able to be with Kim was almost palpable. The romantic and steamy scenes were sexy and well-written, and they felt organic given the circumstances.

I loved how the priestesess constantly jeopardised each other's ascent to power, it was very realistic and a nice detail to the story. It is one of the strongest parts of the worldbuilding to be honest, since it demonstrated that powerful religious women were a force to be reckoned with in-world (at least until a certain point in the story that made me want to slam my head against a table).

The writing was similar to that of Shadow of the knife, but lacked a depth and maturity that SOTK had and that made it such a punch in the face memorable story to me.

Lynn was a good protagonist, very defined by her nostalgic memories of life outside the temple. Which was fine, but she didn't seem to care a lot about anything except nature. I found it very unbelievable that she wasn't more weirded out by the journey given how she was leading a life of reclusion and suddenly she was on a trip with guards and people all around her. She focused a lot on how good it felt to be out of the temple, but what about the people? Isn't being surrounded by people weird after you spent your life in the temple? She never cared about anyone on there so it's pretty safe to say she never had any friends, which brings me to my next point: for someone who had lived such a poor social life she was very stable, not socially starved to the point of being easily manipulable, full of panic towards social interactions or other things that social isolation tends to cause. She mentions wanting to have sex desperately, but that's about it. I'm not buying that. She was nice and I liked how she took responsibility for her actions, but I wish we knew more about her. After reading the book, I still don't feel like I know her that much.

Kim was alright, but her past was boring. Very typical. Seriously, authors, stop killing families. There are other ways to give lifelong trauma to the protagonists. I hated how her character lived through so much and managed to stay so static during all the story. Like hell all this happens to somebody and they stay completely unmoved throughout the whole thing. I don't believe the whole "This is because Kim is very mature, also her past is already solved bc she killed the bandits that killed her fam in the past" that the book tries to sell me. Why would you play up this conflict if it was already solved? I don't care that this is a romance book, it is just lazy to just have all the character development outside of the story. And then of course Kim has solved everything but the part about her trauma that makes her afraid to have a girlfriend, because you know, we needed something to spicy up their relationship. I won't go into detail but they had better ways of having a conflict between the two that didn't rely on getting past traumas that were already solved. One of them being that the foundation of everything they believed in was a lie. It would have been so much more interesting to have that as the main conflict of their relationship!

The action scenes were very well-written, but they lacked something that would have made them truly epic. And that would have been to have a real sense of danger; the problem with the story is that we know the Rangers are amazing and could kick everyone's ass in seconds because they are just that tough, so we don't worry about them dying at all, really. That made the action scenes really lackluster sometimes, almost as if they were only stage decoration for the romance. Which is fine, but the book was so focused on them and they were such an important part of the story that it didn't feel right. It is a shame, because some scenes were really well-written and had a lot of potential to be intense and memorable, and to define the characters or give them some good development. All of the elements necessary were there but then it simply didn't happen. It was beyond frustrating; the characters learned a lot of new stuff and faced loads of dangerous situations but they didn't change at all, which I found unrealistic taking into account they just found out the foundation of everything they believed in was a lie. They all just go like "Oh well that makes sense, I don't believe in this thing anymore despite still having some sensibilities that come from this thing", there might be people who act like this, no doubt, but twelve or more different women? No way.

The plot had a lot of things going on that never reached their full potential, and I think it would have benefited from being kept simpler, especially when this was the author's first book. I just went to check goodreads in order to paste the blurb in the book to the begging of my review, and somebody said "I felt like we should have spent more time in Petersmine watching the characters fall in love, and definitely more time in the temple at Landfall! It's what the book is named after" and I agree. As I said, this book wanted to tackle too many things. If the author really felt like she had to tackle all those topics at once she should have prioritized and spent more time in the central conflicts, while playing the others out in a more subtle manner.

This was her first book so I feel like I should be more forgiving, but I still have to vent about it. I will always be eternally grateful to Jane Fletcher for giving us the Celaeno Series, because it is amazing. How many fantasy/sci-fi series where all the characters are exclusively female and lesbian do we have? What she did was incredible and groundbreaking, but the first book was obviously her first one. I hear there are great things coming in the next one, and I have noticed that the author has gotten way better at writing/worldbuilding since this book was published, so I believe in her.

The explanation the author gave about why the sisters "hide" the true history to the public was not good nor believable. "Nobody reads those books anymore, so they don't know what really happened" really? What the hell? Are you telling me that not even one woman from the temple has taken the time to read one of the books from their library? This doesn't make the Temple look sympathetic, it makes them look beyond stupid. Humans are curious by nature, like hell nobody has even skim-read one of their books. This is something I disliked and that got me tired from this book: every woman that had any ties to religion (temple guards, sisters, etc.) was mortally stupid and ended up either dead or in a bad place. This lack of nuance bothered me: I dislike religion as much as the next person, but this was just too sloppy. Religious people are not stupid; some are stupid, yes, and some do/say stupid things because of religion or because they are plain bigots, but come on, the majority of them don't expect their god/goddess to do things for them that are within their control (like packing their suitcases). Also, does the author think that religious people can't conspire to hide shady things? Lol.

And I don't believe that this world has only one religion. Somebody could interpret the texts of the Elder-Ones way differently and come up with another religion. The author only made one because she wanted it to parallel christianity (the religion she wanted to criticize) and fair enough, but it makes for poor lore. Even christianity has several branches that interpret the bible differently or practice their faith in a different way, and I just don't believe that 1) nobody bothered to read the Elder-Ones texts ever and 2) nobody had a different interpretation and started a different faith, or at least a civil war.

Another thing that disappointed me was how incompetent the guards were. I liked it in the first bit, because the guards that escorted Lynn were from a provincial city and only used to face people, not mountain beasts. That was pretty nice and realistic, but in the second arc there was no excuse for the seasoned temple guards in Landfall to be as incompetent as they were. How the hell has the Temple survived for that long and gained so much power when everybody within its walls is either mortally stupid or terrible at her job?

In the other books both the Rangers and the Militia have their fair share of competent and incompetent women in them, but when it comes to the Temple everyone is just useless, stupid or evil. I'm not having it.

If you have read the book, you will remember that scene with a nice, truly devoted, grandma-like sister that the author wrote to prove that "there are also nice people within the church", which is basically the cliché that pull all books that poorly criticize religion. To any writer reading this: stop using this cliché, I beg you. Do a nuanced criticism of religion instead.

I did like how the sisters reacted to Lynn's and Kim's relationship, that was very well done. Especially the part where they tried so hard to distort Kim's feelings and character to make her look like a bad person on Lynn's eyes. I also loved the little details about Gina's village, the culture that was starting to form around it and the militia/rangers/temple guards dynamic and rivalries, they were very believable and good at rounding up the worldbuilding.

I can't believe what the author pulled at the end of the book. Really, more than 70 pages in the PDF version from Peter McKay's diary, a character that had minimal involvement in the story. I was very uninterested, even if his diary was kind of interesting. Couldn't she have put parts of his diary in little chunks at the begging of every chapter? It would have made the info dump much more bearable. I might comment on it in another post because there is a lot of lore/things I would like to discuss and I still haven't finished it yet.

I recommend this book if you like stories like Romeo and Juliet but set in a lesbian sci-fi universe, and where the characters fight against society.

[emerysaks]

do you have any go to fics or author recommendations for when you have a tough week?

Absolutely! In no particular order, these are some of my favorites.

The Wonder Years of the Greatest Generation series by QuickYoke

and i've got my hands in your heart by likebrightness

all these neon lights by maidenstar

Everybody Hit the Compound by The Stephanois (ballantine)

Higher Education by SteelLily

i broke my bones playing games with you by mooosicaldreamz

the mothering of us by QuickYoke and rathermbarrassing

My Neighbor's Garden is a Spot of Beauty by RainbowRiddler

Untitled CBAU by eyesascandles

You and I'd be a tough act to follow by turnitintolove

Eidolon by QuickYoke

there must be fullness somewhere by celaenos

She is messy but she's kind by turnitintolove

Amuse Me or Lose Me by meggycarter

Backstage Pass, Dear by LaserquestLove

Fast Cars and Slow Jazz series by maggiemerc

Of Bludgers and Hearts by wreckofherheart

The Blue Room by saltandbyrne

[aerithisms]

hi! i was wondering if you could share some of your favorite faberry fanfics? :)

oh ABSOLUTELY bestie come with me on a journey where i embarrass myself by revealing just how much time i've spent reading this stuff over the past few months

you're the trouble i always find by mooosicaldreamz

quinn and rachel meet again as adults when rachel gets cast as the lead on the tv show quinn's writing. fun fact i read this one before i even watched the show because i was bored and it was such a love letter to glee and faberry that it singlehandedly compelled me to watch it and now here we are

stays in vegas by gayerfurtherfaster

the glee club is in vegas for a reunion and when rachel and quinn wake up to discover that they're married they have to retrace their steps from the night before. this one is adorable and so FUNNY i love it a lot

various works by forforever19

forforever19 is a hero of modern society who has written TONS of faberry fic over the last couple of years that i've barely scratched the surface of so i'm sure if you frequent the faberry ao3 you've seen them around but here are some i've read and liked: waiting for a girl like you (alternate take on the wedding fiasco), worth the wait (rachel's college roommate pulls her head out of her ass), to last a lifetime (a vehicle for lots of cute vignettes), meant to be (amnesia fic because i live for the drama), just my soul responding (soulmate au), and one single thread of gold (tied me to you) (also a soulmate au lol)

we are lead (to those who help us most to grow) by nightshifted

alternate take on season 1 quinn and her mental state during the pregnancy storyline after she moves in with mercedes. features the quinncedes friendship we deserve and ofc faberry being in love

you say you've gone away from me (but i can feel you when i breathe) by yumi_michiyo

completely canon compliant post-canon fix-it fic that takes quinn's "and i donated the egg" joke line literally and features quinn and rachel finding their way back to each other through being surrogates for the klaine baby. this fic is my official headcanon for what happens after the finale because i think it's so lovely and treats the characters well

simple parts by flyingflesheater

time travel au where senior year quinn and rachel travel forward to find themselves married in the future. i'm always a sucker for the drama of the time travel trope and i thought the family dynamic in this one was especially interesting

devolution by poetzproblem

alternate take on season 3 quinn that really digs into her psyche during that time in the show. it's lighter on the faberry (though the faberry is there!) in favour of character study and i think it does quinn so much justice. also features really sweet quinntana friendship

poetzproblem is another one of those people who's written a LOT of faberry over the years that i'm sure you've heard of and i haven't read anything close to all of it (i haven't tackled their mammoth don't blink series yet but i have faith that it slaps) but i also loved magical mystery tour, a cute time travel flash forward fic (time travel seems to be a big trope in faberry fandom for some reason? i'm into it) and acceptance/remembrance, in which hollywood actress quinn fabray keeps thanking a mysterious rachel berry in her awards acceptance speeches

take these broken wings series by celaenos

canon divergence that follows what quinn's journey might've been like if she kept beth. haven't finished this one yet (mostly because i adore it and i want to savour it lol) but i love this quinn and the found family of it all so, so much. strongly features her friendship with my himbo king sam evans

you and her loathing this cruel world by thememoriesfire

thememoriesfire seems to have been a pretty big name author back in the day and i haven't read either of their biggest faberry fics yet but i really love this one, where it's kurt that quinn gets pregnant with instead of puck, and quinn, kurt, sam and rachel form one big unconventional family

sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything by andawaywego

i've read a few fics by this author and so far they've all been great but this one sticks to me the most. finn's death is such a difficult subject, especially for fanfiction, since it's so wrapped up in the death of a real world person, but i thought this fic handled it in a very delicate way and had such a thoughtful exploration of how rachel might deal with that grief while falling for someone new

mistyheartrbs (also my beloved mutual @mistyheartrbs here on tumblr dot com) has written a ton of faberry fic that i've barely started digging into but this recent missing scene fic set during season 3 made me feel insane so i offer it as a place to start

gonna stop there and i'm sure i'm forgetting something i loved but there is so much good faberry fic out there it's the best!! i don't usually end up into fandoms where the fic writing scene is this prolific and i'm having a lot of fun indulging in the backlog

[aeneiddaily]

#aeneid#omg i thought the harpies alluded to the original conflict of the iliad with the taking of helen as the symbol of ownership to territory bu#celaeno and lavinia being foils tho????? their names meaning the dark one and noble light????#OKAY......... JAMES!!!#his courting and fighting for lavinia in a romantic sense based on the words of the harpy because they're the unspoken words of lavinia???#when she's capitavted by him at first sight because he already knows her heart but neither of them realize#actually loving this comparison and makes the silence of her character more profound and deliberate and meaningful#especially since harpies are the unrestrained retched wailing woman that doesn't need to be explained or saved#whereas lavinia from the very beginning is portrayed to be controlled by her mom who is actively taking her voice away and forcing her into#just very interesting#something something the subtle romances of roman culture revealed and credited to aeneas winning the land and people in every sense of the#his authority on the inner chargins and desires of the heart and the pain that comes with that intense love as the son of Venus#all's fair in love and war

going absolutely bonkers over this. thank you so much

the harpies are here! and some other stuff, probably.

[atlantablack]

Favorite Merlin Fics ft. Imprisonment

a thimble of light for an acre of sky by celaenos 

36,268 | Teen + | no warnings apply 

Golden, beautiful, charming, pompous Arthur, drawing everyone to him like moths to a flame. She thinks of how he is the only other person in the world who understands what it's like to be Uther Pendragon's child, to crave the approval of that looming shadow and want to break free of it in the same breath. She hates him. She hates him. She hates him. 

It’s only part of the truth, even now.

Why I love this fic

This is hands down absolutely one of my favorite season 5 AU’s. The amount of attention that’s paid not only to Morgana and Gwen’s relationship, but also to Morgana and Arthur’s is just fucking amazing. For all that Morgana is technically a prisoner for a large part of the fic it never breaks her, only gives everyone else a chance to get through to her which I truly believe is all they need, a chance. 

I’ve read this fic several times and it never loses its effect, I always feel like i’ve been punched in the gut and I’m always just left in a puddle of my own emotions afterwards. If i had to pick a favorite quote (that hopefully doesn’t give too much away) it would be: 

“I’m going to kill you,” she warns Arthur. “Keeping me here is foolish.”

“Perhaps,” he says, and somehow the teasing smirk of their youth spills out onto his face. “But then again, you’ve always thought that I was.”

“Don’t smile at me,” Morgana snaps. “The only reason I haven’t killed you yet are these shackles, and mark my words, I’ll get them off.”

“Is that?” he asks. “The only reason?”

“Yes,” Morgana snaps, but there’s a horrible inflection to her voice. It comes out far more like a question than a promise.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11931528/chapters/26968359

a king of infinite space by schweet_heart 

1,069 | explicit | no warnings apply

When they bring Arthur home, he is silent.

Why I love this fic: 

The pure amount of detail and emotion that is in this fic is just incredible. it’s only a little over 1k but i’ve read it so many times because I can never get past just how much is in it. Case in point, i just read it again to try and figure out what to say and i’m now in a puddle of my own emotions trying to figure out how something can be both hot and sad and sexy and romantic and ??? just so goddamn good. 

The last line of this fic never fails to blow me the fuck away and sometimes I genuinely just sit and stare at it looking for inspiration. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11992938

Dying to Return by StormDancer 

19,869 | Teen+ | no warnings apply 

When they try to hang him, he floats. 

 * 

They put him on the pyre at dawn. 

He doesn’t burn.

Why I love this fic:

I feel like it’s very likely everyone already knows this fic but if you’re new to the fandom (because i stg we gain new people every day against all odds), then this truly an amazing fic. I really really love the way this author chose to write the way Merlin goes about getting Arthur to accept magic. I’m 100% all for unapologetic Merlin just blazing in and telling arthur about his magic and arguing arthur into accepting it, but I also really love this, not soft really, but patient, solemn, quiet Merlin who’s prepared to wait as long as he needs to and just show Arthur how good magic can be just by existing. 

Also I think it’s so lovely how as the reader, some parts of the plot are so obvious to us but to Arthur they’re impossible to figure out and it’s just done so artfully! 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/689934

Emblazoning by astolat 

18,797 | mature | creator chose not to use warnings 

Morgana turned away from the high, barred window and rubbed her arms, chilled and bare. Arthur was sitting in the dirty straw at the very limit of his chains, which kept him a few inches too far away to touch Merlin's limp body. Outside they were putting up the stake.

Why I love this fic:

I know this pairing isn’t very popular since season 3 aired, but honestly it’s so good. These four really are just so tangled up together that I love reading fics where they’re all in a relationship. Also, this is by astolat and everything astolat has written is a fucking gem. 

I really love that this is a season 1 divergence, because it really highlights how far Arthur would have been willing to go even then. He’s never been able to just stand back and watch Merlin die. No matter the season and I just love the way its done in this one. The magic reveal, the way Arthur can never truly stop being a leader, a ruler, the way Morgana’s visions and swordfighting come together to create a whole picture, the way Gwen is always there and steady and being their rock. I just love this piece so damn much. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/7155737

Safekeeping by schweet_heart 

5,531 | explicit | no warnings apply 

“There were bandits,” Arthur confirms. There is something grim in his tone which tells Merlin this is not the whole of it. “There was also a sorcerer.” 

 Merlin sighs. “Of course there was.” 

 As it turns out, there was also a magical beast, and there was also a sacrifice.

Why I love this fic:

Merlin’s magic reveal in this one is just truly fantastic. I can’t think of many fics where his magic reveal is so goddamn badass and super powered up and yet, he’s also so helpless and doesn’t even realize that he’s revealed himself. Arthur has to make the choice of what to do with Merlin telling him anything at all, without any outside input. Just Merlin helpless and there at his mercy. 

Also.... the sex is hot as fuck lol but really, I love this fic. I love seeing fics that just explore how excruciating magic suppressing cuffs would be on Merlin. Basically, this fic just hit all my favorite points and i love it!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14008191

The Game of Lying 

7,262 | Gen | no warnings apply

It's just Merlin's luck to get trapped in a castle with the knights and a crazy fae who wants to see how well he can lie. Fortunately, he's very good at lying. 

Unfortunately, the fae isn't too pleased about that. 

The knights are going to have a lot of questions if they live through this.

Why I love this fic:

Badass, snarky, smartass, “i have a thousand talents other than magic” Merlin is 100% my favorite take. Fics where the knights and Arthur have to realize how little they know about Merlin, without a magic reveal. They underestimate him a lot despite dragging him everywhere with them and I feel like this really highlights this. 

Also, again, I loveeeeeee badass Merlin. badass, overpowered, I could probably destroy the world if I wanted to, Merlin. Love him. Beautiful, perfect. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13590702

[sqsupernova]

Title: skinny dip [art] Link: Click Here To View and Comment - note that the AO3 version is uncensored! Artist: Jajs Find them on: -Twitter: -Tumblr: jajs

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Title: reach for the stars, World Series kind of thing Link: Click Here To View and Comment Author: celaenos Find them on: -Twitter: banrions -Tumblr: banrions Rating: Mature Warning(s): No Archive Warnings Apply Words: 17k Summary: Emma and Henry convince Regina to go be summer camp counselors for a week; camp shenanigans, team challenges, hidden make outs and horseback riding ensues.

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Remember - writers and artists spent months creating the fics and art you enjoy, so it would mean the world to them if you commented to tell them what you liked! A creator who feels appreciated is a creator who is more likely to write or create art again in the future!

[the-phoenix-heart]

Sorting Hat Chats - The Last Unicorn

I don’t care if literally no one else cares about this but me WE ARE SORTING THE LAST UNICORN CHARACTERS WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!

(You can find the basics of the system I’m using here, by @sortinghatchats​!)

(Also my reference for this is the 1982 movie and the 2010 graphic novel. As Peter S. Beagle, the actual author of the book, wrote the screenplay for the movie and the graphic novel has everything else the movie missed+an author’s note from Beagle I think it’s safe to say that I’ll get an accurate read on these characters.)

(Also also you don’t know just how long this has been in my drafts)

THE UNICORN, or AMALTHEA as she’s known in human form, is a Badger primary. It’s important to remember that Badgers are loyal to people, but what they view as people doesn’t have to be a human. The Unicorn views other unicorns as people and it’s why at the beginning she’s willing to leave behind her entire forest that she cares for, just for the small chance that she might be able to save them. Also, her saving the harpy, despite the fact that the harpy would surely kill her. She does that because the harpy, Celaeno, is real like her. “We’re two sides of the same magic.” It doesn’t matter if Celaeno is a creature that would kill all the other animals she’d just freed or Mummy Fortuna. She’s ‘real’ like her, and therefore people to The Unicorn. 

When she’s been transformed into a human she says, “How can anything that is going to die be real?” Dehumanizing is a thing Badger primaries do a lot of the time, and here The Unicorn is literally saying that what is ‘real’, what is people, are immortal magical creatures (and regular animals), and anything else isn’t ‘real’, isn’t people. 

The Unicorn’s secondary is harder to get a grip on, seeing as for half of the story she spends her screen time standing melancholic on high twisted towers looking out into the sea. Turning into a human is her moment when she burns. As Amalthea she is lost and forgetting herself, and also almost certainly has developed depression. Lir says that Amalthea heard about his horses burnt legs and she immediately went to it to try and heal it, only for nothing to happen. She literally tried to unburn something but it didn’t work guys. Before all that though, as a unicorn, I think she was a Lion secondary. 

When she finds out she might be the last unicorn in the world she decides to charge out into the world and find them, or die trying. When she’s mistaken for a simple (but pretty) mare she goes off on that little farmer. She stands her ground when the harpy is gonna kill her. She saves Schmendrick from the tree he accidentally made fall in love with him just by marching up to it and shutting it up. She saves Molly and Schmendrick from thieves by rearing up and threatening them with her hooves (she’ll stomp you with her fucking hooves if you even think of looking at her friends). And at the end she saves her friends from The Red Bull by charging at it and herding it into the sea. She’s described as “rearing up like a scimitar” and screaming (which no immortal has ever done) when she fights back. Even when she is transformed into Amalthea. When she’s still just been transformed she stops Mabruk pretty much by staring him down and possibly using her magic. Even at her most burnt, when she is willing to give up on the other the unicorns, she does so by being blunt and standing her ground.

Lion secondaries also have a habit of collecting people, like a Badger secondary, but I still say The Unicorn is a Lion secondary because the way she collects people (’people’ it’s two people and you can’t count Lir because he fell in love with Amalthea who was so burnt it wasn’t really her) isn’t because she is exceptionally nice (she’s not, not by human standards) or because she’s so hardworking (she doesn’t work that much in the story, because as a unicorn she doesn’t have to), but because she’s so magnificent, so true, so powerful. Those are Lion traits drawing people to her.

And honestly it makes sense that she’s a Lion secondary. As a unicorn she’s close to all powerful, nothing can touch her. She doesn’t have to put in the work like a Badger, doesn’t have to gather the knowledge like a Bird, and has no use for Snake transforming. I wouldn’t be surprised if all unicorns had a Lion secondary. Honestly I love seeing how non human characters are sorted because they are so different from human characters. 

SCHMENDRICK is a Bird primary. He truly believes in the system of the world working like a fairytale and unlike a lot of stories where this would be a bad thing and disproven at the end, Schmendrick is right about the system. He doesn’t have to learn to be right about the system, he’s right about it from the start and it’s not like he hates how the system works, he loves and finds comfort in it. A lot of great lines go to him. And you can also see Lion primary Molly and Snake primary Lir are questioning just about everything he spouts. 

Molly: “They deserve their fate, they deserve worse. To leave a child out in the snow-” Schmendrick: “Well if they hadn’t then he wouldn’t have grown up to be the hero of all this. That’s the way these things go.” Molly: “But if he’s the hero, what is [The Unicorn]?” Schmendrick: “[You and I] are the tale-but [The Unicorn] is real. [The Unicorn] is real.”

Schmendrick: “If it changes a unicorn into a human being, then that was the only thing to do. I am a bearer, I am a dwelling, I am a messenger-” Molly: “You’re a stupid messenger, and a stupid, stupid magician.”

Lir: “You have to do something.” Schmendrick: “I can’t.” Lir: “Do something. You have power. You changed her into a unicorn. Do something to save her. I will kill if you don’t.” Schmendrick: “Not all the magic in the world can help her now. If she will not fight him, she must go into the sea with the others. Neither magic nor murder will aid her.” Lir: “Then what is magic for? What use is wizardry if it cannot save a unicorn?” Schmendrick: “No-that is what heroes are for.”

Molly: “Oh, the poor man. Poor Lir.” Schemdrick: “It’s not altogether bad. Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed.”

(I could quote this book for eons people I swear)

He’s also the one who tells Lir he has to rule over the people of Hagsgate when Lir is two steps away from killing his birth father who says it was good he abandoned Lir so he could one day become king. He thinks that he has done The Unicorn more evil than Mommy Fortuna or Haggard or the Red Bull because he turned her into a human and turned her back into a unicorn. He tries to comfort Lir about The Unicorn by telling him his land is blessed because all the unicorns ran through it in freedom, and how The Unicorn will remember him, “when men are fairytales in books written by rabbits.” (god I love that quote)

As for his secondary, he’s a total Snake secondary. He pickpockets, he lies to villagers about being an actual great wizard, he haggles for good payment in Hagsgate so long as he assassinates Lir (which he has no intention of fulfilling), he lies his way into the castle, when he needs to get the wine to drink itself he just drinks it and gives it to a skeleton who can’t tell the difference between and empty bottle or a bottle of wine. 

There is however one time in the story where Schmendrick drops his rhetoric about how the world works. They’re in the Red Bull’s cavern and Amalthea doesn’t want to become The Unicorn again and wants to stay with Lir.

Schmendrick: “Let it end here. Let her marry the prince and live happily ever after.  Molly: Schemendrick, if we don’t do this there will never be another chance. All the unicorns of the world will remain his prisoners, forever, except one, and she will die. She will grow old and die. Schmendrick: One good woman more in the world is worth every single unicorn gone. Let it end.

This is not what he believes. It’s him tricking Lir, making Lir remember that he is a hero, and to let there be no more unicorns would go against his being a hero. Molly tells him he forced him, and that he did it so he could become a real magician. Schmendrick disagrees. Like a Snake he doesn’t see it as forcing Lir to make a choice, he sees it as the right thing to do, and only way to do it.

MOLLY GRUE, lovely Molly. She is a Lion primary, who was burnt by something in the past, which is probably how she ended up with Captain Cully, and she unburns at the sight of The Unicorn. Molly’s beef with The Unicorn at first is that she never visited her when she was young, despite her love of unicorns. It’s such a Lion primary thing to me to ask something like a unicorn why they never came to her, and then to forgive a unicorn when unicorns are not to be questioned or forgiven. Molly as soon as she learns of The Unicorn’s quest doesn’t even go back to get her things. She leaves right that second with her, saying that her things don’t matter now that she has seen The Unicorn. Molly hears about what the people of Hagsgate did to baby Lir and she is willing to throw down with them right then. 

Lion primary Molly doesn’t want to poke holes in the system of the world. She could care less about understanding the system, she just does things because her moral compass says it’s right. She doesn’t care that ‘unicorns are not to be forgiven’ she’s going to forgive The Unicorn dammit (it’s a pride thing. Molly feels she was wronged even though technically unicorns don’t owe anything to people, pride is also very Lion primary). I 

She has a Badger secondary. When she was burnt she found a community for herself to live/work in-Captain Cully’s Band of Freemen. When she’s in Haggard’s castle she gets a job as the cook and cleaner and puts herself to work to survive. She gets information from the talking stray cat, and she helps out Lir as much as she can, quickly becoming his friend.

PRINCE LIR, is a total Snake primary. He falls hard for Amalthea, and then decides that he’s gonna start doing great deeds and become a hero just so he can woo her. He doesn’t really care for anyone but Amalthea and Molly, he’s willing to kill Schmendrick if he doesn’t save The Unicorn after she’s transformed back into herself. Molly says that Schmendrick reminded Lir that he was a hero, but what Schmendrick really did was remind Lir that he was a hero for Amalthea. 

He’s willing to kill his own birth father for abandoning him, and when he is to be king he talks about how much he hates it because he’ll rule over people he hates and be alone the rest of his life. When he dreams about The Unicorn, and she doesn’t say anything to him, he takes this as her not caring about him like he loved her, a betrayal. The real reason why she didn’t say anything to him is because she remembered him, and his love, and loving him, and cared more about him, but Lir just doesn’t understand that.

His secondary is a Badger. When he falls for Amalthea his idea of courting her is doing great deeds and working to be a hero. He’s slain black knights, basilisks, seas serpents, and five dragons, he’s faced fatal riddles and glass mountains. He starts trying to write poetry after all these fail to touch her. He puts in as much work as he can to try and woo her. He literally sacrifices himself for her, not as a Lion charge, but instead as using his body as a tool. His sacrifice is so that The Unicorn will fight back. 

I will say however that he has a definite Lion performance. It isn’t a model, because he actually doesn’t care about the Lion secondary it’s just him performing as a Lion secondary hero to try and woo Amalthea, which doesn’t work. 

When he’s confiding in Molly he words a Badger secondary in love perfectly, “I want to serve her...I wish to be whatever she has most need of.”

KING HAGGARD is super fucking burnt, and a Snake primary. What he only cares about is trying to be happy, and keeping his unicorns with him. He gets cursed by a witch that one day his castle would sink into the sea with him in it, and his reply was that any good tyrant’s castle needed a curse. He wants to be happy of course but he doesn’t really care if he dies. He dies laughing. The scene where he monologues to Amalthea about how he has all the unicorns is my favorite, and he pretty much gives the perfect description of his primary. 

King Haggard: “All things die when I pick them up. I do not know why they die, but it has always been so, save for the one dear possession that has not turned cold and dull as I guarded it-the only thing that has ever belonged to me.”

King Haggard is greedy. He wants to own things. He wants to have his Snake connections like a healthy unburnt Snake but that doesn’t work. It’s never worked. He found Lir and decided that since he’d never been a father maybe he could have a Snake connection and be happy, but the connection did the same as all his other connections. The connection died, even if Lir didn’t. There is only one thing that has ever brought him the happiness of a Snake connection, and that was the unicorns. It’s a one sided connection, but he does truly love them. He does also have the Red Bull, but we don’t know what that relationship is like and it’s likely he views the Red Bull as more of an extension of himself (in my take of the character that’s how I view it). 

He hoards the unicorns, and in a way that while very Snake Primary is also very Bird secondary. Haggard collects things, and tries them out so that he can figure out what makes him happy. What doesn’t work he usually throws away, and what works (the unicorns) he hoards. He collected Mabruk not in a communal way, but in the way that he would collect a book, and when the book isn’t good enough he throws it away and picks up another. He’s also super fucking smart for a bastard. He explains about how he figured out Amalthea was a unicorn and talks about how her every action no matter how small was his spy.

It’s also a neat parallel that both Lir and Haggard are Snake primaries. The book ends with Lir resigning himself to be as unhappy as Haggard when he loses Amalthea. However, I do think that Lir will probably end up better than Haggard because he had some support from Schmendrick and Molly, and the book ends with a princess being sent to Lir to seek help. Lir will end up a healthy snake. 

So...

The Unicorn - Badger primary that sees immortal creatures as people/Lion secondary, both of these burn when she becomes Amalthea

Schmendrick - Bird primary/Snake secondary

Molly - Previously burned Lion primary, unburns after she sees The Unicorn/Badger secondary

Lir - Snake primary/Badger secondary, Lion secondary performance

Haggard - Burnt Snake primary/Bird secondary

[lineffability]

So this isn't on the list but a ficlet with palm kisses? Like Aziraphale reaches out to Crowley to comfort him or something and he kisses his palm? I'm a bit partial to Crowley being tender and it surprising Aziraphale (if you can't tell), but either way would be lovely

There is a magic trick that time plays with light.

It shows you the light of fires that have long since burned out. If you are looking at the night sky, at dark velvet spangled with millions of stars, you are looking at the past. And then the light fades and is forever gone. But you, you have witnessed it. You have been there, on this day, in this time, long after the stars sent you their love–and exploded.

Time shows you ghosts.

Crowley is thinking of ghosts.

If you look at the sun, what you see is the sun as it was eight minutes ago. So little time, so much distance. Eight minutes for light to travel into your eyes.

From Proxima Centauri, the red dwarf outlier burning up around the Alpha Centauri star system, it’s four light years. From the Pleiades cluster, four hundred. Light travels for four hundred years to show you ghosts.

Ghosts of old friends.

The Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Crowley had told Hesiod all about them. (Oh, he would have sailed to them. If Alpha Centauri had not been enough, he’d have paid them a visit. They were his, too.) Atlas, who shouldered the world for his sins, because he had stood on the wrong side of a war. Crowley, who did too.

Maia (Μαῖα), Electra (Ἠλέκτρα), Taygete (Ταϋγέτη), Alcyone (Ἀλκυόνη), Celaeno (Κελαινώ), Sterope (Στερόπη), Merope (Μερόπη). They had been his friends, and he had only seen it fit to have his stars named after them. So he had whispered their names into the authors’ ears, and the Greeks had turned them myths. But they are long gone, now. So long gone.

Humanity is so very fleeting.

(Crowley doesn’t like looking at the stars for too long. Can you blame him?)

But light is eternal. Light lasts longer than life.

A hand on his shoulder, soft. “Crowley?”

Sometimes light blinds you, momentarily. It does now, and Crowley looks away, back up to the stars, and then down, onto the ground. They are outside, on the little rooftop terrace above Crowley’’s flat.  

(What had been here, two thousand years ago? Who had looked at the stars in the sky in this very spot? Someone else. The same stars. Different light. How long had they been dead, the old stars, and the old people?)

“Angel.” The word has a bitter tang to it, sometimes. When he separates it from him, and lets it remind him of himself. He’d made the stars. How about that, angel? But it is never a bitter word when it means Aziraphale. How could it ever be?

The angel sits down beside him, quietly. He glances at Crowley, in just the right second, and their eyes meet. Aziraphale smiles, reassuringly.

“You’re no ghost, are you?” 

Crowley watches Aziraphale trying to comprehend the words; he isn’t sure he does, but it doesn’t matter, because he comprehends something far more important.

“Do you want me to leave?” he asks. Crowley does not answer right away, his face immobile, so Aziraphale begins to get up.

Don’t leave me. Not you. 

Crowley’s fingers enclose the angel’s wrist. Tug, gently. No, I don’t want you to leave. Never, never his fingers say. “Nah,” his mouth says. 

He doesn’t say more, because he can’t. (He’s not always good with words, not when it counts. They fail him, sometimes.) But words are not the only thing mouths are good for. 

Aziraphale sucks in a little breath of air when Crowley’s lips touch the spot right between palm and wrist, but Crowley doesn’t notice. His eyes are fixed on the angel’s light skin, and then they close, and when they open again the ghost of dead starlight fades from his memory a little.  

Aziraphale softens. “Alright, dear. I’ll stay. Do you want me to tell you about what I found today, when I reorganized a bookshelf?” Do you want me to talk to you? 

“Sure.” Thank you. 

“A manuscript on the catasterism. An original, of course,“ Aziraphale says smugly. He, too, is looking at the stars. 

Finally, a grin. “Is that so?”

“Oh, yes. The British Library would turn green with envy. You see, I came upon it when I met Perses, son of Hesiod, back in Askra in…”

Aziraphale talks, and Crowley listens. They are looking at the stars, as so many have–but not before them. Not after them, either. But with them.  

When you are looking at the night sky, think of the ghosts speaking to you.

Think of the angel who created them, and the demon who loves them, still. 

[bestworstcase]

MAP

made with inkarnate pro. high res version here. 

worldbuild-y notes under the cut.

general note: landmarks [mountains, forests] not to scale. at all.

the seven kingdoms

GALCREST:

sea-faring. fishing, whaling, ivory. frequent clashes with equisian privateers on the lost sea. longstanding trade connections with skaron and arendelle. 

a frequent mediator in the constant squabbling between other northwestern nations by dint of being sort of above the fray, both literally and figuratively speaking. 

CORONA: 

the former corona-saporian border is marked in red. the farther south you go, the more intense the hatred for corona. alcorcia in particular is a hotbed of separatist activity. carcathune is still in ruins.

pre-unification, the corona-saporian border shifted back and forth between the river nathair and the northern edge of the pingora mountains throughout history. at the time of unification, the border was the farthest north it had ever been, as shampanier’s army thoroughly routed corona’s less capable forces. this is still a particular sore point.

south of socona, saporian is still widely spoken and in rural areas often the first language learned. south of alcorcia, you start to get pockets of saporian-speaking monoglots in smaller villages.

mt. ghisa is the site of lord demanitus’s ancestral home and also houses the demanitus device. the former is in ruins, the latter in an advanced state of disrepair. 

PITTSFORD: 

ruled by the griffin. lady dindraine is his only daughter and thus his heir. 

the poorest of the seven kingdoms, though of course “poor” is a relative term here. struggles to compete with neserdnia and bayangor, which is a frequent source of tension within the pact.

INGVARR: 

ruled by queen morgiana. her eldest daughter, elisheva, is her heir.

geographically the smallest of the seven kingdoms, but very powerful. a militaristic power more than an economic one. known as the fist of the seven kingdoms. mountains are rich in iron and silver.

a culture that prizes rigorous education—both physical and mental—and produces people who are hardy, literate, and highly skilled. one of the most technologically advanced kingdoms on the continent.

capital city rasalas is home to the library of celaeno, the largest public library in the seven kingdoms (although herzingen’s solveig library is a fierce competitor for that title). 

longstanding rivalries with... all its neighbors, with the exception of corona. its history with seland is especially fractious, as the two have warred frequently over control of the hĺessian penninsula. the most recent of these wars was the hvassjarn war, which raged a little over a decade ago and pulled in skaron, vakretta, blavenia, and quintonia as well. 

despite being geographically adjacent to corona, direct overland travel between the two countries is nigh-impossible due to the mountains, as there are no convenient passes. king trevor does everything in his power to prevent travel between the two through equis, so most travel is either by ship—sailing around galcrest—or over land via eldora, blavenia, and quintonia (which, to ingvarr’s frustration, controls the pass into ingvarr). 

KOTO: 

controls most of the region known as the central plains. alone of the seven kingdoms, it is not a seafaring nation. also notable for its democratic parliament, though its historical monarchy remains a ceremonial fixture. 

significantly more tolerant of magic than the other seven kingdoms due to a much greater degree of cultural diversity.

longstanding enmity with citrifola has led to a strict ban on worship of zhan tiri within koto’s borders.

control over the mountains is frequently juggled back and forth between marne, blavenia, and koto, but presently they belong mostly to koto. 

much of the land in the northern regions is uninhabited, due to volatile natural magic courtesy of kresten loch and the swamps of citrifola.

NESERDNIA: 

a faded empire. its borders once stretched as far north as the pingora mountains; eldora, marne, chilon, and maldonia are all former territories that have established their independence in the last few centuries. neserdnia maintains many colonies further to the south.

dominates the southern waters of the forcysian ocean. the wealthiest of the seven kingdoms. trading vessels plagued by piracy and privateering funded by vacona and the southern isles, which has encouraged the establishment of land routes into koto and corona.

BAYANGOR: 

the southernmost of the seven kingdoms. largely agricultural and rural, but with several ancient and massive cities lining the silodeen coast. closely allied with yultadore and chatho.

northern peninsula supports a small but flourishing population of lorb immigrants from terapi as well as refugees from southern aphelion, who settled here after the desolation.

the hĺessian league

ARENDELLE: 

powerful, geographically isolated nation. prosperous due to flourishing trade; no standing army. king agnarr and queen iðunn perished in the hvassjarn sea about a decade ago, leaving their then-nine-year-old daughter and heir the queen; competent and loyal advisors have kept the country running and functional since. 

spirits of the land, air, and sea are revered but also feared, and magic is rare and viewed with deep suspicion.

SKARON: 

arendelle’s closest ally, and the most influential nation in the league. where skaron goes, the rest of the league follows. a great deal of religious overlap with arendelle’s worship of nature spirits, but magic is more common and accepted. 

SELAND: 

harsh, somewhat warlike. in some ways it has to be, as it is the buffer between ingvarr and the rest of the league. 

a very, very close alliance exists between seland and quintonia, which relies heavily on seland for protection from ingvarr as a result of its very desirable mountain pass. 

a very rich, proud history of magic drawn from a small pantheon of local deities. bits and pieces of nature spirit worship have filtered down from arendelle and seland as well and become incorporated into the broader pantheon. renowned especially for storm/weather magic. 

QUINTONIA: 

small, sovereign duchy in the unenviable position of being squished between two militaristically powerful kingdoms. 

recent newcomer to the league, which it joined mainly in a bid to put an end to constant invasions.

presently ruled by rosalia morcant, who cares more about books than people, and is also notorious for being... a bit of a creep, and probably a witch. (she says she isn’t, but if the giant library full of eldritch lore fits...)

VAKRETTA: 

a federation composed of numerous smaller nations. large population of vodniks along the coast. 

worship of morskesh, a sea god originally borrowed from the vodniks, is widely popular even further inland.

BLAVENIA: 

another newcomer to the league. wealthy and strong in its own right, but looking to strengthen its position via alliances with other league nations with a long term goal of seizing more land from koto.

eastern end of the country is occupied by kresten loch. nobody quite knows what kresten loch is; it froze solid several thousand years ago, never thaws, and plays havoc with the local weather patterns. there is a small but vocal fringe group who claims that it’s some sort of god, and object vociferously to the practice of harvesting ice from it. 

deep animosity with corona as a result of fierce trading competition. allied with equis on the grounds of hating corona. 

other nations

EQUIS:

king trevor is definitely a selkie. everybody knows it. nobody has proof.

king trevor funds privateers. everybody knows it. nobody has proof.

king trevor financially supports the separatists of saporia. everybody knows it. nobody has proof.

ELDORA: 

one of corona’s closest allies outside of the seven kingdoms. queen arianna hails from carvajal, a large duchy in the northern region of the country. 

vardaros is one of eldora’s major cities.

it’s closely allied with marne and has been for many centuries. 

MARNE: 

marshy. lots of clashes with koto over the mountains.

pretty tolerant attitudes toward magic.

a high saporian population (both because of and contributing to the tolerance of magic); worship of the ternary is accordingly widespread, and zhan tiri is especially popular, because marshes. 

the spire is located in the mountains in the northeast corner, but technically does not recognize the authority of the marnese government (or the kotoan government, or the blavenian government, depending on who controls the mountain at any given time). it’s a “don’t tell us what to do and we won’t give you any problems” kind of situation.

AZOTH: 

a city-state with control over some adjacent farmland, but mostly subsists on imports and fishing. built on a silty coastal flood plain, therefore sinking and waterlogged. pumps keep the streets mostly dry. steampunky. 

rivals ingvarr for technological capabilities, but riven by sharp class divides, corruption, and constant unrest; sometimes this is worsened by uneasy coexistence with nearby vodnik colonies. 

zhan tiri cult spillover from citrifola on the agricultural fringes, but almost nonexistent in the city itself. vodniks in residence along the waterfront. there’s a temple to morskesh somewhere in the city. 

demanitus built a tower here back in the day. it’s now in ruins and mostly buried and built over; the promise of juicy secrets hidden within its forgotten vaults draws adventurers to the city from all over, but they mostly meet unpleasant ends.

CITRIFOLA: 

swampy. sparsely populated. the swamps are very cursed. this was a major site of power for zhan tiri back in the day and temples in her honor are scattered across the landscape, most of them half-sunken and overgrown now. 

sort of a wild place. doesn’t have a government per se, almost a no man’s land, but infested with zhan tiri cultists. hector mostly spends his time driving them away from the great tree, because they want to awaken it. also, lots of bandits hiding away in the old ruined temples.

ANTARES: 

a huge city-state and one of the oldest cities on the continent. built on top of an enormous formation of black rocks. dense, culturally diverse population. basically the cultural crossroads between the central plains and the eastern half of the continent since it’s the nearest organized civilization to the great tree.

zhan tiri has a cult here. so does almost every other god worshipped on the continent. 

ruled by its elected magistrate, henrietta solsen, who is barely controlled chaos personified. 

ABERDINON: 

prosperous. a cultural melting pot. tons of magic and religious diversity thanks to proximity to antares, terapi, and citrifola. scattered communities of lorbs along the coast.

mainstream gods are havot and ferr, plus a dozen or so minor local entities, but there’s also tons of little cults dedicated to other gods. 

lots of ancient ruins lying around—this is an old nation with a long, long history.

the border with antares is sort of always in dispute, but in modern times you can’t really argue with antares so

VACONA: 

pirates. other things too but mostly pirates. 

further inland agriculture is booming and there’s a strong textile industry but really, like three quarters of the government is funded by piracy.

TERAPI: 

island nation unusual for being populated almost exclusively by lorbs. the magic here is so volatile that humans can’t... really live here, and even the lorbs struggle to live with it sometimes.

infrequent volcanic activity.

a lot of native plants are heavily magical and won’t grow anywhere else, so are highly in demand. the lorbs make a killing trading for them. 

VOLKAN: 

massive, ancient empire that is beginning to crumble around the edges. historical efforts to expand in to the western continent were stymied by citrifola and the great tree and the imperial government still sort of harbors a grudge against zhan tiri. 

the populace is not especially keen on magic, but black rock/“obelisk” worship is fairly common in the southeast, where large formations of black rocks break the surface. in the last century or so this has sort of merged into a new amalgam due to influence from moonstone cultists fleeing the desolation in aphelion.

a lot of variance in culture between provinces. in the west, some areas are eyeing sovereignty; there is a feeling that some may declare independence soon and appeal to the hĺessian league for aid in doing so.

TARAZED: 

seismically and volcanically volatile, though not as bad as aphelion. has been in a drought since the desolation started, causing widespread fears that what happened to aphelion will happen here too. a slow exodus to zamora and to antares has been happening as a result.

demanitus’s labyrinth/library/crypt is in the southeast corner of the country

ZAMORA: 

a peaceful, fertile nation that has escaped the desolation largely unscathed. supports a large population of aphelionese refugees, particularly moonstone cultists reluctant to stray too far from the moonstone. 

APHELION: 

once a mighty nation dominated by the powerful moonstone cult, it has been almost completely abandoned following the desolation, as it is now basically just bedrock with a thin layer of sere, barren dirt on top. nothing grows anymore and there’s black rocks all over the place. significant seismic and volcanic activity make it even more uninhabitable.

0/10 do not vacation here