#bi shallan day

[gal-palanaeum]

[ID: a screenshot of a tweet from @/naiakiir on 26 Septemeber 2016 that reads, "Every time Shallan thinks abt Jasnah it's so gay which is #relatable, @/BrandSanderson did u realize how bi u wrote her?? either way thank u".

Brandon Sanderson, @/BrandSanderson replies, "This wasn't directly on my mind while writing, but looking back, I think it was in my subconscious. I'm flattered to hear it."

@/naiakiir replies, "!!! Oh gosh, I really appreciate this supportive reply, and I really look forward to Shallan in future books! Thank you!!!!" End ID.]

Happy Bi Shallan Day everyone!!! Let’s celebrate in cfsbf with loads more gay.

Draw/write/explain your your LBGTQ headcanons, ships, etc.

Thanks go to @silverstarsart since we wouldn’t know this without you. :P

[fable-the-queer-bookworm]

Day 28: Shallan and Adolin

[cosmerelists]

The Rules of the Cosmere

And by “rules,” I mean tropes that crop up repeatedly in Sanderson’s books, that one could consider “rules” in a nonserious, please-don’t-take-this-too-seriously type way. 

Spoilers for pretty much all of the Cosmere!

1. Don’t feed the children

As seen in: Elantris, Oathbringer, Warbreaker

If you see a hungry, homeless child in a Sanderson book and you’re tempted to, say, give them food--don’t! Raoden tried that. And the poor child was horribly mangled by the men who wanted that food. Shallan tried it. And it turned out the child was being coerced into accepting the food by gang leaders--who ended up killing the child. Vivenna didn’t exactly feed them willingly, but the urchins did, like, beat her and steal her food while she was living on the street. So that wasn’t great.

Exception that proves the rule: Stump. She fed lots of orphaned children, and she was only almost killed. So the message is: if you want to feed the children, have a Lift around to protect you.

2. Once Marriage is On The Table, Breakups Don’t Really Happen

As seen in: Mistborn Era 1, Mistborn Era 2, Stormlight Achives, Elantris, Warbreaker

Once characters get to the point of marriage, be they engaged or in an arranged marriage or just solidly A Thing, it is rare for them to break up. Sometimes a breakup is floated--like when Adolin told Shallan she could go ahead and leave him for Kaladin or when there was Wax/Steris tension or when Zane tried to break up Vin and Elend--but in the end, the original relationship tends to hold strong. Siri and Susebron were married before they had even met, but they ended up happy together. Even “death” couldn’t stop Sarene and Raoden’s engagement--Sarene did try to marry someone else, to be fair, but that second marriage did not actually happen and the original marriage reigned supreme.

Exception that proves the rule: Elend’s first engagement did not work out. Vin killed the fiancée. So it is slightly riskier to be engaged if you’re not a viewpoint character, if you’re secretly evil...or if you’re in Vin’s way.

Although...did Elend and Shan actually break up, or was their engagement only canceled by Shan’s death? I guess either way, it didn’t work out!

3. Your enemy will save you...if the sexual tension is high enough

As seen in: Elantris, Rhythm of War

Perhaps appearing in two books isn’t quite enough to call this a rule...but if I had a nickel, etc. Hrathen was Sarene’s enemy...but in the end, he kinda fell for her and ended up killing himself to save her. And in a strangely similar manner, Raboniel used her dying moments to save Navani...after Navani was the one to kill her. Then there’s Lewshi and Kaladin--neither sacrificed themselves to save the other, thank goodness, but Lewshi does help save Kaladin and/or his men on several occasions and their romantic tension is off the charts.

Exception that proves the rule: Even sexual tension doesn’t seem to be enough for Moash to not try to drive Kaladin to suicide. 

4. Your fave is (accidentally) queer

As seen in: Stormlight Archive, Mistborn

Sanderson has a tendency to write characters that he innocently believes to be straight...until readers point out how incredibly not-straight they are. Take Shallan, who is as bi as the day is long--which Sanderson admitted, I believe, once it was pointed out to him. Veil is canonically into women, at any rate. And Sanderson has said that both Shallan & Adolin would be open to adding Kaladin as a third, so Adolin is presumably bi as well, to no one’s surprise. Many readers--me included--read Kaladin as some flavor of ace, although again, that seems to be unintentional, canonically speaking. There’s also Lewshi, a woman inhabiting a male body, whose transness is not really talked about as such but is very present. And in Mistborn, there’s Wayne and his gender-fluid SO MeLaan, a queer relationship that I don’t think is ever really identified as such. 

And yes, there are also canonical queer characters in actual queer relationships, but so many more seem to be accidentally queer.

Exception that proves the rule: Sanderson insists that Moash is canonically straight...somehow.

5. Don’t trust the underling priest!

As seen in: Way of Kings, Warbreaker, Elantris

If there are suspicious things going on, look no further than your nearest, seemingly loyal underling priest. In Way of Kings it was Kabsal, who turned out to be an assassin. In Warbreaker, the seemingly helpful and awkward Bluefingers tried to sacrifice Siri on an altar. And in Elantris, while Hrathen never exactly trusted Dilaf, he did believe that he had him handled...which turned out to be a mistake, and Dilaf ended up being one of the big bads. The big bad? It’s been a while since I read Elantris.

Exception that prove the rule: Kadash seems like a good dude. I will be genuinely shocked if he tries to, like, murder Dalinar or something.

6. Hoid is there

As seen in: All of them.

Hoid has a supernatural ability to be present at all important moments in the Cosmere, so he can expect to find him in whatever book you’re reading. If there actually are Cosmere Rules, this would have to be one of them.

Exception that proves the rule: I don’t think he’s in all of the Arcanum Unbounded stories--like Shadow for Silence or Sixth of Dusk. So maybe if your story is short enough, you can escape Hoid?

It could be the only way.

[beneathsilverstars]

one, so sorry to people following me for my bi shallan fame, this is only like the third time i've posted about stormlight archive in the last three years

however, two, stormlight people you should play hit indie game In Stars And Time!! it's a 20-40 hour rpg available on steam, switch, and playstation. I like it for a lot of the reasons I like bsandy's work - unique worldbuilding, fun twists, and compelling characters with interesting arcs and relationships. the dev is actually a cosmere fan! ISAT is on a less epic scale obviously, but it tells a heart-wrenching story very well while making excellent use of its medium.

it follows mysterious traveler siffrin and their friends, who have finally made it to the last stage of their quest, the king's stronghold... only for siffrin to die on the first floor. but, then he wakes up again from his nap the day before! he's in a timeloop, and can try again however many times it takes to beat the king. but what will it take? and who is the weird star helping them? and why is the timeloop even happening? and how much longer will they have to go on, repeating the same day, the same lines, the same battles, the same deaths, trying not to worry their friends, trying not to miss any clues, trying not to break down?

[gal-palanaeum]

[ID: A digital illustration of Shallan, shown from the knees up, in front of a flat pale background. She is standing and facing to the right. She has pale skin and long, wavy, orange-red hair. She has large blue eyes, half closed and relaxed, thick eyebrows, a round nose, and full lips that match her hair. She has a sprinkling of freckles across her nose. She wears a havah dyed in ombre bi colours. It's red at the top of her collar down to her chest and upper arms, where it fades smoothly into pink that reaches down to her forearms and hips, and the skirt blends with paintbrush strokes into a deep blue-purple. The purple is also found at her freehand cuff and the end of a long, flowing safehand sleeve. Her hands are folded demurely in front of her, freehand over safehand, and her face is relaxed. End ID.]

im late but happy pride month! enjoy a canon bi shallan wearing the flag in her havah xD

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown, round 1, bracket two

Propaganda:

For Adolin Kholin:

HIMBO SUPREME!! Fights with a giant-ass fantasy sword. Unlike everyone else, he does not have superpowers, but he is REALLY GOOD AT SWORD!!! Best duelist in the kingdom, doesn’t want to go to war, just wants to be a jock. He’s still really good at war tho. Once took on a 4 on 1 duel in the most epic chapter ever written and won (ish). Befriends the sword. Her name is Maya. Befriends everyone he meets, actually. One character really wants to hate him, but can’t cuz he’s just genuinely a nice dude.  Super supportive of his girlfriend, knows she’s a girlboss. Talks to his dad’s horse. Probably bi. 

His church lets you pick One Thing to train yourself in, his is magic sword fighting (and hes only second to his father in it) on book 2, chapter whitespine uncaged, he fought basically (his friend helped but was super unprepared)  4 on 1 with an unfair judge and WON

He's almost canonically bi Loves his wife *SPOILERS* Loves his sword so much he resurrected her immortal soul

Omg he LOVESS swords so much. Which sword? Any and all. He talks to his sword before duels, he brings like 30 different blades on a mission and when prompted starts info dumping about what each of them is useful for. His ideal date - sword training his fiance. He is THE sword guy. And also him and Shallan are so bi4bi <3

For Nicky:

Nicolò di Genova (aka Nicky) is an immortal warrior who was raised to become a catholic priest and fight in the Crusades with his two-handed long sword. There, on the opposite side of the crusade invasion, he meets Yusuf al-Kaysani (aka Joe), who is of a religion that Nicky was raised to hate. After killing each other, coming back to life and killing each other countless times, they eventually make peace, learn each other languages, become friends, and fall in love. They now fight alongside each other in the Old Guard as the immortal husbands (paralleling Andromache and Quyuh’s immortal wives duo). They will do anything for each other and their found family. Nicky is deadly efficient with his longsword as well as with any weapon/hand combat. Nicky and Joe once took out a truck full of armoured guards while handcuffed. Nicky is very caring and empathic but tough when he needs to be (is able to fight despite being experimented on for days) and is worthy of the title of best gay swordsperson <3

He’s very neat

[cosmereplay]

Mark your calendars for the start of the Queer Stormlight Holiday Season!

Sep 15th: Reading Leshwi As Trans Day! (It's the day her RoW preview chapter was released)

Sep 26th: Bi Shallan Day (when Brandon canonized her bisexuality on Twitter)

Find the rest of the holiday season celebration days, including Non-binary Singers Day and Shakadolin Day, here! Thanks to @priscellie for doing the research 😎

[kinsey3furry300]

Controversial take: Hoid is a tumblr sexyman.

I like Brandon Sanderson, I think he's a good writer, but I never thought he was a great writer until the 'dog and the dragon' chapter of the Rythem of War at which point I realised that 1, Sanderson really knows how to use the story within a story device to communicate both to characters and the reader different information at the same time, and 2, Hoid is the ultimate tumblr sexyman: it's not the fact he's a super powered badass normal OP, it's not the fact he's sarcastic as hell, or the fact you need to peice his backstory togeather from a rabbit hole of internet lore and snippets of about 20 different books, and it's not the fact you could read him as Neurodivergant or bi, or the fact that his canonical appearance is a white haired pretty boy with cheekbones aka he looks like Jack Frost from that Guardans film that made us all wet back in the day. It's this: his in universe plan for defeating a litteral god of evil is shitposting. In universe shitposting. Whenever one of the heros is at their breaking point, Kaladin or Shallan or Lift, rather than actually act directly, he sits them down and tells them a long, rambling, often funny story that directly connects in no way with thier current situation, but speaks to their personality strongly enough to inspire them to keep going through their own darkest moments, and I think that is beautiful. It's the power of story itself to make the world a better place... just canonically delivered in the most annoying way possible by a massive and unapologetic troll (hell he beat up Kesler as much to teach him as anything), and i think that makes him more tumblr than any other recent litteraly character: his commitment to, in the face of Armagedon, be a silly little dude till the last.

[cosmereplay]

[ID: A digital illustration of Shallan Davar in front of a pale background. She is shown from the chest up, wearing a jean-blue havah with Pattern hanging out over her heart. She has pale skin with a yellow undertone, a small flat nose, and large blue eyes. Her dark auburn hair is thick and voluminous, half pulled back into a bun, and the rest tumbles down to mid-back. She looks off screen with a little quirk of a smile, as if Adolin is nearby distracting her. End ID.]

I’ve never stepped foot on tumblr in my life and the thing that gets me on here is a very healthy obsession with Stormlight Archive? Damn.

That being said, Shitty Shallan Doodle (shallan would not be proud)

I DID THIS IN LIKE 20 MINUTES PLEASE

[gal-palanaeum]

(You can find image descriptions of the header/background and profile pic/logo here)

Announcing Cosmere Femslash Fest 2023! 🎉🌈

Hey cosmere fandom! Do you love our wonderful cast of female characters? Wish there was more fic of them loving each other? Want to contribute a fic, and get a mystery gift fic in return? 👀

Here’s the plan:

Fill out the signup form here. You’ll be asked to provide information on what you'd like to write as a gift, what you’d like your gifter to write for you, and a few other details to help us assign you a gifter and giftee. Signups will be open for submissions through August 20th.

We’ll reach out to you by August 26th with your assigned giftee, along with their submitted gift preferences to help guide your writing. The goal is to keep gifters/giftees secret during the writing, but we’ll keep communication open if you’d like to reach out through us to ask your giftee any additional questions about their preferences.

You’ll have until September 26th (Bi Shallan Day!) to write a femslash fic for your giftee—all we’re asking for is a short fic (think a few hundred words) but you can write more if you’d like! On September 26th we’ll all reveal our gifts and giftees. It’ll be a big sapphic party! (arguably the best kind 😎)

And that’s it! Our DMs and askbox are open if you have any other questions—don’t be shy!

We’ll also be posting optional writer check-ins, boosting femslash art and fic, and creating other opportunities for exchange participants and non-participants alike to have fun and encourage each other, all while celebrating our cosmere gals and their galpals. We hope you’ll join us!

Common tags:

#cosmere femslash fest 2023 - updates on the fic exchange

#cosmere femslash inspiration - fics, art, prompts, and ideas

#writing inspiration - encouragement and advice

#cosmere femslash fic - fic recs

#described - art specific tag - all art is described

#yurithiru - these posts contain links to Mature and Explicit rated content. Block or search, as you like it!

[knightsgaydiant]

Happy Bi Shallan Day to those who celebrate 💖💜💙

[diabolicalworldwriter]

wow I finally drew something. whooo

sorry this took so long, I'm stupid and unmotivated and all and Adolin and Shallan are, for whatever reason, always kinda hard for me to capture. so here's those two people who look nothing like my other drawings of them cuz we can't have consistency.

but yeah, our bisexuals, featuring Maya as a blade. (I can't remember if Adolin is confirmed Bi but like. f*ck it he is.) happy pride!

have an amazing day everyone! ily all. if you have a queer character/ship you want me to draw this pride month, (canon or not; idc as long as it's not creepy lol), by all means request, my asks are open and anon is on. be safe, good luck out there I hope you smile.

[kidrat]

I have never felt so seen IN MY WHOLE LIFE

[rashenditrash]

Gay Disasters of the Cosmere

This was inspired by a 17th Shard Thread, but my answer was so Tumblr, I had to share it here [Note - I reference characters from all the main Cosmere books, so read on with that in mind]:  

(1) Sarene - mostly straight, but her disaster tendencies give big gay vibes.  She mistakenly thinks being a lesbian would be easier because she is tall.  

(2) Kelsier - Okay... listen.  Yes Kelsier is mostly in straight relationships, but no honest straight person could manage the DRAMA that Kelsier pulls off.  He's definitely experimented with guys, and is honestly just turned on by anyone who can keep up with him.  He and Dockson almost kissed once, but both thought it would be weird and turned it into a bro moment.  

(3) Ham and Breeze - Yes, they both marry women, but there is an unspoken attraction that they are both too stubborn to admit to.  They both know it's better for the their friendship to leave the sexual tension simmering below the surface, and so they don't mess with it.  Both would die for the other.  Breeze likes Ham a little more that Ham likes Breeze, but would never admit to that.  

(4) Shan Elariel - I don't know, her energy is just very gay, okay?  

(5) Rashek and Alendi - I have a whole fic about this.  #Rashendiforever

(6) Ati and Leras - Another fic.  Gods in love.  Opposites attract.  Star-crossed tragic lovers doomed to destroy each other.  Delicious.  

(7) Denth - Why is he so obsessed with Vasher, hmmmm?  Are he and Tonk-Fah really just 'roommates'???  

(8) Fafen - Big "joined the clergy cuz I'm gay" energy.  

(9) Blushweaver and Lightsong - BI DISASTERS OKAY!!!

(10) Wayne - Kind of likes Wax, and isn't too hung up on gender in general, but mostly likes the ladeez (yes he spells it like that because he's awful).  

(11) Marasi - She just has that "I thought I liked the MC because he's the MC and I'm supposed to like him, right?  Right?" kind of vibe, and I could totally see her questioning that and being open to her own bi-ness or lesbianism going forward.  

(12) Shallan - confirmed bi disaster.  

(13) Adolin - Gotta mention my boyfriend.  Fellas, is it gay to go to jail for your crush bridge boy?  Also a (basically) confirmed bi disaster.  

(14) Kaladin - Yes, I know you've had like three girlfriends, but what were you saying the other day about how perfect Adolin's hair is Kaladin?  Right, right, right.  

(15) Axies -I have no words for how much sheer gay disaster-ness this beloved Aimian exudes, but I am so here for it.  

[beneathsilverstars]

cannot believe my bi shallan post has 250 notes. back in my day the tumblr cosmere fandom was like. 20-40 people? maybe?? where did you all come from it's only been ten years

[kingjasnah]

that tiktok is really funny but sometimes it's sad like. you know the people who are like 'why does it matter what sexuality they are' are the ones who never had to struggle seeing themselves in a book or on screen

yea......yea :( like the video DID make me wheeze but it's only because i find it hard to take those arguments seriously anymore. you have to think about it on more than just one level? when people complain about representation for representation's sake i understand that but....a lot of times, being part of a marginalized community changes and complicates a character. stormlight wise, we see jasnah have a whole chapter where she went im ace and this is how it affects me in the society im in. bi shallan complicates her wok relationship with jasnah. it's not just adding a bunch of identities to win with leftist media or whatever like having characters that are different make a story more interesting

and of course we have to think about the reader cause it's starts getting really really disheartening esp in western culture where no one in media looks like you. like traditional fantasy protags are supposed to be blank slates and while they are not that anymore (and we are the better for it) a blank slate written by someone who doesn't understand nonwhite or lgbt experiences isn't going to be the same. and i mean. sometimes gay people want to see themselves represented in media and not have it entirely be about coming out or being sad or shit like sometimes it's good to see them in specifically fantasy (you know, the genre we explicitly use for escapism and exploration of real world issues thru metaphor). the way i see it and the way i believe sanderson sees it from specifically his jasnah wob and the one when he talked about the reshi king is that writing diverse characters isn't often about pandering, it's about exploring another lens of identity and seeing how it changes a dynamic or character. which is what you know. regular writers do every day. i truly didn't mean to go off when i specifically said i was mostly in this for the laffs but like.......man idk i almost feel like if people are still convinced gay fantasy characters are pandering im going to leave them to their white boy books and have a good time on my gay stormlight blog. @ op of the tiktok post: bro im SORRY ur notifications must be WILD rn