#bonded by blood and magic

[almostaknight]

top 3 moment this episode was this guy seeing jason lannister pull up with impractical, purely decorative lions and then look straight into the camera like he’s on the office

[im-not-buying-it-ether]

To @thefantasmarex and other Cap adopts Kon AU enjoyers

I just thought something, Captain Marvel isn’t an inherited title. In the OG comics and still in a lot of later ones it’s specifically a chosen one thing, we know that with Billy, but his entire family is honorary members and titles passed between close friends and family specifically to share the power. Not pass it on.

Billy has 3 potential candidates for succession depending on canons; The original being BillBat from the 30th century, Power of Shazam’s CeCe Beck from the 90th century, and Tanist of the 853rd century in the DC 1,000,000 comics.

(Pictures and more below the cut)

Only one is actually related to Billy, and that’s BillBat of earth, his distant descendant. CeCe is from Bindermann and Tanist is from Mercury, both having stumbled into the RoE some how and have no prior relation.

No one in the current Marvel family as they know it is supposed to usurp Billy or replace him, he’s supposed to take the Wizards mantle fully later on in life and wait until his successor is old enough to inherit his power. Billy has to live to see that day, weather it’s 1,000 or 7,000 or 83,000 years into the future, he has to make it to pass the torch to the next being Pure of Heart and Strong of Spirit.

There is no replacing Marvel in the modern day, no keeping his name alive till the next guy needed, Conner has no expected inheritance or standards if he’s taken in as a member of the Marvel family. He can be whatever he wants as long as he’s a good person, he could wear his symbol and call himself Junior or another Lieutenant Marvel but he doesn’t have to.

There has to be a Superman once Clark’s gone, he’s too much of a symbol to fade, he means too much. But in a way Marvel doesn’t, and it’s not something bad or sad in context.

Being Captain Marvel is always shown as a thankless and isolating job, but one that has to be done to keep ancient evils at bay and the balance of Magic in order. That’s why Billy takes the job as Wizard only when Shazam dies, magic needs a warden but he doesn’t want that job right away, when he takes it he chooses Freddy as a champion to be Captain Marvel but they aren’t Shazam, he is. That’s what separates the Wizards champion, which is what Billy is, from the gods champions that his family is.

Conner has no expectation in his family, not because he isn’t good enough or because of a flaw in his upbringing, but because of a highly selective criteria for a job no one really wants.

[apicelladonna]

1899, Godric's Hollow

Gellert: *Shows his great-aunt Bathilda the blood troth he is going to propose with to Albus*

Bathilda: What a pretty token for your proposal, dear! When did you buy it?

Gellert, mumbling: ... A week after we started dating.

[tearueful]

Surrogacy is like sex work in that people can sell their own bodies however they choose and also is an exploitive system that needs more regulations to protect those selling.

[potatoesandsunshine]

no one has ever hated anyone like taryn hates mystra. know that.

[dramioneasks]

I wanted to recommend ‘Eagle Eyes’ to the community.

It’s a Hogwarts rewrite with fascinating magic with great characters, friendships and Ravenclaw dramione. Book 5 has just been completed (a satisfactory pause imo) and the writer intends to publish book 6 soon.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/50697961/chapters/128070010

I wasn’t sure if this was the right way to suggest a fic. Do let me know if there is another system :)

Thanks!

Summary:

How one seed of doubt can change the course of history. Where Lucius Malfoy was imprisoned for his crimes in the first wizarding war and how this one seemingly unimportant change, alters Draco Malfoy's life, as well as the entire wizarding world. This is a rewrite of books 1-7 (and perhaps beyond). 5/7 - Order of the Phoenix complete! Half Blood Prince re-write due in the summer :)

PS: yes this way is perfect!

[starry-eyer]

is it wrong that i live for genetic based magic

maybe???? but i can’t care 🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️

i can’tttttt care cause it’s so devious

like… what does it mean for our magical POV characters who are so new to this shit? what does it mean for future societal development? and what did it mean for past societal development?

[tuxedo-rabbit]

Also,

Simon has focused so much on being palatable to everyone, that by the end of act 1 no one except Merrill had strong opinions of him either which way.

[gangueshade]

solas getting stuck in the fade is pretty funny ngl

[stolen-ass-name]

*Guy that has two (2) D&D related interests only voice* Haha Dungeon Meshi x Baldur's Gate 3 crossover when?

[clown-fession]

Something about Aaravos being freed having direct ties to a bloodmoon…

[silvcrignis]

How Does One Become “Satan?”: A “Biblical” Drama Starring Lucifer and *insert the name of whatever poor soul that married Keira Black here*

Lucifer: Hey lesser. You know where all my ruling power resides when I’m ready to pass it on? This shiny & razour sharp serrated dagger.

Poor Soul: Huh. It’s a beautiful dagger. Very ornate.

Lucifer: And do you know how you get my ruling power transferred to you?

Poor Soul: You hand me the knife during a cornation or blood pact ceremony?

Lucifer: Cute.

*violently stabs successor multiple times in the chest*

Poor Soul: *dying* WHAT THE FUCK?! DID MY WIFE KNOW ABOUT THIS?!

Lucifer: *holding the knife in their chest still, rolling his eyes* Obviously not, she would’ve never signed if she knew I would do this to give you the title! She loves ruining my fun.

Poor Soul: …

Lucifer: And when you resurrect you get my title for all eternity but your wife has majority rule & veto power since she’s the actual heir. Have fun being an infernal semi-figure head for the rest of forever. Be grateful I waited until after your honeymoon. Bye bitch. *disappears in a cloud of flames & smoke, cackling, doesn’t even take the damn knife out of his temporarily dead replacement*

[amatres]

this amuses only me, but as someone who tends to choose subclasses based on character personality and nothing else, the fact surana doesn't become a blood mage is not because she finds it 'evil' or 'abhorrent,' but bc she just thinks its boring

[martianmeerkat]

Absolutely agree with OP, just kind of want to clarify a few things. Skinchangers are anyone who can cast themselves into the mind of an animal and bond with them, using the animal's skin and senses to do things. Wargs are skinchangers who can specifcally skinchange into dogs or wolves. Canines essentially. So all wargs are skinchangers, but not every skinchanger is a warg.

Skinchangers tend to be similar to the animals they bond with because the man is as much a part of the beast as the beast is a part of the man. It's described that different kinds of people tend to gravitate towards certain animals because of this, and the stronger the bond, the more similar to that animal they become. In the case of Sixskins' well he has multiple kinds of animals, so how he's effected has less so to do with the kind of effect and more so brash and blunt in general. But we also know that direwolves, in particular, are a difficult creature to claim because they're seen as a gift from the old gods. "A second life fit for a king." So there is also a sort of hierarchy among skinchangers based on the bonded animal.

Greenseers are a different arena. You can be a greenseer without being a skinchanger just as easily as you can be a greenseer while being a skinchanger. The difference is that skinchangers are already deeply connected to the magic that sources greenseeing, so they tend to get the hang of things quicker. But it doesn't determine how strong or weak that ability is. Greenseeing is an ability beyond simply connecting to the weirwood network and navigating it, but learning to manipulate it. There are some cases where it's clear greenseeing, other cases there is a price and the glimpses are unclear.

As far as rarity of these skills, I believe it's mentioned to be one in a thousand men are a skinchanger, even if they never discover that about themselves. They could never bond with an animal and never explore that ability, but are skinchangers nonetheless. Beyond the wall, it's noticeably more common because it's not as persecuted as south of the wall. Within the feudal system, it's highly stigmatized, and thus, something that's been left behind. "Beastling" is a word used to describe skinchangers and paint them in unflattering lights. We see this in how Robb's enemies viewed him. He had Grey Wind and had a strong connection with him even though he didn't know he was a warg. People saw that and were scared. It's often frequently missed or simply not discussed that regardless of who Robb married, people wanted him dead, and it was mostly out of fear because he, this 15 year old wolf king, was *winning* against several seasoned battle commanders. They called him beastling and spread rumors that he became a wolf himself sometimes. That he was a vicious savage animal that would show no mercy. This kind of stigma is what helped his enemies gain support (among other things, like the northerners being classed as barbarians and savages).

So, it's not unsurprising that we don't hear of skinchangers frequently south of the wall. That's because anyone who does find this out about themselves would be prone to hiding it. The Starks wouldn't have to hide it because 1) they're former kings of winter, and after Aegon's Conquest, Lord Paramounts and wardens of The North, so the feudal system protects them more than the commonwealth, and 2) it's a maintained precedence that Starks and Direwolves go together. It's their house sigil, and while not every Stark, but a good portion of Starks, have or have had direwolves. To the people, it can easily be boiled down to rich people having exotic pets. So, on the surface, it gives the impression that Starks are the only wargs/skinchangers south of the wall when really they're the only ones with a set of circumstances that actively works to their benefit and allows them to explore their abilities so long as they stay in the North where there aren't other stigmatizations that would work against them.

That being said, there are other noble houses who this similarly works for but to a much lesser extent and is really only rumored to be the case as skinchangers, however noble, have a better chance of survival by hiding what they are.

Greenseers, on the other hand, are much much more rare despite the fact that it's not dependent on being a skinchanger. A lot of the times it does have to do with the fact that greenseeing takes a greater toll on the mind and body than skinchanging, but mostly it's just a difficult kind of magic that's hard to grasp. It's very much possible, like any kind of magic that allows glimpses of the future, that people can learn to utilize that magic. But visions of the future and greenseeing are not mutually exclusive. Thus far, we know of weirwood visions, dragon dreams, shade of the evening, and visions from the Red God in the flames. There's also the greenblood in Dorne and a few other methods in Essos, but these four are the main ones we really see in action in the main series. Thus far, the only of those four that require any kind of bloodline or lineage are dragon dreams, and that's a trait that (by way of implication in Valyrian history) isn't exclusive to dragonlords, but rather a different group of people that also inhabited Old Valyria that occasionally mixed with dragonlords like the Targaryens, but we're mostly seperate.

In the case of Greenseers, much like skinchangers possibly not ever discovering their nature, it's also likely greenseers wouldn't discover it either. Visions and dreams aren't always clear, and sometimes they make no sense at all, so why take heed of a warning you don't know is a warning at all? After all, Jon dreamed of Ned's death before it actually happened, and he was several thousand miles apart. But the dream wasn't clear at all that that's what would happen, so he had no way of putting the two together. Bran knows he's a greenseer because he was told that's what he is. Even though he had been having glimpses of the future before being told, he dismissed most of them. Which makes sense.

But in short, skinchangers and greenseers, much like your point states, are not dependent on being from a particular bloodline. Rather, it's simply happenstance that the bloodlines that happen to be openly skinchangers and greenseers are of the first men because they're the bloodlines that are the closest in connection to the old gods magic and therefore more willing to accept it as magic and not as a fluke.

Why Targaryen fans don't see Nettles not being of Valyrian blood as a really cool opportunity to explore a rich history of why Targaryens are able to so easily bond with their dragons is beyond me. Targaryens weren't even a prominent house of dragonlords within Old Valyria. They're a group of people who were othered even among people similar to them and only survived because of particular traits (dragon dreams) they had that other dragonlords didn't. So what if they're not the only people who can tame and ride dragons? That doesn't make them any less interesting! If anything, it just goes to show that the people who use this argument only like the Targaryens because of the dragons and not because of the rich history, culture, and magic of Valyria or the assimilation and frequent polarization between political and fanatical that the Targaryens seem to dance the line between. Seriously, there's a lot to be invested in about the Targaryens, why are they so upset about Nettles having Sheepstealer (a wild dragon who isn't even from Valyria) as if it makes any of the Targaryen dragons any less of value or interest?

So on Twitter the new “gotcha” by insane Targ stans (in response to the idea that Nettles had no Valyrian blood) is “So that means anyone can warg right?”

And I have never seen a SINGLE fan of House Stark (or the series in general) claim “special blood” is needed to be a warg/greenseer/skin changer. It seems it’s directly related to the individual having connections to the Weirwoods and not due to “bloodline” supremacy.

I also have not seen any Stark fan “mad” at the idea of somebody without “first blood heritage” having these abilities. Which is probably because outside of the rabid Targaryen stans most ASOIAF fans aren’t weirdo bloodline supremacists.

These fans getting upset when it’s point out the text indicates (or at the very least places reasonable doubt) on Nettles being Valyrian says a lot about them. It also says a lot that them that they think the “anyone can warg” is a good gotcha when yeah I 100% am in support of the idea that anyone can warg. Sorry it doesn’t bother me like it seems to bother you.

[wickedzeevyln]

Of Rain and Fireflies

Tonight, the moonlight casts a sickly glow, jaundiced, nauseating, the kind that stiffens hackles and makes the skin crawl. Shadows slink through the forest like wraiths with vocal cords ripped out of them. Iwai descends. Her wings rustle and woosh in the fierce wind, they beat a steady thump-thump-thump, until she lands on the moss-covered stone with a final thump, her feet as light as…

[thenalexica]

How fantasy characters navigate Magical Inheritance

Bloodline power arrives uncontrolled Ancient magic tests modern skills Family curses block true gifts Heritage secrets reveal hidden paths Magical legacy brings danger gifts Ancestral power demands sacrifice Old spells clash with identity Blood magic shapes destiny paths Powers surface at worst times Traditional magic meets new ways Inheritance reveals family truth Ancient ways challenge present life Magic roots tangle with dreams Power awakens dormant bonds Legacy magic forces choices