#borderlandscast: discworld

[borderlandscast]

discworld au

i covered rythian in this post, with a hint of someone’s mystery origins in the previous post. chances are that this au is looking to be a very weird crossover. xephos and nilesy are up next!

lomadia:

her family owns a farm that provides most of the crops and produce for the small town she lives in. her family resides in the ramtop mountains. it’s a very insular mountain town, where everyone tends to leave their doors unlocked. no new face shows up without a good bit of gossip following. everyone has a horseshoe hammered to the top of their doorframes.

she became a witch when she was young; about ten or so. her family noticed her lack of childishness, her no-nonsense sensibilities, and the fact that she rarely cried, even when she got hurt. that, and the below incident.

when she first attended what passed as school, one of the rowdiest boys (a year or two older) pulled on her hair. the teacher ran out when the two didn’t return to the classroom after lunchtime. she found the boy meekly pulling up flowers and turning it into a flower crown for lomadia, who was quietly sitting on a nearby rock, merely watching. the rest of the children fell into line. new children quickly learned this hierarchy. rarely had schoolchildren been so well-behaved.

her family had reservations about lomadia becoming a witch. that is, until an injured hawk crash landed in the garden and viciously bit everyone who tried to go near it. lomadia gently wrapped it in a tea towel and took it into her room, whereupon the hawk let itself be bandaged and fed bits of raw meat (leftovers from a butchered hog). she let the hawk go once it recovered. until then, her family had to put up with lomadia’s stubbornness to let anyone see it and the hawk’s demanding nature.

an apprenticeless, elderly witch who shared lomadia’s familiarity with animals accepted her into her cottage. lomadia grew up learning a witch’s practical magic, with a grand heaping of veterinary mixed in. the old witch looked after lomadia like she was a beloved grandchild; sternly and fondly, with tough love.

for lomadia, whose family had been torn about whether to treat her as a child or as a miniature adult, this came as a wondrous blessing. she flourished under the witch’s guidance and teachings.

lomadia eventually inherited the steading and cottage. she feels a lot of the time that she’s not up to the gargantuan task, since her mentor was (and still is) regarded as one of the best witches to consult about animal health. her mentor rarely left the mountains unless it was an emergency concerning multiple herd/flocks/gatherings.

she knows about mythical animals. it’s one of the biggest secrets her mentor impressed on her.

the hawk that lomadia healed as a child? moved into a large tree next door to the steading as soon as lomadia became a witch. she hasn’t named it, and it accompanies her on her daily flights around the mountain. other hawks seem to flock to her if they’re hurt or need a place to safely rest.

lomadia’s understanding of animals, their handling and care is not without its cons or dangers. when lomadia treats horses, she is still vulnerable to being kicked in the head, or be gored by a gassy bull that refuses to be seen. sometimes she can’t always save an animal, but she definitely tries.

lomadia’s hobby is falconry. a lot of the birds of prey living around and on the mountain are persecuted for their fierce reptutations. she accepts orphaned, wounded and elderly birds into her aviary. only the able ones are released back into the wild. the rest, she cares for. it’s a demanding job on top of her regular witch duties, and thus, it’s well known to the locals and the other witches that lomadia will only deal with animals.

she only ever deals with people in a crisis. rare, but it’s happened, especially if it’s in relation to an injury.

she’s a very proud person, if a little haughty at times. she’s fiercely independent, and while she attempts to project a mature and worldly manner at all times, it tends to fall apart when her temper flares up. her temper can be on the short side, especially if she’s dealing with idiots or simple minded people.

she’s somewhat emotionally immature, and can be childish at times. she acknowledges this, and that she can’t help it sometimes, she still tries her best to do better.

her dealings with people can be rather abrupt, and she prefers most of her relationships with others to be ‘cordial, you know my name and what i can do, but nothing else about me’, which is funny considering her home town has known her since birth. she considers respect as something to be earned, especially when it comes to wizards.

ravs the nac mac feegle

ravs moves in when she ‘saves’ him from being eaten by one of her hawks. ravs is in no real danger since pictsies are practically indestructible, but the hawk thought he was a strange looking squirrel.

ravs wants to pay her back, and when lomadia gently turns him down, he decides to look after her, claiming that a hag’s always in need of a helping hand, and that nac mac feegles never forget a debt, whether drunk or sober.

as to why he’s wandering on his own, he claims that he aspires to be a gonnagle (a nac mac feegle’s version of a war poet/bard). he also heard of the ‘bachelor’ lifestyle from the bigjobs (aka, humans), and wanted to try it out. so far, it’s pretty lackluster, but maybe it doesn’t apply to pictsies.

he is very tiny, about the size of a closed fist, if the fist was very meaty and stocky. he wears a kilt, and is bare footed. he’a also ripped, though nobody can tell given his size, kilt and speed. he can also drink booze like it’s water, and make his own. his strength and hardiness are also pictsie standard. his blue tattoos indicate his clan. his hair used to be orange until he dyed it using archival ink in pursuit of the bachelor lifestyle.

he maintains and carries around with him miniature bagpipes, which were lovingly hand crafted from mouse bones and other discarded oddities. he’s actually pretty good at playing them, which is considered something of a quirk to other nac mac feegles. by lomadia’s request, he’s not allowed to play the pipes unless he’s deep in a mountain cave, owing to how far carrying and enthralling it is.

he has never recited a single bit of poetry or song in front of lomadia. it’s the one thing he’s deeply embarrassed about, despite his lifelong aspiration to become a gonnagle. he has surprisingly detailed knowledge of bigjob instruments and music, though (most of them pub songs).

he can read and write. lomadia taught him on the basis that it would benefit him, and especially more so if he wanted to be a gonnagle. ravs conquered his superstition about written words. he refuses to learn math however, and draws a line at it.

ravs looks after lomadia’s steading when she’s gone, and also helps her maintain her aviary. he’s her live-in handyman of sorts. it helps that people who visit think that her cottage has a very literal spirit residing in it. most animals also fear ravs, and submit to being handled by him readily. it must be the bagpipes.

he lives in one of lomadia’s dirt filled flowerpots, in a broken teapot. the flowerpot resides on a windowsill in the kitchen. ravs considers it prime real estate, and the dirt helps him feel like he’s closer to the ground than he actually is. he’d prefer to have a mound of his own, but really, that’d defeat the ‘bachelor’ lifestyle he’s trying to achieve. the spout of the teapot acts like a chimney, and he’s built himself a pictsie sized residence inside the teapot using junk and castoffs.

he does not like being seen by any bigjobs aside from lomadia, who is the sole exception due to her being a witch. he makes an exception every now and again though.

[borderlandscast]

so i’m sitting here, typing up a post

and realise said post comparing all the rythians in their aus is longer than i thought it’d be, and realise star wars rythian is the cause. it’ll probably get its own post.

i have four different rythians for aus and they’re all slightly different in some way, whether it’s in interests, background or personality quirks.

common factors:

they’re all massive nerds, and have a specific interest that often drives them. it’s usually knowledge or book related.

tall. they have to be the tallest in the au, or one of them.

they’re all adventurers in their own way, but like having a place to put their feet up and rest.

borderlandscast:

the saddest and gayest one of them all. goes through the toughest and soul crushing experiences.

also has the highest alcohol tolerance of them all thanks to his on and off alcoholism.

is the most cynical out of all of them, but also had some wild optimism in there? he can be very tenacious, and vicious when pushed. also one of the nicer vault hunters around.

in essence, can be considered a true vault hunter, since he’s willing to die for a vault.

tough as nails. his third skill tree ‘timeless’ essentially lets him ascend if he exceeds critical damage. it also stalls bleeding and wounds acquired, but he goes into a berserker state (rythian isn’t sure if he’ll ever gain enough control over it) that causes potentially life threatening mental and physical strain upon cooldown. however, he can cross dimensions, barriers and ignore all and any damage taken while ‘phasewalking’.

also unlocked a passive skill that’s a part of the ‘timeless’ tree: royal blood. the joke here is that purple used to be considered a royal color, and he’s from a highborn fami- anyway, rythian’s eridium tainted blood possesses an even more potent nature than raw eridium, could prove intoxicating to sirens, or serve as a substitute to eridium in extentuating circumstances (like opening eridium dependent vaults, cough). it also drives lalnable nuts for a different reason since he can’t do proper blood tests.

afflicted with lactose intolerance, as if his life wasn’t bad enough. enjoys cheese. forgot it existed while on pandora. likes chocolate.

estranged from family. doesn’t consider himself to be a stellar example of said family (which is explored in star wars au).

hates public speaking, never gets used to delivering seminars, or becoming an esteemed guest to conferences. as a result, a lot of megacorporations have their eye on him and his activities.

has the most number of scars. not particularly concerned with how people view said collection, but he has an ambivalent view towards his own, damaged body. he’s on the path to healing and having a better relationship with his body (which is also helped along in part by ravs).

discworld:

the youngest rythian! he’s in his late twenties.

he hasn’t got that much practical experience as a wizard, and specialises in studying and assessing materials that have magic potential. he could be classed as a ‘thaumaturgist’ (i think that’s the actual title of his job, noted somewhere in one of discworld books) that’s before he got distracted in updating the compendium of magic styles.

that said, he’s got fairly extensive knowledge in wizarding theory. you could probably call him that one student who puts their hand up to sidetrack the professor/lecturer by asking insightful but hard questions. all the other students actually prefer this since they can escape learning.

branded as an oddity amongst his peers by being wiling to mix and match casting styles and schools. wizards are all about formulas, flair, tradition and pomp. rythian cares more about the result than how he got there and how he looks while doing it. he’s not inattentive as how to how he casts magic though.

born as the eighth and youngest child of a book doctor (someone who repairs books and texts) and tanner. grew up used to the smell of paper, glues and dyes. got sent to wizarding school as a favor since his parents are used to the weirdness of repairing magic books. they’re also the only people in the business within anhk-morpork since everyone else doesn’t want to deal with that weirdness.

all his other siblings help out with the family business. he’s not particularly close with any of them who are a lot more dedicated to their jobs while rythian would rather read the book he’s assigned to repair, and he hates dealing with dead animals so he never got any tanner jobs as a kid.

so, known as the wizard in the family, he can do whatever he wants. his family consults him from time to time on strange books, and how to troubleshoot if a book happens to react badly to being fixed.

can navigate library space like a seasoned veteran. he has a unique knack to it; he jokes about ‘talking to the books’...which may or may not be true.

he favors practical, small scale magic, like making a fire, getting a good tail wind, or removing old tea stains from lace.

a little absent minded when he’s deep in thought, and can read while walking, eating or doing something else. he has no preferences about reading material. once, he had a romance novel; his siblings thought he had someone. they were wrong, he just picked it up on recommendation.

due to his wizarding background, sometimes he completely misses obvious solutions or meanings since he’s used to less straightfoward terms and inquiries. i.e., lomadia wants him to teach a chicken a lesson? okay, instead of decapitating said naughty chicken, rythian will educate the chicken on the basic differences on good and bad, and proceed to accidentally give said chicken higher sentience.

athiest, as far as religion goes. he’s aware of higher beings, he just doesn’t feel the overwhelming need to make them his greater calling in life, or ask for any favors.

personality wise, he’s fairly mellow, polite and well-meaning, knowledgable and for a wizard, surprisingly street smart. he can be judgemental and set in his ways about how people treat books and wizards, and easily defensive about said teachings.

he grew up on anhk-morpork cuisine, home cooking and street food, so his tastes heavily lean towards greasy but/and filling. he has a ridiculous metabolism since his brain is so active.

asexual, biromantic; this may change later on. has no romantic experience. is baffled by people’s fixations on sex. knows what sex is, though, and embarrassed.

his dark materials:

roughly the same age as borderlandscast rythian. i.e, early thirties.

orientations undecided.

will get to his daemon in another post!

scholar, particularly interested in the studies of forbidden magic and the origin of daemon development (especially mythical or legendary forms). officially, he’s his own scholar and one of the curators of sweden’s university library. he assists other scholars in finding and examining texts and delivering them. he’s also tasked with retrieval of texts if needed, from other archives and by extension, other countries.

he actually has a fairly neat collection of ‘destroyed’ texts. these are papers about the nature of dust, rebuttals, banned authors and such. he hates getting ‘please destroy’ letters from the church.

he passes his daemon off as an unusual variant of thorny devil, provided ender keeps their wings tucked in tight and hidden.

rythian’s magic is fairly weak in this au; he rarely finds time to nurture his magic, nor has the slightest idea of the best way to do so. he can tap into basic elemental manipulation, but that’s about it. he’s convinced it’s tied to his daemon’s form.

he’s tasked with finding any existing volumes of althiometer readings and symbols from oxford for sweden’s own archives; rythian takes this opportunity to leave sweden and undertake his biggest and secret goal yet.

brown haired and blue eyed; missing the pale stripe from his hair in this au.

speaks english, latin and swedish. knows a handful of useful phrases in other languages. can read and write a couple of other languages. not sure what ones yet.

knows his ways around the social politics of the scholars that visit; doesn’t actively partake in rivalries, spats or dealings, generally keeps his head down and just does his job.

well educated, spoken and mannered. rythian rarely loses his composure unless he’s surprised, angered or excited. it usually takes a lot to get him to break his straight face.

did consider applying to become a missionary to travel widely but realised he had little interest in preaching since he doesn’t have that much faith in god to begin with. plus, his daemon is proof of his deviance from the norm, or so he rationalises. he can understand the dedication of worship but he views himself and ender exempt from the doors of the church. yeah, he has mixed feelings about religion. i don’t know if i’ll explore this since it’s a topic i’m not equipped to handle.

[borderlandscast]

catch me on my way to go read both the discworld Series and hdm just to follow these aus you’re making

THANK YOU FOR THIS ASK! it’s really great to hear that since i’ve been ok the fence about sharing these aus to a bigger audience but i’m dying to do so since they’re both Solid aus (did you get the pun? no? sadfaces).

DO IT!!!!!! if you start discworld though, you’re in for a lengthy ride of over forty novels ;) there’s lots of guides out there to lead you astray to become one of us. if you prefer something shorter? i recommend starting with hdm since it’s a trilogy and there’s only a handful of prequel mini novels, with a sequel trilogy in the works!

some basic knowledge is needed to understand the aus but fear not, i’ll do my best to expand and explain where things seem foggiest/malleble. otherwise? it’s HEADCANON TIIIIIMMMEEEE.

[borderlandscast]

I have read both and I am *eyes emoji* (though I read His Dark Materials when I was, like, 13, and it feels more like a fever dream than anything)

i finished all the main discworld novels this year and hed a very emotional moment turning the last page of ‘the shephard’s crown’, and came across my old notes on discworld au! and i’m currently rereading hdm right now! highly recommend a reread since there’s a lot of naunces that can get lost the first time!

they’re both Solid aus, and given how much of a playground both are? 😏 looking forward to digging around in said sandboxes. for now, have some basic info.

discworld au:

basic plot is that there is a prophecy involving a witch and wizard who must* marry and produce the heir to all magic**. the witch is lomadia, and she owns a cottage overlooking the countryside that overlaps with a bustling trade town. the wizard is rythian, who is seeking to update the catalogue of magic and since he finds the ‘witch’ entry sorely lacking, writes to lomadia (at a friend’s recommendation) seeking help and boarding until he finishes said entry.

ravs is a bachelor nac mac feegle living with lomadia. he feels that her quiet life is in need of some spicing up. after she rejects rythian’s letter (‘wizards are all pomp and faint at the sight of blood, even their own’), he secretly crafts a letter inviting rythian to join her and mails it.

unable to tell the difference between a nac mac feegle and a witch’s handwriting, rythian excitedly hitchhikes all the way to her cottage and on arrival, finds her less than pleased at both him and ravs’ intervention. out of pity (including shameless begging on rythian’s part, and she’s to be a co-author, listed first), she lets him stay.

i don’t know if there’ll be other characters appearing but these three are the main characters so far; ravs possibly ends up making friends with the god of cat lovers, aka, nilesy. who embodies the fanatic devotion people have towards cats. all and any thoughts are appreciated!

* scholars argue amongst themselves if the ‘must’ is necessary because if the royals are free to skip out on holy matrimony, then so should peasants and alike be allowed to do so

** with exceptions (for a complete listing of magics considered magic, head to the unseen university’s library and ask for catalogue applicable to current year, day and hour)

hdm au:

rythian is descended from people who formerly used magic. due to their descendents settling in lyra’s world, the ability skipped many generations until he came along, and with another unusual trait: mythical daemons. rythian’s own daemon settled as a small dragon (called ‘ender’, DON’T JUDGE ME). who can possibly breathe fire.

the two set out to find people who also have unique daemons. the first is ravs, who lives in scotland and has been hiding out in the highlands. ravs has a unicorn daemon (unnamed, gender unknown) that only he can ride; nobody’s kept up with him and his daemon thus far. he agrees to join rythian’s quest. rythian is still very gay for ravs in this au (sorry, i don’t make the rules).

teep is a lone forest ranger who has a cockatrice/basilisk daemon; they’re called basil, and basil has the unfortunate habit of petrifying people if looked upon. thus, basil is always blindfolded, but speaks for teep, who is a person of little words. basil looks like a four legged, scaled and feathered beast with wicked talons, a snake headed tail, and a rooster’s head and neck.

zylus and daltos originate from rythian’s ancestorial world, but wander through an opening and proceed to get horrifically lost when trying to carry out measurements of said opening. the two scholars hold opposing ideas about the nature of dust; zylus believes that dust is finite and there is a set amount in every world to begin with. daltos believes that dust is infinite and relies on the presence of sentient beings. spoiler: they’re both right.

zylus’ daemon is a brown gyrfalcon named ‘griffin’, which initially misleads rythian. daltos’ daemon is ‘dallas’, who is a bearded vulture. both scholars can perform magic; rythian seeks to learn magic in the hopes of writing a book. not sure what kind of magic, but it’s similar to charter magic from garth nix’s abhorsen series!

also all parties are being hunted by the magic police since all are illegal beings and apparently cannot be allowed to exist since magic is bad, and weird daemons wandering about can give people Opinions about the religious authorities, so.

watch this become a clusterf*ck of gay. no daemon’s gender has been decided upon yet since i’m still walking back and forth on the topic.

if y’ll got ideas for certain characters, THROW THEM THIS WAY! i considered giving nilesy a sphinx but having to answer a riddle every single time he asks his daemon to move their ass off his chair? no!!!

note that no turps, c*ff, or sj*n will be written into either of these two aus; i no longer feel comfortable writing them given recent events.

[borderlandscast]

leave the first sentence of a fic in the askbox and i will write the next five.

super bored! feel free to also specify a character and/or au with the prompt. if nothing is specified, it’s a wild card. please make sure that it’s super clear what’s the sentence and what’s not!

e.g. rythian, blcast. sentence: he squinted and pointed in turn at the holographic symbols marking each one of the vaults, snd muttered, “blocked, blocked, blocked, none of you are free of sin.”

aus:

borderlandscast

star wars (i know it’s not technically being worked on but i’d still like to share what’s been created since there’s a lot)

his dark materials

discworld

here’s the askbox.