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veliseraptor · 1 year ago

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Can I request both your Lymond fics for WIP meme?

you sure can!!! i mean, you know the one, et ipsi sunt jacula is the not h/c h/c aka the one where an exhausted and overtaxed lymond collapses during the disorderly knights and gabriel is like. let me :) help you :) and. you know. is obviously very helpful and solicitous and just interested in helping lymond feel better! psych.

it's slow-going as all of my lymond fic is, because i get distracted by things that are easier to write and then go back and read what i have and go "oh but this is fun though and also i do enjoy the research bits and the footnotes" so I'll write another 100 words in it and then get distracted again. this ask is nudging me to get back to it and continue that cycle. part of my problem (you may be noticing a theme) is I don't actually know how I'm going to finish the damn thing. maybe I can cheat and just leave it open.

for the curious, "et ipsi sunt jacula" is a line from the vulgate bible, psalm 54:22 (55:22 in a modern bible): "molliti sunt sermones ejus super oleum; et ipsi sunt jacula." according to the RJPS translation, the line can be translated (from the Hebrew) as "his talk was smoother than butter, yet his mind was on war"; the vulgate latin translates more directly as "their speech was softer than oil, but they themselves are (like) arrows."

“Ah,” Lymond said. “Behold, Ganelon.” “Francis,” Gabriel said, in a tone of gentle reproach. “Where do you think you are going?” “To Roncevaux, surely,” Lymond said, “that I will mort en conquérant. If you come to fence, I think I will make poor sport.” “I do not come to fence.” Gabriel closed the distance between them in slow strides; Lymond did not flinch back, but looked up at him, an obstinate cast to the line of his jaw for all his pallor and visible weakness. “But you will make sport nonetheless.” “Sport?” Gabriel shook his head slowly. “No. Why do you assume I am your enemy, Francis?” “Ta suka suka, ten skaphen de skaphen onomason,” said Lymond, unmoved. No flicker of displeasure disturbed the handsome face of the man watching him as he reached out, laying hands on his shoulders.

the second one, haec olim meminisse iuvabit, is (meant to be) a post-series richard and lymond fic, specifically one where richard finds out what happened with khaireddin and the chess game, because I am an absolute sucker for brotherly angst and i think it would make sense of some more of lymond's behavior afterwards. this one came out because i realized that richard didn't know and went "ah, but he should!" and then realized that would make for fun post-series drama as the two of them are figuring out how to have a relationship after all the upheaval throughout the series.

also considering if I want to have marthe still alive just because i can and possibly the answer is yes, because, again, i can.

the title on this one comes from the aeneid: "forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit" or, as I translated it in my epigraph, "perhaps someday it will please us to remember even this."

I get to be so pretentious with my lymond titles and I will not stop.

“I assume that Graham Reid Malett is dead.” Richard kept the words short and blunt, but saw no reaction. “Le roi est mort. I killed him in a chess game.” The words were spoken with exact equanimity; Richard cast his gaze sidelong and narrowed, and stayed silent, waiting. The fine-featured face was a mask, inscrutable and unbreakable. “To see the way you look at the boy,” Richard said, “one could not believe that you crossed much of the known world for him.” Lymond was quiet. He propelled himself to his feet, turned, and walked a few steps away, long-fingered hands folding behind his back. “Kuzum is not my son. He is Joleta’s. By her brother.” Richard took a sharp breath. “You are certain?” “Yes.” Lymond’s voice was level, empty of feeling. Richard waited, but he said no more. “Does Philippa know?” “Perhaps. Perhaps not. I haven’t told her. She loves him, and he her.” Richard stood slowly and approached Lymond. “And what of your son?” he asked quietly, almost against his own will. Lymond was silent for a long while, but Richard did not press him, sensing that to do so would be a grave mistake.“Not oats, but wheat of blood...he died,” Lymond said. “In a chess game.”

#conversating #stripedroseandsketchpads #lise memes #confessions of a frustrated writer

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chroniclesofamber · 6 years ago

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The Chronicles of Amber & Freeing the Fire Giant

There are a number of tried and true methods for generating a plot. Roger Zelazny was fond of the revenge quest. Dilvish, his half-elven one-time leader of armies, and Corwin, prince of the one true realm of Amber, were two of Zelazny's early heroes, both errant knights questing to bring about the demise of the antagonists who had wronged them; Dilvish sought to destroy Jelerak, the most powerful wizard in his world, while Corwin was resolved to stop at nothing in order to prevent his greatest rival, his brother Eric, from taking the throne.

To move the plot along, Zelazny resorted to various tools, among them: freeing the giant. While it would be interesting to examine how this works in the tales of Dilvish, the Damned, the focus here will be on The Chronicles of Amber and its hero Corwin. Freeing the giant works like this: The hero, while traveling from A to B to C, comes upon a character (or, in some cases, an inanimate force) who has been waiting in the wings, and sets this factor loose upon the story. The giant atop the beanstalk waits among the clouds — that is, until Jack creates the beanstalk and ascends to the giant’s castle, provoking the giant’s wrath and causing him to crash into the human world.

Nine Princes in Amber

In Nine Princes in Amber, the first book in the series, it could be said that Corwin frees himself. His return from amnesia and our mundane world of Earth does send irrevocable shockwaves through Amber and other worlds. While this is true, there is another character who has not been idle, but who has been waiting specifically for Corwin.

After overcoming many obstacles to reach the outskirts of Amber, Corwin is able to use the reflected copy of the Pattern in Rebma, a glowing design which mystically connects all the worlds in the multiverse, to teleport to the palace in Amber. There he takes possession of a pack of very special tarot cards, which operate on principles rooted in the Pattern and can therefore transport an initiate (anyone able to walk upon the Pattern) to the person or place described on the card. After an inconclusive duel with Eric, Corwin escapes to the fiery world of Avernus, where his brother Bleys has been waiting.

Most of the plot of the first book turns on Corwin’s alliance with Bleys. Bleys admits he has been waiting for a prince of Amber to join him in his bid to unseat Eric and become King of Amber. Corwin is puzzled by the logic of this strategy but is unable to deny that things have unfolded as Bleys had wished. He gathers up some short furry creatures from the world Ri’ik for troops, integrating them with the cat-like soldiers fighting for Bleys. They then plan their assault. The result of their great struggle: Bleys falls from a cliff and his body is not found, while Corwin is blinded and thrown into a dungeon. When he eventually escapes, Corwin vows to plan better next time.

The Guns of Avalon

The Guns of Avalon, the second book in the series, finds Corwin traveling through Shadow, which is to say the spectrum of worlds stretching between Amber and the opposite pole of existence. He is in a forest, on his way to the world Avalon, but is sidelined when he runs into a man very similar to one he once knew in Avalon, a paragon of knighthood named Lance. Corwin has discretely shelved his identity as a prince of Amber, also taking on the role of a knight: Sir Corey.

A knight seeking the Grail goes into the forest, and abandons the path. Because there is no path and the quest is ultimately personal. Each individual finds the Grail his own way, by his own means. Corwin is now (though he does not truly understand this yet) on the quest for salvation. The knights seek the Grail in order to heal the broken king and his wasted kingdom. The land of Lorraine is plagued by zombies, demons, the goat-headed devil who leads them, and an ever-growing miasmic Black Circle of death and decay. Corwin completes his mission, destroying the Black Circle, and picks up a companion, an old frienemy named Ganelon.

Ganelon, however (and despite events much later on), is not the power whose appearance has a profound effect on the pieces on the board in this installment. It is someone Corwin runs into very shortly after wrapping things up in Lorraine. Corwin finally reaches Avalon, or a world very similar to the Avalon he remembers, reuniting with his brother Benedict, who has recently lost his right arm in battle. His brother puts him up in a manor house in the Avalon countryside, where Corwin meets a mysterious young fencing master, who will seduce him a few short nights later: Dara.

By the end of the book Corwin achieves his goal and seizes military control of Amber, acquiring the weather-controlling ruby known as the Jewel of Judgment as Eric conveniently expires battling beings from far-flung worlds. Corwin’s victory is complicated by the arrival of Dara, who has somehow followed him through Shadow. She heads straight to a tunnel below the palace, where she walks the Pattern, her form changing several times, revealing herself to be as terrifying as anything to emerge from the Black Circle. She then predicts the demise of Amber and vanishes.

Sign of the Unicorn

The third installment, Sign of the Unicorn, revolves around the mystery of a missing prince: Brand. Corwin learns Brand has been imprisoned in a tower in a volcanic realm, a tower guarded by a great glassy serpent, a dragon without the fire. He contrives a plan for retrieving his brother from this hell. Brand’s return prompts a discussion about the disappearance of Amber’s king, Oberon, and about his royal talisman, the Jewel of Judgment. And, when Brand recovers enough to talk, Corwin learns of cabals and a conspiracy to remove Oberon and seize Amber’s throne. The throne part did not work out, but it is clear Oberon has been away from Amber for a long time.

That very night, an attempt is made on Corwin’s life by an unknown assailant, a murder attempt which he barely survives. Later, after consulting with Random and Ganelon, Corwin visits the ephemeral city floating in the sky, inexplicably returning from the place with a silver mechanical arm — silvery, shadowy, inhabited by ghosts, the city, created from mist, moonlight and the implacable power of the Pattern, does not as a rule produce permanent objects, evaporating with the dawn. While distracted by this peculiar experience, the primary concerns of the principals are the things brought to light through Brand’s rescue. Like Bleys and Dara, Brand was waiting out among the worlds for Corwin to bring him to Amber and into the story.

[continued in The Chronicles of Amber & Freeing the Fire Giant II]

#the chronicles of amber #roger zelazny #nine princes in amber #chronicles of amber #corwin

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