#callyn

[jeliwyre]

had to draw my oc with the pretty matching pokémon

[itachi86]

“What would you do, if the king were to show up on your doorstep?” “Faint from shock.” “Callyn.” “I would! What would you do?” “The king has shown up on my doorstep.”

-Forging Silver into Stars

[greentrickster]

So I played through the latest FFXIV and FF16 crossover event and...

...

...listen, I get that this is a reference to the fact that I, as the player, can potentially go play FF16 if I want to. But here's the thing about Callyn:

That pale, pale green right eye of hers? Originally, back when I was making her in January 2023, both her eyes were going to be dark brown (because that's the prettiest eye colour fight me), but then I decided to indulge my inner otaku a bit and go for heterochromia that came with - you anime aficionados guessed it! - a strange power in that pale right eye.

Specifically the power to see into other worlds (specifically the settings of any other video game character other than her own).

Listen, I wanted it to be a strange power, not a useful one. Literally the only time it has ever become useful in her life (outside of occasionally poaching tunes or tales to use as inspiration for her own) is when I decided to isekai Edgeworth into Eorzea because I could, and which falls into the 'leery' section of how canon his presence is or isn't in her story. So, like I said, useless power.

Except this is now the third Final Fantasy crossover event I've gotten to play through with her, and all the Final Fantasy worlds are separate games. Which means Callyn absolutely can peer into them from time to time according to her pre-established lore. Which was amusing enough just as a thought, but then our Wandering Minstrel friend out and out says, "Sadly, the power to peer into other worlds was not granted me by today's miracles. I wonder, however, if you might manage it, Callyn."

And like, yes. Yes, through the silliest coincidence ever, she can absolutely manage it. Just not in the way the developers were thinking.

TL;DR: Naoki Yoshida inadvertently called me out on my silly-fun WoL headcanon and it was kinda one of the best parts of the entire event for me.

[delfinoluma101]

Callyn Zan has loves to experiment with her hair, make up, and style!🎀💄

Her brother works as an executive adjutant to a prince charged with leading kingdom knights.⚔️

[bookworm-fangirl1]

name bracket

@telugu-girl-13 @manicali @where-is-the-angst

I have 16 choices for you to choose from

He’s condescending and sarcastic (he is hiding a tragic past) and he’s a part of a rebellion

Next one

Another

And another

oh would you look at that another one

What a surprise there’s more

Almost there! One more

Okay last one

[kill0mtr]

oh yeah i never shared this to tumblr. here. abicer + callyn aka mod abjurer + cullin.

this is an au cullin where hes been transfered to abicers schoolhive. abi n cal are paired for a school project together. only one is excited.

rejoice cullin enjoyers

your boy is here

[ceesims444]

It finally happened! Callyn made her debut as Glinda in the hit musical Wicked!

[seeingteacupsindragons]

I'm curious about Casket Road!

Oh, Casket Road.

This is one of the first projects I wrote after I ended up with writing burnout for most of 2012-2013. I read all of the Nightrunner books that were out in a handful of days during my Christmas break and the next day...started this.

I actually started it the same day as another project and managed to draft both of those novels in about 7-ish months, as I recall, and I was pretty high on it, and then I tried to revise it and promptly gave up and marked it as unsalvageable. It was meant to be part of a trilogy. I never wrote the other two books and moved onto other things.

I think @quill-of-thoth knows this one as "Necromancers Are Good."

This was also! One of the very first projects I wrote with intentionally ace characters from the outset. Maybe the first?

But there are still some parts I really like about the book (like...the first 10k words or so, give or take).

He was still several streets away from the safety of the forges when someone grabbed his wrist and dragged him into a side alley. Serale didn’t hesitate: his dagger was out of his belt in seconds, cutting through the air towards his attacker. The other man spun out of the way and seized his other wrist, holding him in place. Serale wrenched his first arm free and pulled away, freezing when he saw his attacker’s short black hair and broad shoulders covered in fine linen. “Oh, not you again!” The man grimaced and tightened his grip on Serale’s right wrist. “Stop fighting. I’m not here to haul you before the judges.” “Then what do you want?” Serale demanded, trying to twist his arm out of the man’s grasp without dropping his weapon. “You agreed to let me clear.” “I need your help—” Serale kicked the man’s ankle and pulled away as his attacker stumbled, immediately turning and dashing down the street. “Callyn!” the man called. He was calling for help. It didn’t matter. Serale didn’t see anyone else, and he could run. The ground warped beneath Serale’s feet, softening to loose dirt and muddy slurry. He caught himself as the ground reformed around his ankles, trapping his feet in the ground. He gaped for a moment before trying to work himself out of his boots. He’d miss them; they were his only pair, but escaping was worth the boots and coins inside. The man caught up to him and hauled him up by his shirt just as he got his left foot free. Serale spared a second of mourning for the shirt before cutting it down the front and shedding it to dart forward, wiggling his second foot out of its boot. He’d nearly turned the corner when the ground rose in front of him, pinning him in the alleyway with the man behind him and a dirt wall ahead. Damnation. The man had a druid helping him. That explained the ground. Serale turned around, knowing he wouldn’t be able to scale a sheer cliff, and scowled as hard wood twisted itself around his hands. “Now,” the man said, steadying himself on his feet. “Are you going to listen to me?”

Re-reading this is interesting, because I used to think this was so good and now it doesn't really sound like me at all.

[gay-little-axolotl]

also have a crappy ms paint doodle of a drawing idea i am thinkins my antagonist of my story holding puppet strings and making my oc callyn(who is either going to be a single protagonist or with tanniyn) being forced to hold her sword, and on the queens shoulder is a broken puppet representing callyns dead brother... uh @comical-icicle @luminethefoxincabin13-ts help me out here you know what i mean right?

I love the puppet string idea :0

[just0nemorepage]

Forging Silver into Stars || Brigid Kemmerer || Forging Silver into Stars #1 || 560 pages Top 3 Genres: Fantasy / Young Adult / Romance

Synopsis: When nineteen-year-old Tycho, the King's Courier, arrives in the remote village of Briarlock, he hopes to escape the demands of his new life in the royal court, where magic reigns for the first time in ages. He doesn't expect to fall for a handsome blacksmith with a bruised heart.

After years of cruelty in his father's forge, Jax never dared to dream of a better life -- until a magic-wielding young lord shows him an enticing alternative. But when rumors of a rebellion reach Briarlock, Jax wonders who he can trust -- and if he'll even survive.

Jax's best friend, Callyn, doesn't trust anyone -- especially not a handsome stranger with magic, which killed her parents years ago. When another royal emissary arrives, seeing a co-conspirator, Callyn finds herself embroiled in a plot that could lead them all to ruin. . .

As tensions flare throughout the kingdom, it won't be long before everyone must choose a side.

War is brewing. Passions are building. And magic may doom -- or save -- them all . . .

Publication Date: June 2022. / Average Rating: 4.15. / Number of Ratings: ~7670.

[jeliwyre]

redesigned an olde oc

[neverlearnedtoread]

Forging Silver Into Stars

⭐⭐⭐⭐; its genuinely really great to see an author get better and more subtle with their writing and characterization over time

Oh?? 👌😉😏

one of kemmerer's greatest strengths is the robustness of her worldbuilding - not only does emberfall feel distinct from karis luran, in culture and in setting, this alternate universe intersects with the 'real world' without losing its believability. i respect an author with the complexity to write about characters from another world with their own prejudices interacting with characters from the 'real world' without tripping over their own setting

lgbt romance that's sweet, heartfelt, not shortchanged, OR overplayed! in fact i did like all the romances in this story and the range they displayed. i have my favourites but they were all both distinct and at least passably interesting to me

women who get to be complex! i will forever mourn what lia mara could have been (viciously politically savvy with a moral core, usually a male character's archetype from fiction ive consumed) but i did like her interactions with the more cynical callyn

'side character gets a POV in the spinoff' book! i don't feel like it was a cash grab or because the author was too afraid to write something new, the plot AND the narrative voice was distinct from the original trilogy without feeling too removed from its events.

No.. ❌🤢🤮

another character from the original series continues on his era of becoming more annoying since bk1. grey...your character was way more fun when you didn't have as much responsibility. i liked you as an antagonising force / source of tension for tycho in his book but your bullheadedness is really not fun on its own merit. i definitely dont miss the days you were a POV character!

lots of travelling; not something i hate, personally, but it may feel a bit time-consuming to go back and forth like a pingpong ball. the travelling aspect feels enough a part of the narrative for me not to get frustrated by it, but given that only ONE character moves from place to place, while the other two stay in a relatively non-important setting for the most part, it might feel quite jarring to switch POVs

This is a spinoff from a trilogy (Cursebreaker Trilogy by Brigid Kemmerer, starting with A Curse So Dark and Lonely) - pretty unavoidable spoilers for the ending of that trilogy up ahead!

Summary: Some years have passed since Grey was crowned King of Emberfall and married Lia Mara, the Queen of Syhl Shallow. They now live in the Crystal Palace, trying to keep the peace with a populace that despises their king-by-marriage for his magic as much as they despair at their queen for her nonviolent diplomacy. Grey's young friend Tycho has been promoted to King's Courier, ferrying messages both public and secret between the royals to ferret out any rumblings of unrest before it can boil over. On one of his usual trips back and forth between the two kingdoms, he stops by a sleepy little village called Briarlock and meets two locals, Callyn and Jax. Syhl Shallow natives, they have different perspectives on how things have changed since King Grey and Queen Lia Mara took their thrones, and are suspicious and charmed in turns by the young lord in their midst.

Concept: 💭💭💭 I have decidedly mixed feelings about the Cursebreaker Trilogy - like a rollercoaster it took me up (bk1), then downnnn (bk2), then rolled flat (bk3)! So I was pretty cautious about reading this spinoff. Tycho was relatively interesting in the original trilogy, but mostly in relation to Grey, and I...did not leave the original trilogy loving Grey as a character. He got boring when they gave him responsibility.

Execution: 💥💥💥 I don't think what Kemmerer wants to explore with this fantasy world (fantasy politics through a modernist moral lens) is ever going to be what I want to explore, but I can appreciate that she's getting better at showcasing the conflict she wants to build in her stories. Having only non-royal POVs in this story really helped make the story feel more real to me - when you're not one of the big movers and shakers (even Tycho, for all his proximity to power, feels the limit of his influence when they strip him of his rings and Grey refuses to listen to his counsel), you're gonna feel resentment for the Big Guys making the choices. They're the ones holding your lives in their hands, and for all their best intentions, they may not treat you well all the time! I definitely felt like this was her best book I've read yet, because Kemmerer wasn't just telling me the conflict and how it was gonna go - she was able to show it to me through the character's actions and situations.

Personal Enjoyment: ❤❤❤❤ I will be honest, I skimmed Callyn's AND to a lesser extent Jax's POV until the end because I just really wanted to read about Rhen from an outside POV that wasn't Harper's. I would apologise but I promised myself when I started writing these book reviews not to say sorry for stuff I don't regret, and me picking favourites regardless of rational thought falls firmly under that. I did truly come to enjoy the final conflict AND tycho's POV for its own merit, tycho's personality in particular was really fun to see in action, but the middle section where callyn is living her 'maybe-this-shady-guy-isnt-manipulating-me' denial era didn't ever get easy to read.

Favourite Moment: Any Rhen moment but especially that part with him being gentle and sweet with Harper when Tycho first tells him about the tournament idea. Tycho's description of their relationship being quiet and sweet was SO CUTE in general - the idea that Tycho finds Rhen pretty difficult to be around at first, but admits you'd have to be blind not to see he's besotted with Harper - I sigh every time

Favourite Character: I'm a Rhen apologist through and through but Tycho actually went over so well with me in this book. That bit when he rounds on Grey to berate him for not thinking shit through and running off without a plan? SAY IT LOUDERRRRR. I have truly enjoyed seeing Kemmerer grow as a writer and write Tycho with this level of nuance - his eventual realisation that he gets along well with Rhen, despite their history, his cautious but earnest courtship with Jax, even his ever-shifting relationship with the Syhl Shallow royal family both in public and private settings, all of it felt like it fit together and informed Tycho's characterization as a whole without conflicting with any other part of it.

[greentrickster]

I have finally made it to Rhalgr's Reach, and I have to say...

These people need some serious pick-me-ups after suffering under the Empire for so long, and I do not blame them.

Also, I maxed out all my crafting and gathering back in Ishgard (or, as maxed out as you can get F2P), and am in dire need of some new gear suited to my abilities.

Which is to say that the people of Rhalgr's Reach are about to get so many Sohm Al tarts, because the rarefied ones are my go-to for crafter's script, and who could say no to a nice fresh FFXIV-style Mont Blanc in a situation like this one?

[delfinoluma101]

Concept Art for OC Callyn Zan.

She loves to accessorize and style her hair. 💇‍♀️

Callyn plays bass in a band lead by a prince.🎸

[comical-icicle]

EXACTLY

ALSO MORTAL UH HOW DO I MAKE SURE I BUY A HOOPSKIRT THAT IS THE RIGHT LENGTH/WIDNESS FOR ICY'S DRESS?

ALSO WOULD ICY HAVE ONE? CAUSE I AM JUST BUYING ONE FOR THE COSTUME TO GIVE THE DRESS FORM

ALSO GUESS WHO IS MAKING AN ANIMATION OF CALLYN AND TANNIYN FROM MY STORY

Uh- No idea, I would either look it up or go to someone who makes dresses for advice or research?

Maybe? I wouldn’t know. She’s your character after all lol

And can’t wait to see how the animation turns out for you!

[kill0mtr]

do you know my son. my baby boy. do you know he