#chorus worldbuilding

[living-dead-guyy]

Minecraft end biome food WIP that I’ll hopefully have finished soon.

Desc: An uncoloured sketch of a plate containing food. From left to right, and up to down: Fried Ender Dragon Egg, Oyster-style Shulker, Chorus fruit slices and Chorus plant stems. Below this is a partially coloured sketched of a chorus fruit and chorus fruit slices. The words on the page say “Chorus Fruit, End Biome”.

[lavernius]

Hi hello i would love to hear ur takes on the chorusans and their dynamics 👀 any of them/who ever u feel like getting into really, i just cant get them out of my head and would love to hear other ppls takes on them too (1A maintenance team is welcome to be included as well if u would like, im a firm believer in encouraging oc lore dumps at all times)

You just opened Pandora's box. I used to be such a diehard Chorus fan that I'd flesh out minor details of their planet's geography and economy and society and language on the regular.

Strap in: headcanons and a couple old Chorusan doodles under cut! Gets a liiittle long...

Bitters and Smith are, and always have been, friends. Surprisingly close ones, but they were both made lieutenants too young (out of necessity) and disagree with each others' styles of leading, especially because they can't see the Rebels as soldiers, but as friends. Everyone thinks they hate each other, but they WILL call the other a friend if asked (with some aloof reluctance on Bitters' part). They know that they ultimately need each other (Bitters balances out Smith's blind idealism, Smith balances out Bitters' deadly cynicism) and thus trust each other deeply, but it's just hard for them to agree on what the right thing to do is most the time.

Matthews has been friends with them for a while too! He's not very popular in the army, but they both enjoy his company and he acts as a good middle ground between them (incredibly optimistic, but sensitive enough to recognize risk). They both like (like-like, even...) him :-)

On the topic of Chorusan side characters--Ghanoush and McCallister are a little older than the lieutenants and like to cause trouble. They're actually Kimball's appointed archivists, which they take as an opportunity to snoop around as much as possible. Their rude and inappropriate behavior is an effect of having to document so much dark history, which has caused both of them to be a little detached from the severity of the situation.

And diverging into detachment: Doyle is actually one of the most emotionally detached soldiers for a large portion of his time as the Federal Army's leader--up until Locus's betrayal. His early career had him making one too many wrong calls until he started putting most of his faith in Locus, because Locus was somehow more likely to get things done without the damage to the rest of the army. He's faint-of-heart and a coward, yes, but he isn't always good at showing his other emotions, to the point that he comes across as a kingly leader (compared to Kimball's brash attitude but deep care for her men). Cowardice that runs so deep that he can't even face himself properly.

Kimball isn't without her flaws, either. She loves very deeply but has lost so intensely that even if she can show she cares (in small and subtle amounts, or in angry rushes of regret), she is extremely guarded. She worries but is scared that showing it is the catalyst to everything going wrong. It also makes her very keen on doing things alone if she can, and holding everything in. She sees a lot of herself in Grif as well as Tucker, actually, which is why...

...Kimball trusts Grif as much as she does Tucker. Tucker shares her need to be the hero, but Grif shares her overprotective parental instinct: operating below the radar and behind the scenes, but worrying so intensely and privately at all times. Even after the war, when Kimball asks the Reds and Blues to help for as long as they might be willing to, she turns to the two of them first and foremost for advice.

Kimball's desire to hold everything in out of misguided noble intention also reflects in, to everyone's surprise, Grey--Grey is one of the people Kimball starts consulting frequently after the war, initially as the local genius and later as someone she trusts intimately. They do not get along at first. A lot of pot-calling-kettle-stubborn, because they are both stubborn, and they don't want to admit to seeing any good in each other. They're selfless obstinancy in the form of woman's Venus (in Grey) and Mars (in Kimball), anger staying in, anger going out. They balance each other out in the end, teaching each other a sort of real, raw honesty--toward the world in Grey's case and toward the self in Kimball's. Very push-pull dynamic. Yuri, if you will.

And speaking of Grey! My second favorite female character in all of RVB. She's not as young as people assume, and she's been through a lot as a medic and sometimes falls into a trap of thinking she's useless because of/despite it. Very weathered under the helmet, stress lines melding into smile lines from permanently-plastered-on friendliness. During the time they were both Feds, Locus actually learned to respect her as a direct result of trauma on her end--to Grey, if all she's good for is fixing people, that's all she needs to do and she needs to do it right. A mentality Locus shares for unhealthy reasons, but Grey is doing it consciously where Locus follows command blindly, which Grey is aware of. They don't like each other, even with Locus's one-sided respect for her.

"You don't have to tell me twice. And to think—last I remember us talking, you said you respected me." Locus does. He always has; Emily Grey is competent, talented, and responsible. If it wasn't for her medical talent, it would be for her ability to balance her emotions in the face of a war's turbulence—a skill Locus had seen in her early on, past her cheery veil. He sees it now as she secures the band around his upper arm. It's purely out of distaste, the way she drops her façade around him, but it's commendable. Sympathy and kindness aren't reserved for someone like Locus.

Grey also has a complicated relationship with Doyle because of it. She sees him as a sort of brotherly figure because of how closely she has to watch his back, but Doyle is so very preoccupied with himself and every wrong step he could take that it often seems like a one-sided concern. Doyle does, though, rely on Grey as a sensible and clever mind, though it can come across more as a tactical opinion than a personal one. At their best, they are very sibling-like.

1A is full of loners because most people think they're all heartless and mean and weird. But they have each other and Lopez, who also "hates" them. So it's OK.

[beneathsilverstars]

do you think vaugardian songs don't have repeated choruses. i bet they change time signatures a lot too

[terra-tortoise]

🥑

🥑Show off your most underrated lore dragon, and talk about them!

meri, butch shark pirate! i think hes mostly overshadowed by how pretty his gf is (chorus, and i do think her colors look better together) since i usually post about them together, but of the two i have his personality nailed down better (: he has some sailing records so hes kind of a big deal with dragons that care about that sort of thing, and he feels kind of awkward being in the highland sanctum with all these nerds and landlubbers.

the accent he has is kind of a stand in for some detailed sleeve tattoos that id love to design eventually. he also knows a Bunch of shanties, and likes to teach them to chorus since most of her singing is much more formal.

(fun fact he has two likes and his cool femme has 15 lmao)

[bookwyrminspiration]

ok all the identity things are very fun and clever and something that delights me normally with all the overlaps going on between different threads of plot and past, but SLOW DOWN A LITTLE. also genuinely doc is correct a diagram IS necessary. kihrin alone has had like six different potential biological mothers spread across three bodies, not counting the adopted mother(s), and the book isn't even over yet.

(no but it's really fun, every time someone is revealed to be someone else and therefore has a new connection to several other parties it's like AHA! clever :) even if i don't remember it 20 minutes later or get it confused with some other people or connections)

Jenn said it doesn't matter that we all just got here, we're going full speed ahead and if it doesn't make sense just take better notes, silly. Not really, it does actually become so much clearer with time--for example, to brag for a moment, but I actually know who like all the characters are <- that is one of the most basic parts of a reading a story

Kihrin's extra special as the main character, he gets to be part of the most fucked up family tree and circle of people imaginable. The rest of the world is relatively sane about family trees and identities (though god-kings do tend to be undercover a lot), Kihrin's just Different and suffering for it. Though specifically the "we've got a dozen different parent options and who knows which one is real!" thing is more unique to book one; we leave behind that question and confusion for much more complicated questions and confusion!

(it is very very fun. I don't mind being confused I just love being along for the ride. embracing the fact that I don't know shit about fuck is quite freeing when reading, I think)

[lethesbeastie]

Nothing inspires me to create more than internet strangers asking me about my ocs

[smolcrow465]

WAIT I LIED. sirens are a subspecies of angels. people hear of them & their aggression & assume that they're demons. that something of holy nature cannot be so cruel. they are wrong.

just as vampires are a subspecies of demon with addictions to blood, sirens are angels that have an unnaturally strong chorus. their voices are powerful enough to override the thoughts of mortals and even other celestials.

ig they're just stereotyped to be aquatic just like vampires are stereotyped to be aerial.

[hamelastralis]

Kimaris, the Warlord. Deity of war.

They are also known as the deity of many voices as they collects souls of fallen warriors to add to their chorus of voices. They absorb the knowledge and memories of these warriors as well as their strength.

Kimaris was once two gods before they merged as one of them became fatality wounded in a war between gods, and as the world split in two, they became one.

Just some stuff for my worldbuilding. Kimaris was the first ever deity I made for it, I have more on the way!

[poisonouspastels]

I haven't really gotten to talk about the Ender Dragon yet in the Minecraft AU, and you guys really liked the worldbuilding of oreposting for whatever reason, so we're talking about her now.

To clarify first and foremost: Jean (the dragon) is an intelligent and fully sentient creature. She knows and can speak every spoken language of this world, knows your name, knows every little thing about you, being seemingly omniscient despite having never met prior. That being said, she is not an unfair fighter and is not malicious in nature.

Dragons existed in much greater numbers long ago, though now the only ones you can find are in Ender. The Endermen are direct evolutionary descendants of these other dragons spread through the infinite realm - but not of Jean specifically. Despite this, historical writings would often (inaccurately) refer to her as "The mother of a thousand children." She is not capable of reproduction and is a fully sexless being.

Her relations to the Endermen are begrudging, serving only to have a brutal mutualistic relationship. The Ender dragons (not just Jean) allow them to eat from the chorus fruit trees within their territory so they may not starve, as well as spawn their own young, and the Ender dragons gets their fair share of food in return... by eating some of the Endermen. The Endermen are rather intelligent creatures in their own way, and they often escape to other dimensions to attempt to live a different life that isn't under the "rule" of the dragons, but quite a few are set in their ways because it's what they know. It's the circle of life they've become familiar with as they subject themselves to it for the sake of survival. Jean is unique in that she is "manufactured" in a way. Not to say that she is artificial, far from it, but that she's not a naturally made dragon. She's to the Universe what Cerberus is to the gates of hell, only existing and serving to guard and provide a challenge if necessary. She knows the rules and is respectful of them, and will never be afraid to die again. Much like a phoenix, with each death she is reborn. Upon being slain, she retreats back to the egg from whence she came many times before, only to re-emerge 10,000 years later.

When Jean finds her way back into the world, the knowledge of the return manages to find its way into the minds of everyone as a call to action. Though slaying the beast right away is not necessary per say, its better not to delay, as the longer one waits, often the more the idea will eat away at them.

Much like how the Wither represents the concept of inevitability, Jean represents the repeating cycle of the world - whether it be the persistence in humanity to come back time and time again, the cycle of her own return and inevitable death, or the tendency this world has to repeat itself over and over.

The Universe works in mysterious ways, and she is no exception to its design.

[teecupangel]

Hi teacup, so I was looking at some of your posts the other day when I heard my sibling playing Minecraft with their friends. These two things happening at the same time sparked an idea.

Enderman Desmond

I just came out of the gym so let's use the blood and creative juices that are flowing in my brain right now.

You know the typical, Des dies, goes back in time as a creature of our choice. Here Desmond is a 3 meters (10 feet) tall pitch black humanoid with really big arms and legs. And he can teleport too!

I really like Endermen, they're my favorite mob. I even have a plushie of one. They're chill and oddly cute until you look at them in the eyes then they turn into a horror movie monster.

I'm picturing Desmond looking like a mix of the many Endermen redesigns or realistic interpretations you can find. Tall and thin, inhuman proportions on the limbs, digitigrade legs clawed hands and feet, his hands don't look or have human proportions, big ol' eyes, and a face and skull are a mix of human and cat, in the sense that it looks kinda flat and you assume it's small until they yawn and you see all of their big teeth and big jaw angle.

Also like cats (and Altaïr) they don't like water, which I find hilarious. And makes sense since The End looks like a desert. So they probably don't know how to swim (like Altaïr) either. (He doesn't take damage from water cause that would be really inconvenient).

Now that I think about it cats also don't like seeing other creatures straight in the eyes. And Endermen do chirp chatter hiss and growl like cats do apart from their crooning. Mischievous and curious like cats since they go around stealing blocks...

Oh stars, Endermen are freaking cats

Des would be a really scary temple guardian to the templars and assassins. Plus he would inspire so many tales and myths about ghosts and tall creatures that disappear when you look directly at them. Maybe a new saying like "don't look the dark in the eyes".

Assassins are already deadly but being able to teleport would make Desmond so broken. And maybe his Endermen purple eyes and particles become golden when touching The Apple and other Isu tech.

Desmond certainly likes being able to teleport and blend in the night but his new instinct makes him unable to look at or be looked at in the eyes.

Altaïr becomes very paranoid cause he keeps seeing from the corner of his eyes the creature in the temple that gave him the apple but when he turns his head to look at it it disappears to only leave purple dust and particles.

Maybe Desmond is transported along with some Chorus fruit and since he is unsure at the beginning what his new body can and cannot eat he cultivates it in secret. And when Al Mualim is defeated a new assassin myth comes forth of a creature of the dark and shadows gifting the brotherhood with a fruit that gives them the gift of traveling in the blink of an eye when consumed. (Which is ironic considering that the temple had the apple of Eden)

I have so many ideas for Enderman!Desmond and Changeling!Desmond. I love to worldbuild.

I kinda like the idea of him being something that cannot is part of the world but, at the same time, not.

Let’s lean into the nightmare feel of an Enderman that doesn’t exist in their world.

Desmond cannot be ‘fully’ seen most of the time. At best, he appears on the corner of one’s eye. Only when he attacks a specific person that people can turn to look at him and, even then, he’s usually shrouded in darkness. Mostly because he always appears during the dark since that’s the perfect cover.

But there is also a ‘requirement’ for Desmond to attack. His target needs to look at him for at least a quarter of a second or attack in his general direction.

Of course, he can decide not to attack and all that happens is that he disappears after a second or so after someone has different maintained eye contact with him.

He can’t technically control his teleportation skills as well. Most of the time, he teleport inside of moving and his will to attack someone makes him come near the target. Instinctively, he knows when he’s going to be attacked and he can teleport instantaneously like an auto-dodge of some sort. It can only work twice in succession before getting a short cooldown though.

He can be harmed like usual and when he’s harmed enough times (which is a rarity), he disappears from their world.

To Desmond, it’s like he goes to sleep. When he returns, all his wounds are gone and he’s usually sent back 24 hours from his disappearance, near the one who hit him last.

When he disappears after finishing his target or a second has passed without him attacking the one who stared him down, he would return like he just took a nap.

As for his teleportation mechanics, no one knows when and why he appears. Desmond himself ‘dreams’ of his ancestors and the people he knew (or his ancestors knew) while he’s napping/sleeping and he appears when he wants to, the location always being the current ‘dream’.

The reason why he exists in a perpetual state of ‘nonbeing’ is because his status as an Enderman is because he failed to anchor himself to a specific time after being the Reader for so long. This failed anchoring changed his Reader appearance to one of an Enderman and he’s forever drifting in the endless timeline seen through the Gray, only able to ‘visit’ them for a short time.

The worst part?

Because of his failed attempt to anchor himself, he forgot everything he did as the Reader.

Including why he tried to be part of the timeline again.

[a-couple-of-notes]

I sympathize with the people who thought the mystery in Stray Gods was weak (I guess the murder mystery was a fair part of the marketing, and I also picked the culprit out the moment the demo dropped), but it always seemed fairly clear to me that the mystery was just pretext for character arcs and worldbuilding rather than the other way around.

Spoilers under the cut. You've been warned.

Calliope's murder and Grace's trial offer Grace an excuse to talk to people, to explore the world of the Idols, and to do so under a ticking clock that keeps the story tight and the tension high. (And from a Doylist perspective, lets the developers keep the scope of the game to a cool seven days.) At its core, the game is not a murder mystery. It's Grace's coming-of-age story. It's about a cast of characters learning to change, move on, and grow up; it's about memory and identity; it's about facing the truth.

So it makes total sense to me that Athena's reveal would prize narrative and thematic cohesion over an unexpected twist. Grace and the Idols are growing up, and Athena is the "scary mom." The characters are moving on, and Athena is the embodiment of the past. The characters have had to face painful truths, and Athena, as leader of the Chorus, the one in power, has not. Of course it's Athena. To bring a revolution, you must topple the head.

Would it have been great to have narrative and thematic resonance AND a twist culprit? Sure. But if I had to choose, I'd rather have a satisfying coming-of-age story with nuanced characters and an intriguing world than a thriller mystery with a twist ending that undoes the core of the story. I'm guessing that's what the developers would choose as well.

(I also think it's interesting to look at the ways other characters were complicit in villainous things--like sure, Athena was the main murderer, but Pan was also unwittingly involved. Apollo hurt Persephone badly out of inaction. Aphrodite's ceremony directly engages in the tricky question of whether passing on her eidolon will consume Venus, maybe killing her in another way by transforming her completely. Those are the trickier mysteries.)

[pyreo]

was sweeping up some map completion for a gift of exploration and just got reminded of so many cool things I like about original gw2/worldbuilding

I love Orr and how weird and alien it is. The ambience of sitting there with everything damp, dripping, made of coral, literally a lost world that doesn't fit above water any more. I love how oily the sky is and that occasionally a huge shadow sweeps over you as something like Blightghast/other risen dragons go by overhead. I love that it looks like this

It's so otherworldly. I especially like the eerie birdcalls (I know it's just a real bird I'm not used to, but it's so unique and strange)

I like that the end of the Pact storyline doesn't feel... hopeful. At all. Orr is blighted and diseased, mottled with decay, with lost journals from people who were never going to survive. I like that the story culminates here, grandiose but mournful. You're trying again but this place you're in was already lost, with thousands of lives, and it doesn't feel like triumphant reclaiming. I like that none of the game through these >10 years has really framed oncoming war, and fighting to survive, with glory. I like that the fight through Orr doesn't really feel righteous. It's no clash against a tyrant or something with belief in good over 'evil'. It's just sad. Trying to get through and survive it.

I like the clearly LOTR-emulating Orr music, particularly how this one goes into a male chorus at the end-

I like how an entire map is called Malchor's Leap and that clues you in to it being named after something and then you can go find out and it's just even more depressing. But at the same time, it reiterates the history of Orr - that human gods lived there and it must have been full of incredible splendour and that's gone and you will never see it, you can only try to imagine based on the wrecks of cathedrals.

And speaking of the human gods, I just like how each race has their own take on religion and they all get something tailored to their outlook. Nobody disputes one religion over the other like in our world - each one is generally assumed to be true on some level, and in some cases, provably real, but each race gets something different from their history and belief system anyway. Humans used to live alongside their gods but have been abandoned and none of them know why (and we eventually do find out what happened). Norn can invoke a governing spirit from any creature alive and choose the one that they'll serve best, but these spirits can be killed and you can see what happens when they mourn them. Sylvari have a stone of commandments from their long-dead benefactor that has completely fucked up their society because they aren't sure if following the tenets is wise or brainwashing. Asura actually believe there is an equation that can solve the entire universe and everything is part of a grand scheme beyond knowing, which is something more like a philosophy than religion but deserves mentioning because it means the Intellectual Goblin Race weren't made into cut and dry atheists as a cliche. They believe in something and have personal interpretations about it. One of them even made a machine to make the Eternal Alchemy viewable that drove someone insane when they used it and I just like how things asura do tend to backfire.

And the Charr. I mean. They're the atheists and it's all because they were duped into technically following a human god for a while and they're never going to get over-- no, wait. They started getting over it and the Flame Legion integrated with regular society again after their leader was deposed, because things moved forward and changed, and I like that too.

I feel like I can talk and talk on and on about this fictional history because it... just.... works? It's all part of a tapestry of cause and effect and meaningful characterisations. And they deliberately set up the basis for their playable races and then made the story NPCs generally turn those expectations around - Caithe being a grief-ridden assassin, Rox being a superstitious oddball, Zojja being irrational, Canach starting out as a pompous asshole.

I like the Ceera is still around in HoT and if you took the personal story route where her husband died, she still hasn't forgiven you and never does.

I loved Zafirah (bring her back!) showing that badly rooted spirituality can be redirected into something healthy and healing without being negated.

I like how many NPCs show up as part of a story step and you can ask if you know them and they'll say oh, yeah I was in the Pact with that whole thing? Or 'I saw you from a medical tent in maguuma and didn't think I'd make it', constant callbacks and the sense that minor characters have a continuous existence independent of you.

I like how solemnly the game takes its wins. The initial campaign against Zhaitan makes sure to kill characters off and made bringing Destiny's Edge along to it feel like its own entire obstacle. Heart of Thorns smashes any confidence the Pact has after the base game and takes an intentional sacrifice to be won, and I still think about him. Going after a literal god in Path of Fire costs you your life. Going after Kralkatorrik, with Destiny's Edge's guilt weighing on you, costs you your own child. Saving the fate of the world by fulfilling the exact conditions for Aurene to ascend costs you your child again, being taken from you so that the whole world stops rocking on its axis, losing your baby as she turns into a deity. Icebrood Saga puts you in the shoes of a relatable, easygoing crew on the opposing side, then sits back and waits for you to kill them all to continue. When you fight the final dragon as the final boss in Dragon's End you don't want to kill her at all, and she begs you to leave and get away so she won't harm you while you try, in bitterness and desperation, to end her unfathomably long life.

And the entire short but brilliant arc with Joko made sure we don't really feel empowered or just about the choices we've made.

It's just. Been really fucking good.

[trafficblrpositivityproject]

can i just say i love fics that mix minecraft and the real world together. i love when authors invent new death messages. i love it when authors flesh out how hybrids work. i love the ways people decide how one switches between servers. i love it when people invent new foods made of chorus fruit or glow berries. or ask "if i added a new flower what would its suspicious stew do?" i love it when people decide the effects of withering on the body. i love the explanations for how cleo differs from other zombies, same with all the hybrids really. i love how people interpret creepers' textures. i love how people incorporate minecraft updates.

shout-out specifically to this one fic by @holymolyguacomole for the joining servers thing and the death message thing and fitting angst into the life series while making the games themselves fun

and this fic by @mayflowers07 for including a datapack that keeps the hybrids sane. using a datapack to do worldbuilding is amazing actually

tl;dr minecraft worldbuilding in mcyt fics is fun

@holymolyquacamole + @mayflowers07 and every other writer who is doing their best to make the world of Minecraft feel more fleshed-out and lived-in!!!

[larkral]

OKAY it's late so we're going to be as efficient as humanly possible here. I've spent pretty similar amounts of time this week writing in Finally (already, always) and As yet unnamed Red White and Royal Blue Soulmates BS (BS stands for Brilliant Shit, btw: I am obsessed with my soulmates concept), so you're going to get some of each!

Two mums

(Simon POV. There is no Baz POV in this story, FYI, so it's going to be SImon from here on out)

We don't even have to sneak out. We just take the keys off of the hook next to the front door and walk right out into the night. It's lovely. On our way to the nearest park, we walk past a community building where a choir is rehearsing, and then further into a bike-walkway. It's lined with trees, and when we get to an area where the zigging of a street gives the pathway a deeper tree cover, Baz tells me to wait under a light and walks determinedly into the trees.  I can see him moving in the shadows. Not, you know, perfectly, but if I look into the trees, there's still a bit of light coming through from the other side. If I let my mind wander, I can sometimes see a too-fast movement or a flicker of a shape that I know in my bones is him.  Then there's a long moment of stillness.  I wonder what he's found. 

RWRB Soulmate BS

(Just diving right into the "if I'm writing a soulmate fic, you better believe it's going to go hard in worldbuilding" of it all right off the bat.)

"I'm not an idiot Nora," Alex says exasperatedly. He swears sometimes she says stuff just so he can shout about it. "They rely so heavily on the idea that their empire was ordained by Divine Right because they've been exclusively letting their children marry their 'soulmates' since the beginning of time, and if those children's 'soulmates' happened to help them expand the reach of their power, then that was just God's will." Alex takes a deep breath. "Why would they ever give that up?" Nora sends a half-shrug his way, and June pats his shoulder.  "You'll just have to hold your breath against the hypocrisy, little bro," June says. "Especially because I'm pretty sure Zhara is going to forbid you from more than a polite sip of champagne."  "Don't I motherfucking know it," he says.

Thanks so much for the tags this week @thewholelemon, @that-disabled-princess, @kiwiana-writes, @bookish-bogwitch, @hushed-chorus,

@forabeatofadrum, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @monbons, @mooncello and @rimeswithpurple !! What a brilliantly active Wednesday it is today! I am *loving* all the things folks are sharing. Crafts and writing and art and life events. I absolutely <3<3 fandom. A+ work everyone!

Since it's the end of the day, I'd like everyone I'm tagging to consider this a prompt to tell me about anything you're doing lately, even if it's completely non-fandom related. <3

@stitchyqueer @confused-bi-queer @raenestee @facewithoutheart @whogaveyoupermission

@cutestkilla @sillyunicorn @basiltonbutliketheherb @roomwithanopenfire @orange-peony

@ileadacharmedlife @asocialpessimist @aristocratic-otter @captain-aralias @run-for-chamo-miles

@petedavidsonscock @artsyunderstudy @carryonvisinata @takenabackbytuesdays @martsonmars

@nausikaaa @nightimedreamersghost @chen-chen-chen-again-chen @ionlydrinkhotwater @wellbelesbian

@shrekgogurt  @palimpsessed @fatalfangirl​ @blackberrysummerblog​ @valeffelees

@j-nipper-95 @youarenevertooold @emeryhall @run-for-chamo-miles

@talentpiper11 @imagineacoolusername

[bookwyrminspiration]

I'm genuinely a pretty smart person. however, upon reading the series a chorus of dragons, upon encountering the first dragon, my reaction was "huh, interesting. well, he's probably not very important"

[arynneva]

Okay I said I'd make a more expansive post about this so here it is.

If you like high fantasy, check out A Chorus of Dragons by Jenn Lyons.

It's got

magic

dragons

demons

gods that aren't gods

a main character throuple

platonic marriage

distinct characters of various ages

just general diversity

the most incomprehensible family trees

sassy footnotes

and more!

There are five books and the worldbuilding is so neatly woven into the story so as not to overwhelm the reader. I was learning neat facts about the world even in the last book.

The overarching plot is a bit complicated to explain, but it's basically "Ancient mage with an ego has secret plans centuries in the making and must be stopped, but in the meantime there are demons wrecking havoc, terrible shitheads vying for political power, shapeshifters with dubious morals, revenge schemes, slavery, a god of annihilation that has slowly been consuming the sun, and so much family drama."

The five books are:

The Ruin of Kings (aka will someone please tell Kihrin what's going on)

The Name of All Things (aka the adventures of Janel and Qown, a horsegirl and her emotional support atheist priest)

The Memory of Souls (aka Oh My God)

The House of Always (aka Group Therapy tries to stop the apocolapyse)

The Discord of Gods (aka wtf is even going on--OH)

So in conclusion:

great characters, great pacing, great worldbuilding, great antagonists