#ethnic fantasy

[volathemoon]

Ah, what is this? A-ah. What kind of fool (me) thinks they'll find success in the field of writing? Alright, let me read this…

So, yeah. I'm writing my own book. It’s a novel in the genre of ethnic fantasy based on the ethnography of Ukrainians, my ethnic group.

The plot goes like this: a Ukrainian girl named Larysa embarks on a journey across Ukraine, from Slobozhanshchyna to the Carpathians, in search of Veles’ vyshyvanka – a magical artifact that holds the secrets of wealth, animal husbandry, and death. Along the way, she will encounter numerous creatures from Ukrainian folklore, a family of Russian landlords determined to thwart her, and a divine conflict within the Slavic pantheon.

I’m asking for feedback on this opening. The original is being written in Ukrainian and translated into English using [don’t judge me] ChatGPT. And was it worth translating Ukrainian folk songs included in the book into English?

[milkcos]

lemonade mouth/band au! more notes under the cut

lemonade as in like the disney movie! so there are a couple like clear comparisons but mostly it's the bad kids get stuck in detention together except they form a band instead of an adventuring party

fabian > no equivalent (olivia vibes)

the most popular kid at school who is both in dance and on the football team. somehow gets decent grades as well. no close friends, but a lot of people who know him and want to get on his good side. kind of depressed, and his dad's currently in prison. he started playing the guitar as a way to show off and then genuinely started enjoying it

adaine > mo

she's a concert violist (playing the viola) always an accompaniment for her sister and is striking it out on her own for the first time. her family is very upset about this, and consistently puts her down so she'll go along with they want her to do. also she recently transitioned to going to public school for the first time, making her the new girl.

kristen > no equivalent

she's recently ex mormon, got out of her parents house (currently living in her car) and without all of her former friends stuck in a student president position that she got when she was still with the religion. questioning her sexuality after one too many encounters with the soccer team captain, tracker. used to be on the church choir, was a bit too enthusiastic about it.

gorgug > no equivalent (charlie vibes)

he's got like one or two kinda friends (mainly fig). extremely busy with his classes and with marching band and self isolating as a result. he's stressed out about living up to his parent's name (they run a very successful electric engineering company). signed up to work as a sound tech for the theatre department bc one of the female stage managers is very cute (zelda) and then discovered that he rlly like it.

riz > no equivalent

no friends! (other than maybe the AV club + penny) too used to burying himself in work at both his part time gig and with his insane amount of extracurriculars. started playing the piano bc he heard it helps with memory retention and overall cognitive ability.

fig > stella/wen

she's the cool loner skater kid who is the floater friend mostly? she's got a maybe relationship with ayda, who she loves to annoy at the school library. very interested in making her own music not very interested in school. freaking out over her parents getting remarried. her mom enrolled her in music lessons when she was younger, and it's one of the only things she can talk about with her mom these days.

[ataleofcrowns]

is azad supposed to be kurdish? i ask only because kurds aren't black

Your neurons are just firing blanks up there aren't they?

[cailaventog]

Free Hand doddles (The proportions or lines maybe wonky cus I didnt use a sketch)

[coyoxxtl]

honestly if your ac3 au has haytham being involved in Ratonhnhaké:ton’s life, and it DOESN’T look like haytham rejecting his colonial templar life and living in the village with Ziio to raise him among his people then it’s racist dogshit

[demigod-of-the-agni]

Sephiroth but if he was desi... he is not beating the pretty boy allegations

"Desiroth" coined by my dearest bestie @nyatimesthree 🫶 thank you babes. anyway silly video I made and posted to instagram at 5am is under the cut

he estuans on my interius until i ira vehementi (sephiroth !!)

[dontheckinswear]

reading modern mdzs fics set in the usa (not including ones that are firmly set in a chinese american bubble) is fucking wild. what do you mean i’m reading about lan wangji and wei wuxian and their friend, skateboarding kyle.???

[prince-liest]

I’m reading Witch King by Martha Wells, and now that I have read more than one (1) series by this author, I have been suddenly brained with a two-by-four sharpied over with “realizing that I really enjoy novels by Martha Wells because they live in the specific niche created by the intersection of casually and thoroughly queer casts and non-romance storylines”

I am as ever a sucker for non-human main characters struggling with their very human feelings, which is why I jumped on Witch King the moment I saw “the author of Murderbot wrote another book with a main character that’s non-human,” but I live in this dichotomy where I can really enjoy reading queer romances but I don’t really identify with non-ace characters (which is not actually something I figured out how to differentiate until I was Last Week Years Old). so there are lots of books out there that I enjoy reading but it’s comparatively rare for me to read something that feels like it was written For Me and Martha Wells does that very well

anyway, give me more ace it-pronouns human-spliced robot main characters and people-eating demons who consider rank over gender when finding new bodies to inhabit

[reneesbooks]

9 lines 9 people

ok confession these games scare me bc tagging people still intimidates me but i'm being brave today here's some lines i wrote a while back from the dragons of kiltide. just fabin having a little teenage angst. also this is 9 (11 but shh the context!!) paragraphs bc i still don't know how to shut the fuck up. thank you @space-writes for the tag <3

the raedoran cycle

[Fabin] tilts his head, pressing his forehead to the window frame. “What are dreams like?” he asks quietly.

Emilia sits across from him, watching how his eyes stare through the window but see nothing. She thought he'd left that behind in the weeks and months after their parents were killed, thought the long silences were finally over. She tucks her arms against her sides. “They're...like memories. Only more vivid.”

His fingers close around the hilt of his sword. “What do you dream about?”

She rolls her shoulders. “Places I've never been. Things I've never seen.”

One of his hands presses against the glass. “Do you ever dream of...of humans?”

She studies him with a worried frown. “Is there something you want to talk about?”

He recoils, his expression twisting with anger before it closes off. “No. I'm fine. I don't have dreams.” He turns away from her. “Never mind.”

Emilia sighs. “I talked Muiris down. He doesn't want to kill you anymore.”

“Good for him.”

“You should apologize for breaking his foot.”

Fabin turns to face her again, his eyes wide. “I actually broke it?”

tagging @oh-no-another-idea @zmwrites @akindofmagictoo @writinglyra @k--havok @lyssa-ink @aether-wasteland-s @ink-flavored @avrablake to share 9 (or more or less or however many you feel like!) lines of writing <3

[yuanwang]

save me asian ocs.. save me...

[honeyxmonkey]

I have A Boy

I had the sudden urge to draw the Boy from the book I'm procrastinating on :]

@lizzybugg one of your bebes!!

Rynadel my luv 💜

[pathwaycircles]

main page: @sacralimplication

support here

[mixupmycota]

staring at a tag on a post and just mentally reaching for a whiskey bottle

[p2ii]

I feel like there's something to be said about the way fandom will treat characters who's trauma they can personally relate to Vs characters who they cant

[the-perpetual-minutes]

The Bvanu People

The Bvanu Gnomecir, commonly called Bvaneim or the Bvanu People, are a diasporic, often nomadic, people who defy easy categorization. They have been alternatively described as a race, an ethnicity, a religion, a society, a school of thought, and/or a neurotype. Bvaneim may embrace or reject any of these labels to varying degrees, but generally agree that the Bvanu People defies reductive categorization into any one of them, opting instead to describe themselves simply as a people.

Literally translated, their name means “children of the knowledge-seekers” and refers to their heritage as descendants of those who fled the destruction of the Gnomec College. The question of “Who Is/Isn’t Bvanu?” is contested within the Bvanu community but generally includes any descendants (adopted or blood-related), any converts to the Bvanu religion, or anyone who can access Bvanu memories through the craft of mnemonec dreaming.

The ethnogenesis of the Bvanu people can be traced back at least to the society of the Gnomec College, though a proto-Bvanu people existed in the region for centuries prior. However, due to the practice of outgathering outlined in the Gnomec Charter and their displacement following the destruction of the College, they can be found across the world with diverse cultural and religious traditions.

Bvanu are more likely to identify as queer than the general population, though whether this is due to an actual higher incidence of queer people or a culture that is just more open & accepting of queer identity is up for debate. There are three widely recognized sexes with corresponding gender roles in Bvanu culture—male, female, and liminal—though transgender & non-trinary identities are generally accepted as well.

The Bvanu neurotype is a neurodivergent spectrum that overlaps (but doesn’t correspond one-to-one) with ADHD & autism. Due to differences in how they process information, Bvaneim commonly experience texture, photo, and frequency sensitivities that can be unpleasant, if not debilitating. A notable example of this is a sensitivity to the hum that emanates from certain energized metals like honeygold; this can make it easier to hear said hum, but can also be overwhelming if exposed to energized metal for too long or in high enough quantities. Differences in neurological makeup are understood to be a part of what enables Bvaneim to practice mnemonec dreaming.

The Bvanu religion is a gnomec-mnemonec tradition, emphasizing knowledge and memory. Bvanu gnomecism revolves primarily around their holy text, the Bvanu Librarium, and study at Bvanu Academia, while their mnemonec practice involves the keeping of commemorative holy days, the wearing of symbolic traditional clothing, and mnemonec dreaming.

They use a lunar-solar calendar with holy days that mark phases of the moon, seasonal/solar events, and historical events they consider significant. The most important Bvanu holy day coincides with an astrological event called the Indigo Moon and memorializes the destruction of the Gnomec College.

[tomthefanboy]

Fixing something that's bugged me for about 20 years. The human ethnicities of Faerun were labeled inaccurately in the 3e Forgotten Realms book. After some research I have corrected them to match the descriptions instead of just putting the names in alphabetical order.