#fantasy racism tw

[hmshermitcraft]

Watchers being servants of Gods sucks for Doc and Grian.

Doc, just turned into a God, doesn't like ordering his friend around- he's supposed to Treat him like a tool, but after so much time together Grian is more like a little brother to him, he cant bring himself to do it.

Grian appreciates how Doc holds back as much as he can, it makes whenever he says "you're a friend, not a slave" feel more real.

Though Doc found a bright side to this.

Finally, after so long, he gets to put a stop to Grian's dancing around his crush over Mumbo.

Grian's gonna get back soon though- as a watcher he saw the way Doc looks at Ren.

This kind of relationship can be used for a lot of mischief, they both discover. Sure, Doc can give Grian orders and he's obligated to do them, but it doesn't mean he needs to do them well.

Which begins a cycle of giving Grian stupid tasks, and Grian doing them even worse. The true purpose of this is to try and stop Grian talking to Ren.

But Grian will get there. Doc can't stop him forever.

[nerves-nebula]

Very interested in Hondo rn, bc he started out being abusive @ Quinn (?). What did his character used to be like, and how would u say they’ve changed?

Yea so Hondo, like Quinn, has really on maintained surface level similarities to their original concepts. Same look, same smugness & sass etc. but the original idea of his character that I made up when I was like 13 was a racist sexually abusive slave owner. Quinn was his slave, and Thatcher was his friend who was like “hey I don’t think it’s good to have slaves maybe?”

They were an abysmally dysfunctional and abusive trio who were like kind of friends and kind of not. Quinn could never fully be their peer cuz they were a slave obviously. Thatcher was of lower status than Hondo too, but admittedly not by much. Quinn was raised alongside Thatcher and Hondo but you know. As a “companion” for them. Wasn’t great.

Honestly the character that’s changed the least is Thatcher. Thatcher always had a kind of strong moral compass/emotional reaction to injustice, but was also afraid to rock the boat. Slavery was the norm in their high status households and Thatcher didn’t think it was right but also didn’t see how they alone could change it. Thatcher might’ve been feeding info to anti slavery groups tho cuz they felt it was all they could do, but for the most part they saw themselves as kind of a stagnant coward and covered it up with an upbeat & boisterous attitude.

Anyway Hondo and Quinn fucking hated each other. Ok it was mostly Quinn hating Hondo but it went both ways on occasion. Lots of gratuitous humiliation and abuse cuz I was 13.

Then I was like hm actually I don’t really want to write about slavery I don’t think I’d do a good job handling the topic. and totally uprooted the whole story. Hondo became rich a sexually abusive best friend in the dreaded three person friendship group.

And then stuff kind of just kept drifting over the years between little tweaks and lore adjustments until Clement popped up and ended up taking on the role of “high society serial sexual abuser” and Hondo became something else entirely.

Now Hondo is a normal, somewhat bitter guy in a poly relationship with a high priest and a dancer, who he’s been friends with his entire life. He’s a part of a persecuted minority religious group and is still snarky and sarcastic but like. He’s a fully different man. Modern Hondo would eviscerate his progenitor no questions asked.

He still does some fucked up things tho don’t worry :3 they’re just if a different nature

[aquadestinyswriting]

A Stand on Holy Ground

Genre - High Fantasy, drama

Themes: friendship, fantasy politics, fantasy racism/xenophobia/bigotry

Warnings: fantasy racism/xenophobia/bigotry, likely a bunch of swearing, fantasy violence, blood mentions

Stage - In Progress

Pov - Third Person

Synopsis

Selene has been watching the rising tide of violence against the dwarven community within Toreguarde from her tower, and is not best pleased about it. When it becomes clear that the gang responsible for most of this violence, the notorious Brotherhood of Cleaving, is being bankrolled by someone on the Council, she tries to step in to help as many people as she can; starting with her close friend and ex-adventuring partner, Egrim Shiverstaff.

Author's Note

Please note that this whole WIP is based on events that took place in a Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition campaign, Destiny's New Servants, which was played between 2015 and 2018. That is all.

Chapters

Chapter 1

[patchworkcowboy-archive]

ABOUT PATCHWORK JACK'S EX-PATRON, NI'HILIZA // art credit

PJ's former warlock patron is a demilich by the name of Ni'hiliza. Ni'hilza (he/him) was once a powerful lich. However, his mind/memory was manipulated by a powerful mage (said mage was Ni'hilza's ex-husband, Ruukvlad #awkward). The rare time magic the mage used on Ni'hilza forced his mind to erode at rapid rate, resulting in him forgetting to feed on souls and retreat to his tomb. Ni'hilza then wasted away until he had nothing but his skull left (aka becoming a demilich). Still, what a powerful skull it is...

(tw: fantasy racsim & colonization) Ni'hiliza was once a tiefling wizard who was shunned from his hometown for specializing in necromancy and for marrying Ruukvlad, a hobgoblin clockwork soul sorcerer. His town also shunned him for "betraying" them and siding with the hobgoblin's. His town had built their homes on hobgoblin land, refused to acknowledge it, and then got mad when the hobgoblin's repeatedly attacked them.

Ni'hiliza moved to live with Ruukvlad amongst the hobgoblins. While there he learned a lot about their culture and about magic. He was happy there, but the peace didn't last.

Although the hobgoblins stopped attacking his hometown, his hometown kept attacking them. So many innocent people were hurt and killed in the process... Only adding to his stress was the fact that Ruukvlad got diagnosed with a rare, incurable disease that would kill him within the next 5-10 years.

After Ruukvlad got diagnosed Ni'hiliza spent all of his time researching magic and possible solutions. After 8 years of research he found one and only one solution -- turning the both of them into liches.

While he was practicing lich making on himself, Ruukvlad was busy protecting his community and trying to make some sort of peace treaty with Ruukvlad's hometown. Although peace treaty talks would fail, the two communities would temporarily unite together to fight off dragons and defend livestock.

Ruukvlad came home and saw fire, shouting, magic, weapons and assumed the worst. He was blinded by his rage and under the assumption that his hometown was attacking the hobgoblins yet again unleashed a series of ruthless attacks. He burned the tieflings' homes into ash, made it rain acid and destroyed their crops, and made it downpour with icy daggers. There was so much blood that the nearby river turned red. In the end, there was nothing left of the tieflings except their blood.

Ruukvlad was both angry and fearful of his husband. His husband wouldn't listen to reason... In his blind rage he killed armed and unarmed people alike... The elderly, the young... It was a massacre. Pre-lich Ni'hiliza would've listened. But that's the real problem. Ni'hiliza is a lich now and he feasts on souls. Every soul tastes delicious and helps him stay alive. Needless to say, Ruukvlad divorced him on the spot.

Ni'hiliza would raze the countryside, killing anyone and everyone he felt deserved it. Despite their divorce and their arguments he never touched Ruukvlad and the hobgoblins. However, with Ni'hiliza changing more and more for the worse, Ruukvlad decided to not take his mercy as a guarantee. Entering his husband's lair under the pretense he wanted to get back together, he gave him one last kiss before using his time magic to make his mind deteriorate, weakening him and turning him into a demi-lich. Sadly said magic took what little energy the sick Ruukvlad had and he died shortly afterward.

Ni'hiliza now only has the skull from his remaining body. However he's pieced himself together using bones from various wanna be warlocks and eager heroes who dare enter his lair. He uses magic armor and a magic mask to hold himself together.

NOW I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE ALL THINKING... HOW THE HELL DID THIS GUY BECOME PATCHWORK JACK'S PATRON?

Ni'hiliza tricked PJ, convincing the young, lonely boy that he was some sort of deity of wandering/lonely souls and pranks. He promised PJ everything he wanted -- the power to protect himself, a family (he's the one that introduced PJ to the gang he later joined), and adventure. An impressionable young PJ signed the contract without reading the fine print. Oh what a mistake that was...

Between PJ's handy shapeshifting abilities and antics with the outlaw gang, there was plenty of chaos for Ni'hiliza to feed himself off of. And even if PJ himself wouldn't kill anyone, sometimes an accident would happen or someone else in the gang would kill someone -- that's how Ni'hiliza got the blood and souls he craved.

However, over time, PJ came to dislike the violent nature of his gang. That combined with the train incident (see pinned) led to him cutting ties with both the gang and Ni'hiliza.

Info on how PJ forcibly broke his pact tbh.

[playedbetter]

"Am I under arrest?" (Ingvar for Vimes)

Meme / Accepting!

"No, you're not," I don't have anything on you yet. He scowls up at the giant, there has to be some nefarious plot going on here between the sudden appearance of a giant in Ankh-Morpork and the string of robberies with notably large foot prints leaving the scene. Of course, a troll could have been conned into being the accessory to the crimes, or been somewhere cold enough to cook up such a scheme, but... something in Vimes gut said something else was going on in these streets. And more often than not, it was his gut that led him where he needed to be. "I am going to question you though, you are a witness from what I was told,"

He pulls out his notepad¹, it's still fresh, the corners only slightly bent and water stained, along with a pencil. "So what were you doing out in the streets in the middle of the night? Even somebody new in town's gotta know it's best to be inside somewhere or laying low. And, what did you see? One of the seamstress girls² said she saw you head down the street the break in happened,"

¹ A gift he was sent by Venatori for his birthday, it had been suitably practical enough for him to not grumble about it. Which had been Venatori's exact intentions.

² She also said that she had to leave almost immediately afterwards, apparently her most regular client needed some emergency mending done.

[sweetmage]

I know he did not just say this this. And in front of my wild Orlan too 😭 Guess who DOES have a face full of hair, you prick 😭 Time out in the keep NOW!

[are-my-ocs-ta]

AITA for blasting my cousin 25 feet across the yard?

I (20nb, then 19) recently found out that I have a second set of superpowers (i will not disclose the first set for privacy reasons, superhero stuff). How you ask? Well, my cousin (15m) and I were wrestling at a family gathering (southern stuff, you know), and apparently I was absorbing the kinetic energy from all of the hits he got on me. We stopped fighting and gave each other high fives, which activated said power and released ALL of the kinetic energy I had absorbed in his direction, which shot him across the yard (he's completely ok, not a single broken bone or a sprain, just a bruised knee)

My aunt (his mom) and our grandparents, however, didn't see it like that, and started going NUTS on me, accusing me of intentionally using a dangerous superpower on him and also saying some incredibly anti-mutant things. I can't lie, it is very dangerous, as I've learned from training it, but I would never use a power like that against a non-villain, ESPECIALLY not my cousin. Help me settle this?

[legendsofthewitchlight]

Meta: Lethica and children

Just as a cleric and a healer, she does take a sine to young children. She’s good to them, often is one of the first to reach out to them and keep them pleased and safe (see: Anya but also the Lockwood children). Lethica has a knack for taking care of them, just as she has a knack for being a calming presence for grown adults. Her sympathy and care has very little bounds as well, with her even being willing to take off her mask if it frightened a child she was attempting to care for.

The idea of having children of her own, though… it frightens her. Part of her does genuinely want them, to raise little souls in the calming light of Shar. If she’s in a relationship, she likes the image of her partner as a parent. But there are parts of becoming a mother that makes her hesitate.

First, pregnancy. She knows she isn’t the sturdiest stock, and getting pregnant, staying pregnant, and giving birth could all take a toll on her. Especially depending on who her partner is. At the moment, only really ship her with Marius and occasionally with Yorgrim, and with both of them, the worries of that would multiply. Both are rather strong men, after all; that isn’t even mentioning Yorgrim being a full blooded orc who would certainly sire a large child, nor Marius’ curse and whether or not it would be passed on to a child (at what point does a damphir crave blood? Would her child attempt to eat her from the inside out?) Not to mention, while idk if its true, I think I've read something that half-elves gestate for 12 months? So in being with a non-elf, she would be pregnant for a whole year. So that's 3 months beyond what humans deal with in that circumstance.

Secondly, how the world is for half-drow children. Even if there was signs that she was in a happy relationship with the other parent of her child, it's extremely possible that the average onlooker would think that her child was conceived from rape, as in some drow communities that look at non-drow men as chattel, it would make sense that a paladin damphir or a strong orc would make good breeding stock. Even if people did not think the child damned in that way, it's possible they'd simply be treated as evil anyway if they had obvious signs of being part drow. She worries that she would simply be condemning her child to prejudice.

Thirdly, the idea that she could not shield them from harm is terrifying. She has long since removed her memories of her own pain, but she knows it is there. She knows her own parents weren't able to protect her... and thinking that a child she puts on this earth would seek to forget as she has, seek to have everything taken away makes her sick. She knows she cannot shield them as much as she would like, especially if her child is fathered by Marius, likely to be hated by the Duchess who would be enraged that Marius impregnated another woman. In the case of Yorgrim, she'd know that he would defend their child with his life, but still, she worries.

Also I have crack ideas about Lethica's heritage, but those are gonna stay under wraps for now. They could affect some of these points, though

[weptpride]

part one of ?

Following Corypheus' defeat, Gaspard renews his war against Celene. Ultimately he fails, Florianne's betrayal casting a shadow over him. He is either slain or executed prior to the Exalted Council.

Briala, meanwhile, is keeping a low profile. She returns to sabotaging both armies, but it seems lackluster, nothing like the effort she'd put into it the first time around.

To assume her weakened would be a deadly mistake.

Her very public elimination of a Venatori cell influencing Celene in 945 leads to Celene responding by 'exposing' Briala's connection to the demon which had infiltrated the now-defunct Inquisition. This ramps up anti-elven sentiment, which had already seen a resurgence as a result of the Exalted Council. Briala then initiates an empire-wide strike, calling for Celene to put an end to increased violence against elvhen citizens.

All of this comes to a head with Celene capturing her. Briala is kept prisoner in Val Royeaux itself. A week in, she is on display at a fête, in chains for every onlooker to witness. Celene's message is clear:

Briala is not untouchable, that she is still a subject of the empress, that this glorious symbol of the elves is as vulnerable as the rest of them.

This does not end how Celene wished.

The entire ballroom goes silent whilst Celene laughs at a cousin's joke at Briala's expense, every guest parting in a wave to reveal the disgraced former Inquisitor making their way to Briala. Her shock lasts only a moment, at which point she commands them restrained. Present chevaliars move to obey, only to fall dead as one, with no outward sign of the magic used to kill them, and Alanari does not pause.

Not another word is uttered. Briala's chains fall away with a touch. She stands and together they walk the same path back through the crowd, not one of whom attempts to apprehend them.

When they draw in line with Celene, across the ballroom, Briala pauses, takes up a dagger from a fallen chevaliar, and throws it with precision at the empress. It flies faster and farther than it has any right to, and strikes her chin, leaving a scar she cannot hide without a full-face mask.

part two: the revolt (coming soon)

[astr-team]

“i like to think, at least, things can't get any worse.” [ summer to aki. tempting fate venting about her team probably ]

Tiger ears twitched, as Aki tipped their head back to look at Summer upside down, the redhead having sprawled on a bench a bit out of the way for a moment of peace. The taller Faunus liked their own Team well enough, but today was turning out to be less than great for any of them. Someone had dumped a bucket of saltwater on Shion because they thought it was funny; Simon’s parents had called for reasons unknown; and Rhea was burning themself out with tutoring several of their other classmates at once.

Meanwhile, Aki was stressed from going from a much less social environment to Beacon, with the added pressure of now being a Team Leader; hence needing a minute to themself. But even though Summer had interrupted that moment, Aki couldn’t find it in themself to mind, since it seemed like they would at least be talking about something other than their own problems. Though they didn’t bother changing position when she sat down, the blue-eyed Hunter-in-training shifted closer to the opposite end of the bench to make room for their classmate.

Ever an attentive listener (part of why they were here in the first place), the tiger hummed to acknowledge her words, replying after a brief moment to sort their thoughts. “I thought that, too,” they noted, just a touch wryly, “then the thing with Shion happened.” Finally sitting up, the redhead shifted to sit “properly” on the bench beside their silver-eyed companion, sighing as they did so. “If I’m in any position to give you any advice — which I’m probably not, all things considered, so tell me to shove it if I’m overstepping.

“I’d say stick it out until our field missions in a couple of weeks. Raven and Qrow read like the kind of people who respect strength and the ability to survive above all else, so once you make at least Raven understand you deserve to be treated like a person in a way she understands, she should hopefully come around a bit. If that makes sense?” Sound as the advice may have been, Aki was still apt to second-guess themself at any given opportunity, worrying that they were about to be laughed at for making no sense and “being stupid”/“saying stupid things.”

Thank you, childhood trauma…

@etruatcaelum

[sulahnvhenan]

The incident which ended with Nerien having to leave Starkhaven is described as him simply hitting a particular guard with a liking for beating alienage children, but I don't think it was anything so small as one strike to pull his attention away from the children.

I think he'd had run-ins with this guard (Ruaridh) before, over a period of years, and no matter his crimes, the city protected Ruaridh. It became so bad that the last time Nerien came across him in the alienage, he ended up beating him nearly to death. Nerien then fled Starkhaven with only what he wore, and he cannot go back.

He doesn't especially like talking about this incident though, and so he downplays what happened when talking to Myrion.

[hmshermitcraft]

avian hunted thing??

Avians are hunted for their wings, so Grian spent a lot of his life hiding in dense forests and bunkers, not seeing very much outside or nature.

of course, once he joined Hermitcraft, he didn't need to hide anymore. he still wanted to, obviously.

The hermits worked hard to get Grian to trust them properly, he tried to avoid any talking unless absolutely necessary.

So you may be wondering? How did they get to where thye are now, literally unable to get rid of the prankster?

They left him presents! Avians like trinkets, so they left him shulkers full of shiny items, flowers, bracelets. And eventually, he had the guts to talk to them properly.

-Poor anon

It was a war of his desire to hide against his want to be polite and thank people for the gifts. It took some time, but politeness won out in the end. Then he wanted to get them gifts in return. Then he talked to them more, and found out they really weren't all that scary.

Now he strides into their bases at any time of day (or night - avians often move under the cover of darkness) and pesters whoever is there into cuddles. It's perfect.

[astr-team]

Blue eyes slid over under half-closed lids, taking in Summer and her words from the relative safety their right-swept bangs offered. First, affirming that Aki had made sense, which the feline appreciated; rounded ears twitching and tail tip swaying a bit. Then, doing an impression of the older Branwen twin so accurate, Aki almost couldn’t help snickering a bit. Further offering the possibility of Raven getting eaten by a Grimm if her cruelty persisted.

All capped off with a ‘who cares’ so flippant, the redhead wouldn’t have needed confirmation even if their Semblance had offered it. Shifting position for the third time, Aki draped both arms over the back of the bench, and tipped their head slightly sideways to look more directly at Summer; the frown on their face didn’t match their casual posture. “Somebody — no idea who, yet — thought it’d be funny to dump a bucket of saltwater on them.

“And since Shion was looking up at the time, a lot of it got in their eyes, if it didn’t end up in their mouth.” The scowl their features twisted into was just as unusual as it was dark, though their tone remained even. “Either the bastard who did it or an accomplise’s Semblance was probably involved, since the bucket was apparently floating, and the water seemed too strong and directed for it to be just gravity at play. Which just makes everything worse.”

Heaving a sigh, the tiger reached up with both hands to rub their face, exhausted from ignoring their own intentions to not think about this. Dropping their hands into their lap, Aki continued. “I wasn’t around when it happened, but I went looking for Shion when they didn’t show up to one of the classes we have together, and I kind of dragged them to Peach as soon as I found them.”

The taller Faunus knew why the reptile disliked and distrusted medical professionals so much, but they’d forced Shion to the infirmary anyway, knowing something like this could turn bad without warning. “Peach sent me back to class once we mostly got the gist of what happened, but I kind of just… ended up wandering around, instead.” A sound that might have been a self-deprecating laugh.

“And then you found me.”

[ @astr-team | aki // from here ]

“I mean… yeah.”

Yeah, it made sense, and yeah, Summer couldn’t disagree with their read on the Branwens—or on Raven, at least. Qrow, she thought, lived in his sister’s shadow, but he was… okay, when Raven wasn’t around. Even when she was, he didn’t play ball with her our-team-leader-doesn’t-exist crap. She’d take what she could get.

“‘The weak die,’” Summer intoned, doing her best impression of the queen of edge, “‘the strong live.’ God, she’s like—” hand grasping as though to throttle the air in front of her; teeth bared, “–she is like so far up her own ass she’s gonna start puking herself up. But she can’t keep this up once we get out in the field.”

Right? Surely. Surely.

Rolling her eyes, Summer crossed her ankles and stretched out her legs. “Or maybe she gets eaten by a grimm, who cares.”

Well… No, she didn’t think she had it in her to let something like that happen, even if Raven kind of deserved it. Even if it would be funny for all the macho bullshit to end in Raven getting mauled by something really embarrassing—like a clutch of nevermore chicks.

Hey, a girl could dream.

“It’d just be a lot easier to handle if Taiyang grew a spine instead of ‘helping,’” she grumbled. “But. Whatever. What’s this about a thing with Shion? …are they okay?”

[aquadestinyswriting]

Slipping off the Mask

Summary: Inquisitor Garl Grimbeard has recently returned to Toreguarde and asked Meredith to look for one of his nieces. A commotion outside, however, distracts the young dwarven cleric from her task

Words: 2,546

Warnings: a description of a severed head, fantasy religion, fantasy xenophobia and some mildly bad language

Notes: This is a repost of the original so I could add in some extra bits I'd forgotten about in the original story.

tags: @druidx, @asher-orion-writes, @homesteadchronicles, @warriorbookworm, @mariahwritesstuff, @writeblrsupport, @ashirisu, @thesorcerersapprentice, @blind-the-winds

The inside of the Temple of Moradin was oddly quiet and sombre, Meredith realised. Was it the acolytes huddling in the far corner of the bar, all of them attempting to avoid the attention of the recently returned Inquisitor Grimbeard? Or was it the quietly gruff conversations between the older, more experienced clerics about how it was too damn quiet and that nothing had gone wrong within the city for at least the last month? Whatever the reason, Starhammer was quite correct in his assertion, it was far too quiet, and Meredith wasn’t sure she liked it.

The cleric paused by the door leading to the cellar, some instinct nagging at the back of her mind. She cocked her head, listening to the muffled voices on the other side of the door,

“Hurry it up, we don’t have time to be lollygagging like this!” 

“Give us a break will ye? We’re goin’ as fast as we can. D’ye want us to drop them?”

“Stop makin’ excuses. Get yet lazy arses into gear afore I have to give ye more of an incentive.”

Meredith frowned. She recognised the dulcet tones of Inquisitor Grimbeard, but not the other voice. The rest of whatever conversation was going on was quickly drowned out by the thud and rattle of bottles being moved around. Her stomach churned, why did Grimbeard sound so much like the Duregar she’d briefly met in her short visits to Wyrmholme? Most dwarves of Fangthane would rather shave than do anything to compromise the integrity of their drink. Her thoughts were quickly interrupted as the door opened, causing Meredith to almost stumble onto her backside. Grimbeard glared at her, closing the door behind him a little too quickly,

“Watch where ye’re goin’ girl!” he snapped irritably, “What’re ye doing hanging around outside doors for anyway? Don’t you have anything better to do?” Meredith dusted off her vestments and gave the skinny, greasy dwarf in front of her a short bow,

“I was on my way back up to the bar after speaking with the high priest.” she replied as calmly as she could manage. Her nose wrinkled as she caught a faint whiff of acrid acid, but she kept her expression neutral as she came back up to standing. Grimbeard snorted and jerked his head towards the bar,

“Well if ye’re heading up that way, go find my niece and tell her I want to see her down here.” he sniped before turning to go back into the cellar. Meredith frowned as she heard him mutter something about the “young’uns being lazy sods”. She waited until the door was closed again before snorting and traipsing up to the bar. A part of her wanted to ignore the Inquisitor’s request, especially since he hadn’t bothered to give her a description of said niece. However, the more sensible part of her encouraged her to try anyway; it wasn’t like she had anything better to do.

Meredith huffed a sigh as she looked around the barroom. It was busy, but not so much that she couldn’t spot the lone woman sitting by herself in a dingy corner, nursing what was probably one of the cheaper beers available. Meredith shook her head and started to approach the other woman, to at least ask if she was the person Grimbeard was asking for.

A crash from the front doors of the temple caused everyone within the bar to look at the doors leading outside. As one, all the dwarves in the bar looked at one another before bundling outside to see what the fuss was about. While drama was a daily occurrence that was often gossiped about for weeks or months afterwards, it was rare for it to happen within the walls of the temple itself. Meredith squeezed past the crush of people around her, listening to the sound of raised voices coming from the front doors. Voices that sounded all too familiar,

“‘Scuse me. Comin’ through. Will ye move yer fat arse oot the road already!” Meredith’s voice became more terse as she recognised the voices of Elowyn and Darius, along with Inquisitor Grimbeard’s. Eventually, she wriggled through to the front of the crowd and stopped dead in her tracks. The outlines of a woodling and a tall, lanky human were silhouetted in the doorway, while Inquisitor Grimbeard stood at the entrance to the cellars, his normally ashen face currently maroon with rage as he blustered. Darius, upon spotting Meredith in the crowd, pointed to the grizzled dwarf,

“Merri! He’s planning to kill about half the city!” the teenaged human yelled. At the same time Grimbeard shouted out to the Moradhir Guard that were standing in the entrance hall, looking confused,

“Arrest them!” he yelled, spittle flying from his mouth. Meredith frowned. What in all the hells was going on? And why was Grimbeard yelling for her friends to be arrested? They weren’t even worshippers of Moradin, or dwarves for that matter. Before she could push her way past the guards, another voice, this one deeper and more commanding, rumbled through the chaos.

“What in all the bloomin’ blazes is going on up here?” Starhammer’s voice, somehow, cut through the muddle of everything else being shouted, causing all in the vicinity to immediately shut their mouths. Well, almost everyone. Grimbeard continued his tirade,

“Heretics!” The whole bloody lot o’ ye!” the scraggly-bearded dwarf was yelling, earning him a mixture of tuts and irritated sighs. Several of the older clerics around him rolled their eyes, as did the Captain of the Moradhir Guard. Starhammer pushed past the more heavily armoured dwarves and glared at the Inquisitor,

“Now hold on just one minute, Grimbeard. What in all the bloody hells are you goin’ on about?” he asked. Grimbeard puffed out his chest, and pointed at Elowyn and Darius, spittle flying from his lips as he spoke,

“These slimy, beardless infidels are accusin’ me and my family of plotting against the good folk of the Toreguarde Council!” he yelled. Darius went red in the face. He knew what he had seen in the sewers and this old… Darius wasn’t sure if he could even call the dwarf a man with the way he was acting. Before he could shout a rebuttal, Elowyn held a hand in front of him and glared at the skinny, grey-haired dwarf in front of her,

“We captured one of your family in the sewers beneath the street out there. After a bit of questioning, he revealed his and your part in a scheme to poison the Toreguarde Council at their next meeting by using beer spiked with Black Oozes.” she stated firmly, using her best ‘watchman’ voice. Having seen what had happened to the poor sod that had been experimented on already, Elowyn felt sick to her stomach at the thought of General Strucker or, Gods forbid, the Grand Magus drinking the stuff. Grimbeard snorted derisively, then smirked a little,

“Oh you did, did you?” he asked lightly, gesturing for a younger female dwarf with the same lumpen features as his own to come forward with a box. He took the box from the woman then opened it and held it out to Elowyn, “Then how do you explain this?” he asked, his tone acidic, yet also triumphant. Meredith shoved her way past several other dwarves to get a good look at what was in the box. Several other clerics reeled back in revulsion, allowing her to squirm past them. Her stomach turned at the sight that greeted her. Within the box was the messily severed head of a dwarf with similar features to the Inquisitor’s. The grey eyes were open and glassy, staring up at nothing, the mouth hung open in a pained scream. A murmur rushed through the crowd. Meredith looked up at Elowyn, who met her gaze for the briefest of moments before the woodling turned her furious attention back to Grimbeard, who was now smirking more broadly,

“What’s the matter, hen? Cat got your tongue?” he asked, sounding gleeful at the idea of catching the shorter woman and teenaged human in front of him in a lie. He seemed to have forgotten that Starhammer was still standing in the doorway down to the basement level. The older dwarf heaved a sigh,

“Put that away. Have ye no sense o’ decorum?” he rumbled, “Besides which, I rather think we ought to hear what Sergeant O’Toreguarde has to say. It’s rare for the lassie to be wrong, but I’m sure we can sort out exactly what’s -” Grimbeard rounded on the high priest, a nasty scowl marring his face, making it seem even more twisted than before,

“And you should know your place Starhammer!” he snarled, “I’m the Inquisitor o’ this church, and I say that the lassie is wrong!” Meredith scowled as she pushed past the Inquisitor to stand beside her friends. She knew Elowyn better than anyone else in this room, and Elowyn never lied. She glared at the Inquisitor, a swell of righteous fury building in her chest, but before she could open her mouth to speak, Starhammer strode up to the shorter dwarf, a dreadful surge of power building up around him. He stopped short of having their noses touch,

“You might well outrank me, Inquisitor,” he growled dangerously, “but you’ve still a lot to learn about how to read folk.” Starhammer gestured in the direction of the trio of adventurers, “I place my faith in Moradin, and He has placed His faith in these three young’uns. Ergo, I will believe their testimony over yours.” Meredith hardly dared to breath. The fury of a fully trained Cleric of Moradin was a terrible thing to behold, and she wondered if it was a good idea to remain in the vicinity. She glanced at Darius, who had already paled significantly having felt the pull of magic towards the old dwarf. Elowyn, on the other hand, seemed determined to stay put. Meredith internally rolled her eyes at herself. Of course she was. Elowyn was a watchperson first and then a paladin besides. If the woodling believed Grimbeard to be involved in an insidious plot to murder tens, if not hundreds of people, then she was not going to let a silly thing like a massive explosion of divine power get in her way. Well, if Elowyn was staying, then so was she.

Meredith returned her attention to Grimbeard and Starhammer, who had now cleared more space around them. Most of the youngest acolytes had already fled the area, and even the older clerics seemed to have enough sense to start scurrying back to the barroom. Gossip was all well and good, but it would be conducted more safely at a greater distance. Grimbeard flushed under his greasy beard,

“Recant your words, or I'll have you excommunicated.” he snarled, “You are the one forgetting your place High Priest. I have been blessed by Moradin to seek out those who would undermine His work, and I say the lassie and her friend are seeking to do just that. The Watch are never to be trusted in ecumenical matters, and non-dwarves should stay out of our business.” Starhammer’s gaze hardened as he looked into the Inquisitor’s eyes. He then turned to Elowyn,

“What say you Sergeant, or should I say, Lady O’Toreguarde?” he asked lightly, “What is your professional opinion on this?” Meredith couldn’t help a small smile gracing her lips at the slight emphasis on the word’ professional’.

Elowyn, who was still glaring daggers at Grimbeard nodded and gingerly turned on her Detect Evil ability. A lance of pain coursed through her temple as she gazed at the Inquisitor in front of her. The dwarf, and the younger woman behind him, were both blazing a deep crimson. She quickly turned the ability off again and took a step forward,

“Inquisitor Grimbeard, I am hereby arresting you and your family members for the charges of conspiracy against the Toreguarde Council -” she was quickly interrupted as Grimbeard let out a yell of frustration and hurled the box in his hands towards Starhammer, who neatly stepped out of the way. The head within tumbled free and turned into a stinking, sticky grey jelly, landing with a wet splat on the flagstones of the floor. Meredith went to rush forward to assist Elowyn, but before either woodling or dwarf could reach him, both Grimbeard and his niece had already turned to grey-ish coloured slime and slithered between the cracks in the floor.

“Dinna just stand there! After them!” Starhammer rumbled angrily to the guards, who had been watching the whole scene with expressions of concerned confusion the whole time. Immediately the one in the most richly decorated armour nodded, tapped his comrades on their pauldrons and all six of the Morahir paladins rushed down the basement stairs in an attempt to follow the Inquisitor. Elowyn growled in frustration, staring at the floor that the two Grimbeards had fallen through. Meredith, for her part walked over to Starhammer, who was flushed under his beard with anger,

“Forgive me, Father, but the Moradhir’ll be lucky to find them.” she said, “Why don’t you let Elo and I handle this? It’s not like we’ve got much else to do right now, and I very much doubt Elowyn wants to let Grimbeard and his family get away with this.” she added, glancing over to Elowyn. Darius stepped forward, standing beside the young dwarf,

“Me too.” he said quietly, “I mean, I saw what it was that they were talking to down in the sewers and…” the teen trailed off with a slightly scared gulp, “This is probably way bigger than anything the Guard or Watch can handle.” Starhammer glanced over to Darius, his angry expression lifting into one of mild concern. Meredith cocked her head as she too turned to her younger friend,

“What was it ye saw, exactly?” she asked, “D’you need any of those dispelling potions or..?”

“It wasn’t the extra-planar stuff.” Elowyn sighed, “Mostly because I saw it too.” Meredith snapped her head around to look at Elowyn, fear and concern gripping her heart. The tone in the woodling’s voice suggested something far worse than what Meredith herself had initially thought, and that scared her. Starhammer sighed and gestured towards the barroom,

“Let’s get a drink and you can tell me what exactly it was you saw.” he said, his voice heavy. Meredith glanced back at where the fake head had fallen. The slime had eaten through the floor and left a still steaming hole. She swallowed thickly and nodded, quickly shuffling through the now dissipating crowd after her High Priest and friends. Whatever it was that was going on, something in her gut was telling her that it was something far bigger than just a plot against the Toreguarde Council. The way Grimbeard had been shrieking about Moradin had left an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach, and his rant against non-dwarves… The cleric mentally shook herself. There would be time enough to work out what this all meant. For now, she needed to stay focused on the immediate task at hand, which was the apprehension of Grimbeard and his family and any other associates they might have had help from.

[defire]

Dance of Death masterlist

I'm so excited, I just released this on Amazon as well!

It's a dark gaslamp fantasy with a gradually building whump plot, in short--When an impudent young noble tries to protect her friends, her enemies come together to take her down. But she has no idea exactly how far they'll go to erase her sense of self.

Due to Tumblr's content guidelines, this version will be non-NSFW because the protagonist is a teenager. For the canon version:

You can find Dance of Death on Amazon for $0.99 :) and AO3 for the chapter-by chapter canon.

Let me know if you want to be tagged as I upload chapters!

Content warnings for this book are:

Institutionalized slavery, fantasy racism, child abuse, intimate whumper, humiliation, whipping, caning, ptsd, magical torture, suicide, more specific content warnings per chapter

Chapter 1: Low Expectations

Chapter 2: Oh You Shouldn't Have

Chapter 3: So Cozy

Chapter 4: The Stiletto

Chapter 5: She Said What

Chapter 6: A Bit of a Temper

Chapter 7: Totally Not Blackmail

Chapter 8: I Smell a Lawsuit

Chapter 9: We All Fall Down

Chapter 10: Horizons

Chapter 11: Druid Justice

Chapter 12: Warren Raizden

Chapter 13: Ostensibly Torture

Chapter 14: Generous Accommodations

Chapter 15: What Choice Do We Have

Chapter 16: You Lost Him

Chapter 17: What a Fucking Morning

Chapter 18: Hurt feelings

Chapter 19: Unskilled Labor

Chapter 20: Solutions to Slavery

Chapter 21: My Crimes

Chapter 22: Secrets

Chapter 23: A Bad Feeling

Chapter 24: Trickery By Capitulation

Chapter 25: Slavery Is Getting Old

Chapter 26: Slavery Is Wrong

[in case you're wondering, these chapter titles are what Nife would sarcastically name them]

Chapter 27: Clever Lies

Chapter 28: Striker Being Very Impolite

Chapter 29: Fun Times

Chapter 30: A Rather Unpleasant Night

Chapter 31: The Rare Gift of Literacy

Chapter 32: Striker's Other Other Psychopathic Side and Other Problems

Chapter 33: I Feel So Wanted

Chapter 34: The Worst Day of my Life

Chapter 35: Breakdancing and Other Fun

Chapter 36: The Finger of Death

Epilogue

Taglist: @tildeathiwillwrite @mimostic @fleur-a-whump @a-n-j-a-maria

[nerves-nebula]

I got commissioned by @insomniac-dormouse to make a 2 page comic about my OC, Misha Mistaka, I haven't drawn him this much since high school so this was a blast! the thing with Misha is that I'm only allowed to draw him with my non dominant hand, so you can see he's a bit more wobbly than other stuff here haha. I think I was, like, 15 when I made him and it was mostly a way to cope with a lot of intrusive thoughts and trauma about abuse, particularly sexual and racial abuse. So his story is pretty rough, at least at first.