#fayerie tale

[icyfiretraveler]

Title: "Rusted Moss"

Released: Apr 11, 2023

Genre: Modern Fayerie tale, climbing, post apocalyptic

"Rusted moss" is a journey of betrayal, restoration and melancholy reflection. One of the more fun and mid accurate depictions of fayerie in media. Enchanting.

The difficulty is high and the controls were non standard but by the end I felt very comfortable with the gamepad gameplay. The devs recommend mouse and keyboard however I was still able to complete most of the challenging sections on gamepad with the excellent accessability features.

This game is a can't miss for anyone who loves fayerie or games in the metroidvania genre!

[xelasrecords]

I've said this a lot of times but your descriptions are amazing! The feelings they evoked was so nostalgic that they made me want to play the game again just for the day 1 excitement. The anxious longing for Saeyoung to remember you is too real.

PS. I thought you wrote "fayerie tales" for a sec and I was like wow a great chance not wasted!! Then I realised it was just my blurred vision😔✊🏻

I was digging through my drafts last night and found this drabble from sometime last year. It's a little reset theory idea I was playing around with that ended with me writing the 'Tell Me A Story' short. I was inspired at the time by both Hadestown (the cyclical nature of the tragedy) and the Howl's moving castle film (when Sophie meets Howl in the past and asks her to wait for him).

I'm not sure if I'll ever flesh out this idea entirely so I thought I'd release this (unedited!) instead of leaving it to gather dust in my folder.

You already know how it ends. You’ve walked down this road so many times before.

A few months ago, you held Saeyoung in your arms as he drifted off to sleep. Usually you’re the one to fall asleep first. He always teases you about it. Tonight, though, you want to be awake for as long as possible.

You gently caress his head and whisper against his skin “Wait for me.”

As you feel the darkness wrap around you, heavier than sleep, you wonder if he heard you. If, somewhere in his dreams, he hears your voice echoing. Wait for me.

What a cruel request. If only you were selfless enough to let him forget you.

But you’re not. Which is why, tonight, you find yourself out late at night, staring at your phone screen waiting for it to hit midnight. When you close your eyes, you can still see the lock screen image flashing at you. The numbers, stubbornly stuck at 11:58PM.

Tonight, it’s cold.  It’s been a while since you’ve experienced a winter here. Last time, you managed to spend a full year with him, August to August. Ironically, your least favourite time of year. Your memories are full of unforgiving heat. Nights where you pulled him outside with you, filled with a giddy childlike joy.

You have to work to keep the memories of each trip separate. To not let them bleed together. They all differ from each other slightly. The time of year, the persona you wore. The only thing that remained the same was the ending.

Finally, you feel your phone buzz with a message.

Unknown: …Hello…?

And finally, it begins. There’s always something magical about your first conversation with everyone.

You step into the apartment and resist the urge to look up at the security camera you know is pointed at you. Then, you turn around and give it a big smile and wave anyway. You imagine him watching you from his dark desk. Does he feel a small spark of recognition? Does he hear your voice, as if from a dream, begging him to wait for you?

You’re antsy. Desperate, even.

The first time he calls you, the air is electric. It’s like your whole being has been waiting to hear him again. You feel a warmth spreading through your fingertips.

You have to act startled, like a stranger. You shouldn’t make him suspicious.

Shouldn’t.

To pass the time, you let yourself imagine doing all the things you shouldn’t be doing.

In your dreams, you leave the apartment and go to his house. You’ve picked up enough Arabic to get past the security system (sometimes, in your more self-indulgent fantasies, it recognizes you and lets you in without a fuss; we’ve been waiting for you). All the lights are off, you find him sitting at his desk.

He turns around (he was expecting Vanderwood). You grab him by the shoulders and make him look at your face. You look into his eyes and will him to remember.

Sometimes he remembers. His expression softens into a smile and he holds you in his arms. He kisses every part of your face and tells you that he’s missed you.

In the more realistic fantasy, the Saeyoung you find is guarded. He is hostile and scared. He doesn’t know how to hope yet. You beg him to remember, recount memories of days together. tell him stories of two people so deeply in love that they’d cross time over and over again to be together. 

He doesn’t believe you, and you already feel your heart shatter.

“You’re telling me stories. Fairy tales.”

“They’re memories. Yours and mine.”

Then it stops.  

[mason-dunn]

Folklore & Scholarly Books for the Traditional Witch :

• The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Witchcraft, and Dark Shamanism in 17th Century Scotland by Emma Wilby

• Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic by Emma Wilby

• Witches at the Bpundary Od South-Eastern and Central Europe by Eva Pocs

• Witches, Werwolves, and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Doubles in the Middle Ages by Claude Lecouteux

• The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practise by Claude Lecouteux

• Encyclopedia of Norse and Germanic Folklore, Mythology, and Magic by Claude Lecouteux

• Carmina Gadelica: Hyms and Incantations compiled by Alexander Carmichael and John Machnes

• The Mabirogion - Welsh Mythology

• The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans-Wente

• Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry by WB Yeats

• Tales of the Celtic Otherworld by John Mathews and Ian Daniels

• Ozark Magic and Folklore by Vance Randolph

• Teutonic Mythology (Volumes 1-4) by Jacob Grimm

• Grimms Complete Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhehm Grimm

• American Witch Stories by Hubert J. Davis

• Popular Magic: Cunning Folk in English History by Owen Paries

• Arcadia: Gospels of the Witches By Charles Leland

Poison Path & Herbal Books:

• Pharmako/Gnosis: Plant Teachers and the Poison Path by Dale Pendell

• Thirteen Pathways of Oculy Herbalism by Daniel Schultes

• Plants of the Devil by Corinne Boyer

• Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers by Richard Evan Schultes

• The Witching Herbs : Thirteen Essential Herbs and Plants for Your Magical Garden by Harold Roth

• The Witches Ointment: The Secret History of Psychedelic Magic by Thomas Hatsis

• The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants by Christian Ratsch

• Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants by Claudia Muller-Ebeling

• The Devil’s Garden : Facts and Folklore of Perilous Plants by Edward R. Ricciuti

• Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart

• The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart

Traditional Witchcraft Books :

• The Black Toad : West County Witchcraft and Magic by Gemma Gary

• The Mill: Workings in Traditional Witchcraft by Nigel G. Pearson

• Traditional Witchcraft : A Cornish Book of Ways by Gemma Gary

• A Deed Without a Name: Unearthing the Legacy of Traditional Witchcraft by Lee Morgan

• The Devils Dozen : Thirteen Craft Rites of the Old One by Gemma Gary

• Besom, Sting & Sword : A Guide to Traditional Witchcraft, the Six-fold Path & the Hidden Landscape by Christopher Orapello

• Weave The Liminal : Living Modern Traditional Witchcraft by Laura Tempest and Zackroff

• Liber Nox : A Traditional Witch’s Gramarye by Michael Howard and Gemma Gary

• Craft of the Untamed : An inspired vision of Traditional Witchcraft by Nicholas de Matteo’s Frisvold

• Children of Cain : A Study of Modern Traditional Witches by

• Letters from the Devils Forest : An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism by Robin Artisson

• To Fly By Night : Craft of the Hedgewitch by Veronica Cummer

• An Cracow Gwyn: Socery and the Ancient Fayerie Faith by Robin Artissin

• The Robert Cochrane Letter: An Insight Into Modern Traditional Witchcraft by Robert Cochrane and Evan John Jones

• Folk Witchcraft : A Guide to Lore Land, and the Familiar Spirit by Roger J Horne

• Balkan Traditional Witchcraft by Prademir Ristic and Michael C. Carter

• The Call of the Horned Piper by Nigel Jackson

• Ecstasies : Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath by Carb Giazburg

[elegantshapeshifter]

Politics... or the Craft?

“Today, I've encountered (yet again) someone who hates that his taxes have to be spent on the welfare of others. Today, I met someone who thinks if you don't like the military, you're a traitor that needs to leave the country. I've also met someone who thinks that men are responsible for all evil in the world, and someone who thinks you need to believe in Jesus or else you'll be banished to torment forever in the afterlife. I met someone who thinks that eating meat is the prime evil of our world, and that if you want to consider yourself a moral or compassionate person, you have to be vegan.

Today, I met someone who believes that political correctness should be law, and that people who use insensitive pronouns or adjectives should be socially ostracized. I met someone who thinks marijuana is a deadly "gateway drug" that leads to every sort of drug abuse and destroys families and causes every manner of social harm. I met someone who thinks that Obama is the antichrist, a secret muslim socialist who wants to destroy America and take everyone's guns away. I met someone who thinks that Obama is a great guy whose health care reform is the best piece of legislation we've had since the great depression.

Today, I met someone who thinks we should arm teachers at all our schools, and that the only solution to our problems with crime is to have every man and woman carrying a gun. I also met someone who thinks guns should be banned almost completely, which is their idea of how to fix the problem. I met a gay guy who was really nice and all about people being tolerant, and I met a straight guy who said he'd beat up any gay guy that he thought was hitting on him. There was also a straight guy who said he was an "ally" to gay people. There was a woman who said that abortion was her "right", and another woman that said that abortion was murder.

I met a Native American activist who thought that white people were culturally and spiritually vacuous, and an African-American activist who thought that reparations for slavery were in order. Right next to them I found a Native lady who cared more about peace than race, and an African-American man who had (by his own words) "moved beyond race, and beyond the past." I met one of those really disgusting Ayn Rand followers who believed that Native Americans needed to be culturally destroyed because they "weren't doing anything" with this land, and whites brought "civilization".

I met an older lady who thought that everything was really fine with the world back when she was a teenager, and an older guy who told me things have always been "this messed up." I met a Muslim who hated Israel, and an Israeli who hated Muslims, and I met a priest who thought God loved everyone no matter what, and a preacher who thought that God only loved the righteous. Right next to them was one of those new-age Rumi-spouting universalists who thought Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims were all silly and wrong, and that ecstatic poetry and love was all that mattered.

And the whole time I'm meeting these people, I'm thinking how bored I am with all of them. Good people, bad people, but none of them interesting to me. 

Where, I ask you, are the women who worship the moon and the earth and the sun, the men who get archaic stringed instruments and create the new ballads about princes and princesses and witches and giants from inside themselves? Where are the people whose dominant personality trait isn't a political orientation or a sexual orientation or a religious orientation, but an aesthetic orientation towards the spirit world, towards the darkest and brightest mysteries of the strangeness of sorcery? Those are the people I want to meet.

Where are the naked dancers, the chanters, the poets of the Unseen, the painters painting spirits they have met in fever-dreams, the diviners, the out-of-body flyers, the trance-masters, the broom-riders, the people who scribble in notebooks and can seldom answer the question "what are you working on" with any honesty when some friend or family member puts it to them? Where are the herbalists and the storm-raisers? Where are the fiends who talk to the dead, the cloud-namers, the grave-earth collectors, and the people who make bonfires for the Ancestors?

Where are the people who prefer faery tale collections to any other book? (For that matter, where are the people who still read books?) Where are the fire-dancers, the loners who talk to trees, the drummers, the quiet souls and the bead-stringers, the witches who love the Master and his servitors, the witches who work day and night to gain entry to the Queen of Elfhame's feasting-hall below? Where are those people? Where are the people who aren't predictably boring on either side of a left/right fence? Where are the hedge riders who care more about what the spirits of a local mound think, than what the local townsfolk think?

In my dreams, naked Fayerie-women and owls try to lure me down passageways that start in the ground somewhere, and end up in the branches of silver trees and around distant stars. I'd rather talk about that than politics, diet, sexual orientation, this version of monotheism or that, this gun right or that war, this tragedy or that one.

The worst part is the extent to which I find myself- like most people- drawn into the discussions on politics and religion. I become the boring person that I'd hate to meet. Then I remember my true allegiances.”

- From Robin Artisson’s “Letters from the Devil’s Forest”

[icyfiretraveler]

Title: "Ib"

Released: 2012, Remastered Ver for Nintendo switch: Mar 9, 2023

Genre: children's/YA horror, fayerie tale

"Ib" came highly recommended, and I played the original 2012 release which is available for free download. "Ib" is a classic horror experience where Ib is seperated from her mother in an art gallery featuring the works of the recently deceased artist Guerlene. After being taken to the world of his paintings, she and Garry, another lost visitor, must escape and return to the world of the living.

Short and sweet, "ib" is a good multi session playthrough. I recommend it highly as an unsettling and unnerving intro for new horror genre fans.

[icyfiretraveler]

Title: "Trails of Cold Steel 3"

Released: September 2017

Genre: Anti-Fascist Fayerie tale, Turn-Based RPG, YA Mid-Apocalypse

A Story of resisting fascim from within, as it ends the world. I started from "Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure" and the story continues directly, with lots of returning characters and an easy recap of the first two games set in the Erebonian Empire. The look and play is intuitive and built greatly on the systems I saw in Azure, with a more forgiving difficulty curve. The story is a slow starter, but it built to a satisfying conclusion over easily 100 hours of school life & incresingly high stakes encounters. The writing is a lil patriarchal and tends to swords & horses, while also taking place in a highly patriarchal setting. The fascist themes seem to lean towards apologetics, but resolve satisfyingly enough.

The writing can be very inspiring! I would recommend it to hopeful and hopeless people. Anyone who likes long rpgs and political themes.

Most people could probably start from here.