#fiolev

[karkkidoeswriting]

OCs As Animals Tag

Thank you for tagging me @mariahwritesstuff! This is such a fun tag game. I've done similar of these years ago for the MCs of BCC but (from what I remember) most of my answers will be different as the characters have changed somewhat from that time.

I'll tag: @kainablue @dotr-rose-love @sam-glade @elshells @writer-artemis @writernopal @oh-no-another-idea

Faerathos - Owl

Owls being symbols of scholarship and intelligence, fits Faerathos well, who is a scholar and very intelligent. Owls are also really good at what they do (hunting), and similarly he's good at very specific thing (not hunting or fighting in general), but kinda dumb outside it and lacks a lot of basic practical skills. He's a very high int low wis type of character.

Cassia - Snow leopard

Other leopards and closely related big cats would fit Cassia too, but I choose snow leopard, since her companion and helper animal (for witch purposes) is a saber-tooth snow leopard (a thing their world has). She's a lone predator, who stalks her pray. She does acrobatics as an opera performer (their opera is a little different), and moves quietly with ease. She also can do the maiming beside the stalking too. She looks much softer and cuddlier than she is. But big cats are still just cats, which fits her too. She's very picky about the people she likes and how she receives affection, and if her boundaries is crossed she will (metaphorically) scratch and bite. She enjoys solitude and alone time, but when she's in the mood she likes company as well. One of the best ways to be with people in her opinion is to sit in same space in silence. She likes to sleep in small spaces.

Valeri - Dog

Valeri is definitely a dog, specifically a big dog. He's very loyal, very helpful to the people he loves, smart in a practical way (and in other ways kinda dumb), bad at lying, good in teams, ferocious when needed and protective. Like dogs typically he wants to please others and likes physical affection from people he trusts. Though he's the kind of dog, whose been traumatized, so suspicious of strangers, kinda grumpy, gets stressed around too many people, bites (metaphorically in his case) when stressed and reacts badly when touched wrong or by wrong people.

Fiolev - Cat

Cats are small predators, so they seek prey but they also have to avoid bigger predators, and that fits Fiolev perfectly. His prey is the money of gullible rich people, but also there's worse, more dangerous criminals and whole imperial army preying on him. So he has to look over his shoulder, move quietly and unnoticed. Cats teeth and claws are sharp and they can do surprising amount of damage, but they not really very dangerous. and he's the same (metaphorically). He's quick witted and quick in his movements. He can be so smart and so dumb at the same time. He's the type of cat who goes to check out new people, get their scratches and meows at them, but is not to be picked up by strangers, basically he's friendly but you have to win his trust to get his whole affection. He can also be purposefully annoying, when he demands attention. And like cats he's a little goofy guy, he's funny, and not as graceful as he'd like you to believe.

[karkkidoeswriting]

I don't play favourites (I kinda do actually) but at least currently I'm writing again Valeri's chapters so he is mostly on my mind. If he could only choose one person, he would decline, because he would rather die than loose any of his siblings again. But if he had to, the choice would come to his little brother Fiolev, who he would do literally anything for, or co-dependent love interest Agrippa. To be fair his relationship with Fiolev is also very co-dependent. Without either of them he would cancel his immortality very quickly. Also he does want children, but he would in no circumstances ever want to outlive them. In general I don't think he would be very suited for immortality.

Trick or treat!! >:)

If your favorite OC had a chance to be immortal, who do you think from the cast of your WIP would they want to spend their time with?

[karkkidoeswriting]

15 Questions Tag

Thank you for tagging me @andromeda-grace!

I'll tag @dotr-rose-love @kainablue @rustywritessometimes @mariahwritesstuff @oh-no-another-idea @faelanvance @aquadestinyswriting @westywrites

So this is that one originally personal tag game, but people started answering it as their characters. I couldn't decide which of my MCs from BCC I'd answer this with, so I thought it might be fun to imagine them all being interviewed together. This is not a realistic scenario because during the first book they are all separated (and I answered this as if they're about 1/3 to the first book, where I'm roughly at writing wise), but it was still fun to imagine :D

1. Are you named after anyone?

Faerathos: "I can go first. Oldest sons in our house have been named Faerathos for a long time. In ancient times the name was Faerían, Faerathos being Angusianized version. Our father wasn't the eldest brother, his brother, the previous Faerathos, died before we were born so in a way I was mostly named after him."

Cassia: "My name also runs in the family, given to oldest daughters. Our aunt, from father's side, was also a Cassia."

Valeri: "My name is from our mother's family. I think her uncle was a Valeri?"

Fiolev: "I named myself after my cat." *everyone turns to him in disbelief including Valeri who thought he knew the story behind the name* "Well, that's the truth! There was some ancient legendary Cerfí warrior named Fiolev and I remembered Valeri telling me the name meant a white mountain cat. So when I had to give myself a name, I had just befriended this homeless white kitten and I named myself basically white cat. Though mountain cats are a tiny bit bigger than my cat."

2. When was the last time you cried?

Cassia: "When I was 19."

Valeri: "7 years ago? I don't believe that."

Cassia: "I'm sorry, if that makes you feel bad that you cry all the time, but I have done the work to destroy my ability to express emotions, so I can't cry anymore, even if I wanted to."

Valeri: "I don't cry all the time."

Cassia: "Well, tell us then the last time you cried?"

Valeri: "... Last week."

Faerathos: "I think I last cried three weeks ago during my monthly mental breakdown."

Fiolev: "My memory is pretty bad, so I'm not fully sure, but I think it was month ago, when Valeri left to his mission."

Valeri: "I'm sorry..."

3. Do you have any kids?

Cassia: "No and I mean to keep it that way."

Valeri: "No, but I'd like to have one day, if ever my life stops being a constant battle for survival."

Fiolev: "Yeah, no, that sounds like a nightmare. But I want Valeri to have so I can be the cool uncle who teaches them all the bad words."

*After a silence everyone turns to Faerathos.*

Faerathos: "Can I go with I'm not sure? Probably not?"

Valeri: "What the fuck does that mean?"

Faerathos: "There is a non-zero change that the empress is not in fact pregnant with a legitimate imperial heir, but my child so... We don't have to get too deep into that."

Cassia: "It was literally this type of scenario our whole clan got murdered over!"

Faerathos: "... I'm sorry?"

4. Do you use sarcasm?

Fiolev: "I'm fluent in it yes."

Cassia: "Do I look like the type of person, who would do something like that? she said sarcastically."

Faerathos: "Sure, sometimes when annoyed."

Valeri: "I'm not very good with words, but contrary to the popular belief I have a sense of humor too, so occasionally yes."

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

Faerathos: "The way they dress. It's pretty noticeable from far away."

Cassia: "The way people move and hold themselves."

Valeri: "I agree with Cassia."

Fiolew: "I will answer truthfully only, if everyone promises to have no follow up questions." *looks at the others till they all nod* "I first notice where people are holding their money."

6. What's your eye color?

Fiolev: "Gray."

Faerathos: "Also gray."

Valeri: "Light blue."

Cassia: "Even lighter blue."

7. Scary movies stories or happy endings?

Fiolev: "I love scary stories."

Cassia: "I agree. The more gruesome the better."

Faerathos: "I'm not that interested in scary stories, but happy endings do often ring hollow to me, so I think I'll choose scary stories."

Valeri: "I'm the only one who prefers happy endings?"

8. Any special talents?

Cassia: "I'm quite good at singing really low notes. I can do acrobatics and my specialty is sword dance where I balance with three swords. I'm also very good at disguising myself with transformation magic as people I have killed by using their skin and bones."

Faerathos: "Well that escalated. Maybe we'll just breeze past that? I don't have a lot of special talents. I guess I'm good at math, but that's not very special. Though I can research at the library for hours without breaks if that counts?"

Fiolev: "I'm very good at taking... let's say objects from other people's pockets without them noticing. I'm also quite good at... let's say convincing people of not exactly true things. I also do an excellent impression of a very naive and impressionable noble girl in distress. A totally innocent skill that could have no implications of criminal behavior."

Cassia: "We all believe you, love."

Valeri: "I don't have any very special talents. I'm pretty good at disarming people, shooting and parrying on horseback, surviving in wilderness and I guess taking a beating."

9. Where were you born?

Faerathos: "We were all born in Abhlean, the capital of Cabalusia, in literally the same room."

10. What are your hobbies?

Faerathos: "Playing piano, reading, gambling and swords-fighting, but that last one I do only because Marcus forces me to."

Cassia: "Opera could be characterized as my third job and not a hobby, so I'll go with... industrial sabotage."

Valeri: "You're not going to elaborate on that, are you?"

Cassia: "Nope."

Valeri: "Okay then. I also play piano and I play violin, both of which I'm pretty rusty at."

Fiolev: "I feed the local homeless animals and take care of them generally."

11. Have you any pets?

Fiolev: "As I mentioned earlier, I have a cat. Her name is Snow, because she's white and I named her when I was five. She's great, though getting elderly."

Valeri: "I have two dogs, Cúén and Faéndie, both Cabalusian bear dogs. They are trained as war dogs, but they are family and I keep them with me at home."

Fearathos: "I don't have a pet."

Cassia: "I have technically a crow. It's not my pet though, it would probably eat me in my sleep if I called it my pet. Yeah... it's not really a crow. It's name is Fianne. I have an actual animal companion too, my little baby saber-tooth snow leopard, Ciri. She's not actually little."

12. What sports do you play/have played?

Faerathos: "Hunting, which I don't get opportunities to do as a hostage in the court, Cabalusian horse-racing, which every Cabalusian noble kid has to do, but I didn't really enjoy, and now I'm still forced to do swords-fighting."

Cassia: "I also did Cabalusian horse-racing, which I did like, and hunting, but I haven't done them as a hobby since, you know, the civil war. I have hunted for survival though."

Valeri: "I also did the same sports before civil war, though I was too young to be taken to the hunts and I did horse polo. I don't play sports anymore, as a cavalry officer I do swords-fighting and horseriding a lot, but for war purposes. And I've hunted for survival."

Fiolev: "I was too young to play any sports before the civil war, and when I grew up we were poor and sports really are a rich people thing. I have played whatever ball games poor kids play on the plazas, but I don't think they count here."

13. How tall are you?

Faerathos: "195 cm."

Fiolev: "175 cm."

Cassia: "186 cm."

Valeri: "What? You're also taller than me?"

Cassia: "How tall are you then?"

Valeri: "185 cm."

Cassia: "Ha!"

14. Favorite subject in school?

Fiolev: "History."

Cassia: "Biology."

Valeri: "It would be either music or history."

Faerathos: "Physics, which is why I'm still studying it. It hits the right spot of 'I'm good at it so I don't get too frustrated' and 'it's hard so it's interesting'."

15. Dream job?

Fiolev: "Hmm I don't know. What profession makes you rich? Probably depends on that. Alternatively I would love to just take care of all the strays in the city, if someone rich would suddenly get a strong desire to pay someone for that."

Faerathos: "I'm pretty happy with my job as a physicist, but even more than that I would want to be a senator. I can't of course because of the whole hostage situation, but I want to be in a position where I can actually change things."

Cassia: "Dream job? I have never thought about that. Before civil war I was a noble girl and nobles don't have jobs, so I didn't dream of having one. And now I have more important things to do than thinking what I'd want to do for a profession. Though I will say, I have always enjoyed opera, and now that I'm actually an opera performer, I do like it, even if it's just an means to an end, like my other professions. So if I have to pick one, that might be it."

Valeri: "I wanted to be a soldier as a child, but I ended up being one in the least desirable way possible. I don't think I'd call it my dream job anymore. I don't know what I'd call my dream job."

[karkkidoeswriting]

For the ask game! 🎃🍎

Thank you for the ask!!

🎃 pumpkin: do you have any favorite brainstorming techniques? how do you like to gather ideas for your wip?

The idea part is usually easy for me, so I don't exactly do brainstorming. I go to look for inspiration to Pinterest and by researching. Reading about history, geography, sociology, psychology and mythology often act as very strong inspiration fuels. When I have head full off ideas, I vomit them into a doc, and usually it prompts me to come up with more details to the ideas and expand the ideas. I usually let it marinate pretty passively for at least couple of months, just writing down more ideas as I come up with them. When I feel like I have some basis of a story and a direction for it I start doing more focused worldbuilding, character development and plotting.

🍎 apple: let’s talk about friendship in your wip. do you have any favorite friend/platonic dynamics? any friendships gone sour?

One of my favorite friendships in BCC, which I haven't talked about much before, is between Fiolev and Cateline. They befriended when they were homeless children both around 6 yos and fell under influence of Vauquelin, an older homeless kid, who was a leader of a child gang. For a while Cateline was like a sister to Fiolev and his older brother Valeri, but she was devoted to Vauquelin, who had saved her. So when Valeri got into a massive falling out with Vauquelin and his gang over their brutal punishment for Fiolev, Cateline sided with Vauquelin. Valeri and Fiolev became enemies of the gang, which ended Fiolev's friendship with Cateline. Soon after that Valeri was forced into the army, which meant that he along with Fiolev got to leave the city ghetto and got some actual housing away from the gang.

For some years Fiolev didn't have contact with the gang, since when they became proper adult criminal organization, they got in conflict with the city watch and had to leave. They come in contact again at the beginning of the story as Vauquelin's gang returns and Fiolev has become a scam artist on his own right. Fiolev falls quickly back under Vauquelin's influence, who is as manipulative and abusive as ever. Cateline has become very hardened and Vauquelin's trusted assassin, but she slowly warms back up to Fiolev, who actually cares about her, unlike Vauquelin whose affection is always conditional. Fiolev realises fairly quickly (in like one book) that Vauquelin is abusive, since he has experienced actual unconditional care and protection from Valeri, but Vauquelin has been Cateline's whole world for many years at that point. Fiolev desperately wants to save Cateline, but even as she's abused by Vauquelin, at least he never left her, like she feels Fiolev (and Valeri) did.

[karkkidoeswriting]

BEAR CASTLE CYCLE

Valeri Cor Mantgamia

Main Character | 24 | Ethnicity: Cerfi | Captain of Imperial Cavalry | he/him | #valeri

Eventually he spoke. "To be honest, I have hard time imagining you afraid." Valeri made a dry chuckle. When was he not afraid? When was he not frozen in fear by the everything and everyone around him? Always looking over his shoulder. Always dreading every word he spoke. There was an easy answer to his own rhetoric question. In the middle of a battle the terror melted. He was still afraid, but it was different. His mind went blank and his body just moved. There was no doubt. It didn't make much sense, to fear death the least, when it was the closest. There is no fear in present.

Valeri is the second youngest child of the Duke of Cabalusia. When the Bear Castle was conquered and the Mantgamias were defeated in the civil war, Valeri managed to escape with his youngest sibling, Fiolev. They ended up in Amari, the capital of the province of Víren, where they assumed new identities under last name Iolean. They were very poor as most orphans in Amari, where income gaps are massive. Valeri was eventually forced into the army, to serve the same empire, which crushed their clan. He despised it, but he was good at it and quickly rose in rank, securing safety for him and Fiolev. It has taken him to wage wars for the empire, left him with chronic pain and trauma and strained his relationship with Fiolev, who would rather go homeless again than get left behind if he would go to another war. But he would do anything to make sure Fiolev was safe, even if Fiolev would hate him for it, even when his idea of safety is flawed.

Valeri has no future. For the past 13 years he's only been surviving and making sure Fiolev survives. He has no aspirations beyond that. He has risen ranks in the army, but he doesn't care about that beyond the more security higher position affords, he just tries to survive and make sure people around him survive to the next day. He sure fantasizes of reuniting with Faerathos, of opposing the imperial family, of returning home to Cabalusia, but he has no illusions that these fantasies have any realism behind them. Sometimes he even fantasizes of having a life, getting married, having several children. But he has no future. Until, he meets his exiled uncle, Ignatus, on a campaign. Ignatus is working with the empire's enemy and promises to take Valeri and Fiolev into exile with him, so they can get out of the enemy territory and wage war on the empire. It finally gives him hope and a goal. But things get more complicated, when he is given another mission by an imperial general, that could give an opportunity to sabotage the Imperial agenda in a significant way, but would put him in even more dangerous position, not less.

His appearance is quite imposing. He is tall (though not compared to many others in his family), strong and a scar on his lip has given him a permanent scowl. There is also a feral rage just below the surface at all times, ready to burst. But beneath that there is constant anxious terror that drives him and abundance of barely repressed emotions. He operates best when he has a clear goal and clear commands to follow, so when he is thrown in a situation, where everyone has conflicting commands for him, where he's not sure what's right and wrong anymore, or who to trust and who to follow, his barely maintained surface won't be enough to hold him together.

The Oldest | The Second Oldest | The Second Youngest | The Youngest

Tag list under the cut! Let me know if you want to be added/removed!

I'm finally finishing this post for Meet the Character Monday held by @bardic-tales / @creators-club , thank you!

BCC tag list: @siarven @worldbuildng @emilyoracle @frvnwrites @kainablue

@writingrosesonneptune @contes-de-rheio @faelanvance @outpost51 @dotr-rose-love

[karkkidoeswriting]

Oh I am tricked, bamboozled!! In the words of an early iconic Finnish internet meme (incorrect translation quotes of Silver Fang) translated back to English: "I was the one who died, this is sucks ass!" (I'm sorry if this makes literally no sense to anyone else.)

I will cave to your demands, here is what kind of pumpkins the main siblings of BCC would carve:

Faerathos - An intergral form of Maxwell's equations because there's nothing scarier to a physicist of electromagnetism than having to calculate a surface or volumetric integral.

Cassia - She is nothing if not a perfectionist, so she would make a highly detailed skull, maybe use a real human skull she keeps around for reasons as a model.

Valeri - A cute and not too scary pumpkin for the enjoyment of neighborhood kids.

Fiolev - Absolutely low effort product, just close enough to be recognizable.

Trick or treat? >:D

A treat beneath the cut!

It's really a trick!!!!!!!!

it's the uno reverse card!!!!!!

it's compelling you to show me what pumpkins your ocs would make!

[karkkidoeswriting]

Happy Blorbo Blursday from the Creators Club.

Does your character still have any physical objects from their childhood? If so, describe the objects and the level of importance they hold. If not, would they want to?

Happy BB! Thank you for the question! :)

Valeri has very little objects from his childhood before age 10 or really after that since after that he was too poor to own much. Almost everything he had was left behind when he and Fiolev had to escape their home during the Massacre of Bear Castle. He only had the clothing on his back, which most of he had to abandon to not be recognized, his favourite toy horse he was holding, when the attack begun and just didn't let go off, and his mother's ring, which he took just before escaping after her dead.

He still has the toy horse, which was a delicately carved wooden horse with gilded armor with elk's antlers of Cerfi war horses of old. The gold leaf has largely chipped off and both antlers have been broken from different points as well as one leg. Valeri doesn't like seeing it, but also can't bear to let go of it, so he keeps it hidden under a floor board in his bed chamber. It reminds him too much of the long escape through war torn Cabalusia, when barely ever let the toy out of his hand, and it's a time he rather not think about too much. Which is at all. It's very much a toy of Cerfi nobility and he is supposed to be from a peasant family, which is another reason to keep it hidden.

The ring is a family heirloom of the Mantgamias. It's a simple unassuming ring of gold with a humble quartz stone on it. It is said to have been made, when the Mantgamia clan first became the rulers of Abhlean, the city where the Bear Castle stands, eight centuries ago. According to the legend the bear statue, the guardian of the castle, which stands on top of the ancestral barrows of the Mantgamias, has it's quartz eyes made from the same crystal as the ring, and the ring was originally made for the Mantgamian warrior queen, who conquered Abhlean, which is why it's been passed down to through queens and, later after conquest by the Angusians, duchesses. It is the most important possession Valeri has and he always wears it on a necklace hidden under his clothing. Only before he goes to battle he hides it inside the interlining of his trunk, so if he dies, no one will find it and Fiolev will get it after his remaining possessions are given to him. If he tries to leave it somewhere, he will always bee too anxious of something happening to it, no matter how well he secures it. He's had panic attacks before when he has thought he has lost it. He always makes sure no one sees it, but since it doesn't look like a family heirloom of a noble clan, rather on the surface it looks like any other old ring, most people wouldn't recognize it.

[karkkidoeswriting]

Off-brand NaNo Update #1

Obviously I'm not using the official nano org website or anything anymore after hearing about all the shitty things, but I've never really done it properly anyway so it doesn't really change the way I do it. I learned yesterday about TrackBear from my friend. It's very cool, you can similarly track your progress as in the nano org website, but it's even better (you can track for example time instead of words!). So I made my own extremely low stakes nano goal, writing every week 7 hours during November, so 30 hours in total. I'll be tracking my words too, but I'm not putting goals for that.

I'm working on Bear Castle Cycle (I changed the working title again from Bear Castle Cronicles). I'm on my millionth rewrite of the first draft. I again made some major changes to the story (before starting this draft last year). The story has four distinct storylines that intersect very little, and I'm currently writing Valeri's storyline and I'll also start with Faerathos', since I recently re-outlined it. I still need to re-outline Fiolev's and Cassia's storylines. If I end up doing that in this month, I'll count the time spent on the outlining on my goal.

I already started after the midnight, by writing whooping 35 mins, during which I wrote 221 words for the prologue. I had mostly rewritten the prologue before, but I skipped the last scene since at the time there were still things I hadn't figured out about it. I'm now almost done with the prologue.

Words written: 221

Current word count: 14 399

Time written: 35 min

[karkkidoeswriting]

Tender Tuesday - Valeri

Intro post

Here's my post for the Tender Tuesday prompt by @creators-club / @bardic-tales! The prompt was about the soft side of the relationships the character has. The two central relationships Valeri has in the first book are with his little sibling, Fiolev, and with Agrippa, his love interest. Here's some soft art I made of Agrippa and Valeri:

Fiolev

Valeri and Fiolev were orphaned 14 years earlier, when Valeri was 10 and Fiolev 4. Since that Valeri has basically raised Fiolev, and being a traumatized child himself, he obviously couldn't protect Fiolev from the realities of a poor unprotected orphan. Valeri would do literally anything for Fiolev. He would die in a heart beat and he has killed people to protect him. He feels immense guilt for everything Fiolev has gone through and it has pushed him to try to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. He does that by working harder to ensure their position, so Fiolev will never be homeless or hungry or desperate again, which means working on his military career. Fiolev on the other had is very afraid of losing Valeri, especially after Valeri did almost die in a war three years ago. He got lost in the battlefield, captured by the enemy, but no one knew weather he was alive or not, and then he returned after couple of months badly burned and bedridden. It took him a year to recover, and he never fully did. Fiolev doesn't resent Valeri for failing to raise him well or failing to protect him, but he's angry that Valeri would leave him behind, abandon him. And he's afraid that Valeri resents him for having to take care of him and look after him. That maybe Valeri wants to leave him behind to get rid of him. In reality Fiolev is always Valeri's first concern.

Valeri always tries to be strong for Fiolev, to a fault, but Fiolev is (at the start of the story) the only person who he is very soft and gentle with. He is always making sure that Fiolev is eating enough and dressing warm enough in the winter and generally acting very motherly, which is why Fiolev calls him mother, when he's annoyed with Valeri's coddling. He also plays music for Fiolev, even though he refuses to do in presence of anyone else, since he is quite self-conscious of not getting much practice since childhood. Fiolev loves to listen to him play. He always keeps a strand of Fiolev's hair with him whenever he leaves for a campaign to keep him close. He doesn't like to be touched or hugged by other people, except Fiolev, who he hugs frequently and always kisses his forehead whenever he says good buy (even if he's just going for a walk with his dogs).

Agrippa

Valeri and Agrippa have a sort of slightly-flirty-acquaintances-to-enemies-to-begrudging-allies-to-friends-to-lovers arc. At the beginning of the story, they know each other because Agrippa is the adopted daughter of a duke and a general, who Valeri was squire to. Alexis (Agrippa's dad) became Valeri's patron since he was a good squire and sent him to the Imperial Academy to become an officer. There was a bit of mutual attraction, but nothing really deeper than that. This changes when Valeri learns Agrippa is the heir to Dir'ahin's (enemy of the empire) throne, and he gets a mission to both help her conquer Dir'ahin for the empire and assassinate her, since she is too good of an asset to the empire.

Valeri's moral compass tells him it might be bad actually to kill someone who hasn't yet done anything bad, even though they would be a threat in the future, so while during the mission to conquer Dir'ahin, Valeri's and Agrippa's relationship turn from cordial and a bit flirty to animosity, he still fails to actually go through with the assassination, when he gets the change. His decision is quickly vindicated though, when Agrippa, who believed she would be a peacemaker between her two peoples, being an Ahinian raised in the Angusian Empire, learns about her father's actual intent of subjugating Dir'ahin and decides to turn against the empire and jump the ship to Dir'ahin. All the allegiances being outed, they escape together out of necessity to Dir'ahin, which involves a dangerous hike across a mountain range. During a month alone in the wilderness they learn to rely on each other and become actual friends and allies seeing that their goals could align as they both share the enemy they once served. In Dir'ahin, which is a strange land to both of them, even for Agrippa, they rely only more on each other, emotionally too as they both reach an emotional low point. That reliance become codependent to an unhealthy decree and turns into mutual pining.

They become very protective of each other, while Valeri acts as her body guard as a sort of cover story. (The real story of how he was tasked to assassinate her might not go down well with Ahinians who hold her as religious and political heir.) It's really the first time in 14 years when someone is protective of Valeri, someone takes care of him. While Valeri can be soft with Fiolev, with Agrippa he can be fragile too. Agrippa takes care of him through his mental breakdown and holds him when he cries, which he also does for her. They both feel as though they are alone in the world so they find solace with each other. However, they also both have some serious self-image issues as they both believe they are alone because they are lacking as a person, so of course they both think they couldn't possibly deserve each other. Valeri realizes faster that he is in love with Agrippa, but believes he can never have her, so he's just happy to be her attack dog and serve her, while he can.

[karkkidoeswriting]

Thank you so much for the essay!!!!!! ;-; <3<3 this made me very happy!! It was so fun to read your analysis of the songs!!!

Your description of Faerathos based on the songs is so spot on! :D He does cover up his hurt to a very far extent partly because he doesn't want to show weakness to his captors, but also because he has a very Eldest Sister Syndrome (gender neutral) and doesn't want to worry anyone or feel like a burden. And yeah he's on one hand very cynical and on the other hand very much an idealist, aka he thinks world is messed up, but it could be better.

You are absolutely right about Eva Green as Cassia, in my mind I see her as Eva Green, and I have mention it before so that is probably why you had that association! :D Also again your analysis fits really well with Cassia. She's seemingly very put together and collected, but she's at any moment about to lose her hinges XD She's so wrapped up in revenge and her rage that she despises kinda everybody and while she does want to specifically murder the imperial family, she also wants to destroy the whole empire, because she is in principle against imperialism, but also because she wants to punish everyone, who is benefiting from the existence of the empire. And you're very right, her obsession with revenge does cause a lot of tensions with other characters, including her siblings when they finally reunite and Julie (the lady who wears pink). You're very much right that her vengeance is very much self-sacrificial and it was very easy for her to do when she had very little else going on in her life, but when she meets Julie and especially when eventually she reunites with the other siblings, committing to her revenge at all cost gets increasingly harder. And she feels very guilty about it, because she can't let go of the dead, especially her twin sister, who was the one sibling who did die. She has a lot of unresolved survivors guilt too and so her revenge is also a punishment for herself for surviving when her sister didn't, so if she would let go of revenge to be happy with living people, it would feel like a betrayal. So she wouldn't refuse to reunite with her siblings, but she does feel very torn about it. You're also right that she does think of herself as a bad person, like she does pretty terrible things, but her justification isn't that ends justify the means, but rather, the world is bad, she's bad and it doesn't matter. But that's only easy to think when you really don't care about most people or their opinions and you can view them as bad too, so when she reunites with the others, this attitude starts crumbling because she doesn't want them to view her as evil or be scared of her and she can't pretend that everyone's just inherently bad. (Julie doesn't have that much the same affect because she's also amoral and her reaction to Cassia murdering someone for a blood sacrifice would be more like "that's hot".) Tale of Revenge song does definitely best describe her at the beginning of her character arc.

Your analysis of Valeri is so interesting! You're very spot on with 10th Man Down. And yeah, the songs in his list are (roughly) either very cinematic and kinda dramatic and powerful, or tender piano xD Kuoleman risteyksestä kolme virstaa pohjoiseen already has very thematically ambiguous lyrics so I very much understand finding it hard to decipher :D You are not wrong though with your analysis either. Sane is perhaps a relative term, but he's definitely not mentally healthy person lol. He's traumatized, anxious, repressed and lacks emotional regulation, so eventually his built up emotions blow up in anger and doesn't feel fully in control of himself or his life. I can translate a bit more of the song so to give a little more context:

"I'm terrified by the sheer idea of winning / I'm terrified by the moment that I'd arrive to the goal / I would see all my thoughts in the right light / My love as lacking / My knowledge as ignorance // And do I only now see / That I'm no more special than you / You whom I've always hated / Despised and feared / We wretches who've been hanged on nooses next to each other / And after twitching for a moment / We're thrown into a hole // ... // Who demands an easy song / In a senseless world / When every song is hard to sing / Even if it's a beautiful lie / Who demands to know what rages under the chest / When in the twisted world of the heart rages / Million snakes in a knot"

I imagine this song to be about his mental state towards the end of the first book. He gets pretty much mentally broken down (a process which is very fun to write for me but not fun for him), his view of himself and the world are both broken to pieces. He fought in the last Ahinian war and even though he does not like fighting for the Angusian Empire and thinks they are bad, he also very much internalized that still Dir'ahin was the enemy, which was only reinforced by him being almost burned alive, of which he still has chronic pain from, taken as a war prisoner and tortured. But once he goes to Dir'ahin, he's forced to come to terms with having contributed to war crimes, that Dir'ahin is not actually his enemy but perhaps allies against Angusian Empire, his very traumatic last time he was in that part of the world and that the religious leaders he trusted are mostly just tools of imperial control. So he has a little existential crisis. But the song applies to his character arc more broadly and his emotional turmoil, because he starts with very black and white thinking and is slowly forced to break his very rigid ideas of the world and people. He has also a tendency to put people in Good and Bad categories, and time and time again he comes to see people in new lights that defies their previous categorizations, including himself.

Your analysis of Fiolew's songs are so incredibly spot on!! :D He's main way to deal with all problems is to just ignore them and hope they go away on their own, and during the story all the problems he has ignored for a long time come crashing down on him all at once :'DDD

Thank you so much for your comment and analysis! <3 I ruminated and savored it for couple of days :D

Character Song Tag

Thank you for tagging me @dotr-rose-love! I'll tag @calicojackofficial, @andromeda-grace, @mariahwritesstuff and @aohendo.

Game Rules: Choose one of your characters and list songs that fit them.

I will be braking the rules a bit lol. I don't have many songs in my playlist that fit really well specific characters, and because I don't want to choose between the main cast, I decided I would choose two songs for every MC. I added a little quotes from the lyrics (I saw @dotr-rose-love do it, and I thought it was very nice because I immediately got an idea what the song was about even when I didn't know a song and they were in a language I didn't understand). There's couple of Finnish songs (both from CMX), which I have translated, or at least attempted to translate. (It was surprisingly hard since CMX has very poetic lyrics. I am also again reminded that you can't put the words in just any order in English. I had to do a lot restructuring for the sentences.)

So here's songs for the main siblings of Bear Castle Chronicles:

Faerathos | The oldest sibling held hostage in the imperial court

The Worlds Forgotten, The Words Forbidden - Sonata Arctica

Save me Take me away Away from this time Back where lies my home

Blood Brothers - Iron Maiden

There are times when I feel I'm afraid for the world There are times I'm ashamed of us all

Cassia | The second oldest sibling spying for the enemy of the empire

Fysiikka ei kestä (eng. Physics won't endure) - CMX

I want to see the world burn in a fire See the favorite children of the creator fall under the yoke I want pain, I want toil, an army of ailments So for even a moment I could forget my own misery

Tale of Revenge - Ensiferum

Wait for me in the mountains, haunt for me in the winds Wait for me in the land where nothing lives Until the day I have found revenge, I will feed my sword Until my heart is cold, every breath of mine is yours

Valeri | The second youngest sibling forced to fight imperial wars

10th Man Down - Nightwish

Deliver me from this war It's not for me it's because of you Devil seems; my eternity Obey to kill to save yourself

Kuoleman risteyksestä kolme virstaa pohjoiseen (eng. Three miles* north from the crossing of death) - CMX

*Translation note: Virsta is an old Russian length measurement (was also used in Finland) that's not exactly a mile, more like a little over a km, but I think mile better communicates the idea.

Who demands to know what rages under the chest When in the twisted world of the heart rages Million snakes in a knot

Fiolew | The youngest sibling meddling in the underworld for survival

Remember - Disturbed

Cut your pride and watch it bleed You can't deny it Pain you know you can't ignore I don't remember

Escapist - Nightwish

This is who I am Escapist, paradise seeker Farewell, time to fly Out of sight, out of time, away from my life

[karkkidoeswriting]

Happy Blorbo Blursday from the Creators Club! What is your character’s current conflict? What steps are they taking to address this conflict?

Happy Blorbo Blursday! Thank you for the ask!

Beside the overall conflict of imperialism, Faélci's personal conflict at the beginning of the story is he despises everything and everyone around him, while trying to keep up his cover story and gain useful intelligence. The situation is made worse though because he has to attend a campaign quite far away from Cabalusia, so there's not much useful things for him to gain there for Cabalusian separatists. So he really just has to endure the campaign, so he can then get to do something more useful.

His conflict there is mostly internal, a contest of endurance. It manifest though as conflict with Valeri, who he despises more than anyone else in his vicinity, so he unleashes some his frustration on Valeri and goats him into conflict. The both think of each other as the worst kind of traitor, though in reality they are roughly on the same side. Though Valeri's view of Faélci is due to his cover story persona, and much less based on reality. Faélci on the otherhand knows Valeri's cover story is false, and knows who he really is, and he hates Valeri partly for actual reasons, partly because he has made false assumptions of Valeri's motives. He hates Valeri, because Valeri's clan was at the center of the civil war, his clan fought for them, most of them were killed brutally, even the children, and still Valeri didn't even have the decency to not fight for the same empire, who did all that. He believes that Valeri does it only for selfish self-preservation and doesn't care of the consequences. And he's not entirely wrong about it, but there's some factors he doesn't know, which would make him more understanding. He doesn't know that Valeri as a 16 yo was given the option to be imprisoned, which would have left his 10 yo sibling Fiolev completely alone in poverty, or join the military, nor how bad their situation was back then.

So how does Faélci address the conflict? Well, he gets drunk, acts as annoying and malicious as possible to instigate a drunken brawl with Valeri and reveals he knows Valeri's true identity to fuck with him further, though his sober self would not be happy about it. So very constructive, smart, healthy and overall good way to approach the situation.

[karkkidoeswriting]

Bear Castle Cycle - Reintroduction

BASIC INFO

STATUS | re-outlining | FORMAT | trilogy | POV | multiple 3rd person limited | TENSE | past | GENRE | gunpowder fantasy, dark fantasy, political fantasy, horror elements, mystery elements | AUDIENCE | adult | LANGUAGE WRITTEN IN | zero draft Finnish, 1st draft English

CONTENT WARNING | graphic violence | war | child abuse mentioned | torture | psychological horror | toxic relationships | drug and alcohol abuse | mental illness | sex | suicidal ideation | tba

INTRO

In the militaristic Angusian Empire only the clergy is allowed to use magic, which is seen as dangerous and terrifying by most. Magic has it's own will and while it can be helpful, other times it can be vindictive, malicious and unpredictable. There are also some terrifying great powers, like dragons, that most think are better left untouched and undisturbed. This is one of the things that has caused friction and an endless string of wars between the Empire and it's northern neighbor Dir'ahin, where magic is freely practiced. Dir'ahin has kept it's independence from the expansionist empire with it's advanced magic, but as Angusian Empire rapidly industrializes, a new decisive war of conquest looms ahead.

The Bear, the guardian of the Bear Castle, is ancient and forgotten magic. 14 years ago it watched as it's people were massacred by Imperial forces in a bloody civil war. It followed the four heirs of the castle as they grew up scattered in distant places. One of them in the imperial court, one of them in the northern occupied border, and two of them in a southern metropolis. Now the Bear watches as it's children struggle to find their way back to it.

FAERATHOS, THE OLDEST | While Faerathos has been hostage at the court, he has not been idle. He's physicist, researching electromagnetism, and he is still trying to understand why did the Cabalusian civil war happen and unearth the mysteries of the court.

CASSIA, THE SECOND OLDEST | Cassia has committed on getting vengeance on the Imperial family and the Angusian Empire as a whole by any means necessary. To work towards her goal, she is aiding Dir'ahin by spying for them on an occupied area.

VALERI, THE SECOND YOUNGEST | Valeri joined the ranks of the Imperial army with a false identity against his will, to protect Fiolew and provide for him. He becomes quite successful as a cavalry officer, but when he is reunited with his uncle, who is allied with another enemy, Manoa, he becomes an uneasy spy for them.

FIOLEV, THE YOUNGEST | Fiolev is not the innocent younger sibling Valeri thinks he is, but rather a quite successful and infamous con artist and thief. He steals magical amulet, accidentally releases a demon upon himself and gets entangled with a dangerous gang of criminals, who are involved with the Cabalusian separatists.

LINKS

CAST | Quick intro to the main cast | Faerathos | Valeri | Faélci

WORLDBUILDING | Maps

SCENE EXCERPTS | Julius x Marcus kiss scene - Prequel | Prologue - Julius scene | Faerathos has a (son-father) moment with Marcus

TAGS | #bear castle cycle | #bcc | #bcc art | #bcc aesthetics | #bcc excerpt | #bcc worldbuilding | #faerathos | #cassia | #valeri | #fiolew

Brief intro to the main cast and the tag list under the cut! I'll keep the tag list here updated.

CHARACTERS

Faerathos cor Mantgamia | 27 | he/him | intelligent but lacks practical skills | depressed | a little pretentious | dry humor | empathetic

Cassia cor Mantgamia | 26 | she/her | cold rage | detached | calculative | cares deeply but would not admit it | amoral

Valeri cor Mantgamia | 24 | he/him | very competent soldier | practical | stoic exterior but highly emotional interior | lacks emotional regulation | anxious

Fiolev cor Mantgamia | 18 | he/they | smart and quick thinker | compulsive liar | easy going | opportunist | attachment issues

Agrippa noé Moireau / Gal'eivil Daughter of Moon | 21 | she/her | Ahinian princess | political tool | possesses destructive magic | painter | naive

Marcus K'irhinzaham | 49 | he/him | Faerathos' bodyguard | greatest swordsman of their time | prickly | one-eyed | emotionally distant

Julie noé Moireau | 31 | she/her | Cassia's target | celebrity opera singer | lesbian casanova | hedonist | unmatched duelist

Cúén "Fechín" cor Faélci | 22 | he/him | Valeri's rival in the army | Cabalusian nobility | spy for the Cabalusian separatists | brooding | great with words and insults

Gid'alon Child of Stars | 45 | they/she/any | Agrippa's tutor | the one who Fiolew steals the amulet from | scholar of spirit realm | reserved | endless thirst for knowledge

Fianne | ??? | they/it | Cassia's talking crow | really a malicious forest demon bound to a crow | ate Cassia's twin sister | snarky | inhuman

Cateline | 19 | she/her | Fiolew's childhood friend | assassin for a criminal organization | mute | lacks empathy | protective

Vauquelin | 27 | he/him | leader of the gang Cateline's in and Fiolew get's involved with | opportunist | power hungry | controlling | soft-spoken

Verginia Emerentius | 59 | she/her | empress mother | probably behind the Cabalusian civil war | cult-like following | controlling | savior

Lucretius Emerentius | 37 | he/him | brother of late emperor | current duke of Cabalusia and the lord of Bear Castle | ruthless | ambitious | manipulative

Augustus III Emerentius | 29 | he/him | emperor | puppet ruler | Farathos' friend | not interested in being the emperor | a bit of playboy

Eirdene “Erene” Sarantachaizak | 26 | she/her | empress | unhappy marriage | toxic affair with Faerathos | manipulative | perfectionist

Alexis noé Moireau | 53 | he/him | duke and general of Virén | Agrippa's adoptive and doting father | master strategist | gambler | easy to like

Ignatus cor Mantgamia | 50 | he/him | uncle of the siblings | wife and kids died in Cabalusian civil war | severe | ambitious | vengeful

Mánoheahpi Son of Moon | 28 | he/him | Agrippa's brother | powerful priest | plots to take power | reserved | visionary

TAG LIST

@siarven @worldbuildng @emilyoracle @frvnwrites @kainablue @writingrosesonneptune @contes-de-rheio @faelanvance @outpost51 @dotr-rose-love

[karkkidoeswriting]

Bear Castle Cycle 2.0

(actually there has been at least 4 different versions but let's not go there...)

I have officially un-shelved BCC after almost 2 years of hiatus. At the time I was very frustrated with it and felt like I didn't know anymore what I wanted and what was it's point. Now I have rediscovered a passion for it. With more distance to the story, I can more easily see the darlings that need to be killed and where I want to take this story. I will be rewriting some of the worldbuilding and restructuring the plot. Hopefully I get back to drafting it soon.

I drew some of the most central characters as I was thinking about the fashion. There's no big departures from my previous ideas, but I have much clearer image about the fashion in my mind now, so mission succeeded. I will use this as an opportunity to do a little re-intro to the characters. There is some changes to them, some older (which I never publicly introduced) some I have done since I un-shelved this WIP.

Valeri cor Mantgamia (left)

he/him

Second youngest main sibling (25)

Accidentally becomes a spy but oops is the worst liar on the planet

Biromantic demisexual

Is in cavalry and there has all the homoromantic tension a man could ask for but is unfortunately the most repressed man

Is in for an existential crisis and unreasonable amounts of maiming (because he's my poor little meow meow)

Fiolev cor Mantgamia (right)

he/they

Youngest main sibling (19)

So in a much earlier iteration of the story he was a girl, but the character wasn't working out and I kinda made a whole different character, a boy, but I've still struggled figuring him out. You could say I transed his gender, so now he is transmasc

Valeri made him dress as a boy when they were kids and homeless, and while he doesn't see himself as a boy, he definitely doesn't see himself as a girl either and rather presents as a boy

Uses his ability to turn into a girl to con people though

Accidentally cons his way to being possessed by a demon and being part of a plot to start a civil war

Aroace

Faerathos cor Mantgamia (bottom)

he/him

Oldest main sibling (28)

He was supposed to be the one tragically cishet sibling... They were all cishet at first....

He is bi of course he is bi I'm incapable of not making my characters bi

Accidentally commits high treason by (accidentally of course) having an affair with the empress

Also commits high bi disaster by accidentally having a thing with the emperor too, his long time homoerotic friend

Agrippa noé Moireau (top left)

she/her

Tragically straight

Groomed to be The Long Lost Rightful Heir and The Chosen One

Is actually a tool of imperial control

Valeri's love interest

Cassia cor Mantgamia (top right)

she/her

Second oldest main sibling (27)

Plotting murder literally every waking moment

Spying for the enemy with the goal of overthrowing the government and murdering the imperial family

Targets Julie, who is partroned by an imperial prince, but accidentally catches feelings but oops she is bad at feelings (the whole family is very accident-prone)

Collected on the outside, disaster bi on the inside

Julie noé Maupin (bottom left)

she/her

Opera singer master duelist lesbian casanova occasional novelist

Has a dark secret

Does NOT want to get involved with any political shenanigas (gets involved with political shenanigans)

Cateline (bottom right)

she/her

Assassin to a criminal organization Fiolew gets entangled with

One-sidedly in love with their leader who has ambitions of power

Mute and communicates with writing

Bi

Marcus K'irhinzaham (left)

he/him

The commander of Mantgamia house guard, which now only consists of him, and (according to popular (and his) knowledge) Faerathos is the only one left to guard anyway

Widely recognized as the greatest swordsman of his time

Short king (169 cm)

Bi

Cúén "Fechín" cor Faélci (right)

he/him

Previously named Conan cor Faélin, the last name changed a bit because I did some changes to his language and his first name didn't really fit the language either

Known in the army as Fechín, because he is imposing as his dead cousin to spy for the Cabalusian independence army

Gay trans man (which makes his cover solid, people think there's only daughter his age in his aristocratic family)

An asshole especially to Valeri but oops they have to secretly work together now

Gid'alon Child of Stars (bottom)

they/any

Vašáin, Ahinian third gender, in their case it means they are intersex and non-binary

In exile after doing a little bit of heresy

Just wants to do their research on the spiritrealm but oops one of the demons they studied possessed Fiolew

It's been such a long time since I used the tag list, so if you were tagged, let me know if you want to be continued to be tagged and I'll add you to the new tag list! If you weren't tagged, but would liked to be in future, also let me know! Tag list under the cut.

bcc tag list: @lady-redshield-writes @worldbuildng @siarven @hell-yeah-fantasy @heniareth @wilde-writing @contes-de-rheio @kainablue @lillayalightfoot @teacupwriter @sancta-seraphina @writingnosefreak @dotr-rose-love @writingwithhotchocolate @dove-actually @kathritana @ettawritesnstudies @the-ichor-of-ruination

(I forgot to add the taglist at first, I hope it still works even if I edited it in)

[karkkidoeswriting]

Thank you for the question! :) It's not really a spoiler, because it's revealed pretty early, but their house is not haunted :D He also has pretty bad breaks in his memory, which he fully decides to ignore because he doesn't want to deal with it. These are symptoms of his DID and during the memory breaks he does stuff he doesn't remember anymore, he hears people speaking, when no one actually is, except inside his head, etc. He ironically finds this out, when he actually becomes haunted by a demon lol

Happy STS! What's the strangest thing about your OC(s)? @catharticallysarcastic

I got this literally several of moths ago, sorry for answering this late! :'D I haven't had the time to participate in STS for a while and I decided to save this till the next Saturday I'd had the time, not expecting it would be this long kjsaff

But happy STS now! I'm not sure what everyone would count as strange about a person/character, but I'll do my best. So here's the MCs from BCC.

Valeri refuses to use tinderboxes or matches or elaborate on that, but the truth is he is afraid of things igniting on fire, not afraid of like very contained and manageable fire itself, like candles or fireplaces, but he is too afraid of any unpredictability or change in fire, he can't light things on fire himself. Sometimes he will just rather sit in a dark room than light candles or oil lamps on fire if there's no one else to light them

Cassia has a saber-tooth snow leopard as a pet

Fiolew believes their home is haunted because weird things happen around him, things change places on their own and sometimes appear or disappear

Faerathos is a hostage at the court, but has basically become best friends with the emperor, who is also the son of his prisoner, who also ordered the massacre of his family

[karkkidoeswriting]

Happy STS! Bit of a basic question, but what is your OCs' favorite smell?

Happy STS!! Thank you for the question! These are fun to think :D

Faerathos - sweet flowers in midsummer and coffee

Cassia - fresh smells, like clean winter air or mint

Valery - earthy smells, like herbs such as rosemary and thyme and air after a summer rain

Fiolev - sour smells such as those of citrus fruits

[karkkidoeswriting]

The Mantgamia Siblings

Faerathos, Cassia, Valeri and Fiolev, in order from oldest to youngest, who are the main characters in Bear Castle Chronicles.

Some worldbuilding notes about their outfits:

Faerathos is wearing ultramarine blue cloak of academia. It's worn by all academics, always draped and shouldn't be used with any pins to hold it. It can be used in any setting, where using a draped unpinned cloak is possible (for example not when riding or something) and is approproate for indoors use.

He is also wearing golden oak leaf corolla, which is granted to those with commendable academic achievements (basically doctorate). It's only used in formal settings (which does not fit the rest of his outfit but I wanted to draw it too see how it looks).

Sandals are the standard inside/evening shoes, but also worn outside during summer, which is what Faerathos is doing. Evening sandals would usually be fancier than basic leather sandals, and his clothes are day wear. (Which is why he shouldn't be using a corolla.)

He's not wearing his cravat properly though. Firstly he doesn't bother. Secondly he doesn't like the feeling of a cloth around his neck.

Cassia is wearing men's day wear for sapphic reasons and having her hair open, which is inappropriate with long hair regardless of gender (currently short hair is very fashionable for men and there's a short hair trend for women too), but she is inappropriate (she's a courtesan and opera performer) so it's fine. She does wear women's clothing too, when she wants.

She's wearing a black cloak as a nod to the Matgamia house guards, who wore black cloaks. But also because of the aesthetics.

Valeri is wearing a red cloak of the imperial army, which is worn outside and with the uniform.

He and Fiolew are both wearing standard middle class day wear. Though Valeri is wearing boots, usually used for traveling and riding, because he's a cavalry man and therefore rides often.

Dangly earrings are fashionable for everyone, but expensive, so often used only by upper classes. Cassia is definitely not upper class but sex work makes good money so she has nice earrings.

Diadems/headbands are also fashionable for everyone. Lower classes often wear diadems made from cloth, upper classes ones made from precious metals and gemstones. Upper classes might also wear diadems of cloth, for example in a sports context.

Tag list under the cut. Let me know if you want to be added/removed!

BCC tag list:

@siarven @worldbuildng @emilyoracle @frvnwrites @kainablue @writingrosesonneptune @contes-de-rheio @faelanvance @outpost51