#goth necromancer on goth necromancer violence ...

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Nico di Angelo- The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan

Harrowhark Nonagesimus- The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir

[best-nun-tournament]

Semifinals Match 1

The Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus (The Locked Tomb) vs Sister Beatrice (Warrior Nun)

Harrow is a nun of the Ninth House. She's been described as a space goth necromancer fantasy sci-fi bone nun.

Sister Beatrice is a secret Demon-Fighting Warrior Nun of the Order of the Cruciform Sword.

The Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus

She’s great. She has so many fucking problems. She’s been running the goth space convent since she was 10. She’s puppeting her dead parents around. She doesn’t like tastes. She is extremely passionate about bones. She’s locked in a twisted bond of love and violence and devotion and sacrifice with her childhood best enemy. She lobotomized herself to preserve the best enemy’s soul. She’s been in love with the corpse of the Devil all her life. She goes around in bone jewelry and skull face paint. She’s a sad wet cat who was born in a cardboard box all alone, etc. She chopped another woman’s arm off and regrew a skeleton arm, in a sexual way. She has awkward little fireside chats with God where he makes millennia-old meme references at her and she does not drink the proffered tea. She saw God make a your mom joke and it “destroyed some cavern of her reverence”. She’s even gay. She’s everything.

Sister Beatrice

Sister Beatrice is perfect in every way. She had to be. When you're taught to hate what you are, when what you love, whom you love, brings you nothing but pain, all you have left is to be perfect. To hope that, if you excel enough, in enough ways, then you might be found worthy. Instead, her wealthy, bigoted, British diplomat parents shipped her off to boarding school in Switzerland for the crime of being a lesbian. From there, she joined the Church, married God, and became part of a secret order of demon-fighting black ops nuns. Being married to Jesus wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that she's fallen in love with a woman who rose from the dead, a beautiful bisexual savior with golden retriever energy and a heart of gold, and for whose training and protection Beatrice is responsible. Her best friend, no less. And roommate. Their apartment only has one bed. Maybe it is bad after all. But maybe Beatrice doesn't mind being bad anymore. Maybe she would rather worship her love, her Ava, than any God of any church. Maybe she would kill a dozen men who stood between her and her love while Ave Maria plays in the background. Maybe Beatrice would burn the world to save her. Maybe it wouldn't be enough, in the end. Maybe she would have to send Ava through a portal to Heaven, or Hell, to save Ava's life, moments after learning her love was returned. Maybe she would wait for her Ava to return too. Until, one day...

[sapphosphere]

The Locked Tomb Series

The Locked Tomb Series, by Tamsyn Muir, follows the dread adventures of Gideon Nav, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, and a host of other goths. These epic science fantasy novels mix funny tone with dark subject matter, and contain swashbuckling action, waves of bones, and lesbian necromancers in space. The series has earned enormous critical praise and rabid reader engagement, with the USA Today Best Selling first novel Gideon the Ninth receiving an amazing five starred reviews.

Category: Book

Genre: Science Fiction

Length: 4 books

Status: Fourth book to be released

Confirmed Sapphic Characters: Almost all women are sapphic

How relevant are the sapphics: They are the main characters

Triggers (SPOILER WARNING):

Bury Your Gays - No

Happy Ending - Ungoing series

Sexual Violence - No

Homophobia - No

Religious Trigger - There's necromantic space catholicism

[silent-words]

My Tavs | Part 3

Part 2 is here

You thought I only had 2 Tavs? With more than 800 hours in the game it could hardly be true! Today I'll tell you about my Dark Urge character. Also romancing Gale, as usual.

Kitani Kuoroa

SPOILERS FOR DARK URGE AHEAD! Therefore everything else is under the cut.

I'll start with how I created this character. I played Gale origin run when an idea came to my head. What if, I thought, a necromancer wizard romanced Gale? At first I pictured and created her as Tav called Mirana. That's how she looked like:

She already was a human necromancer wizard in her 30s, but I started an Honour run with her and failed to get past the owlbear.

Next time I created her I thought she should be a Dark Urge character, because necromancy fits the Chosen of the god of Murder (I'd already known this spoiler).

So I made Mirana anew in Tactician mode:

But the game bugged. The short folk eerily changed their form in front of me, and some models didn't load at all. So I started everything anew.

That's how I came to play as Kitani (or Tani, as Gale calls her).

My goth girl, with black lipstick, a beholder tattoo on her neck and murderous thoughts in her mind. She was born to a family of a fisherman, showing her talent for magic early on.

The only person the family managed to find as a wizard tutor was a drow necromancer Corinna. So Kitani spent her youth between studying necromancy and having dreams of murder.

When Bhaal revealed himself to his daughter, she cheerfully welcomed him. She started experimenting on corpses she and her "sister" left after their rituals. At one point an ambitious man appeared at the doorstep of the Bhaal temple. He immediately recognised Kitani as the more talented of the siblings. It was Enver Gortash, who talked Kitani into the plan to rule the world. Their romance started not long after. It was dangerous and passionate. (I even imagine they had a child at one point).

But both Gortash and Orin betrayed Kitani. The latter put the tadpole inside her "sister's" head and made sure Kitani wouldn't remember anything.

That's how the necromancer found herself on a burning nautiloid. She remembered two things – her name and her wizard mastery. She didn't even remember her child.

And the first day after she found herself on a ravaged beach she met the person who showed her how she can live without murder and violence. She met Gale. Every time she had a murderous thought she looked at her colleague and his warm smile. Of course they had evocation/necromancy quarrels, but they both liked it.

Anyway, Kitani resisted the Urge till the end (all for her new love), defeated the brain and moved to Waterdeep with her fiancee and child. Gale gladly agreed to adopt Kitani's daughter from Gortash.

[psylockexs]

The Purple Chick

Maria: Lorelei! LORELEI! You can't do this! You'll never be accepted by anyone if you do this!

Lore: Do what? Unlock what's rightfully mine? You had no right to order me to hide my true nature. Sure, maybe while I was young but not when I grew up. I only did it out of respect for you. Respect that's wearing very thin.

Maria: I had every right! You're my daughter!

Lore: You don't treat me like it. turns to walk away

 Maria: snarls YOU'RE JUST A HARBINGER! A HARBINGER OF RUIN! NO ONE WILL ACCEPT YOU! YOU'RE THE REASON WE'RE HERE NOW! IT WAS YOUR FAULT!

Lore: scoffs Well then. Let's see if that's actually true, shall we? walks out of the house

Maria yelled at Lorelei's back that continued to walk out of the door. The last bridge had been burnt between the women. But truth be told, that bridge burned long ago.

Trigger warning: Bullying, violence, torture and death.

Lorelei's real name is Aliana Petrovna. She is one in a long line of necromancers who all have an affinity with death. Her father was called Anton Petrov, and he was a necro-wielder. He could do way more than manipulate the dead. He could commandeer someone as his very own puppet. Anton was regarded as one the most dangerous sorcerers in the world, both by good and bad people. Maria Erwin was his wife who worked in the intelligence business.

Naturally, life wasn't easy for a necro-wielder. Anton was the target of many assassination attempts, and Aliana was constantly bullied at school for her strange appearance by humans and supers alike. Aliana grew resentful of her classmates. Things came to a head when she was around 10 years old. She had a terrible nightmare of Anton being surrounded by assassins. His necro powers weren't working. Blades were drawn. Blows were traded. A sickening slice rung through the night...and that slice woke Aliana out of her sleep.

She'd been having those 'nightmares' for a while now, and her father explained that it was a gift that was passed down his family line. Immediately, Aliana warned her father about her vision which worried the latter greatly. Not because it spelled his demise, but because he knew what was in store for her. In Anton's family line, females had a chance of being born with exceptional necromancy. These powers allowed one to manipulate anything that flowed with life; they could rot someone from inside out, bend a soul to their will, even commune and command crows. As a cherry on top, their bodies would normally have purple marks. These women were known as Morrigans, or Harbingers of Death. And Aliana was one of these women.

Before the fateful night, Anton crafted a sword and taught his daughter a special ritual. He told her, 'When the time comes, you will know what to do'. Three days later, Aliana's vision came true and Anton met his end at the hand of hired thugs. Maria, who had been profiling the thugs' boss, blamed Aliana's powers for the sad incident. 'Why didn't you prevent it?', 'Why didn't you tell us earlier?'. That was all Maria could say to Aliana about it. She begged Aliana to hide her purple hair and purple face marks so that no one would know what she was.

Primary school children came to terms with her odd appearance, but high school kids weren't so forgiving. Anton and his family were famous, so when Aliana grew up and attended high school, everyone knew she was the daughter of the late Anton Petrov. The goth girl with purple hair. Even though it was dyed, it was painfully obvious that it was naturally purple. Her eyes. No normal human has slotted irises. Even supers don't have those generally. You have to have some serious genes to get physical mutations like that. Some were in awe of her, some were jealous. And they were the ones who picked on her.

Shoulder checking, ripping homework assignments, framing for incidents. Whatever would piss her off they did it. But it didn't piss her off. Quite the opposite. They were feeding her. They were feeding her spirit that craved rage. Craved resentment. Craved vengeance. Another day, another gang up. 6 bullies in the gang, usual spot in the sports yard. Poke, poke. Poke again. Why wasn't she saying anything? Sure, she never said anything. But this time it was scary. Why was she reaching for her eyes? Did they finally break her spirit? Was she gonna cry for her superpowered mummy to take her home?

'Ubiystvo.'

What was that? What was she saying?

Purple eyes looked at each bully. They bored into the very souls behind those eyes.

One crow. Two crows. Three. Four, five, seven, eleven, fifteen. Twenty. All circling above.

'Ubiystvo!!!!!!!!'

The birds descended with deafening cries. They set upon the gang, pecking them apart limb from limb. It wasn't just that set of birds. More and more joined. The girl with purple hair standing in the middle of them, only one word emanating from her mouth. 'Kill...'

There was nothing left on that field. Only feathers, gore, bones, grass. And the birds' commander. Aliana.

Maria took Aliana and fled the town. For the next 9 years, both of them sought refuge in Henford under the radar. During this time, Maria was trying to set up a task force to 'rid the world of renegade superhumans', as she put it. What she was really doing was rounding up supers and handing them off to be 'dealt with'.

This now brings us to the present day, where Aliana goes by a different name. A name that befits her deadly nature: Lorelei. Lorelei Petrovna. She'd been secretly doing her mother's bidding with the intention of going her own way. In order to perfect her plans, she had to awaken her full powers using the sword her father made for her.

Lorelei moved out of her mother's house and headed towards San Myshuno, a place that was basically ruled by superhumans. Rebelling against mummy dearest was good and all, but one needs a place to do it strategically. Turns out Lorelei got lucky as well...

[beangods]

yeah for the ask meme, can i get a number 11, a number 19, a number 26 and a large 42 please

11. are you listening to music right now?

no sadly these days i'm really into vibing to Nothing

19. have you ever been to New York?

yes. i took a pizza tour of brooklyn with my dad in high school and saw a couple other parts of the city, including a small goth shop and the biggest book store i had ever been in up to that point. i will say the pies there are nothing special---you can get more authentic stuff in philly and more flavorful stuff in my local favorite hole in the wall. grimaldi's is fine but youre paying for ambiance.

26. idol(s)

don't have any because i dont think about celebrities often enough to consider them "role models." actually now that i think about it the only people i look up to are other tumblr bloggers who left the site in 2018.

42. favourite book(s)

you asked for a large so here is an exhaustive list:

kafka on the shore (murakami), futuristic violence and fancy suits (pargin), hold me closer necromancer (mcbride), the dispossessed (le guin), love drugged (klise), hero (moore), more than this (ness), un lun dun (miéville), the year's best fantasy and horror (16th annual edition, datlow ed.), fight club (palahniuk), a confusion of princes (nix), gregor the overlander (collins), holy shit: a history of swears (mohr), the velvet rage (downs), the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy (adams), flatterland (stewart), nightmare (coville), the entire discworld series, the entire spiderwick chronicles, everything diana wynne jones wrote, all fourteen how to train your dragon books, the entire sister's grimm series, most of louise rennison's work, several individual short stories i cannot find for the life of me, and whatever i'm currently reading unless i am moved to say how much i hate it. yes most of the list IS children's books by volume but 1) i was a child until relatively recently 2) children's authors (especially of the 90s/2000s) tend to be extremely prolific. i'm working my way through a massive tbr so this list will definitely be shuffled. here's a picture of my library at home and current TBR shelf, not counting a box of books that didn't fit on said shelf

(that bigass gap in the flavia de luce series is because im trying to pawn them off to a younger cousin)

[ncat]

Enchantment. Without a doubt.

Every spell has the capacity for being used for good and evil sure, and every spell school has its mix of messed up spells and whatnot.

And like, sure, blowing up someone to pieces with a big fireball isn't exactly "nice" but every spell school can be used for violence.

But like, in terms of ethics, simply killing someone is considered very bad obviously, and using the bones of someone's grandma to kill them is rude, but enchantment is fucked up.

Like, yeah, necromancy has the cliche evil aesthetic, but they're just wizard goths at the end of the day. Nearly every spell is the enchantment school is a major and gross step over the rights of other people.

Like, think of the staples of enchantment

Suggestion, charm person, Dominate X, Geas, Modify Memory, feeblemind

The bunch are arguably each among the most unethical spells in dnd.

So like, if I'm taking the default line of Necromancy spells, my character will be of any alignment. But the classic suite of enchantment spells? Morally grey at best.

Of course, the entire school isn't evil : shrug:. Spells like Bless, Motivational Speech, heroism, and the like, are all very ethical.

And on the other hand, necromancy kinda depends on setting. Since depending on setting reanimating something with necromancy in turn makes it unable to be revived magically. So in a setting where ressurection is both very common but also not possible if animated as undead maybe? But that's mostly because necromancy is stealing all the unethical-ity from other schools of magic, since fireball becomes less unethical if it's temporary, ykno? But that's really setting dependent, and I'd still say enchantment is still bad in those settings.

Idk, if someone comes up to me and is a necromancer, the only thing I can expect is probably violations of corpse law and probably expect some wacky academic practices. But if someone comes up to me and is like "I'm an enchanter" I immediately feel like that kinda person would be very sleezy

[officialleehadan]

Flying Leap

Hello darlings! Here we go, continuing our fun with Prompt Month!

Today's story was brought to you by Brandon. Thank you so much for all your support! I love seeing your comments!

Prompt: HGE - Mismatched

+++  

Brandon kept his back to the blackened metal wall, and did his best not to listen to the eerie silence that came from the door beside him. It was a small workroom that held both Xaenxa, and a very unfortunate necromancer.

The room was spelled for silence as Xaenxa asked her questions, but the wall against Brandon’s back vibrated with unheard screams.

Xaenxa was long past asking questions the nice way.

“Torture doesn’t get honest answers,” he told Thori, who was only a few steps away, watching the hallway in case their necromancer was discovered missing. “We don’t have time for lies.”

“She’s not torturing him,” Thori said quietly, and didn’t look at the locked door. “It’s a side effect of the spell she’s using. Believe me, you don’t lie with that kind of magic in your veins.”

“Do I want to know how you know that?”

“You really don’t.”

READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE!

+++

HGE - Mismatched

What do you get when you put a dragon, his mermaid, a dark elf, a half-dwarf, and a firebird into a zombie apocalypse?

A very frustrated human, who really isn’t sure how he ended up in this situation to begin with.

Too Fast to See

Hot Desert Night (Free on Patreon!)

Dial Emergency

Death Valley Sand

The Regency

Red Scales and Golden Hair

En Route

Silver-White Knife

A Question of Faith

Coven Court

Aftermath

Under Stone

New Arrivals

Battle Lines Drawn

Deep Defense

Pineapple Box

Oncoming Tide (Subscriber Only!)

Nothing Special

Fiery Negotiation

Pearls and Claws

Fire Brought Low (Subscriber Only!)

Long Distance Call (Subscriber Only!)

Cruelty’s Kindness

Switchblade Ward (Free on Patreon)

+++

More Stories!

+++

[grampstaxidermy]

Volturi incorrect quotes

(Aka adventures of the vampire genz support human,(Y/n) )

Caius, reluctantly after an argument: Fine!…You're right.

(Y/n): Wow, that's... That's an unusual phrase for you. Did you just learn it?

————

Aro, in a coven meeting: My policy is if you see something, say something.

(Y/n),trying their best: I saw a squirrel in a tree today!

Aro, with the tone of someone who is used to (Y/n): Outstanding.

Aro: This is what I’m talking about people.

————

Felix: You know, not every problem can be solved with a sword.

(Y/n): That's why I carry two swords.

Felix, both scared and into it: Fair enough.

————

*Alec and (Y/n) skipping stones on lake*

Alec, smiling peacefully: It’s such a beautiful evening isn’t it?

(Y/n), whispering: Take that you fucking lake.

————

Demetri, standing in front of the corpse of readers creepy coworker: Am I in trouble?

(Y/n),looking down at Afton’s headless body: Take a guess.

Demetri: No?

(Y/n):

(Y/n): You’d be correct.

-Bonus

(Y/n) and Demetri, standing in front of Afton's body in the gardens holding a shovel: We can explain.

Marcus, amused having witnessed the whole ordeal: Can you?

(Y/n): If you give me thirty seconds to think of a lie.

Marcus: No need, carry on.

____

(Y/n): You're my best friend and the little sister I’ve always wanted, you know I would do anything for you.

Jane: I want you to eat three meals a day and have a decent sleep schedule.

(Y/n): Absolutely not.

————

Aro: You see little one, I am what most would call a reverse necromancer.

(Y/n),the drunk human Aro stumbled upon: Isn't that just killing people?

Aro: Ah, technicality.

————

Felix, stuck on babysitting guard duty: Okay, truth or dare?

(Y/n): Truth

Felix: How many hours have you slept this week?

(Y/n):

(Y/n): ...Dare

Felix: Go to bed.

(Y/n), pouting: I don’t like this game.

————

Caius, tending to (Y/n)'s wounds: How would you rate your pain?

(Y/n),high on pain meds: Zero stars. Would NOT recommend.

————

Jane: I’m gonna need a human skull and I can't have you ask any questions why.

(Y/n),the goth receptionist who is absolutely thriving in the volturi: Only if you also don't ask why.

(Y/n): *Pulls out 7 pristine human skulls from their bag* Take your pick.

Jane:

(Y/n):

Jane, impressed: This one is fine.

————

(Y/n): Afton and I have the kind of easy chemistry where we finish each other's-

Afton: Sentences.

(Y/n): Don't interrupt me.

————

Demetri, Storming into the receptionists break room: Can you keep a secret?

(Y/n),not even looking up from their book as they sip their coffee: Do you know anything about my life?

Demetri: …..No I do not. Good point.

————

Aro: If there's going to be a big dramatic scene, wait until I get back.

(Y/n): Obviously. I can't flip this table by myself, it’s heavy.

————

(Y/n),trapped in a warehouse with Alec: Don’t worry, I have a few knives up my sleeve.

Alec: I think you mean cards.

(Y/n), pulling knives out of their sleeves: No, I do not.

————

Caius: You love me, right, (Y/n)?

(Y/n): Normally, I’d say yes without hesitation, but I feel like this is going somewhere and I don’t like it.

————

Aro: English is a difficult language. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though.

(Y/n),in physical and mental pain: You need to stop, please.

____

Felix, after some guy said something awful about the twins: Violence isn't the answer.

(Y/n): You’re right.

Felix: *sighs in relief*

(Y/n),cracking their knuckles: Violence is the question.

Felix: What?

(Y/n), bolting away: AND THE ANSWER IS YES!

Felix, running after them: (Y/N) NO-

————

Witch!(Y/n),keeping Caius captive at their house: Hey, it's your turn to wash dishes.

Caius: I'LL WASH THE WALLS RED WITH YOUR BLOOD.

(Y/n): 'Kay, but before that, wash the dishes, also use soap this time?

————

Afton: Three words, say them and I’m yours.

(Y/n): Go Fuck Yourself.

————

Felix: I trust (Y/n).

Demetri: You think they know what they're doing?

Felix: I wouldn't go that far.

(Y/n),having been standing beside them the whole time: Fuck you guys.

————

Jane, in a high voice, holding Barbie: Hey ken! I was thinking about going back to school and starting a career!

(Y/n), in a deep voice, holding ken: Nonsense, Barbie. You’re staying home and having my kids.

Felix: What the actual fuck are you guys doing?

Jane: Playing systemic oppression.

————

(Y/n), walking into the throne room holding a python: Guys I found a snake, what do I name him?

Caius, absolutely horrified while Aro is laughing hysterically: You WHAT–

Marcus: William Snakepeare.

————

Felix: Hey, (Y/n)! Tell the twins about the birds and the bees.

(Y/n),An idiot: They're disappearing at an alarming rate.

————

Some new guard: I really like this whole ‘good guy, bad guy’ thing you guys have going on.

(Y/n): It’s not an act, it’s just that I’m mean and Felix isn’t.

————

Heidi: (Y/n) and I are having Twins.

Jane and Alec: That's gre-

(Y/n), slamming adoption papers on the table: It's you two, sign here.

————

Demetri: If I accidentally sat on a voodoo doll of myself, would I be trapped forever in that position, doomed to starve to death?

(Y/n),the goth receptionist: How am I supposed to know?

Felix: You say, as if we don’t all use you as a source of knowledge of the occult.

(Y/n): *sighs*

(Y/n): You wouldn't be trapped.

————

Alec: Truth or dare?

(Y/n): Dare

Alec: I dare you to kiss the hottest person in the room.

(Y/n): Hey Afton?

Afton, blushing: Yeah?

(Y/n): Could you move? I’m trying to get to Heidi.

[mercutiotakethewheel]

Halp! I read Crooked Kingdom and Spinning Silver in the same week. Is there any point in reading any other book ever again?!?!?!?!?!?!!!?!!! (Genuinely open to recommendations.) I am bereft at having finished them, and wondering how soon is too soon to reread Spinning Silver...

lmao god that’s a mood. I mean those are very much my two of my favorites, but of course I have recommendations.

Spinning Silver has a “mirror” novel called Uprooted that explores Naomi Novik’s polish roots and fairytale; it’s a twist on the classic girl gets sacrificed to be locked in a tower by a “dragon” but with wizards and a sick wood.

As for the grishaverse, I don’t know if you’ve already read the grisha trilogy or the Nikolai duology, but I certainly recommend King of Scars at the very least. Nina’s in it and Nikolai and Zoya are two of the best grisha trilogy characters (along with Genya, Tolya, and Tamar who are all also here). I haven’t about to read Rule of Wolves but I haven’t yet. Now the grisha trilogy is disappointing in general, but especially in comparison to Crooked Kingdom, Bardugo’s best novel, in my opinion. However, it’s also not quite as bad as everyone says. The worldbuilding established here is pretty cool, the politics in seige and storm are really fun, and there are really cool characters in it, even if the main protagonist… well. Alina’s not actually a boring or awful of a protagonist, or at least she has the opportunity not to be. She’s incredibly selfish to the point of moral ambiguity, and she’s terribly funny and combative. However, and this is my main issue with these books, she is very much punished by the narrative anytime she seeks agency or power or really does anything interesting, which leaves us with our magical girl chosen one just sort of passively shoved around the board.

Bardugo also wrote Ninth house, which I highly recommend. It’s an adult novel, so the violence -and there is a lot of it- tends to be described and gory and there’s a lot of talk about drug abuse so keep that in mind (plus the main character being abused and her best friend being killed/raped/drugged) so keep that in mind. The main protagonist is really interesting, and features Bardugo’s usual moral greyness. She’s angry, she can see ghosts, she’s traumatised, she has a terrible secret, and she does all of her fighting for abused women. The book has a lot of commentary on classism and elitism, as one should expect from a book about an impoverished women attending an ivy league with dangerous, poorly run, magical societies in it. The worldbuilding is a treat, but expect a lot of ghosts and a lot of rituals.

If you’re looking for more fantasy novels with fairytale vibes/retellings and strong female characters, that’s one of my favorite genres, so I have a few. I’m terribly fond of A Creature of Moonlight, which features a moving wood, a dragon’s daughter, royal court politics, and an uberindependent protagonist. The Cruel Prince is the only faerie book that counts along with the rest of Holly Black’s works, and if you’re looking for more enemies to lovers, you are in luck. The main reasons to read this book, though, is the political intrigue and the murder happy main character. The Once and Future Witches is a take on the suffragette period and witch fairytales. It’s not necessarily my favourite nor do I think it has the makings to be anyone’s favorite, really, but I do recommend it if only for the fairytale retellings and historical elements. Howl’s Moving Castle is an absolute delight, with lots of fun, bickering, main characters, and a very fairytale take on the magic system. I need to read Deathless so bad, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I hear only great things about the retelling of the Russian fairytale, though, so I’ll go ahead and recommend it.

Revenge stories are also a favourite of mine, so if you want more of those, my main recommendations are The Count of Monte Cristo and Vicious. The Count of Monte Cristo features our antihero being wrongfully imprisoned due to the machinations of three people. After escaping and getting rich beyond his wildest imagination, Edmound seeks to utterly ruin all three of them, destroying a lot of innocent lives in the process, rethinking the ethics of his revenge plan a lot, and a lot of claiming he’s sold his soul to become Providence. The main drawback is that the novel deals handedly in Orientalism( though I have a lot to say about why discussion of Orientalism is important to understanding Edmound’s character and why he is percieved the way he is by the other characters) and that it features an enslaved woman falling in love with her captor, who is also our protagonist. So yeah, grain of salt. It was written in 1844. Vicious tells us the backstory and the mainstory side by side throughout the novel, featuring two ex-best friends who experimented with killing themselves in order to gain superhero powers. When one of them lands the other one in prison and devotes his time to killing other ExtraOrdinaries, what our superheroes/more-like-supervillains-usually are called, because he likes to play god, our protagonist, the imprisoned friend, escapes for a revenge quest. Along the way he forms an incredibly clunky, adorable found family. I love this novel so much.

If you’re looking for more historical fantasy, I have some recommendations here as well. Diviners is an occult murder mystery set in the 1920s, that really really spends time putting you in the 1920s. It features a fun ensemble cast that grows with each installation, though the main main character of the first book does take a while to grow on you and there’s a boring ass love triangle. Read it for the 1920s and the ensemble cast that really takes off in the second book. The Poppy War is based on the Second Sino-Japanese War with a very enthralling magic system, and a main character who takes moral greyness to whole new heights. It has a laundry list of trigger warnings you need to read before you pick up the book, but the two most important things to understand before getting into it is that there’s a section based on the Rape of Nanjing, which does not pull its punches and the first book ends with our protagonist committing magical genocide on an entire country. In general, this book absolutely refuses to pull its punches and that’s my number one reason for recommending it. London Calling is an exploration of fatherhood with themes on family and catholicism that features time traveling to the London blitz. It’s barely fantasy, and it’s again not a favorite nor will it become yours, but it’s very moving.

Also, this is more of a general recommendation, but I highly recommend Gideon the Ninth. “Necromancer Lesbians explore a haunted gothic castle in space.” What more do you need to hear? Our main character is a snarky butch swordswoman in the first book and the second book is her goth depressed over-achiever enemy turned sort of girlfriend turned mind pal. The fun villain behavior is off the chart, the worldbuilding is immaculate (there’s an in-universe essay in the back that finishes with someone’s snarky graffiti), and it’s funny as hell. The book is about necromancers so the gory descriptions of dead bodies is very much not for the faint of heart. Keep that in mind.

[at-the-exd-of-everythixg]

Memes! Part t h r e e

@awkward-snake-girl / @blind-mutant

Red: Does violence have to be the last resort. Can't it be like third

******

Samuel: You call it a "heinous violation of legal and ethical rules" I call it "creative problem-solving"

******

Rhys: You call yourself evil but you can't even stand up without getting dizzy

******

Rhys, talking about Sal: Stop messaging my bf bud

Mahogany: our boyfriend

******

Mattie: Do you have a self care routine?

Pascal: "Keep going bitch!" Said to myself in different accents

******

Morde, with Abby balls deep in him: Demons are usually depicated as red to indicate that they are heavily seasoned with paprika and chili pepper, like a chorizo

******

Finn: If I am sensitive. Why I gotta stop being sensitive? Why can't you just be a little nicer?

******

Pascal: Feeling cute today. Might commit acts of hubris.

******

Mattie: Why don't you plant some lavender and when it blooms you can squeeze a leaf or two between your fingers and the smell will calm you down. How about you do that. Bitch.

******

Rick: Well I don't want to be silly anymore. I want to engage in hoaxes and schemes now

******

Pascal: Any other unsettling promotions you'd like to share with the class?

******

Red: Could you be any more annoying

Rhys: Easily

******

Sal: Sorry for saying that you're "such an idiot" I'm actually "in love with you"

*******

Iris: It's not the most ethical move in the world, but in a pinch you can hand off a cursed object to basically any baby

******

Ava: Witches in old fairy tales had the idea. Living alone, unmarried, in the middle of the woods, and if a hero stumbled across their cottage theyre like "maybe I'll give you a magical token to help you out. Maybe I'll fuck up your entire life. Depends."

******

Dae: I am not going to unleash my bitterness on you because I am trying to become a better person. Have a nice day

Rhys: what were you originally going to say bitch omg

******

Lace: Why did my last two braincells have to be a sad one and a stupid one

******

Finn: You should have never doxxed the rabbit community

******

Sal: I'm glad we only live once cuz I cannot do this shit again

******

Pascal: HAVE YOU EVER TOUCHED A dog

******

Rhys: As your goth husband I will adorn you with cursed artifacts and then die mysteriously leaving you to be the most feared widow/er in the village

******

Edith: Some of you are simply not cut out to be the resident mean gay person. And that's okay, because I am. And I will be mean. And gay

******

Samuel: God complex this, victim complex that...I have an underground complex, it's where I perform my evil and fucked up experiments

******

Skaar, living by the sword: Haha! Fuck yeah! Yes!

Skaar, dying by the sword: well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.

******

Mahogany: I don't think my boyfriend, the 12 foot Halloween skeleton from Home Depot, would be too pleased to hear about this

******

Mattie: check in on your nemesis! Make sure they're doing poorly in these times!

******

Hulk: The hardest I've ever laughed was when I saw my dad cry. It was my moment of realization that I'm better than him.

*******

Ava: Knifehack

Ava: Just stab the problem

*******

Sal: What is wrong with you

Rhys: I will try to be brief (1/456)

*******

Mimi: One of the only downsides of actions is consequences. But it's a big downside.

*******

Samuel: I've done nothing wrong. Except for all the atrocities. Besides that I'm innocent.

******

Jen: After a thorough medical assessment, the doctors have described me as "a lot. Just like a lot to deal with."

*******

Lace: Necomancer that doesn't know they're a necromancer and thinks they're just a really good emt

*******

Pascal: Y'all ever want a pretty girl to just...boss you around a little bit

*******

Rhys: sorry I'm bisexual and easily distracted

******

Mordecai: Whenever I say "we" I am referring to both myself and the mental illness

******

Mattie: Date a girl who is a home and an adventure all at once

Rick: Date a girl who doubles as a haunted house

*******

Pascal: wlw what is your wisdom

Mimi: World hard and cold...tiddy warm and soft

Edith: girl hot

Mattie: Watch Naurto

******

Sal: No I'm not flirting I was only bothering my gay friends in a homoerotic way

*******

Mattie: You can be positive and break a bottle over someone's head though. Multiplicity of identity

*******

Edith: I wish men would stop having opinions about women. Honest to gog shut the hell up

*******

Wulf: tell your girl she's hot or I will

********

Mattie @ Samson: I'm gonna be honest I hate you and so do my friends

*******

Rhys: I am dying to see you topless

Dae: Then die

********

Sal: Money isn't real so don't worry about paying for stuff. Just take things for free. Nobody can stop you

[best-nun-tournament]

Round 1, Match 1

The Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus (The Locked Tomb) vs Rosette Christopher (Chrono Crusade)

Harrow is a nun of the Ninth House. She's been described as a space goth necromancer fantasy sci-fi bone nun.

Rosette Christopher is an exorcist of the Order of Magdalene, a military order dedicated to fighting monsters.

The Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus

She’s great. She has so many fucking problems. She’s been running the goth space convent since she was 10. She’s puppeting her dead parents around. She doesn’t like tastes. She is extremely passionate about bones. She’s locked in a twisted bond of love and violence and devotion and sacrifice with her childhood best enemy. She lobotomized herself to preserve the best enemy’s soul. She’s been in love with the corpse of the Devil all her life. She goes around in bone jewelry and skull face paint. She’s a sad wet cat who was born in a cardboard box all alone, etc. She chopped another woman’s arm off and regrew a skeleton arm, in a sexual way. She has awkward little fireside chats with God where he makes millennia-old meme references at her and she does not drink the proffered tea. She saw God make a your mom joke and it “destroyed some cavern of her reverence”. She’s even gay. She’s everything.

Rosette Christopher

(without giving too many spoilers, READ CHRONO CRUSADE):

Rosette is an orphan who made a pact with a demon (Chrono) in order to save her little brother (kidnapped by the main antagonists), said demon is her and her brother's childhood friend and fighting partner. Said pact means she will have a short life span, but as long as she can save him, she doesn't care. She'll do everything for the people she loves. She was taken in by an demon exorcist organization and been trained since 12 to fight and is a skilled combatant.

[creativity-is-rebellion]

My Love of the Southern Gothic Horror Genre

I’ve always been drawn to the Southern Gothic Horror Genre, with anything from Flannery O’Connor’s Short Stories, to William Faulkner’s Sanctuary, and Anne Rice’s Vampire Lestat Series. It’s a genre I want to dabble with for my next story idea, but am concerned that I won’t nail it right, as I am not from the South, let alone from the U.S. For those of you who do not know, Southern Gothic is a sub-genre of Gothic fiction in American literature that takes place in the American South, and includes deeply flawed, disturbing or eccentric characters who may be involved in hoodoo, decayed or derelict settings, grotesque situations, and other sinister events relating to or stemming from poverty, alienation, crime or violence. Southern Gothic writing is thus an extension of Gothic fiction, which originated in England in the 18th Century, and includes novels such as Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1794), and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). These novels all contained elements of horror, death and romance, often revolving around events that appear to be supernatural, but which ultimately have a natural explanation. Furthermore, the word ‘gothic’ can be taken as an historical reference to the Goths, the people responsible for the first known example of Germanic language during the 4th to the 6th Centuries AD. It denotes the Dark Ages, and the brutality, horror, and decadence associated with this period. It also refers to Medieval architecture; location is very much a character in itself in these novels, which often take place in castles, manors, and monasteries. 

The popularity of Gothic fiction could also be seen across Europe: Germany’s Schauerroman (shudder novels) were much darker than their English counterparts, and stories such as Carl Friedrich Kahlert’s (writing as Ludwig Flammenberg) The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest (1794) and Carl Grosse’s Der Genius (1796) contained a greater focus on necromancy and secret societies. European Gothic fiction was used by authors to delve deeply into their history, allowing its audience to experience the thrilling terrors of the dark past, which was naturally echoed in the American Southern Gothic tradition.

Elements of a Gothic treatment of the South were apparent as early as the 19th Century, in the grotesques of Henry Clay Lewis and the de-idealised visions of Mark Twain. However, the genre came together only in the 20th Century, when dark romanticism, Southern humour, and the new literary naturalism merged into a new and powerful form of social critique. The thematic material was the result of the culture existing in the South following the collapse of the Confederacy, which left a vacuum in both values and religion that became filled with poverty due to defeat in the Civil war and reconstruction, racism, excessive violence, and the theological divide that separated the country over the issue of slavery.

The Southern Gothic style employs macabre, ironic events to examine the values of the American South, thus, it uses the Gothic tools not just for the sake of suspense, but also to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South, with the Gothic elements often taking place in a magic realist context rather than a strictly fantastical one.

Warped rural communities replaced the sinister plantations of an earlier age, and in the works of leading figures such as William Faulkner, Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Connor, the representation of the South blossomed into an absurdist critique of modernity as a whole.There are many characteristics in Southern Gothic Literature that relate back to its parent genre of American Gothic and even to European Gothic. However, the setting of these works is distinctly Southern. Some of these characteristics are exploring madness, decay and despair, continuing pressures of the past upon the present, particularly with the lost ideals of a dispossessed Southern aristocracy and continued racial hostilities.

Southern Gothic particularly focuses on the South's history of slavery, racism, fear of the outside world, violence, a "fixation with the grotesque, and a tension between realistic and supernatural elements".Similar to the elements of the Gothic castle, Southern Gothic gives us the decay of the plantation in the post-Civil War South. Villains who disguise themselves as innocents or victims are often found in Southern Gothic Literature, especially stories by Flannery O'Connor, such as Good Country People and The Life You Save May Be Your Own, giving us a blurred line between victim and villain. Southern Gothic literature set out to expose the myth of old antebellum South, and its narrative of an idyllic past hidden by social, familial, and racial denials and suppressions

The term "Southern Gothic" was originally used as pejorative and dismissive.  Ellen Glasgow used the term in this way when she referred to the writings of Erskine Caldwell and William Faulkner. She included the authors in what she called the "Southern Gothic School" in 1935, stating that their work was filled with "aimless violence" and "fantastic nightmares." This is a sentiment that has been expressed less and less, as it’s seminal authors, such as Flannery O’Connor, become lauded as being some of the most important icons in American literary history.

Of course, the genre also exists in film and television, with movies such as The Gift, and TV series like American Gothic and Season One of True Detective, the latter being one of the greatest TV shows of the last 10 years. The first series of True Detective, in addition to its Southern Gothic setting and characters, incorporates many of the core aspects of Gothic fiction, as well as drawing on the work of specific American horror authors, notably Lovecraft, Chambers and Ambrose Bierce. The setting is truly breathtaking and depressing in it’s dilapidation, and it’s clearly poverty-laden surroundings, as well as it’s troubled but fascinating key characters. Every time I watch the series, I imagine what it might have looked like if it was in the form of a written novel instead of a television series.

But I digress. As much as I love this genre, my personal experience of the American South is restricted to visiting Florida on holiday for three weeks when I was 10, so I think that I might steer clear of writing the next great American Gothic horror novel for the moment. Instead, I might focus on a writing project centring around European Gothic horror, as I lived in Norway for 6-and-a-half years. Norway, with its bitterly cold autumns and winters, and sweeping fjords and mountains creating great chasms between communities seems like an ideal setting for writing a good Gothic novel. I am even privy to the fact that Norway is home to an infamous, long-since abandoned mental asylum, which housed the criminally insane and where lobotomies and mysterious, unsolved deaths involving patients were commonplace. So, this will be the setting for my next novel, and my American-style Gothic horror story will have to wait. Stay tuned.

[dc-x-readers]

The Necromancer (Raven x Reader)

Request: Could you please do a Raven x reader fic where the reader is also has magic and bonds with Raven?

This is my second Halloween Installment for Spooktober!

TW: Death, zombies, mentions of violence and Grave Robbing

When you were small you always had a difficult time making friends, you were never really sure why, except for the fact that none of your peers ever understood you. You couldn’t understand why, you thought you were like every other child, but your parents knew you weren’t.

It was until the day you turned ten years old did you finally learn why you couldn’t really bond with your classmates. You were different then they were, you had something they could never have. You had magical powers.

When your mother told you this, that you had magic powers you were excited. You thought is meant you could shoot rainbows from your hands and create sparkles. That was the type of magic that your mind comprehended. You never thought that you power could be so gruesome, you never thought you could bring people back from the dead.

You learned the hard way that you weren’t really bringing people back, you were bring corpses to the surface of the planet and controlling their movement. They were not the people you had known before.

You learned this in a cemetery one night when you were thirteen. You and the one friend you had been able to make, a small goth boy named Rex who believed that he could communicate with spirits, were wandering around an old graveyard after the cover of night. Neither of you expected the grave robbers to be unearthing a fresh grave of a rich socialite.

“Shit! The kids saw us!” One of the grave robbers shouted, and the other pulled a gun from his waistband. He pointed the gun at you, and cold fear shot down your spine. You squeezed your eyes shut, letting out a terrified scream.

The gun went off, the shot rang in your ears. You screamed again, this time louder, but you weren’t in pain. You heard a thud, as something- or someone- hit the floor.

“Y/N!” Rex shouted, he shook you hard. “Y/N!”

You peaked your eyes open to see Rex, and behind him a member of the living dead, the person’s jaw was rotted off, and his clothes were tattered. Maggots squirmed from it’s eye sockets. You proceed to vomit.

The creature stepped closer to you, it’s arm out stretched towards you and your heart began to beat faster. Rex was loving this.

You didn’t know what to do, so you turned and ran, screaming bloody murder. As soon as you left the cemetery grounds the creature crumpled into a head becoming like a rag doll. You wanted to sob, because you knew that you had been the one to raise the dead to your bidding.

After that day you left. You mother and father weren’t surprised, they sent you money occasionally and notes saying you are always welcome back home, but you couldn’t. You didn’t like staying in once place, because the dead seemed to awaken after you being there for only a brief time.

When you were fifteen you joined the Teen Titans. Batman had founded you and dropped you into the team’s lap only saying you would be an asset. He did not go into details about your powers, nor did he mention the black tabby cat which half of it;s face rotten away, but you didn’t have the heart to send back to the depths of the dead. You liked the Titans. Everyone was kind to you, because they were all different, in some way.

But you liked Raven the most.

She was like you, tortured with a macabre soul and powers that dabbled in the dark.

“What are you doing?” Raven asked one morning, while you were writing a postcard to your parents with one hand, and petting you undead cat, Skelly, with the other.

“Just writing. My parents worry, ya’ know. My mom wants to know if I eat enough! I mean I fight supervillains everyday and risk my life, but she wants to know if I’m eating my broccoli. Mom’s for ya’.” You rambled, finishing up your writings.

“You have parents?” Raven asked, her monotone voice displaying more confusion than you thought it should.

“Doesn’t everyone?” You asked tilting your head to the side to examine the gray skinned girl before you.

“I meant. You could be living with your parents, but you don’t.” Raven corrected herself.

It took a moment for you to respond, because you knew of the team you were the lucky one. Your home life is relatively good, besides your father’s tendency to bring you dead neighbours up from the ground as a joke, and you mother using real zombies as Halloween decorations to scare kids, you parents love, and want you. Most of your team can’t say that. You heart dropped, you felt bad for saying anything about your mom and dad. Skelly nudged you side as if noticing how upset you were.

“It’s hard at home for me.” You supplied after the extended silence, you had assumed that Raven had wanted the answer, but she looked shocked by your words.

Slowly, as if not to frighten you, Raven made her way over to you and sat down next to you. Skelly curled closer to you, the dead tend to shrink away from the living.

“Is it because of your powers?” Raven asked.

You looked up in shock, you had yet to use your gift of raising the dead in front of your team, both afraid of their reaction as well as not liking to disrupt the dead’s slumber unless necessary. The fact that Raven even knew you had any type was strange to you.

“H-how did you know about them?” You stuttered, petting Skelly a little more forcefully.

“I didn’t. I mean, I just assumed after Batman dropped you off here. You're not exactly a master fighter, so you must have a different reason to be on the team.” Raven reasoned, you nodded along.

The two of you lapsed in silence again, both sitting on the ground not looking at each other. You knew this was Raven trying to be nice, Raven has a hard time with her social skills.

“Well, yeah. It is because of my powers.” You said softly. It was true. Your parents used their powers for entertainment, they manipulated the dead carcasses of other people for their amusement. You could never do that, all the dead you raised had a reason, or were accidental, even poor Skelly was arisen because she didn’t get a chance at life the first time, so you made sure you gave her a good life for her second chance.

“I get it. I mean, at home, Azarath, everyone's magic is white and pure, and good. I never fit in their my powers made me an outcast in my own family. The people who I grew up with were afraid of me- for something I couldn’t control! It was hard, and I still feel like the Outcast of Azarath, even though it's all gone. I never would have fit in there.” Raven sighed, she leaned back a tiny bit, and any image of her you could see in the corner of your eye was gone, but you think you saw a flash of tears in her eyes.

You had to say something, anything, to make the normally quiet hero from crying. You opened you mouth to tell her that she isn’t an outcast now, but the words were stuck in your throat. Before you could even process, your mind was deciding on a different speech.”

“The only difference between me and my parents is that I don’t use my powers for fun.” You sneered, thinking about all of the ‘pranks’ your parents had played on little kids every Halloween. “I respect my powers. You do too, I can tell.”

“Yeah.” Raven sighed.

“Yeah.”

The two of you lapsed into another silence.

[best-nun-tournament]

Consolation Prize Match

Sister George Michael (Derry Girls) vs The Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus (The Locked Tomb)

Sister George Michael is headmistress of Our Lady Immaculate College

Harrow is a nun of the Ninth House. She's been described as a space goth necromancer fantasy sci-fi bone nun.

Sister George Michael

Have you seen her car? Her sunglasses??? The way she effortlessly drags those Derry girls within an inch of their lives every episode? Unbothered queen.

Also, the Delorean:

The Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus

She’s great. She has so many fucking problems. She’s been running the goth space convent since she was 10. She’s puppeting her dead parents around. She doesn’t like tastes. She is extremely passionate about bones. She’s locked in a twisted bond of love and violence and devotion and sacrifice with her childhood best enemy. She lobotomized herself to preserve the best enemy’s soul. She’s been in love with the corpse of the Devil all her life. She goes around in bone jewelry and skull face paint. She’s a sad wet cat who was born in a cardboard box all alone, etc. She chopped another woman’s arm off and regrew a skeleton arm, in a sexual way. She has awkward little fireside chats with God where he makes millennia-old meme references at her and she does not drink the proffered tea. She saw God make a your mom joke and it “destroyed some cavern of her reverence”. She’s even gay. She’s everything.

[best-nun-tournament]

Loser Bracket Round 8, Match 2

Sister Camila (Warrior Nun) vs The Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus (The Locked Tomb)

Sister Camila is a Secret Catholic Demon-Fighting Nun. She is a member of the Order of the Cruciform Sword.

Harrow is a nun of the Ninth House. She's been described as a space goth necromancer fantasy sci-fi bone nun.

Sister Camila

She is such a sweetheart! She is the nerd of the group and I just want to give her a hug. She also tends to be on the optimistic side, which is asking a lot when your whole world view is called into question

The Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus

She’s great. She has so many fucking problems. She’s been running the goth space convent since she was 10. She’s puppeting her dead parents around. She doesn’t like tastes. She is extremely passionate about bones. She’s locked in a twisted bond of love and violence and devotion and sacrifice with her childhood best enemy. She lobotomized herself to preserve the best enemy’s soul. She’s been in love with the corpse of the Devil all her life. She goes around in bone jewelry and skull face paint. She’s a sad wet cat who was born in a cardboard box all alone, etc. She chopped another woman’s arm off and regrew a skeleton arm, in a sexual way. She has awkward little fireside chats with God where he makes millennia-old meme references at her and she does not drink the proffered tea. She saw God make a your mom joke and it “destroyed some cavern of her reverence”. She’s even gay. She’s everything.