#grishaverse men contest

[grishaversemenshowdown]

Finally, we got to the last round

A clap for the bronze medal 🥉

And the two finalists

Us 🤝 the soc spinoff: making Wesper fight

No ties allowed this time, if they tie my vote will be annulled and the winner would be whoever i didn’t vote

[grrrenadine]

Shadow & Bone and Russian Culture

Due to the (unexpected) popularity of my post on Russian naming conventions in Shadow and Bone, I’ve decided to write another post giving some historical/cultural context to the Grishaverse. Specifically, I’m going to talk about keftas, kvas, oprichniki, the tsar-vs-king dichotomy, and Russian calligraphy practices.

 Again, this is merely for educational purposes. I just think it’s cool to learn about other cultures! (Quick note: I am Russian, but I’m not a historian by trade, so the text below is mostly surface-level stuff — do correct me if I make fumbles).

1. Kefta. Okay, so the Russian language has these two similar-sounding clothing items (both originate from the same Turkic word):

kofta — this used to just mean “cardigan”, but today it’s an umbrella term for all light long-sleeved clothes except sweaters, jackets and button-down shirts. 

Here’s a random Google search for koftas for sale:

kaftan — a type of outer garment (of West/Southwest Asian origin) similar to either a robe or a long suit, anywhere from mid-thigh to floor-length. Styles vary from culture to culture, but it’s generally worn as an overcoat. Still in everyday use in some Asian countries (but not in Russia, where it’s considered a historical clothing item).

Here are some Ivan Bilibin illustrations feat. kaftans:

Here’s Alexander Lemtov (Dan Stevens) rocking a snazzy kaftan-like coat in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga:

And here’s Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal) looking regal in a kaftan on Game of Thrones:

2. Kvas. Not an alcoholic drink! Yes, it’s fermented, but the alcohol content is at around 0.5–1%. This is soy sauce levels of spirits, and kvas is legally classified as non-alcoholic (meaning it can be sold 24/7 and is available to minors). It tastes kinda like kombucha and people drink it as a healthier alternative to soda. It’s also used as an ingredient in a soup called okroshka. I should note that in like ~10th century kvas was indeed a stronger drink and you could get drunk off it. 

If you’re writing Slavic-inspired fantasy and you want your characters to get wasted on something other than vodka, here are a few cooler options:

braga — 3–8%, normally sweet, very old-time-y.

zubrowka (aka bison grass liquor) — 40%, herbal vodka liquor. Illegal in the States due to ATF regulations, so you can only buy an ersatz version.

samogon — the Russian word for moonshine.

3. Oprichniki (“outside men”, “aside men”). This was a type of bodyguard corps that existed for a super short period in Russian history during Ivan the Terrible’s reign of terror (16th cent.), and then thankfully never existed again. They were infamous for a “rape, pillage, kill” mentality, cruel public executions, and thinking themselves above the law. 

In true Nazgûl fashion, they rode only black stallions. Popular iconography also normally depicts them with brooms and dog heads attached to saddles (the dog heads are not a verified historical fact, but they do make for a pretty striking image). In short, this is a very dark, grim figure — think of a cross between the Spanish Inquisition (there was a religious component to their doctrine) and the SS. 

From the 19th century onward, the word has been used metaphorically to mean “government henchmen who enforce excessively repressive measures”. NOT a compliment.

As a bonus, here’s the dog head + broom icon on the covers of Vladimir Sorokin’s The Day of the Oprichnik:

4. Tsar vs king. Olden day Russia consisted of a bazillion duchies, each with its own ruler, known as knyaz (“duke”, “chieftain”, “prince” — translations vary). By the 15th century political power was centralized in the Duchy of Moscow, and Moscow knyaz Ivan III (granddad to Ivan the Terrible) started calling himself tsar, because it sounded cooler. Come 18th century, Peter the Great thought the title “tsar” wasn’t cool enough and became emperor instead. Since then, the rulers of Russia were called emperors; however, “tsar” remained part of the full title and was also used in less formal settings.

Russian has a separate word for king (”korol”), but it’s only used towards monarchs outside of Russia. Here’s the king-vs-tsar dichotomy:

Russian monarchs are called tsars (NEVER kings), and prior to being an Empire, Russia was a tsardom (NOT a kingdom);

in Russian, ancient and/or Biblical kings are also called tsars (”tsar Solomon”, not “King Solomon”);

the word tsar is used metaphorically, e.g. “tsar of the hill”, “tsar of the animals”. 

foreign monarchs (e.g. European royals) are kings.

TLDR: king -> kingdom, tsar -> tsardom. It’s an either/or situation.

5. Vyaz. A type of decorative lettering/calligraphy consisting of elongated interlocking letters, historically used for book and chapter titles. The word “vyaz” comes from the verb “vyazat”, meaning “to knit”, so this is basically “knitting with letters”. And much like knitting, it’s meant to form an unbroken ornament, i.e. without spaces between words and ideally without spaces between letters, too.

This style is super old-time-y and was out of use/fashion in the Russian Empire due to low readability.

That’s presumably what Shadow and Bone was trying to go for with this:

It looks nice, but real vyaz normally has tighter interlocking (done either via small letters or decorative elements) in order to eliminate awkward empty spaces, which here are all over the place. For comparison, here’s a real-life historical example, from Acts and Epistles of the Apostles (the first known book to be published in Russian):

Nowadays, vyaz is gaining popularity in the Russian lettering/calligraphy community, because a) it’s pretty culturally specific and b) it looks amazing. Here’s a modern-day example by Andrey Martynov — note the tiny E’s and O’s used for a tighter fit between letters:

And another example, by Vlada Ruzhitskaya — this one relies more on decorative plant-like elements for interlocking:

That’s all for today! I hope you enjoyed this and learned something new.

[malyen0retsev]

reread the top reviews for R&R on goodreads to make myself angry and just had to laugh at how wildly immature some darklina fans were, rating the entire book one star simply bc their pairing wasn’t endgame (and never was going to be). it was a bad reminder of how YA used to be and how Malina was absolutely ahead of its time. i’d like to think we’re past the whole Twilight and bodice ripper era of romanticizing toxic and abusive men but clearly not 🙄

Yeah, it's wild to me. Tbh it's why I stay away from Goodreads for everything except just tracking my reading (bc I like the stats, idk, it's just fun to me sjkdfdskjbsdf) because Goodreads as a site has so many flaws anyway - things like the 'end of the year Goodreads awards' when it puts books on there that have only just come out?? It's basically an author popularity contest.

But anyway TO YOUR POINT, I agree with you. And I've said this before, it's why I think the books being adapted now is the right time, because audiences now really rate love interests like Mal as opposed to the dark mysterious love interests of the early 2010s. They can be salty all they want, Malina is endgame. And also, Ruin and Rising is my favourite Grishaverse book and probably one of my top 5 books of all time at this point, so I'm just like... if you want to ignore the absolute genius that is that book purely bc you were angry that your ship was not endgame when it clearly was never going to be endgame that is your issue to have, you're the one missing out lads xo

[grishaversemenshowdown]

It’s the final three READ BEFORE YOU CLICK

[grishaversemenshowdown]

White there is still one hour to go, this two already have a very clear victory, so start voting from here

[grishaversemenshowdown]

Finally, the king of the grishaverse can claim his crown

thank you for voting, Jesper would be very proud

and some love to the silver medal

[grishaversemenshowdown]

Like the previous one, the polls tecnically aren't over, but this two have a pretty asured win

[grishaversemenshowdown]

While there is still one hour to go, those two are pretty much winners by very high numbers, so start voting now