#grishaverse plural

[kazcreates]

Genuine question, do you all want to hear about my Crows (my sourcemates within my system), or would you rather I stick to my fictional content? /genq

[grishaverse-chaos]

okay SO. it took longer than I expected for various life reasons but here is the massive conlang masterpost, featuring all the languages and prominent dialects that I imagine would exist within the grishaverse. under a cut bc it got really long!

RAVKA

"standard" Ravkan. this is the language spoken in Os Alta, as well as most other places in East Ravka. used on any official documents within Ravka. spoken by most nobility, including those in West Ravka

West Ravkan. this dialect formed only after the creation of the Fold - because the two sides of the country were separated from each other, linguistic drift occurred. over the 400 years that the Fold existed, the two languages diverged from each other significantly, but are still mutually intelligible - they're still very clearly dialects of the same language, not separate languages altogether. most West Ravkan nobility don't use this dialect, although those who are in favour of West Ravka becoming an independent country WILL use this dialect to promote independence. many West Ravkans also speak "standard" Ravkan, because of military service; they would have to communicate with people from across the country - however, many of them would still speak West Ravkan at home, with family, etc. most East Ravkans, especially nobility, wouldn't speak West Ravkan and would probably look down on those who do; I imagine Nikolai speaks at least some because it's the kind of thing he'd do (and the place he's Grand Duke of, Udova, is in West Ravka)

Suli. definitely a completely separate language from Ravkan; they don't have much in common. spoken predominantly by travelling Suli, and very rarely by non-Suli - although in canon, it is taught at the Little Palace, and some Grisha will learn the language. diplomats who often have dealings with Suli communities, and soldiers who serve in areas with high Suli populations, will often learn some (though probably not enough to become fluent) - canon states that it's useful for travelling in the west and northwest of Ravka.

Suli/Ravkan dialect. in areas with high Suli populations (predominantly in the west and northwest), locals may have adopted parts of the Suli language, and vice versa, to create a pidgin language that can be understood by both groups. probably NOT spoken by soldiers/diplomats/etc, who prefer to learn the original Suli language

various other dialects! while the most significant difference is between "standard" and West Ravkan, small towns and communities across the country will speak slightly different versions of the language, just because of how big Ravka is

ancient Ravkan. this is briefly mentioned in canon - I imagine it bears a similar relationship to modern Ravkan as that between Old English and modern English; ie, it's a completely different language! very old books that were printed in ancient Ravkan probably still exist; I imagine it's spoken by some members of the clergy, similar to how the Catholic Church uses Latin in our world. often studied by historians or other scholars. iirc Mal's tattoo is also written in ancient Ravkan, which means that either he or somebody around him must have spoken it fairly well. I would guess that Tamar and Tolya probably speak at least some ancient Ravkan because they grew up in the church

FJERDA

"standard" Fjerdan. again, spoken in Djerholm, by the military and by the government. fun canon facts I found while researching for this: all nouns are both plural and singular (similar to English words like "fish") and the language has three grammatical genders, but they are called wolf class, hare class, and tooth class!

Hedjut. the Hedjut, in canon, are an indigenous group living on Kenst Hjerte, a pair of islands off the coast of Fjerda. though some have come to live on the mainland (I believe Ylva, Jarl Brum's wife, is Hedjut?) most still live on the islands and speak their own language, separate from Fjerdan

liturgical Fjerdan. religion plays a huge part in Fjerdan culture, and imo their holy texts would have been written in this liturgical version of the language, many centuries before canon takes place. drüskelle are probably taught liturgical Fjerdan. some people might also prefer to pray to Djel in liturgical Fjerdan? speakers of modern Fjerdan can probably understand it, but with some effort

again, multiple other dialects. Fjerda has a lot of peninsulas; the language would have developed differently in different places. when Nina is in the Elling peninsula in KoS, she probably has to speak the local dialect rather than the "standard" Fjerdan which she probably learnt in training

other indigenous languages. now, this is purely conjecture, but the grishaverse map shows other small islands off the coast of Fjerda, which don't seem to be part of Kenst Hjerte. it's entirely possible that there's other indigenous groups, like the Hedjut, living there, with their own separate languages. on the other hand, in an age of sea travel, it's likely that Fjerda would have colonised those islands and brought them into the larger country, meaning that the groups living there would be classed as Fjerdans and encouraged to speak Fjerdan

KERCH

"standard" Kerch. this one is so interesting because Kerch is canonically the language used for international trade, so diplomats and politicians across the grishaverse would likely be able to speak Kerch. knowing the language is probably also a sign of status in other countries, including Ravka. it's spoken by most people within Kerch, as well as being the language used for any kind of international relations. for example, I imagine that at the summit at the end of Rule of Wolves, both the Ravkan and Fjerdan delegations spoke Kerch

Barrel Kerch. has a similar relationship to "standard" Kerch as Cockney does to "standard" English - they're recognisably the same language, though spoken with very different accents, but Barrel Kerch has created so much new vocabulary that doesn't exist in "standard" Kerch. I also think that this is why Wylan didn't recognise the word "mark" in Six of Crows - it simply didn't exist in the version of Kerch he's used to speaking!

other dialects. Kerch is much smaller than Ravka or Fjerda, so I imagine there's fewer separate dialects, but people living in the Kerch countryside probably speak a slightly non-"standard" version of Kerch. Kaz probably grew up speaking a country dialect, and had to adjust when he started living in Ketterdam

SHU HAN

official Shu. probably? we know very, very little about the language(s) within Shu Han, but it's a fair bet that there's an official version of the language used by the government etc. this is probably the dialect that's taught to students studying Shu, particularly noble children or diplomats. its main difference from common Shu is that it has a smaller, simpler vocabulary and is easier to communicate effectively in

"common" Shu. in canon, we get a lot of references to words or phrases in Shu that are untranslatable - often in poetry or literature. that would probably be really impractical for a language used in business, so imo the dialect used by most people would be slightly different from the dialect used in government. this dialect has a lot of flowery, poetic language.

other dialects. while Shu Han is smaller than Ravka, it's still pretty big, so I imagine that again, there would be slightly differing variants of the language spoken in different places

THE WANDERING ISLE

there is no standard version of Kaelish. in my personal headcanon, the Wandering Isle is based on a mix of multiple different Celtic cultures and so has multiple different languages. honestly I could make a whole other masterpost based on my headcanons for the Wandering Isle, but I'll stick to the languages for now

Central Kaelish. this is what I imagine Colm and Jesper speak; it's loosely based on Welsh, given that Jesper's middle name is Welsh. it's probably Colm's first language, but he taught Jesper to speak it so he wouldn't lose touch with his Kaelish heritage

North Kaelish. this is what I think Pekka Rollins's dialect is; loosely based on Scottish Gaelic

basically, there's dozens of dialects across the country; some of them overlap somewhat with others, while some are more distinct

NOVYI ZEM

okay SO. once again there's like, zero canon material to work with here, but it's fine. canonically the language spoken is Zemeni. like with most of these countries, there's probably a "standard" version which is used for official purposes, spoken in and around the capital city, Shriftport

Northern Zemeni. the capital city is in the south of the country, so the dialect which differs most from "standard" Zemeni is probably spoken mostly in the north

other dialects. if I had to guess, I'd say that the other big separation of dialects is between coastal areas and inland areas - coastal cities which see a lot of trade would probably use "standard" Zemeni, so they can communicate with people who've learnt Zemeni (who would likely have studied the "standard" dialect), while inland areas would have developed their own dialects

OTHER AREAS

the Southern Colonies: is canonically a colony of Kerch, so their official language is probably "standard" Kerch. it's also canonically a place where criminals from Kerch are exiled (and the former King and Queen of Ravka, but that's almost certainly a rare exception) so there's probably also a lot of Barrel Kerch being spoken, that the criminals have brought over

there's almost certainly at least one indigenous language spoken there as well, though. whatever culture it used to have before being colonised by Kerch probably hasn't been entirely erased. the closest real-world comparison is probably Australia, where English criminals used to be sent? so I do think that there are indigenous groups living there, with their own culture and languages

a dialect has probably formed that mixes parts of Kerch with parts of the indigenous language, forming a new pidgin so that locals and new arrivals can communicate

if the Southern Colonies ever gets independence, I imagine that the original indigenous language would become its official language - the pidgin is probably used more day-to-day, though

it's also possible that the Southern Colonies used to be a part of Novyi Zem before being colonised; in which case, the indigenous people might speak Zemeni? I personally think it's separate, though

the Bone Road: a set of islands, near the Wandering Isle. apparently there are dozens but only two have names - the names they've been given sound vaguely Ravkan. I imagine that those two, Jelka and Vilki, have been "discovered" by Ravkan explorers (though probably not colonised? I think if they were Ravkan territories that would've been mentioned when Nikolai takes Alina to the Bone Road in S&S) and given Ravkan names

however, all of the islands have their own cultures and languages. they're pretty small islands so I don't think that there would be many different dialects within each island. on the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if the languages spoken on each island were all quite similar to each other, though recognisably distinct. they're probably all at least from the same language family

[ghostlymarauder]

This is, again, a rant about the Grishaverse, on this occasion, about things that annoy me, so if you disagree, you're correct, too.

Let me preface this by saying: I love the books! I devoured the original trilogy, and I'm currently reading the SOC duology. However, there's things that make me want to kill someone:

1. Let's start off with one of the most important: In Russian (one of the base language for Ravkan), Grisha is basically Greg. Yes, it also means "watchful" BUT my problem is that if you're using a language as the base for another language, you shouldn't use something as common as "Greg" to be the name of your supernatural/magical/whatever-the-hell-Grisha-are species.

2. Tailors. And you might ask: what's the problem with Tailors? Well, technically, none. The problem is that it is stated that ALL the Corporalki are capable of using tailoring. FURTHERMORE, NINA ZENIK HAS A SIDE HUSTLE AS A TAILOR. So, why was Genya made fun of? Because if I remember correctly, the Grisha saw her as "useless"... But the Corporalki are capable of being Tailors, too? I don't, it's just confusing.

3. And, speaking of confusing things: the plurals and singulars of the Grisha orders... What do you mean a group of Heartrenders is a group of Corporalki, BUT ONE HEARTRENDER IS A CORPORALNIK??? it's unnecessarily complicated, and I refuse to discuss it.

4. Another thing that bothers me to unexplainable levels is the Squallers' trick at the end of Ruin and Rising... Like, you're telling me Squallers are capable of bending sound, that they know they're capable of bending sound, but no one ever told the Darkling about it. NOT ONLY THAT. You're telling me that in 400 YEARS the Darkling never learned that ability? Why wasn't it used before? No, it was kept for Sankta Alina.

5. I already talked about this in another post, so I'm not going in too much depth: Alina losing her powers at the end of Ruin and Rising is unnecessary and unfair.

6. Keeping it on the topic of Alina... Why did Mal survive? It would've been so interesting to see Alina lose Mal, keep her powers, and be sent in the same path as the Darkling. It would've been so interesting to see if she would become the same as Alekzander or not. Instead, the tracker lives and she gets happily ever after?????

7. What language do they speak in Ravka? Because it's technically Ravkan, but on multiple occasions, the distinction of a single word said in Ravkan is made, meaning they have to speak something else most of the time... But what? Is it English?

8. I am become a blade. No need to explain that one.

9. I'm still reading SOC, so I'll perhaps have another opinion once I read the King of Scars duology, but why the fuck does Zoya become all-powerful (and I mean that literally, she all Etherealki types in one, and I'm pretty sure she also develops Corporalki abilities) yet Alina loses her powers? I'm offended by that, and it's coming from someone who LOVES Zoya's character.

10. The maps and geography of the Grishaverse. I don't think explanation is truly needed, just look at the maps and tell me there isn't something weird.

I'll probably keep adding to this in the future, but if you want to add something that annoys you or debate one of my points, that's completely valid, too!

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Grishaverse Reread Thoughts

Shadow and Bone, Chapter One, part 3

Despite just saying that Alina’s background doesn’t sufficiently inform her character, I do like that, ostensibly, her proximity to— but fundamental separation from— wealth in the Duke’s estate means that she’s not as dramatically dazzled by it as she could be. I think it’s an interesting beat when everyone is badgering her about having witnessed the Grisha carriages (a telling detail of how little the First and Second Armies interact) and she just does not care.

You’re not going to believe this…

I like that he gets tents plural lol. Generally I think it’s interesting how the trilogy frames the Ravkan Grisha as a distrusted and marginalized upper class. The fandom cannot seem to fathom that dichotomy though!

Sigh. They’re genuinely cute. I honestly think that through the first couple chapters, the dynamic between them is actually a pretty deft way to establish a romance! It’s clear Mal knows a lot about and cares about her, though he’s not wording it in a way that Alina is clocking as romantic— though imo that is very clear, without also hitting the reader in the face with it. I think it gets severely muddied by… Mal’s everything later, and just the book-long framing of Alina constantly holding herself back because of her feelings for him. But their introduction is good.

That being said, I do find it interesting how Alina closes off the chapter thinking about how she and Mal have been on different paths for awhile, and if they’ll ever end up strangers to each other. She thinks his star is rising and she’s the one who’ll be left in the dust, but obviously it’s foreshadowing for her turning out to be the sun summoner and being whisked away by Plot to save the country. I do feel like the most satisfying conclusion to this would have been to either accept that they’re strangers to each other and that’s fine lol. sometimes you outgrow some people, or that they bridge that gap *despite* all the circumstantial differences. Basically: here’s why even from a Malina perspective, the ending still sucks.

[dedalvs]

I have a question. I checked the grishaverse wiki and it says that Fjerdan doesn't have grammatical number, but in King of Scars the word drusjen is used and rendered in translation as witches, which would make it the plural of drusje/witch.

I'm wondering where the no grammatical number misconception came from or if instead drusjen was a typo of some sort.

It's not plural: It's definite. So either one can be interpreted as singular or plural, but when the -n is on there (in this case), it'll be interpreted as definite (the witch/witches), in the context of the sentence, as opposed to indefinite (a witch/witches).

[dhampiravidi]

Please Read Before Interacting! (RULES)

I’m a multimuse account. I play mostly OCs, plus a few canons.

This is a blog for people who are 18+. I write NSFW (smut, violence, alcohol) content on occasion. I’m 24.

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Here's a list of FCs I love to see!

Here's a link that leads to all of my D&D muses specifically!

assorted tags: memes // wishlist // muses // ooc content

mobile muse list under the cut:

Jayn: heir to a vast fortune, fighter. Verses: DC Comics, Royal/Regency, Queen of the South, Grishaverse, Western, Suits. generous, creative, faithful, loving, bossy, nosy. FC: Tessa Thompson.

Naela: she just wants adventure and love. Verses: canon GoT/ASoiAF, Rhaegar Lives AU, D&D. optimistic, honest, philosophical, careless, restless. FC: Tristin Mays.

Achilles: the Hellenic/Greek hero from The Iliad (canon). Verses: Mythology, Modern, Call of Duty, D&D, X-Men/Marvel. courageous, confident, quick-tempered, protective, moody. FC: Taylor Kitsch.

Jasmine: a young woman on her own. Verses: Marvel, Shadowhunters/TSC, The Covenant, John Wick/Assassins, D&D, Suits. practical, disciplined, overcritical, perfectionist, grudging. FC: Kat Graham.

Skadi: half-Jotun, half-Asgardian. Verses: Marvel, Call of Duty, D&D. compassionate, inventive, independent, blunt, distrusting. FC: Olga Kurylenko.

Oraia: daughter of Poseidon and Nebet-Het, goddess. Verses: Marvel, SPN, Urban Fantasy, The Old Guard, Pirates of the Caribbean, Shadowhunters/TSC, D&D. flirtatious, easygoing, sociable, impulsive. FC: Hannah John-Kamen.

Hestia: sweet, badass martial artist. Verses: X-Men/Marvel, Hunger Games. witty, lively, inquisitive, anxious, accepting. FC: Kristin Kreuk.

Rose: John Constantine’s space-time magician of a daughter (canon). Verses: DC Comics, The Mummy/historical, D&D. loyal, intelligent, protective, intuitive, hardworking, manipulative. FC: Antonia Thomas.

Aurelia: a Gryffindor who chose Slytherin. Verse: Harry Potter (Marauders or Golden Trio era). persuasive, amusing, loyal, protective, bossy, jealous. FC: Precious Lee.

Rela: Twi’lek Jedi. Verses: Star Wars, D&D. modest, curious, compassionate, eloquent, indecisive, responsible. FC: Rachi Sitra (or Gugu Mbatha-Raw depending on verse).

Zehara: the daughter of a Water Tribe father and a Fire Nation Colony mother. persuasive, adventurous, adaptable, compulsive, patronizing. Verses: Avatar: TLA, D&D. FC: Jhené Aiko.

Eugenia: Bonnie Bennett’s second cousin. Verses: Vampire Diaries. loyal, determined, practical, vengeful, secretive. FC: Kylie Bunbury.

Shayera: she's got wings & a mace. Verses: DC Comics, Historical. brave, loyal, adventurous, determined, compassionate, self-critical. FCs: Juliana Harkavy & Freema Agyeman.

Mu Lan [穆岚]: "my duty is to my heart." Verses: Regency/Bridgerton. restless, loyal, intelligent, outspoken, kind. FC: Thaddea Graham (& Ming-Na Wen when she's older).

on request, I can play:

Fantomex (X-Men canon; FC: Warren Christie)

Renée Michele LeBeau (OC daughter of Gambit from X-Men; FC: Janel Parrish)

Rhea Livia Agresta (OC shifter niece of Alan Deaton from Teen Wolf; FC: Jessica Sula)

Lady Gotham (personification of Gotham City; DC Comics; FC: Death - Marvel v Capcom)

Caleb Danvers (The Covenant canon; FC: Steven Strait)

[is-this-plural]

zoya nazyalensky from grishaverse absorbed a dragon and the dragon talks from inside her head giving her helpful/annoying advice as well as some of his memories, is that plural?

rating: yeah sounds pretty plural to me

[castle-in-our-dreams]

we just got abt 7 and possibly more new fictive from the grishaverse in a single day oh lord. We'd be open to finding sourcemates maybe? So, we have me Nina, Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Genya, and Nikolai for sure and possibility of Matthias (pretty sure abt that one) , Mal, Baghra, Alina and Wylan.

almost finished with the first six of crows <33

We've been making playlists all day :00

[jordiethepoolfloatie]

Six of Crows AU where everything is the same but instead if crows it’s:

Parrots:

Kaz dressing in parrot colors

“don’t make friends with the parrots, they don’t have any manners” “caw caw motherfuckers” “you’re right they really don’t”

Kaz teaching parrots to say “fuck Pekka Rollins” and sending them flying around Ketterdam

KAZ DRESSING IN PARROT COLORS- (i knowwwww his black suit is not bc of the crow thing but still imagine-

Cows

Kaz in cow print

you only have to change one letter

them going “MOOOOOO” to signal to each other

inej petting cows from Kaz’s window

the Crow Club selling milk-

Pekka Rollins getting occasional deliveries of an envelope full of cow shit because come on they all are sassy teenagers

a cow as the dregs tattoo????? that would be adorable cmon

Swans:

swans are fucking evil i just know

kaz hissing at people like some fuckin murder goose

the tattoo would be a swan twisting its neck into some impossible shape

honestly more intimidating than crows

Moose

Wylan was right, it’s Jesper’s native tongue

kaz’s cane having a moose head with the massive antlers- no that’s too much power

Nina telling Matthias that it’s named after him

this post, once again is the product of soc fangirling with @threecalicos

[multiplicity-positivity]

Source Call!

This is a source call for fictives from the Grishaverse (the collection of written works by Leigh Bardugo). If you’re a fictive from one of these works and would like to connect and interact with sourcemates, this post is for you! The Grishaverse comprises of these books:

The Shadow and Bone trilogy

The Six of Crows duology

The King of Scars duology

Demon in the Wood

The Language of Thorns

The Lives of Saints

The Severed Moon

If you are a fictive or introject from one of these works, and would like to meet other folks rom your source, go ahead and reblog or comment on this post! As always, boosts are welcome, but please specify in the reblog or tags if you are not actually a fictive from the Grishaverse!

We hope those who are searching for sourcemates are able to find hope and community with each other! Good luck looking for sourcemates - we wish y’all the very best!

Thank you so much!

Looking for some positivity? We’re open for source call/positivity requests!

[degenderates]

these urls are now free to use (i just deleted them):

@hamliza

@alinasaleks

@potterriddle

@snpe

@sanktstarkov

@greatergood

u better snatch em up

[hacked-wtsdz]

Shadow and Bone book series is cultural appropriation

We all know that Leigh Bardugo was inspired by pre-soviet tsar Russia to write S&B.

She also says that she admires Russia, it’s culture and history.

But it didn’t stop her from absolutely fucking up almost every bit of Russian influence on her books.

Let’s start with the country where everything is happening. Ravka. Clearly inspired by Russia. The name itself is okay. All the town names are fine too, this is probably one of the few parts Bardugo didn’t fuck up. Except for Ryevost. Idk if this was a mistake or a coincidence, but Ryevost is ridiculously similar to the Russian word “revnost” which means “jealousy”.

Next, the king and queen. If the country was inspired by pre-soviet Russia, then it should probably have tsars and tsaritsas instead of kings and queens like in Europe. Russia never had a king, only tsars and emperors. I mean, that would make sense since a huge part of the world clearly copies tsar Russia.

The Grishi. This one pisses me off so much! Grisha is a short variant of the Russian name Grigory. So the words Grishaverse and grisha are funny as hell to me cause the show how little Bardugo either cares or knows about Russia. To illustrate how bad this is: imagine a book written by a Russian author where the magicians are called “Chris”.

The Darkling. Why, in a world where literally everything has Russian/Slavic/Eastern European names, one of the main character’s name comes from English? It should sound scary, dark and threatening but every time I stumbled on this name while reading the book, I giggled.

The names. Ohhhh this one is horrible. If Bardugo cared at least a tiny bit about Russia, she would have known that there are feminine and masculine versions of second names. The main character is literally called Alina Starkov. Starkov is the masculine version, Alina should be called Starkova. Even Marvel who make billions of mistakes when it comes to Russia gave Black Widow a feminine version of the surname “Romanov”. She is either called Romanoff (weird but ok) or Romanova.

There are tons of similar mistakes throughout the books, Bardugo gives zero shits about proper Russian names. For example, the character Ilya Mororzova. Ilya is a masculine name, while Morozova is a feminine version of the surname “Morozov”.

The food that they eat. They get drunk on kavas (probably the equivalent of vodka), but kvas, while being a Russian drink, isn’t alcoholic. Funny, right?

Or the kefta, for example, whatever the fuck that is. The right word is “kaftan”. There’s nothing wrong with being inspired by Russian clothes, but either give it the original name, or make up your own, don’t sloppily copy the language.

The people of Ravka are drunkards, they play on their balalaikas (while in tsar Russia balalaikas weren’t that popular), and I’m surprised they don’t dance with bears on the streets in their spare time.

Let’s talk about the “nichevo’yas” too. “Nichevo” in Russian means “nothing”, so basically, they are supposed to be called the “nothings”. But. There is no word “nichevo’ya”. In the worst case, Bardugo could have used “nichevoie” , at least the ending would be right. But it would still sound dumb as hell. There is no plural for “nothing” in Russian because it’s not a noun like in English. We have a word “nichto” which is a pronoun and also means “nothing”, but there’s no plural for it either. She should have used a different word instead of mocking Russian.

Otkazat’sya (people without grisha powers) literally translates as “to refuse”. Not “those who refused” or “the refused”, but the verb “to refuse”. The infinitive. This isn’t just funny, this is super disrespectful to my language.

Now, if all of this isn’t enough, let me show you a review that illustrates exactly how stupid Shadow and Bone is:

“....Imagine if a Russian writer wrote a book about a fictional country called 'Straya, based off present day Australia. The head of the country is called the Prime Minister, and all his personal security team are call Colonialists. Everyone in the country drinks an alcoholic drink called Coke'a'Cola and everyone always get drunk because people in 'Straya are just drunks. In 'Straya People with no magical talents are called Rejects. The main character of the book is a girl called Barry who grows up under the care of a Housekeeper called Fuc Kit. Barry discovers she has special powers, and she goes to magical school run by powerful enchanters called Tim. At magic school, the school system is supposed to feel like it in 'Straya but it reads exactly like a Russian school... there is also a girl called Frank and someone has a grandfather called Jane.”

“Shadow and Bone” ruins, disrespects and makes fun of Russian culture instead of using or appreciating it. It’s cultural appropriation at its finest.

But that wouldn’t have been such a trigger to me if not for how hypocritical it is. People in the US are against cultural appropriation and treat it as one of the most disrespectful things you can do. But they adore Shadow and Bone that ridicules Russian culture that it tries to be based on.

I don’t give a fuck that it’s fantasy. It copies too many Russian things to just be “inspired” by it. “A Song of Ice and Fire”, “Lord of The Rings”, “The Witcher” are all inspired by Medieval Europe, but they do not stupidly copy words, names and other things. All those authors create their own worlds.

So, if you want a really good fantasy book inspired by Slavic/Eastern European culture, try reading “The Witcher”. It’s based on both Medieval Europe and Ancient Russia, but has its own world, kingdoms, history and names.

Fuck “Shadow and Bone”

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

ok: top 3 questions about canon that you'd want author confirmation on, any fandom!

Oh fun! (The context is that there are plenty of questions I don’t typically trust authors to answer lol) So I’m going to do top three for three fandoms

Dracula

1) Tell me about the brides! Anything! What are their names, what does a day night at the castle look like, when were they turned, anything???

2) Scholomance? Hello? Please elaborate on evil wizard school taught by the devil himself

3) I would love to resurrect Bram Stoker just to get him to say with his own mouth that he was not aware of Vlad the Impaler specifically so people stop just assuming that’s literally who Dracula was meant to be in life

Grishaverse

1) Why does Baghra look old while Aleksander looks twelve? Is either permanent or shiftable?

2) PLEASE tell me about the mechanics of the death faking and Baghra’s part in it/if she was typically at the capital at all?

3) Who was Aleksander’s father and how did that go down! I tend to wonder if he was more impactful for her than she let on/part of why by Demon in the Wood she’s so certain they’d be killed if anyone realized they’re amplifiers.

Hellsing

1) WHY does Integra say she has a menagerie in like volume one before they bring Seras on board what other creatures does she have???

2) I want to know about the rest of the magic and Mad Science that Hellsing gets up to beyond vampire hunting! Did it all revolve around experimenting on Alucard? Like they have labs plural

3) Tell me about Integra’s mother! Who was she! Did Arthur kill her! I think Arthur killed her!

…I would honestly put Hirano in a saw trap to force him to cover the Dracula/immediate post Dracula era but that’s too broad lmao

[therabine]

In case you were wondering why wordbuilding for Ravka feels so random

After going down the rabbit hole in my search for answers I've stumbled across this conversation on goodreads dated back to the November of 2013, where Leigh Bardugo replied to some reasonable criticism about her 'cultural inspiration"- https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1533856-has-bardugo-talked-about-the-russian-inconsistencies This conversation is quite long and miss Leigh gave about three replies to various questions from people that were deeply bothered by the very surface level research she did on the Russian cilture. Here are the major highlights, plus the other things I've found while goodling: 1) As far as I've understood - neither she nor her publishers expected the first book to blow up like this. So even though there was obvoiusy a lack of proper research and some mistakes variying from minor to insulting, now that she's an esteemed author Leigh claims all of it to be deliberate choices adding that "deliberate choices aren't necessarily good ones". She also tries to lift the responsibility off her shoulders, mentioning that her work "was reviewed not just by my editor, but by copy editors, proofreaders, multiple foreign editors, and foreign copy editors". Not a single word about actual Russian-speaking person/expert reviweing the text or helping her out with creating the Ravkan language though. The only person she's ever credited as the one who helped her out with creating Ravkan is Erdene Ukhaasai from Mongolia that she's been friends on Facebook at the time (source on this one - https://ageofsteam.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/genre-friction-what-is-tsarpunk-by-leigh-bardugo/ ). The Facebook page under this name currently doesn't exist and the only results that Google shows on this person are the mentions that Leigh Bardugo gave in her interview, so unfortunately I couldn't reach out for clarification on this topic. Still, it's highly unlikey that someone with zero publications under their name would be a proffesional linguist and therefore qualified for such a task. 2) Within your secondary world, unless you are writing satire, things should make internal sense. That world could not arize independently of its context. The problem with the Bardugo's Ravka is that it's based on Russian Empire alone, yet she claims that "it's only Russian inspired" without acknowledging that most people that are not familiar with the culture will take it in as authentic. She takes the words and objects out of the context, misgenders names and last names and creates new 'russian-sounding" words without understanding how the grammar works. Which is a shame, given how flexible Russian language is - the possibility for the word-building is endless and with the right guidance she truly could make some unique and meaningful terms specifically for the Ravka. Also on the alcoholic kvas issue - Leigh proudly claims this as a solution to be a vodka "substitute", because vodka would be too on the nose and too common (more on the matter here -https://www.leighbardugo.com/grishaverse/the-archives/tongue-twister/). What didn't cross her mind is that instead of turning a non-alcoholic drink into strong booze for "wordbuilding" it would be much better to use less known drinks whic do contain alcohol - braga, samogon, nalivka - just to name a few.

3) To elaborate on some of the specific issues with names and last names: Leigh doesn't seem to understand how gendered surnames work in Russian. That's why we get stuff like Alina Starkov (when it's supposed to be Starkova, because she's a woman) and Alexander Morozova (Morozov would be a correct form) etc. This system is never consistent - Mal Oretsev gets to have a male surname, but so does Genya Safin and Zoya Nazyalensky has a weird non-gendered kind of in between last name (very much in fashion of Natasha Romanoff, who would be called Natalia Romanova in Russian). Also must mention Ana Kuya - poor woman's name literally sounds like "why the f*ck" in Russian, that's about just as bad as naming your Asian character Whata Phuck. Again - none of this nonsense would happen if someone bothered to find a Russian-speaking person to read the text. Other Russian words she tries to throw in seem to be the result of a bad Google Translate, rather than a conscious choice: for example the word otkazats'ya that she uses to describe non-grishas is actually a verb that translates as "to refuse". The noun with the meaning of "the refused one" would be otkaznik or otkazniki for a plural form. Same with sobachka ("small dog") - the context from the book suggests this nickname to be an insulting one, so the word we're really looking for would be shchenok ("puppy") or shavka ("mongrel", "cur"). The list of those examples, honestly, goes on and on.

4) Leigh does mention that she "can acknowledge that the choices I made in building the language and culture of Ravka came from a place of insularity and a type of privilege". However she's more keen to talk about how she has "certainly encountered critics, but I've also had Russian fans"...Which to me sounds about just as bad as stating "I do have *insert a minority racial group* friends and they say that me doing *insert a dubious act* is fine". The problem is that Russian culture has been demonized and overlooked for so long that most people (myself included) tend to praise content creators for including even the most sterytypical "insprations". Just because some people are willing to excuse her voluntary ignorance, doesn't mean that it's okay.

5) No books on Russian culture that she's mentioned as part of the resarch were written by Russian authors. And while reading the SaB it becomes crystal clear that that the major 'cultural inspiration' Leigh got was not from those books, but from the monstrosity that is her tsapunk pinterest board - https://www.pinterest.ru/lbardugo/tsarpunk-inspiration/ . About 80% of the stuff there doesn't even relate to Russian culture and the rest is a mash of modern knockoffs.

To summorize it: Leigh very much knew about the concerns surrounding her "Russian-inspired" Ravka which were respectfully brought to her consideration by her Russian speaking fans back in 2012-2013. She said "I've taken it to heart and it's something that I've tried to be conscious of as I move forward in the series and my other work", apologized and then she did nothing to do better. She marketed Shadow and Bone as "Tsarpunk", fetishisizing Russian culture and using it as a unique setting to uplift a generic "light vs. dark" fantasy plot supported by the bland narrative of the Chosen One. There was an effort and will to make a change for the better, not a single letter has been changed for us. When I think about, I can't really remember anything that would ring as a thoughtful and clever element adapted into the story from Russian culture. If everything is always altered or twisted, if there is nothing true or authentic then should you really call it Russian-inspired? Should you really make profit off it and call this aesthetic tsarpunk?

Leigh Bardugo could have fixed the most jarring problems with the material while doing the adaptation from book to screen, but she chose not to. There was no effort made to include more people of slavic descent as a major part of production team or as background actors. Almost nothing of the production design or clothing was inspired by Russian culture. To elaborate: I'm not even mad. I'm just deeply sad and hurt by the indifference.

Some might argue that this book series was not written for Russians, that it was written for the western audience. But don't they deserve respectfully researched and authentic stories too?

[thefanficmonster]

I blame Tumblr, I'm sorry. I SWEAR MY REPLY ISN'T AS SHORT AS THE ONE YOU RECEIVED. AS IF I WOULD PUT THAT LESS OF AN EFFORT FOR YOU <33

Hello my dearest Vy, treasure of my heart, have you missed me? I hope so cause I sure as hell missed you :D I am finally here. I went through hell and back but I am finally on prep leave. Bless the pandemic for extending my prep leave for up to 3 weeks! I'm going to get so much done as well as actually have time to take care of myself so if there's anything about this pandemic to be grateful for, it's this.

Anyway, I am so so so sorry for this extremely late reply. I don't think I need to repeat the reason as to why by now. But don't worry, all is well.

I hope you've been well these past week or so? I hope you've been well. I do hope your job is going well too :)

Thank you so much for taking your time to answer my questions, I enjoyed reading them so much! Now here are my answers to yours..

I'm a Taurus!!

My favourite month has to be January, I just love the cold weather and of course, the New Year's festivities.

Basically any fandom related to Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse books. I just love everything about that fictional universe, makes me feel at home.

If my bestfriend counts, then surely her. She's an angel, I can't imagine how messed up I'd be if it wasn't for her.

Water, food and wifi. Kidding, aside from basic essentials to stay alive, I suppose my dog, bestfriends and this one energy drink I'm addicted to.

I have 3 dogs so…But but but, I adore cats as well. In fact, I've been told a lot that I seem much more like a cat person. So perhaps both for me too :')

I don't play much video games so I can't say I have a favourite. However, I loved Mario as a child!

This is a hard one, I'm a big shipper!! But maybe Kanej (Kaz x Inej) and Wesper (Wylan x Jesper), again from Six of Crows.. (Please don't blame me, I'm just obssessed with this series.)

Either my rings or my books, it's a tough decision. This is rather far off but I'd love to have my very own cozy little library-cafe someday..just a wish :')

Thank you so much for your questions, they did help a lot and took my mind off my schedule!

Now it's been a while so I can't remember much of the questions I made for you but here are a few that stuck around

If you could visit any place in the world, which 3 places would you go to first?

One musical piece you can never get tired of?

Do you play any instruments??

What's your favourite musical instrument?

If you have the time, describe what your life would look like in your dream universe :) (really get that creative mind of yours to stir up your deepest desires)

Out of everything that you have written for streamers, which 3 are your favourites?

Again, feel free to ignore any of the questions and I hope you enjoy answering them :)

Loads of love, ~🌹

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions sweetie I'm so glad you had fun answering them! And thank you for the new batch of questions dear, here are my answers:

I'd definitely visit Barcelona, Spain; Brighton, England and Cancún, Mexico

Since the term 'musical piece' gives me a lot of freedom here's three things music related that I could never get bored of: 1. Any Lana Del Rey album/song; 2. Lo-fi; 3. The musical Heathers 🤭

Nope unfortunately I don't. I tried learning the piano but never got the hang of it

It's spot shared by acoustic guitar and piano

Oooh ok so buckle up! 😉 I'd love to live by the beach in a house I'd share with no one but my pets. Yes, plural. I'd like to live that lonely writer lifestyle. Now that I think about it, I'd love to live in a lighthouse honestly. Outlandish? Maybe. But man is it a dream of mine. I'd live like an old fisherman and have the time of my life 🤭 However I'd also not be opposed to a night out with friends in a town that'd be near the lighthouse. I'd still like to have some of that partying I've always dreamt of sprinkled into the quiet haven mentioned above. But all in all, I'm a rather simple person ay 😊

Ooooh ok so for Corpse I'd say it's the two parter fic consisting of 'Champagne Problems' and 'Exile'; for Dave (not a streamer but he is a content creator so he'll be my cheat code) it would be the fic 'Fated Miracles' and last but certainly not least: my fic 'Sweetheart' for Sykkuno

Here are a few more questions I've got for you since last time. Again, no need to answer any or all if you don't want to/feel uncomfortable about them 🤗

What's your favorite mythological creature?

If you're a horror fan, what's your favorite scary movie? If not what's your favorite movie in general?

Favorite music genre?

Favorite pieces of fanfiction?

~ XOXO, Vy 💌

[plushievash]

Questions for the blogger!

I was tagged by @treefaller (thank you)

Rules: Answer 30 questions and tag 20 blogs you are contractually obligated to know better.

1. Nicknames: feli/acciai

2. Gender: im boy

3. Sun sign: leo

4. Height: 5′3′’

5. Time: 2:13pm

6. Birthday: 8/15

7. Favorite bands: mother mother/woodkid/p!atd

8. Favorite solo artists: oh fuck i included that in the last one

9. Song stuck in my head: born in a flash - mother mother

10. Last movie I watched: i dont even remember i think it was it

11. Last show I watched: i dont remember

12. When did I create my blog: february 2013

13. What do I post/reblog: my ocs/aesthetic/grishaverse/ect

14. Last thing I googled: i think it was “smallest species of shrimp”

15. Other blogs: @felixruggieris

16. Do I get asks: sometimes

17. Why I chose my url: thats my fucken ocs last name (plural)

18. following: 265

19. Followers: 7634

20. Average hours of sleep: 3-12

21. Lucky number: 10/17/97

22. Instruments: trumpet/guitar

23. What am I wearing: this again

24. Dream job: idk

25. Dream trip: idk

26. Favorite food: sinigang

27. Nationality: filipino

28. Favorite song right now: promise reprise (silent hill 2)

29. Last book read: the language of thorns

30. Top three fictional universes you’d like to join: the oc mutantverse/grishaverse thats it