#hermdoggydog

[zacksfairest]

Happy Birthday Cassie! Hope you've been treating yourself to some good books lately

Thank you so much!!! I'm doing my best to do so~ I gotta tackle the ones you've suggested. I trust you implicitly.

[antiqueberry]

hi there- sorry to bother you, but I saw you on the punching zeus post wishing someone wrote the story?

https://www.tumblr.com/lizluvscupcakes/716787804370337792/lizluvscupcakes-hermdoggydog-writing-prompt-s

it’s not perfect but I hope you like it

PERFECTION

ABSOLUTE PERFECTION

I WANT TO GRAB YOU THROUGH THE SCREEN AND HUG YOU

RYO AND SIPHONE GOING HOME AND BEING HAPPY WITH THEIR DEMIGOD KID

ZUES GETTING WHAT HE DESRVES

I LOVE YOU

[unsoundedcomic]

Some questions on how wrights can "feel" spells coming through (or having been cast) in the khert. Aside from Aldish caste and the skill of the wright, what else determines how "noticeable" a spell is? Complexity? Amount of Aspects involved? Local Agitation? Did Duane catch that poor Silver because his Glamour was too flashy? That Glamour was Perception-based right? Making the Captain seem like "Enemy" or "Rebel."

The skill and experience of the wright are the primary requirements for sensing spells the way Duane just did. The whole of reality is a mesh of live wires, and everyone is hooked up to them. If you train at it and hone your senses, you start to figure out what all the different little pushes and twangs and tickles and pulls are not only on the ports in your hands, but in your spine as well.

You’ve guessed what makes some spells more noticeable than others. The bigger, the more noticeable. Quigley didn’t wanna glamour Uaid way back when like Starfish wanted, because a glamour that size would have attracted attention.

The Silver’s Glamour was indeed Perception-based. And Duane caught it because Duane’s just that damn good, honestly :)

[grimoireemil]

hermdoggydog replied to your post “Outlining is so hard how the fuck am I not to be expected putting WAY...”

use the 'conan the barbarian' approach. outline a barebones chronology (at minimum a beginning and an end) while leaving lots of time jumps and empty blocks of time in the middle. tell the middly bits in whatever order you want (this is where you cash in on novellas, short stories in anthologies, and even spin-offs)

Ya see, this is tempting, but here’s my main issue...

See, I feel like, from what I see happening in the Fantasy genre, I’d need to write a trilogy. Especially since I’m def not published and trying to sell my series as a whole franchise would... probably fail.

So I’m sitting here, looking what I have, and being like “Fucking damn, can I really condense this into a trilogy?” I mean maybe! You can do a lot in 500 or so pages per book.

I know editting would trim a lot and with each draft it’ll get more honed, but still. It’s a tricky thing, this. I don’t wanna get too hung up on what the “publishers might want” especially since I don’t even have a damn first draft, but it’s there, in the back of my mind.

[lemueladeliers]

@hermdoggydog replied to your post: “@hermdoggydog replied to your post: “new icon bc i love him”: ...”:

how about smirking front-facing Lem framed by blood spurts, possibly while holding some knives. this chapter's just beginning...

I know right??? I may wind up changing it again! Who knows!!! The possibilities are endless in chapter 14!!!!

[nitori-sedai]

hermdoggydog replied to your post “Alyssa maybe? Or Alyssia? Aly is a nice nickname.”

the one downside is that you would have to specify "aly with a y" (as opposed to allie). the upside is that aly is the nickname of a popular historical queen in the fictional ASOIAF.

Tbh I’ve heard Aly pronounced Alee (like in that like old group Aly and AJ)

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

What would a deck of playing cards in Westeros look like, if/when such a thing develops? Like what suits, what ranks (7 suits with 7 ranks to honor the Seven, perhaps)? Would there be regional variations?

If playing cards ever get introduced to Westeros, I expect they’ll come from Essos, probably Yi Ti, the way playing cards originated from China in our world. (Via Persia, India, Egypt, Southern Europe, and so on.) As such, I wouldn’t expect the Faith of the Seven to be a strong influence on the number of suits or ranks, any more than the Trinity was an influence in Europe.* And for that matter, 7 is a lucky number in our world,** but that doesn’t seem to have affected card suits at all.*** Also, since religious leaders have historically frowned on gambling, I would expect a game using the images of the Seven to be considered blasphemy,**** so… yeah, that’s not going to happen.

* Actually, I can’t find anything that says why 4 suits are the most common, other than that’s how it originated in China. There’s a few Indian variations with all kinds of numbers of suits, including 12 for the 12 signs of the zodiac, and 10 for the 10 avatars of Vishnu, but still the most common number of suits is 4.

** Unlike in the Discworld, where 8 is a prominent number, and Cripple Mister Onion has 8 suits.

*** 7 being lucky has affected dice games though. And they do play dice in Westeros. Also tiles, which is probably dominoes.

**** Seriously, can you imagine how the medieval Catholic Church would react to a game with cards of God, Jesus, Mary, and the Holy Spirit? ugh ugh ugh. (Note that tarot cards used for divination, and the pagan imagery of the major arcana, etc, are not medieval; they weren’t developed until the late 18th century.)

Anyway, if you want a properly worldbuilt playing card game in Westeros, with regional variations, I’d ask @warsofasoiaf, that sounds right up his alley. Though since you are asking me… hmm, I’d go with a bicolor 4 x 14 + 2 deck. Red and black, for the Targaryens. The Italian suits (cups, coins, clubs, swords) as that sounds properly medieval. 10 ranking cards (1-10), 4 court cards (knight, queen, king, dragon). And two fools, red and black.

As for variations, regional ones might replace the 1 with the local paramount sigil (wolf, rose, lion, etc). But I can actually see historical variations being more popular – green and black during the Dance; the red and black dragons being used to indicate allegiance circa the Blackfyre Rebellions (Bloodraven has the game banned when he’s Hand, of course); yellow and black with stags instead of dragons post-Robert’s Rebellion.

Hope you like!

[fireflysummers]

Happy birthday!? Celebrate the anniversary of when you left the warm comfort of your mother's womb for this cold uncaring monster of a world. Reflect on the years you've survived, clinging bitterly to life against all odds. Eat some cake.

Sounds about right. 

Didn’t have a cake though.

I spent it with my cat, though, so that’s just as good. :3

[racefortheironthrone]

Hermdoggydog's question got me thinking: why does no foreign power ever beseige the Iron Bank of Braavos. Some of its deposits are likely coinage or other tangible goods. To make war on the Bank would surely be to make war on Braavos itself, and potentially the city-state's allied, but it might be worth it in some instances.

You’ve answered your own question. Attacking the Iron Bank means attacking Braavos. The latter has been tried and it’s always been a ruinous failure. 

[faant]

@hermdoggydog MORE POR FAVOR

You’re an ancient Greek man coming home from 4 months of war to find your wife 3 months pregnant. Now you’ve embarked on a solemn quest: to punch Zeus in the face.

[zacksfairest]

Who’s your Unsounded oc from that post you reblogged a while back, if you don’t mind my asking? (In case you don’t remember, it’s originally from unsoundedcomic and starts with “Do you ever see any OCs for your comic?”)

I think it’s you at least. It’s described as “ Cassie’s OC,” you have “Cassie” on your profile thing, and the oc mostly “exists to be smooched on by Lemuel,” so it’s a pretty safe bet I’d say.

Bless you, anon, for assuming that I am ever forgetting that ask. Also for giving me the benefit of the doubt and thinking that there is more than one Lemuel obsessed Cassie with an OC to smooch Lem. You're a gem.

The fic that Ashley referenced in that ask that she answered is this one, which I entered in the Unsounded fanfic contest back in 2018. It is not even remotely my best work, and I really just threw my hat in the ring because, after reading the comic for so long and loving it so much, I just wanted to contribute.

There are other fics I've written, too, which can be found here. Ironically, my favorite fic that I wrote is A'den, which is a Star Wars crossover.

Oh!  And my friend @hermdoggydog actually wrote a fic for the 2021 Unsounded fanfic contest using Addilyn!  That can be found here.

But, anyway, yeah that's me lmao. And I'm about to bore you to tears.

Her name is Addilyn Theron—Addie for short. She's a semon woman in the Lions of Mercy under Lemuel's command.

Here, please see this dollmaker rendition I made of her some months ago:

Please know that I play fast and loose with the rules of the Unsounded world (especially Alderode) in order to have my fun.

So, as a semon, Addilyn is a part of the lowest caste, as well as the most numerous one. She came from a shitty family of thieves and ne'er-do-wells, and she didn't really have many options open to her. She knew that she was doomed to a life of crime or a destitute existence in a whore house (or perhaps even an early grave) if she didn't find a way to claw her way out of there.

So, she turned to the Council Army.

Now, I am very aware that Alderode is a highly patriarchal society and deeply misogynistic. Please do not judge me.

But anyway, my reasoning for making this work is that she probably lived in some town close to the border with Cresce, so the Council Army would be less inclined to be picky when recruiting from those towns. Especially where the semon caste was concerned. Yeah, she's a woman, but whatever. She'll probably be dead in a week anyway. And the semon breed like rats, right? She'll hardly be missed. At least it's one more body to throw at Cresce.

So they turned their heads and allowed her to sign up.

Well, it turned out that she was actually rather good at soldiering. She grew up rough and had rudimentary fighting abilities, and she had good instincts when it came to carrying out orders most effectively (and also how best not to die).

Addilyn lasted far longer than she should have, but managed to skirt under the radar for the most part. She didn't advertise her gender, but it was a mostly open secret. She'd kept enough of the men she fought with alive to keep them from giving her too much trouble.

But one day she wound up saving the son of some Copper politician whose vliegeng ride was shot down by Crescian forces. The lad lost a leg, but was otherwise alive. His father was incredibly grateful, and offered Addilyn any favor she wished.

And so she asked for the impossible: to join the Lions of Mercy.

Her Copper benefactor made it happen, but no one was happy about it. The brass knew they couldn't exactly tell him no, but they were determined to make this blow up in Addilyn's face. Who could they give her to? How best to either get her killed within a few months, or have her desert and put her head on a pike?

Give her to that new soud captain, they decided. He'll either get her killed (because soud always fuck up in the end, just like the semon), or he'll drive her to abandon her post and they can string her up for desertion.

Well, long story short, that doesn't happen. Lem hates this at first, and hates being saddled with this obvious attempt to oust him in some capacity. But Addilyn is good at this, and turns out to be not only a good soldier, but a good friend.

And, of course, that leads to Feelings. Because I'm disgusting.

This obviously sucks for Lem, because it was never part of his fratricidal plans to actually have feelings for someone. And boy does he feel the agony in his folly.

Aaaaaand, that's her! I've never actually had to publicly talk about her, only my closest friends have dealt with my self-indulgent ramblings, so boy do I feel exposed! But, yeah, there she is, in all of her cringe glory.

Thank you for asking!

[hermdoggydog]

Superb luck that on my birthday I ended up with not one but TWO red velvet cakes. Also went ice skating so that was cool. #birthday #cakes #sosweet #andididnthavetomakethem (at Washington D.C.) https://www.instagram.com/hermdoggydog/p/CXVM8wou9RQ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[unsoundedcomic]

Is Minnow making a war grave for all the dead soldiers (or just the ones she grabbed badges from)? Because if so, that would make Quigley's dick move even worse, and also aligning Minnow's actions with Duane's (giving the fallen some respect).

She wants to leave the tags in a place she knows humans will find them, since she knows her sisters won’t be leaving any identifiable bodies. She knows their families will be looking for them. She’s sad. She hates that they kill each other like this. She wants to do what she can.

Even Duane's not all that sure what she’s doing - waterwomen just don’t act this way. It’s hard to blame Quigley for assuming she’s just another feral monster.

[grimoireemil]

hermdoggydog replied to your post “I am trying way too hard to trace back the origins of magic in my...”

tbh i haven't seen settings that spell out the origin of magic. literally only unsounded might do that, and it's more baked into mythology and theology than anything else...

Yeah like at some point you kind of have to ground your magic system in some kind of theological system or some higher power if you try to track it down from the beginning unless you’re going to find a way to link your magic with the big bang or an incident of science fucking up or it’s all a simulation so that’s where magic is from

But in fantasy gods and alternate worlds is common so that’s where the power of magic gets pinned

[lemueladeliers]

@hermdoggydog replied to your post: “new icon bc i love him”:

i'm surprised you didn't change to something from the cover page earlier

I was waiting for a Real Good One™

Backlit Lem with a dramatic anime pose? We can’t possibly get any better than that.

[nitori-sedai]

hermdoggydog replied to your post “hermdoggydog replied to your post “Alyssa maybe? Or Alyssia? Aly is...”

i have never heard it pronounced any other way. i was mainly considering the spelling...

Ah! yeah I was worried about the spelling too ^^;; Because it pretty much should be pronounced as Ally (like an ally in a war), which is probably one of the main reasons I’m still on the fence abut it XD