#house of apocalypse

[hallowgracie]

Americana in High Fantasy

As apparently this is the project that is gearing up to take over next when To Sail on Seas of Sky wraps up, I've been thinking more about House of Apocalypse lately and its setting.

House of Apocalypse is a high fantasy project taking place in another world that is inspired by California in the 1970s. How I came to this idea was kind of an interesting one.

There have been a lot of discussions lately about how fantasy--especially high fantasy--is very much locked in medieval Europe, maybe venturing as far forward as the Edwardian era if anything. While there have been attempts to include other traditions and continents, I realized that for all that a lot of Americans such as myself write fantasy, we don't often write fantasy about our country.

This is an idea that has intrigued me for a long time. One of my abandoned projects, Sorcerers of the Iron Circle (later the Divine Legacy) was initially a take on this, taking Regency-era fantasy and putting it across the pond to the Federalist era in a fantasy country inspired by America. To Sail on Seas of Sky also has this element, being inspired by the New World era piracy and how certain elements of piracy and pirate culture eventually fed into American ideals of democracy and self-sufficiency.

Because while Europe has its divine right of kings, China has the Mandate of Heaven, we in America have our cultural myths surrounding democracy and the American Dream.

There has been a lot of discourse and disillusionment with the ideas in modern American culture, and for good reason. But as someone who was once a little girl who played with American Girl dolls, I still cannot help but hold a fascination for our cultural myths.

We tell a story of young revolutionaries who were creating a brand new system, one that allows the people to decide (while avoiding the question of which people) and a more fair and equal system than the divine right of kings (again, debatable in real life). We tell stories of people who forged new lives out of terrible circumstances, of people coming to America for new lives and finding it, a found family of sorts.

Hamilton as a stage musical does a really good job at exploring the cultural myths and pathos surrounding our Founding Fathers and the Revolutionary War. These ideas are really powerful, and I think they should be explored in a high fantasy setting.

We enjoy seeing the cultural myth of the good king taking the throne and revitalizing the land--why not enjoy the cultural myth of young men from differing circumstances and homelands of birth changing the world to create a more fair system and marking their place in history?

I love American history, and while my country does not always do me proud, I find a lot of intrigue in our stories and cultural values and myths. Hence why I want to explore them as a fantasy writer and make some fantasy worlds inspired by America.

[redroses07]

real

[yourgothgirldowntown]

[puppppppppy]

littlest furth shop

@laikascomet

[borgialucrezia]

"There is a deep love and affection. They're so infatuated with each other and they're very physical in that relationship. That is not something that just came out of the blue for us." (Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia || The Borgias)

"Helaena is the only person that can really get to Aemond’s heart. He cares about her in a way that breaks through his armor. And he doesn’t have that with anyone else. She's the only person that can keep him as Aemond, and can see him as the child he is. That was the undertone — she could say what she wanted and he wouldn’t throw her over the balcony." (Helaena and Aemond Targaryen || House of the Dragon)

(requested by @lucreziaborgia)

[vrtualvr]

“i’m not a violent dog, i don’t know why i bite.”

[omelepun]

Your lips + my lips = apocalypse

[americanwh0rerstory]

KINKTOBER 2024: MASTERLIST

For the extra depraved, screwed up people. here is a selection of fics that will only get worse as the days go on. even if the prompts seem light, by day 31 it will reach the depths of pure depravity

heed my warnings and have fun

1: gun play [tate langdon]

2: brat taming [kit walker]

3: public sex [jimmy darling]

4: kinky murder [james patrick march]

5: brainwashing/manipulation [kai anderson]

6: blood play [austin sommers]

7: inappropriate use of mutation [quicksilver]

8: risky sex [max cooperman]

9: toys [alex from adult world]

10: domination [michael langdon]

11: submission [tate langdon]

12: bdsm [kit walker]

13: prostitution [jimmy darling]

14: knife play [James Patrick March]

15: boot riding [kai anderson]

16: CNC [kai anderson]

17: period sex [austin sommers]

18: high sex [quicksilver]

19: before a fight [max cooperman]

20: voyeurism [alex from adult world]

21: dub-con [michael langdon]

22: cocaine and boobs [tate langdon]

23: smoke kink [kit walker]

24: drunk sex [jimmy darling]

25: threesome [james patrick march + the countess]

26: so many depraved things i don't even know how to summarise it [kai anderson]

27: cockwarming quicksilver]

28: mirror fucking max cooperman]

29: rule 34 [alex from adult world]

30: desecration of a sacred alter michael langdon]

31: orgy. [multiple characters]

[rottenaangelwings]

AHS characters played by Evan Peters

[hallowgracie]

The Little Red/Wolf Suite: House of Apocalypse and the Retelling of Little Red Riding Hood

Dorian Beltane, the male lead of my 70s-inspired high fantasy House of Apocalypse was not originally a part of this story. The leads of the first version of House of Apocalypse were Julien Frey and Luna Danaan, the characters you might recognize now as the parents of the current lead, Solene Frey.

I have the habit of recycling and merging story concepts together, and a concept that ended up joining House of Apocalypse was a werewolf romance in the vein of your typical Wattpad subgenre fair, A Girl Called Luna. (This was the reason that Solene was originally Luna Frey and named after her mother, was they were two girls with the same first name in different stories!)

But Dorian came from this, and was going to be a play on some of the tropes associated with werewolf romance and deconstruct them in the way that Huron Lamar does in The Witch and the Wolf, my web novella debut.

With Dorian specifically, I wanted to play on the concept of the Big Bad Wolf in the role he often plays in Little Red Riding Hood retellings, as both lover and antagonist to "Red." A major influence for the character was one of the routes in The Cinderella Phenomenon, which I will be vague about for the sake of spoilers.

The moment that was key for creating Dorian from Cinderella Phenomenon is where the Big Bad Wolf character, who is the split personality of one of the male leads, claims that he did not come from nowhere, that he existed within the male lead before he was ever cursed to be the Big Bad Wolf and replay that fairytale.

Dorian starts out as the Golden Retriever Boyfriend Archetype, but is supposed to be the Big Bad Wolf (here merged with legends of Fenrir from Norse mythology) and will be pushed down that path as the events of the story progress. While there is duality to it, where Dorian was a clingy, kind love interest to Solene to start, as the Wolf becomes more prominent, he grows more ruthless, obsessive, and single-minded--Dorian is not suffering from a split personality.

This always existed within him, the Wolf did not come from nothing.

This is critical to achieving the character as I envisioned him. It gives him accountability for his actions, which is important to me in the part of this story that is a Red Riding Hood retelling. "Red" or Solene isn't to blame for anything he does, for trusting him or loving him. Him taking on a darker aspect throughout the story and playing out that story is his choice--as desperate and understandable as we will come to find him in that story segment. And he has to face that and know it about himself in order to overcome his challenges and become a better person, thereby defying destiny.

Right now I'm starting with the "Wolf Suite" as I've nicknamed that section of the story because it is the furthest he will go, his worst actions and the closest he will be to the fairytale Big Bad Wolf. In writing these segments first, I'm making sure I understand and have defined Dorian and Solene and their relationship at its most primal level. It's also what defines their individual characters the most, the answer to who they are in the dark.

I'm going to have to keep refining and retuning these scenes, as their first drafts haven't gotten that balance down in the way that I'd like. But that's alright. I'm taking my time and making sure that I've defined this aspect of their relationship well.

As the lovers and the main characters of House of Apocalypse, the "Wolf Suite" is the dark heart of the story. And I will make sure I've gotten that right before anything else can continue.

[redroses07]

said what i said

[yourgothgirldowntown]

[galoogamelady]

My last illustration for the Wastelands 2023 artbook was titled "Plains". It was inspired by my own childhood experience of riding a bike around in the countryside and being chased by stray dogs.

[dancingdaffodils08]

Does he need heirs by any chance?🙏

[clonebrainrot]

Redoing this poll as I goofed by not including the followers of the apocalypse.

[misticfog]

Regarding recently seen discussions about Harvey's reaction to Willow dating Hunter:

Bonus: