#i don't want the magic system to be ��chosen one/blood right” stuff.

[bixels]

I wanted to ask this for a while. Are all unicorns in your AU witches or only those who dedicate to learning and developing their magic skills?

Love your art so much

All unicorns-turned-human have a natural calling toward magic, so it comes easier to them (except for Trixie), but only those who train become witches. Miss Rarity, for example, could feasibly do magic, but it doesn't really interest her.

[stabbyfoxandrew]

Okay I have officially started the book now so this will be the start of probably the first part

This is dark. The magic system is really interesting the way it works with them having to put spells in things. The funeral part? Dark (I say like the event isn’t seven people getting together to murder each other)

The different ways they’re chosen and reasons for competing is so intriguing. Also the different receptions they receive. Some seen as monsters, some potential heroes, some innocents, some failures before they have the chance to prove themselves unworthy. And the Curse Clause protecting them from consequences of generational murder tournaments fits the magickal society (typing it the way they do keeps getting autocorrected so the way I spell it may switch throughout this sorry <3)

Alistair using Page Turner on himself?!?!? There are more defective ways of getting blood than that oh no this is going to get gorey real fast. And the grandmother’s response is ‘wow, should’ve cursed yourself. Do better next time’

‘Villainy in the modern age was a delicate balance’ —I’m not that far in but I’m willing to bet this is a one sentence explanation of a lot

I do not like eye stuff at least it was brief

And that’s the end of Part 1 (pages 1-50ish ~ hope I’m not bothering you and advance warning that I’m definitely going to lose count in the middle. I’m gonna type Part 3 like four times I know it)

—💖💖

I know!!! Right from the start it's just wild! Also yes, the Chosen Ones being so different and so alike... It's crazy. They were raised to die! What the FUCK is wrong with y'all? TWT Please, the high magick can't be that amazing. (Also no worries! Honestly, the spelling of 'magick' got on my nerves. It doesn't need a 'k' on the end. That just makes it clunky!!!)

PAGE TURNER! That part freaked me the fuck out. Like baby girl what do you mean you're just peeling your skin off!?! STOP NOWWWWW. (Also I hate Alistair's grandmother SOOO much I want to burn her alive!!!!)

BE WARNED MY LOVE, THERE IS MORE EYE STUFF LATER. I would offer to get the specific pages/chapters for you but I already turned my books back in on Libby so I can't. TwT Sorry.

Haha, hit me with a dozen 'part 3s' I don't mind! <333 See you later!<33

[squirrelwrangler]

Hi! I found your tumblr because you reblog Silmarillion stuff. :) I saw some of your posts about WOT, and I was curious about it... Are the books good? Because from what I've read about them so far they sound kind of sexist? This is a genuine question, I'm not trying to start discourse. I just figured i'd ask you because you also like the Silm, so you obviously have good taste :)

Okay, so you're a Tolkien fan so you're used to the sexism discourse in old dead white guy fantasy. Which, unfortunately, Robert Jordan counts as since he died of a rare blood disease less than a decade ago. And hey, I like what I like and won't claim that I don't like some popcorn books/shows and 'trash'. But yes, I love Wheel of Time, its warts and all. And there are large parts of it that I hate or skip or think is weak- in part because it is so so so so very very massive, there's a graphic out there somewhere that compares the word count of WoT as that of A Song of Ice and Fire + Hobbit-LotR-Silmarilion + Harry Potter + a few other series to get to the same number.

Now, WoT is more formative to me than any of Tolkien's work, I am honest and self-aware to admit. Which is sort of funny, because of the irony. See, the first Wheel of Time book was published in 1990. And pretty much if you were writing epic fantasy back then, the publishers wanted authors to recreate LotR in plot and feel. So the publishers forced a more LotR-like tone onto Robert Jordan, whose interest was in world-building and a focus on a Chosen One hero who did NOT want to do this prophecy stuff (I'm also overjoyed that Dune is getting its more faithful big adaptation at the same time that WoT comes out because there are parallels). Which nowadays a reluctant hero doesn't sound all that revolutionary, nor that the books have a GIANT ensemble cast, or a strongly defined hard magic system with clear rules and systems that isn't just a copy of the D&D rulebook, or that there is a HEAVY focus on political scheming - or that the gender divide for characters is closer to equal (the first book has a mostly male skewed pov chapter, but then it starts to even out and most of the later books if tallied up are told from 50/50 or more female POVs). For instance, the Gandalf/Dumbledore figure is a middle-aged bi woman. By Book Three or Four the series can in no way be mistaken as a LotR clone.

Now, the author was a cis white vietnam vet dude and he wasn't perfect at writing female characters and there's dated gender politics - but unlike contemporaries, he was trying to grapple with gender, he made the effort to focus on female characters. Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve are almost or as important as Mat, Perrin, and Rand. In-universe almost all the societies are skewed politically to favor women as much -or in most cases more, than men, because in his 'he's confused but he has the right spirit' way, RJ was making a point about patriarchy. The tv show is having to deal with some of the core parts of the worldbuilding that is problematic when it comes to trans - as the magic system has a gender binary. But compared to the fantasy that came before it and its gender issues...laughs.

Are there way too many book fans that seemed to completely misunderstand the series thanks to their own internalized misogyny? Sadly yes. Same fans that also didn't realize that the fantasy world wasn't default white for everyone. (I am so very done with the review bombing of the TV show).

Or hey- I'm also a fan of a lot of shonen manga. Wheel of Time would not put up with how sidelined female characters are in almost all shonen.

The books won't feel like they're aligned with modern sensibilities in part because this is the transitional series. WoT and RJ actually inspired GRRM to write A Song of Ice and Fire and to have that political feuding families work in a fantasy universe. (Seriously, omg, ASoIaF/GoT is to me always will be the poor man's WoT. GRRM's POVs are more distinct from one another and thus technically better writing for most part- but worldbuilding and plot and characters and prophecy and shit, lol, WoT hands down win. Also, while there's a problem with BSDM/bondage kink undertones and such especially as you go on- actual sexual violence is VERY rare in WoT. And again- it sits between LotR and GoT in describing violence and battles. But also the masterclass in foreshadowing and symbolism and meta-story ...eat your heart out, GRRM). There is queer rep but it's mostly alluded, wink-nods, and not for main characters.

There's a lot of fantasy fans on youtube and other places that break down WoT and the issues and strengths/weaknesses, impact, etc...

But, the thing is: I read the first 8 books in a heady rush of enthusiasm when I was fourteen, maybe fifteen years old - and even though each book was clocking in of average about 900 to well over 1000 pages (they are lovingly dubbed The Bricks by the fandom), it took me about twelve days because i. did. not. stop.

I cannot objectively judge this series.

[not-ur-normie]

Cristal witches, aka Sasha making headcanons for the world of Eldarya

I have this idea since forever at this point, so I figured it wouldn't hurt a fly to talk about it a little. It comes from years before when I wanted my OC to not be human but some kind of magic creature, so here we go.

English is not my first languange, so I am apologizing in advance.

Note: Throughout the post, the timespan is after the Blue Sacrifice, but I will talk about that too later on.

Who are cristal witches?

Cristal witches are witches who hold power connected to maana.

The bigger maana surronds them, the bigger their powers get

The reason they are called cristal witches is because they can form a connection with the Crystal

They are creatures with big potencial to play big roles in Eldarya, but that is exactly the point where things go wrong

More about witches

Most cristal witches are women, it's really rare when a male is born and inherits magical power, but there are cases when it happens

There were never any worry about them dying out, since the genes are VERY strong

When a male and female cristal witch have a child who is also one, they turn out way stronger then the others who only have one parent being one

Don't get me wrong, one parent makes the kid already strong as it is, but two parents are just a whole new level

Cristal witches all have tattoos, all in different colors. Most of the time the colors don't have anything to do with the powers they can hold, but lighter colors indicate lighter powers, meaning: lighter colors can't use magic that requires bigger maana usage, like black magic, or healing magic

(If you play the game, you sure know the voodoo outfit, I based the tattoos on those tattoos, so you can see the colors if you google it)

Since cristal witches are a heavily mixed community thanks to the overload of women, there are times where kids inherit both of their parents specific genetics

It's rare tho, because of the witch genes mixing up with other races' is not that common

But when it happens, it always gains attention

Cristal witches are not just cristal witches because they are connected to the Crystal, but because they literally have crystals all over their body

These crystals are mostly small ones and has the color of the tattoos

They are really human-like, so if they can hide their tattos and crystals they can perfectly blend in, which did come handy at some point

Their lifespan is about 150-200 years

They are able to open the portal to the human world

(here you can see the children of my OC [Chrystal] and Ezarel, who were lucky enough to inherit both of their parents genes, so they are witches with elf ears.)

How did they live?

Back then cristal witches lived in small communities, mostly small villages, but there where some communities living a full nomad life

Since they live so long, there were not many of them to begin with

These smaller communities lived close to each other way back then, but the nomad communities started to move around after a while

These are highly spiritual communities, especially that they are fully able to communicate with the Oracle if they wish so

They had special type of education, where witches were learning to use basic magic, while non-witches who lived with them learned alchemy

They had strict rules, that everybody needed to follow, they weren't allowed to use their power randomly

They needed to get an approval to use magic that requires more manna than your basic magic, and also to use dangerous or risky magic

If somebody went against this rule more than 5 times, they got their magic taken away

They choose new leader every year, although if a leader was good, they sticked with them and kept on picking them

The leader was not leading alone, although they made the final decisions

There were many smaller position available next to the leader, which are also chosen by the other witches

Overally they are really pieceful, so the conflicts are not that common

Cristal witches are able to do many things with magic, but it takes a lifetime to gain a really controlled power, so older, well-educated witches are highly respected and the leader was chosen from them most of the times

Some really strong witches are even able to bring back people from the death, but only if they're right there when the death happens

The Blue Sacrifice

The reason that Cristal witches were never part of the council that planned out the Sacrifice was that the races forming the council agreed that Eldarya could need them in the future (and they were damned right)

Before the Sacrifice taken place, witches were not that strong than after it happend

I imagine it the way, that once the sacrifice was made, Eldarya alone had more maana than when the two worlds were one and since witches' powers are mostly maana based, it made their powers grow way stronger than before

(I hope this makes sense lol)

Where things went wrong

As I mentioned before, they are creatures with big potential

When the Blue Sacrifice went wrong, the races in Eldarya needed the witches help the most

Almost every community, town, villige, whatever had at least one witch living with them to help out whenever there were high need

The problem is, that there was always high need; as we know Eldarya was in trouble

With the help of the witches it was easier to go for supplies to the human world, although only those communities could do this who had stronger, more experienced witches

There were even witches who were able to cast spells and make the field able to grow some edible plants

And this is exactly where things went terribly wrong

Since cristal witches have a high value, there were many who hunted them or tortured them for their powers

Why? Well, I know all the above reasons would be enough, but there are more to it

Cristal witches' blood is able to make the lifespan of whoever drinks it longer

And not just that, but it can completely function as food, it stops hunger for longer periods of time (weeks, sometimes months, depending on power) and makes the immune system 100% healthy

It was also used for really expensive medication

You know what else is really valuable? The tears of witches.

It can fasten healing and was used for many medication as well as their blood

But only tears that hold heavy emotions count, since the tear drops turn into little crystals

These informations spread real fast after a while and witch hunts became so serious that at one point several communities started to think that it would be better to sacrifice them as well so maybe Eldarya could gain its full balance [the Guard of El also wanted this, just in case you were curious]

Witches would've 100% sacrificed themselfs if they got asked by the time the Blue Sacrfice happend

But after all the terror they went through, their trust was completely broken

They did not want to die for all these selfish folks wanting to murder them, not thinking about their race for a single second

So one day they completely vanished

Nobody knows how exactly, the common guess was that they opened the portal and moved to the human world, giving up on their magic

I mean everything was better than dying for your murderers

After the vanish

Of course, not all of the witches vanished, but the witch communities that lived together

Those who lived in certain places helping out stayed there

Back then the Guard of El had a witch with them too

Sadly, they got scared of her possibly gaining control over the guard, since she was very much loved... So they decided to kill her [yes, they wanted to sacrifice her, and then killed her, way to go]

The last known cristal witch was a male, living with the Fenghuangs, but he died just before The Origins' story starts

But... Are they really all gone?

Okaaaay soooo I bet there are stuff in this which doesn't exactly fit the story and/or I remember incorrectly, but it is what it is.

On the very first art you can see my OC named Chrystal. Well, she arrives to Eldarya the same way Erika did in the original story, the main difference is that she turnes out to be a cristal witch and this fact leaves the guard in a numb shock. Suddenly the only living cristal witch is with them and that is changing their situation entirely.

I am sure I will write down Chrystals story with illustratons and whatnot, but currently I am working on my Moonligh Lovers' OC's illus, so that will take some time.

Anyway, this will have another part, I wanna at least introduce Chrystal so you can see a cristal witch in action, hurray.

Ah, yeah, if there are facts from the game messed up, feel free to tell me, I am not biting. You can also use this idea for your ocs, I don't mind. Hugs<3

[words-writ-in-starlight]

you know what also pissed me off about supernatural, though? the inability to commit to their own worldbuilding. even while clinging to a static paradigm, where The Masquerade is in full effect, they couldn't be consistent about what sort of underground magic communities do and don't exist. I know this can be blamed on multiple writers and all, but it drives me up the wall. f.ex. witches are All Evil and tend to work alone, until that episode with the familiars when you find a bunch of nice(r)

witches who go to witchbars and hardly ever poison each other’s drinks, oh and also familiars are athing. a while later spike and cordelia are witches who’ve had a tempestuousrelationship for… centuries I think, aka witches can live for a really longtime, so there’s no way the bigger/older ones don't all know each other. thereought to be SOME sort of witch ‘society’, even if it’s just loosecommunication. but no, after this you never hear of witches ever again, muchless familiars or witch

bars. then you’ve gotBela, who caters to rich people who know magical artifacts exist, but there’sno exploration of what that could MEAN – if Bela can hold down a job, thenenough of the country’s elite own and exploit magic stuff that it could –SHOULD – have at least some effect on US politics, as in who gets power.there’s never a whisper of that, but okay, this isn’t exactly the winchesterboys’ social scene. but failing that, some of these magic-obsessed rich peopleshould turn up for a

few episodes, eitherhaunted or else guilty of inflicting a monster-of-the-week on someone. heck,one of them could be a recurring vaguely-helpful character that the boys stopby and menace a bit whenever they need access to some excessively obscureartifact. you already mentioned the mess of all those Alpha Monsters who werepowerful and unkillable and stuff, and had their own dread agendas withpotentially far-reaching consequences for their respective species, and thenjust… vanished. I don’t

even remember how. andthen there’s the hunter community, which is the most inconsistent of all. firstit’s just these two and their dad, and then they start finding out their dad’sold friends were all actually hunters or oracles or whatever. so far so good;these are just Mysteries Of Our Father’s Past, and valid character/plotdevelopment stuff. but there’s Bobby, who Knows Everyone, and Ellen, whose barevery hunter in the country frequents sooner or later, and this means huntersknow each

other, know about eachother, they have a network of communication and they share intel, gossip, tradesecrets. but the moment the bar blows up there’s just no network, noconnection, nothing at all binding hunters together, even though Bobby stillknows everyone and Ellen and Jo are still around and plenty able to found a newbar if they wanted to, or at least keep in touch with at least half of thepeople who used to swing by their bar. oh and also the demons! they talk aboutcomplex politics

happening in Hell, theyhave some sort of prophesied demon queen who takes the body of a young girl andhas glowing white eyes (I don’t even remember what happened to her), they havedemon religion and spirituality to the point where Lucifer is basically DemonJesus – I’m pretty sure this is explicitly stated, Lucifer is to the demonswhat Jesus is to really devout Christians, semi-mythical status and prophesiedsecond coming and everything – and the show makes an effort to flesh out itsdemonic

characters, give thempersonality and desires and drives, and it shows distinct differences in howdifferent demons feel about humanity, and about what they do, and all that. yetdespite all this, the only demon we meet who doesn’t immediately try to murderthe boys is Ruby. no one tries to bargain honestly with the boys, no one butCrowley tries to aim the boys at their own enemies, no one begs for mercy orlies about repentance. nothing. can you imagine if those demons who told Sam totake up

his antichrist mantleand lead a demon army decided that, since their Chosen One was unwilling, theyought to convince him? what if a bunch of demons had started discreetly tailingthe boys, showing up sometimes to rescue them from really bad fights or offerup dead monsters like housecats offering dead birds? ‘hey chosen one, we caughtyou this demon who’s high up in Crowley’s hierarchy, do you want to torture himfor information yourself or do you want us to do it?’ they solemnly swear that

that they’ve stoppedkilling humans, they keep quietly growing in number, and they always scrambefore the boys are conscious enough to kill them properly. sam and dean havemany arguments about whether they were REALLY too concussed to stab theirlatest demonic rescuer and get absurdly angsty and argumentative about it. Iknow my rant has gotten pretty thoroughly disorganized and this is moving backinto must-have-a-static-paradigm territory, but I am a little bitter.

THIS IS ALSO SUCH A GOOD POINT there is just so much to be bitter about with this show, like, good god, you’d think that sooner or later they’d run out of basic narrative rules to fuck up.

Speaking of rules, I think this is a manifestation of one of Supernatural’s wider problems, which is that they just DO NOT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND THE RULES OF THEIR OWN UNIVERSE.  Like, all they’ve REALLY nailed down is that demons can be exorcised, but anything that isn’t a demon is pretty much at the mercy of the plot for A) how powerful it is, B) how hard to kill it is, and C) how ‘human’ it’s considered.  Like, everything from werewolves to wendigos are stated to be at least PART human, but basically their ‘humanness’ and subsequently the amount of sympathy accorded to them is predicated on how benign (or how attractive) they look in their human form.  The magic of this universe is wildly unpredictable--the Winchesters sometimes do/dabble in magic themselves, but we never really learn how magic works.  Does it require a focus?  Does it require badly-pronounced Latin?  Is it an expression of the user’s willpower?  Is it similar to what demons do (implied when All Witches Are Wicked for the first few seasons) or not?  Does it require natural talent or can anyone learn it?  THERE ARE SO MANY QUESTIONS THAT ARE TOTALLY IGNORED.  THEN there’s the question of societies in this supernatural underworld.  Like, I think I’ve expressed in my John Wick comments how much I like functional underworld societies with rules and systems, but honestly it’s CRITICALLY necessary if you’re doing what SPN does and having the society Matter.  I cringe every time I think about how clumsy and slapdash the hunting community was in Supernatural, because it had SO MUCH POTENTIAL, don’t talk to me about it, I made it work better when I wrote my spite novel.  I’m sure I can think of fifty million more incomplete universe rules, but I can honestly feel my blood pressure rising right now so I’m going to stop.

OH MY GOD GUYS, please, if you’re a writer, let me beg you right now in person to figure out the rules of your universe and then commit.  Here are some pointers.

Magic should work in a conceptually similar way to gravity: its rules should be consistent and should be able to be broadly extrapolated from the general effect, and if you’re going to BREAK those rules you’ve got to have a damn fine reason.  

The sliding scale of ‘humannness’ should...slide less, to be completely honest, work your shit the fuck out EARLY or make working your shit the fuck out a plot point (please see Stormdancer for a good example).  

If you’re dealing with questions of what makes someone human (@SPN FOR LIKE FOUR FUCKING SEASONS) then you should actively question like “Hey, my dude, can we morally kill this person for something they have no control over” unless your character took the trait ‘Callous’ somewhere in their history (which is also fine).

If you have an underworld society--or any society tbh???--WORK YOUR SHIT OUT.  How do they work together (ex: hunters pretending to be ‘the boss’ when someone calls the number on that fake business card)?  How do they support each other (ex: safehouses? maybe? this is never discussed in SPN? and I hate it?)?  What are the things people differ on (ex: whether or not to murder the Winchesters, which, like, I know you’re supposed to be against that because they’re the protagonists, but by the time I bailed I def wanted someone to shoot them)?  Is there an assumption of free exchange of favors or is there a strict financial/bargaining system?   How much does one person vouching for another matter in the community?  ANSWER SOME BASIC QUESTIONS FFS

Finally, most crucially, for the love of all that is good, Pick A Plot.  One plot.  It can have subplots (example: an overarching plot broken up by smaller missions, a la your average TV show) or multiple acts (as in a play, where you’ve got a couple major pieces that assemble into the main plot, like Much Ado where you’ve got (roughly) the matchmaking, the wedding, the vengeance, and the resolution), but it should be One Plot and you need to tie up those motherfucking loose ends.

This has been “Hey look turns out that 6K later I have Even More Complaints about Supernatural” with Moran.