#i have got withering incantation plans in SPADES

[bestworstcase]

@chaoticcolaa​ on this post: 

RATGT PLS!! Omg that episode already got pretty dark but I can’t wait to see what you have in mind because it could’ve gone ALL THE WAY if it weren’t a kid show lol. Do you have plans for the decay incantation?? I’ve always wanted to see something more dark and sinister come from it. It has such a great deal of power and destruction that is never really built on so it’d be amazing to see your take on it

>:)

i’ve posted various drafts of these here before but as i cannot be bothered to find them again rn. the bitter snow incantations ft 3.5 rewrites and a ✨bonus✨

HEALING INCANTATION - SUNDROP *this one is just canon lmao

flower, gleam and glow let your power shine make the clock reverse bring back what once was mine

heal what has been hurt change the fates’ design save what has been lost bring back what once was mine

&

INVOCATION OF HUMA - SUNDROP flower, bloom and shine let the dawn be bright make the darkness fade and let my hope ignite

mantle me in flame gift me with your light turn the night to day and let my hope ignite

demanitus composed both of these based on the meter and poetic structure of the prayer-incantations used by the cult of turul in aphelion. their self-referential nature / the use of first person would have been a huge no-no in the aphelionese tradition but demanitus did not care particularly about the religious context of the aphelionese incantations.

the structure of the aphelionese incantations goes like:

invocation epithet poetic conceit request

naming of power action action repetition of request

and demanitus, due to his disinterest in the religious context, substituted the epithet line for a third action line, which has the side effect of making his incantations both more potent and more volatile.

- - - - - -

HYMN FOR THE SHADOWS (WITHERING) - MOONSTONE ADIRA’S PARTIAL TRANSLATION (2nd verse) wane and burn away make all courage flee break apart the earth and set the darkness free

&

TROMUS’S TRANSLATION opal borne of night daylight’s bitter bane burn to ashen dusk and let the shadows reign

wither and lament shatter hope with pain blacken all the earth and let the shadows reign

there’s no language variety in TTS, but there is in bitter snow! which means that the aphelionese incantations are, of course, written in aphelionese, and the versions the gang encounters are translations. so these are two versions of the same incantation (& both rewrites of canon’s wither and decay) and the main difference between them is the sensibilities of the translators. 

adira’s is a straightforward and unromantic translation that attempts to convey the meaning of the original as bluntly as possible whilst respecting the meter. tromus on the other hand tries to capture not just the meaning but the feeling of the original aphelionese, so it doesn’t just respect the meter, it also delves into more elaborate imagery and has a touch of grandiosity.

- - - - - -

HYMN FOR THE TEETH (PETRIFYING) - MOONSTONE opal borne of ice lord of song and snow soothe the brutal dark and let the hunger go

silence and bestill mend the rot below chain the hurt in stone and let the hunger go

this one is new! it’s the counter for the withering incantation! tromus translates this one also, hence its stylistic similarities to his translation of the withering incantation.

- - - - - -

INVOCATION OF TURUL - MOONSTONE crescent high above warden of the skies set the stars ablaze and let the thunder rise

strengthen and defend end the daylight’s lies soar into the night and let the thunder rise

this one is going to end up with another “translated” variant once we hit blooms and sings, because this is the “aphelionese” version of it - ie the one adira uses at the end of benighted. from her perspective, she’s reciting this incantation in her native language - aphelionese - so it’s not a translation, it’s just transcribed into english because that’s what the story is written in.