#magical otherworld

[typhin-hoofbun]

A Milestone

I kinda forgot Tumblr existed for a few weeks, so I forgot to post here to celebrate, but on January 16th, I hit a milestone. Two years of writing.

In that two years, I wrote over half a million words. In 73 chapters across three series. It's been a wild ride. My first story is still going, I haven't finished "Princess Tells Her Story" yet. (I probably will with Book 3, I can't think of anything I can really throw at the duo to challenge them after they've defeated a broken, insane god.)

I've had a pretty small following, but a loyal and supportive one, and I am eternally grateful for that. I can't wait to see where I'll be next year, or the year after that, or the year after that, and so on. ^_^

After Princess Book 3 is done, my next project is probably going to be rewriting Princess Book 1 to be better. It's a little bit of a mess, since each chapter, I didn't know if it would be the last thing I ever posted. So I tried to end it in a way that didn't leave active hanging threads, sort of a "We'll be okay" vibe, in case I couldn't continue. That made it very episodic in nature, since I didn't want to end on a cliffhanger, just in case. I also started a lot of threads that I never properly followed up on (looking at you, Brotherhood of Shadows) because I got distracted. I was very much winging it without any plan. Well, a little bit of a plan, there was quite a bit of "laying groundwork for things planned in Book 2" going on... ^_~ But still, I want to do it better, make it more cohesive, strip the "recap" bits, etc. Handle Princess's backstory better, too. Without properly planning it, it just sorta feels rough around the edges. But it'll be a while yet, I'm barely a third of the way through Book 3.

One of those readers sent me a gift for my anniversary. A box of oranges, from an orchard in Florida. They are absolutely delicious and wonderful and I love them. That reader is none other than my own mother, so of course she knows I love oranges. (You just can't get oranges that good elsewhere.) I just wanted to gush because I'm still giddy about it.

I do still kind of want to publish my work some day. It'd be nice to be able to bring in some extra income, but it'd also just be amazing to see my books on store shelves. To know someone is gonna wander those aisles like I did, look through all the covers, and a stack of paper printed with words is gonna be one filled with words I put together. Of course, anyone who picks up my stuff is probably gonna be doing the same thing I did: grabbing anything with a non-human protagonist on the cover, hoping desperately someone can put words to the feeling of "This human body is Not Me" so they feel less like they're going insane. Even if they aren't conscious of it, like I wasn't. While internet publishing like an e-book via Amazon lacks that feeling of awe, I might still do it anyway. (Would have to get together money to commission cover art, though. I'd love to get "Cover Art" stuff for each book anyway, even if I don't publish, because it'd be cool. ^_^ )

Really, I'm happy with anyone who enjoys my stuff, regardless of their reason. It's just the scenario I come up with in my head, Kid Me surrounded by endless books and trying to find one that lets me see someone else Being Different, and lets me feel it. ^_^;;

I should probably try to post on sites other than FurAffinity. I started to post to Royal Road, but I dunno, something about it just kinda grates on me, I guess. Don't know what. If people have suggestions for sites I should post to, I'd love to hear it. It's been a while since I posted a link to my stuff, so in case anyone reading this hasn't taken a look, here you go.

It's always interesting to see how some people will only follow one story, and some people will follow all three. Vayryn gets the most attention, people love yinglets. Princess gets almost as much as Vayryn, people love dragons but there's so many dragons that it's easy to get lost in the flood. Flopsy doesn't get much attention, she doesn't have people that go looking specifically for hoofbuns. I love writing all three, though. (In the latest Vayryn chapter, she attends a convention and runs into Valsalia himself. The real-life Valsalia said I did "a pretty spot-on impression", which I think is awesome. I tried to capture his friendly, approachable vibe, and I'm glad it came across. ^_^ )

Anyway, I'm going to end this here, because it's already insanely long. Love you all, I'm going to bed! (It's 5:19 AM now...)

[unholyeldritch]

Fairy Rings, a sight to behold.

[lailoken]

While visiting my mom's childhood home for the first time not too long ago, I went out into the nearby forest looking for a fitting place to carry out one of my weekly Gloaming Communions that coincided with our trip. After exploring and enjoying the area for a bit, I discovered this tree that sent a thrill through me.

I have always called such trees, which bear natural openings through their living trunks, "Portal Trees." I learned growing up that they draw the attention of Otherworld entities, which leads to the eventual formation of an energetically charged locus that some people call a "thin place." This denotes a place where it is easier to commune with the numinous planes of reality, and as such, they are significant locales when it comes to work where the Otherworld and its denizen are concerned. Additionally, natural openings such as those of Portal Trees represent a wonderful chance for "passing through" magic.

I look forward greatly to visiting this majestic tree again one day.

[vegarbo]

My classic shoujo manga collection!

[boneszphoto]

someone could get lost out here (otherworld 2024); vancouver island

[liminalsoul]

About the essence of the Akelarre in my practice

For me, traveling to the Otherworld and going to the Sabbath are two connected but well differentiated practices.

While going to the Otherworld allows us to cast spells there, look for answers or communicate with different spirits, sometimes really different from us, that can teach us valuable knowledge, it is in the Sabbath where we are able to know other spirits and witches that, like ourselves, are in some way in a liminal space, either being from this realm, the other one, both or from none of them.

It is in these meetings where we find people like us, those that doesn't belong anywhere but there. It is also a place to rebel against the absurd normality of mundane life and it's conventionalities dancing, festing and, what is more important, learning how to change our reallity in order to start being us the ones who control their reality and not the other way.

Ultimately, it is about following that light of wisdom that will reveal the path we are walking, the real world and, in the end, our inner self.

[anarcheamor]

Okay, Now I Can Talk About Annette's Vodou

Sike! I have to detour through Maria's summoning first. Spoilers for Nocturne will be said here so please stop reading from here if you haven't finished the show.

I know I watched the trailers and saw her summoning birds and thought it was cool but it still took me aback to see it in the show. And I think it's because, for one, knowing that her mother was a speaker made me question why she didn't know speaker magic and, for two, it was the first set of magic that needed a not-plot-relevant explanation for how it works. In the first show, the only times we got explanations for the magic was when something big was happening and the explanations served as part of the setup such as Doctor Saint Germain in the Multiverse of Madness and The Parent Trap: Alucard's Nightmare Editon. For Maria, there wasn't a plot reason for her powers being explained, it just seemed like the show had to provide one because the question was gonna be asked as we were watching. After all, she was summoning animals from somewhere and no other character we have seen had powers to teleport beings from one place to another so casually. Okay, so we have a daughter of a speaker magician who doesn't use speaker magic and we know that her daddy is definitely not capable of teaching it to her so what gives, right? Thus the show (read writers) felt compelled to break a convention from the first show and give us an explanation so that we could understand Maria's abilities and introduce the existence of other realms- something that was introduced in the first Castlevania via Saint Germain: Into The Germainer-verse. And that's fine, nothing too complicated, her relationship with the animals she summons seems to be something both originating from her magic and also from her using them in every day life. Cool! The alternate realm even has a name: the Other World. Alrighty, so I'm certain that it's that simple and we won't need anything else to be explained.

Except there is... turns out that the Otherworld is part of Celtic/Gaelic/Britonic myth which would explain why Maria's powers are different than her mother's as they most likely stem from her father's side of the family. An odd thing to leave out, no? I almost thought it was like Forgemastery where it was a Castlevania original form of magic. A small dive into the native roots of her magic could have added a bit more to her character and have the double effect of prepping us up mentally for Annette's Vodou especially since the two were directly compared but also to help showcase just how different Vodou is from people's traditional views on faith and magic.

Now I should say that my understanding of Vodou is coming from being an outsider to the faith but still connected to it culturally due to my ancestry, upbringing, hearing stories, etc., and then having to fill in the blanks with some research. This isn't gonna be accurate Vodou info because we're talking about a faith with three major variants that all have been pretty secretive for most of their existence due to religious oppression, demonization, and centuries-long attempts at exploiting and capitalizing on their "exoticness". So with all that said, take what I say with a good amount of salt.

Edouard says that Maria's Otherworld sounds like Annette's ancestral plain which is right in the sense that there is AN ancestral plain similar to the Otherworld. AN as in one because, in Vodou, there's multiple "nations" or families of spirits, with each spirit behaving and acting differently in some accordance to the nation they're in. The first red flage here is that the ancestral plain we see is pretty ambiguous and is just a gaggle of spirits in some ethereal place and the spirits themselves are mostly just diversely colored shadows save for Annette's mambo (teacher), Cecille. The next red flag is that Annette's magic is her own. In Vodou, powers are given by the spirits themselves, there's no level of spiritual genetics that can just imbue you with magical ability. Why? Because a major lesson in Vodou is that our strength comes from those who came before us and we can use them to support us as long as we reach out to them. Removing that aspect of Vodou from the equation just turns Annette's magic in regualr magic but with some Haitian flavor on it. And all of this is made most apparent than the biggest red flag...

THEY BROKE PAPA LEGBA'S NECK!?

So, Papa Legba is one of the most beloved of Lwa. First of all, you can't do much without him being involved as you have to talk to him first. Have you ever lived in a neighborhood and there's this gentle old man always sitting at his porch whose basically everybody's grampa? That's Papa Legba and his "house" is the entirety of the lwa nations (although he's considered to be from the Rada nation, one of the major nations I mentioned earlier). But he ain't no slouch and to cross him is to play one of the biggest FAFO games in your life. He's the head guard of all crossroads, doorways, etc., so him being summoned to deal with a portal to Hell and Forgemastery machine sounds appropriate but who thought it was a good idea to have him die? Is he dead? Just... why? How? Can spirits just die now? Ugh... on top of that, they could have just had him possess her. Usually, when Vodou practitioners want something from a lwa, the lwa can only interact physically through a human body so a rite is performed for the lwa to "dance in the head" of a trained practitioner who personally works with them. I can understand cutting corners in the show so that all Annette has to do is focus and call the name of a lwa but this would have been cool to see, allows greater focus on Annette, and allows you to have Papa Legba there without doing him dirtier than what American Horror Story did to him by having him just stand around until his neck gets turned intoa tetris piece.

You can see why I had to take this long to get to my main point, right? The first Castlevania used the straightforwardness of their magic to great effect but Nocturne introduced two new forms of magic with rocky starts because they don't match the formula established by the first set of magic. I hope that we get to see better representation of both.

[bluebellbanshee]

The Fae King decides to throw an enchanted ball in your honour tonight, in the Otherworld 💜💚

What are you wearing to the ball?

How do you arrive?

Who is invited? It's up to you, invite anyone, anything

And what is your entrance song?

Tell me about the night and anything else you'd like to add.

gif by @allura-raine

I want to wear a cape, vintage magical jewelry, a beautiful dress. The location looks like an abandoned mansion in the woods, but for the invited it's full of fairylights, candles, mythical creatures. The guests are from the fae Realm (light and dark), the underworld, demons and gods, satyrns, nymphs, witches, cryptids and ghosts. I imagine my entrance with me being accompanied by wolves while riding on an white elk for being the fae kings special guest this night. The Music from the human realm could be Hoziers work song for the dance and my entrance would be running with the wolves by Aurora. I think the demon and fae realm have a band formed to play the most famous demonic and fairy music. I hope to have fun, meet beings from all worlds, explore food and new things that can not be found in the human world. Maybe a little romance and magic too. 🌟🌿

[magicveiled]

THE GODS OF THE SEELIE COURT & THEIR FCs // pt. 1

Balor - High King / Leader of the Fomorians/enemies of the Tuatha dé Danann

FC: Ian McShane from American Gods

Territory: all of Dubnos - AKA “the Hells”

Manannán mac Lir - Warrior King / God of the sea

FC: Jason Mamoa

Territory: Mag Mell & Emain Ablach ( island paradise of the Otherworld )

Aengus - God of youth, summer, love, and poetry

FC: Aneurin Barnard

Territory: Tír na nÓg

The Dagda - Chief/General of the gods

FC: Magnus Bruun Nielsen from The Last Kingdom

Territory: Mag Mell - land of greatness achieved through honorable death in battle

The Morrígan - Goddess Queen of war, magic, & death

FC: Anya Chalotra from The Witcher (main) Linda Cardellini (alt)

Territory: Mag Mell - land of greatness achieved through honorable death in battle

Lugh - Warrior King & God of the sun & arts

FC: Henry Cavill from The Witcher

Territory: Mag Mell - land of greatness achieved through honorable death in battle

Danu - High Queen of the faeries / head of the Tuatha dé Danann ( the people/children of the goddess Danu)

FC: Charlize Theron from Snow White and The Huntsman

Territory: all of Albios - AKA “the Heavens”

Brigid - Goddess of Healing, Fertility & Protection

FC: Elle Fanning from Sleeping Beauty

Terriroty: Tír na nÓg - paradise / “the land of youth, health, and beauty”

[im-adrienne]

I was just talking about my grandma and her cats and immediately felt a cat scratch on my upper back and the smell of White Owl cigarillos in the living room. Sooooo…my grandma and her cats came to visit and possibly other ancestors. They love to stop by and sit in the living room area and talk shit like only Appalachian people can. They be congregatin’.

My back still stings. That shit hurt.

[blackcrowing]

Not in a weird aesthetic way but...

By Other I mean things like fae, deities, maybe some cryptids (mermaids, selki, werebeings, etc)

[overcaffeinated-paranoia]

Experimental mix media Fox painting, something different than what i usually do, gouache and acrylics on watercolor paper - its been interesting practice! I learned/relearned some things for sure.

[iguessimakejewelrynow]

The Faery Realm collection is live! All available on the website

[lilydvoratrelundar]

reading excalibur 2019. i think we should ban americans from writing brits actually.

[fantasyworldassistantmanager]

Sorry, your card declined. I'll summon the mutant capitalists. Corporate brought them in last year. I'm sure you'll be fine. I'm gonna go behind this bullet proof glass now. Try not to get blood everywhere.

[grapecola]

Into The Vanquished Lands - Pt 2 . . .

Read pt 2 of Into The Vanquished Lands, the story I wrote for the kids I co-teach #writer #WritingCommunity

Written by: Danielle Monique – Wednesday 3 & Thursday 4 May 2023 Based on characters planned by DL and R6 **We continue with the story I’ve written for the kids I co-teach. It is a little long, but bear with me.** * * * * * 3. The Oracle Speaks. Jack’s head was spinning with all the information Zoya had disclosed to them – the rise and fall of the Vanquished Lands, a looming war with an evil…