I know I joked about DVDs but in all seriousness, I'm really glad that there's an option for watching VODs that isn't on Twitch and YouTube. It's been mentioned a few times today, but both of the interfaces of these platforms have been increasingly enshittified. I simply do not use YouTube anymore because of how horrid the interface is. I caught up on campaign 2 entirely on YouTube (and sometimes via podcast) in 2019 with no issues, but it is straight up maddening trying to use it now, and I don't know that I would have made it through the campaign if I was trying to catch up today.
I absolutely understand being tired of additional streaming services and I am absolutely in the same boat, but I also don't know how many people really recognize how gutted media distribution has become in the last ten years in the name of convenience. We all kind of realize it, but it's hard to grasp just how extensive it is. We can talk about independent business choices separately, and we should, but when the only platforms on which you have the option to distribute your work are at best frustrating to use and at worst hostile to human life, when monetization services can censor anyone they please with little explanation and have been cracking down on any content they arbitrarily deem inappropriate, when it is not clear that centralized conglomerate social media sites will continue to exist in the next year let alone decade, it is genuinely crucial for independent creators to start building alternative avenues of distribution that they control now.
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Here are all my various Lavellans! I made them using this picrew.
Top to bottom, left to right:
Elowen, Salshira, Emmaera (Emma), Ilriane, and Adahlena.
These are all Inquisitors I have written fic about! A little more info under the cut c:
Elowen (from Your Fate For Mine): Elowen was my first elven Inquisitor and the reason I started writing fic. I think she, more than the rest of them, feels a bit like an imposter in the role of Inquisitor and manages this by playing her cards extremely close to the chest. She looks like she's about to cry here, but that's normal for her because Elowen has what I like to call Resting Melancholy Face. I've got two WIPs for her that are...if not happier than Your Fate, certainly quantifiably less about losing your sanity in the Fade. Someday, fate willing, I will finish one of them.
Salshira (from To the Bone, primarily): Salshira jumped into my mind more or less fully formed when I started plotting out my soulmate au fic. Her hair is a bit more brown/auburn than the red it is here. Salshira is very charismatic, but she mostly uses that charisma to keep people from prying too closely into her affairs (and, ahem, goading Cullen into playing sexy chess games). She is extremely good at reading people and of my Inquisitors is the least attached to her clan.
Emmaera (Emma): (from Wander the Drifting Roads) Emma is my canon Inquisitor and the most practical of my OCs. She was also the best-adjusted to being part of the Inquisition because when she woke up in Haven she made a nice, neat list of Pros and Cons, theorized the best and worst possible outcomes of her situation, identified limited compliance as the most optimal course of action, burned the shit out of a bunch of practice dummies, and got on with wrapping up this whole "end of the world" business so she could go home to her clan. Emma is slow to anger, but she never forgives (with one crucial exception). She settled down in Kirkwall eventually and is also the only one of my Inquisitors to become a vigilante after the events of Trespasser (though ultimately that didn't last).
Ilriane (from The Scourge of Sundermount): Ilriane touched a necklace in Sundermount while her clan passed by to recover lost artifacts. Whether cursed or imbued with some kind of otherworldly energy, the artifact gave her eyes that turn people to stone and destroyed her life in one instant. I'd originally intended this short story to be a bit of a tragedy, and it's inspired (very loosely) by the Medusa myth.
Adahlena: Adahlena's story is the hardest to summarize, in part because it isn't finished yet! Adahlena lives in a world in which the second Exalted March on the Dales never happened, and thus the elves have two extant kingdoms spanning the land from the Arbor Wilds through the Emerald Graves and Exalted Plains (obviously, the latter two aren't called by those names in the story because the events they're named for never came to pass). As part of an agreement involving Elandrin and Adalene (whose deaths at Red Crossing in part sparked the Exalted March), the pact of nonaggression between the Chantry and the elven kingdoms is renewed and sealed by a marriage every fifty years or so.
Adahlena herself grew up traveling with her father, and thus has a greater understanding of Thedas at large than many elves who'd spent their whole lives in the kingdoms. This is part of the reason she is chosen as the representative for the elves in the marriage compact. By nature, magic, and training, she is primarily a gardener and plant mage. Though her mother is a politician, Adahlena has little interest in the ways of court. Events have conspired to bring various Chantry candidates to Halamshiral to contend for the role of her spouse, but Adahlena is more interested in tracking down a piece of information that will explain what happened to her father all those years ago.
And well, that's all of them so far! I originally thought I ought to make separate main characters if I was going to keep inventing AUs and only realized after the third one that I could have like. Not done that (and that, uh, most people pretty much stick to one and only write/create art about that one). But anyways it's too late now! And I adore them all. I mean, look at their precious faces.
So...did I make five separate Inquisitors that are all romancing Cullen? Yes. But I've had an absolute blast doing it. You're welcome for all the wives, Cullen, and sorry again for the horrors.
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The images are (by row, top to bottom, left to right): Chance+Sham, Chance+Sham, Capricia+Gwain+Andromache+Tzu kinda, Thessalyn, Chance+Sham (2015-2021 art improvement meme), Fenrah, my tortle from DnD, Basil, and finally Chance (again). All images are cropped; full versions on my website, which is linked at the bottom of this post if you want to skip to that!
So, hi there! I used to post a bunch of art related to Abigail Hilton’s novels here, primarily those set in the world of Panamindorah; the Pirates of Wefrivain series, and the Prophet of Panamindorah and associated short stories. You can scroll back if you want to see that, but it’s all quite old and not very good. Still, I have unpassword-protected this blog, so you may view it if you so wish.
I no longer post on Tumblr, but I thought I’d let any interested fans (of Abbie, not me) know that I have a website I update occasionally where I share fanart of her works (alongside DnD art, original art, and works for other assorted fandoms — it’s primarily Panamindorah/Abbie art, though). The above artworks are (cropped) examples of what’s on the site. Each image comes with an associated mini-ramble (much shorter than a real ramble).
Please note that Neocities free accounts have some bandwidth issues; the introduction on my art page explains a little more of what to expect from a site like this (in general, this is very much ‘amateur, free, static’ web design, as opposed to something professional. tl;dr: it loads like shit. You may find that charming, you may not).
I also have a Dreamwidth, where one can leave anonymous (or logged-in) comments regarding my art, or start a conversation (you don’t have to care about my art to talk to me), and where I plan to post rambles (many of which will be related to Abbie’s works...again, primarily those set in Panamindorah, and to be quite honest, mostly Prophet of Panamindorah...I’m a Chance Windar man, myself).
I’m not a prolific poster, so if this sounds interesting, but the idea of being flooded with art and rambles doesn’t, fear not. Although, if you like people who make things with great speed, uhhhh... (creeps back into boggy, slow-paced swampland). Can’t provide, don’t plan to.
Please note that this is not a portfolio-style website. WIPs, unfinished works, scribbles, doodles, and other scraps find their way onto my website, alongside more polished/complete/almost-complete works. I like that sort of thing, but you might not. There is also an on-site blog, although it’s mostly for ‘assorted nothings’. Lengthy entries will probably end up on Dreamwidth.
My second note is that there are (or will be) three art pages; the first is mostly SFW, although there is mild shelt (or other ‘fantastical people with no obvious genitalia’) nudity, kissing, and cuddling. The second page has more sensual or explicit works. The third page will be for (if I find the courage) more kinky, dark, or violent works. The whole site is technically Chose Not To Warn, but most adults should not have too much trouble browsing the main art page (and probably the first of the explicit pages). My website is intended primarily for adults. Links to the more explicit pages are marked as such, so those who aren’t interested should be able to avoid them easily (the third page doesn’t even exist yet).
Both my website and my Dreamwidth have RSS feeds. The blog on Abbie’s website also has an RSS feed, which can be useful if, like me, newsletters and your email go together about as well as oil and water.
Anyhow, links!
My Website (links directly to the main art page)
My Dreamwidth (this links directly to the journal entry for commenting)
About RSS feeds
More about RSS feeds
My Android RSS feeder (you do not need to use this, it’s just an example)
My Website’s RSS feed (you copy and paste these urls into your RSS feeder)
My Dreamwidth’s RSS feed (ditto above)
Abbie’s blog’s RSS feed; her newsletter is mirrored here for those who have trouble with email newsletters. (ditto above)
That’s all. As said, I don’t intend to return to Tumblr. I just wanted folks to know that other Abigail Hilton/Panamindorah fans exist out there. I know this website is very into Hunters Unlucky (sorry, I’m very bad at drawing animals; I do enjoy the books) so I should warn all you lovely folks that I don’t make much on that front. Maybe one day, though? I should be drawing more than Chance Windar and Sham Ausla (but Chance Windar and Sham Ausla have my heart). I suppose characters who aren’t animals (shelts are fine) are far more likely to show up, in the end.
May you all be happy and well!
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