#not an eldest daughter but i agree with their beliefs

[decladams]

i don’t have main character syndrome i’ve got declan lynch in trc syndrome. nobody really knows what i’m about but i seem boring and strange. i’m a dick and overly professional and probably autistic but i’ve got too much going on to worry about it

[dyns33]

His Dark Sun

Time for me to post a bit more about Feyd Rautha.

"I dreamed of you."

First strange sentence from her betrothed when they met. Not really what Y/N expected from a Harkonnen, but not from anyone either. There were probably few people in the universe who would have dreamed of marrying her.

Children born under a dark sun were not highly regarded in most cultures. Bad omen, the certainty of something bad coming.

Absurd, according to the Bene Gesserit, who had often repeated that this had no impact on genetic heritage.

This kind of belief could serve them, like disrupting their plans.

This was almost the case following Y/N’s birth. Her parents, from one of the last great families of the empire, were afraid of her. They even wondered if it would not be wiser to kill her immediately, or if that would not risk bringing even more misfortune to them.

But they were also afraid of the witches, who ordered that they not touch the girl. She could be very useful in the future.

This was certain when Lady Jessica gave a son to Duke Leto Atreides. It was planned that she would only give him daughters, one of whom would marry one of the Harkonnen descendants, to ensure peace between the two families, but also for more confused projects.

Since it was not possible to marry young Paul to the Baron's heir, a new wife had to be found, because the lineage had to be assured.

The people of Giedi Prime worshiped their beloved Black Sun, so they were not the type to think that those born under an one were a problem. All their children were like this.

Under other circumstances, parents might have been reluctant to marry their daughter to a Harkonnen. They didn't really have a good reputation.

But at the same time, they remained an important family, one of the richest and most powerful in existence. In addition to forming an interesting alliance, they also allowed their clan to get rid of Y/N.

They could do whatever they wanted with her, even kill her, it would no longer be their problem the moment she left their planet.

As the eldest, it would have made sense for her to be given to Glossus Rabban, the Beast. But Baron Vladimir had favored his younger brother as his heir, and so she came to this dark city praying that Feyd Rautha Harkonnen was not as terrible as the rumors said.

He was more handsome than she expected. Anyway, as handsome as a Harkonnen could be, with no hair, eyebrows or eyelashes, his skin pale and his eyes icy.

Calm, polite, he advanced towards her before his uncle or brother could speak, making it clear that he wanted no one between him and his future wife.

"I've dreamed of you. Many times, since I was young." He said, kissing her hand to welcome her, his voice trailing slightly. “I suspected a witch.”

"I did not follow the teachings of the Bene Gesserit."

"I know."

The Harkonnens did not like witches. They had little esteem for their order and only respected them out of political concern, seeking every means to circumvent their authority.

It had been a surprise to everyone that the Na Barron would agree to a marriage they had orchestrated.

But Feyd Rautha was a man of honor, intelligent, ready for anything. On top of that, he had been intrigued by this story of black sun. He had inquired, he had seen a portrait of Y/N, and then declared that she was his.

Y/N had never dreamed of the Na Baron, and his attitude seemed strange, frightening.

She didn't believe in destiny. This was just another legend used by the Bene Gesserit for their own gain, nothing more.

But the Na Baron looked at her with amazed eyes, convinced that she was special.

It was very proud that he killed several prisoners in her honor in the arena, tearing out the heart of the strongest to offer it to her with fervor in front of the cheering crowd, delighted by the spectacle and the discovery of their Na Baroness.

Secretly, she thought that he could kill her like this the day he understood that there was nothing special about her, despite everything he might believe.

Y/N tried to make him understand it on their wedding night, afraid of what he was going to want to do while being convinced that she could accept anything from him.

"I am not as strong as my noble husband. I know that you have… You have particular tastes. If your expectations of me were too high…"

“Everything will be perfect.”

"Husband…"

"Say my name. Without shaking. My wife doesn't have to be afraid of me."

"… Feyd."

He didn't know how to be gentle, that was obvious, but for her Feyd Rautha did his best. At every nervous reaction from Y/N, he stopped for a moment to contemplate her, checking if she was just anxious because she was ignorant, or if she really didn't like what he was doing.

All her life, she had been mistreated, by her family, by other nobles, by her people. They were too afraid of the curse to touch her, but she had suffered greatly.

She never would have thought that the first person to treat her with tenderness would be a Harkonnen.

“No more tears for my Na Baroness.” whispered her husband, kissing her.

He didn't talk about it, but Y/N guessed that they had a past with similarities. It was common knowledge that young Feyd had been taken by his uncle to be raised on Giedi Prime, rather than staying with their parents.

In gratitude for this sacrifice, Glossus had killed their father, and his brother had killed their mother.

The slanderers claimed that they had acted on the Baron's orders, or with the aim of securing his favors.

But Y/N knew. She knew this bloody, dark desire that she had suppressed for a long time while standing next to her sleeping parents' bed. It would have been easy to slit their throats and be freed.

Feyd remained a prisoner, and not being able to kill his jailer, he attacked those who had allowed him to put him in a cage. Revenge, pure and simple.

Everyone had heard of the Baron's love for children. Why wouldn't he have loved his own nephew ?

He didn’t talk about it and Y/N didn’t force him to talk about it. Before each meeting with his uncle, he took her hand as if to give himself courage, and afterwards he avoided her for hours, days, because he did not wish to soil her.

Either he took out his rage in the training room and the arena, or he went to see his concubines.

He would have killed them all if Y/N had asked him to, just as he would have killed everything that had made her suffer.

But she saw that he cared about these creatures, obedient, without judgment, whom he could torture as he pleased knowing that that was all they were waiting for. There were things he couldn't do with his wife. He didn't want it, and neither did she.

So the Na Baron could continue to have his fun, while making sure his wife was happy.

The only time Y/N dreamed of Feyd, he was on a yellow planet. Sand everywhere, the sun beating down, and blood. A lot of blood. Bad omen.

Y/N could have said nothing. It was just a dream after all, nothing more, as all of Feyd's dreams meant nothing either, but he had been good to her, and she felt she had to talk to him.

He looked at her for a long time in silence, before nodding.

"Witches say there isn't just one path. Only possibilities. I saw us, ruling Giedi Prime, side by side, with our children. Your smile being the only thing that gave color at this place."

"… You think I saw your death."

"On Arrakis. My uncle just gave it to me. Rabban has failed, I must restore order there."

"It was very blurry. Feyd, I…"

"I will be careful, my Na Baroness. My sun. Now that I know of this possibility, I will be careful."

If she hadn't told him, no doubt he would have died with the Baron and his brother. Y/N could have said nothing, and she would have been freed from the Harkonnens, sent home where her family only wanted her dead, deciding to become the Baroness, or running away, far away.

But she had made a choice, and her husband was very honored by it. If she wanted him to live, then he would live, even if it meant some sacrifice.

He hadn't seen himself as emperor in his dreams, although he wouldn't have minded.

When a champion was asked to face Paul Atreides, Muad Dib, it was terribly tempting.

But he thought of Y/N, he thought of the dreams, and he bowed, knowing what awaited him if he accepted the fight.

In response to the emperor calling him a coward, he sneered that the old man should only take a sword and fend for himself.

Just before his uncle's death, Feyd had several tons of spices evacuated, to ensure a significant stock, while sending a message to the other great houses concerning the Imperium's betrayal of the Atreides.

Muab Dib had looked at him as if he were crazy, then something had changed in his face, a revelation, and all traces of judgment disappeared.

"… You dreamed too." he whispered, his face turning slightly towards a young Fremen girl, but his eyes not leaving Feyd, before quoting him. “Your pet.”

"My wife." the now Baron corrected him with a growl, refusing to let the Atreides compare Y/N to this savage he was going to betray to marry the Emperor's daughter. “My Baroness, who is waiting for me.”

"For her sake, I will let you go."

“Wise decision, because if you try to hold me back, I will cut your throat.”

And if they both knew the outcome of a fight for power, it was not certain that Feyd would not be capable of killing the young Duke with the motivation of finding the woman of his dreams again.

Both clever, none of them took the risk.

[blossom-hwa]

written in the stars | bridgerton!txt

as I've now written three full stories in this universe, I thought I should put them all into a series masterlist - please enjoy :)

TXT Masterlist

. . . . .

if you'll have me | choi yeonjun

~ part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4

Yeonjun Choi, Duke of Hastings, is in want of a wife. Boxed in from all directions by the overbearing mamas of the ton, he begins his arduous search this season for not fortune, not love, but merely the perfect woman to succeed his mother's place. None of the daughters of high society manage to catch his eye, however, or fit his overwhelming list of standards—at least until he meets Miss Y/N L/N, the queen's diamond of the season, newly arrived in town from abroad and said to be one of the most accomplished women to grace the ton in a generation.  You, the eldest daughter and only child of the L/N family, just want stability. With your father dead and the estate passed to a cousin, leaving only your dowry and a small pittance from the inheritance left intact, you begin your search for a husband with money enough to keep you and your mother afloat. It seems like a miracle when, after being crowned the queen's diamond, the Duke of Hastings himself asks for your hand—but as you learn of his complete indifference to the concept of love, you begin to doubt yourself. Perhaps money is not enough to keep your hand—maybe you desired a true love match more than you thought. Trapped in a marriage of convenience that everyone believes is a love story, you and Yeonjun find yourselves forced to reevaluate what you want out of this match. Between balls and promenades, dances and poetry, you begin to view each other beyond the pithy conversations allowed in the courting stages, learning to see one another not just as business partners, but perhaps friends as well. And as you begin to reconcile your needs and wants, your goals and desires, maybe, just maybe— The ton's belief that you are a love match can find some truth, too.

.

a very fine line, indeed | choi beomgyu

~ part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8

In a society where it only takes a year for a young woman in search of a husband to be considered out of season, it is no wonder that by your third year out, you are desperate to marry. Known as one of the beauties of the ton, such a task should not be difficult for you—but with an absent father, no dowry, and a reputation centered around your inability to keep your mouth shut around one certain Beomgyu Choi, your prospects are more limited than you’d like. While you cannot recover your family or your wealth, however, the one thing you can try to control is your reputation. So when the third season rolls around, you resolve to keep your distance from Beomgyu Choi, your childhood enemy, and the man you hate most in the world.  Enter Beomgyu Choi, second son of the Kensington Viscountcy, one of the most eligible bachelors in the ton. His older brother, cousin, and good friend have all recently married, leaving the mamas to salivate at his doorstep for the chance of marrying one of their daughters to him. When Beomgyu walks in on a particularly traumatizing moment between you and one of the most unsavory men in the ton and learns of your desperation to marry, despite your history of enmity, he proposes you a devious deal—to pretend to court you. It seems like a winning situation for both of you—more gentlemen will take notice of you, enhancing your prospects, and he will have the ton’s mamas off his back—and so, despite your misgivings, you agree.  With you hell bent on marriage and Beomgyu completely indifferent to the concept, even independent of your hatred for each other, it seems unlikely that any sort of true affection will bloom. But as you begrudgingly put aside your differences to spend more and more time in one another’s company, and as you grow to know each other beyond your ill-conceived preconceptions from childhood, you begin to realize that perhaps you two have more in common than you had once thought. And as your faked acquaintanceship becomes more truth than fiction, a friendship beginning to bloom most unexpectedly— Perhaps you no longer need to convince the ton of the veracity of your courtship, because anyone with eyes can see that it is true. 

.

melody of the heart | kang taehyun

~ part 1 | part 2

When your father calls you home from the continent to join the London season, for the first time in your life, you nearly throw a fit. You are not just the daughter of a viscount—you’ve made a name for yourself in England and abroad with your prodigious talent at the piano, having since childhood performed for royal courts far and wide. You have traveled far and beyond most other ladies of your rank, and to have your career halted all for the sake of marriage to a man who will likely force you to quit your craft is unthinkable. But all your life you have lived without raising a hand to your father, and so when the letter comes, you return home for the season, hoping and praying to make it through without stirring the waters.  Enter Taehyun Kang, Earl of Addiston—recently titled, in search of a wife, and as tired of the season already as you are. During a chance meeting at the season’s third ball you grow to know each other, and as time passes you grow to like each other, a mutual respect forming when you learn the depths of one another’s passions in the arts. In Taehyun you find a respite from the men who would clip your wings for the sake of finding a perfect wife. In you Taehyun finds a kindred spirit who would respect him for himself, and not the lands in his name. Together you navigate the grueling social activities of the London matchmaking project as acquaintances, then as friends, and maybe, just maybe— As lovers, too. 

[vivacissimx]

Hi! Sorry if you’ve answered this question before, but I’ve been thinking about Viserys’s reasons for keeping Rhaenyra as his heir after Aegon’s birth and was wondering what your take is on that ? I don’t think it was due to feminism lol

I don't know that I have answered this before, though I'm sure I've talked about Rhaenyra & House Targaryen's historical proto-feminisms on here as well as twitter. Yes I agree that Viserys' decision was not explicitly based on said proto-feminisms, but that those are what made Crown Princess Rhaenyra even a possibility. It facilitated her gender, so to speak.

Viserys' canonical reasonings for naming & keeping Rhaenyra as heir are: he is motivated to do it as an expression of his rift from Daemon, though whether Viserys considered this a formalizing of an already existing (yet unspoken) truth is unclear. He had been waiting for a son to be born in order to undertake the process of investing an heir, but once he undertook it with Rhaenyra, he considered the matter settled forever. His vassals accepted this. Following this investiture, Rhaenyra was a bright & intelligent child who Viserys put effort into grooming as a future Queen. Viserys trusted and/or considered Rhaenyra for various offices & honors that he did not deem his other children appropriate for. Rhaenyra was, quite honestly, Viserys' favorite child and the only one we canonically see to spend significant time with him. He considered her emotional world in ways he only see him consider his wife who he married for affection, Alicent. Rhaenyra by and large showed him deference and he protected/established her proactively in a manner that balanced Rhaenyra's desires with Alicent's.

But I think ascribing Rhaenyra being Viserys' heir instead of Aegon2 just to Viserys' whims is a bit like saying "what is the use of metaphor when you could just speak directly?" Well, it's important. Metaphor shines a light on the innards of what we're truly saying. Similarly, the context of Viserys naming Rhaenyra his heir is crucial to understand why this specific decision was made at this specific time. Aegon the Conqueror was crowned before his army while knelt beneath a heraldic banner, a matter of conciliating himself with Westeros; that his two wives who were his sisters administered the process was the sleight of hand. Viserys named his own heir because others including Jaehaerys I (his direct predecessor) claimed this right during their reigns; that his chosen heir was his daughter was the point of friction. House Targaryen is unique in that it marries it's daughters within their family while other noble families send their daughters away to reproduce other families/alliances. Though cousin marriage or avunculate marriage is an indirect route to the same thing, really, targcest is the system beneath with the eldest son is the father's heir and the eldest daughter is the mother's heir. This elevates both mother & daughter (a woman inheriting/a woman having a position worthy of inheriting). But what is the real significance of this? Consider the difference an eldest child vs. an eldest son when traditionally sons are the only children who the head of a House "keeps." By and large, those terms seem synonymous. However this assumption comes into question in the cases of Rhaena The Black Bride, Rhaenys TQWNW, & Rhaenyra. Now the terms diverge. Conceptions of gender diverge. The formal structure of inheritance is seen in a new light; it's "innards" are exposed, so to speak. There is a paradigm where Rhaenyra is not the daughter while Aegon is the son. Rather, Rhaenyra is the elder while Aegon is the younger. We use the terms male primogeniture/absolute primogeniture to describe these modes of inheritance but they're not separate. They imply each other's existence.

Viserys followed this line of logic & came to the conclusion that Crown Princess Rhaenyra was not only possible, but it was his preference. Aegon's birth did not call this belief into contention because in Viserys' estimation, it simply did not need to.

So that's my take in a nutshell. I think the question of under what circumstances women can rule is the principal question of fire&blood. The whole book is prelude and a question to which Daenerys Stormborn Targaryen is an answer. It's just that to understand that we do have to metatextually get into the development of patriarchy, proto-feminisms, gender itself, regardless of whether the characters considered such concepts themselves.

[atopvisenyashill]

The Magic Users Before Old Valyria, Part One: Magical Nuclear Fallout

i am positive this post has been made before but i'm making it anyway because it's eating away at my brain so let's gooooo.

We are delving into a fever dream that Dany has in AGOT, that will take us to the Pre-Valyrian magical users and their link to Valyria.

so in Dany's fever dream in AGOT, she has a vision of her ancestors:

Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade.

They look just like other Valyrians - hair of gold, white, and silver with funky colored eyes.

But note the exact gems mentioned! In TWOIAF, we get a little background on Yi Ti and their belief system. read here:

[In the beginning] a single realm ruled by the God-on-Earth, the only begotten son of the Lion of Night and Maiden-Made-of-Light, who traveled about his domains in a palanquin carved from a single pearl and carried by a hundred queens, his wives. For ten thousand years the Great Empire of the Dawn flourished in peace and plenty under the God-on-Earth, until at last he ascended to the stars to join his forebears.

Dominion over mankind then passed to his eldest son, who was known as the Pearl Emperor and ruled for a thousand years. The Jade Emperor, the Tourmaline Emperor, the Onyx Emperor, the Topaz Emperor, and the Opal Emperor followed in turn, each reigning for centuries…

When the daughter of the Opal Emperor succeeded him as the Amethyst Empress, her envious younger brother cast her down and slew her, proclaiming himself the Bloodstone Emperor and beginning a reign of terror. He practiced dark arts, torture, and necromancy, enslaved his people, took a tiger-woman for his bride, feasted on human flesh, and cast down the true gods to worship a black stone that had fallen from the sky.

Opal, Amethyst, Tourmaline, and Jade Emperors, just like her ancestors. It's not a huge stretch to say that likely, Dany, and therefore Valyrians as a whole (or at the least the Dragon Riders of Valyria) are the remnants of this ancient empire, The Great Empire of the Dawn, the same way that the Ghiscari culture is the remnant of Old Ghis - changed a bit, but with many similarities passed down amongst its people.

But who exactly is this civilization and how did they eventually turn into the Valyrians? Well, let's keep continuing with that passage about the Bloodstone Emperor:

In the annals of the Further East, it was the Blood Betrayal, as his usurpation is named, that ushered in the age of darkness called the Long Night…How long the darkness endured no man can say, but all agree that it was only when a great warrior—known variously as Hyrkoon the Hero, Azor Ahai, Yin Tar, Neferion, and Eldric Shadowchaser—arose to give courage to the race of men and lead the virtuous into battle with his blazing sword Lightbringer that the darkness was put to rout, and light and love returned once more to the world.

Basically, the people of Yi Ti believe that the Great Empire of the Dawn stretched far across the globe, and that when the Bloodstone Emperor usurped his niece, The Amethyst Empress, potentially using some weird blood magic, it caused the Long Night and the collapse of the Great Empire of the Dawn.

I think that this blood magic he was messing around with was, to use a metaphor, basically a magic nuclear bomb and I think ground zero for this - and therefore the capital of the Great Empire of the Dawn - is Asshai-by-the-Shadow. It's very notable that Asshai is so old its people don't even know what its origins are:

The ancient port of Asshai stands at the end of a long wedge of land, on the point where the Jade Sea meets the Saffron Straits. Its origins are lost in the mists of time. Even the Asshai’i do not claim to know who built their city; they will say only that a city has stood here since the world began and will stand here until it ends. Few places in the known world are as remote as Asshai, and fewer are as forbidding. Travelers tell us that the city is built entirely of black stone: halls, hovels, temples, palaces, streets, walls, bazaars, all. Some say as well that the stone has a greasy, unpleasant feel to it, that it seems to drink the light, dimming tapers and torches and hearth fires alike.

Note that last part, about the city being built from black stone - Valyria is well known for having Weird, Cool Architecture that involves black stone, fused together by dragon fire. From ADWD prologue:

Across the wide blue expanse of the Rhoyne, he could see the Black Wall that had been raised by the Valyrians when Volantis was no more than an outpost of their empire: a great oval of fused stone two hundred feet high and so thick that six four-horse chariots could race around its top abreast, as they did each year to celebrate the founding of the city.

and again from Tyrion's POV:

The gateway to the Long Bridge was a black stone arch carved with sphinxes, manticores, dragons, and creatures stranger still. Beyond the arch stretched the great span that the Valyrians had built at the height of their glory, its fused stone roadway supported by massive piers. 

And one more time F&B/The Princess and the Queen, when Aegon and Sunfyre on are Dragonstone:

Sunfyre’s scales still shone like beaten gold in the sunlight, but as he sprawled across the fused black Valyrian stone of the yard, it was plain to see that he was a broken thing, he who had been the most magnificent dragon ever to fly the skies of Westeros

rip to the hottest dragon in westeros.

It's very much a Valyrian thing, this fused black stone...yet the entirety of Asshai is built with black stone, even though the city predates Valyria, and the black stone of Asshai is just a little different - a greasy, unpleasant feeling. I think that this greasy feeling comes from the remnants of the magic that caused the Long Night - going back to that idea of a magical nuclear bomb which is poisoning the land the way radiation does. I think this because there are actually several ancient cities of mysterious origin with black stone and a greasy, oily feeling to them, all of which seem to have suffered some sort of magical nuclear fallout the way Asshai has, and they're all not too far from each other either:

The Idol on the Isle of Toads in the Basilisk Isles

Ruins found upon the Isle of Tears, the Isle of Toads, and Ax Island hint at some ancient civilization, but little is now known of these vanished men of the Dawn Age. If any still survived when the first corsairs settled on the islands, they were soon put to the sword, so no trace of them now remains … save perhaps upon the Isle of Toads…

On the Isle of Toads can be found an ancient idol, a greasy black stone crudely carved into the semblance of a gigantic toad of malignant aspect, some forty feet high. The people of this isle are believed by some to be descended from those who carved the Toad Stone, for there is an unpleasant fishlike aspect to their faces, and many have webbed hands and feet. If so, they are the sole surviving remnant of this forgotten race.

The Five Forts

The Five Forts are very old, older than the Golden Empire itself; some claim they were raised by the Pearl Emperor during the morning of the Great Empire to keep the Lion of Night and his demons from the realms of men … and indeed, there is something godlike, or demonic, about the monstrous size of the forts, for each of the five is large enough to house ten thousand men, and their massive walls stand almost a thousand feet high.

Certain scholars from the west have suggested Valyrian involvement in the construction of the Five Forts, for the great walls are single slabs of fused black stone that resemble certain Valyrian citadels in the west … but this seems unlikely, for the Forts predate the Freehold’s rise, and there is no record of any dragonlords ever coming so far east.

The Ancient City of Yeen

Maesters and other scholars alike have puzzled over the greatest of the engimas of Sothoryos, the ancient city of Yeen. A ruin older than time, built of oily black stone, in massive blocks so heavy that it would require a dozen elephants to move them, Yeen has remained a desolation for many thousands of years, yet the jungle that surrounds it on every side has scarce touched it.

And even more suspicious is the fact that Sothoryos, where Yeen is located, is known for its large wyvern population:

Most terrible of all are the wyverns, those tyrants of the southern skies, with their great leathery wings, cruel beaks, and insatiable hunger. Close kin to dragons, wyverns cannot breathe fire, but they exceed their cousins in ferocity and are a match for them in all other respects save size.

Now there's different stories on how dragons came to be, but most interesting to me is what the Asshai'i claim:

The Valyrians themselves claimed that dragons sprang forth as the children of the Fourteen Flames, while in Qarth the tales state that there was once a second moon in the sky. One day this moon was scalded by the sun and cracked like an egg, and a million dragons poured forth. In Asshai, the tales are many and confused, but certain texts—all impossibly ancient—claim that dragons first came from the Shadow, a place where all of our learning fails us. These Asshai’i histories say that a people so ancient they had no name first tamed dragons in the Shadow and brought them to Valyria, teaching the Valyrians their arts before departing from the annals.

Septon Barth later writes that he believes Valyrians used wyverns and blood magic to make dragons:

In Septon Barth’s Dragons, Wyrms, and Wyverns, he speculated that the bloodmages of Valyria used wyvern stock to create dragons. Though the bloodmages were alleged to have experimented mightily with their unnatural arts, this claim is considered far-fetched by most maesters, among them Maester Vanyon’s Against the Unnatural contains certain proofs of dragons having existed in Westeros even in the earliest of days, before Valyria rose to be a power.

So to sum up basically:

Dany's vision shows us her ancestors, who are almost definitely the rulers of the Great Empire of the Dawn

We know several cities - Asshai, Yeen, the Isle of Toads - that have an architectural resemblance to the fused black stone that the Valyrians used, but their structures predate Valyria.

We know Septon Barth believes dragons were made through blood magic with wyverns as a base stock and that there are a lot of wyverns in one of these ancient places, Sothoryos/Yeen, where the black stone architecture is found.

The people of Yi Ti believe that a magical calamity of some sort caused the Long Night.

THEREFORE: The Great Empire of the Dawn had its capital in Asshai, and used blood magic to start the Long Night (by accident, most likely), which caused a huge magical calamity that affected the entire world, and while their people never recovered from it, they brought their magical knowledge with them to their new home in Valyria, where they made more black fused stone architecture and turned their wyverns into dragons. Meanwhile, the "ground zero" for much of this magical calamity still experiences the magical fallout of this calamity.

OKAY. That's part one because this is getting super long winded. Part Two will be....JUST HOW BIG WAS THE GREAT EMPIRE OF THE DAWN ANYWAY?

[jellymeduza]

1250 followers gift - take a peek at my medievalish fantasy game (part 1/?)

I've reached 1250 followers milestone way faster than I expected. Curiously enough, there was influx of new followers after I opened my poll regarding the gift. Has the promise of a showcase of my game lured you in? 😉

The showcase of my game won by the vast majority of votes. Hardly anyone wants me to build a lot. That is probably a right decision. xD

As my medievalish neighbourhood is much older than my modern gameplay, it'll be divided into more parts - there are more Sims, more backstories etc. Translations are going to be inconsistent once again, some names will be probably difficult to translate as some of them are made up to be puns and don't exist in the real world.

I'll start with explaining the rules and lore for this neighbourhood. This is my only neighbourhood that has any rules.

The kingdom is called "Ciemnogród", which can be literally translated into "Dark castle", but has also other meaning: it is used to depict a place or a group of people as superstitious, xenophobic, intolerant and of conservative beliefs. According to the Great Polish Dictionary it's a neologism created by Polish writer Stanisław Kostka Potocki. Wikipedia tells me that the word used in his work has been translated into "Dunceville" and let's stay by this option.

So, backstory for this neighbourhood is that there are two royal houses in the kingdom: Dariuses (red banner) and Claudiuses (blue banner). The houses have fought over the throne, leading the kingdom nearly into a collapse. Economic repercussions of that civil war are felt by every social class: nobility is even scarcer, once prosperous merchants dress not much wealthier than those who used to be middle class merchants. Crime is on the rise.

August the Mad of house Claudius and Konrad the Ginger of house Darius decided to put an end to the madness started by their fathers and agreed to diarchy. Moreover to make the houses more bound, they agreed that their eldest sons would marry their daughters. After the marriage daughters are allowed to keep wearing the colours of the house of their maiden name. Additionally, the third child of each couple, should they have so many children, shall wear the colours of its mother's maiden name house.

The problem is that the kings who signed the pact are dying out and their children can hardly remember the atrocities of the war as it was ended when they were still very young. The royal children, soon to become co-rulers are hungry for power and co-ruling brother-in-law can be an obstacle. Not to mention that the loyalties of their wives are uncertain - will they choose houses of their maiden names or houses of their husbands should a new war start?

Humans and supernatural creatures live in peace, however supernaturals are not allowed to live within city walls. They can own a business and work in the city. The only exception are witches and wizards who can live in the city. Royals respect wizards as they are useful servants and make good advisors. Some people speculate there are more reasons why wizards are treated favourably, especially by the Dariuses - it is said there's a blood curse cast on the house, hence some of its members have red eyes (e.g. Konrad the Ginger and his daughter Fiona). Some say it were the wizards who cast it and Dariuses in fear went lenient on wizards. Other say wizards played a positive role and earnt the privilege by fighting off the curse, red eyes being curse's last remnant.

The kingdom is divided into sections. At the center there is royal district. Between the castle of Claudiuses (on the left) and the castle of Dariuses (on the right) there are gardens of reconciliation, built to commemorate the end of civil war. Opposite the gardens there are public baths.

The main part of the city is filled with merchants' houses and their businesses. It is also inhabited by wizards, monks, knights and beggars. There's the central town square, a church, a library, a pub, training fields, fisher's shop, buthcer's shop, tailor's shop, potter's shop, greengrocer's and a store with magical artefacts.

The third part is only partially a part of the city as it is divided from the rest of the city by inner city walls, but is has its own city walls as well: it is the seashore. The only living family in this part of the city are the fishermen (who when fish don't want to be caught resort to piracy). There's also a public beach with docks.

Now onto parts of kingdom that aren't parts of the city. There are woods outside the gate guarded by a noble family of knights. In the forest lives a family of werewolves and a family of bigfeet. Further towards the borders of realm there's a settlement of fairies and elves - they are uninterested in the affairs of humans and tolerate the short-lived specimen as long as they don't bother them too much. They are also suspicious of elves of other settlements.

In this part of map can be found a cemetery just outside the gate, a lake, fairy park and a forest.

Last but not least, rural area on the other side of the city. It is inhabited by a family of an elf of another settlement than the forest elves and a plantsim. In the furthest part of the are there's a single man who is trying to run away from responsibilities (and the consequences of his actions).

There are some empty settlements busy with farmers before the war. The only public lot in this part is a wooden temple.

There's also university district and vacation destination - far east. I'll show them once I'm done with the main map.

I hope you'll find the journey through my neighbourhood interesting. 😊

part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8

[dulcewrites]

I know the creators probably did not mean to do it when they made the Velaryons black (more than likely went over their heads tbh), and I do agree with certain criticisms/concerns people had about how black characters are treated in hotd. But I do think in theory, making the Velaryons, specifically Corlys, black was an interesting choice.

I think having a black man, in particular, chasing the Westeros equivalent of ‘the American dream’ and it leading to the eventual hinderess of his house is fascinating. Downfall in the sense that House Velaryon never reaches the heights they had pre dance. Corlys is playing a political game, as someone who is far more suited as a warrior/sailor than anything else, with people that keep him at arm’s length. He can not maneuver the way they do successfully despite the money and connection to dragon riders. But he continues to push for that status symbol…for that recognition and acceptance.

I will be mixing a bit of F&b lore as well as the show so just.. stay with me on this lmao.

When we are first introduced to the corlys/the velaryons, we get this air of ‘new money’ (gag I do hate that term but let’s go with it), though the Velaryons are a house that survived the doom. Corlys has essentially single handedly elevated his house through seafarer. He is described as someone that, despite the wealth and power being Lord of the Tides has brought, is seldom satisfied. Hence why once his own path towards being king consort/having his blood on throne is dashed after the great council of 101, he more than likely gets in his head that he must take steps to right that wrong.

Like many men in this story, if not all, corlys views the people around him - His wife, daughter, son, granddaughters and even Rhaenyra to a certain extent - as extensions of the himself and the pawns in his plan.

Now, this will probably be an unpopular opinion, though I don’t think it should be, but I’m of the belief Corlys cared little about how his family faired because of his ambition. Namely his wife, Rhaenys (who if we go by book canon he married when she was a teen then cheated on her with another teen). I think he sees her as another status symbol. He’s married to a dragon riding princess. I sense a lot of people get blinded by the shiny varnish their relationship has on the show, especially compared to the outwardly hellish relationships in book/show. He constantly undermines her. Though I personally don’t believe Rhaenys when she says she’s over not being queen, I do agree with her when she says corlys is doing all of this more for himself and his house than her. Despite the quippy lines they give Rhaenys, she too is a victim of patriarchy and by extension of that a backseat passenger in her own family. She too follows her husband’s orders even to the detriment of others. She may be able to voice her concerns, but they fall on deaf ears.

Corlys uses his 12 year old daughter as a bargaining chip. And let me tell you, I get so annoyed when people use the argument of ‘well rhaenys and corlys were upfront about pimping out their tween daughter while otto sent Alicent in secret’. They all will be sharing the same room in hell with viserys regardlesss babes. Or the argument that the dance wouldn’t have happened if Viserys married laena. The dance, or some sort of infighting, was set in stone the moment viserys decided to not only remarry but have kids. Weakening Rhaenyra’s already flimsy claim. It was set the moment the Targaryens followed the same male primogeniture many in Westeros do. Corlys would have been right at the ‘patriarchy rocks’ party if laena married viserys and managed to produce a male heir.

Rhaenys expresses wanting the driftmark line to pass through Laena’s daughters. Mind you, Laena is older anyway. If corlys wanted his eldest child to have it.. he could’ve changed that from jumped since he’s so team feminism lmao. Corlys quickly says no because he knows taking that from Lucerys means disenfranchising Rhaenyra’s claim. In turn, laenor will not be king consort and their blood will not be on the throne.

Except… he knows those boys are not of Velaryon blood. The same way he knew laenor, his gay son, would be in harm’s way marrying Rhaenyra. To him, his family name being written in books is more important than empowering his granddaughters, despite tooting the horn he is doing this because his wife was robbed because she is a woman. To him, his family name being written in books is more important than the safety of his kids. He actually mirrors viserys post laenor’s ‘death’ and shuts down. But the point of running away. Leaving his wife to rule without him. All because his own choices and guilt are probably eating him alive.

It’s why I was actually quite taken when in ep 10, it is corlys that finally says enough is enough. But I actually like the choice. By now he has lost his daughter, his brother (I have a lot of feelings/thoughts on how vaemond wants power like corlys but it manifests vastly differently in terms of their house), and he thinks his son as well. Him realizing that his ‘keeping up with the joneses’ phase has done nothing but have the Stranger follow their family is harrowing. He wants to go home; he is ready to be rid of this. And yet it is Rhaenys, his dragon riding princess, telling him they must keep fighting for Rhaenyra. Quickly reminding him that their family is binded to the Targaryens regardless, and because of his choices; through having Lucerys still be heir to driftmark and the farce that jace as a bastard will take the throne with little strife. As well as because of the agreement that their granddaughters, not good enough claimants to driftmark themselves according to corlys, will be married to the strong boys.

His house will not prevail and flourish in the wake of this, which I think is an interesting contrast to say someone like Otto. I don’t think Corlys is a second son in the literal sense but he feels as one because he has had to fight for what he has. In ep 2, he compared himself to daemon, an actual second son, because of this fact. Otto is the same, a second son turned hand of kings. They scheme the same way, and have very similar ambitions. They hurt people in the process, especially those they are meant to protect. Regardless of who sits on the throne or how the war panned out, House Hightower continues to be a relatively wealthy, respected house. Versus what happens to House Velaryon… a now black house in show canon. These men played the same game and only one, in terms of the things he wanted, ‘won’.

That’s such a damning insight on how power corrupts the same way regardless of race, but the repercussions of it are different for everyone. Like I said, I know the writers did not think this far ahead or take this into account. But it’s something I picked up on as black woman myself.

It all comes back to Corlys’ choices. He will soon be adding his wife to the list of people the Stranger takes.

He must take his own advice sail through the storm…

[hchollym]

Percy & the Oldest Daughter Syndrome

So I was looking back at an old ask I got about how "Surface Pressure" from Encanto really fits Percy, which I agree with (see this post), but it got me thinking. 

I realized one of the reasons I have always related so much to Percy is because he is literally the epitome of Oldest Daughter Syndrome. I was the oldest daughter, so it's something I naturally picked up on in the books without really examining it, but now that I'm older, I can see it clearly.

It's fascinating to me, because Percy has the typical characteristics of any oldest child, but he also has almost all of the characteristic of the oldest daughter.

Oldest children tend to be confident, natural leaders, perfectionists, obsessive, controlling, second parents, responsible, bossy, studious with high grades, more serious, more solitary, and have a hard time admitting when they are wrong.

Percy fits with pretty much all of that. Interestingly enough, Bill only fits a few of those even though he's technically the oldest child, which just reinforces my belief that he and Charlie were barely around the younger siblings - see this post.

Now Oldest Daughter Syndrome is even more specific. Oldest daughters have most of the signs of being the eldest child, but also (usually): they secretly have low self esteem (and are too hard on themselves), their siblings have a hard time understanding them, they are always the babysitter and have to look out for their siblings, they tend to play it safe, they tend to silently resent their parents and/or siblings, they tend to be overly compliant/eager to please and seek approval from others, they feel extreme pressure to be a good role model to younger siblings, they tend to suffer from anxiety and/or depression, they have strong guilt complexes, they have a strong fear of rejection, they serve as the emotional dumping ground for mom (when she wants to vent), and they serve as emotional validation for dad (when he wants reassurance that he's good enough).

Obviously everyone is unique, so oldest daughters can have very different personalities, but I mean, wow. Looking at those signs, that is literally describing Percy. I’ve written so many posts about those various aspects of his personality, and some are just obvious in canon:

They secretly have low self esteem (and are too hard on themselves) --- such as Percy blaming himself after Mr. Crouch died 

Their siblings have a hard time understanding them -- we see this towards Percy from most of the Weasleys in the book

They are always the babysitter and have to look out for their siblings

They tend to play it safe --- Percy’s adherence to rules

They tend to silently resent their parents and/or siblings

They tend to be overly compliant/eager to please and seek approval from others 

They feel extreme pressure to be a good role model to younger siblings

They tend to suffer from anxiety and/or depression

They have strong guilt complexes --- such as Percy’s guilt over Ginny being taken in the Chamber of Secrets

They have a strong fear of rejection --- with his parents; also plays into Percy’s obsession with getting the best grades and proving himself useful at work

They serve as the emotional dumping ground for mom 

They serve as emotional validation for dad  --- which adds a whole other layer to their argument; Percy was no longer validating Arthur, which in turn, made Arthur lash out. 

It's interesting to look at him with that context, because it explains so much of his personality and his choices! ❤️

[hwaaaeun]

𝖆 𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖗 𝖈𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖘  . . .  have a drink at my table , allow me to tell you stories — stories of dragons and burnt men . tell me about lady hwang haeun  .

(  jeon somin , cis female , she/her  )    : ̗̀➛   twenty-seven years young , a firebender from the noble house of hwang . many know them to be stubborn & judgemental . how unfortunate , truly . . . i’ve always found them to be dedicated & passionate . they oft fulfill the duties of a pianist . oh , i should tell you — they support the rule of house yi . well , you know how every storyteller bends the tale they tell .   ✶   eggie , 27 , she/her  .

          ♡          HISTORY !          ♡         

♡          haeun’s position within her family has created a complex character left to navigate the uncertainty of who she is . the eldest daughter , the middle child – constantly eclipsed by her elder sibling in the eyes of her mother . when once she fought for the limelight , she now prefers the slink around in the shadows , aware that when you’re in the cool shade you’re less likely to burn up .

♡          she was a dedicated student as a child , stubbornly learning as much as possible so that she could never be looked down upon . she took many musical lesson and is adept with several instruments , the piano being her first love .

♡          her piano teacher was a strict and straightforward elderly man who slowly began to fill the father figure in her early teen years , after the loss of her father at seven . while she was very young when he passed , she felt more seen and appreciated by him.

♡          despite being grateful and , of course , loving her father , there is still complex emotions around the man . she had once overheard him make comments about her and her older brother , disappointed that he couldn’t firebend and she was a female .  she had never told anyone about this , especially considering it was so near to his passing , but it left her with an uncertainty – were they loved ? or was being part of a family just fulfilling pre-written roles ?

♡          for this reason , haeun is particularly suspicious of everyone . her eyes are keen and she enjoys watching people expose themselves at moments when they think is safe .  

 ♡         due to her brother’s fame and familial connections , haeun has been given opportunities to play piano at concerts . however , she avoids it as much as possible , only agreeing to when pressured by her family . she much prefers to play as support for singers or just for companions for fun .

          ♡          DIG DEEPER !           ♡         

♡          haeun has a very sweet singing voice , she loves to sing but she will never ( knowingly ) sing to another . sometimes she writes her own music , but once again , it is hidden from the rest of the world.

♡          she is a stark supporter of the house of yi , not because of who they are but because she believes the only way to prosper is to have a strong lead . haeun has an interest in politics  but would rather watch other people’s actions and reactions to see who align with her beliefs rather than be an open book in this aspect .

♡          her stubbornness is both a curse and a blessing – to her , she sees it as determination . but to those who have seen that ugly side rear it’s head , they know sometimes she blinds herself to reality to keep from herself being wrong . at least , the few that she allows close enough know that she would never give them up .

♡          her love for music transcends everything else , as mentioned it’s her true love .

♡          she grows frustrated sometimes with her firebending , as it goes against her nature – it’s offensive rather than defensive . however , she has a good grasp at it , especially as ( for the most part ) she’s got a good grasp at controlling her own emotions and manipulating them to serve her .  

          ♡          PLOTS WANTED !          ♡            

♡          childhood friends – the one person who may have heard her sing/know about her writing music (  ? ) / fluffy crush or first ‘real’ love / frienemies forever / toxic ex who brings out the worst in her / musical lover unites / people she might become fascinated with watching/trying to understand – im open to anything and everything !

[kittensartswriting]

15 Questions Tag

Thank you for tagging me @andromeda-grace!

I'll tag @dotr-rose-love @kainablue @rustywritessometimes @mariahwritesstuff @oh-no-another-idea @faelanvance @aquadestinyswriting @westywrites

So this is that one originally personal tag game, but people started answering it as their characters. I couldn't decide which of my MCs from BCC I'd answer this with, so I thought it might be fun to imagine them all being interviewed together. This is not a realistic scenario because during the first book they are all separated (and I answered this as if they're about 1/3 to the first book, where I'm roughly at writing wise), but it was still fun to imagine :D

1. Are you named after anyone?

Faerathos: "I can go first. Oldest sons in our house have been named Faerathos for a long time. In ancient times the name was Faerían, Faerathos being Angusianized version. Our father wasn't the eldest brother, his brother, the previous Faerathos, died before we were born so in a way I was mostly named after him."

Cassia: "My name also runs in the family, given to oldest daughters. Our aunt, from father's side, was also a Cassia."

Valeri: "My name is from our mother's family. I think her uncle was a Valeri?"

Fiolev: "I named myself after my cat." *everyone turns to him in disbelief including Valeri who thought he knew the story behind the name* "Well, that's the truth! There was some ancient legendary Cerfí warrior named Fiolev and I remembered Valeri telling me the name meant a white mountain cat. So when I had to give myself a name, I had just befriended this homeless white kitten and I named myself basically white cat. Though mountain cats are a tiny bit bigger than my cat."

2. When was the last time you cried?

Cassia: "When I was 19."

Valeri: "7 years ago? I don't believe that."

Cassia: "I'm sorry, if that makes you feel bad that you cry all the time, but I have done the work to destroy my ability to express emotions, so I can't cry anymore, even if I wanted to."

Valeri: "I don't cry all the time."

Cassia: "Well, tell us then the last time you cried?"

Valeri: "... Last week."

Faerathos: "I think I last cried three weeks ago during my monthly mental breakdown."

Fiolev: "My memory is pretty bad, so I'm not fully sure, but I think it was month ago, when Valeri left to his mission."

Valeri: "I'm sorry..."

3. Do you have any kids?

Cassia: "No and I mean to keep it that way."

Valeri: "No, but I'd like to have one day, if ever my life stops being a constant battle for survival."

Fiolev: "Yeah, no, that sounds like a nightmare. But I want Valeri to have so I can be the cool uncle who teaches them all the bad words."

*After a silence everyone turns to Faerathos.*

Faerathos: "Can I go with I'm not sure? Probably not?"

Valeri: "What the fuck does that mean?"

Faerathos: "There is a non-zero change that the empress is not in fact pregnant with a legitimate imperial heir, but my child so... We don't have to get too deep into that."

Cassia: "It was literally this type of scenario our whole clan got murdered over!"

Faerathos: "... I'm sorry?"

4. Do you use sarcasm?

Fiolev: "I'm fluent in it yes."

Cassia: "Do I look like the type of person, who would do something like that? she said sarcastically."

Faerathos: "Sure, sometimes when annoyed."

Valeri: "I'm not very good with words, but contrary to the popular belief I have a sense of humor too, so occasionally yes."

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

Faerathos: "The way they dress. It's pretty noticeable from far away."

Cassia: "The way people move and hold themselves."

Valeri: "I agree with Cassia."

Fiolew: "I will answer truthfully only, if everyone promises to have no follow up questions." *looks at the others till they all nod* "I first notice where people are holding their money."

6. What's your eye color?

Fiolev: "Gray."

Faerathos: "Also gray."

Valeri: "Light blue."

Cassia: "Even lighter blue."

7. Scary movies stories or happy endings?

Fiolev: "I love scary stories."

Cassia: "I agree. The more gruesome the better."

Faerathos: "I'm not that interested in scary stories, but happy endings do often ring hollow to me, so I think I'll choose scary stories."

Valeri: "I'm the only one who prefers happy endings?"

8. Any special talents?

Cassia: "I'm quite good at singing really low notes. I can do acrobatics and my specialty is sword dance where I balance with three swords. I'm also very good at disguising myself with transformation magic as people I have killed by using their skin and bones."

Faerathos: "Well that escalated. Maybe we'll just breeze past that? I don't have a lot of special talents. I guess I'm good at math, but that's not very special. Though I can research at the library for hours without breaks if that counts?"

Fiolev: "I'm very good at taking... let's say objects from other people's pockets without them noticing. I'm also quite good at... let's say convincing people of not exactly true things. I also do an excellent impression of a very naive and impressionable noble girl in distress. A totally innocent skill that could have no implications of criminal behavior."

Cassia: "We all believe you, love."

Valeri: "I don't have any very special talents. I'm pretty good at disarming people, shooting and parrying on horseback, surviving in wilderness and I guess taking a beating."

9. Where were you born?

Faerathos: "We were all born in Abhlean, the capital of Cabalusia, in literally the same room."

10. What are your hobbies?

Faerathos: "Playing piano, reading, gambling and swords-fighting, but that last one I do only because Marcus forces me to."

Cassia: "Opera could be characterized as my third job and not a hobby, so I'll go with... industrial sabotage."

Valeri: "You're not going to elaborate on that, are you?"

Cassia: "Nope."

Valeri: "Okay then. I also play piano and I play violin, both of which I'm pretty rusty at."

Fiolev: "I feed the local homeless animals and take care of them generally."

11. Have you any pets?

Fiolev: "As I mentioned earlier, I have a cat. Her name is Snow, because she's white and I named her when I was five. She's great, though getting elderly."

Valeri: "I have two dogs, Cúén and Faéndie, both Cabalusian bear dogs. They are trained as war dogs, but they are family and I keep them with me at home."

Fearathos: "I don't have a pet."

Cassia: "I have technically a crow. It's not my pet though, it would probably eat me in my sleep if I called it my pet. Yeah... it's not really a crow. It's name is Fianne. I have an actual animal companion too, my little baby saber-tooth snow leopard, Ciri. She's not actually little."

12. What sports do you play/have played?

Faerathos: "Hunting, which I don't get opportunities to do as a hostage in the court, Cabalusian horse-racing, which every Cabalusian noble kid has to do, but I didn't really enjoy, and now I'm still forced to do swords-fighting."

Cassia: "I also did Cabalusian horse-racing, which I did like, and hunting, but I haven't done them as a hobby since, you know, the civil war. I have hunted for survival though."

Valeri: "I also did the same sports before civil war, though I was too young to be taken to the hunts and I did horse polo. I don't play sports anymore, as a cavalry officer I do swords-fighting and horseriding a lot, but for war purposes. And I've hunted for survival."

Fiolev: "I was too young to play any sports before the civil war, and when I grew up we were poor and sports really are a rich people thing. I have played whatever ball games poor kids play on the plazas, but I don't think they count here."

13. How tall are you?

Faerathos: "195 cm."

Fiolev: "175 cm."

Cassia: "186 cm."

Valeri: "What? You're also taller than me?"

Cassia: "How tall are you then?"

Valeri: "185 cm."

Cassia: "Ha!"

14. Favorite subject in school?

Fiolev: "History."

Cassia: "Biology."

Valeri: "It would be either music or history."

Faerathos: "Physics, which is why I'm still studying it. It hits the right spot of 'I'm good at it so I don't get too frustrated' and 'it's hard so it's interesting'."

15. Dream job?

Fiolev: "Hmm I don't know. What profession makes you rich? Probably depends on that. Alternatively I would love to just take care of all the strays in the city, if someone rich would suddenly get a strong desire to pay someone for that."

Faerathos: "I'm pretty happy with my job as a physicist, but even more than that I would want to be a senator. I can't of course because of the whole hostage situation, but I want to be in a position where I can actually change things."

Cassia: "Dream job? I have never thought about that. Before civil war I was a noble girl and nobles don't have jobs, so I didn't dream of having one. And now I have more important things to do than thinking what I'd want to do for a profession. Though I will say, I have always enjoyed opera, and now that I'm actually an opera performer, I do like it, even if it's just an means to an end, like my other professions. So if I have to pick one, that might be it."

Valeri: "I wanted to be a soldier as a child, but I ended up being one in the least desirable way possible. I don't think I'd call it my dream job anymore. I don't know what I'd call my dream job."

[kellyvela]

I read your previous asks and there is a person saying Sansa/Sansara/Sara sounding similar means nothing because Sansa and Sandor also share that... But Sansa does have some parallels to Sandor, just like she has some parallels to her other abuser Cersei. She is a foil to both of them. They both are bitter after the getting the short end of the stick and take it out on the people who don't deserve that, namely Sansa, but Sansa refuses to give into the bitterness and clings to hope. Sansa's name sounding similar to Sandor reinforces my belief that Sansara and Sara, Alayne and Alysanne all names were intentional.

Yes. Since their first message it was evident that they don't get, or more properly, are against the idea of Sansa/Sara/Sansara having a significant meaning connecting Jace/Sara to Jon/Sansa.

And they also said that if I truly believe Sansa/Sara/Sansara has a significant meaning connecting Jace/Sara to Jon/Sansa, then I also have to admit that Sansa and cujo's names sharing the first 3 letters means what cujo's shippers think it means.

This is what cujo's shippers think about names that share 3 letters:

"Won't they come before Harry? I don't understand." "You will. Listen." Petyr took her hand in his own and brushed his finger lightly down the inside of her palm. "Lord Jasper Arryn, begin with him. Jon Arryn's father. He begot three children, two sons and a daughter. Jon was the eldest, so the Eyrie and the lordship passed to him. His sister Alys wed Ser Elys Waynwood, uncle to the present Lady Waynwood." He made a wry face. "Elys and Alys, isn't that precious? Lord Jasper's younger son, Ser Ronnel Arryn, wed a Belmore girl, but only rang her once or twice before dying of a bad belly. Their son Elbert was being born in one bed even as poor Ronnel was dying in another down the hall. Are you paying close attention, sweetling?" —A Feast for Crows - Alayne II

As you can see, there's a manifest difference between these two ideas: 1) Sansa/Sara/Sansara connecting Jace/Sara to Jon/Sansa; and 2) Sansa & cujo is true romance because Elys & Alys.

Plainly, those messages were sent with the only intention to antagonize.

I agree about Sansa and foils.

And it is true that GRRM is very meticulous when choosing the names of his characters.

Thanks for your message :)

[church-of-beelzebeef]

After so many birthdays at once -- first Steward, followed by the twins, and then Bethania! -- we decided to take a family vacation to celebrate. We’ve headed off to Oasis Springs to soak up the sunshine for a couple of weeks. 

We’re actually staying in a Bruderhoof community with a Herded family, which is such a blessing as it means we can visit the local pool without encountering immodest swimwear! We’ve had such a good time with our hosts, Jess and Dylan Sigworth. Jess is a true Mooverbs 31 woman; generous in her hospitality, full of grace, and loves Beelzebeef in everything she does. It’s an honor to learn from her!

Steward’s even been getting to know their eldest daughter, Christie. Jess and I are obviously prayerful they’ll decide on a courtship ;) but until then, we’re letting the two of them have plenty of supervised chats! 

We had another reason for coming out here -- meeting up with the Curious family! Strangerville is only a few hours away from Oasis Springs so it made sense for us to get together. And here we are: the Curiouses and the Calientes! On the left there’s my mama, my daddy Marshall, and my baby brother Notzo with his family! He married Zo Whelohff and they have an adorable little boy called Glarn. May Beelzebeef continue to bless their family!

As I was raised to explicitly not believe in our Savior, I’ve never had the pleasure of going to church with my family, and I won’t lie -- I was surprised when they agreed to come to a service at Saint Solomoo. We listened to a guest sermon from a visiting Pasture, Pavel Kozlov. 

The Kozlov’s are a well-known Herded family, although not without controversy, as Pavel’s wife is a lot younger than he is and they have fifteen children. I suppose age is irrelevant in Beelzebeef’s plan, although I certainly don’t think I’d want Bethania or Nyssa to marry someone so much older than them. I know Nestor isn’t a big fan of Pavel’s theological beliefs as he’s considerably more prescriptive than we are. He preached on the importance of following Beelzebeef’s one true path, whereas Nestor and I don’t think any of us mere mortals can know what She places upon a sim’s heart!

It is a struggle for me, as I dearly want my family to open their minds to Beelzebeef’s divine love and glory. But I know proselytizing too intensely wouldn’t be met well by them. While there is a place in the church for outreach -- look at how Nestor and I met! -- Nestor doesn’t think it’s a good idea to pressure Sims to convert if they don’t truly embrace Her. That way leads to so-called believers who produce lukewarm milk and Beelzebeef will just spit them out. I suppose that’s where Pasture Kozlov and I will have to differ!

Instead I’ve been focussing my efforts on praying for a soft heart, so that I can accept my family’s paths no matter what they take them. Whether it’s Steward’s journey with Christie or my parents’ salvation, I know it’s ultimately Beelzebeef’s plan and She places people exactly where they need to be!

[mydarlingdearestdead]

Formatting on ao3 is a nightmare and I’m getting a migraine thinking about adding the next couple of chapters to the darksun Au 🫠

it started silly but now there’s a bit of a plot and u actually have to story build 😭

anyway I can’t sleep

And I’ve forgotten what I was gonna ask you

I’m going to ramble about the Blacks (specifically bug, Alfie and Cygnus) for a bit though. Feel free to ignore me

I feel like Walburga has potential for lots of angst in the riddle era cause like. No one abuses their kids that badly without damage of her own, and it’s the entire the abused becomes the abuser (a phrase I fucking hate btw)

Although I don’t think she realised she *was* being abused cause it was kind of common for kids to be talked down on/hit. Personally I think she eventually realised that the physical part was the worst and swore she’d never do the same to her own children.

canonically she never did!! Sirius never said that she laid a hand on either him or Reggie!! (Oh and they didn’t force reg to be a death eater, they were just happy that he did but that’s a whole other thing) obviously they were abusive in some way though cause why else would Sirius leave? And judging by her portrait… she wasn’t the nicest. Oh and Sirius just says that he didn’t agree with their values (probably why he was out in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin, which is another thing I could ramble about for ages)

Walburga also has the added pressure of being the only daughter, especially considering she’s the eldest.

I reckon Alphard and Walburga were close ish as kids (kinda similar to Reg and Sirius) but they grew apart because of pressure from different people/places and different beliefs. Alphard would be the Sirius in this scenario. Because of Alphard’s recklessness/ other ‘negative’ personality traits I think he would’ve been seen as an unfit heir and a bit of a failure.

I think Alphard would’ve left home after graduating Hogwarts and started life on his own, away from the family. There was a total of like 6 (?) people who were disowned and the others were much older than him (then Sirius years later)

The Cygnus comes in. The youngest son. Did you know he had Bellatrix when he was only 13? JKR can’t do math or biology it seems. (In my fic i aged him up 😭) he was kind of the last shot at continuing the legacy and it was all fun and games until he had not one, not two, but THREE daughters. there’s probably a bit of jealousy between him and Bug cause on one hand. She’s the eldest and she had two sons. But on the other, she’s a woman. So like. And she’d hold a grudge against him for being a man and getting what she (or Alphard) should’ve gotten 🙃

I think it’s an interesting thing to explore and there’s like no canon information so it’s a playground.

anyway, ignore me :)

CHRIST can I talk

(irl i talk really fast and my words blur together and no one can ever understand what I’m saying so it’s probably best that this is over text cause otherwise I wouldn’t shut up and you wouldn’t be able to make out 80% of what I’m saying. I get easily excited)

I see how much thought you've put into this lmao. I think you're entirely right (and I too, hate that phrase). Jkr is horrible and I never noticed that? Creepy. I feel like Walburga would be much more into psychological abuse and mental gymnastics for her children rather than physical abuse tbh.

Would never ignore you

(me too. It's apparently extremely irritating but who says not every word can be a connective?)

[donotpercieveme123]

If nobody asked for him yet, Izuna for the ask prompt because I can’t get enough of him. And I’m going to throw a new one at you (only if you want to!) : Naori

Thx for the ask <3 and sorry for taking so long to answer😅 life kept happening or I kept forgetting.

I'll answer both. It's gonna be long so I'll put it under a cut and apologies in advance lol

Izuna

First impression

Didn't really have much of an impression of him watching the series I won't lie. I guess I thought he looked like Sasuke but NO WHY ARE YOU STANDING IN THE WAY OF PEACE?! Did think he would have had a lot of potential if they actually bothered to give him a shred of personality tho. And aside from wanting so so so much more about him and Madara, I also low key really wanted to see more of him and Tobirama because come on! The chemistry was there and they were obviously presented as parallels and foils of each other. I wanted more violence and I wanted it to be personal. Also them interacting as kids was kind of really cute (the way they knew each other's name) but also really heartbreaking seeing how fckn big those swords looked

Impression now

He was right about everything. But if ppl think Tobirama was bad Izuna would have been worse. On purpose.

He is just SKSJJSJSZB!! Best, most interesting, fun and heartbreaking and compelling and perfect character!! The layers, the grief, his importance!!

I won't lie his character is almost entirely made by the fandom and I don't even agree with or like the vast majority of the interpretations, but God I would kill everyone in this room then myself if I don't see him happy or in pain or perfectly collected and impartial but murderous and covered in blood and so fucked up beyond belief but still holding everything and everyone together despite the way every loss and failure kills him over and over again until he's lost all sense of himself outside of his duty and the people he failed. JDJDHXHXXXHXH HIMMMM!! Just imagine the moment any shred of child like hope he used to have was completely shattered and he became entirely nihilistic, angry and bitter, but also leaving him craving the peace he knows is impossible.

Also he so has eldest daughter, middle child energy

Favourite moment

It was pretty funny when he punched Tobirama in the face ngl

Also the way he reacted to another kid possibly being stronger than his big brother!😱 Djjdhd I can't breathe!! His little face!! He deserves everything good in the world

Idea for a story

Oh boi oh boi do you just want a never ending list of all my wips?

Literally endless endless possibilities so idk which to pick, where to start or how I'd ever stop talking lol

Literally anything and everything from back story and character analysis fics, to crack, to dark smut and graphic violence, to wholesome bittersweet found family. And that's not even touching the endless possibilities AUs would open up!!!

Unpopular opinion

As needed and honestly refreshing as the 'canon accurate' take on his personality is, I don't really think I like it all that better. It's honestly kind of boring and it reduces him to a narrative plot or some vague object in someone else's story that can be placed to the side and completely forgotten about or ignored. I find it takes everything that's significant and interesting about him then sucks everything else that would give him a fully fledged and compelling personality right out of it. I'm as tired as the next person by a lot of fandom interpretations but he doesn't need to be reduced to the human equivalent of a perfectly square, perfectly blank piece of paper. His role, importance, actions and convictions within the narrative aren't remotely changed if he's allowed to have layers of messy, gritty complexity. They'd become more fleshed out if anything. Let my man have a messy personality, please! I need something to sink my teeth into and tear apart like a chew toy!

Favourite relationship

It's literally impossible to pick just one so here are the ones I cycle through as the mood takes me.

MADARAAAA, I would actually kill for more gen uchiha siblings content! They're just- yh I don't even need to explain!

But also in that same vein HIKAKU!!!! Only child Hikaku adopting Izuna as his little brother after all his cousins are killed. Them working better together and having more in common with each other than with Madara a lot of the time (despite Madara initially being the glue that brought them together). Then the grief and blame after Izuna dies and jdndndndb!!!!

Similarly but on a different note NAORI!!!!!!! Platonic soulmates all the fckn way! Just them being best friends since childhood (probably the only stable and healthy relationship, that is only a touch codependent, that Izuna has ever had). Also I love the idea of the wlw mlm solidarity of having kids together because madara refused to procreate. And don't let me get into how Izuna's death affects her!

But also TOBIRAMA ALL DAY EVERY FCKN DAY!! They’re so perfect, the way they respect and hate one another for everything they represent and how much of themselves they see in the other, and the violent possessiveness born of it. But also the way they would fit and work together so well, how they see the possible friendship in the other and it only makes them more adamant about wanting the other dead. But also soft healthy friendship that's fun and bittersweet, especially as kids, and hdhdbxbx- No more needs to be said really

Favourite headcanon

God there r so many! But I love the thought of him having a younger sister who's somewhere between tobirama, itama and izuna in personality. And he got his sharingan after seeing her die at the hands of bloodline thieves, which he never stops blaming himself for. It massively shapes his unhealthy and somewhat obsessive need to keep everyone and everything together and safe. Not to mention the way he takes failure so personally.

(Thank you sm for asking for her btw!)

Naori

First impression

Her plotline was weird as hell tho, and it would have been cooler if she was around during the founders era

Really liked her right off the bat! Thought she had a cool design, amd loved her personality and the mediator role she played. Also loved the way she seems genuinely powerful and well respected, and how put together and kind but stern she was. True infj lol

Impression now

Same impression really, + my own ideas and backstory sprinkled in. For example, she's a lot more cynical than she present herself. I love the idea of her growing bitter after Izuna's death but coming out the other side better than say Hikaku because she still had people she needed to remain tender for.

Favourite moment

Idk the way she was introduced was pretty cool. Girl boss play ur mind games!

Idea for a story

I'd love to write anything after Izuna's death and the founding of Konoha.

Also I have zero fckn clue what her backstory was even about so I wanna rework that. I'm thinking a small group of Uchiha growing paranoid as Madara did and trying to assasinate Tobirama. Having accepted the reality they were now stuck in she makes it her mission to keep everything running smoothly and do damage control where necessary. (All for the benefit of the clan tho. She never actually accepts the will of fire and she would be the first to be able to say 'I told you so' when war breaks out again). So anyway, Tobirama agrees to let her peacefully deal with them as a 'show of trust' to any other Uchiha who might follow, but it still makes him weary of them as a whole regardless.

Unpopular opinion

Not a fan of her being written in to be shipped with whatever male character just so they can have a straight love interest. I want her to have motivations, a story, and complex thoughts and feelings outside that. That's how she was introduced in the first place! But idk if that's actually unpopular lol

Favourite relationship

Of course Izuna! Aside from what I mentioned in his bit I also like to think that they shared the same views about how the clan should be run, and especially about peace (as a whole vs peace with the Senju). And alongside being a genjutsu master and being well respected on the battlefield, I like to think that she had an affinity for healing, and she woke her Mangekyou after Izuna died because she felt responsible for not being able to save him.

But also Hikaku!!! After Madara leaves she's the only person Hikaku still has around, and despite both being two of Izuna's closest people, they only really get close after that. After he officially takes over as clan head she essentially also steps into the role Izuna had as Madara's 'right hand'. Which basically means that for all intents and purposes they lead the clan together.

Favourite headcanon

Tobirama came to her about the police force and despite hating his guts for killing Izuna they worked together. She founded the police force with her wife and had a hand in the way the anbu was initially structured. Tobirama first went to her out of guilt (and because Hikaku was more outwardly hostile lol), but over the years she became someone he deeply respected and who's advice he sought out. And despite never fully forgiving him the respect was mutual.

[gccdstories]

Thurr glared at his granddaughter, his soilders dragging her from the criminal. Saaves didn't stop them, his face a twisted mask of anguish and resignation.

Aelwyn screamed, the Gaurds falling to their knees, she snapped her fingers their bodies falling and going still.

"He is mine, his only crime was being born as a lower class then me!"

Thurr's lips thinned.

"He's also a criminal Aelwyn."

Aelwyn snarled stepping toward Thurr ignoring Nismera's soldiers, and Liam.

"And you aren't? Our entire bloodline isn't? I should swear to Nismera now just to expunge the sins we've -"

"Aelwyn -"

"No Saaves. They don't get to keep us apart because of some arbitrary beliefs."

//Xaden?? Cousin things?? Sarai's daughter. Seb and Sarai and Silba are triplets. Aelwyn is one Sarai's eldest :)//

Xaden wished he wasn't here. Could he not be anywhere but here? But his father had sent him, and one look at his mother had told him trying to argue out of it wouldn't have worked.

So he held back. Leaned against the wall, letting all of them drone on and on and on, waiting for this whole stupid thing to end--

Until things took a different sort of turn. And his attention quickly tuned right back in.

Shadows slithered, Xaden's dark eyes alert as he stood straighter. He might not be very fond of his grandfather for, well, multiple reasons, but it wasn't like he could agree with her, either.

He was about to tell his cousin she was pushing things too far, too quickly, when Xaden's eyes landed on his younger brother.

Dammit.

And of course, Sasha's curiosity had to get the better of him at what seemed to be the worst possible time. Like always.

Even as Xaden started walking quickly towards him, all eyes turned towards his brother, the looks in them ranging in emotions, in expressions.

❝ What are you doing in here, Sasha? ❞ he asked, voice low, loud enough for only his brother to hear once he stood close enough--and thereby blocked the other from the gazes of all the rest. If they're going to attack, they're not hurting him.

@siderealxmelody

[lesbiancosimaniehaus]

I know I make fun of LMM for performing that L’Chaim song from fiddler at his wedding (which is weird because this takes place after Tevye agrees to a match between his eldest daughter and the old widowed butcher despite her protestations) but I get it because there is a lot of joy and… finding common reasons to celebrate w people who are of different beliefs etc in this number. So like I get it, but he’s still a weirdo for doing it.