#olphix the mage

[not-poignant]

Hi Hi 👋

I love your stuff so much! I am reading Game Theory again, and recently read Tradewinds for a second time.

I find Heart Songs and Unseelie appetites really interesting as a concept.

Some Fae eat other Fae and Mosk losing his Heart song was massively catastrophic. Everyone seemed to be fairly horrified that his Heart song was gone. So I was musing over Heart songs and appetites for a bit and I wondered how an Unseelie Fae might be received by other Fae if their appetite was literally to eat people's Heartsongs and leave them empty?

Would this be scarier than say a Fae who ate another Fae or would it be subjective/about the same?

Would such an appetite even be possible/does a Fae like that already exist for you?

Your world building gets the brain spinning in such a good way. :D

Ooooo some worldbuilding questions *rubs hands together*

So I was musing over Heart songs and appetites for a bit and I wondered how an Unseelie Fae might be received by other Fae if their appetite was literally to eat people's Heartsongs and leave them empty?

Tbh I can't imagine it existing? Like it kind of breaks the world to exist.

The thing I wanted re: Davix and Olphix removing the heartsong was for it to be such an alien concept, and such an anathema to the entirety of the fae - more than rape, or torture, or cannibalism, etc. - was this one act that only they were capable of, and more than that, only they were willing to do.

And so on that axis if any fae speculatively/hypothetically could eat heartsongs, then they'd absolutely be scarier than any other kind of fae. The idea of heartsongs being removed is so jarring that we witness fae who have endured some of the worst tortures imaginable (particularly Augus and Gwyn) being extremely shocked over it. Augus in particular, who has endured something almost no one else in the fae realm ever has - underworld torture - that literally drove him to madness, still finds the idea of a removed heartsong absolutely repellent.

It's not like any other crime that exists. It is, to fae, separate and apart from any other horrible act.

So yeah, a fae with that appetite can't exist in this world, otherwise firstly, I don't think any fae would have had the reaction they did to Olphix and Davix's actions (so their reaction to what happened to Mosk would no longer make any sense at all), but it also wouldn't make Olphix's and Davix's crimes so serious in the first place, if they're just doing what some other fae can do just by like...being hungry.

And it wouldn't be a thing that so many fae haven't ever heard of happening before.

So it's definitely something that could happen in fanfiction folks wrote for themselves! But otherwise it was something I only ever intended to be possible through magic, which is part of the narrative that 'magic works against the natural order at its most bombastic' (see also: Mosk growing a hickory tree in the sea, and the flesh fruit, and a bunch of other things that come into existence through magic, not least that the Raven Prince survived dying).

[fanofrandomfandom]

reactions to ch.6 the raven prince

Augus stared at the man without looking away, eyes shimmering in horror, a gleam of something that could have been hope.

‘What?’ the Raven Prince said dismissively. It was a flippant answer to his name.

‘Gwyn! Gwyn what are you doing?! Gwyn! Stop! STOP!’

I dare you. I dare you. Do it, do it and watch me tear you apart even without the ability to speak.’

Make no mistake,’ Gwyn stared down at the Raven Prince. ‘He can still do magic. Gag him.’

‘What did you do?’ Augus said, staring past him. ‘What did you…dare do to the King?’

‘I am your King!’

Augus blinked bright green eyes back to Gwyn.

‘But…now that he’s back...’

Gwyn right now, offended:

‘Raven Prince,’ Gwyn said, pushing up from the ground and turning away from Augus. ‘I, Gwyn ap Nudd, hereby take whatever status you are now, and return you to underfae, where you belong.’

TRP: 

Stop,’ Augus said. ‘You…you can’t treat him like this.’

‘Should I continue to listen to your nonsense?’ Gwyn said.

Prince’s eyes trailed to Augus, and Mosk couldn’t read the expression on his face anymore, it was softer than before.

He left his hand on the unbroken chain and stared hard at the Raven Prince, but the Raven Prince still watched Augus.

‘Don’t look at him,’ Gwyn said. ‘You don’t ever get to touch him.’

‘No,’ Gwyn breathed.

Augus: Hoe don’t do it

Gwyn:  it was suicide by proxy

Augus: ohhhmygod

His eyes went wide, and a sharp, quickly masked scent of fear punched into the air before fading.

And of course,’ he looked up, ‘this is untenable. In what year do I find myself? What season? How long has it been since my reign?’

The Raven Prince squinted at Gwyn for a long time, and then looked at Augus, then back at Gwyn.

‘You’re Gwyn ap Nudd, that churl of the An Fnwy estate.”

Are fae able to change alignment again? Ah, I can talk about it. Is the geas broken? Can I talk about dragons? Ah, I can. I can.

He looked at Augus for a long time.

‘Satisfying,’ he murmured.

‘The debt,’ the Raven Prince said. ‘The debt I owe. Debts are a…peculiar event, with Mages like Olphix and Davix. Best to leave this realm instead of pay one, I find. Best to…find a way out.’

Did no one teach these guys about the consequences of taking on debt?

The Raven Prince looked to Augus and then closed his eyes slowly, as though he couldn’t bear to see what was before him.

‘Did the Oak King also owe a debt?’ Gwyn said.

The Raven Prince looked at Gwyn then as though he was a marvel, eyes shining with pleasure. ‘Why, I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘He was born Unseelie,’ Eran said.

‘Eran,’ Gwyn said, staring at him.

If you are the Unseelie King, then who rules the Seelie? Crielle?’

‘Albion,’ Ondine said.

‘Albion?’ the Raven Prince said, laughing.

You were meant to be mine all along. You belonged to me and my Court, and your magic was mine. They withheld you from me. I’ll not have you continue what they started.’

‘I didn’t belong to you,’ Gwyn said.

‘He concealed it,’ the Raven Prince said. ‘What did he say exactly? That I was on sabbatical?’

[ᴄᴜᴇ ʟᴀᴜɢʜᴛᴇʀ]

So that if my body or self felt the Kingship vanishing from my body, I would stream all of my souls elsewhere.

*nervous laughter from the harry potter fandom*

‘And Augus?’ the Raven Prince said.

‘My consort,’ Gwyn said.

‘So you, who in truth actually belong to me, also took my-’

Gwyn walked up to him calmly and backhanded him across the face with such force that the sound smacked hard into the air. The Raven Prince slumped, unconscious, in the ropes.

‘Fucking absolutely,’ Ash said. ‘There’s no love lost between him and me.’

‘I know,’ Gwyn said. They both shared hard smiles.

Me during this chapter:

[faetalesresearch]

Fae Tales - The Ice Plague - King Oengus Og

"And I, one of the strongest Mages, who had once been a member of the Thirteen, who had once tutored Mages in the arts of song and charm and wordplay, who had even tutored Davix and Olphix to strengthen their skills – I could not break her curse. So, instead, I became a swan.”

[ao3feed-mythology]

The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2NCfIjh

by not_poignant

Eran Iliakambar and Mosk Manytrees shelter from the invincible, sentient plague of ice aboard the Mantissa, a huge legendary ship that hasn’t sailed for hundreds of years. Aboard Ondine’s ship, among a mixed Seelie and Unseelie crew, the two have a chance to get to know each other better. Or they would, but the sea is rife with thorny politics, and the most powerful fae in the world have their eyes on them. (Book 2 of 3)

Words: 4684, Chapters: 1/31, Language: English

Series: Part 2 of The Ice Plague, Part 9 of The Fae Tales Verse

Fandoms: Fae Tales - not_poignant, Original Work, Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con

Categories: M/M

Characters: Eran Iliakambar, Mosk Manytrees, Gwyn ap Nudd, Augus Each Uisge, Ash Glashtyn, Ondine, Awan, Uhina, Stertes (Fae Tales), Mage Olphix, The Raven Prince

Relationships: Eran Iliakambar/Mosk Manytrees

Additional Tags: Augus Each Uisge/Gwyn ap Nudd - Freeform, Angst, Nightmares, Hurt/Comfort, BDSM, Major Communication Issues, Power Play, Politics, Fairy Tale Elements, epic fantasy, Questionable Consent, Dubious Consent, Mythology - Freeform, Disturbing Themes, Mosk 'This is Stupid' Manytrees, Eran 'Wow that's a lot of Water' Iliakambar, Augus 'Wine Aunt' Each Uisge, Gwyn 'Very Worried (TM)' ap Nudd, Seelie Court, Unseelie Court, Dark, Minor Character Death, Emesis, Grief, Bondage, Mind Control, chronic disability, Fae & Fairies, Power Dynamics, Trauma Recovery, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Suicidal Ideation, Dominance/submission, PTSD, Book 2 of 3, Compulsions, Hopeful Ending

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2NCfIjh

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia hope you are well! After reading Nascent Diplomat chapter 38, I have been wondering: If their fae versions existed in the same universe, who would be stronger in terms of magic, Mosk or Temsen? Lots of love to you!

Hi anon!

Hmm... I'm honestly not sure who would be strong, their skillsets are so different.

That being said, if the Raven Prince wasn't under contract with Davix & Olphix he would have defeated them a long time ago. And I would say he's stronger than Mosk.

And we know Temsen is stronger than the Raven Prince (at least in his own self-estimate, though this has never been put to the test!)

The Raven Prince not defeating Davix and Olphix himself definitely wasn't a skill issue! It was a contract issue.

[not-poignant]

Birthday Spotlight - Fenwrel the Mouse Maiden

[May 14 - Taurus]

The short, round graceful mouse maiden who is terrifyingly powerful, and a compassionate and fierce mother, Fenwrel joins the Fae Tales cast asking first for asylum, but then making it very clear that she should be part of Gwyn's Court. She becomes so invaluable she eventually becomes Inner Court, and then the consort to the Queen-in-Waiting, Gulvi Dubna Vajat.

Formidable as a foe, and ambitious even as a friend, sometimes even playful and mischievous, Fenwrel is proud of being Unseelie and powerful, and is a stern, wise, compassionate friend. She offers wise counsel to those around her, but secretly just wants to live a comfortable life where she wields the power to make it comfortable for the people she loves as well.

‘Yes! That’s what I am! And there’s a lot of us! We could take you down. So don’t you mouse me. You need allies, Each Uisge. Don’t lose the ones you have.’

The Court of Five Thrones

The Court of Five Thrones - First appearing as about the only truly wise and grounded member of Gwyn's Court (at least at first), Fenwrel comes in with true ambitious and ruthlessness, desiring an increase in status, a place in the Court and making no pretense as to her motives, which including ensuring the protection of her family. A strong mother, Master Mage, and powerful ally, Augus expects Fenwrel to hate him, and is surprised to find that she's a true confidante.

The Court of Five Thrones - Without Fenwrel's steady and uncompromising vision, compassion and communication throughout The Court of Five Thrones, the other characters would have been lost without her. She also falls in love with Gulvi, and together, they become the second power couple of the Unseelie Court, readying themselves to step into power during The Ice Plague.

The Ice Plague I: The Forest of Fire - Fenwrel and Gulvi step up as consort and Queen-in-Waiting, as Gwyn and Augus leave on an expedition with Mosk and Eran. Fenwrel also makes it clear to Eran that she'll not put up with any of his nonsense, casting a geas on him that makes it impossible for him to use his fire until it becomes clear he won't use it to harm Mosk again.

The Ice Plague III: The Ice Plague - Unseen throughout book 2 due to the lack of teleportation and staying busy with the Unseelie Court, Fenwrel becomes a steady presence at the end offering her wealth of her magic and resources to everyone, including Mosk Manytrees, crucial in the final battle against Olphix.

Unwound - Gwyn finds himself frustrated and annoyed by Fenwrel's habit of both treating him as an unruly child, and also demanding that he be open with Augus instead of avoiding him. Fenwrel is right, of course, but that doesn't mean Gwyn has to like it!

Tumblr Prompts: Fae Tales - The only Fenwrel perspective story, chapter 3 of the prompts shows Fenwrel mixing herbs and musing on her connection to Gulvi, ending in her kissing Gulvi thoroughly, and making it clear she's in charge.

All That We Were, All That We Will Ever Be - Fenwrel is briefly in the final epilogue of the canon Gwyn and Augus epilogue, there offering her compassion and understanding to Augus throughout Gwyn's recovery, even though Augus doesn't want it at all.

The Best of Broken Resolutions - In a short AU, Gulvi is scandalised when Augus mentions that he already knows Fenwrel - the head of Interiors - is fucking her.

The Spoils of the Spoiled - Fenwrel comes into the story as a high-powered lawyer who is competent enough and willing enough to face Crielle and Lludd on Gwyn's behalf in an emancipation case. Powerful and ruthless, Gwyn finds himself feeling intensely pressured by her to do more than he wants to, and needs to be encouraged by the people around him to remember that he doesn't have to take things to trial just because Fenwrel wants to.

Underline the Black - (unmentioned / future mention). As the manager and CEO of the sister site to Hillview, Fenwrel is an alpha and partner to omega Gulvi.

Fenwrel is a short, extremely powerful Master Mage and mouse maiden in the canon Fae Tales series. Unable to properly appear in human form, she always has mouse ears and a mouse tail, as well as some other features even in 'human form.' She carries a Mage staff with her.

Fenwrel has black hair, black eyes, and brown skin, and is fat and beautiful, with a strong sense of fashion.

From the fae side of Kerala, she is disconnected from her heritage due to choices made by her family, though she will still wear Indian clothing. As a result, her children are more connected to it by personal choice and she has been finding more connection through them.

She is a fierce and proud mother, and will do anything for her children, but also lets them be free spirits.

Fenwrel is strong-willed and rarely insecure, it's clear that she's worked hard for what she's achieved in life, and she shows a level of confidence that is earned and not arrogance. She tends to be grounded and thoughtful, and not at all self-effacing.

Despite not being a healer, she is adept at aspects of healing, and has a lot of natural compassion.

Fenwrel established herself as a loyal and caring friend when she became Augus' confidante, though he would have preferred not to have one at all. She saw him in some of his most vulnerable and raw moments, and offered counsel, compassion and care, even when he was collapsed on the ground post severe flashback. She's crucial in helping him to heal his meridians.

When Augus comes upon something fatal in The Court of Five Thrones, she stands up to Gwyn with the coldness of someone who needs to prioritise. We see Gwyn get ordered about like a child, in spite of his distress. It's revealed later that she gave up years of her life to secure Augus'.

In The Ice Plague I, Fenwrel suppresses Eran's fire powers, finding him cruel and heartless in his treatment of Mosk. Later though, realising how severe the spell was, she apologises openly.

In every story, Fenwrel always occupies a position of high power, being a lawyer, head of a section of a company, CEO, Master Mage etc.

Fenwrel is always quite ambitious and determined, sometimes even seeming cold, but it's clear that she's often operating from a strong ethical position.

Fenwrel is always short, always fat, and always Indian.

Fenwrel is always something of a compass for other characters, even when she's not directly in the story, or not in it much, except when she's there as Gulvi's lover.

She's always Gulvi's lover, with the exception of The Spoils of the Spoiled.

I wanted to add more women characters to The Court of Five Thrones, and Fae Tales in general, and Fenwrel came in quite naturally. I wanted to write her as fat, ambitious, compassionate, ruthless. Qualities that we don't often see together in a woman character. I wanted her motherhood to not be the most important thing in her life even though it is important, that she never lost any of her selfhood to 'being a mother' and I also wanted her to be ambitious without losing her maternal compassion. I worried about how to write her, but Fenwrel appeared and just seemed to naturally flow from there. I never really struggled with any scene she was in.

Fenwrel's always scared me a little in the sense that we're all very lucky she wants to be a good guy, because if she chose to be a villain, we'd all be fucked lol

I loved subverting the idea of a mouse shifter being 'mousy' (like Terho is lol), and making her instead very strong and bold. In her very first scene, Augus talks down to her for being a 'mouse' and it's clear in a moment that she's proud of it, and will tolerate no nonsense from him.

Fenwrel is a top / dominant. Short Queens for life. I especially indulged in the chemistry that Fenwrel and Augus had together, and it was one of my favourite things to write in The Court of Five Thrones.

‘I have always been powerful, and I have never lacked for nourishment, because where there is imperfection, there is food for me. Perhaps you’ll just have to trust that I’m not trying to tip the world further into disharmony.’

The Court of Five Thrones

[not-poignant]

Just reread “The Curse” and I think it’s awesome how you gave a glimpse into Crielle’s mind for us, will you ever do the same for the terrible twins, maybe after TIP is over? I’m a fan of twincest getting into the heads of awful people <3 Good day!

Probably not. I was in two minds about even including Mosk seeing some of Olphix's memories honestly, and that's about as far as I'd ever really go?

Other people are welcome to speculate in fic, and twincest between Olphix and Davix certainly exists already on AO3!

I am a big fan of...not showing a character's perspective if I need or want that character to be a significant villain. It's also why we've never seen the Nightingale's perspective, or the Nain Rouge's. I genuinely believe there is power in what you don't show, as well as in what you do.

So yeah I'm not like going to say 'never' because sometimes I come back from that lmao, but I don't think it's super likely? Also because by the time I finish The Ice Plague I will be full steam ahead into an entirely new universe with new characters and new villains, and the AUs and side fics I will be thinking about the most, will hopefully (if I've done things well) be for that universe instead.

[not-poignant]

Question: Were David and Olphyx together? As in, TOGETHER together? Because I'm starting to low key ship 'em and I can't tell if that's just my own diseased imagination or something I picked up from the text

You are in luck, anon! Canon has depicted them as lovers since book one of The Ice Plague. So it’s definitely not just you and your imagination!

Olphix and Davix are filisexual. They actually have only had a consensual relationship with each other, and they only love each other. They’ve never been in relationships with anyone else, and don’t want to be. As for canon confirmations, here are a few:

Mosk had a fleeting thought – what if this was what it was like for Davix and Olphix when they combined their magic? What if this was why they never bothered to love anyone else except each other?

*

Sometimes, Davix plastered himself to Olphix’s back while Olphix was touching Mosk. Had pressed his identical face into the crook of Olphix’s neck and shoulder and breathed in. Sometimes, then, the pain would waver as though Olphix was getting distracted.

 ‘Don’t be so possessive, heart of mine,’ Olphix said. Davix laughed into his brother’s skin, and the pain waned just enough that Mosk didn’t feel the urge to constantly scream anymore. He choked and hiccupped and coughed and caught his breath.

 ‘I’m not possessive. Pray, do you think that’s like me?’

 ‘Jealous, then. You’ve never liked me touching anyone else.’

 ‘An auspicious aphrodisiac, watching you at work,’ Davix purred. ‘You’re so strong. There’s one person in the world stronger than I am, and it’s you.’

*

‘After this…’ Davix said. Then a hand at Olphix’s jaw and they were kissing, and Mosk stared up at them through his tears. They were the same, but different too. Olphix used his other hand – the one not resting upon Mosk’s neck – to slide his fingers down his brother’s side, and Davix breathed heavily and sighed out a pleased sound. ‘After this, Olphix, I’d like more of this, pretty please.’

*

‘So you have met him,’ Davix said warmly, and Mosk looked up to see Davix clutching his hands to his chest, eyelids hiding his pretty eyes, a wistful smile on his face. ‘My great destroyer, oh. My wonder of wonders. My wise, wonderful ward and both of us, wedded together.’

*

‘I have a soul,’ Davix said, then he cocked his head. ‘Actually, I find myself apprehensive about that now, of course. Am I alive enough to have one? No. But before, of course I had a soul. I was capable of a love that crawled the world over so many times that everyone breathes it in and is uplifted for it. I am the life and the light that shines, I am the cold and the night across the sky, I am his and he is mine, and nothing else matters to me in the world except maybe…magic.’

Davix stretched his arms up above his head and then arched backwards, graceful and long-limbed.

‘He is the death and the shadow that blinds, he is the fire and the sun infusing the world. He is mine and I am his. Olphix. Olphix.’

*

I think there are other references, but they’re the main ones, especially Davix and Olphix being all over each other while torturing Mosk, and Davix specifically using it as an aphrodisiac, and the two of them kissing. They are 100% about each other and no one else. :D They’ve been shipping themselves for like thousands of years, it’s canon!

[not-poignant]

I’m starting to think davix is gonna figure out EXACTLY who Mosk is and I don’t like that thought. Like he can tell he has a super strong magical signature, from what you’ve said. So he can probably reason “me and olphix wouldn’t leave someone this powerful alone”, right? PIA IM SCARED

I mean really, there’s nothing to ever be scared of, because I never really write twists or angst or anything to be afrai- oh.

[not-poignant]

@dancinginthemomochrome replied to your photoset: captaincrusher: Me filtering out kinks I don’t...

This is me looking at Davix and Olphix ��������

Gosh damn you are so valid

[not-poignant]

Sometimes, I feel really bad that I am not head over heels in love with decent characters like The Raven Prince or Gwyn (I love them, don't get me wrong, I do!) for instead I love to death Davix and Olphix, morally corrupt and kind of responsible for A LOT of things (and one of them is kind of DEAD). How did they come to you Pia? How did you find these awesome villains? Love your work and I thank you for all of it!

It’s awesome that you enjoy villains like Davix and Olphix, just a shame that you’re pretty much always doomed to witnessing like tragic endings with them all. But maybe that’s part of the experience of loving them so much!

It’s also kind of funny to hear you say that like, the Raven Prince is a ‘decent’ character because you’re the first person to describe him that way, and a lot of people don’t think he’s necessarily 100% evil, but a lot of people don’t think he’s *good.* So there’s a pretty big disparity there between like, how you (and probably some other people) feel about him vs. like, the quality of comments I get which are just like ‘I want to see RP smacked in the face he’s the worst!’

How did they come to you Pia? How did you find these awesome villains? 

It’s probably a combination of things. Like I don’t really remember how I ‘think up’ characters. Probably because I’m thinking up characters all the time (eesh) and partly because the genesis of a character is not very interesting to me.

Villains are usually created out of a few things though. Which is like:

1. Firstly I often know or have known people like a lot of the worst villains I’m writing, with the exception of the Nightingale, so some of it is pulling from real life example. I have known some genuinely awful people, and one of the ways I enjoy like...processing that is actually turning it into characters I find compelling and interesting, and basically ‘turning it into someone else.’ But yeah no, I have up close and personal lifelong experience with sociopaths and so I am driven to write them. It’s partly why I write so often about interpersonal trauma, or trauma caused by the malice of another, vs. trauma caused by natural disaster or ill health etc.

2. Villains are usually foils to one or more of the MCs, so they’re usually created after the main characters have been created, and it’s usually in response to like, things the MCs need to deal with in their lives. Davix and Olphix are more complicated than this, as they started out as foils towards characters like the Raven Prince, but since Gwyn has inherited a lot of his issues, and Mosk needs to deal with them directly, they’ve become like multi-character foiils.

3. I usually want a villain to be attractive on some level. Often physically. But also, someone who could easily seem sympathetic or believable or even reasonable if they wanted to be (this even applies to characters like Gabriel in Eversion). Someone who maybe actually is sometimes sympathetic (Davix with Olphix) or similar, and - with the exception of the Nightingale - is not just outright a black hole of a personality. This doesn’t hold true for villains like Lludd and Perkins, to me, those are just slightly exaggerated realistic representations of domestically violent men who get away with toxic bullshit because they’re in positions of power.

But yeah I don’t remember how they came to me. I just wanted two guys who worked together as brothers (like I remember deciding that very early) who are so old that no one remembers where they came from, who are essentially tabletop gaming the rest of the world, but only with each other, and pretty naughtily at that.

[not-poignant]

‘I am ill-informed about ghosts, truthfully, it was his area of study. But he could take this fragment of me, and fix it to something real, and make me-’Oh. My. God. PIA did Olphix make a horcrux of Davix and stick it into Mosk? Pia you didn't say you were wrting HP fanfiction!!?! haha jk it just popped into my head because i just finished a HP fanfic and then reread some davix/olphix scences. no but really, did he?

Oh. My. God. PIA did Olphix make a horcrux of Davix and stick it into Mosk? 

Lmao, I am very happy to say that there are no horcruxes in the Fae Tales universe. (Does anyone else wonder what would’ve happened if a dementor had just sucked the horcrux out of Harry Potter? I do).

I have to say though, the idea of splitting souls off and ‘storing them’ in different places is not something JK Rowling invented. You can actually find it in different animist traditions, particularly those associated with shamanism, especially any that believed in multiple souls in the first place (the idea that we have only one is actually pretty contemporary, and not common across all religious belief systems).

I daresay, with Rowling’s extensive research into folklore and mythology, this was something she discovered for herself, and adapted into the horcrux concept. You’ll see it elsewhere, too. Just not under that name. There’s actually not a huge jump between some folklore, mythology, and some religious and spiritual practices that are still ongoing today. When you start getting into the theology of souls and working with them actively (to rebuild or even shatter them into pieces, etc.) it becomes pretty deep, pretty quickly. I was raised believing in the idea of 3-4 souls per person, and I’ve never been particularly attached to the ‘one soul each’ view as a result.

Anyway, so basically a very short spirituality/history lesson to say that this idea while it gets a cool new name in the Harry Potter series, is not a wholly original concept, and you’ll find it elsewhere if you look!

Also, Olphix doesn’t know that Davix is talking to Mosk. If he did, the story would be over. Just 100% over, and I’ll leave folks to decide how.

[not-poignant]

Im calling it now that davix and olphix aren't endgame and there's actually something worse/magey bois are just misunderstood (due to their terrible methods)

Davix and Olphix haven’t been official endgame for like 3-4 years! :D We all know that the Nightingale has been the endgame since...the Nightingale appeared.

But if you mean there is a badder boss coming within The Ice Plague itself, that’s a nope (aside from the baddest boss of all: miscommunication). I mean, defeating Olphix will be all our entire ensemble needs to deal with as an endgame for the series, and it will be enough to destroy many of them psychologically (and some, physically, temporary major character death is one of my favourite tags for a reason).

But in a way, those two Mages aren’t only endgame for The Ice Plague, they’re also probably going to be endgame for a good long while, even with the Nightingale caught in the underworlds. There’s an almost 80% chance I won’t continue with Fae Tales canon after The Ice Plague is finished, even though I still have story ideas. Living with a cancer syndrome has made me rejig my priorities and I really want to work on other serial ideas that will take me at least 3-5 years to execute after The Ice Plague.

Realistically, after TIP, it could be over a decade before I get back to the canon, and y’know, there’s a chance I’ll be dead by then. I mean there’s also a chance I may not be! But I’m basically aware that if I only have X amount of time, I will be spending it writing different stories from different universes, and not necessarily stuck to FT forever. There are other serials I really want to share with folks, namely Iverna and Three Spires, but I’m sure they won’t be the only two things to pounce me in the meantime.

[not-poignant]

Why did Olphyx send Eran to Gwyn ? I mean, wouldn't it have been simpler to wipe Eran's memory and drop Mosk off at a tavern somewhere ? That would have been the end of that.

I mean firstly, Olphix didn’t send Eran to Gwyn. He sent him halfway between the Seelie and Unseelie Court, and Eran and Mosk nearly died because of it. And then Mosk tried to kill Eran. Like, Olphix didn’t make it easy for them. Not Mosk nor Eran. And I imagine he liked the idea of ‘assisting’ in his capacity as (fake) King-in-Waiting. Like ‘oh it’s my job to help the Seelie, might as well.’

Secondly, Davix explains some of why they behave the way they do in The Court of Five Thrones:

‘Why do you want me to know about this?’ Gwyn said finally. ‘If you think I cannot stop you.’

‘Because I think you’ll try,’ Davix said, ‘once you realise what I’m up to. I think you deserve a fair chance, seeing as I brought so much harm to your family. Would you buy that I feel guilty?’

‘No,’ Gwyn said, and Davix smiled darkly.

‘Good, then you’re not an entire waste of my time. Because, Gwyn ap Nudd, I enjoy watching people learn of their circumstances, rail and rally against them, only to lose. You know what that’s like, don’t you? It’s amusing, isn’t it? Watching soldiers come at you, feeling that amusement that comes as you enjoy watching them try their very hardest, burn their life away, when all the while you know deep down what the ultimate outcome must be.’

They’re malicious, cruel sadists. And they have never lost.

Well...Davix isn’t doing so great. He kind of lost, lol.

Trust me, Olphix and Davix could probably have killed every fae that ever existed and then their lives would be much easier and much simpler but boy would they have been bored.

The older a fae gets, the more concerned they become in staving off boredom, and making sure their lives are...interesting. We might want something ‘simpler’, and I’ve written villains that just do what’s best strategically (Gavril was very good at eliminating threats early - he ordered Jack’s execution pretty quickly, tbh, once he realised that option was out). But boredom leads to death and is the leading cause of fae death after they’re about 10,000 years old. So yeah, sometimes they no longer do the ‘simple’ thing, they do the thing that is more interesting to them.

Also Olphix is very much not stable right now. Like, if you think with the grief he’s experiencing that he has the capacity to behave super rationally, I mean...he’s just...not in that zone. The most consistent thing we’ve seen so far from him, is that he really enjoys tormenting Mosk.

[not-poignant]

Tbh I picture Davix and Olphix as Koume and Kotake from Legend of Zelda OoT.

I have no idea who these people are and I’m too scared to Google as I’ve been traumatised by Magikoopas, lmao.

[not-poignant]

Awhile ago, you made a joke that Olophix and Davix looked almost exactly like Magikoopas from the Mario games and for some reason I took it to be the truth. So until I reread TIP and registered their actual appearance, I've been reading the entire ice plague imagining Magikoopas as the main villains and two magikoopas in love with each other and it's just been the most hilarious mental image thoughout all of TIP that I'm low key sad it's ended but wanted to share it with you anyway XD

Oh man, I never made this joke. Another person did, and my first response was ‘OH NO’ lol. I didn’t even know what magikoopas were until I googled it in response to the anon.

But yeah, no, that was some Fae Tales crack for sure. I apologise it got stuck in your head though, I didn’t want that to happen to anyone, lol. I’m glad you enjoyed it while it lasted? :D