#questions etc askbox is open even though I think it eats asks sometimes

[corvusasteris]

aiolos world information

map: (states + capitals)

state information:

Illyosia: a sprawling and disparate empire struggling to keep hold of its territory. ruled by the Illyosarchoi : dual rulers each claiming familial descent from a foundational divine sibling. sucession has always been a dubious affair, dependant more on the military strength of the claimant than their birthright: backstabbing and assassination are the preferred methods of dealing with rivals among both royalty and aristocracy. its capital, Melera, is a traditional centre of magical learning, reflecting the widespread use and knowledge of magic within the empire, and a thriving port. the current illyosarchoi are Alexius Brenas & Silvia Laskris: Alexius is nearing death and his sucession is not yet settled, but the favourite for the throne is his youngest daughter Antonia, who will stop at nothing to claim power.

Thalasseon: a newly-formed empire, who through strategic alliances and military conquest is looking to make the most of Illyosia's weakening. yet in it's burning desire to expand and enrich itself, the great king, Ateas, is said to be ignoring growing internal corruption among a nobility who sense weakness in the new and inexperienced king. rich in resources and with a regional history stretching back thousands of years, it is both a mercantile power and a growing centre of learning and ideas.

Erialos: a league of city-states who broke away from Illyosian control and allied with each other under the banner of a shared culture and history. a particulary strong naval power, but fractures are beginning to form within the alliance as each city state competes for dominance, and traditional rivalries threaten the stability. broadly speaking, is more wary of magic and prefers to focus on technological advancement over magical solutions.

Nesos: a recent break-away from the Illyosian empire, after a general mutinied with their troops and took control of the province. overwhelmingly rural, it is nevertheless known for its distinctive metalworking and artistic tradtions. the island is rocky and densely forested, and tends towards isolation. reportedly, the spirit realm has an unusual number of crossing points across the archipelago.

Leine: is less of a unified state and more of a loose alliance of tribes. traditionally, each ruler leads a group of people not a territory, however as some move away from a semi-nomadic way of life, the spliting up of territory & people under multiple heirs is becoming more common than sole inheritance. this has lead to a growing instability as heirs look to outside powers for support to grow in power. is known for the quality of its horses from the central grasslands, and the martial skill of its people throughout.

Luria: a kingdom who has held its power-base in the westernmost part of Aiolos for hundreds of years of relative stability, helped by the natural defenses of the western mountains and the booming trade routes along it's southern coastline. known for it's architecture and music, the kingdom has a strong bardic tradition of storytelling centred around its court which is ruled by two rulers, who each control a differing aspect especially regarding the spiritual life of the kingdom: a fine balance of power always in danger of tipping over.

spirit realm information:

see this ask

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

Which I definitely forgot to do last month, ah well.

As per usual, this is also an Open Question Night post! Aka, while my askbox is always open, tonight I’ll be keeping an eye on it and around to answer in a semi-reasonable timeframe. Feel free to ask about anything in the post, or anything I’ve talked about here on tumblr, or posted on AO3, etc. ...I don’t recall if I have any active memes or anything, it’s been a while since I’ve been super on tumblr...but anyway, ask away!

I do also take prompts, but no promises on when I’ll get around to filling them. I still have a few sitting around from. Uh. Last year........

But anyway, what’s on your mind?

Precipice:

The first Preludes story went up this past weekend! Somewhat later than I’d planned, but there was another project that ended up eating a lot of my writing time/brain, alas. This one features Lavinia, Mara Jade, Kallus, a Legends cameo, and the introduction of another recurring OC. The next one will...proooooobably be Hondo, Kanan, Ezra, Obi-Wan, and Anakin? Assuming that’s the next one I finish.

There will be seven in total, and the other five will involve whatever’s going to go down with Maul; Hera and her contact in this AU; Sidious’s Fifth Titled Apprentice; and...I’m still considering the last two, lol. Maybe something to do with Mandalore; probably something more Senate-focused...I’ll work it out.

As I mentioned in the tumblr post and I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m going to continue posting these alongside the first arc or two of Protectors, which should debut...sometime in the next couple weeks, lol.

Most of these, as you may have guessed, are shoehorning Rebels content and characters into an AU that wasn’t designed with them in mind. The gist of it is, S1 of Rebels goes more or less in canon, and then...S2 probably went differently just because of where Certain Key Players were, but I’m handwaving most of the details unless they’re interesting enough to show explicitly (probably in the Maul Prelude, if nothing else). But for the most part (even though this doesn’t, uh, entirely make sense necessarily XD) anything that doesn’t directly involve Vader/Ahsoka/Rex/Force Woo probably happened similarly. Most notably, The Honorable Ones and all plot points following directly on that happen essentially as in canon. The Mandalore plotlines are also essentially the same. ...oh, I probably should address Thrawn, since I need him in a slightly different position a few years later for spoiler reasons...

Leaving that aside...as I said, Protectors will start coming out soon, I’m just finishing up what I want for the first chapter or two, and waffling on how I want to tag some things. There is a...possible major character death in arc 14, but I’m going back and forth on whether or not I actually want to do it, which changes what tags/warnings I include...

But I’ll work that out and get it out before too much longer!

Other Star Wars Projects:

I have a Thing coming out at the end of this month or early next month, for pod_together. I’m pretty excited about it, I’ve listened to my podficcer’s first draft and am making minor edits/etc., but I think we’re in pretty good shape ^_^

Other than that, I don’t have any concrete plans for new SW fic in the near future. I’m going to buckle down and really get some momentum with Protectors and Preludes for the most part, maybe start poking at some ideas/concepts for next year’s SWBB.

Maybe also crossposting some tumblr-exclusive oneshots like I started doing last winter, or picking up with one of the AU outlines that I keep meaning to continue (Ventress + Luke, Let’s Go Steal a Crossover) but...well, we’ll see how time/brain works out this month.

Other Fanfic Projects:

I will have some standalone/fulltext AtLA fic out later this month, I promise XD It’ll be an Avatar Zuko AU, I’m putting the text together and figuring out how I want to structure it, etc.

I’m also genuinely working on a BSG/SG-1 crossover AU outline. It’s. Already quite long and I haven’t even gotten to most of the meat of the crossover yet, lol. But at least the first chunk of that will probably be up sometime later this month, too. Fingers crossed. That’s the plan, anyway.

Original Work:

I haven’t done much in the last month or two, but I’m hoping to get back into this. Both for extant ‘verses and really diving into Arthuriana research because I want to write that one story, maybe really working it up to Publishable??? We’ll see how it goes...

...I think that about covers it! Like I said at the beginning of the post, we’ll also do an Open Question Night, and I’d love to hear about what you guys are working on! What’s on your mind?

[karajaynetoday]

hi kara! i saw ur tags on ur txt post and was wondering if you have tips on moving out/living without family, especially at a young age? i'll be 23 when i graduate college and am planning to move out then (2 more yrs) but the thought of living out the house is so overwhelming?? or if u have advice when it comes to telling ur parents you'd like to leave (i feel like mine would react poorly) (if u feel comfy answering these, if not its ok and ty for ur time!! <3)

Hello lovely anon!! I hope you're enjoying college so far 😌 moving out of home is super duper overwhelming, so don't worry, you're not alone there! I moved out of home a month after I turned 18 to a city 7 hours away for my uni studies and I was very anxious about it, especially in the first six months or so. Many tears. Much anxiety. The one thing that helped me was focusing on the new things I could do bc I wasn't living at home - spending time with friends more often, cooking/choosing my own food (moreso once I moved off campus into a sharehouse), watching whatever I liked on TV, and transitioning into adulthood (doing laundry, paying bills, getting groceries... sounds boring but I love routine so it was fun to feel like I was achieving things haha).

It's also important to recognise that it's okay to feel overwhelmed! Trust me, anyone else who seems to have their life fully together probs doesn't, and if you're able to move in with good housemates, sharing that experience together can be both hilarious and wonderful. Sometimes you just gotta eat nachos together on the kitchen floor at 2am, you know? But also, living alone can be a vibe too - two of my best friends have lived alone for most of their adult lives and they love having their own space without having to deal with housemates, so to each their own!

The other thing is, moving out doesn't mean never going home - I visited in most study breaks, and for some of my cousins who lived at home until 25ish, my aunt would host a weekly family dinner so that was a really nice way to ease the transition and also still feel like you're connected with what's going on in your families lives! Also accept that sometimes no place will properly feel like home - at least in my experience 😂 I've had plenty of shared rentals that were a home of sorts that I felt really comfortable in and loved living at, but for me there's nothing like the feeling of your parents house or your childhood home (my parents moved out of my hometown when they retired so I'm in a constant state of confusion as to where home is haha oops).

On the parents thing, I actually had to do this in reverse last year when I was thinking about quitting my job and moving back to the country to study full-time and living at home while I did so (I finished my first degree in 2014 so it'd been a while since I'd studied). Disclaimer that obviously I am very lucky and grateful to have (mostly) supportive parents but they do like to have logic behind decisions. So the best advice I can offer here is to anticipate the kinds of questions or concerns your parents might have and do your research so you're not caught off guard. Run some budget numbers & talk to friends living out of home in similar areas to where you'd potentially move if you can to give yourself a rough idea of rent costs and find some properties in your price range, have a plan or timeline for when you'd want to start looking and move (which it sounds like you already do) which helps you physically and mentally prepare (as it does for your parents) and even prepare some notes on why you want to move (I've written myself scripts when resigning from jobs before etc bc I panic in the moment and forget what to say lol) - I know some parents may react poorly but my perspective is, if you're ready and willing to move out, it's because in part your parents have helped prepare you for adulthood, so it's a positive step for you both. One thing that helped with my mum a lot (she was very overprotective and anxious about me living out of home bc I'm the baby of the family) was involving her in the house hunting process - even though she was 7 hours away she'd look at places online and we'd chat about them after I'd been to inspections etc which was fun. Also (as is clear in my case LOL), moving out doesn't mean you'll never come back! I'm back living at home after 8 years away and it's both nice but challenging as well (no thanks to rona) but so is life I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️

You can also do the anticipation thing with yourself- ask yourself if there are specific things about moving out that overwhelm you, and try and problem solve them bit by bit or talk it out with friends. You're not the only one who has felt this way, trust me! Anywayyyy this turned into a REALLY long response, sorry anon 😂 I hope it helps! Good luck, and my askbox is always open if you want to chat more about anything! 😘