#re: seelie court.

[moiraimyths]

The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) | Official Trailer

The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) is a lore-rich and choice-driven historical fantasy visual novel inspired by Irish mythology and Celtic folklore. Play as a tenant farmer from mid-19th century Ireland, whose path becomes inexplicably entwined in fairy affairs after getting robbed by the roadside and lured into the mythic and war-torn world of Tír na nÓg: A once unified land, now divided into the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Will you escape and return home with your stolen belongings? Or does fate have something else in mind?

🍃 STEAM 🍂 ITCH.IO 🍃PATREON 🍂DISCORD 🍃

Eager to play? Certain route content is available NOW in early access on Steam and Itch.io! For more information, click below👇

Meet the Cast

Facts & Questions: The Game

🍃 The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) is a Kickstarter-funded project currently in development. Due to the scope of the story, we will be releasing it serially over several years to Steam and Itch.io, and discounting it while in early access. The earlier it's bought, the cheaper it will be overall, and you'll only need to buy the game once!

🍂 Not all routes are currently available! As of Nov. 1, 2024, you can play half of Shae and Maeve's routes; both approximately 50k words. If you're not sure about paying for an unfinished game, feel free to check out our free demo first. It consists of Vol. 1, Book of the Traveller (the pre-route content). Differences between the demo's Vol. 1 and the paid game's Vol. 1 are marginal following our August 1, 2024 re-release of the demo.

🍃 The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) has a recommended reading order (Vol. 1, then 2, then 3, etc.), which will correspond to the release order of the routes. For more information on our reasoning behind this, click here.

🍂 Due to its setting, The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) will occasionally feature instances of characters speaking in Gaeilge, i.e. the Irish language. All instances of Gaeilge are linked to an internal translation tool, which is voiced by Nigel McKeon, a Gaeilgeoir.

🍃 The main character is yours to shape. At minimum, you must choose a nickname, pronouns, and one of four default appearances, the last of which can be your own artwork (instructions are included in the game's files). You may also choose to discard the True Name…

🍂 All routes, both current and upcoming, will have both romantic and platonic choice options. If you're uninterested in romance, feel free to make friends instead! No matter the nature of your relationship, you will still be able to reach the good end. (Want to learn more? Refer to this post!)

🍃 Our cast consists of two men, two women, and two non-binary characters. All are romancable no matter the MC, but some characters are asexual or on the aromantic spectrum, which may impact aspects of their romances.

🍂 If you are a Mac user and are having issues launching the game via the Itch direct download, refer to this guide for troubleshooting before sending us an ask. We strongly recommend purchasing the game through Steam instead of Itch if you are a Mac user; it is the best way to avoid issues with launching the game.

🍃 NDM is very intentionally set just prior to the onset of the Great Famine, which is both thematically and textually relevant to the leftist, anti-imperialist story we're aiming to tell. If you would like more insight into this, refer to this post.

🐎 There are secrets to be found in this game, with more yet to come. Prepare yourself for a lot of horse related shenanigans. 🐎

Facts & Questions: The Company

🧵 Moirai Myths is a five-person company based out of Canada. The core devs/founders go by Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. All writing and programming are done by this collective, i.e. the Fates.

🪡 Moirai Myths has a two person in-house artist team consisting of Kazane, our Character/UI Designer, and Melinoe, our Environmental Designer. In addition to them, though, we have had a number of guest artists assist us with the creation of sprites, CGs, and an assortment of other materials. If you'd like to meet them, check out our about page on our website!

✂️ Moirai Myths stands with the people of Palestine 🇵🇸

Disclaimer: This description will be updated periodically. If you're reading this in a reblog, you may want to check our current pinned post for potential changes.

[preservationofnormalcy]

[The office is crowded when I make it in. A few dozen people in the waiting room of the simply-furnished building, weary eyed. Some waiting patiently, some not so patiently. As a slender man speaks tersely with a receptionist, I am unsure where to go. After I hesitate a moment, a man at the end of the desks waves at me. 

He is short, barely over five feet tall. He is bald on the top of his head, with bursts of frizzy hair on either side above his ears. His eyes inspect me from behind huge and thick glasses rimmed with a brassy metal, above a  brown corduroy suit with a green tie. When he speaks, he has a slight lisp and a heavy stammer.] 

F] Hello. Uh. Yes, h-hello madam. 

M] Ferdinand Mills? 

F] Yes. Yes, co-come here. May I have a word?

M] Yes, of course. 

F] I ch-choose the word, uh, ‘interview’. 

M] What? 

F] Nothing, nothing madam. Come, come.

[I am led back behind the counters, past small cubicles and offices. It looks like any other office building I’ve been in, if furnished a little more…vintage. Kelly greens and dark brown woods dominate the furniture, and brassy metal fixtures catch the somewhat dimmer light. I’m led into Ferdinand’s office, and immediately I see piles and piles of paperwork, stacked almost impossibly high in some places. His computer is buried in it, and for a moment I wonder about the heat. He sits at his desk and laces his fingers together.] 

F] I, umm. Was told of your c-coming, madam. What….what is your purpose here? 

M] I’m here to conduct a….to….. 

F] Mmmh? 

M] To….conduct a….what is happening, why can’t I—

F] You may, uh, have it back. 

M] Interview. Interview, interview. What the hell, I….oh. 

F] A p-parlor trick. Nothing, uh, more, Ms Hendricks. 

M] Why did you do that? 

F] Some, uh, new agents don’t quite understand the ru-rules. Think it’s a g-game. Until they’re uh….

[He gestures with his palm down and fingers wiggling.] 

F] On the end of a…string, madam. M-marionette. 

M] So you just…take something from them? 

F] B-better it be me, than, ah. Something else. Please. Y-your interview, madam. Your questions? 

M] As long as you don’t do that again. 

F] Queen’s, uh, honor. On the Court. 

M] ….what is your name and position?

F] I am called F-Ferdinand Mills, and I am the director of the Legal Extranormal Persons Office, as well as, ah, liaison to the North American Seelie Court. 

M] What do you do in either position? 

F] In the f-former, I am a social worker, ah. Mostly. We oversee the process of g-gaining legal personhood under the Office and the work that entails. It’s a little like….im-immigration. 

The latter position is m-mostly ceremonial. I help the Office train its staff on issues related to the Fa-Fair Folk and…perhaps the, ah. Challenges. 

M] What is legal personhood? 

F] B-before the 1937 Tom-Tommyknocker Accords, it was Office policy that non-humans were not g-giv–ah, extended the rights and privileges afforded to h-human citizens by the US constitution. Not, not that they applied to humans equally either…b-but I digress. The Accords provided a legal f-framework for providing citizenship and thus legal p-protection to non-human or sufficiently str-ah. Abnormal persons. 

M] Why is it called the Tommyknocker Accords? 

F] The camp-cam….effort was led by Tommyknockers, an ethnic group of Fair Folk that w-were among the first to im-immigrate with Cornish humans and took up residence mainly in m-mines. Their presence was, ah, of course never officially re-recognized by American authorities, but they often had union cards, paid for by their human c-coworkers. This s-sort of solidarity led the Tommyknockers to seek some kind of rights from the g-government, which gained the ear of the Office in the nine-ninetee-ah. In the 30’s. In return for the local S-seelie Court’s cooperation in protecting humans from the actions of r-rogue fae, fair folk would receive legal p-protection and citizenship, and c-considerations for those that can, ah, pass as human.

M] And this has been extended to…more than just fae?

F] V-very soon after it was started, work began on expanding it to lycanthropes, the undead, demons…by now there are art-artificial intelligences, homunculi, extraterrestrials…

M] Do you think the department is successful in its goals? 

F] Our g-goals are to help promote a culture of protection for those who may not have had it in the past. It’s a matter of civil rights. The astoundingly vast majority of people that come through here….all they want is to live p-peacefully and be left alone, more or, ah, less. 

I hope you-you can agree that people of all stripes should have a fundamental right to exist without legal d-discrimination or fear. Of course, given the Office’s secrecy standards, certain concessions have to be made. 

And, to be cyn-cynical, there’s also the goal of providing those people a route of, ah, legal redress. If we didn’t ex-extend certain protections to the extranormal population, they’d riot. And they’d be justified in, ah, doing so. 

M] That seems like an important point. What about your position as fae liaison. How did the Office’s cooperation with the NASC begin?

F] As the Accords were being f-formed, it was determined, primarily from the T-Tommyknockers, that enough Fair Folk had, ah, immigrated to North America that they had formed their own C-court. This would allow the local f-fae to determine their own law, culturally influenced by but separate from o-older Courts. The culture of this court was still diff-different than many in Europe and elsewhere, of course, and this probably contributed to the success of the Accords. M-many wanted a fresh start, for them-themselves, and with mortals. Some of them were half-human themselves. My f-father was among those present at the Accords, ah, in fact.

M] And this has been a successful relationship, in your opinion?

F] I know s-so. The country would be a very different place if we had powerful groups like the NASC opp-opposed to us.

M] I did want to ask about the, uh. Recon team—

F] I won’t s-s-speak on that without an ethics r-r-representative being p-present. 

M] I just wanted to know what their—

F] If LEP is imm-immigration, Recon is immigration en-enforcement. I have my i-issues with how the R-r-recon team conducts its— no, no, no, I won’t speak on it further. 

M] Are they the main enforcement and security agency in the Office?

F] I said I wouldn’t— nnnhf. F-first line. F-first contact. If it seems like too much for them, we call O-Sec. Then it’s out of our h-hands. Now if you please, if you’d like to kn-know more about R-recon, speak to someone in Recon. 

M] Do their operations bother you?

F] Ms Hendricks, I–

M] Or are they a necessary evil? 

F] N-n-no evil is necessary, Ms Hendricks. I won’t speak f-f-further on it. In fact, ah, I, uh, I believe we are done t-talking. Reschedule another interview if you m-must. 

(Buy the poster here!)

[not-poignant]

re: post canon ftv anon- that makes a lot of sense!! I kinda assumed that eran would make the seelie king eventually, I was wondering who was running things while he was grieving and gwyn was recovering - even ten years is a long time, I imagine the seelie had a lot to recover from too. though my own favorite attitude I've seen is the one from the hare fae that gave them dinner close to the end of TIP3

Anyway, I also want to say if you do ever come back in a decade to write more for this world I'd definitely be the first in line to read it :-)

Gulvi and Fenwrel! There is no Seelie monarch in that period, but the Seelie also come to believe in Gwyn and his Court thanks to the endorsement of Albion (which we see in The Ice Plague book 3), so many major issues would be brought to the Unseelie Court, I expect.

But yeah, Gulvi and Fenwrel are established as monarchs even during The Ice Plague, it becomes like increasingly clear that they're handling the role well / solidly and responsibly, and Gwyn feels no issues handing over to them as formally as he can in the epilogue.

And Gwyn being a Seelie / Unseelie monarch in his time and hating the constant wars and wanting to broker a peacetime sets up him and his court to being extremely favourable towards looking after Seelie fae until they can look after themselves again.

But Gwyn will be very interested in completely dismantling the Court structure as it is now, one day. I think he'd rather fae stopped relying on the Courts at all, and/or found a more democratic series of systems that wasn't based on a dual monarchy that neglects sea fae, and many non-Eurocentric fae. The system was torn down for a reason, I don't think anyone in the main cast wants to restore it to what it used to be.

[tesnuzzik]

Faerie Court Graves (Autumn) skin concept

I re-imagined my original drawing of Seelie Court Graves to fit with the released skins :)

[a-manicured-lawn]

Welcome to Chaos!

Hello and welcome! this is my main blog, where I can and will reblog anything LinkedUniverse-related and occasionally reblog things from a couple other fandoms. You can find me on Ao3 as TwoDumbasses, where I've written a few fics for LU! If you want to ask me questions about my fic, my day, anything, really, I'm all ears!

New tag for bad things! “Bad IRL” is now what I’ll tag for stuff that should be said but takes away from the fun of my blog!

My Works:

Ravioli:

U Want Sum Fluff - an offshoot of @breannasfluff's Wing AU, Hyrulian and Lorulian courting customs are different and misunderstandings occur (Ship: Ravio x Link)

Head Over Heels - (Ravioli) Lorule has some funky gravity and Ravio's got two left feet

Princess Ravia of Ordon - (Ravioli) Legend hates balls. He loves Ravio, though

Red Mug, Green Flag - @breannasfluff's Wing Bois AU Ravioli - Legend loves Red. but sometimes that is a BIG problem

Fluff:

The Sky is Falling! - light and fluffy Wild Re-meets the Chain and promptly attempts regicide (no TWs!)

WinterTime - a gift for @dark-angel-of-muses and her Seelies and Selkies AU

The Sun in the Sky - another Muse gift!

In Triplicate - In the War of Eras, "my brothers burned my homework" is a valid excuse.

Funny:

(Dignity's) Death from Above - Wild re-meets the Chain for roughly five seconds.

Who Wants to Make 50 Rupees - a crack rewrite of a Malcolm in the Middle Cold Open

Hyrule's Gender Swap Shop - turns out Fae can steal more than names

Cell Link Tango - I have no excuse.

Angst/Whump:

Where's the Rest of Him? - angsty thought of if the Chain found Wild's Gloom arm before they found Wild (happy ending, TW dismembered arm, TW presumed death, MIND THE TAGS)

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Light - severe whump, Wild Shrine Trauma, a frankly obscene number of TWs, MIND THE TAGS!

[tetsunabouquet]

Heir To The Lands Chapter 31

When Things Go So Fast, One Can No Longer Keep Up Masterpost

At the mention of that wretched queen, a collective groan could be heard. "What is the bitch up to this time?" Jace asked his parabatai who looked him in the eye with apprehension. Alec took a deep breath before answering, "It seems she discovered Kit in England. She attacked him when the Carstairs-Grey household decided to visit the Blackthorns for the re-opening of Blackthorn Hall." Jace dropped his glass on the floor, and Clary lifted her feet before the rum could splatter onto her pants. "Are they alright?!" She asked. "Emma got injured but she has been recovering pretty well. Everyone else remained unscatched." Clary put her hand to her chest and breathed out deeply though she hoped Emma really was okay and wasn't just stubbornly acting fine. She could be like Jace in that way. "So now that the issues with the Unseelie Court have been resolved, it's the Seelie Court that has a problem with Kit?" Simon mumbled out loud, "do you have any idea what her next move is?" Alec looked at Magnus who had his lips tightly pursed before he cleared his throat. "I have gotten dreams again because of my father." The words were enough to have everyone's stomachs churn at the alcohol. "Do you think it's related to the Seelie Queen?" Isabelle asked perplexed, thinking not even the Seelie Queen could possibly be that mad. "Whilst we cannot say for certain, the fact Ash Morgenstern can open doors to other worlds remains and there was this phonecall from Ragnor earlier." Alec stated, looking Clary sympathetically in her eyes knowing it was difficult for her to hear about her nephew. "Ragnor called?" Simon asked, wondering what the green warlock had been up to after Shanghai. Magnus nodded, "like me, he could feel something was up. Apparantly he has been spying on a particular secret route to the Seelie Court in Germany for a while now. There seemed to be a particular whift of dark magic coming from the tunnel for a while now, and a few werewolves reported seeing a winged boy come out of it every once in a while." Clary sucked in a deep breath as Jace wrapped his arm around her shoulder. It seemed like the day she had been dreading was finally coming close, the day she would have to fight her nephew in the way she once did with her brother. "Which brings me to Ragnor's call. We already had been given a report from Tessa that Livvy's ghost snuck into Faerie and Jaime Rosales has been held captive for months. We have enough evidence to take public action against the Seelie Court. It seems Dru and undoubtedly Kit, Ty and Livvy have embarked on a rescue mission. We already sent a fire message to Tessa to ask if they were succesful before you guys arrived." The entire group was stunned. "Those Blackthorn kids seem to ask for as much trouble as we always have." Simon observed. Everyone could agree on that. "Now the final problem on my list, is that my office has been raided. All kinds of documents have been stolen, including my secret exchange with Manuel Villalobos." Isabelle reached for the bottle. "I think I need another drink before we get to figuring out our priorities."

At least it seemed they had some unexpected allies. As Lily Chen handed Janus the documents in a dark New York street and he promised he'd get Raphael to her before the next full moon, none of them were aware of the highly glamored warlock keeping an eye on them, watching their conversation. One highly trained to be able to fool even the most skilled of Downworld. As each of them left for their own seperate ways, the warlock sighed. Watching the vampire go with pitying eyes. "Well boss, it seems you were right. I never thought Chen would be such a fool." She shook her head, her long multi-colored hair slapping against the building she rested against. "I hope we can intercept the Herondale before he enters Faerie." She pulled out her phone and sent the emoji that would signal to the rest of her companions that action was about to start.

[littleladymab]

FebruarOC - Horatio

It's been a week of these are you sick of me yet? 

Horatio is one of my two newest characters. Him and Quin, shoutouts to 👖 buddy chat for helping me name them, but they also had to deal with me complaining about the book that these two are in response to. 

In January I did read the first two books of The Hollow Star Saga and like, they were okay, I did the audiobooks mostly because I really liked the narrators (it was an ensemble cast). The characters were all good, but the story too disjointed and didn't focus on the character I feel like had the stronger storyline. That character is a fae prince and heir to the Seelie Summer court. And he's got a bodyguard. There was intense mutual pining and extremely fraught potential re: the plot (that apparently isn't important enough to be the main focus of the series). So you know this had me written all over it. 

Except that they're barely the focus and when they do get their first kiss it's from someone else's POV as she watches it happen. Phrow. 

So I got frustrated and went "you know what I have a story setting that has fae in it I could EASILY put expys of these two in that setting". Kalina and Dianne only encouraged this behavior, thanks. 

So Horatio, Fae Prince, and Quin, his bodyguard, were born. 

I don't have shit for them planned. Or even really what their personalities are because for now they are just direct exports of these other two characters and, well, can't really do that. 

As a part of my "Collection of Curses" series, I have Kenny's story; he's a witch's son in LA who gets caught up with the unseelie and demons in some way that I've forgotten. His dad was someone powerful but I don't remember if he was like, a fae or a demon. But there is a fae court based out of LA so might as well put Horatio in charge of it, because that way I don't have to make a new setting for them if I want to play with them. Which I will because I have to write Horatio's drabble, Quin's drabble, and the OC Kiss Week drabble for them. Will there be any coherency between the three? Don't ask me. Just read the drabble, which is up (for free) on patreon. 

[bella-daonna]

Theories on who the first two routes will be?

Hey!! I did write an answer to this at like 1am yesterday but i was doing it directly in tumblr and... well long story short it's gone now.

But this is something I have Some Thoughts On, so here goes!

I've laid out my thoughts and how I arrived to them here, but if you just wanna see the conclusions, skip down to the bottom!

I start off with some general thoughts on how the routes might be organised/decided, then discuss each character's route and my feelings about them, before finally drawing conclusions at the end.

Did you expect this to be a 1-sentence answer? if you did, you were wrong. HEHEHE

Really interested to see other people's thoughts as well - feel free to discuss in reblogs or tag me if you have something to add :)

General Constraints:

We know the routes will be released in pairs

I think it would be fairly obvious for the pairs to be 1 Seelie and 1 Unseelie LI each

I highly doubt that Keagan and Flannan, or Maeve and Aife will be released at the same time. If it were me, I would have them staggered rather than feast + famine for those who are more interested in women than men, or men than women. Additionally, Keagan and Flannan seem to be the 2 most popular characters, so I would think that releasing them at once would be less strategic on that basis.

That said, I could see Shae and Robin being released at the same time... asterisk. I think that's more likely than M&A or K&F.

Seeing as the secret story can only be unlocked once all the routes have been completed, and the devs specified that each route has something different to add (🥺) I imagine it would go in an order intended with the least spoilers for the other routes

Other options might be something to do with pacing for popularity of characters, or perhaps going for matching in terms of the positions the character holds in the court (e.g. aife and flan are the royals of their respective courts).

RE popularity: the devs have explicitly stated they did not want to base the release of the routes on popular vote.

I'm referring to them in waves - wave #1 = the first 2 routes, wave #2 is routes 3 and 4, wave #3 is routes 5 and 6.

The Love Interests

Shae:

Their route is going to be more of a ghibli-esque adventure and detective route!

I think that this would be a really good candidate for wave #1 because I think it's sweet and would be a really good ramp up

I think that their search for the princess would give us some really interesting context + information about the war, and be quite good for teasing/setting up at least a few of the other character's routes (esp Aife & Flannan, likely having had the most close story to the princess. possibly even Keagan if the battle where he helped turn the tide was the one where the princess had to escape?) without actively giving away all of their secrets.

That said though, I do think that the princess is going to be hidden somewhere on Unseelie territory, so I'm hoping for some Shae/ Flannan interactions <3

Keagan:

His route is gonna have intrigue and mystery, trying to unravel the past, weave the threads of the future and unfurl the mystery of the master of secrets himself.

He is the master of secrets and he is GOOD at his job. I think he knows a LOT. He definitely knows Aife's secrets, and if my Keagan/Flannan have 👀 History theory is correct, then he'll know rather a lot about Flan as well. He knows a bit about Shae (but underestimates them, so perhaps not everything) and about Maeve. He knows the least about Robin (much to his chagrin).

I think that he has so much dirt on everyone that his route will come late because he'd know too many spoilers for the other routes lol. (Much as it pains me to say this.)

But devs - feel free to prove me wrong heheh. In fact, I welcome it.

Aife:

I think her route is going to revolve around her mysterious and suspicious rise to the throne, the difficult choices she had to make (and has to make, as queen of a realm in a recent and uneasy truce with their next door neighbours). About trust and the snakes in the grass of the seelie court.

This one I also think is quite a strong candidate for wave #1

She met Keagan when she was doing... whatever nefarious deal she did for her power. I don't think that she knows as much about him/his past as he knows about her. She doesn't seem to have met any of the unseelie, and I'm not sure if she fully knows about Shae, other than thinking that they are a traitor. So her route would not contain heavy spoilers I think.

In fact, I think her route would be a good one in terms of like opening up the world of TNN for us a bit and introducing us to its players and the landscape and the game.

Maeve:

Her route I think will involve MC helping her in her efforts to try and stabillise the region. Fighting those monsters hinted at in asks? Tracking down the bandits? Sorting out the food insecurity? Watching her have her magical girl transformation and also making eyes at her?

I feel like this will in some ways mirror or foil or complement Shae's route, in terms of being quite adventurous and involving a lot of exploration - great introduction to the Unseelie territories. Also, they're both very ... close to the people I think? Down to earth.

Maeve I think is also a good candidate for wave #1 or wave #2 for those reasons.

She's approachable and kind, but also a badass who isn't afraid to throw down. There's some trauma and tragedy in her backstory which will be so fun to explore and see how she became the woman she is today.

Flannan:

His route I think will consist of trying to find out what happened to his father, and also him grappling with whether or not he wants to go back to war. He definitely seems fairly set on going back to war, or thinking about it at least. And certainly angry that the unseelie position is significantly weakened without their figureheads.

He also obviously cares for his citizens, despite being very stern and seeming humourless. War isn't really good for the common folk regardless, so perhaps that's something that would also hold him back.

I think he would be a good candidate for wave #2, because the whole bombshell at the end of the demo is just so damn INTRIGUING!! I feel like it will reveal a fair amount of tangled web threads. But he doesn't know everything.

It could also be a good candidate for wave #1, since the reveal at the end of the demo is directly about the main plot thread (that we know of) for his route! So it would follow on very naturally.

However, I just have a gut feeling pointing him towards wave 2. I don't know why.

Robin:

I have no idea what their route will involve tbh. They seem like an open book but they are NOT. They seem to have some beef with the druids, they are friends with Daonna, and Keagan said they take an interest in us, MC. If I were to hazard a wild guess, a stab in the dark, I'd say perhaps they might want to get some kind of revenge...

I think that Robin as a character needs you to have some time to warm up to them before you will utterly fall in love with them (obviously some people fell in love with Robin straight off the bat! but for me, and some other people I am aware of, I fell in love with them over time)

Therefore I think they are unlikely to be in wave #1 - I think they'll be a bit of an antagonist in other routes first, so you sort of get used to them being around and their antics - both annoying and irritating, setbacks and actually helpful

I think Robin is likely to be wave #2 or #3 and I would probably bet on route #3 because I think that would be lots of time given so that you build up a picture of them in your head.

However, Robin's persona and their inner feelings are very different, I think. They are lonely, and they want to be loved and accepted and wanted for who they are.

So I think that this hidden angst coming out for a whammy in wave #3 would work very well.

Conclusions

Frankly, I think that Shae and Aife would be my first guess for wave #1, if it weren't for the fact that I am fairly confident that it will be 1 seelie and 1 unseelie. But I am more confident in that than in anything else.

I am fairly sure that Aife and Flannan's routes will be released at the same time. Call it a hunch. I think they would just complement each other well, plus, you are not immune to propaganda. It would be more balanced to be exposed to seelie and unseelie royal propaganda at once lol.

I'm fairly sure that Keagan will come out in wave #3, and I actually convinced myself while writing this post that Robin will too.

That would leave Shae and Maeve coming out together as well.

Final Answer:

I'm thinking that wave 1 will be Shae and Maeve; wave 2 will be Aife and Flannan, and wave 3 will be Robin and Keagan.

Do you agree?

[inkedmoth]

Okay so I've got two old documents with Fae information typed up, so basically I'm going to read through them and copy/paste the bits that I still mostly like. A lot of it is super old tho, and will need re-working regardless of its current state.

Main things I want to work out now include

Families and/or court names and appearances

Magical traits and abilities (often linked to courts)

Basic creation mythology, maybe a couple of ideas

Come up with 8 Fae treasures, linked to each court

This is as far as I've gotten with this post. I'll have to do the rest later, maybe work on the above items a bit more first, since I feel they'll impact the society sections.

Society and culture as a whole

Specific culture and society of Reliston, and possibly Iskterra

(Rename Reliston???)

?????

HEY HO LETS GO

Court Ideas V1: Based on biomes and environments. I like the idea of environmentally based courts, it would give a basis of origin for each 'type' of Fae which is a good starting point. Each Biome had specific traits linked to each, most of which I'd want to redo now, but still. A starting point.

Forest - Silver Hair/Eyes - Light Skin - Oriental Inspired

Desert - Gold Hair/Eyes - Dark Skin - Egyptian Inspired

Mountain - Blond Hair/Violet Eyes - Light Skin - Norse Inspired

Jungle - Red Hair/Eyes - Dark Skin - Aztex Inspired

Tundra - White Hair/Eyes - Dark Skin - Inuit Inspired

Grassland - Copper Hair/Green Eyes - Light Skin - Mongol Inspired

Sea - Brown Hair/Blue Eyes - Light Skin - Haitian Inspired

Cave - Black Hair/Eyes - Dark Skin - Unknown Inspo

A lot of these biomes work for me, but I want to switch up the corresponding hair colours, and either drop the eye colours or make it looser and more varied. Perhaps a couple of different hair/eye colours per biome? Along with that, I really need to research their inspired fashion and cultural styles, when I was a kid I just straight up copied, but now I'd rather make them less earth-culuture-based.

Court Ideas V2: Seemingly more Seelie/Unseelie themed. I really like the idea of this, but only two courts is a bit limiting, although I LOVE Sun/Moon motifs, which I think I'll try and carry over somewhat. Also try to keep some of the Wild Court ideas, as solitaries have been mentioned a couple of times in the story.

High Court

Sun Court

Moon Court (Blood Moon Court, Blue Moon Court, Wild Hunt Court)

Wild Court (Feral, Solitary, Travellers)

The High Court is less over-all-spieces, and more isolated to each area/kingdom, as the High Court consists of the Rulers, their family, and advisors. The sun court was inherently 'good', while the moon was inherently 'bad' which is a little unfair.

Take Away From This: I'm wondering if I can take some of the biomes and the sun/moon courts and restructure them, along with reassigning the different appearances. I know I'd like the sun court to still have gold hair, and the moon court to have silver. However I know for a fact the gold/silver eyes are now royal-family-only. Its all the other colour hair and eyes I need to figure out, as well as names for the courts rather than just "Forest Court"...

Ancestors and Bloodline Abilities:

I imagine there are more ancestors than courts, but for now I'll focus on just a few.

Élaen - 'The First Light' she's widely accepted to be the first Fae created. Her ability is known as 'True Sight', or the ability to see through illusions and lies.

Áylmer - 'The Dream Walker' The first recorded case of dream walking came from her, and allows her to interact in the dreams of those she's made a connection with.

Ízenlay - 'The Illusionist' A fae who was able to cast highly detailed illusions, able to fool even the keenest eye (besides Élaen's).

Sláine - 'The Dawns Touch' She had the firest recorded ability to heal outside of the Elements, incredibly in tune with her own spirit, she was able to reach out and physically manipulate others bodies into healing quicker.

Nóirin - TBA

Síle - TBA

Cáit - TBA

Other abilities as listed

Summoner - The ability to conjure beasts and beings and control them.

Changeling - The ability to shift the ability to change their own appearance to a degree - not full shifting

Natures Voice - The ability to speak with plants and animals

Blood Lust - The ability to ignore all but critical injuries and channel rage/strength in battle

Now all of these abilities are typically passed down within the bloodlines of the ancestors, but can occur outside the recorded lines, often a distant descendant/cousins many-times-removed, but not always.

Take Away From This: So what I need to do now is figure out what ability originated from which court/area. I know the dream walker ability came from the grasslands, while Illusions and True Sight may have come from the sun/moon courts? I need to work on it...

Creation Myths and Variations: Considering how much I enjoy fantasy, I certainly don't like creating myths for it.

Anyway, I know for certain that the Fae were created by the Goddess of Light and Life, which provided them with their extensive life spans. I also know that Élaen 'The First Light' was one of the earliest Fae born, and had a sibling, who was possibly the first vampire. I also know that there's a strong connection to the Sun and Moons.

So here's a rough idea: The Fae were created through the union of the Light Goddess and Dark God. She created them, and he allowed them to never die. Élaen and her sister TBN then became part of a myth to do with the twin moons and the sun. I think there was a dispute over them by someone to represent the sun. Élaen's sister died as a result of the dispute, and Élaen begged her mother (goddess of life) to bring TBN back from the dead, offering up her own immortality to do so. Life was unable to do this, but her husband Death could, but warned that TBN would come back changed. Élaen agrees, and TBN is brought back, but requires blood to sustain herself. As a result, the Fae live for impossibly long, but can be killed surprisingly easily, while Vampires also live for impossibly long, but are resistant to most forms of death.

So while it's not a full creation myth, its a damn good start, and explains the Fae's preference for the moons over the sun. (and yes there are two moons on alcazar)

I think the variation would be that the sisters were fighting over the sun, and one killed the other. Cause I know Áine believes that version, and puts herself in the place of the betrayed Élaen, and her sister in the place of TBN.

That's all I've got for now so ON TO THE NEXT

8 Fae Treasures:

So this is just a fun thing I wanted to do, come up with some mythical items for Alcazar to have rattling around. I'm starting with the fae since that's who I'm working on atm, but I believe the other species will have their own versions too!

Ewer of Élaen (Moon Court??) - Drinking the water from this pitcher allows either some ability to do with truth, or possibly viewing the future, or maybe even eternal youth?

Compass of ?? (Sea Court) - Allows some form of specialised navigation, eg always points 'home' or at your 'true love'.

Helm of the Hunter (Forest Court?) - An antlered helmet, allows the wearer to move unhindered and unheard through the forests. Currently owned by Herné??

?

?

?

?

?

I am running out of brain power so the rest will have to wait

[drale251]

Lord Belliarn the Incensed

Lord Belliarn was once of the Seelie Court. He ruled his lands and many parties were had. But the War of Sundering came to the world of Seladon. He could not stand by, even though an ancient pact was struck that kept the Seelie court out of the War of Sundering. With this, he found a portal into the Prime Material and joined the war. At one point in the war, which lasted centuries, Lord Belliarn came into possession of the Archsoul's Entropy. After which, he came face to face with The Shifting Cataclysm, Tharizdun. At the sight of this god of madness, destruction, and chaos, Lord Belliarn's mind was warped. His body was also changed, warped into something darker and more sinister than his original cheery form.

In fear, he ran and soon escaped back to the Feywild. But for breaking the pact of the court, he was cast out by the Queen of the Seelie. Now exiled and changed, his mind warped in anger and misery as his loneliness took hold of him. His wood warped to match its master. Brambles coated in poison grew from every place as light and color seemed choked out of his wood. Thus, the Umbrabramble was formed. Now Lord Belliarn dwells alone with his treant aides within his bramble tree at the center, while any who enter the wood are driven insane by proximity. The only thing that prevents the corruption of the Umbrabramble from spreading is the Clareta River that flows around the exterior.

For Early Access, Hi-Res and other exclusive things, come check out my Patreon!

[moiraimyths]

Asking in good faith.

The Unseelie court is:

Men who died in violent wars. Men or women who were considered wicked. Unmarried women who died in child birth

Children who died without being baptised or children who were cursed by their parents in anger. 

So I am confused by your interpretation, it is wrong to change a country's mythology no matter what reason?

Folklore and mythology is, by its mostly word-of-mouth nature, subject to constant evolution / reinterpretation. We would also fervently disagree with your declaration that the Unseelie Court you describe is the only or verifiably original interpretation of the Seelie / Unseelie as a concept (which are Scottish terms, by the way, not Irish). In fact, we would argue that it is close to impossible to actually know for certain what most myths looked like in their original forms due to the aforementioned word-of-mouth spread, regional variations of similar folklore, and potentially more insidious influences, such as colonization, on existing textual documentation. For example: The entire mythology of Ireland has been inarguably changed in irreversible ways due to the influence of Christianity. Does this mean everyone should disregard all historical documentation of Irish myths, since they are tainted in some way? No, obviously not. If we did that, there would be no Irish myths.

In summary: We fundamentally reject the idea that 1) your stated definition of the Unseelie Court is the inherently "correct" interpretation, and that 2) it is wrong to build off of or re-imagine mythology in the context of its history. If this logic was taken to its extreme, the modern genre of fantasy (which inherently draws and interprets from folklore and mythology) would either not exist, or be completely devoid of the culture and humanity that makes it such a beloved genre; arguably the oldest genres in the history of fiction!

On a direct note as it concerns us specifically, we would also say that the reason our Unseelie are not intrinsically wicked (particularly in the Christianized fashion in which this concept is being applied here) is because we believe, on a philosophical level, that the concept of intrinsic wickedness is harmful. Why should unmarried women, or unbaptised children, or men who die in senseless wars be punished? How are their souls tainted by such things? We think this attitude reflects an interesting ethical bias -- which is why it is re-imagined in The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) as a critique.

[ethereal-kloud]

sorry uhhh life happened and took all of my motivation to write literally anything with it.

anyway umm suddenly genshin dropkicked me in the face a couple months ago but i also didn’t feel like writing any of the ideas stuck in my head but like

seelies.

admittedly, not much is said about them in the genshin lore (see the wiki) but what little history they do have is interesting.

first off, (the race) seelies are really, really old. probably-maybe before celestia kind of old. and there’s so many mysteries surrounding them (some caused by the lack of information) but that also gives way to a lot of fanfic ideas.

did they live like humans (who they guided) with limited lives? extended lives? god-like lifespans?

who cursed them?

what happened to that traveler that married a seelie? (separated and cursed to forget, but did they die like that???)

is them guiding the traveler to treasure the last gift they want because of their “purpose” when they were humanoid??,?

anyway the point is i have a lot of questions about this that will probably never be answered.

the thing is, seelies are old. if the wiki is even remotely close to being accurate, the race is probably far older than morax/rex lapis. existed long enough for whichever gods were in charge then to task them with guiding humanity. (teaching them, etc)

and even when they fell around the time morax was really young, even with a majority of the race losing their memories and knowledge, what they used to be is still remembered, if only barely.

when that seelie married that traveler, and calamity followed 30 days later, (probably) causing the seelie race to be “cast aside by the heavens”, they became the “seelie” shape out of grief. maybe because of what that first seelie’s actions caused for them (beloved/important role in their civilization, maybe?) and maybe partially because of the curse stripping them of their knowledge (something they were known for).

the seelie courts are also their “old dwelling places” and those forms are their “regressed forms” meaning that while seelies may have spent most of their time in beautiful, humanoid forms, they weren’t always like that. in fact, their current forms may be their original forms before they adapted (something they’re still good at, even in these forms! see: chasm and dragonspine and some in inazuma)

but! it’s canon that not all of the seelie race turned into the spirit forms immediately— (implied Goddess of Flowers, and the wiki even states “…a few managed to retain their humanoid forms” even without being named)

(warning ummm this is where i started rambling about a story idea that will,,, probably never be fleshed out)

but anyway this sort of vagueness leads to my brain going “what if”

there are also mini, baby-like seelies. those are canon.

seelies were tasked to guide humanity, traveling aside them and teaching them.

what if one of those baby seelies (or even adult seelie, really, i just find a baby one cuter) retained their human form? losing a majority of their memories as caused by the curse, but young enough and/or strong enough to retain just enough to remember their purpose.

seelies were probably more god than human (re: humanoid forms) and so they probably lived through quite a bit of teyvat’s history after their race’s fall. never lingering, but traveling and helping and being recorded in a few tales and bard songs, remembered by a too long scarf that almost seems to float at times, intuition that somehow allows them to know what people need and just how to get it to them, a manner that seems both too close and too far away from people, a soft song whispering in the wind being the only sign of their appearance or disappearance with the absence of it.

probably slept a lot like venti, to keep their memory from degrading even further, and they probably never hear of their stories, traveling and traveling and helping and sleeping and (“we have to teach them. what use is our knowledge of its all locked away with us—?”) and dreaming (“who are you?” “hello!”) and waking and repeat.

maybe they even came across abyss!sibling traveling with dain, remaining a faint memory to them after disappearing. (“you shouldn’t forget” “huh?”)

and then canon!genshin time.

then idk i just really liked the idea of still sleepy!seelie running into kaveh having some sort of problem, absolutely not willing to go to anybody about it (especially not his roommate, who probably would help but be infuriating every step of the way) and seelie having woken up recently, awake but not fully, cheerfully and groggy still, distracting him into playing a game of tag, somehow.

chasing them around sumeru city, always barely out of reach until he’s breathless and they’ve let him catch them at the grand bazaar, thanking him for helping them wake up, and before he realizes hey why’s a child just running around without parents???? why did they not question him chasing after one??? he looks up from the ground and they’re gone.

confused, but having things to do, probably as an adult, and perhaps this is before traveler gets to sumeru and he’s yet to leave for that project that kept him out of the drama when traveler did arrive, he continues with his day until he goes back to the house he live in with alhaitham and find a neat little gift wrapped box, with whatever he had needed earlier that day inside of it (if it was small enough idk what an architect needs actually)

he obviously asks his roommate about it, but he was probably out doing scribe things or reading a book, and why would he care about a package that kaveh received? (probably habit)

except it dawns, now, that the package means that whoever sent it knew that kaveh lived with alhaitham. and where they lived. while kaveh did complain about his roommate to almost anyone who would listen, he wouldn’t give out his address to non-friends, and alhaitham doesn’t either.

(i don’t think there’s post offices in genshin. the traveler has to deliver letters, sometimes, and it has to be given in person, so i’m pretty sure they just send a person and there’s no official record of where people live edit: nvm apparently at least sumeru has one??? new archon quest part immediately proves me wrong ig.)

and the gift doesn’t have a name other than his own attached to it.

(it barely crosses his mind that the child he’s played with that morning had said that they’d pay him back while he was breathless at the end. there’s no way that a merchant would sell something like what he’s needed to a child, right?)

and traveler running into them afterward, them wandering nearby during the beginning of their attempts to get to inazuma, perhaps, getting run into by that thief with a vision and letting kazuha and traveler catch up to them just a bit sooner.

kazuha, who is presumably more connected with wind than most is, can hear that seelie is possibly more than they seem. can hear a song unwilling to be forgotten, louder than normal people can, sense the way the wind seems to lift the child up playfully, lighter than air itself, and yet heavy with a grief they cling to.

seelie, who can’t activate his friend’s vision, either, but flinches when they touch it, act as if they’re about to cry.

(visions are human’s ambitions. their wishes. the traveler could see them even disconnected from their wielder, and yae miko knew that they persisted being taken. why wouldn’t seelie, again probably more god than human, a guide to humanity, be able to see those hopes?

they could see the determination, and a part of them wanted to cheer them on, wanted to see them succeed—

but they know what the colorless shade of the vision means)

nothing probably changes from that point; seelie doesn’t feel the need to head to inazuma even if they could beat traveler in a fight (they can’t) and traveler needs to find their sibling. they part ways, leaving traveler and kazuha mildly curious, but not enough to chase after them.

and idk when this would happen lore wise, but eventually, they would meet venti, and he would go on about knowing songs from the past, present, and future, and the longing that hits them is both expected and takes them entirely by surprise. it’s been so long. a melody in their ears, a soft voice, the end, but not for them. not for her, either, and yet they are truly the last now, and forevermore until they too meet their fate.

(“oh? do you have a song in mind?” the bard may ask, carefully strumming the strings of his lyre.

“…can you complete it?” they might beg. “it goes like this.”

the bard’s eyes may widen, a tune that existed long before he was a wisp, but one he does know. a song that should be lost in time, those who knew it having long lost the ability to sing.

but he does play it, nonetheless, and the seelie— they

[“don’t resent them, darling, for what crime did they commit? love? it’s okay, it’s alright, we are only crying because—“]

the seelie might cry.)

ummm i also wanted something with nahida since the goddess of flowers is heavily implied to have been one of those seelies that retained their humanoid forms, but i’m not quite sure how that would play out? with the end of the sumeru archon quest (they would forget, too, that rukkhadevata had been the one to know her, and maybe they knew her personally, or just from their society, and maybe they wouldn’t know how to react with a semi-amnesiac goddess that knew one of them after the calamity.)

rex lapis, too, since seelie would technically be older than him, but probably due to being asleep for years and years and never fully being raised would be more childish and/or naive than him. more willing to break rules, contracts, if it meant more people ended up happy and safe, and they learned something from it.

i like the idea that despite this, they would have their moments of ancient wisdom long faded, and share the knowledge of loss (archon war and them witnessing whatever happened in the halls of angels, where they played their final tune)

[lakemojave]

Tonight at 6pm Pacific: Resident Evil Village!!!

Birthday week concludes with RE Village, except there isn't a castle anymore. Instead there's a very, very scary house with a very, very evil doll. I'm getting the gang together for this one too, cause it's been a whole year since the Lake Mojave Historical Preservation Society was founded! I got my cohorts @cryptotheism, @inneskeeper, and @the-seelie-court-official, (Maybe @the-unseelie-court-official if she can escape the Ikea I sent her to) to hang out and get scared with me! See you guys then, be sure to join the discord server and hang out with us sometime!

[not-poignant]

Hi, Pia! I am thinking of going the same route as you - free chapters on AO3, then Patreon - for my historical m/m romance projects. Could you share a little about your journey, and how did you manage to gain visibility within the originals section of AO3 (I know it's not easy)?

Hi hi!

We've talked a little over at Subscriptions for Authors I think! *waves* :D

Okay firstly, i don't know if any of this is going to be very helpful, because to tl;dr it - I didn't set out to be a professional author when I started this, and I wasn't even trying to be a professional when I started my Patreon (though I did approach it seriously, like I wanted to treat my readers well). I didn't believe I could be one, my impostor syndrome was so epic I literally started an entirely new AO3 account and kept it secret from my main account because I believed all the people being nice to me about my writing were somehow just lying to me because they felt sorry for me.

That's...

That's a whole lot of impostor syndrome insanity. But I've always been pretty honest about having mental illness so....

Re: my journey...

I started out in fanfiction. I started writing Rise of the Guardians fanfiction (a two part serial called From the Darkness We Rise & Into Shadows We Fall) and it went viral (I did not expect this) and I put in several original characters to flesh out the world, because I added a Seelie/Unseelie Court element that wasn't in the original movie or the books.

Two of those original characters had roles as semi-significant ensemble characters. One was a terrible villain who is defeated by the other, who is the Seelie King (also defeated by the main characters of the fic but *coughs* anyway).

I started getting people asking me what was going to happen to those two characters, especially once people found out they had a relationship history together prior to the events in the fanfic. I mostly put those people off - I fully intended to keep just writing fanfiction - until finally I decided to write some fic of those two characters. It was like...revenge hatefucking, lmao. I wrote three chapters of that, and then more, and then finally realised I couldn't give them the tragic ending I'd planned to, and that I'd have to actually figure out how the hell to save them from their own machinated doom.

And that became the first book in my original Fae Tales series - Game Theory.

It was my amazing readers who asked me to make this Tumblr, my amazing readers who asked me to write that original story, and they were the ones who asked me to make a Patreon (and then a Ko-Fi), and so in a way, they were the ones who let me know when I was ready to try making this work in a (slightly) more official capacity. They were the ones who believed in me enough to keep me doing this, and they still are. *waves to you all*

They were the ones who gave me visibility, I don't know that I did anything specific to make that happen, except writing the stories, turning up, and listening to them.

It's a very weird way of doing it and I don't know that anyone else has ever done it quite that way like this. I feel like a massive outlier in that sense. I don't relate to anyone who is starting out in professional subscription with no readers because I could never do that, my lack of confidence wouldn't let me. But there's aspects I think any author can replicate: I reply to all my commenters (except the trolls), because they're great and I want to support connection, community, and conversation. I embrace fandom and love all transformative works, and also, like 99% of my writing is free on AO3. (You don't have to make everything free, but it certainly doesn't hurt on AO3).

I mostly finish my serials and folks can trust my happy/hopeful endings and they can trust my hurt/comfort. And I'm pretty communicative! As you can tell by how much I'm rambling right now x.x I intentionally provide a safe space for queer people and neurodivergent people as much as possible, and write a lot of representation for us. I set out to make a space I would personally feel comfortable in. That might not work for everyone, but it works for those who stay.

From there though, I'd say a lot of visibility came from word of mouth, writing chapter by chapter over time (serials naturally pick up readers simply because they're often at or near the top of a tag or fandom category on AO3 - there is NO algorithm there), sometimes sorting by kudos, and me just posting about random stuff on Tumblr with good tags.

I still write fanfiction on another account (my impostor syndrome account) that has also had some people trying my original fiction. There's quite a few people who came directly from fanfiction to the original fiction because the themes were the same!

I didn't have the confidence to intentionally try and be a professional writer. When I started writing that fanfic I was writing it because I was depressed, sad, and I'd quit an unsatisfying job as a professional artist (I loved the art and my clients, I could never make the income part work). I didn't want to be a professional writer. I was writing as hooky, as escape from my real life, and as 'oh god I just need some hurt/comfort and I can't find what I want so I'll write it.'

To this day, I still write fanfiction as an escape, it's partly why it's now on a separate account to my original stuff (but even plenty of my original fic is indulgent and self-escapist in nature, which is maybe why other people find it escapist and cathartic as well).

In writing, financially, it makes more sense to publish books, or do serials-into-books, and develop a backlist of novels alongside the serials. I don't do that. I should, I plan on starting soon. I can point out a lot of the things that I either did wrong, or that I can see a way of doing better, because I didn't set out to be a professional writer, and I still put 'keeping it fun' and 'the readers' ahead of 'making money.' I'm not very mercenary and I make financially not great decisions in favour of 'but I enjoy it more this way.'

(That's partly because I am really very ill, and I can't afford to make myself sick through my work, and not enjoying it is the fastest way to do that).

What I do know is how to help create a community, though. And how to encourage and try and care for that community of people. How to respond to what they want and sometimes don't want, alongside what I want and don't want. How to have boundaries in that space. Well, I'm still figuring it out but I think I'm more comfortable with it than I used to be!

I also don't want to make it sound like I didn't know about writing before this. Long before doing serials for 10 years, I did creative writing and scriptwriting (among other things) at university. I wrote very technically correct short stories with sad little tragic endings that won awards and sometimes decent cash prizes. I hated it, and it put me off writing for years afterwards. I felt trapped in trying to write the 'correct' way. I am entirely unsurprised that to this day I reject standard formulas for novel lengths, and that in order to write, I kind of have to break a lot of the rules I was taught.

But I was taught how to write 'correctly' by Australian standards back in the early 00s (very spare, evocative prose). These days I follow a lot of scriptwriting / television drama beats in serials and have always really enjoyed doing it that way. :D

I'm meant to be talking about some of this in the Subscriptions for Authors podcast tomorrow and it's going to be a mess, as you can tell, lmao.

(There's something to be said about the lightning-in-a-bottle moment where I just wrote a fanfic I thought everyone would hate in a popular fandom and people were just ready for that story and it took off. I had no idea how to deal with it and it was very overwhelming and I had a bit of a breakdown a year and a half later over it. It's no coincidence that a year into the Patreon I paused it for 1.5 years and walked away because I couldn't handle it. But then I did some growing up and came back and figured it out.

But yeah I didn't do any of this the right way, or in a super intentional way. The only part I know I did well was supporting a community, and communicating with the people who turned up. And I did that for very selfish reasons - I wanted to be in a community, and I enjoyed meeting people who had things in common with me. I sometimes feel a little like a gremlin who just stumbled into a community and was like 'oh, um, I'm here, I guess.'

It's really everyone else who made it magical, but it did help that I think I am (in retrospect) pretty good at writing a hooky, addictive serial for the right kinds of readers. I cannot understate this enough -> learning how to write serials and exploring episodic television drama can be very helpful).

[hesitationss]

been re reading tithe since halloween for personal reasons and WOW the insurmountable guilt roiben feels about kaye… like he really thinks the moment she saw him, he ruined her life. even in a visit to impossible lands when they have been relatively happy together for years, he still describes acts of love as his removal or withholding any negativity for the sake of the ‘goodness’ that the relationship provides him.

like i can’t help but think about how his blind devotion to the seelie queen had skewed his understanding of love since i suppose that all seelie court members live in blissful naivety and adoration. the disillusionment with something you once believed to be perfect and the cruelty of it all… okay so what is love then……………..

anyway it is not necessarily healthy for him to have these conditions for why kaye should want him, but it’s actually really nice to see how they evolve and grow together. like clearly he is not trying to repeat the blind devotion that resulted in him becoming his crueller self! and we get to see his emotional progress and him on the healing journey? when he says smth like ‘i love you far too well for that’ (about his burdens) and she is telling him that that���s not what love is, love is shared etc etc i’m paraphrasing idk. and then at the end after the coup, he’s trying to be like ‘see you can’t get hurt it’s scary here, my life and my world is scary’ and she wants to take that next step idk idk i like it…..

also it’s not as tho she is some idealized object of innocence and perfection that has replaced the seelie queen. he grows to understands this, but i guess even in ironside there is still the sentiment that she is normal and doesn’t ‘deserve’ all of the difficulties in his life. as if being with him and having to share any emotional load would be some cruel punishment……………….!!! i’ll probably have more to say abt this specifically when i get there w my reread, but very fun and painful and sweet to see how his understanding of love changes!

whenever there’s like a character who has developed skewed visions of love i become soooo not normal about them… i love thinking about love (libra sun scorpio venus etc) esp since finishing all about love by bell hooks i just keep repeating some of the core ideas like ok 👍🏼 love can not exist when abuse and violence are present. we must live honestly and by a love ethic etc etc. it takes time, it takes work, it takes support, it takes commitment etc etc. as my friend said love is as love does!! anyway i love kaye and roiben i loooove them

[audiodramatist]

guesses abt reputation for next episode:

all characters this week were at 4– i’m counting this more as a “blank slate” for this session rather than representative of their reputation before the Bloom (i can’t imagine the Lords of Wing have the same reputation level as Delloso de la Rue). i don’t know how much rep goes up/down per session. going to assume it could go from 1 to 7 in a single week if something incredible happens (and, more likely, from 7 to 1 after an utter disaster)

Rue:  7. the festivities are going perfectly, and this bet that the archfey feel sure they’ll win can only improve their reputation. emily said that someone with this sort of rep might need to be taken down a peg and i’m counting on her and Lou to do just that.

Squak and Chirp: 2 or 3. they made a long, dramatic entrance, Squak immediately got challenged to a duel, Chirp shittalked the entire Seelie court, and then entered a bet that makes it so every other person has reason to try and bring about their downfall. no one wants these two on their side. the only thing protecting their reputation is Squak’s insistence to the tree woman that his heart has changed. for this reason, he might be better off than Chirp– maybe he’s got 3, she has 2.

Andhera and Gwyn: 5. neither did anything particularly noticeable in front of the assembled archfey, but each earned some attention from a select few people. Gwyn caught the attention of the higher-ups in the court of wonder as they were boarding the boat, and Andhera caught the attention of the Lords (and their gossiping aunties) for... looking hot now, i guess. possible that Andhera’s reputation goes to 6 if the “eligible bachelor” gossip has spread to multiple courts.

Hob: 3-5. this could go either way. intimidating an entire assembly of powerful people re: the engagement party that never happened could certainly position him as a powerful, authoritative person, or it could make him unapproachable and undesirable. a combination of both could lead to no “change” in reputation at all.