#roddacember 2023 prompts

[lindalofbroome]

Roddacember 2023!!

Roddacember runs during December to celebrate all of Emily Rodda’s books. With a new prompt every day, make a piece of fan content of your choice. You can draw some art, write fic, make a playlist, rant about something, or whatever you vibe with! Remember to tag it #Roddacember 2023 so we can check it out <3 I’ve also created an AO3 collection for those who would like to write fics!

Update

This is my attempt at taking the best of the past years and bringing something for everyone. What I've come up with are three levels of abstraction that (hopefully) serve as different levels of difficulty. The first week-ish draws more from 2019's style, and the last couple weeks are the more recent style, with the middle being a segue between them. (i kinda struggled to make questions, but you're welcome to use the prompts as keywords for your own!)

Notes

A reminder that you don’t have to commit to every day. Take care of yourself. You can make it more manageable by skipping days. It’s also okay to alter the prompt slightly for grammatical purposes, if you so wish (e.g. growth –> growing) or to cut out irrelevant words (e.g. animal or monster -> animal). Feel free to interpret the prompts as metaphorically or as literally as you want! If there’s anything you are confused about, feel free to ask me in the notes or DMs or whatever. You can also check out what the fandom did previously at #Roddacember 2022, #Roddacember 2021, #Roddacember 2020 and #Roddacember 2019.

Prompts in text below:

Your Favourite

01. Character 02. Place 03. Animal or monster 04. Something you wish was real 05. Magic 06. People, culture, or tradition 07. Filli❔ 08. Relationship of any kind 09. Symbols or signs

Memorable Moments:

10. Epic 11. Courage 12. Deception 13. Power 14. Foreshadowing 15. Playful 16. Envy 17. Solution

Abstract:

18. Ripples 19. Design 20. Trade 21. Nurture 22. Technology 23. Intricacy 24. Mend 25. Twisted 26. Pathway 27. Watch 28. Growth 29. Time 30. Unity 31. Essence of Rodda

[toshitophchan]

Roddacember 2023 Day 6 | Your favourite people, culture, or tradition

I love how in book 1 you dont really know about the world outside of Rin and then slowly you learn about this trio of cultures that work around and with each other, brought together by a common enemy and then slowly but surely entwined even closer through customs and friendship

[on-a-quest]

Roddacember 2023 - 17: Solution

For this Roddacember prompt, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of the fact that, for a moment, the DQ trio genuinely thought the solution to the Guardian of the Valley of the Lost's puzzle, and therefore his name, was Eedoe.

Eedoe.

[lindalofbroome]

28 - Growth

'But we cannot knowingly leave someone at the mercy of the Granous!' Lief hissed. 'They will ask him their infernal riddles, and when he cannot answer them they will start biting off his fingers and toes. They will kill him, Jasmine!' 'Better that they kill a stranger than that they kill us,' Jasmine said. And Lief knew that she was repeating a lesson she had learned only too well in the terror that was the Forests of Silence. For a moment he hesitated. He knew that he should not let his heart rule his head in this. But then the piteous cry came again, followed by a scream of pure agony. 'No!' Lief breathed. He started forward. 'Wait! I will go back and fetch the guards,' said Barda, catching at his arm. Lief pulled himself free. 'There is no time for that!' he muttered. 'Come with me or not, as you like.' He began to run, and Jasmine and Barda followed, as he knew they would. DELTORA QUEST 3 Dragon's Nest Ch 7 Dragon Hunt

[lindalofbroome]

09 - Sign

DANGEROUS BRIDGE DO NOT TRY TO CROSS GAP HERE IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE NEXT BRIDGE IS LAST CROSSING BEFORE FORESTS OF SILENCE DELTORA QUEST 3 Dragon's Nest Ch 11 Signs of Trouble

i just think this scene was so funny lmao mostly in hindsight

but also i want to highlight the chapter title, truly one of my favourites for the irony

[lindalofbroome]

01 - Character

i usually use roddacember as a way to diversify my art and draw some of the more underrated characters and moments but i couldnt not draw her

was there any doubt lmao

[lindalofbroome]

11 - Courage

'Endon had realised by then that by his foolishness and blindness the people's last trust in him had been destroyed. The Belt would never again shine for him. All our hopes rested with his unborn child.' DELTORA QUEST 1 The Forests of Silence Ch 9 The Secret

im leaving this up to your own interpretation because i can't articulate thoughts and feelings rn, but generally this post is about endon finding it in himself to admit his mistakes and how he would decide to rectify them i.e. raising lief

[lindalofbroome]

lief: so where's barda jasmine: he's looking for the belt of deltora lief: he's wHAT

31 - Essence of Rodda

'Despair is the enemy. Do not let it defeat you.' [Zeean whispered.] DELTORA QUEST 3 The Sister of the South Ch 9 The Yellow Notice

'Norris!' shouted Rowan, shaking him. 'Even if you are right — even if we have been led by some evil force into a trap — we cannot just lie down and die!' ROWAN OF RIN Rowan of the Bukshah Ch 13 The Climb

'So it is not too late, Rye! We still have a chance to stop that future from happening! It is not too late!' [said Sonia] THE THREE DOORS The Third Door Ch 23 Three Doors

And she imagined what her companions on the shore were seeing — a dishevelled girl in a flaring red skirt, surrounded by a throng of fawning ghosts. No wonder Sky and Jewel had fled from her as soon as they were able. She quelled the wave of misery that threatened to engulf her. She had always been haunted by her past. The wraiths were just the visible sign of it. STAR OF DELTORA The Hungry Isle Ch 6 The Glittering Shore

👇👇👇👇

[ben wyatt voice] it's about the perseverance through suffering 👌

👆👆👆👆

there's a bunch of other stuff like double meanings and being epic and found family that i wanted to do but in the end i didn't have time for lol and so i had to chase the serotonin for this last post and make a bad joke out of it to motivate me adfKSDJFH but also so serious

the suffering is not the end; there are horrors AND delights; you lose when you give up; not everything is as it seems but also multiple interpretations can coexist; i know this is so sappy and kids cartoons but it's so real hope is everything and can counter the overwhelmingness of despair; choose to be optimistic, to love, to be happy

you're gonna really feel that in DQ3 because of the high stakes but this is also like the very essence of rowan of rin. he's always being surprised when the big heroic models of courage break down, but they've never had to keep moving forward and doing so scared the way he has. norris was overconfident but he's never had to face something like the cold time and the Mountain, but this is rowan's like hundredth rodeo. this is not to dunk on norris at all but just the way that rowan of rin directly and indirectly shows courage and perseverance

anyway this was supposed to be our beloved trio being a family and looking after each other but it turned into post-mask and then i forgot i cant halfass things to save my life this was supposed to be a crappy shitpost but then i was looking up so much cirque du soleil references trying to figure out what they might wear lol. they might not actually be wearing costumes but the other acrobats with jasmine were so why not put her in one too and then how could bess not resist dressing lief up in her son's clothes etc

so lief's outfit is like a preliminary costume before a more grander and brighter one if he became fully integrated into their circle. i keep searching up baby bird and forgetting that im going to see some gangly pink guys lmao

jasmine's acrobat troupe were described as just blue costumes from what i found. and i was like. UH OH. because i was gonna have to work soooooo hard to differentiate from bede's blue bird vibe. i thought i'd go for a lighter blue than the sorta. royal blue i give him usually. and then it got me thinking sky blue. the perform acrobatics up in the air. they reach for the sky. they up there in the sky. sky costume.

[lindalofbroome]

16 - Envy

i was feeling silly asldkfjhas

[lindalofbroome]

24 - Mend

'I cannot stay in the palace, though our king himself invited me to do so, because I was hurt in the Shadowlands,' the man said, his voice rising as if she had argued with him. 'The healers and nurses are kind and the food is good, but I must be here to finish my task. If I am taken back to the palace I will run away as I did before. Britta bit her lip. So this poor man was one of the lost souls she had been thinking about on the way to the harbour yesterday. More than his face had been scarred by what he had suffered during the rule of the Shadow Lord. She had seen such people in the streets, had even met one or two in her own neighbourhood. But now, for the first time, she truly faced the horror of the time before she was born — the time that had always seemed like a colourful story, exciting but a little unreal. STAR OF DELTORA Shadows of the Master Ch 11 The Cellar

lief's doing his best

[lindalofbroome]

05 - Magic

The amethyst, symbol of truth, calms and soothes. It changes colour in the presence of illness, loses colour near poisoned food or drink… DELTORA QUEST 1 Return to Del Ch 10 The Road to Del

interpret this art as you wish lol i cant articulate it, at least right now. but i did want to briefly talk about one aspect of my headcanons for toran magic.

they always allude to the ancient torans being far more powerful to the modern torans (e.g. carving tora from the marble mountain, creating the magic highway between tora and del) but there's no given reason why.

i think that it's all about their core value: truth. i think we can presume that the symbols assigned to each gem were ones that the different peoples upheld and valued.

thus, the second the torans started to live in untruth, they doomed themselves. a slow decay, unseen over the centuries, but it's seriously telling.

pre-tora, they were living in tents and immersed in their world, connected to everything in all their senses. within tora, they are living a lie and sheltered, cut off from the world.

[lindalofbroome]

30 - Unity

'Let the seven gifts of the land be joined — at the last.' [Zara's father said.] Adin took the great gem and pressed it to the last, empty space in the belt. It slipped into place with a tiny click. And at that moment, our world changed. TALES OF DELTORA The Deltora Annals The Battle for Deltora

just wanted to draw my moon and stars ocs since i love them and they are Adin-era so i guess it fits the first deltora unification but then i ended up drawing them in wedding garb so i guess it's double unity or something alsdkfjh

anyway this is Badr of Rithmere and Luisa of Del, theyre warriors who spedrun enemies to lovers because of the shadow invasion. they often had princess bride esque encounters of "you seem a decent fellow i hate to kill you" "you seem a decent fellow i hate to die lol" type of border skirmishing / patrolling etc. found themselves fighting side by side at hira and developed a nicer respect rather than the grudging kind and they began to enjoy each other's company more as they could hang out in peace under Adin's rule

i think it's too presumptuous to say that they were the first intercultural marriage, i would imagine that there were some at least they were just quieter and lived in the country or something to avoid conflict. but badr and luisa's wedding(s) wouldve been a big deal post-adin's coronation because now everyone is start to trade and intermingle and chat with each other in friendly terms, and they would be well known for their courage and skills so their respective cities were definitely Too Involved lmao

anyway del people are curious and love travelling so i think generally they wouldve been like "oh cool" but also "please have a del wedding with us" because they want to partayyy 🎉 etc but the mere were probably waaaaaaaaaay more reserved. maybe average reserved. like not the most suspicious but also not the most enthusiastic lol. they'd be like woah a stranger here. but luisa is so bubbly and loveable they take to her eventually 😌💙

i drew a rough version of the mere wedding attired because i've sort of done del wedding attire for jaslief so i thought why not try something else

also it's a coincidence but ive latched onto it so much but im obsessed with giving del moon imagery because of how the topaz and the moon are so interlinked and i think it's important to their culture, but guess what's also in the night sky. stars. you know who's famous for star motifs?? the mere. [always sunny in philadelphia red string.gif]

here's some drawings i haven't posted yet because i've been trying to do the warrior getup for all the tribes and i haven't done that yet lol

they're my favs my lil guys :)

and all because i drew a mere person swindling a del person once upon a time lmao

[lindalofbroome]

08 - Relationship

"girls the flowers are eating us alive" - jasmine probably

big fan of the whole thing the blood lilies and fleshbanes have going on <3

love how the blood lily pollen is a numbing agent and it helps the fleshbanes eat, uh, flesh. and then the remains continue to decay and nourish the soil for the lilies. symbiotic mutualism beloved :D (a term i had to look up lol) evolved friends, nature's besties

i was just about to wonder how the lilies get pollinated if everything it touches gets numb and sleepy, but i suppose the fleshbanes would do it right? theyre just crawling around lol. and i assume theyre immune or resistant to the pollen because it's everywhere and theyre fine.

anyway i think it's interesting how rodda included ,, i think in Monsters probably but could be Secrets, but people did try to use the pollen as an anaesthetic but the effect doesnt lost long enough to make the journey. (but what's stopping them from taking a flower and planting it on the mainland. dangerous im sure. it'd be hard to transplant them without accidentally taking a fleshbane, and they spread really fast so it'd be horrible if left unchecked. i suppose it makes more sense to dry a flower and collect seeds on the island and take those actually lol. thank you for listening to my ted talk bye asdlkfjhaslkdfj)

[lindalofbroome]

07 - Filli❔

lil bby too precious for this world (will burn your house down if you hurt jasmine)

[lindalofbroome]

18 - Ripples

The man hesitated, the bracelet hanging between his fingers. 'It is forever, while we live,' he warned, suddenly unsure of her. But Rosalyn looked deep in his eyes and smiled, and felt his joy as if it were her own as he fastened the bracelet around her wrist. TALES OF DELTORA Tenna Birdsong Tales The Trader's Daughter

and they lived happily ever after the end

[lindalofbroome]

27 - Watch

'All the gold is yours, my loyal crew,' [Laughing Jack] said in a trembling voice. 'If I take one piece of it for my own, I myself will take to the oars. I swear it on my soul!' 'I hear your words, James Gant, and they will bind you!' cried Verity from the prow, her voice as shrill as a sea-bird's call. DELTORA QUEST 3 Isle of the Dead Ch 10 Deadly Bargain

god the verity arch is so 😘👌