#the World of the Five Gods

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Do you have any high fantasy book recs? I have enjoyed asoiaf and would like to explore more of the genre

Sure, you can see a lot in my book recs tag, with plenty of details, but here's a quick list of my favorite high fantasy series:

The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien (yes, everyone knows this one, but you might be a complete newbie to fantasy, so hey)

The Discworld series, by Terry Pratchett (ditto; also note I detest those reading order guides you may see around, I read the books as they were published (almost) and I was better than fine ok)

The World of the Five Gods, by Lois McMaster Bujold (I recommend again going with publishing order for the novels, then moving on to the Penric novellas, either publishing or chronological. I also rec her Sharing Knife series, though it's not a top favorite, her Spirit Ring novel is sweet and should appeal to YA fantasy fans, and I highly rec her Vorkosigan Saga to ASOIAF fans, though it's SF.)

The Chronicles of Amber, by Roger Zelazny (love this series so much, always rec it to fans of ASOIAF, and like GRRM I agree it desperately needs a tv adaptation)

The Chronicles of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander (utter classic, very badly served by the Disney adaptation, needs a much better one)

The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis (another classic, and lol publishers really like "chronicles" don't they)

Pelmen the Powershaper series, by Robert Don Hughes (out of print for a long time sadly, but you may be able to find cheap used books)

and there's so much more, in low fantasy and other sub-genres (Naomi Novik's various series and novels are big loves of mine, and I adore Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series), check my tag!

[umbershift-art]

I was rereading Vorkosigan books which made me think about Penric and Desdemona and I realized I never posted this thing of that one moment on the hill from Penric’s Mission

[umbershift]

You should read the Penric and Desdemona books

[i-cast-zone-of-truth]

ok so i Did Say that Lois does not get queers because of Bel Thorne. But she DID ALSO make a five-god pantheon in which one of the gods presides over disasters, the overlooked, the unchampioned, and the gays. this god is called the Bastard. could not possibly be better

[severalsmallhedgehogs]

I’m Going To Talk About the Five Gods

Specifically the Penric and Desdemona novellas. If you follow me for fic, know that they were the inspiration for the Luxon’s whole vibe in Memory. Maybe mild vibe spoilers for Memory underneath? Definitely some spoilers for Penric’s Mission and Orphans of Raspay. But I have to talk about this. Fair warning there is no structure I’m just talking

Ok so there’s The Mother, the Father, the Son, the Daughter, and the Bastard, okay? I love the Bastard. I love how when two children of one of his saints got kidnapped by pirates he went “Ok how do I fix this? Penric and Desdemona are out at sea, they’ll immediately instinctively protect the kids, let’s get them kidnapped by the same pirates and that’ll work itself out. :) Also Penric will light some metaphorical fire in that temple while we’re at it.”

I still think about that little moment in the Cedonia trilogy when Penric opens the Father’s offering box and finds a ton of money in there and is like “oh someone wants to win a legal battle huh” and later he starts to suspect that the Father borrowed him and Desdemona for this fake treason charge stuff. I’m imagining the Father going “Ok I’m gonna borrow these two a little for a long game, but I’ll make sure people are donating enough money for them to take out of the offering box ok? ok”

Or the story about the Daughter’s temple in Limnos, and a group of occupying raiders getting struck by a plague from the Daughter. “Or a really angry woman poisoning the well.” The really angry woman poisoning the well could be argued as the plague sent by the Daughter. The Bastard’s Order’s motto is “The gods have no hands but our own.”

There’s also the situation in Lodi, with Penric grieving people he couldn’t save and expectations he couldn’t meet, and Chio grieving the demons she’s seen destroyed. The Bastard basically pushed them together and was like “You two will understand each other really well. Comfort and spiritual counsel both ways. Go”

Even Penric getting Desdemona (the demon who lives in his head and lets him do magic) was probably arranged by the Bastard. The person Desdemona was with last wanted to take a different route to town. Penric was late leaving for a ceremony. And as a result Penric came across the previous person as she was dying, and Desdemona jumped to him. Her previous person thought of Penric as the “Bastard’s last blessing.” The Bastard is the god of accidents and mischance, by the way. All disasters out of season.

And don’t even get me started on the guy who just wants to sit beside a river pretending to fish, and kind of offered the Bastard companionship and a place to just sit around because he figures the Bastard doesn’t get offerings like that very much. And the Bastard went “That one. I love that one. I’m gonna make him a saint so my order will pay for him to sit around and take naps on the riverbank and occasionally do a little work for me.”

I love how these gods kind of nudge and arrange things, mostly. And then also appear in dreams and be like “You did good. Also I see you’re worried about snow. No rush, just don’t stay here more than three days ok”

I have a lot of feelings about the Bastard in particular but that’s its own post and it’s late

[booksaresacredspew]

Penric: *having existential angst over injuring someone who was literally trying to kill him* what do I do I don't want to become a violent person

Princess-Archdivine Llewyn: Pen, dear, first take a bath and wash your hair. Then eat something and get some sleep. We can talk theology tomorrow.

Penric: yes, Mother

[hdra77]

if you've been following me since my first posts when i was very new to the fandom you'd notice how i used to draw iterator with mouths now i just wonder what would happen if i just..draw them with mouths again lol

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Yeah, it's for sure because many of these fantasy lands are based on Europe, either deliberately or unconsciously so. Now, the main continent in Lois McMaster Bujold's World of the Five Gods series is also more or less a fantasy land based on Europe-- however, it's rotated 180 degrees, and it's in the southern hemisphere.

And it has weather to match -- north is a tropical archipelago, south is temperate to cool, and the southern islands (based on Iceland) are frozen. It's fun reading the novellas in the series (which involve a lot of traveling) and figuring out which countries correspond to which, even if you have to rotate the map in your head...

(Also it's a great book series for many other reasons than its worldbuilding... but its worldbuilding is still extremely well done, highly recommended.)

hey, just asking because i'm curious,

but how many people have noticed that a lot medieval fantasy maps are left-justified?

i mean i know its probably europe, but it's enough of a trope for tvtropes to have an article about it.

a lot of these are orientated with cold weather to the north and the sea to the west.

even the ones i found with ocean orientation not to the west, the cold weather is to the north.

i just thought it was interesting and wanted to share

edit: i think the only reason i noticed this is because very few maps look even vaguely like where i live in the s. hemisphere :p

cold weather is to the south and it gets hotter the further north you go

some examples i found:

middle earth - lotr

eragon

wheel of time

westoros - got (looks like britan and europe)

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[cioror]

please draw fp with an extremely sleep deprived expression /nf

i dont think its possible for me to draw him looking like he got a good night's sleep

[zenala-art]

the perfect excuse to show everyone my designs

[pocket-goat]

HAPPY (early) HALLOWEEN!!!!!! lets all go trick-or-treating in shaded citadel mmmm baskets of spiders (flats and individuals under the cut!)

i lowkey like the flats better but i spent too long on the background to scrap it ashfhhfg

moon and rivulet as zombies! (get it because she died and came back ahaha)

pebbles and artificer as a vampire and vampire bat! (because pebbles is emo and a leech and artificer likes to bite <3)

sig and hunter as hatsune miku and... a leek! (theres no reason for this one i just think sig would love hatsune miku and the overseer pigtails was really funny to me)

suns and spearmaster as dr frankenstein and his monster! (because suns literally made spearmaster but kinda fucked up and wrong)

gourmand, survivor, and monk as a pumpkin, skeleton, and bee respectively! (i just thought these costumes were cute and matched their colours)

sliver and saint as ghosts (self explanatory honestly sliver is literally dead) and inv in a maid dress (idk if thats even a costume honestly that freaks just kinda like that)

[pilkypills]

Thinking about Frodo and Thorin. It is nuts how two characters who have never interacted can be so father and son coded.

[umbershift]

I spent too much time on this

[i-cast-zone-of-truth]

ISTA, DEMON HUNTRESS OF THE BASTARD!!!!

[quasar-kaiser]

Doodling this made me realise I wanna mess with Erratic Pulse's design more to make it actually distinct from Pebbles (other than just a censor bar) so I'll do that someday

Bonus: