#the last dragon of the east

[luminouslumity]

[jessread-s]

Thank you to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free copy for review

✩🐉🫖Review:

An enthralling adventure with a love that lasts lifetimes!

“The Last Dragon of the East” follows Sai, a matchmaker born with the ability to see the red threads of fate between soulmates, after he is thrust into the search for a dragon long thought extinct. As his own thread of fate, one that is gray and fraying, begins to move, he may be able to solve the mystery of his Fated One at the other end of the line. 

Kwan’s romantasy debut is captivating, weaving together her atmospheric writing and elements of Chinese mythology. I love how she incorporates the red threads of fate into her storyline to enhance the romance between San and Jyn. Their dynamic is such a breath of fresh air! Sai isn’t your typical MC, giving new meaning to the phrase “I’m a lover not a fighter.” His big heart perfectly balances Jyn’s more guarded personality. She initially tries to push him away when fate crosses their paths, but she soon comes to realize what I already knew from the start: their connection is undeniable. It manifests itself in their playful banter, their yearning glances, and the sacrifices they make for each other as the novel progresses.

Kwan is intentional about choosing to tell this story from Sai’s point-of-view and I could not get enough of his voice! She skillfully alternates between multiple different timelines to both build suspense and shed light on the mystery surrounding Sai’s unusual thread. The twists propelled me forward until I ran out of pages to read. While the end wrapped up a bit too quickly, I still found it satisfying. I hope there will be more to come from Kwan in this genre!

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 5/5

Book Blurb:

Inspired by Chinese myths of ancient dragon gods and threads of fate, Katrina Kwan’s dazzling fantasy debut is a propulsive adventure perfect for fans of Sue Lynn Tan and Hannah Whitten.

At the spry young age of twenty-five, Sai has led a quiet life, keeping the family teahouse up and running—even if that means ignoring the past-due notices—and taking care of his ailing mother. But he has a not-so-secret gift that he’s parlayed into a side career: he was born with the ability to see the red threads of fate between soulmates, which lends itself nicely to matchmaking. Sai has thus far been content not to follow his own thread, the only one he’s ever seen that’s gray and fraying.

But Sai’s ordinary existence is about to be turned upside-down by a pair of shining dragon scales. When his mother’s doctor sells them to him, claiming them as a miracle cure, Sai is pretty sure he’s being scammed. When the medicine actually works—and the terrifying, ruthless emperor catches wind—Sai is thrust into the search for a dragon long thought extinct that will lead him into the throes of a brewing war and deep into foreign lands, facing down challenges both magical and mortal on an unexpected adventure. And for the very first time, as his own thread of fate begins to move, he may be able to solve the mystery of his Fated One at the other end of the line.

Review:

Dragons, fate, and a love that transcends lifetimes.... this book has it all. Sai is a thread reader, able to see people's red threads and find them their fated person... yet he has not been able to find his own soulmate since his own thread is oddly turned grey. Yet while buying illegal dragon scales to use as medication for his sick mother he catches the eye of evil emperor who blackmails him into hunting down this dragon as it is the last one in existence. Sai has no choice but to comply otherwise he'd be killed.... yet when he does meet said dragon its none other than a beautiful woman who seems oddly familiar.... whose own string of fate is connected to him. Sai's world is turned upside down as he begins to get strange memories of a past life with her... but she refuses to tell him how they are connected... but with the emperor hunting them both down can Sai find out the truth or will they both die before he can be with his soulmate? This was a stunningly romantic story filled with magic and love, I absolutely adored the romance in this. The relationship between Sai and his fated one was absolutely so well done and I loved every second of it. The slow buildup and reveal was fantastic and honestly I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys mythological romances!!!

Release Date: October 8,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Saga Press | S&S/Saga Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[myhikari21things]

Read of The Last Dragon of the East by Katrina Kwan (309pgs) (2024)

[deadshadowcreature]

Predicting what will happen in the special

[gordopickett]

Music Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @benwvatt !!! ♥♥♥

The aim is to put your music on shuffle and list the first 10 songs + tag 10 people. Gonna hop on Spotify & shuffle my 2023 vacation playlist.

1) "Benediction" ~ Luke Sital-Singh

2) "Half Alive (acoustic)" ~ Amber Run

3) "Tougher Than The Rest" ~ Bootstraps

4) "Losing My Religion" ~ R.E.M.

5) "Wrecked" ~ Imagine Dragons

6) "Man Inside" ~ Shirock

7) "North" ~ Sleeping At Last

8) "Dreams You Don't Forget" ~ Night Traveler

9) "Meghan's Song" ~ Matthew Perryman Jones

10) "Hood Of My Car" ~ Anderson East

Tagging @allatariel @tavners @onekisstotakewithme @lacontroller1991 @bi-and-bottom

@castalyne @ddagent @flamingo24 @h4t08 @katesofheaven

@lawsonblakestan @moocowmoocow @margospiano @nadia-el-mansours @pyramdhead47

@rachg82 @redblinkinglights @sparkleplatypuswriter @tiltedsyllogism @thefrakkintrinity15 & anyone else who wants to play! ♥♥♥

[ejaysstuff]

Halfway done with fsyy,,,, god it is such a nice novel

[lesboylycan]

https://www.tumblr.com/wolfboy-butch/745437590649520128/anyways-someone-should-feed-our-npd-and-ask-us

B in the tags is interesting because some other system clocked us as having a more anarchist system structure (<- we had not thought about this before!!!) and it feels like a lot of other systems who have more stratified systems are some form of Asshole, something we have figured out You Are Not so please tell us about that! We are begging you. We wish to understand others further whilst we're feeling good.

C in the tags is interesting because that feels so far beyond us it makes no sense and we literally just NEED to know more. If you're sapient and share our brain in our system you're a headmate and part if the system. We believe we have talked to one other system with a situation like Tag Option C but it wouldn't hurt to have the information.

~ Kirbopher (would it be better to use "Kirb" here so people know I'm a fictive/fucktive/not-the-guy-Im-sorry?????)

Hi thank you for sending! Now, warning, you have unlocked a Major rant, so readers beware, click the read more at your own discretion.

So basically, when we first became partitionary, we ended up in Madeline's (aka Aaron; he/him as Madeline and she/her as Aaron, not in a plural way but in a bigender anarchy way) house. We could not see outside of the windows of this house, it was basically just blank void to us, and us four ([original headmate with the IRL name we use, later forged with several others into Summer], Madeline, Cale, and Em) lived there.

Fast forward a month. A few new folks have joined in (Roman, Grimble, Shark), aaaaand they don't exactly want to live with us in the same house. Especially not Shark, since he was a semi-feral fish man who uh, needed water to live. Suddenly, we can see the beginnings of a town surrounding a lake.

Things grow from there. What we can see grows, the town grows, and there comes to be another fish man, Caspien, who makes the best god damn iced peach tea you've ever tried. He's mostly notable because the lake is later named after him, along with Another Thing that'll become clear later. Eventually, we begin to see the forest at the edge of our little town that we've built. Everything's cool. (Unfortunately, we don't have the map from this time--we know it existed at one point! But we can't find the file, nor can we find any remnants of it in the Discord servers we were in at the time that we might be able to use)

Then, uh-oh, April of 2021. System collapse. Down from 60 all the way to 15--including Summer, who becomes the new host. As if to put salt in the wound, what we can see expands, and we can now see the coast of the Wirshir'dauwn Sea, along with the edges of what we would later find out are two major mountain ranges.

Note: we aren't creating our headspace. We did not realize, at the time, that most systems created their headspace and didn't simply passively discover it in the same way they may discover old headmates.

Things regrow. Come late May, and the boundaries of what we can see stretch with the arrival of several new headmates at once: the Plainsmen. Unlike the small, incremental changes of before, this change is huge--we can now see double what we used to, it's all to the east, and it's all grassy plains and desert. This is what our map looks like at the time:

(Note: orange dots are settlements, don't recall grey dots are doors to the front room which was essentially a different realm we could enter via those doors, black lines are train lines, and the Winterdown Ocean is called that for a reason. You'll see.)

Now, here's the thing: the only people in the entire system who can go into the plains (as in, beyond the Barrier Mountains)... are the Plainsmen. Even as more headmates form. Our only way to communicate with them is through going to the front room, which is split into two, with a hallway between. We can't even go to their side of the front room without feeling dizzy and foggy. And this isn't a one-sided thing at all, they can't come to our side either!

Thankfully, we get to talk to them frequently, since the front room was the only way we could front at the time, we were in high school, and one of them--Gilan--was a god at badminton and so wanted to front constantly since that was the only thing we'd play in PE at the time.

Then comes along Carmen (zhe/zhem/zheir/zheirs). Who sorta... breaks everything. At first, we kind of just meme on zhem (from fantasy mid-1800s era England, scared of cars, etc), but then... zhe try crossing over to the Plainsmen's side of the front room, against everyone else's advice.

And zhe're completely fine. No ill effects. Zhe start talking to Gilan, they hit things off (and they both hit things off with another person, Jade, who was from our ex-partner system but now lives over here thanks to system hopping stuff), and eventually, zhe get dared to go out into the actual Plains. And Carmen, the bastard, agrees.

And not only are zhe fine, but zhe can still front. Outside of the front room.

And then we can find out zhe can teleport. What in the hell. Who are you. What the fuck.

Well, zhe decide to see if zhe can do something about the "no fronting unless in front room" thing, and zhe eventually end up developing crystals a la the crystals in Dimension20's Fantasy High. They're basically phones, but... rock. Which everyone now has. Carmen settles down by Overdeep Lake because zhe generally dislike people except for zheir partners. Things start to settle in, things get a bit more normal again...

Whoops! New headspace expansion, and not just that, we learn that we're not the only ones here, and uh. We're. Actually gateway. And the reason why our headspace was "passively expanding" instead of us building it was because the whole world already existed. And there were people there. There just weren't people in the area that we'd been settling, aside from in the towns in the Plains--but we'd just figured those were NPCs since we rarely interacted with them! Not full people! And we'd never heard anyone talking about this before, so what the hell is going on? The map now looks like this.

(Note: the mountains along the edge of the sea aren't actually mountains mountains, just cliffside. We weren't great at making maps at the time.)

So as it would turn out. "Winterdown" was a mistranslation/mishearing of Wirshir'dauwn. And Kingdom Omaude exists. And both of these places have their own cultures, languages, accents, etc. And apparently, Caspien was originally from Wirshir'dauwn, had heard of human (or, mostly human) settlement around the lake, and decided to check it out and just... never went back? Alright man, miss you, thanks for the iced peach tea, wish you'd taught someone how to make it properly before you disappeared in the system collapse but whatever, we're cool.

Okay. Okay! This is fine! Everything is fine. Carmen goes up to meet Queen Scethius (he/him) to explain things, and then they hit it off. Carmen had already adopted some kids, and this is where the joke that Carmen (who adopts every sad wet rat zhe see--zheir eldest's words, not mine) has more partners than kids starts to take off. Queen Scethius even sets aside a whole coat for zhem, how romantic.

And then we learn that this isn't it. We just haven't explored yet--because now that we've properly learned about Omaude and Wirshir'dauwn, it's not that the world around us is locked, it's just that we... need to explore more of it.

Blah blah blah, stuff happens, a revolt occurs against the monarchy in Kingdom Girun--Omaude's oldest enemy, historically--and now the folks running the place are generally cool. Carmen had already set up the Rangers in the Forebarrier, which isn't formally a country but still has a seat at the metaphorical table in the world stage now since... people actually live there now? And the Rangers basically just make sure everyone's doing okay, help distribute resources, mediate conflict, stuff like that. Carmen was voted to be the commandant, which basically just means zhe do the most paperwork and talk to the most people, and zheir best friend/subject of many inside jokes, Cordon, is zheir second. We learn about more and more nations and their cultures, and eventually, the map looks like this.

"Where's Wirshir'dauwn?" you ask. Here's the thing: Wirshir'dauwn was a kingdom. Which we hadn't known before. The ocean itself is called Daerk'shyen, and many more people live there! The Great Divide is basically a massive set of mountain ranges and canyons that are largely considered impassable, except for a few things.

Also note: "Tetutlen" is a typo, it's actually Tetlunen. Didn't notice that until just now. Whoops. Also, City Toelit was a former state of Girun, but split off somewhere to the tune of a few hundred years ago due to the corrupt monarchy? But now that things have switched up and stuff is much more democratic, there's debate on whether or not they want to rejoin Girun. Note: Girun and City Toelit are both mostly occupied by elves, who live hundreds of years already.

And, aside from the Shakening n' Quakening [SNQ] (which split up the world into a bunch of floating islands--no clue why or how it happened, not even the Gods know, some suspect it might have been discourse between the Ancients, which are basically the gods of the Gods; we get around both by the magic Saltrock Express (still exists! Still around!) and via sky ships, with there being an official Sky Rider League in the Forebarrier, which is mostly made up of Rangers and heavily tied to them but aren't actually part of the Rangers), that's... basically what our map looks like now. The world is called... several different things depending on the nation, of course, but we in the Forebarrier and Plains call it Yhine, and the continent--since the SnQ--is called [the] Archidivum.

What we suspect happened is that the brain basically latched onto a particular realm, and that realm became an anchor for the colony. As we grew and as our needs shifted and changed, the amount that was "unlocked" for us--as the brain latched more and more onto the world--grew and changed with us, until eventually, it got to the point where we were no longer the only ones we could talk to/no longer the only ones we knew of who had major influence over the world we were in and now part of.

As for why certain folks don't consider themselves part of the collective even if they front, it's mostly cases like General Fenityr (he/him, ze/zim/zyr/zyrs), who is the head of the military in Omaude. He's been around for somewhere to the tune of 650 years, has been a political figure in Omaude for around 400 of them, basically raised Queen Scethius, yadda yadda.

In recent times, though, he's gotten more familiar with the Colony, and even got married to Ramses (one of Carmen's kids, also a former member of that same ex-partner system in the same way Jade (who, along with Gilan, married Carmen) is--they both moved over here (with permission) to be with the people they married, and to hopefully avoid getting accidentally erased, since our collective--post April 2021--was a lot more stable than the ex's and was/is a lot less prone to collapses, resets, etc). Ze's close with Carmen's family (especially since Carmen is also married to Scethius. "Carmen has more partners than kids" blah blah) and would front pretty frequently to talk to Ramses back before Ramses moved over here. So what gives on the whole "not being part of the collective" thing?

Well, one of the biggest reasons ze doesn't consider zyrself as part of the colony is because ze's basically guaranteed to outlive it, and ze's still beholden to the whims of the world ze lives in and not the whims of the brain in which the Colony occupies. Not to mention, ze lived for centuries longer than the Colony had even existed, and grew up entrenched in the cultures of Girun (having originally lived there for around about 160, 170 years) and Omaude (where he eventually settled permanently). While he can front, and he is friends with folks in the Colony, he doesn't consider himself as part of it because he, first and foremost, is attached to and part of and from Girun, Omaude, the Archidivum, and Yhine as a whole in a way that we, the Seal Colony, just... aren't. Just because we're anchored here doesn't mean we're natives of the place the same way they are (with few exceptions, mostly very young kids who arrived in the Colony at the age of 3 or younger who've never known different.)

(Or folks like Carmen. Or, really, just Carmen. Remember how I said zhe can teleport? Zhe also have a bunch of other abilities that zhe flat out should not be able to have and should not have been able to have since the beginning. Also, zhe're friends with at least one of the Gods of Yhine and has generally gained the Gods' favor. So zhe're just. Yeah.)

[pengudatudragon]

Pengu datu ! My favourite dragon + favourite character in the whole world 🥹💕

[edenorisshitposting]

I'm seeing a lot of posts about how we should listen to Jewish voices when it comes to harry potter game antisemitism, but not a lot of posts by Jewish people about the harry potter game...

[claire-starsword]

Shining Force Country Guide Translation - Part 4

The usual pie chart legend:

Pao

Population: 130 inhabitants GNP: 2300 gold

Species Ratio:

The Pao tribe itself has only 130 people, but as they often take visitors on the ride as well, the population tends to fluctuate. Most are humans, as Pao citizens are racially homogeneous. ____

The transport revolution attained by the people of the plains

The Pao plains are around 1500 meters above sea level. This vast area that makes up the majority of the northern region of West Rune is entirely territory of the nomadic people of Pao. Around 2500 years ago, there was a massive immigration from East Rune, going from island to island of the Uranbatol archipelago. This group arrived all the way to these great plains after many generations, and their population slowly increased as well. It eventually divided into several tribes (still sharing the same ethnic identity) that would gather than split up again and again through their nomadic lifestyle, until an influential tribe emerged in the southeast around 2000 years ago, and got the others under their control (with an hereditary line of succession).

Paopigs were wild creatures living in the region, but being naturally calm animals, they were incredibly well suited for the nomads. They live off mostly of raising the paopigs as livestock, making dairy products out of their milk, and other specialties such as woolen goods made from paopig hair. These woolen goods in particular are valuable enough to gather merchants from other countries all year around, fighting for the chance to buy them. They mostly use the bartering system, with little interest to adopt any foreign currency.

It can be said that the adventurous and pioneer spirit of the Pao people is what made it possible to establish a nation in this region. As they continued to live reliant on the paopigs, they developed a strong faith on them as holy beasts, and thus do not eat their meat. Around 150 years ago they found by chance a huge engine in ruins of the previous civilization, and built the Pao Train. It brought a huge upheaval in their economy when it comes to the circulation of goods, and their culture has been modernizing as well. Besides that, the Pao Train also brought an energy revolution, as they began successfully using paopig excrement as fuel for it. Currently, Pao welcome a time of great changes.

-At a glance, it looks like a mere village. However, this is how Pao looks like while the Pao Train is stopped. A kilogram of paopig excrement fuels the train to run approximately 20 kilometers. The Pao Train is 300 meters long.

-The paopig's cry is surprisingly beautiful. It is comparable to the sound of a sitar (an octave higher to be precise). Such heartrending echoes deeply move the hearts of travelers around.

I'm very shaky on my translation of this caption. It mentions an instrument called カラッコ (karakko), and I could not find translation anywhere, so it might be made up? But since I was unsure I just brought up the sitar it is compared to right after.

Waral

Population: 300 inhabitants GNP: 5600 gold

Species ratio:

Waral is built atop a small island. The 50% percent of "other" species here are all merpeople. While they do not show up in the game, plenty of merman live there as well. ___

The ocean people who lost themselves in the mermaid paradise

A small island country north of the Lunatic Ocean. It has the hot and humid climate of tropical rainforests, and the coast is rich in resources. At the southern coast of the island, there is an encounter of warm currents flowing north and cold currents flowing south, called "The Sea God's Cauldron", famous for the frequent shipwrecks it causes. Around 150 years ago, a fishing ship from Rindo suffered such an accident and drifted to Waral, founding the country. Back then, Rindo was still a fishing country, and their main fishing spot was the "Mermaid's Roundtable", a wide shallow beach west of Waral.

The stranded people thus settled in the island, and eventually the fishing spot to the west became their alone, as Rindo shifted to merchant activities. Even now fishing is their main activity, with 70 percent of the population working on it, and the remaining part being mostly shipbuilders and the merpeople who already lived in the region.

Back when the country was founded, coexisting with the merpeople was a huge social issue for the small island. However, Harengett Splasher II of the royal family married a mermaid, reaching a compromise between both parties this way, and it stays to this day. Some historians criticize this as a marriage of convenience.

The country was born out of an unfortunate accident, yet supported by the warm climate and its plentiful resources, the citizens are distinct for their endless cheerfulness. Its GNP of 5600 gold is third place in Rune, after Rindo. In recent years it has also been planning to expand its tourism business, as its strategic positioning right between the west and east parts of the continent makes it a country that cannot be ignored.

-It's an unusually small island, yet it is blessed with warm climate and plentiful resources. Because of this, it might be the greatest place to live in all of Rune. Its main activity is fishing, but just setting up nets is enough to catch plenty of fish, so people don't work much.

-Described by the king himself as a tropical paradise, life in Waral is full of pleasures. Swimming in the ocean, fishing, gathering shellfish and the like in the beach, there are plenty of ways to kill time. Even so, some who are still bored have began to venture into the tourism business as a hobby.

The weird royal guy name was unfortunately left for me to romanize. I have no clue if his first name means anything, but his last name, チャップチャップ, is literally "chopchop", but given that it is close to チャップン, the onomatopoeia for splashing, I feel that's what they were going for.

Rudo

Population: 40 inhabitants GNP: 1700 gold

Species ratio:

Much like Manarina, Rudo doesn't look anything like a country. As said in game, it is in fact just a village. The species distribution is very balanced, excluding centaurs. Perhaps they have all gathered together because of the dragon gods. ___

The mountain village of the dragon gods' faith, declining in population

The west side of the Dragonia mountain mass is extremely steep, and this natural barrier forms an unusually long and narrow coastline between mountains and the Cypro Ocean. The village of Rudo is in this northwestern area of East Rune.

Around 300 years ago, to protect the dragon gods who were on the verge of extinction, the royals of Guardiana proposed that each country sent some settlers there, and thus the village was born. At first they succeeded in their conservation efforts, but then reached a dead end, and in recent years there has been a sharp increase in the number of people leaving the village and spreading the view that the dragon gods are over.

To show how complicated this tendency has become, the village currently only has about 40 people. It is also said that they are all children under the age of 11. The adults seem to have moved to some other village north of Prompt. The dragon god faith the adults had converted into was still deeply rooted in the hearts of the children, and some sociologists think of this village's separation as a sort of religious schism. The children, following a girl named Karin as their leader, have developed small scale agriculture and fishing, restoring the self-sufficient activities the village had sustained so far. Besides that, they have also gone past their original boundaries, advancing halfway up the Dragonia mountains and hunting there.

Before the schism the village had a prosperous fishing industry in the calm waters of the Cypro Ocean, as the gulf surrounded by sandbanks on its north and south made for a good fishing spot thanks to the ocean currents. Some think the place could recover economically fairly easily if the population problem was solved.

-Rudo village is blessed with a surrounding environment of plains and the ocean. It is hard to believe that the place is suffering from a decline in population. Going east from there, there's Dragonia, where the remaining dragon gods live.

-Since there are so many children younger than 10 gathered together,  the village is really lively. They aren't playing around, being pretty busy each with their own tasks (such as taking turns to cook or doing the laundry). Despite that, the whole village has the feel of being their playground.

[troythecatfish]

Here’s my personal recommendations of YouTube videos to check out:

[eastsidemags]

East Side Mages - The Last Straw

East Side Mags and Dungeons on the Go are bringing another awesome homebrew Dungeons & Dragons campaign, written by NEW Dungeon Master Jack Neugebauer!

This is THE LAST STRAW (ALL AGES, INTRO) and consists of FOUR TOTAL EPISODES. 

About THE LAST STRAW: A farmer needs help, since his animals keep going missing! Is it monsters? Rival farmers? An evil chicken scheming to one day rule the world? Draw your swords and put on your detective glasses for a third-level Dungeons and Dragons mystery adventure!

The dates are:

10/6 - 3pm-5pm

10/13 - 3pm-5pm

10/20 - 3pm-5pm

10/27 - 3pm-5pm

Entry to ALL dates is $100. 

***WE ONLY HAVE 8 SPOTS AVAILABLE*** so sign up below. Spots are given out on a first come, first served basis and we will CLOSE registration once all 8 spots are filled. Once payment is received, your spot will be locked in.

THIS IS AN ALL AGES, INTRO GAME!!!

Questions can go to jeff@eastsidemags.com.

GAME ON!!!

[notsolittlemerman]

couldn’t have said it better myself

but seriously I'm not even surprised, this is the same Disney that loves to meticulously hide black leads on their posters for Chinese releases (from Star Wars to Black Panther to The Little Mermaid remake) to not risk hurting their Chinese box office numbers (bc they'd rather be complicit with anti-Black racism in China) and that's not even the worst Disney has done so far (*cough*IsNotReal*cough*)

Imagine setting your fantasy kingdom in a real area where you can use all this as inspiration for your characters...

... but you go and create something as plain, generic, and soulless as this:

Well done, Disney!

[mondoreb]

End Times Prophecy Headlines: May 29, 2023

End Times Prophecy Report.com HEADLINES MONDAY May 29, 2023 MEMORIAL DAY (US & others) And OPINION “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.” —Matthew 24:4 ===INTERNATIONAL UKRAINE: Kyiv says forces ready to launch counteroffensive UKRAINE: Ukraine intelligence warns Putin is planning to simulate major accident at Europe’s biggest nuclear power station in an…