#the peridan chronicles

[marmota-b]

One thing I've been pondering about the future of The Peridan Chronicles is how to reconcile Peridan's behaviour in Tashbaan with the fact he's Methos. I have no problem reconciling him in the Battle of Asgard - standard bearer is a position that requires extraordinary skill and bravery, so of course after years in Narnia that's where he ends up and where the Four put him.

But he's a bit clueless in the discussion of their situation and escape plans in Tashbaan, and that doesn't quite line up with Methos's brand of cleverness.

EXCEPT

I think I just cracked it - the way I've already been writing him, he's clever, but perhaps not overly diplomatic. His inclination would be to disappear in the middle of the night by sneaking around guards. Something like Lasaraleen's plan, in fact. He could get away himself, he could help a couple friends escape, but that's not an approach that works for extricating a whole diplomatic embassy including a queen at the verge of an unwanted engagement.

So they discuss it with Edmund beforehand (I already knew they would, of course they would) and Methos offers to act a bit out of character in order to soften the blow. Because they know Susan will blame herself. And Peridan's been the person in their circle who will call you out. They don't want to call Susan out too much. It's not her fault she fell for a manipulator.

(Later, when the dust settles, she realises he had acted out of character, he would be the first to suggest what could go wrong, and asks him why, and he explains. She's a bit mad but mostly grateful.)

[marmota-b]

On one hand, yes, this.

On the other hand, if I have a story I started in 2013 (eeek!), and based its very nature very much on not necessarily skipping the "boring" parts and trying to make them interesting, and write it slowly, and wrote myself into a war as an important plot point in the hero's journey, and then the whole mess of 2020 rolled in, and the war in Ukraine rolled in on its heels (for context, there's only one country between Ukraine and mine, it's rather personal), and I'm really really not in the mood to write about war and related catastrophes, but the story is now stuck in the middle of one, and I love the story and what it should be too much to just abandon it...

... well, you see, sometimes you do have to write from obligation if you actually want to write the story you very much want to write. There are different ways of writing from obligation. And the audience my story has gained would not thank me for suddenly changing the nature of the story into one that just breezes through things, they got hooked by a story that looks closer at the things canon breezes through. (So did I as its writer, you see.)

All this isn't necessarily a counterargument saying you're wrong 😅, I think I know what you're saying isn't exactly this. It's mostly me going "nuance!" because I like nuance, and I think the internet needs to be reminded nuance is a thing, and The Peridan Chronicles is among other things about nuance. And I love what it's supposed to be and it annoys me that past me wrote present me into this unforeseen mental trap regarding things I have to force myself to write, now.

I just think people write out of obligation too often.

"How do I motivate myself to write through the boring part of my story?"

"How do I make this boring scene not boring?"

Don't write it.

Don't write boring things just because you think the structure of the story demands it. I promise it doesn't need to be there.

If your characters need to have gone shopping for a later part of the story to make sense you can just have a sentence about how they went shopping and move on.

You are not obligated to write the boring parts. No matter what those parts are.

You are not obligated to make the parts of your story that you're not excited to write interesting somehow.

You can just write the fun and interesting parts and gloss over and summarize boring things.

Your audience will thank you and you will thank yourself.

[loonie-and-proud]

Edmund is a black cat and Peridan is his golden retriever boyfriend

[tenth-sentence]

"And the Prince waking next morning and finding his birds flown!" said Peridan, clapping his hands.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy" - C. S. Lewis

[narniachronicles]

monarchs of myth - peridan

Once a Lord and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Lion. Peridan is one of several candidates who may have taken the throne after the Pevensie’s left Narnia in 1015 NY. It is believe that after the Pevensie’s departure he refused to believe that they were truly gone, and insisted upon searching for them for years. Eventually, he had to accept they would likely not return in his lifetime, and took upon himself to attempt to continue the Golden Age. His fierce fearlessness in spite of chaos led him to be called The Determined.

[aravvis]

DARK AGES: A NETFLIX ORIGINAL

SEASON ONE

ALL EPISODES SEPTEMBER 8TH.

Starring Richard Madden, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Jodie Comer and Lindsey Morgan, Medalion Rahimi, Toby Regbo, Billy Magnussen, Tyler Posey, Idris Elba and Daniel Wu.

[rthstewart]

Chapters: 4/? Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Peridan/Edmund Pevensie Characters: Peridan (Narnia), Edmund Pevensie, Peter Pevensie, Susan Pevensie, Lucy Pevensie, Tumnus (Narnia), Sallowpad (Narnia), Shasta | Cor (Narnia), Corin (Narnia), Rabadash (Narnia), Aravis Tarkheena Summary:Doubtless you will know me from the grand stories of the Golden Age. In Calormen, at Anvard, and beyond, the name Peridan appears alongside that of the King. This is the story of my journey to his side. You may read this and abhor me, but know that whatever my failings, I have always sought goodness.

Francie is a Narnia author from a time when it was a very popular fandom and Francie always delivered terrific work. This story is no exception. 

[marmota-b]

Aaand further thoughts on this subject sparked by the above reblog branch. I'll do a bit of tooting my own horn here, because I think I can use it to demonstrate the principles behind writing such a thing realistically. In a story of mine I have a Narnian lord - Peridan - working the fields. But, important distinctions:

One, he's not a king, he's a lord of a local manor. We know from canon that he's probably someone of high standing quite close to the kings and queens; but he's still in a different situation from a king. Those are his own fields in his own lands where he lives and he's directly responsible for them. Failure to work them properly one way or another could lead to starvation of people he's directly responsible for, and moreover even himself. Those fields are one of his main sources of income, too (and he needs that income to take care of his people; he's got employees for one thing).

Two, this is Narnia, most of the people aren't human and can't work the fields the way he can. When he's seen doing various types of lowly manual work throughout the story, it's largely because, well, those are often things that require hands with opposable thumbs that not all other Narnians can do, or it's things that need a bit of physical heft and a lot of other Narnians are tiny in comparison to a human. So there's a limited number of people who can do them in the first place and he's one of them; and often it's something he's doing because it needs doing right now. Or it's something he's doing because he predicts it will or might help his people later (and, again, he's often one of few people who can do it to begin with).

Not that I state all of this explicitly in the story; but I did think it through before publishing it, and try to make sure I cover my bases. I hint at some of it by having him do his bookkeeping at one point, too - this is someone who's running a household and needs to work with a budget. As another example, he has a spatious, representative hall in his house that gets used for humble practical purposes on an everyday basis but is still also used to hold a big celebratoray feast, and he mentions other feasts with important individuals at another point in the story - he doesn't strip it of its representative, ceremonial purpose, he just adds to it so that it doesn't remain just an empty burden around his neck for most of the time. And I try to paint his humbleness and good responsible leadership in other ways (like the way he treats other people and talks / thinks about these things). All these situations where he's doing all the mundane stuff are more supporting evidence of it than a shorthand for it; my POV character ponders the nature of it in contrast to less exemplary leaders. It's a sort of healthy balance of show and tell where I try not to rely solely on either of them.

So. Nuance and context. I can happily have my humble leader working the fields trope, as long as it makes sense in context and doesn't exist for its own sake. (When people say tropes are tools, it means that they are/should be used for a purpose.)

Nuance is that he's perfectly capable of being the representative lord when needed, and he's doing all those things for reasons beyond "I'm a humble person who despises pomp" - I keep stressing that he's pragmatic. Context is that it would not make that much sense for the king(s) whose leadership role is inevitably less hands-on than that of a lord of a manor. Your humble responsible hands-on king is far likelier, on an everyday basis, to keep wading through documents and statistics and reports than mud and manure. But maybe you can, like I did with my Narnian lord, figure out a worldbuilding context where it does make sense. That's fine. That's good. As long as it's thought out and not just slapped on as a two-dimensional strawman shorthand.

I really don’t dig the “a good ruler hates kingly pomp and would rather be laboring simply among the dirt and the chickens” trope. I don’t hate it as a character trait, but when every. single. sympathetic. ruler. in a work of fiction has it, my eyes start glazing over a touch.

Like you can have a good (even a humble) monarch whose comfortable with pomp and formality. It doesn’t have to be an ego trip, it can be a matter of accepting the dignity inherit in the office.

[fatherofnarnia]

Recovery

The Age of Winter came to an end many years ago followed by the Golden Age. This was a new morning, a new chapter in the Chronicles of Narnia. The Four Monarchs ruled their country well during these times, preserving the nature of this land and making the Narnians almost forget about days before, although those scars of old pain in the heart of many couldn’t be fully healed.

Lord Peridan was one of these people who still carried the burden of the past, although he had returned to his homeland and got his titles restored. The loss of a family is one of the hardest things in life, besides it’s very difficult to bear the heavy burden, some succeed to do it alone but others might need help.

Aslan wish was to help Peridan to pull the thorns from his heart, He wanted to be a part of his life despite the fact the lion felt as if He was excluded from his life. Yes, Aslan knew he blamed Him for his loss in some way.

The forest was relatively cold and dark this morning despite the eastern sun was shining, the sunbeams demanding a way for themselves through the tree’s foliage while the wet leaves scattered across the light like so many stars. When the lion heard the approaching hoofbeats, he revealed himself and as he did, it seemed like it became lighter around him as though the brightness came from the Lion itself.

Aslan placed his calm eyes upon Peridan waiting for the moment when the man recognized who was standing in front of him, then opened his mouth to speak,

“I know you are weary and burdened, my Child,” came the soft, golden voice. “Come to Me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and you will find rest for your soul. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

@peridans

[marmota-b]

I forgot to list this as my favourite of my fics. Because it's not finished, and it's not anywhere near finished. But it's absolutely my favouritest of my fanfiction works that colours pretty much everything else fanficcy I write.

Unfortunately, right now I wrote myself into a war there, which is a subplot I came up with loooong before a very real war broke out comparatively not that far from where I live; and so I have had a strong unwillingness to deal with that in current circumstances. So I have no idea when it will move forward, again. But hopefully one day it will. This story has a lot more to say, and there are a couple subplots there I really, really want to get to.

(Especially the one where the plot tries to be a chivalric romance and Methos gets to be extremely unimpressed by it.)

[peridans]

LORD PERIDAN   ;   THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA.    @peridans     —     high activity

ATHENA ASHDOWN  ( OC )   ;    THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA.    @greatdelta     —     medium activity

LYANNA MORMONT   ;     A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.    @lvanna     —     low activity

[nikolacvna-archive]

🥝

❈ ✼ ❈    i won’t give up, nah nah nah, let me love you  ( accepting! )   //   @personnages

i would be very remiss not to recommend my fave, @splitcrown, first!  jas portrays two characters from the chronicles of narnia  —  lord peridan, and an original character  —  with such grace, eloquence, and adoration.   she is endlessly creative, and such a fantastic writer.  it’s impossible not to adore her characters…  and, frankly, impossible not to follow.

[thenarniaficexchange]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Peridan/Peter Pevensie Characters: Peter Pevensie, Peridan (Narnia), Jadis | The White Witch Additional Tags: Adventure, First Kiss, Romance, Magic, Sacrifice, Ettinsmoor and Other Northern Lands Summary:

Peter journeys under the clear Northern sky, and finds a way to be both man and king, as he and Peridan face dire peril.

[loonie-and-proud]

one of my favorites ships in the narnia fandom is edmund x peridan because peridan only appears in the horse and his boy, has like three lines and is never mentioned later but we all look at him and said "yep this is edmund's husband" and i think that's beautiful

[aravvis]

DARK AGES: A NETFLIX ORIGINAL

EPISODE FOUR, THE FALLEN

As the Telmarine army marches closer, Cair Paravel falls into a deeper depth of disarray. Athena (Alycia Debnam-Carey) searches for a peaceful way to end the hostility and Juliet (Hailee Steinfeld) is at her wit’s end. Juno (Lindsey Morgan) and Peridan (Richard Madden) find solace in each other’s company and Swanwhite (Jodie Comer) does whatever she can to become Queen.

Episode Four, The Fallen, introduces Oscar Isaac as Caspian the Conqueror

[aravvis]

DARK AGES: A NETFLIX ORIGINAL

EPISODE SIX, THE DESIGN OF SORROW

Peridan realises the fatal flaw in Athena’s plan for revenge and takes a drastic action to preserve Narnian lives. In Telmar, Swanwhite considers betraying Caspian whilst Juno helps Juliet in fighting for what she holds closest to her heart.

Starring Richard Madden, Oscar Isaac, Hailee Steinfeld, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Jodie Comer and Lindsey Morgan.