#the warrior bards

[checkoutmybookshelf]

You Have My Attention: Warrior Bards First Lines

So the Warrior Bards' relationship with Blackthorn & Grim is very much ST:TNG's relationship to TOS. But where Blackthorn & Grim have an older feel to the writing style (think Robert Jordan or Tolkien), the Warrior Bards reads a lot more like modern fantasy. A good place to see that is in the first lines of the books, which are so important for catching readers.

A pox on Archu! Why must we fight in a wretched downpour? I hook my left leg around Brocc's right and throw my full weight backward, toppling us both to the ground. We roll, coating ourselves with mud. Shit! Who would want to do this for the rest of their life? I must be crazy.

-- The Harp of Kings

It's a glorious day. The sun is warm, the clouds are high puffs of white, the sea is as calm as it ever gets around Swan Island. We're sitting on the bench seats at the combat area, tingling with anticipation, knowing today's celebration marks the end of many months of grueling work. Work we've loved and hated. Work that has tried us to the edge of our endurance and stretched us to the furthest bounds of our ability--though, as Archu has told us, in a crisis you can always find a bit more to give. Work that has forged not only four warriors fit to join the island's permanent force, but also four true friends.

-- A Dance with Fate

I want to talk to the druid. Brother Oisin is an old man, but age hasn't slowed him much. He walks long distances and doesn't always keep to the roads. He is solitary by choice, loving wild places, praying alone, meeting with other folk from time to time to offer teaching or advice or help. At such meetings, if one is lucky, Oisin will tell tales of long agi, stories of wonder and terror, of joy and heartbreak. His tales are magical. They challenge the mind and refresh the spirit.

-- A Song of Flight

[cubbihue]

Hey if Hazel, Dev, and the gang play DnD, what do you think they would play as.... and how who would be the fortunate(or unfortunate) DM?

When I was 10, my older brother would play massive D&D campaigns in the living room. He tried teaching me the mechanics but it was too much and too boring for my small brain. Instead, I was far more fascinated with things like Warrior Cats.

Apparently Warrior Cats has a d&d game though. So. The kids would all play that instead!

Dev would eventually be roped into joining. Mainly because when you're sitting with a table of kids doing storytelling, you end up getting very invested, and very frustrated when they make the very wrong choices!!!

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[teacup-of-earl-gray]

Ok, here's a fantasy game because I want to feel nostalgy (there was a period of time, when my dream №1 was becoming an elf)

So, here we go

1) take this quiz

2) make your own character, based on the result, using this piccrew (the character can look whatever you want)

3) repost with your quiz result and your character. Don't forget to tag somebody

Feel free to take part even if you weren't tagged :3

I'll go first

I'll tag: @sparrows-my-abhorred

[genshinimpactresources]

Genius Invokation TCG | Arcane Legend Cards: Borderless

Day of Resistance: Moment of Shattered Dreams

In Every House a Stove

Covenant of Rock

Joyous Celebration

Fresh Wind of Freedom

Ancient Courtyard

Passing of Judgement

Download Link (Google Drive)

[ydteus]

Commission for Carter on Instagram!

[whenfatecollides]

Gabrielle going against her beliefs and deviating from the path she wanted to take in life in order to save Xena | bonus:

[drewpicturesani]

The Traveller

So Chants of Sennaar is a good game-

[carmendeiact2whenplz]

Things we don’t know about Old Mondstadt (that Hoyoverse refuses to tell us)

Aka things that haunt me (and probably many other old mondstadt fans)

(keep in mind- not all of these may be entirely unanswerable as of now, some have partial/vague canon answers, while some may have completely canon yet relatively obscure answers)

(for the sake of making things easier to write, i will refer to venti’s dead friend/the nameless bard as “nb” and the red haired warrior as “rhw”, and specifically wisp venti as “wispti”, and i will be referring to the group of wispti, nb, rhw, gunnhildr, and amos (and maybe decarabian too if he’s relevant in that context) as the “old mond gang”)

Note- lots of paragraphs ahead

1- why is nb nameless? does he just… not have a name? does he have a name that he either intentionally or unintentionally kept secret? did he have a name that he used openly and oftenly, but it was forgotten by history as time went on? if anything, did he at least have some sort of nickname people used for him (so we can stop calling him “some nameless guy or smth idk”)?

2- While nb being, well, nameless, may be a bit more justified, what about rhw? did he also have some sort of name? would calling him “ragnvindr” (or similar) be entirely un-canon? did he at the very least have some sort of code name/nickname?

3- what is the timescale of the rebellion? did it take weeks, months, years? decades? how long ago did thoughts of revolution start in old mondstadt? were the people always unhappy, or did old mond use to be a better place?

4- what is nb’s role in the rebellion? did he start it? is he just a leader in general? or is he just there for the moral support? was he on the front lines or in the distance, playing his lyre to rally the troops? is he a strategist? has he ever directly fought anyone on the opposing side?

5- actually, how old is nb anyway? pretty sure most people agree that the rest of the old mond gang are adults (not wispti but like. i’ll touch more on that later), but i’ve seen stories/theories/headcanons about how old nb was (at the time of death) ranging from around 14 to 23 years old- that is not a small range by any means. (according to a poll i made a while ago, 16 was the most common answer on what people thought their age was (my headcanon too), but there was definitely a lot of range in the answers)

6- If Amos and Decarabian’s romantic relationship is so toxic (for lack of a better word), how any why did they get together in the first place? Did amos enter the relationship aware decarabian was against some of the things she wanted most in life? did she enter the relationship purely to try to “fix” him? was he abusive towards her, or was it just a lack of attention/affection/caring about other things more than her? or was it that he never loved her/was attracted to her romantically at all? were they still in a relationship even until the very end, or did they eventually split up when they both knew they would have to fight eachother and that things wouldn’t work out between them?

7- according to the “biography of gunnhildr” book (i think that’s the name), it says they worshipped the wind spirit barbatos and treated it like a deity, while other sources say wispti was nameless and was like. just kinda there. is one of them the truth, or both, or neither?

8- does wispti have arms and/or legs of any kind? can he talk/communicate with people? if so, how does he go about doing so?

9- it’s implied in “a drunkard’s tale” (an ingame book) that the wind spirit that transformed into a fox and helped create wine is the same wind spirit as well. wispti. if that means wispti can shapeshift, to what extent can he do it? can he even become a human/humanoid (not to the same detail and/or time extent that modern venti/barbatos can do so but still)? if so, how does that impact his relationship with nb and/or the rest of the old mond gang?

10- how long did the members of the old mond gang know eachother? did most of them meet in relation to the rebellion, or did some of them know eachother before they got to that point?

11- what is the order of events between amos dying, nb dying, decarabian dying, barbatos getting the gnosis, barbatos taking nb’s form, the end of the fighting, and rhw leaving/abandoning (for lack of better words) everyone? how much time took place between all those happening?

12- what exactly are the purposes of the tower? is it just a living space/government building for decarabian and amos, or is there more to it? did other people live in the tower too? if the circular ruins/symbols seen in the tower present-day were also there back then, why and how are they there? are the light actuators in the tower related to anything involving decarabian’s power/immortality and/or the storm wall?

13- how impenetrable is the storm wall, really? is everything restricted from going in or out, or are some people able to move freely? what is the immigration/emigration rate of the city? how often are things imported and exported? does the wall have any intended purpose other than for keeping the blizzard out?

14- how did amos get her bow? why is it so (hypothetically) powerful? where did she get it and how did it “retain its power” to this day?

15- how “old” is wispti? he could theoretically be any “age” between “manifesting into existence shortly before his first interaction with nb” and 14 billion years old/as old as time itself(and you thought nb’s theoretical age range was large.) how much did wispti truly know before getting involved with the rebellion? was he technically a toddler (in terms of knowledge/mentality), or does he actually have thousands of years of knowledge?

16- to what extent did the imunlaukr (i probably spelled that wrong) and lawrence clans participate in the old mondstadt rebellion? were they involved at all? should the old mond gang be eventually expanded to include more people? (lawrence, venerare, etc)

17- HOW DID DECARABIAN LOOK LIKE? HOYOVERSE PLEASE. IF YOU WONT GIVE US HIS FULLBODY DESIGN WITH MULTIPLE POSES AND FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AT LEAST GIVE US SOME CRUMBS ABOUT HIS APPEARANCE (how tall he was, hair color, outfit style, special accessories he wore, weapons he used, etc)

18- what is the relationship of the old mond game to eachother? were they friends? found family? or were things far more complicated than that? (and what was their reaction to knowing amos, one of their biggest allies, was also the lover/partner of their (the old mond gang’s) enemy?

19- did some of the genshin weapons with lore relations to old mondstadt actually get used during old mondstadt? (aka did nb get to use freedom-sworn as an actual combat weapon)

I probably left out a lot of things so i may go back later to edit, but there are just. SO many things hoyoverse keeps behind the lore basement. If anyone would like to add onto this list, or provide personal headcanons and/or canon answers to the things mentioned here, i highly reccomend doing so.

@honorary-fool @amarisrosalette @gierosajie @lanternlightss @arson-n-quwubilder @littleblueberryartist @lilyandthegenshinbrainrot @elysianheresy

@goyayato @lordofthetower @nellfe-the-feral-creature @thatonenerdinyourclassroom

@yume-shirokuro

(if anyone tagged would not like to be tagged, please let me know)

[contresixted]

CM FOR @karoiseka !

VGEN / DISCORD

[thelostgirl21]

One thing I really want to see happen in Season 4...

Valdo Marx: Nice to see you again, Joseph!

Jaskier: *Heavy sigh* That's -

Yarpen: *Stepping in front of him protectively.* Julian Alfred Pankratz to you, you dying sounding beached whale! Only his friends call him Joseph!

Jaskier: Ah, actually, that's Jaskier.

Yarpen: *Dismissively.* Yeah, I KNOW.

Jaskier: *Getting all teary eyed.* I know you do.

[pwaise-hestia]

With each battle I lose more of myself.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

The Next Generation

The Warrior Bards novels are to the Blackthorn and Grim trilogy as Star Trek: TNG is to Star Trek TOS. This is literally the next generation in this world, and it's exploring the lives of Blackthorn and Grim's children, both bioloigcal and adopted. What is absolutely wild to me is that where Blackthorn and Grim felt like more traditional, older-style historical fantasy (think like, 1980s Tamora Pierce or Mercedes Lackey) despite being published from 2014 to 2016, the Warrior Bard books feel very modern and very much what I would expect for historical fantasy published from 2019 to 2021. And yet despite the style changes, both series still manage to sound like Juliet Marillier. Let's talk Warrior Bards.

The Harp of Kings introduces us to Swan Island, a training ground for freelance spy/mercenaries, and main characters Liobhan, Brocc, and Dau. Brocc and Liobhan are Blackthorn and Grimm's children, and they are in training on Swan Island. This book follows them on what is technically a training mission, but it's a very, very live mission. You can't crown a king without a magic harp, after all. Dau and Liobhan are set up for their rivals to lovers arc throughout the trilogy, and Brocc is very, very clearly set up to end up on an intertwined but related path to his sister--there are fae involved.

A Dance with Fate has been mentioned on this blog before, in the very first post. It has a very complicated relationship with disability and the magical cure trope, which I won't go into too much depth here; the TLDR is that on principle, I hate the magical cure trope (seriously, disability is not a life-ender. You can live and live well with a disability, it does not HAVE to be cured), but this book does some interesting work with the grief that can come with acquiring a disability and the absolute fuckery that acquiring a disability can throw your relationships (of all kinds, but especially family ones) into. The previous book wasn't not character driven, but this book is CHARACTER DRIVEN, and I love that about it. It makes the stakes higher and the actiony, plot-y sequences weightier.

This book also really divides its time between Dau and Liobhan and Brocc, who is off in a Fae stronghold and very much on his own romantic journey that has some tragic-feeling tendrils woven through. Brocc is not my favorite part of this trilogy, but he is central to it in a way that, while reading, I was never mad about spending some time with him, especially because while he is geographically separate from Dau and Liobhan, they're deeply connected in terms of in-world geopolitics and plot. It's just beautifully balanced.

A Song of Flight takes all the threads that have been worked through the first two books and opens with a kidnapped prince, who's bodyguard is Brocc and Liobhan's elder brother, Galen. Swan Island turns out to find the prince, and Dau, Brocc, Liobhan, and Galen have to save both the magical and mundane worlds.

This trilogy is excellent, and does not require reading the Blackthorn and Grimm books before reading, and if you don't discover Juliet Marillier through the Wildwood books, I would actually recommend starting with this trilogy (unless you are a massive classical fantasy fan, then Blackthorn and Grimm might be a better place to start; your mileage may vary).

[3-oclock-tea]

Btw free will™ is a thing, you can do what you want, paint what you want, self indulgent work is the best bc it makes you happy and being happy is literally the goal of life idk if you know

[sableprince]

originally i wasnt gonna post this but i've been convinced otherwise. a post-game sequel to this silly comic.

[genshinimpactresources]

Genius Invokation TCG | Arcane Legend Cards: Dynamic

Day of Resistance: Moment of Shattered Dreams

In Every House a Stove

Covenant of Rock

Joyous Celebration

Fresh Wind of Freedom

Ancient Courtyard

Passing of Judgement

Download Link (Google Drive)

[jasmancer]

Ye Olde lesbians!