#tortall daemon au

[bogunicorn]

I want to do an AU character ask meme that has questions like... what would be this character's daemon from HDM, what color would their magic be in Tortall, what sort of Jedi or Sith, what D&D class, what Mass Effect or DA class/race would they be, stuff like that.

I'd like a list that a wide range of people can enjoy, so if you have suggestions or a favorite canon with this kind of stuff in it, hit me with it. :D

(Caveat: No H/P houses.)

[korechthonia]

korechthonia ITPE2024 Dear Podficcer

Dear Podficcer,

I'm so glad you're maybe making me a thing! I'm really looking forward to seeing (hearing!) what you come up with! To help us both on this journey, here are a bunch of lists!

Here is a brief list of tropes I adore:

Soulmates (both played straight and subverted, of varieties romantic to cracktastic)

Background characters getting their day in the spotlight

Canon divergence AUs & fix-it fic (including time travel shenanigans)

Polyamory

Mutual pining

Identity porn

Enemies to lovers

Fake dating

Arranged marriages

World-building

Rarepairs

Politicing - laws and negotiations and diplomacy and all that jazz

Fusions - daemons, Pacific Rim, Temeraire, but also if i don't need to know too many details and the second universe is loved enough, I'm interested

Women being awesome and empowered to succeed in whatever their definition of succeed is

Here are things I very much Do Not Want:

Teacher/student or parent/child shipping, even in AUs where that isn't their relationship

Non-con (allusions to past occurrences excepted)

Reader-insert fic

Unhappy endings (bittersweet/ambiguously optimistic is okay, just not nothing but sad)

Highly explicit and/or lengthy sex scenes

Podfic preferences:

I appreciate and listen to all lengths, but definitely have a soft spot for the 1-2.5 hour range (for chores listening!)

Massive weakness for epistolary & non-traditional formats

Very happy for sound effects and/or music, except for general ambient sound effects under long stretches of reading, but also very fine to not have any!

Repods of things I've done are totally okay!

I have blanket permission to podfic, but there's definitely some of my older fic that I've written that I am not strictly proud of - feel free to podfic any of it! But not all of it would make a good gift for me.

Peruse my bookmarks and works created for an idea of what is making me happy/intrigued right now and over time, and feel free to take up any of them if they inspire you! (But things in the "podfic me maybe" collection may have ended up there for specific challenge reasons, it's not a perfect system)

Here are details about my biggest/always happy to return to fandoms that you should know:

Star Wars

The prequels are my general focus. Massive multi-shipper of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but particularly with Jango Fett, Cody, Fox, Jaster Mereel, and Jango/Obi-Wan/[a third] (eg. Jango/Obi-Wan/Satine, Jango/Obi-Wan/Myles etc).

I love the clones! I was about to start listing favourites and then was pretty sure I was just going to list every clone I could think of. Neutral-to-positive on cloneshipping.

Adore rarepairs with Jedi and clones or Jedi and Mandalorians

Rogue One-wise, Jyn/Cassian always and forever, everyone lives AUs preferred

Mandalorian-era, I like Boba/Din, Boba & Fennec & their Tatooine crime family thing, Din & Grogu family vibes, but not Din/Paz or Din/Omera or Armorer/Bo-Katan

Sequel-wise, Rey/Finn/Poe, Rey/Poe, and Rey/Jessica Pava are the preferred ships.

Mandalorian culture, jedi culture, Tatooine slave culture, any other space culture, I will be intrigued and delighted to hear. EXCEPT the First Order or the Empire - they are space!Nazis.

Absolutely NO master/apprentice ships or Kylo Ren related ships.

Tortall

Protector of the Small era is my preferred point in the timeline!

Keladry/Dom is in fact my OTP, but aroace Kel is also good.

Incidental Daine/Numair and Aly/Nawat is fine because they're canon, but not the focus. Any of those characters individually is great.

Never really got into the Bekah series

Les Miserables

Enjolras/Grantaire or Les Amis de l'ABC-centric (excluding Jehan/Montparnasse)

Canon era or AUs that are not high school or college AUs - either different historical eras, or with added magic or specific workplaces or *something*

Greek Mythology

It is all about the ladies, honestly. Particularly like Persephone stories!

A Song of Ice and Fire

Sansa/literally anyone where she gets to realise her own power and escape from being traumatized all the time is a MUST (Jon, Tyrion, Jaime, Oberyn, Willas, and Margaery have all been hits in the past but that is not an exclusive list).

Not a fan of Dany, but dislike genocidal maniac versions of her even more.

Don't particularly care for the Bran storyline or the Iron Islands ones.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (and the Heroes of Olympus)

Annabeth Chase, my beloved

Their later teenage years (Heroes of Olympus era) are more interesting to me than their first few years

Still haven't read the Trials of Apollo, so nothing based in that era

Pride and Prejudice

Elizabeth/Mr. Darcy or Elizabeth/Colonel Fitzwilliam are both acceptable!

Be nice to Mrs. Bennett, she's not wrong to be stressed

Goncharov

It is about Katya/Sofia and the vibes, not any relation to anything people have tried to reverse-engineer about what the plot is.

Star Trek: AOS

Jim/Bones, whole crew fic, anything with Joanna McCoy

Check Please!

Parse/Bitty/Jack is OT3, but I'm interested in any Kent ship except Jack/Kent exclusively, and as long as there's no Kent bashing I'm interested in Jack/Bitty as well

Crossover with hockey RPF is a-okay!

Hockey RPF

the Canucks are my team

Quinn Hughes/Matthew Tkachuk, Elias Pettersson/Brock Boeser, Matthew Tkachuk/Leon Draisaitl, Ovi/Nicke are some favourite ships

will not read/record anything with any players involved in assault (alleged or otherwise) or who have been vocally racist/homophobic/etc

not interested in featuring Boston or Chicago, or players born after 2000

[eidetictelekinetic]

U, Y and X for the fandom asks?

U: Three favorite characters from different fandoms...

So, first, my favorite character of all, Keladry of Mindelan from the Tortall universe. Kel is just... She's so determined to do what she sets out to do, especially when it comes to protecting her people, and yet she's also so surprised when people give her loyalty in return, it gives me a lot of feelings. Kel's entirely human in a world full of people with strange powers, her superpower is her own stubborn heart, and if she was real I too would follow her anywhere. Also, she's the only known person not to get affected by the Jonathan of Conte Pretty Factor, which as one of my top posts will tell you, I find fucking hilarious. Second, Chris Roberts from the All Souls Trilogy (I love him in the Discovery of Witches TV adaptation too, but he's better in the books). The All Souls series has... so many wonderful characters who I adore, but Chris takes no shit from anyone, including Matthew, who has been long established as terrifying a lot of people. He's Diana's best friend, he flirts with Miriam who is ALSO terrifying, and he's a human who just rolls with the sudden reveal of the supernatural and aims science at it. Also, he gives his research team fun nicknames and apparently he gives good hugs. Third, Jack Wolcott from the Wayward Children series. Jack's a really fascinating character - she comes off cold and calculating, and to a point she is, but a lot of it is to protect the fact that she really does care, like there's a reason her arc has a lot to do with falling in love, and trying to keep the girl she loves and the teacher who is her father in the ways that count, even though it pits her against her own twin again and again (the twin she wanted to love but was never shown how to love). Yes, I did try to stick with characters I have little reason to talk about on tumblr; I could have gone for obvious ones like Quentin Coldwater or Aziraphale, but where's the fun in that?

Y: What are my secondhand fandoms...

Uh, Wheel of Time, The Locked Tomb, arguably Succession at this point

X: A trope I'm almost certain to love in any fandom

I'd say daemon AUs though actually I'm more likely to just write that, and half the time one reason why is if the fandom in question already has some I feel like their daemon choices don't work, lol! So I'd probably have to say soulmate AUs, I enjoy those a lot.

[malkaleh]

There are so many. And honestly, I’m going to be a sap and overshare because I am Tired and also I mean it, every word. I would not be here today if were not for the people and the interactions I have had in fandom - fandom helped me realise I have trauma at all, helped me realise I am Jewish, I am biracial and I can reclaim those things. Fandom has given me sisters/friends who are family. I cannot express enough how much that has mattered. So I’ll just give a brief look over.

From @findingfeather and Lis validating my trauma as real and becoming friends even when I was a mess, to @kawuli @shes-a-voodoo-child (the Nina to my Inej/Genya) @bibliothekara @wheresonichedgehogwnt @pearlsthatwereeyes who have all been such wonderful gorgeous gorgeous saatis.

To my other saatis - @blackeyedgirl-writes @strangeetudes @lemonsharks oh my heart C, you make my life my sister okay. You do. Sometimes I cry about how loved I am, despite it all. To @ruffboijuliaburnsides who warms my heart by calling me princess and also their wife. To @notabuddhist - one of my oldest friends, who have started writing to again and have loved it. To @maevedarlings who is a saati and a kindred spirit in so so many ways. Thank you all for the phone calls, the parcels, the chats and the hugs in person from some of you.

To my friends made here - @nocompromise-noregrets @theladyelizabeth and also @gen-is-gone who is DEFINITELY FRIEND SHAPED OKAY. To @nurselaney who indulges my Thomas/Mihrimah and to @cowthropologist who has gotten me through so much. To @eidetictelekinetic who will always make delighted noises about daemon/tortall etc AUs and @miabicicletta for the most thoughtful fic comments and AU related yelling. I absolutely give you my instagram username if you asked and also meet up for brunch.

To my the site formerly known as twitter - @sarking especially but also @bessemerprocess and @jesidres

To @reymireille - I <3 you always actually.

To @herawell - Alia you made OT3 verse Mary. Thank you so much.

Writers/artists/creators alike, I want you to share your favorite interaction(s) that you’ve had thanks to the wonderful things you make!

Tagging a few people to get the ball rolling: @sunnyrosewritesstuff @fantasyinallforms @starthecozy @its-atlass @conkers-theficwriter @consultingpacha @i-did-not-mean-to @lathalea @sotwk @myeaglesong @nocompromise-noregrets @mysandwichranaway @smoking-old-toby @smolestboop @smoothedsmoothie @scyllas-revenge @middleearthpixie @tetchy-frog @mrkida-art @niennawept

[unculturedmamoswine]

Tortall Daemon AU: Aly

@phillyofcheesesteak and @meallaaoi both very kindly asked for more Tortall Daemon AU stuff ages ago, and I guess I finally found some motivation to write more! Get ready for Aly’s daemon, everyone!

If you want to catch up on my Tortall Daemon AU, here is my first post, about Alanna, my second, about Jon, my third, about Daine, and my fourth, about George.

Aly’s daemon is what is called a scrub jay in our world, but most people here (and in Tortall) call it a blue jay. (Not to be confused with the actual blue jay, which is a different bird.) In my AU, non-mammal daemons run in the Cooper line, and Aly certainly favors her father. This also means that father and daughter both have blue daemons, which is kind of fun, though is really nothing more than a strange coincidence in-universe, like Alanna and Faithful having the same eye color.

Aly, being sixteen at the outset of her novel, settles before it begins. However, she was a rather late settler: her daemon only chooses his jay form about a year before Trickster’s Choice begins. This is another example of Aly’s portrayal as a teen who hasn’t grown up enough for her parents’ comfort. (In the beginning of the novel, Aly of course dyes her hair blue to match her soul’s feathers.)

Jays are corvids, which are quite intelligent birds, fitting for a clever girl like Aly. This would be something that people might be aware of in a vague way in the Tortall universe, but I doubt the average person would grasp the significance of his form, and certainly even the most learned of bird scholars wouldn’t know what we know today, which is that jays may be among the smartest non-human animals. They’re also common in both Tortall and the Copper Isles, meaning Aly wouldn’t stand out in a crowd, despite her daemon’s flashy blue plumage. Having such a common daemon would be of a lot of use for Aly’s cover as a slave and a simple maid, as commoners and servants have the rather unfair stereotype of usually having plain and unassuming daemons. Nobles, after all, want to believe that their souls are beautiful and rare, unlike those of the common rabble. As a matter of fact, in my AU, it’s not unusual for picky nobles to choose servants with specific daemons. It wouldn’t be unusual for a noblewoman to, for instance, discriminate against a candidate for a maid’s position because she has a venomous snake for a daemon, or a brilliant tropical bird.

Aly and her daemon would become a lot closer during their time as a slave in the Copper Isles. Not to say that they didn’t love and value each other before, but they were both always a little independent from each other, and never felt the need to sit around having heart-to-hearts. But once they’re isolated from everything they’ve ever known, and they get to a point where they can only trust each other and Nawat, they start communicating more. This is intended to represent the fact that Aly is finally doing the kind of work she really wants to do; she’s self-actualizing, I suppose, and is able to take herself seriously as an adult. However, her ability to almost consider her daemon as a part of her spy network separate from herself ends up being quite useful, even if he isn’t capable of traveling far from his human.

In interactions with Kyprioth, Aly’s daemon would be completely unfazed by the god. Since he’s not human, the no-touch taboo wouldn’t apply to him, and the jay would perch on Kyprioth’s body and peck at his bangles and beads, partially to show that he and Aly aren’t intimidated by him. (He is a little bolder about this than Aly would like, as a matter of fact, but she respects that her daemon usually has good ideas, even if she doesn’t always know his motivations.) Kyprioth would find this charming, and a sign that he chose a good vessel.

Of course, on a meta level, I chose a corvid for Aly to link her with Nawat, who is himself a corvid. Two brilliant birds, falling in love. What could be better? The significance of her daemon being a corvid is probably not something that means much to either of them; I suspect that crows are vaguely aware of the concept that jays are sort of their cousins, but they aren’t sentimental about it. Additionally, animals just find the idea of daemons to be more human than anything else, so Aly’s daemon’s shape means less to Nawat than the fact that she has one at all. I think it would take time for Nawat to understand the importance of Aly’s daemon. Humans have very complex relationships with their souls: daemons have their own ideas and thoughts, but are also undeniably part of a greater whole. At first, Nawat would be dismissive of Aly’s jay, and later he would grow to love him as much as anyone loves their partner. Nawat would also be a little disappointed that Aly’s jay couldn’t go flying with him, given that daemons can’t go far from their humans. Aly might be aware that jays and crows are related, or she might not. She isn’t a biologist, after all, but perhaps her Aunt Daine mentioned it to her at some point.

Regarding Aly and Nawat’s kids: they’re human, in the sense that they have daemons, but they are able to turn into crows as well, in keeping with the short story Nawat. I suspect that the forms their daemons will take will just end up being in keeping with the way anyone settles: maybe one is a sailor and so she ends up with a big tuna for a daemon, or perhaps one who values his avian heritage might choose a bird for a daemon, who knows?

[malkaleh]

I’m kind of stealing from @jackironsides here and also adapting a meme from my ancient days of youth (LJ ;)). Give me a fandom + one (or more) of the prompts from the list below and I’ll write that AU. But you can also add:

Trick: hurt/comfort, angst, dark etc (will probably not be completely awful because I’m me though but there will be dragons)

Treat: fluff - just the fluff and comfort

Star Trek

Hogwarts

Mirror Universe

Daemons

Race Bent

Tortall/Circle of Magic

Historical or Modern AU as appropriate

Politics

Hunger Games

[levitatingbiscuits]

30 questions tag game

Thank you to @mayfriend for tagging me <3

1. Name/Nickname? 

Aisling. Ash is technically a nickname people have given me but I hate it lmao

2. Gender? 

Woman

3. Star Sign? 

Virgo

4. Height? 

5′3.75. Yes the .75 counts

5. What time is it? 

1:48 p.m.

6. Birthday? 

August 27th

7. Favorite band? 

I’m pretty into MISSIO atm but my favorite band is always very subject to change depending on the month, my mood, etc

8. Favorite solo artist? 

Spotify says it’s grandson

9. Song stuck in my head? 

I guess the Japanese cover of Say So?

10. Last movie I watched? 

It’s been awhile but In the Loop I think

11. Last show I watched? 

...that anime about the Vatican

12. When did I create this blog? 

I think I made this one in 2014-2015 but my main I’ve used since 2013

13. What do I post? 

Fic snippets and various fandom hot takes/au ideas. Also various literary tropes I like.

14. Last thing I googled? 

MISSIO to make sure it’s a group and not a single person lmao

15. Other blogs: 

I have Several but @devitosimp is my main and @weeabooshitstain is my anime blog. I also have a fandom salt blog but I don’t want to subject y’all to that lmao

16. Do I get asks? 

Yes! A lot are people asking me to update this or that fic but I really enjoy when people play along with my star wars nonsense and egg me on <3 I also ask for prompts when I’m in a writing mood and I always get a lot of really fun ones.

17. Why did I choose my URL?

My first ever URL was actually biscuitlevitation but then I had to choose a different URL for my newly-made writing blog, so I reversed it. Both are inspired by this.

18. Following? 

3508. The majority are probably dead at this point but I don’t have the motivation to check

19. Followers?

745 for this blog. Most of you are here for Star Wars and you are going to be disappointed if this hyperfixation fades lol

20. Average hours of sleep? 

Good question

21. Lucky number? 

My lucky number is 13! Ironically a lot of good things have happened for me/my family on Friday the 13th so I trust it <3 I guess my karma is reversed or something

22. Instruments? 

I used to play clarinet and I still play piano for fun sometimes. I can’t read sheet music anymore so I learn songs from a combination of YouTube and playing by ear. I usually forget them after a month or so tho

23. What am I wearing? 

My Chewbacca shirt!

24. Dream job? 

I’d love to write or do photography for a living but I’m currently aiming to work in campaigns because that’s what I’m good at.

25. Dream trip? 

That place in Japan where the deer let you pet them and Ecuador. I’d also love to visit my family in Ireland again but shit’s expensive.

26. Favorite Food: 

I’m always down for fried rice

27. Nationality? 

American

28. Favorite song? 

Depends on my mood

29. Last book I read? 

The Tiger’s Daughter by K Arsenault Rivera

30. Top three fictional universes I’d like to live in? 

Tortall before the cult of the Mother ruined everything, Alagaësia because dragons, and the His Dark Materials universe because daemons.

I tag @koramberlynne @glimmerglanger @yellowisharo @the-yellowturtle @ms-notebook and whoever feels like playing!

[damarcore]

incomplete list of things i want to do/write for this blog in 2020, in no particular order: under a cut because it got Long

- think abt an au where harry didn’t forget her sash (and we got the slow burn we deserve)

- finally sort out that super poetic thought about the stone king and the earthshaker

- finish plotting/finish the au where corlath is a power femme lesbian who carries the blue sword and harry is a jock who is prone to obliviousness

- think about the companion to the above au where luthe is a butch nb lesbian living in the mountains bc they’re so done with men

- …the gay really jumped out with those last two bullet points, yall

- finish the dadjack au. it’s plotted, I just have to write it

- finish plotting/finish the corkitty/kittylath au, which is where corlath goes to yell at his half-sibling for Reasons and they turn him into a cat, thus turning half the country onto a frantic search for their king while corlath……basically gets a vacation (set post-canon, but harry and corlath aren’t married)

- honestly literally anything with corlath’s half-siblings. there’s gotta be some stories in there.

- plot that tortall/damar crossover that’s been knocking around my head for the last couple months (daine goes to fix the dragons of damar; alanna wants to be excellent friends who terrify the world with aerin, who is Very Alarmed by everything going on at the moment)

- think about the hades&persephone-esque blue sword au (corlath is the god of the dead trying to deal with a necromancer wanting to get rid of Death; angharad is an amnesiac undefined goddess who knows her name isn’t right but doesn’t know why)

- sort out my thoughts on tor enough that i don’t just go FKSJFJSLFSKFJJS every time i’m presented with the fact that he exists (LISTEN, WE WERE ROBBED–)

- after i do that, write the aerin/luthe/tor ot3 fic ive been working at on and off for the last five years (during all the times i actually like tor)

- three different song-inspired fics i have basically plotted already

- streamline my damar playlists better for other people’s consumption

- convince more people to read shadows

- daemon au where corlath has a cat daemon who’s jealous of narknon, because narknon gets to snuggle harry’s daemon all the time, corlath, it isn’t fair, i’m so much softer–

- soulmate au???

- modern au???

- think about the au where corlath doesn’t go to the outlanders and aerin herself drags harry to damar and plops her down at the laprun trials

- do a fic with luthe being a horrible horrible teacher who embarrasses his students at every opportunity

- get more people to talk about teacher!luthe because it’s CANON, yall

- more crown content in general tbh prompt me if you can think of any

[unculturedmamoswine]

Tortall Daemon AU: Dove and Sarai

I got a request from @meallaaoi (whom I can't tag for some reason) to do Dovasary Balitang for my daemon AU, so here she is! Now featuring bonus Saraiyu content!

Dove’s daemon is a Korat, a domestic cat breed native to Thailand in real life, and the Copper Isles in-universe. Unlike many breeds of Asia, the Korat hasn’t changed its appearance much over the centuries and therefore is likely to look the way actual cats of the Copper Isles would look. Contrast with, say, the Siamese, which has changed a lot due to Western breeding (or Eastern breeding, as it would be in the Tortall verse, since the white colonizers come from the Eastern Lands.)

Dove’s daemon would be the traditional solid blue color, with a round face and green eyes. I like this because, although I can’t find canon evidence of it, I always pictured little Dove with a cute round face. (Seriously, did I make this up? I swore it was canon, but it’s not on the wiki.) It was important to me that I choose an animal that related back to Dove’s status as a Raka noblewoman, and since Dove is described as cat-like in canon, it seemed appropriate.

Cats in general are seen as a very respectable daemon shape for noblewomen in Eastern society in my AU. (Again, a reminder that ‘Eastern’ in the Tortall universe means places like Tortall and Galla.) Cats are seen as clever, clean, proper, intelligent, domestic, and if they represent a fancy breed, they can be seen as ‘status’ daemons. Dove is quite politic, but she’s also subversive enough to participate in a coup intended to overthrow the rulers of her nation, so having a cat daemon, which would be outwardly normal for a noblewoman, but having that cat be a patriotic symbol of the Isles, fits her well.

As Dove lives in, and has been forced to navigate, an extremely tricky political situation, her daemon didn’t waste time, settling at the age of twelve, just after Aly is purchased by the Balitangs. The usual celebration of a noble’s settling would be foregone by her family, since they would be quickly scrambling to escape to their banishment in Tanair at the time. Seeing Dove’s calm reaction to this, and her lack of a spoiled tantrum, and the way Sarai angrily advocates that Dove deserves a way to mark the occasion, would be one of Aly’s first impressions of the sisters.

Speaking of Sarai, her daemon is a jaguar, to carry through the idea of Sarai as the flashier, more dangerous sister. The jaguar daemon is dramatic and beautiful, and reflects Sarai’s more combat-oriented personality. She’s dangerous, just like the Jaguar Goddess who is the goddess of war on the Isles. Her daemon is also more eye-catching than her sister’s, since Sarai is paid a lot of attention by others and also genuinely enjoys much of this attention.

She’s also painted, in canon, as being quite similar to Alanna: she’s passionate and fierce and not good at holding her tongue. She’s an action hero in a world that doesn’t want her to be one, which is why she is so unsuitable for the throne, much like how Alanna would not have made a good queen for Jon, so giving them both big cat daemons is an intentional parallel. Unlike Dove, Sarai’s demon is not domestic, nor domesticable.

[unculturedmamoswine]

Hi can you do more of the Tortall daemon AU posts? I just found them and I would love to see what daemons the rest of the cast gets. If you’re too busy or lost interest that’s totally cool but I thought I’d ask

Um wow, i am so touched you would ask! I sure can! I had some tentative thoughts for Kel and Aly and Beka. But if you have a request i could probably do that!

[unculturedmamoswine]

Tortall Daemon AU

Under the cut are my ramblings on an HDM AU for the Tortall Universe. In this week’s episode: Alanna!

For those already familiar with His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, all you need to know is that my proposed AU only carries over the concept of daemons. Nothing else from the series. So no witches, no panserbjorne, no alethiometers.

But if you didn’t understand that bit, then read this part! In His Dark Materials, a novel trilogy by Philip Pullman, people don’t keep their souls inside their bodies. Rather, they live outside them, each one taking on the form of an animal. These are called daemons (pronounced just like the regular word ‘demons’.) I thought it would be fun to imagine the Tortall verse with daemons,so here we are.

A little necessary info on daemons before we start:

Daemons can talk. They speak to their humans, both out loud and telepathically. They also share their humans’ dreams.

A daemon can disagree with their human, argue with them, and notice things the human might not. (For instance, a cat daemon can see better in the dark than their human.)

Each person’s daemon becomes an animal that represents them in some fashion. It could be metaphorical or practical, or simply a shape that the daemon likes. 

When people are children, their daemons can change into pretty much any animal shape that they want to, but sometime around early puberty they ‘settle’; that is, they become one thing forever.

Daemons and their humans are one being in two bodies, so they can’t go far from each other without suffering a lot of pain or possibly death

Touching another person’s daemon is a huge taboo. It’s seen as almost a kind of assault when done without consent.

This one I don’t love but...generally a man has a female daemon and a woman has a male daemon. It’s not common to have a same-sex daemon. In concept it’s an ok idea but it leans pretty hard toward the concept of binary genders, which is kinda uncool.

But enough background, let’s get to it!

Alanna’s Daemon is a lioness

I know, I know, a bit on the nose. Bear with me. Song of the Lioness is pretty appropriately named, as it has the most ‘epic song’ or ‘epic poem’ feel of any of the Tortall books. Characters as outrageously hot as Jon and Thayet; or as incredible as the Shang Dragon, with his color-changing eyes; or as mysterious as Faithful just aren’t as common in the other books. Or at least, they are examined more closely in the other books. In Song of the Lioness, we just accept them as being amazing, strange, exceptional people because honestly most of the characters are exceptional.The facts of Alanna’s story are wonderful and incredible, and they’re meant to be. Alanna herself acknowledges to Kel that she isn’t an ordinary knight, and nobody could do what she did. So giving Alanna a lioness is appropriate, and fits with the epic, romantic vibe of her books.

Giving Alanna a non-domestic daemon also lends a more impressive and strange air to her. After all, most Tortallans (or Gallans, Tyrans, or what have you) have probably never seen a lion before. There are mentions of ‘hill lions’ in Tortall’s eastern hill country, but I’ve always assumed that those were analogous to our world’s cougars. A lion is something you might have seen on a memorable trip to a menagerie if you were lucky, or heard about or seen in a book’s illustration if you were well-read. Basically, knowing much of anything about lions, at least for a Tortallan, would require status, money, an education. This speaks to Alanna’s “noble-mindedness” to quote Faithful. She has a fancy, high-falutin foreign daemon. But rather than being a mere status symbol, Alanna’s daemon is representative of her strength, wanderlust, and genuinely impressive destiny.

Given the rarity of a woman having a female daemon, Alanna’s gal would help her to fit in with a bunch of boys who also have female daemons. But while she helps disguise Alanna, she also serves as a little hint as to what god she and Alanna serve. As a follower of the Goddess, it seems fitting that even Alanna’s daemon would be female. Also, as a big ol kitty cat, it foreshadows her future kinship with Faithful. He ultimately spends at least as much time riding around on the back of Alanna’s daemon as he does on Alanna’s shoulders.

Alanna would settle a bit late, at the age of fourteen. When she and Jon face the Ysandir, Alanna’s daemon would become the most dangerous form she can. She would have been a lioness before, of course, but this time it sticks. Afterward, it would never be very clear whether she settled as a lioness due to the battle with the Ysandir being such a significant win for her as a hero, or whether it’s more to do with the fact that she was in lioness form when Jon accepted her for who she truly was.

In this AU, the nickname ‘the Lioness” for Alanna would of course originate with her daemon, and would be the inspiration for Thom’s design of her shield. 

Uh, this is getting long so I’ll stop here. But man do I have loads of Thoughts about this verse so maybe I’ll do more later!

[unculturedmamoswine]

Tortall Daemon AU: George Cooper

Hey all, I'm back again with George Cooper! I'm posting via mobile again, hence the lack of a readmore.

In my daemon AU, George's daemon is a damselfly. Damselflies are relatives of dragonflies, but smaller. George's gal is technically a “dainty damselfly” of all the adorable names. She's small and blue, and, unlike a dragonfly, tends to keep her wings folded when she's at rest.

George, like many with very small daemons, has a small container on a cord that he wears around his neck. It provides a safe place for the daemon to hang out where it won't get touched or killed accidentally. The rich and the nobility have all sorts of fancy gilded cocoons for their daemons, but George and his damselfly are satisfied with a simple carved wooden one. It's more or less the shape of a beetle, with the flat side meant to be worn against the chest, and a hole in the bottom for her to go in and out. Course, she spends very little actual time in there. They make a point for her to be seen flitting in and out when in public, but often George's daemon is ten or even twenty feet away. George and his daemon keep their unusually large range very quiet. It's a useful thing when you're the Rogue, and even more so when you're the Whisper Man.

George's daemon is useful to him in many ways. An insect daemon can be hard to read, for one. Your intentions can't be read on your face if you're hard to even see. She's also hard to hit, being so tiny and fast. A big, scary beast of a dog is an intimidating daemon and all, but quite vulnerable to a blow from a sword or club. She can reach places her human can't, by crawling through keyholes and under doors.

George's daemon likes to perch on Alanna's lioness's head. She's usually never so bold as to sit still in full view of everyone but damn. She's in love, you know? And we all know George and Alanna are That Gross PDA Couple, whose daemons cuddle all the time (to Aly's chagrin).

I wanted George to have a bug daemon initially just because I wanted to make sure some good guys got bugs. It would be boring (and unfair to lots of animals) to give bad guys a bunch of snakes and bugs and things, while good guys got eagles and horses. But then I realized just how much use a bug daemon could be in espionage, and thought it really fit. Plus the damselfly makes a nice contrast with Alanna's daemon, as they are one of those "opposites attract" couples in many ways. George has almost no temper whatsoever, while Alanna will fight anything, and Alanna is a warrior while George is more subtle, so Alanna's big murder kitty with George's small pretty bug paints a nice picture, I think.

Also, parting fun fact: Eleni Cooper's daemon is a black-burned goose. In the real world we call this a Canada goose. Anyway, he calls his daughter "Gem" as a pet name. It is VERY embarrassing the first time he does this in front of Alanna.

[unculturedmamoswine]

Tortall Daemon AU: Daine

Hey guys, it's protagonist time again! This one gave me some trouble, but I hope you enjoy it!

So I'm hoping you guys will forgive me for this but in this AU, Daine doesn't have a daemon. This is a trait she gets from her father's side of the family.

Daine gets to be daemonless as a nod to her heritage, and as yet another thing that sets her apart in Snowsdale. Daine, of course, does have a soul, unlike Weiryn. But frankly? She doubts this as of early in Willd Magic. In canon, Daine is genuinely worried that she might be incurably mad, right up until Numair puts that magic wall between her wild magic and her core self. In this AU, Daine grew up with people edging away from her and telling her she was a cursed monster for being daemonless. Daine’s skill with, and love of, animals would here be attributed to her loneliness. “Poor thing, searching for the daemon she’s missing” say the folks in Snowsdale, knowing full well Sarra or Daine could hear them.

Once she’s free of Snowsdale, Daine tends to act as if Cloud is her daemon. She and Cloud fool nearly everyone, though Numair doesn’t quite buy it, and discovers the truth earlier than he lets on. Of course, none of the People are fooled. Beasts know the difference between a two-legger’s spirit and a real animal. By the end of the book, the main players all know the truth.

As of Wolf Speaker, Kitten acts as Daine’s daemon when necessary. Having a magical creature as a daemon carries its own stigma, but Daine is better-equipped to handle the judgement of strangers now. It’s long been said that only the mad have non-existent animals for daemons, and nowadays nobody knows that dragons are real. Even before they were banished to the Divine Realms, immortal daemons were vanishingly rare. Daine's act with Kitten would be normal around nobles and at state dinners and such, but over the course of the next couple books, it would become less common. (Man you should see Ozorne's face when he realizes!) Daine would be, by the time of, say First Test, tacitly ‘out’ about her no-daemon thing. Learning about her father is a huge relief to her, and gives her a bit more confidence when it comes to owning her own lack of daemon. It doesn’t bother her anymore by this point, because she’s learned who she is and what she is. She knows she’s whole. She never, never, gets used to seeing Sarra without a daemon, though. That’s the oddest thing about Ma being a goddess.

Meta-wise, I also chose to keep Daine daemonless because, well, how do you choose one daemon for a girl who is intimately connected to every animal? And how do you do shapeshifting with a daemon? I ended up deciding that those who shapeshift using the Gift have to meditate with their daemons until the two become one, and THEN they still have to shapeshift together into some other body. Those less skilled at shapeshifting must simply go it alone and leave their daemons as-is. So sure, a powerful mage could turn into a bird, but it wouldn’t do much good if their daemon was a buck or something. Have fun flying with a deer following you around on a ten-foot magical leash. Numair and his daemon are, of course, quite proficient at shapeshifting. But if you stay too long, your minds start to become one and it can be a bit hard to separate. And no wildmage has ever been powerful enough to shapeshift before Daine.

But why did I decide Weiryn doesn’t get a daemon? Well, while pretty much all living beings have souls, gods just...don't. A god is more like a force of nature than a person. They have no capacity for personal growth or change, and, as Aly noted in her dealings with Kyprioth, are very much not human. Kyprioth has to be a trickster; he can't just decide to go on the straight and narrow as a human could. Without souls, they can't choose their own paths. They are what they were made to be. Lacking a soul can be a good thing, though. Gods never have doubts about who they are or what they're for, the way a human does.

Fun fact: it's really common in human art to depict the gods with daemons. When the Cult of the Gentle Mother is on the rise in Tortall, we see art of her pregnant, and as far as I know, she never actually gave birth to anything or anyone. Same goes for daemons, they make the gods more relatable to a human audience. The Goddess might be portrayed sometimes with a horse daemon, while Kyprioth might sometimes be shown with a crow. Weiryn might get a hunting hound, and Oinomi Wavewalker is paired with an albatross a lot, but it’s all dependent on the culture and individual artist.

[unculturedmamoswine]

Tortall Daemon AU: Jon

Thanks so much to all of you who liked and rebageled my first post! It was really sweet of y’all! I hope you guys continue to like this AU, even though I think the Daine post might be a bit controversial. Also feel free to request characters! I have a few planned out (the four other lady protagonists, for instance), but I’l do pretty much anybody’s daemons or expand on any aspect of this AU. Anyway, time to talk about Jon!

Jon has a horse

Jon’s daemon, a blue roan mare, is settled by the time he’s introduced as a character. After all, he’s already thirteen, turning fourteen that year, when Alanna comes to Corus. Having such a large daemon is often somewhat problematic, logistically. People in general have larger personal space bubbles in this AU than in real life, due to the ‘no touching daemons’ taboo, and of course you can’t travel far from your daemon so you need to be able to avoid small spaces (and have very sturdy buildings) if you have a big daemon. For the Crown Prince, of course, people are more than willing to make room.

As a warrior, it’s also somewhat inconvenient to have a horse as a daemon. Jon prefers to ride his daemon in battle or for pleasure, but this gives him a certain weakness. Killing the Prince of Tortall is much easier if you only need to kill his mount to get him as well. This would end up being just another reason Jon’s handlers would cite when keeping him away from the real fight, as in In the Hand of the Goddess. Unsurprisingly, this would be infuriating to Jon, who wouldn’t hide it so well. Jon would, however, appreciate being the only one allowed to care for his mount. It would be one of the few things he’s always, always allowed to do himself.

While Jon’s daemon is a source of some of his frustration with his situation as a prince, she’s also a symbol of freedom and rebelliousness, at least from a meta perspective. Horses are tied to ideas of freedom and power, as well as stature. They’re expensive to keep and house, after all. The ones that need to eat, anyway. But also, for the Americans in the crowd, they call up images of the old west, cowboys, shootouts, and answering to no formal law. Until you get hanged. It’s the kind of freedom Jon badly wants, particularly in The Woman Who Rides Like a Man.

But a horse is also a working animal. Horses in the real world are largely extinct as wild animals. “Wild” horses in the US, for instance, are actually feral horses; they’re descended from domestic animals. What I’m getting at here is that horses exist as they do today almost exclusively in relation to, and because of, humans. In Tortall, this would also be the case. I doubt they have feral horses in Tortall (at least, I can’t remember ever hearing about any) so Jon’s daemon’s choice of form would, even if unintentionally, signal his image of himself as someone who belongs to his people. That may seem negative at first, but it ultimately indicates his willingness to put selfish ideas aside and do what is best for Tortall.

As a side note, I think the Bazhir would appreciate a nice piece of horseflesh as a daemon, but obviously the relationship between Jon and the Bazhir is more complex than ‘hey, nice daemon, wanna take over as our spiritual leader?’

So Jon’s horse (ugh, maybe I should just bite the bullet and come up with names for everyone’s daemons) symbolizes both his rebellion from, and his eventual acceptance of, his destiny as king of the realm. Plus, I imagine her as a rather dark gal, so her nice black mane would match Jon’s hair. His canon horse matches, after all, so we gotta make the daemon match at least as much. Too bad it would be weird to describe her on the same level of hotness as Jon, because it would also be kind of funny. “She was just a total babe of a daemon. Like, seriously, the sexiest horse you’ve ever seen.” 

Also, in this AU, Jon never buys Darkness from George. He still goes with Alanna when she buys Moonlight, but he has no need of a new horse so George goes ahead and sells Darkness to someone else. This means that Daine never meets Darkmoon in Wild Magic, as the implication is that he’s the descendant of a mixing of Moonlight and Darkness’s lines. But don’t worry, I’m sure Alanna found a very nice stallion to make babies with Moonlight! I like to think she chose a horse from one of the riders of the Bloody Hawk.

By the way, since of course people have no trouble communicating with their daemons, tack is wholly unnecessary for Jon and his daemon, so unless protocol demands, they’d usually forego reins, bit, saddle, etc.

I was originally intending to to Jon and George as one post, but this got long, so we’ll see when I get to him. Thanks for reading!

[unculturedmamoswine]

I was going to suggest that for your Tortall daemon AU that Miri would have a dolphin (yes I think about her a lot for a pretty minor Daine books character) but then I wondered how that works. Obviously daemons aren’t actually animals so stuff like breathing isn’t an issue but would a dolphin just be flopping about on land? 🤔

In canon, HDM canon, that is, some guy has a dolphin for a daemon and he just... lives on a boat forever. Can't go on land. Thing is, if your daemon dies, you die, and a landed dolphin would die. I'm pretty sure daemons do need to breathe? But not eat? TBH i only ever read the first book and the wiki page doesn't seem to go into it, so I'm not sure.

I also thought about some kind of aquatic animal for Miri! Leaning towards sea otter for her, actually.

[malkaleh]

for the meme: h and m :)

H: How would you describe your style? Honestly I struggle a lot with this question - I can talk about common themes of things I write about but I’m not sure about style. I guess there’s not a lot of dialogue, a lot of introspection and most of them are written in some kind of third person pov. 

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share? I have a long involved Discovery Tortall AU that some day I will maybe write a bit of, a long involved Game of Thrones AU (actually several but this one is the most detailed) about how Jon is loved by both Catelyn and Ned because Catelyn was fostered at Winterfall and was friends with Lyanna and Lyanna ended up in the North not Dorne, I’ve thought about a Tudors OT3 Daemon AU specifically based on something @eidetictelekinetic is writing and a sort of Henry/Anne British Royals reincarnation AU. (I have a few *g*)