dust & dusk

Indian and punjabi inspired elves + random fantasy worldbuilding for fun

I am not from these cultures so do feel very free to point out anything wrong and I’ll be glad to delete + correct anything

Nadia

The Seal and the Ravens

OC INTRODUCTION - Dala

“Let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity.  My wife saw your forsythia from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat.” Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him, “If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much forsythia as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world.  It shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother.”

(Above is altered from the original tale and not written by me)

Dala is an enchantress, beautiful and mysterious, somewhat cruel. Above all else, lonely. She ventures between her enchanted garden, tending to her visitors and watching them grow, and the tower where her daughter, Thia, lives. She's been known to reward those who send hapless travellers to her garden with magical artefacts, such as magic mirrors.

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SHUT THE FUCK UPPPPPPPP

Does reading a lot of books "count" if they're all only popular light-read novels? As opposed to classics and literary fiction and whatever 600-page in-betweens are called. I can tear through all of Cat Sebastian (who's either hit or very, very miss for me) before I can pick up, like, Sharon Kay Penman, even though they're both popular historical novellists, because SKP's are about real historical figures and wars where a lot of horrible things happen to people. So of course my brain is convinced that SKP's novels "count" more than CS's, because it only counts if you have to struggle through an emotional morrass that makes you feel glad to live in climate collapse because at least nobody is sticking people's heads on spikes anymore.

This is also why I can only stand well back from literary fiction and poke it with a stick like I'm waiting for rats and snakes to jump out because, afaik, most of them are about people being sad and ruminating on the Human Condition. I don't get why I have to read about that, given I'm a sad person who's trapped in the Human Condition.

(I sometimes think the people that write these things are either so removed from the unwashed masses that they can look at them like a science experiment or five inches from offing themselves at all times. Presumably some of them are those mythical Normal People who have somehow emerged from the existential soup without any mental illnesses. Idk. How tf do you write fiction about real human pain that isn't even self-indulgent whump fic? I'm still trying to recover from having read Ninety-One Whiskey four years ago.)

You'd think the solution would be to just read some escapist fantasy, except the serious non-YA adjacent stuff that get submitted for Hugo awards (or Netflix and HBO adapations that shit all over the source material) are also about Bad Things Happening To People. I suppose this is better than white Christian manifest destiny bullshit like Lord of the Rings* where Bad Things Only Happened to Boromir, whose fans are the kind of people who think Gone With The Wind is a literary classic instead of Ku Klux Klan propaganda or people like me who are pathologically obsessed with conservative white bullshit**. And yet have I ever picked up NK Jemisin, who seems to be for all intents and purposes the queen of decolonial high fantasy? Of course not. Better to bear that media where Bad Things Only Happen To Imbibers Of This Racist Bullshit, than fly to others Where Bad Things Happen To The Characters that we know not of***.

It's really fucking hard to be extremely mentally ill and have OCD that won't let you DNF stuff that bores and distresses you and makes you think anything that lets you have safe, happy fun is just easy mode riffraff of no nutritional value.

***Still trying to figure out where Guy Gavriel Kay fits in. Without, you know, just reading the damn books.

**Tbh the reason conservative white bs is so appealing is because conservatives genuinely believe in the Just World theory. They rationalize the chaos of reality by assuming that the world used to make sense and work the way it should until Bad People happened to it, and it can be restored to its rightful glory if we can just root out all the shit that upended the old order. That's fascism in a nutshell and why its so deeply seductive even to people suffering under it.

*No, I'm not going to explain why LoTR is smuggling white supremacy. Y'all care more about defending the intentions of white men living in the fading era of the British empire than understanding how they could possibly have internalised white Christian supremacy that informs their writings about Fair, Enlightened Folk of the West yearning for a mythical past where they reigned supreme. Figure it out.

Please check this story out on Wattpad! 🥺

OC's as Tarot Cards: 15. THE DEVIL - Reliza UPRIGHT Meanings: Addiction, materialism, playfulness REVERSED Meanings: Freedom, release, restoring control

After taking over a local village on the edge of a forest, Levisil has enlisted that isolated, strange priest who lives in the forest to teach his soldiers to read and write the local language

Though, Father Petolo, unbeknownst to the Warrior King, is prone to tangents and verbosity

(I have terrible handwriting, leave me be)

(I also need to get better at set dressing)

Nadia

worldbuilding concept I really like that I don't really generally see done

the Drow, missing the surface, using many bright colors, especially natural ones such as greens or blues, and warm ones, like yellows and reds

temples painted beautifully with murals depicting the surface on the inside

magical lights that are made to mimic the sun

stuff like that

rather than depicting them embracing the darkness that surrounds them, they cling to the symbols of light

Sunbringer

There are potential spoilers for the first book in this series: Godkiller

Author: Hannah Kaner

Series: Fallen Gods (#2)

My Rating: 9/10 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads: 4.04/5

Date Read: April 2024

'People like me don't change the world. We just survive it.' ---------------------------

Plot Summary: Following the events of the first book our traveling group of four has been split up with Elo, Inara and Skediceth forced to return to Kissen's home of Lesscia. Elo struggles with the physical and mental reminders of the betrayal of his closest friend and begins to plan how he will stop Arren's plans of rising to the rank of the gods. At the same time Inara struggles with guilt over Kissen's apparent death and the feeling that no one, not even her friend Skediceth want her around anymore. While Elo plans a revolution against the King, Kissen travels through her old home of Talicia returning to her roots as a godkiller and stumbling across horrible premonitions of the future of Middren.

TL:DR: Another fantastic installment in the Fallen Gods series, this book does not disappoint with the introduction of even more diverse and likeable side characters. Our main characters undergo major character growth as they struggle to reconcile with the traumatic events they have all been through. They are beautiful disasters.

Main Characters:

Kissen - a fierce godkiller whose career puts her in constant contact with dangerous forces, Kissen is separate from her previous traveling companions in this book. She continues to be an independent force of nature but she will now be forced to face her beliefs and previously strong convictions to survive.

Inara - her bond with Skediceth has been irreparably changed after their travel to Blenraden. She is now facing the reality of her situation and struggling with the insecurities that no one truly wants her and the guilt that she contributed to Kissen's apparent death.

Skediceth - similar to Inara, Skediceth is coming to terms with the new reality of his relationship with the young girl. However, for the first time he begins to experience the power that comes with human offerings and being known by more than just Inara.

Elogast - the betrayal of Arren, and the willingness of his closest friend to sacrifice his life to gain power has shaken Elo to his soul. He focuses on building a revolution against the king to distract himself from the pain and uncertainties left in it's wake.

Arren - the king of Middren who originally outlawed gods. He now works to raise himself to the level of a god, securing his lands power by establishing himself as a subject of worship in place of the gods he believes are destroying his people. No matter the cost.

Thoughts and Feelings:

The first book of this series had some minor pacing issues that caused it to be a bit slow and I did not have that problem with this book. I continue to be absolutely enthralled by the world and the characters. I personally enjoyed that the story was happening in two different places at once and that Kaner committed to keeping the characters separate and that they grieved for each other for as long as possible. I think it added to the character development and the arcs that Inara and Elogast went through over the course of the narrative. I do agree with some others that not being able to travel with Kissen as much was sad, but I LOVED diving more into Elogast's character and how he struggles to come to terms with his betrayal and what his future looks like. Elo clearly struggles mentally and is using this promise of revolution and revenge as a way to cope with his loss. Inara similarly has become infatuated with this idea of revenge for her mother to her detriment. She becomes too focused on this idea of revenge that she disregards everyone else around her. And she is forced to pay dire consequences for that. Which is great. I love it when characters make mistakes, have to face the consequences, recognize that what they are doing is wrong, and then growing from that. And I think Inara's character growth was really well done. But she still has a long way to go! She is young and brash and she doesn't listen, but she faces the consequences of her actions and grows through her bad choices. The reveals that occur in the later half of the book are definitely not surprising. They are things that I was anticipating from the first one, but it didn't bother me that they were obvious. Mostly because it felt like the reveals were supposed to be surprising to the characters but not necessarily the readers and it achieved that. The representation is also fantastic in this book. Disabled characters, queer characters, mentally disabled characters all of them are represented by well rounded personalities and backgrounds. It is great.