If you're seeking out wings of fire suggestions then Bryony and Grayling, the leafwing silking pair, if you only want one then Grayling would probably be a more interesting design given one of his in-text descriptors likens him to a pile of chinchillas.

bryony and grayling! bryony insisting in the guide that she never cries makes me believe she's SUPER emotional, haha. bryony is based on white bryony and autumn, and grayling is based on chinchillas :)

If you have the time to get around to it, the ask would be which scenario do you think would irritate Caius more:

a) Aro pining over Carlisle and refusing to shut up about him ever

or

b) Aro spending lots of time with Carlisle who's around and therefore it's impossible to ignore Carlisle completely as he keeps being brought up by virtue of being right there and talking for himself

In Norway we have a beautiful turn of phrase: "plague or cholera?"

It's used when you must decide between two horrible options.

Option a is the plague, option b is cholera. Caius loathes both, only in different ways.

It is not easy, being Caius.

Since Hagrid’s house is never stated in the books to my knowledge and our only clues are him disliking Slytherin because Tom Riddle narked on him about having legitimately dangerous animals what house do you and vinelle figure he was in if you’ve put thought to it? (or use if writing him in a story)

I know there was a bit I was convinced it was slytherin as that’s how he knew the slytherin’s prefects name and was in a place to be caught by said slytherin prefect, figuring the prejudice was a response to being expelled before getting fully attached to it (he’s one of the good ones! He swears!). But the prejudice and Dumbledore liking him (the sad state of the series) would probably indicate otherwise.

If, whenever you answer, it’s simply to point out you don’t much care for the houses enough to arbitrarily pick one then fair enough.

I believe canonically, Hagrid's a Gryffindor, I think we learn this in Chamber of Secrets when Tom Riddle is telling Harry all of Hagrid's dirty secrets and how it was totally Hagrid who opened the Chamber totally. He refers to him as "a Gryffindor third year" and some other choice words.

@therealvinelle and I always go with this and put him in Gryffindor. We didn't see any reason he shouldn't have been placed there given his personality/who he aspires to be/his hatred of Slytherins in canon without going "I had a traumatic past, Harry, in which I was a Slytherin"

(And yes, this means one of Hagrid's roommates must have tried to nark on him to the Slytherin prefect several times for several different creatures, probably not getting anywhere with Dumbledore who was head of Gryffindor or for some reason any of the Gryffindor prefects who probably then went to Dumbledore.

No, this didn't get Hagrid expelled or suspended earlier and probably that student lived in terror that Hagrid's dangerous fire breathing scorpions would eat their faces in their sleep.)

One thing I noted watching The Dragon Prince is that the intro splits the same continent in half with the elves/humans so they started with the same amount of magical animals/plants each. There’s still some magical animals the human side but their presence is far, far reduced comparatively so do you think that’s specifically because of dark magic harvesting leading to more “normal” to our eyes species dominating?

I’m fairly surprised there isn’t a visibly established livestock industry’s for magic animals too (that way say your lunar moths can be renewably hatched each year, or a sheep population equivalent kept etc).

You seem very immersed in much of the lore so thought it’d be fun to at least pose as a query.

I think there's a few different things here to consider (that we'll probably never get a definitive answer on) but this is my best guess + what we do know about how dark magic operates:

Both regular animals and magical creatures can be used for dark magic. We know this because we've seen human blood be used in a couple of spells, Claudia puts grasshopper goop in Soren's mouth (2x08), and then later uses the deer in its entirety to undo Soren's paralysis.

That said, it does seem that magical creatures are more potent and preferred for dark magic spells. This makes sense - while you can use the life essence of anyone/anything for dark magic, creatures with magic inside them (any arcanum) are inevitably going to have more to "squeeze out" than a non magical creature would.

With that in mind, I think canon gives us a few answers and subtextual clues.

The most important one is something Viren refers to 2x05 (which has haunted me ever since), in which he cites that, "After centuries of fighting amongst ourselves, the five human kingdoms finally found balance, an era of peace." The Book 2 novelization gives a little more information about this period on conflict, explaining that "The first summit of the Pentarchy had been held centuries ago, and it had brought an end to the Mage Wars and created the modern order of the human kingdoms" (Ch17).

We don't know, of course, if this is precisely the same period of time. Maybe by helping to imprison Aaravos (and presumably disposing of the last king of Katolis), the Orphan Queen likewise helped put an end to the mage wars. Maybe she only came on the scene centuries after the mage wars! Who knows. "Held centuries ago" could mean three, which matches up with the Orphan Queen / Aaravos imprisonment timeline (and no more mister startouch elf preying on mages) or it could go back closer to 700-800 years. We'll just have to wait and see if we ever get more details!

Regardless, the Mage Wars and the fact they were likely fuelled by dark magic, since it was humans fighting amongst themselves, might answer why we see so few (known) magical creatures in the Human Kingdoms other than maybe glow toads: mages went after the most potent magical ingredients during the fighting, and reduced those numbers to virtually nonexistent or extinct.

I would imagine before the Mage Wars / even before Xadia split, maybe, more magical creatures were held and domesticated as livestalk. (Elves certainly do keep some animals as pets, such as Janai's flying hot cat, though I'd expect something like a Moonstrider to maybe have evolved as a sort of hunting companion.) However, humans on the eastern side and elves on the western side were likely forced to abandon any farms / communities they had in regards to animal care when the Exile / Schism happened. Information and resources might've been lost, as animals on one side of the continent were likely different compared to others, although some humans (who already lived in the west) and some elves (who already lived in the east) wouldn't have had to have moved.

That said, I think the simplest and shortest answer is just that there's not a lot of mages within TDP's world. For each group of people, we see a lot more warriors or diplomats than mages and they don't seem to regularly be employed in the military of kingdom we've seen, Sunfire or Pentarchy troops or otherwise. We can also guess that in the Pentarchy due to the specificity of the ingredients needed, sometimes, that Katolis by virtue of being closest to the Border would be primed to have the most dark mages and dark mage traffic / travellers (although I've HC'd that Evenere due to its isolation has a fair bit of lingering magic more than say Del Bar or Duren). But due to the amount of knowledge and ingredients required to seemingly do most dark magic spells, as well as the toll it takes on the body, I think it makes sense that most people wouldn't have the interest, access, or ability to pursue that kind of path when there's plenty of others that are less gruelling / easier

Magic is everywhere, and small pieces of magic (like Ruthari's moon opals) are everywhere, but outside of the specific skillsets of each primal (Moonshadow illusion spells and forgery, maybe cooking, forgery and healing for Sunfire elves) it doesn't seem like magic is something they readily depend on for food or livestock in their day to day lives. And if that's not the case for the majority in Xadia (only used in times of crisis, etc), I can see that need plummeting in the Human Kingdoms simply because it takes a lot more time/energy to maintain than might be necessarily utilized because of the low demand

This was all long winded speculation and hopefully mostly coherent. If you're interested in more deep dive worldbuilding thoughts I'd really recommend some of @kradogsrats stuff as it's great and a lot more eloquent / all encompassing tbh

It occurs to me I can submit an ask over what else I've been wondering and that if it's not spoilers it may even be answered. I loved the incorporation of trials, poor Nhoj and the night elf just stuck re-traumatising themselves with reminders of horrific violence, in their variety and was aggrieved by the loss of 2. So:

Before Rabbit ate the happiness and love elf tasks what would they have been? Did you always plan to have them eaten and never decide? Is there a particular reason they got the short straw?

The last question is possibly they had less narrative focus mostly, the happiness elf particularly, but it's because of authorial choices and deliberate writing why it's possibly fair game to inquire about.

The Heart of the World by me.

And sure, submit anything you like! Even spoilers, depending, I might answer if it's spoilers for the single book thus far, just not anything that will spoil things ahead.

With that said.

You nailed it, there weren't any. They were always slated to be eaten, I never had to come up with anything, for which there was much rejoicing on my end, and the why is... well, that actually is something of a spoiler. It's not so clear yet as of book 1 but there are things Rabbit does and doesn't eat and there is something of a pattern to them.

So, hold that thought basically.

Today I bravely ventured further than ere I’ve gone previously into the twilight fandom and discovered in no short order: Garrett and Kate winning a poll as a side couple; fluffy (?) head canons about Edward and Bella; discussion of wholesome Cullen family holidays where everyone more or less gets along and likes each other (including Edward and Jasper even!!!); and discussion of how cute an adopted cat could be for Rosalie to look after. And there weren’t master lists! Or many textual references at all! They thought the animal-eating Cullens with super strength who terrify animals could have a pet without a problem!

I have retreated to the ranks of familiar metas where I’m not made to feel unduly cynical about it all and everything makes sense (… unlike Edward and Bella as a functional, healthy, genuinely in love couple after no demon pregnancy and he turned her???). Soon I shall once again venture forth but I think recuperation is in order. It was a surreal experience like watching the Harry Potter films with someone who hadn’t read the books and them thinking Hermione was a well adjusted person socially (… she refused to acknowledge Ron had a right to feel bad his pet died for a good part of a year, I don’t know emotional intelligence is on her list of outstanding traits).

Well, the point of this blog is that I have very poor reading comprehension and therefore completely fail to get what I was supposed to from my reading material. Very bizarre interpretations of canon result from this, and we get blogs like this one (or @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta for that matter).

It's a significant and important not to forget factor that Muffin and I developed our understanding of Twilight canon during quarantine, we were sitting alone in our respective homes going a little feral in ways we are still coming to terms with. We weren't always like this, at least not about Twilight.

As for the Twilight fandom, the thing is that a lot of the people I see on my dash and who I disagree with on a lot if not everything, tend to write much better characterised Cullens than I manage. I'm very happy with my fics and wouldn't do anything differently, but the fact remains that even people who disagree with me on a lot on the surface level still characterise many of the characters (with notable exceptions like Aro, who is one of this fandom's characterisation chameleons. Everybody has their own Aro) very similarly, sometimes better (this especially pertains to Edward, a character I find difficult to write).

Also, I have to warn you- if this was what seeing the Twilight fandom did to you, stay far away from Harry Potter fandom and if you do venture into the Harry Potter fandom, the second you see a post tagged "Lily Evans" in the wild you run. Close the tab, turn off the computer, because the odds of the post being wildly and/or hilariously misogynistic are ten to one.

Since you’re swamped my your masters I expect nothing (and should I have more substantial asks Im directing them to thecarnivorousmuffin instead) but figured this ask should be short enough if it ever interests you.

Aro is faced with a choice between seeing one place in detail by someone else’s memory: the bear dimension or jumanji, which does he choose?

(the catch being both is not possible, however curious he may be)

Poor @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta has indeed been thrown under the bus.

Really though, I do check my tumblr daily so you can still send questions my way. I just can't justify spending hours writing thoughtful metas currently.

And Aro would have to choose Jumanji, because there's the theoretical possibility something might come through to our world and become a problem for the Volturi.

The Bear Dimension (last seen in mine and @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin's fic Last Christmas) would be less concerning because any strays entering our world would, per Rosalie and Emmett, be as mortal as humans are.

So, if Vinelle is primarily polling on the Tom Riddle/Alphard Black ship name does that mean Lily Evans/ Tom Riddle ship is one you might (perhaps as an eventually, perhaps as a soon)?

Of course, no pressure but it is a delightful activity so just putting it out there.

I waited for that to get to a later stage but I suppose it's time. Send in suggestions and we will run a series of polls to declare the winner.

My suggestions to start us off:

FlowerSnake

DeathMadonna

Tily

Lilom

Lom

Lildemort

Voldelily

Shi no Aphrodite

Evedemort

Riddlevans

I've just finished Heart of The World and it was delightful! Frank the vampire minion and that mystery of his missing boss forever going unanswered is truly a tragedy.

I've not looked at any Lily and Sisyphus stuff but gathered Ilyn originated from Snape at some point in the development process. I truly enjoyed the "They put him in charge of children!?" realisation, but what had you decide he was going to be notorious as a warlord primarily for blowing things up with fire? Ilyn's hilarious retrieval mission blowing up cars, setting a house on fire, abducting a child and then not commenting on the most convenient portal you've ever seen form works brilliantly naturally, but when did you know that was the direction you were going?

Your remarkably nuanced handling of the very fraught political tensions among factions was very cool to see. It ends up making you feel bad for essentially everyone in some capacity (maybe not Questburger, he seemed like he was doing quite well for himself).

The Heart of the World (by me!) @janedoewrites

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! Really, this is very high praise indeed and I'm not only flattered but very glad to hear that I did what I set out to do successfully. (And yes, Questburger's done great for himself, at least so far.)

And that's a very interesting question.

So, Ilyn obviously started as a Snape counterpoint, same as Elizabeth is clearly what Hermione was, Theyn is clearly some mix of Dead Last and Neville, so on and so forth but he deviated in a large way very early/had that personality when he got introduced as a character in the first draft.

I don't think there was ever a draft where he hadn't set Lily's house on fire for no reason and was always this very taciturn/stoic/least talkative person you can ever find. @therealvinelle who helped with a lot of the editing maybe remembers better than I do but I think his characterization was set very early and the big surprise for me writing when it worked out and for her on editing is that he and Lily end the novel on very good terms.

I actually don't think characters changed that much in general between drafts. They changed a lot from the fic and in the outline for obvious reasons, the primary one being that they had different backgrounds now, different roles in the story, and that would inform who they were as people and how they best served the story but once they were decided on early in, they didn't change much in terms of personality. They've been very stable. The one who changed the most in a nitpicky manner was Lily herself who was made more... noble I suppose is the word for it in part of things happening or not happening to her in her youth, and being with the Tylors who are just absent versus the Dursleys who are present and awful. A lot of things about her and her lines changed between drafts and it took a bit to settle on just what her personality would be like with these changed circumstances and events.

But yeah, Ilyn's pretty much always been Ilyn, which is great because I love him and other people better like him because he's not going away any time soon.

Tom Riddle/Lily Evans Ship Name Poll: Round 1

CHOOSE YOUR VICTOR

The odds are that this won’t be a spoiler. Are lemmings mentioned in secret fic? If it’s ribbing Norway then do lemmings get mentioned?

Also have you seen lemmings yourself? I sadly haven’t as my only trip to Norway was to Stavanger and mostly staying in town with a family friend.

Asker is referring to mine and @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin's secret fic, one whose existence we might have made a mistake admitting to at all.

We have, however, admitted that the fic is mostly just about making fun of me specifically. There are therefore no lemmings in the story, because I'm not a lemming.

(And yes, I have seen lemmings but only in flashes. They are fast little buggers. I also have not been to Stavanger.)

I believe you've (as in plural, thecarnivorousmuffin and therealvinelle collective) previously mentioned splitting your stories across several google docs. How many pages do you happily have in one document before beginning a new one post your presumable upper limit?

Google docs get wonky around 100 pages and then it starts acting funny/getting hard to load/etc.

Is The Dragon Prince a show you've seen? The other question would be of if you're acquainted with netflix's Castlevania series (and/or Castlevania Nocturne)?

The latter seems more likely by virtue of being vampire linked but who knows it may be a double no. I've not bothered with any questions here since again they may be shows you're not interested in at all.

The Dragon Prince has been on my list for a while but a lot of things are on my list so, sorry, haven't seen it yet.

As for Netflix Castlevania I saw episode 1 of Castlevania, none of Castlevania Nocturne, and have little to no familiarity with the video games.

Have you seen OwlKitty Parody videos on youtube? There's a Love Actually one just over a minute long, it could be more palatable to you than the actual film! (There's also a The Shining one, since I've seen neither film the tension in The Shining that was presumably present is thoroughly undercut by the cat starring as the focal point).

I imagine it may be more up TheRealVinelle's street (given cats) but Painting Red Madonnas was you entirely so figured it was only fair to inform you of the parody's (maybe) delightful existence.

"It could be more palatable to you than the actual film", well, that's a very low bar for me as Love, Actually pained me (@therealvinelle is actually the same here, as usual, I'm just the one who complained about it in a fic after @therealvinelle made me watch it to suffer and laugh at my misery) but afraid I haven't seen these. I'll have to put them on my Youtube video list.

In your fic God of the Machine (the original, non spin-off one) things end horrifyingly of course (existentialist dread, woo) even post Anna's first death they uh go downhill (cheers to the sanity lost along the way!) but it was very interesting how it got to that point and easy to read. Anna's main successful change of the timeline I gather was what directly lead to her own death (... congratulations on proving how significant an impact it was) and that of most of the task force's it seems, but does Light survive it since I think it was orchestrated by Misa? My other question is if Light was aware that Misa would kill Anna that way, as in was it his plan or at least a plan he agreed was worth the sacrifice?

My other question is what on earth Non-Amnesiac Light would have thought of Amnesiac-Light's actions in the fic (both times around) if/when he'd regained the notebook?

If they're questions you're willing to answer I'd be delighted to know what your thoughts are on them, they've lingered in my brain in any case post-reading the fic.

I thoroughly believe Anna deserved better even in the alternate L's room lifetime but the tone was consistent so at least didn't expect it. Some of the alternate Light and Anna timelines were almost cheery at least (which was fun to read, they're both very well-written characters).

God of the Machine

I mean, that timeline no longer exists anymore, that's the thing. No one survives in it because it's scrapped, kaput, done. But yes, Light was going to survive there as Misa had orchestrated it. As for Light, even for "everything goes according to plan" no, he didn't foresee it going that sideways as he envisioned more or less the Yotsuba Arc where he'd have an opportunity to regain the Death Note and Misa would wait for him to make a move. He hadn't realized Amnesiac Light would be fucking useless and not remember why he was doing the things he was doing.

Light would have been quite frustrated at himself for not balancing Misa, L, and Anna the way he needed to. He hadn't realized he'd forget that much, or that his amnesiac self would have to rationalize what he'd been doing with such large gaps in his memory that his relationships became completely convoluted. He didn't see himself becoming the weak link which was the whole problem.

As for Anna deserving better... Well, yes, but that's what the fic is about really, terrible things happening and being in this horrible situation where you try to get out and more terrible things happen. Just when you deal with Light being able to discretely kill you for nothing at all, L comes around and you're imprisoned and might be left to die if Light doesn't save your bacon.

But glad you liked the fic so much!

some bad Aro/Carlisle ship names

Vollen Voltlen

AngliKing (anglican priest + king, sounds racist) Divine Right (like the divine right of kings for the priest and king, idk probably too deep a cut)

Oh christ.