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goonlalagoon · 5 years

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So You Want to be a Person of Assorted Magic-Wielding Profession? || Part 1 || Young Wizards / Discworld

Ages back, someone in the YW slack group suggested the concept of a Young Wizards/Discworld crossover, predominantly so that Nita and Tiff could meet and generally kick ass.

I promptly wrote three and a bit scenes and then forgot about it until now so uh...have the start of a fic that will definitely have two more installments and probably more at some point?

(Read on Ao3)

(part two)

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Words have power. This is a well known fact across the universe, and those of a Wizardly persuasion know it rather more literally than most (1). Regrettably, despite first hand knowledge of the power of the written word and a tendency to love books or other collections of words, few have given much thought to the effects of jamming hundreds of pages full of writing in to a confined space.

Words have power…

Nita Callahan wasn’t paying much attention to where she was going, because she had her chin propped on top of a pile of books for re-shelving and couldn’t see her feet. Her attention was fixed on the shelves and neat rows of colourful book spines either side of her, looking for the right place for the book on top of her pile. Well, mostly fixed.

The rest of her attention was on the conversation she was having with Kit, her Wizardly partner, closest friend and boyfriend, who was bored to death in the office he’d been stuck in for his work experience.

Ugh, why are we doing this again…?

School policy. Aren’t you supposed to be working?

On what? My pinball score? How very productive. I could be doing something useful right now, Neets! Nita rolled her eyes to herself, amused. She had to admit that she shared some of his frustration. When you spent most of your spare time, and some of the time you were supposed to be doing other things with like school and homework, on the full-time job of slowing the heat death of the universe, a week of mandatory work experience felt just a little pointless.

Not least because you knew you could actually be working on, say, developing a spell matrix to filter air pollution out of the New York Metropolitan area.

It hadn’t helped that both of them had forgotten about the forms until the morning they were due thanks to an emergency Errantry (2). Nita had gotten lucky. The old library near her house was an old haunt, and the librarian had been both amused and pleased to offer her a week’s placement for the start of the summer at very short notice. Kit had overslept and hadn’t managed to get anything arranged, so had been assigned somewhere thanks to a volunteer parent.

Hey, I did say I could ask my dad for you.

I know…but I figured it’d be too close to asking your family, and then I’d just’ve been in trouble for taking the cop out option…

It would have been the cop-out option.

He snickered, and Nita tripped, books scattering over the floor.

“Ow. Well, that was totally my fault.”

Neets? Nita! You okay?

Yeah, yeah…just fell. Wasn’t looking where I was going. She rubbed her knee ruefully. That was going to bruise, she could tell. Look, I actually do need to work. See you later?

Dinner at mine? Mom’s doing the chicken thing.

This day is looking up! Enjoy pinball.

She scrabbled for the dropped books, putting them back into their alphabetised pile and scowling when she realised she must’ve gotten one out of order - she’d already shelved what she thought were the only two ‘Bs’ for the afternoon.

Oh well…I’ll stick it at the bottom and just shelve it on my way back to the front desk.

She continued on her way, trying to pay more attention to where she was putting her feet while also scanning her pile of books for any other missed letters. It was therefore a while before Nita realised she was no longer in the library - at least, not the library she should be in.

Later, when she explained this moment of realisation to anyone, she would always feel faintly foolish when she explained that she actually only noticed because an orangutan knuckled past at high speed.

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(1) ’Words’ being the local closest analogue for ‘modules of expression formulated such that, when applied enactively, can alter the universe - or at least small, localised and amenable parties thereof’

(2) All errantries are emergencies, some are just more of an emergency than others. Nita had over the years developed an internal meter that rescaled this from ‘minor problem’ to ‘literal end of the world’ (3)

(3) In practical terms, this coding actually ran from ‘ugh I still have to study for that math test’ to ‘even dad says I don’t have to do my homework after this’

#Young Wizards #Discworld #not you DD #my writing #young wizards party #dying rirhait noise #This was really fun and I have half a page of very excited notes #but I don't think there's much...plot or coherency?#so rather than writing everything and then posting I'm just gonna...throw stuff up as and when #sywtbapoamwp

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felagund-fiollaigean · 5 years

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16 and 30 for the ask thing?

16. What is your favorite poem?

Oof. It took me a long time to decide between two so I’m gonna say them both. The first one, The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon by J.R.R. Tolkien I love because of the way he is able to convey the feelings of the blandness of the moon, the rich world of color imagined by the Man, and the dreary reality he finds when he arrives. He brings this world to life so vividly, I feel like I can picture it perfectly.

The second one is Errantry, again by Tolkien. I like this one mostly because of the rhyme scheme and meter, which I think is very unique. Here’s my favorite bit from it.

He passed the archipelagoeswhere yellow grows the marigold,where countless silver fountains are,and mountains are of fairy-gold.

I think that captures so well the whimsical romanticism that Tolkien is known for. This whole poem reads like the perfect daydream. Beautiful.

30. Do you prefer the moon or the stars?

I would say stars, I want to say stars. I’ve had really good star experiences in the past, sleeping out in the open while camping in the desert with friends, and my ex took me to a star party once, in the middle of nowhere where only red lights are allowed so you can walk around and see the stars with no light pollution. And it was... amazing. It was magical. And it makes me really sad that we can only see a fraction of what’s really out there. So much beauty is hidden from us (or at least us city dwellers, idk about you). Most of the time, all I get is a nice moon view, and I love looking at the moon in all of its phases. But I still wish I could see the stars more clearly.

Thank you for the asks!

Send me more!

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therealvagabird · 7 years

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Errantry - by J.R.R. Tolkien

A long-form poem by first published in 1933, Errantry was written in a custom meter, using many euphonious, archaic words. Though Tolkien would never reattempt the difficult style, it inspired the later Song of Eärendil in the Lord of the Rings canon. Errantry was later included as a Hobbit poem born from the song, in an ironic twist of origins.

There was a merry passenger,

A messenger, a mariner:

He built a gilded gondola

To wander in and had in her

A load of yellow oranges

And porridge for his provender;

He perfumed her with marjoram,

And cardamom and lavender.

He called the winds of Argosies,

With cargoes in to carry him,

Across the rivers seventeen,

That lay between to tarry him.

He landed all in loneliness,

Where stonily the pebbles on

The running river Derrilyn,

Goes merrily for ever on.

He journeyed then through meadow-lands,

To shadow-land that dreary lay,

And under hill and over hill,

Went roving still a weary way.

He sat and sang a melody,

His errantry a tarrying,

He begged a pretty butterfly,

That fluttered by to marry him.

She scorned him and she scoffed at him,

She laughed at him unpitying,

So long he studied wizardry,

And sigaldry and smithying.

He wove a tissue airy thin,

To snare her in; to follow her,

He made him beetle-leatherwing,

And feather wing of swallow hair.

He caught her in bewilderment,

With filament of spider-thread.

He made her soft pavilions,

Of lilies and a bridal bed,

Of flowers and of thistle-down,

To nestle down and rest her in,

And silken webs of filmy white,

And silver light he dressed her in.

He threaded gems and necklaces,

But recklessly she squandered them,

And fell to bitter quarrelling,

Then sorrowing he wandered on,

And there he left her withering

As shivering he fled away;

With windy weather following,

On swallow-wing he sped away.

He passed the archipelagoes,

Where yellow grows the marigold,

With countless silver fountains are,

And mountains are of fairy-gold.

He took to war and foraying,

A-harrying beyond the sea,

And roaming over Belmary,

And Thellamie and Fantasie.

He made a shield and morion,

Of coral and of ivory.

A sword he made of emerald,

And terrible his rivalry,

With elven knights of Aerie

And Faerie, with paladins

That golden-haired, and shining-eyed

Came riding by, and challenged him.

Of crystal was his habergeon,

His scabbard of chalcedony,

With silver tipped and plenilune,

His spear was hewn of ebony.

His javelins were of malachite

And stalactite - he brandished them,

And went and fought the dragon flies,

Of Paradise, and vanquished them.

He battled with the Dumbledors,

The Hummerhorns, and Honeybees,

And won the Golden Honeycomb,

And running home on sunny seas,

In ship of leaves and gossamer,

With blossom for a canopy,

He sat and sang, and furbished up,

And burnished up his panoply.

He tarried for a little while,

In little isles that lonely lay,

And found their naught but blowing grass.

And so at last, the only way

He took, and turned, and coming home

With honeycomb, to memory

His message came, and errand too!

In derring-do and glamoury,

He had forgot them, journeying

And tourneying, a wanderer.

So now he must depart again,

And start again his gondola,

For ever still a messenger

A passenger, a tarrier,

A roving as a feather does,

A weather-driven mariner.

#one of my favorite poems #tolkien #poetry #errantry #lord of the rings #earendil #hobbit #elf #elves #song #lyrics #silmarillion

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pcinvasion-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on PC Invasion

New Post has been published on https://www.pcinvasion.com/total-war-warhammer-details-bretonnian-faction-mechanics

Total War: Warhammer details Bretonnian faction mechanics

After spelling out some Bretonnian roster changes, Creative Assembly have now released more details of how the faction will function in the Total War: Warhammer campaign. That information comes from the free DLC’s Steam page, which went up today.

Bretonnia will be able to call on three Legendary Lords; the already present Louen Leoncoeur (Bretonnia), along with Duke Alberic (Bordeleaux), and The Fay Enchantress (Carcassonne). Their armies can otherwise be led by Lords and Prophetesses. The latter can use the Lores of Beasts, Heavens or Life, and both can invest in “Knight’s Vow, the Questing Vow [or] the Grail Vow” to drastically reduce upkeep for the respective Knightly Orders.

For Heroes, the Bretonnians can employ Paladins and Damsels. Like the Prophetesses, Damsels can use magic from the Lores of Beasts, Heaven or Life. The Paladins are symbols of chivalry and valour, and can be mounted on a Pegasus.

In Total War: Warhammer’s campaign, the Bretonnians will have a meter tracking the level of chivalry in the realm. Performing mighty and heroic deeds (“winning heroic victories in battle and completing quest chains” for example), will raise the chivalry and convey bonuses like a contented peasantry, or extra unit experience. Low chivalry will bring problems like reduced leadership and rebellion.

Overall campaign victory as Bretonnia will depend on maintaining high enough chivalry to trigger the “Errantry War”, a climactic final battle. You’ll also need a lot of chivalry if you want to call on the special Green Knight hero. When called, the Green Knight will be available for a limited number of turns, with preset skills, to aid you in battle.

Meanwhile, you’ll need to keep an eye on your feudal economy, which depends on the peasantry to function. Each region of the map will contribute a certain number of peasants, and these need to be balanced between your armies and agricultural labour. It’s possible to ease the burden of warfare by industrialising to some extent, but this early industry will provided reduced income compared to agriculture. Further technologies can boost the industrial income.

In addition to all of that, actions like heroic victories in battle can result in the Blessing of the Lady. This means the leader and army “thenceforth receive a Ward Save for future battles.” Just as quickly as the Blessing is granted, however, it can be lost by unheroic actions like humiliating defeats. Some units, like Grail Knights, automatically have the boon of the Blessing.

Here’s the full unit roster for Bretonnia, followed by their opening cinematic.

Melee Infantry Peasant Mob Foot Squires Spearmen-at-arms Spearmen-At-Arms(Shields) Men at arms Men-At-Arms (Shields) Men-At-Arms (Polearms) Grail Reliquae Battle Pilgrims

Ranged infantry Peasant Bowmen Peasant Bowmen (Fire Arrows) Peasant Bowmen (Pox Arrows)

Melee Cavalry Mounted Yeomen Knights Errant Knights Of The Realm Questing Knights Grail Knights Grail Guardians

Ranged cavalry Mounted Yeomen Archers

Flying Cavalry Pegasus Knights Royal Pegasus Knights Royal Hippogryph Knights

Artillery Field Trebuchet Blessed Field Trebuchet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60WQUG3XW3M

The Bretonnian faction will be released on 28 February, and is free to all owners of Total War: Warhammer. It’s possible to get them 24 hours early if you sign up for Creative Assembly’s ‘Access’ program through the Total War forums.

#Total War: Warhammer

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