the names thing with the convocation is so fascinating to me just as like. a trans person. its not the same but it is? i dont know i just. names!

Because Gerudo: The Sun

Planet Headcanons || Accepting

The Sun

how   is   your   muse   as   a   person   ?   

Unwell, to say the least. Ganondorf has had a highly unconventional life, although not one terribly out of the ordinary for royalty. He was born with a distinct purpose, and has been conditioned to meet strict expectations, and while the extent of those expectations were not/will not be known to him until he has the Triforce, there are plenty he is conscious of, and he has spent his entire life refining himself based on those terms. He is calculating, confident, cynical, driven, and very, very dangerous.

In his Majora's Mask verse, he is a deeply average person, outside of his size and his Gerudo features. He has a nose for mushrooms, taught by his moms, and he maintains the shop, and plays in the forest sometimes, but he's mostly a very normal, very curious young man. He considers himself boring, in this verse.

do   they   think   highly   of   themselves   or   are   they   pretty   humble   ?   

He fluctuates. Perhaps ironically, in Gerudo Valley, where he is all but worshipped, he’s actually at his most humble. He’s only really snarky and sarcastic privately, with his closest raidmates and Nabooru. In front of his people, he largely considers himself a servant and a guardian, and all of his goals are aligned toward what he believes a good leader would do for his people. There are never monsters in the valley, he does his best to keep harm as far from his people as he can. 

Anywhere else, he is a hyper-confident menace. He is SO full of himself, and that is because he has the literal weight to throw around, and the skill to back it up. Very few can truly challenge him, and the only people he doesn’t mess with at all outside of his domain are Impa and the King of Hyrule. One out of respect, one out of pure and spiteful manipulation. He loves his people, but he absolutely believes they are better than everyone else; barring, maybe, the Sheikah, and most of those are gone. In his Majora's Mask verse, he has a fair amount of confidence. He's strong, and he's nice, and he's good at what he does, he just doesn't do much away from home, so he tends to be more humble when dealing with someone he wants information from. He's just not maliciously seeking it in this verse.

what’re   they   like   when   meeting   someone   for   the   first   time   ?   

Depends on whether or not they’re valuable to him, where they are, and where they’re from. Ganondorf can be very gentle—but it is reserved for the Gerudo; namely their elderly, their children, and their grieving. He is normally anywhere from bored and dismissive or haughty, based on his mood and what you can offer him. In his Majora's Mask verse, he is polite, if not a little bored.

are   they   an   individual   who   you’d   say   is   pretty   aware   of   their   surroundings   and   themself,   and   knows   just   what   they   want   from   life   ?   

In his main verse, Yes, unequivocally.  Gan is highly aware of himself, his surroundings, and his goals. He’s always been very meticulous, heavily dedicated, and acutely aware. However, he can, has, and will let his confidence get the best of him, and will eventually fail due to his hubris, and the corruption slowly destroying him, in his main timeline.

In his Majora’s Mask timeline, he is more or less aware of his environment, but he’s been so safe his whole life he’s never developed much of defense. He *does* spend a lot of time foraging in the forest and with the local monkeys though, so he’s learned how to be aware of his environment from them, but he has no enemies in this world, so he’s mostly just developed that to help them out.

give   us   a   peak   through   the   veil   of   just   who   your   muse   is.   only   a   peak   !

This sums it up

Number 7 for the prompts, with any character you want? :0

7. “Why do you think they call me that name?”

Saberon Flaetor had absolutely terrible luck, by his own standards. Everyone at every tavern always told him he must be an incredible adventurer with a whole lot of luck to survive all the things he did. After all, they’d hung off of his every word for several weeks after the beginning of Sliske’s start of the Sixth Age God Wars, even though he’d been trying to see who he could organize into a proper fighting force.

But of course, becoming Sliske’s favourite toy was exactly what he got for helping a Saradominist.

Despite everything, he was pretty well aware of what the title of World Guardian meant to everyone. He’d fooled them all, and accidentally so, and he didn’t even know why he’d done it in the first place. He’d been the one there, vaguely interested in Guthixian ruins if only to tell Juna about them later, and he’d been the one in everyone’s way. He was the only suitable candidate there to become World Guardian, so when Guthix had asked him all those questions, he had never answered truthfully. 

Lying came easily to him. Everything from how many cookies he’d stolen as a child when the chefs of the Kinshra weren’t looking to why he was interesting in helping out the Temple Knights. Yes, Guthix had asked his opinion and he’d wanted to make Guthix proud, but he was not a person Guthix would naturally be proud of, so he’d made it all up on the spot. S. Larius the World Guardian came after.

The gods themselves looked upon him, and he made a persona up on the spot to explain why he was there, what he was up to. Stories and history were one thing, but it had been millennia since any god had come to Gielinor, and any one of them could have been an ally or a target. He was reserved, a little shy, more than awestruck at their presence.

Saradomin probably took it as deference to his authority. Zamorak recognized the anxiety of a mortal way in over his head, and likely noticed the almost-stereotypical growth and confidence from it. Zaros still had no idea how badly he’d been sabotaged, and still thought that he’d had to grow into the role Guthix had bestowed upon him. Armadyl had swallowed the lies but seemed to know he was doing his best either way. Seren only saw him as a saviour, and the only possession Guthix had given the world upon his death. Icthlarin had probably been the only one to know that he was being lied to, though he hadn’t known exactly what the truth was.

He could hear Sliske’s thoughts as well as his own, now, though he had never had any difficulty in knowing which thoughts belonged to whom. He’d forced himself to stay standing after Sliske’s death and his subsequent possession. Sliske had forced him to lie more, and he still didn’t know if he was grateful for the lie or not.

He’d never expected anyone to really figure out what the truth was. Sliske knew, it was hard to keep his thoughts to himself these days. The last person he ever expected to figure out how much he’d lied was Amascut.

Mah was dead, and with her death, Amascut’s insanity had eased. Saberon had stolen the Kharid-ib from her again and stuffed it somewhere reasonably safe, and the disappearance of it had helped a little. He wasn’t exactly helping her because he enjoyed her company - it was difficult to do so in her condition - but he had wanted to make Icthlarin happy, especially now that he’d realized that if anyone would know something about the Elder Gods, it would be her.

He’d taken her out with him on slayer missions, challenged her not to use her destructive magic. She wasn’t the first mage he’d helped rehabilitate after they’d fallen wayward, and she seemed to enjoy the challenge of doing things a different way.

They’d gotten drinks together after a particularly difficult mission, a few bruises still on her face but healing well. He’d not dared bring her to anything really horrific, lest she panic and fall back into her old ways. They sat outside, watching the setting sun of Ardougne fall over the far horizon. She’d started talking, and he hadn’t known what she meant to talk about at first, but he quickly figured it out.

When she and Icthlarin had gone to Freneskae, they found out quickly why mortals wore masks in the desert. When she had been afraid, as death gods could be in a place without an afterlife, he had been there. But when he had been offering the Mahjarrat a place in Gielinor, she’d found Mah.

She stopped short, then, incapable of forming the words to describe the warped and screaming excuse of an Elder God.

“It… she… she was…”

“Horrific,” he answered, after a few seconds. He had faced Mah twice. Once, while realizing he could use it to his advantage to sabotage Zaros, and twice, when he had proved in front of all of the Mahjarrat that he was better than them all, and deserved to be there as much as they did. It had felt so real, to sit there before the setting sun on a clear day, and still lied through his teeth facing an elder goddess herself. It was the closest he had ever been to his blood, and he still screamed his lies like they were true. “Screaming that made you want to put it out of its misery just to make it stop, but there would be no way, because you are still an ant looking at the front claws of a dragon.”

She nodded silently, mouth still open a little. “A face you never stopped seeing, screams you never stopped hearing. The senseless desires and destruction of a delirious child with more power than even Guthix could have dreamed of. Until there was nothing left but the screams.”

“I became like her,” Amascut whispered. “I couldn’t get the screams out of my head. If I made her happy, would she go back to sleep? Would she go to sleep? I knew it was all a lie. I knew I could never please her.”

“They made me the World Guardian, and never considered what it meant.” Guthix, ancient and wise Guthix, who had either put his faith in the wrong person or admired his commitment to living a lie. “So I would never be anything but a lie again.”

“I don’t know who I am, anymore, and I don’t remember enough of who I was to try and rebuild it.”

“I know who I am, and who they need me to be, but I never wanted to pay the price.”

“You’re the World Guardian, though,” Amascut said, almost as if she’d realized what his lies were all over again.

“Why do you think they call me that? I will never be anything else to them,” he replied, his voice more bitter than he’d wanted. “All I ever wanted to be was my father’s son. He will never see me as anything but Guthix’s last toy.”

“I wish I could be free of her, as you could be of his ghost,” she whispered.

“She’s dead,” he said, short and blunt, as if he had said ‘good day’ or ‘that would be a floor, yes’. “Seren put her out of her misery, and her ghost doesn’t scream. The silence before us made us realize just how vast the universe is, and how little we know. If you stand up there now, where she used to be, it’s still silent.”

“Take me there,” she said, and he held out his hand, fingering the Sixth-Age circuit with his other hand. She took it.

Episode 26: Farewell, Distant Days

Dear Icebergs readers—as we’ve reached the first season finale of LoGH, we’ve inevitably arrived at some pretty serious spoilers, so if you haven’t already seen all of LoGH season one, I would advise against reading any further. Instead, you can find our FAQs here and our very first post here, and we hope to see you back here soon!

Everyone else: When you're ready, please proceed to our episode 26 post, below. —the editors

September-October 797/488. Ansbach’s assassination attempt on Reinhard is thwarted by Kircheis—first by knocking his gun out of the way, and then by taking fire himself from yet another concealed weapon, this time in Ansbach’s ring. Ansbach shoots through Kircheis’s chest and neck, then bites a poison pill to commit suicide. Reinhard’s admirals scramble, but it’s too late to save Kircheis, who dies while Reinhard holds his hand and looks on in bewilderment. Beyond devastated, Reinhard shuts himself away with Kircheis’s body for days on end. Oberstein convinces the admirals to cast former ally Lichtenlade as a scapegoat for Ansbach’s crime, and, grateful for something to do, the entire fleet storms Odin. Meanwhile, Oberstein informs Annerose of Kircheis’s death, Reuental receives an unexpected invitation, and Reinhard hardens his heart.

Reinhard and Kircheis

The first time I watched episode 26 of Legend of Galactic Heroes, there was a moment when, literally sitting on the edge of my seat, I wondered if this show was about to disappoint me horribly. Kircheis was, clearly, dying. The admirals were fluttering around him trying and failing to stop the bleeding, giving up on leaving to go get a doctor—too quickly, it seemed. And where was Reinhard? Why wasn’t he there?

As a queer consumer of media, I’m used to this kind of disappointment. Seeing my experiences reflected onscreen at all remains rare, and when a piece of media does deign to include a queer character or two, more often than not they’re killed off unceremoniously in as homophobically moralizing a way as possible. The death scenes of queer characters tend to leave me with a sick feeling not because I’m grieving the character but because I hate that I’ve had to give up on expecting queer characters and their relationships to be given a fraction of the respect afforded their straight counterparts.

The first 25 episodes of LoGH had surprised me with their nuanced and respectful depiction of queerness, in particular of Reinhard and Kircheis’s relationship. But as a seasoned veteran of queer media consumption, as Kircheis bled out on the floor while Reinhard did who knows what across the room, I didn’t know how else to interpret what I was seeing other than “Kircheis is about to die alone.” My stomach hurt. And then, this happened:

Given that it’s animated, LoGH has so far been remarkable in its commitment to realism. Without exception, what has been shown to us onscreen has been presented as an accurate depiction of events; the closest to a diversion from that has been the show’s frequent use of flashbacks, but even those are always anchored to a specific character’s experience of remembering the past.

As Reinhard steps painstakingly down the stairs toward where Kircheis lays in a pool of his own blood, the creators of LoGH throw away their own established set of rules. What we are seeing is no longer what is literally happening; instead, we are with Reinhard—and for him, nothing in the world exists at that moment except Kircheis and himself. With this scene, the LoGH creative team show us that they will do whatever they have to in order to respect their characters: If there are too many people around for Reinhard and Kircheis to get the intimate last goodbyes they and their relationship deserve, well, everyone else will simply have to be removed.

Even the lack of voiceover accompanying Reinhard’s quick series of flashbacks here reinforces the extent to which reality has been skewed for the duration of this scene.

For me, this was when LoGH went from being a great show to being (as you may have noticed) my favorite show—and not just because of how kindly it treats its characters, even while they experience gut-wrenching tragedy. Kircheis’s death changes Reinhard and, as I’ll obviously be exploring at length as we move into season 2, that changes the entire landscape of the show. Though from the beginning it has always been deeply personal and human, especially for a war epic of such massive scale, the question of what Reinhard will do now, without Kircheis, turns LoGH psychologically dark in ways that have only been hinted at so far.

Back in episode 4, we were first introduced to Reinhard’s plan to gain enough power to rescue Annerose from the clutches of Kaiser Friedrich IV. Friedrich IV has since died of natural causes, freeing Annerose without Reinhard’s help. In episode 8, we learn that Reinhard’s ambitions extend to overthrowing the Goldenbaum empire, and then achieving supremacy over the entire universe—very specifically with Kircheis at his side. By the end of episode 26, Reinhard rules the empire in everything but name (the six-year-old Erwin Josef II still sits on the throne as Kaiser), but Kircheis is dead, rendering Reinhard’s longtime goal of joint conquest impossible.

For practical purposes, this barely matters: Above, Kircheis uses some of his last remaining energy to beg Reinhard to follow through with the plan they made together, in effect guaranteeing that he will continue on the same path after Kircheis dies. But in more abstract terms, both of Reinhard’s main reasons for seeking political power are now gone. And with a promise to the dead Kircheis as Reinhard’s driving force, Empire-side LoGH has suddenly become a very different show—one that is no longer about a man trying to conquer the universe, but is rather about a man searching for something to hold onto in a universe that, without Kircheis in it, seems to have very little to offer.

Annerose

But Reinhard shouldn’t feel entirely alone in the universe. After all, he has his sister, right? Well, not exactly. As Reinhard learns after Oberstein breaks the news of Kircheis’s death to Annerose (against Reinhard’s wishes), Annerose has decided now is the perfect time to do something really, really cruel: cut off contact with her grieving brother.

Reinhard’s Family

That the season 1 arc of Reinhard and Annerose’s relationship ends on a bad note is frankly an understatement, but to really dig into how things stand between them in episode 26, we must first get a handle on all the moving parts that brought them to this point.

Over the course of my season 1 posts, I’ve mapped out much of the dynamic between Reinhard and Annerose: Reinhard, who both idealizes and idolizes his sister, does so (unwittingly) at the expense of her personhood; Annerose, whose agency has been violently denied her since an early age, projects a portion of her (natural) resentment onto her brother, who moves freely about the universe steadily gaining power while her life remains stagnant. One aspect of their relationship that I haven’t examined, however, is the extent to which Annerose has played a parental role in Reinhard’s life.

In this scene from the episode 4 flashback, Reinhard assigns to Annerose the kind of responsibility for his behavior that would ordinarily be reserved for a parent or guardian.

And then, after Reinhard and Kircheis have conspired to keep Reinhard’s misdeeds from his sister, Annerose puts their wet clothes in the laundry and dotes on them with hot chocolate and freshly baked pie. This is maybe the most archetypal depiction of motherhood I’ve ever seen, despite the fact that Annerose is both 1. actually Reinhard’s sister and 2. only five years his senior.

Reinhard’s father, who sold Annerose into sexual slavery at the age of fifteen, is obviously awful. And Reinhard’s mother, who hasn’t even ever been mentioned, clearly never had much of a presence in Reinhard’s life. Annerose is the only person (besides, eventually, Kircheis) we ever see taking responsibility and caring for Reinhard.

Reinhard’s family, as it is presented to us, is comprised of three people: himself, Annerose, and Kircheis. Though Kircheis is literally never (not once in all of LoGH!) referred to as being “like a brother” to Reinhard, their constant companionship since a young age means that their interactions often blur the line between surrogate-familial and romantic. The fact that Reinhard always brings Kircheis with him on visits to Annerose, for example, indicates that he at least views the three of them as a tight-knit unit.

But in Reinhard’s chosen family, there is a clear delineation of roles between Annerose and himself/Kircheis. In the gif above, Reinhard and Kircheis sit across the table from Annerose, who acts like a parent not just to Reinhard but to Kircheis as well; the difference in age and maturity between them is underlined by both Annerose’s matter-of-fact competence and Reinhard and Kircheis’s unashamed (and matching) nudity.

The photo that Kircheis gazes at in episode 25 (which eventually shows up in Reinhard’s locket, discussed later in this post) also draws a solid line between Annerose—who is more than a full head taller than the boys—and Reinhard/Kircheis. Kircheis’s sideways gaze at Reinhard serves to emphasize even further that they are a discrete pair.

Reinhard’s behavior towards Annerose starts to make more sense once you realize that he basically considers her his mother. Just as children tend not to understand—sometimes well into adulthood—that their parents are fully formed, flawed human beings with rich inner lives, so Reinhard has kept Annerose on a pedestal, treating her more like a symbol than a complex person. This also explains how Reinhard can, for example, be so blasé about teasing Kircheis in front of Annerose for his love of her cooking: Naïve as he is, the idea that Annerose might have feelings for Kircheis that go beyond platonic and motherly would never occur to Reinhard in a million years—unless something were to happen that brought Annerose’s feelings into stark relief.

Annerose Makes Up Her Mind

Which brings us back to the scene at hand, Kircheis’s death being the exact sort of cataclysmic event that might throw a wrench into Reinhard’s precarious relationship with his sister. And the second Annerose opens her mouth to speak, Reinhard knows something is wrong:

Annerose’s tone of voice here is as cold and distant as what she’s actually saying; rather than sharing in or sympathizing with Reinhard’s grief, she isolates him in it, trivializing his feelings of loss while also—by implying Kircheis was the only person Reinhard could ever care about losing—calling into question the authenticity of his devotion to her.

If Reinhard had been aware of all the little signs of Annerose’s resentment towards him that have been building up over the course of the last 25 episodes, this conversation might have gone differently—not because Annerose would have done a better job playing the part of the soothing sister/mother, but because Reinhard might not have been expecting her to. But Reinhard is naïve, especially about Annerose, so her abrupt switch from passive aggression (which Reinhard of course never picked up on) to overt hostility shocks Reinhard into a realization.

Above, Reinhard first protests Annerose’s disingenuous declaration that he has nothing left to lose, and then looks on in horror as it becomes clear that she intends to make it a true statement. But even while Reinhard listens, and responds, the gears are (visibly!) turning in his head, trying desperately to figure out what the fuck is going on. So let’s join him: What the fuck is going on?

First and foremost, I think, is Annerose’s desire for freedom. With Kircheis gone, she must realize that Reinhard’s need for her emotional support will increase astronomically. It’s one thing for her to live quietly in Reinhard’s mansion when he’s usually off gallivanting around space with his boyfriend; it’s quite another thing to share a home with someone who is grieving the loss of, as Mittermeyer so eloquently put it, half of his own self.

Because Reinhard may view Annerose as a mother, but that isn’t how Annerose views Annerose. We don’t actually know how she views herself—as I said back in episode 1, our entire characterization of Annerose is a reflection of how the world sees her—but we do know how she came to be Reinhard’s mother figure and, like her sale to Kaiser Friedrich IV, it wasn’t through any choice of her own.

In fact, this choice, the one to tell her grieving brother to fuck off so that she can finally get some time and space to herself, is the first choice we’ve ever seen Annerose make. So despite episode 26 ending on a catastrophic note for Reinhard’s relationship with Annerose, it ends on something of a triumphant note for Annerose herself: In choosing not to allow her well-meaning brother to use her as his personal grief counselor, she has finally, if perversely, reclaimed her agency.

Meanwhile, Reinhard has come to a completely different realization about Annerose’s motives:

My much earlier promise of a love triangle between Reinhard, Kircheis, and Annerose has finally come to fruition in true LoGH fashion, i.e. as morbidly as possible.

Make no mistake: The reason Reinhard asks this question of Annerose now is because it has never occurred to him before, and the reason it has occurred to him now is because Annerose is behaving in a way that he interprets as some mixture of jealous, vindictive, and heartbroken—none of which align with his image of his sister. Faced with her unambiguous and uncharacteristic cruelty, Reinhard searches around for an explanation and comes up with what would have sounded outlandish to him until this moment: romantic love.

But was Annerose in love with Kircheis? I don’t know. Frankly, I doubt Annerose knows (and we never get to see her answer, if she even gives one). Remember, Kircheis was ten years old to Annerose’s fifteen when she became the Kaiser’s concubine, meaning for most of the time they actually spent together, Annerose was basically Kircheis’s babysitter. It’s certainly possible that she developed romantic feelings for him over the years, or at least projected some romantic ideal onto him that she experienced as love. Given that he was probably the only male figure in her life besides her brother who was ever kind to her, it wouldn’t be surprising.

As a rival to Reinhard, though, my guess is that Annerose never considered herself in the running—and if anything, that would have made Kircheis an even safer object of affection for someone whose real-life experience with men was limited to a decade of blatant sexual exploitation. But that certainly doesn’t preclude jealousy or heartbreak; in that sense, Reinhard might be partially right about why Annerose chooses to act the way she does.

The accuracy of Reinhard’s suspicions, however, isn’t particularly important. What matters is that Reinhard has had this realization at all: In yet another twisted triumph for Annerose, and at immense cost, her brother has finally realized that she’s human.

Queerness

Given the reasons for the existence of this blog, it’s only fitting that we end our first season with a discussion of how LoGH treats queerness. Conveniently, this coincides with the creative team’s decision to convert a substantial portion of the show’s queer subtext into explicit text, done via multiple perspectives and narrative techniques throughout the season finale.

Our first open acknowledgement of the romantic nature of Reinhard and Kircheis’s relationship comes, unfortunately, from Kircheis’s murderer, Ansbach. The phrase “other half,” unlike much of the language used thus far to describe Reinhard and Kircheis, doesn’t have a heteronormative surface reading.

Incidentally, Ansbach’s easy familiarity with the concept of a romantic partnership between two men has always been one of the things that made me wonder about his feelings for Braunschweig—along with the fact that immediately after this, Ansbach tells Braunschweig to “wait for him in Valhalla” before killing himself.

Kircheis’s last words, too, work to remove a layer of heteronormativity from LoGH’s surface reading, albeit more subtly:

In this final, stunning example of a Reinhard-Bechdel Test failure, Kircheis uses his last breath to ask Reinhard to tell Annerose... that he kept his promise to be a good friend to Reinhard.

In a heteronormative piece of media, when a male character brings up a female character’s name in his dying breath, one would probably expect him to declare his undying love for her. That Kircheis starts his last sentence with “Please tell Lady Annerose...” and finishes it with a positive allusion to his relationship with Reinhard is an incredible subversion of heteroromantic tropes. It even goes so far as to “straight-bait,” dangling the possibility of Kircheis’s romantic feelings for Annerose in front of the viewer before categorically dismissing it.

Later, while Reinhard mourns, Mittermeyer uses similar language to Ansbach’s, above, to explain to Müller why Reinhard is in such an inconsolable state:

Like Ansbach’s usage of “other half,” Mittermeyer’s “half of his own self” doesn’t have a non-romantic interpretation to bolster LoGH’s increasingly shaky heteronormative surface reading. Also like (maybe) Ansbach, Mittermeyer is a character who (as we’ll see much more of soon) can speak from his personal experiences with queer romance, making him perfect for delivering this unambiguous message not just to other characters, but also to the viewer.

The last scene of the episode and the season finds Reinhard at Kircheis’s grave which, yet again, emphasizes his romantic relationship with Reinhard, and not just because of the inscription’s use of the singular possessive “my”:

Though the German “Mein Freund” directly translates to “my friend,” that isn’t actually how the phrase is used in Germany, where “Mein Freund” most frequently refers to a male romantic partner. The only ambiguity about Kircheis’s inscription is in how it’s translated: as わが友 in Japanese or, literally, “my friend,” obscuring the German usage and allowing it to continue to pass as heteronormative.

After placing flowers on Kircheis’s grave, Reinhard sits back, revealing that he has started wearing a locket. Opening it, he shows us that it contains a photo we’ve seen before of Reinhard with his chosen family, and a lock of Kircheis’s hair:

Season one of Legend of Galactic Heroes ends on a deeply personal note, and it also ends on a series of questions: What, or who, will Reinhard find to fill the gaping hole in his life left by Kircheis’s death? Will it be his rivalry with Yang? Other, darker questions are left unspoken, but their presence is felt nonetheless: Will Reinhard find something to “quench the thirst in his heart”? And, if not, what then?

Stray Tidbits

During this post, as usual, I’ve used gifs from the LD (original) versions of LoGH instead of their redrawn versions. Episode 26 was almost entirely redrawn, and many of the “remastered” scenes are dramatically different from their original versions, so I’m gonna give a few sample comparisons here. Kircheis’s death scene, for example, was changed to make his physical process of dying appear significantly less grisly. Below, on the left, the redrawn Kircheis’s body is still and his eyes are focused on Reinhard; on the right, the original Kircheis’s breaths are visibly laborious and painful, and his eyes are unfocused:

Below, Reinhard’s facial expressions and reactions during his conversation with Annerose were changed so drastically that he might as well be a different character. In the redraw (left), Reinhard is practically throwing a tantrum; in the original (right), Reinhard is still shocked, but keeps his composure as he struggles to process his sister’s unexpected cruelty, placing the emphasis squarely on his thoughts rather than on his feelings:

On a lighter note, the redraw team seems to have been confused (or, less charitably, offended) by this public display of intimacy between Reuental and Mittermeyer—in the redraw (left), Reuental stops Mittermeyer from standing by either touching his hand or just making a motion as if to touch his hand, keeping a respectful distance; in the original (right), Reuental physically impedes Mittermeyer from standing up by placing his hand on *draws a diagram* his very inner thigh, and leaving it there:

A small worldbuilding note: The dates on Kircheis’s grave are wrong! He was actually born in 467, not 468, according to every other marker of time in the LoGH universe.

And now for something extremely disturbing: An official LoGH-branded Kircheis roomba exists. When it’s low on batteries, it says, “I won’t be able to serve you anymore, Reinhard-sama.” Sadly, this is real and I’m not making it up.

Welcome to Aparecium, Kat! You have been accepted for Nikhail Ollivander. Clearly I’m excited to have you, and from the moment I heard your ideas about Nikhail, I was thrilled to have you on board. And obviously you’re a wonderful co-admin, so that’s a lovely boost as well. Check out the new member checklist, and jump right in.

Character Basics

Birthday (Age): April 14th (30) Gender (Pronouns): He/Him Sexuality: Homosexual Blood Status: Halfblood Hogwarts House/School: Slytherin Occupation: Wandmaker/Owner of Ollivanders Faceclaim: Sidharth Malhotra

Any requested changes? Just that I want to make him part Indian. Which would match the faceclaim and name changes. I love the idea of his mother having been a Patil.

Biography:

Nikhail was born to two loving parents who wanted nothing more than for him to take over the family business of making wands. He spent his childhood running through gardens with his younger sister and listening to wandlore from his grandfather. He loved those days the best when he would run free and wild and then get to just sit and listen to story after story of how his family each learned to make wands. He knew he loved wands even then but there was always something in him that fought against his name. He didn’t want to run the business even then and he told anyone who would listen to such a young child that he would never be a wandmaker.

When he went off to school he was sad for a time to be away from his family. He had lived a sheltered life until then and he felt out of place and awkward among the other children. He was sorted into Slytherin though he had wished for Ravenclaw. He learned to thrive slowly though and he made several good friends. Though he still missed his family and he wrote home to request more stories of wands and all that went with them. His grandfather was more than happy to oblige and he sent him story after story at least one every week.

He spent his time in school playing Quidditch and running around getting into all kinds of mischief. He still claimed he would never make wands to any classmate who might bring up his last name. He would proclaim to them that he would play Quidditch instead and though he was an okay player he knew he would never make a career of it. He spent his summers and vacations now trying to make wands of his own. He would help his grandfather at the shop and he would make mistake after mistake. He took several books back with him to school and used his free time to read about wands.

After graduating he took a job with his grandfather at the shop and even then he claimed he wouldn’t be a wandmaker. He didn’t want to be what everyone expected him to be but the longer he was there the more that resolve waivered. Finally after years of trying he made his first wand that was good enough to be sold and he knew in that moment that he would make wands for the rest of his life. He started to work in earnest learning all his family knew and seeking out information that they didn’t have. His grandfather retired the next year and the family business was his.

He spent his days working and he loved every moment of it. He had lived a life that was near perfect until word reached him that his younger sister had died in childbirth and that she left behind a little girl. Shock left him numb as he went to Paris to meet his niece who he had no idea was even coming. His sister had hidden her pregnancy from the family and there was no whisper of who the father could have possibly been. He brought the child back to England with him naming her Isabella in honor of his sister. She had always loved the name.

Isabella became his world and all other relationships become second to her. He had been seeing someone when he went to get her and he had no thoughts of even giving him warning. He wanted commitment though and he pushed until they broke. He doesn’t mind being single though he feels the sting of the other not wanting to commit to them. He spends his time now taking care of his niece and making as many wands as he can while avoiding speaking of the latest scandal to rock the wizarding world. His thoughts about the integration of muggles weren’t as extreme as some of the others but he still thought muggles being in their world would be nothing but a mess. Regardless of how much he enjoyed using their internet to speak to other wandmakers.

Character Questionnaire

Answer at least three of the following questions about your character. This could be in character or a third period explanation.

How does your character feel about their family?

Family is everything to Nikhail. He grew up with doting parents who pushed him to be successful in life. He spent his vacations from school learning about wands from his father and grandfather. His mother was loving and kind and his favorite person in the entire world. His younger sister was his closest friend and they spent much of their time together. His sister unfortunately died in childbirth and the not knowing who the father was of her child the baby went to Nikhail. Isabella is almost two now and he would do anything for her. Family is the most important thing in his life.

What does your character value in a friendship?

In friendship Nikhail looks for loyalty above everything else. He doesn’t mind if beliefs and ideals aren’t the same as long as loyalty is in the relationship. He would do anything for the few people who he can truly consider a friend and he likes to think that they feel the same about him.

How would your character describe their own work ethic? Is that an accurate measure of themself?

Nik is always thinking he can get more done. Work a bit harder. He used to throw himself into his work and he would work the day away first with school and then after graduating with his business. Since becoming the guardian of his niece though he has slowed down a bit to spend more time with her. He feels that he isn’t getting as much done as he should now but he can’t bring himself to regret it and his thoughts about his own work ethic are fairly accurate.

How would a stranger who has just met your character describe them?

A stranger would describe him as quiet and reserved most likely. He loves to be fun and outgoing but it takes him awhile to warm up to people enough to show them who he really is. Since getting Isa he has opened up more in general but if they met him on his own without her he does tend to slip back into his quiet observing state.

What magical skill or talent is your character most proud of?

His skill with wandmaking. It’s a long and tedious process learning how to make wands. It takes a lot of practice and he’s spent hours making mistakes so that he can provide top notch wands for those who come to him for them. He puts love and effort into the making of each wand and though he’s never been the best potion maker his charms skills are excellent.

Para Sample

Getting a pet was like a rite of passage in his family. He had gotten his first kitten on his second birthday and his sister had gotten her owl on her second birthday. It had been like that for his father and his grandfather and his great grandfather. He loved the tradition and he wouldn’t allow his niece to miss out on it either. His cat had died when he was twenty and he had gotten a new kitten a few months later. His cat went with him from home to work every day and he enjoyed the company.

He had taken his niece to the little pet shop on Diagon Alley. They had kneazles and owls and cats and frogs and all other kinds of animals. He allowed her to run around the shop with abandon and he followed along behind her with a fond smile on his lips. He loved her more than anything and though she had come to him through heartbreak and tragedy he wouldn’t trade her for anything. His parents still had a hard time looking at her without that hint of sadness in their eyes but she was everything to him. She called him papa and he felt as if he would fall apart every time.

He had never considered having children and would perhaps never have any others but he was thankful for the chance to have her. He listened as the employee told her all kinds of facts about each of the animals. She was focused upon a frog for a good five minutes and he thought she had made up her mind when suddenly she gave a shout of excitement that could have been taken as a battle cry. She charged down the aisle of the store and stopped in front of a cage that held a beautiful white kitten with the most precious blue eyes. She pointed with complete confidence waiting as a queen might wait for those around her to read her mind.

Nikhail let out a soft chuckle as he moved in to speak with the employee that they would take the kitten. “Come along Isa. Let’s find your new pet some toys and a bed.” He held his hand out to her and off they went finding all manner of accessories for the little feline. A hefty bill later and they were off once more towards home with the white kitten in tow. “Her name will be Amara.” She spoke with a solemn tone as they walked down the street towards the apartment they lived in above the shop. Amara, the name of her mother. He wondered if she had picked it because of that or if it was simply one of the only girl names she knew. Either way it left him with a twinge of pain in his heart but he thought the name fitting. She would want to be remembered. “It’s a lovely name.”

Blunders and (happy) Beginnings [1/?]

So that went faster than expected. Fingers crossed next chapter comes in a week or two. Please excuse any period inaccuracies, let me know what you think cuz I’m excited and most of all enjoy! 

Blunders and (happy) Beginnings; CHAPTER 1; ~ 3, 000 words; FF.NET || AO3

The result of too much Jane Austen and associating everything with Captain Swan. 

Such stories tend to start with a lengthly chapter or six that have no other purpose but to introduce the characters’ affableness (or lack thereof), fortune (or lack thereof) and current ambitions and desires (which, we must all know, no one can be accused of lacking). But for the benefit of the characters, rather than the reader, who are much too eager to start their pursuit of those aforementioned ambitions and desires, we will constrict those chapter or six into the following few paragraphs and pray to not be accused of anything harsher (such as laziness or neglect or simply a short span of attention) than having our characters’ best interests at heart. So, without further ado, let us be acquainted with:

Lady Ingrid Chillton of Arendelle

Affableness. Undeniably high as proven by her having taken under her protection not one, not two but no less than three orphaned girls. Admittedly, all three of good fortune, high status and perhaps even greater beauty and higher intellect, and yet with the undeniable defect of being all about the same age and thus certain to need and engage all her Ladyship’s careful attentions (and nerves) in their coming into society, meeting all the right people and being pursued by all the best of those – all at more or less the same time.

Fortune. Enough to make her Ladyship more than perfectly comfortable without ever even entertaining the idea of matrimony and yet perfectly able to encourage the entertaining of that very idea in any young ladies of her acquaintance.

Ambitions and desires. To promote the already heavily hinted at, most felicitous marriages of all three of her charges but to maintain the highest degree of elegance and non-obtrusiveness while doing so.

Miss Elza Froster of Arendelle

Affableness. Satisfactory, thanks to her perfect manners and education, and only slightly impaired by being more than occasionally accused of accute reserve and the art of ‘chilling people to the very bone’. It is only fair to note that those accusations have most often been submitted by her own sister and only very rarely by her aunt. But, again in the interest of candidness, it should be pointed out that most other people are suspected of being too affected by her cold manner to dare comment on it.

Fortune. Sizeable as can be expected of the eldest daughter of a late baron and baroness. Further benefitted by being one of the three aforementioned charges of Lady Ingrid. And yet further by her family’s most favourable name and history.

Ambitions and desires. To avoid the fulfillment of the ambitions and desires listed under her aunt’s name without causing her too much disappointment.

Miss Anna Froster of Arendelle

Affableness. Indisputable, aided by an exceptionally lively and cheerful disposition. At times faulted for taking ‘cheerfulness’ to the level of ‘impropriety’. But this mostly by her sister and one might suspect mostly to repay the slight injury to the latter’s own affableness.

Fortune. Refer to the information provided under Miss Froster’s name and take into account her absolute resolution to share all blessings with her sister equality, while distributing any burdens rather unevenly and in no way to the misfortune of Miss Anna.

Ambitions and desires. To have everyone in a good humour at all times. Perhaps to meet a suitable match and that preferably in the most romantic and somewhat dramatic of circumstances but mostly to be in good and abundant company at all times and promote her sister’s happiness (and somewhat manage to reconcile the seeming impossibility of those two occurring at the same time).

Miss Emma Swan of Misthaven

Affableness. Questionable since she has proven to possess neither manners as refined as Miss Froster’s, nor disposition as pleasing as Miss Anna’s. But in order to be fair to Miss Swan’s character, it must be said that she also possesses neither the former’s alleged coldness, nor the latter’s alleged impropriety. However, she has been sentences by those same ladies to an alleged ‘prickliness’. A verdict that no other acquaintance has gone to great lengths to disavow.

Fortune. Comfortable and one she has wished numerous times she could replace for still having her parents with her.

Ambitions and desires. To completely, once and for all, erase the adjective in the ‘poor Miss Swan’ address which she has been on the receiving end of ever since losing her parents at 4 years old. In addition, to convince her friends and guardian that she does not crave a home of her own (and the husband attached) above all else. And, lastly, and only to herself and even that very rarely, to recognize that perhaps she wouldn’t mind falling into those most romantic and somewhat dramatic circumstances Miss Anna always talks about.

Mrs Mary-Margaret Nolan of Enchantings

Affableness. The most genuinely affable person one has ever met – being the most devoted daughter before her parents’ death, the most unaffected creature while encouraging the attentions of her future husband, the most resolute woman in ignoring her stepmother’s displeasure with said gentleman’s meagre fortune, the most capable mistress, loving wife and, since recently, indulging mother ever since.

Fortune. Of no importance, she will say with a benevolent smile. And, yet, it is known, that the truthful answer is – one of the largest in the country.

Ambitions and desires. To promote in everyone the absolute felicity that she has found with her own self-proclaimed True Love and, when possible, to encourage the dissolution of the institution of loveless marriages. And, more specifically and most recently, to find the path towards her intimate friend Miss Swan’s happy ending (and shove her on it).

Mr David Nolan of Enchantings

Affableness. Second only to his wife’s and possessing the added advantage of having no relations with great pride and pretentions and having been raised in a home unaccustomed to unnecessary pomp and circumstance.

Fortune. Insignificant in quantity before his marriage and still insignificant now in the role it plays in his happiness and good humour.

Ambitions and desires. To be forced into unpleasant and condescending company as little as possible (especially that of his step-mother-in-law). To fulfill each and every one of his wife’s ambitions and desires and preferably without having to draw his sword on any of Miss Swan’s potential suitors.

Captain Liam Jones of Jewel Hall

Affableness. Much higher than expected from a man who’s spent so many years at sea, undiminished but somewhat restrained by a slight over-politeness of manner but even that only on his first few meetings with a new acquaintance before giving them the benefit of his genuine warmth and good humour.

Fortune. A tad smaller than expected from a man who’s spend so many years at sea, generally attributed to his overly generous nature and rather spontaneous, if not unwise, manner of making any and all arrangements.

Ambitions and desires. To fix up Jewel Hall and tame those spontaneous displays, that his self-aware nature has made perfectly noticeable to himself, by finally settling down. And yet to avoid feeling tied down by such settling. And, above all that, to restore his younger brother to at least some degree of his previous cheerfulness and affableness.

Captain Killian Jones of Neverland

Affableness. Lost, as hinted by its presence among the older Captain Jones’s ambitions and desires. Said to have existed at one time in his life but hardly traceable in any of his interactions but those with his closest creatures (a list limited severely to his brother and his dog Smee and very occasionally admitting the presence of Mr and Mrs Nolan).

Fortune. Undeserving of notice and consisting almost entirely of his rather small estate. In part due to the captain’s lifelong lack of interest in accumulating such a fortune, in part due to former years of imprudent, one may even venture to say destructive, habits, in part due to his current lack of need for a larger fortune, explained by his insufficient interest in keeping much company or engaging in many (or any at all) leisurely activities that involve more than a book or a gun.

Ambitions and desires. To always have just enough to do about Neverland as to successfully avoid his bother’s and the Nolans’ schemes for the ‘promotion of his happiness’ and to promote said happiness himself by a never failing supply of good books and equally good rum.

 Now it is unwise and unfair, and altogether not sensible at all, to presume that this miniature exposition is to be the whole of our gallery of characters for the future. But as they have already seen it fit to run along and start making progress on achieving their wishes or rather going back on them and contradicting everything we have just learnt, we are forced to leave off here and quickly get at least a glimpse of their current situations so as to not be entirely too shocked when we catch up with them next.

 “Upon my word, Nolan, you would be the best shot in the country, if you’d actually aim to kill something.”

“Mary-Margaret doesn’t like it when I bring in birds.”

“Then, by all means, give them to me, but do not go wasting bullets like that,” grunted the younger Jones as he hosted his gun over his shoulder one-handed. “It’s shameful.”

“You are one to talk, little brother. I remember a certain vixen last week-“

“I’m your younger brother and she had little cubs. I’m a sportsman, not a-”

“What’s shameful is that you didn’t even need me to specify that I was talking about hunting.”

Captain Killian Jones shot and didn’t miss. Much like he hadn’t all day. Then he lowered his gun and turned to his brother so he could have the full benefit of his less than impressed visage and rolling eyes.

“And it is not at all shameful that you would like to have your brother in the company of a woman that has earned herself such a title as ‘vixen’?”

Captain Liam Jones continued cleaning the gun he had barely shot on their little party and raised his own eyes to the heavens in exasperation.

“If you’d spent a little less time in the company of books and a little more in the company of, oh say, people, perhaps you wouldn’t attach yourself so to my precise wording and will instead comprehend my meaning.”

“Ah, but you see, the very reason I prefer books to people is that I can shut them up whenever I please.”

At this the older Jones was left with little to do but shake his head and cast a half-amused, half-suffering glance at Mr Nolan. A look which made up a great percentage of his expressions when in the company of his brother.

“I say we head back now, Nolan, I can’t manage him when he gets like this. And, if experience is to be believed, Miss Swan might be the only one who can shut his book.”

“Oy!”

 “Miss the ball! For shame, Emma!”

Miss Emma Swan tried to huff and mutter as quietly as possible. As strange as the sight of five respectable women, three of which with bows and arrows in their hands, was, Emma had learnt the hard way that Mary-Margarent’s back-garden-turned-shooting-range was not a place for petulance and bad manners even if it was a place for mastering a deadly skill.

“When is the last time I missed a ball? Surely you can manage without me this once?”

“Are you feeling unwell, my dear?”

Lady Ingrid’s sweet but predictable reaction came from the side where she and Miss Anna were enjoying what at this point Emma was sure must be a ball-threatening quantity of chocolate-covered strawberries.

“I’m quite well, ma’am. I simply do not feel like it.”

“Not feel like it!” exclaimed Miss Anna with the level of disbelief that only she could demonstrate after having known Emma and her decided lack of excitement for balls for all her life. “You are a pretty woman of 24 in possession of a good fortune and a bareable temperament. Balls are given to make you ‘feel like it’!”

“’Bareable’ temperament?!”

Emma swung around, bow in hand and arrow drown back, towards Anna a bit too quickly for Mrs Nolan and Miss Froster’s comfort.

“Aaaand I believe this is enough practice for today,” announced Miss Elsa with self-imposed cheerfulness as she extracted the weapon from her closest friend’s grip and handed it to their hostess. “An absolute pleasure as always, Mary-Margaret.”

“Oh, I’m most happy you don’t find it too extravagant and have been so kind as to join me. David gets tired of shooting at unmoving targets so fast. Or so he says. Captain Jones will assure you that he simply gets tired of having me best him every time. Indeed he has good aim but a bow doesn’t seem to agree with him quite as much as a gun.”

“Much as I hate to align myself with Jones, on any subject, I’m certain he is in the right here, Mary-Margaret. But could we maybe return to that moment in time when dearest Anna here classified my temperament as ‘bareable’ and none of you bothered to correct her.”

Four pairs of amused eyes turned on Miss Swan and gave her such pointed looks that she felt like she had turned into one of Mary-Margaret’s practice targets. Finally, it was Miss Anna who decided to have pity and clean up some of her own smear, albeit with a twinkle in her eye.

“I also classified your looks and fortune as ‘pretty’ and ‘good’ and, really, Emma, you know quite well how little temperament matters when those two are so well-provided for.”

This time Emma’s huff was no stifled thing and her sarcastic mutter delivered archly and clearly to all.

“Ah, yes, and it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a husband.”

“In want of a ball, at least!”

“’Want of a ball’! I thought we were to attend just such a thing tomorrow.”

Mr Nolan’s booming voice, along with his wide smile and even wider footsteps towards them, followed by the brothers Jones, dissolved some of the air of stubbornness that had engulfed Anna and Emma.

“We certainly are. It’s just that dear Emma seems to find such an occupation not engaging enough,” Lady Ingrid kindly supplied the necessary information.

“Ah, of course, she does! I know how it shall be now. We shall all go to the ball and have a jolly good time and her and Killian will have a contest in who can find the thickest book and the darkest corner where to hide from all society.”

It is certainly a testimony to the closeness and tight bond between all the persons present (despite the Froster sisters and the Jones brothers having known each other a mere month) that Captain Liam Jones’ comment was received with nothing but easy smiles and deep chuckles. Except from his brother, who suddenly found his hostess’s targets, that he had shot at hundreds of times, absolutely fascinating and thus forced Miss Swan’s eyes to bounce off his back as they darted around and settle challengingly on his brother’s.

“My conduct compared to your brother’s! Congratulations, Captain Jones, you have found the way to secure my presence at this now too-talked-of ball.”

“Fortunate us! Perhaps I can use my momentum and secure the first two dances as well, Miss Swan.”

“How sly of you! Alas, you are much too aware that I never secure dances in advance. It gives people much too great a power over one’s enjoyment of the evening.”

Liam sketched her an exaggerated bow, admitting his defeat.

“Now, Killian! Your brother has persuaded Emma with his usual tricks and wit. You must allow at least equal power to my hope and sincerity.”

Killian took another second to admire the ruffled feathers before pulling out the arrow that protruded straight from the center of Mrs Nolan’s target and addressing the lady herself.

“Indeed it is much greater,” he admitted with a tight smile, making something of a show of presenting Mary-Margaret with her arrow. “For your ‘hope’ you know I have no taste and little understanding but your sincerity I can never doubt and thus, unfortunately, never convince myself to refuse you.”

“Your sacrifice will go down in history I’m sure, Captain.”

Killian whirled around to face and respond to the blonde who had made the biting remark.

“There is, of course, also the need of presenting the conduct in opposition to which Miss Swan will base all of her own.”

The miss’s conduct at the present moment looked like it would not be all too favourable to him but, fortunately, this was much too apparent (and expected and not at all out of the ordinary) to everyone in attendance and David and Liam wasted no time in pronouncing themselves famished.

Lady Ingrid proceeded into the house with all her girls following suit, Miss Elsa having taken some considerable pains to convince Miss Emma to let Captain Jones have the last word ‘just this once’ and taking her arm to prompt her to take her eyes off the back of his head while he had gone back to his self-imposed task of retrieving Mrs Nolan’s arrows.

It was only this last lady which did not immediately follow the rest of the party into the house but advanced rather in the opposite direction.

“Just so there’s no doubt – I fully appreciate and recognize the compliment of your sacrifice, Captain Jones.”

Killian’s eyes moved first to the small, snow white hand on his shortened left forearm, wondering for a second at the fact that these delicate fingers had imbedded the arrow he was grasping in his right hand so deep into the target that he had to put quite a bit of strength into pulling it out, and then looked up into the kind green eyes that took all the sting out of the horrid term ‘sacrifice’ and induced it with that sincerity he could never doubt.

“It is why I shall make it.”

Tagging some people who seemed interested :)) @julieta-tas @lizacstuff @piratesails @lenfaz @katie-dub @acaptainswaneternity @blackwidownat2814 @jemmaacarters @jackieorioncat @fairytalewhispersinmyheart @once-uponacaptain @walkerfairytales 

Exalted: Saigoth Gates 31

West gets Creation’s best Twilight toy and doesn’t tell Krait about it for the rest of the game.  And then there are dinosaurs!

Previous installments

Krait had developed a fondness for Raksi during the circle’s stay in Sperimin, regardless of the background nefarious plans and baby-eating, and so directed his alchemical snakes to both hold and defend her from further attacks.  This enabled the Lunar’s quick healing to snap her out of her daze, though the snakes still held her back from attacking the Solars.  Naran, punch-drunk and in shock, tried ineffectually to take his (bleeding, weakened) vengeance, but Krait’s snakes continued to fend off any blows against their captive.  Ardor demanded Krait stand down, and the Twilight quailed before her frankly deadly voice, but before the situation could go any further, Mazatl leapt in with his enormous macuahuitl and cleaved Raksi in two.  Krait was livid at the rest of the circle, refusing to heal Naran or speak to anyone, but instead harvested pieces of the Lunar’s corpse for future magical use, the acid from his snakes and anima boiling the ground around him in anger.  Shashaka treated Naran’s wounds as best she could and took him back to the ship to rest and recover.  Ardor sang their fallen foe a funeral dirge, ignoring Krait’s efforts at skinning the honoured dead.  West, Shashaka, and Mazatl headed upstairs to see if there really was a private library with the information they needed, ascending to the top of the tallest tower, where they found Raksi’s chambers filled with the remains of children, sometimes artfully arranged, which Mazatl gathered up and consecrated into the cycle of reincarnation.  West was immediately drawn to a table-sized book bound in the five magical materials, and wrapped it in a sheet before strapping it to his greenmaw and asking the others not to mention it to Krait until he’d had a chance to look it over for dangers to himself or the circle.  Heading back down the tower, Shashaka detoured to the kitchen pantries, where she discovered an entire nursery of live infants, which she ferried back to the ship over everyone else’s incredulous complaints.  As the apemen did not seem inclined to attack, the circle spent the rest of the night still docked, hoping that Naran could engineer some kind of peaceful transition of power once he recovered.  With the Book of Three Circles safely hidden in his cabin, West’s dreams took on strange aspects.

The next morning, the circle was awoken early by a hunting horn, evidently blown by human warriors who stood beneath the dock in a rough circle around the ship.  An honour guard waited on the ramp up, surrounding their leader, who asked to be let aboard, introducing himself as Dark Eyes, Raksi’s apprentice.  West begrudgingly allowed him aboard when he promised no violence.  Dark Eyes shocked the circle by first thanking them for killing Raksi, saying that her people knew she was insane and delighted in the corruption of others, but could do little about it as long as she was in charge.  He then asked what they intended to do with the city now that they had de facto conquered it.  Naran told him that they had hoped to arrange a functioning government from among the apemen and Dark Eyes offered to add it to his domain and look after it.  He and Naran discussed policies until they came to an agreement that sounded hospitable for all parties and Naran explained their mission to him as well, though Dark Eyes, as a minor barbarian warlord, didn’t feel he could offer much to the cause.  West asked for continued access to the library should they return, which Dark Eyes agreed to.  He also offered to take the babies and return them to the villages they had been stolen or tithed from, much to the circle’s relief.  Mazatl made Krait give up Raksi’s remains so they he could sanctify them properly and avoid an elder Lunar ghost coming for them in the night.  Naran correctly interpreted West’s longing glances at the little air skiff and asked Dark Eyes if he had any use for the vessel, which he did not and agreed to let them take it for the war effort.  

Once the Lunar had taken his leave, Naran apologized to the circle for allowing his emotions to get the better of him, but stood by his belief that such a monster could not be allowed to live.  Krait testily asked when killing an ally was acceptable to the group and Mazatl asked him (and everyone else) to please discuss it with the others first.  Krait reminded him that even if an opponent appeared to be insane or malevolent, they could still be saved, like Swan Dragon was.  The group agreed to this in principle, but reserved the right to kill people when they really needed to.  The discussion far from resolved, they decided to head back south to Rathess, but soon discovered that the skiff was more pleasure yacht than scout, and far too slow to keep up with the swift-flying Vengeance.  West regretfully sent it back to Denandsor to be outfitted as a command relay for the automaton army.

Tenepeshu’s Vengeance reached Rathess at dawn, just in time to see sunlight catch on the tips of three stepped pyramids, spilling the light down their sides and through channels of orichalcum throughout the city in the design of a Dawn castemark.  Two intact docking towers rose up over the city, their berths filled with dilapidated warships.  On the approach, Denny explained the nature and variety of the Dragon Kings whose capital this once was and Krait recounted their near-extermination at the hands of the Primordials.  West set the ship down in the flooded southeastern octet, where they were quickly surrounded by the giant lizards they had just been warned about.  When the circle attempted to speak to them, the beasts hissed and fled.  West insisted they make a bee-line for the closest airship tower and merrily lead the way.  Shashaka noticed odd plant life in the area, growing in elaborate prayer mandalas, but carefully not touching the orichalcum channels.  West peered into the spirit world and found that each individual plant was being tended to by a small wood elemental.  He greeted the nearest one and asked what they were doing and why and the tiny vine runner replied proudly that their forbears had been set to tending the gardens of Rathess by the Unconquered Sun Himself countless years ago.  West told it to keep up the good work and was surprised when it addressed the circle as “Great Ones”, apparently discerning their Solar nature, though when pressed, it could neither say how it knew, nor offer them any information about the city beyond its small, leafy purview.  The circle continued on to the docking tower, which was strangely free of the vine-mandalas.  West asked the nearest vine runner why that was and it sadly replied that the angry feathered lady with the claws tore down any that dared to grow on her tower.  Thinking back on his extensive readings on the subject of airships, West excitedly wondered if this might mean Relza, Guardian of the Flying Tower and Daimyo of Flight under Vanileth, might still reside there.  Following his direction, Mazatl raised a prayer to the forgotten goddess and received an immediate response in the form of a woman with iridescent blue feathers flying down from the tower and demanding what his business there was.  West took over the conversation and greeted her enthusiastically and by name, which gave her pause.  When he explained his personal mission of resurrecting essence-powered flight, she gladly invited his circle into her sanctum, which took the form of an infinitely large airshipyard suspended over an endless sky (much to Mazatl’s discomfort).  The group let the two talk aerodynamics until they judged the goddess sufficiently won over, then Naran explained their actual reason for coming to Rathess.  Relza said that she didn’t think she could personally help the war effort much, but they absolutely weren’t allowed to take her airships, as they were all that was left of her purview and she guarded them jealously.  West offered to repair and restore them for her and Krait suggested she could then take them around Creation and ferry troops back and forth, thus impressing upon whole nations the grandeur of her fleet.  She could certainly see the appeal of attracting new worshippers across the world to her neglected domain.  The circle also asked about the “dark god” Talespinner had said lived in Rathess, and she told them of the leech gods that lived beneath the city and also of some other powerful force, but as it had not touched her towers, she knew little of what it was.  She did know that all three of the large pyramids were inhabited, but couldn’t say by what.  Two gods she did know of still in the city were Leeyata the Lizard Queen and Shining Flower the Mistress of Hearts, both only barely alive since their main worshippers, the Dragon Kings, had lost their sentience.  Drawing upon his obscure readings, Krait volunteered that Shining Flower was the goddess of sacrificed hearts and her favourite offering, unsurprisingly, was the still-beating heart of a willing victim or an unwilling fae.  Leeyata preferred songs of glorious victory in the High Holy Speech of the Dragon Kings.  Mazatl was more than willing and capable to do both, but due to lack of nearby victims, decided to start with a song once they had exited Relza’s tower.  After his performance, an enormous clawstrider bedecked in orichalcum jewelry materialized out of the jungle and addressed Mazatl in that same tongue, much to the bewilderment of the rest of the circle.  Shining Flower said that the Dragon Kings could not aid Mazatl’s war effort because they had fallen and she knew not how to lift them up again.  She said that if they could find a way to help the Dragon Kings, she would be willing to lend their support.  She suggested searching the pyramids and catacombs for some clue to the Dragon Kings’ past lives, but cautioned that those places were occupied by hobgoblins, cannibals, and mindless Dragon Kings.  As she spoke, some of these Dragon Kings began to gather, listening without comprehension to their goddess’ words.  Krait took their condition as a challenge and had the circle round them up into a building where he was determined to teach them how to think.  

Fantasy New Releases: 16 March 2019

West Virginia witches, bounty hunter barbecue pitmasters, fantasy detectives, and a new Tarzan story from Edgar Rice Burroughs feature in this week’s roundup of the newest releases in fantasy.

Awaken Online: Dominion – Travis Bagwel

Following Jason’s evolution into a Keeper, he finds his fledgling city once again in turmoil. A new and deadly enemy threatens the Twilight Throne — one that has no difficulty contending with Jason and the members of Original Sin.

Jason must work quickly to consolidate his city’s power. That means securing the villages within the Twilight Throne’s influence, finding a steady stream of income, and growing the city’s military strength. Even as the group grapples with these changes, they notice that something is stirring up the native undead around the city, although the source of this strange influence is uncertain.

One thing is clear, however. Jason might have evolved, but his enemies have adapted with him. If the Twilight Throne is to survive, the group must grow stronger and Jason must learn to control his newfound abilities.

Otherwise, the darkness may very well claim them all.

Blood Creek Beast (Blood Creek Series #2) – Jay Barnson

Worlds apart, and just ‘round the bend…

For years, Jack Parsons dreamed of escaping the tiny community of Maple Bend, West Virginia. Now he is trapped in another world entirely. Seeking help to protect the crossroads from the immortal “man in the white suit” and his Coven, Jack ventures into the world ‘Round the Bend, a mirror-image of West Virginia more wondrous, and more dangerous, than he had ever imagined.

On the other side of the crossroads, the Coven pursues Jessabelle Rose with plans to use her shape-shifting powers for their own dark ends. Jessabelle must choose between flight or fight; to escape the Coven forever, or risk everything to protect her family.

What began with mysterious deaths deep in the Appalachian Mountains now threatens to engulf two worlds. Witchcraft and creatures of folklore mix with shadowy high-tech organizations and political intrigue in this thrilling tale of magic and adventure.

Cirsova Vol. 2 No. 1 – edited by P. Alexander

The Spring issue of the All-New Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense is out now!

The big star of the spring issue, of course, is the brand-new Tarzan story “Young Tarzan and the Mysterious She”, by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Michael Tierney. Based on a fragment from 1930, this previously “Lost” Tarzan adventure takes place in the Jungle Tales period and, in addition to being a cool adventure in and of itself, ties into and resolves some issues from The Jewels of Opar.  Young Tarzan ponders his nature among his ape family in the jungle when he hears there may yet be another such as he! Who is the white-skinned she who lives among the Gomangani tribes, and is it she whose visage haunts the ape-man’s dreams?!

But in addition to this all-new Tarzan story, we’ve got a bunch of other thrilling adventures that you’ll want to check out!

The City Under the Mountain (The Seven Signs #4) – D.W. Hawkins

In the savage north, an ancient relic awakens.

Fugitives from the Conclave, Dormael and his friends must seek the next piece of the Nar’doroc deep within a perilous hinterland. Beset by vicious monstrosities, they uncover a place where ancient secrets lay forgotten, a graveyard abandoned to the march of time. Its revelations could lead them to the next fragment of the shattered artifact, but menace lurks in the shadows of its history. To survive it, a dangerous sacrifice must be made.

Across the Stormy Sea, Nalia Arynthaal, Princess of the Winter Passes, dives into the midst of an empire at war. With nothing but guile and icy resolve, she works to revenge herself upon those who disgraced her family. Surrounded by enemies, Nalia must embrace a treacherous ally to bring down an empire bolstered by thousands of angry swords. To restore her family’s honor, Nalia may have to renounce her own.

Everything may yet fall to powers darker still—the seeds for which are being sown beneath the surface. Will Dormael and company recover the shattered Nar’doroc? Will Nalia bring down her enemies, or be crushed by the unyielding march of empire? What secrets lie buried in the past?

For the Killing of Kings (The Ring-Sworn Trilogy #1) – Howard Andrew Jones

Their peace was a fragile thing, but it had endured for seven years, mostly because the people of Darassus and the king of the Naor hordes believed his doom was foretold upon the edge of the great sword hung in the hall of champions. Unruly Naor clans might raid across the border, but the king himself would never lead his people to war so long as the blade remained in the hands of his enemies.

But when squire Elenai’s aging mentor uncovers evidence that the sword in their hall is a forgery she’s forced to flee Darassus for her life, her only ally the reckless, disillusioned Kyrkenall the archer. Framed for murder and treason, pursued by the greatest heroes of the realm, they race to recover the real sword, only to stumble into a conspiracy that leads all the way back to the Darassan queen and her secretive advisors. They must find a way to clear their names and set things right, all while dodging friends determined to kill them – and the Naor hordes, invading at last with a new and deadly weapon.

The Horsemen Gather (The Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone #17) – Michael Anderle

Barbecue is life.  Everything else is just details.

Can a bounty hunter be happy as a pitmaster?

With his life settling into a comfortable routine and the criminals of Los Angeles finally accepting his power, James ponders a future of family and food rather than kicking bounties through walls.

James’ idle thoughts of retirement are put on hold when a rogue group of government agents decides to go after the man they feel is the greatest threat to the country.

The bounty hunter might not mind someone taking a shot at him, but going after his loved ones risks awakening a power even James might not be able to control.

One faction of the government might want him dead, but another needs his help to retrieve a map to a weapon that might save the world.

How many people will need a beat down before everyone understands you don’t go after anyone Brownstone cares about?

Remnants of the Lost (The Elder Stones Saga #3) – D.K. Holmberg 

An unexpected threat to the power of the elder stones begins to emerge.

With his father likely dead, Haern trains to face the Ai’thol, using every ability he possesses to be strong enough to defeat them. A chance encounter with someone who’s lost more than him changes everything.

Daniel uncovers the Ai’thol using a new alloy that gives impossible powers and he might be the only one capable of stopping them. The search to understand the alloy brings him back to Elaeavn where he uncovers something unexpected. To understand his future, he must face his past.

Lucy gains an understanding of her abilities but struggles with her role among the C’than. How can she serve them when those she rescued need her help and leadership?

Not all is as it seems. The search to understand the elder stones continues, but powers maneuvering for decades are playing a game only a few understand leaving those stuck in the middle facing a deadly threat for survival.

Sevenfold Sword: Guardian (Sevenfold Sword #11) – Jonathan Moeller

The quest of the Seven Swords holds a dark secret at its heart.

Ridmark Arban is the Shield Knight, the defender of the realm of Andomhaim.

The quest of the Seven Swords nears its end, and dark powers rise to seize the world.

Ridmark has learned the terrible secret at the heart of the Seven Swords. Now he need only escape Urd Maelwyn, the grim city ruled by the dark elven tyrant known as the Confessor.

But few who enter Urd Maelwyn ever leave alive.

And the Maledicti priests will kill to protect the secret of the Seven Swords…

The Skaar Invasion (The Fall of Shannara #2) – Terry Brooks

The Four Lands are under siege. Wielding a magical ability virtually impossible to combat, mysterious invaders defeat the most fearsome Troll armies, then focus their savagery on the Druid order—and all hope seems lost.

Eventually the invaders reveal a more human face, but understanding their motives in no way mitigates the brutality of their actions. Dar Leah, once the High Druid’s Blade, has crossed paths—and swords—with their ruthless leader before. So he knows that if any hope exists, it rests in the hands of the Druid Drisker Arc, now trapped inside vanished Paranor.

As Drisker races to find the ancient knowledge that could free him, Dar goes in search of Tarsha Kaynin, the young woman blessed with the powerful gift of the wishsong, whose magic could draw Drisker back into the world of the living. But little do they know that what appeared to be a formidable invading force may only be the forerunner of a much larger army—one intent on nothing less than total conquest.

Titanshade (The Carter Archives #1) – Dan Stout

Carter’s a homicide cop in Titanshade, an oil boomtown where 8-tracks are state of the art, disco rules the radio, and all the best sorcerers wear designer labels. It’s also a metropolis teetering on the edge of disaster. As its oil reserves run dry, the city’s future hangs on a possible investment from the reclusive amphibians known as Squibs.

But now negotiations have been derailed by the horrific murder of a Squib diplomat. The pressure’s never been higher to make a quick arrest, even as Carter’s investigation leads him into conflict with the city’s elite. Undermined by corrupt coworkers and falsified evidence, and with a suspect list that includes power-hungry politicians, oil magnates, and mad scientists, Carter must find the killer before the investigation turns into a witch-hunt and those closest to him pay the ultimate price on the filthy streets of Titanshade.

Fantasy New Releases: 16 March 2019 published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames