Twelve Nights

In Illthdar, there are several holidays. Some unique to the planet that logic and reason forgot, some less so. In Guardians of Las, the characters experience Solstice - a three day non stop event. After Solstice comes Year Turning, which is the equivalent of our New Year's Eve and day. The next holiday is like Valentine's Day, only worse: Twelve Nights.

Not to be confused with twelfth night, twelve nights is tied to imbolc on Illthdar. Lovers will sometimes exchange or surprise their partners with quality gifts. That is to say, gifts meant to represent certain qualities for the day or either person in the relationship.

As you might imagine, a lot of symbolism goes into the eleven days leading up to imbolc. People may use all manner of materials to convey a message, but traditionally Illthdarians use plants and flowers.

A word of caution, however: not all plants have the same meaning as humans know them. A fine example of this is the clover, for many it means luck, but giving or receiving one means "be mine" on Illthdar.

The next holiday on Illthdar is Ostara, a celebration of mothers and children.

Like it? Want to read more? The first book in the Illthdar series is available for pre-order on Amazon now.

Alternatively, you can also order directly from Feedaread.

Happy Year Turning!

In Illthdar, there are several holidays. Some unique to the planet that logic and reason forgot, some less so. In Guardians of Las, the characters experience Solstice - a three day non stop event. After Solstice comes Year Turning, which is the equivalent of our New Year's Eve and day.

Now, in the city of Las, with the dominant religion being crystal worshippers, most people pilgrimage to the Order of Mana to pay a visit to the giant yellow crystal they protect - called Vvekw.

Why is it called Vvekw and not Mana? Well Mana is the name of the goddess said to have made the planet and everything on it. Vvekw is just one of a few special "children" of the goddess and acts as her representative for the island.

Other things people will do is have their fortunes told by one or more of the many types of fortune tellers who set up shop in the market at this time of the year. One of the most popular is tarot card reading in a format called Arianrhod's Wheel - a spread with three cards for each quarter of the year and a lone card in the centre to represent the querent.

As the year progresses, I'll post information on each of the holidays in the Illthdarian calendar. The next one is Twelve Nights.

Twelve Nights

In Illthdar, there are several holidays. Some unique to the planet that logic and reason forgot, some less so. In Guardians of Las, the characters experience Solstice - a three day non stop event. After Solstice comes Year Turning, which is the equivalent of our New Year's Eve and day. The next holiday is like Valentine's Day, only worse: Twelve Nights.

Not to be confused with twelfth night, twelve nights is tied to imbolc on Illthdar. Lovers will sometimes exchange or surprise their partners with quality gifts. That is to say, gifts meant to represent certain qualities for the day or either person in the relationship.

As you might imagine, a lot of symbolism goes into the eleven days leading up to imbolc. People may use all manner of materials to convey a message, but traditionally Illthdarians use plants and flowers.

A word of caution, however: not all plants have the same meaning as humans know them. A fine example of this is the clover, for many it means luck, but giving or receiving one means "be mine" on Illthdar.

The next holiday on Illthdar is Ostara, a celebration of mothers and children.

Like it? Want to read more? The first book in the Illthdar series is available for pre-order on Amazon now.

Alternatively, you can also order directly from Feedaread.

Happy Year Turning!

In Illthdar, there are several holidays. Some unique to the planet that logic and reason forgot, some less so. In Guardians of Las, the characters experience Solstice - a three day non stop event. After Solstice comes Year Turning, which is the equivalent of our New Year's Eve and day.

Now, in the city of Las, with the dominant religion being crystal worshippers, most people pilgrimage to the Order of Mana to pay a visit to the giant yellow crystal they protect - called Vvekw.

Why is it called Vvekw and not Mana? Well Mana is the name of the goddess said to have made the planet and everything on it. Vvekw is just one of a few special "children" of the goddess and acts as her representative for the island.

Other things people will do is have their fortunes told by one or more of the many types of fortune tellers who set up shop in the market at this time of the year. One of the most popular is tarot card reading in a format called Arianrhod's Wheel - a spread with three cards for each quarter of the year and a lone card in the centre to represent the querent.

As the year progresses, I'll post information on each of the holidays in the Illthdarian calendar. The next one is Twelve Nights.

The first book in the Illthdar series, Guardians of Las, is out now:

https://www.feedaread.com/books/Illthdar-Guardians-of-Las-9781839451508.aspx

The second book, Into The North, is anticipated to be released in 2021

Last line tag!

Tagged by: @farrradays

Rules: share the last line (or few lines, if you’d like) that you wrote for your WIP, then tag as many people as words in the last sentence (if you can).

A piece from “Nightmare Apocalypse” I wrote the other day. :)

Tagging: @silver-wields-a-pen​ , @jaimistoryteller​ , @vanrambling​ , @onemoredayofwriting​ , @elenajohansenauthor​ , @necros-writings​ , @drowsy-quill​ , @juliawrites98​ If anybody got already tagged, just ignore me XD.

Thanks for the tag ^=^ Awesome imagery in that description, I love it ^=^

From Brotherhood: Divinely Volatile (chapter 10)

Tagging: @illthdar @guardians-of-las-vyxen @rae-writes-the-thing @hyba @wildswrites @ghoulei @nemothesurvivor @elliewritesfantasy @gracebriarwoodwrites @lizard-is-writing @mvcreates

Thanks for the tag! Sorry it's taken so long.

From the working WIP in the Illthdar series: The King's Men

Crow: CROW YES!

It’s actually impossible to measure how many fucks a corvid give because there is no device sensitive enough to register such a tiny amount.

science/animal side of tumblr… explain to me the birb thing

Tail Pulling is a behavior noted in many corvids. The practical application is to create a distraction that will allow the birb to make off with the target’s food. Imagine being in the lunch room and a large fellow has a Twinkie you covet. You can’t just take it from him because he’ll defend his Twinkie. But if you thwap him on the back of his neck and then dash around to snag the Twinkie while he investigates, you stand a decent chance of enjoying spongey goodness. This is basically that in birb form.

Except corvids don’t only do this as a distraction. Sometimes they seem to just being doing it to mess with other animals/birbs. But to use my lunch room analogy, there are times you might thwap someone sneakily on the back of the neck just for amusement. Primates exhibit behavior that appears to be just be annoying other animals for amusement. Given how intelligent crows are, its not unlikely that this is a manifestation of an innate desire to just fuck with someone else for the fun of it. Such as this from the link above:

THANK YOU FOR THE BIRB KNOWLEDGE

BECAUSE IT IS FUN

This speaks to me on a molecular level.

birbs just wanna have fun

Sorry to hijack a little, but to put it bluntly, corvids are also pretty BALSY. They are more than prepared to harass other huge birds of prey which could deal them a lot of damage. There’s plenty of cases of corvids ‘riding’ other birds as well. It’s often to harass the larger bird out of the area, but as @red3blog said, they quite often (in layman’s terms) enjoy fucking shit up for fun.

‘Where the hell is the seatbelt on this thing?’

I mean they deserve a medal for having such huge bird balls imo

Literally no fucks are given by corvids. Ever.

@neurodivergent-crow

I haven’t seen this post in ages but it’s my fave corvid post.

Intelligence is rooted in how much of a dick you can knowingly be.

@raphcrow

Last Line Tag

Fumbling kisses you can never be without.

They tear into your soul with a silent shout.

Sweet whispers of each person’s brave declarations.

We throw our hands to the air in grand celebration.

Starting is easy, persistence is an art.

All endings are hard because they take so much heart.

”I can’t keep going this way,” Or so he says. “I’m King of die Dunkelheit, and you are my Queen des Licht.” Thinking of their love’s doom gives his weary heart a fright.

His summertime Goddess shifts and settles with an excel of air, then moves her lips in a soft mumble about how it could be fair. “My dear drágám, it will be alright.”

He sheds a crystalline tear, “I don’t want to see you go again, Liebe. Even if I have to put up a fight.”

A chilled breath of air leaves the Winter King’s lips, collecting ice on the cheek of his lover. The Queen of Summer nestles his hand as he leans down to brush their foreheads together.

She grabs his face, desperate to pull him closer in her last moments, “Érdemes megcsókolni a halált, ha ő vagy te—

“AHHH,” Mayra’s face slams into her desk as she squawks to herself. “This is supposed to be a world-shaking murder! How did I make it become so romantic?”

She kicks and huffs a bit more before doing her best to shake the Jane Austen out of her. “Hoo-kay, murder. We’re doing murder.” Mayra mutters.

She rifles through a pile that sits dangerously close to a lukewarm coffee and procures a thinner stack of papers that was only clipped together by the pure will of God. It’s stained cover, jokingly labelled ‘BACKSTORY’S BACK ALRIGHT!’ in blocky handwriting, always gives her a quick chuckle.

Soon enough, she’s diving back into the vast, fantasy land of her own making to find any inaccuracies with this new and spicy information. Completely lost to the world around her once more.

Tags: @emdrabbles @redhead-who-writes-stuff @linneaeliam @illthdar @writersloth @alcego-writes @irisjaye @the-kids-are-not-okayy @mistbornvinventure feel free to ignore!

Thanks for the tag, @aphteavanawrites ! Sorry for taking so long to respond.

From a future book in the Illthdar series, The King's Men:

Tagging: @silver-wields-a-pen @guardians-of-las-vyxen @little-horror-girl-love @ratherinterestingmilkshake @cassius-mortemer @demigodishniss @akanorskwritblr

So about the last episode....

Upcoming Follower Milestone

It's that time, or getting there. We're very close to 500 followers and, as is tradition, I put it to you lovely people to give me your wish.

So, what would you like to see as a reward? Did you want to see some original artwork of characters, animals, or locations? More maps? Or even something unrelated like photos of our cats?

Reblog and let me know in the comments.

As promised, here are the kitties and the story of Captain Barnacles!

Shout-out to: @evaniah @cassius-mortemer @silver-wields-a-pen @guardians-of-las-vyxen and @jemma1337

Brock (Broccoli)

You get a bunch of photos of him, because he's a little butt.

Misty (Mistoffelees)

She's the litter mate to Brock and is known to purr just because you exist in the same room as she does.

Captain Barnacles (Ginger)

This salty dog/cat has a tale that starts approximately three years ago. In the house across the street from where we now live, a family with a couple of small children and a kitten moved in. According to our neighbour, the adults suffered from addictions and were regularly fighting. No place for children or a kitten. Because the adults didn't understand or know how to teach the kids the proper way to handle a cat, Barnacles would defend himself from rough handling with his claws. One scratch too many and he was thrown out of the home and lived in the streets. About a year after the family moved in, they vanished in the night, leaving him behind.

Barnacles' trust in humanity was in tatters. He didn't trust anyone to be kind to him, or to look after him. Though my neighbour tried, he was afraid of everyone. He was about a year old when he was made homeless, and remained on the streets for a year until after we moved in.

This was our first house, as such, it was the first home where we could have pets. We adopted the siblings Brock and Misty to celebrate.

Because Barnacles had such low trust for humans, he first bonded by adopting our cats as his own. He taught these little derps how to cat in the way a wise master did his acolytes. Slowly, they provided reassurance that we were nothing like his old family. He started joining them to eat on the patio in the evening.

Then he let me pet him. He let me pick him up. Over several weeks, he was welcomed into our home. On timid feet, with sunburned ears and nose, one night he accepted. He's been with us ever since.

His trauma was great, it's been over a year since he joined us and he's only just realised that my oldest isn't going to hurt him and he isn't going to be punished for being scared. He's still working through his anxieties, sometimes he goes through cycles of regression and we have to show him that he's not going to be betrayed by us.

And that's the story of how Captain Barnacles found his forever home.

Some of my childhood favourite tropes or archetypes:

-The main character but edgier

-Redeemed villain

-Escaped labrat (preferably vengeful)

-Tormented or has suffered immensely

-Edgy colour pallet

An example of a character who fits all of these: Shadow the Hedgehog

An example of a character I couldn't've cared less for as a child: Shadow the Hedgehog

You're going to love meeting Cthul in the Illthdar series when he debuts.