#kushiel dart

[aldebaranarfeiniel]

Me in my young Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff IS Anafiel Delaunay era

[aldebaranarfeiniel]

I love this man so much I feel like I understand Phédre, Alcuin, Rolande (and Mélisande??) all too well

“For those who never knew him, I can say only that there was a charm about Delaunay that compelled the affections of all who surrounded him; for good or for ill, I might add, for I knew later some who despised him. But those who hated him were the sort who envied excellence in others. No matter what he did, Anafiel Delaunay did it with a grace that eludes most people in this world.”

— on Anafiel Delaunay; Kushiel’s Dart, ch. 8

[kazz-brekker]

i once again come bearing gifts (an excessively long and overly detailed powerpoint of book recommendations)

[towns-end-bindery]

Kushiel's Legacy

by Jacqueline Carey

♥️💛💜

If you have never seen the original cover designs for this series, I don’t recommend looking them up. I’ve never liked them very much. It was for this reason that this series stayed in my mind as one that I knew I would rebind one day. I am not a great artist, but I was sure I could create a set of pleasing covers that could be proudly displayed on a shelf.

The book edges were marbled during the last SoCal @renegadeguild meet up earlier this year.

[zareleonis]

side by side comparison of my latest arlefuri commission from my friend awa and "Kushiel's Dart II," by Tran Nguyen from the Subterranean Press edition of Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey, the inspiration for the piece

The original illustration of the characters Phèdre nó Delaunay and Melisande Shahrizai stuck with me ever since I first saw it. i've had a vision of Furina and Arlecchino in their position bouncing around my head for months now. Very happy to have the chance to bring that vision to life.

[aldebaranarfeiniel]

Those two. I would d*e for them both

"Zip me", Anafiel and Alcuin, before the auction of Alcuin's virginity

I don’t get many Kushiel’s Legacy prompts - thank you!  “Zip me = a drabble about one character dressing another, or the other way around.”  I hope you like it. <3

Continua a leggere

[july-19th-club]

one thing about the kushiel books is that i've never been able to square the phedre in the books with the phedre in the cover art. she just does not look like that chick to me she looks, in fact, specifically like this piece by digital artist alice blake

[urgentkettle]

Truly, I love the absurdity of the Kushiel’s books. Yes, sacred whore- Your divine destiny is to be a synesthesically true masochist and have as much kinky sex as possible. Yea, you gotta. To save the world. Your one true love is going to be a celebrate warrior priest. Trust and believe, this makes sense.

[aldebaranarfeiniel]

See my vision. He is Anafiel Delaunay.

(Ralph Fiennes 20 years ago / he was in his late 30s)

[aldebaranarfeiniel]

There are two wolves in me: one of them is agreeing. The other fears that the production will ruin my all time favorite fantasy series and my all time favorite characters (Delaunay, Phèdre, Ysandre, Joscelin)

Once again shocked by the fact that HBO or somebody hasn't licensed Kushiel's Dart for a show

[hussyknee]

Put off reading Kushiel's Legacy thinking it would be vaguely racist harem-fantasy BDSM smut in high fantasy dressing. Instead I got feminist George R. R. Martin if he was less racist and skeezy.

You need to take notes to follow all the names and I can barely keep up with who's doing what and the author has never heard of cutting to the goddamn chase, but good God you get so invested in the characters within a hundred pages that it sends you reeling when they die. I'm only at 200 out of 500 pages but I'm so fucking gutted that I stopped reading to skim the rest of all three books to see whether any of my other favourites were going to die and who I should be braced for dying because good fucking god. I'm even heartbroken about characters that died before the book!

It really sneaks up on you because this book is so dense and crammed with so much detail that you don't realize you've begun to really love the characters. The fuckton of foreshadowing probably didn't register because they're front and center like main characters would be, so you're not prepared for them to die in the middle. And Phedre lives such a happy, sheltered life that it's a genuine shock when it all gets blown up.

I want them back. I like Joscelin, but he isn't them. Jacqueline Carey how could you. 😭😭😭😭😭

Oh btw, this series is also gay as shit. Heterosexuality doesn't seem to exist and it's so unremarkable it didn't even occur to me that this is a full-on LGBT series. It's not like in fanfic, when even in stories where queerness is universal and unremarked in-universe there might as well be a giant fuck you rainbow flag over it all. In Kushiel's Universe it's just so matter-of-fact that you realize this could actually have been what society was like in the past when the Church wasn't all up in everybody's business. Sure, in this universe there's a hippie Jesus that followed regular Jesus who was all flower power and free love and founded alternate universe France, so that nobody has any sexual hang ups, homo or otherwise (much like regular medieval France Ig), but even if there were, everybody's either too rich to give a shit or too poor to care (also like regular medieval France). It feels historically accurate somehow. Idk. But this book came out in 2001. Eat that, GRRM, with your two male gays and off-screen lesbians.

Edit: Just checked the AO3 tag and. Sigh. You know a book isn't trashy when it only has 350 works on AO3. Fanfic runs on trash and guilty pleasure, not sensitive and quality story-telling.

[malicedafirenze]

me, reading fantasy book not explicitly about romance: why is nobody horny where is the spice why did that fade to black me, reading romance books: why is everybody that horny all the time and why is romance literally the only thing that takes up space in these people's minds can I please have some plot and worldbuilding

evergreen mood why am I like this why is it so rare to get me a book that can do both

kushiel's dart has ruined me

[deputyrook]

Chocolate- [Or: how Rook, many years before she was Rook, met Viago de Riva and enlisted in Antivan Crow training.] [Or: why she prefers cioccolata calda to coffee.]

Law of equivalent exchange, every time I post something that took me hours to write, I have to also post something fun that I wrote in 20 minutes. This is that. Written as a character study piece for my Rook, Mina de Riva ♥

TW: Discussions of slavery, forced blood magic. A newly freed slave is talked into becoming an assassin which is arguably a little problematic.

“What’s this?”

The assassin looks at her like she’s a child, or else very stupid.

“It’s chocolate,” He says, deadpan, “You’ve never had it? It’s sweet. Eat.”

Mina studies the food for a moment. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t be willing to eat food given to her by an assassin that she met less than 24 hours prior. But it’s been an odd day.

“If this kills me, I’m coming back to haunt you,” she grumbles. 

“If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t waste my poisons,” the assassin sounds a little offended at the notion.

Breaking off a small piece of the ‘chocolate’ and popping it in her mouth, Mina chews thoughtfully before concluding-

This is the best thing she’s ever tasted.

The assassin watches her with a muted expression. Like she imagines is true for all good professional killers, he seems impossible to read beyond his slightly-grumpy disposition. And yet when she smiles at him and says, “Okay, yeah, this is now officially the best day of my life,” he gives her the smallest smile back.

“It wasn’t already?” He asks, eyebrow raised.

“Well, yes, but this is elevating it.”

With every passing second, the caravan they’ve hitched a ride on draws them further and further from Tevinter. It was one thing to know that she was free, but it’s another to feel it. Soon, she won’t even be able to see the spires and the lights of the city if she turns around to watch them go. 

Curled up cross-legged in the back among a bunch of crates, Mina watches the assassin from the corner of her eye. He’s sitting on the edge of the caravan, one leg dangling off the back. Mina’s not exactly sure how old she is at this point- maybe fifteen or sixteen- but he’s got to have about ten years on her.

“You never told me your name,” Mina says to the assassin after a moment, swallowing a second bite of chocolate. Even if it hadn’t been over a full day since she last ate, she’d still be scarfing it down. It’s so sweet. She’s never had something so sweet in her entire life- it’s like her taste buds are exploding. It’s great. 

“...Viago,” the assassin replies, a bit reluctantly, “Have you ever been to Antiva before?”

Mina shakes her head, and he continues. “There are shelters that I can take you too, for people who don’t have homes. Not nice, but better than what you’re used to, I’d wager. We tell no one you were a slave. You cover up your scars. You used the last of your wages to pay for my escort. Do you understand?”

She nods, taking another bite. She likes that Viago doesn’t wince around the word slave, like so many of the “sympathetic” humans seem to. They used to cringe when they’d see her, but do nothing. Pity is the last thing she wants.

And if Viago doesn’t want anyone to know that she helped him get into her former magister’s mansion, past the magical wards he’d erected, in exchange for getting her out of Tevinter? That’s fine by her.

At first, all she’d asked for in return for helping the assassin get into the kitchens was her master’s head on a plate. But Viago had stubbornly refused to make that part of the deal- “Doesn’t count. I’ve already taken a contract to kill him.” 

Taking her back with him, to wherever he was headed, seemed like the next best thing.

“I don’t think anyone will come look for me, anyway. The mansion will be in too much of an uproar to worry about missing slaves. And it’s not like there’s a long list of people who knew me in Tevinter to begin with,” she grins, a nasty thing, “Shorter now.”

“Do you have any family out there?” Viago asks, and she gives a little shrug, her smile falling. The chocolate is almost finished, but the warmth of it has filled her and her hunger has ebbed, for now. She feels so happy watching the caravan take them over the hills that she could cry.

“Kind of,” She answers after a moment. “I was the youngest of three. My ma sold me to get her and the rest transport out of Ferelden when the Fifth Blight hit.” Mina hasn’t spoken about her mother in years. It stirs an old ache in her chest, the kind of feeling she’d tried to smother. And she’d thought she succeeded. “I was starting to show signs as a mage, so... I guess she figured the Circle would’ve taken me anyway. But mages make for good slaves, y’know? Long as they’re young enough, so they haven’t learned to fight back and cast fireballs. Gives the blood magic an extra kick.”

Mina doesn’t look at the assassin as she wipes at her face. He allows them to sit in silence for another moment, before he asks, “How’d you learn to fight then, if you weren’t trained at the Circle? I saw you with some of those guards.”

Her chocolate was delicious, but she’s reluctant to take the final bite. She wants to hold onto it. Make this moment last. “I pestered an older woman in the Magister’s service to teach me how to read, until she did,” She tells him. “Then I stole some books from the magister’s son on the basics of conducting magic. You’d be surprised what you can pick up, if you pay attention. I sat in on a lot of blood rituals.”

Mina sighs, stretching out her legs before she adds, “I’ve been waiting a long time for an opportunity like today’s to come along.”

Viago makes a thoughtful noise at that, before asking, “What will you do now?”

Honestly, she has no idea. But anything has to be better than where she’s coming from.

“I’ll get a job. I’m a mage, I have skills... I can cook, and clean, and I can read and, well, mostly write well enough. I’ll.. figure something out,” She says. Mina looks down at the last bite of chocolate, wondering if she should maybe save it for later, in case it’s a while before her next meal. Still, she’s surrounded by crates. If she has to, she’ll bust one open and take a peak.

Viago looks at her then, considering. “Hm.”

“Hm?”

“…If you were to hone your skills a bit… with a lot of training, especially magical training… well, you’re a bit of a mess right now, but there is potential there.” The assassin is muttering under his breath, casting her a curious look. Mina’s not quite sure what to make of it, so she asks him outright.

“What are you mumbling about?”

“Mina,” Viago says, after another long moment of consideration, “How do you feel about killing people for money?”

She pops the last piece of chocolate into her mouth, and considers it with a smile.

[aldebaranarfeiniel]

I really think that Imriel/Sidonie is meant to parallel Anafiel/Rolande’s star crossed love. Both are meant to be, both are super intense love relationships, but Imriel and Sidonie managed to have the happy ending 🌹

The doomed love affair between Anafiel and Prince Rolande---

Is finally "resolved," if you will, with the star-crossed affair (and happily ever after) between Imriel and Sidonie.

If this is explicitly pointed out in Imriel's trilogy, please keep in mind that I've completely forgotten that.

[vifetoile]

Joscelin Verreuil: "he should be at the club" energy, never goes to the club

Hyacinthe: goes to the club a reasonable amount

Phedre no Delaunay: "she should be at the club" energy, despite the fact that she loves the club, goes to the club often, in fact she's memorialized in a displayed photograph referring to that one Christmas Eve incident. All that, and yet, she should be at the club even more.

[indelibleevidence]

Every time I reread the Kushiel books, I'm torn betwen two interpretations:

D'Angelines actually look like shining stars compared to the rest of humanity, because they're descended from gods, or

D'Angelines aren't any more physically attractive than any other race. Phèdre is an unreliable narrator - just a very religious, patriotic snob living in a country where snobbery abounds.