librarianaesthetic

[librarianaesthetic]

the contrast between how gandalf and saruman spend the beginning to fellowship is so funny

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[librarianaesthetic]

There’s something truly exquisite about stories where the real tragedy is the price you paid to stand on top of the world

[librarianaesthetic]

Lumen Noctus, alternate universe version of my deceased wizard boy! A dastardly warlock bastard who drinks too much 💙

[librarianaesthetic]

Appreciation post for Alucard's eyelashes ✨

[librarianaesthetic]

Little annoying that, as a lesbian, I can't say "I'm a little tired of hearing about men. I don't like men and I don't care to talk about men." without getting like, dozens of people acting as if I came into their house and kicked their dog.

[librarianaesthetic]

the most wanted man in pilby

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maxwell's inner conflict of being a trans ally and therefore being happy his father respects olethra's gender change vs being pissed off he can respect olethra but still insists on calling him a faggot in front of the entire family

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Had to put the rowdiest lad up front

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"fruit has sugar" warning post reminds me of my coworker who told me to make sure I don't get "addicted to fruit". yeah i'm also addicted to a nice walk on the beach

[librarianaesthetic]

Happy crows 🐦‍⬛

[librarianaesthetic]

after reading a bunch of classical literature i’ve decided to revive the concept of knighthood all by myself

[librarianaesthetic]

Celebrimbor's legacy: the Elven realms of Lóthlorien and Rivendell, both protected by an Elven Ring of Power for three thousand years.

Art by J. R. R. Tolkien.

[librarianaesthetic]

source

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“It is said that, during the fantasy book in the late eighties, publishers would maybe get a box containing two or three runic alphabets, four maps of the major areas covered by the sweep of the narrative, a pronunciation guide to the names of the main characters and, at the bottom of the box, the manuscript. Please… there is no need to go that far. There is a term that readers have been known to apply to fantasy that is sometimes an unquestioning echo of better work gone before, with a static society, conveniently ugly ‘bad’ races, magic that works like electricity and horses that work like cars. It’s EFP, or Extruded Fantasy Product. It can be recognized by the fact that you can’t tell it apart form all the other EFP. Do not write it, and try not to read it. Read widely outside the genre. Read about the Old West (a fantasy in itself) or Georgian London or how Nelson’s navy was victualled or the history of alchemy or clock-making or the mail coach system. Read with the mindset of a carpenter looking at trees. Apply logic in places where it wasn’t intended to exist. If assured that the Queen of the Fairies has a necklace made of broken promises, ask yourself what it looks like. If there is magic, where does it come from? Why isn’t everyone using it? What rules will you have to give it to allow some tension in your story? How does society operate? Where does the food come from? You need to know how your world works. I can’t stress that last point enough. Fantasy works best when you take it seriously (it can also become a lot funnier, but that’s another story). Taking it seriously means that there must be rules. If anything can happen, then there is no real suspense. You are allowed to make pigs fly, but you must take into account the depredations on the local bird life and the need for people in heavily over-flown areas to carry stout umbrellas at all times. Joking aside, that sort of thinking is the motor that has kept the Discworld series moving for twenty-two years.”

— “Notes from a Successful Fantasy Author: Keep It Real” (2007), Terry Pratchett. (via the-library-and-step-on-it)

[librarianaesthetic]

I love VTM but I think my least favorite thing about the way they do the embrace is that the banes and all the bad things are supposed to take hold immediately. These are vampires. Theyre immortal. Let it take time, and it will be so much more horrifying.

Let the new Nosferatu scratch their head two nights in and a chunk of hair falls out. They look in the mirror three nights later and realize how much thinner their skin has gotten, and they touch their jaw carefully, and a strip of skin peels away to reveal the jaw underneath.

Let the new Malkavian be so so so paranoid because they KNOW whats coming, but by a month in, nothing seems to have happened. And theyre so worried, but theyre hoping against the universe that please, maybe they'll be the exception. Maybe they wont fall to the voices. And then they get home and talk to their friend about their worries, and after a little while, they feel relieved. The friend helps, so they keep talking to them. A few months go by and they are happy that they were worried over nothing, and they never even realize theyve been talking to the walls this whole time.

Let the new Ventrue have to figure out their blood limitation themselves. Their first few nights or weeks, they can drink whatever, but slowly the curse sets in. They drink some blood and immediately puke it up. They drink another type and break out in hives. Another sends them into torpor. But they HAVE to keep going. They have to find what they CAN drink, because until they do, they'll feel nothing but hunger and pain and rage and suffering. And the longer it takes to find it, the worse the wrong ones will be

Let the banes take time to take hold! I think thats significantly more interesting than everything just happening all at once all in one night, especially since these are immortal beings we're talking about. The horror of the vampire is supposed to be that all of the suffering is eternal. Let this take some time too.