naryaflame

[naryaflame]

in reverence yavanna is next to varda among the queens of the valar. in the form of a woman she is tall, and robed in green; but at times she takes other shapes. some there are who have seen her standing like a tree under heaven, crowned with the sun; and from all its branches there spilled a golden dew upon the barren earth, and it grew green with corn; but the roots of the tree were in the waters of ulmo, and the winds of manwë spoke in its leaves. kementári, queen of the earth, she is surnamed in the eldarin tongue.

tolkien south asian week hosted by @arwenindomiel

[naryaflame]

Looking for Promo Post volunteers!

Calling all fans of our "small" fandoms! Many people are aware of Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and Rings of Power. But there are many more fandoms in Innumerable Stars, and we have a special place in our hearts for the small fandoms.

Last round's promotion of the "small" fandoms was a success. We not only had more nominations for those fandoms, we also had more fanworks for them! So we are looking to do another round of promo posts this year - ideally fresh ones, not just recycling last year’s posts.

We're looking for volunteers willing to write a promo post for one or more of the fandoms on our "small" fandoms list - meaning any fandom with less than 100 works posted to AO3. We'd also be very excited if anyone wants to promo the fandoms just added this round- unlike the others, they don't have any posts from previous rounds to fall back on if there are no volunteers.

The promo posts will be posted on Tumblr and Dreamwidth to get people looking at the fandoms in advance of nominations. Your post should answer the following in your own words:

Summary - what is this fandom about?

Why should I check out this canon?

Where can I get this? (The mods are able to assist somewhat with this.)

What fanworks exist already? (We have links to the tags on AO3, but people who are into the fandom can probably add a bit more - you probably know better than we do if there is more to be found and where.)

Optional: provide an image (The image must be either your own work, or a stock photo/other image that allows posting - no copyrighted images, please.)

We are maintaining the fandoms list on DW so anyone potentially interested can easily see which ones still need volunteers - we will be crossing off fandoms as folks step up for them.)

Note: If you would like to suggest a fandom to be added to Innumerable Stars, now is the time! We are open to adding fandoms based on material written by Tolkien or media adaptations thereof. (Musicals, operas, movies.) We do not add new fandoms once nominations open. 

[naryaflame]

Looking for Promo Post volunteers!

Calling all fans of our "small" fandoms! Many people are aware of Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and Rings of Power. But there are many more fandoms in Innumerable Stars, and we have a special place in our hearts for the small fandoms.

Last round's promotion of the "small" fandoms was a success. We not only had more nominations for those fandoms, we also had more fanworks for them! So we are looking to do another round of promo posts this year - ideally fresh ones, not just recycling last year’s posts.

We're looking for volunteers willing to write a promo post for one or more of the fandoms on our "small" fandoms list - meaning any fandom with less than 100 works posted to AO3. We'd also be very excited if anyone wants to promo the fandoms just added this round- unlike the others, they don't have any posts from previous rounds to fall back on if there are no volunteers.

The promo posts will be posted on Tumblr and Dreamwidth to get people looking at the fandoms in advance of nominations. Your post should answer the following in your own words:

Summary - what is this fandom about?

Why should I check out this canon?

Where can I get this? (The mods are able to assist somewhat with this.)

What fanworks exist already? (We have links to the tags on AO3, but people who are into the fandom can probably add a bit more - you probably know better than we do if there is more to be found and where.)

Optional: provide an image (The image must be either your own work, or a stock photo/other image that allows posting - no copyrighted images, please.)

We are maintaining the fandoms list on DW so anyone potentially interested can easily see which ones still need volunteers - we will be crossing off fandoms as folks step up for them.)

Note: If you would like to suggest a fandom to be added to Innumerable Stars, now is the time! We are open to adding fandoms based on material written by Tolkien or media adaptations thereof. (Musicals, operas, movies.) We do not add new fandoms once nominations open. 

[naryaflame]

Innumerable Stars returns!

The 2025 schedule: Nominations Open: Sunday, 03 August 2025, 8:00 PM UTC Nominations Close: Sunday, 17 August 2025, 8:00 PM UTC Sign-ups Open: Sunday, 17 August 2025, 11:59 PM UTC Sign-ups Close: Sunday, 31 August 2025, 8:00 PM UTC Assignments Out: Monday, 01 September 2025, 8:00 PM UTC Assignments Due: Sunday, 05 October 2025, 8:00 PM UTC Works Revealed: Sunday, 12 October 2025, 8:00 PM UTC Authors Revealed: Sunday, 19 October 2025, 8:00 PM UTC

[naryaflame]

Authors! You are going to love this year's art!

But you only get to see it if you are signed up - and the author signup deadline is only 10 days away.

🔗 Sign up Here

📖 Read the Rules

❓ FAQs:  Answers to all our frequently asked questions

Not sure you want to be an author? We also need Beta Readers, Cheerleaders, Pinch Hitters, and Treatmakers - and there is no deadline to sign up in those roles.

[naryaflame]

🎨Artists! Today is the day!

Submit your art drafts!

Our FAQ explains how to submit your draft and what information to include with it. If you are still unsure, reach out to the mods!

[naryaflame]

🎨Artists!

Art drafts are due Friday!

The art gallery is shaping up nicely, but we want your art in it, too!

Your art does not need to be complete to submit - there are deadlines later this summer for showing your author the finished artwork. (Check our schedule for dates.) Drafts just need to show enough of the idea of your art to give prospective authors a flavor for the finished piece.

If you have questions, check the FAQ or ask us!

[naryaflame]

Last call for artist signups!

Artists! Have you been meaning to sign up but haven't gotten around to it? NOW IS THE TIME!

🎨Artist signups close tonight.

If you're still on the fence, signing up does not commit you to submitting art - you still have a few more days to make that decision.

[naryaflame]

Art Drafts Due May 9

We are so excited to see all the lovely art coming in!

But if you are like some of us, time has flown and you're asking how it's May already. The deadline is now but one week off...

You must be signed up to submit art - 🎨 artist signups close May 3.

Everything you need to know to submit your art draft can be found in our FAQ, including the required information we need you to send with your art.

If you have questions not covered in the FAQ, just ask!

[naryaflame]

[naryaflame]

Rickford Chapel, Somerset, England by wander_linaa

[naryaflame]

Tiktok's censorship of words like rape, kill, murder, abortion etc. etc. as well as censoring hard to hear topics, over the past few years has deeply contributed to the sanitisation of the internet and therefore directly resulted in the birth of "fandom purists" and the destruction of old fandom culture (the death of "don't like, don't read", "ship and let ship" mindsets as well as safe spaces for dark and "immoral"/unethical storytelling i.e "dead dove: do not eat") in a way that has fundamentally changed the mindsets of people who are new to fandom spaces and now view these such topics as wildly inappropriate for any social space as well as deeming anyone who is intrigued by them narratively or creatively as "immoral" and a bad person. In this essay I will

[naryaflame]

Just four besties chilling in the forest

[naryaflame]

Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Avengers : Infinity War.

[naryaflame]

So I’m new to the fandom and was considering signing up but I’ve heard from other people that this is basically like a silm fest and that they’ve had to take on silm works before because there wasn’t enough hobbit or lotr. I don’t know anything about silm and that’s made me super nervous. Is there any way possible to give like preliminary numbers to how many silm, hobbit, and lotr artworks there are? Just so I have an idea if there’s even going to be enough artworks for me to work with?

Hi Nonnie!

Thanks for the ask.

While historically the event does draw in a number of Silmarillion based art prompts, you are not obligated to claim artwork that does not inspire you. If nothing suits your fancy, you don’t have to claim even if you sign up.

Discussing it among ourselves, we, as mods, feel that sometimes authors choose art outside of their comfort zone and interests because the event is just that fun and they want to participate regardless. This is entirely up to the author, and we don’t force anyone to choose anything.

Each art will have a fandom or set of characters attached to it so you can see what the artist is envisioning prior to claims. We do expect an increase in Rings of Power and War of the Rohirrim content this year, and last there there was a decent number of Hobbit based artwork.

This is also a call to arms for all of our potential LOTR, Hobbit, and miscellaneous Tolkien fandom artists: your presence is appreciated and desired!

Mod Elentarial

[naryaflame]

😍 here for the Farmer Giles prompts!!!

Hey, I just want to double check, are non-middle earth works allowed? I have an idea for a drawing, but it's for Farmer Giles of Ham.

Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out! We'd love to see content from Tolkien's non-middle earth works as well, and a Farmer Giles of Ham art piece sounds great!

If you want to read more on what we do and don't allow, this is the relevant section of our FAQ

We're so excited to kick off the event soon!

[naryaflame]

Hey TRSBers, past and potential!

We know that artists may be nervous about signing up. Over the years the event has been running, we’ve heard a lot of ‘I’m not sure my art is good enough’, or fretting that no one will be interested. So we wanted to make it clear that is definitely not the case - this is a welcoming event for artists at all skill levels and types of art!

If you’re an artist but looking for ideas/inspiration, we have a suggestion sheet for that. (And a suggestion form, for the non-artists. Or the artists hoping to spark ideas for others!)

There are a lot of suggestions on the sheet by now, and we know it can be tough trying to pick from so many options even if you’re looking for ideas. We’ve also heard in the past from artists trying to decide on an art idea that it would help them to know more about what catches writers’ attention when they look through the preview gallery.  

Here are some things we learned asking writers in previous rounds how they pick art prompts:

Writers were not concerned about: 

How ‘good’, ‘polished’, ‘complex’, or ‘advanced’ a piece of art is. 

Digital versus traditional art.

Writers really want to work on ideas that their artists are excited about! Make art you want to read stories about. Get ready to share your enthusiasm!

Length. Keep in mind that TRSB asks writers to create a story of at least 5000 words. The idea needs to have some meat! At the same time, complex AUs or scenarios with many characters might inspire stories that would need to be very long to get right. Most writers are looking for story ideas they feel will fall between 5k and 20k words. 

Favourite characters. We can’t really elaborate much on this one - everyone has their own favorites. So pick yours, and realize there’s definitely authors out there who love them too!

Fit with the artist:

Ideas that leave room for creativity

Prompts that give the author an idea of whether they might vibe well with an artist. This includes not just the art itself, but the notes, DNWs, and ‘must haves’.

Artists with matching desires for collaboration levels. Writers’ preferences cover the full range from hands off to highly involved collaboration.  Think about what level of collaboration you want - what are you comfortable with? What kind of time can you put into collaborating?

We can’t wait to see your art!

~TRSB 2025 Mods