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Nettles with Nettles

(ASOIAF Nettles with Nettles by Ethel Cain)

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The prince is more than fond of this brown child, and his dragon is close at hand. A wise lord would kill them both, lest the prince burn Maidenpool in his wroth.

by Manfryd Mooton's brother

p.s. No way in the world she was his daughter.

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The Origin of Vampire Rules

Something I always find very funny in vampire media is, that vampires usually have those certain rules, right? Vampires usually cannot go out into the sun. Often they will not be able to touch crosses or even be paralyzed by just looking at a cross. They might be shapeshifters. Vampires often cannot cross flowing water, and they also cannot cross a home without an invitation. Sometimes they are weirdly allergic against garlic. Also sometimes they have no mirror reflection. Or even not a shadow. They might not be able to cross onto sacred land (so for example they cannot set food on church ground). And of course they need to drink an undefined amount of blood.

And yes, this is just another excuse to talk about some more mythology - and how stuff happened to end up culture the way it did.

Origins of the Vampire Myths

Chances are, that someone told you that vampires are literally everywhere in the world and one of those myths that somehow is everywhere around.

This is not true - and mostly goes back to people applying "vampire" to pretty much everything that is arguably undead. Even though most of those figures technically are arguably a lot closer to zombies. If it does not leech energy or blood from living people, it is not a vampire.

So, actually vampires were a very specific thing that originated specifically in Eastern Europe. We are fairly certain that the origin of the myth came actually from some Ancient Greek myth that spread out into those places and then shifted. But the vampire itself comes from Slavic Myths. In those we have a variety of beings, that would qualify as vampires. Strigoi, Upir, Lugat, Moroi and quite a lot of others. There was a lot of overlap between those creatures and "evil witches" in a lot of times, and not all of them actually drank blood, but they drained at least your energy in some way.

Among people studying folklore folks are fairly certain that the myths came originally from people not fully understanding certain sicknesses. So basically, when a village was struck by a sickness like that, people would go: "Oh, this has to have been Alfred coming back from the dead," because Alfred recently died and it was the best explanation they came up with. And because people did not understand how dead bodies worked, they also would then see stuff like the hair and nails appearing longer when they opened the grave, which they saw as a proof that the dead was not really dead.

Generally speaking, there were then a couple of things that would be done to prevent them from coming back. Some people would just behead the dead body, others drove a stake through the heart of the people, while others might just tie up the legs of the dead.

But yeah, the one thing is that vampires come mainly from Slavic cultures. This is the important bit about vampires you need to remember. Because a lot of this comes back to this.

The Vampire Rules

The Vampire Rules are really fun, because they come together from three very different sources: From the fact that they were Slavic, from English folklore, and then from limitations in media.

So, let me go through typical vampire rules.

Vampires shapeshift: Vampires being shapeshifters goes back to Slavic mythology. In those vampires, witches and shapeshifters often were just the same kind of thing and had a lot of overlap.

Vampires cannot cross water: This originated probably in the Rennaissance. And it mainly originated from the fact that the people noticed that vampires only seemed to exist in Eastern Europe. Which people started to find weird. So, they had to come up with an explanation. And that explanation was: For some reason the vampires could not cross the Danube. This over time merged into "vampires cannot cross water".

Vampires are allergic against garlic: This is definitely something that goes back to the original myths. It is believed that this might be connected to the fact that garlic has an antibiotic effect. And as I said, vampire myths probably originated with unexplained sicknesses. So it is not hard to believe that people who ate garlic might not have gotten (as) sick, so folks were like: "Oh, the garlic kept the vampire away."

The stake through the heart kills vampires: This myth also comes from the vampire practices back then. On e way of burying a vampire in a way that it would not come back was to put a stake through the dead body.

The cross, not entering homes, and holy ground: Ironically, all those things that are probably connected to the same thing. Because these weaknesses are usually connected to more English folklore. While people definitely have hidden in churches (partly because of the law of sanctuary) forever, there is some good evidence that this actually comes more from British fairy culture - that then got applied to all other forms of paranormal creatures. And we know that around the 18th century, there was a whole big vampire scare in England, that definitely mixed a lot of Eastern European vampire lore with the lore of the Otherworld and Fae from Celtic mythology. Vampires having glamour of sorts probably is also connected to this.

Vampires do not have a reflection: This specifically is dated back to Bram Stoker, meaning everyone else after this just used this from Bram Stoker. The theory is that Stoker's idea was that mirrors somehow reflect the soul - something like that.

The Baptism of Blood: Another vampire thing that goes back to Stoker specifically is vampires having to exchange blood with someone to make them a vampire. Aka, drinking thier victims blood and then giving blood to them. In fact, in Stoker's work it was implied to have to happen three times until someone is turned a vampire. Which at least makes sure there are no accidental vampires.

Vampires drinking blood: Ironically the specific thing of vampires drinking blood also comes from Victorian Gothic literature. While this was not fully unheard off in mythology, it was not such a common trait there. But in Victorian literature it became THE vampire calling card. And this for two reasons. Reason 1: Welp, blood drinking is a neat symbolism for sex at time where you were not allowed to write about sex. Reason 2: ... Anti-Semitism and blood libel. I am sorry I could talk around this, but yeah, we definitely are certain that some of the Victorian vampires drink blood because the folks writing were implying blood libel. Welp.

Why Vampires Burn in the Sunlight: The dumbest bit of vampire lore I know is why vampires burn in sunlight. No, this does not originate with mythology - neither Slavic, nor Celtic. No, this does not go back to Dracula or another book of the time. Vampires in Victorian literature were fine and dandy in the sun. They might not be able to use certain magics, but other than that they were fine. No, the reason vampires burn in sunlight is... that the original Nosfertu ran out of budget, and needed a convenient way to dispatch the vampire. So they decided: "Oh, actually he burns in sunlight." And then, that stuck.

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R.n.B

Rhaena, Nettles & Baela 🐉

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NETTLES × Percy Jackson Cabin Aesthetics

Just a little tiding.

Nettles x Aphrodite

Nettles x Demeter

Nettles x Poseidon

Nettles x Hestia

Nettles x Hephaestus

Nettles x Hecate

And so on and so forth, these just make the most sense to me at this time.

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INSANE

Nettles

(She just fed Sheepstealer)

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Dragonseeds + dragon riders

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"skinny brown girl on a skinny brown dragon" f&b.

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Israel’s breaches of the ceasefire deal

As the Gaza ceasefire and hostage swap deal enters its 25th day, Israel has reportedly violated the agreement over 260 times.

As a result of Tel Aviv's violations – which include ongoing air strikes, intensified surveillance, delayed aid and abuse of Palestinian detainees – Hamas has said it would delay the next scheduled release of Israeli hostages.

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Update (11/02/2025): No charges are going to be brought against Zül-Qarnaįn and he has been released.

Here is his instagram if anyone wants to follow him: fff_zulqarnain

From Rolling Stone:

The New Orleans Police Department initially stated that “law enforcement is working to determine applicable charges in this incident.” But it seems their search was unsuccessful. The performer will not face any criminal charges for the protest. The worst of his penalties at the moment is a lifetime ban from NFL stadiums and events.

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Sometimes friendship is a teenage girl with her minecraft grass block dragon

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I'm a "multiple interpretations of a character are valid" person until I see an interpretation that explicitly contradicts canon and then I start chewing on the drywall.

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Nettles with the dragon Sheepstealer - Art by ertacaltinoz

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the dragonrider nettles

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Just because there’s a ceasefire on the way doesn’t mean that you can now scroll past Palestinians on Reels, Tiktok, Tumblr etc. The truth of the matter is that Palestinians will likely always have to keep asking for money due to the scale of destruction Israel has put them through. People still have to rebuild their homes, find places to live, support themselves and their children. Life literally stopped in Gaza for so many people, there is no work, there is no school, there is no entertainment. BTW: Ceasefire deal happens on Sunday so Israhell is going to continue to be doing as much damage as they can up until that point. People still need to get surgeries, medicine, prosthetics, and so much medical care. People still want to leave while the borders are open. People still need FOOD and WATER which will continue to be scarce even with aid coming in. You will always have to keep supporting Palestinians not just in their liberation but rebuilding their lives NOW.

Which is why you ought to donate to Amoona, whose mother is sick with cancer and she has a small child. During the genocide, she’s barely had any donations so she’s hardly even scraping by. Do not let her down. I am done asking nicely.

https://gofund.me/b2c0d9f4

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I'm plotting vampire dettles and it's so good guys I promise.

(Concept art I won't use anymore but like this is definitely the fancast)

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Okay folks.

Merry Christmas, Happy Halloween, and Happy New Year. I missed a lot because the second year of university was, in fact, harder, so I wasn't motivated. But now I'm on a vacation, and I hope to be a lot more consistent but I wanna change a few things from before:

1. I'm not fighting anyone.

Do what you like. It's fandom, but don't police what I like. Block me quicker than engage in discourse I just don't have patience for.

2. More fics

I typically do mood board content or analysis but I have a lot of fics, posted and unposted, that I'd want to finish and see the light of day.

3. Fancasts.

Nettles is and will forever be my best girl. I love her down so she'll remain a focus. Because of that and her exclusion from the show, I'm going to be using show clips and screen caps as well as fancasting characters when I want to. (Cregan, Corlys, Daemon).

4. ASOIAF

I also want yo get back a little into the main universe timeline with another favourite of mine Ashara Dayne, so there's that to look forward too.

5. HOTD.

As much as I like the show and love the actors, it feels at this point, separate from my enjoyment of the universe, especially without my girl, like GOT did by the end. While I will engage with show discourse and all that fun stuff, my fics especially will reflect the ASOIAF universe, which in most cases will be fire and blood.

Overall, I'm excited to bring my derangement back to the Nettles tag and hope I can do even half of what I'm aiming for. Love you