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The ships burn and Fingolfin hates.

…the ships keep burning and Fingolfin fears.

Mad cackling can almost be heard a continent away and he can’t figure out whose it is: Morgoth’s, or his brother’s.

In either case, he knows the people Fëanor has just taken to the other side, Fingolfin’s dear nephews most of all, are in great danger. He knows his brother. And he knows what happens to the people around him when his passion meets rage in a merciless, all-consuming flame.

No one deserves to be in that line of fire.

So when his children and remaining nephews and niece cry out their betrayal and curse their uncle and cousins, he turns a firm eye to them.

“If I’d commanded it, would you not have done the same?”

They begin to shake their heads, and he frowns.

“Do not lie to me, children.”

They turn away. Fingon’s relief at his father’s words breaks his heart, his eldest should know he cares deeply for Fëanor’s sons. Surely? Has he become so distant? Would any of them have confided in him earlier if he’d just opened his arms a little more-

No use in what ifs.

He turns back to the burning ships and sends a small prayer to whoever might still listen to keep his nephews safe. Fëanor is gone, mind shattered with his father’s death, and he’s dragging his children down with him to ash and blood and ruin. They just have to survive long enough for Fingolfin to arrive. He’ll talk sense into his brother, he’s the only one who can. He’ll get the children their father back and fix all of this, pride be damned.

The Helcaraxë is the only option. His nine children spit venom at their half uncle, but no longer complain of their cousins. A year following him into this hellscape, a year of leaving the weakest to the blizzards lest everyone freeze yet refusing to turn back, has shown them exactly what they’d have done were the positions reversed.

It’s a sobering thought. He wonders what he’s done to deserve such dogged loyalty.

Wonders when he started taking advantage of the same things he hated and admired most about his brother.

Time passes. He wakes one day to a coldness in his fëa and sends another desperate prayer. A bad feeling takes route that grows day by day, fear and a strange fire dancing in his periphery urging him and his people on.

Time is running out Nolofinwë.

Ice slowly gives way to solid rock, then slush, then grass and he arrives at Mithrim in relief, all but running to the fortress, only to see little Makalaurë greeting his host. Eyes hardened, crowned in silver, heavy shoulders draped in a frayed red cloak-

And he knows it’s far, far too late.

Agony and despair are hidden behind a stony mask that he sees right through but can no longer reach. His open arms greeted with caution. Watching. Waiting for the other shoe to drop. His kind words with narrowed eyes, all but daring pity, and Fingolfin could weep.

There’s no reconciliation that can prove his love, his understanding, now.

Fëanor is gone.

His children are being consumed in the blaze left behind.

…and Fingolfin doesn’t know how to fix this.

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Reading your thoughts on The Valar makes me want to poke the hornets nest, what are your thoughts on the whole Finwe & Indis situation? It's such a dividing topic I've seen friendships end because of it

I am not going to dive deeply into the drama aspect of things, but I will say this; it's exhausting to watch fandom in general revel in collapsing nuance and complexity into bipartisan positions. The Silm fandom doesn't do it nearly as viciously as others, but it does shine horribly when it comes to the "Feanorians versus Doriathrim" matter, or around Indis. I love Tolkien lore, and I like to explore the complexities and issues of all characters. I am interested in neither villifications, nor hagiographies. I do not think the solution to hostile, poisonous misogyny is a sort of benign, chivalric misogyny that thinks all the m'ladies are flawless wise angels sitting at home sagely rolling their eyes at their problematic husbands who get to be characters. Indis is a complicated matter. Her father (or brother, depending on the version) proclaims himself King of All Elves even though he has absolutely no involvement with a very significant portion of them nor cares what happens to his brethren in Middle Earth, and his people are the "favourite" of Manwe (who, as King of Arda and Eru's mouthpiece, should probably not openly have favourites?) Imin, the founder of the Minyar/Vanyar, basically... invented authority, and given his birth order demanded "first pick" of who would be his chosen people, and also pretty much invented women belonging to their husbands. She comes, therefore, from a background of power, and relatively entitled power at that. She also does call her sons "High Chief" and "The Noldo". So shoot me, but I like to imagine her as ambitious, and I do not think that means she did not love Finwe, or that she was some horrific trope of an evil stepmother. Female characters are allowed to be nuanced. And I like to imagine Fingolfin's textual ambition (which I love him for - you all must know by now he is very blorbo to me) as in part, at first, propelled by her. (Though no, the thorn thing in Miriel's name is not her initiave on any level, the Vanyar still use the thorn, actually. She merely bends to Noldorin Court fad, which... well, she would, she is an outsider Queen and wants to fit in, as evidenced from Finarfin's mother name "The Noldo" - an anxiety around legitimacy/belonging.) Her comment, also, after their estrangement, that she loved Finwe but "not Feanor's father" is worthy of significant attention. At the time, the social/psychological technology that now permits facile hindsight and saying "hah, you can't expect to marry a single father and for the husband to be a wholly separate man from the father! He will prioritize his child, of course!" did not exist, nor did any relevant experience among elves, so I don't think it's fair to accuse her of anything. But it is fair to say that kind of viewpoint was doomed to clash with Finwe's own. Furthermore, as much as I can enjoy a cutesy throuple headcanon, I struggle to buy that she, Miriel and Finwe could happily all held hands together if not for those meddlesome Valar, because in the context of the general patriarchy and feudalism of the Noldor it feels way less like actual progressive polyamory and way more like a man and his Mormon sister-wives.

Lastly, Finwe did love her, and his heart did turn to her, but his argument to the Valar was callous; primarily a desire for other children. And especially comparing himself to other elven leaders, who did have more children. That alone speaks of a very conventionally patriarchal marriage, where, yes, love is there, but also it does not cease to be sociopolitical transaction - he gets her womb, she gets to marry someone of her station, the only one available that would keep her in the kind of position of power she was born into. Now, do I like Indis? Well, there is not enough in the Silm to form a full, canonical personality for her. She might be deeply likeable and sympathetic, she might be horrible - interpretation is open. But I have a fic about Indis and Turgon in the plans, so she definitely intrigues me enough to write about her, and I will write her sympathetically. PS. I do think that given that Mandos and Nienna, who know more about Incarnate souls than, I don't know, Yavanna, opined Miriel might have come back given time, there are actually some moral implications to the marriage of Finwe and Indis barring this from possibility, and it's not entirely incomprehensible that Feanor took it as badly as he did. As usual, it's complicated, and multiple characters can have valid but directly contradictory perspectives.

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I see in fics that Maedhros uses his height/scars/general big scary vibe to intimidate his brothers.

And I get that. I use it too.

But hear me out.

Having a sibling both a lot older and taller than me, and several cousins much taller and older than me, height and looks does little to intimidate even at their most furious. If anything it becomes something to poke fun at even more like ‘really? That’s what you’re gonna do cause you can’t win this argument?’

So I think it would be really funny to see:

Maedhros is so used to using his height/scars/etc to intimidate people in Beleriand, he forgets his brothers literally Do Not Care, will call him a drama queen to his face, then go right back to doing whatever they want. Probably with more determination because he’s so insistent on stopping them. While also sifting through their mental pile of blackmail of how Nelyo used to trip over his feet during his growth spurt, and embarrassed himself in court That One Time before learning to control his temper.

Mae might be a little more succcessful with cousins but even then it’s 50/50 and to his dismay, he ends up looking exactly that. A dramaqueen.

…He does get pats of commiseration from Turgon and Fingolfin though. They’ve both been there.

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actually remembered to go back and finish theeeese. please let me know if you have a favorite outfit :)

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Thinking of fourth gen Finwëans because it always makes me laugh cause you have like:

Celebrimbor - born YT, killed Second Age

Idril - born YT, left First Age

Maeglin - born and killed in the mid First Age

Finduilas - born and killed in the mid First Age

Gil Galad - born First Age, killed very end of Second Age

Celebrian - born in Second Age, left mid Third Age

Just. The scale of time and experiences for Finwë’s grandchildren vs great grandchildren is wild 😂

Also they should totally have meet ups in Valinor. Elrond’s an honourary member.

But in terms of dynamics:

Celebrimbor + Gil Galad + Celebrian - Second Age besties. Get along like a house on fire to the older Finwëan generations ever increasing concern. Basically if Fëanor, Fingolfin, and Finarfin all got along (but switch some personalities and temperaments between them) and were left to their own devices. Add Elrond and we have the full house.

Finduilas + Celebrian - similar end of ME life experiences and idk. The vibes are there. First Cousins ftw.

Idril + Celebrimbor - Been through so much Rubbish from Fëanor and Fingolfin’s drama to the First Age chaos, they honestly just vibe. No hard feelings on either side. Fill in the younger members on the Family Lore.

Maeglin + Celebrimbor - Tyelpë’s feral adopted pet rat. “I was friends with Sauron, I can deal with this.” Forge buddies. Helping him adjust to society and come to terms with what was Morgoth’s fault and what was Maeglin himself.

Idril + Gil Galad - It weirds them out that they’re first cousins. Gil Galad’s lowkey annoyed that she left without at least saying hi. But he gets it.

Celebrian + Idril + Celebrimbor - Idril and Celebrian love their respective human/half-elf. Celebrimbor misses his mortal friends. They share all the stories.

Finduilas + Gil Galad - “…yeah we could probably be siblings. Also how was it away from the war but dealing with the fallout?”

Finduilas + Celebrimbor - Nargothrond besties. The first and only cousin she met. Finduilas is very much like a little sister to him.

Maeglin + Idril - Have a silent agreement to avoid each other unless others are around.

Maeglin + Celebrian - “What would you know of such matters, child.” “Born later, lived literally thousands of years longer than you, baby cousin.” Co-owns the feral pet rat with Celebrimbor. The only one who can match him word for word, her perceptiveness rivals his ‘sharp glance.’

Finduilas + Maeglin + Gil Galad - “don’t you just love inheriting curses?”

Finduilas + Idril - Architecture. These two come up with entire elaborate but functional plans in less than two hours. Probably built everyone’s houses. Celebrimbor sometimes joins.

Gil Galad + Maeglin - “You actually wanted to be crown prince???” “You didn’t??” “That explains so much.” Not surprised Maeglin got stuck in the family and High King curse. They don’t mind each other’s presence and pretty happily sit doing their own things in a room. Gil Galad’s doing this for Celebrian more than anyone else. AKA the reluctant pet sitter who got dragged into this mess by his best friends.

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What are you thoughts on the Valar? I've seen varying perspectives in regards to them, either people love them or some are highly critical of them (mostly due to their inaction when it came to the race of men) sometimes it's both, a bit critical but they still like them. I'm curious to read your thoughts.

(English is not my first language sorry if it's a little confusing)

Oof. That's a very complex one. I have a lot of thoughts, and they are not entirely monolithic, because Manwe, Ulmo, Namo, etc each have behaviours and make statements that are quite fascinating and distinct. I will oversimplify and speak of "the Valar" in general, but even that will not be brief, sorry. 1) The Valar are flawed, and failed their test of faith. They were not supposed to remove to Elves to Aman, or to shy from facing the Marring. This is not my take, this is Tolkien himself: Evidence: -- “But in this 'mythology' all the 'angelic' powers concerned themselves with the world were capable of many degrees of error and failing between the Absolute Satanic Rebellion of Morgoth and his satellite Sauron, and the faineance of some of the other higher powers or 'gods.'” - Letter 156 -- The Valar – all save one, Melkor, – obeyed this prohibition by Eru [not to dominate the Children of Eru], insofar as their understanding of that command went and in accordance to their wisdom.† But there was thus introduced an element of uncertainty into all their operations after the Coming of the Elves and Men. The wills and desires and the resultant deeds of the Elves remained forever in some measure unpredictable, and their minds not always open to admonition and instruction that was not (as was forbidden) issued as commands supported by latent power. This was even more evident in the case of Men, either by their nature, or by their early subjection to the lies of Melkor, or by both. It was also held by some that the Valar had even earlier failed in their ‘trials’ when wearying of their destructive war with Melkor they removed into the West, which was first intended to be a fortress whence they might issue to renew the War, but became a Paradise of peace, while Middle-earth was corrupted and darkened by Melkor, long unopposed. The obduracy of Men and the great evils and injuries which they inflicted upon themselves, and also, as their power increased, upon other creatures and even upon the world itself, was thus in part attributable to the Valar. Not to their willful revolt and pride, but to mistakes which were not by design intended to oppose the will of Eru, though they revealed a failure in understanding of His purposes and in confidence in Him.

†This is said because the invitation given to the Eldar to remove to Valinor and live unendangered by Melkor was not in fact according to the design of Eru. It arose from anxiety, and it might be said from failure in trust of Eru, from anxiety and fear of Melkor, and the decision of the Eldar to accept the invitation was due to the overwhelming effect of their contact, while still in their inexperienced youth, with the bliss of Aman and the beauty and majesty of the Valar. It had disastrous consequences in diminishing the Elves of Middle-earth and so depriving Men of a large measure of the intended help and teaching of their 'elder brethren’, and exposing them more dangerously to the power and deceits of Melkor. Also since it was in fact alien to the nature of the Elves to live under protection in Aman, and not {as was intended} in Middle-earth, one consequence was the revolt of the Ñoldor. - Parma Eldalamberon #17 -- Thus the Hiding of Valinor came near to countering Morgoth's possessiveness by a rival possessiveness, setting up a private domain of light and bliss against one of darkness and domination: a palace and a pleasaunce (well-fenced) against a fortress and a dungeon. - Notes on Motivations in the Silmarillion, Morgoth's Ring: -- Eru accepts and ratifies the position – though clearly he thinks the Valar should have contested Melkor’s domination of Middle-earth earlier, and made it “safe for the Elves” – they had not enough estel [‘trust’] that in a legitimate war Eru would not have allowed Melkor to so damage Arda that the Children could not come, or live in it. - Reincarnation of Elves, The Nature of Middle-earth.

2) I would argue, howbeit, that the Valar are also fundamentally benevolent. We are repeatedly told they love Arda and the Children. Nowhere to we see in any but Morgoth clear malice, and not only does Manwë cry for Fëanor, but also: "[...] for Manwë still had pity for the exiled Elves. And the Eagles brought news of much that passed in those days to the sad ears of Manwë”. And of course, what few times they do intervene, they seem to want to prevent suffering. Ulmo sends visions to Finrod and Turgon, and Varda hears Sam's prayer. The only exception is Namo, who is a complicated little beastie, and I do not merely speak for the Doom (who I would argue is not merely a foretelling but a punitive act - but that's also a whole wall of text argument, haha), but also the eagerness to slay Eärendil upon his arrival, which is a bit chilling. But even there, I would argue the cruelty is incidental, not malicious. In fact, the Ñoldor were "most beloved [...] by Aulë (the Smith) and Mandos the Wise." So go figure. 3) Their failings are rooted in passivity, lack of understanding the internal lives of Incarnates (HoME tells us, for example, that "the Valar were in doubt" about whether the aches of love were part of the Marring or not), thinking rooted in hierarchies and orders, and their static nature (and how that does not work well with the non-static nature of Arda). Especially regarding their static and "faineant" (as Tolkien calls it above) stance, I would dare to claim that an (unmarred) Melkor was meant to be Lord of Change ( but that's a whole other argument I will not make here) and this without him, the "pantheon" has a clear lacuna. 4) I do, however, believe there is something off about their fundamental stance in terms of their approach to power. They believe, clearly, in punitive justice. We are not sure why they would assume that to be the uncontested, natural way. They see Arda as a "kingdom", intrinsically and by nature a "thing to be ruled. We are not sure why, either. They see things like "Thou speakest of thraldom. If thraldom it be, thou canst not escape it; for Manwë is King of Arda, and not of Aman only." Which... I know it's not a confirmation of seeing Incarnates as thralls, rather just an angry refutation of Fëanor's venom, but is still a wild thing to say and not feel deeply discomfited by. On a Doylistic level, of course, all of this is because Tolkien cannot conceive of a universe without some level of imposition, punishment, gender roles, etc. But I'm being Watsonian, and therefore have to interrogated the Valar here - is your worldview not stiff, limited, and incapable of grasping restorative social structures and true equity? Perhaps the turning of Melkor against Manwë for power fundamentally injured the mindset of all Valar in constitutional ways.

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I see your eldritch Elrond head cannons, and I raise you: Elrond stealing the features of people he likes (his first victim; Maglor’s moles)

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tbh I find most time travel Silmarillion AUs to be thoroughly unrelatable because if I was snatched from First Age Beleriand and plopped into the Years of the Trees again I would run to the Valar first thing to ask them what the heck just happened and also they should know Melkor is still evil.

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btw we do *get* that the worldbuilding of DE parallels the character's arc right? We understand that, right? That Our Guy commits all but a sliver of himself to the oblivion of amnesia in a moment where the only alternative he could see was suicide. And at the other end of that tragic attempt at self-annihilation he gets the chance to reinvent himself and overcome the longstanding, persistent habits that brought him to the cliff's edge to begin with. And that the world itself is presented as approaching an equally definitive precipice, with one of the richest characters in the cast even remarking that Capital is dead, and everything else being 20-odd years away from being swallowed by the pale

And we understand that the pale is forgetting, right? Right? It's informational entropy applied to the world, facts and events and places and memories being destructured and obliderated, reduced to an indistinct soup of whispers, past present and future. That it emerges from humanity's collective inability to imagine a future beyond moralist capitalism, and that this inability to see the horizon inevitably metastazises into Mesque's accelerationist nihilism that ultimately destroys the world. [starts shaking you] WE UNDERSTAND THAT RIGHT??

That the game's splash screen is a view from the bay of Revachol, from the deserter's island. And we know what it shows, right? Revachol, in the distance. And beyond that what? A horizon? No! It shows Pale. Because that's his perspective. Because he has abandoned all hope, lost all sight of the future and has committed to self-annihilation. For him the entroponetic collapse is imminent. We see that, don't we?

That the game is a thesis on hope. That the world has the chance to reinvent itself from the precipice of oblivion just like Harry does, and that the only thing that can do that is imagining the future. A future. Any future, and making it. Piece by piece, day by day, committing to it, and refusing to give in to despair and nihilism. We understand, don't we, that there must be no truce with the f-

you know what, nevermind...

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The King Come Over and his bride Ygritte Firekissed

art by : @shripscapi

Look at my King dawg we’re definitely getting through the Wall!!!

For the last month and a half, I have been working closely with Liesl to design concepts for Jon as King Beyond the Wall and Ygritte as his Queen. Personally, I’m not invested at all in Jon becoming King of the Seven Kingdoms despite him being my favorite character. He’s not very connected with the South and I don’t feel that it’s his birth right or anything, even being the son of Rhaegar. I am significantly more interested in him becoming King in the North, but my interest in Freefolk culture has led me to be far more invested in the idea of him rejecting Southron society as a whole and becoming King Beyond the Wall (this isn’t necessarily mutually exclusive to being King in the North later on).

The motivation for Jon becoming King as opposed to Mance stems from a theory that has been around since AGOT has come out: that the Others will only treat with/negotiate with a Stark. In the prologue of AGOT, when the Others are speaking among themselves before killing the Watchmen, what if they were confirming with each other that Waymar Royce was not a Stark and that they could go ahead and kill him? All in all, it doesn’t really matter if this is true, but rather that this is a plausible rumor that could easily have been passed down among the Freefolk which could lead Mance to conclude that Jon as a leader would give the Freefolk the best chance of survival. It’s not very hard, at least in my opinion, to imagine an AU like this, since survival is the most important thing to the Freefolk during the events of ASOIAF. But is it plausible that under these circumstances that Jon would abandon his Night’s Watch vows? I think so if he can be led to believe that only Stark blood could defeat the Others, but that is not the only factor. Jon Snow is insecure about his bastard status, plain and simple. He’s always lived in the shadow of his Robb, though he loved him. He’s wanted Winterfell, though he didn’t want to nor had any intention to take it from Robb. But he’s known since he was a small boy that he could never Winterfell and that would never inherit anything because he was a bastard. Jon also has thoughts, at least in passing, that Ned loved Robb more than him. He perceives Ned as having been more proud of Robb, of looking at him differently than himself. He’s seemingly always believed this, but there is a sort of confirmation of Jon’s feelings when Ned allows him to join the Night’s Watch without much preparation on what the Watch is actually like. Fully me making assumptions here, not something Jon has explicitly thought, but it’s unlikely that Ned would have sent Bran off at 14 to the Watch without much warning of what it was like, had Bran not become paralyzed. While we never get this exact thought process from Jon, in my opinion it fits into his psychology and insecurity. All this to say, if Jon is offered to be a figurehead, King, a title equal to his brother, but without taking anything away from the Starks or from Robb, that would almost certainly scratch that itch in him. It would be of his own merit, and there would be people behind him that don’t care that he’s a bastard, don’t see him as less than, and are willing to accept him for who he is. Not to mention that it also lets him feel like a hero and as if he is saving something far more precious than himself. And it probably doesn’t hurt that he would be able to remain with Ygritte as well.

We know from the descriptions of Mance and Dalla, as well as from being told directly by the former, that the King and his wife dress like all the other Freefolk, in thick furs. While the Jon and Ygritte arts from above are not particularly ostentatious by Southron standards, they are in obvious contrast to how Mance and Dalla are dressed. My idea was that Jon, having lived South of the Wall in a Lord’s keep all of his life, brought his own ideas to the Freefolk and added a distinction between a King and all other men. Nothing like in King’s Landing, all changes are inspired by his experience at Winterfell. I tried to think of what was achievable by the Freefolk, that would be difficult enough that it can’t be easily replicated for everyone else, but also keeping in mind of what could be done relatively quickly seeing as the Freefolk are focused on migrating South and saving themselves from the Others. The cultures I took inspiration for the clothing from are the Byzantines, Russians, Incans, Aztecs, and Mongolians. I wanted more “open” and flowy clothing, as opposed to more closed off and excessively modest clothing of 1300-1500s Europe that most of Westeros is based off of. Ygritte is still wearing furs, but they are dyed and there is weirwood embroidery in symbolism of the Old Gods and flame embroidery to symbolize her being kissed by fire. Her jewelry are simply clay beads that have been powdered blue. I didn’t want to give her any jewels as I felt it would be too difficult for the Freefolk to cut them directly and just overall would be against the spirit of the Freefolk. However, getting the blue on the clay like that still would be expensive and take a lot of time. I tried to keep the main color scheme surrounding gray as obviously that’s House Stark’s color. Jon’s clothes are similarly nice, with my main concern being him looking intimidating. I want the furs around his shoulders to be black because I wanted to call back to his time in the Night’s Watch without him keeping his psychical cloak, because I’m sure the Freefolk would not want him to do that. The furs are massive and make his shoulders look far larger, in an effort to make him look more intimidating, especially on a battlefield or in negotiations. He also has weirwood embroidery and his sigil is on the front of his outfit (my original idea was for him to have a flag with his heraldry on it, in which case the sigil would have looked far different, with a full length direwolf). There’s a white wolf on one side and either a crow or eagle on the other side (up for interpretation, both are relevant to Jon and one is one of the animals that can be used a symbol of the Freefolk) and the flame in the middle to represent Ygritte. The sigil is more than about Jon, after all, as it’s for the entirety of House Whitewolf, the House he founds. I thought the name fit far more in to Freefolk culture than something like Whitestark or something along those lines. Ygritte was supposed to have sewn on the sigil herself, and was very adamant about it, and that is meant to be why the thread is uneven and more visible than it ought to be. She’s not very good at the craft!

As I indicated before, crowns are not something common to Freefolk. That would be something else Jon would implement. Ygritte’s crown is very much like a hat, very casual. The beads are nice but obtaining them wouldn’t be unheard of, and holly most likely would not be particularly hard to come by. The reason I gave her a crown with holly is that during Christmas in the Tudor period and even before during pagan celebrations, people would go out into the woods and find holly and ivy to decorate their houses with. Holly was a symbol of masculine energy and ivy feminine energy. If you found more holly, it was meant to indicate that the man would rule the household for the year, and if you found more ivy then the woman would rule the household in the coming year (this was a way to “tell the future” not a rule lol). I liked the holly better for Ygritte so I’m just saying the Freefolk had the opposite belief. Jon’s crown is made of weirwood, which was important to me as I feel like his connection the Old Gods is also important as it is something that him and Freefolk both use to guide them. It ties them together. That being said, a weirwood crown is often used for Bran so I did not want to use a design that was too similar to the one used for him. Bran’s weirwood crown usually is made of weirwood branches, however, and not weirwood bark or logs, so I feel like it’s different enough. The frozen weirwood sap, as far as I know, is also unique to this design. There’s also some ivy to parallel with Ygritte’s holly.

The remaining bits and bobs I wanted to explain are the blue rose and then the face paint. The blue rose is obviously something associated with Lyanna Stark, who is widely accepted to be the mother of Jon Snow. I originally wanted to give him a rose somewhere, whether he was holding it or it was in his embroidery, but I forgot to ask during sketching, and then it was too late. But Ygritte holding the blue rose isn’t just about Lyanna. It’s also about Bael the Bard, a most likely fictitious person (or at least, the tale is fictitious, though I personally choose to believe it’s real) that went South of the Wall posing as a bard. He impressed the Lord of Winterfell so much that he granted Bael anything he wished; all Bael asked for was the most beautiful flower in Winterfell. This was granted for him, but the next morning he had stolen the Lord of Winterfell’s only child, a girl, and had left the flower in her bed in her place. He hid in the crypt with her for a year and they had a son together. Bael eventually went back North of the Wall and eventually Winterfell, having no other heir, passed to Bael’s child. Under this story, Jon is descended from Ygritte’s idol (maybe idol is stretching it, but she really likes him), Bael the Bard. Not only him, but all the Freefolk including Ygritte, according to her story. Following the story’s premise, Jon also poses as Bael and Ygritte as Winterfell’s daughter, with Jon joining her home under false pretenses and “stealing her”, as she calls it. So the blue rose has significance regarding both the Starks and the Freefolk. The face paint is inspired by tattooing done by cultures indigenous to North America. Indigenous Americans are not the only groups to use facial tattooing, the Vikings were famous for it as well, but Viking facial tattooing had more patterns based on shapes rather than lines and dots. I didn’t like the shapes so much, but the chin tattoo was one was that observed in all sorts of different cultures. Usually the chin tattoos with the line were on women in indigenous America, but I found some on men in other outside cultures. The dots I didn’t see outside of Native American culture and the claw marks on Jon’s cheeks I found mainly among Vikings. Because these all are an amalgamation of different cultures, we did them as face paint instead of tattoos because it seemed disrespectful otherwise. Not enough research went into it to be a proper representation of any one culture so paint was a better bet than a permanent body modification that is sacred to a number of cultures. The only thing that was meant to be a tattoo was the chin tattoo, which like I said, actually is from an amalgamation of cultures. Among the Freefolk (in this AU), dots on the cheeks are widespread, one of cultural mainstays of their people, and are generally a sign of peace, whereas the claws are meant to look intimidating and is applied to look like blood (Ygritte applies it for Jon) and is specifically used for military leaders. I really wanted to drive home the point that the goal with Jon’s whole look is to look fearsome.

I have so much more to say about Jon as King Beyond the Wall, how he negotiates with the Wall, the different rules he sets in place, how he sets up being King as a hereditary title once his daughter Bael is born, etc etc, but then I’d be here all day and approximately one person total read through all this. Oops! Ask in my inbox if you have any questions because I would love love love to answer them. All in all, shripscapi (Liesl) is so talented and she worked incredibly hard for me. She was extremely accommodating and changed as much stuff as I wanted. She never complained about the million times I decided something was not quite right and she sent me so many updates. I would recommend working with her to just about anybody. It was very cool what she was able to achieve and I got it in time for the holidays so I can enjoy my winter themed pfp on twt. So thank you from the bottom of my heart Liesl, and I hope everyone showers her with compliments because she deserves it. I also hope that people that don’t enjoy Ygritte very much can still appreciate the art and the concept of Jon as King Beyond the Wall. Hopefully I’ve gotten across how much I love and care for these characters to a chronically online degree and nobody accuses me of mischaracterizing them because that would make me!!!! very sad!!!

Bonus Jon with weirwood leaves:

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Harry and Kim (and Lena!), I made these at the beginning of my fascination with Disco Elysium, and I still love them, so I'm sharing :D

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Elwing 🕊️

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little things based on a book of Czech forests (Naše pralesy), to learn a bit more about composition and sceneries 🍂 Decided to change the theme for my personal easter lent challenge because I'm always drawing people, and it feels a bit stagnational. So, I'll try something more atmospheric.

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Tiny beach maglor doodles from class :]

My fav little guy

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Concerning Maiar

The Doriathrim: our Queen is from out of this world. She is elf-like, yet she is not. To look upon her is to look upon the divine, something beautiful and terrible alike, for she is a Maia, and thus incomprehensible to mortal eyes

The followers of the Feanorians, who've seen their Prince Nr. 3 yelling at a Maia to "get of the couch, you are shedding! And stop fucking licking me!" every morning for a few centuries now: ....right