#I know a lot of world building stuff about the Witcher and I like to talk about it

[this-acuteneurosis]

Random. But do you have any star wars fic recs ? Fics recs of any kind are welcome actually ^_^

Oh, uh, sure.

Let's see, I've mentioned @chancecraz a bunch of times, I love all their stuff, if I had to pick a favorite I'd say Of Queens, Knights, and Pawns but how does one really choose?

I've also mentioned @fialleril and Double Agent Vader, which really got me into the SWs fandom in the first place. I love everything I have ever learned, it hits me so hard in the feels each time. (I also really loved Sigyn's Saga if we're also talking not-SW stuff.)

I enjoyed The Desert Sun series by @blue-sunshine-mauve-morning. (I will be honest, I have only read the first series I have not started Rise and Fall.) It's engaging and fun and thoughtful.

doing it by my lonesome and staring down the barrel of the hot sun by magneticwave are two fun Luke/Din stories featuring appropriately cute Grogu. I also liked pages filled with scribbled ink, which is an epistolary Padmé/Obi-Wan fic that had me cackling. (their non-SW stuff is good too, I especially enjoyed just me against the sky)

Other...serious(?) recs include: The Wingless Dragon by husborth if you like being sad and horrified about Vader's bad choices. Food Scandal by Malicean for some situational hilarity and for lots of OC perspective on Imperial bureaucracy (my other weakness aside from politics). PRojects IN Controlled Environments by Beth Winters for Imperial R&D bureaucracy, more situational hilarity, and very relatable coworker nonsense.

More silly/fun premises include: Compromising by samvelg, which inspired me to write a (very different) Piett POV of Luke and Vader nonsense. Memo: Jedi Maintenance (The Care and Feeding of Your Jetii) by RainofLittleFishes is exactly what it says and what you would hope for from such a title. Luke Skywalker is Altogether Too Likeable by Mokulule is another Piett POV of Skywalker nonsense.

As far as Non-Star Wars recs

It would be a crime and sin if I didn't mention Embers by Vathara , an Avatar the Last Airbender fic which honestly changed my life and how my brain was shaped.

World Ain't Ready by @idiopathicsmile is a Les Mis fic I've gone back to a few times. The dialogue is just really good. I spend a lot of the fic laughing, and also screaming at the characters.

I fell absurdly in love with Second person familiar, I think because it tickles some part of me that just dies over linguistics, and I'm a fan of pretty much everything @jackironsides has done for The Witcher.

Salvage by @muffinlance is a very fun Avatar the Last Airbender fic about Zuko getting reluctantly adopted by Hakoda (it's so good).

Finding the Line by Miss_Lazy_Tuesday is a Batfam fic that sort of ruined me at one point, it's fine. (I enjoy their other stuff too.)

The Angel of Hell's Kitchen by MarbleGlove is a Daredevil fic. I don't really go here, but this was about social structures, bureaucracy, and doing the work, and we all know I can't help myself.

Reconstruction by rageprufrock is the story of Stephanie Rogers, but like, it's Pru writing it. So. Characters are great. World building is great. Tension and longing and grief are great. I cannot stress enough how good the academic and news article asides are. Like, it's good. Incomplete, but so good.

Ordinary Numbers by BootsnBlossoms and Kryptaria, a James Bond fic that I keep coming back to because I too would be a sucker for someone who sent me needlessly expensive gifts.

And This, Your Living Kiss by opal_bullets is a Supernatural fic about poetry. I am not in this fandom, but again, my weakness for language gets me every time.

ever fallen in love (on national TV)? by ganymede_elegy is a GoT Jonsa modern Bachelor AU and...guys I cannot express how much I Do Not Go here, and how much I still recommend this fic. Like, it's just...I don't know. It worked. In spite of me knowing nothing about GoT or The Bachelor. wtf

survival of the fittest by cywscross is a short Naruto fic about a very unpleasant adventure for Sakura and Shikarmaru that just...worked. As a story. Dunno, I just really like it.

I could be wrong, I could be ready by harryromper is a Harry/Draco fic where they are disasters and traumatized, and it is about healing and building houses as a metaphor for overcoming trauma, and it's fine, I'm fine.

eternity will be born from hope by theseviolentdelights99 is a Yuri!!! on Ice fic that is about a time traveling Yuuri who (you'll never guess) goes back in time and does bureaucracy in his hometown and his sport to help the people that he loves. The unreliable narrator is excellent, the social media asides are wonderful, and it's not complete but it is exactly my poison.

(Wow, this is so long and all over the place...)

[blackrabbit-megapig]

Trying to organize my ask notebook better since I've run out of space under general fandom asks and I would like to know what fandoms you are in so I can ask the correct people about the correct fandoms.

I think my main ones are Bagginshield/The Hobbit, Sherlock/Johnlock, Dragon Age Inquisition, {Pippin/Faramir Merry/Eowyn}/The Lord of the Rings and I dip my toes in a few that I currently can't remember but ones I don't engage in canon at all are Good Omens but only for Crowley/Azirapheal ship, Stranger Things but only for Steve/Eddie ship, The Witcher but only for Geralt/Jaskier things and Ladybug and Cat Noir but only for Adrinette .

Also do you like getting asks that are or include story ideas or snippets?

*Asks are sent for fun, no pressure to answer within a certain amount of time or at all.

Hm, well, I also really like Bagginshield/The Hobbit stuff along with LotR and Silmarillion content. I'm really into the world-building aspects of it too and enjoy seeing people's interpretations of the characters and cultures of Middle Earth. I think a lot of the fan content that's come out in recent years has been leaps and bounds better than anything that's officially been released lately. Don't even started on that show produced by that company that shall not be named! Seriously, I could talk for hours about why it personally annoys me. And I have! Multiple times to very unfortunate friends.

But other things, other things...

I'm really into The Magnus Archives right now. It's a horror podcast that I got into a couple years ago. Right now I'm listening to the sequel series with a friend of mine. It's pretty okay. I don't really interact with the fandom much outside of looking at fanart and reading the offhand fic every now and again, but I am really interested in writing a statement in the same format as the ones given in the series. Will I ever write it? WHO KNOWS!

I really like the Earthsea series! I got the special omnibus as a Christmas gift and have been slowly working through the stories. I could talk a lot about that too, but I don't know how coherent that would be.

I'm really into anime and manga, but what I'm watching and reading changes a lot. Right now I'm reading Witch Hat Atelier and Ascendance of a Bookworm.

There's probably other stuff that I'm forgetting but this response is already long enough I think!

[vro0m-but-not-cars]

Okay @sweatyflytrap asked for my final opinion on the one piece live action and I have a lot of things to say as always so I'm making a post.

Light, unspecific spoilers, but well.

First of all it's not bad. But also it's not good. I don't feel excited about it, but I didn't have as much of a hard time watching it than I thought. Except the first episode. I spent the first episode messaging all my friends about how ugly it looked.

About the story adaptation :

Some changes they made I understand, because the East Blue Saga is overall pretty rough in terms of rhythm and also kinda unthetered to how the story develops later on. Of course, it's very important and necessary as far as world building and putting the crew together go, but none of the more long term plotlines are there yet, or at least you don't know that they are, and that doesn't really work with live action tv shows or it makes them look like sitcoms. They had to introduce some more middle- long- term stuff to let people see that there are bigger things happening that are worth keeping up with the series. But it feels kinda weird when you've been reading and watching the manga and anime for fucking ever. Spoils some stuff that were big moments in the original story. But again : understandable.

Some other changes I just. Don't. What. Some were weird, some confused me, some were uncalled for and honestly kinda pissed me off (re: Usopp, iykyk).

One thing I was happy about is that there is, just like in the manga, some clever, more or less obvious, foreshadowing. Well played.

About the characters :

I saw a lot of people being very happy about the cast, I... Have doubts. I'm kinda sad some of them lose important character design aspects although I understand it would have been difficult to make them look like they're drawn. Usopp without his long nose is ??? I mean it's inherent to who he is so taking that away takes away from his characterisation for me. Also is Sanji really Sanji without the curly eyebrows? I like Nami, I think she's played by a good actress as well. She's the one who felt the more solid to me. Zoro looks okay, I kinda hate how they turned him into some edgy vocal-fried annoyed teenager but well. Hopefully he'll gain more depth as we go. Hopefully they all do. We've barely seen them yet.

Now Luffy... I mean it's tricky, obviously. I just don't understand his character in the LA tbh because he's supposed to be super naive and carefree and not very smart, and sometimes he is, and at other times he says elaborate things that don't match up. Seeing him more or less seriously plan and strategise at times is intensely OOC and really took me out of it. Also it would always have been difficult to translate in LA but I find his smile very sinister at times. Overall, because he's sometimes smarter than he's supposed to be and because of that smile, you get the idea that he's acting stupider than he actually is and it gives the impression he's more calculated and manipulative than happy-go-lucky. I can't really read him well. He feels weird.

And I sure hope they get a better wig and lenses budget in the future but seeing how the Witcher characters look in their third or whatever season I highly doubt it. Seeing them with shitty synthetic dry AF hair really really takes me out of it. I cannot possibly take Shanks seriously when that's what he looks like. Don't even get me started on Mihawk. Also I've posted about this before but why in hell did they turned tall glass of water future daddy Ben Beckmann into a short jowly pot-bellied 50yo? I'm sad. AND don't try to convice me that Alvida is ugly because what the hell. Please take me on a date, I will definitely tell you you're beautiful. Also not a problem but why the fuck is Garp Welsh?

Another issue I have discussed with friends is Sanji's characterisation. Obvi they couldn't make him as creepy as he is in the manga and anime where he's straight-up harassing women but this very central aspect of his personality is almost completely lost in the LA which makes him seem very weird. It makes it difficult to understand how he acts towards Nami at times, when they're supposed to be one of the most well-matched duos in the crew. In parallel, LA Zoro and Nami have sexual tension for zero reason. Their chemistry works much better than Nami and Sanji's at this point. It's fixable in the next seasons but in this one it's kinda weird when you know their characters.

About the production :

Okay so one thing I will say without any further "but" is that Sanji's and especially Zoro's fighting scenes look very good. They're well choregraphed, and badass, and dynamic.

Luffy's fighting scenes are bad though. The gomu gomu fruit abilities look bad. He barely uses them most of the time (I guess it's costly and difficult to create visually). He looks weak, and slow. The rhythm is terrible. Also it's difficult to see him sometimes use gomu gomu to be rubbery and thus fully flexible and sometimes see the actual actor jump and bend like a more or less normal person, thus lacking the elasticity Luffy is supposed to have. It's like sometimes the rubber ability is activated and sometimes not and he just becomes a normal human being. I fully understand that it's not realistic to half animate him all the time to make it fit but again, it was very noticeable to me.

I also struggle with the overall vibe of the LA. Some things feel overly childish, like all the discourse around dreams etc. It is there in OP though, it is generally key in shōnen, no problem. But at the same time, it's quite violent and sinister at times. Buggy is scary af, he feels incredibly creepy. Which is also fine, the OP world is violent and weird. But it doesn't look that violent and weird when it's drawn. The juxtaposition of the child-like, naive, idealistic themes and the creepiness is a bit confusing to me. I'm trying to think who's the target for this aside from the obvious OP fans. It seems a bit too grotesque for children, and it feels a bit too "✨the power of friendship✨" for teens and adults. But well. It was the case in the manga as well initally and it got darker and more serious with time so whatever, I'll reserve judgement.

Conclusion :

I still don't know what to think because I started with loads of questions and now I just have even more. Mostly about how they intend to adapt the rest of it. Are they gonna buy their wigs and lenses elsewhere than Claire's? What the fuck is Chopper gonna look like? What about Brooks? Are they gonna make Ace and Law ugly as well? Because if so I might burn Netflix's headquarters for ruining them for me. Is Luffy gonna get better at fighting or do they intend for Zoro and Sanji to do most of the work forever? Is Bon Clay gonna be extremely offensive or are they somehow gonna manage to make him tasteful without ruining him? Is he gonna be there at all? I mean I could go on and on.

Anyway, as I was saying it's not bad, but it's not good. I think it works much better for people who haven't seen or read OP yet.

[captzexx]

2023

2023.

Well, we're halfway through it and I just figured now would be a good time to update all the stuff that is or was or maybe going on with this blog.  If you're still here, thanks for staying!  If you're new, hey welcome!  If you're on your way out the door for a pack of smoke or to get the milk, see ya soon dad!

So here's the rundown.

This is a hub for all the crazy/mundane/weird/eyerolling roleplay writing stuff that I think I'm pretty decent at. On good days.  It's been a year since I had my surgery and I have literally killed a third of myself.  Now to just keep him dead.  Which is hard as my brain is in a good/bad place most of the time to match my body which is in a good/bad place, but I'm keeping it together.  Most of the time.

So if you're interested in a collab, are collaborating, or going 'where the hell did that guy go' I'm still here and I'm getting it back to form.  Ish.  I promise I'll try not to let you all down if we're interacting or will be at some point, which I would love to do!

Now that that's out of the way, here's where I'm playing these days!

THE BLOGS

@sailsonaseaoffate - My Spelljammer blog came true!  Fantasy based sci-fi adventures with Treasure Planet vibes that I do my best to stay with the setting though as with all lore I make my own!  I do what I want.  Either way, this is where most of the Candell family has found a new home on the remade Wayfarer as they search through Wildspace for a way home for some, a new home for others, or bringing that final piece back to their puzzle.  New foes, new ships, plenty of sarcasm, and lots of face punching.  Adventure among the stars with a multiversal family of rogues and swords!

@conduitdreams - Cyberpunk is getting closer to reality than we ever thought possible, which is both very exciting and terrifying.  I'm hoping to lean more into the exciting part of it, but horror and terror are common themes for me as well.  Pulling a lot from cyberpunk epics such as Bladerunner, Strange Days, and Cyberpunk Red/2020/2077, I've been doing my best craft my own little slice of synthetic neon dystopia to build a few stories from.  Midwich is a floating city built in the Gulf of San Andreas after the great quake that split California from the mainland essentially making it's own free floating city-state.  Where most see it as the end of the world for golden state, it has done but flourish thanks to move and now is the ultimate producer of food supplies as well as other natural resources.  New trade markets had to be made and with it came the creation of these middlemen cities that processed items from place to another. It's very loose setting in my head that is welcome for more voices and ideas to help flesh it.  Come run the net and see with artificial vision searching for a soul!

@acrowamongsparrows - Steel for men, silver for monsters.  I love horror.  I love fantasy.  I love the Witcher.  Would I call myself a superfan?  No.  I would I call myself a big fan?  Hell yes.  Do I know all the minutia and information about the world?  Good god no.  But I did make my own witcher and I did piece together a 'Scooby-doo' crew for him to battle all sorts of things that go bump in the night.  I am no lore god (I do respect it though) but these are our stories and I feel like we should be able to tell them how or why we want to.  So, if you'd like to hunt monsters, beat up elves, and dodge vampires join me as Eld of Kovir travels with his nephews into the depths of monstrosity.

ON HOLD

@thedreaminghunger - I had high hopes for Oplisca and wandering the cosmic horror I built up around her with the mythos and the bits of Warcraft butchery that I'd clung too.  But I just can't seem to get a hold of it.  I'm not sure I have enough level in pure weird to truly give her what she needs to become the monster I see in my mind for her.  Traversing the multiverse in search of herself so that she can consume them and grow in power in the many eyes of her 'Love'.  Maybe I'll get there or if someone has an idea to push my feral end of space witch into stratosphere I dream of.

@memoriesofivalice - My poor FF14 characters, I had a big cast and a lot of my mind when I tweaked and created them all for this MMO.  I loved the game but I found myself spending most of my time alone and just kind of got tired of the story grind.  I joined a great guild of storytellers and people, but my heart just couldn't get into it.  As much as I distance myself from WoW, it still hurts me so deeply after everything that happened and continues to happen with them.  Maybe I'm tainted with MMOs.  Maybe I should revamp to just be a Final Fantasy blog and do my own thing with people.  I mean there's 16 of them and only like two really connected by sequels.  I hope an idea comes because this cast deserves to not be forgotten.  Or maybe rebooted at least.

@withanemeraldeye - 'Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow.'  I used to play a lot of Conan Exiles and I honestly can say I watched Conan the Barbarian once a month when it's streaming as I love everything about sword & sorcery.  Pulp fantasy has always been huge for me to match with the incredible art and style presented by such artists Sanjulian, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, and the king himself Frazetta. So making a brutal pulp fantasy character was inevitable for how much I dig the simple but exciting concept.  But it's been quiet here for me and that breaks my heart for what I put together for Voldrin in the Exiled Lands fighting for survival with the Black Sword across his back.  I hope I can get back into it again.

FUTURE

I am interested in anything or anything to collaborate on.  You wanna do an urban fantasy adventure?  Let's do it Dresdan style.  Airships and moncoles?  I'm there.  Transdimensial time travel with Quantam Leap infintie lives?  That sounds really cool and I would love to explore it.  We run a coffee shop for people in the urban heart of a Pacific Northwest City?  That sounds a lot slice of life, but I am intrigued on what it may bring.  

The skies the limit for me and all we need is to do is say 'Hey I got an idea!'  

So, that's me.  It's 2023.  I need to be creative.  So do you.  

Team work makes the dream work.

Or synergy.

Insert corporate slogan.

[kuwdora]

💞💌✨

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

Ohhh I got this ask several times, so I can answer it in multiple parts! Err, I might ramble a little...

As a writer I come at everything from character. Plot stems from the character, and the world building also (mostly) spins out from the character.

This is why I can write 15k or 25k and not actually have a beginning, middle, or end. I get so caught up in the process of understanding how the character is inhabiting the world and figuring out what they want. What they need. It takes me so long to narrow things down and cut things out because I’m so far inside a character’s head.

Sometimes approach a story from a “what if x happens to Character A?” (I have a like two trope-y yennskier things I want to tackle this year that start with this question). But 7 or 8 times out of 10 I’m starting with what a character is feeling and doing and rolling around in the why. All my feelings start and end there. ❤️

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

Oh, I could probably just randomly pick any of my witcher stories at this point but maybe I’ll single out Learning Curve which on the surface is just porny cuddles and softness, but I spent a lot of time working through some TWN Yen thoughts about how she is coping from season 1 and 2 events. Her upbringing and relationship with Aretuza and Tissaia and how that impacts the way she fucks up with Ciri and what she wants to try to do and be better.

This Yen also has a magical disability which throws an emotional/psychological/logistical wrench into her plans about how to teach Ciri, too. Sure, Yen got her powers back from Voleth Meir, but what if there was still a physical/magical consequence for using up so much of her chaos in the first place? The wear and tear on her body can’t just go away, even if she can get her magic back.

I want to write more about Yen and magical disability and explore teacher/student dynamic with Ciri and when/if it can cross into a mother/daughter dynamic that I felt more acutely in the books and games.

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

Ah!! Yes, okay. My puppetskier story Coin Operated Boy will feature Shani for a few scenes. It’s going to be sweet and endearing and funny. But!! Let me share with you the first meeting between Shani and Jaskier. This is not in the puppetskier story because I’m writing and publishing this in a very non-linear order but I want to share anyway cause I am EXCITED.

Some context: I’m casting a young Jessica Sula as Shani, and this Shani is going to be maybe a little genderqueer. And when Jaskier first meets Shani, he’s a little hungover and has been going through some things so he’s not at his best.

I’m enjoying writing Shani and Jaskier’s dynamic, mostly from a point of view where Shani actually doesn’t know who Jaskier is as a performer or professor because she’s been too busy doing her own thing. Jaskier hasn’t always been around for her to meet first or second-hand. The intergenerational friendship is a big deal to me to explore and tease, which is largely a contrast and parallel for when Jaskier was first setting out on his adventures with a monster slayer.

Bedside Manner Shani & Jaskier warning for implied alcohol abuse ~1800w

A gentle boot kicked Jaskier awake. Gulls. Clop of hooves. Distant yelling and chatter. He didn’t remember falling asleep down near the harbor.

Stabbing pain gouged Jaskier behind his eyes. He refused to open them to see what kicked him. He tried rolling over, his chin knocking into the corner of something, and instead he folded his arm and turned the other way. Horseshit wafted in the air, mingling with the scents of fish and piss. Maybe he should get up after all.

The boot kicked him again, but not with the heavy intent of harm.

“Hey.”

Jaskier was cold and stiff and he pulled his sleeves down. Pulled himself away from the repeated kick. Gentle, but still annoying.

“What,” he muttered.

“Wake up.”

The voice was bossy, but warm. Jaskier’s stomach clenched in pain and he scrunched his face. Last night hadn’t gone as planned, judging from the aches in his body. He remembered making it to a cot at some point to sleep off the drinking game, but he was outside now. His mouth was sandpaper dry. Coppery-taste on the inside of his lip and cheek and the faint taste of semen in his mouth.

Why did morning exist and why was someone bothering him?

“No,” Jaskier said and pulled the collar of his coat up to protect him from the sea breeze. He kept his eyes shut and feet shuffled beside him. The creak of wood beside his ear was like an anvil being dropped on his head. “Fuck.”

Jaskier rubbed his face which did little good to improve his situation. He opened his eyes, had a fuck-all time clearing the gunk from his vision, and regretted the daylight immediately. He blocked out the sun with his hand and hazarded a glance upwards.

A child peered at him from the cart that Jaskier was leaning against. He squinted at the street urchin, bronze skin with large brown eyes and curly, cropped hair that seemed to be an unnatural shade of red. Cherubic. Precocious. Someone looking for opportunity.

“I don’t have anything worth stealing,” Jaskier said and thought about getting up and decided against it when the needles inside his head told him not to move.

“Got that right. Saw three fellas feeling you up before I came over. Lucky you still have your boots,” the boy said.

“My boots are shit,” Jaskier said.

“Which is why you still have ‘em, I guess,” the boy agreed.

Jaskier sighed and his head lolled back, closing his eyes, and trying to find the will get to his feet.

He felt an odd pressure on the top of his head and tried to look up but something rolled down the side of his face and into his lap. It was a piece of fruit.

“Bwuh?”

“Hungry?” the boy asked.

“Eh,” Jaskier said and wiped off the fruit with his sleeve. He looked up at the child. “Not so keen on taking a…pear? from a strange child on the street first thing in the morning.”

“It’s afternoon,” the boy said.

Jaskier looked around again and supposed that was true enough.

“You pass out here often?” the boy asked and Jaskier picked at the stem of the pear and shrugged.

“Here, there. I am a man of the city,” he said and turned the bruised pear around in his hand.

“Did you vomit before or after you passed out? Think that’s your piss or someone else’s?” the boy asked and looked over his shoulder at the cobblestones Jaskier had slept upon.

“What?” Jaskier asked and frowned, looking down at his trousers and the ground and his head jerked back up. He hadn’t been sick—or remembered being sick, but that was beside the point. The scratch of a pencil was loud in his ears, inciting a new round of pain. He knew the tell-tale scribbling when he heard it.

Jaskier kneaded his eye and leaned forward, bracing a hand on the wheel of the cart and dragged himself to his feet. He got himself a proper look at the boy who was less of a boy and more of a gangly adolescent wearing a well-fitted green tunic. Clean, well-fed. Maybe not a street urchin, but still looked like a child.

A wave of vertigo passed over Jaskier and he braced himself against the cart, watching the boy write something in his notebook. “What’re you writing?”

“Patient notes,” the boy said.

“What? Huh,” Jaskier said, his hands moving before his brain caught up, and he swiped the notebook from the kid’s lap. Name, age, weight, symptoms were left blank but the child had written down a brief physical description along with a few notes under medical history. He read: Patient has a likely history of alcohol abuse. Damage to his liver suspected. Inquire about family history??? The words swam in Jaskier’s vision. He really should go lie down after drinking some water.

“I’m a medical student,” the boy said. Jaskier squinted at him. He looked too young to be at the university.

“You look too young to be at the university,” he said.

The boy grabbed the notebook back and twirled the pencil around in his hand. “I’m almost fifteen. What are you, 10 stone?” he asked, looking Jaskier up and down.

“Right,” Jaskier said. “Good luck with that,” and turned around and began making his way back to the town. The more he moved, the more wafting smell of fried fish was going to make Jaskier hurl.

“I’m not done yet, hold on,” the boy said and Jaskier gave the urchin a sidelong glance and he held out his notebook again. “Do you have a headache?”

“Splitting,” Jaskier said.

“Nausea?” the boy asked.

“Sloshy,” Jaskier said.

“Sensitivity to light?”

“I am quite hungover, thank you so much for your concern,” Jaskier said and turned a corner and slipped the pear into the palm of a old woman sitting on a stoop.

“Ohhh, I do have something for that,” the boy said. Jaskier almost didn’t bother stopping but the hopeful note in the boy’s voice seeped through the nausea. The promise of relief was too much to ignore. He turned around and the boy had leaned against the side of the building and was digging through his shoulder bag. “9? 10 stone? 9 stone just to be safe,” the boy said.

Jaskier wandered back. “I don’t have any coin for any tinctures you have there.”

“I don’t need coin. I only need to finish my report after you take this,” the boy said. He muttered something to himself and held out a large glass bottle at Jaskier. “Drink that water first. All of it.”

“You’re kind of bossy for a kid,” Jaskier said and uncapped the bottle, giving it a wary sniff.

The boy shrugged and uncapped a light green vial and poured a little on his finger and gave it a lick, nodding at himself and then handed Jaskier the vial. “It’s mostly ginger,” the boy said.

“So why should I trust you? Especially if I’m not paying you for this little remedy here.”

“I get extra credit for helping the stupid and poor,” the boy said. Jaskier frowned. The fucking nerve of the kid. Jaskier has now upgraded him from child to nuisance kid.

“Some bedside manners you have there,” Jaskier said.

“We haven’t covered that unit yet,” the nuisance kid said.

“Ah, well then,” Jaskier said. “To your education,” he said and raised the vial in a toast and tipped it back. It tasted…green.

He frowned and dropped the vial in the boy’s open shoulder bag. He tongued the roof of his mouth. “You make this yourself?” he asked. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Shani, and yes I made it. What good would it be if I had someone else do my homework for me? That’s how you’re supposed to learn, by doing it,” Shani said.

“If only all students were as sensible as you. Good job,” Jaskier said, and plucked the notebook from the bag and went flipped through the pages. Patients A through D were people Shani must be picking up from the streets, judging from the notes.

Jaskier helped himself to the pencil but Shani grabbed it and the notebook.“It’s not very nice to dig through somebody’s stuff.”

“Fair enough. What else do you need from me?” Jaskier said. His stomach rumbled loud enough that Shani’s eyes widened slightly. “Let’s keep moving away from the fried smells, eh?” he suggested and began walking, motion Shani to come along.

“Alright. What’s your name?” Shani said, flipping to a page in his notebook and following after Jaskier.

“Julian Alfred Panktraz,” he said. “P-A-N-K-R-A-T-Z,” he added helpfully.

“Age?”

“Timeless.”

Shani made a noise and Jaskier glanced over, watching him write down refuses to disclose age.

“Any other symptoms I should know about pertaining to your current health?” the nuisance kid asked.

“I’ve got an itch on my left toe that won’t go away—probably because of my boots. I seem to have lost most of my coin in a drinking game and I’m not quite sure whose company I enjoyed last night, but the memory problems are probably because of the drinking. I have trouble sleeping because I can’t seem to work out the third verse of my current ballad, but that’s more symptomatic of inherit heartbreak and loss of a decades-long friendship. Or maybe the heartache is from the terror seeping into Oxenfurt because of the war that’s happened—or the war that’s likely to come. No one seems to care how Oxenfurt has changed. The people aren’t like they were before. I don’t know why everybody else can’t see it. I mean, I know why…pretending something isn’t happening is easier than acknowledging the truth. I don’t know how to tell the story of what’s happening because… Fear isn’t easy to… to deal with when you’re alone,” he said, stymied by the next wave of nausea.

Shani paused his scribbling, clearly not knowing what to make of that.

Jaskier rubbed his face—his lips felt funny—and and shrugged. “You asked.”

“Oookay,” he said.

Shani closed his notebook and nodded at Jaskier. “I think I have everything I need. How do you feel?”

Jaskier patted himself down. Still nauseous, but not actively feeling like he was going to vomit. “Better. Top marks for you,” he said and Shani grinned.

Let's Get Real Fic Writer Asks

[adventures-in-a-world-of-fiction]

Why is there such a focus on graphics in video games?

I’ve made a couple of posts recently complaining about an update to The Witcher 3 made it impossible to play on my computer because my machine just wasn’t high spec enough to handle the graphics requirements. I’ve seen a bunch of posts and articles and forum discussions about how it’s terrible and broken and unplayable, giving people instructions on how to go back to the previous version. But among those, there are discussions on places like the Steam forums where people who have got super high end machines talk about the new update and the general theme seems to be, “It looks great.”

Now, in fairness, it could be that I was just looking at the posts too soon after the release for there to be in depth discussion of new storylines or bug fixes or gameplay improvements, and people were just reacting to what was most readily apparent. But still, it felt like the people who were speaking the praises of the new update were focused purely on the aesthetics.

And I don’t particularly care about graphics.

I guess it’s nice if a game is pretty or has nice scenery, but it’s not what makes the game FUN.

A while ago, I was talking about Factorio and someone suggested that if I liked that, I should try Satisfactory, which is a game with a similar concept of building machines to do stuff. As a game, Factorio is amazing and managed to completely suck me in to the point that I could play for hours and not notice time passing. Satisfactory just didn’t grab be in the same way. It wasn’t as fun or engaging. But you know what it was? Really, really pretty. The graphics were beautiful. Stunning. The alien worlds looked gorgeous.

But I went back to playing Factorio because something being prettier doesn’t make it a better game.

A short while ago, I replayed Stonekeep, which is a game from the nineties that was released on a CD. The graphics in that are terrible. All the monsters of a particular type are the same sprite endlessly repeated. The walls are made up of identical, repeated panels that make it very easy to get lost because every corridor in a level looks the same. The resolution is awful. But it’s a really engaging game with a lot of humour.

Undertale became a massive hit with pixel art.

Stardew Valley got big with its simplistic art style a million miles away from realism.

Amazing, hyper-realistic graphics don’t make something a good game. They just make it take more computing power and newer graphics cards to run. It’s perfectly possible for games to be created that do commercially well by being fun and without pixel-perfect rendering of every hair and blade of grass, yet people still hype up graphics in games reviews as though it’s a vital aspect to the game. I know the answer is probably because it’s an easy thing to wow people with in trailers and it’s something that early reviewers can talk about quickly, so it helps sell more copies, while having an intricate and well-thought out story or engrossing gameplay is something that takes longer to get the message out there about.

It’s still annoying.

Is it fun? And can I get it to run on my computer? That’s what matters to me in a game. The first one is largely disconnected to the graphics, and the second one is actively at odds with hyper-realism.

[capinejghafa]

u are into the witcher!!!! :0 what did u think of s3!!! :]

yes! kind of? i like the witcher but not enough to gif for it, also so many talented people on this site so it's fine.

i will just say i had no power for a few days so i didn't know how everyone else's feelings were and maybe i'm in minority when i say it was just fine/meh... it was something i watch because i've already committed myself on this journey and im going to finish it!

the big problem i had last season was the world building took over character development and as much as I tried i couldn't enjoy myself because there were so much overlapping in plots... it was messy and not in a fun way. and i'm so sorry to the elves, you all have been through so much, but they were boring.

i didn't go with much expectations for s3 and i tried. and i was talking about this with a friend of mine, but one of the major things that makes or breaks a fantasy show for me is... costumes, hair style, and set design, (and lighting but this season did have decent lighting, so yay!). i think the witcher fails in a lot of way because i can never get too immersed before i start noticing a lot of technical stuff... this is a me problem.

the over all season did a much better job of relationships, which helped. but also split up the family a lot. i would have killed for more of that little family bonding in epi 1 and not splitting them up. i did like that yen and ciri had their bickering moments, you know that goes a lot with growing pains. but it also felt like yen was already doing so much, so to keep throwing back that she betrayed got a little exhausting... especially after yen revealed her past.

maybe i love yen the most, who's to say? i also would forgive her constantly :)

i don't want to think about episode 5. but i want to know if that was in the script, was it the editors, director. also epi 4 was a filler, like how do you have a filler episode in 5 episodes lol and epi 3, around 53:00 had the weirdest scene and if you know you know...

this is probably not the answer you were looking for lol but i think right now i'm staying for my faves and hope her happiness.

[1yapp0logy1]

so, i've been watching a lot of stuff lately. mostly because distraction is the best coping mechanism for the awful thoughts that my brain won't stop thinking about :-)

i finished watching the witcher - AND I AM ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATED THAT HENRY CAVILL IS LEAVING. it broke me when I was going on my rant and I saw the results on google. he was so good... anyways I have a heard a lot of criticism about the show - and I think that they are fair game - but I still found the last 2 seasons pretty engaging. i am trying to read the books, but I need to actually have a physical copy - otherwise reading on my laptop is so trapping. i have my whole life in front of a screen - MAYBE I WANT SOME IN PAPER?

i just started watching jojo's bizarre adventure with like 0 context initially and what a fun time! the animation, the characters, so camppp - i can't get enough. i don't I'll ever skip the intro and THE OUTRO? THAT'S WHERE THE MEME CAME FROM? yeah, sometimes it pays to be living under a rock - you get to experience stuff from a whole new perspective - whimsy yall. whimsy.

ALSO I found how it's made on discovery (apparently we have a discovery subscription, and I didn't know about it???) - yeah my childhood is completely restored. my friend shared a post about how it's on HBO dedicated to the neurodivergents. when I tell you how much I missed this show - there was so much jumping. the most fun I've had this week. and of course, I can't forget about my all time favorite the way of the househusband. I just love watching it during breaks or having it in the background. I can't get over dudes who are just so scary on the outside, but on the inside... they're just softies ya'll. I only like men in theory yall. also.... THE MYSTERY OF AARAVOS? hello? once again i don't know if this is a hidden gem? or if I am just a good old under-the-rock dweller. I love it so much, I've just consumed so much of it because i just could peel my eyes away from it. the world building, and the fantasy genre is just taking me over. also someone tell me why aaravos is just so... okay maybe you can whisper in my ear.

but yeah maybe this girlblogging will help me remember and appreciate what I binge more ehe

[bamf-jaskier]

A long ramble of thoughts about the history of chaos on the continent and why Fringilla’s use of forbidden magics is pretty neat

So one thing not too many people knowing about the Witcher is that magic is called Chaos for a very specific reason: it is the opposite of Order. In Sword of Destiny, Borch tells Geralt that Chaos is the aggressor and Order is endangered and needs protecting. Chaos is what mages/elves/witchers/sources/etc can channel in order to produce magic. 

It's important to note that magic DID NOT EXIST before the conjunction of the spheres so it's pretty strongly implied that before the conjunction Order and Chaos were one and the Conjunction split them apart, leaving Order vulnerable and Chaos in the hands of living beings to manipulate. When the conjunction happened, no race (humans, elves, werebubbs, etc) knew how to use magic but eventually most of them found a way to use chaos. 

What is interesting is that we are told that Witchers/Mages/Elves all see magic differently but we are never told how. It is mentioned briefly that mages "pervert" magic by the Elves but we don't know what perversion of magic looks like to the elves because it is subjective to their own worldview. However, looking at the earliest human tribes on the continent, the Dauk and the Wozgor we can get some idea of the difference between human magic and elf magic. Both groups were very influenced by ritualistic group magic as well as worship of the gods. Many of these gods such as Melitele are still worshipped. 

The Dauk were more into fertility and harvest, think early Beltane Midsummer stuff, while the Wozgor primarily worshipped Lilit with Blood Sacrifices. So we see humans are in a group-mentality when it comes to magic and summoning, they pull power from the earth and pool together their magic to create spells. At this time, elves and humans were not considered enemies so group-magic and more nature-esque magic is accepted by the elves. This is also supported by the dryads and elves seeming to prefer druids who still use magic group-magic today.

So now we start to get into when the philosophical schism on magic happened. Clearly, at some point, humans started working on less "group/nature magic" and on more individualistic magic. By the nature of chaos it is consuming so as more humans began working on individual magic, they became more power hungry. I had a theory that it was human's use of individualized magic that led them to leaving the nomadic tribe mentality and instead moving to more Nordling-Like culture where they live in one place and fight with other tribes, eventually building cities, colonizing, and in general taking the standard course of human history. So now humans have magic. And they have POWER. 

So you get mages who are fighting for their tribes, their groups and eventually kingdoms like Novigrad begin to form. Now the Brotherhood was formed in the 8th century by the Novigrad Union which was a group of druids, mages, and priests who signed a non-agression pact to stop the raids and warfare that were so common for centuries. However, the Union fell apart due to difference in views on magic while the Brotherhood stayed together. 

The Brotherhood is now sort of the ruling party on the continent, it's the only power really left after the Union. It's not its own Kingdom so it can technically be considered neutral. This puts a lot of responsibility on the Brotherhood and the Northern Rulers are overwhelmed by the number of monsters. Previously, humans were so focused on killing each other they couldn't really organize and do anything about the monsters but now that society is developing it's a real problem for trade and travel. so they create the first Witchers in Rissberg. However, once they find out that the Witcher don't have the same magic aptitude as mages, they are discarded as failed experiments.

This is where is gets interesting again for me. Because Witchers actually can cast magic as strong as mages, they elect to use signs but Witchers can pool their magic together in order to cast more powerful spells. So what was the difference between mages and witcher that had the mages deem Witchers as failures? I am theorizing that Witchers channel chaos whereas mages manipulate it. 

The way I describe it in my fic is that Witchers act as a conduit for chaos, think of it like sucking up magic into a straw, the Witcher is the straw, they bring chaos in it's purest form into the world. Then, once the magic is in our realm, they shape it into the spell or form they desire. It's similar to how elves and ancient humans used magic. This is why the elves don't call a Witcher's magic a perversion but a mage's magic is. 

I'm theorizing that Mages on the the other hand bring magic in through almost a mold. When a mage summons chaos, that chaos can only be used for the very specific purpose that they want in that moment. It ties into their philosophy on willpower. What you desire is the magic you have. So a Witcher could begin to cast an Aard and then halfway through change the sign into an Igni and it would work fine. However, a mage can't begin to cast a portal and then change it into a lightning bolt. But this is also the reason mages are so powerful, their magic is specific. It is decided and the willpower behind it makes it a stronger spell.

NOW FINALLY we can begin talking about forbidden magics. So I'm not going to get into the First and Second Ages of the Witchers but just know that Witchers are now off on the continent doing their own thing and monster hunting, creating their own culture, etc. The Brotherhood does NOT care for this. They can see control slipping from their fingers so they and they are worried other mages are going to experiment the same way they experimented to create Witchers but this time they will make something even more powerful. Something that could topple their power. 

The Brotherhood begins to ban magic that could be used to manipulate the natural order. The main three banned magics of the Brotherhood are Goetia (demonology), Necromancy and Ancient Magics. Now demonology was actually practiced by the Wozgor and many think that Lilit was actually a demon they summoned. Necromancy and Ancient Magics both have the potential for abuse but not more so than any other form of magic. However these are all powerful magics. But it's not just BANNING magic that creates censure with the brotherhood. It's the stringent guidelines of how to perform magic even though we KNOW there are multiple ways to channel chaos. The Brotherhood also creates a system with the court that also creates censure because courtly expectations now place an emphasis on respectability and governance and how you should hold yourself, etc. Being a mage becomes a lot more restrictive and a lot less experimental.

So we have to ask ourselves, what does Fringilla do that causes her to be considered abhorrent, In Tissaia's words: "I will defend our way of life, The Brotherhood, The Academies, the order that we have built up over centuries, you've rejected it all Fringilla" 

So here's what we KNOW Fringilla has done: Forced Mages in Servitude until they decide to serve the White Flame (of course Fringilla says it isn't servitude but Triss disagrees), Practice Necromancy, Demonology, and Fire Magics She specifically says the phrase "most of us came from Aretuza and Ban Ard" so here's what we have to consider, how did Fringilla get them there, she can't have kidnapped everyone and as well if u know some spoilers from the book then there are plenty of mages that voluntary work for Nilfgaard. 

Fringilla works with ANYONE who has chaos, not just people deemed worthy by the Brotherhood. In addition, she works will all magic, no limitations. In many ways, Nilfgaardian magic is returning to ancient magic. If you watch the battle at Sodden, the mages perform a lot of life-force spells. I have a theory that those types of spells are MEANT to be performed in groups and since they aren't, the mage withers and dies. 

Also, listen, in another world Nilfgaard could be the hero. If they didn't show Nilfgaard being generally evil like killing everyone and sacrificing mages and stuff they actually have good reasoning? Cintra is objectively terrible. They literally almost killed off an entire race? The Genocide of the Elves is very much brushed over and honestly Cintra should have been overthrown ages ago. Also Nilfgaard has policies of cooperativity and community and honestly if they didn't so morally bereft acts their society has a lot of potential. 

Fringilla is returning magic to how to was pre-brotherhood where it's groups of loosely defined mages doing what they want. She is also trying to break of the individualistic mindset of most mages which I think is interesting because it goes against the very soul of how mages perform magic. It's like Tissaia said, Fringilla is rejecting centuries of tradition. In any other world, Fringilla would be the Katniss to the Brotherhood's Capital. If Nilfgaard wasn't cast as so brutal they would literally be considered a revolutionary force trying to oust a genocidal dictatorial system (Cintra). Granted, many people have compared Nilfgaard to either being a Roman Empire or Soviet Russia analog, both brutal totalitarian or imperial regimes which probably is part of the reason Nilfgaard is so brutal. I am suggesting that in another universe, Nilfgaard could be instead of an imperial-religious-type regime a more revolutionary force. 

Perhaps an AU where Nilfgaard teams up with Cintran Rebels and arrives at the city to help Cintran Freedom Fighters tear it down and then allows Cintra to rebuild on their own terms. Basically, I’m talking about the overthrow of the monarchy system present in most of the continent. 

I would really like to see an AU where Fringilla is a revolutionary figurehead trying to work to establish a democratic system in a monarchal society while going against centuries of magical tradition. I think with the addition of magic and complexity of politics not the continent there’s just so much to think about here. 

[axl-ul]

Ok, so I finally decided the way I want to direct this blog/"page". I may edit this in the future in case I forgot to mention something on the day I post this. This is the basic summary:

1. This is an official blog for my personal project The Legends of No-man's Land. I'll be posting stuff about the world-building, the lore, the story and characters which are either based on mythological gods or are directly inspired by them. NOTHING IS RELIGIOUS. Everything here was and is created because of my passion for mythical stories and various cultures which have been influencing me my whole life. Why? I simple grew up listening and reading about them. Do not take this in a way I'd be making fun of a religious group. In fact, I avoid this as much as I can.

2. I might be also posting character analyses and writing prompts. I enjoy writing and creating new stuff. So if you'd like to chat about such, ask a question or two or think you could suggest an improvement, please, feel free to contact me.

3. The takes I take on characters are purely my interpretations.

4. The main story (as well as spin-offs/prequels/sequels/origin stories, if I feel like writing them) are going to feature MATURE ideas and themes (for instance the abuse and how different people deal with it). This means NSFW content which isn't at all directed at minors and people who are uncomfortable with gore, addiction etc.

5. The core is more or less of a psychological aspect. Let's say, it's somewhat of a deep dive to issues (social, psychological etc.). Please keep in mind, the story ONLY poses questions and ONLY ATTEMPTS to find a solution. Never a right answer.

6. Genre: dark fantasy (feat. Slavic (especially), Chinese, Nordic, Shinto, Greek, Native American and other mythologies) and folk/psychological/cosmic horror.

7. If anyone thinks something in terms of not getting right some facts in culture/myths, pleas, feel free to contact me. I'd like to get educated as I believe this is the key part of leading a civil conversation. To offend someone beliefs is the last thing I'd ever want.

8. If anyone wants to chat or share an opinion, do so in a polite and civil way.

9. When it comes to my grammatical skills, let me know and I'll try to make myself as clear as possible because English isn't my native language.

10. The story is heavily (like, HEAVILY) influenced by several already existing novels, sagas, mangas and video games (for exemple Berserk, Bloodborne or Witcher and, of course, folk stories I used to read or members of my family would tell me). I will not deny if you'll spot certain familiarities. However, the stories and characters aren't copies of them. They are on their own and they "live" their own lives.

11. I might post a design or two (take with a grant of salt, 'cause lately I've been hooked up on drawing a lot).

12. Writing prompts will be free to use. My characters, the story, the setting and generally the world of TLNL - no.

Sorry for a long post but because I want to finally create more of this project I wanted to clear all of my ideas up. I know today it's one or two people (at best). However, in case people will take some liking or interest into this, I don't want any kind of confusion to happen.

Again, sorry for grammatical errors but as I mentioned English isn't my first language, though I enjoy writing in it.

[moophinz]

RGG LIVE ACTION ADAPTION

Recently, I discovered that one of the two production teams tackling this project have a site full of info on their other stuff, about them, etc. Wild Sheep Content can be seen here, but there's nothing of the sort to be found about 1212 Entertainment besides an IMDb page and wherever else you can find them. I've noticed a lot of people wondering about updates on this so I decided to post this. (It would be a bit harder for me to get this around on Twitter).

1) According to the site, it's going to be filmed in Japan and be in Japanese. Saw many concerned about it being in English with a non Japanese cast. Their other projects and content from Erik Barmack feature people and companies from the respective countries of each series so I guess the same will happen with Yakuza if it moves further along in progress.

2) It's not going to be a movie. Instead, it'll be 8 episodes that are an hour long. If so, this would possibly give them more time to explore world building and such.

3) They supposedly already have two scripts written. I guess each is from the credited people. I'm not sure if this is the right Yugo, but I found this page along with his Twitter which hasn't been active since last year. Sean, however, is a very confusing sight to me because looking at his IMDb tells me he doesn't have a lot under his belt besides The 100 and Veronica Mars. Really unsure about that...

4) As you find out from the site, Erik played a big role in international media production at Netflix where he worked for some time and had shows like Dark, 3%, and The Witcher. He started Wild Sheep Content and wants to produce global media for a variety of streaming sites.

That's the meat of what I know so far 👌

[bloededhoine]

world building cause twn doesn't part 10: the law of surprise

arguably one of the most confusing parts of the witcher universe that is never really explained outright. BUT it is clearly super important, so let's go! also huge thanks to the people i bugged for slavic and biblical stories, i promise i'm not making some devil deal.

colour code cause i fucking love colour codes - already happened/introduced, probably s2, important background info, stuff that might be in the prequel, extras

series masterpost

origins

the law of surprise is actually a major theme in slavic mythology, which is probably why we never get a straightforward explanation about it. the witcher was never really meant for a non-slavic audience, so sapkowski likely assumed that the reader would just know what he's talking about

traditionally, if you asked the devil for something, you would pay him with "what you had left at home without knowing or expecting it"

witchers were said to be servants of the devil, and therefore would request the law in payment for their services

there's even a version of the law in the old testament! the judge jephthah led the israelites in a victorious battle against the rival kingdom of ammon. in exchange for defeating the ammonites, he vowed to sacrifice whatever came out of his door first when he came home. this turned out to be his daughter, and, while he regretted it, jephthah sacrificed her to god

how it works

put simply-ish, the law of surprise states that when someone is saved by someone else, the saviour can request a payment that is unknown by both parties at the time of the deal.

confusing? yes? allow me to explain

first, the law only applies to life or death situations. nothing else. some people even take this to mean that the only reward for saving someone's life is the law of surprise, but that's less common.

still, it's very widely believed that the law of surprise is the best payment for a life debt. this goes into the whole destiny thing which i'll talk more about later.

witchers are notable for claiming the law because their occupation tends to lead to a lot of life-saving, but it's not exclusive to the witchering profession

so, when you save someone's life, they will ask you how they can repay you. you then can enact the law of surprise, which entitles you to something that neither you nor the person you saved know exists yet.

for example, pavetta's father, roegner, fell into a ravine and broke his legs, but was rescued by duny. as duny's reward, he invoked the law of surprise. roegner didn't know that his wife was pregnant, obviously duny didn't know this either, and that baby belonged to duny

requests

this is just what comes after the classic "you've saved me! how can i ever repay you?" "well, i think there's something that we both might like..." *smooth jazz starts playing*

ah shit that's the porno version!

so sorry, here's the real version

when someone asks how they can repay you for saving their life, there are two basic requests you can make, either "the first thing that comes to greet you" or "what you find at home but do not expect".

the first one is less severe, and can really be anything, ie a dog that runs outside or a visitor at the gate (not really sure how that one would work logistically)

the second one is more common and powerful, as it's almost always a child. usually the person who is rewarding the law comes home and finds out that their wife is pregnant or had a baby. oops?

geralt requested "that which you already have but do not know" from duny, which is a variation of the second one that almost exclusively means an unborn child, just wrapped in convoluted packaging. our favourite witcher is really smart but also really stupid.

payment

obviously, the logistics of actually picking up the thing that you don't know about are pretty confusing

but it tends to work out in one of a few ways

sometimes the unexpected thing makes itself known right then and there, like with geralt and ciri. in this case, the person who did the saving will just decide what to do with their reward.

more frequently, the person who was saved will bring the person who did the saving to their house, where they will both find something unexpected.

in this scenario, the unexpected thing can either be taken by the person who did the saving immediately (usually in the case of an animal), or they will come back and get it in a few years (usually in the case of a child). do they come back and get it? results vary.

occasionally, the person who did the saving will just book it, either trusting destiny to deliver them their reward when the time is right or hoping that destiny is a myth and they don't need to actually get their reward.

destiny

it makes sense that destiny is a huge part of the law of surprise, given both of their important presences in the witcher

the law of surprise is the most common payment for a life debt because when you save someone's life, you are acting on behalf of destiny to allow them to survive something that they shouldn't have survived, but were destined to

destiny also ensures that the reward will always be received. geralt denied his reward for years, but we all know how that turned out.

that's why eist tuirseach was so ready to throw down at the idea of the law of surprise not being honoured, if someone claims the law of surprise, you have to respect that.

examples

obviously, the most notable example is ciri and geralt. you probably know the story from twn, but the book version is slightly more dramatic so i'll tell it in brief.

geralt saved duny from certain death after calanthe ordered his capa detated from his body. geralt claimed the law of surprise almost as a joke and well...

but of course this story gets far more complicated. in those 6 years, pavetta and duny had died and calanthe didn't want to give away her only descendant, so she just kinda didn't.

five years later, geralt and ciri met face to face but geralt refused to take ciri, believing that he would only bring her death. she was devastated, since this forced her to be sent back to her grandmother who just wanted to marry her off to some prince.

around a year later, after the sacking of cintra, geralt saved a farmer named yurga from some ghouls. believing that his first child surprise had died with the rest of her family in the palace, and feeling just generally ironic, geralt claimed the law of surprise again.

turns out, that which yurga had at home but did not expect was none other than ciri, who miraculously escaped the palace and made it to yurga's home. having claimed the same child surprise twice, geralt finally took ciri as his daughter.

duny also claimed the law of surprise, but since he was like 15 at the time and was promised a baby, he decided to come back later and see what destiny could do in a few years.

turns out destiny created a 14 year old that was just perfect for duny's 29 year old wooing. yeah. it's... something. but, from their unholy union we got ciri! ew but yay? i guess?

eskel also claimed the law of surprise twice, first was the princess deidre ademeyn, who eskel avoided for years in a very geralt-fashion. the second was his horse named scorpion, whose story went decidedly smoother

[hanzajesthanza]

i might have developed a witcher superhero au even though i dont even care for the superhero genre and have no experience with it. idk if this aligns with any kind of superhero canons out there since i dont have experience im just saying whatever i want to. also this is from september of last year and comprised from a few different discord messages i sent to my friends

note that i build aus by just looking at the canon and making everything fit a different universe instead of creating extremely different situations and characters... i.e., it’s an alternate universe, not an alternate story.

some worldbuilding clarifications:

in this there are characters that are just some guys. dandelion is just a regular singer. but imagine if like elton john and batman were best friends forever and everyone knew about their epic friendship

superheroes in this are treated ig just basically like magic abilities in the witcher; some ppl have them though its rare, theres a few schools in the world to develop them

i dont see a necessity in this au specifically to add things in like “superheroes are oppressed for having powers” or anything like that because [ironic for a witcher books fan to say] i dislike oppression allegories if they’re overt comparisons to specific forms of oppression irl, and i’d rather real oppression be tackled instead because it can be insensitive a lot of the time

there’s also superheroes who dont have powers which are a lot of our cast lol. geralt just still has two swords and the ability to kick ass

as for setting, there’s always like some city this stuff is set in but i want to genre bend and say a lot of it is roadtripping through the countryside and they only enter cities when the plot calls for it (like entering reidbrune in ttos)

heres some cringey supernames:

geralt: “the white wolf”… but more commonly “the wolf”. the “the” is mandatory :/ yennefer: menace dandelion: that’s already his stage name. gay ass milva: “kite”. opposite of geralt in that there is never a “the”. cahir: doesn’t have a super identity or name and doesn’t want one. he’s “the [unknown] rider” sometimes because he kidnapped ciri while riding a motorcycle regis: it’s complicated, scroll down angoulême: just a supervillain’s henchman for now, but has meticulously brainstormed and planned out potential supervillain’s names, and she wants to be a supervillain called “dagger”… “because, you know, dagger, like? sharp? cutting? i’m funny, i wound people. what’s not to love.”

geralt is a vigilante so/but ppl just see him as an inconvenience. this world might take place in a post-nuclear setting where the effects have created monsters and also are the sources of people’s superpowers. 

yennefer is not a superhero so to speak but she just has powers and uses them whenever she wants. sometimes its cool and sometimes it causes traffic incidents. she just owns her own small business and doesn’t care too much about using her powers for good or evil, she just wants a regular life. she got more bad rap than she deserved though just bc she didnt play to society’s ‘you have to use your powers for either good or evil’ thing. geralt meets her in a similar fashion to the canon last wish. complete with crashing a dinner party

yennefer: literally just minding her own damn business and living her life everyone else: so why don’t you exist for MY benefit . what a b*tch

just like in canon, the main conflict is that ciri is like being hunted by the government for her powers and by leagues of other ppl with powers (lodge, aen elle) for the same reasons. she has superhero abilities but doesnt know how to control them and if this were a superhero comic she could teleport inbetween the pages and enter/exit scenes through the margins

milva gets caught strategically taking out hateful and violent people as a vigilante and gets caught by eithne and joins her coalition instead. 

cahir is a young man from a wealthy family who through nepotism gets a job at a tech company and then gets tasked with retrieving ciri so the company can use her for her powers.

regis was a supervillain (bc of course…) … eventually he stopped going insane though and became normal and is now a trauma surgeon at a hospital 😅. slightly different backstory than in canon, since he is human in this - he is one of a few ‘gifted’ people who developed powers from a young age and this was overwhelming to his parents so he was in the foster care system for a long time. he generally exploited the lack of care from parents and sought attention and affection from peers instead, showing off. he became famous and revelled in the attention from not only other people but local news outlets and the media. but when they moved on he became embittered and started to arrogantly and narcisticically exploit his fans for power and he might have overthrown the city at one point idk anyways he died of his own stupid accord but came back through his powers. oh yeah his powers... he has shadow-based powers that are generally like his canonical powers (disappearing, putting people to sleep, hypnosis) but also with the addition of manipulating shadow to cause a variety of unpredictable chaos to happen. and perhaps flight/levitation, or some sort of blink/shadow travel ability... but no turning into a bat. also he has perhaps some kind of life force draining powers bc id like him to be called nightplague … which he thought was a stupid name but society gave him it anyways … he wanted to be called “fangZ,” with a Z (or Kaos (chaos) with a K), which he thought was SO cool and ranted to his ex-girlfriend and anyone who would listen about it extensively….. 😑 also as a supervillain he looked like zoga from captain yajima (worthikids animation)

angouleme was a henchman and goon of minor supervillain nightingale, she defects from him and thinks her career is over and (obviously the hansa are all superheroes) but regis would b a reformed supervillain and shed be like COME ONNNN BE EVIL W ME… you’re all going to say wow maj Another au in which angouleme is the one to recognize regis from the past and is like “you were that really crazy evil guy SHOW ME YOUR WAYS” and he has to explain to her that being an evil problem to society isnt a good career goal…….. and shes like ok . but i want to be rich and cause problems. she offers to henchman for him about a dozen times before he is forced to explain in strict terms that he is never going to go back to that life ever. and she’s like. ok well can you at least blow something up with your powers. can we at least have an explosion here.

zoltan would be some guy on a road trip with his friends and parrot…… i think he would be but like . im thinking (stupidly) that this is set in the US so i imagined he meets geralt & co were offroading but met with zoltan who was driving an RV full of his friends and they stopped and picked the hitchhikers up. zoltan obv wears hawaiian shirt during this.

emhyr is the ceo of the company that wants to kidnap ciri for her powers. the aen elle are also superheroes but everyone thinks they disbanded and disappeared. the lodge of sorceresses are comprised of ‘patron’ superheroes who come from different cities which are under each of their protection.

i don’t have interest in fleshing this out further but i wanted to post this silly thing for archival purposes :) and so you will know what i am talking about if i mention “superhero au”

[do-what-the-knight-tells-you]

Blood of Elves was not that bad.

Like, maybe I just sort of misinterpreted what people were saying, and that the argument is just that it's like the worst of the series, or not a good entry point, which both very well may be true... I definitely think that The Last Wish collection of short stories is a much better way of getting into the story....

Blood of Elves is not a particularly well-paced book? But it was really not that bad.

The politics were boring I thought, a lot of the training stuff, both her stuff at the keep with The witchers and in the back half her stuff with Yennefer was... Well, it maybe could have stood to be broken up a little bit more with... I don't know. Other stuff happening. (Not with the politics. XD)

But particularly the middle section, the bit where Ciri and Geralt and Triss are traveling, which did not make it into season 2 of the Netflix show, that was like legitimately good and seriously compelling. There were other pieces that I liked, other side events, But that section in particular I thought was really good and very illustrative of their relationship, of Geralt's morality, and of the themes I think that the series strives for.

It pretty clearly sells the idea that Geralt's attempts at neutrality are not born out of apathy or lack of feeling, but potentially out of an overabundance of it, and an unwillingness to irrevocably hurt or destroy things he doesn't need to, even if those things are doing their level best to destroy themselves.

Big time conservationist!Geralt vibes, And I was here for it. (And for some of the historical stuff revealed in that same section)

It did actually quite a good job of building up and selling the relationship between the witchers and Ciri, Ciri and Geralt's dynamic, how Triss fits into it, The complexity of Triss' character (That there are some places where she's so very right, and observes and has the guts to call out things that other characters don't... But at the same time is so misguided or selfishly motivated or whatever in her relationship to Geralt... Enough that even Ciri can see it and be uncomfortable with it), Ciri's character and desire for how to continue forward in the world, what she wants her future to look like, how she feels about her powers and her past... And more than a few moments of watching her grow up and mature that were great, and then of course it ends by letting us see her and Yennefer learn to tolerate each other, and then genuinely like each other.

And I think the timeline for the book is like several years? So it does a good job of selling that she's putting in a lot of work, that building these relationships and building her skill set very much takes time and dedication, that dedication being sometimes hard to come by in a young person.

I also liked Dandelion's bits, though they weren't closely tied to Ciri's plots exactly, he was always a lovely change, whenever he hit the scene.

.

So yeah, it could have been paced better and structured better maybe, but I really didn't have that much trouble with it, and I'm glad I read it, and hope that some of the pieces that did not make it into season 2 of the Netflix show might make it into future seasons, because there were some genuinely delightful things we haven't seen yet, even though strictly by the structure, season 2 ought to have already passed them by... XD 🙈

And as long as you don't mind skipping through some slower pieces, either by skimming the pages or letting yourself tune out parts of the audiobook, then I recommend it. 👍 Don't be intimidated by people saying that it's bad, or that it's the worst one. I guess even the worst one, by an author with genuinely interesting themes and characters to discuss, isn't that bad. 👌👌

[dailyadventureprompts]

First off, I love your blog! It's been the highlight of my day to see what you've posted. I was wondering if you have any ideas for setting design? Your settings/locations are so evocative, and I want my players to feel the same way about my settings. But I have a hard time balancing familiarity with originality. I want my setting to be relatable, yet its own thing. Any tips?

Friend you’re already on the right track, because you asked me about creating something specific, rather than something that’s simply “good”.  More specifically: evocative, familiar, original, relatable.   These are all VERY good goals to write for when developing a setting, so thanks for taking care of the first part of my job for me. 

So... how do we go about creating such settings? 

First: don’t worry about getting everything perfect and detailed on the first blush. All the best settings you can probably call to mind were given their depth and scope by many stages of drafting and redrafting, so when you’re writing your own, focus on establishing a solid foundation and then layer on from there. 

Second: to establish that foundation, we’re going to look at three elements I consider absolutely CRITICAL to good fantasy setting design, 

Genre Emulation: if you’re writing a d&d adventure, it’s a good chance that you know what type of stories you’re looking to evoke. These stories come with their own stock characters, allusions, and assumptions, and you should abuse the HELL out of these when doing your own writing. Playing on archetypes and shaping them to your liking can help you know where else you need to go, and gives your audience an immediate buy in.  “ oh yes, I’ve heard this story before, I know what’s going on, I know what’s expected of me” is something you want to aim for, while putting your own character into it. 

Verisimilitude: While amateur gamemasters are often notorious for overdetailing their world and getting completely lost in the weeds of world building, you DO need to do some work in justifying how exactly your setting works, how society functions, and the basics of trade. The good news? Most of that is an illusion you can totally fake, by only detailing the stuff that’s DIRECTLY RELEVANT to the ongoing plot and using that as a jumping off point to make up anything else you might need. To tell you a dirty secret of most major media franchises, most worldbuilding is done this way, a hasty level of detail thrown on top of random justifications. 

Purpose: When we’re designing, we always have to keep our goals in mind. What sort of game are you running, what are your plans for your big setpeices? Its important to build your setting in such a way as to facilitate and highlight, rather than restrict those goals. If you know you’re running a mystery, you need to build knots of personal relation, hidden agendas, and secrets. If you’re planning to run a battle, you need to work on developing natural defenses, economic resources, and tenuous alliances.  

Below the cut I’ll go into deeper examples of properties that do each of these topics well, as well as give more tips on how you can get the most out of your setting design. 

Genre Emulation : This is key to getting your players invested early on. They’ve absorbed a lot of media before they sit down at your table, at least second hand, and you want to be able to tap into that familiarity  so that you can start building their bonds with each other and with the world stakes. We humans LIKE knowing what’s expected of us, and knowing what stories you’re emulating is going to give your players a good understanding right away of the tone. I’d honestly encourage being very up front with your campaign’s influences, and if you yourself aren’t sure, maybe do a media binge until you find something that you can point to as a reference.  

The Witcher is a master in genre emulation. The audience can immediately buy into the fusion of a) gritty fantasy ala game of thrones b) classic heroic narratives in the form of the questing monster slaying knight ( Geralt), the self discovery magical apprenticeship (Yennifer), and the orphaned chosen one’s odyssey ( Ciri). The thematic twist that the Witcher pulls off is getting jaded modern audiences to accept these classic, uplifting, archetypical stories, by having their characters start off as disillusioned as the audience  and slowly gain hope and understanding and love overtime. 

If you can figure out what your story is ABOUT, and then couch that in a familiar storytelling niche, I can guarantee you your setting will be rich and memorable. 

Verisimilitude: The art of making your setting feel like one that actual people live in is an ongoing affair, but thankfully it requires little actual prep-work on your part, maybe a bit of vague brainstorming about how life in the relevant settlement/region. What’s the common monster problem? What was the last big war? when’s the next feast or festival? what ruler fucked up so bad in the recent past that people are STILL making fun of them? These little things add texture to your setting way more than a giant infodump ever could. 

I might anger some people for saying this but you know what setting has excellent verisimilitude? Harry Potter. Rowling didn’t build her world top down and peruse implications of her magic system down to the smallest detail. She randomly adds details and justifies it later.  Chocolate frog cards have no explanation, or greater meaning in the world, but they’re 1000% you’d expect wizard kids in the early 90s to be snacking on.  We see this applied to things like shopping districts and banking and government within the setting: here’s a thing wizards would need, lets make it a bit fantastical and then plug it in. it doesn’t need to be any harder than that. 

Work out the basic logistics of your current adventure, add a few flourishes, don’t sweat the big stuff. Keep doing this long enough and you’ll make a setting that seems like it was puled out of the aether by a master storyteller, whole cloth. 

Purpose: If there’s a cardinal sin of dungeonmasters: it’s prepping blind, just adding things to their world because they feel like they SHOULD have it and bloating the campaign. Reading Tolkien and becoming convinced they need to build your own language system, reading Martin and thinking they need to plot out every minor noble house and their relationships to one another, completely missing the point with how LOTR is about how history + language are fading in the time of modernity, or how ASOIAF is about dynastic politics. 

What is your story, fundamentally, ABOUT? Theming is important here of course, but also what’s the primary gameplay hook? Exploring dungeons? Traveling to exotic new lands? Swashbuckling and sailing? Epic warfare? You can’t just grab-bag everything together, you need to figure out what your campaign is about before you go building a setting around it. Most people who set out to dungeonmaster are critically unaware of this step and so they create yet another generic fantasy land and wonder why their setting lacks real character. 

Say what you will about modern Starwars, but they’re the CHAMPS of purpose these days. Nearly new planet from the sequel trilogy onwards has been perfectly designed to facilitate a key scene, and I encourage you to go out and watch the secondary media ( Rogue one, Solo, The Mandalorian)  and see how they build a setting AROUND an action set piece, rather than building the setting first and then trying to cram the fun into it. 

Rather than just filling up pages and pages with detail, your first priority should be building and refining the fundamentals of your story.  Figure out the cool stuff you want to focus your adventure/campaign around, and then build back from there. 

[bamf-jaskier]

I'm pretty bemused myself by some of the negativity I've seen. I feel like it's been so long since s1 and so much has happened that a lot of fandom has lost touch with what the show is (ie, a v. flawed adaptation that's still super fun and pretty to look at). S2 is not going to look much at all like the fanon we've hodge-podged together from the various canons and that's gonna make some people real mad. I already knew that, but some of the reactions to the trailer are really bringing it home.

Responding to This

Yeah, I mean I've shown in previous posts how the fandom took off because of the show, however a lot of fans took a dive into the books and games during this long hiatus and have absorbed their own ideas about those and have come to expect them in the show.

However, while I love the books and games, heck I waited for the books to be translated into English and literally read them as they came out and TW3 was one of the first games I ever really played, they are very different media than the show.

The long dialogues and world building descriptions we love in the books would be clunky in the show and the games takes place in an entirely different timeline post-book-canon. (Also the games change and add so many characters it's wild -- the games are very different from the show by a whole lot)

So like you said, fandom has made a lot of their own adaptions and headcanons and as a result has set some expectations that the show doesn't want to meet or can't meet.

For example people have been writing Kaer Morhen as just a place Eskel, Lambert, Geralt, Vesemir and Coën (well okay he's not in a lot of fics but he should be) winter but the show is adding all these other Witchers whose names we don't even know yet, already giving us new stuff to work with.

For me, I have more fun when people don't take things as seriously and just accept the show is going to fuck things up you like but it also might add new things you love.

I mean heck I'm sure most fans are happy that Dandelion is no longer a serial sexual harasser like in the books...some changes you might unexpectedly enjoy. Have an open mind and have fun!