#ask guidelines

[ardafanonarch]

Welcome! This is an Ask-based meta blog for looking into the intersections of fanon and canon in The Silmarillion fandom. 

What does that mean?

“Fanon archaeology” means digging into the canon texts to theorise about where fanons come from. It's a bit like a "fanon mythbusters" blog except that nothing is being busted. The aim here is to investigate in a spirit of curiosity and fun that celebrates fandom creativity. It is not to criticise or argue against. It is also a great place to send in a Ask about the various “versions” of canon you hear about in this fandom.

Ask Guidelines

To be revised as the blog evolves.

Currently only taking Asks primarily to do with the Years of the Trees and First Age.

Please be respectful in your wording. Avoid language that is judgmental or generalising. For example, instead of saying, “I hate that everyone thinks Sauron tortured Maedhros, can you set the record straight?” just ask the question: “Where does the idea that Sauron tortured Maedhros come from?” 

We don't do meta on the canonical basis of ships (Vingilot excepted). This topic is very subjective and outside the scope of the blog.

Responses will focus on links to canon, not fandom history.

We will try to answer approx. one Ask per week. 

Replies to anon asks will be tagged #anon.

More info below the cut.

Why bother with this?

The entire corpus of works published by J.R.R Tolkien or his son Christopher is massive, difficult to navigate, and not always accessible. Many fans are curious about the relationship between fanon and canon but perhaps don’t have the time, energy, or resources to dig into the texts. We’re here to do the archaeology: excavate the quotes, dust off the footnotes, and report back on the findings. 

Who are you?

Currently this blog is run by one person, but to avoid any confusion between my individual takes and the intended objectivity of this blog, I am keeping my fandom identity on the down-low. I am not a scholar or an expert, but I love researching and writing meta. For now the blog is Silmarillion-focused because that’s my area of interest and knowledge. If and when the blog grows, I hope to expand to include other Tolkien canon and invite fandom community members to contribute responses to Asks.

This is a positive space.

We love fanon, canon, and the creative process that connects them. Positive, constructive, and supportive engagement with our posts is encouraged. Negative, hostile, offensive engagement is not, and we may block users who choose to engage in this way. 

Please be respectful of the community and remember we are all just here hanging out because we love the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. 

[circuit-if]

Hey everyone! This is just a quick frequently asked questions post with a couple answers to repeated questions in my inbox. Hopefully this addresses them all, but if you have anything not included here just shoot me an ask and I'll get back to you if I can.

★ Circuit Content Warnings: Circuit is rated 18+ for the following: sexual themes, drug and alcohol use, explicit language, and violence. This blog is ALSO 18+.

★ Ask Guidelines: I'm willing to answer general asks surrounding the story, characters, and mechanics of the game and blog. I'm also willing to answer asks of the following (more specific) types - "how would [char] react to," prompts, and NSFW prompts. I'm NOT willing to answer any asks relating to self harm, SA, SH, or explicit asks about pregnancy. I also won't answer asks offering unsolicited and unwanted criticism or advertising your own work.

★ Romancing Multiple Characters: You can romance multiple different ROs, but there will be points where you need to choose. I advise choosing 1 per play through if you're interested in more than 1.

★ Can we choose our characters ____? Here are a couple things you can choose about your character thus far into the story. These may grow as the story progresses.

First and last name

Pronouns, including set she/her, he/him, and they/them as well as an option to enter your own pronouns.

Preferences pertaining to physical appearance, such as hair colour (dyed or natural, can dye a natural colour), hair length, hair style, clothing style, eye colour.

Team colours, primary and secondary

Car design

Pre-race habits

Racing nickname

However, there are a couple things coded into the game allowing it to naturally pick up on your characters actions and label your character as such. Here's a little info on that:

Based on actions/choices during races, your character can be labelled a wildcard, a patient and cautious prowler, or a vicious daredevil, which the world around will take note of and respond to your character with. You can actively manipulate which of the three you are during races, but you cannot manually choose.

Actions/choices made in the public eye impact how the world responds to your character. You can hate the press or love it, ignore your fans or cherish them. Again, you can actively manipulate which of them you are during press/fan interactions, but you cannot manually choose.

★ Can my character be [personality]? I try to be as inclusive with my personality options as possible, so I'm inclined to say yes. However, I can't promise that every option will pertain to an ultra specific personality. In that case, I always make sure to include neutral options that cater to a wide variety of characters.

★ Any Romances Besides the ROs? Yes, but these will not be nearly as fleshed out as the main four. These will take the role of flings and will be short, without any particularly happy endings.

★ Do we have to participate in a romance route to play the story? A large part of the story is romance, but it is not its centre, so no. You can be best friends with each of the ROs and that can be the extent of your relationship.

★ Character perspectives: I'm definitely willing to write character perspectives on certain situations that happen in the story, however that will likely stay reserved to a future patreon page.

★ Fanfiction: Sure, you can write fanfiction.

★ Fan art: Sure, you can create fan art, so long as art including my characters remains generally true to the physical appearance given, which can be found here for the ROs.

★ Can we ditch Roman? Absolutely.

[the-californicationist]

Ask Guidelines

These are my guidelines for fic requests via tumblr asks. I truly adore receiving prompts or fic ideas, but please try to respect my boundaries. I do make an effort to answer almost all of my asks, but some of them are just outside of my comfort zone.

I will never write for or about minors as MCs. Minors are usually not included in my fics as side characters either. Asks for minors as MCs in fics will get you instantly blocked. I have a zero tolerance policy for this. My blog is adults only.

I mainly write for Price and Soap. I will write for Gaz, Alex, and Alejandro. I usually don't write for Ghost, Konig, or Laswell. I won't write for Makarov or Graves.

I will write for specific kinks, but if you want to see my full list, DM me. I don't enjoy writing about age-gaps, drugs, cruelty, CNC, baby-trapping, cheating, or cuckholding. I won't write for MC death, NC, DD/lg, unsafe sadism, blood play, scat/watersports, or any sort of body horror.

I usually write cis-female POV, but I feel comfortable writing for gender neutral or cis-male POV. I am willing to write for trans-m/f POV, but I may have questions about how you would like that character to be represented and referred to. I'm also happy to write slash like Ghoap or Gaz/Price.

Please understand that I usually have multiple projects going on, and I work full-time. It may take me more than a week to even read your ask much less fulfill it. Your patience is appreciated.

If you have any questions, please just DM me. I don't bite, but I may lick. 👁️👅👁️

✌️🩷 Cali

[leo-muscle]

New pinned post + ask guidelines!

Hi, everyone! Loving the response that Kings of the World has gotten, so I'm fleshing out what it means to become part of that storyline. If you send an ask, you will be transformed by King Leon, king Dom, or any other future King I write about into one of their citizens. This just means you gain a similar body to them, without the transformative fluid. I've got ideas for a lot of Kings, and i hope you all find them hot :)

Now, as to general ask guidelines for any future stories... here's what I'm not comfortable with.

-MTF TG

-Total/Complete identity death (some mental change is fine)

-Anything to do with bodily waste

-Gore

-G2S (While it may be some people's kink... it just doesn't sit right with me.)

-Possession or Nonconsensual Bodyswapping

-Anything that results in a "Bad Ending." What this means is kind of up to interpretation, but in general it means someone becoming an asshole, a fairly decent person gettin unjustly punished, overly twisted wishes, and so on. I may amend this rule as time goes on.

UPDATE: Askbox currently closed. With rare exceptions, on writing hiatus!

[howtofightwrite]

Hi! Are there certain types of asks you don’t respond to, and/or do you have a huge backlog of them? I sent one in like 3 or 4 months ago and still haven’t seen it come out, so I’m just curious as to what’s going on :) (I’m sorry if you do have guidelines posted anywhere I could not find them)

There are a few topics we won't touch. As a general rule, we're not particularly interested in covering sexual violence, violence on children, child abuse, and animal abuse. That list shouldn't be much of a surprise.

Beyond that, there are a few other things we, generally, won't cover.

The most common are cases where someone wants us to write their fight scene for them. We do offer that as a Patreon perk, but it's not something we're ever likely to do for free here. Off-hand, I think we've gotten about a dozen of those asks this year. The most recent was in the last couple weeks. Now, some of these asks do get public responses, but it's usually in the form of discussing world-building, or because one of us thinks we can get something interesting out of it. The recent “water horse,” question was one of these. So was Professional Monster Removal, now that I think about it. The original ask didn't come through Tumblr, and so I decided to revise it without the prompt. Which, part of why the tone of first couple paragraphs didn't exactly match the rest of the text (if anyone noticed.)

We also can't privately audit your work. At least, not through the ask system. This does come up from time to time when someone will send a sample of their writing (this did happen twice in the last four months.) There's two issues here. One, I wouldn't, so you'd get Michi editing and she is an absolutely merciless editor. The second thing is, there isn't really a way to do that privately in Tumblr. If you did it through Patreon, it would probably be through a shared Google Doc, or via Discord, but if you're in that tier, get in touch, and we can work with you.

I know this isn't relevant to you, but hate mail doesn't generally get a response. This should go without saying, but, I did publicly clown on that Dragon Age fanfiction writer over her attempted death threats a few years back. Similarly most of the misogynistic responses from Women are not Weaker than Men, or any of the subsequent posts, tends to get summarily executed. That stray fan of Shane O'Mara who never really understood his work, tends to get ignored. Though, I haven't seen anything from them in a year or two. Similarly, that guy who wanted me to know that “Space lizards are very important for the economy,” will probably have to wait... forever.

The real problem you're running into is probably because of how our backlog works. It tends to runs in a FILO pattern. That is to say, “first in, last out,” meaning new asks go on the top of the pile, and pushing down earlier questions in the queue. This has more to do with how Tumblr organizes its inbox rather than an intentional decision. For example, if I remember a question from five years ago, and want to answer it, I probably could not find it. I might be able to write up a post without that ask, but I wouldn't be able to notify the original sender (assuming they still use Tumblr.) This is the other reason that the dude who wanted to talk about space lizard economics will have to wait forever, that question was in 2013 or 2014, and there are roughly four-thousand asks burying his inquiry. (As a general rule, the only stuff that actually gets deleted is some of the hate mail.)

Another way to ensure a question won't get answered is to send it to Michi's personal Tumblr blog. There's only 153 in there, but, when answered, they don't get posted to How to Fight Write, and as a result, they're likely to get missed. (To be fair, the most recent ask in her inbox is from April 20, 2021, so that's not you.)

If you're asking about invisible lightsabers, I wouldn't completely give up hope. It wasn't really suitable for a full post, but assuming I can get Tumblr's inbox to cooperate again, it might show up in a batch of questions like the ones earlier this week.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get access to new posts three days early, and direct access to us through Discord. If you’re already a Patron, thank you. If you’d like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

[vermillioncourt-if]

Ask Guidelines

(may change or be updated as time goes on)

Quick Breakdown

Allowed: questions about the story/characters/etc, RO reacts (group or single RO), angst, smut/18+, asks reacting to the story, anything that's not Not Allowed

Not Allowed: detailed gratuitous violence (sa, torture, etc), unprompted demands, discourse, racism/homophobia/misogyny/sexism/etc

General Rules

1. Be nice and respectful.

I am less inclined to answer someone who is being rude or pushy or making demands for the story when I have not prompted you guys for ideas or things you want to see.

2. No discourse.

If you don't like something someone else has to say about the game/characters, please bring it up with them and don't message me about it. I will delete these asks.

3. Please refrain from "will MC be ruler" or "if MC was ruler" asks.

I feel like a broken record with how many times I've said it LMAO.

4. Do not send in any asks detailing detailed gratuitous violence against the characters or asking MC to do extreme violence against the characters.

These are really weird and off-putting to me. I don't like reading or answering them. I will delete any of these asks I get.

If you want to request an angsty RO reacts with violence, just address it generally and not detailed.

[becomingmina]

Hi love, wanted to ask before sending a request, are there things you're not comfortable writing about? like poly, voyeurism, cnc, etc

Hello 💓 Thanks for asking me! I’ve been meaning to do my request guidelines 😊

Please note I’m an 18+ blog so all my request will be written for a mature audience!!! Also if you just want a genre (just full fluffy, angst, smut etc) please include it in your request 🥰

Here is a list of things I’m uncomfortable writing;

9th member - which means no Y/N being their 9th member

Gang bang - okay with three-somes/2 members max

Male reader pov - I’m a female so I will continue to write as female pov

NO INC*ST - no to even the step sibling type of thing

Public sex - okay if semi where no one is looking eg. under table hand job or in the living room when everyone in a different room etc

Age play - okay with throwing pet names like baby or daddy in

Anal sex

BSDM - only okay with blind folding

Pet play - okay with pet names like bunny, kitten, puppy etc (thanks anon!)

No skz as females

If you submit something I’m not okay with writing, I’ll write you a post anonymously so you can amend the request! 💓

{I’ll update this list as I go on & if I find other stuff I’m uncomfortable writing}

[stealingyourbones]

Hello! I just had a question: Where do you draw the line with the asks? Because I want to send you stuff or ask stuff, but I also don't want you being uncomfortable viewing them? You having a good time is important to me because I get so much serotonin from your blog >w<

I wrote an entire response for this and then my tumblr crashed so here’s a take two.

Ok so my guidelines for asks:

You can ask stuff about prompts, posts, advice/ideas to help flesh out or progress your dpxdc fic? anything you want! Anything from your own prompts, to an idea for a prompt for me to write, to just questions about myself, but I have a few rules:

Please before you send me an ask think to yourself, “is what I’m about to send a hate crime, incredibly racist/sexist/homophobic/etc?” If any of that is a yes, then please don’t send it. I can and will delete it and ignore your question.

I have no big triggers myself. Other people do though so please put a TW at the top of your ask if it contains triggering topics.

Dont spam my inbox. If you have 10 cool ideas you want to talk about, write them and post them on your own blog! Curate your own blog! Make people read your cool ideas! Please don’t send them all to me. I get 20+ asks a day and spam is just exhausting to deal with. Please sent a max of 3 asks a day.

Please properly indent and paragraph your asks. ADHD is a bitch and my brain doesn’t focus on blocks of text. This is more to benefit y’all because I normally skip large walls of text to work on responding to properly spaced asks that I can easily digest.

If you have any constructive criticism or corrections on something you think I can improve for a prompt or something I stated about canon lore that was incorrect, feel free to correct me on it. I will reiterate though, constructive criticism. Fact checking isn’t inherently negative but it can easily be perceived as such. I only know so much about various fandoms and lore, take it easy that I don’t know everything and anything about a particular subject.

If you have complaints and want to talk shit, genuinely just DM it to me instead. I’d rather have a discussion about why you think of me or my blog negatively rather than just having the equivalent of a drive by of someone shouting “you suck!”. It causes equally the same reaction: I’m just confused and a little miffed that someone had the audacity to shout at me. If you wanna say something I’d rather I’d you just say it to my face. ^-^

Please don’t send in any asks about trans AU’s. I understand their appeal and enjoy reading them, I’m simply not Trans or have any feelings of body dysmorphia. To me it feels wrong to write about it because I can’t connect with the subject so I can’t write it accurately. If you send something in about a Transgender headcannon or AU, I won’t add any further commentary on it. I may post it but I won’t be elaborating on something that isn’t right for me to elaborate on.

Absolute no’s for pairings and ships:

Absolutely no adult/child anything. This sounds like common sense but I’ve seen enough people ship Bruce and his Robins together that it’s an issue. No twincest either, that’s a no go.

NSFW Ask Guidelines

ASKS VS SUBMISSIONS:

Asks: if you have a cool idea you want me to bounce off of. I get a lot of asks that are better as submissions.

Submissions: if you simply have a cool prompt you want to show to a larger audience. No commentary given. Please only use the #prompt art tag if what you’re sending IS art.

[coeluvr]

Ask Guidelines

I love answering asks but I do have a few guidelines in mind.

I will answer :

General asks about the game and the mechanics.

General asks about the characters.

Asks about the lore and worldbuilding.

Asks that are 18+ and nsfw.

I will not answer:

Asks fishing for spoilers of major plot points.

Reaction and Scenario asks.

Asks that start with "I hope xyz happens." or "I wish xyz happens." or "I think xyz should happen." because I don't know how to respond to those.

Unsolicited and unwanted criticism/advice that's plain rude.

Asks advertising your work.

I do not answer asks privately and my dms are not open.

Thank you! 💗

[fifteenminutes-if]

Gotta ask, do you have guidelines for the questions we can send in, like how comfortable are you with NSFW asks and prompts etc.?

i've gotten a few asks about this and i'll probably put together an official page soon but for now:

yes to nsfw asks and prompts

(TW) the few topics i can think of rn that i'm not comfortable with are self harm, SA, and explicit asks about pregnancy

[ectoberhaunt]

Are you doing the blog role play again this year? If so, is there going to be some kind of guidelines/rules post for what we can and cannot ask or interject into the blog’s ‘story’

Hello! Mod Clockwork here! To start off, we have the moderators and admins playing different characters this year to fit the theme a bit better! So long Nocturn and Fright Knight, they've been fully defeated.

Our characters for 2022 are:

Pandora (played by the lovely @princessfanonanona)

Clockwork (played by me, @kawaiijohn :3)

Danny (once again played by our beloved @summerssixecho)

Freakshow (played by returning @floralflowerpower)

Head Observant/Observants (played by @bubblegumbeech)

And now on to our roleplay ask guidelines:

The people running this blog cannot possibly answer every single question we get. We try to, but most of us are focusing on running the blog plus the discord as well as irl obligations and Halloween prep. Please understand.

Following rule 1, don't send us repeat questions about if your ask was received unless it was a non roleplay ask (aka rules clarifications/trigger warnings being missed).

Try to indicate it's a roleplay somewhere in the ask. If you would like a specific character/mod to answer, please indicate so we know. "hey Pandora/clockwork/ect"

This is a DP focused event. Asks about content from other media will not be answered. This includes crossovers.

We will not answer questions featuring or focused on OCs.

Only send rp asks to the @ectoberhaunt blog. Do not send rp asks to other blogs/bloggers, and don't @ other blogs/bloggers on our rp posts or in asks. We want people to interact in ways they're comfortable with, and directly @ ing random blogs/bloggers puts the spotlight on them without their consent.

Be polite and kind. This is a fun event and we might break character to use asks that push too far as examples of not what to send.

And that should be about it! Remember this is just for RP asks, this has nothing to do with how you fill your prompts.

So long as your idea is Danny Phantom focused, you can use your OCs or crossovers to fill the daily prompts.

[ardafanonarch]

Very excited to see so much interest in the project, welcome new followers!

Small update to Ask guidelines: I've clarified that meta on fandom ships is outside the scope of the blog.

Thanks, and happy shipping!

[thesilvergrove-if]

Hey, quick question, but do you have a policy regarding asks??

Like what are you comfortable answering and not you know.

hi! thanks for reminding me to clarify this early on

my ask guidelines are the same between my two projects:

yes to nsfw asks and prompts

(TW) no self harm, SA, and explicit asks about pregnancy please

i'll add to these if any more come to mind, but these are my hard boundaries

[ropresents-emilyprentissminifics]

ASK GUIDELINES

I am very open to receiving asks and interacting w readers. I got rules, though.

─────────ೋღ 🌺 ღೋ─────────

WHAT I WILL ANSWER:

AUTHOR ASKS; if you have any questions for me, im open to answering them. so long as i am comfortable with them.

COMMENTS or ENCOURAGEMENT; self explanatory. if you have thoughts on a short or something kind to say or uplifting, i will respond

SNIPPETS; if i am currently working on something, im open to sharing snippets, if asked.

WHAT I WON'T ANSWER:

UNSOLICITED CRITICISM; listen, fanfiction is completely self indulgent, especially mine. i appreciate my readers, and i am open to interacting w my readers, but before you send something to my inbox, ask urself: did i ask? the answer is, no. i don't want to hear about what you would have preferred to have read instead. i don't do unsolicited advice/criticism; i find it rude.

DON'T RUSH ME; if you want to inbox me anything along the lines of "pls update" or asking when the next time im posting is, don't.

DON'T BE A HATER, HOMIE; different than the first bulletpoint. bcus some people who offer advice mean well, and i get it; i just don't like it. by this, though, i mean, don't just come at me being hateful. i don't want any -phobics or -isms. just don't be that person. idk why one would be here if they were. furthermore, there are plenty of fics ive read that i don't like. n ya know what, when i don't like a fic, i simply remove myself from said fic n keep scrolling. so if you don't like something ive written, i suggest you do the same thing. cus i will block you.

CONSIDERED BUT NOT PROMISED:

REQUESTS; okay so i am open to requests, but again, my writing is self indulgent. so, if i ain't into a prompt, then i won't write it. additionally, i may be slow answering ur prompt. which is why while i am open to request, they are for consideration but they certainly aren't promised

[ro-presents-penelopegarciashorts]

ASK GUIDELINES

I am very open to receiving asks and interacting w readers. I got rules, though.

─────────ೋღ 🌺 ღೋ─────────

WHAT I WILL ANSWER:

AUTHOR ASKS; if you have any questions for me, im open to answering them. so long as i am comfortable with them.. 

COMMENTS or ENCOURAGEMENT; self explanatory. if you have thoughts on a short or something kind to say or uplifting, i will respond

SNIPPETS; if i am currently working on something, im open to sharing snippets, if asked. 

WHAT I WON'T ANSWER:

UNSOLICITED CRITICISM; listen, fanfiction is completely self indulgent, especially mine. i appreciate my readers, and i am open to interacting w my readers, but before you send something to my inbox, ask urself: did i ask? the answer is, no. i don't want to hear about what you would have preferred to have read instead. i don't do unsolicited advice/criticism; i find it rude. 

DON'T RUSH ME; if you want to inbox me anything along the lines of "pls update" or asking when the next time im posting is, don't. 

DON'T BE A HATER, HOMIE; different than the first bulletpoint. bcus some people who offer advice mean well, and i get it; i just don't like it. by this, though, i mean, don't just come at me being hateful. i don't want any -phobics or -isms. just don't be that person. idk why one would be here if they were. furthermore, there are plenty of fics ive read that i don't like. n ya know what, when i don't like a fic, i simply remove myself from said fic n keep scrolling. so if you don't like something ive written, i suggest you do the same thing. cus i will block you. 

CONSIDERED BUT NOT PROMISED:

REQUESTS; okay so i am open to requests, but again, my writing is self indulgent. so, if i ain't into a prompt, then i won't write it. additionally, i may be slow answering ur prompt. which is why while i am open to request, they are for consideration but they certainly aren't promised

[latenightsalesman]

//OOC:

Rules for this ask blog:

This ask blog is from a different AU concept I had working on so it wouldn't be close to the main Deltarune canon only by slightly which would include oc insertion.

Please courteous with others just because our questions are different with the ask, because I'm aware not many people are comfortable with mature material of content. Yet I'm going to answer some with some crop off version of the nsfw answers by the face only since Tumblr doesn't like naughty lewd, blood, or anything related to nsfw.

Be aware that this blog is being run by an actual person, not a fictional character. Which that needs to be acknowledged before anything else.

If you want y/n interaction or with OCS being featured in the answers. Don't be shy to post their reference in the ask! I love to add some character interaction with Dusk. Although it'll be limited for weekly interaction so everyone can have a chance of their oc to be featured for once a week.

If your ask isn't responded, please wait patiently for it does take time for me to draw a response back with the sketching, art lines, and coloring. So patience is required for this blog to function until I close asks temporary for breaks.