#gwyllion

[ohmerricat]

female faeries of frightful aspect that haunt lonely roads in the welsh wilderness

gwilliam sure does sound like gwyllion, doesn’t it? roger ap gwilliam, “ap” means “son of”. as in born-of-the-gwyllion. the (metaphorical) son of the gloomy hag that leads travellers astray and utters strange cries. old ruby was the gwyllion so she inadvertently created the minister of war, her “son”, through her powers of manifestation

[artsyld]

I know this is a little late, but Happy Mother’s Day from the Mums and Mum Figures at @vowcomic . You moms out there have a calling worthy of honor and respect, and I hope you all had a great day!

[aurore-parle-de-ses-idees]

5: thunder

(or: two wizards yelling at each other on a mountain, why est shouldn’t be given a boss fight immediately after troubled dreams, or storm on methedras)

The path up the mountain is long and hard and cold, the longer and harder for your avoidance of what passes for the road. Saeradan is at your side and Amlan guards Delwin behind. The mountain climbs and snow crunches beneath even your feet. You do not speak. Saeradan and Amlan you know well enough by now you do not need it, and if the silence unsettles Delwin she does not show it.

For hours you ascend the slopes of Methedras. Once, you creep to the edge of a steep drop and look on the Gravenwood far, far below. There rise the bony, bare branches of the Tree of Tribute, and there to the north must be the road that leads back to Tûr Morva and tucked against the foot of the mountain the camp where most of your friends must wait and prepare to move on.

Saeradan calls softly for you and you return to him. 

You have been left in peace as you climbed, but this does not reassure you at all. You saw too clearly what the Old Woman of the Mountain was capable of in the Gravenwood, heard the stories Andreg and Amlan and Saeradan told you of their journey to her cottage in Enedwaith. She must be waiting.

In some ways, it’s a relief when you see the first of the elhudan, flickering like firefly lanterns in the snow. You avoid them, careful not to draw their attention lest you shine a beacon on your location for all to see. There are fewer of the cuthraul or the great horned druggavar, but they are not absent. Those you cannot avoid you banish with bow and blade, you with your borrowed dagger rather than anything else. You would like nothing more than to let loose with all the power of the storm you can hold, but not yet. You turn once, a joke for Andreg on your lips, but it dies unsaid. Amlan looks at you in question, but you only shake your head and return to the deer path you are following.

There is thunder on the mountain when the ambush comes. There are far too many for you to be any use with Elenagil- but if you are to be honest, the thought doesn’t even cross your mind until hours later. You lash out with your runestones and the force of it dazes even the more potent spirits long enough to banish them more permanently.

Saeradan’s hand falls on your shoulder as you stand there, breathing heavily, waiting for the powdery snow driven into the air to settle around your feet.

“Are you alright, Esterín?” he asks quietly. Amlan is saying something to Delwin, who is eyeing you with something like unease. You give Saeradan a smile full of teeth.

“As well as any of us.” (If you look just past the next ridge, you will be able to see Orthanc. Is Lothrandir still there? Is he-)

Gwyllion has summoned all manner of spirits to her and hid them in the trees, in the stones, in bodies like dogs that Amlan eyes with distaste and says remind him too much of the Barrow-downs. She has even managed to draw regmyl to her, if lesser ones. 

You come to the small hut at the peak of Methedras, and there Gwyllion waits. There is talk, but you ignore both Saeradan’s words and the Old Woman’s, straining for the last scraps of your self-control. Gwyllion calls down a great drake and you seize Saeradan’s shoulder and shove him back to where Amlan stands guard over Delwin and her drum.

“Stay back,” you say, low. Saeradan opens his mouth to protest, but whatever he sees in your face stops him.

You open your mouth and words spill out. Wind and snow rise in a flurry and you pull lightning about yourself, and when the drake comes near enough you scream and lightning races from your hands to the sky, pulled not from the air but from this storm of your own making. 

You have tried so hard not to let all of it get the best of you- the betrayal in Tûr Morva, the losses, Isengard, the Fords- but it has been so much in so short a time and you find now that you cannot. You remember Andreg, dying in your arms, and you don’t even know if it was truly necessary, if you could have saved him and didn’t. If you could have brought Lothrandir with you and didn’t. Ball lightning dances around you and you hurl it gracelessly at the drake, at Gwyllion. You don’t know what she throws back at you, and by now you are beyond caring. Spirits come to her call, and once something reaches for you through the storm, but a distant drumbeat breaks through the thunder in your ears and it is turned aside.

Echdrud falls, crushing Gwyllion’s home beneath him, and the Old Woman of the Mountain shrieks, alight with rage to match yours. You hope your friends are standing very far back.

When it is done, the earth around has been blasted free of snow and dotted with small craters from your power and hers. Dark streaks that feel like burns cross your face and your arms through your tattered sleeves. It smells like ash and smoke. Gwyllion lies before you and you collapse beside her, arms and legs numb and useless as you finally release the storm. Saeradan and Amlan crunch through the snow to your side.

“Don’t-” you try to say, but all of you is numb and tingling like static and all that comes is a vague and distressed noise that does not at all soothe their alarm. The air pops when Saeradan tries to touch you and he jerks back with a sharp cry, shaking his hand. You can still feel the charge in the air, slow to dissipate after the fury of the fight. Saeradan waits, watching you attentively while Amlan checks Gwyllion, but you already know he will find no life in her now.

“I am not sure what you needed me for,” Delwin says, shattering the crackling stillness atop the mountain. “You seem to have things quite under control.” It draws a laugh from Amlan and a strained smile from Saeradan, but you are as numb inside as out, hollow and tingling and hardly able to string one thought to the next. Under control. If only. You blink once, slow, and when you open your eyes again you are on your side in the dirt. Ah. It will be a long walk back down the mountain, you think.

---

There was thunder on the mountain, the rest of the Company says later, when you wake properly and shake out the tingling that lingers in your fingertips. A great storm that echoed off Methedras and rumbled among the roots of the Gravenwood. 

“We worried for you,” Halbarad says. You duck your head while Amlan and Saeradan insist that all was well, mostly, that the shadow-burns already fading from your skin were the only true injuries and that Gwyllion will trouble neither Dunland nor Rohan. You are glad they stood back. You did not strike with precision; you do not want to think what would have happened had they not been wary enough of you to keep away. You catch them giving you odd looks the next few days, and when you ask Saeradan hesitates before describing the sparks that leapt from your eyes when you ordered him back.

“I’m sorry,” you say softly.

“You didn’t hurt us,” Saeradan replies, offering a hand you do not take.

“I would have.” Saeradan frowns, but when you still do not move from your spot near the fire, he sighs and leaves you with a gentle touch on your shoulder. You stare into the fire, and wonder if any of this will pass or if you will be this near to cracking for the rest of your days.

[lyssitalennon]

It was a crime that henna didn't come back for the Mariposa sequel

[wtfucktrashedits]

[lotro-tooltips-daily]

[m4rloe5]

sending spell: hi gwyllion, it's vayn. where are you at? are you good? got room for one more soul? let me know. or don't. whatever.

Gwyllion: hey Vayn, sorry I left like that. I'm on a job right now, but I'll let you know when I get back topside. Miss you.

Aaaah 25 words is so hard! There's so much she wants to say but cant!

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

would love your opinion of the newest episode of DW, if you get the chance.

HAHAHAHA YES I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS

Alright okay so

I only have one complaint, which is that that wasn't a faerie ring. You could still have the shamble, no problem, but it should have been over the top of an actual faerie ring, which should be a mushroom (or, at a push, stone) circle. Not some cotton that would blow clean off the cliff edge in three minutes.

HOWEVER

This is the first time I've seen Doctor Who do a time travel story using, not Doctor Who time travel lore and rules, but Welsh faerie rules. (First time I've seen anything do it, in fact.) In Welsh myth, people who enter faerie rings or get entranced by the music become suspended in time, out of sync with the real world. They think they danced for a night, but when they return it's been 100 years, and they crumble to dust as soon as they eat/drink/step on land/etc.

In this case, this is what I think happened to Ruby. She spent that time in Annwfn, seeing what would happen if the binding on the ring was broken. When she 'dies', she returns to the spot and lasts long enough to give her younger self the warning, then crumbles to dust.

But, a time travelling Ruby is not the woman who follows her throughout the episode. That, in fact, is a gwyll.

The gwyllion were hag faeries, usually of mountain tops (though Pembrokeshire's liminal cliffs are 100% from Welsh mythology - it was said that if you found a faerie ring on one but only put one foot in, you could see the faerie islands in the sea. And that faeries used to visit the human markets in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. So while gwyllion are unusual there, it's not an impossible relocation.) They were malicious and sometimes vicious faeries who delighted in making people lose their way, could strike an uncontrollable and ungodly terror into travellers, and who feature in more that one myth as an old woman that someone tried to approach, but they always appeared at the same distance away, impossible to catch up.

CAN YOU SEE THE PARALLELS

And the best part!! Is that this is why she defeats UNIT!!!

Kate tells Ruby that her agents have necklaces of silver and salt to keep out the supernatural, but that's just generic fairytale shit. That doesn't work on gwyllion. Salt drawn in a line would provide a barrier, but the UNIT soldiers aren't trying to trap or block the gwyll; they're trying to capture her. What works, very specifically, is a knife. Iron or steel for preference of course, but it needs to be a knife.

But UNIT has no Welsh employees and the soldiers have guns, not knives. And so they all become entranced.

(This is also what I think the gwyll 'says' to everyone to turn them against Ruby. She doesn't say anything - she sings.)

This is also the first time I've ever encountered any mainstream media doing Welsh faeries and understanding the tone to strike, which is 'unknowable, unstoppable and fucking terrifying'. I think I've only ever read it in Catharine Fisher books, and she's a Welsh author so... yeah, obviously. But I basically vibrated with delight and excitement for the entire episode.

Oh my god, hang on, Roger ap Gwilliam! Okay, I have two theories about him.

My weaker theory and the one I don't like is the kind of boring and obvious one, which is that he is himself not human. A lot of Welsh folklore features the devil, and I get that vibe from his role in the story. But, I'm not keen, because I can't see the link to the gwyll.

But my strongest theory, and the one I have chosen to believe, is that he's a human who made a deal with the Fae for power, and then reneged. There's a Metric Fuckton of stories about humans fucking up Fae gifts in some way, and the punishment is usually something ironic but always results in the loss of the gift. It could be a faerie harp that makes everyone dance, and the Fae tell the giftee not to abuse it, but they cruelly force everyone to dance so long and so hard that the faerie returns, takes back the harp, and then takes the human's ability to ever make music again, so example (by taking fingers or eyes or tongues as well, often.)

So I think Mad Jack strikes a bargain for power - but, then tries to abuse that power (nuclear war). But part of the bargain is that the Fae cannot approach him directly ever again. In the real world, they therefore tempt him into the faerie ring and bind his soul there, problem solved - until the Doctor accidentally lets him out, and gets his own soul stuck. Ruby, therefore, becomes the instrument through which they manage to take that power away once again - and then, her final Fae gift for her service is that they use the temporal anomaly of the faerie ring to send her back, at the end of her life, and give her a second chance. This time, with Mad Jack's soul left bound in Annwfn.

The fun part is, RTD is a writer who understands the power of not explaining everything and leaving some things up to the viewer's imagination, so none of this is ever going to be explained lol. But yeah, that is a gwyll. The moment she appeared, I said out loud "Oh holy fuck, gwyllion." That was a gwyll.

As a final observation, I loved seeing Siân Phillips, and I choose to believe they filmed those scenes in a pub because they could only get Siân if they agreed to just come to her local. The woman is a queen.

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Fetid Heath

"Do not linger in such places, child. There the gwyllions dance. If they find you, you will join in their revels for eternity." —Talara, elvish safewright

Artist: Daarken TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[publicdomainreview]

Front cover to British Goblins (1880), a book of Welsh myth and folklore. Amongst the supernatural beings described are "Bwbachod", friendly goblins who help out with chores; and "Gwyllion", female fairies who haunt the mountain roads: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/british-goblins-welsh-folk-lore-fairy-mythology-legends-and-traditions-1880 #StDavidsDay

[ohmerricat]

it’s poorly made television all the way down

[scary-flag]

Underrated OFMD fics, week 2!

Hi! It's me again with recommendations! :) Like in the previous post with these, I am trying to focus on less known fic writers and works that have less than 1000 (if they are older) or 500 views (for newer ones). Please give these people a comment or leave kudos if you enjoy their work and let's spread some positivity in our OFMD fic community. Reblogging encouraged!

Fruit from the Winter Garden by DMK - T, 1k words, Ed/Stede. A lovely, Ed-centered emotional piece.

Buried Alive Inside My Dreams by Catwalksalone - M, 1.8k words, Izzy-centered. A sad, emotional Izzy backstory fic. CW: referenced SA and domestic violence. F/M relationship.

Or Mind Can Hide by Petrichorca - T, 6k words, Ed/Stede, modern day medical AU. Ed is a neurologist and Stede is a patient with partial amnesia. Includes a lot of beautiful poetry.

On Barren Sands by Gwyllion - G, 1.8k words, Ed/Stede. A beautifully written piece, a real gem about Stede and Ed making their peace after getting back together.

The Lake in the Moonlight by Shadow_Side - E, 4.5 words, Ed/Stede. A first-time smut fic, with demisexual Stede.

And The Rest by Bazzle - M, 4.7k words, Black Pete/Lucius, minor Ed/Stede. A fic written from the POV of Lucius and Black Pete. Includes some whump! CW: sex work

Chain, Keep Us Together by Omnishambles - M, 7.5k words, Ed/Izzy, Ed/Jack. A pre-canon Blackbeard character study. CW: violence

Moonlight Becomes You by Shalamarr - M, 5.5k words, Ed/Stede. A modern day werewolf AU! Ed is a veterinarian and Stede has an unusual secret...

The Perfect Picture of Afterglow by Kaeruhime8 - G, 115 words, Jim/Oluwande. A criminally underrated fluff drabble about the teal oranges pair. Wholesome.

Over The Hills and Far Away by TimesBeingWhatTheyAre - G, 1.6k words, Ed/Stede. A Stede character study, getting deeper into his love for the sea. Heartbreaking but in a beautiful way.

Frenchie Knows the Truth About Cats by PolluxDevia - G, 889 words. The story behind Frenchie's belief that cats are witches.

Constant Like the Northern Star by SweetPollyOliver - T, 816 words, Frenchie/Wee John. A lovely short fic about Frenchie helping Wee John with his back pain.

The Lovers, The Dreamers, and Swede by PhantomEllie - G, 1k words. Swede-centered modern AU. A lovely story in which the Swede is NOT the butt of the joke, but instead a friendly, happy stoner-hippie man.

Botanical Splendor by Curious_Crow - G, 653 words. A cute microfic about the arts and crafts day on the Revenge.

In The Spirit of Full Disclosure by Winter_of_our_Discontent - N/A, 1.4k words, modern AU. Stede and Mary have an honest conversation, in which Stede confesses he can see ghosts. CW: mention of hanging

[earth-b0y]

According to my research...

Faeries

Pixies

Goblin

Elves

Gnome

Leprechauns

Redcaps

Sprites

Brownies

Nymphs

Dullahan

Selkie

Troll

Aos Sí

Dwarf

Banshee

Gwyllion

Púca

Oh, hm... this might be a boring answer, but probably an elf! Kri jokes about how we're like elves, and they're long-lived like us

[glyphreader]

Gwyllion Hedge-Mage (Eventide No. 89, Illus. Todd Lockwood)

Gwyllions are another type of creature that suddenly appears on Shadowmoor. Are they Kithkin? No. Elves? Nope. Goblins? No. They're hags. No idea where they came from ... they're just here now.

There are two varieties of hags on Shadowmoor: The Gwyllion, who are aligned with white and black mana (Gwyllion Hedge-Mage, Harvest Gwyllion, Nip Gwyllion, also shown on Disturbing Plot), and the more monstrous, green-and-black-aligned versions that are just called hags, no further specification (Stalker Hag, Hag Hedge-Mage, Desecrator Hag).

Gwyllion and Hags (like many Shadowmoor creatures) originally come from British folklore, where they are female fairies "of frightful aspect." Gwyllion is apparently the plural form of the word (the singular being Gwyll), but in Magic, it's also used to refer to individual specimens.

Shadowmoor Gwyllion, while definitely not friendly or pleasant to be around, seem like the sophisticated variety of witch figure on the plane. I could still see tjhem showing up in a dark fantasy film aimed at a somewhat young audience. The green-black hags, on the other hand, are the man-eating variety of witch that firmly belongs in a horror or slasher movie.

In this card illustration by Todd Lockwood, the Gwyllion almost feels like a autumn or winter spirit, with her big mane of hair resembling withered branches. Judging by the crude puppet head she is clutching, she seems to specialize in voodoo-like magic.

Just like Noggle Hedge-Mage, the composition of the piece makes it feel like you are in direct confrontation with this creature. She too has this kind of stare that hints at some form of intelligence - but she's not "human" enough for you to be able to read her intentions. Make one wrong move, and she might drive her nail into the puppet's head, causing you to succumb to an agonizing headache.

How would an encounter with this Gwyllion play out? What role do they play in Lorwyn/Shadowmoor? How do they interact with the other creatures on the plane? These are the kinds of things I'd love to see explored in official MtG fiction (or fanfiction).

[barbiebattle]

Barbie Battle 8: Fairies

Zane (Fairy Secret) vs Shimmer (Fairytopia)

Talayla (Mariposa) vs Rayla (Mariposa)

Elina (Fairytopia) vs Graciella (Fairy Secret)

Catania (Mariposa) vs The Enchantress (Fairytopia)

Taylor (Fairy Secret) vs Regellius (Mariposa)

Lumina (Fairytopia) vs Shimmer (Fashion Fairytale)

Shyne (Fashion Fairytale) vs Glee (Fairytopia)

Carlos (Mariposa) vs Henna (Mariposa)

Willa (Mariposa) vs Glimmer (Fashion Fairytale)

Dandelion (Fairytopia) vs Faban (Fairytopia)

Sunburst (Fairytopia) vs Nori (Secret Door)

Linden (Fairytopia) vs Carrie (Fairy Secret)

Rayna (Mariposa) vs Crystal (Fairy Secret)

Laverna (Fairytopia) vs Marabella (Mariposa)

Azura (Fairytopia) vs Mariposa (Mariposa)

Dahlia (Fairytopia) vs Gwyllion (Mariposa)

Polls should be up tomorrow!

[furybeastcentral]

i do more than just computer art ^^

So I gender swapped Nightwolf to make this, and as a result now Nightwolf is a weird-looking boi with problems.

"A gwyllion's favorite trap is the vanity mirror. A bewitched piece of glass traps the looker's soul and does away with the body."~Unmake, Magic: The Gathering- Archenemy Expansion

I got a blue light pen for Christmas with some LOL surprise stuff so I just made this art with a hidden secret- shine the blue light on it and it shows a broken mirror and the real gender switch 'Wolf dead on the floor.

Gender-swapped Nightwolf is called Jaypillow. Don't ask.