#necromancy novel

[earlronove]

Seen as Forevermore is getting its physical release soon, I thought a trope image was in order...

The physical release and release of the revised ebooks are coming May 27th! If you're interested in a signed physical copy, check out the form here!

[poorlittleyaoyao]

So not only does LWJ chop off JGY's arm for NO REASON since Jin Ling is already safe (JGY releases Jin Ling and shoves him away as Baxiapilled Wen Ning attacks), but chopping JGY's arm off ACTIVELY ENDANGERS JIN LING because what keeps Baxia's attention on Jin Ling isn't that Jin Ling and JGY figuratively share blood, it's that JGY's actual physical blood spattered on Jin Ling's robes when LWJ cut the arm off.

Pointed shot of WWX noticing Jin Ling's sleeve after Baxia turns:

Replay of JGY shoving Jin Ling away (from a different angle than before, which makes clear that JGY pushes JL clear before WWX gets to him):

Never-before-seen footage of LWJ cutting off JGY's arm and the spray of blood going everywhere:

So chopping off the arm was actively detrimental to JL's safety in this version! THANKS, HANGUANG-JUN!

[everchased]

do you um. happen to have any more Finch/Astarion content. even a lil sketch. a scrap of an idea. I hunger

been a lil busy w/ work and holiday but have this while i polish up a bigger comic wip

finch takes every book he finds, some to sell, some to share with astarion. they're not always hits but that just makes them fun to critique

[guqin-and-flute]

I can't get over how much Xichen loves Wangji I just

[jordankennedy]

i’ve been queen of the rare pairs in every single fandom i’ve ever been in so breaking new ground in a relationship tag on ao3 is like whatever

[dakovas-basette]

If i had a nickel for every story i've written where the main character gets forcibly brought back to life by his situationship i'd have two nickels etc etc

[doomed-prophetess]

noooo the reverse cassandra book doesn't feature sex 💔 my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined

[jetwhenitsmidnight]

Saint Death's Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney

Publisher: Solaris

Genre: Fantasy

If you like:

Necromancers who love pink 💕

The Locked Tomb series

Found family

Queernorm world-building

Skeletons and bones

Intricate magic systems

Footnotes!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis

Lanie Stones, the daughter of the Royal Assassin and Chief Executioner of Liriat, has never led a normal life. Born with a gift for necromancy and a literal allergy to violence, she was raised in isolation in the family’s crumbling mansion by her oldest friend, the ancient revenant Goody Graves.

When her parents are murdered, it falls on Lanie and her cheerfully psychotic sister Nita to settle their extensive debts or lose their ancestral home—and Goody with it. Appeals to Liriat's ruler to protect them fall on indifferent ears… until she, too, is murdered, throwing the nation's future into doubt.

Hunted by Liriat’s enemies, hounded by her family’s creditors and terrorised by the ghost of her great-grandfather, Lanie will need more than luck to get through the next few months—but when the goddess of Death is on your side, anything is possible.

Content warnings

death, murder, violence, torture, kidnapping, slavery

gore, body horror, blood

familial abuse, child abuse, domestic abuse: physical, verbal and emotional

parental death

self-harm for magic purposes

abusive relationship

animal cruelty, animal death

grief, depression

fantasy racism and xenophobia

physical confinement

childhood chronic illness

alcohol

Review

Saint Death's Daughter is the first book of the trilogy, followed by Saint Death's Herald, but it wraps up the main arc well-enough that it can be read as a standalone.

This is a wildly ambitious novel that, according to the acknowledgements, took over ten years to write? and it shows. The amount of world-building that goes into the gods, the magic system, the different countries as well as their respective cultures and forms of governance is simply astounding.

Although the synopsis is an accurate summary of the events of this book, every turn still took me by surprise, and I never knew what to expect.

Our protagonist, Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones is full of heart and gumption. I loved her love; Lanie loves her friends and her reanimated creations and life and Death so earnestly and sincerely, with her whole heart, in spite of her upbringing. I'm also obsessed with the fact that, even though she is a necromancer, she loves bright colours and dressing in poofy pink dresses.

Not to say that this book is all sunshine and rainbows; Lanie goes through it, and this book turned out to be much darker than I had expected. (Check the content warnings!) But she manages to get through it with her newfound friends and family.

It's also really interesting how Lanie has a literal allergy to violence; violence is basically a given in most fantasy novels, so reading about how Lanie navigates violence in a world full of nothing but was fascinating.

Honestly, I could go on about this book for hours, but I think it's best to go into this knowing less about what happens.

[kingoodin]

The Dead Empire

Title: Twisted Destinies Series: Dead Empire Series - Book 1

Premise: In a world filled with magic, intrigue, and danger, the lives of Sorin, a skilled elf warrior, and Thalus, a young man unaware of his true parentage, become intertwined as they each seek their own truth, forming an alliance that will change the course of their lives forever.

Summary: As the story unfolds, Sorin and Thalus find themselves caught in a web of secrets, lies, and betrayals. Thalus, yearning to discover the truth about his parents, struggles with loyalty to his adoptive family and his own moral compass. Sorin, meanwhile, is determined to protect his people and uncover the dark forces that threaten his world.

The two heroes face numerous challenges, including encounters with the enigmatic Alaric and Aldous, who are torn between their loyalty to their father and their own sense of right and wrong. The characters must navigate the complexities of love, loyalty, and betrayal as they confront shocking revelations about their families, their pasts, and the sinister plot that could destroy everything they hold dear.

In the first installment of The Dead Empire Series, Sorin and Thalus journey through a realm filled with magic, mysterious ruins, and ancient prophecies. As they forge alliances, face betrayal, and encounter dark forces, they discover their fates are intertwined, setting them on a path toward a destiny that will change their lives and the world around them.

[cosmicrhetoric]

this is how you lose the time war was one of those books where it is really really not what i go for generally (prose wise) and if i hadn't read it in one sitting during a bout of insomnia im not sure if i would've made it through. that being said its probably one of the only "romances" that had me genuinely choked up at times anyway reread when

[necromantictales]

If you like necromancers and horrible people you might enjoy my original comic with the award-winning title KISS KISS - RAISE THE DEAD! 

*Strongly inspired by Victorian gothic horror and murder mysteries, DnD and misguided humor

[foxehrobot]

Yeah, so since it looks like I'm never going to formally publish either novel, I'll just post them up on AO3 instead. Polishing as I go.

[poorlittleyaoyao]

Also I had genuinely forgotten that CQL keeps "LWJ defies everyone and prevents them from entering Demon Subdue Palace when the Burial Mounds are besieged!" as a plot point because I genuinely do not understand why anyone would be besieging or defending it? LXC claims it was after WQ (and ALL the Wen remnants! bc we see them in the background on the stairs!) had surrendered at Koi Tower, so first I thought oh! this must be why LWJ isn't at the pledge conference with everyone else! LWJ was the reason nobody found WWX while he was still unconscious! clever!

but NO, because LQR shows up and drags LWJ back to Cloud Recesses for punishment directly from the Burial Mounds, which means this happened after WWX fell off the cliff, in which case both he and the Wen remnants are definitely dead so WHY WAS LWJ TRYING SO HARD TO DEFEND AN EMPTY SETTLEMENT. c'mon show, I promise you don't have to include plot points for the novel just because they're there if the context for them is gone now, I promissssse.

[lupismaris]

You ever get a small seemingly insignificant idea for a scene in your writing and then twenty minutes later it's devastating you

Yeah

[butchexe]

i have sacred knowledge that cannot be comprehended by mortals (<-- has heavily canon divergent exomemories)

[writingalterras]

Greetings friends! I am on time this week . am late again, this time was even worse because I already wrote the post, I just didn’t post it. For my forgetfulness, you will get a free fun fact about the supervillain Lord Valthoraxe. I will now explain more about the Monsters of Alterra.

Starting off with the obvious, undead. Any creature can become an undead, but they have to either be “revived” by a lich or get corrupted by dark magic such as necromancy. Revived undead possess various levels of memory depending on how soon after death they were brought back. Even if immediately resurrected, the undead entity is forever bound to the necromancy user that revived them. If a necromancy user dies themselves, all of their resurrected undead become mindless, barely capable of movement. If an undead creature with only a skeletal structure remaining has their necromancy user die, their bones will fall apart, leaving the skeleton forever trapped in a skull until put out of their misery.

Prolonged use of necrotic magic can lead to the user becoming a lich. A necromancer can prepare for this by trapping their soul in an object before the corruption takes place, although this guarantees that the user will become a lich the next time necrotic magic is used. The process of becoming a lich is extremely painful, feeling the pain you would feel if your body went through the entire decomposition process every second that lasts until the next new moon reaches midnight. Once a lich arises from their death, they are fully sentient and possess all of their previous memories. They no longer age, and their necrotic magic is far more powerful, but they can no longer use any other form of magic. If a lich put their soul in an external object, that object acts as a backup that revives the lich one time if they are defeated in battle. This works one time, after which the lich must provide the object with 40-50 sentient souls to restore it. If a lich fails to restore the object, referred to as a “soulstone,” within a month, the will begin to fade away.

If a lich corrupts a living creature, that creature will be forcefully fused with the nearest other creature that is not of the cursed creature’s own species nor the lich themself. This causes a “curseborn” to be created, and are not bound to the lich. A cursed being is most likely to be fused with an animal, such as wolves, birds, and rats, and act no different to their prior selves. Due to the curse being necrotic in nature, removing it would instantly kill the victim, who would then later rise as an undead, same if the cursed creature is killed while cursed. Curseborns almost never gain any advantages from the beings they fuse with unless the lich that cursed them is over a thousand years old.

The only creatures that can’t get turned into undead are ones who don’t have meat based skin, such as golems, and magic users more powerful than the lich.

Now for the final undead or cursed creature, the ghoul. A ghoul is created when a sentient creature with a soul dies in their sleep during a time of mass civil unease, such as during a war or drought. Ghouls are cursed to roam the nights for all eternity, never able to rest again. They are mostly docile, only really attacking when approached, apart from one exception. If an adventurer experiences “bad sleep” while away from civilization, such as staying awake during the nights or are burdened by nightmares, their tiredness can potentially attract and aggravate a ghoul. There is almost no chance in escaping a ghoul, with the only places that they can’t reach you being deep underground, in deserts, and high in the mountains. Technically you can survive if you manage to avoid it until the day breaks, but that is extremely unlikely as they can and must move slightly faster than you. There is one other place that ghoul dare not go, even if they are able to. Ghouls will without fail not go further than 13 meters in The Lord’s Wastelands, but anyone who willingly enters those lands are already dead men walking.

Fun Valthoraxe fact; Valthoraxe’s favorite food is a tie between Alterra’s equivalent of honey, which is called sugarseep, and lemons, because they are some of the few things it can taste. Valthoraxe holds great respect for humwing guardians(beekeepers, but humwings are 70cm tall and very dangerous if annoyed) and has installed hidden automated defense drones around the perimeter of the guardians he secretly buys from, as well as orbital satellite defense that protect them from bandit attacks.

Next week (Tuesday hopefully) I’ll delve into the different types of magic used on Alterra, stay tuned.