#rime wildfire

[coffeecakecafe]

so I’m One Whole Session in on my first proper foray into dungeon mastering, and we’re playing a sliiiiightly modified Rime of the Frostmaiden. These are some of my added npcs!

The folks in the matching outfits are members of the Shepherds of Light, a Lathandite charity organization that sent aid up to the Dales in an effort to help them get through the eternal winter. The cargo ship Sunrise carried the party and some goods and a crew of about 15 people up via the Sea of Moving Ice, where it did. It did sink. Somewhat.

It’s about half sunk, actually, and the ship now sits just barely above the ice, held aloft by the iceberg that did it in. But hey if you look far enough on a clear day you can see the Sunrise over the sea from Ten-Towns!

The Druid is a mystery, so far - they haven’t met her yet.

[systemrecoded]

Rime of the Frost Maiden - Wildfire Druid

[zmediaoutlet]

this follows 'a vessel'

Sam cleans up. The wasted, half-used spell components go into the burn box. The turned-over chair picked up, and the shattered glass swept. The angel banishment sigil comes off the wall in the library pretty easily with borax and he drops the sponge in the bucket of swirled-red dirty water and could vomit. One last sweep and he finds two red drops, drying dark in the center of his research table. He takes a deep breath, chemical and stinging-clean. The spot comes off easily, too. There are a lot of good tricks they’ve learned for cleaning up blood.

The shower room’s empty. He strips the stolen sailor uniform and leaves it in a pile in the corner. The water comes down hot and he gives himself the space of twenty even breaths, in and out, to stand there and think nothing at all. Steam in his lungs. The pressure like needles at the back of his neck, only safe because it’s just water. When that’s done he washes his hair and soaps his body and gets the red rime out from under his fingernails, and when that’s done, when he’s toweling off in the bright quiet, it’s not—better isn’t the word. But the base he’s operating from isn’t as awful. That counts for something.

When he opens his bedroom door Deanna’s sitting on the edge of his mattress. “Thought you’d decided to run off to the navy,” she says.

She’s in what counts for her as full pajamas: those washed-to-death blue flannel pants, a black shirt of Sam’s she stole years ago. She has to roll the sleeves back over her wrists. There’s a glass of whiskey in her hand but it isn’t empty, and she didn’t bring the bottle for refills. She runs one thumb over the rim of the crystal and smiles very briefly at Sam’s face and then looks down at her hands.

Sam wishes he’d brought something with him to the shower. If it were another day she’d be making a crack about his towel. He sits beside her, carefully, and for lack of a glass he folds his hands between his knees. The bunker air cool on his shoulders.

A sigh. She stretches her legs out, toes pointed. Mostly unpainted these days, small and neat. Her hand turns over on her thigh and she seems to be looking at her palm, and then she sets her curled fist on Sam’s thigh instead. The smallest weight through the terrycloth.

“The sub went down?” she says. Sam nods and she nods, too, slower. “You try to save it?”

Delphine’s hands reaching into the case for the Hand of God. Red lights strobing all around and her eyes steady on Sam’s, sure, while a wildfire of grace roared through the dark ocean. “I think it didn’t make a difference whether I was there or not,” Sam says. He turns his head and Deanna’s biting her lip. The pressure in his chest feels like it’ll put him on the floor. “I wish I’d been here.”

Her eyes close. “I don’t know if that would’ve made a difference, either.”

Not said cruelly and it’s probably true. Some dumb male instinct claws at the underside of his heart, anyway.

The lump of wood is inert, now. He’ll wrap it in cloth and put it in a spelled cedar case in the archives and mark it down in the ledgers. Even if it ended up being pointless, except inasmuch as it made a mask fall to the floor.

He takes a deep breath, lets it out. Says, “Can I ask?”

Her toes scrunch against the concrete, then relax. Her fist still on his thigh, her eyes still closed. Face smooth and serene except for the bruise coming up on her cheek. From what exactly Sam doesn’t know; he’s been imagining it for the past two hours.

“Are you hurt?” he says, in the quiet. “More than…” Her head tips down and he licks his lips even though his mouth feels dry. “I just—I know he—when he—”

Her hand grips his thigh through the towel. “Sammy,” she says, interrupting, and he cuts off the stupid stumbling, his face hot. “Hey.”

“Sorry,” he says, and she shakes her head, and then shakes his leg gently, too. A weird deep pulse of what he’s got plenty of experience to recognize as shame goes through him as a wave, from the pit of his stomach to his chest to the hair on the back of his neck, and then he breathes it out and just feels cold. He takes her hand in one of his and she lets him, their fingers lacing together on top of his leg. Her fingers are cold, too.

“It’s not like it’s the first time,” she says, after a few seconds.

Almost like she’s trying to make him feel better. There are a lot of things he thinks to say but he’s got a lot of practice not saying things, especially when they’re all jostling for first place. She’s walking around and talking and not dead. There have been worse times. He knows there are others he doesn’t know about and probably never will. But this—he knows this one. His first and only. Not the worst thing that’s ever happened to him, not even the worst by those particular hands, but nothing he’d ever wanted to share with his sister. Thought they’d been spared this one thing.

“If it helps,” she says, when he’s been quiet too long, “it wasn’t—about me. He was screwing with Cas and he wanted to hurt you. Just collateral damage.”

“How would that help,” Sam says, before he can stop himself, and Deanna sighs and says, “I don’t know, Sam,” and pulls at their linked hands but Sam doesn’t let her go, instinct making his fingers tighten. He feels like an ass immediately but Deanna doesn’t tug away. Instead her body turns in, toward his. Her weight tipping and her temple coming down to his bare shoulder. She’s warm, her knee bumping his. Their hands vaguely sweaty now, together. He tucks her hair back behind her ear, thick and barely-damp from her own shower, and her face turns in toward his chest, her lips against his skin although she doesn’t kiss.

All the things he wishes hadn’t happened in their lives make a list that’d be near uncountable. This is pretty near the top. If wishes were horses—but they never have been, and never will. He runs his thumb over hers, careful where the nail tore. “What do you want me to do?” he says.

“Nothing,” she says. Then she takes a deep quick breath, almost like she got hit, and pulls her hand out of his and sits up and drags her fingers over her eyes, pressing hard into the sockets like it hurts. Then drops her hands, and looks out into the dim of the room, and presses her lips together very tightly in a white severe line, and then—blows out, slow, her shoulders sinking as she does, and then turns her head and looks at him in this way that’s just—tired, but only like at the end of a long day, when they’ve been through the wringer and a lot’s gone wrong but they’re still here, together, and despite everything the sun’s going to come up anyway.

“Put on some boxers,” Deanna says. One corner of her mouth turns up. “Exhibitionist. Then I want to sleep. I want you here. And you’re not allowed to bitch about cold toes.”

Sam truly doesn’t know how she does it. “Wouldn’t have to if you’d just wear socks,” he manages.

Her nose wrinkles. “Just accept your role as the human radiator, okay,” she says, and then drains her whiskey in one swallow and puts the empty glass on the bedside table. She turns back the blankets and climbs in while Sam obediently goes to his chest of drawers, and finds clean boxer-briefs, and Deanna watches him with her head propped on her fist while he drops the towel, tugs on underwear, goes to the sink and drinks a cupful of cold water and then refills the cup and brings it to her. She drinks it down, and he puts the empty next to the whiskey tumbler, and then he climbs in and pulls up the blankets and she folds herself in against his chest, her head under his chin and her arm around his waist and her toes freezing, always, against his skin. Reliable as gravity.

He presses his lips against the top of her head. Her breath shudders, once, and then she squirms in closer and lays still. His back’s to the door and he knows he won’t sleep but that doesn’t matter. It’s like that night, all those years ago, before they went to Detroit. His arm around his sister and his mind full of the devil. Knowing that he’d do anything to stop him from hurting her; knowing that to stop that was almost impossible; knowing that even if it were impossible, with the last ounce of strength he had he’d still try. What else is there to do.

[honourablejester]

Spelljammer Concepts

Because I’m eyeing the books about to come out in August, and because I love me some space fantasy so much. So. Some character concepts:

An aasimar aberrant mind sorcerer who was conceived/altered when their parent’s vessel passed too close to the dreaming corpse of a dead god in the Astral Sea and whose crew only realised what they must have drifted near when they were born

A ‘space walk’ marine/salvage/pirate crew consisting of people who don’t need to breathe (warforged, autognomes, dhampir, reborn) or can hold their breath for a really long time (air genasi, tortles, plasmoids, possibly lizardfolk but that’s cutting it very tight), so they specialise in airless boarding and salvage manoeuvres

A dubiously sane outlander/hermit character who’s been stuck on a barely-habitable asteroid/shipwreck for decades and is alarmingly eager to see civilisation again (fun options: barbarian, artificer, warlock)

A space druid from a serenely drifting biodome/series of biodomes that are all that remains of the ecosphere of a destroyed world (any subclass, but spores might be very interesting for the whole ‘recycling’ aspect, and wildfire might be frowned on in an oxygenated biodome floating in an airless void – could be a good reason why you’re no longer on the dome, though)(hands up who also watched Silent Running)

A warforged/autognome who escaped the hellish cathedral ship of a master who sought to make a mindless/soulless automaton vessel with which to sail into the Far Realms and back (hands up who’s seen The Black Hole and/or Event Horizon)

A sage/scholar of the Astral Archive, a legendary celestial library floating in the Astral Sea, hollowed from a vast asteroid and barred by great golden doors, in which the lost works of a thousand worlds are salvaged and stored (possibly they were lost on their respective worlds because you stole them for said library, but you know how these things go)

A changeling, a space flim-flammer and confidence artist, who is running from their clan who just happen to be the origin of at least some of those stories of creatures stowing away on vessels in order to slowly kill and replace the crew one by one (there is at least one vessel flying out there where the clan literally did this, one or two more coming aboard at each stop and port until the whole ship had been taken over and the previous crew, except for one or two rumoured survivors, all dead and in the hold). Naturally you don’t tell anyone any of this. It’s a good way to get yourself stranded on an asteroid out of paranoia

And, following on from some of those, some location and adventure concepts for things you might find floating in wildspace/the Astral Sea:

The Astral Archive, a mythical celestial library floating in the Astral Sea

The Forged Grove, a druid grove and biodome containing the salvaged remnants of a lost ecosystem

The Telleril Conclave, a once-a-century gathering where all the biodomes and druid circles of the lost world of Telleril come together

The Swansong, a vast and eerily silent spelljamming vessel that, upon boarding, appears to be inhabited solely by grim and disinterested constructs … until one reaches the helm and the captain’s quarters, and the maddened master that inhabit them

Livyatan, the gargantuan, city-sized corpse of a dead whale god, floating frozen and calcified in the Astral Sea, rimed in ice and the dust of dreams, in whose flooded and hollowed innards strange waters flow and even stranger creatures dream

One Tree Island, an absolutely miniscule asteroid platform on which a single tree maintains just enough of an air envelope to support a tiny shack and one extremely lonely and mildly insane hermit

The Stargasst Eddy, a vast conglomeration of wrecked spelljammers and astral vessels that, according to various rumours, is either the remnants of some massive long ago battle, or a cursed eddy in the Astral Sea where a nearby portal to the Far Realm causes strange psychic storms to periodically wreck vessels in the vicinity. Widely considered haunted and extremely cursed, but also so very ripe for salvage …

And one last one just for me:

Panopticon, a partially destroyed beholder cityship, a hollowed metallic asteroid ruled over by the maddened Council of Five, the sole survivors (and possible instigators) of whatever event saw the death of every other beholder in the city, who pilot their maddened vessel onwards in search of something, picking up unwilling passengers and stowaways as they go

Space fantasy is such a fun genre …

[goomymegpoid]

Project Amperage- tentative partner pokemon + inspo looks wise for some of em:

•Bug - Yanmega (fashion: gonna have weird use of bug netting)

•Dark - Houndoom (inspo: Muzzle of Nemesis)

Dragon - Goodra/Zygarde (fashion: if goodra then like digital stars, if zygarde then like an arknight)

Electric - bellibolt/pachirisu/xurkitree (fashion- very silly very goofy. Normal gumi shit)

•Fairy - mawile (fashion: hime/wa lolita or its gonna be real goofy)

•Fire - typhlosion (inspo: wildfire)

•Fighting - Pangoro (inspo: Panda Hero)

•Flying - pompom Oricorio (fashion: preppy and fluffy)

•Ghost - banette (inspo: Matryoshka)

•Grass - Torterra (fashion: mori kei w/ bonsai themed haori)

Ground - gliscor/clodsire (fashion: punk)

•Ice - Mr. Rime (fashion: tap dancer)

•Normal - Ambipom (fashion: simple classic lolita)

•Poison - Roserade (fashion: Evil Prince Girl)

•Psychic - Chimecho (inspo: tokio funka with suzuhiko hime vibes)

•Rock - archeops (fashion: mad scientist)

Steel - heatran/metagross (inspo: ladylike with a robot twist)

•Water - Swampert (fashion: elbow and knee pads, lot of gumi's 10th anniversary art vibes)

[crimsonfluidessence]

Prompt 10: Channel

Content Warning: 5.5 Spoilers and slight body horror

It was a strange thing indeed for someone to tell you they were the reincarnation of a saint. No less, the one deemed the original heretic.

Esredes' immediate instinct was not to believe her- but in a world where he'd been hiding the ability to turn into a dragon for so long, he instead opted to say nothing and ask more details. And even after everything, he still didn't believe it was quite what was going on, yet he kept his silence. This meant a lot to her, and it meant a lot to all the others in the movement who believed her wholeheartedly- and her ability to transform into a powerful being was certainly not something normal. It didn't matter to him at that point- she had a power that could deliver Ishgard from the lies which binded it. And that was the most valuable power of all.

A part of him often wondered if it had made a difference if he said anything, if he was honest. But given how she reacted when she finally learned it was all a lie- most of him believed it would have been a negative difference. "It doesn't matter if you are or are not Shiva." He said to her when she came back from her long trip away. "You don't need to embody her spirit to be everything she stands for and was, Ysayle. Have you not been acting in her name for so long? Have you not had the courage to foster peace and understanding when all of your countrymen have chosen hate and violence, just like the original maiden? Have you not worked longer and harder than any of us for peace? You're still Shiva, Ysayle. You have carried on her legacy, and acted as she would have. And if you think this is going to lead to the dream that you always wanted, then go. Don't stand idly by as the truth comes out to them. Get out and fight for it as you always have. Bring this all to the close you wanted, Ysayle. You'll only live with regrets for the rest of your life if you don't."

Most days he wished he hadn't said that last part.

Just as she hadn't been Shiva, Esredes was convinced she wasn't a primal, either. The very concept was insane to him. It didn't matter that they needed a bunch of crystals to make the transformation happen- Primals weren't alive. They were manifestations which lacked sentience, with no will of their own- Shiva was nothing like that.

Sure, over in the Far East the same thing happened and was called a primal- still had to be something else. The Warriors told Esredes that Hydaelyn was a primal- well, that made sense to him. Her actions were so contradictory and illogical that she had to lack proper sentience.

And then the towers appeared.

Problem as they were, Esredes figured they would be just that- a large problem for everyone to solve. And there he was at Whitebrim after the Temple Knights faction of the Alliance assembled, quietly taking in and watching the many faces he had thankfully never seen before, when Kainen motioned for him as he left the dining hall.

Why had he motioned for him? Esredes shouldn't have even asked, for when he came face to face with a woman who was shouting about Shiva in a cell, his blood turned to ice. No, no, no, no, no. That wasn't possible. That didn't make sense. She wasn't a real primal, and Ysayle was- The woman clutched her rosary and began a prayer, after the guards allowed Esredes to give it back to her. “O Lady of the Rime...seal our hearts in ice...health and praise for the Emperor...for glory, Garlemald...” Esredes' hands curled into fists at those words, and his eyes grew intense as if a wildfire was blazing in them. "No... how dare they... They were the ones that murdered her!" "Ser Esredes..." came a voice among the crowd that had gathered by the cell, and he soon recomposed himself. The porxie mage came and did their work, and the woman was soon back to normal- but it did nothing to ease the chill in his bones at the realization that his people were in danger, and they were going to put others in danger- and it was all their own fault.

Soon came the Battle of Carteneau. The Alliance split up to handle the various lunar primals and tempered among the battlefield, and as fate would have it, Kainen was heading an expedition to fight a Lunar Shiva.

That should be impossible. She's gone.

What kind of unholy abomination and impersonation awaited them...? There were other primals he could have gone after, of course, but the moment he heard Kainen speak, he drew in a breath and winced, silently navigating his way over. "Ser Esredes, are you alright?" asked Adelyn, another member of the Ishgard division, as she canted her head towards him ever so slightly. "You needn't join this group if you are having second thoughts..." "I can't possibly stand by. There is no one closer to having an advantage than myself." She nodded. "Then I am glad to have your aid."

She's gone.

When the airship arrived to the arena, it was already mostly ice around a center stage, very reminiscent of the amphitheater itself. Some knights had already been frozen in ice, to which Kainen declared he would get them out and jumped away.

And left there in the center waiting for them was her. While she had a similar outfit, she was not Ysayle, that was for sure, but some other woman who bore no resemblance to anyone. She's gone. That's not her. Beyond the Ishgardians who had come, the majority of the forces were Maelstrom, easily picked out by their bright red outfits. And on order, everyone entered the arena to face off against this thing that had no definition, this imposter that spat in the memory of who she was, a blindly unsentient being that had no right existing. True to his prediction, he did seem to manage something of an advantage. The arena was quickly covered in ice and many of the combatants went sliding, some right into her attacks, but they held true and stubborn. True to being a mostly melee combatant, Esredes had to get right up and close to the thing to attack it- it's not her it's not her it's not her- and by the gods was he going to exercise his right to take out of this world anything that would twist her power for something else.

She loved this world, and all its people. She would never want something in her image made to destroy it. While he held his own against the ice of the arena, even if he had to stab his sword into the ice and use it to ground himself, the thing soon raised its hands heavensward and encased itself in ice, the ice cracking and splitting and exploding to reveal a dragon wing exploding from her clavicle, followed by a second wing, white feathers spilling forth that pulsed with icy energy. A familiar, but not quite right pale dragon formed from the energy, and his eyes glowed with rage. Esredes visibly grimaced. Not long after, Esredes was struck by a blast of icy aether. He flew back and slammed into the arena floor, shards of ice impaled into his lower back and both arms. Even still, he grunted, and pushed himself back up, ignoring the freezing, piercing pain. That thing had to be stopped at all costs.

The lunar apparition made the arena grow colder, and colder. Even for an Ishgardian like himself, it was getting too cold to bear, and gods know how all the Maelstrom people were faring. As the growing blizzard rushed around them, Esredes squinted his eyes to see and let out a shaky breath. It was too cold. They were all going to join those knights and freeze together. Such power, he couldn't contend with it- is this what it was? What Ysayle was yielding, the power they had at their fingertips and yet still wasn't enough to kill that parasite and end their suffering- They had been told at the briefing these Lunars were weaker than true primals, but as the cold closed in on the deepest parts of his bones, Esredes couldn't even comprehend it being stronger than this. Was this what we were going to unleash on Ishgard? Would she have been able to control it enough to prevent mass death? Esredes was still standing, despite it all, yet his balance was beginning to falter in all the shivering.

They were all surely about to succumb to the cold, and it was his fault. He helped bring this abomination into existence. He killed everyone here, including a client of his.

The apparition turned to him, and locked eyes with him. Did it know? A chill ran up his spine, but he stared the thing down. His eyes were still intense like a blazing wildfire, even despite the cold. "You're a disgrace to her memory," each word of that snarl came out with venom. "You'll never... be... Saint Shiva..." And then someone else took advantage of her looking away, and she was pushed back by a wave of dark magic, her icy staff flying out of her hand. Another engulfed her in flames, igniting her wings and burning them to ashes.

As the primal staggered to the ground, her back now to Esredes, she looked up to stare at someone else. Esredes looked past her to see Adelyn, her eyes now glowing blue and icy, with a glowing seal on the glove of her unarmed hand and a layer of rime at her feet, and suddenly, the primal was encased in a pillar of ice. The primal looked down at the Alliance forces, but looked heavensward as she was completely encased. Another fire spell began to crack the ice, and when it shattered, the lunar apparition was no more.

Esredes slowly got to his feet as the sapping cold faded, breathing heavily as he stared with wide eyes at the spot where the abomination had just been. He hadn't even realized that tears had begun streaming down his cheeks as his blank gaze fixated on the spot.

She's gone.

She can't come back.

Every part of Esredes wanted to drop to the ground and scream until he couldn't anymore. Until the ice came back and froze him to death. Until there was nothing but a cold oblivion left. Was it a relief, or a twisted, taunting mockery that he couldn't even look upon something resembling her once last time, before returning to a world where her presence couldn't be felt?

Yet thankfully for that urge, he was soon brought back to reality by people talking to him- multiple people. Some asked if he was okay, one woman even offered a hug he graciously declined, and soon Kainen returned announcing he had completed his mission, and they were back on the airship and off to reconnect with the rest of the Alliance. The Battle of Carteneau had not yet been won, and there was no time for him to rest as he stared out blankly the entire airship ride over.

Shiva had never been anything more than a long passed mortal, and despite the best efforts of so many people, she would never be anything more.

[quibbs126]

I decided to do some more sketches of Witch Hunt characters, since that original picture was just a small part of the canvas

So I already mentioned Glaive and Arcana, so I won’t repeat myself (I will put a link here). So let’s get on to the other two here, Inferno and Ruby

So Inferno is the fire witch, as you can probably guess. For her personality, instead of like a raging fire, like I usually see with fire based characters, she’s closer to a warm fireplace, being comforting and someone you feel safe around. However, this was definitely not the case when she was younger, as she was a pure wildfire. This is how she would be in the prequel game. She lives on a very cold and snowy mountain, and her fire’s proven very useful, especially during the cold winters.

I’ve actually drawn Inferno quite a bit before, so I think I could get a handle on her design, and I like what I got

Also, if you notice that she looks sort of out of place in a snowy mountain, with her extremely tanned skin and bright hair, you would be correct, as she’s not native to the place, she’s only been there the past 15 years or so. She’s actually from the desert, and feels far more at home in the scorching sun, she cannot stand the cold. If you’re wondering why she’s living there then, it’s because of her adopted daughter Rime (who happens to be the ice witch), who is native to this place. The problem was when taking her in, since she has no real experience with heat, she’d probably quickly die of heatstroke if they went back to the desert. Inferno figured with her fire powers, it’d be much easier for them to just move there, so that’s what they did

Oh yeah, another random thing about Inferno, she likes to make baked goods, particularly cookies. This part I did add because of Cookie Run, because I thought it was funny. Thankfully Inferno is not bringing her desserts to life, and if they were alive, she wouldn’t eat them

Inferno happens to also be happily married (and a lesbian), to the character right next to her, Ruby

I was originally going to draw one of the other three older witches, particularly Cascade, but I couldn’t get the design to work. This is always what makes me stop drawing these guys, because I can’t figure out the designs for these four. But then I realized “hey, I don’t have to draw the other witches. Why don’t I just draw Inferno’s family instead?” And so yeah. I’ll get to the other three when I feel like it

Now Ruby is part of a group of warriors that go all around the world, helping people where they can. Ruby happens to be a veteran member of the group. Everyone in the group has gem names, and they all wear white/light colored armor with their respective colors. Also, a random weird quirk, but their armor is all scented. Nobody knows why it’s scented, including the members themselves, but they just choose not to question it. Ruby’s armor smells like cherries. Also, for some reason the scent never fades, so Ruby has been smelling of cherries for over 25 years. I think I chose to do that because I remembered having toys when I was younger that had fruit scents (I think it was Strawberry Shortcake?), and it sort of just stuck with me to do that for them. Also in my mind, their armor is almost toy or plastic like, rather than typical metal armor. Or like a color coded gundam team

Unlike Inferno, who I’ve drawn before, I’ve never drawn Ruby before, and to be honest, I’m not entirely satisfied with her design. Given everything about her, all I could think was that she was just like Hollyberry Cookie (despite the fact that I first made Ruby nearly 2 years ago), and I both tried to incorporate some elements of Hollyberry, but also try to make her not like Hollyberry. But I think I also just didn’t get what I wanted. I really wasn’t sure what I was doing with her armor, and I think I need to play around with the armor design before I get something I like. Also, I feel like I didn’t get across her body type. Ruby is supposed to be BULKY, large and muscley. She’s supposed to be nearly 7 feet tall, and it isn’t all just vertical either, she’s got width too. By comparison, Inferno is barely over 5 feet, and she’s relatively skinny. Granted her body type is more lean and she does have muscle, but she looks like a small twig in comparison to her wife. But to be honest, she doesn’t look much different from the other characters. I think that’s a limitation of my style, as it’s hard to show different body types. I think I’m going to have to rework my style more so I can better incorporate that.

Also immediately once I finalized the sketch, I saw the weapon and went “she should have an axe instead”. Unfortunately I just couldn’t be bothered to go and change it, as I had already merged all the sketch layers. But yeah, I’m changing her weapon to an axe

In the prequel, we’d meet them as only a small group of around 5-6, Ruby among them, and they’re all siblings. And Inferno has a massive crush on Ruby. Inferno’s type is “women who can snap me like a twig” (which Ruby can absolutely do by the way. But she wouldn’t do that to her firecracker). But it wasn’t just physical attraction, they actually were able to get along really well, and fought quite well together, and along the way they properly fell in love and eventually got married, later adopting Rime after taking a job about strange happenings in the snowy mountain

In the first game, Glaive would meet Ruby during his quest. Originally she was just supposed to be going about doing her job, but now I realize she should probably instead be trying to help her wife and daughter. But regardless she’s an ally to Glaive, and is probably the introduction for Glaive (and the players) to the warrior group (that I don’t have a name for yet). Also when they first meet, Glaive doesn’t know that she and Inferno are married, but they might make references to it. He’d either find out later when they all meet up, or we’d only find out in the credits, when we see them together

I think that’s about it, I hope you like them!

[sweetcedar]

24: Vicissitudes

ch: vedis feigrun || wc: 71 two þulur, inspired by the 'interchange and alternation' definition. i used an 8/10/8 meter for ease of working in english.

Many names there are for flame:

Hearth, campfire, candlelight, embers, purifier, meat-eater, warmth-giver, pyre, kindling, smoke-beast, and huntsman.

Smoke, ardor, ward-breaker, beacon, lifegiver, pine-tender, leaping one, light, flare, wildfire, vein-blaze, and cinder.

Many names there are for ice:

Freeze, calf-herd, hastener, traitor, pitiless one, mountain-wall, jagged one, hail, mirror, blue-eyed, and glacier.

Rime, hoarfrost, river-ford, growler, shining one, water-stone, drifting one, heart, floe, spring thaw, respite, and blizzard.

[ltwilliammowett]

Tropical Diseases aboard a Ship

I've been working my way through some Surgeons Journals for a while now and I've noticed one thing that has been responsible for most of the deaths on board. The tropical diseases, which often left the surgeons helpless and powerless. Here is a small overview of the diseases that were frequently found on board. If you don't want to read this, as always, then better don’t do it.

Illustration by Gustave Doré from Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (x) 

Yellow fever or Yellow Jack

Until 1956, it was not possible to distinguish between malaria and yellow fever, so it was difficult to treat the affected person. The patient develops fever, headache and chills after about 3 to 6 days. This also disappeared again in mild cases. More severe cases developed jaundice as a result of liver damage and bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract. This ended fatally in most cases. The whole thing was untreatable, the surgeons could only treat individual parts of the disease, but even that was often unsuccessful. If the all-popular bloodletting was added, this usually brought the patient to the watery grave even faster, as it weakened the body even more. Attempts to inoculate, rub or even drink the vomit of the sick did not help either the surgeons or the patients. Besides, there is no specific therapy so far. Only the symptoms of the infection can be treated.

Malaria

Malaria was just as treacherous as yellow fever. It too leads to fever, headache and chills. But it also leads to diarrhoea, vomiting, enlargement of the liver and spleen, mental breakdowns and even coma and subsequent death. Since the middle of the 17th century, however, people on board have tried to treat malaria with the so-called cinchona bark from South America, which worked well. This worked well, which is why most surgeons distributed it to the entire crew when they went to these regions.  

Dysentery

Also called Bloody Flux, dysentery was not a very pleasant but unfortunately often occurring disease, which was caused by spoiled water and food and the amoebae that settled there. To keep it short, the affected person literally shits himself to death. The surgeons fought against this with aniseed, nutmeg, but also sitting on hot stones, bloodletting and a root called ipecacuanha from South America, which was also discovered in the 17th century. But there is also bacterial dysentery, which can be treated today thanks to antibiotics, whereas back then it meant death.

Smallpox

Even if you don't believe it, this disease originated in the so-called Middle East and was brought to central Europe by the Romans. At the onset of the disease there is a severe feeling of illness, headache and backache with high fever (smallpox fever) and chills. At this point, the patient is highly infectious. In smallpox, a biphasic course of fever is typical: after one to five days, the fever drops and rises again after one day. Now the typical skin symptoms appear. Smallpox was initially treated only symptomatically until the 18th century, when it was finally vaccinated. According to the WHO, the world has been free of smallpox since 1980.

Ship fever or Spotted Fever

If anything spread like wildfire alongside the other diseases, it was ship fever. In addition to nasty red spots all over the skin, high fever, headache, pain in the limbs and dizziness occur, which is caused by fleas, mites and ticks. Again, there was not much the surgeons could do except bathe, re-clothe and disinfect with vinegar. Otherwise, the symptoms were treated. However, as soon as the animals had been deprived of their livelihood, the typhus also decreased and the patients usually recovered, but unfortunately there were also often many deaths.

[earnmysong]

Decided to watches "Witches of East End" on Hulu because I wanted something autumnal and spooky that wasn't heavy (and this is soapy af but I love it) and who shows up but TIM BRADFORD.

He plays a hot, rich doctor who is part of Doctors without Borders, and is engaged to one of the main characters. His hair is much longer and I didn't recognize him for a hot second. It's weird!

oh my god! i vaguely recall hearing that [probably here, via the chenford fandom fam], but never really felt inspired to check it out. should i change my stance? how is it so far?

oh my god, squared! not!tim bradford's fiancee is channing tatum's ex, aka nolan's towel-clad neighbor/wedding date! the rookie: keeping former costars in each other's professional orbit! and the other sister was jj’s fiancee on american dreams, which tiny e also watched!

i know eric winter because he guest-starred on wildfire, one of tinier e's tune-ins. anddddd he did a hallmark holiday movie once with jodie sweetin! [i tend to remember the ones starring mildly famous people - leann rimes, kellie pickler, stephanie tanner in real life - a little better ahahaha!]

[bisexualcharmanderenergy]

I finally completed a Nuzlocke challenge!

The game I picked was Pokémon Sword, and it went way better than my first attempt, mainly because this time, I didn’t go to the Isle of Armor until after the third gym, at which point I was overleveled for it.

My final team for Leon was, in order of seniority, Nick the Corviknight, our only boy and resident Gigantamaxer; Katherine the Gyarados, known for repeatedly barely surviving things that probably should have killed her; Jaiden the Gastrodon, unquestionably the strongest member of the team; Squeaky the Eldegloss, who took forever to catch and was a total brat at first, but proved essential to the team when the chips were down; Starr the Eternatus, seen as a villainous Pokémon by many, but a true hero at heart; and finally, last but certainly not least, Bella the Raichu, a last-minute recruit eager to help out in any way she could.

I led with Starr going into the Leon fight, and they easily beat Aegislash despite his annoying tendency to spam King’s Shield.

Leon’s next Pokémon was Haxorus, whom Katherine defeated after tanking a critical hit Outrage, and Dragapult was no match for Jaiden, but then came Mr. Rime.

The smart thing to do would have been to send in Starr, since they had Flamethrower, but I really wanted to give the whole team a chance to shine in the final battle, so I sent in Nick, but he missed all his Steel Wings, and I’d forgotten Mr. Rime knew Thunderbolt, so he was killed, but that wasn’t the worst thing that happened.

See, in the heat of the moment and the shock of losing the team member who’d been with us the longest, I forgot that Ground-types are weak to Ice-types and sent in Jaiden to finish off Mr. Rime.

Gastrodon’s a tank, so Jaiden probably could have survived a hit from Mr. Rime… but she got crit.

After that, I did what I probably should have done in the first place and sent in Starr, who easily avenged both Nick and Jaiden, and Squeaky curb-stomped Leon’s Inteleon, which meant it was time for the big bad Charizard.

I sent in Bella and Dynamaxed her, hoping she could Max Lightning our way to victory.

She got Charizard in the red before succumbing to G-Max Wildfire.

Katherine was pretty beat up from fighting Haxorus, and Squeaky’s, you know, Grass-type, so I sent in Starr again, and they finished off Charizard, finally earning us the title of Champion.

I can finally say I’ve completed a Nuzlocke challenge!

[creativerogues]

Theory: What To Expect In The Next D&D Book...

There have been theories for a while about this mysterious Book supposedly releasing in Mid-November 2020. So I thought about it and I’ll give my thoughts on what we could be seeing, if anything...

Now, people have been calling this Book “Xanathar’s 2″ because they think it’ll be another expansion with New Races, Subraces, and Subclasses, which I’m going to agree with because it definitely sounds and looks like it.

However, even though it seems it’ll be around 190-260 Pages on average for this kind of book release, and books like these usually contain some new optional rules, some new spells, and some new races and subclasses, I think we’re far enough into 5th Edition that Wizards of the Coast have pretty much covered every “classic” archetype and can start getting a little weirder with what they put out, as shown in some of the more recent Unearthed Arcanas being put out for playtesting and feedback.

And from what I can tell from the more recent Unearthed Arcana Articles, this Book is definitely ‘Cosmic’ in nature and theme. With many of the Playtest Spells allowing you to transform your body into strange creatures or summon spirits from the outer planes, and the Subclasses having a lot of influence from places like the Far Realm, the Realm of Mechanus, the Elemental Planes and the Feywild and Shadowfell.

Class Feature Variants

In a recent Unearthed Arcana Article, Wizards of the Coast released a set of variant class features to replace or enhance a class’s normal features, giving D&D Players new ways to enjoy a class.

I think this could definitely turn up in the next big book because it allows for some variety in the Class you’re playing without actually changing much in terms of the Character.

Not only does it allow a DM to remedy a Player’s Character if the Player thinks their Character isn’t fun to play, but it also allows for Veteran D&D Players to come back to the hobby and play their favourite class with some new features to keep them interested.

Racial Feature Variants

In a recent Article called “Diversity and Dungeons & Dragons”, Wizards of the Coast themselves said: 

“Later this year, we will release a product (not yet announced) that offers a way for a player to customise their character’s origin, including the option to change the ability score increases that come from being an elf, a dwarf, or one of D&D's many other playable folk. This option emphasises that each person in the game is an individual with capabilities all their own.”

So this “Unannounced Book” that gives all these new options and rules is almost certainly the Mid-November release people have been theorising about.

Spells

Wizards of the Coast has said before that they’ve designed some Spells for their newest Adventure “Rime of the Frostmaiden”, but some Spells couldn’t fit in the book for whatever reason, which leads me to think that with all the Spells like Mind Sliver and Summon Spirits that we’ve seen in Unearthed Arcana Articles, as well as some spells we probably haven’t seen before, will probably pop up in this big book coming later this year.

New Rules: Magic Tattoos!

Maybe these are new Magic Items, or just a set of Optional Rules, but based on the highly positive feedback from the recent Unearthed Arcana Article, it seems people really do want magical tattoos for their D&D Characters.

This could be coupled with other Items for to create a “Magic Items” Section of the big book of new stuff, or be put with a bunch of other new optional rules for a “Optional Rules” Section of this new big book of fancy stuff.

What does this mean?

This means that this new big book of new player options will be releasing around Mid-November 2020 and be anywhere from 190-260 Pages in length.

It’ll feature about 20 or so New Subclasses (with at least 1 New Subclass for every Official Class), as well as New Spells, Rules for Variant Class Features and Variant Racial Features, and most likely some new Feats and Magic Items too...

But whether it really is “Xanathar’s 2″ or not, it’s definitely going to be an interesting read...

Subclasses

This is just a quick list of all the Subclasses from past Unearthed Arcana Articles that I think will probably pop up somewhere in the future, most likely in this new mysterious “Player’s Option” Book coming later this year.

Artificer

Armourer

Barbarian

Path of the Beast

Path of the Wild Soul

Bard

College of Creation

College of Satire

Cleric

Twilight Domain

Unity Domain

Druid

Circle of Stars

Circle of Wildfires

Fighter

Rune Knight

Sharpshooter

Monk

Way of the Astral Self

Way of Mercy

Paladin

Oath of the Watchers

Ranger

Fey Wanderer

Primeval Guardian

Swarmkeeper

Rogue

Phantom

Sorcerer

Aberrant Mind

Clockwork Soul

Giant Soul Sorcery

Phoenix Sorcery

Warlock

Genie

Lurker in the Deep

Wizard

Onomancy

Order of Scribes

School of Invention

[mellifera38]

Mel’s Big Fantasy Place-Name Reference

So I’ve been doing lots of D&D world-building lately and I’ve kind of been putting together lists of words to help inspire new fantasy place names. I figured I’d share. These are helpful for naming towns, regions, landforms, roads, shops, and they’re also probably useful for coming up with surnames. This is LONG. There’s plenty more under the cut including a huge list of “fantasy sounding” word-parts. Enjoy!

Towns & Kingdoms

town, borough, city, hamlet, parish, township, village, villa, domain

kingdom, empire, nation, country, county, city-state, state, province, dominion

Town Name End Words (English flavored)

-ton, -ston, -caster, -dale, -den, -field, -gate, -glen, -ham, -holm, -hurst, -bar, -boro, -by, -cross, -kirk, -meade, -moore, -ville, -wich, -bee, -burg, -cester, -don, -lea, -mer, -rose, -wall, -worth, -berg, -burgh, -chase, -ly, -lin, -mor, -mere, -pool. -port, -stead, -stow, -strath, -side, -way, -berry, -bury, -chester, -haven, -mar, -mont, -ton, -wick, -meet, -heim, -hold, -hall, -point

Buildings & Places

castle, fort, palace, fortress, garrison, lodge, estate, hold, stronghold, tower, watchtower, palace, spire, citadel, bastion, court, manor, house

altar, chapel, abbey, shrine, temple, monastery, cathedral, sanctum, crypt, catacomb, tomb

orchard, arbor, vineyard, farm, farmstead, shire, garden, ranch

plaza, district, quarter, market, courtyard, inn, stables, tavern, blacksmith, forge, mine, mill, quarry, gallows, apothecary, college, bakery, clothier, library, guild house, bath house, pleasure house, brothel, jail, prison, dungeon, cellar, basement, attic, sewer, cistern

lookout, post, tradepost, camp, outpost, hovel, hideaway, lair, nook, watch, roost, respite, retreat, hostel, holdout, redoubt, perch, refuge, haven, alcove, haunt, knell, enclave, station, caravan, exchange, conclave

port, bridge, ferry, harbor, landing, jetty, wharf, berth, footbridge, dam, beacon, lighthouse, marina, dockyard, shipyard

road, street, way, row, lane, trail, corner, crossing, gate, junction, waygate, end, wall, crossroads,  barrier, bulwark, blockade, pavilion, avenue, promenade, alley, fork, route

Time & Direction

North, South, East, West, up, down, side, rise, fall, over, under

Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, solstice, equanox, vernal, ever, never

dusk, dawn, dawnrise, morning, night, nightfall, evening, sundown, sunbreak, sunset

lunar, solar, sun, moon, star, eclipse

Geographical Terms

Cave, cavern, cenote, precipice, crevasse, crater, maar, chasm, ravine, trench, rift, pit

Cliff, bluff, crag, scarp, outcrop, stack, tor, falls, run, eyrie, aerie

Hill, mountain, volcano, knoll, hillock, downs, barrow, plateau, mesa, butte, pike, peak, mount, summit, horn, knob, pass, ridge, terrace, gap, point, rise, rim, range, view, vista, canyon, hogback, ledge, stair, descent

Valley, gulch, gully, vale, dale, dell, glen, hollow, grotto, gorge, bottoms, basin, knoll, combe

Meadow, grassland, field, pasture, steppe, veld, sward, lea, mead, fell, moor, moorland, heath, croft, paddock, boondock, prairie, acre, strath, heights, mount, belt

Woodlands, woods, forest, bush, bower, arbor, grove, weald, timberland, thicket, bosk, copse, coppice, underbrush, hinterland, park, jungle, rainforest, wilds, frontier, outskirts

Desert, dunes, playa, arroyo, chaparral, karst, salt flats, salt pan, oasis, spring, seep, tar pit, hot springs, fissure, steam vent, geyser, waste, wasteland, badland, brushland, dustbowl, scrubland

Ocean, sea, lake, pond, spring, tarn, mere, sluice, pool, coast, gulf, bay

Lagoon, cay, key, reef, atoll, shoal, tideland, tide flat, swale, cove, sandspit, strand, beach

Snowdrift, snowbank, permafrost, floe, hoar, rime, tundra, fjord, glacier, iceberg

River, stream, creek, brook, tributary, watersmeet, headwater, ford, levee, delta, estuary, firth, strait, narrows, channel, eddy, inlet, rapids, mouth, falls

Wetland, marsh, bog, fen, moor, bayou, glade, swamp, banks, span, wash, march, shallows, mire, morass, quag, quagmire, everglade, slough, lowland, sump, reach

Island, isle, peninsula, isthmus, bight, headland, promontory, cape, pointe, cape

More under the cut including: Color words, Animal/Monster related words, Rocks/Metals/Gems list, Foliage, People groups/types, Weather/Environment/ Elemental words, Man-made Items, Body Parts, Mechanical sounding words, a huge list of both pleasant and unpleasant Atmospheric Descriptors, and a huge list of Fantasy Word-parts.

Color Descriptions

Warm: red, scarlet, crimson, rusty, cerise, carmine, cinnabar, orange, vermillion, ochre, peach, salmon, saffron, yellow, gold, lemon, amber, pink, magenta, maroon, brown, sepia, burgundy, beige, tan, fuchsia, taupe

Cool: green, beryl, jade, evergreen, chartreuse, olive, viridian, celadon, blue, azure, navy, cerulean, turquoise, teal, cyan, cobalt, periwinkle, beryl, purple, violet, indigo, mauve, plum

Neutral: gray, silver, ashy, charcoal, slate, white, pearly, alabaster, ivory, black, ebony, jet

dark, dusky, pale, bleached, blotchy, bold, dappled, lustrous, faded, drab, milky, mottled, opaque, pastel, stained, subtle, ruddy, waxen, tinted, tinged, painted

Animal / Monster-Related Words

Bear, eagle, wolf, serpent, hawk, horse, goat, sheep, bull, raven, crow, dog, stag, rat, boar, lion, hare, owl, crane, goose, swan, otter, frog, toad, moth, bee, wasp, beetle, spider, slug, snail, leech, dragonfly, fish, trout, salmon, bass, crab, shell, dolphin, whale, eel, cod, haddock

Dragon, goblin, giant, wyvern, ghast, siren, lich, hag, ogre, wyrm, kraken

Talon, scale, tusk, hoof, mane, horn, fur, feather, fang, wing, whisker, bristle, paw, tail, beak, claw, web, quill, paw, maw, pelt, haunch, gill, fin,

Hive, honey, nest, burrow, den, hole, wallow

Rocks / Metals / Minerals

Gold, silver, brass, bronze, copper, platinum, iron, steel, tin, mithril, electrum, adamantite, quicksilver, fool’s gold, titanium

Diamond, ruby, emerald, sapphire, topaz, opal, pearl, jade, jasper, onyx, citrine, aquamarine, turquoise, lapiz lazuli, amethyst, quartz, crystal, amber, jewel

Granite, shale, marble, limestone, sandstone, slate, diorite, basalt, rhyolite, obsidian, glass

Earth, stone, clay, sand, silt, salt, mote, lode, vein, ore, ingot, coal, boulder, bedrock, crust, rubble, pebble, gravel, cobble, dust, clod, peat, muck mud, slip, loam, dirt, grit, scree, shard, flint, stalactite/mite

Trees / Plants / Flowers

Tree, ash, aspen, pine, birch, alder, willow, dogwood, oak, maple, walnut,  chestnut, cedar, mahogany, palm, beech, hickory, hemlock, cottonwood, hawthorn, sycamore, poplar, cypress, mangrove, elm, fir, spruce, yew

Branch, bough, bramble, gnarl, burr, tangle, thistle, briar, thorn, moss, bark, shrub, undergrowth, overgrowth, root, vine, bracken, reed, driftwood, coral, fern, berry, bamboo, nectar, petal, leaf, seed, clover, grass, grain, trunk, twig, canopy, cactus, weed, mushroom, fungus

Apple, olive, apricot, elderberry, coconut, sugar, rice, wheat, cotton, flax, barley, hops, onion, carrot, turnip, cabbage, squash, pumpkin, pepper

Flower, rose, lavender, lilac, jasmine, jonquil, marigold, carnelian, carnation, goldenrod, sage, wisteria, dahlia, nightshade, lily, daisy, daffodil, columbine, amaranth, crocus, buttercup, foxglove, iris, holly, hydrangea, orchid, snowdrop, hyacinth, tulip, yarrow, magnolia, honeysuckle, belladonna, lily pad, magnolia

People

Settler, Pilgrim, Pioneer, Merchant, Prospector, Maker, Surveyor, Mason, Overseer, Apprentice, Widow, Sailor, Miner, Blacksmith, Butcher, Baker, Brewer, Barkeep, Ferryman, Hangman, Gambler, Fisherman, Adventurer, Hero, Seeker, Hiker, Traveler, Crone

Mage, Magician, Summoner, Sorcerer, Wizard, Conjurer, Necromancer, 

King, Queen, Lord, Count, Baron, Guard, Soldier, Knight, Vindicator, Merchant, Crusader, Imperator, Syndicate, Vanguard, Champion, Warden, Victor, Legionnaire, Master, Archer, Footman, Gladiator, Barbarian, Captain, Commodore, 

Beggar, Hunter, Ranger, Deadman, Smuggler, Robber, Swindler, Rebel, Bootlegger, Outlaw, Pirate, Brigand, Ruffian, Highwayman, Cutpurse, Thief, Assassin

God, Goddess, Exarch, Angel, Devil, Demon, Cultist, Prophet, Hermit, Seer

council, clergy, guild, militia, choir 

Climate, Environment, & The Elements

Cold, cool, brisk, frosty, chilly, icy, freezing, frozen, frigid, glacial, bitter, biting, bleak, arctic, polar, boreal, wintry, snowy, snow, blizzarding, blizzard, sleeting, sleet, chill, frost, ice, icebound, ice cap, floe, snowblind, frostbite, coldsnap, avalanche, snowflake

Hot, sunny, humid, sweltering, steaming, boiling, sizzling, blistering, scalding, smoking, caldescent, dry, parched, arid, fallow, thirsty, melting, molten, fiery, blazing, burning, charring, glowing, searing, scorching, blasted, sun, fire, heat, flame, wildfire, bonfire, inferno, coal, ash, cinder, ember, flare, pyre, tinder, kindling, aflame, alight, ablaze, lava, magma, slag,

Wet, damp, dank, soggy, sodden, soaked, drenched, dripping, sopping, briny, murky, rain, storm, hail, drizzle, sprinkle, downpour, deluge, squall, water, cloud, fog, mist, dew, puddle, pool, current, whirlpool, deep, depths, tide, waves, whitewater, waterfall, tidal wave, flow, flood, leak, drain

Wind, breeze, gust, billow, gail, draft, waft, zephyr, still, airy, clear, smokey, tempest, tempestuous, windswept, aerial, lofty, torrid, turbulent, nebulous, tradewind, thunder, lightning, spark, cyclone, tornado, whirlwind, hurricane, typhoon

Man-made Item Words

Furnace, forge, anvil, vault, strap, strip, whetstone, brick, sword, blade, axe, dagger, shield, buckler, morningstar, bow, quiver, arrow, polearm, flail, staff, stave, sheath, hilt, hammer, knife, helm, mantle, banner, pauldron, chainmail, mace, dart, cutlass, canon, needle, cowl, belt,  buckle, bandana, goggles, hood, boot, heel, spindle, spool, thread, sweater, skirt, bonnet, apron, leather, hide, plate, tunic, vest, satin, silk, wool, velvet, lace, corset, stocking, binding

Plow, scythe, (wheel) barrow, saddle, harrow, brand, collar, whip, leash, lead, bridle, stirrup, wheel, straw, stall, barn, hay, bale, pitchfork, well, log, saw, lumber, sod, thatch, mortar, brick, cement, concrete, pitch, pillar, window, fountain, door, cage, spoke, pole, table, bench, plank, board

Candle, torch, cradle, broom, lamp, lantern, clock, bell, lock, hook, trunk, looking glass, spyglass, bottle, vase, locket, locker, key, handle, rope, knot, sack, pocket, pouch, manacle, chain, stake, coffin, fan. cauldron, kettle, pot, bowl, pestle, oven, ladle, spoon, font, wand, potion, elixir, draught, portal, book, tome, scroll, word, manuscript, letter, message, grimoire, map, ink, quill, pen, cards, dice

Coin, coronet, crown, circlet, scepter, treasure, riches, scales, pie, tart, loaf, biscuit, custard, caramel, pudding, porridge, stew, bread, tea, gravy, gristle, spice, lute, lyre, harp, drum, rouge, powder, perfume, brush

bilge, stern, pier, sail, anchor, mast, dock, deck, flag, ship, boat, canoe, barge, wagon, sled, carriage, buggy, cart

Wine, brandy, whiskey, ale, moonshine, gin, cider, rum, grog, beer, brew, goblet, flagon, flask, cask, tankard, stein, mug, barrel, stock, wort, malt

Body Parts

Head, throat, finger, foot, hand, neck, shoulder, rib, jaw, eye, lips, bosom

Skull, spine, bone, tooth, heart, blood, tears, gut, beard

Mechanical-Sounding Words

cog, fuse, sprocket, wrench, screw, nail, bolt, lever, pulley, spanner, gear, spring, shaft, switch, button, cast, pipe, plug, dial, meter, nozzle, cord, brake, gauge, coil, oil, signal, wire, fluke, staple, clamp, bolt, nut, bulb, patch, pump, cable, socket

torque, force, sonic, spark, fizzle, thermal, beam, laser, steam, buzz, mega, mecha, electro, telsa, power, flicker, charge, current, flow, tinker

Atmospheric Words

Unpleasant, Dangerous, Threatening

(nouns) death, fury, battle, scar, shadow, razor, nightmare, wrath, bone, splinter, peril, war, riptide, strife, reckoning, sorrow, terror, deadwood, nether, venom, grime, rage, void, conquest, pain, folly, revenge, horrid, mirk, shear, fathom, frenzy, corpselight/marshlight, reaper, gloom, doom, torment, torture, spite, grizzled, sludge, refuse, spore, carrion, fear, pyre, funeral, shade, beast, witch, grip, legion, downfall, ruin, plague, woe, bane, horde, acid, fell, grief, corpse, mildew, mold, miter, dirge

(adjectives) dead, jagged, decrepit, fallen, darkened, blackened, dire, grim, feral, wild, broken, desolate, mad, lost, under, stagnant, blistered, derelict, forlorn, unbound, sunken, fallow, shriveled, wayward, bleak, low, weathered, fungal, last, brittle, sleepy, -strewn, dusky, deserted, empty, barren, vacant, forsaken, bare, bereft, stranded, solitary, abandoned, discarded, forgotten, deep, abysmal, bottomless, buried, fathomless,unfathomable, diseased, plagued, virulent, noxious, venomous, toxic, fetid, revolting, putrid, rancid, foul, squalid, sullied, vile, blighted, vicious, ferocious, dangerous, savage, cavernous, vast, yawning, chasmal, echoing, dim, dingy, gloomy, inky, lurid, shaded, shadowy, somber, sunless, tenebrous, unlit, veiled, hellish, accursed, sulfurous, damned, infernal, condemned, doomed, wicked, sinister, dread, unending, spectral, ghostly, haunted, eldritch, unknown, weary, silent, hungry, cloven, acidic

(verb/adverbs): wither (withering / withered), skulk (skulking), whisper, skitter, chitter, sting, slither, writhe, gape, screech, scream, howl, lurk, roil, twist, shift, swarm, spawn, fester, bleed, howl, shudder, shrivel, devour, swirl, maul, trip, smother, weep, shatter, ruin, curse, ravage, hush, rot, drown, sunder, blister, warp, fracture, die, shroud, fall, surge, shiver, roar, thunder, smolder, break, silt, slide, lash, mourn, crush, wail, decay, crumble, erode, decline, reek, lament, taint, corrupt, defile, poison, infect, shun, sigh, sever, crawl, starve, grind, cut, wound, bruise, maim, stab, bludgeon, rust, mutilate, tremble, stumble, fumble, clank, clang

Pleasant, Safe, Neutral

(nouns) spirit, luck, soul, oracle, song, sky, smile, rune, obelisk, cloud, timber, valor, triumph, rest, dream, thrall, might, valiance, glory, mirror, life, hope, oath, serenity, sojourn, god, hearth, crown, throne, crest, guard, rise, ascent, circle, ring, twin, vigil, breath, new, whistle, grasp, snap, fringe, threshold, arch, cleft, bend, home, fruit, wilds, echo, moonlight, sunlight, starlight, splendor, vigilance, honor, memory, fortune, aurora, paradise, caress

(adjectives) gentle, pleasant, prosperous, peaceful, sweet, good, great, mild, grand, topic, lush, wild, abundant, verdant, sylvan, vital, florid, bosky, callow, verdurous, lucious, fertile, spellbound, captivating, mystical, hidden, arcane, clandestine, esoteric, covert, cryptic, runic, otherworldly, touched, still, fair, deep, quiet, bright, sheer, tranquil, ancient, light, far, -wrought, tidal, royal, shaded, swift, true, free, high, vibrant, pure, argent, hibernal, ascendant, halcyon, silken, bountiful, gilded, colossal, massive, stout, elder, -bourne, furrowed, happy, merry, -bound, loud, lit, silk, quiet, bright, luminous, shining, burnished, glossy, brilliant, lambent, lucent, lustrous, radiant, resplendent, vivid, vibrant, illuminated, silvery, limpid, sunlit, divine, sacred, holy, eternal, celestial, spiritual, almighty, anointed, consecrated, exalted, hallowed, sanctified, ambrosial, beatific, blissful, demure, naked, bare, ample, coy,  deific, godly, omnipotent, omnipresent, rapturous, sacramental, sacrosanct, blessed, majestic, iridescent, glowing, overgrown, dense, hard, timeless, sly, scatter, everlasting, full, half, first, last

(verb/adverbs) arch (arching / arched), wink (winking), sing, nestle, graze, stroll, roll, flourish, bloom, bud, burgeon, live, dawn, hide, dawn, run, pray, wake, laugh, wake, glimmer, glitter, drift, sleep, tumble, bind, arch, blush, grin, glister, beam, meander, wind, widen, charm, bewitch, enthrall, entrance, enchant, allure, beguile, glitter, shimmer, sparkle twinkle, crest, quiver, slumber, herald, shelter, leap, click, climb, scuttle, dig, barter, chant, hum, chime, kiss, flirt, tempt, tease, play, seduce

Generic “Fantasy-Sounding” Word Parts

A - D

aaz, ada, adaer, adal, adar, adbar, adir, ae, ael, aer, aern, aeron, aeryeon, agar, agis, aglar, agron, ahar, akan, akyl, al, alam, alan, alaor, ald, alea, ali, alir, allyn, alm, alon, alor, altar, altum, aluar, alys, amar, amaz, ame, ammen, amir, amol, amn, amus, anar, andor, ang, ankh, ar, ara, aram, arc, arg, arian, arkh, arla, arlith, arn, arond, arthus, arum, arvien, ary, asha, ashyr, ask, assur, aster, astra, ath, athor, athra, athryn, atol, au, auga, aum, auroch, aven, az, azar, baal, bae, bael, bak, bal, balor, ban, bar, bara, barr, batol, batar, basir, basha, batyr, bel, belph, belu, ben, beo, bere, berren, berun, besil, bezan, bhaer, bhal, blask, blis, blod, bor, boraz, bos, bran, brath, braun, breon, bri, bry, bul, bur, byl, caer, cal, calan, cara, cassa, cath, cela, cen, cenar, cerul, chalar, cham, chion, cimar, clo, coram, corel, corman, crim, crom, daar, dach, dae, dago, dagol, dahar, dala, dalar, dalin, dam, danas, daneth, dannar, dar, darian,  darath, darm, darma, darro, das, dasa, dasha, dath, del, delia, delimm, dellyn, delmar, delo, den, dess, dever, dhaer, dhas, dhaz, dhed, dhin, din, dine, diar, dien, div, djer, dlyn, dol, dolan, doon, dora, doril, doun, dral, dranor, drasil, dren, drian, drien, drin, drov, druar, drud, duald, duatha, duir, dul, dulth, dun, durth, dyra, dyver,

E - H

ea, eber, eden, edluk, egan, eiel, eilean, ejen, elath, eld, eldor, eldra, elith emar, ellesar, eltar, eltaran, elth, eltur, elyth, emen, empra, emril, emvor, ena, endra, enthor, erad, erai, ere, eriel, erith, erl, eron, erre, eryn, esk, esmel, espar, estria, eta, ethel, eval, ezro, ezan, ezune, ezil, fael, faelar, faern, falk, falak, farak, faril, farla, fel, fen, fenris, fer, fet, fin, finar, forel, folgun, ful, fulk, fur, fyra, fallon, gael, gach, gabir, gadath, gal, galar, gana, gar, garth, garon, garok, garne, gath, geir, gelden, geren,  geron, ghal, ghallar, ghast, ghel, ghom, ghon, gith, glae, glander, glar, glym, gol, goll, gollo, goloth, gorot, gost, goth, graeve, gran, grimm, grist, grom, grosh, grun, grym, gual, guil, guir, gulth, gulur, gur, gurnth, gwaer, haa, hael, haer, hadar, hadel, hakla, hala, hald, halana, halid, hallar, halon, halrua, halus, halvan, hamar, hanar, hanyl, haor, hara, haren, haresk, harmun, harrokh, harrow, haspur, haza, hazuth, heber,  hela, helve, hem, hen, herath, hesper, heth, hethar, hind, hisari, hjaa, hlath, hlond, hluth, hoarth, holtar, horo, hotun, hrag, hrakh, hroth, hull, hyak, hyrza

I - M

iibra, ilth, ilus, ilira, iman, imar, imas, imb, imir, immer, immil, imne, impil, ingdal, innar, ir, iriae, iril, irith, irk, irul, isha, istis, isil, itala, ith, ithal, itka, jada, jae, jaeda, jahaka, jala, jarra, jaro, jath, jenda, jhaamm, jhothm, jinn, jinth, jyn, kado, kah, kal, kalif, kam, kana, kara, karg, kars, karth, kasp, katla, kaul, kazar, kazr, kela, kelem, kerym, keth, keva, kez, kezan, khaer, khal, khama, khaz, khara, khed, khel, khol, khur, kil, kor, korvan, koll, kos, kir, kra, kul, kulda, kund, kyne, lae, laen, lag, lan, lann, lanar, lantar, lapal, lar, laran, lareth, lark, lath, lauth, lav, lavur, lazar, leih, leshyr, leth, lhaza, lhuven, liad, liam, liard, lim, lin, lirn, lisk, listra, lith, liya, llair, llor, lok, lolth, loran, lorkh, lorn, loth, lothen, luen, luir, luk, lund, lur, luth, lyndus, lyra, lyth, maal, madrasm maera, maer, maerim, maes, mag, magra, mahand, mal, malar, mald, maldo, mar, mara, mark, marl, maru, maruk, meir, melish, memnon, mer, metar, methi, mhil, mina, mir, miram, mirk, mista, mith, moander, mok, modir, modan, mon, monn, mor, more, morel, moril, morn, moro, morrow, morth, mort, morum, morven, muar, mul, mydra, myr, myra, myst

N - S

naar, nadyra, naedyr, naga, najar, nal, naal, nalir, nar, naruk, narbond, narlith, narzul, nasaq, nashkel, natar, nath, natha, neir, neth, nether, nhall, nikh, nil, nilith, noan, nolvurm nonthal, norda, noro, novul, nul, nur, nus, nyan, nyth, ober, odra, oghr, okoth, olleth, olodel, omgar, ondath, onthril, ordul, orish, oroch, orgra, orlim, ormath, ornar, orntath, oroch, orth, orva, oryn, orzo, ostel, ostor, ostrav, othea, ovar, ozod, ozul, palan, palad, pae, peldan, pern, perris, perim, pele, pen, phail, phanda, phara, phen, phendra, pila, pinn, pora, puril, pur, pyra, qadim, quar, quel, ques, quil, raah, rael, ran, ranna, rassil, rak, rald, rassa, reddan, reith, relur, ren, rendril, resil, reska, reth, reven, revar, rhy, rhynn, ria, rian, rin, ris, rissian, rona, roch, rorn, rora, rotha, rual, ruar, ruhal, ruil, ruk, runn, rusk, ryn, saa, saar, saal, sabal, samar, samrin, sankh, sar, sarg, sarguth, sarin, sarlan, sel, seld, sember, semkh, sen, sendrin, septa, senta, seros, shaar, shad, shadra, shae, shaen, shaera, shak, shalan, sham, shamath, shan, shana, sharan, shayl, shemar, shere, shor, shul, shyll, shyr, sidur, sil, silvan, sim, sintar, sirem, skar, skell, skur, skyr, sokol, solan, sola, somra, sor, ssin, stel, strill, suldan, sulk, sunda, sur, surkh, suth, syl, sylph, sylune, syndra, syth

T - Z

taak, taar, taer, tah, tak, tala, talag, talar, talas, talath, tammar, tanar, tanil, tar, tara, taran, tarl, tarn, tasha, tath, tavil, telar, teld, telf, telos, tempe, tethy, tezir, thaar, thaer, thal, thalag, thalas, thalan, thalar, thamor, thander, thangol, thar, thay, thazal, theer, theim, thelon, thera, thendi, theril, thiir, thil, thild, thimir, thommar, thon, thoon, thor, thran, thrann, threl, thril, thrul, thryn, thuk, thultan, thume, thun, thy, thyn, thyr, tir, tiras, tirum, tohre, tol, tolar, tolir,  tolzrin, tor, tormel, tormir, traal, triel, trith, tsath, tsur, tul, tur, turiver, turth, tymor, tyr, uder, udar, ugoth, uhr, ukh, ukir, uker, usten, ulgarth, ulgoth, ultir, ulur, umar, umath, umber, unara, undro, undu, untha, upir, ur, ursa, ursol, uron, uth, uthen, uz, van, vaar, vaelan, vaer, vaern, val valan, valash, vali, valt, vandan, vanede, vanrak, var, varyth, vassa, vastar, vaunt, vay, vel, velar, velen, velius, vell, velta, ven, veren, vern, vesper, vilar, vilhon, vintor, vir, vira, virdin, volo, volun, von, voon, vor, voro, vos, vosir, vosal, vund, war, wara, whel, wol, wynn, wyr, wyrm, xer, xul, xen, xian, yad, yag, yal, yar, yath, yeon, yhal, yir, yirar, yuir, yul, yur, zail, zala, zalhar, zan, zanda, zar, zalar, zarach, zaru, zash, zashu, zemur, zhent, zim, ziram, zindala, zindar, zoun, zul, zurr, zuth, zuu, zym

A lot of places are named after historical events, battles, and people, so keep that in mind. God/Goddess names tied to your world also work well. Places are also often named after things that the area is known for, like Georgia being known for its peaches.

My brain was fried by the end of this so feel free to add more!

I hope you find this reference helpful and good luck world-building!

-Mel

[cyanoticfireflies]

Pokémon Sword Avatar Challenge Playthrough Part 12

This is it, folks!  Our second to last update and our last update of the main game (the pre-credits game).  It’s been an enjoyable playthrough using some fun new Poke-friends that I hadn’t gotten a chance to use before.

If you missed Part 1, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 2, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 3, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 4, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 5, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 6, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 7, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 8, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 9, it’s available HERE.   If you missed Part 10, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 11, it’s available HERE.

Let’s go beat the Champion!

We gear up to go into battle against Leon, but oh?  Oh my. Rose has apparently lost his mind. Well, what to do.  I mean, obviously go stop him from absolutely destroying everything.  I’m telling you, if Macro Cosmos had just invested in renewable energy we wouldn’t be in this mess.  Now we have to save the planet.  Again.

We go with Hop back to the Slumbering Weald to find the Sword and Shield Pokemon of myth.  Gee, wonder how the games got their names. Amazing.  I love our mother watching us run off into the place we’re forbidden to go where we passed out last time after hearing that Rose is trying to recreate a storm that almost destroyed the region and she’s just smiling and waving like “I’ll make pot roast!”  Muuuuuuum….

We gather up a boatload of goodies laying on the ground, including TM86 Phandom Force, one of my favorite moves which absolutely no one on our team can learn.  Of course.  We meet up with Hop and as soon as he mentions the fog it gets even worse.  And out walk the two Pokemon of legend, all chill like “Yeah, what’s up?”  I’ve gotta say, the shrine for the sword and the shield is a gorgeous little cut-scene. That place looks really cool.

The sword and the shield are rusted and worn down, but I’m sure they’ll still be usable because plot.

We head to Hammerlocke to meet up with Leon at the stadium.  Raihan is waiting for us outside to basically warn us that things are bad.  I mean, Rose is trying to summon the Darkest Day, so yeah.  We head inside where Oleana has apparently decided to stop being crazy long enough to be helpful.  Helpful enough to drop the big name: Eternatus.

Does the basement remind anyone else just a little of where we fought Xerneas/Yveltal in X/Y?  Just me?  Okay.

Rose is so dedicated to protecting the future that he doesn’t care what happens to the present, which is astonishingly poignant in many ways right now.  At least he looks like he regrets it as the angelic choir kicks in.  (“Seph-i-roth!”)  His line-up is so Steel-type heavy that Okama the Centiskorch pretty much one-shots his way through with just a quick Hyper Potion from us since he’s a little slow. These Macro Cosmos battles were why we took the time to replace our Orbeetle and Vanilluxe to get a Fire-type on the team.

I’m so glad giving Rose a beat-down was enough to bring him back to his senses.  Too bad we didn’t manage it before he decided to cause the regional apocalypse.  We take the lift up to the roof and yeah, okay.  That dragon is… not intimidating?  Maybe it would have been before Giratina.  But whatever!  Leon’s got this.  He’s just got to toss a Pokeball and… oh, right.  It’s never that easy.  Thanks, Charizard, for the quick save!

When Eternatus wants to battle we take it down quickly with Aleyla’s Psychic blasts.  Easy peasy!  But, of course, Eternatus isn’t going down so easily.  It rises up into the sky like a black hole above the roof and, yeah, okay.  *That* looks much more intimidating!  Good job!

We just have to stick it out for a couple of turns while we’re unable to move.  This feels familiar.  Hop has the idea to raise the ancient Sword and Shield and, interestingly enough, it works!  The ancient Pokemon hear our call and teleport to our rescue or something.

Now it’s four-on-one with possibly my favorite version of the regular battle theme.  That high piano?  That guitar?  Dude. Xacian and Zamazenta are ready to fight, armed with the legendary tools of war.  It’s a good chance to see what each of the legendaries does with Xacian hitting a Howl and Zamazenta immediately putting up Light Screen.  Us nailing Psychic is doing about as much damage as the Behemoth moves, so Eternatus goes down in no time at all.  We get the chance to catch it, and we have one Premier Ball – I can’t resist.

The sun comes out, showing that we’ve ended the Darkest Day!

I think they could have really expanded this part of the story, personally.  But okay.  It is what it is.  Most of my complaints with this game are about the rushed legendary plot.

Three days later we’re back and ready for the Championship Match.  Before that, I do pause and take a look at our Eternatus.  Technically since it’s a Poison-type, we could chuck it onto the team.  But it’s only level 60, actually five to nine levels lower than our base team.  It’s Lax nature so more Defense and less Sp. Defense with the ability Pressure which is really not that interesting.  Oh well.  Just curious.

We go to the stadium and face off against Leon.  Stupid pose and all!  I send out Rajuna the Greedent again Aegislash to nail some Bites since we won’t need Rajuna for most of the fight and she can tank Sacred Swords.  The Attack drop from King’s Shield is a pain but not enough to keep us from taking Aegislash to a sliver before Leon uses a Full Restore.  On our very next attack we land a critical hit Bite, taking Aegislash down just like that.

The only option for dealing with Seismitoad is Makuda the Flapple.  One Grav Apple is double super effective and ends that Seismitoad before it can let off a single attack.  Makuda is just too good, you guys!  Team MVP.

Aleyla the Mr. Rime goes up against Haxorus, but we get hit with a brutal Iron Tail that brings us down to a single hit point!  How do we survive?  Our first Freeze-Dry freezes Haxorus!  We’re going to do this!  Except… Haxorus thaws on the first turn?  We only have one hit point!  Haxorus goes for the finishing Iron Head – and misses!  A second Freeze Dry takes it down.  That was a rollercoaster from start to finish!

We switch into Amal the Dreadnaw to deal with Cinderace, the evolution of the Scorbunny neither Hop nor I took at the beginning of the game, which is a precious little call-back.  Not so precious that we don’t destroy it with a single Liquidation, but still precious.

We go back out to Makuda to deal with the Dragapult, pitting dragon against dragon (dragon wins!)  We get some unfortunate Paralysis as we trade in and then awful luck getting paralyzed against Dragon Breath and actually have to pull Makuda out and switch Okama in.  Makuda, we were just praising you!  Okama can hit hard with Crunch, enough to end this battle.

The last Pokemon is his Charizard, and this is what we’ve been holding Haku back for.  Charizard is faster and Gigantamaxes, getting off a Max Rockfall that is very, very fortunately not a Ground-type move.  But then his next move, G-Max Wildfire, is enough to take Haku down.  That… didn’t go as planned.  We send out Okama to make the sacrifice as we use a Max Revive on Haku, but it wasn’t actually necessary.  In a moment of sheer irony, the sandstorm caused by Charizard’s own Max Rockfall does enough chip damage to take it down.

I’ll… I’ll take the W!

And just like that, we’re the new Champion of Galar!  Look at the pride on Mum’s face!  Look at Hop’s joy!  Of course Bede and Marnie are too cool to smile, but you know they’re feeling it too. Ooh, fireworks!

[illwynd]

Fimbulwinter (1/10)

(AO3) (tumblr tag for other parts)

Fimbulwinter, the winter without end, has begun. The people of the village have somehow endured. But then one day, Thor, born at the end of the last summer, meets a stranger in the woods.

Note:  This story was inspired by Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith and Steeleye Span's collaborative album of the same name. Listening to the song "You" has always made me want to write a thorki AU for it, so here it is.

Thanks to @gorgeousgalatea for betaing!

Thor was born at the end of the last summer, and he was one of only a few such children to survive the winter that came on.

It was a winter of brutal, biting cold and raging storms and deadlier stillness, the creaking of ice and the silence of beasts and wind. The muffled hush of deepening snow. It was a cruel winter. But we did not at first know that it was to be an endless one.

The dancers at the Midwinter Feast shivered, bells jangling cold, the sun gone down long ago while the pots still stewed and the folk still trudged to where they would spend what was meant to be the longest night. But no one yet whispered any worries, only built the fires higher. Only as the weeks passed and the days grew no longer—the shadow markings on the stone still set at their farthest point, even as the new constellations of spring crept into the sky—only then did fear begin to spread. When the winter’s early rage was spent and its deep, quiet chill settled in to stay.

Thor was but a tiny infant then, held in his mother’s arms, wrapped in warm blankets with only the sunshine blond of his head peeking out. He surely knew nothing of the worry that was turning to deep dread across the village with every day that passed with no sign of a thaw.

The rest of us began to take what measures we could.

Some put their energies into ritual. Incantations and prayers. Sacrifices and offerings now, while there was something left to spare. Stomping feet and banging sticks and little cheerful fires and fragrant smoke rising up in pleas for the sun’s return.

Others, more practical, began to tighten their belts, holding in reserve their dwindling stores from last autumn’s harvest and instead setting out traps for snow-hares and other beasts that left their tracks in the fields of white.

But there were also some who were not satisfied with waiting, with hoping, with sitting upon casks of corn and apples like a squirrel perched upon a winter’s store of acorns. Their choice was to seek out answers, sending a hardy young man by the name of Mimir to trek to find the seer who lived alone in a nearby wood.

Mimir was gone three weeks, and we had nearly given up waiting when he reappeared at the village gates, beard rimed white, face thin and haggard and drawn.

His pack was gone, his boots worn nearly through, and he sat huddled by the fire, eyes blank in the ruddy glare, and said nothing until all the ice upon his person had melted.

When he did, his voice was dull, and the words he spoke spread like cold blue wildfire among us.

“The Fimbulwinter is upon us. The spirit of summer has passed away. Surely it is the end of the world.”

*

The Fimbulwinter.

We all knew the tale, of course, but all of us had hoped against hope that we would not live to see it in our own time. We had not dared to speak the name.

The endless winter upon winter, with no summers in between. The green growing things buried under ever-deeper snow, with too little sunlight to nourish them had anyone gone to the trouble of uncovering some little patch of garden. And the beasts that ate the leaves soon growing gaunt and dying, or fleeting in herds in the night—a rumble like a passing storm—only to be found frozen in some hidden gully miles away when anyone followed the trampled trail. And then, when the prey were gone, the hunting beasts would turn ravenous. The wolves would sweep down upon the villages that remained, and whether the folk there triumphed or fell, it would make little difference in the end.

The maw of winter would consume all things.

The word spread among us of the coming of those final days, and even the bravest shivered and quailed.

But the Aesir are a hardy folk, and we endured, somehow. Surviving one day’s hunger and cold and dangers led to another, and another. We trudged onward like a drunkard lost upon a forest path, knowing only the next plodding footstep. Somehow, day to day, we endured.

We saved the children where we could, the youngest and most helpless, finding within ourselves some hope that someday they might see the spring.

*

Frigga kept the fire fed.

It was the only thing that did not hunger, for there was plenty of wood to be had, even if it meant wandering out farther afield each time, or relying on the little clans of young men—children, really, too young to hunt or raid, yet old enough to wander and together strong enough to defend themselves if need be—to leave a few bundles of wood at her door as but one stop upon their route.

And she was glad of that, for at least she and Thor could thus be warm.

It was Thor’s third year of life—his third winter, they used to say, except such a phrase no longer held meaning—and he was already dying, and she could do nothing to save him.

He was thin, dreadfully thin, and he cried often from hunger and fright, his eyes wet with tears more often than not. They were a shade of blue that had long since leached from the sky, and Frigga often gazed into them, holding her son for comfort.

She herself had barely eaten in months, but she was older, more able to endure. She sang to him and whispered to him, stroked his golden hair, and tried to keep herself from imagining the man he could have grown into, lest she weep as well.

She also tried to keep herself from thinking of her husband, lost in one of the first raids over a year before.  And she, with no one else in the household, had been left to survive on her own. She had done well, admirably well, to keep them both alive this long.

“Mama, I’m hungry,” Thor said again, his tiny voice from his tiny body, his huge eyes blinking in the firelight.

Frigga’s heart broke for the thousandth time.

*

It was past midnight when the clattering woke her.

It sounded like the creak of wooden wheels and the soft clanking of bells, and it sounded near, in her own yard.

Frigga almost feared to peer out, and when she did, it was to the sight of a large, shadowy shape in the blustery gloom. But something about the sight made her hurry to shove her feet into her boots and throw a fur around her shoulders and rush out into the snow.

In the center of the yard, at the end of a broken track through the snow, there was a pair of goats and an old woman standing there on legs like sticks wrapped in cloth but with a determined look upon her wrinkled face. And there was also an old, rickety cart filled with jars of something frozen and white.

The old woman’s toothless mouth pulled into a smile, and she pressed the goats’ rope leads into Frigga’s astonished hands.

“She’s stopped giving milk, starved as we all are, and he’s a pain in the arse,” the old woman rasped out, voice ravaged by the cold. “But what I’ve saved is yours. For the little one.”

Frigga’s eyes flickered between the woman and the cart with its jar after jar of milk, and she threw her arms around the old woman, a sob escaping in her gratitude.

She insisted the old woman stay the night, and she put on a kettle of water for tea (and to thaw one of the jars at once) and they sat at the kitchen table for hours, talking. A conversation like Frigga could barely remember, where she did not feel doom breathing upon her neck, a drive to do something when there was nothing to be done. Instead it was like the old days, when the women would gather together on summer evenings, perhaps a bit of knitting in their laps but mostly taking their ease together, unworried, enjoying each other’s company.

It turned out the old woman had lived at the edge of the village for years, and hardly anyone knew her, but she had once been a seiðkona of some renown.

By the second cup of tea, she had dug a tiny book from a bag tied to her waist and pushed it across the table toward Frigga, who opened the cover carefully. The pages inside were covered with handwriting, tiny and crabbed but legible enough, and Frigga skimmed down the open pages until she recognized…

“Spells?”

The old woman nodded. “Mostly my own, but some I learned from my teachers. There are a few for growing things; I tried and I think it would have worked, but there’s only one of me, and I’m old and tired. Can’t go building a greenhouse just for myself.”

Frigga knew of magic but until that moment it had always been a distant thing, stories from her grandmothers or tales even older than that.

“Thank you,” she said earnestly, closing the book’s cover and clutching it like a treasure.

The old woman smiled her toothless grin again. “I think that milk’s warmed now. Go give the boy some, and I’ll just have a bit of a rest.”

Frigga nodded and filled a small cup at the stove and went into Thor’s bedroom with it, waking him gently, having him sit and take small sips, just a little at a time, so that he would not get a bellyache.

“There you go, dearheart,” she said when the cup was emptied and Thor lay down again, curling up under the blankets. “When you wake, there will be more.”

“Really, Mama?”

Those huge blue eyes again, and Frigga felt her own grow moist.

“Yes, my son. Truly.”

Frigga found she was not entirely surprised when she reached the kitchen again and found the old woman slumped in her chair, arms folded across her chest and chin drooping, like someone who has reached an age where naps can occur anywhere.

Yet her tea, unfinished, had gone cold on the table, and her chest had ceased to rise and fall, and the slits of her eyelids revealed staring eyes.

[hemcountry]

ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC® ANNOUNCES SPECIAL AWARD HONOREES

The Academy of Country Music announced today the winners of the Special Awards for the 52nd ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS. Honorees will be celebrated during the 11th ANNUAL ACM HONORS, an evening dedicated to recognising the special honorees and off-camera category winners from the 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards. The event will take place Wednesday 23rd August at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN and will be broadcast at a later date on the CBS Television Network.

Additional off-camera categories to be feted at ACM HONORS include to-be-announced Industry Awards and Studio Recording Awards, along with previously announced Songwriter of the Year Award winner, Lori McKenna. McKenna is the first female to win in the ACM Songwriter of the Year category.

The Academy of Country Music Special Awards are voted on by the ACM Board of Directors for specific achievements. Please note that titles of select Special Awards have been updated, as noted within each category listed below. Recipients of Special Awards for the 11th Annual ACM HONORS include:

CLIFFIE STONE ICON AWARD

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George Strait has been chosen to receive the Cliffie Stone Icon Award. This award is presented to a country music artist, duo/group or industry leader who throughout their career has advanced the popularity of the genre through their contributions in multiple facets of the industry such as songwriting, recording, production, touring, film, television, literary works, philanthropic contributions and other goodwill efforts.

With 61 No. 1 singles under his belt, George Strait has captivated the charts for longer than any other artist in any genre. Winning his first ACM Award for 1984’s Male Vocalist of the Year, “King George” went on to build his country kingdom one great song at a time. Now-classic hits like “Amarillo by Morning,” “All My Ex’s Live in Texas,” “The Fireman,” “The Chair” and “Give It Away” established Strait’s smooth voice and no-nonsense style, making his live show a must-see event. Strait is one of the best-selling artists of all time with 100 million albums sold worldwide. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007 and was named the Academy’s Dick Clark Artist of the Decade in 2009. Though he officially retired from the road after his Cowboy Rides Away tour wrapped in 2014, Strait continues to pack houses at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with his “2 Nights of Number 1s” show featuring all his number one hits performed live.

The Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award has been renamed the Cliffie Stone Icon Award.

Past recipients of the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award include Alabama, Bob Beckham, Garth Brooks, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels, Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers, Crystal Gayle, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, George Jones, The Judds, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, The Oak Ridge Boys, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Jerry Reed, Tex Ritter, Marty Robbins, Kenny Rogers, Billy Sherrill, Ricky Skaggs, The Statler Brothers, Mel Tillis, Randy Travis, Tanya Tucker, Conway Twitty, Porter Wagoner, Keith Whitley, Hank Williams, Hank Williams Jr., Bob Wills and Dwight Yoakam, among others.

GARY HABER LIFTING LIVES AWARD

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Dolly Parton has been chosen to receive the Gary Haber Lifting Lives Award. This award is presented to a country music artist, duo/group or industry professional who is devoted to improving lives through the power of music, has a generosity of spirit, and is committed to serving others, voted on by the ACM Lifting Lives Board of Directors.

Dolly Parton has held many titles over her storied 50-year career – singer, songwriter, actress, legend—but philanthropist is one that is close to her heart. Since her earliest days of stardom, Dolly has used her celebrity to support the causes she loves most. The Dolly Parton Imagination Library has to date provided 100 million books to preschool children in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. In 2016, Parton stepped up to raise money for victims of the massive wildfires in her native East Tennessee. Hosting Smoky Mountains Rise, a three-hour telethon, Dolly helped raise more than $10 million for the Dollywood Foundation’s My People Fund, which provided money for temporary housing for families that lost their homes in the fires.

The Humanitarian Award has been renamed/incorporated into the existing Gary Haber Lifting Lives Award.

Past recipients of the Gary Haber Lifting Lives Award and Humanitarian Award include Brooks & Dunn, Vince Gill, Lonestar, Martina McBride, Neal McCoy, Reba McEntire, Montgomery Gentry, Rascal Flatts, LeAnn Rimes and Carrie Underwood.

GENE WEED MILESTONE AWARD

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Kelsea Ballerini has been chosen as the recipient of the Gene Weed Milestone Award. This award is presented to a country music artist, duo/group or industry leader for a specific, unprecedented or outstanding achievement in the field of country music during the preceding calendar year.

Kelsea Ballerini went straight to the top of the charts with her first single, 2014’s “Love Me Like You Mean It.” Her self-penned debut was just the beginning of her winning streak. Her next two singles, 2015’s “Dibs” and 2016’s “Peter Pan,” also went to No. 1, making Ballerini the first female solo artist to have three consecutive No. 1 singles from a debut album since Wynonna Judd in 1992. Ballerini was named the ACM New Female Vocalist of the Year for 2015, was nominated for Best New Artist at the 59th Grammy Awards and came in at No. 2 on the Forbes “30 Under 30 – Music” list. Having wrapped up her first headlining tour, aptly titled “The First Time Tour,” Ballerini is currently working on a new album and is hitting the road with Thomas Rhett on his 2017 Home Team Tour.

The Crystal Milestone Award and Gene Weed Special Achievement Awards have been combined and renamed the Gene Weed Milestone Award.

Past recipients of the Crystal Milestone Award and the Gene Weed Milestone Award include Jason Aldean, Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, George Burns, Kenny Chesney, Jeff Foxworthy, Merle Haggard, Gayle Holcomb, Loretta Lynn, Little Big Town, Willie Nelson, Jennifer Nettles, Blake Shelton, George Strait, Taylor Swift, and Carrie Underwood.

MAE BOREN AXTON SERVICE AWARD

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Bob Kingsley and Reba McEntire have been chosen as the recipients of the Mae Boren Axton Service Award. This award is presented to an outstanding country music artist, duo/group or industry leader in recognition of years of dedication and service to the Academy of Country Music.

One of the most recognizable radio voices in the world, Bob Kingsley has been a friend to both country fans and country artists for generations. As host and executive producer of Bob Kingsley’s Country Top 40, the Texas resident has been inducted into both the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame and the National Radio Hall of Fame. Early in his career as a young disc jockey at KFOX in Los Angeles, Kingsley became involved with the fledgling Academy of Country and Western Music, which would eventually be called the Academy of Country Music. He won the Academy’s On-Air Personality of the Year award for 1966 and 1967. He was first elected to the Academy’s board of directors in 1967. He has since won a third ACM trophy for National On-Air Personality of the Year (2006) and continues to serve on the board today, making Kingsley the Academy’s longest-serving board member.

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For more than 30 years Reba McEntire has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Academy of Country Music. Hosting her first ACM Awards in 1986 at Knott’s Berry Farm, McEntire has returned to the ACM stage as a host for a record 14 times—-eight of those solo. A 14-time ACM Award winner (including 7 as ACM Female Vocalist of the Year), Reba has also been an avid supporter of the Academy’s charitable efforts, donating her time and talents to numerous ACM specials and other events supporting ACM Lifting Lives. In 2017, Reba partnered with the Academy and Omaze to offer a fan a chance to meet her backstage in Vegas, with proceeds from the auction going to ACM Lifting Lives.

The Mae Boren Axton Award has been renamed the Mae Boren Axton Service Award.

Past recipients of the Mae Boren Axton Award include Barry Adelman, John Dorris, Tim DuBois, Rod Essig, Gayle Holcomb, Jack Lameier, Marge Meoli, Paul Moore, Ray Pilzak, Gaynelle Pitts, Keith Urban, Gene Weed, Tommy Wiggins and David Young.

MERLE HAGGARD SPIRIT AWARD

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Eric Church has been chosen to receive the Merle Haggard Spirit Award. This award is presented to a singer-songwriter who is continuing the legacy of country legend and 20-time ACM Award Winner Merle Haggard by following his/her own path, crafting great songs and epitomizing Merle’s spirit through genuine performances and great storytelling.

Over 12 years and five studio albums, Eric Church has established himself as an artist who stays true to an uncompromising path. As an intense performer and songwriter, he has brought to life the eternal themes of life, love and heartbreak in his own hellraising way through songs like “Smoke a Little Smoke,” “Springsteen,” “Give Me Back My Hometown” and “Record Year.” He has also bucked convention in the way his recorded and live music is delivered. He surprised fans—and the media—with his 2015 album, Mr. Misunderstood, which landed in the mailboxes of his fan club members without any promotion first before going out to the general public and the media the next day. For the 2017 60-city “Holdin’ My Own Tour,” Church went out solo without a support act and played two sets himself. Church holds five ACM awards, including Album of the Year, Vocal Event of the Year, Video of the Year, New Solo Vocalist of the Year and the ACM Jim Reeves International Award.

Past recipients of the Merle Haggard Spirit Award include Miranda Lambert.

POET’S AWARD

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Toby Keith, Willie Nelson and Shel Silverstein (awarded posthumously) have been chosen to receive the Poet’s Award. This award is presented to a country music songwriter for outstanding and longstanding musical and/or lyrical contributions throughout their career, with special consideration given to a song or songs’ impact on the culture of country music.

Toby Keith has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and is routinely cited as one of country’s top businessmen with bars, restaurants, race horses and golf courses to his name, but it’s his accolades as a songwriter than mean the most to the Oklahoma native. Keith began writing as a teenager and charted his first self-penned No. 1 with his debut single, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.” Since then, he has pretty much ignored the Nashville tradition of cutting Music Row writers’ songs and personally written or co-written just about every song he’s ever recorded. Among the highlights of his two-decade hit-making career are blue-collar anthems “How Do You Like Me Now,” “Beer for My Horses,” “I Love This Bar” and “American Soldier.” A 12-time ACM Award winner, Keith was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015.

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Willie Nelson is an American treasure, and the songs he has written will stand the test of time. Writing since the age of six, the Texas native has penned tunes that are part of the very foundation of country music. His credits as a songwriter include classics for other artists including “Crazy” (Patsy Cline), “Funny How Time Slips Away” (Ray Price) and “Hello Walls” (Faron Young). He co-wrote the outlaw anthem “Good-Hearted Woman” with his friend Waylon Jennings. Nelson’s signature song, “On the Road Again,” won the Grammy for Best Country Song in 1980. Willie was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001.

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The late Shel Silverstein (awarded posthumously) is known the world over as the offbeat poet and cartoonist behind beloved children’s books Where the Sidewalk Ends and The Giving Tree, but he was also an accomplished songwriter. Silverstein penned inventive songs about unusual characters for a variety of artists, including “One’s On the Way” for Loretta Lynn, “Marie Laveau” for Bobby Bare and the classic rock anthem “Cover of the Rolling Stone” for Dr. Hook. He brought his madcap imagination to the song, “A Boy Named Sue,” which became a No. 1 hit for Johnny Cash. The song won the 1969 Grammy for Best Country Song. Silverstein died of a heart attack in 1999 at the age of 68. He was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.

Previous recipients of the Poet’s Award include Bill Anderson, Bobby Braddock, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, Guy Clark, Jack Clement, Hank Cochran, Dean Dillon, Merle Haggard, Tom T. Hall, Harlan Howard, Kris Kristofferson, Bob McDill, Roger Miller, Buck Owens, Eddie Rabbitt (awarded posthumously), Fred Rose, Don Schlitz, Cindy Walker, Jimmy Webb and Hank Williams.

TEX RITTER FILM AWARD

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“Nashville” has been chosen as the recipient of the Tex Ritter Film Award. This award recognizes an outstanding television movie, series or feature film released during the preceding calendar year which prominently features country music. Now in its fifth season, “Nashville” continues to tell Music Row’s stories to a world-wide audience. Airing domestically on CMT and Hulu, the hour-long drama is seen in 225 territories around the globe. Main characters Deacon Clayborne, Will Lexington, Avery Barkley, Gunnar Scott and Scarlett O’Connor have made real-life music stars out of actors Charles Esten, Chris Carmack, Jonathan Jackson, Sam Palladio and Claire Bowen. The cast has released 17 soundtrack albums on Big Machine Records and has toured regularly, playing to sold-out crowds in both the United States and abroad. The show has been credited as part of the recent tourism boom in the city of Nashville, which has seen an amazing increase in visitors over the past five years.

Past recipients of the Tex Ritter Film Award include Beer For My Horses, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Country Strong, Crazy Heart, Dolly Parton���s Coat of Many Colors, O Brother, Where Art Thou, Sweet Dreams and Walk the Line, among others.

SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD

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Previously announced winner Lori McKenna – the first female to win this category ­– has been chosen as the recipient of the Songwriter of the Year Award. This award is presented to an individual known predominately as a songwriter, selected by a Professional Panel of judges composed of songwriters, publishers, producers, and performing rights organization representatives.

Lori McKenna has never lived in Nashville, yet she’s gradually become one of the most sought-after co-writers in Music City. At her kitchen table in Stoughton, Massachusetts, she wrote a heartfelt message to her five kids in the form of “Humble and Kind.” Tim McGraw carried the song to No. 1, and it also led to McKenna winning her second consecutive Grammy for Country Song of the Year. The first one was for Little Big Town’s triple-platinum single, “Girl Crush.” One of McKenna’s earliest champions was Faith Hill, who recorded “Stealing Kisses” for 2005’s Fireflies. McKenna continued recording her own albums as more stars cut her songs, including Hunter Hayes (“I Want Crazy”) and Keith Urban (“The Luxury of Knowing”). She released a new album, The Bird & The Rifle, in 2016. The project received a Grammy nod for Best Americana Album, while “Wreck You” was up for Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song. She is a co-writer on Little Big Town’s new single, “Happy People.”

Past recipients of the Songwriter of the Year Award include Ross Copperman, Dallas Davidson, Luke Laird, Shane McAnally and Roger Miller.

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ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC® ANNOUNCES SPECIAL AWARD HONOREES was originally published on HEM COUNTRY