#sorceress el

[baaahphomette]

Sellen y mí gatito 🥰

[byooregard]

finished the scholomance series by naomi novik, immediately turned around and started re-reading it here's some doodles

[egsreactions]

[ronnyraygun]

I was gonna wait to post this until I made a whole set, but at the rate I’m making these, I’ll be lucky if I can even update this. Anyway, some Witcher AU portraits!

[ultraturtleduck]

There is exactly one (1) fic with Sudarat/El and it's the funniest thing I've ever read.

Basically the tiny freshman sees this giantess of a senior and instantly falls in love, and kinda never stops. Skip 6 years later and they meet again, and, well, here's an excerpt:

Sudarat wanted to die. And all of her fourteen-year-old desires came back to her in full force. Only now she knew why she wanted Galadriel to lift her bodily, slam her onto a desk and tell her to stay still. It didn’t help to know.

Galadriel waited for a moment, staring up at Sudarat, waiting for her to say something like, hello and probably not like, please slam me up against a wall and use me like a doll, sempai. Sudarat flushed to the roots of her dyed green hair.

...a woman after my own heart. Mad respect to the author for just being upfront about how insanely down bad they are for El. Same.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/36370201/chapters/90676483 btw)

[thecaduceusclay]

the upside down in stranger things is really just the shadowfell thank you for coming to my ted talk

[galesdevoteewife]

[Later from this post] - Only a thousand? I wouldn't accept anything less than INFINITE!!!! The updated last kisses just swept me away like a tsunami to the depths of affection ocean...THEY ARE SO GOOD!!!! Especially the pull to kiss one!!!! I couldn't stop squeaking 🌊🫠🫠 I didn't expect that because I didn't even know there were updated last kisses, and I was like asdjghlrthgvnlkcxnvla GALEEEE??????? AM I DREAMING??????? Cause I thought I would only see this aggression in my brain???

I think they are bugged in the Upper City. I can only trigger last kisses in the Morphic Pool now (Hotfix #24)

[Note] It seems Ed used to gave elves a setting that when they kiss on the lips it works like mind meld. They get to take a tour at each other's mind, and even fight there. From 'Elminster In Myth Drannor (1997)'

She glided to a stop in front of him. He kissed her eyelids, and then her chin—but at her lips he found his way barred by two raised fingers. "Leave my mouth for last," she said from behind them. "For elves, that's particularly special." ... Their lips met, and then their tongues. And El faced the attack he'd been expecting. The bright sparks of a spell seemed to streak through his mind, with her will racing right behind them. Symrustar was seeking to control him, body and mind, to be her puppet, while she raked through his memories to learn all she could...especially human magic.

Also elves's erogenous zone seems to include palms and ear tips.

Elminster almost smiled as a memory flashed through his mind. In the library of a wizard's tomb lost in the High Forest there is a curious book that has no name. It is the diary of a nameless half-elven ranger of long ago, that tells of his thoughts and deeds, and the sorceress Myrjala had made Elminster read it to learn how elves regarded magic. On the subject of giving pleasure to elven maids, it mentioned using one's tongue gently on the palms of the hands and the tips of the ears.

[freetobeeyouandme]

Chapter 7: I Get 'Advice' From a Demi-Goddess

Chapter 7 of my Byler Isekai AU took me forever, but it's finally up on Ao3! Mike and Will get to go shopping in a quaint little lakeside town and run into demi-goddess dispersing invaluable wisdom.

Tags: M, Graphic Descriptions of Violence, Fantasy AU, Canon Typical Violence, Canon Typical Horror, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn

Summary:

Mike Wheeler hates High School, so when he almost dies and falls through a portal to another world, he’s not going to complain. Especially not when that world does not only have swords and magic but seems to work exactly according to the rules of his favorite tabletop role-playing game. But his euphoria might be short lived because the party of adventurers he falls in with turns out to be the target of an evil god and the fate of the world might rest on their shoulders. So, exactly like his games of D&D. Except the wanna-be Paladin soon realizes that being a hero is much harder in real life than it is in-game. - Or, Mike gets isekai’d into a world where D&D is real.

An excerpt and taglist below the cut:

Excerpt:

By the time they make it back to their rooms, everyone else is awake and busy; breakfast sits mostly eaten on the table in front of the fireplace. El, Hop and Jonathan are still at it while Max sits beside them just sort of staring into space a little. The others flit in and out of their bedrooms as they get ready to leave.

El smiles when she sees them come in and waves with a half eaten pastry. “They made waffles!”

The thing in her hand looks like a waffle alright, but all the waffles in the room seem to be hoarded on her plate, so it’s not like Mike and Will could grab any if they wanted to.

“It looks like they made everything,” Will replies. He sits down besides her, grabs a plate, and then surveys the remaining food. In the end he settles for trying to swipe one of the waffles from his El’s plate.

The Sorceress is quicker, though, and the two of them end up squabbling over the food. Hop has to put a stop to it, reprimanding Will to leave his sister’s plate alone, and El to be nicer to her brother.

In response El sticks her tongue out at Will triumphantly and hugs her plate of waffles to her chest. Then she turns towards Mike with an innocent smile: “Do you want a waffle?”

Mike looks from her to the food ladden table – most of it normal enough, scrambled eggs and breadrolls, jams, and pastries – and feels only a little bit overwhelmed. “Uh, sure.”

El gleefully scoops a waffle onto an empty plate and holds it out for him over her brother’s head. Mike reluctantly takes it and a seat on the other couch, besides Jonathan.

“How is that fair!?” Will wails, although his tone only sounds half serious.

Still, Mike takes the waffel and rips it in half, giving Will a part of it. The dragonborn blinks, surprised. On the other side of the table El’s eyes widen, but before she can do anything, Will stuffs the entire thing into his mouth and chews exaggeratedly in her face.

For a moment the table is silent. Then Max bursts out into loud, cackling laughter.

El shakes her head, but she doesn’t look angry, instead just giving Mike a disbelieving smile. He meets her eyes and just shrugs. Then he fills his plate with some eggs, syrup and a round pastry ball covered in what looks like powdered sugar and digs in.

“You feeling better?” Will asks Max when the Monk’s fit of laughter has subsided.

Max shrugs. “Sure. I had all my bones broken yesterday, but I’m healed, so I’m fine.”

Her voice drips with sarcasm, but no one calls her out. Who among them would be fine in her shoes? She might seem physically alright, but Mike doesn’t want to know what it must have felt like to die like she almost had. Just the memory of her broken, bloody body will haunt his nightmares even if they manage to defeat One – he can’t fathom how Max will ever sleep again.

In a way, too, he knows what it feels like to die. He remembers the darkness that had taken him as he drowned, the fire that had engulfed his entire body as it shattered on the cement surface of the lake. But the water had taken him fast. He’d been out quick and only come back as Will healed him. One was a lot more precisise than Sattler’s Quarry, and Mike didn’t doubt Max would remember dying in much greater detail than he ever would.

It’s a strange thing to be grateful for.

Owens returns as they finish breakfast, the same faux concern plastered onto his face as he had yesterday. Mike had thought that perhaps he had judged the High Mage too harshly, since the Laboratories had seemed to good to be true to his exhausted and frightened mind. But he still feels the same distrust today, as Owens smiles at them just a little too widely, offering his help without wanting anything in return – the sort and scale of an altruism out of place in a man of his political stature.

The others don’t seem to necessarily disagree with Mike’s judgement. Lucas is quick to thank the man for his hospitality and his support, but also makes it clear that they won’t be staying past breakfast. Owens tries to talk him out of it, then seems to realize there is no point arguing with the prince and relents. He promises some more resources and to see them off personally, then leaves them to their preparations.

They’re gone less than an hour later. When even El has finished eating, they collect the last of their things, pack the rations that Owens sends up, and head out.

Unofficial Tag List (aka you interacted with my posts about this fic, please tell me if you want me to not tag you in the future (or want to be added)): @smalltownwheeler @wheelerpilled @wrong-energy @willthelies @foodiewithdahoodie @doggo9 @gardenfairie @beelikesbyler @beverlysclown @yickarus @sourdough-el @hessolivagant @hesquietoday @oldfashionedmorphine @total-serene560 @bylersrise @hawkinsunderground @longtallglasses @generalstorecashier @usnaavi @camel-casing @bylersbear01 @turningsoft @casatoan @maru-chu @xobyers @goldentrunks @itachisnipplesharingan

[howlsmovinglibrary]

24 in 2024

Thank you @logarithmicpanda

Book TBR for the year time, I suppose

Physical backlog

New releases

Library books

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett (I've just finished and it was the 1st 5 star book of the year)

The Prisoner's Throne by Holly Black

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

Funny Story by Emily Henry

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

Remedial Magic by Melissa Marr

The Bridges of High Hill by Nghi Vo

A Sorceress Comes To Call by T Kingfisher

To Cage a God by Elizabeth May

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan (I can't believe my favourite author is essentially publishing an isekai I'm lowkey feral bc I *know* it'll be hilarious)

Alecto the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandana

...Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros :')))) (I've had it on hold since Sept and I'm still like 15th in the queue, scared tbh... I don't think itll be good)

The Hacienda by Isabel Canas

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett

Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall

Gwen and Art Are Not In Love by Lex Croucher

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

Deeplight by Frances Hardinge

The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon (I've heard it's Reylo coded, so I might not last long)

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

Tagging: @eldritchcow, @vagabondly, @books-are-portals, and anyone else xx

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy: When Rousseau comes to Hobbeswarts

The Scholomance trilogy is Naomi Novik’s take on a “school for wizardry”:

It.

Is.

Superb.

Novik takes a belt-sander to all the crumbling tropes left by lesser writers to reveal fresh wood beneath, fashioning something breathtakingly new:

https://www.naominovik.com/category/scholomance/

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/29/hobbeswarts/#the-chosen-one

Here’s the premise: the wizards of the world live in constant peril from malificaria — the magic monsters that prey on those born with magic, especially the children. In a state of nature, only one in ten wizard kids reaches adulthood.

So the wizarding world built the Scholomance, a fully automated magical secondary school that exists in the void — a dimension beyond our world. The Scholomance is also an extremely dangerous place — three quarters of the wizard children who attend will die before graduation — but it is much safer than life on the outside.

The Scholomance’s builders all hail from “enclaves” — magical palaces that have also been built in the void — and the enclave kids are the elites of the school, just as their parents are the elites of the world. Outside the scholomance, every “indie” wizard dreams of a place in an enclave, where they and their children might find a modicum of safety.

Inside the school, the indie kids suck up to the enclavers for four solid years, in the dim hope that they and their family might earn a place as second-class citizens to the enclaves. Indeed, the only reason the enclaves allow indie kids to attend the Scholomance is so that they will be servants for their own children, and cannon-fodder to stand between them and the monstrous hordes.

The Scholomance is a cross between Lord of the Flies and Harry Potter: an adult-free, highly lethal environment with no adults, where interactions between kids are strictly transactional. There is no love, nor honor — only the brutal logic of how much each person can bargain for from the others around them.

By the time I’d read the first couple chapters, I was thinking of it as Hobbeswarts, a place where life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Novik’s school for wizards is a place where the supernatural is very definitely “red of tooth and claw.”

Enter the protagonist, Galadriel “El” Higgins, whose mother is a legendary indie healer who raised her in a yurt in a Welsh forest commune after she graduated from the Scholomance already pregnant (El’s father died in the final graduation battle for their year, sacrificing himself to save his pregnant teen girlfriend and their child).

El isn’t just an indie, she’s a “loser kid”: one of those indies who is looked upon with contempt by the enclavers and unlikely to find a crew who will protect her through her years of schooling — let alone the lethal “graduation,” where seniors battle their way through a dense cloud of malificaria, who devour fully half of the kids who survive that far.

But El isn’t an outcast because she’s a weakling with nothing to offer to her social betters. Far from it: El is, if anything, too powerful — so powerful that when she casts even minor workings, they cause major damage. While other young wizards are given low-powered defensive spells by the Scholomance, El is handed apocalyptic superweapons that can raze whole nations.

El does her best to hide all this, but something shines through. She gives off the kind of “evil sorceress” vibes that make her a social pariah. That sinister aura, combined with her prickly character, quick to anger and slow to forgive, leaves her isolated through her first two years of school.

And then, as the story starts, El has a run-in with Orion Lake, the golden boy of the ultra-powerful New York City enclave. Orion is one of the school’s best fighters, and he alone among the student body seeks out malificaria to kill, leaping to the defense of weaker kids and demanding nothing in return.

After Orion defends her, repeatedly, from monsters she was prepared to deal with herself, she treats him to the kind of tongue-lashing that only an evil-sorceress-in-waiting who has spent years on the periphery, cordially loathing the popular kids, can dole out.

This is the meet-cute that begins El and Orion’s journey to graduation and beyond, as they perform a kind of social magic trick that has no supernatural component, inadvertently and haltingly bringing solidarity to the Scholomance, in a kind of Rousseauvian revolution that could transform the lives of the entire student body — and perhaps the whole wizarding world.

I first read Novik’s fiction last year, devouring her nine-volume Temeraire series, a retelling of the Napoleonic Wars in a world where dragons are real. The Temeraire books have it all: swashbuckling hand-to-hand combat; grand, sweeping battles; a huge cast of beautifully realized characters; a brilliantly wrought geopolitics, and a through-line that is fantastically tight, plotted to a fare-thee-well:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/08/temeraire/#but-i-am-napoleon

I had neglected the Temeraire books because I am generally not a fan of historical fiction, nor high fantasy, nor military stories, but Novik found depths in all three of these forms that I had never imagined, innovating fresh angles that transformed me into a true believer.

The Scholomance series performs the same trick. Novik’s handling of the geopolitics and class warfare of the wizarding world — revealed through the subsequent two volumes as she progressively widens the tale’s aperture — make JK Rowling’s attempts look like they were scrawled in crayon. By a toddler.

This is true all the way down to the micro-level: Novik’s thrilling innovations in high-stakes combat-school battle-tactics make Ender Wiggins look like a piker (and also makes me wonder if there’s some intentional wordplay in the rhyming surnames).

And when it comes to complicating the “chosen one” trope, Novik leaves Rowling and Card so far behind in her dust, they basically disappear.

As for the cosmic horror of the void and the monsters that it spawns, Novik out-Lovecrafts Lovecraft, in a manner to rival such great post-Lovecraftian subverters as NK Jemisin:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/09/the-old-crow-is-getting-slow/#i-love-ny

Novik is part of a longstanding and brilliant tendency in genre that refuses to cede all the best, most engrossing tropes to racist pigs like Lovecraft, warmongers like Card, and bigots like Rowling. She wrestles these ideas out of their hands and works them, revealing the poverty of those reactionary writers’ shriveled imaginations.

I read the Scholomance books as audiobooks, listening to Anisha Dadia’s superb narration as I did my physiotherapy laps in the pool each day:

https://libro.fm/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=scholomance+novik

I was delighted to discover DRM-free editions on Libro.fm that would play on my cheapo underwater MP3 player:

https://sewobye.com/products/waterproof-mp3-player-for-swimming-underwater-sport-waterproof-headphones-clip-mp3-player-sewobye-8gb-shuffle

When I finished the final book yesterday, I literally gasped aloud. As with the Temeraire series, Novik’s intricate plotting manages to sprout from a small personal tale to a world-shaking planetary-scale upheaval, and nails the landing in a way that is nothing less than dazzling.

What!

A!

Writer!

Have you ever wanted to say thank you for these posts? Here’s how you can do that: I’m kickstarting the audiobook for my next novel, a post-cyberpunk anti-finance finance thriller about Silicon Valley scams called Red Team Blues. Amazon’s Audible refuses to carry my audiobooks because they’re DRM free, but crowdfunding makes them possible.

[Image ID: The covers of Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy in sequence from left to right: The Last Graduate, A Deadly Education and The Golden Enclaves. Each has a kind of brushed-gold effect frame around a solid rectangle on which is a woodcut-style figure (in order: a keyhole, a book, and a portal with an eye showing through it. The rectangles are, in order, forest green, black, and brushed gold.]

[spanishskulduggery]

Spanish Vocab List - El bosque de la bruja / The Witch’s Forest

I started this list all “let’s talk about trees and flowers” and then it took a hard turn into “now say you meet Baba Yaga in the forest...” and I’m not going to apologize for the spoopy witchy vibes

la bruja = witch [also technically you can see/use el brujo for “male witch” or “warlock” though often “witch” in English comes across as distinctly feminine]

el aquelarre = a coven, a witches’ coven

la hora bruja = the witching hour la hora de brujas = the witching hour

la brujería = witchcraft

el curandero, la curandera = healer [sometimes santero/a which has multiple meanings - it can be “witchdoctor” but also a practitioner of santería which is a mix of religious and folk traditions]

el hechicero, la hechicera = sorcerer, sorceress

el mago, la maga = mage / magician

el encanto = enchantment, charm / magic spell

el hechizo = magic spell, charm, hex

la maldición = curse

el maleficio = curse

el mal de ojo = evil eye

la caldera = cauldron [or “caldera” of a volcano]

el ermitaño, la ermitaña = hermit, recluse

la escoba = broom

la magia = magic

mágico/a = magic, magical

el hado = Fate los hados = the Fates

el hada, las hadas = fairy, fairies el hada madrina = fairy godmother

el/la vidente = seer el clarividente, la clarividente = clairvoyant, seer

el/la médium = spirit medium

la nigromancia = necromancy el/la nigromante = necromancer

la rueca = spinning wheel

la manzana envenenada = poison apple

malvado/a = evil, wicked

malo/a = bad, evil

bueno/a = good

la guarida = lair, den

lanzar un hechizo/encanto/maleficio = to cast a spell/charm/curse

la poción = potion

elaborar = to brew, to create  [in other contexts it’s “to elaborate”, but in the context of food or drink it means “to make” in the sense of “to labor over” - the idea here is that it requires time and effort to fully make it and get everything right, so it’s used for “brewing alcohol” or any mixture that requires significant time or specialized creation, and potion making in a fantasy setting]

~

el bosque = the woods / forest / woodland el bosquecillo = small forest [sometimes “copse of trees”]

la selva = forest [often more wild] / jungle

el jardín = garden

el huerto (de fruta / de frutales) = orchard el huerto = vegetable garden, personal garden [el huerto generally means “a garden for growing food” and can be either “(vegetable) garden” or “orchard”, but in English an “orchard” is specifically more “fruit”; but it could be either]

la arboleda = grove, collection of trees

el sol = sun

la luna = moon

la estrella = star

la nube = cloud

la lluvia = rain

la nieve = snow

la tormenta = storm la tempestad = storm, tempest

el rayo = lightning / bolt, lightning bolt, thunderbolt

el trueno = thunder

el granizo = hail / hailstone

la niebla = fog

la neblina = mist, fog

~

el amanecer = dawn

la mañana = morning

el mediodía = midday, noon

la tarde = afternoon / evening

el atardecer = evening

el crepúsculo = twilight

la noche = night

la medianoche = midnight

la madrugada = early morning, the wee hours of the morning

la víspera = eve (of something), the night before

el ocaso = sunset

diurno/a = day (adj), daytime / diurnal, awake during the day

nocturno/a = night (adj), nighttime / nocturnal, awake at night [as a general example las clases nocturnas mean “night classes” which is literally “classes at night”... as opposed to las clases diurnas which would mean “daytime classes”; in the context of school you could say tengo una clase nocturna y otras diurnas “I have one night class and others during the day”]

~

el árbol = tree arbóreo/a = arboreal, related to trees

el arbusto = shrub, shrubbery

el seto = hedge

la madera = wood

el tronco = trunk / log [also in anatomy “torso”]

el tocón = stump (of a tree)

la leña = firewood, log (for firewood usually) el leño = a log el leñador, la leñadora = woodcutter, lumberjack

la corteza = bark (of a tree) [also means “crust” for bread or the earth]

la copa (de árbol) = canopy las copas = canopy (of many trees)

la rama = branch

la raíz = root

la savia = sap [sometimes it also means “lifeblood” or “vitality” or “vigor”]

la hoja = leaf [or “blade”, or “sheet of paper”]

la flor = flower

el pétalo = petal

la semilla = seed

el tallo = stalk / stem

la hierba = grass / herb [sometimes spelled yerba] el césped = grass, lawn

la hierba mala = weed [lit. “bad grass”]

la especia = spice

la vid = vine

marchitado/a = withered, shriveled, dried up

la espina = thorn espinoso/a = thorny

la baya = berry

la hiedra = ivy la hiedra venenosa = poison ivy

el hongo = mushroom, fungus la seta = mushroom, toadstool el champiñón = mushroom [idk if it’s used everywhere but you see this at least in Spain for edible mushrooms sometimes]

el moho = mold

el musgo = moss

el liquen = lichen

la zarza = bramble, briar

silvestre = wild, growing in the wild

comestible = edible

el veneno = poison, venom envenenar = to poison venenoso/a = poisonous, venomous envenenado/a = poisoned, having poison in it

letal, mortal = deadly

~

el roble = oak

el arce = maple

el sauce = willow el sauce llorón = weeping willow

el fresno = ash tree

la pícea = spruce

el acebo = holly

la haya = beech

el pino = pine tree

el corno / el cornejo = dogwood

el álamo = poplar

el alcornoque = cork tree

la adelfa = oleander

la secoya = sequoia / redwood

el mangle = mangrove el manglar = mangroves [a collection of mangroves]

~

la rosa = rose

la violeta = violet

el lirio = lily [sometimes la azucena]

el jacinto = hyacinth

la hortensia = hydrangea

el girasol = sunflower

la malva = mallow [malva can also be “mauve”; also el malvavisco is “marshmallow”... literally “sticky/goopy/viscous mallow”]

la malvarrosa = hollyhock

el botón de oro = buttercup [lit. “gold button”]

la digital = foxglove

el narciso = daffodil, narcissus

la lavanda = lavender

la lila = lilac

la nomeolvides = forget-me-not

el loto = lotus

la menta = mint

la caléndula = marigold

la belladonna = nightshade

el acónito = aconite / aconitum, monk’s hood, wolf’s bane el matalobos = wolf’s bane [lit. “kills wolves”]

el muérdago = mistletoe

el rocío = dew, dewdrop, morning dew

el ajo = garlic el diente de ajo = clove of garlic [lit. “tooth of garlic”]

la cebolla = onion

la calabaza = pumpkin / gourd

el maíz = corn [also el elote in some countries] la mazorca = corncob, ear of corn

el trigo = wheat

la salvia = sage

el jengibre = ginger

la canela = cinnamon

el diente de león = dandelion [lit. “lion’s tooth”]

la escoba de bruja = witch hazel [lit. “witch’s broom”] el avellano de bruja = witch hazel [lit. “witch’s hazel”]

la pimienta = pepper [spice]

la sal = salt rociar sal = to sprinkle salt espolvear sal = to sprinkle salt / to dust with salt

~

la hoz = sickle

el arado = plow

la hoguera = bonfire / campfire, fire pit

el hogar = home / hearth

la guadaña = scythe

la cosecha = harvest

el arco = bow / arch

la flecha = arrow

el mortero = mortar el molcajete = mortar [some countries, especially Mexico]

la mano = pestle [otherwise it’s “hand”]

el mortero y mano = mortar and pestle

moler = to grind molido/a = ground

el molino = mill

la tabla / el tablón = floorboard, wooden board

la viga = beam / rafter

el umbral = threshold

el muro = wall, outside wall, boundary line

la cerca = fence la valla = fence

la ciudad = city

el pueblo = town / people, population

la aldea = town, small town

la frontera = frontier, border

el claro = clearing (in a forest), glade

la choza = hut

la casita = little house la cabaña = cabin / cottage

la granja = farm

la finca = plantation, estate, farmhouse

la paja = straw el tejado de paja = thatched roof [lit. “straw roofing”]

el taller = workshop

~

la cueva = cave

la caverna = cavern

la gruta = grotto / undercroft

la roca = rock

la piedra = stone

el monte = hill, mountain / wilderness, forested area

la montaña = mountain

la sierra = mountain range [or a “saw” as a tool]

la colina = hill

la falda = slope [in clothes la falda is “skirt”]

el pantano = swamp / bog / mire

la ciénaga = swamp / bog / mire

el lodo = mud lodoso/a = muddy

el fango = mud / silt fangoso/a = muddy

el río = river el riachuelo = little river, stream

el lago = lake

el estanque = pond

el arroyo = stream el arroyuelo = brook, creek

el mar = sea

el océano = ocean

la orrilla = shore

la marea = tide

la arena = sand

~

el ciervo = deer, stag la cierva = deer, doe

el venado = deer [can exist in feminine as well... this word also sometimes gets translated as “hart”; also sometimes venado is the word for “venison” or deer meat]

el lobo, la loba = wolf [la loba is sometimes “she-wolf” in some contexts]

el oso, la osa = bear [la osa is sometimes “she-bear”]

el búho = owl

la lechuza = owl [thing barn owls or snowy owls; the owls with a flatter looking face; a Lechuza is also sometimes a witch or evil spirit who snatches children said to be bird-like]

el cuervo = crow la corneja = raven [in general, el cuervo is used for both “crow” and “raven” even in literature, though el cuervo and la corneja are different technically]

el murciélago = bat

el sapo = toad

la rana = frog

la serpiente = snake, serpent la víbora = viper, snake la culebra = snake [more literary]

el conejo = rabbit la liebre = hare, rabbit

el gato, la gata = cat

la rata / el ratón = rat, mouse [largely interchangeable]

la mosca = fly

el mosquito = mosquito

la luciérnaga = firefly, lightning bug

la libébula = dragonfly

la pluma = feather

el diente = tooth

el colmillo = fang

el ala = wing [technically feminine; el ala, las alas]

la lengua = tongue

el hueso = bone

la calavera / el cráneo = skull

el cuerno = horn

el asta, las astas = antler, antlers [technically feminine]

la piel = skin / hide, fur [also piel can be “leather”; also the word el cuero is “leather” though not always as common]

el caracol = shell, seashell

el caparazón = shell, carapace

el polvo = dust

la ceniza = ash

la sangre = blood

~

el enano, la enana = dwarf

el elfo, la elfa = elf

el fantasma = ghost

el gigante = giant

el ogro = ogre

el trol = troll [creature and internet troll]

hermoso/a = beautiful apuesto/a = handsome, good-looking

bello/a = beautiful [more intense than hermoso/a]

embrujado/a = bewitched / haunted

la casa embrujada = haunted house la casa encantada = haunted house

la fiera = fiend, beast, wild animal fiero/a = wild, ferocious

feroz = ferocious, wild

la bestia = beast

el monstruo = monster

el castillo = castle

la torre = tower

la mazmorra = dungeon el calabozo = dungeon [in modern Spanish el calabozo is the word for “holding cells” in a police office or a place where someone is detained; in older Spanish it can be used as “dungeon”]

el don = gift

el poder = power, ability poderoso/a = powerful, mighty

el truco = trick

la moraleja = moral

encantar = to enchant / to delight

convocar = to summon

conceder = to grant, to bestow / to concede

bendecir = to bless bendito/a = blessed

maldecir = to curse maldito/a = cursed

[colubrina]

Why do you love Hermione Granger so much? Asking because I WANT to love her SO badly, but it's so hard because she just GETS UNDER MY SKIN so much. (It's cause we're EXACTLY alike and I cannot stand it)

I think as readers we either LOVE or HATE characters that we see ourselves in. I'm not sure I really ever loved Hermione that much (heresy?) but HP just doesn't have a lot of female characters to work with and I'm tired of books where I'm supposed to vibe with the 'universal' male experience.

(Look, I read allllll of Heinlein as a kid, and I love Dune. I've done my time in the man-book mines.) Who I absolutely love (and who I think everyone should love) is El from A Deadly Education. You want a very angry girl with zero social skills who is super pissed off she has a moral compass? And who is destined to be the next dark sorceress queen but who is absolutely not having that destiny? El. The very best.

[dawn-the-rithmatist]

🚨🚨Spoilers for The Scholomance books!! 🚨🚨

I am so in love with Naomi Novik’s commitment to having her two main characters be Weird. I feel like so many novels start with “look how WEIRD and STRANGE this character is” and then walk it back from there until you see that they’re actually Just Like Everyone Else. (Prefacing this with the fact that weird is not said disrespectfully in any way, I heckin love these weirdos and think that weird people are the best people.)

The Scholomance doesn’t do that! First we get El, and it seems like her arc is going to be about overcoming her “evil sorceress” prophecy. Maybe she’ll use the power of friendship to trade for Not Evil spells, or she’ll convince the school somehow to give her other things. Either way, the narrative is set up so that we expect her to actively work against it. But that’s not the case!! We instead see her start to lean into that thing that makes her terrifying and unapproachable. In TLG, she’s throwing off killing spells left and right, and by the end she’s making plans around super volcanoes in the exact way she swore she’d never do at the start of the series. She’s still a good person, and she’s constantly learning to be better, but she doesn’t sacrifice her “weird” to do it- she just learns how to use it the way she wants, instead of how she’s expected to.

Then we have Orion. ORION IS SO INTERESTING. He’s clearly the knight in shining armor. Obviously Not Like Other Guys, but in a way that makes him an unapproachable hero rather than an unapproachable villain like El. At first, we expect to see over time that he’s just like everyone else- he’s lonely and isolated from the hero worship, he’s killing mals for the sake of friendships, etc. BUT INSTEAD WE GET THE OPPOSITE. Orion, instead of becoming more personable, gets WEIRDER. He’s faced with these reasons for killing mals and he replies with the fact that he simply. Does not care. He does it for fun and throws himself into danger because he wants to, even though it’s the last thing anyone else in the scholomance would want for themselves.

They don’t get less weird. They find people who love them in their weirdness, but they never back off from it- in fact, they continue to get weirder up through the end of the book. And that is so, so refreshing.

[eesirachs]

that post abt the wilderness and the (m)Othering god made me think of one of the few ratzinger w's somewhere in spirit of the liturgy where he talks abt how it's no wonder that monotheism first develops in desert wilderness where humans are so starkly aware of their aloneness underneath the infinite kind cruel sky

ratzinger was so close at meaningfulness here. but he is wrong at an important part: the hebrew bible is scarcely monotheistic. it's something more like henotheism, the worship of one god among many. asherah, baal, el, on and on: the bible leaves ample space for other gods, who both exist and have capacities paralleling hashem's. these other gods are available, seductive, imbuing prophets with a excess, with idle banality, with phallic efficacy (look at the plagues of egypt: the court magicians are able to reproduce god's work there; look at the sorceress of endor, who does what god refused to, etc. etc.)

what the israelites do in the wilderness, then, is not a denunciation of all but one; it's a turning-towards that one. the familial, maternal, womby-one. in that desert, under that cruel sky, hardly alone in the cosmos, and yet so alone the moment they undertake this turning-towards the singular mom-god, they make the risky, erotic choice to be singularly m/Othered

[yudkowsky]

Don’t get me wrong, I liked Scholomance.

But I also want the story that I thought I was getting in the first half of A Deadly Education, the story of El Higgins, a witch with vast dark powers and prophesied to rise to a dread fate, who is kind of acerbic about the whole thing and never asked to be dark.

I want to watch the Disney movie of it.

I want to watch the story of Disney Princess El, who was born to a renowned Light sorceress and healer, who is growing up as a witch with vast dark powers, whose spells come out dark and evil-looking even if she tries to make them nice, and there's a prophecy that all in two kingdoms will fear El's name.

The movie opens with El singing about her dark powers and the prophecy and how annoying they are, and how she loses her magic if she doesn't dress in black, and she doesn't even want her name to be feared, wouldn't it be nice to be nice; as El goes around in a nearby town committing scary and evil-looking acts of helpfulness, like using an enormous fire-lance to blow up an chunk of roof that was about to fall on somebody, or summoning purple-glowing chains to drag a child's kitten out of a tree; and after El helps people, they run away.  Or they offer her a cupcake while saying 'please don't kill me', which El sighs and takes and eats, right after the part of her introductory song about how nobody's ever grateful when she tries to help.

Eventually, Disney Princess El goes back to the hut slash tiny dark castle she built in the woods after moving away from her mother, which of course is very scary-looking and has a tiny local permanent stormcloud over it.  El enters bearing some cheerful bright flowers that she plucked nearby, puts them into a dark spiky vase, and sits down at her table with a sigh.

The camera viewpoint then shifts to Disney Princess Chloe, who's dressed all in white, singing about how nice it is to be nice, her song summoning small woodland creatures to hold up her dress as she walks through the woods (with a tiny stormcloud visible in the distance, in the direction of her travel).  Chloe is followed by her Disney-Princess pet, an adorable talking rabbit-like creature with big floppy white ears.

Viewpoint shifts back to El, who tries to sing the same cheerful song about helpers, requesting that they clean her cottage, and then El lets her head drop in exhaustion to her desk, as she gets a portal to Hell with cheerful devils who go around cleaning her house and also carefully darkening any spots of white that turn up, and making sure that the flowers El placed in a vase get turned to evil flowers with auras of flame.

But when Chloe approaches and calls for the witch of these woods, "my kingdom needs your aid!", El makes a much more serious effort to get her cottage cleaned up - somebody's actually looking for her help, who doesn't know she's evil!  After some increasingly futile efforts to sing spells of niceness and prettiness, as Chloe gets closer and closer, El finally gives up and sings a much darker song about diabolical illusions meant to deceive heroes, so that her cottage looks friendly when Chloe finally arrives.  Though it still has the permanent stormcloud over it, which sends down a tiny lightning bolt.

The story's central plot is now introduced:  Chloe is seeking aid in her quest to prevent her kingdom from being invaded by a neighboring kingdom, and she'd heard that a powerful and nice sorceress had moved into the woods nearby (in a disputed territory claimed by both kingdoms, in fact) so Chloe went to beg aid of her.

Then for the movie's main plot, they go around trying to unravel and avert the two kingdoms from going to war over how each kingdom allegedly kidnapped the crown prince / crown princess of the other, because each kingdom lays claim to one queen who gave birth to both the prince and the princess, finding increasingly tangled and ridiculous further causes for the conflict.

Or rather, the movie's main content is about El's frantic attempts to cover up her real powers so she can go on looking kindly and innocent in front of Chloe, and then the standard stalwart hero introduced shortly after, Orion.  The evil baron's guards capture El.  The guard captain recognizes her as the prophesied Dark Lady (since evil is all one big happy family).  El hisses at the guards they had damned well better keep her in the prison cells and act like they're imprisoning her so that her friends don't get suspicious when they storm in to rescue her; as Orion does, the guards assiduously falling over as soon as Orion whaps them.

El is also annoyed with the apparent romance developing between Chloe and Orion because she doesn't think Orion is good enough for Chloe and vice versa, but despite several temptations El avoids spiking their relationship through deception or trickery.  They're joined by further companion Aadhya.  El makes several attempts to get either Chloe or Orion together with Aadhya, all of which fail.

In the movie's finale, it's revealed that Chloe and Orion are the princess and prince of the two kingdoms, and that what El thought was their romance was actually just sibling affection, the two being icked out and asking why El even thought that.  "I said right when we met that I needed aid for my kingdom!" Chloe protests, and El replies "I thought you meant you lived there!"  Chloe has never been under the impression that El wasn't the dark witch from the prophecy, she just knows that dark isn't the same as evil and people don't always have good reasons to fear a name.  Orion is caught completely flatfooted.  Chloe's disney-princess pet is revealed to be the actual evil mastermind of the story, a demon king that El accidentally summoned when she was little.

Also El has gotten completely fed up with the two kingdoms insisting that they go to war with each other; and has, over the course of the whole story, become more accepting of her powers' dark style and realizing that you can use scary powers to do nice things.  El cows both armies with a show of supreme power and proclaims herself Dark Empress of both kingdoms.

In the denouement, the kingdoms try to marry Chloe and Orion to El, but El refuses and marries Aadhya instead.  They're both girls, but children won't be a problem: El accidentally accepted thirteen pacts from various people who now owe her their firstborns, back when El was too young to properly understand what she was doing.

- The End -

[darthvashtique93]

A Cosmos in the Sand

Chapter 14

Raven gasped as she was pulled backward by Jhon who moved her just as Damyan and Jason lunged for each other, and the two began a bloody duel. Onlookers watched in amusement and confusion while Raven watched mouth agape in horror. She needed to get them to stop! She needed to protect Damian! Closing her eyes, fighting the wave of nausea, Raven willed her powers to her fingertips. "Don't!" Jhon grabbed her wrists. "You'll only make things worse!" he shouted as the crowd yelled in glee when Jason landed a punch to Damyan's solar plex.

"We have to stop them!" Raven said desperately, flinching as the sound of steel hitting steel reached her ears.

"Stay here!" Jhon exclaimed before sprinting away with god-like speed.

Raven's heart raced as people swarmed past her, towards the fight. Another person ran straight into her and knocked her to the ground. She needed…she needed…clanging of steel echoed in her head. Suddenly she wasn't in Themyscira. She was in Azarath – clinging to her mother as Slaede's men separated the men and teenage boys from the women in the girls. Screaming as she was torn from her mother's arms and thrown into a dungeon with other younger girls. Raven gripped her head as memories flooded her. Begging on her hands and knees – begging for the lives of her new sisters and brothers – promising fealty to Slaede in order to protect her new family. "You will be my sorceress – "

"Raven."

Raven looked up at the sound of her name. She was staring into beautiful, turquoise, green eyes that had flecks of gold in the pupils. Damyan. Raven slowly lowered her hands from her head and looked around. The fight was over. Damyan was by her side looking at her in concern. Everyone was quietly staring at her. Raven looked over Damyan's shoulder to see Jason glowering at her. A tall, long-haired redhead stood by him, and she didn't appear thrilled at Raven's presence either. "What happened?" Raven asked Damyan as he helped her to her feet.

"You must be Raven," a tall, regal woman stepped forward. Her hair was long, straight, and black. Her eyes were as blue as the sky, and her skin was tanned. She wore a sword on her back, silver cuffs on her wrists, and a lasso on her hip. While her breasts and abdomen were covered in armor, a short skirt covered her legs, while gold boots covered her legs to her knees. "I am Princess Diana," the woman spoke. "This is my mother, Queen Hippolyta," she gestured to an older woman who was dressed similarly to Diana. "Welcome to Themyscira."

Damyan ignored Jason's glare and focused on the meeting. Princess Diana had interrupted their sword fight and ordered the two to stand down. He smirked as he remembered Jason's face when the Queen and Diana welcomed Raven to Themyscira and ordered that "no harm come to her." Damyan looked at Raven. She looked ill…and small. It was the way she was holding herself, arms wrapped tightly around her waist. She also appeared paler than usual. Her violet eyes were round and gaunt. Her breathing was heavy. Damyan's gaze whipped to the sides of the giant tent. Iolite. It was making her sick. "We'll be back," he said as he grasped Raven's hand.

"We're in the middle of something important, Damyan," Kal-el frowned. Jhon, who stood by his father, looked at Raven and then Damyan. He nodded knowingly.

"It can wait," Damyan said as he pulled Raven behind him.

"Damyan," Diana spoke.

"You've been planning this attack on Slaede for the last 10 years, I think it can wait a few more minutes. The iolite is making Raven ill."

"The whore can wait," Jason growled.

Without a second thought, Damyan threw a dagger at Jason's head. The weapon was only blocked by Artermis' quick reflexes. "Damn," Damyan swore. "Guess I should have aimed for the bodyguard, instead," he snarled.

"Listen here, you little bastard," Jason stepped from behind Artemis.

"Bastard?" Damyan raised a brow. "I know who my father is," Damyan smirked. "He's the reason you're all alive."

"Did she cast some sort of spell on you?" Jason ignored Damyan's last retort.

"Enough!" Hippolyta exclaimed before Damyan could respond. "Damyan, you may take Raven to get some air. Return with a better attitude."

Damyan managed a respectful bow before leading Raven out of the tent. He never once let go of her hand.

The two walked in a comfortable silence, eventually broken by Raven. "You shouldn't argue with your comrades over me."

"Jason doesn't know what he's talking about," Damyan replied.

"I'm the enemy," Raven said.

"Slaede is the enemy."

"And I'm his sorceress. I work for Slaede."

"To protect your family."

"Damyan," Raven sighed. Damyan stopped abruptly. He turned to Raven and stared at her wide-eyed. "What?" Raven asked.

"I think…that's the first time I've heard you say my name," Damyan spoke slowly, caressing the hand he held.

Raven looked away with a soft blush. "That has nothing to do with anything I just said."

"You're not the villain here, Raven," Damyan fully faced her. "Slaede is."

"My hands are not clean."

"Neither are mine."

"I don't deserve your kindness," Raven tried to pull away.

"You deserve kindness, Raven," Damyan said, not budging. "Why not mine?"