Stuff of All Souls Trilogy and ADOW

It begins with absence and desire. It begins with blood and fear. It begins with a discovery of witches.

[village-skeptic]

games of skill and chance

(Juliette/Matthew/Domenico, A Discovery of Witches)

“Monte Carlo may be a place of unlimited pleasures, but the lady’s favors are not up for wager.”

Matthew’s voice is smooth and dispassionate, but she can smell the spike in his adrenaline even from across the room. His eyes, bright and watchful, are fixed where they’ve been since the topic arose — on Domenico.

How long had it been since she’d commanded his attention so entirely?

In that moment, Juliette casts aside entirely any small private reservations she might have had about this plan.

Monte Carlo, 1891. The game’s no fun if you know what cards your partner is holding.

[read it now on AO3]

Happy belated birthday, @burberrycanary! I had so much fun writing this – thank you for taking me down this rabbit hole with you, and for all your encouragement once this bunny bit me. You are both an amazingly brilliant writer and a wonderfully kind friend. <333   

(image credits: x x x; x x x)

[adow-trash]

All Souls Quartet from Baldwin’s PoV

Book 1:

What the Fuck Did Matthew Do Now

Book 2:

Where the Fuck is Matthew

Book 3:

How the Fuck Did Any of This Happen

Book 4:

You’re All Lucky I Love My Niece

[adow-allsouls]

ADOW

(GIF credit to @yellowfeather84)

WEEK ONE / April 7th - April 13th || Favorite main character(s) / Favorite action or magic moment(s)

The reappearance of Ashmole 782

[adow-trash]

“lol this is just Twilight”, and other hot takes I don’t want to see tonight

Hello hi welcome. 

A Discovery of Witches starts on AMC/BBC America tonight. And while it’s not the “official” US premiere, it’s probably when most American/Canadian people are going to watch it. 

So here is my quick list of “searing hot takes” that you may want to pause before making – especially if you’re using the fan tags of ADoW or A Discovery of Witches. 

1. The real fantasy of this show is Diana having tenure/writing 3 books/being offered a job

I mean, fair. But it’s not impossible. The book series was written by a real-life academic who knows enough about this world to know that this is most definitely a “fantasy” element, but consider the fact that we don’t really blink an eye at Bruce Banner’s “numerous” PhDs, but one (1) lady academic with one (1) PhD and a good job is ludicrous. It’s not, it’s just… super unlikely. But it is a fantasy show.

2. Ummmm she should be using gloves on those books!!

Actually, no. Thanks to our friend Dr. Anya at @desiremaderealpodcast, along with the author herself, we know that gloves are a somewhat outdated practice as they can cause readers to tear pages or mishandle the books themselves due to the loss in dexterity. What is true is that they wouldn’t be letting Diana handle a manuscript like that in the main reading room, but that’s more of a plot convenience than an error.

3. So the author is a Historian. Diana is a Historian. Doesn’t that make Diana a Mary Sue?

Yes and no. Look – at the end of the day, people are told to write what they know. I think the book version suffers from a little more Mary-Sueness than the show does, partly because we can also see Diana from other people’s perspectives onscreen, and because she’s smart but she’s not always the savviest. 

4. Teresa Palmer isn’t as strong as Matthew Goode and it hurts their dynamic

Please keep watching. Without giving too much away, Diana goes on a journey in the first season, and in many ways Matthew is just there to support her. But also their chemistry is fire and you’re wrong.

5. This seems a bit… silly. Is it meant to?

Here’s where I’m going to make a hot take myself: I don’t know if the show meant to come off goofy in places, but for me personally, it worked. I delighted in a lot of the show’s campiness – regardless of how intentional it was. If it’s not for you, then it’s not for you. But I can tell you that the expository dialogue and occasionally clunky lines don’t necessarily get *much* better, but I found entertainment in it.

6. So like… this is Twilight

And here’s the big one. I could rant about this forever, but I’ll keep it brief: First, consider the fact that the Twilight franchise was MASSIVE, and any vampire story that comes after that, particularly a romance, is going to be billed as “Twilight but {x}” and if it’s totally different, it’s going to be called “NOT TWILIGHT”. But Twilight is the elephant in every vampire room for at least another 5-10 years. Deer hunting, no fangs, secret government in Italy, daywalking, romance, vampire families… I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t almost definitely inspired by Twilight (the author began writing the first book when the first Twilight movie came out), but for me personally it’s a lot more fun, the characters are more engaging… I just like it more. Which is not a knock on Twilight, by the way – it wasn’t for me. And I think we could stand to revisit exactly why we spent 5 years culturally ripping apart something teen girls found joy in, but that’s a rant for another time.

Anyway. This has been your hot take prevention rant.

Please feel free to @ me with your disagreements.

[christi14]

I love it !

Create by Andrea Helton

[adow-trash]

Diana:

Matthew: No. We musn’t have sex yet. For reasons. Important vampire reasons. Reasons I will change every time you ask. Big reasons.

Philippe: Just f*ck her oh my God.

[adow-trash]

*Matthew and Diana join hands and formally mate in the courtyard at his mom’s house*

Diana: Wow. I can’t believe we’re married.

Matthew: Well,

*Matthew gives Diana a ring and they hold a private commitment ceremony at her aunts’ house*

Diana: Now we’re married

Matthew: So–

*Matthew and Diana have a 3 day marriage celebration wherein they feast & sup & dance & finally have sex & there is a church & his dad forces him to bone down to consummate their very clear, very full, very final wedding*

Diana: At last, we were married

Matthew: I just…

*Matthew sucks blood from Diana’s boob because he’s mad about the literal Holy Roman Emperor hitting on his “”“"wife”“”“*

Diana:

Matthew: Yeah, that’s the one that did it

[adiscoveryofbishmont]

Philippe: Fetch the priest, Alain! It’s time for a wedding!

Diana: I just killed a man!

Philippe:

[adow-trash]

*Diana kills a man*

Philippe, grabbing Matthew by the shoulders: Where did you find her she’s P-E-R-F-E-C-T.

[drdeclermont]

Mathew *tries not to be visibly aroused*: I KNOW right?!?

[adiscoveryofbishmont]

Philippe: Fetch the priest, Alain! It’s time for a wedding!

Diana: I just killed a man!

Philippe:

[anthonybrxdgerton]

ADOW PREMIERE CHALLENGE

A Discovery of Witches hits BBC America and AMC on Sunday, April 7th, which will bring the bigger audience - that’s why we decided to make ADOW Premiere Challenge to celebrate the success of the show! There will be 8 weeks for 8 episodes (that does not mean that each prompt is only about one episode, though).

Each week there will be a prompt for you to fill. Any creative form is welcome - gifs, fanarts, fanfictions, drabbles, metas, headcanons, ANYTHING. The challenge is not limited to just the tv series - you’re more than welcome to use books as well. 

Each week there will be 2 prompts to choose from - you can pick one, or both of them! You do not have to participate each week, do what you want and have fun! Don’t forget to tag each post with #adowpremierechallenge so that we can track and share them!

Please reblog to spread the word!

WEEK ONE / April 7th - April 13th || Favorite main character(s) / Favorite action or magic moment(s) WEEK TWO / April 14th - April 20th || Favorite secondary character(s) / favorite location(s) WEEK THREE / April 21st - April 27th || Favorite outfit(s) or hairstyle(s) / Favorite heartwarming or happy moment(s) WEEK FOUR / April 28 - May 4th || Favorite non-romantic relationship(s) / Favorite emotional or heartbreaking moment(s) WEEK FIVE / May 5th - May 11th || Favorite character trait(s) / Favorite romantic relationship(s) WEEK SIX / May 12th - May 18th || Favorite quote(s) / Favorite character arc or character development WEEK SEVEN / May 19th - May 25th || Favorite parallel(s) / Favorite underrated moment WEEK EIGHT / May 26th - June 1st || AU / Free choice

[kitten-kin]

[sarahthecoat]

<3

[juniper-tree]

Is the “fluffy one shot” pig doing whip its with those cans?  Cause that feels accurate.

[kitten-kin]

@skyholdherbalist Yup! XD

[valkyrien]

@frozensnares

Then… where do I go? I’m just at home muttering

into the void of an open word document.

[kitten-kin]

@valkyrien Oh but there’s more to this party than sugar and sweets~ ♥︎

Fluff Fest on RedBubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/kitten-kin/works/36582633

Dark Side on RedBubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/kitten-kin/works/36634358

[atlinmerrick]

THE PIG IS EATING PINE TREES IN THE PINING I CAN NOT DEAL.

[owlinautumn]

IT GOT BETTER

[alltheusernameiwantistaken]

Where’s the lemon buffet

[kitten-kin]

Third Comic, featuring the citrus-themed juice bar~ @alltheusernameiwantistaken

Available on RedBubble at https://www.redbubble.com/people/kitten-kin/works/37192337.

[mitsuhidethesnek]

Wow this is the best thing I’ve ever seen

[anthonybrxdgerton]

one year with baldwin montclair » day 88

[anthonybrxdgerton]

one year with baldwin montclair » day 86

[anthonybrxdgerton]

one year with baldwin montclair » day 85

[anthonybrxdgerton]

one year with baldwin montclair » day 84

[fantasticalnonsense18]

Musings on the Congregation in the All Souls Universe...

Whenever I read low-fantasy novels that feature mysterious shadow organizations or government institutions that operate on an international scale, I can’t help but wonder how said institutions came to dominate the lives of the characters that occupy a particular universe. In the Harry Potter universe, for example, each country seems to have its own version of the Ministry of Magic that governs the lives of their wizarding denizens, but outside the Magical Congress in the USA, we never hear about those institutions and how they work. In the HP series, you get the impression that the Ministry is in charge of all magic-related things across the world, else Voldemort’s rise and the Ministry’s fall wouldn’t have such far-reaching consequences and could (hypothetically) be contained to Britain (note: I could be wrong about this; it has been a while since I brushed up on HP lore). 

This brings me to the Congregation in the All Souls Trilogy. Established in the 11th-12th century by Philippe de Clermont and various other Creatures, the Congregation consists of a council of nine with three representatives from each of the three Creature species: daemons, vampires, and witches. It is a government body that serves to uphold the Covenant and prevent exposure to humans, thereby keeping Creatures safe from persecution. In practice, this has had varying degrees of success over the centuries, as we see in the second book, Shadow of Night. Nevertheless, it’s presented as an old and well-established institution with a global reach over Creaturekind in the 21st century. 

Which begs the question: how?

Creatures exist all over the world in the All Souls Universe, making up about 10% of the world’s population. Yet the Congregation came about as a result of the conflicts that occurred between Creatures during the Crusades, which was limited to Europe and the Near-Middle East. For all the pomp in which its members present themselves, the Congregation couldn’t have been involved in global Creature affairs for nearly a thousand years. Additionally, it leaves us wondering how it operates at the communal level in the present-day. 

Shadow of Night presented the readers with the Rede, the witches’ parliament for lack of a better term, that oversaw the affairs of witches in England during the 16th century; it was later dissolved due to external pressures in the human world. From this information, we can assume that similar government bodies existed in other countries for their respective witch communities and that their leaders elected/appointed Congressional members. The TV series A Discovery of Witches suggests that present-day witches report to their local coven leaders who in turn report to higher councils/Congressional members. Vampires and daemons aren’t really elaborated on: I assume vampires stick more to feudal practices, making nepotistic deals and alliances with other clans to maintain their positions (Philippe did just that by ensuring that a de Clermont was always on the Congregation), but daemons are supposedly disorganized, popping up at random to human parents and having no real governing body outside the Congregation. Does a cabal of loosely-connected daemons exist to find other daemons, elect their Congressional members, and enforce the law? And do Congressional sub-committees exist to oversee affairs in other countries? Idk, I wish this was elaborated on further. 

Anyway, going back to how the Congregation might work on a global scale. My theory is that Western expansion and colonization played a huge factor in the Congregation’s influence over Creatures. As trade routes with Africa and Asia opened up and the New World was discovered piece by piece, a few vampires, witches and daemons likely traveled with humans to find others of their kind and lay down the law, bringing their cultural practices and prejudices with them. I also theorize that this was met with mixed results: a lot of Creatures probably fought back against what was seen as an alien power infringing on their culture and their place in society, and others may have accepted, even welcomed, the Congregation and the Covenant as a necessary evil to safeguard against hatred and prejudice. 

(Side note: oh man, can you imagine European Creatures first meeting Aztecs and Incas, Native Americans and Aboriginals, Africans and Muslims, Indians and Mongols, East Asian Creatures, etc. The fear, the confusion, the sense of familiarity in the alien since Creatures can instinctively pick up on other Creatures, and the culture clash that would follow. Hell, maybe the Congregation hasn’t reached certain places in the world and Creatures are continuing on as they have for centuries. Damn, that would be a great concept to explore…)

@thewhyldeone , @adow-allsouls , and @allsoulstriogymusings . 

[adow-allsouls]

I find it interesting too.

I always assume the congregation was like the UN at best, lots of power grabbing and posturing, not much actual work. And I doubt everyone actually falls in line, likely a lot of self governing was involved. Each region probably has their own governing bodies, ruling clans or coven or whatever daemons have, and report back to congregation members should they choose to. Save to say a lot of stuff is going to fall through the cracks.

Plus the congregation have all these rules, but whether said rules are properly enforced was the big question. Personally I don’t think most rules are, can you imagine no one breaking the covenant for 1000 years? At least Gerbert was hiding a daemon lover (even turned said lover) for hundreds of years.

As for their so called main goal of “protecting creatures from humans persecution”, the congregation was comically ineffective. They surely didn’t do much during the 16th century witch hunts, unless you count letting all those witches tortured and killed while hoping it’ll blow over soon a solution. Benjamin was free to hunt down witches in Chelm for hundreds of years without the congregation’s interference. Doubt they really did much for all the other witch hunts or vampire huntings either.

P.S.: I always imagine the daemons have some sort of call list grape vine thing going on. Like they have talent scouts to watch out for people with exceptional talents, then make a series of calls until they find a daemon of that specific field to have said person evaluated, then assign them a mentor or add them to a contact list.

[bleebug]

me: damn three weeks and they already married? take a breather, you two. go on more than 2 dates first.

also me: They Are Soul Mates So It’s Okay

[pleasereadmeok]

[adow-trash]

Be respectful of mom and dad they’re horny

[di-elle]

Discussing Daemons aka the nasty side of Adow fandom.

We’re approaching peak hiatus, with a new influx of fans coming as the show will air on AMC and BBC America. Basically we’re approaching the lower point of this curve…

Scary, uh? There are not ship wars yet? but there is a particular little group of nasty people you should all be aware of - and stay away from as much as you can. I’m talking about the 3 5 years old petty  ladies running the @daemonsdomain  and demons discuss podcast. And yes, I’m tagging them, because, unlike them, I don’t go talking about people behind their back and since I also asked them to stop harassing people both on discord and twitter, and like any other bullies, they cowardly didn’t answered me, I had to write this public post, so everyone will be warned.

Those who had followed me since the Outlander days, know I don’t have problem to call out crazy fandom people, and man, that fandom had enough, but I’ve never seen the level of nastiness and acrimony that has recently come to my attention, and it’s all in the A Discovery of Witches fandom.

the TL:DR of this is STAY AWAY FROM THE ALL SOUL FACEBOOK DISCUSSION BOOK, whatever little new info Deb would share there, is not worth being harassed, threatened, bullied, cyber stalked, and finally doxed but these 3 vile persons.

stay also away of their podcast, and don’t engage with them on twitter media:

DaemonsDomain - DaemonsDiscuss and their personal twitter accounts:

https://twitter.com/testarossasmom ( Jean: the one doing the threatening and the head bully)

https://twitter.com/ValMonst3r  and https://twitter.com/apocalipstixnow (her 2 bully minions Val and Angela)

if you want to know more, settle down, this is going to be long but necessary.

A Little bit of Background

These 3 women run for years the Richard Armitage 4 Matthew Clairmont campaign, and the thing went so on their head they are now convinced they helped Deborah Harkness to get the studio deal. After that campaign ended they started the Deamon Discuss podcast. Meanwhile, they were been kicked out of the All Souls Discussion Group [the one Deborah Harkness moderate/maintains] for fighting with fellow fans and being bullies. And two of them were mods!

Anyway, apparently they got back in Deb good grace, as she got them back in, but not allowed to be mods anymore. But they are still harassing and bullying and fighting fans. because you know, once a bully…

But what they do, you would ask?

As side activity to their main podcast, they run a “aftershow” podcast (*) opened only to their patrons whose main purpose is to shit on everyone they dislike including :

- devoted a whole podscast to dox a member of the facebook group (that they got eventually kicked out by their mods friends) giving away the name, the social media presence and the location, only because said person had a few disagreement with them. Not only they had this person kicked out, they are now harassing and stalking on social media and other platform like the Adow Discord Group, to the point this person had to delete the accounts. and they are still cyberstalking this person as we speak.

if this is not enough:

- insult new fans and “only show fans”, for not being intelligent enough and not willing to learn about alchemy or history or genetics, [ unlike them, the ORIGINAL FANS ™ - yes, they call themselves that]. all this because the new fans dare to ask already asked questions and drool after Matthew Goode. MAJOR SINS!

- bodyshaming and fatshaming some of the (male) actors of the show, only to then go lick said fatshamed actor’s fiancee ass on twitter.

- in this particular podcast that came to me, they are joined by one of the mods of the group, renee, and proceed to mock and insult a member’s physical appearance and sex life because the post she made was “dumb”

- threatening fans that they could be sued for saying when the actor said they’d be filming (in DM, of course, or Deb would be aware of this) or generally speculating about season 2. there are multiple account of this happening. as I said, nuts!

- insult and mock the under 30s fandom people because they are young and don’t get their superior and only allowed way of having fun

- calling other adow podcast “grifters” and “thieves”

- generally going against the All Souls Discussion Group rule buy talking about the discussions happening there and being either mocking, coming up with awful nicknames, and straight up being awful, vile and nasty, like high school mean girls.

- I’m also told their general attitude in the All Souls Discussion Group - which I’m not part of -  is to make feel people unwelcome, mothering Deborah Harkness, shutting down any perceived criticism (i.e. anything that doesn’t coincide with their pov) and any discussion about the books.

- this is for the Outlander fandom: they despite you all, and they despite Diana Gabaldon for daring to not like the book

- harass and mock people leaving anything rather than 5 stars reviews of the books of both Amazon and Goodreads.

- basically appointed themselves as the only True Fans and the Gatekeepers of the fandom.

so, as I said, stay away from the All Soul Discussion Group, is not worth being harassed and bullied by these awful horrid petty jealous persons.

[as always, my ask is open for questions]

(*) I had to listen to a couple of those mp3, and I have them stored, but trust me, you don’t want to waste your time with these 3 vile spiteful women.

ETA: added the right twitter handler for one of the minions