canon is what happens in the text. e.g. merlin tries to poison morgana
a headcanon is a fact that you have personally made up as an elaboration of canon. it is your invention. e.g. i think morgana and gwen had a teenage lesbian situationship before the events of canon. or, i think modern morgana would love evanesence.
an interpretation is how one reads the existing text. it is not an invented fact nor is it a headcanon, it is a reading. e.g. i think merlin tries to poison morgana out of misplaced self-hatred. or, i think that one line was delivered with suppressed malice and shows a nuanced relationship.
fanon is the general fandom’s accepted headcanons and interpretations that elaborate or recontextualize canon. e.g. merlin is a badass waif and morgana is a bitch.
these are all different words with different meanings.
You are posted out by the Hollywood sign tonight, sitting under the frame where the W used to be. It got burnt to a crisp during last week’s big superhero fight. A hero died right where you’re sitting. The whole area’s been closed down until Hero Force can coordinate a recovery effort. Usually it’d be done by now but no one’s willing to touch it until the ash has been completely blown away.
It’s a rule that the world must stand still when a hero dies.
“How much?”
The voice comes from behind you. The lights that illuminate the Hollywood sign are down to hide as much of the scorch marks as possible. You wouldn’t be able to see anything even if you did turn around, so you don’t.
You put some chapstick on, the glide of the balm against your wind chapped lips grounding.
“I said,” the Hero says, voice tightening, “How. Much.”
There’s the sound of gravel crunching now. They’re wearing heavy boots and the scent of fresh blood grows stronger the closer they get. Their breathing is smooth and even which means it’s not their blood.
You put the cap back on your chapstick and tuck it into your leather jacket’s inner pocket. “I don’t take money.”
“Then what do you take?” The Hero rounds the Y and comes into your line of sight. The dark hides most of their features, but you can make out a glittering gold mask and the dull shine of drying blood on their chest plate. Their breathing may be even, but their stance isn’t. They sway in place, back and forth, back and forth. Their arms wrap around their stomach. “I’ve got land. A house. You can have it.”
[Video description: Gritty is turning the crank on a flagpole to raise the Progress Pride Flag. He gesticulates angrily that the flag is not blowing in the wind, then gestures offscreen. The flag begins blowing. As Gritty begins raising the flag more, the camera pans out to show a man in a suit and sunglasses, looking like a stern Secret Service agent, is holding a leafblower that points at the flag. End description.]
We're here, we're queer, we're really fucking tired so we're just gonna go straight to biting instead of feigning polite confusion if you're gonna be a bigot this time, just so you know.
Attention ancient history nerds and fans of really weird and unusual fantasy books, THE WISDOM OF EMPERORS kickstarter campaign just launched!
Hello, btw, I'm Alexandra Rowland, the author of A TASTE OF GOLD AND IRON, RUNNING CLOSE TO THE WIND, YIELD UNDER GREAT PERSUASION, and several other books. This is my new one!!
Inspired by the story of the Ancient Roman emperor Hadrian and his lover Antinous, THE WISDOM OF EMPERORS is a second-world adult fantasy novel written in the style of a fictional academic text. It documents the translation and study of a world-changing artifact discovered in an archaeological dig: a manuscript which provides the clues to finally unravel one of the most perplexing mysteries in all of ancient history.
If this sounds like your jam, go back it on kickstarter! If you're not sure whether it is your jam, the merch reveal updates on the campaign include excerpts from the book so you can get a flavor for it -- the ENTIRE Foreword to the book is on there!
I do not have a publisher to help with a marketing and publicity budget, so this book's success really depends on grassroots support from readers -- if you can spare a signal boost, that'd be amazing.
I'M GONNA GO WALK INTO THE SEA NOW AND BECOME ONE WITH THE MOLLUSCS, but before i do, here is the full summary of the book:
SUMMARY:
An ancient emperor who, along with his entire army, vanished from the historical record for ten years, as if into thin air.
A long-suffering scribe, dragged along on a quest that was doomed from the start, furiously scrawling his thoughts in a manuscript that will be lost for millennia.
An enslaved young man, as beautiful as a marble statue, breaking his chains and flying to freedom.
And a patient, steadfast scholar, dauntlessly seeking the answer to a mystery that has plagued historians for two thousand years.
The great tragedy of studying history is that there is so much we will never know. But a recent archaeological excavation has discovered an ancient manuscript, allegedly the journal kept by one of Emperor Cabian’s scribes during the years of his mysterious disappearance. Though most historians initially dismissed it as a hoax or a forgery, Amatio Orlanti took on the challenge—not only proving the authenticity of the manuscript, but translating it, uncovering the most jaw-dropping corroborating sources and, at last, presenting these astonishing revelations to the world: The truth of Cabian’s ill-fated journey, the twin poisons of imperialist violence and desperate, misguided love that drove him relentlessly onwards, and the ultimate fate of his lost beloved, the legendary beauty Anaticula. This new edition of Orlanti’s dissertation, with its academic commentaries and explanatory footnotes now revised for the general public, offers a glimpse of one of the most famous figures of Ancient Lausa—and casts a light on the rot and depravity lying behind the empire’s outward magnificence.
Miracles in history and archaeology just don’t happen… except when they do.
A new fantasy novel by Alexandra Rowland, author of A TASTE OF GOLD AND IRON, RUNNING CLOSE TO THE WIND, & YIELD UNDER GREAT PERSUASION
