Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
d e v o n
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@dr-dendritic-trees
Who are you having dinner with? (Tortall)
Alanna of Trebond and Olau
Geroge Cooper
Kel
Daine
Aly
Numair Salmalin
Rebekah
Myles Olau
Onua Chamtong
Tkaa
Rosto the Piper
I haven't read the Tortall books but can't keep from hitting a button
Everyone say thank you sanitation workers we owe you our lives sanitation workers
people (including those who should absolutely know better) talk about hormones and neurotransmitters like they’re humors
you know cortisol, sometimes referred to as “the stress hormone”? do you know what it’s called when you have very low levels of it?
adrenal crisis. it’s life threatening.
every thought and feeling in your head emerges from the material reality inside your skull
but that does not mean you can correlate those feelings to the quantities of specific chemicals; there is no joy chemical that you can measure, there is no sad chemical you can rid yourself of
So I thought y'all would like this too This great white comes to the jersey shore every year and this year they named her and have been tracking her hella so this is Mary Lee and she decided to show herself under this rainbow for pride month A true gay icon
#This is the representation I’ve been looking for
BLAHAJ
I get the sense, from rifling through the tags, that a lot of people don't particularly like the introduction of Captain Olgarezh. But as I've not circled back through Cemeteries to Tomb of Dragons again, he delights me, because I think he's actually the character who introduces us to Thara Celehar.
Thara, as we are introduced to him, has the horrifying and traumatic death of Evru hanging over him in literally 100% of his canon appearances. We're introduced in Emperor to a character who is not only understandably grief-stricken, but who, additionally, is severely clinically depressed (this merits its own post, but for now, the key point is that he is very ill). And he just stays that way nearly to the end of Grief of Stones. And on top of that, the way the first parts of Cemeteries is narrated actively prevents us from gaining any real picture of what his life was like before all the trauma (which in and of itself seems to be partly a reflection of badly he's doing). Almost everything he says about his earlier life is a single sentence that could be presented as a bullet point with no details. So its really difficult in Witness and Stones to make any kind of educated guess on what an un-traumatized, healthy Thara was like.
And finally, at the beginning of Tomb he actually has achieved a meaningful degree of remission and he can suddenly nurse an incredibly silly crush on a guard captain with pretty eyes. And its like ""Oh, hello version of Thara not being filtered through a fog of mental illness! I so look forward to getting to know you!"
One of the things I love and appreciate about The Goblin Emperor is that Katherine Addison has the guts not to give Maia any real loopholes to get out of the system.
Maia is incredibly kind and compassionate, and its inescapably obvious that his kindness and compassion are why he manages to be a successful emperor in the end. But at the same time, one of Maia's jobs is to be the Trolley Problem Operator and the book ends with executions.
And I like that. When I was younger I liked it when protagonists discovered the Secret Third Option at the last minute. It seemed heroic. Now, it mostly irritates me.
This is how I feel about people calling Martha Wells a slave apologist or whatever, because her enslaved characters exist in well established systems of oppression and aren’t falling over themselves to lead the charge to end said systems.
Like it’s a series of personal diaries about a person learning how to person and find themselves/people to call friends and family.
Not every oppressed persons story has to be about dismantling the system that fucked them over. It can be them working the system to get what they want. It can be them finding people willing to help them move more freely within dangerous spaces. It can be them having their own harmful biases challenged. It can be them learning to trust others despite it all. It can be them realizing their suffering doesn’t make them a good person and sometimes they just aren’t. And if they want to be that shit takes effort. Especially in a universe where violence is always one of the first options and the rich are destroying literal planets for greed.
And Murderbot is not happily owned by Mensah. It says this repeatedly through the series. I don’t know why critics say that it is. Mensah is just 1000% more preferable compared to the company or any corporate. I see critics laser in on the inequality bots and constructs face but no one mentions how indentured humans have it just as bad or worse.
Pls. Yes tmbd is set in a capitalistic hellscape of exploitative labor and abuse. But that doesn’t mean the main narrative has to be about rebellion and the exploration of how to dismantle those systems. It can be about people doing their best within their current restraints.
If you want uprisings and rebellions The Murderbot Diaries are not that. Find something more your cup of tea instead of criticizing media in bad faith and calling the author names and a horrible person because they didn’t write the story you wanted.
The fact that The Goblin Emperor is a book about how behaving in a way that is kind, empathetic, and compassionate in a position of power is not only extremely difficult, but likely to stir up trouble and make a lot of enemies, but never slips into the typical trite "blah blah good men rarely make good Kings" pessimist nonsense, and instead demonstrates how these acts of kindness almost always pay off in the end has healed my soul. My skin is clear and my crops are thriving.
gods in the goblin emperor, or, hyperfixation on fictional gods go brr
Hello and welcome to a list of every god mentioned in The Goblin Emperor, a note on every piece of information I could find about them, and some of my own theories. This does not include anything from Witness for the Dead, as I haven’t read it.
Every introduction to a god is from the list at the end of the book.
Akhalarna: a god (domain unknown)
- “We remember a divine of Akhalarna appeared—a very old woman with the ritual scars. She was making a pilgrimage from her home to Valno, where Akhalarna fell to earth.” - It is unclear if ritual scars only exist for this god, or if they are used for others as well. It is also unclear what a ‘divine’ entails.
Anmura: god of the sun and god of war
- “[Maia describing the sunrise] the glory of Anmura rising from Osreian’s embrace”. Anmura being the sun, and Osreian here being the earth. - The Captain of the Untheileneise Guard is a “Knight of Anmura” and wears a sun mask. - Their devout are involved in funerals and wear ‘deep marigold robes’.
Ashevezhko: the Barizheise goddess of the sea
- Spelled also as “Ashevezhkho” within the text itself. - There is a Convent of Lighthouse-Keepers in Urvekh’ for votaries of Ashevezhkho. They maintain three lighthouses there.
Chevarimai: a god whose cult was suppressed. (domain unknown)
- Suppression led to emperors being non observant in public, possibly this is what led to less piety within the court in general.
Csaivo: goddess of rivers, water, birth, and healing
- Clerics of Csaivo practice celibacy and work in charity hospitals, tending equally to men and women.
Cstheio Caireizhasan: goddess of the stars, of wisdom, and of magic
- Described as “the dreaming lady of the stars” and “lady of falling stars”. - “Cstheio Caireizhasan, hear me. Cstheio Caireizhasan, see me. Cstheio Caireizhasan, know me.” : a prayer, potentially Barizheise in origin. - Gift of clear sight (whether she is believed to possess or offer this is unclear, but likely both). - A monastery in Thu-Cethor is dedicated to her, and the monks there take a vow of silence. - Appears to be one of the most popular gods, although it is possible that Maia simply notices her more, as he is her follower.
Orshan: goddess of crops and farmers
[not mentioned in text]
Osreian: goddess of the earth, of earthquakes and disaster, of artists and makers
- Has hymns dedicated to her; potentially Barizheise in origin. - The dawn seems significant to Osreian as well as to Anmura. - Mentioned by Csevet as potentially being a god who offered him a ‘blessing’ in the form of a staircase (though the staircase is likely not significant). - Appears to be a more popular god.
Salezheio: goddess of wind, winter, couriers, and storytellers
- Mentioned once by Csevet (see above).
Ulis: the god of death and the moon
- “Ulis was a cold god, a god of night and shadows and dust. His love was found in emptiness, his kindness in silence.” - He is a god of letting go, and of dreams, death, and rebirth. - Iconography of Ulis depicts him with open hands (presumably, to represent letting go). - Priests of Ulis wear black robes and black veils. - Mazei canons of Ulis (specifically those involved with revethvoran) are described as having robes with black stripes, though it’s unconfirmed if this differs from the priests. - Priests of Ulis can be called upon to be a Witness for the Dead. - Barizheise custom seems to involve superstition around Ulis, seemingly due to his being a god of death. - Several Barizheise prayers to Ulis exist; one of these is a meant for a sickbed. - Thara Celehar suggests that Ulis offers clarity to the dead. - Celehar also suggests that Ulis offers dreams to his followers - or at least to him. - An “ulishenathaän” is a token of a dead person.
additional notes:
- It is unclear if the gods worshipped by elves and goblins differ - at the least, Csetheio and Osreian are worshipped by goblins also, however Ashevezhko is specifically referred to as a Barizheise goddess, suggesting there are differences. It is likely every other god mentioned here is either an elven god, or both elven and goblin. It’s also likely that traditions and worship differs between cultures.
- We only have Maia’s memories of Chenelo to go on here, as with most Barizheise customs, but her superstition around Ulis and her reluctance to teach Maia prayers to him suggests that goblins may not worship him (given that her general superstition and spiritual beliefs are framed as part of her culture, not a character trait)
- A revethvoran is always performed at moonset, and the proper time for funerals is sundown. This suggests that time of day is important at least to Ulis’ domain (which would make sense, being a god of death), if not to the other gods. Timing also seems vitally important for the coronation, and this might also be related to Ulis even if the connection is never mentioned - the passing of the crown from one emperor to the next is related to death, rebirth and transformation after all - but it could just as easily be tradition unrelated to religion.
- “Merciful goddesses” is a common phrase (much like ‘good lord’ or ‘oh my god’ in our world) but ‘merciful gods’ does not seem to be. In fact the only time ‘gods’ on their own seem to be invoked in a similar manner is by Beshelar, when he is stabbed and briefly drops formality to say “Oh, gods, sorry,” before correcting himself. Even thinking to himself, Maia only ever thinks “merciful goddesses,” and Setheris uses the phrase numerous times when speaking informally. Given that, it could be argued that invoking ‘gods’ in this manner is a regional thing. Yes i’m inserting my ‘Beshelar is a little country boy’ headcanon into this and you’re all welcome.
- On Winternight, Beshelar mutters about disrespect to the gods. I’m unclear if he’s talking about the musicians still tuning their instruments, or about the emperor not having arrived on time, but either way it seems to be about proper timing, suggesting once again that timing is important to gods.
- The Mich’othasmeire is the Chapel of All Gods within the palace and is ‘not much used’, the reasoning for this being that celebrations for gods are described as ‘too large for a single chapel’. This implies BIG celebrations. Csetheio and Osreian are the most worshipped in this chapel. Though I suspect the reason it is rarely used has more to do with the lack of religious people within the court than the size of the chapel.
- The Untheileneise’meire is meant to be a place of worship, however it seems to be treated primarily as a tomb.
- The Othasmeire of the Untheileneise Court has separate satellite shrines for each god. (A satellite shrine is usually described as a shrine away from the main shrine, suggesting that each god has its own main shrine.)
- The vigil chapel has seven gods Maia is familiar with (among those would be: Anmura, Csetheio, Csaivo, and Ulis, and three others I’m unsure of) and many he is not. Given there are only ten gods listed, this implies there are many more that were never mentioned in the text.
- Csevet states that it is ‘unfashionable’ to believe that gods (namely, Ulis) grant powers to a Witness for the Dead. This is contrary to Thara’s experience, who believes he is sent dreams from Ulis - and given those dreams led him to correct answers, it’s entirely possible that he’s correct.
Sketch of Maia to practice sketch techniques!
ID: a sketched black and white portrait of maia drazhar from the goblin emperor, drawn from the shoulders up. it is stylized sketchy with many values rendered with hatching and crosshatching. he is a young goblin-elven man with dark skin and long, thick curly hair. he has prominent cheekbones, straight brows, full lips, and a strong chin. half his hair is pulled up, fastened with tashin sticks, the rest left down, some pieces in braids. he wears elegant drop earrings and finely brocaded clothing with a high collar. he has a neutral expression. end ID.
listen i love thara so much. so fucking much i love this clinically depressed elf. but 90% of his time walking around amalo looks like this
griefbook update: hes getting better but hes still pretty much like this
ID: a screencap from meet the robinsons of goob, a young child, walking downtrodden in a school hall. two other boys are saying to him, "hey goob what's up? cool binder!" and "hey goob wanna come over to my house today?" in the second image, goob narrates, "they all hated me." end ID
Idra, Mireän, and Ino
ID: two images, a portrait of Idra, Mireän, and Ino from the goblin emperor. the first is a sketch in a slightly more cartoonish style and the second is a colored drawing. all three are elves with pale skin and white hair. Idra is a teenager with a serious expression. he is wearing a burgundy vest and a pale shirt. his hair is neatly pulled back and he wears blue tassle earrings and small hoop earrings. Mireän is younger and shorter wearing blue drop earrings, and a pink jacket with a blue bow. her hair is partially braided back and secured with a matching bow. she looks to the side, expression inquisitive. Ino, youngest and shortest, has a round face and short hair half-pulled back. she wears jade flower-shaped earrings and a burgundy pinafore with frill trim and buttons at the collar. she is smiling. end ID
Re-reading The Goblin Emperor and I just. The way Maia's abuse colors every interaction he has? The persistent guilt and fear and the assumption that everyone is mad at him all the time (which to be fair is not a far off assumption to make in his position) is really hitting hard this time around. Like when Csevet is like "hey where did you get these really specific diagrams of that one bridge" and Maia is just overwhelmed with guilt and has to tell himself over and over again that he didn't do anything wrong. Or when Beshelar is like "hey that one dude who keeps sending you party invitations while you're holding court isn't actually your friend" but Maia is convinced that Beshelar doesn't like him so instead of taking it as the concerned caution it is he snaps back and basically tells him to leave him the fuck alone.
It's a really well done exploration of the way emotional abuse messes you up psychologically but it also makes Maia's courage stand out so much more. He knows (thinks) he is hated. He knows (thinks) none of his decisions will make anyone happy. But he stays on the throne. He makes the decisions he feels are right. And he's miserable, but he's also not catering to the approval of others because he knows (thinks) he doesn't have it and will never have it and that frees him in some ways while also being horribly tragic because people do like him!!! He does have some support!!! But he can't see that. And so he never falls into the trap of trying to cater to it.
Like that one scene where he is mediating a land dispute or something and he knows he can't pick a side so he's like "fuck this, I can't make everyone happy so I'm going to make sure no one is happy" and basically throws out all the proposals for splitting up the land that were all super biased in one group's direction and splits the land up fairly so that everyone gets some but not all of what they wanted.
He knows he can't make decisions that will make people happy. Not because he doesn't want to, but because it is beyond his power and ability and popularity. So he makes the decisions that are fair, and just, and that he can live with.
IT'S THE WHOLE DEAL WITH THE BRIDGE!!!!!!!
He KNOWS it's not a popular proposal with the eastern nobility. He KNOWS he's going to be laughed at if he champions it. But what does he say??? "Of all our subjects, they are not the ones who need our help."
And Csevet is all like, "It is not a sentiment we expected from an emperor."
"We cannot help that," Maia said, wearily.
"Serenity, we did not mean--"
"No, but others are bound to make the same observation, and they will say what you do not. They will say it is our mother's Barizheise influence and deplore it. But it does not change that we must do what we think right."
It does not change that we must do what we think right.
Maia can't please his nobility, so he doesn't try. They don't like him, and a lot of them will never like him, simply for the fact that he looks like his mother. But just as he can't change his heritage, he can't help who he is, and he can't not make the decisions he thinks are right.
I think an important aspect of the books is that Maia is not necessarily a reliable narrator. He doesn't really know how to read people who aren't Setheris. Like. The degree to which Beshelar dislikes him I think is very much filtered through Maia's embarrassment and Beshelar's own awkwardness at their first meeting. And I think that comes into play a lot when he makes decisions, because yes, he wants people's perception of him to be good, but he also knows (thinks) that he's fighting an uphill battle on that front and some days he just runs out of fucks to give about other people's already negative opinion and does whatever. And I think that's a good thing. Proves there's still a grumpy teenager somewhere under white robes and crown.
And he gets to revisit and update these relationships! Like, initially he thinks his housekeeper despises him, and later he's shocked to realize she's friends with Csevet and not actually the asshole he originally thinks.
ID: A colour portrait of Thara Celehar from The Witness for the Dead. He is an elf with pale skin and hair. He is wearing a set of small bronze earrings and a high-collared grey shirt. Over this he is wearing a high-collared black coat with grey embroidery along the collar. There are 3 rows of buttons along each side of coat. He is looking towards the right. end ID
Finally read Witness for the Dead!! here's a portrait of Celehar
thara and his cousin
[ID: Two digital illustrations of characters from The Goblin Emperor. 1) Full-color shaded drawing of Thara Celehar from the chest up at a ¾ view with a pale, dull green background. He has pointed ears, pale skin, curly white hair, prominent dark circles, and a neutral expression. His hair is braided with a few pins visible. He is wearing a dark gray frock coat with gray embroidery, a faintly pinstriped dull blue vest, a white collared shirt, and a light blue cravat with a brass ring, which matches his brass earrings. 2) Flat-color drawing of Csoru Drazharan and Thara from the chest up on a pale, dull blue background, at a ¾ view and facing the viewer respectively. Csoru has pointed ears, pale skin, curly white hair, and a neutral expression, and very vivid dark blue eyes. Her hair is done up into three buns with braids wrapped around and side bangs, and adorned with gold, magenta, and green beads, tashin sticks, and a hair comb, which match her elaborate set of earrings. She is wearing a frogged magenta jacket with gold embroidery and puffy sleeves. Thara looks the same as in the previous picture, though his vest is no longer striped and he has some wisps of hair escaping his braid, and the way his hair frames his face is different. End ID.]
*audible sounds of maia drazhar falling very stupidly in love w the prime twink of the untheileneise court*
ID: a 5-panel illustration of a scene between Maia Drazhar and Csevet Aisava from The Goblin Emperor. Maia is a young goblin-elven man with slate dark skin and gray eyes. He has pointed ears, freckles, and thick dark hair pulled back and fastened behind him. He wears all-black formalwear. Csevet is a young elven man with pointed ears, pale flushed skin, and light almost clear irises. He has very light hair pulled back with a decorative crown of intertwining braids that fastens at the back. He wears a brown leather vest over a gray knit shirt and double looped earrings. In the first panel Maia is saying to Csevet, "And, if you would--tell me your name?" Behind them is a spiral staircase pillar. The next two panels are closeups of Csevet appearing surprised, and then smiling. Their are fir trees in the background behind him. The following panel are just Csevet's words, "I am Csevet Aisava." In the last panel, Csevet, smiling with one hand on his breast says, "And I am entirely at your Serenity's service." Behind him are golden railings, more trees, and a sprawling building with high peaks scaling up towards the sky. End ID
A HANDY CHART FOR THOSE OF YOU WONDERING WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THESE. NOTE THAT THESE ARE ALL THE INFORMAL AND YOU IS THE FORMAL SO LIKE YOU WOULD ALWAYS ADDRESS YOUR SUPERIOR/ OLDER PERSON/ SOCIAL BETTER WITH YOU BUT WITH YOUR BUDS YOU CAN USE THESE.
