blood of alders !

a blog dedicated to the underrated characters of the witcher universe and the elder blood lore.

[elderbloodlore]

Currently planned:

UNDERRATED CHARACTERS

- adela

- amavet

- fiona

- leticia charbonneau

- riannon

- lara dorren

BOOK TO SCREEN

- sword of destiny: calanthe & geralt in the gardens

- sword of destiny: jaskier & geralt by yaruga

- blood of elves: the meeting of kings

[elderbloodlore]

Okay so I think I should announce that this blog is no longer active and now all my work is going to be published on @bookcalanthedaily

[elderbloodlore]

Not me quietly considering making a "book Calanthe daily" blog

[elderbloodlore]

all the validation I am getting from that book vs show Calanthe post makes me want to make a part two.

[elderbloodlore]

Simpler days in Cintra, Queen Calanthe watching over the children, circa 1260.

mod list.

[elderbloodlore]

mod list:  - face and hair for calanthe by @witcherscreenshotsdump - elegant anarietta dress retexture by @starkiller201 - emerald eyes ciri by x - ...

[elderbloodlore]

But in the name of all the gods, you're all that I despise, Who planned to take by treachery my kingdom as your prize--- My throne, my child, my people. All, you plotted to despoil--- By tricks that only miracles enabled us to foil.

mod list: coming soon calanthe’s face & hair model by @witcherscreenshotsdump​

[elderbloodlore]

Queen Calanthe reading her granddaughter to sleep, circa. 1260

mod list: coming soon calanthe’s face & hair by @witcherscreenshotsdump​

[elderbloodlore]

the oh so lovely adaptation of Queen Calanthe in Netflix’s the Witcher vs book quotes.

[elderbloodlore]

            calanthe fiona riannon, the lioness of cintra. 

face & hair model by @witcherscreenshotsdump dress retexture by @starkiller201

[elderbloodlore]

Gwent Reward Tree: Crimson Curse - Queen Calanthe.

Part 1/2 - Scrolls. part 2. 

[aeide-thea]

felt like shit so slipped sideways into accidental nap and now i feel not really less shitty but also just extremely irritable lmao, like half the posts i’ve scrolled past i’ve been like, ready to put my tiny little fists up at

like someody reblogged this post characterizing [witcher character] queen calanthe (with screenshots from the netflix show so presumably that’s the relevant canon) as ‘fiercely loving of both her family and her country’ and 'a brilliant leader and politician’ and i’m just here like, literally what are you basing those assertions on, calanthe treats pavetta likeshit in the netflix show. we see her being possessive and controlling of her family but i think 'fiercely loving’ is an awfully rose-colored spin on that! and then 'a brilliant leader and politician’ literally we see calanthe try to accomplish two things in the show, (1) stop pavetta from marrying duny and (2) stop nilfgaard from conquering cintra, both of which tasks she fails at resoundingly. how do you get 'brilliant’ from that. (we’re told that she’s been very successful at, uh, genocide, but that’s offscreen.)

i mean, go ahead and try to convince me otherwise, i’ll listen, but i kind of feel like people’s love of calanthe is literally just their weird hard-on for girlbosses that they don’t know how to abandon even when the girlboss in question is an autocratic, genocidal monarch????

[elderbloodlore]

nothing annoys me more than mixing canons, because it feels like this is what was done in the edit OP refers to.

because these two traits absolutel DO apply to Calanthe, but only in the books. 

fiercely loving? Absolutely, yes. The difference between the show and the book when it comes to Duny and Pavetta is that in the books Calanthe was aware of Duny’s existance for 5 years, knew there was a man with the head of a hedgehog somewhere out there who laid claim on her only child. She had no idea, until the very end, that Pavetta and Duny had already met and fallen in love with each other and when she realised that, she ceased any attempts at stopping them from being together. 

as for Ciri, after she was promised to a witcher, Calanthe dedicated 6 years of her life to finding out anything there was to find out about witchers. She learned of the terrible mutations the children were subjected to and knew how many of them die as a result;

"I have given the matter a lot of thought," Calanthe went on, abandoning her smile. "I came to the conclusion that the stage of the choice is incidental. What difference does it make, Geralt, that one child and not another dies or goes mad as a result of a massive dose of drugs? What difference does it make if the mind is destroyed or consumed by delusions, or the eyes explode instead of becoming the eyes of a cat? In light of the blood or the sickness preceding his death, what difference does it make whether one child or another was truly destined by providence or was perfectly inappropriate? Tell me." Sword of Destiny.

And yet, in the end she says:

"By the devil! Is there only danger in the event of these changes? Only the future witchers take risks? Life is full of hazards, Geralt. Life, too, is governed by selection: accidents, diseases, wars. Opposing destiny is perhaps as dangerous as abandoning it. Geralt... I would voluntarily give you this child, but.. I am also afraid." Sword of Destiny.

Because she wants Ciri to be strong and able to protect herself in the cruel world, but not for the price of Ciri’s life. Let’s also not forget that the timeline of the books is completely different. In the show, when Geralt comes for Ciri, Nilfgaard is basically at Cintra’s door. In the Books, he comes for her 5 years before the Fall of Cintra. 

As for her being a brilliant politician... Let’s start with the fact in the books she does not murder elves. In fact, Ciri says;

"I'm not afraid at all!" Ciri cried then, taking up for an instant her devilish expression. "And I'm not stultified! That's not true! Nothing can happen to me here. That's the truth! I'm not afraid! Grandmother said that dryads aren't evil, and my grandmother is the most intelligent woman in the world! My grandmother... my grandmother said that there must be forests like this..." Sword of Destiny.

Vesemir also mentions; 

‘Dear child,’ said Vesemir gravely, 'don’t let yourself get carried away by your emotions. You were brought up differently, you’ve seen children being brought up in another way. Ciri comes from the south where girls and boys are brought up in the same way, like the elves. She was put on a pony when she was five and when she was eight she was already riding out hunting. She was taught to use a bow, javelin and sword. A bruise is nothing new to Ciri—’ Blood of Elves.

Which proves Calanthe in the books is not only NOT an elf hater, but an ally to the other races. As for her political accomplishments... Well, she did raise her country to glory after her gradfather nearly ruined it, other than that, we only have mentions that show awe for her, such as:

‘Cintra . . . will never again be what it was during the Lioness's lifetime.’ [...]  'Cintra, if we . . . When we liberate it, should it become our joint protectorate,' said Demawend of Aedirn. 'Cintra is at the mouth of the Yaruga, in too important a strategic position to allow ourselves to lose control over it.' 'It has to be a free country,' objected Vizimir. 'Free, independent and strong. A country which will be an iron gateway, a bulwark to the north, and not a strip of burned ground over which the Nilfgaardian cavalry will be able to gather speed!' 'Is it possible to rebuild such a Cintra? Without Calanthe?' King Foltest, Blood of Elves

Bottom line is... I have a HUGE hardon for girlboss Calanthe. But only Book!Calanthe. And I despise show Calanthe with my whole heart. I hate that a character I’ve loved since I was a teenager enters mainstream as a genocidal tyrant. Thanks, Lauren. 

[elderbloodlore]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Tissaia de Vries’ cold, dark eyes stared at her for a few moments, as she breathed heavily, fighting to stay awake, fighting to stay alive. Even the quiet sound of the sorceress clicking her tongue seemed to crack through her skull. “There is nothing I can do for her.“ She announced finally, Calanthe’s tired heart pounding in her chest, trying to supply her body with enough blood against all odds, despite the wound that let it sip out still. Adalia shook her head, and did something the Queen never expected to see her mother do - fought for her. “No, Tissaia. You know who she is. We can’t let her go, not like this.“

[elderbloodlore]

' The apple does not fall far from the tree, ' smiled Eist Tuirseach, flashing his white teeth. ' Suffice it to look at you, my queen, to know how beautiful the princess will be when she reaches the age at which a woman can please a warrior. ‘ The Last Wish, A Question of Price. 

[elderbloodlore]

'It has to be a free country,' objected Vizimir. 'Free, independent and strong. A country which will be an iron gateway, a bulwark to the north, and not a strip of burned ground over which the Nilfgaardian cavalry will be able to gather speed!' 'Is it possible to rebuild such a Cintra? Without Calanthe?' [...] ‘Cintra . . . will never again be what it was during the Lioness's lifetime.’ Andrzej Sapkowski, Blood of Elves.

[elderbloodlore]

I'm so fucking done with Lauren ruining the one character that meant the world to me growing up. The one character who taught me that kindness and strength can go hand in hand. The one character who taught me that strength isn't reserved for men and isn't manly. That I can be strong and respected while also being kind and feminine.

Queen Calanthe was a paragon and a martyr. A mother to her people, who sacrificed her life for them, and they cry out her name long after her death. Whose unlawful death outraged the entire North. The Lioness of Cintra isn't any of what Lauren tries to make her out to be with her sexist agenda. I'm so fucking done.

[elderbloodlore]

Okay guys so. I really want to give to the community and I'm considering creating a website (or maybe just a tumblr blog) akin to what Andrzej Sapkowski Zone used to be. It was a website existing in the early 2000's that was, sadly, only available in polish and that served as a bit of a codex/guide through the books. I would put all the family trees there, translate the entries from Andrzej Sapkowski Zone from polish to english, all the maps, a timeline, basically everything. My only concern is that... this is going to take a lot of time and effort. Would any of you be able to/willing to support me on Patreon through the project?