draped in fog @icysilverthread - Tumblr Blog

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I haven't been on Tumblr for the last couple weeks and I probably won't be back for another two or three weeks.

Combo of good things: moving into my own studio!, and bad things: phone screen actively attacking me with headaches

I have an eink tablet on the way (finally !) and I'm really hoping that helps enough I can get back to casual reading at least.

#I want to be writing short fics again but that's So not happening at my current state of being #alas and I hope the end of the tunnel is soon

selinay017

vriskakinnieaynrand

atoms are made of positive parts, negative parts, and neutral parts. the positive parts are attracted to the negative parts and repelled by each other, like magnets. but there's a second force that attracts positive and neutral parts to each other. to have an atom, you need the two forces that govern the parts of the atom to attain celestial harmony, which means you need enough neutral parts to make the positive parts stick together in the middle.

sometimes an atom is permissible but celestially disharmonious, usually because it's too big. there's also an occult diagram that determines which forms of atom are harmonious, but it's usually because it's too big. when this happens, the angels take offense and break it apart. this makes atoms that aren't celestially harmonious into smaller atoms that are, and is where balloon gas comes from: the form of balloon gas is particularly favored by God.

that's all well and good, as such things go. there are rocks that make balloon gas because God thinks their atoms are too big. that's fine. we can use it for balloons. but there's another type of celestial disharmony, caused by a secret third force that does this, where a neutral part of an atom can break into a positive part, a negative part, and a secret third thing called an "anti neutrino", and the atom gets bigger. you can't use this to make explosions, that's a third thing, but you can use it to light exit signs. you probably can't use it to turn base metals into gold either; that's a fourth thing, which is maybe the opposite of the third.

it's really hard to make gold because there's only one kind that isn't so celestially disharmonious that it curses you to death with beams. we wouldn't like gold if it cursed us to death with beams. it does curse us to death, of course, but the harmonious kind doesn't do it with beams.

becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys

Faerie question! What do you think about the relation between their realm and our geography? Your 'white American fae stories' mention reminded me that I was thinking about this a while ago - if someone is interacting with ~fairyland~ from a regular ass non-European continent, is it (Watsonianly!) weird that they are interacting with Welsh-culture faeries? Or is that place decoupled from our land? Conversely, if the supernatural world you access depends on your human world location, does that imply that different cultures' supernatural entities have a similar geographic relationship with each other to human lands? or does it imply that the shape of the fae is downstream of human culture a la Small Gods?

Oh this is FUN and I am going to RAMBLE

So the thing that sort of answers and sort of complicates both of your questions is that Welsh faerie lore and mythology, while having some Venn diagram overlaps, is nonetheless Very Much Different from Irish or Scottish (or indeed English) stuff. It's an interesting one, because while I have increasingly strong Views on the way Welsh faerie lore is used by white American authors who want to write about elves with wings who fuck and think this is the solution, actually a huge chunk of what those authors use - and what Americans in particular more broadly know about faeries - isn't Welsh at all, it's Scottish. Seelie and Unseelie courts, season-based courts, never thanking a faerie to avoid offending them, selkies, the list goes on. None of that is Welsh.

I, as you know, have been writing werewolf erotica, for fun and sport. Set in Wales, of course. I haven't directly included faeries yet, but they've been mentioned, and I know how I'm going to be building that part of my world. And to me, faeries come in different species with a different geographic distribution - if my characters were to approach the Fae in Wales, it would mean entering Annwfn. They would meet very Welsh types of faerie. Welsh rules would apply.

If they were to go to Scotland, they'd be dealing with different types entirely. Seelie and Unseelie would now apply, and not thanking and all that jazz. To speak like an ecologist for a moment lol, it's a question of biogeography.

Soooo, yeah, I find it weird when American fantasy lit describes Celtic fae creatures in America, because to me... surely there's native shit there. Like what is this? Did the Fae colonise with the humans? Has the American Otherworld been invaded and settled? What am I looking at, here? Why is the author ignoring this question? How are there gwyllion in those mountains and what did they displace? Did they follow the people and just naturalise, or are they invasive? Are there gwragedd Annwfn in Lake Superior? How is that working? These are questions I have, but alas, no answers.

(I can allow arguments for Appalachia, given, you know. <same-mountains.jpeg>)

That said, the rules are fuzzy for time/space distortion with entering Annwfn. This is a (relatively) new addition to faerie lore, because once upon a time Annwfn was a place you could just... walk to. It had a geographical location, like Rhyl. You could find it on a map, and that map would tell you it was Somerset, pretty much. But over the centuries, human population density grew; Somerset stops being a place of mystery and starts being the place your flighty cousin ran away to and now grows a cider orchard. The magical realms hidden in thickest forest are demonstrably not there when you cut the forest down and just find a bunch of exposed bears. So the lines, as it were, get redrawn - we know it's there somewhere, but part of the magic hides it; so maybe what we were pointing to on that map wasn't Annwfn, but the doorway...?

By the 1700s at least, the concept of the faerie ring being a doorway between worlds was fixed. The 1800s gave us the Victorian concept of the veil between worlds, two worlds overlaid on one another, which mapped beautifully on and basically reconciles the issue perfectly in the minds of believers (faerie belief in Wales persisted into the early 1900s). Enter that cave and you'll enter Annwfn; not because it's in the cave, don't be silly, it's because the door is in the cave. Step in that mushroom circle and see another world; not because Annwfn is a patch of land three feet across in Mam-gu's garden, don't be daft, it's because that's the way through. Welsh faerie myth was already enamoured of the time distortion element, but this is where spatial distortion kicks in as well.

So understanding all of that means you can exploit those rules to explain a lot. Watsonianly speaking, does a doorway lead to Annwfn if it's in Wales, but Tír na nÓg if it's in Ireland? Or could a doorway for either turn up anywhere, given that spatial distortion? What is it about Wales that ties Annwfn here specifically? Does the land generate the specific type of magic needed to fuel it? Or could it feasibly go anywhere now, as that separation between worlds has evolved - initially they lived in this world, but they evolved to straddle here and another, and then to draw a veil between the two, and now they run parallel and so can send the tunnels between the two wherever they like. It depends on the story you're telling, I guess. As I say, I know how I'm doing it lol! But there are options available

#as an American and the child of multiple seafaring cultures: you can go anywhere by ship and by sea #obviously the otherworld is an anywhere; and who said there was only one? Or that mundane geography was that true a guide?#Some kinds of others came with their people and some people are born with the road home on the inside of their hearts (any home)#And of course there are native spirits but it's a rare author who has the guts and the skill to try #Watsonianly? Watsonianly I think no one can blind themselves and still expect to see #But that's just the story I'm telling in these tags; go and tell your own if you want to understand

microsff

There was a long queue to the repair shop. There always seemed to be, these days.

The areas for fabrics and fibre, wood, metal, mechanics and electronics were all busy, but none more so than the dreams section.

"Oh, this has taken some beating, poor thing."

"Can you fix it?"

"We'll do our best."

barelyanartblog

⭐🕊️

mzminola

Poking around at timelines to see, in an AU where Aral's first wife lives & stays married to him so they have multiple daughters by the time canon rolls around, how close in age I can get the oldest daughter and Serg Vorbarra.

Like she is absolutely not going to marry him but I do want it on the table as a plausible danger.

So far I only have that Ezar & Xav's Unnamed Sister married during the two-year span of Yuri's War, no solid read on Serg's birth. Cordelia thinks he looks thirty-ish during Escobar. She doesn't have to be right. Though he does need to be old enough by then to have made two assassination attempts on his dad.

(The main thing to figure out is how receptive Piotr Vorkosigan would be to his eldest grandchild walking up & pointing out how so many family problems would be solved if he named her as his heir.)

zahri-melitor

Always remember that Cordelia's age estimates for everyone tend to be on the high side, especially early on, because she's used to reading age by Betans, and Barrayaran healthcare is not in the same league.

Aral is 44 when he married Cordelia (as a baseline), he married his first wife at 20 (she was 18), and he states her death was 'over 20 years' ago when he meets Cordelia. Ges Vorruyter has been trying to revenge himself on Aral for 18 years, in terms of when Aral pulled himself out of trying to kill himself via hedonism.

So you could probably pitch an extra daughter as 22 at the oldest as at Serg's death/Aral's marriage.

Ezar's marriage has to be some time between Aral being 11 and 13, putting Serg at his oldest at 32 at his death; but if we assume Ezar did NOT get his wife pregnant until after Yuri was dead, due to guerilla warfare distractions, I would agree Serg is at most 30.

Serg marrying after 25 would seem right on target for when they wanted that to happen, given Barrayar definitely tends towards an age gap in a married couple. 8-10 year age gaps are super common in the series.

Just for comparison, Padma is 10 years younger than Aral and only just having his first kid with Alys at age 35, with Alys being 25, because of all the stress around the succession, and René Vorbretten, age 30ish, married 18 year old Tatya Vorkeres shortly before Brothers in Arms or so.

mzminola

Oh yeah I am onboard with Cordelia getting ages wrong (and it's not like real people are all excellent at guessing ages), though if we wanted Serg to be 30, the Crown Prince probably is one of the healthiest, well-nutritioned, sheltered people on the planet and might be one of the only people Cordelia can guess right.

21-23 in the Escobar-through-Pretendership plots fits my current notes for Katrina (current working name for eldest daughter, subject to change).

Oh wow I forgot the René-Tatya age gap, and that we had a canon age for Alys.

I figure one-year before Gregor's birth is the latest point to have Serg marry Kareen. Which is probably still happening, but on the other hand, all of this might affect that timeline (would prefer it not to, for simplicity's sake). Though if it did, it might also affect further timelines; Ezar didn't just kill Serg once Gregor was born, he waited for the kid to survive any common infancy diseases, and take the time to set up an entire fake war.

...Huh. If that wormhole hadn't opened/been discovered, giving them a path to Escobar, would Ezar have arranged some other war to off Serg? Instigated a revolt on Komarr? Or did the convenience of that wormhole give him the idea in the first place?

(Did Ezar try more efficient, subtle assassination attempts after Gregor was born, and this was a last ditch effort because Serg has weirdly good luck?)

Aral is a Count's Heir and married young, Padma only inherits a title not a district and married late. Aral is the last legitimate male Vorkosigan after Piotr since Vorkosigan Vashnoi got slagged, whereas the Vorpatrils are numerous. Serg, meanwhile, is the only son of a man who inherited from a distant cousin, the Vorbarras are pretty thoroughly wiped out. Serg might be under pressure to marry young too.

(Prince Xav was a diplomat to Beta colony who married a Betan &they didn't bring back any uterine replicators, technology to make succession so much more secure, why did they not do that when they adopted so much other tech, does it remind them of Cetaganda too much?)

#I have a vague sense that Kareen had lost at least one pregnancy before she got Ezar to step in and shield her #But I don't know if that's canon it could just be how I filled in that particular background #I think it makes perfect sense for Serg to survive assassination - after all he has enough of a powerbase to try to assassinate Ezar (twice #He's presumably well defended and careful and surrounded by personal loyalists

border-collie

I think we should move American Cockers from the sporting group to the non sporting group.

elvenferretots

I see your point, and raise you that we should eliminate the non-sporting group and move American cockers to the newly renamed Companion group with half of the old non-sporting group.

And poodles go to sporting.

blue-eyedbeta

I see your bets and raise that we move Rottweilers, LGDs and the Greater Swiss and Bernese mountain dogs to Herding group.

Also move the Belgian Malinois from herding to working.

elvenferretots

I feel most of our problems would be solved by a UKC-style group organization.

Rottweilers and LGDs (especially LGDs, since they don't herd, but protect, livestock) clearly belong in a Guardian group with dobermans. The guardian breeds have little in common with the exclusively draft breeds and mostly draft breeds like the BMD.

grison-in-space

Oh, sure, and GSDs go in that protection group along with, I'd say, most of the Belgians, right? Put the personal protection/police dogs in one space, free up the herding group for dog breeds focused on herding as a task?

I move that we adopt the organizational system of Desmond Morris, anthropologist PhD, and sort dogs in terms of whether their main tasks are Animal-Oriented, encompassing Hunting dogs, Herding dogs (further subdivided by species used to herd, as with Portuguese Water Dogs listed as "fish-herding" dogs), and Fighting dogs, or Non-Animal-Oriented, which includes Working dogs (he labels this Service Dogs for non-animal functions) and Companion dogs.

I look forward to our new categorical failures of assignment, particularly when it comes to Labrador Retrievers who arguably do more jobs than any other known dog breed. I hope the new members of the reorganized groups are capable of being welcoming and courteous to their new groupmates as new hierachies and privileges are sorted out. That's how they're going to do things, right?

Right?

icysilverthread

Or add a third top-level category; in addition to Animal and Non-Animal add a Generalist group for dogs that can do everything 🤣

Complicate the binary!

grison-in-space

#I don't even go here#I'm just indulging my inner chaos goblin#I might like to be a dog person but I'm sure not one yet#Any proposed category schema can be improved by adding more categories 🤣#Although semi serious question: why is it always one group per dog breed#It seems from an outside pov that if a breed is both herding and service dogging it should be able to be in both categories?

Oh, this one I do know!

It's because breed groups serve as ways to organize contestants at conformation shows. Because conformation is a sport in which you're judging dogs based on how closely they conform to their own standard, first you organize classes within a whole breed. But once you've picked Best of Breed, how do you compare contestants at a higher level? Well, you stack up all the dogs of like type and group together and you see which of THOSE is best, and then you take the bests of Group and compare those to see which wins.

There are a few breeds with legacy exceptions to this which have won, through long tradition in places where those breeds had a lot of conformation contestants, the right to extra slots in the group ring. American Cockers in the AKC are most notorious for this: the group ring (sporting group) lets the dogs who are best within color variety categories compete, even though all those dogs are in the same breed. Those color categories are Solid Black, Black With Tan Points, Particolor (spotted), and Any Solid Color Other Than Black (ASCOB, which usually means solid buff).

Aside from conformation shows, breed group is largely meaningless. Different clubs organize breeds into different groups, too. Some lump all independent-ish pointy furry dogs with pointy tails under a spitz classification, for example. Others have catch-all categories like "Nonsporting," which is where any dog whose function isn't obviously one of the other AKC groups go. Some have lots of categories, some of which only have a few breeds in them, like the FCI. There are lots of ways to organize dogs by breed, but since almost all the clubs do this to simplify show entry scheduling, generally you never cross-list breeds in multiple groups even though some breeds clearly have multiple traditional functions. Rottweilers have been mentioned for example because they are guard-traveling-draught-herding dogs developed in Germany for all those tasks one might like a single dog to be able to do.

(Most other forms of dog competition, by the way, sort entries by experience and perhaps size and leave the breed stuff to the confo folks. There are exceptions--I hear field trials for sporting dogs have breed splits?--but generally it's just easier for scheduling reasons to do it that way.)

#makes sense #thanks!

border-collie

I think we should move American Cockers from the sporting group to the non sporting group.

elvenferretots

I see your point, and raise you that we should eliminate the non-sporting group and move American cockers to the newly renamed Companion group with half of the old non-sporting group.

And poodles go to sporting.

blue-eyedbeta

I see your bets and raise that we move Rottweilers, LGDs and the Greater Swiss and Bernese mountain dogs to Herding group.

Also move the Belgian Malinois from herding to working.

elvenferretots

I feel most of our problems would be solved by a UKC-style group organization.

Rottweilers and LGDs (especially LGDs, since they don't herd, but protect, livestock) clearly belong in a Guardian group with dobermans. The guardian breeds have little in common with the exclusively draft breeds and mostly draft breeds like the BMD.

grison-in-space

Oh, sure, and GSDs go in that protection group along with, I'd say, most of the Belgians, right? Put the personal protection/police dogs in one space, free up the herding group for dog breeds focused on herding as a task?

I move that we adopt the organizational system of Desmond Morris, anthropologist PhD, and sort dogs in terms of whether their main tasks are Animal-Oriented, encompassing Hunting dogs, Herding dogs (further subdivided by species used to herd, as with Portuguese Water Dogs listed as "fish-herding" dogs), and Fighting dogs, or Non-Animal-Oriented, which includes Working dogs (he labels this Service Dogs for non-animal functions) and Companion dogs.

I look forward to our new categorical failures of assignment, particularly when it comes to Labrador Retrievers who arguably do more jobs than any other known dog breed. I hope the new members of the reorganized groups are capable of being welcoming and courteous to their new groupmates as new hierachies and privileges are sorted out. That's how they're going to do things, right?

Right?

icysilverthread

Or add a third top-level category; in addition to Animal and Non-Animal add a Generalist group for dogs that can do everything 🤣

Complicate the binary!

#I don't even go here #I'm just indulging my inner chaos goblin #I might like to be a dog person but I'm sure not one yet #Any proposed category schema can be improved by adding more categories 🤣#Although semi serious question: why is it always one group per dog breed #It seems from an outside pov that if a breed is both herding and service dogging it should be able to be in both categories?

anghraine

Today (technically yesterday) has been the inauguration of the true holiday frenzy. I'm soothing myself with a random Tolkien poll (obviously skewed by my tastes):

Choose one of Tolkien's female characters AND her son

Aredhel/Írissë and her son, Maeglin/Lómion

Tar-Ancalimë and her son, Tar-Anárion ("son of the sun")

Morwen Eledhwen and her son, Túrin Turambar ("Adanedhel")

Princess Silmariën and her son, Valandil, Lord of Andúnië

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins (née Bracegirdle) and her son, Lotho

Rían (daughter of Steward Barahir) and her son, Steward Denethor I

Mithrellas of Lórien and her son, Prince Galador of Dol Amroth

Elwing of Doriath and her son, Elrond Peredhel

Finduilas of Dol Amroth and her son, Steward Faramir

Vidumavi of Rhovanion and her son, King Eldacar of Gondor (Vinitharya)

Princess Idril and her son, Eärendil (Ardamírë)

Morwen of Lossarnach and her son, King Théoden of Rohan

Voting ended onJan 1, 2025

If you only want to choose one of the people in a mother-son pair (whether mother or son), BZZZZZT don't vote for that one. Your vote goes to both mother and son.

#Rian and Tuor

smokingpotatostuff

I forget sometimes that most people don't live in a rainforest. Must suck for all of you

grison-in-space

idk I kind of enjoy going outside and not being constantly Moist or Damp

icysilverthread

I'm with OP damp is the best weather available.

#Damp! Damp! Damp!#not too bright not too cold not soaking wet #go outside and smell the mushrooms #legit I'm sad that climate change is producing more rainstorms and less drizzle in my area #the only thing wrong with damp weather is wearing cotton out in it and I'm not on the side of cotton here #rainforest partisan selfie

helyannis

Eilinel

a tiiiiiny digital sketch for @tolkienhorrorweek

still image under the cut

#eilinel

eri-pl

If you don’t mind me asking, I am curious if you have more opinions on the silmaril helping Sirion prosper?

Thank you for asking!

Unfortunately I don't have a strong opinion bout this, but let's look at the text.

The Silmarillion says that people thought it does help, but says it in a way that feels more like "and they were wrong" than like "and they were right" at least in translation... ok, let me look for an original quote. OH! I found more than one! :) (yes, Reddit, my source of Silm quotes)

folk of Sirion would not yield that jewel which Beren had won and Lúthien had worn, and for which fair Dior had been slain.” No mention of prosperity.

"Elwing and the folk of Sirion would not yield that jewel […] for them seemed that in that jewel lay the gift of bliss and healing that had come upon their houses and their ships.”

"he folk of Sirion refused to give up the Silmaril in Eärendel’s absence, and they thought their joy and prosperity came of it."

"The folk of Sirion refused to surrender the Silmaril, both because Eärendel was not there, and because they thought that their bliss and prosperity came from the possession of the gem."

Published Silmarillion: "Elwing and the people of Sirion would not yield the jewel […] for it seemed to them that in the Silmaril lay the healing and the blessing that had come upon their houses and their ships."

It's not the "came into their minds"-level of "foolish idea", but still it sounds to me like they are wrong. Their prosperity may have been a happy chance, a support from Ulmo, and/or the result of Elwing being part-Maia.

icysilverthread

I tend to lean the other way actually - that Elwing put those conditionals into her reply to the Feanorians to signal her willingness to negotiate.

I don't have a copy in front of me, but iirc in universe lore masters did weigh in on Luthien's use of the silmaril, that she *did* use it to bless Tol Galen and that doing so is a why she died so soon after getting the jewel. So I think it's fair to say "healing and blessing" is well within the silmaril's capabilities.

In terms of what that means in practice, well, there are a lot of things Elwing could have used magical help with. Clean drinking water, just for starters - the river Sirion is very polluted at this point, and likely Morgoth is releasing waterborne disease there. Probably literal healing as well - births, injuries, trauma, more mundane illnesses, that kind of thing. Or, for that matter, providing literal *light* in sufficient quantities that their gardens and aquaculture get a boost to primary productivity (photosynthesis).

eri-pl

Very interesting thoughts!

I do tend to put a lot of trust in Tolkien's "seemed" and phrasing like that, but your arguments are very solid.

The best I can counter is that maybe Lúthien was more magical (half Maia, returned form the dead), and also what she did with the Silmaril seemed to weaken her — but tbh at this point she had the human-style less rooted soul... No, wait. Elwing had the less rooted soul too, before she get to choose and became Elfed. So at this point she had. And she spent years with the Silmaril without dying from it even getting significantly sick. So even if she used it, she used it much less than Luthien.

Of course, one can counter that with "Luthien's death was accelerated by her unworldly beauty with the Silmaril, not by using it to bless the land", which is supported by the book.

Maybe it was. The book does say that, so...

Another thing: I don't think we are told what exactly she answered to the Feanorians, and I believe that is she sounded like she was open to negotiations, Maedhros would jump on it. It may be a cause of miscommunication due to cultural differences. It may be that she was not open to negotiations. Those guys murdered her family, but she was the granddaughter of Lúthien "don't kill the Curufin even after he did all those things" Tinuviel, so I'm not saying it's impossible.

Also, I have a strong assumption that the Sindar in general didn't know about the oath and especially the "doom us if we don't" part. This makes it easier for me to accept their reasons for their choices (no, not your, Thingollo. You're still an idiot at some times.). I'm not sure how relevant is that.

icysilverthread

Yeah! To put my cards on the table here, I fully think that there's no 'canon' answer because canon doesn't provide enough details. I'm in this fandom precisely because I like the backwards puzzle of imagining a full story that summarizes to canon, and if there were only one such story possible it'd be a lot less fun.

Artistically, I like Maedhros being the one to refuse or betray negotiations, specifically because he's done so before - he betrayed the terms of a parley with Morgoth before the sun rose! (Morgoth betrayed him too, and Maedhros was captured immediately afterwards.) So the symmetry of his doing so again, here, appeals to me. But of course that's an aesthetic perspective and not a worldbuilding one.

As to why on Earth Luthien died of bearing the Silmaril and Elwing didn't, I have no plausible ideas. Nor how 'beauty' comes into it though if I had to guess, beauty is referring mostly to her spirit, and her death looked a lot like Feanors with the spirit consuming the body (just, without Balrogs).

I tend to read "Elwing and the people of Sirion would not yield the jewel, [...]" as being a paraphrase of the message to Maedhros, but if you don't interpret it that way I agree there's a wide range of possible messages she could have sent.

As a paraphrase, it's a statement of her claim, and then two discussion points: Earendil's return from the sea so he can weigh in, and her people's need/benefit of the blessings the jewel brings. And that's not "closed to negotiation" to me, although it's not conceding in advance either.

#elwing #Sirion #meta