shattered realms sideblog @lilabyrne - Tumblr Blog

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Hi! I’m Naima, also known as @fagdykefriendship . this is my shattered realms sideblog. i used to be active on tumblr under the url incorrectshatteredrealms, as well as being active on AO3 with shattered realms fics that are now all orphaned.

Profile picture is art by @matchstickz of lila byrne :)

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

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Shattered Realms Series - Cinda Williams Chima Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Destin Karn/Evan Strangward Characters: Destin Karn, Evan Strangward, Jenna Bandelow Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, During Canon, Fluff, Character Study Summary:

A small collection of scenes that could quite possibly fit into the canon events of Flamecaster and Stormcaster, all from Destin Karn's point of view regarding Evan Strangward. The first extends the scene of Destin being tasked with finding Jenna to his thought process afterward. The second is Destin's point of view of the Baston Bay meeting in Stormcaster. The third is a new scene that I made up, taking place directly after the Baston Bay meeting.

#the shattered realms #cinda williams chima #shattered realms #destin karn #the seven realms #evan strangward #i hope people are still on here that will enjoy this!

Prince Adrian sul’Han of the Fells, Master Healer, Speaks to Horses in the uplands

Jenna Bandelow, Patriot of Delphi, Dragon, Nazari Splinter Princess

Queen Alyssa ana’Raisa of the Fells, Highlander Captain, Meadowlark in the uplands

King Halston Matelon of Arden, son of Thane Arschel Matelon, consort to Alyssa ana’Raisa

Destin Karn, former spymaster of Arden, consort to Evan Strangward

Stormlord Evan Strangward of Carthis, True Source of Tarvos, Nazari Splinter Prince, Ruler of the Northern Islands and Desert Coast

Lila Barrowhill Byrne of the Fells, smuggler and spy, bound to the Grey Wolf Line

Breon Alfarsi, spellsinger and shadowcaster

#who has the most titles. evan 🎉

always scenes that gets to me. destin, upon thinking he’s lost evan, is no longer the unshakable spymaster that he once was. like oh my god. lila is so confused in this moment. speaker jemson, a guy destin has just met, discerns that he’s deeply sad. and then of course there’s finn and the possession. the reason destin cares so much about whether finn was possessed or not is because he wants to make sure the real culprit doesn’t get away with his crimes. to the fellsian court, the culprit’s crimes are killing the prince and attempting to kill the princess heir. but to destin his crime is killing evan. that’s why he becomes invested in unraveling the fellsian conspiracy. the thing that drove him for so long, the small bit of hope that was driving him to fight celestine and live, was the hope that evan gave him that they might have a future together, once their enemies were dead. now that he believes evan is dead, he’s got nothing and he knows it. he thinks he’ll never be okay. the only thing he can think to do is to figure out how it happened, and destroy evan’s killers. hes resigned himself to the role of monster. his world is crumbling around him and he’s grasping desperately for salvation

if they ever made a shattered realms tv show which i know they won’t bc these books are massively underrated, this would be the craziest scene ever. destin karn reminds you that even though his internal monologue is that of a panicked and spiraling gay dude, everyone else on earth thinks he’s the shit

oh my god the chapter of julianna’s wedding is called “red wedding” she knew Exactly what she was doing with that title. ma’am

love hal matelon and i love this. fuckin real. he went north and realized that his king and government and church were fucking stupid. he unlearned all the propaganda about northern witches and demons and got to be normal about the people there. he’s still like okay my government sucks, but there’s something worth salvaging if i can help bring a better government like what i saw in the north. it’s not super deep ofc the shattered realms is a book series for teens but i appreciate him and his changes in mindset over time. from burying his head in the sand abt how bad his king was, to wanting to abandon his home country for the north, to deciding he actually wants to make his homeland better, that it’s people don’t deserve to be abandoned for another despot. more frenchmen need to be like hal matelon

you don’t understand i’m obsessed with him. he’s not a spymaster or a soldier or a mage or any of those things he’s really just a nerd who wants to build things. he keeps getting promoted and praised by the king and the whole time he’s like god i wish i could be rigging up a makeshift block and tackle right now…

another political alliance/friendship that i love in the shattered realms is hal and destin. hal is a guy who wears who he is on his sleeve and it’s pretty easy for destin to figure him out, to realize that he’s been, for lack of a better word, deradicalized to arden’s propaganda and is now pro-north to an extent, while also wanting to protect his family and defeat the empress bc that’s just the kind of guy he is. meanwhile hal is like umm this guys fucking crazy and i have zero clue what’s going on in his brain but i want to say thanks for saving my mom and sister so i can’t let him die yet.

destin’s always 10 steps ahead and it’s honestly funny that hal thinks he has to be the one to come up with a plan to save destin. especially since destin knows he’s coming. even before destin was forced to march north, he was gonna leave the capital before hal and his army arrived. oh halston matelon you are not a schemer and that is okay

it’s funny bc hal never thinks for one second hmm maybe destin karn just wants what’s best for the world and that’s why hes against the empress taking over. well i mean he’s not wrong for thinking destin’s reasons are not exactly heroic but still. they aren’t self serving either. destin is against the empress because he doesn’t want her to throw his only friend/boyfriend/partner in crime/reason for living into a lava pit. hal knows nothing about this but he still automatically knows destin’s not in this for the greater good

i love julianna barrett. she’s the best. like at first she’s posed as this counterpart to lyss, the cousin lyss is jealous of for her social skills and political savvy. but truthfully julianna just wants to support lyss she’s a girls girl. even though everyone wants to put them against each other for their own conspiracies, julianna protests against it. she doesn’t want to be a chess piece even though people around her think that she should be. she’s loyal to lyss. also later on she goes through so much shit with the back to back murder weddings she’s very strong and just generally a good subversion of tropes. though she is the prettier more feminine and demure counterpart to our more masculine and battle hardened woman protagonist, they are allies in the end not enemies. as it should be. lyss cannot cover every base herself as queen and that’s ok. she’s the queen they need because she’s the queen who survived. julianna is there to help her. just like the others: sasha and hal and ash and shadow and even lila. the queen of the fells never rules alone. ugh after this i’m making a post about who lyss’ small council would be

Hal’s reaction is so silly. he’s like wow this guy defeated his bad father i need to take notes.

#destin karn #the shattered realms

destin karn is my personal number one patricide guy. i’m gonna talk about it

1) his dad, marin karn, is probably like the worst guy in the shattered realms just as a person, not even touching on how he is as a father. he’s the general of a country that’s basically like Misogyny Land. he’s a mage who came up with the idea of enslaving other mages (except himself) for military purposes. he forcibly married destin’s mother, frances, because her noble birth would elevate him in the court. he’s the main strategist in a war that was started because the queen of another country rejected his king’s proposal for marriage. he tries to sabotage the military careers of anyone competent because he’s afraid of losing his power. he does not care if he causes hundreds of conscripted soldiers to die. he’s the right hand man of king gerard, a man who killed his six brothers in order to take the throne and consistently kills children as his way of quashing rebellions.

2) his dad is also a very very shitty father. marin karn wanted to have many sons, so that he could select the most talented one to inherit his legacy and kill the others. however, his wife only ever had one child. destin is born a mage, and doesn’t have the military prowess of his father. destin describes himself as a songbird in the eagles nest. he’s not the son his father wanted, though he acknowledges that probably no one would satisfy his father. his father beats his mother, and when destin gets older, starts to beat him. he forces destin into military service as a child. this leads to destin stabbing his father when he’s 13 years old.

he and his mother run away, but his father keeps chasing for 2 years, and then, after hurting destin, destin’s mother, and attempting to kill destin’s only friend/romantic interest, drags destin back home

3) destin vows that he’s going to kill his father for good. he feels that he’s been complicit in the general’s cruelty. his father knows that destin hates him, and threatens to kill destin’s mother if destin tries to harm him.

4) destin gets out from his fathers control and becomes spymaster to the king, an important position at court. he and his father are widely known to hate each other. the king finds this amusing because he’s evil

5) when the general found destin in hiding, he left behind destin’s mother’s dagger that he’d stolen from her. destin’s friend brings it back to him years later. destin carries it around, and eventually gives it to a young girl to defend herself against a creep. she kills the creep with the dagger. destin takes this as an opportunity to frame his father for murder.

7) destin brings this “murder” before the new king (the old one got pushed off a burning tower by his wife dw about it). he creates false documents that would make his father a traitor to the crown and blames the stalemate of the war on his father being a traitor. this is all fabricated by destin, but the court believes it. the king orders destin’s father to be arrested

8) destin’s father is enraged by the false accusations of treason. he attempts to kill destin in the council room, surrounded by guards and witnesses, his anger getting the best of him. this of course does not make him look less guilty, and no one raises a finger when destin stabs his father in the heart with his mothers dagger (that always feels very symbolic to me, reclaiming the stolen weapon to finally kill the man who took it from her).

9) so not only did he kill his father, he implicated his father as a traitor and the king puts his fathers head on a spike. his father cared so much about his own legacy and his years of loyal service were destroyed by destin’s plotting.

10) after killing his father, destin helps an usurper take the throne. he kills the young king with his own hands. he supports the northern queendom and helps root out traitors in their midst. then he gets on a dragon to go save his boyfriend from death by lava pit

11) in the epilogue it’s said that he settles his mothers estates, essentially removing any ties he has to nobility in his home country, and moves across the ocean to go be the arm candy for his very powerful pirate boyfriend. effectively destroying any semblance of his father’s legacy.

12) he has no remorse about it. just nightmares of his father coming back to life, but he doesn’t regret it for one second

so yeah 10/10 patricide character i love him killing an abusive parent in fiction is always very cathartic and i approve of it

#destin karn

i did the sillies again hrhe

#the shattered realms #series of bisexuals

ash is such a character bc he spends all of flamecaster seething in his own rage towards king gerard and then the conclusion is that he, seventeen year old boy, is not actually the arbiter of justice that he thinks he is. actually he just needed to be loved. and also he realized that a lot more people than just him had beef with king gerard, and he’s worth more than a self sacrifice. fuck guys i think ash is growing on me

siblings where one of them is a girlboss and the other is a nerd

the shattered realms books essentially describe evan strangward as “scrawny pirate who is incredibly hot to everyone” so of course to me that means effeminate desiboy.