The Spirit Well

A Legend of Eli Monpress fanblog

[booksrgood4u]

I don’t know if a Legend of Eli Monpress fandom still exists anywhere, but if you’re out there, have a Miranda and Gin.

[gaydelgard]

sometimes a family can be a swordsman (& his talking sword), a demon, the world’s most wanted criminal (& the lava spirit that lives in his chest), the wizard sent to catch him (& the sea that lives in her chest), plus her talking dog

[hollowistheworld]

Weak

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Nico couldn’t say she’d ever put much thought into how strong Eli was. She’d never wondered if he had the will to keep taking one breath after another even when it ought to be impossible, the way she and Josef both had. She’d never considered if he would able to repeatedly turn down the Master’s offer of power, the way she had.

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[hollowistheworld]

Pink

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The first present to arrive is a pink ribbon in a white box. Miranda takes it out, huffs at it, and puts it back. She leaves the box on her front porch where she found it, now with a note written in thick black sharpie across it. Pink clashes with my hair.

The box vanishes a few hours later - she’s not sure how she managed to miss it being taken when she and Gin can usually tell when someone’s coming, even when they’re still out in the street - and a new note appears in its place. The note is written on the back of what appears to be the tab for hotel room service - a bill that racks up to over a thousand dollars, and Miranda makes a note to find out if the thief paid, or just skipped out altogether. 

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[hollowistheworld]

Rain

Ko-Fi          More Things By Me

Eli hated doing jobs when it was raining. He didn’t like being wet, he liked being muddy even less, visibility was limited, and he usually ended up slipping and falling on his ass at least once, a humiliation made all the worse by the Nico and Josef hardly seemed to notice the way the ground didn’t want to be as stable as it was meant to be. 

More than once, Eli had postponed jobs because he preemptively refused to make a break for the border during a downpour. They would wait around town until the guard shift was correct again, or whatever other time sensitive factors the job relied on. Josef would always grumble about it, but he it wasn’t as though he ever had anywhere to be, so Eli always ignored him. 

There were other jobs, however, where they were only going to get the one chance, and it was do the job in the rain or give up on it altogether. 

And, as Giuseppe Monpress never missed an opportunity to point out, Eli had never learned to quit while he was ahead. 

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[mirandalyonette]

Eli - What can I get for you? The demon - The souls of the innocent. Nico - A bagel. The demon - NO! Nico - ...Two bagels

Wake the bagels and toss them at the demon to see how well a bagel does with trying to destroy one lmao

[mirandalyonette]

15-Minute Painting - Benehime by I-See-Them-Too

[mirandalyonette]

mander-lee

Miranda and Nico are mine! I agree with what you said about Benehime and Sara too

Nice! Nico and Josef come in just below Eli and Miranda on the favorite scale for me.

Glad I’m not the only one who thinks that about Benehime and Sara. I almost didn’t believe that the last we see of Sara was it. I was certain she was going to get more retribution and when she didn’t, I was left kinda confused, disappointed and annoyed.

[mirandalyonette]

Out of the main loem cast, which is your favourite/least favourite character?

Eli and Miranda tie for my favorite, maybe with a sliiiiight preference for Miranda. Least favorite, hands down, is Benehime. Great character, great villain, but I hate her guts lol. I’m not much of a fan of Sara either. I wanted her to get more comeuppance than she actually did.

[mirandalyonette]

(1/2) Okay, so I just finished re-reading the eli monpress series (again) and i honestly feel like the concept of demons wasn't nearly explored enough. To be fair, I could probably write five more books about demons alone, but i feel like it's such a cool idea and that the author could have done a lot more with it. I also have a whole bunch of questions as to how they even work. Like, does Nico not need her coat now that's she's a full demon?

(2/2) What will the league of storms do now there isn’t a dead mountain anymore? If demons are the shadows of spirits, why are they so much more powerful? Do demons correspond to specific spirits? I could be here all day asking about this tbh. But yeah this is kinda making me want to go out and write a 50,000 word fanfic tying up all the loose ends (and I probably would if anyone was actually going to read it)

First off, Anon, I’m so sorry that this took forever for me to get to. I really wanted to do it justice, and then life kept interrupting.

Considering most of Nico’s coat was destroyed at the end, no I don’t think she needs it anymore! She has utter control over herself. When she still had the demonseed, it was well-shown that so long as it wasn’t woken up, then spirits didn’t realize what she was (unless she did something demonic). Though she’s a demon now, she’s obviously clamped down on that side, and little to none of it shows through. In terms of how spirits react to her, I imagine it’ll be the same as before - them not being aware of anything unless she taps into that side.

The League of Storms was also shown tailing Nico at the very end. It looks like they’ll just keep an eye on Nico and be ready to step in if she ever does lose her control over the demon. Unless that happens, I don’t think they’ll be doing much. I don’t think any of them are immortal (except the Lord of Storms but he wasn’t human) so I think eventually all the members will die off. Since there’s no more Shepherdess, there’s no more getting gifts from her, like members did when they joined the League before, which I would think means that they can’t bring in anymore members. Though, you could speculate that since Nico is probably immortal now herself, that new generations of the League will continue to be trained to watch out if she does flip. On the other hand, maybe she’ll be like Nivel, and be able to die human. I don’t imagine she’d like to continue living once Josef passes after all.

As to why demons are more powerful, I’m not really sure. It’s been a bit since I’ve read the last couple books of the series, so I don’t remember what was said about demons being shadows of spirits tbh. But, I think this was in Spirit Eater, when that one demonseed regurgitated all the spirits he ate into Nico, causing her demondseed to wake up….That gives the idea that the spirits a demon eats don’t actually cease to exist, cause how else could all that be force-fed to Nico? I wonder if a demon is more like the compression of a ton of spirits….the spirits become something different, without their proper forms and all smashed together, then they make a demon? If that’s the case, I could see how demons would be stronger. It was well established that the larger a spirit is, the more powerful it is. So even though, inside a demon form, the spirits aren’t necessarily larger there’s more of them, more power, more ability, thus stronger than your normal spirit. Like I guess a demon is a black hole, sucking all spirits in and smashing them down? It’s definitely a part of the world that could have been explored a whole lot more! 

I don’t think demons really correspond to specific spirits though. I think a demon is too far removed from whatever it might have once been to really be able to correlate back to a specific spirit, especially since they then eat other spirits. With the idea above, of a demon being a mash of tons of different spirits, they definitely wouldn’t be the shadow of one specific spirit. Spirits have very fluid forms - a wind spirit and a sand spirit arguing temporarily make an entirely new spirit, the sandstorm. All those ‘eaten’ spirits, smashed together combine to make the demon as it is. Which uh I already said, but yeah heh. 

Again, definitely a part of the world that could be explored more! Sadly, almost no series ties up every loose end; sometimes it just doesn’t fit within the narrative to do so. Maybe one day we’ll get more books in this world, or even short stories/novellas. I’d be cool with those too. I have plenty of questions too on what will happen now with no Shepherdess, all people being able to see/talk to/control spirits, the Lord of Storms being the Hunter - like…I know he has the pearl thing now, but he was still first a spirit. Could all those demons outside of the bubble eventually shred him to pieces?? He wasn’t made specifically for the job like the original Hunter had been after all. With such a deep and rich world and lore, there’s always so much to uncover, always questions to be asked!

If you do write any sort of fanfic, let me know! I’d definitely read it =D

[mirandalyonette]

Did tumblr eat my asks again? I sent two really long asks and i think tumblr might have eaten them

or is this blog just dead

Hi! No tumblr didn’t eat them (shockingly for tumblr) and the blog isn’t dead. I’ve been very busy lately and haven’t gotten around to answering your asks. But thank you for sending them in!! I’ve got some ideas I wanna say in response, whenever I can get the time to focus for long enough.

[idiopathicsmile]

“That well-dressed fellow in the corner? We call him the Gentleman Thief. Why, just last year, he single-handedly stole more than 40 gentlemen.”

[arynlight]

More Rachel Aaron fan art, this time from her Legend of Eli Monpress series.  

Benehime the Shepherdess, a Power of Creation.  Context would be a spoiler for the last third of the series, so no context for you.  Enjoy the moodiness nevertheless.

I originally wanted to draw her as a stand alone condescending chibi like Bethesda, but that just wasn’t happening.  This works just as well, even though I wanted to give that thing her hair does a try. March 2018 iPad Pro/Apple Pencil + Procreate 4

[mirandalyonette]

I don't know if this blog is still alive, but I just finished the Eli Monpress series and it deserves a way bigger fandom than it has. Anyways, thoughts on Eli as the Shepherd? That would have been my preferred alternate ending.

Hi there! Yes this blog is still alive. I reblog new content when I can find it, which is very rare itself. I’m constantly baffled how these books don’t have a bigger fandom tbh, since it has everything for one - awesome characters, an interesting world, the potential for so many different theories, great plots and writing. I mean people usually fawn over characters like Eli.

Anyways, as for Eli as being the Shepherd - I never considered that thought before. But I think Eli would’ve hated to be in that role. The Shepherd/ess is supposed to guide, protect, and look out for the spirits. It’s a whole lot of responsibility and Eli is very clearly against having any weighty amount of responsibility on his shoulders. He values his freedom and independence way too much. Miranda basically has to force him to shoulder any every single book, since he would rather duck out immediately.

Additionally, while he does care about spirits to a certain degree, he is also very manipulative to them. He regularly lies and exploits their basic nature, especially for his own gain. Definitely not what someone who is supposed to look after the spirits should do. Also, Eli doesn’t do well with sitting back and watching things happen. He gets bored easily, likes to be active, involved and entertained almost constantly. The Shepherd/ess role is more of a passive one. I couldn’t see him contently sitting in that white room, watching the world, and dispensing advice and reassurance to spooked spirits all the time. He’d go mad within a week.

Overall, I think the ending was the best option! I was scared Miranda would actually take on the role of the Shepherdess, but her spreading that power across the world was great (beyond the questions that it then raises like how does anyone eat anything if your cows or chickens or your freakin apples are talking to you and likely saying they don’t want to be eaten?). To me, the Shepherdess was the least important role out of the three. She sat around and did little to nothing - The Weaver kept the shield, and the Hunter killed the demons, all very active roles. The Shepherdess had a much easier job and she still threw a bitch fit about it and basically had a temper tantrum because it was so much ‘work’ for her. So, spreading that power, allowing the world to guide itself basically, was a really good option in my mind.

But it’s really funny to imagine the Council Kingdoms having a bounty on the Shepherd lmao

[mirandalyonette]

I really love the first three covers, and I’ve always been a bit sad that the last two books didn’t follow the same style. So I made my own, featuring Josef! Obviously not nearly as good as a professional who, you know, knows how to work with photoshop lmao but I’m still really happy with it!

I’d like to do Spirit’s End too, but I’m not sure which character to go with yet. EDIT: made a slight change to wording

Image credits: x x x x and then I just edited the crown off a previous book

[arynlight]

Inktober 2017 - Day 31

Oh look! Another kitty! And one of my favorite characters from The Legend of Eli Monpress series, Nico. I really wanted to draw her full body in her fablously huge coat, but simple is better.

And it was a good choice because I DID IT! Inktober is complete! Thanks for the likes and reblogs and… I think I got a couple of follows? THANK YOU! Hopefully the activity slow down won’t disappoint too much; I post when I can normally.

[1221bookworm]

This is a really quick piece I did for my sister, @booksrgood4u for her birthday. It’s from the prompt, “Happy Birthday” (I know, very creative!). A drabble of Nico getting her first taste of a birthday celebration.