#called forth

[featherwriter]

Two lovely commissions that I got from @swamp-spirit, which I’ve been meaning to post. 

Top character is Len, a character from my novel, Called Forth, who is a ton of fun to write and an old fave of mine. She’s a terrible person. I love her to death.

Bottom character is Sylvanni Lavellan, my lovely Inquisitor whom I care far far too much about. It’s always the sad ones, who really get me. 

Ellie’s an incredible artist and I’m so grateful to have gotten such wonderful pics! Go check out the rest of their work!

[renarinkholin]

@leftingimborn replied to your photo: “Two lovely commissions that I got from @swamp-spirit, which I’ve been...”:

len is... so pretty.........

Fruity. I am so glad that you are always here to like Len. Because I always like Len, and we can be Len-liking buddies. Even tho she is the worst.

[renarinkholin]

its not wbw but i dont care. you mentioned ages ago that most of the basin is divided up by watersheds. have any of the nations there ever tried redirecting a river to claim more territory. what happens when the rivers change course? also it seems like that would limit their individual military strength a lot, being confined to watersheds. have any foreign powers from halcym itself ever tried to conquer or colonise the basin? or have they not yet encountered anyone from across the sea?

The thing about watersheds is that they’re a lot more stable than the paths of rivers themselves, I believe. Watersheds have a lot to do with elevation and how the land falls. Without erecting or flattening hills and mountains, the water will eventually make it to the same river, even if that river changes course.

Which, they do tend to, albeit slowly. Places that are on the river are prioritized in the country, so losing your branch of the river would probably mean a lot of people moving away. Countries don’t usually try to move their own rivers for the most part and they stay away from moving other people’s because trying to mess with another country’s river is pretty much the quickest way to get war declared on yourself and you wouldn’t really accomplish much with it.

Countries come down hard if you try to muck up their river, man. Berserk button.

That said, the idea of conquering land kind of foreign to Basiners. In a way, they don’t see that land as desirable, because it has different water. The people who live there are different and trying to rule two different groups of water-drinkers as one nation just doesn’t quite compute for them. Each river will rule themselves.

This doesn’t mean there’s no war, though. It’s just that wars don’t focus on taking territory. Your neighboring country is always going to be your neighboring country, but if they piss you off, you can go burn some of their cities to the ground and murder a bunch of their people. Invasions are not about taking over, they’re usually about sabotage. Emphasis falls on crippling enemy nations and destroying infrastructure. 

“Conquest” in the Basin tends to be done through espionage or diplomacy rather than fighting. Alliances and foreign-funded usurpers are favored methods. Rather than taking the other country’s land, you fund a movement to oust their royals and then make sure you can bully the new group into doing whatever’s best for you, rather than them. Or, there’s a few watersheds that kind of group together and rule jointly, a little more like states in America than countries. Though they wouldn’t have a centralized government, they’d all work together to help their countries get ahead.

Trade and embargoes can also manipulate other nations into positions which are more favorable to you as well. This is why Saylin, as Halcym’s chief diplomat, is almost as important as the head of their military. Basin nations may not turn to bloodshed quite as often, but they can be utterly ruthless still.

Also, I’ve decided that since Mondians have interworld travel, everyone on their world does the water thing and there aren’t undiscovered parts of Mondial. I think they may just have one continent, or if they don’t, they’re at least aware of the other nations. They just... all fixate on water like that. They are actually more sensitive to different types of water, as compared to people of other worlds. The high quantities of shaile in Mondian water make it much more volatile in terms of messing you up if you’re not used to it.

[renarinkholin]

In a modern au, what, if any, religion would each of the Called Forth cast be affiliated with? (ic if you want, but either way is fine)

Okay huge flashing lights disclaimer up here: I am a Protestant Christian who is very much not an expert in world religions. So... take headcanons with a grain of salt. This is not meant to say anything about these religions or anything like that and if I stray into offense, please know it was unintentional. 

(Sorry, religious discussion, especially publically on tumblr, can make me nervous)

Also, the characters can’t really answer in character because they don’t know anything about our world, so I’ll answer for them.

Len, probably agnostic in the sort of The Dear Hunter way of “I really don’t know if there’s anything out there, but if there is there’s a secret part of me deep down that fears there might be judgment on the other side.” Not that she’d show that to anyone at all.

Kasten, kind of makes me think he might be into mysticism of some kind. Perhaps because of his red hair, my first through was like Irish fey and spirits practices. He doesn’t necessarily 100% believe everything’s real, but don’t mess with faeries, just in case.

Rynd, more New Age, though I could also see her as Native and keeping tribal traditions. Definitely a big believer in horoscopes and energy and spirits and auras.

Corin, well, considering he comes from a strictly monotheistic empire, probably either Christian or Muslim. His homeworld in his era is a little more like Crusades-era Catholicism (”Accept the love of our God or we’ll burn you at the stake and murder everyone!”), but I could probably see him in modern times as a Muslim who cares deeply about his heritage and faith but doesn’t like the bad rep his faith has among outsiders.

Vanaline, uhhhhhh. Well I mean, the closest thing to Vanaline’s actual religion is something like the Imperial Roman pantheon in that whole “our gods say we’re the best so we’re going to conquer and rule everything” sort of way, but even that’s not totally accurate? I have no idea what she’d be in modern day and I almost don’t want to associate anyone’s religion with someone so terrible.

Dalton, more of a hard one. I feel like he’s more of a searching agnostic, like he has a very strong feeling that something is out there but he has trouble finding a religious expression that feels right. Definitely more of a searching soul.

Saylin, probably the atheist of the group, but in a way that she’s sort of dissatisfied with it. She’s pretty legitimately convinced that there’s no higher power out there, but sometimes she wishes she could believe in something. It seems to bring other people comfort. The idea of it feels like a lie, though, and she doesn’t feel comfortable pretending.

[renarinkholin]

okay so. what about the entire rest of the called forth cast what are ur opinions on the vanalen. does the very thought make you squirm

Corin:I don’t think it’s particularly wise, but doing things I disagree with seems to be a specialty of Nona Len’s. She’s the summoner. She may, and will, do as she wishes, if established trends hold.

Rynd:What are you all on about? I don’t see what the problem would be. Vanaline just looks wow and if it’s all fun, what’s the harm? I mean, that is if you could find a way to do anything with that stick shoved so far up Vanaline’s—

Len: That’s enough of that.

Kasten:I’m with Rynd. Sounds like a great idea.

Len:You are?

Kasten:Sure. She’s crazy and murderous and awful, and you’re also most of those things. Perfect match. Who knows, maybe the Pure will bless us and the two of you will kill each other off once and for all?

Len:Touching.

[renarinkholin]

i should get in on what's left of wbw and ask: if kasten had to pick a weapon that wasn't a sword to use for the rest of forever, what would that weapon be?

Kasten:

I mean, I’ve never really trained with anything other than swords. Short swords usually, though I guess I can use daggers and knives passably as well. I suppose an axe or mace might be closer to a sword to stay familiar...

Then again, if we’re changing things up, maybe I ought to learn something ranged, like a bow. I wouldn’t mind having some distance between me and the horrible things that want to (and often actually do) kill me.

[renarinkholin]

two sentient minds can't meld well? so that means that there's Laenai animals that shifters shouldn't try to bond with, right? there's plenty of sentient and sapient animals irl, so if they have like, whales or [corvids?] or apes or something there trying to bond with those animals would be bad news?

Shifters, compared with other Laenai creatures, do have a kind of mental dominance naturally. It isn’t just that they’re more intelligent, but it’s almost a little bit like blood types. Shifters are, mentally, kind of like universal recipients, while nonshifter creatures are a little more universal donors. 

Shifter minds are just programmed to handle the kind of mental requirements that controlling memories and thoughts that didn’t originally belong to you need. Likewise, Laenai creatures also have a kind of “programming” that makes it easy to slip away from autonomy if they feel connected to a shifter through the bonding process.

This is also why shifters who have gone feral—and have lost a lot of the mental architecture they used to have—easily become familiars. Accepting a shifter’s bond triggers a kind of submissive state in the other minds, as they try to defer to the shifter’s control. If that controlling presence is gone, they will almost never refuse a familiar contract, no matter what kinds of clauses are in it.

The relations between Mondial and Laenai are... pretty messed up, honestly. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that summoning contracts and shifter bonds have a lot of similarities that are exploitable if you know what you’re doing, and also the fact that feral shifters are extremely exploitable as familiars because the poor things really don’t know how to say ‘no,’ especially when given a choice as complex as accepting a familiar contract. 

[renarinkholin]

re: shapeshifters: you made the comparison to gem fusion, so I'm wondering. you said that shapeshifters are basically human, but does that mean that their malleability is also a trait of other animals on their planet? if not, how do they do the fuse-y thingy with other animals? can shifters bond with other *people* in this way? if not, can they bond with other shifters? are shifters bodies made out of a different material that allows them to shift, or is it a magic-y, soul-y thing?

Alright, alright, you wanna chase? Let’s chase. Be warned this is gonna get into really weird and possibly spoilery levels of worldbuilding.

1. Yes, the ability to combine with other creatures is a Laenai specific trait. Rynd would not be able to pick up a new shift from a Mondian animal or a Kannard animal.

2. negated because question 1 was a yes

3. A shifter might be able to “hack” another person into a shift but it would be a horrible idea all around and also the person in question would probably need to be a familiar because non-Laenai people do not have melding capabilities. Also, two sentient minds don’t really meld at all very well, and so rather than the two souls joining you’d end up more with two fully realized individuals trapped together and vying for control, likely causing themselves an extreme amount of pain as they both struggled to agree on form. 

4. Two shifters trying to meld would run into the same “two sentient minds in one body” issue as before, but they at least wouldn’t have the body meld problem, so, that’s a step closer?

5. Shifters’ bodies are... not shaile (unless they’re a familiar), but have a remarkable similarity to shaile, actually. Not quite as changeable as pure Mondian shaile would be (which could mimic just about any living form) but their bodies’ ability to stretch and adapt is reminiscent of the way a familiars’ form works.

Worldbuilding spoilers: the soul in this universe is extremely and intrinsically tied to memories. Familiars’ bodies look the way their soul remembers their body is supposed to be, and familiars do something similar. When Rynd shifts to give herself wings she’s basically allowing herself access to the part of her avian mind that remembers what it feels like to have wings.

Fun note: Rynd actually only has one of each aspect of her form. For example, though she can give herself wings and place them where she wishes on her body, she only has one set of wings, because she only has one avian form. Sure, she could put them on her head to mock Vanaline if she wanted, but she couldn’t give herself three pairs of wings to complete the look.

Also, if a part of one of her forms’ bodies is injured, that injury heals at a normal rate. Rynd can spare herself some of the pain by shifting away from a form that has that part in it, like moving to a wingless form if one of her wings was injured, but if she tried to swap back, her wing would still be injured when she brought it out again unless it had had time to heal.