#celticaurora

[chenria]

I finished this yesterday. Commission for my dear friend @darth-salem-emperor-of-earth. It's her Helsing OC Egil together with @celticaurora's Katherine ;3 

I had a blast drawing them and hope I did them justice.

[hacash]

celticaurora said: OH HO HO MORE PERIOD DRAMAS ABOUT THE ANARCHY??? Truly an underrated time period, how have I not heard of Cadfael before????

Did someone say my favourite medieval detective show ever? (yes, me) Well if you’re looking to watch a show that combined murder mystery, medieval history, nuanced portrayals of organised religion and gentle herbology then put on your slippers and get comfy, pal, because you are in for a smooth ride.

Cadfael is one of those cosy british murder mysteries like Poirot and Midsomer Murders that you used to watch with your gran on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Unlike most murder mysteries, however, it’s set in the middle ages - which makes it even better, because what’s a good mystery without a few swords to brighten things up?

it’s the 12th century, and England is in the middle of the Anarchy, our first proper civil war centuries before Cromwell made it cool (yes, I am salty that it’s never recognised as such by historians). The Empress Maude and King Stephen are fighting for the crown, the country is in turmoil, and with so much bloodshed, who has the time or the inclination to investigate unlawful murders in these dark and dangerous times? Our boy Cadfael, that’s who. Cadfael is a former soldier and crusader who’s since settled down and become a monk-slash-pharmacist in Shrewsbury Abbey. His general know-how and tendency to care about teensy little things like cold-blooded murder mean he’s often off solving unexplained deaths and dangerous political scrapes that the abbey finds itself drawn into.

Be warned, the show was put together in the mid-nineties, and you can definitely tell, with such classics as Patented Plastic Swords, Wounds With No Bloodshed, and Knitted Chainmail. Fortunately there’s not much you can do to screw up a monk’s cowl and habit.

The show is based on a series of books by Ellis Peters (real name Edith Pargeter), and they are just as good, if not better, as the show. Would highly recommend.

Reasons for watching:

The Anarchy. A truly underappreciated period in British history (because it was interesting, not because it was particularly fun); Cadfael proves a neat introduction if you’re looking to get a bit more into that wacky time when we had a war for nineteen years all because Henry I never had a legitimate son. While it shows some clever insight into the various politics and events that took place (even though I’ll never get over the show’s painfully inaccurate portrayal of Stephen) it’s particularly good at portraying what life was like for ordinary people who had no real interest in whether Stephen or Maude ruled, but found themselves swept up in the conflict.

Murder Mystery Bros

Before Sherlock and Watson made it cool, England had Brother Cadfael and Undersheriff Hugh Beringar. Crime-fighting duos are always fun, but the broship between Kindly Badass Cadfael and Death-before-Dishonour Beringar is really lovely to watch. (with the slight proviso that Beringar’s appearance changes...more than once.)

One-Dimensional Religious Characters? Never Met Them

One thing I love about this series is because it’s set in an abbey, it covers all the different spectrums of how you could be a Christian in 12th century England and basically goes ‘the Church was an institution made up of humans and like all other such institutions was capable of great grace and kindness, and unbelievable dickbaggery’. Where else would you get such a span of characters ranging from:

Cadfael, who’s basically that one bloke that atheists on tumblr will say ‘oh, I don’t like organised religion but that one Christian dude’s pretty cool, why aren’t the rest of you like that: kind, cares about the down-trodden, deeply pious but also pretty worldly-wise. Brother Oswin: lovely and earnest in his faith but also essentially useless when it comes to doing anything practical. Abbot Heribert: nice cuddly grandpa abbot who’s very lovely but doesn’t do all that much. Abbot Radulphus: firm but fair Reasonable Authority Figure (tm). Prior Robert: pompous stuck-up git who exhibits all of the authoritarian tendencies of the medieval church without actually being downright evil. Brother Jerome: equally fundamentalist tattling little sod who’s nonetheless so pathetic that you occasionally pity him, if only because it can’t be fun being that unlikable.

The one problem with this is that there are no female regular characters, monasteries being famously non-female-centric. Plenty of awesome female guest characters though.

(Also, the conflicts between Cadfael and his more conservative colleagues? Not Politically Correct History, this was actually a thing! Neo-Aristotelian thought was a way of thinking that arose in the Middle East (Cadfael was a crusader) that relied on logic and reasoning, as opposed to the blind acceptance of authority demanded by orthodox Augustinianism; and this became a big intellectual Thing amongst academics during Western Europe at this time. Not only did Ellis Peters write a historically accurate character we can relate to, it’s a humongous fuck you to anyone who thinks medieval Europe was full of cavemen still working out how to make fire.)

Cadfael Himself

Sir Derek Jacobi playing a lovely old soldier-turned-monk whose main cares are promoting peace over bloodshed and seeking justice for the underdog (as well as usually setting up the Couple of the Week amidst his sleuthing, because of course). With plenty of snark. What’s not to love?

-

Also if you’re interested in reading about the Anarchy, may I humbly suggest Sharon Penman’s When Christ and His Saints Slept? Penman’s storytelling isn’t always the best – it’s sometimes less historical fiction and more dramatic retelling of the facts with some additional characters popped in  - but it’s pretty good fun and fully introduced me to the sheer chaotic madness of the Anarchy. (Also for those of us who’ve been burned by medieval authors’ inability to write a well-founded female character to save their life, her stories always seem to stray clear of the typical pitfalls; eg gross sexual assault/this woman really likes sex so she’s obvs a harlot/this woman dislikes sex so she’s obvs a prude/i am a Strong Female Woman and anything Feminine is Beneath Me, which is a definite plus.)

[brynwrites]

Disaster bi werewolf Elias met chaotic bi werewolf Rowan when they both decided to hunt in the same stretch of woods outside of London one night. Neither were particularly in the mood for company, which led to a fight. And being chased by the police. Fortunately for both of them, the next time they met was much more civil. Forty years of domestic civil union later, they still laugh about how they met.

Disaster and chaotic bi werewolves omg, I’m in love <3

The We Are, We Are Monsters children are all disaster and/or chaotic bi, (Zolin is a disaster bi, Necalli is a chaotic bi, and Esprit is both at the same time). Esprit meets Necalli by attacking and capturing her, and they both meet Zolin by attacking and capturing him... not in a malicious way, they’re just all idiots who don’t know how to have civil conversations yet.

[akathecentimetre]

I follow you because you're a really good writer and I loved your Musketeer fics ("The Lodestar of My Life" is an absolute fave for all time)

Thank you so much for this! It really means a lot to me, even - or especially? - for older work <3 (and a shoutout too in case you are lurking to the person who’s been leaving comments on every 3M thing I’ve ever written this week, you are a star)

[darth-salem-emperor-of-earth]

Last one, I promise: Kat/Egil, kiss prompt #20

20. Surprised kiss 

And I thought about using this older prompt of yours to include in this little fic, if that’s all right:

Okay, but because this is a conversation that has happened more than a few times with these two, I need Kat/Egil with “Well…I’m pregnant.”

It’s all a pleasure writing about these two. :D

“Egil? Honey?”

At the sound of his wife calling for him down the hallway, Egil poked his head out of the study room and motioned her over just as she was about to turn her head. “Katherine, I’m in here. Is everything all right?”

Nodding, she hastened over to her, blue eyes sparkling while her face seemed to glow with joy, her lips curled up into a secret smile as she closed the study door behind them. “I wanted you to be the first to know before the whole Swenhaugen House hears about the news and starts celebrating.” She held both of his large, broad hands into her smaller, slender ones.

Egil cocked his head quizzically at his wife, a flash of curiosity sparking in his stormy gray eyes. “News? What kind of news are we talking about?”

Whatever tidings she brings, it has to be wonderful for us all for her to be smiling like that.

Her beam widening and her tone become rather playful. “Well...I’m pregnant.”

Pregnant. This would be their first child together, a sibling for Keiran. And that meant he would be a father all over again.

“You’re carrying our baby,” he breathed out, mesmerizing by how joyous she was now he knew about her secret and in the midst of him processing her announcement, he leaned down to kiss her, his lips soft, loving, and tender against her mouth, open wide in surprise but nonetheless pleased as she muttered a muffled “I am!” between the kiss. This was happening, they were blessed with a child, someone he and Katherine could raise, love, and cherish for all their days, someone Keiran could play with and watch over. Sigrid and Keiran had awakened his desire for fatherhood, one with children between him and the love of his life, and now, his wish was granted.

“You don’t know how happy you made me,” Egil finally said after ending the kiss, gazing at Katherine with all the love, wonder, and uncertainty in the world for what was yet to come. “Thank you, Dame Engel.” 

Kissing him back with equal fervor and delight, Katherine stroked his face while he rested one hand on her now flat belly, both of them already imagining the life stirring inside of her. The family they had together was now beginning to grow once more and the two of them couldn’t wait to greet their newest member in several months time.  

[chenria]

I can finally share these :D @celticaurora commissioned me to draw two gifts for ChelleSchad of both their characters Solana/Reven and Tavian/Kaleo. 

 I had a lot of fun with the characters and the pictures and I hope I did them all justice.

[chenria]

Another fun commission for the most wonderful @celticaurora​ of her adorable Violetta Falkenberg with a hurdy-gurdy (named Skadi). She’s a skald (bard/barbarian) and a vanasi.

I really hope I did her justice. She was a lot of fun to draw. 

[chenria]

Commission for @celticaurora of their lovely “Pathfinder” wood elf Solana.

She was a lot of fun to draw and I hope I did her justice.