#csethiro

[puddinginthemix]

YEAH I’m so pumped about this! Thank you @calaathmaza

[reluming]

csethiro replied to your post: hey tumblr, help me out - is there a trope name...

empathy bond?

thanks! that might be a good term for it, although it’s not a popular tag on ao3, so i might just stick to psychic link which is more widely used even though it denotes being able to read someone’s thoughts as well rather than just sense feelings. 

[hamsterwoman78]

For @minutia_r's prompt: The Goblin Emperor, Csethiro/Maia, a sword against your enemies in the Multifandom Poetry Fest 2017 As dainty bauble we could never please The court, the gossips, but, Serenity, We'll be a sword against your enemies. A warrior's heart is out of fashion these Days, and (like our nose) it's plain to see As dainty bauble we could never please. No handicap is kindness; no disease A gentle heart upon the throne, and we Can be the sword against your enemies. You build your bridges, never to appease, But to do right: a lasting legacy, No worthless bauble. It could never please Us to be mere drapery, to cease The warrior's dance; we choose instead to be A sharpened sword against your enemies. So let us share, in hardship and in ease, Whatever fate thou findst or buildst for thee: As dainty bauble I could never please -- I'll be a sword against thy enemies.

[pavoling]

Just finished rereading The Goblin Emperor by Sarah Monette/Katherine Addison! Still one of my favorite books and easily some of the best fantasy I’ve ever read :) so here’s Maia and Csethiro!

[hypotheticalwoman]

More Goblin Emperor characters! Csethero Ceredin, Devet Beshelar and Csevet Aisava. If you love me, view these in the gallery, Tumblr always messes up my pictures on the dash so much.

Csethiro turned out pretty well, so did Beshelar - I see a lot of people dressing him in blue, probably because Cala is explicitly stated to be wearing blue, but I think that’s actually a maza thing so I gave him a different colour for his uniform.

Csevet, not so happy with. He should be paler, for one thing, and I’m not so pleased with his outfit, but you can’t win them all.

[karalynlovescake]

Head Canon - The Ceredada

- “the Marquess Ceredel must fear that you will change your mind.”   “Why should we?” Maia said, and then, remembering a forgotten puzzle, “Why is he so afraid of us?”  Berenar snorted. “When the Empress Arbelan was put aside, her brother, the current marquess’s father, fell with her. He had traded much too heavily on being the brother of the empress, both financially and politically, and the late emperor your father did not, as it turned out, regard the Marquess Ceredel with any great favor - or, indeed, any favor at all. The Ceredada very nearly went bankrupt...” (p. 217)

“It did not help that the letter Maia received from Csethiro Ceredin was brief to the point of brusqueness, written in a cold secretarial hand far more polished than Maia’s own.” (p. 209)

“In contrast to the perfect, impersonal penmanship of the letter she had sent, her signature was dense and ferociously energetic; he saw that she used the barzhad, the old warrior’s alphabet, instead of the secretary’s hand favored by the court and thus perforce all of the Ethuveraz who did not have the freedom to be idiosyncratic.” (p.218)

“The Ceredada girls have just as many ridiculous notions as your sister.” (p. 264)

“We must apologize to you, Edrehasivar. We were angry with our father - and our stepmother - but we should not have taken it out on you.” (p. 350)

   - Wait. Why was she angry with her father? -

Because her father and her stepmother wrote the letter responding to the formal offer of marriage. (Well, they had their secretary write it I’m sure.) Possibly they had it written out before the formal offer even arrived, as the Corazhas voted and agreed on it in a “mid-morning” session before the dinner with Ambassador Gormened. Surely they had heard the news through court gossip before the letter actually got to them the next day, as Maia didn’t finish his own letter until late that night. 

(I think the above can be safely inferred from the text. The rest below is my spin.)

Csethiro was FURIOUS with them. 

She was so mad, what if she didn’t even read Maia’s personal note until much, much later? 

How dare her father do that; treat her as if she were still a child, or worse, a complete fool. Of course she understands one does not turn down an offer of marriage from the Emperor, no matter how uninterested in marriage one is. And not just marriage, but the chance to be mother to the next Emperor!  (Something Csoru certainly didn’t get!) She might have paused to think about it before penning an acceptance.  She might have mourned the loss of her freedom- such as she had being still under her father’s keep-  but merciful goddesses, even Csethiro is not stubborn enough to politically destroy her family by saying no to something so important.  Does her own father really think so little of her? And her stepmother, constantly complaining about how strong-minded all the sisters are and what nonsense their mother must have instilled in them.

And speaking of that - if the Ceredada nearly went bankrupt and both Arbelan’s brother and her nephew are fools, who kept the family from going under?  I bet it was Arbelan’s sister in law, the wife of the previous marquess. I picture the men of the Ceredada, being rather useless themselves, knowing the value of a wife with a good head on her shoulders, possibly even one who is good with numbers and money.  Her son’s wife was much the same, she saw to it, knowing how much he took after the old Marquess, gods help him. 

I think of the mom from Big Fat Greek Wedding; the man may be the head of the family but the woman is the neck and she has to hold up the head no matter how much of an idiot he may be or the whole body suffers. 

[karalynlovescake]

Headcanon - Csoru

I had a list of these mentally prepared but all that’s coming to recall right now is the one about Csoru.

So! Csoru Drazharan, fifth wife of Varenechibel IV, spoiled and petty, is mentioned to have made it fashionable, in her short tenure, for women at the court to bow instead of curtsy.

This seemed odd to me. She likes attention, sure, but she’s also described as extremely beautiful, feminine and loves to dress up and posture and flaunt her status. Bowing just doesn’t seem like it would be something she’d decide to do out of the blue. You know who it *does* sound like?

Csethiro. Csoru’s “heart sister” and best frenemy Csethiro Ceredin, the educated, free-thinking, SWORD FIGHTING noblewoman.

Who picked up the habit, let’s say, from whichever poor chap she tricked or bullied or cajoled into teaching her how to duel, and write in the old warrior’s alphabet.

I imagine that Csoru taunted her about that habit during their forced meetings, mocking her unfeminine behavior, her ridiculous ideas. And then when she became Empress it was just too, too easy to appropriate it for herself, making the young impressionable ladies of the court bow because it was fashionable. Making Csethiro have to choose between giving up the gesture which - to her - feels so natural, or knowing that every time she bows, everyone will think she’s trying to suck up to the Empress or trying to fit in, in a way which no one thinks she ever will.

Isn’t that just the most Mean Girls thing to do? Yeah. That’s Csoru.