#e&s

[the-evil-skull]

Here's how religion and divinity works in E&S

The gods are real

Gods and mortals exist on a spectrum of divinity

Some animals are more divine than others but all are divine in a very specific way

Birds are the most divine animals because they were created by the dragons to survive in their image

Some gods are historical figures and ancestral heroes. Anyone can be a god.

Some gods are tied to nature. These ineffable and diverse phenomenons of nature are called dragons. The sun is a dragon.

The sea is alive, and the moon is older than the Earth.

So the key things about the unnamed religion of the Drew cats ("Drewness") is:

Cats are gods unto themselves

Cats don't fit into other animals definitions of divinity because they came from a shadowy underworld, but they're still gods unto themselves

The king/queen is a god. Royalty is not passed down the bloodline. The king/queen is a god because they are elected by other minor rulers, who are also gods.

Several ancestral heroes and historical figures make up a pantheon of gods, and these are the gods who are primarily worshipped by Drews.

There is a singular Cat God which is not a cat at all but a shape-shifting entity connected to the morning and evening star. It is called the cat god because the cats designated it such.

Cats are under no obligation to worship the Cat God but the Cat God still works in the interest of cats

And here is how the religion of the Marian dogs works:

Dogs were created as clones of Death and a wandering being called the Wise One. Death and the Wise One are not dogs. Dogs simply imitate the canine form of Death and the Wise One, who were the original

Because they are created by Death, dogs were among the most divine of animals. WERE, because they were demoted when they introduced the Doom of Beasts into the world. Dogs are still the fallen angels of Deaths will

Marians only worship Death and the Wise One, but they have several saint like heroic figures.

Marians came from the land of Amohava but they will never return. They were commanded by the gods to wander the earth and find their homes in other lands.

There are twelve Marian tribes, no more and no less. Some tribes are nationalities and others are breeds.

Being highly diverse and spread out across many lands, Marians do not have a leader.

[sanddusted-wisteria]

Wisteria’s just trying to get her feet back on the ground. Qi’s trying to reach the stars. It seems that they’ll always be no less than a world apart. Yet their circumstances and that of Sandrock's keep inching them together, time and time again, until they're both on an inescapable collision course...straight for each other's hearts. A story about love, curiosity, happiness, dreams, hormone-made horrors beyond your comprehension, and underneath it all, two people just trying their damnedest to understand each other.

Also on AO3

Companion art, playlists, and behind the scenes

A/N: Shady's back. Finally.

Back in February, I decided to rewrite what I had so far of this fic because I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with how I wrote it, and tons of ideas just kept flooding in about these two goobers to make their story feel a lot more natural and just overall...better. Aaaaaand now my outline is at least 4 times as long as my old plans, blowing past everything I originally expected to have to do for a rewrite. Add in having to do like work towards a masters degree, do research work, an internship, and figure out what to do beyond masters...and I think you can see why it took 6 months to get back to this asdfadsradfadlrkj.

But regardless if you read the old iteration of this fic or have just found me, thank you! Thanks for reading, and your patience, and I hope you enjoy! :>

Index:

Ch. 1

Ch. 2

Ch. 3

Ch. 4

Ch. 5

Ch. 6

Ch. 7

Ch. 8

Ch. 9

Ch. 10

Ch. 11

Ch. 12

Ch. 13

Ch. 14

Ch. 15

[charlotte-of-wales]

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh attend the Small Island and Developing Nations Coronation Event in London | May 5th, 2023

[asagaoluke]

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

guess what i updated (’:

[the-evil-skull]

E&S is primarily written in 1st person pov when it's the two protagonists and 3rd person for everyone else, but I wonder if maybe that's a mistake. I feel like maybe writing them both in 3rd person pov would work better but idk....

[the-evil-skull]

"What art tha doing?” Grey mewed, and I scowled. I forgot he was there with me.

"I’m thinking of candles,” I answered.

"Candles?”

"Aye. When I was studying my algebra, I found that the slope of the height of a burning candle is always expected to be negative, because a candles height can only decrease exponentially as it burns over time. So I wondered— what if the slope of a burning candle could be positive? What if a candle could become taller as it burned— an ever-regenerating candle wax,” I explained, “created by a regenerating flame. I’m trying to see if creating such a flame is possible."

Grey went silent, and for a moment it seemed that I had stumped him, his black lips parted dumbly. “...Thou art trying to make a creating flame?"

“Well, a healing flame, thou couldst say.” I went back to my book. “If I could create a regenerating wax that renews itself as the wick burns, I could sell candles as I pleased. But a regenerating flame— imagine what it could be capable of. As a forest is destroyed by a destroying flame, a healing flame might restore it back to life.”

"A fascinating idea. Yet, thou knowest the ordinary flame is not without its healing properties. As a forest is burned, the properties of the ash renew the earth and the forest returns stronger than ever.”

"Very true,” I replied, glad to have a conversation with someone who could follow along, “So a healing flame would not be necessary for the earth, but perhaps for beasts…”*

From chapter 14, The Dog Who Was A Cat

[the-evil-skull]

I like to fuck around with a culture that doesn't assign sex until later in life. It's considered extremely rude to speculate on an infants sex, because sex is defined by the scent that comes out when you're a certain age. There's the male sex, the female sex, and the intersex variations that are also found in scent, and infertility too. In this culture, where you may not know your own sex until puberty, your agab simply isn't a factor in whether you grow up masculine or feminine.

And in cats, a species that breeds like rabbits in a small environment, obviously there are religious laws against having too many children. If everyone had too many litters, they'd multiply and devour the islands prey, and upset the ecosystem. With this law, spayed and sterile people would be regarded with respect, since they cannot break the law of preservation. Much like in the Byzantine Empire, eunuchs are valued and trusted.