harmon/harmonine/harmoninity; a harmonaeon gender quality; a gender quality related to celestial worlds, chanting songs of joy & happiness, being connected with all, eternal love, harmony, hymns of celebration, the joy of human harmony & unity, paradise, protecting life from death, the strong protecting the weak, understanding, support, & synergy!
igma/igmatine/igmatinity; an enigmaeon gender quality; a gender quality related to challenging the certainty of knowledge, being incapable of envisioning true infinity, cognition, distorting the present, enigmas, erasing the past, believing that things-in-themselves are beyond perception, mirages, riddles, truth being a fever dream, & uncertain futures!
nihil/nihiline/nihilinity; a nihiliaeon gender quality; a gender quality related to apathy, dark suns, dejection, infinity, losing reason, meaningless existences, mist, mysteries, nihility, nothingness, numbness, & worthlessness!
flags for our hsr neoumbrella qualities, part 3/6!
Hi! I just answered #5 (character you were most surprised to end up writing) for someone else here, but since it’s been asked again I’ll give a little more detail on my answer...
I mentioned that Harmonine was surprising because of how she changed, but when I pry into the reasons why she developed the way she did, it’s VERY very closely linked to my Teenage Angst. See, Harmonine in her original form was the kindly parent of the fairy tale--she offered a guiding hand, and told the heroes where they would need to go in order to reach their full potential. She positioned the mortals in her care to push each other in the right directions to attain the most beneficial timeline. Sometimes this would be painful--Lilac had to die, you know, and Aelia had to go through what she did, and the villains had to be allowed to win when and where they did--but it would all be worth it in the end, when Harmonine’s grand plan fell together and the good guys won. Perhaps it wasn’t fair, but life isn’t fair, either.
Lemme tell you something, though. When I started having conflicts with my parents, my worldview shifted hard, and I came to fucking loathe those characters. They suck! And I despise stories where they’re treated like they were in the right, just because they happened to see their one solution in the future and wouldn’t let anyone else in on it. The presence of one of these characters alone can be enough to make me drop an otherwise-excellent story. This is why The Last Jedi can burn in Hell and I want to rip off the purple haired lady’s head and punt it into the sun. It feels like a slap in the face, I can’t stand it. I was even angrier about this when I was 16 and first learning how much reality sucks.
So it’s ironic that the greatest change to Harmonine’s character was the fact that nothing changed--I just thought about it for a moment. I thought about it, and realized that this whole situation was deeply fucked up. Who the hell does this woman think she is, sending children to be tortured, watching the world fall apart, and sitting on her ass telling herself it’s “the only way”? That’s not the kind of reality I wanted to believe in, when I was a teenager grasping for handholds in a world that felt cruel and frustrating and apathetic. That’s not the kind of story I’d want to read. So... Harmonine became the character she is, while the world of this story became one where that behavior is not welcome. I never expected to write a character like this when I started working, but it just sort of happened, and I’ve become fascinated with the intricacies of balancing the truth--Harmonine’s usually correct, as much as everyone hates to admit it--with what’s fair and what’s righteous and what’s right. Life isn’t fair, but I don’t think it has to stay that way. Anyone who tells you otherwise is using it as a cop-out for manipulation or learned helplessness and I’m not sure which one worries me more.
13) your strengths as an author
I’m pretty good at descriptions, and writing poetic prose in a way that’s nice without being insufferable! Also, I’m told I do very well with action scenes, even though it seems like that and the prior point should be contradictory. I used to play a lot of team sports, so I have a good sense for physicality and how people move and behave during competitive pressured situations. I guess that translates into having strong fight choreography in text.
I like to think my worldbuilding’s very good, too. I certainly have a lot of fun with it. I tend towards making things a bit too complicated, but everyone has their own tastes!
17) if you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be?
Keep up the good work! We’ll get there someday. :)
But maybe back off the weird weeaboo shit with the Irkatzi, anime is not an appropriate resource for insight on East Asian cultures and it will in fact get you in more trouble than it would if you just didn’t bother.
Similarly, research is your friend, not a demon from English class coming for you in your sleep. It’s okay to google stuff you don’t know instead of making a weird fantasy alternative to get out of doing the work.
sidenote I’m so freaking glad I copy-pasted this ask before trying to post it, because hitting “publish” crashed the whole website for like five minutes! tumblr is a Functional Website(tm)
Kariel, Harmonine, Immaline, and Faiana (referred to collectively as the Four) are the supreme deities of the planet Iliginia and all its inhabitants. Most civilizations are aware of this, but worship of these Four comes in very different forms across the globe. Even in Feilan, ways of venerating the Four are quite diverse! Each of the gods is associated with one of the four magical elements: Storm, Illusion, Darkness, and Light. Clustered around these elements are centuries of superstition, symbolism, and interpretation, and these things make up the holy domains of the gods themselves.
The Four are said to be the first daughters of Nafia, who is more akin to an Earth-like ‘One True God’ figure. Nafia is generally accepted to exist, but her influences are broad and slow and vague, so although she’s acknowledged she doesn’t have as many specifically dedicated worshippers. The Four are far more active, they’ve been seen in the flesh in written history, and they’re known to act upon Nafia’s will (more or less). This element of tangibility has made their followings a bit more popular. Sightings of the Four are few and far between, but Harmonine is known to appear in mersprite lands and before members of the Ravenhart family, and Kariel is occasionally encountered in the wild regions outside of civilization proper.
There’s a god associated with each of the three main sapient races of Iliginia--Kariel for the humans, Harmonine for the mersprites, and Faiana for the fairies. The del Aphir line of Feian royalty is, in fact, descended directly from Faiana herself. This is their main claim to the throne, and part of the reason why such powerful magic runs in their blood. Harmonine is a direct ancestor of the Ravenharts, but she hangs out more often with the mersprites. Immaline seems to have been stiffed by fate, but she’s never around to complain about it.
Some bonus fun facts that have nothing to do with anything: Harmonine is the tallest of the Four at 5′11″, and Immaline is the shortest, coming in at a whopping... 4′10″, probably. Violet Ravenhart is taller than all of them. Harmonine doesn’t like that, because Harmonine is an obsessive control freak. Faiana’s reputation is VASTLY different from her actual personality and she hates most of her worshippers because they tend to be dicks. Faiana is the oldest sister, but Immaline should be, because Immaline is the only one with anything resembling maturity. These women argue like twelve-year-olds.
Since the text in the pictures is hard to read, I’ve retyped it under the cut! With a few corrections and additions, of course.
KARIEL: The Goddess of Storm.
Known as Stormbearer, the Architect, Wolfmother, Lady of the Mountains, Magame, Liaestrin, and the Muse of Sculpture.
Storm is the most capricious of elements, and Kariel the most capricious of gods. Though she is firm and stalwart, she rarely dedicates her will to a single worthy cause, rather choosing to roam and place her power behind whatever she finds intriguing. She devotes her time to wild places, tending to the flames of volcanoes and the paths of glaciers. Long ago, she was a protector of humanity, teaching the people to harness wind and fire for their own. She has a weird obsession with dragons.
Kariel is prayed to for help with natural things: storms, wildfires, mountain crossings, the taming of wild beasts. She is a patron of explorers and those who travel the wilderness. She is said to protect underdogs, animals, and artists.
HARMONINE: The Goddess of Illusion, Weaver of Fate.
Known as Oracle, Time-walker, Marreata, Nymph, Illusionist, Lorilaen, and Muse of Sound.
Illusion is a twofold element with twofold purpose. As its associated deity, Harmonine is equally complex. She follows a strict rule of noninterference in mortal affairs, which she pressures her sisters to follow, but she is quick to indirectly pull strings wherever she can if she believes it is for the greater good. Harmonine sees potential futures, defined by mortal choices, but cannot directly influence anything without changing the course of time. She cannot predict herself or her sisters. She is a god of fate and prophecy, prayed to for luck and aid. Like her element, Harmonine prefers beautiful facades to an ugly truth, and is thus associated with deception and show business too.
Harmonine is prayed to for healing as well as chance. Since she is a god of the healer’s element, she is said to bring quick recoveries, from both physical and mental ills. She is strongly associated with the ocean, making her popular with sailors. She is the patron god of healers, spies, performers, and politicians.
Sacred symbols: the staff, seashells, ocean waves, the loom, thread, green/purple, honeysuckle flowers, third eye symbolism.
Harmonine is also associated with the Irkatzi and their psychic shenanigans. She is the only deity whose representation is universally linked to an ethnic group in almost all circles of worshippers, whether the association is with the Irkatzi or with the mersprites.
IMMALINE: The Goddess of Darkness.
Known as Shadow-Queen, Whisperer, Moonbringer, Noctaera, the Great Librarian, and Muse of Knowledge/Wisdom.
As the ancient saying goes, Darkness is the safest sanctum. In the depths of night, truth is safely spoken, lies retain no glamour, and the deepest needs of the soul are opened up. These gentle dreams and soft desires are the domain of Immaline. Immaline is rarely worshipped and often forgotten, her domains loaned to Harmonine as part of the psychic package or simply left behind. Despite this, her image endures. She has not been seen on Iliginia since the Age of Light.
Immaline is known as the goddess of night, secrecy, wisdom, truth, justice, and love. Where Harmonine is associated with the mechanics of healing, Immaline is a source of spiritual rejuvenation. Prayers to her ask for beauty, protection, inspiration, and guidance. Immaline is a shepherd of the weak and the lonely. Less often, she may be associated with technology and innovation. This was once a much larger part of her mythology, but it has mostly been lost to time. Immaline is a genius in her own right, skilled in science and mathematics. She has several minor cults among academics. She is the patron deity of lovers, children, inventors, and those who are dedicated to truth and justice. She’s popular with the good kind of law enforcement.
Sacred symbols: moon-shaped talismans, jewels, rocks, metal objects, locks and keys, pens, gears, mechanical devices, black/fuchsia, scales.
FAIANA: The Goddess of Light.
Known as Lightbringer, Sun-child, Queen of Stars, the Lady Faye, Afiriae, Golden One, Battle-maid, and Muse of Color.
Light is a harsh element for such a soft-seeming deity. Faiana, as its associated god, is often seen as far crueler than she truly is. She is austere and noble, as she feels her status demands, but she is also quite reserved and quiet. Faiana is the reason behind the name of the Age of Light and the del Aphir family--she founded Feilan at the beginning of history and ruled for a thousand years as its first Queen. She has a truly regal presence. Her force of personality, however, is rarely seen these days. Faiana is the nominal leader of the Four, but only because the other three had no interest in the position. She and Harmonine don’t get along very well. She allows Harmonine to push her around, but she’s not very happy about it. Faiana usually only appears to nobility.
Faiana is honored as the ancestor of the del Aphirs, and as a god of war. She is prayed to for power, strength, and victory. She represents cruel and honest truth, righteousness, and the eye of justice. She offers the power to act upon one’s convictions. She’s a symbol for soldiers and conquerors because of her links to Light, the element of battle magic. Her own ethics and words would indicate that she prefers peace to conflict, and she is in fact a bit of a pushover in modern times, but her followers often misinterpret this. She’s the other deity associated with law enforcement. Faiana is the patron god of nobles, royalty, leaders, and warriors, as well as hunters.
Sacred symbols: 4-point stars, bows and arrows, blue/gold, star and sun imagery, sunlight, roses, lilies, tiaras or flower crowns, insect wings.
