Hello my friends! Some of you may recall that just about 2 years ago now, I ran a series of polls for ships from Campaign 1, Campaign 2, and EXU Calamity that were not together at the end of their respective series. I excluded any Campaign 3 and modern era EXU ships, since at the time, those storylines were still open; Imodna weren't even together at that point. However, now that C3 has reached it's conclusion, I thought it was a good time to revisit the concept. I also didn't feature M/F pairings last time around and now is a good time to make that right too.
So! Let's get into the rules and paraments parameters:
The phrasing "non-endgame" was chosen as certain relationships present were together at some point in canon but are not longer (ex. Blumendrei) or there was an either mutual or one-sided attraction that did not result in a relationship (ex. Widojest). It doesn't feel right to me to simply call these ships "non-canon", though they are featured alongside plenty of purely fanon ships (ex. Verinwulf), so. Non-endgame. It's a little clunky, but it works.
I've reincorporated pairings from the first poll that lost in the very first round, potentially giving them an opportunity to shine further! Any ship from the first poll that made it further than that is not present this time around. These pairings are: Widofjord, Fjordwulf, Vaxmore, Fjolly, Jester x Reani, Polynein, Vexleth, Perc'ildan, Beaukeg, Vexahra, Beastrid, Beaureani, Polymachina, Beaujester, Lucigast, and Widomauk. Please do not ask me where they are.
Almost every ship will feature fanart of the characters in question, included of course with permission from the artist. Links to the original posts will be included and I highly encourage giving them some love if you vote! Any ship that doesn't have a piece of fanart has a little tableau designed in HeroForge by myself. Grogleth is the only exception, with a still from TLOVM.
This bracket is for fun. Ship hate will not be tolerated. You will be blocked if you act poorly in the tags.
Block “cr non endgame poll” if you don’t want to see this further!
Voting will begin this Friday, February 14th, at 3pm CST. All polls will run for 24 hours. The first round will take place over two days, split into Parts A and B.
If you'd like more, might I suggest donutmancy cuddling & reading to each other or having a study/book date? :3
so a little while ago kuro drew the jesties, and then shay drew the jesties ;u; so i wanted to draw the jesties too ;u; <3<3<3 (I like to think jester helped decorate Caleb and Essek's appartment).
so i looked at my inbox and was like,, WELL I DO HAVE PROMPTS STILL
Thank you @agentmintea for the prompt!<3 Also @hanaraad this also vaguely fits your prompt so consider this like,, one and a half prompt lol (I'm still saving yours for later tho).
Hello all! Hope your Wednesday is going well. Today we have nine Pre-Relationship fics for you to enjoy! As always, you can find them below the cut and if you check any of them out, I encourage you to leave kudoes and comments to spread the rarepair love 🩷
Essek writes poetry under a pen name, Jester is a fan, she writes to him and they start to exchange letters over many years.
Reccer Says: I love epistolary fic, and also its so cute. There's a lot of background details of canon events we can fill in the background through the letters contents, which is very fun.
in the pieces of what's left or what we've found by SeaWitchDreams (14,620 words, Teen)
Pairing: Astrid Beck/Eadwulf Grieve/Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast (Blumenshadow)
Warnings: None
Post canon, Astrid decides what to do with Ikithon's tower, and her life.
Reccer Says: Its a nice long read, and the character beats are complex and nuanced, bc that's what Astrid deserves <3
That Lucidian Glow by fjorests_of_wildemount (455 words, General)
Pairing: Kingsley Tealeaf/Essek Thelyss (Shadowking)
Warnings: None
Essek needs to put on sunscreen, Kingsley volunteers.
Reccer Says: It's fun and cute moment <3
to be in someone else's coat by jaskofalltrades (1,369 words, General)
Pairing: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast (Shadowidomauk)
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
After Essek's dinner with the Nein at the Xhorhaus, Molly and Caleb walk him home. Flirting, of course, ensues.
Reccer Says: It's so fun to see how Essek responds to Molly's relentless flirting, filtering through Caleb's observations on how new Essek is to friendship. And how he can tell that Essek wants that companionship so badly! It's very sweet.
though we're tethered to the story we must tell (when I saw you, well, I knew we'd tell it well). by exhaustedwerewolf (4,535 words, Teen)
Pairing: Polymachina
Warnings: Mentions of backstory typical violence and character death
On one wrist is your greatest love. On your other, your greatest adversary. And for a certain group of fated adventurers, one of these follows a pattern.
Reccer Says: I'm always a sucker for a good soulmate AU and I *love* ones of this flavor. The angst of not knowing which name is which is delicious and the way this fic plays with that for each member of VM is so good! Also love that the love-bonds don't Have to be romantic, I always appreciate that when it comes to soulmate AUs. And the way it all comes together in the end for VM is just... so good. Also the character voices in the narration? Spot on.
know no shame by hanap (4,453 words, Teen)
Pairing: Adeen Tasithar/Essek Thelyss
Warnings: None
What if Essek and Adeen had crushes on each other as teenagers and were adorable, messy disaster about it?
Reccer Says: It's so cute. Like oh-my-god so cute. They're adorable with each other and baby wizard Essek trying to join the Aurora Watch so he can spend more time with Adeen has my WHOLE heart. The messy teenage feelings! The circumstances keeping them apart! Deirta and Dad Thelyss's reactions to them!!! It's all so so good.
The Sunny Side by dracoqueen22 (1,767 words, General)
Pairing: Jester Lavorre/Beauregard Lionett (Beaujes)
Warnings: None
There’s nothing Beau won't do if it’ll make Jester smile, even if it means fixing something as minor as a sunburn.
Reccer Says: Cutteee <3 Beau is just so smitten. Plus Cad being his odd self in the first half <3
Today I Love You Even More by wtgw (5,687 words, Teen)
Pairing: Yeza Brenatto/Veth Brenatto/Caleb Widogast
Warnings: None
Yeza Brenatto is a creature of infinite anxiety, but he’s not blind. He can see how much Veth loves Caleb. He can see how much Caleb loves her back. And he can also see that Caleb is really attractive. But it’s not like he’s not going to do anything about that…
Reccer Says: Yeza Brenatto is just a perfect sweetheart always and there's this scene where the three of them are sitting around drunk complementing each other that is just too cute
Just Between Friends by biorusted (3,624 words, Explicit)
Pairing: Ashton Greymoore/Orym/Dorian Storm (Dashrym)
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Aspec Dorian talks with Ashton and Orym about how sex has always felt to him and they share their feelings in return. Things escalate from there. Just as friends, of course.
Reccer Says: Aspec Dorian my beloved <3 always love the dynamics between these three, they fit together so well.
Thank you for joining us this week’s recc list! All the love to everyone who submitted a fic 🩷 All enclosed recommendations were submitted by the community via our submissions form, which you can find here. All fic information is as it was provided by the reccer, so it may not be accurate to the author’s intent or the precise contents of the fic itself. Please assume good intent from all parties 🩷
Submissions for next week’s list are already open! We’ll be featuring Canon Divergent fics. If you have any you’d like to highlight, you can send them in here. The week after that, the theme is Keyleth Rarepairs and the weeks after that we’re taking recommendations for Polyamorous Ships and Enemies to Lovers fic! Submissions for all of these themes are currently open.
If you want more rarepair fic, check out @cr-summer-wildflowers and their event collections on ao3! If you want some friendship after all this romance, take a look at @critter-genfic-events and their recc lists! And if you’re interested in everyone’s favorite wizards, you can’t go wrong with the lists at @aeor-is-for-reccing !
Thanks all and have a lovely day/night/timezone! 🩷
I just know, deep in my SOUL, that at some point during their friendship Jester has asked Essek if she can hold his hand and walk with him and pretend he's a balloon.
