Jul 25, 2025
oh they're both sitting on a stockpile of nukes
seen from Norway
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from China
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from Sweden
seen from Türkiye
seen from Norway
seen from China
seen from Kazakhstan
seen from United States
seen from Norway
seen from United States
seen from Norway
seen from Germany
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Norway
oh they're both sitting on a stockpile of nukes
Check out the amazing cover for our upcoming book - Spirits and Sunflowers! The art was exquisitely created by the fantastic @lethendralis-paints. Follow her and check out her Patreon and other artistic endeavors!
Mage Wars - Tanglevine by Darek Zabrocki
What are your top 10 deep lore questions you want answered in the next season?
Well, since you asked...
Who is Terry the Earthblood elf? What time period is he from, is he still alive now, and which of the characters did/will he interact with? Why is he so cool?
What did Aaravos do to get imprisoned, and how exactly did everyone work together to make that happen? Where is Aaravos’s prison, anyway? Is he really going after all the staffs and nexuses in order to unbind himself from his prison? How did it work, bringing everyone together against him? Did Avizandum recruit everyone and that’s why Aaravos blames him for his imprisonment? Was Aaravos just as angry back then as he is now? Did he have allies, and what happened to them? I want this whole tale! I feel like it could erase some of Aaravos’s mystery, but it’ll also make him more relatable. I really want a nice complex shades-of-gray backstory for this sparkly bastard.
Runaan’s backstory with the Moonshadow elves, and the story behind the markings on his chest. That looks like the Moon staff that holds the Moon Primal Stone. What is up with that? Is Runaan really Moonshadow “royalty” descended from Moon Druids who lived in Katolis before the split? Will Ethari get into that as he tries to find a magic staff powerful enough to bust open the coin? What’s the framework for the Moonshadow elves’ history and government, how does it enable and restrict our favorite moonfam, and at what level do they fit into it?
Claudia and Soren’s mom. Please, we need to know who this woman is and how she interacted with her family! Can she come back and, like, have a heart to heart with Claudia? Poor girl just needs a nontoxic parent.
Speaking of parents, Callum’s birth father. We know he’s dead. But he was a compelling figure, so... compel us! Just please don’t let him turn out to be the Magma Titan, previously bespelled like Viren’s army. That is too much angst and I seriously regret that hc.
Xadia Xadia Xadia! We still only have the barest hint at how Xadian cultures interact with each other. That’s more like novel-level info, but a good council or secret meeting would not go amiss in S4, as to how the various elves perceive each other, their strengths and biases and how they treat each other.
Human kingdom history and the Mage Wars. Judging by what Harrow and Aanya said, it seems the humans send assassins after each other more often than Xadia does, which... wow, okay. But their rulers meet up and try to work together anyway. I want to know more about the other kingdoms, their associations with dark magic, and how they got where they are from the time of the Mage Wars. How does Queen Fareeda run Evenere, out there in the swamps? What does her architecture look like? Does she have a capital city with canals instead of streets? Please say yes, I love canals. Maybe she has cities out in the middle of lakes, like Tenochtitlan, and Lake Town from The Hobbit. Very defensible, very pretty. hhhhh someone please have a lake city, I’m begging you.
That key art of Harrow, Sarai, and Viren with Avizandum looming in the background makes me want an early story of their adventures, too. Something that will predate the famine by some years. Back when they were all young and idealistic and thought that they could change the world. Who else might be in that story? Anyone we know? Lujanne? Janai? Ibis? What if there are some bits between Avizandum and Aaravos through the mirror in there?
Where. Is. Luna. Tenebris. It hasn’t been announced yet what her status is. If she’s dead, that’s got to be an interesting story. If she’s still alive, there’s still an interesting story about why she’s not ruling the dragons anymore. Either way, I bet it has to do with Aaravos, since the Fallen Star event is concurrent with the end of the Era of Luna Tenebris.
Can Callum learn more than one arcanum, and is Aaravos’s method, whatever it is, the only way to do that? Will every move Callum takes to become a better mage, and eventually perhaps challenge Aaravos, make him more like Aaravos? alfjsdlfj how do magic??? Watching Callum explore magic will tell us all so much more about how it works. He’s our everymage! Let him study hard, with proper mages like Ibis and Lujanne, and show us how it works.
And a bonus character wish, since Ethari is on my mind: What is Ethari’s other purpose in the plot? He’s been good for Runaan and Rayla, but you don’t just yeet a handsome husband into the story as a craftsman for no reason. He made the moon opal pendants before he really bulked up from swordsmithing. Will he go back to magical trinkets? Stay with deadly weapons? Something else? And what will he use his genius brain to accomplish? I hope he gets to craft some magical contraption that does something plot-critical. I hope he gives out cute pretty useful jewelry to the other characters he cares about. I hope, so much, that Ethari begins to find his new self, even if he’s desperately still searching for his old self. And I would perish and ascend if he gets to see the Moonhenge, either in the graphic novel or in S4, and says to himself, “Hmm, someone should fix that.”
When we arrive sons and daughters/ We'll make our homes on the water/ We'll build our walls of aluminum/ We'll fill our mouths with cinnamon now (Sons and Daughters, The Decemberists) Thanks!
So these lyrics are making me think of people who are journeying towards somewhere for some reason, but haven’t quite gotten there yet, but are still celebrating the fact that they’re journeying there. On the other hand, ‘walls of aluminum’ is poor and ‘cinnamon’ might have been prized and fought over but cinnamon alone is pretty awful.
Okay, to be quite honest, they lyrics are actually reminding me of Israeli history of ma’abarot-camps in the 50s meant to take in the refugees that really did have houses built from tin and stuff.
So I want to give you a book that involves journeying and coming to somewhere that isn’t as great as imagination (though, nothing is going to be as great as hopeful imagination can make it). So I’m giving you the whole Mage Wars series by Mercedes Lackey, but especially the last two books.
The first book occurs during a war, but the second book involves refugees from that war building a new life (on the water) and the third book is the same, but the mcs from the first two books’ kids are the mcs.
(I also think that the Kirsten series from American girl might fit this, but I haven’t read enough of it to know.)
Thanks for asking!
Send me song lyrics or lines from poetry and I’ll recommend you a book
Gryphon Week Day 4: Skandranon (Request)
Couple of gnarly games of mage wars today with Wizard Vs Necromancer
That last post made me want to post some mages (witches, warlocks, sorcerers, whatever you want to call them).
“Wizard vs. Priestess” by Craig J. Spearing appears on the box of Mage Wars Arena, a board game published by Arcane Wonders, L.L.C.