It is with great care that Fenice takes a slim silver dagger and runs it beneath the red wax seal of her mother’s, Titania’s, latest letter from the war front.
The Vasilier Returns
On the Fourth Day
Nothing Except Herself
The Wolf and the Fawn
Pitiful Creatures
The Prince in the Dungeon
On the Matters of Lurs-e-Luran
The Boon
The Most Gracious High Lady
Blessed by Red-Handed Areia
If Areia must come, then let her come dressed in war.
Nikephoros Deominos, Prince of Hesperia, would have it no other way.
In the world of The Pirate Knight, there are several different magic systems, depending on the Folk or the group invoking the magic. Here are some of the systems that show up in The Pirate Knight!
Paladins - Paladins and other holy warriors can call upon their deity in the hopes of being given magical abilities. The more magic a paladin has, the more they have pleased the god they serve. These powers can range from being able to heal wounds, boosting physical prowess for battles, or any number of effects that would align with the god's domains. For example, Nonie's deity, Lyanme, is the god of the sea and the tempest. High level paladins of his could call down gale force winds or lightening, or increase their underwater abilities with his aid.
Goblins - The Goblin Folk do not possess magic of their own. They have learned how to harness the fae realm to cast spells for them. Learning the true name of one of the seelie or unseelie fae, the goblins can force them to do magic for them... but if their control of the fae wavers, their lives could be in danger.
Spellweavers - These are students of magic. They study either in one of the great academies, or apprentice themselves to older, more powerful spellcasters. They spend years dedicating themselves to the study of their craft. Though anyone can become a Spellweaver with enough will to attend their studies, there are those who are born with natural talent in the magical ways. These are usually the ones who become the stuff of legend.
Writeblr Garden Flower Shoppe Event #1 - Valentine’s Day
I picked…
a lovely lilypad — describe your favorite relationship (romantic, familial, friendly) dynamic *in* your wip. how does it advance the plot, how it may affect other characters, what are some special qualities you've added to make it unique, etc.
I wanted to write about my older WIP in a cyberpunkish superhero setting, RIFF, for this prompt!
I think for all that RIFF is a story about Cleora and Mayara learning how to be in a relationship with one another, my favorite relationship is the sisterhood between Cleora and Magnolia.
their relationship
Cleora and Magnolia LeChant were the youngest children in their family. Their grandmother had a very strong pride in her family’s matrilineal magic. She did not like that Cleo came out as a lesbian, and after Cleo was kicked out, Mags left with her. She’d been keeping secret that she was developing magic and that she was actually a girl. The sisters traveled to north to the city the main plot takes place in, where Cleo worked odd jobs to support the two of them, and Magnolia went to school.
advancing the plot
The story of how Cleora saves Magnolia is inseparable from the story of Cleora trusting Mayara. She can’t do it alone. She needs Mayara’s help, and she needs to feel comfortable enough to ask for help. (And also, they both need Byrd to come to their senses and stop being a stooge, but that’s a different part of it.) Cleo spends a lot of time trying and failing to follow up on the information she is able to collect, and the rest of the time just wreaking mindless havoc to try to vent her anger. It doesn’t really work for her. It’s only when she’s able to open up to Mayara after they fight that she gets the direction and resources she needs to actually find Magnolia (or what’s left of her), confront her murderer, and release her with Byrd’s surprise betrayal of their employer.
After Magnolia returns, her presence is good for Cleora, sure, but she’s happy to see that Cleo has more friends. Cleo was focused only on supporting Magnolia and keeping her happy, and never really cared about herself. Magnolia took care of her, but neither could be the other’s only caretaker forever. Maya and Byrd and Maya’s band and eventually Byrd’s punk friends bring a community to both their lives they were lacking. But ultimately, none of that would have happened if Cleo had given up on looking for her sister.
affecting other characters
Cleo is/was definitely emotionally depending on Magnolia being around and well. Both of them really want the other to be happy, but both of them do have some people-pleasing tendencies. They need to learn that everything doesn’t need to be perfectly okay all the time to have a better relationship.
Cleo’s need to find Magnolia, and then later paranoia about her being okay, definitely affects her relationship with Mayara. It’s why she first starts avoiding her girlfriend, and it’s what causes them to fight several times without knowing the other’s identity before Cleo finally breaks down. Mayara tries not to resent Magnolia for being more important to Cleo than her, which she understands really isn’t Magnolia’s fault.
Cleo’s hovering also affects Magnolia’s relationship with Byrd a bit after her return. Cleo sees Byrd as a reminder of what happened to Magnolia, and hates having them around at first. However, Mags sees Byrd as part of what helped her get through her imprisonment, and someone who truly cares about her. They end up begrudging friends because of Mags’ unwavering optimism, and also because Byrd ends up helping Cleora without being asked a lot.
unique qualities
I really wanted part of Cleo and Mags’ relationship about the sisterhood between an older cis girl and her younger trans sister. Cleo doesn’t ever stop being protective of Mags from before to after she comes out, and they bond over discussions of womanhood, the similarities between aceness and lesbianism, and their connection to their magic. Cleo’s the first person who Mags trusted with her real identity, and the first person who believed she was a girl. I really wanted someone who Mags already considered family to tell and show her there was nothing wrong with her.
how they relate to their magic
For Magnolia, discovering her magic was growing was the first sign that the feeling she should be a girl was correct. She wasn’t able to pursue a medical transition until she was a teenager (did not have puberty blockers), so knowing that something in the way her family’s magic works recognized that she should have magic like all the other women in her family meant a lot to her. She sees her magic as entirely benign, absolutely a blessing, and very, very important to her.
Cleora sees her magic as important and useful, but also as something that puts a target on the backs of her and her sister. She almost never uses it in public until her rampages, and even then she disguises herself. Cleo loves sharing what she was able to remember and take from their home about their family’s magic with Mags, but she doesn’t trust that magic or the way that it’s disseminated is entirely good. After all, her family had quite a few terrible women because they were powerful, including their grandmother.
Cleo also fears The Joybringer once she learns that the ancient goddess is real, and reaches through to reality through her sister. She doesn’t want Magnolia hurt, and wants even less for her to have responsibility on her shoulders. But really, she can’t shield her sister from the world forever.
I thought that I would write about a couple of the holiday events that take place in my Skyline Spirits world.
The Walnut Festival and Winter Gifting
(Found below the cut.)
After the skies have reached their darkest from the sun being in the sky the least, the different communities begin to have their festivals.
--
In Snatch’s community, they hold the Walnut Festival.
This is when the community folk come out of their homes with their rattles, decorated clothes, and other creations made of walnut shells. First they put on a parade, with the children in the front. And the rest of the day is followed by enjoying various walnut dishes and just enjoying each other's company.
Every now and then one person parades around in the dried outer portion of the nut. A walnut when it falls from the tree looks like a large green ball and inside lies what everybody recognizes as a walnut. Normally the green part is discarded because it will turn black and start to spoil. But for the Walnut Festival there is someone who has taken the green portions and dried them to create a different type of outfit. This person will show up randomly to chase the kids around and pretend that they are going to steal the pretty walnut shells from them. The children then usually start throwing walnut shells at the person to make them hurriedly pick up the walnut shells and run away.
--
In the Amazon community to the South, they have a Winter Gifting Day.
Everyone spends the month up to the day working on crafting gifts for other people. Everyone tries to make a gift for the immediate members of their family and then a random person from the community that they have been assigned. That way everyone gets a gift.
Since the community excels at crafting things from grasses and furs, those are usually the materials that the gifts are made out of.
After gifts are given, the rest of the day is spent enjoying food and music as people play instruments and sing. And everyone plays with their new gifts. Both old and young.
At the end of the day everybody gets together and finishes decorating a large tree that has been allowed to grow in the center of the community. And if somebody has crafted a new decoration that year they get to hang it on the tree first. And then they surround the decorated tree with small candles as they finish out their day of festivities.
the writeblr garden's advent calendar
dec 17: WIP playlist
FRACTURED MAGIC
le château magique - guilhem desq
2. pink lightning - purity ring
(patient as i bury my wrath under pink lightning
i bear to breathe / the smoke will fall
oh, cease me)
3. love i bleed - bogan via
4. the road - lydia ainsworth
(i couldn't take the long way home / guess that i was frightened
thought that i could face this storm / i'm only good when sun is shining)
5. the horror and the wild - the amazing devil
6. the moon will sing - crane wives
(the moon will sing a song for me / i loved you like the sun
bore the shadows that you made / with no light of my own
i shine only with the light you gave me)
7. waltz of the bone king - peter gundry
8. hey ho on the devil's back - katzenjammer
9. plague - crystal castles
(i need you pure, i need you clean
don't try to enlighten me / power to misconstrue
what have they done to you?)
10. dirty - grandson
(do you have enough love in your heart
to go and get your hands dirty?)
11. anvil - lorn
12. sleep - son lux
(wake me up / i'm still alive)
13. the dead come talking - roe kapara
14. go get your gun - the dear hunter
(we've cheated fate again
and to those who die, please try to understand
that for those who died, we tried the best we can)
15. who will save your soul? - jewel
16. it's alright - mother mother
(it's alright, it's okay
you're not a monster, just a human
and you made a few mistakes)
17. samhradh, samhradh - the gloaming
(samhradh, samhradh, thugamar féin an samhradh linn)
(summer, summer, we brought the summer with us)
