A Chronicle of the Damned

A thousand stories all vying to be known | Umbra / Chimera | 29. | they/she | "God's worst mistake was opening our eyes and mouths, for now we can turn to him and name his sins" | pfp by Abigail Larson

[umbral-reign]

My (obtuse and overly complex) tagging system is for my own sake and reference, more than anyone or anything else. Same with this key. If you really want to peruse it though, I'm not going to stop you.

fandom tags:

f: a world begat in blood / Cosmere

f: lightning and thunder / Stormlight Archive

f: the bones are screaming in their silent graves / Locked Tomb

f: the stars mourn us all / Arda - Tolkien

f: the stars sing (and so do we) / Narnia

f: the wheel weaves and weaves and weaves / Wheel of Time

f: the singularity that waits / Stargate

f: the scurry of the noble / Redwall

f: chiarascura / Star Wars

f: of the souls that speak / Hollow Knight

~

character tags:

Stormlight:

c: blood and violet ink / Jasnah Kholin

c: the bones of my fathers are black (but mine are silver) / Ivory

c: the rock beneath the shattered stone / Hoid

c: painter's masquerade / Shallan Davar

c: the vodka cousin / Veil

c: prim and proper and deadly / Radiant

c: a golden rose / Adolin Kholin

c: the wind is mine / Kaladin Stormblessed

c: he who should have known truth / Elhokar Kholin

The Locked Tomb:

c: she who is to find god / Harrowhark Nonagesimus

c: sacrificial lamb be damned / Gideon Nav, Kiriona Gaia

c: not a wolf but a saint / Palamedes Sextus

c: not a saint but a wolf / Camilla Hect

c: nevermore quoth the worms of the field / Paul

c: the perfume of rotting orchids / Ianthe Tridentarius

c: like lambs to a slaughter / Isaac and Jeannemary

Wheel of Time

c: she who searches / Moiraine

c: she who remains / Siuan

c: the dragon that is / Rand al'Thor

Baldur's Gate 3

c: with bloody teeth and heart / Lae'zel

c: knowledge of infinity - cost of infinity / Gale

c: blinded by righteousness / Moash

Star Wars:

c: the rage of the son / Leia Organa

Hollow Knight:

c: the daughter / Hornet

c: the knight / Hollow

c: the ghost / Ghost

c: the faithful / Sherma

~

c: the cartographer / Shakra

c: the forgotten / Phantom

c: the lady / Lace

c: the guardian / Fourth Sentinel

relationship (platonic and/or romantic) tags:

Cosmere

t: a queen and her wit / Jasnah + Hoid

t: sun and wind and stars / Adolin + Kaladin + Shallan

t: gemhearts / Dalinar + Navani

Wheel of Time

t: the swan and the rose / Siuan + Moiraine

t: bound beyond fate / Emond's Field Five

~

art tags:

r: paintbrush and pen / general art

r: magical delights / fantasy and fairytales

r: countenance / faces and people and forms we take

s: claw talon fang / predators of every kind

s: prey / creatures of forest and meadow and stream

s: desecration / the demonic

s: sentinel / the divine

~

personal tags:

r: remember to laugh / good jokes. things to make us giggle.

r: rabid rabbit ramblings / personal ramblings and thoughts

r: remember children. remember. / reminders for the silent and afraid

r: beware the masquerade / breakdown blogging

s: all the monsters of the dark (you and me and we) / that which we were

r: all the voices in our silence / about me (and we)

r: time to jot that down / notes to self

~

miscellaneous tags:

r: pen to paper; thought to word / writing things

r: doing my part as both god and satan intended / those posts where tumblr decides to give OP a bad time

r: the ides! the ides! / the ides of march. what else?

r: friends friends friends / messages for the people I love

r: yo ho ho / you know what this is

r: bookmarked / posts I know I'll want to show someone

r: refer to reference / things I will want to reference

r: politics (can meet me in the waho parking lot) / politics

r: the world is beautiful / nature

[rattling-bag-of-bones]

My lord I need you to make up your mind, where the fuck are we going

[mandalhoerian-deactivated202510]

my lord i think we're lost

[depresseddepot]

my lord????

[little-slice-of-eden]

*wheezing* please....My Lord....I just caught up

[thatdootdevice]

My Lord COME BACK?!

[warlockofagnesi]

MY LORD?? there is no way I can follow you there!

...all right My Lord [SIGH] I guess I will just have to trust you

[evaceratops]

my lord i WARNED you-

[aubrey-plaza]

[ariminiria]

I CAN’T BREATHE

[creeket]

YALSo lOcKEd miAUt O De fECKIn cAr

[imic-pronounced-immick]

This is a distinct and recognizable category of human being here in Ireland known as the “Lad” with a capital L.

[talleryn]

TLT does kill the gays but like. In a sexy way. They’re haunting the narrative you can’t stop seeing them in the corner of your eye you can’t live without them they’re integrated into your soul but in such a way that they’re gone forever. Where do they end where do you begin. It doesn’t matter because you’re all dying anyway

[cam-pteryx]

the gang

[p00lmaintenance]

Adolin Kholin

I did the sketch for this back in January. I didn’t have time to sit down and render it until this month. Hope you guys enjoy!

[imacone]

Some thoughts after New Spring.

Say it's a pair of ter'angreal Siuan found in the White Tower that leads to this open space, some point during the first couple of years she was raised to the stole.

[bluehawk141]

Jasnah's backstory?

Trigger Warning: SA and Stormlight Spoilers

Rereading the storm light series now that I have the physical books and just got to Jasnah's "philosophy lesson" in the streets of Karbranth. That moment when her tone grows extra harsh towards the would be robbers and Shallan wonders "what was done to you?"

From what I recall we ended in Wind and Truth still not having a full idea of Jasnah's backstory and I felt like Sanderson was setting up for revealing more of it in the next half of the series.

From this little bit, I wonder if Jasnah is a SA survivor. Obviously it doesn't take having experienced it to hate it, and the line before Shallan's question doesn't even directly mention rape (tho she did earlier). But still it feels like an important moment that I don't recall having been elaborated on later. The only time I remembered this moment being brought back up again was in Wind and Truth during her debate with Taravangian.

Regardless I really hope the flashback chapters in book 6 are Jasnah's, she was my favorite character when I read Way of Kings for the first time and is still one of my all time favorites.

[umbral-reign]

I agree,; I think there are quite a few indications of that. I also suspect that it was Amaram. Obviously we don't know that for sure yet, but I think there are a lot of insicators during the scene in Oathbringer where they get into that fight/argument.

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

how it feels to message a friend who's having Problems that you can't do anything to help with.

[ceruleanheaven]

honestly given my parents whole [gestures vaguely] i am actually incredibly well adjusted

[rylandgraces]

[the most low energy you have ever seen me] we’re about to go crazy mode

[ganondorf]

i think this captures the defining pathology of the collective social media psyche right now. we are in the thrall of people who are wantonly cruel but who also demand to be coddled at all times in every way

[cosmereplay]

Someday I would want to do a deep dive into why cosmere fans (writ large, not about any artist in particular) are so bad at making Shallan and Adolin especially as anything but white, and yet (again, on average) everyone has agreed to make Jasnah darker-skinned and Renarin East Asian.

I mean, I'm pretty sure it has to do with unconscious bias. Racism and colourism permeates society so it's kind of hard to avoid. I invite you to take a moment to consider.

It's easy to see how a character that's been de-masculated by Alethi society because of his epilepsy, and is quiet and shy, is getting drawn as Asian. And not just Asian but short and exceedingly slim, in soft uwu styles. Compare to art of his brother and father, which tends to skew white. Canonically, Renarin is leeky. So yeah, slim, not as tall as the tallest men on Roshar, but it makes me 😒 when he is drawn so tiny and soft. It draws on stereotypes of East Asian men as small and feminized; these depictions don't even reflect his character. In canon, Renarin is trying everything he can to be masculine while staying true to who he is. He's training and studying. He's putting his life on the line in battle. He has Shardplate! And yet I have never seen one piece of art of him in battle or in his Shardplate. So yes, he has epicanthic folds, but he is not tiny or feminine (if you're going for canon Renarin. And even if you're not please consider what stereotypes you may be drawing from when you are feminizing him).

Meanwhile Jasnah (outwardly cold, aloof, Strong Woman who is incredibly emotional underneath) is often drawn with medium brown skin. I'm not saying this is wrong! I'm just saying that the people who are generous with making a tan-skinned character brown are not (on average) drawing her brother, mother, or father that brown. It makes me ask why is it so easy to characterize Jasnah in particular as brown-skinned? Is it because there's a stereotype of brown-skinned women being Strong and Cold and Mysterious and Exotic?

Which brings us to Shallan. She's a favourite character for white female fans to project on to. She's even described in canon as having red hair and pale skin which every white person seems to read as "Irish". However, no one in canon comments on her Shin eyes--that's because she has epicanthic folds like everyone else. Further, light-skinned Asians and Wasians and Arabs and Pacific Islanders also exist. We can do better as a fandom imagining her.

And finally Adolin. The sheer volume of fans who read "handsome" and translate that to "White" is honestly astounding. Find men of colour handsome or die by my sword. 😤⚔️

One of the best ways to avoid these individual character pitfalls (especially regarding the Kholins) is to take some time to imagine the whole family. Variations in skin tone are absolutely normal and expected in a family, but thinking about the family as a whole can help bring to the surface certain assumptions you might not consider otherwise. Who inherited which skin tone, and why is it important to you that a character has a certain skin tone? Turn it over for a bit. Try out different shades and facial features. Think about who spends more time in the sun. Look into colourism and learn about stereotypes. Choose these features intentionally.

[cookie-nom-nom]

okay but imagine how inconvenient the streets of Central City, Amestris, is. Like yeah yeah country wide alchemy circle aside- can you IMAGINE the traffic? Like for the Love of Truth can we add another lane on this road?? The cars are backed up for miles! The urban planning board must be the sorriest people in the world. They got no clue what an alchemist circle looks like BUT the Fuhrer keeps showing up for an ominous visit every time they try to get a modicum of reasonable city layout. The zoning laws have got to be pure evil.

[okiedoketm]

how many accidents do you think there are on the Central Command Roundabout in an average day

[darkaviarymc]

The crest of blood in the center was carved over the course of multiple years via traffic fatalities

[cookie-nom-nom]

At that point who even needs a genocide.

[i-survived-that]

ID: A youtube comment with 11 likes by Niceone, it says "I've lived 46 years without knowing this. How nice of life to save some of the best bites for later." End ID.

Normally, people tend to get frustrated, even jokingly, if they miss out on something. This comment was on a song from 1974 and it made me smile quite much. Simply appreciative. Like a dessert after dinner.

[phinarei]

It is genuinely mind blowing to me just how many Tumblr posts have changed my life for the better and taught me to be happier. Not all of the thoughts originate on Tumblr, but the way people collect and frame them has literally changed my brain chemistry.

[slothful-rabbit]

I laughed so fucking hard at this

[paint-lady]

[annabelle--cane]

[scrolling through a fandom tag] wrong. wrong. incomprehensibly wrong. wrong but harmless. nice style and color palette but I don't care about that ship. mildly entertaining liveblog update. they whitewashed my girl :( . good joke, reblog. wro--well that's my mutual so I will politely look away. fifteen posts in a row by an innocent rp blog that I don't have the heart to block. take I agree with but op was annoying about it. chapter twenty-eight of a longfic wip. !! GOOD POST !!, instafollowed. bot. technically correctly tagged but uses this acronym for something completely different. museum worthy art piece by a sixteen-year-old from the philippines. wrong. wrong but in a new and exciting way that provokes thought.