I know this post is for a very small audience here on Tumblr but some of my oldest friends I met on LiveJournal are still here, so I'm making it anyway just in case.
But there have been some changes at LJ recently that do not bode well at all. Rahaeli made a thread about it on bsky with some more worrying details. For a bit of background on this, LJ is surprisingly big in Russia. Like way more than on the western side, and it's been owned by a Russian company for a long time now (it wasn't always - there was a big controversy when LJ got sold to the Russians back in the day).
The Russian side of LJ dropped a very big change on Dec 29th without warning on their users, essentially making it so they'd have to register their ID or bank info with LJ to post or comment. Any posts from people outside of Russia, or without Cyrillic services turned on, are invisible and can't be interacted with by people inside Russia. It's nearly impossible to turn Cyrillic services on if you're not in Russia either, so there's a big wall now between both sets of users. Rahaeli speculates that this could mean the Russian company that owns LJ could be considering selling off or just shutting down the western side of LJ soon, thus why they're sectioning it off. There's been no mention of this on the western LJ news comms or anything which is also worrying.
Fandom's moved on from LJ now, but that doesn't mean that a large chunk of old fandom didn't take place there before, and if LJ does go down then tons of fic, fanart, meta, communities, kinkmemes, discussions, rp, goes down with it. Everything up in smoke! I think people underestimate sometimes just how much stuff went on there. LJ being dead is much different than LJ being gone... the thought of it really disappearing after all this time breaks my heart. I've spent so much of my life there, even after everyone else left. ;_;
But how to do your backups? Dreamwidth is an easy answer as an LJ clone, with an automated importer that'll snag all your stuff and move it over for you. Another tool I've been using is ljArchive, specifically this fork of it which will also save comments and communities, although it won't get userpics. There's also LJ Archivr, although that one costs money, and I think some others are mentioned in the bsky thread. Whatever you pick, I'd do it sooner than later.
do you think in fantasy settings with long-lived elves where elf-human relationships become common you’d have discourse about whether it’s unethical to pursue a human in your first century because your life with them basically functions as like, training wheels for the rest of your life. like regardless of whether or not it’s true, i bet there’d be a common feeling that elves who do that and then end up with another elf later are basically just using the human’s whole lifespan for character development and then moving on to a longer-term relationship they actually have to take seriously. and then there’d be a reaction that’s like how are those marriages less ethical than a centuries-old elf getting with a human with vastly less life experience, and also obviously in the first example it’s actually the human who’s problematic for being more relatively mature than the elf
the financial implications of people who can consistently expect to vastly outlive their partners are also crazy. [in the voice of your aunt with too many opinions] “you know in a century or two he’ll only remember you because he got the house”
i often get really bored by the old “alas you are a human... i am an elf... we can never be together because our natural lifespans are different...” not because i hate conflict but because i just think realistically people would get used to it and then immediately be doing this conflict in much worse & more irritating and pointless ways
Can't remember if it's canon or if it was a headcanon post here on Tumblr that Urgals would have strong and deeply detailed oral storytelling tradition but I was once again thinking about sign language in Alagaësia and it occured to me that Urgals would possibly be the most likely to have a standardized complex sign language since a lack of speech and hearing would otherwise bar kids from like 80% of their culture
Urgals might also possibly have higher occurrence of hearing loss from bonking their heads together in combat so much
Headcanon: Eragon has a private garden. Hes the leader of the Riders, a half human/ half elf hybrid, and Alegasia’s hero. But he’s also a farm boy. He grew up helping his uncle tend crops and playing in the woods with his cousin. He 1000000% has a small garden where he grows some of those crops, maybe uses them to make a homemade dish for his elf companions. He canonically refers to Garrow as a father to him, he absolutely honors the skills that were passed down to him.
Even without their magical properties, as any animal, dragons HAD to have an ecological niche.
One that Galbatorix and the Forsworn completely ripped when they drove wild dragons to extinction.
How many native alagaësian species depended on the gouges a dragon's claws makes on the ground when taking off as burrows? Or dragons breaking the ice to drink in the winter, and leaving an open source for smaller creatures not strong enough to do so?
What if dragons created a symbiotic relationship with some bird species that cleaned between their teeth? How many insects and plants required dragon dung to reproduce?
Perhaps dragons mere size worked to keep forests in shape, knocking down old trees that simply got on their way/wanted to scratch an itch against, giving way to saplings that would've died under those trees's shadows.
Re arranging the soil to make it more confortable to sleep in makes it easier for plants to grow in, rain can turn the heaviest ones's footprints into waterholes...
By killing older prey, they would keep the gene pool fresh.
You know how controlled wildfires can be beneficial for forests? Do you know how much healthier and bigger Du Weldenvarden must have been when Dragons were around? They were the SOURCE of natural fires.
Post war Alagaësia has on one side, the elves, led by Arya as their queen, who is also a dragon rider, knows the Name of Names and elves can freely wield magic and the ancient language.
On the other side, there are humans, with Nasuada as their queen, who banned the free use of magic without her permission, and she wasn't really happy about Eragon keeping the Name of Names in a secret. People in Alagaësia aren't really happy that elves are more powerful than anyone else, and they know that Eragon, who supported Nasuada during and after war, left Alagaësia so humans were left basically defenceless
(Mostly just writing this to keep track for a fanfic so I don’t forget the thought process and my self-canon conclusions.)
Slight warning, if you don’t like the details of sickness or anything. I’m into medical stuff so I don’t really shy away from this. Just thought I should mention.
When Murtagh healed himself of the flu, I remember wondering ‘how do you heal a virus?’ (Yes, it was 3AM.) A virus itself is not damage. It cannot be ‘healed.’ You would have to remove or kill or otherwise extinguish is or render it useless and unable to act. That seems fairly simple.
What it means though is that Murtagh healed the symptoms, not the cause, which might have also accounted for the lingering effects (though maybe he should have just let the spell run for longer. Does Murtagh use absolutes or does he not know about absolutes yet? Anyway.)
So can a sickness itself, its root cause, be removed? And what about symptoms you don’t ‘heal’?
1. Why not remove viruses?
My first guess is that they do not know the true name of most viruses. To remove a virus without the true name, you would have to do one of two things. Either you have to be extremely specific, or you have to use a generalization. Both of which would be very dangerous.
Why?
Because either way—if you’re not detailed enough or if you’re too general—you could risk also targeting positive bacteria and such in your body. You could easily do harm to yourself in the process. And it could go beyond bacteria, depending on what level understanding of the body is in Alagaësia. I believe Paolini said the elves have an understanding of at least cells. But if you generalize cells? You could kill yourself with that spell!
An example of not having enough specific information to prevent consequence would be a deleted scene from Brisingr (I believe it’s posted on Paolini.net) where Eragon removed a woman’s tumor cells with a spell but had the spell target ‘unnatural’ or ‘not belonging’ forms in the body beyond a certain size, possibly rendering the woman permanently unable to have children, because the spell could attack a fetus.
Could this be the reason they don’t heal viruses? Or maybe they don’t even fully understand the concept of viruses yet? We know at this point in their history they understand things can be contagious, but we don’t really know beyond that.
2. What do you do about symptoms you don’t ‘heal’?
Ex: Phlegm.
You can heal the irritations that causes the production of phlegm, but you’d still have phlegm in your system. Do you break it up with a spell? Can you flush it out entirely? How does this work?
Sores, sore throats, ulcers, irritation, inflammation—those could all be healed, and things like abscesses and tumors can be removed with magic as well.
But other than preventative spells being placed in the first place (as obviously not everyone has access to magic) how do you bring down (fluid-related) swelling? Do you just, like, extract it from the pores?
3. Can chronic conditions be healed?
As someone with a chronic condition, I feel like this should be on the list. In my case, Mitchell’s Disease. Harmless, inherent (though it’s not always genetic for some people), but very painful.
Mitchell’s Disease, also known as Erythromelalgia, is abnormal function in the nerves/blood vessels. Plainly, the small blood vessels over-dilate and the nerves misfire to send signals of tingling, heat, and pain.
Could something like this be healed? If so, how?
As I see it, perhaps you could address the symptoms—constricting the blood vessels, perhaps. But what about the nerves?
Can you block nerve messages? You probably could with the right knowledge and skill, but it’d be too easily to block to much and cause actual harm, especially if you enacted it as a permanent spell (which are difficult, if not impossible, to remove) instead of a temporary one during an episode.
What about the cause itself? How would you even address that? Searching it, some cases are supposed linked to mutations in a gene that affects sodium channels in nerves, leading to over-signaling pain. You could remove/nullify that mutation, possibly, but Alagaësia is nowhere near at a point, medically, where that knowledge would even exist—let alone be available to a magician.
And what about things like POTS? Or epilepsy, considering how delicate the brain is and how much even the elves avoid touching the brain for fear of destroying a person’s mind entirely. Can magic even be progressed to a point the irregular signals could be remedied, or at least adjusted not to cause the reactions they do?
Things like heart disease I could see being addressed (with great care, of course). Blockages could be removed, tears and strains and irritation healed, and maybe spells could even be placed to help keep heartbeats even or strong.
But other conditions seem more… difficult.
And, especially considering Paolini’s magic system heavily relies on science, Orrin and the other science nerds out there would have century worth of progress to make before they can really leap in the magic-medical field unless those progressions are considerably sped up (likely by magic.)
Which makes me wonder what else can be done. Like major surgeries. Appendicitis, for example. You could remove the appendix (like Eragon did the woman’s tumor) and heal the remaining tissue damaged by the removal with magic—possibly with very little pain/recovery time. Or, maybe they could heal and remove the infection itself entirely, no surgery needed—magical or otherwise. Maybe other surgeries could be done the same.
4. What about nerve damage?
Nerves are, obviously, extremely delicate, and we see examples of this throughout the Inheritance Cycle—the most prevalent of which would be Eragon’s back, which was a mixture of nerve damage and Durza’s magic.
When Arya damaged her hand in Dras-Leona, Blödhgarm (an extremely talented healer, which is important to note here) healed the damage, but some of the nerves refused to seal properly, leaving Arya with a patch of skin at the base of her thumb that had no feeling or sensation in it. It is not mentioned whether she felt nerve pain or agitation later.
This implies that nerves might be prone to not rejoining and healing. Maybe they’re resistant, or maybe the knowledge needed to handle them properly just isn’t there, or maybe it’s just too easy to reseal them in such a way as to cut off or accidentally modify or hinder signals.
The fact that Eragon was offered little to no healing in Ellesméra, where healers were likely a dime a dozen, also gestures at this fact. They may not have have any way of removing the curse, but helping the nerve damage might have at least helped with the agony involved with the seizures.
Are nerves too difficult? Too complex? Those would be my best guesses, though I am curious about if there is anything that actually is genuinely naturally resistant to magic.
I could go on like this all day. Are there any other counter-views or takes, theories, self-canon, or personal conclusions on this? I know there are other people who like the medical side of things in this fandom, or at least are familiar with some of this, and I’m curious if anyone else is in on theories and opinions.
I've been thinking, isn't it odd that Eragon (or anyone else for that matter) wouldn't know anything about the Ra'zac when they were a plague on humankind for their entire history until some 700 years ago after humans arrived to Alagaësia and the Ra'zac that followed them were driven to extinction by Dragon Riders. Human culture should be full of folk stories, songs and horror tales featuring the Ra'zac and Lethrblaka, same as most European cultures have stories and songs featuring wolves even though they are now in many places pretty much extinct and very much not a threat.
But then I remembered this
Same as how you should not speak of the devil, same as how in Czech death is often called "the toothed one" or "godmother with the scythe" instead
What if the Ra'zac and Lethrblaka were never mentioned by name in humankind's stories, but only by euphemisms and noa-names. And when the monsters were driven to extinction and their last members hid in the shadows, only the euphemisms survived and humanity started forgetting what they originally referred to
I don’t think it’s ever actually confirmed or not, but appearances of age differ among the riders we meet in the inheritance cycle. Brom is younger than Galbatorix by some years, yet he appears as an old man while Galbatorix appears in his mid-40s. Jeod also mentions that Brom looks the same as he did when he last saw him 15 years ago, so we know he’s not aging with time, and it’s said many times dragon riders are immortal, and I think based on what we know that’s still the case without their dragons still living, after all, Galbatorix is immortal despite losing his first dragon.
I was already fairly sure that galbatorix was shaping his physical appearance to appear more powerful, because, as dictators do, they do everything they can to maintain their power. We know the elves can shape their appearance, so Galbatorix must too.
But what’s a really great point for Broms character, is that he is likely choosing his appearance too. And I love the idea that Brom appears as an old man for the purpose of trickery. Old people aren’t seen as much of a threat, yet Brom was incredibly powerful, look how he and Eragon were able to fool that guard by telling him that Brom had a “touch of the brain fever”. Eragon first thinks that he can beat Brom with ease in their stick fight, and Brom kicks his ass. This guy survived for over a century while under intense conditions, Oromis says as much about his ability to “confound his enemies”. Again, this is never confirmed, but I believe it to be rather likely. It’s a small detail, but it’s one I love.
To escape the vile Ra’zac, King Palancar and his people flee their homeland, Alalëa and sail across the Western Sea, to start a new beginning in the unknown regions of Alagaësia.
I got inspired by some of Paolini's drawings and sketches and tried to do my own interpretation of Mount Argnor. Since I'm studying history of art, I got dead set on the architecture of Ancient Greece. My idea is that circular temple-like structures at the top of the mountain could house the dragons and their riders while some parts could be built inside of the mountain, similar to dwarves.
I'm also not that good at drawing scenery so it's very messy and experimental.
That thing the rider (I forgor his name) did in Vroengard to make it unlivable sounds a lot like radiation tbh. Like turn the matter of your body into energy and "poison in the air" and when Galbatorix pulled the same trick, people losing their hair, getting sick, and dying. Radiation!
oh yes, absolutely. paolini definitely wanted to make a magic nuke and i love that he did so much because its cool as fuck. if i remember it right there was also a bit where it was described that thuviel had turned the mass of his own body into energy, which sounds a whole lot like fission.
Oromis and Glaedr are my faves from Eragon fandom BUT it's so hard to design them! My hands can feel only Warcraft elves. Does somebody has any ideas....
That thing the rider (I forgor his name) did in Vroengard to make it unlivable sounds a lot like radiation tbh. Like turn the matter of your body into energy and "poison in the air" and when Galbatorix pulled the same trick, people losing their hair, getting sick, and dying. Radiation!
Some lore theories I found interesting about the future after the inheritance saga . The future saga should probabbly be called sleeping ancient ones that's been forgotten or something .
