(no subject)

[weirdlet]

Odd thought.  Story starts with some tournament or other for the princess's hand, only one of the big contenders is also a princess- in her lands, her title is Prince Prima.  Her younger twin brother's title is Prince Secundus, and he will make her stand with her wife when it comes time for children.  There is much headbutting and huffy princessness and tournamenty goodness, and of course the Prince Prima wins the tournament and there is much consternation.

Adventures proceed from here.

Comments

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

This is mostly an excuse to draw porn with Yue/Daenerys, Azula and Zuko lookalikes. Because yeah, I have a weakness for the royal pretty.

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

It sounds like an interesting idea to me.
I foresee a lot of cultural-clashes in it and both sides thinking the other as barbarians

What kind of cultural inspiration did you plan to use for it?

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

Not sure yet. I've got equal parts A:tLA and Game of Thrones in the back of my head, although I'm fairly certain neither one of the main ladies is from a horse-barbarian culture. Although I am wondering if maaaybe Prince Prima and Prince Secundus are from semi-nomadic types- settled and successful enough to have time/leisure/money to get fancy with their clothes/tents/learning/magical practices/treasures, but with a life that requires being active and practical, defending valuable herds and people. Sophisticated Mongolian horde/ancient Celt feel- a prince's major duty might involve defending the royal herds (or a supplicant noble's) from other raiders.

Not sure about Princess Frost-hair's kingdom. I feel like at least this palace the tournament's being hosted at is on the edge of the desert, but she's totally yoinked from both Daenerys Targaryen as well as Yue, so it's possible her heritage comes from a couple different places that ended up conquering the lands her kingdom currently dominates, with some magic thrown in.

Since it's a tournament there's probably representatives of other kingdoms floating around as well that I'll need to think about.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Prince Prima and Prince Secundus are from semi-nomadic types- settled and successful enough to have time/leisure/money to get fancy with their clothes/tents/learning/magical practices/treasures, but with a life that requires being active and practical, defending valuable herds and people.

You might poke a bit at the manga "A Bride's Story". It seems to be set in a culture similar to what you're looking for, and it's very pretty.

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

Hm. Princess Frosthair's palace is on the edge of the desert, buuut- perhaps her folk are well-versed in water-magic, and thus irrigation. This might be their pleasure-palace/proof of dominance over the thirsty sands (like Vegas!), with canals and boats so that even here, the royals can get fresh fish from the ocean. I like the image of the princess playing with a water-droplet, a bit like flipping a coin on your knuckles. I also foresee someone insulting her with the term 'fishwife'.

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

Suggestion, you could have it that Princess Frosthair's "palace" is connected to an underground river and/or lake and there is from there they get their water. This makes it a bit more miracle like in a way, a Venice in the desert without any connections to the sea and any other rivers than the once that flow from the city.

And now when I think about it, this idea could also be used if you want to go a bit high-fantasy and have dwarfs, or something like that, living underground and using the underground part of the river/lake. Princess Frosthair's people could be trading with them - spices and other aboveground things for the finest metalworking the world have seen, there is also all the mineral based pigments that underground people probably have.

But this idea probably makes Frosthair's people a bit to economical/political powerful, if they not only have control over a greater oasis and more or less monopole on fish trading but also have better metal items then all the other people

P.S. is Frosthair her real name or a working name? It just sounds strange, for me, with a princess in a southern land to be named after Frost

P.P.S what do you mean with 'fishwife'?

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

Just a working name. In fact- let's call her Princess Aksinya for now, I like that name. 'Fishwife' is an insult that others might have for her, as the Prince Prima's wife, because she's a foreigner from this water-themed kingdom.

That's an interesting idea- I imagine that at least part of Aksinya's kingdom's heritage comes down out of the conquering North, sort of like if Vikings/Valyrians had come howling down, looked around, and decided this southern clime wasn't so bad. Perhaps part of how they did it was by bringing their native spirits with, that keep the cool springs running below the surface and keeping contact with the chieftains of the High _kingdomname_ians up in the frozen North.

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps part of how they did it was by bringing their native spirits with, that keep the cool springs running below the surface and keeping contact with the chieftains of the High _kingdomname_ians up in the frozen North."

Native northern spirits keeping things cool... They Have a WENDINGO?!

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

Oooh, creepy. I was actually thinking that the maternal line of descent comes from someone called the White Witch, herself a descendent of the Mountain King- something like a legendary blood-bender.

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

A suggestion on a name on the fore-father is Bore, the Swedish counterpart to Old man winter/Jack Frost or Morozko who is the Russian version

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like those names.

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

! Part of the process of wedding Aksinya off is a ritual cutting of ties that A) gifts her to her husband's people and B) cuts her ties to the royal family's ancestral/pet monster-spirits, so that they remain in main-line-of-descent's control and cannot be called upon for a foreigner's wars. This is somewhat devastating (particularly when there's actual magic and strong connection involved), and part of why a bride sometimes cries going off to her husband's family.

The Prince Prima is witnessing this ceremony and seeing how strongly it affects Aksinya, and is all like what are you doing to my wife?!

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

Just wondering, is princess Aksinya going alone to Prince Prima, like Marie Antoinette or Daenerys, or is she given an retinue like a cople of mads and one or two orc amazons as Praetorian guards?

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

I shall have to ponder this.

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

I meant maids not mads

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

sort of like if Vikings/Valyrians had come howling down, looked around, and decided this southern clime wasn't so bad

They did that, traditionally. ^_^ Might also poke into the Celtic tribes of Gaul or the Varangian Guard.

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

Oh yes.

the races of 'Werewolves of Dacia' 1

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

If you want to go high fantasy/mythology here is a copy of the race part of the 'Werewolves of Dacia' article, which is more-or-less about Lord of the Ring meeting Roman mythology and werewolves, from the RPG magazine Fenix #1/2012. I hope it can inspire something

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The first such race are the Selenites, the inhabitants of the Moon come to Earth when Zalmoxis captured there home and hold it fast. They are tall and bald, with ears like leaves and beautiful eyes they detach from their sockets to seek out beauty and horror wherever they find them. They have a hollow abdomen instead of guts and stomach, subsisting only on liquids: dew for a preference, but they will taste stronger stuff. Some Selenites grow lustful or angry on Earthly wine, or thirsty for human blood. Their bones and frame are light; the skilled among them can fly on wind currents with a carefully held cape or spread toga. Rich and exalted Selenites wear glass clothing; the poor make do with bronze or copper, worked like wet paint by the Selenites’ art. Their armour is hardened, lacquered shells and husks of beans and nuts they grow stronger than steel; their weapons are sword, javelin, and lance. They brought down with them from the Moon their tree-headed vulture steeds, and their fleas-of-burden larger than any elephant. When they die, they turn to smoke and flow upward to the Moon to dwell there as fog. The Selenites seek the Ring to free Bendis and the Moon, that they may return to their lunar palaces. For now, they live on mountain tops where the cold, thin air reminds them of their captive home. King Endymion keeps his court atop the Alps; other Selenite nobles rule along the Pyrenees, the Caucasus, and the Mountains of the Moon in far Aathiopia.

The second race are the Fauns, blend of goat and man dwelling deep under the roots of Europe’s forestes. Short, hairy, and mercurial, the fauns spend their time composing eerie musics and dancing in wild abandon. Fauns have horns and hooves, but (except when fighting for mates) fight with axes, sling and sickles. They are surprisingly strong and wiry, and agile into the bargain. Some warlike fauns haw begun wearing Selenite armour; other wear cunningly tooled scale mail of leather boiled hard. They know all the arts of every plant and herb, from mandragora to dandelion to fly agaric, and are gifted healers and warlocks. Any spell cast in song or scent, a faun first made. Zalmoxis’ passage under the Earth drove many of the above ground for the first time; others had lived long in the great woods of Italy, Germania, and Gaul. They command no kingdom of their own, although some German tribes have interbred so much with fauns that, for example, the sons of the Quadi stand a head and a half shorter than most men, while men and women of the Andori sport ddelicate, curling blue horns. The Fauns seek the Ring not for the moon but for the sun: with its power, they can grow their plants in all weathers, and extend their forest demesnes throughout the wastes, or even all across the world of men.

the races of 'Werewolves of Dacia' 2

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

The third race are little-known and less seen. They dwelt in the islands of Prydain when it was Albion, and even before that. They dwell in those islands, in burrows and barrows under hills and behind thorn hedges, harvesting their weeds and strange fruits for their feasts. They can eat anything, but prefer their own food, cooked their own way, with their own flavours. They drink their ale and mead from bell-shaped beakers, and inhale gums and incense in pipes. Despite their love of such intoxicants, they cannot be harmed by poisons of any kind, and cannot become werewolves. They are called Coblyn, or Holbytlan, worlds meaning “dwellers in holes” to the Britons and the Belgae. They are small even smaller then some fauns, and their feet are covered with scales like those of snakes’. Their eyes are small and narrow, snakes’ eyes; their arms are slightly too long for their size, and their legs slightly too short. Some Holbytlan paint or tattoo themselves with woad, but no matter how brightly painted, if a Hoblytan wishes to hide it takes the eyes of Selenite to find him. Their scaled feet move utterly silently over rock, earth, and foliage, and can cling to the most unlikely spots in the walls of a cave or ruin. Their weapons are the short bow, the dagger, and the lariat, although they do not go to war as a rule. In the hands of Coblyn, any stone can became a dagger or an arrowhead, though flint or obsidian is still best. They value steel bodkins, though, and happily use them if available. The Holbytlan seek the Ring as a trophy from both Sun and Moon; they wish to use its magic to make themselves completely invisible from both. Then they can do as they like in Prydain, no matter how the Britons there press and breed.

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(I have to confess that I’m mostly posting this because I really liked the article and want to spread its fusion of Tolkien and roman mythology, even if just partly)

Re: the races of 'Werewolves of Dacia' 2

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

It seems in the style of Tolkien- but I'm wagering the trippy nature is Roman-originated. Cool^^