#devona fairchild

[anghraine]

I was searching for an unrelated-to-the-Ascalonian-grudgeblogging GW2 thing, but ended up reading a grumpy recap of the core storyline from someone playing a Charr Vigil member. Surprisingly, they were like, "you know, honestly, all these people wondering why Ascalonians still have a grudge against Charr kind of need a slap in the face. Also, why do Krytans have so much say over what happens to Ebonhawke, anyway? Does it have sovereignty or not?"

I do support slapping every person who is like "why don't they just get over a 250-year long attempt to eradicate them? What a silly grudge" but I don't often see actual players saying so!

I also find the sovereignty issue genuinely interesting.

My impression is that Ebonhawke is nominally an independent city-state, but the alliance with Kryta has been critical enough (esp recently) that they weren't in a position for direct conflict over this "regent of Ascalon" business. So the people of Ebonhawke don't accept Jennah as sovereign—there are even Ascalonian residents of Divinity's Reach who don't—but they also can't afford an open break with Kryta and this is where a lot of their resentment is coming from.

Ebonhawke drawing so much of the Charr's attention in the war was pretty beneficial to Kryta, so I suspect their support was not purely altruistic even without the claim to sovereignty. It's made clear in various storylines that Ebonhawke falling would be disastrous for Kryta. Additionally, the Krytan government offered valuable support and supplies to Ebonhawke, but couldn't really spare much direct military support, so Ascalonians are also conscious that they suffered most of the direct casualties of the war, to the benefit of Kryta. So it makes sense that the relationship is complicated and ambiguous!

Honestly, the tensions surrounding the Ebonhawke-Kryta alliance, the various political maneuvers involved, and the effects of all this on the Ascalonian diaspora are some of the most intriguing aspects of the game to me. The writing is definitely skewed towards the Krytan perspective, to be sure—PCs of any background will remark that Kryta is generous(!) to allow Ebonhawke its own representative in the peace negotiations, for instance. But it's not so skewed that you can't see why Ascalonians insist on their independence from Krytan rule.

#this is why my headcanon for my main is that she comes from a mixed family of krytan and ebonhawke ascalonians #because it's so interesting to imagine a pc who would actually navigate that tension with a personal stake in it #even if the game doesn't suggest that human pcs feel the slightest solidarity with ebonhawke #so there's deborah (who is proud of being ascalonian but considers independent human ascalon gone) on one hand #and then there's devona (a vanguard captain who is privately furious about the peace treaty) #on the other #ailoda has been pushing in the krytan ministry for more assistance to ebonhawke without sovereignty strings attached #and is on good terms with her ebonhawke in-laws #who themselves appreciate krytan support but also insist they aren't vassals of kryta #and althea is simultaneously very loyal to jennah as a krytan subject and very invested in ebonhawke's independence #anyway this is a ... lot ... but. well. i'm me. #anghraine babbles #anghraine's gaming #ascalonian grudgeblog #long post #fic talk #fic talk: pro patria #althea fairchild #deborah fairchild #devona fairchild #ailoda langmar #elwin fairchild #calissa tahiri #gw fanwank

[anghraine]

5 writers/5 things

I was tagged by @incognitajones <3

The meme is: talk about five things you might find in a story of mine and tag five writers to answer the same question.

I appreciate the "might" given the sheer quantity of things I've written. ;)

1- Positioning lead-in: I have no idea what the formal name for this is, it's just how I think of it. I typically start stories with some statement that leads into the character's head space before anything happens—it might be about their character or feelings about a specific person/issue, it might be a reference to a past event or a description of how things stand in or up to the moment. But I rarely drop directly into the plot or scene.

For instance:

The Steward Faramir was, Éowyn swiftly concluded, a strange man.

Jyn never forgot the moment when her mother’s body slumped to the ground.

In the first few years after his escape from Yakone, Noatak drifted: from place to place, from name to name.

2- Full names: I have a strong preference for using full given names unless it's very clear the character themself favors a nickname. If anything, using the full name is Significant—as with Elizabeth Bennet, for instance, who has nicknames among family and friends, but invariably uses Elizabeth in her own thoughts and narration. And that's what Darcy uses at the very end of the book, as well (<3). So in my P&P fic, I always refer to her as Elizabeth rather than Lizzy (or Eliza, lol).

3- Genderbending: This isn't the majority of my fics, but according to AO3, a mere ... 40 (out of 219). These are overwhelmingly "canon male fave -> Always A Girl", though in my head, the character is fundamentally agender and just mildly susceptible to socialization in whatever direction it's applied (i.e. my experience). So she'll be like "as a woman..." but also there's generally a certain amount of frustration.

These fics typically deal with gender in a somewhat didactic kind of way. Lucy Skywalker has to prove herself to get accepted as a pilot, Catherine Darcy has to marry to secure her inheritance, Fíriel of Minas Tirith got along well with a Denethor who never expected her to be a warrior, while Taraka of the Northern Water Tribe is terrorized by Yakone and, with better intentions, Noatak, in ways that are deeply inflected by gender. I regret nothing.

4- OCs: OCs have a bad reputation and people are often leery about including them in major roles, but idk, I've never been concerned about that. And I don't just mean characters we know nothing about but who presumably exist; I've always been willing to invent original characters out of whole cloth and just slot them in, like Cecily Fitzwilliam in various P&P stories, Devona Fairchild in pro patria, Efrah and Zekheret among others in ad astra, etc.

5- Not quite meta: I often push back against ideas/fanon I disagree with in fics and forward headcanons and interpretations that I prefer. This isn't particularly exceptional, but I do tend to be very deliberate about it. When I'm at odds with fanon, I'll go to pains to mention that (say) my Georgiana Darcy has dark hair or try to indicate that my Cassian is grey-ace or things like that.

Honorable mention: WIPs!

No-pressure tagging: @ladytharen, @kareenvorbarra, @irresistible-revolution, @brynnmclean, @melyzard

#anghraine babbles #meme #meme prattle #writing #fic talk