#lays of the hearthfire

[crabs-with-sticks]

I just finished The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard and I love everybody's friendship so much. When Kip was looking at the house and how it would work for everybody, how everybody could live there together....

Ms Goddard please you can't give this much hope to my poor aromantic heart....

I really hope they all get their retirement together...

#victoria goddard #the hands of the emperor #lays of the hearthfire #the nine worlds #fantasy books #jay rambles about books

[piyo13sdoodles]

for best experience you should fullview the images to tab through and listen to alan doyle’s “take us home” while reading!

in any case--started this in august, i think? for, obviously, my favoritest book ever, The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard. my scanner was very unkind to me, so if you notice any inconsistencies in tone it’s because i had to go through and manually adjust all the levels /sigh. but i’m very happy overall with how it all turned out, especially kip on the tui-tanata :D

#the hands of the emperor #lays of the hearthfire #nine worlds #cliopher mdang #artorin damara

[wrishwrosh]

‘i made a joke, my lord.’

the new secretary / the last emperor of astandalas

#nine worlds #cliopher mdang #lays of the hearthfire #the hands of the emperor #artorin damara #this is a Companion Piece bc a) im very into the metaphor of the state portrait #and b) thought the lines on the emperor were good so i just. reused em #anyway i just think young kip is neat #my art tag

[whybeaunicorn]

I need everyone to have read Victoria Goddard's Lays of the Hearthfire so I can talk about it at length. Ouch. But in, like, a good way.

#lays of the hearthfire #at the feet of the sun by victoria goddard #hands of the emperor #the asexual romance story I didnt know how badly I needed #this is how you do good queer rep #queer #books #reading

[sockich]

“Did you want to be buried there?”

Fitzroy shook his head convulsively. “No. I want to be cremated and my ashes scattered. You’ll see that done, if I die before you?”

“Of course,” Cliopher said, forbearing any protests or the grief that rose up in his throat at the mere thought. “Of course.”

“Of course,” Fitzroy repeated, not quite sarcastically, and stared, dry-eyed, at the bones of his distant relative. “I suppose you’d want to be taken to the Island of the Dead? Someone pointed it out—To lie with your ancestors? In the manner of your people?”

Cliopher was about to say of course, but there was a note in Fitzroy’s voice—

And he recalled the stories that the Sea-Witch sent her birds down to fetch the spirits of those lost at sea, to return them home.

The Sea-Witch had given him the garnet that still rattled in the efela the Grandmother (The Old Woman Who Lives in the Deeps, the in-gatherer of all life, in the end) had named Kiofa’a. Cliopher carried the mirimiri of Ani, to give to Vou’a to take to his fanoa. Vou’a was his great-uncle’s husband.

He would not be lost, though he did not follow the traditions of his people.

“If I die first,” he said, “cremate me and keep the ashes until—until—until they can be scattered with yours. So you can be free but you don’t have to be—alone—we can sail with the Ancestors together—”

Fitzroy said, “Kip.”

His voice was not the serene one, but fighting for equanimity.

“I will not be lost, and neither will you,” Cliopher replied fiercely. “The Sea-Witch likes me. The Old Woman Who Lives in the Deeps likes me. Your ancestors have not forgotten you.”

—At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard

#😭😭😭 #THEM #cliopher mdang #fitzroy angursell #love them #otp! #victoria goddard #at the feet of the sun #the nine worlds #lays of the hearthfire #books #quotes #my posts

[freezingkiwi]

Initial thoughts having schlepped through the latest book in Victoria Goddard’s Lays of the Hearthfire series, At the Feet of the Sun in a couple of days. Bought it from her website so got it 10 days early; devoured it in a day and a half, so keep that context in mind - I’m a fan of this stuff! (No spoilers beyond the most extremely general plot beats)

TLDR; the first book but MORE, both good and bad.

 As with The Hands of the Emperor, the book is far too long. Seriously, if you cut 20% it’d still be a romp of nearly 1,000 pages, and essentially nothing would be lost. It badly needed a more aggressive edit than it got. And it also - possibly moreso than the first book - draws so clearly on pasifika myth and cosmology without ever acknowledging that or quite realising it’s potentially stepping on toes to the point that it makes me, a white person from that region only broadly familiar with those things, uncomfortable about some of the liberties being taken. It’s all done in entirely good faith but still, very close to (possibly over?) the line of inappropriate appropriation.

And yet.

And yet I really, really liked it. Sprawling, glorious mess of a book. The sort of thing that self-publishing enables, because my god no trad pub would take a punt on this, but if they did it’d have been better edited, heh. Asexual romance plotlines! Genuinely thoughtful and moving musings on erased queer history! Fundamentally a bildungsroman for men in their 50s - all of whom I like or appreciate! Lovely surreal blend of myth & reality! Genuine though not entirely successful hymn to the value of cultural diversity! My advice; be prepared to read with a skimming eye; and be prepared to dive deep where the narrative grabs you and pay attention then. There’s nothing else like this out there, for good (mostly!) and ill.

#too long #but also so good #lays of the hearthfire #hands of the emperor #at the feet of the sun

[jessikast]

I very badly would like a Cliopher Mdang vid of some kind to this song.

I'll keep the home fires burning so you can see clear.

(Meanwhile his family are nodding and agreeing that yes, that one Six60 song suits him PERFECTLY, while they sing this at him every time he comes home:

#the nine worlds #the hands of the emperor #six60 #music #cliopher mdang #kip mdang #lays of the hearthfire

[miss-ivyness]

2022 Year in Books

My ability to consume media fluctuates wildly. Sometimes I can watch tv shows, other times I can read books, other times only fanfic. But when I am able to read, I read all at once. 

January was a month of novellas with Lois McMaster Bujold’s Penric and Desdemona Series and Emily Tesh’s Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country. 

I absolutely adore Penric and Desdemona and was super excited to read the latest additions to the series. I first listened to Penric’s Demon (the first in the series) as an audiobook when I was suffering a massive migraine and the combination of Grover Gardner’s gentle voice and the Bujold’s close, compassionate storytelling had me listening to this series over and over.

August was a month of me procrastinating before a major exam, hence the re-reads. Coincidently, both Naomi Novik and Brandon Sanderson were releasing novels in November so I got to re-read some favorites while also preparing for their new releases. Novik’s Scholomance series and Sanderson’s Mistborn saga

And then in November I got completely swept away by Megan Whalen Turner’s The Queen’s Thief series. Quick reads but she doesn’t pull her punches. There are adult novels who wish they could hit as hard. And to round out the month with a door stopper was Victoria Goddard’s At the Feet of the Sun and I definitely recommend her Lays of the Hearth-Fire series. Also very gentle and compassionate reads.

#book recs #year in books #penric and desdemona #scholomance #mistborn #the queen's thief #lays of the hearthfire

[goingsparebutwithprecision]

Every time someone disrespects Kip in front of his radiancy my brain starts gibbering, "the last person who did this got turned into a table! A table!!!! Do you not know about the table?!?! Oh my god they don't know about the table" and this is absolutely as Victoria Goddard intended

#the hands of the emperor #the lays of the hearthfire #like i know his radiancy wouldn't turn kip's aunt into a table #but that like. happened. in this very city even #HOW does ANYONE not KNOW about that holy shit #if the lord god emperor of the whole entire world turned somebody into a table for insulting my cousin id never fucking shut up about it #what the fuck #goingspare rambles #goingspare reads #nine worlds

[lotus-mirage]

Just read Saint of the Bookstore and lmao. That’s two for two occasions where both Victoria Goddard’s protagonists and I failed to realize something important about their close friend for a truly silly amount of time. Ohhh my god.

#meanwhile I’d just been explaining the relationship chart to my sibling #and had outright said I thought it was surprisingly heteronormative for the author that wrote Lays of the Hearthfire #nine worlds #greenwing and dart #g&d #I’ve forgotten what tag I used hmm #my thoughts

[ariaste]

Hello anon, sorry I could not reply to this ask directly, but you did put a rather major plot spoiler smack in the middle of it 😂😂😂

I don’t know where you are getting your mixed reviews of TRFA from, because it’s an amazing book and I love it very much. (Remember: There are a lot of people on the internet who are wrong about books. I would suggest thinking of your favorite book and then reading the 1- and 2-star goodreads reviews for it to illustrate exactly what I mean.)

If you liked The Hands of the Emperor, you’ll like TRFA as well -- Kip gets mentioned CONSTANTLY. I would also recommend reading The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul as well -- which you probably already know, because I’m getting the vibe that you have likely seen Victoria’s tweet about it. Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander and Petty Treasons would be good as supplementary materials but they’re not as crucial for understanding plot/characterization as TRFA and TRPA are.

Hope that helped! If you have more questions or if you’d like to hang out with other fans of HOTE, come join the fandom discord server! :) https://discord.gg/bbXMcqehPs

#the hands of the emperor #victoria goddard #the lays of the hearthfire #nine worlds #at the feet of the sun

[nimblermortal]

(Tea is reading The Return of Fitzroy Angursell, Nimbler is reading about De Sitter spaces.)

Tea: I really like that wild magic just sort of distorts the probability with which things happen to someone. So most people, if they want to go to another world, plan to travel for many months, go to the right place, wait for the gate to open... and Fitzroy slips on a rock.

--a short time later--

Nimbler: In sum, the universe is a big blob that we can describe magically. But a closed one! Like a deflated kickball, and mass is a heavy rock that, placed upon the kickball, causes a dent in it.

Tea: So wild magic is like a really really dense rock.

Nimbler: Well one of the ways that the blob is mathematically defined is that we have one virtual dimension of time and three physical dimensions of space - which I personally do not understand why we make that distinction but there we are. So I would say that wild magic is an additional virtual dimension, and that wild mages are particularly dense in that virtual dimension, which makes magical items and events tend to be attracted toward them, while not further distorting the physical dimension. Although they are perfectly capable of doing so! Spaces do distort each other.

#but at that point I think we are talking about branes #another thing I would have to refresh my memory on #the lays of the hearthfire #the Return of Fitzroy Angursell

[piyo13sdoodles]

first 10 days of inktober/drawtober! this year i decided to challenge myself by making the arbitrary rule that i can't use any pencil drafting of any kind--so all of this is drawn directly with marker (you cannot imagine my suffering. i hope, at least, that by the end of the month i will come out of this with a much better sense of how to draft quickly and get a good composition without having to erase too many times). i started with sharpie, and then switched to a sakura marker (2mm width) when the sharpie started to run out + i got a migraine from sharpie fumes, lol.

the theme i have given myself is at the feet of the sun, the book by victoria goddard. you can see the corresponding chapter written in the corner of each of these, if you want to follow along. since atfots has 77 chapters and october has 31 days, i am aiming to illustrate a scene approximately every 2-3 chapters!

#at the feet of the sun #nine worlds #cliopher mdang #artorin damara #ludvic omo #fitzroy angursell #conju an vilius #ser rhodin #atfots #lays of the hearthfire #i drew a whole bunch of these in advance knowing i wouldn't have time to over this weekend #but now i've lost my momentum and i only still have tomorrow's drawn #i'm so so tired though you don't even understand...

[wrishwrosh]

the last emperor of astandalas

#the hands of the emperor #the lays of the hearthfire #nine worlds #artorin damara #fitzroy angursell #if you saw me post this last night no you didnt #anyway i love fitzroy ‘closet metaphor’ angursell and his big fucked up portrait of his alter ego who he hates

[sockich]

Ghilly returned with a tiarë flower tucked behind her ear and another for each of them. “There’s a thicket of them over there,” she said, handing the flowers out. “There, Fitzroy, that’s a proper Islander look.”

“Proper for Tisiamo,” Toucan murmured, but he was smiling. “No, Fitzroy, you put it behind your left ear if you’re single—your right if you’re taken.”

Fitzroy gave Cliopher a very brilliant look and carefully moved the flower to his right ear.

Cliopher felt a wash of some nameless emotion—some indescribable wonder, some intense humility, some astonishing gratitude, some sort of awe. He blinked hard, unable to prevent the smile, the dawning joy, from showing on his face.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Toucan whispered. “He’ll still be there tomorrow.”

—At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard

#🥰🥰🥰 #cliopher mdang #fitzroy angursell #love them #otp! #ghillian poyë #toucan nevan #victoria goddard #at the feet of the sun #the nine worlds #lays of the hearthfire #books #quotes #my posts

[the-griffons-saddlebag]

💎 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Hearthfire Mantle
Wondrous item, uncommon ___ The inside of this heavy leather cloak is decorated with the image of a roaring fireplace. Brick-like patches of leather line the rim of the cloak, which always feel fire-warmed to the touch. While wearing the cloak, you can tolerate temperatures as low as −50 degrees Fahrenheit without any additional protection. Laying the cloak on the ground or hanging it on a wall with its fiery inside exposed creates as much warmth as a small campfire. You can use an action while wearing the cloak to speak one of its two command words and activate its properties. “𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙡𝙚.” You ignite a flammable object you’re holding. “𝙒𝙖𝙧𝙢.” Nonhostile creatures within 10 feet of you gain 2d6 temporary hit points. A creature with these hit points can tolerate temperatures as low as −50 degrees Fahrenheit without any additional protection. Once this property of the cloak has been used, it can’t be used again until the next dawn. ___ ✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon's Saddlebag on Patreon for less than $10 a month!

#illustration #digital art #dungeons and dragons #dnd #d&d