#orc planner??

[defiancecomics]

Patreon Post

I was going to separate this page into doctor vs therapy appointments, but that seemed a little extra even to me. If anyone feels differently, definitely let me know.

#chronic illness #chronic issues #health #healthcare #plannernerd #orc planner?? #planners #i'm making a planner? #planner #planner community #planner sample pages

[dungeonmalcontent]

Ages ago I wrote out lore and background for an organization called the Kobold Trade Union (KTU). It was supposed to be a silly but powerful organization if wealthy kobolds that organized for all small monster labor (particularly kobold caravans).

But not I really want to make a slightly more serious group called All Monsters United (AMU) which would be like the union for monsters employed by villains and that are ubiquitous for certain scenarios.

The necromancer uses zombies and skeletons because the wights and banshees and other more intelligent undead minions are all unionized and get days off.

The bridge builders from the bricklayers guild are constantly odds with citizens and city planners and trolls, because if a bridge doesn't get enough traffic for the troll to meet their toll minimum fir a quarter then the city has to pay up to the gap, so the city keeps demanding to put bridges in mire trafficked areas but the citizens keep complaining that the trolls are just being lazy and they don't want to pay them (but the troll bridges actually bring down crime significantly) so the bricklayers are constantly exasperated but the trolls are actually nice to them.

The goblin and kobold blast miners have demanded life insurance, which is fine, but they keep specifying that they know the blast mining is dangerous and so they have negotiated wrongful death from blast out of their insurance policy to bring down the premiums for the mining corporations (which would have shrunk their paychecks). This has subsequently led to the mining companies investing heavily in structural integrity of the mineshafts to prevent cave ins, which became the leading cause of blast miner death after blast deaths went down because of regulations that started after the insurance negotiation (mining revenue has increased because the blasts have become more precise and the shafts need less repair and have less down time).

The orc bandits at the crossroads have life insurance. Every time an adventure kills one, the city is forced to pay out to the bandits, and subsequently they sue the adventurer to cover the costs. The bandits have adjusted their strategy accordingly. They no longer ambush with lethal force. Mostly they dress as old men and pretend to die from being hit by carriages and large horses while the other orcs emerge from the woods and accuse the travelers of murder.

#fantasy #writing #all monsters united

[redflagromance]

Deplorably Devoted to You

HEARTBREAKING: You’re the Worst Person You Know

You're an accomplished event planner- weddings, baby showers, moon abductions- you do it all. In fact, you're so good that your smoking hot eldritch boss Balthazar Grivus just made you his partner at your firm. It’s finally your chance to change the future of evil event planning. The late nights alone perfecting confetti-spewing bear traps as Barry’s apprentice are over, and now your schedule and heart are wide open.

Nefarious plots abound, and you have a bevy of romantic and professional interests to pursue: plan a wedding anniversary, push a rebrand of a struggling majority, prepare a getaway ship, and promote the fortress-warming party of the millennia. 

The Sorceress

The sorceress is a proud, luxury-loving lady of the ‘eye for an eye’ persuasion. Will you help her achieve vengeance and social satisfaction? Or will you disappoint her and doom yourself to eternal sleep?

The Gunslinger

Gene is a creation of his time- to be specific, the 1800s. In and out of jail for various ill-conceived crimes, he is now more comfortable in a prison cell than out of it. Will his zest for life and the finer points of dynamite light up your life, or blow your career out of the water?

The Florist

Your florist is a gentle, caring person with a heart of gold and a devastating fear of dogs. Their plant expertise, professionalism, contacts dedicated to violating the laws of nature, and tendency to not ask questions make them indispensable to you. But will you bloom together, or will they be uprooted?

The Orc

She is a union president, a go-getter, and forklift certified.  She’s also built like a brick house. Can you help her with the image rebrand that her people desperately need in the face of a global morality shift, or will you get eaten alive?

The Space Pirate

They’re fun. They’re spontaneous. And they’re not a felon in this galaxy yet. Their new ship is almost ready for takeoff- is their ship’s maiden voyage destined to shine brightly, or doomed to crumble into stardust?

The Super Hero

He’s big. He’s strong. He’s probably late for his next client at the gym. He’s as rough as the stones he loves to hunt for in his free time, and tougher than most of the criminals he brings in on late nights.

Your world and career are on the brink- but of success, or failure?

Can you have it all while throwing the best worst events of the season and getting the dark lord to notice you?

DEMO HERE:

#twine #twine games #choice of games #interactive fiction #twine game #twine interactive fiction #interactive novel #deplorably devoted to you #deplorably devoted #text based game

[gottawritesomething]

Pride cometh before the Fall

A pre-orb Gale meets a Wild Magic Sorcerer, they're almost a thing, but then Mystra, and then the orb...

Written for a world where this line was true: "If things were different, if we were home, I'd have taken the time to do things properly. To say it all better."

Part 1/9 - Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 4.5, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9

-

Gale desperately wished he was back at his tower. The first couple hours had gone well. He'd swept into the hall (trailed by some twinkling conjured stars for additional flair) bowed deeply to the host and shook their hand vigorously. He had smiled graciously, "Your celebration has been elevated to magical new heights, my friend - a privilege you should savor!" he'd said with a wink. But as the night had worn on, the appeal of the tonight's soiree had since fallen away. So many hands to shake, so many promises to foregather, and many wizards anxious to make his acquaintance.

His own research had kept him somewhat recluse over the last couple months but a rather desperate party planner had all but begged him to attend. He had allowed himself a small burst of pride at the excitement a visit from an archmage and Mystra's Chosen had caused. But at this point in the night, he was finding himself unengaged. He had attempted to procure a glass of whiskey from the trio at the bar but had been waylaid by a set of researcher eager to hear his thoughts on their proposed project.

He feigned nodding thoughtfully as they went on, thinking back to his own research when he caught the name 'Blackstaff Academy' somewhere in the murmur. He'd not known someone from Blackstaff was in attendance tonight but he was certain they'd delight in stories from his time as a student there.

~

"Are you a bartender full-time, Isabel?" asked the wide-eyed half-elf.

"No, not typically. I am actually here tonight as a favor to a friend. Though I'm starting to suspect he meant it more as a punishment than a favor." Isabel's hair was starting to fall into her face as the speed of drink orders had increased.

"I'm shocked that Tyrig knows people who would call themselves friends of his to begin with," scoffed the half-orc.

"He is... particular in the way he interacts with people. Is how I would phrase it," Isabel countered.

Asiruk grumbled something under his breath, but too many customers had lined up for Isabel to pry further, especially since she knew that half of the queue was there to complain.

First, a stern older woman pointed her finger accusatorily. 

"Just so you are aware, young lady, that gentleman at the end of the bar is highly intoxicated."

"Yes, ma'am, we are good at our jobs. Next, please," Isabel smiled politely.

A halfling tiptoed up next. "Can... I have a... whiskey on the rocks...?"

"Absolutely, you can, as soon as you are of age. As a friendly tip, next time say it with more conviction and don't try it at a proper tavern; they will know. Next please." "Okay, thank you, miss."

A few proper drink orders and some more complaints later, the flow of attendees had slowed to a trickle, and the trio resumed their chatting.

"Why did you say that it was a punishment? You seem to be excellent with the customers," Jilnoa inquired. The half-elf had been a veritable fountain of questions all night, but she'd also been very sweet and quick on the mixing station, so the least Isabel could do was answer a few questions. Not that sharing her strongest opinions on things took much prompting.

"Mostly because Tyrig thinks it is extremely funny when I interact with wizards."

"But aren't you... a wizard? I saw you doing spells earlier." 

“Nope! Isabel is what is called a wild magic sorcerer. Very spooky, volatile even. Most folks are rightfully frightened of that lot," Asiruk cut in. Jilnoa’s eyes widened, and she looked like she was considering stepping back a couple of feet.

Isabel lightly scoffed. “Thank you for the introductory course, Asiruk. I do appreciate you spreading propaganda whenever possible.” She turned back to Jilnoa. “In short, I like to think I am a wizard as more of a hobby, but I am a sorcerer full time. You are, of course, in no danger from me. Part of why I pursued an education was to better control magic surges. Though if I was entirely honest with you my stint at Blackstaff Academy was rather short than most who attend.”

“Did they expel you when they found out that you were a sorcerer?” Jilnoa asked her eyes had reached dangerous levels of wide.

Isabel giggled to herself. “No the issue was more you finish with classes very quickly when you already know how to cast the spell they’re teaching and I was prone to ‘spirited’ debates with my professors and classmates.”

“I knew it, I knew I knew you from somewhere!” The trio turned their head to the newcomer of their conversation. A young man with sandy blond hair and a seemingly permanent smirk sauntered over and leaned on the bar. “The Chaos Conjurer they called you! You were in my class, as I am sure you remember. I am doing quite well for myself, and there is talk of an apprenticeship with the Blackstaff himself. But glad to see you’re working at least.” He turned to Jilnoa and Asiruk “Word on the campus was you could flip a gold on if she’d make you lunch or eat your heart.” He said with a smug grin before turning back to Isabel expectantly. 

“Yes, I remember you. Caspian right? If you remember I wasn’t in your class, I was your TA, and honestly if memory serves based on your homework grades you really shouldn’t be here tonight…you should be studying. Gods knows you didn’t get into school on your ability. I believe that the Silverfire library was donated by your family correct?” She doesn’t wait for him to respond. “I am almost certain that the year the library construction began was close to if not on  the year of your birth, the writing must have already been on the wall.”

The permanent smirk briefly slipped from the man’s features, before a forced version of it returned. “Always pleasant to see you Isabel.” with that he turned on his heels and disappeared into the crowd. 

“See? Tyrig would have killed to see that.” Asiruk remarks bemused.

~

Gale felt a small amount of shame at his disinterest in the researchers. Maybe if they had caught him earlier or perhaps if they had completed their colloquy sooner his attention would have held. To his credit, he was sure they hadn’t noticed that he’d not contributed to the conversation in a decidedly long time. At present, he was vastly more interested in eavesdropping on the three individuals attending the bar. Not that an archmage would ever eavesdrop, Gale assured himself. No, he was not eavesdropping, he was engaging in surreptitious auditory observation completely by accident. Besides it wasn’t as though they were attempting to converse in any kind of hushed manner. He suspected they were relying upon most attendee’s preoccupation which to be fair seemed to have worked before his notice.

He had pinpointed the source of the discussion of Blackstaff to a tall half-elf woman. She spoke fast and seemed to move faster, her dark copper curls somewhat haphazardly pinned to the top of her head with strands occasionally falling across her green eyes. She expertly wove between the two others behind the bar, flashing a smile and a laugh to the patrons as she served them. Much to the delight of many of the customers, Gale noted. Before Gale could enquire about her connection to Blackstaff, a young man had strut between them to speak to the woman. Though ‘speak’ was a generous word for what that lad had attempted. Gale shook his head ruefully, the pride of a young man knows little bounds. He certainly did not envy the student wizard as the half-elf turned her full attention to him, her eyes held a potent intensity he suspected felt a bit like being boiled from the inside out. Despite the fire of her gaze, her response came out collected and polite. An onlooker out of earshot could have presumed she was offering helpful advice to a lost tourist. Fortunately for Gale, he was not out of earshot. As she thoroughly disemboweled the young mage, Gale glanced down at his robes to obscure the slight smile he felt was inappropriate for a man in his position.

A few moments after the man had slunk away he heard the woman sigh.

“That may have been uncalled for…” she said smoothing back some of the wispy hairs from her face.

“I think it was exactly called for.” Her half-orc companion offered.

“I can’t even imagine what school was like. Did you deal with a lot of that?” The younger half-elf queried

“Honestly, I can get along with wizards just fine. And as far as Caspian goes, that’s just what academia does to a person. Generally, the issues arose from a difference in the application of magic.”

Before she could continue, another line of customers had materialized and they were back to their frantic service.

Gale wondered if asking for the whiskey he had sought earlier would draw the tall woman’s ire. He had all but given up on the pretense of listening to the researchers but they seemed to have become occupied with arguing bitterly amongst themselves so Gale turned his full attention to the bar staff with amusement.

“Miss, I can’t taste the notes of gentle tannins in my wine.” a woman complained through heavily lidded eyes.

“I believe that is a natural occurrence after 8 glasses. Let’s try water.”. The drunk woman nodded sagely. Gale found himself quietly impressed at her ability to de-escalate while being a smidge snarky.

“Isabel, this man is asking for you!” Now Gale had a name with which to flag her down. He was endlessly curious about her time at Blackstaff and her odd attitude towards wizards. The tail end of the conversation he’d heard suggested that she’d worked at the academy but seemly briefly and the way she had gone on to discuss ‘wizards’ as a group indicated she did not consider herself one. He couldn’t think of anyone working at Blackstaff who wasn’t a wizard, and Gale thought he knew the names of most of the faculty. Perhaps she was there when they were doing repair work, he reasoned. The school had significantly downsized for a time while repairing after an incident with a lab explosion.

“Sir I apologize but I will have to decline your dinner invitation. The woman at the end of the bar has already proposed marriage so I’m afraid your offer is outmatched.” Isabel was smiling brightly as she waved the man away. Gale chuckled, he’d also been on the receiving end of his colleague's more lecherous behaviors that tended to manifest toward the end of the night. The line had again waned and he made his way over leaning onto the bar, waiting for an opportunity to introduce himself.

“So your issue with wizards…?” The younger woman asked inquisitively.

“Ah yes, typically I know how to handle them. Most wizards you meet will attempt to either impress you or belittle you. Sometimes if they’re feeling ambitious, both. But if I am being entirely honest, I don’t even mind the ego. I sincerely believe that some degree of ego is required to utilize the Weave. The core of my issue is the complete lack of imagination. Engaging with magic is such a beautiful experience but most that I’ve met boil it down to the barest bones and pick it apart attempting to concretize it. The Weave is fluid and solid, tangible and not, to imply there is one correct approach is such a limiting way to cast. Worst of all to me, most refuse to use magic for fun. I’m not sure if perhaps a requirement of being a wizard is a disdain for fun but it certainly feels like it.” Isabel sighed again, toying with a glass. Frost designs bloomed on the glass as she ran her fingers along the side.

Gale’s first instinct was to interject. This woman, this ‘Isabel’, was being incredibly presumptuous, furthermore, if she was indeed not a wizard then who was she to critique their time-honored traditions? Additionally, the familiarity with which she spoke about the Weave – about Mystra – set him on edge. Besides himself, no one had that degree of familiarity with the Weave. He took in a breath, calming himself. He would gently correct her, but first, he had to deliberate upon his phrasing for this discourse in a more composed demeanor. He smoothed his hair down and took another deep breath. She didn’t mean any harm, and if he was being candid he’d also felt some frustration at the resistance to inertia or progress displayed by his colleagues. The more he considered her words the more the desire to converse with her about her perspective grew. 

“It seems to be slowing down, might be able to clean up early.” the half-orc said with a great measure of relief.

Isabel winced slightly before responding 

“I think the calm before the storm would be more apt, by this time of night and this many glasses of wine in, they’re likely to more honestly argue with each other, and the pretenses fall away.”.

She scanned the room “and I see that Professor Thimbleshon is here as is Professor Finasta. They could actually come to blows. Which I would be alright with, I am still a bit sore about an assessment he gave me after we got into an argument about Alchemical Casting. He tried to argue that it requires a physical application prior to casting when everyone knows…”. She stopped as she noticed that her companion’s eye had begun to glaze over. “Point is he’s a bit of a blowhard, and worse still an inaccurate blowhard.” She states firmly.

At this Gale snorts, inelegantly and rather louder than he’d intended. He’d also had a similar disagreement with a paper that Finasta had published, and had written to say so. 

Three sets of eyes swiveled to look at him. Vibrant green eyes lock on to his.

(Next Chapter)>Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 4.5, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9

#baulders gate 3 #gale x tav #gale x oc #gale dekarios #fanfic #baldur's gate fanfiction #bg3 gale #baldurs gate gale #gale of waterdeep #galemance #gale romance

[spyridonya]

🎮💯🍎🤩 for any or all three of your ocs kaidra, sophus, and soluna?

Thank you Ama!

🎮 VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER — what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?

Kadira loves reading, and relishes the time she can read to pleasure. She also loves investigating plants and trying to draw them, with mixed results.

Sophus enjoys physical activities, and on the occasion cooking. His favorite sport is something like rugby, though it's played on hard courts rather than lawns. Sophus underplays his abilities in cooking, rarely bringing it up until he has the occasional guest or when he has cooking duties either in his unit or with other tadpole adventures.

Lulu loves music! Adores music. Besides music she's very into fashion, getting it months to years after it swept the cities. If not playing music or making clothes, she loves reading travel books and maps with the dream of where to go once she makes enough money in Baldur's Gate.

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

Kadira's tail is 6 feet long, her favorite flowers are black eyed susans, and deadbeat father is a Dispater cultist.

Lulu has broken her arm three times (having a mother for a cleric meant you were a little wild), she's 5'7, and lost her virginity to an orc mercenary.

Sophus heritage is 'true' half elf on his father's side, his mother was an aasimar as well. He is a little reversed around dogs, since there are so many strays. He's been to the Brothel for Slaking Intellectual Lusts.

🍎 RED APPLE — where was your oc born? do they still live in/around their place of birth or do they live somewhere else? how do they feel about their birthplace?

Kadira - Kadee was born in the city of Kenabras to a Sakorian family!

Lulu - Soluna was born in a small drow and wood elf settlement Tejarn Hils!

Sophus - Was born to a half elf family with celestial heritage in Sigil, the City of Doors 🤩 FACE WITH STARRY EYES — is your oc a planner, or are they more spontaneous in their actions?

Kadira and Sophus are both planners, though Kadira is likely the better of the two.

Lulu has no idea how she gets out of her bedroll half the time.

#answered ask #amatres #character: soluna #character: sophus #character: knight commander kadira

[phoenixrisesoncemore]

The Nameless Enemy: Speculations on My Favorite Baddie, Part 4

“It was an admirable thing and altogether precious.”

Gas cloud surrounding the star Fomalhaut.

go to part 1 | go to part 2 | go to part 3 | this is part 4 | go to part 5 [coming soon]

We never see Sauron—at least not in The Lord of the Rings—and that was funny to 13 year old me. When I first followed Frodo on that journey to Mount Doom I wondered at the choice to name a book after a villain who doesn’t actually appear in it. There’s the arrow of red light from Barad-dûr’s highest tower, of course, or the dark cloud with the reaching arm that rises over Mordor at the moment of Sauron’s defeat, but both of these function as suggestions of his presence or the weight of his attention only; they are the interpretations of the events as seen by others. Likewise, the one and only time Sauron speaks we receive his words through an intermediary—a contrite Pippin who has sneaked a peek at the palantir.

But Sauron is always there. The threat or the fear of him is always just at the edge of our peripheral vision: in the far-flung, millennia-long plots[1]; in the metaphors that put him everywhere all the time, disembodied limbs reaching to encompass all of Middle-earth (“his arm has grown long”) or disembodied eyes searching[2]; in the almost campy performance of evil on display when he orders his minions to steal only black horses from the Rohirrim; in the capitalized pronouns; in the metonymy and other evasive forms of address his orc underlings use to circumnavigate invoking him. In poor Sméagol’s other self[3].

In the ever-increasing weight hanging from Frodo’s neck: our antagonist is on that journey, too, literally and figuratively barreling towards his own destruction.

Along that journey Tolkien tells us numerous names and epithets for him—103 according to Richard Blackwelder’s A Tolkien Thesaurus—not counting the many he goes by in other texts. One of those is “The Nameless Enemy.” This word—“nameless”—is first applied in this way by Boromir at The Council of Elrond and later by Faramir, suggesting that invoking the name “Sauron” may be considered dangerous or even taboo to the Men of Gondor.

But “nameless” is far more appropriate than this simple explanation can express.

Sauron is fundamentally a shape-shifter, a deceiver, the one who sees but is never seen. A cursory reading of the major Legendarium texts reveal a character who appears full of contradictions. He is explicitly characterized by his love of order and efficiency, and yet he is said to have “adored” Morgoth, a being most closely associated with chaos, destruction, and nihilism. He is the technologist, the planner, the maker of Black Speech[4], the one who turns Morgoth’s grand desires into plans of action—like Saruman he “has a mind of metal and wheels.” But he is also Thû, the Lord of Werewolves; Thû, the Hunter; and also Thû, the Necromancer, a master of cruelty and twister of body and spirit. He is the “reformer” who seeks the rehabilitation of Middle-earth, who “was indeed not wholly evil,” who seeks the material betterment of his subjects—so long as he has their worship and obedience. But he is also the catalyst of the final defilement of Númenor where he ends as the high priest of Morgoth, master of lies and disinformation campaigns, and promoter of human sacrifice whose cultivating of humanity’s most horrific traits ends only with the reshaping of the world.

Yet unlike Morgoth, nowhere in the works we collectively call Tolkien’s “Legendarium” does Tolkien ever tell us Sauron’s original name.

Names carry a lot of weight in the Legendarium. Inside the Secondary World of The Lord of the Rings characters like Treebeard express to the reader the importance of names to what and who things and people are. Teenage me was well aware of this. Way back in 1994 I was sure that if I just knew Sauron’s missing original name I could make sense of his contradictions. So I scoured every volume—Letters, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth—hunting just that information, but without success. 20 years later, at the end of a decade spent not thinking much about Tolkien, Sauron, as far as I knew, was still The Nameless Enemy in both the Primary and Secondary worlds.

Then one night…

I had recently seen The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies and my head was buzzing with Dol Guldur questions. During the wee winter hours of mid January 2015, as I was link-hopping through a Google search, I think I must have made my way back to the “Sauron” entry on Wikipedia[5] which is where (rather ironically) I finally got my answer. Somewhere in Tolkien’s endless linguistic notes he had given his penultimate baddie an original name[6]: “Mairon.”

The name Mairon thus means “admirable/excellent one”, a masculine noun derived from the adjective maira “admirable, excellent, precious” or “splendid, sublime” – “only [used] of great, august or splendid things”[7].

Suddenly Frodo’s description of the Ring just before he fails to throw it in the fireplace at Bag End came bubbling up from my memory, and I opened my nearest copy to find:

Frodo drew the Ring out of his pocket again and looked at it. It now appeared plain and smooth.... The gold looked very fair and pure, and Frodo thought how rich and beautiful was its colour, how perfect was its roundness. It was an admirable thing and altogether precious[8].

Well then. It was at this very moment, in my frustration at having known the answer for 20 years without knowing I knew it, that I threw my one-volume copy of The Lord of the Rings against the wall and screamed a few choice words at Tolkien’s ghost. If he heard me, he hasn’t responded, which is probably just as well.

This isn’t exactly new to Tolkien fandom (certainly not on Tumblr!). This shocking bit of trivia—that Sauron’s original name meant “precious” of all things—is something many fans have already commented on, often with incredible insight, but there are other aspects of this name that I have not seen addressed in meta form, and it’s those I plan to focus on here.

Note: if there is any aspect of Tolkien’s work that I have always felt too ignorant to fully appreciate, it is the linguistics. I beg your indulgence. Chances are high I am about to bull up this china shop.

Locating “Mairon”

The name “Mairon” appears in a selection of linguistic notes dated from the mid 50’s to late 60’s which were compiled for publication in the 17th volume of the journal Parma Eldalamberon (PE17). This body of work consists of glosses and detailed etymological information for words, phrases, & passages in Tolkien’s constructed languages that appear in The Lord of the Rings. Though written after and in response to The Lord of the Rings, the work appears to have effected Tolkien’s understanding of the Silmarillion if Tolkien’s words to Rayner Unwin can be trusted: "Time has not been wasted. I have done a great deal of work on the Silmarillion largely as a consequence of thinking about the points raised.”

The name “Mairon” comes from the primitive root MAY-. PE17 lists several entries for this root, written down at different times, between which there are two main glosses. They are, in order: ‘make’ (in the sense of art) and ‘excellent/admirable.’

A number of roots related to MAY- are also listed including (A)MAY- (‘suitable, useful, proper, serviceable, right’); it’s inverse, PEN- (‘lack’); and MA3- (‘serve, be of use‘ but also ‘handle, manage, control, wield’ and ‘hand’).

From the root MAY- meaning ‘make’ are derived the words ‘maire’ (noun: a work of high and beautiful art), ‘maita-’ (transitive: to make with art, design, compose), and ‘maitar’ (noun: artist). From the first MAY- entry meaning ‘excellent, admirable’ are derived ‘maira’ (adj: admirable, excellent, precious) and ‘maina’ (noun: a thing of excellence, a treasure). And from the second MAY- entry meaning ‘excellent, admirable’ is derived ‘maira’ (adj: admirable, splendid, sublime. Only of great, august or splendid things).

The name “Mairon” is derived from one of these two instances of the noun “maira,” but it’s not hard to see the connection between “Mairon” and some of the other glosses—as a Maiar, especially a Maiar of Aulë, Mairon is certainly a “maker.” The association with “usefulness” also makes sense for a being interesting in order and efficiency. Additionally, as Jonathan McIntosh points out in The Flame Imperishable, the fundamental evil of The Ring—why it cannot ever be used for good—is the fact that it represents the objectification of a person (Sauron), who deliberately turned part of himself into a tool, taking the idea of “usefulness” to terrifying levels.

Throughout his history Sauron repeatedly appears in situations where he either plays a supportive role or pretends to play a supportive role. He is the “admirable/excellent” pupil of Aulë. He switches allegiance and serves Melkor, maintaining the sole admirable quality of seeking no power for himself but only for his master. He provides knowledge to Men in the East and imagines for the inhabitants of Arda a better (material) future. He offers his knowledge to the Elves of Eregion as a part of a plan to jointly fulfill those hopes for the future. As he descends from “benevolent reformer” into madness and murder in his quest for control, we might even guess it is at first only because his perceived ends have overshadowed the means of their acquisition. When the threat of Numenor comes, he once again plays the role of subservient adviser, but this time there is nothing genuine about it. These associations with service are appropriate especially as all of the entries for the root MAY- show the name of the lesser order of Ainur, the “Maiar,” being derived from it as well.

According to Christopher Tolkien, the term “Maiar” first appears some time between 1951 and 1958. The entries for “Maia(r)”/“Maya(r)” in the linguistic notes compiled into PE17 can be dated to between 1955-1960, the same period which the notes that contain the name “Mairon” date to.

These words—one the name for an individual (Mairon) within an order of beings and the other a name for the entire order (Maiar)—are closely related. Considering the fact that most Maiar were associated with service and a subordinate position (most served under a Vala) and all were in some sense “makers” (fundamentally subcreative and even demiurgic beings), perhaps we can say that prior to his corruption, Mairon was a kind of exemplar of his order—not just a maiar, but the maiar, “the definite article, you might say”[9]. This in itself might explain why he was so integral to Morgoth accomplishing so many of his designs during the First Age. As one of if not the most powerful of and exemplary of a class of beings made to serve and be useful, he was likely a very effective asset, and that sheer effectiveness might well be something to be admired for. But how does the meaning of his name compare to other Ainur?

There are relatively few named Valar and Maiar in the Legendarium. For some of these, etymological information can be very sparse. Below follows a list of names and meanings taken mostly from PE17 and from various later volumes of The History of Middle-earth[10]. Since “Mairon” is a Quenya name, I have supplied all other Ainur names in Quenya and only included translations in other languages where I deemed it necessary for clarity.

Valar

Aulë (Q): Invention

Estë (Q): Rest

Irmo (Q): Master of Desire

Manwë (Q): Blessed One

Melkor (Q): Mighty Arising/One who arises in Might

Námo (Q): Judge/Ordainer

Nessa (Q): Young

Nienna (Q): Weeping/She Who Weeps, derived from “nei” (tear)

Oromë (Q): Horn-blower, from the Valarin “Arômêz”

Tulkas (Q): Strong/Steadfast, from the Valarin “Tulukhastāz” (yellow-haired)

Ulmo (Q): The Pourer, from the Valarin “Ullubōz”

Vairë (Q): Weaver, derived from the root “wey” (weave, wind)

Vana (Q): Beauty/Beautiful One

Varda (Q): Sublime/Lofty

Yavanna (Q): Giver of Fruits

Maiar

Aiwendil (Q): Lover of Birds

Arien (Q): Maiden of Sunlight/Maiden of the Sun

Curumo (Q): Cunning One/Man of Skill

Eönwë (Q): etymology unknown but perhaps derived from “haste” or “hawk”

Ilmarë (Q): Starlight

Mairon (Q): Admirable/Excellent; from maira: Admirable/Excellent/Precious/Splendid/Sublime

Melyanna (Q)/Melian (S): Dear Gift

Olórin (Q): Dreams/Dreamer (in the sense of Elvish memory/imagination/inspiration/fantasy)

Ossë (Q): etymology unknown but perhaps derived from “spuming” or “foaming”

Salmar (Q): derived from salma/“lyre”

Tilion (Q): The Horned

Uinen (Q): etymology unknown but perhaps derived from “water” or “seaweed”

No doubt there is a lot of subjectivity in how one can categorize these names—is Melkor’s association with Might that different from Tulkas’s association with Strength?—but for the purposes of this exercise I’m going to take a stab at it.

The vast majority of these names (or titles as the case may be) refer to either distinct material objects, concepts, or aspects of Creation (e.g. sunlight, birds, fruits, horns, beauty, youth, desire, dreams, strength, etc.) or an action or role associated with such (e.g. weaving, inventing, weeping, pouring, foaming, etc.). Such names and titles make sense for beings whose Primary World counterparts are the gods and goddesses of myth, associated as they are with their individual domains. Of the remainder, a handful of Valar names function like honorifics or expressions of awe (e.g. Blessed, Mighty Arising, Lofty) that point to the owner being particularly possessed of power or favor or of being worthy of veneration. The remaining names are Maiar names, and could also be viewed as honorifics, but they do not fit as cleanly into that category, though they each reference the name’s owner as possessing a positive quality. They are Melyanna (Dear Gift), Curumo (Man of Skill), and Mairon (Admirable/Excellent).

“Man of Skill” prompts the question “what kind of skill?” According to Hammond and Scull’s Companion and Guide, the Mannish translation of Curumo—Saruman—is derived from Old English and references “device, design, contrivance, and art,” as would be fitting for a Maia of Aulë. In light of this, it is interesting that Mairon, who was already perceived at the time his name was chosen as “mightiest in the lore” of Aulë, is given a name not associated specifically with artifice and design, but rather with the more generalized characteristics of admirability and excellence. Excellence in what? Admirable for what? This lack of specificity places him, perhaps, more closely in alignment with Melyanna whose name, “Dear Gift,” is derived—like Sauron’s nom de scène “Annatar”—from the root ANA- found in the word for “gift” and associated with the ideas of “to” or “towards.” We might even say that Melyanna’s name implies both relation (a gift requires an object—person or otherwise—to be given to) and the direction of that relation (towards another/away from the self). What then are we to make of “The Admirable”? Instead of asking “admirable for WHAT?“ maybe what we should really be asking is “admirable to WHOM?”

Who Will Admire You Now?

To be admirable requires another (at least theoretical) person to do the admiring. As with Melyanna, the name “Mairon” necessarily implies a relationship and a specific direction to that relationship between the name’s owner and another party, in this case someone capable of admiration. But whereas the idea of “gifting” associated with Melyanna’s name involves movement from her outwards, the direction of action here is reversed—inward instead of outward, from the admirer to the admired.

In letter 183 Tolkien writes of Sauron in the Second Age: “When he found how greatly his knowledge was admired by all other rational creatures and how easy it was to influence them, his pride became boundless.” It is around this time that Sauron begins his quest to obtain worship as a god-king in Middle-earth. His pride is later greatly injured by Ar-Pharazôn’s choice to parade him in chains as a captive through Armenelos. This was a public act, a “showing off” of Sauron, a once mighty god now a humbled prisoner. This was Pharazôn exerting power over Sauron through manipulating how others saw him. It was this humiliation that Tolkien says influenced the magnitude and cruelty of Sauron’s revenge. While the text does not explicitly reference shame here, we can infer it. Shame is pride’s antithesis and is also explicitly associated with Sauron in The Silmarillion.

After his defeat by Luthien and Huan, Luthien obtains ownership of Sauron’s fortress by threatening to shame him before Morgoth. If he does not give her control of it, she says, she will rip his spirit from its house and make him flee naked back to Angband: “[t]here everlastingly thy naked self shall endure the torment of [Morgoth’s] scorn, pierced by his eyes, unless thou yield to me the mastery of thy tower[11].” Later, at the end of the War of Wrath, Sauron presents himself to Eönwë for pardon. Eönwë, however, explains that Sauron must present himself to the Valar for judgment instead, as Eönwë, himself, is not able to judge one of this own order. At this we are told “Sauron was ashamed, and he was unwilling to return in humiliation and to receive from the Valar a sentence, it might be, of long servitude in proof of his good faith; for under Morgoth his power had been great.”

Each of these moments are turning points in the trajectory of Sauron’s arc. We don’t hear more about him after he retreats to Taur-nu-Fuin. We can wonder whether he ever even returned to Angband[12] or if he remained hidden until he came before Eönwë. In each of these moments Sauron’s image of himself, the image of himself to others, or what he imagines that image to be plays a fundamental role. That is to say pride—but also shame—plays a fundamental role.

The Silmarillion is filled with cautionary tales about pride. Melkor’s own Fall is the result of his pride, spurred by his time alone searching for The Flame Imperishable, his refusal to work in tandem with the other Ainur in an act of subcreation, and his frustration at not being able to create ex-nihilo as Eru could. He is shamed by the circumstances of his defeat and imprisonment in Valinor and the weakness he exhibits after his return to Angband. His Fall ultimately results in a degradation of the very characteristics that give him his name, “Mighty Arising.”

How might this play out differently in manner or magnitude for a being who may be, in some ontological way, fundamentally tied to receiving the admiration of others and to providing service to others? Does the dance of pride and shame become a kind of feedback loop, a kind of void of its own, like the Ring, itself?

During his eons of time in Middle-earth, the being we call Sauron was known by many names, most of them anything but flattering. Sauron means “The Abhorred”; its parallel in Sindarin, Gorthaur, means “Dread Abomination” or alternatively “Mist of Fear.” Later notes link the names to the root THAW-, glossed “cruel,” while earlier notes link them to the roots SAWA- and THUS- which carry connotations of stench.

As if something has gone off or gone rotten.

These names and the glosses of their roots represent inversions of attributes associated with the name “Mairon”: no longer Admirable but Abhorred, no longer suitable, no longer of service, no longer a maker of art.

But what did Sauron call himself?

Nameless

In PE17 we read the following regarding the name Mairon: “This was altered when he was suborned by Melkor. But he continued to call himself Mairon the Admirable, or Tar-mairon 'King Excellent' until after the downfall of Numenor.” Mairon, himself, did not stop using that name, but someone else, presumably the other Ainur did. They struck him from the rolls, so to speak. No longer an exemplar of their order, he was no longer worthy of either the name Mairon nor the title Maiar[13].

He continued to hold onto this name for himself until after the fall of Numenor. What changes at this point? His physical form having been obliterated, this once-nimble shape shifter can no longer appear fair in the eyes of others. Possessed now with only the Ring’s power of domination and the ability to inspire terror, The Admirable is unlikely to ever again experience the admiration that we might guess is foundational to his very being.

We do not know what Sauron called himself after this point. After his defeat by the host of the Last Alliance he flees (again bodiless) into the East until he can grow a new form—a slow process in his weakened state and bereft of the Ring. Upon his return to Dol Guldur he is given the name “The Necromancer,”[14] but it is never stated that this is what he calls himself.

By the time of the War of the Ring, Aragorn is of the belief that the Dark Lord does not allow the name “Sauron” to be spoken by his subjects. [15] Though it is not clear that anyone but Elves and a few of “the wise” among Men and Dwarves left in Middle-earth would know what the Quenya name “Sauron” even means, it is reasonable that those who you want to view you as a god-king should likely not be calling you “Abhored” while doing so. Still, this doesn’t tell us what name he used for himself.

We do know that “by the end of the Third Age […] he claimed to be Morgoth returned.” Did he really believe that? Tolkien never tells us for sure whether he had actually descended deep enough into madness to believe he was Morgoth. Sauron had preached Morgoth’s return for centuries in the Second Age as Morgoth’s “high priest.” Perhaps the choice to present himself under that name in the Third was expedient: if there was historical knowledge that the entity “Sauron” was overthrown in the Last Alliance, it may be that presenting himself as that same entity would not have inspired the devotion he needed. This would hold with the pattern from his time in Numenor when he converted Men to the worship of Morgoth because, as Pharazôn’s captive, he could hardly demand worship of himself.

This is again part of a trend. Sauron sees but is never seen. The fundamental being, the fundamental and authentic who that was before the Fall is always obscured and never appears in the text. Even Melkor gets some hint of close narrative written of him during the Ainulindalë, in the moments when he was still fully One Who Arises in Might. But not The Admirable. His earliest close narrative appearance in the Legendarium is in the story of Beren and Luthien, long after he has fallen to evil. And it begins with Sauron weaving a web of terror and illusions from within Dorthonian to ensnare Gorlim.

Sauron is a master of crafting images, especially of himself. Melkor diffused his being across middle earth, making it into his Ring, in order that he could control it, tarnish it, destroy it. Not because he wanted to do anything good with it, but because it wasn’t solely his. Sauron splits his Being, pouring some of it into his own Ring, and making of himself an object. He does not spread his Being any farther than that, but he does spread his image—the image of himself he has crafted—such that by the end of the Third Age, while located materially at the top of his tower, he interfaces with Middle-earth (and the Reader) almost entirely through servants and underlings, second hand accounts, stories and legends, fear of The Eye. This Sauron is practically a gestalt entity, a negative space giving shape to terror.

How long has it been since he encountered another on honest terms? If he cannot honestly encounter another being in the world on honest terms, how can he fulfill the relational role his name implies? What happens to The Admirable when no one can truly see him any longer, when no one can admire him (to say nothing of will)? And what might that tell us about what he called himself to himself? About what name he associated with “I”?

Consider for a moment Treebeard, whose name grew longer over the ages and became like a story, listing out his relation to all the other things in the world with which he had meaningful contact. Or perhaps Tom Bombadil. In The Flame Imperishable Jonathan McIntosh explains Tom’s confusion at the repeated questions about who he is in this way: “Goldberry and Tom are referring to the mystery of names. See and ponder Tom’s words in Vol. I p. 142. [‘Tell me, who are you, alone, yourself and nameless?’]. You may be able to conceive of your unique relation to the Creator without a name... But as soon as you are in a world of other finites with a similar, if each unique and different, relation to Prime Being, who are you?”

What about those “other finites” each “unique and different”?

Those who fall under the force of Sauron’s dominating will all seem to forget their names. The Mouth no longer knows his, I suspect the Nazgûl don’t either. They are no longer “others finites” that Sauron might relate to. They are extensions of him, perhaps less literally than the orc armies that sway and lose their nerve for battle when Sauron takes his attention off them, but they are extensions of him nonetheless. The Mouth of Sauron has even transformed his identity such that he is a part of Sauron’s body!

Near the beginning of this essay I mentioned the presence of Sauron in “Sméagol’s other self.” Sméagol had spent hundreds of years alone with nothing to talk to but the Ring, the distillation of some significant portion of Sauron’s being. Sméagol’s conflation of “I” and “we”, himself and the Ring, is about more than just the dangers of long-term isolation. It is the burden of the Ring that has subsumed and overwritten his sense of “I.” This would be the ultimate fate of all beings in the world under Sauron’s dominion. Sauron may still recognize he is “in a world of beings,” but his end goal requires they no longer be “each unique and different.” Ultimately his domination will require the erasure of their fundamental and authentic who as well.

Like the solipsistic dyad that is Sauron and the Ring, Sauron’s last Fall is a vicious circle in which the world becomes him and he becomes nothing, no longer able to be related to by others and no longer perceiving authentic others to relate to. He has burned the bridge at both ends and now his ability to exist in a relationship with other beings, the thing that gave him his identity as Admirable, has been destroyed. Maybe that means that Once-Mairon, or the part of him brooding in the top of his fortress, needs no name to refer to “I” in the dark corners of his mind.

Maybe he truly did become nameless, even to himself.

----------

Addendum

Some time between 2007 and 2015, I must have encountered some bit of the relevant PE17 passage...somewhere...possibly on a Tolkien wiki or someone’s blog post, but it was distinctly only that part that tells us that “Tar-Mairon (King Excellent)” was what he called himself around the time of Numenor, not that it was his original name. This, in isolation, sounded so suitably narcissistic that I assumed, at the time, that it must simply be the name he adopted at some point during his Second Age empire building. I didn’t think much more of it.

Weirdly, I actually have a very vivid memory of reading this not online but in (I thought) Sauron Defeated. I even have a clear mental picture of how the sentence looked on the page, as part of one of Christopher’s notes on the content of “The Notion Club Papers.” And yet...there’s nothing in there. My mind, it seems, has created an entirely different origin for that bit of information.

Human memory is terrifying.

Lastly, hey, if you got this far, thank you for reading! I started writing portions of this particular piece in a state of shock about 7 years ago, long before I knew what “metas” even were; I just haven’t had the emotional will to finish it for the last 2 or 3 years.

Part 5 of this series (A Wizard, a Demon, a Cat, a Reformer, a Satanist, and a Bureaucrat) will happen. I hope before the end of the month, but I am really gonna try to shoot for “less than 7 years from now.”

Notes

Discussed here: The Inverted Mountain. This is, incidentally, the one and only place in the narrative where where the narrator gives us a peak at what Sauron is actually thinking.

Someone wrote a bit about this: that Sauron in The Lord of the Rings could be seen as more acutely present and embodied in the text via these metaphors, as separated limbs and parts. Does anyone know who I am thinking of? I would love to remember where that thought originally came from so that I can give this person credit.

Discussed here: Tolkien the Horror Writer

This isn’t strictly true depending on what you accept as “canon.” This next part isn’t an original observation of mine, but as before I can’t remember whose observation it is (help? Where did I read this?): again depending on what you accept as “canon,” Sauron represents the only person in the Legendarium to have actively participated, like Tolkien, himself, in conlanging, a kind of “ordering of reality,” discussed here: Ordering Reality.

”Which... *averts eyes* ... *slowly crawls under covers* ... *then under bed* ... *digging sounds* ... *mumbles from the center of the Earth* I edited a few times back in the day.

Tolkien, via Pengolodh, states in the Essay “Quendi and Eldar: Note on the ‘Language of the Valar’” that the names given for the Ainur, with the exception of Oromë, are not their right names (which they do not share) but rather their titles. However, these titles nevertheless were awarded due to said Ainu’s characteristics and nature. This revelation naturally leads to the question of who gave them their titles. If some names come from the Valarin, then presumably they either titled themselves or each other—that is, unless we are to understand that the Quendi gave them titles based on their functions which were then translated back into Valarin.

Helge Fauskanger, “A Name for the Dark Lord”.

This passage appears to have been conceived very near to its final form from the very first extant draft of this conversation, before the conversation even fit within the narrative of the greater story: “Bingo drew the Ring out of an inner pocket, and looked at it. It was plain and smooth without device, emblem, or rune; but it was of gold, and as he looked at it it seemed to Bingo that its colour was rich and beautiful, and its roundness perfect. It was very admirable and wholly precious” (HoMe VI: The Return of the Shadow “Of Gollum and the Ring”). To be clear I’m not suggesting that Tolkien had the name “Mairon” in mind when he wrote the first draft of the passage from “Shadow of the Past” or even had those qualities in mind as representative of some early and unstained iteration of his villain. I suspect Bingo’s reaction to the Ring is simply Bingo’s reaction to a powerful and malevolent object.

In “Robot,” the first episode of Doctor Who to feature actor Tom Baker in the lead role, the newly regenerated Doctor tells his soon-to-be companion, UNIT Medical Officer Harry Sullivan, "You may be A doctor, but I'm THE Doctor - the definite article, you might say."

Several come from HoMe X: Morgoth’s Ring, Part Two: “The Annals of Aman.”

More here: Fixation and Attachment Can Lead to Missing Fingers

There is one caveat to this: Tolkien mentions Sauron one last time in a note on a draft of “The Fall of Gondolin” where he appears to be considering whether it was Sauron and not just orcs who was responsible for capturing Maeglin and bringing him to Angband. This would have been well after Sauron’s retreat to Taur-nu-Fuin. Could Sauron have seen this as his chance to re-enter Morgoth’s presence in triumph rather than defeat?

More on that in the previous entry in this series: part 3

After reading the early drafts of The Hobbit, I’ve been convinced that the earliest iteration of The Necromancer was conceived as being the character Thu who has retreated to Taur-nu-Fuin (called Mirkwood by Wizards, Dwarves, and Hobbits in this draft) post his defeat by Luthien. These earliest drafts of The Hobbit were written before there appears to have been any concept of a Second or Third Age, so their temporal and geographic location seems to be Beleriand sometime during the First Age or just after.

The question of why The Mouth of Sauron uses “Sauron” to identify the Dark Lord when addressing Gandalf and company at the end of Book V if Sauron does not permit his subjects to use this name has been addressed numerous times in fan spaces, and these discussions have generated a number of plausible explanations. Perhaps certain high-ranking subjects are permitted to use this name under special circumstances, such as when addressing persons in the West who knew The No-Longer Admirable as “Sauron”—this is the explanation that Hammond and Scull seem to land on in their Companion and Guide. It is not hard to believe that Sauron would control his image differently depending on who that image was facing; he’s a skilled propaganda artist after all, and the fear factor would have taken on a different flavor depending on where it was directed. It’s also possible that the Mouth’s comments can be written off as an authorial invention of whoever Tolkien wants us to believe “wrote” or at least “told” that part of the story (Pippin?). Said author may have chosen to use the name “Sauron” in place of whatever name The Mouth actually used in order to maintain consistency in the narrative.

#tolkien #sauron #silmarillion #the lord of the rings #mairon #annatar #linguistics #ainur #maiar #parma eldalamberon 17 #thank god that's done #seriously if you want a more enjoyable and less dry analysis of his name and nature just go read These Gifts That You Have Given Me #which remains the best scholarly exploration of Sauron through creative writing that I have ever read #like seriously the first time I read it it was like checking off all these points regarding sauron and his nature #and I was just nodding my head for months and going yes someone gets it thats it exactly #like single best interpretation of the whole sauron wants to be but is terrified of being seen

[the-unicorns-of-nienna]

Headcanon: The Orcish Zodiac

Like some human cultures, Orcs ascribe both positive and negative personality traits to individuals based on when they were born (obviously, the accuracy of these predictions varies greatly). While the Western Zodiac links constellations to birth months, and the Eastern Zodiac assigns animals and elements to birth years; the Orc Zodiac associates each season with one of Angband’s lords.

In the Spring, Lord Melkor returned to Angband after his long imprisonment; and was saved from the jaws of Ungoliant by the Balrogs. Thus, springtime is said to be ruled by the Lord of Balrogs: Gothmog. Those born in this season are expected to be fearsome warriors, winning battles that will be sung of for centuries to come. But they must be careful not to let their victories go their heads, lest they make the deadly mistake of underestimating their foes.

The hottest part of the year is ruled by Glaurung, the first dragon. Summer-born orcs are said to be naturally charismatic: adept at swaying rivals and winning allies. But like dragons themselves, these orcs are inclined to greed and laziness: manipulating others into doing all of the hard work, while hoarding the spoils for themselves.

Summer turns to autumn, and shadows grow long. Now is the time of Tevildo, prince of cats. Those born under his protection are believed to be cunning, and adaptable; expected to become capable strategists, navigators, planners, and inventors. But while intelligence can be used for the betterment of the tribe; autumnal orcs are just as likely to be dishonest, fickle, and unreliable.

Winter is the time when wolves mate. Orcs born in the cold season of Draugluin are said to be loyal: to their tribe, to their family, and to their lords. But loyalty is supposed to be earned; with mindless loyalty driving orcs to throw their lives away in service of incompetent leaders, and doomed causes.

#Headcanon #Orcs #Goblins #Gothmog #Glaurung #Tevildo #Draugluin

[elkenbulwark]

hc // year of relentless endurance

As far as the aging process for half-orcs (human variety) go, they stay in a child state up until about thirteen/fourteen years of age. They end up hitting a massive growth spurt here where they essentially go through about seven (human) years worth of aging/growth all compacted into single year. This very well means that relatives could remember their family member as a child and then meet them again for holidays at the end of the year and be met with a full grown, hulking monster that's ready to eat way more than what the family meal planners intended.

This rapid-growth phenomenon is also part of the reason why many half-orcs enter adulthood with pug-like wrinkles because the rapid growth of their skin combined with the fact that their orc skin continues to grow out like full orcs but is grown on a human sized frame where there's not enough surface space for it all to lie flat.

The year of rapid aging is what most orc/half orc parents will refer to as an unholy combination of a child's terrible twos combined with about seven years worth of teenage angst as the expedited growth surge invites intense bouts of growing pains that pretty much guarantees even the best behaved child prior to the event will become an absolute hellion.

#//yep thats why they have that perk as a race imo xd #//also bless their wrinkles they're lil frenchie bulldogs 😭 #hc ; // roll history check

[torpublishinggroup]

5 Dragons Daniel M. Ford’s Adept Wizard Could Beat in a Fight

Dragonslayers have been around almost as long as dragons, but what makes a dragonslayer? Truthfully, a dragonslayer can be anyone. Your nephew, that street performer, your mail carrier… But what about a young necromancer, fresh out of school and with a chip on her shoulder? Yes. 

For more on that, we bring you Daniel M. Ford to discuss the dragonslaying capabilities of Aelis de Lenti, the main character of his fantasy novel The Warden.

Check it out!

by Daniel M. Ford

Aelis de Lenti, the main character of my book The Warden, is, well, a warden, which is to say a wizard with a specific mandate to protect an area or group of people, as a kind of marshal/investigator/magistrate. And as my readers will know, her magic is not generally of the explosive, openly powerful, full-of-offensive-potential kind. So if Aelis was to go hunting dragons, she’d have to be very careful, select her targets well, prepare, and look for weaknesses other people might not see. Thankfully for her, Aelis is, while not a world class planner, really good at making it up as she goes along, and she has a couple friends—Tun, the half-orc woodsman, and Maurenia, the half-elven adventuress—that can generally be convinced to help her out.

Fáfnir

Reaching way back into the origins of European dragons here, I think it’s reasonable to say that Aelis could come up with the idea of digging a hole and waiting for the wyrm to slither over it so she can stab it in the belly. There’s also the fact that eating the heart of this particular dragon is said to bring knowledge, which combines two things Aelis can’t get enough of; fancy cuisine and knowing things other people don’t.

The Sleeping Dragon from The Sleeping Dragon by Joel Rosenberg

Right away, the Sleeping part is a giveaway for exactly how Aelis will approach this fight.

Quietly.

But there’s more to it. In Rosneberg’s Guardians of the Flame series[1], dragons have a pretty well known and debilitating weakness. There is an herb known as dragonbane—a little on the nose—that is commonly found and widely known to interfere with a dragon’s magical metabolism. This generally keeps dragons of this world from messing with humans too openly. Once Aelis gets her hands on some of this herb, a few hours in a decently stocked alchemical lab—even the not very well stocked lab in her tower would probably do—and she can definitely refine it into something extra lethal. Then it’s just a matter of getting close enough, quietly enough, with some crossbow bolts or arrows to get the job done.

Or, more likely, convincing Tun and/or Maurenia to get close enough to get the job done. After all, an Abjurer’s job in a fight isn’t necessarily to deliver the killing blow so much as it is to cover those who are better prepared or equipped to do so. At least, that’s what she’d tell her friends while she talked them into it. Can her wards stand up to dragon breath? Of course they can! Probably. But we won’t even need to find out, right?

Verimthrax Pejorative, from Dragonslayer

A classic fantasy film dragon that proves very dangerous to even an experienced wizard, as seen in the film, Vermithrax Pejorative is tough to take via a conventional approach to dragon-slaying.

Aelis de Lenti is anything but conventional.

In the film, Ulrich the wizard is able to discern that Vermithrax is affected by a disease that bothers all dragons as they age, a scale-rot that causes constant pain. Aelis could certainly diagnose this, and after coaxing the dragon to get close by staking out the goat[2]to provide a free meal, and then offering to treat her scale-rot. Once she does start treating that disease, her Necromantic abilities will teach her all about draconic anatomy and weaknesses, giving her something she can surely exploit. Maybe Vermithrax dies quietly in her sleep, maybe her firebreath is suddenly disabled, maybe the next time she flies she finds that the muscles of her wings have mysteriously atrophied and she crashes into a hill. There is no equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath in Aelis’s world.

A Dracolich, any Dracolich

Sure, sure, Dracoliches like Daurgothoth the Creeping Doom are a menace to fantasy worlds. When you marry the magical power and resistances of a lich with the thousands of years of experience, intelligence, and magical abilities of a dragon, you get something fearsome.

And not one of them has ever dealt with something like a Lyceum trained Necrobane. Aelis is at her best and most powerful when fighting the undead. Once she’s got some practical experience against living dragons and is able to put that together with her Necromantic power, she can surely find a way to take down a dracolich.

Rand al’Thor, The Dragon Reborn[3]

Yes, I hear you. Rand is catastrophically powerful. If he’s got any of his angreal or sa’angreal around, like Callandor, he can probably destroy the world, or close enough as makes no difference. Aelis can’t match him with magic. She probably can’t match him blade to blade, either, as Rand is a confirmed blademaster and she is competent. Her friends wold surely know better than to even try. So why do I think Aelis could take him?

Quite simply, (at least in the early books) Rand is terrified of women, especially one that acts even a little bit interested in him. And later books Rand flat out refuses to fight a woman. Is this cheating? Fine! Aelis isn’t above cheating to achieve a goal! She can easily take Rand al’Thor[4]based on these two data points alone.

So, there you have it; the Top 5 Dragons Aelis de Lenti can take in a fight. It requires a little unorthodox thinking, because Aelis doesn’t flash the kind of power you might expect from a fantasy wizard. But she excels at getting the most out of what she does have; her wards, her Necromancy, her friends, and her willingness to cheat[5].

Notes

[1]    A portal fantasy where a group of college students get transported to the world they play a fantasy RPG in and decide to Do the Industrial Revolution in order to end slavery. It shows its age in spots (it began in 1983) but it’s worth a read.

[2]    If you’ve read The Warden you know exactly which goat I mean

[3]    I do not suggest that Aelis could handle the armies surrounding Rand, the Far Dareis Mai who guard him, or Elayne, Aviendha, and Min. Just Rand.

[4]    Provided we ignore all the stuff about his world-shattering power and the massive armies, incredible resources, and similarly powerful people who’d be invested in his victory.

[5]    Please understand that I have great respect, even love, for all the dragons mentioned here.

#dragon week #tor books #daniel m. ford #the warden

[defiancecomics]

I did a sleep tracker. Partially because I'd like to keep track of my sleep, it's fucking shit. Some days I'll get like, 4 hours, maybe. Others I've gotten 10. It's weird. So I figured it was a good idea to go ahead and track it, and that it would be a good idea for others to track it if they wanted too.

#plannernerd #orc planner?? #planners #i'm making a planner? #planner #planner community #plannercommunity #defiance comics #artists on tumblr #artists on patreon #artists on tiktok #small artist #trans artist #digital aritst

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (28 May-3 Jun 2023)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰Where You Are (lemonoclefox) - 45K, modern no powers stucky - a sort of 'Falling Inn Love' AU [reread]

🥰Waking Up Slow (odetteandodile) - 44K, shrunkyclunks - single dad Bucky, living in a isolated lighthouse in Canada, finds an amesiac, just thawed Steve Rogers washed up on his beach… [reread]

🥰👂‍Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) (Travis Baldree, author & narrator) - delightful, warm fantasy about retired orc barbarian Viv deciding to open a coffee shop and the found family she accrues along the way - when i started listening to this i was like, whoa this author is a really good narrator and it turns out that's his other profession.😆so yeah, excellent audiobook

🥰Pages To Fill (Legends & Lattes #0.5) (Travis Baldree) - prequel short story (also included after the main text of L&L published book)

🥰Calico Skies (musette22, author; britbrit99, artist) - 52K, shrunkyclunks - super hot carpenter Bucky, demisexual steve [reread]

😊So Alive (GottaSaveBucky (Cosmic_Entity_1of4)) - 109K, stucky no powers modern AU - bookstore mgr baby bucky, comics writer/publisher daddy steve - very schmoopy, a tiny bit silly & OTT, good smut; a bit of copaganda for plot reasons (i.e. the cops are friendly and on their side) but still enjoyable

😊At Last (Caedmon) - 69K, BlackBonnet modern AU, wedding planner Stede+caterer/bar owner Ed

💖💖 +262K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Slide To Answer series (relenafanel) - MCU: stucky, 13K - very funny & cute modern wrong number AU [reread]

I Wanna Kiss You (But I Want it too Much) (xiaq) - Stranger Things: steddie, 13K - loved this! - all outsider POV, especially loved Wayne's OC boyfriend

wanna have fun (and be in love with you) (CoraRochester) - MCU: stucky+thor, 15K - modern no powers AU, established stucky adding thor - very, very hot [reread]

some of them want to use you (some of them want to get used by you) (voxofthevoid) - MCU: stucky+thor, 14K - mer!bucky/hydra!steve, A++ quality hot tentacle sex [reread]

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Um, Actually - s3, e8-12

Ted Lasso - s3, e12

TJ Alexander | Chef's Choice (in conversation with Cat Sebastian)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Tick Collection

Richmond Til We Die: A Ted Lasso Podcast - Trusting Ted Lasso to Stick the Landing (with Alex McDaniel)

Re: Dracula - Bonus 2: Victorian Class and Gender

⭐The Soundtrack Show - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial - the Music (Parts I-III)

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Woman with the Handbag

Shedunnit - The Villa Murder

Re: Dracula - May 31: New Scheme of Villainy

⭐Vibe Check - Dear Prudence with Sam, Saeed, and Zach

ICYMI Plus - The Only People Who Made Money From Tumblr

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Koutammakou

Ologies with Alie Ward - Black American Magirology (FOOD, RACE & CULTURE) with Psyche Williams-Forson

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Tonopah Mining Camp

⭐99% Invisible #415 - Goodnight Nobody [rebroadcast]

Welcome to Night Vale #229 - The Accused

Song Exploder - Feist "In Lightning"

Richmond Til We Die: A Ted Lasso Podcast - KG • Paul on Ted Lasso

Into It - What Was 'Succession' Really About? And Is 'Ted Lasso' Over or Not?

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse And What's Making Us Happy

Endless Thread - OK, Lamp!

Switched on Pop - Listening 2 Daft Punk: Human After All / Alive 2007

Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein - James Lance

Off Menu - Ep 194: Tim Minchin

ICYMI Plus - Meet NPR’s TikTok Boy

⭐You're Dead To Me - Medieval Irish Folklore (Live)

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Presenting Tina Turner

Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John [Juliana Hatfield]

Juliana Hatfield Sings the Police [Juliana Hatfield]

Xanadu (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Presenting Olivia Newton-John

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Southern Culture on the Skids

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult

Homework [Daft Punk] {1997}

Discovery [Daft Punk] {2001}

Human After All [Daft Punk] {2005}

#sunday reading recap #bookgeekgrrl's reading habits #bookgeekgrrl's soundtracks #legends and lattes #fanfic ftw #if you like either tj alexander or cat sebastian you should watch that panel - so much fun #the ted lasso finale wasn't so terrible it tanked the entire series for me and that is all i could really hope for after this season tbh #olivia newton john #tina turner #my life with the thrill kill kult #daft punk #southern culture on the skids #juliana hatfield #you're dead to me podcast #99% invisible podcast #the soundtrack show podcast #re: dracula #vibe check podcast #the atlas obscura podcast #welcome to night vale #switched on pop podcast #endless thread podcast #song exploder podcast #shedunnit podcast #ologies podcast #richmond til we die podcast #off menu podcast #films to be buried with podcast #pop culture happy hour podcast #into it podcast

[redflagromance]

Deplorably Devoted To You: DEMO RELEASE

Valentine’s Day Release! Demo now up here !~

HEARTBREAKING: You’re the Worst Person You Know

You're an accomplished event planner- weddings, baby showers, moon abductions- you do it all. In fact, you're so good that your smoking hot eldritch boss Balthazar Grivus just made you his partner at your firm. It’s finally your chance to change the future of evil event planning. The late nights alone perfecting confetti-spewing bear traps as Barry’s apprentice are over, and now your schedule and heart are wide open.

Nefarious plots abound, and you have a bevy of romantic and professional interests to pursue: plan a wedding anniversary, push a rebrand of a struggling majority, prepare a getaway ship, and promote the fortress-warming party of the millennia. 

The Sorceress

The sorceress is a proud, luxury-loving lady of the ‘eye for an eye’ persuasion. Will you help her achieve vengeance and social satisfaction? Or will you disappoint her and doom yourself to eternal sleep?

The Gunslinger

Gene is a creation of his time- to be specific, the 1800s. In and out of jail for various ill-conceived crimes, he is now more comfortable in a prison cell than out of it. Will his zest for life and the finer points of dynamite light up your life, or blow your career out of the water?

The Florist

Your florist is a gentle, caring person with a heart of gold and a devastating fear of dogs. Their plant expertise, professionalism, contacts dedicated to violating the laws of nature, and tendency to not ask questions make them indispensable to you. But will you bloom together, or will they be uprooted?

The Orc

She is a union president, a go-getter, and forklift certified.  She’s also built like a brick house. Can you help her with the image rebrand that her people desperately need in the face of a global morality shift, or will you get eaten alive?

The Space Pirate

They’re fun. They’re spontaneous. And they’re not a felon in this galaxy yet. Their new ship is almost ready for takeoff- is their ship’s maiden voyage destined to shine brightly, or doomed to crumble into stardust?

The Super Hero

He’s big. He’s strong. He’s probably late for his next client at the gym. He’s as rough as the stones he loves to hunt for in his free time, and tougher than most of the criminals he brings in on late nights.

Your world and career are on the brink- but of success, or failure?

Can you have it all while throwing the best worst events of the season and getting the dark lord to notice you?

#twine #twine games #choice of games #interactive fiction #interactive fictions #dating sim #twine game #twine interactive fiction #interactive novel #deplorably devoted to you #deplorably devoted

[arcanescholxr]

Continued from here @thegreeksknewthescore

Discovering ghosts wasn’t on Dwight’s planner today, but when you live an unconventional life as he did, you learn to adjust to abrupt changes. Dwight turned to look at the orc, an eyebrow raised.

“What did you do to make ghosts hate you?”

#thegreekknewthescore #(~threads~)

[geekinthelowlands]

Day 37 - 100 Warm-Up Roleplaying Questions

Every day I use an RNG to pick a question from this list and answer it as four of my dnd characters: Hanne, a human bard; Gat, an orc rogue; Cogwynn, a half-elf paladin; and Shadow of a Star, a tabaxi wizard. Today's number is: 32

32 What is your character the most insecure about?

Hanne: Her inexperience. She knows she's young, and she's not yet figured out how to tamp down her impulsivity.

Gat: His intelligence and lack of ability as a planner. A little bit his looks.

Cogwynn: That she's doing the right thing. She'll forge forward but she's keenly aware that this is her first time away from the temple for such a big adventure. Will she fail?

Shadow of a Star: Her magic. It's where she thought she would be so proud but magical university has made her doubt herself immensely.

#100 days #ttrpg oc #dnd #warm up questions

[ex-textura]

I imagine Long after your game is done but even so, 3, 7, 17, 45 for Rehgar ~~

I'm answering this today cause last night's game ran late.

7. Do they have any unusual fears?

Maybe not that unusual but Rehgar has a few fears. He's scared of Wargs (unfortunate, considering how often he's been dealing with them lately), he's scared of being perceived as a failure (he knows what he's capable of but he also knows how he looks) and he's scared of orcs (we're....we're working on that)

17. How easily would they be convinced to do something that goes against their morals?

I just answered this one elsewhere lol, so I'll do the next one on the list: 18. How easy is it to become their enemy? It really depends... Rehgar is, if not patient then at least too old and tired to worry about grudges and all that, but there are a couple of things that can get you immediately on his bad side. If you want to be his enemy, pick on someone who can't defend themselves OR imply that he's an idiot.

45. Do they plan in advance or just wing it?

Rehgar is absolutely a planner. An over-planner even.

#Thank you friend!! #rehgar cysgodion #ask game #johnandrasjaqobis #asks #answered

[sillywolffoxwrites]

29th of Mirtul, 1368 - Day 18, Hour 13

We helped to save a lone Hobgoblin being run down by Gnolls. Jaheira, Khalid and Dynaheir seemed skeptical of the choice. Jaheira thinks Ferrum is naive. They got into an argument and she reminded him that while he may be middle aged, he was still in his twenties and just as misinformed. Yuze got into it to with her at that point. That surprised me. Jaheira is right in a way. Ferrum takes on the role of Patriarch in our group, that of protector, guide, nurturer. Ferrum even is a pretty good diplomat despite the stigma of being a Half-Orc, maybe it's because he's a priest. Yet to her point, it's Yuze who is often the planner, the tactician, and while he isn't as much of a survivalist as his husband, he's traveled far and wide for longer than Ferrum has been alive. This worldly wisdom seemed to evaporate when Jaheira attacked Ferrum's character. Yuze got downright defensive over it. I don't think I've ever seen Yuze act this way, though I don't think I've ever seen someone talk to Ferrum that way either. Jaheira is not afraid of Ferrum, or any man.

They made up in the end. Jaheira really does respect us a lot, but perhaps her prejudices are a naivete of her own. - Aurelia

#Baldur's Gate #BG1 #RP #Aurelia