#orkney brothers

[ripmyfictionalfriends]

#arthurian legend #arthuriana #arthurian mythology #arthurian characters #tag game #king arthur #queen guinevere #lancelot du lac #knights of the round table #sir gawain #sir mordred #sir kay #sir percival #sir bedivere #sir yvain #orkney brothers #agravaine #sir gareth #sir gaheris #galahad #forgot about golden boy for a sec oops #morgan le fay #ragnelle #lynette #lynette and lyonesse #sir morien #sagramore #sir palamedes #lady of the lake #king pellinore

[gawrkin]

PSA: MORDRED IS THE TALLEST

#mordred #orkney brothers #lancelot grail #gawain #arthuriana #arthurian legend #arthurian legends #arthurian mythology #it probably goes in descending order #the oldest is the shortest #the youngest is the tallest

[beheadinggame]

Lot begat in Belisent

Four sones swithe gent,

Gueheres y eke Gawain,

Gaheriet y Agrevein

#arthuriana #sir gawain #sir gaheris #sir gareth #sir agravain #orkney brothers #listen ok the part in Of Arthour and of Merlin where they're all fighting together? #so incredible and so lyrical #i am hysterical over them thanks

[unicornofthemidwest]

Everything about the Orkney brothers makes sense if you remember that they're Scottish

#arthuriana #orkney brothers #gawain #agravaine #gaheris #gareth #mordred #...scottish

[liminalpsych]

Once and Future Court - Lou Duffy | Agravain

Welp, because I reblogged a post about Agravain and rambled about his character sheet, now I actually feel the need to post his sheet.

Modern life: Lou Duffy

Bouncer at a New Jersey biker bar, enforcing with a watchful and calculating eye. Deals with bar drama too, the stuff that you can't just kick people out for; has learned more subtle ways to handle it. Rides with Liam Sinclair on evenings/weekends.

Past life: Sir Agravain of Orkney

The second-eldest of the Orkney brothers, sons of King Lot and Queen Morgause of the Orkney Isles. The surliest and worst-tempered of them, jealous and prideful, yet still known for chivalry, skill of arms, and a quick tongue.

Juxtaposition

The road became home when home kicked you out. You said "no" one too many times, "fuck you" a bit too loudly, pushed back when you got pushed. You stood between your parents and your two younger siblings with your head held high and an unwavering stare, and you didn't let anyone see how your hands shook. "Get out," they said, outraged at your defiance. And they were more outraged still, unanswered phone calls and stalking your workplace, when you actually followed their angry command.

(Always insecure in your role as eldest child, an inadequate protector, too reactive and temperamental to be effective. Drawing ire through acting out, an old familiar pattern, protect by being the more visible target. Someone was supposed to protect you, too, a sword at your back, shields against the world but there's no one, only fantasies of camaraderie.)

At least you were prepared. You had a bag always packed, saddlebags ready. You were of drinking age, a bouncer at a bar, freedom in a motorcycle license and an old bike in an ongoing cycle of breakdown and repair. You only stayed at home because of your siblings and now they were on their own; you had to believe they'd be okay.

You crashed on your bartender's couch until you found a place you could afford. Mostly you hovered around the bar and the bikes. You started watching, listening. Thinking hard about alternatives to curses and fists. Reacting wasn't enough, reacting lost you one family and didn't protect your siblings; you had to learn strategy, skill, anticipation. You talked a lot with your bartender, an experienced hand at managing the personalities that frequented her bar. She taught you the fundamentals, and you taught yourself the rest.

(If you're watchful enough. If you're clever enough. If you speak the right words and convince the right people and convey the right plans, then maybe you can protect them. Maybe you can protect everyone. In your dreams, no one believes a word you say until it's too late. In your dreams, a kingdom falls because the king didn't heed you sooner, your brothers disregarded you, and everyone thought more highly of an exalted adulterer than you.)

And then Liam found you. You clocked him as a potential danger the moment he walked in, all roving gaze and deceptively easy manner. He noticed you within five minutes, raised a glass with a grin to your deepening scowl. You weren't usually the target of someone's focus, and you didn't particularly care for it. Something in you said to trust him, something in you yearned towards him like you've always yearned towards family—and that put your defensive walls up more than anything, all barbed wire and fury.

It took him months to win you over. You still don't know that you're there, not really. You're still wary of him, even as you ride miles together, even as you follow him from location to mysterious location. Looking for someone, he says, strained, and you don't know why you accept it with such ease. You follow his lead with relief, except for the times when something like memory threatens to blacken your vision, a terrible pressure you know will consume you and you fight it back with a furious outburst, obscenities and sarcastic rebellion at his every direction.

(He only looks understanding, and sad, with a strange nostalgia that enrages you all the more. He doesn't know you. He can't know you. He wasn't there when you needed someone and he can't make up for it, not ever, not then or now or in the future—and the pressure threatens to burst into an awful knowing, you can't, your head is going to explode—)

(You gun the engine. You roar away, away, until the wind and the road blows you back into yourself once again.)

———

A note on gender

I've run this larp twice so far. In the first run, Agravain's player asked for a male modern character. In the second run, Agravain's player asked for a modern character with Gender Stuff.

So the "gender stuff" note in the Costuming Hints section of the character sheet is below. It's the version of Lou Duffy | Agravain that I prefer, and I'll probably steer towards that when casting future runs of the larp.

A note on gender: Lesbian bars became home when home kicked her out. Not for sexuality or gender or anything like that, but for standing up one too many times to her parents, for being too aggressive and direct in defense of herself and her siblings. Still. Exploring gender might mean losing another family. She can be some flavor of butch, she doesn’t have to look deeper than that. (She’s avoiding looking deeper than that. Gawain Liam mentioned something once about a fantastical past and she nearly punched him. Stomped away instead, shaking. That’s too closely entangled with too many things she’s kept safely locked away and isn’t going to touch.)

It does significantly change the vibe of Liam | Gawain tracking down Lou at the bar... but Gawain really is that oblivious sometimes, and the players leaned into it. ("Gawain. A lesbian bar. Really?? What were you THINKING. You're lucky no one punched you.")

———

The Once and Future Court is a mid-transparency litform larp where participants play  modern reincarnations of characters from Arthurian literature, invited to a gathering to renew the bonds of fealty and family . . . or to forget the past for a quieter modern life.  The goal of The Once and Future Court is to explore relationship rupture and potential repair, ripples of past actions, and effects of returning memories, along with themes of belonging, identity, and choice.

Have a link to the Once and Future Court description for further context.

#both of my agravain players were BRILLIANT by the way #I think I have made Agravain fans with this larp #absolute firecrackers and so protective/defensive of mordred #so high intensity and tragic that it was painfully beautiful to watch #once and future court #agravain #sir agravain #agravaine #arthuriana #larp character #my writing #o&fc #sir agravaine #orkney bros #orkney brothers #it's not the whole sheet #character connections can have their own post #don't want to overwhelm people's feeds

[tiodolma]

Right as they thus stood talking there came in riding Sir Gareth. And then they made joy either of other

Gareth somehow stops by the abbey where Gawaine was staying and they just... treat each other like normal brothers?? As if Gareth never openly denounced his brothers for Lamorak's death??? As if Gareth never went against his kin???? As if they forgot that their mom was murdered by their other brother??? Do these Orkneys never remember anything important???

#arthuriana #orkney brothers #le morte d'arthur #gawain #gareth #beaumains #heli blobbing

[kulttuurinkurittama]

An army of gingers, and Gareth. Honestly mad respect to literally all of the orkneys being menaces in different ways.

#the orkney clan #the orkney brothers #gawain #agravain #gaheris #sir gareth #sir gawain #mordred #arthuriana #art #dionysus draws

[chiropteracupola]

How does he stand, how does he speak? / How does he say these words to me? / Devil go and let me be!

[one last gawain for @mortiscausa’s ’march to camelot,’ for the prompt ‘grudge’]

#em draws stuff #march to camelot #arthurian things #arthuriana #gawain #we're going full circle!! back to gawain and back to his very own trials of cato song! #originally I meant to put silhouettes of the rest of the orkney brothers in the background of this one but it ended up not looking so great #so! We Solve The Problem By Adding Some Standing Stones <- thing I have been doing in 50% of these drawings #thank you website of the ferry I cried in for an hour for lovely reference pictures of the ring of brodgar. What. #so yeah! this one came together right quick again and I feel as if I'm ending it on a good note! #thank you so much mortiscausa for holding this event -- it's been so lovely to get to participate #and I'm very pleased to finally have gotten around to drawing arthurian things after all this while!

[meowdred]

hi i wanted to ask bc i’m always curious about other peoples orkneys takes: if mordred is the second youngest, who’s the youngest? (& if you want to share any other opinions you have on the orkneys, order of siblings or otherwise, go ahead :) but no pressure)

HIIII!!!! thank you so much for your question !!!! i'm sorry this is going to be super super long i have a lot of thoughts about the orkneys (guy who named himself after biblical cain and loves complex sibling dynamics)

of course gareth is the youngest, but generally it goes like this for me

gawain - eldest obviously. there's this line from alliterative morte that i'm really fond of that sums how i think of him really well

"like a berserker he fights in a frenzy for fierceness and heart; fights and cuts down all who stand before him and never did fortune so favor the brave"

++++++ eldest brother syndrome. eldest daughter syndrome, even. i think with having morgause as his mother + the death of lot he was put in the place of taking care of his younger siblings and tried his best to be the role model for them... i was always really fond of a teenage gawain taking care of an infant gareth while leading agravaine and gaheris as children to bed. he's super repressed and has a lot of angst... but i think one of his key traits is his devotion to his family (which of course includes arthur as well... who i think he found a paternal figure in, in the lack of emotional connection from morgause and lot's physical absence)

i think mordred came into the family later on but by then he'd be an adolescent and gawain would be fully integrated into the kotr which fuels his outsider syndrome tbh and the struggle w/ his family. i do think gawain really tried his best to reach out to him though because that's still his baby brother.... and it's one of the reasons why i like the idea of mordred killing gawain instead as opposed to lancelot haha i think it makes the betrayal 100x more agonzing and heartwrenching. plus the fact that they're family hits different for me. but anyways.....

agravaine - second eldest and has bad middle child syndrome, but i also read the wicked day by mary stewart when i was younger and it shaped my view of the orkneys a lot so i'm also fond of the idea of him being twins with gaheris... either goes though. i think agravaine is the second saddest in the orkneys apart from mordred, but for different reasons i think... there's a lot of bitterness in his heart. largely due to growing up with gawain's shadow over him i imagine

gaheris - either twins with agravaine or the ultimate middle child. surprisingly i don't have a lot of opinions on him ? i think. in my ditched retelling (different from lideri and closer to medieval arthuriana) he used to be really close with agravaine but they grew distant as they grew older. i liked making him an artist for some reason i think it's cute + i had the idea that he actually didn't die, he was the remaining orkney after the battle at camlann so he had to rule over orkney something he wasn't prepared for in the slightest

gareth is the youngest. i love making him the baby of the orkneys. i think gawain spoils him to death, i borrowed this from mary stewart again but i also like to think that he wasn't spoiled by not just gawain but also by morgause because of his likeness to her, though i don't think he's similar to her at all personality wise esp when he grows up. he has the image of a young awkward teenager to me haha and he struggles in his place amongst the orkneys. he also has a similar issue with gaheris wherein he feels at odds with his siblings esp their conflict bc the orkneys is dramaland. i don't know if you ever read the brothers karamazov but gareth for me is similar to alyosha where he acts as the glue for the orkneys, which is why when he dies gawain loses his shit

there's also clarissant... who i think is along the same ages as gareth and mordred. though i haven't thought much yet for her bc i only started thinking of her recently i like the idea of her being a lady knight though

and well.. there's mordred.... don't ask me i have a lot of opinions on that guy.

#cain.txt #SORRY THIS TURNED OUT TO BE SUCH A LONG NOVEL #i love the orkneys #i seriously need to design the orkneys in lideri but i haven't figured out what i want to do with them yet #oh bear in mind that my takes/opinions on arthurian characters is different from how i write them in my story haha #these are just my headcanons #i pretty much write gawain the same in lideri but he and mordred aren't directly related by blood but they're very much brothers

[daliathewitch]

Oh no, it's Gaheris!

#arthuriana #arthurian mythology #arthurian legend #digital drawing #sir gaheris #gaheris #the orkney brothers #my artwrok #I also can't see him younger than Agravaine #so I headcanon Gaheris older than him #probably I can't do that #but who cares

[ofglories]

Gareth may be one of the few regular humans out of the Knights of the Round, but she's still got some natural abilities that go a bit beyond human. Nothing on the level of Gawain or Agravain or even Gaheris of course, but still. She's strong.

Exceptionally strong.

It's tempered with training, naturally. The wild strength she inherited from both Morgan's Fae blood and King Lot's giant ancestry is carefully controlled by both years of training and Kay's sharp but careful guidance. Still, when she's angry it tends to show more than Gareth intended.

More than once has she accidentally broken a door, a chair, or even a table in Camelot with her anger.

Each time, though, she followed it up with an immediate apology and a sheepish self-assigned duty to repair whatever was broken. It's handy in battle, even Gareth will gladly admit that, but just day to day life? She's forever glad Kay helped her learn how to better control her temper.

The only time it was ever turned on another person was shortly after Gareth learned of her brothers' actions regarding Sir Lamorak. In her fury she started a brawl with them because she had explicitly ordered them to leave him be, to not seek vengeance for their mother's perceived murder without further information. And they didn't listen. So her temper flared to new levels. Honestly had it not been for Dinadan and Tristan's timely intervention, particularly Tristan and his quick actions in grabbing Gareth and working to calm her, the other Orkneys would have suffered far worse than they did.

In Chaldea her anger is even better controlled, the strength only coming through when wanted. ...Or when she's dealing with Lancelot.

#an endless tale; headcanon #as fair as the northerly winds; gareth beaumains #all the orkneys have the same bad temper as morgan and lot could have this is a constant fact in all the legends #gareth was also freakishly strong for someone without any magic or gifts in the legends #the lamorak incident wasn't super in-depth in the tales for gareth's side aside from the saying “don't kill him” and then being angry later #but it is in fact canon to that story that only tristan was able to calm gareth down so yeah they're friends #her grudge against lancelot is over him killing her brothers and betraying his oaths though #gareth simply doesn't care about what he did to her

[ladyminaofcamelot]

Mordred: I have a question.

Agrivaine: Yes?

Mordred: Can someone breath in a washing machine while it's on?

Agrivaine:

Mordred: Obviously this is all hypothe-

Agrivaine: WHERE is Gareth?

#arthuriana #someone save the orkney brothers #the only sensible one is the second born no one listens to #agravaine #mordred #gareth

[gawrkin]

MORGAUSE. IS. NOT. EVIL.

Please

Please

Please, stop portraying Morgause as a) An Abusive Mom, b) An Evil Sorceress, c) or a scheming, vengeful, bitch.

She's not a supervillain. She's. Not. Her. Sister. - hell, even her sister has reasons for doing things.

Morgause is a fair, if somewhat promiscuous (and even then, not much), good lady.

That's it.

#arthuriana #arthurian legend #Morgause #King Arthur #Orkney Brothers #Gawain #Agravaine #Gaheris #Gareth #Mordred #King Lot #morgan le fay #Poor Morgause #Anna Pendragon

[jewishlancelot]

bbc merlin did a lot wrong, but its worst transgression was separating agravaine and mordred so much they don't even appear in the same seasons

#the fact that the orkney brothers simply dont exist as the orkney brothers is terrible generally #but at least gwaine gets to speak to agravaine and mordred #agravaine #mordred

[lefresne]

look listen I do not care that if pellinore kills lot that means eliezer cannot squire for gawain as far as I’m concerned eliezer and gawain are best friends in all textual universes

#THEY GREW UP TOGETHER !!!!!!!!!! #eliezer is like an honourary orkney brother to me <3

[pendraegon]

“ah they let babies be knights now” i didn’t realise you kin gawain

gawain's problem is that he wants to be ME so badly

#what was that old joke i had that im the sixth orkney brother bc..... #also anon this message......i dont think ill ever recover from this bc SCREAM? #anon