#tortall

[nightmaskart]

Alanna the Lioness

#alanna the lioness #tamora pierce #tortall #alanna of trebond #alan of trebond #lady knight

[morphmaker]

Protector of the Small x Redwall

#tortall #protector of the small #jonathan of conte #jonathan of conté #redwall #morphmaker arts

[alwaysfrowningslightly]

If people are sad about The Wizard Facism game coming from someone you used to look up to and admire, may I suggest an author whose books are filled with nuanced characters and strong, dynamic women?

Tamora Pierce has been writing since the 80’s and has two worlds of magic and fantasy and bonus!!! Isn’t a transphobic POS.

#tamora pierce #alanna: the first adventure #alanna the lioness #tortall #emelan #fantasy author #fuck jkr

[nonasuch]

I’m not going anywhere with this but it’s a thought I had.

#game of thrones #tortall #an meme #i just think that in order to do ethical fantasy feudalism you might need an eldritch box that judges your fitness to wield state power

[rowandriftwood]

In honor of 2023 being the 40th anniversary of Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness quartet, these are the beloved and much-read paperbacks I bought with my allowance money in 1992, when I was 13.

#tamora pierce #tortall #song of the lioness #sotl #alanna of trebond #they made some real Choices with this cover art

[minuiko]

Platonic soulmates :’)

#my art #tamora pierce #keladry of mindelan #nealan of queenscove #protector of the small #tortall #lady knight

[dr-dendritic-trees]

I love that an intrinisic part of Page training in Tortall is waiting tables. Like, if you want to be a knight and truly understand the ways of Chivalry you must first experience... The Service Industry.

#tortall #protector of the small #song of the lioness #although honestly i'm pretty sure alanna only survived this #because she spent most of it with sir miles #and thus avoided several murder charges

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

First look at the 40th anniversary Alanna collection!

#tortall #alanna the lioness #song of the lioness #tamora pierce #i can't believe they made the charm #i don't know what those swords are but i want them

[enter-the-bogman]

Reading through the Tortall books in publication order is funny because you start with Alanna “the village healing woman taught me all she knew” going off to become a knight, and end with Numair “world’s most powerful mage” as young Arram Draper first learning magic at the Carthaki university. Because of the 40 intervening years and five(?) different series further developing the Tortall universe, the magic system is now SO much more complex.  Arram is learning an elementally-based, heavily theory-dependent form of magic where conceptual power is applied to physical objects or energy constructs. His teachers make him develop skills in non-magical areas like juggling, jewelry making, and gardening so eventually they can safely guide him through complicated applications of magic. In comparison, Alanna complains that Duke Roger is spending too much time on theory in order to prevent her and her peers from learning “actual magic” and becoming his rivals. And then she throws purple light at things until they explode or she passes out! We also learn from Arram’s misadventures that most of “magic” is creating methods of applying, storing, and accessing power so the user doesn’t drain their own life force and pass out or die. Alanna uses NONE of these techniques; instead, she pulls her magic directly out of her own life force, thinks about what she wants it to do, and hopes she reaches that goal before draining herself. She even (sometimes) factors in the impact of magically draining herself of energy while attempting tasks that require both magical and physical endurance (such as when deciding how much magic to spend warming herself when making her blizzard hike to claim the Dominion Jewel.)

For one thing, this makes Alanna insanely powerful. In In the Hand of The Goddess, she breaks open Roger’s magically locked door (presumably designed by Roger himself-- an immensely strong and well-trained sorcerer) by shoving her own magic into it until it MELTS. This builds an Alanna who decided magical theory was useless at age 12 because she has an immense access to magical potential energy, and who never learns the basic life-preserving models of magic usage that are taught in intro-level classes. She doesn’t have an interest in learning more sophisticated forms of magic, except in healing, which she cared about enough to learn non-magically. So when she heals, she uses magic as a guide or a supplement, rather than depending on it and then draining herself.  Since she isn’t attempting complex magic, most of the time the limitations of drawing directly from her own life force doesn’t impact her that much. The things she does magically all have much more efficient alternatives, but they require an understanding of magical theory and ability to store energy that Alanna never learned! If she wants to do larger spells, she just keeps feeding energy into it until it breaks or she does. 

The intervening series and Numair’s story makes Alanna’s simultaneously more and less believable. It now makes sense why everyone with even a slight understanding of Alanna’s type of Gift gets angry at times and tells her she’s using magic irresponsibly. (Before, we only understood Alanna’s side of the argument: “Well, I didn’t die and it worked, so calm down.” !!!) The fact that she never actually dies and only rarely is seriously harmed through her own magic use now requires some suspension of disbelief!

#I would love to see the moment when numair first saw alanna use her magic #and realizes that she pulls from her own life force to light a CANDLE #i'm sure they'd have a huge fight with numair trying to convince alanna to at least TRY meditating and alanna refusing out of stubborness #tamora pierce #sincerely cockleburr #tortall #alanna of trebond

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

I FEEL SO STRONGLY ABOUT THE CHAMBER'S REACTION TO KEL OK

kel is the lump, a stone, the calm surface of a lake- but ONLY on the outside- ONLY to make dealing with people work better

the chamber hammers your weak spots trying to make you BREAK, but KEL, WENT TO THE CHAMBER, AGAIN AND AGAIN, she GREW AROUND it like a TREE

the day came when the chamber had it's chance- to strike her as HARD AS IT COULD

and

there was almost nothing left for it to even aim at

because kel had stuck HERSELF already, had BEEN hammering herself this whole time- had been TESTING herself every step of the way QUESTIONING HERSELF AND asking herself how she could be and do better next time

for the sake of those who need someone when no one sees them as people. for the sake of unwanted animals and overlooked humans- kel became her own ordeal

the chamber couldn't break Kel. SHE broke IT

so it had nothing to do, except make her an ordeal in the real world-

the nothing man, child killer, the promise she will stare evil in the face somewhere somehow, that tantalizing and USELESS knowledge burning her as she is given charge of convicts and refugees and not enough soldiers to defend them and her old desire to be like the Lioness, her inspiration, to go out there and STOP THIS SUFFERING FROM HAPPENNG HERSELF

the chamber jammed this thorn into her heart and THEN it chose to Watch Her out there

as she.... chose people. Again. chose care over glory. everyday duty over heroics. obscurity to wider world- but a friend to a small corner of the world that desperately needed someone to see them, fight for them, and not ever look away... or abandon them

the chamber saw that. it NAMED HER- didn't chose her- didn't make her- gave no gift other than pain to her

but it was glad, to have seen her

Protector. of the Small

gently burying dead sparrows and scoffing at such a silly name

#tortall #the protector of the small #keladry of mindelan #tamora pierce #im not crying thinking about it im not im NOT #gods #you get to her last book and you realize there is an army of people who will follow kel anywhere- even when she tells them not to #because they love her #even the ones who think she's daft will risk death to make sure she doesn't die #everyone is a person to her #so many people feel that #and answer it by being better or braver or kinder people in turn #anyway #kel #the kind of character to change your brain chemistry tbh

[ladylingua]

it just occurred to me how funny this is, like

when the terrified villagers showed up raving about mythical beasts, George was all willing to go along with it in terms of providing them shelter and food, but he had to draw the line at sending soldiers because he fundamentally did not believe them that a griffin had popped out of legend to attack their village (understandable)

and that just makes me picture a monty python-esque scene where like some village leader is like "IT WAS A MONSTROUS BEAST! IT HAD CLAWS LIKE SABERS! YOU HAVE TO SEND MEN" and George is just like "Mmm, mmm, yes, I hear you...but like, are we sure that maybe it wasn't just...a bird?" and the leader is like "IT HAD THE HAUNCHES OF A LION! THE HEAD OF AN EAGLE! IT WAS NO BIRD MY LORD!" and George was like "Like maybe a really big, kind of aggressive, scary bird though?" and the villagers were like "MY LORD, TWAS A GRIFFIN, YOU MUST SEND SOLDIERS!" and George was like "Yeah...no, I'm probably not gonna do that...but hey, how about we all go have a nice dinner, my treat, everyone get a good night's rest here...and then tomorrow when everyone is feeling more relaxed we can circle back on that bird idea again, see how it strikes you then."

#tamora pierce #tortall #george cooper #wild magic #the immortals

[where-our-stories-start]

Okay so I just finished watching Damsel on Netflix (it was fine, solid hero movie), and is it just me or does Millie Bobby Brown's last look fit Alanna the Lioness perfectly or what?

Like I just wish there were more than like three shots of it, because I would use the hell out of this fancast.

#damsel #damsel netflix #alanna the lioness #alanna fancast #millie bobby brown #tortall #tamora pierce #tortall fancast

[whimsicallywiddershins]

You can really tell when fantasy book art started to go downhill when people started bringing computers into it. I really miss the days of gorgeous, highly detailed hand-drawn cover art. When did stock images and barely detailed photos become mainstream for book art?

#look at the bruises on Kel's face #from jousting and fighting #Daine's wild smoky curls #the richly detailed clothing #the story details like #numair the hawk #and the griffen #the little sparrow on squire's cover #the emotion in clouds eyes #tamora pierce #tortall #squire #wild magic #protector of the small #the immortals #books #cover art #book art #keladry of mindelan #veralidaine sarrasri #daine the wildmage

[minuiko]

Scene from the end of Lady Knight - Kel digging her own grave 💀

#my art #tamora pierce #tortall #protector of the small #keladry of mindelan #nealan of queenscove #lady knight #wyldonofcavall #owenofjesslaw

[dr-dendritic-trees]

This is my favourite bit of Jon's character arc:

Jonathan refused to be provoked. "I'm not charitable," he said coolly. "My father was. Now the results of... certain of his charities threaten this kingdom. I wish he had been more just and less kind."

...

The sentences for all should have been death - the laws on treason were strict - but Jonathan would not begin his rule with executions. He granted more pardons in the first week of his official reign than had King Roald in all of his.

I'm not being snide, I really like the arc Jon gets of showing how his sense of judgement develops. Later on we do get to see Jon screw up, of course, but overall he's a good ruler and he's a good ruler precisely because he has this incredible sense of scale and of the big picture.

This is easier for me to explain in reference to Daine and Kel, but the sense of bigness is one of my favourite things about Tamora Pierce's writing and the thing that has most influenced me, so I get sentimental about it.

#tortall #tamora pierce #lioness rampant

[masterkeynobi]

usually i loathe when a protagonist gets turned into a "bad" parent in a sequel series but tortall does it so well and so realistically that i can't help but think it'd be ooc any other way. of course alanna is gruff and sometimes unkind and not always present. of course jonathan must do what is best for realm and reputation; of course he's king first, father second. jon's parenting style is visible from the start in how roald acts during his page years — jon as a page sees ralon held down and beaten for the crime of bothering little alan; raoul, much as he wants to, can't so much as join kel on her nighttime patrols for fear of how it'd look. jon takes alanna on as a squire because they're good friends & lovers; roald has had his knight-master picked out for him for years before he's even made a squire.

alanna gets along well enough with alan and thom, her knightling and her scholar, but she can't for the life of her understand how aly works. in my opinion this has something to do both with the fact that aly is a lot more like george in the most dangerous ways and with the fact that aly is rather significantly more of a Girl than alanna ever was. alanna had no (0) female friends growing up and only one older female mentor figure. she grew up and still lives the vast majority of her life surrounded by men of similar status. is it any surprise she finds her sons easier to talk to?

there's a passing sentence in trickster's choice that alludes to aly having once been jealous of how effusive her mother was about keladry of mindelan. i can't help but think also about kalasin ii of conté, kally whose mother's people are matrilineal, kally who should by rights have been her mother's heir. kally who calls the lioness aunt and wanted as a child nothing more than to be a knight, who will spend the rest of her life in carthak and likely never see a lady knight again. i think she was jealous of kel too, but in the opposite direction. aly couldn't and wouldn't be who kel was, too protective of her own freedom and too much like her father to ever want a shield. aly envied the easy understanding alanna had of kel's ambitions and grit. kalasin had those same ambitions but never got the chance to show that same grit. kalasin spent the four years of kel's page training at king's reach learning to be an empress.

it's the. not wanting and choosing not to do vs the wanting and not having the choice. it's the jealousy someone so distant from alanna got so much of her attention when her interactions with her own daughter were constantly snippy vs the thought that kally should've been there first, should've gotten to prove the conservatives wrong, should've been able to show kel around and shield (ha) her from the worst of their ire. no little girls will grasp wide-eyed for tales of aly cooper or empress kalasin the same way they do for the lioness and lady kel. i don't think aly minds, but i think kalasin very, very quietly does.

#sree.txt #tortall #aly cooper #kalasin of conté #keladry of mindelan #alanna the lioness #jonathan of conté #sorry for the recent verbose tortallposting it will likely continue #also everyone on the planet needs to read in the perfection of conduct and virtues by rain_sleet_snow on ao3 #lifechanging fic i simply cant stop rotating kally in my mindcrowave now