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@ellette-giselle @Anyonewhojustwantsrandomness @koshka #@shortstories_anyone?
Here’s a snippet of my practice idea! Like Inglor, the one I shared a mood board for, this is an old character revisited. If this were a novel, this would be your first introduction to him.
The tree Almarrin had chosen in his pell-mell dash for cover was not as tall as he would have liked. Half the branches had been broken off in some storm in years past, so now the entire tree only grew over the road. It had been perfect to swing up into, but he had now gone as far as he could in it. It was barely enough.
Forests had never been his strong suit. Ironic, considering the family occupation.
He watched the brigands pass beneath him, their spearheads flashing in the dappled sunlight. They shouted names he guessed were meant for him. They had dropped the friendly mask they used on the tavern keeper. Almarrin almost regretted the change.
Stirring up dangerous people. Yes, that was his strongest skill.
They knew he was somewhere in the area, and since the river had washed out the road not far down, they would double back in a moment. He craned his neck to watch the last one march off out of sight.
Had this happened eight years ago, he could have clung to this branch and just waited until his father appeared to save him. Tirion was a force no troublemaker had dared reckoning with. No one could physically embody thunder so well as the wizened Forrester. Almarrin treasured those years with his father among his best memories.
Unfortunately, they never kept him out of trouble. Somehow, even though Almarrin had left his home behind, he could never leave his ability to get in water too deep for him. It was an inherited trait, after all, if he believed his mother’s stories as much as his father’s.
Even more unfortunate, there were no mermaids to come to the rescue either. But there was a river.
Quite near too.
Almarrin made for the branch of a nearby tree. A squirrel scolded him as he swung awkwardly across the empty space. His heart hammered in his throat as he scrambled through the trees. He blessed every rare hour he had chosen to play in the trees as a boy. He should have done it more.
He had now approached the strangers’ earshot. Their shouts changed direction and within a moment he could hear them crashing through the undergrowth toward him. There was no time to change his mind. Two angry shapes were hurtling forward. A spear stabbed too near for comfort. The young Forrester gripped a branch and launched himself at the last tree.
The river. It roared away below him now, deeper than one would guess by looking at it. The locals called it the Haunted Snake to scare the unwary from its banks. Almarrin laughed as he plunged.
He was his mother’s child, after all.
He dropped like a branch himself, long and lean and wrapped in tattered green. The water accepted him with a splash of white foam. The world above lost its grip on him. He glanced back to watch eight shadows stretch furiously over the water, then the current had taken him away.
Let them follow. He was ready to try his own strengths for once.Still a ChaosGremlin™ on the inside.
@loopylin @koshka @elishavet-pidyon @ellette-giselle @beth-torres @keilah-h @rae @freed_and_redeemed @theducktator @linus-smallprint @savannah_grace2009 @hybridlore @jonas
I’m tagging a bunch of you. Firstly, I doubt you will be offended, and secondly, I have free will. (You may ignore, of course.)
A lot of you write or read about fantastical kingdoms with royal families. Even if you haven’t directly done that in a while, I’m sure some images pop into your head. Royal heirs, political drama, that sort of thing.
I’m writing a little story about a royal family, just for fun. I’ve realized I have a lot of natural curiosity about the life of a royal. There are so many real kingdoms in history that have had crazy rulers and even crazier traditions. Normally, I would feel pressured to use ideas that are classic and have that timeless medieval-y honorable feel. But in this story, I have an urge to explore the stranger parts of a monarchy.
If you will, answer these questions. Have you ever come across a strange tidbit of information in your history studies – about a king, a country, or what have you – that stuck in your head? Anything strange and worth a research rabbit hole? What was it? Have you ever wondered about weird hypothetical scenarios in a royal setting (what if the crown princes were twins, or what if the family tree looked like this, or what if this crazy thing happened)? Tell me where your mind wanders.
The weirder the ideas, the better. If no one has ideas off the top of their head, it is alright, I’m sure I will come up with more eventually!
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I also welcome your favorite tropes. Tell me what interests you.
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This is delicious. *savors the aroma of randomness* I love this story idea already. Leaning into crazy traditions and stuff is a great idea!
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Sorry, this will be a lot.
Historical Rabbit Trails
Angelo saxons did not have “queens” for a long time (the first being the woman who allegedly brought Christianity to the country). This was because some queen got power hungry/angry at her husband and poisoned him. So they removed the Ringiver/King’s personal life from politics for a while. (Yeah, ancient Saxons were my brainrot a few years ago. I would love a court system built in a thein/Ringiver/Scop society.)
Also about queens.. the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire went through a time that they refused to marry in an attempt to avoid paying ransoms in case she was kidnapped. The first Sultan to change that married a Ukrainian slave his mother had bought for him. She is one of the most famous Sultannas to this day as her influence spread over all Europe.
The king of Babylon had to be slapped in the face every year by the chief priest or else he would lose his crown. The Persians saw no use for this and therefore struggled to gain their new citizens’ respect because the Babylonians felt the new king had not submitted to their god.
This one is fascinating but be careful if you’re sqramish. One of the crown princes of England in the Medieval ages got shot in the face by an arrow but survived. (Actually, he tried to keep fighting. Broke the thing off and went on until stopped IF I REMEMBER RIGHT) The shaft, broken off as it was, slipped in too deep to be easily removed/it came out but the arrow head stayed in. It couldn’t be left in because it was lodged near his spine and could literally paralyze him if it moved a couple inches. A surgen saved him by 1. Creating these special, long tweezers, 2. Carefully keeping the wound from healing closed or getting infected by stuffing it with sterilized strips of cloth. Once the wound was wide enough, he got the arrow head out, stitched up the prince and that was that. Icky Medical Stuff over. The heir lived to become king, and while it’s a story that many discredit, it is interesting that the only paintings of him only show his profile, the undamaged side toward the viewer.
There was a king of Germany/The Holy Roman Empire that had glaucoma but still went to war and fought. (Although he died in his first blind battle.)
Queen Elizabeth II avoided smelly foods, especially garlic. She also liked frozen custard. SO FOOD. I love researching what they ate and what they wore and the why’s behind it all.
King Alfred allegedly disguised himself as a minstrel so he could spy on the Viking invaders while he lived in exile/as an outlaw. He also translated parts of the Bible and his favorite Bible character was David because Alfred wanted to be a poet but had to be a king, and David was both.
Favorite tropes!
Wholesome family relationships that fly in the face of politics. The world is against us but we’re still family and I remember who you really are so let’s work this out together.
Arranged marriage where she knows exactly what she’s getting into and will make the best of it. Also he is not an idiot.
Mad king with a faithful regent son taking care of the kingdom.
Nerdy heir. Like, studied politics but has a secret hobby that is totally unconnected. Probably has to do with books or insects. The random obsessions of royals are not only fabulous, but they also make them more human.
I do like the idea of a bloodline that’s crossed with fairies or something from some old alliance. The people just think the genetics are a part of being royal but there are secret pros and cons of the situation. I feel like the idea of a cross-folk marriage is a little over done, but something like this would be fun.
The hypetheticals
I have definitely wondered what would happen if there were twins. Logically, the eldest would be the heir, but their relationship would be fascinating. Would they be best friends or bitter enemies? Personally, I feel like the bitter enemies trope is used a lot and would love to see a best friend scenario. ALSO, would the culture view twins as a good thing or would they have negative superstitions about them? The possibilities are vast.
I also think a disabled etc. heir would be interesting. Blind, crippled, and chronically ill heirs have existed and not lost their titles, but it’s definitely not a possibility many consider.
Still a ChaosGremlin™ on the inside.
There was a “German” (I don’t think they where called that yet) King in the early middle ages who decided that his claim to the throne was based on him being a decendent of a mythical King who’s father was a sea monster (a Quinotaur). The only people who could rule where from this lineage, and the sign of that was that they. . . had long hair.
Dethroned kings or dangerous royal rivals were routinely seized, forcibly shaved, and sent to a monastery. Without their long hair, they were legally disqualified from ruling.
There also was a Portuguese prince who fell in love with a noblewoman. His father, viewing her as a political threat, had her brutally assassinated while the prince was away. When the prince inherited the couple years later, he posthumously made her his queen. According to legend (but not history), He dug up her grave, had her dressed in royal robes, and seated on a throne beside him. Then forced the nobles who had conspired against her (or just stood by silently) to line up, bow before her decaying corpse, and kiss her hand. (The trueth is closer to, he personally killed her assassins, and moved her body to a fancy monastery followed by a huge procession.)
Oh, and there was also King Charles VI, a.k.a. “Charles the Mad”, who often forgot his own name, insisted he was not king, and refused to bathe or change clothes for five months straight. He also thought at times that he was made of glass, and was scares people would bump into him.
He nearly died once in a freak masquerade ball accident involving some of his friends and very flammable costumes.
You two understood the assignment!! This is exactly the stuff I want.
This is a lovely smorgasbord of information. I’m taking notes. I will be back to look at this again and look all of this up. Absolutely delightful replies.
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You’ve already got some wonderful stuff, but I’ll throw some more in
because I too have free will.Tsar Peter the great tried to run away from his kingdom but didn’t make it onto the ship he was stowaying on because he was too tall to go unnoticed and was recognized.
There’s a Scottish noble family that according to legend has fairy blood and a fairy flag. Some nobleman allegedly fell in love with and maried a fairy. After a few years she decided it was time she went home, so she gave him a magic victory flag and disappeared. Supposedly if the flag is flown at a battle, Scottland will always win.
There was some King (I think Chinese?) who fell from his horse during his birthday hunt. After getting helped to his feet he made everyone there promise not to tell the court historian. However, someone blabbed because the entire thing (with dialogue) is recorded in detail.
The Most Noble Order of the Garter was a whole order of chivalry that was founded by a ballroom accident. King Edward III was dancing with some lady when the garter (ribbon) from one of her stockings came free. To keep her from being embarrassed he pretty much demanded no one laugh and buckled it to his own leg.
A cup of tea is cheaper than therapy.
Not sure if this is the right place to put it, but I have a problem y’all.
The next animation on my list of HTTYD scenes to remake is the one where Toothless (Thunder in my case) gets controlled by the alpha dragon. Anyone who’s seen HTTYD2 is going to remember that exact scene….
and you know someone is going to have to die.
the problem is, I have two characters that fit the bill for my story. One is the captain of the Rift Team….and the other is the main character’s brother.
Option 1 has these things going for him:
-He is the leader of the group, meaning my main character will need to step into his role, which has been the plan all along.
-I’ve already listed him as “dead” in the wiki pages I’ve made for the series (although I can easily edit that), because I had this as the original plan before realizing the other character has some things going for him too.
-While he’s not blood related to my main character, they do hold each other in high respect, and this man’s death would shock the MC quite a lot. Not to mention that this character IS related to two other members of the team, who are both close to the MC, so that element of someone losing family is still there.
-There are some other scenes that would be more interesting if I keep the other character alive.
-I just plain don’t wanna kill the other guy, he’s been one of my favorites since day 1 and my channel’s viewers agree.
Option 2 has these:
-He’s directly related to my main character, and has been his only living family for several years now. Him dying wouldn’t just shock the main character, it’d break him, and that’d be interesting to see how things move forward after that.
-He’s a fan favorite of sorts, as well as a favorite of mine. Yeah, it might make my fans upset, but they’re also the ones who theorized he was going to die in the first place lol. Maybe the fact that we’re more attached to him will be helpful in actually feeling his loss.
-The other character appears in an animation that would take place after this one. I was planning to retcon it, but if I kill this guy instead I don’t have to.
-It’ll be slightly simpler to animate. The other one would require two extra characters to be in the scene.
so, yeah, this is probably the wrong forum but i just wanted to share something i was stuck on heheh
Gerald handled that. You don’t question Gerald. (if you know you know)
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