
Fairys and the peasant girl by Yuliya Litvinova
Tag yourself: fantasy creatures 🌟✨
🔥Dragons: easily excited and likes being the centre of attention, warm heart and friendly to everyone, secretly holds grudges, likes adrenaline rushes
🍄Faeries: loves floral scents, often loses track of time by being in the clouds too much, sings along to the radio, gets sad when they think about their past
🌸Nymphs: dancers, loves being in the middle of nature, easily infatuated by love, knows a lot of flower species, sleepy most of the time, likes routine
🌊Mermaids: emotional but a bit detached, calmed by solitude, acts naïve but knows everything, secretive about true feelings, good at reading people
🕊Angels: loves strawberries & literature, can’t stop admiring beautiful people, avoids conflict, blushes a lot when they get embarrassed, smiles easily, caring
🍃Elves: eloquent speakers or thinkers, constant sarcastic internal monologue, very competitive but they don’t show it, acts cold but are secretly soft
every time I see the words “Tolkien ripoff” in reference to fantasy I laugh, because while there’s a lot of Tolkien ripoff in worldbuilding it almost never crops up in plot or theme or characterization
like
where are my stories about the decay of the world from the glory of days gone by?
where’s the motif of limb loss?
where’s the longing for the return of something worth following?
where are the bloodthirsty oaths that tear sanity to shreds?
where are the evil spirits who try and destroy the gods with steampunk V-1 buzz bombs (looking at you, The Lost Road)?
where’s my continent-wide dialectical shift ending in massive arguments over the proper pronunciation of a name? where’s my family drama centered around sparkly rocks? where are my dragons the size of mountain ranges?
Tolkienesque Fantasy™: there’s a quest, the elves are bitchy, the dwarves drink a lot, farm boy hero.
Tolkien’s Actual Writing: absolute power corrupts absolutely, a little bit of power corrupts a little, to what extent are people responsible for their actions? does God/the gods really answer our prayers? and pacifistic undertones.
Also actual Tolkien: The world is full of hope even in dark times. Kindness and friendship are what heroes are made of. Absolutely do not fuck with nature or you will regret it.
Also actual Tolkien: actual heroes are little people who band together because it is right, and because they must.
Actual Tolkien: write your spouse into the story as an Actual Demigoddess whose song can charm even the Big Bad and the Keeper of the Dead themselves. Write your best friend into the story as a longwinded shaggy tree who takes hours to get to the fucking point.
Actual Tolkien: a true leader values peace rather than war, and is identified by their ability to heal rather than fight. We are all essentially shaped and guided by the past, what was done and what stories we know of it. We are part of that great ongoing story. Despair is the enemy; hope is never foolish.
Syrens in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
requested by anon
This might be one of the best, most creepy siren character designs I’ve ever seen.
THALASSIC
[adjective]
1. of or pertaining to seas and oceans.
2. of or pertaining to smaller bodies of water, as seas and gulfs, as distinguished from large oceanic bodies.
3. growing, living, or found in the sea; marine.
Etymology: from French thalassique, from Greek thalassa, “sea”.
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Original: Mermaid by sswanderer
“…and they say she was tall like a mountain, glistening in the setting sun, ancient and horrifying.“ – Writings of Lysander Quince, Monstrumologist
MerMay, anyone??