#fennrin

[ladydawnxx]

My First Digital Art :DD

“now I lay me down, lay me down to sleep, I pray to thee, pray my soul to keep”

For my first ever attempt at digital art I decided to draw Fennrin from @dragonthusiast​ upcoming Nightstar trilogy, because he is such a great character and I love him so much. His book 2 toxic relationship arc will be the most delicious thing you’ll ever read—and this fanart depicts the symbolism of it.

You can find out more about Nightstar in this post, which you should DEFINITELY check out, if you like this silly little art piece (you should check out Nightstar even if you didn’t like my art). You can also learn more about the characters here.

Go check these out. Support my beloved best friend, because she is super talented and so underrated.

#writeblr #artblr #original character #character fanart #other writeblrs work #nightstar #fennrin #original writing #writeblr support #signal boost #character art #cw blood #cw toxic relationship mention

[dragonthusiast]

Wattpad Ad Tag Game

So as some of you might know the Wattpad app sends these delightful ads in notifications sometimes, in this format

Thought it might be fun to do some for our own books here, using the format of [sentence] [1 or 2 emojis] [second sentence].

Bonus points if it's funny. Feel free to do more than one too. (And tell me about your book/books also if you want to)

I'll do one for my series Nightstar:

Fennrin can control shadows 🌀

But can he use his powers to help save his country?

taglist but anyone who sees this can join obviously: @ladydawnxx @waltzshouldbewriting @vandijkwrites @nettleandthorne @amrago @stesierra @vmccombs  

#writerblr #tag game #original writing #writers of tumblr #my writing #nightstar series #writeblr

[dragonthusiast]

Nightstar Character Introductions

This post will be a compilation of all the major characters from my NaNo WIP called Break the Day. If someone new shows up and worms their way into these books, I’ll update this post.

(The portraits are made in Artbreeder, I might try to draw them properly later.)

For a story/worldbuilding/whatever compilation click here for that post.

Fennrin (formerly Tyr-Syrenten)

Age: 26

Sexuality: Gay

Power: Creates and controls shadows

Fennrin comes from a somewhat wealthy family, but because of his powers, eventually his parents decide to disown him so he can’t tarnish their good family name. Having lived 9 years in poverty alone, Fenn is very guarded and scared of letting people close, not speaking more than he needs to and often keeps his expression and voice neutral, not letting anyone know what he’s feeling or thinking. 

Ainreth Tyr-Naralyn

Age: 30

Sexuality: Gay

Power: Controls light

Ainreth is a powerful general with the nickname the Daybreaker. He is naturally outgoing and positive, but since the death of his childhood friend on the battlefield, he’s been using that as a mask to hide the pain and guilt he’s been feeling over it, exaggerating his smiles while also putting on a selfish jackass persona because it makes it easy to keep people away from him. His biggest fear is someone he cares about getting hurt again, and so he’s not very happy that Fennrin is making him want to give caring a chance once more.

Petre Mar-Harion

Age: 22

Gender identity and sexuality: Nonbinary, panromantic asexual

Power: Can control/grow mushrooms. They love mushrooms ok

Petre is from a family that has roots in both Lys-Akkaria and Orinovo, feeling a connection to both cultures even though they are currently at war and sometimes feeling like a bit of an outcast for it. Despite their young age, they are Ainreth’s second-in-command, largerly because they possess the unique ability to tolerate Ain for more than ten minutes.

Yarima Anarova

Age: 28

Sexuality: Bisexual

Soundsmith (or is she?) - can control sound

Yarima is a mysterious figure on a mission to find and fight Ainreth. While she is easily recognizable as being from Orinovo by her thick accent, not much else is known about her or what she wants with Ainreth. But one thing is for sure - she can defeat him far too easily.

Enlin Fer-Tyrosen

Age: 24

Sexuality: Lesbian

Enlin is a soldier serving in Ainreth’s regiment, and she’s also Petre’s best friend. Enlin is a very cheerful person, though she does have a tendency to get anxious and overthink, and due to her optimistic, cheery disposition is usually seen as annoying by her fellow soldiers.

Denir Anarov

Age: 26

Sexuality: Gay

Yarima’s younger brother, Denir is the crown prince of Orinovo after his sister’s escape from the country, but due to his absolute inability to be a ruthless dictator, both having too much empathy and not being nearly as smart as his sister (as well as being gay, which the homophobic Orinovo does not appreciate), the queen doesn’t actually want him to take over after she dies, and is ready to cast him aside any moment she finds a more worthy candidate.

Neven Oretski

Age: 31

Sexuality: Bisexual

Neven is the de facto main general in the Orinovan army, and a fanatic servant of the Orinovan queen. Having witnessed Ainreth burning hundreds of Neven’s fellow soldiers to death in an instant during the faithful battle ten years prior, Neven has decided to put himself through the same experimentation that Yarima had been forced into, gaining control over fire and wind from it in an effort to help his country defeat Lys-Akkaria and Ainreth, who he sees as his main rival. Neven has a shameful secret, though—he’s very much in love and secretly dating the prince of Orinovo.

Daryan Varilik

Age: 142

Sexuality: Bisexual

Power: can control/grow plants

Daryan is the High Herald of Lys-Akkaria, the de facto ruler and representative of the country, though his power is limited by his fellow 3 rulers, the courtiers. Very dilf-y.

Taglist: @missdrarrydawn @morganwriteblr @drarrywords​ @midore-fuse903​

#character intro #writeblr #amwriting #nanowrimo #nightstar series #original character #original writing #creative writing #my writing

[dragonthusiast]

Nightstar’s magic system

So one of the reasons I’m so excited about this series is some of the concepts that you can do with light and shadow powers in particular if you really think about them.

I think it’s pretty obvious that I took inspiration from the Grishaverse with this for those who are familiar with the series. After reading those books my immediate thought was trying to write something similar, but without the flaws that bothered me. And I’m not even talking about the butchering of the Russian language there, as much as I like to meme on it.

So anyway the thing about controlling light is that theoretically you could make yourself invisible. That does happen in the third book in the Grisha trilogy, but that’s hardly the limitation. In this, Ainreth is going to be able to sear people, burn them to death if he wants, blind them, etc. And also he’s going to be able to create images from light, hence the name lightweaver, which is less exciting, but important for a later paragraph.

I felt like the light powers in the Grisha trilogy weren’t utilized that badly, but I still think it would have benefited greatly from some sun scorching. (I actually can’t remember how Alina even uses her powers anymore aside from destroying the shadow fold thing, but anyway). What I found much more offensive is how little Sasha’s shadow powers were utilized.

So here’s how they’re gonna work in this series. Everything has a shadow, and that shadow corresponds to the form that’s casting it, correct? But that has to work both ways. So, if Fennrin decided to modify or move someone’s shadow, they would have to move the way he’s moving them. And if he moved their shadow’s head in a way that would snap their neck, well.... (And like how cool would it have been if Sasha went around killing people with his mind like that. He just uses that the Cut nonsense. In the show, I think he suffocated a guy with shadow, and while that is very cool, it also makes no sense to me.)

Aside from that he’s also going to be able to become a shadow, and be able to slink into other people’s shadows, and hurt or kill them that way while being basically invulnerable because you can’t kill a shadow.

And now here’s how these two powers come together. As I mentioned earlier, Ain can create images of things. And aside from modifying, Fennrin can also create shadows. And if he gives an image Ainreth has made a perfect shadow, that thing will become real. I’m still figuring out how this is gonna work because there have to be limitations to it or this whole concept is going to destroy the stakes, but I’m also so excited about it. Both for the coolness factor and the symbolism, cause it’s like shadow and light coming together to create reality.

Taglist under cut, if anyone wants to be added/removed lemme know:

 @missdrarrydawn @morganwriteblr @drarrywords​ @midore-fuse903

#writeblr #original writing #nightstar series #my writing #magic system #nanowrimo

[dragonthusiast]

Break the Day: Proper NaNo WIP intro

I finally got around to writing a proper blurb for the first book in this series, and also it’s developed even further since my last one so I thought I’d compile a proper post about it. Still excited about this to dangerous levels.

I’ll update this post as things develop.

Genre: Fantasy, LGBTQ+

Status: Writing book 2

Short Summary:

This series is set in a medieval-ish fantasy world, partly inspired by slavic language/culture, about magic users called the az-ari/the priori, particularly two of them called Fennrin and Ainreth, who can control shadows and light respectively. They fall in love while trying to navigate a world of politics, war, the ramifications of individuals being given too much power, and also their own complicated feelings because they’re idiots. 

Proper Blurb:

Fennrin is a shadowforger, a type of az-ari who have mastery over shadows. But all it's ever brought him is misery. People are afraid of the power that he himself barely understands, seeing his shadows as omens of bad luck and death.

Forced to barely scrape by since his parents disowned him, Fennrin's life takes a turn when he is approached by Ainreth, a lightweaver and famous general, asking him to come with him to the royal court to be trained and help him stave off an assassin who's made an attempt on Ain's life, somehow able to counteract his powers.

Even though Fennrin is suspicious of Ainreth's flirting and his arrogant attitude, Fennrin decides to go with him because his life can't get much worse.

Thrust into a world of politics and power, Fennrin quickly learns just why shadowforgers are so infamous and how strong he could become, while, much to his chagrin, starting to fall for Ainreth. However, unwelcome feelings are only the start of his problems as the neighboring, tyrannical monarchy is preparing for war. And if Fennrin wants to survive, he will have to fight it.

Map and Geography:

There’s two countries in the story (though I’m sure I’ll add more to mention on the side later). Orinovo - the somewhat slavic country on the left, and Lys-Akkaria on the right. Lys-Akkaria used to be part of Orinovo, but freed itself over a century ago. Now that Orinovo has a new monarch, a new war has started to try to regain Lys-Akkaria back.

Orinovo is a monarchist dictatorship where az-ari are hated, while Lys-Akkaria celebrates them, and is ruled by 4 elected leaders: the Bulwark of the Royal Guard, who manages the army, the Patron of Treasury, who deals with taxes and money in general, the Arbiter of Law, who deals with law, unsurprisingly, and the High Herald, the guy who keeps an eye on the other 3 to make sure everything runs smoothly.

And here’s some flags for the two nations. Lys-Akkaria’s the first one because they’re cooler of course:

Magic System:

The az-ari can control various aspects of nature, but they’re all limited to their specific talent. What exactly they can do is still up for changing, but so far the types of az-ari are lightweaver (controls light, especially sunlight), shadowforger (controls shadows), sproutkeeper (can either control plants or mushrooms, there’s two types), flamewielder (controls fire), ironspinners (control iron, so far not officially added, may be deleted at any point :D), and so far unnamed ability to take the powers of others.

To be able to use their powers, the az-ari have to be able to move their fingers, which is why special finger clamps exist to restrain them if necessary.

The powers are inherited from ancestors, but it’s not super likely for someone to receive them, and the longer a family line goes without them the less likely it is for someone to have powers. Shadowforgers and lightweavers are incredibly rare because their powers are tied to only one family line each.

I would list characters here but I compiled a character introduction post here for anyone interested.

#writeblr #amwriting #creative writing #original writing #nanowrimo #wip intro #fantasy #my writing

[dragonthusiast]

So, Ainreth, army general and celebrity, has five parents. This decision, like most concerning Nightstar, was made on a whim, and it's the best decision I've made so far.

Look at Fenn getting all anxious about meeting them.

“Look everyone, it’s Ain’s new boyfriend!” Ainreth’s mother exclaimed, sounding as if she could barely contain her excitement, her hands on Fennrin’s sides presumably because she couldn’t comfortably reach his shoulders, presenting him.

“Oh, it is?!” one of the fathers practically yelled, a tall, dark-eyed man with short black hair, eyes wide and equally excited, immediately getting up and strolling to Fennrin, studying him before holding out his hand. Fennrin shoot it, not even feeling like he was in control of his actions, too overwhelmed.

“Nice to meet you! Please, call me Gwynn.” The man gestured to himself, grinning wide, only then ending their handshake. “And this is—”

“Tarrine Naralyn, hello!” one of the two other mothers greeted him, having snuck up on him from the side apparently. Fennrin almost flinched, but he shook her hand as well, noting that she was blond and blue-eyed, with prominent wrinkles around her eyes. She looked the oldest of the group, closer to sixty, perhaps. “I hear you’re a shadowforger. Very apt for our Ain, I’d say.”

“Er….” “We’ll see about that,” muttered the second father, a light-brown-haired man of about thirty, wearing a scowl as he approached, looking Fennrin over critically. Fennrin swallowed nervously under his stare, ducking his head a little. At least this reaction he’d been expecting, unlike all the overly positive ones he’d so far gotten.

#writebrl #amwriting #nightstar series #my writing

[dragonthusiast]

Nano update #8

Reached 50K words and our idiots are currently talking about their feelings! Given that I didn’t think I’d even manage to complete 50K words in the 30 days available, doing it more than a week ahead of time is kind of nuts to me.

“Hey, asshole!” 

Fennrin flinched, his head snapping to the left to see Ainreth marching over to them, stumbling as he pushed past everyone, his index finger pointed at the man accusingly. And of course everyone was now staring at Ainreth. Fennrin once again longed to become a shadow, just to avoid this whole incident that was going to happen.

“Fenn’s my boyfriend, not yours,” Ainreth snapped at the man when he reached them, grasping Fennrin’s shoulders almost possessively, which Fennrin immediately put a stop to by shaking it the hand off.

“We are not together, Ainreth,” he hissed at him. He couldn’t believe Ainreth was doing this. He must have been more drunk than Fennrin had thought to get possessive over someone for the heinous crime of talking to Fennrin, which was especially ridiculous because they weren’t together. No matter how much Fennrin wished for them to be.

“Why not, though?” Ainreth whined, putting on his kicked puppy look again.

#writeblr #amwriting #nanowrimo #my writing #nightstar series

[dragonthusiast]

Painted Fennrin! Had to do it twice because the first time he looked like Hiccup and that wasn't what I wanted at all

#writeblr #digital art #my art #my writing #original character #nightstar series

[dragonthusiast]

Nano update #7

Reached 40K yesterday but forgot to brag about it. The story is getting to some of the more exciting plot points now, which is good because it means Fenn and Ain will get together soon and that will be one less headache for me.

“Could you…stay?” Ainreth asked, bringing Fennrin out of his thoughts. Ainreth was looking up at him with his head ducked, hair falling in his eyes. “It doesn’t have to mean anything. If you don’t want. I just…I don’t want to be alone right now.”

With the big, sad, pleading eyes Ainreth was giving him, how could Fennrin say no? Sighing again, he walked around the bed, took off his shoes, and climbed on it, unable not to feel incredibly awkward as he lay down.

Ainreth didn’t seem to share these thoughts, though, as he eagerly scooted over to him, pressing his head against Fennrin’s chest and wrapping an arm around him, as if continuing the hug from earlier.

And within a few moments, he was out, dead to the world, his breathing slowing, but his body pressed to Fennrin’s as tightly as ever before. And Fennrin was left alone with his thoughts, swirling in his head in a chaotic whirlwind.

For once he was glad for his constant exhaustion from his all-day trainings. It would be the only thing that would help him sleep tonight because like this, next to Ainreth, he didn’t think he could otherwise.

As if this could ever not mean anything.

#writebrl #nanowrimo #my writing #nightstar series

[dragonthusiast]

Nano update #4

I just reached 20K words! 

For me that’s really really good for a single week. And I’m not running out of steam yet, which is insane. I don’t know what it is. I think it’s just that I’m genuinely so excited for this series that I’m churning it out. It’s been so fun so far.

Excerpt under cut :)

Shaking his head, he tried again, now the discomforting feeling of falling to the ground coming in almost immediately. But Fennrin forced himself not to react until it was suddenly over. And now he was on the ground. But also the walls. He could still see, hear, feel things, and yet he had no ears, no eyes, to allow for it. He could see Ainreth above him, looking around at the shadows, probably trying to spot him.

Fennrin could see the outline of his shadow among the others, a slightly darker shade, but he doubted Ainreth would be able to tell. It was incredibly subtle, and he suspected that the only reason he could see it was that he could feel himself as different from the other shadows. He tried to move, gliding along the cobblestone slowly.

This was very strange and disorienting.

#nanowrimo #my writing #writeblr #amwriting #nightstar series

[dragonthusiast]

Nano update #3

I reached 15K just a minute ago. This book is going great so far. Ain is finally acting like a bit of a jerk finally also, I was getting concerned

Snippet under the cut :)

“Fenn, this is my lieutenant, Petre Mar, um, Last Name.”

Fennrin’s eyebrows raised up, his lovely light blue eyes going wide. He had probably not met many people with the Mar designation before. Fair enough, given the nowhere city Ain had found him in.

Petre sighed, rolling their eyes. “I’m Petre Mar-Harion. Nice to meet you.”

They adjusted their grip on the paperwork, thrusting out their hand for Fenn to shake, which he did as he threw a disbelieving look Ainreth’s way. 

“How do you not know their last name if they are your second?”

Ain scowled, pouting. He didn’t like the accusatory tone in Fenn’s voice. So he wasn’t the best with names, so what? Aside from Fennrin’s, which he couldn’t get out of his head, even though the man’s parents had disowned him, and it had clearly made him uncomfortable to say it to the Bulwark.

“Look, I know a lot of people. I can’t remember everyone’s names.”

#nanowrimo #writeblr #amwriting #my writing #nightstar series

[dragonthusiast]

19, 2, 6 for the writer asks :DD

Hello mysterious stranger, thank you very much for the ask :)

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)

I tend to repeat certain character tropes all the time, which I didn't realize until recently, and I'm not sure I even want to change it because they're just so good. The ones that keep reappearing in every series I write are "grumpy person with many issues", "sunshine person also with many issues" and "person who jokes around a lot". And yeah, I mix and mash them a lot, but they are still identifiable to the point where I refer to these character types by character names from my first series. Like I'll refer to the grumpy character as a kaleth and the sunshine character as a mel.

In terms of repeating words, I can't stop overusing the word "really" :D I am however working on my addiction.

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

Oh definitely the characters arc for one of my newest characters Fennrin in book 2 of Nightstar. Which is a shame because I haven't written book 1 yet, but anyway. I can't wait to write his descent into his villain arc. I've never written something like this properly and it's very exciting.

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

I haven't written him properly yet (not from his own POV), however, I'm going to have to go with Ainreth. He's a bit of an arrogant jackass, and it's really fun to write a character that just doesn't care what other people think of them. It's a mask he puts on, but it's still funny to write, even though he'll drop it as the series goes.

[dragonthusiast]

20, 14, 8 for the ask game bestie :DD

Thank you for the ask bestie : )

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Currently I am absolutely obsessed with fennreth as you would know. The character development for Fennrin and Ainreth both is absolutely amazing as a concept. There's just something really satisfying about one character slowly starting to fall apart while the other is finally starting to get better. And there is a bunch of unintentional symbolism there with the whole light/darkness motif due to their powers, which just makes this all even better. I can't wait to write book 2.

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

Almost exclusively when I finish writing because I suck at titles and can never come up with a good one, so I procrastinate on it by saying "I'm sure I'll know it by the time I write the book". It never works, unfortunately, but that can't stop me because I can't read.

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

Yes, I don't think there's a genre that I like to read that I wouldn't enjoy writing, I also look for similar tropes in reading, though I'm less selective there. The closest thing to this that I have is seeing other people's super indepth worldbuilding, for example, which I'm usually not really able to do, and I don't think I even want to. But it is very fun to read. It tickles the brain good.