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thienvaldram · 5 months

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Silurian Speculative Ancestry

Edit: Updated to add Silurians from the 30th Anniversary Calendar

Prelude – Meta-Origins of Silurians

It is of note that the Silurians, upon original development, were very much intended to effectively be ‘dinosaur people’. With their reptilian appearance being indicative of the pre-Avian, pre-Jurassic Park reptilian dinosaur conception. Though with JP-style avian dinosaurs being depicted in both Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and Deep Breath among others, as well as the newer designs of the Silurians themselves, make such an origin retroactively very tenuous in Universe.

Their two names from their first couple of stories, ‘Silurians’ and ‘Eocenes’, reflect two eras of history in which they are implied to originate, though both raise massive chronological problems with regards to how their depicted, especially in later works but even in their early ones. The Silurian era (444-415 million years ago) predates the emergence of reptiles entirely (310-320 million years ago) whereas the Eocene (56-34 million years ago) postdates the Dinosaurs but also still predates humanity (300,000 years ago), the homo genus (2.8 million years ago) and Hominids (22 million years ago).

And the ‘Silurian dating controversy’ only gets worse the more Silurian stories got written over time, as various pieces of media date them anywhere between less than 1 million years ago to 65 million years ago to 1 billion years ago (Which is pre Multicellular life). This exacerbated by the idea that the Moon’s capture was the reason for the Silurian hibernation, a theory that was since superseded by the Theia impact theory in modern scientific consensus and either way would have been dated to the early Solar System.

Thus for the interest of Speculative Biology I have thrown out all specific absolute dates and specific geological events associated with the Silurians in favour of hashing together an origin that makes conceptual sense for the Silurians as a prehistoric sentient Earthbound species based on what knowledge of modern biology I happen to have, as well as what jives with the overall ideas of the DWU.

Speculative Evolution

Speciation

Template

Scientific Name – Colloquial Identifier for this writeup (DWU Name/Origin Story)

Genus

Bipeslacertia – Reptilian Kindred (Earth Reptiles)

Species

Bipeslacertia vehemenus – Primitive Ancestor (Primitive Ancestor)

Bipeslacertia volans – “Winged Kindred” (Winged Earth Reptiles)

Bipeslacertia diabolus – Sea Devils (Sea Devils)

Bipeslacertia homines – Silurians (Silurians)

Mondasian Parallel Evolution

Bipeslacertia diabolus abastrius – Sea Kings (Mondasian Sea Devils)

Bipeslacertia homines abastrius – Lizard Kings (Mondasian Silurians)

Subspecies (Winged Kindred)

Bipeslacertia volans mortuus – “Paleocenes” (Winged Species – Adolescence of Time)

Bipeslacertia volans malakhi – Wyrm Callers (Wyrm infected Paleocenes)

Bipeslacertia volans vivus – Luadans (TM: A Morphology/Reign of the Reptiles)

Bipeslacertia volans aurori – Zori (Reign of the Reptiles/Revelry of the Redacted)

Subspecies (Sea Devil)

Bipeslacertia diabolus sicutsimiae – Late Sea Devils (Comic Sea Devils)

Bipeslacertia diabolus sicuturtus – Early Sea Devils (Normal Sea Devils)

Bipeslacertia diabolus reditius – “Devolved Ones” (Inhabitants of the Nameless City – HP Lovecraft/Faction Paradox)

Subspecies (Silurian)

Bipeslacertia homines malus – Serad-dur (Serad-dur)

“Scholar” Caste

Bipeslacertia homines augurius – Fair Folk (Fair Folk- The Shadows of Avalon)

Bipeslacertia homines sapentia – “Senior” Silurians (Chibnall’s original classic style redesign – Cold Blood)

Bipeslacertia homines rostrata – “Middle” Silurians (Warriors of the Deep Silurians)

Bipeslacertia homines gravius – “Horned Kindred” (Bulky Horned Herbivorous Silurians – TM A Morphology)

Bipeslacertia homines labia – “Early” Silurians (Original Classic Who Silurians)

Bipeslacertia homines venefica – The Silurians from the 30th Anniversary Calendar

“Warrior” Caste (Alternatively “Hunter” Caste)

Bipeslacertia homines anguis – “Junior” Silurians (Silurian Hunters – Supremacy of the Cybermen)

Bipeslacertia homines sapiens – “Late” Silurians (New Who Silurians)

Notes

Bipeslacertia vehemenus is considered by the Reptilian Kindred to be an ancestor species and not part of the ‘Reptilian Kindred’ themselves, it is however considered to be in the same genus biologically.

Bipeslacertia volans mortuus was the earliest sapient subspecies to diverge from the Reptilian Kindred and the first to develop a civilisation, but was however rendered extinct by the Wyrm (Alongside the Wyrm mutated Bipeslacertia volans malakhi)

The Reptilian Kindred consider themselves to have five extant ‘Classes/Castes’

Sea Devil

Scholar

Warrior

Winged Kindred

Serad-Dur

And do not consider any greater subgroupings such as the ‘Silurian/Sea Devil two species grouping’ or the ‘Scholar/Warrior single species hypothesis’ as valid, from their perspective, the five main classes are considered the maximal groupings of Reptilian Kindred outside of the sole group that includes all of them, with the term ‘Silurian’ (Alternatively Earth Reptile or Saurian) being used to refer to all five rather than just the Scholar and Warrior castes.

The original Reptilian Kindred diverged from the ancestor of the Helodermatidae family of venomous lizards in the late Cretaceous, with the Bipeslacertia genus itself diverging from the rest of the family with the origin of its bipedal stance in the early Paleocene, just after the KT Extinction Event.

Most accounts of Reptilian Kindred-Dinosaur cohabitation are either later palimpsests (The Reptilian Kindred were a time active power during the Time Wars era, with an individual of Bipeslacertia homines sapiens appearing in the Alliance of Races alongside Rassilon) or instances of Reptilian Kindred bioengineering in the Eocene and Oligocene rather than true Jurassic-Cretaceous era native Reptilian Kindred species.

Their technological civilisation emerged in the Eocene, after the divergence between the “Scholar” and “Warrior” castes of Silurians but before full speciation.

Their full classification is

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Squamata

(Potential Clade: Toxicofera)

Suborder: Anguimorpha

Infraorder: Neoanguimorpha

Clade: Monstersauria

Family: Bipeslacertidae

Genus: Bipeslacertia

The emergence order of distinct subspecies was as follows

Cretaceous (145-65 mya)

Split of Bipeslacertidae from Helodermatidae

Paleocene (65-56 mya)

Bipeslacertia splits from the rest of the (extinct) Bipeslacertiadae genera, they are separately characterised by their bipedal stance as opposed to other lizard species.

Spilt of ancestor species from the rest of Bipeslacertia

Bipeslacertia volans splits from the rest of Bipeslacertia

The Zori split from Bipeslacertia volans before the full development of wings

Silurian-Sea Devil Split

“Paleocenes” split from Bipeslacertia volans, “Paleocene” civilisation forms (mostly) above the clouds.

“Paleocene” extinction at the hands of the Wyrm

Reptilian Kindred Civilisations first form.

Extinction of ancestor species

Eocene (56-34 mya)

Serad-Dur split from Silurians

“Early” and “Late” Sea Devils Split

Scholar-Warrior Split, emergence of Scholar Third Eye

Reptilian Kindred Civilisation reaches technological level

Fair Folk Split after Silurians are transported to Avalon

Oligocene (34-23 mya)

“Senior Silurians” split from Scholar caste

Scholar Caste splits into “Early” and “Middle” Silurians

The Inhabitants of the Nameless City split from the “Early” Sea Devils and devolve, eventually disappearing entirely under the shallow seas of north Africa.

“Junior” and “Late” Silurians split

Miocene (23-5.3 mya)

Speciation begins to slow down due to civilisation technological advancement

Reptilian Kindred civilisation enters hibernation due to disaster (Either the newest Moon or a planetoid close passage unrelated to the Moon)

Pliocene (5.3-2.6 mya)

Various apes modified and bred by the Reptilian Kindred begin to develop to fill the ecological niche left by the Reptilian Kindred’s hibernation.

Pleistocene (2.6 mya – 11,700 ya)

Evolution of Homo Sapien Sapiens (humans).

Holocene (11,700 ya – 1712)

Various sporadic reawakenings that are almost always killed off by the newly developed humans.

1500 BCE – Atlantis is destroyed, the Nameless City is forced above the ocean in Africa and the inhabitants are rendered (mostly) extinct

Anthropocene (1712 – 500,000 yf)

(22nd Century) Reptilian Kindred civilisation reawakens and is forced to cohabitate the planet with the human civilisation.

Relinquecene (500,000 yf – 2 myf)

Reptilian Kindred and humanity mostly abandon Earth for the first significant geological time (Previous abandonments had happened temporarily for much shorter timespans), whilst they would make sporadic returns, from this point onwards the Earth was allowed to evolutionarily develop without its previous intelligent species. (This is when the Haemovores evolve)

Perdicene (2 myf – 10 myf)

Earth was lost, and began being known by different names including Ravalox, Orphan 55 and Tellus. This is the point in which the Reptilian Kindred became no longer tied to Earth as a homeworld beyond as a cultural factoid (Unlike humanity who consistently returned and remained conceptually tied to it until its destruction in 10 myf and the start of the Posthuman era).

This document for the most part, only covers the Extant subspecies of Reptilian Kindred and does not account for the unknown species and subspecies that went extinct prior to the Anthropocene (nor the other extinct Bipeslacertiadae genera) with the exception of Bipeslacertia vehemenus, identified only due to Vastra’s devolution into one during ‘The Evolution Episode’ due to exposure to temporal radiation and Bipeslacertia volans mortuus, an early intelligent extinct species documented by Bernice Summerfield and Peter Summerfield.

The Mondasian Parallel Evolution species (The Lizard Kings or Bipeslacertia homines abastrius and Sea Kings or Bipeslacertia diabolus abastrius) which were documented by both the Homo Sapien contra (Mondasians) and the Mondasian Cybermen are considered to be parallel evolutionary counterparts of their Earth twins and aren’t included, it is speculated their evolutionary tree is identical to that of Earth’s.

Despite being considered distinct castes by the Reptilian Kindred, the ‘Early’ Sea Devils (The Sea Devils), the ‘Middle’ Sea Devils (Warriors of the Deep) and the ‘Late’ Sea Devils (Legend of the Sea Devils) are considered to all be local or climate variations of the same subspecies of Sea Devil, Bipeslacertia diabolus sicuturtus.

I basically ignored most direct years given in DWU sources when doing this in favour of trying to work out something that conceptually made the most sense (IMO). Since DWU sources give Silurian origin or even civilisation years as far back as 450 mya, in the Ordovician, Pre-Reptiles, which is not conducive to trying to actually do speculative biology with, and the less said about 'They predate complex life entirely' the better.

I went with Eocene - Miocene because references to the Dinosaurs can always have been post-Cretaceous genetic engineering stuff (They have the tech) but references to "apes" should be theoretically constrained to early human evolution in the Miocene and Pliocene, and the idea that the Silurians existed for the entirety of the Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene and Miocene was... kinda ridiculous IMO for this exercise.

Subspecies Visualisation

Bipeslacertia vehemenus – Primitive Ancestor (Primitive Ancestor)

Subspecies (Winged Kindred)

Bipeslacertia volans mortuus – “Paleocenes” (Winged Species – Adolescence of Time)

Bipeslacertia volans malakhi – Wyrm Callers (Wyrm infected Paleocenes)

[No visualisation]

Bipeslacertia volans vivus – Luadans (TM: A Morphology/Reign of the Reptiles)

But the wreck, first seen from the air by a migratory tribe of the flying kindred en route from the tropical swelter of the Oriental Archipelago to the temperate climes of the Austral Spur, had confirmed to the profile of no known vessel from any of the saurian kindred, and Morrahaurm had been the only specialist available. And so, with many misgivings, she had embarked.

(Winged Kindred - The Book of the Enemy)

The globe was held by a creature like a mythical devil incarnate! Its oily green, needle-fanged head hovered just above the luminous sphere, the hellish red eyes darting from side to side in search of the intruder; and where the shoulders should have been were hunched lumps that made the man think of folded wings. The body and shuffling feet were invisible; the claws appeared in silhouette on the surface of the globe that the monstrosity held before it. A little it resembled a gigantic lizard, and the fanged snout, if not the same one, was at least practically identical with the one Sanders had seen in the room of horror. Only now it had lost its super- natural and diabolical aspect, appearing still hideous but only in a reptilian, scaled way. It propelled itself on hissing, leathery wings, and its sinuous body was clad in a blue, silken robe. About its ugly brow was a jewelled diadem; its claws were alight with jewels.

(Luadans - Reign of the Reptiles)

Bipeslacertia volans aurori – Zori (Reign of the Reptiles/Revelry of the Redacted)

He was a Zori, a subspecies of the Reptilian Kindred with vestigial wings on their backs that were useless on Earth, but perfectly adapted to low- gravity environments.

Revelry of the Redacted (The Book of the Snowstorm)

Subspecies (Sea Devil)

Bipeslacertia diabolus sicutsimiae – Late Sea Devils (Comic Sea Devils)

Bipeslacertia diabolus sicuturtus – Early Sea Devils (Normal Sea Devils)

Bipeslacertia diabolus reditius – “Devolved Ones” (Inhabitants of the Nameless City – HP Lovecraft/Faction Paradox)

They were of the reptile kind, with body lines suggesting sometimes the crocodile, sometimes the seal, but more often nothing of which either the naturalist or the palaeontologist ever heard. In size they approximated a small man, and their fore-legs bore delicate and evident feet curiously like human hands and fingers. But strangest of all were their heads, which presented a contour violating all know biological principles. To nothing can such things be well compared - in one flash I thought of comparisons as varied as the cat, the bullfrog, the mythic Satyr, and the human being. Not Jove himself had had so colossal and protuberant a forehead, yet the horns and the noselessness and the alligator-like jaw placed things outside all established categories.

Subspecies (Silurian)

Bipeslacertia homines malus – Serad-dur (Serad-dur)

“Scholar” Caste

Bipeslacertia homines augurius – Fair Folk (Fair Folk- The Shadows of Avalon)

[No Specific Description]

Bipeslacertia homines sapentia – “Senior” Silurians (Chibnall’s original classic style redesign – Cold Blood)

Bipeslacertia homines rostrata – “Middle” Silurians (Warriors of the Deep Silurians)

Bipeslacertia homines gravius – “Horned Kindred” (Bulky Horned Herbivorous Silurians – A Morphology)

Her mass alone would have made Morrahaurm the most conspicuous individual on board, even without the horns and crest majestically adorning her high forehead. Among her own she was known as a beauty, a graceful dancer and no mean athlete: here she was simply a bulky, lumbering target.

(The Book of the Enemy)

Bipeslacertia homines labia – “Early” Silurians (Original Classic Who Silurians)

Bipeslacertia homines venefica – The Silurians from the 30th Anniversary Calendar

“Warrior” Caste (Alternatively “Hunter” Caste)

Bipeslacertia homines anguis – “Junior” Silurians (Silurian Hunters – Supremacy of the Cybermen)

Bipeslacertia homines sapiens – “Late” Silurians (New Who Silurians)

Notes on the Meta-history of Earth Reptiles

The natural evolution of most species on Earth was a by-product of the anchoring of the thread, when the Time Lords locked down the rational Universe and rewrote all of history to suit their new rules. In the pre anchoring Universe, humanity was created using Time Lord Looms by the Original Mammoths, a powerful, psychic and magical sapient species that rivalled the Time Lords in the pre-Universe.

Whilst we have pretty much no knowledge of the Silurians from that era, we do know that they were a Time Active power in the Alliance of Races during the Time Wars era, shortly after the anchoring. Implying some kind of time active power, which would explain their appearances in eras of Earth history predating the one in which they originally developed in the Time Lord dominated rational Universe. It is, however, also of note that the vast majority of other more recent (in Universe) accounts depict the Silurians as a mildly advanced mostly stagnant species with very little space travel capabilities most likely indicating at some point between Gallifrey’s ancient past and relative present that the Silurians time active civilisation was erased from history. It is possible they experienced some equivalent of the Ghost Point (The point in which humanity became culturally sterile and stopped meaningfully advancing as a civilisation) though more extreme as humanity was still able to traditionally, if not conceptually, advance whereas the Silurians grew complacent and stagnant for presumably millions of years.

It is of note that New Who consistently depicts the Silurians as both coexisting natively with Dinosaurs and knowing humanities Ape ancestors despite an ~60 million year gap between the two eras. There are numerous potential explanations for this including human evolution occurring over a much longer period in the DWU relative to real life, the effects of the Last Great Time War on the history of Earth, genetic engineering resurrection of Dinosaurs in the Eocene-Miocene and potentially Silurian related dates being actually in months rather than years.

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a-wartime-paradox · 4 months

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Review time! For The Book of the Snowstorm

Disclaimer: I am a contributor for this anthology, and am off varying acquaintance with other contributors

First up, I should outline the format of these reviews. I shall do a short review of each story as I read it, barring the framing narrative which I shall review every third-of-the-book (that is, I shall review Scenes 1-7 together, Scenes 8-14 together, and scenes 15-22 together). Each review shall be posted as a reblog to this initial post, and on the Doctor Who Discord Server (in #book-n-comic)

(#1) Magic Bird of Fire

I liked the character of Aoife, I feel like I'm getting more and more acquainted with her family since reading Hervoken Halloween in Horrors of Arcbeatle . Pieter, a time-traveller of the future in the pocket of unreality which was the localised 1980s bar, was very fun. I've got to say, though, I didn't actually catch the fact that "the plague" was meant to be HIV/AIDS until I checked the wiki, but that's probably just my bad.

They all die in the end, but for now, they dance

#The Book of the Snowstorm #reviews #chain post #dweu #Arcbeatle Press

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drleevezan · 4 months

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My very brief thoughts on each story in "The Book of the Snowstorm"

My very brief thoughts on each story in "The Book of the Snowstorm" (other than the ones which I wrote, of course):

Framing Sequence by Aristide Twain

This is a brilliant way to present the various stories within the overarching narrative, and is fantastically successful at being a compelling story in its own right and at tying the whole book together into a proper Coloth novel. The characters, both pre-existing and new, are all very enjoyable, and the dynamics between those stuck in the Library and between Coloth, Rich, and the Scotland division of the M.F.S. are extremely fun. The Deadline and Roarke are fantastic creations, as well.

"Magic Bird of Fire" by Micah K. Spurling

A very lovely story which does a fantastic job making its characters feel like thoroughly real people. The direct prose style is a perfect match for the personality of the lead character (which comes across very succesfully) and the nature of the events depicted, and there are some very evocative descriptive passages throughout. The emotional beats are well-handled and very effective.

"The Dinosaur in the Snow" by Thien Valdram

The relationship between Rosanna and Tirion is very enjoyable, and the story presents a lot of fascinating and well-constructed worldbuilding. The use of Los in a Third Universe context is fun to see, and the story handles it very well.

"Neither Warrior or Thinker" by Katherine MacEachern

A very sweet vignette which does a great job expanding on the close relationship between Coloth, Maritsa, and Callum and delving into some well-thought-out, backstory-influenced character exploration for each of the trio.

"Jenny Over-There's Wonderful Life" by Callum Phillpott

As is the nature of the 925-Universe stories, this is incredibly funny, deriving a lot of very clever comedy from reinterpreting various elements of pop-culture through the unique satirical humor-style of the series - in this particular case, the trappings of It's a Wonderful Life. The characters are, as ever, very compelling beyond their initial jokes - Gabe is a very fun presence throughout.

"The Claus-Rosen Bridge" by Ostara Gale and Elodie Christian

A delightfully fun romp through various aspects of the winter holidays. In addition to being great fun, it's brimming with ideas, and introduces a variety of new characters and concepts which make for great additions to the ever-expanding worlds of the Third Universe and the Library setting in particular. And it makes great use of Auteur as a presence lurking in the margins and altering things.

"Still Proceeding" by Charles E.P. Murphy

An enjoyable outing for the SIGNET team, with an appropriately-holiday-themed incident for them to investigate and a clever sci-fi recreation of the nativity story at its center. Perkins' joy at seeing real aliens manages to be both funny and touching, as does much of the rest of the story.

"Abstract Tales" by me

Not going to review this, obviously, but perhaps I could give some thoughts from a having-written-it perspective:

The framing sequence: I didn't originally intend to write a mini-anthology inside of an anthology, but I couldn't pick between the various ideas I'd had, and eventually decided to write all of them. My plan was to use every Abstract thus far established, and I believe I succeeded in doing so: The Illumination and the Misfortune (and Chaos) from Benj Christensen's The Chronicles of Jenny Everywhere, the Luminance from Benj Christensen's The Jenny Everywhere Roleplaying Game, the Life from my The Disappearance of Jenny Everywhere (mentioned there, but making her first appearance here), the Knowledge from Jeanne Morningstar's The Hermetic Garbage of Jenny Everywhere, the Terror from Aristide Twain's Jenny Everywhere in the House of Terror, the Remembrance (created by Aristide) and the Oblivion from my Remember, and the Luxuriance, who was created by Aristide but had never appeared in anything until now.

The first story: I thought it would be fun if there was a side-story to the Copper-Colored Cupids 2023 Christmas serial in Snowstorm, showing the effect of Tarsa's disappearance on a different section of her creations - but due to various delays, the 2023 Christmas serial doesn't actually exist yet, so I suppose it will only become a side-story retroactively. I am amused by the fact that, unless I'm forgetting something, the first pre-established Copper-Colored Cupids characters to appear in print, in the flesh rather than as mentions, are now the three wacky wild-west-outlaw toys who made a brief appearance in one of my earliest stories and were never seen again until now.

The second story: I wanted to give the Caradans a proper debut and establish some worldbuilding about their planet, since their previous appearances have mostly been brief mentions. My intent was to tie together the various elements seen in those previous appearances, as well as some details which will be mentioned in [REDACTED FUTURE STORY] by [REDACTED]. The Caradans were notably previously seen fighting the Cyberons, which I naturally can't use anymore, so it was fun to slot the Mecharons - my cookie-themed gag-cyborgs from "The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids" - into their narrative role in one of the "nightmares", since the name originated as my briefly-serious proposal for a Cyberon replacement until I realised that it sounded like 'macaron'.

The third story: A tribute to Joe Macaré and Nelson Evergreen's Jenny Everywhere comics. The present-tense style was my attempt to translate the energetic pace of the comics into prose. The Mecharons are in this one, too, because cyborg conquerors suited the format and I figured I may as well use the same ones and have a connection between two of the stories.

"The Ties that Bind" by Lena Mactíre

A well-constructed portrayal of a less-than-pleasant holiday gathering, and the elements that serve to improve it. The various characters depicted ring very true to life, and the protagonists are very likeable.

"A Buggy Little Holiday" by James Wylder

I hadn't read any Starlight Ranger stories prior to this, but this has definitely interested me. Cleo Mentia is an extremely fun protagonist, and the structure of the series seems like a compelling and successfully-constructed vehicle for episodic stories. The story is very funny, and James Wylder's distinctive writing style is as enjoyable as ever.

"The Two Auteurs" by Aristide Twain

Absolutely brilliant prose, which is to be expected from Aristide, and a wonderful exploration of Auteur's character enabled by the meeting between his past and current selves, and expressed through the symbolic world of the mind-battle. And full of very well-constructed and -presented worldbuilding, as well.

"Trauma and Tinsel" by James Hornby

A sweet story returning to the ever-enjoyable setting of Dionus's clinic on Gulliver's Rest, with great character-work and a touching ending that's very fitting for a holiday special.

"Love and War" by Aristide Twain

(Potential bias disclaimer: I wrote the extract from Sideridis's diary, but that doesn't really factor into my review of the rest of the story) This has a delightful, intensely metafictional, academic style, filled with reams of brilliant worldbuilding. It does a wonderful job exploring the fundamental, unchanging mindsets of the Sun Builders through a variety of perspectives, and continuing to expand the Morning Star into an ever-more-fascinatingly-detailed setting. The central plotline is extremely compelling, and Dionus and Susit's story ends up being very touching.

"The Goblin, the Witch, and the Kitchen Sink" by Ismaeel Clarke

A delightful and very funny story with an extremely fun style which draws brilliantly from early-20th-century children's fantasy literature, featuring a variety of whimsical and very enjoyable characters, an energetic central plot, and a very sweet ending.

"The Revelry of the Redacted" by Ryan Fogarty

An effective story of hope during war, featuring some wonderfully inventive worldbuilding and a compelling cast of characters. The Yule Bearers are great here, and the Christmas carols with altered lyrics are a fun touch.

"The God Who Came for Christmas" by Aristide Twain

A lovely little tale which provides a very effective epilogue to the FASA roleplaying story to which it is a sequel, as well as a wonderful exploration of its two central characters, whose distinct voices and dynamic make for a great two-handed story.

"Presents" by Erika de Atayde

This is an extremely inventive story, playing on elements of the history of comic book superheroes and the tropes found in their stories to tell a very effective and touching tale with an intriguing setting.

"The Cathedral of Winter" by Ostara Gale

An adventure story taking place in a very fun setting (I love the snow-themed variant of the Morning Star) and introducing a variety of very compelling new characters and ideas. Abraytha and Xiantio are very likeable protagonists, and the Katioka is a fun central element.

"Just Dropping In" by Scott Sanford

A very fun tale - Scott Sanford demonstrates his usual skill at writing in-medias-res vignettes, deftly weaving in a variety of elements of an in-progress Jenny adventure. Jenny's first-person perspective is well-handled, and as usual the Parallax-Jenny is delightful.

"Conspiracy-1263 and the Christmas Conspiracy" by Peter Guy

(Potential bias disclaimer: for obvious reasons I am probably biased towards Cupids stories in general) A fantastic use of the Cupids and their world, with a lot of great character details, unique ideas, and very funny moments, and a wonderful grasp of the varied characters' personalities and how they might respond to the central crisis. The story explores a variety of different perspectives, all of which are extremely well-handled, and the central crisis in itself is a great idea for an inciting incident with a lot of well-realised potential.

"Our Bleak Midwinter" by Theta Mandel

An extremely compelling and very touching story with very well-handled and well-thought-out central themes and a wonderful talent for character- and world-building. Abby and her family are very believably-depicted, and the backstory related by Abby's grandmother and the influence of its ideas on her struggle against the harmful megacorporation is a particularly effective element.

"The Gift of the Renegades" by James Wylder

A very enjoyable semi-sequel to 'And Today, You', bringing back some of the fun character dynamics and humor of that novel and making for a delightful holiday special. Jhe Sang Mi remains an extremely likeable central character, and Lady Aesc and Blanche are as fun as ever.

"The First Noel" by Nate Bumber

A fantastic story which makes great use of the Borgesian-infinite-library-as-a-recurring-sci-fantasy-setting concept which is the basis of the Library - further exploring the idea of a culture built on finding valid books from among the Library's unending collection. The concepts of ancestrally-inherited journeys to distant shelves, veins of validity, and using the books themselves to find other areas to search are all brilliant.

"Our Finest Gifts We Bring" by various

It's always great fun to see Aristide's brilliant take on the Consistency Imperium, and this is a very good introductory segment for establishing the central idea of the collaborative story.

This has a very enjoyably poetic style, and Urizen being gifted an hourglass and beginning to ponder the idea of time is a great concept.

Interesting worldbuilding about Dionus and Gulliver's Rest, conveyed through well-crafted dialogue.

Abraytha and the Katioka continue to be very compelling central concepts, and the central gift idea is a fun one.

Very fun dialogue between the central characters, and their initial befuddlement and then fondness for the toy pony is quite good.

It's great to see the Medic in a solo role - her central concept lends itself very well to carrying stories on its own, and this is a very fun use of that concept and another great idea for a gift.

A very funny one, featuring a gift that the central characters can't actually use, which is another fun variation on the concept.

Another great use of the Library, and some interesting worldbuilding about Gabriel.

(I wrote this one, so fun fact instead of review:) Several months ago I showed Aristide a little green-clothed figurine holding a mushroom which I'd found at a thrift shop, and he jokingly suggested that it might be competition for the Toadstool Salesman, which is what the "little green gnome hawking mushrooms" seen arguing with the Salesman in this one is obscurely referencing.

A very lovely epilogue to "The God Who Came For Christmas", continuing the extremely effective characterisation and dynamic seen in the earlier story.

A touching wintertime scene - it's very nice to see the ever-likeable PROBE team again, and to know that they're still able to make appearances even though their home series has been snatched away by the Big Bad Villains.

(I wrote this one, so fun fact:) The descriptions of the Blue Feather's various failed attempts at investigating the parcel are written to mimic the style of the descriptions of Pessimist's attempts to participate in winter activities in my 2019 holiday vignette, "Ally Builds a Snowman".

A lovely Christmas vignette, with very good character interactions between Cwej and Vicky, and well-crafted dialogue.

A pitch-perfect impression of the style of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, and a very lovely story told in that style.

A very effective and touching scene of Horatio Topper finally reuniting, at least to some extent, with his Lady in White.

A fun scene of Lotto at home, giving an enticing look into further adventures of Lotto and Mae beyond "The Claus-Rosen Bridge"

The appearance of a younger Sang Mi and Sang Eun is very fun, and the bickering between the disguised Aesc and Blanche is quite funny

This has a very fun, whimsically-chaotic style, and has succesfully caused me to want to read about further adventures in this world, despite the characters' concerns.

A wonderful use of Sun Builder lore, as is to be expected from Aristide, and a very enjoyable dynamic between Monk and the Corsair Queen.

A very cleverly humorous vignette with a fun idea for a central gift (or not a gift, perhaps).

A touching vignette starring an intriguing central character with a fun concept.

Martin and Maurice are as endearing as ever, and Lucy is certainly fun.

A delightfully silly story, and very succesfully so.

(I wrote this one, so fun fact:) Here are the various parts of the Multiverse which I was intending to reference, though it's not set in stone, and one could theoretically interpret some of the references as referring to other things: A woman in a scarf and goggles (Jenny Everywhere), copper robots (The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids), a firmament (10,000 Dawns), a timeship (the Evil Renegade), superheroes (The Cosmic Beholder), spaceships (Starcatcher), songs of war (WARSONG), skeletons (Auteur), nightclubs (Name's Not Down), men in grey (The 925 Universe), abstract families (The Abstracts), adventurous ducks (certain residents of the Prime Universe), ancient mammoths (the Original Mammoths), animated bunnies (Bunny Everyhare), paradox cults (Faction Paradox), emerald cities (Oz), haunted mansions (a place to which foolish mortals are welcomed), strange and wonderful houses (Our Strange and Wonderful House), talking cactuses (Coloth), teenage scientists (Scott Sanford's Jenny stories), blond-haired clones (Cwej)

A beautiful ending-scene which finishes the story on some very touching sentiments.

#The Book of the Snowstorm

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theangelshavethephonebox · 4 months

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If I were to have a wiki picture it would be this one that @a-wartime-paradox took of me

Wink wink

#partial face reveal #the book of the snowstorm #tbots

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aristidetwain · 3 months

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Do you know is the Book of Snowstorms has beaten the world record for longest copyright pages?

Heh. You might very well think that, but I couldn't possibly… I mean, certainly Arcbeatle hadn't ever had anything like it, but as for a worldwide record, I don't know how I'd even check.

#familyparadox #The Book of the Snowstorm

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amvrleig · 2 years

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where do i exist if not within your voice? if not within the way you touch, or the way you say my name?

amber leigh

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emprcaesar · 6 months

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you know how to make a girl fall in love with you

you have a deep conversation about the dynamic of jon snow and daenerys and how they are twin flames connected by a red thread. their stories are interwoven. they were interwoven even before their conception. they are destined for each other.

#INTERTWINED #I SAY INTERTWINED #i just saw an edit of jon and daenerys that sent me spiraling #no kissing only your favorite asoiaf theories #game of thrones #jon snow #just girly things #asoiaf #asoiaf books #daenerys targeryan #daenerys stormborn #book daenerys #book jon snow #jonerys #jon x daenerys #snowstorm

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dragonsfromthemoon · 2 years

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Once again thinking about how Jon and Daenerys are meant to be, in every sense of the word.

At their core, they are both characters who desire home — a place where they belong, where they are loved and love back. A place where they can have a family and do not feel lonely anymore.

Their journeys, extensively paralleled on the books, speak of heroism. They try to make their world better. It is interesting, because making the world better requires facing directly the legacy of their forebears. Daenerys starts an anti-slavery campaign with ripples throughout the whole continent of Essos; her dragons mean hope and freedom, while the Valyrians of old used their power to build an empire based on slavery. Jon spends time among the Free Folk and learns a lot with them; he sees them as people that also deserved to be protected against the threat of the Others, while his Stark ancestors have fought the Free Folk for thousands of years and were only to happy to have they beyond the Wall.

A queen belongs to her people; you will take no pleasure in your command. They face the hardships of ruling, and in their storylines, George R. R. Martin is exploring what takes to be a good leader. He is exploring his famous question about Aragorn's tax policy: you are a ruler? Good. What do you do for your people, especially in times of need? When they meet, they will realize they are not alone; that someone finally understands the burden and how lonely and hard it is to rule. They will bond over sharing their experiences and over making plans for the future.

No one in-universe ever expected a girl and a bastard boy to have the destiny of their world upon their shoulders. Yet, here they are. Both of they are linked to propechies and visions about fighting the Others. Jon has since the first book, AGoT, known about the threat and faced it directly: his power as a talented warg, inputs, know-how and command will be essential to defeat the Others. Daenerys has three dragons with her, perhaps the biggest asset the living will have in the War for the Dawn.

In this sense, we can not only their political union makes sense, but their magical one too. They will both be heads of the dragon, the fire against the ice of the Others. They will need each other to win this fight.

For that, their meeting will be one of equals. A queen and a king. Two young, but very mature and experienced people. They have loved, fought, risen to power, been betrayed before... all kinds of things, a whole lifetime on the table, despite of their young ages. As Melisandre [Jon VI, ADwD] says: "The Lord of Light in his wisdom made us male and female, two parts of a greater whole. In our joining there is power. Power to make life. Power to make light. Power to cast shadows."

The last scions of House Targaryen meeting to work together. A kind of irony of the destiny, for in the Dance, it was argued a woman (Rhaenyra) could not rule,“bastards” “soiled” the royal lineage and should not be included in the line to inherit (Rhaenyra's sons). Yet that's all that remains of the Targaryens now: a girl and a boy with a bastard's name. And they will unite to face the threat said to have been foreseen by Aegon in a prophecy.

I dare say their bond and love already exist, even if they are yet to meet. That's why Dany dreams about a shadow lover, sees a blue flower in a wall in her bride of fire prophecy. That's why Dany hears a wolf howl after Jon dies, and feels sad and lonely. For Jon, a dragon or three might warm things up. In his first ADwD chapter, the moon is running with him, whispering to him, accompanying him. The moon kisses him.

Last but not least, Alan Taylor's words:

[Martin] just sort of mentioned in passing, 'Oh well it's all about Dany and Jon Snow,'" Taylor said. "And at the time I thought, 'Really? I thought it was about Sean Bean and Robb Stark?'"

"But [Martin] knew from the very beginning where he was driving and now we're starting to see that come to fruition," Taylor said. "We know that it's circling tighter and tighter on Dany and Jon and their partnership is starting to form, you know, 'fire and ice.'"

What GRRM mentioned to Alan Taylor still rings true for the books, for in ADWD, we can see many characters moving either Dany's or Jon's way. Their meeting will wrap up that and symbolise the beginning of their story together.

#a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #jon snow #daenerys targaryen #book jon snow #book daenerys targaryen #jon x daenerys #jon x dany #snowstorm #jonerys #i love them so much your honor #my OTP #canonjonsnow #canondany

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