#I think the subconscious part of me remembers the analysis essay I wrote six years ago about this series

[alloutofgoddesses]

I've not read that series, can you tell me about the wingfeather series, as for making stats for creatures, a quick fix is taking their closest analogue from the monster manual :)

There is nothing I would love to do more than tell you about this book series!

It’s written by Andrew Peterson, who on top of being an author is a Christian musician which is how my parents found him.

There are four main books in the YA saga with the first one being ‘On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness’. The series follows the Igiby family, which is made of a grandfather (Podo), his daughter (Nia), her three children (Janner, Tink, and Leeli), and a dog (Nugget). The overarching theme is about transformation and of course, defeating Gnag the Nameless and his evil Fangs of Dang. There is also an animated series, with one season out on Angel Studios.

(I have realised that this is gonna get long so, more under the cut)

There are some spin-off books, such as the Creaturepedia which is going to be enormously helpful in making a campaign setting because something Peterson has done extremely well is the world-building and various creatures. My personal favourite is the Toothy Cow.

Given that it’s written by a Christian author it’s creation story is One Man, One Woman but other than that and the characters ‘thanking the Maker’ it doesn’t really have all that much overbearing religion in it, at least in my opinion. The series also has heavy influence from Celtic cultures, especially in the third and fourth books. There are also some really great songs due to Peterson being a musician.

The reason I personally love these books so much is because while yes, there’s an Evil to be defeated it is mostly a tale about overcoming and learning to love yourself and the strengths you have. The youngest of the main characters, Leeli, has to walk with a crutch, but that doesn’t change anything about her and she’s never left out of anything because of it. Every main character, as well as some ancillary characters, is fully fleshed out and given wonderful arcs that lead to a satisfying conclusion. I can’t read any one of these books without crying at least once because of how well-written it is.

Lastly, the plot twist in the first book broke my brain apart when I read it for the first time but when re-reading as an adult I feel like one could put the pieces together before the characters in the book do. It’s still pretty amazing though.

#idk if this is necessarily what you asked for but you gave me a chance to word vomit about one of my favourite series of all time #so I did that #if you want more about the world I will absolutely make a follow up post I just didn’t want this one to be super long #absolutely DON’T listen to the audiobooks for the first two they suck bc the guy gets several pronounciations wrong #I think the subconscious part of me remembers the analysis essay I wrote six years ago about this series #ANYWAY- #the wingfeather saga #dnd #D&D #SPOILER SECTION #the dog does die but not until the second book and it’s a very noble death #dungeons and dragons