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ofshiraz · 4 years

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ANYA CHALOTRA, ZEYNAB SHIRAZI, 23. ❝ ⤚⟶ EUROPE, 1458. thanks is given by the WARD OF THE FIRST CONSORT OF PERSIA, ZEYNAB SHIRAZI, from PERSIA. they are at best ARTISTIC, and at their worst ALOOF. whilst abroad, their ambition is to FIND INSPIRATION IN THE CULTURE AND PEOPLE OF EUROPE AND AID WITH PERSIA’S DIPLOMATIC AFFAIRS. SHE seems to remind everyone of ANYA CHALOTRA & A STARRY NIGHT SKY, AN ABSENT-MINDED GAZE, POEMS WRITTEN IN THE CANDLELIGHT. ❞ penned by DEDE; UTC+2, SHE/HER, 19. ❞

all hail zeynab shirazi, the persian poet who kind of tagged along! her stats are here if you want them, and you can find the basics, her app and some plot ideas below!

need to knows.

unlike most of the characters we have here at crowns, zeynab isn’t actually a noble or royal. she has, however, been raised as part of the persian shah’s court since she was a teenager, as ward of the first consort, firouzeh, and playmate and later companion of shahzadeh khanoum khadija.

she was taken in by the consort mainly because of her talent for poetry, which is her main contribution to the court’s prestige and what she occupies herself with generally. zeynab also has a keen interest in mysticism, which is very much visible in her writing, and is secretly practicing zoroastrianism, an ancient religion fairly common yet not official in persia - on paper, though, she’s muslim.

she’s recently had some major internal conflict going on with the persian court getting all ‘choose your side’-y between firouzeh and ghazala, but not only - not even a year ago she fully found out women are supposed to bleed monthly and she... doesn’t, so she’s quite worried and thinks something is wrong with her now. fun!!

zeynab’s kind of just the family weirdo, lurking in strange places and scaring the hell out of everyone. she might seem like an edgy recluse, but she’s a sweetheart deep down, i promise. she just likes sitting and thinking for hours a until someone yells in her face and she snaps out of it.

application.

what current conflicts does your character face? the imperial court has continued becoming increasingly divided as of recent, between those standing by the shah’s first wife, the consort firouzeh, and others, favoring the newest addition to the royal household, the shahbanu ghazala. while it may not have been as outwardly visible as one would expect, given her calm, aloof demeanor, zeynab has been affected by these growing animosities as much as any other member of the family, which she may not be by blood, but has functionally been one for years now. of course, she has been undyingly loyal to firouzeh, the woman who took her in to live alongside the shah’s family in all the luxury they can provide, after her father, a rather wealthy merchant hailing from the delhi sultanate, who in his later years settled in persia after marrying a woman living in shiraz, had fallen ill during the plague and was dying, about to leave her alone with no means to practice her art or perhaps even survive. but after the shahzadeh, her closest friend, has turned to ghazala for guidance, zeynab finds herself torn between the woman she owes everything to and her closest companion in life.

expand on this character’s connections with two other roles. the persian shah’s first wife, the consort firouzeh, is the person without whom zeynab would not exist. if she was alive at all, which can be considered somewhat debatable, she would certainly not have grown up to be the woman she is now, and she’s fully aware of that fact. she loves and admires the consort as if she was her own mother, and is endlessly grateful for the life firouzeh chose to provide for her. but almost as important to zeynab as the consort herself is her daughter, the shahzadeh khanoum khadija, the single closest friend she has ever had in her lifetime. whenever she thinks of the world as lacking understanding of her person, khanoum is always exempt from this kind of opinion; zeynab considers their souls and minds to be connected, and would never do anything that could possibly harm her companion; which has brought her much distress as of recent with the growing internal conflict at court.

personality. zeynab is considered strange and even somewhat eerie or disturbing by most of the persian court, and perhaps quite rightfully so. she doesn’t usually enjoy talking much, oftentimes favoring absent-minded glances and lurking quietly in corners over real interaction with others, causing many a scare for the other inhabitants of the shah’s household. however, when engaged in a civil conversation, she will act predominantly friendly, if still seeming a tad detached from the situation and real life in general. she considers herself an observer more than anything else, generally taking more interest in quietly drawing inspiration from the world around her than taking decisive action; however, there are certainly exceptions to this - she will act in defense of those she loves most, predominantly firouzeh and khanoum khadija, and has developed somewhat of an interest in diplomacy as of late, knowing that despite never having any actual hand in ruling the country, she needs to help strengthen diplomatic ties, secure alliances and gain influence amongst the europeans as much as everyone else in the royal court over the course of their stay in portugal.

poetry. the most important reason zeynab even lives as part of the shah’s household and has access to as much wealth and luxury as her heart can possibly desire, is her rather extraordinary talent as a poet, which she began to exhibit as quite a young girl. her father taught her to read and write, and she began creating her own writings by the early age of twelve. she has undergone some dramatic shifts in her favoured topics before the present day, beginning with mere depictions of the world around her, and currently settling on matters of the human soul, visions of the future and mystical concepts.

mysticism. the person who introduced zeynab to the concepts of mysticism and spirituality was her father, bringing with him the gods of his homeland in the delhi sultanate. while her own country, persia, was dominated by islam, which zeynab is also formally a follower of, about two years ago she found out about the existence of zoroastrianism, the religion of, as the muslims around her call it, fire worshippers, and the ancient faith captivated her in an instant; she has been secretly reading about it and practicing it while simultaneously hiding that fact from everyone else at court ever since. topics of spirituality often feature in her poems.

plots.

fellow artists. characters who also write poetry (which would be preferable, but it could potentially be other art forms as well) and are willing to discuss their craft! zeynab really wants to get to know the way europeans do their literature, and potentially mix some of that into her own works, so a partner who could share their art with her would be ideal! (open to any character who does art of any kind, preferably written)

guides. persia is a hell of a lot different from europe, and someone who could show zeynab how it all works would be much appreciated! i imagine it could blossom into a great friendship. (open to all european characters, preferably christian-european)

romances. it would be very interesting if the person zeynab took an interest in (preferably a mutual one) was someone high-ranking or even royal; she’s in a strange position where she has all the markers of status except actual status, so it would surely create a lot of ~drama~ and conflict! (preferably male characters).

dislikes. as mentioned already, zeynab isn’t technically a royal and a noble, or doesn’t even hold an official function of any kind, and yet she still is here in lisbon and represents the persian empire along with the other court members. that could probably rub some people the wrong way, and i’d love to explore how that goes! (open to all non-persians)

a father figure. while the consort firouzeh functions as a second mother of sorts to zeynab, at least in her eyes, she still has no one to at least try to make up for the tragic loss of her father. i’d love to see someone fill that missing spot and become something of a surrogate father to her! (male characters, 40+, preferably not persian)

fellow lovers of mysticism. our girl zeynab is big into superstitions and the spiritual side of life, and it would be great if she met someone who’s equally interested in all that, but maybe from a different cultural perspective? some great cultural exchange could happen there. (open to all non-persians)

#crhs.intro #i. i died to the animal state and became a woman ─ introspection.#x. truly to him is our return. ─ misc.#cw infertility

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thesffcorner · 5 years

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Truthwitch

Truthwitch is the first book in the YA fantasy Witchland series written by Susan Dennard. We follow 4 perspectives: Safi, a domma of Cartorra who happens to be a Truthwtich, one of the rarest form of witchery in the land; Iseult, her Nomatsi best friend and a Threadwitch; Aeduin, a monk and Bloodwitch; and Prince Merik of Nubrevna, a Windwitch. These 4 characters are all brought together in a conspiracy threatening to destroy a truce between the different kingdoms, involving piracy, magic and kidnapping the Emperor's betrothed.

This book took me so long to get into; I started reading it the summer of last year, and then put it down 40 pages in. Then I tried again last month, got about 80 pages in and put it down. I knew I would like the book if I just committed and actually gave myself time to read it, but I kept not wanting to pick it up, until I finally did and… finished it in 2 days. There is a reason why it took me so long to get into the book, and that’s the writing. Susan Dennard has a very specific style of writing that’s hard to explain. In her plotting she has the ‘everything, but the kitchen sink’ approach; she throws a lot of concepts and ideas at the reader all at once, and it’s mostly left to us to piece it all out. In just the first chapter we are expected to understand who the characters are, why they are being chased by a Bloodwitch, what a Bloodwitch even is, how this magic system works, and on top of all that we have to follow a tense action scene with knife-fighting, and explosions and diving off a cliff. I had no idea who anyone was, where this was taking place, who was related to who, who was royalty and who was an outsider, and to make matters more confusing, since we follow 4 different perspectives, as soon as I got used to one character, I was forced to meet and care about a different one. It was frustrating to orient myself, because especially at the start, not all the characters were immediately likable or immediately engaging. Merik was the strongest example of this; it took me chapters before I cared about anything he was up to, and he wasn’t irrelevant in the first 100 pages either. The other issue, was writing itself. Just to give you an example, here’s a couple of sentences from the opening: ”Thirty-two thrice damned guards, with thirty-two thrice damned crossbows” pg. 12 ”Wind kicked at Iseult’s dark hair, lifting the wispy bits that had fallen from her braid. A distant gull cried it’s obnoxious scree scr-scree scr-scree! Safi hated gulls; they always shit on her head.” pg. 13 It’s a style choice all right. Once you get used to the writing, it’s actually really fun and fast paced; I love how precise Dennard is with her language, going through the trouble of using proper names for everything from the types of swords to the types of fabrics and clothes the characters wear. The use of words like hyefor yes, or the specific sayings and sea shanties that the characters only in this universe have makes the world feel more authentic, and I like the mentions of different languages, accents characters have in those languages, etc. However, at the start, I was so confused, and it took me a while to get used to Dennard’s stylistic choices. I akin the reading experience of Truthwitch to that of Nevernight; as soon as you get through the first 100 pages, you are in for a ride. Which is exactly what this book is; a ride. It’s a non-stop action packed chase across seas, mountain passes and city streets, and even the quiet moments, are only quiet in that no one is getting stabbed. It’s such a fun book; it’s like a well executed pirate film, with all the sea-faring, boat-sinking, treatise-respecting elements. I’ve heard this book called Game of Thrones for kids, and I really don’t agree with that; the politics of this world is so simple and straightforward that it can’t in any way be compared to even the who version of Game of Thrones. Most of the court intrigue is set-dressing for the action, which for me went in the book’s favor. I liked the action, and the book was best when it focused on our small group of characters and their adventures. When it tried to expand to include the war and the politics, I found it wasn’t very deft at it, and I think Dennard knows that, because the focus of this first book was pretty narrow; fulfill the contract, get from A to B. The parts of the book that I enjoyed most, were the magic system and world-building. The magic system is very cool; it involves Origin Wells which are each connected to a type of elemental magic: air, earth, fire, water. The people who have these abilities range in both power and skill; they can be Earthwitches who specialize in botany, or iron or glass. We even get an example of this with Merik and his Threadbrother Kullen; Merik is a weak Windwitch, who can control only wind, but Kullen can control all kinds of air from winds, to storms, to people’s breaths. The background of the world with the dying wells, the prophecies about their reawakening, the Voidwitches were all really fun concepts that were set up here, and I can’t wait to learn more about; I think it was a good choice to only briefly set things up in this book, and focus on the magic more as the series progresses. Speaking of the plot, it was not perfect, but it kept me engaged. I wanted to know who were all the players involved in the mystery, I wanted to see what would happen when and if the girls make it to Lejna, and I was curious to learn who the Puppeteer is. We get some answers to these questions, and while I can’t be too angry at the book for not wrapping up well, since it is just book 1 in a series, I did want a more conclusive ending. As it stands, we are left with more questions than answers, and I’m not sure if some of the elements in this book will ever get resolved. The thing that I had some issue with too, were the decisions the characters made. I can’t possibly go over everyone; there are dozens of characters in this book, but we can talk about the main 4, starting with Aeduin. Aeduin was the characters we learn least about, and he has the least amount of PoV presence in the book. I found his powers really cool and well developed; he can smell people’s blood, control it, even in his own body to regulate bodily functions like fatigue or oxygen consumption during running. He also heals super fast, even from fatal injuries. His powers are similar to blood-bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender, which a really interesting concept. As a character, we get bits and pieces about Aeduin; he is impatient, he is conflicted about his loyalties, and he’s very good at what he does, which is essentially being a mercenary. There are hints of romance between him and Iseult, and if done right, it could be an interesting dynamic, but in this specific book, he was only set up as a future lead, rather than being a proper lead. Iseult is a Threadwitch, and like Aeduin I found her powers infinitely fascinating. She can see bonds between people, and the threads that tie them to everyone around them, including threads between some animals. Based on the threads, iseult can see emotions; she can also build and manipulate threads. All the threads are different; she and Safi are Threadsisters, meaning they owe each other a life-debt, and they have the closest bond of friendship. There are also Heartthreads which are romantic attachments. As a Threadwitch, Iseult has trouble understanding emotions and interpreting what she feels, because Threadwitches can’t see their own threads and are meant to be logical and impartial; they also can’t form Heartthreads. Iseult also faces a lot of bigotry, prejudice, and racism; she is a Nomatsi, a traveling tribe which I’m going to guess is based on the Romani. As such she is hated everywhere she goes; people yell slurs at her, they sometimes attack her, and she’s not even allowed to be present in specific parts of the city. The prejudice I think was done well, but what I found lackluster was how Iseult felt and dealt with it; namely she doesn’t. The book tries to present it as something she’s used to, since it follows her around everywhere she goes. While it’s believable that someone would be used to extreme and violent prejudice against them, if they’ve dealt with is for that long, Iseult would still have feelings on the matter. She would still feel hurt, or sad, or wronged, or angry, but the book doesn't give us anything to work with, other than once scene where she tries to get Safi to back down from attacking some bigoted soldiers, because Safi’s attack only makes the abuse stronger and harder for Iseult to deal with. I think this is a real missed opportunity on Dennard’s part, which I hope will be better explored in the latter books. There are a lot more things that are set up with Iseult’s character, but not much is truly explored with her. She also spends almost the entire second act incapacitated, so we don’t spend as much time with her as we do with Merik and Safi. The parts I enjoyed most was her friendship with Safi, but unfortunately, so much of the book sees her unconscious or the two of them apart, that I really wish we could’ve gotten more from them. We desperately lack strong female friendships or bromances in media, and this one has all the potential, but just not excellent execution. Merik was the character I struggled with the most; I found him pretty bland and boring at first, and later just incredibly annoying. His playing at being a Prince and Admiral was very childish and annoying, the way he treated Safi was incredibly disrespectful and grating, and he’s never called out on his behavior by anyone. Yelling at your subordinates that you are their Prince or their Captain doesn’t make you a good leader, or a leader in anything other than rank; I think Dennard missed a solid opportunity to explore what being a true leader really means with his character. The fact that he is a weak witch was something that I’ve already seen explored with Rhy Maresh in the Shades of Magicseries, and while I didn’t like what Schwab ultimately does with Rhy in that book either, I think she did a much better job of exploring Rhy’s internal conflict of being a Crown Prince with little to no magic. Here, like Iseult, Merik just kind of seems used to it, and it never really factors into the plot, except for the one scene where he explains why his sister has his father’s favor. His devotion to his Threadbrother Kullen was nice, but overall I found him to be a nuisance of a character. He improves slightly towards the latter half of the book, and I did like the chemistry he has with Safi. They have a good reason to be kept apart, and I found both of their conflicting emotions written well and justified. I also liked that the romance was present, but it always took a back seat to the main plot and the more pressing issues the two characters faced. However, I did have major problems with the way Merik treated Safya and the power imbalance in their relationship. Safya being his prisoner for most of the book, and him constantly demanding that she follows laws and orders she has no choice on or even has to since she is royalty herself was maddening. Dennard does try to show that even when she’s in chain Safya is still defiant and at least spiritually his equal, but that doesn’t change that fact that she is LITERARY his prisoner the whole time they are together. She was kidnapped by her uncle and then Merik, and though Merik claims that he would make sure Iseult survives, neither Safya nor the readers have any way of knowing he’s being genuine or could even make it happen, no matter how much he believes it. Safya was entirely justified in doing what she does to help Iseult, and what Merik does to Safya going completely unpunished and consequence free, not to mention being awarded with a make-out session by Safya was D&D level bad plotting (maybe that’s where the GoT comparisons come in). Safya was my favorite character, in spite of the make-out session. She made the book for me; I loved how spirited, impulsive, brash and brave her character was. She was a lady with training in the courts and in street smarts, she could fight, she had a mouth on her, and she never backed down, unless she had a good reason to. I loved that she dove headlong into conflict to protect the ones she loved, that her cons didn’t always work, and that she felt genuine guilt and remorse when she put people in danger. She has a lot of internal conflict, and internalized hatred because of everything she has been constantly told; that she’s weak, that she’s not cut out for leadership, and that she’s a pawn in people’s games. She was a very well rounded characters, and to top it off she too had cool powers. The way her Truthwitchery worked was interesting; she can detect lies in statements, whether hers or others, but not also what the truth is. She can also be fooled with the right phrasing of sentences or if the person really believes in the lie. Her power was as imperfect and faliabe as she was and I’m interested to see if she can train it to serve her better and what people would have use for with her power, or at least with how her power is presented to work. While I don’t like the decision she makes at the end of the book, I am curious to see how she navigates the new status quo. Her character, if we stick with the GoT comparisons, is a blend of Arya and Sansa, so it will be interesting to see how she navigates more courtly plotting. It’s rare for me to like the lead character as much as I liked her, and so I’m interested to see what she does next. Overall, this is a solid starter book to the series. Like a lot of first books, it sets a good foundation, but I can’t say that it stands very tall on its own. It sets up a lot of the world, and it is a fun, action packed ride, but I have a feeling once I get further into the series, it will be the weakest of the books.

goodreads

#truthwitch #truthwitch review #witchlands #moni talks #book review

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