#moredhel

[sesamenom]

maglor's first time getting to go to a concert / his favorite singer attending maglor's first big concert

#silm #silmarillion #maglor #i didnt feel like inventing a name for the band so their name is just Band in tengwar #im pretty sure band means something in sindarin anyways (as in angband) #btw i have decided the band guy is named #moredhel #hes a feanorian and later a captain of maglors guard in the Gap #and yes he still dresses up like mandos for the bonus intimidation factor in battle #maglor's horses are the least easily spooked in all of beleriand because his army is half singers and all very screamy #only a few of them do the full feanturian look tho #it's very effective because everyone is scared of mandos #ranging from the people who actually know him being somewhat weirded out by his whole prophecy thing #to people who only know his reputation being absolutely terrified #maybe theres one feanturian warrior who specifically dresses as one of irmo's maia #and who specializes in those weird Songs that make people see the events of the song #ooh maybe moredhel survives to the third age and lives in rivendell #he doesn't normally wear the feanturi makeup anymore and basically nobody born post-darkening remembers feanturian-emo/goth subcultures #so when he does put the feanturian mask and makeup on half the house starts screaming about mandos #elrond unfortunately has to deal with it #at least he's causing less trouble than ''''Lindir''''

[staringdownabarrel]

Okay, so here's my overall thoughts on the Riftwar saga as a whole. Upon rereading this, I've suddenly realised that this is extremely long even by the standards of the posts I write, so click the read more and play the Star Wars main theme at your own peril.

My first big thought is that in some ways, it's amazing how similar these books are to Dragon Ball Z in plot structure. This is probably going to be a contentious take, but here me out on this one. In DBZ, the general plot structure is that there's some big new threat introduced, the main characters fuck around bit training and trying to work out how to defeat the new big bad, and then they have a big fight and work it all out. Eventually, a newer, stronger big bad rolls up and the cycle starts anew.

This is more or less how it works in the Riftwar saga as well. Yes, there is the one final big bad to end all big bads that Pug has to face at the end, but most of the time the focus is on the current low or mid level threat with Pug working in the background. So first it was the Tsurani, then the Pantathian serpent priests, then the demons from the fifth circle, and then finally the Dread.

The other part of the Dragon Ball Z structure is that while Goku was always the strongest character because he's the main one, early on the threats were small enough that the other characters could have a thing to do. Like, Piccolo and Krillin and whoever else weren't strong enough to go up against Vegeta, but they could more or less handle the Saibamen. The B cast might not be able to go up against Freiza, but they could handle the low level henchmen and hold out against the Ginyu Force. You get the drill.

After a while though, it gets to a point where it doesn't even really matter that the B cast is there. Goku is the only one who really matters. Anyone else in the series isn't going to be able to hold out against the main big bad except for Goku and maybe Vegeta or Gohan, depending on how Akira Toriyama was feeling that week.

This also happens in the Riftwar saga. Early on, there was still stuff the Kingdom and its armies could do to help Pug and his immediate companions. They could go to war with the Tsurani, rough up the moredhel, and mount a defend deep style strategy against the Pantathians' army. Later on, this becomes less the case. After a while, if you weren't Pug, Nakor, or somehow related to Pug, you weren't going to have that much of an impact on what happened with the current big bad.

Even in the edge cases of this, like the Conclave of Shadows trilogy where Talon gets to be the main character, Pug is still working in the background. Talon might get to nominally be the main character in that trilogy, but Pug is the chess master, and in that sense he has less personal agency than Nicholas did in The King's Buccaneer.

I think this explains a lot of the fan response to this series overall. A lot of the time when people get frustrated with these books for either being repetitive or because it feels like Feist is running on autopilot after a while--both of which are valid responses--it's because they're not getting that this is basically just Dragon Ball Z in novel format. The alternative is that they absolutely realise this is the case and that's why they're frustrated: they didn't like Dragon Ball, so they don't like that this essentially has the same formula.

The other way this informs reader responses is that it seems like there's a lot of people who got to a certain point in the series and then just stopped. Certainly, there's a lot of people who've read every single book in this series, but there's also been a lot of people who seem to have stopped after a certain point. This is true of people who I've known in person who've read Feist at some point, and it seems to be true online as well. I haven't exactly done an extensive search of this, but it definitely feels like there's a lot of people on Goodreads who were avidly reviewing the earlier books in the series, but then just stopped after a while.

The Dragon Ball equivalent of this is that they either gave up on the franchise after Z wrapped up, or they saw GT or Evolution and basically vowed never again. There's loads of people who were fans of Dragon Ball Z twenty years ago who've never seen any of the new Dragon Ball stuff that's been released in the last decade or so, the same way there's a lot of Feist fans who are fans of what he wrote up until the Serpentwar saga.

This kid of parallel goes right up until the ending, by the way. At the end of the Cell saga in Dragon Ball Z, Goku passes the torch to Gohan and says, "This shit's all my son's problem now, but it's going to be fine because he has more innate power than I do." At the end of Magician's End, when given the choice between passing on or staying alive, Pug's response is, "This can all be my son's problem now, but it'll be fine because he has more innate power than I do."

While this isn't the absolute end of Dragon Ball Z--the Buu saga comes along and undoes Goku's decision--there is a large chunk of the old guard DBZ fandom that thinks that's where it should have ended. So maybe if you're a fan of both Dragon Ball Z and the Riftwar saga and you hold that opinion, keep with it because they do the good ending in these books.

Of course, there is one final parallel in the ending. At the very end of Dragon Ball Z, Buu gets reincarnated as Uub. At the end of Magician's End, Pug ends up being reincarnated as well.

I seriously doubt this is a specific thing that Feist intended for the Riftwar saga to do. For one, Magician came out two years before the Dragon Ball manga started up in Japan. For two, I don't meet many people around Feist's age who are Dragon Ball fans, so I genuinely would be shocked if he saw it and was immediately like, "You know what? Lemme write this down real quick; this guy's really onto something here."

Still, there's a lot of things about the Riftwar saga that I'm immensely more forgiving of now that I realise this is basically the novel version of Dragon Ball Z. When I was reading the earlier books, there's a lot of things I took issue with: how the women were written and treated, what the politics were like, that there were large chunks of certain books that were ultimately just filler.

These are things I still take issue with, and I have a lot more to say about this in later posts. I just feel like these are less of an issue now that it's finally clicked that this is basically just DBZ for a slightly older audience.

My other takeaway from these books is that while the books themselves haven't changed, my perspective on them has. While for the most part, the books in this series that I considered to be the best of the bunch at sixteen are still the ones I think are the best of the bunch at thirty, the reasons for that have changed. Like, I can appreciate how Talon of the Silver Hawk touches on certain things the previous books don't a lot more than I did when I was in high school; I can appreciate how A Darkness at Sethanon builds up the tension a lot more now.

The flipside to this is that I can also articulate my issues with my least favourites a lot better now. Rise of a Merchant Prince is a wasted book that should have had its focus elsewhere for example, and the Demonwar duology is often just a bad rehash of the Darkwar trilogy.

I think also, I'm a lot more forgiving of certain books now than I was as a teenager. At sixteen, I essentially thought that Silverthorn was just 430 or so pages of filler. At thirty, I can appreciate how much it adds to the storyline.

The most dramatic examples of this are the Empire trilogy and Faerie Tale. I think the problem I had with the Empire trilogy as a teenager was that it kinda felt a bit like filler because it didn't develop the main plot in any way. Nowadays, I can appreciate the politics of it, and I wish the other books were as consistently political as these ones were.

I appreciate the irony of saying this straight after I've said that Rise of a Merchant Prince was a waste of a book. One of the reasons I think that now is because while I do feel like the economics of the Kingdom needed to be fleshed out more, I'm not really convinced this was the way to do it. "By the way, high finance is a thing here and this guy who's fresh out of his national service can master it in a couple of years by pulling himself up by the bootstraps enough" isn't a substitute for actually fleshing out which regions are mostly agricultural, which ones are mining towns, which ones are mostly military outposts, and so on.

Faerie Tale, while not a Riftwar book, is a very dramatic example of what I'm talking about with this. I only ever read this book the once as a teenager, and I wasn't really impressed with it at the time. I didn't really like that it wasn't really in the same vein as Feist's other books, and I think maybe I was too young to fully appreciate its plot and themes when I was fifteen.

Nowadays, this is one of my favourite Feist books. Some of this is due to some very specific genre preferences--for the most part, I prefer urban fantasy to epic fantasy. However, I think I'm also in a position now where I can have a deeper appreciation for its more adult themes than I was back then.

The big thing Faerie Tale does well compared to other Feist books is in how it treats women. The women characters in it have a lot more agency than they do in his other books outside of the Empire trilogy. It's never going to become a feminist cult classic by any stretch of the imagination, but I doubt it'd draw the same strong ire that his other books would draw if they were more popular, either.

I'm still bothered by how haphazard the world building was. The bare bones are there, but there isn't a lot of follow through. For example, in Magician, it's said that the relationship between the Kingdom and the Free Cities are often strained. Some of this is due to the duchy known as the Far Coast having once been a part of the same Keshian province as the Free Cities, so there's bad blood there due to the war the Kingdom waged to conquer a large chunk of this territory.

This isn't really followed up on, though. Once the first few books are over, relations between the Kingdom and the Free Cities are treated as if they're effectively neutral, bordering on soft alliance. To an extent, this does make sense because they effectively were aligned against the Tsurani in Magician, but they could have gone back to business as usual straight after.

The other part of this is just the cultural diversity issue. Outside of the hill people of Yabon and some of the ethnic groups towards the border with Kesh, the Kingdom doesn't have a lot of it. This is in spite of how large the Kingdom is supposed to be. It's never entirely clear just how wide it is from one side to another, but based on the kind of travel times and distances mentioned, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that the distance from Crydee to Ran is something like 5,000 or 6,000 kilometres (~3,000-3,750 miles).

With countries that large, you'd expect insane amounts of cultural diversity. To an extent, Feist does try to walk this back a bit later on by mentioning stuff like how certain cities will have their own dialects and so on, but for the most part the Kingdom is treated as if it mostly has a monoculture once you get passed the East-West divide.

I don't think this treatment is a huge contradiction because the rule on how much diversity the Kingdom has is however much benefits the plot the most. For the most part, I think it can just be written up to different characters having different perspectives as well. However, it is a little bit of a blunder, and it can come close to a contradiction at times. This is another parallel with Dragon Ball Z, by the way: its plot could be contradictory at times as well, and the core rule was always whichever way benefited the plot more was how it'd play out.

The worldbuilding thing that I actually think is an honest-to-god contradiction and not just a matter of certain characters having different perspectives is the shift in which side of the Kingdom is reputed to have the best army. Early on, the Western army has the reputation of being the Kingdom's finest, both because the conquest of Yabon and the Far Coast was still relatively recent historically speaking, but also because the forts along the Teeth of the World were all considered part of the Western Realm. The disputed border with Kesh was also part of the West.

So basically, pretty much every garrison that saw any real combat was part of the Western realm. This would have been a part of that part of the army's institutional knowledge. This is something that's reflected in how Western characters conceptualise the Eastern garrisons. In Magician, they're basically just seen as parade ground troops who are basically just honour guards for territory that's been pacified for decades, if not centuries.

While Guy du Bas-Tyra is seen as a crack general despite being from the East, this is also clearly an aberration rather than a broad pattern. Outside of his first war with Kesh, where he forced the Keshians back from Deep Taunton, it's also not clear if he ever commanded a mostly Eastern army on the field. Certainly during the war with Kesh in Magician it's implied that a lot of his men in the field had followed him there from the East, but it's also probable he left a lot of them behind in Krondor and was mostly commanding a Western army by the time he got to the southern marches.

Later on though, this is switched. The Eastern forces are considered to be the crack forces. I'm not even really sure how Feist could square this with some of the distances mentioned in the books. In the Conclave of Shadows trilogy, the Eastern Kingdoms are mentioned to be hundreds of miles away from the nearest Kingdom city of any real size.

If commanding forces against the Eastern Kingdoms was also seen as a prestige job, then I don't get why there wasn't also a series of forts along the eastern border the same way there was along the Teeth of the World. Instead, there's just this huge gap where there aren't a lot of Kingdom settlements at all between Ran and the northern forts.

The other part of this is that when it came to expansion, it was stated at one point that the Kingdom's eyes were always to the West. They weren't necessarily interested in eating up any Eastern Kingdoms, and as they are in the Conclave of Shadows trilogy, there's nothing to suggest that anyone there has their shit together well enough to really capture Kingdom territory.

So this is one of those things where I think Feist did contradict himself. There's a lot of other things about the worldbuilding I'm generally unhappy about, but this has been all the main points, and this is already an incredibly long post.

So I guess the ultimate question I really need to answer now is whether or not I think they're as good as I remember. Ultimately, my answer is kinda-sorta? There's definitely parts of this that are as good as I remember, though often for very different reasons. But there's also a lot of stuff that I now have issues with that I couldn't really conceptualise properly in my teens.

Certainly, this does still inspire a certain degree of brain rot in me, just as it did when I was sixteen. It's for different reasons, but it's there and it's real. So even though I'm done reading these books, I'm not actually done talking about them. There will be more posts coming.

#riftwar #raymond e. feist #books #rant

[adlibbed-adventures]

So. Yeah. Introductions.

I’m Libby. I’m an intermediate archaeology student at the University of Krondor, which is also where I’m from. My thesis is on the Twelve Blades of Gargos. If you’ve never heard of them, number one, you have shitty taste, and number two, they’re these mythical blades that got lost a really long time ago. They’re supposed to have connections to demons or something, and some people get really pissy with you if you talk about them.

Anyway. I have one - or, two now, I guess - and I won’t say a ton ‘cause it’ll ruin the thesis but the demon shit is real!!! Like, REAL real. Mine is called Zurithra and she’s a bitch. The axe I get from her is cool, though, I gotta admit. Here’s a picture of me with it.

I’m currently stuck with a group of total fucking idiots, so I guess I should bring them up too. So, from least stupid to most, we have:

- Kaen, our resident moredhel. For people living under a rock, being a moredhel is the ultimate bad thing to be - we’re both elves (well, he’s a full one and I’m, like, 8% eledhel) but he’d get killed for it if anyone found out he was one of the scary ones. He stays disguised a lot for obvious reasons. He’s also pretty fucking good with a hand crossbow, likes poison maybe a little too much, and answers most questions with “mm”. Oh - and he’s my fiancé. I’ll draw a picture of us together.

- Rollie, who is the cutest gnome you’ll ever meet. I actually don’t know if you’ll meet a cuter gnome ‘cause I haven’t met any others, but she’s really cute either way. She really likes hunting for mushrooms and also turns into a giant hyena sometimes, which is cool as fuck.

- Tuum, who honestly needs to learn to stick his red scaly nose into less of my business, is our lockpicking guy. He has a serious case of kleptomania... so... yeah, that's been a problem a few times. Past that, though, he is actually a nice guy. He’s surprisingly honest and has kept our group together through a lot of crazy shit. Also he saved my life two weeks ago, which counts for something, I guess.

- And Ibrahim, the stupidest, most stuck-up guy on the team. He thinks he’s some kinda genius for coming up with plans that none of us thought of, but they’re actually just really, really fucking dumb. Plus, he’s supposed to be a good upstanding cleric of Astalon, but Kaen and I think he’s wayyy too shady for that. He can’t even hit his little lightning bolt spells reliably. He’s weirdly good at talking, though, and he heals, and I think Tuum has a crush on him, so we keep him around.

As of this entry, we’re all holed up in a tavern in the Far Reaches, on our way to a dig site I have to get to ASAP in the High Fastness mountain range. My old journal got fucking soaked by the rain on the way here, so I think I’ll move some of those entries over to this one.

Good enough for an introduction? Awesome. Let’s get into the good stuff.

#dnd #dnd oc #libby speaks #introductory post

[twistedpiner]

Betrayal at krondor game engine

#BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR GAME ENGINE HOW TO#

#BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR GAME ENGINE SERIES#

#BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR GAME ENGINE FREE#

He put a lot of heart into this site, and its still in its original design from when I first peeped this game in 1998. Seriously I don't understand why this game doesn't get as much GAF love as it should. Make sure you get Dosbox as well to run the application. It's hard because you have to know a lot before you start playing the game about the politics of Midkemia, but once you learn, its hard not to get immersed.īetrayal at Krondor is available as freeware and can be downloaded anywhere. I downloaded this over the weekend and was rehooked again, and this time, thanks to the powers of Wikipedia, I understand wtf is happening in the game, and understand every detail.race of characters, wars theyre alluding to, etc. I had some problems emulating this game early 2002, but now with Dosbox, its easier than ever to boot up the game.

#BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR GAME ENGINE SERIES#

It's kind of overwhelming if youve never heard/read of Raymond Feist's fantasy series about Midkemia - the Dungeons and Dragon alternative. So yea, I played this game back in 98, and wasn't able to appreciate its astute attention to detail. There are dozens of spells to choose from, each with interesting effects ranging from blinding an enemy to setting him or her on fire Magic in the game is also very cool, but can only be used by a few characters. For example, picking locks frequently will cause your lock pick skill to go up, fighting will make you stronger, ect. Experience points are not used here and you cannot “level up,” only practice will increase your skill. Your character's skill in swordplay is determined by a number of factors, including strength and dexterity. Combat in the game is turn based, using an easy to use system that would later be copied by greatly inferior titles such as Betrayal at Antara. If the plot were not enough to keep you glued to you seat for hours on end, the game play itself is superb. From Krondor, a greater story unfolds, involving swords, sorcerers, and the maniacal plans of Delekhan, King of the Moredhel.

#BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR GAME ENGINE HOW TO#

It is here that Prince Arutha, ruler of the Western Realm, must decide what to do with Gorath, and how to prepare for a possible Moredhel invasion. Two Kingdom agents by the names of Locklear and James must escort the dark elf from his frozen northern home to Krondor. As it starts, Gorath, of the evil Moredhel, has defected to the Kingdom of the Isles. The story is, as mentioned earlier, one of the best ever presented in a video game. The people in this game have real problems and concerns that fit wonderfully into Feist's universe. You will not come upon mentally deficient townspeople whose only contribution to the game is to say, "This is Coneria, the dream city." over and over and over again. Whether you tackle the main quest first or explore the countryside, you will never get bored. The world is so large, in fact, you can play for hours without even starting the main story.

#BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR GAME ENGINE FREE#

It has the perfect blend of role-playing elements: interesting characters, a gripping story, and a huge world that you are free to explore. Based upon the celebrated fantasy author Raymond Feist's world of Midkemia, Betrayal at Krondor is one of the greatest RPGs ever made.

#Betrayal at krondor game engine

[skillcheck]

Sketch of Gorath from Betrayal at Krondor

#betrayal at krondor #bak #gorath #moredhel #digital art

[xmarchwarden-of-lothlorienx]

-Morwen Half-Elven, Last Queen of the Moredhel moodboard

(Aka my dark elf OC)

#lotredit #silmarillionedit #hobbitedit #OC #OFC #morwen half-elven #lord of the rings #the hobbit #moodboard

[tolkienmetallist]

Battlelore

Music Style: Epic Symphonic Metal

Country of Origin: Finland

Years Active: 1999-2011, 2016- Present

Current Members: Jyri "Moredhel" Vahvanen - Guitars; Henri Vahvanen - Drums; Maria Honkanen - Keyboards, Flute; Kaisa Jouhki - Vocals; Jussi Rautio - Guitars (lead); Timo Honkanen - Bass; Tomi Mykkänen - Vocals

Discography: ...Where the Shadows Lie (2002) Sword’s Song (2003) Third Age of the Sun (2005) Evernight (2007) The Last Alliance (2008) Doombound (2011)

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BattleloreOfficial/videos (official) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ8fbG8Pxzjs_ecVaetGneg (topic)

Website: http://www.battlelore.net/

Spotify Monthly Listeners: ~14,000

My Thoughts: Before going any further, I would like to state that I do not think Battlelore is a bad band, and I do not think they make bad music. I just don’t think they meshed well with my personal tastes and my expectations for the band. I fully acknowledge this is a me issue, and me not being 100% on board with a band does not mean that other people won’t enjoy them. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s take a closer look at the band.

On paper, I should love this band. Finland is known for producing great metal bands. Additionally, even though Metal Archives claims their genre is Epic Symphonic Metal, Battlelore pulls inspiration from a variety of genres, such as folk metal, power metal, and gothic music. They are also thoroughly steeped in Tolkien’s lore, and cover some topics that aren’t common in Tolkien Metal (ex. “The Mark of The Bear” about Beorn). I know that in previous posts I have expressed my love of both female metal vocalists and playing with contrasting sounds, and this band has both. This band sounds right up my alley. So why did I struggle to listen to them?

Ultimately, for me, the issue is song pacing. And unfortunately, the root of the pacing issue is the female vocalist, Kaisa Jouhki. Whenever she has a solo, the music slows down to a crawl and any momentum the song had is gone. She kills a song’s energy and pacing to the point where a few times when I was listening, I thought I had changed songs halfway through. Additionally (and this may be a language issue) she doesn’t sound emotionally invested in anything she is singing about. Her vocals are very pretty and she’s talented, but I don’t believe she cares. I did enjoy the music around her parts, and when she was singing with a male vocalist, most of my issues with her weren’t as present.

All that being said, Battlelore is one of the more popular bands I’ve covered, so clearly people do enjoy their music. Perhaps it will eventually click for me, but for right now, I’m going to pass.

#Tolkien metal #Heavy Mithril #Battlelore #silmarillion #LOTR #the hobbit

[femalefrontedbandsconfessions]

Metal bands with poc

Since you guys wanted my list, here it is. I hope you guys find some good bands. Nubian Rose X Ray Spex Sepultura Oceano Jingo de lunch Bleed the pigs Tetrarch Tamar Kali Sevendust Skinflint Skunk Anansie Devil you know Suffocation Wicked wisdom Darkest place Sasamaso Adore Bloodlined calligraphy Butcher babies Crisis Diary of destruction Dohrn Pyrrah Straight line stitch Visceral leishmaniasis Oceans of slumber Satans vault company Testament Eyes set to kill Morbid asphyxiation(now Solbarren) El Cuervo de Poe Anna Fiori MutuM Nostra Morte Baby Dollz Mystica girls Brujeria Alekines gun Archetype Diagnosis Introtyl Castrator Benatnash Black palace Syrebris Bow before none Carry on zephyr Coldnight Conquer divide Dreaming dead Cretin Dia de Los Muertos Cyclic enigma Dead silence Full knife injection Ataque de Panico Déborah Dreams of damnation Harlequin Insentient Matriarch You only live once But a thought Blair witch Clandestine Krypteria Dei tetra Frantic Amber Gallhammer Gugat Ina Ich Kittie Chthonic Abnormality Adorior Arise Atisa Black like vengeance Bloody panda Cerce Cursed earth Debt of nature Despise you Diffuzion DivahaR Divine retribution Dropping the messiah The end of faith Estuary Exit strategy Eyes like cyanide Faethom xFIRSTWORLDPROBLEMSx Forty days longing Gautama Genration suicida Happy pill trauma Hard of heart Hellen High tension Ilia Iodashu Landmine marathon LateXjesus LornSun Mahavatar Mares of Thrace Masterlast Mortad Music from the void Omkara Parasitic extirpation Saros Satriarch Shikoku Shocker x Suspended Transient The Undertakers Vastum Witch hunt Wykkid wytch Young and restless Your last wish Hollywood streetwalker Retaliação infernal Bridget fogle Stream of passion Splatta Fish(now Anathemic) Militia Vox Vodun In oath Moredhel Orisha shakpana Tribe Below the Gallows Castaway Sublime cadaveric decomposition Carson Shaka Ponk Pyyramids Mortal Soul Venkman Bat Vomit Wrust Permanent Ruin 5grs 29 Jaguars 1000 odios A drop of joker A Silent Daylight Bagronk Betrayer Aggression Pandegorium Bestial Holocaust Grimtotem Sukuba Luctus Hydra Nylarathotep Before the daylight Rakasasa Soma TNT Fedra Lugzburz Infernal Pussy Lethal Warrior Desintegrated Sacred Goat Insidiouss Fyhura Human Crisis Massive scar era Treateth The Black Portrait Glory For All eternity Zero Gravity Bloody Mortir Demons Damn Cockroach not butterfly Monster phobia Title of a regret Flower Flesh Last breath of Jasmine Master of Persia Evilchoir Story of hope Moth in lilac Gekijo metalicche Quasidiploid MergingMoon Xecsnoin Dynama Skull fuck Jurassic jade Vyson Gallows Grave grinder Danger gang Self deconstruction Damage digital Four degrees Celsius Dazzle vision G∀lmet Ghost cries Serenity in murder Necro circus Sigh Headphones president Gonin-ish Faintest hope Yellow machinegun Exist trace Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation Shadow Spit on your grave Meaning of blood Insaniah The abstract Maledictvs Nephyla Menstruary Agresión Psicovomitosis Sadinecrootitis Labei ritual Inharmonious Option Nicaragua HxC Vulture Dismal divinity Tormentress E-thereal Manixive Greedy black hole Silent Hell Eye of violence Purgatory 8th floor Edoxhin Mads Infernal tragedy Inner circle Upon shadows Windrunner Esfinge De Gizeh The Objex Misgive Semblant NighTraiN The machinist XabruptX Hacavitz Xibalba Mortality Highway Anthrax And then she came Living Colour Body Count Mandatory Abortions A Breath Before Ch'izhii Repressão Social Sick Sad World Acrassicauda Antagonisten Cherry filter Waggakki band The World Over Diamante Meat The abstract Agresion Cyclic enigma Bloodletting Devolish Dreariness Heretic evanglelion Gilgamesh Inanimis Inharmonious Insaniah Labei ritual Lifeless Maledictvs Meaning of blood Menstruary Mercenary Naurum Nephyla Oppressive light Purpura vascular Throne of naya Murderline Object the day Psychotic disorder Spit on your grave Rituals of a blasphemer Dead rez reflex Brutal pig Deathmatch Fat killer bastard Avasinity Karkaos Mortillery Nothing left for tomorrow Kilbourne ¡Ole! Red handed denial Triage Darling demoniac La misma Tartarus Your chance to die Damad Third side justice Lord snow Rifle diet Hidrolyx Disölver For the suffering Undying hate Contravene Tomsk-7 Xolotl The ancient queen Crude studs Vöetsek Almost anywhere (now Dianthus) Blaster master Despise you Happy pill trauma Hell hath no fury Diamanda galas Shaolin finger jab Dark prophecy Ragana Baba Yaga Grey Beauty of blood Deftones Xenia Headawynn Melphomene Mount Cairn Palace burn Unreasonable Human

[wherehumorcomestodie]

I want to re-read this series, but I'm gonna check the wiki to see if it's as good as I remember.

""Valheru, The Dragon Lords, were the first race on Midkemia, and among the most powerful in the known universe. Their nature was that of the fabric of the universe. They rode on the backs of great dragons, travelling throughout the cosmos in search of plunder. Arrogantly presuming themselves to be gods, they also bred the Elves as creatures to serve them. From the moment they are born the Valheru must fight for survival. As soon as they are born they are taken by Moredhel midwives from their mother and handed over to an Eledhel runner who takes the infant and finds a secluded spot in which to leave the child. They are born aware and with each passing moment they gain a greater understanding of the world around them. Within a summer’s span they are able to run down and kill deer with a stunning mindblast. The only creatures they need fear are others of their own kind. As a result of their wanton acts of destruction throughout the universe, energy was released from what was once mighty civilizations. Reaching a critical point, these energies formed a new pantheon of gods. While the new gods strove among themselves, the Valheru, exhorted by Draken-Korin, attempted to overthrow the new order of gods. Ashen-Shugar was the only Dragon Lord to disapprove of his plan, but he did nothing but watch as the other Dragon Lords rose to battle the gods. Ashen-Shugar, the most powerful of the Valheru, felt something "alien" to his kind, a desire to protect the world, and the presence of Tomas Megarson via the magics of Macros the Black. With the coming of the new gods Ashen Shugar felt himself become alien to the new order, as if reality rejected his nature and he fell into a torpor, sleeping in his mountain on his throne many ages after the rest of the Valheru had faded from the world. Upon his death his essence became infused in his armor so that Tomas could replace him as guardian of Midkemia. Space and time became warped as the Valheru battled the gods in the time known as the Chaos Wars. Of 107 gods, only sixteen survived, but the Valheru were utterly defeated. With the exception of Ashen-Shugar, the Valheru were cast away into another dimension to prevent them from returning to their homeworld, Midkemia. Their combined essences became a single entity known by the Tsurani as "The Enemy". In its rampage to return to Midkemia, it destroyed many worlds, including those of the civilizations that would later become the Empire of Tsuranuanni. For a while, the newly melded being was consumed by the battle-madness of the Valheru, before the compassion of a human boy won through, and Tomas the human mastered the powers of a Dragon Lord. While the elves, whom he sought refuge with, feared dominion from the Dragon Lord, Tomas assuaged their fears, becoming merely the prince consort of their Queen Aglaranna. While Tomas gained the full might of Ashen-Shugar, he eventually lost much of this power during the final events of the second war with the Tsurani, this time teaming with the Great Ones to overthrow an ancient dark force involving several powerful Moredhel teaming with Serpent priests to allow the return of the Valheru, whom they still considered their masters and gods. Tomas still stands as one of the most powerful people in Midkemia, with few able to match him.  Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the human-turned-Valheru and the Elf Queen conceived a child possessing the heritage of all three races. Calis, son of Tomas and Aglaranna, would be unique throughout the world, neither human nor elf. He would also be instrumental during the Serpentwar invasion, first by creating the Crimson Eagles military commandos, then later dismantling a powerful artifact capable of draining all life in the world.  Finally accepting his lot in fate, Calis settled down in Elvandar with a widowed elf, also adopting twins who were refugees from the recent war.""

Um.... on second thought...

[sandy058830715-blog]

Protecting Against Juvenile Criminal Activity As An Area

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In spite of that, the Big Bad of that publication, the charming moredhel leader Murmandamus, is disclosed to be a Pantathian (snake-person) clergyman in disguise that does not appreciate the moredhel and just desires the Lifestone listed below the city of Sethanon, an artifact that allegedly has the power to revitalize the Pantathians' Valheru girlfriend as well as prized goddess. If you have any thoughts relating to where and how to use click the next website, you can get in touch with us at our own site. Indeed, he suggests that a capacity to intuit another's feelings might well be a help to some suspicious moral practices. Here are a few thoughts and also expressions to prevent in sympathy cards, because they take the chance of either lessening the recipients' special sensations of despair or really making them feel even worse. In deeper water, you have much less side control over the coming down wire, yet at the exact same time the phenomena you're taking a look at are larger, so you want a study hallway whose size is 2 to 3 times the sea depth yet with a coarser resolution. Memorial yards, statuary and plants are specialized individual sympathy presents, and usually are put in the residence or garden of the surviving family members. Yet prior to I move on from that, the New South Wales Law Enforcement Agency and the Marine Area Command are in no question that individuals of New South Wales would love to extend our sincere condolences to the family and friends of those who perished the other day. Compassion, on the other hand, is our ability to grasp the sensations of an additional individual on a much deeper level, as well as the capacity to communicate this recognizing to that person, which shows that you truly do comprehend exactly how they feel. They vary in professional and academic achievement; degrees of self-worth and also positive self-image; household history; personal background; socio-economic strata; political affiliations; and other specification you could think about. When it comes to sources of conceited supply, narcissists are not selective as well as have no partialities. During times like these, if you can not take a seat and also chat with the individual a straightforward hug as well as I'm sorry will do. If you have the ability to spend even more time with them however, you need to try and also give them a memory you have actually of their loved one that they could hold on to as well as replay in their mind. • Urge interpersonal partnerships with schoolmates, household, pals, next-door neighbors and also job coworkers. There is nothing always great about empathy, which is basically the capacity to imagine as well as intuit just how other individuals think as well as feel. Today this is all fairly acquainted, however in the 19th century, when the very first feeble bits struggled down the first undersea cable television joining the Old World to the New, it must have made people's hair stand up on end in greater than just the totally electric sense - it must have seemed mythological. The same opts for the informative discourse supplied by dramatist Martin Sherman who very persuasively argues that the evacuee camps are occupied by individuals in a public state of shock: pure adrenaline and nerve have actually carried them on their unimaginably dreadful journey, where they have actually needed to subdue their regular human response to the fatalities of relative when driving. The very genuine and also wholehearted bereavement compassion words you will locate on these condolence messages is frequently precisely exactly what someone has to allow them recognize as well as guarantee that truly do care and also recognize concerning their loss as well as are always there to sustain as well as have compassion with them during the most affordable moments in their lives.

[staringdownabarrel]

I've just finished A Kingdom Besieged by Raymond E. Feist, and as always, here are my thoughts on it.

This is a really good representation of what I wish the previous two subseries had been like. In a lot of ways, it is a return to the roots of the series: a lot of the main plot is tied up in things that are happening in and around Crydee, and it centres around a new armed conflict breaking out. Sure, this sorta repetitive cycle can get old, especially if you've been working your way through all the Feist books, but it's also the sort of plotline Feist has traditionally done well.

I have a few issues with it, but those are mostly issues with a few minor points. For example, I'm not really a big fan of how it's said that the Far Coast's population had only risen ten percent in the century or so since the original Riftwar. Granted, this does make some sense by real world logic because the world's population growth was fairly stagnant up until the industrial revolution, but it's also true that it could vary by region and by period.

I think it would have been fine for a plot point to have been that the population in the west had seen a fairly large boom since the end of the Serpentwar. This would have made some sense anyway because after that, the Western Realm had largely known uninterrupted peace (with the exception of an occasional border skirmish with Kesh). And because the moredhel had all drifted up into the Northlands, only returning in force the once during the Great Uprising, there weren't really the same level of low level armed conflict that previous generations had known.

While this may not have lined up 100% with how real life demography works, it would have made thematic sense. This isn't the Kingdom that existed in the early books, where there was a lot of intermarrying between Eastern and Western nobles as a way of keeping the peace. This is a deeply divided Kingdom, working almost entirely by the logic Guy du Bas Tyra set out in A Darkness at Sethanon: almost like two separate kingdoms, only united by some legal technicalities.

So if there'd been this huge population boom in the Western Realm, this could help stoke the tensions. The argument from the West could be something like, "Hey, we're not just some yokels anymore. Some of our cities are a similar size to what you had in the East a century ago." The counterpoint from the East could be something like, "Don't care, yokels. Eat my verbal dust."

Another part of this is that the conditions after the Serpentwar are the kind of conditions that you'd expect to attract a lot of people who wanted to have large numbers of kids. Because a lot of this is territory that had to be rebuilt, it'd make sense if a lot of people from the East who were maybe interested in having 5-10 kids moved west. Their logic would be that this would be a good place to do that because there'd probably always be something for their kids to do once they grew up.

This could easily be reinforced by a new religion, or at least a new denomination of an existing religion, that considered it a moral necessity to have as many kids as possible popping up. It'd only take a few generations of a sect like that to have a noticeable impact on a local population.

None of this would even need to change any of the major plot points. Crydee could still be vulnerable to Keshian attack because after a century of peace, building up a town's defenses wouldn't be the same priority as it had been. It'd just be another point building up the background tensions.

Still, all of this is a fairly minor gripe about a book I otherwise enjoyed. The kind of development Martin got in this book is the kind of development I wish a lot of the Kingdom nobles that have been introduced since the Krondor's Sons duology had gotten. The background tension of this being a kingdom on the verge of civil war would have run a lot higher if there'd been that consistent build up, but it's good to see it here now.

The other thing I really liked was the siege of Crydee. This is the kind of thing Feist has tended to do well. I think he can get a bit iffy when it comes to magic battles because he never really fleshed out the magic system well enough for it to be anything other than "Character X does this elemental spell; Character Y does this elemental counterspell" sort of stuff. I think that can get a bit boring at times; it'd be more interesting if there were some bare bones rules that could be exploited in unexpected ways.

When it comes to this actual military stuff, Feist really shines. It's clear that he put a lot more thought into how this kind of battle would progress. He's generally pretty good at working the tensions of a military campaign as well.

Really, the surprising thing was that this book was as good as it was. I was kind of expecting this to be "okay, let's wrap it up now" sort of stuff where it more or less made sense given what had come before, but was also devoid of the same enthusiasm the early books had. Stuff like this makes me quite eager to see what happens over the course of the next two books.

#a kingdom besieged #raymond e. feist #riftwar #chaoswar #books #rant

[deadredqueenrecords]

Moredhel // Hades Revenit #moredhel #hadesrevenit #funeralforcesrecords #import #cassette #tape #blackmetal #germanblackmetal #tapekvlt #kvlt #cassettecollection #thetapehunter #2008 #germany #niedergang #gomorrah #limited #numbered https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq_HcuylGKv/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=17pks4o0roagc

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[staringdownabarrel]

Okay, so I've just finished Honored Enemy by Raymond E. Feist and William R. Forstchen. This one's an interquel set at the same time as Magician--during the ninth year of the rift war.

In a lot of ways, this is a really good representation of what I wish the previous trilogy had been like. The stakes of Honored Enemy are low (it's just two military units on opposite sides of a war being forced to work together for a time), it's far away from anything involving the main plot (though it does loosely tie into the Great Uprising of Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon), the pacing feels like an actual novel, and I think it does expand the lore somewhat.

Really, the big thing Honored Enemy did well that I feel like previous books in the Riftwar saga haven't done as well is show the actual effects of first contact between cultures. In previous books, the perspective has always been from those with real power who have a lot of the knowledge and context to be able to set aside their feelings for the other culture and know this is just a thing they're going to have to live with now and what the likely flow-on effects are going to be. Honored Enemy presents a set of characters who don't always have that broader context and whose knowledge is based firmly on what's right in front of them in the context of the ongoing war.

This is the kind of perspective that I think was largely lacking from Magician. It would have made sense for elements of what we see in this book to have been incorporated into Tomas' storyline somehow, but that was one of the big missed opportunities there.

The other thing this book did really well was show just how deep the rivalry between the elves in Elvandar and the moredhel (this series' term for the dark elves) goes. This is an element that has been talked about in previous books, but this is the first one that really goes deep into how all-consuming the rivalry between the two can go; especially between those who switched from one faction to the other and those who were left behind.

Of course, much like with the Empire trilogy that Feist cowrote with Janny Wurts, I think Honored Enemy smooths over some of the rough edges of Feist's writing. Unlike with the Empire trilogy, this book doesn't smooth over the rough edges of the gender politics of the Riftwar saga at all. That remains pretty consistent with what the standard for Feist is.

What this book does really well is focus on the battle and operational tactics involved. This has often been an element of Feist's work, but outside of A Darkness at Sethanon and the last couple of books of the Serpentwar quadrilogy, there was never as much focus on that element as there was on everything else going on with the characters. Traditionally, this is something that Feist has only ever been so-so at.

Honored Enemy smooths over that and has a lot of focus on tactics and strategy. There are things I think should have gone differently in the book, but everything I wish had been done differently are things I think would have required the principle characters to be fundamentally different people.

I think the other thing is that it smooths over some of Feist's ticks when it comes to actually writing prose. When it comes to actually writing prose, there really isn't anything that annoys me about Feist's writing. There aren't any weird grammatical ticks that he has that get under my skin beyond the occasional obvious typo or misprint that got missed. He also doesn't have any commonly used phrases that annoy me that aren't obviously just the product of writing a long-running series where it can't be assumed that any given reader has read every previous book.

However, after reading sixteen of his books back-to-back, his prose does start to get a bit stale. Any writer's prose would. So to have a cowriter to reinvigorate the writing style a bit is a net positive in this sense. I'm not sure if this is an aspect I'd be as appreciative of if I hadn't just spent the last two months reading nothing but Raymond E. Feist, though.

But yeah, that's all I have for now.

#honored enemy #raymond e. feist #william r. forstchen #riftwar #legends of the riftwar #books #rant