#when I read Irish folklore based books I EXPECT IRISH FOLKLORE

[samwisethewitch]

Choosing the right pagan path for you

Finding a religion is kind of like dating — you need to really know yourself before you can know what you need from a religion (or a romantic partner). And, like with dating, there’s a lot of weird stigmas and social expectations around religion. A lot of people want to settle down with the first one they kind of vibe with instead of taking the time to see what’s really out there. But if you really want to be happy in the long term, you’ll need to have a little patience and be willing to do some exploration.

Getting to know yourself is crucial to a healthy spiritual life, no matter what your religious or spiritual beliefs are. Get comfortable with who you are and what your spiritual needs are, then start looking for a system that meets those needs.

Need a place to start? Try interviewing yourself! Here are some questions you may want to include in your self-interview (make sure to write them down!):

What, if anything, do you absolutely know, beyond a shadow of doubt, is true? What, if anything, do you absolutely know, beyond a shadow of doubt, is not true? Do you believe in absolute good and evil? Do you believe in, or are you open to believing in, reincarnation? What about the existence of the soul? What about an afterlife? Do you believe in fate? What about karma or a similar concept? Do you believe that everyone and everything is connected, or are you more of an individualist?

It’s also helpful to go ahead and figure out where you stand on certain religious concepts that are common in paganism. For example, are you a monist, a soft polytheist, a hard polytheist, or a pantheist? Do you feel you’d do better with a neopagan system, a reconstructionist system, or a revivalist system?

Answering these questions will help you start to identify what your core beliefs are and what you need from a religious system. Keep your answers handy. As we explore different pagan religions in future posts, compare their theology and philosophy to your answers. This will help you determine whether any given system is a good fit for you and your existing beliefs.

Remember, most pagan faiths are not exclusionist — they acknowledge the value and truth of other religions. Choosing a pagan path isn’t about finding the One True Religion. It’s about finding the best religion for you. You’re unlikely to find a system that you agree with 100% right off the bat, but you should agree with enough core theology that you aren’t uncomfortable. I firmly believe that religion should challenge us and help us to grow, but it definitely shouldn’t be triggering or upsetting. You want to find that sweet spot where you’re comfortable but still have room for growth.

They say that when choosing a romantic partner, you should look for someone you agree with 90-95% of the time. This similarity in belief and opinion gives you a solid foundation to build on, but the 5-10% disagreement keeps your relationship from becoming an echo chamber. I think this is also an excellent rule to follow when choosing a religion.

Once you’ve taken stock of your own beliefs, it’s time to consider your interests. Is there a certain system you feel drawn to? If so, that would be an excellent place to start your research!

For example, maybe you were obsessed with Greek mythology as a kid — if so, you may want to start by investigating Hellenismos, the worship of the ancient Greek gods. Maybe you grew up Catholic and always felt a close connection to Mother Mary — you may want to investigate Goddess worship. Or maybe you’ve always resonated deeply with the figure of the witch in fiction and folklore — you may want to investigate Wicca. Starting with a system you already have an interest in will keep your research fun and exciting. You may or may not choose to consider your cultural heritage when choosing a starting point for your study of paganism. If you feel closely tied to the culture of your ancestors, you might start by learning about the gods they originally worshiped.

Let me make one thing clear: the gods do not care about genetics. If you feel drawn to the Norse gods, for example, it does not matter if you have Scandinavian heritage or even European heritage. What matters is whether you’re willing to uphold the values and practices of Norse paganism. Don’t let a lack of an ancestral link keep you from pursuing a religion that interests you!

(Of course, ethnic religions do exist, and some of these systems are closed to outsiders. Judaism and Voodoo are good examples of this. However, all of the systems I’ve mentioned in this post, and all of the ones I’ll be covering in this series, are open to anyone regardless of their ethnicity.)

You may not feel connected to your cultural heritage at all, and you may not even consider it as you explore paganism. That’s fine! Just know that it does offer another possible entry point into the big, wide, diverse world of pagan religion.

You should also consider whether any pagan religions are more readily accessible to you than others. Do you have a friend who is already a practicing pagan and would be willing to take you under their wing? Do you live in a country where certain deities used to be worshiped and have access to historic sacred sites? Are there local pagan groups in your community? Consider these resources when deciding where to start your research. The good news is that, with the Internet, you’ll have access to any system you feel attracted to, at least online.

One of the most common accessibility issues pagans run into is a language barrier. This is especially true for reconstructionists and revivalists. Unless you speak fluent Irish, you’ll probably have to rely on English translations for your research of Irish mythology, for example.

Finding quality translations is essential. A translation error can sometimes change the entire meaning of a poem or myth! The best way to find good translations is to ask other pagans. Don’t be afraid to ask someone more experienced for book recommendations!

Once you’ve chosen a starting point for your research, the next step is to start reading! (Still not sure where to start? Don’t worry! In the next several posts in this series, I’ll introduce you to some of the most popular pagan paths and provide resources for more in-depth study.)

Choose your sources carefully. I try to read an even mix of academic sources (which tend to be less biased) and sources from pagan authors — this helps me get a more nuanced understanding of the system I’m studying. Be wary of any resource that denies science, revises history, or contradicts other authorities on the subject. Also be wary of any pagan author who fills their work with opinion and personal experience, without any research to back it up. Basing your practice on good sources will help you start off on the right foot with your worship of the gods.

It’s important not to rush this research process. While it’s true that you can’t truly learn a spiritual system from books, it’s also true that things tend to go more smoothly if you know what you’re doing. Once you’ve got a solid grasp of the basics of your chosen religion, you’re ready to begin practicing! Start using what you’ve learned from your research to create a religious practice. This may include creating an altar or other sacred space, making offerings to deities, or performing some other daily ritual. My advice is to start small — don’t feel like you have to become a high priest(ess) overnight.

Your practice may change as you become more experienced, and that’s a good thing. People change, and it only makes sense for our spirituality to change with us. Never be afraid to experiment in your pagan practice. This should be a fun and exciting journey!

#paganism 101 #pagan #paganism #religion #spirituality #spiritual #baby pagan #wicca #wiccan #feri #reclaiming #goddess worship #celtic paganism #irish paganism #hellenismos #hellenic polytheism #hellenic paganism #religio romana #cultus deorum #roman polytheism #roman paganism #heathenry #heathen #norse paganism #kemetic polytheism #kemetic paganism #animism #eclectic pagan #witchblr #witch

[concerningwolves]

Question for you! I see Fae show up a lot in the fantasy genre, and I really love it and want to play with those ideas in some of my own works, but I was wondering — is this something that can be mishandled? I’ve seen some discussion on things to look out for in terms of insensitive portrayal of neurodivergence, but I’ve also just been mulling over the fact that there is a lot of very rich folklore that varies depending on what culture you’re looking at, and that there is potential to disrespect that out of simple fascination for the trope. Being extremely American with no cultural ties to the folklore, I’m just not sure. Is there harm that can be done by sicking solely to the tried and true tropes, or alternatively, by trying to put a new creative spin on those ideas? So sorry if this doesn’t make very much sense, this was harder to put into words that I expected. I was just wondering if you might have any thoughts or advice on this

Oh, this is a nice question for me. Thank you, Nonny :3

Full disclaimer: folklore and mythology, particularly relating to the fae, is my special interest. That doesn't mean I'm an expert in myths and folklore (or the linked history/anthropology). I'm just a person who spends inordinate amounts of time thinking about these things and am exceedingly happy to infodump on the drop of a hat. So, my word isn't law, I'm always happy to hear other opinions, please correct me if I make a mistake etc etc.

"Can you mishandle writing the fae?" is something i have many thoughts on. If you'd asked me this a few years ago, I'd have been all "yes you can, the fae have been appropriated and butchered by popular culture blah blah blah" because I was insufferably anal about things being Correct. But lately, I've come to really love just how vast this – I guess you could call it the popular culture faerie mythos – is. So much of it isn't what a folklore purist would consider correct, but I'm fascinated by how these folkloric figments have evolved and become ingrained in the general psyche nonetheless.

I think writing the fae can become harmful if writers use Welsh/Irish/Scottish folklore as their base without properly researching or without an awareness of the historical context. There's this trend of ignoring centuries of actual history from these countries and instead creating a very warped idealistic fiction. For example, if a writer presents a fantasy world with faeries and says "This is based on Welsh mythology" and then goes on to perpetuate such bunkum as "they all worship a mystical moon goddess" then that's Very Not Good. Similarly, if a writer says "here is my fantasy faery race, they're based on Celtic [Irish] mythology" then I'm going to have some Problems with that, because Celtic mythology and Irish mythology aren't the same thing. (The Celts were an Indo-European people comprised of many cultures and tribes, spread from Ireland to central Europe. While their influence in Ireland is clear, not everything Irish is Celtic and vice versa).

Irish, Welsh and Scottish cultures have historically been persecuted by the English, and that shows in how the English retconned their respective folkloric beliefs to create the British fairy mythos. It's something writers ought to be mindful of but generally aren't imho. This "British" faerie mythos is actually a melting pot of Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Nordic folklore with a healthy dose of medieval romanticism. It's what gave us the popular images of the Seelie and Unseelie ("good" and "bad") faerie courts, wherein the fae are generally more "civilised" (read: like Proper British Victorians) and have humanoid appearances. I don't think that any story which uses this bastardised fairy mythology is automatically bad, but I do get wary when writers plunge into it without giving any thought to why the British fairy image is Like That.

I recently listened to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke and I was absolutely enthralled. Clarke's fairies are based on the medieval romantic image of them, particularly medieval children's tales. They exist in the realm of Fairy, which is near to Hell, and have a society that falls somewhere between feudalism and the Victorian. What gripped me was how Clarke used the Bastardised British Fairy Lore to create this... almost satirical criticism of "Englishness" and what the English identity actually means (without tiptoeing around xenophobia, arrogance and racism). It's very much based on this bastardised British "folklore" but it works because that's the whole point. I found it thoroughly fascinating and enjoyable and basically haven't stopped thinking about it for a month.

I do get very excited when writers take a new angle with faeries, too! Like, Eoin Colfer's faries in the Artemis Fowl books were so cool. (Bearing in mind it's been ten years since I picked up an Artemis Fowl book, and I never read the whole series so most of what I know I've absorbed via late night Wiki reads and Tumblr osmosis, but anyway—) They live underground, which is a very neat take on the Irish Aos Sí. Irish fae folklore has the faeries living in mounds, as in, every mound in Ireland is its own faerie "court". Colfer's faeries call themselves the People, again, a play on the Irish because their name means People of the Mounds. I think what Colfer did was an extremely neat way of calling on Irish mythology to create a cool new fairy concept.

What you say about being American is an intriguing point in itself, too. I've said before that the American cryptid culture is simply delightful, because although it isn't what one would think of when you talk about folklore, that's exactly what it is. American culture is a melting pot. Which is to say, yes, as an American you won't have a lived cultural experience of, say, Irish folklore and how it impacts modern day life there, but there are elements of it all around you! Think about how in states where it's common to see vast fields of corn, it's also common for tales of corn demons. Sure, maybe that sounds like a weird tale some kids tell to scare one another, but to me it sounds a lot like the feldgiester of Germanic folklore.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman explores this concept that immigrants and settlers brought their own gods and mythological/folkloric creatures with them. I often think about this part of the book that talks about a faerie man who followed an Irishwoman to America because she always left out cream for him. I found that really heartwarming in this way that I can't quite explain. If you're into contemporary fantasy epics, I definitely recommend American Gods!

Sorry, I know this answer is getting quite rambly but I guess I... don't have a solid answer. Like I said, this is very much in my special interest wheelhouse BUT I'm not an expert. When I started out reading more about faeries and their various mythos I consumed a lot of nonsense, and I'm slowly sifting back through and unlearning much of what I took as gospel fact. I don't want to sound like I'm telling you what you can or can't do because that isn't my place (nor is it anyone else's). Really all you can do is listen to people from the cultures you're drawing from and research carefully and critically.

Happy writing! (*^▽^*)

#faeries

[facelessxchurch]

Hello! Rant anon again. Just a quick follow up on Artemis Fowl - I’d say in Ireland that SP and AF are on similar levels of popularity with SP actually have the edge over AF. That kinda surprises people because AF is much more popular outside of Ireland and sold much better but there’s something about SP that people in Ireland really like (for the first nine books anyway). And that’s partly because of how each series handled the Irish elements. 1/?

AF is an Irish fantasy series that heavily leans into the Irish mythology side of things - which is cool. SP on the other hand doesn’t use much Irish mythology beyond the odd monster here and there, but there’s other references to Ireland that probably don’t mean much to non Irish people but it’s fun to see them as an Irish person. The gaelic match being a key plot points in one of the books is such a fun concept! 1/?

SP doesn’t feel the need to beat the reader over the head with the Irish side of things and a some people prefer that. There’s still loads of missed opportunities, but I do think that AF and SP are two of the most recognisable Irish fantasy series (not that there’s many) just for different reasons and phase 1 of SP will always be very special to me for being the fun Irish urban fantasy of my childhood. It was the exact story so many Irish kids wanted. Which makes phase 2 even more infuriating.

I have to take your word for it when it comes to which one is more popular in Ireland bc I’m not Irish. I didn’t read the series either, so I’m surprised to hear that? Judging by the promo art it looked a lot like fairies with sci-fi stuff mixed into it so I expected it to be rather loosely based on Irish folklore??

But my prior point was that bc AF and DS are more popular/have sold more copies they already full fill that role of being the Irish answer to fantasy globally regardless of how they perform within Ireland, so SP isn’t exactly needed for that. So I don’t think that is the reason HarperCollins keeps pushing SP. Also HC is British and not Irish, so I don’t see why they would care about that in the first place anyways?

#book publishing #HarperCollins #Anonymous #answered

[deniigi]

Do you believe in fae/faeries?

what an incredibly interesting question anon! And please pardon me as I go off onto a much broader theoretical discussion, but I am absolutely fascinated by it.

The reason I don’t answer this with an immediate ‘no’ is because to me, there is a distinction between believing in something critically and believing in something uncritically and I think that both are very interesting and both are important to the way that I conceptualize belief systems generally.

There is a fairly common notion, I think, that to believe in something, you must accept it in its entirety and in the form it has been presented to you in. So, for example, in Abrahamic religions, there is something of a broad understanding that if you identify as part of a religion, you espouse or should espouse everything that the book(s) and narratives you are engaging with say.

But in practice, this isn’t really the case.

In practice, belief systems aren’t monolithic, they’re layered. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately since I recently read Suzanna Ivanic’s “Religious Objects and Materialities of Belief.” In that chapter, Ivanic discusses how certain religious objects are created out of materials that have associations with folk culture. For example, she talks about a rosary which has wolf teeth on it and explains that the wolf teeth were known to have protective properties in folk culture and, in that way, were used to amplify the power and utility of the rosary. The rosary beads, as holy objects, on the other hand, served to amplify the power of the wolf teeth!

The two, religion and folk culture, speak to and inform each other in this context and the owner of the rosary clearly didn’t see any problems in including what might be construed as ‘pagan’ beliefs in their non-pagan object, despite surely having been told that such ideas were not acceptable within the religion.

This suggests that people were and are capable of espousing many, often contradicting beliefs at the same time and those can exist in a complex, but still logical way.

This is a fascinating idea to me because this is very much how I conceptualize my own relation to folktales/fae/faeries.

Do I literally believe in the fae? Do I think that a fae-creature is going to pop up and steal my first born child? Curse me if I stand under the wrong tree in the wrong way?

No.

I’m a historian who has grown up in a world where our knowledge is based on fact, study, and repeatable results. I am of the opinion that the fae are stories that humans have told each other to explain different happenings and circumstances that previous societies did not have the means or interest in explaining in other ways.

But do I believe in the fae?

In a way, yes. I choose to believe in the fae. I choose to repeat superstitions and to tell stories and make assumptions on the basis that the fae or things like them exist.

Why?

Because I want to.

Part of this is an issue of identity; I feel closer to my (now deceased) Grandmother, an Irish immigrant who raised myself and my sisters, when I read about the island and culture she was born into. I feel closer to her and our family and our history when I research these things and try to learn our language. 

But the other part here is that I want to believe that there are things out in the world that protect it and us humans from ourselves and those among us who are needlessly cruel to the world and its occupants.

I want to believe that people will get what is coming to them. I want to believe that people will reap what they sow.

I want to believe in worlds and creatures existing in the corners and darkness and depths of our own. I want to be humbled in the face of not ever being able to truly know them. I want others to be humbled, too.

I want people to have respect for those things that they cannot understand. It isn’t always necessary to understand them.

Ritual in life is important and it isn’t always logical. It is very often emotional and I find peace and fulfillment in the rituals of leaving things that I find appealing in rotting logs or at the feet of statutes, because, simply put, being honored and honoring for the sake of it is really hard to come by these days.

It is so hard to just do something without expecting something in return for it. So I actually find it incredibly liberating to choose to believe in the fae and folklore and folktales simply because I want to.

This choice can coexist with my academic logic and my determination that knowledge comes from study and repeatable results. I can collect crystals and believe that they help with my anxiety and sleep patterns while also rigorously arguing that you can’t just say whatever the fuck you want is fact.

So yes, anon. This is a long way of saying I don’t necessarily believe in the fae, but I do choose to believe in the fae when I decide that I want to.

#fic #well edging very far away from it #sorry to get academic and philosophical #but I am constantly amazed by the complexity of culture ritual and belief patterns

[scarletwelly-boots]

Books Read 2019

It’s time again for my annual books read post (a little earlier than usual, but I couldn’t wait). I read 24 books in 2019, 4 books more than last year, though two are in progress and I expect to finish them by the new year.

It is year four of the reading challenge from Popsugar. There were 48 categories this year, so I got 50% again. Unlike last year, I did not change any categories, but I may have taken liberties with some again, we’ll see. So, without further ado, let’s begin the list. [Under the cut]

1. How to Train Your Dragon, by Cressida Cowell (A book becoming a movie in 2019). Okay, so there have already been two movies in this series, but the last one (*sob*) came out this year, so it counts. I read this book and a few of the others in the series a few years ago, but revisited the first one this year. It’s really good, but don’t go into it expecting it to be like the movies. The character names are the same, but that’s about it. If you can get your hands on the audiobook version, it’s read by David Tennant, which is excellent. Definitely recommend; it’s just as good as the movies.

2. Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder (A book that makes you nostalgic). This is another reread. My dad read the whole series aloud to my sister and I when we were barely older than Laura is in the first book. It was the series he read before the Harry Potter books came out, and we both got sucked into that series. So yeah, very nostalgic. This is a series of semi-autobiographical stories chronicling Wilder’s pioneer childhood, and this is the first in the series. Some of the language doesn’t really age well, but for the most part it’s a delightful book.

3. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, by Hank Green (a book you think should be turned into a movie). Holy. Shit. I was very, very pleasantly surprised by Hank Green’s debut novel (and yes, John Green is his brother). This is a mysterious book about first encounters and internet fame, with a queer young adult (like, really YA, as in post-college) protagonist. She’s kind of shitty sometimes, but I would argue all twenty-somethings are shitty sometimes (I mean, I literally typed “*sob*” two entries up, like I’m channeling my 2009 self, and I didn’t delete it.). I would highly, highly recommend. And apparently, SOMEDAY, there’s supposed to be a sequel, thank GOD.

4. Loki: Agent of Asgard, by Jason Ewing (a reread of a favorite book). I could actually get away with a reread for this one! I love this graphic novel series. I love how they depict Loki, how he finally gets a goddamn redemption arc. It’s a really fun read. Check it out.

5. The Beast Within, by Serena Valentino (a book inspired by mythology, legend, or folklore). A companion novel to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. I don’t really remember much about this book. It was weird. But like, it plays with the timeline and the curse a little bit, where the beast gets cursed but doesn’t become a beast immediately. He slowly transforms as his behavior gets worse and more cruel. Apparently he used to be friends with Gaston, but Gaston forgot about him once he finally transformed. Really weird. If you’re obsessed with this fairytale like I am, give it a shot. If not, it probably won’t be that interesting.

6. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (a book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie). Another reread. I know it’s a classic, but I seriously just love this book. 

7. Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diane Wynne Jones (a book about someone with a superpower). Another reread of a favorite book, what can I say. The movie is my favorite movie, but the book is better.

8. Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell (a book told from multiple character POV’s). Okay, listen. I had to reread this book, because it had been a few years and the sequel came out this year. Think of this as generic brand Harry Potter if Draco was a vampire, was Harry’s roommate, and helplessly in love with Harry. I’m serious, it’s generic brand. But damn if I don’t love it. @JKR, this could be us but Harry had to be the jock that married his high school sweetheart and grew up to be a cop. Definitely read.

9. Franny and Zooey, by JD Salinger (a book with no chapters/unusual chapter headings/unconventionally numbered chapters). My brother got me this book for my birthday. Before this I had only read Catcher in the Rye, which I started out hating when I was fourteen but turned into loving when I was nineteen. Honestly I think this novel is better than that one. I really loved it. Highly recommend. What’s it about? Who the fuck knows? But to quote my brother: “At its core, I think this book is about a smart brother and a smart sister. I think we can relate.” So read it and buy it for the smart brother or sister or sibling in your life.

10. 1916, by Tim Pat Coogan (read a book during the season it is set in). This is an Irish history book about the Easter Rising of 1916 and (what I didn’t know when I started reading it in April) everything that came after that can trace its cause back to the rebellion, all the way to the centennial of the Rising. The Easter Rising was the catalyst of Irish freedom. It was like the Boston Tea Party of Ireland, rather than the Battle of Yorktown (as in it kickstarted the War for Independence but didn’t immediately result in freedom), that is, if the instigators of the Boston Tea Party were rounded up, imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol, and a week later almost all executed by firing squad. It’s a tedious read if you’re not into Irish history or history in general, but I enjoyed it.

11. Loki: Where Mischief Lies, by Mackenzi Lee (a book set in space). Okay, technically it takes place on Asgard and Earth, but those are planets, and planets are in space, so it counts! I’m still reading it, but I really like it so far. (Honestly I maybe just like the idea of Loki in knee high black boots marketed towards women and black nails. I never promised not to be gay.)

12. Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman (a book set in Scandinavia). I’m sorry! I read this book every year. Neil Gaiman is an amazing writer, and we all know I’m gay as shit for some good Loki tales. 

13. Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer (a book that takes place in a single day). Okay, I know people love this fantasy series, and since it’s Irish I fully expected to, too. But I didn’t like any of the characters enough to read the rest of the series, least of all Artemis himself. I struggle to enjoy stories if I don’t like the main character, and Artemis was kind of a shit. Sorry, I did not like this one.

14. Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy (a debut novel). I just started this one, too, but I really like it already. I think the audiobook is read by the same guy that read Artemis Fowl, but already this is way better than that one. The characters are likable, for one (god, the bar is so low for fantasy books for me right now). It’s a mystery and a fantasy, and the main-ish character is literally an anthropomorphic skeleton detective. It’s excellent. I’m going to read the whole series. (I have to; my mom accidentally got me the 12th installment for my birthday.)

15. Red, White, and Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston (a book that’s published in 2019). I read this twice. It’s so beautiful. I really expected it to be a shitty YA novel, but it wasn’t! It was very romantic (once they stopped “hating” each other), and gay. The premise sounds far-fetched: First Son of the United States falls for the Crown Prince of England. But, guys, it’s soooo gooooood. Highly, highly, highly recommend. 

16. The Wisconsin Road Guide to Mysterious Creatures, by Chad Lewis (a book featuring an extinct or imaginary creature). I mean, you can make your own decision whether these cryptids are real or imaginary. This is a travel guide to cryptids in Wisconsin, which I got on vacation earlier this year. I liked it, but reading a road guide for pleasure is admittedly kind of weird. Recommend if you’re planning a road trip through Wisconsin and want to stop at some cryptid, ghostly, or Nessie-like hotspots. Or if you just want to fuck Mothman, like me. (Dustybae’s not in this particular travel book though.)

17. Take Me With You, by Andrea Gibson (a book recommended by a celebrity you admire). Okay, so it was by a celeb I admire, not recommended by. This is a very quick read, of quotes from Gibson’s poetry. They are a queer spoken word poet with some really good pieces. They’re on spotify and apple music, probably among other sources. Recommend their work, but the book is very short, so maybe only purchase if you enjoy their work.

18. This is How it Always Is, by Laurie Frankel (a book about a family). This book was really, really good. It was passed around the aunts in my family until it got to my mom and I, which was really kind of a magical thing. It’s about a family navigating the challenges and gifts of raising a trans child. I cried a couple times, and it was so good. It’s written by a parent of a trans child, so it came from a place of understanding, and it was interesting to read this type of narrative from a parent’s perspective, when usually being genderfluid myself, I tend to consume media that is from the perspective of trans characters themselves. I had some very interesting conversations with my aunts and mom about it, and I really think this book changed my family a little bit, and I didn’t expect it to change me, too. Highly recommend. 

19. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Suzanne Clark (a book that includes a wedding). So the wedding is at the very beginning, and sadly not between Strange and Norrell. But it’s really good. Lots of magic, lots of regency-era Britishness. The book is huge, but there is a miniseries on Netflix based on the novel and that’s really good too. Highly recommend, and still in love with my man John Childermass. Hnng.

20. Wayward Son, by Rainbow Rowell (a book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter). Sequel to Carry On. Sheer madness. I loved it. Think of it as generic brand Harry Potter post-DH, if Harry sprouted dragon wings during the final battle, is gay as shit for Draco, and a year later Harry, Draco, and Hermione are set loose on America with .5 seconds of research, severe culture shock, one cell phone between them, and a half-assed plan to rescue Ginny who may or may not want to be rescued. Shit show, but well done and I’m fully invested and ready for the third installment.

21. Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman (a book with a two-word title). I’m sorry, I need to shift to caps for this. GUYS I FUCKING LOVE THIS STORY YOU HAVE NO IDEA IT IS THE GREATEST THING THAT HAS EVER COME INTO MY WORLD! I MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE WATCHED THE AMAZON SERIES THIRTEEN TIMES TO DATE AND IMMEDIATELY DEVOURED THE BOOK IN THREE DAYS. You don’t know what it’s about? Where have you BEEN?! An angel and a demon who are gay as shit for each other and love humanity way more than either of their respective sides. One downside is that as the miniseries came out like twenty years after the novel, my two favorite parts were only written for the series, and are not in the novel. But the book is still very, very good. 15/10.

22. Dumplin’, by Julie Murphy (a book revolving around a puzzle or game). I took game to mean competition, so this is about a beauty competition. I watched the Netflix movie first. I honesty thought I was not gonna like it, but holy shit it was amazing. Admittedly I think the movie was better (despite having Jennifer Aniston in it), but the book was really good, too. Recommend.

23. The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (your favorite prompt from a past Popsugar reading challenge; a book with a queer protagonist). God, please read this book. This has been up there in my list of favorite books since I was fourteen. Oscar Wilde is a master storyteller, and Dorian Gray is intriguing and despicable and beautiful. I’ve already read this, but I love it too much not to.

24. Terrible Queer Creatures, by Brian Lacey (a book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent). Okay, so it’s not set there for the whole book, but gay monks and nuns are things. This was another birthday present, and an absolute hit. Combining two of my favorite things: Irish history and queer history. I had no idea a book like this existed. I’m still really excited about it. The only issue I have is that most of the one chapter dedicated to gay women involve biographies of people that were actually probably trans men, like Dr. Barry. They could have probably had a separate chapter and then a chapter of the clear lesbians and bisexual women (including trans women, of course). Lumping them in with the women in a chapter specifically dedicated to queer women did not seem particularly inclusive. But overall I really enjoyed the book.

Top Ten Books of 2019 post will be forthcoming.

#books #Book Recommendations #book recs

[maddiviner]

Morgan Daimler, a practicing witch for almost three decades, focuses primarily on the Celtic Fairy Faith. They are considered by many to be the foremost expert on the Fair Folk in neopaganism today. 

I just finished reading their recent book, Fairies: A Guide to the Celtic Fair Folk about a month ago. If you know much about me, you know that, while very little in the Craft scares me, I’ve always been wary when contemplating the Fair Folk and related concepts. 

I suppose you could say that everyone, witch or otherwise, has some odd fear here or there, and for me, it’s the Gentry. 

Still, with anxiety comes fascination. I was lucky enough to snag a short interview with Morgan, who answered some of my pressing questions about the Fair Folk, their own beliefs, and their work with the Gentry

Eliza: “Do you think that the Fae remain as they were in ancient times, despite legends about them changing? Or, do you believe they, too, have evolved and changed?” 

Morgan: “I think it’s a bit of both to be honest. I think that much like humans and animals are a lot like they were 3000 or 2000 years ago in the sense of physical appearances and abilities and such the Fey are as well. I don't think they've evolved to become something entirely different from what they were in stories and anecdotal accounts from a few hundred years ago either. 

If we look at the folklore and the anecdotes we see that they are pretty consistent across time; while its true that the Good People do seem to follow and mimic human society they also stay true to who and what they themselves are. 

We only start to see stories of radically different fairies very recently, comparatively speaking, and those are coming from fiction and authors who generally didn't believe in the actual reality of fairies. 

On the same hand, yes I do think we see that the fairies do adapt and evolve like any other beings do with time and change. Their clothing changes, their speech and language changes, they modernize with the humans around them albeit at a slightly delayed rate.”

Eliza: “What’s the best bit of advice would you give witches who would like to begin working with the Fae within the context of modern life?”

Morgan: “The single best bit of advice I can give is to really dig into the living cultures that still believe in these beings as real or have a deep cultural folklore related to them. 

There's such a pervasive idea around fairies from modern pop culture but if you look past that to what we can still find in places like Ireland, Scotland, and Iceland you can get a much more accurate idea of what exactly you're dealing with. 

And knowing what you're dealing with, I think, is the single most important thing.”

Eliza: “You’ve spoken often about some of the downright dangerous misinformation out there about the Fae. What would be the worst piece of recent advice you’ve heard? Why?”

Morgan: “I don't want to give an actual example because it wouldn't be fair to have anyone read this and think I was calling them out, but I think to paraphrase the worst advice I've heard recently was the suggestion for people with little or no experience with these beings to invoke fairies known in folklore to be homicidally dangerous. 

I think that entire concept comes down to people who don't believe these types of fairies actually exist as independent beings with power and agency, like the humans are just reading a book or playing a game. The thing is as much as I'm sure people think I overdo the warnings I have seen people get really hurt by some of these things - and I mean like nearly dying, going mad, being physically injured. 

So when I talk about the dangerous misinformation it’s usually connected to things like that example, invoking the ones that are known to kill people, or treating them all to lightly, or doing anything that folklore makes clear can have severe consequences. 

Obviously Fairy being what it is sometimes any action can bring a blessing that would normally be dangerous or bring a blow that would normally be safe. It has a lot of uncertainty to it. But for people with no practical knowledge or experience to go straight into dealing with the most dangerous beings, that always makes me cringe.”

Eliza: “In recent years, we’ve seen new and modernized legends about the Fae develop, such as the idea of Fae becoming human. What’re your thoughts on otherkins and related concepts?”

Morgan: “I think modern legends built from genuine experiences and lore are vital. There's some really great work being done in some corners by people working on this like Aine Llewellyn's Otherfaith on the more spiritual end or Sam Dow's Elsewhere University on the more fictional. 

Otherkin is a very complicated subject and I have mixed views on it. Certainly there is a ton of folklore supporting the idea that the Fey and humans have sometimes interbred; we see that with the Irish aos sidhe, Scottish Selkies, and the Norse Hiddenfolk just to give a few cultural examples. 

The idea of people having some kind of non-human or Otherworldly ancestry or connection is something I fully believe is possible. I'm more skeptical though of the idea of a non-human soul in a human body in this world, because I usually don't see what the purpose of that would be or how it would happen and also because so far the lists I've seen for identifying if you have such-and-such a type of soul tend to be based more on common stereotypes of a particular kind of fairy than actual folklore. 

Which isn't to say I disbelieve, just that of all the people I've encountered claiming to be non-human souled I've very rarely - like only 2 or 3 times ever - believed it was true.

In a much wider sense there is folklore of both humans being taken into Fairy and becoming fairies as well as fairies taken out of Fairy who were turned into humans (but entirely into humans) so that's definitely a thing.”

Eliza: “What’s your thoughts on commonalities between older legends about the Fae, and modern, science-inspired stories about alien abductions?”

Morgan: “My personal opinion is that modern alien abduction stories are actually how we now interpret fairy abductions. speaking of fairies adapting and evolving I think that as humans have moved into the sci-fi era the fairies have adapted to using that paradigm to give us what we expect with their glamour. So instead of seeing fairies people see aliens. 

It’s certainly worth noting that the first alien abduction happened well after literary and cinematic aliens became a cultural trope. So now we have fewer fairy encounters but we have alien abductions in their place. 

Given how powerful fairy illusion is it would be simple enough for them to make a human think they are seeing a spaceship and aliens instead of whatever is actually going on, and it’s very clever on their part given how much folklore has taught humans about fighting back against fairies - where aliens seem like a force a captured person can't resist or fight back against.”

Much thanks to Morgan for providing this interview! You can visit their author page on Amazon here, and I highly recommend picking up Fairies: A Guide to the Celtic Fair Folk as introductory material on the matter.

Overall, I found the idea of the Gentry adapting to our own cultural landscape (see: the comments regarding aliens) most fascinating. This has sparked my further curiosity about the Gentry, and I’ll likely do some more research. 

I hope you enjoyed this short discussion of the Fair Folk. Yes, I still feel a bit intimidated by the Gentry, but c’mon! 

Everyone, even witches, ultimately get spooked sometimes... it’s not that weird to be afraid of fairies, is it? 

Is it?

#magick #witchblr #witchcraft #witch #faerie #fairies #fairy #faeries #aliens #otherkin #celtic paganism #paganism #occult #spirit work #spirits #gentry #the fair folk #eliza.txt #interview #book recommendation #book review #books #book

[flintsjohn]

LGBT+ BOOKS REC - part 1: Fiction

Alright so this is my very first book rec masterpost and I tried to fit all the information I can remember. I’ve started reading books with lgbt+ themes mainly in the last year and have found many of the titles in other recs so I’m sure that a lot of the books here are not new to anyone, but I’d like to share anyway! In bold are my personal favourites, and the authors with the * are (as far as I know) actually lgbt. If you’d like a peek of what’s on my tbr list here’s my goodreads! If you have more titles to share or recommend I’d love to hear about them! 

Aciman, A. – Call Me by Your Name (adult, m/m, contemporary)

bi mains

cw: underage relationship, cheating

Albertalli, B. / *Silvera, A. – What If It’s Us (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay mains

meet cute but a kinda bittersweet ending (bc Adam Silvera tbh)

Albertalli, B. – Simon Vs. The Homosapiens Agenda (ya, m/m, contemporary)

gay main, gay/black/jewish love interest, poc

simon is the definition of disaster gay and i love him

cw: homophobia, outing, blackmail

Albertalli, B. – Leah on the Offbeat (ya, f/f, contemporary) 

bi main, bi and black love interest

is part of the svtha ‘verse so the characters are the same!!

*Alire Sáenz, B. – Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay mains, both latinos

a sequel is in the works!!

cw: homophobia

*Baldwin, J. – Giovanni’s Room (adult, m/m)

gay main

cw: internalized homophobia, homophobia, misogyny

Bardugo, L. – Six of Crows duology (ya, fantasy) 

there’s a m/m relationship in the second book (gay and bi mains) and a gay side char (also basically everyone can be read as non-straight)

there’s also a LOT of diversity as in poc and disabled people so!! 

cw: ableism, violence, death

Barry, S. – Days Without End (adult, m/m, historical) 

alright so i,,, loved this book but also it was fucking hard to read because it’s basically written how irish people speak english?? so it’s not the easiest thing to read but it’s good!!!

cw: war, death, racism

*Danforth, E. – The Miseducation of Cameron Post (ya, f/f, contemporary) 

lesbian main, lgbt minor chars, poc 

cw: homophobia, conversion therapy, self-harm

*Forster, E. M. – Maurice (adult, m/m, historical)

this is an absolute classic and i love this gay ass book

Goslee, S.J. – Whatever (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

bi main and gay love interest 

cw: internalized homophobia, (brief) homophobia

Gregorio, I.W. – None of the Above (ya, f/m, contemporary) 

intersex main 

cw: homophobia, transphobia, depression

*Isherwood, C. – A Single Man (adult, m/m)

gay main

i found this a little hard to read bc i’m not usually one for highly introspective writing, but i’m still glad i read it!

Jenkins Reid, T. – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (adult, f/f and f/m, historical) 

bi latina main, lesbian love interest, gay minor char 

i started this book thinking it would be dumb and by the end i was crying my eyes out 

cw: homophobia, death, abusive relationship, cheating

*LaCour, N. – Everything Leads to You (ya, f/f, contemporary)

lesbian main

if i have to be honest i found this a little underwhelming considering all the praise i heard, but it’s still very cute!!

Lee, M. – The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (ya, m/m, historical) 

bi main, gay and biracial minor char 

this book is SO much fun honestly!!!

badass female character who’s the main in the sequel!!

cw: homopbhia, racism, child abuse, epilepsy

*Levithan, D. – Two Boys Kissing (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay and trans chars (it’s many different little stories that are somehow all connected)

*Levithan, D. – Boy Meets Boy (ya, m/m, contemporary)

gay main and minor chars, trans minor char

cw: homophobia, transphobia

Miller, M. – The Song of Achilles (adult, m/m, historical) 

listen i know yall know about this already but still,, probably one of my favourites ever.

cw: death

*Mitchell, S. (ed.) – All Out (ya, various, anthology) 

short stories, own-voices, various sexual/gender identities and genres

i loved every single one of these??? 

Nelson, J. – I’ll Give You the Sun (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay main (alternating pov)

this was so cute even though the character’s sexuality/relationship isn’t exactly central to the story!

*Ness, P. – Release (ya, m/m, contemporary/magical realism) 

gay main (adam is an icon and i love him)

this goes for every patrick ness book i ever read: i found it hard to follow the plot sometimes bc there are usually two different storylines going on at once and i can’t really connect them, but he has a way of writing characters that just sticks with me

cw: homophobia, sexual harassment

*Ness, P. – More Than This (ya, m/m, sci-fi) 

gay main 

cw: suicide, death, homophobia, outing

Ngan, N. - Girls of Paper and Fire (ya, f/f, fantasy)

lesbian main and love interest

the world is based on asian mythology/folklore!!

author’s working on the sequel!

cw: sex work, rape, slavery

Proulx, A. – Brokeback Mountain (adult, m/m, historical) 

short story

i saw the movie like a million times and i was still not ready for this 

cw: death, homophobia

*Renault, M. – The Last of the Wine (adult, m/m, historical) 

ancient greece setting!!! 

from what i gather this is not the gayest book you could possibly read by mary renault but it’s so good 

cw: death, violence, age difference

Rio, M. L. – If We Were Villains (adult, m/m, contemporary) 

3 gay/bi mains 

think the secret history but gayer and with shakespeare

i’m honestly still crying over this and the last few pages in particular killed me

cw: death, mentions of suicide, violence

*Russo, M. – If I Were Your Girl (ya, f/m, contemporary) 

trans main and bi minor char 

cw: suicide attempt, depression, transphobia, misgendering, rape attempt/mention, bullying, outing

Sharpe, T. – Far From You (ya, f/f, contemporary) 

bi main (lesbian love interest, she’s already dead when the story begins but it goes back and forth with flashbacks) 

cw: death, depression

*Silvera, A. – They Both Die at the End (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay and bi mains 

this goes for every single adam silvera book: i love them but i absolutely hate them bc they tear me apart every time

cw: death (duh)

*Silvera, A. – More Happy Than Not (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay main

cw: amnesia, suicide/suicide attempt, internalized homophobia

*Silvera, A. – History is All You Left Me (ya, m/m, contemporary) 

gay main and minor chars 

cw: death, depression, adhd, cheating

Soria, D. – Beneath the Citadel (ya, m/m, fantasy) 

bi, gay, ace mains (most are also poc) 

holy shit this was so good and i kinda,,, didnt expect it bc i had initially only picked it up bc of the cover (which is stunning btw)

cw: death, panic attacks.

*Talley, R. – Lies We Tell Ourselves (ya, f/f, historical) 

lesbian mains 

this was not an easy read by any means but by the end i think it was really worth it!!

cw: racism, homophobia

*Waters, S. – Tipping the Velvet (adult, f/f, historical fiction) 

lesbian mains

cw: homophobia, prostitution

(i only read this one by sarah waters so far but all her books are gay so be sure to check the others as well lol)

#lgbt #lgbt books rec #lgbt books #book rec #my stuff #pheww this is hard yall #i wanna comment on every book but my memory is shit and i remember half of them lmaoo #anyway they were mostly pretty good!! #pt 2 is coming right up btw #look at me citing mla style lmao

[loretranscripts]

Lore Episode 11: Black Stockings (Transcript) - 25th July 2015

tw: violence, death by fire, medical details, ableism, child abuse, torture, unsanitary procedures

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

Before we begin, I want to share something exciting with you. My newest novel, Grave Suspicion, is finally here. In fact, today is release day, and like every other type of release, the first day is always the most important. The novel is a supernatural thriller. If you like the unexplainable, the odd, and the mysterious then you’ll love this book. It’s available in paperback as well as a number of digital formats from eBook stores, and it would mean the world to me if you’d consider buying a copy today. You can go to amazon.com and search “Grave Suspicion Aaron Mahnke”, or visit aaronmahnke.com and find links to your other favourite formats. And thanks in advance for an incredible release day for this book, and know I couldn’t have done it without you. And now, on with the show.

Most of us have had the joy of being sick once or twice in our lives. It’s a part of the human experience, I suppose – we get sick, and then we get better. At least, that’s how its supposed to work. One thing I’m constantly thankful for is the fact that we live in such a modern, enlightened age of medicine. We no longer use urine as an antiseptic and we don’t diagnose illness based on our astrological signs, but that wasn’t always the case. Gone are the days of bleeding ourselves with leeches or trying to balance our humours to make sure our sanguine fluids aren’t overpowering our melancholic fluids, and I’m probably not the only one who’s happy that we no longer treat sick people with enemas administered with metal syringes filled with boar bile. Yes, bile from a boar. I could not make this stuff up. Our ancestors didn’t know why certain things happened, but they sure did their best their best to try. Stories were created, myths were told, and superstitions took root. All of them were designed to explain why things happened, and these reasons, even if they were pure fabrications, somehow helped people deal with the realities of life. Why was my child born deformed? Why did my husband’s personality change overnight? Why did my entire family die from a plague last year? These questions haunted people in ways we can’t understand today, and they grasped for anything that would help them cope. They found answers in their common folklore. Among the countless tales and stories told, there’s one superstition from Ireland that saw more usage than most. You see, when something didn’t seem right, when things went wrong, and people suffered, there was only one explanation in the minds of the Irish that covered it all: they blamed it on changelings. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

A changeling, according to the folklore of Europe, is a kind of fairy. Stories of them can be found in Germany, Ireland, England, Scandinavia, Spain, and many other European countries. In all those cultures, changelings have the same methodology: they are a substitute for a kidnapped human being. Either out of jealousy or great need, fairies were said to enter our world and make a trade without our knowledge. They would leave one of their own behind and return to the fairy realm, where the kidnapped human would live a happy, joyful life in paradise. We have a great summary of changelings thanks to the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. “They steal children”, he wrote, “and leave a withered fairy, 1000, or maybe 2000, years old instead. At times, full-grown men and women have been taken. Near the village of Colonie lives an old woman who was taken in her youth. When she came back, at the end of seven years, she had no toes, for she had danced them all off”. Changelings, according to the legends, can actually take one of three forms. The first is the kind Yeats wrote about: the senile and ancient fairy, who is disguised as a child. Another kind of changeling was an actual fairy child, and the third type was simply an inanimate object, such as a block of wood or a carved log. This third type is sometimes known as a “stock”. The logic, at least to someone in medieval Europe, was simple. If a child was born with birth defects, was sickly or ill-tempered, they were often thought to be the fairy substitute, left behind when their real child was taken from their home. If an adult went missing, or was later found mysteriously dead, people would often assume that the body was really a bundle of sticks that had merely been enchanted to resemble their loved one. Folklore blossomed on the subject. Wives’ tales and legend taught new generations how to spot a changeling, instantly providing them with both one more reason to fear every little change in a person’s life, but also some safety and hope that they could cling to.

Even the overall wellbeing of a family could hinge on these creatures. Changelings, you see, were said to drain all the luck away from a home, and by doing so, they would leave a family cursed to struggle with poverty and misfortune, all while trying to care for a child they saw as a curse more and more, every day. When the stories focused on men and women who had been swapped out for a fairy, the symptoms were more psychological in nature. Signs of an adult changeling included mood swings, becoming argumentative, and losing interest in friends and family. Changelings were said to have enormous appetites, eating everything they were given and then asking for more. It was said that if your infant preferred food from the larder rather than being nursed, there was a chance they weren’t really your child at all. While most changeling infants died in early childhood, those that survived were said to become dim-witted adults. Men and women who survived this long were sometimes called “uffa”, which is where we get the word “oaf”. Thankfully, though, there were ways to test people to see if they were, in fact, a changeling. One method involved putting a shoe in a bowl of soup. If the baby saw this and laughed, it was seen as proof that the child was a changeling. Another method involved making a tiny loaf of bread inside half an eggshell, again meant to make the fairy laugh. And once discovered, a fairy changeling could be driven from the house in a variety of ways, in which case the kidnapped human child or adult would be returned unharmed. One trick involved holding the suspected child over a fire, while another recommended forcing the suspect to drink tea brewed with foxglove, a poisonous flower. It was thought that as the person’s body expelled the toxin through vomiting and diarrhoea, the changeling would be forced to return to the fairy realm. It sounds crazy to think that people would believe such stories, even centuries ago. Surely no one actually performed these tests, or administered these treatments, especially to their own family, right? Unfortunately, history teaches us that desperate people are capable of just about anything.

In July of 1826, a woman named Anne Roche from Tralee, Country Kerry in South-West Ireland, was caring for a four-year-old boy named Michael Leahy. According to her own testimony, the boy was unable to walk, stand or speak. Convinced that he was, in fact, a fairy changeling, she bathed him in icy waters three times to force the fairy out. The boy drowned. She was tried by court, and they found her not guilty. In 1845, a woman suspected of being a changeling was placed in a large basket filled with wood shavings, and then hung over the kitchen fire until the contents of the basket ignited. In 1851, a man in Ireland literally roasted his child to death, because he believed the boy to be a fairy. Three children were suspected of being fairies in 1857 – they were bathed on a solution of foxglove, and then forced to drink it. Sometimes babies were left in or near bodies of water as a way of forcing the changelings to leave. In 1869, an exorcism was attempted by dipping a child three times in a lake in Ireland. Another woman actually left her infant on the shore of a lake, and walked away, expecting the fairies to come and make the swap. Thankfully, she returned later to reclaim her child. Sometimes neighbours stepped in when the parents of an obvious changeling would did nothing. In 1884, while the mother of three-year-old Philip Dillon was out of the house, Ellen Cushion and Anastasia Rourke snuck inside. Philip, you see, could not use his arms and legs, and these neighbours saw that as proof enough of his condition. One of the neighbours stripped the boy naked while the other stoked a fire. Then, when everything was ready, they placed him on a large shovel and held it over the flames. Little Philip survived, but he was severely burnt by the incident. We hate what we fear, you see, but rather than fade away as the 19th century moved on, the fears and superstitions around changelings only seemed to grow in Ireland, and as hard as it might be to believe, things were about to get worse.

In the late 19th century, one of the governing bodies in Ireland was the Board of Guardians in each district. They were tasked with dispensing public aid, and one of the ways they did that was by building labourer cottages, homes built to provide housing for rural agricultural workers. Many workers had lost their land in the recent famine, and this was one way of helping alleviate some of the homelessness and poverty that had become so common in the country. One cottage was constructed in Ballyvadlea, a small community of just nine homes and 31 people, in County Tipperary. The family who was awarded the cottage moved in, but there was a problem. It seems that the house had been built on a rath, a low, earthen ring, and while archaeologists know them to simply be remnants of an Iron Age fort, some of the Irish still thought of them as “fairy rings”, portals into another realm. After the family moved in, odd things began to happen. Cries in the night, noises that couldn’t be identified, and a feeling of dread. Almost as soon as the tenants had moved in, they were leaving. In their stead, the cottage was given to an old, retired labourer named Patrick Boland, who moved in with his adult daughter and her husband. His daughter, Bridget, was unusual. In 1895, it was the men who controlled the family, they were the breadwinner and sole provider. But even though her husband, Michael, did well as a cooper, someone who makes and repairs barrels, a business that has always done well in Ireland, Bridget wasn’t dependent on him. She had her own business making dresses and keeping hens, and the income from those jobs was more than enough to meet her needs. She was also said to be clever, flirtatious, and highly independent. You can imagine how she must have annoyed her husband and caught the ire of the neighbours, and then there were the rumours of the affair she was having with another man. Bridget Cleary was a self-made, self-possessed woman, and everyone else was bothered by that. I tell you all that because stories have layers. There’s the meaning you glean from the initial telling, and then there’s the rest of the story. The deeper you dive, the more things begin to make sense, and believe me when I tell you there’s a lot about this story that fails to make sense. On March 4th, 1895, Bridget left home on an errand. She had eggs to deliver to the house of her father’s cousin, Jack Donne. It was a short enough distance that she decided to walk, but the weather turned sour while she was out. She spent the next day in bed, complaining of a raging pain in her head. She had chills and shivered constantly. Donne came by the little college to visit a few days later and found Bridget still in bed. He took one look at her, and declared, “That’s not Bridget”. According to him, she was a changeling. Thankfully, no one believed him. Yet.

On March 9th, five days after Bridget’s walk in the cold, her father walked four miles to the nearest doctor and asked him to come help. Two days later, there was still no sign of the doctor, and so her husband, Michael, made the journey. After yet two more days of waiting, the doctor had still not come, and so Michael went again, this time making sure that he brought along the summons from the local health authority. While her husband was out looking for the doctor, the doctor arrived unexpectedly. He did his typical house call check-up, prescribed some medicine, and then left. Still frustrated, the family called upon a priest to come by and give her last rights, just in case. Things weren’t looking up for Bridget Cleary. This was March 13th, a full nine days since taking ill, and so later that evening neighbours and relatives gathered at the cottage to help administer fairy medicine in the form of herbs. Bridget refused the treatment, and they held a red-hot poker in her face until she complied. Things got worse the following day. Cousin Jack Donne had begun to spread word that Bridget had been taken by the fairies and replaced by a changeling. At his urging, a man named Denis Ganey was called to the house. Ganey was known in the community as a fairy doctor and was well-versed in treating cases such as these. His treatments wouldn’t necessarily fit into modern medical textbooks, mind you. They included the use of the hot poker, forcing the changeling to drink first milk from a cow that had just given birth, dousing the person in urine and exposing them to flames. Bridget was slapped and held in front of the fireplace, while her husband demanded that she state, before God and family, that she was indeed Bridget Cleary. Even though she answered yes, the gathered crowd didn’t believe her.

Now, before I continue, there’s something you need to understand about Michael Cleary’s state of mind. While his mother had died when he was young, his father had just passed away hours before. He and Bridget were childless, and they lived with her father in a spare room in the 19th century equivalent of public housing. His own wife was rumoured to be cheating on him, and she didn’t even need him to support her. Michael Cleary was adrift, he had come undone, and maybe that’s what drove him to the edge of sanity. The treatments continued late into the night. Friends and family began to ask to leave, but Michael was said to have yelled that no one was leaving until Bridget came home. He locked the door and placed the key in his pocket. If they could just get this right, he told them, if they could just drive the fairy out and be done with it, his Bridget would come home. Again, she was asked to declare her identity, and Bridget refused. Now, historians don’t know why. Maybe she was just afraid, maybe her independent, stubborn nature prevented her from handing over authority to her husband. Whatever the reason, her silence infuriated Michael. He stripped her to her undergarments and pushed her to the floor. “Come home Bridget, in the name of God”, someone was said to have cried as she lay near the fire. “She’s not my wife”, Michael replied, “you’ll soon see her go up the chimney”. And with that, he doused her with lamp oil, and grabbed a log from the burning fireplace, which he used to ignite the oil. Bridget Cleary burnt to death on the hearth of her own kitchen fireplace, in front of her husband and father, cousins and friends. She was 26 years old.

We haven’t always known as much about the world as we do now. Compared to the centuries before our own, we live in a veritable golden age of knowledge and understanding. Science has eradicated much of the ignorance that once plagued us, and while I’m a fan of mystery and unanswered questions, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Ignorance has been used as a justification for the barbaric, inhumane treatment of other people, to fuel our hatred of those who aren’t like us. That kind of fear often becomes the agent of a dark transformation. Under the influence of fear, humans have a history of mutation, of changing into something grotesque and dangerous. We become monsters. Fear drove Michael Cleary and the others to kill his wife - fear of illness and disease, of mental and medical mysteries, the fear of the loss that seems to be creeping ever closer to his household, and blinded by that fear, Michael Cleary lashed out with the only tool he had: superstition. In many ways, it’s beyond ironic that his fear turned him into someone else. In the end, perhaps, he was the changeling. After forcing one of Bridget’s cousins by knifepoint to help wrap her body in a sheet, he carried her to a nearby field, and buried her in a shallow grave. A short time later, some of the neighbours told the local priest that Bridget Cleary had gone missing. They said, in whispered tones, that it had been a fairy exorcism. When the priest found Michael Cleary praying in the church the next day, he brought up the man’s wife. “Is your wife alright?” the priest asked. “I heard she’d been sick”. “I had a very bad night, father”, Michael told him, a wild look in his eye. “When I woke up, my wife was gone. I think the fairies have taken her”. He was convinced she would return. He had plans to visit a nearby fairy ring and wait for her. She would arrive, he said, in a white gown on a pale horse, and he would cut her bindings with a blackened knife. His Bridget would come home. The priest, to his credit, didn’t believe a single word. He called the police, and a massive search was undertaken. On March 22nd, two constables found her body in the shallow grave her husband had dug just days before. She had been badly burnt, and lay in the foetal position, her knees against her chest, arms wrapped tightly around them. Because her face had escaped the fire, a cloth sack had been placed over her head. All that remained of the little clothing she had been wearing was a pair of black stockings. Bridget Cleary would never come home.

This episode of Lore was produced by me, Aaron Mahnke. You can learn more about me and this show over at lorepodcast.com, and be sure to follow along on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, @lorepodcast. This episode of Lore was made possible by you, the most thoughtful and knowledgeable listeners around. [Insert sponsor break]. Let me take a moment to say thank you. Because of you, Lore has been a runaway success, and truth be told, I couldn’t have done any of that without you, and I’m thankful to each and every one of you. Now, many of you have asked me to step it up and produce this show weekly, and I’ll be honest – I would love to do that. But to get there, I need your help. So, do this for me: visit my sponsor websites and sign up for their free trials, that helps so much in the long-term success of this show. Pitch in over at Patreon, leave an iTunes review, buy some of my novels, every little bit helps me get closer to being able to take Lore to a full-time, weekly schedule. You can find links and info on how to do all of that over at lorepodcast.com/support. As always, thanks for listening.

Notes

Literally no Celticist with any level of proficiency would use Yeats as a source for “Celtic mythology”.  

I can’t find any source for this word “uffa”, but the etymology of “oaf” apparently does trace back to the Old Norse alfr, meaning elf.

#lore podcast #podcasts #aaron mahnke #changelings #bridget cleary #fairies #ireland #folklore #transcripts #11

[askthetrad]

Your ask won't let me submit a question.

It says you’re from the East Coast of the States. WHat spirits do you “work” with(for lack of better term) and how did you come into contact? I ask because I live in Northern California and although I have Cherokee ancestry there are little references to local spirits save the wetlash and the tribal spirits are not ones of my Nation.Besides I’m mostly European.

[We’ll look into why it wouldn’t let you send an ask!]

Mother Mercy here, speaking as someone with tangential Cherokee heritage myself. I would not count myself as Cherokee unless you can name the ancestor in your bloodline who makes you so. This is the basic requirement to gain your tribal card. (Even with the ability to get my tribal card personally, I hesitate. I haven’t lived on a reservation. I don’t know the language. There is no current relationship with that heritage for me.) If you’re “mostly European,” and don’t or can’t trace that heritage with confidence, I’d say let it go. Regardless, pursuing a connection to Northern Californian spirits with Cherokee heritage is fruitless. The Cherokee Nation never lived so far west or north.

Father Farthing here! Mother Mercy covered the native blood part, which is something I have no experience with, so I’ll focus on the other. The spirits I work with – which, I personally would consider “work” to be an appropriate term, because our relationship is one that is based on reaching goals – are land spirits. These go by a variety of names, the most popular of which are genius locii and landvaettir. The latter is a Norse term, the former with Roman origins and more commonly used.

Each place is influenced deeply by its ecology, environment, and history – both human and natural, and these shape and give character and form to the spirits that inhabit and oversee them. They are everywhere, in every city and every field and every biome. A land spirit may be that of a forest or of a single city block, and are tied to an animistic perspective of the world. Just as each stone, book, card, and home has a spirit, so does every place.

I’ll be publishing a post on calling and courting spirits in my practice sometime soon, as my work allows, but the shorter version is two-fold. 

First, I have (and you have) always been in contact with land spirits by virtue of living, working, sleeping, and interacting with the places you do on a day to day basis. You share the same home. You have never truly been alone.

Second, to call and formally meet for the very first time, I had spent a great deal of time researching and reading texts on spirits and in particular familiar spirits. I purchased a small jar of local honey and some full fat milk and mixed a portion of the former into the latter. I chose my place, with the spirit I felt closest to from my affection for the area and for my learning and understanding of it and its seasons and processes, and I sat in a place where water met land and sky.

 I poured half of the mixture to the earth and offered it, and sipped the other half myself, a sharing and a savoring. I fell into a trance state after a couple of attempts at meditation, watching the ripples on the water, until I felt the spirit come. A pressure that welled up, and shadows across my mind’s eye, and an unmistakable presence. I greeted it, and I claimed kinship with it and I bound it by things we shared and things we did not share. 

I asked it for three gifts and I made it three promises.

I also shared and gave away a piece of my soul for a piece of its own. I tell you this as a cautionary point. Land spirits are not so easily researched and read as Goetic ones, and some would argue that they are not so strong. I personally disagree, based on my experiences. I would warn those who seek land spirits that while they can offer great gifts, it must always be remembered that they are and will always be first and foremost of their land. 

They are wild. Some are more human in mannerism than others; some are more curious or more bold or more apparently friendly; some are malicious. I do not regret the deal I made with my devil, but it has had consequences and continues to have consequences sometimes when I least expect them. I was significantly younger, and more foolish. I am still humbled by the things I did not and do not yet know, so I tell you this: be bold and seek them out if you wish! Bring milk, and honey, and eggs, and apples, and sweet things or fresh meat or strong drink – coffee, tea, or liquor dependent upon the spirit in question – or smokes. Ask and receive. But take care to know what exactly you have traded away for your power and your sovereignty, and learn how to manage the consequence. 

I currently work with two land spirits, primarily. One presides over my bioregion, and the other is sunken deep in a very human place near my home, seeped into the earth and pervading the air and pounded in by the intensity of human life during World War 2.  They are very different creatures. Others I have met and greeted and started and been startled by on my travels and around my home, and we pass amicably or one of us respectfully keeps our head down. The world is wide and deep and rich, and I love it. Find your ancestral roots if you wish, and learn about the ways that they went about interacting with spirits – look to the myths and legends and little scraps of folklore and idiom that you have lived with and never thought twice about! Or grab a book or three and see how people you don’t know have done it, and dare to try.

Fair fortunes.

Mother Mercy here again. I just realized I’ve been sitting on this for a while like a derp. Sorry about that!

As for me, I’ve had great experiences with the Irish pantheon. But when I worked in Ireland, the deities that were loudest there were Norse gods. (I was in Dublin most days, so that made sense.) That experience illustrates an interesting point. You’re so used to the gods and spirits that already walk your world, you probably aren’t even noticing them. Open up your mind to what the sensation would be for you if you were able to look up and see writing in the tree branches. Don’t assume that everything will be loud and flash. You’ll know in your bones when you’ve made a connection. There is no denying it.

As for me now, I’m slowly building a good flow with the Black Man (or Man o’ Black, as I prefer to call him), the local devil around my neck of the woods. I definitely work more with historically attested gods and spirits right now, because of where I am in my research and practice. 

Not to plug books, but I’ve seen good reviews coming down the pike for Besom, Stang and Sword, which hopefully will speak to your plight. 

Best of luck!

#traditional witchcraft #genius locii #submission

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 345: Challenge of the Five Realms: Spellbound in the World of Nhagardia (1992)

If you count the subtitle, I think this is the longest title so far.

         Challenge of the Five Realms: Spellbound in the World of Nhagardia

United States

MicroProse (developer and publisher, under its Microplay label) 

Released 1992 for DOS

Date Started: 2 November 2019

I’ve been looking forward to Challenge of the Five Realms for a couple of years. The team behind it, working at Paragon Software, had been responsible for the 1990-1991 spate of licensed Games Designers’ Workshop (GDW) disasters, including the two MegaTraveller games, Space 1889, and Twilight: 2000. Each of the games had its qualities, but in general, the sense was that Paragon had taken on too much too fast. The games’ poor reviews and sales led to the collapse of Paragon and its purchase by MicroProse in 1992. Now, the team, working for more competent managers, was free to develop a game without any GDW restrictions. Would it be better or worse? I’ve been anxious to find out.

It takes a while to get into Challenge. It begins with a long, unintentionally hilarious, animated opening sequence with fully-voiced dialogue, the second 1992 game to do so (after Ultima Underworld). It accompanies a long backstory in the game manual. The two don’t fully gibe with each other, but I’ll do my best to summarize below. First, we get a female voice on a black screen welcoming us to the kingdom of Alonia, one of the titular five realms, “where folklore and myth are a way of life.”             

I know this isn’t the only flat world we’re going to see this year.

            We have a brief glimpse of Nhagardia, a flat, oval world. Because it’s flat and does not rotate, the parts that support life have always known eternal sun. This revelation sent me off on a bit of Googling. I have a basic understanding of why planets are naturally spheres due to the way their formed by aggregating rotating collections of matter. I also understand how gravity favors orbs and thus works over time to turn any shape into a roughly-spherical one. What I wondered–and still wonder, since I couldn’t find enough discuss on the topic to satisfy me–was whether the slow process of gravity pulling a large amalgamation of matter into a sphere necessarily outpaced the same processes that give the same body an atmosphere and the conditions necessary for life. That is, if some weird freak of accident did result in a flat-ish “planet” (I realize the definition of “planet” presupposes a sphere, but you know what I mean) in stable orbit around a sun, would it be possible for such an object to trap an atmosphere and create complex life before the natural tendencies of gravity made a sphere out of it? How would gravity even work on such an object? Could an atmosphere truly exist? 

Discussion welcome, but back to the game. We move from planet level to Castle Ballytogue, which must be based on Ballyutogue from Leon Uris’s Trinity. It is the year 1000 “A.S.” The pompous King Clesodor is haranguing his advisors for not allocating enough funds to the New Year’s celebration. “I want this to be the greatest celebration in Alonia’s history,” he demands. The manual doesn’t have any credits for the voice actors, but I’d swear that Clesodor is voiced by Maurice LaMarche, testing out a precursor to “The Brain” voice that he’d bring to Animaniacs the following year.              

Clesodor meets with his advisors.

             Clesodor takes some time out from his party planning to yell at his son, the Prince, for idly reading a book. “I swear, the boy is just like his mother. Witches and seers and myths. What kind of king will you make if all you care about are mindless stories? A king is a ruler, not a dreamer!” The first bit about the mother is all the more harsh if you’ve read the backstory and learned that Clesodor’s wife, Queen Feya, is in fact dead, killed in a tragic accident at “the cliffs of Mahor.”

(I had to take a break from the game at this point to call Patrick, the British friend that I’ve talked about before. Back in 2007, we were traveling along the west coast of Ireland. He happened to mention that the last time he was there, a few years prior, he’d heard on the news that a British tourist had been killed while falling from the Cliffs of Moher. The same night, we got into Galway, checked into a hotel, turned on the TV, and immediately caught the opening headline from the local newswoman: “Tragedy in County Clare today as a young man fell to his death from the Cliffs of Moher.” Ever since then, we have this ongoing joke that every Irish television news broadcast begins with a report of yet another death at the Cliffs of Moher. Maybe you had to be there.)               

The idle prince idles.

          The perspective now shifts to the Prince, a complete milquetoast, who is reading a picture book that should be far below his age. It’s called The Legend of Nhagardia. Recently, the Prince, worried for his father’s health, had followed from the castle a mysterious stranger who had met with his father in private. The stranger turned out to be an ex-sorcerer named Shiliko who had been summoned to help stop the king’s recurring nightmares. Unable to do anything, Shiliko had cast a placebo spell. When confronted by the Prince, Shiliko gave the boy the book.

The book tells the story of an ancient emperor named Shamar who, seeing that the end of his life was near, set off on a quest to extend it. Before disappearing, he divided his crown and power among his five territories. Alonia, the terrestrial realm, was given to King Adama. The elf Sandro took over Fraywood, the forest realm. Oberus ascended to rule the skies in Aerius. Lorelei, the (curiously male) king of Thalassy, took over the ocean. And inside the depths of the world, the gnome Kyke became the ruler of Alveola. Over time, the portals between realms closed and the rulers lost contact with each other. Clesodor is presumably a descendant of Adama.            

The original must have been huge.

               Suddenly, there’s a disturbance by the window and a fearsome apparition appears. The cloaked, scaly, black-skinned creature introduces himself as Grimnoth. “Though I come to you now as a mere apparition, heed my warning,” he says. “I will return to your world on New Year’s Day and claim power over your kingdom. You will surrender your crown to me on that day.” He continues by warning Clesodor that even in his “astral form,” he can destroy him.           

The kingdom is menaced by Xusia.

           Clesodor of course mouths off to Grimnoth, so Grimnoth extends his hand and vaporizes Clesodor and his advisors with a ray of light.            

Grimnoth’s spell destroys two courtesans before it reaches the king.

         “Nooooooooooooo,” the Prince shouts.             

“Do not want!”

            Addressing the Prince, Grimnoth says that he’s put a plague of darkness on the world, and if the Prince brings the crown to him at Castle Thiris on New Year’s Day, he’ll lift the darkness. This seems a little unfair. Before he killed Clesodor, Grimnoth was prepared to return to the castle to collect the crown. Now he’s making the Prince trek hundreds of miles to bring it to him. Thiris is in the center of the world, the seat of the former Emperor Shamar, now abandoned and monster-ridden.

The Prince vows to avenge his father and begins by ransacking his mother’s belongings, finding among them a reference to a witch named Cagliostra, who Clesodor had banished. “Father, I know you thought I was a dreamer, but I’ll avenge your death. I’ll make you proud!” the Prince declares, just before a hand appears from off-screen, and someone clocks the Prince over the head with a mace, knocking him unconscious.          

This just isn’t his day.

           Paragon’s titles had all featured a MegaTraveller-inspired character creation process by which each character went through a career in a military branch or profession (or both) which shaped his or her skills and abilities. Since the protagonist of Challenge–the Prince–has more of a fixed background, I didn’t expect the character creation process to be quite the same. It isn’t. Instead, the game feeds you a number of situational questions and asks how you’d react to them.              

One of many, many questions in character generation.

            This is often described as Ultima IV-style character creation, but it’s not. Ultima IV‘s scenarios were about pitting one virtue against another to help determine what virtue primarily guided your moral compass. Challenge‘s questions are more about pitting various skills and abilities against each other, ultimately determining if you’re more of a fighter, mage, diplomat, or thief–or a balance among them. I lost track of how many questions the game asks–I think it is in the ballpark of one hundred thousand–but it later struck me that the “quick” option, which just rolls random numbers for your attributes and abilities, performs just as well.

There aren’t that many skills, making me hope that unlike the GDW games, this one actually uses all of them. “Stealth,” “Crime,” and “Fly” were all set to 0 when I started (the lowest score I got was otherwise 20), so perhaps it doesn’t use those.          

The game’s attributes and skills. The Prince takes a level in badass in his portrait.

          The game finally begins when the Prince wakes up in his mother’s bedchamber, head throbbing, bereft of equipment or supplies, including the crown that he’s supposed to bring to Grimnoth. He soon runs into Hastings, the dead king’s seneschal, in the next room. Hastings explains that when the king was killed, his knights looted the castle and fled with its riches to Duke Gormond of Vinazia, who despises me. Rumors are already spreading that the Prince killed his father. Hastings recommends that I forget about Cagliostra, but if I’m determined to seek her out, her old friend Sir Oldcastle hangs around the Boar’s Head Tavern. Hastings stays to guard the castle after giving the Prince a key to a chest.                       

Encountering my first NPC.

           Challenge‘s interface is axonometric with continuous movement and real-time events. A row of icons offers party options, disk options, navigation options, spell options, combat options, and speech options. Of the developers’ previous titles, it most recalls Space 1889, but with some elements tossed in from other games. For instance, if you’re trying to speak to a moving NPC, you can use the “Hail” option to get him to stop; this is from MegaTraveller 2. Most commands have redundant keyboard backups except (annoyingly) movement, which has to be done with the mouse. One key I’m using a lot is (P)ause, every time I stop to blog or something, because commenters have warned me that the game has a time limit. “Ridiculously short” is how one described it.

I naturally started exploring the castle. As Hastings said, most of the court had fled. Sir Feldoth and Sir Elault still guarded the ramparts. Imrid the Manservant was wandering the lower halls and begged me to just give Gormond the crown. A couple more servants, Horric and Horville, were in the basement. Horric told me that a thief carried of a chest with the queen’s insignia on the lid. Dialogue so far has been entirely scripted, with the Prince (or I guess, King) responding to questions on his own.           

“I do not know, but you will die for your failure!” is an option a really good RPG would have given me.

              Finally, in one room, I found a broadsword, axe, long bow, rapier, and arrows. You basically have to hover your mouse over all objects that you think you might be able to pick up. As far as I can tell, chests and wardrobes and such are just decorations, as there is no command to open them and (F)ind never seems to do anything.         

Finding some weapons at last.

           In the kitchens, Wilagon Blacklost gave me the Holy Book of Equus, which has a spell called “Truth.” I tried to learn it, but the game told me that I wasted half a day and failed. I tried again, and it told me that I destroyed the book. I reloaded and figured I’d save that for later. The kitchens also had a variety of spell components and food.

Outside the castle, some flowers and other objects joined my list of spell components. A rough character at the end of the drawbridge offered to give me a hint for 100 gold pieces. Since I started with 1,000, I paid him. He said that there are a couple of loudmouths at the local tavern who claim to have stolen the queen’s treasure chest.

I continued exploring the castle outskirts. In one shop, a man offered to sell me spells for small fees. Almost every one I chose required components that neither he nor I had, except for “Warding Spell,” “Open Lock,” “Lightning Bolt,” “Inner Noise,” and “Slow.” Paying the man didn’t actually get me the spells–just books that give me a chance of learning them.             

Some of the spell shop selections.

        Elsewhere, I found a  healer, a pawn shop, a weapon shop, a food store, an armor shop, and a tavern. At the tavern, I bought some chainmail and equipped it. The inventory system seems needlessly complex. From your character screen, you can go to “inventory” (which never seems to have anything) and separate buttons for your pouch inventory, your backpack inventory, and your chest inventory (you start with no chest). But you can also go to “garb,” a screen with a paperdoll of the character, which also has links to inventory, pouch inventory, backpack inventory, and chest inventory. Spell components seem to show up in none of those places.            

Part of the confusing inventory system.

          In the tavern, I met Sir John Oldcastle and several of his friends. Oldcastle had been a skilled swordsman, but he was banished by King Clesodor for drunkenness. He is clearly based on Shakespeare’s Falstaff, although a bit more competent. I tried to enlist him into my cause, but he mocked me by calling me “Miss P.” and said that he doubted I’d be able to stand up to Duke Gormond. He agreed to join me and help me find Cagliostra if I would bring him the Widow Frazetti’s fabled jeweled brooch.             

The tavern from the outside is a nice looking building.

          As I explored, it became clear that several houses had been looted in the chaos following the king’s death, including Frazetti’s. I ultimately tracked down the bandits, the Hammerhand brothers, to a bar in the western part of the map. They were drunk, which made the subsequent combat a little easier.             

An NPC shows a shocking lack of respect for the king and his neighbors.

           Combat appears to take place in several phases and draws heavily from the MegaTraveller system. In the first phase you place your party members on the combat map, which is the same as the regular map without the surrounding command interface. Once combat begins, you issue orders for each character–target a particular enemy, cast a spell, defend an area, or move–and then unpause the game. Characters act on their own until you pause again and issue new orders.            

The game has me fight the second Hammerhand brother as the first lies dead above me.

           In short order, I killed the brothers and looted their bodies for my mother’s chest, the Frazetti brooch, and a bracelet that they pillaged from another NPC. I returned the brooch to Oldcastle, who joined me, but it occurred to me that I should have tried returning it to the Frazettis first.

I also found the house of the wizard Shiliko. He had hung himself. A note nearby indicated that he blamed himself for the appearance of Grimnoth and all the chaos that followed, but it didn’t explain his reasoning.              

Shiliko’s hut, with Shiliko hanging in the upper-left.

       At this point, I think I’ve exhausted exploring the castle. Judging by the world map, there are a couple of other cities in Alonia to visit, and then the other realms. Oldcastle said that we’d find clues for Cagliostra in the city of Farinor, so I suppose that’s where I’ll go next.             

Oldcastle insultingly joins the party.

         It’s been a relatively promising start. Although aspects of the animated sequence were a little goofy, the backstory is strong. The interface is a little clunky but not overly so. I like that we’re already seeing side-quests–one of the few things that Paragon did well in its previous titles. Dialogue is verbose enough to actually give characterizations to the NPCs, but I wish there were more options from the PC’s side. Overall, I look forward to my next session and seeing how the game develops.

Time so far: 3 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-345-challenge-of-the-five-realms-spellbound-in-the-world-of-nhagardia-1992/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost