The Great Thing About Medieval Literature Is That It Returns Us To A Time When Men Were Men And Women

WtW Character Event | Day 3, Representation

Redwood Witch, Branwen [She/They]

Once a child overflowing with volatile magic, now a witchling no longer, scars run through her soul; even the unbreakable constitution of a Redwood proved not enough to withstand the power that swelled inside her.

Black | Disabled | Chronic Pain | Amputee | Aroace | ADHD

The one and only MC of my (yet to be named) WIP! Disability is one of the main themes tackled in this one and how it intersects with other things.

A little backstory :

Branwen belongs to the Redwood Witch family, a crest renowned for their resilience and vigour - born with magic unbelievably potent and overflowing. The problem: it was far too great for her body to withstand.

The cost of liberating the swelling power: most of Branwen's left arm, and a not so small portion of her soul left scarred.

The lurid golden light cracked from her skin, pressure pooled into one area to spare the rest of her. A magic so bright and hot it approached divinity - the parts it touched incinerated to their barest components. Few things can leave scars on souls, and this was among them.

What was burnt away by the deluge of magic couldn't merely be healed with magic: the associated soul and essence was gone for the injuries, rendering such spells inept. Like her crest's namesake, however, Branwen persevered.

Something lingered, though, growing as years went by: a self-wrought curse. Souls are constructed from an essence; under normal circumstances it stays confined to that structure. The parts of Branwen's soul that broke down to their building blocks latched onto the expelled energy. It was barely a concept, at first. Yet the more it tangled over time the knot grew, until a curse was born.

"Cursed by the very power that constitutes you? You witches really are a ruckus"

Branwen's disability is comprised of a lot of different factors, augmented and added to by her curse, and also the cultural implications for both in setting. It's really interesting to explore disability in a fantasy setting for me and how it's navigated.

One of my fav OCs and you'll be seeing a lot more about them down the line !!!

Lab Grown Angel

[Print]

The Kelpie Pond✨️ Jaimie Whitbread

submissive in the way a livestock guardian dog is submissive to the sheep it kills wolves for

a lil illustration of Illumi Zoldyck. So funny to draw a canon transphobe as a trans person xd

—Maria Michela Sassi, "Can we hope to understand how the Greeks saw their world?" (pub. Aeon) [ID in ALT]

No one wants to work anymore. All kids these days want is to physically transform into animals. Bones cracking, breaking, splintering apart, stitching together into exhilaratingly new shapes. Hair, all kinds hair, various fluids and oils and whatnot. Ragged-lip maws dripping with alien teeth, crowning in teething agony like the birth of an infant god. Gore-streaked visages howling in pagan delight by the pale light of the moon, etc. No work ethic. He who makes a beast of himself takes away the pain of clocking in tomorrow

There are a lot of great “Gale Approves” moments in the game, but I think my favorite might be one of the earliest (or possibly the very first?) one you can get.

It happens right after you ask him about himself and he gives you his “cat, wine, library” dialogue, ending with “didn’t that paint enough of a picture?”

If you press further by trying to peer into his mind via the tadpole and you succeed, you’ll only get a glimpse before he angrily shuts you out, and you’ll earn his disapproval:

He’s pissed, and rightly so.

However! In the next dialogue, if you tell him curiosity made you do it, he not only immediately forgives you, he ALSO gives you approval for it (thereby canceling out his prior disapproval):

I love this interaction for two reasons:

First, because it instantly tells you everything you need to know about Gale—he’s reserved until he gets to know you, he’s curious with a hint of mischief, and he’s very sweet and forgiving.

And second, because the whole interaction can be summed up as:

Gale: How dare you?!

Tav: Sorry, I’m a total nebshit.

Gale: OH! 😃👍 same

Hello fictional man, you badly need therapy. Unfortunately, what I'll be giving you instead is men and more feelings.

Unicorns don’t seem to have many speculations regarding the afterlife, and certainly the concept of spooks and vengeful spirits would seem foreign to such laid-back creatures - but of the softer kinds of hauntings, one wonders. With such a strong love of herd and home shown in life, might they not wish to watch over those things even after they’re gone?