Contemporary Art Week!

Seamus Gallagher

Wheel of Time Official and Unofficial Art

I think a lot of fans of Epic or High Fantasy tend to have a series that’s “their” series…the one the ends up setting the bar for the rest of their fandom adventures. For me, it was always Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. I read the first book, The Eye of the World, sometime in 1991 and that was pretty much it for me. 

Although it has plenty of flaws, it stands apart from a  lot of medieval fantasy settings in that it’s a loosely medieval-ish world, not an endless Europe that goes on and on for thousands of miles. There are very specific nations and cultures at work in the main setting continent (as well as the “other” continent), and there are also in-universe races and cultures associated with nations, with aspects of various  historical world fashions, social mores, myths, and even bric-a-brac chosen from a world setting, rather than creating a dichotomy of red-haired white people versus blonde-haired white people and other common fantasy tropes.

Although many of the characters can be read ambiguously in regard to appearance, Gallagher’s character designs are among my favorites, and generally faithful to the text descriptions.

medievalpoc giving props to Wheel of Time!!!

Awesome!

Nothing brings me more joy and great sorrow than thinking about the Ta’veren boys as kids.

The games they’d play

How they officially became friends

They’re favorite childhood foods

Their excitement for different feast days and the dancing and celebrations that came with them

Talking about their futures and what they want to be when they grew up

Childhood fears

Sleepovers and talks about eachothers crushes, what girls they thought liked them

Did they make friendship bracelets and get upset when they finally broke?

The gifts they gave eachother for feast days and name days

The Firework Incident

Believing that no matter what, no matter who you choose to be you know that there’s at least two people who will always have your back

I often think about how scary it must of been for all them. Feeling like they couldn’t rely on eachother anymore. That they had to keep secrets from eachother because the other two Couldn’t understand what they were going through. Do you think before they left home there was ever a time where they kept secrets from eachother, that there was any moment they didn’t wholeheartedly believe that the other other two would follow them to shaol ghoul and back.

And isn’t it just so bittersweet that at the end of it all, despite how much they’ve changed and grown apart, that at the end of world they really did follow eachother to pits of Shaol Ghoul.

WOT-Issue 2 Cover by ChaseConley

*Permission to re-post has been received from the artist

Each faceless Seanchan Egwene killed was represented in her mind's eye as Rinna. Egwene stood in the gap gaping in the wall of the Tower. The wind ruffled her white dress, grabbed her hair, howled in time with her anger.

She was the embodiment of the Power, drawn from the depths of the fluted rod in her hands and channeled through the group of acolytes and Accepted connected to her in the Circle, who were hiding in the next room. Egwene herself was part of the fire that raged in the Tower, painting the sky with bloody flashes and smoky the air with acrid smoke. She now felt not like a person of flesh and blood, but like a pure Power, passing judgment on those who dared to start a war in the heart of the Tower itself. Lightning bolts struck from the sky, shaking the clouds. Streams of flame flew from her hands.

WOT REREAD № 77

LEIGH BUTLER

THE FIRES OF HEAVEN

For my big sadness this is the last bit of Leigh Butler’s fantastic project.

“At the time I wrote the original commentary, I was wavering between whether to headdesk at Galad’s decision to become a Whitecloak, or cheer that it led him to being able to execute his mother’s rapist in KOD, but I didn’t really consider the ramifications of it beyond that.

Now that the whole story is complete, of course, it’s extremely obvious how necessary it was for someone from the non-insane Light side of things to gain control of one of the larger military forces in Randland before the Last Battle. Granted, awarding the title of “non-insane Light side” to Galad is maybe stretching things a bit, but then I suppose sending someone totally rational to take control of a bunch of militant fanatics probably wouldn’t have worked out all that well anyway.

My point being, my total indignance at Galad’s Whitecloak-izing was pretty firmly misplaced, in retrospect. Galad was placed exactly where he needed to be to do the most amount of good he could, and it was obviously something Jordan had had planned from the moment we first met the character back in TEOTW. Cool, huh?”

— Randland anti-piracy warning (via the-last-punbender)

—

RJ’s notes; via Terez

No Fucking Unicorns.

(via elan-morin-tedronai)

I think about Moghedian being alive and stuck in Seanchen as a damane often. The obvious answer to what she gets up to after tarmangedon is Vengeance, obviously. HOWEVER the far funnier alternative is Moghedian getting forcibly redeemed through the sheer power of Mat Cauthon’s charm and pretty smile. There’s only so long a person can spend in Mat’s presence before they unconsciously become willing to die for him and channelers are famously weak to that smile of his. Bonus points if Moghedian knows who Mat is and this starts with a looneytoons esque attempts on his life while he slowly erodes her will to kill him, all while blissfully unaware of the forsaken he’s befriending

"all while blissfully unaware of the forsaken he's befriending"

Perfection

WOT HUMOUR № 24

TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT SPOILERS!

A Memory of Light Chapter. 12: Into the Tower by Paetram

(written before publishing the book)

Mat: This is it guys. A bloody Aes Sedai needs rescuing, and we’re the poor fools who are supposed to do it. Thom, if you would do the knife thing, we can begin getting ourselves killed. Thom: [carves an imaginary door in the featureless Tower] Mat: That was neat. Now, let’s go. [enters the Tower of Ghenjei] This isn’t what I was expecting. [looks around at various doorways with signs over them] Thom, Noal, what do those bloody signs say. Thom: They have the look of places about them. Noal: Where under the Light is “Middle Earth”, or “Malazon”. I’ve been to many places, but never have I heard of a “Westeros”. Mat: What about that sign over there? Noal: It reads “Moiraine here. No danger.” Mat: That saves us a lot of trouble. Let’s go… Thom: Uh, Mat, this doesn’t seem safe for some reason… Mat: I guess you’re right. Well, Middle Earth sounds warm and fuzzy–let’s try that one. [walks through the doorway and finds himself in a village full of busy small rustic people] Thom: [speaks to one of the little folk] Have you seen a small woman, about this high, pass through here recently? Hobbit: [gives Thom a strange look] 

JordanCon 2015 Costume Contest part 4

Brown Aes Sedai

Andoran noble

Asha'man

Min

Elayne and Nynaeve

Asha'man 2

Anath

Photos by Mashiara Sedai

 JordanCon 2015 Costume Contest part 3

Aelfinn and Eelfinn

Mat’s dice

Asha'man

Perrin

Shallan and Kaladin

Moiraine

Dena

Mat “I’m not a bloody Lady” Cauthon

Alternate dimension Moiraine and Egwene

Photos by Mashiara Sedai

JordanCon 2015 Costume Contest part 2

Third Place  - Female Trolloc.

  Second Place - Moiraine Damodred.

First Place - Paul Bielaczyc as the Ice King (from Adventure Time).

Photos by Mashiara Sedai.

Jordancon 2015 costume contest.

JordanCon 2014 Part 5!