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Yuletide 2024 Letter
Oct. 18th, 2024 01:16 pmHi Yuletider,
I put a letter-link in my sign-up this year because I was rushed, and felt that I didn't do justice to my requested fandoms, especially the first two. But unfortunately, this letter will not be a magnum opus either.
Fandom #1: The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy - Avram Davidson
Characters: Worldbuilding
Here's the post I made on the Fandom Promo Post, with links to most of the Eszterhazy stories. Unfortunately, all the links go to Internet Archive, which is still down at time of posting. Apart from physical copies from a physical library, the anthology The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy is available on Kindle Unlimited on Amazon (boo hiss, but needs must).
I admit that my main thought about this canon is "I just want more!" I love the depth of detail and the vast range of things that get incorporated into the Triune Monarchy, and the affectionate humor with which Davidson treats it all, and I would love to see a Scythian-Pannonian-Transbalkanian take on any 19th or turn of the century bit of pseudo-science or cutting-edge technology or folkloric interest or philology, with or without Eszterhazy's involvement. Describe a monument, or a bit of lore about some bridge or building in the city of Bella! What kind of ghost-stories do they tell in such-and-such a province? What do the first Scythian-Pannonian-Transbalkanian moving pictures look like?
Alternatively: Bella/the lands of the Triune Empire in any previous historical period: we know a little bit about Napoleon and the Ottomans, but what about the medieval city? The Roman era? How did Bella relate to Byzantium at the height of the latter's power? What versions of or additions to the Charlemagne legend are told there? What rumblings happened in 1840, and what were/are the student liberalisation movements like? What's the history of the Grand Synagogue?
For this request, I'm particularly open to documentary and epistolary formats, the weirder the better: Guide book! Travelogues! Treatises! Imperial petitions! Patent applications! Newspaper articles! An opera libretto! Cringily patriotic panegyrical poetry! Anything else!
Weird Ruritanitn Crossover Prompts (if you happen to be interested in either of the following Ruritanian canons, I think it could be fun to throw characters from them into the Triune Empire for a visit, or something!):
Alpennia: setting-wise, there's a 70-80 year gap between these canons, actually think Alpennian-style theological magic would work really well in a fusion with Eszterhazy stories. Antuniet visiting 1820s Bella in search of alchemical secrets, for example! Or Marguerite and Barbara traveling in pursuit of some manuscript! Or, in Eszterhazy's time, the good doctor tangles with a Mystery woven into the fabric and history of Bella.
The Lost Prince: Marco and the Rat bring the Sign to Bella!
DNWS: sexual relationships with people < 16 in; death or lasting and severe physical or mental harm to major characters in your story other than what happens or is implied to have happened in canon; Nazis; the Holocaust; a focus on historical wars, genocide, and other occasions of mass death, destruction, and suffering that post-date the setting of the original stories: i.e. if you are writing a story set in the 20th century "future" of Transbalkania, please don't make it about the bombing of Bella in WWII, or the brutal Soviet repression of an abortive revolution in the 1960s; but references in passing to how the lands of the Triune Empire of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania intersected with 20th century history are ok.
Fandom #2: The Game and the Candle - Eleanor M. Ingram
Characters requested: John Allard, Feodor Stanief
I just love these two guys and their true love and perfect understanding for each other. For me, their relationship hits in some perfectly iddy combination of hierarchical loyalty and mutual trust and friendship: I'm really into the way that the formalities of their relationship and the difference in rank are always present between them but also don't determine their relationship. I'm so here for the way titles and service are Allard's way of expressing love, and for Stanief's possessive protective care of "his" John.
Shipping note: As will be clear, I ship Stanief/Allard really hard, with or without explicit sexual or even romantic content! Really, I will love anything you want to write about these guys! On the other hand, I don’t have a strong opinion about how Iría fits into their sexual/romantic relationship(s): I can buy either a version where she and Stanief have an absolutely platonic marriage (maybe she and Marya have a romantic thing going on), or a version where the three of them end up in an OT3! I find Theodora less interesting, and would just as soon not read about her, but if you want to write her in somehow, that's fine, too.
Worldbuilding/setting note: since I talk so much about historical/fake-historical detail and/or "worldbuilding" in my prompts for the other two fandoms I'm requesting, I just wanted to note here that for The Game and the Candle, I'm not especially interested in fleshing out the details of fake!Russian history or society. If there's something that you're really interested in, by all means go for it, but I'm really happy with the vagueness and broad strokes of the novel
Some ideas:
The weeks on Stanief’s yacht: I’m so curious about the process of falling back into into easy intimacy and friendship after the gap of five years and now under their real identities. What would the sex be like? But also, what does it look like from the the outside, and how does it change Stanief, to have Allard with him? Stanief says that he’s never had a friend, so what do his people think when suddenly he introduces this friend of apparently very long standing, towards whom he’s so openly affectionate? Vasili or one of the servants’ perspectives could be very fun.
Allard and Stanief have to deal with some kind of plotty intrigue or scheming! The very brief moment where they “yes and” each other to the prison warden to mislead him about the rain coat is so good—I’d love for them to have to work together like that in some other intrigue. Maybe there’s a traitor in Stanief’s household that Allard has to help unmask (who is responsible for hiring all of these assassins planted by Dalmorov, anyway?), or in Adrian’s household, and Allard has to play his part without alerting Adrian to what is going on.
A canon-divergence where Adrian does send Stanief away to his distant estate, and he and Allard and Iría have to figure out how to make a life and happiness there. I'm quite interested in an h/c scenario where Stanief is crushed by what he perceives as his failure, and Allard helps him through it.
Post-coronation vacation/release/reunion: Stanief and Allard have both, in different ways, had a hellish three years of increasing tension and anxiety and inner turmoil (for Stanief, it's the culmination of anxiety and stress that he's been holding his entire life!), and they haven't even been able to spend that much time together, what with John 24/7 in attendence on Adrian. What happens when all of it finally dissipates, and when Allard can finally go back to Stanief for good? A vacation where they can finally relax and enjoy themselves (surely Adrian can spare his prime minister/chief advisor/whatever Stanief is now for one week)? Or utter emotional exhaustion? Here also, something where Allard can help Stanief would be very nice!
Weird Ruritanian Crossover Prompt:
The Lost Prince: I just think it would be fun if Marco and The Rat’s journey intersected with Stanief and Allard at some point—I think Jem, in particular, would realize some things from watching Stanief and Allard together… so maybe their quest takes them through not!Russia, and they have to give the sign to Stanief, or maybe Stanief stops over in London on his way home to take up the Regency, and has a meeting with Stefan Loristan?
DNWS: sexual relationships with characters < 16 in; death or lasting and severe physical or mental harm to canon characters other than what happens or is implied to have happened in canon; historical occasions of mass death and suffering that occurred after the canon’s initial publication (e.g. wars, genocides, violent revolutions; pandemics); unrequested setting-change AUs (e.g. in space or modern coffee shop); centering heterosexual romance (please don't write a story about Allard/Theodora or Stanief/Iría, but the presence of those relationships or other het pairings in the background is fine.)
Fandom #3: Lucifer's Wife - Eleanor M. Ingram
Characters requested: Any (Bertrand d'Arsy, Adela d'Arsy, Ellena)
Note: My promo post about this canon is here. Internet Archive is down, but a pdf of this story can also be downloaded here
These are the ideas/prompts that I have for different combinations of these characters, but if you have a different direction or idea, please go for it!
Bertrand d'Arsy, Cedric Armstrong (& or /): I love these two and their intense bond of loyalty, and would love more about any and all of the backstory hints about their previous adventures together, whether escaping ambushes from Bertrand's kin, or capturing castles, or terrorizing the countryside and Oscar's men, or intriguing in the ?Byzantine empire or the south-eastern Mediterranean. How did they meet, and when? What led to Cedric proving himself such that he became Bertrand's most trusted man and senior lieutenant at such a relatively young age? (How Bertrand managed to hold Falconmere while also having adventures in Byzantium is…unclear. Based on the fact that the Queen of England is a French princess named "Margaret" and the king is said to be ill, I think the date of the present-day action is supposed to be around 1305-6, which would put Bertrand in Byzantium in the 1290s (?), but also, Ingram is not exactly wedded to historical precision or accuracy, so I certainly don't care about it! Have them hang out with any Eastern Mediterranean rulers you like!)
Adela d'Arsy and Bertrand d'Arsy : I desperately want to know what happened to Adela; it almost seems like Bertrand blames his father and brother for her death–why? Why were she and Bertrand so close and then, again, how does his reverence for her memory and the grief that he still seems to feel for her square with his brutal abduction of Gabrielle? Alternately, what if Adela hadn't died? What would her reaction have been to Bertrand's choice to steal his brother's bride, whether she was living with him at Castle Falconmere or still in their father's house or married to another (neutral?) nobleman?
Ellena: again, I love Ellena's fierce loyalty to Gabrielle, and I'd love to know more about their relationship and history together, or about Ellena herself navigating Falconmere and figuring out her place there. It's fine if Gabrielle is also a big part of the story, as long as Ellena is too (I ran out of character slots in nominations, otherwise I would have nominated them both!). I DO ship Ellena/Gabrielle, if that's a direction you would be interested in going, and I'm not especially interested in Ellena/Cedric (although I do like the idea of a partnership between them as the loyal protectors of their respective lady and lord).
Cedric Armstrong: CEDRIC, my loyal lieutenant!! Cedric almost seems to have some kind of history with Oscar d'Arsy as well as with Bertrand. Maybe it's because I read "Lucifer's Wife" after I had read Ingram's novel based on the same story, but set in 1910s Montenegro rather than 1300s England, and in that novel the character analogous to Cedric is being blackmailed by the character analog to Oscar rather than apparently being a spontaneous mole, but I kept wondering whether there was more backstory to his double-agent-ing, and whether he and Oscar d'Arsy had some sort of history independent of or unknown to Bertrand d'Arsy.
DNWS: sexual relationships with characters < 16 in; death or lasting and severe physical or mental harm to canon characters other than what happens or is implied to have happened in canon; historical occasions of mass death and suffering that occurred after the canon’s initial publication (e.g. wars, genocides, violent revolutions; pandemics); unrequested setting-change AUs;
I put a letter-link in my sign-up this year because I was rushed, and felt that I didn't do justice to my requested fandoms, especially the first two. But unfortunately, this letter will not be a magnum opus either.
Fandom #1: The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy - Avram Davidson
Characters: Worldbuilding
Here's the post I made on the Fandom Promo Post, with links to most of the Eszterhazy stories. Unfortunately, all the links go to Internet Archive, which is still down at time of posting. Apart from physical copies from a physical library, the anthology The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy is available on Kindle Unlimited on Amazon (boo hiss, but needs must).
I admit that my main thought about this canon is "I just want more!" I love the depth of detail and the vast range of things that get incorporated into the Triune Monarchy, and the affectionate humor with which Davidson treats it all, and I would love to see a Scythian-Pannonian-Transbalkanian take on any 19th or turn of the century bit of pseudo-science or cutting-edge technology or folkloric interest or philology, with or without Eszterhazy's involvement. Describe a monument, or a bit of lore about some bridge or building in the city of Bella! What kind of ghost-stories do they tell in such-and-such a province? What do the first Scythian-Pannonian-Transbalkanian moving pictures look like?
Alternatively: Bella/the lands of the Triune Empire in any previous historical period: we know a little bit about Napoleon and the Ottomans, but what about the medieval city? The Roman era? How did Bella relate to Byzantium at the height of the latter's power? What versions of or additions to the Charlemagne legend are told there? What rumblings happened in 1840, and what were/are the student liberalisation movements like? What's the history of the Grand Synagogue?
For this request, I'm particularly open to documentary and epistolary formats, the weirder the better: Guide book! Travelogues! Treatises! Imperial petitions! Patent applications! Newspaper articles! An opera libretto! Cringily patriotic panegyrical poetry! Anything else!
Weird Ruritanitn Crossover Prompts (if you happen to be interested in either of the following Ruritanian canons, I think it could be fun to throw characters from them into the Triune Empire for a visit, or something!):
Alpennia: setting-wise, there's a 70-80 year gap between these canons, actually think Alpennian-style theological magic would work really well in a fusion with Eszterhazy stories. Antuniet visiting 1820s Bella in search of alchemical secrets, for example! Or Marguerite and Barbara traveling in pursuit of some manuscript! Or, in Eszterhazy's time, the good doctor tangles with a Mystery woven into the fabric and history of Bella.
The Lost Prince: Marco and the Rat bring the Sign to Bella!
DNWS: sexual relationships with people < 16 in; death or lasting and severe physical or mental harm to major characters in your story other than what happens or is implied to have happened in canon; Nazis; the Holocaust; a focus on historical wars, genocide, and other occasions of mass death, destruction, and suffering that post-date the setting of the original stories: i.e. if you are writing a story set in the 20th century "future" of Transbalkania, please don't make it about the bombing of Bella in WWII, or the brutal Soviet repression of an abortive revolution in the 1960s; but references in passing to how the lands of the Triune Empire of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania intersected with 20th century history are ok.
Fandom #2: The Game and the Candle - Eleanor M. Ingram
Characters requested: John Allard, Feodor Stanief
I just love these two guys and their true love and perfect understanding for each other. For me, their relationship hits in some perfectly iddy combination of hierarchical loyalty and mutual trust and friendship: I'm really into the way that the formalities of their relationship and the difference in rank are always present between them but also don't determine their relationship. I'm so here for the way titles and service are Allard's way of expressing love, and for Stanief's possessive protective care of "his" John.
Shipping note: As will be clear, I ship Stanief/Allard really hard, with or without explicit sexual or even romantic content! Really, I will love anything you want to write about these guys! On the other hand, I don’t have a strong opinion about how Iría fits into their sexual/romantic relationship(s): I can buy either a version where she and Stanief have an absolutely platonic marriage (maybe she and Marya have a romantic thing going on), or a version where the three of them end up in an OT3! I find Theodora less interesting, and would just as soon not read about her, but if you want to write her in somehow, that's fine, too.
Worldbuilding/setting note: since I talk so much about historical/fake-historical detail and/or "worldbuilding" in my prompts for the other two fandoms I'm requesting, I just wanted to note here that for The Game and the Candle, I'm not especially interested in fleshing out the details of fake!Russian history or society. If there's something that you're really interested in, by all means go for it, but I'm really happy with the vagueness and broad strokes of the novel
Some ideas:
The weeks on Stanief’s yacht: I’m so curious about the process of falling back into into easy intimacy and friendship after the gap of five years and now under their real identities. What would the sex be like? But also, what does it look like from the the outside, and how does it change Stanief, to have Allard with him? Stanief says that he’s never had a friend, so what do his people think when suddenly he introduces this friend of apparently very long standing, towards whom he’s so openly affectionate? Vasili or one of the servants’ perspectives could be very fun.
Allard and Stanief have to deal with some kind of plotty intrigue or scheming! The very brief moment where they “yes and” each other to the prison warden to mislead him about the rain coat is so good—I’d love for them to have to work together like that in some other intrigue. Maybe there’s a traitor in Stanief’s household that Allard has to help unmask (who is responsible for hiring all of these assassins planted by Dalmorov, anyway?), or in Adrian’s household, and Allard has to play his part without alerting Adrian to what is going on.
A canon-divergence where Adrian does send Stanief away to his distant estate, and he and Allard and Iría have to figure out how to make a life and happiness there. I'm quite interested in an h/c scenario where Stanief is crushed by what he perceives as his failure, and Allard helps him through it.
Post-coronation vacation/release/reunion: Stanief and Allard have both, in different ways, had a hellish three years of increasing tension and anxiety and inner turmoil (for Stanief, it's the culmination of anxiety and stress that he's been holding his entire life!), and they haven't even been able to spend that much time together, what with John 24/7 in attendence on Adrian. What happens when all of it finally dissipates, and when Allard can finally go back to Stanief for good? A vacation where they can finally relax and enjoy themselves (surely Adrian can spare his prime minister/chief advisor/whatever Stanief is now for one week)? Or utter emotional exhaustion? Here also, something where Allard can help Stanief would be very nice!
Weird Ruritanian Crossover Prompt:
The Lost Prince: I just think it would be fun if Marco and The Rat’s journey intersected with Stanief and Allard at some point—I think Jem, in particular, would realize some things from watching Stanief and Allard together… so maybe their quest takes them through not!Russia, and they have to give the sign to Stanief, or maybe Stanief stops over in London on his way home to take up the Regency, and has a meeting with Stefan Loristan?
DNWS: sexual relationships with characters < 16 in; death or lasting and severe physical or mental harm to canon characters other than what happens or is implied to have happened in canon; historical occasions of mass death and suffering that occurred after the canon’s initial publication (e.g. wars, genocides, violent revolutions; pandemics); unrequested setting-change AUs (e.g. in space or modern coffee shop); centering heterosexual romance (please don't write a story about Allard/Theodora or Stanief/Iría, but the presence of those relationships or other het pairings in the background is fine.)
Fandom #3: Lucifer's Wife - Eleanor M. Ingram
Characters requested: Any (Bertrand d'Arsy, Adela d'Arsy, Ellena)
Note: My promo post about this canon is here. Internet Archive is down, but a pdf of this story can also be downloaded here
These are the ideas/prompts that I have for different combinations of these characters, but if you have a different direction or idea, please go for it!
Bertrand d'Arsy, Cedric Armstrong (& or /): I love these two and their intense bond of loyalty, and would love more about any and all of the backstory hints about their previous adventures together, whether escaping ambushes from Bertrand's kin, or capturing castles, or terrorizing the countryside and Oscar's men, or intriguing in the ?Byzantine empire or the south-eastern Mediterranean. How did they meet, and when? What led to Cedric proving himself such that he became Bertrand's most trusted man and senior lieutenant at such a relatively young age? (How Bertrand managed to hold Falconmere while also having adventures in Byzantium is…unclear. Based on the fact that the Queen of England is a French princess named "Margaret" and the king is said to be ill, I think the date of the present-day action is supposed to be around 1305-6, which would put Bertrand in Byzantium in the 1290s (?), but also, Ingram is not exactly wedded to historical precision or accuracy, so I certainly don't care about it! Have them hang out with any Eastern Mediterranean rulers you like!)
Adela d'Arsy and Bertrand d'Arsy : I desperately want to know what happened to Adela; it almost seems like Bertrand blames his father and brother for her death–why? Why were she and Bertrand so close and then, again, how does his reverence for her memory and the grief that he still seems to feel for her square with his brutal abduction of Gabrielle? Alternately, what if Adela hadn't died? What would her reaction have been to Bertrand's choice to steal his brother's bride, whether she was living with him at Castle Falconmere or still in their father's house or married to another (neutral?) nobleman?
Ellena: again, I love Ellena's fierce loyalty to Gabrielle, and I'd love to know more about their relationship and history together, or about Ellena herself navigating Falconmere and figuring out her place there. It's fine if Gabrielle is also a big part of the story, as long as Ellena is too (I ran out of character slots in nominations, otherwise I would have nominated them both!). I DO ship Ellena/Gabrielle, if that's a direction you would be interested in going, and I'm not especially interested in Ellena/Cedric (although I do like the idea of a partnership between them as the loyal protectors of their respective lady and lord).
Cedric Armstrong: CEDRIC, my loyal lieutenant!! Cedric almost seems to have some kind of history with Oscar d'Arsy as well as with Bertrand. Maybe it's because I read "Lucifer's Wife" after I had read Ingram's novel based on the same story, but set in 1910s Montenegro rather than 1300s England, and in that novel the character analogous to Cedric is being blackmailed by the character analog to Oscar rather than apparently being a spontaneous mole, but I kept wondering whether there was more backstory to his double-agent-ing, and whether he and Oscar d'Arsy had some sort of history independent of or unknown to Bertrand d'Arsy.
DNWS: sexual relationships with characters < 16 in; death or lasting and severe physical or mental harm to canon characters other than what happens or is implied to have happened in canon; historical occasions of mass death and suffering that occurred after the canon’s initial publication (e.g. wars, genocides, violent revolutions; pandemics); unrequested setting-change AUs;
