they/she, 30s, angry queer. goes by Heathen Witch most other places. blog is full of text posts, art, and irreverent nonsense. nazis and terfs can choke.
Can I please ask for your top five theories on why the Ringwraiths become so much more powerful over the course of the LotR trilogy? By the end of the books a single Ringwraith holds an army of 6000 men in paralysing dread from a height of a mile, they’re dismaying hosts of men, etc. And in the beginning, they’re easily defeated by “jumping behind a tree,” “pretending to be in a different room,” “getting on a little boat,” “man with a stick on fire,” etc.
My theory is it’s because they’re fairy tale villains in the first half of Fellowship and epic villains in ROTK. The books practically change genre after Rivendell
That’s the unreliable narrators answer! I’m personally quite fond of it. We note that Bilbo wrote The Hobbit, and had started work on the first part of the Fellowship when the delegates convene. He then passes the torch on to Frodo, noting that his (Bilbo’s) own story is going to have a happy ending. From there, Frodo wrote the rest - his journey, picked up and written after encountering Bilbo in Rivendell - in his own tone. Bilbo’s experiences, writing style, narrative voice/character sense/self-awareness, translation priorities, sense of humour, and deep appreciation for the absurd - all mean that his works are characterised by a narrative lightheartedness - Bilbo is clearly more of a children’s book author. Scenes that would have an average writer biting their pencil in half are breezily dismissed in a comfortably bloodless fashion, all while making fun of himself, and you can imagine him narrating them to the children at the fireside, with lots of rhyming passages (a mark of an oral storyteller or someone experienced with children! All you have to do is get to the repetitive rhyming part and it’s like hitting a save point for your memory! You can tell whole chapters of story seamlessly, out loud, all night this way.) Bilbo is in the business of happy endings; writing, poetry and storytelling were his calling, and his pride. He enjoyed them.
Frodo’s work is diligent and serious. He also fights trolls and intelligent spiders, but he didn’t really want to. When he writes about enemies, it’s with horror and discomfort. He never particularly dreamed of being an author. He just chalks down a historical record - mostly, it seems, because Bilbo wanted it.
Thus, There and Back Again and the first part of The Red Book of the Westmarch are Bilbo’s memoirs, and Ringwraiths come across as just spooky in his writing. The later parts of the Red Book are Frodo writing his own nightmares with a thousand-yard stare about the terrors that permanently disabled him - and the Ringwraiths appear to change but are simply described in a tonal shift.
It’s a good theory! You should vote for it
My theory is that their power level depends on how much Sauron is feeding into them, and their behavior shifts based on how much power they have access to.
Sauron’s only just gotten back on the horse, as it were, in the past hundred years. Prior to that he was on the downlow to the point that his shenanigans were mistaken for a mortal necromancer’s until Gandalf was like, “Oh, dip.” during the Hobbit.
Now he’s dealing with Gondor, he’s dealing with Rohan, he’s trying to manage every orc and troll in the realm who have previously been left to more or less self-govern and probably aren’t all in on the Age of the Orc if it means they’ve got three extra tiers of bossman telling them what to do. Smaug’s dead-dead, so that’s going to be a fair amount of jockeying around the edge of territory nobody previously wanted to fight a dragon over. The dwarves are on the move, and their political alliances are undergoing a massive shift. The elves are on the move, the eagles are on the move, etc. Fucking Saruman’s building his own goddamned Russian front for Mordor’s Germany.
There are a lot of irons in that particular fire, is what I’m saying. The Nazgul have been sent to retrieve something very important, yes, but from a fucking gentleman farmer in Fantasyland’s version of Bumfuck, Nowhere.
Sending them out looking like they’re about to terrorize Gondor into submission is going to draw a lot of attention, which would open yet another goddamned front for Sauron to deal with, as well as point everyone who wasn’t previously on the alert for the Ring in its direction. Sending them out in full Kings of Men mode is also probably risking an internal challenge that Sauron absolutely cannot afford with all the other shit going on.
Like, is Sauron its master? Yes. Does Sauron need to deal with the fucking Witch-king getting his hands on the Ring along with his own ring while Sauron is trying to deal with Gandalf and Isengard? No. Plus it’s not like they can be killed by an external force, no matter how nerfed he leaves them. The flood that takes them off their mounts is a temporary inconvenience, from Sauron’s perspective.
So there aren’t many drawbacks to throttling them down, and if it weren’t for Gandalf getting wind of something being up and the hobbits having an experienced escort on the way to Elrond’s, it absolutely would have worked.
Once they’re back at their day job, there’s no reason not to have the taps open full-blast, so they’re back to being PTSD-machines.
Plus like… at what point in the entire history of the rings have these guys, separately or as a group, as mortals or wraiths, ever been sent out to find Some Dude? Not an elf-lord, or a warrior king in exile, or a wizard, or a goblin king who’s been pretending he never got Sauron’s letters requisitioning troops. Legit just Some Fucking Dude, who’s so deep in Some Fucking Dude mode that he’s like, “lol The Horrors are after me? Guess I’ll just fucking walk to Rivendell. On the road. With my feet.” The response to The Horrors being a lot closer than he thought was like “Guess I’ll cut through this dude’s fields!”
This is comically outside their skillset. This is outside their boss’s skillset. They don’t have their own henchmen to ask for advice. They’re basically milling around at a crossroad crabbily smoking pipeweed while the Witch-king is furiously texting Sauron like “This isn’t working, can we just nuke them?” and getting back “NO YOU CANNOT JUST NUKE THEM.” “Okay, how the fuck are we supposed to do this without nuking them?” “JUST FUCKING FIND THEM I DON’T CARE.” “There are elves. :( :( :(” “DEFINITELY DO NOT NUKE THEM OR YOU WILL GET GANDALFS. >:|”
“That Tom Bombadil asshole showed up.” “DOES TOM BOMBADIL HAVE MY RING.” “No.” “THEN WHY AM I HEARING ABOUT TOM BOMBADIL.”
“We need more money to bribe people and hire spies.” “WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MONEY I GAVE YOU.” “The price of bribes and spies has really gone up in the past 500 years, and everyone charges ten percent more when they see they’re getting paid in cursed grave goods. Or we could just, you know…” “NO NUKING THEM.” “:(”
“Now there’s a Ranger.” “YOU BROUGHT ARNOR TO ITS KNEES.” “I had a map to Arnor. And an army. And a budget.” “DO YOU WANT TO BE WALKING HOME.” “Okay, no, fine. It’s not a problem.”
“We almost had them.” “IS THIS HORSE SHOES OR PERHAPS HAND GRENADES.” “I’m just saying. I stabbed the one with your Ring. He’s got maybe three days before he’s a wraith himself. One way or another, we’ve got this in the bag.” “JUST GET IT DONE.”
“So, there were more elves.” “ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME THAT YOU STILL DO NOT HAVE MY RING.” “I’m telling you that we need to revise our timeline a little bit. And that we need a new batch of horses.” “YOU DO NOT HAVE MY RING AND ALSO YOU DO NOT HAVE MY HORSES.” “We can still pull out a win here.” “DO YOU THINK I AM MADE OF HORSES.” “Is this a trick question? Are you? Do you have a physical form again?” “JUST GET BACK HERE.” “The horses drowned? Because of the elves?” “THEN WALK.” “:(”
Splendidly written. I also throw my hat into the ring for this take: “Ringwraiths are not skilled outside of their immediate job description, and lack professional initiative.”
OR perhaps they have both skill sets and initiative, but they feel that their union doesn’t support them going too far beyond their specific job description; so that even though they could have solved some of their immediate problems by interrogating Fredegar, or could even have laid a little bitty bit of the Black Breath on Farmer Maggot’s barking dog, they absolutely would not. Interrogation (5B) and Cruelty to Animals (605-3) are not in their contract negotiations, and if Sauron wants them to take on additional responsibilities, that’s a different conversation. They only agreed to take on this project because it aligned with their top-level objective of “Being A Menace to Society (1C) and furthermore allowed them to use their competencies in “Spreading Dread and Fear (35X)” which were being under-utilised in the current working environment, leading to low morale. One of the younger Ringwraiths did want to show some more personal initiative, to be seen as more management-track, but the others squashed this, as the most important thing to learn to manage are expectations.
Favorite thing about renaissance faires is that they have fuck all to to with the renaissance. This thang is not about historical anything this is about dressing up like a fairy and watching a joust
the post: everything has a right to exist in fiction, even if it’s fucked up
the comments: i was going to reblog this until i realized op likes fucked up stuff in fiction. this is a common dogwhistle phrase for people who like fucked up stuff in fiction. they have to talk in code to trick people into agreeing with them. stay safe out there!
I know people on tumblr looove stories of underwater cave diving, but I haven’t seen anyone talk about nitrogen narcosis aka “raptures of the deep”
basically when you want to get your advanced scuba certification (allowing you to go more than 60 feet deep) you have to undergo a very specific test: your instructor takes you down past the 60+ foot threshold, and she brings a little underwater white board with her.
she writes a very basic math problem on that board. 6 + 15. she shows it to you, and you have to solve it.
if you can solve it, you’re good. that is the hardest part of the test.
because here’s what happens: there is a subset of people, and we have no real idea why this happens only to them, who lose their minds at depth. they’re not dying, they’re not running out of oxygen, they just completely lose their sense of identity when deep in the sea.
a woman on a dive my instructor led once vanished during the course of the excursion. they were diving near this dropoff point, beyond which the depth exceeded 60 feet and he’d told them not to go down that way. the instructor made his way over to look for her and found a guy sitting at the edge of the dropoff (an underwater cliff situation) just staring down into the dark. the guy is okay, but he’s at the threshold, spacing out, and mentally difficult to reach. they try to communicate, and finally the guy just points down into the dark, knowing he can’t go down there, but he saw the woman go.
instructor is deep water certified and he goes down. he shines his light into the dark, down onto the seafloor which is at 90 feet below the surface. he sees the woman, her arms locked to her sides, moving like a fish, swimming furiously in circles in the pitch black.
she is hard to catch but he stops her and checks her remaining oxygen: she is almost out, on account of swimming a marathon for absolutely no reason. he is able to drag her back up, get her to a stable depth to decompress, and bring her to the surface safely.
when their masks are off and he finally asks her what happened, and why was she swimming like that, she says she fully, 100% believed she was a mermaid, had always been a mermaid, and something was hunting her in the dark 👍
Hey! I've gotten super into solo rpgs but I tend to find combat boring. Are there fantasy themed rpgs with less focus on combat that you would recommend? (If they are soloable, that's also a win!)
Hello friend, thank you very much for your ask! I’m going to direct you to two Solo-themed game recommendations first, before I dive into today’s recs.
The wind rustles through the emerald canopy above as you open your eyes to an unfamiliar world. You’re lying on a bed of lush moss, the gentle warmth of the Spirit World sun caressing your face. Around you, a forest of towering ancient trees, each pulsating with an otherworldly glow. It’s ethereal, enchanting, and unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
Drawing from a deck of fate, you’ll encounter spirits, creatures, and natural phenomena as enchanting as they are daunting. Each encounter might test your spirit, challenge your harmony with this world, or tempt you to act against your values.
There is some combat in this game, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be the focus. The game is about survival, but you’re as likely to be navigating social situations as you are to be fighting enemies. What I like about this game is the spirit companion who will travel the world with you: there are four different options, each of them cute and enchanting. If you love Studio Ghibli films, you should definitely check out A Year in the Spirit World!
The goblin hoard - a pile of goods and trinkets - is a place of greed, yes. But it’s the same greed that thrives throughout this land of men and beetles. It’s the allowed selfishness that helps us learn and grow, walk and run, screech and scramble. The hoard is the goblin’s memory.
The Goblin Thought is a unique and engaging journaling game that combines chance and narrative to create a compelling story. Players take on the role of a goblin, collecting memories and items in their hoard as they navigate through a world of wonder and danger, allowing for growth and change. With a deck of cards and a six-sided die, each turn presents new challenges and opportunities for creative storytelling, drawing, and reflection.
This game is placed in a fantasy setting, but with a larger purpose. It’s both a journaling game and a thought experiment, a chance to place yourself in the shoes of someone whose history exists within the hoard they have accumulated. Each card you draw from a deck has three prompts attached to it, so you have the potential to play this game (and build a history) for a very long time.
It’s just not really your thing. There are more important things to worry about, like Gethin, your biggest ram, getting stuck in the fence again, or Ffion rubbing against the raspberry bushes and getting her wool all sticky.
Life is pretty simple for a humble shepherd such as yourself.
Little Shepherd, Little Spy is a solo journaling game about being a spy in the fairy war. Choose which side you’re on, then draw tarot cards to interpret the messages coming through the information ring. Your tarot card tells you what book to look at and what page. Then you copy down all the relevant information on that page and consult your spy codebook.
I absolutely love fairy games and the premise for this one is super interesting to me. Your character will be interpreting messages that take the form of books that you have on your shelf, and you’ll determine which book to look at (and which page to read) by drawing tarot cards from a deck. If you look into this one I definitely recommend setting aside some time, and perhaps selecting a few books for each category to have on hand, to ease the cycle of play.
You are the proud owner of a Wandering Library. Whether you bought, built or inherited it, it is your home. Travelling as far and as wide as you desire, your days are spent encountering an assortment of customers, exploring new locations, and tending to your beloved home of books.
This is a a game designed to generate prompts for you to answer in as much or as little detail as you would like. All you need is two six-sided dice and your preferred method of journaling. Using the tables provided, you will explore locations and meet different people, recording your adventures and encounters as you travel in your Wandering Library.
This is a simple one-page game that presents you with a few starting questions, and the supplies a grid of prompts that you’ll roll 2d6 for. Each prompt is a new event, complete with a question, asking how your character reacts. There’s plenty of room for your own imagination. The house is a travelling library, which feels pretty fantastical to me! This game will likely last a few hours or so; it’s not really built for extended play.
For years you have served your Master faithfully. A loyal companion, you accompanied your Master through the difficult times, and the good times. Now, you are called in a moment of dire need: a Stranger has challenged your Master to a duel, alluding to time before you. Your Master rises to the challenge, calling you forth. This is your moment. You have trained for this. It is time to do your Master proud.
FETCH MY BLADE is a solo journaling roleplaying game where you play as the dog of a retired legendary master of the sword, tasked with a quest of your own: retrieve your master’s fabled weapon in time for their final duel. On your quest, you will uncover and explore your Master’s guarded past– transforming your character, deepening your relationship with your Master, and ultimately influencing your Master’s fate.
This is a lovely little game of exploring a dog’s relationship to their Master, and developing a backstory as you play. I don’t think there’s specifically a setting in place for this game, but the presence of swords certainly points towards the fantastical. There doesn’t seem to be any specific combat in the game, but violence is considered to have happened in the past, as the game provides a content warning regarding a war that has already happened.
Secrets of the Vibrant Isle - explore a magical island, meet its residents, and convince the island you deserve to stay and enjoys its riches.
Secrets of the Vibrant Sea - meet the magical residents and places below the Vibrant Isle, where you explore and discover a new underwater world.
All about exploration and adventure, no combat needed! You can just play through, journal, make maps, use it as a story prompter, or even explore as a group if you’d like. The psychedelic art is amazing too!
Being knocked out for more than 5 minutes means very serious brain damage but humans not having a turn-off button would do immense damage to our collective storytelling. So many films and books and videogames just wouldn’t happen if writers stopped bonking their characters on the head. Insane.
fourteen years at this studio and your bosses imply that the severance you’re owed to secure your livelihood post-layoff is a roadblock to releasing the next product 😭 I can’t imagine being in their shoes
