Middle English - Tumblr Posts
I absolutely love this concept! Fascinating. Is it weird that I relate to a lot of the character traits you’ve assigned him? He's quite writerly. And besides, the small hours of the night are my time, and I rarely ever lend books to anyone, for probably the same reasons as his since I don't want them to be damaged, my poor tomes, haha.
Also, you don’t have to take these suggestions at all! I just had some thoughts:
The houppelande cape, a medieval outer garment, would fit a humanized Storian well to my mind (especially because it could have an elongating effect due to its high, tight collar and its overall length, brushing against the ankles. And if you wanted to exaggerate the effect, you could add vertical ribbing to some of the fabric). This garment would evoke modern legal robes or academic regalia (as if it's not already a more primeval version of that from a bygone era), like the type professors don on ceremonial occasions such as commencement or graduation. And, for the Storian specifically, the scalloped, flared sleeves could have a sharper cut, with edges shaped like its nib.
In addition, the Storian could wear pointy, (silver?) poulaines (the shoes depicted below), to mimic the needle-like tip of his pen form.
Now, returning to the matter of his cape—it could be lined with highly embellished, brocade fabric, similar to a damascened weapon or pen, or the garniture of certain plate armor once made for nobles.
That said, I think the German style of armor, in particular, with a blued (Black Oxide) finish, would fit better for these purposes, too—say, if the Storian were a scholar with an army at his beck and call. After all, the German style is sharper, more streamlined, and above all, less bulbous than the Italian style. Perfect for launching holy, ahem—storied wars.
The lining's fabric could likely be black, white, and silver, to remain on theme, perhaps with the miniature swans or the mysterious inscriptions along the Pen's sides.
Lastly, if our foul fellow is to have a hat, to complete his look, I'd recommend something feathered, to evoke the swans, following forth with the color scheme I've already established, something stiff and angular, like this:
The oil-slick looking feathers also recall Rafal's bird motif, but it could still fit the Pen himself. In fact, the Storian deriving his style of dress from his Masters wouldn't that unexpected, I'd guess? Some articles of his clothing could be more ostentatious than even Rhian's fashion sense, and others could be more understated and austere like what we could assume Rafal's mode of dress would be like, effectively meaning he's surpassed both School Masters at once.
Also, I completely agree with how you chose to make the Storian a man since I think I've always imagined its voice/narration as male (even if it's canonically genderless). Yet, I also find it interesting, how fitting this decision happens to be, that it's been turned from an "it" to a "he," seeing as, in Middle English (versus our Modern English), the possessive, third person pronoun its used to be spelled as his. Basically, back then, instead of the neutral object's set of pronouns, it/it/its (as opposed to the usual human set of he/him/his), it used to be hit/hit or him/his.
Was thinking. What if
Hear me out
Humanised Storian
Lmao
All i know
Is.
- long. Like. Think long-legged bird
- gray & blue. Skyscraper colour palette
- fuckton of feathers (think poets, birds, freedom)
- fuckton of long, sharp shapes
- his pen form in his hair
- cape!!!! Not like a regular one but still, cape!!!!
- idgaf about you eyes. You know what i mean
Sketched something will flesh it out later mb:
How many languages do u speak??
English is my first language and Spanish is my second. However, I'm not entirely fluent in Spanish, even if I understand the vast majority of what's spoken to me. Yet that generally applies to more casual discussion because I find it hard to write academically in Spanish. Once I wrote a really brief, simple screenplay scene though. That's probably the most I can do currently. Plus, I suspect my Spanish is passively going in a retrograde direction since then because I haven't used it that frequently and it needs maintenance. If I am exposed to Italian, I can understand some singular words here and there (probably because of cognates or near-cognates), but that's it.
I don't think it counts as a language as it's more of a dialect, but I am able to read Middle English (ME). Except, I rely heavily on Norton Critical Edition annotations, so it may not truly count. (Fun fact: Shakespeare is classified as New English (NE or our modern English), which shocked me when I first heard it.)
Oh, and I kind of want a second opinion on something, so I may as well put it out here: is learning Latin worth it? You see, I wish I could just... acquire it, as another language, because I want to be able to get all the references John Milton (and some others) make if I ever read more of his works, so I could feel "hyperliterary," like what I've been told about the lens with which he saw the world. Then again, the annotations are enough for me to get certain words' provenance, or why one word was a significant choice over another, so I feel like it would be useless otherwise.
Awh, that sucks. I could've used that essay a year ago during my uni's second semester exams 😂😂😂
Bestiaryposting Results: Shonweak
This is an unusual one in terms of whether people have preconceptions on what it looks like. On one hand, the medieval interpretation of this animal is widespread and generally known, at least in comparison to other bestiary material -- shows up in modern fantasy and everything -- so it's possible that people familiar with medieval stuff recognized it on sight and had to work against those preconceptions. On the other hand, the medieval interpretation is pretty much completely divorced from reality, so anyone coming at it from a background of Actually Knowing Animals rather than one of Knowing Medieval Nonsense is likely going to be baffled.
Anyway, as usual, if you're confused by what I'm talking about, please refer to https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting. And you can find the entry that artists are working from here:
Art below the cut, roughly chronological, &c.
@silverhart-makes-art (link here) says that they wanted to draw a Weird Little Creature, and... mission accomplished, that creature sure can Weird and Little. I kind of love it; it's got that vibe that makes something simultaneously cute and kind of unsettling. The linked post goes into some detail about design decisions and the real-world animals they used for inspiration. Something I think is particularly clever is how they not only incorporated the carapace from the beetle they were inspired by, but they also made the profile of the head fit with that, so that it also looks kind of beetle-like despite being obviously mammalian.
@cheapsweets (link to post here) also had Beetle Thoughts and decided to just run with them, creating an impressively-realistic-looking drawing of a beetle. (I think I'm just a sucker for black-and-white naturalist-style art, because lately I keep looking at CheapSweets's work and going "ooh, look at the stippling and everything". Plus I'm perennially impressed that they do this with a fountain pen.) There's some detailed discussion in the linked post about what specific beetles this design takes inspiration from, as well as how they envision this animal functioning in general, and that's really interesting, so I recommend checking it out. (Did you know there was a beetle known as the "diabolical ironclad beetle"? Delightful.) Additionally, they note that we should imagine bright warning colors, but they didn't have time to add them. Also, thank you CheapSweets for providing alt text.
@sweetlyfez (link to post here) also notes that this critter would have bright warning colors if she'd had time to color it. Apparently this design is inspired by poison-type Pokemon, which I can definitely see: that's a credible Pokemon design. It's all gloopy for putting out fires. I find it interesting that there's a degree of consensus on this entry being interpreted in this way -- replies on the original post expressed that That Is A Pokemon, and seemingly SweetlyFez agrees. I like the side-eye it's giving, too. (And thank you for including alt text.)
@pomrania (link to post here) was the one to label this a Pokemon in the replies, and we can see that they've run with that a bit, as this is also a credible Pokemon design. It's a little bit cat, a little bit dragon, and a little bit liquid so it can put out fire. I like that it looks so pleased with itself while causing problems.
@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has decided that the Shonweak is an armadillo. This illustration shows some very nice Stylized Trees, I must say, and I particularly like the visual effect showing that the Shonweaks are poisoning the one on the left. (Coolest-Capybara also makes note of the Pokemon thing.) For an explanation of why they are armadillos, please see the linked post.
@strixcattus (link to post here) has drawn a very charming little creature. I love the puffed-up cheeks & throat sac, and the effect that has on its facial expression. If you check out the linked post for a proper description of this beast, you'll find it's quite interesting -- I particularly like the idea that it spits poison by filling its throat sac with water and then allowing its natural poison to seep into that water. I think that's pretty clever.
Now, to the Aberdeen Bestiary, where the illustrator has done a Scene that takes up most of the page:
That's a heck of a thing, right? I really like it, to be honest. We've got the cool Stylized Tree with critters wrapping around the branches, we've got the ones in the fire doing kind of a flame-like pose, and of course we have a dead guy at the bottom. The last of these just strikes me as funny for some reason.
Anyway, as I think multiple people guessed, this is the salamander.
No, the illustrator had apparently never seen one, so they've drawn snakes instead, probably because of the association with poison.
Anyway, I was surprised to learn (just now actually) that salamanders really are quite poisonous. I have no idea whether they can poison food and water in the way that the author describes -- that seems a bit extreme -- but I don't think I know enough to rule it out.
The fire thing... well, that's definitely not the case. I'm not really sure where that came from. I've heard the explanation that people in the past would occasionally see salamanders crawling out of fires, and thus form the idea that they were fireproof, unaware of the fact that the salamanders were just hiding in their firewood and are fleeing the fire as a result of being Definitely Not Fireproof. I don't know how credible that is, though.
This fire association may have been amplified by... well, look at this:
That's Salamandra salamandra, aka the fire salamander. It's pretty common and widespread in Europe, and is also among the largest salamanders on the continent, so it's reasonable to think this is the one that pre-modern Europeans would have in mind. And you know, that coloring definitely gives the impression of "this is a Fire Guy". If one were to see this salamander crawling out of a fire (worth noting that the Wikipedia article does say they like to hide under fallen wood, so maybe that idea tracks), and knew nothing about zoology, you could see how they might think "yes, that looks like something that was supposed to be in there."
