maia: wow, csevet is so confident and prepared always, i’m jealous
csevet, offscreen, presumably: (sweating as he writes and files his own employment papers, reassuring himself that the emperor clearly DOES want him around so the odds of being arrested for usurping his authority are really very low)
Attolis shouting that he can do what he wants, but what he wants is to pardon someone who hurt him instead of getting revenge Maia Drazhar finally breaking down and yelling at people, but it’s to declare that his bodyguards are his friends and he cares about them even if they think it’s improper
ID: an 8-panel sketched comic of characters from the goblin emperor, parodying a love live fan comic. panel 1) cala is shown from the shoulders up, but low enough on the horizon to appear to be kneeling, with a rueful smile and a speech bubble containing a screenshot of text from the book that reads “Oh, damn. We did so hope we would get here first. Serenity.” 2) in a much simpler style that remains for the rest of the comic, beshelar covers maia’s ears, glaring with his mouth a large circle shape and with a drawn out “gasp”. 3) beshelar drags maia, whose face is completely neutral, out the door of the room, his own expression unchanged and still gasping. 4) the door is mostly closed but beshelar’s head pokes through with a short “gasp.” 5) maia, drawn in slightly more detail, is seated at a table writing something, looking regretful and saying “damn.” 6) a mostly empty panel but beshelar is in the bottom left corner looking over his shoulder with the same expression from before. 7) still looking behind him, face unchanged, beshelar walks with balled fists towards cala in the background who looks blissfully unaffected. csevet tries to intervene with raised hands. 8) beshelar is still looking over his shoulder with the same face, but kneeling with his fists balled in the front of cala’s robe where cala lies on the floor, still smiling blankly and raising two shruggy “ok” hands. end ID
ID: a sketch of Cala from The Goblin Emperor, a thin elf with round glasses and a messy braid. He is shown from the shoulders up, but low enough on the horizon to appear to be kneeling, with a rueful smile and a speech bubble containing a screenshot of text from the book that reads “Oh, damn. We did so hope we would get here first. Serenity.” end ID
ID: a sketch portrait of csevet aisava from the goblin emperor. he has large pointed ears with four rings in each, half-moon glasses on a chain and a neat bun with little braids. his expression is dubious and slightly alarmed with one eyebrow raised and large eyes looking down and ahead, his mouth in a small frown. end ID
ID: digital colored portraits of Thara Celehar and Iäna Pel-Thenhior from The Witness for the Dead. Thara is a thin, pale elven man. He has sunken cheeks, a square jaw, a curved nose, thin lips, and bright blue eyes. He has deep purple lines under his eyes and frown lines around his mouth. His hair is curly and white and pulled back into a queue. He is wearing a black high collared robe fastened with a crescent moon shape, and simple silver earrings. His expression is weary. The background is a light blue gradient. Iäna is a slim goblin-elven man with light gray skin and rich golden eyes. He has high cheekbones, a long nose, full lips, thick arched eyebrows, a strong chin, dimples, and crows feet around his eyes. He has thick dark hair pulled back in braids that fall down past his shoulders. He is wearing a scarlet coat, a light orange cravat, a gold hoop earring, and two gold cuffs with a small chain dangling between them. He has kohl around his eyes and is smiling confidently. The background is a golden gradient. End ID.
(Please click for better quality!)
Getting pumped for Grief of Stones!! I will definitely be re-reading Witness
ID: a sketch of thara celehar and iana pel-thenhior from the witness for the dead. they are both sitting next to each other at a table having tea, drawn from the elbows up. iana is a thin goblin-elven man with a long nose, thick braids, and a frilly shirt. he’s resting his face on his hand, the other arm resting in front of him. he’s saying “…babygirl?” and eyeing thara knowingly. thara is a thin elf with an angular face and curly hair in a braid. he grips a teacup in one hand and is bracing himself against the table with the other. he’s violently spitting out tea, eyes wide and twitching, and blushing furiously. end ID
ID: 10 cropped images of digital drawings of characters from the goblin emperor and witness for the dead. 1) csevet leaning over maia, flushed and watching his face. maia with his head thrown back. 2) csethiro and vedero with their foreheads pressed together, vedero seen from behind, csethiro flushed and gripping vedero’s shoulder 3) csethiro laying down, eyes closed, and blushing, knuckles pressed to her mouth 4) vedero’s face pressed into a pillow, supporting herself on her forearms, flushed and mouth open 5) csethiro with her hair down, looking down, smiling and blushing 6) csevet looking over his shoulder, hair down, blushing deeply 7) maia on his back slightly propped up, blushing and looking up in deep adoration 8) csethiro sitting upright, hair braided, looking down flustered and biting her lip 9) csethiro leaning over maia head bent in concentration. maia with his head thrown back gripping her arm with one hand and the sheets behind him with the other. 10) iäna leaning over thara, their foreheads pressed together, his braids cascading over him, looking lovingly into each others eyes. one of thara’s legs folded up, toes curling. end ID
(I’m using twitter for the time being! I have everything filtered because I’m extra paranoid, so you will need an account to view. BUT I may end up throwing these onto ao3, now that there’s a place I can host the images!)
there was an excellent analysis post about maza’s robes (go check it out it’s really good), and the additions supplemented it with resounding evidence of cala’s weird girl energy. i tagged it with, “he would wear crocs”
literally begging and pleading for someone to draw beshelar going WHAT ARE THOOOSE at cala’s crocs
so here you are
ID: two digital sketches of characters from the goblin emperor. 1) cala athmaza standing feet apart, hands behind his back, and deret beshelar next to him, shoulders hunched, knees bent, pointing down at cala’s feet. cala is a tall lanky elf with knee length robes and circle glasses. he’s wearing crocs with socks and has a smug expression. deret is a slim elf with a topknot and padded leather uniform. he’s flushed and looks distressed and outraged. he’s yelling “WHAT ARE THOSE?!” both have sashes with a little kitty face on them. 2) maia drazhar and csevet aisava from the waist up, holding a sheet of paper between them. csevet is a short elf of average build with multiple rings in his ears. he’s holding a pen in the other hand and is looking down at cala’s shoes. his ear is twitching and “judging” is scribbled next to him. his expression is reproachful. maia is a tall, thin goblin-elf with thick curly hair piled with pearls. he is wearing a cape and circlet and is also eyeing cala’s shoes. his expression is dubious and he’s saying, “oh…those are certainly um…unique.” end ID
ID: three digital sketches of sheveän drazharan from the goblin emperor. she is a middle-aged elven woman wearing a gown with a high mesh collar and long sleeves, and her hair is pinned up with tashin sticks. in the first image she is sitting on a loveseat and daintily holding a spliff in one hand. she is eyeing it with caution and determination. in the second image she takes a drag, holding it with her pinky up. the last sketch is two cartoony drawings of sheveän, the first where she’s just holding the spliff with a dazed expression, and the second is her coughing violently, tearing up at the eyes with spit, smoke, and tears flying out from her face. the words “COUGH” “ACK” and “HURK” are scribbled around her. end ID
Sheveän being supremely Uncool and very on-brand, at @deretbeshelar’s request. happy 420
ID: a digital drawing of Cala Athmaza and Deret Beshelar from The Goblin Emperor. Cala is in the foreground drawn from the elbows up, and he’s crossing his arms. He is a thin elf with a long face and a long nose, and his hair is in a loose braid tossed over one shoulder. He wears circle glasses and robes that cross in the front with a nohecharis sash pulled across them. His expression is indignant, mid-speech. Deret is in the background, drawn from the waist up, bent over and turned away slightly. He is a muscular elf wearing padded layers and his hair is in a topknot. He is shielding his face with one hand and his other arm is in a sling. He looks mortified. Next to the drawing is a screenshot of a tweet by @icejjfiishh that reads: “y'all saying I’m gay because I jacked my bro off? His arm was stabbed wtf?” End ID.
after winternight
(I feel the need to clarify, I don’t think he’d have any objections to this accusation, but this was too funny not to do)
He’s never had the chicken pox (no opportunity to catch it), but he has had malaria (he refers to something feeling “like the remission of a tertian ague” at one point, and there were probably lots of mosquitos around Edonomee)
Caffeine doesn’t really agree with him, which is one reason (besides the positive associations with his mom) he prefers chamomile even in the mornings
He has a minor but real issue with the joints in his hands - it normally didn’t bother him before his coronation unless he had a lot of writing to do, but it’s enough to make heavy jewelry actively uncomfortable rather than merely cumbersome
He’s constitutionally prone to low blood pressure, which is aggravated by-
At some point in the future (probably some decades away), I can see Chenelo becoming sort of the Ethuveraz’s equivalent of Princess Diana in the popular historical imagination. After Maia’s ascension makes her relevant again (and ends Varenechibel’s unofficial We Don’t Talk About Chenelo policy), I can see chroniclers and historians “rediscovering” her, and even to someone who didn’t have any inside details about her relationship with Varenechibel, the basic outline of her life is very sad. So from the bare bones of her biography and what they can extrapolate from her character based on the few people who knew her well and her influence on her son, a kind of Fanon Chenelo emerges as a Too Good For This Sinful Untheileneise Court woke woobie. The mystery surrounding her life and personality (since she spent so much of her time as an empress away from court) just gives writers more opportunity to make stuff up!
(I can see writers who were worried about the potential controversy of vilifying Varenechibel too much making Shevean or Chavar the designated villains instead.)
Headcanon: Metheglin is Setheris’s plonk of choice because honey remained the Ethuveraz’s staple sweetener well after they’d reached the cultural/technological point when comparable societies in western Europe had access to affordable sugar. And that makes sense considering that Ethuveraz seems to have expanded as an empire by pushing out from its old borders rather than going overseas (so no equivalent to Britain/France/Spain’s Caribbean colonies), and the parts of the Elflands that have shown up in the books so far appear to be much too cold to grow sugarcane.
(Assuming a roughly 19th century tech level, they could certainly grow and process their own beet sugar, but that would probably be a fairly recent innovation.)
A quick attempt at Csevet’s courier uniform aka there is not enough coat porn in this fandom and I decided to Be The Change :) Since everyone goes on about how hot the couriers are I headcanon the uniform as being somewhat sexy, or at least sexualized like firefighters etc are. I imagine there are… creative redesigns available for private purchase at certain stores in Cetho, although real couriers are very dismissive at the flimsy fabrics and amount of bared skin.
My headcanon is that someone at the court has been making discreet inquiries trying to find out just what Chenelo died of and is it hereditary. It seems like the sort of thing a court doctor would want to know, but after the events of the novel, saying anything that implied you believed the emperor was likely to die young would not be a good look.
Important worldbuilding question: What do they call sweaters in the Elflands?
(We know they have knitting, because Maia mentions wishing the imperial regalia allowed for wooly hats. I’m going to assume that sweaters/jumpers/jerseys/etc exist, but are currently considered too outdoorsy and informal for town or court wear.)
Rereading Witness for the Dead, and it’s striking how much more modern the world feels when you get away from the milieu of the Court.
Up there it’s all ceremony and courtly intrigue and arranged marriages and fancy clothes, down here it’s shitty apartments, canned sardines, streetcars, and verismo opera.
Facial hair doesn’t seem to be fashionable in the Ethuveraz, but could TGE elves even grow it if they wanted to?
We know that at least older full-goblin men can grow facial hair, because the Great Avar has his Genghis Khan ‘stache, but I can’t recall if the books mention any other male characters having facial hair or shaving.
Thara Celehar’s snippy theory that socially awkward people become communists for an automatic friend group is pretty rich coming from Ulis’s favorite depressed opossum.
(Where does Thara Celehar fall on the Sad Fictional Men classification, anyway? He has too much moral fiber to be a poor little meow meow.)
(Maia was trapped with his abusive guardian in a gloomy, isolated manor in the middle of a desolate landscape, Csevet almost died of pneumonia that he contracted getting caught in the rain while fleeing from a rapey aristocrat.)
Maybe fandom just prefers emotional h/c for Maia, but the fact that the designated woobie canonically spent almost a decade living in a swamp (ok, marshland) seems underexploited for sickfic purposes.
I headcanon that Maia has really good skin (especially for a teenage boy who’s under near-constant stress), but this fact hasn’t managed to elbow its way through his clamoring mass of body image issues to become like, a conscious part of his self-image.
I like to imagine that after they marry, Csethiro realizes hey I Like this guy and so she starts ribbing him about it because she’s an absolute jock. meanwhile, maia who has never been shown kindness is like Oh No What Have I Done, She Hates Me. Csethiro picks up on it immediately, sits him down and apologizes and explains, and then adjusts the level of teasing and tweaks it to be more validating and wholesome. he gets comfortable and starts to tease her back. one day he lands the most savage burn on her and at first it so completely catches her by surprise that he’s afraid he went too far, but then she loses all Ladylike Composure, all her years of training go out the window and she guffaws for like five minutes straight. to the point he’s actually kind of embarassed about it. years later she never lets him live it down
“She had a picture book with many wonder tales in it - destroyed, we suppose, along with her other things when she died. she had brought it from Barizhan.”
“You miss her,” Arbelan said.
“Of course,” Maia said again. “We loved her very much”.
-The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison.
[ID: Digital fanart of Chenelo reading to a young Maia in an arched reading nook under a round window. Both have dark grey skin, curly black hair, and pointed ears. Maia sits on his mother’s lap and holds a large book for her to read from. An orange blanket is draped over their legs, and their warm yellow window seat is lined with orange pillows. The lighting is dim and the atmosphere is cozy. /end ID]
