#ask rw

Nah, she doesn’t sound like a weird robot or anything, she just sounds like someone who’s deaf! She had to learn to speak without ever hearing her own voice or comparing it to anyone else, so the way she sounds doesn’t quite sound like hearing folks.

examples of some Deaf ladies who also speak:

Rachel Kolb, who starts talking at about one minute in (also a really cool video)

Deanne Bray (I usually give her as my headcanon for Tareth’s voice)

In general, no, but it doesn’t have to do with being dead, it has to do with the spell eventually running out.

If you’ve transformed into a squirrel and your spell lasts for two days (or until you dismiss it), then if you’re killed you’ll probably remain in squirrel form until the spell runs out, at which point you’d revert to your true form. Most of Sev’s spells work this way.

If you’ve transformed into a squirrel and your magic is actively holding that form indefinitely, you’ll transform back into a human not long after dying, as your connection to magic fades. This isn’t how shapeshifting normally works, but it’s probably possible? Some of Jonan’s undead work like this.

oh man, this is some DM’s-call type stuff going on here!! I’m not sure, because this isn’t a biological process I understand well, and I have a feeling it’d depend on exactly how the creature in question worked, but…..

I’m gonna make the call that, while Severian has proven he can remain in dragon form for more than a day, maintaining a crab form long enough to need to molt would be beyond him, so that plan wouldn’t get very far.

OOO HM!!!

UNFORTUNATELY magic isn’t hereditary, so they’d hypothetically be just as likely to have a necromancer child as a witch child, and much more likely to have a mundane child. Plus, since Tareth is the only deaf person we’ve seen in her family, there’s no guarantee her deafness is hereditary, either!

That said, there’ve probably been deaf witches! But using mindreader magic in the place of hearing would be a rough substitute, especially in Varænske. Unless you were powerful enough to keep a spell going indefinitely, it would only help when you knew you’d need it ahead of time, and it’d be really hard to parse when people are actually asking you a question versus when they’re thinking an unrelated question versus when they’re putting together a question in their heads and deciding whether or not to ask you – and given how illegal witchcraft is in most states, you better not answer a question they didn’t voice!

I don’t imagine voices very strongly – most of my ideas are pretty vague! Plus I don’t watch a lot of movies so I have limited actor voice knowledge, so tbh if anyone has a really convincing/vivid suggestion for how you imagine one of the characters, there’s a good chance you could convince me of it. xD

For Tareth’s voice, I usually give Deanne Bray from Sue Thomas, F.B.Eye – though I think Tareth’s accent would be a little stronger, the voice is really close to how I imagine her!

I compare Severian’s speaking style to Michael Swaim from After Hours (he’s the guy who starts out the episode in that link), though I would also accept an excited Arin Hanson of Game Grumps as a good example – both are irreverent, loud, excitable guys who sound a lil dumber than they are

For Xira I don’t have a solid comparison; he’s young and kinda soft-spoken and sounds kind – Disney’s Aladdin isn’t a bad match. I don’t tend to picture him with an accent because his voice is still vague for me, but if someone found a good example with an accent I’d probably be ALL ABOUT IT

Jonan is the one place where my headcanon strongly diverges from everyone else’s – I imagine his voice kind of high-pitched and I can’t imagine a deep voice. It’s hard to find good examples; think of Jafar when he gets giddy, or Annas, the soprano priest from Jesus Christ Superstar. He’s more of a high-pitched cackle villain than a deep evil laughter villain. Not that his voice, matters, at the moment,,,,

Æmber sounds the teensiest bit southern and lisps. Please imagine this. It’s very cute.

Iavin is the one with the deep intimidating voice.

If you imagine “stressed out cartoon character with British accent who desperately wants things to go to plan” you will probably not be far from how I imagine Esra’s voice.

Quentin is also British (at some point I decided the Ayton Islands’ comparable language was English) but he’s a lot more Jack-Sparrow-mutter-y about it.

Weekly, just like before! :D I’ve been vaaaguely considering a move to Wednesday to get fully out of the weekend, but for now I’m still on Mondays since that’s what everyone was used to before (and also what I have queued up already xD)

The RW website will always update at midnight (EST) for as long as my buffer lasts, and the various social media posts will go up shortly thereafter and probably get ICYMI-reblogged a couple of times. :> On Tapastic, pages were going up at noon over the hiatus, but I’ll very likely start scheduling them for midnight also so they’ll match the website.

THERE!!! I GOT EVERYONE TO COOPERATE!!!