#indigenous fantasy

indigenous westeros: wylla manderly vs. house frey.

Quick sketch of Ikumak <3 I'm going to be drawing Kalea next!!

Laika Wallace’s short story, Snow Blindness, has been published in First Peoples Shared Stories by Flame Tree Publishing!

Taken from the publisher’s website: Following the success of Black Sci-Fi Short Stories comes a powerful new addition to the Flame Tree short story collections: the first peoples in Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, the first migration, the first exploration, the discovery of land and landscape without the footprint of humankind. Stories of injustice sit with memories of hope and wonder, dreamtime tales of creation and joy highlight the enduring spirit of humanity. These stories, selected from submissions by new writers and cast alongside ancient stories and oral traditions from around the world bring new perspectives to the legacy of First Nations, of First Peoples.

His addition to the anthology follows a Mi’kmaw trans lesbian and hir daughter searching for a planet for their family to call home after being adrift in space for many generations, and finding something they could never have predicted, for better or for worse…

[Image Description: A digital drawing of Otter from the novel Sorrow's Knot. She's an Indigenous woman with dark skin and straight black hair in two braids. She is shown from the shoulders up, with a web of red string between her hands and a sad expression. One of her eyes is visible in a space between the strings. End ID.]

Ok, I wanted to make this post for awhile and now that I'm on summer break I can.

I want to talk about the Dalish elves from the Dragon Age series. For starters it's very clear that the Dalish are Indigenous coded in every way. Although on surface value, the writers make you feel sympathy for the Dalish as they've constantly lost their land, have had their practices attacked and ridiculed, and have been constantly victimized through the series. But I have some issues with how all this is portrayed.

I for one am a bit tired with the fact that if you have Indigenous people in fantasy, they MUST have suffered a whole lot, lost their homes, and have lost their cultures. I would like to see an Indigenous race just once that aren't victims on the fringes of society who need saving. Although I do like that the Warden and Inquisitior can be Dalish, so you have an Indigenous person as the hero, which is often not the case. But that being said the Warden and Inquisitior still go through a shit ton of racism no matter how good of a hero they are. I always play as a Dalish Inquisitior, but in my first playthough, it was difficult as an Indigenous person to have my Inquisitior experience such hatred.

Now, even through you are supposed to feel sympathy for the Dalish, there's SO MUCH shit of characters saying the Dalish are somewhat responsible for what happened to them. Zevran, whose mom is Dalish, will often talk about her in a glowing light, but immediately will put down the Dalish blaming them for what happened. Solas, who already don't like, is incredibly hostile at first to a Dalish Inquisitior. He lashes out and claims the Dalish in the wrong for clinging so closely to their understanding of their history and culture. That is insulting, as he expectes a people who are suffering from historical trauma, forced assimilation and alienation by other elves to rise above their trauma.

And how are the Dalish characters portrayed? Well there's Velanna, who killed a bunch of humans in rage, Indigenous woman as a murderer. There's Merrill, who I like but as an Indigenous woman practices blood magic, called a monster, whitewashed, either destroys her clan or kills her keeper, and of course there's the possibility of the Dalish Inquisitor, who will be forced to abandon their culture and life as an Indigenous person and will be ridiculed constantly and unfortunately seem to develop a colonized mindset too.

My last point is on, the fact they're elves. I'm not 100% elven Indigenous races in fantasy, hell I have some Indigenous elves in my own fantasy world. But the Dalish seem to be the only Indigenous people in Dragon Age and of course they had to be elves. So on top of them being helpless victims, being in part at fault for their genocide, the Dalish characters who are portrayed as vicious and dangerous or colonized, they also have to be elves. Why is it not the best thing to have EXCLUSIVELY elves as Indigenous people? Well if your only Indigenous people in fantasy are elves, and the oppressors as humans has Indigenous people as the inhumans, while the colonizers are humans. It isn't impossible to have Indigenous humans in fantasy. I'm not saying the Dalish should've been human, but why did you only need one Indigenous race and why couldn't you have had a race of Indigenous humans.

To end this I want to say I don't hate the Dalish, there's a reason I only play as a Dalish Inquisitior, because I feel better playing as a heavily Indigenous coded character, but I wish the Dalish were written better. I wish they weren't just victims to be saved by good humans, I wish they weren't blamed for being killed, I wish that people didn't try to justify templars going after them and blame the Dalish for being poor to their mages when they're trying to protect themselves, I wish the Dalish characters weren't written as monsters or horrible, I wish Indigenous races in fantasy didn't have to just be elves. We already know the Dalish deserve better, but everyone needs to know that the shit Dalish go through, in game, in fandom, and in writing is purely anti Indigenous.

indigenous westeros: the lords & ladies of the north.

eddard stark. the head of house stark, lord of winterfell & warden of the north & hand of the king to king robert i baratheon. father of robb, sansa, arya, bran & rickon stark. known as the quiet wolf, wielder of the valyrian steel sword ice. widely beloved in the north & known for his unwavering sense of honor & justice. executed on false charges of high treason in 299 AC.

roose bolton. the head of house bolton, lord of the dreadfort, lord of leeches & warden of the north. cold, cunning, remorseless & implacable, lord roose murdered robb stark the king in the north at the red wedding & plays with the minds of men & it's rumored that the leeches sucked all the passion, love, hate & grief long ago.

ramsay bolton. the bastard of bolton, the bastard of the dreadfort of lord roose's brood, he was born as ramsay snow & is highly resentful of his baseborn status yet considers himself a bolton & refers to himself proudly as the trueborn scion of house bolton & violently corrects those who refer to him otherwise. cruel, cunning, sly, greedy, vicious & a skilled manipulator, ramsay takes delight in torturing others, fond of the ancient custom of house bolton of flaying their enemies alive. has a group of men-at-arms that are just as depraved as ramsay called the bastard's boys & keeps a pack of female hunting hounds & a steed called blood.

barbrey dustin. ruling lady of barrowton, lady barbrey, while cunning, has grown into a bitter woman over the years, particularly with the starks. dresses all in black without gold or jewelry. she is distrustful of the maesters & refers to them as grey rats. was infatuated with lord brandon stark, the eldest son of lord rickard stark, she had an affair with him who took her maidenhead. one of the conspirators of the northern restoration in stark hands.

mors "crowfood" umber. mors umber, known as mors crowfood, is a member of house umber, the uncle of lord greatjon umber, and the joint castellan of last hearth with his younger brother, hother. Whilst sleeping by the side of a road, a crow had taken mors for dead and so it pecked out his eye. according to old nan, he grabbed the raven at its feet and bit its head off, earning him the nickname crowfood. his wife died in childbirth, his sons were killed during the battle of the trident in robert's rebellion and his only daughter was abducted in 270 AC by wildlings, leaving mors with a deep hatred of the free folk. mors is an old man, huge and powerful, with a ruddy face and a shaggy white beard. he wears a chunk of dragonglass in place of a lost eye or conceals the empty socket with a stained white leather eye patch. he wears a cloak made of a snow bear with its head as a hood. he helps stannis baratheon fight the boltons to retake winterfell, saving theon greyjoy & jeyne poole's lives in the process & is entirely aware that jeyne poole is not arya stark.

jeyne poole. a member of house poole, jeyne is the daughter of the steward of winterfell, vayon poole, and is the best friend of sansa stark. tragically, she is taken, trafficked and sold by petyr baelish to house bolton as a fake arya stark to support the bolton claim to winterfell and the north and endures unspeakable abuse and torture. with the help of theon greyjoy, they escape winterfell. stannis baratheon decides to send her to the wall to reunite with jon snow, tasking ser justin massey to bring jeyne to castle black with an escort of six men along with alysane mormont.

wyman manderly. the Lord of white harbor & the head of house manderly, warden of the white knife, shield of the faith, defender of the dispossessed, lord marshal of the mander, knight of the order of the green hand & a widower for the past eight years, wyman has two adult sons, ser wylis and ser wendel manderly, wyman is nearly sixty years old, is amiable and has a loud, booming laugh. he is mocked by his own people as lord lamprey, by his on admission and because of his physical appearance, wyman is seen by many as craven and foolish. this is a clever front, however, as wyman is shrewd, calculating and intelligent, and is staunchly loyal to house stark. one of the conspirators of the northern restoration in stark hands.

wylla manderly. one of lord wyman manderly's granddaughters, she dyes her hair a garish green & wears it in a braid, she has a thin high voice & is very brave. wylla reminded her grandfather & the lords of the north to remember their vows to king robb stark & goes on to tell of the promises of loyalty house manderly made to house stark when they were exiled from the reach centuries ago, in front of the freys.

howland reed. the lord of greywater watch & the head of house reed, holding dominion over the crannogmen of the neck. howland's children with his wife, jyana, are meera and jojen. howland reed is a close friend of lord eddard stark of winterfell & is one of the very few people living who know of jon snow's true heritage.

meera reed. lord howland reed's daughter, eldest child & heir of greywater watch, she is a fine hunter & fisher & was taught to fight with net & spear. meera was one of the few who escorted bran stark & his companions beyond the wall.

alysane mormont. known as aly & the she-bear, alysane is the second daughter of lady maege mormont, lady of bear island & is considered the heir to bear island after the murder of her elder sister dacey mormont during the red wedding. unwed, she is in her mid-twenties and has two children, the eldest a daughter of nine and the youngest a son of two. she joins king stannis baratheon's armies for the march on winterfell as a female warrior & shieldmaiden & is assigned as asha greyjoy's guard later promoted to "arya stark" (actually jeyne poole)'s companion to castle black.

sybelle glover. originally from house locke, sybelle glover is the wife of robett glover & the mother of gawen & erena glover & in the absence of the brothers galbart & robett, lady sybelle is the lady of deepwood motte; sybelle glover is a pious woman who often prays in deepwood motte's godwood. sybelle and her children are captured when deepwood is taken by the ironborn, where they are kept captive, until asha greyjoy brings sybelle and her children to ten towers on harlaw and then she returns to deepwood with asha, with her children remaining at ten towers with the harlaws. she is freed when the army of king stannis baratheon retakes deepwood motte and sends many glover men with king stannis to march on winterfell, including guides, trackers and hunters, ransoming six ironborn prisoners to tycho nestoris; lady sybelle glover is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with & has an incredibly sharp mind.

alys karstark. a noblewoman of house karstark, she is the only daughter of rickard karstark, lord of karhold. her betrothed, daryn hornwood & two of her brothers, eddard & torrhen karstark, are killed at the battle in the whispering wood by ser jaime lannister. called a grey girl on a dying horse, riding to the wall to escape an arranged marriage, to avoid marrying her great uncle arnolf karstark, alys flees her cousin cregan karstark and seeks aid from jon snow at the wall. jon instead arranges for alys to marry signorn, magnar of thenn, thus creating a new noble northern-free folk house that would claim karhold should her brother harrion karstark perish.

lyanna mormont. the youngest daughter of lady maege mormont on bear island, she was named after lady lyanna stark & is fiercely loyal to house stark. when king stannis baratheon sends out letters demanding the northern lords bend the knee to him, it is lyanna who at only ten years, as lady of bear island, sends back a reply refuting his claim saying that house mormont will bend no knee unless it is to a stark.

wynafryd manderly. one of lord wyman manderly's granddaughters. as part of the terms of white harbor being pardoned and returning to the king's peace of tommen i baratheon, wynafryd is betrothed to the widowed rhaegar frey. when lord davos seaworth visits the merman's court, wylla proclaims that the freys killed lord eddard, lady catelyn, and king robb, and that house manderly should join stannis baratheon in the name of vengeance. wynafryd refers to her sister's exclamation as a child's foolishness. wynafryd pretends to be pleased with her betrothal to rhaegar. after faking the execution of davos and releasing him from imprisonment in the wolf's den, her scheming grandfather, lord wyman manderly, informs davos he had already revealed his plans to wynafryd and she knows the marriage will never take place. wynafryd's betrothal ends with the suspected death of rhaegar on his way to winterfell.

donella hornwood. the lady of hornwood, wife of lord halys hornwood and mother of daryn hornwood, originally from house manderly, she is a cousin of wyman manderly, lord of white harbor. on her return to hornwood from the harvest feast at winterfell, lady donella is seized by ramsay snow and forcibly married to him that night. lord manderly then seizes her castle to protect her holdings from the boltons. after the wedding, ramsay locks her in a tower and fails to feed her. she is eventually found dead, with blood around her mouth and her fingers chewed off. ramsay's actions leads to fighting in the hornwood between the boltons and the manderlys.

dacey mormont. the heir of house mormont, she is the daughter of lady maege mormont, lady of bear island, and the niece of jeor mormont, lord commander of the night's watch. at an age where girls would receive dolls, she was given a morningstar. she was a lanky woman who finds herself at ease in a lady's garb or leather armor, dacey was elegant in dress and dance. she was murdered at the red wedding.

jonelle cerwyn. daughter of medger cerwyn & sister of cley cerwyn, jonelle accompanied her father to winterfell until he went south to fight for king robb stark. after the deaths of her father & brother, jonelle has become the lady of castle cerwyn.

maege mormont. lady of bear island & head of house mormont, she inherited the title from her exiled nephew jorah mormont & the younger sister of jeor mormont, lord commander of the night's watch. stubborn, short-temptered and willful, she is dedicated to the old gods, and loyal to house stark. she has five daughters: her eldest and heir, dacey; and alysane, lyra, jorelle, and lyanna; she has no sons. no one knows who the father of maege's children is, or even if she ever married. there are rumors that she beds with a bear; her daughter, alysane, smilingly shares the same rumor, claiming that mormont women are skinchangers who turn into bears and find mates in the woods. nonetheless, all of maege's daughters carry the surname "mormont", and none appear to be considered bastards. it is possible that maege's husband came from a family of lower nobility than the mormonts, or no nobility at all, in which case a woman can prefer to retain her own surname for herself and for her children. rumored to be in the neck with howland reed & is aware of robb stark's will to crown jon snow as his heir & king of the north & possibly aware of jon snow's true heritage.

mance rayder. once a man of the night's watch before breaking his vows and abandoning his post. he has since become extremely influential among the free folk, and is called the "king-beyond-the-wall".

eddara tallhart. a girl of almost ten years old, eddara becomes the head of her house after the successive deaths of her older brother benfred at stony shore & of her father helman at the battle of duskendale. currently she is held captive by the ironmen at torrhen's square.