#totss

Are you new to Thelema and looking for good beginner resources? Here is helpful list of beginner friendly books, podcasts, YouTube channels, and other online resources. They are listed in no particular order. Beginner Thelema book recommendations: Easier Crowley texts to start with: * Magick in Theory and Practice by Aleister Crowley * Magick without Tears by Aleister Crowley * The Law is for All by Aleister Crowley Other great intro books to start with: * Living Thelema by David Shoemaker * The Magick of Aleister Crowley by Lon Milo Duquette * The Chicken Qabalah by Lon Milo Duquette * The Weiser Concise Guide to Aleister Crowley by Richard Kaczynski * Perdurabo by Richard Kaczynski * Abrahadabra: Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thelemic Magic by Rodney Orpheus * Thelema: An Introduction to the Life, Work & Philosophy of Aleister Crowley by Colin D. Campbell

Thelema resources online: YouTube channels: * Maevius Lynn: https://www.youtube.com/c/MaeviusLynn * O.T.O. USA: https://www.youtube.com/@OrdoTempliOrientisUSA * Blazing Star O.T.O.: https://www.youtube.com/@BlazingStarOTO * Horizon O.T.O.: https://www.youtube.com/@horizon-oto * Sekhet Maat O.T.O.: https://www.youtube.com/@sekhetmaat5987 * Dionysius Rogers: https://www.youtube.com/@dionysiusrogers3548 * Living Thelema with David Shoemaker: https://www.youtube.com/@livingthelema5221 * Temple of the Silver Star: https://youtube.com/c/TempleoftheSilverStar * Speech in Silence: https://www.youtube.com/user/speechinthesilence * Lon Milo DuQuette - Arcanum Luminarium: https://www.youtube.com/@Arcanumluminarium * Sword and Serpent Oasis Learning Library https://www.youtube.com/@swordandserpentoasislearni8589 Podcasts: * Living Thelema on Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/living-thelema/id935174735 * Thelema Now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thelema-now-crowley-ritual-magick/id325185715 * Speech in Silence: https://www.speechinthesilence.com/

Continuing down the absolute rabbit hole that has been hunting down TOTSS and TLW sources, I am seeking to identify the origins of these pictures:

I suspect the first image to be from a different magazine than the others, but all I really know about these is where I found them: On the website (wayback'd of course) of an OG tlw and totss fan named Catseye. They claimed they found these in "old magazines" but didn't list which issues, titles or country. I believe they are likely to be from either late 1997 or early 1998 since it aired in Australia in Feb of 1998.

TV Week was the biggest mag for TV news in Australia at the time, so I have strong suspicions they're from one of those issues, but even an enquiry to the National Library of Australia didn't get me very far because there were so many issues, across every state, and it seems not a lot from the 90s are in anyway accessible to foreigners.

━━━━⋅⋅⋅ˏˋ ✦ ˊˎ⋅⋅⋅━━━━ 

Are you ready to enter the world of magic…?

💠 Tales of the Sanguine Sapphires 💠

━━━━⋅⋅⋅ Plot Synopsis ⋅⋅⋅━━━━

300 years after the events of Scorching, in an era of shaky peace, magic arrives to Pyrrhia. 

Sanguine Sapphires, the first known Animus Artifat, is shattered, spilling its power into the hearts of hundreds of dragons.

These Sanguine Animi have been given strange, new magic. Magic which the world of Pyrrhia has never seen before…

Walk amongst friends and foes in a world filled with all ten tribes, join a faction, meet the Queens, and decide the fate of these new dragons... before they destroy everything.

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ˏˋ ✦ What we offer

Tales of the Sanguine Sapphires is a Wings of Fire roleplay years in the making! Unique lore, an ancient, unexplored setting, and a structured format allow for an easy and casual roleplay experience! We offer four different factions to join, the **Skywing Empire**, **the Kingdom of Night**, **the Hivewing Kingdom**, and the elusive **Talons of Magic**- each with their own tribal alliances and enemies. If that doesn't catch your eye, feel free to be **Factionless**, and carve your own path! *Below are just some highlights!*

    ✦ Extensive lore channels that change as you roleplay!

    ✦ NPCs and NPC databases!

    ✦ Location-specific channels!

    ✦ Mods are active and friendly roleplayers, just like you!

    ✦ Minimal tribe/ability restrictions and Semi-realism!

ˏˋ ✦ Beginner friendly!

If you're new to the world of Wings of Fire roleplays, or the books in general, you're in the right place! We’re open to beginners, either to the book series or roleplay itself! Additionally, our Tupperbot is easy to set up and operate!

Interested? That’s great! Check out the link below to join, and let the magic begin!

Tagged by @nappyfreesince2003!

Match from the list below one emotion from each taste to each character in your WIP and describe why:

Sweet: Intelligence - Reason - Love - Hope - Confidence - Delight - Curiosity - Patience - Kindness - Courage - Peace - Humility - Awe Salty: Fear - Anger - Pride - Obsession - Envy - Regret - Shame - Guilt - Disappointment - Cynicism - Naivety - Emotion - Contempt Spicy: Dominance - Submission (just a funny little extra taste for those who prefer it ;) )

Ummm there are 37 named characters in my book so maybe not all of them?? I might just do this for my protagonist, Ahrin xD

Ahrin Latala

Sweet: Love. Ahrin is deeply connected to her adoptive family, and while it is incredibly difficult to gain her trust, once you do she will do anything for you (and by “anything”, I mean literally anything). The loss of a loved one is the inciting incident of her journey, and it is the need to keep the rest of her family safe, as well as the urge to protect those she doesn’t even know, that keeps her going.

Salty: Obsession. Being willing to do anything for those you love has the effect of making Ahrin set herself near-impossible tasks that are harmful to herself, and for her “letting go” is not an option, because in her mind it would mean “giving up”. 

Spicy: Dominant. Even in moments of vulnerability, Ahrin never lets her guard down. Nobody knows exactly what’s going through her head at any given time, and chances are that even when she’s having an important heart-to-heart with a loved one she’s still holding something back.

Rules: Post 5 interesting facts about your wip world/plot/characters/etc that people probably don’t know.

Tagged by the ever-awesome @sweetcatminteareblog 

Despite trying to open up on here, I’m still useless on social media so pretty much everything about my WIP is unknown to you guys... but I’ll try to say some facts I generally wouldn’t!

1. This is so embarrassing but... it started out as a Star Wars fanfic set during the time of Revenge of the Sith to a couple of years after (25 BBY - 7 BBY). 

When I watched The Force Awakens at the end of 2015 it changed my life (I’m not obsessed with it now as I was, but my artistic interests-- in all three fields; writing, visual art, and music-- completely changed as a result). One day in January of 2016 I, like the nerd I am, was designing a lightsaber for myself when one popped up that... really didn’t belong to me. And then I realised that there was an entire person behind it, and she had a story that needed telling.

The WIP lasted about 3 months (~26,000 words) as a fanfic before I became frustrated with the Star Wars universe and decided to go my own direction. (Never have I made a better decision. The first draft was done in December 2016; the first complete draft I had ever written.)

2.  Other influences on my WIP (that I have been able to consciously acknowledge) are The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, Avatar: Legend of Korra, Uglies, Sabriel, and my favourite series ever (which unfortunately is not translated into English), Memorias de Idhun (Memories of Idhun).

3. My WIP is part of a seven-part series (including three prequels... yeah, shoot me now xD), two of which have at least a complete first draft written. Being the naive, inexperienced writer I was at the beginning, I thought it was only going to be one book (if it had remained as a fanfic, it probably would’ve been so, actually). Then that book split into two... then the first half of that split into two again... then I realised there was more to tell after the third part. (The prequels just... appeared at some point, I don’t even know when or how xD)

Will I be able to write it all? Time will tell.

4. With numbers assigned to each book in chronological order, the reading order of the series is: 4 - 5 - 6 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 7

...which is so wild, I know, but it’s all a giant unravelling mystery and it would be a REALLY bad idea to read it all in chronological order xD

5. The series spans over ~1700 years, starting from 2318 A.D. (The fanfic would have spanned 18 years.)

Tagged by @inkpotlanterned!

rules: list three things that make your oc(s) happy!

My WIP is called The Trials of the Singing Sword, and within it my protagonist, Ahrin, has a “family” of sorts, of five other children she’s raised with, so I’ll do this for them within the context of the first book. For the record, they grow up in a pretty oppressive environment where they’re expected to behave like soldiers instead of children and have little exposure to the frivolities of the outside world. (small note: some of their names will be changed)

Ahrin

Basically any form of physical activity (running and sword duels are favourites, though); being able to feel the pull and stretch and power of her body and focus on nothing else

Reading history books

The feel of the sun on her skin; the taste of heat in the air; dust crowding her feet

Katya (man, she was hard to do! She’s not one to indulge in creature comforts)

Getting perfect scores on training simulations and beating people (especially Resdin) in duels

Leading a team into success/having others look up to her

Honestly, she just thrives off the feeling of a job well done (and the neatness of it)

Bonus: that feeling of standing under warm shower water and feeling clean and cozy and like you never want to leave

Resdin

Puns (he lives for crafting and delivering them)

Making people laugh (or groan, if the pun is really bad xD)

The adrenaline rushes that doing stupid things like jumping out of a second-story window cause (he’s such a junkie, my god)

Anoosha 

Having quiet moments to herself where she can sit down, close her eyes, and lose herself in a favourite song played on repeat

Sharing a story or drawing she’s super proud of creating with her family

Adding a new random colourful trinket she’s not supposed to have to her collection

Bafri

Resolving conflicts (he loves the moment when two fighting people reach an understanding and therefore have a stronger bond with each other than before)

Hugging people to make them feel better

Seeing his family gathered in one place, laughing and chatting together about unimportant things, and being part of that

Yako

When he explains something to someone, and they have an “omg, I get it!” moment

Getting good grades on school projects

Mastering high-concept ideas or skills after hours/days/weeks of hard work

*sobs* I love my knight babies so much

After two months, I am almost done with my full rewrite of The Trials of the Singing Sword (just a couple more chapters left!). 

I just deleted an entire chapter from the old draft, and while it was previously quite important and had a lot of things I really loved, deleting it felt less like killing my darlings and more like... opening the door to something new.