legendarium off the leash

SO. svsss people! if you're in an exploratory mood, this series is japanese but based on chinese historical aesthetics, girl/boy gets pulled to another world and it turns out they're the emperor/emperor's really important magical unicorn, respectively. (not to each other.)

i read these originally in the tokyopop translation back in the early 2000s (also when the anime was made) but seven seas is licensing a new translation, so clearly they think it'll appeal to you guys! a bunch of them are already available.

there's no romance whatsoever, a lot of it is political drama or fighting, but the characters are amazing, the ties between emperor and kirin (the unicorns) are sooo interesting, etc. (i am someone who does not enjoy reading about politics and fighting, and i still cannot put these books down. i love them.) immortal kings (gender-neutral) and their sexy, sexy assistants who can transform into flying horses. it's great.

ALSO. if you don't want to purchase. a particularly dedicated fan (RIP eugene) completed translations of all the books over a decade or more, and you can read them all here/on the site he links.

reading order: i think they're all great and would just start from #1. if you have trouble with the politics, names, etc. you can watch the anime first so that you have their faces in your mind! The OG book 1 (SS 1+2, youko + keiki) and its section of the series focus on female mcs, and the anime starts there.

but if you're coming from danmei, i can imagine that you might want to start with the male/male sets, so SS book four (enki + shoryuu, originally book 3) or the whole taiki + gyousou saga (SS book 3, OG 2). enki + shoryuu first appear in youko's story, and everything is connected but i think the different stories are designed to be able to be read standalone, so.

pithy summaries: taiki (black hair, below) is a twink who falls for (/chooses as his emperor) a hot white-haired army general. there is no way they don't have a weird codependent relationship in the later books. enki (blonde hair) similarly falls for a jaded young samurai lord and now they're both 500 years old and stuck ruling together. (one of the books is about a courtier rebelling against the emperor and i really want them to fuck.) (the emperor spends his time at brothels drinking and listening to music. he's like if shen jiu wasn't totally insane). youko (red hair) gets chosen as empress by a tall blond himbo who might be thought of as a lan wangji w/o his wwx. her best friend is a twink who turns into a rat and then she falls in with an ex-princess and a peasant. the closest this series gets to romance is youko x the rat. it's amazing.

this concludes me plugging 12k....please watch/read!!!

it is not at ALL like lotr in plot/worldbuilding, etc, - but what i think does strike true is the author's seriousness and respect for the world and characters she's built. it is DEEP.

there is no pregnancy because children grow on trees and that enormously affects the worldbuilding and yet is never overtly examined in the story. everybody is either aroace or fucking all the time and we just don't know because there's no mention of relationships ever. i fully believe author has HOME-equivalent books full of charts of characters that will never ever be mentioned. books manage to tie together previously-built stories with entirely new standalone kingdoms with fullly fleshed-out governments. some random thing mentioned in passing in book 1 turns out to get a full backstory in book 7. etc.

these books seem to center on emperor + kirin pairs and yet SO MUCH of each book is incredible stories of side characters off doing their own thing and it matters to the plot. the little people, the small efforts, matter.

i also think the anime respected the intent of the original. ex., the #1 main character is a teenage girl who doesn't have a single thought about boys, and a lot of the important characters in the books are female and fully fleshed out, etc. the anime made the weird choice of adding in two characters--her high school friends (m+f) that get sucked into this alternate world with her. i am recalling that there was definitely some annoying romance stuff, girl v girl thoughts, but ultimately that disappeared and the two girls grew soooo much as characters and were pitted against each other not because of boys but because of survival and ambition. (anyway. i prefer the books there for various reasons, but i think the anime is still impressive in terms of its treatment of female characters. that said, i haven't watched it in ???15 years??? so.)

Biomechanical elves, feat. Maglor and Galadriel! Because you don’t live for ~5000 years on one hröa without needing some maintenance.

Additional thoughts below the cut!

In Another World

“She walks in starlight in another world…” Once, Kíli murmured these words to Tauriel as he lay dying. She saved him then, but she couldn’t save him when he met his end upon Ravenhill. Now, centuries later, Tauriel has accepted her loss and returned to Valinor—but when her old friend Legolas arrives with a dwarf at his side, old griefs reawaken and she determines to make her own happy ending. Only this time, it is Kíli who is in another world, and she must enter into the Halls of the Dead to find him.

for @weekofkiliel Day 7: Afterlife, I finally finished my long-awaited sequel to All Things Turn!! this is a Silm-infused version of Tauriel, but this fic is all about her and Kili (and Legolas and Gimli, of course).

thanks always to the fabulous @welcometolotr for making this whole AU possible <333

Rating: T | No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Kíli/Tauriel, Gimli + Legolas, Legolas & Tauriel, Fingon/Maedhros & Erien, Gimli & Tauriel, Aulë & Gimli, Aulë & Tauriel | Erien, Tauriel & Thorin Characters: Erien | Tauriel, Thúlivren (OC; Queen of Mirkwood), Legolas, Gimli, Maedhros, Fingon, Aulë, Thorin, Kíli Word count: 9.3k

My top five favorite fics I've written, in no particular order:

the Heirlooms series - exploring some of the various objects of Middle-earth and attempting to reconcile their various (often incompatible) histories! currently featuring stories about the Elessar, the mithril coat, and the Dwarven Rings; I'm chipping away at a WIP on the blades of Gondolin next :)

"Treasures Most Precious" (Maedhros/Fingon, 13k) - I'm unreasonably proud of the worldbuilding in this fic, and the Fingolfin/Hador subplot is still one of my favorites. I said this list was in no particular order, but if I had ordered it, this might be my #1 personal favorite!

All Things Turn (Tauriel Russingoniel, 52k) - a beast of a story inspired by @welcometolotr's fabulous art concept!!! I'm currently revisting this 'verse for a fic I'm desperately hoping will be complete in time for @weekofkiliel <3

"and caverns old" (Kidnap Fam, 1.7k) - a short fic I wrote for @jaz-the-bard which turned out to have some very fun worldbuilding and delicious character dynamics! I'm quite proud of this one.

kings and things to take by storm (Fëanor/Fingolfin, WIP) - I've been sitting on this one for so long and it has some really great moments that I'm very excited to share!! next update is this Friday :)

some honorable mentions: the Russingon Fake Dating AU; Beneath the Stars (my first real longfic about post-canon Tauriel), "a most faithful vassal" (Russingon fealty kink smut), father of dragons (another Russingon collab with @welcometolotr as part of their First Oath AU); & You with the Stars in Your Eyes (t4t Kiliel Cinderella AU, one of my very first forays into writing trans characters!)

also, my two favorite non-Tolkien fics: "and Love" (The Adventure Zone; arospec Magnus through the ages) & "A Witch's Gift" (Les Mis; post-canon witch!Musichetta) <3

Nerdanel has white ribbons as her craft is sculpting and stonecarving - I am slowly figuring out my craft = ribbons system - but she only wears them in formal settings, such as when she meets Fëanor in court before they married.

Fëanor is wearing black and white, both expensive colours and stars, while I don´t think the eight pointed star had become his symbol yet, I still think he used it, as it is a very common shape for a star.

For Back to Middle-earth Month 2026, Day 17. Once again, I didn't finish this fic in time to post it all, but here is an excerpt from the second part of my "Elenwe-is-Glorfindel (sort of)" series!

Today's prompts were from the 2017 gameboard's Red Path: Create a fanwork for someone (Act of Kindness - this series is for @welcometolotr <3), Meteor/Shooting Star, A New Age Begins, Foresight, and “I will not say the Day is done, / nor bid the Stars farewell.” Most of those concepts don't appear in this snippet, but they all will once I'm done with the full work.

Here is the introductory section of Part II! I hope the rest will be ready to share soon.

~~~

The golden-haired elf known as Glorfindel emerged from the Halls of Mandos into Valinor, staring up at the blue, blue sky. It had been a very long time since Glorfindel had seen the sky. The elf stared up into the blue, watching the clouds in awe, soaking in the rays of the Sun. It felt very good, that warmth.

(It had been very cold were the elf called Glorfindel had died.)

you know me….can’t resist a height chart…!

color palette challenge fills for @tengwar - @aipilosse - @herinke9 <3

I actually got the exact same pairing for curufin back in 2015 the first time i did this challenge! i tried to lean in to the magenta a tad more this time ;)

Slide #70, written by @nightmares-2 for @tolkienrsb

Maglor and Elrond´s reunion after many years apart, both have had a lot happen to them, and bear feelings that need to be sorted out.

all I can think of is the au I have where Eol doesn't follow his wife and son and winds up stealing Doriath's Silmaril and giving it back to the Sons thus winding up involved in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears

(which goes Very Differently due to his involvement)

and just

how he follows Maedhros and Fingon around with a bucket of water because 'I grew up with your idiot grandparents and I know what THEY got up to while they were 'mushroom gathering' and I'm not DYING because two wet behind the ears MORONS decided to suck cock instead of PLAN A BATTLE PROPERLY-'

Maedhros and Fingon: -tragically romantic, sweeping score, rain-blasted confessions-