Intense Love Confessions

Fantasy Guide: Horses, Steeds and Mounts

Horses are a staple of fantasy. Instead of writing them as emotionless vehicles lets give them life.

Horse Terminology

Mare: female horse

Gelding: castrated male horse, big boned and gentle

Stallion: male horse, more agressive

Foal: baby horse

Filly: girl baby horse

Colt : boy baby horse

Yearling: a horse a year old, too young to ride

Pony: small, smart and sturdy,

Colour

When writing horses, we like to colour them in. Make sure to have a look at my colours post for some symbolic choices.

Appaloosa: white hair and dark patches

Bay: red-brown, dark, mahogany bay, red bay, sandy are all common shades but bay must always have a hint of black.

Black: black but keep in mind that pure black is very rare.

Chestnut/Sorrel: reddish coat, may have brown/rws

Dun: yellowish commonly but can be reddish yellow horse

Paint/Pinto – white patches

Palomino: golden coat, white mane

Piebald – dark-skinned, with large splotches of black and white

Roan: blue or strawberry; mixed colored and white hairs. A blue roan has black and white manes, red roans have white manes.

Physical signs

These all tell you what the horse is telling you. Listen to your horse.

Blow: exhaling through the nose. This indicates curiousness and often followed by nuzzling.

Breathing: Yes, check if the horse is breathing first. Always a good point. But yes, horses have a resting breath that is relaxed. Changes to this could mean anxiety or fear.

Ears are up and pointed forward: alert and interested

Ears are pointed out to the side: Sleepy, tired, unwell or submissive.

Ears are pointed up: unwell or bored

Ears are back and pinned flat against the head: angry and aggressive. Fuck off right now or you’ll catch these hooves.

Neigh/Whinny: a sound made to look for company in people or horses.

Nicker: usually means “hello” in either a friendly context or a mating context. Mama horse will nicker to their kids.

Scream: usually while fighting some other horses.

Snort: exhaling through the nose sharply which is code for where’s the danger.

Feeding time

Horses need to be fed and it’s expensive. Horses are the most costly thing for a castle or army to have. It takes money to field a large calvary so make sure you have some food on board.

Apples and fruit.

Barley

Bran

Grass

Hays

Oats

Root vegetables – beetroot, carrots, parsnips, and turnips

Tack

Corn

Tack

This is the term for your horses kit. This will be a basic list.

Saddle: Your seat on the horse

Stirrups: supports that hang from either side of the saddle to support the feet.

Girth: A belt that fastens the saddle to the horse.

Bridle: The bit that goes over the horse’s face

Reins: connected to the bridle and ensures you have a grip

Bit: this is what the horse has between its teeth.

Horn: a raised portion of the saddle that sits at the point where the saddle is close to the neck.

Blanket: a drape of fabric used to warm a horse or stop rubbing from the saddle.

Things you ought to know about horses

Riding bareback (i hear you laughing, pervert) is actually quite hard and dangerous

Horses have limits and most can’t gallop all night without a break

Horses often break legs and sometimes must be put down (honestly fuck you Veronica, #cobalt deserved better)

Horses die in battle, not all horses make it out (you go, Joey)

Common horses mentioned in fantasy

Destrier: The most popular war horse of the medieval era. These horses are only ever really used by knights in battles, tournaments, and jousts. It was not the most common horse but it was considered the desired of horses even being called “the great”. Usually male, these horses were renowned for their agility able to turn quickly making it suitable for battle. Destriers are expensive. When one looks in the histories you seen them going for almost ten times the price of another breed. The breed has since died out but scientists and equestrians have since been trying to reproduce them.

Courser: This was the more commonly used and available war horse. It is fast and strong horse ridden by knights and men-at-arms. They were not expensive than the destrier but still would cost a pretty penny.

Rouncey: A commonly used horse used anything and everything. Mostly used for riding, the horse could be trained for battle.

Palfrey: Would be an expensive horse for riding. It was a slender horse with an ambling gait so it was prized for traveling over distance.

Hunters: Or more commonly called Thoroughbred. The Thoroughbred is a fast horse and an agile one. Though vest for racing, the thoroughbred was mostly used when the nobility went riding in hunting excursions.

Don’t drink holy water, it actually tastes gross and I think that’s what being on drugs feels like. I don’t know, never taken any but I got all weird and loopy and my friend almost threw up

Character Introduction

I realize while I post a lot of irl stuff, this has became a very mixed blog where I interact with RP accounts as a mixture of a self insert oc so guess I'll make one then for proper interactions! While she may be similar to me, she's not me if that makes sense?

This is Blizzard, a tired writer who is trapped in her editor's basement until she writes something. Which is affectively 90% of the time embodiment of the "does everything EXCEPT write". She gets lost easily, which is how she runs into the most random of people.

I used picrew to make this image

She blinked in surprise the moment he mentioned what she did was insulting. Holding up her arms as if she was told to put her hands up. Freezing up again as he moved. Following all his movements with her eyes the moment he fell to the floor she jumped back.

Blizzard had to think for a moment before kneeling down next to him as he explained she was in danger, not fully understanding why she was in the first place. Her expression slowly turned soft with a small frown, turning her voice to a whisper since it had clearly hurt his ears before when she had spoken a bit louder, "I do apologize."

A hint of worry laced her tone. Staying in place, making sure not to be too close as to not intimidate him even though she was the one in more danger. Fully she sat down on the floor with him on her knees, setting her hands down on her lap.

Whenever she left, she finds it hard to believe that encounters like this really happened. She took in a breath, reaching one of her hands up to fix her long violet hair that strayed into her face and set her hand back down on her lap.

"Are you alright?" She asked, still in that same low soft tone as to not hurt the poor boy's ears. Even though the warnings of her being in danger, clearly she didn't care. Of course she noted the tall heels he wore, figuring it was to make himself taller though that was the least of her worries since there was no way those things were comfortable at all to walk in. She would know, she wears heels often, not as high as those but still enough to be slightly uncomfortable at times.

⚰️ for a starter where my muse turns your muse into a vampire

"What a shame, that door is locked...!"

Sorry, Blizzard, your attempt to just find your way back out, testing random doors, proved a failure, as the occupant of this abandoned mansion has been silently following you from the shadows, and has now decided to reveal himself, after silently approaching! While startling due to the sudden and unexpected speech, it's a rather high voice, isn't it? Either a child or a deeper-voiced woman. It seems to come from lower behind her, too...

Were Blizzard to turn around, she'd find... he's... awfully tiny, isn't he?! That cape dwarfs him and looks like it would constantly get caught underfoot were he not wearing heels to elevate him and keep his cape just above treading range...

Despite all that, he looks smug and quite proud of himself for securing prey! (He hardly did, though...? She kind of just stumbled in by sheer luck, fortunate for him, unfortunate for her...?)

But, would she just be prey? It almost seems too bad, she was fun to watch, wandering the mansion, that almost felt like ending it too quickly...

After his unnecessary taunting (probably emboldened by the fact she's trapped here with him), he'll immediately turn into... a Swoobat (albeit one with a slightly more human face, with dirty blonde her, grey eyes, but sporting the upturned fangs, ears, and heart-nose of a Swoobat!) to fly up to try and bite her neck.

Same 💔

Eous is very cute, tbh (Original idea @ sweepswoop_ on twitter)

USEFUL WEBSITES FOR WRITERS

Writing With Color: Helps with writing about culture, ethnicity, and religion. Overall, it gives advice on how to write about diversity.

Name Generator: As the name says, it helps you build names for your characters. Very useful if you cannot think of names for your characters!

KathySteinemann: The 'archive.pdf' section helps you with synonyms in case you struggle to find the right word for your sentences (also to avoid using redundant words).

Spwickstrom: Similar to the previous one, this one provides grammar tips. Extremely helpful when finding phrases, verbs, conjunctions, adjectives, and so on.

Servicescape: The perfect website if you're experiencing writer's block. It provides writing prompts. It helps you spark creativity when it comes to writing.

reblog to help other writers !!

Lucifer is just so in love and obsessed with you. not in a scary way or anything- but in a very soft way, just melting completely whenever the simplest, everyday things remind him of his little lamb you.

it can be anything, really, maybe he sees your favorite pastry in a bakery or something in a shop window he thinks you’d like or maybe he simply passes somebody in the street that has the same hair color as you.

and before he can stop himself, Lucifer is reaching into his pocket for his phone to call you a soft little smile on his face. even if he can only hear your voice for a few seconds it’ll make his day so much better <3

I've got a friend that's fallen hard for Arlecchino, so I'll request an ask for S/O accidentally calling her "Daddy"

If someone already requested something like this with Arlecchino, please respond and say so, because that would honestly be funny

(Genshin Impact) Accidentally calling Arlecchino "Daddy"

As suggestive as the nickname is, Arlecchino actually has zero idea of S/O is talking about.

She already struggles trying to understand the words being used by the children at the orphanage.

And when Arlecchino hears S/O's intrusive thoughts let loose, she simply looks at them, expression barely changed.

After all, she's called "Father", and has had several of the kids call her daddy as well. It's not that weird for S/O to do the same.

...Right?

(Arlecchino) "Yes? What is it?"

She quickly realizes how red S/O is turning, and can't help but feel confused.

They didn't look or feel sick, so what was the matter?

(S/O) "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to call you that!"

(Arlecchino) "What is wrong with calling me daddy?"

S/O nearly choked on their own spit when they heard Arlecchino's question, making her even more confused.

Maybe she should ask Lyney next chance she got...

BONUS:

By the way, did you know Arlecchino canonically struggles with understanding the slang her kids say? Just like a real dad.

To the writer who needs to hear it…

YES. Your story DOES matter. It wouldn’t exist without you. You are in charge of bringing it to life because other writers don’t possess your style / voice. You are the only person capable of creating your story.

You are an unique, creative, worthy human being. Go show the world what you’re capable of.