Fun fact: If you google “Those who must be kept”, this is the second picture to come up… and it was done by me… in December 2009. That’s 8 years ago!! And I still kind of like it. A lot.
The clothing is all wrong, of course…
I remember how proud I was about the texts having some meaning… I cheated a lot and just copied existing texts and changed some words in them… and added some “I’ll just write it like usual but with a hierogyph-font”…
It sais something like this:
at their feet
Left: “Mother of Gods” “Full Of Magic” “Ruler Of The Universe” Akasha
Right: “Ruler Of Eternity” “Great God” “The Perfect One” “First Son” Enkil
on the left See! They are the Beginning. She is the Mother. He is the Father. Those Who Must Be Kept. Protect and enshrine them, the progenitors of all vampires. They are our destiny.
*Beloved Son Marius, for us you give your freedom and your love. We will always remember you.*
They are the Beginning.
*** All those Names are the Names used for Isis and Osiris. (Except the “first son”)
(On a sidenote and before people come at me and accuse me of whitewashing: Read the books: As vampires they had Alabaster skin. On this picture they are supposed to have been vampires for quite some time already. So cut my younger self some slack, ‘kay?)
This is how we had our very fist contact… in 2010!!
Beautiful! I love these kind of stories!
(I’m sorry you felt you needed to add the side note about POC. This is a hotly debated thing. 1) AR was adhering to the vampire physiology rules she had already set in place in the first few books, that vampire skin becomes lighter with age, and 2) we do not know definitively what color mortal!Akasha’s skin would have been, given that not all Egyptians are necessarily dark skinned. Rami Malek, for example, is a light-skinned Egyptian-American).
To my knowledge, we don’t really have a name, like the Potterheads for HP or the Hiddlestoners for Tom Hiddleston 😦
We’re just “VC fans.” If I’m differentiating between different vampire media, I’ll say “Ricean vampires” or “VC vampires.”
It’s an old fandom, so old that I’m pretty sure it predates fandom being the recognized thing it is today. We were also strongly discouraged from creating fanfic, so maybe that’s why we don’t have a name. VC fanfic was underground, the fandom was in hiding, we didn’t want to draw unwanted attention by having a name. The Talamasca slogan might as well be our fandom’s slogan, too: We watch and we are always here.
Sometimes I refer to us as “People Off the Page,” to differentiate us from the VC Facebook fans who Anne Rice calls her “People of the Page.” More on that here. They used to be a formidable army she could sic on other fans/reviewers/etc., but things have been peaceful for awhile now, thankfully.
I used to refer to us tumblr fans as “fanged little trash kittens” or “fanged little trash monsters” more frequently than I do now. Probably had to do with the fandom trend at one point of saying “I’m such X-trash!/I’m trash for X!” meaning that you loved X thing/character. Seemed only natural that we would be fanged trash creatures. And it’s gender-neutral.
Any variation on the words Vampire and Chronicles doesn’t wholly work for us, since there are so many other Vampire series and Chronicles series.
//I’d like to suggest “Children of Darkness“
I second “Children of Darkness”. So dignified.
Yes, we have been called that, or called ourselves that, in the past! I’m sorry I forgot! Here, I made us a super classy badge:
(Font is “Dr Sugiyama” from http://www.1001fonts.com.)
I had planned on something more like… ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, but it ended up being ‘Little Dead Stabbing Claudia’ so to speak…Sometimes I don’t even know what I am scetching until it’s done.
It was fun and I think I might be getting the hang of Aquarelle. At least I like working with it. My favourite part was colouring the lips ^-^
I used reference for the face, since I’m not very good at childrens features yet. You know, proportions and stuff. And I wanted her to actually look her age, BUT with lipstick XD
//The boys, obviously well behaved. Marius better be proud.
“Good was above all kind; it was to be gentle. It was to waste nothing. It was to paint, to read, to study, to listen.” ― Anne Rice, The Vampire Armand
I’m re-watching Interview With The Vampire and as much as I love Lestat, I feel so bad for Louis. Like, I really can’t blame him. I really can’t. He’s stuck with this loud, blonde, glittery murder machine and all he wants to do is crawl into a pillow fort and cry for 700 years. Can you blame him? Can you?
I can ^o^ Lestat is the right punishment for someone with a deathwish who chooses immortality. Louis really didn’t think this through, imho.
I love the Vampire Chronicles and my absolute favourite is, has always been and will always be Nicki.
I know my hair is not curly enough on this Picture, but it had been a long day and my curls had faded a bit. Still, this is my favourite Picture of my red Velvet coat. The embroidery has been done by Hand and it was my ‘first time’ too. Sadly, I cannot Play the violin… but I love it anyway. ^.^
Can we please talk about how perfect the-savage-nymph-art is as Nicolas de Lenfent?
(She made the whole outfit herself. She did all the embroidery by hand! I commented this cosplay about 5 years or so ago, then I met her at a convention in 2014. She told me her nickname of a site we’re both on and I suddenly made the connection to her Nicki-Cosplay… I had planned to cosplay Armand (along with a friend as Louis) the very next day and I got her to wear Nikolas for me. What can I say? I fell in love. Literally. Meeting her changed my life. A lot. But I’m so much more happy now.)
[2nd ask sent]– almost entirely just a complete theft of the intellectual property that they started as fan-derivative works of. so i don’t know if half of what op claims is fair? because it’s true that anne rice chased away her online fandom with a broom, but it’s not totally baseless given the circumstances. she’s not just some crazy old lady imo. sorry again, i don’t want to start a fight but i don’t agree.
Okay, so this is a HUGE topic and I could write an essay and a half on all the issues raised, but it DOES sound like you’re trying to start a fight, partly bc you submitted this on Anon (and you started w/ “this is ooc” so it’s clear you’re an RPer, infringing on the VC copyright through RP, which is writing fanfic, for free!) and partly bc of your general tone, which in all fairness I could be misreading.
I’m not sure you totally understand AR’s War on Fanfic in the early-mid 90′s, or the actual points raised in the post you disagree with so strongly, so that’s why I’m taking the time to answer.
However, for everyone’s future reference: my policy has been to answer every Ask I get but that policy is changing NOW. If I get the feeling that a message is provocative in a negative way, I won’t answer it publicly. Privately, I might, if you come off Anon.
^Louis doesn’t really want to get involved in this discussion. It’s ok, just sit there and look pretty, hun, we’ll keep this brief.
asked a question, “Why is there so little Vampire Chronicles fan activity or content?” [X], and then;
2)@the-savage-nymph-art replied to that question [X]. Brilliantly and succinctly, I would add. They even provided one of the purposes of fanfic: to share headcanons. Whether in an AU, or PWP, etc., we’re exploring the characters through storytelling.
What @the-savage-nymph-art didn’t mention is that exploring canon through writing/sharing fanfic (both for-profit and not-for-profit, I assume) predates AR’s War on Fanfic. You can do your own research on that, but here’s a good article to start with, by Ewan Morrison.
Monika Bartyzel: talks about derivative works based on fanfic (it mentions 50 Shades & Twilight, too), but focusing on the Mortal Instruments. The thrust of the argument is that TMI was TOO derivative:
“…But until a story is willing to break through the boundaries of its inspiration and drop the mimicry in favor of its own voice, it will always be as derivative as its origins — no matter how many names you change.”
(^So there is a difference between fanfic that shares headcanons to explore, and fanfic that seems to merely mimic the canon it’s derived from.)
Anon, Anne Rice no longer has an issue with Fanfic. I don’t remember what year this was posted on FB but it was, and she hasn’t mentioned it since, that I’m aware of.
^So really, with that, the argument is kind of over.
But I am definitively saying, I run this blog as respectfully of Anne Rice as I can, w/ just a little light teasing bc we do that even to our own parents! she’s given us a great gift in the VC.
This blog is about positivity and inclusivity, and arguing over whether a derivative work is worthy of being considered worth standing alone as a separate work, that’s for the courts to decide on a case-by-case basis as we define what is a “derivative” work. There are some fanworks that I love so much that I WISH they were canon, that I WISH I could buy as a beautiful physical book to repay the creators for bringing me Such Feels!
Hit the jump for just a little more.
Anon’s argument has 2 points:
A) That fanfic written for fandom and then altered by changing the character names, etc. (aka ”filing the serial numbers off”, “Hermione” becomes “Eloise” or whatever) so that it can be sold for profit, is infringing on the copyright of the original creator. Anon mentions 2 examples that are making tons of money. I’ve heard of those series and the accusations of their beginnings as fanfic. I haven’t read them or followed the reviews about them though, so I can’t comment on whether or not they really are derivative works.
B) That Anne Rice is wrongfully accused of being “just some crazy old lady” in defense of the her VC copyright.
As per Anon’s point A), this is a nebulous thing, copyright law is still being worked out for it. It’s slowly developing on a case-by-case basis, and sometimes it’s settled out of court. Look at the Unofficial Harry Potter Encyclopedia case, for example. Not a fanfic, but still, a fanwork. The judge ruled that the
Unofficial Harry Potter Encyclopedia could be published for profit, in an abridged version of how it was originally intended to be, bc it served as a reference work, so it had value, but in its entirety it would have been
unfair competition w/ a similar work that J.K. Rowling intended to release (and she is still working on, years later).
As for your point B):
Nowhere in @the-savage-nymph-art‘s reply is Anne Rice referred to as “just some crazy old lady.” In fact, it was only you, Anon, who called her “dickish.”
Actually, there are several mocking references in @the-savage-nymph-art‘s commentary to those who write fanfic, in the usual Tumblrland Hyperbole™ kind of way, which is intended to grab your attention and add a little levity to a serious and saddening topic. Don’t you get the joke, Anon? Silliness! Or can you not take it as humorous when smne mentions “your gloriously blushing butt-cheeks” ?
I disagree with you, Anon. Anne Rice has given us an incredible gift. Yes, I have mentioned that she waged War on Fanfic. That’s a fact. It’s actual history.
Fanfic sold for money w/ the serial numbers filed off, (like 50 Shades does to Twilight and the Mortal Instruments *allegedly* does to Harry Potter) well, the creators of the original works have every right to pursue copyright protection! Have they, in these cases? Because the authors of 50 Shades and the Mortal Instruments seem to be doing fine, getting movie deals an all.
Maybe the authors of 50 Shades and the Mortal Instruments were sued and settled out of court.
But maybe, in these cases, the derivative work (as Anon calls them) was sufficiently AU of the fandoms they were adapted from to constitute enough originality to be considered works that stand on their own.
Let’s see what happens when someone writes fanfic w/ the serial numbers filed off based on 50 Shades and the Mortal Instruments!
Oh wait, 50 Shades already has a parody of it, 50 Shades of Black. Let’s get popcorn and see if a legal dispute fires up…
I-want-my-IWTV 
