Ariel's Isle

(Updated Thursday July 9th, 2020)

Artwork: http: drl21 deviantart com/

Forums: /myforums/Axantur/5311978/

Axantur Forums: /myforums/Axantur/5311978/

Ariel’s Isle: /forum/Ariel-s-Isle/200674/

Story Information: /forum/Ariel-s-Isle/200674/1/112305/

The People of Ariel’s Isle: /forum/Ariel-s-Isle/200674/1/112302/

The World of Ariel’s Isle: /forum/Ariel-s-Isle/200674/1/112301/

Roleplay: (Re-creation pending indications of interest)

The previous story-related commentary is now in the forums at the above links and will be adding new material periodically.

~ Ariel’s Isle – Story Status Updates ~

First of all, "hello" and "thank you" to all who happen to come to look at my author's profile.

I've finally completed writing my thesis, and now it is in the editorial phase prior to submission. It has been quite an effort, and hopefully, I will soon have my free time back to write. With that, I will return to writing and reviewing in my former fashion (i.e., long and detailed covering each aspect of the chapter in question). I have not been idle, however, and have been working on "Castle on the Sea" and the next chapter of "Sael."

Another project that I have been working on intermittently is a role-playing story/game set in the world of "Ariel's Isle," with tentative characters so far from such far flung locations as Philadelphia in the United States, Mecklenburg in the German states, and other lands. If you are interested, send me a PM with your character idea. Even if you aren't interested in eventually getting together via Skype (or such) to role play, your character can still be a part of my stories.

The status of my stories remains unchanged since my last update.

· Atalantë

Chapter 2, "The Cove," is in draft with 3543 words written followed by 530 words of outline. This story is incidental to Sael but important to understanding Ariel. It will have at least three chapters and possibly many more, exploring Ariel’s life story, family, and heritage.

· Castle on the Sea

This is a short vignette that may ultimately become a chapter to Sael. At the very least, I will publish it either before or along with Chapter 23 of Sael. It examines a somewhat younger Eric, his sisters, and younger brother in on Eve of Yule (i.e., Christmas) 1800.

· Indigo Sea

Chapter 2 (The title of which I won’t yet reveal), is in rough outline form. This will likely be the final chapter … and both you and Ariel will be glad for it.

· Juletrae

Chapter 5, "A Little More Sugar, A Little Less Spice” is mostly in outline form with about 1157 words written.

· Missing Moments

There will be further chapters. It has always been my intention for follow Eric’s perspective with a certain special “someone else’s.” As with “Juletrae,” writing in the future of my main effort poses some problems for me and I will have to be careful with this vignette as well; but I look forward to it so much!

· Neap Tide

A companion piece to Sael with 1189 words written and more in handwritten notes. While my intent is to publish it as a vignette or short series of chapters, it also might become a chapter of Sael.

· Oínopa Pónton

Sometimes my stories include unfamiliar words in their body and even titles. Oínopa Pónton is one of these. When I do so, it is always a hint to something deeper, a challenge to the reader to look those words and phrases up to glean the hint of the stories that they convey. I also do this with character names quite frequently, but not always. The three chapters in draft explore other characters that have or will appear in my stories, and how their lives an actions intersect.

· Sael

Chapter 23, "Wash Away Your Cares," is showing signs of divergence and may need to be split into two “tighter” chapters. Perhaps six additional chapters and up to four epilogues will follow.

· Shako

This story exists in the form of handwritten notes and will probably encompass Ariel’s arrival into the human world and conclude with her wedding, harmonizing the events of the two or so days of “Sael” along with those of the more extended “Juletrae” and “Missing Moments.”

· Night Comes to Ariel’s Isle

This is actually the “main story” for which Sael and all of the others will set the stage and is an action story in contrast to the character-development driven works that I published to date. As such, I intend a much faster pacing in it than you have seen in any of them. If you have read the extant version, I will have to re-frame and rewrite it to bring it into coherence with my other works, most notably Sael. In so doing, I hope that the first chapter will retain much of what it currently is, given that I began that chapter back in 1996. The remainder of the story exists in rough outline format and visual ideas. Scenes from it constantly occupy my imagination.

Thank You for taking an interest in my work!

~ Axantur ~

1. About Me

Character Culture Religion Moral Alignment Social Alignment Favorite Works Favorite Character Archetypes Thoughts Interests – Roleplaying and World-Building DeviantArt Page My Pen Name, "Axantur"

2. My Reviews

3. How I Met Ariel and Eric

4. Forums

1. About Me

Character: Altruistic, Chivalrous, Creative, Imaginative, Intellectual, Introspective, Tenacious

Culture: American Midwest

Religion: Protestant Christian

Moral Alignment: Lawful Good

Social Alignment: Traditional Conservative

Favorite Works: (especially these yet many more)

Literature: Tolkien’s Arda (i.e., Middle Earth), Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle Music: Everything by Thomas Bergersen, Nick Phoenix, and Two Steps from Hell; Debussy, Wagner, Ralph Vaughan-Williams Film: Excalibur, Conan the Barbarian (original), 2001 A Space Odyssey, The Lord of the Rings, many others in the fantasy and speculative fiction genres. Disney: The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, Frozen

Favorite Character Archetypes:

The Ingénue: An endearingly innocent, intelligent, and wholesome young woman and heroine. The Paladin: A warrior or knight renowned for heroism and chivalry. The Ranger: A wise, cunning and skilled woodsmen, also heroic and chivalrous.

Thoughts

In stories and games, I'm interested in the thoughts and inner emotional lives of characters as well as vivid description. I pay a lot of attention to detail regarding the time period and setting of my stories and seek to depict with some degree of fidelity to those times how characters would act, think, speak. Given that I’m not an expert and that my intention is to adapt Disney’s version of The Little Mermaid with my stories, some allowances for readability are to be expected.

My desire is to explore most, if not all of the characters very deeply, especially their thoughts and feelings.

Interests – Roleplaying and World-Building

My return to writing stories in 2013 was mainly due to being so impressed with many of the writers here at and a desire to return the enjoyment I have derived from reading their stories.

I am a builder of fictional worlds and write mainly for the private enjoyment of my close friends. My creative background is a “literary” form of tabletop role-playing, essentially improvisational dramatic theater.

Role-playing in this context is writing and acting under the loose direction of a Gamemaster wherein each player becomes a sub-author in matters of their character. This leaves the Gamemaster to create the overall plot and portray the rest of the story world.

The Gamemaster acts as a moderator to “referee” the game aspect of the story and to challenge the players and their characters. The fact that characters can and sometimes do die creates genuine fear and excitement and a sense of living within the story when great challenges are overcome.

Since most of my role-playing “group” is scattered around the eastern half of the USA, online voice via Skype has become our preferred medium. This makes our games something akin to Radio Theater with music, sound effect ambiance, and dice. We hold these sessions over Skype on Saturday nights, and my early weekends are normal a flurry of preparatory activity and writing.

World-building and role-playing and entails mapping and drawing. Most of the supporting art for the stories in which I have participated or run has been created by Nick Lassard. I’ve also done some graphic art over the years, but can’t hold a candle to him. Over the years he has progressed from self-taught pencils, to colored pencil, computer assisted design and three-dimensional rendering. Pretty much everything he creates is original, beautiful and imaginative.

DeviantArt Page

If you would like a look, you can find some of my favorite works (to include my ongoing TLM mapping project) at:

My Pen Name, “Axantur”

My name derives from Tolkien's Unfinished Tales, wherein its meaning is not attested. Helge Fauskanger of Ardalambion fame interprets it thusly in his Quenya Lexicon:

Axantur *"Commandment-lord" (Lord who respects and/or rules in accordance with God-given commandments.)

(axan noun "law, rule, commandment". Adopted and adapted from Valarin. (WJ: 399) Pl. axani is attested (VT39:23, defined as "laws, rules, as primarily proceeding from Eru" in VT39:30). Apparently compounded in the name (UT: 210))

2. My Reviews

To date I've written a lot of reviews here on Fan Fiction, and for those whose stories that I have reviewed, you already know that I have a tendency to write at length and often in great detail. If I like your story, I will happily review it, even if you don't choose to review mine, at least for a while.

For stories that I especially enjoy or am moved by, I may review your chapters line by line, paragraph by paragraph. What I am "reviewing" for is the combination of how your story and its elements made me feel, what it made me think and surmise, as well as to offer logical or emotional observations and discussions of related matters and stories.

There is no guide here to writing a review. When I started, so I chose to write as my heart and mind counseled. Typically, I write chronologically along the chapter's plot progression, though sometimes if something particularly excites or interests me, I may comment at the beginning or discuss it in detail at the end. Given time constraints and how many reviews I am usually writing, I may not be able to fully proofread various editions before I post them. Ironically, some of my reviews are longer than the story chapters themselves.

When I review, I will seldom comment on grammar, spelling, usage, or composition. Instead, I am interested in your ideas–your voice as an author—and search for a certain underlying set of themes that I have always found moving and compelling. I'll leave it as an exercise to my readers to discern what those are, for I attempt to fully embody them in my own writings.

If you wish a technical critique, though, I will happily furnish one to the best of my ability via Private Message, if time avails. I enjoy commenting on the ideas, themes, and other such elements of stories, but conducting an "English Composition" sort of review would likely be much less fun for both of us. Still, there are writers herein whom I absolutely adore and I would gladly do this for any of you if you asked. (You know who you are!)

So … as for some of those themes that draw me to them.

I especially enjoy stories that focus on Ariel and especially her relationship with Eric. I favor detailed and examinations of emotions, inner thoughts, and how this reflects in character's words and actions. I like fluff and I like drama. I like stories wherein none of the characters are superhuman, wherein overcome deadly challenges simply because they have "spirit." I like realism in this regard, and reality doesn't work that way.

Realism, within the world of TLM, that is.

3. How I Met Ariel and Eric

I am a long time devotee of Ariel and Disney’s the Little Mermaid. I remember reading a Time magazine article in November 1989 about a new Disney movie, "The Little Mermaid." The last Disney movie I had gone to, and unfortunately convinced my high school friends to go to as well, was "The Black Cauldron." Despite its groundbreaking nature, unusual PG rating, and notorious "darkness" for a Disney movie, "The Black Cauldron" proved a disappointment for me. It was still too “cute” and not dark and serious enough for my tastes, even though I did like Taran and Eilonwy quite a bit.

Based on the Time article I decided to give "The Little Mermaid" a chance, and wondered how the movie would end compared to Hans Christian Andersen's original tale; which had made me quite sad when I was younger. Not much for songs in movies, I surprisingly really enjoyed the "Fathoms Below" opening sequence with Prince Eric and Grimsby, noticing that Eric seemed to be a bit different, affable, and inspired for a Disney prince. I found myself a bit nervous at the "Daughters of Triton," wondering if the movie was going to be filled with cute but empty musical numbers. But then the focus switched to Ariel. Oh my!

She was definitely a beautiful girl, and not just physically; but more importantly in how she regarded and treated others. I loved how without hesitation or even thinking she dropped her sack of precious human things to save Flounder's life. The filmmakers said so much about her inner being with that one short scene, that one decision, that one act. And then there was the fact that Ariel's personality was so wonderful and winning! She was inquisitive, intelligent, curious, and intensely full of life ... I was definitely interested.

I thoroughly enjoyed the shipwreck sequence and Ariel's encounter with the shark Glut; but it was the scene in her grotto afterwards that truly captured my heart, the intense longing to be human that Jodi Benson conveyed through her lovely voice. To be forthright, I remember cringing in thought when Ariel started to sing, fearing a children’s song was about to play out. But it wasn't like that at all. I remember that voice and hearing her yearning to be a part of something more, and the feeling slowly came upon me as I realized how different and amazing this character was. And honestly, there was certainly a bit of wishing on my part that I could be a part of her world too. Kind of sad really. As it turned out, that was me and a lot of other guys who had apparently fallen in love with her, all pretty much thinking and feeling the same way. These same guys soon after started “Arielholics Anonymous” in the early to mid-1990s, a TLM-themed mailing list and constellation of web pages, now a Facebook page I believe. It was that scene in Ariel's grotto that "The Little Mermaid" went from being a just "Disney movie" to me to perhaps my favorite movie of all time.

By the end of that scene, I found myself so thoroughly on Ariel's side and so concerned for her happiness and well-being that I began deeply worrying how exactly this movie was going to end. Was she really going to end up as cold sea foam? They just couldn't do that to such a sweet, loving girl, could they? So, you might guess that the finale of the movie was an amazing and very satisfying experience for me, and very fulfilling, despite so few words being exchanged between the characters. I had truly feared for Ariel's life, though I should have known better, given that this was a Disney film.