Valdemar Wiki

Pokemama1 Pokemama1 9 May 2023
0

Official digital Maps and Timeline now available from the kickstarter!

I just downloaded the digital pack! The images are fantastically detailed and have absolutely amazing definition.

I didn't get in on the kickstarter in time, and have been checking back to see if stuff was ready to be sold to the public. I checked yesterday, and the site now has a button saying "Pre-order Store Now Open!" (link) They are still working on things; June is their current estimated date. Ok, cool. I signed up for the "Digital Add-On" and gave my payment info ... and it offered me the downloads right then and there!!

I did not expect that and am still chortling over it. :-D

Anyways, the important point of this post is (a) pre-orders now open for non-backers, and (b) the digital pack is available for download.

Woo!!

(edit p.s.: The w…

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MistyShadowsXX MistyShadowsXX 13 March 2023
1

Name one main character that had a healthy, loving family that wasn't missing or dead. I'll wait.

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Pokemama1 Pokemama1 25 January 2023
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Ever wonder why the unofficial Valdemar Timeline is always being adjusted?

I am excited that the kickstarter will soon be producing a beautifully illustrated Timeline for Valdemar! As far as I know, it is a general outline of important events, beginning from the detailed unofficial Timeline work by Joshua Murcray (with a little help from myself). The detailed dates from the Murcray website and googledoc have been uploaded here to the wiki Timeline but are under continual edit as new information is encountered. Also, I do not know if Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon added or adjusted information for the kickstarter version. But I've heard that the kickstarter hopes to provide updates if continuing research discovers important impacts to the general Timeline.

I have been working with Joshua (User:MerlynPrime) extensi…

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Pokemama1 Pokemama1 10 November 2022
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Kickstarter campaign for Valdemar merch to benefit Mercedes and Larry

An authorized campaign has been organized to create Valdemar merchandise. The profits will go to Misty and Larry. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zoe-crowdfunding/mercedes-lackeys-world-of-valdemar/description

The merchandise will include new maps for the city of White Gryphon, Valdemar's capital city, Haven, and a 2.5d representation of the Palace complex, which includes the Collegium and Companion's Field. Enamel pins, new miniatures, embroidered patches, t-shirts, a Valdemar timeline, and so on will be offered. Backer bundles can be customized with add-ons to get exactly what you want. The campaign has been designed to wrap up quickly and go into production without getting bogged down in kickstarter.

Please click the link above to le…

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WrenDancing WrenDancing 1 July 2022
1

Pride month

June is Pride month.

All month various media have been celebrating real-life heroes who have fought for equality--and rightly so. Their passion, courage, fortitude and self-sacrifice are awe-inspiring. As the month comes to an end, however, I think we should take a moment to recognize some other heroes of this movement: fictional characters.

Whether we're talking popular literature or television shows, fictional characters have tremendous reach and influence. As this is the Valdemar Wiki, let's talk about our favorite gay character, Herald-Mage Vanyel.

When The Last Herald-Mage series was published, it sent quiet shockwaves through fantasy readership. While earlier authors had danced around the concept of lesbian characters (Marion Zimmer Bra…

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WrenDancing WrenDancing 7 May 2022
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3000 articles!

The Valdemar Wiki has just added its 3000th article--the Companion Myriil. Congratulations to everyone whose contributions brought us to this point!

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MistyShadowsXX MistyShadowsXX 26 April 2022
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Which trilogy/doulogy/book has the highest kill count?

Today I'm going go and skim through my books and see which one has the highest character kill count. I'm pretty sure it's LHM, but I'll check to be sure. Besides, it'd be interesting to see the total kill count of the series. as it is at the moment (Minus Anothologies, as I don't own most of them.)

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Pokemama1 Pokemama1 19 April 2022
2

Twitter expresses appreciation for libraries and librarians

People Are Sharing How Libraries Were The "Safe Place" They Went To

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristatorres/library-safe-space-twitter

Libraries meant an awful lot to my sister and I, coping with family difficulties. Voracious reading was our escape. At our elementary school kids were only allowed to take out one book at a time. After the librarians got to know us (showing up every day for a new book), they knew we would bring them back quickly. So they allowed us to take three books at a time. We got our allotment daily.

When we moved to a different state, our parents (who were both readers) took us to the local community library. They told us we could walk there once a week and they would pick us up. It probably wasn't that far, but I was ver…

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WrenDancing WrenDancing 4 March 2022
2

Forums?

For the longest time, I hung out here more-or-less by myself, with the occasional contributor passing through. Originally we just used message walls, then migrated to the blog posts. Now that we have fair number of people on the wiki, and discussions are heating up, I'm wondering if it's time for me to look at setting up forums.

What do you all think?

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Anonysquirrel Anonysquirrel 22 February 2022
1

Discussion: Book reference templates

\TL'DR recap: I have a working test case where gives

ETA 2, here's a check on case independence: Booktesting|series as

So the two things I know i need to fix before replicating are working out how to make the parameters work alongside the visual editor's toolkit and getting the documentation actually to display as documentation. But I'm getting there on a better proof of concept?


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Anonysquirrel Anonysquirrel 21 February 2022
5

Discussion: When does something graduate from stub-ness?

Hi! In looking for something else to distract my distractibleness with while we sort out the desired outcome on the templates:

What level of detailing is needed to move an article from "stub" status to "congratulations, no longer a stub, now you're a full-grown article and we can take the stub tag off this one" status?

I've been looking around and it doesn't seem like it's a specific number of headlines -- I've seen stubs that are a couple sentences, stubs that are six headlines and a character template with photo, and everything in between.

I'm guessing that it's closer to "six headlines and a character template" than "a couple sentences," but would love to have criteria to target for "if I see a page with less stuff than X, add X to get it …

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Anonysquirrel Anonysquirrel 11 February 2022
4

Discussion: Languages category?

Hi, friends!

I was wondering if we could make a Languages category (possibly as a subset of Terminology) and collect up the snippets of terms from other languages (along with the language that they go with, and ideally a couple representative uses in the books)?

It seems like it'd be a kindness to new readers who may have picked up a book somewhere in the middle of the series and might not have the background memory to remember (for example) who says zhai'helleva, which culture it's from and what it means, or that 'shaych' became the shorthand for 'shay'a'chern' around Vanyel's time, or so on and so forth.

I'd also be interested in collecting up "culture-associated appearance and behavior" notes for fanficcers and cosplayers out there, thoug…

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Pokemama1 Pokemama1 10 February 2022
2

omg, Mercedes Lackey uses the wiki! good job everyone!!


In an interview posted on worldbuilders.org on August 5, 2021, Mercedes mentions the wiki!!

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Pokemama1 Pokemama1 19 January 2022
1

An old fansite: Top 12 Worst Things to Happen if The Last Herald-Mage was made into a Movie

Was bouncing around looking for fansites back in the days of the Queen's Own, Webrings and so on, when Angelfire was the popular free hosting site. Found this cute list: Top 12 Worst Things to Happen if The Last Herald-Mage was made into a Movie

The book covers make me envision the trilogy as an anime. (For people who don't realize it, "anime" just means "cartoons" - it's not something special or weird.) On the book covers Vanyel is a perfect bishie.

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WrenDancing WrenDancing 12 November 2021
2

Lackey named Grand Master

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA) recently named Mercedes Lackey the 38th Damon Knight Grand Master. Named for the founder of SFWA, Damon Knight, the award recognizes the lifetime achievement of authors in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Previous award winners include Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey, Robert A. Heinlein, Andre Norton, and Lester del Rey. The award will be presented as part of the 57th Nebula awards ceremony, May 2022.

More information, including a list of past winners can be found at the Nebula award site.

Congratulations Misty!

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Pokemama1 Pokemama1 12 October 2021
1

Discussion: do you think Ma'ar/Falconsbane will show up in Beyond?

I was pawing through the old series lists and have been grudgingly reading the Last Herald Mage again in order to buff up the timeline with Merlyn. Of course, Leareth in LHM is another incarnation of Ma'ar.

So I suddenly realized, what's to stop him from showing up during the Founding? :-O

On the one hand, the main villain from Beyond is no longer able to touch Valdemar's people. So ... will there be a new villain? Or will Man vs. the Environment be enough, hacking out a living and new dwellings in a devastated land? I'd think there'd be enough conflict in the latter, and I expect they'll come across some little tin-pot dictators ruling their locale through fear.

They might also encounter the Tayledras! They've already had 1,000 years to work…

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WrenDancing WrenDancing 8 October 2021
2

TV series

Yes, it's true, Valdemar is coming to the small screen!

Here's what we know so far:

  • Mercedes Lackey signed a deal with Radar PIctures
  • The executive producer is Ted Field
  • The producers include Kit Williamson and Brittany Cavallaro
  • The first season will cover The Last Herald Mage trilogy

Details are still scant, but a tiny bit more is available in various articles online, though they mostly repeat each other. Here's a selection of them (in alphabetical order):

  • Broadway World: "VALDEMAR Books In Development as TV Series by Radar Pictures"
  • Collider: "Mercedes Lackey's 'Valdemar' Books Are Being Developed for TV"
  • Comic Book Resources: "Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar Universe Books to Get Television Adaptation"
  • Deadline: "‘Valdemar Universe’ Fantasy Book Series…
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MistyShadowsXX MistyShadowsXX 29 November 2021
2

New Valdemar Anthology: Boundaries

I was looking up Mercedes Lackey’s books for 2021 (trying to find what the next book in the Founding of Valdemar was going to be called, lol) and found out that there is a new Anthology coming out: Boundaries

I was just posting this so people would know. Have a good day.

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Pokemama1 Pokemama1 2 September 2021
1

Wondering if footnotes intimidate new editors

Footnoting may be a challenge for some people. Idk how easy it is to do in Visual Editor. I make my own life difficult by using Source Editor, but I like it. :-)

I got "into" footnotes using them on Wikipedia. However, they are a challenge to use there, because there are a zillion different citation formats: different for news articles, magazines, journals, websites, books, etc. We have it easy here, because most of our stuff is just "X book." Again, maybe this is simple in Visual Editor? But once upon a time, Valdemar wiki didn't footnote much; we just used a parenthetical citation right in the text, like: (Magic's Pawn). Or, often, didn't cite a source at all. Which made my obsessive mind twitch, when I was searching to find out where so…

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Pokemama1 Pokemama1 30 June 2021
1

BEYOND IS HERE!

I am so tickled with the first Founding book!! It was very true to Valdemar and had some unexpected twists! I have added two categories to flag articles: one for disparities against previous stories (in which case they will be attributed to the "blurring of history" and Beyond should be treated as canon) and the second category is articles that may be affected by beyond or the 2nd and 3rd books in the trilogy. Queen Terilee, River Terilee and Dethwyn are three examples. Terilee may be solved in a later book (maybe he remarries or her name changes), but the disaffected son Dethwyn who remained at court as a hostage (in For Want of a Nail) doesn't seem to exist.

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MistyShadowsXX MistyShadowsXX 30 May 2021
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3,066 words of complete nonsense, shenanigans, and depression.

So I got the fanfiction up sooner then expected, (mostly because if I didn’t post it soon, the draft would end up deleted) plus when I set a deadline like that, it’ll either be late or early. I have some interesting ideas for the story that I hope all my would-be readers will love. I’m probably going to post a one-shot here in a little bit. (Hopefully at least one finished work will make me feel less guilty every time I press the new work button.) Bye.

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MistyShadowsXX MistyShadowsXX 24 May 2021
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Creating new fanfiction, it will be out in at least two weeks. SPOILER ALERT!

So in at least two weeks, I will have a fanfiction out called “Death’s Beloved Child and Lady of Avalon.” In this story, there is Necromancer/Exorcist named Sythe, she, ever since she was born, was raised and trained in the ways of Avalon, how to use her Necromancer powers, and trained in the mind arts to the point of having her own “mindscape” and perfect memory.

There were other things planned since the creation of her soul, like when she was around thirteen, she would end up in Valdemar, the newly created universe that Fate herself deemed worthy of more than just existing as universe in the mist, to actually exist as an alternate universe people could end up in. Hence why Death and Fate heavily encouraged her reading the book series.

Here…

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Pokemama Pokemama 21 April 2021
1

Beyond cover - wearing Windrider Unchained badge?

The cover of Beyond has Baron Valdemar wearing the Valdemar coat of arms showing a winged horse breaking out of chains. But the song/legend "Windrider Unchained" is supposed to be about "Valdemar's Heir" ... which hasn't happened yet? I assumed Darshay was a Herald. idk, maybe Windrider and Darshay were in his family's history before the founding?

As an aside, Larry Dixon posted the coat of arms on his Twitter in 2017: winged horse breaks chains

Edit: our Windrider page says that Windrider is "An avatar of the Star-Eyed." I wonder where that info came from? Was the Star-Eyed a deity in the Empire? She was the goddess of the Shin'a'in in the Dhorisha Plains even before the Mage Wars, so she'd been around western Velgarth for a while, lol.

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Pokemama1 Pokemama1 22 March 2021
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First read of the Collegium Chronicles and Herald Spy

Just finished reading the Collegium Chronicles for the first time, and now halfway through the Herald Spy series. I'm really enjoying them! I distinctly remember reading about Mags and his Choosing at the mine, but I had the vague memory that his initial appearance was in a short story, kind of like Alberich in Stolen Silver. I wonder if I read a pre-release chapter/teaser? I remember that I really liked Mags, so I don't know why I didn't read the series, but for some reason I deliberately avoided it all these years! The "Collegium" title sounded kinda dull, but I've read the previous books unaware of the series names. The titles always made the groupings clear. A silly reason for avoiding this one.

As an aside, it's funny that Kirball is t…

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MistyShadowsXX MistyShadowsXX 4 March 2021
1

Just finished reading Foundation!

So not to long ago I just finished reading Foundation. When I finally get a copy of Intrigues, I’m going to read it next. I already love the Collegium Chronicles, and I’ve just read the first book. Although I’ve spoiled part of it for myself due to reading the wiki, the story has not been ruined for me.

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MistyShadowsXX MistyShadowsXX 21 May 2022
2

Will it happen

So now with the new book Beyond coming out this year about the founding of Valdemar, I’ve been wondering about the Sunsinger and Shadowdancer/Windrider stuff. Since in the album Sun and Shadow, there are the songs I Found a Land, Valdemar, and even Windrider Unchained. We know that Sunsinger and Shadowdancer saved Darshay and Windrider, but why are I Found a Land and Valdemar in the album? Well I think when Lackey finally published the Sun and Shadow album, she had a plan in mind. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed what I have though, but I think not in Beyond but maybe another book in the Founding of Valdemar Sunsinger and Shadowdancer along with Windrider and Darshay will appear. We know next to nothing about the soon-to-be released …

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Pokemama1 Pokemama1 17 February 2021
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Learn something new

I stumbled on Hulda's page today. I haven't read the books in a long time, and thought she was just an agent of Hardorn. Turns out she was an agent of the Empire, with the job of corrupting Ancar before she ever worked on Elspeth!

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Pokemama1 Pokemama1 7 February 2021
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Upcoming book is the founding of Valdemar omg!


Just found out that Beyond (The Founding of Valdemar Book 1) by Mercedes Lackey will be released on 15 June 2021!! I don't remember much of the novels anymore, so I don't know if it's discussed much. But Rosemary Edghill wrote a good piece For Want of a Nail about the founding. I can't wait!

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LarryDixonTGK LarryDixonTGK 22 February 2020
2

Admiration and Appreciation

Hello everybody, Larry Dixon visiting.  Misty and I would like you all to know how impressed we are by what you've done here. It's inspiring (and a little bit overwhelming) to see our last 30-ish years laid out like this!

It is said that "the internet never forgets," and for that we are grateful. What a wonder!  We're dedicated to doing our best, giving everybody a good time, and giving those so inclined a world called Velgarth to come home to. Thank you all for your kindness.

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WrenDancing WrenDancing 23 September 2019
2

Recommended reading order for Valdemar

While looking over the wiki analytics, I discovered that one of the top search terms on this wiki in the last 30 days is "Recommended reading order for Valdemar".

This has been a topic of discussion on the message walls here from time to time, and everyone has their own take on it.  (But since this is my blog post, I get to tell you mine.  :)  Personally, I recommend reading them in publication order.  Lackey began with a relatively simple story in a relatively simple fantasy setting, then gradually added detail and complexity in each subsequent book.  With each publication, the Velgarth universe gains depth and richness.  In my opinion, if you begin with books earlier in the chronology but later in publication, then move on to books later i…

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WrenDancing WrenDancing 1 April 2019
1

1500 articles

With the creation of 'A Wake of Vultures,' the Valdemar Wiki now boasts 1500 articles!

This new article is for a short story in one of the anthologies. Like most of the short story articles, it is a stub needing work. Please don't hesitate to pick up a short story article (or any other) and get started!

Check out both the article stubs and the wanted list.

WrenDancing (talk) 20:56, April 1, 2019 (UTC)

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Stafngrimr793 Stafngrimr793 15 February 2019
3

Random Valdemar Notes for my Stories

The stories I am writing (and have posted/will post at Archive of Our Own) start in the year 1450 AF.

Kris, Elspeth's younger brother is King. His Companion is Arthos, one of Rolan's sons.

Lyra, his slightly younger twin sister, is King's Own, Chosen by Rolan.

Talia is still alive, after being brought back from a heart attack and Chosen again by Lyra's former Companion Annala (an older daughter of Rolan). Her "dying" severed the Bond with Rolan, enabling him to Chose Lyra.

Elspeth, is likewise alive and is a semi-retired Adept class mage. She works with the Heraldic Mage School by mentoring Master class mages who are close to Adept. Gwena is enjoying the rather restful existence they have had the past 20 or so years.

Kris' eldest son Matthias i…

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Stafngrimr793 Stafngrimr793 3 January 2019
1

Grass Cats - Forest Cats - Change Cats

Here's some of the background notes I wrote for the fan fiction I am writing.

Possibility of Changecats was inspired by Proouw and his pack in “Errold’s Journey” and the mention of the Ratha in “Storm Breaking.”

Based the grass cats on…

Ocelot: Height at shoulder: 16 - 20 inches --- Head and body: 22 – 39 inches --- Tail: 10 – 16 inches --- Weight: 15 – 35 pounds

Serval: Height at shoulder: 21 – 24 inches --- Head and body: 26 – 39 inches --- Tail: 12 – 14 inches --- Weight: 20 – 40 pounds

Grasscats of the Northern Dhorisha Plains: known as Pretena (pray-teah-nah), a small subspecies related to the Pretera, known better by the Shin’a’in. Their range is in the northwest to mid-north area of the Plains, within 5 or so leagues of the Rim.

Pre-Chang…

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Stafngrimr793 Stafngrimr793 2 December 2018
3

Gripping Mire and Shining Stones?

Hey all;

I'm trying to get an idea, however vague, of where Gripping Mire Swamp and Shining Stones Vale may be located.

I'm thinking they are not equivalent to the Hertasi Swamp and KSheyna Vale near the northern rim of the Dhorisha Plains. The Hertasi Swamp looks only a few candlemarks in width, not three days as the tales of Sherra, the guide.

I'm writing a bit of fan fiction, which starts out a few leagues east of K'Sheyna Vale. I am positing a small human village where a Companion comes to Choose a young lad who is in his mid-teens, but looks younger. There are other characters, including Change-cats with human intelligence and communication abilities.

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WrenDancing WrenDancing 1 December 2018
0

Gripping Mire Swamp location?

Stafngrimr793 writes:

Has the location of Singing Stones Vale and the Gripping Mire Swamp been determined?

Am wondering as I'm writing a story for my own amusement that starts out day's rides east of the K’Sheyna/Ken Lesheyna Vale -Hertasi Swamp area along the northern rim of the Dhorisha Plains.

Wondered where the other two are in relation to the Plains and Lake Evendim as they are not on any map I have found. I'm thinking they are not the same, as on the official Velgarth map, the Hertasi Swamp does not look near enough big to be one day's trudge across, let alone 3.

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Momcat859 Momcat859 3 November 2017
2

Question about Mags

I have a question for the blogger community.  Has Ms. Lackey ever stated where Mags's parents were from?  I'm rereading the Collegium Chonicles (to be followed with the Herald Spy stories, which I haven't read yet) and I really want to know.  It's driving me nuts.  I love maps and reading about the places our beloved characters come from or visit.  If anyone know if Ms. Lackey has ever expanded on that, I'd love that information!  Thanks!

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WrenDancing WrenDancing 12 February 2017
1

1,000 articles!

With the creation of 'Errold,' the Valdemar Wiki is now up to 1,000 articles!

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WrenDancing WrenDancing 27 March 2016
1

Favorite quote

I've been re-reading The Last Herald-Mage, and I now have a new favorite quote:

"It's hard being a rock; they have such a strange sense of time--and priorities." --Vanyel, Magic's Promise

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WrenDancing WrenDancing 3 March 2016
1

New Admin

Hello all!

I started hanging out on this wiki and quickly became obessessed -- writing, reorganizing and relinking everything in sight. After realizing that the administrator had abandoned the site several years ago, I applied to adopt it. I received my answer this morning, and have now taken over as the new administrator for this wiki.

I've already fairly thoroughly recategorized everything, and I'm now slowly but steadily (book by book) adding new content. Please let me know if there is something in particular you'd like to see, or some issue that needs fixed.

Thanks!

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