Born to Rune
So, since I need another costuming project like I need a hole in the head, I decided the White Witch's wand (try saying that fast) needed...something. Like...runes! Yeah!
Narnia doesn't have any runes associated with it, and using Tengwar seemed like a copout, so I spent some time yesterday looking for a runic font that would be a) not associated with Tolkien and b) not immediately recognizable as any other alphabet. (Viking runes failed both tests--not only do people recognize them, the ones who do often recognize them as Tolkien's Dwarven runes, which would defeat the whole purpose.) I found the neatest site for runic and fantasy fonts; it unfortunaly seems to go down a lot, but I managed to download a bunch of interesting fonts before losing it.
What I finally settled on was called Avesta, which, it turns out, is the alphabet used to write the ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism, a religion of 4th century Persia. Well. That's obscure, all right--not many people are likely to recognize it. But, here's the "funny coincidence" part:
"Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) taught that there was only one eternal god: Ahura Mazda, 'the Wise Lord' or 'Lord Wisdom'. Ahura Mazda is wholly wise, good and just, but not all-powerful, because he has an adversary: Angra Mainyu, 'the Evil Spirit'."
Guess what I just re-read at the beginning of the year? Sound familiar, Jaqueline Carey fans?
Narnia doesn't have any runes associated with it, and using Tengwar seemed like a copout, so I spent some time yesterday looking for a runic font that would be a) not associated with Tolkien and b) not immediately recognizable as any other alphabet. (Viking runes failed both tests--not only do people recognize them, the ones who do often recognize them as Tolkien's Dwarven runes, which would defeat the whole purpose.) I found the neatest site for runic and fantasy fonts; it unfortunaly seems to go down a lot, but I managed to download a bunch of interesting fonts before losing it.
What I finally settled on was called Avesta, which, it turns out, is the alphabet used to write the ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism, a religion of 4th century Persia. Well. That's obscure, all right--not many people are likely to recognize it. But, here's the "funny coincidence" part:
"Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) taught that there was only one eternal god: Ahura Mazda, 'the Wise Lord' or 'Lord Wisdom'. Ahura Mazda is wholly wise, good and just, but not all-powerful, because he has an adversary: Angra Mainyu, 'the Evil Spirit'."
Guess what I just re-read at the beginning of the year? Sound familiar, Jaqueline Carey fans?