Introduction To The Flameborn Multiverse

[written in September 2023; new fic links updated periodically. I had an older one from 2022 but it's outdated and needed to be updated/replaced. also posted on my Dreamwidth.]

The Flameborn multiverse focuses on four souls bound together, finding their way to each other across different universes in different sets of circumstances.

In most of these universes, Maglor is still wandering the world thousands of years post-canon, pretending to be human to blend in and avoid problems. In most of these universes, Fëanor, Fingolfin and Finarfin reincarnate as mortal in the modern era - which I began to play with in 2019. [However, in Shades Of Silver-Gold/Keep You Like An Oath, Finarfin never dies and Fëanor and Fingolfin are re-embodied rather than reincarnated; this is not something I plan on revisiting as I have difficulties with writing canon era.] I have written fics where they reincarnate as human earlier in the 20th century and before the 20th century, and may play with other historical AUs in the future. Most of my multiverse works are set in the 21st century.

While some people have written Fëanor and his family in a modern Earth setting, my multiverse has Fëanor and his brothers reborn as human OCs who have some traits that carry over [e.g. Sören, who was Fëanor, is an artist] and commonly dream of their past lives, and sometimes figure out those dreams aren't just dreams and there's a reason why they encountered each other. We find out in some stories that Fingolfin and Finarfin agreed to be reincarnated first [so Fëanor is the youngest of the three this time] in order to protect Fëanor.

This is also rather [unintentionally] the opposite of most OC-centric Tolkien fic, where a modern girl falls into [canon-era] Middle-Earth.

Though the multiverse draws on elements of Tolkien's Legendarium, it is equally influenced by Stephen King's The Dark Tower and his concept of the ka-tet ["one made from many" or "a group of people summoned by ka"]; The Dark Tower also contains a multiverse.

The Flameborn multiverse is emphatically not connected to any other fanfic author's AUs in any way, save the work of my friends Detergent and SemperViridis. Detergent's OCs feature prominently in the universe Corn of Eternity, expanding the reincarnated House of Finwë and other Eldar.

In the early installments of the multiverse, I had the idea that the prophecy that Fëanor would be released from Mandos just before the Dagor Dagorath, meant there needed to be some sort of battle against Sauron and Morgoth; this is explicit in the Northern Lights universe and more subtle in the Learning To Fly universe.

But by 2021 I had tired enough of living in a real-life "end of days" dystopia between the pandemic, climate change catastrophes and the rise of fascism, so I stopped writing epic, sprawling multi-sequel universes about Fighting the Evil and instead began to focus on self-indulgent smutty comfort fics [standalones or two-parters] where the ka-tet get together in different configurations, and their love is enough for them to find their way to each other. [However, the Finwioni v. Angband theme still features in my ongoing universe Corn Of Eternity in a less serious, more "dark comedy" way.]

What this means for you, the reader:

-Anything from Northern Lights and Learning To Fly is a big time commitment, as things will make more sense if you read the stories together, and while knowledge of the Silmarillion is not absolutely required to follow along, it may still provide context. Under the Rose, which was written in the same time period, reads more like o-fic even though Maglor is present.

-Most of my post-canon-era work from 2021 onward can be read fandom-blind, and some of it I consider o-fic [where Maglor doesn't appear and reincarnation doesn't explicitly come up, though you will still see subtle hints of who/what the guys were if you know what to look for].

Finally, in 2022 I began to shift focus from writing cis M/M [and occasional Omegaverse] to writing cis-on-trans M/M and T4T M/M. I am a queer trans guy and there is a distinct lack of transmasc M/M erotica that doesn't involve pregnancy kink, so I wanted to fill that void, which also has therapeutic purposes and is a source of gender euphoria.

Since I have over 200 works at present and it can be overwhelming to figure out where to begin, I've narrowed it down to a shorter list of standalone fics that I feel are a good way to get to know the guys and my writing style, and which also can be read fandom-blind [or are just o-fic] and have been well-received. All the fics linked below are explicit.

Sören/Anthony [Fëanor/Finarfin]

Sören/Nicholas [Fëanor/Fingolfin]

Sören/Maglor [Fëanor/Maglor]

Sören/Anthony/Maglor [Fëanor/Finarfin/Maglor]

Sören/Anthony/Nicholas [Fëanor/Finarfin/Fingolfin]

Sören/Anthony/Nicholas/Maglor [Fëanor/Finarfin/Fingolfin/Maglor]

Other fics will be added to this list as I feel appropriate.

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