[fanfic] Why We Fight - Masterpost (Merlin/Arthur)
Title: Why We Fight
Pairings: Merlin/Arthur, Gwen/Lancelot, Morgana/Mordred (with other background and past pairings mentioned)
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~94.2k
Warnings: -takes deep breath- Violence, slavery, depictions of war and its aftermath, branding/scarring, flogging/whipping, minor character deaths, suicidal sentiments and suicide, sexual content, slight age difference, non-consensual use of magic (not in sexual context)
Summary: Canon!AU Fusion with Carol Berg’s Transformation. Age-old prophecies foretold the descent of Albion into chaos after the fall of Carmarthen. Only with the King and Warlock can Albion be saved. All his people believe that Merlin is Emrys, the Warlock in all the prophecies. But when the kingdom Carmarthen actually does fall, Merlin is taken as a slave and stripped of his magic. All hope for Albion is lost. Thirteen years later, Merlin is bought as the personal writing slave to the prince of the kingdom responsible for Carmarthen’s fall-Prince Arthur Pendragon of Camelot. He soon finds himself caught in the middle of a plot to take over not only Camelot, but all of Albion.
Disclaimer: Merlin is owned by the BBC and Shine. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is being made.
Author's notes: This was written for paperlegends 2011, my first ever big bang! And man, was this a monster to complete. I have several people to thank for making this fic possible. My lovely beta guilshad . (So any mistakes left are mine.) My equally lovely artist altocello . Thank you both for giving me the feedback and advice I needed to hear. My cheerleader a_systole , even though she had to drop out due to a busy schedule. caitcupcake , because it was great having a fellow writer to talk to and cheer me on. feyuca , who helped keep me focused on writing whenever I felt like drawing instead haha. The wonderful people on the Paperlegends chats. I didn't have to join in the chats after school ended back in May, but I enjoyed the chats I was able to join. And, various people on tumblr who helped cheer me on to the finish line. (You know who you are!) Also, a big thanks to the_muppet , without whom none of this would have been possible! Thank you for all the hard work you put in to organizing the challenge and keeping everything on track!
This fic is a fusion with the first book in Carol Berg's Rai-Kirah trilogy. I tried to make the story as much as my own as possible, but can't really judge how well I've succeeded and I don't know anyone who has ever read the book. If anyone has, I love you instantly and would love to hear your comments.
Since I'm an American, I decided to save myself from embarrassment and stick with American. Sorry. If there's some British English slipped in, it's probably by accident....
In addition, I took all the city and kingdom names in the fic from history or legend, but they do not truthfully correspond with their namesakes. Some of them, like Camelot, obviously do but others were simply for convenience. So just think of the setting of the fic as taking place in some fantasy world that sort of reflects canon but not.
The title was inspired by The Decemberists' "This Is Why We Fight," suggested to me by altocello .
Art link: altocello was wonderful and did the art for my fic. Head over to her masterpost and give her some love!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 + Epilogue
Or read the whole thing as a PDF (with better formatting)** or on AO3 (I hope the formatting is okay)
** Let me know if you'd like the font in a larger size! I know some Kindles load the text super small.