Category: Culture and Entertainment

Anna’s Column: For Elsa and Arendelle, I must be something more

Hi, Chief! It’s Anna. I’m sorry I’m late with my column draft again. Things have been super hectic, I’m sure you’d agree. I’m still getting things back on their feet after the war with Russia. You’ve been reporting on Princess Katina’s departure back to Saint Petersburg, right? Ever since the war began you had your printing presses operating round the clock and your reporters in the fray with my soldiers. I hope none of your war correspondents were put in harm’s way.

I know you’ve promised to publish glowing articles about our kingdom’s victory, and you’ve already started writing about our kingdom’s new influence among the European powers. It’s slightly embarrassing, but thank you. We could use the encouragement.

Continue reading “Anna’s Column: For Elsa and Arendelle, I must be something more” →

Arendelle’s Kingdom Hall Art Gallery Opens!

ARENDELLE: Kingdom Hall, a one-stop cultural, musical, and artistic centre established by Anna in the early months of her reign, is now permanently hosting an art gallery by The Arendelle Guardian’s most prolific artist, Arute (@ast05water)!

Click on the link to visit the gallery right now. Arute’s art is arranged in a beautiful, scrollable mosaic that you can click to view each artwork individually.

The gallery showcases the promotional, in-story, and profile art that Arute has contributed to this fanfiction project since its inception in early 2020. From paintings of canon characters to the OCs created for this newspaper and its story, the virtual gallery is a celebration of the “court painter” of the royal family and The Arendelle Guardian’s editor.

While our website has commissioned many wonderful artists (in particular: @alhuart, @puryartist, and @smolmushroomm), Arute has been with us since the beginning and has drawn the largest range of scenes, profiles, character studies, and atmospheric pieces. We love her fusion of fantastical anime aesthetics with naturalistic light and watercolour themes, which make her art particularly vibrant and delightful to view.

IRL, Arute has drawn diverse original art as well as fanart for various franchises, with the most prominent being Frozen.

Visit Arute’s beautiful gallery of Frozen art commissioned for this website and Twitter account!

Hunting an Autumn Cloud: Anna’s Party at Sea

Arendelle dockside

“Did you read that interview with Her Majesty in The Arendelle Guardian? There’s a whole cohort of Northuldra kids coming to study at our university…”

“I think tariffs on seafood imports should be higher on the Japanese Shogunate, given their salmon harvesters’ competition with ours…”

“Does Jarl Sigurd’s wife know that he’s got a new plaything? His new squeeze adores him…”

“The Countess should take the Philharmonic to Vienna, the Austrians are top-notch musically…”

“Russia’s navy has been making some worrying moves along the Baltic…”

This was only some of the preening, intentional gossip that could be heard among the long line of guests excitedly crossing the plank aboard the queen’s waiting flagship.

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New Northuldra Trust Aims for Civic, Multilateral Engagement

By Emmanuel, Conservation Correspondent for The AG

The queen’s newly established Northuldra Trust aims to oversee conservation of the forest as its tribes begin working in partnership with Arendelle’s political and economic system. Sources close to Honeymaren, Anna’s Head Liaison of Northuldra-Arendelle Relations, have confided to me that she and Her Majesty have tipped Ryder to lead the Trust, with positions on its executive board soon to be opened to stakeholder votes.

The Trust is understood to be the queen’s attempt to bridge what the monarchy sees as a “gap of understanding” between the government’s plans for Arendelle’s re-integration with Northuldra, as outlined in Anna’s ambitious, reign-defining bill, and the public’s knowledge of the stakes involved.

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Elsa’s Guest Column: It’s All About Me

Featured image art from: https://www.zerochan.net/2766088

By Elsa, Queen Emerita of Arendelle

Recently, I’ve been hearing some murmurs and rumblings. They’re mainly about why I didn’t attend the Arendelle Philharmonic’s inaugural performance. To be clear, Anna sent me an invitation, and she wanted more than anyone for me to go. However, I turned her down, very reluctantly. It’s perhaps fair for me to explain why.

I was so proud of Anna when she inaugurated Kingdom Hall, a cultural landmark that I never had the chance to complete during my reign. As a small kingdom, we only needed one hub for all our cultural and artistic events, to focus them like a ray of light that could shine our kingdom’s talents across Europe and even the world.

As Anna told reporters, “The cultural flourishing of our kingdom is dependent on our people’s prosperity and openness. My aim is to elevate every citizen to be who they want to be, and think of life and Arendelle’s future both wisely and fearlessly.” That was the message she wanted to send during the other night’s performance.

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Arendelle Philharmonic’s First Performance A Who’s Who of Kingdom’s High Society

By Gerrard, Arts and Culture Reporter for The AG

This evening saw the inaugural performance of the newly formed Arendelle Philharmonic, an orchestra employed by Queen Anna on state funds to showcase the musical talents of Arendellian musicians and strengthen the kingdom’s cultural footprint.

The piece the queen chose was Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E♭ major, Op. 73, and tonight the newly appointed Kingdom Hall, the new beacon for all things cultural and artistic, was packed with Arendelle’s beautiful and powerful.

Tonight’s weather was appropriately sublime, with a beautiful crescent moon and a pleasantly cool sea breeze wafting through the spacious, airy architecture of Kingdom Hall. The night’s statement was exactly as Her Majesty wanted: that Arendelle wasn’t to be defined by its military ventures, like the recent pillaging of the Southern Isles and the subsequent confrontation with three much larger empires.

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An Interview with the Royal Biographer

We at The Arendelle Guardian are privileged to interview Seeker, who is working on a biography of the Queen Emerita, Elsa, at Anna’s request. Our Lore and Archival Reporter, Mikael, had the pleasure of sitting down with this gentleman for a discussion. Many things were not as they seemed…

Mikael (M): The kingdom’s literati and intelligentsia have been abuzz with gossip about you. Elsa and Anna are beloved for their modesty, and have never commissioned any biography for their family – until now. Tell us what your background is, where you come from.

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Northuldra Nights with Maren: I Hate the Reindeer Room

Featured art by Big椿 , from: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/78244721

By Maren, Head Liaison of Northuldra-Arendelle Relations

Greetings from the forests of Northuldra, where the night sky awes you with its vastness and blankets of constellations. Where the streams and glades are so clear you could probably use our water as a mirror. Where magic and nature aren’t two but one: just ask our resident Snow Queen.

I’ve been having a blissful holiday with ten kindergarteners, whose Arendellian parents kindly entrusted to my care. Five boys, five girls – all of them beautiful and darling. We’ve been singing Northuldran folk songs by the campfire, snuggling in our yurts under the star-studded sky, and goin’ fishing, not without reminding the boys and girls to say a Northuldran prayer of apology and thanks to the spirit of the fish.

Can you imagine that? A classroom in Arendellian preschools full of kids from this forest? And just last year, it was unthinkable that kids like those by my side would ever be up here, picnicking with me or watching the reindeer and birds. They even played with the spirits (The Wind and Fire Spirits are particularly popular – they seem to love entertaining these little souls too).

You can’t imagine how the kids squealed and laughed when Elsa rode on the Water Spirit to greet them. I have to admit, my heart was aflutter to see Elsa play with them. It was a magical day.

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Yokohama Trade Delegation Arrives in Arendellian Waters

By Floki, Trade and Seafaring Correspondent for The AG

After several months of sailing, a multinational, five-ship fleet of Japanese, Dutch, and Zarian traders arrived in Arendelle’s dockyards this morning at daybreak.

Representatives of Bjorgman House, the largest ice company in the kingdom, were present to welcome the kingdom’s tired guests, and General Mattias’ first company of ships fired a cannon salute.

The guests will be guided to their lodgings, after which they will lunch with Her Majesty at the palace. Queen Anna will host a week-long trade fair at Arendelle Plaza near the docksides, showcasing the kingdom’s friendly relations with the Tokugawa Shogunate and the burgeoning trade between Arendelle and states far to its east. A range of different products and services will be showcased, generating new business opportunities for merchants of all trades, from shipping, textiles, food, tea, and much, much more.

Her Majesty was also quick to point out, in a memo to Arendellian and Japanese businessmen, that Arendelle would not follow the example of other nations in seeking extra-territorial rights for her own merchants travelling to Yokohama, in a gesture of respect for the Shogunate’s anger at European treaty demands. “Trust can only be built when there is trust to begin with,” she wrote, “so I have faith that our traders will not be unjustly harmed or detained under Tokugawa law. Unlike the Dutch and Portuguese, we are stridently anti-imperial and accept Japanese sovereignty within the Shogunate’s borders, just as our guests are subject to Arendellian law during their time here.”

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