Berserker Series

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Fanfiction
Title: Berserker Series, also known as Berserker!Verse
Author(s): leonidaslion
Date(s): 2007-2009?
Length: 330,000 words Wincest portion.
19:00 hours for the podfic version on Fetters of Fenrir
Genre: slash, Wincest, darkfic, AU, Spirit Animal
Fandom: Supernatural
External Links: Wincest version of the series on AO3
podfic of Fetters of Fenrir at Audiofic Archive
banner for the Berserker!Verse. Art by Vilnolin

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The Berserker Series is a series of gen and slash AU Supernatural stories written by leonidaslion.

The series begins as gen in Heart of a Wolf and then divides into two branches: one gen and the other Wincest. The story is built on the animal spirit trope where Sam and Dean are bound to animal spirits (Dean, a wolf and Sam a cougar). These very rare animal spirits are called "berserkers," hence the name of the verse.

Author's summary for Fetters of Fenrir: How far would you go to reclaim the other half of your soul?

The series has inspired extensive fanart and one of the stories in the series, Fetters of Fenrir, was made into a podfic by kerfuffling. As of February 2012, the story is in process of being translated into Russian by Nissa.[1]

Storylines

In 2011, Leonidaslion deleted her LJ and moved all her fan fiction to AO3. The master list distinguishing the gen and slash versions of the stories did not make the transition. What follows may be incomplete and/or inaccurate.

Gen

The first few stories chronologically in the series are gen. They are:

  • Heart of a Wolf. After a run in with a berserker, Dean's seriously injured and unconscious. And those are the least of his problems...'
  • Strength of a Bear. Power is a great temptation...
  • Interludes:
    • Pilot
    • Wendigo
    • Dead in the Water
    • Phantom Traveler
    • Bloody Mary .
    • Skin
    • Hookman
    • Veritas
    • Bugs
  • Drabbles:
    • Semper Fi

Further gen stories were promised by the author but it is not clear if those were ever written. " However if you are squicked by that pairing, the author's notes mentioned that the regular Berserker!verse will be continued as gen, so you should be able to just skip the slash spin-off novel without being left hanging once the next story of the regular verse gets posted."[2]

Slash

After the first gen stories the series began branching into what Leonidaslion called a slash "AU of my AU, beginning with her 2008 Big Bang Fetters of Fenrir.

After Fetters, Leonidaslion offered a series of timestamps under the title Gates of Garmr. They are organized according to there they fall into the Fetters of Fenrir timeline. As of of February 2012, the total wordcount for the Wincest portions of the series is over 330,000 words.

  • Gates of Garmr Snapshots Occurring Within the Fetters Timeline:
    • Blood (Ch 34)
    • Cemetery (Ch 35)
    • Power (Ch 36)
    • Monster (post-Ch 36, pre-Epilogue)
    • Legend (post-Ch 36, pre-Epilogue)
  • Gates of Garmr Snapshots Occurring During the Arena:
    • Sacrifice
    • Prayer
    • Demons
    • Fire
    • Vision
  • Gates of Garmr + Other Snapshots Occurring After Fetters:
    • Holy
    • Hell
    • Sacred
    • Children of the Oak
    • Fear
    • Life
    • Ritual
    • Possession
    • Energy
    • Magic
    • Purgatory
    • Ghost
    • Heaven
    • Shiver
    • Myth
    • Omen
    • Angels
    • Bones
    • Death
    • Faith
    • Haunt

Reactions/Reviews

  • "It's dark, twisted, scary and so full of guilt, denial and angst it's just wonderful. And there's even love."[3]
  • "What I really love about this story is that it read like an episode-- hell, like a whole season, with mysteries being figured out, fighting and wonderful Norse mythology and a monster at the heart of it all, blending canon in so seamlessly yet so twisted, then a sense of tension running through the whole thing as the clock ticks down. It's full of hurt/comfort and then more h/c and even more h/c with all kinds of competence kink thrown in. It's complex and well-written. I devoured it. Don't let the word "berserker" fool you. I'm not a fan of berserker stories. This goes so far beyond that." (reviewing Fetters of Fenrir)[4]
  • "SO many of these big bang stories have just been thinly veiled rewrites of standard romance tropes. But this? This is gloriously rich and wonderful and tasty and...guh. Sam and the cougar! Dean with LittleRunner! And the mythology! The whump! The ending! I'm in love--a...But you make me want to go reread the Norse myths!" (reviewing Fetters of Fenrir)[5]
  • "neros_violin says: Everyone's probably read this, but it's been a couple of years since it was written, so I encourage you to read it again. It's epic in scope (and length) with a very high level of angst but an incredibly satisfying resolution that makes all the pain worth it. A beautifully-written, well-imagined, uniquely composed take on several common tropes (hurt!dean, werewolves, non-con, h/c, soul bonding), all in one place. This one rips out my heart and soul, every single time, but thankfully puts it back together at the end." (reviewing Fetters of Fenrir)[6]
  • "This one is massively long (200K words) and it has about three prequels (though I didn't actually read them--the author provides a summary), but it's definitely worth it if you have any kind of slave kink or animal transformation kink at all. Basically, Dean is possessed by an animal spirit (the prequels and/or the forward spell out this premise in a lot more detail), which gives him preternatural fighting and healing powers, but he fears the animal spirit will overwhelm his humanity and he will become an unbeatable monster. He gets kidnapped by someone who makes him fight nightly in a Vegas arena, and also whores him out to customers. Sam, aided by Bela Talbot, goes to his rescue, but the rescue is complicated by the fact that Dean doesn't really want to leave, because his owner is feeding him a drug that allows him to control the beast. Long, satisfying, and very well-paced, despite its length; it sucks you in and is really hard to stop reading, so I don't recommend you start on a day you don't have at least 5 hours free! Also, dark themes, lots of violence, noncon (though not graphic), etc." (reviewing Fetters of Fenrir)[7]

Art Gallery

  • banner for Fetters of Fenrir. Art by crisisarrives.

  • line art drawing of Dean's spirit animal, a wolf. Art by crisisarrives.

  • cover art showing Sam's spirit animal, a couger. Art by catsbycat.

  • wallpaper by crisisarrives depicting both Sam and Dean and their respective spirit animals. Upper right corner is Dean's tattoo.

  • close-up of Dean's tattoo

  • artwork by alienating, showing John Winchester

  • cover art for Gates of Garmr. Art by meret

  • unfinished drawing by strigoaika showing Dean possessed by his spirit animal as he is forced to fight in the arena

References

  1. ^ post at crossroadblues-net (Accessed 4 Feb 2012)
  2. ^ From AU recs post by ratcreature, 14 July 2008. (Accessed 4 Feb 2012)
  3. ^ comment by ailinex at SPN Storyfinders, 16 Aug 2010. (Accessed 4 Feb 2012)
  4. ^ Big Bang Wincest rec by stormcloude at SPN Roundtable, 6 Jan 2009. (Accessed 4 Feb 2012)
  5. ^ comment at leonidasden (LJ now deleted) (Accessed 4 Feb 2012) {MeeDee, any chance of a WebCite for this one, or info on the date or who said it from your saved copy?}
  6. ^ 238: Celebrating the Big 100 with 30 of our Favorite Fics! post at Sawed-Off Recs, 15 Apr 2010. (Accessed 4 Feb 2012)
  7. ^ More bigbang recs post by norwich36, 2 Aug 2008. (Accessed 4 Feb 2012)
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