He Says He Is An Experimental Theologian
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| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | He Says He Is An Experimental Theologian |
| Author(s): | ErinPtah |
| Date(s): | November 20 2013 – April 27 2014 |
| Length: | 180k words, 32 chapters |
| Genre: | Daemon AU, Fusion |
| Fandom: | Welcome to Night Vale, His Dark Materials |
| External Links: | AO3, Series Masterpost, Series on AO3 |
 Cover art by runawaymarbles (2020) | |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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He Says He Is An Experimental Theologian is a Welcome to Night Vale fanfic by ErinPtah.
It is the first work in the Republic of Heaven Community Radio series, set in the same WTNV and HDM fusion universe.
Contents
Summary:
Ever since Carlos was little, he and his daemon have been fans of Dr. Lyra Belacqua. Both as the most groundbreaking experimental theologian of the 20th century, and as the heroine of dozens of fantasy-adventure children's stories (based very loosely on her own mysterious childhood).
But Lyra's true legacy is still bigger than Carlos ever imagined...until he took a team of scholars to study Rusakov particles in the most theologically interesting community in Hispania Nova. Now his own day-to-day life is full of things like angels, witches, hooded spectres, portals between worlds, vague yet menacing branches of the Magisterium, and a man who walks around without his daemon and can read an alethiometer as easily as a stop sign.
Welcome to Night Vale, His Dark Materials | Republic of Heaven Community Radio (Masterpost) has a variety of information, including links to supplemental material and fanworks, the author's art, "AU Vocabulary", "Daemon Reference Guide", and more.
Reception
Mark Oshiro read the first 14 chapters of He Says He Is An Experimental Theologian for his Mark Reads series: YouTube playlist, Archived version.
Reactions & Reviews
It's a Welcome to Night Vale/HDM fusion that merges the canons beautifully and really digs in to some interesting worldbuilding re: dæmons in a modern (but weird) setting.[1]
yes, I know, I know, this is a ridiculously niche crossover and I almost never find anyone who is a fan of both these properties. But it’s so aggressively good. It fixes all the things I didn’t like about Night Vale- the continually-building absurdism, the slow pace, the dangling plot threads- and all the things I didn’t like about HDM- the contrived romance plot, the preachiness- and combines all the BEST POSSIBLE elements of both stories. This is a big part of why I wrote my daemons AU fic of DBH. I love this fic so fucking much.[2]
is probably the best crossover I’ve ever read. It’s Welcome to Night Vale/His Dark Materials (as in, Carlos’s scientific idol when he was growing up was Lyra Belaqua), and it melds the lore and worldbuilding from both with mind-blowing brilliance. Just, comprehensively amazing.[3]
If you only ever read one Welcome To Night Vale fic, let it be this one. It’s a “His Dark Materials” and Night Vale crossover, and good lord is it well written, well-characterised, and beautifully fleshed out... Believe me on this, read this fic. It’s absolutely brilliant. (and so is Khoschek.)[4]
No lie its the thing that got me into HDM.[5]
This fic. Is so good. The writing is superb. The characters are divine. Night Vale is Night Vale. It's perfect. I want to read it for the first time, again[6]
If you like Night Vale, you have to read He Says He’s an Experimental Theologian by ErinPtah. Literally the best WTNV fic I’ve ever read. It’s a daemon fic, which I worried would be confusing, but I never read His Dark Materials or anything and it’s still beyond belief good!![7]
For the Series
Crossover AUs, like Sailor Ptah's incredible Welcome to Night Vale/His Dark Materials "Republic of Heaven Community Radio" series, are sometimes better than their source material (true of all fanfic, really...).[8]
I’ve started reading this and I truly love it. I’ve actually never listened to Welcome to Night Vale, and this still works wonderfully as a story set broadly in the HDM universe and as an exploration of daemon and related mythology.[9]
cecilos WTNV/HDM AU that has made me weep with joy, even on re-reading, and even though I’ve only heard a few eps of WTNV, and even though I don’t ship the main ship particularly![10]
Inspired Fanworks
- I'm living here now. This is my corner. comic by erinptah (Mar 2014)
- Isana and Khoshekh cuddles, Archived version art by flameraven
- Lilbell465 and Poetry and began a podfic of the fic in 2015 which last updated in 2017: (Podfic) He Says He Is an Experimental Theologian.
- Moodboard, Archived version by wordmage-girl
- A big flashy finale piece, featuring as many characters from Republic of Heaven Community Radio as I could fit in., Archived version art by bicatperson
References
- ^ "Comment on the post Recs for His Dark Materials fusions? posted to r/FanFiction, April 3, 2021". Archived from the original on 2022-08-22.
- ^ "August 16, 2019 Tumblr post". Archived from the original on 2022-08-22.
- ^ "July 25, 2021 Tumblr post". Archived from the original on 2022-08-22.
- ^ "January 25, 2014 Tumblr post". Archived from the original on 2022-08-22.
- ^ "April 16, 2015 Tweet". Archived from the original on 2022-08-22.
- ^ "June 17, 2020 Tweet". Archived from the original on 2022-08-22.
- ^ Comment by okiedokeTM (madelinescribbles) on International Fanworks Day Feedback Fest 2022
- ^ "Sept 2 2020 Tumblr post". Archived from the original on 2022-08-22.
- ^ "June 26, 2018 Tumblr post". Archived from the original on 2022-08-22.
- ^ "Oct 16, 2016 Tumblr post". Archived from the original on 2022-08-22.