The Empress (III) is the third trump or Major Arcana card in traditional tarot decks. It is used in card games as well as divination.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a harvest festival celebrated in Chinese culture. It is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar with a full moon at night, corresponding to mid-September to early October of the Gregorian calendar. On this day, the Chinese believe that the moon is at its brightest and fullest size, coinciding with harvest time in the middle of autumn.
Chang'e, originally known as Heng'e, is the goddess of the Moon and wife of Hou Yi, the great archer. Renowned by her beauty, Chang'e is also known for her ascending to the Moon with her pet Yu Tu, the Moon Rabbit and living in the Moon Palace (廣寒宮). She is one of the major goddesses in Chinese mythology, Chinese folk religion, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. In modern times, Chang'e is the namesake of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program.
The Farseer trilogy is a series of fantasy novels by American author Robin Hobb, published from 1995 to 1997. It is often described as epic fantasy, and as a character-driven and introspective work. Set in and around the fictional realm of the Six Duchies, it tells the story of FitzChivalry Farseer, an illegitimate son of a prince who is trained as an assassin. Political machinations within the royal family threaten his life, and the kingdom is beset by naval raids. Fitz possesses two forms of magic: the telepathic Skill that runs in the royal line, and the socially despised Wit that enables bonding with animals. The series follows his life as he seeks to restore stability to the kingdom.
Jonathan Strahan is an editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His family moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1968, and he graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts in 1986.
Alma A. Hromic, known by her pen name Alma Alexander, is a fantasy writer whose novels include the "Worldweavers" young adult series, The Secrets of Jin-Shei and its sequel The Embers of Heaven, The Hidden Queen, and Changer of Days. She is a native of Yugoslavia and grew up in various African countries, including Zambia, Eswatini, and South Africa, also spending time in England and New Zealand before moving to the United States. She lives in Bellingham, Washington.
Laura Resnick is an American fantasy writer. She was the winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction for 1993. The daughter of science fiction author Mike Resnick, she formerly wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Laura Leone.
The Moon rabbit or Moon hare is a mythical figure in both East Asian and indigenous American folklore, based on interpretations that identify the dark markings on the near side of the Moon as a rabbit or hare. In East Asian mythology, the rabbit is seen as pounding with a mortar and pestle, but the contents of the mortar differ among Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese folklore. In Chinese folklore, the rabbit is often portrayed as a companion of the Moon goddess Chang'e, constantly pounding the elixir of life for her and some show the making of cakes or rice cakes; but in Japanese and Korean versions, the rabbit is pounding the ingredients for mochi or tteok or some other type of rice cakes; in the Vietnamese version, the Moon rabbit often appears with Hằng Nga and Chú Cuội, and like the Chinese version, the Vietnamese Moon rabbit also pounding the elixir of immortality in the mortar. In some Chinese versions, the rabbit pounds medicine for the mortals and some include making of mooncakes. Moon folklore from certain Amerindian cultures of North America also has rabbit themes and characters.
Tansy Rayner Roberts is an Australian fantasy writer. Her short stories have been published in a variety of genre magazines, including Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and Aurealis. She also writes crime fiction as Livia Day.
My Date with a Vampire III is a 2004 Hong Kong television series produced by Asia Television (ATV) as a sequel to My Date with a Vampire (1998) and My Date with a Vampire II (2000). The series starred many cast members from the first two seasons. Like the first two seasons, My Date with a Vampire III also blends aspects of the Chinese "hopping" corpses of jiangshi fiction with those of western vampires, while incorporating elements of Chinese mythology, eschatology and time travel, with more focus on Chinese mythology in this season as compared to the first two.
Beth Bernobich is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She also goes by the pen name Claire O'Dell. She was born in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania in 1959. Her first novel, Passion Play was published by Tor Books in October 2010, and won the Romantic Times 2010 Reviewer Choice Award for Best Epic Fantasy. Her novel, A Study in Honor was published by Harper Voyager in July 2018 and won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery.
Deerskin is a dark fantasy novel by Robin McKinley, first published in 1993. It is based on an old French fairy tale by Charles Perrault called Peau d'âne. It was nominated for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature.
Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a Thai science fiction and fantasy writer, who is also known for her controversial online criticism. She was a finalist for the 2014 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the 2014 BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction, for Scale-Bright.
The Poppy War is a 2018 novel by R. F. Kuang, published by Harper Voyager. The Poppy War, a grimdark fantasy, draws its plot and politics from mid-20th-century China, with the conflict in the novel based on the Second Sino-Japanese War, and an atmosphere inspired by the Song dynasty. A sequel, The Dragon Republic, was released in August 2019, and a third book, The Burning God was released November 2020.
The Dragon Prince, known as The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos from the fourth season onward, is an animated fantasy television series created by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond for Netflix. Produced by Wonderstorm and animated by Bardel Entertainment, the first season premiered on September 14, 2018. The second season premiered on February 15, 2019, and the third on November 22, 2019, concluding the first saga of the series. Following a three-year hiatus, the fourth season premiered on November 3, 2022, and started the series' second saga. The fifth season premiered on July 22, 2023, and the sixth on July 26, 2024. The series has been renewed for a seventh and final season that is set to premiere on December 19, 2024, and will bring the series and its second saga to a conclusion. Three additional seasons as part of a potential third saga are also in early development. The series has earned critical acclaim for its story, themes, vocal performances, animation, and humor for its first three and sixth seasons.
Over the Moon is a 2020 animated musical fantasy film directed by Glen Keane and co-directed by John Kahrs, from a screenplay by Audrey Wells, with additional screenplay material by Alice Wu and Jennifer Yee McDevitt. The film was produced by Pearl Studio and Netflix Animation, and animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks. It stars the voices of Cathy Ang, Phillipa Soo, Ken Jeong, John Cho, Ruthie Ann Miles, Margaret Cho, and Sandra Oh. The plot follows an adventurous girl named Fei Fei, who builds a rocket ship to meet a mythical goddess on the Moon.
Dota: Dragon's Blood is an adult animated epic fantasy television series. It is based on Dota 2, a 2013 video game by Valve. The show is produced by Studio Mir in association with Ashley Edward Miller's company Kaiju Boulevard. The series premiered on Netflix on March 25, 2021. and concluded on August 11, 2022.
Witches Steeped in Gold is a 2021 young adult dark fantasy novel by British Jamaican writer Ciannon Smart. Smart's debut novel inspired by Jamaican mythology was published on 20 April 2021 by HarperCollins and follows two enemy witches who must enter an alliance to fight a common enemy. It was followed by a sequel, Empress Crowned in Red released on June 7, 2022.
The Fitz and the Fool trilogy is the concluding subseries of the Realm of the Elderlings, a 16-book fantasy series by American author Robin Hobb. Published from 2014 to 2017, it features the protagonist FitzChivalry Farseer in his fifties, and follows his life with his wife Molly and daughter Bee Farseer. It was well-received by critics, with the Los Angeles Review of Books praising Hobb's characterization and portrayal of aging, and The Guardian positively viewing how the final book consolidated plot threads from across the series.
Taiyin Xingjun is the Chinese goddess of the moon. While often intertwined with the legend of Chang'e, Taiyin Xingjun is the original guardian of the moon. Chinese folk religion also uses Chang'e as the incarnation of Taiyin Xingjun. Taiyin Xingjun is believed to be the Taoist counterpart of the Buddhist bodhisattva Candraprabha, also known as the Moonlight Bodhisattva.
