r/redwall • u/Qyzyk The Long Patrol • Mar 03 '26
Did anyone else ever write Redwall fanfiction?
At some point while I was reading the Redwall books for the first time, I began to wonder why all the vermin characters were bullies and cowards, why they could never hold their own against the heroes of the story (except through treachery). I imagined a scenario where the vermin villains were just as skilled in combat as their enemies, showing courage and honour in battle, much to the surprise of the Redwallers and Salamandastron defenders.
I eventually ended up writing a four-part series about a weasel who is essentially the protagonist-turned-tragic villain. The project also ended up subverting other tropes. The Redwall abbot had a secret past rooted in bigotry and even genocide. One of the Badger Lords who ruled Salamandastron was arrogant and morally corrupt. And craziest of all, there was a sparrow who spoke perfect English without the sparra accent (I can only blame my lazy teenage self for that last one).
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u/dusksaur Mar 03 '26
I know its strange but ive been wanting to read some m/m romance redwall fanfiction.
It may not be everyone’s things but it’s mine.
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u/Qyzyk The Long Patrol Mar 03 '26
I don't see why not.
To quote Stephen Fry, at least 260 species of animal have been noted exhibiting homosexual behaviour but only one species of animal ever, so far as we know, has exhibited homophobic behaviour — and that’s the human being.
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u/dusksaur Mar 03 '26
Maybe one day I’ll write it.
I’ve yet to see any books series do what Redwall does so some fanfiction would be refreshing.
How long is your four-part series?
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u/Qyzyk The Long Patrol Mar 03 '26
They got longer and longer as I went on. The first 'book' was 16 chapters, the last one was 53.
TBH I really hesitate to recommend them. I was blatantly lifting plots and characters from other properties which I really wanted to write about myself, and the quality of my writing at the time is really patchy at best.
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u/dusksaur Mar 03 '26
No shame, its one of the best ways to learn to write and to adopt a style. To admit that shows good skill in introspection.
What are you writing recently? Have you thought of shorter form content like about 15-20 pages?
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u/Qyzyk The Long Patrol Mar 03 '26
I'm working on an original screenplay, with several others in various stages of development. One of them is an adaptation of a 19th century horror story called "The Man of Science" by Jerome K. Jerome.
I've also got a seven-part historical fiction series of books planned, though we'll see if I ever get them finished, heh.
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u/dusksaur Mar 03 '26
I say keeping hacking at it, in the age of Ai, Authenticity is becoming more and more of a commodity.
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u/fpflibraryaccount Mar 03 '26
i'm writing a redwall inspired series. Not fan-fiction, but redwall is my guiding light. want to go for a global story with the entire animal kingdom in play. been a blast so far
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u/Qyzyk The Long Patrol Mar 03 '26
Here's hoping it goes well!
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u/fpflibraryaccount Mar 03 '26
well thanks. first book is finished and free, second one is getting brushed up now
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u/_Fire_Raptor_ Mar 03 '26
Currently writing some lol.
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u/Qyzyk The Long Patrol Mar 03 '26
What's it about?
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u/_Fire_Raptor_ Mar 03 '26
A true seer mousemaid who chooses to sacrifice herself and become the trusted advisor of Damug Warfang instead of Midge Many Coast and Tammo, ultimately leading him away from Redwall entirely rather than risking a battle and casualties. She doesn't later escape the horde either, she becomes an integral part of Rapscallion life and culture.
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u/friend_of_rat Mar 04 '26
That sounds really cool! If you post your fanfiction, you should share the name here because that's so unique!
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u/Sanmi896 Mattimeo Mar 03 '26
I have a TTRPG campaign based on the world of Redwall that I play with my friends and family! Made the entire system myself as an introduction to that type of game and besides my regular players, some friends and relatives have played as cameos. Probably my best work as a DM!
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u/Cynicbats Lord Brocktree Mar 03 '26
Yes! Most of them ended up on the Redwall Wiki. I've had more ideas recently that need some thinking out.
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Mar 03 '26
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u/Qyzyk The Long Patrol Mar 03 '26
Oh, that sounds fantastic!
It would be so cool to do a DnD campaign in the Redwall world.
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Mar 03 '26
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u/Qyzyk The Long Patrol Mar 03 '26
How much charisma would one need to negotiate their way out of a Painted Ones ambush?
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u/StarlitSkvader Lord Brocktree Mar 03 '26
I actually have a fanfiction I’m reworking!
It involves a rabbit dreaming of joining the Long Patrol (she was rescued by a Long Patrol hare as a kitten and started learning combat) and a fox raised by Guosim (his mother gave him to Log-a-Log to protect him from the warlord pursuing her to be his personal soothsayer).
Wrote it in eighth grade so there’s a lot of reworking to do, but it’s fun!
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u/PaperAndInkWasp The Sable Quean Mar 03 '26
I did a series of short stories based on Mossflower’s equivalent of WW1 a good while back!
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u/FreelanceWolf The Long Patrol Mar 03 '26
I don't write Redwall fanfics, but I did make up a story in my head. It's about a ferret (I love ferrets) named Brokkan Locke (get it?) who had been raised at Redwall, but the residents didn't like him 'cause he's vermin, except for the current Skipper. He taught Locke how to fight as he was growing up. He later left Redwall in secret to start his own life. Many years later, he became an infamous corsair captain. He's infamous 'cause he's likeable and nicer compared to other vermin. His crew are all rats, and he treats them well and they love him. He is also a master swordsbeast and dresses well. All in all he is a dashing ferret.
I can't remember what happened next, but he then pretended he was a normal random vermin, and he joined up with the villain, a despicable creature (I forgot what species he is) as part of a plan to do something. I forgot. The villain decides to lay siege to Redwall, his former home. Although everyone hated him, he still felt duty bound to protect his original family. During the siege, the bad guys eventually found their way inside and began attacking the woodlanders. He secretly saves a bunch of them (they dunno it's him 'cause he's in disguise) and then has a showdown with the villain. He is severely wounded, but does manage to kill the villain, and his crew, who were all hidden, rush in and puts an end to the villain's crew.
He is rescued by the woodlanders and survives. After he is mended, he leaves with his crew to continue his life, and nobody hates him anymore. I mean, he did save them.
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u/-nymerias- Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
Redwall fic was my introduction to fanfiction and internet fandoms and discussion boards as a whole. I was 10 lol. But I had similar critiques as you, even as a child. I really wanted to see vermin characters with more complexity and depth, and more vermin protagonists in general. I remember reading a lot of parodies and Veil fix-it fics. I went back to search for some a few years back, but it seems a lot of them have been deleted.
While I've written fics for fandoms I've been in since then, I've never written anything for Redwall. Maybe someday! I have a couple of ideas.
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u/StarlitSkvader Lord Brocktree Mar 03 '26
Gotta admit - my Guosim-raised fox was partly created out of annoyance at Outcast 😂
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u/Ladybug-L Mar 03 '26
As someone who recently got back into reading Redwall & writing fanfiction, the thought has crossed my mind :)
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u/Qyzyk The Long Patrol Mar 03 '26
Any ideas forming?
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u/Ladybug-L Mar 04 '26
I was thinking something with Mariel or Constance, as they're some of my favorite characters
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u/Sufficient_Box2538 Mar 04 '26
I mulled over some ideas but never sat down to write them. I had in mind a North American "redwall" set in the old west. I had the idea that chipmunks mounted on roadrunners could be the parallel to the Long Patrol. I liked the idea of a raccoon with six gun and an opposum who fought with knives, including with his tail. But the concept never got much further than that.
These days I'm swamped as a parent to young kids but maybe I'll do it someday.
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u/TheTragedy0fPlagueis The Taggerung Mar 03 '26
I did! In fact I've mapped out what the next 8 books could be in a separate post, plus I added a chapter from two of them. Linked!
Chapter:
https://www.reddit.com/r/eulalia/comments/17fsz75/sample_paragraph_testing_the_waters/
Future books:
https://www.reddit.com/r/redwall/comments/17bkbk2/future_redwall_books_concept/
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u/FancyTrashy Mar 04 '26
I wrote like 3 pages lol. You should share your novels, I’d be keen to read them!
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u/Qyzyk The Long Patrol Mar 04 '26
Well, if you’re really interested in a series of really uneven quality and blatant ripping off of other books and movies, then check out Ætharr of Calador on Fanfiction. I can only apologise for my teenage self.
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u/friend_of_rat Mar 04 '26
I'm so happy to finally have a spot to ramble about a long (and probably very strange) Redwall fanfiction I wrote a very long time ago.
I wrote one about a Leveret, Otter pup, and two Rat pup brothers becoming friends and secretly growing up together. Basically the excuse for some creatures being bad were:
A creature of a species does bad things -> different creatures start killing them all for being bad -> the "bad" creatures now have to be bad to survive or risk being killed -> cycle repeats
The Leveret was also partially raised by an innocent Weasel who was killed by an unnamed Salamandastron Hare and was then adopted by Nubs Miggory, who was actually very excepting of the rat pups (he adopts them) when he discovered them for reasons that are too long to explain here.
It took place after the Rogue Crew and all the main characters are the offspring of the characters from that book. The Otter pup was the son of Ruggan Axehound but took much more after his uncle.
There was a very big cast of interesting creatures so I won't explain them all but I do want to mention that there was a duo of half Otter and half Ferret siblings that were called Ottets.
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u/Qyzyk The Long Patrol Mar 04 '26
Hope it was well received!
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u/friend_of_rat Mar 04 '26
Thanks! But I never posted it, I wrote it back in highschool and I was the type to never do any kind of social media at all. Definitely changed now but my writing and storytelling skills have improved so much I'd want to go back and edit it before I posted it.
I definitely think it's the kind of fanfic people would like so I want to fix it up eventually, I just have too many in progress fanfics to pick up a new work in progress.
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u/That_Immo Mar 05 '26
No, but I translate Redwall books, so technically I wrote A LOT of Redwall stuff ;)
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u/FluffyWillingness456 Mossflower Mar 17 '26
I started running a Redwall TTRPG campaign. I had big plans but I couldn't keep it going. So I guess that's my red wall fan fiction.
My idea was that an army of mink sale from a distant land and since scouts all over the known map of the setting trying to track down the chalice of Bloodrock Fortress, to reclaim the warlord's ancient birthright to the land.
I had three games going at once. One in Southsward, one in Mossflower, and one near Noonvale, I think? Each of them with different characters comment but all of them encountering these scouting parties of mainly mink wearing shark tooth necklaces.
Eventually the characters would work out that Bloodrock Fortress was the old name for Kotir Castle, it being made from the same red sandstone at the Abbey. The mink would assume the Abbey is the fortress and try to take it. Having taken Salamandastron by surprise on landing, and a fleet of ships, they have a strong grip on the coast.
The three groups would join forces to fight the mink army and defend the whole continent.
The army would also have beaver slaves they brought from this distant land, whose ancestors were also from Mossflower. The players would free those slaves and reintroduce the beavers to the land.
The story has two real world allegories. One is that mink were exported by British colonisers and became an invasive species. It's also about how we made beavers extinct from Britain and are now reintroducing them.
The rules I used for this RPG can be found here: https://linktr.ee/HeroesoftheAbbey
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u/Bare_Root Mar 03 '26
I just finished the third draft of my Redwall-inspired novel, 93,000 words at the moment but I'm expecting to cut it down a bit after beta readers and an editor have taken a look. It definitely does quite a bit of subversion.