CotRK Fandom Shipping Culture

In the Children of the Red King fandom (often abbreviated to CotRK or called the Charlie Bone fandom after the protagonist), shipping entails not only sincere ships but also intentionally absurd crack ships to the point that coming up with creative new ships and making content for them is not only a popular fandom activity but formed the basis of one of the most major fandom events, the Charlie Bone Bad Shipping Fic Bingo. It is standard policy for there to be a ship name consisting of two words or a compound word relating to the characters as well as a ship name based on the character's names, a formula made popular by Apollo.
== An Alphabetical Listing of Notable CotRK Ships ==
=== The Ancient Cat/Moth Yaoi===
In early December of 2024, discussion of shipping members of the Flames (three immortal cats) erupted. Because the Flames are ancient, there are few shipping options for them which lack large age gaps; however, the prequel series confirms them to be triplets, which led people to stop shipping them together and coming up with interspecies nonhuman ships: Aries (one of the Flames) with Claerwen the immortal moth (who used to be a wand), or all three Flames with Claerwen in a "trident"-shaped polycule."Let's have cats ship wars" ask by @unstark to @dagbert-endless and a resulting post chain. This led to discussion on other platforms. The discussion of these ships continues to be referred to as the "ancient cat yaoi" discourse despite Claerwen being female in canon.
===Doriel===
The rarepair of Dorcas Loom and Gabriel Silk. Shippers generally regard theirs as a wholesome dynamic in which they grow past who they were in canon to some degree."I think it would be sweet if Gabriel and Dorcas..." posted by @lady-adeliza
===Evil-Genius (Malda, Zelfred)===
Shipping Zelda Dobinski and Manfred Bloor was not uncommon in the earlier days of the fandom, but the ship is now generally viewed as problematic, because the characters are very different in age.
===Silky-Jams (Music-Men, Gabedelio, Fideliel)===
The ship between Gabriel Silk and Fidelio Gunn.
===Granny-Hell (Maielda, Zeisie)===
First proposed by Apollo (the-pets-cafe), this accursed ship between Maisie Jones and Grizelda Bone, Charlie Bone's grandmothers, is a fandom meme with multiple works on Ao3.
===Henliver (Lost-Boyz)===
The ship between Henry Yewbeam and Oliver Sparks was invented twice. It was first suggested by the-pets-cafe, who called it Lost-Boyz, but failed to gain popularity. Years later, it was suggested ironically by luckypunk27, then gained in popularity to the point of being the most popular ship for both characters and one of the fandom OTPs.
===Illusionists-Flight (Emlivia)===
The ship between Emma Tolly and Olivia Vertigo. Shippers of this are more likely to also ship StormSpirit.
===Light-Read===
Julia Ingledew (Read) and Paton Yewbeam (Light) have a canon relationship which is shipped nearly universally by members of the fandom.
===Piano-Groceries (Lymy)===
The canon relationship between Amy (Groceries) and Lyell (Piano) Bone, Charlie's parents, is uncontroversial but met with varying levels of enthusiasm. At first glance, it is the most popular ship in the fandom on Ao3; however, until October 2024, all of their fics were by one writer.
===Magician's-Illusion (Charlivia)===
The ship between Charlie Bone and Olivia Vertigo was extremely popular on ff.net but has now gone virtually extinct.
=== Manfrasa (Masa, HypnoBeast)===
This is the ship between Manfred Bloor and Asa Pike. Their canon dynamic is generally regarded as very toxic, so this ship is often written as one-sided or with some shifts to their dynamic and characterization. One fandom member has described it as being like Merthur if they were evil.
===Moonlight-Traveller (Charen)===
The ship between Charlie Bone and Naren Bloor.
===Ocean-Voyage (Daren, Dagren)===
The ship between Dagbert Endless and Naren Bloor.
===RedRoyalty (TreeHorse, Timonice, Bereken)===
The canon ship between the Red King Timoken and Queen Berenice; most popular among readers of the prequels.
===Salupaldi===
A fairly recent ship first proposed by lady-adeliza, it is the most popular ship for Ashkelan Kapaldi and Luigi Salutati, despite or because they lived 200 years apart. This ship generally entails a lot of artistic pining and time travel. It does not yet have an agreed-upon formal name, though Prophecy-Painter and Painted-Sword have been suggested.
===Storm-Spirit (Tancsander, Tanxander, Tansander)===
The ship between spirit-caller Lysander Sage (Spirit) and stormbringer Tancred Torsson (Storm) is fairly popular. Its main opposition comes from ThunderBird, a canon ship which first appears later in the series, at which point many fans already shipped Tancsander.
===OceanStorm (Tancbert)===
Dagbert Endless/Tancred Torsson, the Enemies to Lovers ship for a duo where one briefly killed the other by drowning him with magic drowning powers, appears fairly early in fandom history but is almost universally reviled and/or treated as a meme. Its official themesong is "Ha Ha I'm Drowning" by The Teardrop Explodes.
===Thunder-Bird (Tamma, Tancremma)===
Possibly the most popular ship in the fandom on ff.net, it is made canon at the end of the series, when weathermonger Tancred Torsson ("Thunder") and bird-shifter Emma Tolly ("Bird") are caught holding hands under the table after a period of mutual crushing. The main opposition to the ship comes from StormSpirit.
===Water-Painting (Charbert, Chagbert)===
Charlie Bone (Painting)/Dagbert Endless (Water) is the most common non canon fandom ship on Ao3. While the possibility of it being shipped had been mentioned as early as 2007"Ugh...I see a world of possibilities opening up for all filthy-minded CRK fangirls..."--WinterGunhands, in an author's note on Strange One from the Sea. Some reviews mention the pairing, though the only one which seems to indicate prior discussion of the ship is Fanless': "It's interesting to see someone giving voice to the Dagbert/Charlie concept.", shortly after Dagbert first appeared in the series, it was not tagged for on Ao3 until September, 2023."Got a Future, in the Past" by Lingard_and_the_Stars, published 9/22/23, is tagged for Former Charlie Bone/Dagbert Endless; "Lighthouse", a Charbert slow burn fic by the same author, began publication later that month but was not tagged for the ship until later.
==Notable Shipping Fanworks==
*A Return to Normalcy by Chericola (Piano-Groceries)
*And Leaves Still Fall by Etheostoma (Light-Read)
*anyone but you by shallowbay (Tancbert)
*Letters by yunmin (Gamilia)
*One More Time by mossnrocks, the first known Henliver fic
*The Dress by Suchan and Twelve (Masa)
==References==
Category:Charlie Bone Universe