20 Works in Mevolent's War
Listing Works
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Visions and Versions of Myself by CatoHarmatia
Fandoms: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
17 Nov 2025
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The Man with the Golden Eyes does not exist. After Erskine Ravel has been captured, then rescued by his friends, he finds himself blind, disabled. He doesn't recognise himself anymore. His best friend Hopeless and the other Dead Men do their best to aid his recovery and/or try to manage the other - rather secret - mission they have been sent on while the war still rages all around them. They try to save their friend and themselves, but a lot of things break when handled by broken people. It gets worse before it gets better. Recovery do be like that.
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What would have happened if Erskine Ravel didn't get saved after his capture by the Children of the Spider but by his friends, the Dead Men. What would have happened if he got to work through his trauma instead of going insane (politically)? What if they had all just talked to each other?
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This is a giant What-If. It's set around the turn of the 19th to 20th century. Erskine Ravel is not evil.
Please *mind the tags*. There will be no graphic descriptions but a lot of direct references. -
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The first day, Skulduggery Pleasant was out of jokes.
Or, Nefarian Serpine's greatest plan succeeded, but there was something...off about the soldier that he'd finally managed to capture.
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Mevolent has been entirely too focused on his work for Serpines liking. Luckily, Nefarian knows just how to get his attention.
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Erskine sighs and sinks a little in his chair. Morwenna looks at him straight on. “Do you want me to list why your colleagues aren’t here instead of you? Larrikin is too powerful a healer to take off field, Anton too deadly, Saracen is too unreliable for this responsibility, Hopeless too reserved. Ghastly would despise this work – he’s never been one for the spotlight. And outside your group, Sagacious is unprepared, Bliss too disliked …”
“I understand,” Erskine grinds out.
“So what, exactly, is your objection to my proposition?”
Or, Mevolent makes a devastating strike against Meritorious and his forces. In the aftermath, Erskine has to make a decision that will impact the rest of his life.
Series
- Part 19 of Dead Men Fics
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Nefarian Serpine catches Skulduggery Pleasant during Mevolent's war and interrogation ensues.
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In Another's Eyes by Alexander_Writes for trainwhistlesatnight
Fandoms: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
02 Dec 2020
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Hopeless and Larrikin take centuries to get to know each other. This is a glimpse at them slowly, slowly coming together.
Series
- Part 8 of Dead Men Fics
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Near the end of the war, Erskine and Saracen bunker up in a safe house waiting for the others to arrive. Erskine makes a decision. Saracen becomes very unwell.
Or, the poisoning scene that was referenced in Seasons of War. Some minor spoilers.
Series
- Part 6 of Dead Men Fics
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A Necessary Distraction by Alexander_Writes for WintersCurse
Fandoms: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
10 Jul 2020
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The Dead Men are hiding in a safe house. Mevolent's men are after them. To handle the tension, Larrikin introduces them to a game Gracious made up, which Larrikin calls "you know".
Or, Larrikin is ridiculous, Hopeless is stressed, and Dexter tries to hold them all together.
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- Part 5 of Dead Men Fics
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Skulduggery comes back from his five-year long sojourn. Ghastly knows his friend must have done something terrible. He opens his door to him anyway.
This isn’t really about Skulduggery though - a man with too much anger and too little compassion. This is about Ghastly Bespoke, who had lost a father and mother and brother and yet is still kind, and good, and decent.
Series
- Part 4 of Dead Men Fics
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“When Skulduggery died I almost deserted,” Ghastly said.
Worm's Head, Rossili. Wales, 1902. Ghastly and Erskine have a conversation on a cliff. Erskine isn't entirely honest.
Series
- Part 3 of Dead Men Fics
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crystals in the morning light by nightdotlight
Fandoms: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
23 May 2020
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Blue is just about starting to appear at the eastern corner of the sky when Mace goes to wake Depa.
“Papa?” She mumbles, voice quiet and ever-so-slightly slurred with the early hour, but the dart of her brown eyes to him in the gloom and the impression of her mind sleep-warm and trusting against his makes something soft rise in Mace’s chest.
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It’s time for Mace and Depa to move safehouses.
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“You weren’t changing shape,” Shudder says, voice a quiet questioning rumble. “Not when you were fighting with me.”
“They did,” Ghastly says sharply. Hopeless looks at him. “They did change shape.”
“Not for long.”
“You turned into my mother,” Ghastly says.
Hopeless shuts their eyes.Hopeless almost dies fighting on the battlefield, and Erskine and Larrikin hold an intervention. Hopeless explains their powers.
Set after A Veritable Mountain of Trees and before A Mutual Dislike of Winter
Series
- Part 3 of Concerning An Important Conversation
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At first the figure is not recognisable. It is wreathed in shadows, walking down the path through the last of the village. But after a moment Erskine recognises the height and gait and feels something within him settle, even as he struggles to understand the image before him.
“Skulduggery!” He screams.In which the Dead Men don't let Skulduggery leave without a fight. Set in the middle of the war.
Things actually work out.
Series
- Part 2 of Dead Men Fics
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A veritable mountain of trees by Alexander_Writes
Fandoms: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
17 Mar 2020
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“I waited for you,” Erskine says, and Saracen’s eyes open properly as his stomach drops. “I waited for over a month, months, I don’t know. You said you’d come but you never did ..."
Trekking through a forest somewhere in France, the Dead Men approach a difficult conversational topic. Set prior to A Mutual Dislike of Winter.
Series
- Part 2 of Concerning An Important Conversation
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A mutual dislike of winter by Alexander_Writes
Fandoms: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
14 Mar 2020
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Hopeless sighs. “Why are you associated with the children of the spider?”
It's the end of the war, just about. Erskine and Hopeless have a chat in Prussia. Some things resolve themselves.
Series
- Part 4 of Concerning An Important Conversation
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Skulduggery Pleasant attends Hogwarts. A war looms just over the horizon.
A Harry Potter rewrite of the war against Mevolent.
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Mevolent's War and the Jacobite Risings set the scene; meanwhile Saracen Rue just can't stop getting himself in trouble. The Dead Men are making a name for themselves, the Necromancers remain a slippery bunch, Corrival Deuce keeps getting presented with sadistic choices. And of course, there had to be pirates.
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We Band of Brothers by Stop_Looking_At_My_Name
Fandoms: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
09 Oct 2017
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The Dead Men's adventures during the War against Mevolent, as told in a series of one-shots.
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Dem Dry Bones by AmaraqWolf for purplejabberwock
Fandoms: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
08 Feb 2014
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Lord Vile was, aside from Mevolent himself, the most feared sorcerer during the war. The most powerful Necromancer ever to exist, he spoke little, killed many, appeared out of the blue and vanished just as quickly.
Where did he come from, and where did he disappear to?
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Skulduggery Pleasant. The miracle soldier. His state of existence is so often remarked upon and joked about now that it's easy to forget he was once, as the name implies, an inexplicable miracle of nature. When he first came back, in pain and mad with grief, no one knew what to make of him. And the possibility of his being controlled by outside forces was too much of a threat to ignore.
No spoilers past the first book. This work uses the headcanon of myself and purplejabberwocky - Descry Hopeless is a natural-born Adept mind-reader, and he was friends with Skulduggery and Ghastly for years before Skulduggery's death.