Patrick Stuart's Blog, page 66
July 5, 2017
Drunk Cogman Post
(wrote this last night while drinking, will just hit upload and go)
The things I liked about Tranformers: The Last Knight
I've said before that Micheal bey, Bay, makes an interesting sculpture garden, I think with the last one the best individual form was that beardy guy who got turned into a metal statue in the first act
With this one the Cogman form and the Quintessa form, if they were ever produced life-size, would be increadible sculptures
You can really see his detailing in this one.
The interesting thing about the Cogman character is that its this increadibly strange combination of a form which is like this refined art-deco masterpiece, the voice of that guy from Downton Abbey, a script that makes him a kind of crazy butler with anger issues and a mo-cap performance by an actress whos name I can't find anywhere, which is a pity because she added a huge amount to the role
and all of this captured in Beys aspergers-details whirl-a-vision
the motion in particular is fascinating, I think the actress was a dancer; Cogman whirls and glides around the screen, when he's walking some dogs and the dogs do that thing they do when they are on a lead, wrap themselves stupidly around the person, cogman performs this elegant mid-step half-pirouette without breaking rythm and walks on
in the Dan Brown tranformers conspiracy castle he leaps and noodles, strikes poses from greek theatre
when anthony hopkins starts blasting transformers with a lazer gun and gets fucked up for his death scene, Cogman almosst skips and leapd down beside him, poised on flexing limbs like a cat
when Hopkins and Cogman are driving around being chased, Cogman nestles and writhes in the supercars bucket seat like a smirking cat
and becasue Cogman has the motions of a woman, with the voice of a man, playing an very beautiful angry robot, it produces this performance of really fascinating dissonance
By concept designer Steven Messing
and then we have Gemma Chan as an italian futurust sculpture if the italian futurists had CAD and would actually sculpt a woman
Its really hard to get good Quintessa pictures online
this is low-res, she looked better
and the huge dreamlike wash of images
because the plot is utterly fucked and nothing makes sense
so there is a junkyard bit with tra
wait
fuck
I forgot the King Arthur bit at the beginning, the big battle looks Warhammer as _fuck_
and then a giant steel three-headed dragon is there, that's another good sculpt
but yeah, Transformers being dumb bros in a junkyard with robot dinosaurs, a chase around a ruined town, the Dan Brown transformers conspiracy bit where you find out Bumblebee was in World War Two, (so there logically must have been Nazi transformers), and then chasing, then a WWII submarine that apparently is a transformer but doesn't transform, then a really beautiful underwater fairyland thats actually a sunken space ship, then undead robot knights fighting special forces scuba guys, then the spaceship comes up and its this futurisic landscape being washed by massive waves, then cybertron which is made of magnificent fractal digital hexagons but is also kinda half-exploded like its half-way through transforming, then ahit, what then, oh then an arial insertion into space somehow, no, cybertron sends out its fractal tentacles and digs into the earth and like a million or more people must die just from that, then the osprey plane space-dive thing where they land on the surface of an alian planet thats crashing into, or digging into? earth, and then a military fight scene on the planet where they have to "take cover" and "shut down that artillery" and then I think the dragon comes back, then there is a 'gravity' but, like the film Gravity, then they win, then they drive through cornfields and Optimus Prime has to go back to his own planet
oh and Optimus prime turned evil and fought Bumblebee, exactly like in Star Treks 'The Best Of Both Worlds' where Riker has to fire on Picard, but then he turned back
Anyway, who was the unnamed Mo-Cap actress who played Cogman? Anyone know?
The things I liked about Tranformers: The Last Knight
I've said before that Micheal bey, Bay, makes an interesting sculpture garden, I think with the last one the best individual form was that beardy guy who got turned into a metal statue in the first act
With this one the Cogman form and the Quintessa form, if they were ever produced life-size, would be increadible sculptures
You can really see his detailing in this one.The interesting thing about the Cogman character is that its this increadibly strange combination of a form which is like this refined art-deco masterpiece, the voice of that guy from Downton Abbey, a script that makes him a kind of crazy butler with anger issues and a mo-cap performance by an actress whos name I can't find anywhere, which is a pity because she added a huge amount to the role
and all of this captured in Beys aspergers-details whirl-a-vision
the motion in particular is fascinating, I think the actress was a dancer; Cogman whirls and glides around the screen, when he's walking some dogs and the dogs do that thing they do when they are on a lead, wrap themselves stupidly around the person, cogman performs this elegant mid-step half-pirouette without breaking rythm and walks on
in the Dan Brown tranformers conspiracy castle he leaps and noodles, strikes poses from greek theatre
when anthony hopkins starts blasting transformers with a lazer gun and gets fucked up for his death scene, Cogman almosst skips and leapd down beside him, poised on flexing limbs like a cat
when Hopkins and Cogman are driving around being chased, Cogman nestles and writhes in the supercars bucket seat like a smirking cat
and becasue Cogman has the motions of a woman, with the voice of a man, playing an very beautiful angry robot, it produces this performance of really fascinating dissonance
By concept designer Steven Messingand then we have Gemma Chan as an italian futurust sculpture if the italian futurists had CAD and would actually sculpt a woman
Its really hard to get good Quintessa pictures online
this is low-res, she looked betterand the huge dreamlike wash of images
because the plot is utterly fucked and nothing makes sense
so there is a junkyard bit with tra
wait
fuck
I forgot the King Arthur bit at the beginning, the big battle looks Warhammer as _fuck_
and then a giant steel three-headed dragon is there, that's another good sculpt
but yeah, Transformers being dumb bros in a junkyard with robot dinosaurs, a chase around a ruined town, the Dan Brown transformers conspiracy bit where you find out Bumblebee was in World War Two, (so there logically must have been Nazi transformers), and then chasing, then a WWII submarine that apparently is a transformer but doesn't transform, then a really beautiful underwater fairyland thats actually a sunken space ship, then undead robot knights fighting special forces scuba guys, then the spaceship comes up and its this futurisic landscape being washed by massive waves, then cybertron which is made of magnificent fractal digital hexagons but is also kinda half-exploded like its half-way through transforming, then ahit, what then, oh then an arial insertion into space somehow, no, cybertron sends out its fractal tentacles and digs into the earth and like a million or more people must die just from that, then the osprey plane space-dive thing where they land on the surface of an alian planet thats crashing into, or digging into? earth, and then a military fight scene on the planet where they have to "take cover" and "shut down that artillery" and then I think the dragon comes back, then there is a 'gravity' but, like the film Gravity, then they win, then they drive through cornfields and Optimus Prime has to go back to his own planet
oh and Optimus prime turned evil and fought Bumblebee, exactly like in Star Treks 'The Best Of Both Worlds' where Riker has to fire on Picard, but then he turned back
Anyway, who was the unnamed Mo-Cap actress who played Cogman? Anyone know?
July 1, 2017
Research Trip to Chester Cathedral
St Aldhelm! LIterally my favourite riddling Saint. Just looking at him you half suspect this motherfucker knows what a d20 is.
"More cunning than all creatures gulping air,I scatter seeds of death through every fieldSo toxic crops produce a horrid yield,Which the Old Goat's grim sickle reaps for sin.My fights with antlered bucks make me beware,And, when old, I will shed my ancient skinAnd, spurred by newfound youth, again begin."
(Riddles courtesy of A.M. Justers translation.)
Uriel, here as a saint rather than an archangel, even though he's pretty high ranked? There is actually another, more goth Uriel in the main part which I couldn't get close enough to get a picture of.
Another Aldhelm riddle..
"We are not spawned by Saturn's blighted son,Jove, called in bardic verse "The Mighty One,"And Delian Latona's not our mother.I'm not called "Cynthia," nor Phoebus "brother";The Lord who fashioned high Olympus reignsInstead now from His heavenly domains.We split the four-part world as we agreed:Days pass and nights progress as we decreed.If siblings won't rule passing time by right.Alas, vast chaos would eclipse the lightAnd then in Hell dark Erebus would lead."
Here's Micheal, with a sword, looking like a badass. And...
He brought fresh souls! Enough for everyone.
Here's Hugh Lupus, looks a bit different to his Wikipedia description; "Hugh, due to his gluttony, became so fat that he could hardly walk, earning him the nickname of le Gros (the Fat). He would also earn the nickname Lupus (Wolf) for his savage ferocity against the Welsh."
Another Hugh, but blonder and this time being nice to a priest who I think is from St Bees, near where I grew up.
Here's another closeup with SlimHugh next to Earl Leofric. Lady Godiva's husband. It's nice these two are getting in in the window since if they ever met they would have Fucked. Each. Other. UP.
And apparently Scrap Princess broke into the Cathedral at some point.
"When bloody flooding killed the human raceAnd brand-new seas put mortals in their place(Except for those who carried mankind's seed),First among beasts, I snubbed what law decreed,Deriding yielding to the Lord's command,For which. I think, a poet would declare,"The sin revealed on surf was cleansed on land."Now I won't fill my brood with banquet fareUntil I see plumes blacken on their skin.Remove a letter, I will lack my kin."
June 27, 2017
The Wreckers
The waters around Wir-Heal wash upon Strange Eons and the ships from these shattered realities are often wrecked upon its shore.
Wrecked a bit more often than necessary, due to the Wreckers who lure in ships with false signals at night, who offer safe harbour to those lost; before robbing them blind and leaving them for dead, who fly out in lifeboats to the rescue of floundering craft, the rescue of the cargo rather than the crew; they being left to drown or sometimes shot and stabbed in battles on the sinking ship, and who are feared and hated by all but who are the primary source and tolerated traders of unusual or remarkable items in this part of the Wrecked Heptarchy.
The Wreckers are terrible creatures, violent villains to a man and beast, murderous, ruthless and mad Mask-Men with cracked or self-mutilated masks, True-Men willing to risk the Woodwose curse or indifferent to it and already half-wild and sometimes the deranged pale creatures of Hilb, not knowing what they are but tricked into obedience for a while.
Encountering ThemThere are 2d4 with standard stats - STR 10, DEX 10, WIL 10, 6 HP
Roll below for interest or for fun;
D20 Species Strange Weapon 1 Sheep
'Brown Bess' musket 2 Pale creature of Hilb Bren gun (d10) 3 Goat Surface-to-air ‘stinger’ missile (2d20, 1-shot) 4 True-Man Flare gun (d4) 5 Pig Blunderbuss (cone) 6 Half-Woodwose Fire axe 7 Bull Cutlass 8 Half-Woodwose Roman spatha 9 Boar Hunting crossbow 10 True-Man Zeppelin shotgun (double-damage to zeppelins) 11 Bear Middle-ages crusader grenade 12 True-Man Bronze falchion, 13 Wolf Lee-Enfield 303 rifle 14 Pale creature of Hilb English civil-war era pike 15 Cow Bronze trident 16 Half-Woodwose Navy colt revolver 17 Deer British cavalry sabre 18 True-Man Rail-gun (d10, structural) 19 Stag A slender spear which glimmers like black graphite, pointed at both ends, incredibly strong 20 Pale creature of Hilb Multi-barrelled 'deck gun' (d10)
D20 Odd Attire Name 1 Necklace of gold credit cards Gildas 2 Necklace of cowrie shells Oudas 3 High-viz safety gear Gero 4 A pair of Zeiss binoculars Bladud 5 A brass telescope Edadus 6 Conical Phonecan hat Usk 7 British 'Redcoat' military uniform circa 1800 Merianus 8 Green surplus army jackets with the Argentinian flag Aschil 9 Tunic of Woodwose-wool Gorboduc 10 White t-shirt with RELAX printed in large black letters Angarad 11 WWII era British army boots Heli 12 Tattered Nike Air trainers Methahel 13 Smoking long-stemmed white clay pipe Humber 14 Smoking Gaulose cigarettes Jago 15 Vaping Gad 16 Roman Amphorae tied to their belts with string Blagan 17 Flag of the Liverpool football team worn as a cape Thanet 18 18th Century frock coat and top hat Ourar 19 A baseball cap with captains markings on the brim and the word 'MAERSK' printed on it Mempricius 20 Bright yellow life jacket Artgualchar
Any weapon more complex than a Musket has only d6 shots left in it and the Wreckers either have no more ammo or simply don't understand how it works enough to reload it.
Everything does d6 damage unless stated otherwise.
On the Coast D6 What Are They Up To? 1-4 Setting False Signals to lure in ships. usually walking a donkey or Woodwose up and down the shore to simulate ships at anchor 5 Setting out a 'rescue party' to a sinking ship. 6 Encountering survivors of a shipwreck on the shore (about to smash their heads in).
Inland. What’s their Plan? MURDER? - If they have no reason to keep the PCs alive, and if they are certain then can kill them without losing any useful members, they will attack. But more usually this option will be combined with ‘trickery’ below. TRICKERY? - Always false-friendly and suspiciously well-supplied by drink, the wreckers will, on encountering an opponent they cannot beat, suborn them with the demon drink and tales of the dark coast. Then, once their victim is assured of their friendliness, they will either dispose of them there, or guide them back to Mother Redcaps, or the depths of the Moss. RECRUITMENT? - If the PCs seem questionable enough, fond of a drink and a casual crime, apt to murder on decree but not entirely randomly, and of purchasable character, the Wreckers may try to recruit them. Full entry to their confidence will usually require an innocent death. THEFT? - If nothing else seems apt, the Wreckers will make at least some attempt to steal something valuable from the PCs. (This option often combined with 'Trickery' above.)
Locations Mother Redcaps
The Wreckers are ruled by a bear in a bar; Mother Redcap, an ursine piebald matron in a mop cap with a glazed pot mask like a smiling fat-faced wife.
Mother Redcap - STR 16, DEX 10, WIL 13, 24 HP, Claws (d8)
The lights in Mother Redcaps are always on. Inside she serves British Navy Rum, Gaullish Wine, Grey Goose Vodka and Mead.
She has her own Gramophone, which she calls her ‘Bard-Mill’, and an extensive supply of swing records. Guests are served Woodwose sausages and steak on a full set of china marked 'Great Western'. The chairs are the seats from a crashed airplane placed on new wooden legs. One is always occupied by a bog-mummy called 'Brown Alex', considered to be lucky and referred to as her 'bouncer'. (Actually a vampire though inanimate unless fed blood.)
· At night, the sounds of 1920's swing music come ebbing softly from the windows.· An invisible trap-door just inside the bar door, drops down 10ft to the cellar.· Numerous secret compartments in the floor, walls and roof· A secret passage in the basement that leads both to the coast and the edge of the moss
The Shipping ContainerSomewhere in Wir-Heal, the Wreckers keep their treasure in a buried shipping container. Most will die before they reveal that it exists, let alone where it is, but if discovered it holds the following.
· Thousands of Nike Air trainers and white T-Shirts printed with 'RELAX'.· Religious ikons.· Religious vestments.· Carved ivory coins.· Amphorae of Gaulish wine.· Kegs of Virginia tobacco.· A crate full of tattered American comics from the 1960's.· A bathtub.· A soft sphere that projects a holographic childs toy that offers emotional advice attuned to a six year old.· A complex crystalline array.· A graviton beam emitter which can only be activated by someone with the right firmware in their neural lace, but its AI can verbally identify and quantify threats if pointed at them.· A modular bio-cybernetic omni-limb, still in its synth-ceramic surgically sealed military packaging, with pictorial instructions for attaching it in case of full or partial limb-loss.· A swiss-army knife. · A solar-powered calculator.
Wrecked a bit more often than necessary, due to the Wreckers who lure in ships with false signals at night, who offer safe harbour to those lost; before robbing them blind and leaving them for dead, who fly out in lifeboats to the rescue of floundering craft, the rescue of the cargo rather than the crew; they being left to drown or sometimes shot and stabbed in battles on the sinking ship, and who are feared and hated by all but who are the primary source and tolerated traders of unusual or remarkable items in this part of the Wrecked Heptarchy.
The Wreckers are terrible creatures, violent villains to a man and beast, murderous, ruthless and mad Mask-Men with cracked or self-mutilated masks, True-Men willing to risk the Woodwose curse or indifferent to it and already half-wild and sometimes the deranged pale creatures of Hilb, not knowing what they are but tricked into obedience for a while.
Encountering ThemThere are 2d4 with standard stats - STR 10, DEX 10, WIL 10, 6 HP
Roll below for interest or for fun;
D20 Species Strange Weapon 1 Sheep
'Brown Bess' musket 2 Pale creature of Hilb Bren gun (d10) 3 Goat Surface-to-air ‘stinger’ missile (2d20, 1-shot) 4 True-Man Flare gun (d4) 5 Pig Blunderbuss (cone) 6 Half-Woodwose Fire axe 7 Bull Cutlass 8 Half-Woodwose Roman spatha 9 Boar Hunting crossbow 10 True-Man Zeppelin shotgun (double-damage to zeppelins) 11 Bear Middle-ages crusader grenade 12 True-Man Bronze falchion, 13 Wolf Lee-Enfield 303 rifle 14 Pale creature of Hilb English civil-war era pike 15 Cow Bronze trident 16 Half-Woodwose Navy colt revolver 17 Deer British cavalry sabre 18 True-Man Rail-gun (d10, structural) 19 Stag A slender spear which glimmers like black graphite, pointed at both ends, incredibly strong 20 Pale creature of Hilb Multi-barrelled 'deck gun' (d10)
D20 Odd Attire Name 1 Necklace of gold credit cards Gildas 2 Necklace of cowrie shells Oudas 3 High-viz safety gear Gero 4 A pair of Zeiss binoculars Bladud 5 A brass telescope Edadus 6 Conical Phonecan hat Usk 7 British 'Redcoat' military uniform circa 1800 Merianus 8 Green surplus army jackets with the Argentinian flag Aschil 9 Tunic of Woodwose-wool Gorboduc 10 White t-shirt with RELAX printed in large black letters Angarad 11 WWII era British army boots Heli 12 Tattered Nike Air trainers Methahel 13 Smoking long-stemmed white clay pipe Humber 14 Smoking Gaulose cigarettes Jago 15 Vaping Gad 16 Roman Amphorae tied to their belts with string Blagan 17 Flag of the Liverpool football team worn as a cape Thanet 18 18th Century frock coat and top hat Ourar 19 A baseball cap with captains markings on the brim and the word 'MAERSK' printed on it Mempricius 20 Bright yellow life jacket Artgualchar
Any weapon more complex than a Musket has only d6 shots left in it and the Wreckers either have no more ammo or simply don't understand how it works enough to reload it.
Everything does d6 damage unless stated otherwise.
On the Coast D6 What Are They Up To? 1-4 Setting False Signals to lure in ships. usually walking a donkey or Woodwose up and down the shore to simulate ships at anchor 5 Setting out a 'rescue party' to a sinking ship. 6 Encountering survivors of a shipwreck on the shore (about to smash their heads in).
Inland. What’s their Plan? MURDER? - If they have no reason to keep the PCs alive, and if they are certain then can kill them without losing any useful members, they will attack. But more usually this option will be combined with ‘trickery’ below. TRICKERY? - Always false-friendly and suspiciously well-supplied by drink, the wreckers will, on encountering an opponent they cannot beat, suborn them with the demon drink and tales of the dark coast. Then, once their victim is assured of their friendliness, they will either dispose of them there, or guide them back to Mother Redcaps, or the depths of the Moss. RECRUITMENT? - If the PCs seem questionable enough, fond of a drink and a casual crime, apt to murder on decree but not entirely randomly, and of purchasable character, the Wreckers may try to recruit them. Full entry to their confidence will usually require an innocent death. THEFT? - If nothing else seems apt, the Wreckers will make at least some attempt to steal something valuable from the PCs. (This option often combined with 'Trickery' above.)
Locations Mother Redcaps
The Wreckers are ruled by a bear in a bar; Mother Redcap, an ursine piebald matron in a mop cap with a glazed pot mask like a smiling fat-faced wife.
Mother Redcap - STR 16, DEX 10, WIL 13, 24 HP, Claws (d8)
The lights in Mother Redcaps are always on. Inside she serves British Navy Rum, Gaullish Wine, Grey Goose Vodka and Mead.
She has her own Gramophone, which she calls her ‘Bard-Mill’, and an extensive supply of swing records. Guests are served Woodwose sausages and steak on a full set of china marked 'Great Western'. The chairs are the seats from a crashed airplane placed on new wooden legs. One is always occupied by a bog-mummy called 'Brown Alex', considered to be lucky and referred to as her 'bouncer'. (Actually a vampire though inanimate unless fed blood.)
· At night, the sounds of 1920's swing music come ebbing softly from the windows.· An invisible trap-door just inside the bar door, drops down 10ft to the cellar.· Numerous secret compartments in the floor, walls and roof· A secret passage in the basement that leads both to the coast and the edge of the moss
The Shipping ContainerSomewhere in Wir-Heal, the Wreckers keep their treasure in a buried shipping container. Most will die before they reveal that it exists, let alone where it is, but if discovered it holds the following.
· Thousands of Nike Air trainers and white T-Shirts printed with 'RELAX'.· Religious ikons.· Religious vestments.· Carved ivory coins.· Amphorae of Gaulish wine.· Kegs of Virginia tobacco.· A crate full of tattered American comics from the 1960's.· A bathtub.· A soft sphere that projects a holographic childs toy that offers emotional advice attuned to a six year old.· A complex crystalline array.· A graviton beam emitter which can only be activated by someone with the right firmware in their neural lace, but its AI can verbally identify and quantify threats if pointed at them.· A modular bio-cybernetic omni-limb, still in its synth-ceramic surgically sealed military packaging, with pictorial instructions for attaching it in case of full or partial limb-loss.· A swiss-army knife. · A solar-powered calculator.
June 22, 2017
A PDF of Fire on the Velvet Horizon
You asked for one.
And we said no.
Then you asked again.
And we said "NO"
But now Dyson Logas has asked us for something to add to the bundle intended to fund Contessa going to Gen-Con.
Aaaand then we said yes.
So there will be a Fire on the Velvet Horizon PDF. When the bundle comes out, that will be the only place you can get it.So watch Dysons feed for that.
Word of warning - its an utterly bare product - just the files.No pdf menu - no nothing, only the images.
And we said no.
Then you asked again.
And we said "NO"
But now Dyson Logas has asked us for something to add to the bundle intended to fund Contessa going to Gen-Con.
Aaaand then we said yes.
So there will be a Fire on the Velvet Horizon PDF. When the bundle comes out, that will be the only place you can get it.So watch Dysons feed for that.
Word of warning - its an utterly bare product - just the files.No pdf menu - no nothing, only the images.
June 19, 2017
SINISTER COMBINE FOR UK OSR CREATORS
A few of you will have already seen some or all of this, but here it is for the public.
A few things have happened recently and the results of these experiences have merged in my mind.
Firstly was going to that large Con in Birmingham;
- seeing James Raggi and All Rolled Up co-operate
- seeing Lost Pages and Melsonian Arts Council down at the back in their crappy table
- seeing the large number of passers by who don't know anything about RPG's & who look vaguely interested in the art
- seeing a number of media opportunities for podcasts and youtube pass by
So;
I was considering something we could do to help each other.
My idea was a sort of cartel, grouping or informal arrangement between OSR-associated publishers and creators.
The boring capitalistic reasons for this would be;
- Getting better tables at cons.
- Getting unified table groupings at cons - so if you walked down the corridor we would all be together in a big block.
- Getting some kind of unified, well probably not 'unified' but perhaps synchronised 'message' or presentation at Cons so that, if a blogger, vlogger, podcaster or anyone else is wandering around saying "What's all this then, I don't know anything about it" then we have something to tell them. And if one person isn't available for a podcast or interview, then someone is. Instead of being a bunch of patchy separated tables spread out from here to there we would be a Big Thing with a story about innovation, intellectual and creative ferment and Bold New Directions.
- Same thing with fans. Many of us have a small number of fans. If there was one place at a Con where fans of the OSR could go to shake hands with a creator, or get a book signed, that seems like it would be useful.
AND
- My primary reason is that this would mean a lot of meetings, largely face-to-face meetups.
- It's not just a tool to gain capital advantages, it’s a social structure. Not one purely based on the internet but one where we can reasonably meet up at regular times and interact in 3d. We are all on this relatively small island together and it seems to me that we should make the most of that.
If we do not actively create and deliberately sustain an actual face-to-face social structure, then I think the convenience and immediacy of the internet will trap us in a glass cage.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
- Paul and Fil of All Rolled Up are the experts in Cons, to some extent all the smaller creators would be riding on the coat-tails of their knowledge, experience and professional organisation. Its been suggested to me, and I think it a good idea, that we find some way to be useful to each other to help support them.
- Everyone is producing their own rulesets and, to some extent, is in creative and capitalistic competition with each other. So any group action would depend on whether, or how much, people were willing to potentially compromise on an independent advantage.
- Some of you may or may not be pissed of with each other for political/social/culture war reasons. It's up to you how much you want to co-operate with each other. My personal 'hard limits' are outright self-declared racism on one end and recommending the deaths of police officers on the other. Anything between those two and I can work with you, though I may not agree with you.
- Everyone in this scene is kinda fucked in the head so even if it works its going to be like that bit in 'One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest' where they all go out in the boat.
- Whoever the fuck I missed out of this because I don't know about them.
If you are a UK-based or UK-related OSR(ish) creator and/or publisher who might like to do some or all of the above, then click on this MARKETING BEAST and it will take you to the G+ community.
A few things have happened recently and the results of these experiences have merged in my mind.
Firstly was going to that large Con in Birmingham;
- seeing James Raggi and All Rolled Up co-operate
- seeing Lost Pages and Melsonian Arts Council down at the back in their crappy table
- seeing the large number of passers by who don't know anything about RPG's & who look vaguely interested in the art
- seeing a number of media opportunities for podcasts and youtube pass by
So;
I was considering something we could do to help each other.
My idea was a sort of cartel, grouping or informal arrangement between OSR-associated publishers and creators.
The boring capitalistic reasons for this would be;
- Getting better tables at cons.
- Getting unified table groupings at cons - so if you walked down the corridor we would all be together in a big block.
- Getting some kind of unified, well probably not 'unified' but perhaps synchronised 'message' or presentation at Cons so that, if a blogger, vlogger, podcaster or anyone else is wandering around saying "What's all this then, I don't know anything about it" then we have something to tell them. And if one person isn't available for a podcast or interview, then someone is. Instead of being a bunch of patchy separated tables spread out from here to there we would be a Big Thing with a story about innovation, intellectual and creative ferment and Bold New Directions.
- Same thing with fans. Many of us have a small number of fans. If there was one place at a Con where fans of the OSR could go to shake hands with a creator, or get a book signed, that seems like it would be useful.
AND
- My primary reason is that this would mean a lot of meetings, largely face-to-face meetups.
- It's not just a tool to gain capital advantages, it’s a social structure. Not one purely based on the internet but one where we can reasonably meet up at regular times and interact in 3d. We are all on this relatively small island together and it seems to me that we should make the most of that.
If we do not actively create and deliberately sustain an actual face-to-face social structure, then I think the convenience and immediacy of the internet will trap us in a glass cage.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
- Paul and Fil of All Rolled Up are the experts in Cons, to some extent all the smaller creators would be riding on the coat-tails of their knowledge, experience and professional organisation. Its been suggested to me, and I think it a good idea, that we find some way to be useful to each other to help support them.
- Everyone is producing their own rulesets and, to some extent, is in creative and capitalistic competition with each other. So any group action would depend on whether, or how much, people were willing to potentially compromise on an independent advantage.
- Some of you may or may not be pissed of with each other for political/social/culture war reasons. It's up to you how much you want to co-operate with each other. My personal 'hard limits' are outright self-declared racism on one end and recommending the deaths of police officers on the other. Anything between those two and I can work with you, though I may not agree with you.
- Everyone in this scene is kinda fucked in the head so even if it works its going to be like that bit in 'One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest' where they all go out in the boat.
- Whoever the fuck I missed out of this because I don't know about them.
If you are a UK-based or UK-related OSR(ish) creator and/or publisher who might like to do some or all of the above, then click on this MARKETING BEAST and it will take you to the G+ community.
June 18, 2017
Arnold asked me to post this
and I didn't really wanna, but I gotta post bro, its almost my job. So here is a Sunday post that no-one will read so I can post but avoid the shame.
Arnold K.Shared only with you7 Jun 2017How do I learn to write better prose?And don't just tell me to read more and pay attention when I'm reading.no plus ones22 comments22no sharesShared only with you•View activityHide 16 comments
Patrick StuartOk Liberal prophylactics first.No-one is ever 'good' at the arts. The moment you achieve a meaningful level of skill and understanding of something, whole new vistas of possibility open up in front of you and now instead of being good at what you have been doing you are bad at what you will be doing.
I can only tell you what I know. That may not be what you want to know, or what you need to know, but that is what I have. Accept nothing without thinking about it for yourself and regard it as a toolkit rather than scripture.
People won't care anyway. Being good at prose is not like being the worlds best brain surgeon or plumber where people know and care that you are good. Instead people will be partially alienated from you and vaguely pissed off that you are doing things they can't quite understand.
Most people did it different ways. Anyone who ever got any good was basically putting things together in their head their own way. Writing is like sports, not like A sport, but like all sports. There are a lot of ways to be good. You might be the worlds best weight lifter, or the best horse rider or deep diver, and there would still be lots of things you were rubbish at. Sometimes, especially with the genres, you have to find the thing that you can do well.
ANSWERS
The way I write is mainly down to feel and fiddle.
So I hold the idea in my head, all at once, and then lay it down. When I write it’s more like doing carpentry or fitting smooth pieces of something together than it is like anything else.
It’s like there is a way each sentance wants to be where all the sounds and meanings fit right and do what they need to do. It’s like it wants to become that thing and you are just finding the way that it has to be and the sensation is like the 'ah ha' feel you get when you have been fiddling with a complex piece of technology or a made thing for a while, looking back and forth to the manual pressing it and squeezing it, moving the bits around and then it goes 'click' and you can see that it has fallen into place and everything is where it needs to be.
Then once it’s down, I look at it and fiddle about with it sometimes, usually taking things out or moving them around a little.
So how do you get 'feel' and know what parts should be where?
Poetry
I read poetry, not a huge amount but I have a shelf full and reading that and 'hearing' it and understanding how it works is super-useful.
There is a book by Stephen Fry called 'The Ode Less Travelled' which is probably the best, most direct education in how the structure of poetry works. The best thing about it is that it has exercises in it which force you to make your own poems in various structures.
I accidentally used pen instead of pencil in my copy and am too afraid to look at is because I would have to read my own poems (I am not actually good at poetry) but it’s one of the few books I have kept on me.
The most important thing about this is the work you have to do in your head when you pick up words, sounds, phrases and spaces with your brain and hold them there all together.
Modern academic written-for-the-page poetry is basically trash for this as it does not have a strong euphonic structure and is more 'thought' than spoken, more re-cognated (run through the forebrain more than once) than forming a direct expressive link between the weird mad centre of the brain and the forebrain.
Western Haiku are probably not that useful either, in its home the Haiku uses a syllabic language so each syllable can have a lot of nested meanings and complex phonic relations, in English it’s too easy to write and means less.
Good nonsense poetry can be very useful. The thing about nonsense poetry is that it has to have a strong yet fluid phonic structure and it has to FEEL like it means something, yet not quite mean something. A very good thing about it is that there are no bricks in your head to smash through before you write some. It is very much play and its always reasonable to play or to fuck about so you are enjoying yourself more.
It's much more fun to think 'what is the best or most ridiculous word, sound or arrangement I could put here' rather than 'what is the exact right thing to put here to express what I feeeel'. Either way you are using discrimination and learning 'word feel'. Because its less emotionally consequential, it’s easier to play with form and beauty.
I like Anglo-Saxon poetry and riddles. I have old notebooks where I wrote out the whole of 'The Wayfarer', I think in both translation and original.
Old poetry tends to be better because people spoke then with a stronger emphasis on sound and they had stronger rhythms, repetitions and structures in their words. The more print took over the more words became mere glyphs carrying abstract meanings and not sensual or felt things.
(Old poetry and oral-language epics and ballads generally are probably good for ROG writing for a whole range of other reasons too.)
I found Mallory's original 'Morte' quite good for this as well as I needed to read it phonetically and almost part-translate it in my head to understand it and this meant I had to hold the flow of expression and the 'weight' of the sounds in there all at once.
Then I could try to turn it into 'standard english' and then look back and forth between the standard version and the old version and think about what had been lost or gained.
Same with the Gawain translation.
NOW
MAYBE YOU ARE NOT INTO OLD-ENGLISH POETRY
Probably though you are into something, something written, something strange, something deep and something that has a strong relation to written expression and which you can learn a lot from.
So do what I did with that thing you are into. Learn from it.
People Talk Too Much -
Americans drive on like a ticker tape, covering and re-covering stuff with long low reams of low-expression words, the British cloak every emotion and bracket every expression with a lot of sub-ironic conversational trash.
This might not always be a bad thing when actually talking. When people are talking to each other face to face, a large part of what they are doing is just convincing each other that they are both safe, and decent people and they don't need to be afraid and that they have a way to exchange power and so on. And this might all be important for the people involved.
But when you are writing your job is to not do that.
(Except if writing for children or doing instructions or using it for effect or blah blah blah)
But generally what you are giving people is the good stuff they would get from speaking to you but with all the extra stuff (which they don't need, because its disembodied text they are choosing to read rather than a fully embodied person they have to listen to) taken out.
You can see this most with fresh bloggers when they really do adopt a literally 'conversational' style where they ehm and aa and re-think and counter-state and ironize and in-joke and witter on and you want to KILL THEM because they cannot get TO THE POINT.
Like any rule in art its never perfectly true and there are a million ways you could do the opposite, but generally the line could be shorter with less fucking about.
Fucking about is the main thing I take out of my own writing, even after years I still see Britishisms and blathering creeping in there sometimes.
Passion and Feeling
That said. Writing doesn’t necessarily have a point. Or the point and the expression are so close and interweave so much that it’s hard to find light between them.
It can be really useful to have a strong feeling about what you are writing.
- energises you and drives you towards expression
- that forward emotional momentum somehow helps you find new means of expression, as if you were surfing the front of the big wave and could reach out to grab new things as they pass
- helps you synergise a wider range of experience
- gets that connection between the deep brain and the front brain working fluidly
- just generally makes the writer light up in a whole range of ways
Most writers have a 'thing', like a feel or a mood and when you see them get into it they fucking fly.
I imagine it as a series of cogs or gears turning in the head. There is the big one right at the base of the spine with all the strange animal stuff in it, then a bunch of smaller ones leading up through the brain, dealing with cognition, the tools of the mind, then the smallest one right at the front above the eyes.
Most writers have a mood, or a situation, or an imagined world where everything about it makes all of those cogs suddenly link up and then, all at once, they are spinning and running in a perfect transmission of energy right from the base to the tip.
And this could include the subject, the kind of social world shown, the patterning and rhythm of the prose, the genre of story, the things they already know about the world.. everything.
So Patrick O'Brien can kick the shit out of 18th Century guys on a military ship, but the further away from that he gets, the more his gears disengage and he has to work.
T.H.White can do his Arthurian legend but everyone has to talk like an early 20thC British public school graduate, and in fact its nearly a Hampstead Novel in disguise as a genre piece.
Annie Proulx can do tense, introverted midwesterners in complex modern social situations, but make them extrovert west-coasters who say every thought in their heads and she might find it harder.
One of the things a genre writer can do, one of the big privileges, but also one of the big challenges, is that we can construct an entire world or reality, to write in or write about, all the way from the kinds of lives people lead, to the social reality they negotiate, the way they express themselves.
So working out how to do that is a thing. Hopefully a fun thing.
People really seem to like those Snail Knight stories I did, but take a look at all the other stories I created, and how different they are, and how people were pretty damn indifferent to all of them.
Euphony & Hearing the line -
This is particular to me and to people like me. Different people process writing in fundamentally different ways.
For instance; Scrap just doesn't get poetry. I think she doesn't sound it in her head at all. It is just marks and meaning to her.
Dave Foster Wallace is someone who can clearly write but who writes nothing like me. He writes at the speed, and with the immediacy of thought, rather than speech. he is very clearly not sounding the line in his head. Also his numerous switchbacks, brackets, asides, re-cognitions and shifts inside a paragraph or a line are part of his writing personality and produce a kind of crystalline array of meaning that is central to how he does things.
I am not like that. I am over with Herman Meiville and Cormac McCarthy and Milton with a very strong dum-te-dum-de-tum strong-vowl-sound line.
I don't literally, directly sound out most of the lines I write in my mind, but I have a kind of sub-sounding or voiceless speech that tells me how it runs.
'Hearing' the line is another thing that's too close to the embodied or felt world for me to easily unpack how you do it. It's like hitting a tennis ball with a racket, or trying to explain doing that purely verbally without actually having seen either a racket or ball and without having them in front of you.
When done and perceived - instant - thwack - 'oh that, you want me to do thaaat.
When described - 'wait so what exactly do you do, and with what?'
Here's a thing to try to do;
- Get two things that are surprisingly different
- Get them together in a line or paragraph so they make sense
- Get it so the Euphony is beautiful
This will make the reader feel. They will sense the beauty of the sound of the line and one part of the brain will perk up and say 'this is beautiful', and another part of the brain will read the meaning without sound or substance and say 'this is extreme or strange'.
And both of these feeling, reactions or thoughts happening at the same time is an interesting or notable thing to happen inside their head and they will be pleased with your for giving it to them.
Rip people right the fuck off
Harlan Ellison used to do this thing where he would take a writer he liked and literally re-write large parts of their book, slowly, word by word, looking and thinking about how he could do each individual part. Presumably this would teach him the secret thoughts and arrangements of the writer.
I wouldn't recommend you do that, but if there is any writer or set of creators that you really like then starting by shamelessly ripping them off, or at least trying to understand how they do things, might be a good idea.
That list of people and things you like is a bit like a map of your developing brain and if you ever make anything really good then it will be, not exactly like, but a bit like, some of those things.
Because you already enjoy them its easier to fool around with them and, again, less consequential if your fail, so its easier to learn word-feel through play.
Be calm in your Head
This is a strange thing I get, mainly when I am trying to write poetry. I've only managed it really a few times. It's so hard to get away from the distractions both in the world and in my head.
I think its like what they call a 'flow state'?
Like I was holding a particular range of problems in my head and instead of dispelling them or veering off into another problem or just settling for an inferior but functional result or thinking my way around them, I just help them there. Without forcing them to a particular solution.
I think the longest I have ever been able to do this is maybe 2 to 3 minutes. Maybe you could be better at it.
Re-write it a bunch of Times
It's the OOOOOOOOOLLLLLD CLASSIC of WRITING ADVICE.
Writing is re-writing!
Is it?
Well, sometimes it is. Sometimes you would be better off leaving it alone or thinking more before you write. You never really know. But certainly writing is OCCASIONALLY re-writing.
Usually (but not always) it can be shorter.
Usually stronger expressed. If a line or a group has a feeling or point inside it that you weren't quite aware of while you were struggling towards it, sometimes you look at it later on and think 'oh that's what I was trying to say, what a fool I was not to see it' then you re-write it so 'that' is the only thing left.
Sometimes you thought it was good and turns out its shit.
Sometimes (rarely) you thought it was shit any maybe its good, or you are being a MYSTERIOUS GENIUS
Sometimes you are trying to be a Mysterious Genius and now even you have no fucking idea what you meant.
Alright thats 2.5 hours, that's all I got off the top of my head.1w
Arnold K.Thank you for taking the time to think about all that, and then type it up. You should post it on False Machine.1w
Arnold K.Shit, if you don't, can I post it on my blog and title it something click-baity like "9 Secrets To Writing Patrick Doesn't Want You To Know About"?1w
Arnold K.I used to write poetry in college. I had at least one poem in the student publication every year. That was nice. I was reading poetry for a while there: Bukowski, Plath, Omar Khayyam. I should get back into it. 1w
Arnold K.I think you are pretty spot on with your assessment of modern written-for-the-page poetry. Ain't too many new anapests these days, I reckon.1w
Arnold K.Mindfulness and concentration have always been challenges for me. I have ADD. My brain is like a food court on a Saturday. Sometimes it's nice, like how cooking is nice, when you always have something else boiling beside you other elbow, and there's always something to reach for, should you want it. Other times its easy to get lost, dissipate.1w
Arnold K.When I was a kid, my head was so loud that I could conjure up people to talk to, and I wouldn't know what they were going to say next. I could hear them in my head and they would have accents that I didn't choose and I could turn them off whenever I wanted. That was cool.I can't do that anymore.
Closest I can come is sometimes when I'm DMing, and I can imagine a room or a creature, and it just populates itself with details and extrapolations. Like I just say the words "old stone wall" and sometimes I can see the brittle moss and smell the brine of it. It's like building a desk, then opening it to find that its full of skittles. That's cool, too. I feel like I'm getting something for free.1w
Arnold K.Where I think I snag, though, is spinning the ideas into something captivating. My monitor doesn't display enough colors.Maybe I don't know enough words? But that's silly; I know tons of words, I just don't own very many.
Maybe years of writing laboratory protocols has smoothed out the wrinkles of my brain? I dunno.1w
Arnold K.I think I'm going to get a copy of The Ode Less Travelled. It's only $13 on Amazon, and spending money on things always makes me feel like I've made some progress. 1w
Arnold K.I've got some Harlan Ellison books. I could imitate him as a revenge fuck.Or I could do Borges.
Nah, I can't do Borges.
I'll meditate on it.1w
Arnold K.1. Buy Ode.2. Ape a mammal.
3. Study my own writing, I guess. Figure out what mood I'm good at. Grope the walls of my house.1w
Arnold K.4. Try to crystallize the feelings I get when I write. Figure out what I'm trying to evoke. Be mindful of that, I guess.1w
Arnold K.Okay, that's enough homework for me.Thank you again.
Reading your response for the 3rd time, and a lot of your advice isn't advice on how to write better, it's advice on how to manage my expectations. Which is good fucking advice.
I have a friend who is a luthier. When I was trying to learn violin, I asked him for advice. He said a lot of stuff, but the one I liked best was "Accept that you'll never really be good at it. You might impress some people, but you'll never be good."
I found that tremendously heartening.1w
Arnold K.Actually, it sounds like lifting weights. It never gets easier, but the numbers eventually go up.1w
Arnold K.Expression is a concept I'll have to think about a little bit more.1w
Arnold K.Question: if blog posts are meant to be eaten through the eyeballs, then why is euphony more desirable than writing for the page? A more direct connection for expression to worm through? (For at least one type of expression?)1w
Arnold K.Your Wir-Heal post is very good. I can see Gawain's footprints on it.I'm writing a post that pulls from Wir-Heal's titans (at least a little bit). Giants in the Earth. I'm going to steal them back again.
But first I'm going to go lift weights.1w
Patrick Stuart> Hmm, I'm not sure I have enough faith in my own writing advice to put it out publicly in any format.> "Like I just say the words "old stone wall" and sometimes I can see the brittle moss and smell the brine of it."
Ok firstly, having full-spectrum visions is probably a good thing for writing, it gives you the sensuality and physical specificity that you need to say good stuff.
Second, that thing you did there where you said "old stone wall" and then saw the brittle moss and smelt the brine of it, but inside your head; do that but the other way round. The cool thing should be the thing that goes on the page.
> "Maybe years of writing laboratory protocols has smoothed out the wrinkles of my brain?"
Mmmaybe. Perfectly intelligible reason is on a tangent to art. Not necessarily opposed, but at an angle so they rarely share exactly the same space.
But I am sure lab reports and scientific speech have their own secret aesthetic (that they don't think they have). Maybe you could write lab reports about impossible or irrational things?
> "Question: if blog posts are meant to be eaten through the eyeballs, then why is euphony more desirable than writing for the page?"
I don't really know. I know euphony plays a big role in how I perceive and think about writing. I think it might be my primary mode or strongest tool, but there are many people who don't think like that. Scrap, for instance, writes in this utterly strange and particular way that isn't like anything else. I don't know what she's doing in her head but it often works.
1w
Patrick StuartAnd thank you for the compliments.1w
Arnold K.Rereading this: I still think you should post it.2d
Patrick Stuart+1I will think about it.2d
Arnold K.Let me know if there's anything I can do to heckle.June 15, 2017
Hugh Lupus
The fat, greedy, lazy but not entirely incompetent master of the City of Legions, which is called, even by him, “Legions Fort”, and which is not a fort, and has no legions, claims dominion over Wir-Heal as a representative of Castle Mammuster.
In practice Lupus unable to send a meaningful number of troops into the peninsula due to the dense terrain, the deadly dreams of the Titans, the ever-present Curse of the Woodwose and the fact that he just doesn’t have many troops. Only small groups of rogues and adventurers are able to get around at all, and at with enormous risk.
Nevertheless, Lupus is willing to “license” adventurers or explorers of almost every kind, as well as the borderline lunatics of the Court of Wassail, hoping to skim off whatever they bring back and hopefully find some way to fasten his hand more tightly on Wir-Heal.
Lupus loves three things, wine, food, money and hating the Welsh.
Anyone pointing out that these are four things is locked in stocks marked 'pedant' and pelted with peas till they pass out.
Though Lupus is a brutal, greedy, lustful, status-obsessed Welshaphobe, he has two excellent leadership qualities; he is clever and he is lazy. His laziness means he never persists too long in his brutality and that the City of Legions has a thriving civil society since that means less work for him, and his cleverness means he rarely taxes people more than they can bear, and that he beats his enemies quickly and ruthlessly, leading to an efficient stability.
None of this would be obvious on meeting the growling, near-obese, wine-stained, hungover, petulant and wrathful Lupus in person.
An Average Day For Hugh Lupus
What’s the Clock? Where’s his Lordship? 01.00am - 11.00am Asleep. He will not be happy if woken up unless it means money or killing the Welsh. 11.00am - 12.00am Breakfast and Beer. He is forced into stained finery and bulging bronze mail. 12.00am - 01.00pm Lupus arrives late to mid-day mass and usually falls asleep at some point during the service. His snores echo round the Cathedral. 01.00pm - 02.00pm Lupus tours the city walls, inspects and threatens the troops on guard and ritually calls down curses on the Welsh. He usually has a drink or a pie in hand. He may be encountered by PCs as he criss-crosses the town and could take an interest in them, especially if they have a martial air. 02.00pm - 03.00pm Lunch, consisting of wine, d6 pigeon pies and harassing the staff. Lupus will often interview potentially useful but low-status people during this hideous and greasy experience. 03.00pm - 05.00pm Court business. All of the petitions, meetings and official administration for the day are forced into these two hours during which Lupus becomes increasingly drunk, angry and hungry. He is much happier after eating so wise petitioners and administrators will either bribe their way into an early meeting or 'happen' to have brought food with them. 05.00pm - 07.00pm Dinner! The feasts of Lupus are legendarily rich and meaty. Lupus will invite interesting, useful, attractive and high-status guests to this dinner. A great deal of the political organisation of the Kingdom takes place here, important deals are made and contracts signed. 07.00pm - 09.00pm Entertainment. This could include minstrally, dancing, gambling or idle blather.
Any hanging, decapitation, eye-removal or de-handing of a criminal will be scheduled here. Lupus likes to have a chat with the guilty party to make sure they have learnt their lesson. 09.00pm - 10.00pm Sex and/or sleep. If Lupus has managed to persuade, or pay, anyone to fuck him it usually happens around this time, after which he passes out. If not, he passes out anyway. 10.00pm - 01.00am Paranoia, religion, surprise inspections, drug abuse, espionage and crime.
Lupus wakes from his sinful bed and is stricken with a terrible awareness of his own nature. He prowls the castle and town with a drawn sword looking for traitors, performs surprise inspections and drills on his troops, abuses non-alcoholic intoxicants, breaks into the Cathedral and falls down weeping before the cross, meets with spies and informants and sometimes has people quietly drowned before passing out in bed with his sword in his hand.
Reasons To Meet With Hugh LupusYou don't have a choice. If you don't find out about him, he will find out about you.Legally, he is the Lord of Wir-Heal and all the surrounding lands. No-one is allowed in without his agreement. Anyone removing items or treasure from Wir-Heal must pay a reasonable tax (It's only 10%, he's not an idiot) and not massively or shamelessly disobey the law in any way that would be obvious.
Illegally, he also the crime-lord of Wir-Heal. Wrecking and trading in items from the Broken Eons is illegal, yet goes on continually beneath the surface of the City of Legions, it goes on because Hugh Lupus controls and regulates the trade. In this case his tax is 50%.
Technically you have to petition Lord Lupus during business hours. In reality PCs can probably dream up a number of ways to meet him and gain his agreement.
Meeting Hugh Lupus
· Lupus is extremely perceptive and cunning. He can usually tell roughly what level individuals are, regardless of how they present themselves.· He is roughly as smart as the DM, so if PCs can't fool you, they can't fool Hugh.· He always has at least 6 halberd-armed men and 6 longbow archers within calling distance, either trotting behind him or in a nearby room (except between 09.00pm and 01.00am).· He has no particular prejudice against anyone except the Welsh.· He loves to be flattered, even if its fake.· He is a high-functioning alcoholic and is drunk 75% of the time. Gifts of food and booze are always appreciated.· A first offence means losing a hand, but you can choose which one. A second offence means losing an eye, but you can choose which one. A third offence means losing a head "but you can choose which one! Ha ha ha ha ha."· Lupus does not use a food taster, there is a 50% chance he is immune to any particular poison and has a well-known standing order that anyone who does successfully poison him is to be publicly congratulated, castrated, blinded and dumped in Lupus’ own grave to share his fate.
June 12, 2017
A Review of Valley of the Five Fires by Richard J. LeBlanc, Jr.
This is a supplement for Oe/BX/1e Clones and equivalents. It should be relatively easy for anyone familiar with the OSR rules ecology to translate between whatever they are familiar with.
It's based around Mongol, or pseudo-Mongol, culture. There is enough blurring of lines to dodge most of the harsher charges of orientalism and inaccuracy and to incorporate the module into a standard fantasy world without it lodging like a raw splinter.
It has a chunk of useful information about living like a Mongol at the beginning and more bits and pieces spread throughout the Module. It also has one big multi-part fetchquest adventure in the titular valley and a whole range of smaller adventures that can be incorporated as you wish. All of these are set in a sandbox which is efficiently and skilfully laid out and described.
This is my favourite part of the module by far. This gives you an efficient breakdown of things you need to know to hang out with, or adventure as, a fantasy Mongol. It does it from the perspective of play, so we have a section on weapons and armour of the steppe, with info about not just their stats but also how they are made and the various practical and cultural considerations behind each item.
We also have an excellent section on how a yurt works*, because you are going to be getting in a lot of yurts, and they all share an interior logic regarding the placement of people and activities in the structure which is clear, explicable and ties into the belief-system and world-view of the culture in question.
Information on how the pseudo-mongol culture views things is also scattered throughout the module in monster and animal descriptions, NPC information, architectural stuff (there is a whole section on Stupas) and the general political situation.
One thing that is missing is HORSES. This is a big plains adventure and the PCs are getting nowhere without a steppe horse, or probably a few, one to ride and the others to follow so they can be ridden in shifts. There is nothing about the price of horses, their varying qualities, how they act or how they are managed, which is a little out of character for a module of such thoroughness. (This is probably the only time in my life when I wish that a module had told me more about horses and pastoral agriculture).
We have a brief lowdown of the political situation, with two main tribes in a slow-burning conflict, one is dominant and more obviously 'good guy', with a greater range of immediate interactions, and the other more militaristic, reserved and at least superficially 'bad guy', though there is enough moral equivilence between the two to allow sane players to make different choices. Each of the two main groupings and courts has an individual list of powerful individuals for PCs to ally with or foil, and they are actually interesting, with particular powers, influenced, intra-relationships and desires.
We also have a range of smaller more distant tribes, not part of the immediate game, but places you can put extra adventures if you need to, where you can put elves and standard fantasy stuff if you want, and where you can have mysterious PCs come from.
The tribes and the land they govern have this neat 'passport' system which means officially mandated visitors can ride around without being immediately killed as invaders or suspicious travellers. This is a neat piece of culture-related game design since it lets you effectively cut off or allow certain areas or interactions without a big invisible computer-game-style wall. PCs can always get official recognition from someone in authority, but they will need to become trustworthy and be seen as competent in order to do that so increasing ability and social embedding in the game world leads organically to greater access and opportunity.
There is no section specifically for character creation but there is enough information to create a mongol character if you want to, and enough names to choose from
The name lists for NPCs include translations of what the names mean, which is a very nice touch. One thing you learn from this is that if parents lose a child when they are very young, they may give their next child a horrible name, presumably to scare off or dissuade whatever poor fortune took the last one, so you can meet people called "I don't know" and "plague child" in their native language. The existence of this information and its careful integration into the text and the adventure is typical of the knowledge and care exhibited in its creation.
The layout is interesting to me because it is the clearly the product of a high level of skill and concentration but with an intriguingly different set of priorities than the ones struggled towards by the DID D&D/OSR culture I am familiar with.
If I had to break it down I would say it is laid out for concentration, density and efficiency of information storage rather than the at-the-table usability that we are groping towards. We might say that it is a well-packed suitcase rather than an open drawer perhaps, or it's more of a suitcase than an open drawer, if we were to put them both on a spectrum.
The things that are familiar or "how I would imagine doing them" are the basic page structures, with, at the top of each page, a section heading towards the centre, a page contents heading towards the page edge, then below that usually a large page title that matches the subsection heading, then we have a two-column format with sub headings and bolded text within those.
The things I would have done differently, or am starting to think differently about are; the stats are in lines where I have come to favour columns, the arrangement of adventure elements is sometimes more separate than I would prefer, no index.
Like Bryce says in his review, it’s a little dry sometimes.
There are a lot of +1 swords and a general +something weapon economy seems to be accepted as a basic standard of play.
There needs to be a new way to think about encountering natural animals in the wild because usually natural animals won't attack. Here, we have a few dangerous animals and some where both the normal sized ones exist with the more-monstered super-sized ones. Its a slightly awkward way of thinking about a fluid natural environment, but they always are in D&D I find. It has giant hedgehogs so that's fun.
The central adventure has some elements to it which I might consider frustrating in play, though its a sandbox, it might be very difficult to find and access a lot of the necessary areas. I think there is a pretty tight location-clue-location sequence and if you break it my missing something or fucking something up, then you may well be lost for what to do next. Not necessarily a bug, but a logic of play which is a little different to my own. Likewise, there are a lot of 'potions of gaseous' form right next to clefts in the rock that you really need that potion to access and that if you don't access - you don't get much further in the meta-quest, same for potions of water breathing and watery passages - what happens if you drop the potion, it gets smashed in the fight or something else?
This won the Three Castles award (which is turning out to be a pretty solid award), and I think it deserved to win it. That award seems like a good place to watch if you are interested in OSR stuff. Really if you have any interest in mongol-style stuff at all, picking this up on Lulu is an incredibly cheap price for the density, fullness and depth of information you get.
Lulu
RPGNOW
New Big Dragon
*Never thought I would type that sentence.
It's based around Mongol, or pseudo-Mongol, culture. There is enough blurring of lines to dodge most of the harsher charges of orientalism and inaccuracy and to incorporate the module into a standard fantasy world without it lodging like a raw splinter.
It has a chunk of useful information about living like a Mongol at the beginning and more bits and pieces spread throughout the Module. It also has one big multi-part fetchquest adventure in the titular valley and a whole range of smaller adventures that can be incorporated as you wish. All of these are set in a sandbox which is efficiently and skilfully laid out and described.
This is my favourite part of the module by far. This gives you an efficient breakdown of things you need to know to hang out with, or adventure as, a fantasy Mongol. It does it from the perspective of play, so we have a section on weapons and armour of the steppe, with info about not just their stats but also how they are made and the various practical and cultural considerations behind each item.
We also have an excellent section on how a yurt works*, because you are going to be getting in a lot of yurts, and they all share an interior logic regarding the placement of people and activities in the structure which is clear, explicable and ties into the belief-system and world-view of the culture in question.
Information on how the pseudo-mongol culture views things is also scattered throughout the module in monster and animal descriptions, NPC information, architectural stuff (there is a whole section on Stupas) and the general political situation.
One thing that is missing is HORSES. This is a big plains adventure and the PCs are getting nowhere without a steppe horse, or probably a few, one to ride and the others to follow so they can be ridden in shifts. There is nothing about the price of horses, their varying qualities, how they act or how they are managed, which is a little out of character for a module of such thoroughness. (This is probably the only time in my life when I wish that a module had told me more about horses and pastoral agriculture).
We have a brief lowdown of the political situation, with two main tribes in a slow-burning conflict, one is dominant and more obviously 'good guy', with a greater range of immediate interactions, and the other more militaristic, reserved and at least superficially 'bad guy', though there is enough moral equivilence between the two to allow sane players to make different choices. Each of the two main groupings and courts has an individual list of powerful individuals for PCs to ally with or foil, and they are actually interesting, with particular powers, influenced, intra-relationships and desires.
We also have a range of smaller more distant tribes, not part of the immediate game, but places you can put extra adventures if you need to, where you can put elves and standard fantasy stuff if you want, and where you can have mysterious PCs come from.
The tribes and the land they govern have this neat 'passport' system which means officially mandated visitors can ride around without being immediately killed as invaders or suspicious travellers. This is a neat piece of culture-related game design since it lets you effectively cut off or allow certain areas or interactions without a big invisible computer-game-style wall. PCs can always get official recognition from someone in authority, but they will need to become trustworthy and be seen as competent in order to do that so increasing ability and social embedding in the game world leads organically to greater access and opportunity.
There is no section specifically for character creation but there is enough information to create a mongol character if you want to, and enough names to choose from
The name lists for NPCs include translations of what the names mean, which is a very nice touch. One thing you learn from this is that if parents lose a child when they are very young, they may give their next child a horrible name, presumably to scare off or dissuade whatever poor fortune took the last one, so you can meet people called "I don't know" and "plague child" in their native language. The existence of this information and its careful integration into the text and the adventure is typical of the knowledge and care exhibited in its creation.
The layout is interesting to me because it is the clearly the product of a high level of skill and concentration but with an intriguingly different set of priorities than the ones struggled towards by the DID D&D/OSR culture I am familiar with.
If I had to break it down I would say it is laid out for concentration, density and efficiency of information storage rather than the at-the-table usability that we are groping towards. We might say that it is a well-packed suitcase rather than an open drawer perhaps, or it's more of a suitcase than an open drawer, if we were to put them both on a spectrum.
The things that are familiar or "how I would imagine doing them" are the basic page structures, with, at the top of each page, a section heading towards the centre, a page contents heading towards the page edge, then below that usually a large page title that matches the subsection heading, then we have a two-column format with sub headings and bolded text within those.
The things I would have done differently, or am starting to think differently about are; the stats are in lines where I have come to favour columns, the arrangement of adventure elements is sometimes more separate than I would prefer, no index.
Like Bryce says in his review, it’s a little dry sometimes.
There are a lot of +1 swords and a general +something weapon economy seems to be accepted as a basic standard of play.
There needs to be a new way to think about encountering natural animals in the wild because usually natural animals won't attack. Here, we have a few dangerous animals and some where both the normal sized ones exist with the more-monstered super-sized ones. Its a slightly awkward way of thinking about a fluid natural environment, but they always are in D&D I find. It has giant hedgehogs so that's fun.
The central adventure has some elements to it which I might consider frustrating in play, though its a sandbox, it might be very difficult to find and access a lot of the necessary areas. I think there is a pretty tight location-clue-location sequence and if you break it my missing something or fucking something up, then you may well be lost for what to do next. Not necessarily a bug, but a logic of play which is a little different to my own. Likewise, there are a lot of 'potions of gaseous' form right next to clefts in the rock that you really need that potion to access and that if you don't access - you don't get much further in the meta-quest, same for potions of water breathing and watery passages - what happens if you drop the potion, it gets smashed in the fight or something else?
This won the Three Castles award (which is turning out to be a pretty solid award), and I think it deserved to win it. That award seems like a good place to watch if you are interested in OSR stuff. Really if you have any interest in mongol-style stuff at all, picking this up on Lulu is an incredibly cheap price for the density, fullness and depth of information you get.
Lulu
RPGNOW
New Big Dragon
*Never thought I would type that sentence.
June 8, 2017
Visual Artists of the OSR
This is another of my collection/discovery posts which always end up breeding massive degrees of resentment.
All of the praise goes to the contributors in this thread on G+.
I have not put in people who are pure cartographers like Micheal Prescott, M Randy, Mike Schley Gus L or Dyson Logos. Vandal J Arden I couldn't download your image from google so have classified you with the cartographers. All artists featured are in alphabetical order based on Surname.
(If someone else would like to do the Cartographers version of this, that would be great.)
As always, if anyone wants to be taken off or have their entry changed then let me know.
Matthew Adams
http://thehauntedgasworks.tumblr.com/
Aaron Aelfrey
http://aeronalfrey.blogspot.co.uk/
http://aeronalfrey.storenvy.com/ (Aaron has also done a range of stuff for LotFP.)
http://monsterbrains.blogspot.co.uk/ (This is a site where Aaron catalogues largely historical artists whose work has passed into public domain. It's very good.)
Johnathan Bingham
http://www.johnathanbinghamart.com/blackandwhite.htm
Gennifer Bone
http://ladyredfingers.deviantart.com/gallery/
Her art featured in Lusus Naturae.
Yannick Bouchard
http://illusorydreams.com/
https://www.facebook.com/illusorydreams
http://yannickbouchard.deviantart.com/
https://www.designbyhumans.com/shop/moutchy/
https://www.threadless.com/@moutchy
http://www.teefury.com/moutchy
He's also done extensive work for LotFP, his art is all of their aesthetic.
See, this guy had all his links in one god. damn. PLACE. See how useful that is?
Sam Bosma
http://sbosma.tumblr.com/
"Probably doesn't identify with OSR but the style and content are there."
Moreven Brushwood
http://moreven.deviantart.com/
Recommended by Beloch Shrike; "probably doesn't consider herself an "OSR Artist," but she plays in OSR games, prefers OSR games over other types of games, and makes art for my OSR books. So I figure she qualifies."
Jeff Call
http://jeffisnotart.tumblr.com
Featured in Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of Prismatic Peak
Courtney Campbell
http://etherealperdition.tumblr.com/
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.co.uk/
He publishes here but I think mainly as an author rather than artist.
Thomas Denmark
http://originaleditionfantasy.blogspot.co.uk/
"Artist and writer on Warriors of the Red Planet, among other things"
Jeremy Duncan
http://dandy-in-the-underworld.blogspot.co.uk
http://www.jduncan-illustration.com/
Can be seen in Into the Odd, Chthonic Codex, and many more.
Jez Gordon
https://jezgordon.myportfolio.com/projects
http://gibletblizzard.blogspot.co.uk/
https://gibletblizzard.tumblr.com/
Purchasable in Death Frost Doom and did layout work for Red and Pleasant Land, Veins of the Earth and many, many, many others.
Herror Grafico
http://heroru.com/
Kelvin Green
http://kelvingreen.blogspot.co.uk/
Can be purchased in Forgive Us.
John Grumph
http://legrumph.tumblr.com/
http://legrumph.org/Terrier/?Cartographie/ (Largely mapping)
C Huth
http://www.chrishuth.com/
They're a pro so check their site for products.
Guillaume Jentey
Can be seen in Macchiato Monsters.
David Lewis Johnson
http://mutantsofgathox.blogspot.co.uk
Can be seen in Gathox Vertical Slum
Logan Knight
http://www.lastgaspgrimoire.com/
Can be seen in Pernicious Albion but I think it's sold out?
Doug Kovacs
http://dougkovacs.com/
Can be bought in a bunch of DCC modules.
Gus L
http://dungeonofsigns.blogspot.co.uk/
Gus does everything from writing to layout to publishing, including art. You can seem more at his site.
Dirk Detweiler Leichty
https://www.instagram.com/dirkwithavengeance/
Jagoba Lekuona
https://jagobalekuona.com/
He did the cover afor theis Spanish Fanzine which you can buy here;
http://viejaescuela.nogarung.com
Rich Longmore
http://richlongmoreillustration.blogspot.co.uk/
Did illustrations for Carcosa, Quelong and a loooot of other stuff.
Jim Magnusson
No site that I could find but he looks good.
Did the cover for this.
Sam Mameli
http://betterlegends.tumblr.com/
Nate Marcel
https://sites.google.com/site/fantasyillustrator/ (his shop is there)
Alex Mayo
http://penetraliapress.deviantart.com/
You can buy his stuff in a lot of places.
Russ Nicholson A young man who may go far
http://russnicholson.blogspot.co.uk/
Can be found in Wonder and Wickedness and a few other places over the years.
Juan Carlos Ochoa
http://www.juanochoa.co/
Hes a pro so I think he's been in a bunch of stuff but try this.
Cedric Plante
http://chaudronchromatique.blogspot.co.uk/
The man, the legend.
Stefan Poag
https://stefanpoag.com/
His shop is here and he's going to be in Operation Unfathomable with Jason Sholtis (below).
Sean Poppe
http://beardedruckus.tumblr.com/
Featured in the Driftwood Verses and Wormskin.
Scrap Princess
http://raggedyassmonstermanual.tumblr.com/
Co-creator of Veins of the Earth, Deep Carbon Observatory and Fire on the Velvet Horizon.
Eric Quigley
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/0h9A_
https://www.artstation.com/artist/quigleyer
Matthew Ray
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/UICXnB
Luka Rejec
www.wizardthieffighter.com
Seen in the Misty Isles of Eld, and a few other places I think.
Zak Sabbath
http://www.zaxart.com/
He's done a few things.
Jason Sholtis
http://roll1d12.blogspot.co.uk/
http://theystalktheunderworld.blogspot.co.uk/
He has the Dungeon Dozen book out and is releasing Operation Unfathomable at some point.
Robertson Sondoh Jr
http://experimentalplayground.blogspot.co.uk/
"he mainly draws for his own projects -minimalist d6 rpgs influenced by old school stuff:"
Karl Stjernberg
https://get.google.com/u/0/albumarchive/103342954014125100135/albums/photos-from-posts
Andrew Walter
http://www.andrewwalter.co.uk/
Did the cover for Crypts of Indormancy.
James V West
http://doomslakers.blogspot.co.uk/
Does the Black Pudding Zine.
Grey Wiz
http://breakrpg.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.breakrpg.com/
http://blog.mysteriouspath.com/
All of the praise goes to the contributors in this thread on G+.
I have not put in people who are pure cartographers like Micheal Prescott, M Randy, Mike Schley Gus L or Dyson Logos. Vandal J Arden I couldn't download your image from google so have classified you with the cartographers. All artists featured are in alphabetical order based on Surname.
(If someone else would like to do the Cartographers version of this, that would be great.)
As always, if anyone wants to be taken off or have their entry changed then let me know.
Matthew Adams
http://thehauntedgasworks.tumblr.com/
Aaron Aelfrey
http://aeronalfrey.blogspot.co.uk/
http://aeronalfrey.storenvy.com/ (Aaron has also done a range of stuff for LotFP.)
http://monsterbrains.blogspot.co.uk/ (This is a site where Aaron catalogues largely historical artists whose work has passed into public domain. It's very good.)
Johnathan Bingham
http://www.johnathanbinghamart.com/blackandwhite.htm
Gennifer Bone
http://ladyredfingers.deviantart.com/gallery/
Her art featured in Lusus Naturae.
Yannick Bouchard
http://illusorydreams.com/
https://www.facebook.com/illusorydreams
http://yannickbouchard.deviantart.com/
https://www.designbyhumans.com/shop/moutchy/
https://www.threadless.com/@moutchy
http://www.teefury.com/moutchy
He's also done extensive work for LotFP, his art is all of their aesthetic.
See, this guy had all his links in one god. damn. PLACE. See how useful that is?
Sam Bosma
http://sbosma.tumblr.com/
"Probably doesn't identify with OSR but the style and content are there."
Moreven Brushwood
http://moreven.deviantart.com/
Recommended by Beloch Shrike; "probably doesn't consider herself an "OSR Artist," but she plays in OSR games, prefers OSR games over other types of games, and makes art for my OSR books. So I figure she qualifies."
Jeff Call
http://jeffisnotart.tumblr.com
Featured in Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of Prismatic Peak
Courtney Campbell
http://etherealperdition.tumblr.com/
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.co.uk/
He publishes here but I think mainly as an author rather than artist.
Thomas Denmark
http://originaleditionfantasy.blogspot.co.uk/
"Artist and writer on Warriors of the Red Planet, among other things"
Jeremy Duncan
http://dandy-in-the-underworld.blogspot.co.uk
http://www.jduncan-illustration.com/
Can be seen in Into the Odd, Chthonic Codex, and many more.
Jez Gordon
https://jezgordon.myportfolio.com/projects
http://gibletblizzard.blogspot.co.uk/
https://gibletblizzard.tumblr.com/
Purchasable in Death Frost Doom and did layout work for Red and Pleasant Land, Veins of the Earth and many, many, many others.
Herror Grafico
http://heroru.com/
Kelvin Green
http://kelvingreen.blogspot.co.uk/
Can be purchased in Forgive Us.
John Grumph
http://legrumph.tumblr.com/
http://legrumph.org/Terrier/?Cartographie/ (Largely mapping)
C Huth
http://www.chrishuth.com/
They're a pro so check their site for products.
Guillaume Jentey
Can be seen in Macchiato Monsters.
David Lewis Johnson
http://mutantsofgathox.blogspot.co.uk
Can be seen in Gathox Vertical Slum
Logan Knight
http://www.lastgaspgrimoire.com/
Can be seen in Pernicious Albion but I think it's sold out?
Doug Kovacs
http://dougkovacs.com/
Can be bought in a bunch of DCC modules.
Gus L
http://dungeonofsigns.blogspot.co.uk/
Gus does everything from writing to layout to publishing, including art. You can seem more at his site.
Dirk Detweiler Leichty
https://www.instagram.com/dirkwithavengeance/
Jagoba Lekuona
https://jagobalekuona.com/
He did the cover afor theis Spanish Fanzine which you can buy here;
http://viejaescuela.nogarung.com
Rich Longmore
http://richlongmoreillustration.blogspot.co.uk/
Did illustrations for Carcosa, Quelong and a loooot of other stuff.
Jim Magnusson
No site that I could find but he looks good.
Did the cover for this.
Sam Mameli
http://betterlegends.tumblr.com/
Nate Marcel
https://sites.google.com/site/fantasyillustrator/ (his shop is there)
Alex Mayo
http://penetraliapress.deviantart.com/
You can buy his stuff in a lot of places.
Russ Nicholson A young man who may go far
http://russnicholson.blogspot.co.uk/
Can be found in Wonder and Wickedness and a few other places over the years.
Juan Carlos Ochoa
http://www.juanochoa.co/
Hes a pro so I think he's been in a bunch of stuff but try this.
Cedric Plante
http://chaudronchromatique.blogspot.co.uk/
The man, the legend.
Stefan Poag
https://stefanpoag.com/
His shop is here and he's going to be in Operation Unfathomable with Jason Sholtis (below).
Sean Poppe
http://beardedruckus.tumblr.com/
Featured in the Driftwood Verses and Wormskin.
Scrap Princess
http://raggedyassmonstermanual.tumblr.com/
Co-creator of Veins of the Earth, Deep Carbon Observatory and Fire on the Velvet Horizon.
Eric Quigley
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/0h9A_
https://www.artstation.com/artist/quigleyer
Matthew Ray
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/UICXnB
Luka Rejec
www.wizardthieffighter.com
Seen in the Misty Isles of Eld, and a few other places I think.
Zak Sabbath
http://www.zaxart.com/
He's done a few things.
Jason Sholtis
http://roll1d12.blogspot.co.uk/
http://theystalktheunderworld.blogspot.co.uk/
He has the Dungeon Dozen book out and is releasing Operation Unfathomable at some point.
Robertson Sondoh Jr
http://experimentalplayground.blogspot.co.uk/
"he mainly draws for his own projects -minimalist d6 rpgs influenced by old school stuff:"
Karl Stjernberg
https://get.google.com/u/0/albumarchive/103342954014125100135/albums/photos-from-posts
Andrew Walter
http://www.andrewwalter.co.uk/
Did the cover for Crypts of Indormancy.
James V West
http://doomslakers.blogspot.co.uk/
Does the Black Pudding Zine.
Grey Wiz
http://breakrpg.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.breakrpg.com/
http://blog.mysteriouspath.com/
June 5, 2017
Silent Titans of Wir-Heal
"The wilderness of Wirral,few lived thereWho loved with a good hearteither God or man."
Even without its unearthly substrate of sleeping Titans, Wir-Heal would still be a strange eddy in the lands of the Wrecked Heptarchy. Named for the Wir by men of the North, the Myrtle, the Myrica gale that grows in the bogs and scents the air with sweet resin, Wir-Heal is made from swamp and hill with little in-between.
Rippling bogs and still meres wrap the land, the glasslike water broken only by the cry of birds. Tidal flats make up its margins, reaches of sand and reeds riddled with runnels and streams, invisible until you get close. Covered twice a day in the murmuring of surf. Its paths are pinned to the earth by bridges of mortared stone, crumbling concrete, pine planks, un-nailed adze-cut oak or the dessicated jaws of whales.
Walkers find faded images with disappearing glyphs, which seem to be maps. Greying fog-like letters and bare black signs, an argent arrow, pointing to a place. Men have gone mad studying these signs. Impossible to tell what comes from when in Wir-Heal, so twisted in time the place is. What’s unknown is best ignored.
Hidden in the wilderness like dim gems in a rusted crown, are small hamlets of low slumped stone painted white, piled in skeletons of black oak and topped with thatched roofs, surrounded by fields fenced with branching drystone walls. In the fields are wild woman and wild men who walk on all fours eating the grass, chewing on dandelions, vines and branches and leaves in their hair, green men, grotesqueries. The Woodwose.
Watching over them, farming them and eating them, are animals standing on hind legs wearing the masks of men. Sheep, pigs, bulls, boars, bears and wolves, hares, otters, cows and deer, all with voices and the minds of human beings.
Beyond is forest and the wrecks of time. Deciduous climax vegetation broken by rolling hills like whales shouldering waves, cut by red escarpments of sunset-red sand-stone that glows in summer light, crossed by ruins and the wrecks of rails and roads, riven remains of an imagined future. Thick with crumbling concrete pillars, rags of tattered plastic, shards of glass and shining half-rotted cans with undecipherable signs, chain-link fences rising from the undergrowth between brown walking-tracks of beaten earth that break into rivulets of indistinguishable trails.
Sane time sets with the sun. With night, unbidden futures rise and the land dreams. What’s true in day may not be in the dark; suburban mazeways with trimmed lawns and light-emitting empty homes, parks of gogmagogic industry, vast box-buildings holding unknown processes, surrounded by trimmed lawns and labyrinths of waste ground, gigantic trash-Tors covering plutonic reserves for future wars, abandoned concrete docks on empty shores, servicing nothing, libraries of unreadable knowledge.
Why? The song tells it;
"Chronos called them then, As his endeavour failed. Theign of time who's thralls are tides, He who spins back star-paths,Or seems to. Even those unalterable ones.
He called them from the ebbing tides of time,The fretted sands of life upon this world when,After mans decay, As just before his rise, Giants Ruled.
Titans of the end and of the worlds last breath. Titans of the fall. Titans mechanical, broken and cool,Mighty-minded world-shapers made from mans last craft.Abandoned thinkers in an empty world. Kaos-children,Knowing all, The dark behind the setting sun.
They came,And failed, and fell.And Chronos fell, and falls.And time began, begins, and is.
Clocks spring into life, Seasons dance in regular time, Winter follows summer out of fear, (Never forgetting its hate, always resenting its chains).Sun circles earth, Men age and die, The dead stay in their place, (For the most part), Reality is being born;Calmest of children,Clearest of created things.”
Chronos and his kin became the earth, the seas the sky and the stars, fire and flint, bone and bark, dreams and dust. But those Titans of the future could not die, for they had not been born. Paradox was banished from this world, order ruled. They must wait, wait and sleep. Wait till waking when time would allow them to be. Wait and dream of worlds unborn. Under the earth but not of it, sleeping just under the turf, oak roots tangled in their hair, bogs in their nostrils, rabbit warrens just beneath their finger-nails.
Sleeping and dreaming and turning just under the grass, their dreams escaping, staining the air, transforming the land, filling it with memories of millennia to be, dreams of industry, dreams of long decay, mechanical, indifferent and absolute. Long sorrows and the wash of dark forgotten wars, scars before the wound.
They lie tangled with each other like drugged men. Their entwined and sleeping limbs make the bedrock of the peninsula. It was there the powers dumped their somnolent forms, piling one upon another, hurling them into the sea between the Rood-Die and the Afon-Mor. Sleeping in Wir-Heal where the myrtle springs up from the bog, salmon nosing wisely in its root, the Ouzel, bird most knowing, in its branch. A peninsula bounded by the rivers of the gods, fronted by cold seas, a place where few would wish to go, and from which few return.
Yet men do go to Wir-Heal, for the minds of those Titans are labyrinths of gems and gold. And men know greed above all things.
Even without its unearthly substrate of sleeping Titans, Wir-Heal would still be a strange eddy in the lands of the Wrecked Heptarchy. Named for the Wir by men of the North, the Myrtle, the Myrica gale that grows in the bogs and scents the air with sweet resin, Wir-Heal is made from swamp and hill with little in-between.
Rippling bogs and still meres wrap the land, the glasslike water broken only by the cry of birds. Tidal flats make up its margins, reaches of sand and reeds riddled with runnels and streams, invisible until you get close. Covered twice a day in the murmuring of surf. Its paths are pinned to the earth by bridges of mortared stone, crumbling concrete, pine planks, un-nailed adze-cut oak or the dessicated jaws of whales.
Walkers find faded images with disappearing glyphs, which seem to be maps. Greying fog-like letters and bare black signs, an argent arrow, pointing to a place. Men have gone mad studying these signs. Impossible to tell what comes from when in Wir-Heal, so twisted in time the place is. What’s unknown is best ignored.
Hidden in the wilderness like dim gems in a rusted crown, are small hamlets of low slumped stone painted white, piled in skeletons of black oak and topped with thatched roofs, surrounded by fields fenced with branching drystone walls. In the fields are wild woman and wild men who walk on all fours eating the grass, chewing on dandelions, vines and branches and leaves in their hair, green men, grotesqueries. The Woodwose.
Watching over them, farming them and eating them, are animals standing on hind legs wearing the masks of men. Sheep, pigs, bulls, boars, bears and wolves, hares, otters, cows and deer, all with voices and the minds of human beings.
Beyond is forest and the wrecks of time. Deciduous climax vegetation broken by rolling hills like whales shouldering waves, cut by red escarpments of sunset-red sand-stone that glows in summer light, crossed by ruins and the wrecks of rails and roads, riven remains of an imagined future. Thick with crumbling concrete pillars, rags of tattered plastic, shards of glass and shining half-rotted cans with undecipherable signs, chain-link fences rising from the undergrowth between brown walking-tracks of beaten earth that break into rivulets of indistinguishable trails.
Sane time sets with the sun. With night, unbidden futures rise and the land dreams. What’s true in day may not be in the dark; suburban mazeways with trimmed lawns and light-emitting empty homes, parks of gogmagogic industry, vast box-buildings holding unknown processes, surrounded by trimmed lawns and labyrinths of waste ground, gigantic trash-Tors covering plutonic reserves for future wars, abandoned concrete docks on empty shores, servicing nothing, libraries of unreadable knowledge.
Why? The song tells it;
"Chronos called them then, As his endeavour failed. Theign of time who's thralls are tides, He who spins back star-paths,Or seems to. Even those unalterable ones.
He called them from the ebbing tides of time,The fretted sands of life upon this world when,After mans decay, As just before his rise, Giants Ruled.
Titans of the end and of the worlds last breath. Titans of the fall. Titans mechanical, broken and cool,Mighty-minded world-shapers made from mans last craft.Abandoned thinkers in an empty world. Kaos-children,Knowing all, The dark behind the setting sun.
They came,And failed, and fell.And Chronos fell, and falls.And time began, begins, and is.
Clocks spring into life, Seasons dance in regular time, Winter follows summer out of fear, (Never forgetting its hate, always resenting its chains).Sun circles earth, Men age and die, The dead stay in their place, (For the most part), Reality is being born;Calmest of children,Clearest of created things.”
Chronos and his kin became the earth, the seas the sky and the stars, fire and flint, bone and bark, dreams and dust. But those Titans of the future could not die, for they had not been born. Paradox was banished from this world, order ruled. They must wait, wait and sleep. Wait till waking when time would allow them to be. Wait and dream of worlds unborn. Under the earth but not of it, sleeping just under the turf, oak roots tangled in their hair, bogs in their nostrils, rabbit warrens just beneath their finger-nails.
Sleeping and dreaming and turning just under the grass, their dreams escaping, staining the air, transforming the land, filling it with memories of millennia to be, dreams of industry, dreams of long decay, mechanical, indifferent and absolute. Long sorrows and the wash of dark forgotten wars, scars before the wound.
They lie tangled with each other like drugged men. Their entwined and sleeping limbs make the bedrock of the peninsula. It was there the powers dumped their somnolent forms, piling one upon another, hurling them into the sea between the Rood-Die and the Afon-Mor. Sleeping in Wir-Heal where the myrtle springs up from the bog, salmon nosing wisely in its root, the Ouzel, bird most knowing, in its branch. A peninsula bounded by the rivers of the gods, fronted by cold seas, a place where few would wish to go, and from which few return.
Yet men do go to Wir-Heal, for the minds of those Titans are labyrinths of gems and gold. And men know greed above all things.
