Well, these guys I have been building a small reality for are going live with the Kickstarter for the company today.
If you like Minis, 3D Printing, D&D, ooooor just looking at Kickstarters?
A big link to that is HERE,
or click the tentacle;
I am a very, very small part of this, you can see the main cast list below;
Hey, they even made a movie;
(which I can't find a way to embed here but HERE is a link)
Or Click the lady below
(By Shoof Creative Video)
Future of the company depends a lot on what happens in the first few days of the Kickstarter so you are in the rare position of deciding if a world lives or dies.
And if you have read this far, here is another recently completed small fragment.
Morningspain
From the Blackwater map, eventually this will be live online and every location will be clickable |
High, high up in the centre of the Mountains of Reality,
like the hub of a savage wheel, lies the plunging steep-sided valley of
Morningspain.
You could pour a nation into it and there would still be
room for more.
Morningspain is oriented perfectly to catch the rising
and setting sun. The first rays of morning strike a gigantic blue-white glacier
which hangs at the valleys upper end like a frozen tsunami. This burns
gold-white and the reflected light rolls back into the terraced valley sides.
These have been built up over thousands of years of human effort, its great
slopes divided into seemingly endless line upon line until it feels as if the
place were a figment of the imagination, almost unreal.
From the glacier comes a surging river of clear, cold water,
which winds the valleys floor, and forms a lake. From the lake rises a palace
of shifting glass, which changes size, form and location every day, so that it
is never the same twice. This is the House of Fog, embassy and centre for the
Fey Aeth of the Mountains
Against this shifting spire, rising up from the valley
floor but far below its teetering sides, is a city-sized plug of black eroded
stone. On this stone is the City of Morningspain, seat of the Beodomor, First
among Prerogatives, Queen-of-Queens, Mistress of the Mountains of Reality. From
here, the Mountains are governed and the future is seen.
Morningspain is old. Its basal architecture is neolithic,
made of huge monolothic blocks worked to precise angles and held together
purely by gravity. The streets are made up of the bases of ancient temples and
the opened crypts of prehistoric monuments. Over this and rising from its
compressed age, are the towers of the city itself, the Fairytale 'High Style'
of the Queendoms brought to its finest pitch. Flags and pennants flutter in the
breeze. It seems like an airy dream grown from bloodstained ancient stone. At
the centre is the palace, and at the centre of that is the Beodomor herself.
Morningspain is quiet all of the night, cold and silent
with frost. This place is so high up that it takes visitors from the Cities
days to acclimatise. Knights moving in the dark must plan in advance,
purchasing rare oils so that their armour will not squeal. The city can contain
many Queens, and waking even a minor Queen can be a tragic mistake. She may
have been in the middle of a vital and important dream. And if anyone should
wake the Beodomor by mistake, whose dreams can rule the fate of whole
nations...
That would be very, very bad.
THE MORNINGSNIGHT
In Morningspain the day officially and legally begins
whenever the Beodomor wakes up. Until then, it is still 'last night'. The time
between dawn and the Queens waking is called the 'Morningsnight’, a strange and
ethereal time in Morninspain. Everyone must remain silent and still, only quiet
business may be transacted and only nightly things be done. It is customary to
go about carrying a lantern to indicate that you are aware of, and recognising
the Morningsnight.
As soon as the Beodomor wakes, a golden flag (with actual
gold thread, it's quite heavy) is raised over her palace. Then, all over the
city, more flags of many colours are raised. The city bursts into activity and
sound, the Morningsnight has ended and True day begins.
Should the Beodomor die tragically in the night, the
Morningsnight lasts until a new Beodomor both sleeps and wakes. And the
Morningsnight seems to affect magical qualities. Thaumaturgic effects usually
functional only at night will also function in the Morningsnight. (Magical
experimentation in this time and place is strongly frowned upon.)
After the waking of the Beodomor comes the Breakfast of
Doom, one of the most important state occasions in the whole of the Mountains
of Reality. The Beodomor eats breakfast and, as her dreams are still fresh in
her mind, consults with her advisors, in particular, the High Druid and the Minister
of Dreams. Here she may ask for advice, give information and issue orders
intended to counter the terrible things she has seen in her prophetic
nightmares.
Anyone can be
called to the Breakfast of Doom. Local or foreigner, high or low, whomever the
Beodomor calls for must come. If she has seen you in her dreams, she will know
you.
Since the lamentable reign of Mad Queen Sisss, the
Beodomor is not quite the whole of the State. Before she orders anyone killed,
she is expected to at least consult with the Minister of Dreams, who will offer
a cool-down period. There are legal courts of dream analysis in the Ministry to
which people can appeal and offer a different context or interpretation of the
Queens dream.
Traditionalists hate all this - for them the Beodomor is
Law, and Law is her. They don't even like Mad Queen Sisss being referred to as
mad, instead they call her 'Poor Queen Sisss'. In particular, the Knights of
the Pale Feather, who also attend the Beodomor, are utterly fanatical to
obedience of her exact words,
and will do whatever she says, regardless of the "law", apparent
sanity and even poor grammar on her part.
POPULATION
All advise politeness on the streets of Morningspain, and
this is wise. There are probably more Knights than peasants moving around.
Morningspain is a political city, a capital and the centre of a great empire of
weeping Queens. Many of the people there are there for political and feudal
reasons. Some as part of the Beodomors court, or to petition her or seek her
favour.
Here also stands the Ministry of Dreams, a bureaucratic
organ of state which exists to assist the Beodmor, and every Gloom-Queen, in
the recording, comprehension and actioning of their dreams. Here are the
chambers of the High Druid. Fey and other Aeth visit, or reside in the House of
Fog. The Lords of the Beothoborg keep a nominal ambassador here, as do the Grey
Cities, Declension in particular.
Along with these come the courts of any visiting
sub-Queens, from those who rule whole quasi-nations of their own to the
smallest Queen, mistress of a handful of Yak herders. The Beodomor may call on
any of them, and any of them are permitted to call on her, Queen-to-Queen.
The narrow streets are thick with dignitaries, there is
even a special class of footman-ambassador, recruited from only the highest
reaches of society, whose whole job is to resolve jams in the streets when high
status individuals, and their entourage, encounter each other coming in
opposite directions and are unable to negotiate precedence, neither willing to
step aside, and therefore both trapped, unable to pass each other. In most
cases these unfortunate incidents are resolved within a couple of hours. In
others walls have to be removed so groups can pass each other. And in one sad
occasion this was not possible and a Bishop of the High Seeker froze to death
after several days. His opposing number, an ambassador from Vocht, died soon
after, of an ague.
Does Morningspain have underground 'city'? Do dreams ever take on solid and visible form there?
ReplyDeleteIt probably does have some kind of Underground since its ancient and all D&D cities have an underworld.
DeleteI doubt that the dreams become real, or at least I had not planned on it, that may change as the Lore develops though.