Get yer Feets Wet!

On By JeanNadiraIn ErdeLeave a comment

While doing research on the mercenary companies I found a record of Phoenix Company that included all of their residence halls.  One of them is located in a place named Feets-Wet Cross-Market.  Well, with a name like that, I had to check it out.  Feets-Wet is in the middle of a place called Wobble-Grass, a swamp covering a large portion of the south-central part of the continent.  Feets-Wet is a big city made of living bridges and buildings, and it was beautiful as well as terrifying.  I also found out that “Market” is the title given to any town large enough to create and sustain trade.  There is only one Cross-Market, where all the trade routes of Wobble-Grass come together.  I found references to only two other Markets: Pantano Water-Market, on the coast of Pantano Bay, and Water Drake Hunt-Market.  A Water-Market is a port.  “Hunt” is the title given to any community that focuses on hunting.  Water drakes are 6-8 feet long reptiles that look like a dragon mated with a crocodile.  These people literally make their living hunting the most dangerous animal in the entire swamp.

Anyway, click this link for a brief description of Feets-Wet Cross-Market.

This beautiful photograph is by Chloé Lam on Unsplash

 

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This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

 

Processes – a mundane post

On By JeanNadiraIn MundanityLeave a comment

So… I’ve been working for two weeks on write-ups of Erde’s mercenary companies and it’s not going well.  It’s like walking into a brick wall and every time I turn there’s another wall.  Usually this means something is wrong in the narrative and my subconscious has picked up on it.  I backed up and looked at it and I started thinking, Damn, that’s a lot of adventurers.  Maybe I’ve made the companies too big?  But Koenigsburg has a population of nearly a million people; a few thousand “adventurers” isn’t much.  Plus, the company totals are spread over several cities/areas, so the total of adventuring types within the city is probably closer to 1,000.  And then it hit me: if there are that many adventuring types in and around Koenigsburg, why are the bandits such a problem?  Well shit – there’s a great big gaping hole in my storyline.  The existence of the mercenary companies is established: they exist.  So why aren’t they taking care of the bandit problem?  And that’s where I am in my world-building.  Until I understand what is keeping the mercs busy, and where, I can’t move forward.  But I know when I get through this I’ll have more of the world’s political structure, current events, and the Big Bad’s machinations in my head.  And then I get to share them with you.  🙂

Until then, may all your road blocks force you down unexpected and fruitful new pathways.

~Jean Nadira, the stumbling World Walker

Mercenaries of Erde

On By JeanNadiraIn ErdeLeave a comment

After learning about the Alley Cats I’ve done some research on the adventurers of Erde, and discovered they have a guild all their own: the Mercenaries’ Guild.  Now these people don’t just go exploring wild places looking for old ruins to loot or goblins to slay.  They’re the ones who take on all those random quests that we Terrans think of as “side quests.”  Cities and nations (and in between) contract mercenaries to fill out the ranks of their armies.  Merchants contract them to guard shipments.  There are nautical companies that contract to work on ships, guarding against pirates on the open water and bandits in port.  It’s a fascinating subculture, a sort of cottage industry of violent tendencies.  Kinda like my family.

Click the link to read a little more:  Mercenary Companies

 

Creative Commons License This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Happy Holidays!

On By JeanNadiraIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

I had a post planned for this week but you’re not getting it until next week because

Holidays!

Wrapping, shopping, more wrapping, visiting relatives, a little unwrapping, an impromptu D&D 5e game with extra players, more wrapping, and now more shopping (for foods)

Whatever you are doing this Holiday weekend, whatever you are celebrating (and I hope you are celebrating something):

May you have a wonderful, glorious, messy, memory-making Holiday!

With love, from Jean Nadira, World-walker Extraordinaire

Erde’s Shape-Shifters

On By JeanNadiraIn Erde, Flora and FaunaLeave a comment

I had made the climb to the Bright Mother’s Fountain, and this gave me the right to be there.  But I was still uncomfortable in this company.  Not because they are predators – a bunch of my family are cat-people, or dog-people.  We’ve even got a family of dolphin shifters.  No, it’s because this was clearly a sacred place to them, and I was very much an outsider.  So, although I was invited to join them around the Fountain and be part of the Ritual, I politely declined.  Instead I wandered the plateau and talked to people.  And I discovered they were terrifying and fascinating, lovely and terrible, haunted and driven, kind-hearted and killers.  Their power is seductive.

I miss my family.  I think after this I’ll go home for a bit.

Click here to learn a little more: The Shape-Shifters of Erde

 

Creative Commons License This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Fountain of the Bright Mother

On By JeanNadiraIn ErdeLeave a comment

Hello fellow World-Walkers!  I’ve been off on a grand adventure the past couple of weeks and I’m only now returning to civilization.  I also learned there are places on Erde where my ship cannot go.  That was new and different.

Near the border of the Yoremba and Unhur’ahn, where the desert meets the mountains, is a high plateau.  You can’t get there unless you climb, or have wings.  I tried.  I tried really hard because it’s a long climb.  Had I realized my ship would not take me to the plateau directly I’d have planned better.  But I made it!  And because I made the climb I was also made welcome by the most diverse, wonderful, chaotic, terrifying group of shape-changers I’ve ever met.  (And some of my family are shape-changers.)  I will not share the details of our celebration: that was private (if you can call a gathering of a couple thousand people “private”).  But I will tell you a little about the plateau, and the well known as the Bright Mother’s Fountain.  <— Click the link!

May the Bright Mother bless you as well, and warm you in your travels!

 

 

Creative Commons License This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Black Locust Worm

On By JeanNadiraIn Flora and FaunaLeave a comment

During my research I found several accounts of travelers who were afflicted with worms burrowing beneath their skin. #shudder  This creature lives in forests where the black locust tree grows, and it resembles the seed pods of that tree.  I also found that there are other species that mimic the seed pods of other trees.  I am going to be much MUCH more careful about setting up my camps from now on.

Click the link to read more: The Black Locust Worm

 

 

 

Creative Commons License This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Photograph by Jean Headley.

The Place of Wisdom

On By JeanNadiraIn ErdeLeave a comment

I find myself back in Mawali, in the Great Library.  I could spend many years in this place, combing through books and scrolls.  A team of researchers could spend their whole lives in this library and not touch half of it.  I found an ancient scroll with strange markings on the case, marks that turned out to be impressions of a labyrinth.  The librarian had to cast some preservation magics before we could handle the scroll inside, and we were rewarded with a beautiful full-color illustration of a labyrinth.  We have yet to decipher the writings.  We combed the wall for other scrolls, and found a few references.  I’m going to get some lunch then go back to trying to translate the old scroll.  You can read what little we found here: Mahali Busara

 

Creative Commons License This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Photograph [Paphos Archaeological Park. House of Theseus: Mosaic of Theseus killing the minotaur – Labyrinth ( detail ).] by Wolfgang Sauber used under CC license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode

Runes and Runic Magic

On By JeanNadiraIn MiscellanyLeave a comment

I’ve been thinking a lot about magic and casting and runes.  Even when magic is all around it’s difficult to access it, difficult to harness and shape it.  We use items to help focus our thoughts and the power.  We use mundane items, from herbs to gemstones, to help shape the magic.  We use runes to write it down, to imbue an area or an object with magic.

But why do the runes work?  Why can’t anyone jot them down on a piece of paper and create a spell scroll?  Part of it is in the ink, which itself it created using magic and spell components.  But many runes are carved into wood or stone, or scratched into the earth.  What is it the spell casters are doing that makes a difference?

Well… they know that runes aren’t two-dimensional.  Runes are three-dimensional.  All those gestures the mages make?  Those are runes, drawn in the air with absolute precision.  When mages write runes on paper or vellum, they are visualizing the runes in all their dimensions and embedding that power onto the flat surface.  The rest of us only see the flat result, never realizing the full scope of the marks before us.

This is one of the reasons learning a new spell is so difficult.  Mages must not only memorize the complex mathematical formulae that represent the manipulation of energy, but also decipher the runes used to execute the formulae:

“What is this?  I’m fairly certain this rune describes electricity, but what is this mark?  Oh… if I move right five inches and simultaneously move down one inch at a 45º angle, then delineate a horizontal circle, that describes a space five feet wide.  Hmmm.  Now, what about this mark, where does it go?  Is that an ‘out’ or an ‘in?’  Is that a spiral movement?  No, that makes no sense.  Wait, wait, if I move ‘out’ at the end of the ‘wide’ movement, then this becomes ‘distance’!  But how far…?  Oh!  Oh!  This creates a bolt of lightning!  Oh sweet!”

512px-Lightning_in_Zdolbuniv-Cropped

 

Not all adventures take place in the wilds, or in ruins.  Some of them take place in the library.  The Librarian asks that you please not practice Lightning Bolt or [shudder] Fireball in the stacks.  Thank you.

~JeanNadira

Image courtesy: By Lyoha123 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
The image was modified for the page, rotated and cropped.  View the original here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALightning_in_Zdolbuniv.jpg

 

Underground Garden Map

On By JeanNadiraIn MapsLeave a comment

The module I’ve been working on is cooling.  I’ve got a friend looking at it, and when he’s finished I’ll make revisions.  I spent some time this week scouting around for artwork, and I’m not satisfied with what I’ve found.  We’ll see.  The most frustrating part is that I always underestimate how much time these things really take, from the blog posts, to the maps, to revising my game notes into a coherent module that other people can use.  Oy!  Factor in the puppies, and my time gets stretched really thin!  Ah well.

I also bought some new grid paper that I’m hoping is light enough the grid won’t show when I scan it.  *crossing fingers.*

Here is another map for your personal use.  It’s an underground complex including two large, domed gardens.  I don’t know who built it, or why.  I just get a sense of a desire for retreat and seclusion.  Not the “we’re hiding something nefarious” kind, but the “We want the world to leave us alone” kind.

https://jeannadira.deviantart.com/art/UndergroundGarden2-711097875

 

UndergroundGarden2

 

Creative Commons License This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.