Meleon and Blackmoor

[Rafael]

From the same thread, a few more additions to the earlier text:

In two weeks would be the Company of the Maiden's 11th anniversary! Huzzah!

I wrote an elaborate update over the course of the day, but then accidentally deleted it, so I'm taking a moment to write about something else, until I'm in the mood to write the other piece AGAIN. -_-

So, I thought, since I've mentioned a couple of times, already, I'll tell you a bit about my home game, or, rather, the whole [font color="ff0000"]Red Knight[/font] continuity, which, as you already know, I often refer to as my own "ersatz" Blackmoor. Which is sort of half-true, only: Because, while the setting is genuinely influenced by our old game, and I borrow many names and general conventions, the actual gameplay is probably more comparable to games like the Warhammer FRP, or the old Dragon Warriors RPG. (Which happens to have been developed by the same core group of people, which, again, in turn probably tells a lot about my actual taste in games.)

Gravesend and Duneyrr share some core similarities to our old setting, though - or, rather, to the place Blackmoor would, eventually, have become. (And, effectively, had long become, in my home game, when the LFC ended.) The main theme of both post-140 NC Blackmoor, in the LFC, and for most of Gravesend, in Meleon, is that of ABANDONMENT: It's a place that is on the decline, for many years, and that only people go to that either are interested in history, or in hunting the relics of the past. For the LFC, and for my post-2010 Blackmoor games (because that's when things began IRL), this was a necessary measure, because only that way we were able to get to have the Reunited Kingdom, and then, obviously, the different stories that were supposed to, AND I SWEAR, BY HEXTOR, THAT THIS WILL BE MY LAST TRUMP JOKE, make Blackmoor great again during the later "Age of Theodore".

Now, Gravesend, or, rather, the general idea to have a dark, Arthurian fantasy setting in the same world as Angria (which, as you know was the craddle for Meleon) sprang simply from the idea that I didn't particularly want to quit on scenarios that toyed with that sense of abandonment, within a context of European culture; I dreamed about a place where all big battles had already been fought, a place that has outlived its use to history. No big empire was going to rise from *my* setting, any more, as the political and cultural focus of my world had switched elsewhere. Gravesend, (then simply known as "Cold River"), would be a place, not of expansion, or of particular despair, but of an intensifying alienness and silence, just as real-world ruined sites are. - This again, is not necessarily a testimony to my immortal sense of rustic poetry; late 2e MERP, which was perhaps the biggest influence on my actual gaming, during my teens, transports that feeling, in particular, especially the farther North you take your party. And so, I had many sources from which to borrow.

That all said, this is not a writer's setting, but a DM's, and, so, I got to keep the story interesting: So, to create a dynamic plot that my players could draw upon, I used, no kidding, Shakespeare's King Lear as a base for the kingdom of Duneyrr's internal struggle. - I won't tell you how exactly I adapted the plot, because that would probably disclose too much about stuff I still want to use in our game, here, but let's say that, at least at this point, the resemblance to the Shakespearean tale is still more than a little bit noticeable. I also, in English, always use with a model - so I can copy language, plain and simple. Good dialogue, of whatever sort, is not something I can do naturally, in another language. - Right now, and somewhat consequently, Gravesend/Cold River feels a bit like (MERP's) Angmar of the 4th Tolkienian Age meeting Bernard Cornwell's Alfredian England, as seen in "The Last Kingdom".

The current game I'm running is pretty basic, partly because I still run games in Angria, from time to time. Cold River, the great lost city to the North, is obviously fulfilling the same dramatic function that Blackmoor Town does in "The Age of Theodore" - but while Blackmoor Town, as I describe it in post-LFC continuity, is usually a town left to non-humans and monsters, Cold River is a "Salem's Lot"-esque ghost town full of horrors. Like, in Blackmoor, you might get eaten. In Cold River, you lose your mind. - Again, there's the general theme of abandonment that Duneyrr and Gravesend are supposed to transport: It's not "the edge of the wild", where we are. The world just ends once you cross Maiden's Vale, and enter Cold River Riding.

At the moment, the game concentrates on a generally unmapped area, on the Northeastern Wosas Range, and South of famed Castle Starling: The "Starlings" are one of the two great magic orders of the kingdom, the other being the "Herons". The Starlings are what popular fantasy usually refers to as "blue mages", and the "Herons", who, so far, have played a way more prominent than the Starlings, are what is usually referred to as "artificers".

The party, meanwhile, is mainly focused on exploring a place called "Sword Hill", a location perhaps best comparable to the Bonegarden, from the Hawkmoon setting. They operate from a small township, Rochester Dwelling", and, while presently still preoccupied with a local orc problem, the next big turning point for the party (you are "The Band of the Scions", they are "The Brickheads") will be to decide whether they want to take part in the impending conflict between the two magical orders.

Outside of that particular game, I'm building the setting, as you know it, around three general flagship characters - outside of the Angrian ones, that is. Lately, one of them has become the main focus of my exploits, whenever I sit down and work on joint timelines, and such: Reda Heron, a farmer-become-artificer, who is basically Ken Follett's Tom Builder with apprentice magic skills. Previous flagship characters I had used, Rowell, his descendant Rowan (whom you will likely never meet), or the previous Meleon characters, were all some sort of memetic badasses, somewhat superhuman by their very definition. - With this newest approach, I'm trying something else... Though I'm not above sabotaging myself: Reda travels with a companion, the "Red Knight" I name this continuity after: His name, and that's about everything I can tell you about him right now, is Leir. And he is not yet a mad king.


DUN DUN DUN. More later.