As the Twilight fell and the sun grew bloated and sanguine, those Outsiders and abhuman things encroached ever closer on the nations of Man. By and by, they gained greater dominion over the Earth. In the early centuries, the technologies of the elder Meridian still functioned, and Man comprehended enough to build great walls as a defense against the inhuman. As Twilight deepened, many of these redoubts fell, but a few stood fast and managed even to throw back their foe. The Coming Night was held in abeyance for so long that generations passed and many began to doubt it would ever fall.
But beyond the walls, the Great Beasts crouched and waited with patience inhuman but not infinity, and abhuman armies gathered in the deepening in gloom...
Here's the pitch: Take the early modern bleakness, occasional black humor, and body-warping chaos of Warhammer Fantasy and put it in a Dying Earth gone weird like Hodgson's The Night Land, making sure to filter the Watchers (Great Beasts in this case) through Lovecraftiania, a hint of kaiju, and good old fashion goetic demonology. Wrap it all in "points of light" surrounded by walls out of Attack on Titan.
12 comments:
A classic. Coming back to this makes me want something explicitly Stapledonian with that precession of empires.
It could all be a metaphor for conservatism. People hiding behind walls to not face homo superior.
I'd play that. It has a definate "Epic Fantasy" feeling - though Moorcock sort of epic, not Forgotten Realms or Sanderson. Conversely I also get the feeling of one of those 80's or 90's CRPGs where there's a central point of light surrounded by different evil lands - usually color coded to save on sprite work - the red lava land, the blue ice land, purple evil land and such - all ruled by some kind of monster king who the protagonist must boss battle to get a crown or gem.
I think which of these was more dominant would be a tension in setting design, but largely depend on mood and goals? Can one force the Darkness back? Is the glory of the past truly dead?
It could also be a metaphor for Ivory Tower elitism .. hiding behind walls in a stupor not able to face the harsh realities... or would that be too original?
It could be, but that metaphor doesn't immediately say "adventure" which is the goal, and ivory tower doesn't bring the horror element. Something more like Logan's Run would be a better fit for that metaphor.
neither does the metaphor of conservatism to which I was responding.... but certainly a horror element is there: a cloistered enclave of virtueless effete liberal elitists acting out tired utopian fantasies that have degenerated to arcane language and rote ceremonies, refusing to accept the reality of the vital ubermen of the world outside, if you make it kind of psychedelic you get Zardoz. As for adventure well they need to step out into the real world from mama's basement
The sentence "a metaphor for conservatism," doesn't, you're right. I would suggest the set up I suggest could be used to support any number of interpretations, even the political one you seem intent on.
I wasn't actually intent on it - it suggested itself to me because you seemed to think it only supported a metaphor of conservatism, whereas, as I demonstrated, it could support other political interpretations. Just friendly enlightenment.
I think you misread my previous comment. I didn't mean conservatism in any modern, political movement sense, but rather in the general "holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation." There is overlap, to be sure, but my comment was more general.
Fair enough I obviously misunderstood where you were aiming with that comment, as you said the idea supports many outlooks. The idea sounds fun though, I thought it engaging, one danger I see (for me) is the same trap Numenera fell into - with something like 9 previous high-civilizations that have risen and fallen they had too much 'weirdness' that has no individual character floating around all of it is just interchangeable 'weird'. For many I'm sure that's OK, but I find it a trap where if everything becomes one kind of weird, then in the end nothing truly is. And at the same time as having all this weirdness if felt like no creature or thing in the world was actually truly a unique example. For instance the Dying Earth or Things with some inspiration from it like Shadow of the torturer have that feel like everything is somehow very unique. I'm no expert on Numenera I was only a player for a campaign. I also think I did come across somewhere a campaign for BRP that has influence from WFRP and the Gene Wolfe Books, but I only read reviews of it, but it had some of the ideas you mentioned, and I think it managed that weirdness thing pretty well.
I love the writing here. This sounds like it could be the introduction to one of M John Harrison's "Viriconium" books.
You could also perhaps run this as a very dark Numenera campaign.
@Anne - It's a bit of a pastiche of Harrison's style there, true.
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