Wizardly Trade Union

It’s traditional in fantasy for thieves to have guilds (probably not like the Lollipop Guild above), but wizards may or may not have professional organizations. For every Mages or Sorcerers Guild in literature there are a number of lone wolves, like Merlin, or members of very select crews, like Gandalf and Saruman.

Magic-user organizations are actually somewhat attested to historically. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Crowley’s Argenteum Astrum are two examples. The line between coven, cabal, and cult admittedly gets blurry when looking at the real world; theurgy and thaumaturgy are not so cleanly separated as they are in games.

Fantasy literature gives some good examples. The Aes Sedai of the Wheel of Time where sort of Lensmen/Green Lantern Corps of a previous age, but by the time of the main story are more like a church or monastic order. The vengeful Bondsmagi of Lynch’s Locke Lamorra series are a like a mercenary company, protectionist guild--and criminal organization. The various Schools of Bakker’s Prince of Nothing and Aspect-Emperor series are practitioners/protectors of specific paradigms of sorcery and feel certain sociopolitical niches.

All of these could be good models for rpg wizardly organizations, but is there any reason to stop at just one? Mages in different cultures/locales might take on very different roles: anointed-by-the-gods rulers in one nation and mercenary hoarders of knowledge in another.

So are there magic-user organizations in your setting? What role do they take?

Tarrasque Harvesting

What do you do with a gigantic, immortal monster stalking the wild places? If you’re a daring and entrepreneurial sort in Ealderde, Eura, or even the City, you harvest the living behemoth for anything of value.

Nobody knows where the Tarrasque came from, though there are a lot of theories: Staarkish Kriegsungeheuer--it’s gargantuan parts grown in separate industrial alchemical vats and melded together by cunning biothaumaturgy? An eikone given flesh, collective animus of the saurian monsters of prehistory? Alien? Elder God? There are as many ideas as the Tarrasque has spines.

Wherever it came from, the monster stalks cross Eura from Korambeck to the Arctic Wastes. It periodically enters periods of turpor lasting days to weeks, where it crouches, umoving and close to the ground. These are the times when harvesters can safely climb aboard the monster with little risk of winding up in its stomach. Once encamped, they take adamantine-tipped jackhammers and alchemical solvents to its hide. They scrap off carapace to sell to armorers and artificers, jar its ichor for alchemists, physicians, and thaumaturgists, smuggle its glandular secretions to junkies and assassins, and even trap its lice for whoever is willing to pay.

Most harvesters ship out for a few months. They erect tents in hammock-like nets affixed to the monster's hide; it takes little notice of them most of the time. Daring flyers dart in to hook dangling bags of material for sale, and eventually, harvesters headed for home.

Exposure to the creature is inherently toxic. All but the best preserved (and least flavorful) foodstuffs spoil rapidly. Plants die within days; small animals may last a week or more. Humans can last months, but many harvesters find it prudent to wear lead-lined suits. Even still, cancers and neurologic ailments are more common among those that have dwelled on the Tarrasque than the general population, and harvesters seem to age before there time.

Warlord Wednesday: Home Again, Home Again

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Home Again, Home Again"

Warlord #74 (October 1983)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Dan Jurgens; Inked by Dan Adkins

Synopsis: Travis Morgan and Krystovar have escaped the forces of New Atlantis through the sea cave back into Skartaris. Krystovar suggests they need a destination and asks Morgan if he has a home. Morgan says that he does and adds that it’s probably time he returns there to his mate.

Morgan and Krystovar land at the port of Bakwele. There they sell their boat and begin the trek across the swamps and the Forest of Ebondar to reach Shamballah. Krystovar fills Morgan in on the history of the New Atlanteans. They came from a different city-state, apparently, than the Atlanteans that settled Skartaris. Nothing the healer knows explains the advanced technology—some of it marked with the symbols of the U.S. Air Force—that Morgan found in the cave. That mystery nags at the Warlord, and he’d like to solve it.

Camping in the forest, Morgan goes to sleep, leaving Krystovar awake to tend the fire and take the first watch.

With both asleep, neither has a chance to see the large black bird that has been following them since they entered the forest, alight on a branch above them. Suddenly, their campfire begins to grow as if taking on a life of its own. It spreads quickly and strangely to form a circle entrapping our heroes.

The rising heat wakes Morgan from slumber. He rouses Krystovar, who immediately notices the behavior of the fire isn’t naturally. Morgan isn’t concerned with that at the moment, and has Krystovar climb up into a tree. When they’re both amid the branches, Morgan plays Tarzan again and swings them both to safety.

As soon as they’re free, the fire dies away. Krysotvar again points out the fire wasn’t natural and asks Morgan if he has any enemies in the forest. Morgan’s reply:

The two soon reach Shamballah. Morgan doesn’t get the reception he was expecting, as the guards bar him from entrance, and his wife’s faithful soldier Trogero shoots an arrow his direction and tells him to leave Shamballah immediately.

Krystovar notives the arrow has a message on it. Following its instructions the two hide in the woods outside the East Tower. Trogero appears and lowers a rope. He tells Morgan that Queen Tara did indeed give orders that her mate was not to be allowed to enter the city, but he had to help Morgan anyway.

Morgan disguises himself and sneaks into the palace. Tara has been expecting him:

See? Anyway, she gives him the usual lecture about running off after adventure and leaving his wife and responsibilities. She accuses him of once being a man with a dream of freedom and progress for Skartaris—a dream he has abandoned. Morgan admits this is true, but he says he’s turned over a new leaf and he’s going to be that man again. And he loves her.

Tara softens a bit (as she always does), and says she’ll think over letting him stay. She pulls him into her boudoir before sending him away.

A little later, a self-satisfied Travis Morgan remembers the silver cassette in his belt. He ought to get read of that thing, but his curiosity has been piqued and he really wants to get back to that cave…

Outside, a sinister looking black bird wings over Shamballah, plotting.

Things to Notice:

• Tara falls for Morgan's dubious promises once again.
• Where does Krystovar go all the time Morgan is making up with Tara? 

Where it Comes From:

The title is a reference to a line from the Mother Goose rhyme "To Market, To Market."

Burkett gets around to explaining the difference between his New Atlanteans and the Atlanteans we've seen before in Warlord.  Krystovar's explanation doesn't real provide a reason for the wide technological disparity between the two Atlantean isles.

The raven that isn't really a raven is a character returning from a previous issue, but I'll wait for the story to reveal who that might be.

Those Who Went Remain There Still

Three hard-bitten farmers and a spiritualist enter a cave in search of a treasure--and find monsters. It sounds like a zero level D&D adventure, but its actually the capsule description of events in 19th-Century Kentucky in Cherie Priest’s novella Those Who Went Remain There Still.  In place of divine intervention, the ersatz adventurers have got the ghost of Daniel Boone.

The story begins with Boone and a group of trailblazers cutting a road through the wilderness. Along the way they encounter a bird-like creature that terrorizes them by night, snatching men away one by one. This frontier horror tale unfolds interspersed with events in Kentucky of 1899, where the patriarch of two feuding families, the Coys and Manders, has died and estranged family members are summoned back for the reading of his will.

The two stories intertwine, of course. To receive the old man’s bounty, a chosen group of Coys and Manders must enter the forbidding and noxious Witch’s Cave to retreive his will. There, a horror waits that was not truly conquered by Boone and his band over a century before.

Priest weaves a unusual horror tale that is sort of Lovecraftian (in the sense of being firmly rooted in a particular place, and having “normal” men face horrors beyond their understanding) but mixes it with a definite Southern gothic feel. The basic plot could be inspiration for traditional Medieval fantasy, but the whole idea of frontier monster-slaying is perhaps even better.

Check it out!

Weird Adventures Update

The Weird Adventures project is coming to a close.  The layout has been completed, and I'm in my last round of checking it over before unleasing it on the public.  It's coming in at 162 pages--slightly longer than my last prediction.

I'm out of town at a conference, but I thought the audience that's been awaiting this for some long with enjoye seeing another couple of sample pages.

Here's one from the section on the City:

And here's a page from the monster section:

Warlord Wednesday: Return of the Sea-Eagles

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"The Prophecy: Chapter 3: Return of the Sea-Eagles"

Warlord Annual #2 (1983)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Dan Jurgens; Inked by Mike DeCarlo

Synopsis: Pulled down into the depths, Morgan is close to drowning when he finds an underground grotto. After a rest, he follows the glowing lights into a passage he hopes will lead him out. Only a short distance down the passage, he finds the way blocked by a rock pile.

Climbing the pile, Morgan manages to squeeze through a narrow space at the top. He tumbles into darkness. Somehow, he triggers a switch, and his surroundings are suddenly brightly lit:

He finds a bag of grenades and silver cassettes with a swan emblem on them. He throws one of those into the bag to take to Krystovar. Most importantly, he finds a swan-prowed sky-sled that seems similar to one he flew before. And it’s armed with a laser weapon.

Morgan flies out of the hangar. He follows an underground stream back to the sea passage, but has to use the laser to blast his way through the last bit. He flies on toward New Atlantis to rescue his friend.

Meanwhile, the Brood-Brothers bring Krystovar before their prince, Ar-Pharazael. Krystovar has been a thorn in the prince’s side for some time, but now he’s captive, and the scrolls of Norrad he had stolen are returned. There’s just one thing:

The helmet whose return is prophesized to herald the end of New Atlantis.

Ar-Pharazael flies into a rage. He orders the Beast-Changer(tm) prepared to give Krystovar the head of a roach!

Over New Atlantis, Morgan sees the ship he had been held captive on. He drops in to retrieve his pistol from the boar-headed captive and get some information.

In the city, Ar-Pharazael has Krystovar strapped into the Beast-Changer. He boasts he has no fear of fairy-tales and plans to have the eagle helm melted down. At that moment, Morgan makes his attack. He drives the crowd back with the laser, then tries to destroy the jewel powering the Beast-Changer, but for some reason it’s resistant.

With no other choice, he sends the sled crashing into the machine. Morgan moves to free Krystovar. His ammo running low, he throws one of the grenades into the advancing beast-men—and is surprised when it totally disintegrates them.

Krystovar finds Ar-Pharazael half-buried and likely dying beneath some debris from the machine. He asked the prince what became of his brother. Ar-Pharazael tells him his brother lives—but he’s been turned into one of the Brood-Brothers! He dies before Krystovar can get more out of him.

Morgan and Krystovar make their escape. Morgan uses the grenades to eliminate their pursuers. At the docks, they steal a boat. They set sail for the cave passage.

Things to Notice:

• Krystovar gets called "Krystobal" and "Krystobar" in this issue.
• Is New Atlantis underground or not?  Earily issues suggested it was, but it certainly seems to have a brightly lit sky.  Is it under Skartaris's eternal sun? 

Where it Comes From:

Morgan makes reference to the controls of the sky sled resembling "the Atlantean sled I flew once before."  Either Morgan is misremembering, or this is an undepicted adventure.  He flew a sled of the alien Alces Shirasi in issue #18, and a flying disc taken from the Titans in issue #33, but neither particularly resembled this one nor could they be identified as "Atlantean." 

Ar-Pharazael swears by Astoreth in this issue, which is the name given in the Hebrew Bible to a goddess of the Phoenicians, often called Astarte.  In later demonology, she gets transformed into Astaroth, a male devil.  Ar-Pharazael's own name seems to evoke "Pharoah" and "Azazel" (a supernatural being mentioned in the Bible, which later folklore identifies as a devil).

Nawr the All-Consuming

Symbol: Stylized image of a rat-king, as if the animals are dancing in a circle.

Alignment: Chaotic

Ravenous Nawr is one of the group of petty deities know as the vermin gods.  It is not so much worshipped as placated.  Every harvest, offerings of grain are arrayed around small statues or carvings of rats where real rodents can consume them.

If this ritual is not observed, there is chance that rats will gather and in the twist and tumult of rodent bodies, a rat-king will form and instantiate the godling.  The composite deity wil summon up a swarms of rats and swirl through the community that has offended it, chewing, biting, and possibly consuming everything in its path.

The visitation always occurs at night and is of variable duration, but always ends by sunrise.