[TSoY 2nd] Myths of Near

Started by Eero Tuovinen, April 10, 2009, 12:22:43 PM

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Eero Tuovinen

Musing on my TSoY rewrite:

While writing about the Skyfire I decided that I'm just going to lift Clinton's original legend of the Skyfire and put it in the book as a sort of sidebar thing - probably something like the vignettes in Solar System, insofar as the layout goes. It's a good text and gets to the point in an evocative way, so no reason to mess with it.

However, a question that came to me: should there be other legends in prose? The story of Absolon and Hanish is pretty different from the rest of the setting material in that it's clearly a story and not strictly functional. Despite that it's of course a very nice read that provides some good colorful detail for the game; if nothing else, the name of the last emperor is a good fallback when some sense of history is needed. Absolon and Hanish are some of the rare named characters in the textual corpus, so they get a lot of focus in my experience.

Considering this, any ideas of similar "big stories" that would be justified as content? This book's going to be large enough that it won't impact the flow of the text to include a couple of extra pages of fluff. Preferably something that has famous names or other such detail to use as color in play. I'm personally thinking of writing out some legendry on the history of UpTenBo, to pick an example of a possible topic.
Blogging at Game Design is about Structure.
Publishing Zombie Cinema and Solar System at Arkenstone Publishing.

oliof

One of the issues here is the Canon Fallacy – too many myths, and people might take them for granted. Putting them out of the flow as a vignette might help.

That said: The history of the Houses of Ammeni and it's devolution in both the Revenant Cult and the current Congregate of scheming families could use some story – or mayve two. 

Eero Tuovinen

The House Father is definitely an interesting figure, I'm going to put him in here somehow. Perhaps a story would be a good choice, unless I just describe the revenant cult in some manner. Or both, a story about the revenant cult.
Blogging at Game Design is about Structure.
Publishing Zombie Cinema and Solar System at Arkenstone Publishing.

dindenver

Hi!
  Here are some figures that deserve note:
The first return of Absolon - Supposedly, many leaders of the various city-states claim to be Absolon returned. The first time this happened would be of mythical significance.
How did the Moon men get their name - This has to be a good story.
How did the Shadow Cult get their name - Possibly a good story
What is the origin of 3 corner magic - It could add something to the world.
Who was it that traveled through time in the green world - That has to be a great story.
Who was the first person to forge moon metal - What was he like.
Who was the first person to master bladework in the Ammeni empire? Why is Bladework a sign of nobility?

  There are probably others, but that is a good start, no?
Dave M
Author of Legends of Lanasia RPG (Still in beta)
My blog
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Eero Tuovinen

Those are good ideas to work on; thanks Dave.
Blogging at Game Design is about Structure.
Publishing Zombie Cinema and Solar System at Arkenstone Publishing.