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5 years ago ::
May 14, 2008 - 3:15AM
#31
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Date Joined:
Apr 24, 2008
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I can see them also being called Conspiracies, another name for a group of ravens. It would be interesting to have a soothsayer in the game come up to the players and say 'The Conspiracies are conspiring around your thoughts...' or something like that and the PCs would not really know what is going on until they were attacked. Both would be whispered, Unkindlies most often whispered to NPCs and Conspiracies most commonly whispered to PCs just to make it more interesting. Edit: http://www.shades-of-night.com/aviary/names.html Are we all using the same site? I see the Parliament of Rooks here, the Unkindness and the Conspiracy. Or is this just a happy coincidence?
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5 years ago ::
May 14, 2008 - 4:06AM
#32
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Date Joined:
Jun 26, 2007
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This is so bookmarked.
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5 years ago ::
May 14, 2008 - 12:25PM
#33
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Date Joined:
Jan 15, 2008
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I didn't use that site, sorry (although that's a good find there, mate). I like both the name Conspiracies and Unkindlies. Since they stay as little more than a rumor to most people, it wouldn't be improbable for them to go by dozens of different monikers. Also, the site said the collective noun might change depending on what they are doing. So while it's in Parliment it's a Conspirasie, but once you're being chased it's an Unkindlie. Edit: Ok, scanned. Picture quality is a little low, but basic idea comes across. Spoiler:
Show
Ghostly, have you read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman? It might have a couple of good examples for the Labyrinth.
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5 years ago ::
May 14, 2008 - 1:04PM
#34
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Mostly Ghostly, I really dig your approach to world-building—being sparse with details so as to activate the reader's imagination—as well as your style of writing. I almost cracked up after reading "A Guy We Met in a Bar".
I'd be careful with the stories as food thing. Maybe have stories be the spices instead.
That's a brilliant idea. Historically, spices have always been very coveted, and it makes sense that it would hold true in your setting as well.
Even then, books don't have to be important for one sole reason. History in general and the last century in particular have shown us just how beneficial knowledge can be if used wisely, and just how dangerous it becomes in the wrong hands. Ambitious politicians and generals have much to gain by acquiring knowledge, especially when it's as comprehensive and centralized as that in the Library. I would expect to see numerous attempts at organized thefts, some of which may well succeed to varying degrees. A flat-out takeover would also be imaginable; from a gameplay point of view, the Library makes for a very interesting battlefield. The victors could use the conquered knowledge to build superweapons or acquire lost treasures, or they could even set all of it on fire in an attempt to forge a future of their own (examples of which can be found in history).
Keep up the good work!
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5 years ago ::
May 14, 2008 - 5:02PM
#35
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Date Joined:
Jan 22, 2008
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I really like the "stories as spices" idea, but I want to give the Library some real weight and power. Here's my take on ideas people have come up with:
Nifflians must eat both real, solid food and stories, songs, and poems - the richer and more complex the story, the more "food" it provides - and the two compliment one another, with stories acting as spices for food in various ways, making them even more desirable. A single story can be stretched out, but every time it's repeated to someone who has heard or read it already, it loses some of its power. A story can be created, but it has no value to the creator, only to the listener. Stories can be written down, and gain power and permanency from this, but each successive copy is less powerful.
Stories are not the only things of value on the islands, and thus are not the basis of currency, but one can buy a tale from a vendor for a certain fee. Though stories are certainly valuable, names are even more so, being a sort of story about a person, and one reinforced and given meaning and power throughout their life. Titles, even birth names can be sold, and even eaten if one is desperate - a name can be stretched out into a months food, though only a few sorry souls go that far, for when a name is eaten, it is gone forever.
The poor get by on a regular diet of bread, scavenged food, and folklore, the tales stretched thin, only occasionally supplemented by a wandering Librarian. Artisans and such can afford slightly better fare, like a few daily vegetables and perhaps a Library card. As books lose their power eventually, people tend not to keep them very long, but may try to sell them. It is one of the jobs of a Librarian to prevent this from happening.
Some of the books in the Library are books of magic. They are stories about stories, and those who read and understand them gain the power they hold. These books of power are alive - their words can move and twist around the page, the more cantankerous ones can bite or even fly, and some say they have a secret language of their own, spoken through the whisperings and rustlings of their pages. Wizards who have harnessed the power of stories can use them for their ends, making paper airplanes out of words (more than one wizard has frantically told a fairy tale to repair a failing craft in midair), and sometimes even making their words solid and visible. Wizards in training wear raven masks to denote their status, and thus Wizards are often called "Unkindlies" (I like your Unkindlies, James and Fae, but I feel like it would be an impossible task to keep books from being copied, so it makes more sense to me to have them naturally resist it. I Love the sketch, by the way.)
How's all that sound?
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5 years ago ::
May 14, 2008 - 10:19PM
#36
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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I don't really like the stories as food thing in any of its forms, just not really my cup of tea. It's really imaginative and cool and such, just doesn't seem right to me. As for the library's importance, I was thinking that in addition to whatever information each individual book holds, it can also be used as a wizard's spellbook. The person casting spells from it must also possess the card catalog corresponding to that book. Wizards are closely regulated by the Council of Rooks, and must have a special license to gain permanent custody of their spellbook until their death. I like this because it provides a new twist on the overdue book adventure, like maybe a librarian went renegade and stole a book and card catalog to become a wizard. The PCs have to hunt him down and recapture the book. Once a book has been used as a spellbook, it can't be used in that way by someone else, so the amount of wizards is carefully regulated. Also, I like the idea of the books as semi- or even completely alive. The idea of a wizard arguing with his spellbook makes me smile immensely.
P.S. Awesome setting by the way, I definitely want to play this at some point.
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5 years ago ::
May 14, 2008 - 11:21PM
#37
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Date Joined:
Jan 15, 2008
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So can you starve to death if you aren't told stories? Does every hermit need a well stocked library in order to survive? I do like how you worked out the repeatability thing. This was bothering me, but the answer you worked out is pretty elegant. I had originally thought the Unkindlies would only work with thought-stealers and have some sort of way to smell and track down memories (and then rip them out of people's skulls) while lower level clerks would work with the people. I do, however, like the idea of the Unkindlies as wizards. This lends a ton of flavor to wizards in your setting. I was basing them off of the original plague doctors ( this) the image of which would work pretty well for wizards here.
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5 years ago ::
May 14, 2008 - 11:30PM
#38
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
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Yoink!
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5 years ago ::
May 14, 2008 - 11:49PM
#39
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Date Joined:
Jul 22, 2007
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I have to add my applause as well. This is really a fascinating idea for a setting.
A thought to add.
Perhaps, below the Labyrinth, there are people who live on the bottom of the islands. Perhaps gravity is reversed for them, perhaps they just build down from the bottom (and can fall with a missed step.) These people might deny that there are any people on top of the islands, and claim anyone who says so is crazy. Maybe they're strange in other ways, in that they don't need stories to survive (heck, maybe they're even illiterate). Not really anything specific, but I thought the idea of someone living on the bottom of the islands would be kind of neat.
Anyway, something I mentioned while talking about that made me wonder. Are there people who can't read? This seems like it would be a serious problem in the world as you describe it. Perhaps there's even a crazy sect of illiterates who think reading is blasphemous?
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Definitely want to play a cleric of The Inebriated One someday, though. :P
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5 years ago ::
May 15, 2008 - 3:49AM
#40
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Date Joined:
Jun 26, 2007
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Junkfolk may shun humans and other races because of their need for literature. Perhaps they draw power from the junk that Inebriated One tosses around. Maybe the junk they are built from eventually grows old or bad and they have to replace it with any junk they happen to find in front of them (this would make for some interesting junkfolk).
Just an idea. I really like the setting but I'm not so sure I'll run it right away. Might weird my new players out.
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