A change of pace on the Venice material – I think that trying to draw all the folklore together, like I did with Cornwall, may be a fool’s errand. I keep heading off into the weeds. My plan is to keep adding the folklore I find, but to try and give the whole thing a spine and ribs by working toward a chapter layout that I’ll assemble on the blog that accompanies the podcast. I’ll Frankenstein bits in, create a rough shape, and then we’ll move onto proper drafting. So – time for a folklore free episode.
If you look at a map of Venice, the first thing you’ll notice is that it looks like a sketch. Coastlines are smooth, or straight, and have angles. This is because the coasts are, in many cases, artificial. As we noted in an early episode, the islands of the lagoons have been extended by reclamations using wood pylons and backfill. Many of the islands you’ll see on a modern map were added after the game period, and a few have been lost over time – usually low islands destroyed by flooding.
The largest island group, by area, is Venice proper. It’s historically divided into six regions, called sesitieri, three each side of the Grand Canal. There is a single bridge across the Grand Canal in 1220 – a pontoon sort of affair called the Bridge of the Mint. By the Maganomia period it’s been renamed the Rialto and rebuilt in stone.
The first three districts are:
Castello – the largest of the six divisions. This is where the Arsenal is, and where the Greek merchants live. The site of the Arsenal is now the Bienelle Gardens. It’s the seat of the Bishopric of Olivolo, and when that is merged with the Pariarchate of Grado in the 15th century, this becomes the seat of the Patriarch of Venice.
Cannaregio – This area was where most people coming from the mainland landed in Venice. It’s named after the Royal Canal. After 1516 this area contains the Jewish ghetto, but during the Ars Magica game period, Jews are in an odd legal situation where they are both not allowed in the city, and also work in the city while living in the island of Guidecca, off the south coast. The area has some palaces, along the Grand Canal, but is mostly a worker’s area
San Marco – where the public square we have discussed in some depth is found. This is the social centre of Venice.
Then across the Grand Canal are
San Polo – the smallest of the six divisions, but one of the most densely inhabited. This is where the city’s markets are.
Dorsoduro – This area, administratively, also includes the island of Guidecca, to the south. It’s where the highest land in Venice is found.
Santa Croce – during the Ars period this seems to technically be the possession of a Hungarian nobleman, but surely that can’t be right?
The Venetian Lagoon is divided from the Adriatic by two barrier islands called Lido and Pellestrina. Lido has a settlement on it called Malamocco, which is named after the Roman settlement of Metamaucum which was taken by the sea. Pellestrina’s largest town is also called Pellestrina. Also worth noting is the small island of Choggia, which lies at the far south of the line created by the two barrier islands, and is a sort of customs station for ships coming into the Lagoon. In some earlier episodes we discussed Charlemange’s attempted invasion. I think it got as far as Choggia and Malmacco, which is why the capital was moved further into the lagoons. The northern edge of the lagoons is guarded by a peninsula called the Litorale del Cavallino, but “litoral” there just means “coast”,
The third largest “island” in the lagoons is Murano, which is actually seven islands held together with bridges. In 1291 all glassmakers in Venice are forced to relocate there, creating an odd noble class of merchants who make mirrors for a living, which we can surely use. The second largest island, Sant Erasmo, is governed from Murano, and seems to mostly be farmland.
Between Murano and Venice is a squarish island that’s a cemetery in the modern day. Sadly, San Michele Cemetery dates form the 19th century. Before that, each of the courtyards around which Venetian neighbourhood are gathered was a cemetery, apparently. St Michele is created when people decide that’s unsanitary, particularly on islands which occasionally flood.
As I mentioned, every so often an island goes missing. That could be a magus waiting for a storm and then casting The Shrouded Glen about the coast. The lagoon is such a busy shipping channel that people would still wander into the hidden area by an accident on a regular basis, although there are little crannies in the south of the lagoon where you’d have some privacy. The lagoon is only seventy-three feet deep at most, so if you want to make your own island using the rules in Transforming Mythic Europe, this is a great spot. You could also put a new island in the, rather less busy, northern lagoons.
Games From Folktales 