Roleplaying games from historical research
Why do so many Verditus magi make submersibles? We have focused, in the published books, on magical submarines, but let’s think about something else. Let’s think about bathyspheres. Imagine a sphere that is lowered into the dark. It must be a perfect sphere. if it has a flaw, it will collapse and you will be…
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What would the embodiment of Time be in Ars Magica? Mechanically it could be of any Realm. What could its embodiment be? Any story can be a faerie, an a demon can claim to be anything, but Time, in various mythologies is the thing that comes before the Magical powers of creation, which come before…
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A pair of short stories about Fame from Lord Dunsany. THE ASSIGNATION Fame singing in the highways, and trifling as she sang, with sordid adventurers, passed the poet by. And still the poet made for her little chaplets of song, to deck her forehead in the courts of Time: and still she wore instead the…
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Another Dunsany episode: plot hooks at the end! In an ill-lit ancient tavern that I know, are many tales of the sea; but not without the wine of Gorgondy, that I had of a private bargain from the gnomes, was the tale laid bare for which I had waited of an evening for the greater…
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This episode went live early, so here’s a bonus transcript for the week. *** I’ve discussed previously the idea that there may be worlds, in deep Arcadia, where the Faerie Aura is a negative number. To come up to speed on that discussion see the previous episode about Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance.…
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The transcript for this week went live early. This little bonus episode is to fill the gap. Saffron is the most expensive agricultural product, weight for weight, in Mythic Europe. There’s some question as to how hardy it is: people at the time claimed it grows best in arid climates, but in the 16th century, the…
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I was listening to a somewhat modernised version of The Cantebury Tales and was struck by a description of a demon given there. This is from The Friar’s Tale. It uses the word “sompnour” which is a “summoner”, a sort of bailiff that calls people to the ecclesiastical court. The friar hates, and is hated…
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Chaucer notes that roosters are natural astronomers. They innately know the time of dawn, dusk and the equinoxes. If your magus has a rooster familiar do they innately know when Sun and Year spells end, to the second? Is one of the astrological mystery cults led by a Bjonaer rooster? Many Bjornaers become a kaiju…
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I listen to a podcast called Lexicon Valley, which is about the way language changes. In a recent episode, the presenter suggested the words “gangster” and “gangsta” are now separate words. When you think about them, he posits, you are not thinking about the same sorts of stereotypes. Similarly, he then revels in breaking the…
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Games From Folktales 