Roleplaying games from historical research
This story is what started our lengthy quest through Lord Dunsany. I wrote up the demon crocodile Tharagavverug and Sacnoth for Sub Rosa magazine issue #18, and that gave me the impetus to do the rest of his works. I don’t believe he was well received when written up – there aren’t a lot of…
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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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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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Welcome to Micro-Episode week! Here’s a poem by Walter de la Mare that I love, and think some redcap has repeated by an inn fire. The recording quoted in the podcast is from MarryAnn at Librivox. ‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller, Knocking on the moonlit door; And his horse in the silence champed…
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Games From Folktales 