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We know where magic comes from. When the Nephilim fell, they had children with humans, and taught them useful arts. One of these was magic. God drowned all of the children of the Nephilim in Noah’s Flood, although rumours persist that one of the wives on board had tainted blood, and magic continued through her.…

Medieval Europeans knew that China existed…well, they knew there was a place out there that silk came from, and they called it “Seres” or “Serica”, both meaning “silk”. There are records of several groups attempting to make contact between the two empires. It might be said fairly that the Chinese had better information about the…

Each community in Europe has a slightly different story about who brings gifts to children at Christmas time.   Let’s not review them when David Sedaris has done such a brilliant job. If you haven’t listened to “Six to Eight Black Men” go do that now. Seriously. Pause this.  Actually, no.  Don’t.  His work’s a…

Time travel stories are scarce in Mythic Europe. They are a mainstay of our genre fiction now, but they were revolutionary when, in the Nineteenth Century, they became popular. Folklore does allow a limited form a time travel, in that the faerie-led can be held far from home for centuries, effectively moving forward in time…

Do you know where you are right now? A better question is: do you know how you know where you are right now? What’s happening is that your body is providing haptic feedback to your brain. That is, you have a sensation of touch from your skin, and your joints are also sending signals to your…

Let’s talk dowries, and bargaining, and let’s use the Bard. The following passages are modernisation of Shakespeare, from “The Taming of the Shrew”. To set the scene: Baptista is a medieval merchant, who has no sons and two daughters, Kate and Bianca. Bianca has four suitors. Kate has none, because she’s a shrew. Bianca cannot…

A Robinsonade is a type of story that takes its name from Robinson Crusoe. In the structure of the story a person from a technologically superior area is stranded in an area where they have limited societal support. Robinsonades are interesting as ways of starting Ars Magica sagas, because they force characters to use the…

In the dying days of her reign, Cleopatra VII Philopator made preparations to survive the Roman invasion. In our world, these came to nothing: Cleopatra entombed herself alive, and took poison in wine, by smuggling an asp in a basket of figs, or by biting her arm and smearing a fatal unguent over the wound. This…