With wings of dream I fly,
as time is passing by.
My soul may go to heaven,
yet reality is leaden.
With wings of dream I fly,
as years are moving by.
My wings are made of fantasy,
my home - of reality.
With wings of dream I fly,
as lives are flying by.
Time is an illusion,
my dream a delusion.
With wings of dream I fly,
as time is passing by.
Sep 22, 2010
Sep 19, 2010
Magic part 1
Let's talk about magic a bit. I need the Lightless to have some kind of magic in it. But what, exactly? An idea occurred to me today while reading Celia Friedman's Black Sun Rising.
To put it simply:
1) There exist a spirit world, which co-exists in the same space with reality. The two universes are separate, but they interact with each other.
2) The spirit world is filled with protospirits, which are shapeless figments of...well, energy, for the lack of better word. You might think of them as sort of ectoplasm.
3) Nearby thoughts, ideas and emotions manipulate these protospirits so that they take form.
4) When they take form they can interact with the reality. This interaction can take many shapes, but the effects are mostly so minor as to be undetectable. For example, dislike of something causes repulsion, lust creates the sensation of heat, etc. These are normally unconscious and very, very weak.
5) Someone talented and trained can, however, manipulate these protospirits consciously. This is called magic.
Magic is, in essence, very simple. If you need a sword, for example, you form an image of a sword, fix it in place, and focus in making it real. This creates an illusion of sword. With enough concentration the sword gains substance. This is the essence of much of the magic: with enough concentration, almost anything can be created this way. However, whatever created, ceases to exist once the magic-user stops concentrating and concentrating takes energy, so that even the most gifted can't maintain something substantial for very long periods of time.
Manipulating what already exists is much the same: The magic-user forms an image of what he wants to happen, and the forces it to become real. Sealing a wound, for example, is done by creating a mental image of the skin without the wound, placing the image into the same space where the wound is, and concentrating very hard. Note that actually healing a wound is actually fairly complex procedure, since it involves knowledge of anatomy: it's not enough to merely recreate the outer layer of the skin, if the wound has damaged muscles or other tissue. Merely sealing a wound stops blood loss, but doesn't replace the lost blood.
Creating permanent substance is more difficult. Once the substance has been created, the protospirit or protospirits of which it consists must be formed into a real spirit. That involves reaching into the spirit world where the substance exists, and forcing it to become solid. It requires enormous effort on the part of the maker, and the success is often incomplete the first time, meaning that the magic-user will have to reach into spirit world again to repeat the process or the spirit will fall apart eventually: depending on the degree of success, that could take from minutes to weeks.
To put it simply:
1) There exist a spirit world, which co-exists in the same space with reality. The two universes are separate, but they interact with each other.
2) The spirit world is filled with protospirits, which are shapeless figments of...well, energy, for the lack of better word. You might think of them as sort of ectoplasm.
3) Nearby thoughts, ideas and emotions manipulate these protospirits so that they take form.
4) When they take form they can interact with the reality. This interaction can take many shapes, but the effects are mostly so minor as to be undetectable. For example, dislike of something causes repulsion, lust creates the sensation of heat, etc. These are normally unconscious and very, very weak.
5) Someone talented and trained can, however, manipulate these protospirits consciously. This is called magic.
Magic is, in essence, very simple. If you need a sword, for example, you form an image of a sword, fix it in place, and focus in making it real. This creates an illusion of sword. With enough concentration the sword gains substance. This is the essence of much of the magic: with enough concentration, almost anything can be created this way. However, whatever created, ceases to exist once the magic-user stops concentrating and concentrating takes energy, so that even the most gifted can't maintain something substantial for very long periods of time.
Manipulating what already exists is much the same: The magic-user forms an image of what he wants to happen, and the forces it to become real. Sealing a wound, for example, is done by creating a mental image of the skin without the wound, placing the image into the same space where the wound is, and concentrating very hard. Note that actually healing a wound is actually fairly complex procedure, since it involves knowledge of anatomy: it's not enough to merely recreate the outer layer of the skin, if the wound has damaged muscles or other tissue. Merely sealing a wound stops blood loss, but doesn't replace the lost blood.
Creating permanent substance is more difficult. Once the substance has been created, the protospirit or protospirits of which it consists must be formed into a real spirit. That involves reaching into the spirit world where the substance exists, and forcing it to become solid. It requires enormous effort on the part of the maker, and the success is often incomplete the first time, meaning that the magic-user will have to reach into spirit world again to repeat the process or the spirit will fall apart eventually: depending on the degree of success, that could take from minutes to weeks.
May 23, 2010
The guardians
What is to be a Guardian? To serve the people, to help those in need.
What is the oath of a Guardian? To Never draw a weapon except to protect the innocent, himself, or fellow guardians. To never kill in anger, for even those serving the light deserve mourning for their souls. To dedicate his life for all people; even murderers, even those too arrogant to see the need, even those who serve the light.
The guardians is an international organization of monks who are fiercely dedicated to darkness. They are widely respected, if not always liked. They come from all walks of life and serve in different roles from warriors to preachers to healers.
The organization is divided to several factions which are: Guardians of Blade, Guardians of Spirit, Guardians of Life, Guardians of Knowledge and Soulguardians.
Soulguardians is the faction with most members and least standing. Soulguardians are people who have taken the pledge of Guardian, but haven't dedicated their lives to the Guardians completely: They're mostly ordinary people who have earned the honor of becoming Guardian, but haven't taken the training(although some of them choose to take the training later) required to become member of one of the other factions. Some of them also act in some minor role in the organization as clerks, for example, and all will help the organization when needed. While most of them will pass some information to Guardians, if something important comes to their attention, a few will become informants(or spies, if you will). Most of the them wear their role publicly however, and are honorbound to keep some information from the organization.
Guardians of Blade are the second most numerous in their members. While their main purpose is to serve as bodyguards to members of other factions, few of whom are trained in their use and even fewer who actually carry any except when expecting confrontation(like when traveling through wilderness), they also represent a military power, should need arise, and act as thiefcatchers in some communities. Their garrisons and patrols also serve as a visible reminder of the dangers of wandering to light. Their combat prowess is legendary: it is said that while a Guardian of Blade will rarely start a fight, it's even rarer for one not to finish one. While that's somewhat exaggerated, their prowess in single combat is equal or better to that of most elite troops and their training for larger confrontations almost on par with that.
Guardians of Spirit are the third most numerous, while far behind Guardians of Blade in numbers. They are the preachers and ministers as well as masters of ceremonies. While not all villages have a Guardian as priests, they're fairly common and there's usually one in every big village, even if he isn't acting as a priest, and almost always one or two in towns. Their main aim isn't necessarily to act as priests, but to help people who have spiritual problems, persuade those who have chosen light to return to darkness and to keep people from going to the side of light. Many of them also know minor spells, but primary spellcasters are rare.
Guardians of Life act are healers. They usually live in cities and bigger towns, but if need arises, they're also willing to travel where ever needed. In villages where the healer is communal they are not needed, but in towns and cities where the poorest people can't afford to pay for healing, they are needed; unlike other healers, they help all the people, even those who cannot afford to pay. From those who can afford to pay nothing, they charge nothing. From everyone else they only ask what is freely given; lots of people pay in favors, few in money. Even so the Guardians of Life rarely live in poverty. Most of them use magic to aid in healing, but again spellcasters of notable power are few and far between.
Guardians of Knowledge are the least numerous faction. They are teachers and scholars. Some of them act as traveling teachers, teaching some of everything to children in villages, but rarely staying in one place for very long. Others have permanent schools in towns or cities, sometimes multiple Guardians teaching different subjects under same roof. Yet others act as private teachers for children of nobles and wealthy merchants. And some are just scholars, focused on gathering knowledge, new and old. Every Guardian(except Soulguardians) has been taught by multitude of Guardians of Knowledge. All Guardians of Knowledge know at least a little magic, and all different degrees of magical learning can be found amongst them.
What is the oath of a Guardian? To Never draw a weapon except to protect the innocent, himself, or fellow guardians. To never kill in anger, for even those serving the light deserve mourning for their souls. To dedicate his life for all people; even murderers, even those too arrogant to see the need, even those who serve the light.
The guardians is an international organization of monks who are fiercely dedicated to darkness. They are widely respected, if not always liked. They come from all walks of life and serve in different roles from warriors to preachers to healers.
The organization is divided to several factions which are: Guardians of Blade, Guardians of Spirit, Guardians of Life, Guardians of Knowledge and Soulguardians.
Soulguardians is the faction with most members and least standing. Soulguardians are people who have taken the pledge of Guardian, but haven't dedicated their lives to the Guardians completely: They're mostly ordinary people who have earned the honor of becoming Guardian, but haven't taken the training(although some of them choose to take the training later) required to become member of one of the other factions. Some of them also act in some minor role in the organization as clerks, for example, and all will help the organization when needed. While most of them will pass some information to Guardians, if something important comes to their attention, a few will become informants(or spies, if you will). Most of the them wear their role publicly however, and are honorbound to keep some information from the organization.
Guardians of Blade are the second most numerous in their members. While their main purpose is to serve as bodyguards to members of other factions, few of whom are trained in their use and even fewer who actually carry any except when expecting confrontation(like when traveling through wilderness), they also represent a military power, should need arise, and act as thiefcatchers in some communities. Their garrisons and patrols also serve as a visible reminder of the dangers of wandering to light. Their combat prowess is legendary: it is said that while a Guardian of Blade will rarely start a fight, it's even rarer for one not to finish one. While that's somewhat exaggerated, their prowess in single combat is equal or better to that of most elite troops and their training for larger confrontations almost on par with that.
Guardians of Spirit are the third most numerous, while far behind Guardians of Blade in numbers. They are the preachers and ministers as well as masters of ceremonies. While not all villages have a Guardian as priests, they're fairly common and there's usually one in every big village, even if he isn't acting as a priest, and almost always one or two in towns. Their main aim isn't necessarily to act as priests, but to help people who have spiritual problems, persuade those who have chosen light to return to darkness and to keep people from going to the side of light. Many of them also know minor spells, but primary spellcasters are rare.
Guardians of Life act are healers. They usually live in cities and bigger towns, but if need arises, they're also willing to travel where ever needed. In villages where the healer is communal they are not needed, but in towns and cities where the poorest people can't afford to pay for healing, they are needed; unlike other healers, they help all the people, even those who cannot afford to pay. From those who can afford to pay nothing, they charge nothing. From everyone else they only ask what is freely given; lots of people pay in favors, few in money. Even so the Guardians of Life rarely live in poverty. Most of them use magic to aid in healing, but again spellcasters of notable power are few and far between.
Guardians of Knowledge are the least numerous faction. They are teachers and scholars. Some of them act as traveling teachers, teaching some of everything to children in villages, but rarely staying in one place for very long. Others have permanent schools in towns or cities, sometimes multiple Guardians teaching different subjects under same roof. Yet others act as private teachers for children of nobles and wealthy merchants. And some are just scholars, focused on gathering knowledge, new and old. Every Guardian(except Soulguardians) has been taught by multitude of Guardians of Knowledge. All Guardians of Knowledge know at least a little magic, and all different degrees of magical learning can be found amongst them.
May 3, 2010
Mayfly
False alarm. Sorry, everyone. I still haven't come up with the motivation to finish the economy. I'm posting only because a)I happened to stumble upon this piece I'd forgotten I ever wrote(how that happened is a mystery, since it's only less than a year old) and b)at this point I pretty much have to post something or admit to defeat as far as the blog is concerned. Oh well, here I go.
A life not unlike that of a mayfly, just a flash of light within an eternity of darkness. Yet a kiss lasting another eternity to end it. Or maybe it's the same eternity: a twilight turning into darkness during an eternity of not quite change. A loss of life or a loss of soul? Perhaps both or neither. Or both and neither: the loss and rebirth of both without knowing what changed, it's hard to be sure.
The first taste, the taste unlike any other: sweet as sugar yet bitter, so perfect like a beauty of a sunrise. My body in an ocean of pleasure, yet my soul weeping for mercy. A container empty. My hunger both bottomless as the nightsky, yet sated. The darkness brought by the rising sun sweeps away my tears...
A life not unlike that of a mayfly, just a flash of light within an eternity of darkness. Yet a kiss lasting another eternity to end it. Or maybe it's the same eternity: a twilight turning into darkness during an eternity of not quite change. A loss of life or a loss of soul? Perhaps both or neither. Or both and neither: the loss and rebirth of both without knowing what changed, it's hard to be sure.
The first taste, the taste unlike any other: sweet as sugar yet bitter, so perfect like a beauty of a sunrise. My body in an ocean of pleasure, yet my soul weeping for mercy. A container empty. My hunger both bottomless as the nightsky, yet sated. The darkness brought by the rising sun sweeps away my tears...
Mar 15, 2010
What is worth? part 2/?
Continued from the first part
Now that I have the outlines of how the economy works, I need to work out how much everything is worth. Let's start from the farmer: How much is the net-worth of farmer's produce? Let's say that it's 10 bweepers/day spread over the entire year(I'll just assume that year is 365 days, for now. I may change that later). How much of that goes to himself and his family as food? In a village probably 2/3 people are farmers and their families(who also help running the farms), there's a smith, a major, a healer/magic user and the rest are hunters. In a village there's between 100 and 300 people total, averaging about 200. In a city, on the other hand, there are no farmers. How many capita/city? Considering technology level and limitations of caves, a reasonable number would be...I actually have no idea.
Hmm. Apparently a typical medieval city had about 300 000 inhabitants. Considering the limitations of caves(you can only have so much empty space in a limited volume without risking cave-ins, even with supporting structures. Of course the amount is bigger relative to volume close to surface(how deep do the caves extend? And how close to the surface will there be cities? what about villages? Yet more things I'll need to figure out. The more answers I figure out, the more questions there are), I think the number will have to be drastically lower. 50 000? That should be good enough approximation for now(I'll probably need to make another post about this sometime. Luckily the number isn't really vital for now(which begs the question why I just spent about quarter hour trying to figure it out), so I don't have to do that now).
So, a village has about 200 inhabitants, city 50 000 and there are 100 villages to one city. That means the amount of farmers to everyone else is about 100*133:100*67+50 000 or 13 300:56 700 (which rounds to about 1:4). Hmm. Even considering hunters(which will number around 7 000) the number of food producers is pretty low. Less than 40% of the total population. I'm not an expert on medieval economics, but that seems pretty low. Of course, there's magic involved in the equation, but it shouldn't effect the food production. Or should it?
half hour later...
After throughout research I finally stumbled upon this wikipedia article, which indicates that peasants could live with only 20% of their produce or less. So the numbers seem to be just fine.
Now, where was I...Oh, right. So an average peasant produces 10 bweepers of value per day. Since there is 4 other people who also need farm products, he uses 2 bweepers worth of that himself. That means that he gets to sell those 8 bweepers worth. Boy, is he going to be rich! That's almost 6 thrones a year(5.84, to be exact)! Yeah, right. I bet he doesn't even know what a throne looks like. Tune in next time to see what happens to all that money.
Now that I have the outlines of how the economy works, I need to work out how much everything is worth. Let's start from the farmer: How much is the net-worth of farmer's produce? Let's say that it's 10 bweepers/day spread over the entire year(I'll just assume that year is 365 days, for now. I may change that later). How much of that goes to himself and his family as food? In a village probably 2/3 people are farmers and their families(who also help running the farms), there's a smith, a major, a healer/magic user and the rest are hunters. In a village there's between 100 and 300 people total, averaging about 200. In a city, on the other hand, there are no farmers. How many capita/city? Considering technology level and limitations of caves, a reasonable number would be...I actually have no idea.
Hmm. Apparently a typical medieval city had about 300 000 inhabitants. Considering the limitations of caves(you can only have so much empty space in a limited volume without risking cave-ins, even with supporting structures. Of course the amount is bigger relative to volume close to surface(how deep do the caves extend? And how close to the surface will there be cities? what about villages? Yet more things I'll need to figure out. The more answers I figure out, the more questions there are), I think the number will have to be drastically lower. 50 000? That should be good enough approximation for now(I'll probably need to make another post about this sometime. Luckily the number isn't really vital for now(which begs the question why I just spent about quarter hour trying to figure it out), so I don't have to do that now).
So, a village has about 200 inhabitants, city 50 000 and there are 100 villages to one city. That means the amount of farmers to everyone else is about 100*133:100*67+50 000 or 13 300:56 700 (which rounds to about 1:4). Hmm. Even considering hunters(which will number around 7 000) the number of food producers is pretty low. Less than 40% of the total population. I'm not an expert on medieval economics, but that seems pretty low. Of course, there's magic involved in the equation, but it shouldn't effect the food production. Or should it?
half hour later...
After throughout research I finally stumbled upon this wikipedia article, which indicates that peasants could live with only 20% of their produce or less. So the numbers seem to be just fine.
Now, where was I...Oh, right. So an average peasant produces 10 bweepers of value per day. Since there is 4 other people who also need farm products, he uses 2 bweepers worth of that himself. That means that he gets to sell those 8 bweepers worth. Boy, is he going to be rich! That's almost 6 thrones a year(5.84, to be exact)! Yeah, right. I bet he doesn't even know what a throne looks like. Tune in next time to see what happens to all that money.
Mar 11, 2010
Other sentients
I've been thinking about having other races(to use the D&D term, "race" meaning sentient species like humans or elves or dwarves) in the Lightless. I don't really have to worry about making the setting even more unique, so I don't have to start from the scratch, although I don't want to make exact copies either. It's really a dilemma: On one hand I want humans to be the people around: when I introduce a character I don't want the first reaction to be "Is she human or elf or what?". On the other hand, I think exclusively human fantasy settings are rare for a reason: no matter how well you describe the humans, you're not going to get the same amount of "Wow" as you could get by introducing something new(or not so new. Just about everyone has elves. They're still better than having nothing but humans). Tolkien had elves for a reason(500-word rant and it's cause deleted. It was about the drow).
At this point I haven't decided yet whether there are other races(and I probably wouldn't tell even if I had. I'd like to keep my players dark about some things at least for a while yet), but they certainly wont be prevalent. Right now I'm thinking of having fey and dwarves. In fact, I've already decided that the fey exist at least in the legends: go beck in time far enough and just about everyone is either linked to religion in some way(a prophet, a saint, a...crusader?) or you can find a legend linking them to fey by being a fey, a half-fey, a fey-blooded or at least allied to the fey.
So, what would the fey be like(remember that all this may well be scrapped and even if it isn't, it's entirely possible that the fey don't come up)? Fairies are usually smaller than humans(varying from the size of a largish bug to child-sized). I think I'll go with fey being about 2/3rd's of a human size. Obviously they're superior to humans: they're not as strong, but they're faster, as tough(even though they're smaller), healthier, smarter and capable of flying. They also live in an area 300 miles north-northeast of the players starting point(just kidding...probably).
Dwarves are easier(same goes for dwarves). Since I don't want them in the same space as humans, I'll just move them to surface: instead of working with stone, they work with wood. Every dwarf is a master woodcrafter. Metals are not very prevalent, since they could bump into humans digging too deep(work THAT into Dwarffortress. I dare you!). Otherwise they're just standard dwarves:Hardworking, heavy-drinking, grumpy, violent short people.
At this point I haven't decided yet whether there are other races(and I probably wouldn't tell even if I had. I'd like to keep my players dark about some things at least for a while yet), but they certainly wont be prevalent. Right now I'm thinking of having fey and dwarves. In fact, I've already decided that the fey exist at least in the legends: go beck in time far enough and just about everyone is either linked to religion in some way(a prophet, a saint, a...crusader?) or you can find a legend linking them to fey by being a fey, a half-fey, a fey-blooded or at least allied to the fey.
So, what would the fey be like(remember that all this may well be scrapped and even if it isn't, it's entirely possible that the fey don't come up)? Fairies are usually smaller than humans(varying from the size of a largish bug to child-sized). I think I'll go with fey being about 2/3rd's of a human size. Obviously they're superior to humans: they're not as strong, but they're faster, as tough(even though they're smaller), healthier, smarter and capable of flying. They also live in an area 300 miles north-northeast of the players starting point(just kidding...probably).
Dwarves are easier(same goes for dwarves). Since I don't want them in the same space as humans, I'll just move them to surface: instead of working with stone, they work with wood. Every dwarf is a master woodcrafter. Metals are not very prevalent, since they could bump into humans digging too deep(work THAT into Dwarffortress. I dare you!). Otherwise they're just standard dwarves:Hardworking, heavy-drinking, grumpy, violent short people.
Mar 4, 2010
What is worth? part 1/?
Following from the previous post, now I have a money system. But it's not very useful to know that one throne is worth 500 bweepers, when we don't know what a bweeper is worth. So know I need to figure out what everything is worth.
We know have the following units:
Bweeper
Double-whistle=25 bweepers
Throne=20 double-whistles
Hmm. Double-whistle is a little cumbersome to say or write. I imagine that it would get shortened pretty quickly in spoken language and generation or two later it would be shortened in written language, too. I think just dropping the whistle part should be sufficient. So one throne=20 doubles.
Back to the topic. I should aim for the values to be at the very least realistic enough for casual observer to fail to spot anything obviously wrong. Bweeper should be small enough that it's fractions don't come into the play. I think I should start from a small village environment where there aren't that many variables. In small village with little connection to outside world apart from the occasional peddler, most of the trade is direct exchange with items and services without money being necessary.
Most people are farmers or hunters who do a little bit of everything from fixing their tools of trade(when it can be done without a forge) to making their own clothes either from wool(or equivalent, more likely) up or at least from fabric. These people are in effect nearly self-sufficient: as generalists they rarely have need for specialists, even though they would get better quality work from using one. Farming isn't very lucrative, so their net-worth isn't very high.
A village also needs a blacksmith. Farmers could probably make their own forges, but considering that a forge needs yet another separate building, it's heavy work and they don't have that much use for it themselves, it just isn't worth it. In the end a professional blacksmith is better for everyone. There are several other trades that probably have a specialist: a healer/priest who knows mostly everything there is to know about different herbs and treatments in the collective wisdom of village there is to know. Again, farmers probably could know these things themselves and probably do know at least the basics, but when you're really sick you're going to need help, anyway. There's also some kind of mayor who acts as spokesperson, judge/arbiter etc. Mayor probably has a side-trade too, at least in smaller villages. With the danger of cave-ins being everpresent, there probably is an architect as well, to regulate building. There may also be a magic-user, but since one isn't strictly necessary, it's more likely that one has taken the role of healer and uses other magic only irregularly.
I've already written almost 500 words and I've barely scratched the topic I intended to write about. On the plus side, now I have all the necessary pieces to grab the issue. I think I'll leave the rest for tomorrow. I clearly need to think about this some more.
We know have the following units:
Bweeper
Double-whistle=25 bweepers
Throne=20 double-whistles
Hmm. Double-whistle is a little cumbersome to say or write. I imagine that it would get shortened pretty quickly in spoken language and generation or two later it would be shortened in written language, too. I think just dropping the whistle part should be sufficient. So one throne=20 doubles.
Back to the topic. I should aim for the values to be at the very least realistic enough for casual observer to fail to spot anything obviously wrong. Bweeper should be small enough that it's fractions don't come into the play. I think I should start from a small village environment where there aren't that many variables. In small village with little connection to outside world apart from the occasional peddler, most of the trade is direct exchange with items and services without money being necessary.
Most people are farmers or hunters who do a little bit of everything from fixing their tools of trade(when it can be done without a forge) to making their own clothes either from wool(or equivalent, more likely) up or at least from fabric. These people are in effect nearly self-sufficient: as generalists they rarely have need for specialists, even though they would get better quality work from using one. Farming isn't very lucrative, so their net-worth isn't very high.
A village also needs a blacksmith. Farmers could probably make their own forges, but considering that a forge needs yet another separate building, it's heavy work and they don't have that much use for it themselves, it just isn't worth it. In the end a professional blacksmith is better for everyone. There are several other trades that probably have a specialist: a healer/priest who knows mostly everything there is to know about different herbs and treatments in the collective wisdom of village there is to know. Again, farmers probably could know these things themselves and probably do know at least the basics, but when you're really sick you're going to need help, anyway. There's also some kind of mayor who acts as spokesperson, judge/arbiter etc. Mayor probably has a side-trade too, at least in smaller villages. With the danger of cave-ins being everpresent, there probably is an architect as well, to regulate building. There may also be a magic-user, but since one isn't strictly necessary, it's more likely that one has taken the role of healer and uses other magic only irregularly.
I've already written almost 500 words and I've barely scratched the topic I intended to write about. On the plus side, now I have all the necessary pieces to grab the issue. I think I'll leave the rest for tomorrow. I clearly need to think about this some more.
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