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| Stillborn gods petrified at the moment of their birth. Pictures Mangled By: Me |
Pictures Mangled
by Me: Any picture with this in its caption means it is a collage
I made using 19th and early 20th century illustrations. All these
illustrations are public domain, meaning I didn't rob anyone by using
these pictures for my own gains.
Twinned cities upon and
above a dreaming sea. Rem, adobe and sandstone buildings stacked atop
one another, an urban mountain reaching toward strange skies.
Traumstadt, city upon a pier of dark stone, prime example of medieval
Teutonic architecture, the pier stretching out onto a prismatic sea.
The Rem Sea, its prismatic
waters ebbing and flowing as the other watery bodies of the world. A
surface of rainbows stretching out beyond the horizon, beneath, a
blue filled with life mythical and mundane. Images the waters reflect
are rarely the same as the visage that created them, at times
fantastic, at times strange, and yet others the images make the
caster recoil from what they see.
From these waters a rare
god or goddess might be born, though they are more likely to be a
stillbirth, if they are born at all. These stillbirths protrude from
the sea, stone shapes, some twists on familiar forms, others
completely alien. Even in their fetal state, these deities are
massive, their now lifeless bodies petrified into a dark stone. It is
from this very stone that the wounded poet-king Eoin constructed the
pier city Traumstadt, before leaving to found his kingdom in the
Dreamland.
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| Strange dead gods among sailors and ships. Pictures Mangled By: Me |
Rem and Traumstadt are the
beginning points of any journey to the kingdom of dreams, though many
find the allure of these shore cities to strong to abandon. Rem and
Traumstadt are charmed places, being in some ways more innocent than
their mundane counterparts. While crime, cruelty, and poverty exist
within the cities, their reign is far diminished. Rem and Traumstadt
are fable places, where heroes are consistent and pure, and where
villains still hesitate before certain crimes.
The destruction of Rem and
Traumstadt at the height of the Storyteller Wars was the bitterest
loss among the conflicts' casualties. But, those deaths are two
centuries away, and the world is ignorant to the coming loss. Be of
good cheer, for happiness and grandeur can still be won in these
diminishing times.
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| A fabled place of strange wonders. Art By: Harry Clarke |
Author's Note: This
setting, which I am calling 'The Dream Age' is the counterpoint to
the Infinite City. It takes place 200 years before the setting of the
Infinite City, filled with the wonder that died in the trenches while
the world warred with the Marchen.
The
Dream Age is more of standard fantasy setting than the Infinite City,
though it is still filled with the same surreal dream
logic/imagery/themes. Its culture and technology resembles an
idealized version of the late medieval/early renaissance commonly
found in fantasy settings. I will be explaining the history of the
Storyteller Wars from both sides of the conflict, before and after.
Initially,
I began work on this city as a gift to a guy named John Leutz,
however, it has morphed into something more. I wanted to work on
something with the same level of weirdness as the Infinite City but
far more light/hopeful. I will be back to the dark surrealism of the
Infinite City in my next post, I will be trading off between places
in future posts.
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| Rem, a mountain of a city. Pictures Mangled By: Me |
Rem
This
is a city constructed of adobe and sandstone, ruled over by sphinxes.
It would look at home among the cities of the middle east. Due to the
Storyteller Wars the sphinxes had fled to the Infinite City to war
with the spiders over libraries and knowledge. But in this age, their
beauty and mythic nature is undiminished. These daughters of the sand
and savannah are the keepers of secrets and wisdom, and rule over Rem
with a sagacity that would put king Solomon to shame.
The
monarch of the city is queen Inanna, the timeless mother of all
living sphinxes who gave birth to the very creature that Oedipus
slew. While she rules from a palace that bears her form, her
daughters keep peace in the streets, striding proudly on two legs and
four.
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| Traumstadt, reaching out into the dream sea. Pictures Mangled By: Me |
Traumstadt
Constructed
of stone taken from the bodies of stillborn and petrified gods
protruding from the Rem sea. Its architecture, and culture, is that
of medieval Europe with high Gothic towers and arches looming over
the city. Traumstadt was constructed by the wounded poet-king Eoin
Leutz after leaving the mundane world, dismayed and dejected over the
cruelties he found there in his lifetime. He did not spend long in
the city he created, having soon left to found his own kingdom in the
Dreamland.
Traumstadt
is built on a stone pier that reaches out into the dream sea like a
city-wide bridge without ever touching land. It grows slowly, new
arches and pylons appearing suddenly at night while the city dreams.
The population of the city will build onto the new open spaces as
they appear, continuing the architectural tradition of the rest of
the city. It is believed by some that the city is a god or goddess
that continues to grow in the womb of the Rem sea, and one day it
will awake and be born.
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| Traumstadt, near the shore. Pictures Mangled By: Me |
The
city is ruled over by spiders, the descendants of ancient arachnids
that made their homes in the library of Alexandria and the temples of
Sumeria. Traumstadt's king, Uttu, is responsible for saving the works
of Homer (who was in fact a spider wearing a human disguise) from the
burning of Alexandria's library. While returned many of the works to
the world, he kept three to himself with the promise to reveal them
after he had written something better.
His
sons and daughters roam the city, keeping order when the can be
pulled away from their own writings. Most are no larger than medium
sized dogs, but few have reached truly incredible sizes, growing as
large as elephants. Rumor has it that many of the young arachnids
have abandoned the traditional way of writing using webs and silk,
going instead to write upon parchment using ink.
Knights of the
Resurrected Dreamer
In
Traumstadt, an order of knights has been founded based upon the
teachings of the Sainted Dreamer. The Dreamer crawled from the waters
of the Rem sea, having nearly been stillborn, but being born twisted
and lame. This order is founded on bringing back ability to those who
have been born broken, or who were broken in life.
The
Dreamer calls on its followers to gather the disabled, and give them
tools to live a life on par with the abled. It is the will of the
Dreamer that all be given a chance to live the lives they might hope
for, to walk with purpose. These given tools do not mimic their
natural counterparts in shape, rather they flaunt their existence.
The Dreamer commands pride in those who have been given its
blessings, those of mundane form should be pitied for all looking the
same.
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| A knight jousting on a Bed Mount. Pictures Mangled By: Me |
Chair and Bed Mounts
These devices act as legs for those who do not have the
use of their own legs, or for those with the coin who do not wish to
use their own legs. For people without the use of their own legs, the
order inserts a enchanted splint into the individual's lower spine.
The splint directly transmits the user's will and reflex to the chair
or bed. For those with the coin to spend, they may buy a crown to
control the devices in the same way. These mounts can walk as long as
the user remains conscious, if unconscious the mount will remain
still.
OSR
/ LotFP / AD&D
While using a Chair or Bed Mount, the device uses the
character's Dexterity score, allowing the individual to avoid attacks
as anyone else would.
Splint
Cost: Free
Crown
Cost: 2000 gp (OSR / AD&D)
/ 2000 sp (LotFP)
The
cost of the first device, be it bed or chair is included in the cost
of the crown, or given away in the case of the splint. The second
device costs 500 gp/sp, this cost can be higher of the user wishes
the device to be made using expensive materials.
Chair
Mount -
Base Speed: 40
ft.
Penalty to Climbing: None
Bed
Mount -
Base
Speed: 60
ft.
Penalty
to Climbing: -2
out of 6, -33%, or -6 depending on the skill system used.
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| A Chair Mount. Pictures Mangled By: Me |
Pits
& Perils
Splint
Cost: Free
Crown
Cost: 2000 gp
The cost of the first
device, be it bed or chair is included in the cost of the crown, or
given away in the case of the splint. The second device costs 500 gp,
this cost can be higher of the user wishes the device to be made
using expensive materials.
Chair
Mount -
Base Speed: 50
ft.
Penalty to Climbing: None
Bed
Mount -
Base
Speed: 75
ft.
Penalty
to Climbing: Very
Difficult / -3 to 2D6 roll.
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| While more innocent, there is still darkness in these lands. Art By: Harry Clarke |
Pathfinder
/ 3.X
Splint
Cost: Free
Crown
Cost: 2000 gp
The cost of the first
device, be it bed or chair is included in the cost of the crown, or
given away in the case of the splint. The second device costs 500 gp,
this cost can be higher of the user wishes the device to be made
using expensive materials.
Chair
Mount -
Base Speed: 30
ft.
Penalty to Climbing: None
Bed
Mount -
Base
Speed: 45
ft.
Penalty
to Climbing: -6 to all skill rolls made to climb.
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