DShomshak

Well, it has already been politically effective... at ending the demonstrations by Iranians fed up with their government. Who can demand reform when the crazed, murderous Americans have just committed a real, no kidding, internationally defined act of war? I am not intrinsically opposed to assassination. I can imagine specific circumstances in which it might be the most effective course to prevent greater harm, or be the only way to stop certain enemies. This is not one of them. Dean Shomshak

My local newspaper printed a story about this, but it's a few months late. Here are some links to an interesting bit of archaic astronomy revived. Armillary Sphere Unveiled on Santa Fe ... - St. John's College https://www.sjc.edu › News and Features Cached Sep 27, 2019 - During Homecoming weekend on the Santa Fe campus, the St. John's ... a functioning armillary sphere, the only one of its kind in the world. Tycho Brahe - Armillary Sphere - Armillary Sphere Replica https://www.popularmechanics.com › space › telescopes › brahe-armillary-... Cached 1 day ago - St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico has unveiled the only working Tycho Brahe armillary sphere on Earth. The complex device is used ... Tycho Brahe armillary - David Harber https://www.davidharber.com › news › tychobraha Cached Tyco Brahe Sphere in Santa Fe. Next. David Harber, has unveiled the world's only working Tycho Brahe Equatorial Armillary Sphere, a piece commissioned by ... Dean Shomshak

Guide to the Gods, by Marjorie Leach, might be useful to FH GMs in designing gods for settings. Or at least the table of contents might be, as a source of divine types you might not have thought of: I Cosmogonical Deities 1 Primordial Beings 2 Male/Female Principle, Angdrogynous 3 Deities of the Universe, Space 4/5 Supreme Being, Great Spirit, High God/Creator Deities II Celestial Deities 6 Sky and Heaven Gods 7 Solar Gods: Dawn, Day, Light, Twilight, Eclipses 8 Lunar Gods: Eclipses 9 Gods of Night, Darkness 10 Stellar Gods: Constellations, Planets, Stars III Atmospheric Deities 11 Weather Gods: Thunder, Lightning, Rain, Wind, Rainbow, Drought IV Terrestrial Deities 12 Animal/Bird Gods 13 Earth Gods: Land, Soil, Earthquakes 14 Fire Gods: Elemental, Domestic 15 Fresh Water Gods: Rivers, Lakes, Irrigation, Curative Waters 16 Metals: Mines, Minerals, Treasures 17 Nature Gods: Forest, Hills, Mountains, Stones, Trees 18 Sea Gods: Surf and Coastline, Seafarers and Navigation V Life/Death Cycle Deities 19 Life: Birth, Procreation, Soul (in life). Longevity 20 Mankind: Men, Women, Children, Youth, Age 21 Fertility: Animal, Vegetable, Phallic 22 Disease Gods: Accident 23 Death Gods: The Dead, Soul (in death). Funereal, Embalming, Cemeteries 24 Afterworld/Underworld: Judgment, Soul (in death) 25 Resurrection/Rejuvination Deities VI Economic Activities 26 Agriculture/Vegetation Gods 27 Deities of Domesticated Animals 28 Fishing: Fish Gods, Water Animals 29 Household Gods: Doors, Hearth, Home, etc. 30 Hunting: Gods of Wild Animals 31 Roads and Locations: Crossroads, Boundaries, Gates, Travelers 32 Trades and Crafts: Merchants, Markets, Artisans 33 Gods of Wealth: Abundance, Plenty, Prosperity 34 Gods of Non-Wealth: Famine, Hunger, Poverty VII Socio-cultural Concepts 35 Abstract Deities 36 Arts: Music, Dancing, Poetry, Theater 37 Gods of the Cardinal Points 38 Culture: Teachers/Givers of, Lesser Creator Gods 39 Gods of Evil, Destructiveness 40 Gods of Destiny, Fate 41 Fortune: Luck, Good or Bad 42 Intellectual: Wisdom, Learning, Teaching, Scribes, Records, History 43 Justice: Law, Judgment, Equity, Government, Order, Morals, Oaths, Curses, Thieves 44 Love: Lust, Sexuality, Phallic, Lovers 45 Gods of Marriage 46 Medicine and Health: Body, Healing, Herbs, Senses 47 Pleasures: Happiness, Revelry, Festivals, Games 48 Gods of Time and Seasons: Calendar 49 Gods of War: Victory 50 Gods of Wine: Intoxicants, Narcotics, Drunkenness VIII Religion 51 Religious Activities: Rituals, Initiation, Ceremonials 52 Divination, Prophecy 53 Magic, Sorcery Okay, so you won't get detailed information about gods that you can crib. Even at more than 800 pages, there are so many gods the book can't give much more than a name and a source for more information, from the bibliography in the back. Here's an example, from a random page -- fire deities, as it happens. Sakhadai The god of fire of the Buriats. Also SakhidaiNoin, whose wife is Sakhala-Khatun. Siberia. (MacCulloch, 1964: 454; Klementz, 1925, 3: 4, II) Sakhala, Sakhala-Khatun The goddess and ruler of the fire with her husband Sakhadai (Sakhidai-Noin). The Buriats, Siberia. (MacCulloch, 1964: 454; Klementz, 1925,3:4) Sakhri nad, Chulahi nad The spirit of the hearth. The Oraon, India. (Roy, 1928: 72) Savul The fire-stick was deified as an individual god. Babylonia, Near East. (Sayce, 1898: 181) Setcheti An Egyptian fire god. (Budge, 1969, 1: 347) Sethlans Etruscan god of fire, god .of smiths—the artificer of the gods. Same as Vulcan, Hephaestus. Italy. (Rawlinson, 1885: 123;vonVacano, 1960: 19, 110;Pallottino, 1975: 142; Roscher, 1965, 4: 785) Shahli milo The god of fire, identified with the sun which is not addressed except as fire. The Choctaw Indians, Mississippi. (Spence, 1925, 3: 567-568) Shulawitsi The youthful god of fire and also of maize and hunting. He is a messenger for the sun. The Zuni, New Mexico. (Parsons, 1939: 175, 205; Tyier, 1964: 25; Stevenson, 1901/02: 33; Waters, 1950: 283-284) Best if you can find it in a library, but really, the table of contents is probably enough unless you're really into obscure anthropology. Dean Shomshak

So, why worship a god, when it's just a sock puppet of a spiritual force that doesn't care, telling you what you want to hear? Two reasonsL: First, it's how you choose your afterlife. When you die, your soul goes to whatever plane and Archon accords best with your temperament. This may be Hell, if you have been sufficiently self-centered or wicked by the standards of your culture. Or your soul might just dissolve. Worst of all, you might become undead. Binding your self to a god foreordains the outcome. Well, maybe: People often believe their gods judge them, with unpleasant consequences for a guilty verdict. But at least you know the rules. Second, many people want gods to be, well, godlike -- which may include telling them things they know they should hear, even if it's not comfortable. This is where prophets come in. Prophets shape how people think about their gods, and so shape the gods themselves. Deep down, many people know they should be better than they are. When an eloquent prophet tells people how they should be, they may mock him or her -- but unconsciously, they know the prophet is right. the Archon picks that up and adjusts the god to endorse the prophet's words. And so, gods can encourage people to behave better and do what's hard rather than what's easy. Dean Shomshak

Now that I have a little extra time, I'd like to expand on something I briefly alluded to in my previous post: how gods act the way worshipers expect. The Archons are eternal and unaffected by mortal beliefs; but they also have no will, as such. For instance, the Archon of Mars has an affinity for conflict, but it does not care which conflicts occur or how they play out. Mortal belief generates gods as masks for the Archons, and these gods seem to have wills of their own -- but those beliefs set the gods' personalities and interests. You might compare the gods to high end Eliza programs, bouncing their creators' beliefs back at them, backed by divine power. So for instance, the zealous worshippers of the sun god Sorath, Burning Light of Purity, receive commandments that they must exterminate all infidel who will not convert to his worship as the One True God.. because the prophetess Orvikka convinced a lot of people that's what Sorath wants. Before that, he was a somewhat different god. I set my campaign's metaphysics up this way because I wanted to keep moral responsibility in mortal hands. Sure, people still say "We are righteous and you are wicked because our god says so." But they are fooling themselves. Their god is only saying what they want to hear. And in particular, entire intelligent species cannot be condemned as evil creations of evil gods. You may not like the culture and attitudes of, say, orcs or goblins, but they freedom to choose their actions, same as humans, elves or what-have-you. How you deal with them is between you and your conscience. Dean Shomshak

So, when the gods decided to mend and repopulate the world after their wars, they created white people? That could perhaps be interpreted in ways you do not intend. Though you could go the other way and say it's the Westerlanders whose appearance changed through interbreeding with older indigenous populations. Perhaps the ruddy-skinned, blond Ulg-Hroi are the last remnant of the Old Westerlanders, living in the only lands so harsh the newcomers wouldn't go there. It might be simpler, though, just to say that the three brothers, and their associated tribes, were not created looking the same. There might even be a competition to see whose tribe "wins" some competition -- which might explain the Hargeshite schism. Through Vashkhor, driven by religious zeal, "Team Khori" seems to be doing well. Dean Shomshak

Not to mention he passed up a chance to gain all the kingdoms of the world. Wimp! Loser! Stupidest Messiah ever! Why send disciples out to preach salvation -- a chancy strategy -- when you could be master of the world and ram it down people's throats? Isn't that worth kissing up to Satan a bit? And you can always go back on a deal later, when it suits you. No head for business at all! Dean Shomshak

Incidentally, I've seen/heard a few news articles about how some Dem activists are unhappy there won't be any people of color on the next debate stage. I'm a little surprised myself, but it does put the lie to a longtime Republican accusation: That the Democratic party is the party of identity politics. So far, black voters pretty strongly favor Joe Biden instead of the candidates who "look like them," Booker and Harris. And Hispanics didn't propel Julian Castro into the top tier, either. Mayor Pete's being gay seems largely irrelevant in his pitch to voters. Republicans seem to be the only ones focused on ethnic/religious identity and cultural grievances. The news reports I've seen about the recent Bevins/Beshear dust-up, and the race in Louisiana, say the Dem candidates talked policy and the GOP candidates talked They're Not Like Us anger and loyalty to Trump. I invite any Republicans who still think policy and governance matter to jump over to the Democratic Party. Whatever you advocate, I suspect you have a better chance among Dems than you would in the Party of Trump. Dean Shomshak

Incidentally, I've seen/heard a few news articles about how some Dem activists are unhappy there won't be any people of color on the next debate stage. I'm a little surprised myself, but it does put the lie to a longtime Republican accusation: That the Democratic party is the party of identity politics. So far, black voters pretty strongly favor Joe Biden instead of the candidates who "look like them," Booker and Harris. And Hispanics didn't propel Julian Castro into the top tier, either. Mayor Pete's being gay seems largely irrelevant in his pitch to voters. Republicans seem to be the only ones focused on ethnic/religious identity and cultural grievances. The news reports I've seen about the recent Bevins/Beshear dust-up, and the race in Louisiana, say the Dem candidates talked policy and the GOP candidates talked They're Not Like Us anger and loyalty to Trump. I invite any Republicans who still think policy and governance matter to jump over to the Democratic Party. Whatever you advocate, I suspect you have a better chance among Dems than you would in the Party of Trump. Dean Shomshak

Did you ever see the old issue of What If? that had, "What If Captain America Ran for President?" Best line, from one Secret Service guy to another: "We're supposed to be protecting him?" Dean Shomshak

Well, if people want campaign recaps, I realized that I offered a choice of two adventures way back when. I posted the example of an adventure that ran off the rails and became a farce; here's one that went as planned. This came from the second Keystone Konjurors campaign, which I ran when updating The Ultimate Super-Mage to 5th edition as The Ultimate Mystic and The Mystic World. The PC lifeup changed, in that the Mad Mage Ian Malcolm regained is sanity as Talbot Fulten, Archimago's son who went mad for a while after Learning Too Much in his search for the fundamental principles of magic and the Multiverse. Black Fang is present as an NPC ally: At the end of the first campaign, the PCs found a way to merge the human and werewolf personalities. He and Jezeray are married. ------------- NEW ADVENTURES OF THE KEYSTONE KONJURORS — Nov. 00 THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE Artifex returns to Wetchley House from one of his missions and is surprised to encounter Sara-Maria, the Konjurors’ new Salvadoran maid. Apostle explains the situation; Sara-Maria collects her weekly pay and goes home… and mere seconds after she leaves the house, the two mages hear her scream! They can’t teleport to her (Wetchley House’s anti-teleport wards work both ways). They reach the door just in time to see Sagana Liefeld (the Sylvestri woman with the black metal body who serves the demon lord Mulciber, last seen in the first half of “Barbie World”) encase Sara-Maria in a shell of magic metal. Apostle and Artifex briefly fight Sagana, trying to protect Sara-Maria, but Sagana Gates away to hell with the captured housekeeper. Before she goes, however, she drops an envelope on the sidewalk. The envelope holds photos of several people, all held prisoner by Sagana and Mulciber: Artifex’s father Mr. Doyle, Andrew’s father Judge Talmadge, Jezeray’s old mentor Madame Zora, and Zeta Krafft (the artist whom the Konjurors saved from a pact with Mulciber way back when). As Apostle expects, Sagana soon phones the Konjurors to say that Mulciber demands their surrender. If they don’t give themselves up at the doorway to his subterranean halls in ten minutes, he will kill the hostages and torment their captive souls for eternity. The heroes decide that this time, they are really and truly outmaneuvered. They Gate to Mulciber’s demesne in the Netherworld, and surrender to the Avarice Demons on guard. They’re stripped, gagged, bound into wheeled racks like Hannibal Lector and blindfolded, then wheeled to Mulciber’s audience chamber. Mulciber gloats a bit in the best sadistic-megalomaniac fashion, then says that the heroes can buy the lives and freedom of themselves and the hostages if they perform one task for him, with their souls forfeit if they fail or displease Mulciber in the slightest particular. Since it’s the only way to save the hostages, the PCs all agree. Mulciber frees them from the racks and asks them to grovel a bit. Then he makes them sign a soul-contract — including Zontar. Only then does he say what he wants them to do. Mulciber wants them to help him defect to Babylon. He believes that the Descending Hierarchy doesn’t give him the respect he deserves. He finds the growing power and influence of his arch-rival Belphegor, a demonic industrialist, especially galling. Instead of trying to destroy Belphegor in some protracted vendetta, though, Mulciber decides that living well in Babylon — and revealing all the secrets about his fellow demon lords that he’s collected for thousands of years — is a more satisfying and immediate revenge. Artifex, for the first time in his life, acknowledges that he is in the presence of a sneakier bastard than himself. Defection from Hell is no easy thing, though. Mulciber wants to take his whole volcanic demesne with him — or as much of it as possible, anyway. He believes that by combining their assorted Gating spells, the Konjurors can move an immensely large mass — perhaps the entire volcano. He wants Talbot to work out the details of this unprecedented magic. He also needs an immigration permit from the Babylon bureaucracy, and a place for Mount Mulciber to appear. (They receive an enchanted pennon to mark the mountain’s destination.) Mulciber expects his superiors and rivals in the Descending Hierarchy to discover his plan within an hour or two at most, so he gives them one hour to arrange everything in Babylon. The PCs Gate to Babylon. Sagana accompanies them as Mulciber’s monitor, and to assist them any way she can. The group splits up: Artifex and Apostle, who have the best Presence and related abilities, set out for the Imperial Palace to try getting a permit from the Emperor, while Talbot, Jezeray and Sagana search for a location where they can plunk down a mountain without crushing thousands of people. Artifex suggests Central Park (it exists in Babylon), while Jezeray decides to search for an abandoned district — one that echoes a city now forgotten. Jezeray asks a cabby to take her to the Shamballan district, and learns that there isn’t one; nor an Aghartan district. Thos cities died long before Babylon’s birth. Moving forward in history, she tries for a Sumerian district, and learns that Babylon does indeed have an Old Mesopotamian quarter. It’s nothing more than a derelict walled plaza with a ziggurat at the other end. She investigates astrally, and finds that the ziggurat’s guardian statues remain active and able to sense her. She decides that Old Mesopotamia might have some occupants, and in any case it’s too small. Rendezvousing with Talbot and Sagana at Central Park, Jezeray reports her failure. They’re stuck with Central Park. Meanwhile, Apostle and Artifex get Ye Olde Bureaucratic Runaround at the emperor’s palace. After a half-hour of filling out forms and running from window to window, Apostle decides to bluff. Being the Guardian of Light should count for something, dammit! Artifex casts his “Golden Opportunity” spell on Apostle; the spell is a minor Social Transform that grants people lucky breaks, though the person must work for themselves to take advantage of them. The spell and a bit of bluster gets Apostle into the diplomatic area, munching caviar and champagne while the diplomats try to locate the Emperor. While Apostle tries to get a permit by hook, Artifex tries to get a permit by crook. He goes to the Casablanca District and Rick’s Cafe’ American. Of *course* the characters from one of the most famous movies of all time have echoed into Babylon! A few bucks in the piano player’s jar nets Artifex an interview with Rick. In return for the promise of a favor, Rick passes Artifex to the Vichy police chief. The chief asks for *two* future, unspecified favors in return for the requisite paperwork — one for the residency permit itself, and one for a rush job. “And they’ll be *big* favors,” he warns. “This is no small thing you seek to do.” At about the same time, Apostle learns that the staff has located the emperor in Casablanca.… Apostle and Artifex meet the others at Central Park. The others create sirens, shout warnings to clear the park, etc. Sagana takes a more brutally pragmatic approach: She sets one of the park’s forests on fire, and marches into the blaze plant Mulciber’s pennon. Five minutes later, they’re ready to Gate back to Mulciber’s demesne. They arrive on the slopes of Mount Mulciber in the middle of a siege. They can’t teleport of desolidify their way in past the mountain’s wards (if they could, then so could the attackers). They have a dangerously prolonged fight with squads of Greater Wrath Demons, Lesser Avarice Demons armed with infernal Uzis, and squad leader demon Sergulath. Eventually they get the Wrath Demons to fight each other and draw them away. Black Fang rips apart some of the Avarice Demons; Artifex sets the remaining Avarice Demons fighting each other while chasing a jeweled golden bauble he created. Sagana takes her cue from him and pitches golden apples at the other squads of avarice demons marching up the mountain, throwing them into turmoil. Sergulath takes a lot of beating, but they finally pin him long enough for Sagana to trap him in a metal shell. At last, they have the doorway free long enough for them to get inside. Talbot has worked out the necessary spell-hacks: If Artifex converts his and Apostle’s Gate spells into spells to add mass and Area of effect to Artifex’s own Gate spell, they can move an area 1.6 km in radius from the Netherworld to Babylon — most of the mountain! Minions set up the necessary paraphernalia while Artifex reweaves Apostle’s and Talbot’s spells. Mulciber also brings out the hostages as proofs of his good faith, although they remain manacled. As the first squads of attacking demons break into the mountain, Mulciber blows a horn signal for his minions to retreat and regroup. Artifex, Apostle and Talbot begin the Mega-Gate Spell. But something’s wrong with the spell! It sucks the very life from the participants. In rules terms, at the start of each Turn it inflicted a Drain on a random physical characteristic — half the active Points of each character’s contribution. Talbot suffers a 3d6 Drain, Apostle a 4d6 Drain and Artifex, who is wielding a 240 Active Point final Effect, suffers a whopping 12d6 Drain! The first Turn’s Drain is against BODY, and it nearly kills Artifex then and there. It also turns Apostle out of his super-vitalized Hero ID. (Fortunately, this does not affect his spellcasting.) The second Turn’s Drain is against CON, rendering Artifex so feeble that *any* damage would stun him. What’s worse, one squad of demonic attackers makes it into Mulciber’s throne room. Mulciber commands his Forge Maiden and Guardian Beast automata to protect the three Mega-Gate casters. Mulciber himself must concentrate upon keeping his demesne from falling apart in the dimensional vortex. It’s up to Zontar, Black Fang, Zagana and whatever of Mulciber’s Avarice Demons can make it to the throne room to repel the invaders. The attacking demons are evenly divided between Lesser Avarice and Lesser Wrath demons, with the “named” demon Halpas, a bird-man with an ever-burning sword. Zontar leads off with the Scintillant Suns of Saravane, blinding all the demons except Halpas. The vicious little birdman shouts that if they don’t stop the spell and return Mulciber’s demesne, he will kill the hostages. He begins by stabbing Zeta Krafft. She begins burning from the inside out. Zontar, Sagana and Black Fang manage to keep the gang of demons scattered and disorganized; about half of them are blind at any given time. Zontar finds the time to give Zeta one Restorations of the Ragnar, but she keeps burning. Halpas stabs two more hostages while Sagana, Black Fang and Zontar fight him and the demons. At the start of the third and final turn of the Mega-Gate passage, the casters suffer a STR Drain; they need the help of the forge maidens just to stand. Just as Mount Mulciber appears in Babylon, Zeta Krafft dies. Mulciber thinks quickly: In the last second in which his demesne counts as part of the Netherworld, he plucks out her soul in the form of a golden statuette. A moment too late, Black Fang and Zagana nail Halpas and the other hostages stop burning. Zontar quickly heals them, but most of the hostages are nearly catatonic with terror. In the Netherworld, meanwhile, the hollow shell of Mount Mulciber — everything outside the Mega-Gate radius — collapses in on itself, crushing hundreds of non-flying demons in its tunnels and on its slopes. (They aren’t really dead, of course, but they’ll be buried quite a while.) The Konjurors have fulfilled Mulciber’s demand; true to their agreement, he burns their contract and releases their souls. But now what? Mulciber points out that he promised that neither he nor his servants would harm any of the hostages if the Konjurors got him to Babylon; the contract said nothing about the actions of third parties. He could, in fact, keep Zeta Krafft’s soul — but he won’t. If he intends to be a Lord of Babylon instead of a Lord of Hell, he figures he should start paying a little more attention to the spirit of contracts as well as the letter, so… he offers to build Zeta a new body of metal, like Sagana’s. Zontar lets Jezeray out again so she can talk to Zeta’s soul. Zeta agrees that a body of living metal is probably the best deal she’s likely to get at this point; they choose a body of bronze with copper hair, as the closest to humanity without pathetic, doomed attempts at skin-tone enamel. The Konjurors must also get the hostages home. Artifex erases the traumatic memories from the catatonic Sara-Maria. Madame Zora decides that she’d rather not remember this, either. Judge Talmadge and Mr. Doyle, however, decide to keep their memories. The Judge is just plain tough: After several years with a son he had to chain in the basement every full moon, not much fazes him. Mr. Doyle simply doesn’t want anything from his worthless son. He excoriates Artifex for never telling his parents that he was still alive. Artifex responds with his usual I-am-not-who-I-was, self-made-man speech. As Artifex Gates Mr. Doyle back to South Boston, Mr. Doyle bitterly says that it’s quite all right if Artifex never speaks to him again. Finally, the heroes assemble again for the resurrection of Zeta Krafft. At last, Mulciber pours the soul-metal into the mold, breaks it open and animates her new body with a plunge in the quenching-vat. Zeta is shocked and dismayed with her new form: It’s rough and schmutzy. Well, duh: It hasn’t been burnished and polished yet. Mulciber tosses Artifex a jar of polish and says, with a leer, that he expects Artifex will want to help with that part. Artifex blushes, for the first time that any of the other Konjurors has seen. Aftermath: Artifex does *not* put any moves on Zeta; he doesn’t have any. In fact, he knows almost nothing about relating to real women outside scripted, artificial roles such as singles bars. Zeta is still dealing with shock. If anything develops between Artifex and Zeta, it’ll take time. They discover, though, that for metal bodies a good burnish is the equivalent of a massage. The heroes will certainly see some fallout from this adventure. Mulciber’s defection shifts the balance of power between the Imaginal Realms and is sure to infuriate the Descending Hierarchy. Artifex now owes a favor to Rick, which is no biggie, and two favors to the Emperor, which is. His soul is in hock as much as it was when he signed Mulciber’s contract. Zeta was travelling when Sagana captured her, and has no home at the moment. And what will Mulciber himself do? Will his subordinate demons poof back to the Netherworld if dispelled or knocked out? Talbot is pretty sure they will, unless they obtain immigration permits too or Mulciber transforms them in some way. A few days later, though, the Babylon newspapers (who obsess on the story for the obligatory nine days and no more) report that Mulciber has hired a marketing agency to find what consumers and businesses want in a demonic artisan minion, and he’s advertising the services of Mulciber Craft Associates Inc. Mount Mulciber itself shifts from Central Park to co-locate with Vesuvius, accessible by way of the Pompeii district — an eerie journey. It also co-locates less continuously with Lantau Peak (Hong Kong) and is sometimes seen in the distance from the Seattle, Naples and Tokyo districts, where it replaces the volcanoes seen from those cities. ----------- Dean Shomshak

I referenced the legend in my "Fantasy Europa" Fantasy Hero campaign. Instead of Prague, though, the point where the campaign history openly diverges from real history is the siege of Toledo. A Jewish resident of the city creates a golem and sends it out to defeat El Cid -- a sufficiently spectacular feat of magic that gets a lot of people looking for the arcane lore of the ancient world, along with the math, law, medicine, and other scholarship. Dean Shomshak

\Darn double posting... Addendum: Perhaps our Canadian correspondents could comment on Alberta and its discontents? Dean Shomshak

To cap it all, the Dec. 7 issue of The Economist has an article about secessionist sentiment in Alberta, Canada. Seems some Albertans are upset at their revenue balance with the rest of Canada: They feel like their tar sands are subsidizing the other provinces. Some think that if Alberta secedes, Canada's other western province, British Columbia has no choice but to follow, in a "Wexit." However, The Economist thinks it's a sufficiently minority view as to prove no real threat to Canadian union, especially since they suggest the relationship between BC and Alberta is a bit like that of California and Texas. But it makes life more difficult for PM Trudeau. Possibly, Alberta might seek a "special status" similar to that of Quebec. Dean Shomshak

Wow. Back when I hung out on WW's Exalted forum, we regularly saw new posters asking, "My gaming group is about to play Exalted, can you tell me everything about the rules, the world, and anything else I might need to know, for free, right now?" Because actually buying a game and reading it is so 20th century. (One thing I don't miss about the Exalted community.) Dean Shomshak

A thought on vampires: Vampires have been around for millennia in the CU, but most of the time they weren't very powerful -- at least not by superbeing standards -- and they had such severe Disadvantages that a competent mortal who knew what he was doing didn't really find them hard to destroy. Sure, they had "uncanny strength!" To ordinary people, a slip of a girl with 18 STR is uncanny. Mind Control? 6d6 is pretty scary if its used cleverly, in a world where mental powers mostly don't exist at all. But no, even in remote Eastern Europe you didn't have vampires ruling villages as dark blood-lords of the night. Then the mana surged, and a few vampires found their powers greatly increasing until they ccould brawl with superbeings on the same level. Some might have made credible attempts to subvert and rule entire countries. And then the mana fades and they find their powers fading back to the old level... unless they feed on living superbeings. Then they can slow the decline or even boost their powers back to the prevailing level. For a while. Maybe a year or two. Then they feel their powers start to fade again and must hunt for a new super-powered victim. In some ways, therefore, vampires become *more* dangerous in this period. They don't understand about ambient mana, but some of them figure out that super-powered blood enhances their own power. And they are desperate not to fade again. Dean Shomshak

In my current D&D campaign I threw out the official D&D cosmology. It didn't work with the kind of stories I wanted. for one thing, the "Magozoic" setting is Earth, 250 million years in the future. (If you want to see the world map, Google "Pangaea Ultima," a geography I admiringly stole from geologist Christopher Scotese.) Instead of a farrago of Outer Planes, Elemental Planes, Positive and Negative Material Planes, and whatnot, there are ten Celestial Planes associated with the Sun, Moon, planets and Kuiper Belt, mystically centered on the Earth; Hell, mystically located at the center of the Earth; and numerous Faywild and Shadowfell pocket dimensions associated with the Earth. People worship dozens, maybe hundreds of gods just in the limited area of the campaign. But theologians know there are only ten true Godheads, or Archons -- one per celestial plane. The gods are masks or manifestations of the Archons, shaped by mortal belief. Gods can seem to be born and die, fightm and do all the things told of them in myths -- but this does not affect the Archons, any more than the fight of two puppets affects the puppeteer. Some people try worshipping the Archons directly, instead of through a god-mask. It doesn't work: They just create a new god-mask that looks and acts exactly how they imagine it. Each culture might create its own pantheon -- usually at least one god per Archon -- but some cultures don't emphasize the thoughts and themes of particular Archons, or focus strongly one one or two Archons. For instance, orcs are very aggressive, so they have multiple gods associated with Mars, but none for peaceful Venus. Pantheons also tend to reflect a culture's notions of power and authority. Thus, human pantheons often take the form of royal extended families, with a fair bet of infighting. The gods of the dwarves superficially resemble a family, with great Balkin as patriarch -- but Balkin the creator makes other gods in its forge: the gods are actually genderless, as dwarves see the artisan, rather than sex, as their paradigm of creative power. Elves worship deified mortals they see as having set transcendent examples of genius and achievement, from Eboriax the Archmage who codified the eight schools of wizardry, to Yapadia, Goddess of Vengeance, a hobgoblin nanny/bodyguard who spent decades tracking down and killing the bandits who slew the family that employed her. Gnomes also worship deified mortals -- eight gnomes who ascended to divinity through more or less absurd means. The Plenary Empire is a multi-species society that largely lets people worship as they please. (This is political prudence, not philosophical tolerance. Fragmented worship, with no state religion, means no zealous religious faction strong enough to challenge the Autocrat or the civil service. Conversely, the policy also seeks to avoid making religious enemies.) One result has been a lot of religious syncretism and reorganization as people identify gods with each other, recombine them in new pantheons, or create new cults devoted to gods that have been separated from their pantheon and re-interpreted. For instance, many cultures have storm-and-war gods. In the Plenary empire, these gods have merged as The Thunderer. Conversely, the cult of Jeduthon Soteira separates that god from his source pantheon to worship him as a figure who grants salvation to those who make all aspects of their lives a prayer to him. And so on. Theology is one the favorite sports in the Plenary Empire, and it's often played full contact. Dean Shomshak

In my Fantasy Europa" alternate-history FH campaigns, religion was important but gods never appeared. Two PCs were Christian priests. One set of PCs encountered some Typhon Set cultists in Egypt, while the other group fought neo-Aztecs whose sorcerer-priests performed powerful magic through mass human sacrifice. In the campaign background, the Rosicrucian Church claimed to perform Holy Magic that called on divine power. But God, or gods, remained a matter of faith. Even the supposed divine avatars summoned by the neo-Aztecs were elementals rather than truly divine spirits. Dean Shomshak

Incidentally, dog/wolf-people have a surprisingly wide presence in Eurasian myth and folklore. At least I was surprised when I found Myths of the Dog-Man in the University library. If someone wants to e the next Tolkien, this might be a place to start. I like the Erqigdlit's apparently casual acceptance that, yeah, they're cursed. Dean Shomshak

High Fantasy can work with such non-Fantasy intrusions -- LL mentioned Andre Norton's "With World" series in another thread, with the invasion of the technological Kolder -- but that setting was built with such an intrusion in mind. Intrusion from Beyond runs throughout the entire series; it isn't just the Kolder. Even the hero of the first few books, Simon Tregarth, is such an intruder -- an Earth man who came to the Witch World through a magical portal. Dean Shomshak

Hm, that works. And a good example of how to use blanks spots and obscure hints. Heck, if Krim is the Dragon and Kal-Turak has a pact with it, then K-T's relationship with Mordak is a bit like Giacomo Sylvestri's relationship to the Descending Hierarchy: Carefully polite on both sides. And Kilbern can go whistle, because the King of the Gods is not the king of the Dragon. The Dragon would be less of an intrusion on the TA than, say, a Malvan would be because mysterious, ancient powers of evil whose place in the metaphysical system is uncertain is an established High Fantasy trope. Think of Ungoliant in Tolkien's mythos. Dean Shomshak

Goddam double posting again.

Daniel Radcliffe is of an age to play James Talmadge, the human side of Black Fang, and has the sort of look I imagine for him. Sir Ian McKellan would be a "duh" for Archimago, whether in spiritual image, flashback, time travel, or just a voice -- and it'd be kind of funny, what with him also having played Gandalf -- but any aging male British Shakespearean actor would do. Or, is Valentine Dyall still alive? (He was the Black Guardian in first-series Doctor Who but wow, that was a long time ago.) Must check Wikipedia. Dean Shomshak

I'll also recommend an article about economic modeling in the November, 2019 Scientific American. Here's the abstract: "Wealth inequality is escalating in many countries at an alarming rate, with the U.S. arguably having the highest inequality in the developed world. "A remarkably simple model of wealth distribution developed by physicists and mathematicians can represent inequality in a range of countries with unprecedented accuracy. "Surprisingly, several mathematical models of free-market economies display features of complex macroscopic physical systems such as ferromagnets, including phase transitions, symmetry breaking and duality." Perhaps the most important result of their modeling, though, is the result of a pure free market with no external force of wealth redistribution, pro or con: If there is any possibility or unequal results in an exchange -- even if "winning" is just the result of a coin toss -- the inevitable result is that wealth concentrates until one ecomnomic actor ends up with virtually everything, and everyone else is left with virtually nothing. Laissez-faire advocates, take heed. Dean Shomshak

On a cheerier note, NOVA recently aired "The Violence Paradox," based on Pinker's Better Angels of our Nature (the phrase is used, and Pinker is one of the talking heads presented). The world is getting better... slowly... so far. But past performance is no guarantee of future returns. As Pinker says, the worldwide decline in many forms of violence does not guarantee that violence will continue to decline; but it shows that continued progress is possible. Less happily, much of the violence in the world today seems to be in direct reaction to past progress, from people who'd rather see the world burn than give up their tribal loyalties, prejudices or caste privileges. Dean Shomshak