OK guys, here's the skinny on the faeries for Sub Rosa project:
I've offered to write some faeries up for Sub Rosa. At the moment I'd like to write one per subscriber. It would be good for all of you to talk and come up with a list, because if you all pick "Dwarf" life is going to be really easy for me.
I knew that toward the end of this year I'd have a window where I'm not actively drafting anything. I'm still doing writery stuff (I'm reading a great book or two and they have given me some big and strange ideas to play with), but I'm not actually doing my X words a day.
The thing is, if you all start talking about this before Faeries comes out, I can evesdrop on you here and work up some material in advance, so that Alex will have stuff straight after the launch. As in "To celebrate Faeries, we debut a new column called "Beyond the Fields We Know" with the three faeries that turned up in that last Hellboy collection, as suggested by Bob, Fred, and Robyn." if that's what Alex wants.
I have the time, so if you want to start throwing around ideas, that would be good for me.
My present game has two "big scale" stories going on in it: The characters are examining an building that has been enchanted with non hermetic magic, and the characters are part of a conflict with a group of pagan exotic wizards. The second story is about Teutonic knights with holy relics, the clash of cultures and Ars Goetia sorcerers.
In reference to this second story, I'd like to see a faerie that heralds defeat and conquest. Something that comes to the about to be defeated people and yanks the fighting spirit right out of them.
I've set the game ostensibly in northeast Poland, but I haven't ever taken the time to do any research. Using the levels of research described in the core book, we're in the "no research saga" category; i.e. have fun and ignore people who tell you that William the bastard wasn't king of England in 1220.
The pagans are a group of people native to the area who's leadership is controlled by a group of vitki who emigrated to the area ~150 years ago. The vitki later made a deal with infernal powers to ensure that they are protected from the advance of Christianity if only they'd perform specific heinous deeds at a regular interval. The vitki magic has faded from use and been replaced by Ars Goetia but the older pagan wizards know both systems.
I recently had a pagan army show up in the story, it was very similar in make up to the christian army in equipment and organization (showing that while these folks have kept their religion their culture may have slipped away anyway). But aside from this the pagans have never really been fully "on stage" we're about eight games in to the story.
I'm really interested in where the classic elves of fantasy settings have their origin. The Sidhe are mentioned in Ars Magica 5th Edition, but the Norse Faeries are also quite interesting. The Svartálfar I imagine alot like tall, pale elves with or yellow eyes and white hair. If exposed to sunlight, the weaker of these black elves would turn to stone, and the same happens when they die. They are not overly evil, but due to their nature, they act as tormentors and riddle masters in for humans who become parts of their stories. Like the dwarves of Norse myth, they would offer humans strange bargains for power. I hear that the elves in Hellboy 2 are strongly influenced by this myth. It would be interesting if, in the game, they had a game mechanic that lessened their Might by a fixed amount when exposed to sunlight. If this amount would result in 0 or negative Might, they would turn to stone.
Likewise, the Norse legend of the bright elves, or Ljósálfar, should be mysterious and good elves, more like the ones Tolkien based his elves from. They might be the same as the Sidhe (I don't know too much about the Sidhe myth), but I imagine the bright elves as tall, graceful being radiating light and goodness, and many pious people encountering one would believe they had just met an angel. But these are also fierce warriors, defending their domain in Ãlfheim with blades and magic from their foes.
I didn't found the tale in English.
He has only a few stats, he is evil and a legendary strong "guy". I think he would be a good example of black fairies. His name is very funny indeed.
Rübezahl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rübezahl) would be interesting, just for the record. I did extensive research on him a couple of years back, and would like to see how my personal interpretations fall into line (or differ) from the canon's, that is, your point of view, and be it only beyond the official product line.
Admittedly less native to the Realm, but nevertheless interesting would be your take on Tom Rymer, the history of him being Touched, released, as well as his standing in the two Realms while and after his abidance, respectively. In a mythic world, like Mythic Europe, it's certainly not this particular character that is special, but his coping (successfully or not) with a rather foreign environment.
I would also like to see countless theoretical questions and inter-realm relations being worked out, but this is probably something that is thoroughly covered in the book.
Cobaleinus
aka "Goblin" or "Kobald"
And Dwarves too
And the Aloja!
Aloja in Catalan myths and legends are genies who are favorable to birth and fertility, who give life and constantly regenerate creation.
Thsnks, it was heaps of fun to write and I hope that comes through.
The other guys have done some really cool stuff here. It comes across as quieter in the TOC because they use a more sedate style of heading in their writing. So Erik has a power called "Woe" and you think, well, that could be interesting, what does that mean? Mark says "Inhabitants of Arcadia" and you think you know what it means until you notice "Inhabitants of Eudokia" and you think "Hey...wait a minute.".
So, I'm just saying that you can kind of guess where I'm going because I'm less disciplined with headers than they are, but there is some really cool stuff that's not obvious from the headings in their sections. Erik and Mark have really done some good work here, and better yet I think it lays the foundation for a lot of interesting stuff by the author pool in later books, or things authors can riff off on.
