"Tales of Leinyere" Story Event: Official Support Thread

[Voboy]

I'm totally going to have a natural stone obelisk that looks like a phallus in the center of the island and call it The Standing Prick.

...


What if there is no orc queen to lead them like a queen bee? There are still females for orcs to have offspring, but without a leader, they're just kind of ho-humming around...for now.

You're welcome to it.

I think it's more fun if the orcs are like red-shirted ensigns, or [better] like the mangalores in Fifth Element: shoot the leader, and the rest sort of scatter. With a leader, though, they're formidable.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

Hrm -

I don't usually play well with others when it comes to collaborations, but if Nouh's involved, it's worth a gander. I'll let this marinate and see what I might come up with.

Might I suggest, insofar as keeping lore straight, that when everyone submits their stories, that we have a sort of "Lore Master" that serves as an overall editor?

-A.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I see your point. Since this is so decentralized, my idea may put too much of a strait jacket on it.

What I'd suggest is some kind of very loose structure that doesn't seem to require anything, but provides a skeleton on which all the stories can hang together. Since this still is a very new idea it may take time to figure out what that will be.

And there's the problem with all you bloody plotsters!

A pantser like me would say, "Sod this, what does my insignificant protagonist know about any of all this background shit?" He or she or they would just get on their horse or wolf or ancient old bicycle, whatever, and just go out into the world and start doing whatever they're going to do, discovering who and what they are as they do it.

Need mead? Oh look, here's a cog in my pocket... But that fellow my lassy over there is paying in silver, what's that all about? "Yo, friend, you're not from around here." She greets me with her cat like eyes, and a long tail weaves over my boots and up my leg. "No, I'm not," she purred.

If I need a massive volcanic eruption followed by a monstrous tidal wave that circles the world three times (which I did in my Arthurian myth tell) I got on and wrote one. First half of the prologue, done. Oh, one of my protagonists is a mage, a magickian. Cool, I knew that, but I didn't know the honorific came from the name. Maer Maerlyn, Nym Nymue. I do now. What magic does the girl have? I dunno, but ancient stone circles and she starts to dance. Damn, look at that, sex magick; and she torments the priests because she's wicked, forbidden.

I'm sitting here thinking, this is an astonishingly good idea, but if I join in, it will just be by writing a story and discovering what this world is and does.

All of this world building stuff is magnificent, but all I can say (pantser tongue firmly in cheek) is, you silly bastards, you don't need all this, you each just need to get on and write your first story, your first 1500 words. Do that, report in, and you'll have progressed so much further.

Carry on - this is great, but my head is done in already. You guys are killing me, but by the gods (whoa, look at that pantheon!), you're having too much fun .

Master Nouh_Bdee looked at EB and asked, "So what you're saying is, get on and write the stories?"

"Yep. Write the fucking words down with your quill pens, your carved runes, your steam driven electrokinescopes, and tell your tales."

The rest of the guys looked on. Several scratched their heads, not quite knowing how to do that. Someone spoke up. "But doesn't that scare the fuck out of you, not knowing what's going to happen?"

"That's the magic," EB replied. "It's the next sentence, the one you don't know you're going to write, that's the revelation. The trick is, to put it off to the end, and fill all the other stuff in, before you get there."

Some of the tavern dwellers picked up sticks and started to make lines in the dirt. A mutter went around the room.

Lucy looked at them all fondly. "I guess this means more beer?"

"I guess so," the locrril replied, curling its seventh talon around the tankard.

 

[Voboy]

Hrm -

I don't usually play well with others when it comes to collaborations, but if Nouh's involved, it's worth a gander. I'll let this marinate and see what I might come up with.

Might I suggest, insofar as keeping lore straight, that when everyone submits their stories, that we have a sort of "Lore Master" that serves as an overall editor?

-A.

I don't think that's necessary.

Look at lore in our world: the undertones are the same, but people from different backgrounds either remember the particulars differently or have different cultural traditions about those particulars. I think as long as the broad strokes are sorta the same, we're all good.

 

[Voboy]

And there's the problem with all you bloody plotsters!

A pantser like me would say, "Sod this, what does my insignificant protagonist know about any of all this background shit?" He or she or they would just get on their horse or wolf or ancient old bicycle, whatever, and just go out into the world and start doing whatever they're going to do, discovering who and what they are as they do it.

Need mead? Oh look, here's a cog in my pocket... But that fellow my lassy over there is paying in silver, what's that all about? "Yo, friend, you're not from around here." She greets me with her cat like eyes, and a long tail weaves over my boots and up my leg. "No, I'm not," she purred.

If I need a massive volcanic eruption followed by a monstrous tidal wave that circles the world three times (which I did in my Arthurian myth tell) I got on and wrote one. First half of the prologue, done. Oh, one of my protagonists is a mage, a magickian. Cool, I knew that, but I didn't know the honorific came from the name. Maer Maerlyn, Nym Nymue. I do now. What magic does the girl have? I dunno, but ancient stone circles and she starts to dance. Damn, look at that, sex magick; and she torments the priests because she's wicked, forbidden.

I'm sitting here thinking, this is an astonishingly good idea, but if I join in, it will just be by writing a story and discovering what this world is and does.

All of this world building stuff is magnificent, but all I can say (pantser tongue firmly in cheek) is, you silly bastards, you don't need all this, you each just need to get on and write your first story, your first 1500 words. Do that, report in, and you'll have progressed so much further.

Carry on - this is great, but my head is done in already. You guys are killing me, but by the gods (whoa, look at that pantheon!), you're having too much fun .

Master Nouh_Bdee looked at EB and asked, "So what you're saying is, get on and write the stories?"

"Yep. Write the fucking words down with your quill pens, your carved runes, your steam driven electrokinescopes, and tell your tales."

The rest of the guys looked on. Several scratched their heads, not quite knowing how to do that. Someone spoke up. "But doesn't that scare the fuck out of you, not knowing what's going to happen?"

"That's the magic," EB replied. "It's the next sentence, the one you don't know you're going to write, that's the revelation. The trick is, to put it off to the end, and fill all the other stuff in, before you get there."

Some of the tavern dwellers picked up sticks and started to make lines in the dirt. A mutter went around the room.

Lucy looked at them all fondly. "I guess this means more beer?"

"I guess so," the locrril replied, curling its seventh talon around the tankard.

You can do both...

People are people, meaning characters are people. They know different things and have different ideas and opinions, and their beliefs often conflict. Who cares if you don't get the particulars correct? I plan on doing my usual plotless, instinctual, line-by-line writing; I'll just borrow a setting and some background matter from this thread, and reject that which makes no sense to my characters.

It'll make them more like people.

 

[Blind_Justice]

There would need to be a reason why such a race hasn't already taken over the entire continent and wiped out or enslaved the humans, cat folk, and other races.

Six-way civil war between the biggest orc tribes. The last God-King (or Queen, either is cool) has fallen without formally declaring his successor and now his sons and daughters are sorting out the order of succession by trying to out-genocide each other.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

Race suggestion: Nagas.

I had a 50,000 word count erotica around nagas that I'd written a few years back that got rejected, and has been sort of bumming around since then. I'd liked the characters I'd created, but I couldn't figure out how to divorce said characters from the contemporary setting (which wasn't, and isn't, working). This might give me the opportunity to retool it and turn it more into a "disposable" piece than I was originally intending, and free up the brain space for other pursuits.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Galtin's Port
A clockwork metropolis for the “Tales of Leinyere” setting.

History:

Zerek Galtin was a pirate, a smuggler and at times almost a hero. Five hundred and change years ago, his small flotilla was the scourge of Kelthala's Wound, indiscriminately attacking and plundering the juiciest trading vessels of the adjoining realms. Which led to a small, but significant issue. Eventually, all the realms had set stately bounties on Galtin's head, which left him precious few hiding places.

One day, after narrowly escaping the Sea Elven Navy's privateers by brazenly sailing into a storm near Seamount, knowing that his dwarven-built dreadnaughts could weather the harsh winds and towering waves much better than the relatively lightweight Elven clippers, he found himself at the southernmost point of Kelthala's Wound, the fjord the locals called The Tip. The divine fury which had sunk the lands of the Ancients had carved a mighty gash into the land, leaving the two to four kilometer wide fjord walled in with four hundred meter high, sheer cliffs. It was a death trap under normal circumstances – if another fleet should blockade the exit, there was nowhere left to turn. Or was there? While exploring the fjord, Galtin found numerous spacious – and deep – caverns leading further into the cliffs, large enough that even his mighty flagship could comfortably enter and turn inside. Even better was the discovery that the cave system had spots which would stay dry even during high tide, which would make them the perfect hideout for an enterprising sea dog like him. Over his long and illustrious career, Galtin kept on exploring and expanding his cavernous hideout, fortifying it by installing hidden cannon nests in the cliffs and paying guild mages to install almost invisible sand banks to make approaching the hideout a risky proposition. Over the years, his operation only grew. More and more hired hands settled in or above the caves and old crew members retired, choosing to settle down in the relative safety among their peers. Inhabitants needed services and goods like food and entertainment, and the pirate hideout blossomed first into a semi-hidden village and then into a small town which grew and grew, drawing interest from several guilds who valued the strategic location and Galtin's promise of non-interference in guild affairs.

The same bounties which once caused Galtin to hide himself away now were some sort of protection. While his neighbors squabbled over who would be allowed to apprehend Galtin for his crimes, the small town of Galtin's Port managed to thrive under not only the protection of the pirates, but the guilds as well. Any kind of goods could be had, for a price. Drugs, slaves, illegal weapons, contraband clockworks – if you were willing to brave the rowdy markets, you were sure to find it. And where illegal goods were sold, they were bought. Not only by crooks and criminals, but the esteemed nobility as well. Everyone has vices, from beggars to kings. Treaties were made behind closed doors or under rustling bedding, sweetened by forbidden Anocot narcotics or Elven sex slaves and Giltan's Port found itself an independent city state, a neutral haven for the lost, a glittering marketplace for those willing to strike lucrative deals.

Protected from envious or vindictive neighbors, the town only flourished, becoming a booming center of trade and a hub of guild activity. It might not be the Guild Capitol, but every major guild – alchemists, artisans, merchants, machinists, mages and even thieves and assassins have a well-established guild presence. Now, half a century after its humble beginnings, Giltan's Port is home to at least 125,000 citizens, living atop and inside the cliffs, with visitors bringing the total easily to twice that number.

Look and Feel:

Galtin's Port is overwhelming, no matter if you approach it from the Wound or cliffside.

Coming in from the sea, the first thing every visitor sees is the Cog, a gigantic stone gear (at least a kilometer in diameter) suspended three hundred meters above the waves by eight massive chains, each link weighing several tons. The whole thing is the pride and joy of the machinist's guild who have worked for almost two decades to anchor this massive thing over the ocean. Built atop the Cog one can find the two hundred meter tall Clock Tower, the local machinist guild headquarters. It also serves as a beacon to approaching ships, the thirty meters tall clock faces brightly lit by the strange lights the machinists use for almost everything. Of course the other guilds refused to be outdone and one can find the lavishly decorated merchant's, mages and alchemist's guild halls atop the Cog as well. A few shops and taverns as well as a small park sit in the center of it and a bridge connects the Cog to the top of the cliffs. The harbor is where it was five hundred years ago – in the mouth of the largest cave. Over the centuries, cunning dwarven stonemasons have engineered a series of floating quays which raise and lower with the tides, allowing for expansion even outside the caves.

Coming to Galtin's Port using the Pyro Express or a coach ride along the Olden Road, the first thing a traveler will see is the lack of a proper fortification. There is no wall surrounding the city, but there are tall watchtowers, eight-sided and at least sixty meters tall. Each one houses far-ranging cannons which easily shoot into the surrounding countryside. Then there are the manors at the outskirts of town – most nobles and rich merchants try to flee the hustle and bustle of the constantly growing city by building small fortified hamlets away from the choking narrow streets and sprawling tenements.

Once disembarked, another realization will strike the visitor – for an alleged head count of a quarter of a million inhabitants and visitors, the city is much too small. True, it has grown into an irregular crescent atop the cliffs, but almost twice as many people live inside the cliffs than atop them. Some even go as far and say the “true” city is inside the caves. Many of it's more interesting features are definitely hidden within.

Once one has entered the caves, the sunlit boulevards and bustling streets are replaced with narrow corridors, sloping ramps and crowded sponson-like tenements clinging to the inside and outside of the caves. Shops are smaller and highly specialized. Brothels cater to more extreme tastes. Inns quickly give way to drug dens where every conceivable high under the sun can be had. There are hidden shrines to the less pleasant deities next to small clinics where one can sell organs (their own or those of others) for a quick cash infusion. There are some underground grottoes given over to the cultivation of fungi and other edible plants and even some portals to far-away realms are supposedly hidden in some far-away dead end corridors.

The Law (or lack thereof)

Galtin's descendants have managed to cling to a semblance of power in the centuries since the city's founding, although the Lord's or Lady's actual powers boil down to honorary chairman of the council and tie breaker during votes. The true power lies with the guilds. Each guild present in Galtin's Port sends an emissary who votes on citywide policies and foreign affairs. All neighboring states have sent diplomats into the city, to keep an eye on proceedings and to make sure the Port doesn't launch into a full-fledged invasion on a whim. These diplomats are allowed to attend council meetings, but have no voting rights.

Trade is sacred in Galtin's Port. Everything has a price and as long as its met, no one bats an eye on what is being sold or bought. Still, there is a semblance of order. The Lord's Watch keeps the peace and intervenes in trading disputes. They are funded by the council and generally highly motivated. Most crimes result in hefty fines, with a percentage going to the Watchmen closing the case. The only exceptions are high treason, murder and child abuse, which all are punishable by death.

Current Lady is Taylani Galtin III., an ambitious, raven-haired woman trying to regain some of the notoriety and status her family once held. It is rumored she's actively trying to break open the stalemate surrounding the city, allowing one of the neighboring domains to gain favorable treatment and a higher stake in its operation. Well-informed sources have seen the Sea-Elven ambassador Loriandel Waveshaper leave Taylani's manor at unusual hours. The she-elf often looked rather disheveled, but wore a radiant grin on her delicate features.

High Watchman Zatros Zapaccio is a dwarven cleric of the Golden Handed Egan, god of trade. His plan of directly having his officers profit off every case has made the city much safer, although the rumblings about corrupt officers extorting bribes have only intensified. Still, he runs the Watch with impressive gusto and efficiency.

Nemerith the Flame-Haired: bald master of the alchemist's guild. Somewhat mad thanks to a potion going off in his face a few decades ago, leaving the formerly handsome and auburn-haired elf male a disfigured and bald husk. When he can be bothered to stop working on finding a recipe for everlasting shapeshifting potions, he's a treasure trove of lore and recipes.

(more guild masters will be added as needed)

Entertainment!

You can satisfy every vice in Galtin's Port, provided you can pay. There are so-called “fun houses”, which are basically inns, taverns, brothels and casinos rolled into one flashy, roaring tumble. Usually the pleasures to be found are spread over several levels, with eateries and bars on the lower floors and the more specialized areas for gambling, watching on-stage sex shows or participating in them upstairs. These are generally seen as tourist traps, with steep price tags attached to everything. Still, the whores (of either sex and all races) are taken care of by healers and clerics and are generally cleaner than those working the back alley brothels or waterfront piers. Also, the chance of being accused of being a sharp and subsequently murdered for it are rather low in the fun houses. There are rumors of underground fighting arenas, tucked away in the least traveled parts of the city's underbelly and tales of people vanishing, only to end up as fodder for said arenas.

Imports/Exports:

Galtin's Port is a trade hub. There is very little local production save for people. The city exports adventurers, whores and slave labor while importing trade goods and raw materials of all kinds. There are few mines of any worth around the area, so almost every bit of crafting material has to be brought in. Also, the city has long ago outgrown its ability to sustain itself. As such, it relies heavily on surrounding towns and villages to provide food, augmenting it with fishing and the above-mentioned grotto gardens.

Connections to the outside world:

The Pyro Express's Northern Line terminates in Galtin's Point. There are machinist guild facilities for building, maintaining and repairing the elemental cages used to power the trains and coach shops to build the wagons it pulls.
There are regular ship passages connecting Galtin's Port to all neighboring nations. Also, there are enough boats for hire for shorter hops.
You can buy teleportation services from the mages guild
The machinist's guild is testing a new method of travel – instead of using an elemental cage to power a rolling vehicle, they are experimenting with powering a flying machine. The mages guild has been accused of willingly sabotaging the project by “accidentally” mistaking the airship for a monster attacking the city and nuking it with fireballs.
At least one documented passage leading Leinyere's version of the Underdark and a handful of permanent portals. There are information brokers in the cave markets who know their locations.

* * * *

This is obviously only a rough sketch. Other authors may use or ignore or add what they want.

 

[Rustyoznail]

So, my two scraps worth...

Currency -B/S/G I like the idea of different names but one of my NPC's (can you have an NPC in a story?) says (Don't care what you call it. Silver's silver...)

Magic - Natural (elemental)and learned (alchemy). I like the idea. Naturals can have power levels that range from e.g toasting a marshmallow only to blowing a hole in a fortress. Training can help.

I'm trying to convince an Indian lady I work here with to put up an idea. She's into world building, but worried that her ideas won't fit the Western concept. Personally, I think Leinyere is big enough to cope.

I'm thinking the continent is roughly the same size as the USA/Australia. Is that reasonable?

Is there a Capital for the entire continent, or only for states/regions? I'm leaning towards states.

 

[Rustyoznail]

And there's the problem with all you bloody plotsters!

A pantser like me would say, "Sod this, what does my insignificant protagonist know about any of all this background shit?" He or she or they would just get on their horse or wolf or ancient old bicycle, whatever, and just go out into the world and start doing whatever they're going to do, discovering who and what they are as they do it.

Lol... That's what I'm doing. A story about a couple of travelling salesbeings getting by in the world.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Lol... That's what I'm doing. A story about a couple of travelling salesbeings getting by in the world.

@Rusty: Catfolk race's name: Ancot, was it?

 

[PoisonPen33]

I'm thinking states/city-states/kingdoms/nations/empires.

 

[Voboy]

I'm thinking states/city-states/kingdoms/nations/empires.

Definitely states.

If they're all (or mostly) in any kind of empire, it should be Ottoman-loose, not Charlemagne-tight. And the Emperor should be a twit.

 

[Rustyoznail]

@Rusty: Catfolk race's name: Ancot, was it?

Anocot - they come from the southern highlands. Their fur kept them warm. Following ideas by others, they normally don't wear clothes in their own state/region but wear the least possible when visiting other areas.

Long and short haired, three fingers and a thumb (so they can complain about human tools), long tails, slightly taller than the average human. Long hairs tend to be leaders, teachers, the thinkers. Short hairs are more about action and adventure.

Edit - thick fur over their genitals. (Random thought - when making love to a female Anocot is it correct to say you're licking a pussy's pussy?)

 

[Blind_Justice]

Anocot - they come from the southern highlands. Their fur kept them warm. Following ideas by others, they normally don't wear clothes in their own state/region but wear the least possible when visiting other areas.

Long and short haired, three fingers and a thumb (so they can complain about human tools), long tails, slightly taller than the average human. Long hairs tend to be leaders, teachers, the thinkers. Short hairs are more about action and adventure.

Cool. Anocot it will be.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Voboy brought up a good point about maintaining the Notes doc, so I'm going to open it up to committed authors to edit the doc. If you want edit permissions, request it through Docs or PM me!
P.S. I have no idea how to do that for the Timeline or Map, but if anyone does, let me know.

I'm trying to convince an Indian lady I work here with to put up an idea. She's into world building, but worried that her ideas won't fit the Western concept. Personally, I think Leinyere is big enough to cope.

Exactly! If she's worried about it, she can choose a portion of the map more geographically isolated and just have her way with it!

I'm thinking the continent is roughly the same size as the USA/Australia. Is that reasonable?

I was thinking bigger, like maybe each half of the main continent is that size? That's not set in stone, though.

Is there a Capital for the entire continent, or only for states/regions? I'm leaning towards states.

Definitely states.
If they're all (or mostly) in any kind of empire, it should be Ottoman-loose, not Charlemagne-tight. And the Emperor should be a twit.

I humbly suggest both of the above. What if there were an empire somewhere with designs on the whole continent, but most of the time controls at most like 20%? And they're super-incompetent? Or not!

And there's the problem with all you bloody plotsters!

Hopefully Leinyere is big enough for both styles. For example, so far the western half of the continent is more crowded, so if you want to write by the seat of your pants, maybe look east?

Race suggestion: Nagas.

I had a 50,000 word count erotica around nagas that I'd written a few years back that got rejected, and has been sort of bumming around since then. I'd liked the characters I'd created, but I couldn't figure out how to divorce said characters from the contemporary setting (which wasn't, and isn't, working). This might give me the opportunity to retool it and turn it more into a "disposable" piece than I was originally intending, and free up the brain space for other pursuits.

Excited to see you here, A! I just added Nagas to the Notes doc.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Lol... That's what I'm doing. A story about a couple of travelling salesbeings getting by in the world.

My world building input would be to add in a portal somewhere, which leaks into this world from other worlds. My Maerlyn character would get along fine and dandy in this place, him being a thousand or so years old, with a bit of magick and a shabby cloak, but how is he going to get in?

Easy, high in the mountains there's a warp in space and time; he's found his way in, as do other rat-bags and traders (got to get all those cogs and baubles in there somehow).

Old Maerlyn built Stonehenge, for goodness sake - moving BJ's giant stone cog would be a piece of cake .

 

[Voboy]

Hopefully Leinyere is big enough for both styles. For example, so far the western half of the continent is more crowded, so if you want to write by the seat of your pants, maybe look east?

Stay away from my East-Central area, you reprobates. That's probably where my mercenaries are hangin' out, doing mischief.

They're town people, not city people.

Oh, and can I name that tall-ass mountain at the edge of that range, the one hard by the wastelands? I wanna call it The Witch's Tit, though of course it can have many, many names among different peoples.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Oh, and can I name that tall-ass mountain at the edge of that range, the one hard by the wastelands? I wanna call it The Witch's Tit, though of course it can have many, many names among different peoples.

Done.

 

[Blind_Justice]

@EB: The cliffs around Galtin's Port are like Swiss Cheese, not only literal tunnels and caverns, but pathways to other realms. The mages can't be happier for those hard-to-remember cul-de-sacs off the beaten path, just begging to be used as secret labs or summoning chambers or portal rooms to dangerous lands.

Now I want to run a D&D campaign there...

@Nouh: New god: Golden-handed Egan, god of trade and profit (dwarven incarnation)

 

[Rustyoznail]

@Nouh: New god: Golden-handed Egan, god of trade and profit (dwarven incarnation)

So - a revised line from my story

Glladin, a black short-haired Anocot from the cool southern regions snarled and hit the steering tiller. "By Egan's hand! What do you mean, you can't get it up? You're a fire elemental. Boiling this kettle should be easy."

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

So - a revised line from my story

Glladin, a black short-haired Anocot from the cool southern regions snarled and hit the steering tiller. "By Egan's hand! What do you mean, you can't get it up? You're a fire elemental. Boiling this kettle should be easy."

Love it! Interactions happening already!

 

[Voboy]

I added some shit to the Notes doc, probably my only contributions there; of other than minor geographical interest are a God of Peace and a Goddess of War, who don't get along very well and would really benefit from some relationship therapy. I included a few alternate names for them; please feel free to add as needed.

Colloquially, she's known as The Whore and he's known as The Cuck.

 

[AlphaLyon]

And you wonder why I wanted to be on an island!

As a proud plotter, I'm staying away from the political goings on and dividing up the world. I've got my island, now stay off. Damn kids these days....

I'm also the kind of person who will throw out every idea he has. If something doesn't work or seem feasible, I won't take it personally. Just tell me to piss off back to my island. Having said that...
Any thoughts on my suggestion about different epochs to write it? It might get a little messy with the whole timey-wimey connectivity, but....

 

[Voboy]

As a proud plotter, I'm staying away from the political goings on and dividing up the world. I've got my island, now stay off. Damn kids these days....

I'm also the kind of person who will throw out every idea he has. If something doesn't work or seem feasible, I won't take it personally. Just tell me to piss off back to my island. Having said that...
Any thoughts on my suggestion about different epochs to write it? It might get a little messy with the whole timey-wimey connectivity, but....

My tale will be very small-scale, and therefore timeless. Pretty much independent, in poor mountain-y areas. As long as there's a war on somewhere, I'm good.