I’m no Akanri Lorekeeper, but I know how things operate in dark, light, and anywhere there’s a coin. I pay attention to any opportunities that weigh more than the blades leveled against them. I see with whom I can do business, on whom it’s safe to turn my back, and against whom I’d be fish bait for doing either. If you want to learn what I know, drop a palm of coin to make my time and truths yours. After all, even the Akanri don’t know everything, though I’ll bet they’d never admit otherwise.
–Akal of Parhim, drover and trader of the Five Shields League

Only those who wear their seven-pointed star truly learn the secrets of the Star-Mages, and no one can practice magic in Impral territories without joining them (willingly or not). To do other risks death…or worse. I tread carefully around all Star-Mages, as they always demand much and offer nothing of value. Truth too, a Magustar has longer hair than patience (which is to say, the shaved pates have none at all).

The Kryssars have been rogue mercantile and military powers for over four centuries. While they once were consolidated, Kryssar “pirates” (at least according to the Imperam) today are any men and ships sailing outside of a government’s or patron’s control, their masts flying only the two black triangles over two circles for their colors. Some hint that the original Kryssar rogue-sails were remnants of Kharndam’s royal fleet that survived Impral ambushes and the Laor Cove Fires. The so-called pirate’s flag hint at such, as it apes the cutlass grip-guards (bearing double-masted ships with full dark sails) long ago used by Kharndam’s navy. Despite centuries of trying, the Imperam cannot extinguish either the Kryssar standard or the independents that use it.

The Costara Marona are among those I fear and keep at more than a giant’s arms-length. A few generations back, they were one of the biggest noble clans of Summath in the eastern Imperam. The rulers stripped the family name of all titles and landed holdings, though there’s much confusion as to why (but most whisper about the Star-Mages, as always with Impral rumors). Their house mark—a blue arrow piercing three gold coins—now is a feared mark left by their enforcers and assassins. The Marona lost their lands and titles, but their wealth and ruthless trade tactics all still covertly influence or control more than half of all Impral ports. In truth, they hold more power now, with no immobile center of power to attack, than they did as landed nobles, to the chagrin of their enemies (among whom they count many ruling praenars and their houses, all Magustar leaders of the Star-Mages, and even the Imprator himself).

What scares and excites me the most is the return of the four-starred blade! It’s been seen at least five times very recently, or so my sources say. They talk of places in Lluranal, Pralkesh, and Xonorhil where openly corrupt folk of several races were slain and left heaped as carrion, a blade stamped with four stars from hilt to point. This mark conjures many rumors for us here in the Twelvelands, sure, for that was only ever the badge of the Knights Sovereign, the original army of Kharndam and the Home Guard of the Pegasus Sovereignty. Make of that as you will, what with folks talking of the Pegasus Throne having disappeared only to be restored.

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

27 hours to go until the end of our fund-raising drive at Kickstarter–and we’ve picked up a surge of new backers in the past few days, for whom we’ve deeply indebted and grateful.

Head on over to Kickstarter for a quick update and a few links of information on the Akanri or Secrets, like Dragons…

Inside that link are the guest posts I did over at the blogs of two old friends and colleagues from my TSR days: Jeff Grubb and Dave Gross . I’m proud to say we’re all fellow Alliterates, our writers’ group of current authors, many of whom are also ex-TSR-wage-slaves.

There’s a lot of excitement and activity in the last day or two of any fund-raising drive, so if you’ve been curious and haven’t yet pledged even at Stage One, please stop over before it’s too late!

Hope all American readers have a great Memorial Day holiday weekend!

Steven

PS: Okay–one more snippet/preview of Akanri-related information we’ve got tucked away as material for story generation….because it may intrigue yet one more person to joining us in Kharndam.

Drakesfall
The former capitol of Old Kharndam, Drakesfall gained its name for being the site where the first dragon slain by humans came to ground. Ornaoth I forged the Pegasus Throne from its bones and his capitol city celebrated his accomplishment in its name. Over the next 200 years, Drakesfall grew to a city of 30,000 people at its height and became the heart of the Pegasus Sovereignty.

Drakesfall has also served as the center of power for the Akanri Order for more than a millenary, since Prince Ralek, Duke of the Wildings and 4th son of King Tarlov, joined the Akanri ranks in [exact date pending more than 9 centuries back]. Within the prince’s lifetime, the duty of guarding the royal palace fell more to the Akanri Order than to the Home Guard. Centuries after the fall of the Sovereignty, the Akanri continue to protect Corvath Palace, its shattered Pegasus Throne, and many of its other secrets—royal and otherwise—from looters and others seeking profit from the past.

Drakesfall is, in modern times, an independent city-state that nestles close among the adjacent borders of Tsarnus, the Twelvelands, and Impral-controlled Lluranal, though the rivers and floodplains around it add some natural territorial boundaries. It is an open city in terms of trade and religions and government, but it is notably intolerant of slavery and bounty hunting, so any slaves who gain entry to the city become free (and this makes Drakesfall a destination for many Impramese servants and slaves (as well as many of less reputable natures who use the freedom to avoid paying for their crimes).

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

This will eventually become a second book trailer/teaser for Secrets, like Dragons, but I wanted folks to get another taste of Kharndam before Sunday’s end of our fund-raising drive. Hope it intrigues a few more people into pledging the project over the line to its successful completion.

The Pegasus Throne symbolized a Golden Age.

The Pegasus Throne stood for Peace, Harmony, and Wonder.

The Pegasus Sovereignty unified Kharndam for five centuries until its betrayal.

The Pegasus Throne lay shattered for 1,000 years, undisturbed out of respect.

Over time, Kharndam splintered into the monolithic Imperam, the theocratic Tsarnus, and the manumitic Twelvelands.

Drakesfall, once-capitol and now sovereign city-state, retains its past strength due to trade and the protections of the mysterious Akanri Bladeless.

Four years ago, the Pegasus Throne disappeared off its shattered foundation.

For most, its disappearance stands for Hope—for peace in a restored Kharndam.

For some, its disappearance stands for Gain—for profiting in times of change.

For a prominent few, its disappearance stands for Fear—of ceding power unwillingly.

Now is a time of drama, dread, and dream.

Now is a time to answer the call of the hero.

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

Originally published at Kharndam.com. You can comment here or there.

If you wish to understand Kharndam as it is today, you must know its history. You also must acknowledge that Kharndam is but a name attached to the lands by history and hopes of its peace returning again. For far longer, the lands of which we speak were called the continent of Rokhal, the largest and earth-dominant continent of Dharual.

Now, youngling, the world-birth’s distance from us today makes knowledge of it seemingly pointless, but that is the short-sight of most mortals. Know that our lives are trees with roots stretching far from the present, nourished (or poisoned) by the humus of history acknowledged (or history lost, ignored, or misunderstood). What you understand of your history allows you to stand and grow to great height or shrivel and falter with hardly a leaf to mark your passing. Too, even the most well-meant actions can turn to rot by ignoring what nourishes one’s family (or racial) tree.

—Petram of Sarval, Day 151 in 1670 Overdrake of the Drakereckoning calendar

First Age—Age of Birthing

The Age of Birthing was the world’s First Age, and the Creation Times lasted approximately 8,000 years.

Circa -24,000- -16,000 OD (8,000 years)

The world formed from the elements, a world of fire and water, air and earth. Many islands and lesser attendants pushed up above the waves along with the four continents that were Rokhal and Shael and Orpak and Lammok.

First before all other living things were the Erl, the trinary plant entities who birthed the Flora and were creator, mother, and father to all plant life. Then came the Primal, the trinary mother-father-creator of Fauna, who populated the lands with all animalian creatures, predator and prey, warm- and cool-blooded, biggest to smallest. Among Erl and Primal, plant and animal life propagated and flourished among all elements on Dharual.

Next came the Progenitors—the Four Races of Reason: the Dragons, the Giants, the Goblins, and the Shay. All other sapient races on the world today descend from these four in some degree. In secret, the Shay allied with Primal and Erl to help protect all life and environments, while the others worked to exploit flora and fauna as resources and fuels for their needs. To dragons, giants, and goblins, the world was to be tamed for safety, and there was peace and creation for a time as all the races found their equilibrium and place in the world. But the Dragons knew greed and they sought to conquer all rather than share any.

 

Second Age—Age of War

The Second Age lasted five millenaries and was the Age of War when Dragons fought to (and briefly did) dominate all life on Dharual through the Spawning Conflicts.

Circa -16,000- -11,000 OD (5,000 years)

Dragons took mates by force, crafting new servitor races through abduction, experimentation, and other malign methods. They bred with Erl and Primal, spawning carnivorous plants and monstrous behemoths to keep the natural world beneath their claws. From captured Shay they birthed many Fiends that enforced their will over the Giants. They forcibly bred with Giants to create the original Ogres that dominated the Goblins. Willingly or no, Goblins mated with Dragons to unleash the Reptlar races across the world to ensure they had a place among the powerful (and races over which they could certainly rule).

In response, the Shay and the Giants in turn created Humans and Dwarves to challenge the fecund spread of Goblins and Reptlars. They bred with Erl to spawn the Fey races of such variety less than half were ever recognized by history. They too with Primal to birth the “Primal-Amalgams” or Prigams, as the name has survived for the animal-humanoid fusions of all elements and forms. All these races allied as the Armies of Light to fight the onslaught of the Dragon overlords. Dwarves built Dhiirm and Shaalth, their great homelands of on the continent of Lammok, and in them they crafted their weapons with great secrecy and precision.

Rokhal became the primary Battlelands in this war, and some dwarfish and giantish fortifications from these conflicts survive as ruins in the present day. By the end of the age and these conflicts, the Dragon and Fiend populations fell to near-extinction on Rokhal and Shael, though the Fiends survived in remote pockets on Orpak.

If you wish to understand Kharndam as it is today, you must know its history. You also must acknowledge that Kharndam is but a name attached to the lands by history and hopes of its peace returning again. For far longer, the lands of which we speak were called the continent of Rokhal, the largest and earth-dominant continent of Dharual.

Now, youngling, the world-birth’s distance from us today makes knowledge of it seemingly pointless, but that is the short-sight of most mortals. Know that our lives are trees with roots stretching far from the present, nourished (or poisoned) by the humus of history acknowledged (or history lost, ignored, or misunderstood). What you understand of your history allows you to stand and grow to great height or shrivel and falter with hardly a leaf to mark your passing. Too, even the most well-meant actions can turn to rot by ignoring what nourishes one’s family (or racial) tree.

—Petram  of Sarval, Day 151 in 1670 Overdrake of the Drakereckoning calendar

First Age—Age of Birthing

The Age of Birthing was the world’s First Age, and the Creation Times lasted approximately 8,000 years.

Circa -24,000- -16,000 OD (8,000 years)

The world formed from the elements, a world of fire and water, air and earth. Many islands and lesser attendants pushed up above the waves along with the four continents that were Rokhal and Shael and Orpak and Lammok.

First before all other living things were the Erl, the trinary plant entities who birthed the Flora and were creator, mother, and father to all plant life. Then came the Primal, the trinary mother-father-creator of Fauna, who populated the lands with all animalian creatures, predator and prey, warm- and cool-blooded, biggest to smallest. Among Erl and Primal, plant and animal life propagated and flourished among all elements on Dharual.

Next came the Progenitors—the Four Races of Reason: the Dragons, the Giants, the Goblins, and the Shay. All other sapient races on the world today descend from these four in some degree. In secret, the Shay allied with Primal and Erl to help protect all life and environments, while the others worked to exploit flora and fauna as resources and fuels for their needs. To dragons, giants, and goblins, the world was to be tamed for safety, and there was peace and creation for a time as all the races found their equilibrium and place in the world. But the Dragons knew greed and they sought to conquer all rather than share any.

 

Second Age—Age of War

The Second Age lasted five millenaries and was the Age of War when Dragons fought to (and briefly did) dominate all life on Dharual through the Spawning Conflicts.

Circa -16,000- -11,000 OD (5,000 years)

Dragons took mates by force, crafting new servitor races through abduction, experimentation, and other malign methods. They bred with Erl and Primal, spawning carnivorous plants and monstrous behemoths to keep the natural world beneath their claws. From captured Shay they birthed many Fiends that enforced their will over the Giants. They forcibly bred with Giants to create the original Ogres that dominated the Goblins. Willingly or no, Goblins mated with Dragons to unleash the Reptlar races across the world to ensure they had a place among the powerful (and races over which they could certainly rule).

In response, the Shay and the Giants in turn created Humans and Dwarves to challenge the fecund spread of Goblins and Reptlars. They bred with Erl to spawn the Fey races of such variety less than half were ever recognized by history. They too with Primal to birth the “Primal-Amalgams” or Prigams, as the name has survived for the animal-humanoid fusions of all elements and forms. All these races allied as the Armies of Light to fight the onslaught of the Dragon overlords. Dwarves built Dhiirm and Shaalth, their great homelands of on the continent of Lammok, and in them they crafted their weapons with great secrecy and precision.

Rokhal became the primary Battlelands in this war, and some dwarfish and giantish fortifications from these conflicts survive as ruins in the present day. By the end of the age and these conflicts, the Dragon and Fiend populations fell to near-extinction on Rokhal and Shael, though the Fiends survived in remote pockets on Orpak.

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

This week’s going to see a flurry of activity around Kharndam as the Kickstarter campaign to fund Secrets, like Dragons… winds up this coming Sunday. If you’ve been curious about the project but haven’t yet pledged, please do so this week.

We’ve added another reward stage for those who would like to leave a creative stamp on the world, so go to the Kickstarter site for more info.

I’ve also been allowed to do a guest-post on Jeff Grubb’s blog today, so go saunter on over to Grubb Street (and make that trip a regular one, as Jeff’s always got insightful things to say).

I’ll have more to say tomorrow and after that, as I’m working hard to ready a collection of Akanri and related character sketches and stage-setters so people can learn more about the world and the Akanri and characters that may (or may not) be in the initial book launch. Talk to you tomorrow, gentles….when I hopefully launch “Akanri Revealed” as a regular column/feature (regardless of what happens with our fund-raising campaign).

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

Just a quick drop-in that's NOT a repost from other blogs.

First, a quick and hearty HAPPY BIRTHDAY to tagthewhale!

Second, I'm trying to get a lot more folks interested in the Kickstarter project that'll launch my publishing venture, and it's got 10 days left to meet its fund-raising goal. Please help me spread the news to all or any who might be interested.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1136561409/secrets-like-dragonsare-tales-untold

Third and last, thanks to any folks from LJ who sent me Happy Birthday notes here or on Facebook or email on Monday night through yesterday. I had a great birthday capped off by an Italian meal, and best of all, my 15-month old son behaved brilliantly throughout the restaurant trip.

More later. Must go write blog posts....

Steven

For those patrons of our Kickstarter campaign at Stage Five and above, an extra for their pledge level is a very limited edition leather badge identifying its bearer as a member of the Akanri Order.

Our prototype for the exclusive badge (available to a maximum of 40 patrons, 10 of which have already been claimed) has been made by Eric Joseph, an artist in Michigan whose intricate historically inspired art pieces blew me away when I first encountered them. He’s got a website up showing a number of his pieces, so please go check his work out at griffinstone.com.

For those in the American Midwest with a taste for medieval history, Eric’s also showing and selling a number of pieces at the International Conference on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan today and through this weekend (May 12-15, 2011).

I’ll try to get Eric to chime in later with more specifics on how he makes the badges, but here’s an image of the thick leather badge prototype, the finals of which may have some tweaks to the design and most likely a hole drilled for putting the badge on a chain or thong. (Or would patrons be more interested if it were a pin-backed item with no hole? Drop a comment, please, if you’ve an opinion either way.)

That’s the real art piece available in a production run of 40 pieces and ONLY available through the kickstarter funding drive. Now for the world-detail and story stuff that’s more my bailiwick….

Within the scope of the stories and the KHARNDAM™ world, each Akanri crafts his or her individual badge, rather than having a mass-produced mark to identify members of the order. Each badge is unique, though all share similarities enough to mark them as Akanri since all must have the central image of a hand and a number of circles around it. The circles either signify auras in general or they might sometimes reveal a person’s degree of mastery in aura manipulation.

As an example, the horn-headed rhamath Karov of Flaroth’s Heart wears his badge carved on a slate disk amulet, three concentric circles within the palm of its hand bearing three squarish fingers and opposed broad thumb.

One other note in world and character detail: Any Akanri bearing such a mark inside Imperam territory knows it carries with it an implicit death sentence, as the Akanri are much misunderstood and feared by Impral military and magical forces alike. Such laws have stood for over eight centuries, even though few today remember or know why Akanri are so feared inside the Impramense.

More updates and info soon, and thanks for your patience, your support, and your time.

Steven Schend

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m all too nervous.

Don’t get me wrong–I’m ecstatic as well about the support and patronage of 33 individuals who’ve brought us up to 21% of our funding goal. It’s a great start, but it’s also a distraction while I juggle far more balls than I can without a good Dexterity check.

Until the Kickstarter funding drive is complete, I’m in a waiting pattern in terms of a number of things I’ll want to do when Vistag Media officially launches with Secrets, like Dragons….

Websites: I’ve been tweaking and tinkering with three websites, all to my frustration when I inadvertently crash one by a bad combo of plug-ins and have to lose half a day by restoring a backup. Even while this is important for visibility and communication, working on the site doesn’t seem a “priority” like getting some content snippets out there. Or is it?

Graphics: I’m trying to get some art ready and scanned in for tiny glimpses into the worlds of Kharndam and other sites usually hidden in my head. As I’m not able to give you more than Stick-Figure-Kabuki, I can’t keep too busy with the art beyond writing art orders and looking at sketches. Ditto on the maps, though I can scribble those out and hope whomever I can contract later to make them pretty and useful can understand them.

The Usual Suspects: And, of course, there’s the usual time-slippage of “just checking something really quick on the Internet” and losing time I can’t afford; there’s also lots of research and planning and legal details to set up for the business or some such. So yeah, there are lots to do while the clock ticks away.

While all of that is very much work that needs doing, it’s not anything I want to talk about too much herein. Since I want to blog a lot more often and stay engaged with readers new and old, I need things to natter on about. I just don’t know what else to talk about, as much of what’ s occupying my brain now isn’t really for public consumption.

So rather than continue to chase my tail (or my learning-to-walk toddler), I’ll ask any and all readers:

What are you most interested in hearing about from me, as a writer, editor, or publisher?

Just leave comments and suggestions here, on the Wall, at LiveJournal (if you’re reading the mirror feed there), or on any other topics or posts on this site. Thanks, all of you who’ve stopped by and given this site a look; let’s talk about things that matter to you so we can get a more fluid discussion going here.

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

Today’s the day you’ll all want to head on over to Atomic Array and give a listen to podcast #55. It’s all about Gaming Paper Adventures, the latest release from the folks at Gaming Paper.

I’ve not had the time to sit and listen to the podcast, but Ed & Rone interviewed a whole mess of folks for the podcast, from Lou Agresta, Erik Bauer, Monte Cook, Brian Cortijo, Ed Greenwood, Christopher West, and little old me. I’ve no idea how they got that many people’s comments and such onto the podcast, so I’ll be finding some time this weekend to give it a listen.

If you’re a gamer, you’ll be very interested to see what we’re up to with GPA. Christopher, Louis, and Rone developed the maps and initial adventure for the Citadel of Pain; Ed, Monte, Brian, and I took those geomorphic maps and each went off in different directions with three independently developed adventures.

My adventure is an introductory adventure that sets up a number of mysteries and campaign plots for a group of PCs just starting out on the adventurer’s life. All they have to do is go into a corpse-filled military post, figure out if anyone’s alive, suss out what happened, and then return back to the village and tell the militia commander. That’s all….and to find out why it’s called “Keep Away from the Borderlands*,” you’ll just have to buy and read or play the adventure.

All I know is I’m blessed and honored to work with such a great group of very talented individuals at all levels. I hope you all enjoy what you listen to at Atomic Array and what you see when GPA hits the shelves later this year.

Take care, all, and hope everyone has a great weekend.

Steven

* In truth, in the concept stage, I’d jokingly called the module by that name to Erik and Stan! Brown, and they’ve never let me get rid of the joke for a better title. At least the adventure is my homage to my earliest gaming adventures back around 1982 or so, so the tone’s in keeping with modules contemporary with “Keep on the Borderlands.”

PS: Yeah, I’ll admit that “Village of Hommlet” is a closer inspiration of my adventure, and it’s one of my long-time favorites; did I mention above that Stan! and Erik wouldn’t let me drop the title?

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

I want more than just the supporters at Kickstarter to know how excited and thrilled I am that our Secrets, like Dragons… project is 18% funded in a week’s time! Profuse and hearty thank yous to our initial 26 backers for bringing us nearly 1/5 of the way to making the Secrets, like Dragons… book a reality!

I’ve just updated the funding page this morning with some new information and questions for people interested in the project. Please go give the updated Kickstarter page a read and either ask questions and comments there or come on back and tag them here as well.

Originally published at Kharndam.com. You can comment here or there.

I’ve just updated the Kickstarter funding page this morning with some new information and thanks to our first 26 supporters! Please go give it a read and either ask questions and comments there or come on back and tag them here as well.

Thanks again, all and every, who’ve taken the time to stop by and read this nascent-site-on-the-rise….

Steven

Originally published at Kharndam.com. You can comment here or there.

Welcome to a world of elements, secrets, sorceries, and swords! Welcome to the KHARNDAM™ world.

It’s a world devoid of elves, though it was not always so. The Star and Stone Wars attest to that, their ruins remaining millennia after the mutual destruction of the dwarves and their enemies.

But that’s old history and there’ll be more to talk about soon.

Our initial launch project can be found at Kickstarter.com or through this link!

Please say hi or leave us a comment or a question either here or at the kickstarter.com site, and we’ll try to answer as soon as we can.

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

I didn’t think I’d be able to find a Kickstarter project that excited me as much as my own.

This one doesn’t (because, well, you know, I’d rather see my publishing house happen), but it’s still pretty nifty and fun and something I’ve got to keep an eye on.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1764845067/dungeonmorph-dice-dungeon-geomorphs?ref=popular

Dice-based geomorphic maps? What a great, great idea! Color me intrigued and I had to click around to see the other projects by Joe Wetzel.

Intriguing enough that I clicked onto his two linked sites and they’ll soon be among my links down the left-hand column. Good work, Joe and others, and I’m going to be exploring both of your sites a bit tomorrow, methinks. Any one else want to see the cool stuff they’ve got there?

http://inkwellideas.com/

http://www.dungeonographer.com/

Honestly, I’m not that much a gamer day-to-day any longer, but work in any industry for 20+ years and you’ll never get it out of your system. Thus, I love seeing things like this pop out and surprise me. It even makes me want to try and find some spare time to game regularly again, just to play with toys like these. (I foresee the necessary spare time reappearing on my calendar…oh, some time long after the End of the World according to the Mayan calendar….)

Good luck to Joe and his colleagues on this one; I’m hoping to see these dice at Gen Con, if I don’t find some money earlier with which to bid and get them via Kickstarter….

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

For those not among gamers, those terms mean next to nothing. To me, they’re a little bit red-flaggish, I’m afraid.

They’re short-hand for whether a gaming product is full of rules and game-specific material (be it an item, spell, race, or some thingummy for the rules system) or story and background material.

Crunch for “crunchy bits of game material.” Fluff for … well, no one ever answers that one.

And that’s my tempest in a teapot–”fluff” derogates (yes, derogative comes from a verb) anything that’s not linked directly to “game-usefulness” in the minds of many.

Silly me. I thought Game Masters already had the rules in hand and could get by with them. I thought what they didn’t have time to come up with was all the backstory and all the history and details and character interactions for their role-playing games. Thus, I always weighed heavily in my game designs toward adding history and layers of meaning behind the immediate details of what was on stage at the time. I figured people might like to know why there was a dungeon there or when a fabled artifact they might find in their adventure was lost, by whom, and the context.

Yes, I realize (as I was once a gamer just like they were) that there’s a lot of fun in expanding the game rules and all that. I’m not arguing that’s not a great and useful thing to have in your game supplements and adventures. I’m also not against adding continually to a system when it needs it and you’re not straining the same to its breaking point. (I’ll fully admit I was never the best at the numbers-game to balance game mechanics beyond the most gut-level way, so I was never one for introducing too many new spells, skills, classes, etc. into D&D while I worked at TSR or Wizards of the Coast.)

I just hate that the prhase has built this nonsensical straw-man-argument where people either want “crunch or fluff;” often, I’m finding that many who use the phrase do see non-rules-driven material as fluff, rather than real content.

Maybe that’s why I’m more on a path as a publisher and a fiction author, rather than staying within my comfort zone of the past 21 years as a game editor, developer, and designer.

For me, I’ll keep pushing for the “crunch vs. fluff” prhase to be “rules vs. story” if only because neither of the latter phrases assumes a derogative nature at the start of things.

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

Okay, guess I hadn’t expected such a blip in traffic to my site from my Kickstarter project.

Silly Steven. No doughnut for you.

Foolish of me to not have this in better shape for new viewers, really. Apologies for those folks who’ve stopped by and been disappointed by a lack of content. Not intentional–I’ve just been laid up without the energy or ability to get any new material up here. I had this site running fairly regularly through 2008 and 2009 but it’s gone fallow for a while.

By the time I got back to this, it was easier to crash and dump the old site than it was to root out the spambots et al that’d found it. Here’s hoping the new spam filters and all will allow me to keep this a better site.

So, for those of you who’ve just made it here, welcome. I’ll be adding more as I go, but I can’t guarantee it’ll go quickly. At present, I’m also building two other sites at the same time (business site and a world/IP site linked to that kickstarter project above); adding more and more to the world bibles for fellow authors (and I’ve already got more than 80 pages among the Kharndam World Bible and the Akanri Character/Group Bible); and, well, honestly, I’ve got a few other irons in the fires about which I can’t talk about right now. Suffice it to say that I’m kinda busy.

WIth that in mind, this site’s going to grow slowly but steadily. Expect this to be a central hub from which you can find news about what I’m up to in a number of different fictional worlds or our own. Whenever I’ve readied something new on another website, I’ll mention it here so no one misses out on anything they might find of interest.

If anyone has particular concerns, questions, or wants to influence me in my website(s) building, please say howdy in a comment. I’m toying with the WP-Symposium Plug-in, but I suspect that will work better with my plans for the kharndam.com site rather than here.

Now, maybe I’ve got enough time during my son’s nap to add more links to friends and fellow authors….

Hi, any and all! Just a very brief note to activate the blog/site and remind folks that I’m out here.

For those who’ve not been following me on Facebook or Twitter, the big news for me this week is my foray into publishing! Yup, finally adding a new notch to my creative cane by pulling together 4 other authors and a few artists in the hopes of producing a great fiction collection. Look here for more details, but come on back to this site (or others noted in the kickstarter updates) for more as the project grows.

Secrets, like Dragons… is the name of the project.

I’m amazed and happy that we’ve gotten some good support from the get-go, but we’ve a long road ahead before we can officially launch VIstag Media. No matter what, I’m happy to be a part of this and thankful for all the good wishes of many friends (and an official cloak from Wolfgang Baur, who says all who publish need a cloak).

More another evening, but wanted to revive steveneschend.com at long last (as well as my livejournal, to which this should be cross-posting). Be well, smile often, and remember we’re all in this together.

Steven

Originally published at Steven E. Schend. You can comment here or there.

Don't get over here too often (though that will change soon with cross-posting from various and sundry angles), but had to stop in and wish littleelfhat the happiest of birthdays!

I'm deeply thankful for my friends, my family, and my health in general.

In specifics this year,

I'm grateful and in awe of my supportive and loving wife for all she does.

I'm eternally thankful for a healthy, happy, and outrageously fun little son.

And I'm economically thankful we managed to sell our old home and buy a larger house in the crazy housing market as it is today.

Hope all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving have a great holiday; for the rest of you, have a great Thursday!

Oh, did I mention I'm thankful I'm neither working retail tomorrow nor am I joining the insane masses on the bacchanalia to the Gods of Consumerism tomorrow?

Steven

I'm in a quandary.

I'm tied up time-wise with three projects, raising my son, and just generally having a life (something I neglected to do for much of the 90's due to work).

Still, I want to restore an online presence, a blog, and keep working toward eventually starting my own small publishing house.

So, my quandary--I still have www.steveneschend.com, but due to weird circumstances, I'm locked out of it at the admin level and will thus crash it, rebuild it, and hopefully build a following therein (with posts coming here as well).

Still, I want to blog at times, so should I revive this as my main blogging site, start something new (and in line with the new branding and work I want to do), or try another affiliate site I've got like redroom.com?

Opinions? Comments? Crickets? Send 'em all my way...or at least lemme know if anyone's still listening out there.

Steven

Been a while since I've posted here, but I wanted to shout out my latest project for all to hear.

I'm doing a short adventure for GAMING PAPER ADVENTURES available only via Kickstarter to those early patrons who sponsor the project.

Details are here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1873178944/gaming-paper-adventures

Hope all of you take a look, whether you're gamers or not, as it's an interesting project from a writing and gaming perspective alike.

With some luck, I'll be revamping my website and blog and there'll be more activity here again.

Take care, be well, and I hope at least a few of you get as excited about GPA as those of us in the project are.

SES

Originally published at The Codex Continual. You can comment here or there.

Last year, my wife challenged me to mimic one of her habits. Thus, I kept track of nearly every book I read. I didn’t record or remember books I’d only read pieces of (for research), nor did I record anything I read for hobby and work purposes (like game books from Paizo). I didn’t bother to count those books I could not finish, like Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen & Grahame Smythe-Jones; I’d have thought I was the perfect audience for that book, but the joke/conceit grew tiresome after 20 chapters or so and I had to put the book down.

</p>

Still, I was shocked when I found just how many complete books I got through in one year: 193.

</p>

32 Fiction (novels or collections or anthologies)

94 Graphic Novels (comic book collections or original graphic work)

67 Nonfiction books

</p>

Alas, I ended 2009 with a number of books in the currently-reading-queue and they’ll be the start to my 2010 list: Darkest Hour (Age of Misrule Book 2)</em> by Mark Chadbourn; Toward 2012 (Perspectives on the Next Age)</em> by Daniel Pinchbeck & Various; Graphic Design for Non-Designers by Tony Sedon & Jane Waterhouse; The Return of the Sorcerer: The Best of Clark Ashton Smith by CAS; and a random sundry of other graphic novels and short story collections and books on baby-rearing.

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I’m not going to bore folks with the full 2009 list, but random favorite reads of last year (not in any order of preference or standing, simply the order in which I read them) include:

</p>

Fiction

Memory & Dream by Charles de Lint

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life by Philip Jose Farmer

Widdershins by Charles de Lint

Ravens in the Library: Magic in the Bard’s Name by SatyrPhil Brucato & Sandra Buskirk & various

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The Ladies of Grace Adieu & Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

Riding Shotgun by Charles de Lint

The Little Country by Charles de Lint

The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls by John R. King

Gamer Fantastic by Martin Greenberg, Kerrie Hughes (ed)

Little, Big by John Crowley

Enemies & Allies by Kevin J. Anderson

The Annotated A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens & Michael Patrick Hearn

Wolf Moon by Charles de Lint

World’s End (Age of Misrule Book 1) by Mark Chadbourn

STAR TREK® A Singular Destiny by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Tapping the Dream Tree by Charles de Lint

</p>

Graphic Fiction

Brave & the Bold (Vol 1) by Mark Waid & George Perez

JLA/AVENGERS by Kurt Busiek & George Perez

SUPERMAN and the LEGION OF SUPERHEROES by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank

DRESDEN FILES: Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher & Adrian Syaf

Jack Kirby’s THE DEMON by Jack Kirby with Mark Evanier

Astro City The Dark Age 1: Brothers & Other Strangers by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, & Alex Ross

Supermen!: The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936=1941 by Greg Sadowski, Jonathem Lethem, & Various

Booster Gold: 52 Pickup by Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz, & Dan Jurgens

ESSENTIAL DOCTOR STRANGE® Volume 4 by Roger Stern & Various

The Astounding WOLF-MAN™ Volume 1 by Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard

Boris Karloff’s Tales of Mystery Volume One by Various

Freakangels: Volume One by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield

ETERNALS® To Slay a God by Charles & Daniel Knauf and Daniel Acuna

SPIDER-MAN 2099™ Volume 1 by Peter David & Various

Masterpiece Comics by R. Sikoryak

Y: The Last Man The Deluxe Edition Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra

The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics by Art Spiegelman & Francoise Mouly

Solomon Kane: The Castle of the Devil by Scott Allie & Mario Guevara

Red by Warren Ellis & Cully Hammer

Sleeper: Season One by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

Light of Thy Countenance by Alan Moore, Felipe Massalera, & Anthony Johnston

Richard Stark’s PARKER—The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke

</p>

Nonfiction

Algernon Blackwood by Mike Ashley

Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry

Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman by Hank Wagner etc

A Universal History of the Destruction of Books From Ancient Sumer to Modern-Day Iraq by Fernando Baez

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Q’s Legacy by Helene Hanff

Adventures in the Dream Trade by Neil Gaiman

The Printed Book in America by Joseph Blumenthal

Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe by John Evangelist Walsh

So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance by Gabriel Zaid

Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla/Biography of a Genius by Marc Seifer

Hitler’s Private Library: The Books that Shaped his Life by Timothy W. Ryback

A World of Letters: Yale University Press 1908-2008 by Nicholas A. Basbanes

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

Teenagers from the Future: Essays on the LEGION OF SUPERHEROES by Timothy Callahan & various

From a Writer’s Notebook by Van Wyck Brooks

The Well of Creativity by Michael Toms, Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg, Deena Metzger, Keith Jarrett, Isabel Allende, & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman [Audiobook]

The Book on the Bookshelf by Tom Petroski

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

How to Grow a Novel by Sol Stein

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde by Thomas Wright

Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative by Ken Robinson

Stein on Wriitng by Sol Stein

American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau—Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Works by Susan Cheever

Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America by Christine Wicker

Haunting Museums by John Schuster (ed)

With Wings of Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain by Michael Korda

Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy: 20 Dynamic Essays by the Field’s Top Professionals</em> by the Editors of Analog & Asimov’s Science Fiction

The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Rescued his Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford

Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy Worlds of L. Frank Baum by Michael O’Riley

The Devil’s Details by Chuck Zerby

Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life by Michael Dirda

A Splendor of Letters by Nicholas Basbanes

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Alison Hoover Bartlett

The Business of Books by Andre Schiffrin

Every Book, Its Reader by Nicholas Basbanes

Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood by Michael Lewis

Secret Societies by John Lawrence Reynolds

Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Health Care Reform by Howard Dean

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role-Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms by Ethan Gilsdorf

Dames, Dolls, & Gun Molls: The Art of Robert A. Maguire by Jim Silke

Bringing Up Baby: The Modern Man’s Guide to Fatherhood by Sam Martin

Beyond The Occult by Colin Wilson

Bail Enforcer: The Advanced Bounty Hunter by Bob Burton

The Book of Dads by Ben George et al

Lapsing into a Comma: A Curmudgeon’s Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print—and How to Avoid Them by Bill Walsh

The Friendly Dickens by Norrie Epstein

The Body, Mind, Spirit Miscellany by Jane Alexander

The Babycenter.com Essential Guide to Your Baby’s First Year

Comic Books 101: The History, Methods, and Madness by Chris Ryall & Scott Tipton

The BATMAN® Vault by Bob Greenberger & Various

The Books in My Life by Colin Wilson

Skeptic’s Guide to Conspiracies by Monte Cook

</p> </p>

Am I the only person who thinks it'd be great if the Observers from the TV show FRINGE dressed up as Uatu the Watcher (in Marvel Comics) for Halloween instead of the ad guys from MAD MEN? I'm just sayin'....

Originally published at The Codex Continual. You can comment here or there.

One of the greatest creative minds ever employed exclusively by Bulwark Publications, C.K. Gill is famous for his creations, his odd sense of humor, and his longevity in publishing. Most who met Gill found his easy smile and infectious laugh what they most remember, though more people remember his writing (which varied from strong to strange to the occasional strained joke).

His first records at Bulwark Publishing mention him as a copyboy working for editor August Villers in 1909. He stayed with Bulwark for his entire multifaceted career, retiring only in 1970 due to ill health. He continued writing and contributing to Bulwark Comics until his death in 1988.

According to anecdotal accounts told by more than one source, C.K. Gill was born on August 18 in 1895 on a steam ship two days before it docked in New York harbor. A midwife brought the baby to Ellis Island allegedly wrapped in his mother’s shawl and travel papers; an immigration agent misread the papers of the now-deceased Crotian woman Samantha Gilleva and stamped the boy’s name as Sam Gill.

Gill lived in an orphanage in Brooklyn and by all accounts his youth was hard there. Adopted in 1902, the boy moved to Milwaukee Wisconsin with the new name of William Carson, a name and life he abandoned by running away in 1907. He resurfaced later as C.K. Gill, news hawker turned copy boy at Bulwark’s Chicago offices. Throughout his career, he remained loyal to his immediate superiors and Bulwark’s owners, the Kharm family.

Over time and despite a early lack of schooling, Gill rose through the ranks of the editorial departments with his natural skills at storytelling and writing. Gill once admitted in a 1959 interview, “I learned more about the world, history, science, and writing from fact-checking or composing magazines than I ever might have in school.” The boy who never finished primary school eventually earned honorary doctorates from Northwestern and the University of Chicago in 1968 and 1975.

While not the quickest writer on staff, he always seemed to have a story or essay of an appropriate length on hand when a magazine needed filler material. According to Simon Kharm in 1960, “Gill is probably the most published author we have, once you add up all the words he wrote under house names before he grew famous.”

Gill began work with Bulwark during the heyday of the dime- and nickel-novels and penny papers (or dreadfuls) before World War I. His near-sightedness kept him out of military service but not out of print. He advanced into editorial roles, finally becoming a full editor on Books Bizarre in 1921. He worked throughout the pulp era on many different magazines and was one of the few able to shift his writing style to comic books starting in 1938.

By 1940, Gill had moved fully out of the fiction magazines and into the comics as a lead editor and writer. He remained with Bulwark Comics through 1958, returning to edit Green Gazette until 1965 when he and A.J. Soltare became the only Golden Age creators to work on the Silver Age revamps of many characters they had created 20 years before. Gill remained one of the group editors for Bulwark Comics until 1970. After that time, he continued working either as an assistant editor or freelance writer for a few books, most notably KHARNDAM Tales (for which he and Thomas Roy contributed the only major canon to KHARNDAM outside of Kharndam’s four original writers).

Characters created or co-created by C.K. Gill, whether under pseudonyms or his own name, span more than 50 years, starting in 1917 with BARNSTORM BRADLEY. Others include one version (or more) of AIR RAID REED, AMERIKIDDO, BRICK BRADLEY, THE BULLETEENS, CALAMATINA, THE CATTALION, THE CONSTELLAGENT, DOCTOR ENIGMA, DOC SCARAB, THE DYNAST, THE FIVE PROMETHEANS, THE G.U.A.R.D. (Global Union for Armistice, Reform, & Détente), HANDORR, HEADLINE HAL, JOHN UNKNOWN, MIKE MAELSTROM, THE NEWSIE, O.R.P.H.A.N. (Organized Resistance of Patriotic Heroes Against Nazism), THE PHARLAKANS, THE PHARAOHAWK, THE RAPTANS, TANK TAYLOR, THE THEONS, T.H.R.E.A.T. (The Heroic Resistance vs. Esoteric & Arcane Terrors), USAPES (United Super-Alliance to Protect Europe’s Shores), THE VOID VANDALS, XERXREX, and ZYNTHORN.

Despite his longevity in the office, none can say they knew Gill’s name other than to call him C.K. or Gill. He never offered anyone his full name, preferring to let others guess for what his initials stood. The only time Gill apparently disliked someone’s guess was in an insult. An unnamed rival comic book writer from Fox Syndicate once called him “Chuckle Killer Gill” and received a black eye in 1945. The most common guesses were “Charles Karl,” though many joked it was “Clark Kent” after 1940 when National Periodicals’ hero took off in popularity. As usual, Gill only grinned and kept working.

C.K. Gill died on July 20, 1988 of natural causes. As per his will, he was cremated and his ashes were interred in a custom-crafted urn. The silver urn appears as a hardbound book with its spine reading “The Collected C.K. Gill” and his will stipulated that the book-urn should remain on the bookshelf of Bulwark’s publisher. Those who read his nonfiction Almanarcana wondered about the magical significance of his aping the burial methods of occult figures like Pierre Aurlathe, John Hawksmoor, Stavros Krashos, or Vasily Nashivev. Those who knew him well claimed it was just Gill’s last chance to get in a good joke.

</p>

Hidden History

Known to very few even among esoteric circles, C.K. was a member of the Vanguard. Never a field operative, C.K. was one of their longest-serving research historians. One of the reasons his writing focused on magic were his researches—he compiled studies and encyclopedias on the history and practice of magic across the world. Expurgated and bowdlerized versions of which were published by Bulwark as The Almanarcana in seven different editions between 1935 and 1984.

Whether due to Gill’s link to the Vanguard or his reticence, elements of his background remain shrouded in secrecy even now, years after his death. The biggest secret is Gill’s name—all his personal data was destroyed at various times by apparent accidents. So if anyone ever knew his actual given name, they never revealed it. He smiled at those who grew exasperated about his name; a mystery to others seemed to make little difference to him. C.K. never admitted how close any came toward his true name (and some in mystic circles suggest that his true name was something else entirely and C.K. Gill a pen name that became his common name in life).

The Collected C.K. Gill is actually two identical silver book-urns that reside in two locations, each holding exactly half of his body’s ashes. One rests, as stipulated, on Oscar Kharm’s shelf in Bulwark Publications’ central headquarters in Toronto. The other, which also contains Gill’s Vanguard ring among the ashes, sits on a display shelf at Geneva House. The latter book-urn shares its shelf with a photo of Gill along with the seven editions of his Almanarcana and a massive two volume bibliography of Gill’s writing output (an unpublished holograph manuscript compiled by Gill and various Vanguard researchers).

For all the thousands of pages of writing Gill produced publicly, his research journals and notes for the Vanguard comprise at least several thousand more pages. At the time of his death, Gill worked to uncover the secrets and true history of the Comte du San Gyrmayn and the long-lost volumeternal called the Gyrmayn Annals.

</p> </p>

© 2009 by Steven E. Schend. All rights reserved.

</p>

Despite OFFLINE OCTOBER keeping me offline most of the time, I am checking email twice a day for any outstanding work or urgent messages from freelance employers and/or job hunting via the internet.

In any case, I got an email about blogging at Red Room.com on The Wizard of Oz. Had to break my rule of not blogging to plug one of my favorite books. Go here to see it, please?

http://www.redroom.com/blog/steven-e-schend/journeys-oz

If you liked the essay, drop a line there, here, or at Facebook. Love to hear from you, but hopefully won't be responding too much before November 1. Lots to do....

Steven
www.steveneschend.com

Does the Velcronomicon contain the power that holds the universe together?

Amazon.com Widgets

Originally published at The Codex Continual. You can comment here or there.

4 out of 5 stars, IMO.

A very well done anthology of stories about a modern apocalypse and the fabled safe haven of Grants Pass, Oregon. The world falls apart due to bioengineered plagues and the chaos that ensues from them. The stories here, like many anthologies, vary in terms of their ability to grab each reader, but they’re all well written even if they’re not one’s cup of tea. Stories that stood out in my mind as the best or most intriguing were “Animal Husbandry” by Seanan McGuire; “Chateau de Mons” by Jennifer Brozek; “A Perfect Night to Watch Detroit Burn” by Ed Greenwood; “Final Edition” by Jeff Parish; and “Black Heart, White Mourning” by Jay Lake.

And to answer the leading question of the anthology, yes, I’d go to Grants Pass. Hope is one of the things that keeps us going when everything else demands we give up.

[Note--I read this in PDF format before the book's release, but I'll be looking to get a copy soon to put on the shelf.]