I've not had much time to catch my breath lately so this post may prattle on abit. I'm just now sitting down to catchup after our play test session today which comes on the heels of a long work week and the Coast to Coast Show last night on Tenkar's Tavern.
Would you like to Biggie Size
If you haven't caught up with the news, the fast food chain Wendy's has released an RPG a few weeks ago at https://www.feastoflegends.com/. Yes it's real. A full 97 page pdf filled to the brim with artwork, maps, adventures, pretty decent layout and presentation. I thought about doing a review but, most of the major sites will have had one now and frankly its clearly just a parody.
That said, it does leave me wishing that we had the marketing budget to blow on something so slick as a freebie. Ok yeah, there's the ugly side of my envy. We're working awful hard in our 'spare' time on our little project thank you.
I did want to talk a little bit about the ideas that helped to influence me in the creation of the fantasy world of Sonnegard.
There and Back Again and Back and forth.. and a little over there.
So maybe it goes without saying that Tolkien was a huge initial influence. Not in a direct way however. Basically his stories were my introduction to fantasy. As a child I had this small Rankin Bass read along book and record of The Hobbit. The story enthralled me but the book was small and missing alot. A year or so later, my grandmother purchased the actual boxed set including The Hobbit and the Ring Trilogy. It didn't take long before I wanted the Silmarillion as well.
So what does this have to do with Sonnegard? Well to start, it got my imagination going down the road of fantasy at a very early age. I couldn't get enough of stories of dragons, heroes wielding swords and elves. Also, importantly is that a central theme of Middle Earth is that elves are departing the world and becoming less 'influential', they are leaving the world to humans and I really like this idea of loss.
Robert E Howard - Hyboria
So putting time differentials and some of the man's quirkiness aside, I feel a little kinship to this man. Having spent my youth outdoors all over Texas, I too used to imagine a time lost to history where past mysterious civilizations roamed the world. In truth, its not that difficult as texas was once inhabited by many native american tribes. This interplayed with my fascination of Tolkien's elves. So it makes sense that Hyboria would strike a chord. Howard's world was meant to be a throwback to re-imagine the ancient civilizations we know in a lost part of history that never was and was filled with sorcery and strange beasts. Howard in particular had a fascination with humans in a 'barbaric' state in which the person is in some sort of 'ascension' to more modern civilization and rises just above the level of beast but is not yet civilized. He idealized this status, right or wrong. In present context of course, I would argue that the 'barbarian' is civilized but simply adheres to a different cultural code and lifestyle.
Wendy and Richard Pini - Elf Quest
I first encountered the Elf Quest graphic novels in my youth around age 11 (maybe a little too graphic for youth, but whatever). The setting immediately grabbed me because here were the tribal elves that I had imagined roaming the forests and hills of Texas. What was more interesting is their quest which in many ways reflects a sort of fall from glory. This theme is reflected frequently in Tolkien and Howard.
It came from outerspace.. HP Lovecraft - At the Mountains of Madness
I was late to the Lovecraft scene, only discovering his works in High School. But I think that 'At the Mountains of Madness' is such a strong theme in horror and rings so true with us almost on a genetic level, that its ideas echo through generations of art.
In SSoS our main antagonist arrived from space, and brought shapeless oozes which seek to corrupt all life in the world. This is a very Lovecraftian twist on more traditional fantasy archetypes.
And lastly, I'd say that History is the final influence. I've often wondered why we were taught in school that civilization began in Egypt 5000 years ago. It didn't make sense to me that humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years and only in the last few thousand did we decide that we like housing and hot baths. Humans are intuitive and by nature we are hyper evolved to communicate in packs and craft and use the most advanced tools. So it was no surprise to me when archeology started uncovering stone structures that date back literally to the end of the last ice age.
This is what we're trying to explore in Sonnegard, an alternate world with fantasy races and long lost civilizations rising against a hard wilderness with prehistoric beasts. Its packed with everything from the paleolithic to the early iron age.
If you've bothered to read all of this I will leave you with some sneak peak artwork from our Player's Book. We are very excited to be working with Juan Ochoa to illustrate this book! This image has the many races of Sonnegard resting and conversing overnight in an ancient ritual hunting lodge. The lodge was inspired by the real world site of Gobekli Tepe.
