Wasteland Setting Ramble

So this idea came to me when scrolling some cyberpunk art on pinterest. I love the aesthetic of Mad Max Fury Road, I love the outback. I love the dilapidated sand encrusted corrugated iron buildings you can find out there and the mountains carved by time and wind. Mars has always been a place of…

Heartblood World Building 10 – The Order of the Rose and the Fruit of Life

The world of Heartblood is built on the bones of ancient beings, the closest things to gods to ever walk the surface of the land. Each of these creatures, elemental spirits of life, death, rebirth and so many more base facts of the universe and of life. These beings create these base forces of the…

Heartblood World building 9 – The Guardians of Retribution

The Guardians of Retribution are an order of warriors sworn to defend the innocent and fight the dark, they are golden paragons of beneficence and protection. They were founded by Sir Lucius Sanctus, one of the fabled heroes who slayed the lich queen Corymeir and ended the threat of necromancy. He created the order to…

Heartblood World Building 8 – Replacing the Diesel in Dieselpunk

An exploration of how the Dieselpunk setting affects magic and how their intermingling affects the world. That was too long of a title so here it is. I realised in the middle of a shift the other day that how I had built the politics and social systems of mages originally would need to be…

Heartblood World Building 7 – The Bound Knights

Now that is out of the way, The Bound Knights of Taran are an order of knights and mages, who seeing that they can cover each other’s weaknesses formed an order to work together and cover their weaknesses. This evolved over time into a power imbalance favouring the mages. Mages collar their knights with an…

Mira – Ophelia’s Story Part 3

The low room was thick with the scents of the mugwort and sage drying above the fireplace, in the cauldron over the fire the sweet scent of raspberry, yarrow, and elderberry tea wafted, making the air warm and humid. A humanoid doll hung from the roof, carved of mandrake root with a crude smile scratched…

Heartblood World Building 6 – Mages Politics and Magic

This is another topic that differs wildly between the Pathfinder game I’m running and the story I’m writing. The Pathfinder Game Mage politics are largely tied to the academy of the arcane in Corim, Krail College. This institution is funded by the crown and thus all mages that study there must swear an oath on…

Meeting Kaliban – Part 2 of Ophelia’s Story

The night was clear, the sound of chugging machinery and above the slow ‘wop wop wop’ of a cargoship’s propellers meant the night was far from silent, but the noises were dead things, machines of steel and smoke. Kaliban stood facing away from her, his gloved hands clasped behind his back. In front of him…

Heartblood World Building 5 – Blood Magic

‘Blood magic, who was the first to start using it, fundamentals of it etc.’ Okay so this is an interesting question, since blood magic is such a spiritual magic system that is very soft in it’s rules it has very little formal structure. The magic is about an intermingling of your soul and body, something…

Heartblood World Building – 4 – Myths

‘Mythical creatures of the world’ Okay so myths in a fantasy setting are always interesting, cause when it a myth a fact, and when is a myth a legend and yadda yadda yadda. But here we do get to one of my weakpoints, when I am worldbuilding I often get so caught up in facts…