From a9c917dfec3c85aeb348d567e300d24e139df180 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: AndrewMurrell Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2017 14:15:55 -0500 Subject: Added the start of the apocrypha. --- src/apocrypha/AnIntroductionToApocrypha.org | 17 ++++ src/apocrypha/TheGournalGeographicAffairs.org | 125 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ src/apocrypha/index.yaml | 1 + 3 files changed, 143 insertions(+) create mode 100644 src/apocrypha/AnIntroductionToApocrypha.org create mode 100644 src/apocrypha/TheGournalGeographicAffairs.org create mode 100644 src/apocrypha/index.yaml diff --git a/src/apocrypha/AnIntroductionToApocrypha.org b/src/apocrypha/AnIntroductionToApocrypha.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5bc7e20 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/apocrypha/AnIntroductionToApocrypha.org @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +Apocrypha is a world of mystery and forgotten history, built from +first principles and the realization that even simple truths have +consequences. + +My goal with building the world of Apocrypha is to create a generic +fantasy world which is both suitable for books and for use with TRPGs, +and is designed somewhere on the coherency spectrum between the +Forgotten Realms and Discworld. + +Though it is being designed to function with the 5th edition of Dungeons & +Dragons in mind, I am also haphazardly designing a TRPG of my own +which may be abandoned along the way, but draws inspiration from +Apocrypha as well as breathing life back into it. Over the last 2 +months, I've found that working on one usually generates ideas that +are applicable to the other, and overall energy for both projects +benefits from this dynamic. diff --git a/src/apocrypha/TheGournalGeographicAffairs.org b/src/apocrypha/TheGournalGeographicAffairs.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..856288f --- /dev/null +++ b/src/apocrypha/TheGournalGeographicAffairs.org @@ -0,0 +1,125 @@ +Welcome Readers, to the second Special Edition of our illustrious +catalog of facts and figures. + +Last year, after our exploration of the Lowerdark's Cragmag Caverns +proved such a fantastic success, we set our sights higher: to answer a +[nagging] reader's question. Lola, age 8, from the Valanacian city of +Florora, has been sending us letters. Over two hundred letters to be +precise. Each has asked the same question, + +"Deer GGE, what is the talest mowntun [sic] in the world?" + +And while we don't usually reward improper spelling, her insistence, +and the fact that no expert in the world seemed to know a precise +answer, convinced us to settle it once and for all. Who knew that +simple question one year ago would spark a fantastic journey of +discovery and collaboration that may have ramifications beyond what we +dreamed possible. Returning laden with treasures only one month ago, +the GEE (& co.) Expedition has brought us the greatest treasure of +all: an answer. + +Dear Lola, + +The greatest mountain in the world stands atop the far-northern range +of snowy mountains known as the Sunpeaks. + +Since the entire northern ridge is filled with enormous mountains +dwarfing (or maybe even gnoming) all other mountains found elsewhere, +it was rather difficult for our sages here at the Imperial Center for +Geographical Excellence to locate the general area of the range in +which the peak might exist, much less its correlative parallel, and +the sheer size of the range combined with its namesake ever-present +blinding sunlight made clairvoyance and scrying spells of little use +above 50,000 ft. + +Yes, you read that right. 50,000. That's almost three times the +height of Mount Pang and twice that of the Skyknife, but in the +Sunpeaks, that's barely passing for average. + +But fear not dear readers. The Geournal for Geographical Excellence +is here to quench your thirst for knowledge. For comparing the several +dozen peaks which form the Upper Cluster, we had to go to extreme +lengths (and heights). Simply put, we had to go there. + +With our collaborative sponsors, The Community Climber, Aerial +Affairs, Snowpeak Tea, and a grant from the Ministry of Maps, we +raised 1.3 million Imperial silver swans (a little more than the +monthly taxpayer cost to support an entire legion of cavalry), to +finance a voyage into the unknown, staking both our reserves and our +reputation on the Expedition. + +We spared no cost, hiring only the best of the best. Trackers, +weatherworkers, guards, and guides, we set out into the Plateau of the +Sun to find our answer. + +Six months we searched the pockets of mountains that exceeded our +50,000 mark, listening to local legends, sending up balloons, and +using a combination of our savvy and our ability to take small arcane +gateways to cross from peak to peak. And those were fruitful months, +even though we had yet to locate our quarry, days spent mapping and +drawing, nights spent gazing into the clearest sky anywhere in the +world (and then mapping and drawing it too)! + +We had found mountains. Tall ones. But had we found the tallest? + +We wouldn't know for almost three more months. The answer, it seemed, +was always no. We would crest a peak, only to find another rising +above us on the horizon. We had to to maintain a constant litany of +darksight spells to see (without going blind) and frost spells to +avoid melting (while in the sun) and fire spells to avoid freezing +(while in the shade). + +We had to conjure air to breathe. + +And it was in these inhospitable conditions that we found them. Not +mountains, those would come later, but our guides and our salvation. + +We were somewhere precisely north of the 47th parallel, when one of our +forward seers called for a halt. He had found a body. We assumed the +worst, and began to prepare a frost-bag for storing it to take back +with us when we came down the mountain (as we'd had to do with most of +our veritable zoo of animals by this point). + +Imagine our surprise when the body rose to greet us with a smile. + +He was a bald human man, and no more than a few years into his young +adulthood, and was absolutely blind, and fairly near naked. He led us +to his small mountain abode, filled with others like him. They called +themselves monks, but when I asked them about their order, they had +none! + +Though I would have offered the poor unregistered fellows use of my +official quill and Imperial ink (had it not been alternatively frozen +and then boiled) to register with an approved order, they assured me +that they had no interest in the ways of the 'folk from down +below'. Upon our request (and a few oddities accepted in exchange, +namely a small bowl made of True Timber and a pair of hollow diamonds) +the unregistered 'monks' agreed to aid us towards our goal (though I +gathered the distinct impression that they very much acquiesced +primarily in order to rid themselves of us). + +Two weeks after meeting with the 'monks' we had found it. + +The Sun-Touched Mountain. + +So, Lola, I'm sure you're lost interest by now, being the petulant and +insistent child that you are, but deep within the Sunpeaks, beyond the +ken of the civilized peoples, stands the tallest mountain in the +world. + +We didn't climb it; we didn't dare. And our humble guides requested +that we saved ourselves the trouble. For we had found it. High above +the world, on a ridge of mountains the locals call 'The Edge' stands +the impossibly massive peak. + +Shrouded from below by almost constant cloud-cover and the jutting +cliffs of that massive ridge, we only dared observe it from afar. The +expanse between the ridge and the cluster we found ourselves on was +measured in miles. + +Our best calculations put the height of the Sun-Touched Mountain at a +staggering 179,400 ft. And at it's peak, a brilliant day's Sun. + +I'll never forget the sight. + +Thank you Lola. Now please stop writing us. diff --git a/src/apocrypha/index.yaml b/src/apocrypha/index.yaml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e54860e --- /dev/null +++ b/src/apocrypha/index.yaml @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +title: "Apocrypha" \ No newline at end of file -- cgit v1.1-4-g5e80