Wrecked Heptarchy: Bocage, Puritans, Stumps

I've written before about Silent Titans, and chances are you've heard of it anyway. You might even have an opinion on whether it's workable, or any good, or anything else. If not....see here.

However, what I'm really here for is the section Beyond Wir-Heal, specifically the sub-set 'Your Own Wrecked Heptarchy'. I don't suppose I'm the first one to write something like this, even setting aside the pre-existing Land of Rushes (to be found In the Hall of the Third Blue Wizard). All the same, this stuff's been brewing at the back of my mind for a while. It's probably not going to turn into anything substantial, but I might as well share it. So here we go...

It’s History.

Silent Titans is set in a world wracked by time spasms and dimensional collapse. In its geography, society, environments and characters are warped or alternate versions of the Wirral Peninsula in North West England. Driven through this like needles through skin, are terrifying shards of a distant, ruined, high-technology reality whose broken weapons and poisonous ontological waste has been dumped and hidden in its own past. It has both sword fights and robots

Of course, I don't know the Wirral. That's difference one. As an effete Southron, this is going to be about inner East Anglia (largely). Let's call the region Estengle (for now?). 

The nature of the wreckage is different in this portion of the Heptarchy. No Titans, silent or otherwise. That's difference two. No terrifying shards, no peninsula girt by the tides of time. There's likely a drip-feed of displaced history, but it would be less flotsam and jetsam and more .... strangers riding into town? A ghostly train? 

***

Estengle. What's it like? A blend: market towns, dense bocage, the rolling fields of drained marsh, planned planed business parks, thorn-choked dykes, the lurking survivals of the old fens, chalk pits, golf courses, race tracks, abandoned airfields. The weather: aching, pitiless sun, sullen rain or oppressive grey cloud.

The people in Estengle:

Alchemy Puritans: clean shaven, simply dressed, well-read, soft-spoken. Keen enthusiasts for Better Living Through Chemistry. Probably taking some sort of mood-alterer, sense-enchancer, suppressant or relaxant. There is a sophisticated colour coding system to indicate this - different coloured badges, different coloured streaks in the hair, different jewelled studs along the cheek bone, different stripes of make-up spiralling away from the eyelids. 

They would be insulted to be call lotus-eaters. They know exactly what they are taking, how much, and when they will stop. Everyone requires some measure of pharmaceutical support; they're just being systematic and rational about it. 

Aiming to strike out into the Fens and bring them into order for the growth of cash crops. 

Fen Tygers: Want the Fens back for their own. Grubby and rustic; much more given to occasional excesses than the Puritans. Have somehow acquired several noisy motorcars and a pack of heraldic tygers.

Ferrymen: merchants, dealbrokers, expansionist middlemen.

Fane-raisers: raisers of great monuments, architects, devotees of order, ritualists, hierarchs, dwindling fraternities.

Aviscaputs: Could there be some of these around?

Dungeons:

The most obvious thing to point to, the most Titan-like would be the restless bones of Gog and Magog: thorn-tunnels in the spinney lead to actual tunnels in the earth lead to rib-caverns and femur-passages. 

There would be the vast heaven-seeking towers made by the predecessors of the Fane-raisers. Empty, chill - poisoned? Ruined?

Inspired by the likes of St Botolph's, Boston, St James's, Louth and other wool churches - to say nothing of Ely Cathedral, the 'Ship of the Fens'.

***

As above, I'm not sure that there are any plans to work this up any further. Certainly, I would need to do some further reading - the late Ronald Blythe, for instance. There is at least one piece in Anglo-Norman I'm currently working my way through. Anyway, I hope this has been of some interest.

Terrae Vertebrae: Ancestor Spirits of the Giants

They are old, but lucid – if obsessed. They like being talked to. Each has an area they like taking about. Each has a token one is meant to offer them as a sign of respect and as something for the spirit to physically interact with – thus it is normally smallish. Tokens the spirit has kept for a long time are imbued with something of the spirit and can be used for long-distance communication and prayer.

Not respecting a spirit by ignoring them only has consequences if near their dwelling place or temple. 

Social consequences only happen in Half-Giant tribes (and then mostly only to the local spirit – if you disrespected one on the other side of the valley that was stupid, but it’s not their fight...); the Giant civilisation long since past presumably had methods of making sure respect was offered.

Spirits have...../A Designation/ A Sex/ A Preferred topic of conversation or method of interaction/ A Suitable offering [can be non-physical, but often there are a number of physical options, even really abstract topic]/Other Remarks

/The Coin-Counter/Female/ Money, trade, banking/Coins

/The Player of Games/Female/ A Rousing game of chess, cards &c and a discussion on it afterwards/ A gaming piece/ She is making her own game and has been putting a lot of thought into it.

/The Old Soldier/Female/War!/Military Paraphernalia, Weapons, &c./

/The Wrestler/Male/Wrestling, boxing &c. Will have weird ghostly arm wrestle and probably lose, but is a good sport/An Arm ring or similar token.

/The Hunter/Male/Huntin’, Fishin’ and Shootin’/Hunting Trophy (or similar)

/The Gardener/Male/Gardening (esp. Flowers)/Flowers (esp. fancy cultivated ones)/ Very proud of his rose garden – deservedly so, since he’s in the tundra!

/The Harvester/Female/Crop-raising; like the gardener, but more practical – raising things you can eat/Fruit, Grains, Vegetables

/The Teller of Tales/Male/Stories, the taller the tale the better!/A story! Something solid? An ornamental letter

/The Archivist/Female/History/An accurate account of ongoing events or past events/Writing Materials/has a vast historical collection of tomes and is compiling an ongoing HISTORY OF THE WORLD FROM YEAR ONE!!!!

/Smiler/Female/Comic stories, jokes/Likes to receive same; physical token - some silly trinket/ 

/The Fisher/Male/Fish, sea creatures, the sea/Fish, fishing paraphernalia

/The Tailor/Male/Sewing, textiles/Sewing stuffs, tapestries, &c

/The Thinker/Male/Philosophy, Logic, Inquiry/Books on Same

/The Rider/Female/Domestication of Animals, Farming of same/Horse stuff, cattle stuff

/’Old Man Fang’/Male/Teeth/Teeth and Some Ivory/He’s really kind of creepy. Really. Not necessarily malevolent but really weird.

/The Grandfather/Male/The Old Days, how much better things were, the shocking lack of respect these days, we wouldn’t have let a little thing like the destruction of our civilisation get in our way /Something from the Old Days

/The Reveller/Male/Beer, Wine, Spirituous liquors/A libation of same, an ornamental bottle

/The Falconer/Female/Birds, bird life/A feather (No pigeons. Or Ptarmigans.)

/He who watches over Lovers/Male/Romantic Love/Tales of Same; physical token – A carved heart or pair of figures holding hands or entwined some other way

/The Judge/Male/THE LAW, Courtrooms, enforcement, arbitration, discussion of same/A law code, a touchstone

/The Architect/Female/Buildings/A Plum bob or set square/Twinned with The Geometrician

/The Geometrician/Female/Abstract Mathematics/A Slate and Stylus/Twinned with the Architect

/The Chambermaid/Female/Physical Love and Beauty/A token of same –perfume, lock of hair, handkerchief/Designation at least partially ironic.

/The Dweller in the Snows/Male/The Cold, Snow, Frost, &c/Ornamental snowflake design

/The Arsonist/Male/FIRE!!/Flammable Materials, Charcoal, Flint and Steel, tinderbox.

Terrae Vertebrae: The Giants

Who were/are the Giants??? What are they in myth? Vast, humanoid, frequently possessed of an attachment to a facet of nature (frost, fire, storms), frequently hostile but able to be treated with, capable of great deeds in war and peace, primal. If one includes nephilim references as well, one might consider opposition to the Creator/Allfather/What-have-you (or at least, not quite an intended part of creation.....).

Origins of all ‘Protagonist race’ sapients is from a creator or creators. Elder Races are Elves, Dwarves, &c. A gulf separates Sapients and the divine – just as the Fall of Man, but quite possibly due to Angelic Defection or Quarrels between Mortals (‘If you can’t play nicely...’) rather than the Temptation. After this fall, Elves, Dwarves, Proto-Humans were left in a somewhat weakened state. Those Angels and/or Deities that actually cared to intervene with the world were permitted to aid them. Some taught them, sheltered them and nurtured them.  Others just gave them powers directly; these became the Giants. This was regarded by ‘The Top Brass’ (who or whatever that is) as giving a Child a revolver in order that they could protect themselves from playground bullies. The Angels/Deities/Aspects of the Creator responsible were reined in.

By this point, of course, the Giants had become what they were: able to weather cold, hunger and other forms of adversity with impunity (they were able to walk through the Arctic naked, but most wore clothes as a matter of etiquette and beauty). Capable of building tall towers and great cities; they showed great strength with their arms. However, being aware (or made abruptly aware by the Powers that be) of their potential to disrupt the development of the other races, they sequestered themselves in inhospitable areas (partially out of pride, it must be said: ‘Look, humans! Look at my palace! It’s balanced on top of Mount Everest!’). They developed swiftly, breeding herds of beasts to an appropriate size for themselves and raising up vast cities.

Those that died, after many centuries of life, lingered: they were made to survive this world, and this impeded somewhat their possible re-uniting with the Divine. A certain amount of ancestor worship sprung up, and those spirits that lingered long enough took on roles of importance – at least until they could work out the method to ascend. Those spirits that gave good advice (or at least plausible advice) got more out of it than those that didn’t; thus, few of the ancestor spirits that received worship were absolute bastards. Some of the Spirits worked out the Clerical Spells function to make themselves even more into Godlings – but those that abuse in get their fun shut down by the ‘Top Brass’.

They developed swifter than other races, and whilst they didn’t have necessarily more inherent problems than any other race, those problems became threatening on a wider scale quicker, and the cities of the Giants were cast down (Weapons of Mass Destruction? Perhaps.). Those that remained on what would become the Trygvir Isles lost much of their former prowess, for all the attempted guidance of the ancestor spirits. Of those giants killed in the destruction of the cities, many became unquiet, tumultuous and increasingly incomprehensible spirits, minds ravaged by the drama of the fall and the ages of half-life and desolate ruination thereafter (whereupon many take on qualities similar to the spirits and giants of Tim Powers’s Declare and The Stress of Her Regard; IE, attaching themselves to old statues of themselves or to desirable persons or of the ruins of their old house). The ruins of the Cities are not a safe place to go. None but the bold visit them.