Recent content by jhahilt

Hi I also vote NO to gunpowder. Cheers

Hi The type of craft I'd like to use in this setting is a fairly small (about 45 to 50 feet) sailboat. Single masted cutter rig with a gaff headed main and tiller steering.Have a look at a Falmouth Quay Punt and you'll have a picture of what I have in mind.This should fit in with the tech...

Hi Love your city, sounds like my type of town. Just out of curiosity, the largest black market in the world did you have a particular commodity in mind or does it refer to a wide ranging array of otherwise illegal,immoral or difficult to source consumables ? PS - Kilvikasa, if you lose the L...

Hi Much obliged, I'll plan accordingly. Cheers

Hi Abstract is great, as far as the deities go. The mischief that gods can engender in people is more than enough, let alone allowing them license to smite and manifest at will. The translation of the Kalevala I have is by W F Kirby, a British folklorist. I was born a Finn and have read it in...

Hi This is along the lines I was thinking of, the writer can choose to have their people blithely unaware of their origin, or elements from their history indicating a "homeland" far far away could be introduced. Either approach will work and can co-exist with the other without too much...

Hi Returning to a point raised at the beginning of this thread, are Gods real ? Do they manifest and meddle in matters of the mundane ? Or are they found where all gods belong, between the covers of weighty tomes, leather bound if you must,or at a pinch on a tasteful leadlight window in some...

Hi The idea that the people of the arhipelago immigrated from a larger landmass is solid and works in well with what I had in mind for the setting. What the original impetus for people needing/wanting to relocate to the archipelago was, can be used effectively I think to flesh out the history...

Hi Cool, lets see what everyone else thinks. So far many plausible alternatives have been aired here and I'm sure that somewhere amongst it all is the road to consensus. Cheers.

Hi Great stuff, plenty to think on for everybody there. As you say what we end up with will largely be dependent on how close to "reality" we want to stick to. Any of the above scenarios could be woven into the fabric of the Archipelago, I was particularly taken with the Swahili language, had no...

Hi I was wondering if anyone has given thought to having a common language, a lingua franca of sorts, to facilitate trade and communication between the various lands. This language would not necessarily be spoken by everybody but those with a need to interact with other nations would find it...

A battle starts, lots of stuff happens, the battle ends. There is an outcome to the battle and the story goes on. This in most cases would be enough. Within the battle there is however a world of scope for detail, and a battle being a unique environment it can be used with great effect to focus...

Its an easy, convenient method of adding body to a tale or character. I wouldn't use it myself though, to me it somehow seems like cheating. The information given in those snippets can with some skill be incorporated into the tale itself.

That inner critic can be a powerful stumbling block, but I keep her at bay by telling myself that the words can change, and often do. Just because I've committed them to paper doesn't mean I'm stuck with them, often a bad opening will itself suggest an alternative. As for location in a timeline...

Iain M Banks in his novel Transition gives an absolutely brilliant account of the Torturer, the Tortured and the Conseqences/Motivations thereoff. Definitely worth a read if you wish to use this subject matter in a non gratuitous manner.