S3E11: A Son I Never Wanted

Explicit content warning

10/25/18 • 42 min

Crudely Drawn Swords - A Dungeon World Actual Play Podcast

I have spent the last week researching into the matter of bloodlines and it has proven very difficult. It is well established that some people are naturally attuned to the latent power of the elements and that this is something that appears to be hereditary. If I include folktales and hearsay there are accounts of people attuned to ice, fire, stone, air and water, possibly even some metals? I do not think this is the same as the Dwarven Hallowfire or the smithcraft such as some priests practice. Much of what I needed to find was in the Archive Vaults, a vast but little-used area of the library only available to highly ranked scholars and members of the church. They are a long way underground and the shelves were mostly deep in dust as the vaults get very few visitors. Yet time and again I found the specific volumes I was seeking were gone. Sometimes documents are misplaced, though more commonly in the student areas, but after a fruitless day searching for the best regarded research on the topic I began to suspect that someone had stolen them from the library, and probably a long time ago. My concerns were vindicated when I found a copy of Teratum’s Encyclopedia of the Metaphysical Realms, a grand and noteworthy tome, only to discover that the entire entry on magical bloodlines had been cut from the book - an act of vandalism as well as theft. I have returned to the Archive Vaults several times now and I think I have some information that eluded our esoteric thief, so I shall endeavour to construct a convenient synopsis for you forthwith.

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S3E10: Good At Keeping Secrets

Now my dear boy, I can understand that you are afraid that this makes you a pariah squared, but think about it this way: Either you are a pariah or you aren’t. If you are one already, how different is it? Hardly at all! People may not like what you are, but they can be persuaded - especially if you have the art of charms at your fingertips. Just remember that a person who dislikes you for what you are before they know who you are can never be entirely relied upon. As for background on the blood of fire, well, that is hard to come by- but what our histories tell us, the accounts that you won’t find in any books in Parieso or Aru-Sha, is that The Diabolist was in the same line of business that many of us in the coven are. I suppose you may have gathered this already, but you are old enough to know that there are powers in the world so dangerous that even to name them invites desperate peril. Those of us at the heart of the coven have been part of a long and careful project of containing them, protecting the world from a return to the disasters of the past, mediating the ancient contracts that hold them and preserve the structure of nature. The story goes that the Diabolist caused the plague that wiped out old Carisona, but our accounts tell us that he was trying to prevent the plague and failed. Perhaps he succeeded in containing something even worse, however. We are safe for now, the borders of the forest are strong and although the rangers have passed south, we have our own devices and the foresters are conscious of the danger. I do not think even these enemies in the south wish to see our work disrupted, our enemies are no friends to them. I am sure we will be safe, for now at least. I am very proud of you Bambari. You have travelled further than I ever have and it sounds as though you have the chance to make quite an impression in the world. Mark my words: There will be people who would treat you as a pariah now but will one day wish they had met you. - Your very proud mother

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S3E12: Weird Mixed Messages

Unfortunately most of what I have managed to find is not from works on natural philosophy or magical theory - those seem to be the ones that were targeted - instead it comes from folkloric and mythic contexts. The texts tend to be opaque, whimsical and whatever truth they contain is often buried under layers of storytelling. There are however consistencies across stories and ballads and even the inconsistencies can provide us with information. For example “The Man Who Fell In Love With The Sun” and “Seaheart And The Westering Waters” both give accounts of people falling in love with elemental powers and having offspring who inherit both power and humanity but “Silver Handed Poko” describes elemental affinity being won in a bet and although“Turnabout Feng And The Windmill” is closer to an extended joke the titular character’s mastery of air is the consequence of being trapped in a windmill at a troll’s bidding for at least a year, presumably having little else to study. This lack of correlation or even unifying theme across these and other accounts I have found suggests to me that the origins of the bloodlines are lost to time. The earliest historical fragments we have refer to the founding of the Stone Empire by Zeres Stonefoot and these include some references to the power of the empire’s “Landwielder” magicians - I conjecture this power may well reflect the lineage of earth. If so, whatever created the lineages lies far beyond the reach of our records.