Fantastical History

Fantastical History covers the intersection of history and myth, and how this informs popular fiction and role-playing games (including my own).

[fantasticalhistory]

We have added some background about the Jinn Fantastical History.

The Go Action Fun Time Jinn Primer

[fantasticalhistory]

Goblins in Go Action Fun Time

Goblins in Go Action Fun Time

Go Action Fun Time is my table-top Role-playing game about super-heroes and time travel. Check it out! Theories persist that Goblins are a form of fairy, or if not, evolved from some form of burrowing monkey or perhaps even rodents. These are all in error. Goblins are a variant of humanity that split off from the main lineage sometime during the Pleistocene ice ages, finding shelter beneath the…

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[fantasticalhistory]

Go Action Fun Time at the Arizona Game Fair

Go Action Fun Time at the Arizona Game Fair

We will be at the Arizona Game Fair next weekend both vending and playing Go Action Fun Time. “We” is the UnObtanium Bazaar. But this weekend we is basically me. If you have business with Cheryl, she will still be in Las Vegas. We will have many books, but no garb. I am running three episodes at the Game Fair. You must be a registered, badged guest of the Fair to play. All of my games are…

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[fantasticalhistory]

The GAFT Fae Primer

The GAFT Fae Primer

General The Fae Folk of mythology occur across several different folklores and go by many, many names.  Fae includes fairies, pixies, sprites and elves. There are many sub-variants of each of these, many of which have made their way into folklore across the planet. Most of them can be sorted as subsets of one of the four types listed above. Before we start separating, let’s look at what they…

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[fantasticalhistory]

Deconstructing the Construct

Golem of Prague – from wikicommons Golems persisted for centuries as an obscure sidebar of Hebrew folklore until fantasy role-players discovered it. It went quickly out-of-hand. Construct is FRP speak for a robot made with magic. By this term we sometimes mean gargoyles or humonculi or animated statues, but mostly we mean golems. A golem, to follow the Hebrew folklore,  is a creature made of…

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[fantasticalhistory]

The Murky Origins of the Sea Devils

The Murky Origins of the Sea Devils

I have started work on Teeth and Talons II (a sequel to the extant Teeth and Talons Vol I) and I am using it as a preliminary Monster Manual for Go Action Fun Time. On my list are the Sea Devils or Sahaugin, which I supposed had some basis in established mythology. The truth of that is much murkier.While most creatures from Dungeons and Dragons have some traceable source in mythology, the…

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[fantasticalhistory]

Go Action Fun Time Remaining Episodes for season 1

Go Action Fun Time Remaining Episodes for season 1

Last played:  S1E9 Yes, That Lusitania.

UPCOMING:

S1 E10 “Mommy, Can I Keep them?”

The distant descendents of humanity view their ancestors as pets.

S1 E11 The Silk Road Part 2 – The beginning.

The first leg of the journey, and origins of the Tong.

S1 E12 How the West Was Shot to Hell

A long car chase from aliens and zombies and robots.

S1 E13 Fear and Loathing in Cibola

Mayan mythology is…

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[fantasticalhistory]

Notes from Leprecon 45

Notes from Leprecon 45

I was at Leprecon 45 last weekend, where I ran some games of Go Action Fun Time, and moderated a few panels. Normally I’d link to Lep45, but they have already transitioned their website to Lep46.

The excitement of Go Action Fun Time!

Before I share my notes from the panels, let me warn you that I do not take notes well as a moderator. I’m having to watch the panelists and the audience and you…

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[fantasticalhistory]

The Sad Princess

The Sad Princess, academically referred to as “H341 Suitor test: making the princess laugh” is, by my unofficial estimate the second best known Jack tale, and the only well known tale that does not end with a dead giant somehow.

The Russian version as represented in a New Jersey cut-out doll collection.

This folk tale is not peculiar to Jack. He is but one of many folk-tale protagonists inserted…

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[fantasticalhistory]

The Folklore base on Jack's Autobiography

The Folklore base on Jack’s Autobiography

My novel, Beanstalk and Beyond is really just a collection of folk and fairy tales strung together to form a novel. What those tales all had in common was the central character, Jack.

In transforming those tales into something coherent and readable by modern adults (officially, Jack is not a children’s book, but historical fantasy) I stretched these things well beyond their folkloric motifs.

So…

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[perkamentus]

mythology meme - one of seven queens: the lady of the lake

In the Arthurian legends, the Lady of the Lake was the foster-mother of Sir Lancelot and raised him beneath the murky waters of her Lake. She is, however, best known for her presentation to King Arthur of his magical sword Excalibur, through the intervention of the King’s druidic advisor, Merlin, who was constantly worried that his monarch would fall in battle. Merlin had met the Lady at the Fountain of Barenton and fallen so deeply in love with her that he agreed to teach her all his mystical powers. The lady became Merlin’s scribe, who recorded his prophecies, as well as his lover. Unfortunately however, over the years, the Lady became so powerful that her magical skills outshone even her teacher and she imprisoned him in Glass Tower. To some extent she stepped into Merlin’s role at King Arthur’s side, but the old man’s removal contributed considerably to the great monarch’s downfall. The Lady of the Lake was eventually obliged to reclaim her sword when Arthur was fatally wounded at the Battle of Camlann and Excalibur was hurled back to misty waters. She was later one of the three Queens who escorted the King to Avalon.

[danskjavlarna]

Two animals at ancient carved stone, Navsta, Torsvi, Uppland, Sweden, c. 1870s.  Courtesy of the Archives of the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Context: Weblog | Books | Videos | Music | Etsy

My standing collection of vintage monoliths.

[archaeologicalnews]

'Spectacular' ancient public library discovered in Germany

The remains of the oldest public library in Germany, a building erected almost two millennia ago that may have housed up to 20,000 scrolls, have been discovered in the middle of Cologne.

The walls were first uncovered in 2017, during an excavation on the grounds of a Protestant church in the centre of the city. Archaeologists knew they were of Roman origins, with Cologne being one of Germany’s oldest cities, founded by the Romans in 50 AD under the name Colonia. But the discovery of niches in the walls, measuring approximately 80cm by 50cm, was, initially, mystifying.

“It took us some time to match up the parallels – we could see the niches were too small to bear statues inside. But what they are are kind of cupboards for the scrolls,” said Dr Dirk Schmitz from the Roman-Germanic Museum of Cologne. “They are very particular to libraries – you can see the same ones in the library at Ephesus.” Read more.

[gnossienne]

The blood moon is framed by the statues of Hera and Apollo in Athens, 27 July 2018 (x)

[quarkmaster]

Nest

New artwork, haven’t posted in a while (like whole year lol) anyway so here’s my warm up piece after such long pause.

Rytis Sabaliauskas

[fantasticalhistory]

Notes from Leprecon 44

Notes from Leprecon 44

Last month I was part of Leprecon 44, a sci-fi/fantasy convention held in Phoenix.  I ran my game, moderated some panels, and took some notes.

I moderated a Game Master panel. You have to be careful with these, particularly if the panelists are all also game designers (3 out of 4 of us were) because we are likely to slip out of running a game and into designing a game, which is a different panel.…

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[henshinagogo-baby]

Arthurian Doodles.

Some of these were for the #神話版深夜の真剣お絵かき60分勝負 on twitter, if you want to check it out. It’s pretty fun to get to dedicate an hour to working on a piece!

Characters are in order from left to right as follows:

Gawain (1 hour), Lancelot

Kay, Igraine (1 hour), Bedivere (1hour),

Loholt, Mordred (1 hour)

Arthur (1 hour)

Edit in a link 2 other arthurian doodles here eventually for easier access

[fuckyeaharthuriana]

beautiful!!