Paridon Gazetteer

Boccaccio Barbarossa · Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:43 pm

Llana wrote:Bikes could also be the simple celeriferes, which was invented in 1790/91. Very bizarre- you couldn't steer them.

I've been reading Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton recently. I prefer her to Dickens; she gives more details about daily life during that time. One of the horrible things she relates is the prominence of opium in the first half of the century. It was very cheap and legal. Mothers unable to feed their kids 'soothed' them with the drug and it was apparently one of the major sources of infant mortality.

There was also gin in the baby bottle, and I remember how smoking tobacco was also good for your health at the time. Any other bits of 'medecine' and folk remedies anyone can think up?

Sidetrack - I also liked Gaskell. I Have only read North and South, but I thought it was alright (for Victorian Realist fiction, anyways.

)

I actually thought it was one of the better ones, though. (Also agreed - Dickens is not all he's cracked up to be!)

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drugs: There was an entire culture of laudanum addicts in the first half of the century - with guys like Coleridge and John Keats right up at the top of the lst. In fact, may Romantic poets LOPVED the stuff, though not all were disfunctional addicts. I think that "slumming it" to go to an opium den might be a great little Paridon thing to do... and who knows what strange narcotic substances the Divinity of Mankind are likely to experiement with? And, in keeping with the whole medecine thing: many of these drugs are, of course, used for medical purposes under other guises, so I think that, where Mordenheim might have the monopoly obn patching people up, I think that Paridonners would be pharmaceutical "experts", with many rickety stall selling snake oil tonics that somehow stop hair loss, cure consumption and will make members of the opposite sex fall in love with you.

Pamela · Post by **Pamela** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 5:10 am

I do have to admit that I do prefer both Eliot and Gaskell any day to Dickens. Good to know I'm not alone there!

And Boccacio, DEFINITELY grab Mary Barton; it still has melodrama (an unfortunate staple of Victorian literature) but it really is a pretty grim book; it reminds me of Grapes of Wrath, believe it or not...

After I'd posted, I remembered snuff (can't remember what the heck that was for), smelling salts and leeches. The snake-oil merchants are an excellent idea, especially with a port that brings in real drugs from everywhere. Remember how Coca Cola started as a tonic, and breakfast cereal as a...well...regulator?

And on non-drug levels, there's always my favourite field of phrenology...

Undead Cabbage · Post by **Undead Cabbage** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 2:32 pm

Although keep in mind of the topic of substances that Paridon can recieve imports from a vide variety of places.

I can see Riverside having a couple of opium dens. Of course, opium may not be the only substance around there. We might make a sidebar stating that Riverside herb shops offer specimens that would normally only be found in abstract areas.

A neat scenario I've used in the past for Opium.

Opium, like many other drugs, has a slang called 'Magic'. When the players walked into a shop, and the store keeper says to them 'Hey, you fella's into Magic?', they naturally think that they had stumbled upon a crafter of the arcane arts, especially when the shop owner conitnues saying 'I assure you my friends, its pure quality magic from the magical land of Hazlan. No cheap alternatives, just the real stuff'. In the back of the shop, the shop owner offers them a pipe. If the players refuse, the shop owner snaps his fingers for his guards to keep them put. If the players accept, they pay an outrageous price for the Opium, and risk addiction.

Undead Cabbage · Post by **Undead Cabbage** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:07 am

Question, do the Frat Gazetteers follow the same lay out as the 'S' gazeteers? Ala Landscape, Flora, Fauna, etc?

Jester of the FoS · Post by **Jester of the FoS** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 6:03 pm

Nope. Close but not, hence why we're asking people to wait for the next week or so until the Souragne Gaz is released.
But look for the rough section headings in the sticky post.

Undead Cabbage · Post by **Undead Cabbage** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:55 am

On this note,

If (and this is if, I'm not quite calling dibs) no one writes the remaining sections in Part II, I don't mind taking them. But otherwise they are still up for grabs. Just know that they won't be left unfinished. Anyone should feel free to take them, as I already have a good portion of this Gaz by doing part I. But in the event that no one does, then I'll act as the back up writer for them.

Le Noir Faineant · Post by **Le Noir Faineant** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 11:19 am

Just a side note:

If you're going to use literary quotes as the introductions to the several chapters, you might consider taking a look at *The City of Dreadful Night* by James Thomson.

It's a pretty spooky gothic poem about a cursed city...

Undead Cabbage · Post by **Undead Cabbage** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:35 pm

Back on the note of technology,

I don't know if it matters much, but I was just reading the Richmelot Gaz, and apparently Richemlot, a CL8 realm, as at least some steam powered paddleboats. The second paragraph of the landscape section mentions them.

Would this possibly calm any fears of putting steam powered boats in Paridon?

Jasper · Post by **Jasper** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:57 pm

I like the idea of steam power in the factories and docks but I don't see steam powered boats but only due to that fact that Paridon dosen't have that much in the way of water ways. If you equate Paridons main river to the river Thames at London then at its widest it should only be less then a mile across and only about ten or so miles long before disapearing into the mists.

Thats too short to realy need the faster steam powered boats to move up and down it and when it reaches the sea steam powered boats of that time are not feasable on oscean voages (Nothing is worsr then going off corse and being stranded in the middle of the oscean as your last shovel full of coal is used up.)

Undead Cabbage · Post by **Undead Cabbage** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:58 pm

This is a good point, jasper. Think there might be steam powered boats for trade with other realms?

Or, this considered, could this potentially make Rene's steam powered engine more of a reality?

Jasper · Post by **Jasper** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 3:23 pm

Think there might be steam powered boats for trade with other realms?

Or, this considered, could this potentially make Rene's steam powered engine more of a reality?

Most definitely. I see a three way trade pattern forming over this- Richemulot buys raw iron and coal from Lamordia and refines it, Paridon buys the refined metal and makes all the mechanical parts nessary to build steam powered engines then ships those parts to Lamordia to be assembled by the craftsmen there. Finaly they float the ships downriver to be sold back to Richemulot.

Undead Cabbage · Post by **Undead Cabbage** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 4:27 pm

Most definitely. I see a three way trade pattern forming over this- Richemulot buys raw iron and coal from Lamordia and refines it, Paridon buys the refined metal and makes all the mechanical parts nessary to build steam powered engines then ships those parts to Lamordia to be assembled by the craftsmen there. Finaly they float the ships downriver to be sold back to Richemulot.

OOOOoo, I like what Jasper has proposed here.

Also, there was thought of a relationship between Nosos and Paridon. Malus Schlerus is cursed to constantly have natural resources growing in his realm, and so he tries to exploit them as much as possible. Paridon, on the other hand, is very short of these resources, and so the two are perfect for each other. The catch is that all resources from Nosos risk the chance of obtaining Disease. William has some stuff on this in a Dread possibility.

Considering the prescence of steam power already in a Cultural level 8 realm, is there any reason NOT to have the train in Paridon? I believe the reason before was due to Paridon's canon CL not being too low for it, and yet we see a CL 8 society with such technology. I honestly don't see where it would be going against canon to have the train. But if anyone could point out where it would, please do.

Rotipher of the FoS · Post by **Rotipher of the FoS** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 1:55 pm

Hey, folks! I know you've gotten way past the topic of Sodo, and that I'm not a "Paridon Gaz" team-member, but I was re-reading the early part of this thread, and I had a creepy idea for something to give Sodo another secret he's hiding from the world. Use it or ignore it or tear it apart, as you see fit:

Remember how Sodo murdered his clan-elder to claim the previous leader's status for himself? What if that elder's long-dead, dessicated body is still in Sodo's possession, and Paridon's darklord has been periodically resurrecting his predecessor as a combination whipping-boy and advisor? Perhaps Sodo isn't really as brilliant a leader as he pretends to be, when it comes to making critical decisions -- high mental ability scores aren't a sure-fire guarantee you'll always know what to do, after all -- so he has to keep bringing back his original victim, interrogating the elder, and then re-committing his seminal crime, by murdering the resurrected elder all over again to silence his victim's accusations?

This would give Sodo something much more sordid to keep secret from the other dopplegangers: an intraclan murder hundreds of years ago may not mean much to them anymore, even if they do know about it, but a treacherous killing he keeps on committing might just be another story ... particularly if it gets the others wondering if he'll do the same to them after their deaths -- even though they'd served him faithfully -- if he finds their posthumous opinions similarly-useful. Having his followers discover this would lead to the very overthrow he dreads, yet the elder's opinions -- and the chance to gloat over his original victim, each time he kills his former leader over again -- is too important for him to forfeit, by destroying the elder's body.

It would also give him a similar "What if?" escape-clause option, to those of other darklords -- What if Strahd just left Tatyana to live out her own life? What if Azalin gave up and let Irik stay dead? -- that would make his own darklord status a bit less jarring and incongruous. If Sodo brought the elder back to life and let his predecessor reclaim the leadership of the doppleclan -- something Sodo, like his fellow-darklords, is far too warped to consider -- his curse might cease to bind him, also.

It's not something precedented in old canon materials ... but neither was Alfred Timothy's curse in GazIV, and that was another thing that an underdeveloped villain needed, to really feel like a darklord. Every lord ought to have something that rubs their original crimes in their faces, over and over, and making Sodo reluctantly dependent on instructions from his very first doppleganger-victim would provide that. Plus, it'd give a more sophisticated basis for the DPs' having granted him his touch of healing/resurrection, in the first place, besides making bare-handed murder impossible for him to savor: it's not the joy of strangling people they're cheating him of; it's the satisfaction of feeling that he's the one who comes up with the most important plans and ideas, not the elder he'd slaughtered so long ago.

Undead Cabbage · Post by **Undead Cabbage** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 1:23 pm

It's a neat idea Roti, and thank you for giving it.

I don't know what the others think, because the project is kind of on stand still until the Souragne Gaz comes out. It's certainly an interesting interpretation of Sodo.

What we were initially planned for Sodo's constant reinacting of his crimes was that he constantly have his underlines meet 'accidents' out of his paranoia that they will try to assasinate him. What Sodo doesn't realize is that Dopplegangers, generally speaking, don't kill other dopplegangers; it's only Sodo that does that. However, since Sodo has killed other dopplegangers, he naturally assumes that other Dopplegangers will do so as well. If Sodo were to ever just stop being afraid, and perhaps get over his obsession over secruity, then his curse could potentially be broken. It's highly unlikely he would ever do that, since he likes his secruity way too much.

It would add a neat dimension, though, for him to be consulting with the spirit of an elder doppler. I'm not so sure about this being the focus of his curse. Tobias broke the mold when he reccomended that Sodo's curse be his paranoia. It's a theme that works well both with the character's background, and the realm itself.

Jasper · Post by **Jasper** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 1:38 pm

I can't help but feel this should be a page starter quote...

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

For What It's Worth, Buffalo Springfield

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Paridon Gazetteer