I use a simple list to keep me going on my new website. (aka my secret project). I use Zoho.com to keep most of my files. Its easy, free and I can access my documents anywhere. I tried Google docs and some other online word processors and didn’t like them. Here’s an example of my current “to do” list. Of course this changes weekly.
I’ve been trying out some really neat graphics packages that have free downloads from the Internet. Gimp has a nice interface and an animation feature called spinning globe. How appropriate in my current situation. Here’s what I created so far.
I made a video this morning called Scenes of Ebonyr I. I don’t have any music yet, but the next video should have some cinematic sound. Tell me what you think!
Again, I didnt have much time to work on Ebonyr this week. This weekend seems to be the opposite. I have set aside some time and so far have made the best of it.
I have developed and created each of the national maps for the human Five Kingdoms region. Here are some examples:
I also finished up the Inspired Book of Naveed. Here are some excerpts:
Glory to Naveed! His love and wisdom delivers from the slough of human
badness. He lifts us up where we long to be. He rescues us from the
storms of life. He shelters us from the sand-storms unleashed by those
who must yet learn. He calms the storm and makes men mend their way.
Glory to Naveed, and thanks to His grace. Ahmeen.
I’ve been working on a new religion of Ebonyr that will span part of the Meridian and Calera continents. It is the Faith of Naveed (used to be Moun). Here is a brief synopsis:
God worshiped: Naveed
Sacred colors: Green and Gold
Sacred symbol or animal: Moon, stars and the lion
Places of worship: Golden Domes or Golden tents
Worship days: 5th day of the week
Holy days/festivals: Festival of Reflection (10 days each year), Fasting day (5th day of the month), Day of Meditation (5th day of the 5th month).
Holy Writings: The Holy Book of Naveed and the book of Lessons.
Main teachings: Naveed teaches Truth, Naveed teaches Strength, Naveed teaches Faith, and Naveed teaches to train one’s body as well as one’s spirit.
Clerical Ranks: Supreme Alliant (Leader) (”His Exalted Excellency”) Grand Alliant (10 members of the Grand Council) (”Your Grand Holiness”) - They provide guidance, debate doctrine and laws, supervise the Alliants. Alliant (”Your Holiness”) - Supervise and teach the followers at the Golden Domes or Golden Tents. Master Caleegra (master teacher) (”master”) - Supervises religious schools and curriculum Caleegra (teacher) (”teacher”) - teaches selected followers of Naveed in doctrine and laws of the faith. Followers of Naveed, (Naveedians)
Holy Flag of Naveed:
I still need to work on a history, timeline, etc to make it complete.
Well, this week was a rough one at work. Part of it was my fault and of course, most other things are out of my control. You can only fight fires with the tools you are given.
From the note above, I didn’t have much time to work on my campaign setting, hence no blog. I did take a minute or two to jot down some ideas, which I will put to good use in the following weeks. This morning I finished up the map for Kutora, an African-like continent on Ebonyr. As I said in a previous post, I found the name at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. It must have been on one of the rides. Nevertheless, I thought it was great sounding name and snag, its mine! I have attached a thumbnail below.
The next item I will be working on is one of the religions called, Moun. It is a monotheistic faith that is very radical and unyielding its rules and dogma.
I saw a great video blog this morning from LPJ Design. This RPG PDF publisher always give out great tips and ideas about the RPG industry and how to break into it.
I had some free time this morning to work on the capital of Myrcia. I like how it turned out. I added some section names to the city to distinguish the rich, poor and commercial areas of the city.
My new website provider offers Google Gadgets on my site. I haven’t used them before so I looked them over. I see to many sites now that use all these gadgets for content. The website owner just wants traffic, when they didnt produce any original material to begin with.
With that rant over I have a song I created for Ebonyr, my campaign setting. I wanted an integrated mp3 player on the site, not just a link to a large file. The Google gadget was easy to find, configure and install.
I used Vision Jinx’s mp3 player to the site and added my music. You can add music and podcasts at anytime. The player has different skins and outlines to match your website colors and style.
Well, I finally had time to work on Ebonyr tonight. Instead of starting on the continent of Kutora, I decided to work on a city map for Theocracy of Myrcia. This nation-state is one of the Five Kingdoms of Meridia. Castlecliff is the capital and largest city. I have experimented with different maps styles and decided to use the Google maps type of maps. I draw a basic street map and then put points of interest to be filled in.
The next continent I will tackle this week is an Africa-like continent I am calling Kutora. I saw this name while I was Disney World. I guess it mean “way out land” in some african language.
So far I have most of the place names down. My desire it to create an environment that is like this worlds Africa, but more “fantasical”. I’m thinking about putting diffenrent types of elves, dwarves and other races into this land. I don’t really have my head wrapped around this one yet, but I’m getting there.
I’ve been inspired by Nyumbani is the fantastic setting of Charles R. Saunders’ original Imaro trilogy and Nyambe from Atlas Games. I want to take these two setting and twist them into a place that isnt “typical” of Africa, but yet invokes themes from the same.
