Tag: Telse

  • An afternoon with Prva Metzr caretaker of the Everflow

    An afternoon with Prva Metzr caretaker of the Everflow

    Prva rows in the heat of a summer swelter. The water isn’t choppy. He’s still struggling a bit. Deep, pulling cuts to get to the Font of Two Paths quickly.

    Most of the other font-kids stay in when it’s this hot. Prva knows he can make a few coin, and safely because Vrda his river otter companion will splash through the lake to make it more comfortable.

    Most thems with birds and dogs won’t get the splashies. Vrda is the reason Prva can work a day with this sun.

    A quick j-stroke stops the boat, right near the Font. He tosses a knotted rope to the otter who chomps a big knotted end. Then the work of getting the jars ready starts.

    The image portrays a hand-drawn map on graph paper placed on a wooden surface. The map features various locations marked with labels and lines connecting them. It appears to depict a fantasy or fictional setting. On the left, "General Market" is written near several labeled areas including "Fallen Cottage," "Watch Tower," "Training Grounds," and "Barracks." A "West Road" branches out below these areas. In the center, there is a drawn area marked with wavy lines labeled "Inner Harbor of Tolse," surrounded by "Lake," "Forest," and a "Quarry Rubble." To the right, "Upper Telse" is written beside some abstract shapes. Additional labels scattered across the map include "Old Bridge," "New Mine," "Farm," and "Slaughter."

    Already set in order. Lids off. Getting them ready for pure waters of the Everflow direct from the Font as it falls from cliffside. An attempt to stay stable underneath kind of works, mostly because the little otter is pushing the small boat back towards the fall.

    Prva bows his head. His lips moving.

    That big rush of noise under the fall with the rough waters would obscure his words if anyone was close. No one is close though — the heat.

    They wouldn’t hear him anyway. He’s performing, not praying. He learned long ago that Quar didn’t care about prayers or belief. The pure waters heal.

    But he still pretends to pray. It’s a job. The performance matters.

    All the jars are full. Flip caps are on.

    Then the row back to Quar’s dock, where the acolytes hand the harvested Everflow off to the Orthodox Church of Quar. It’s a trip he’ll make a few more times today. There’s a small bonus when he’s willing and other ain’t.

    Boat isn’t his. That’s tied off for the next one to do the work, the jar racks now empty.

    Vrda crawls up the quay side. Dripping the waters of the lack behind them. They’re off for some fish and a chilled tisane of pine and limon from Daoud.

    Legendary magic was big and powerful, life changing. Modern magic is a cold drink on a hot day after heavy labor. Modern magic is also the ability to make oneself just a little big wet during the worst heats.

    This narrative slice of life was an attempt at Tuesday Afternoon, a technique to test world building to see if the created world makes sense for normal people.

    The image features a hexagonal grid map depicting a diverse terrain. The landscape includes mountains, forests, rivers, and bodies of water. Mountain ranges stretch across the northern, eastern, and western areas of the map, characterized by sharp, brown peaks. Forests, in varying shades of green, are spread throughout, with dense patches in the central and northern sections. Rivers snake through the terrain, connecting to blue coastal waters that line much of the western and southern borders. There are patches of reddish-brown terrain, suggesting arid regions or desert-like areas. The map is bordered by white space, emphasizing the land's irregular shape.
    Telse and the Western Wildes j

    Telse was the center of my first 5e campaigns. It is the source of the Everflow, the healing waters that feed into the Font of Two Paths. The Church of Quar controls access to the lake, the Font and the Everflow. That mercantile-faith is the origin of the common tongue in the World of the Everflow.

    Once part of the empire of Sheljar, Telse is now a free city like most of the Western Wildes. Both the Orthodox and Reformed Churches of Quar are based in the town. Despite being a small city or large town, Telse has embassies from the other kingdoms and free cities due to its healing waters.

    Prva Metzr is an acolyte of Quar with a river otter bonded companion named Vrda. Metzr is a human in their mid-20s. He considers his faith a job more than a duty or calling.

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  • Telse and the region of The Everflow

    Telse and the region of The Everflow

    I’ve had the great pleasure of playing with the alpha test of Fantastic Maps #HexAllTheThings. If you want to break the tool sign up here. The first thing I did to break it was make a larger than expected map of the Western Wildes, or those cities and towns that are primarily influenced by The Everflow.

    Telse, Mira, Qin and the other cities near the Everflow and its two rivers.
    Telse, Mira, Qin and the other cities near the Everflow and its two rivers.

    This image doesn’t include the Fog of War functions, nor the ability to see descriptions as part of the labels as the web version does. Thankfully for me, the region is temperate and mostly green trees. So the earliest of releases looks like what I want the area to look like.

    You can see the North River and South River coming out from the Font of Two Paths. There is also the devastation at the Ruins of Sheljar. That city didn’t handle the Awakening well. Though it’s only been 21 years the influx of cantrips into this city in the swamps lead to fighting and destruction. The area has been abandoned as many of the bridges, dikes and other bulwarks were destroyed. There are also now massive waves pounding the shores of Sheljar Bay.

    Those that followed the story of The Five will see the Glass Tower and the encampment where the Cult of Nak took residence. I used regional shading there to show areas that were effected by the volcano that Scholar Cortez set off. Along the road is the West Gate where Obsondites took over. There is regional shading there as well.

    Mira and Qin get some attention, but since their outlying communities are not common knowledge to the people of Telse they get no labels. Three of The Five are from Telse and its environs. Shonee grew up in the town itself. Aamar spent some time in the uplands discovering his faith. Mo hails from Fort Ooshar, a former Sheljar tax collecting town that Telse now controls so that their goods can get to Mira unmolested.

    Qin is defined by it’s massive harbor, the lighthouse and the Cannons of Qin. Those two towers at the mouth of the bay prevent attack from the sea. The road through the uplands is hard travel, and many will take the South River upstream on pole and paddle.

    Mira has more outlying towns and towers. With it being much closer to the River Crinth it has to use more of its might to prevent invasion and refugees from the Crinth/Azsel wars. There’s also an odd peninsula that I made just to test out how the automatic shorelines worked.

    These are fairly simple maps at this point. I used a scale of 24 miles across, because I wanted a moderate day of travel per hex. The scale change and actual gaming forced changes from my first hand drawn map. I’ve now started working on two other regions where other characters originate. Gate (Samul, Behn) is nearly done. The lakes along Crinth where Mansaray is from are still being developed, and may need to wait for more features.