I have cut this from a post I made on another forum a year or so ago. The idea was to have a long term project that would provide a stimulus to paint something (as I can never quite finish several units of the same type but painting quite unique characters that I can lavish time on might not seem so onerous). I still have no idea as to what rules I would use. I think they require an element of high magic, they don't need to have too much internal logic to them as the land is truly fantastical and so all things are possible. The different units need to be highly individual, we could have ogres and terrible beasts, but also tiny fairies and sentient woodland creatures.
There are many figures of many scales that would be appropriate for this project. What I lack is a rules system. I like Dragon Rampant, but I don't think it will give me what I want for this particular project.
Since writing the original post we have moved out of our tiny rental house and are now in our new house, complete with a wargames room. I have managed to play a few games and even paint a few figures, but have again come back to this idea.
This introduction is slightly rambling, and so I lead into my original post:
Warning - this is a long and somewhat rambling post. I suspect my further posts here will be of a similar nature.
At the moment I am going through a stage of extreme indifference to wargaming. I think this is in part to not having gamed much in the last year, not really finding a set of rules that suit me, and being in a teeny, tiny, cold and miserable rental house while we wait for our house to be built. In the now spare time I don’t spend on wargaming I now read more and listen to more music. Now, I have always been a fan of Queen since I was perhaps thirteen or so, and have started listening again to their music. In Queen and Queen II there is a distinctly fantastical overtone, partly through songs pertaining to Rhye and partly through songs such as Ogre Battle and The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke. This got me thinking whether this could be the basis of a campaign world for fantasy gaming and might be a slow simmering project that might get my wargames mojo back. So I started to Google Rhye and the early Queen albums. One surprising thing to come out of this was a thread on a games forum where one person had already thought of this (
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=81458&page=2). In this, they sought to tie in other Queen songs. I think I would try to keep a more coherent narrative. I also found this rather interesting thesis about religion and spirituality in Queen’s music (
http://allofqueen.on.ufanet.ru/book/chapter6.html). To me this seems to be straining things a bit, but raises some novel ideas; White Queen (As it Began) was written by May and he has said it was about a girl he wanted to ask out but was too shy and she was never aware of him (hence the line “She cannot see”); and Taylor felt The Seven Seas of Rhye had no particular meaning and didn’t really make sense.
So, for now, I am thinking about several things: 1.What figures would I use? 2. What rules would work? 3. None of the songs give a detailed narrative and leave them open to interpretation; who are the main protagonists? What is their nature? What does the land of Rhye look like?
For my first post I would like to try to consider the main characters. I use the word deity here to describe a being of power and mysticism, not necessarily a creator or the object of religious worship.
The Fairy King – seems to be a benevolent, powerful, and magical ruler. Is he also the King of Rhye, or is this another character. He was all-powerful, but his magic has faded. I see him a bit like Aslan in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe – a distant king of all the land, an over king of other smaller petty kingdoms.
The King of Rhye – In Lily of the Valley we hear that “the King of Rhye has lost his crown”. A messenger from Seven Seas bears the news to the king. Is he absent when he is deposed?
The White Queen – I see her as essentially good in nature, but her sadness leads to her being withdrawn and unaware of the plight of her people. It is likely that she is a creature that is not entirely of this world and this also contributes to her not “seeing” the needs of this world (Rhye). Perhaps a “sky deity”. She is loved by her people who are dismayed at her despair and fear for her.
The Black Queen – Also a semi-divine being, but unlike the White Queen, she is a spirit of the earth. The Black Queen is evil. She is majestic, beautiful, alluring, but also terrible. I don’t see her as sensuous or voluptuous. Hers is a hard, almost alien, beauty.
This is not perfect for how I see the Black Queen. Needs more flowing robe and needs more formal hair and head dress.
The New Lord – For now I have no clear name for this character. He is a new deity that comes at the end of the chaos and wars in Rhye. He brings back order and ends strife while also purging the corrupt rulers and politicians. Therefore, he could be seen as good. But there is also brutality towards his enemies and a lack of mercy. For this character see the lyrics for Seven Seas of Rhye.
The avenging angel look is about right. He is just, but terrible.
If we bring into this realm The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke we also get the characters of Oberon, Titania, and Queen Mab as well as the Fairy Feller himself. I am unsure how they would fit in to the story. The King of Rhye and the White and Black Queens are possibly territorial monarchs whereas Oberon, Titania and Queen Mab have no territory, but are rulers over certain magical beings who do not acknowledge the boundaries of the other kingdoms and freely travel from one place to another.
That seems enough rambling for now. Any ideas would be welcome.
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April 27, 2024, 06:43:04 PM
May 16, 2009, 08:59:18 AM