…The Thousand Son [Space Marine] intoned words of power and an ellipsis of light burned into the deck plate. The Prosperine hieroglyphics on his staff flared bright vermillion. Spinning the staff around, Mhotep drove the scimitar into it pommel first and it became a spear. — Battle for the Abyss, Chapter 7| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Just over 200 words, which is my usual fragment size. Elmö’s Obligation| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Vir Cotto, in a dream: Prophecy is a guess that comes true. When it doesn’t, it’s a metaphor. — “The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari” – Babylon 5, Season 5 (1998)| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
I realized that I had not looked at my website traffic statistics in almost a year. I have web server access logs going back to 2018, so I can compile quite a comprehensive report. My usual report is most popular (non-index) URLs. The latest Top 20 shocked me. Here they are: 3774 /387/book-excerpt/money-in-medieval-england-and-france 2065 /101/book-excerpt/origins-of-european-army-ranks […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
…I don’t think that every class should get a raft of soldiers. The cleric should get less soldiers and more zealots and believers, but probably this was a bit creepy for the 1979 company [that published Dungeons & Dragons]…. I can cheerfully allow an “evil” cleric player character to gain eighty or so deranged, murderous […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Excerpts from books, films, television, and other websites to inspire your role-playing. Also original fiction, game design ideas, and commentary.| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
This is the collection of RPG links I have recently shared on my Mastodon account. Fracture Your God: Clerical Variety through Orders, Sects, and Schisms [Ludus Ludorum] The Burning Dead [Spriggan’s Den] Enabling Curse of Strahd as a Sandbox [Dreams in the Lich House] abrakadabra [hex culture] 6 Types of Fear And How to Use […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
My…tutelage with the mist began, in earnest, only after I loosened my soul and softened my piercing gaze. Until then my eyes did not allow me to see the magic of life around me. In time, however, I slowly came to understand that when approaching nature and spirit, one must enter these realms with a […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
I have never been a fan of the chromatic and metallic dragons of Dungeons & Dragons, even when ignoring the Alignment aspect. Great variety but otherwise lacking both depth and need, in my opinion. Red dragons are the closest to traditional European mythology: flying fire breathers. That seems sufficient—with one exception. Regarding Alignment, something recently […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Nothing more clearly illustrates the power of war as a culture-shaping force than the eerie parallels between feudal Japan and feudal Europe. Both societies rested on the labor of relatively unfree peasants, and both were ruled by hereditary warrior classes—knights in Europe and bushi, or samurai, in Japan—representing, or at least serving, the landed aristocracy. […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Galen: …No, not a dream, a nightmare. And if sometimes dreams come true, then what of our nightmares? — “Babylon 5: A Call To Arms” (1999)| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Fighting on horseback with lance, sword, and heavy armor did not necessarily make a knight out of a soldier, even during the early period. Other mounted and nonmounted soldiers coexisted in the immediate retinue of the knight (the “lance”) or as independent or semi-independent units of mounted sergeants, or routiers. The retinue of a knight […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Another factor that strengthened the unity of the early village was the temple and its service. The immigrants from the north either brought with them or developed not long after their arrival an abiding faith in one special deity as the protector of their settlement, and with the building of their first houses they also […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Excerpts from books, films, television, and other websites to inspire your role-playing. Also original fiction, game design ideas, and commentary.| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Excerpts from books, films, television, and other websites to inspire your role-playing. Also original fiction, game design ideas, and commentary.| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
There is another detail that recurs on many stones, almost the only exception to the otherwise crude depiction of the heroes’ bodies. Time and again, the fingers of the warrior-hero’s hands are shown outstretched, explicit and bigger than-life-size. His hands seem to matter more than any other part of his body, perhaps because they were […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Sonny Crockett: [looking at a mutilated corpse of a man of Thai heritage in the morgue.] This mutilation: it looks too calculated not to mean something…. Martin Castillo: It does mean something. It says the killer was a Thai assassin; this is his signature. It says its victim defied a very, very important man…. It’s […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
This is the collection of RPG links I have recently shared on my Mastodon account. Curses [DMiurgy] The Fellow Manifesto [Delving Wolf] 5 Real Ancient Rituals for your D&D Game [Dump Stat Adventures] In Bali, water temple priests guide a sustainable rice production system [Mongabay] Pulp Heroes and Damage [Akratic Wizardry]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Ankokuji Eikei…had his hiding-place revealed by a Ronin, who bore him a grudge for turning his former master out of his fief…. How gratified [Tokugawa Ieyasu] was may be gathered from his presenting ten pieces of gold to the Ronin, who at first emphatically refused to take it, declaring that his motive was only the […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Excerpts from books, films, television, and other websites to inspire your role-playing. Also original fiction, game design ideas, and commentary.| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
The Sumerians invented kingship, priesthood, diplomacy, law, and war. They gave the West its founding stories: the opposition of darkness and light at the Beginning; the Flood, with its ark and dove and surviving patriarch; the tower of Babel; the distant ancestors of Odysseus and Hercules. The Sumerians established the outlines of our political, legal, […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Excerpts from books, films, television, and other websites to inspire your role-playing. Also original fiction, game design ideas, and commentary.| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Excerpts from books, films, television, and other websites to inspire your role-playing. Also original fiction, game design ideas, and commentary.| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Excerpts from books, films, television, and other websites to inspire your role-playing. Also original fiction, game design ideas, and commentary.| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
