Q&A: February
Hey gang. New feature here at Clockworks.
Over at Gunnerkreig Court, Tom Sidell is very cool about answering fan questions about the setting. There’s a thread on the forums where people can more or less ask anything and he’ll reply. I figured this would be a great idea to emulate here.
I’m loosening my original restrictions on what setting details I’d explain a bit. Originally, I didn’t want to detail anything in the blogs or wiki that was going to come up in the comic without bringing it up in the comic first. I’m revising that a bit. I’m still going to be incredibly vague or smart assed to any questions that play in to the story of Clockworks, but setting details I’m ok with revealing here first. So, if you want to know what the Mysterious Black Metal Device does or what Oliver’s history is, you are out of luck. If you’d like to know how magic works or more about San Khotal, you are in luck.
I’ll post a new Q&A blog post every month, and I’ll answer any questions truthfully if somewhat illusively in the comments below. Until we get a handle on how many questions I’ll get, please limit yourself to one or two questions per commenter.
Alright, let’s do this.
So why are the fae (and magic users in general) frowned upon and are being rounded up? Where do they go and what is done with them? (Totally fair to say that will be explained later.)
Let’s see… a couple of related things are going on. Magic and pointy eared strange people are both fairly new to the world of Vheld, and neither are particularly well understood or trusted. Mages first appeared during the Cataclysm, along with earthquakes, dangerous beasts, and more chaos. Faeblooded first appeared a few years later.
Ophelia’s Story in the archives gives a decent idea of why people would mistrust the fae and mages. They’re strange and powerful and no one knows where they came from or why.
While the Faeblooded are distrusted and shunned in the Great Republic, mages are in fact illegal. Due to the treaty reached 50 years ago, mages are rounded up and shipped off to the Free Islands of Vori. A lot of people in the Great Republic aren’t happy with this situation, since the more mages are shipped off, the more powerful the Free Islands become.
Additionally, some mages simply disappear after being discovered. Lukov’s gang was capturing mages (and others?) and selling them in to some unknown fate. As for where they ended up and why, you’d have to ask Lukov, and he’s not talking.
Hmm… Speaking of the Faeblooded, any inspiration from World of Darkness’ Changeling: The Lost? I know the books themselves are based on folk tales and stuff, so it could very easily just be a coincidence. Actually, I’m not sure how much you designed yourself and how much was in the original setting, so that’s another question. Obviously Faeblooded aren’t from the original setting, but how much did you keep?
It is Gunnerkrig Court by Tom Sidell. There was an extra “e” added to the syllable.
Clockworks is the better comic!
Ocelorean – the Faeblooded existed in my head before C:tL, but that game certainly helped shape their varied forms. While their situation is almost reversed (Ophelia/Toby/et al would be closer to Fetches from C:tL than the Changelings) you could easily run an all Faeblooded game using C:tL instead of Savage Worlds.
(As an aside, I’d love to run a short Promethean game set in Clorencia City. Think it would be very cool.)
Thorton always wears a red sash. Does this article of clothing have any significance?
Promethean in a steampunk setting does seem rather fitting, now that you mention it.
I have another question, if I’m allowed more than one. Do you write all the dialog yourself, or is some of it based on actual conversations your gaming group had?
J- perhaps.
O- mostly all new. The actual games happened so long ago I rarely remember any of the exact conversations. I try to stay true to the characters voice though.
I’m interested in the whole idea of Clorencia City being built up like a layer cake.
– What is the geography of the area around Clorencia City like? Does the city rely a lot on natural geography to hold it up, or does the wonder of ether-powered steam devices manage to hold the entire place up?
– is it a stepped cake style (like a round Mayan temple), an inverted stepped cake (each section larger than the one below it), is it pretty straight all the way up?
– How does sunlight get in, if it does at all?
– Do the outer walls have massive flying buttresses?
– What would it look like to the visitor coming to town for the first time, following the main routes to CC?
Delayed answer time!
Clorencia City sits in a valley on the edge of the Hettan Mountains. It was originally built on a large river whose name is on a map somewhere and I don’t remember. As they built the city upwards, they actually dammed off the river, and redirected it around the city, with pipes leading in to water processing plants.
It’s shaped essentially like a giant pyramid. The larger levels tend to be wider than the higher levels, and the higher levels also tend to be individually taller than the lower levels. The 5th level for example, is about 150 to 200 feet high, the first is maybe half that, and the 10th is closer to 300 feet tall.
The Great Machine (which is in reality several thousand devices) holds the city up. The layers are built using Electromagnetic Negativity, an ether powered science that’s also used to make airships fly.
Sunlight seeps in the side. Most levels have lights built in to the bottom of the level above it, which power on at sunrise and wind down at sunset, to be replaced by street level lanterns. It’s not a perfect solution, but it helps.
I’d imagine there are a few massive flying buttresses on the lower levels, but they’ve largely been replaced. You can see bits of the support beams/machines holding the city up in some of the background shots in the comic.
http://shawntionary.com/clockworks/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/00010huge.png
http://shawntionary.com/clockworks/?p=872
To someone travelling towards Clorencia City, it looks much like it’s nickname “the black mountain”, a huge metal metropolis towering over the nearby hills and mountains. Depending on the wind or lack thereof, the city is sometimes shrouded in a haze of coal smoke, giving it it’s other nickname “the grey cloud”.
Yea delayed answers!