A little while ago, in December I believe, I said that I would be attempting to be doing more World Anvil based articles, mental and physical health allowing. For those who don’t know, to quote from their page: 

“World Anvil is a set of worldbuilding tools that helps you create, organize and store your world setting. With wiki-like articles, interactive maps, historical timelines, an RPG Campaign Manager and full novel-writing software, we have all the tools you’ll need to run your RPG Campaign or write your novel!”.

As such, these blog posts will be made and published on World Anvil in addition to here, as a way of keeping track of things and building up links and so on. I do need to go through them, update and so on, but for now, it is perfect as an external repository for the “theme of the week” articles. 

This weeks theme is “Books” and as before, these articles are set in my homebrew Fantasy/Tech world of Easthalen, but feel free to use them as ideas and inspiration for your games and stories.

(In)Famous Books

Books are something that, depending on the individual, can be an incredible resource, or a waste of materials. Most people, even those who can’t read (for any valid reason), at least have an appreciation or understanding that they contain information that others would find valuable. There are so many types and styles of books out there (and from hereon, will be using the term “book” to apply to tomes, pamphlets or any other item used to record information in a handy movable format) that to list them all would be nigh on impossible. Some of these books types range from dictionaries to recipe books, to books that contain arcane knowledge or the direct word of various deities to their chosen followers. Today, will be highlighting some of the more famous, or even infamous, books that can be found in Easthalen.  

Fiction

 Probably the most famous of fictional titles in Easthalen is a children’s book, or more correctly, a series of books. Called “Mouses Adventures” by R.J Bimblebottom (pen name), it deals with the adventures across the world as the mouse-based protagonist (it is never made clear if the main character is a mouse or a member of a humanoid mouse-like species) travels the world, exploring and getting into all types of scrapes and helping out the people they encounter. Of this series, the most popular is “Funtimes in Franner  ” when Mouse gets to meet some very famous people and even comes face to face with one of the deities that reside in Halen’s Cathedral  . However, with popularity comes those who dislike or even actively hate a children’s book. Some believe it is a propaganda piece designed to give a sanitised view of the world. The fact the author is using a pen name is often used as evidence to corroborate this theory. Others say that it is vapid and simple, forgetting that it was written for those of a younger age.   Regardless of the views on the title, pretty much everyone can agree that it’s the most famous of the fictional titles out there. Some other famous titles include :

• “My Dragon is missing!” – A comedy about a lost dragon statue.
• “When I see Deklan I’m gonna give him a kick in the unmentionables” – A tale about a grieving widow who wishes to visit the Deklan – Death and Endings   and kick him in the soft bits after losing her wife and children.
• “The Dawn of Light” – A multi-volume ongoing series of books (current count 19) about a family of spellcasters and their ongoing feud against their cousins, a collective of technology worshipers.
• “Red Mountain” – A cautionary tale of why the area known as The Bleed  is so dangerous.

Non-Fiction

Non-fiction titles can be even more controversial than fictional ones. The logic goes that “at least fictional titles are just that…fictional. But these claim to be objective fact!” Of these, the most infamous is “The Worlds Beyond the Barrier” by Jayne Goldsmelter, a gnomish explorer, who in her youth claims to have explored the Great Barrier  and found worlds beyond. This may not sound that controversial in a realm where places like the Astral Sea, Planes of Fire and so on are known. No, what made the book be banned in some places was the claim, along with “evidence” that any of the other planes of existence are, in fact, part of one multiverse, where there are realms that have their version of the Sea of Stars, their version of the so-called “Prime” plane and so on, each separate with many overlaps etc occurring. The final chapter of the book claims that is a so-called “Omni-Verse” that links the multiverses together. The book goes on to say that other multiverses exist and that travel to them is possible but very hard, if not impossible. Many scholars and explorers have tried to duplicate her methods of crossing the barrier and everyone has failed in quite a spectacular and messy fashion. It is for this reason that many places have banned this book, as those banning the book say that is as dangerous to encourage young explorers to cross the deadly Barrier. The most famous case, and the one that brought this book to the attention of others ironically, was when the child of a noble died, along with all but one of their large party. Other infamous books include:

• “A Beginners Guide to Beguilement and Enchantment” – A misleading name for a tome that gives readers a way to defend themselves against mind-based magic.
• “Recipes of the Planes” – A detailed recipe book that gives details on food and drinks from across the planes. The first printing, of which very few are left, was written in multiple languages and some …questionable…ingredients, like living sentient beings
• “Stormthunder” – A history of the life of a controversial military figure in the EDAs history, one General Thoas “Stormthunder” Selvin, known for one of the most bloody massacres in the history of the nation, which tries to paint the general in a sympathetic light rather than a person who many regards as a monster.

The World Anvil Page for the article listed above can be found HERE.

Unless said otherwise, all World Anvil Articles are set in, or related to , Easthalen – My home brew campaign world, details of which can be found HERE.

A list world building prompts & questions can be found HERE.