Tuesday, 7 April 2015

Selkie will seal the deal.



  In codifying the selkie, seal people, for Horn of the Kraken I drew heavily on the original myths out of Scotland Ireland and Faroese. It came as a happy coincidence that the myth was especially common on the Orkney Islands where Fjorn was born and raised. The myths for the most part are variants on the theme of the fairy bride where the fey wife lives for a span of years with her human husband than because of a circumstance, in the case of the Selkie the regaining of her seal skin, returns to life in her other realm.
    Looking at the world of Horn of the Kraken I felt the Selkie would have distinct advantages in their seal form that could be played to good effect and the game frame work for the Ulfhednar, wolf warrior, could be copied to make a playable character.
    In the myth when the selkie recovers it’s seal skin it vanishes into the sea never to return, although sometimes they come back to check on their children, thus to be true to the myth I put in the clause regarding level division that I think is unique to the denizens in the Fate of the Norns system.
     As the story developed I added the Okra call and worked Okra in as the physical embodiment of the transition to the afterlife. This came about by looking at early human cultures. Often the creature that posed a threat or prowled the graveyard was made the guide to the dead. For example in the Egyptian system Anubis, a jackal headed god, is the guide to the dead, and travels of all kinds.
    I made the section of taking a dead silkie’s hide out of whole cloth, but I felt it added to the nobility of the creatures that they would use the dead to grant full life to the living. I’ve signed my organ donor card and told my loved ones of my wishes, have you? Thus the modern day parallels a historic fantasy.

Crowd sourcing:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/horn-of-the-kraken/x/10328491
 

PENDELHAVEN
http://twitter.com/avalkauskas
FATE OF THE NORNS
http://www.fateofthenorns.com
http://www.facebook.com/fateofthenorns
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=3107

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