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Post by jasonzavoda on Jul 27, 2012 7:03:45 GMT -6
Vance's Dying Earth, Reference Notes
References Notes from Vance's Tales of The Dying Earth - Orb Omnibus Edition - Pg#3-4
(The Beautiful Female Body) - [MON]
...whose intestines trailed out into the nutrient solution like seeking fibrils...
Turjan's creation
Pg#4
(The Boneless Creature) [MON]
The pulsing surface of its brained exposed...
Turjan's creation
Pg#3
(Call to the Violent Cloud) - [SPL]
Pg#4
(The Creature in the Cage) - [MON]
(Turjan's creation)
It was a thing to arouse pity - a great head on a small spindly body with weak rheumy eyes and a flabby button of a nose. The mouth hung slackly wet, the skin glistened waxy pink...
Pg#3
(Derna) - [RVR]
River
Pg#3
(Embelyon, Land of) - [PLC]
Where Pandelume dwells
Pg#4
(The Inverted Inside-Out Creature) [MON]
Turjan's creation
Pg#4
(Miir) - [CSTL]
Turjan's Castle
Pg#3
(Pandelume) - [NPC]
"There is one called Pandelume, who knows all the spells, all the incantations, cantrips, runes and thaumaturgies that have ever wrenched and molded space..."
"He dwells in the land of Embelyon... but where this land lies, no one knows."
One may ask anything of Pandelume, and Pandelume will answer - provided that the seeker performs the service Pandelume requires, and Pandelume drives a hard bargain.
Pg#4
(Sage) - [NPC]
Pg#4
(Spells) - [SPL]
In ages gone a thousand spells were known to sorcery. Today a hundred spells remain to man's knowledge...
He stared down at the characters and they burned with an urgent power, pressing off the page as if frantic to leave the dark solitude of the book.
Turjan closed the book, forcing the spell back into oblivion.
Pg#4
(The Thing All Eyes) - [MON]
Turjan's creation
Pg#3
(Turjan of Miir) - [NPC]
Pg#3
Turjan's brain could know but four at a time... (spells)
...robed himself with a short blue cape, tucked a blade into his belt, fitted the amulet holding Laccodel's Rune to his wrist.
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Post by Finarvyn on Jul 28, 2012 5:05:44 GMT -6
Really cool, Jason. Do you plan to do anything with this (run a game, write a module, whatever?) or is it just an academic activity? Like it either way.  |
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Post by jasonzavoda on Jul 28, 2012 8:19:38 GMT -6
Really cool, Jason. Do you plan to do anything with this (run a game, write a module, whatever?) or is it just an academic activity? Like it either way. It will take me a few months to compile the notes at the leisurely pace I'm working on them, then when they are complete I can post a Reference Encyclopedia for the Vance stories. That can be used for anyone wanting to take some of the people, places, monsters, magic items, spells etc... and use them in their campaign or to aid in running a Dying Earth RPG campaign. If anyone notices mistakes or omissions from my reference notes then I can correct them as I go along rather than after they are compiled into the encyclopedia as a whole. I'm also hoping to encourage people to read Vance's stories if they haven't done so already, or to re-read them. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2012 17:45:30 GMT -6
A worthy cause Jason, have an Exalt.  |
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Post by jasonzavoda on Jul 29, 2012 4:59:32 GMT -6
Pg#5-6
(After-World) - [PLC]
"Have I been brought high, low, into pre-existence or into the After-World?"
Pg#6
(Call of the Violent Cloud) - [SPL]
... uttered the Call of the Violent Cloud.
All was quiet; then came a whisper of movement swelling to the roar of great winds. A wisp of white appeared and waxed to a pillar of boiling black smoke. A voice deep and harsh issued from the turbulence.
"At your disturbing power is this instrument come; whence will you go?"
"Four directions, then one," said Turjan. "alive must I be brought to Embelyon."
The cloud whirled down; far up and away he was snatched, flung head over heels into incalculable distance. Four directions was he thrust, then one, and at least a great blow hurled hom from the cloud, sprawled him into Embelyon.
Pg#5
(Embelyon) The Land None Knows Where - [PLC]
He stood on the bank of a limpid pool. Blue flowers grew about his ankles and at his back reared a grove of tall blue-green trees, the leaves blurring on high into mist. Was Embelyon of Earth? The trees were earth-like, the flowers were of familiar form, the air was of the same texture... but there was an odd lack to this land and it was difficult to determine. Perhaps it came of the horizon's curious vagueness. perhaps from the blurring quality of the air, lucent and uncertain as water. Most strange, however, was the sky, a mesh of vast ripples and cross-ripples, and these refracted a thousand shafts of colored light, rays which in mid-air wove wondrous laces, rainbow nets, in all the jewel hues. So as Turjan watched, there swept over him beams of claret, topaz, rich violet, radiant green. He now perceived that the colors of the flowers and the trees were but fleeting functions of the sky, for now the flowers were of salmon tint, and the trees a dreaming purple. The flowers deepened to copper, then with a suffusion of crimson, warmed through maroon to scarlet, and the trees had become sea-blue.
Pg#5
He looked toward the horizon and thought to see a black curtain rising high into the murk, and this curtain encircled the land in all directions.
Pg#6
(Excellent Prismatic Spray) - [SPL]
...Spells of general application.
Pg#5
(Laccodel's Rune) - [SPL]
...fitted the amulet holding Laccodel's Rune to his wrist.
Pg#5
(Pandelume) - [NPC]
Name Mentioned
Pg#6
(Phandaal's Mantle of Stealth) - [SPL]
...Spells of general application.
Pg#5
(Sage) - [NPC]
These were volumes compiled by many wizards of the past and collected by the Sage...
Turjan found a musty portfolio, turned the heavy pages to the spell the sage had shown him, the Call of the Violent Cloud...
Pg#5
(Spell of the Slow Hour) - [SPL]
...Spells of general application.
Pg#5
(T'Sais) - [NPC][MON]
Pandelume's creation
The sound of galloping hooves approached. He turned to find a black horse lunging break-neck along the bank of the pool. The rider was a young woman with black hair streaming wildly. She wore loose white breeches to the knee and a yellow cape flapping in the wind. One hand clutched the reins, the other flourished a sword.
Turjan warily stepped aside for her moth was tight as if in anger, and her eyes glowed with a peculiar frenzy...
She fought with a crazy violence...
***
"Do as you please," the girl gasped. "Life and death are brothers."
"Why do you seek to harm me?" demanded Turjan. "I have given you no offense."
"You are evil, like all existence." Emotion ground the delicate fibers of her throat. "If power were mine, I would crush the universe to bloody gravel, and stamp it into the ultimate muck."
Pg#6
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Post by geoffrey on Jul 29, 2012 9:08:46 GMT -6
This is an awesome project, Jason. Thanks for sharing it!
I love Jack Vance's The Dying Earth.
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Post by jasonzavoda on Jul 29, 2012 13:24:20 GMT -6
This is an awesome project, Jason. Thanks for sharing it! I love Jack Vance's The Dying Earth. Thanks Geoffrey! Even after only a few pages I think the Vancian influence on D&D magic is quite apparent. Not just with mechanical aspects such as spell limitation, memorization and the loss of spells once cast, but also the names of spells. The Dying Earth series of books is perhaps the most influential works of fiction in the development of D&D, though I think that both Leiber and DeCamp/Pratt are also of great importance in the development of the game. Tolkien as well, despite potestations otherwise. |
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Post by jasonzavoda on Jul 30, 2012 9:20:04 GMT -6
Pg#7-8
(Ascolais, Land of) - [PLC]
"A man lives in the land of Ascolais, not far from your castle Miir."
"...Who is this Man?"
"...Prince Kandive the Golden."
Pg#7
(Blue Stone, Amulet of carved) - [ITM][SPL]
"... an Amulet of carved blue stone."
Pg#7
Kandive wears this amulet hidden below his singlet. When an enemy appears he takes it out to display on his chest, such is the potency of the charm. No matter what else, do not gaze on this amulet, either before or after you take it, on pain of most hideous consequence."
Pg#8
(Crystal)- [ITM][SPL]
"Extend your hand," said the voice. Turjan did so, and felt a hard object placed therein. "When your mission is accomplished, crush this crystal and at once you will find yourself in this room."
Pg#8
(Embelyon, Land of) - [PLC]
He found the next room to be circular and high-domed with the varying lights of Embelyon pouring down through sky-transparancies.
Pg#8
(Kain, City of) - [TWN]
"When you wake, you will be in the city Kaiin."
Pg#8
(Kandive the Golden, Prince) - [NPC]
"A man lives in the land of Ascolais..."
"...about his neck hangs an amulet of carved blue stone."
Pg#7
"Kandive wears this amulet hidden below his singlet. When an enemy appears he takes it out to display on his chest..."
Pg#8
(Miir, Castle) - [CSTL]
"...the land of Ascolais, not far from your Castle Miir."
Pg#7
(Pandelume) - [NPC]
"No one may gaze on Pandelume. It is the law."
Pg#7
Pandelume's voice was amused. "I. Too," he replied, "have vats where I old life into varied forms. This girl T'Sais I created, but I wrought carelessly, with a flaw in the synthesis."
Pg#8
(Pandelume's Manse) - [CSTL]
"Pandelume dwells beside the stream..."
...Soon he came to a long low manse of red stone backed by dark trees. As he approached the door swung open.
...So Turjan wonderingly entered the manse of Pandelume. He found himself in a tapestried chamber, bare of furnishing save a single settee. No one came to greet him. A closed door stood at the opposite wall...
Pg#7
"...In a moment open this door, enter, and move to the pattern pf runes on the floor."
Turjan performed as he was bid. He found the next room to be circular and high-domed with the varying lights of Embelyon pouring down through sky-transparancies.
Pg#8
(Pandelume's Vats) - [ITM][SPL]
"I too," he replied, "have vats where I mold life into varied forms."
Pg#8
(T'Sais) - [MON][NPC]
Pandelume's creation
"As I approached your dwelling, a woman of insane fury wished to kill me. This I would not permit and she departed in rage. Who is this woman and why is she thus?"
Pandelume's voice was amused. "I. Too," he replied, "have vats where I old life into varied forms. This girl T'Sais I created, but I wrought carelessly, with a flaw in the synthesis. So she climbed from the vat with a warp in her brain, in this manner: what we hold to be beautiful seems to her loathsome and ugly, and what we find ugly is to her intolerably vile, in a degree that you and I cannot understand. She finds the world a bitter place, peopled with shapes of direst malevolence."
Pg#8
(Turjan of Miir) - [NPC]
Name Mentioned
Pg#7
Name Mentioned
Pg#8
(Turjan's Vats) - [ITM]
"For some time I have been striving to create humanity in my vats. Yet always I fail, from ignorance of the agent that binds and orders the patterns. This master-matrix must be known to you; therefore I come to you for guidance."
Pg#7
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Post by jasonzavoda on Aug 2, 2012 2:57:56 GMT -6
Pg#9
(Cobalt Mountains) - [PLC]
Others tossed darts at the spread-eagled body of a young Cobalt Mountain witch.
Pg#9
(Dance of the Fourteen Silken Movements) - [FEST]
In a little cleared space a garlanded courtesan of the Kachique littoral danced the Dance of the Fourteen Silken Movements to the music of flutes.
Pg#9
(Deodand) - [MON]
In the shadow of a balcony a girl barbarian of East Almery embraced a man blackened and in a leather harness as a Deodand of the forest.
***
On a terrace some stood looking into a sunken pool where a pair of captured Deodands, their skin like oiled jet, paddled and glared...
Pg#9
(Dying Earth) - [PLC]
They were gay, these people of waning earth, feverishly merry, for infinite might was close at hand, when the red sun should finally flicker and go black.
Pg#9
(East Almery) - [PLC]
The streets surged with the wine-flushed populace, costumed in a multitude of bizarre modes... In the shadow of a balcony a girl barbarian of East Almery embraced a man blackened and in a leather harness as a Deodand of the forest.
Pg#9
(Fire-flies, blue) - [MON]
From the balconies dangled flower chains and cages of blue fire-flies.
Pg#9
(Kaiin, City of) - [TWN]
...It was night in white-walled Kaiin, and festival time. Orange lanterns floated in the air, moving as the breeze took them. From the balconies dangled flower chains and cages of blue fire-flies. The streets surged with the wine-flushed populace, costumed in a multitude of bizarre modes.
***
...At a tavern he refreshed himself with biscuits and wine; then he made for the palace of kandive the golden.
Pg#9
(Kaiin, Lords of) - [ORG]
Through the arcade he slipped into the grand salon where the lords of Kaiin made merry like the throngs of the street.
Pg#9
(Kandive the Golden, prince) - [NPC]
Name mentioned
Pg#9
(Kandive the Golden, prince - Palace of) - [CSTL]
The palace loomed before him, every window and balcony aglow with light.
...Through the arcade he slipped, into the grand salon, where the lords of Kaiin made merry like the throngs of the street. Turjan threaded the rainbow of silk, velour, sateen, watching the play with amusement. On a terrace some stood looking into a sunken pool...
...In alcoves beflowered girls offered synthetic love to wheezing old men, and elsewhere others lay stupified by the dreampowders. Nowhere did Turjan find prince Kandive. Through the palace he wandered, room after room, until at last in an upper chamber he came upon the tall golden-bearded prince...
Pg#9
(Kauchique) - ?
The streets surged with the wind-flushed populace, costumed in a multitude of bizarre modes... In a little cleared space a garlanded courtesan of the Kachique littoral danced the Dance of the Fourteen Silken Movements to the music of flutes.
Pg#9
(Lanterns, Orange) - [ITM][SPL]
Orange lanterns floated in the air, moving as the breeze took them.
Pg#9
(Melantine) - [PLC]?
The streets surged with the wind-flushed populace, costumed in a multitude of bizarre modes. Here was a Melantine bargeman...
Pg#9
(Occupation) - [JOB]
...bargeman
...warrior
...courtesan
...witch
Pg#9
(Pandelume) - [NPC]
Name Mentioned
Pg#9
(Phandaal's Mantle of Stealth) - [SPL]
So, uttering Phandaal's Mantle of Stealth, he faded from the sight of all men.
Pg#9
(Santanil) - [NPC]
Male resident of Kaiin
Pg#9
(Turjan of Miir) - [NPC]
Name Mentioned
Pg#9
(Valdaran's Green Legion) - [ORG]
The streets surged with the wind-flushed populace, costumed in a multitude of bizarre modes... here a warrior of Valdaran's Green Legion.
Pg#9
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2012 6:15:45 GMT -6
Yes, Vance is a huge influence on D&D in everything from spells to Gary's writing style.
One other way, too; having just reread Dying Earth and Rhialto the Marvelous - Dying Earth characters are a$$holes. The BEST of them, except Guyal, are merely self-interested; most of them are not only dishonest and vicious but whimsically cruel.
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Post by jasonzavoda on Aug 2, 2012 7:13:33 GMT -6
Yes, Vance is a huge influence on D&D in everything from spells to Gary's writing style. One other way, too; having just reread Dying Earth and Rhialto the Marvelous - Dying Earth characters are a$$holes. The BEST of them, except Guyal, are merely self-interested; most of them are not only dishonest and vicious but whimsically cruel. Vance may have been the most influential fiction writer. I think Tolkien's influence is unavoidable, definitely Howard and I feel quite a lot of Leiber. Some DeCamp/Pratt but I don't think it was anywhere near as influential as Vance's Dying Earth. The Dying Earth is a cruel and wicked world. I think it influenced Harrison's Virconium. |
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