Some time ago, spurred on by Mark G., I committed myself to writing up a long-time personal obsession: Ontolosna: The Bright Journey Project.
What is Ontolosna? It's a fantasy world building and campaign and HQ system project I've been working on for several years now. Its as much a method of communal world building as a world.
For those interested, the first three Creators' Guide PDF supplements are now available online. The entire project is issued under a Creative Commons licence. The aim is to first produce the full Creators' Guide, and then a campaign and system supplement.
Ontolosna is a progressive realm of female power where violent warfare is comparatively rare, and where humans create and direct their deities in massive Theagyn ('goddess birthing') rituals. Set beneath three unmoving suns on the back of a giant bird, Ontolosna's cultural analogues are North Asian in inspiration: Tibet, India, Korea, China, and Japan. The world is about utopia and dystopia, peace and war, deities as servants and deities as masters. One of the prime aims of the project is to accurately model the dynamics of religion in a game environment.
If you're interested in genre-sensitive world building, progressive fantasy, Asian cultures, or the dynamics of religion as a writer, roleplayer or creative tinkerer, I invite you to download the chapters, take a look, and tell me what you think.
http://ontolosna.wikispaces.com/Resources
The current chapters are:
Chapter 1: Mountain Breaks Storm contains an introduction to the
Bright Journey Project and the Ontolosnan adventure.
[22 pp, 6.8 Meg PDF file].
Chapter 2: On the Back of the World-Bird examines the physical world:
The Splendour of the Great Lanterns, The Physik of Shadow, The
World-Bird, Farwing Lands, Ontolosna, The Nature of Time, The
Measures of Thought.
[20 pp, 3.9 Meg PDF file].
Chapter 3: Gifts of the Aji presents the Aji, the movers and shakers
of Ontolosnan history. And the heroes who oppose them.
[11 pp, 3.6 Meg PDF file].
You can also download all three chapters and a farwing map as a single zip archive.
Please note: these are not campaign or system documents. They will come later. These are guides for co-creators. The next two chapters, detailing the deities and the core farwing cultures, are now in preparation.
I'd be interested in your private thoughts on the project, the way it is being presented, and the way the process itself is designed. Drop me an email and tell me what I'm doing right. More importantly, tell me what I'm doing wrong.
http://ontolosna.wikispaces.com/Resources
Cheers
John
John Hughes
Publications Editor
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
College of Arts and Social Sciences
Hanna Neumann Building #21
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
T: +61 2 6125 0649 F: +61 2 6125 9730 W: www.anu.edu.au/caepr
CRICOS Provider #00120C
Powered by hypermail