A Fish Dinner in Strangerside

 

A Golden Barge

In tonight's second session of our new Everway campaign, Bob was able to join us, and introduce his new character, the spherewalking musician "Tom". During the questions phase, I asked: "Is he Tom like a tomcat, like Tom Bombadil, or like a tomtom?  Bob answered "I think like a tomcat, because he can find food in garbage and sleep wherever." He has the ability to summon musical instruments (but can't control which ones come) and has a 3 in Star River Magic, with the constellations Pisces, Gemini, Aquarius (I think). (Another player, Eric also modeled his more powerful Fire-inflected mage on Star River Magic, using Ares, Leo, and Capricorn. So we'll see how this new magic system works!)

Tom emerged from the Emeraldcloak Forest, after exiting the gate from Granite, close on the heels of a rather noisy party tromping southwards through the forest toward the western bridge over the Susnset River. The party was bearing a golden palanquin and escorted by soldiers. Tom hails from another Sphere, so he didn't the soldiers' livery as rustic Emerald family, but Pahoeho Sun, who is a native Everwayn (sort of did). 

Here is the unpleasant and bossy chief soldier:

Leonardo da Vinci's Profilo di capitano antico, also known as il Condottiero, 1480.

On the bridge, waiting for a river barge to Everway, are Percy, Osbert, and Pahoeho. A barge appears, but not from further upriver. This one is huge, and being rowed upriver by banks of oars. It must have come up river from Everway. The barge has a solid gold exterior, and all sorts of outlandish Outsiders and Strangers on deck - along with a few Everwayans.

Pahoeho has never seen a barge like this in Everway: not even a royal barge belonging to King Horizon Emerald. The barge has three tiers above the main deck. There is a party going on with powders, smokables, drink and food on the enormous aft deck. The forest party boards the deck and the palanquin and all the soldiers go below deck. They aren't seen again until the barge reaches the city some three hours later.

Pahoeho jumps on board and is welcomed. He joins the party. Tom goes aboard and offers to perform some music. He is escorted to the pilot station on the top tier of the barge, and summons an instrument: something percussive, like a sistrum. He performs.

Osbert boards and Percy grudgingly boards. Percy doesn't like the pretentious, social climber types he sees on this barge. 

The barge docks at the Mercy bridge and the passengers disembark on the Everyway Proper side of the river. Pahoeho hears the phase "The Year King" used a couple of times during the river journey, and learns from one of the party goers, a unlikely priest of Osiris named Bright Mask, that while Pahoeho was off in Fire's Wall, King Horizon Emerald passed beyond and been put back upon the Wheel of Karma. The other likely Emerald heirs who might contend for the throne are all off among the spheres at the moment, so the Council invoked an ancient law (?) / ritual (?) from Everway's distant past. 

Bright Mask embellishes the age of the ancient law: 

Before the Emerald ruled Everway

Before the Tower

Towered here 

Before Whiteoars clashed and contended 

May their name be cursed and forgotten forever.

The soldiers and the palanquin disembark from the barge in a procession with flowers, rice, and coins cast about as crowds gather. The gold palanquin has embossed images of the Walker's Pyramid, and of a tree from which a man hangs upside down. The procession seems to head towards the Walker's Pyramid.

The party decides to head over to Strangerside - the really interesting half of these twin cities. Pahoeho observes that Strangerside is even more packed than ever. Every possible quality of dwelling can be found here, from prosperous estates to shanties all the way down into the mud on the southern bank of the Sunset River. 

They enter a marketplace and find a place serving fresh fish and turtles. (The PCs did not engage with the far travelling Fourth Doctor, as seen on the upper left. Also, the character in blue and white with the turtle is one of my favorite Everway images!)

Marketplace by Rudy Rauben (Roger Raupp) - Vision Card #506

They sit down to eat fish, and Pahoehoe recommends consuming some of the raw ones that are potentially poisonous. Most of the party order raw. The Fortune Deck pull is favorable: the Priestess, Understanding Mysteries. Percy, hailing from a rules-bound realm as he does, orders something cooked: a fish sandwich. It's still potentially poisonous, so I drew a Fortune Card for him as well. 

His draw: the Usurper.

The fish head animates. Percy sees a ghost fish. So does Tom. Percy doesn't react; Tom uses Star River Magic to call the ghost fish to him. The ghost fish swims over and begins making utterances. It chants the names of several Year Kings from over a thousand years ago. It intimates that the blood of ancient Year Kings still soaks the platform at the top of the Walker's Pyramid. Percy banishes the ghost fish, which disappears with a *PLOP*.

There is some discussion with Pahoeho of the Walker's Pyramid. Are there people there? Lots. There is the Pyramid Cult, a mystery sect of Outsiders, Strangers and some native Everwayans (but not typically priests of the Moondance family).  Pilgrims come to the Walker's Pyramid from hundreds of spheres. There are numerous booths where hucksters and cultists alike sell votive bricks with images from the Fortune Deck, astrological symbols, or other symbols of the god or pf the Ineffable and the Mysterious. You can buy figurines of the Walker, and effigies and amulets of the Walker's Pyramid.

Dusk is approaching and Percy wants to get settled somewhere unassuming and quiet, while Tom wants to make sure they hole up in an inn that has an "open mike" stage for performances. Pahoeho recommends The Salt Mill, a place which Osbert soon notes is near Avenue the First.

The Triple Blessed Rosary

http://www.colourbox.com/image
/muslim-rosary-beads-isolated-on-a-white-background-image-1980547

With 108 beads, representing the Walker's Journey among 36 adjoining realms. These rosaries are a commonplace in Everway. They're sold by the priests of the Pyramid Cult. They are said to bring good luck to those who travel between the spheres. They are also used to meditate upon the Fortune Deck, since each realm is represented in the rosary by thee beads: one for a realm's Virtue, Fault, and Fate.

The Pyramid Priests say that faithful meditation on the Walker's Journey using these beads can cultivate the ability to spherewalk. For a fee, they will teach the proper meditation techniques, and what each successive triptych of beads represents. And it is true that every year, a few faithful students of the Walker's Journey do develop the ability to spherewalk.

Of course, if you advance in the Pyramid Cult hierarchy, you will learn that the beads represent far more than a simple journey from sphere to sphere. Meditation on the Walker's Journey sometimes unlocks new Powers in the person meditating. These usually relate to a specific realm represented in the rosary.

Be sure to keep your eyes open when a rosary breaks near the Walker's Pyramid. When the beads spill onto the stones, they take up entirely new arrangements. These have great meaning. Scribes scurry to ink these to paper, because meditation on these new patterns often leads to the discovery of new gates and spherepaths. 

Strangerside Scholar: Does the Multiverse Have a Structure?

Does the multiverse have a structure? Most Spherewalkers wonder about this at some point in their journeys; a very few study it. Of course, there are the ready-made answers. You need look no further than the Pyramid Priests who surround the Walker's Pyramid at the very center of Everway.

Many people believe that the multiverse has an arborescent geometry. That is, the countless worlds branch off a main stem-world. The universe looks like a tree. This is an old concept; many cultures and spheres describe the multiverse as a Tree of Worlds. Most see their own sphere as the trunk of the tree.

Stefanus Rademeyer, Arborescent Geometries III (2010)http://www.argief.litnet.co.za/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&cause_id=1270&news_id=106518 

The Pyramid Priests claim that Everway is the trunk, and that the branches of the tree represent the Walker's countless steps, which created the million spheres. Yes, Everway is at the center of all, which is why any good pilgrim should make offerings to the cult when they visit the Pyramid. It is a debt that we owe the Walker. So the Priests say.

A more cynical view is that the Tree of Worlds represents an example of how Everway rules. Repressive tolerance. "Yes, your world is important" say the scholars in the Library of All Worlds. "Tell us about it, so that we can make an entry in the Codices of All Worlds." When you describe in rich detail how your world is unique or different, the scholars unctuously say "Well, yes, yes - that's interesting, but you are missing the point. Your Creator got a few details wrong. That's why your world isn't like Everway. But you can still see the relationship to Everway here, here, and here. Focus on what you have in common with us and you will be happy."

Thus does diversity ever reinforce the status quo. It is good for trade that all branches lead back to Everway.

But what if the universe took a different form? The wise already know of other ways that spheres are connected besides the Earth gates connecting worlds to Everway. Tidal Pools. Cenotes. The Floodgates.  And so on. The Whiteoars ran afoul of this.

What if the multiverse was rhizomatic rather than arborescent in geometry? How would that complicate things? Would it lead to another civil war? A capstone? The Usurper?

http://candidcandidacy.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/rhizome.jpg  

Albert-László Barabási
http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v1/n2/fig_tab/nphys162_F1.html   

http://immanentterrain.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/spinoza-god-and-immanence/  

Strangerside Scholar: The Mother's Day

Today is normally the day of rest for The Everwayan, but the Strangerside Scholar had something important to say.

The Mother's Day: Over in Strangerside, The Quarreler, one of the few to escape the implosion of the realm Bensalem, waits for The Mother's Day to roll around to make his usual joke:

"Ever notice how whenever someone creates a holiday for the oppressed - say, Outsider's Day - someone in Authority has to come to create a holiday for the oppressor, like Horizon Day? It's tiresome. It's just the same with Mother's Day; next thing you know the Authorities create Father's Day so no one feels bad."

Once a Moon or so, Strangers and Outsiders do listen to what the The Quarreler has to say, but most Everwayans just shake their heads, and point out that The Quarreler just doesn't understand how things work here in Everway. There's gender equality in Everway, not gender oppression. There's also no Mother's Day or Father's Day, here. There is only The Mother's Day.

The Mother's Day is as old as the city; indeed, it founded the city in a very real sense.

***

The legend of The Mother's Day began when Everway was just a collection of huts surrounding The Walker's Pyramid. The Pyramid was quite new in those days. In fact, our story begins the morning The Walker laid the final stone upon the seventh tier of her Pyramid. "One left, she thought. Time to go away for a while and find it."

The Walker descended the Pyramid. As she did so, she heard a baby crying. The Walker found a child left all alone, a baby girl in a wicker basket who had been placed on a stone on the first tier of the Pyramid. The basket's bottom was wet. So was the baby's.

The Walker then looked out at the Pyramid priests.They were staring at her. "Where did this baby come from?" The Walker asked.

"We're not sure" shrugged Half Moondance, the chief of the Pyramid priests. "A fisherman found her in the Sunset River, fished her out, and brought her here as an offering."

The Walker snatched Half Moondance's fine cloak right off his shoulders. She tore it in half. With one half of the robe, she cleaned the child. She used the other half to line the basket, and put the baby inside it.

The Walker turned and began climbing back up the Pyramid. Slowly, surely, steadily, keeping a strong hold on the basket until she reached the seventh tier. Then, the Walker took the baby girl out of her basket. She held the her up, and faced her out towards the scattering of huts that would one day become the great city of Everway.

She turned the baby to face each of the four directions.

The child saw smoke rising from the huts, and beyond them fields and trees. She also saw small fishing boats bobbing in the Shimmermoon Bay. The baby smiled.

"All this is yours." The Walker said. "I hold you up now, as you will hold up others."

"Help them. Heal them. Ensure their children come into this world safe and sound."

"I show you your world. Your name will be Mother First."

"Take three three gifts with you: Awareness. The Healing Arts. Responsibility."

This is how the Mother family came to be the first great family of Everway.

"Teach other Mothers this ritual."

***

Sources: This legend was inspired in part by the Moses story (which relates to other wood and wicker Mesopotamian and Egyptian arks). Another inspiration was rite of the Roman goddess of childbirth, Levana. Those familiar with the film Suspira by Dario Argento, and with its inspiration, Suspira de Profundis and "Levana And Our Ladies Of Sorrow" by Thomas DeQuincey will be familiar with De Quincey's significantly darker view of this goddess.

For Alice T. Till.