I've been spending the morning busting out pages of Marlinko.
I've been spending the morning busting out pages of Marlinko. I remember that the Ask Me Anything about Kezmarok Q+A really helped me fill out and develop the city at the time. So here's your chance to Ask Me Anything about Marlinko (relevant since y'all are a stone's throw away in the coming session).
Btw a fragment of the document.
Marlinko
Marlinko (or Marlank if you using the Nemec exonym) is a bustling, smallish city of about 7,000 and council seat of Marlinko Canton. It is the southernmost town-sized settlement in the Overkingdom before it peters off into pure howling wilderness. Though prosperous due to it's role as a trade hub for the distant civilized lands of the South, Marlinko is deeply infected by it's relative isolation and closeness to the Weird. Life there as such takes on a strange fever-dream cast even by the standards of the rest of the borderlands.
The Four Contradas of Marlinko
Marlinko was built around the squat black bulk of the Tomb of the Town Gods, a structure that predates the rest of the city by an interminably long period of time. The ominous edifice sitting in its wide cobblestoned circular plaza has retained its position as the dead (no pun intended) center of the city. Four wide avenues radiate from it at the cardinal points and divide the city into four contradas or quarters.
The four contradas do not reflect merely a geographic or class division but have deeply embedded cultural, psycho-geographical lives of their own. Each contrada organizes its own festivals, keeps its own histories, and pays fearful homage to the abstract-featured idol of its own unique “town god.”
Each contrada also maintains its own contrada hall, a large well-maintained ceremonial gathering place, where it keeps a collection of its own unique banners, ceremonial regalia, historical tapestries, mummies and most importantly the various trophies it has won in the single most important bi-annual event, the great chariot race that headlines the Ebon Horse Fair. Throughout the year, contrada trainers keep their chosen condemned convict-jockey revved up and ready for the Black Race. It is well that they do for the losers are hanged and the winner takes a trophy and his freedom!
Sullen Apiarian Contrada
The northwestern quarter with its great yellow-and-black beehive and mopey deodand emblazoned banner contains the greatest concentration of affluence and easy living in the city. The great painted-plastered town-manses of the wealthy dominate the coveted plaza and avenue fronts in this part of town.
Despite its wealthy cast the contrada has a deeply-ingrained inferiority complex--due in large part to its century-long losing streak in the Black Race. The losing has become a self-fulfiling prophesy in recent years with the rash of suicides of convicts who consider being drafted into service as a SA jockey to be a death sentence anyway. Roving gangs of youths from respected families are quick to draw rapiers against any slight as overcompensation.
Sullen Apiarian “worships” or placates Anfolf, the vaguely bee-headed town god said to be a rainmaker and bringer of both wealth and anxiety.
Mendacious Mercator Contrada
The southwestern contrada of the city with its great golden grasping hand mauve and silver seal oversees most daily business in the city. The sprawling bustling South Market with its countless booths and scams is the commercial heart of the center.
Mendacious Mercator maintains Skamoplx, the golden-faced, three-armed town god of transactions as its patron.
Golden Swine Contrada
The northeastern ward, with its tusked dolorous golden boar's head banner on a field of teal, is by most accounts a benighted slum. It has two saving graces: 1. that most guilds and high offices maintain their halls in its precinct (including the Rada's large council hall) and 2. that it holds the most trophies for Black Race wins.
Golden Swine offers supplications to Revoc, a razor-tongued (literally) town god that is rumored to be in fact an idiot.
Greasy Psychonaut Contrada
The southeastern quarter is despite its rather dramatic banner displaying grotesquely fat red demonettes piloting finned sleds is a quiet and mundane section of the city. The houses of quietly prosperous craftsmen and the shops of the middle ranks dominate the ward.
GP placates hold Caz the Corpulent as its town god.
Around town
Tomb of the City Gods. Located in the central plaza is the squat polished basalt bulk of this resting place of the sleeping divine founders of the city. Locals maintain that five demigods of pure dully-glowing energy toss fitfully in their sepulchers. Local Sun Lord clergy have made a lifetime of quietly ignore the obvious blasphemy of such a thing existing. It is whispered that extradimensional gates lie inside, but what fool dares to explore the terrifying silence of that space?
Plaza of the Tomb. The wide circular public space surrounding the tomb is the preeminent public space in the city and will day or night be filled with clusters of citizens, eccentrics and grifters (though that may be a redundant set of distinctions).
Avenue of Anchorites. Just out side of South Gate is a humble dirt track where hermits and adventurers living on the cheap make their hut.
Sullen Apiarian Contrada
The Manse of the Lady Szara. The notoriously-erratic, allegedly -undead lady abruptly moved away three years ago “to visit relatives back in the Corelands” and her town-manse was overtaken by the seemingly-undead, thief-hero Kugel the Lucky. Rumors abound about underground excava...cough...cough mini-dungeon.
The Guild of Accipitraries, Drovers, and Ankle-Beaters. Run by the supreme hard-ass, Hurloj Kladivo, a good place for the sale or training of animals. Be wary of kidnapping his daughter.
Jarek's Manse and Tiger Pit.
Bathhouses. Where business and hanky panky occur.
The Flaming Goat. A rather seedy inn just inside the West Gate. The halushky ranges from poor to offal quality, but the beer and white gravy are both decent enough to keep a clientele for the lunch crowd.
Mendacious Mercator Contrada
Fraza's Brokerhouse. Fraza the freakishly-honest dealer in curios has his showroom here, a good place to experience the novel situation of selling without being robbed.
The South Market. Arcaded mall where you can buy things mundane and slightly less so.
The Serene Guild of Seers, Augurs, Runescasters and Wainwrights. For 4000 gold suns answers are given in clear, parseable language. 1000 suns will buy answers in cant with an occasional admit of ambiguity. 500 suns will buy you a parable based on the life and work of our dear Sun Lord to be interpreted as you will and 100 suns will buy you babble in an unknown tongue.
Greasy Psychonaut Contrada
The Drunken Troll. An upmarket inn located just south of the Tomb-Plaza of the City Gods. The inn's silent owner is said to be by local gossips the infamous Yadis, an anonymous, foul-mouthed satirist. The inn is also noted as the home of local second-fiddle mage (and man of letters) Mandamus the Erudite and his companions Uma, Barbarella, and “Martin the Fighter”.
Onion Tower of the Checkered Mage. Home of the resident arch-mage Frantisek.
Herbalist Shop. Havol, a 5h level white wizard (treat as cleric) maintains his herbal shop here. He will concoct healing potions and cures as per his level for the appropriate cost. For 20 gold he will sell under the table small bags of Marlank Gold, a powerfully soporific pipeweed said to be favored by Vilem the Arch-Druid of Svat the Four Faced.
Golden Swine Contrada
Catacombs of St. Jack's Church of the Blood Jesus. After three weeks of backbreaking work—under the expert supervision of the Termex the Robodwarf--by devotees of this imported, alien and utterly syncretistic cult, a catacomb space has been excavated by nun-maeneds under the city. The new sparagamos fane and exquisite glossary-like sculptures are "things of beauty" report cult leader Vatek son of Vatek.
The Guild of Condotierre, Linkboys,Roustabouts and Stevedores's Dome of Supernal Dealings. Marlinko is a “union town” and even the hirelings have lasting organization. The hiring of “scab” henchmen is intolerable.
The Illustrious Workers of Wood. Carpenters, cabinetmakers, joiners and all other workers of wood join together in this one big guild. When angered they will call upon their sorcerous will and summon the Wobbly Giant. http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2012/09/beast-of-week-wobbly-giant.html
Brothers of the Other Mother chapterhouse. Local chapterhouse of an Orthodox Sun Lord monastic order that promotes the veneration of a less divine “Marian” like mother-figure to the Celestial Lady. These guys are assholes.
League of the One-Handed HQ
NPCs of Note
Frantisek the Checkered Mage
Fraza the Freakishly Honest Curios Dealer
Lady Szara
Jarek the Nagsman
Hurloj Kladivo
One-Armed Jiri
Vatek son of Vatek
Btw a fragment of the document.
Marlinko
Marlinko (or Marlank if you using the Nemec exonym) is a bustling, smallish city of about 7,000 and council seat of Marlinko Canton. It is the southernmost town-sized settlement in the Overkingdom before it peters off into pure howling wilderness. Though prosperous due to it's role as a trade hub for the distant civilized lands of the South, Marlinko is deeply infected by it's relative isolation and closeness to the Weird. Life there as such takes on a strange fever-dream cast even by the standards of the rest of the borderlands.
The Four Contradas of Marlinko
Marlinko was built around the squat black bulk of the Tomb of the Town Gods, a structure that predates the rest of the city by an interminably long period of time. The ominous edifice sitting in its wide cobblestoned circular plaza has retained its position as the dead (no pun intended) center of the city. Four wide avenues radiate from it at the cardinal points and divide the city into four contradas or quarters.
The four contradas do not reflect merely a geographic or class division but have deeply embedded cultural, psycho-geographical lives of their own. Each contrada organizes its own festivals, keeps its own histories, and pays fearful homage to the abstract-featured idol of its own unique “town god.”
Each contrada also maintains its own contrada hall, a large well-maintained ceremonial gathering place, where it keeps a collection of its own unique banners, ceremonial regalia, historical tapestries, mummies and most importantly the various trophies it has won in the single most important bi-annual event, the great chariot race that headlines the Ebon Horse Fair. Throughout the year, contrada trainers keep their chosen condemned convict-jockey revved up and ready for the Black Race. It is well that they do for the losers are hanged and the winner takes a trophy and his freedom!
Sullen Apiarian Contrada
The northwestern quarter with its great yellow-and-black beehive and mopey deodand emblazoned banner contains the greatest concentration of affluence and easy living in the city. The great painted-plastered town-manses of the wealthy dominate the coveted plaza and avenue fronts in this part of town.
Despite its wealthy cast the contrada has a deeply-ingrained inferiority complex--due in large part to its century-long losing streak in the Black Race. The losing has become a self-fulfiling prophesy in recent years with the rash of suicides of convicts who consider being drafted into service as a SA jockey to be a death sentence anyway. Roving gangs of youths from respected families are quick to draw rapiers against any slight as overcompensation.
Sullen Apiarian “worships” or placates Anfolf, the vaguely bee-headed town god said to be a rainmaker and bringer of both wealth and anxiety.
Mendacious Mercator Contrada
The southwestern contrada of the city with its great golden grasping hand mauve and silver seal oversees most daily business in the city. The sprawling bustling South Market with its countless booths and scams is the commercial heart of the center.
Mendacious Mercator maintains Skamoplx, the golden-faced, three-armed town god of transactions as its patron.
Golden Swine Contrada
The northeastern ward, with its tusked dolorous golden boar's head banner on a field of teal, is by most accounts a benighted slum. It has two saving graces: 1. that most guilds and high offices maintain their halls in its precinct (including the Rada's large council hall) and 2. that it holds the most trophies for Black Race wins.
Golden Swine offers supplications to Revoc, a razor-tongued (literally) town god that is rumored to be in fact an idiot.
Greasy Psychonaut Contrada
The southeastern quarter is despite its rather dramatic banner displaying grotesquely fat red demonettes piloting finned sleds is a quiet and mundane section of the city. The houses of quietly prosperous craftsmen and the shops of the middle ranks dominate the ward.
GP placates hold Caz the Corpulent as its town god.
Around town
Tomb of the City Gods. Located in the central plaza is the squat polished basalt bulk of this resting place of the sleeping divine founders of the city. Locals maintain that five demigods of pure dully-glowing energy toss fitfully in their sepulchers. Local Sun Lord clergy have made a lifetime of quietly ignore the obvious blasphemy of such a thing existing. It is whispered that extradimensional gates lie inside, but what fool dares to explore the terrifying silence of that space?
Plaza of the Tomb. The wide circular public space surrounding the tomb is the preeminent public space in the city and will day or night be filled with clusters of citizens, eccentrics and grifters (though that may be a redundant set of distinctions).
Avenue of Anchorites. Just out side of South Gate is a humble dirt track where hermits and adventurers living on the cheap make their hut.
Sullen Apiarian Contrada
The Manse of the Lady Szara. The notoriously-erratic, allegedly -undead lady abruptly moved away three years ago “to visit relatives back in the Corelands” and her town-manse was overtaken by the seemingly-undead, thief-hero Kugel the Lucky. Rumors abound about underground excava...cough...cough mini-dungeon.
The Guild of Accipitraries, Drovers, and Ankle-Beaters. Run by the supreme hard-ass, Hurloj Kladivo, a good place for the sale or training of animals. Be wary of kidnapping his daughter.
Jarek's Manse and Tiger Pit.
Bathhouses. Where business and hanky panky occur.
The Flaming Goat. A rather seedy inn just inside the West Gate. The halushky ranges from poor to offal quality, but the beer and white gravy are both decent enough to keep a clientele for the lunch crowd.
Mendacious Mercator Contrada
Fraza's Brokerhouse. Fraza the freakishly-honest dealer in curios has his showroom here, a good place to experience the novel situation of selling without being robbed.
The South Market. Arcaded mall where you can buy things mundane and slightly less so.
The Serene Guild of Seers, Augurs, Runescasters and Wainwrights. For 4000 gold suns answers are given in clear, parseable language. 1000 suns will buy answers in cant with an occasional admit of ambiguity. 500 suns will buy you a parable based on the life and work of our dear Sun Lord to be interpreted as you will and 100 suns will buy you babble in an unknown tongue.
Greasy Psychonaut Contrada
The Drunken Troll. An upmarket inn located just south of the Tomb-Plaza of the City Gods. The inn's silent owner is said to be by local gossips the infamous Yadis, an anonymous, foul-mouthed satirist. The inn is also noted as the home of local second-fiddle mage (and man of letters) Mandamus the Erudite and his companions Uma, Barbarella, and “Martin the Fighter”.
Onion Tower of the Checkered Mage. Home of the resident arch-mage Frantisek.
Herbalist Shop. Havol, a 5h level white wizard (treat as cleric) maintains his herbal shop here. He will concoct healing potions and cures as per his level for the appropriate cost. For 20 gold he will sell under the table small bags of Marlank Gold, a powerfully soporific pipeweed said to be favored by Vilem the Arch-Druid of Svat the Four Faced.
Golden Swine Contrada
Catacombs of St. Jack's Church of the Blood Jesus. After three weeks of backbreaking work—under the expert supervision of the Termex the Robodwarf--by devotees of this imported, alien and utterly syncretistic cult, a catacomb space has been excavated by nun-maeneds under the city. The new sparagamos fane and exquisite glossary-like sculptures are "things of beauty" report cult leader Vatek son of Vatek.
The Guild of Condotierre, Linkboys,Roustabouts and Stevedores's Dome of Supernal Dealings. Marlinko is a “union town” and even the hirelings have lasting organization. The hiring of “scab” henchmen is intolerable.
The Illustrious Workers of Wood. Carpenters, cabinetmakers, joiners and all other workers of wood join together in this one big guild. When angered they will call upon their sorcerous will and summon the Wobbly Giant. http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2012/09/beast-of-week-wobbly-giant.html
Brothers of the Other Mother chapterhouse. Local chapterhouse of an Orthodox Sun Lord monastic order that promotes the veneration of a less divine “Marian” like mother-figure to the Celestial Lady. These guys are assholes.
League of the One-Handed HQ
NPCs of Note
Frantisek the Checkered Mage
Fraza the Freakishly Honest Curios Dealer
Lady Szara
Jarek the Nagsman
Hurloj Kladivo
One-Armed Jiri
Vatek son of Vatek
what is the agriculture like around here. are there local favorite dishes to just the city.
ReplyDeleteJames Aulds the blood rains fall pretty thick and syrupy in the area so the fields to the east and south of the city are incredibly fertile (triple the crop-yield of our own medieval harvests and allowing less ground to be under cultivation). Popular crops are barley, rye, harnic potatoes, cucumbers and blood-apricots.
ReplyDeleteMarlinko is famous for its blood-apricot kolaches and halushky: http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2013/01/from-hill-cantons-cook-pit-halushky-and.html
where would one go to admire art and or hear poetry in the city if they wished to learn more of the cultured culture. are there any good hat shops?
ReplyDeleteIt is rumoured that during the excavation of the Catacombs, Termex the Robodwarf, in his mercy, included a variety of Clever Traps - free of charge! Never two in a row, of course, since robodwarves have at least some honor.
ReplyDeleteAlso, looking at the records, we have:
ReplyDeleteMatka of Ostrovo, lovely head of the Nun-Maeneds of Marlinko.
That reminds me Michael Moscrip to pick your brain. Once of the illustrations we are talking about is that of Father Jack preaching to the flock.
ReplyDeletehttp://i.imgur.com/eb1KEGL.png
ReplyDeletethis is more of an art question but re: nun-maenads and such: are we shooting for a particular "rating" violence/nudity-wise?
ReplyDeleteman do we really gotta have pundit in our pleasant little graft-ridden shithole?
ReplyDeletealso, would be handy to have some vornheim-style NPC tables
ReplyDeletere: "Puntoronaski" I'm of two minds: In principle I like the idea of giving him a poke in the eye but the mention might only feed his vanity to an insufferable degreee as he's had Carly Simon moments before when it wasn't there at all (Logan Knight's Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine for instance).
ReplyDeleteYou speak great truth Jeremy Duncan. I enjoyed writing it especially after those nasty pokes at James. But maybe better to let it go.
ReplyDeleteway better to let it go
ReplyDeletei always imagined Vatek looking like a ripped wallace shawn and hurloj as terence stamp
ReplyDeleteHeh, I totally didn't get the reference.
ReplyDeleteHere's a question Chris Kutalik - Are there city walls? Are they falling apart or in good repair? Patrolled or defended? When do the gates close, and what does it take to get in or out if they're closed? Are there buildings outside the walls? When the gates are open, is there a fee or tax or q&a to get in?
Stamp is totally Hurloj as is David Chance playing Tywin in Game of Thrones http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130125204745/gameofthrones/images/7/75/Tywin_lannister_S3_promo.jpg
ReplyDeletethat's charles dance
ReplyDeletehttp://blakelittle.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/28.Terence-Stamp-807x1024.jpg
ReplyDeleteany other details on the NPCs (appearance, personality, casting) would be appreciated art-wise
ReplyDeleteis Fraza the guy who's weirdly racist?
ReplyDeleteOh, and I think I keep conflating Frantisek the Checkered Mage and Fraza the Freakishly Honest Curios Dealer.
ReplyDeleteJeremy Duncan I do that all the time in print, but never in-game. Fraza has a giant amusing personality. Frantisek is pretty low key. I always picture Fraza as a big fat guy with rosy cheeks and a messy beard, but Frantisek the Mage as tall and lean with a pointy hat and very proper personality.
ReplyDeleteFraza is much how Michael Moscrip describes him. He has no filter control and is hard wired not to be able to tell a lie. Which of course means he also can't filter out the fact that he's tremendously racist.
ReplyDeleteFrantisek is middle-aged, clean cut with no facial hair. Imagine him as as the avuncular athletic tennis or golf playing dad who would be a lawyer or doctor in our world.
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/polls/738000/738528_1307344447720_full.jpg
ReplyDeleteI just now saw Frantisek as either this guy
ReplyDeletehttp://i.imgur.com/p0ucHlp.jpg
Or that other character actor dude that looks a little like him and always plays doctors and stuff.
Bamn. Now in full Maoist revision "Puntoronaski" is now "Revoc." And has always been so.
ReplyDeleteWell done, Winston Smith.
ReplyDelete