World of Calidar: the Rebooting of the Princess Ark adventures

[Ambreville]

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Dear Readers,

Now that the project is well under way, I believe time has come to say more about the World of Calidar and who is part of the creative team.

As I'd pointed out earlier, this fantasy setting is entirely new and does not rely on any specific game system. Calidar emphasizes skyship adventures. The final product is intended to include a gazetteer and a poster map. Written materials should amount to at least 80,000 words, of which 60% will be a story unveiling the adventures of the Star Phoenix and her crew under Captain Isledemer d'Alberran's command. The latter are inspired from Mystara's Princess Ark episodes published in Dragon Magazine twenty years ago. Though the ship, her crew, and their strange new world are different from those of the original series, the analogy remains intact in style and spirit. The project emerged after the option of publishing new stories under permission or under a license agreement was denied to the original author by the present copyright owner. The campaign set (color) will be available both as an e-product and in print. Because of print-on-demand limitations, the poster map will be offered separately and in print only.

A Few Words About Calidar

The vast majority of its population came from three lunar empires—the humans from Manaan, the elves from Alorea, and the dwarves as well as their gnomish cousins from Kragdûr. The fellfolk, a race of small but fierce people, are the planet's original inhabitants. Calidar is imbued with a feral magic hostile to the expansion of civilization, a dangerous world only partially settled by the three outer world empires. A central region called the Great Caldera, a three-thousand-mile-large crater partially filled with an inner sea and ringed with towering mountains, serves as the cradle of civilization. There, the empires overcame nature’s ferocity and established sprawling colonies. But over time, they rebelled and, after a long period of conflict known as the Sky Wars, the new realms earned their independence from the overlords. A fragile truce now remains between the three empires and their former colonies. Beyond the Great Caldera lies what is known as the Dread Lands.

The truth is that two lunar empires are overpopulated and exceeding their natural resources. The other, more attuned to nature, now stagnates, unwilling to further harm its own world. It was the reason for the rush to establish colonies on Calidar. There was, and still is, another reason. Traveling the immense distances between Calidar and its moons, and reaching other worlds gravitating around the Great Soltan is only possible with a certain type of magic. At the heart of imperial rivalries lies a strange substance called Seitha, which enables skyships to become incorporeal and travel at fantastic speeds. Though it can be found on the moons, the existence of the precious Seitha has been declining there since its discovery. The Dread Lands now remain its principal source and the origin of many conflicts to obtain it.

The appearance of the substance in Calidar’s soil is predicated upon the health of that world and its moons. It is believed that all magic comes from the beating heart of Calidar, tying together not only Seitha but the souls of the dead and the very lifeforce of all that dwells on its surface, in the skies, and beyond—be it flora, fauna, or sentient kind. It is strong enough to enable gods to spring from the inhabitants’ spiritual beliefs. Indeed, Calidar is unique in that the divine did not create this universe and its people. It is quite the opposite. To each world its own gods, demi-gods, epic heroes, and demons competing to retain the favors of mortals who created them, and to sway the minds of others for the sake of eternal hegemony. . . or oblivion.

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The remainder of this presentation is posted on my blog. It unveils details about skyships of Calidar, the contributing artists, and plans for the upcoming kickstarter. More importantly, it offers a survey to potential backers of the project to help me better understand everyone's motivations and interests, and which will in turn impact the actual kickstarter campaign's budget and structure. If you're interested in maps and cartography in general, this project may be of special interest to you. Major efforts are being made to design this world directly from a 3D globe to maintain the accuracy of 2D projections. Based on these maps, realms are depicted in the well-known D&D Gazetteer-format hex maps with which everyone has become familiar in the past twenty years. Your feedback is welcome. If you are thinking of backing the project when its kickstarter campaign comes around, please be sure to put in your two-cents' worth in the survey.

Many thanks to all!

Bruce Heard