RangerWickett
Legend
I like shoving crazy stuff together. The following is my basic idea of the Camelot myth and how it fits into the modern fantasy game I'm running now. Laura, you might want not to read this, but I don't mind if you do, because there are only, like, two spoilers.
Everyone in the game has to look like someone famous.
King Arthur looks like Bruce Campbell. He was a bad-ass, but not the smartest king in the S-Mart, if you know what I mean. He ended up having sex with his half-sister, Morgause (who looks like Lucy Lawless), and thus sired Mordred (who looks like no one, because he's dead).
Merlin looked like Gary Sinise, but he's dead now. His soul is stuck in a Sumerian demon bowl. See, Merlin's father was a demon, the Sumerian god Nergal. Nergal was defeated around the same time as Merlin's birth (to a nun, who we'll say looked like Claudia Schiffer, just because), and Joseph of Arimathea brought the grail to England. It changed hands several times, being siezed by Oberon's fey court, then being retrieved by Galahad, Percival, and Bors at the island of Carbonek. To get the grail, you needed to answer the Fisher King's grail riddle, which was, "What is the secret of the grail? Who does the grail serve?"
The answer was, in the time of Camelot, "You, my lord, my King."
However, things change over the span of 1500 years. I wouldn't go trying that answer nowadays.
Now, there are two worlds - Terra, world of mankind and rationalism; and Gaia, world of the fey, of magic, of mysteries. The two worlds need each other, but they need to belong in a balance. That balance is maintained by world mages, and to create a world mage you must have a human receive the blessing of the fey. Morgause was a world mage, and she received the blessing of a cruel unseelie fey who wanted to see Gaia ascend over the world of men.
Morgause's sister, Morgan le Fay (who looked like Morgan Webb, co-hostess of X-Play) was at first an ally of Camelot, then an unwitting ally of her sister's plan, and finally a double-agent who wished to save Camelot. She found a way to become fey herself, and she sacrificed herself so that Merlin could become a world mage and help Arthur and his knights defeat the army of Mordred.
While the battle waged, an old servant of Merlin's father - the demon Namtaru, god of death and war - snuck into Camelot and sought to destroy the holy grail, and so to bring ruination upon the land. The demon was defeated and captured, but the castle of Camelot was destroyed, and somehow the demon used foreign magic to send the grail to another time and place. All it would say was that the grail was sent to the icon of death, to the destruction of worlds. In the hope that some day it might reveal the secret of where the grail had been sent, the demon was imprisoned on the desolate Farnes islands, where a hitching stone was used to tie the two worlds of Terra and Gaia together.
Mordred was defeated, but Arthur was mortally wounded, and was taken away to Avalon, where one day he could be revived by the Holy Grail. The people of England lost faith in their king, however, and the world mages were seen as villains by the remaining Knights of the Round Table. Merlin remained in hiding in England, because he could see that in the future he would be needed, but the other world mages fled to the ends of the earth. In their pursuit, the Knights of the Round pushed back the curtain of magic from the world of man.
What of Morgause, though? She fled as far as possible, to an island nation in the distant east, oddly similar and dissimilar from England. There she became an unseen, legendary witch, waiting until time had forgotten her, and she could take her revenge. During World War II, she worked with the Japanese and the Nazis to attack the island of Avalon, of which she had once been a priestess. Morgause herself did not go along, and the attack came too late to turn the tide in favor of the Axis, but it was easy to see that the heart of England had been struck a blow, and after the war the great British Empire began to crumble.
Unfortunately, the new empire of America was rising to power. They tested the first atomic bomb in 1945, and Oppenheimer claimed to have waxed philosophical - "I Have Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." Soon thereafter Japan was bombed, and the incredible destruction twisted the Gaian side of the island nation. The soul of Japan began to die as well, and madness started to creep into Terra.
Morgause was trapped, held prisoner by an oni general, Warushikara. She is the general's trophy, one of many, and in the oni's twisted mind, the longer the land of Japan remains twisted, the stronger he will become. Japan will never heal, because no new world mage can attempt to fix the connection of the island while Morgause remains its guardian.
The modern day was becoming bleak, and a weary Merlin was wondering if he had waited in vain, especially when he saw how he was portrayed in Disney's "The Sword in the Stone." That one really annoyed him. But then a truly unique thing happened. The two worlds began to drift apart, so that only Merlin could cross over. He went to the demon Namtaru, intending to find out where the grail was, and how he could heal the world, even if it meant his death.
Well, Merlin's in a demon bowl now, so we see how well that worked.
But all is not lost. In a nice reverse of the Terminator storyline, the mages of Avalon had sent a knight of Camelot forward in time, along the same path used by Namtaru to dispose of the grail. And in the year 2000, a man named Scarpedin appeared in the desert of New Mexico, holding a sword but with no idea why he was there. If he can find the path back to his quest, he will be able to delve into the dungeon under the island of Avalon, revive the cursed vampiric King Arthur, and use Excalibur and the Holy Grail to heal a dying world.
Everyone in the game has to look like someone famous.
King Arthur looks like Bruce Campbell. He was a bad-ass, but not the smartest king in the S-Mart, if you know what I mean. He ended up having sex with his half-sister, Morgause (who looks like Lucy Lawless), and thus sired Mordred (who looks like no one, because he's dead).
Merlin looked like Gary Sinise, but he's dead now. His soul is stuck in a Sumerian demon bowl. See, Merlin's father was a demon, the Sumerian god Nergal. Nergal was defeated around the same time as Merlin's birth (to a nun, who we'll say looked like Claudia Schiffer, just because), and Joseph of Arimathea brought the grail to England. It changed hands several times, being siezed by Oberon's fey court, then being retrieved by Galahad, Percival, and Bors at the island of Carbonek. To get the grail, you needed to answer the Fisher King's grail riddle, which was, "What is the secret of the grail? Who does the grail serve?"
The answer was, in the time of Camelot, "You, my lord, my King."
However, things change over the span of 1500 years. I wouldn't go trying that answer nowadays.
Now, there are two worlds - Terra, world of mankind and rationalism; and Gaia, world of the fey, of magic, of mysteries. The two worlds need each other, but they need to belong in a balance. That balance is maintained by world mages, and to create a world mage you must have a human receive the blessing of the fey. Morgause was a world mage, and she received the blessing of a cruel unseelie fey who wanted to see Gaia ascend over the world of men.
Morgause's sister, Morgan le Fay (who looked like Morgan Webb, co-hostess of X-Play) was at first an ally of Camelot, then an unwitting ally of her sister's plan, and finally a double-agent who wished to save Camelot. She found a way to become fey herself, and she sacrificed herself so that Merlin could become a world mage and help Arthur and his knights defeat the army of Mordred.
While the battle waged, an old servant of Merlin's father - the demon Namtaru, god of death and war - snuck into Camelot and sought to destroy the holy grail, and so to bring ruination upon the land. The demon was defeated and captured, but the castle of Camelot was destroyed, and somehow the demon used foreign magic to send the grail to another time and place. All it would say was that the grail was sent to the icon of death, to the destruction of worlds. In the hope that some day it might reveal the secret of where the grail had been sent, the demon was imprisoned on the desolate Farnes islands, where a hitching stone was used to tie the two worlds of Terra and Gaia together.
Mordred was defeated, but Arthur was mortally wounded, and was taken away to Avalon, where one day he could be revived by the Holy Grail. The people of England lost faith in their king, however, and the world mages were seen as villains by the remaining Knights of the Round Table. Merlin remained in hiding in England, because he could see that in the future he would be needed, but the other world mages fled to the ends of the earth. In their pursuit, the Knights of the Round pushed back the curtain of magic from the world of man.
What of Morgause, though? She fled as far as possible, to an island nation in the distant east, oddly similar and dissimilar from England. There she became an unseen, legendary witch, waiting until time had forgotten her, and she could take her revenge. During World War II, she worked with the Japanese and the Nazis to attack the island of Avalon, of which she had once been a priestess. Morgause herself did not go along, and the attack came too late to turn the tide in favor of the Axis, but it was easy to see that the heart of England had been struck a blow, and after the war the great British Empire began to crumble.
Unfortunately, the new empire of America was rising to power. They tested the first atomic bomb in 1945, and Oppenheimer claimed to have waxed philosophical - "I Have Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." Soon thereafter Japan was bombed, and the incredible destruction twisted the Gaian side of the island nation. The soul of Japan began to die as well, and madness started to creep into Terra.
Morgause was trapped, held prisoner by an oni general, Warushikara. She is the general's trophy, one of many, and in the oni's twisted mind, the longer the land of Japan remains twisted, the stronger he will become. Japan will never heal, because no new world mage can attempt to fix the connection of the island while Morgause remains its guardian.
The modern day was becoming bleak, and a weary Merlin was wondering if he had waited in vain, especially when he saw how he was portrayed in Disney's "The Sword in the Stone." That one really annoyed him. But then a truly unique thing happened. The two worlds began to drift apart, so that only Merlin could cross over. He went to the demon Namtaru, intending to find out where the grail was, and how he could heal the world, even if it meant his death.
Well, Merlin's in a demon bowl now, so we see how well that worked.
But all is not lost. In a nice reverse of the Terminator storyline, the mages of Avalon had sent a knight of Camelot forward in time, along the same path used by Namtaru to dispose of the grail. And in the year 2000, a man named Scarpedin appeared in the desert of New Mexico, holding a sword but with no idea why he was there. If he can find the path back to his quest, he will be able to delve into the dungeon under the island of Avalon, revive the cursed vampiric King Arthur, and use Excalibur and the Holy Grail to heal a dying world.
