arkwright
Explorer
GMs, Zeit writers- I bring you a theory, some Deep Lore. But first, the story of how I found it.
Zeitgeist. My party and I start it, and start running it. A crucial issue at the beginning of the AP: *industry vs the fey in Risur*. We nod sagely and RP appropriately as we mosey on through the books; befriending the Duchess, talking to Gale, and so on. It's a very important issue- the more Risur expands, the more ill the fey grow, the more they are pushed back. Poor fairies- the smog must choke them, the iron must repel them, as is the traditional thematic lore of the fey v technology universal theme. Nature versus technology.
Skip ahead, and, in Book 9- we finally come across the first clear example of the fey tech-sickness, in the Dreaming proper. It's quite the disruption- on the road to the capital Clover, a 'traffic jam' has occurred. People are backed up, complaining of a high-pitched whine, keeping over a half-mile distant from a 'blighted area', which 'irritates the fey on a visceral level'.
...it's a mill. A flour mill, powered by a water wheel in the river.
This is odd.
Water-driven mills are *ancient Egyptian*-level technology. If these mills so disturb the fey, then the fey should have been cantankerous at Risur since before the nation's founding for their bothersome mills.
Then in the same book we read of another incidence of fey tech-irritation.
The riverport of Clover has been befouled by the presence in the Waking of a whirligig ship, its tails spinning and its blowhole belching steam at a mechanical rhythm. The maddening song of the vessel’s metal heart is felt in every fey’s bones, all the more vexing for its silence to the ears.
So, a thought occurs- and for confirmation we race back to the Players' Guide, to see the original discussion of the fey tech-illness.
They are unsettled by anything with spinning parts, from wagon wheels to the gears of a clocktower, and often try to break such devices as fervently as a man might chase a mosquito.
...
...what if. What if.
What if the fey aren't disturbed by technology.
What if the fey are disturbed by spinning wheels.
...
It sounds pretty darn bonkers. Yet the more we have searched, the more we have failed to find very much that contradicts this theory.
What we did next doesn't much matter- a quickly homebrewed adventure delving Cauldron Hill to destroy a fey-curse put in place by the Red Contessa, afflicting the fey with wheel-sickness.
What does matter is- are we wrong? What are the implications? Could Risur build fey-friendly technology by basing their technology on MASSIVE wheels, which spin so slowly that the fey aren't disturbed, albeit with lots of torque? Is the perfect anti-fey weapon a hoola-hoop?
...what if. What if.
Zeitgeist. My party and I start it, and start running it. A crucial issue at the beginning of the AP: *industry vs the fey in Risur*. We nod sagely and RP appropriately as we mosey on through the books; befriending the Duchess, talking to Gale, and so on. It's a very important issue- the more Risur expands, the more ill the fey grow, the more they are pushed back. Poor fairies- the smog must choke them, the iron must repel them, as is the traditional thematic lore of the fey v technology universal theme. Nature versus technology.
Skip ahead, and, in Book 9- we finally come across the first clear example of the fey tech-sickness, in the Dreaming proper. It's quite the disruption- on the road to the capital Clover, a 'traffic jam' has occurred. People are backed up, complaining of a high-pitched whine, keeping over a half-mile distant from a 'blighted area', which 'irritates the fey on a visceral level'.
...it's a mill. A flour mill, powered by a water wheel in the river.
This is odd.
Water-driven mills are *ancient Egyptian*-level technology. If these mills so disturb the fey, then the fey should have been cantankerous at Risur since before the nation's founding for their bothersome mills.
Then in the same book we read of another incidence of fey tech-irritation.
The riverport of Clover has been befouled by the presence in the Waking of a whirligig ship, its tails spinning and its blowhole belching steam at a mechanical rhythm. The maddening song of the vessel’s metal heart is felt in every fey’s bones, all the more vexing for its silence to the ears.
So, a thought occurs- and for confirmation we race back to the Players' Guide, to see the original discussion of the fey tech-illness.
They are unsettled by anything with spinning parts, from wagon wheels to the gears of a clocktower, and often try to break such devices as fervently as a man might chase a mosquito.
...
...what if. What if.
What if the fey aren't disturbed by technology.
What if the fey are disturbed by spinning wheels.
...
It sounds pretty darn bonkers. Yet the more we have searched, the more we have failed to find very much that contradicts this theory.
What we did next doesn't much matter- a quickly homebrewed adventure delving Cauldron Hill to destroy a fey-curse put in place by the Red Contessa, afflicting the fey with wheel-sickness.
What does matter is- are we wrong? What are the implications? Could Risur build fey-friendly technology by basing their technology on MASSIVE wheels, which spin so slowly that the fey aren't disturbed, albeit with lots of torque? Is the perfect anti-fey weapon a hoola-hoop?
...what if. What if.
