Shadows of the South: Birmingham (Finished!)

[Beelzebozo]

I think I lied about working on Ancient Conspiracies next. I got inspired by some of my research for this city and ended up writing the first part of its profile today. The main crux of the city will be the secret war between the Brotherhood of the White Rose and the Underground Railroad (the first draft of the White Rose material is on my site). I also have several places in mind for the places of interest (Vulcan Park, Tannehill Furnaces, the old Sloss works), too. I don't know how long it will take for me to do those, but considering that the city history went from zero to sixty faster than Little E at Talladega, it may be sooner than I expect. Overall, I like it, especially considering that the research and writing were done in one day. I'll probably clean it up while I'm working on the rest of the material.

{Edit: It's done now. See below.}

Shadows of the South: Birmingham

[Reagren Wright]

I'll say it again. This is brilliant. I'd love to see Shadows of the South
in book form.

[Beelzebozo]

The second part of the city is up now, covering the places of interest and the Factions of the city. I also rolled the Brotherhood of the White Rose into the main city page. Birmingham is now finished aside from one NPC I have to write up; considering his history and motivations, he might take a while.

[Beelzebozo]

All right, the only NPC for the city is done. That one's finished (five cities now), so it's on to Charleston. I'll probably spend a little time on some folk magic, superstitions, and relics before that, though.

As far as submitting it as a book, I've already explained my reasons. Shadows of the South isn't completely my project; Matt Penn started it, and I have not gotten any response from him, and so can't submit it without his permission. Secondly, at this point, I want it to be free for everyone. Third, I'd rather keep it under my control rather than submnitting it to the mercies and ruination of Big Kev.

[gaby]

Birmingham was Good.

I hope you will do more in Local color,maybe make a secret Family of Psychics?

[Beelzebozo]

That would be Blood Ties. Is that a hint that I should be working on it?

Here's the deal: ever since SotS started, I've had a vague idea for a sort of "creepy little town" (ala Steven King, Dean Koontz) somewhere back in the hills of Appalachia. The primary conflict of the town would be between an inbred family of cursed psychics (who can't control their abilities), a secretive enclave of Nightbane who are preparing for the apocalypse, and a Nightlord-controlled Cult of Night masquerading as a fundamentalist "charismatic" (read: wacky) church. Only the psychic family can see the Nightbane and Nightlord minions walking among them (apparently, the Cult of Night and other supernaturals have been around there for a long time), and they breed amongst themselves to keep those abilities around. In the process, they've lost the ability to control it, and most are deformed and extra-gribbly. The Nightbane community is reclusive and secretive, and believes that the human race is doomed, so they are building a hideout (probably in an old coal mine) to allow them to survive when the Ba'al wipe out humanity. Meantime, we have the Nightlord minions running around trying to...well, do something. I don't know what. Haven't worked that out yet.

Anyway, that's the outline. I really haven't gotten "inspired" to write that idea yet. I did write a short introduction, back when I was calling it "Savage Mountain", but my ideas for it have changed quite a bit since then.

For now, I've got about three more magical items/relics to write up, then it's probably on to Charleston.