April 2024 CASAN Fundraiser - Tarantis, A Reimagining - Part 3

April Arts for Asylum Seekers - Fantastic Geography: Post Ten

Whatever fictional space one creates, it’s really helpful to draw on all of your audience’s senses when describing the setting. And I’ve been spending some mental energy thinking of music that I might be able to find that would fit. I like listening to folk tunes and devotional music on period instruments anyway. Some of you may be familiar with the radio program “Harmonia” and there are programs from around the world that explore medieval and early renaissance music (which is the sort of time and mood I’d like to invoke.

For today, I’ve fallen behind on my mapping. I’ve got a sort of outline of the overall city, but I’m working details from the center out. The center has some government and other buildings around the central plaza - where our sheep parades and races happen. Also the big food markets and festival events are there. From there, some of the larger religious buildings are in neighborhoods around the central plaza. The neighborhoods go out from the center roughly like spokes on a wheel.

So in future posts, I’ll discuss more about music and the cultures around music. I’ll also delve into subjects that polite people avoid discussing - religion and politics in Tarantis. Wish me luck!

April Arts for Asylum Seekers - Fantastic Geography: Post Eleven

Going Digital!

I love cartography with pencil and paper - then ink - then coloring (either water color or colored pencils). It’s my favorite way to map. It also makes a wonderful presentation to players around a table when playing a game that takes place in a medieval fantasy or historical fiction setting. However, every time I want to look at a neighborhood in a city - a city in a region - or a village near the city, I need to draw a whole new map. With digital, I simply zoom in and out and print sections - or present the maps on a screen. One could also play easier online with maps native to digital.

I’ve been a computer drafter in the granite industry for a very long time. Drawing on a computer is familiar to me. So here I go.

Outline of the city walls and the partially walled port
Laying out the streets - I'll later add the features (buildings, parks, piers, etc.) and delete the street lines

April Arts for Asylum Seekers - Fantastic Geography: Post Twelve

Music in Tarantis
In 2008, I visited Siena Italy. The first day we went into the city, there was a music festival going on! The festival was focused on jazz, but there was a variety of styles of music presented. It was really quite something just to wander around this ancient city experiencing all sorts of music in the streets, in churches and in venues large and small.

I’m thinking that the music that would come from Tarantis would be more like early music from the Mediterranean - of the medieval, renaissance, and early baroque periods. Composers like Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Palestrina, Thomas Tallis, Orlando di Lasso are some of the composers of the time. Here are some sources of musical knowledge. I will also be doing some more research of folk music of the area and - ya know - music one would hear in a pub or in the street. Harmonia will explore some of that in their show.

Harmonia
https://indianapublicmedia.org/harmonia/podcasts.php

Early Music America
https://www.earlymusicamerica.org/

“L’Orfeo toccata” - C. Monteverdi from “
https://youtu.be/mjpFi9bn1do?si=OoIg-pAe5IUPUp6b

“Sicut Cervus” -Palestrina
https://youtu.be/dU7k-hiiVjw?si=nj16PU2gABT3mhZG

[Note: if you really want to dive into some nerdy weirdness, about Monteverdi and other role playing game talk, Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast recently talked about some history around Monteverdi and alchemy. That bit starts in the second half of that particular podcast (https://www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com/index.php/episode-593-supermarket-of-murder/)

April Arts for Asylum Seekers - Fantastic Geography: Post Thirteen

Neighborhood Life in Tarantis
I had hoped to complete the map of one of the neighborhoods before I started talking about a neighborhood. Nonetheless, I have some fun ideas about the neighborhood just north of the central plaza. For now, I’ll call it Dockside. Just as I say that - I’m going to have to reconfigure the walls along the docks. The sea is to the north in this picture with the wall between the sea and the Dockside Basilica neighborhood. Hmmmm…. I’ll have to give this some thought. It’s difficult to move cargo to and from ships through a big thick wall.

Close to the water and at the north end of Dockside Way is the Basilica of Neptune.* Dockside Way runs through Dockside neighborhood from Shepherd’s Plaza. In the block closest to the Basilica, is The Primrose Playhouse. The Primrose is managed by Alycia Silvertongue (her stage name). Alycia is a bit of an eccentric - yet she is formidable as a stage presence and when it comes to persuading patrons in financing productions.

Currently in production is a new play - an epic poem telling the ancient story of Queen Dalia and her struggle against the Vergovians. The acting company and the playwright (in this case, Alycia) are quite popular at this time. Alycia has a talent for taking an historical story and bringing it to exciting and beautifully rendered stage stories.

Behind the theater is a run-down barn that was once a small stable for the row houses on the other side of the block. The barn is currently under renovation and will be space for costume and scenery storage, as well as some workspace. The playhouse currently uses the barn space for rehearsal.

Despite Alycia’s formidable fundraising skills, the theater business is sometimes precarious… like this:

Across Dockside Way from The Primrose is a rather fancy restaurant and public house - called Giovanni’s. We’ll explore Giovanni’s tomorrow.

*I will be revisiting the faith life of the peoples of Tarantis as I move forward. Being close to the port of Tarantis, it makes sense to dedicate this building to a deity or saint related to seagoing congregants.

April Arts for Asylum Seekers - Fantastic Geography: Post Fourteen

As the month of April comes to an end, I hope to focus for a little on some of the people here in Tarantis.Who are the people in this neighborhood? In this neighborhood?

Great to see Bob again, right?

I mentioned last time Giovanni’s. Giovanni’s has a lovely dining area, a lovely courtyard in the sea for fine dining and group events, as well as a common room. The common room is often the favorite of the cast and crew of The Primrose after rehearsals and performances. Giovanni enjoys performing at The Primrose and loves hosting his friends and audiences at his restaurant afterward. Giovanni’s wife and son (Nicola and Bruce) are in charge of the kitchen, overseeing the food, the service and purchasing food, wines, and beverages. Nicola and Giovanni are well regarded and loved in the Dockside neighborhood and throughout the city. They love to host local events, cater special neighbothood events, host family events for all sorts of people in the city. Rich, poor, popular, not so popular, if a family wants to hold their wedding reception, reunion, or reception after a funeral, Nicola and Giovanni and family make it happen.

Courtyard at Giovanni's


People wonder how Giovanni can afford all of this. There are tales going around that he met Nicola while they were traveling on adventures. Some of those tales tell of them slaying a dragon or giant. Some tales tell of them thwarting and turning the tables on a great pirate. Some tales tell of the daring rescue of Giovanni by Nicola - where she threw a horrible warlock off the Cliffs of Caer Morthelm, thus rescuing Giovanni from great peril. In any case, they aren’t saying. They do enjoy good tales of adventure and rescuing treasure from the hands of evil-doers

April Arts for Asylum Seekers - Fantastic Geography: Post Fifteen

Today marks the last installment of my project for April Arts for Asylum Seekers. I hope you enjoyed following along. I wish I could have posted something every day. I also hoped to be able to complete more of my project this month. Still, I’m glad I did this and I thank you for your interest and support for CASAN and our new neighbors seeking asylum.

This month’s project helped put a little flame under me to keep moving forward in a more organized way with this project. I’ve been tossing some of these ideas around for several years, and I hope to keep going and see where it takes me. This fundraiser has reminded me that I can do a little bit every day and progress will happen.

From here, I will organize what I have done over the last month - add and expand some of the notes I’ve taken, and make a plan toward completing some sections and the mapping I’ve been able to do. Balancing some of the choices of focus - the magnifying glass of diving in to look at individual characters, or the details of a shop or building in the city - or - the zoom out and grand overview of mountains, seas, forests, and climate - is sometimes challenging. Whichever focus, though, helps me imagine the texture of the place - and therefore helps me convey that to players and their immersion into the place. That’s what helps make the stories we create together come to life and make rich experiences.

I’ll probably focus my work in the next weeks on the map and fleshing out the terrain. The map making helps me imagine who lives there and what parts they play in the day to day life. I’ll set them down as notes as I go along - and put detail to them when those images and personalities occur to me.

Arts and the culture of Tarantis seem to come in waves into my imagination. It’s sometimes difficult to write down a lot of these ideas, but I’ll be gathering the images and sensory imaginings as they come. I want to explore the faith life in Tarantis, trade, commerce, political world, and peoples who live there.

I’ve had other characters come into my notes - like Dorrill, the hobbit attorney (or scribe, maybe apothecary) who helps the helpless. His cousin Walter (my friend Michael’s character from deep in the last century), who may or may not have connections to the criminal underworld. The siblings of the Abbies and monasteries on the south side of Tarantis - I’ll be exploring their activities.

I’ll be posting project updates to my blog painefull-dm.com as I go along. If you’re interested, I could send out emails to you as those updates get posted. I won’t send emails to those of you who don’t request, so just email me back if you’re interested in those updates.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for supporting people who need our support. Thank you!

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