Symbols of Power
Month of Resting, Year 10, Era of Rust
Scope
The motivation behind building Symbols of Power
Symbols of Power came to life as a way to conglomerate under a same universe the characters, concepts and species that slowly solidified in my mental bestiary over the years, with traces going back two decades.
Symbols of Power is a way to put a floor under their feet, a frame for their ideas, and a culture to unite them and let them play with each other.
This world was not born as a story, but as a context.
Symbols of Power is a way to put a floor under their feet, a frame for their ideas, and a culture to unite them and let them play with each other.
This world was not born as a story, but as a context.
Symbols of Power's Unique Selling point
Ararak delivers a speech by Naelin
While the historical context of SoP forces an amount of armed conflict to exist, the focus is instead put in the relationship between the individuals, and even between species:
What are the cultural consequences of a world where it's easier to trade riding rights with a species than to domesticate them?
What happens when a disaster leaves your country with no structure? Do you jump to build it back as it was, or do you take the opportunity to make things right?
Theme
Reader Experience
Life in the Haan archipelago was, until the High Rust, mundane and even cheerful, and seven years after the tragedy the people are doing what's in their hands to put their lives back in order and go back to their simpler livelihoods.
The Haan archipelago is a place where an Earth's human could even fit in without too much of an issue after learning the customs of societarians and of inter-species communication. Having been through an unexplainable catastrophe that went out as unceremoniously as it came, the inhabitants of the islands could spend their time looking for answers, but they are too busy trying to get back their social and economical stability. The world of Symbols of Powers feels like sitting with a friend on a dock to talk about personal issues while watching the river's lazy waves pass by: The situation may be terrible, and we may not be able to see what the future will resolve, but we have each other, and we will have to find the way to navigate it.
The Haan archipelago is a place where an Earth's human could even fit in without too much of an issue after learning the customs of societarians and of inter-species communication. Having been through an unexplainable catastrophe that went out as unceremoniously as it came, the inhabitants of the islands could spend their time looking for answers, but they are too busy trying to get back their social and economical stability. The world of Symbols of Powers feels like sitting with a friend on a dock to talk about personal issues while watching the river's lazy waves pass by: The situation may be terrible, and we may not be able to see what the future will resolve, but we have each other, and we will have to find the way to navigate it.
Recurring Themes
The use of diplomacy as the main tool for the resolution of sociopolitical conflict and for achieving technological advance is seen represented often in Symbols of Power.
The tension and the balance of power between the Societarians and the Tetsus is developed less with bloodshed and more with a constant effort to gatter the bigger amount of useful aliances and pacts with other species; the acquisition of the best mounts for work and war has a lot to do with what can the society offer in exchange to said mounts; and these in power had to learn the political and social cost of trying to silence the Contact Weaver's networks with violence. The name for Symbols of Power comes from the second recurrent theme in the Archipelago: The Governors and the military have mostly died everywhere, power structures have fallen as well as kingdoms and capital cities, and the common folk are finding themselves now in the sudden responsibility of defending their nations against the exterior forces, and demonstrating as best the can that they have power and capacity for resistance. The organizations of all kinda are searching for physical or simbolic representations of this ability to stand on their own, and people are now uniting, even forming new countries, under anything that can offer them the hope of safety.
The tension and the balance of power between the Societarians and the Tetsus is developed less with bloodshed and more with a constant effort to gatter the bigger amount of useful aliances and pacts with other species; the acquisition of the best mounts for work and war has a lot to do with what can the society offer in exchange to said mounts; and these in power had to learn the political and social cost of trying to silence the Contact Weaver's networks with violence. The name for Symbols of Power comes from the second recurrent theme in the Archipelago: The Governors and the military have mostly died everywhere, power structures have fallen as well as kingdoms and capital cities, and the common folk are finding themselves now in the sudden responsibility of defending their nations against the exterior forces, and demonstrating as best the can that they have power and capacity for resistance. The organizations of all kinda are searching for physical or simbolic representations of this ability to stand on their own, and people are now uniting, even forming new countries, under anything that can offer them the hope of safety.
All of the text and art of Symbols of Power, including the CSS theme, have been created by David Cutuli (Naelin) unless otherwise specified.
The ttrpg mini models and faction shields have been created using HeroForge and Azgaar Armoria respectively and edited by Naelin.
The art and content attributed to the pseudonyms of Welkinal, Danae or Veld has been created by David Cutuli (Naelin).
SoP theme song composed and interpreted by Lu Cutuli. | SoP logo and Out of Universe logo created by TJ Trewin. | Open paper texture by Markus Spiske.
Huge thanks to TJ Trewin for his help with SoP's css theme design.