Good morning... A great horned owl has taken up residence (I hope permanently) in one of the cottonwood trees that line our backyard. I first heard him or her last weekend when his booming challenge echoed through our open window at 430 am. Honestly, it was a great way to wake up. Since then, we've not been awakened that early again, but I have heard him most mornings around 600am as Irma and I are sipping our coffee and getting ready for the day.
I hear the gasp of "600 am?" out there. I actually only have to be up before 6 am for work two days a week, but the rotating schedule that the FAA asks us to follow really messes up my sleep patterns. Working 2 or 3 night shifts and 3 or 4 day shifts a week, I find that I'm groggy the mornings after a night shift no matter what time I get up. So I rise around 600 (or 520 for those days when I have to be in for the early shift) and just muddle through the grogginess with as near a bottomless cup of coffee as I can find. Sometimes I even make myself useful...
Our great horned owl neighbor does bring to mind one of the early bits of lore I'd tossed about in the D'oril series, that of Elorna's connection to owls. In some ways, it was a direct theft from greek mythos, Athena and Owls, but I'd always kept most of the greek mythos connection well hidden. Sha'te was one opportunity for me to showcase the differences, I introduced the Shianna.
Shianna are very loosely based on animist amerind mythologies where every animal had a "leader", almost (or directly) a god. Coyote, for example, or Father Bear, of the various tribal mythos, come to mind. In the D'oril world, the shianna were animistic spirits that represented all animals of that species, from chipmunks to owls to elk. For the most part, their connection to the k'tath was incidental, even as their connection to the humanish folk to the south almost non-existent. Once in a while, though, they'd get involved, usually at the request (or suggestion) of Elorna herself.
In Sha'te, the 4 shianna I introduced were attempting to help the leader of the k'tath, the Sen'anth, escape the shadow scouts that had been placed on her trail by Phorix in retaliation for the use of the seeker by the PC's in Heartbow and Seeker. The PC's, with the concurrence of the k'tath, had used the seeker to try and assassinate the "unbeatable general" Yamto before he could lead the empire's army against the K'tath. Though he lived, he didn't participate in Sha'te, and in response, the new general of the empire's expeditionary force sent a large contingent of shadow scouts to hunt down any of several leaders of the k'tath. In a sense, this act doomed the empire to failure at Sha'te, for it deprived the army of it's eyes as it approached the battlefield. (History buffs will recognize the similarity to JEB Stuarts ill-advised antics prior to Gettysburg, where, in an effort to regain favorable press, he undertook a wild ride "around the union army", which garnered the press, but deprived General Lee of valuable intel on the actions of General Meade in the days leading up to Gettysburg. Yes, this similarity was deliberate)
At any rate, the Shianna had a brief introduction at sha'te as a minor force. They bore a faint relation to the ranger skill, Aspect of the Beast, and in the game, lent some otherworldly skills to the 4 heroes they were helping. I vaguely recall one of the shianna was Wheer, the owl, I think another was deer, but for the life of me, I cannot remember the others. (help, anyone?) Each lent it's power to one of the PC's for the crux encounter, and added a bit more to the final encounter of day two, but beyond that, I didn't develop them much at sha'te.
In writing, the shianna are out there, but as yet, I"ve not put them into the storyline. I'm sure they'll show up someday, some how, somewhere. It'll probably be an owl, waking our heroes up at 4:00 am. Knowing the typical heroes of D'oril, he won't stop grumbling until the next winter..... ;-)
TTFN,
Jim
I hear the gasp of "600 am?" out there. I actually only have to be up before 6 am for work two days a week, but the rotating schedule that the FAA asks us to follow really messes up my sleep patterns. Working 2 or 3 night shifts and 3 or 4 day shifts a week, I find that I'm groggy the mornings after a night shift no matter what time I get up. So I rise around 600 (or 520 for those days when I have to be in for the early shift) and just muddle through the grogginess with as near a bottomless cup of coffee as I can find. Sometimes I even make myself useful...
Our great horned owl neighbor does bring to mind one of the early bits of lore I'd tossed about in the D'oril series, that of Elorna's connection to owls. In some ways, it was a direct theft from greek mythos, Athena and Owls, but I'd always kept most of the greek mythos connection well hidden. Sha'te was one opportunity for me to showcase the differences, I introduced the Shianna.
Shianna are very loosely based on animist amerind mythologies where every animal had a "leader", almost (or directly) a god. Coyote, for example, or Father Bear, of the various tribal mythos, come to mind. In the D'oril world, the shianna were animistic spirits that represented all animals of that species, from chipmunks to owls to elk. For the most part, their connection to the k'tath was incidental, even as their connection to the humanish folk to the south almost non-existent. Once in a while, though, they'd get involved, usually at the request (or suggestion) of Elorna herself.
In Sha'te, the 4 shianna I introduced were attempting to help the leader of the k'tath, the Sen'anth, escape the shadow scouts that had been placed on her trail by Phorix in retaliation for the use of the seeker by the PC's in Heartbow and Seeker. The PC's, with the concurrence of the k'tath, had used the seeker to try and assassinate the "unbeatable general" Yamto before he could lead the empire's army against the K'tath. Though he lived, he didn't participate in Sha'te, and in response, the new general of the empire's expeditionary force sent a large contingent of shadow scouts to hunt down any of several leaders of the k'tath. In a sense, this act doomed the empire to failure at Sha'te, for it deprived the army of it's eyes as it approached the battlefield. (History buffs will recognize the similarity to JEB Stuarts ill-advised antics prior to Gettysburg, where, in an effort to regain favorable press, he undertook a wild ride "around the union army", which garnered the press, but deprived General Lee of valuable intel on the actions of General Meade in the days leading up to Gettysburg. Yes, this similarity was deliberate)
At any rate, the Shianna had a brief introduction at sha'te as a minor force. They bore a faint relation to the ranger skill, Aspect of the Beast, and in the game, lent some otherworldly skills to the 4 heroes they were helping. I vaguely recall one of the shianna was Wheer, the owl, I think another was deer, but for the life of me, I cannot remember the others. (help, anyone?) Each lent it's power to one of the PC's for the crux encounter, and added a bit more to the final encounter of day two, but beyond that, I didn't develop them much at sha'te.
In writing, the shianna are out there, but as yet, I"ve not put them into the storyline. I'm sure they'll show up someday, some how, somewhere. It'll probably be an owl, waking our heroes up at 4:00 am. Knowing the typical heroes of D'oril, he won't stop grumbling until the next winter..... ;-)
TTFN,
Jim
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