Thursday 7 October 2021

Pictorial Inspiration for the Great North

I am working with an artist on 'Northumberland Yoon-Suin', The Great North. The text, long ago completed, awaits only pictures and layout; this should all be done within a year and a bit.

Here are some photos I sent to the artist to give him an idea about the landscapes which inspired the setting:















































10 comments:

  1. Oy, that castle behind the 2 fishing boats looks like the inspiration for Castle Blackmoor in Dave Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign!

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    1. That's Lindisfarne Castle, on Holy Island. It does look a bit like Castle Blackmoor but I guess there must be lots in the world that do?

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    2. Had mead from Lindisfarne once, absolutely delicious. It's a wonder to me that everyone from there doesn't have diabetes.

      Looking forward to this book. Goes to show that "European fantasy" isn't necessarily boring or played out, just that as with any historically-rooted setting it needs depth and specificity to really shine.

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    3. They cheat with the mead, though. It's actually more like a wine sweetened with honey. Tasty stuff all the same!


      Agree with you on the European fantasy point. There's a post in that I'm sure.

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    4. Ha, oof the areal view of Lindsfarne destroyed my illusion. But did inspire me to seek out if there was a particular castle that inspired Dave Arneson as a basis for Castle Blackmoor. Indeed there is, Branzoll Castle located near the town of Chiusa (Klausen) in a formerly Austrian part of Northern Italy.

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  2. These are lovely. Really loooking forward to the book.

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  3. I dunno why "brooding landscapes" fits, but it somehow does.

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    1. That's the North of England in a nutshell.

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    2. Well puffins are brooding birds, so biologically rather than figuratively accurate description in that one photo. :)

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