Oh my, oh my...

...well, this time I've forgotten this place exists at all. Once in a while I a had an idea that seemed good enough to post it here, albeit the lack of audience. Now it's 1+ years since my last post, which was about Malay Magic, as you can see. I was pretty hyped back then (and am still, albeit not with that frequency). Still "supporting" Mun Kao. Still loving the zines. Other projects... well, let's say they hadn't such a good fate :-(

I guess I would never have looked again at these pages of my failed blogging carreer, if there wasn't Norbert Matausch of old-school-fame (look at his blog Darkwormcolt, good reading there!) and a pandemic going on (purely coincidental), forcing me to stay at home and staring at my pc, waiting for CTs, MRIs and X-Rays that need interpretation. Norbert asked what happened to my little Into the Odd-pocketmod I made years ago! Funny thing is, some guy asked me weeks back if I could share it with him... I guess I deleted the email, so no credits here, mysterious stranger.

Well, the pocketmod "Titan Bound" was not about good content, I fear. It was more of a test how I could design and publish a pocketmod in the most sexiest of ways. For my part, it included a bit too much fiddling around (which I was fond of, back then) and I am pretty sure, there are easier ways or even some kind of office-plugin or shit. But - I like the way I've done it. So, without further ado, the Titan Bound:

As a pocketmod and

As the underlying A7-Dok.

For the procedure these documents went through, see the original post.

Ok, folks, have fun with it and don't judge the content to hard. As I said: I wanted to make a pocketmod back then real bad and also could have published my favorite guacaomole-variants. So, I guess we'll see again in some years!

Bye so long, have fun - and, most important: Stay healthy.

sy F

First pages into Malay Magic

So. Work. Kids. Time flies by, as do good intentions. Nonetheless, I did read some pages of "Malay Magic" by W. W. Skeat.

I started with the preface (by a certain Mr. Blagden) and I must say: Damn, I forgot how politically incorrect the language around this time could be by modern standards. Savages, "other breeds" and similar terms are used frequently when he talks about the malaysian natives. Not that they are used disrespectfully per se, they sound awful, though.

Then, some pages into chapter one ("Nature")...

The Mountains of Caucasus are usually called by 
Malays Bukit Kof (i.e. Kaf), or the Mountains of Kaf 
(which latter is their Arabic name). These mountains are 
not unfrequently referred to in Malay charms, e.g. in in- 
vocations addressed to the Rice-Spirit. The Mountains 
of Kaf are to the Malays a great range which serves 
as a " wall " (dinding) to the earth, and keeps off both 
excessive winds and beasts of prey. This wall, how- 
ever, is being bored through by people called Yajuj 
and Majuj (Gog and Magog), and when they succeed 
in their task the end of all things will come.

Awesome.

Then, under "Natural Phenomena" - the tides...

" The Pusat tasek, or Navel of the Seas, supposed 
to be a huge hole in the ocean bottom. In this hole 
there sits a gigantic crab which twice a day gets out 
in order to search for food. While he is sitting in the 
hole the waters of the ocean are unable to pour down 
into the under world, the whole of the aperture being 
filled and blocked by the crab's bulk. The inflowing 
of the rivers into the sea during these periods are 
supposed to cause the rising of the tide, while the 
downpouring of the waters through the great hole 
when the crab is absent searching for food is supposed 
to cause the ebb." 

Again, awesome.

This book is actually more then I was looking for. It is full of instantly gameable content! I hope I'll have time to read more, soon...

F

Ooooh....

Malay Magic Leatherbound

~30€ free shipping from India?! Goes to my christmas wishlist :-)

SEA Folklore, a first and second look

My first research for books about SEA myths, legends and folklore was somewhat disappointing. Tons of travel guides are available and - fables. Okay, not bad. I read some dozen fables and they provided a nice little look, reminded me heavily of german folklore/Grimm's collections, though. You get no hares or wolves here, for sure. More like crocodiles and apes. No magic apples, magic lemons instead. You get your princess, queens, giants, hags - pretty much what you'd expect. I am not sure what I expected but it was not as awesome as I wished it to be.

There has to be more...

Gladly, the ever helpful Mun Kao pointed me to this litte gem of a book: Malay Magic by W. W. Skeat. Sadly, the Gutenberg-Link is blocked here in germany. Google seems to have the full text, as does archive.org, the ebook-export is somehow broken and compiling the plain text file results in an ugly layout. Amazon does have it, the cheap ebook-version seems to have layout-problems, too. Anyway, I downloaded the preview and liked what I read here. It seems to be the book about malay magic (as in MAGIC), so this is a no-brainer. The early 1900s tone make it a beautiful but somewhat tiring read for me as a non-native reader.

I'll read Skeat next, probably in small doses to avoid reading-fatigue... I'll report!

Go support Mun Kao!

Yesterday I wrote about A thousand thousand islands, a setting by Mun Kao and Zedeck Siew. Both wrote friendly and helpful comments on G+. Mun Kao mentioned his Patreon campaign, which turns out to be an invaluable resource for exactly the information I am missing!

Go support this talented artist and his project!

F

A Thousand Thousand Islands (non)Review

Warning: In this post you'll learn about my ignorance.

Yay, a package from Malaysia!

I entailed myself to a consuming ban for some months this year. Too much on my bookshelf, on my DVD-rack, too many games unplayed - not to speak of ebooks. It was a refreshing experience, albeit a hard one at times.

I heard of A thousand thousand islands (ATTI) on G+, as with many gaming products I buy. +Zedeck Siew had been on my "RPG"-circle for some time and I followed him and his partner in this product, +Mun Kao, with great interest. When Zedeck posted that the zines are available (again?), I did not hesitate and ordered them. Payment was solved via PayPal. Shipment was fast, considering the long journey the zines had to take.

Some days ago I found this little brown envelope lying before my door. The envelope was damaged, the zines were unharmed, though. I browsed through the A5/half-letter-sized zines and smirked. I loved them, even though I only read a few sentences - certainly Mun Kaos genius pencil-art had something to do with this, too.

My smartphones camera sucks...

What did I know about the setting the zines alluded to? Not much, I have to say. It is a long-time project, the zines are only a tiny part of it. It shows us the authors image of an original southeast Asian (SEA) fantasy world. It is generously illustrated by a talented person. Zedeck(?) uses the terms counter-colonialism and pre-colonialism in his posts about the setting.

Wait, southeast Asia...

What do I know? Ah. I like the cuisine! Ok, I like the cuisine of some parts of this vast region I know of.

Uhm, I don't know if the region is strictly defined - yes (thanks Wikipedia). Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia - yeah, I like the cuisine.

Malaysian cuisine brought to me by... an american

There has to be more I know. Wait, I studied medicine! No, this doesn't help much. The high number of HIV-infections in this region is the only thing I really remember. Sex-tourism comes to mind.

One of my best friends, Swentie, is half-Filipina.

Another friend went on a backpack-trip - Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia(?). She said the people were wonderful, friendly, and open-minded (which, speaking as a German, is a thing of note. We tend to be a little grumpy here).

Von Keepscases - Eigenes Werk,
CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8636461

Ah, another thing: Many religions! Buddhism is probably the reason for the veggie-recipes I like so much. Zedeck mentioned Ramadan once in his posts, so Islam is a thing, too. Hinduism probably. Christianity? Probably, I don't associate it with SEA, though.

For my western eyes, they have beautiful scripts-characters. For my western ears, the languages sound alien, sometimes funny.

That's about it. I don't know shit about SEA. And what I know comes from second- to third-hand sources.

I mean, I don't know shit about south-America. And probably half-a-dozen other, big regions of this world. But right now, I am confronted with SEA. With pre-colonialism SEA.

How can it be, that I consider myself an open-minded and cultured man and know so little of a region with over 600 million people living in? Okay, somehow I became a radiologist, this surely consumed time. Really bad geography and history classes could be an explanation (and mine were so bad). But I guess it is more the fact that exactly these classes happened more than 20 years ago. Since then, I learned - and probably thought - with my belly.

What Zedeck and Mun Kao are creating with their setting is wonderful. For me, it is a strange yet compelling world... evocative with every short sentence. My mind-theatre is working full-time since I read Kraching. Shivers are running down my spine when I retell the stories in Hantu (which seems to be setting the tone for the supernatural in ATTI without being closely attached to it). This is a setting I want to play so much, which I want to read more about...

...which I need to read more about.

When I read a euro-centric fantasy book, I can probably start playing right away. My mind is slow these days, but it produces enough ideas to fill an interesting evening for my friends. I feel at home and safe.

My biggest fear with these wonderful zines, with this most promising setting is that I cannot help but fall back to the non-informed preconceptions I have of SEA and therefore of the roots of ATTI. I would fill in the blanks with other clichés I got from other Asian countries (India and Japan come to mind - oh, please, let me not check the facts I know of these countries).

I know that a zine, no matter how awesome, cannot fill the blanks I speak of. I'll have to read about SEA in other places. But, Zedeck (and Mun Kao), I will consume every piece of "knowledge" you give me via A thousand thousand islands, for that I feel more at home and safe in your fantasy world and probably in SEA.

F

BUY THE ZINES HERE.

[EDIT] The more I think about SEA, the more things I "remember". But they all have some things in common - they are either news from western media (like terrorism by the Abu Sayyaf, natural disasters or the pope visiting), things I "learned" from other media or various tropes. There is little if nothing from SEA-natives. All through the lens of the western world. Films from SEA might be of use for my attempt to know more about SEA, but I think I only know Ong Bak and Art of the Devil - recommendations are welcome. Same goes for books, they need to be translated to english or german, though.[/EDIT]

The blog is dead...

...long live the blog. G+ is dying, so they say. Right now there seem to be more content-posts in my stream than before the announcement. Defiance? Don't know. Nonetheless, people scatter in various directions and as the lemming I am I follow those who create and whom I can lurk upon. MeWe is it for me (account with clear name). I also chose to revive my twice failed attempt at blogging. We'll see where this ends.