Leafsta Survivors
From MoongatesWiki
The Leafsta Survivors are a group of humans who are all from the village of Leafsta, in the Deep Forest (Yew), a human settlement that was destroyed in a co-ordinated attack by undead in 337 SR (before the characters emerged in Trinsic where their independent life begins). The survivors comprise a sort of village diaspora with each making their way in the world.
Time passes for the Leafsta Survivors according to the system of time-reckoning that is based on Stratics Reckoning (SR).
There are at time of writing four active characters, three from the same kin (Agnes Fretting, Jern Fretting and Smaed Fretting) and one who is not herself a Leafsta Survivor, Moll Sinders, but who is a Trinsician and the common-law wife of Jern Fretting.
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Other Leafsta Survivors
A number of other Leafsta Survivors are known of, of which one, Tyg Husbond, the village herder, the only known eyewitness of the destruction of Leafsta, has recently died. Others include: Yedda Fiskdotter (leader of The Fiskdotter Matriarchy and bitter enemy of all Leafsta Survivors), and Daisy Roots (a retired soldier - his face was destroyed by a bomb potion), and he is learning alchemy to use the skill for non-destructive ends, turning his hand to gardening. There is also a half-drow who calls herself just Lucy. She is working for Smaed as his fletcher/bowyer, but her origins are obscure (at least to everyone else, if not to herself). As time passes new generations are added. Jern Fretting now has a namesake son by Moll Sinders, called here Jern the Younger to avoid confusion (born in 353 Stratics Reckoning), and a daughter born in 355 SR. There may be others yet to be revealed.
Style of Play
Low-fantasy. Leafstans and indeed all the Norse Isles refugees who settled in Minoc – and from which Leafstans are a breakaway migrant group – have a tradition of being suspicious of magic, and have typically had little to do with other races than humans. This is changing as time passes, and gradually some of the Leafsta survivors have learned how to use moongates and to cast the recall spell.
Character-development: when they first appear, their skills reflect their age and background. Both Jern and Smaed started as 15 year-olds, and as befits youths from a backwoods country village, their skills were camping, fishing and hiding. This proved to be an extra disadvantage for Smaed when he joined the Militia guardsmen, he had to grow up fast and learn martial skills from scratch. It was not a problem for Jern who became a serf and anyway chose a more solitary miner/blacksmith career.
Note on Geneologies
Geneologies play an important part for Leafsta Survivors, and these are recorded on large sheets of paper in the form of inverse branching trees down the generations. but the software available to represent them, especially on forums and in in-game books (in large part due perhaps to author incomputence) has so far made it impossible to make them public.
More than just a group of individuals but less than a guild
This way of dealing with a group of people related by blood and marriage has the advantage of being the in-game continuation of a detailed background. Use of a reckoning system by which 5 years in-game pass in the course of one real year also allows characters to have children and to age. This adds an extra dimension to a game that otherwise can be timeless in a world disproportionately populated by adults in the prime of life. In particular, role playing children can be rewarding and provide a childhood that can be seen as a moulding factor in their lives.
There are out-of-game advantages as well, especially for those, like myself, who for some reason have unsocial hours. Role playing on Europa shard tends to be concentrated into evenings between 7 pm and 11 pm UK time and if anyone can only make the first or last hour of this time-frame their role playing will be much more limited. For this reason I have some of my role playing characters on Pacific shard as I can be online at 6 am UK time which is 10 pm Pacific time.
In-game Literature
Agnes Fretting, being a bard and therefore literate, brought up both Jern and Smaed and taught them their letters. Tyg Husbond was not literate but in his case his tale was written up by a bard he met who befriended him in his old age, a young lady called Rustelle, who wrote his tale down in a two-volume work. Tyg Husbond is a character on Pacific-shard and also member of the Twilight Fellowship, whose support and friendship are here gratefully acknowledged).
There is therefore a collection of in-game works by the Leafsta Survivors that Agnes, in her capacity as Librarian of the Borough of Yew, has been collecting and making copies of. These works include the ten-volumes (each of 40 pages) of The Book of Leafsta (co-authored by Agnes and Jern) and Smaed's Story, the two volumes of Tyg's Tale written by Rustelle, and various other writings. It is her intention to pass these on as family heirlooms.
External links
- The Book of Leafsta
- Smaed's Story
- Tyg's Tale: the only eyewitness account of the destruction of Leafsta
- The Fiskdotter Matriarchy
See also
Categories: People | Lore
