07-31-2019, 02:06 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-31-2019, 07:13 PM by neon_jellyfish.
Edit Reason: Killing typos one by one
)
Thanks guys!
Now back to Oddwickshire!
Day 211
We'll take one last look at the Library and head back to the Castle, specifically to the Lighthouse Tower. There's an airship waiting for us, ready to take us to Quirkmore, the only other place in Oddwickshire big enough to be called 'town'. Quirkmore may be younger and smaller than Oddwick, but it's just as crazy! But before we get there, let's meet our airship's captain and talk about Oddwickshire's many lighthouses for a bit.
Beatrix Brasschester
![[Image: 38e37ddd61c75d74a9182e5ad483055e.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/38/e3/7d/38e37ddd61c75d74a9182e5ad483055e.jpg)
Beatrix Brasschester is an aeronaut. Actually, she’s the aeronaut. Her airship*, designed by none other than Rebecca Morgenstern, is the one to take the Queen wherever she needs to, in those rare cases when some stubborn foolish mountain refuses to come to the Queen.
Beatrix loves her job. She loves being in the air, feeling the wind in her long, silver mane and having all the freedom in the world. She loves travelling to new places and learning new stories and she loves helping other people to get to those places and learn those stories, too.
She has one more passion - hats. At first, combining her two favorite things - flying and hats - was really tough, because the aforementioned wind in her long, silver mane usually took her hat away. Losing way too many hats in this manner led her to master two other skills aside from piloting an airship and navigating through the endless skies: hat making and fastening her creations in her hair so that even the worst hurricane couldn’t blow them away.
*I’m not sure about the name. At first, I wanted She Who Runs with the Wind, as a nod to Alexander Grin’s novel She Who Runs on the Waves (it's about a regular water ship), but ever since I’ve come up with The Rowdy Scuffler, I’m kinda leaning towards that name… What do you guys think?
Oddwickshire Lighthouse Network
Oddwickshire has quite a lot of lighthouses, considering how far from sea it is. That’s because of the busy airship traffic.
Shortly after acceding to the throne, Her Insane Majesty decided to establish an aerial infrastructure to deal with the crippling inefficiency of the current methods of transportation. Which was mostly travelling on foot, because Odde is not navigable for the vast majority of vessels, and the whole land is covered by dense forests and even denser fog, so railways would take ages to build. It was really slowing down everything, but mainly both home and international trade.
Her Insane Majesty decided that the easiest way to deal with impenetrable forests and fog was to simply travel above them, and she summoned Beatrix (who was already a seasoned aeronaut) and Rebecca to help her with the technical part of solution. Together, they came up with a plan to build the Oddwickshire Lighthouse Network and Rebecca designed several models of airships for mass transit and freight transport, and also some cheap ones for private use. Now both towns and all communities scattered all over Oddwickshire have their own lighthouses and you can get everywhere you need in a few hours, instead of days.
The lighthouses utilize special combination of crystals, same ones you’ve seen in the Library, but bigger. Rebecca found out that combinig two specific types enhances their luminosity, so fewer crystals are needed. There’s only one lighthouse that doesn’t employ this technology - The First Lighthouse in Quirkmore, where we’re headed now.
The First Lighthouse Crew
The First Lighthouse crew consists of four unshelled characters, I'll only post one today, because this is already a monstrous wall of text, and I'll leave the others for tomorrow.
The First Lighthouse is the most important lighthouse in Oddwickshire. It’s the oldest and tallest one, all the international flights depart from and land here. Its light is stronger than all the other lighthouses’, and it also differs in color - it’s mint green, while normal lighthouses have cold white or blue-ish light. The reason behind that is its light source - Mr. Isidor Glowman, the crew foreman.
Isidor Glowman
Isidor was born some 800 years ago as a will-o’-wisp. He’s a flashy guy, he loves wearing extravagant clothing and dying his hair, and he tends to start dancing whenever he hears music, even if he’s in the middle of the street… People call him lolicon all the time, but his love for young girls is pure and innocent, he just wants to have them all as little sisters, pick cute outfits for them, prepare yummy foods for them and read them fairy tales before bed. Just like humans love kitties without being zoophiles.
He always liked his light-manipulating powers, but aside from that, he thinks that being a will-o’-wisp stinks. You have to live in a dirty smelly swamp, you can’t exceed the official limits for the ghost lantern luminosity (which isn’t nearly enough flashy!), you have to basically kill people and everybody sees you as some kind of bad omen… Screw that! Isidor likes when people flock around him, but he wants to show off, not kill them all the second they get near. Shining brighter than the stars has always been his biggest dream, but how is he supposed to shine in this place?
When Her Insane Majesty announced her plans to build the lighthouse network, Isidor sensed his chance to start a new and better life, and proposed himself as a light source for the main lighthouse. After a short but very spectacular demonstration, it was decided that he will become the metaphorical foundation stone of the first of Network’s lighthouses, located in Quirkmore, in the geographical center of Oddwickshire.
Isidor had to break up with his family, because they were appalled by the idea of will-o’-wisp light leading people to safety and they disowned him. He was a bit sad they weren’t able to appreciate the brightness of his light, but he recovered fast. Now it’s his moment to shine, and that moment will last for a very long time.
A note on will-o’-wisps
In Czech folklore, will-o’-wisps aren’t just ghost lights, they’re somewhere between dark fae and ghosts (in some tales, they’re ghosts, in others they’re corporeal beings), and they use lanterns for the ‘ghostly light’ tricks. In most folk tales, they used to be people, but they either drowned in marsh or they died / killed themselves because of unrequited love or betrayal and they carried their grudge into the afterlife, became will-o’-wisps and started luring the living to the marsh. Sometimes they want to because they’re evil, sometimes they’re cursed to do so, eventhough they themselves don’t want to. I’m using Czech folklore as a base, but my will-o’-wisps also form communities, start families and reproduce on their own.
Now back to Oddwickshire!
Day 211
We'll take one last look at the Library and head back to the Castle, specifically to the Lighthouse Tower. There's an airship waiting for us, ready to take us to Quirkmore, the only other place in Oddwickshire big enough to be called 'town'. Quirkmore may be younger and smaller than Oddwick, but it's just as crazy! But before we get there, let's meet our airship's captain and talk about Oddwickshire's many lighthouses for a bit.
Beatrix Brasschester
Beatrix Brasschester is an aeronaut. Actually, she’s the aeronaut. Her airship*, designed by none other than Rebecca Morgenstern, is the one to take the Queen wherever she needs to, in those rare cases when some stubborn foolish mountain refuses to come to the Queen.
Beatrix loves her job. She loves being in the air, feeling the wind in her long, silver mane and having all the freedom in the world. She loves travelling to new places and learning new stories and she loves helping other people to get to those places and learn those stories, too.
She has one more passion - hats. At first, combining her two favorite things - flying and hats - was really tough, because the aforementioned wind in her long, silver mane usually took her hat away. Losing way too many hats in this manner led her to master two other skills aside from piloting an airship and navigating through the endless skies: hat making and fastening her creations in her hair so that even the worst hurricane couldn’t blow them away.
*I’m not sure about the name. At first, I wanted She Who Runs with the Wind, as a nod to Alexander Grin’s novel She Who Runs on the Waves (it's about a regular water ship), but ever since I’ve come up with The Rowdy Scuffler, I’m kinda leaning towards that name… What do you guys think?
Oddwickshire Lighthouse Network
Oddwickshire has quite a lot of lighthouses, considering how far from sea it is. That’s because of the busy airship traffic.
Shortly after acceding to the throne, Her Insane Majesty decided to establish an aerial infrastructure to deal with the crippling inefficiency of the current methods of transportation. Which was mostly travelling on foot, because Odde is not navigable for the vast majority of vessels, and the whole land is covered by dense forests and even denser fog, so railways would take ages to build. It was really slowing down everything, but mainly both home and international trade.
Her Insane Majesty decided that the easiest way to deal with impenetrable forests and fog was to simply travel above them, and she summoned Beatrix (who was already a seasoned aeronaut) and Rebecca to help her with the technical part of solution. Together, they came up with a plan to build the Oddwickshire Lighthouse Network and Rebecca designed several models of airships for mass transit and freight transport, and also some cheap ones for private use. Now both towns and all communities scattered all over Oddwickshire have their own lighthouses and you can get everywhere you need in a few hours, instead of days.
The lighthouses utilize special combination of crystals, same ones you’ve seen in the Library, but bigger. Rebecca found out that combinig two specific types enhances their luminosity, so fewer crystals are needed. There’s only one lighthouse that doesn’t employ this technology - The First Lighthouse in Quirkmore, where we’re headed now.
The First Lighthouse Crew
The First Lighthouse crew consists of four unshelled characters, I'll only post one today, because this is already a monstrous wall of text, and I'll leave the others for tomorrow.
The First Lighthouse is the most important lighthouse in Oddwickshire. It’s the oldest and tallest one, all the international flights depart from and land here. Its light is stronger than all the other lighthouses’, and it also differs in color - it’s mint green, while normal lighthouses have cold white or blue-ish light. The reason behind that is its light source - Mr. Isidor Glowman, the crew foreman.
Isidor Glowman
Isidor was born some 800 years ago as a will-o’-wisp. He’s a flashy guy, he loves wearing extravagant clothing and dying his hair, and he tends to start dancing whenever he hears music, even if he’s in the middle of the street… People call him lolicon all the time, but his love for young girls is pure and innocent, he just wants to have them all as little sisters, pick cute outfits for them, prepare yummy foods for them and read them fairy tales before bed. Just like humans love kitties without being zoophiles.
He always liked his light-manipulating powers, but aside from that, he thinks that being a will-o’-wisp stinks. You have to live in a dirty smelly swamp, you can’t exceed the official limits for the ghost lantern luminosity (which isn’t nearly enough flashy!), you have to basically kill people and everybody sees you as some kind of bad omen… Screw that! Isidor likes when people flock around him, but he wants to show off, not kill them all the second they get near. Shining brighter than the stars has always been his biggest dream, but how is he supposed to shine in this place?
When Her Insane Majesty announced her plans to build the lighthouse network, Isidor sensed his chance to start a new and better life, and proposed himself as a light source for the main lighthouse. After a short but very spectacular demonstration, it was decided that he will become the metaphorical foundation stone of the first of Network’s lighthouses, located in Quirkmore, in the geographical center of Oddwickshire.
Isidor had to break up with his family, because they were appalled by the idea of will-o’-wisp light leading people to safety and they disowned him. He was a bit sad they weren’t able to appreciate the brightness of his light, but he recovered fast. Now it’s his moment to shine, and that moment will last for a very long time.
A note on will-o’-wisps
In Czech folklore, will-o’-wisps aren’t just ghost lights, they’re somewhere between dark fae and ghosts (in some tales, they’re ghosts, in others they’re corporeal beings), and they use lanterns for the ‘ghostly light’ tricks. In most folk tales, they used to be people, but they either drowned in marsh or they died / killed themselves because of unrequited love or betrayal and they carried their grudge into the afterlife, became will-o’-wisps and started luring the living to the marsh. Sometimes they want to because they’re evil, sometimes they’re cursed to do so, eventhough they themselves don’t want to. I’m using Czech folklore as a base, but my will-o’-wisps also form communities, start families and reproduce on their own.