Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The Hyperborean Past-Future of the Hill Cantons

The Hyperboreans play a prominent and reoccurring role in the Hill Cantons campaign. Their cycolpean halls, haunted battlefields, tomb complexes and sprawling undercities stand testimony to the far reach of that time-space distant northern empire.

Jarek the Nagsman, Marlank bon vivant and sage, maintains that the World Turtle that the Hill Cantons rests on swims through time in a series of dialectical mini and macro cycles upwards to the End of History. The other planes, he contends, may be the antithesis or synthesis of the present of the HC, but of course that's absurd heresy.

Others more orthodox in their tastes maintain that Time itself revolves around the rim of the Sun-Lord's chariot wheel (which one is a matter of intense debate).

Whatever the true nature of this movement, I call on my friend Vsevolod Ivanov (the painter not the famous Soviet writer) and his wonderful paintings to provide snapshots--it's unclear in what point of the cycle actually occur/occurred--of that great civilization and its successor states.
The End of History

Meeting the Eld
Demise of the Grand Fleet
Successors
Latter States

2 comments:

  1. I've liked his work for a long time. It's been a constant visual touchstone for me in the Hill Cantons since my 2nd or 3rd session. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. These are incredible. I especially like the wharf and forest ship. Maybe I'll post my Grande Chasse Foudre post, unfinished as it is, just so I can link this.

    ReplyDelete