Table of Contents
Welcome to James Kemp's Wiki
This is a collaborative web platform that allows people to edit1) the web pages to provide additional content for some of the stories I have written and the roleplaying games that I am involved in, whether as a player or GM.
There are several namespaces operating slightly different wiki subjects. These are, in no particular order:
- Skyss - Story Background - a fantasy novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2016.
- Perfects - background for the near future story and some police roleplaying that I ran in that universe
- Theocracy of Daprav - A D&D campaign that I ran with Glasgow University Games Society around 2002-3.
- Jim Wallman's Universe - a roleplaying by e-mail campaign that I play in, this is an unofficial wiki and none of it is canon unless Jim says it is.
- Interstellar Freelance Unlimited - subset of the Universe pages covering the activities of a mercenary company that we are currently roleplaying every Full Moon.
- Earth Imperium pages. These cover the activities of the Government of the Solar republic (aka Earth Empire) in Jim's Humanity Will Prevail campaign, including the Earth Imperium News Items.
- Free Worlds Alliance - covering the activities of another emerging polity in the Humanity Will Prevail campaign. Mostly contributed by Eric Moroney.
- Universe Background - page collecting the various bits of background info that have come up in various e-mail discussions for the campaigns set in Jim Wallman's Universe.
- Master map of the Universe (6Mb PDF, as at 3212).
- Delta Green - some roleplaying campaigns about horror and conspiracy. The main one was set in Berlin in 1953.
- Free games rules - a collection of free rules for wargames and other sorts of face to face games that I have designed or run.
- Wargames rules - I'm not just a player of games, I also do rules for them from time to time as well as one-off games. A primary outlet for this is through Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group.
- Other free rules - at the moment just those for the 1689 (Orange or Lemon? and Bonnie Dundee, respectively about the debates in the Scots Parliament and then the military campaign of Viscount Dundee during 1689) and The Other Side of the COIN (about what makes people become insurgents). All games that I have have produced for Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group.
- Background for a near future universe where I have written some fiction and also run some roleplaying games in.
Comments and complaints to me at webmaster@full-moon.info please.
James Kemp
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King of Skyss
The King of Skyss is elected, and can be deposed, by nine electors.
The current King is king_thirfinn.
Stories
They are in the story
- First appears - in Fierce when Yngvild Helgasdotir arrives in Kronstadt she is invited to dinner with King Thirfinn.
Description
The King runs the navy and justice. The title is always 'King' but the incumbent can be either male or female.
Relationships
People
Notable people
Places
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a part government and part commercial organisation that exists to help enable Skyssians to trade successfully and profitably across the world. The President of the Board of Trade is one of the Electors of the King of Skyss.
Stories
They are in the story
- First appears - we first seen the Board of Trade's distinctive blue port building in Kronstadt, and again in Knarvik, Beretha and at The Wheel.
- Function: the function is to enable trade through better flows of information, and also supporting Skyssians when they get into trouble. There's also a diplomatic function in many of the more significant ports.
Description
The Board of Trade is a very large organisation, possibly the largest non-military one in the world. Broadly it has the following departments:
- Operations. There are over 1,000 port teams spread around the world with regional HQs in the major capital cities. As well as the port teams gathering information there is also resolutions that deal with unusual or sensitive situations.
- Political Analysis. This department analyses all the information sent back and advises the King of Skyss on diplomatic relations. It also provides negotiators for treaties.
- Board Secretariat. This department supports the members of the Board directly and ensures that they are well briefed, decisions are made and that policy is promulgated so that it can be enacted.
- Registry. A sub-department of the Secretariat that takes in all the incoming mail from regional operations, foreign governments, and anything else. It copies these and sends them to the relevant departments in the BoT and retains copies on the record book. The Historical Department is also part of registry.
- Prices and Cargoes. This department analyses the prices and cargos and tries to spot trends so that guidance can be given on what might be profitable. Their output is sold to the Merchant Guilds, along with access to the locally produced guides that each port team produces.
- Revenue. This department is responsible for ensuring that fees and charges are set at the correct rates to encourage trade to flow, and that they are collected in full.
Relationships
People
Notable people (from a story perspective).
- radulfr Director of resolutions
- erik_leifsson senior agent in Beretha
- olaf_ragnarsson junior agent in Beretha
Places
- NB there are over a thousand Board of Trade outposts across the world, in all significant ports and along trade routes used by Skyssians merchants.
Kingdom of Skyss
the standard crest of Skyss, a circle of seven circles, gold coins when painted, and crossed axes in the middle with a boat prow underneath. Usually it was rendered on a blue circle with coloured paint. The boat was green and the axes red. This coin had a small hole drilled where the top-most of the seven coins went.
Government
Skyss is a non-hereditary Kingdom. Established almost 800 years ago it was founded by the College of Heroes to stabilise the area and ensure good government that supported trading rather than raiding as the primary activity. Skyss has gone from being a dangerous backwater on questionably viable land to a major power that maintains peace over a large area.
As well as the office of King, and the nine Electors, the main factors in this common prosperity are the Board of Trade, navy, and justice.
Skyss - Story Background
This is a web version of the notebook that has the background to my fantasy novel Fierce (released 1 May 2024). You can read the first chapter on my blog 'Fierce Ch.1 - Straven', which is a medium-level fantasy story set in a world of my own creation. It's influenced by everything I've ever read, and loosely based on a Norse 10th/11th century blending with some ancient Roman, although the ships are more like 17th/18th century. Skyss is the northern state the main characters come from, but there is a whole world and other states exist, some of which will be linked to here.
NB this is a work in progress and is a means for me to be able to remind myself what I've written so that I stay consistent. Feel free to re-use the material in your own stories (with attribution, and not commercially without permission). If you have comments or observations I would love to hear them, you can contact me via my blog https://www.themself.org/ or email james @ that domain.
Malfin - Goddess of the Darkness
Malfin is known as the Goddess of the Darkness, which to the Skyssians isn't a bad thing. They live in an arctic environment, half their year is spent in the darkness. So they've come to embrace it. She is the twin sister of aeolf and often each of their festivals acknowledges the other.
Appearance
Like all the gods Mallfin can change her appearance. She often appears as a dark skinned woman with long, raven black hair and fully black eyes. Her clothes are usually a dark indigo colour, like the sky at midnight, or black.
Festivals
Malfin's main festival is the winter soltice, when the nights are longest (and in many of the more northern parts of Skyss there is no daylight in this period). There is a secondary festival in late summer when the darkness returns to the northern parts of Skyss known as 'First Night'. Malfin's festivals involve animal sacrifice, blessings for her twin aeolf and feasting on the meat cooked on the sacred fire. Usually the feasting is done outdoors, away from the fire. Special dark ales are usually brewed for both festivals using roasted barley to give it a much darker colour than usual.
