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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Recent Additions
Yngvild Helgasdotir
Yngvild is also known as Yngvild the Fierce, and she's the title and POV character for Fierce. She was adopted into Old Bjorn's household on Straven. Her biological parents were lady_helga and oddmundr. Oddmundr weilded Jafnadr the Sword before Yngvild was born.
Appearance
Yngvild is about 24 during the events of Fierce. She has long red hair, pale skin and blue eyes. That said, she is a shapeshifter and she can look like anything she can imagine and over the course of the story she takes several forms, mostly human.
Clothing
Her favourite colour is red, with green a close second.
Shield
Yngvild made her own shield as a teenager, with the help of Old Bjorn. It's a slightly curved rectangular shield that covers knees to shoulder.
Amulet
Gifted to her by Old Bjorn her amulet is in the shape of a silver coin attached to a silver chain. “It looked freshly minted and polished, shinier than most silver coins I'd seen. Not that I'd seen very many. The side facing me had the standard crest of Skyss, a circle of nine circles, gold coins when painted, and crossed axes in the middle with a boat prow underneath. Usually 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 nine coins went. Old Bjorn turned the coin round. The other side had the face of the Goddess Malfin. The runes Bjorn had cut round the edge read “Malfin, guide and protect your loyal servant and champion Yngvild the Fierce, Helgasdottir and Keeper of Secrets”.
Skyss's World
I've not drawn the whole world or put lots of detail in, I think it's best to leave some room for what I might need in future stories. That said, there are a couple of maps
Description
World is a large place, I sketched out a broad shape and then went to work on where the tectonic plates were, so that I knew where the mountains and volcanoes were. After that I added in lower hills, and major rivers flowing from the high places to the sea. I placed some cities in likely places based on real human geography, and from there came some trade routes, mostly sea traffic but also some along rivers and between places. The step after that was to fill in a lot of the space with deserts, forests and plains based on where the winds would take the rain. After that there were a load of political boundaries drawn.
From the political boundaries I made some notes for each of the countries/states/major cities to help flesh out the map. I also went further with the places that would end up being used in my stories.
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 with relatable female lead and a dash of romance 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 site 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.
Skyss World-Building Notes
The Skyssian Sagas
I've published one full length novel in this world, as well as some short stories. I've also outlined two further novels, and have worked up those outlines with world-building. In due course the stories will get fleshed out to the point where they can also be published. For now this is the list of published works.
- The Mother's Dream - a creation story for the Skyssians, how they ended up with nine gods and how the world was built by the Trolls.
- Going to Sea - another early myth of how the Sea Goddess Kari got people to worship her, and helped them become seafarers.
- Fierce (released 1 May 2024). You can read the first chapter on my blog 'Fierce Ch.1 - Straven'
- Bjorn the Beardless - I wrote some backstory for one of the main characters so that I could understand them better. There's a bit more than this, and some of it will work it's way into other stories.
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.