But while we're on the subject... here's a sample of the kind of thing I'm looking to do. I think it would be really helpful to be able to search by province, but perhaps I could simply do an index. Like I say, my free time for this kind of project is limited, but I'd love to be able to get more info about this stuff out into player hands.

A

abalone -- Abalone is an edible, rock-clinging mollusk with a flattened slightly spiral shell lined with mother of pearl. Svra'an's Fine Jewelry on Ratha sells a particularly nice example, dark grey with veins of blue and pink, and shimmering with each movement of the light across its surface.

abule berry -- Brilliant red abule berries grow on low-lying bushes. The heart-shaped, poisonous berries derive their name from the Gamgweth "abule," meaning "heart."


acacia tree -- The acacia tree a sweet-smelling, thorned tree with soft green leaves and pale yellow flowers. It grows well in arid climes, its deep roots enabling it to survive times of drought. Young acacia have smooth, yellow brown bark, but as they age the bark roughens to a dark grey or black. It is primarily found in and near Leth Deriel.

acanth tree -- Acanth trees are deciduous and grow in mild and temperate climates along gentle slopes. They are found in Therengia in Danduwen forest, in Acanth Court in Leth Deriel, and many other places throughout Elanthia. In addition to its fragrant bark and leaves, acanth wood has a clean scent somewhere between that of cedar and eucalyptus. Its wood is highly prized for building and carving, particularly musical instruments, and its leaves are reputed to yield healing and revivifying oils.

acorn -- A round nut in a woody cup, the acorn is the fruit of oak trees. Elanthians may enjoy acorn bread at Mithin's Bakery in Riverhaven, and also find chocolate-covered acorns in the Beech Glade in the same province.

adderstone -- Deep black, shot with bands of red and green, the adderstone has long been popular with followers of Hav'roth's... darker aspect. Svra'an's Fine Jewelry on Ratha has fine examples of adderstone.


aganylosh'a -- The tall, graceful aganylosh'a has pale yellow wood and broad green leaves. Its name means "tree of peace" in Elothean. It may be seen in Aesry Surlaenis'a.

agate -- Agate is a fine-grained, variegated stone with its colors arranged in stripes, blended in clouds, or showing mosslike forms. Many stores carry agate as a material, from Tobb's Smithy in Knife Clan to Trevellyn's of Leth Deriel, to Sister Imadril's Emporium in Shard. Some of the finest examples may be found in the collections of the merchant Ezlani. Variations in her store include carved mountain agate, cream lace agate, fire agate, and the rare emerald plumed agate.

There's more than maps on your site?! ;P

But seriously, very nice project. Here are some things I noticed -- most of them is just me nitpicking, but others you may want to take into account.

The Merelew had entered into a trade agreement with Therengia at the last Feast of Eluned's rising, which you might want to mention. Also, you describe them as amphibious S'Kra, but from one of their appearances at the Feast they are more related to Elves than S'Kra. Here it is:
>>You see Queen Unavia of Andreshlew.
>>Her non-blinking, grey-blue eyes sparkle even now in her advanced age. Covering her exposed body are blue scales with just a hint of silver along the edges. A single swath of silvery-blue hair runs across her head. It is brushed to the right and pulled into a single ponytail across her right shoulder, proof of her noble status. Her ears are slightly pointed, revealing the once Elven background of the Merelew.

HighHold is two words smooshed together (for whatever reason I dunno, but it is).

Another location to include is Elamiri, where the Emperor Arcadius moved the captial of the Seven-Starred Empire to from Throne City, some say under Morgnanae's influence. It happened in 485 BL and was moved back immediately after his reign ended. From the official Kermorian Timeline:
486 BL ~ Reign of Arcadius, an Elf, begins
485 BL ~ The Imperial Capital is changed from Throne City to Elamiri causing outrage among the other races
484 BL ~ Rioting begins in Throne City and Darkstone
482 BL ~ Several would-be assassins of the Emperor are executed
480 BL ~ Sithsia enters Lord Ellington's service
479 BL ~ Reign of Colvastus, an Elothean, begins
~ The immediate return of Throne City as capital is ordered
478 BL ~ Trade sanctions are placed on Morganae, as she is ordered to cease her political meddling

In the Clans appendix, you don't have the information on the Dwarven Clans, which is available in a book in Old Skasaarn's House in Hvaral. Also, the Stone Clan book lists their symbol, but unfortunately we don't know the symbols of any other of the clans. And Tribanin posted saying Kwarlog was the home of the Axe and Hammer Clans, which is a post still available in the Dwarven folder. I posted a translation of the Dwarven names of a few of the towns/locations in the Dwarven folder as well, feel free to include them (or translate the ones I couldn't!).

In addition, I have a copy of the old Dwarven timeline by GM Czarra, or at least the second part of it, which I'd be willing to send to you if you'd like to scour it for more information. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find the first part, which gives a description of pretty much every Dwarven city, what a biter looks like, etc. This is from the 99 SimuCon (I think) and was given out in hard copy and transcribed by Hegemonic, so I think the first half is lost in the mists of time.

Other items to include are Skullcleaver, Uthmor's axe and the one Lanival slew Teiro with, as well as rare artifacts that Meanne has been cataloging at My Two Kronars.

Also, I have been compiling a list of all the GMNPCs as well as a brief description of who they were as well as a LOOK for them if I've been able to find it. I'd be more than willing to let you incorporate it into your Almanac if you're interested.

Finally, here's a few item descriptions provided by GMs that I've been saving. The last one of the three relates to the spellbook merchant:

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Hi all :)

Every once in a while, for no obvious reason, I post random stuff. This is one of those things! These are descriptions that were made up for GMs to know what these metals look like for alteration purposes. When I posted them before, it seemed like a good idea for YOU all to know what they look like for alteration purposes, too. I still feel that way, so.. here you have them again. :)

Cambrinth:
This is a sort of rusty ashy-silver stuff. If you took silver and mixed it with ashes and them mashed up some rusty-red crayons on the surface so it was all mottled, that's about what cambrinth would look like. You can get it more reddish or more silverish, but those two colors are its "theme", and can't be gotten too far away from. Not terribly rare. Currently NOT being done via the scroll system. (A mineral, not a metal.)

Lumium:
Looks sort of like the dull side of tin foil. Not very pretty, and not used much for jewelry purposes, because, well, it looks like cheap silver, and if you're going to have something that looks like cheap silver, you might as well just have silver, get it scuffed up, and use this in a weapon anyway! This is classified as "very rare".

Damite:
In its raw form, this is black, sort of like granite, only not as pretty, and very difficult to work with. In large quantities, it's even harder to work with. It isn't at all suited to jewelry use, but makes for nice weapons and maybe even armor, or so the rumour goes. This is also "very rare".

Niniam:
This is a sort of sedimentary substance, sort of like the limestone you'd find in the cracks of old igneous rocks. Its crystal form is a white powder, while its metal form is a dark blue-grey. It takes a LOT of heat to work with, and isn't in the least suitable for jewelry. Another "very rare" substance.

Glaes:
This is a gorgeous metal -- sort of a glossy, near-translucent blue-black. If a smith is god-like in his abilities, it will go white in the forging process, at which point it can be colored with crushed gems. (There's something to shoot for, eh? ;) It is found in veins of lava, in extremely tiny quantities. It is qualified "extremely rare", and must be supplied (or visible to sneaky GMs in your forged item) to be mentioned in a description.

Kertig tears:
These are tiny blobs of silvery-black metal that comes from meteors and comets, so keep your eyes on the skies! Or, since it weighs a lot more than lead, maybe keep digging deeper, because when this hits the ground, it usually ends up several feet below it. Beautiful enough to be used for (weighty) jewelry, this extremely rare metal is much more commonly used by forgers.

These descriptions are old, and could possibly change if someone smarter than me decides to change them, but they are the descriptions we were given long ago, and hopefully having this info will make it easier for everyone to design awesome stuff. :)

Iocanthe

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moonsilk: a very pale blue silk with an opalescent sheen, stone-washed to give it a heavy texture and a slight nap.

The silks (aside from spidersilk, since that seems to be fairly well known at this point):

shadowsilk: a special form of silk that absorbs light rather than reflecting it

nightsilk: a unique form of spidersilk, harvested specifically from the black spiders that live within the mists of the Forest of Night

steelsilk: a strong silk used for the reinforcement of seams and containers

watersilk: a supple fabric-like material that drapes and shimmers beautifully, holding the lustre of silk and movement of water

firesilk: a fabric containing red silk threads that cause the fabric to shimmer with red fire as the light catches it.

NOTE on these fabrics: most of them are very expensive. Many are restricted to use by specific merchants only, and most merchants will require that the fabric be provided if you wish an alteration with them. Due to the delicate nature of silk, and the expense involved with obtaining the speciality silks, any merchant has the right to refuse to work with them even if the fabric is supplied by the client.

GM Reexa

[Thilan's note: From what I can find, spidersilk was created by Demosel, the Weaver of Fate, and is a type of silk lighter and stronger than regular silk, hence the name. Don't think it's actually made from what spiders weave. <g>]

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For the Curious, an indepth explanation of magical metals from the first magic metalsmith :

IMADRAKHET THE ARTIFICER is proud to offer custom accessories made from four rare compounds with magic-enhancing properties:

ITHRIDU: An alloy of several lesser alchemical radicals with neitrice, a small quantity of ithridu worn on the body can improve one's ability to cast a spell.

NEGNETHA: Water and Earth elementals are employed in the production of Oil of Negnetha, which is then added to a vitreous damarisine fluid and quick-hardened to produce a dark, shiny metallic material which can improve one's aim with a targetted spell.

KEISMIN: Through a secret process handed down through the generations, our family extracts alchemical-grade ismenite from star-iron, then bonds it with aethereal radicals to produce keismin, a substance which can be used to accelerate the preparation of a spell.

DHHRESH: Discovered by the brilliant alchemist Q'zhialamon, dhhresh is a unique ceramic compound which accelerates the targetting of attack spells.
The Artificer does not sell raw materials, but will custom-make jewelry and accessories of your design including ONE of these materials (they cannot be combined in any single item). She does not produce weapons, armor or
containers.

Items will have a stronger effect if tuned to a particular spellbook and an even stronger effect if limited to one specific spell. For example, a keismin unicorn charm might reduce spell preparation time by one second for all spells, OR by three seconds for Transduction spells only, OR by twelve seconds for Burn only (times are approximate and may vary from item to item).
Items are not weakened by normal use, but stresses such as extreme spell backfire or nervous system burnout due to holding far too much mana may reduce or even reverse their effects.

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Hope that helps you out. This is a great idea, and I'd love to help you in any way I can -- send a line to my play.net addy if you're interested. One suggestion would be to look over some of the old eGroups (DRList etc.); they often have logs and summaries of important events as well as GM posts. http://www.bakshiloa.com also has a nice catalog of GM posts and member work; unfortunately the Order has disbanded after the recent events in Shard but try to get in touch with them to see if they'll let you use some of their info.


~Thilan

Ranik how is this project coming along? I must say I just saw this topic and am very impressed.

- Ton Ton

Someone needs to set up a Wiki for DR information.

I would but I doubt my host could handle the traffic.

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"Never whistle while you're pissing. If you whistle while you're pissing, you have two minds where one is quite sufficient. A divided mind is easily conquered." -- Robert Anton Wilson