Loremasters of Corlean: Looking back with 20 20 hindsight

Something that has been interesting is with hindsight, seeing the influences on the game. The first and perhaps biggest influence on the game was another PBM around at the time called Saturnailia. It was the first PBM I had played. Glad to see that a version of Saturnailia is still being run by Harlequin Games. The second large influence was "The Wizards and the Warriors" by Hugh Cook. It remains one of my favourite fantasy novels. Many of the elements of the book I can now see in the world of Corlean. The fire trenches became the lava rivers called Corl's veins. The creatures of the skull became the Gleesh (with perhaps a slight influence of the Selenites of H.G Wells "The First Men in the Moon".

Loremasters of Corlean: In Game History

The following was the in game history section from an old web page when I was trying to ressurect L.O.C. as a Play by Email game. Many centuries before the current game time Genhanok was affected by what the Dorjans of Ephemrius ( a group of eclectic historians, sages, philosiphers and all round know it alls) came to call the "Wash of Darkness" wars. This started at first in the south of the continent with the arrival of a breed of creatures that the Genhanok peoples called "Gleesh" invaded. The Gleesh were a strange insectoid race. Seemingly they had no purpose other than the destruction of every other living thing on the continent. The peoples of Genhanok could do little to stop them, but they did drive them back only to have them invade again and again. Eventually The Gleesh left.

It was many years before Genhanok recovered. The wash of darkness was more devestating than the great Melchelan chicken pestilence (The Melchelan economy was once based quite bizarely on chickens and they were obviously the staple diet). However, it was during this time of re-building that the Academies first appeared. The Academies were a phenomena that still has no explanation. These buildings would quite literally appear in front of young people who had come of age. Those who entered never really were able to explain, in any great detail, what actually happend in these ephemeral buildings. The one thing that was obvious was that upon leaving the academy the person would be skilled in one of four disciplines, The Sword, The Staff, The Bow or The Dagger. It was after these disciplines that the Academies became known. The purpose of the academies was to prepare the continent for a coming time of danger. Partly at the instruction of the academies and partly due to commone sense, Genhanok prepared and waited. And waited. The years passed and there was no sign of invasion from the Gleesh.

In the south the country of Atula had put part of it's great wealth in to the building of the forts of guard, and many adventurers travelled to this hot country to join the ranks of "Those who watch" or as they became known the "Grey Fellowship" after the colour of the standard "uniform" given to all who joined the forts of guard. To the north in Dakria the followers of the war god Grakar took the task of guarding. The Grakarian order of the Sword, the "Grakan-Har", already formed into monasteries, the military order needed little encouragement to fortify. Unsuprisingly not many adventureres volunteered to spend thier lives living in a cold stone fortress and following in the ways of Grakar.

No attacks came from the west, and many believed that the reason for this was that the fabled island of Lin-Arelin-Telfar was in that direction. To the east was open ocean until the shores of the continent of Lucorsk was reached and this prevented attacks from that direction. It wasn't long before the Grey fellowship were put to thier first test. Although it was not the Gleesh that threatened. For many years the island of Sarul had kept itself to itself. This pleased most people of Atula as the Sarul islanders practised a unique religion, where by they worshipped their next meal, and being cannibals that was usually the neighbouring tribe. However, the Sarul islanders decided to vary thier diet and try some mainland provender. Considering thier religion the united tribes of Sarul were quite numerous. The Grey fellowship repelled them time and time again. This was repeated for a decade or so until the Sarul islanders had problems of their own to worry about. The neighbouring island of Nars began to figure in the lives of both the Sarul islanders and the Grey Fellowship. Gleesh had returned. Nars was infested with them. This was just a foretaste of things to come.