Introduction and Explanation
On Earth, the cultural rise of nations has gone through several periods of rising and falling. The most extreme of these periods of collapse was the Middle, or Dark, Ages of Europe, where higher learning was often violently discouraged, and civilization was deliberately held back by those in power in the name of religion. Similar states of degradation based on cultural troubles have often caused loss of advancement for many nations.
Such a state of opposition to cultural advancement is largely unknown among most of the people of Therafim. While there have been periods of collapse, where civilization as a whole or in places degraded, these have been the natural results of war and conflict rather than a deliberate rejection of advancement. Literacy is not always widespread simply because of the physical lack of people to teach reading and writing among many communities, and technology has only not advanced as far as on Earth in some respects (though not in others, as almost modern plumbing exists, as do various comforts of modern life) because magic either prevents their use, or more conveniently replaces technology. Only the most vile tyrants or civilization-hating barbarians deliberately prevent the members of their populace from gaining some measure of education when it is available.
It is because there has been no deliberate sabotage of culture by most nations of Therafim that the people of Therafim are surprisingly comprehensible to inhabitants of Earth in the Information Age. Art, invention, and music, for example, have not only been allowed to advance, many of their forms are quite recognizable to modern audiences. While it might not be named as such, Therafim has rock-and-roll, and numerous other forms of artistic expression are allowed to prosper wherever people have the time to indulge in them. Super-stardom is even possible in the more civilized parts of Therafim, where there is a large enough population base with the time and the money to pay to attend concerts, exhibitions, and similar events.
The following list compiles various figures of importance in Therafim's cultural development. Those that are deceased are noted as such. Those players who wish to add their own additions to this list can earn REP for doing so by contacting Gideon Kalve Jarvis.
Notable Artists and Performers
- Barbados Grint - Barbados Grint is perhaps the sickliest dwarf one might care to meet. A citadel dwarf who found he was too weak and frail to be able to handle the work at the forge in his home mountain city, he set out on his own to pursue his great love: sculpture. Presently, this astonishingly slender dwarven male is the single most skilled sculptor on Therafim. He resides in the Iron Throne's city of Oxford, but travels frequently, and so is almost never home.
- B. Jung & B. Freid - A mixed media artist and a renowned sculptor whom recently collaborated on a public work for Avalon.
- Cirque du Reve - The biggest and most successful traveling circus on Therafim. Based out of Karna, capital of Mankata on Hydra, this group makes regular use of the Goodtravel Guild to reach new continents with their animals and other equipment, getting the services in exchange for providing shows to the many tourists that make use of the Goodtravel Guild's services. All the members of the Cirque du Reve are part owners of the business, required as part of membership to buy shares in the company, making them all jointly interested in its success. Despite objections by some of animal cruelty, as is found in many other, lesser circuses, the Cirque du Reve employes several druids as part of its animal acts to ensure the comfort of the animals and the safety of the performers.
- Lonely Dreamer - A sweet-tempered aranthi (skunkfolk) painter, Lonely Dreamer is the kindest, gentlest soul one could ever hope to meet anywhere. She is also known worldwide for being one of the most accomplished painters of frescoes on Therafim. Presently she lives as a guest of the elves of Aelfheim, but is always eager to listen to the vision of interesting people wanting to commission her.
- Martine Phey - A regular guest performer with the Cirque du Reve, Martine Phey is a changeling of almost impossible levels of mutability of form, verging on those normally only possible to full doppelgangers. Phey is Therafim's greatest professional clown, or at least its most famous, and though he (she?) has never been heard to speak, Phey is almost supernaturally gifted at pantomime, and so has no trouble being understood.
- Phylo Cutty (Deceased) - Perhaps the single most accomplished architect of all time, the works of Phylo Cutty are to be found just about everywhere. A gnome with a habit of abusing various life-prolonging magic in order to continue his already quite extensive lifespan, Phylo Cutty was last said to have been almost two thousand years old before the time of his death less than a decade ago, in his sleep, after almost an entire lifetime spent designing and building some of the greatest buildings on Therafim. Avalon City especially is graced with Cutty's work, as almost all of its civil service buildings, as well as its museum and many of its temples were this near-mad gnome's work. He was also known as one of the single greatest trap designers of all time, to protect his buildings from theft or worse, and besides his more standard works, Phylo Cutty, notoriously mercenary throughout his life, also designed several dungeons, many of which are still in use.
Notable Inventors
- Cassie Wheelock - A gnome engineer of great acumen, Cassie Wheelock is noted for being one of the most adept makers of nonmagical flying machines on Therafim. She is noted for having created the first working dirigibles, and is also an innovator of lightweight gliders. She and Vincent Taslo are good friends as well as friendly rivals, and there is rumored to also be an ongoing romance between the two.
- Gaddis Greentree (Deceased) - One of the most ingenious of elven inventors, Gaddis, a shadow elf healer, was the one who first invented fully working prosthesis to replace lost limbs. Gaddis started by growing living plants that took the place of lost limbs, and later inventors, building on Gaddis' work, found ways to turn mithril and other metals to the task. Gaddis Greentree died roughly one-thousand five-hundred years ago in a conflict with drow, who stole the basic plans for Gaddis' prosthetics, and set about making their own copies. These, in turn, were later captured by the dwarves and adapted to the specialized needs of that race, and have spread by trade elsewhere ever since.
- Master Ferris "Greybeard" Firefoot (Deceased) - This dwarven innovator was the first person to harness steam power, using it to power mining equipment. In the process of refining his invention so that it wouldn't choke workers while it was in use, Greybeard also designed the systems of ventilation shafts that have spread to common use in all dwarven mines, allowing proper circulation of air almost no matter how deep the mines might go. Greybeard Firefoot died roughly two thousand years ago in his sleep.
- Vincent Taslo - The amazing Vincent Taslo is noted for being a true renaissance man, being able to do just about everything, and do it well. This human (rumored to be quarter-gnome, though this is unconfirmed, and he is quite tall for someone who might have gnomish blood) is an artist as well as an inventor, engineer, amateur physician, and architect, with great skill in drawing and painting. Taslo's skill in drawing also serves him well in drafting up his various inventions, and in deeply exploring the workings of the body, which further assists him in his art. The first invention of Taslo, when he was just a boy, was the autocrossbow, and he has remained the cutting edge for siege weaponry, both defensive and offensive, ever since. While Cassie Wheelock beat him to creating the first fully working gliders (his ornithopters never worked right without magical intervention), Taslo has invented parachutes, which are sure to catch on as flying machines grow in popularity.
Notable Bards and Bands
Before continuing on bards and bands, it should be noted that, on Therafim, rock and roll is ancient in date, originating with the dwarves. It regularly said to be part of the reason sundered dwarves were banished from under the mountains, for their part in its creation.
Overall, the popularity of musicians is roughly the same as it always is among peoples that can afford some leisure time and have an appreciation for music. As examples of how things stay the same the more they change, Mozart was as popular as Elvis in his day, and "The Rites of Spring" orchestral piece caused riots when it was first performed, much like what can easily break out at concerts today, and organists like Bach would regularly challenge each other to musical duels.
It is quite common for the major cities of Therafim to host regular concerts and provide a venue for up-and-comers to try their hand at the rough game of musical popularity. It is also common for musicians to team up, as much for sharing costs as for creative reasons. Finally, it is very common for there to be regular public outcries about how music corrupts the youth who listen to it, while at the same time musicians constantly look for that next great sound to push the boundaries just a little bit futher.
- Aeryn Kidd and the Phantastix - A surprisingly popular all-girl band of bards based out of Avalon City, headed by the fairly mysterious Aeryn Kidd, who seems to have no past. Their music tends to be upbeat, bouncy, and is easy to dance to. At the present time, they are mostly confined to Avalon City, appealing especially to upper-class youth, but are starting to gain some fame in the rest of the world. Tours are planned in the near future to spread their influence and popularity, as are the sale of sound crystals. Aside from sound crystal sales, which are an innovation of the group, their music is also groundbreaking, being of the genre that an Earth listener would identify as "pop," a great rarity in a fantasy setting like Therafim. They are also noted for having a rather spectacular light show, courtesy of their illusion-magic heavy band members.
- Whitehall Symphonic Orchestra - Based out of the capital of the Iron Throne Empire, the Whitehall Symphonic Orchestra is the final word on conservative musical traditions. Maintaining a high-class, respectable air, while still allowing themselves the occasional more amusing piece, the Whitehall Symphonic Orchestra is the first large group of musicians to manage to make themselves successful not only locally, but internationally, and have carried on this tradition for almost a century now.
- Cargando Animator and the Dwarftones - All dwarves, all the time! The Dwartones, a band of six dwarves (two of whom are citadel dwarves and the others sundered), are known for their hard bass and heavy beat, and for having some of the most brutal mosh pits to be found at a bardic performance. They have a seventh dwarf, their band manager and the older sister of the lead musician, who is a cleric of Moradin, who regularly attends their concerts in order to provide emergency healing services. This band, as might be expected, are the originators of a style they call "heavy metal," a name drawn straight from their dwarven heritage.
- Sour Warlock - Daphne Wight is the lead singer of Sour Warlock, and everybody else in the group is incidental, and subject to changes suddenly and without warning. More chaotic than most tieflings, Daphne is a truly shocking performer, her skin carrying a distinctive purple tint, to say nothing of her upward-curving horns, green-glowing cat-slitted eyes, and flexible tail. She is known for her distinctive wail, and for her extensive use of profanity and references to sex and violence in her songs, besides her almost impossibly mercurial mood swings. All of her wildness, however, has also given her an incredible force of personality, and she has an immense amount of talent as well. If someone can sit through an entire performance by Sour Warlock without leaving after a strong negative reaction, then they will probably be hooked.
- Ten Fountains - Perhaps one of the most groundbreaking new sounds, Ten Fountains is made of four beastfolk males (a yellow-furred sirius, a tall and lean glasses-wearing equitra, a short raccoonfolk, and an otterkin) with a penchant for mixing old and new in their musical style. Their attention to stretching the limits of the field of music has led them to create truly eclectic blendings of older styles into a more current, up-to-date sound. They are wildly popular, and tour Therafim extensively, performing on ships in exchange for passage. [For Earth readers, they are Therafim's version of The Beatles.]
- Wave Zero - Made of three elves, two sisters and their brother, on instruments and singing, and a female gnome technician running the special effects and managing the band, Wave Zero specializes not so much on musical talent as on sheer shock and scandal. The siblings are decent performers, and their gnome technician is incredible at magical and technical effects of sound and light and set building, but their primary claim to fame are their outrageous fashions and hair styles (courtesy of the gnome), their tendency to "slum" extensively, and their numerous affairs. They have a strong liking for humans and other non-elves, and so spend most of their time away from their own race.
The Storytellers Guild of Avalon
Click for details on The Storyteller s Guild
