Souragne tribute (serious post folks)
Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 3:43 pm
For those who haven't been watching the news lately, the last few days of hurricane weather and overstressed levees have finally done what the city of New Orleans has feared for decades: the city's flood-prevention barriers have failed it, and more than 3/4 of its land area (which lies below sea level) is now submerged in muddy water. Thousands of homes have been lost in New Orleans itself, and smaller communities throughout the Gulf Coast have likewise been devastated. Rescue efforts have been going on non-stop, yet given what they're up against, it's unlikely that the damaged city will even come close to being inhabitable for months. 
I know that most of us on this board will have already heard of this awful event -- indeed, some of our fellow message-board users may have lost their homes or worse, themselves; communications there are so poor, there's no knowing if our Fraternity fellows are among those trapped or displaced -- and many will already be doing whatever they can to help these real-life victims of nature. Government agencies and charities are hard at work now, to assist those still in danger and to restore order and safety to the Gulf Coast. In the days and weeks to come, lives will be saved, families will be reunited, property will be restored and the dead laid to rest ... yet, given the extent of the destruction, it's anyone's guess how soon or how well the vibrant spirit of New Orleans and its neighboring regions will be able to recover. If it ever really will.
It may not be much, but I'd like to propose that we at FoS do something to honor the incredible strength and perseverance of Hurricane Katrina's survivors. Their city may be in ruins, but I know it's within our power to capture some fraction of unsullied New Orleans' uniquely colorful, diverse, and historical character, preserving its spirit vicariously through the Land of Mists. At the same time, we'll be showing any Ravenloft fans from the affected parts of the U.S. that we're all with them, in their coming struggle to recover and rebuild.
I'm therefore recommending that we, the Fraternity of Shadows, declare that Souragne -- Ravenloft's "virtual" New Orleans, that embodies so much of what's fascinating about that city and its culture -- be the very first of the domains described in any upcoming "fan Gazetteers" we produce in the months ahead. While this isn't what Arthaus had originally intended -- we know the Core's seas were next on the agenda -- there's no reason we have to conform to a release-schedule they've not seen fit to continue with. Even without this week's disaster, Souragne has always been one of the most popular and intriguing of the Ravenloft domains -- far more so than most of the Core-Sea islands, certainly! -- and now that that domain's real-life source of inspiration has suffered a genuine tragedy, it seems to me that it's the least we can do.
So perhaps, instead of continuing her planned itinerary, dear ol' S can be carried off by the Mists as she sails across the Core seas, to find herself hopping unpredictably from Island to Cluster to Core-island and back out to parts unknown. Such a shift from scheduled, methodical exploration to random jaunts about the hinterlands of Ravenloft would provide a clean break from Arthaus's now-abandoned metaplot, in any case -- indeed, it would even explain why Azalin's no longer receiving her books' deliveries, if we choose to run with that idea from another recent thread -- and it'd make it far easier to allow for fan-writers' taking more or less time than expected to get their submissions ready for circulation: if S herself doesn't know where she's going to go next, then having to release fans' Gazetteer entries "in order" won't be a issue.
And most importantly, it'd give S the shock of her life -- and Ravenloft fans in the flood-zone, the thrill of their lives, which they'll sorely need in the months (if not years) to come -- if the first thing she sees as her ship emerged from the fog isn't the rocky shoreline of Darkon, but a muddy, mangrove-choked estuary where gators bask in the sun, and the low strains of blues and a hint of Cajun spices drift in the wind....
I know that most of us on this board will have already heard of this awful event -- indeed, some of our fellow message-board users may have lost their homes or worse, themselves; communications there are so poor, there's no knowing if our Fraternity fellows are among those trapped or displaced -- and many will already be doing whatever they can to help these real-life victims of nature. Government agencies and charities are hard at work now, to assist those still in danger and to restore order and safety to the Gulf Coast. In the days and weeks to come, lives will be saved, families will be reunited, property will be restored and the dead laid to rest ... yet, given the extent of the destruction, it's anyone's guess how soon or how well the vibrant spirit of New Orleans and its neighboring regions will be able to recover. If it ever really will.
It may not be much, but I'd like to propose that we at FoS do something to honor the incredible strength and perseverance of Hurricane Katrina's survivors. Their city may be in ruins, but I know it's within our power to capture some fraction of unsullied New Orleans' uniquely colorful, diverse, and historical character, preserving its spirit vicariously through the Land of Mists. At the same time, we'll be showing any Ravenloft fans from the affected parts of the U.S. that we're all with them, in their coming struggle to recover and rebuild.
I'm therefore recommending that we, the Fraternity of Shadows, declare that Souragne -- Ravenloft's "virtual" New Orleans, that embodies so much of what's fascinating about that city and its culture -- be the very first of the domains described in any upcoming "fan Gazetteers" we produce in the months ahead. While this isn't what Arthaus had originally intended -- we know the Core's seas were next on the agenda -- there's no reason we have to conform to a release-schedule they've not seen fit to continue with. Even without this week's disaster, Souragne has always been one of the most popular and intriguing of the Ravenloft domains -- far more so than most of the Core-Sea islands, certainly! -- and now that that domain's real-life source of inspiration has suffered a genuine tragedy, it seems to me that it's the least we can do.
So perhaps, instead of continuing her planned itinerary, dear ol' S can be carried off by the Mists as she sails across the Core seas, to find herself hopping unpredictably from Island to Cluster to Core-island and back out to parts unknown. Such a shift from scheduled, methodical exploration to random jaunts about the hinterlands of Ravenloft would provide a clean break from Arthaus's now-abandoned metaplot, in any case -- indeed, it would even explain why Azalin's no longer receiving her books' deliveries, if we choose to run with that idea from another recent thread -- and it'd make it far easier to allow for fan-writers' taking more or less time than expected to get their submissions ready for circulation: if S herself doesn't know where she's going to go next, then having to release fans' Gazetteer entries "in order" won't be a issue.
And most importantly, it'd give S the shock of her life -- and Ravenloft fans in the flood-zone, the thrill of their lives, which they'll sorely need in the months (if not years) to come -- if the first thing she sees as her ship emerged from the fog isn't the rocky shoreline of Darkon, but a muddy, mangrove-choked estuary where gators bask in the sun, and the low strains of blues and a hint of Cajun spices drift in the wind....
