Lmst

Another highlight from the Minnesota Fiber Festival last weekend: I got to try spinning on a Great Wheel!

I was initially caught up with a display of different non-traditional fibers (mostly fur, including Qiviut, buffalo, mink and Samoyed, but no husky or Tibetan Mastiff!). It turns out they were the work of Jody Marx, who was demonstrating the Great Wheel right next door. We chatted about dog fur, and I got to share my work with her. But then she insisted I try the Great Wheel!

It was my first time, and even with alpaca instead of cotton, I can't claim to have mastered the long draw technique in my handful of minutes a the wheel. I understand the concept intellectually, but I'd need to spend more time getting the feel of the fiber and single-handed drafting.

[Caution! Loud noisy setting.]

#Spinning #Handspun #GreatWheel

Seattle Waterfront, Washington.

#seattlewaterfront #seattle #washington #travel #explore #adventure #nature #cityscape #pugetsound #visitseattle #seattlelove #seattleexplore #seattlephotography #seattlevacation #seattletourism #beautifuldestinations #wanderlust #waterfront #greatwheel #seattleaquarium #pikeplacemarket #outdoors #scenicviews #urbanadventure #bucketlist

There is not much going on here today, but Ang and I have a new episode of THAC0 with Advantage out, talking about adventuring on the Planes. This is inspired, in no small part, by my current Thursday night campaign, where the PCs have currently traveled down the Styx to the domain of the god Set.

Set has an interesting history in D&D. Officially, he’s got a domain in the Nine Hells, being one of the few deities to hang out there and get along with the diabolical hierarchy. Those of us living here in modernity tend to overly simplify deities and to remove some of the symbolic aspects of the stories surrounding them. Set dismembering his brother didn’t do much to get him cast as anything other than a villain.

Additionally, Howard’s Conan stories were pretty influential on the early D&D designers and creators. Set in the Conan stories borrows a name from the Egyptian deity, and is associated with Stygia, the pre-Egyption culture of Hyperborea, but Howard’s Set is even less nuanced than the Egyptian deity and is pretty much just a straight-up demon lord of snakes.

On top of all of this, Jennell Jaquays and some other people working in the D&D milieu, if not within TSR, also leaned heavily on Set as a stand-in for just about any evil deity you might want to include. Jaquays’ Set pulls from Egyptian mythology more than Howard’s snake demon, but it still contributes to the D&D tradition of Set = Bad.

Something I need to look into that interests me: Deities & Demigods and Legends & Lore from AD&D 1e included an entry for Minions of Set, which I’ve never really been able to confirm comes from any actual story associated with the god. Basically, they are just creatures dedicated to the god that can shift into different forms of animals sacred to Set. While I can’t find any historical records, Jennell Jaquays’ Dark Tower does include Minions of Set, which are . . . creatures dedicated to Set that can turn into snakes (one of the forms that the D&D minions can have, along with cave bears, crocodiles, hyenas, or scorpions).

So now I’m wondering if this inclusion was due to the popularity of Dark Tower as an adventure if it was something coordinated with Jaquays (who did some of the artwork in the book, notably the Newhon characters), or just a “we can make something called a Minion of Set and you can’t stop us because it’s not like when we used Balrog, Hobbit, or Ent.”

Now that I’ve been inconclusively musing about Set in D&D, I’ll just say, please enjoy today’s THAC0 with Advantage. We appreciate all of the listeners!

If you want to help support the page, and you want to take a look at Set in D&D through the ages, you can check at these products. These are affiliate links, so I’ll get a wee bit of your orders if you use them. Thanks!

AD&D 1e Legends & Lore (AD&D 1e presentation of the Egyptian pantheon)
AD&D 1e Manual of the Planes (AD&D 1e discussion of godly domains)
AD&D 2e Legends & Lore (AD&D 2e presentation of the Egyptian pantheon)
D&D 2e Planes of Law (AD&D 2e discussion of godly domains)
AD&D 2e Powers & Pantheons (The Mulhorandi Pantheon in the Forgotten Realms)
D&D 3e Deities and Demigods (The D&D 3e presentation of the Pharaonic Pantheon)
D&D 3e Manual of the Planes (The D&D 3e discussion of godly domains in the Great Wheel)