Neithernor Reborn: Ebenrest Awakens

[Ashburn]

@Ebenguard

As polite humans, we knock on doors all the time.

Once upon a time, not all that long ago, some of the doors used to knock back.

With the Day of Change coming up the 23rd of this month, we’re going to be starting something called Neithernor Reborn, where we imagine what it would be like to be able to explore that magiqal place again.

Back before the doors knocked for us, Mounties spent time imagining what Neithernor might be like in the first place, and some of those things were actually there! So the thought is, with imagination being memory transposed and all, that perhaps playing out what could happen in Neithernor, we may be able to someday find our way back.

And maybe some of the things we’ve imagined here on the forum will be waiting for us.

I didn’t get to explore Neithernor myself when we had access, but @Ginger and some of the other Ebbies had the chance.

When the Book of Briars opened, the depiction inside one of the books looked (to me) like Edoras and Minas Tirith had a baby (I looked it up, that’s a nearly direct self-quote ).

From what others have said about the one they explored, it looked like “a presidio/castle in the mountains overlooking a body of water.” There had also been a giant set of scales that was apparently a fountain of some sort. There was a little more light exploring, but then I guess the Ghosts of Ebbies Past decided they needed to head out into the wilds to do things at the beach? and then the remainder of Ebenrest exploration kind of got put on the backburner.

@Saberlane always kind of imagined the surroundings to be similar to more nature-y parts of the Pacific NW, with lots of trees and rocky beaches shrouded in mist.

But who knows? The only thing that really seems like a given is that our guild home would be near a body of water. What does the compound itself look like? What sort of larger spaces are there for us to explore within its walls?

Let’s put our heads together and figure out what we think the Ebenrest waiting for us looks like beyond that knocking door on the Day of Change on the 23rd.

~ Ashburn and Ginger

[Ginger]

I’ve always envisioned Ebenrest as having an area with loads of space so that if anyone seeks refuge we have it?
Like I know that’s the Goss’ whole thing, they’re also nomadic as well and in a different area. Part of being protectors of the Golden Balance is protecting those that seek it, ya know?

So some area - whether it be we just have a whole shwack of dorms chilling, or we have a big open space to convert to whatever we need sort of in the vein of like a medic station where we can either section off an indoor space or set up tents in an outdoor space - that we can use for ourselves as well?

Just an idea

I definitely envision water though. Like a fountain, or a pool in a courtyard, or a little pond round back. Just something with water.

[Ashburn]

I was trying to find some sort of picture for what the outside could look like, and I found the weirdest things that could totally be modified to be leftovers from one of the wars against the Silver.

Maunsell Army Sea Forts

I’m also kind of partial to the idea of being situated on/adjacent to a dune lake (or a few). The spit of land between the ocean and the lake could be a good place to string the stick forts if those were a thing; accessible by land at low tide, by boat at high.

Florida's Coastal Dune Lakes - 30A

I’m also partial to the idea of lighthouses (having climbed a fair few), but with it also feeling like Thornmouth’s thing, maybe the modifications to the stick forts could involve doubling as tiny lighthouses like the little ones out in the middle of the water down in the Keys.

Also a fan of the word “archipelago,” so…I wouldn’t be mad if there was a string of islands involved? It could be interesting to have the guild home built out from the mainland and then sort of branch out around dune lakes and a close-enough-to-be-easily-accessible archipelago.

[Cj_Heighton]

PLEASE use those sea forts. Those things are Sick

[Sellalellen]

Don’t worry about stealing lighthouses! You live near water. It makes sense to have them.

[Ashburn]

I’m going to have to try sketching to better articulate how my brain thinks things could fit across all these different land/water areas, but I found a thing on an actual archipelago that looks pretty sweet.

[Ashburn]

Time for Ashburn’s Sketchy Post It Maps!

Told you it would be sketchy.
…also, pretend it’s turned with the archipelago to the right, unless it’s going to be in some sort of gulf or over-sized cove.

My thought for making all these disparate parts all fit was the main building(s), etc. being in the “mainland” area (definitely not shaped that way, but I saw one with this circle of land jutting into it and I liked it, so there’s my spectacular failure of a take on it).
The dune lake is closed on at least one side of the parts that aren’t on the sticky note, and the other may or may not have a small stream feeding it.
Depending on how wide/raised the “more land” section is, the dune lake could get fed directly by the ocean. I was thinking that would be a good spot for some of those stick forts.
The archipelago would probably have some older buildings/fortifications on it, but in worse shape; my thinking was that for the last fight with the Silver, they may have decided to bring more of the defences to the “more land” area to be able to both protect the mainland and escape into the surrounding wilds should it come to that. A case of “we will sacrifice this (what’s on the archipelago) in order to better protect this (mainland).”

[Ashburn]

@Saberlane

…a great black wave of water rose up, obscuring their envoy, and laying waste to the house leaders who made camp on the shores. I watched them fall from sight beneath the mouth of the sea, the ice brine reaching up to the tower…

That’s from Woolie towards the beginning of our Secret Society adventures.

One would imagine that there were protections for structures on the mainland from irregularly high tides/tsunamis of natural origin, so those would likely have fared better than the defensive structures further out.

Depending on where exactly the protective line was, it’s possible that the dune lake is leftover from the Silver’s wave changing the shore’s layout. Maybe there’s a few things laying at the bottom of the dune lake from the shore-facing side?

[grimangel53]

We also have the notes from the Ebenguard bearings.
Honestly, the more i think about it, I see Ebenrest as a place like the Edoras/Miras Tirith hybrid, or Like Storm’s End from Game of Thrones, but with shores, some small docks, and a small lighthouse out on an archipelago. We have The Presidio-like open space of within the castle walls, but outside them we have a Castle Town, with stalls and halls and inns and places for our guests to find and set up shop. They may have been behind a wall at some point too. (kinda like Hyrule Castle Town) we were never really sure about how many walls there were.

inside the walls we have dormitories, an infirmary, and the castle itself, which hosts an entrance hall where the Great Scales once resided (having been spirited away by the Wool Ebbies after the fighting broke out), a great hall thats just a bit bigger on the inside. We’d have a cozy library, dorms in the castle, and many places we could find our zen and balance. There was a door inside too. the door led down into caverns below the castle structure. caverns that opened to a massive area with doors and vaults set into the walls, cave systems that took us to different places, and small buildings, found around a central plaza type place. the middle was open, like a plaza on a college campus.

The vaults were curious. and we also had a Cavern…that was only accessible to those who heard the song. The Cavern of the Ebensong it was called. Hard to reach, even from the underground, but it was possible to find.

now i kinda want to draw out some lay out a bit.

[grimangel53]

For reference.
The top is Storm’s End,
and the bottom is Edoras.

I’m trying to figure out how we can put together the disparate ideas, because i figure to the west of us is the Eben Wood. (or more accurately the woods leading into the wilds) but we have some open land, with the entrance to the Castle Town, laid out like a cross between Edoras and Storm’s End. The Tide Lake is around us mostly, and then we have the strip of land…that im not sure what it was used for. maybe the castle was once on a hill, but after the Tide Lakes were created via the Silver’s attack, the strip of land could operate like a natural barrier, and/or could be something like a place where the “common folk” would gather and live, within the natural walls or banks of the place. The archipelagos would have functions and have buildings like light houses too.

The sea forts could be a place where young Ebenguards would go and take up training too. like we could have a few dotted up and down the coast.

I’m honestly just rambling.

@Saberlane
Real quick question. When you were in neithernor with Woolie, did the tower seem like it was near the castle? cause maybe that got added in.

We also have ALL the stuff in the stuff in the Ebenguard topic group, though if we were wanting to make it a bit more…reboot, then thats fine.

[Saberlane]

All I could see from the tower was Flinter’s Glen. It could’ve been a part of Ebenguard’s “territory” but I’m not positive.

[grimangel53]

Thanks Sabes.
I wasn’t sure from my recollection.
so maybe there’s multiple installations, like Minor House Castles and Halls?

[Ashburn]

I made a better (definitely not to scale, blame the site I found) map of everything rattling around in my head.

I was a bit limited in my building options, so some notes:
*That Boarkwalk is definitely flat, and I feel like the actual docks would be reduced to just the poles.

**Ebenrest kind of like that, but make it magiq. Like Fort Jefferson or Golden Hill Fort (read: hexagon and more open in the middle), at least one floor taller than said examples, entrances on the six flat sides, and the walls a bit thicker (more space for halls and bigger rooms). Obviously the scale of Ebenrest to Boardwalk Market is way off.

In my head, the mainland stuff was more everyday life and the area with the tower was more the defensive position (in addition to whatever magiqal defenses protected the general population).

Aside from living quarters, the main/great hall, the courtyard, and the library, anywhere else in the immediate vicinity of Ebenrest (or in its walls) that we’re interested in exploring? Ideas of what makes the existing locations special/magiqal?

Also, Ebenguard is all about balance, and we definitely do art (per the bearings assessment). How would Ebbies have balanced art and science? And I’m sure there’d have been some balance of man-made and naturally-occurring things in our surroundings, how would that look?

[grimangel53]

making use of Song and Stone, to shape the fortifications from natural rock?

maybe the Cavern of the Ebensong was generated using the Song of Silverscale from the solar affinity, and the other affinities put in work to create it. Or they used a natural occurring cavern and filled it with magic. It would def be below the lake between the Stick Fort Sandbar, and the Market/Ebenrest.

We seem to Have taken Pyke, Storm’s End, and Edoras as inspirations.
I like it!

Ebenrest being like Edoras/Storm’s End, but in the hexagonal shape, more open, with small general settlements on around the castle?

I feel like we would use some of our affinities, and our propensity for Sand and Stone, to create some of those things, like the archipelago towers and fortifications naturally.
maybe even Ebenrest’s Walls themselves. Instead of making them out of hewn stone, we worked with magiq to raise the walls and towers out of the earth. Fortifying them with spells of sturdiness and strength.

[Ashburn]

And if the lighthouse tower out in the archipelago ends up not in the best state of repair, I think it would be really cool if the light still shone; even if the tower has crumbled, ghost light up at its usual height doing its job.

[Ginger]

So Ash and I were talking and like how do y’all feel about adding gardens?

They would stretch from the main structure to the Boardwalk Marketplace area, and begin more as forestry because mountainous region, right? Then transition into a more flowery garden, and eventually into sand gardens/whatever magiqal flora Neithernor has for us?

It has a nice mix of plant life for balance? And allows us another outdoor space?

We want to call it the Tidal Gardens

[Ginger]

Looks like we’ll go with a main hall, a library of sorts, an outdoor courtyard, a boardwalk, some gardens, and the ruins of the old lower fortress this archipelago thing?

That’s plenty to start with and hopefully encompasses all desires of the guild bearings ^-^

[grimangel53]

I’m all for it, though i would like to include the lower caverns under Ebenrest as well.

We can describe our dorm rooms, and also traverse the caverns.

Where exactly are these gardens located?

Now we need to draw it all out too!

[Ashburn]

It looked like the gardens would have a lovely open space between the main building and the Boardwalk Marketplace on the not-to-scale map I posted the other day.

[grimangel53]

is ebenrest up on a cliff like it used to be? becasue im down for having a larger space between the cliffs and the boardwalk/tide lake area that could be gardens

The boardwalk itself would have a few structures, as well as stalls and such for people to sell their wares me thinks.