Neithernor Reborn: The Future of Flinter's Glen

[Viviane]

Hey there, fellow Flinterforged!

So hopefully you’ve all seen or heard something about the Neithernor: Reborn project that’s been circulating here. In light of that, we figured we needed a place for all of us to explore questions and ideas about our Guild home, Flinter’s Glen. It was a fun exercise even before unlocking the Book of Briars, when we’d barely found out that Magiq wasn’t just a game or a theory. Many of us felt when we took the Guide to Magiq like we’d come home for the first time, and it only made sense to talk about what that home would look like, made manifest.

I’m not gonna lie, losing access to Neithernor when it felt like we’d only just discovered it was distressing. There’s so much more that we didn’t get to explore, remnants of magimystics past and bright new possibilities for the future. But there’s always hope. Imagination and memory being two sides of the same coin (as we well know here), maybe someday the doors will open again and we’ll find that we’ve captured some of those possibilities here.

So, first off, what sort of general vibe do you envision in Flinter’s Glen? In our earliest discussions we talked quite a bit about the home of Flinterforge as a multi-use makerspace, with room for every craft and query under the sun. More recently, there have been suggestions of our Guild’s home as a solarpunk community, or a valley of a colorful Studio Ghibli-esque clutter and creation, something that harmonizes Flinter’s ideas and industry with the unique and precious magiqal environment around us. What sort of design does everyone envision? Feel free to link images for inspiration, if you have some!

Second, once we we have an idea of what that overall design is, what are some of the specific areas within that space, important places we’d like to restore or investigate more thoroughly?

And finally, what’s the area around the Guild home like? What’s the terrain like in the area around Flinter’s Glen? What sort of landmarks let you know where you are and where you’re headed?

We’re so excited to be able to explore our Guild’s home again with all of you, and we can’t wait to see what ideas you have.

-Tinker and Viv

[Ignis]

Word vomit below because thoughts come fragmented when I get excited, have done my best to clean it up make it presentable, you have been warned
---------------------------->

1. Colors. Colors everywhere accenting the cool white and the shady black. Worn and weathered through time and use but still there and inspiring, like a sunrise/set during your darkest moment that reminds you things are still Happening and need Doing. But the solarpunk strikes me deep and sounds a new reverberation, and not just because the mundane world needs it too.

(yes, Studio Ghibli is an inspiration, but only because everyone talks about it, its mostly the Cinque Terre in Italy, and yes ~solar trees~)

2. I have to wonder where everything went - the workshops and storerooms must be filled to bursting!! The creations, the notes and journals and essence of those that came before! It does wonders to my imagination to think about what we’ve lost with the doors closing, not just the Place but also the Things that place held near and dear…

3. Now the terrain is a tuffy, almost like it shifts where it wants to sit like a disgruntled but very lazy cat… But if I had to find it, and it were/is/will be truly a glen I imagine warm and cool colors settling together amongst the natural green and brown of the forest/field. The valley cliffs shielding us but pocketed by shops and homes and outposts as we strive to find a spark beyond our borders. I imagine a great waterfalls on the path to the Shop, or a mountain carved by hands andor time that looks oddly like an anvil, or maybe its just a table, at least it is now anyways

[Viviane]

Oooh, I love the Cinque Terre as inspiration - I also imagine Flinter’s Glen as a really vibrant, colorful place. In the past we’ve always just assumed Flinters were more land-locked, as opposed to Ebenguard or Weatherwatch, but the idea of waterfalls or a stream/river running along the bottom of a valley has so much potential! And maybe some of the buildings are set into the cliff face, and then there could be terraces working down to the water level, with lit paths running between them?

Gonna attach some concept art that I had saved a while ago while thinking of the Glen. The second one is maybe a bit too Industrial Age (i.e. not sure about the blimp) but I imagine the Glen having similar colors and levels:

And yeah, there’s got to be some pretty rad stuff in Flinterforge storerooms. Would love to do some exploring there.

I also all of a sudden had this image of an enormous pavilion at the highest point of the settlement, (we could call it the Sun’s Meet, because it’s the first place the rising sun touches) where everyone would gather for meals, celebrations, meetings, etc. Thoughts? Other aesthetic possibilities? More major areas that would merit exploring?

[OracleSage]

Hey I am not a Flinterforged but what I am is in love with everything in this thread I’ll have to visit at some point, Keep up the good work

[Viviane]

Okay, so, seeing no objections to the Colorful Cliffside Compound aesthetic (although anyone with different or additional ideas, feel free to jump in!), we should outline five or six general areas that make up the Glen.

I know we’ve discussed workshops and storerooms, and I suggested a sort of gathering pavilion/common area, if we want to run with that? What else? Sleeping quarters? Agricultural areas? Recreation spaces? Infrastructure? All of the above? None of the above?

[Catherine]

I looooove the colorful cliffside/solarpunk vibes!! They look conveniently similar to some images I know I’ve saved in a secret Flinter Pinterest board somewhere…

As for general areas, I totally love a pavilion idea, and am also envisioning abandoned spaces of creation throughout?? Kind of like the storeroom idea, areas with a ‘what was left behind’ feeling that could be repurposed, like an abandoned lab, or studio, or kitchen that we could bring some new life into! So maybe if anybody has particular interests that align with one of those fields, we could include something like that?

And, just spitballin’ here, but I’m personally partial to gardens and love the idea of creating life in some kind of agricultural/cultivation area too. Balimorans don’t have a nature monopoly, after all

[Viviane]

This sounds rad. I can totally imagine the glen having some gardens/orchards/greenhouses to tend to and bring back to life (although someone else will probably need to handle them, since I’ve got whatever the exact opposite of a green thumb is. I kill succulents. )

[Ignis]

Oooh! I didn’t even think about agriculture! I can totally see greenhouses and orchards growing on tops of the buildings (doubling as a cooling and insulation system cause dirt is great for that) maybe even some plants grown specifically to help channel magiq into the creation or for their flexibility in weaving and carving?? Ugh Too much lore lost and to be found/created again!

As for the sleeping quarters I can kinda see them being divided into small apartment like dorms with enough space for at home projects… Or rotating bunk beds, like Wall-E’s shelves but soft and with people instead of knickknacks and twinkies; just don’t get stuck on the whirlygig!

[Tinker]

I love all of the above! Those reference images are A++…the colorful mishmash “clutter punk” look is fantastic. As for areas, I the communal meeting place and the official store rooms…and maybe something like a lounge/kitchen/reading room instead of a designated residence area? Like, looking at those pictures and thinking about Flinters in general, I could absolutely see people me being like “the dorms are too far from this particular workshop where i spend all my time so i live here now instead”. And then maybe the last three spaces could be genres of workrooms? Like, the garden/ag area (orchards and fields to test out growing practices, fields, greenhouses, etc), a workshop-y build-y area (whatever the magiq equivalent of a machine shop/sewing studio/etc is), and an art studio kind of area (chairs, tables, big windows - places to draw or brainstorm or do other like, space-minimal projects)?

[Ignis]

“I live here now” biggest mood of my life!

[Viviane]

This is also my life, and a super Flinter mood. There are probably sleeping cubbies all over the work rooms and offices.

Also, I got carried away and drew a map. This is how I kind of envision the layout we’re talking about.

[Ignis]

Oh my gosh I love it!

[Fury]

Baliforge polyguild here. I would love to add a campfire story area. I’ve always seen flinters as the type of people who would create and weave tales and stories as a sort of creative outlet at the end of the day. They would all gather around a huge bonfire and tell stories that only got shared between themselves.

[Viviane]

We could probably work some sort of campfire/firepit/etc. into the pavilion? That’s meant to be a gathering space anyway. Although I think for a lot of us our work is our creative outlet, there’s certainly a time and place for coming together and sharing tales, even if the tales are just “what I did today” accounts.

[Catherine]

I LOVE THE MAP

[Viviane]

Aww, thanks! FWIW, I have no idea why the buildings ended up in those shapes. Especially the pavilion. Blame sick!Viv for her wacky proportions and made-up architecture.

[Tinker]

I highly appreciate sick!Viv’s wiggly machinery tbh

[Tinker]

Alright it’s Day of Change O’Clock! Anyone else looking to chime in on the guild hall and the areas they’d like to see within?

[Tungstenedge]

There has got to be a cafe and lounge somewhere in there. Probably would be nice to be near the firepit, because what’s better than socializing over a cup of coffee. Plus you need that caffeine to burn that midnight oil.