Good morrow all those of you that have happened upon our humble blog here at Death or Glory today. I'm currently sitting in the shade from the morning sun, I believe it is going to be quite a day, I hope it is likewise for you.
Today we shall talk about the topic of timelines, previously spoken about over on the Wonderful world of fluff blog series here on Death or Glory and how to put that into practice in a more detailed fluff, to do this we dive back into the world of the yor'corvus.
Enjoy
So for those of you who have not read the previous blog post you will be unaware of the yor'corvus. The yor'corvus are an army of mercenaries who are not simply a mix of races and species, but also a combined species thereupon.
Last week we met two characters in the early fluff of the army, right at the start of the timeline, this week we shall go a little furthur and also explain how the timeline works.
Please do head on over to the last 'In Practice' blog post however to catch up on previous events.
Unfortuantely even after extensive searching, I cannot seem to find a good timeline maker outside of our current time stream... And those did not allow me to go that far in the future (silly timeline maker designers!)
For this reason I have had to use a different method, some of you may remember (you may find it on googel images or in a museum if you don't) these two objects called pen and paper. I managed to find these fabled artifacts around my home and used them to create this old fashioned timeline that died out at the dawn of the 'smartphone era' (c.5.M3) from what little memories of the time I have left.
I do apologise for my writing skills, I have lost them and this attempt to write was the best I could muster. So herein lies the secrets to the timeline of the yor'corvus. Note the particularily short time span and where the story also ends. If you have looked within your own codecies you will have found that we are almost at the uttermost end of the 41st Millenium, (40,000 [0.M41] - 40,999 [999.M41]) although I find it hard to believe that we will ever fully move away from it.
That is because we fight all our battles there, all over the galaxy but in that space in time (unless otherwise stated (for instance Horus Heresy battles or if you are reliving a battle from a codex) why?
Well rememeber me telling you fluff comes into everything, well here is the clincher, we are making fluff every game we play, creating the stories through skill, luck and good old warmongering.
Anyway, I feel I have deviated.
In this example there are a few things to be discussed;
Firstly, why it is that I have included other fluff within mine (812.M41 Malan'Tai Destroyed).
The reason for this is that it gives my timeline credibility, for instance you turning up to a job interview with a sheet of paper with no references or school names but the best list of qualifications... You will never get the job.
By adding in other stories that effect your own you give your characters a base on which to found them, which in the long run will help you to give reference to the times which your story occurs in.
Secondly, why so much empty space?
Simply put, so I can add more fluff, for instance if I like I could add another races timeline into the 'Yor'Corvus Timeline' because they are mercenaries and that in this case means more races. I would love for instance to qork Jokaero into my fluff (Monkey-Tech-Wizzes usually encountered in imperial forces and in the forces of the grey knights) maybe the squats accidentaly time travel and we find one of the Yor'Corvus great great great great .... Grandsons/daughters and they are much more evolved due to the genetic changes and interbreeding that happened over years, or any other abhuman or alien race you could think of.
Always leave room for more, your brain does, make sure your story does too!
Thirdly, what is the difference between this and a fluff hack?
Apart from how complicated it is, as explained before in the last paragraph you have alot of ability in terms of rewriting and creating more story.
A fluff hack, like my example in the last Wwof blog post or like a Red Corsairs spinoff (chaos space wolves from the attack on the ship 'The wolf of fenris') you can only go so far, for instance you can come up with characters and back stories like that they had already been turned to chaos or such like, but a large back story or a good story since would be difficult to come up with at best due to the small time span, maybe only 50 years or so.
However something as complicated as this allows you to quote other fluff but not hack into it, means that you can use as long a timespan aa you need without need for a full end or a definate beggining.
Lastly, why do this at all?
Do, don't, it's your choice, but for me, playing without fluff is like playing with unpainted miniatures, the field becomes a whole lot more boring.
I hope you enjoyed this post today, I look forward to possibly hearing about any fluff you guys come up with and how that Is going for you guys, please let me know in the comment section below what you thought and any ideas you have.
The next WWOF post will be all about names, the importance of names, and how to come up with names.
See you soon,
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P.S. I apologise for the wait, unforseeable circumstances kept me from being fit to write the last few days and so this post is a little belated however I do look forward to a time in which my posts are more regular and planned for a certain time. Also I hope to be attending a tornament here in the berlin in a couple of months and will hope to keep you aprised of the events which go on there.
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