Spock's Pickled Brain

So if your high fantasy character is wandering through tangled forests, treacherous mountainsides, and haunted ruins, sooner or later they're going to stumble into some loot. Whether they are valuable resources, ensorcelled artifacts, or technology of a fallen civilization, something like this light-up crystal device could make a great prop for cosplay or for role-playing board games like Dungeons and Dragons. It also makes a nifty little light. For this project I was inspired by some posts on Pinterest, about light-up crystals that were based around tea-lights or other LED lights, made to be board pieces for roleplaying games. On the left is an unknown creator and unknown pin , but likely build up around a tea light. On the left is a project by Big Beekee Killa , an LED objective marker with a weight-sensitive trigger for the light. Because I have a fondness for and overabundance of puck lights, I decided to make this the base light source for my own version of these proje...

Making Necrobotanical Accessories So, ever since I saw this idea mentioned on Pinterest (see the post that stirred my brain here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/835628905835908245/), I've been obsessed with the idea of botanical necromancers. This doesn't necessarily mean necromancers who bring plants back from the dead (there are possibilities there, but it's not quite the aesthetic I'm looking for), but rather magic users who combine their abilities to raise the dead as minions, and then enhance the dead with the help of plants. The post that I linked to above suggests "undead skeletons being supported by plant fibers to make up for missing muscles and ligaments so they can run instead of shamble" and "adding thorns or huge venus fly traps or poison onto minions." So, being so enamored of this idea, I decided to try to include some aspects of this idea into my upcoming medieval faire costume, or even just for the house in general. In ord...

1. The Earthsea Cycle (Ursula LeGuin) The Earthsea cycle of books have all the classic hallmarks of high fantasy: mages, dragons, kings, and demons. But when Ursula LeGuin was asked to write a fantasy novel for children, she succeeded instead to bring new life and perspective to a genre of Lord of the Rings echoes. The first book, A Wizard of Earthsea, is a coming-of-age tale of Ged who, through his mistakes and his attempts to fix them, is on the path to becoming one of the greatest magic-users of all Earthsea. In each following novel there are more layers that show us a deeply flawed yet beautiful world in the midst of seismic changes. Male-dominated magic uneasily shifts, a king returns to a long-kingless realm, the longtime practices of slavery are abolished. The very divides between the lands of the living and the dead, even between humans and dragons, are in jeopardy. The prose of all LeGuin’s books read like poetry, with never a word wasted and yet capable of evoking great ...

1. Necromancer's lair lantern Lots of Halloween décor could easily be used for pieces to recreate a necromancer's or other dark magic-user's lair. These surplus skull-and-crow lanterns were found in a thrift store for about $10, but you can likely buy these very cheaply close to or after Halloween. The lantern has a LED light, but this object can benefit from additional lights in the orbital sockets of the skull, or additional weathering and aging done to the skull. 2. Royal storage container This started out life as metal-plated ice bucket, and was found in a thrift store for $2. Unaltered this works pretty well as a themed storage container for food or other objects. But you could also using ageing techniques to tone down the newness, add faux jewels, etc. 3. Pedestal for magical artifact I'm not sure what this started out as, but I found this wooden stand-like object for about $2. It could be used as the base or pedestal for a crystal ball, creature, m...

First let’s get one thing straight. Although bracers and vambraces are worn on the forearm, they are not the same. A vambrace is a piece of leather or metal armor meant to protect the outside of the forearm and deflecting hacking blows. Sometime they encase both the outer and inner arm, and sometimes just the outer arm. They are generally part of a medium- to heavily-armored melee fighter on foot or horseback. A bracer is worn to protect the inside of the arm from the slap of a bowstring, and to keep long sleeves from interfering with the draw of the bow. An archer may only wear one to protect the arm holding the bowstave, or wear two to secure the sleeves. Bracers can be made of leather or cloth, and have no real value as melee armor. Which is fine, because archers don’t intend to let an enemy to get close enough for that to matter. Since the character I’m building relies on stealth, agility, and long-ranged weaponry, I opted to make bracers rather than vambraces. But certainly you co...

Starbat's Favorite High Fantasy Books (that aren't Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones ) Not that we don't love those. But when you're done... Note: This is not an extensive list of the best fantasy books, or even necessarily of my favorite fantasy books. But it is an awesome group of books, and it's the list that come to mind when I think of "high fantasy." The Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory This is a classic high fantasy trilogy, rife with magic, elves, demons, and more magic. However, it manages to break out of the Lord of the Rings knock-off bin by including a likeable and distinct protagonist with realistic (and some fantastical) character growth and beautifully detailed worldbuilding (although Lackey can get bogged down in the little details, it works in these books). Also there are elven knights who ride unicorns, where the elves are super stoic, but the unicorns are super sassy, which is just the best. ...