Welcome back to another edition of “Fandom Flair.”  As promised, we’ll discuss the ins and outs of the Aes Sedai shawl, one of the most important pieces of clothing in the series. 

One of the first things I did upon reading the books of The Wheel of Time was try to recreate as many Aes Sedai type accessories as possible.  I sculpted Great Serpent rings out of clay.   I bought a cheap turtle broach because it reminded me of the angreal that was found in Ebou Dar.  I fell in love with paisley designs due to its similarity to the Flame of Tar Valon.

It wasn’t until recently that I actually set out to sew myself an Aes Sedai shawl.  The fringe was the intimidating part.  Anyone could cut out a triangle, but having that beautiful, long, flowing fringe… that was the only thing holding me at bay.  Lucky for me, my sister beat me to the punch.  For Christmas in 2012 my sister crafted us Aes Sedai shawls.  They were simply done, plain fabrics, and added fringe.  For her own shawl, she sewed a Flame of Tar Valon onto the middle; for mine, she drew in on with a black permanent marker.  For a first ever attempt, they were amazing!

At JordanCon 7, I retired my old shawl and had it signed by Team Jordan.  Now it’s hanging on my wall along with all my Wheel of Time artwork.

Now, before we go any further, let’s establish what exactly an Aes Sedai shawl is.  To do this, I turned to Wheel of Time expert, and esteemed member of Team Jordan: Maria Simons.  She told me that, “According to Jim [Robert Jordan], the only mandatory elements of the Aes Sedai shawl were the White Flame and the fringe of a color to match one's Ajah. Other than that, there could be great variation in size, the length of the fringe, and the fabric of the shawl itself. Many times (perhaps even most of the time; I'm not entirely sure), the shawl was embroidered with vines and leaves; the choice of vines and leaves was left up to the Aes Sedai. The actual color could vary as well; a Blue's shawl could be fringed in any shade of blue.”

In terms of style, that leaves this project wide open!  You can literally choose any fabric you want, and as long as the fringe is your Ajah’s color, you’re good to go!

Step 1: Materials

Here’s a quick list of materials you’ll need to complete this project:

About 2 yards of main material
About 2 yards of a liner/backing material
About 3 yards of fringe
White fabric scraps for the Flame
Sewing machine
Thread
Pins
Fray Check (Optional)

As previously stated, you can pick any fabric you want.  Silk, satin, gauze, jacquard, cotton, etc.  In most cases, crafted shawls are typically done in fancy, shiny fabrics.  Satin is a good choice because it’s very beautiful (though tricky to sew with).  Jacquard was my first choice because how thick it is, and the shiny quality (but it’s usually expensive).  Cotton is also a great fabric because of the ease of use, and how well it could be embroidered with vines and leaves if the desire arose.

In the end, I picked an outdoor upholstery fabric. 

It was the perfect combination of thick, durable, and decorative!  It has a sort of leafy pattern which fits very well into the Aes Sedai theme.  While making a shawl for myself (in my Ajah color of White), I also picked up extra fabric for all the other colors as well.  The Yellow and Green I gave to friends.  The Blue and Gray are finished and hanging up in my closet.  The Red and Brown still need to be completed.

Now a word on lining/backing fabric.  This step is technically optional.  Since most people will never see the back, if it's not nice and neat, that's not a problem.  But there are some advantages to having a backing fabric.  If you use a cotton, or a non-slip fabric, the shawl will sit nicer on your shoulders.  I stupidly used a white satin-type fabric for my backing and it constantly needs to be held in place.

Lastly, you’ll need fringe.  I found mine at a fabric warehouse.  It’s about 4-5 inches long.  Personally, I like longer fringe, but it’s very difficult to find in-store.  Your best bet is buying online, but then you risk the colors not being what you expect.  A great place for online fringe is Crazy Crow Trading Post.   Almost everyone at JordanCon recommend buying fringe there.

Step 2: Triangles

Seriously, this project is very, very simple.  It consists of sewing three straight lines to form a triangle.  That’s basically it.  Sure, there is the added difficulty of the Flame on the back, but if sewing those curves is what’s stopping you, there are other ways to get the Flame secured.

Start by measuring your wingspan—that is, your right palm across your shoulders to your left palm.  You want the width of your shawl to be AT LEAST this long.

Next, measure the length from the base of your neck to the middle of your calf.  This is the rough estimate of the length of your shawl.  Of course, this is all based on the personal preference of the Aes Sedai, so if you want a shorter shawl, make it shorter; want it touching the ground, that’s where you measure to.

For my shawl, my wingspan was 60 inches.  My length was 38 inches.  The fabric I bought just happened to be 60 inches across, so all I had to do was measure 38 inches and cut my rectangle.

Next, you want to find the center of your rectangle on the longest side.  This center spot will be the point of the shawl.  Mark it, and then trace a line from that point to the top right corner.  Repeat the line from the point to the top left corner.

Cut along the lines and you have your basic shawl already done!  If you want to use a backing fabric, you can repeat these directions and make another triangle, or you can trace your shawl on top of it and cut it out that way.

At this point, you have the option of using Fray Check on your fabrics.  Fray Check—or something similar—is used to keep the material from fraying after it’s been cut.  Some fabrics don’t fray, like knits, spandex, fleece, and velvet.  If your fabric does fray, applying Fray Check makes the seam so much nicer!

Step 3: The Flame

Adding on the Flame is an essential step to any Aes Sedai shawl.  It is what makes it an Aes Sedai shawl.  You also have a few choices about how big you want it to be, what fabric you want to use, do you want it fancy or plain....  This is a great way to customize your shawl and make it your own.

Since I had scraps of my beautiful, white material, I used it as the Flame for the Green Ajah shawl I made.  This turned out really cool, because I was able to line it up, and keep the pattern continuous.  For my shawl, since it was already white, I needed a material that would stand out enough.  I used the same white satin I used as my backing.

First, you need to cut out the pattern.  I just printed one from online.  This way, you have perfect lines, and you can blow it up or shrink it down to the size you want.

Cut it out, and trace it on your fabric.  For the Green Ajah shawl this was a bit more complex because I had to get it lined up properly:

I also applied Fray Check to the Flame.

Pin it on.

And sew!

I started at the point because that was the trickiest part.  But you're welcome to do it the way that's more comfortable for you.

And here we have it:

Now, an alternative to sewing would be using a fabric adhesive.  You can get fabric adhesive that is double sided—I used Pellon Peltex Two-Sided Fusible fabric adhesive.  This is basically a glue that melts with the heat of an iron and binds the two fabrics together.  I’ve used this method successfully on quite a few projects.  If you cut out a layer of adhesive that is the same shape as your Flame, you can glue it to your shawl in as little as five minutes.  Super simple!

Step 4: Sewing the pieces together

Here’s where it all starts to come together.  Think of your shawl as a sandwich.  You have the top and bottom buns (the shawl face and the backing) and you have the yummy toppings (the fringe).  That means, you need to sew with each item in the proper order to get it looking right.

FIRST place your shawl face (the one with the Flame sewn on) face down on the floor.

NEXT put your fringe on top, layering it so it completely covers both sides and the point at the bottom.

THEN put your backing fabric face up.  Think Grilled Cheese: you want the top and bottom to both have the yummy browned buttered side showing.  So you want the right side of your shawl and the right side of your backing fabric to be facing out.

Pin this all together.

Sew only the angled sides with fringe.  Start at the point and sew a straight line to the top left corner.  End your seam.  Start at the point again and sew a straight line to the top right corner.  End your seam.  Sew a line straight across the top to completely close in the shawl.  End your seam.  Trim off any excess fabric at the top and apply a coat of Fray Check if necessary.

Another method would be to tuck the top of the shawl under a half an inch or so and sew it close.  This is the way I did it, but it was more difficult.  It caused bunching at the corners, which is not very pretty.

Step 5: Finishing touches

Now all you have to do is pull off the fringe safety string and cut off any stray strands that are too long!

Wear your shawl with pride!  Not only are you filled with the sense of accomplishment, but also with saidar.

Next time, we’ll switch gears a bit and show how to make fandom shoes.  Thanks for reading! 

Welcome back to another edition of Fandom Flair.  As promised, today I'll show you my mistcloak.  My inspiration from this—besides just the fact that having a mistcloak would be amazing!—was a couple of fans at the Phoenix Comicon in May of 2013.  Brandon Sanderson was in attendance, and that meant we all tried hard to impress him.  This group did a great job of it, dressed as Vin, Eland, Sazed, and Tindwyl. 

I adored the mistcloak and realized it's really only lots and lots of strips!  What could be hard about that?
Step 1: Gather materials
This project required a lot of different kinds of fabric, but not much of each.  I went in on this with my sister, Mavin, so we were able to buy the fabrics in bulk and make two cloaks. This cut down on the price.
First, you need a base material, which serves as the solid around the shoulders and neck that the strips get sewn to.  In my inspiration photo, you can see how her base material was thick and decorative.  I went with a cheaper option.  I chose poplin, a semi-heavy but durable fabric, in a solid gray.  This material is great to work with, easy to sew and very forgiving with mistakes.  It flows well and has great weight if you used it for a project that required a lot of length.
I only needed about half a yard of this material for the base, but I also liked it enough to include it in the strips.  Therefore, I bought about 2 yards.  I got it relatively inexpensive, about $4 a yard.
For the strips, I chose a variety of fabrics.  I picked a sheer, gray organza, and a gray satin. Again, I got 2 yards of each material.  However, the satin I got at Walmart for $1 a yard, and the organza was about $2 a yard at a fabric warehouse.

So, a list of materials would include:
2 yards of 3+ fabrics
Sewing machine
Scissors
Pins
Tailor’s chalk
Pinking shears/pinking rotary cutter
Lace/fringe for embellishment (Optional)

Step 2: Get your pattern
The best way to start this is with a circle.  If you've ever made a circle skirt, you know what I'm talking about.  The circle will be the fabric that sits on your shoulders, the cloak-like part that is solid.
For this, all you need to do is measure the circumference of your neck and divide by 4 (you can add on an extra inch if you don’t want it completely flush with your neck).

The next measurement you want is from your neck (where it meets your shoulder) to the end of your shoulder.  I started with a neck to shoulder measurement that was much longer than necessary, and I wound up trimming it as we continued. 

Once you have your measurements, you can draw your pattern.  Take your base material, lay it on the floor, and fold it in half.  Find the center and make a mark.  If you have tailor’s chalk, that would work very well.  If you don’t, you can use any sort of marker that will be dark enough; just make sure you cut on the inside of the marker so you don’t see it in your final product.

From your central mark, use measuring tape to find the correct distance (neck circumference divided by 4).  Mark that distance.  Repeat on the other side.  Then, using a compass, or a string and a pushpin, connect those two points using an arch.

Next, do the same for your shoulder-neck length.  Mark on both sides and connect using an arch.

Cut along both lines and you have your shoulder base! 

Now, onto the strips.  This all depends on your height, as the strips need to be as long as you are (well, from your shoulder to your feet).  I’m only 5’2”, so my strips only needed to be about 50” or so.  What we wound up doing was making them too big, just to be on the safe side, and then pinning them to the appropriate length.  More on that later.

To cut out the strips, we used a rotary cutter.  This was one of our many bad ideas on the project.  This decision would have been okay if I wasn’t totally lazy.  But since I am, once I had my strips, I wanted to sew them on.  I didn’t take into account the fact that all three fabrics frayed like crazy.  The ideal solution would have been to have a serger (which I don’t have), or to stitch under the edge of every single side of every single strip.

Our lazy solution was to use pinking shears (or you could use a pinking rotary cutter) to finish the edges.  This was also difficult to do with the shears because we had to redo the seams on each strip.  Using a pinking rotary cutter from the start would have been the best lazy option.

We used 36 strips per mistcloak.  Obviously, more would have been better. 

Step 3: Pinning and Sewing

First, let’s tackle the base.  We have the circle, so now we just need to cut a vertical line straight up and down to make our opening.  To create clean hems, fold each side under and stitch.  Do the same with the circle that is closest your neck.  I (stupidly) used white thread which makes the seam super obvious.  I would suggest using a color that blends in better.

Next, I cut two long strips of the poplin and turned them into ties.  Mavin decided to use a clasp to keep her cloak together.  Again, this is a way to make it yours and unique.

With that done, now it’s only a matter of pinning the strips into place.  This would be difficult to do on your own, so I would suggest having a partner help.  I put my base on and Mavin pinned all my strips in place.  We did a bottom layer, with the strips next to each other, and a top layer, with the strips staggered.

Here was lazy mistake number two.  After they were pinned, I didn’t want to bother with removing the extra length at the top.  I just sewed them all down.  This created a very ugly, tattered look, with random strips cut off near the base.  To cover this, we decided to add a little bit of frills in the form of lace.  I bought a double layered black lace, about two inches long.  Mavin went with a three layered lace that was about four inches.  Again, customize.

Lucky for us, this covered the ugly seam and made it look a little fancy!

Step 4: Accessorize

We wore these mistcloaks to the Phoenix Comicon the next year.  I was going for a Vin look, but Mavin was more or less just another mistborn.  We both had our allomancer metal vials that we bought from Brandon Sanderson’s official store.  I even added in a single stud earing to my ear.  Complete the look with black leggings and a black shirt.  Now you’re ready to rock your mistcloak!

And here I am with a No Face cosplayer.  I adored the detail on her outfit!

Stay tuned for next time when I’ll show you how to make an easy Aes Sedai shawl!

Welcome to an exciting new addition to our Front Page Blogger lineup: Fandom Flair! In this blog, I want to demonstrate and feature different ways to incorporate fandom love into your life. For me, displaying my many fandoms makes me happy. From a subtle necklace to an all-out cosplay uniform, there are so many ways to show off what you are passionate about!

I do want to stress that everything I make is for my own, personal enjoyment. This is not something I make for others, or sell for profit. If you'd like to buy licensed Wheel of Time merchandise, please check out Ta'veren Tees.

Naturally, for this first edition, I want to feature one of my many Wheel of Time crafts.  It was hard to pick just one!  I decided on showing off my Aes Sedai dress tutorial.  Besides my shawl, it’s the item I get the most use out of.

Step 1: Pick a pattern
This is actually pretty tricky.  There are so many different styles of dresses that fit into the Randland theme/descriptions.  Typically, we think of anything “Renaissance-y” as being fantasy, so you’re safe if you go in that direction.  I went that route, choosing Simplicity Pattern 1773, Option C.

You can also be a bit more adventurous.  For example, you can be a Tinker Aes Sedai and go with something like this:

Or a Cairhienen sister with something like this:

Even a Domani:

The options are endless.  You can combine any nationality, with any color, with any pattern, and have it be an Aes Sedai dress.

Step 2: Acquire materials
Patterns can be difficult because they usually require a lot of fabric.  For my pattern, I needed 6 yards.  This can get pricey if you’re going with fancy fabrics.  For that reason, I went to the cheaper side and selected crushed velvet, which is much cheaper--and less hot--than regular velvet.

Other materials needed will vary, but most likely include:

Sewing machine
Lining fabric
Thread
Scissors
Pins

For a price total, this can range from $20 for fabric and materials to $100+.  It all depends on where you want to take it.

(And here’s a tip from people I trust--if you’re looking for multiple fabrics that match or compliment, try an inexpensive bed-in-a-bag which would have sheets, shams, bed skirts, and a comforter.  When on clearance, you can’t beat that price!)

Step 3: Cut out pattern and fabric
This is my least favorite step because it’s time consuming and boring.  But since it’s the first task, it’s nice to get it out of the way and move onto more interesting endeavors.

Cut out your pattern for the size you need.  I always suggest to cut bigger because you can take it in.  It’s much more difficult to increase the size afterward.

Next, lay your pattern on your fabric. It may take some adjusting and playing around to get all your pieces to fit.  The pattern should include a diagram on how to do this, but it’s not always the best solution.  For me, I had my crushed velvet in two pieces since I bought them on different occasions, so the suggested layout didn’t work.

Once you find what works for you, pin the pattern onto the fabric and cut them out.  I always leave my patterns attached until I sew them so I don’t accidentally mix any up!

Step 4: Sew!
This is the fun part, in my opinion, because it’s when the dress starts to take shape.  At the same time, it can be the most frustrating because you need to decipher the sometimes-difficult sewing terminology in the directions.  Take breaks when you need them.  Breathe deeply.  You’ll get through it, and it will be worth it!

If you run into a snag with this step, there’s several outlets in which to find help.  One being Dragonmount’s very own Tinker Social Group!  There’s always someone to offer assistance to any craft project in the Arts and Crafts Wagon!  You can also try other crafter’s forums like Craftster.

Step 5: Add embellishments
Besides choosing your style and fabric, you can also choose different ways to spruce up your dress.  My pattern did call for ribbon along the neckline, but I decided to take it one step further and add lace.

When I was done with the neckline, the dress still looked a bit plain, so I mimicked the ribbon and lace motif with vertical lines running along the front of the dress along the seams.  This gave it a nice pop of color and a little more frills!

Step 6: Enjoy
Now, just be seen in your Aes Sedai dress.  Bask in the praise of those around you.  Keep your chin raised and make sure to sniff at appropriate times.  Before long, you’ll be projecting that Aes Sedai spirit!

Have you made an Aes Sedai (or some other fandom) dress?  If so, please share your pictures, the patterns you used, your frustrations and joys!  Next time, I’ll show you how to (poorly) make your own mistcloak!

Greeting all! It is Thursday again meaning it is time for another installment of the Rotating Features blog! The dice have been been tossed and the featured topic has been chosen. 


In light of the San Diego ComicCon having come and passed, many comic and movie fans have been salivating over some of the Marvel and DC movie trailers. Admittedly I am one of these people, unfortunately I feel very disconnected from my comic book roots as I have not purchased a comic in years. This said, I am sadly out of the loop when it comes to my favorite comic book universes. And I have found a solution!

The YouTube channel is called Comicstorian. This, by the way, is a GREAT name as this website takes comic book story arcs, breaks them down, and reads them back to you in easily digestible bites, typically between five and eight minutes long per video. This effectively makes them part story tellers and part historians when it comes to the comic book universe. Additionally, they have a true passion for the genre and highly encourage folks to still go out and buy the comics, as do I.

This channel does not replace comics, as you do not see all of the wonderful artwork, and they summarize the dialogue quite a bit, but if you are just trying to catch up on what you missed, want a fairly clear backstory to some of you favorite character, or just simply want something to do while waiting for your mac and cheese to finish cooking, this website is an awesome option.

For more in depth explanations you can also try Comics Explained: another YouTube channel, but one where the videos are typically 30 minutes or longer. The advantage to this is the videos are much more detailed and you get a little more of the character development, but again, these are longer than your standard YouTube videos and I don't always have the time. None the less, it also does a great job of catching you up on the story arcs as well.

Watching either one of these channels will get you caught up on what you may have missed. If you have never read comics, or consider them a lesser form of literature, I highly encourage giving them a try as some of the stories are just amazing and some of the characters are just simply splendid.

Last thing, what comic book inspired or based movies are you looking forward to? Anyone have a favorite comic they have yet to turn into cinema gold?

As always I hope you enjoyed this installment of the Rotating Features blog. Sorry for my repeated absence. As always feel free to comment with your thoughts and any topics you would like covered in future Rotating Features blogs. Until next time, this is Azeryn signing off to begin working on a costume in preparation for February 2016... DEADPOOL!!!

Greeting all! It is Thursday again meaning it is time for another installment of the Rotating Features blog! The dice have been been tossed and the featured topic has been chosen. 


I now have a favorite YouTube channel, Geek and Sundry! Admittedly I knew about this channel when it was created, but never gave it a chance, even though my one of my personal crushes (Felicia Day) started the channel. None the less a good friend of mine got me hooked by sending me links to a show hosted by Wil Wheaton called Tabletop. I became hooked instantly. I love tabletop gaming and this show has it all. Everything from straight dice games like Zombie Dice, to cooperative role playing tabletop...and everything in between. The basics of this show is once a week, Wil Wheaton chooses a game and invites three to four friends, some of which are celebrities, to play the game. It is a great way to see new games in action and laugh at some people at the same time. This show also has AWESOME personalized trophies for the winners!

After watching almost all of the Tabletop episode I had to see what other shows I might like. This lead me to start watching Co-optitude. This is a show where Felicia Day plays video games with her brother Ryan Day. Each week they play a different console based game, mostly dated games, but they throw in a newer game from time to time. Most of the time, the games played are very odd, obscure games most people have never heard of, but the show is actually less about the actual games and more about the two people playing said games. The interaction between these siblings is hilarious! They may actually be the worst or best team mates I have ever seen. As an additional bonus, you really get to see how these two individuals actually are, as they do not hold back their personalities despite the cameras being on them. I honestly didn't think I would like this show, despite it having Felicia Day, when I heard of the concept, but the sincere and honest interactions make this a musty watch on my subscriptions! On a side note, me best friend told me in one of the Co-optitude episode Felicia Day makes a Wheel of Time reference, so if anyone can tell me which episode, they will be awarded cool points and a shout out in a future Rotating Features blog!

Lastly I began watching Craft Lab as well. This is a great short show where the main crafter and an assistant create a random geek culture characters and/or items out a random material. Seriously, they use a spinning wheel to determine both what they are making and the materials they will make it out of. Some of the most memorable for me were the Sonic the Hedgehog out of chicken bones, the Bat-Mobile out of deli meats, and Smaug out of plastic spoons. What I love the most about this show is the creative ingenuity to create awesome items out of crazy materials. In my opinion this is a must watch show for cosplayers as it helps you think outside of the box on potential items to use when making props to take your costuming to the next level.

I highly recommend the Geek and Sundry channel on YouTube.  As always I hope you enjoyed this installment of the Rotating Features blog. Sorry again for my recent absence. As always feel free to comment with your thoughts and any topics you would like covered in future Rotating Features blogs. Until next time, this is Azeryn signing off to prepare for my two hour run to support the Relay for Life. Don't know what the Relay for Life is? Google it!

Greeting all! It is Thursday again meaning it is time for another installment of the Rotating Features blog! The dice have been been tossed and the featured topic has been chosen.

As promised, this week I am taking the easy way out and giving everyone a little glimpse behind the curtain. I probably should have wrote this blog earlier, but hey, life happens. So without further procrastination, here is a little bit about me.

I am, as many of you already know, from the United States of America. To be more specific, I was born and raised near Cincinnati, Ohio. As any good Ohio native, I am an avid fan of American football, so yeah, GO BUCKEYES!! At the tender age of 18-years-old, I finally ventured from the nest and decided to make out on my own by joining the United States Air Force.

I am still active duty military and have been stationed more than a few places, my favorite being Robins Air Force Base in beautiful middle Georgia. This is where I met some of my best friends as well as my wife and I would eventually like to retire there...one day. Currently I am stationed in South Korea, again, and while I do love the assignment, I still miss my family, the states, and of course the events like JordanCon I am unable to attend.

There are the basics, but it doesn't really tell you anything about me. To know me, you have to know music is my first passion. I have been playing guitar since I was four, over two decades, and I play bass guitar, drums, sing, and record. I actually brought everything I need to do some song writing and recording while I am out here. My musical tastes have changed some over the years, but I still love my metal music, but I also appreciate southern rock, classical, Spanish style guitar, and even just a sultry voice and a piano.

As far as literature, I am far behind many of you. Growing up I hated reading. It did not change until some deployments in the early 2000’s. I did not begin reading the Wheel of Time series until 2006 but was instantly hooked! I sped through the books, and was then left waiting like everyone else for Knife of Dreams to come out.

So other than play music and read, what do I do for fun? Well I will actually say live action role-playing (LARPing) was king of my free time for a while. Again, this was another thing I found out about in Georgia. I do like tabletop gaming, as well as video games. I also enjoy weight lifting and running. Making LARP weapons is another fun hobby, which has lead to some profit as well. Fishing has been the king of my time more recently. It will be interesting to fish here in Korea as I am unfamiliar with the fish, their behaviors, habits, etc. Should be a good challenge.

All in all, this is me in a nutshell. Just a regular dude who love football, fishing, rocking out, but is still a loud and proud geek too! Not much better than getting into a goodhearted argument with some close friend over whether David Tennant or Matt Smith was a better Doctor. Or just having a cup of tea with a pipe while wearing Cthulhu slippers.

As always I hope you enjoyed this installment of the Rotating Features blog. Until next time, this is Azeryn signing off to continue the daunting task of unpacking after adding a little bit too much Irish Cream to my tea.

Greeting all! It is Thursday again meaning it is time for another installment of the Rotating Features blog! The dice have been been tossed and the featured topic has been chosen.

If you have not already done so, mark April 17-19, 2015 on your calendars, JordanCon 7 approaches! Yes it is time for fans of The Wheel of Time to take over a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia for a weekend full of awesome panels, guest authors, old and newly met friends, as well as games! It is one of the few events I am truly saddened by the fact I must miss it. Honestly, it was one of the funnest conventions I have ever been to, and I have been to more than a few.

What sets JordanCon aside from other conventions? My personal answer is the intimacy of the whole weekend. While I have had a few meets with celebrities at bigger conventions, they only chat with a fan for a few minutes before their security rushes them away, or until another fan completely freaks out over meeting them and forces said celebrity to leave. At JordanCon you can actually just have a conversation with many of the special guests randomly, and it's no big deal! The other thing I love about JordanCon is the attendees are all super friendly. I am serious on this one. I think this is because everyone there has one common love, and this is the wonderful writing of Robert Jordan

Aside from the wonderful environment of the convention itself, there are always great panels and things to do all weekend for all types of fans. Want to talk about strictly Wheel of Time topics? You will be hard pressed to find an hour without something Wheel of Time related going on. Want to branch out and look at something different? Go to one of the horror or steampunk panels! Want to polish off some writing skill? There are multiple writing seminar panels throughout the weekend. Maybe you just want to vent a little rage or show off your skills with a weapon. Sign up for the Blademaster's tournament and earn your title! There are a ton of things to do at JordanCon. If it is your first JordanCon, or even if it isn't, I highly suggest the "Speed Friending" panel. It was actually a wonderful way to meet a bunch of fellow convention goers and they have great ways to break the ice. Last year it was, who is your least favorite Wheel of Time character, and yes, I stand by my opinion on Elayne being horrible.

This year of course has a whole new set of panels and guests along with some old favorites. This year's Author Guest of Honor is Saladin Ahmed and the Artist Guest of honor is Todd Lockwood. There also a plethora of special guests and of course Harriet McDougal and some others from Team Jordan will be there as well. 

The convention costs $55.00 for a pre-registered three day pass, the price is $65.00 for a three day pass at the door. You can find more details on purchasing admission, finding a hotel, what guests will attend as well as a schedule of the panels here at JordanCon 7 website. I highly encourage going to this convention if you have a chance.

As always I hope you enjoyed this installment of the rotating feature blog. Sorry for my recent absence, I had to move half way around the world, literally! More on this in next week's blog where you will all learn a little about me! Until next week, this is Azeryn signing off to wonder around a foreign company looking for a spa with doctor fish!

Greeting all! It is Thursday again meaning it is time for another installment of the Rotating Features blog! The dice have been been tossed and the featured topic has been chosen.

As the Ages come and pass, we must reflect on the times gone by as well as towards the future. One Age, an Age of Legends, is currently being studied, weighed, and judged by the Dragonmount community. Thus it is only fitting we take time to look back at the members who have made our favorite Wheel of Time website, Dragonmount, so special. It is time for the 2014 Empy Awards!  

The Empy Awards are your chance to recognize Dragonmount members for their contributions to the community. The awards are set up into four broad categories; Discussion Boards, Social Groups, Role Play, and finally the whole of Dragonmount. Within each category are specific awards which members may be nominated such as 2014’s Funniest Role Play Thread, 2014’s Best Signature Artist, 2014’s Best Wheel of Time Geek, and my personal favorite 2014’s Most Evil Member. These are just a few of the awards you can nominate fellow Dragonmount members for.

Here's the link to the full list of awards as well as the nomination rules. Please read the entire post for all the rules on nominating a member for an award. There are a few rules I would like to highlight as they can be missed if you are just glancing over the post. The first is the awards are for the 2014 calendar year. This is important as members who joined during calendar year 2015, or got positions during 2015 are not eligible for the 2014 Empy Awards. Second is you must have taken part in the specific area in order to nominate someone. For example, I cannot nominate someone for role play awards as I have not taken part in any role play threads. Lastly, let us remember one should not just simply nominate friends. Go back and reread some of the threads, then nominate the member you believe really best fits the category. Be objective and make an informed decision, this is the only way for the Empy Awards to maintain integrity and not simply become a popularity contest.

Nominations will continue through March 11, 2015. Voting will begin on March 18 and be open for one week. Awards are scheduled to be announced on March 25.

Unfortunately we were unable to book Neil Patrick Harris to host the awards, but we have a team of Dragonmount members diligently working towards making these awards a resounding success. Special thanks to Elgee, Barid Bel Medar, Taymist, and Nynaeve for all their hard work and dedication to make these awards possible and full of awesome.

Now go forth and nominate your fellow Dragonmount members for Empy Awards! Until next time, this is Azeryn signing off to finish packing for an expected journey.

Greeting all! It is Thursday again meaning it is time for another installment of the Rotating Features blog! The dice have been been tossed and the featured topic has been chosen.

From time to time I will cover a YouTube channel or web series I think you will be interested in. These can be something related to literature or the fantasy genre. Other times it may just simply be something I think fits well with the fantasy/sci-fi subculture or something I quite honestly think is cool. This week I will be covering a YouTube channel called "Honest Trailers." 

Ever went to see a movie solely based on the movie trailers and been completely let down? Do you enjoy finding gaping plot holes, even if you loved the movie? Do you simply have a wicked sense of humor and enjoy laughing at almost anything? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you will probably enjoy watching "Honest Trailers."

"Honest Trailers" is created by the online movie magazine Screen Junkies. "Honest Trailers'" goal is to bring you a funny, and sometimes brutally honest, review of a movie in the format of a movie trailer. Not only does "Honest Trailers" review new movies, but they will go back and do older movies as well. While movies are the main focus of their attention, television series are not safe from their wrath either, as both Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones have been subjected to an "Honest Trailers" review.

"Honest Trailers" does a wonderful job at looking at the whole picture, not just acting and writing, but also the effects used, the filler scenes, and even the directors. Truly nothing is safe when it comes to the "Honest Trailers" take of a movie. The end result is a hilariously gratifying poke in the eye to many big budget movies. Even if they thought the movie was great, they will still find a way to make their honest review full of knee slapping humor. The narrators voice is great for doing movie trailers.

On a final note, the honest trailers channel is extremely fan friendly. At the end of each trailer the narrator says random words and phrases fans have wanted to hear him say in the “Honest Trailers” voice. Additionally, from time to time the "Honest Trailers" team do whatever movie was most requested. This led to them doing an "Honest Trailers" version of the Dragon Ball movie, something it seemed they were not over excited to do but they did it because they love their fans.

Here is the link to the "Honest Trailers" YouTube channel. Some of my personal favorite "Honest Trailers" are the ones on Guardians of the Galaxy, The Lego Movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and The Little Mermaid.

I hope you all enjoy the "Honest Trailers" YouTube channel. As always, leave comments or suggestions for future Rotating blog topics below. Until next week this is Azeryn signing off to drink home brewed mead and watch the new episode of Big Giant Swords.

Greeting all! It is Thursday again meaning it is time for another installment of the Rotating Feature blog! The dice have been been tossed and the featured topic has been chosen.

It is February and in the southern U.S. warmer weather is just weeks away. As spring get closer around so does Renaissance Festival season. Potters, cobblers, smiths, leather-workers, and tailors are finishing up the last of their winter work in preparation of months of traveling from state to state to sell their wares. Warmer weather will bring not only a chance to immerse yourself in a different time, but also to prepare for any conventions you plan on attending by picking up some hard to find, or hard to make, items.

Finding a Renaissance Festival near you is easy to do with a quick internet search. Here is a link showing festivals in each state. Some are sooner than others; the Bay Area Renaissance Festival actually starts this weekend here in Tampa, Florida. Others in more northern regions will start in summer months when the weather is more cooperative.

Admittedly finding results outside the United States is a little harder; however, I am sure if you search for festivals by country you can probably find something. I was able to find a decent link for festivals in Canada, unfortunately I did not have such luck with the rest of the world. Wikipedia does have some Renaissance Festivals listed around the world though.

Hopefully by now you can find a festival near you, but do you know what to expect? Renaissance Festivals, aka Renaissance Fairs or Renn Fairs, can take place in a field with a bunch of tents or can be a permanently built up site. Most at least have a few wooden structures. The vast majority of the tents or buildings will be vendors.

Vendors can be local residents who do blacksmithing, pottery, tailoring, etc, or can be people who make their living by traveling from place to place selling their wares at festivals. Vendors will have items priced from a few dollars up to a few thousand. This is because many of the items are hand crafted, and hand crafting takes time which drives the cost up; however, hand made goods are typically higher quality. If you just want to go to casually shop for bobbles, eat, and take in the shows, $50 can get you through the day and you can walk away with a souvenir. If you want to buy some clothing, have a few drinks, play a few games, then around $100 should be sufficient. If you are going to buy any type of armor or boots, my suggestion is to get a two day pass so you can shop the first day and enjoy the festival. Then after you know what you want you can take in the shows and purchase your high dollar item the next day. I say this because I do not encourage anyone to walk around anywhere with more than $200 in cash on their person, and if you pan on buying boots or armor, leather or plate, expect to pay $200 or more.

Some vendors may be able to accept credit or debit cards, but all will accept cash. I would get cash prior to getting to the festival for two reasons; first you may need to pay for parking, and second because if the festival has an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) the fees to pull out cash will be very high. The highest withdraw fee I have seen at a festival was $15.00; I avoid using ones on the festival site at all costs.

Renaissance Festivals are more than a traveling medieval strip mall; there is much more than just vendors! Many festivals have a cast, which includes tryouts and a month or more of rehearsing. These actors provide walking entertainment to guests by playing roles such as the King, Queen, lords, ladies, guards, the clergy, peasants, and yes even the village idiot! Some of the cast may play games with the customers and put on some shows such as a human chess match. The festival’s actors may be viewed as roaming entertainment while patrons shop or wait for the next show.

Shows at a festival can be great and really try to appeal to a wide audience. The most prominent of the shows is the joust! Yes, people actually get into real armor, ride real horses, and have a joust! I have also seen multiple comedy shows, sword fighting displays, and of course musical performances. You can really see a lot of things at these festivals, and many of the performers have been doing this for years and are quite talented. Walking from show to show and perusing the shops you will work up an appetite.

Most festivals will also have food concessions too. Some do it better than others, and some of the food can be quite anachronistic, but sometimes you just want to walk around eating a turkey leg! On the other hand if you are looking for a better dinning experience, I have some tips to help you find better food! First look for a sit down eatery. This may seem way too easy, but at a festival you may actually walk past the nicest restaurant there and not even realize it. So really look! Next tip, ask the vendors where the good places to eat are, but do not ask the actors. The actors may get free food at the normal run-of-the-mill eateries and never deviate from said menu, but not the vendors. As I mentioned earlier, many of them do this for a living, and they know where the good food and drink are!

In conclusion, go for the atmosphere, the shows, or to shop. Renaissance festivals are a blast and I highly encourage everyone to go at least once. You don’t even have to go dressed up in period clothing, or talk in a fake accent. Here is a link to a song parody done by a Renaissance Festival cast; it pretty much some up this rotating feature blog installment.

Greeting all! It is Thursday again meaning it is time for another installment of the Rotating Features blog! The dice have been been tossed and the featured topic has been chosen.

Audiobooks can be a touchy subjects in some literary circles; some despise them, some love them, and others have no experience with them. At one point in time or another I have been of all three of these opinions, thus I would love to pass on some of the pros and cons to you on audiobooks.

I was ten years old the first time I saw an audiobook; it was a dozen cassette tapes kept in a large cumbersome case. Luckily technology brought us the MP3 and now entire books can be carried on almost any mobile device. This expands the situations in which an audiobook may actually be preferable to a physical book.

One obvious example is while driving. Regardless of who you are, reading while driving will eventually lead to very bad things. The first time I truly gave audiobooks a chance was in 2011 when I was traveling to and from Atlanta each weekend for work. This was a seven hour commute and I found listening to my favorite series really made time fly by. Prior to this I would listen to music, typically leading me to either taking my eyes off the road as I would fiddle with my phone to pick the next song or start speeding. I had no such issues with the audiobooks.

I also find audiobooks more practical when exercising. Whether lifting weights, running, riding a bike, or just doing calisthenics, I am almost always listening to an audiobook. Again my old vice was music, but I have found myself being able to do more when listening to audiobooks. With music I subconsciously let the beat dictate my pace; with audiobooks I find myself doing more reps and running longer distances. Although when running my timed mile and a half, nothing but fast paced music for me, thank you!

The last situation I find audiobooks being a better option is when you have already seen the movie or television series based on books. I am simply unable to read the book if I have already seen the movie or series; however, I have found I can listen to it. These scenarios have led to me frequently listening to audio books. I still enjoy music, but I find myself listening to more audiobooks when doing thinks like cooking Thanksgiving dinner, or as I call it “marathon cooking,” as well as when fishing. Any time I am going to be gone for more than 30 minutes and I am unable to read a book, I am normally listening to one; however, there are some problems when it comes to audiobooks as well.

The first problem with is someone is reading the book to you. It eliminates some of your own imaginative processes to the book. While reading A Memory of Light, in my mind the characters still expressed the same voices from the audiobooks as opposed to the voices my mind originally created for each character back when I read The Eye of the World.

Another issue is gender. In every audiobook I have listened to there are times when a male is forced to read female voicing or vice versa. While many do an admirable job of this, it can also be quite laughable at times. On a similar note, not all words in the book are pronounced correctly. This problem is most common among character or place names, even when the book has an index with proper pronunciations.

Lastly, nothing can truly replace a book. I love the experience of grabbing a book for the first time! The feel of the bound pages and the actual smell of the book cannot be replaced. Nor can the enjoyment I get from sitting in a comfy spot reading while eagerly page turning through a few chapters. My personal rule is to not listen to a book if it is one I plan on reading. I always read the book first and listen later, unless I have seen the movie, or TV series first.

I hope you enjoyed this article on audiobooks. Please let me know what your thoughts on the topic or if there is a topic you feel should be covered in a future Rotating Features blog. After all, it is all about the Dragonmount community and what you want, not just what I think is cool! Until next week this is Azeryn signing off to going to sew discord on some unsuspecting bird people!

Good day and well met! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday and it is time for my first installment of the Rotating Feature blogs, “A Roll of the Dice.” “It is not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor ends to turning of the Wheel of Time, but it is a beginning.”

As this week winds down millions of people, especially in the United States, are getting ready for the Great Game. No, not Daes Dae’mar, but the professional American football championship game. Many people will find themselves going to or planning parties for the big game. While this is well and good, what if you or some of your friends are not big sport fans? This is why I have put together a few suggestions on ways to make your party enjoyable for all! Since this is Dragonmount, I will cover some ways to make the party more "themed" towards the Wheel of Time book series; however, with a little tweaking and some imagination you can use any theme you want! The possibilities are endless!

So let us get started on our Wheel of Time themed Party!

Have the party take place somewhere you will all be comfortable. Many people go to pubs and sports bars to watch big games, but a themed party is better held at a home or private venue. This encourages guests to be themselves without the worry of the pub populace wondering why everyone is wearing different colored shawls!

Food is a huge deal at any party and you can use your menu as a means to further immerse guests into theme of the party. This can be done by making foods from the series such as meat pies and honey cakes or by creating your own recipe and name it after someone or something in the series. Personally, I would love some "Red Ajah” velvety cupcakes! Potlucks are always a hit and a great way to save a little time and money while also having a huge food spread.

Beverages are also important, wether containing alcohol or not, drinks are another way to add fun and atmosphere to the party. Try making different teas, perhaps a cool slightly sweetened goosemint tea or a more refined hot tea with hints of berries and honey, or perhaps kaf (coffee). Of course many wines and brandies are mentioned in the books, but if you want to be creative with mixed drink area, go for it! One of my new favorite drinks is "Blood and Bloody Ashes" which I tried at JordanCon 6.  A friend and I came up with a very simple beverage we call “Tam’s Hard Spiced Cider” which consists of one 12 ounce bottle of hard apple cider and two or three ounces of cinnamon whiskey.

Party games are a great way to spend time before the big game and avoid four hours of pre-game sportscaster commentary. One simple idea is to change well known party games to meet the theme. A few examples are Wheel of Time Charades, Find the Darkfriend (based on the party games Mafia and Werewolf), and even some Wheel of Time trivia. If you are around very close friends, and are not easily offended, Cards Against Humanity is a great game. It is basically an R-Rated version (so play with caution) of Apples to Apples and comes with some blank cards so you can personalize the game to your party’s theme or include inside jokes about your friends.

There are so many things one could do for a party to include costumes, invitations, decorations, and party favors; I cannot cover them all. Hopefully, this week’s blog has given you a few ideas to make your party the best it can be. Thank you to the Dragonmount staff for choosing me to write this blog, and to all of you whom are reading it. I look forward to trying to find things to interest this wonderful community of Wheel of Time fans each week.

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

Obviously the greatest thing about Dragonmount is the opportunity to be a member of such an incredible community of Wheel of Time enthusiasts. Everyone here loves Robert Jordan's books, stories, characters, and world--be they new readers just starting out in the journey of following the adventures of Rand, Perrin, Mat and others, or long time readers who might be on their second or third re-read or more who can theorize and debate minute details of the plot.

Every so often, a member of the community here comes up with something that is really special, be that an idea or thought which sparks a truly interesting debate, or a contribution to the ever growing collection of resources which can be found across the internet for following and understanding the epic scale world which Jordan created. In recent weeks, that happened here on Dragonmount in our Wheel of Time Discussion section. Dragonmount member Dakaran created a topic on character mapping the various people a reader of the series meets along the way. As he explains in his opening post: 

I recently started and finished book 9 after a looong hiatus from the series... To help myself both keep track of the story as well as refresh my memory on various characters I started making a character map as I went through book 9. I now have a HUGE character map that details the "end-state" of Winter's Heart with relationships, deaths, and some events of the book. Right now it pretty much has all of the (noteworthy) characters that appeared in book 9, although I know there's many more... PLEASE NOTE - if you haven't read through Winter's Heart, it has spoilers... I plan to continue to use this and make a new version as I read through book 10.

And here is the character map Dakaran created, and boy is it impressive! 

(Click here to see the full scale image)

Let's hope he continues adding to it all the way to the end of the series and it becomes a real hit resource on the web. Personally, I think he is on to something with this.

That's all for now! Have fun!

Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

Remember a while back I posted an article about where you could buy a heron marked blade online?

Well, just recently, one was brought to my attention which takes my breath away! Here is the link.

It was custom made to specification by Brendan Olszowy and advertised on his website, called Fable Blades. Brendan doesn't replicate these; every item he makes is custom.

That sword though, is, I think, by far the nicest take on a heron marked katana I've seen. Possibly one of the nicest swords I have seen, full stop. It's just exquisite.

The website has a large gallery of his other work, including several weapons from The Lord of the Rings and other fiction, as well as some historical swords and weapons. It's well worth perusing and if you have the cash, then this guy can do some serious work.

That's all for now! Have fun!

Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

You may or may not be aware that one of my major hobbies is board gaming. I believe I have previously written articles on a couple of my favorite board games.  I would like to interject here and say that there is an excellent website where you can get information on a huge variety of games, including detailed ratings which tell you how the game plays so that you can decide if it likely something you would enjoy before you buy! It is called Board Game Geek.

Let me reiterate that when I speak of board games, I don’t mean Monopoly and the like. No, no, no. The beauty of real board gaming is that there is a whole world of games out there, different types of game, be they deep strategy or hilariously fun. And many of them have a variety of themes, settings or inspiration.

I would like to suggest a few games for you to look into. There is an excellent board game based on A Game of Thrones, of the same name. It is based on a system you may recognize--if you are into older strategy games--called Diplomacy. What is great about it is that it is a strategy game which does not involve dice! So it is almost totally down to you how you fare in-game. It also does a really excellent job of capturing the feel of George R R Martin’s epic series of political intrigue and the character of the world of Westeros. It is produced by a company called Fantasy Flight Games who are an excellent producer of board games--in fact, they are my favorite and are hugely popular. I have never bought a game by them which I did not thoroughly enjoy. Here is a link to the Board Game Geek page for this game.

There is also a Wheel of Time Collectible Card Game (CCG) produced by a company called Precedence Publishing. I don’t particularly have experience with their games and am not a fan of CCG’s (not that they are bad; they are hugely popular) so I can’t vouch for it but considering this is a Wheel of Time fan site I thought it best to include it here! Here’s the Board Game Geek page.

If you like gaming, why not try one of these out? I’ll bring other games to your attention in the future. If you haven’t really tried these kinds of board games before, why not give one a go? What do you have to lose?!

That's all for now! Have fun!

Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

As I sit here writing this, I am watching the World Cup semi-final but I thought I would take a few moments to introduce you to an area of our wonderful website here at Dragonmount which you may not yet have explored and which may prove to be of use and a lot of fun.

Have you noticed the lovely pictures that everyone has at the end of their posts on our forums? These are known as signatures, and are one of the main ways that we can stamp a little bit of individuality on our posts as well as advertise part of our personality, a position we hold on Dragonmount, or a group we are part of.

There are a couple of ways to get one of these signatures (or more than one), and one of them is the feature of Dragonmount I want to highlight--our signature requests board.

Here, you can request talented and skilled individuals to make a signature to your specifications, or you can choose some that they have already made, and ask permission to wear them. Before you do so, make sure you read the pinned threads on how you should proceed. Hopefully someone will respond quickly and make you a lovely shiny signature to wear with pride! The same pinned threads explain exactly how you can add them to your posts.

There's also the signature playground, where you can look at ones already made and ask if you may use them. There are a lot of nice ones there and if the creator is feeling kind, they may even tweak and modify them for you.

Otherwise, many people like to make them themselves with artwork they find online. This is fun and satisfying and it's fairly easy to learn how to make simple ones; and who knows, you may find you have a talent for it and become one of our dedicated signature makers as well. One of the best programs to use (in my opinion at least) is Adobe Photoshop. If that is out of your budget, however, never fear! For years I have used a free version called GIMP (Generic Image Manipulation Program) to make mine. If you have any familiarity with Photoshop then you will find that GIMP works almost exactly the same. Make sure you look at the same pinned threads in the signature board as they also have the rules and guidelines for signatures if you're going to dabble in making them yourself!

I hope you find the solution to all your signature wearing needs, express yourselves, and make our boards that bit more colorful!

That's all for now! Have fun!

Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

If, like me, you are a lover of sports, then I hope you are enjoying what is proving to be a very exciting and unpredictable FIFA World Cup this year! It has been great; we have seen the defending champions go out in the group stages--as well as England, but I expected no less--and we have also seen teams like Belgium and Colombia progress well. Personally I'm supporting Colombia now. It's been an exciting one too because with the quarter finals and semi finals and the final still to go, there have already been more goals than the entire 2010 World Cup!

Whether World Cup fever has you or not, there is certainly no escaping it. Perhaps that is what inspired Spanish designer Nerea Palacios, who is possibly not enjoying the World Cup as much as I am, but who must also be a Game of Thrones lover to design football (or soccer, depending where you are from) kits for the various houses of Westeros! It doesn't get any better than this! I can satiate my nerdy side and normal side all at once!

Without further ado, here they are!

Personally, I like Baratheon and the Nights Watch. Could possibly go for Targaryen. I would absolutely love for these to be made so I could buy them and wear them when I play, which is usually twice a week!

Of course this all begs the question--who would win the Westeros Cup? And who would make the team of each house? Drop a comment below, or discuss with your friends over a nice beer!

That's all for now! Have fun!

Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

As you may know from my previous posts, I'm quite into the gaming scene; and when I say gaming I don't just mean electronic, but tabletop gaming, board gaming, and role playing.

I also love science fiction and a popular favorite of many is the Star Wars universe.

Today I want to talk to you about something which combines these things into something I have begun to really enjoy.  It's a tabletop game called X-Wing by probably my favorite game company, Fantasy Flight Games, who in my opinion and experience tend to make fantastic games.

Basically, you have small scale miniatures of ships and fighters from the Star Wars and you assign them to perform maneuvers and try to out maneuver your opponent to get off those vital shots to blow up his ships. Sound interesting? Or too geeky? Wrong answer! There is no such thing as too geeky!

Below is a video of how to play the game.

I've recently gotten into it and found it a lot of fun. Have a go yourselves.

That's all for now! Have fun!

Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!It's fair to say that many of us with an interest in fantasy fiction will have some level of awareness of role-playing games--be they table top ones, probably most famous in the Dungeons and Dragons format--or even here on Dragonmount--we have our own Portal Stone Worlds, forums where people are encouraged to play "in character" set within an alternate Wheel of Time universe.

Today, however, we are going to look at a slightly different take on the role playing game, and better still, a slightly different take on the Wheel of Time universe.To be short and sweet, our editor of the Front Page Blogs, Mashiara, has interviewed Ascendency, who runs a little project called the First Age. I can't explain better than Ascendency myself what it is, so here is the interview in full.  

Can you explain what the First Age is?

The First Age is a play by post, forum-based role-playing game set in the world of the Wheel of Time universe during the age before the Age of Legends, the so-called, First Age. The setting primarily takes place in a futuristic, slightly-dystopian world of 2045 Moscow. Players create original characters to interact with one another in the wider world, navigate the chilling transition that is the return of Channeling to humanity, and attempt to survive the tumultuous events that will inevitably lead to world war. On a player’s journeys, they may encounter a variety of monsters, villains, heroes and channelers. Characters can be of one of four classes: Civilian, Military, Government or Atharim, and have one of 7 abilities: Channeler, Atharim, Prophet, Dreamwalker, Wolfkin, Furia or Sentient. As souls are born throughout the Wheel of Time, a PC also has the option of playing a reborn god from known mythologies. With special permission, you can also play a humanoid.

How did you come up with the idea of mixing historic legends and myths into our modern world?

As soon as I understood the concept of cyclical time in The Wheel of Time, I immediately saw the connections between our world as a precursor to the world set in the books. For some reason, I fixated on the idea that the Third Age is in our future rather than in our past, although both are equally relevant concepts when time is a wheel. Therefore, I began to wonder about the sort of events would need to take place in our future that would lead to the utopian idealism renown in the Age of Legends. While those questions percolated, I daydreamed about our past. The idea of there being truth in historic legends and myths came from this iconic quote:

“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.”

With this in mind, it is easy to extrapolate what grains of truth could be in the myths and legends of different cultures. These tales are filled with monsters, immortals, deities, magic, villains and heroes. If the memories of their truth fade first from history into legend and exist now only as myth, there are remarkable correlations to the realities of the Wheel of Time universe. Immortal gods were long-lived channelers. Monsters were creations of the One Power. Magic was the One Power. While the heroes and villains change depending on the point of view of the one who tells the tale.

Yet we know from the books that knowledge of the Wheel, the One Power, and the Pattern survives the turnings of these Ages. If the “gods” of myth knew these truths, but the tellings of their stories faded with time and knowledge of the Wheel, Pattern, and Power survived through to the Age of Legends, then there must have been a mechanism by which this knowledge was passed down. That means somewhere, somebody out there, today, in our modern world, is in possession of this knowledge. A situation like that is begging for a secret society, and indeed, we do have such a group. They are known as the Atharim.


Besides channeling, can mythical figures use any other forms of magic?

The answer to this question depends on one’s definition of magic. Broadly, the WoT is full of many types of powers besides channeling. We have evidence of Wolfkin, Sniffers, Readers, Seers, Dreamers, and interpreters of omens. We also see glimpses of other Old Things come again, the Wolfkin for instance. So it stands to reason that there are many “magical” abilities woven into humanity, some likely “old” or “lost” and we just have to look for them.

As far as traditional spellcasting goes, Channeling is the only such manifestation of magic. I will add, though, that if you, in today’s world, suddenly manifested the ability to channel, you might look to many types of magic to explain this sudden superhuman ability. Some of the rationalizations our characters have used to explain what the One Power is to them - remember the PC’s do not know what the One Power is - include superhero gifts, wizardry, the Force, Witchcraft, curses, blessings, or any number of religious interpretations.

For the monsters and creatures that inhabit the First Age, are these also based on myths, or did you create them yourself?

Of those currently in existence, they are all based on real myths or legends. The idea is that humanity is on the fringe of the truth. There are monsters and gods walking this world, but to the average person, their truths exist only in stories, but within every legend is a grain of truth. Some of the creatures and monsters are obviously linked to their popular-culture counterpart (vampire, werewolf, ghosts, chupacabra, etc). Others are distinct to specific cultures, eg, the Russian bannik, the Mapuche wefuke, the Hindu naga, the Arabic Jann and Ghul.

To explain them, we have a mythos blog that is solely dedicated to explaining the secret history backstories associated with these creatures. In the end, a monster that exists in the First Age must also make sense in the broader WoT universe, and we go to great lengths to maintain this continuity. In this regard, players are encouraged to expand about the worldbuilding and many have done so. For instance, players tend to “adopt” one of the monsters and as the first person to RP about them, they often craft elaborate cultures, powers, weaknesses, attributes, and details about the monster in question. Once fully elucidated, the information is collected and made available for others to read either on the mythos blog itself or on our user-generated wiki.


You created this website almost a year ago. Has the past year gone as you hoped it would in regard for the First Age?

Indeed, the website debuted in July 2013; however, it took 7 months of development to get to that point. I specifically wanted to design a unique concept that to my knowledge had not been explored before in forum roleplay. The genre is modern and futuristic, but the mythological elements give the players that fantasy-element that WoT fans appreciate. Another unique feature is the incorporation of an overall Gamemaster that is usually absent from forum RPG’s. Finally, I hoped to create the surface of a world that entices players’ imaginations in such a way that they can expand on the worldbuilding at their own pace, if they so desire.

The past year has exceeded everything I hoped for. Players continually surprise me by how much they want to explore the world, both building up our future (the site is set in 2045) and exploring the world’s secret histories. It was a player’s idea to build a wiki, and since its construction, is now home to more than 65 pages! Players have designed their own character classes and powers. What astounds me the most, however, is the depth of knowledge players bring to the world. It far exceeds my own, and we have an incredible amount of fun brainstorming on our site’s shared chat room about how to incorporate elements from the old mythologies into the current RP.


Have there been any member storylines that have surprised you? Or have things evolved as you predicted?

After the baseline setting and story were done, I was open to almost anything so long as it fit within the WoT-verse. Therefore, I didn’t have particular expectations as to where the story would go. In fact, players have come up with creative ways of doing things that I could not have predicted or imagined on my own.


What do you anticipate happening over the next year on the First Age?

A lot of the PC channelers have found one another now, so I imagine that with the ever-building tensions between nations that these groups of channelers will soon choose one side or another. PC’s have also been discovering the presence of a secret society that they should not know about, therefore I anticipate tensions will quickly escalate over the next year as the society attempts to maintain their secrecy while yet fulfilling their mission.

Very recently some players have become interested in exploring the humanoid creatures of the world, and have taken on the idea of playing a PC humanoid, in this case, of the Naga race. Over the next year, I think we are going to see an explosion of world building and tension between characters as these, and other, creatures are expanded upon.

Finally, we are nearing the time when governments are going to have to acknowledge channelers. Many questions will come into play regarding the WoT-equivalent of the “Mutant Phenomenon.” What is the legal status of channelers? Will militaries incorporate channelers into special forces? How do you police channelers or face them in combat (a current topic of discussion on the ooc boards)? These questions are coming, and given that the Ascendancy, who leads an empire, is himself a channeler, interesting times are ahead for all of us!


How do players contribute to worldbuilding?

Players contribute to worldbuilding all over the place, not just during In Character threads and scenes. When that happens, if it’s significant enough, the player often consolidates the information and posts it for other writers to expand upon.

A lot of brainstorming happens on the OOC (out of character) discussion boards. For instance, in the thread “Of gods and men,” players hypothesized on what they thought happened in their previous lives and how the mythologies associated with a given god of antiquity is merely a translation of ‘what really happened.’ There are also OOC threads that discuss The Godwars (the wars that saw the eradication of channeling in Ages-past), prophecies associated with the End Times, and speculation on 2045-era pop culture.

A lot of this information gets translated into individual pages on the user-generated wiki. For instance, from “Of gods and men,” a number of players worked out the “real story” behind the god they were in their past life, wrote those backstories, and added sections to their pages on the wiki. When large-scale additions to the world are made, I add entries to one of our two blogs: Mythos or the Plot Blog. Mythos is dedicated to worldbuilding, whereas the Plot Blog is dedicated to summaries of on-going, large scale plots.


When did you first start reading The Wheel of Time?

1997; My brother gave me The Eye of the World when I spent a week in the hospital during what would become the beginning of an eight year stretch of hospital-stays due to a rare disease (and a growing obsession with WoT). Ironically, he began reading the series in 1993 when he was in the hospital for gallbladder surgery and our mom picked up the book randomly in the gift shop as a present for him.


Who is your favorite character?

Nynaeve.


Which scene (in all the books) is your favorite?

Dumai’s Wells, without a shadow of a doubt.

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

Every so often you come across something a little different. This week I have done so and decided to share it with you, confident that there are those of you out there who will appreciate it, although it is not my usual cup of tea.

Deviantart user nandomendonssa has done quite a few interesting "mashups" of Game of Thrones characters drawn in Disney style. I know that a fair few readers here on Dragonmount that enjoy Disney, and probably even more that enjoy Game of Thrones, so I hope that you'll find them interesting. They are very well done in my opinion.

Below you can find the ones he has done so far, but keep an eye on the link above as I believe more are being added as time goes by.

If anyone out there has skills even similar to these, we demand Wheel of Time mashups! It doesn't matter what style but more Wheel of Time art is always a good thing. They can be published in our Fan Art Friday blog!

That's all for now! Have fun!

Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

There are a number of movies either out or coming out in the next couple of weeks that I'm really looking forward to and would like to draw your attention to.

First up, out already is the latest Godzilla movie staring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen. The new look Godzilla is truly huge, despite comments in Japan that he is in fact too fat! Here is the trailer:

Next, coming out this week is one I am really looking forward to: the latest installment in the X-Men movie franchise, X-Men: Days of Future Past, based on the legendary comic run of the same name of years ago. It stars both Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, and Ian Mckellen and Michael Fassbender as Magneto, not to mention of course Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and many other stars. It should be epic, the comic series was a truly great classic story. Here is the trailer:

Then, the week after, one you may not have heard of but that I am really looking forward to, A Million Ways to die in the West, the latest film by Seth McFarlane. I'm a huge fan of his work on Family Guy, American Dad and Ted, and I'm really looking forward to this one. It looks very funny. Here's the trailer:

And there are plenty more great films in the works too!

That's all for now!

Until next time, friends! Have fun!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

Today we are going to talk about dragons! A real staple of many fantasy fiction series', dragons of course play a prominent role in The Wheel of Time, although in a symbolic way as opposed to giant, flying, fire breathing lizards!

But dragons of all shapes and sizes fill many other fictional works. Drakes in the world of The Lord of the Rings, Middle Earth, were great beasts, servants of evil, as represented recently by Smaug, the last of the fire drakes in Middle Earth by the Third Age. If you have seen the recent film adaptations, you get an idea of the size and power of that type of dragon.

In one of the most popular television series' on air at the moment, A Game of Thrones, dragons play a very significant role, as the Targaryen's conquered Westeros on dragon back, and Daenerys currently has three... They were babies, but they are growing all the time... The Song of Ice and Fire mythology states that dragons in that world never stop growing all their life! and as such grow to some truly enormous sizes.

You may remember a while back that I reviewed Naomi Novak's Temeraire series! They had a take on dragons I enjoyed as it set them in Napoleonic battles, and again, they were large beasts capable of carrying several riders and crew--the counterpart to the Navy below.

These are just a few of the many different dragons in fantasy fiction culture.

Why are we talking about this?

Well, firstly, I want to let you all know that the Warders Guild here on the Dragonmount forums is currently having a cage match style event based around fictional dragons from many different forms of fiction. Many have already been nominated, preliminary rounds have been drawn up and voting is under way! So be sure to drop by and check that out and cast your vote--it may just be decisive!

Secondly, I found this interesting little graphic I thought I would share. It shows the relative sizes of various dragons across various fictional worlds, just to get an idea of how they would weigh up against one another should they ever all actually meet.

(click here to see a larger version)

Then again, size isn't everything, right?

That's all for now! Have fun!

Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

One of the most fun things that fans of various genres can do is match up characters from one series or movie with another and think who would win. You may remember that a while back we spoke about Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time character, Rand al'Thor against George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire character, Jaime Lannister. Fiction throws up many cross genre possibilities for fans to debate. How about Gandalf versus Dumbledore, or Robocop versus Judge Dredd? Comic books have thrived on them, even crossing the DC/Marvel divide with match-ups such as Superman versus The Hulk.

Well, with that in mind, have you ever wondered who would win in a fight between a Jedi and Harry Potter?

If you have, you're a bit weird and I like you. It's quite a random match up, and of course the Jedi would clearly win (not a Potter fan; don't slay me), but just for laughs, Danny Philippou put together this pretty well made video of exactly that scenario on a YouTube channel called Racka Racka. It's well worth checking out for fun. WARNING: this video is not PG-13, so please do not watch the video if it will be offensive to you.

What do you think? And what other match-ups would be good fun?

That's all for now! Have fun!

Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

You may remember recent articles in this blog space about the return of HBO's adaptation of George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, and another about an interactive map of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Well, bringing those themes together, I'm here this week to tell you that there is in fact an interactive map of Westeros online now and ready to use! It was designed by Westeros.org user carpiediem, and uses an engine based on Google maps, so it is very slick and professional.

You can set filters to look at specific areas or to follow the journey of specific characters. I do believe it contains information both from the books and the show.

Another great feature is that you can adjust a simple slider to show where you have read up to, or seen so far, so that it doesn't give away any spoilers for plot points you have not yet come across. It's a great way to keep track of things as you read through the series or watch the show.

That's all for now! Have fun!

Until next time, friends!

...unless one has a kick ass map!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!

This week, all the fandom nerdling rage in fantasy fiction land is of course centered on the return to television of HBO's adaptation of George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. However, I won't focus on that in this article because not too much happened in in the first episode of Season 4, although it was good, and also because I have written a couple of articles about the series already.

What I did want to bring to your collective attentions, however, is a little project which a certain Frodo Baggins would have found useful on his epic quest on foot across Middle Earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings books, had he had a computer and the internet to use it with, of course... I digress.

There is a website, or a project, rather, which all Lord of the Rings fans should be aware of--simply and aptly named LotrProject. It is a compilation of resources and researches based on Tolkien's masterpiece of fantasy fiction, currently including genealogies, statistics, timelines, and references. But a particularly cool feature is this interactive map of Middle Earth! It shows you, for example, the route taken by the Company of Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit, and you can select a whole host of locations in Middle Earth to get all the pertinent information about that area or city. It's quite fun to have a look at.

The Project is still being worked upon, expanded and updated, I believe, but as well as the fun map there is definitely plenty to check out and have a look at, especially if you are an ardent Tolkien fan. Take a look!

That's all for now! Have fun!

Until next time, friends!