#gsoe

A map of Aren, Ostal, showing the main districts and roads. 

As the capital of Ostal, Aren holds a very important position both politically and militarily. Underneath the city is a complex web of tunnels, which let authorized individuals move unburdened and unquestioned around.

The capital features one of the Continent’s best Universities, whose campus is right on that major public park.

School district land consists of the actual campuses, as well as vast swaths of student housing.

Even though the sprawl is limited, Aren has an unprecedented ability to build upward. Most of the buildings are incredibly tall towers, in similar style to the palace.

A continent in Emheim, the one that both TWAWKI and GSOE take place on! It really is the hub of the action, in terms of the main plot. 

It has a temperate to cold climate. It has a small mountain range in the north, a large forest stretching across its middle, and wetlands in the south. 

While early on, the people of The Beginning created separate city states, these soon merged into countries and full empires; The Holy Empire, Monroe, and the independent country of Dalory. Monroe fell apart first, becoming Ostal, Eslaine, and Naeri. The fall of the Holy Empire is more recent, taking place within the past 100 years- A war still going on to this day. 

All countries have some sort of monarchy. 

The Anti-Party.

A group of antagonists who have teamed up to try and murder the TWAWKI party. They have their reasons, and they’re a lot less functional than they appear.

Palace Nightguard, which sits in the centre of Ostal’s capital, is a perfect example of the intricacies of Ostal’s architecture. It’s VERY strongly based on the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy.

Buildings in Ostal are almost always done up in hexagons, with blue roofs and detailing. These peaked double-windows are also a common feature.

In most towns and cities, buildings don’t have front doors. Instead, they utilize a magical plaque that teleports you to the appropriate floor. On the inside, they use ramps and magic elevators. Every attempt is made to keep these places accessible.

Indoor plumbing is common, and the lighting is generally magical in nature. Enchantments are very, very common all throughout Ostal, for practical purposes. Floating carriages and trains, water purification, and the growing communication network that utilizes Sending Stones to speak one on ones. The network is used mostly amongst nobles and government, for now.

Circusfans, I’ve just renewed my domain goldencircusdays.com for another year, so I’m committed to keeping this little site afloat and adding to it as regularly as I can! It’s approaching six months since RBBB’s Gold Unit closed, and I’m just now finally getting around to editing my images from the final performance.  I’ll be sharing via Facebook as well as here, so please FOLLOW me there if we…

This was usually our favorite time of tour, the time when we start pointing our rigs west and driving towards the Rocky Mountains and beyond.  Ben and I love Colorado and the Pacific Northwest.  Hard to believe we’ve already wrapped our last trip.

I just wanted to share a handful of images from last year’s trek west (2015 trip forthcoming).  The show’s last city before the Labor Day break in 2014 was Baton Rouge, and we drove to San Diego, then to San Francisco, and then up to Portland over the course of about nine days.  Truly a GLORIOUS trip in pretty much every way.