Harn and the Elven Kingdom of Evael has launched!

I’ve been a fan of Columbia Games and the Harn setting since the early 1980s. It’s not just a strong medieval fantasy world in its own right. What has always set Harn apart is its modular design. Each product consists of self-contained articles, which makes it easy to incorporate material into other campaigns. I’ve used it extensively in my own Majestic Wilderlands and Majestic Fantasy Realms.

   Evael, Kingdom of the Elves Kickstarter

For decades, Harn products came as three-hole punch, loose-leaf articles. That format was ideal for organization. You could build your own binders exactly how you wanted.

That said, I’m aware I’m in the minority there in liking that format.

In recent years, Columbia Games shifted to hardcover releases, and they’ve just launched the Kickstarter for Kingdom of Evael, the final book in their nine-kingdom series.

Evael, Kingdom of the Elves Kickstarter

While a hardback, the format is still a series of articles covering the kingdom and various locations. So even if you don't ever plan to use Harn itself, it will be useful in giving you a capital for an elven realm (Elshavel*),  an elven port (Ulfshaften*), a strange, enigmatic ruin to explore (Pesino), or a cultural article on the Harnic Dark Elves (Morsindarin**)

While a lot of settings are good at lore, Harn is good at providing usable material for your campaign. And the Evael, Kingdom of the Elves, will do just that for the elves in your setting.

*I guess I am a superfan of Harn because I was able to type those names from memory correctly spelled.

** This would be useful to those of you who are fans of my Blackmarsh setting and want to flesh out the Brotherhood of the Raven.

Artemis II and the view of the Earth

Long-time readers of my blog know I have a long-standing abiding interest in space exploration. One of my hobbies is flying space simulators and writing realistic add-ons for them.  Artemis II launched a few days ago and is now heading to the moon for a fly-by. The flight's purpose is to check out the Orion capsule on a multi-day mission. Rather than just orbit the Earth the whole time like Apollo 7, NASA decided to use the time to perform a flyby of the Moon. The mission's various orbits have been cleverly designed so that, even if the capsule's propulsion system failed, the crew could return to Earth, including the lunar fly-by.

Because of the mission profile, the only time of the month Artemis II can be launched during this part of the year is during the full moon, as that is when the moon's orbit places it closest to Earth. Because of the the astronaut had a first-of-its-kind opportunity to take a picture of the entire Earth.

What you are seeing is a photograph of the entire Earth. It is not lit by the sun, which is behind our planet. But lit by moonlight. The camera settings were set to longer shutter times and other settings to allow more detail to be visible in the photo.

Some unique features you can see in the picture include the stars surrounding Earth. And you can see city lights as well. In the lower right, you can see the zodiacal light. At the bottom and top, you can see the green auroras hovering above the poles. And looking carefully at the edge of the Earth, you can see the edge of the atmosphere outlined by the sodium line caused by meteors burning up in thin air.

Enjoy, and Godspeed, the crew of Artemis II

Link to the Photo