Dante Direct March Addendum

Addendum: The Lying Liar (Xi) strikes again

I wrote yesterday's monthly update as I realized I had not written anything yet, however, as I finished it, that night I decided to park my butt down and finish the history section for real this time. So I did! I will need to take more passes on it, extend certain things like the 10 Nights of Blood and the Storm of Strion & Steel, but I might extend those when I run more Dante One shots. 

The second major thing as you can see from the page and from P.net:
New Cover Art!!!!
As I finished the history section, I realized it was time for me to change the Cover Art for both the actual guide, and for the actual Game Page. WHY? Well that needs context. 
When I started writing FGTD, I used photos I had taken while I was in Europe. These photos notably were not of still lifes nor people nor vistas, but of art. Statues, antiques, and ruins. Dante for me is a synthesis of my reflections and meditations on anthropology, architecture, archeology, art, etc. And a massive part of Dante is that idea of a place rich and sufficed with history. Where you can walk across the street and come to something that held some importance. I had a goal that the art I wanted to use for Dante was mixed media as well: the place is eccelctic and well lived in, and so I found that for myself, these classical pieces of architecture, art, and sculpture worked really well. 

For the actual field guide page, it was the ruins of the roman forum. Smack in the middle of Rome, these ruins are still looked at, excavated, and worked on today, they were integral for many forms that came into the classical world, particularly the basilica which is the most recognizable church form today. It represented for me, especially the picture I had used, that idea of Adantans studying their own past. Of the past being a physical reminder and lineage they could trace today. 

With the art for the actual field guide - read: the shitty formatting I used for my drafts - that was a photo taken of a sculpture.  to me it represented that idea of the immortalization of great figures in history. It was one of the many sculptures from the pantheon I saw, I believe of a pope, and I simply enjoyed it. 

So why the change to this? 
Well, For the key image I chose, I chose the Shed with Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh. 
I knew I wanted yellow flowers. The reason why is the in dante equivilant: Dandes. If you've heard me talk about Dante enough, one of the very first concepts beyond Syent and Synner, was that of the Dande. From Dandelion, the weed that everyone sees yet treats poorly, Dandelions are an extremely hearty plant, capable of living and enduring through harsh human urban conditions. I linked the idea of a dandelion to that old verse "A rose in the concrete", and my own interpretation which is - beautiful things can still be found in the harshest of places. Endurance and the growth of something fragile in the toughest of places is beautiful. 
Hence, we got the idea of the Dande. A symbol of endurance, of hope, of getting through the toughest times and being able to thrive freely. 
I chose a Shed with Sunflowers as at the time Van Gogh was drawing and studying sunflowers for his still lives, Sunflowers were grown in gardens. They were partially contained, and if anyone knows anything about sunflowers, they grow tall and bloom wide. There is something that is evocative in this piece to me. The gentle colors speak of a calm quiet day. The solitary figure I read as wandering. Going somewhere. This soft blue shed is simple, modest, a touch of color and personality in a quiet private way only known to the unknown inhabitant of this space. Finally, front and center, looking at you, is the sunflower, stretching skyward. 
I love this piece, and it feels very Adantan. Very good to use it. 


HISTORY IS DONE
Que Crab Rave. 
Alright, art analysis aside, as I mentioned before I just finished the history section. It is full. For context, it was around....3 4 pages. it's 19 now. This is the full entire history and even the main explanation of how this system came to be in this way. Plenty of names to use for hooks, plenty of factions and spaces of history to play with. 
So at this point we're at the next chunk of writing! The ones I have left are as follows: 

• Peoples of Dante: The various actual people you can find, some of the genetic oddities, and where they inhabit. 
• Cultures of Dante: How people view cultural keystones, attitudes on union, sentiments on NHPS and the wider galaxy, as well as themselves. Notably, what is a Syent and a Synner, etc. 
• Factions of Dante: Full overview of factions on Dante by planets and how their governments and leadership is composed. 
• Ecology of Dante: Wildlife! Plants, animals, etc. 
• Historical figures of Dante: those in history, what they did, who they are. 
• Start of GM section: Tone + theming, various quest NPCS, various hooks for short or long games (some I've run myself)
• Balencing of Frames/tuning up frame lore, adding in new frames : this should be obvious
• Rounding out of exotics: pilot exotics, the mark system, mech exotics
• Fleshing out Faction Rapport systems 
• Second look at Downtime Actions. 
• Backgrounds, skill triggers, ideas for PCs

With that, hopefully I'll see yall in April actually for a release as I'm coming up on 1 year of dante in May!