Episode 1: Time and Byzantium
Constantinople,
826 AD. Lady Penelope is playing the temporal tourist and loving every minute
of it, until she discovers a potentially continuum-wrecking dissonance hovering
over Theophilos, the boy who would one day become Emperor – or will he? Something
or someone is manipulating the tides of History and Destiny. A new quest awaits
the Time Lady!
Episode 2: Golden Gate
Lady
Penelope’s hunt for echoes of destiny dissonance takes her to 1879 San
Francisco, where strange glitches interfere with the flow of time. Joining
forces with journalist Ambrose Bierce and megalopolimancer (uh?) Thibault the
Castries, she soon finds herself chasing a ghostly barouche through Chinatown…
before meeting America’s one and only true Emperor.
Hello everyone! Yes, our beloved Time Lady (now in her 8th incarnation!) is back for a whole new season of adventures in Time and Space!
After experimenting (quite successfully, if I may say so myself) with the mini-series format, I've decided to return to the traditional season approach (12 or 15 episodes in length - I've not decided yet), starting with a quartet of linked episodes (or a single multi-episode story, if you will) focusing on... the return of Carcosa, with a new paradigm and a new reality (since Penelope pretty much destroyed the accursed meta-temporal city, back in season 17).
And now, on to our first two opening episodes!
Time and Byzantium resulted from Sylvie's longtime wish to visit Constantinople AGAIN, after her unfortunate, short-lived sojourn there way back in season 7 (and some 12 years ago in real time). In the meantime, I've done some background reading on Byzantine history, allowing me to render this extraordinary setting in a more detailed and evocative manner. I specifically chose 9th century as the time period because it marked the apogee and eventual abandonment of the whole Iconoclast phase of the empire - a fascinating historical and cultural backdrop. The episode featured quite a few real-life characters, includning the future emperor Theophilos and his teacher-mentor John (Ianos) the Grammarian and kickstarted a new crosstime quest (or hunt?) for Penelope.
As many of you have probably guessed, Golden Gate owed a massive creative debt to Fritz Leiber's novel Our Lady of Darkness (for the De Castries / megalopolimancy stuff) and, even more importantly, to Three Septembers and a January, one of my favorite Neil Gaiman's The Sandman episodes. And like the latter, our own story featured both Emperor Norton and the (revenant) King of Pain as prominent characters. I also added Ambrose Bierce to the mix (I really couldn't leave the man who coined the name "Carcosa" out of this!), adding a healthy dose of pessimistic sarcasm to the dialogue, as well as some interesting reflections on the great author's past and future, from the 1879 perspective. The actual play was a delight, with some great interactions between Penelope and the main NPCs, including a remarkably moving speech when Norton had to resist the treacherous enticements of the King of Pain, reinvented as the Reborn Carcosa's puppet and messenger.
See you soon for the next episode!
