The Cambias Digression

It's called "Transylvania" ("beyond the forest") because to get there from Hungary you pass through a hilly, forested area to reach the central Transylvanian plateau. On all other sides the region is surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, making it hard to get to even in the Edwardian era. During that time the area was part…

In the scenic New England town of Arkham, Miskatonic University sits on the bank of the river of the same name. The school's red-brick buildings and tree-shaded quads seem eternal, immune to time. Only the styles worn by the students ever seem to change. Most people know of Miskatonic (if they know of it at…

The place where roads cross has always been the scene of strange encounters, and midnight is the time when the strangest things walk the land. If you're passing through the crossroad between midnight and cockrow, be polite but brief with strangers. And if you're hanging around there on purpose, waiting to see who comes by…

In honor of the forthcoming mass-market paperback edition of Arkad's World, here's a random encounter table for the city of Ayaviz, where the story begins. Ayaviz stands right on the twilight line of the tidally-locked planet Syavusa. To the east the planet's ice-capped night side stretches away to the spaceport; to the west the Sun…

(In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19.) In the late 17th century, the capital city of piracy was Port Royal in Jamaica. It was the biggest city in the Caribbean, and sympathetic governors turned a blind eye to British, Dutch, and French Hugenot pirates preying on the Spanish treasure fleets in exchange…

Three-fourths of Earth's surface is covered by ocean, so it seems almost inevitable that people will someday try to live in the sea. This undersea city is funded by the inevitable eccentric billionaire, but is at least intended to become a self-sustaining, economically viable settlement. It's built in the shallow water atop an undersea plateau…