The Living Lakes: Introductions and Inspirations

Frigid waves roll onto a pebble beach. Summer fog burns through the pine forest. The hazel shimmer of a dragon slips beneath the lake’s surface. They say the next town over is farther away than it was the last time the Living Lake exhaled. Birdsong, as sweet as any Bard, is interrupted by the shot of an engine turning over. Accordion and trumpet blare from inside the bar—the lumberjacks have returned from camp, and they only lost a quarter of the men this year. They’ll dance until the money’s gone, because the trees will always be there.

The Living Lakes is a homebrew setting where I make miniatures, play TTRPGs, and write short stories. The Living Lakes has lived in my head and on countless scattered notebooks for five or so years now. Like any idea that stays with you but never fully materializes, it has changed quite a bit. Here is what has stayed the same:

• The Living Lakes is a setting inspired by my love of the Midwest. Specifically, my time living in Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The rolling prairies, the humid saunas, and the chilly lakes are places as near and dear to my heart as the people who live within them. Additionally, what do the flora and fauna of the region look like in a fantasy setting? The thought of a beaver on a house sigil gets my heart pounding with possibility. 
• Birds are magic. I have never been a fan of hard magic systems, where magic is translated into a mathematical formula of “if x, then y.” However, I have always liked the idea of magic users needing supplies and tools rather than relying on a simple flick of the wrist. In the Living Lakes, magic users require bird familiars to channel magical properties. So, if you see someone walking side by side with a turkey, give them some space.
• The Woods are weird. Magic cannot all be explained. Where is the fun in that? Like the Zone in Roadside Picnic, the Woods beyond the town bars and harbors are unreliable and ever-changing.
• The stakes are personal. I am interested in telling intimate, small-stakes stories, similar to the shaggy movies I cover on Schlub Cinema. This is not epic fantasy. While I still need to depict larger conflicts for wargaming and TTRPG sessions, conflict in the Living Lakes is more likely to take the form of a bar fight than a battle.
• Anachronistic fantasy. From the outset, I knew that humans would not be the driving force here. You won't find Tolkien-style elves (or elves at all) among the birch trees and bogs of this place, but if you are lucky, you might stumble across a beat-up pickup truck in the far depths of the Woods. I wanted to take elements of classical fantasy and add my own twist, blending familiar tropes and concepts into a nineteenth-century Northwoods pastiche.

As a sample, here is the player handout I made for my TTRPG group. These are the major races found in The Living Lakes—all of which I'll explore in the updates ahead. 

Inspirations 

• A Garden of Spheres - Linnea Sterte
• Daylight in the Swamp - Robert W. Wells
• Dersu Uzala - Akira Kurosawa 
• Elden Ring
• Flavor of Wisconsin: An Informal History of Food and Eating in the Badger State
• Forsaken Gods - Didrik Magnus-Andresen
• Full Metal Alchemist
• Gardens of Hecate
• Goodbye, Eastern Europe - Jacob Mikanowski
• Gotrek and Felix - William King
• Hellboy - Mike Mignola 
• Howl's Moving Castle - Hayao Miyazaki
• Jim Harrison’s work, especially Brown Dog
• Love and Rockets - Jaime Hernandez
• Over the Garden Wall
• Paul Bonner
• PBS Wisconsin
• Red Dead Redemption
• Roadside Picnic - Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky
• Russell Chatham
• Seal videos on Instagram
• Simon Roy
• Summers spent at my cottage in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
• The Chromatic Fantasy - H. A. 
• The Kalevala
• The Last Waltz - Martin Scorsese, The Band 
• The writings of Vladimir Arsenyev
• Wisconsin Lore - Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden

Thank you for reading : ) 

xoxo, Gray