merlyn
10-09-2017, 12:50 AM
I wasn't sure whether this belonged in this part of the forum, or the "Great Pendragon Campaign". Since the focus is a passage in T. H. White, I decided that it belonged to the former.
I was recently rereading bits of "The Once and Future King" today, and noticed in Chapter 25 of "The Ill-Made Knight" a mention of how much Arthur's kingdom had changed, for the better, twenty-one years into his reign. The precise number of years, twenty-one, struck me, since in the 3rd and 4th editions of "Pendragon", the game's "official opening" is twenty-one years after Arthur becomes king.
I wondered briefly if that passage could have influenced the 3rd and 4th edition's choice for the opening year. Then I thought it was probably a coincidence, especially since the "twenty-one years on" in White's story is the eve of the Grail Quest, making it more the counterpart of the Pendragon timeline's 554 than 531. But I still thought it worth sharing here.
I was recently rereading bits of "The Once and Future King" today, and noticed in Chapter 25 of "The Ill-Made Knight" a mention of how much Arthur's kingdom had changed, for the better, twenty-one years into his reign. The precise number of years, twenty-one, struck me, since in the 3rd and 4th editions of "Pendragon", the game's "official opening" is twenty-one years after Arthur becomes king.
I wondered briefly if that passage could have influenced the 3rd and 4th edition's choice for the opening year. Then I thought it was probably a coincidence, especially since the "twenty-one years on" in White's story is the eve of the Grail Quest, making it more the counterpart of the Pendragon timeline's 554 than 531. But I still thought it worth sharing here.