Greetings from the edge,
It would seem that I have a second head growing.
I spent most of Friday baffling the very best medical minds that Basildon has to offer, although on the upside, during my 14-hour stay in Basildon Hospital’s Casualty/A&E- that’s ER to all my American readers- I read a shitload of The Exorcist, learned that I can sleep literally anywhere, met some interesting new nutcases, and got to go in a CT machine.
At about midnight, they let me go with a vague understanding that they would call me back for an MRI.
So, there is an actual lesion here.
Don’t wish on a cursed monkey’s paw for more headspace.
Apart from my A&E safari, I have been busy writing up the notes for what will become the spine of the Mondragon campaign setting when I come to publish. I had initially thought that I would publish Valtheraine first, but sometimes you need a mad king, an evil empire, and an undercurrent of inquisitional zeal and paranoia.
The whole idea of Mondragon is something like this:
Mondragon was once a kingdom of legendary wizards, ancient dragons, wandering heroes, and impossible wonders. Its great cities were built by many peoples, its temples honoured the old gods, and magic was woven into everyday life.
Those days are over.
King Uther the Blonde has seized the throne and begun remaking the kingdom in his own image. Magic has been declared the enemy of civilisation. Ancient faiths have been rewritten or erased. Non-human races have been driven from positions of power, and every town and city now lives beneath the watchful eyes of loyal overseers who promise safety in exchange for obedience.
The streets are cleaner.
Crime is lower.
The trains, as it were, run on time.
The price is your freedom.
Mondragon is a setting about ordinary people living beneath an extraordinary tyranny. It is a land where rebellion survives in whispered conversations over tankards of ale, hidden sermons beneath forgotten temples, coded messages carried by travelling merchants, and quiet acts of kindness that become revolutionary simply because compassion itself has become an act of defiance.
Yet this is no hopeless world.
Beyond the cities lie forgotten kingdoms, haunted forests, dragon-haunted mountains, ancient ruins, and the scattered remnants of a richer age waiting to be rediscovered. Every valley hides old legends, every road offers new adventures, and every victory, no matter how small, reminds the people of Mondragon that fear is not the same thing as loyalty.
Whether your heroes are smugglers carrying forbidden books across the border, rebels plotting the assassination of a ruthless overseer, explorers delving into lost dwarven cities, monster hunters stalking horrors older than civilisation, or wandering adventurers simply trying to do the right thing in a world that increasingly punishes goodness, Mondragon offers stories where courage matters.
Because in a kingdom built upon fear, even the smallest act of kindness can become an act of rebellion.
And sometimes, changing the world begins with refusing to be afraid.
That’s the design statement in a nutshell. I’ll decide later on if I want to get a whole website dedicated to Lore and its settings, but I’ll probably start here at least.
Sound off in the comments if you want to hear more of my homebrew shenanigans.
See you in the margins,
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