The Whirling Kingdoms

Stitch a Story Rajasee Ray VCD401

This story begins with learning steps – various step-by-step explorations in multicoloured threads on a sample. These lines of learning are what held our stories together in the end.

Patchwork and appliquĂŠ, filling stitches and decorative ones, these techniques gave us the base we needed to start thinking about our final projects.

I wanted to work with the theme of fantasy maps and landscapes – creating different moods and fictional geographies with embroidery. My explorations closely followed my inspirations which came from books, stories, illustrations and travel.

I looked at various examples of representational mapping and drew inspiration from these in my explorations.

I also tried to draw from satellite images of different terrain. The world is a completely different place when looked at from above – and these are views that inspire stories.

I decided to incorporate a story in my map, a story that was interactive – and could be played out to its end. This was why I chose to use a board game as my map, and Ludo lent itself to very interesting storylines.

My map would, as a Ludo board, have four fantasy kingdoms in four different colour themes, set amidst warring waters.

The First Kingdom

The First Kingdom sports the colour blue.

It is a land of ice, snow and rivers, great mountains that bequeath frozen glaciers to trickle cool streams into the Dragon Lake, by the ice-cold tall towers of Castle Frost.

The Second Kingdom

The Second Kingdom sports the colour yellow. It is a land of art, culture and early civilization. The Yellow River flows through the land, past tall stairs of Chiparabwa, the tomb of the Kings, the golden walls of Sun City, the Lost Temple of Mapadmabe and through the Gates of Weeping Stone into the Whirlpool Sea.

Chiparabwa

Mapadmabe Temple

Sun City

Gates of Weeping Stone

The Third Kingdom

The Third Kingdom sports the colour green. It is a land close to nature, where the people live in the Winding Woods, on the banks of the Great Lake and the Little Lake, home to the two great sister-fish that were parted when the lakes split apart after the Great Storm – and that still call to each other when the skies rumble. The waters of the Lakes flow south past hills and down waterfalls and then out into the Whirlpool Sea through the Great Marshes.

Sister Lakes

Great Marshes Winding Woods

The Fourth Kingdom

The Fourth Kingdom sports the colour red. It is a land of industry, smoke and fire. Strong metals are mined from the volcanic mountains in the heart of the land and transported by rail to the factories in the south. A narrow strait separates the greater part of the kingdom from the inhabitable smaller island, although smoke from the factory is known to cross the Splitting Strait and plague the homes of the industrial workers who live north of Strongarm Keep, the castle of the monarch.

Volcano

Factories

Mined metal

Strongarm Keep

Splitting Strait

A good game needed a good story.

Whatever story I came up with would have to set the board for a game of Ludo, with its four players – each with four pieces. It would also have to convincingly explain the aim and the background of the gameplay.

The Whirling Kingdoms The Whirling Kingdoms are dying. The endless whirlpool in the heart of the sea is slowly draining away the lifeblood of the land.

When the world was young, a story was foretold about the death of the Whirling Kingdoms. The legend goes that just before the end of everything, the Four Kingdoms would find a way into the Next World. And whichever Kingdom would be the first to send four ships carrying five hundred soldiers through the portal into the Next World, would rule it forever.

On the eve of the sixtieth day of the year 310, messengers traveling from the harbours rushed into the throne rooms of each of the Four Kingdoms, with news that would change the world. A group of wandering fishermen who inhabited the Whirlpool Sea had chanced upon a portal in the very heart of the Whirlpool itself – a portal that led to another world.

The monarchs began immediately to prepare ships, loading them with supplies and soldiers and sending them off, as soon they were ready, to cross into the Next World. They knew that the Kingdom that sent in their fourth ship through the whirlpool – would command the others in the Next World.

Central Whirpool

The Whirlpool Sea is treacherous. It cycles around the central Whirlpool with endlessly fixed circling water currents that carry the ships forward – always forward, around its heart.

Each Kingdom controls one entry into the central Whirlpool, guarded by strong gates that open only for their own ship.

These entries were built right next to each Kingdom, but after the currents changed in the Great Storm of 76, and the Circular Way was born, access to these entries were barred to all except those ships that sailed all around the Whirlpool Sea past the other three Kingdoms and then entered the gates.

Ships that sail to the Whirlpool from a Kingdom must therefore start at their own harbour, follow the currents past the other three Kingdoms, and come round to their own entry gates to the central Whirlpool – and beyond, to the Next Kingdom.

Diplomatic areas

Entry Gates

Along the way they face threats from the ships of the other Kingdoms, for they are all armed, and although they cannot attack each other in the Diplomatic Areas and at the Four Harbours for risk of declaring open war, in the open sea, there is no guarantee of their safety.

Harbours

Current Direction

The ships of each of the Four Kingdoms are built to be stronger in aggression, and any ship that is attacked from behind has no chance of survival. However, one ship does not have the artillery to defeat two or more, so there is strength in numbers, at the cost of speed in a race of time.

Gameplay This game is played like Ludo. Roll 6 to launch a ship, each player rolls once and game proceeds around the board. Rolling a 6 grants a second roll every time but three 6s cancel out. If a ship catches up to another enemy ship anywhere except the four safe areas, the latter is considered sunk. Two ships cannot be sunk by one – but two ships cannot separate unless a 3 is rolled. One roll of the dice can only move a single ship: the moves cannot be shared by different ships, unless they are from different rolls. Taking four ships into the Whirlpool wins the game. The safe areas are denoted by flags and colours.

The board rolls up like a map when not in use, and can be carried easily.

This course, for me, had a lot to do with storytelling. Applying the techniques learnt appropriately to visualize moods was one of the very direct learnings that I got out of the course.

Most of all, the course allowed me to be passionate about storytelling through a different medium, and still let me interweave my own medium of words – that I am most comfortable with, with the visual, through embroidery – a medium that made my fantasy kingdoms – that were at first just ideas in my head – become an interactive gameplay that one could touch and experience through moods and textures and colours.

Thank You