I'm amazed at the moment by the number of mythical countries that have sprung up on line in recent times. It is beginning to seem to me that you need an atlas more than a search engine to navigate their variegated terrains.
Alzheim is one such mythical country.
It's funny though that the Duchy never was conciously conceived as being a blog with a country name and a map and carefully worked out uniforms. I really admire the people who have the disciplined forethought to plan their countries, create gorgeous maps and design beautiful uniforms. It's not something that my scatterbrained thinking has ever really lent itself to, more sadly for me, I sometimes think!
Before this blog there came a name.
Once upon a time I was a member of the SocDaisy Yahoo Group and for some reason names of mythical countries came up as a topic. I (cleverly I thought) stuck up my hand and mentioned Alzheim. Why not? It sounded appropriately German, contained a clever pun that brought to mind a land forgotten by History. Genius!
It was lovingly launched into the mysterious places of the Interweb and promptly vanished without a trace.
Hey ho, I forgot about it, sort of. I still liked the name.
There things pretty wel were left until a friend introduced me. He's a follower of the Lubavitcher rebbe. He's got a blog (AussieEcho) about all things Lubavitch which he showed me.
This got me thinking that this would be a great way of getting my hobby-based materials together in the one place and to try and find a way of imposing some order upon the chaotic mess that I'd created for my self over the years. This came together at about the same time as I had started participating in the OldSchoolWargaming Yahoo Group. The OSW people have had a great deal to do in terms of feedback early on that really made me want to keep regularly at the blog.
At this point the Duchy was still a collection of tidings from my note-book or workbench. I'd not really decided on any detailed characteristics for it - for example, the name of the place is German, but most of it's early doings were those of French-looking troops with French-sounding commanders! I'm sure there are still many contradictions there.
The Duchy took on a more German tone with the introduction of the noble Elector Augustus, his ignoble, Blackadderish manservant Bauer and the dear, doughty, brave and stupid General von Browne who in my mind bears some resemblance to the Graf von Grunt.
Still no maps, though, although for a while though I did toy with the idea of using a map I found online of Alfred the Great's Wessex. I still toy with the idea. I really should do something about that one day.
As it stands though, I'd still characterise the Duchy of Alzheim as a hold-all for my projects in process, random thoughts and occasional pretty pictures. I think it will yet continue to ramble on and hopefully take new und unlooked for turns and sprout unexpected excrecences.
Most of all, I'd like it to be a place where we can meet and talk about our own varied projects and experiences.
1 comment:
Well, I will freely admit that the Duchy of Alzheim was one of the main influences in getting my Principality of Saxe-Bearstein started.
Actually creating a bit of history for my fictional country was a lot of fun.
For Alzheim, with its French flavor, perhaps it was on the border . . . or perhaps it was a French ally in the past (if so, why? Religion, Family, Enemy-of-Enemy or why?).
Obviously you can create whatever you want. I'm going to repost my Saxe-Bearstein background (with a few changes from its initial appearance in August of '06) to perhaps inspire some other bloggers.
-- Jeff
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