What does YOUR bookshelf say about you?

I've always liked Lortag the Elder - a gentle scholar living quietly in a corner of that open sewer of a city, Kharé, spending his time puzzling over ancient runes and trying to educate the lawless Orclings of the city in what is probably a futile attempt at widening participation. At least until I read Inkle Studios' engrossing version of the second Sorcery! adventure... But that's a different story for another day. In the original Kharé - Cityport of Traps, Lortag may invite you into his study for a chat and, as has happened to me far too many times in real life in similar situations, you might find that you aren't so much paying attention to what he's saying as to what books he has on his bookshelves. (In real life of course, this is not a good thing as you may suddenly realise you haven't been following the conversation and find that you are expected to reply to something you haven't really heard.) And what a collection of books Lortag has! They say you can tell a lot about someone from the books that they read, so what does Lortag's collection tell us about him?

 

This excellent illustration by the master of punk-fantasy art, John Blanche, is worth a closer look, especially if you are a Titan nerd like me who likes to find out as much about the world of Fighting Fantasy as possible. I don't know about you, but I really want to know what's on Lortag's shelves, so there's only two things we can do, short of interrogating John Blanche - either scan the image in at high quality them zoom in and see what the book titles are, or get a decent magnifying glass and have a closer look. I think you'll agree that squinting through a magnifying glass is much more fun than clicking buttons on a computer screen, so let's go for that for now. So what's Lortag been reading then?

Let's start on the top shelf. This is clearly where Lortag shoves all sorts of stuff that he hasn't sorted out or doesn't want visitors to see, so most of it is not spine-outwards and we can't work out what it is. But at the right-hand end of the shelf is a stack of books, some of which have readable titles on their spines. These are:

• Axiome
• Necropolitics
• White Dwarf 1-30 (or 1-36)

Axiome brings to mind the word axiom, meaning 'premise', 'initial assumption' or 'principle', derived from Ancient Greek ἀξίωμα. Necropolitics obviously refers to the politics of death or, as Wictionary puts it, "The relationship between sovereignty and power over life and death". Definitely top shelf material! White Dwarf is of course the name of the gaming magazine published by Games Workshop. How Lortag has managed to get hold of a bound volume of the first 30 (or 36) issues is anyone's guess.

Let's move on to the rather untidy second shelf. The only legible spine here is near the left:

• Tolkien

Ah hah! I always look to see if people have any Tolkien on their shelves when I visit their houses. It's generally a good sign, although a battered copy of just The Fellowship of the Ring bought in a second-hand bookshop on holiday one time doesn't qualify, whilst having the whole History of Middle-Earth in hardback proudly displayed in your living room is probably going too far, as is having ANY Tolkien on your office book shelves. Lortag seems to be playing it safe with what looks like a single hard-cover copy of one of Tolkien's books (probably the Silmarillion by its thickness).

On to the third shelf. Things are starting to get really interesting here, not surprisingly as this looks like a shelf that Lortag can easily reach. As well as a small telescope and various other bits of paraphernalia and untitled books, we have, from left to right:

• possibly volume V of something with a sun symbol on the spine
• volumes II and III of something with a fleur-de-lis symbol on the spine
• Jackson
• Jes
• Balykoth
• Malkuth
• Voloder (?)

and two others at the right-hand end which have illegible or obscured titles. Jackson may be the Kakhabadian name for the Trickster God, revered by many in those chaotic lands. Jes and Voloder are obscure, but Balykoth and Malkuth are very interesting. Although I can't find a source for Balykoth (though it's the kind of word that looks like it has one in the real world), it is similar to Balkoth, the name of an arch-demon in the Lords of Magic PC game, and Balchoth, a term created by Tolkien for a race of eastern barbarians. Whatever its origin (do let me know if you have any ideas), it has a diabolical look to it. Malkuth (Hebrew מלכות, meaning 'kingdom') is named after one of the attributes of the Kabbalah tradition. All very esoteric!

On the fourth shelf, we have a strange collection of stuff:

• Garibo[...] (?)
• Khare
• Dwarf Hymns
• Syn 1

Hmm. Garibo[...], if that is what it is, is partially obscured by Lortag himself. Khare (there may be an acute accent floating to the top right of the e) is obviously about Lortag's home city. Dwarf Hymns hardly seems like fascinating reading, though Syn 1 looks more promising.

The remaining shelves are mostly obscured by Lortag, but on the fifth shelf we have:

• Blanche Vol I
• Unlife Vol III
• Ions
• Bezelgue (?)
• Mogibell

Blanche Vol I appears to refer to an obscure (but obviously prolific) Kakhabadian artist from the mid 280s After Chaos. Unlife Vol III adds to our growing suspicion that there's a darker side to Lortag. Ions hints at a fascination with atomic physics, which is somewhat unexpected in a medieval fantasy world. Bezelgue (if that's what it is) and Mogibell are rather more obscure; the former looks like a French surname, the latter like it could be a book about cute cats to me.

Nothing can be made out on the sixth and seventh shelves, but on the eighth, unfortunately partially obscured not only by Lortag but also but his table, we have:

• Slee[...]
• D. McFa[...]

Not much to go on there. I initially thought D. McFa[...] might be MCFA (which looks like it might refer to Middlesex County Football Association), but that requires us to ignore the D. and the small size of the c.

So there we have it. Lortag might look and act like a mild-mannered old gentleman, but his library gives us an insight into what's going on behind his calm exterior. He's definitely into some weird, indeed disturbing, stuff, as we might expect from a scholar in the Verminpit of Kakhabad. He also has a penchant for role-playing and fantasy fiction, whilst in his quieter moments he enjoys singing Dwarf hymns and reading about cute kittens.

If you happen to have any other ideas about any of these weird and wonderful books titles, do let me know!

Where did you say you're from again?

Unlike Magnamund, the Lone Wolf world, which was created by Joe Dever alone, the Fighting Fantasy world of Titan was essentially designed by committee - each author created his* own part of the world, with only the over-all structure as laid out in Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World as a guide from 1986 onwards. I say committee, but I sometimes get the impression that this committee never met and that its members didn't really know the other members or that there even was a committee! The result is a wonderfully incoherent world with a mish-mash of cultures, races, monsters and lands which make Titan an interesting place to adventure in for sure but also one which lacks the consistency of more carefully planned worlds. It's one of the things I like about it, but this rather eclectic approach sometimes creates problems which might have been avoided with just a little bit of coordinated effort. I'm thinking of things like Khul in the southern hemisphere having the same seasons as Allansia in the northern hemisphere, the Foulbrood River running the wrong way on the Titan map, the Inland Sea existing in two fantasy worlds simultaneously, there being three entirely different maps of Kharé, none of which matches the original description of the city in Sorcery! or each other, and any number of other inconsistencies.

In this post, I want to consider how this rather haphazard approach to world-building has resulted in two villages in Titan having up to three different names each, and how we as fans of Fighting Fantasy might react to this bizarre situation.

The first of these villages is where it all began in 1982. In The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, you start your adventure in an unnamed village two days away from the mountain. This village was given a name in the first issue of Warlock Magazine in 1984, in the reworked version of TWoFTM that appeared there - Anvil (which is also marked on the first map of Allansia in the same issue). The sequel to TWoFTM, Return to Firetop Mountain (1992), also starts in Anvil, creating a nice link between the two adventures. So far so good, but then all of these adventures were written by the same person, Ian Livingstone, and the identity of the village hadn't been interfered with by the 'committee'.

Fast forward to 2003 and this village suddenly received an entirely new name - Gilford. It is named Gilford in the Myriador d20 conversion of TWoFTM (there's no reason to think it's not the same place, as you start the adventure there, two days' travel from Firetop Mountain, just as in the original adventure). And in the same year, a possible third name for the village appears in the short-lived Salamonis Gazette, by former administrator of the Official Fighting Fantasy website, Dave Holt. In that issue, a village named Haven appears on the map of the area around Firetop Mountain, although it's not stated that that's the village you start TWoFTM in, so maybe it's another village entirely. But that's at least two different names for the same place, something which could have been avoided with a little background research by the Myriador team.

Crossing the Western Ocean to the Verminpit of Kakhabad, a similar situation arises. In the first Sorcery! book, The Shamutanti Hills, you may pass through a village afflicted by plague. This 'plague village' isn't given a name, but when you encounter the riddling hunchback, Vancass, he lists villages you may have travelled through (Cantopani, Kristatanti, Dhumpus, Birritanti) plus another village, Gorretanti. The identity of Gorretanti is unknown, but it seems possible that it could be the otherwise unnamed plague village.

Again fast forwarding to 2003, and the plague village is named Taddapani in the Myriador d20 coversion of The Shamutanti Hills (unfortunately Taddapani is about the only authentic Kakhabadian-sounding new name in the module). The name Gorretanti doesn't appear anywhere in this version of the adventure. And then in 2013, the plague village received another new name, the similarly authentic-sounding Urrustanti, in Inkle Studios' excellent reimagining of the Sorcery! epic for iPod/iPhone.

So, what are we FF fans meant to think about all these multiple names for the same places then?! Do we raise our hands in despair and mutter something about arses and elbows? Do we try to come up with imaginative but unlikely scenarios that allow us to explain these apparent contradictions? Or is there some other way of reconciling ourselves to the curious hodge-podge that is the world of Fighting Fantasy? Well, while the first option certainly has its attractions, we can set it aside for now as not really contributing anything useful to the problem. The second option is very much the kind of approach that was imagined in the old Rebuilding Titan Yahoo! discussion group, as stated in its group description:

"due to being created by a variety of different authors with little cohesion, it requires some help to become a fully operational fantasy world. This list is a discussion forum for roleplayers and fans of the Fighting Fantasy series to rebuild the world as they feel would be most useful"

For example, the plague village and Gorretanti could be considered to be different villages entirely, as would Gilford and Anvil, whilst Taddapani and Urrustanti would be explained by there being two plague villages (plague does spread after all), by a change in the name of the village, or by a mistake by some Black Lotus addled adventurer. Or by declaring certain FF publications 'canon' and others as not (or ranking the canonicity of the various sources). Hmm.

As is often the case, a third way is, in my opinion, the best. Rather than giving up on the FF world in despair or trying to create cohesion where none exists, I prefer to study the whole corpus of Fighting Fantasy, from the first gamebook to the latest digital wizardry, as part of its unfolding (hi)story. Anvil, Haven, Gilford, Gorretanti, Taddapani and Urrustanti are all part of that story, and it doesn't really matter whether some of these are alternative names for the same place. Actually, this is really the only valid approach to the problem when a world has been built at random by committee and/or is full of inconsistencies. It's not up to me as a fan of FF to decide which bits of the franchise are canon and which are not, or what the 'truth' is behind all the contradictions. The next fan who comes along might have different ideas and the FF 'committee' is and was too diffuse to have one opinion on such matters (assuming they have any!). Those of you who have followed the publications of, for example, J. R. R. Tolkien, will be familiar with this issue. In his case, his mythology was his life's work, but it never achieved a fixed, final form, and those who search for a final 'canon' version of his world and languages will search in vain. This has led fans who are especially interested in his works to study everything he ever wrote as equally valid and to recognise that internal consistency isn't what's important.

So if someone asks you where you're from in Titan, don't tell them you're from Gorretanti, which shouldn't be confused with a plague village formerly called Taddapani and now Urrustanti, but tell them that according to Steve Jackson/Vancass, your village might (or might not) be called Gorretanti, according to Myriador it's called Taddapani, and according to Inkle it's called Urrustanti. Oh, and try not to cough on them - you might have the plague!

*Have there ever been any female writers for Fighting Fantasy? I can't think of any other than Ruth Pracy, who only contributed FF-style adventures to Warlock magazine.