Topic: Anime series that has Shadow World elements

[Batheloth]

I thought I’d chime in and point everyone over to an anime series that I came across kinda accidentally that has a bunch of Shadow World elements in it.  It isn’t the greatest anime that I have ever seen, but it is decent.  It is a series called “Scrapped Princess”.  I don’t want to give too much away, but it has a medieval setting, some super high tech gadgets from a distant past era, a secret society moving things behind the scenes, and a even a barrier that shuts off portions of the world.  The overall plot in the series wouldn’t be too hard to adapt into a campaign.  Has anyone else seen it? 

Does anyone else know of any movies or shows that incorporate some of the unique elements that the Shadow World setting has?

[grendal72]

A while back I found a book that had shadow world elements to it.

Here it is on e-bay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Shadow-World-Eidolon-Chronicles-Jane-Johnson-Go-/280656750580?pt=US_Childrens_Books&hash=item41587227f4

You can see it's name is Shadow World...  Eidolon Chronicles...  No similarities, right?!

[RandalThor]

Wow, just wow......

[egdcltd]

A while back I found a book that had shadow world elements to it.

Here it is on e-bay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Shadow-World-Eidolon-Chronicles-Jane-Johnson-Go-/280656750580?pt=US_Childrens_Books&hash=item41587227f4

You can see it's name is Shadow World...  Eidolon Chronicles...  No similarities, right?!

Especially when you consider that the author worked for Tolkien during the period that ICE was dealing with them.

[grendal72]

Especially when you consider that the author worked for Tolkien during the period that ICE was dealing with them.

That I did not know.  Of course you'd need to read the book to see how much was "borrowed" from Terry.  Maybe the author wasn't good at coming up with names and you'd find a wise old uncle character named "Althan" and the kids fly around on a "K'ta'viir" bird...

[Terry K. Amthor]

There's a whole series of those books!  Wow.

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Country-Eidolon-Chronicles/dp/141693815X/ref=dp_cp_ob_b_title_1

[RandalThor]

Except for his one green and one brown eye, Ben seems a perfectly normal child

Hey Terry, wasn't there something about 2 different colored eyes in Shadow World?

[Mercenary30]

I have seen those books around before while looking for other Shadow World items on the internet......

I assumed that TKA knew about these.

If not, then I do believe that there is a significant copywrite/trade mark issue here.

[Terry K. Amthor]

Except for his one green and one brown eye, Ben seems a perfectly normal child

Hey Terry, wasn't there something about 2 different colored eyes in Shadow World?

Yes I noticed that too. I had a Duranak character with 2 different colored eyes; off the top of my head I don't remember if T'revor in Shadow World does, but it does seem a strange coincidence.

[RandalThor]

For some reason I thought it might be a common attribute of K'ta'viir or Althan individuals.

[Terry K. Amthor]

For some reason I thought it might be a common attribute of K'ta'viir or Althan individuals.

I think it may have been fairly common among the Duranaki, but not so much with the Althans. To be honest in the real world I have only known one person with different colored eyes. It's one of those things you don't necessarily notice right away, but after you do, you can't stop noticing it.

[RandalThor]

It's one of those things you don't necessarily notice right away, but after you do, you can't stop noticing it.

That's like the main girl on NCIS: Los Angeles. She has something going on with her right eye, I just can't figure out what it is..... Of course, I haven't tried the internet yet. The internet knows everything.

[grendal72]

"Ben finds the wild road that leads there" reminds me of Shadow World.

[yondar]

I believe she has a distinguishable birthmark in her right eye.

Sure I read it somewhere.

[Batheloth]

For some reason I thought it might be a common attribute of K'ta'viir or Althan individuals.

I thought that rang a bell too, so I had to go and look it up, and finally found it.

The Althan racial descriptions in the old Spacemaster companion mentioned that the leaders of the primative Althan groups always had bi-colored eyes (one blue and one violet; both with slited irises).  The tribes were ruled by the eldest male with bi-colored eyes.  It also mention that this occurs in only one out of every hundred males, and that the trait is not passed on to females.

The K'Ta'Viir, a subset of the Althans according to ShadowWorld Canon, do not share this trait.  Both of their eyes are the violet color (again according to the old Spacemaster companion).

[Batheloth]

A while back I found a book that had shadow world elements to it.

Here it is on e-bay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Shadow-World-Eidolon-Chronicles-Jane-Johnson-Go-/280656750580?pt=US_Childrens_Books&hash=item41587227f4

You can see it's name is Shadow World...  Eidolon Chronicles...  No similarities, right?!

There was a series of 4 books written by Ian Hammel based on the ShadowWorld.  Well, only the 4th book in the series really deals exclusively with the ShadowWorld.  The other three books in the series had very few references, from what I remember, and could have been based in any fantasy setting.  The fourth book "Stormriders" was wholly set in the ShadowWorld, has Andraax interacting with one of the main characters, and takes place mostly in north western Jaiman. 

I'm not sure if Ian Hammel actually wrote the books.  Amazon has him listed as Clayton Emery (as Ian Hammel).  The fourth book was written by Roxanne Longstreet, and was published years before the series all by itself.  I picked it up at a con back in 1991, and even had it autographed.  So, it seemed odd when I saw it released years later as the fourth book in this series, and only had her name mentioned as a co-author.  I reread it when I purchased the new edition (because it is ShadowWorld and I had to have it), and the story seemed the same, although I haven't put both books side by side to compare them.

[ob1knorrb]

Here are some notes on the two versions of Stormriders from my Website:

Note: There are two editions of this book, one from ICE and one from ACE( see below). The ICE version is trade paperback size (5.5 x 8.5) and the ACE version is standard paperback novel size (4.25 x 6.5). The ACE version came out under the name Ian Hamnell. Apparently in one of them there's a passage where Brion uses martial arts to defeat a mercenary. In the other edition this passage has been removed. I recently started comparing the two versions and there are several differences. Basically the ACE version seems to be condensed from the ICE version, just in the Prologue and the first part of Chapter 1 I noticed several paragraphs that were in the ICE version completely missing from the ACE version, and many sentences in the ACE version have been truncated from what they were in the ICE version. If you have a choice, the ICE version is definitely the better version to read. I've included an excerpt of the first two paragraphs of Chapter 1 of both versions as an example below.

Excerpt from Chapter 1 (ICE Edition):

Iarsang sat with his back to the sheltering rock and stared dreamily into the storm. He was buffeted by wild shrieking gusts of wind, but none of his frightened charges dared to approach or disturb him even to ask after his health. There were no tales of a Navigator going mad, but -- well --

A snap of lightning exploded just outside of the cave in an actinic fury; the inhabitants of the cave jerked back and cried out in panic. Nomaran Estvir, the senior of the two clerics, was praying in a frantic, hushed voice to his patron deity Phaon, but no one really expected a prompt answer to that. The senior gods of Kulthea, called the Lords of Orhan because popular theory put their home on that luminous moon, had a large but unfanatical following. The gods were casually considerate to the needs of their worshippers, but the deities (including Phaon) were far too busy to concern themselves with specifics -- or individuals. This, the men of Kulthea had little confidence in divine intervention.

Excerpt from Chapter 1 (ACE Edition):

Iarsang sat with his back to the sheltering rock and stared dreamily into the storm. He was buffeted by gusts of wind, but none of his frightened charges dared to approach even to ask after his health. There were no tales of a Navigator going mad, but -- well --

A snap of lightning exploded just outside of the cave in an actinic fury. Nomaran Estvir, the senior of the two clerics, was praying in a frantic, hushed voice to his patron deity Phaon, but no one really expected a prompt answer to that. The Lords of Orhan had a large but unfanatical following. The gods of Kulthea were casually considerate, but most (including Phaon) were far too busy to concern themselves with specifics -- or individuals..

More info on these two books and the other novels can be found at:

http://www.icewebring.com/ICE_Products/Product_Page.php?product_id=503 Stormriders
http://www.icewebring.com/ICE_Products/Product_Page.php?product_id=507 Shadow World (Book 4): Stormriders
http://www.icewebring.com/ICE_Products/Product_Page.php?product_id=504 Shadow World (Book 1): The Burning Goddess
http://www.icewebring.com/ICE_Products/Product_Page.php?product_id=505 Shadow World (Book 2): Clock Strikes Sword
http://www.icewebring.com/ICE_Products/Product_Page.php?product_id=506 Shadow World (Book 3): City of Assassins

[Terry K. Amthor]

Here are some notes on the two versions of Stormriders from my Website:

*SNIP*

Wow how strange. I was not aware of a mass-market printing of Stormriders. What's the pub date? And why tinker with the writing? I am pretty sure Ian Hammel is a pseudonym. The only SW novel I read and approved was the original Stormriders.

[ob1knorrb]

The publication date I have for the ACE version of Stormriders is 1996.
Yes, Ian Hammel is a pseudonym, I've got the actual authors listed in braces after Ian Hammel for each book

Here are some notes on the two versions of Stormriders from my Website:

*SNIP*

Wow how strange. I was not aware of a mass-market printing of Stormriders. What's the pub date? And why tinker with the writing? I am pretty sure Ian Hammel is a pseudonym. The only SW novel I read and approved was the original Stormriders.

[Terry K. Amthor]

And I am not even sure who at ICE approved these or 'edited' them or anything. I had left ICE full time by then and moved to DC and the first I learned of them was seeing them in a bookstore. What a shock. Of course the same fatal flaw as the old modules, they had no real tie to the world at all, it was the 'oh it's a generic world, we can plug anything in' that some people espoused. Argh. People want a cohesive world not some generic fiction