Subj: Twelve Camelots
Date: 9/2/00 6:42:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Rasgon
To: PLANESCAPE-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM, LrdTuerny

The Outer Planes are made out of archetypes, philosophies, myths, and legends. Stronger legends are often repeated across the Great Ring many times as they're filtered through different perspectives. Camelot is one of those.

All of the following realms are nigh-infinite, becoming featureless hinterlands after a certain time. A portal or the ability to enter the Astral Plane is required to escape. They generally resemble the Prime Material plane, at least superficially.

Camelot:
Zodiac Signs: Leo, Capricorn
Elements: Earth, Magma, Fire
Associations: Kingship, Knighthood, Valor
Motifs: King Holdfast, Traitorous Son, Wise Man, Terrible Goddess, the Hero

Camelot A:

This Camelot is built on a low hill on a vast forest-dotted plain. When strangers bring up the idea of other lands they are greeted with a blank stare. The King Arthur of Camelot A has ruled for some 200 years now in a land purged of saxons, giants, dragons, and bandits. The land is weary of peace and seeks a new ruler. Personified as the nymph Nimue, the land has selected Mordred, a young knight acclaimed for his success in tourneys, as the new leader and empowered him with a magical horn designed to summon demons from another plane and bring conflict back to the stale, boring England.

Camelot B

This Camelot is a fusion of traditional Arthurian motifs with a reflection of England as it was in Elizabethean times, suffering froma combination of both realms' problems. Will Shakespeare is chief playright for his troop, King Arthur's Men. Arthur, like his his sage Merlin, is a staunch Protestant, but his half-sister Morgaine is a Catholic and plots with the Spanish to overthrow the throne. Many of the inhabitants of Camelot B are from France, Spain, and so on, though it's not certain whether those nations are found elsewhere in the outer planes or whether the memories of these people were created by the realm itself.

Camelot C

Camelot C is a harsh, pre-feudal realm. Formally a swampy realm made of the legends of the lizardfolk, Camelot C is currently ruled by a king in cast-off Roman armor, hardened and scarred by a lifetime of war and strife. Artor's warlord Mordred (fighter 10) discovered a portal to another realm in a great oak tree, the place where Artor had crucified Merlinus decades before. Passing through, he discovered another Camelot, a brighter place. Rushing back, he told the king, who rallied his armies for one final war. Camelot would conquer Camelot.

Camelot D

This Camelot is bright, green place with perfect weather and happy people sustained by the reclaimed Holy Grail. The loving couple Arthur and Guenevere personify the ideal marriage. Tristan and Isolde, their friends, are just as happy and even Lancelot has found a love of his own. The kingdom is unified, the saxons peacefully integrated and contributing their own knights to Camelot's tourneys. Camelot D is at war with Camelot C.

Camelot E

Camlot E has also been invaded, but not by anything human. This great citadel, a shining tribute to the wealth and glory of Britain, has been infiltrated by a shapeshifting bird-creature called a merlin. Normally appearing as a small hawk or a man with a hawk's head, a merlin can transform itself into anything it wants. What it wants are the souls and magic of Camelot, which it will bring back to its otherplanar nest to feed itself and its young.

A related creature, a crow-like being called a morgan, has been attracted by the merlins' activity. The morgans have begun their own invasion, but their purposes are obscure. Sometimes they remain in bird form and utter prophesies, sometimes they steal magic, and sometimes they mate with mankind.

The merlins, who enjoy preying on the morgans, often take human form (young, old, male, female) and alert the humans around it to the morgans' identy in rhyming couplets. It relies on humans to force their rivals to transform, then it swoops down and eats the scavenger.

Camelot F

Camelot F trades with Camelots G and H. The Saxons of Camelot F have been infiltrated by the Tacharim, an Outlandish organization who seek to sieze the land for their own prophet and the profit of their group (their prophet is John Lake, a Xaositect thrown out of his faction for selling out a Big Boss to the Mercykillers. He was reinstated the next week, but by then he was riding with the Tacharim, uttering phrases from his inner well of chaos, all of which the Tacharim have caused to come true).

The Arthur of this realm, a half-bariaur creature looking like a white-wooled satyr, has forged an alliance with the dwarfs of Camelot G and is currently working out a deal with Queen Mordred of Camelot H, the daughter of the Arthur of that real. Queen Mordred insists that Sir Bedwyr be given to her as a hostage, something Arthur is reluctant to do.

Camelot G

Most of the Knight of the Round table are less than four feet tall. They seem human, a strong impression that their height is artificial, the price they pay for an alliance with the fey courts. The knights of theis Camelot are mighty warriors, with a strength and speed beyond that of a full-sized human. Many of the knights are now in Camelot F, fighting the Saxons and the Tacharim.

Camelot H

Queen Morded slew her father, Arthur, at the Batle of Camlann with a spear blessed by the Unseelie Court. Arthur had been a cruel king, treating his enemies without mercy and sleeping with his own half-sister, and Mordred is little different except that she seems even more successful in battle. Briton under the reign of this warrior-queen receives tribute from both Jutland and France.

Camelot I

Camelot I has, for seven hundred years, had a very odd tradition. Upon the death of its King Arthur, their Merlin and his circle of acolytes use divination spells to find a new one. The knights of the Round Table gallop through Merlin's portal, find the Arthur, abduct him (or her), and force him to ascend the throne as their leader. The Arthur is generally a figurehead; the real power lies with Merlin and the council of knights. The current Arthur is very old; he had come from a Camelot in which Lot is king of the Britons (Camelot J), because he had been too cowardly to pull the sword from the stone. He was in his forties when Merlin found him. He is in his seventies now, his young queen Miriam already dressed in black. Merlin has located a new Arthur in Camelot K, though, and it won't be long.

Camelot J

This is a dead Camelot. Its Arthur was abducted by knights from Camelot I thirty years ago and King Lot wasn't strong enough an archetype to prevent the land from crumbling into the Astral Plane. Now it is only one lonely, fossilized castle tumbling in the silver void like a dead god. However, it is structurally sound and contains enough energy to attract the githyanki.

Zael Ral, a githyanki knight, is leading a party of gith warriors, intending to settle this Camelot and use it as a base of operations and a source of power. Most of its power is locked in a sword in the castle's courtyard, the one Arthur never pulled out of its stone. The githyanki can't pull it out either; only Arthur can. Fortunately, the githyanki diviners have located a humanoid with the correct dharmic patterns in a nearby color pool: the Arthur of Camelot K.

Camelot K

Arthur is a young boy, foster-son of Sir Eckert but shunned for his odd eyes, pure gold with no division of parts. One day a man comes to the keep, neither young nor old but with eyes matching Arthur's own. He demands that the boy be turned over to his care, which the old knight, eager to be rid of the troublesome boy, eagerly does.

After only three days with the man, the boy is rushed out of the cabin that was their new home. *Something* has attacked the keep, rendering it to rubble. The man with golden eyes teaches the boy with golden eyes how to shapeshift and hide.

A mixed metaphor:

This Camelot is a chessboard upon which one entity plays. Gathering archetypes from a magical loom that sorts conduits from a thousand worlds, he has acquired the ability to make himself a Camelot. This he does, and in it he fathers, in various disguises, Merlin, Morgan le Fey, the Fisher King and Arthur. Soon the beginnings of the story take root.

Now others are interfering in the entity's perfect game. Githyanki have invaded, destroying Sir Eckert's keep, and wizards from someone else's Camelot have opened a gate. This is intolerable! The entity cannot interfere directly without upsetting the game's already threatened balance; if Arthur or any of the other pieces are pushed too hard, the archetypes could unravel, spilling the whole realm into the Astral.

In desperation, the entity has woven some golden-eyed Ladies of the Lake (which it otherwise wouldn't have needed for some time) and sent them to find some heroes in other lands to safeguard his Arthur and save the game.

Camelot L

The Holy Grail has been found; all the knights have ascended to Heaven. It seems the agathinia are greatly excited by the prospect of a Camelot to inspire them, and now they have one.

The knights of Camelot L are equivalent to einheriar, exalted souls who work directly with the warriors of Heaven to combat evil and injustice. The heavenly Camelot is a much-expanded facility with great golden walls and room for celestials and einheriar alike. The ruler of this Camelot is Mikhail, a deva who has declared himself Pendragon. The knights answer to Galahad (Arthur, burdened by his sins, was left behind), but Galahad faithfully serves the celestials' will. Right now, their will is to fight the Saxon gods of Ysgard, whose Wotan has been making trouble for mortals under the agathinia's charge.

One band of celestials agains a half dozen gods isn't good odds, but the Saxon deities are annoyed enough that they're strongly considering getting a Camelot of their own to deal with the problem for them. To this end, Wotan has been feeding prophesies to John Lake in Camelot F, hoping he will put the Saxons in charge there. Afterwards, there will be a grand quest for a golden ring that Wotan has placed in some nearby mountains, guarded by a dragon, a giant, a valkyrie and a wall of fire. Capturing the ring should activate a curse that kills everyone, after which their souls should make excellent einheriar warriors for the Saxon gods.

Rip Van Wormer

"That's not the question, dearie," Enid said. She smiled maliciously. "The question is, what story are you in? The chains of myth have already started to wrap themselves around you. Just a few more journeys to the World Below and you'll be trapped, caught for good. You'll go in so deep that you can't get out. You'll repeat the same actions over and over again, in accordance with whatever character you've become. Whatever free will you once had will be gone."
-- Lisa Goldstein, Dark Cities Undergroound