Well, having chosen to use the mephit as the central character "voice" of my site, I still wanted to find a
decent literary title involving the mephit imagery. I had several good titles come to mind, but I realized
that all of those implied that my pages were going to be exclusively about the mephit. This is not true, as
the mephits are merely the guides to other information. So, I began to hunt around for famous quotes that dealt
with winged beings: angels, demons, birds, etc. I knew that I should be able to get a decent quote if I
just replaced the orginal creature with the word "mephit". Fortunately, I was actually able to accomplish this.
The title is a modification of the following quote:
"And there's a lust in man no charm can tame
Of loudly publishing our neighbour's shame;
On eagles' wings immortal scandals fly,
While virtuous actions are but born and die."
--Stephen Harvey (circa 1627), Juvenal, Satire ix
I chose this imagery primarily because I wanted to create a site that had more style and character than the previous incarnation of these pages. I also wanted something that, while fitting the setting, was fairly unique and fit my own warped personality and views on the setting. Eventually, I decided to tie all of my work together with the central theme of the mephit.
Why the mephit, and not some other Planescape creature? Two reasons, really. One being the fact that mephits are so much fun to play as NPCs in a game. Plus there is the added bonus that a smart party immediately cringes at the sight of a mephit and starts doing the mental gymnastics of trying to figure out what meaning the mephit has and who could have possibly sent them such a "gift". The other is that I knew the title would be unique. Everybody loves to kick around the mephit; almost no one would willingly dedicate a site to them - no matter how second-hand.
Finally, using the mephit image allows me to try and present my (and others') creations in a format much closer to that of the offical products from TSR. That is, written from the point of view of some one (or in this case, some thing) that lives in the setting. And, I get to excercise some of rusty role-playing skills by jumping back and forth between different, extreme personalities.
All of the published Planescape characters, character names, symbols and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Mention of these trademarked words, characters or concepts of TSR anywhere on these pages is not intended as a challenge of their ownership.
All other material here is original and copyright 1995-1997 by Ken Lipka, or copyright to other authors where noted. None of it is endorsed by TSR, and none of it is in any way "official".
Please see TSR's Internet Policy Page for more information on just how legal this site is.
This material is for personal use only and may not be published, altered, redistributed or posted on News Groups, Mailing Lists, Web Pages, FTP Sites or Bulletin Boards without the permission of the author... (that's me, Ken Lipka) unless otherwise noted. In other words:
PLEASE ASK ME BEFORE YOU POST THESE FILES ANYWHERE!
I have implied permission from Tony DiTerlizzi himself to use the scans of his mephit pictures on this web site. I say implied because when I was first redoing the pages to deal with the mephit, I contacted him about doing some comission work for the pages. Tony was unfortunately too busy to be able to do such work. But, he did direct me to look at the Monstrous Compendium to some mephit pictures. Since I did say I wanted to put the art on a web site, I am taking this note from Tony as implied permission to use his art. I will replace these images with originals if Tony's schedule ever frees up enough for him to do some work for me.
This site has been designed with 16-Bit color and 1024x768 resolution (although, in most cases, you should be able to slip by with 800x600). It has been designed for optimal use with an IBM-PC or Clone using Netscape Navigator/Communicator version 3.0 or higher. (4.0+ yields best results.) It makes extensive use of the following 'special effects': Frames, JavaScript, and the "offical" Planescape fonts, known as Visitation and Exocet.
Any resemblance between the views on these web pages and those of my employer, my internet provider, my terminal, or the view out my window are purely coincidental. Any resemblance between the above and my own views is non-deterministic. The question of existence of views in the absence of anyone to hold them is left as an exercise for the reader. The question of the existence of the reader is left as an exercise for the second god coefficient. (A discussion of non-orthogonal, non-integral polytheism is beyond the scope of this disclaimer.)
WARNING!!
The contents of this page may prove offensive to social democrats, liberals, socialists, the kinder,
the gentler, the gullible, the innocent, government workers who feel that neo-platonic catfish crisis management
consists of a worthwhile use of public funds, ministers of cultural identity, national cohesiveness and poodle
sculpture, members of the pony express riders union local 216, who have been locked out since August 14, 1877,
unwed fifteen-year old moms with three or more children, sticker-shock councellors and the recipents of
government grants for underwater ballet. At least, I certainly hope so.
Seamless Backgrounds by Infinite Fish
Amber's Free Art Site
Web ProviderFinally, after maintaining this site for about a year or so, I've finally gotten around to making a reasonable-looking banner that people can use to link to my site, rather than plain text. Why did I finally do one? Honestly, I never planned on making one until someone asked to make one for me. I said yes, and they did. And, while it was good, it really wasn't the style I had in mind. So, I spend a long weekend and made one I was happy with. That preferred banner is below...
The original one which prompted me to make my preferred version was created by Darin Tellinger. In all fairness, I make it available to view here. Of course, I'd prefer it if you all used the one that I made. :)
Apart from the obvious debt I owe TSR, Inc. for creating the setting in the first place, the other people
I need to acknowledge are the players of my gaming group. For without them, I wouldn't have created (nearly)
any of this material. In addition to providing an excuse to create, they've helped me refine some of my
ideas, as well as coming up with quite a few of their own.
Another round of thanks goes to Jon Winter, maintainer of The Mimir. His site is the one which inspired me to finally create a web site and compile all of my creative efforts in one place. Jon and I have also traded ideas back and forth, as well as provided criticism on one another's web pages. Also, Jon helped me out by scanning a few of my maps for me, before I had access to a scanner of my own. A fine bloke, he is.
The last bit of thanks I want to hand out goes to the creators, maintainers, moderators, and members of the PLANESCAPE MAILING LIST. This e-mail list serves as a decent place to discuss ideas, get questioned answered, and spark a few ideas as well. If you're a real fan of the setting, I'd recommend joining it (but only in Digest mode; it's fairly high traffic).
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