Burrowowl

For years I’ve been sporadically writing up web content on a handful of subjects over in the webspace provided with my basic internet service account. Finally I decided to shift over to a new server in the same datacenter so I could poke around with precisely the behavior I want, beyond that afforded even by my previous server’s rather liberal CGI, shell, and .htaccess policies. It also affords me an opportunity to separate my personal website a bit from my work email address.

While I was at it, I decided to switch away from my old install of Movable Type and use a brand-new, super-spiffy WordPress platform instead. Why? Mostly because I never wanted to pay for my blogging software, and folks just aren’t developing for the old MT freeware. This presented a bit of a problem, as I didn’t want to abandon my old posts, and the WordPress.org tutorial on preserving permalinks is… not really applicable.

Enter the Apache mod_rewrite package. I send a big tip of the hat to ILoveJackDaniels.com for your Mod_Rewrite Cheat-sheet. You’re wonderful, whoever you are.

Though I generally consider the presence of Iosans and Rhul-folk (Elves and Dwarves, respectively) to be unnecessary hold-overs from traditional Dungeons & Dragons, sacred cows that few d20 publishers are willing to disturb, they do have somewhat interesting implementations in the Iron Kingdoms setting from Privateer Press. In keeping with high fantasy tradition, the Dwarves are excellent stoneworkers that worship a variety of foundry, forge, and masonry-related deities that are considered the great grand-pappies of their species.

Also in keeping with tradition, the Elves are an ancient, noble, refined, and slowly dying race that has outlived its usefulness in the world. Towards in end, the pantheon of the Iosan Elves consists largely of deities that simply no longer exist. They vanished a few hundred years ago, with only one surviving, though sickly, and possibly comatose, tended to by a worried flock. This ailing survivor, Scyrah, is pretty well-described in the published material, but the others, being effectively defunct, have received little official treatment. The following descriptions are courtesy of Douglas Seacat, Privateer Press writer, on an unofficial basis (any details here are subject to change later on).
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