The Dwarves, Halflings and Gnomes are common enough in the city. Even the occasional elf leaves the forest to explore the urban jungle. And yet, there is always a sense that there are far more non-humans in and around #Twitterville than anyone realises.

Rumours of #Underville, a city under a city, suggest that some of the dark races may be closer than the human rulers suspect. What secrets can found under Lake #Twitterville? There are occasional sightings of Merefolk and Lizardfolk so anything could be found in those depths.

Writing Challenge: Anything Non-Human

This week’s Twitter writing challenge is to write about the intelligent non-humans who live in, under and around the city. It can be about individual non-humans or the entire races. Describe their homes, their gods, their dreams and their fears. All in 140 characters.

Here are my first two

Though not many will admit to it, many workers in the tanneries of #Twitterville look like they have orcish blood in them.

A tribe of Merefolk farm fish in the depths of Lake #Twitterville. They sell the fish to river Halflings who sell it to traders in the city.

To take part in the writing Challenge, make sure you are following 6d6Fireball on Twitter and get writing. But remember to include the #Twitterville tag in each message.

People, business, guilds, countries and races can all be rivals in pursuit of the same goal. Sometimes this is for power or money, occasionally it might be for love but generally it simply to prove themselves better than the other guy. Rivalry drives people and countries to war, to greatness and to great tragedy.

#Twitterville is full of rivals.

The different merchant guilds of the Golden Scale and The Silver Balance Union maintain a good natured commercial rivalry. Whereas the fight between the Wizards Guild and the M.L.F. is soaked in blood and bitterness. But what of relations between the Cloak and the Daggers Thieves’ Guilds?

Humans and Elves have long competed for the same land. Dwarves, Minotaurs, Orcs and Goblins all live in the same areas of the mountains. Areas where resources are scarce.

The gods compete for the souls of men. Their temples promise greater happiness or power than their rivals. Some gods are driven underground by the more successful priests and some like the Dragon Cult are hunted to extinction.

This week’s challenge is to create or expand on the rivalries found in the city and surrounding lands. They can be the rivalries that shape land or petty, even fun, rivalries between neighbours. But at the heart of each of there will be individuals to whom the thought of beating their opponents drives them forward. Tell us about these people, tell us about their desires, tell us about their rivals.

• The Iron Brotherhood mercenries.
• The Drovers Guild – if you need goods moving, you need this guild and its headstrong boss
• The Golden Scale, not the biggest merchants guild but the most trusted
• The Brotherhood of Kasba control the spice trade …
• … and what is their connection to the The Sangoria Clan?

We also learnt more about …

• The Dragon Cult
• The Sword Brigade
• The Reaching Palm
• The Wizards Guild
• Unsolved Murders
• The M.L.F.

Thank you every for taking part. A new challenge tomorrow.

Not all magic is controlled by the guild. We learnt about the magic of the primitive races as well as Minotaurs and their Blessed Art. Hints of strange Eastern magic used Ashas. There is also a Magic Liberation Front and strange band of Silent Arcanists with an unknown agenda.

There were hints of the mysterious Underville, a city under a city and the magical desires of the nomadic The Halflings of #Twitterville suggest there is something going on beneath the lake. Rumours about the Psions of #Twitterville also appeared.

The sinister side of magic took shape in The Dark One and some Unsolved Murders. The positive side was also revealed in Hogarth the Cleric and we learnt more about the strange magically case of the Taunting Smith Blacksmiths.

Spreading #Twitterville over the week has been a great help, at least for me. It has given more time to think up ideas and to bounce off other people’s ideas as well. In future #Twitterville will run constantly with the weekly challenges being announced on a Tuesday and the round-up on the following Monday. If you have a great idea for a tweet to a previous week’s challenge, do not be shy and sending it anyway. All tweets will be sorted and threaded regardless of when they arrive.

Check out the full list of Week 8 tweets and a new challenge starts tomorrow.

#Twitterville is a fantasy city in a fantasy world where magic is very real but how does it show itself? Magic can be expensive, the reserve of the rich, leaving the poor to struggle on without it. Or it could be so cheap, even beggars can afford to use it. This makes a huge difference on the city. If magic is cheap, light stones would fill the streets and death from disease or injury would be rare.

There is also the question of control. Does anyone restrict the supply and use of magic? Arcane powers can be profitable and a threat to those in authority. Guilds and governments both have an interest in limiting the use and availably of magic. Magic take many forms as well and these can be treated differently. White magic versus dark magic, witchcraft versus the power of the gods, wild or untrained magic versus the discipline of guild magic. All these conflicts play themselves out on the streets of #twitterville.

Then there are lost magics. Items and spells from previous times and other races that are buried in tomes or practiced only in the remotes parts of the mountains. Old magic may have left its scars on the physical world. Strange, perverted creatures left from a mad wizard’s experiments or dead zones where nothing can live after a mage war.

Putting magic, in any shape or form, is this weeks #Twitterville challenge.

Taking Part

Normal rules apply. Make sure you are following 6d6 Fireball and that your tweets include the #twitterville and the system will take care of everything else. All you need to do is be creative in the 140 characters of a twitter message.

A Week Long Challenge

Originally #Twitterville started out as a one-day challenge and I’ve kept to that model so far. This week I’m trying something different and the challenge will going on all week. Rather than sending a lot of tweets on the Tuesday, I will be creating a steady flow over the next five or six days. There is nothing to stop you focusing your efforts in one burst of creativity but the challenge runs for a week so whenever an idea hits you, tweet it.

Getting Started

Here are a couple of tweets to start things off.

The ceremonial scepter of the 1st Lord of #Twitterville can magically open any door or lock within the city walls.

The #Twitterville Night Market is the place to buy and sell magical items without having to pay a fee to the Wizards Guild.

New threads this week.

• The History of #Twitterville
• The Dragon Cult
• Castle Hernmill
• The History #Lake Twitter

A bit of low number of responses this week and I think that was to do with the subject. As I found creating my entries history is hard to distill into 140 character bites. It needs more thought and planning that the average tweet. This is a useful reminder of the core idea of #Twitterville – a a creative writing exercise you can do anywhere. In setting the challanges I need to keep this in mind.

What is #Twitterville’s history?

Humans have lived on the shores of Lake #Twitterville for thousands of years. How many times has the city of #Twitterville been rebuilt after fires or floods? Is it even in the same place as it used to be? What of the Elves, Dwarves, Halflings and other humanoid races of the region? Have they lived here for millennium, watching human cities rise and fall? What race wars have wracked the region over the years and what external threats have brought them together?

History is not always about the big events, sometimes it is about the people. The Explorer who opens up trade routes and the geologist who discovers new mines can have a far great impact on history than a hero or a general. The names of these people is often lost but it sometimes gets remembered in the name of a village or on an old worn statue.

Not all history is ancient and recent events often seem more important than ancient battles or alliances. Murders and royal scandals, lost expeditions and border wars, superstar entertainers and powerful politicans. These are the ingredients of the history being made everyday.

This Week’s Challenge

Create a history for the city and the people that surround it. It can be recent history or way back in the mists of time. Look at the current city and ask yourself how is the people and places of the current city been shaped by their past.

The usual rules apply. Anything goes as long as you can fit in the 140 character limit of Twitter and remember to include the #Twitterville tag.

New contributors, don’t forget to start following 6d6 Fireball before you tweet, otherwise Twitterville.org won’t be able to pick your tweets up.

And here are a couple of tweets to get things going.

The fertile shores of Lake #Twitterville drew the first human settlers to the area 10,000 years ago.

At first the Elves ignored the humans, thinking of them as long lived animals. Only too late did they realise their mistake. #Twitterville

From bogeymen to frighten children to monsters hundreds will swear they have seen, all societies have things that go bump in the night. They stalk the dark streets, the empty wastes of the Steppes, the Elven forests and deepest corners of the Dwarven tunnels. Wherever they are, whatever they are, they all have one thing in common, they bring fear and terror.

Stretch your creative muscles and fill in the dark corners of #Twitterville with beasts of myth and legend. The only limit is the 140 character restriction Twitter places on you. As it has been a while since the last challenge, it might be worth reminding yourself of the locations in and around #Twitterville. Also have a look at some of the existing tweets. All nicely organised by Tag and by week.

Here is my first couple of tweets to get you started.

Elven children live in fear of Athusulia, a monster from the dark times that stalks the woods looking for children to feed on. #Twitterville

On Kungrope Way they whisper about the Dark One. Unwary girls who ply their trade with him are found face down in the Dyke. #Twitterville