The Ursulan Cycle
The Arthurian Cycle or the Matter of Britain is a massive sprawl of stories, poems and songs, plays, movies, paintings, embroidery, and other cultural material spanning centuries. The heroes are male, furnished with an assortment of heroines for love interests and occasionally antagonists. The leading themes are political intrigue, tragic romance, adventure, and religion.
Dreamwidth user dialecticdreamer posted an essay about genderbending and what storylines would work in that context. I allowed as to how if I were doing this, I would "aim at young women professionals and grrlgeeks: a crowd with money burning a hole in their pockets, and frustrated by the dearth of interesting female characters. And then I'd genderbend, oh, something rogueish and colorful like Robin Hood, King Arthur, The 7 Samurai, etc." So then Dreamwidth user clare_dragonfly wanted to see the genderbent King Arthur, and so did some other folks. I started playing around with names and pretty soon I had a cast of characters, some plot sketches, and other cool stuff. This meta description in my original post also fills the "genderswap" square in
my 6-10-14 card for the fanbingo fest.
Characters
Meet the people of this setting.
Plot
These are some of the major storylines.
Macguffins and Magnetic Plot Devices
Explore some objects that people like to chase.
Content
Read some fiction and poetry.
Dreamwidth user dialecticdreamer posted an essay about genderbending and what storylines would work in that context. I allowed as to how if I were doing this, I would "aim at young women professionals and grrlgeeks: a crowd with money burning a hole in their pockets, and frustrated by the dearth of interesting female characters. And then I'd genderbend, oh, something rogueish and colorful like Robin Hood, King Arthur, The 7 Samurai, etc." So then Dreamwidth user clare_dragonfly wanted to see the genderbent King Arthur, and so did some other folks. I started playing around with names and pretty soon I had a cast of characters, some plot sketches, and other cool stuff. This meta description in my original post also fills the "genderswap" square in
my 6-10-14 card for the fanbingo fest.
Characters
Meet the people of this setting.
Plot
These are some of the major storylines.
Macguffins and Magnetic Plot Devices
Explore some objects that people like to chase.
Content
Read some fiction and poetry.
Open Source Fandom
Derived from the ancient Arthurian Cycle, the Ursulan Cycle is an open-source fandom.
This means that everyone is welcome to come play in the sandbox. Use the background materials to get started. Given the nature of legendary content, you can change character traits, refract plotlines, etc. as desired. This also makes the project ideal for crossovers if you like creating fanworks. Contributors are encouraged to share and share alike. Collaborations are welcome. All media are fine.
What's so cool about this? Think about how some fandoms become a huge part of culture, such as Star Trek. When the core content belongs to everyone instead of private interests, it's possible to have even more cool stuff. The Arthurian Cycle is public domain; the background material for the Ursulan Cycle is open source; individual works (poems, stories, artwork, etc.) belong to their respective creators so rights may vary.
DOs
DON'Ts
For those of you who don't read German, the illustration says "Free work for a free society." The sun in the background shows part of the Creative Commons sign.
This means that everyone is welcome to come play in the sandbox. Use the background materials to get started. Given the nature of legendary content, you can change character traits, refract plotlines, etc. as desired. This also makes the project ideal for crossovers if you like creating fanworks. Contributors are encouraged to share and share alike. Collaborations are welcome. All media are fine.
What's so cool about this? Think about how some fandoms become a huge part of culture, such as Star Trek. When the core content belongs to everyone instead of private interests, it's possible to have even more cool stuff. The Arthurian Cycle is public domain; the background material for the Ursulan Cycle is open source; individual works (poems, stories, artwork, etc.) belong to their respective creators so rights may vary.
DOs
- Read the background materials for inspiration. Think about how that stuff overlaps with your personal interests.
- Ask for things. Contributors may have prompt calls or other activities where you can request specific characters or storylines from the Ursulan Cycle.
- Write. Draw. Make music. Create stuff using whatever imaginative or craft skills you have.
- Learn how to collaborate. Team up with other creative folks.
- Share whatever you make. You can do that for free, for trade, or for money. Consider crowdfunding as a possible business model if profit interests you.
- For licensing, think about Creative Commons, which gives you flexibility for marking which rights you wish to release or keep to yourself.
- Let me know that you've created something for The Ursulan Cycle. It's not required, but this allows me to link to it so more folks can find it.
- Be chivalrous to each other.
DON'Ts
- Falsely claim that someone else's work is yours.
- Alter someone else's work without their permission.
- Make money from someone else's work without their permission.
- Harrass fellow contributors and fans, or otherwise act like a churl.
For those of you who don't read German, the illustration says "Free work for a free society." The sun in the background shows part of the Creative Commons sign.
