A world lit only by fire

On my last post I mentioned the mini book-club that we're doing for class. Well the book that we ended up deciding on was A World Lit Only by Fire. I found the book in the school library and set off to read it. I haven't been able to finish the book but I've really enjoyed it so far. 

To help share this book I've decided to something a little different. Because the book talks so much about the dark ages, I thought I would try an idea that I got from our professors. I fished out a computer game called Oblivion, and started reading about how I could create my own world within it. The developers of the game have provided the code and tools to players to me able to create their own "mods" for the game. I took these tools and created my own scenario in the game. I put up my creation on a site where any player can share their mod, that way anyone with the game can try out what I've made. Here are a few screenshots of things I've been playing with. Not all of these are my own creations.

Because the book talks a lot about the evolution of religion during the period and the strong influence it had on society, I played around with trying to create the gothic, majestic feel that a lot of the churches had. The top picture shows a small monastery that reflects the culture. The second shot is a cathedral. It really amazed me how much the christian religion changed and evolved during this time, with all the different cultures influencing it in different ways.

 It was also really interesting to read that after the fall of the Romans, one of the biggest things that faded was the skill of brick-laying. While the Romans had built grand buildings and long highways, I learned that the only real brick or stone buildings after that were built were the cathedrals and churches. On the left is a shot of a simple house I worked on. I guess it never really clicked in my head how the dark ages happened after all the Romans and Greeks had done. I must have thought that it was much earlier than all that. Reading about it made me realize just how much society changed after these empires fell.

 The scenario I created puts the player into a growing story that sets them off in a short little adventure. This picture shows some of the settings I used for the story. While my little mod doesn't provide a whole lot of gameplay, I realized that there is so much you can do when working with these kinds of tools. Anyone with an imagination can create anything they wanted.

This last screenshot wasn't something I had made, but shows some of the beauty and diversity in this little world. I ran into this lady painting a picture of the gaming world she was in. She wasn't another person playing the game, she was just a character programmed to live her own life in the game. Someone told her she likes to paint, so that's what she does when the weather is nice!




Hopefully I'll be able to finish the book soon, and while this might not give you the best picture of what the book says, I hope you can get a feel for some of the impressions I have had from it so far. The book obviously got me thinking about the dark ages, and experimenting with this idea of modding, ironically has helped me feel the creative inventive power that had disappeared for a time during those years. 


Let me know what you think about all this. If you've ever tried modding or have learned anything interesting about the dark ages leave a comment!