[UA] London and later, Europe and beyond

[Robert Rossney]

London:

I think that the spot on Threadneedle Street where the Great Fire
started would have considerable mystical significance.  The London Stock
Exchange.  Winston Churchill's enormous red shelter suit, currently
residing at the Imperial War Museum.  (Whose displays contain, or could
contain, a wealth of artifacts that cliomancers and dispomancers -- a
canteen that survived Ypres? -- would love to get their hands on.)  Any
of the various locations in Whitechapel where Jack the Ripper's victims
met their ends.  (And you should read Alan Moore's _From Hell_, if you
haven't, because damn, that's a scary piece of work.)  The park bench
under which Kim Philby dropped microfilmed documents to his Soviet
control.  There are shops all along Charing Cross Lane that could
contain books that bibliomancers might kill for.  Speaker's Corner in
Hyde Park is a great place for someone to go and tell the truth without
the Sleepers killing him for it.  The whole concept behind _Gravity's
Rainbow_ - the random distribution of V2 strikes across London having a
deeper significance, representing "a secret order beyond the visible" --
that's very very UA.  So too is the Underground itself -- if you don't
believe me, do a Google search on "Mornington Crescent," which is funny
but also, in a weird way, magical.  The crosswalk across Abbey Road in
which John Lennon didn't actually get hit by a car and die.  And then
there's the ball atop the pole at the observatory at Greenwich, that
drops at exactly noon GMT every day so that all the ships in the Thames
can set their chronometers to the True Time, even now.

Paris:

The catacombs, definitely.  The Ile de France, where the Parisii built
the settlement that eventually became Paris.  The number of
(potentially) mystical artifacts to be found in the vast chaos that is
the Marche des Puces (the flea market) is staggering.  Any of the
streets Belmondo and Seberg walk down together in _Breathless_.  Even
better would be the studio -- or equipment -- used by the Lumiere
brothers for the first movies.  Contemplate what happened to the old
order of Paris when Napoleon III had Hausmann construct the enormous
broad boulevards through the city's old neighborhoods.  Or consider what
balance got upset by the construction of the massive (and massively
ugly) Tour Montparnasse.  The great dome of the Galeries Lafayette, the
ground-level center of Parisian (and global) fashion.  The scale models
of the Opera house and the Opera *district* that are in the Musee
d'Orsay, so intricate and detailed that they seem to come out of a
Borges story.  The antiquities in the basement of the Louvre, like the
massive bas-reliefs that Napoleon's troops looted from Perseopolis,
could have all kinds of mojo associated with them and probably do.

Spain:

The Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona.  This may be the most significant
mystical artifact in any city on earth.

Italy:

I haven't been to Italy, but it seems to me that a UA GM who can't turn
Sienna's Palio into a session (if not a campaign) ought to try his hand
at something less demanding.  You have brilliant costumes of great
historical importance, centuries-old rivalries being symbolically
resolved, an entire city absorbed by one ritualistic activity, and in
the heart of it a hard-fought, sometimes violent, and always dangerous
horse race.  Also, there's the Vatican's (rumored) great repository of
confiscated erotic art.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu 
> [mailto:ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu] On Behalf Of DL
> Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2002 9:34 AM
> To: ua at lists.uchicago.edu
> Subject: [UA] London and later, Europe and beyond
> 
> 
> Hi guys,
> 
> Well, im running a UA campaign that will cover a good piece 
> of the earth, eventually. And by now, the characters are on 
> London (last session was cool! With golems, proxy, a Dark 
> Stalker avatar close to become de next Godwalker, etc). So, 
> any tips of cool places in London. Places with great history 
> significance in a mistical sense?
> 
> And in other parts of Europe, like France, Germany and Spain? 
> Greece and Turkey will be served later also....
> 
> and moving more to the east...nice suggestions for Russia and 
> Middle East places?
> 
> Thanks for any help. I really preffer "personal impressions", 
> than just browse the internet or any of the encyclopedias i 
> have at home. :)
> 
> Haroudo Xavier
> ICQ 1504427
> www.geocities.com/hasfix
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> UA mailing list
> UA at lists.uchicago.edu http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua
> 
> 


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