Yesterday a large poster tube arrived. My wife had bought me a print of one of my favourite pieces of art, “Mirador” by Rodney Matthews. The print is signed and is one of the coolest presents I’ve ever been bought.
The art has a deeper resonance for me, however, and is more than a simple painting.
When I was a teenager and first took interest in Saxon re-enactment, the guy who ran the local group was a Magnum fan. This artwork graced the cover of the first album I bought by that band – Mirador – and deeply inspired my roleplaying hobby too.
The song “Great Adventure” was archetypal for my teenage mind. Combined with the artwork by Matthews, the song transported me to a fantastic land where a long-fallen empire was now buried beneath drifting snows. This was a primal place, a realm of rising magic in which humanity was taking its first steps.
Receiving the signed print triggered something in me – a memory of that place, if you will – and yesterday I began to imagine it as a realm for roleplaying. I grabbed by copy of the Mythras Core Rules and created a character. I’m not yet sure whether this is simply a one-off moment of solo play or something more… but the art has inspired something primal.
Something like the land of Mirador.
