Darlene the Artist

Ever since I re-entered the RPG world, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the wonderful response I’ve received from fans who’ve written to tell me how much they’ve appreciated my art work throughout the years.

I also appreciate all those people curious enough to place an order when I first offered to sell what is left of my original 1980s stock of JASMINE: The Battle for the Mid-Realm™ Collector card games. And double thanks to those of my friends who took the time to help me understand the value and uniqueness of my playing cards. I must admit, I’ve not thought about Jasmine in years. But now, I’m starting to appreciate the story more and more.

People have also been curious enough to inquire how it was I came to develop a role-playing card game. So it is that I reveal the story behind the Story behind the card game…

Every evening for three years, beginning in 1977, I “received” fascinating plot fragments of characters interacting with each other within the land of the Mid-Realm. I would drift off to sleep being visited by a wondrous non-linear narrative. Story scenes came to me “unstuck in time,” as Billy Pilgrim (a character from Slaughter House Five) would say…

After thirty years, I can barely remember the particulars of this vast story, one that took up a huge chunk of my young adulthood dream time. In 1979, I began to record the particulars of this epic account on notepads or whatever scraps of paper was at hand. I still have them–the dialog, action an plot lines along with notes about the history, motives, and secret agendas of the characters.

I was finally able to sense of everything when I could follow the threads of the different characters interacting with each other throughout different stages within their timelines. With an appreciation of how the epic story puzzle fit together, I could finally coalesce the many story fragments dancing around in my head into a narrative.

THE STORY

The story begins with the King of UR who dotes upon his only child, a headstrong princess who refuses to obey her father’s wishes to unite his Kingdom with another through marriage. The King’s daughter has been manipulated through the magic of the dark prince Bardulf. This cunning and deceitful prince lusts after the Kingdom of UR and is in the midst of a plan to wrest control. The last part of his plan involves the risk of entering the princess’ terraced gardens at night.

Jasmine is lured out into the beautiful moonlight by a peculiar sound. She is surprised to behold a beautiful miniature dragon! As she stares at the small but captivating creature, she hears a melodious voice, at first faint, like the wind, then getting louder and louder in her ear. The seductive voice tells her the dragon is tied to a ring. And whosoever wears this ring would enter a world of beauty beyond compare.

By the time she realises there is a man attached to the voice, he has already convinced her to put on the ring. And as he slips it on her finger, he also places there, a spell. Jasmine will not be able to remove the ring of her own accord. Nor will anyone who does not know the secret of the ring to be able to command it. His first objective achieved, Bardulf leaves but not before bidding her meet him at a certain place three days hence.

Thus, it comes to pass that Bardulf clouded the mind of the Princess who left the safety and protection of her castle home to travel to a barren part of the countryside.

(This is where the narrative begins that was published in The Dragon Magazine beginning in May, 1980.)

Jasmine’s small group of retainers and guards have misgivings regarding the journey there princess is suddenly undertaking, but she is oblivious to their protestations. The countryside she sees is breathe-taking and beautiful. What she and the readers doesn’t realise (and won’t know until the end) is that the “ring” upon her finger is actually a fairy-crown and that what she is actually seeing is the fairy-realm which co-exists on an unseen plane tangential to the Mid-Realm.

Meanwhile, the dark prince, Bardulf, the hated master of deceit and treachery along with a small band of henchmen, awaits her arrival at the rendevous point. His plan to take her captive and claim the Kingdom of UR through marriage was unfolding nicely. Everything is going according to plan, except for he didn’t know about one thing: the power of the ring’s spell is diminished by water.

Anyone under the influence of the faery-ring who looks into the reflection of a body of water, will be able to return to the reality of the Mid-Realm. So while crossing the river, Jasmine suddenly perceives a barren landscape. She stops the caravan before reaching the rendezvous point.

The prince impatiently launches a premature attack. During the attack, the princess falls into the river. Becoming wet further diminishes the ring’s influence. The Princess of UR tries to flee the scene but gets swooped up by a rider. During her ride, she falls from the horse into a thorny grove.

Instead of her skin being pierced, her fall is cushioned and she is suspended by an instantaneous sprouting of a bounty of little white star flowers. The thicket becomes blanketed with the proliferation of small white blooms. Just as suddenly, little gnome-like people emerge from underground and quickly take her down into a secret cavern. They bow and tell her they are honoured to be in her presence. For they have been were waiting for the sudden blooming of the star flowers, a signal of her coming. Sixteen years before, a wizard had placed his spirit into the Jasmine plants at the opening of the Crystal Caves and bid the gnome people to tend the plants and look to the day when they bloomed. It is at this point that the princess becomes known as “Jasmine.”

The Keepers of the Knowledge and Chroniclers of History were bid by the wizard to help the person whose purity of spirit caused the plants to bloom. Then they recognise the ring upon her finger.

The story, as published, will be continued… but first, I’ve got some interesting things to show you that I’ve recently rediscovered.

Some of the original Jasmine Story Fragments:

The Cast of Characters, Name Derivations and Motivations

The Story of Jasmine’s Mother, the Sun Nymph Aour

This page has the following sub pages.

• The Cast of Characters, Name Derivations and Motivations
• Story of Jasmine’s Mother