“The pies sold in the Bankbezirk are full of rat and dog meat!”
– A pie seller in the Universität Bezirk revealing a dreadful secret while hawking his own premium pork pies.
WFRP: Die Volksoper
Die Volksoper Altdorf, or Altdorf People’s Opera, is a major opera house on Münzestrasse in the Werksviertel Bezirk. Some of my colleagues have expressed astonishment over the fact that there is so much interest in the opera, that such an alternative to the Imperial Opera House can exist and even thrive in the capital. But the truth is that one of the most popular pastimes of the Altdorf middle class is attending the Volksoper. Having spent time at the establishment itself, I am less surprised than my scholarly friends; the Volksoper offers fiery passion, blood-spurting violence, hilarious comedy and all this scored by some of the finest composers from history. The focus of the Volksoper is light entertainment, and its repertoire consists of opera, operetta and muscials.
Of course, this is seen as vulgar entertainment by the upper class and the pretentious cultural élite, but this bothers the clientele little, as the seats are sold out almost every night. Each season the Volksoper gives around three hundred performances of twenty productions, closing only during the hottest months of the year, as other open-air entertainments are more popular during those times. The Volksoper has 900 seats, and room for about as many standees.
The most famous plays that have been staged at the venue, and which are habitually restaged every couple of years are such masterpieces as;
“The Angry, the Happy, and the Watchman”, a tale of three mercenaries seeking the same gold treasure in the ruins of Mordheim.
“The Merry-Go-Round”, a farce set in Altdorf guild circles, with plenty of mistaken identities and pratfalls.
“The Bat”, a dark and violent tale of revenge and the mental decay of a noble turned vigilante.
Adolphus Altdorfer
Marktag, Vorgeheim 7, 2523 IC
WFRP: Painting Eternal Sin
After hearing that dreadful sermon where the accursed zealot painted such a vivid picture of the Kingdoms of Sin, the realms of torture reserved for all who sin against the pure and true order of the world, I have seen references to these dreadful lands crop up all over Altdorf. These are small references, a sculpture here, a gargoyle with a curious shape, a vegetable grown to a deformed size, it’s everywhere! And then I saw the painting. The dreadful painting. It’s simply called Primus, and shows the Fickle Judge presiding over the sinners, and in the far distance, the Kingdoms of Sin themselves.
I am loath to reveal the placement of this blight on our culture, but suffice it to say that I will talk to the University faculty to have it removed from our grounds, and burnt for the sin it depicts!
Adolphus Altdorfer
Bezahltag, Sigmarzeit 21, 2523 IC
Hieronymus Bosch was a painter of the bizarre and extraordinary, and as such, his paintings provide much inspiration for the WFRP world. Wikipedia gives us this summary:
Hieronymus Bosch; birth name Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken (c. 1450 – August 9, 1516) was an Early Netherlandish painter of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Many of his works depict sin and human moral failings. Bosch used images of demons, half-human animals and machines to evoke fear and confusion to portray the evil of man. The works contain complex, highly original, imaginative, and dense use of symbolic figures and iconography, some of which was obscure even in his own time.
A list of his works can be found here!
Magnus