Annotated 12-5
Had it been up to me, the Heads of Houses would not have grown very far beyond the pampered aristocrats we saw in Chapter 3: I felt like too much of them might slow the story down. Phil saw it very differently: he was always about adding more detail and texture. The Hall of Houses we ended up with is probably the best argument in the series for doing things his way.
Continuing a tradition I had established off the cuff, he generated an entire ruling class with names taken from semi-famous game designers. Not the big, big names, who might’ve been too distracting: there’s no Gygax or Wright or Meier here. But Dean Reynolds takes his name from Brian Reynolds, the lead designer on a lot of Meier properties and some of Zynga’s addictive “Ville” games.
Jon Van Caneghem, appropriately enough, made his game designing debut with Might and Magic. I wouldn’t read too far into these characters as a comment on their namesakes, though: neither Phil nor I were plugged into the video game industry enough to do more than these cute little nods.
Ah yes, this big blue room. That room sure is … blue.
Well, blue and gold are traditionally royal colors, so they seem appropriate for the chambers of the ruling council.
Do you have any idea how many smurfs it took to paint that place?
As laborers, you bloodthirsty fools.
The smurfs really put their sweat, blood and tears into painting that room.
Altruist propaganda. When Gastonia annexed the various villages of the Smurf tribes, knowing their bodies made for excellent blue dyes, they refused to return their warrior’s little bodies for burial. Instead they crushed and processed them to paint their once white marble hall.
Fifty Shades of Blue.
“We’ll always have Gastonia.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”
“In our memories, I mean.”
“We have spells for that.”
“Of all the council rooms in the world, he had to walk into mine”
In another corner:
“I am shocked, shocked to find out my colleagues are bigoted against non-humans” – “Your anti-gnomes pamphlets, sir, I just finished printed them” – “Oh, thank you”
“Arrest the usual dwarfs!”