Random Kingdom and the Power of Playfulness

In a time before time, in the primordial soup of galactic chaos, the first life was born; spawned from the play and passion of the primeval elementals. Blooming into infinite forms, hues and brilliant flourishes, the spores of life spiraled into the universe in a cascade of beauty that overjoyed the siblings of creation. Across the cosmos, life settled, molded, became aware of itself, and learned to channel the divine magic encoded within its very molecules. Yet along with awareness of the self came awareness of that which was not the self, that which stood at odds, which was different, which was other. Some, not all, but enough, came to resent the existence of this other, or see in it the potential to seize greater power for themselves through domination, subjugation, and abjection. Along the path of seizing, divvying up, categorizing, and hoarding such might in the material plane, those who partook in greed and many of their victims lost touch with the only power that would not wither along with their transient bodies—the playfulness, the harmony, the love, which had birthed them in the first place and which revealed to them their birthright, to be free, as the children of the very stars.

How do we, the progeny of the mystic universe (re)discover the magic of our kindness, our ability to harmonize with the world around us, that which we once used to call our humanity? How do we come to once again dance with this earth and recognize that it is, or it can be, the very paradise we so often seek elsewhere? Gazing upon the banality and unyieldingness of the evils gripping our material world at this time, it is only natural that many would seek refuge in fantastical realms; in dimensions of wonderment and possibility, of the mystical and otherworldly, where the heavens speak and tyrants fall every day, where species—humanoid and otherwise—live in holistic symbiosis, where events of great transformation are possible through heroic might and magic, and where even the darkest night ends with a brighter dawn. More often than not, we envision playing in such planes an escape from the brutality of the oft-unjust world that our mortal bodies inhabit… but what if this is not all they are, or can be? We, the witches of the Random Kingdom, know the far realms of play beckon us to more than respite alone. Oases of recovery, healing and growth, these windows into the lands of make-believe are not mirages, but portals. These doorways invite us to step through their thresholds, dig hands into soils fertile for bringing the seeds of hope to bloom, and join in joyful communion with lands of imagination, where we may learn, once again, to make ourselves believe. We know from the very heart hammering in all of our chests that we can, we must, be better; for this earth, for the siblings we share on it, for one another, for ourselves. The power which Random Kingdom seeks to channel at the rise of each day is that of play; through which we may teach each other how to be. 
Random KingdomRandom Kingdom is a decolonial and intersectional feminist collective of interdisciplinary artists, game designers, writers, cyber-witches, druids, healers, lore builders, dungeon masters, bards, players, artificers, and dreamers of the day. With works, performances, and exhibitions spanning back over two years, our hybrid creative community bridges the gap between the fantastical and the real, the digital and the physical, the magical and the mundane, the artistic and the gamified. Our nonhierarchical and diverse community shares among our ranks an abundance of different skills, expertise, languages, backgrounds, feats, and personal goals.

From our unique standpoints we share a common vision: that fiction, and especially fantasy and role play can be powerful vehicles for change. We ask, what might we learn from playing in the gardens of fantasy worlds in which the wrongs of today have been righted, or never came to pass at all? We channel stories of liberation and justice, give voice and language to the silenced and abjected, and commune through celebration with the gifts of the earth from which we were birthed. Such acts of conjuration seek to align our plane ever closer to the emancipated worlds we see shimmering before us in the aether.

Standing for liberation, connection, and transformation through collective creation, exploration, and play, we seek to take the coarse grains of rage and despair flooding our hearts when we look at the world, and with an arcanist's focus and a witch coven’s collective love, alchemize this pain into pearls of healing. Through various crafts of worldbuilding, storytelling, digital and physical exhibition, rituals, facilitations, and multimodal conversations, we envision futures where food, water, and comfort are plentiful for all, worlds where color and fruity sweetness are everywhere and where softness is the norm, dimensions where the powerless find justice and miraculous transformations emerge. Such realms are not intended as mere escapes, but as quest markers for our own reality’s regeneration. 

If we are to free ourselves from cis-heteropatriarchal, profit-oriented, colonial paradigms of policing, alienation, and violent repression, we must accept the beautiful messiness offered to us in the magic of creative endeavor and authentic exploration. The confusion that collaboration of many complex minds brings forth, the chaos that can ensue from many cooks in the kitchen, is vital to non-hierarchical, socially liberating forms of organization. Navigating this plurality of thought and style while letting go of traditional structures is not easy, as many of us as designers and academics in highly individualistic and competitive workplaces have learned that success means to mold ourselves into cautious perfectionists. Yet the mystic realms of make-believe offer us new paths of (self)discovery to tread. We recognize that such strict pressures and expectations belong to the paradigms we are looking to outgrow. We recognize too that navigating our plurality without resorting back to hegemonic hierarchy is vital. To learn how to act otherwise, what if we acted as though we ourselves were otherwise? What if we embodied the roles we adopt not as humans in the 21st century, but by stepping into the skin of bestial guardians who care for the desert, or elemental beings who glide through the oceans, or dryads who nest within an ancient oak, or ogres who tend the garden of a bustling swamp? How may they act differently? How may our priorities, perspectives, and attitudes towards our chosen roles, towards each other, alter? If we agree that the unnatural and unrealistic structures of the realm we hail from are neither helpful nor healthy for the futures we seek to breathe into life, but know not how to change our habits to move past them, why not become creatures who never learned those habits? A nymph of the river knows not the 9-5. A school to them only refers to a group of fish. They have never heard of rent or taxes, have no need for a 401k or a mortgage or a sublet, yet possess endless wisdom on the most important topic of all—how to live—and how to share that life with all the birds and the fish and the reeds and the insects and the algae and the wanderers who inhabit the waterway with them. Fantasy worlds are full of examples of creatures who coexist together in messy plurality in manners so merry it stings the eyes to think about. By projecting ourselves into the crucible of roleplay, imagining ourselves as beings who possess the very traits we wish for, we can find ourselves on the other side molded into versions of ourselves better shaped to find those traits even when we take off the player’s mask. Afterall, we may learn that any character is always in truth an extension of ourselves, whose presence can impart learning if we let it.

Through such means, we have begun exploring play as a methodology in Random Kingdom. Through this act, we are freed from the expectation that everything we produce needs practical purpose. We strive to let go of the shame of being an amateur. We encourage each other to try out new roles, practices, and tools that we are drawn to, and in doing this collectively, without judgement or shunning, we reject the false idol of perfectionism and the toxic myth of the isolated, solo genius. We embrace instead what is obvious; that invention is actually the offspring of collective wisdom, that beauty springs from wildness, and that building futures that extend towards what we want, not just what we cognize as possible, requires honesty, unbound imagination, and collaborative make-believe. It is with this method in mind that we dove into our first-ever research residency that took place between June – August 2024: Queering Nature: The Quest.
Queering Nature: The Quest, Art and Game Design Research Residency  Queering Nature: The Quest was an experimental residency. The Quest unfolded in two distinct, yet related chapters. In Chapter 1: Ideation of the Quest, party members communed remotely through digital means to divine together what Queer Ecology looks like, and how it could be played, viewed, told in tales, and experienced. Regular participation in weekly meetings throughout the summer was crucial as we forged the foundations of a dream world, a crucible for creation and exploration. This arcane work formed the basis of Chapter 2: Playing the Quest, putting new ideas into praxis in a series of in-person workshops culminating in public exhibits and performances unfolding in the final sun kissed week of August. Structured for playful engagement between various visiting creators centered on the overarching topic of Queer Ecology, we collectively approached this quest by asking ourselves what Queer Ecology meant to each of us, and what worlds might be spawned from the machinations of minds tuned to a Queered lens. In this context, we use Queering to refer to a movement emerging from Queer Theory—to challenge the binary and hegemonic presumptions, hierarchies, and status quo that determine how each of us views, interacts with, categorizes, and positions ourselves against the world and the beings in it. Viewing the world instead through a lens of Queer Ecology; we sought a (re)kindling of our childlike wonder at the magic all around us in the world, a (re)discovery of inspiration to be found within it, driving our vision of more harmonious futures and alternate realities. By embracing fantasy, we empower our message through the human act of storytelling; which has kept communities together through disaster and doubt since the birth of our species. The only way humanity will ever collectively chart its way out of the death spiral it finds itself in is by finding a compass, a star in the dark to follow that brings us back home, back in a position of co-creation and custodianship with the earth that carries us. Our residency sought to join the effort of such pathfinding.

In close collaboration with the witches of Parisian collective Deathless Flowers and mystic druids of the Berlin-based collective LIOS Labs, our research residency brought together various participants from across the realms through digital augury, using both Discord channeling and opening portals through which to speak face to face on the Jitsi platform. Aimed at reinvigorating and breathing life into the creative, radical, playful spark of each and every participant of the residency, we helped one another explore and nurture emotional realness along with sharing tools, resources, projects, and ideas of artistic theory and praxis to imagine alternate worlds, futures, and forms of play, and how they may be interpreted in game worlds. 
The Residency’s LayoutOur quest was split into two chapters. In part one we envisioned what Queer Ecology meant to us, researched niches of interest relating to this topic, and envisioned how those could exist in the context of a videogame element, a LARP, or a workshop. In part two we looked to enact those findings in physical workshops.


Chapter One: Imagining the Quest The first was an online chapter from July to late August 2024 called Imagining the Quest. This chapter focused on us ideating on and playing with notions of what Queer Ecology meant to us, and what kinds of art, workshops, performances, play sessions, or game jams could be created to embody these notions.

We launched an open call on the summer solstice inviting participants to join. We received applications from 90 people, and we accepted every one of them to join our Discord server. Participants coming into the residency would self-assign into two different roles: Covens and Guilds, and those who wanted to practice LARP (live action role playing) as part of their process also embodied unique characters to help them get into their roles in the community. After a few weeks, six Research Labs were created to focus on a specific topic relating to Queer Ecology in a gaming context. The entire collective met every Monday night for a collective gathering, the Magical Cauldron and Potions Ceremony. This ceremony started with a guided sonic exploration and embodiment practice facilitated by the Coven of Facilitators (or as we called them, Druids). After this, we all shared about progress, insights, developments, or problems that had emerged in the last week, providing aid, advice, and resources as we connected on the cyber plane and wove our community together through discourse and encouragement.
CovensIn our residency, one’s Coven subgroup was chosen based on one’s current or desired skills, with Covens existing for narrative design and worldbuilding, game mechanics and development, sound design and music, cooking and food narratives, visual design and art direction, set design and space curation, and more. These Covens met at least once a week to support each other in their collective craft and work on side-quests tailored to them which supported the residency.
GuildsThe other novel structure created for this residency was that of Guilds. Guilds were more esoteric than Covens, calling upon the witchcraft that has been a part of our collective’s DNA since its inception. The Guild a person chose had to do with the kind of energy they brought to their work. We imagined these energies according to five elemental forces: water, earth, fire, air, and aether. Each of these forces was described in our materials according to certain traits and tendencies, and it was up to the participant to determine for themselves which element(s) they felt most connected to. 
LabsThe bulk of the research for the residency was conducted in Labs. Labs were pitched, voted upon, and joined by all participants of the residency, and were groups in which participants, regardless of Coven or Guild, collaborated to discuss, conceptualize, prototype, and create based a topic of their choosing related to Queer Ecology. Emerging from this research, each Lab hosted a workshop/game jam for their fellow residents at the in-person second chapter of the residency, and we offered the opportunity to exhibit or perform pieces based on this workshop at the final (public) event of the project on August 31st, 2024.
LARP (Live Action Role Playing) Anyone who has ever spent significant time roleplaying and embodying a character with specific goals, dreams, flaws and fears, be it in Dungeons & Dragons, the Witcher 3, or one’s local community theatre, knows how that experience can leave a profound impact on the way we interact with space and other beings—both while in-character and after the dice are packed away. It was with such impact in mind that Random Kingdom encouraged our participants to imagine and embody a character, a being whose personality and interests would inspire their interactions, ideas and creations, both in ideating the quest, and in enacting it in person through building the sets, performances, game jams, and stories to be told during the second chapter of the residency.


Chapter Two: Playing the QuestThe second, in-person chapter from August 26-31, 2024 (Berlin, DE) and October 6-12, 2024 (Marseille, FR) called Playing the Quest was intimately related to the first, with participants in the first section imagining together what kinds of workshops, game jams, performances, LARPs, games, etc. were to be played out in this second chapter; starting with invite-only workshops for collaborators, then culminating in a series of performances and exhibits also open to the public in the final day of the residency.

Sharing from my own experience during the Berlin stretch of the second Chapter, our group sought to find practices for non-hierarchical co-creation, with long-term members of Random Kingdom and new participants alike participating being given as much opportunity as possible to raise ideas, concerns, plans, or take the lead on projects. Throughout the week there were various events which put the reins temporarily into different member’s or group’s hands—morning community building facilitations by members of Lios Labs, noon interactive lunches of stunning, mindfully-sourced and -researched dishes from all over the world brought to scrumptious life by the Coven of Cooks, and the daily workshop of each Lab bringing forth the fruits of their research. The final day of the Berlin chapter ended in a series of public performances and exhibits, was housed within a gorgeous set crafted by our visionary Voven of Set Designers, and co-hosted with the Deathless Flowers. It brought together much of our external community and those who had never encountered Random Kingdom before, and though at points it came with unexpected challenges (which the magic of theatre ensured our audience never saw), it was an evening of wonderment, communion, and pure, embodied queer joy which left nary a dry eye in the house.

Each day of the physical residency in Berlin presented new moments for personal and communal exploration, growth, (un)learning, and (inter)personal connection. Speaking for myself, I began the first day nervous, insecure, somewhat tight in my proverbial shell, still carrying the weight and jaded cynicism of my usual academic working life with me. Thanks to the workshops and sessions, I shed layer after layer of this shell, recognizing them to be pieces of an armor I use to protect myself out in the world, yet also a rigid prison in which it is hard to breathe, to see, to feel deeply. Finding solace in the many hands that helped build the space that would be our short-term home, in the voices, ideas, and laughter of my delightfully queer temporary compatriots, in the gentle, comforting, steady gaze of this fleeting, chaotic, playful, beautiful family in which I found myself, I found courage to lower these walls. Together, we channeled fantasy and play to gently explore our pitfalls and wounds and shed our restrictive armor. As kin, we opened our hearts to the abjected beings of the earth whose symbiotic roles in rot, decay, and cycles of renewal sustain life. We expanded our senses to perceive the mysterious encrypted languages of the environment around us, whose sentience and intelligence we often miss, and played with mediums through which to share and celebrate its stories. It was a tremendously healing and enriching experience through which many memories, lessons, and connections were born. A week that was a lifetime in itself. 
The Role of Games Considering the role of games when discussing the existential future of humanity seems at first glance frivolous. However, on the flipside, is the impact of play really superficial? Games provide tools for community creation and cohesion, paradigms for interaction with environments and lenses for seeing spaces, frameworks for embodied storytelling, and platforms for the processing of complex emotions. Play is notably one of the core activities through which not just humans, but countless creatures with whom we share the world, experience, learn about, and achieve synthesis with their environment. This can happen by providing chances to build confidence through victory in overcoming great hurdles and redeeming past embarrassments, or in case of defeat, by offering avenues for reflection on miscommunications, self-centered behaviors, or moments of greed, arrogance, or oversight. These kinds of exploration of the self, the team, the other, and the living environment facilitated through the innumerable states of play already existing and yet to be made, are beyond measure. Whether wild or orderly, ancient or modern, digital or physical, solo or multiplayer, competitive or collaborative, the games we play prepare our hands, hearts, and minds for the works we create.

The playfulness inherent to the Queer and the Ecological flies in the face of capitalist realism. Random Kingdom recognizes play, the birthright of all children evolved of this earthly garden, as a unique rebellion, transcending cold colonial rationalism, capitalist profit seeking, and patriarchal dominance. Our very name comes from a vision to one day create a Land, an online, open-world fantasy multiplayer role-playing game community, in which all people no matter how outside the norm or eclectically connected, might convene and create new understandings of the material world and their place in it through embodied play and discovery in the game world… but that is a story still to unfold.

Though the residency is over, the forest path to new adventures lays open. If you, dear reader, desire to take your first misty steps into the unknown with us, we are but one message away. You need only reach out, friend, to enter our pearly gates. The utopias we wish are not possible in the mind alone dear one, they are works of embodied practice, of co-creation, of play. Join us, and together, let us see what futures we may shape into being in the sandbox. 

May your spirit find its true calling under the embrace of the sun and soft kiss of the moon. May your community branch ever outwards and bear luxurious fruit. May your heart radiate the love of the life-giving universe. 

Yours in devotion,

𝕽𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖔𝖒_𝕶𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖉𝖔𝖒.