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The Tékumel FAQ
If you’re looking for an answer to a specific question about Tékumel, this is the right place to start.
Information about this document
This is an introduction to the fantasy world of Tékumel by M.A.R. Barker. It is aimed at people who know little about Tékumel, but want to know more.
The latest and best version is always available on the web at http://www.weirdrealm.com/tekumel/tek_faq.html
. This version has been modified slightly for inclusion on this website (Administrivia removed and product listings consolidated on a separate page).
Brett Slocum has maintained the original FAQ since January 1994. If you have any suggestions for new FAQ questions, or if you discover any mistakes, or if you feel some additional info would help a FAQ question, or if you want to write up a FAQ question, feel free to suggest/correct/do it and send it to him (slocum@weirdrealm.com).
Last update: 06 September 2006
General
What is Tékumel?
What is Tékumel’s History?
Who is M.A.R. Barker?
What does ‘M.A.R.’ stand for?
What is the Thursday Night Group?
Game Products
What Tékumel products have been published?
Where can I get out of print materials?
What magazines have had Tékumel articles?
What Tékumel fanzines are available?
What happened with the TOME publications?
Where can I get Tékumel miniatures?
When will the third volume of the Sourcebook reprint be published?
When will the Swords and Glory Referee’s Handbook be published?
When will Mitlanyál be published?
I have $50 to spend. Which books should I buy?
Are any products available in electronic format (PDF)?
The New Game
When is the new game getting published?
What happened to Guardians of Order?
What will happen to the new game without a publisher?
Novels
What Tékumel books have been published?
Is the Professor writing the next novel?
Online Resources
Is there a web page for Tékumel?
Is there a Tékumel mailing list?
Miscellaneous
Do I have to use [insert rule system] to play a Tékumel game?
Are there any Tekumel game conventions?
General
What is Tékumel?
Tékumel is a fantasy world created by M.A.R. Barker and first published by TSR Hobbies in 1975. It was the first complete RPG setting published. Instead of the typical medieval fantasy setting based on European mythology, Tékumel is based on the mythologies of India, the Middle East, and Mezo-America. It features large political empires that have existed for millennia, similar to Ancient Rome or China, numerous non-human races, horrific creatures, active gods, powerful magic, intrigue inside of intrigue, rigid social strata, and ancient advanced technology.
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What is Tékumel’s History?
Okay, a (not really) brief description of Tékumel: explorers from Human space discovered Tékumel about 60,000 years in the future. There was a terrible nuclear war on Earth around 2013, and the European nations and the U.S. and China were destroyed. South America, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East (for some reason) survived (no mention is made in the brief introduction of Africa) survived, and gradually rebuilt and became a world state of sorts, and humanity spread to the stars, using miraculously high technology (FTL ships—the ‘Three-Light Drive’, contra-gravity, beam weapons, super-dense alloys, androids, and power systems which poked holes in the continuum and drew near-limitless energy through from n-dimensional space). Tékumel was a large world, but had a light core and a low density. It was home to acidic native life forms, several of which were sentient and had even attained early space flight. Humans, and their alien allies, conquered the natives and terraformed the planet, making its ecosystem very earthlike and installing massive gravity engines that gave it an Earthlike day and year and 1.0G. Tékumel was situated on a major trade route, and became a mercantile pleasure world, which had to import metals and industrial goods for the very rich that lived there.
Then Something Bad™ happened.
Apparently, through unknown agency, Tékumel and its entire star system fell into a pocket dimension. Gravitic stresses nearly tore the planet apart, and destroyed many cities and installations. Interstellar trade was immediately and permanently severed. The native races, who’d been confined in prison-like ‘reservations’, broke free and made war. Civilization fell rather messily, and the Time of Darkness descended.
Sometime after the disaster, human scientists/philosophers (perhaps aided by the some of the more psychically gifted nonhumans) discovered that in the new dimension, the power of the human mind alone, unaided by technology, could draw power through from extra-dimensional space, and ‘magic’ developed. The sorcerers of the ancient Empire of Llyán of Tsámra mapped nexi between various dimensions and made pacts with various dwellers of other planes, called ‘demons’ by the uninitiated. Great empires rose and fell over the next 30,000 years; the presence of ‘magic’ (really psychic phenomena), along with the obvious superiority (and near-complete inscrutability) of the sciences of the Ancients (whose technology was largely irreparable due to a lack of necessary raw materials) led to a stagnation of the sciences, and to societies which depended largely upon tradition, precedent, and the bonds of family and clan for stability.
Contact was also made with a race of extremely powerful beings that were for all human purposes gods. These beings subtly encouraged human worship and dependence; great unchanging religious bureaucracies developed, and after several millennia of religious warfare, the temples agreed upon a Concordat which disallowed open religious conflict, which further exaggerated the Tékumelani tendency toward stagnation. The people of Tékumel lack the anthropocentric belief that the universe is knowable and conquerable; they know that there are races and beings which dwarf them in power, and that there are magics and sciences which are far beyond their grasp; intellectual and scientific curiosity is rare and even subtly discouraged.
As a result of these historical processes, there exist upon the face of the great primary continent of the northeastern hemisphere of Tékumel the Five Empires, all of which are monarchical/theocratic oligarchies in which precedent and tradition hold the strength of law, and many smaller states which balance themselves between two or more of their larger neighbors. There are small enclaves of nonhuman races, most of whom owe allegiance to a human empire, and several states ruled by the inimical races, who still hate humanity and its allies with a passion, but are outnumbered by the more invaders. The Five Empires (one of which is the titular Empire of the Petal Throne, Tsolyánu) have technology about on the level of the European Renaissance (aqueducts, good roads, simple mechanics, wheeled carts, siege engines, crude surgery and slightly more advanced pharmacology, crossbows, water clocks, etc.). Their governments are greatly hidebound and bureaucratic, like those of ancient China. They have mighty, well-organized legions like those of the Romans. Their gods are like those of the Hindus, with a heavy dose of the bloodthirsty Aztec or Mayan deities. Their legal codes and sciences are much like those of the Arab philosophers of the Middle Ages; they are obsessed with personal and family honor, much like the medieval Japanese. The societies presented with the game are very intricate and very old (the youngest governments are some 2,500 years developed, and they have histories, traditions, and myths stretching back some 25,000 years). Professor M.A.R. Barker, the author of the game, is a full professor of linguistics and anthropology; he has developed scripts, languages (and I mean a language one can speak, with a grammar handbook and lexicon, like Tolkien’s Elvish or Roddenberry’s Klingon, in the case of Tsolyáni), histories, modes of dress, etiquettes, architectural styles, weapons and armor, religions, legal codes, demographics, sciences, etc. for all of the major and most of the minor cultures.
Since the societies are so intricate and formal, political maneuvering and subtlety, combined with the right amount of heroic action and appropriate posturing, are the keys to power, and many campaigns, as well as that of Professor Barker himself from reports, thus deal mostly with intrigue and plotting between the various power groups, combined with expeditions after some bit of lost knowledge or some sorcerous object from an ancient tomb (yes, dungeon crawling!!!). There are bits and pieces of ancient technology, which still function (many are self-repairing within limits, others have been maintained carefully by human and nonhuman sages or by robot servitors); these are fought over as powerful tools. The game’s scope is very grand; the Tékumelani do everything BIG. There are mighty legions of thousands of soldiers wearing brightly-lacquered armor, wearing great Kheshchál-plumes, and beating huge Karéng war drums, sorcerers calling on terrible demons with secret names, giant pyramidal temples thousands of years old upon which hundreds of war-captives are sacrificed to Vimúhla, the Lord of Flame, etc.
Tékumelani culture is very baroque, with titles like Reader of the Peerless Scrolls of Martial Glory, huge statues of the 97th Aspect of Lady Avánthe, Tánule the Patron of Lovers, and twenty-three forms of the pronoun ‘you’, to be used when speaking to individuals of varying status and profession!
Overall, the game world is quite alien to traditional FRP gamers (which I happen to think is a good thing, but that’s me). Many people feel that it’s too strange, and can't be run by anyone but Barker. I know that my gamers, a very traditional sword-and-sorcery blood-and-thunder bunch, at first found the difficulty of Tékumelani pronunciation and the lack of comfortable stereotypes like barbarian, wizard, elf, orc, and dragon, to be disconcerting, but after two years of gaming on Tékumel they like it a lot, and use Tékumelani terms to describe other games and situations. It takes some getting used to, and a good bit of homework on the part of the GM, but if you’re looking for a game world that is unique, interesting, and very well thought-out and developed, give Tékumel a go, it’s cool. It’s much better than Cats. You will play it again and again.
(Source: Theron Goudeau)
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Who is M.A.R. Barker?
Professor M.A.R. Barker is a retired professor of linguistics and South Asian Studies at the University of Minnesota. He has published several texts on the Urdu language, a common language of India and Pakistan.
For the most of the last twenty years he has run two weekly gaming groups in Tékumel, though he dropped one group a few years ago.
or more information on the professor, see his Wikipedia entry.
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What does ‘M.A.R.’ stand for?
Muhammed Abd-al-Rahman.
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What is the Thursday Night Group?
The Thursday Night Group is the group that plays Tékumel in Barker’s basement every Thursday. In the 80s, a group of them published the fanzines The Imperial Military Journal and The Journal of Tekumel Affairs.
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3. Game Products
What Tékumel products have been published?
See the Tékumel Product List for a complete bibliography of all things Tekumeláni.
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Where can I get out of print materials?
Sometimes Tékumel materials show up in the used game bins of game stores. I’ve picked up many items, including an original TSR set of EPT.
Tita’s House of Games has many out-of-print books in stock, as well as reprints of many of the classic Tékumel books. Yah! A price list and ordering information are available at the their site.
Also, Andrew Lorince has a lot of stuff available at very reasonable rates. Send inquiries to the following address:
Earth Tékumel Transfer Station
C/O Andrew Lorince
862 Flemington Avenue
Pittsburgh PA 15217 USA
Phone: (412) 521-0448
Email: alorince@yahoo.com
(Source: Andrew Lorince, Carl Brodt)
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What magazines have had Tékumel articles?
See the Tékumel Product List.
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What Tékumel fanzines are available?
Brad Johnson is the compiler of the Tékumel APA (Amateur Press Association), a fanzine published on the web. A mailing list on Yahoo! is used to distribute it at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apatekumel. Back issues are available, either as web pages or PDF files, on Tekumel.com.
Carl Brodt (carlbrodt@aol.com), of Tita’s House of Games, has published the first issue of Seal of the Imperium, a new Tékumel fanzine that has even higher quality than the Eye of All-Seeing Wonder. Since the publication of Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne, the Thursday Night Group has taken over publication of the Seal. Copies of Issue #1 are available from Carl.
Eye of All-Seeing Wonder was a very high quality magazine with good original art and well-written articles. Sometimes better than old Imperial Couriers in content, always better in production quality. Sadly, the Eye of All-Seeing Wonder has ceased publication. All issues are available on this site or from Tita’s House of Games, Andrew Lorince (see section 5.8), or on Tekumel.com.
Regretfully, James Roach, publisher of Realms of Wonder, a RPG fanzine with lots of accounts from his alternate Tékumel campaign, died in July 1997.
Before that, the players in Barker’s campaigns published several fanzines, including The Imperial Courier (1984-87), The Journal of Tékumelani Affairs (1982-84), the Imperial Military Journal (1980-83), and the Tékumel Journal (1977-78).
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What happened with the TOME publications?
Gardásiyal: Deeds of Glory was released in April 1995. TOME no longer publishes any Tékumel products.
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Where can I get Tékumel miniatures?
The original 25-mm figures produced by various companies since the ’70’s, as well as new figures, were available from PHD Games, but they haven’t produced any miniatures for several years. Talk of someone else picking up the miniatures line has been circulating for awhile. News of a new range is available on this site in the Miniatures section.
Robert Smith’s 15 mm miniatures are no longer available.
(Source: Carl Brodt)
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When will the third volume of the Sourcebook reprint be published?
Carl Brodt and Tita’s House of Games published Sourcebook Volume 3 in the fall of 2002.
(Source: Carl Brodt)
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When will the Swords and Glory Referee’s Handbook be published?
Work on this book was halted due to financial concerns.
(Source: Carl Brodt)
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When will Mitlanyál be published?
Zottola Publishing published it in two volumes in 2002.
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I have $50 to spend. Which books should I buy?
Buy the Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne for $40 and save the other $10 for the Sourcebook.
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Are any products available in electronic format (PDF)?
Yes, the new Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne game, the original EPT, the temple articles, the language grammars, Deeds of the Ever-Glorious, The Tsolyáni Language, and more have been converted to PDF. They are available from http://www.drivethrurpg.com.
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The New Game
When is the new game getting published?
The new Tékumel: The Empire of the Petal Throne game was published by Guardians of Order in 2005. The new game is based on Big Eyes, Small Mouth and the Tri-Stat System. The core book is a complete game with character generation, some nonhuman races as PCs, monsters, all Universal and Generic spells, some Temple spells, and focuses on Tsolyánu. Its suggested retail price is $39.95. It should be available from your F.L.G.S (Friendly Local Gaming Store).
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What happened to Guardians of Order?
In August 2006, Guardians of Order closed its doors. It had been a one person operation since January, 2006. Various factors, including a weak dollar, led to the decision. For more information, see the Guardians of Order website.
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What will happen to the new game without a publisher?
Joseph Saul, one of the authors of the new game had this answer:
The copyright to T:EPT (not to Tékumel itself, which is held solely by Prof. Barker) is, and has been, held by a company called RPGDesigners, Incorporated, which is owned by the design team. We are making arrangements with Mark to transfer all of the computer files and artwork, along with any remaining copies of the game he may have, to us. He will also sign over the right to use any of Guardians’ intellectual property that appears in the game. Understand that we are securing the intellectual property we do not already own associated with T:EPT. We are NOT assuming Guardians of Order’s liabilities.
We will license the right to produce Tékumel material from Professor Barker, with whom we have been in contact, and who supports this effort. We plan to keep T:EPT in print (in both hardcopy and PDF), bring out supplements, and set up website support. We will be working with an established game company on distribution and marketing (we’re talking to several). And yes, you will have access to the errata. Peter Gifford has done a wonderful website design for us, and has committed to work with us on future T:EPT publications as well, so you can be assured that we will maintain high standards.
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Novels
5.1. What Tékumel books have been published?
Man of Gold, M.A.R. Barker, DAW Books, 1984.
Flamesong, M.A.R. Barker, DAW Books, 1987.
Lords of Tsamra, M.A.R. Barker, Zottola Publishing, 2003 (published out of order)
Prince of Skulls, M.A.R. Barker, Zottola Publishing, 2002
A Death of Kings, M.A.R. Barker, Zottola Publishing, 2003
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Is the Professor writing the next novel?
From last reports, yes.
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Online Resources
Is there a web page for Tékumel?
The Official Tékumel: The World of the Petal Throne web site, maintained by Peter Gifford, is gorgeous. Best source of background for Tékumel on the web.
Brett Slocum’s Tékumel home page has a variety of resources available, including characters, a campaign events board, alternate rules for Tékumel (GURPS, RQ, Tirikélu, etc.), and more.
The Tékumel Web Ring has been created. A web ring connects related sites together.
A list of other web pages is on Brett Slocum’s site or on the Tékumel Links section of this site.
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Is there a Tékumel mailing list?
An unmoderated mailing list has been started at Yahoo! Groups. Several members of the Thursday Night Group are members here. This site also has downloadable files, a chat room, links, some player/referee databases, polls, etc. To subscribe, send a message to: tekumel-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tekumel.
A moderated list also exists at Yahoo! Groups. It is intended for specific questions about the world of Tékumel. No rules discussion is allowed. Prof. Barker participates and answers questions, as well as the Thursday Night Group. This mailing list is a wealth of information about Tékumel. To subscribe, send a message to: tekumel-moderated-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tekumel-moderated.
Other mailing lists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tekdevel Discussion of computer projects related to Tékumel.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tekheretic In-character discussions of
Tékumel without attempting to remain within canon.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tekumelnovels Discussion of the Tékumel novels of M.A.R. Barker.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apatekumel Home of Visitations of Glory, the Tékumel Amateur Press Association.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tsolyani As discussion group of the Tsolyáni language for those using the available language resouces.
(Source: Brett Slocum)
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Miscellaneous
Do I have to use [insert rule system] to play a Tékumel game?
Well, since their are currently four ‘official’ rule systems for Tékumel, I’d say a most definite ‘No’. I’ve played using Runequest, Chivalry and Sorcery, Traveller, GURPS and the Thursday Night Group’s freeform rules. I’ve heard of people using AD&D, Rolemaster, and several home-grown rule sets. So, the important thing is to play in the world, not what rules you use.
(Source: Brett Slocum)
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Are there any Tékumel game conventions?
Yes. U-Con (http://ucon-gaming.org) is held every November in Ann Arbor, Michigan on the campus of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. They have a Tékumel Track with games in every time slot, and, often, a Tékumel LARP on Saturday night. Sunday morning usually has a tele-conference with Professor Barker himself. Members of the Thursday Night Group often attend.
The Midwest Area Gaming Enthusiasts (MAGE) put on two conventions a year. The MAGE Spring Con is held every April in Souix City, Iowa. They also have a Tékumel Track. Members of the Thursday Night Group often attend.
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Credits
First, without Professor Barker, none of this would exist. Thank you for the gift of your imagination.
I’d like to thank several people for their continuing support of Tékumel: Bob Alberti, Patrick Brady, Carl Brodt, Krista Donnelly, Giovanna Fregni, Peter Gifford, George Hammond, Malcolm Heath, Brad Johnson, Andrew Lorince, Victor Raymond, Joe Saul, Edwin Voskamp, Joe Zottola.
Many thanks to the legion of contributors to this FAQ, including, but not limited to: Robert Dushay, Theron Goudeau, Zane Healy, Steve Lopez, Andrew Lorince, Ted Lyng, Phil Polli, Bruce Roberts, Ed Whittaker.