The Blue Room
Mailing List Archive
Messages 521 - 525
Message 521: Gods' Preferred Items Response
[Moderator's Note: Bob Alberti answers Charlie Goering's question about the metals, jewels, etc favored by the various Gods.]
I remember seeing a article years ago in the Tekumel Digest or the Imperial Courier that dealt with the metals, jewels, etc. favored by the various Gods and Cohorts. Any chance of getting info on this? I would also like to find out about sacred numbers (3 for Vimuhla for ex,),favored days of the week and the like.
[Moderator's Note: I looked through all my JTAs and ICs. I don't have the Best of the Journal series. I bet if anyone knew the answer to this stuff it would be Bob Alberti. How about it Bob, do you know the answer to this?]
Yes and no. I do not have a specific list of "metals precious to the God" or "jewels precious to the God" in Mitlanyal, although certain predilictions are mentioned, such as Sarku's love of copper. Hnalla loves clear crystals of course. Each chapter includes the Gods color, planet, and costume information, as well as preferred sacrifices. However I didn't want to start compiling a "list" like one has for the States: state bird, state flower, state motto, state pastry, state feminine hygiene product, etc., etc., as that strikes me as tiresome.
There IS a "numerology" entry for each of the Ten outlining their numerological preferences. I don't have the book in front of me to give you any more detail, except what memory serves: Hnalla is 1, Karakan 3, Vimuhla 9, Sarku 5, Dlamelish 8(?). Each God also enjoys the corresponding letter of the Tsolyani alphabet. Various techniques involve meditating upon these holy numerals and letters to achive harmony with the God.
Message 522: Best of the Journals News
[Moderator's Note: Zane Healy has news of the Best of the Journals and their un-availability through Carl Brodt. :( ]
The only published battle report was the battle of the Temple of Chanis, which does not relate to the war in Yan Kor per se. This article was originally issued in "The Wargamer," about 1974 (?). It was later republished in vol. one of the "Best of the Journal" magazines. Another article, "The Battle of Ry, [i.e. /r/ + an umlaut u) was published in vol. three of "The Best of the Journals." Perhaps Carl Brodt might still have a copy of these? Or be willing to republish them?
Alas he didn't have any copies the last time I enquired, I'd asked him about plans for reprinting them, and I think there was a problem with contacting all the needed authors.
Zane
Message 523: Pronunciation Tape WAV
[Moderator's Note: Brett Slocum gives some more info on the Tsolyani WAV file on his web site. There are some details on the attributes on the file. I had no problems getting this file to work on my Win95 workstation, but could not get anything to work on my Mac. I might be able to get it to go now that I know the attributes. I'll keep you informed.]
I checked the Pronunciation WAV file in barker.zip on my Web site and it seemed to work fine. This is a WAV - PCM 22 KHz, 8 bit, mono format, if that makes a difference. It works fine in my Windows 95 Media Player. It was Zipped using WinZip 6.2 with no special parameters.
I uploaded a new copy just in case the version on the web site is corrupted in some way that my machine glosses over. BTW, the tape stops abruptly in the discussion of the umlaut u.
Brett Slocum
Message 524: New Tekumel Web Site
[Moderator's Note: This is a message from a new member, who has put up his own Tekumel page. I think this is the first Tekumel web page I have seen in Australia. So, for the folks there, (and everywhere else, too!) give Peter's site a look. ]
[Sorry this took so long to get out Peter, I overlooked it when queuing up a large number of messages. ]
Since I've just joined the list, I thought I'd introduce myself. If you've received this 'introductory blurb' before personally, my apologies!
My name is Peter Gifford, I live in Sydney, Australia and I run a small graphic design company called Universal Head Graphics. The Empire of the Petal Throne has always had 'a special place in my heart' - I spent many hours of my youth immersed in the world of Tekumel - but I'd put it all aside for many years until I recently discovered a copy of "The Man of Gold", the paperback by MAR Barker. All the atmosphere came flooding back!!
Now that I'm a professional graphic designer I find it frustrating that this fantastic creation has never been published with major backing. For example, the cramped layout of my copy of Swords & Glory Vol1 makes it nearly unreadable. It seems a shame that Tolkein's MiddleEarth is known the world over but Barker's Tekumel is known only to a relatively small group of role-playing gamers (or so it seems). It would be a worthy achievement to get Tekumel the public recognition it deserves.
So I thought it was time to attempt to give the world of Tekumel some more exposure, and also try and create some visuals that reflect some of its unique atmosphere. I thought I'd attempt to create something that could
act as a 'nexus' for Tekumel fans, and also try and get more people interested in the world (and who knows, maybe a major publisher). I've already had positive feedback from people who had never heard of Tekumel.
The new website is at: http://www.magna.com.au/~unihead/tekumel/
[Note the site is now at http://www.tekumel.com]
There's not much content there yet, but the basic site structure is set up and ready to be filled. I would love to eventually get Professor Barker's blessing for the site (apparently he's aware it exists), but in the meantime I welcome comments, contributions and ideas from all those interested in Tekumel and the development of this site. I'm a better designer than writer, so I need help in preparing short summaries of Tekumel information for the "unitiated". Visit the site and you'll see what I mean. For example, I've just begun the Nonhuman section, with a blurb and an illustration on the Ayoggya. At the moment the text is paraphrased from Swords and Glory, but I'd prefer original descriptions of about the same length. It may be however that Professor Barker doesn't mind me slavishly copying selected extracts - I've yet to discuss it with him.
Some other notes: Yep, it uses a bit of JavaScript, there's one relatively large graphic on the home page - obviously its not designed for old browsers. I wanted to make something that's exciting and very visual though, not just slabs of text. Do you think I'm alienating too many visitors? There is a lower-bandwidth home page however.
Obviously this MY personal interpretation of Tekumel, others, including Professor Barker's, may be very different. Hopefully the look and feel will evolve with continued input.
Do you think people who are interested in Tekumel will be interested in a site like this? Are you?
The whole-thing is of course non-profit; the only personal advantage I can imagine out of the whole thing is if one day there is finally some high-quality published material on Tekumel, hopefully I can get a stab at being the graphic designer!
That's about it for now. Visit the site, and please write to me with your comments and hopefully, your contributions. Let's give this incredible work of imagination the exposure it deserves.
Looking forward to the material on this list - thanks!
Regards, Peter Gifford
Message 525: Miniatures
[Moderator's Note: Larry Hull responds to Dwight about the miniatures he asked about. (Larry's company makes Tekumel miniatures.)]
Dwight Grosso asked about anyone having some of the 'old' (as if the other figures are 'new'.....) taller Ahoggya. We removed them from the catalog since they are WAY out of scale. However, I still have the molds for them and could produce them as a special request.
As far as other 'new' figures go..... We are MORE than willing to add to the line of miniatures. We will produce any figure that is appropriate to Tekumel and that I have a well sculpted master for. So if anyone wants to see new legions represented, just sculpt one! Anyone who feels he might be able to do some sculpting, contact me directly at PHDGames1@AOL.com and we can 'talk' about it.
Larry Hull
President, PHD Games, Inc.
