These messages are the accumulation of the messages that were sent out on
the Blue Room email list between May 1995 and June 2000. A large portion
of the information is directly from Professor M.A.R Barker. When the list
members joined during the time the list was active, they agreed to refrain
from sharing this data with non list members. When the list ended, it was
urged that the data be made available to non-list Tekumel fans, and it
seemed like a good idea all around.
I only ask that if you download these digests, or have received them in
some other way, please respect the agreements the list members made, and
refrain from passing them around and instead point people to the Tekumel
web site, www.tekumel.com so that they can download them for themselves,
and see all the other material available on the Tekumel.com web site.
Many Thanks.
Chris Davis
Moderator: Blue Room mailing list
Creative Commons - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND
BLUE ROOM ARCHIVE -- VOLUME 29 [29 November 1998 - 20 December 1998]
841: More Genetics
842: More Worms of Death/Night
843: Casual Tekumel
844: More Reality/Hypothesis
845: More Thursday Night Group Summaries
846: Salarvya
847: Being Armed in Cities
848: Dogs on Tekumel
849: More on Maps
850: More on Maps
851: Cows on Tekumel
852: More Food of the Ssu
853: UCon Tekumel Track Report
854: More Party Mix
855: More Food of the Ssu
856: Northeast Frontier Maps Status
857: More Thursday Night Reports
858: Tekumel Gamer Directory
859: Shuqu
860: Hlaka Eyes
861: Casual Tekumel Response
862: More Food of the Ssu
863: More Dogs on Tekumel
864: More Reality of Tekumel
865: More Cows on Tekumel
866: More Food of the Ssu
867: More Dogs on Tekumel
868: Western Lands/Chlen hide
869: More Casual Tekumel
870: Hlaka Eyes Response
*******************************
//841
[Moderator's Note: Joe Saul swerves the Genetics topic back into Tekumel. ]
[ He asks some questions about the people of Tekumel. How]
[ about it Professor? Any clear-cut answers to the ques- ]
[ tions below? ]
>[Moderator's Note: Ian Atkinson writes about the genetics question. While ]
>[ interesting, this is getting more about genetcis than ]
>[ Tekumel. If you want to further comment on this topic ]
>[ let's try to get back to Tekumel. ]
I can do that. ;-)
>All of this is speculative, but if there's any truth to it then the height
>increases seen in current populations are partially due to improvements in
>nutrition one or two generations ago and the limits to growth of a really
>well nourished human population remain unknown. Until different racial
>groups have all enjoyed western style food supplies for a couple of
>generations we have no way of knowing if there are any inherent height
>differences between the races.
Some questions for speculation:
1. Are higher-clan Tsolyani larger than lower-clan Tsolyani? They certainly
eat better...
2. Are Tsolyani from the "breadbasket" regions larger than those from fringe
areas where life is harder?
3. Are Tsolyani, as a group, larger than members of less-organized and
poorer populations?
Dunno if the Professor himself will be willing to kick in his observations,
but none of the above would surprise me.
Joe
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//842
[Moderator's Note: Joe Saul further elaborates on the Worms of Death/Night. ]
>[Moderator's Note: I sit corrected. Joe is absolutely correct. ]
>
>>[Moderator's Note: Joe Saul responds about the Worms of Night. They are ]
> Uh-uh. That's the Worms of Death. The clay coin thing is the T-10 variant
> of the spell, but it only imprisons the less dangerous kind of worm. The T-9
> variant creates Worms of Night, which are nastier than Worms of Death.
This discussion reminds me of something that happened in my campaign... en
route to an Imperial Prison (as messengers, not inmates), their ship was
attacked by pirates. One character (Mikusa) had one of those Eyes that
creates Worms of Death, and used it to good effect on several boarders. (The
briefing she got from her clan didn't include the fact that they don't go
away afterwards...)
After the battle, another character (Arkhane), who didn't know what Mikusa
had done, spotted the worms writhing around on the deck looking for targets,
and pointed them out excitedly to the ship's captain:
"Worms of Sarku! Worms of Sarku!"
The seasoned captain (whose clan was lower than Arkhane's, but is an elder,
experienced, and after all on the deck of his own clan's ship) looked up at
Arkhane with an implacable, but mildly curious, expression:
"Why are you swearing at me, son?"
-- Joe
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//843
[Moderator's Note: Peter Huston asks about a casual (a more Beer and ]
[ Pretzels) kind of Tekumel. ]
Has anyone ever come up with a casual Tekumel game?
[Moderator's Note: I don't know if you would call it casual, but we used ]
[ to have what we called spell wars. Two extremely pow-]
[ erful mages with unlimited spell library at their dis-]
[ posal. It required 2 or more players, and one referee]
[ (to adjudicate the play). A list of spells were all ]
[ the rules necessary, and the arbiter had final say on ]
[ all matters. No dice, no character sheets, etc. I ]
[ rather enjoyed it. ]
Peter Huston
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//844
[Moderator's Note: A couple of skeptics!! Sean Boomer and James Maliszewski]
[ don't buy the Reality of Tekumel. They also don't ]
[ necessarily buy into Keith's hypothesis. I'll let the ]
[ Professor, Keith, and the rest of the Thursday night ]
[ crowd fill you in on details of the accuracy of Keith's ]
[ hypothesis. In the limited experience of my last trip to]
[ Minneapolis, it would be my opinion that Keith's ]
[ hypothesis seems right on target. ]
Sean Boomer writes...
Well, with all due respect, this statement is made by Keith on the big
assumption that the Mu'uglavyani scholar priest is anything other than a
convert who happens to be interested in the Bednalljan times. Nothing in
the quoted excerpt from the Tekumel Journal really indicates anything other
than that. Doubtless, if Tekumel was "uplinked" through the Professor, he
would have noted this gent's nefarious scheme to begin with. Even if I
bought the Tekumel Uplink Theory (which I certainly do not!), I would
proffer that his origins and interests are probably nothing more than
coincidental. People do have conversion experiences, and generals can be
great antiquarians. That does not follow that they are plotting world
domination. Looking through history one notes countless such coincidences,
which are eagerly seized upon by conspiracy theorists. Both Mayans and
Egyptians used the pyrimidal shape in their monumental architecture,
therefore, there must be a link, for example. The logic here is flawed, of
course, since the coincidence implies nothing of the sort.
At any rate, guys, it is a game, an amazing creation by an amazing man.
Tolkien said that truly gifted authors were "subcreators" who reflected the
Creator's majesty by creating worlds as He did. Perhaps this is what has
been affecting some people on the list - the Professor's amazing world,
created from the strands of his own imagination. But imagination is what it
is. I think that a man educated in the languages and cultures of many
societies, gifted with genius, is more than capable of creating a rich and
varied world like Tekumel. Robert E. Howard once claimed that Conan seemed
to be talking through his work, yet it would be ludicrous to suggest that
Cimmeria ever existed. Similarly, while the Professor seems at times to be
actually seeing Tekumel, it does not follow that he actually is seeing a
physical place. I'm sorry, friends, but I have to say, Tekumel only exists
in our imaginations. Perhaps it is best that way.
Sean Boomer
--
James Maliszewski writes...
Forgive my skepticism, but why is there anything odd about the idea that
someone like Phil should remember a little tidbit of information about
Tekumel that he wrote 22 years ago? Don't you ever remember anything from
that far in the past? Believe me, I can vividly remember details of 1977,
the year I was in the second grade and saw Star Wars for the first time. I
see no reason why Phil's remembrance of something he wrote at the same time
means that Tekumel is real and that he's "channeling" it through to our
time. Again, forgive my tone, but that's just very bad reasoning. Memory is
a tricky thing. It works strangely at times. Yet, that's no reason to assume
there's anything supernatural going on here.
James
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//845
[Moderator's Note: Peter Gifford adds his encouragement to the crowd in ]
[ Minneapolis for some type of running summary to the rest]
[ of the world. He would even compile the summaries on ]
[ his terrific web site. ]
>[Moderator's Note: So, whaddaya say up there in Minneapolis way... I know]
>[ many of you take notes (but is Steve on the list?) I ]
>[ don't think so. Maybe he could photocopy and mail me ]
>[ his notes and I could transcribe them (or we could set ]
>[ up a cadre of typers, as many of you have volunteered).]
I'd love to put this up on the Tekumel:The World of the Petal Throne site
as a regular feature.
My updates have been pretty infrequent lately; my apologies. Some regular
input like this would be highly appreciated to keep the content on the site
'alive'; all I'd have to do is set up the design and layout, and leave the
copy to those better at writing.
Regards,
Peter Gifford
Tekumel: The World of the Petal Throne
Complex Cultures on an Imaginary World
http://www.universalhead.com.au/tekumel
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//846
[Moderator's Note: James Snead asks about Jgresh. I am sending this to the ]
[ list at large, hoping that some of the Thursday night ]
[ group will reply, and others who have knowledge of the ]
[ areas in question. I am at home today, so I'll probably ]
[ send another set of 5 messages after this set. ]
I'm curious about some of the more remote regions of Salarvya, particularly
Jgresh. Perhaps the professor could supply some information about this
fabled locality; is the modern city known for more than its antiquity?
Are there scholars there who delve into its past? What about monuments
and landmarks?
Thanks,
James Snead
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//847
[Moderator's Note: Bill Faulkner asks about the freedom to carry arms in ]
[ the cities of Tekumel. ]
Bill Faulkner here.
A question for Phil.
What is the attitude about ordinary citizens (not members of the city or
temple guards or members of the military) going around armed (swords,
pole-arms, armor, shields, etc.). My guess that its really not much of a
problem, since normal citizens realize that it just uncouth to walk around
the city in this manner. Some important people may have personal guards
who are armed, but not the individual himself. The only real problem would
be foriegners. but in Tsolyanu,at least, they are more or less restricted
to the foreigner's quarter, where no self-respecting Tsolyani would go.
On a similiar note, how much freedom of movement do individuals really
have? For example, are travel papers required for everybody (or just
foreigners)? Obviously, most normal Tsolyani would only travel when
needed by clan or temple business. What I'm talking about are the
abnormal adventurers (especially foreigners), who want to travel
somewhere for adventuring purposes.
Basically, what level of impositions do the governments put on the
freedom of individuals. Any comments about this general subject would be
greatly appreciated.
[Moderator's Note: My guess is that if the city is Tsolyani, and you are ]
[ Tsolyani, you can pretty much carry any weapon you ]
[ desire (within general safety limits). Personal arms ]
[ are what I am thinking about. If you are a foreigner,]
[ there is probably some paperwork you would have to ]
[ carry to identify you, if there was some type of prob-]
[ lem and to prove you have the means to responsibly ]
[ deal with any problems that occur. This is my feeling]
[ on the subject. Professor Barker will probably con- ]
[ firm/deny/elaborate on the subject. ]
Bill Faulkner
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//848
[Moderator's Note: Mike Wayne writes about dogs on Tekumel. ]
What follows are some observations, questions, and opinions resulting
from a recent visit to Tekumel. They do not necessarily correspond to
the REAL Tekumel. Some concepts I haven't firmed up, because I don't
want to twist Tekumel into a westernizedfeudaljungleintherenaissance in
my mental image.
Dogs were taken to Tekumel and perform their traditional roles as
hunting partners, herders, and household guardians (per the sourcebook
v1?), but they are far less diverse than on modern Terra (the AKC has I
believe 131 breeds while the FCI, the international AKC, has almost 200
breeds).
[Moderator's Note: The sourcebook indeed states that dogs and cats were ]
[ brought to Tekumel and play their traditional roles. ]
I suspect that the sporting and hound groups are limited to equivalents
of the Saluki and Whippet, (NB many Middle Eastern cultures consider the
dog 'unclean' but respect the Saluki greatly enough that he has been
treated as 'not a dog'). There may also be a counterpart to the modern
bloodhound. The Whippet is probably the most common since his smaller
size and terrier background make him a good all 'rounder---able to
course game, chase vermin, and be an easily accommodated companion.
The Terrier group is represented by an Airedale analogue. The Airedale
analogue is big and can hunt in very rough terrain due to his Otter
hound ancestry. He also makes a good guard dog (the first police dogs
were Airedales and they have an excellent reputation from service in WW
I).
Herding dogs are almost exclusively a variant of the Old Earth Border
Collie, albeit a smooth coated version. (NB All the dogs on Tekumel have
short coats or wiry coats, any other coat is too hot and was bred out.)
(More NB Several cultures on Terra have tried to breed herding dogs from
stock on hand. In general the more success they had, the closer the
came to recreating the Border Collie). A few Mals are used for herding,
but they are not very common.
Guard/Protection/War dogs are essentially variants of the Old Earth
Belgian Malanois, a close relative of the German Shepherd. It weighs
from 35-65 pounds on average, though some males hit in the 90 pound
range. They are used on Old Earth as police dogs, Search and Rescue
dogs, herders, and some of everything else. They can be HIGHLY trained.
Airedales and Rotwielers also are used for this function.
Rottwielers because of their size, may be used as draft dogs (they were
on this world), but I don't know if the Real Tekumel has any use of dogs
as draft animals. Native Americans, both in North and South America,
made extensive use of dogs as draft animals.
Pit Bulls may have made it to Tekumel where they are used as Chlen
herders (I haven't decided yet). On Terra Pit Bulls were breed as
butchers dogs able to cut out a cow or bull from a herd and hold it for
the butcher to kill. NB Pit bulls make LOUSY protection animals. The
nature of pit fighting requires a handler to often separate his dog from
another. Dogs that would turn on a human were (and are) relentlessly
culled/killed.
So we have 2 (or 3 is bloodhounds made it) sight hounds, 1 large
Terrier, a herding dog, and 2 working dogs (and maybe a Pete the Pit
Bull). I think I've kept within the available source material. I have
no idea of what the dogs are called on Tekumel . Any body know what the
breeds are called and common names for pets on Tekumel?
The biggest possible deviation from 'real' Tekumel is in allowing dogs
used as draft animals. If allowed they could become pervasive in the
culture. I can imagine long chains of a dozen dogs with packs (or even
small carts as has been done on Terra) along the Sakbe roads. Food
peddlers in town may have a dog drawn cart to carry their goods.
Opinions?
On Terra, the domestic ferret has a long history of hunting use. Pop
one down a rabbit hole where he/she will cause the rabbit to bolt from
the hole, whereupon your trusty whippet will run him down for your
lunch. Rats were at one time treated with this same method. Do ferrets
exist on Tekumel? Are they used in this manner? Is it common?
Does anybody know just how smart a Kuni bird is? How long do they take
to train? I know from the sourcebook that hawks and falcons made it to
Tekumel, but how common are they in relation to the Kuni bird? Do they
imply different social status as different raptor species ownership did
during the middle ages?
You think this letter is boring? Just wait for my letter where I file
the serial numbers off of Traditional Chinese Medicine and make it the
Tekumel Healthcare System!!
mike.wayne@us.origin-it.com
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//849
[Moderator's Note: James Eckman writes about Maps on Tekumel. ]
re: Gordon's comments on maps.
Some cultures like Japan developed maps very much like the merchant maps
developed on Tekumel. The amount of abstraction in any form of drawing is
high and there are some Earth cultures that cannot understand 2D
representations of 3D objects. (I think UNESCO had this problem in Africa
if I remember correctly) In the case of drafting, 150 years ago engineers
received training as artists because engineering drawings consisted of
realistic paintings or renderings of machines. A skilled engineer of that
period would require quite a bit of training to read modern prints with
their highly abstract and stylized symbols. It was actually a bottleneck
of a kind since artistic drawings require more time to draw and don't
reproduce via blueprint technology.
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//850
[Moderator's Note: Michael Cule also comments on Maps. I believe he comes ]
[ closest to describing the mapping system of the people ]
[ of Tekumel. At least the way I picture what Phil has ]
[ said in prior messages. ]
I was going through some old Blue Room messages when I came across the
following line:
>Tekumelani travellers are almost always going to be on foot and will move
>slowly enough to get their information en route,
And it struck me that the sort of map that Tekumelani travellers would
make and use by land and by sea would be the rutter.
Which is (for those who don't know) a set of instructions of how to get
from point A to point B with landmarks and hints included.
"To journey from Jakalla to Avanthe, the judicous traveller will leave
by the third gate, taking care to depart as the sun's rays first tint
the elevated walls...."
This would be sufficiently 'elevated' to be acceptable to the scribes
and also sufficiently practical to be of use.
Comments? (Or has someone thought of this before?)
--
Michael Cule
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//851
[Moderator's Note: Peter Huston writes about Cows on Tekumel. ]
Did I ask this before or not? Another discrepancy which has always irked me
is EPT says there are cows on Tekumel. The Sourcebook says definitely not.
Pete Huston
(Too tired to make a clever pun about Mooooooooo! "ugalavya!)
[Moderator's Note: I just gave a very cursory glance to the EPT book and I]
[ couldn't find a reference to cows. I don't have the ]
[ book in electronic form , so I can't scan for it. You ]
[ are correct in that the Sourcebook says no cows or pigs]
[ were brought to Tekmuel. However, there is always an ]
[ exception. The Imperial Zoological collection (located]
[ in Avanthar--right Phil?) has numerous beasts that were]
[ never really brought to Tekumel. It has a horse or 2 ]
[ as I remember, and could have a cow and/or a pig. ]
--
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//852
[Moderator's Note: Joe Saul writes on the Food of the Ssu. ]
>The Ssu are considered horrid and unclean by most humans, and this would
>preclude followers of Chiteng and Hrihayal from making use of the stuff.
>The Tsolyani deities consider their practices to be "noble"; it would be
>very "ignoble" to rub somebody's face in the Food of the Ssu!
If I remember correctly, though, Food of the Ssu is listed as a toxin usable
in assassination attempts. Will the assassin clans use it, or is that
restricted to people operating completely outside civilized rules (e.g.
Pariah Deity worshippers, Haida Pakalani) or inimical nonhumans?
[Moderator's Note: As I remember it, a Sarku (was it a soldier or priest?) ]
[ pushed someone into a Food of the Ssu plant in MoG. Or ]
[ is my memory failing???? My guess is that there are ]
[ those who would use it. ]
Joe
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//853
[Moderator's Note: Joe Saul provides a report on the UCon convention's ]
[ Tekumel Track success. ]
Thanks to all those who participated, the UCon Tekumel Track was a great
success! Those who came specifically for the Tekumel Track were able to
play Tekumel events in *every schedule slot* during the weekend -- often two
or more events at a time, at one point *three*.
And there were quite a few. In addition to the locals, Tekumel Track
attendees came to Ann Arbor from Virginia, New Jersey, Ontario (and not right
across the border, either), Ohio (again not right across the border ;-),
Pennsylvania, and California.
Many people who had little or no contact with Tekumel prior to the convention
saw the Tekumel Track materials or the events in the conbook and showed up to
see what it was all about. From what I've heard, every one of the
role-playing events had 1-4 new people in it. Some of them liked earlier
events so much, they came to a bunch of later ones as well. Some converts
were made this weekend...
Clearly, the idea of piggybacking a Tekumel "mini-con" onto an established
regional convention works well; without the rest of the con's being there, we
would never have attracted new folks to the games.
I'd like to thank everyone who participated, in any form, but special thanks
to: Professor Barker, for answering Tekumel questions via speakerphone for
nearly two hours, and then coming back and doing the conclusion of my
live-action game (and putting up with the terrible offenses I may have
inflicted upon the canon); David Aitken, who claims not to have run Tekumel
face-to-face, for his wonderful scenario (with PC briefings printed on
parchment, forsooth); Bob Dushay, for running not only the two events that
were on the schedule, but also another as a filler when one GM had to cancel
due to illness in his family; and John Schippers, for overcoming his "I don't
know enough to run in this world" jitters and coming through with a Tsolyani
horror scenario... Ron and Margaret Heintz, for coming down from Ontario to
help David Aitken run his games... and Andy Lorince and Carl Brodt, for
making the UCon dealers' room momentarily the best place to buy Tekumel
materials in the world. Last, but not least, Lisa, my fiancee, for not only
putting up with my running the Track, but also for running live Kevuk.
If you missed this one, no worries; we'll be doing it again next year, at
UCon 1999 -- November 12-14th 1999. Feel free to email me with ideas or
offers to run games (jmsaul@umich.edu).
Joe Saul
jmsaul@umich.edu
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//854
[Moderator's Note: James Eckman writes about his experiences with more ]
[ homogenous adventure parties. ]
Of course it's also quite possible to run characters of the same clans and
religion together. Some of the parties we have run in the past that are
fairly monolithic are:
A tomb robber err... guardian clan (Purple Tower?). When we needed expertise
outside of our party, we would try to arrange something with our Uncle Egresh.
Of course most of our adventures were aiding our clan or personal mischief.
Some clans actually protested our ancient rite of accepting bribes! The
nerve of them. Of course these tombs would suffer despoliation on a regular
basis:) Other tasks included escorting other parties into the deeper tombs,
not using any of our secret ways naturally, looking for lost visitors in the
upper levels and general policing of the heavily frequented tomb areas. Also
occasional trips to exchange information and items with more distant clan
branches.
Tribal primitives from I forget where, this was a short campaign, but we
did have a shaman or two.
You could also try military units, maybe intelligence, temples,
universities, or clans that engage in trade. We never insisted on well
balanced parties ala old D&D, use NPCs, relations and other methods to
fill in those holes.
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//855
[Moderator's Note: Jack Bramah writes about the Food of the Ssu. In ]
[ message 834, I didn't note that the Professor's response]
[ should have said, George (as he was replying to George ]
[ Hammond), not Gordon. ]
>[Moderator's Note: Professor Barker replies to Gordon's comments on the Food]
>[ of the Ssu. I am adding a question of my own at the end.]
>>Whoever it is, it's not likely to be anyone nice...
>You're right, George. It is *not* anyone nice...
>[Moderator's Note: So why did the Priests of Ksarul develop the Food of Ssu]
>[ temple spell? Was it simply because it is a good offen-]
>[ sive and defensive spell? The plants are particularly ]
>[ good weapons, since they are highly toxic and have a ]
>[ high fear value. They also end up going away at the end]
>[ of the duration, so they won't stay and cause long term ]
>[ problems. I would imagine that any substance removed/ ]
>[ collected from the plant would disappear at the duration]
>[ of the spell, too. Just wondering. ]
>
>Regards,
>Phil
>-----
>Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
>The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
>Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
Just as a thought - the Food of the Ssu in the spell has to come from
somewhere. Given the nature of many of the Ksarul spells, isn't it
possible that rather than being created from nowhere, what the spell
does is to open up a nexus doorway to a place where there is Food of the
Ssu already in existence and transport it thence? If so, is this a
possible explanation for the mysterious cavern - the Temple reservoir
(or "a" Temple reservoir)?
--
Jack Bramah <jack@catland.demon.co.uk>
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//856
[Moderator's Note: Carl Brodt reports that he is working on the Northeast ]
[ Frontier maps and Gazeteer. ]
I thought that I'd mention that I am transcribing the tapes done by Keith and
Prof. Barker on the NE Frontier maps. I am about 3/4 finished with the first
of the two tapes sent to me.
Substantial editing needs to be done on my transcription, though, especially
regarding the proper names. I do not have copies of the maps on hand (they
are supposed to be forthcoming), and the words on the tape are often too soft
or indistinct to hear clearly. So alot of guessing regarding spelling at this
point in the draft ... I shall try to clean up the text once I finish with the
first half of the transcription.
[Moderator's Note: I am sure that we can get together with the Professor ]
[ get you some assistance. ]
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//857
[Moderator's Note: Christopher Burnett writes in offering to provide some ]
[ Thursday night summaries from years past. I would love]
[ for you to provide some of those old summaries, and any ]
[ newer ones you can provide. In or out of personna is ]
[ fine by me. ]
>Not merely interesting, but -fascinating-. Imagine the appearance
>from some modern-day Burton -- in Minneapolis, say-- of a 'Thousand and One
>Tsolyani Nights,' telling all the best-remembered tales from the Time Of No
>Kings.
>That would be... tremendous. (It might also be a lot of fun to -do-.)
>[Moderator's Note: So, whaddaya say up there in Minneapolis way... I know]
>[ many of you take notes (but is Steve on the list?) I ]
>[ don't think so. Maybe he could photocopy and mail me ]
>[ his notes and I could transcribe them (or we could set ]
>[ up a cadre of typers, as many of you have volunteered).]
Hi everybody, I'm Bear-a old-time gamer to the Thursday night who is
"in-line" to start doing so again-sometime in April-I'm told! I've been
thinking about doing reports (possibly in "persona" to my clan-brothers
& sisters back "home") after each (gulp) gaming session. I've kept
journals of my adventures back in the '80s & might be persuaded to try &
decode my own hand-writeing If anyone cares. Is this the right venue?
In persona or out? Does anyone really care? Let me know!
YOURS IN THE EMERALD RADIANCE!
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//858
[Moderator's Note: James Maliszewski would like to put together the Tekumel]
[ Gamers guide. I could send him all the membership info ]
[ and let him put it together. If you have any concerns ]
[ as to why I shouldn't do it, let me know. If I get no ]
[ responses, I'll bundle up all your info and pass it to ]
[ James. He can use this as a starting point. ]
In my efforts to publicize and support Tekumel, I realized that many of us
aren't aware of the locations and interests of other fans of Tekumel. As
large as the Blue Room's subscriber list is, I know and interact with but a
handful of them.
That said, I'd like to put together a directory, if you will, of gamers who
are interested in Tekumel. I'll be administering the list and will not
release it in any form to anyone that I don't think serves the purpose of
promoting Tekumel.
I'd like anyone who wants to be included to send me
1) Their name
2) Postal and e-mail address (phone number if you wish)
3) Areas of interest in Tekumel
4) Anything else that you think is relevant (do you have an active campaign?
Want to start one? Run miniature battles, etc.)
5) Do you have a webpage? What's the URL?
That's it.
Please consider letting your friends and associates who are interested in
Tekumel know about this project. As has been rightly pointed out already,
there are many Tekumel fans not connected to the Web or even Usenet. They
can only be reached by word of mouth.
Thanks,
James
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//859
[Moderator's Note: Professor Barker answers a question about Shuqu, a ]
[ creation of Bob Dushay's for summoning (non-magically) a ]
[ person you would like to speak with. ]
>Gayan hiTessuken, a friend of mine from the White Crystal Clan of Jakalla,
>tells me of a custom of having small chlen-hide plaques, similar to Meshqu,
>to notify somebody that you wish to see them. These plaques are called
>"Shuqu", and are simpler than Meshqu in that they denote who wants to see
>you, and whether the occasion is relatively formal or informal. They are
>useful in the palaces, when superiors wish to summon subordinates, or in
>some clan houses, where the clan head wishes to see somebody. I am
>wondering how widespread this custom is, or if Gayan is checking to see how
>tall a story he can get away with before this foreigner understands he is
>being teased.
"Invitations" to parties, weddings, etc. are usually calligraphed on
smallish squares of parchment. They are done in colours and gold ink, using
the inviter's clan symbol, a line or two of honorifics, and pretty script.
If a superior wants to see an inferior, a clanmaster wants to see a
clan-brother/sister, etc., the request is usually penned in black on a
rectangle of Hruchan-reed paper. This is delivered by a servant. The
plaques Gayan must be referring to are an innovation in Jakalla; they are
unknown in the north and west. In the east -- Fasiltum, particularly --
commands/invitatons are often simply the clan symbol of the inviter written
on a bit of coloured parchment. In Thraya and Jaikalor, a small glass
square is sent, inside of which is the clan-symbol of the sender. These
are customarily returned to the sender (or rather to his/her servant) when
the invitee shows up for the meeting. Some of these symbols are quite
beautiful, made of silver, gold, stained glass (in Sokatis), etc.
I never saw a Tsolyani" calling card." The society demands that a visitor
leave word verbally with a servant. Thus, if I call uninvited at your
clanhouse, the clan's door-guard or chamberlain will inquire my business. I
then tell him that I have come to see (e.g.) Gayan; he replies formally
with regret that Gayan is not present; I then request him to inform Gayan
that I had come to visit, and take my leave. If I have a longer message to
impart, I can leave a note or letter; see below.
>I also wonder if Tsolyani have any equivalent of the Victorian gentleman's
>calling cards, where you left them at a friend's house when you come to
>call. I believe you bent a corner of the card down when a return visit was
>not expected. Surely the Tsolyani have a similar system?
Not really. So much is done by servants and face-to-face communication for
reasons of "dignity, nobility, and honour." All of the objectives in your
last paragraph are met by a personal visit and a few polite words to the
servants/clan-chamberlains. If you have something longer to communicate,
pen and parchment -- and in the higher houses, formally trained scribes
with a palette of coloured inks and paints -- are available so that you can
write a note. If you do not wish to come yourself, you can always pen a
note and have it delivered by a servant -- saves going out in the midday
sun!
Regards,
Phil
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//860
[Moderator's Note: Peter Huston asks about the arrangement of eyes on the ]
[ 3-eyed creatures of Tekueml. ]
>I have a question for the professor which I am hoping he can answer.
>Why do Hlaka and the related species have 3 eyes?
>I mean what is the evolutionary advantage?
>Do they all function?
>Do they all see the same sort of spectrum?
Three-eyed species are apparently common in the Hlaka's home regions of
space. There is no real "reason," any more than why humans should have five
digits on each hand/foot instead of four or six. The Hlaka themselves claim
that their vision is sharper than any human's, and they sometimes play a
game which involves seeing and successfully identifying very small objects
at great distances. This may or may not be due to the three-eye feature.
Yes, these eyes are functional. They do not operate independently from one
another, however, but work together, as a human's two eyes do.
As far as I know, they all see the same spectrum.
Regards,
Phil
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//861
[Moderator's Note: Joe Saul comments on the casual Tekumel subject. Your ]
[ idea sounds like a godd one, though. ]
> Has anyone ever come up with a casual Tekumel game?
Well, I've got a great idea for a Tekumel card game -- "Kolumejalim: War for
the Petal Throne," about the recent civil war. Could even work as a CCG, but
the market isn't there for CCGs at the moment. If there's enough interest,
maybe I'll do it up in a Cheapass Games-like format (photocopied, no illos).
It's not a high-priority project, though.
> [Moderator's Note: I don't know if you would call it casual, but we used ]
> [ to have what we called spell wars. Two extremely pow-]
Congratulations! You've just re-invented "War of Wizards!" ;-)
[Moderator's Note: Well, we modified it. WoW had counters, map sheets, a ]
[ rules book, etc. We played spell wars with no paper, no]
[ counters, not even a spell list, just 3 people ]
[ (minimally) and our imaginations. ]
Joe
//862
[Moderator's Note: I have wrapped up numerous responses on the Food of the ]
[ Ssu into this one message. Edward Bornstein, Professor ]
[ Barker (to two different sets of questions, and Joe Saul]
[ all comment to one of the questions raised in the series]
[ of Food of the Ssu question. ]
Edward writes...
Regarding the so-called 'Food of the Ssu', all of you are neglecting an
important aspect.
I have it on excellent authority [1] that a major, if not almost exclusive,
part of the diet of the Ssu is the flesh of naughty children.
Throughout the Five Empires, disobedient, defiant, and otherwise ignoble
children are carried away in the night and never seen again.
Kasi Meshqu
:-)}
[1] if you can't trust your clanmothers, who can you trust?
--
Professor Barker writes...
The Food of the Ssu is indeed used by the assassin clans, as well as by
others Joe names below. I don't recall clearly, but my impression is that
the toxin is strongly alkali, but with unknown ingredients that render it
truly lethal. There are several "species" of this stuff, and all do not act
quite the same.
Moderator's Note: Joe Saul writes on the Food of the Ssu. ]
>
>>The Ssu are considered horrid and unclean by most humans, and this would
>>preclude followers of Chiteng and Hrihayal from making use of the stuff.
>>The Tsolyani deities consider their practices to be "noble"; it would be
>>very "ignoble" to rub somebody's face in the Food of the Ssu!
>
>If I remember correctly, though, Food of the Ssu is listed as a toxin usable
>in assassination attempts. Will the assassin clans use it, or is that
>restricted to people operating completely outside civilized rules (e.g.
>Pariah Deity worshippers, Haida Pakalani) or inimical nonhumans?
>
>[Moderator's Note: As I remember it, a Sarku (was it a soldier or priest?) ]
>[ pushed someone into a Food of the Ssu plant in MoG. Or ]
>[ is my memory failing???? My guess is that there are ]
>[ those who would use it. ]
>Joe
There are. Just as there are people on this planet who would cheerfully use
Anthrax if they could devise and build a delivery system. In "Man of Gold"
the victim was more or less accidentally pushed off a Sakbe road into a
patch of the stuff. It was thus not used as a "weapon."
[Moderator's Note: He may have been accidentally pushed off, but according ]
[ to what Harsan saw, someone used a staff or spear to push]
[ the person's face into the plant, thus assuring that he ]
[ would die. (See Joe's comment below.) ]
Regards,
Phil
--
Professor Barker further states...
>>[Moderator's Note: So why did the Priests of Ksarul develop the Food of Ssu]
>>[ temple spell? Was it simply because it is a good offen-]
>>[ sive and defensive spell? The plants are particularly ]
>>[ good weapons, since they are highly toxic and have a ]
>>[ high fear value. They also end up going away at the end]
>>[ of the duration, so they won't stay and cause long term ]
>>[ problems. I would imagine that any substance removed/ ]
>>[ collected from the plant would disappear at the duration]
>>[ of the spell, too. Just wondering. ]
The scholar-priests of Ksarul have connections with some very unpleasant
secret societies and social strata. They developed the spell in order to
create fear and loathing in their opponents, just like the invention and
use of poison gas here on Terra. They use this weapon more as a threat than
as a reality, although it does serve well to deter opponents in the
Underworlds. The usual form of this spell does have a danger, however: if
it is used in a space too small to hold all of the created "food," it rolls
backward upon the sender. Other known varieties do not do this. Some,
moreover do not create the same species of the "food" as the others. The
assassin clans and the inner membership of the Ndalu Clan keep these dark
secrets on pain of death.
The "food" is also very useful in distracting parties of Ssu. Some will
stop to "brunch" and stop chasing human foes.
[Moderator's Note: Hmm, I have never thought that it would work that way ]
[ before. Interesting to be on the run from a pack of ]
[ Ssu, and ploop! There's a picnic. I would think that]
[ they wouldn't go for it. But it is an interesting ]
[ idea. ]
The spell creates the "food." It does not open a dimensional door to any
planet where the stuff exists -- this would probably pull in all sorts of
unwanted stuff (e.g. soil, rocks, other vegetation -- an ocean?). The
creation is done by the same moulding of energy into matter that is used to
create human food, beings, and other substances. When the matrix can no
longer hold together, the stuff dissipates, except under special
circumstances. This is symbolised by the "expiration times" (= "lasts 2
turns," etc.) in the rules. The "disenchant" spells are useful; they get
rid of such other-planar substances by creating vibrations that destroy the
consistency of the spell matrix. THese "vibrations" are imperceptible to
humans and other non-spell-created beings.
Regards,
Phil
--
Joe Saul adds...
>[Moderator's Note: As I remember it, a Sarku (was it a soldier or priest?) ]
>[ pushed someone into a Food of the Ssu plant in MoG. Or ]
>[ is my memory failing???? My guess is that there are ]
>[ those who would use it. ]
I'd call the guy an intelligence operative. The victim had already jumped
off the Sakbe road and landed in a patch of the stuff face down. The agent
merely held his face down in the plants with a staff tip at the back of his
head.
Joe
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//863
[Moderator's Note: Scott Maxwell and Giovanna Fregni respond to the dogs on]
[ Tekumel topic. ]
Scott Maxwell writes...
As a companion to the dog question, I'd surmise that cats would be limited
to short, wire hair type cats and sphynx (hairless) type cats. The wire
type hair was used in the late 1800s by scientists discussing evolution. It
was originally thought that the wire coat was an evolutionary change in the
breed for warm weather climates, but it was discovered that the mousers on
the ships would change into wire haired cats over the period of a month or
two of extremely hot weather.
As to the hairless variety (I personally own two of them), hairlessness is a
very common mutation among cats and has been kept relatively rare because of
the colder climates (among other things). There are three known cases or
spontaneous mutation in North America in the past 20 years where the
hairless gene has bred fairly true. Then there is at least another
spontaneous hairless mutation coming out of Russia. Now these are all I
know of right now and it seems strange that there are not herds of hairless
cats in india and the Arabian Peninsula, but maybe there are, I don't know.
Anyhow, The inclusion of hairless cats might make a tie in to the Mihalli.
Maybe the "myth" of the Mihalli might be explained as an anthropomorphized
sphynx type cat. Maybe the Tekumeli equivelent of Puss-n-boots was a
sphynx. I'm just brainstorming now, but the inclusion of sphynx type cats
on Tekumel (even if they were hunted down as "unclean" or whatever) could be
used by scholars to many ends.
--
Giovanna Fregni writes...
I thought I'd throw in a couple of comments here. Having my bestiary at hand, I
thought I could make some suggestions.
>The Terrier group is represented by an Airedale analogue.
That's a scary thought. Phil had a crazed Airedale until he passed away a
couple years ago. I don't know that Phil would immortalize Cyrus on Tekumel
as sane working type dog. Of course, that is up to Phil. How about the good
old black lab? (Phil owned one of those, too). I don't know if the long
fur theory would hold up, since hma and hmelu and other animals do have
longer coats.
It is interesting to look at the various art renderings of Renyu. I used a
German Shepherd as my 'model'. Other artists have leaned toward other breeds.
I would think that over time, dog breeds intermixed and and the resulting
mongrel would tend to look like the generic shepherd/collie mix, or
something on the order of the dingo. I doubt that we'd see any really
identifiable AKC type breeds, simply because pedigreed dogs today are bred
for conformation rather than health or longevity. Anyone who's owned a
larger dog knows about the problems of displasia, especially in dogs that
are pedigreed.
I recall one party member had something on the order of a yappy little lap
dog, so there would be small pet dogs. But for the most part dogs would be
working animals, probably bred indescriminantly as far as looks go. It might
be a good idea to see what dogs generally look like in countries like India
or in South America where there is little pressure to have a specific breed.
>I have
>no idea of what the dogs are called on Tekumel . Any body know what the
>breeds are called and common names for pets on Tekumel?
Dogs are Tle'kku. Cats are Tiu'ni. There's also a six legged wild dog type
animal called a Hyahyu'u. OK, it's dog-like if you ignore the extra legs,
third eye, bat-like ears and spines...
>Do ferrets exist on Tekumel? Are they used in this manner? Is it common?
There is a ferret type animal, the Kite' (AKA, the Little Whirlwind). It is
six legged with a beaky face and bushy tail. I don't know if any have ever
been domesticated, they're supposed to be pretty feisty.
>Does anybody know just how smart a Kuni bird is?
Kuni birds have limited intelligence compared to humans, but are far and
away more intelligent than Terran birds. Probably less intelligent than
a Hlaka, they can be trained to speak intelligently but with a limited
vocabulary. According to the Bestiary, they can be used for
reconnaissance work.
>You think this letter is boring? Just wait for my letter where I file
>the serial numbers off of Traditional Chinese Medicine and make it the
>Tekumel Healthcare System!!
OK, as amateur herbalist, and having some familiarity with Traditional
Chinese Medicine, you're on.
Giovanna Fregni
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//864
[Moderator's Note: Joe Saul adds his comments on the Reality of Tekumel ]
[ thread. ]
Bear with me; there's a point here, and it's an important one.
As an undergraduate, I studied cellular and molecular biology. I am trained
as, among other things, a research scientist. I believe in, and understand
how to apply, what is commonly called the "scientific method." I have also
studied Northern Shaolin Kung Fu. In that context, I have learned about
"Chi," how it flows, and how to "project" it (not in the sense of the "hitting
people ten feet away from you" stuff, but how to impact upon someone with
maximum force).
Nothing in my scientific experience remotely justifies or explains "chi."
But only a fool would reject something that *works*. So I accepted that,
whether chi exists as a mystical flow of energy or not, it's a damn good way
of thinking about use of your body in the martial arts, and you can benefit
from accepting the concept and working with it. (And for all I know it
really *does* exist and we just haven't explained it yet. Acupuncture, after
all, has been shown to work on *animals*...)
Whether Prof. Barker and others actually channel Tekumel information from
another plane, or they just use that as a metaphor for letting the Tekumel-
handling part of their subconscious do its job, the results are the same: a
beautifully elaborate, remarkably consistent, world that we all enjoy. I see
no reason why we should be arguing about it, and less reason why we should
be criticizing each other over it.
[Moderator's Note: I don't think they were criticizing, just expressing a ]
[ healthy skepticism. But, I am sure it could be inter- ]
[ preted that way. In any case, I am not sure that is ]
[ what the writers were trying to convey. I think Joe is]
[ right on this, enjoy it no matter how it comes to us. ]
Accept it (as fact or metaphor), work with it, and enjoy Tekumel. All else
is silliness.
Joe Saul
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//865
[Moderator's Note: Multiple responses about Cows on Tekumel get summarized in]
[ this message. Peter Huston, Professor Barker,
Peter Huston writes.
The cows are mentioned in EPT p. 54 top of the second column.
[Moderator's Note: I found the line. What it says is that the descendent of ]
[ the cow came to Tekumel. Who's to say what genetic engin-]
[ eering and tens of thousands of years have done to the ]
[ present day cow? ]
Try the zoo in Avanthar, huh? ya know, and I think it's closed, there used
to be this really neat little zoo in NYC's Central Park where city children
could go and look at the different farm animals. Surely, this cannot be
coincidential. What is it? a nexus point, pocket universe, literary
borrowing? C'mon fess up.
[Moderator's Note: See the note from Professor Barker below. Would this ]
[ face, er keyboard lie to you??? ;) ]
Peter Huston
--
Professor Barker writes.
[Moderator's Note: Peter Huston writes about Cows on Tekumel. ]
>Did I ask this before or not? Another discrepancy which has always irked me
>is EPT says there are cows on Tekumel. The Sourcebook says definitely not.
Discrepancies should not "irk" a noble and kindly person. They should be
forgiven as being part and parcel of the human condition.
>Pete Huston
>
>(Too tired to make a clever pun about Mooooooooo! "ugalavya!)
>
>[Moderator's Note: I just gave a very cursory glance to the EPT book and I]
>[ couldn't find a reference to cows. I don't have the ]
>[ book in electronic form , so I can't scan for it. You ]
>[ are correct in that the Sourcebook says no cows or pigs]
>[ were brought to Tekmuel. However, there is always an ]
>[ exception. The Imperial Zoological collection (located]
>[ in Avanthar--right Phil?) has numerous beasts that were]
>[ never really brought to Tekumel. It has a horse or 2 ]
>[ as I remember, and could have a cow and/or a pig. ]
>--
The Imperial zoo in Avanthar had two Bazhaq -- they had a pair, but the
female died. There is a female calf, however. These were brought back from
Tane. There is also a pair of wild horses there, but both are stallions.
They were brought back by an unnamed expedition far into the western oceans
-- way out beyond Tane. Nobody has ever thought of a use for these
mettlesome animals. I think there is a cow there, too, although my memory
is not of much use any more. The cow's milk is not considered as good as
thicker, creamier Hmelu milk. A few Imperial nobles have taken to acquiring
small vials of this milk to use in magical potions, aphrodisiacs, and the
like. The Chancery has expressly forbidden any Pygmy Folk who carry steak
knives...
Some of you will recall that once a lady D-n-D player insisted on
transporting a dragon and a hobbit over to Tekumel. After many objections,
I finally gave in. These creatures became a nine-day wonder. Both were
exhibited in the zoo of the Governor of Jakalla. I think the hobbit
eventually died of loneliness, but the dragon might still be alive.
[Moderator's Note: I remember that you had mentioned to me that there was a]
[ hobbit on Tekumel on display in the Zoo at Jakalla. I ]
[ guess he has now been moved to a Museum... ]
Regards,
Phil
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//866
[Moderator's Note: Joe Hoopman responds about the food of the Ssu. ]
The Food of the Ssu incident did happen in Man of Gold, but it was more of
an opportunistic use than a carefully thought-out plan. I don't have my
copy of MoG at work with me, so I can't give all of the details, but as I
recall, one of the (Yan Koryani?) agents sent to accompany Harsan from Bey
Su jumped from the Sakbe road in an attempt to escape the Worm Lord's agents
and had the misfortune to land in a patch of the stuff. Then, someone took
a wooden pole and, rather than trying to get him out of the patch, shoved
his face squarely in. (In fact, although I'd have to check the book again
to be sure, I'm pretty sure that it was a fellow Yan Koryani who wielded the
pole, presumably to make sure that the one who jumped couldn't answer any
inconvenient questions.)
(And given that the man killed by the Food of the Ssu was subsequently
impaled, it doesn't look like there were any really great threads left in
his Skein at that point . . .)
(Yes, I did just reread the novels. They're on the short list of books I
reread frequently and actively recommend to as many people as possible.)
Joe Hoopman
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//867
[Moderator's Note: Robert Goldman adds to the Dogs on Tekumel thread. ]
I enjoyed reading Mike Wayne's speculations on dogs on Tekumel, but
I tend to think that Mike's being too conservative.
Dog breeds have changed radically even in the very short time between
the present day and medieval Europe. This period of time is
infinitesimal when compared with the time distance between the present
day and the "present day" in Tekumel. I would bet on wildly different
breeds. Especially when one takes into account the genetic
sophistication that was enough to bring synthetic humanoids (e.g.,
Qol) into existence...
Think what kind of herding dog it would take to protect Hma from
Hyahyu'u! Or even *begin* to nudge Chlen into the right direction!
Cheers,
Robert
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//868
[Moderator's Note: Rogher McCarthy wants to know more about the lands to the]
[ west, and has some ideas about Chlen hide weapons. ]
Couple of things that came up after several weeks spent absorbing the
Sourcebook and S&G volume 2:
I'm quite interested in the new lands in the west that popped into existence
when the Gardasiyal map was released:
1) The Naqsai down in the SW are IIRC mentioned as trading with the Chima in
the Bestiary - can the professor tell us any more about them ?
2) The Sourcebook also has a tantalising mention of the land of Tane
somewhere off the west end of the map - has anyone got any more information
on them ?
3) As a more general question while in some ways it's kinda cool for us to
actually not know very much more about the rest of off-map Tekumel than any
well-informed Tsolyani scholar would, presumably the professor and the
best-travelled of his players must have something resembling a full-world
map - has the professor any plans for this sort of information to be
released in the foreseeable future ?
My final question is about Chlen-hide weapons - given that they are much
lighter than iron or bronze weapons shouldn't they do much less damage ?
Maybe there's a medieval combat recreationist out there who can support or
disprove this point but given that a melee weapon is supposed to deliver the
maximum amount of kinetic force at the point of impact surely the weight of
the weapon itself must be a significant factor ( I really can't believe that
hitting somebody with the equivalent of a plastic sword can possibly do as
much damage as hitting them with an identically shaped metal one ?)
Again an archer might be able to answer this but would a chlen-tipped arrow,
quarrel or javelin have different range and other flight characteristics to
a metal-tipped one as well as doing different levels of damage ?
If this is true, then it could offer an explanation for the fantastic
designs of most Tekumelani bladed weapons - while these would be impractical
and regarded as a scandalous waste of good metal on earth, a chlen-hide
blade can actually use more square inches of material while still weighing
only half as much as a sensibly-shaped Terran metal broadsword AND if it is
still going to cause less damage however you design it, then you would
expect fighting styles to develop which aim to use hooked and serrated
weapons to disarm, wound and capture rather than kill enemies (which is
going to be quite difficult if they're armoured anyway).
The closest analogy would of course be with Aztec and Mayan warfare where
the primary aims were to display one's skill and bravery and to subdue and
capture enemy warriors for sacrifice - so that even quite
formidable-looking weapons of wood, stone and obsidian ended up doing
limited damage to relatively lightly armoured and armed Spaniards who fought
to kill.
Quite apart from rulesy questions about what damage chlen-hide weapons
should do compared to bronze and steel equivalents and whether someone only
trained to use chlen-hide weapons should have a negative modifier when
employing a much heavier metal one (particularly if for aesthetic reasons
your metal sword is designed to look and be used just like the chlen-hide
ones) this has some interesting consequences - for a start the great
majority of battle casualties must be disarmed and lightly wounded prisoners
rather than dead or severely wounded. This raises logistical problems - yes
you can probably use many of your prisoners as porters after a battle and
sell or sacrifice them at the end of a campaign but you'll still have to
guard and feed them for the duration.
Running away must also be considerably easier for someone dressed in the
equivalent of plastic armour - particularly if there's no mounted enemy
cavalry to pursue and round you up (and in most circumstances someone
running for his life and liberty is going to outrun an equally fatigued
pursuer who has to hang on to his own weapons and shield and only has honour
and perhaps greed to spur him on).
Given the formalised and ritual nature of Tekumelani warfare would ransoming
and exchanging prisoners not be a more sensible option in most situations ?
(particularly after a qadarni-battle) - as both the Germans and Russians
discovered in the last world war getting a reputation for systematically
killing or enslaving your prisoners only encourages the enemy to fight to
the last ditch and the last bullet. And if so, what sort of conventions and
laws of war exist about POWs and ransom ? Is surrender or running away
regarded as the more ignoble act ? and what happens in a duel or ritual
battle if one is disarmed - are you allowed to rearm and fight on ? etc
All of which brings home to me again just what a weird and wonderful world
Tekumel is and how we need to completely rethink all the Fantasy RPGing
conventions when venturing there....
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//869
[Moderator's Note: Gavin Reid describes the casual way his group(s) enjoy ]
[ Tekumel. ]
I think the way that we played Tekumel (currently in abeyance due to child
pressures) was probably pretty beer and pretzels. EPT was the first RPG I ever
played, back in 1975 and certain things made a great impression:
1) My first GM made sure we did not see the book (apart from the odd picture)
so there was a real sense of mystery and the unknown and a huge world to
explore.
[Moderator's Note: Gavin, when I first started playing RPGs, our GM did the]
[ same thing. We didn't even roll our own dice. Every- ]
[ thing was a mystery to us. It was quite fun. ]
2) The names of animals, the Gods etc had such a strong flavour that they
created a really intense fantasy atmosphere.
Our group then moved onto D&D which was interesting but far too rules bound and
limited (I am also a wargamer so I am quite happy with rules but in the right
place and in my view they were irrelevant to good fantasy gaming) so I started
to GM a different group assembled to play Petal including a few other D&D
rebels. After one successful experience we always held the games in a pub
lubricated with lots of beer (no pretzels). The aim, which was pretty
successful with a very mixed group (many with no other gaming experience), was
to maximise flavour and atmosphere and keep it fun. No one except me saw the
book, and the map was fairly secret. The box cover and pictures were the main
stimulants to imagination (apart from the beer). We always played foreigners
who always knew their place at the bottom of the Tsolyani pile - quite
literally in the average Jakalla flop house.
The next EPT artefact was the infamous Book of Ebon Bindings, which had a
serious effect on play - we found the strange twists of the Professor's
imagination and his beautiful turns of phrase hugely conducive to evocative
play, The Scythe of Flame and the Lord of the Legions of the Despairing Dead
being two favourites. Making the party or members thereof chant out the
supplications to Ruutlanesh in a crowded pub had a particularly gratifying
effect. (In passing I should confess we also tried D&D again inspired by the
original City State of the Invincible Overlord. By deleting the magic system,
the combat system and every other system except character generation, by
creating a suite of gods along the lines of Tekumel's - I have to confess I
purloined Ssrykarum and made him a God of Blood Boltered Battle - and by
moving the action outdoors in a semi-coherent mediaeval society it turned into
an excellent game.) Combined with the Swords & Glory Volumes 1 & 2 from GS it
helped to develop a "mythic" style of play where the aim was to use the maps,
the names and the hints of mysteries and strange places to wrap them into a
legend rather than to indulge in the niceties of Tsolyani society. Key
features were:
Players remained foreigners so they were bottom of the social heap at all times
and were always pawns of greater forces, ranging from Gods to the Tsolyani
officer who conscripted them into a moat filling Tsurum. This led to a certain
loathing of the arrogant Tsolyani which was only mitigated when they fought the
Fascists (I think an accurate use of the term) of Muugalavya or were used by
the devious Livyani
Various devices were then used to make this worth playing and put them into the
most interesting parts of Tekumel, like making them part of the working out of
an ancient Poem of Destiny, putting them through demonic gates etc.
Their actions would often have significant effects (like causing the fall of
Khirgar, which delighted them in view of their treatment by the Tsolyani) but
without it being their aim.
Player aims varied - for example the main aim of one was to learn more of the
Lament to the Wheel of Black, which was granted as he helped to work out a
Qonic Poem of Destiny.
Players never saw sourcebooks or rules (though they did read Man of Gold and
Flamesong); I was the only EPT GM (I played in our {d&d} games) so knowledge
could not carry over from GM to player. The effects of spells had to be worked
out by trial and error since only the name was known (ie the Affable Blight of
Lord Uni); each mission or session would normally start with a "Rumourpak" -
a collection of assorted facts, mostly collected from the Sourcebook, plus a
few things relevant to the mission at hand. Some would be serious ie "Metlunel
III, Seal Emperor 1407-58 was known, for reasons unknown, as "He Who Thirsts",
which was the key to the whole mission, others less so such as The Priestly
Party are incensed following the public consumption, yet again, of priestesses
of the Blue Goddess by Ahoggya from the Legion of Guruggma while passing
through Bey Sy."
Though we moved out of the pub into houses as we got older and more job bound
we always tried to keep the sessions convivial, and did not accept players
plotting against each other. We found one or two players would hog the GM's
time and the atmosphere would sour.
The net effect of all this was that I did have to work pretty hard, know as
much about Tekumel as possible and try to create a coherent legend-like story
line based on my vision of the Prof's world. Clearly it was not "realistic"
Tekumel but I think it captured a lot of the feeling of Tekumel. The players
could absorb the story, soak up the world and contribute hugely to a "fun"
experience without fussing about rules or trying to dominate the game
background to inflate their egos. We found that when it worked well, which it
did most of the time, it made for very memorable gaming.
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.
//870
[Moderator's Note: Bob Alberti offers up some info on the topic of the ]
[ placement of Hlaka eyes. Hey everyone, there tons more ]
[ stuff, and I will have vacation starting Dec/12/98 and ]
[ won't return to work until Jan/4/99. So I will be put- ]
[ stuff out hot and heavy over the vacation. ]
>Why do Hlaka and the related species have 3 eyes?
>I mean what is the evolutionary advantage?
>Do they all function?
>Do they all see the same sort of spectrum?
I thought the answer to this one was obvious: an airborne species is would
have an advantage by having true 3D trinocular vision rather than our
flat-plane binocular vision. The triangular arrangement of Hlaka eyes
means that they can see, process, and navigate in X, Y and Z-axes better
than any human ever could.
-----
Chris Davis Moderator, The Blue Room blueroom@prin.edu
The Blue Room's FTP site: http://nexus.prin.edu or ftp://nexus.prin.edu
Available 24 hours a day, except when my PC is down, or unavailable.