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 12 331: More Magic and Metal 332: Some Questions on Salarvyani 333: New Netbooks released 334: What You Need to Play Tekumel 335: Keys and Wards to the Blue Room 336: Information on Sharetlyal 337: Ghaton 338: Lisutl root 339: Weight of Non-Humans 340: Questions about Tekumel's Planes 341: Military Priests 342: A Recent Adventure 343: More on Weight of Non-Humans 344: More on Weight of Non-Humans 345: Blasphemous Accelerators 346: More Keys and Wards to the Blue Room 347: Engsvanyali Grammar and Font Questions 348: More on Weight of Non-Humans 349: Ditlana 350: Guarding Clan Warehouses 351: Other Languages 352: Another View of A Recent Adventure 353: Maps and Such-Like 354: Administrivia 355: More Ditlana 356: Incentives for Advancement 357: Harsan 358: Maps and High Cartography 359: Meshqu 360: More High Cartography ************************************* //331 [Moderator's Note: I was speaking with a fellow listmember who remembered ] [ a story Phil related to him about mages and metal. Phil] [ comments on the story afterward. ] >Heh. The Professor has a story about a mage who climbed up inside a >tunkul-gong (bronze, of course!), didn't know where he was, and cast a >light spell to find out. Fired the gong a fair distance, I recall, and >didn't survive the experience. (It's probably not worth posting this to >the list, but when I saw Lisa's question I was sure he was going to >mention the story...) That embarrassing episode happened to a new player playing Tekumel for the first time at a convention. He had little idea of what would happen, and I didn't penalise him overly much -- quickly allowed a much higher level mage with the party to revive him. Tekumel can be a dangerous place... Magic in the role-playing game is much more common and accessible than it is on "real" Tekumel. It has to be, in order to keep player-characters alive and functioning! For a better idea of the balance, look at the two novels. 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. //332 [Moderator's Note: The Professor responds to some questions about the ] [ Salarvyani font. ] [ My address has changed, for any of you wanting to ] [ register netbooks. Please use: ] [ Chris Davis ] [ 45 Auburndale Drive ] [ Creve Coeur, MO. 63141-7300 ] The Salarvyani font was one of my first attempts with Fontographer. It now needs to be gone over and redone -- which I don't have time for at the moment! There are charactes on the lower-case, upper-case, option, and option-shift key spaces. There are certainly characters somewhere in there for "ts," "ss," "ch," etc. All I can advise is to look at the Salarvyani font in the old Zocchi Sourcebook (pp. 132-133) and try! >>I forgot on my last post to ask, whether Salarvyani, is read, left to right, >or >>right to left, and whether Salarvyani has Initial, Medial, and Final >>characters. If it does have all three, then Iam going to have to bug Phil >>for those characters as well. Salarvyani is written from right to left -- you'll have to use a "reversed" font, using a graphic programme (like Aldus Superpaint). As I think i have said, I make "reverse' copies of my fonts by flipping them horizontally with Fontographer. I type a document left- to-right and then go into Aldus Superpaint and flip the whole thing horizontally. This gives me a neat right-to-left piece! As for initial, medial, and final -- no, Salarvyani does not have these! It *does* have "big" and "little" letters, however. The big letters are joined on the line, while the little letters are appended as prefixes and suffixes (somewhat like Japanese Hiragana, Katakana, and Congi). This makes the font damned near unusable except by the Salarvyani themselves, who merrily go along putting up with it! I hope this helps. One of these days I shall have to write out what little I know about Salarvyani. It is a difficult language, and I must admit that I don't find it esthetically very pleasing. But... it's a difference of opinion that makes horseracing... 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. //333 Sorry if some of you got this message twice, I stopped transmission to add one more item... Hello everyone! It is another wonderful day for the Blue Room Mailing List. The Professor has worked very hard and as a result, we have some more new netbooks. (BTW, thanks to everyone who has registered Deeds and Engsvan hla Ganga). There have been many, but I would like to implore that those who haven't registered, please do! If the registrations don't come in, the flow of new stuff will stop. (A Note for those who register via the UK address, please include a small note saying what you've registered, so that can be passed to me via Snail Mail for book-keeping purposes.) Enough of that! I have just put up 3 new Grammars that the Professor has written. The first is a grammar of Yan Koryani. Registration Price: $4.00 (US) 16 pages The second is a grammar of Livyani. Registration Price: $6.00 (US) 26 pages And the third, just off the press, is a grammar of Engsvanyali. Registration Price: $8.00 (US) 49 pages If any of you have trouble reading the Acrobat files, make sure that you downloaded them as BINARY files. Some FTP clients are not smart enough to figure out that they are binary files. Thank you Professor, for all the hard work. There is only 1 version of each of these files (trying to escape the 3 different versions we have used in the past), an Adobe Acrobat PDF file. You can download the Acrobat Reader from the Blue Room Web site, http://nexus.prin.edu or see http://www.adobe.com/acrobate/readstep.html. If you can't deal with this new format, get in touch with me and we'll explore the possibilities. I'll get back to processing messages tomorrow (Saturday). Chris ----- 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. //334 [Moderator's Note: Bob Alberti offers up his opinion of what you need to run] [ a Tekumel Campaign. This is a reprint of a message he ] [ posted to the newsgroup. ] What you need to play Tekumel: 1) a game map 2) two ten sided dice 3) the novels 4) any sort of game book -- from Adventures in Tekumel to the original Sourcebooks -- in order to get lists of the Temples and their spells, and maybe the names of some of the most important people just in case you need to rescue them from certain doom. 5) a lick of common sense All the other crap -- character stats, encumbrances, combat rules, etcetera, are the tools of the rules-lawyer, and not worth the attention of dignified persons. How to play: Read any printed material you have -- the novels, gamebooks, etcetera -- to get the basics of the game understood. To wit, you're playing characters in a Highly-Stratified, Very Class-Conscious Society. The fact that the Gods are demonstrably real, combined with a recorded history some ten times lengthier than our own, has given the humans on this planet a unique world-view. They don't think that they're God's Chosen to Rule the Universe. They don't believe that the goal of the individual is to Strive Eternally for Power, Wealth and Glory. Instead, they are very conscious of the importance of fulfilling one's role and one's place. To the Tsolyani, Horatio Alger is a crass social climber. Part of one's role may be unpleasant. For instance, it is considered crass for Really High Nobles to know the minutiae of their daily lives. How many slaves do they own? Enough. How far is it to this other city? Depends on my mood, maybe its far or close. Other examples: if you're a priest of Karakan or Ksarul, you may be called upon to conduct a sacrifice. This sacrifice may not always be of a grim warrior marching nobly to the end his role demands: it may be a screaming, kicking four-year-old peasant girl crying, "Help, Mommy! Please, mighty lord, don't kill me! I don't want to die!" Pick up the knife... If you don't fulfill your role, you can lose your job and be shunned by all who know you for your ignoble behavior. Good and evil are relative here -- if you fulfill your role, you're "good". Noble. If you fail, you're "bad", ignoble. Killing that little peasant girl is what society, your family, and your god expect of you. Fulfill your role. These nations have Rigid and Conservative societies. Any innovation your players might come up with as "inventions" (i.e. Hey! Let's invent gunpowder!") will threaten the already-emplaced element of society which fulfills that functional role (i.e. The Vimuhla Military Priests, the agricultural clans responsible for stump-clearing, etcetera). The Secret Police are everywhere. The Livyani have the Vru'uneb, the Mu'ugalavyani have the Mourners in Sable, the Tsolyani have the Omnipotent Azure Legion, and the Temples all have their own agents. Spies are everywhere. Your players may themselves be assigned to spy on the party by their superiors. Because of this high degree of monitoring, overt violence (especially temple vs. temple violence which would violate the Concordat, the nonconflict agreement between the temples and enforced by the Empire) is Caught and Punished. Unless your clan is rich, punishment is usually Impalement. If your rich clan saves your hide, they may not be very happy with you. However, the Concordat does not hold in the wilderness or underground, so watch your back in those places. Clan is everything. Clans are your family. Families raise the children mutually in a shared living-space or clanhouse. You can visit other cities and stay with your clansmen there, even if they've never heard of you. As long as your papers show you're a clanmember in good standing you will be housed in the dormitories or private rooms (if you're important), fed, and protected to some degree. But if you piss off your clan they can withdraw their support -- if they kick you out of the clan, you're "Nakome", clanless. If that happens, forget it. Someone could find you in a dark alley, slit your throat, and nobody would care. Your loyalty is usually to your immediate family (spouse and kids), clan, temple and nation, but these can all vary. The Emperor owns everything. If a representative of the Omnipotent Azure Legion (OAL) says "Give me that, in the name of the Empire", you better give it and smile. Later you can get your clan or temple to register a complaint and take things "through channels", but when it's you versus the OAL, the OAL wins. Okay, so you have a map, so you know where you are. You have dice to resolve any questions (01-10 good, 90-00 bad, use common sense). You know that you operate within a web of interdependent forces -- you want THIS, but your wife wants THAT, but your clan wants THIS OTHER THING and your temple wants SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY. Meanwhile the Empire has made it clear that nobody should even try ANY OF THAT. Your Temple comes to you and says "We want SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY. If you go get it for us, we'll promote you, reward you, and give you title to some land over here. If you don't, well, there's a position in the Swamps of Purdimal waiting to be filled..." What do you do next? ----- Another repost ----- >One thing >I have learned while playing in the world of Tekumel is that being alive >is probably a crime. I hope I can correct your perception of the Tsolyani. They are NOT, by and large, possessed of "inherent bloodlust", nor of the opinion that "being alive is a crime." The legal system in the Empire is strict, but it is not Pol Pot. Punishment is harsh, but it is only meted out when warranted. If Tsolyani citizens, even nakome, feared for their lives upon stepping out into the street, commerce and industry could not be maintained. The reason Tsolyanu may LOOK "bloodthirsty" at first glance is probably because the nature of role-playing games is to place characters into "nonconforming" situations. Few people enjoy role-playing peasants, administrators or guards going about their daily routine (well, few people do -- we actually tried it for a while and it was a refreshing change from saving the world). Bickering about where to dig the latrines, who should dig them, and whether they should be close to the river or farther up the hill simply doesn't make for fun gaming. So players tend to be engage in questionable, if not outright illegal activities. In Tsolyanu raiding a tomb is highly illegal, and will in addition annoy the tomb-robbing clans, the tomb guards (whose bribes from the tomb-robbing clans will be interrupted if the tombs are disturbed by outsiders), and the posterty of those in the tombs. But how many basic Tsolyani adventures are set in the Underworld? A lot! Another factor in this perception is "place". The Tsolyani expect people to perform their roles, and frown upon nonconformity. But what is the adventurer but a nonconformist? You're supposed to join the clan business, marry the girl-next-door, and produce little ones who scurry about the clanhouse -- what are you doing wandering around in those grimy tsuru'um with a bunch of ignoble scum from other temples!? So the adventurer in Tsolyanu is automatically in conflict with the whole society. If you disagree with society long enough you will be at first urged to cease your conflicting activities, then punished, and finally done away with if your nonconformity persists. But, really, the "average Tsolyani" is just as peaceable and kindly as you or I. The average Tsolyani is perfectly happy to marry the girls or boys next door, to fulfill their role in the clan or temple, to seek acceptable measures of gain and advancement which bring respect and reward, and to avoid the attention of the Imperial legal system. For contrast, look around you. Our "adventurers" rob banks, or run drugs, or slay people who have insulted their honor -- we call them criminals. After three drug offenses we imprison them forever. However, if they slay someone, we release them in about seven or eight years as long as they can show the least provocation. A Tsolyani would think our system arbitrary and insane, and would find our madness confirmed in the crime which riddles our cities. Are we "bloodthirsty"? How many people will die to violence on fictional TV programs tonight? Is it a crime to be alive? How many poor, minorities, or immigrants are hassled, harassed, illegally arrested or imprisoned? If our minority population can be considered "nakome" for a moment, what is their ratio of rates of imprisonment? No, from the point-of-view of the "average Tsolyani" life is about doing your job, pleasing your friends, family and bosses, looking forwards to the spring celebrations and the autumn harvests, and trying to enjoy your brief stay upon the planet. And in many ways their society is more sane and stable then our own. Or do you really think the Western way-of-life is going to be largely the same as it is now in the year 21996? -- Bob Alberti Bastard Nation alberti@freenet.msp.mn.us Reunited Adoptee ----- 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. //335 [Moderator's Note: New listmember Mike Parrish asks about the Keys and ] [ Wards protecting the Blue Room. Note: Professor, I ] [ added a query in the middle of your reply. To all, ] [ sorry if the last post was a repeat, I just think it ] [ has some excellent advice in it. ] >"Three of these keys are known now: one is in the High Temple of Ksarul >in Bey Su, another is in the possession of a certain young priest of >Ksarul, and the third is kept in a crystal cave in the Hall of Dripping >Doom in the House of Tenebrous Sighs in the Palace of Bassa, King of the >Black Ssu, on the other side of Tekumel. The locations of the others are >not known." >KEYS and WARDS: >1> What form do these keys take? The "keys" are of several different shapes, as crafted by each of the ten deities who set them in place. The best description I have is of the key in the possession of the Ksarul priest (from whom, rumour says, it has now been stolen by much higher powers). This key is about eleven inches long, made of dark blue metal. It looks rather like a screwdriver: a bulbous "handle" from which a round shaft extends out to a "blade" made up of complex planes, angles, and surfaces, all about an inch in diametre. The handle has tiny glyphs running in bands down its length. These are said to be in one of the tongues of the Great Ancients (or the Latter Times?) and are quite unreadable today. The key in the temple of Ksarul is one of their greatest treasures, and no one is permitted to see it. What the key held by the Ssu looks like I cannot say: if you are foolhardy enough to try to get it, go right ahead! The other keys are "said" to be of various shapes and may not be instantly recogniseable as "keys": boxes, plaques, coins or medallions, etc. They will be perceived as having great power by any high mage, however, even if he cannot further identify them. >2> What types of actions are/were required to activate them. It is said that when the 2 "Wards" for each key have been found and brought together, they will cause a nexus point to appear that leads directly through to the relevant "wall." The holder of the "key" must then know which wall it is and also the correct words and rituals to be performed. Then he will insert the key into an aperture in the wall before him and perform the "unlocking"; this is apparently a series of motions and rituals that are different for each key. If successful, the wall will "open" -- perhaps a door through it, or perhaps it will disappear, no one knows. When all ten of the keys have been successfully used, and all the walls are open, the priests of Lord Ksarul claim that he will then awake and "walk forth to take his place upon the throne of all the worlds." The rituals needed to use each ward and key are said to be inscribed upon tablets in ten "central" places on each of the inhabited worlds. On Tekumel,these are supposed to be Avanthar, the Unstraightened City, the Isle of Eyes, the temple in the centre of the Valley of the Seven Moons, the treasury of the House of Eyloa the Sorcerer, the Ice Temple beyond the Rim of White, the Hall of the Mightiest of the Hokun, the secret temple of Lord Vimuhla in the Chakas (and the hidden "pocket plane" that lies beyond it), the House of the First Founder (wherever and whatever that may be), and one more that is not known. These tablets contain the rituals for all of the ten keys and their wards, but these can only be read and used by mages devoted to the particular deity who rules each individual key and its wards. >3> Have all three been activated? No, only one has. [Moderator's Note: Whoah! First time I have heard this. Care to elaborate?] [ Which one, who did it? And what happened after he did? ] [ Also, could you fill us in on the details of who stole ] [ the key from the young Ksarul Priest, and who he is? ] [ Well, you elaborated on the story below. Any more ] [ details, juicy tidbits, etc? ] >4> Are there rumors regarding the placements of the other 7 keys? There are more rumours than you can shake a stick at! In fact, if you look about downtown Jakalla, you can find vendors who will cheerfully sell you all of the ten keys for a few Kaitars. They usually have a complete stock of these, plus the wards to go with them -- and they can direct you to pottery makers who have casts of the tablets for sale as well. (If they were in new York City, they would also have the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge... Buyer beware!) >5> What is known to have guarded those found? I cannot speak for the key in the temple of Ksarul because it was found and placed there long ago. There were some very serious demons guarding the key discovered by the priest, which were overcome by a mixture of stealth and heroism. Other keys have been rumoured over the years, and in each case the guardians have been extremely powerful and intelligent beings. >WALLS: >Presumably, at least one of the keys has been activated (used). We *think* the key belonging to Lord Thumis was indeed used successfully. This is the story, anyhow. The gate it opened led through to the Hall of the Twelve Doors, behind which permanent nexus points led into the Paradises of each of the Gods (plus 2 of the so-called Pariah Deities -- but not the third and most inimical!). >1> Has there been any noticable change in the world as a result? No. It will take all of the keys to bring about the freedom of the Blue Lord. >2> Has Ksarul stirred in his slumber? Right, Who'd know? Not that anyone has seen or reported. As you say, "Who'd know?" >3> From a mechanical view, since the other 9 needed the help of the One >Other, and thus his wall, to imprison Ksarul, if one of the keys were >used, would it imply that the blue room was losing integrity? Would this >process accelerate with the use of additional keys? Just asking for the >going viewpoint on this one. The priests of the temple of Ksarul claim that the Doomed Prince is indeed aware of the opening of each wall and eagrly awaits his freedom -- and revenge upon those who abandoned him and then imprisoned him. All of this is "high doctrine" within the Inner Temple (and is probably also mirrored by other opinions and theories within the other temples). The average high priest, mage, scholar, etc. has no more idea of this than I have of the mysteries of quantum theory! >The ROOM itself: >1> In the Book of Ebon Bindings (I believe), there is mention of one or >more antechanbers to the Blue Room. What are they? Just what they imply: some sort of outer chambers, said to be filled with treaures, guardians, and -- a few sources claim -- sleeping followers sent into exile along with the Blue Lord. >2> What populates the antechamber(s)? As just mentioned above. The guardians (also called "servitors") are of many forms and powers. The sleeping followers are similarly a mix of human and nonhuman. It is said that these cannot awaken until their master does. >3> Can one more clearly commmunicate with Ksarul from these locations? Apparently not. The Temple of Ksarul claims it can communicate even with his sleeping mind because of his might and power. >I've had an interest in the Ksarul mythos since I first played EPT in >the late 70's early 80's. My first character was a priest of >Ksarul(mage), and one of the first firgures I painted was for this >character. Too bad the game folded. I haven't been able to find, or >start and run, a lasting game since. Good luck in finding another game. Stay with the Blue Room, however, and we'll strive to keep you busy! 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. //336 [Moderator's Note: Dermot Bolton asked this question and here is the Pro- ] [ fessor's response. ] >I was wondering the other day of the sort of interaction that goes on in >the demon planes. The book of Ebon bindings mentions anumber of the >demon races - The ariel ones of Tu'unkelmu, Demons of the Dark, Blazing >warriors, Scarlet Heroes, etc. But what do they do? Where do they live? >Do they have families? Or are they just constantly warring, coniving, >plotting and being summoned to have time for other activities? Does a Demon of the Dark have a mother? A mother-in-law? Ugh.. I don't want to contemplate it! But the answer has several dimensions (and I am not making a pun). Some of the races (e.g. the Aerial Ones, the Voyagers of the Farther Isles, etc.) do indeed have social structures, families, cities, and other things on the planes where they dwell. They are *not* like human families of course but rather more like the sort of "families" one finds for snakes, birds, and the like. They "nest," procreate, eat, drink, etc. -- all in terms of their own strange, non-human societies. They are not just "humans in funny suits" with a few extra powers. They are as alien and unintelligible as a bolt of summer lightning, and they cannot be "visited" or even approached by humans who do not follow the age-old methods and rituals. No mage, to my recollection, has ever succeeded in exchanging a single word with any of these other-planar species, nor is one advised to try! Lord Sarku's undead legions are closer to our understanding than are Lord Thumis' "Mighty Ones of the Pearl Mists." In reply to your question, thus, there are indeed some demon races (and I prefer the term "Sharetlyal" since "demon" to an American or European implies some sort of theological content that is really absent in the Tsolyani view) that have social structures and dwellings, wives and kiddies. Other inhabitants of the Planes Beyond are *not* family-minded, however. They tend to be the "great demons" (the "Sharetldalisayal"), such as Lord Origob, Lord Gereshma'a, and the like. These seem to have cleaned out all opposition on their own planes (and within their own realms, in the cases of really powerful beings) and now dwell solo for much longer than humanity has existed. They may have comrades and fellow-citizens somewhere, but I am sure I don't know where. (Lord Gereshma'a is said to have taken on human form and amused himself with a human woman for some time. He'll probably tire of her soon, and then he'll go on to some other hobby.) >If a party were to travel to Jneksha's 13th plane for example, would the >Blazing warriors be fighting the flying serpents of conflagration? No -- as far as I know. These races dwell on different sub-planes. I also suspect that their goals and interests differ, so that they may not see each other as adversaries at all. >Or would they be working together to kick in some Demons of the dark from >another plane? I doubt this. Only if their ultimate master so commanded. This would then violate the sort of "Concordat" that seems to exist between the Sharetlyal races. >Can demons and their races travel the planes freely? In >short do we know anything of what goes on 'out there'? I suspect the Sharetlyal can indeed move between the planes -- but only *certain* planes that belong to their "realm." >Perhaps some mighty sorcerer can regale us with tales of their >visitations to other planes to see if we can build up a picture from >these experiences. This is where those who have played in Tekumel campaigns over the years can really help. I can't recall how many times players have encountered various races of Sharetlyal and had some interesting experiences that I have not written down. So enjoy and let me know what you need. I'll try to fill it in. 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. //337 [Moderator's Note: New listmember Paul Roser asks about Ghaton, and has a ] [ few comments. Hey, in case you didn't notice, a new ] [ reprinted article has gone up in the articles directory] [ on the ftp site. It came from Evan Nitsopoulos, and is] [ the article "The Temple of Karakan" from one of the old] [ Tekumel Journals. Thanks Evan. I have a copy of the ] [ Temple of Vimuhla article to put up when I get a scan ] [ of the drawings that accompany it (and after I edit). ] >First a couple about the Ghatoni (I'm thinking of taking a party of >travelers up there). Given the close proximity of the Nlu'arshan-speaking >peoples of N'lu"ss and Pijjenaa (P'jjenaa?), I assume that the Ghatoni >language, although Khishan, is heavily influenced by N'lu"ss (perhaps with >the addition of N'lu"ss-type clusters and glottalized stops?). You are quite right. The glottalised stops have become weakened and in some Ghatoni dialects are no more than aspirated voiceless stops ([p'] -- a [p] + breath -- as in English "pin," "pot"), contrasting with unaspirated voiceless stops ([p] as in "spin," "spot"). The latter have become voiced stops (e.g. [b] as in "bin") over the millennia. More remote, "mountain" dialects maintain the glottalised series intact. On the coast, east of the Tsupil Tlasha Peaks, there is at least one rural dialect that has a glottalised series contrasting with *both* unaspirated voiceless and voiced stop series! Try /p'etr/ "link (of a chain," versus /petr/ "root," and /betr/ "obsidian." >that both P'jjenaa and N'lu"ss have these glottalized stops, and that >P'jjenaa has palatalization and labialization of most consonants, is this >also a feature of N'luss? One of the chieftains mentioned was named G'yudr- >is this supposed to represent a palatalized voiced velar ejective, Yes, right on most counts. The transcription "G'yudr" does not represent a glottalised voiced velar stop, however, but was the only way I had of showing a contrast between glottalised /k'/ versus an unaspirated /k/ *followed* by a glottal stop: /k-'/: /k-'yudr/. The gentleman in question would be quite incensed if you pronounced his name as /k'yudr/ (with a glottalised /k'/, since this denotes "glob (usually of Hmelu or Hma dung)". [That will get you on his good side, won't it? :)] >I know that the Ghaton worship generic nature deities (the sun, >winds,etc)-could you give a quick list of the most important ones and their >equivalences to Pavar's pantheon, if any (I'd guess this will be in >_Mitlanyal_ when it comes out? Indeed it will. The Ghatoni deities are fairly unineteresting, anthropologically speaking, but they will be included. (And are there any other deities worshipped by the descendants of the Dragon Warriors?) None that I know of. >In the Zocchi sourcebook you refer to the dress of the Ghatoni as >"several layers of complex garments" and I was wondering if you could >perhaps give a bit more detail on typical Ghaton dress. Rather intricate tunics or vests over long-sleeved shirt-like garments. They wear kilts (and don't ask me what a Ghatoni wears underneath his kilt!) of patterned, Hma-wool or in the summer Firya-cloth. These are decorated with appliqued images of their gods, lightning bolts, magical symbols supposed to protect them in battle, and the like. They wear round-crowned felt-like hats, sometimes with crests of feathers or with ear pieces. Two "legions" are listed for them in the "Armies of Tekumel" series, vol. 2, Yan Kor: "The Fangs of Drake'el" and "The Band of Slashers," but I don't think there is a picture of any of them there. >(I'm assuming that >Ghatoni women, given their status as little more than property, wear >little more than slaves elsewhere). I.e. practically nothing. In the cold weather, they are often allowed to wear long, shapeless robes (like ponchos). >Any other comments elaborating on >Ghaton culture (or that of the N'lu"ss) would be greatly appreciated. >The next is also a sartorial issue (of sorts)-if the Pygmy Folk adorn >themselves with painted designs, do they do so only on their faces/snouts >(which seem to be hairless) or do they dye patterns on their fur? Usually on their faces, although painted designs on their fur are not unusual. >I read the comments on alien languages with interest, as I am >fascinated with both linguistics (especially phonetics and phonology) and >constructed languages. I for one would be very interested in seeing at >least thumbnail sketches of the major languages (writing system,if any, >consonants/vowels/allowable types of clusters, basic overview of >grammatical structure). That's a big order. Check out the FTP site for new Yan Koryani, Livyani, and Engsvanyali grammars. I'll try to get around to more later. >Has anything been written on the Engsvanyali and Bednalljan >languages? Engsvanyali at your fingertips! Bednalljan is a Salarvyani-like language and is much more difficult. I may get around to it in a while. >The _Tekumel Journal_ ran those brief bits on the writing systems >of Classical Tsolyani, Mu'ugalavyani, Llyani and the Kazhra ve Nakome (sp?) >and I'd always hoped that similar descriptions would surface for the ancient >languages: Bednalljan, Engsvanyali, Tsaqw, etc (and perhaps on some of the >forbidden languages as well?). Oh, won't you be happy soon, when Chris gets around to putting up Sunuz! [We're taking a bit of time off, then either Sunuz or Sourcebook Part 3 ] [will be the next netbooks. Thanks to John (setnaffa) for scanning it. ] >I tried to decipher the Engsvanyali script >excerpt in _Ebon Bindings_ based on resemblances to Tsolyani, Mu'ugalvyani >and Livyani, but could only be certain of a few letters. Your patience is rewarded. Go look at the FTP site where translations and transliterations are now up, as well as the Engsvanyali grammar. >If one exists, could >you post a transliteration of the passage some time? Is there a chance the >Yan Koryani grammar might one day be published (on the ftp site, perhaps)? Like I said... Enjoy! >Ever since reading your short sketch on the Pe Choi in the Tekumel >Journal years ago, the alien races of Tekumel have caught my imagination, and >I have often wondered what their languages are like. I don't know if anyone >else on the list would be interested in this, but I have worked out sketchy >descriptions of a few of the nonhuman languages and would be happy to forward >them to you for your comments. I'd also be very interested to hear what you >have discovered about the various nonhuman languages. I have already answered others with similar queries. I never intended for players or Tekumel afficionados to try to master the non-human tongues. They are meant to be unintelligible -- otherwise some of the mystique of those races disappears, and they become just like other human nations. I think my replies are on the Blue Room; perhaps Chris can point you to the message number so that you can see my fuller answer there. [Scan through your back messages.] >I also look forward >to the possibility of player-character generating modules for the non-humans, >similar in to the _Growing Up on Tekumel_. If there is a need for someone to >type/compile/edit such volumes, I would be only too pleased to offer my >services. Thank you! Some have made attempts to set up tables or lists of modifications for the Pe Choi, but I don't recall anybody doing it for the Shen -- and certainly not for the Ahoggya. Roll up a rude, discourteous beer-barrel, and you practially have an Ahoggya! [My Hero!!!] >While the Pe Choi and Ahoggya are very interesting, I also rather >like the chattering Hlaka, the peculiar Pachi Lei and the venial Pygmy Folk, >and would welcome more background info on all of them. Patience, again! I'll get around to some of these. The Pygmy Folk character in "Flamesong" should give you an idea of what they are like. The Ahoggya in "Man of Gold" was nasty enough, and I may introduce some others in further writings. >I apologize for all the questions, but I only discovered the Blue >Room recently Come ahead. I can't always get right back to you, but I *will* try to reply to Tekumel questions. >too good to resist. Many thanks for your time and, from the bottom of my >heart, >thank you for bringing us Tekumel! You're very welcome! 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. //338 [Moderator's Note: Listmember Lisa Leutheuser asks about Lisutl root and its] [ use on Tekumel. ] I'll try to answer Lisa's questions, although I would prefer that some Tsolyani woman with more experience do so. >How frequently does a women have to chew lisutl root? >(Off and on throughout the day? Once a day, e.g. in the morning after >waking up? Other?) I am told that a piece about as big as a woman's thumb once a day is what is needed. The juice tastes rather like very mild peppermint. It must be swallowed and digested, so I would assume that this implies that some time must pass before it takes effect. >Is it possible to overdose on the root? If so, what are the symptoms >and any harmful effects? No harm is done that I have ever heard of. The stuff seems to work, no matter how much extra you might consume. Too little, on the other hand, and conception may occur. >How long before the drug in the root begins to be effective? >(same/first day of use? After the first week/month/X-amount-of-time >of continuous use?) I think -- and I'm only guessing -- that a day in advance should be long enough, although many women chew the stuff on a regular daily basis. Better safe than fertilised! The drug is a made-up hybrid, created long ago when humankind first got out to the stars. It's been in use ever since, and now it is grown in practically every clanhouse back-garden in the Five Empires. It seems to have originated on one of the Pe Choi worlds. >How long before the drug wears off and the ex-user can become pregnant? This varies. I have heard times from a day later to a week later -- probably differs from user to user, depending on her system. Better Lisutl root than the Shen custom of eating those of their own young who are slower or less cuddly than the rest... 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. //339 [Moderator's Note: Evan asked what some of the non-human races weigh. I ] [ sent what I had remembered reading to the Professor, and] [ he states that they never really revealed much about the] [ weight of non-humans.... So I either conjured up my re-] [ memberance, or it was just a lucky guess. ] >During last Saturday's game an interesting situation arose. I have 2 >non-humans in my group, an Ahoggya, and a Pe Choi. The Ahoggya and the >Pe Choi were forced to flee from a group of angry Sarku gaurds, and >the only avenue of escape was down a vertical shaft via a rope. The >dilemma that arose from this encouter was how much does an Ahoggya >weigh? I looked in all of my books and no where could I find out what >the weight of an Ahoggya is. What I would like to know is what are >the average weights for the various races of non-humans on Tekumel. >Have these been published somewhere, (perhaps in one of the various >incarnations of the rules) if so where can I find them? I had to fudge >on Saturday and say that the rope held the hapless Ahoggya, but my >player was interested in knowing how much his character weighed. An Ahoggya's weight? I don't recall ever giving this information, nor do I really know how to calculate it. We've calculated all sorts of data for the nonhuman races, but this is one feature that I think has escaped me. Ahoggya are comparatively short and squat, but they are indeed very dense and heavy. I'd guess at about 300 lbs. for a fairly large specimen. Pe Choi are lighter, though tall. I'd suggest perhaps 200 lbs. for a male and 160-180 lbs. for a female. Anybody want to try persuading an Ahoggya to sit in the pan of a merchant's weighing scale? [Mod. Not ME!] [My thought. ] [I thought Ahoggya were pretty dense (so to speak) and were quite weighty. ] [Like 150+ kilos? ] Sounds about right. Hmm. 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. //340 [Moderator's Note: The recent article on keys, wards and guardians of the ] [ Blue Room prompts listmember Alex Stojanovic to ask the ] [ following. The Professor replies to the degree that he ] [ can. Sorry for the long silence. Family came to visit ] [ for the past 4 days or so. ] Legend >> = Professor's original response > = Alex's questions = Professor's response >>secret temple of Lord Vimuhla in the Chakas (and the hidden "pocket >>plane" that lies beyond it), the House of the First Founder (wherever >>and whatever that may be), and one more that is not known. These >>tablets >>contain the rituals for all of the ten keys and their wards, but these >>can only be read and used by mages devoted to the particular deity who >>rules each individual key and its wards. >Is this "First Founder" the semi-mythological figure of the Livyani? The >chap that got Livyani to stop using Duru'ob as their "official written >langauge" (except Dlash)? No. According to local legend, this was the "first human" on Tekumel, back when the Ssu were friendly and curious about space visitors. His "house" is, of course, destroyed and long gone. Some claim to have seen its "ghost" -- and also to have met the ghosts of his two (many generations removed) descendants, who still dwell there, cursed forever by the Ssu, whose world was taken from them by the invaders who followed the First Founder. All of this is *legend,* and no reliance can be placed in it. >Another question: If the legend of Dormoron Plain is meant to be a myth >about the PAST (and this is an assumption I make) - how do you map the >priesthoods of the distant past with their "current" >incarnations/divisions. The legend of Dormoron Plain clearly seems to >antedate Pavar's revisionism. How is this handled in the ase of >syncretic Deities like Lady Shiringgayi of Salarvya? Are they >"disqualified" from participating in the attempts to free Ksarul? As with many legends, that of Dormoron Plain seems to ignore historical problems, such as when and how these deities -- or whoever -- performed these actions. They are now *thought* to be the same deities as those of Pavar's pantheon, and that's what the epics say. But who knows, really? Many Khishan languages contain morphemes marking a "mythological tense" of the verb: i.e. the action took place in legendary times and is thus outside or beyond the usual, simple progression from past to present to future that one finds in English and other Terran tongues. This is the tense used for Dormoron Plain. The story is told from several points of view, even within modern Tsolyani culture. The Mu'ugalavyani recension of the Lament to the Wheel of Black has portions that are denied by the temple of Ksarul's version, and vice-versa. The Livyani tell the story as though it were pure fiction -- and "foreign" at that, since it does not contain or relate to their own pantheon of Shadow Gods. >Another question I have relates to the topology of the demon planes. >Tsolyani savants often talk of planes, realms, dimensions, and >sub-dimensions. What distinguishes these concepts from one another? Some of these terms are near-synonyms. Others are concepts of "rulership" (e.g. "realms"): Certain powerful beings are said to "rule" in a certain set of planes; these are their "realms." "Planes" and "dimensions," on the other hand, possibly reflect a translation problem. There are indeed sub-terms for "sub-dimensions," "major planes," "minor planes, etc. etc. in Tsolyani and other languages, but these seem to differ from period to period, temple "school" to temple "school," and even writer to writer. The whole system may be just a scholarly attmept to bring order into a place where it really doesn't exist in human terms. ??? >sub-dimensions simple dimensions with a limited number of connecting >dimensions - or is there something else in play here? Are realms >"bundles" of planes/dimensions? Are these conceptual aggregations or >meant to denote specific topological features of the Planes Beyond? As just noted, these terms possibly overlap, although "realm" seems to refer to groups of planes occupied, ruled, or whatever, by one being or "race" (this term is suspicious) of Sharetlyal. >It appears that the language of the Book of Ebon Bindings is a >simplification of higher-dimensional topology - but how can we sharpen >the conceptual framework to explain these various terms? I have a few >questions that could help us clarify this admittedly recondite lore... I cannot clarify this much. Tekumelani scholars are as obstreperous as Terran scholars in talking about such difficult concepts. I don't know that these matters can be neatly defined, clarified, or explained. >Here is the first question: Do the Engsvanyali Gods possess multiple >points of presence (MPOP) capability? (Like a Yog-Sothoth god/being in >Lovecraft's mythos...) In other words, can Vimuhla manifest >him/it/her/self at multiple times/locations on Tekumel's primary plane >"at the same time"? (I know the physicists will kill me for using this >pre-Special Relativity concept at all...but I have to get the idea >across) According to the Temple of Vimuhla, He is manifest in every fire, in every spark, in every blaze. This is doctrine. On a more "theological" level, I am told that He can indeed manifest Himself at any time, place, etc. He wishes across the multiverse. The priests say that if a worshipper in Bey Su beseeches Him to manifest His Flame at the same time that a worshipper in Jakalla requests the same aid, the God can and will do so -- if it be His will. >Or are the Gods bound by causal laws that they obey (either >through necessaity of respect) that precludes MPOP behavior? This would >seem a necessity -- since Ksarul was able to be "bound" at Dormoron >Plane - and imprisoned. Not necessarily. You are speaking of the Gods as though they were necessarily bound by human laws ands logic. This is a fallacy common amongst mediaeval Christians, Muslims, and Jews as well: lay God out on a dissecting table and *tell* Him what He can and cannot do, as did the Islamic "rationalists," the Mu'tazili scholars of the Middle Ages. Various mystics and other schools rejected this excessively "Greek-philosophy/Aristotelian-logical" view. The "binding" of Lord Ksarul is a "god-thing" -- not something like jailing a human felon! >Were he a MPOP-entity - this would have been >difficult to say the least -- or was he bound on another plane -- where >his/her/its MPOP-behavior could be controlled? It comes done to the idea >that its difficult to "imprison" a nth-dimensional being in a >trap/prison that is n-1th dimensional -- they can just vector out on the >"free dimension". Imagine 2-dimensional beings trying to capture/ensnare >a 3-dimensional being. The 3rd person could just "step-over" the >2-dimensional square (by moving along the z-axis) -- to the bafflement >and amazement of the 2-dimensional "captors" (who cannot even conceive >of a z-axis -- they only understand x- and y-axis topologies!) So, does >the legend of Dormoron Plain require a finite-dimensional theory to >explain the "capture" of Ksarul and his cohorts - or does this >concundrum even register on Tsolyani savants? How about Llyani savants? >I know...ancient history...much has been lost...dim past... Nice speculation! I doubt that this is a problem to Tekumelani savants -- any more than Christians have a problem with Jesus' resurrection. One might ask the same of those who claim that the Virgin Mary "appears" in many different manifestations all across the world: if she appears in Mexico, how can she also appear the same time in Florida, etc.? >Another question, how do sidereal dimensions figure into the topology? >(i.e. dimensions where other "possible" futures are unfolding in >parallel to Tekumel's "primary" dimension) Or do the scholars posit a >censorsip mechanism at work -- which states that there is only one >"real" dimension -- and that the "possible worlds" are just figments of >the imagination? (Ontological parsimony) The textual evidence of the >Sourcebook is not entirely clear on this point -- and the article on the >Tongue of Those Who Would Journey Beyond deals with multi-dimensional >topologies - not possible world theories. Are there various schools of >thought on this? Or is this too abstruse for the Tekumelani? The "tree" >metaphor does not quite seem to make sense - but perhaps I am just >"missing the metaphor"??! The Tekumeani have indeed asked such questions, but they reply in terms that would be more intelligible to a Hindu scholar, rather than to "logical" Western thought. I recall well the problems we at the University of Minnesota had in persuading the University's Department of Philosophy to accept Hindu philosophy as "Philosophy," rather than as "legend" or just "religion." Some of my then-colleagues were even less kind, calling it "superstition" or "nonsense." What these same philosophers think of Christianity I cannot say ... You're welcome to use any metaphor you wish. The Tekumelani do come in a mutliplicity of shades of opinion! A few may talk about one reality, with all other "side dimensions" ("branches") as being "shadow worlds," but most priests speak of the Gods as being powerful enough to move freely from one plane (or group of planes) to others at will. The "branches" of the Tree of Time are thus considered "real," although there is an additional concept of "centrality" to the main dimension (the "trunk" of the Tree). One old Hnalla priest described this as being like a prince who had his main palace in Bey Su, but summer palaces in every other city in the Empire. The latter were smaller, more ephemeral, likely to be used or disused at the pleasure of the master. >In the first solo adventures book -- a device is used at the College at >the End of Time (neat concept -- is it at the end of Space too? It's >intersting how the Tsolyani can divorce the two concepts - instead of >speaking of a unified space-time ala Einstein) to "scan" several >planes/dimenions. What is the name of this device and how does it allow >the Wizards to view the Barrier Pylons? Are the Pylons reference points >in the n-dimensional topology - or are they embedded in a "plane" >themselves? Was the device constructed as a magical artifact, or is it a >remnant of pre-Cataclysm Humanspace technology? (a neat idea for which I >have NO evidence) There are some hints in the Engsvanyalu article about >the purpose of the Pylons-- would you perhaps expand on them a bit? I'd like to keep all of this for my own future fiction. I hope you understand! >One final question (a bit off point): In your excellent article on the >Engsvanyali period, the discussion makes some passing references to >Dlash and it's "shielding". Are we to suppose that Dlash has always been >positioned where it has been -- and, unlike hoary Purdanim, is not under >effluvial silt - buried by time and tectonic shifting? Or have there >been several "Dlashs"-- which have undergone Ditlana just like their >neighboring cities? That would be unique -- and as unique as the >necessary "existence" of Avanthar. Is there a parallel here? Who knows, really? The history of Dlash has not yet been written. It is another topic that I prefer to reserve for my future fiction-writing. You propose a parallel with Avanthar; you are indeed partially correct. Dlash, Avanthar, and the Unstraightened City are all axes for interplanar lines of force. Dlash, however, is a conduit for very powerful energy perhaps emanating from some central plane where She Who Cannot Be Named dwells... >Also, what clans are said to reside within the Sealed City of Dlash? Do >they have commerce with cities like Tsamra? (up until the recent >Mu'ugalavyani invasion of course!) No idea, really. Commerce with Dlash indeed exists, but it is with the *outer* city that surrounds the *inner* city. There is a wide ring of shops, warehouses, factories, etc. all around the inner, walled area where no outsider is ever allowed. That's about all I can say at this time. 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. //341 [Moderator's Note: Brion Oliver asks the following about Military Priests ] [ and their temple ranks. ] >Regarding military priests (which I understand to most typically be assigned >to the Temple Guard), do these individuals advance circles as do other >priests throughout their careers? Or is their advancement strictly along the >military rankings? Perhaps I misstated things somewhere about "military priests." There are two categories that must be distinguished: "temple guard units" and "military sorcerer priests" who serve in the magic-using units assigned by certain temples to Imperial legions The former are mostly just soldiers: individuals who have a little priestly training and a lot of soldierly expertise. These are assigned to guard temples, escort priestly caravans and entourages, protect temple property (both in the temples and elsewhere), and generally serve as "palace guards" for the religious institutions to which they belong. These people have ranks very similar to regular soldiers and are structured as "legions." Most Imperial army troops do not consider "temple legions" as good as regular units, although this is not true in all cases, certainly. >I remember reading somewhere (that I cannot now find) that military priests >are required to attain at least the 1st Circle of Priesthood, but cannot >find mention of advancement as priests after that. I am also aware of the >social status comparison table in section 2.430 of Swords & Glory, which >compares military rank to minimum Circle equivalents, and wonder whether a >Kasi in the Temple Guard would need to be at least 7th Circle in their >Temple's Priesthood as well, or if that table is meant solely for social >status comparisons as its title suggests. Temple guards need not rise in priestly rank in order to become officers of their units. A temple guard unit does tend to be *led* by "regular" priests, however: the Kerdu (general), the two Dritlanyal, and the two Molkaryal ("colonels" and "majors," if you like) are most often administrative or ritual priests in the temple. A lower officer (e.g. Kasi -- "captain") may never rise higher than that rank unless he is talented, rich, or otherwise favoured by the administrators of his temple. Some temple guard officers do continue to study priestly skills in their spare time -- of which they do not have much -- and eventually go on to "rise from the ranks" to higher offcer posts, or else go on to become "regular" priests (ritual, administrative, etc.) in the hierarchy. The second group of "military priests" consists of the sorcerers who belong to the magic-using contingent fielded by a temple or legion. These people are usually full-fledged sorcerer-priests. They may have begun as ritual or administrative priests, or as regular scholars, but for various reasons, they gravitated away from these roles and went into the very specialised magical contingent. Some of these may feel that they lack the talent or interest to go on to higher levels as academicians; others enjoy soldiering and the outdoor life but do not want to give up their priestly pre-requisites and become "regular troops"; still others actually thrive on developing their group military spells and working with comrades in combat situations. Being a "sorcerer- military-priest" is not easy. It involves long hours of group practice and hard work, plus all the perils of battle -- and being a target for incoming enemy sorcery! Such priests cannot go off adventuring because of time and training constraints; they have to obey orders (like them or not), and they are often the first ones to be sacrificed if captured. I thus have discouraged players from taking on these roles, although some indeed might find them interesting for short periods. These people have regular priestly ranks and pre-requisites and are *not* considered to be soldiers in any sense. They may retire from this sub-profession and go back to being ritual or administrative priests. Sometimes they can return to one or another scholarly profession, too, although this is less common. The temples prefer to employ retired military sorcerer priests in ritual or administrative roles, feeling, perhaps, that they are temperamentally no longer suited to the "ivory-tower" scholasticism of the temple schools and academies. Regards, Phil [Moderator's Note: Word comes in from Brett Slocum that an article he has ] [ written on Tekumel and GURPS has been converted to html ] [ and put on his home page. If you are interested, check ] [ out the URL: http://www.io.com/~slocum/pyramid.html. ] [ He promises that more of his work on Tekumel and GURPS ] [ will be forthcoming, printed in All of the Above, the ] [ GURPS APAzine. (What's an APAzine?) ] ----- 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. //342 [Moderator's Note: Apparently, a marathon gaming session went on in England ] [ a couple of weeks ago. Here is the description of the ] [ event by Jack Bramah. ] Here's a brief description of the events of our weekend session as viewed by Donmikayel hiGangasa (i.e. me). Dermot (Ref) said he would send in his own version some time this week, which might be an interesting change in views. "If only I'd never met Pathiqeng, maybe none of this would have happened, and I'd be at home now, enjoying the company of my wives and concubines. I thought it was just a simple party invitation, to Pathiqeng's memorial orgy, and who am I to turn down such an invitation, especially when an Imperial Princess is going to be present. It was splendid affair, with all the glitterati of Pala Jakalla present. Kurshetl and I paid a brief visit to the House of the Fulfilment of Dreams before attending, but we mainly discussed business. The entertainments were unbelievable, concluding with a most impressive illusion of Pathiqeng conjured up by one Abasudaste (one of Mai'n's maidens), when it all started to go suddenly wrong. A great cloud of noxious vapours began to seethe up from the centre of the stage, and a tentacled mostrosity appeared within the middle of it and began to devour Abasudaste. Needless to say, panic ensued, and I didn't see much else as I made sure that the Princess got away safely. She may have been expecting trouble, as she seemed to have posted several discreetly armed men among the guests. I had nightmares that night, which not even Tsuhoridu could quench. Next morning my delivery of Tumissan mash-fruits had not arrived. Shayusaq had promised me the previous night that they would be here the following morning. As I was preparing myself to visit Shayusaq at he Clan of Sea Blue, I received a cordial breakfast invitation from Kurshetl. In the middle of this pleasant meal a major-domo burst into the room, shaking with fright. It seems that Shayusaq had come back to the clanhouse the previous evening with two girls, and they had gone to his chambers. The major-domo had just discovered the mangled bodies of the two women, in Shayusaq's chambers, and no sign of Shayusaq. We calmed the man down and told him we would deal with it. We summoned Zorel hiSsyeti from the OAL, a man of infinite discretion, and told him of the situation, and that we felt that it was most definitely not in keeping with Shayusaq's character to have committed such a heinous crime. He admitted to us that it seemed that several other people had been framed for murders resulting from the disaster at the party. After Zorel had gone, Kurshetl asked me if I was interested in joining a group of people he was assembling at the behest of the Princess to investigate the events of the previous evening - she was particularly keen, it seems, to avoid involving officialdom. Our little group comprised several of my old comrades in arms, and some new faces: Dzin (a Livyani girl), Mazaholza hiNiriuna (Sapphire Kirtle clan), Zorel, Kurshetl and a priest of Gruganu called (by himself) Fulat of the Black Fingers. I suspected him of being a scribe, but Kurshetl seemed very deferential to him (most unlike him). We also took several bodyguards with us. Somehow we were led to a slate quarry - a huge pit in the ground with a spiral track wide enough for a chlen-cart going down to the bottom. As we observed from the lip of the quarry three men came out from a cave- mouth pursued by several soldiers in brown robes. I recognized Shayusaq and another former comrade Murugani, and there was a man I seem to recall seeing at the party the previous evening. The more impetuous of us started to slide down the side of the quarry, some falling and injuring themselves, whilst the more careful of us used the (long) cart-track. The brown-robes also had a sorceror, since Kurshetl started to fly down the side of the quarry, but it seems his enchantment was dispelled and he fell a fair distance, breaking his leg. By the time I reached the bottom the brown-robes had retreated into the cave, and Kurshetl had patched up his leg. He cast a great cloud of poisonous vapour into the cave mouth and we followed in afterwards. Unfortunately his gas appeared to have done very little except kill quite large number of Hu-bats. We split into two groups, one to go down the main cavern, and one to explore a narrower side passage. The narrow passage contained nothing but captive mine-workers, whom we released, and very grateful they were too. We rejoined the others to find that some of them had gone down a narrow tunnel which looked almost as though it had been melted out of the rock. We followed after dispatching two vile Mrur. As we passed down the tunnel we saw a strange amber glow emanating from ahead, and as the first of us burst into the cavern at the end, they discovered to their cost that the floor was covered in Sarku's hideous Worms of Death. In the cavern were two Sarku priests and two crossbowmen off to one side, while in the middle, at a glowing altar a man (who I am told was Vridekka) was beginning some unspeakable ritual over a teenage boy. Their magical defences were too strong for us to act quickly, and we were unable to stop Vridekka from plunging a knife into the boy's chest and pulling the still-beating heart out. He next took out a copper ewer, and poured the glowing liquid it contained into the chest cavity of the victim. Terror seized us as we believed that we only had seconds before some unspeakable demon-lord would appear. In Shayusaq (who had died and been reanimated by our enemies started to advance on Vridekka, who suddenly realized that our magic had managed to dispel his defences, and he called forth a nexus point and jumped through. Kurshetl conjured up a patch of Food of the Ssu around the altar but it did not consume the body of the victim, who suddenly got up and crouched on the altar facing us, his face eerily lit by the glow from below him. As one of our warriors pushed him backwards off the altar into the vile vegetation, we caught a glimpse if what appeared to be an Imperial Seal around the boy's neck. Kurshetl and I advanced across the room to end the boy's suffering, and I struck with my sword into the purple fronds and struck hard, though I thought I felt whatever it was I hit moving into the nexus gate. We would have followed, but Kurshetl and Fulat have almost exhausted their magical energies. Kurshetl said that the gate is stable for the forseeable future, and so we will return to Pala Jakalla to prepare ourselves better, and return here when our mages have had a chance to rest" .....to be continued -- Donmikayel hiGangasa (Jack Bramah) Provincial Sub-Commandant, Temple of Hnalla, Pala Jakalla Molmitlan Otulengba! ----- 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. //343 [Moderator's Note: Bob Alberti offers his opinion on the Weight issue. ] >>The Ahoggya and the >>Pe Choi were forced to flee from a group of angry Sarku gaurds, If this isn't the opening line to a bad joke in Tsolyanu I don't know what is... >>the only avenue of escape was down a vertical shaft via a rope. The >>dilemma that arose from this encouter was how much does an Ahoggya >>weigh? This is a moot point. I assume the question is, "does the rope break?" The REAL question, when you think about it, is "do the Ahoggya and Pe Choi live or die?" This answer can be easily obtained by having the Ahoggya leap out onto the rope and rolling to see if the rope breaks. If the rope breaks the Ahoggya dies in the fall, and the Pe Choi dies head-down in a vat of boiling water, with the scent of melted lemon-butter wafting through the barracks of the Sarku guards. It has to be this way, because the Ahoggya always goes first, because there is nobody, nowhere, crazy enough to voluntarily get UNDER an Ahoggya... Arjai hi Vaisoner, Priest of Ksarul, Cloak of Azure Gems Clan. Tarinu hiKirisaya, Warrior of Chiteng, Golden Bough Clan. Adlar hiFershena, Warrior of Karakan, Red Sword Clan. Bob Alberti, Priest of Ethernet, Programming Geeks Clan. ----- 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. //344 [Moderator's Note: Brett Slocum adds something to the discussion of weight ] [ of Non-Humans. His discussion of weight rises from the ] [ the rule system he is using, so use it if it fits your ] [ system. ] I can help here. I converted the nonhumans of Tekumel to GURPS. GURPS bases the initial height on Strength and then modifies it by a random die roll. The height is then used to find the weight, also with a randomizer. So for instance, a human of average ST of 10 starts at 5' 9" (5' 6" on Tekumel), modified up or down by up to six inches. Let's say he ends up 5' 8". Then you look at the base weight for 5' 8" and find 145 lbs., then modify it by up to 40 lbs. less or 50 lbs. more. In my conversions of nonhumans to GURPS, I generated the following heights and weights for nonhumans: Ahoggya: 10" shorter and 100 lbs. heavier than a human of equivalent Strength. Hlaka: 10 inches shorter and 10 lbs. lighter. Pe Choi: 5" taller and 10 lbs. lighter. Shen: 15" taller and 30 lbs. heavier. I'll have to look up the others later. So, if you take an average ST Ahoggya (ST 13), you get a base height of 5' 2" (6' minus 10"). This gives a base weight of 220 lbs. (120 + 100 lbs.). YMMV. ----- 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. //345 [Moderator's Note: Roger Pearse asks about the Blasphemous Accelerators. ] [ (Check messages 7 and 9 for more info ] >I have a question about the Blasphemous Accelerators. Am I right in >thinking that they've been trying to assist Metallja to shut off Tekumel >from the Planes Beyond for most of the second Imperium? Or is this just a >recent initiative? Either way, how are they getting on? The Blasphemous Accelerators are no longer a powerful group within the Five Empires. They still exist in the Unstraightened City north of far easatern Salarvya, and they do have training facilities in the city of Onchash Chairan on the Southern Continent. They do not recruit aqnywhere else, and they do not accept converts from other nations or groups, saying that the trainee must have been brought up in the traditions of their order from birth. >As a postscript, are they still recruiting? How would you go about joining >this group? They are still working to defeat their foes, but this is all far away and somewhat irrelevant to the Five Empires. 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. //346 [Moderator's Note: Mike Parrish has some more questions on the Keys and ] [ Wards that guard the Doomed Prince. ] Dear Mike, >More Keys and Wards Questions: >1> What form do the wards take? Specifically, what form were the wards >of the Thumis Key? As far as I know, the Wards may be of any shape. They are about a foot long and of various thicknesses and colours. They are often made to look like other objects: e.g. a sphere, a delicate dagger, a complex- appearing tool, a rather heavy thing that resembles a crooked wrench, a statue (of someone or something now unrecogniseable), etc. The Wards for the Thumis Key were said to resemble a little silver butterfly and a longish crystal claw. Once used, their main purpose was apparently over, but they still have immense magical powers. >2> You mentioned that the wards must be brought together to form a nexus >point to the given wall. Are these wards obviously two parts of the >whole, or are the dissimilar items? They may have no apparent relation to one another. The mage who uses them must know what they are and how to use them, together with the tablet inscription that operates them. >3> Is it possible to destroy any of the keys and/or wards? >I wouldn't think so... The Keys and Wards are indestructible, at least by any method known to humankind. >Would it be possible to take one interdimensionally, or hide it in a >pocket universe? >Might be real bad for the Blue Dude. Yes, they can be transported just like other objects. But those who know -- the Watchers and the Sentinels -- will know where they are. They cannot be completely destroyed since one complete set of all of the Wards and Keys must exist on every one of the Planes of the Gods. As far as I know, however, a Ward or Key from one Plane cannot be used together with a Ward or Key from another. >4> In the _Book of Ebon Bindings_ the antechambers are mentioned (I >can't recall the exact text, and I'm at work) as a place where >unsuspecting meddlers in demon affairs would be transported to and dealt >with severely (is there any other way?) by the guardians in the >antechamber. This seems to imply that at least some of the guardians are >at least somewhat awake. Is this so? Maybe a midnight snack? The Guardians are indeed awake and aware. Lord Ksarul was permitted to have certain unsleeping, undying, indestructible attendants to care for him during his aeons-long imprisonment. The Guardians do deal harshly indeed with hostile visitors. >5> Regarding the inscribed tablets in the central places: >Are reliable copies available in temple libraries? No, unfortunately. I don't know of any library that has usable copies, although I am not familiar with all of the secret libraries of Lords Qon, Thumis, or Ksarul himself. I rather doubt that there are any copies that are easily available. >The pottery makers with their casts, are these reliable? >If so, are they available in all 10 varieties? Absolutely not. These copies are just trash, for sale to tourists only -- which is why I mentioned the Brooklyn Bridge. In the United States, we always joke that any really obvious scam is "like selling the Brooklyn Bridge" to a naive tourist. Apologies if I used a metaphor that was not intelligible to all! >6> Regarding the wall that went down: >Is there anything different about the person who did the deed? According to some public records, the user of the Key was unharmed and returned to normal life. Others say that he was "taken up," however and given a place of honour in Lord Ksarul's personal paradise. >Seems like the Big Guy himself might be pretty pleased with him, but I >can imagine the temple hierarchy finding _something_ to be upset about. >Maybe a usupring of authority? Exactly right. If he had stayed openly where he was, it is almost certain that one or another power would have "offed" him by now. >7> What happened to the key and wards that were used? >You mentioned that the process of opening the wall could be reversed, it >might seem to be upper on most Ksarul fans that this _not_ happen. The Key and its Wards disappeared into Lord Ksarul's personal plane. If the process were reversed, you can be sure the forces of the Blue Lord would have been outraged, to put it very mildly. 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. //347 [Moderator's Note: Jack Bramah writes about some difficulties with Engsvan-] [ yali. I'll check the Grammar, then check the font, and ] [ let you guys know what I find out. ] This is disturbing. Please check the FTP site Engsvanyali font and see if it is reversed or not. It is possible I sent you the wrong one! > One thing I noticed, looking at the font map is that although it >claims to be a reverse font (as the rtsol.ttf and rliv.ttf fonts) >comparing it with the bits of written Engsvanyali in the Ebon bindings, >it seems to be a correct-oriented font (i.e. it needs to be typed in >backwards. Either that or it has been reversed already in the font map, >and not reversed in the sample. > > Is the font itself going to be appearing on the FTP site soon? As far as I know, Chris has already put it up. [Moderator's Note: Phil sent me a version of the Engsvanyali font, but I ] [ have note put it up yet. Been very busy at work, I'll ] [ try to put it up this weekend and run some tests. ] > I may send a report in in the next few days of our all-weekend >Tekumel session just past, GMed by Dermot (Bolton) and David (Bailey). >It involved Vridekka, Dhich'une's son and a visit to another plane >(including an audience with Jneksha'a (pretty scary). I'll have a look at it, although I don't usually do much with game reports from other groups since a good deal of the fun and interaction of the game seem to disappear when reduced to print. [Moderator's Note: We've seen that message already, and a followup account ] [ from one of the other players will appear soon. ] Good luck, 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. //348 [Moderator's Note: Evan Nitsopoulas comments on the Ahoggya Weight subject ] [ and the Professor responds. ] >I thought after looking at a picture of an Ahoggya that one would weigh >somewhere in the vicinity of 300+ kilo's. They look massive after all. I >wonder is their "light weight" do to some anatomical feature? Perhaps they >have hollow bones like Birds, or maybe most of their skeletal structure is >composed of cartilidge. The Ahogyya is not really a tall creature: 1.41 to 1.60 m in height. I think they have been portrayed as bigger than they really are. I don't see the weight given as being unrealistic. They are indeed ferocious and make up for their size by sheer nastiness. 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. //349 [Moderator's Note: Mark Bee asks about Ditlana. Great question, and Great ] [ answer! ] >I understand the basis principals of Ditlana but I don't quite understand how >an entire city!? can be torn down and rebuilt? The custom of Ditlana is *supposed* to work like this: the Imperium decides that a certain city is ready for the process. Imperial engineers and administrators approach the city governor and arrange with the temples and other institutions to protect important sites, particularly those that are underground. The populace is then given so many weeks or months to go visit clan-relatives, set up temporary quarters outside the city, or make other arrangements. Stores and goods are moved by cart, with the cooperation of the transport clans and the Imperial government. When the time comes, the army is given the task of clearing out the last residents, looters, and others still in the city. Then the work crews begin the task of destruction down to ground level, filling in foundations, and levelling older buildings. This may not be done all at once, especially in the case of large cities, and some parts may still be inhabited while others undergo Ditlana. Whenever an area is cleared, the Imperium works with the owning clans, temples, etc. to plan new buildings and replace and renew the section. The whole process is hideously expensive and may take several years (but so did the Egyptian Great Pyramid). Sometimes it is not completed for a whole city, and some older areas may be spared, standing side by side with newer edifices. The planners are supposed to make transport and communication easier, set up livable housing, etc. This is not always successful. Some cities, moreover, resist and refuse to allow Ditlana to be performed: e.g. old Khirgar, which has persistently blocked all political pressures to begin Ditlana. Sometimes many hundreds of years may pass before Ditlana is achieved. At times only the major buildings of the "city centre" are replaced, while older suburbs go untouched. At other times, only the slums and degenerating sections of a city are rebuilt, while the wealthier clans and the priests manage to save their property unharmed. It's all largely political -- and rather inefficient. It does seem to work eventually, however, and most of Tsolyanu's major cities have indeed been wholly or partially renewed over the past two millennia. This is not applied to Mu'ugalavyani or Livyani cities, of course, although the Red Hats do make a practice of simply calling in the army to level older, degenerating urban areas. >What is left behind? The filled in areas of a city are rebuilt according to plans agreed on in advance by the owning clans, temples, businesses, and the Imperial government. Buildings thus go up almost as rapidly as they go down. The process does save underground shrines and ancient catacombs, often building new access tunnels to make them available. The Cities of the Dead are not rebuilt or destroyed. >Does the >population move the city completly to a new location some miles off or does >it stay in roughly the same place? The city stays in the same place -- or at least close by. >What happens to the city of the dead >outside of so many Tsolyani (and other nations of the five empires)? Are they >also rebuilt or moved? No, as said above. The system does not always work; it is subject to political pressures and the needs of the times. For example, the current civil war has precluded all attempts to get the central sections of Jakalla to agree to Ditlana. The same is true of Mrelu and Purdimal -- which have always resisted being "Ditlana-fied." One needs to see Ditlana at work in order to understand all of the problems and processes it involves. 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. //350 [Moderator's Note: Bod Dushay asks about some ideas for an adventure invol- ] [ ving warehouses in cities. ] >I am working on an adventure set in a grain warehouse in Jakalla, and I >heard that in ancient China, families given the responsibility of guarding >the warehouses actually lived in them. Not wanting to be Euro-centric, >I have to ask: what are the conventional arrangements for warehouse >security in Jakalla for a wealthy clan? Do they have a poorer lineage >family live there, do they hire guards, or do they simply trust to the >Jakallan police forces? Most clans hire poorer clan members to serve as guards, overseers, caravan masters, etc. This is true of the great warehouses and grain-storage silos. Poorer clansmen may be given quarters, some money, and other goods in exchange for overseeing these facilities. Younger clansmen are employed as guards, escorts, labourers, and the like. Various clans (e.g. the Tlakotani) prefer that all physical labour be done by slaves or members of allied lower clans; others claim that it is good for younger clansmen to work hard and get training in the realities of life. Nobody would trust the Jakallan police to protect property! Bribes and "gifts" work to some extent, but if one turned a warehouse over to the police, it is almost certain that some very assiduous and clever "transfer of property" would immediately ensue. "Trust a clansman; see your property again," as the old adage says. 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. //351 [Moderator's Note: Paul Roser asks about some other languages. ] >Now that I'm thinking about these things, would you pass along this brief >query to Phil? I was just curious whether he has given any thought to doing >the grammars for Thu'usa and the Tongue of the Priests of Ksarul? I've thought about these languges a lot. Thu'usa never seemed very important to me since it is of such limited usage. The Secret Tongue of the Priests of Ksarul is another matter, but they prefer that I not reveal their secrets to the world -- even this world. The script also defies my talents with Fontographer: see p. 60 of the Zocchi Sourcebook! >I've >pictured the "ladder-script" of Thu'usa as looking something like a cross >between the original Mongolian script and Devanagari turned on its side. Similar, yes, but different. >As for the Tongue of the Priests of Ksarul, I have imagined something like >the Ethiopian syllabary with additional symbols attached, but for >some reason I can't quite come up with a satisfactory image of it. A phonemic alphabet, plus a large corpus of ideographs, plus symbols of grammatical elements -- ! Very complex, and perhaps undoable on a computer. I will have to look into it. >I was >able to access the alphabets at the ftp site and was very pleased with allof >them, only, the "ss" character in Salarvyani is in an odd location, and >there doesn't seem to be a vowel sign for "u#" (u-umlaut) (or am I >mistaken?). I think all of these letters are there somewhere. Try lower case, upper case, option, and option-shift keyboards. If you have a character display programme such as "PopChar" or "Big Caps," you may be able to see all of the symbols on your keyboard at once. Use the Zocchi Sourcebook, p. 133, to see what these particular letters are supposed to look like. (It is also easily possible that I omitted them -- it's been known to happen...!) >Also Sunuz is truly somehow suggestive of something dark and >sinister, almost appropriate to Call of Cthulhu! I am puzzled by a few >things about the Sunuz script, though. There doesn't seem to be a letter for >"o", but the Sunuz text "Tlom Je'e" contains one. Secondly, what are symbols >indicated by "A-P", Quadrants 7 & 8? Are they grammatical markers or >classifiers, such as in Mu'ugalvyani? Are the 4 "Taya:kh" classifiers or are >they like the "Kenemuz" of Livyani? When Chris gets the Sunuz grammar up on the FTP site, you will learn all about these matters. Sunuz really doesn't have a short "o" but does have a long vowel sound close to it (mostly borrowed from Duru'ob or Engsvanyali, but occurring in various indigenous morphemes as well). The Sunuz long vowel sounds something like the back low rounded vowel of "awe." The pattern is rather skewed. Look for the Sunuz article on the FTP site. You'll enjoy it, I think! [Moderator's Note: Look for Sunuz as the next netbook. Keep those regi- ] [ strations coming in for the other netbooks, too. ] [ I now have fontographer, and will likely rebuild all ] [ the fonts that I have put up before. Some of the ] [ Truetypes I put up for windows have some problems. [ [ For mac users, I'll repackage those fonts, and for ] [ everyone, I'll put up postscript versions. ] 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. //352 [Moderator's Note: Dermot Bolton sends another view of the UK gaming session.] Chris, Here is an account of the first day of our weekend Tekumel bash. David Bailey GM'd this bit and I did the next day on another plane (I blame the beer :) ). The other plane being where Vridekka scuttled off to. Fulat is not a high Lord like Don Mikoyal hiGangasa but a mere 5th circle priest of Gruganu of the Black Mountain clan, hardly important at all really... Dermot ----------- An encoded report from Pala Jakalla to Hmakuyal. - Dohala 2366 Lord Fulat bearer of the Azure Scarab, wielder of the Black Claw, bears tidings of my mission to the south to my brethren of the clan. As predicted brothers the matter arising in the south has been of great political importance, my castings and those of Lord Charek hiViridame were true. I was right in entrusting this mission to no one but myself so great is its significance. I arrived in Pala Jakalla (PJ) some two ago and established myself within the temple of Gruganu as a 5th circle scholar doing research, the librarian here is perceptive and paid deference to me which made me suspicious, so I had him promoted. I believe Penom has welcomed the experience of their new senior librarian. I contacted our two senior members in PJ before contacting brother Kurshetl hiSsanmirren our main field operative in these parts. As a senior member of Sea Blue, second cousin to the old Chancellor, OAL operative and high scholar at the temple of Ksarul he is well placed, and luckily for him - loyal. The look of surprise shone right through his silver mask when I signalled him of my position, I do not believe his major domo had ever heard him stutter before. I told him that events would become 'interesting' to the clan very soon and to wait for my orders. A day later a notice was posted outside the governors palace - a declaration. In short it was a challenge to the Emperor from an unspecified Imperial heir. Ma'in the exquisite had made her move at last - the south being the only area she could do so with safety. A event in honour of a departed local savant of the Green Lady of thrusting hips was announced. Apparently this 'Pathiqueng' had something of a well deserved reputation, a phallic green sculpture now overlooks PJ from a nearby hill in his memory. See report &*$% - <-> (un-translatable) for more details. Princess Ma'in and co. would be attending as would local dignitaries. I had my slave scribe volunteer to write out invitations, this to find out the guest list and get a certain 5th circle priest of th e Black Mountain clan a invitation to the party too. The disturbing thing about the guest list was the addition of one 'Motai hiMotem' an unknown man with no discernible background - and a close friend of the princess it seemed. The party was in full swing when Ma'in's albino, Abasudaste, gave a show of illusion in honour of Pathiqueng. Something was wrong when worms appeared in the tableau, the Scarab embedded in my chest began to tingle as the sorcerous presence grew. People started screaming as hideous mouths began to devour and liquefy the woman, my first action was to quickly cast a powerful disenchantment to banish the summoning. It only slowed it for a second as I realised this was something much more than mere Worms of Death. A marine kasi near me heroically grabbed a K'aing standard from a wall and charged the monstrosity - impaling the spear tip through its furred and tusked head. A 'Lan' if totally futile effort. Panic still prevailed as I realised the nature of the beast - ASHONU, Steward of Lord Gereshma'a. As I realised the implication of such a demonic summoning Kurshetl dispatched the creature with a simple spell of nutrifaction thereby satisfying the creatures appetite and sending it on its way home back to the 36th circle. A clever trick that I must commend him for. Ma'in had left the melee with this Motai character, after the melee I followed them in stealth and listened in to their conversation in an nearby room. Motai had dropped his own illusion and revealed himself to be a strange crystalline creature with a voice like that of gently breaking glass. Not a Hokun, but perhaps a Churstalli of legend? I distracted a soldier advancing to the room with a thrown pebble long enough to hear mention of possible retribution by 'her brother' and the suspected involvement of Vridekka. Vridekka, the reason I had to come. The reason we had to act swiftly in this matter yet with discretion, I only wish it had not been him. For reasons obvious to our policy we need Ma'in safe, HE (the emperor) cannot be allowed to interfere, but it still puzzles me why Vridekka has done this. I had my suspicions even then that he may have gone 'rogue'. A party was gathered to attend the problem of Vridekka who was thought to be near to PJ. Some of the guests had gone missing after the party including the marine kasi and a kasi (an agent of Mirusiya) from Red Devastation. Also a cousin of Kurshetl called Shyusak had vanished after being implicated in a double murder. (NB: I took the opportunity to blackmail the major domo of Sea Blue about the murders, another useful informant gained). It seemed that Vridekka had some well placed agents. I allowed the search party to follow the trail to an abandoned quarry NE of town where I discreetly joined them. We arrived only to see the three missing men being pursued by some worm soldiers, a melee ensued. I evened the odds somewhat by causing the food of the Ssu to appear at the feet of the soldiers. There is something satisfying in hearing the terrible screams of a panicked enemy being dissolved in corrosive juices. Meanwhile Kurshetl flew in from above only to be brought down by their sorcerer . Some slid down the scree others ran on the path to engage the enemy. They retreated down the tunnel only to be followed by Vapours of Death from my wounded ally Kurshetl. The group rallied in the tunnel only to be stumped by the lack of torchlight, the vapours having extinguished all sources. I proceeded up the narrow passage, having a knack of seeing in the dark, while they discussed a plan. Two Mrur were quite responsive after some minor magics and I took a torch back down to the group. The noble lords gathered below (see attached list of names) had a remarkable talent at procrastination, so once again I took the lead down the main tunnel. A few minutes down a new tunnel, as if dug by a giant worm, appeared of the main one. Standing within was a brown robed man and two crossbowmen. They attacked but my warding stopped the bolts and I smiled as the sorcerers spell had no effect on me. I attempted to send the sorcerer into the Labyrinth of Elongated Shadows before erecting a magical ward to prevent the rest of the party from being 'hebetated' as was attempted on me. The enemy ran off as I waited for my comrades. I realised that the mage needed to be eliminated so I offered to provide magical assistance to two brave warriors who could go on ahead. I made Shyusak and Murugani (Red Dev) unseen and unheard so as to assist pursuit. They ran into the darkness with my self a bit behind them, the party followed noisily behind me. A cloak left by Murugani alerted me to the laddered shaft unseen ahead, I descended warily only to encounter a terrible scene indeed. Ahead of me was a chamber, a man making a sacrifice at an altar, my comrades fighting some Mrur and some other brown robed priests assisting the ceremony. I advanced only to be savagely bitten by a carpet of worms - I leaped back out of the room. I realised that the ceremony needed to be stopped at all costs so killing the victim would be the swiftest course of action. As I once again summoned up the noxious food of the Ssu there came an amber glow from around the altar scene, not only had I failed to breach the magical protection but I had given vital energies to my foe! Curse his vile sorceries! I felt like an acolyte for such an error, I should have realised the presence of a Bulwark of Amber. By this point the rest had arrived. With my pedthetl weakened I dispelled the bulwark, and then disenchanted the worms with another mighty spell. Our warriors advanced, already Vridekka had cut out the beating heart of the boy sacrifice and was pouring an amber fluid from a copper ewer into the chest cavity. Kurshetl tried in vain to slay the emperor's mage as he quickly opened up a nexus point to escape our attack. The boy arose from the altar smiling eerily before being overwhelmed by the hideous vegetation of the Ssu, only to crawl through the portal badly burned. The last thing we saw of the boy was an imperial seal around his neck - Dhichune's son! We knew not where the portal led and we were too drained to discover where, so we retired to PJ before setting off after the pair. Kurshetl urged me to assist him in summoning The Beast Without a Tail to pursue Vridekka. As attractive as the idea was I had to veto it, as discussed the clan could not afford to show our direct influence in this matter. Instead, upon discerning the benign nature of the other world, the party was rallied to pursue the duo through the nexus. They departed yesterday, I remained to find out more of Ma'in and her Churstalli. What exactly she is planning and how to turn the knowledge to our advantage. I know not of the fate of our allies in the planes beyond. Glory to the one true prince who resides within the blue room. Fulat of the Black Fingers ----- 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. //353 [Moderator's Note: Someone mentioned to the Professor that he might write ] [ a bit about the lack of common maps on Tekumel. ] I'd like to clear up a commonly misunderstood feature of Tsolyani culture. I refer to the lack of *maps* in the Five Empires. There just aren't any. When guiding someone through a city or countryside, words are used instead of "maps." This is considered "noble" since the person guided may "take it ill" to be considered like a child for whom pictures must be drawn! The Tsolyani thus measure buildings, fields, and other mappable items and write out descriptions in terms of units of measurement. There are a couple of exceptions: merchants and other travellers may use a diagrammatic sort of "map": a series of boxes for cities connected by lines representing roads, with notations in writing to show difficult terrain, etc. These are rather similar to Arab maps of the Middle Ages. The "roads" are not in proportion, nor are the city boxes "sized" to show big versus small cities. A note in the margin or scribbbled all around the box may explain some of this. Box-diagrammes are used by soldiers, too, for strategic and tactical troop movements and arrangements. These usually show units as simple boxes, with arrows and other devices to indicate movement. Written notations around the margins give orders to units to stand, advance, fire, and the like. A Tsolyani who wants to "see" a city can have an artist draw or paint a "picture" like that given on the box cover of the original EPT. Nothing is to scale, large figures of stereotypical merchants, priests, etc. are shown in areas where they are relevant. Palaces and fortifications are depicted much larger than real size, and sites of historical or cultural importance may be given a separate little inset picture showing salient features. These pictures are rather map-like but are different. Architects may also use box-diagrammes for plans, but these are always supplemented by words -- and sometimes by pictures of the building when it is finished. Important officials (e.g. city governors) may also possess 3-dimensional clay, wood, etc. models of their domains. Again, there is little attention to scale. (The map of Jakalla that was published with the first EPT takes only a rough stab at a scale: it is thus really a "Tsolyani" map. Temples and palaces are shown very large, while sections of the city filled with lower-class housing and the like are small and undetailed. Even this is more than any real Tsolyani might attempt, however -- it was just my own way of showing Jakalla and at the same time keeping it sort of "Tsolyani" in atmosphere. None of the other modern peoples and races of Tekumel seem to have maps either, although it is said that the Hokun may have something like them, and the Naqsai peoples of the regions southeast of Livyanu on The Southern Continent do have more detailed systems of symbols for their box-diagrammes. The Great Ancients did have maps, of course. Those written on paper or other materials have long since perished. They also produced High Cartography "map-stones": gemstones or interesting rocks that were technologically (magically?) imbued with data about the place represented, rather like a CD-ROM disc. One could pick up a map-stone and "feel" the contours of the land, see mental pictures of the people, events, etc., all interspersed with spoken and written text. Unfortunately, the languages in which these map-stones "speak" are now millennia-old and quite incomprehensible to modern Tekumelani, even with magical aid. Many stones have "faded," moreover, making their pictures and messages hard to see or hear. 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. //354 Greetings everyone! Hope those of us in the States enjoyed the Holiday on Thursday. Good News Strikes again!!! We have released another Net Book as of today. I have uploaded a Grammar of Sunuz, the language of the Pariah Deity worshippers. The article is long, about 60 pages, and shareware reg is $12. In thinking about registrations, I was wanting to make sure that everyone who has sent in a registration, has been acknowledged. So, I will be posting a mailing to everyone a list of people who have sent in registrations. If your name is not on the list and you have paid, please contact me immediately, as I did move in the midst of all this and might have lost something. If you have your cancelled check, send me a photocopy of both sides. I'm pretty meticulous about money details, so I don't think I have made any errors. However, I don't have that much confidence in the Post Office. :) That said, on Monday, I am leaving for vacation. I mean really leaving. No phone, no beeper, etc. I will be out of communications for the whole week. Don't expect any activity. I'll try to get out a few dribs and drabs that I already have before I go. I have worked over a lot of the material on the ftp site today, and many of the multi-format documents have been replaced by a single pdf file now. If you have any problems with the new pdfs, make sure you download them in binary format. Also, I have bumped the revision number of Deeds to 2, as I added a tidbit at the very end that the Professor provided: details of a new legion. On the Net Book front, this is the end of new material. Please make sure you register everything you download. This is the only way we will see any more new Tekumel stuff. The Professor and I have been brainstorming on ideas for new material. I didn't mention to him that I had this idea, but I think I'll run a little poll. What do YOU want to see about Tekumel next? Please keep your requests realistic. I don't think the Prof will write a detailed history of the Dragon Warriors period or on the Latter Times, as there is so little left from the period, etc. Now, back to reprinting material. As you know I have been working on re- printing the Source Book. I have what was the 3rd part of the Source Book completely scanned (the part that was never reprinted by TOME/White Dwarf) and will be editing and modifying the master document while on vacation. I hope to have it finished soon. I am releasing Part 3 first, as it has not been published since the Zocchi Sourcebook printing. I will then modify the master docs for the other 2 parts. (I have already hand edited them.) They will follow. I will leave each part as a separate entity, and combine them all together as a single volume. I am doing it this way to accomodate anyone who has purchased vol 1, or vol 2 singly, or both as a set, or none of them at all. It seems to me to be the easiest way. I have had only one reported problem with the new PDF files, so I am going to assume that all goes well on that front. If you have a problem, let me know. As I said before, you must download them in binary format. I am providing printed copies for those who have problems with the PDF format. Ask me for details. One other geographic note, we have 146 members now. I just added members from two new countries, Belgium and Italy. Our members come from the fol- lowing countries. USA, United Kingdom, Finland, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Belgium, and Italy. Pretty impressive group! :) Well, that's it for now. Please place a subject like "Poll Response" on your messages that are suggestions for new material. Please send any regular questions for the list separately. Chris ----- 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. (One last note. It was suggested that I send out the contents of the ftp site out on the list. I have appended the latest readme files together in the following list.) The following is a list of the current readme files for the Blue Room's ftp site. It contains numerous directories containing the Professor's articles, graphics, netbooks, etc. This is the readme file for the Approved directory. This directory is for user contributed articles that have been approved by Professor Barker as compatible with "Real Tekumel". Every article in the directory will have as the first line, This article has been approved by Professor Barker as compatible with "Real Tekumel". Please do not remove it. File Author File type Subject: gardstoc.txtAnton Doyvidaitis Text File Gardasiyal Table of Contents Huon.doc David Lemire Win/Mac Word 6.0 Hu'on, a Tsolyani Huon.hqx David Lemire Mac Word 5.1 (binhexed) Martial Art. Huon.ps David Lemire Postscript Pechoi.doc Robert Dushay Win/Mac Word 6.0 How to make a player Pechoi.hqx Robert Dushay Mac Word 5.1 (binhexed) Pe Choi character. Pechoi.ps Robert Dushay Postscript Submit any works of user contributed stuff to the incoming directory, along with an email to me (blueroom@prin.edu) if you would like the Professor to look at it with approval in mind. Please be aware that the Professor's time is limited, and if the scope of your work is extremely detailed, it may take quite some time to be approved. Until that time, your work will be in the public directory called contrib. ------- This is the readme file for the Articles directory. Articles in this group are all copyright by Professor M.A.R. Barker File Author File type Subject: Hnalla.ps Barker Postscript A treatise on Light/Darkness Hnalla.doc Barker Win/Mac Word 6.0 and how the Emperor is crowned. Hnalla.hqx Barker Mac Word 5.1 (binhexed) (Must have some non-standard fonts for the Mac 5.1 version.) karakan.pdf Barker Adobe Acrobat 2.1 A Treatise on the Temple of Karakan. Ksamandu.docBarker Win/Mac Word 6.0 A Treatise on the Yan Kor names for Tekumelani Deities, Ksamandu.hqxBarker Mac Word 5.1 (binhexed) by Ksamanduish, the Traveller Ksamandu.ps Barker Postscript (also has Pechani deity names). Ksarul.pdf Barker Adobe Acrobat 2.1 A Treatise on The Temple of Ksarul. Sarku.pdf Barker Adobe Acrobat 2.1 A Treatise on The Temple of Sarku Shenyu.pdf Barker Adobe Acrobat 2.1 An interesting article on the home of the Shen. Thumis.pdf Barker Adobe Acrobat 2.1 A treatise on the Temple of Thumis We are hand transcribing these articles. If you want to donate some of your time to help the project along, please send email to cld@prin.edu. Thanks to the following for their transcription services. Hnalla -- Professor Barker Karakan -- Evan Nitsopoulas Ksamandu -- Professor Barker Ksarul -- Mark Eggert Sarku -- Floyd Brigdon Shenyu -- Robert Dushay Thumis -- Chris Davis ----- This is the readme for the Contrib directory. Hi. This is the beginning of a collection of user written articles, stories, rules additions, etc. Anything user written can be put here. Drop submissions in the incoming directory and email notification to blueroom@prin.edu. thief.doc -- A Thief of Jakalla. User contributed story by David Lemire. Word 6.0 format. thief.hqx -- Word 5.1 for mac format, binhexed. thief.ps -- Postscript file. ----- This is the readme for the dbs directory. Hi. This is the beginning of a collection of databases. There are likely to be as many formats as there are stars in the sky. I am enclosing 2 utilities for converting binhex on Intel platforms. I have not tested the 2 utils, use them at your own risk. Emperors.hqx -- A FM Pro Database (Mac) of the Tlakotani Seal emperors and information about their reign. WCrystal.hqx -- A FM Pro Database (Mac) of notable people in the White Crystal clan. wpackd.exe -- A util that decodes binhex (.hqx) files under DOS/Win. I have not tested this file. Use at your own risk. wpack32d.exe -- A util that decodes binhex (.hqx) files under Win95, and I assume Win NT. I have not tested this file, use at your own risk. ----- This is the readme of the Fonts directory. Hi. This is a group of fonts from the Professor that he uses to write Tekumelani Languages. All fonts are in 2 forms. A truetype font for Windows, and an font suitcase for Mac (binhexed). I will list the fonts once, the truetype is the .ttf extension, and the mac suitcase is the .hqx extension. Note: The non reversed Tsolyani and Livyani fonts have to be typed backwards. Truetype Fonts Livyani -- A Livyani font. A non-reversed version. RLivyani -- Another Livyani font, that you must reverse to get the true right to left reading. You can reverse the font using a graphics program like Photoshop. RTsolyan -- A reverse Tsolyani font, that is used like the above mentioned Livyani font. There is a sep- arate font for the Tsolyani Numbers. RTsolNum -- Reverse Tsolyani Numbers. Salarvya -- A font for Salarvyani. Sunuz -- A font for Sunuz. Usenanu -- A font for Tsolyani that is not reversed. YanKor -- A font for Yan Kor. Postscript Fonts All fonts that end in ps.hqx are Postscript fonts of the stated variety. They are binhexed, and if you have a unix or PC platform, I can provide you with a utility that will decode the files. Support Files: sfm.doc -- A Sunuz Font Map for use with the (Word 6.0) sfm.hqx -- Professor's font. (Mac Word 5.1) sfm.ps -- (Postscript) tfm.doc -- A Tsolyani Font Map for use with (Word 6.0) tfm.hqx -- the Professor's font. (Mac Word 5.1) tfm.hqx -- (Postscript) ----- This is the readme for the Graphics directory. Hi. This is the beginning of a picture gallery. Professor Barker has provided these pictures for the ftp site. All pictures in this group (excepting the Shen picture), are copyright by Professor M.A.R. Barker. Contents of the picture gallery so far: BeySuMap.jpg -- A map of Bey Su... Should look familiar. 603,315 bytes BeySuMap.pdf -- Description of the Map of Bey Su. 63,837 bytes explore.jpg -- A letter of Marque. 610,370 bytes explore.pdf -- Translation and description of the letter. 69,827 bytes gamebord.jpg -- A picture of a Tekumelani Gameboard... Should look familiar... :) 294,568 bytes gamebord.pdf -- A description of the above. 1,446 bytes Kerunan.jpg -- A picture of a Land grant to the Shipali Family of the Protectorate of Kerunan. 925,696 bytes Kerunan.pdf -- Translation of the above. 55,465 bytes Mirusiya.jpg -- A letter from Mirusiya to Takiodai hiVriddi. 693,385 bytes Mirusiya.pdf -- Translation of the above. 8,247 bytes Setnakh3.gif -- A GIF of the beautiful village of Setnakh. 40511 bytes Setnakh.txt -- A text file describing some more of the lovely village of Setnakh that Professor Barker included in a message to me. Shen1.jpg -- A jpeg of a Shen, provide by Dermot Bolton. A friend of his drew it. 44070 bytes Sunuz.jpg -- A jpeg of a Sunuz Glyph. 123202 bytes Swamp2.jpg -- A jpeg of a Swamp Folk Merchant vessel under attack by the flying Shanu'u. This is a jpeg created at the standard quality setting of 70. ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! 278716 bytes Swamp2m.jpg -- A jpeg of a Swamp Folk Merchant vessel under attack by the flying Shanu'u. This is a jpeg created at quality setting 100. ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! 519493 bytes Tinaliya.jpg -- A jpeg of everyone's favorite bug! The maddeningly detail oriented denizen of Tekumel. 11456 bytes Urunen.gif -- A GIF of an Urunen. 6712 bytes ----- This is the readme from the Netbooks directory. The Professor has given us permission to reprint some of his larger works and release some brand new material as shareware net books. This will be the home of those works. These works are shareware, and are copyrighted. The are distributed write-protected. Please send in the registration fee to the person listed in the document. That person has been designated by the Professor to collect any fees associated with the document. If this shareware book idea works, we should continue to see more material presented in this format. Chris File Author Document deeds.pdf Barker Deeds of the Ever-Glorious (PDF for Unix/Mac/PC) Registration $5.00 (US) enggram.pdf Barker Grammar of Engsvanyali (PDF for Unix/Mac/PC) Registration $8.00 (US) Engsvan.doc Barker A History of Engsvan hla (Word 6.0 Mac/PC) Engsvan.hqx Barker Ganga. Brand New Material.(Mac Word 5.1) Engsvan.ps Barker Please register (see doc) (Postscript) livgram.pdf Barker Grammar of Livyani (PDF for Unix/Mac/PC) Registration $6.00 (US) sungram.pdf Barker Grammar of Sunuz (PDF for Unix/Mac/PC) Registration $12.00 (US) yangram.pdf Barker Grammar of Yan Koryani (PDF for Unix/Mac/PC) Registration $4.00 (US) I have recently released Revision 2 of Deeds. It includes 1 new legion at the very end, and a few spelling corrections. Plus, it is a PDF file. Note for Engsvan hla Ganga... Each flavor is a bit different, due to MS-Word's inablility to cross platforms identically. We changed all the fonts to a standard Times New Roman, but still Mac Word 6 and PC Word 6 paginated, broke columns, etc differently on each platform. I will be converting Engsvan hla Ganga to PDF very soon. Chris ----- //355 [Moderator's Note: Joe Saul asks the following about the Ditlana answer. ] Legend >> = Professor's original answer > = Joe's Questions = Professor's answer >Followup question, about something that has been confusing me lately: >>Then the work crews begin the task of destruction down to >>ground level, filling in foundations, and levelling older buildings. >I have the impression that many, if not most, Tsolyani buildings of any >size have cellars (you would certainly want them for cool storage, for >example). >I didn't think they brought in enough dirt to raise the local ground level >significantly (except in the temple districts, where the foundations >themselves can be 10' high). A clanhouse, therefore, would only rise by >a couple feet at most. This being the case, how can they fill in the >foundation and still have a cellar? Am I wrong about the dirt? Many, but not most, Tsolyani buildings have deep foundations and cellars. Most have superstructures of stone, brick, etc. These superstructures often have very thick walls that can provide a huge amount of worked stone blocks and rubble. In addition, earth is moved in by cart to fill up some excavations, and a concrete-like material (I am not sure of the technical name) is used to fill parts. Engin- eering is not my field, so you will have to ask the construction experts how they would go about filling a destroyed building exca- vation in the midst of a city (e.g. downtown New York or Chicago). I know *what* is done -- but not always *how* it is done. Clanhouse walls can be quite thick and of good, dressed stone or brick. Ancient cellars are often used and reused, over and over, with new tunnels built to lead down to them. Stone, earth, and clay are brought to the site, also, by cart and barge. Brick and stone slums that have proliferated over the centuries often form the rubble core of new buildings. There is a lot of dislocation and upset when people are moved about in this way, but it has to be done, and so it is. Not a very detailed answer -- but I am no engineer. 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. //356 [Moderator's Note: Lisa Leutheuser asks about "incentives" for promotion, ] [ exactly who to present them to. ] >I've read that one might use bribes...ah, I mean, gifts in order >to advance in one's temple. To whom does one give the gift? >Does it go to the "temple" or to a specific person in the temple? >Who handles circle advancement and assignments of offices/titles? >Would this be one's immediate superior or someone higher up? The answer depends on the purpose of the "gift" and the personnel involved. In some cases, one senses that a certain person is the "key" to getting a promotion or permission or whatever it is one wants. A "giver" has to assess the "giftee" properly and make sure that the gift is appropriate -- no use giving an ascetic, 80-year-old scholar a book of Engsvanyali pornographic verse (unless the scholar has indicated that this would indeed by desired!). One person might be offended by gold, while a different person would gladly accept it. Where there is a clear case of reluctance to admit to greed, one should piously state that the gift is "for the temple." The recipient can then say with equal sanctimony, "Of course, for the temple" -- and pocket it. In some delicate cases a gift has to be planned for months and may involve many steps: e.g. I recall one case where the recipient was utterly honest, simple, and likely to scream for the O.A.L. if the word "bribe" were mentioned. The giver found out that the recipient's father had been cashiered from the Imperial army years before, and the family had had to live with that disgrace, which affected their daughters' chances of good marriages. The giver had friends high up in the Palace of Glorious War in Bey Su and was able to drop a judicious hint that he could intervene on the father's behalf. This was quite improper, but a little pressure here and a push there, and the father's memory was almost magically cleared of blame -- indeed, he received a posthumous citation -- and the giver arranged to be the one who brought the happy news to the recipient. The recipient provided the giver with the desired promotion out of gratitude! (Sadly, though, the father's enemies learned of the matter and managed to have the citation, etc. revoked. All this means is that one must be careful in offering bribes (gifts). Usually these need be no more than a coin or two. Player characters often give way too much -- I've seen doormen and chamberlains get 5 Kaitars for just letting a person pass from one antechamber into another! A Hlash would do for many lower-rank officials, while a Kaitar might be offered to a higher officer from whom one needed a favour. Bigger bribes for bigger and better favours, of course. It might cost thousands to get the title to a fief, especially if it were a good one that was wanted by several other claimants. >My character has recently purchased a very fine "gift" and is >wondering who to give it to in her temple for the best results. It depends on the favour wanted and the person controlling it. Is the favour a public one that is not the responsibility of any one person: e.g. a promotion? Or is it something that a certain individual controls: e.g access to a certain library or book? Or an object kept by certain caretakers: e.g. a temple treasure? Or a grant or permission that comes through a temple society or synod? Or what? Pick the responsible person(s) judiciously and assess just what it is that these people could want. Then arrange for them to get it -- and for them to know clearly that you are responsible for them getting it -- but not responsible enough that you can be accused publicly of bribery or subverting the faith or such-like when your (or their) enemies find out! The smoother the giving, the smoother the result. Or, as the Tsolyani say, "The raucous Qasu-bird is driven away with stones; the gentle Kaika-bird offers eggs and is beloved." 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. //357 [Moderator's Note: Preston Simpson writes asking about good old Harsan, ] [ from the Man of Gold. ] >After finally getting a hold of _The Man of Gold_ and reading it, I >must ask: What ever happened to Harsan? I've seen talk of Vridekka >here, but has anyone got a line on what happened to everyone's >favorite protagonist? Harsan took his two pretty wives and went off (quickly!) on a mission to Livyanu. He's there now -- and the sub-protagonist of the third novel, which is a slow one for me to write for a multitude of reasons. But I'll get to it one of these days! 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. //358 [Moderator's Note: Adam Levine and Fred Kiesche write about maps and ] [ specifically, High Cartography. ] [Adam's Questions] >From "Man of Gold", I was under the impression that the more mundane >aspects of high cartography still exist as a learnable, though obscure, >art form. Maps depicting places and terrain are still sometimes made. >However, these three dimensional maps have no magical properties. Is >this correct? It is true that a very, very few scholars still have some capabiltiies of making High Cartography-style mapstones. These do not have the permanent magical qualities of the ancient ones, but a skilled "reader" can get something from them. One feels them, touches the ridges and whorls, and "interprets" the code -- if the scholar knows it. If the encoder has employed another tradition, of course, it cannot be read. The original mapstones required no special knowledge to "read": their messages appeared telepathically in the heads of those who handled them. [Fred's Questions] >Regarding Maps, my feeble brain seems to recall a very abstract map >used in "Man of Gold"--perhaps at the Temple of Thumis somewhere in >the beginning of the book? I think you are referring either to the language sculpture (which was a series of agreed-upon symbolic representations of linguistic structures), or perhaps to the High cartography mapstones. I may have forgotten, though. [Moderator's Note: Well, I seem to remember the OAL officer that came ] [ to the Monastery had a set of High Cartography map ] [ stones. Well, not a full set, but some pieces. Didn't] [ he let Harsan handle them? My set of books is packed ] [ away in the land of the unpacked boxes, a strange and ] [ large area of my basement! :) ] Maps are for the Tekumelani just like the wheel for the Aztecs and Maya: they had wheeled toys but noboy ever thought to put larger wheels on a box and make it carry things! 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. //359 [Moderator's Note: Scott Kellogg asks about Meshqu colorations and John ] [ Bailey makes a suggestion. ] [ This will be the last message before I go on vacation. I'll ] [ fire up again sometime next weekend. See you guys later! ] As far as I know, the Meshqu plaques do not have a fixed colour coding. This is indeed odd, since the temples do have specific colouirs, as do the astrological values of the colours of Tekumel's sister planets and the two moons. I suspect the Meshqu plaques go more on the visual symbolism of the *design* of the plaques than their colours. These symbolic patterns go back to the Engsvanyali period, at least. Since the various deities have associated colours, I suspect that moods based on colours cannot function: if Hru'u is always purple, does this mean that all worshippers of Hru'u exist in a permanent "mood indigo?" Are all Sarku worshippers is a perpetual "brown study?" These sects claim that their deities' hues are particularly apt and lovely, and that Belkhanu's bright yellow and Avanthe's sky blue are garish and "too brilliant to be tasteful." >When are we going to see a rising young entreprenuer among our ranks >petition the Emperor for permission to retail "Meshqu Plaques" on >Earth? >As I see it, it would advertise Tekumel in a (mostly) harmless manner, >it would provide a capitalistic outlet for an artisan in our midst, and >it would give us a way to express our moods in a non-confrontational >manner. >I have sent a rather amatuerish ".bmp" file to the ftp site, loosely >based on the description in "The Best Of The Journals, Vol 1". It is my >intention that somebody will be inspired by the fact that "Ziggy the >Chimpanzee" at the Eureka, California Zoo has more artistic ability >than me. (In fact, he's even got a home page, check it out.) >If it's okay with Professor Barker, if there's a leather-, plastic-, or >wood-worker among us, and if there are sufficient orders from the >Blueroom membership to make it work, perhaps Chris can coordinate >financing--like he already does for the netbooks. [Moderator's Note: AGH! Said entrepreneur can run his own financing! ] Yes, by all means, go ahead any make up a set of pretty Meshqu plaques! We could also do them up to fit various Terran contexts. College dormitory residents might find them useful: "I am studying: come back in an hour!" or "My significant other is away this weekend; come on in if you are (choose which sex) and interested!" Or" "I failed the exam; enter at your own risk!" Or: "I'm in the mood for a game of bridge; call me if you need a fourth." I can imagine many uses for Meshqu plaques here on Earth. Various sets for various types of situations ... Somebody could get rich! Royalties for old retired professors? (Kidding, of course). ;-) 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. //360 [MOderator's Note: Steve Lopez provides the reference that I referred to in] [ Message 358. Thanks Steve! (Joe, Don't forget, I have ] [ about 8 new people that want digested email!) :) ] >[Moderator's Note: Well, I seem to remember the OAL officer that came ] >[ to the Monastery had a set of High Cartography map ] >[ stones. Well, not a full set, but some pieces. Didn't] >[ he let Harsan handle them? My set of books is packed ] >[ away in the land of the unpacked boxes, a strange and ] >[ large area of my basement! :) ] It was Prior Haringgashte, not Kurrune (the Imperial messenger); see Chapter Two, pages 13-15. Best -- Steve [Churak] ----- 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.