This secret society of wizards believes that all things in the material world are imperfect reflections of ideal forms, which exist in a place called the Heaven of Perfect Forms.
They possess spells which create visions, which they claim show the Heaven of Perfect Forms. Thus, they say, their illusions are more real than the reality they obscure. This may account for the rumoured ability of these illusions to do actual harm to those who believe in them.
Showing posts with label Great Race. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Great Race. Show all posts
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Shield Designs
It is the custom in Teleleli and surrounding areas to decorate shields with images of leering faces.
It is said by some that this is the remnant of an ancient custom, which may still be practiced in its original form other lands, of stretching the actual faces of one's defeated enemies across a shield.
Others claim that it is an imitation of the sorcery of the Great Race, who were able to trap demons within their shields.
It is said by some that this is the remnant of an ancient custom, which may still be practiced in its original form other lands, of stretching the actual faces of one's defeated enemies across a shield.
Others claim that it is an imitation of the sorcery of the Great Race, who were able to trap demons within their shields.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Humans: Their Relation to Dwarves, Elves and Halflings
Many scholars have suggested that these four groups, who resemble each other at least in appearance, share a common origin.
Laodameia suggests that the four were created when an ancient race, who may or may not have been the Great Race, were each split into four parts. Her writing is obscure and mystical, but she seems to suggest that each currently living member of these groups has three counterparts, one in each other group. Unlike the similar story told in our world by Plato, she does not seem to be offering a metaphor for love. For example she specifically states that members of a group will not recognise their counterparts as such (although a cynic might argue that this is indeed a metaphor for love).
Userkaf believes that each group is associated with a season. In ancient times, he writes, only a single group would be conscious. The other three would sleep or die. He draws correspondences as follows:
Laodameia suggests that the four were created when an ancient race, who may or may not have been the Great Race, were each split into four parts. Her writing is obscure and mystical, but she seems to suggest that each currently living member of these groups has three counterparts, one in each other group. Unlike the similar story told in our world by Plato, she does not seem to be offering a metaphor for love. For example she specifically states that members of a group will not recognise their counterparts as such (although a cynic might argue that this is indeed a metaphor for love).
Userkaf believes that each group is associated with a season. In ancient times, he writes, only a single group would be conscious. The other three would sleep or die. He draws correspondences as follows:
- Elves - autumn (because of their beauty, and their association with decay and passing away)
- Dwarves - winter (because of their stoicism and fortitude)
- Humans - spring (because they are the most varied and unpredictable)
- Halflings - summer (because of their optimism)
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Red Land
The Red Land (Barsoom in its former inhabitants' own tongue) was once the home of a great civilisation. It is now a howling desert, and its people scattered to the four winds.
The desert brings no storms to wash away, nor damp to rot, nor plants to choke, and thus their ruins stand unravaged by time. Only the underground-dwelling rats-with-human-faces still live there, and they have no interest in precious spices. Nor will they attempt to carry away the stones of the temples for fear of the guardian golems, the "silver-studded, sabre-toothed dreams."
Records of the Red Land are written on tablets of unknown metal. They rise from the desert about a mile, so that from a distance they seem like a city. It is unknown how much is buried beneath. Those who have read them say they claim that the Red Land was created first, centuries upon centuries before the rest of the world. It has been suggested that this might be a misreading, and records may be poetically noting that the civilisation discovered the rest of the world centuries after its founding, or that it was civilised while the lands around wallowed in barbarism.
One thing that is certain is that the inhabitants of the Red Land were not the Great Race. For their artifacts are unlike any others. No Glorious Hand has been found in the Red Land, and radium swords are found nowhere else.
The civilisation of the Red Land had declined greatly before its final destruction, and so there are few records of its fall. However it appears that the land relied on a certain plant, to purify the atmosphere of poisonous vapours that were otherwise prevalent. This plant appears to have faced extinction. It also appears that their system of canals had fallen into disrepair. These canals, miles wide and connecting every city-state, seem to have served as roads as well as methods of irrigation.
They appear to have had two entirely separate priesthoods. One performed weddings, funerals, and other priestly duties that we would be familiar with. The other was entirely devoted to the maintenance of the canals. No written records of the canal-priests' fate survive. Oral tradition speaks vaguely of a descent into wickedness. Certainly this priesthood is dead among the Red Land community in Teleleli, and other cities where such exist.
Their canal-priests may be compared to the priesthood of Healos Athair. However they appear not to have had the same smothering dominance, and the cities of the Red Land appear to have never been united in empire. Or perhaps the Red Land was once another Healos Athair, but the priesthood were thrown down by disaster or rebellion?
Physically the inhabitants of the Red Land are rather like lizards or crocodiles, but with six limbs rather than four. In colour they range from red to green. Many of the pets and herd animals they have brought from their home are likewise six-limbed. Some of their scholars claim that the lizard-folk of other deserts are related to them. In support of this they cite a supposed legend of the lizard-folk, that their ancestors had six limbs, but the gods caused two of them to drop off in punishment for various sins, or that they agreed to lose them in return for permission to commit certain acts necessary for survival in the desert, such as killing excess children.
The desert brings no storms to wash away, nor damp to rot, nor plants to choke, and thus their ruins stand unravaged by time. Only the underground-dwelling rats-with-human-faces still live there, and they have no interest in precious spices. Nor will they attempt to carry away the stones of the temples for fear of the guardian golems, the "silver-studded, sabre-toothed dreams."
Records of the Red Land are written on tablets of unknown metal. They rise from the desert about a mile, so that from a distance they seem like a city. It is unknown how much is buried beneath. Those who have read them say they claim that the Red Land was created first, centuries upon centuries before the rest of the world. It has been suggested that this might be a misreading, and records may be poetically noting that the civilisation discovered the rest of the world centuries after its founding, or that it was civilised while the lands around wallowed in barbarism.
One thing that is certain is that the inhabitants of the Red Land were not the Great Race. For their artifacts are unlike any others. No Glorious Hand has been found in the Red Land, and radium swords are found nowhere else.
The civilisation of the Red Land had declined greatly before its final destruction, and so there are few records of its fall. However it appears that the land relied on a certain plant, to purify the atmosphere of poisonous vapours that were otherwise prevalent. This plant appears to have faced extinction. It also appears that their system of canals had fallen into disrepair. These canals, miles wide and connecting every city-state, seem to have served as roads as well as methods of irrigation.
They appear to have had two entirely separate priesthoods. One performed weddings, funerals, and other priestly duties that we would be familiar with. The other was entirely devoted to the maintenance of the canals. No written records of the canal-priests' fate survive. Oral tradition speaks vaguely of a descent into wickedness. Certainly this priesthood is dead among the Red Land community in Teleleli, and other cities where such exist.
Their canal-priests may be compared to the priesthood of Healos Athair. However they appear not to have had the same smothering dominance, and the cities of the Red Land appear to have never been united in empire. Or perhaps the Red Land was once another Healos Athair, but the priesthood were thrown down by disaster or rebellion?
Physically the inhabitants of the Red Land are rather like lizards or crocodiles, but with six limbs rather than four. In colour they range from red to green. Many of the pets and herd animals they have brought from their home are likewise six-limbed. Some of their scholars claim that the lizard-folk of other deserts are related to them. In support of this they cite a supposed legend of the lizard-folk, that their ancestors had six limbs, but the gods caused two of them to drop off in punishment for various sins, or that they agreed to lose them in return for permission to commit certain acts necessary for survival in the desert, such as killing excess children.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Talking Animals
In general, for any species, there might be a talking, intelligent version, as well as the mute, bestial version that we are familiar with.
Some sages believe that apes and humans form such a pair. Yet there are rumours of bestial humans, and what of the Ape-Rajahs of the brass-walled City of Dust? Though some say that they are not true apes.
Teleleli is home to large numbers of talking animals, particularly cats, dogs, and mice.
Talking cats reach about five feet tall in adulthood. Young adults (toms and queens) rather remind one of characters from The Three Musketeers.
Normal cats have the ability to sense entrances to the underworld, and the desire to enter them (this is why they spend so much time under houses, and why they frequently disappear, never to be seen again). Some believe that talking cats have a dim echo of this sense.
Courting among talking cats involves toms displaying agility, for example by balancing on a fence, while playing the bagpipes. Talking cats are unique in their love of this instrument. Its music also affords the toms further ability to display their grace, by dodging the objects thrown at them by the neighbours. Queens are only allowed to court toms on one day of the year, the holiday Lost Saturday. This rule, being the command of the church, is universally obeyed, just as in our own society sex outside of marriage is unknown.
Although I have been unable to determine its truth, there is widespread agreement that a talking cat's fur colour indicates a particular talent, as follows:
Talking mice are about four feet tall, and generally have a similar style to talking cats.
Both talking cats and mice are physically ideal for the profession of burglar, but they are usually handicapped by their immense vanity in the first case, and their sense of fair play in the second. There are many famous cat-burglars, but few who are said to have lived for long. Some talking mice have become pirates, but talking cats generally disdain the sea - perhaps they retain some of their ancestral dislike of water.
Talking dogs can be any size from three feet to higher than the tallest human. Strangely, the variety of breeds in mute dogs is reflected in talking dogs. They believe that they were made thus by the Great Race. These theories are at least more credible than talking cats' belief that they were created from the sneeze of a lion. The largest talking dogs of all are those with wolfish blood. True talking wolves are thankfully not seen in the city, but they are the terror of the forests.
Gangs of talking cats and dogs often fight each other. The main issue is religion, with one species being mostly Catolic, the other Eastern Orthodogs (except for some who follow the teachings of Martin Woofer).
Talking sea creatures can sometimes be seen in Teleleli, particularly around the docks. The mercantile Sell-Fish, ever seeking new markets, uses its fins as feet in order to walk on land. While on land, talking fish carry un-brellas. These devices look like umbrellas, but drop a constant stream of water on the talking fish. Talking dolphins transform into human form. Their human bodies are hairless, slim and muscular. They are said to have a city underwater, location unknown. In some accounts it is destroyed.
Talking sea creatures are largely uninterested in the religious conflict between dogs and cats. However they are sometimes the target of zealots from both communities, because of their liberal attitutes. For example prawnography is openly sold, and they have produced Salmon Rushdie, author of the controversial novel The Sardinic Verses. To protect themselves they have trained a force of Navy Seals.
Talking weasels are likewise uninterested in religious conflicts, due to their belief in the seperation of church and stoat.
Talking cockroaches, or Roaches of Al-Shahab, are about the size of a wolf or foal. They keep the streets reasonably clean by eating garbage. This reduces disease, and can keep away the eggs of many dangerous creatures such as the Invisible Worm Which Flies in the Night. Thus it is dangerous to drive them away, despite their many revolting habits. One such is that they dig up cemeteries. Although even this ensures that a place will not be infested by ghouls, who do not always limit themselves to those already dead. Another is their willingness to work with criminals such as the Bright Company, who use them to dispose of bodies.
Talking snails, turtles and tortises often find the pace of other creatures difficult to adjust to. Thus many of them live in the Slowtown district. Outsiders who enter this walled-off area are required to wear modified diving suits to slow them down. The economy of this district is largely based on the silver found in the trails which talking snails leave behind them.
Talking beavers mostly live in rural areas. However there is a small colony in Teleleli, who were driven here when their dam was destroyed by human farmers. Many of them listen to the bitter talking beaver Clint Eatwood who has sworn that he will take revenge, forcing the farmers to "go ahead punk - make my dam."
Where most talking creatures are close to human-size, talking birds are the same size as their mute equivalents. Naturally many live atop the Roofs.
Lizard-folk are not talking animals, since their bodies are halfway between a human and lizard form.
Some sages believe that apes and humans form such a pair. Yet there are rumours of bestial humans, and what of the Ape-Rajahs of the brass-walled City of Dust? Though some say that they are not true apes.
Teleleli is home to large numbers of talking animals, particularly cats, dogs, and mice.
Talking cats reach about five feet tall in adulthood. Young adults (toms and queens) rather remind one of characters from The Three Musketeers.
Normal cats have the ability to sense entrances to the underworld, and the desire to enter them (this is why they spend so much time under houses, and why they frequently disappear, never to be seen again). Some believe that talking cats have a dim echo of this sense.
Courting among talking cats involves toms displaying agility, for example by balancing on a fence, while playing the bagpipes. Talking cats are unique in their love of this instrument. Its music also affords the toms further ability to display their grace, by dodging the objects thrown at them by the neighbours. Queens are only allowed to court toms on one day of the year, the holiday Lost Saturday. This rule, being the command of the church, is universally obeyed, just as in our own society sex outside of marriage is unknown.
Although I have been unable to determine its truth, there is widespread agreement that a talking cat's fur colour indicates a particular talent, as follows:
| Black | Held to have the ability to wish bad luck, especially hunger, on those who oppose them. |
| White, or van (coloured ears, rest of the body white): | Believed to be lucky. |
| Grey | "In the night all cats are grey" the Telelelenes say, since such cats are believed to excel in being stealthy at night. |
| Orange | Believed to excel in predicting the weather. |
| Tortiseshell (black and orange patches) | Said to excel in thwarting snakes, scorpions, spiders and like creatures, both normal and talking. Legend says that a tortiseshell cat defended the Tree of All Beasts from demons in the form of venomous animals, and was given this ability as a reward. |
| Tabby (light grey and dark grey-black stripes) | Credited with an uncanny nack of locating hidden treasure. |
| Paws, chest, and lower face white - upper face, ears, legs, back and tail black | Believed to excel in all matters pertaining to love, the home, marriage, and children. |
| Paws, chest, and lower face white - upper face, ears, legs, back and tail of any colour other than black | Believed to excel in attracting the admiration of others (a most valued attribute for this generally vain and superficial folk). |
Talking mice are about four feet tall, and generally have a similar style to talking cats.
Both talking cats and mice are physically ideal for the profession of burglar, but they are usually handicapped by their immense vanity in the first case, and their sense of fair play in the second. There are many famous cat-burglars, but few who are said to have lived for long. Some talking mice have become pirates, but talking cats generally disdain the sea - perhaps they retain some of their ancestral dislike of water.
Talking dogs can be any size from three feet to higher than the tallest human. Strangely, the variety of breeds in mute dogs is reflected in talking dogs. They believe that they were made thus by the Great Race. These theories are at least more credible than talking cats' belief that they were created from the sneeze of a lion. The largest talking dogs of all are those with wolfish blood. True talking wolves are thankfully not seen in the city, but they are the terror of the forests.
Gangs of talking cats and dogs often fight each other. The main issue is religion, with one species being mostly Catolic, the other Eastern Orthodogs (except for some who follow the teachings of Martin Woofer).
Talking sea creatures can sometimes be seen in Teleleli, particularly around the docks. The mercantile Sell-Fish, ever seeking new markets, uses its fins as feet in order to walk on land. While on land, talking fish carry un-brellas. These devices look like umbrellas, but drop a constant stream of water on the talking fish. Talking dolphins transform into human form. Their human bodies are hairless, slim and muscular. They are said to have a city underwater, location unknown. In some accounts it is destroyed.
Talking sea creatures are largely uninterested in the religious conflict between dogs and cats. However they are sometimes the target of zealots from both communities, because of their liberal attitutes. For example prawnography is openly sold, and they have produced Salmon Rushdie, author of the controversial novel The Sardinic Verses. To protect themselves they have trained a force of Navy Seals.
Talking weasels are likewise uninterested in religious conflicts, due to their belief in the seperation of church and stoat.
Talking cockroaches, or Roaches of Al-Shahab, are about the size of a wolf or foal. They keep the streets reasonably clean by eating garbage. This reduces disease, and can keep away the eggs of many dangerous creatures such as the Invisible Worm Which Flies in the Night. Thus it is dangerous to drive them away, despite their many revolting habits. One such is that they dig up cemeteries. Although even this ensures that a place will not be infested by ghouls, who do not always limit themselves to those already dead. Another is their willingness to work with criminals such as the Bright Company, who use them to dispose of bodies.
Talking snails, turtles and tortises often find the pace of other creatures difficult to adjust to. Thus many of them live in the Slowtown district. Outsiders who enter this walled-off area are required to wear modified diving suits to slow them down. The economy of this district is largely based on the silver found in the trails which talking snails leave behind them.
Talking beavers mostly live in rural areas. However there is a small colony in Teleleli, who were driven here when their dam was destroyed by human farmers. Many of them listen to the bitter talking beaver Clint Eatwood who has sworn that he will take revenge, forcing the farmers to "go ahead punk - make my dam."
Where most talking creatures are close to human-size, talking birds are the same size as their mute equivalents. Naturally many live atop the Roofs.
Lizard-folk are not talking animals, since their bodies are halfway between a human and lizard form.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Companions of the Great Race
These sea creatures are named for their belief that they are descended from the household of the Great Race, who were left behind when the Great Race rose up to heaven long ago.
In the sea they curl up into a ball, about the size of a loaf of bread. They travel in clusters of a few Companions. Each cluster rides within a skin that appears to be that of a dolphin. On land they hide the skin, uncurl, and grow, becoming a creature indistinguishable to a human.
At times they speak of their false dolphin skin as if it was an actual body, rather than a disguise, and of each cluster as a single being. However they seem to regard themselves as separate while on land.
They never forget the location of their skin and, if it is moved, will have a dim sense where it is. If the skin be destroyed, they seek out another 'family' and ask to cluster with them. It is unknown what happens if a cluster gets too big, or indeed how they reproduce.
In the sea they curl up into a ball, about the size of a loaf of bread. They travel in clusters of a few Companions. Each cluster rides within a skin that appears to be that of a dolphin. On land they hide the skin, uncurl, and grow, becoming a creature indistinguishable to a human.
At times they speak of their false dolphin skin as if it was an actual body, rather than a disguise, and of each cluster as a single being. However they seem to regard themselves as separate while on land.
They never forget the location of their skin and, if it is moved, will have a dim sense where it is. If the skin be destroyed, they seek out another 'family' and ask to cluster with them. It is unknown what happens if a cluster gets too big, or indeed how they reproduce.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Wine-Faced Sea
Teleleli and the surrounding islands stand in the Wine-Faced Sea. Why the sea is so named is disputed. Some say that it is because it may be calm, even sleeping, and then suddenly violent, without cause, like one far gone in drink. Others claim that the Great Race, perverse in all things, drank light blue wine - or that the fluid originally referred to was something else entirely. Yet others point to the way that those most harmed by the sea can be most devoted to it, even against their will.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
The Great Race
It is a near-universal belief among the various species of Teleleli and the lands around that there was once a mightly civilisation, now lost to history, but from whom all invention derives.
This accord breaks down, however, when one moves on to the details. Were they human? If not, are their descendents one of the other intelligent species? Beasts? Are a given race slaves of the Great Race who rebelled, or perhaps animals given intelligence by their art? Did the Great Race fall in a magical disaster, the wrath of the gods, war, a gradual decline? Or did they simply leave, and if so where - over the sea, another planet, under the earth, a mist-shrouded valley or secret rooms under the city, from where they still control the world's governments? Were they rulers of a great empire, the world, or many worlds?
One may find wise sages who will attest to all of the above. One may find others equally learned, and equally certain that the Great Race is merely the name given a succession of different civilisations, or entirely a myth. The sage Hiram Abiff states that the Great Race were not material creatures at all, but numbers. He claimed to have travelled to the Heaven of Perfect Forms, from whence they came.
However certain myths and folk-beliefs suggest to me that the Great Race may have been the Lost Tribes of Israel. If so, perhaps they travelled here using knowledge now lost, learned from the Ancient Egyptians. This would explain how the Israelites could have spent 40 years travelling from Egypt to Palestine via Mount Sinai - which works out to just over 50 yards a day. It may be that they went via these lands, leaving a portion behind who became the Great Race.
This theory, I submit, is also likely to shed light on the mysterious land of Sheba spoken of in the Bible. The reader will no doubt be aware that the black queen of that country, one of the "daughters of Jerusalem", travelled to ancient Israel to bless King Solomon, and to give gifts of spices, precious stones, and rare wood (note that gold, virtually unknown in Teleleli and nearby lands, is not mentioned). She then returned to her own country. The location of Sheba has never been determined.
Solomon is said to have considered her as beautiful as "a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots", with lips "like a thread of scarlet", and teeth "like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them." Tradition holds that they had a child together. A child of the revered king in Jerusalem (or one believed to be such), would have had no difficulty being accepted as a ruler.
This accord breaks down, however, when one moves on to the details. Were they human? If not, are their descendents one of the other intelligent species? Beasts? Are a given race slaves of the Great Race who rebelled, or perhaps animals given intelligence by their art? Did the Great Race fall in a magical disaster, the wrath of the gods, war, a gradual decline? Or did they simply leave, and if so where - over the sea, another planet, under the earth, a mist-shrouded valley or secret rooms under the city, from where they still control the world's governments? Were they rulers of a great empire, the world, or many worlds?
One may find wise sages who will attest to all of the above. One may find others equally learned, and equally certain that the Great Race is merely the name given a succession of different civilisations, or entirely a myth. The sage Hiram Abiff states that the Great Race were not material creatures at all, but numbers. He claimed to have travelled to the Heaven of Perfect Forms, from whence they came.
However certain myths and folk-beliefs suggest to me that the Great Race may have been the Lost Tribes of Israel. If so, perhaps they travelled here using knowledge now lost, learned from the Ancient Egyptians. This would explain how the Israelites could have spent 40 years travelling from Egypt to Palestine via Mount Sinai - which works out to just over 50 yards a day. It may be that they went via these lands, leaving a portion behind who became the Great Race.
This theory, I submit, is also likely to shed light on the mysterious land of Sheba spoken of in the Bible. The reader will no doubt be aware that the black queen of that country, one of the "daughters of Jerusalem", travelled to ancient Israel to bless King Solomon, and to give gifts of spices, precious stones, and rare wood (note that gold, virtually unknown in Teleleli and nearby lands, is not mentioned). She then returned to her own country. The location of Sheba has never been determined.
Solomon is said to have considered her as beautiful as "a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots", with lips "like a thread of scarlet", and teeth "like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them." Tradition holds that they had a child together. A child of the revered king in Jerusalem (or one believed to be such), would have had no difficulty being accepted as a ruler.
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Cycle of Cultures
Some scholars believe that cultures rise and fall in a vast and undending cycle, which they describe as follows:
Barbarism
The state where a group knows no cities or written language, although they may have many arts to distinguish themselves from the beasts, such as domesticated herds, or complex systems of kinship. Indeed some claim that the barbarian is further developed in virtue than the civilised.
Some scholars divide the barbaric mode of life into three types:
Hunter-Gatherers who have no agriculture or domesticated animals, except perhaps hunting dogs or the like.
Nomads who have domesticated animals but no agriculture, and thus must wander from place to place, since their herds quickly eat all the grass in a given area.
Sedentary Barbarians who have both domesticated animals and agriculture.
Civilisation
The state of living in cities. It is characterised by written language, and by arts unrelated to wringing a living from the soil. Where the barbarian tribe may have a single shaman, and many hunters and gatherers, the city will have an unending variety of trades. Some say that the scholar is the representative of civilisation. Others point to the merchant, the noble, and the thief (perhaps with a rhetorical questioning of what essential difference divides the three). Still others, perhaps more practically-minded, point to the fact that each city-dweller is fed by many farmers.
Enlightenment
At some point, it is said, a civilisation may develop to the point where it develops not just new devices, but a new kind of person. The inhabitants of enlightened cultures are said to be supremely virtuous. Some say that they disdain eating animal flesh as we disdain cannibalism. Some are said to watch ghouls feasting on corpses, that they may gain a horror of meat-eating. Indeed it is rumored that some cultures develop the ability to live without food altogether, surviving entirely on prana, the energy of the sun.
They are also said to possess wondrous mental powers including the ability to fly, to sense the emotions of others no matter how well hidden, and to cause those with weaker minds to be unable to move. Although magic and technology may be able to achieve all these results, these methods are expensive and unreliable.
Although some speak of enlightened beings as long-lived or even immortal, others say that, on the contrary, they have a serene acceptance of death, which gives them courage, but may inhibit their survival.
Some daring souls have claimed that a state of enlightenment is the same as godhead; either that the gods were once people, or that the gods are memories of a time of enlightenment blurred into legend.
By contrast, others claim that there is no enlightenment, only higher and higher levels of technology, each seeming godlike to those below, but in reality differing only in degree rather than kind.
Decadence
In this phase a society is said to become, as it were, the victim of its own success. Removed from the need to struggle for mere physical survival, yet unwilling to engage in higher pursuits, the people turn to ever more ruinous pleasures. The inhabitant of a decadent society is said to be physically wasted by their pleasures (yet, due to higher tolerance, most resistant to poisons and intoxicants). Finally, dark magic becomes ever more common; perhaps in a search not for power, but for mere distraction from boredom.
Scholars differ as to whether decadence follows enlightenment, or is an alternative fate to it. Others have claimed that civilisation and decadence are the same: that everyone simply denounces the present as decadence, while holding up the past as civilisation.
Degeneracy
If a civilisation falls due to its own decadence (as opposed to destruction by natural disaster, or conquest which is not facilitated by decadence), the survivors will be tainted by moral weakness and the effects of the strange practices of the decadent. They may be twisted further by inbreeding. Often they will seek dark places. In short, the degenerate resembles the barbarian in the level of technology, but is far removed in both mind and body.
Some scholars say that degenerate populations that do not die out evolve back into human form, beginning the cycle again. Others claim that degeneracy is a permanent change; the survivors become literal beasts, prowling mute and uncomprehending in the ruins of their works, which finally crumble to dust, unremarked and unlamented - for who is left with tongue and brain to remark or lament?
Comparison to the Life of an Individual Person
Some say that the rise and decline of a culture is like the age of a single person. Barbarism is said to be childhood, civilisation is adulthood, enlightenment is old age, decadence senility, and degeneracy death.
Alternatively enlightenment may be compared to one who gains the wisdom of age, and decadence to one who attempts to recapture their youth.
Non-Humans
Some claim that this cycle applies to humans only. Species such as dwarves and elves are said to have reached an unchanging state, although perhaps they were subject to change in the past. Others claim that non-humans are subject to the same rise and fall as humans, but on a vastly slower scale. Yet others say that humans and those kindred who resemble them may have once been a single species, until one branch fell into degeneracy then rose, or conversely became enlightened then fell. The so-called Ancestral Dwarves and Elves are claimed as evidence for many of these theories.
There is also disagreement as to how a group moves from one state to another. Some say that this is a natural development, while others argue that a group can only be uplifted by the gods, or by the technology or magic of an advanced species (although this raises the problem of how the first civilisation arose).
Barbarism
The state where a group knows no cities or written language, although they may have many arts to distinguish themselves from the beasts, such as domesticated herds, or complex systems of kinship. Indeed some claim that the barbarian is further developed in virtue than the civilised.
Some scholars divide the barbaric mode of life into three types:
Hunter-Gatherers who have no agriculture or domesticated animals, except perhaps hunting dogs or the like.
Nomads who have domesticated animals but no agriculture, and thus must wander from place to place, since their herds quickly eat all the grass in a given area.
Sedentary Barbarians who have both domesticated animals and agriculture.
Civilisation
The state of living in cities. It is characterised by written language, and by arts unrelated to wringing a living from the soil. Where the barbarian tribe may have a single shaman, and many hunters and gatherers, the city will have an unending variety of trades. Some say that the scholar is the representative of civilisation. Others point to the merchant, the noble, and the thief (perhaps with a rhetorical questioning of what essential difference divides the three). Still others, perhaps more practically-minded, point to the fact that each city-dweller is fed by many farmers.
Enlightenment
At some point, it is said, a civilisation may develop to the point where it develops not just new devices, but a new kind of person. The inhabitants of enlightened cultures are said to be supremely virtuous. Some say that they disdain eating animal flesh as we disdain cannibalism. Some are said to watch ghouls feasting on corpses, that they may gain a horror of meat-eating. Indeed it is rumored that some cultures develop the ability to live without food altogether, surviving entirely on prana, the energy of the sun.
They are also said to possess wondrous mental powers including the ability to fly, to sense the emotions of others no matter how well hidden, and to cause those with weaker minds to be unable to move. Although magic and technology may be able to achieve all these results, these methods are expensive and unreliable.
Although some speak of enlightened beings as long-lived or even immortal, others say that, on the contrary, they have a serene acceptance of death, which gives them courage, but may inhibit their survival.
Some daring souls have claimed that a state of enlightenment is the same as godhead; either that the gods were once people, or that the gods are memories of a time of enlightenment blurred into legend.
By contrast, others claim that there is no enlightenment, only higher and higher levels of technology, each seeming godlike to those below, but in reality differing only in degree rather than kind.
Decadence
In this phase a society is said to become, as it were, the victim of its own success. Removed from the need to struggle for mere physical survival, yet unwilling to engage in higher pursuits, the people turn to ever more ruinous pleasures. The inhabitant of a decadent society is said to be physically wasted by their pleasures (yet, due to higher tolerance, most resistant to poisons and intoxicants). Finally, dark magic becomes ever more common; perhaps in a search not for power, but for mere distraction from boredom.
Scholars differ as to whether decadence follows enlightenment, or is an alternative fate to it. Others have claimed that civilisation and decadence are the same: that everyone simply denounces the present as decadence, while holding up the past as civilisation.
Degeneracy
If a civilisation falls due to its own decadence (as opposed to destruction by natural disaster, or conquest which is not facilitated by decadence), the survivors will be tainted by moral weakness and the effects of the strange practices of the decadent. They may be twisted further by inbreeding. Often they will seek dark places. In short, the degenerate resembles the barbarian in the level of technology, but is far removed in both mind and body.
Some scholars say that degenerate populations that do not die out evolve back into human form, beginning the cycle again. Others claim that degeneracy is a permanent change; the survivors become literal beasts, prowling mute and uncomprehending in the ruins of their works, which finally crumble to dust, unremarked and unlamented - for who is left with tongue and brain to remark or lament?
Comparison to the Life of an Individual Person
Some say that the rise and decline of a culture is like the age of a single person. Barbarism is said to be childhood, civilisation is adulthood, enlightenment is old age, decadence senility, and degeneracy death.
Alternatively enlightenment may be compared to one who gains the wisdom of age, and decadence to one who attempts to recapture their youth.
Non-Humans
Some claim that this cycle applies to humans only. Species such as dwarves and elves are said to have reached an unchanging state, although perhaps they were subject to change in the past. Others claim that non-humans are subject to the same rise and fall as humans, but on a vastly slower scale. Yet others say that humans and those kindred who resemble them may have once been a single species, until one branch fell into degeneracy then rose, or conversely became enlightened then fell. The so-called Ancestral Dwarves and Elves are claimed as evidence for many of these theories.
There is also disagreement as to how a group moves from one state to another. Some say that this is a natural development, while others argue that a group can only be uplifted by the gods, or by the technology or magic of an advanced species (although this raises the problem of how the first civilisation arose).
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Technology of Teleleli
The traveller who ranges far may encounter any kind of technology and culture. However in Teleleli and the islands around the prevailing level of civilisation is comparable to that of the Dark Ages, with some noteable exceptions:
The best weapon to which the traveller is likely to have access is the "you-me", or longbow.
One wonders at times whether more modern devices have not found their way here, or been invented by some insane wizard or secretive dwarf, and been treated as items of magic, or wonders of the Great Race, which in the minds of most is the same thing. For example, was the legendary Staff of Burrowing Doom some kind of rifle? If we could examine the remains of one of the Three Princes on the Mountain, the victims of the fabled Wand of Maggots (or Wand Which Brings Forth Rot), which caused deadly parasites to blossom within the body like maggots in meat, would we find not maggots but bullets?
Because of the scarcity of metal many swords in Teleleli are made of forms of glass or ceramic, much harder than those known in our world. Some 'swords' are really wooden clubs, with teeth set in them to make them sharper; often those of sharks or crocodiles. It is said that the fiercer the beast was in life, the better the sword. It is also said that the one who kills the animal to make the sword should never use it, since the spirit of the beast will take revenge. A sword is said to be helpless against the species its teeth come from, unless the animal was unusually evil and vicious. Thus warriors will carry two swords, with teeth from separate species. Rumour speaks of magic swords which use the teeth of vampires, dragons or the like. Other rumours speak of a doom which is on the world; that one day all the animals will rise and kill, and no sword of teeth will allow itself to be lifted in defence.
I could find no-one who admitted to making or owning a sword made with teeth from more than one animal. The idea of doing so has a strong, but ill-defined, feeling of ill-omen about it.
Another reason to avoid metal swords, for those who would travel to the underworld or other magical lands, is that such weapons tend to be effected by the presence of magic, eventually developing a will of their own.
Armour is often constructed of bamboo, or the same glass and ceramic used for swords, although the tropical climate does much to render armour of any kind impractical. For further information the traveller should visit You've Got Mail, or another armoury.
This lack of precious metals might be explained by the belief of the ancient Germanic tribes that dragons harden their otherwise soft underbellies by sitting on piles of gold, absorbing its royal essence (and thereby gradually turning the gold to silver, and finally copper). It could be that some wise king of the Great Race saw the connection, and banished gold using some unknown power.
And indeed some say that Zam-Zammah, the great green-bronze dragon from out of space, declared Teleleli too poor to conquer and, on being told that it was the greatest and richest city in the world, moved on to parts unknown. But others say that Zam-Zammah was not an animal, but a machine of war come to life. And still others say that dragons are liars.
- Due to the presence of underwater civilisations and treasures, diving suits have been developed to a high standard.
- Map-making is almost unknown. Places do not always keep their relative positions as they do in our world, although I do not know whether this be cause or effect. The stars are somewhat more reliable, but less so than in our world. Nor do compasses work.
- Robotics has been developed to a more advanced stage than in our world. However, as with much of the sciences, it is generally secret knowledge held by individual wizards or craftspeople, or lost to the ages, rather than a shared art. Robots are often made of unusual material such as wood; a necessity due to a scarcity of metals, and a possibility due to magic. For example the grandma scientist Agnes Goodwife knits robots from wool. Her arch-enemy Madame Zed is an evil grandma scientist, who sews raggedy androids. It is possible that some of these creations may have made their way to our own world. My thoughts are drawn to the chess-playing Mechanical Turk of the 17th century, and of the strange case of Doctor Joseph Bell, that 'tireless', 'cold', 'machine-like' individual who provided the inspiration for the fictional Sherlock Holmes.
- The catapult has been developed to a fine precision unknown in our world. However, since the obscure mathematics necessary to use them is the monopoly of the gnomes, it is used for transport rather than war (nets being set up at destination points to catch travellers). The exception is a giant catapult in the centre of the city, which is used for executions. This is reserved for the worst criminals, since many religions hold that an evil-doer must atone by spilling their own blood, and this method of execution draws no blood.
- In matters of hygiene the Telelelenes are more advanced than the Dark Ages. Most houses are connected to the sewerage system. There is a built system of water supply, however it delivers water to wells rather than directly to homes.
The best weapon to which the traveller is likely to have access is the "you-me", or longbow.
One wonders at times whether more modern devices have not found their way here, or been invented by some insane wizard or secretive dwarf, and been treated as items of magic, or wonders of the Great Race, which in the minds of most is the same thing. For example, was the legendary Staff of Burrowing Doom some kind of rifle? If we could examine the remains of one of the Three Princes on the Mountain, the victims of the fabled Wand of Maggots (or Wand Which Brings Forth Rot), which caused deadly parasites to blossom within the body like maggots in meat, would we find not maggots but bullets?
Because of the scarcity of metal many swords in Teleleli are made of forms of glass or ceramic, much harder than those known in our world. Some 'swords' are really wooden clubs, with teeth set in them to make them sharper; often those of sharks or crocodiles. It is said that the fiercer the beast was in life, the better the sword. It is also said that the one who kills the animal to make the sword should never use it, since the spirit of the beast will take revenge. A sword is said to be helpless against the species its teeth come from, unless the animal was unusually evil and vicious. Thus warriors will carry two swords, with teeth from separate species. Rumour speaks of magic swords which use the teeth of vampires, dragons or the like. Other rumours speak of a doom which is on the world; that one day all the animals will rise and kill, and no sword of teeth will allow itself to be lifted in defence.
I could find no-one who admitted to making or owning a sword made with teeth from more than one animal. The idea of doing so has a strong, but ill-defined, feeling of ill-omen about it.
Another reason to avoid metal swords, for those who would travel to the underworld or other magical lands, is that such weapons tend to be effected by the presence of magic, eventually developing a will of their own.
Armour is often constructed of bamboo, or the same glass and ceramic used for swords, although the tropical climate does much to render armour of any kind impractical. For further information the traveller should visit You've Got Mail, or another armoury.
This lack of precious metals might be explained by the belief of the ancient Germanic tribes that dragons harden their otherwise soft underbellies by sitting on piles of gold, absorbing its royal essence (and thereby gradually turning the gold to silver, and finally copper). It could be that some wise king of the Great Race saw the connection, and banished gold using some unknown power.
And indeed some say that Zam-Zammah, the great green-bronze dragon from out of space, declared Teleleli too poor to conquer and, on being told that it was the greatest and richest city in the world, moved on to parts unknown. But others say that Zam-Zammah was not an animal, but a machine of war come to life. And still others say that dragons are liars.
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