TEXT:  
   
   
   
   
   
  Consumer Notice 
   
  This text is based on the fantasy setting created and developed 
  by M.A.R. Barker, and draws immensely from the names and 
  languages, characters and creatures, events and histories of the 
  official Tékumel setting. However, it does not claim to 
  represent the “genuine” Pan Cháka or Butrús, nor has it gone out 
  of its way to attempt to do so. This is accordingly entirely 
  non-canonical material and should be considered as being set in 
  an “alternate universe”. It has been specifically intended as a 
  creative break from the rigors and mysteries of the official 
  setting and timeline. Only extant in-print and on-line materials 
  have been consulted and included; Professor Barker has not been 
  contacted separately to “discover” what this part of the “real 
  Tékumel” is like. There is no new official Tekumel material 
  here.  
   
  The materials in this document that originated with M.A.R. 
  Barker are his intellectual property; the editor waives all 
  personal rights to the text, and in fact encourages users to 
  use, abuse, adapt, and distribute it as they wish — so far as 
  M.A.R. Barker’s rights are respected. 
   
  Feedback is strongly welcomed from all sources and all points of 
  view. As stated, though, this is intentionally unofficial — so 
  comparisons with unpublished or unpublicized aspects of the 
  “real Tékumel” will be regarded as interesting ideas to consider 
  or reconsider rather than “corrections”. That said, this text 
  aimed for congruence with publicly and commonly available 
  “official materials” at the time of writing, and suggested 
  corrections based on that canon are another matter. Pointing out 
  inconsistencies, contradictions, omissions, or simple typos or 
  writing errors is deeply appreciated. Finally, any overall 
  criticism or suggestions for changes or development are also 
  very much desired.  
   
  Yr. obt. svts. can be reached at panchakahq@earthlink.net. 
   
  This is, with the exception of the title page and PDF format, 
  the second release of the Gazetteer, June 2004. 
   
  
   
   
    
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  A Gazetteer of Butrús 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Second Edition 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Comp. Sí’ak, 2361 A.S. 
   
  Trans. Lehele Jui, 2002 C.E. 
   
  Based on the works of M.A.R. Barker 
   
  
   
   
    
   
  TABLE OF CONTENTS 
   
   
  PREFACE 
  I 
  TRANSLATOR’S FOREWORD 
  I 
  INTRODUCTION 
  I 
  PHYSICAL SETTING 
  4 
  GEOGRAPHY 
  4 
  CLIMATE 
  6 
  FLORA 
  7 
  FAUNA 
  10 
  HISTORY 
  15 
  EARLY PERIOD 
  15 
  TIME OF NO KINGS 
  17 
  SECOND EMPIRE 
  20 
  RECENT HISTORY 
  23 
  ECONOMY 
  27 
  TRADE AND COMMERCE 
  29 
  MONEY, PRICES, AND TAXATION 
  29 
  MATERIAL CULTURE 
  30 
  CLOTHING 
  30 
  DOMESTIC FURNISHINGS 
  32 
  INHABITANTS AND POPULATION 
  32 
  CLANS 
  33 
  OTHER CLAN-LIKE AND RELATED ISSUES 
  36 
  TRIBESMEN 
  37 
  FOREIGNERS 
  38 
  LANGUAGE AND WRITING 
  39 
  ELEMENTS OF CULTURE 
  43 
  NAMING 
  43 
  LIFE-CYCLE OBSERVANCES 
  44 
  FOOD AND DRINK 
  46 
  ENTERTAINMENTS 
  48 
  PERFORMING ARTS 
  50 
  SCHOLASTIC LEARNING 
  57 
  GOVERNMENT 
  61 
  BUREAUCRACY 
  61 
  LAW AND THE COURTS 
  65 
  PALACE OF THE REALM 
  66 
  PALACE OF EVER-GLORIOUS WAR 
  71 
  PALACE OF THE PRIESTHOODS OF THE 
  GODS 
  73 
  PALACE OF FOREIGN LANDS 
  74 
  LOCAL ADMINISTRATION 
  75 
  GOVERNOR’S COURT 
  76 
  AVANTHÁR & OTHER IMPERIAL 
  REPRESENTATIVES 
  83 
  RELIGION & TEMPLES 
  84 
  ORTHODOX PANTHEON 
  84 
  HETERODOX CULTS AND LOCAL MYTHS 
  97 
  LOCAL MAGIC 
  103 
  MILITARY 
  105 
  LEGIONS 
  105 
  OTHER ARMED BODIES 
  109 
  WEAPONRY AND ARMOR 
  110 
  CITY GUIDE 
  110 
  GENERAL LAYOUT 
  110 
  SUBURBS AND ENVIRONS 
  112 
  RIVER AND RIVERSIDE 
  113 
  CITY OF THE DEAD 
  113 
  WALLS AND GATES 
  114 
  FOREIGNERS' QUARTER 
  115 
  QUADRANGLE OF THE STUDENTS 
  117 
  GRAND PLAZA 
  117 
  TEMPLE WARD 
  118 
  MILITARY FACILITIES 
  123 
  OTHER LOCATIONS 
  123 
  TSURU’ÚM 
  127 
  APPENDIX A: FESTIVAL CALENDAR 
  128 
  INTERCALARY DAYS 
  128 
  MONTHLY CALENDAR 
  129 
  OTHER CALENDRICAL NOTES 
  139 
  HOROLOGY 
  139 
  APPENDIX B: PERSONS OF NOTE 
  141 
  OFFICERS OF GOVERNMENT 
  141 
  MU’UGALAVYÁNI RESIDENTS 
  143 
  TEMPLE PERSONNEL AND RELIGIOUS 
  FIGURES 
  143 
  SOLDIERS AND MILITARY OFFICERS 
  151 
  PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS 
  152 
  APPENDIX C: ON BIBLIOGRAPHY  
  158 
  BIBLIOGRAPHIC CLASSIFICATIONS 
  158 
  ENCYCLOPEDIAS 
  159 
  MU’UGALAVYÁNI GENRES 
  160 
  APPENDIX D: WORKS CITED 
  162 
  POSTSCRIPT 
  164 
   
  
   
  1 
   
  1 
  AUTHOR’S PREFACE 
   
  Gazing upwards with trembling and delight upon That Awful Dignity, the One Mayor Eternal and Final, 
  Hero of the Seas and Streets, Esoteric and Puissant, Mauler of Maidens, Hammer of Husbands, 
  Scrambler of the Eggs of the Hateful Hlüss, the Twin Fists of Trouble, and Continued Citizen of Mighty 
  Tsolyánu, the present humble person of Sí’ak, secretary and attendant upon the same, respectfully submits the 
  following. 
   
  Upon command of Your Formidable Contusion, delivered with sagacious if ungrammatical curses and surely 
  deserved blows, aa precious directive of three points, to wit, in the first, that a practical guide, handbook, 
  and gazetteer to the city and environs of Butrús and in the second point, of the generality of the Protectorate 
  of Pan Cháka, now blessedly under the enlightened rule of the new-sprung and so glittery dynasty of the 
  Tlakotáni, and in the third point of persons of previous dealings or possible connection to said locales who may 
  be of future concern to Your Utter Irresponsibility, to encompass matters mundane and extraordinary, secular 
  and spiritual, whether common or gracious, furnished with all appertaining points of delight and curiosity, to 
  include geography, institutions, important sites, natural history in utmost liberality, local customs, rites, beliefs, 
  and other barbarities without the exclusion of topics of a practical and tactical nature, nor stopping at common 
  knowledge but delving into matters of hidden import, to be made anew from the inherited wisdom and records of 
  our age, iis to be provided forthwith, with its fabrication under the direction of this lowly servant of Your 
  Sublime Indiscretion, checked for errors and omissions and prepared in a fair hand and delivered unto Your 
  Widely Lauded Prosecution for consideration at leisure, aand moreover that ffive bottles of the datsú which 
  Steward Mreng’s older cousins twice-removed fetched from the city last week, tthe new scullery maid with 
  the long legs and other attributes cited at length by Your Perpetual Salacity but customarily redacted from 
  official memoranda such as the present scribbling of this fool, Sí’ak, scarcely fit to be termed literate, and aa jar 
  of grease or the like from the pantry bbe instantly brought and presented simultaneously whereupon the 
  doors of Your Towering Instability’s private suite are to be sshut and barred, though this unworthy person in 
  his hateful presumptuousness ventures to speculate this second command in its entirety may be an unhappy 
  utterance misrepresenting the unity of Your Perpetual Unclarity’s will, burdened as that great and mysterious 
  force is with the many onerous duties and complexities of office laid upon the position and personage of Your 
  Needless Excess, yet even so the items of the first clause, to wit, those concerning the literary representation 
  of Butrús and its vicinity, have tthenceforth been conducted and completed in the finest detail with 
  continuous scrupulousness, without fabulation or flatulation, notwithstanding unforeseen interruptions such as 
  the tragic death of the Governor, in which we had no part, and the deplorable business of the High Prelate’s 
  aunts, which among other aberrations from civility this Sí’ak, most bumbling and pathetic upon the earth, has 
  been given to remedy, as always in Your Multiple Indictments’ best and highest interests; that is, the items of the 
  aforementioned command have been taken into execution by Your Potent Confusion’s unrelenting right-hand 
  man, whom I dare deem myself to be, and inasmuch as the said document is only now fit to be lifted up before 
  Your Exceptional Loftiness for perusal and illumination, if only so that it should please Your Utter 
  Irresponsibility, as it is ever the deep-felt hope of all righteous and virtuous inhabitants of this peaceful 
  mountain town to accomplish, II so do. 
   
  Demonic readers of other Planes graced by the mercy and favor of That Extreme Misguidedness, who has 
  elected in benevolent wisdom to spread knowledge of these issues as above enumerated to your alien domains, 
  the person of Sí’ak urges your attention to the following lines, specially composed under the ever-watchful 
  advisement of your fellow demon and interpreter for comfortable parsing by those of foreign breeding and 
  unknowable character:  
   
  
  2 
   
  2 
   
   
  The largest provincial division of the Empire of the Petal Throne, Pan Cháka is despite its proximity to the 
  Tsolyáni heartland also one of the more remote territories of the empire. While the Chaigári Protectorate is 
  certainly more inaccessible and the province of Milumársha less controlled, the vast majority of Pan Cháka is 
  rugged highlands, covered in dense forests and populated (if at all) by semi-civilized (at best) tribesmen and the 
  non-human Páchi Lei. The high volcanic mountains of the deep south and the sheer, jagged coastlines are even 
  more removed from imperial surveillance and command. The settled and civilized regions of Pan Cháka, centered 
  around the city of Butrús in its northeastern quadrant, scarcely amount to the entirety of a minor province such 
  as Srítl or Tu’ún.  
   
  Pan Cháka is an exotic place even to many Tsolyáni. Long occupied by Tsolyánu’s western neighbor, the 
  atmosphere of antique Mu’ugalavyá lingers. Despite hundreds of tsan of rugged forests and hundreds of years 
  separating the protectorate from modern Mu’ugalavyáni lands, the pervasive cultural and social influences of 
  the Red Hats are still in evidence. Oddly, Butrús is more Mu’ugalavyáni in atmosphere than is Tumíssa, which 
  is closer to that empire; perhaps in its isolation Pan Cháka simply belonged less to Tsolyánu to begin with. 
  Besides Mu’ugalavyáni influence, signs of the non-human Páchi Lei are everywhere in Butrús: they have a 
  major enclave in the city and are economically powerful. And underneath all this, there is the awareness of a 
  much older and less clearly known, yet fundamentally distinct Pan Chákan civilization — older than the satrapy 
  of the Red Hats, older than the Second Empire, perhaps older than the Priest-Kings of Gánga. In the 
  approaching turmoil that will surely envelop the Five Empires, who can say what old forces will arise in this land 
  to contest the new? 
    
  SÍ’AK 
  The Malachite Pyramid 
  in the Holy City Under the Shaded Depthless Lake 
  Mlet County, Siné Province 
  5 Dohála 2361 A.S., Year XV of the Reign of the Stone Upon Which the Universe Rests 
   
   
   
   
   
  TRANSLATOR’S FOREWORD 
   
  The present document is an English redaction 
  and translation of a Tsolyáni work, which itself is 
  largely based on a translation of an older 
  Mu’ugalavyáni comprehensive gazetteer and 
  heavily updated through the aid of more recent 
  Tsolyáni writings. The author of the Tsolyáni 
  text, named only Sí’ak, is presently private 
  secretary to the mayor of Mlétpauk, an isolated 
  town high in the mountains of North Vra. 
  According to Sí’ak, he compiled this work at the 
  request of his employer toward the end of the 
  reign of Emperor Hirkáne.  
   
  Sí’ak, a native of Nmartúsha who affects to 
  retain much of his savage appearance and 
  behavior, apparently received a Mu’ugalavyáni 
  education of some quality, though he declined 
  to discuss this. He also refused to allow any 
  access to his primary source document, insisting 
  that he is the only one “able” to read it.1  
   
  Despite his profound reticence on some issues, 
  Sí’ak cooperated fully with the translator on 
  preparation of the present text. Much, however, 
  has been trimmed from his original Tsolyáni 
  manuscript. 
  Many 
  asides, 
  parenthetical 
  or 
  marginal comments, and footnotes directed at 
                                                  
  1 The translator has observed that this text is written in old-
  fashioned Mu’ugalavyáni on thick lemony-colored paper of 
  bark-fiber, comprises eight small hardbound volumes stored 
  in a box of dark maroon lacquer decorated with swirls of 
  gold dust (and furnished with some extremely complex and 
  hidden locks), and that at least part of its title runs “... with 
  Curious Sights ... of Glorious Mu’ugalavyá (and the 
  Benighted Lesser Realms)...”. 
  
  3 
   
  3 
   
   
  his employer have been removed. In addition 
  the prose itself has been heavily re-written for 
  the sake of readability and accessibility to a 
  modern English-speaking audience. Likewise, 
  the author’s preface was completely omitted 
  from the first English edition, as the few 
  passages intelligible to the outside reader 
  consist in their entirety of alarmingly libelous, 
  potentially treasonous, and exceedingly vivid 
  comments on acquaintances and the affairs of 
  the mayor. An abridged version is now included 
  (above), but Sí’ak’s other prefatory materials 
  retain the old legal and ethical liabilities and 
  cannot be incorporated at present.  
   
  For typesetting considerations, characters with 
  two superscripts have been avoided; this would 
  occur only in cases where the vowel ü bears 
  primary or secondary stress. In such cases, the 
  indication of stress has been omitted, and if 
  there is no other indication of primary stress in 
  the word, the reader should understand that it is 
  borne by the ü. Counter to practice in previous 
  Tékumel publications, word stress is only 
  indicated on polysyllabic words, where there is 
  ambiguity as to which syllable bears the stress.  
   
  Further contrary to established practice, words 
  in Tsolyáni (or other languages) are not 
  universally capitalized in the English text. 
  Loanwords and citations from the languages of 
  Tékumel will, like any other loanwords or 
  citations, follow standard English orthographic 
  practices. 
   
  As A Gazetteer of Butrús will be distributed 
  primarily (if not solely) as an electronic 
  document, the translator has opted not to 
  include an index. The text should be adequately 
  searchable 
  through 
  the 
  reader’s 
  viewing 
  software. 
   
  The focus of this sourcebook is, self-evidently, 
  on the city of Butrús, but a fair amount of 
  information is also provided about the rest of 
  the Protectorate of Pan Cháka, of which Butrús 
  is the capital. It is hoped that later editions may, 
  with the cooperation of the author, include 
  passages omitted in the initial release. 
   
   
  INTRODUCTION 
   
  (Omitted. See above.) 
   
  
  4 
   
  4 
   
   
  PHYSICAL SETTING 
   
  Geography 
  As a traveler enters the Protectorate of Pan 
  Cháka from the east, the land gradually rises out 
  of the central plains of Tsolyánu. Once across 
  the Turín River, the plateau of Pan Cháka proper 
  climbs swiftly to a tableland some four or five 
  hundred meters above sea level — an elevated 
  karst landscape gradually lifted by tectonic 
  activity ever since the Time of Darkness. 
  Tremors are very frequent but minor; small 
  earthquakes are also common, but very rarely 
  do much, if any, damage. 
   
  Especially in the Turín valley but in many areas 
  of the plateau, this surface is heavily weathered 
  and full of sinkholes, rock spires, and deeply cut 
  watercourses whose streams often disappear 
  below the earth or emerge from underground 
  channels. 
  The 
  bedrock 
  is 
  limestone 
  and 
  sandstone, while there are many scattered 
  extrusions of granite and basalt, especially 
  toward the southwest. The heavily forested 
  Chákan Range runs north to south through the 
  west-central part of the protectorate, rising to 
  heights of up to two thousand meters above sea 
  level. In the far south of Pan Cháka, Ngéshtu 
  Head and its surrounding mountains (the region 
  known as Porubél Ta) are volcanic in nature, 
  and rise to over six thousand meters. Almost all 
  mountains and ridges in the region are 
  extremely steep and rugged, posing much 
  greater barriers to travel than their modest 
  heights would suggest. 
   
  While Butrús lies on a generally broad, flat plain, 
  there are some noteworthy mountains and hills 
  in the immediate vicinity. To the south of the 
  city, Silver Mountain stands at the south shore 
  of the Turín where it makes a turn to the east. It 
  is named after the unusually thick stands of 
  white-blossomed coral trees growing on its 
  northern and eastern slopes, and not for any 
  mineral deposits in or near it, as many believe. 
  It is traditionally considered in Pan Cháka to be 
  a "sister mountain" to Avanthár in the north. 
  Many devout Tsolyáni in the southwest make 
  pilgrimages to pay their respects to the Seal 
  Emperor at Silver Mountain, if they are unable to 
  travel all the way to Avanthár. There is thus a 
  small "shrine" of the imperial cult and rude huts 
  for accommodating these visitors (who generally 
  are not interested in its cavernous wonders) at 
  its foot.  
   
  Silver Mountain can be climbed from the east, 
  and at the top there are two narrowly linked 
  cavern systems full of miraculous flowstone 
  figures, and one extremely large cavern farther 
  within. There is said to be a further set of caves 
  hidden from mundane sight, which were (or 
  are?) home to the foreign sorcerer Nópru-
  Námin. The Numinous Spring is below the 
  mountain's western toe, sunk into a low 
  depression. It is the size of a large wagon-wheel 
  and gushes, with a huge roaring noise, some 
  five meters to the west, where there is another 
  vortex amidst the stones into which the water 
  sinks and disappears. The water is full of small 
  green and blue fish and the vicinity is the home 
  to many pittas. Sometimes a light appears from 
  this hollow, and at those times a person praying 
  and offering trays of fish and hmélu or hma with 
  sacrificial honey liquor in a shady place nearby 
  will have his or her wishes granted.  
   
  The Harnessed Crane Hills stand farther north 
  and west, upthrust in a circle; in the middle is a 
  deep, turbulent spring in a pit without an outlet, 
  which is always full even in the deepest 
  droughts. The Market of the Zrne is a low ridge 
  or hill that stands a little way off from the main 
  road to Úrmish, so called due to the large 
  numbers of those predators found there. To the 
  north of Butrús, the Turín River and the sákbe 
  road pass through a gorge formed by a cluster 
  of towering, sheer-sided spires of black-brown 
  basalt, which together with several high tors on 
  the far slopes number twenty-three in all. The 
  gorge is thus known as the Narrows of the Black 
  Stones. The striking scenery makes the Narrows 
  a 
  popular 
  tourist 
  destination; 
  the 
  most 
  adventuresome go out on the river among the 
  spires in canoes, manned by locals, in order to 
  see the sights from an even more breathtaking 
  perspective — though the rough waters make 
  this a somewhat dangerous practice. In regional 
  folklore the rock spires are said to be the 
  founding ancestors of the clan of the Black 
  Stone, and while this is not usually believed 
  literally, members of this clan are particularly 
  frequent visitors. 
   
  
  5 
   
  5 
   
   
  Even further away, almost due west of the city, 
  rises Piebald Deer Mountain, a steep, jagged 
  ridge with a rounded top. While its sharp cliffs 
  and sheer slopes are largely draped in creepers, 
  vines, and moss, its white limestone shows 
  through in many areas, giving rise to its name. 
  One of its termini is the site of an old 
  astronomical observatory and shrine to Avánthe, 
  now rarely visited and ruinous; nestled under 
  another arm is an old fortress from the Time of 
  No Kings, in later days converted into a 
  monastery which has housed a bewildering 
  variety of sects.  
   
  There are some famous caves in the limestone 
  throughout the region, comprising huge caverns 
  the size of hirilákte arenas, vast networks of dry 
  and water-filled cysts and crevices, clear springs 
  and rushing streams, and fantastic stones and 
  draperies. Tourists come from all over western 
  Tsolyánu and sometimes further abroad to see 
  them. For example, in addition to those within 
  Silver Mountain, the grottoes inside Coiled 
  Serpent Mountain (some ways from the city, in a 
  rugged region) feature albino bats, golden 
  sands, gigantic vermilion-bellied salamanders, 
  and a small river emerging from bottomless 
  recesses (once navigated by a brave explorer).  
   
  Thin but rich volcanic soil blankets the southern 
  mountains and parts of the central highlands, 
  while the vast plateau itself is covered in a layer 
  of poor reddish jungle soil of widely varying 
  depth. A much thicker deposit of fertile alluvial 
  soil lines the valley of the Turín River and the 
  eastern lowlands of Pan Cháka. 
   
  These flat, low-lying plains east of the Turín are 
  rich 
  farmland, 
  cleared 
  and 
  cultivated 
  for 
  millennia. Many wooded thickets and parklands 
  still remain, but the region is heavily agricultural. 
  Forest cover becomes thicker as one moves 
  west from the river, developing into monsoon 
  jungle not far from Butrús itself. The higher 
  elevations in the southwestern mountains are 
  covered in a distinct type of forest. Above about 
  fifteen hundred meters elevation, the dim and 
  cathedral-like true rainforest begins to give way 
  to fog-wetted cloud forest, dripping perpetually, 
  dense 
  with 
  underbrush 
  and 
  giant 
  rhododendrons, all covered in moss, ferns, 
  epiphytes, gingers, orchids, and lianas. 
   
  Except for those short streams emptying into 
  the sea in the far west of the protectorate and 
  on the coast of Porubél Ta, all Pan Chákan 
  waters are part of the Turín watershed. The 
  Turín River is navigable only as far upstream as 
  Butrús; rocky shallows just above the city 
  restrict travel to the lightest boats and canoes 
  even in the wet season. Trade and travel 
  northwards thus must be conducted overland. 
  Just beyond the border of the protectorate, the 
  Berjádu 
  River, 
  cascading 
  down 
  from 
  the 
  easternmost foot of Porubél Ta through deep-
  cut canyons, joins the Turín River. Far to the 
  southeast, it flows into the Chaigávra River and 
  runs south into the sea at Penóm. There are 
  several 
  noteworthy 
  waterfalls 
  in 
  the 
  protectorate, though many are in remote 
  locations in the highlands and not easily visited 
  by 
  casual 
  tourists 
  or 
  sightseers. 
  Some 
  spectacular falls along the cliff-lined southern 
  coast, for example, can be visited only by sea. 
  One of the more accessible is at the Broken 
  Cascade Lake,2 so named for the distinct bend 
  or turn the waterfall makes as it strikes 
  projecting rocks about two-thirds of the way 
  down. It falls approximately 30 dháiba (40 m) 
  into 
  a 
  smallish, 
  spume-covered 
  lake; 
  a 
  somewhat turbulent river empties it into the 
  river twenty or more tsan above the Narrows of 
  the Black Stones. The lake and waterfall 
  themselves lie forty or fifty tsan west of the 
  river, amid thickly forested cliffs and gorges. 
   
  The Lúshmun Canal runs through the eastern 
  part of the protectorate, roughly following the 
  course of the Turín. The canal was a poorly 
  conceived but carefully executed plan of the 
  twenty-second century A.S. to connect Tumíssa 
  to Úrmish (and thence the sea) via the Turín. 
  Dredging and channeling the river alone proved 
  to be inadequate, and so were supplemented by 
  the construction of numerous canal segments 
  and sluices, connected by several complicated 
  locks and ponds, which were forever breaking 
  down. It has been rumored in more paranoid 
  circles that this plan was actually intended to 
  drain the caldera lake of Néttu Tlakán in 
  Tumíssa for some dark and secret reason. The 
  canalized sections would have totaled over 300 
  tsan (400 km) in length, with the largest almost 
                                                  
  2 As it is known in Tsolyáni guidebooks. Locally it has been 
  called the Feathered Worm or the Plunging Serpent, or 
  simply as the Plunge. 
  
  6 
   
  6 
   
   
  90 tsan (120 km) long; it was to have been 20 
  dháiba (27 m) wide and lined with tall ebzál 
  trees for shade. The canal system is now 
  abandoned, and the pools and ponds are 
  stagnant and filled only by rain. Many segments 
  do still hold water, but are clogged and blocked; 
  if they are used at all it is only for local 
  irrigation, casual aquaculture, or inter-village 
  travel. Still, the Lúshmun Canal has come to be 
  considered a vaguely holy place. At a certain 
  point at its side southeast of Butrús, there is a 
  shrine at which its guardian spirit is prayed to 
  for the protection of travelers and irrigation. 
  “Dragon colts" (harmless, playful, coiling blue 
  snakes; see below), are especially plentiful at 
  the shrine, and are considered children or 
  servants of this demigod.3 
   
  Climate 
  The climate is essentially monsoonal, with 
  prevailing winds from the south and southeast 
  during the wet season, and from the north 
  during the dry. This picture is complicated by 
  the fairly regular typhoon season that blows in 
  moisture-bearing storms from the southwest 
  and southeast during the autumn months. 
  Traditional scholarship divides the year into four 
  seasons, however, to match those of long-
  established Engsvanyáli lore: spring (cool and 
  wet), summer (warm and wet), autumn (warm 
  and dry), and winter (cool and dry). This 
  division is not a particularly good match for Pan 
  Chákan conditions, however. Here, autumn is 
  distinguished from winter primarily as the 
  season of the typhoons rather than by a clear 
  difference in temperature. In addition, local 
  calendrical traditions added a brief fifth, or 
  “central” season, in the middle of summer. 
   
  Despite the mountains and highlands blocking 
  some of the winds from the ocean, even the 
  center and east of the protectorate still receive 
  adequate precipitation for agriculture — 90-110 
  cm per year. The windward slopes of the steep 
  coastal ranges themselves are considerably 
  wetter, receiving more than twice that amount. 
                                                  
  3 For more on the waters of Pan Cháka, see the 
  Comprehensive Understanding of Flowing Waters, or the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni Book of Water Control Within the Chákas. For 
  casual reading or tour planning, consult the Record of 
  Waterways in the Western Region. 
  The western and central jungles fall between 
  these two extremes.  
   
  Spring is the wet season: the months of 
  Hasanpór, Shápru, Didóm, and Langála, with the 
  monsoons and humidity climaxing in Shápru. By 
  the middle of Didóm the torrential precipitation 
  has usually tapered off to frequent long drizzles 
  and light fog and mist; because of the brief spell 
  of blackish mildew that initially and briefly 
  springs up in their wake each year, these 
  showers are called the “ink rains”.4 Initially fairly 
  cool, temperatures quickly rise and the season is 
  generally warm, with average temperatures in 
  the range of 16-27ºC. 
   
  The drier summer lasts from Fésru through 
  Drénggar, Firasúl, Pardán, and until early Halír, 
  with the hottest period being in Firasúl. While 
  humidity is still fairly high compared to central 
  or northern Tsolyánu and heavy morning mists 
  are common, rainfall is lighter and limited to 
  sudden 
  brief, 
  heavy 
  showers. 
  Summer 
  temperatures are on average 20-35º, with rare 
  heat waves rising to 45º.  
   
  Later in the year, in early autumn, typhoons 
  blowing in from the Deeps of Chanayága (either 
  across the Chákan forests from the southwest, 
  or over the Flats of Tsechélnu from the 
  southeast) can be destructive even far inland, 
  though very rarely as far Butrús. Somewhat 
  more immediate weather hazards around the 
  same season and slightly later are tornados 
  drifting in from the flat eastern plains. This time 
  of year (late Halír, Trantór, and early Lésdrim) is 
  generally cool (16-30º) and drier, and enjoyed 
  for its stiff breezes.  
   
  The brief winters (in late Lésdrim and Dohála) 
  can become surprisingly cool for this latitude, 
  due to the elevation and prevailing northerly 
  winds. While the average temperatures range 
  15-22º, cold spells can drop as low as 6º for 
  many days at a time. Humidity is at its annual 
  low point, and precipitation infrequent. During 
  this season, the native coral trees shed their 
  white petals in snow-like drifts, providing local 
  and visiting poets with endless sources of 
  wonderment. Genuine frost and even snow are 
                                                  
  4 Standard Tsolyáni banúryal himikár; Pan Chákan vernacular 
  sáimlu’en múramùrah. 
  
  7 
   
  7 
   
   
  not 
  unknown 
  at 
  higher 
  altitudes 
  in 
  the 
  southwestern mountains. 
   
  Flora 
  Besides extensive fields for cereal crops, 
  gardens and orchards are intensively cultivated 
  by permanently settled and swidden farmers 
  alike, and despite its jungly reputation Pan 
  Cháka produces large and varied harvests. 
  Foodstuffs are discussed in the section on 
  cuisine, but some are mentioned in the following 
  paragraphs as well. 
   
  Pan Cháka, like most of southern Tsolyánu and 
  Mu’ugalavyá, is home to many different species 
  of 
  banana-like 
  plants. 
  The 
  southwestern 
  domesticated banana proper produces a small, 
  sweet, yellowish fruit speckled with black seeds 
  in a copper-colored casing (airánu or airándu). 
  The wild ancestral variety looks very similar, but 
  is larger, pulpier, and packed with dark black 
  seeds. A decorative variety is prized for its 
  especially beautiful red flowers, and they are 
  used in ornamental gardens throughout the 
  south — the sound of their leaves in the wind is 
  considered powerfully evocative of autumn 
  winds, and the sound of rainfall on their leaves, 
  of spring rainstorms. The larger, starchier 
  plantain is a common food crop of Tsolyánu’s 
  coastal lowlands and offshore islands, and is 
  occasionally cultivated as far inland as eastern 
  Pan Cháka. All these species yield not only fruit, 
  but also fiber from their leaf and stalk, which is 
  fashioned into cheap rope and fabric — and in 
  some locales, cloth of marketable quality. Unlike 
  denizens of more southerly and easterly locales, 
  Pan Chákans prefer to weave their fans (hand-
  held and ceiling-mounted) out of banana leaves, 
  not palm fronds. 
   
  A popular upland fruit in both the Chákas is the 
  plum, and a specialty of the region is a dry 
  reddish preserve made from plums with salt, 
  citron, hibiscus, and cardamom flowers. Pots of 
  this are exported throughout western Tsolyánu 
  and 
  much 
  of 
  Mu’ugalavyá. 
  Relatively 
  inexpensive, it is one of the products that the 
  average (non-elite) Tsolyáni or Mu’ugalavyáni 
  would associate most strongly with the Chákas.  
   
  Over the past few generations, Butrús has been 
  becoming famous again for its lacquerware 
  (rúktsu), and this is made possible by the good 
  variety of lacquer trees (rúkkun) that grow wild 
  and semi-cultivated in the forests nearby. 
  Tribesmen, foresters, and farmers harvest the 
  raw sap and sell it to craftsmen in the city, who 
  work it into finished goods. The kanari tree 
  produces both small olive-like fruits serving as 
  breath fresheners and a lemony turpentine-
  scented brea exported to the coast to varnish 
  the hulls of seagoing ships. Several varieties of 
  the purple-blossomed paulownia trees grow in 
  Pan Cháka; the “buttery paulownia” is the 
  source of a fast-drying oil that is very valuable 
  to painters, lacquerers, and furniture finishers, 
  while the “spiny paulownia” yields a resin (called 
  “blossom tears”) used as a flux for gold and 
  silver soldering, as a treatment for fevers and 
  abdominal swellings, and as a general emetic. 
  The flowers of most varieties are also plucked to 
  be used as offerings to Hrü’ü and Wurú, or as 
  adornments for their devotees. The coral tree, 
  mentioned 
  above, 
  grows 
  best 
  at 
  higher 
  elevations, and such larger specimens yield a 
  heavy, fine-grained purplish-black wood quite 
  valuable to furniture-makers and carvers. 
   
  Two trees that are of great symbolic value to 
  Pan Chákans are the cardamom and the 
  cinnamon. The cardamom (vámayi) is famed for 
  its bright red flowers as well as its spicy 
  seedpods, in folklore a cure for hangovers. In 
  addition, the trees are associated (purely by 
  unfathomable tradition) with the moons, and 
  whenever both moons are in the sky and full 
  simultaneously (particularly in the summer and 
  autumn), there will be "cardamom moon 
  parties" to view the scene at night.  
   
  The cinnamon tree5 (properly a type of cassia) is 
  also important, since the region around modern-
  day Butrús and to the east was once a great 
  cinnamon forest before being cleared for fields, 
  gardens, and paddies. Many stands remain, 
  while more place-names and associations linger 
  even where the trees themselves are gone.  
   
  Other essentially wild or only occasionally 
  cultured trees are nonethelesss economically 
  important to Pan Chákans, particularly the rural 
  farmers and tribesmen: magnolias, the toddy-
                                                  
  5 Known as omógga in Tsolyáni, while in Pan Chákan dialect 
  the tree is called vélinyi and only the spice is omúgga. 
  
  8 
   
  8 
   
   
  rich “wine tree”, dye-producing sapan and 
  brazilwoods, sagwire palms (offering both a 
  starchy flour and a coarse kind of sugar), 
  betelnut-bearing areca trees, leafy palmyras, 
  and also the generous coconut palms of the 
  southern Tsolyáni coast, providing floss, rope, 
  fruit, drink, and even cups and bowls. The great 
  ceiba trees (ebzál) of the jungle canopies yield 
  cotton-like kapok, unfit for spinning but useful 
  as padding and stuffing; a type of mimosa is an 
  ornamental tree popular for its showy pink 
  flowers and long silky filaments. 
   
  Ebony produces a hard, dense, and very 
  valuable dark wood, often nearly jet-black. 
  Several different species or subspecies exist in 
  the Chákas; one in particular (mirozjulú) has an 
  especially fine grain and sable hue and is one of 
  the two most prized materials for making masks 
  for the priestessess of Ksárul. Varieties of ebony 
  producing banded tan-and-black wood are 
  commonly called “calamander”; the Pan Chákan 
  vernacular term covering all types is satsún. 
   
  White-flowering teak trees (khá’a) grow up to 40 
  m tall, with shorter variants in the mountains of 
  the Chakan Range and the far south; they are 
  quite common in the monsoon jungle and their 
  (re)growth is actively promoted in many places 
  by long-established logging communities. Teak 
  lumber is yellow-brown in color and resinous, 
  requiring frequent oiling or else it will soon dry 
  out, lose its luster, and develop fine cracks. 
  Nevertheless, 
  teak 
  timbers 
  are 
  extremely 
  resistant to rot and insects, and valued for 
  building exposed structures of all sorts — 
  bridges, piers, pavilions, docks, pillars, loggias, 
  and ships. Mahogany, shorter at about 30 m and 
  yielding a darker reddish-brown timber preferred 
  for carving and jointing, is relatively rare in the 
  Chákas. Rosewood is, however, found almost 
  exclusively in the southern Chákan forests; 
  mature trees are slightly taller than mahogany 
  but less massive in the trunk, and its timber is 
  similar but heavier (denser) and even more 
  reddish in hue. A related species, called 
  goldwood, has pale yellowish-orange wood that 
  is prized by makers of furniture and marquetry, 
  despite its being prone to splintering. 
   
  One of the most precious forest products of Pan 
  Cháka comes from a species of tree related to 
  the cassia: camphor (kapúra), in the form of an 
  oily ointment and as a crystalline mass (the 
  latter known as “mnor brain”). It is extensively 
  used to scent clothing, or carved into insect 
  shapes (especially cicadas, or as worms by 
  devotees of both Belkhánu and Sárku) to be 
  carried as a sachet. For certain festivals and 
  parties, it is powdered and rolled into paper 
  arrows or darts to be shot at people; it is also 
  used in certain local culinary delicacies. Other 
  forest aromatics are copal, liquidambar, and 
  storax, all from a variety of gum trees; and the 
  dense, black, resin-heavy diseased heartwood of 
  the Aquilaria, known as aloeswood. Pan Cháka 
  also exports the Tsolyáni incense par excellence 
  — the thick brown bark peeled from the small 
  slender vres tree, which is also planted 
  ornamentally so that its drooping dark orange 
  foliage may be enjoyed in autumn. Cloves, 
  called “káika-tongue perfume”, are also grown 
  and harvested in Pan Cháka; they is mostly used 
  in incense and as a breath freshener, and clove 
  oil is given to treat toothaches. The only notable 
  culinary use is in a special dish of raw meat 
  “cooked” in liquor of citrus juices flavored with 
  cloves. 
   
  Other (specifically Tékumelian) trees include the 
  tall, deciduous dáichu (with distinctive three-
  pointed leaves; the bark is pounded into rope 
  and in Pan Cháka, cloth); tall mash trees of 
  western Tsolyánu, producing their famous 
  golden fruit; and small, white-barked, spiky 
  blue-green leaved séresh trees (also deciduous, 
  its wood is used for bows). At high altitudes, 
  even the towering, slender, black-barked, black-
  needled tíu is found (the wood serves for 
  building materials and the leaves are pounded 
  and slightly fermented to make tea) and the 
  slender, deep green-needled balür (the bark of 
  which is burned as an insect repellent). The bark 
  of the mmuokh tree, meanwhile, is a staple food 
  of the Páchi Lei. Even the ve’ezhib of Livyánu 
  and the stumpy bulbous trunks of the chme tree 
  are seen in certain parts of Pan Cháka. 
   
  Bamboo is, as in many places on Tékumel, 
  ubiquitous, varied, and indispensable. There are 
  different varieties that lend themselves to 
  building, to clothing, and to cooking. Pan 
  Chákan 
  varieties 
  include 
  a 
  "rain-streaked" 
  bamboo that is favored for decorative utensils. 
  The Pan Chákans, along with the Vrayáni and 
  inhabitants of coastal Tsolyánu, also have the 
  
  9 
   
  9 
   
   
  custom of using thin sticks of bamboo to count 
  rounds of wine drunk during parties. 
   
  Ornamental or perfumed plants include the 
  oleander (sáchau), frangipani (nandélu), rosy-
  colored hibiscus (gíyu), the white jasmine 
  (osrudhá) 
  of 
  Mu’ugalavyá, 
  and 
  ngka, 
  or 
  camellia.6 Nearly all of these can be found in the 
  wild as well, of course. The most widespread 
  ornamental plant in the Chákas, however, may 
  be varieties of azalea and rhododendron 
  (collectively, ngánuke); local breeders have 
  developed orange, white, yellow, pink, and the 
  especially prized vermilion-red varieties. These 
  flowering shrubs and trees are not much prized 
  elsewhere in Tsolyánu, except in Vra and, it is 
  said, parts of the Chaigári Protectorate. The 
  Chákan Range and the volcanic highlands in 
  particular are home to many types of these 
  plants; the higher cloud forests are largely 
  composed 
  of 
  giant 
  rhododendrons. 
  These 
  forests 
  also 
  are 
  home 
  to 
  giant 
  ferns, 
  cryptomerias, cinnamons, magnolias, champaks, 
  giant camellias, teaks, and bamboos. 
   
  Among various types of duckweed and milfoil 
  (some of which are used as food in Pan Cháka) 
  there are larger water plants as well. Most 
  noteworthy are various species of water lilies, 
  some with quite large and strangely shaped 
  pads. One rare type is the sleeping lily, which is 
  sacred to Lord Ksárul for its deep blue hue and 
  because its flower folds into a bluish-black pod 
  and retracts below the water at night.  
   
  There are huge quantities of lesser or parasitic 
  plants as well: ferns ranging in size from tiny 
  miniatures no bigger than a coin to giants the 
  size of a house, gingers, orchids, mosses, 
  rattans, and lianas, and all manner of epiphytes. 
  In much of southern Tsolyánu and Mu’ugalavyá, 
  the Islands, and Livyánu, orchids are primarily 
  used medicinally (or sorcerously), but are 
  cultivated as ornamentals by a small number of 
  eccentric aficionados. Butrús is home to a 
  number of such, attracts more as visitors and 
  aesthetic 
  pilgrims, 
  and 
  exports 
  precious 
  seedlings to yet others. A certain Pan Chákan 
  orchid is the source of a vanilla-like spice and 
  aromatic that is quite valuable; it cannot be 
                                                  
  6 Only the heavily-bred white and pink varieties of ngka are 
  known in Tsolyánu, aside from a few breeders in the South 
  who are developing giant red strains. 
  grown, and must be gathered in the wild. 
  Another is the small violet orchid called He-
  Watches-You (tsa’kél-tlatúsmi),7 which blooms 
  late in the monsoon season, particularly around 
  the time of the summer solstice and the Feast of 
  the Lighted Path. They are quite rare and short-
  lived, and can only be grown by the most skilled 
  floriculturalists. They are said to be eyes of 
  Grugánu or of Wurú (depending largely upon 
  the religious affiliation of the observer or 
  neighborhood), and when one springs up on its 
  own in a house — dangling from a lintel or 
  amongst mossy eaves, for example — it is a 
  token of imminent change for the person who 
  spots it. Said change is usually good, for 
  devotees of these gods; some particularly 
  devout worshippers of Belkhánu, Vimúhla, 
  Karakán, or their Cohorts, and especially 
  worshippers of Thúmis, consider it an omen of 
  impending danger or ill fortune for themselves. 
   
  Several different types of ginger (out of the 
  dozens native to the region) are practically 
  staple food ingredients and medicines. The vine 
  that produces the stiff, bristly rüshe fiber is 
  common 
  in 
  Pan 
  Cháka, 
  while 
  rattan 
  is 
  extensively employed in making lightweight 
  furniture and goods; lianas are equally useful as 
  inexpensive binders and ropes. One parasitic 
  vine produces a spiky purplish-dun seedpod that 
  is resorted to as a foodstuff in times of famine. 
  The same seedpods are distilled by secret 
  processes of the tribesmen into a coffee-colored 
  whisky which is prized in the protectorate but 
  has few admirers elsewhere. Wine-producing 
  nalúm vines, though, grow comparatively poorly 
  in Pan Cháka, and are not extensively cultivated.  
   
  Of the many fungi, molds, mildews, and 
  mushrooms that flourish in the dim and humid 
  Pan Chákan jungles and caverns — to say 
  nothing of algaes, lichens, and mosses — only 
  two can be noted here. The first is “Chiténg’s 
  Candles”, a type of small spike- or horn-shaped 
  fungus around 1-3 cm high, with rare monsters 
  reaching the size of 6-7 cm. They are a nasty 
  tan-yellow-white color in daylight but glow 
  surprisingly bright with an orange hue in 
  darkness. They are rather rare and very slow-
  growing, and specimens are said to live many 
                                                  
  7 This is the same flower known outside the Chakas as You-
  Are-Looked-Upon (túsmi-pagál-guál). 
  
  10 
   
  10 
   
   
  scores of years if not disturbed. Found mostly in 
  deep forest, they may also grow in caves, 
  sinkholes, 
  and 
  other 
  subterranean 
  environments. They are mildly toxic, and if 
  eaten cause violent vomiting and stomach 
  cramps, often followed by hair loss and 
  discolored patches of skin. The second are the 
  “Brains-of-Delight”: a type of bulbous mushroom 
  covered in a delicate stringy membrane, rarely 
  growing larger than fist-sized, and which glows 
  pale green at night. They have a faint sweetish 
  ammonia odor, and often grow in large patches 
  (“rookeries” in the local vernacular) in the 
  damper woodlands. Washed, sun-dried, and 
  pickled in high-proof alcohol, they become a 
  tasty delicacy, though they lose their interesting 
  color and fluorescence. Just as Chiténg’s 
  Candles are associated with the Cohort of 
  Vimúhla, 
  these 
  fungi 
  are 
  said 
  to 
  be 
  manifestations of the goddess Dlamélish. 
   
  Some other (specifically Tékumelian) items of 
  flora include the tsúnu plant (whose bark is the 
  base for making black eye-shadow, tsúnure), 
  the tall voqú’o plant whose sap serves as a kind 
  of 
  glue, 
  hruchán 
  and 
  firyá 
  reeds 
  (the 
  commonest 
  sources 
  of 
  paper 
  and 
  cloth, 
  respectively, outside the Chákas and still widely 
  used even within them), and a number of fruits 
  — most characteristically, the bitter little tsevu 
  fruit from the ngosh tree, holy in the teachings 
  of both Ksárul and Thúmis, the black hreqa, and 
  the dmoz, nauseating to humans but a staple 
  food of the Páchi Lei. 
   
  Fauna 
  Only the more interesting or economically 
  significant species will be discussed in this 
  section, due to the limitations of space. 
  Generally known Tékumelian creatures will 
  likewise not be covered. 
   
  "Dragon colts" are apparently found nowhere on 
  Tékumel except the region of the old Lúshmun 
  Canal. They may not even be native to 
  Tékumel’s universe, but rather hail from some 
  Demon Plane. They are small, harmless, rather 
  friendly coiling snakes of a bright blue color, and 
  according to folk wisdom they are both Tsolyáni 
  loyalists and devotees of Ksárul (presumably 
  due to their color, though many travelers have 
  wondered why they are not understood to be 
  creatures of Avánthe by the same reasoning).  
   
  Other snakes of the region are of practically any 
  color 
  imaginable, 
  often 
  poisonous 
  or 
  constricting, nor as even-tempered; only a few 
  are mentioned here. The “dopey snake” is a 
  smallish and generally mild-mannered serpent 
  with colorful white, green, and pinkish-yellow 
  bands; odd markings on its face give it a sleepily 
  smiling expression. It eats large insects and 
  other small pests, but is also very poisonous to 
  humans and Pachi Lei alike. It rarely bites 
  except when in its nest or when in or near 
  water, but its venom causes loss of muscular 
  control in the limbs, neck, and torso – not 
  dangerous to the heart or lungs, fortunately, 
  merely causing sudden and complete limpness 
  for several hours. As the dopey snake prefers to 
  nest in high tree branches and enjoys hunting in 
  shallow waters, a bitten man can often be 
  severely injured or killed by accidental falling or 
  drowning. The awlmouth, on the other hand, is 
  a fat brown-black viper with a vicious temper. 
  Its massive fangs (about the size of a human 
  index finger) can easily puncture light plate 
  armor, and its bite causes massive swelling 
  around the wound and an ugly yellow-purplish 
  discoloration, followed by necrosis and sloughing 
  off of flesh down to the bone. Gangrene often 
  then spreads outward from the affected area as 
  well. The awlmouth is unfortunately found 
  mostly around human habitations, preferring 
  piles of old bricks, abandoned buildings, old 
  quarries, unfrequented roof beams, disused silos 
  or grain bins, and dry basements for its dens. In 
  the wild it is usually found near piles of scree, 
  talus slopes or in shallow caves. Finally, the 
  calenderer8 is a very large constrictor snake, up 
  to 10 m long. It actively stalks solitary prey, and 
  while it avoids groups of larger animals or 
  people it often follows them in hopes of one 
  member separating from the herd or party.  
   
  The waters of Pan Cháka are home to a species 
  of small, albino gavial (chémbim). Snappish but 
  generally harmless if left alone, their fine supple 
  hides can be made into a valuable white leather. 
  They are found in small pockets and colonies 
  everywhere in the protectorate west of the 
                                                  
  8 So named after the heavy stone rollers used to finish paper 
  and cloth — the process of “calendering”. 
  
  11 
   
  11 
   
   
  Turín; it is supposed that they travel through the 
  underground streams and lakes underlying the 
  karst plateau. On land, one might encounter the 
  so-called “horned tortoises”, a genus of large 
  reptiles (often over 1 m at the shoulder and up 
  to 4 m long) with extremely heavy, banded 
  shells, armored heads and limbs (six in number), 
  and in many species the ability to spray an 
  acidic spittle at the eyes of those who disturb 
  them. The spittle causes blindness (usually 
  temporary) and painful irritation of the eyes, 
  nose, mouth, and in cases even the skin. Those 
  species that are non-toxic are actually more 
  mean-tempered and vicious, and their heavy 
  beaked jaws are just as dangerous (or more so). 
  In the forests, the reptile to beware of is the 
  misleadingly named “stumblemonkey”, which is 
  not a primate at all but an arboreal lizard up to 
  2 m in body length, with hooked foot-pads and 
  a long prehensile tail. While extremely agile in 
  trees, the tail is rarely used for climbing, but 
  rather for holding prey while the stumblemonkey 
  injects a muscle poison through a bristle of small 
  stingers under its chin. Once the victim is 
  paralyzed, it is swallowed whole. The animal 
  gets is name from its clumsy, tumbling gait on 
  the ground, where it often literally trips over 
  itself; it rarely descends to the jungle floor as it 
  becomes easy prey for other predators. 
   
  In addition to these reptiles, there are many 
  varieties and huge quantities of smaller lizards, 
  chameleons, salamanders, newts, and so forth. 
  Two of the latter are actually fairly dangerous: 
  the tartínja, or giant predatory hellbender, and 
  the related cave hellbender.9 The former is a 
  species of salamander easily reaching the size of 
  a large man. Of a mottled brownish color, 
  lumpy-textured, and usually coated with algae 
  or water-moss, they float like dead logs or 
  branches in stagnant waters, and erupt out in a 
  flurry of claws and gaping rubbery jaws to seize 
  prey upon the banks — typically deer, but just 
  as readily humans. Usually a tartínja dispatches 
  its victims by holding them underwater until 
  they drown, or if that fails simply by goring 
  them until they die of blood loss. Vicious and 
  nasty, they are tracked down for extermination 
  when detected near human settlements. The 
                                                  
  9 The latter is subject to such a variety of local names, due 
  to taboos, euphemism, supersitition, poetic license, or 
  outright reverence, that no single Tsolyáni name is 
  universally accepted.  
  (sub)species in the Tsechélnu Flats are much 
  larger, up to 3 m long, and proportionately more 
  dangerous. The cave hellbender is slightly 
  smaller, smoother-skinned, and pale white with 
  red splotches and pink streaks; they are 
  however equally dangerous and unpleasant. 
  They are found in caves, obviously, but also in 
  still and heavily shadowed cool waters such as 
  in sinkholes, sewers or heavily overgrown 
  irrigation works. 
   
  Throughout most of Pan Cháka, the Tsechélnu 
  Flats, and much of the Islands, the role of 
  geckos as domestic insect-eaters is taken by a 
  few varieties of tree frog, adapted for drier life. 
  They tend to be rather drab but innocent little 
  creatures. Frogs in general are unusually 
  abundant, ranging in size from that of a 
  fingernail to that of a large dog, and appear in 
  all the colors of the rainbow. Their croaking, 
  creaking, whirring, and popping are the seasonal 
  music of the highlands and monsoon jungles, 
  and the constant background noise of the 
  swamps and river valleys. Some are quite 
  aggressive; some are poisonous to a greater or 
  lesser degree. Among the latter are “Chiténg’s 
  Spittles”, a species of smooth-bodied, large-eyed 
  tree frog, very small, very bright, and very toxic. 
  Growing to a maximum size of six or seven 
  centimeters, and with skins of swirled orange 
  and red, they tend to cling to the tips of large 
  leaves in the jungle, like lurid raindrops. Their 
  bubbling calls are particularly pleasant and 
  soothing to the human and Páchi Lei ear, 
  exerting an almost hypnotic effect; if they were 
  not so dangerous to handle they would probably 
  make desirable cage pets. The contact poison 
  exuded by their skins and covering them entirely 
  causes almost instant numbness and ringing in 
  the ears, followed swiftly by distorted vision, 
  confusion, and sometimes permanent insanity or 
  brain damage; toxic doses result in convulsions 
  and death.10 Fortunately, the toxin breaks down 
  very rapidly and cannot effectively be used as a 
  blade or food poison by hunters or assassins. 
   
  Another such species is the “spiny frog”, silvery-
  gray in color and larger (to 10 cm), with a 
                                                  
  10 Páchi Lei are almost unaffected by the toxin (experiencing 
  only mild numbness and a "funny taste"), but Swamp Folk, 
  Shen, Tinalíya and Hláka all suffer similar effects as humans, 
  while the chitin of Pe Choi blisters and flakes where it comes 
  in contact. 
  
  12 
   
  12 
   
   
  somewhat irregular row of spines along their 
  back. They are normally seen only in the wet 
  season and early to mid-summer, and then in 
  large colonies; during the hotter and drier parts 
  of the year they disappear into cysts or crevices 
  and hibernate. These tree frogs are both timid 
  and unobservant, as well as great leapers; 
  intruding upon a colony thus usually causes an 
  explosion of panic flight. This can be dangerous 
  to the person who disturbs them, as the poison 
  in their dorsal spines causes blindness in 
  humans.  
   
  Gliders are another grouping of tree frog 
  species, with membranes beneath the front 
  limbs which allow them to soar from branch to 
  branch in the upper canopy of the jungle. They 
  are all non-poisonous despite their bright 
  coloration (blue-green, solid red, green and red, 
  or blue and red), but very quick and wary. The 
  largest grow up to 20 cm, but have relatively 
  long, light bodies. 
   
  An annoying but fairly rare amphibian known 
  only in Pan Cháka and southeast Mu’ugalavyá is 
  called the mótti. It generally resembles an 
  elongated frog or salamander, and fills a niche 
  somewhere between that of a particularly large 
  and cunning rat and a small, vicious raccoon. 
  They are fond of stealing not only fine 
  foodstuffs, but also jewelry and other shiny 
  objects; their wariness, persistence, and stealth 
  allow them to penetrate the most well-protected 
  homes, and their blinding speed and slippery, 
  surprisingly strong bodies make them hard to 
  catch even once detected. Homeowners who 
  suspect a mótti has singled them out have been 
  known to simply close up their houses and go to 
  live elsewhere for a few months, until it moves 
  on. 
   
  The ngevék is another creature, like the “dragon 
  colts”, of possible extra-Planar origin; it is 
  fortunately found only on stream banks in 
  upland Pan Cháka. It is more commonly called 
  — due to superstitious taboo — the "sandy 
  mouth” or "shadow-shooter". It is a small round 
  aquatic reptile, black and hard-shelled like a 
  beetle or turtle, and about the size of a small 
  káika egg, with a single four-branched horn on 
  its head and small insect-like wings. It has the 
  unwelcome habit of spitting grains of sand (or 
  some substance very much like sand) upon the 
  shadows of passersby, which has fatal results. 
  Strangely, one tribe of the headhunters of the 
  inner jungles is immune; the problem is that no 
  two authorities agree on which of the three 
  tribes it is. 
   
  A true insect of Pan Cháka is the hopping beetle, 
  a large earth-borer up to 50 cm long, with 
  powerful mandibles and a mildly caustic bite. It 
  can tunnel swiftly through loose soil, but 
  constructs no permanent warrens or passages. 
  Highly territorial, it stakes out a hunting ground 
  and lurks just below the soil surface, waiting to 
  launch itself nearly vertically into the air and 
  seize onto small prey (or the legs and abdomens 
  of larger ones). The masánkh11 is a large (up to 
  25 cm long) and solid red-colored centipede; 
  they are colonial insects that build massive 
  castle-like hives from wood pulp. The warriors 
  have large dark-red mandibles that they carry 
  upright (looking like horns) while traveling. Pan 
  Chákans, like other Tsolyáni, consider them to 
  be intelligent, if alien, “demons” (sharétlyal) who 
  owe allegiance to the deity Karakán. Mostly 
  found in scrub jungle, parkland-savanna, and 
  recently cleared and regenerating forest areas, 
  they are thus fairly familiar to slash-and-burn 
  farmers and ranchers in Chakas.  
   
  Natives of Pan Cháka are very fond of keeping 
  ornamental freshwater fish, and based on the 
  rich variety of natural species in the streams and 
  pools of the region (as well as imported species) 
  they have bred many varieties of goldfish, 
  loaches, angelfish, koi, and so forth. Farmers 
  customarily raise quantities of different carp and 
  catfish in their paddies and irrigation ditches 
  both for food and to keep down the population 
  of insects with aquatic larval stages — and a 
  large enough carp is a welcome “eeler” to hunt 
  down and destroy any of the vicious eels, 
  destructive freshwater hagfish, and predatory 
  nematodes that left unchecked can make a 
  green and fertile paddy an unhealthy, even 
  dangerous, place. One such type of unwelcome 
  intruder is the “fat eel”, a freshwater creature 
  up to 3 m long, found especially in muddy 
  sloughs and pools formed for agriculture. They 
  are thick-bodied, with many rippling fins and 
                                                  
  11 They have many local names; masánkh is merely the most 
  common in Pan Cháka but not necessarily used or known 
  elsewhere. In neighboring Urudái Province, where they are 
  relatively rare, they are called nénkham. 
  
  13 
   
  13 
   
   
  streamers, colored an ugly pink and silver. Their 
  large rectangular mouths are filled with flat 
  blade-like teeth for taking chunks out of 
  whatever cannot be swallowed whole. “Needle 
  eels” are another variety: green-black eels, very 
  thin and long (up to 1 m) and hard to see in the 
  water, as they look like stalks of grass or reeds. 
  They feed by burrowing directly into the flesh of 
  larger animals and eating their way through the 
  body. Both these and the "fat eels" tend to 
  spread into irrigation works and flooded paddies 
  from surrounding waters, and are the biggest, if 
  not most common, of the occupational hazards 
  wetland farmers in the southwest face. 
   
  Pan Cháka is graced with great flocks of 
  butterflies: giant, bright, bird-winged, they are 
  called "air flowers" in casual speech. They are 
  an important source of food for the “gobblers” 
  (in local dialect, khurruhirrükhú). These flying 
  mammals are well-known inhabitants of the 
  settled part of Pan Cháka and the lighter forests. 
  They range 15-60 cm in height (depending on 
  age and subspecies), are black-skinned and 
  covered in golden-chocolate fur, and have long 
  muzzles, large pointed ears and huge orange 
  eyes. Their wings are bat-like morphologically, 
  but densely covered with broad feather-shaped 
  hairs. They are social animals, hanging upside 
  down from caves, attics or eaves, and dark 
  tangled groves during the day and flying out in 
  flocks to hunt at night. They are also found 
  living in the city of Butrús itself, and are almost 
  domestic in some neighborhoods. They are 
  omnivorous, and in season gorge on fruit and 
  berries — so are thus a great menace to 
  orcharders, who at times net them and burn 
  their daytime lairs to protect their crops. They 
  also eat large numbers of insects, small rodents, 
  lizards, and frogs. Despite the folk belief that 
  they are escorts of the souls of the recently 
  dead, and hang from the eaves of the 
  bedchambers of the dying waiting to receive 
  their souls, they are not particularly feared or 
  tabooed creatures. In fact, if taken from their 
  nests when infants, they are fairly tamable and 
  may be employed to carry messages or seek out 
  and return with small objects. They are as apt 
  as küni birds at this, though they cannot speak 
  — except their hideous, sardonically tittering 
  call.  
   
  The Chákan species of küni themselves are of 
  the “short-winged” family, and distinguished by 
  their large and heavy claws; most have black 
  and white markings at the wingtips and white 
  rings or stripes around the eyes. As native 
  Chákans are not very partial to falconry, these 
  birds are captured and trained largely for trade 
  or sale to hunters or collectors elsewhere in 
  Tsolyánu — where they can fetch a good price.  
   
  On the other hand, another nocturnal avian, the 
  small Pan Chákan owl (réndu), is a shunned and 
  ill-omened creature. For some reason they are 
  associated with “broken mirror magic” (q.v.). At 
  the same time, they are sometimes considered 
  to be transfigured ghosts and have the names in 
  taboo and poetry of “wetnurse birds” and 
  “night-strolling girls”. Despite these prejudices 
  against them, it is also believed that they 
  prevent house fires from breaking out if they 
  nest in the roof or attic. The “mosquito bats” of 
  the Chákas are not held in such respect; they 
  are small and mostly solitary animals which, like 
  vampire bats, feed on warm blood. Unlike their 
  better-known cousins, however, these have 
  short siphons folded into their mouths that are 
  used to suck the blood directly from their 
  victims’ veins. When presented with a human 
  donor, they tend to gorge so much that they 
  bloat up like small furry balls and are unable to 
  fly away; only very rarely are they directly 
  dangerous to larger animals, though they can 
  and do spread virulent diseases. On occasions 
  when they do flock together, however, they can 
  very easily and rapidly drain a human being of 
  blood so that he dies. 
   
  The “emerald-armed magpie” found throughout 
  the Chákas is probably actually related to the 
  mynah of old Earth. These birds appear a solid 
  glossy black when perched, but in flight reveal 
  brilliant green feathers lining their wings. Their 
  only other markings are small white or yellow 
  discs around the eyes, giving them a wide-eyed 
  and perpetually surprised appearance. While 
  their song is a pleasant metallic warble, they 
  have a characteristic throaty snigger when 
  pleased or excited. Intelligent, clean, and 
  generally attractive, they are fairly popular pets, 
  though not trusted out of their cages. They are 
  intensely curious and clever, often messily so, 
  and seem uncannily apt at playing pranks on 
  humans or other animals within reach. The 
  
  14 
   
  14 
   
   
  temples of Dlamélish and Hriháyal often regard 
  them to be the reincarnations of devotees of the 
  Aspect Hes, though this is not formal doctrine. 
  Wild specimens are less interested in humans, 
  but may rapidly learn to shadow them for the 
  opportunity to purloin food and generate 
  amusement. 
   
  Other avian life is rich and colorful, too. There 
  are, of course, the domestic káika, in both 
  terrestrial 
  (“turkey”) 
  and 
  aquatic 
  (“duck”) 
  species. “Pond clerks” are a variety of black and 
  purple waterfowl, quick on the wing and 
  surprisingly fast even on land. Usually found in 
  small flocks, they are always active and busy-
  looking, and quite noisy with their odd droning 
  calls. While their flesh and eggs are extremely 
  unpalatable to humans, they are often tolerated 
  around ponds and water-gardens for their 
  amusingly fussy, bustling behavior. They are 
  often compared to priests of Hrü'ü (and by 
  extension, bookish types in general), or vice 
  versa. Páchi Lei find them quite edible but still 
  prefer not to eat them, apparently for “religious” 
  reasons. 
   
  Gaudy blue kingfishers are common along the 
  Turín River, the remaining segments of the 
  Lúshmun Canal, and water-filled sinkholes and 
  ponds in the highlands. “Qon’s splashes”12 
  winter in southern Livyanu and Shenyu, but 
  migrate into southern Tsolyanu during the 
  summer and early autumn in vast tinkling flocks. 
  These are tiny (5-8 cm) flocking songbirds with 
  very high-pitched calls and songs, a bright solid 
  yellow color overall. They are also popular cage 
  birds throughout this region, though they are 
  somewhat delicate and do poorly if not kept 
  with others of their kind. The most colorful 
  birds, though, are found in the southwestern 
  cloud forests. There one finds the jacamars, 
  motmots, puffbirds, warblers, flycatchers, and 
  sunbirds; 
  todies, 
  trogons, 
  barbets, 
  and 
  pheasants in dozens of varieties; sweet-voiced, 
  moss-colored bulbuls; lustrous, sable fork-tailed 
  drongoes, fluttering scarlet minivets, skulking 
                                                  
  12 They are properly known in Tsolyanu as banúryal 
  hitiritkólmuyal hiBelkhánudàlidàlisa, 
  “the rains of the 
  Paradise of Lord Belkhánu”, but their Chakan dialectal name, 
  chempíliyul hüPán-dleza, refers to that deity’s Cohort and 
  specifically to splashes of urine. Speakers of the Chakan 
  dialect rarely see anything offensive in this, but more 
  cultured individuals often do find it objectionable. 
  polychrome pittas, darting iridescent bee-eaters, 
  and flaming-chested flower-peckers. 
   
  Aside from the widespread nráishu and nyar 
  (the latter uncommon but present in the 
  Chákas) there are two related species of deer in 
  the Pan Chákan forests: the larger sambar and 
  the smaller fang-toothed muntjac. The muntjac 
  is valuable for the leather it provides to make 
  finely crafted and bright-dyed boots. However, 
  there is also an extremely dangerous deer-like 
  creature, perhaps a native of the Demon Planes, 
  which closely resembles the muntjac — the 
  petite, albino, cunning, malicious, and utterly 
  pitiless 
  “vampire 
  deer”. 
  A 
  quaint 
  rustic 
  superstition to the urban dweller, it is a vivid, 
  living terror for the backwoods farmer. 
   
  A small and interesting Chákan animal is the 
  thelúha, 
  a 
  short-limbed 
  and 
  long-bodied 
  creature about the size of a small cat that, while 
  basically mammalian, is covered in slightly 
  iridescent green-brown scales. It is tamable, 
  trainable, and fully at home in trees and water. 
  The fact that it is immune to most animal 
  venoms and can easily sniff out most vegetal 
  and mineral toxins makes trained specimens in 
  great demand as snake, chnau, and epéng-
  killers and as food-testers. These creatures are 
  native only to the Pan Chákan highlands, 
  northern Vra, and possibly the mountains of 
  northeastern Livyánu, but the domestic forms 
  are found farther abroad. 
   
  Less desired “domestic” animals include the 
  banyé, found throughout the southwest, which 
  is a small, soft, damp creature that infests grain 
  stores. It releases an enzyme onto the grain that 
  breaks it down into a black, stinking, runny 
  liquid, which renders it digestible to the banyé. 
  The mash orcharders and distillers, and other 
  fruit-growers as well, are plagued by the 
  stinging epéng, which particularly seeks out 
  stored and softening fruit. Fortunately the 
  species common around settled areas of Pan 
  Cháka are not the more poisonous varieties, 
  however economically harmful they may be. 
   
  There is a certain species of predator that is also 
  found only in Pan Cháka and northern Vra within 
  Tsolyánu, called the “mintleaf zrne”. However, it 
  is actually a feline, a distant descendant of the 
  jaguar of old Earth. It is a small, stocky creature 
  
  15 
   
  15 
   
   
  with a thick soft pelt of dark brown or black, 
  covered in spearhead-shaped yellow spots; it is 
  equally at home in trees, on land, or in water. 
  While 
  solitary, 
  stealthy, 
  shy, 
  and 
  only 
  moderately territorial, it preys heavily on 
  livestock and is a severe danger to children. It 
  rarely attacks adult humans (or Páchi Lei), but 
  its patience and craftiness make it a dangerous 
  foe.  
   
  For centuries visitors have commented that Pan 
  Chákans have no imagination in breeding their 
  pets, for the local strains of domestic cat and 
  domestic dog are nearly identical to one 
  another: both have long-muzzled heads with 
  slightly tufted ears, short limbs, and short 
  reddish-brown fur — sometimes with whitish 
  bellies and black stripes on the face and neck. 
  Even the erudite circles of elderly pet breeders 
  in Butrús can’t come up with a good explanation 
  of how both species came to look so similar. 
  Cats are somewhat more common in Butrús 
  than elsewhere in Tsolyánu, perhaps in part due 
  to the ancient local cult of a feline demigod now 
  incorporated into the Temple of Hrü’ü. Black-
  colored sports are, not surprisingly, holy to this 
  deity, while albinos or solid white ones are 
  shunned. Feral cats are fairly common in 
  undeveloped areas of the city and its suburbs, 
  as are small packs of feral dogs — the latter 
  potentially posing a threat to the unwary or 
  weak. 
   
  HISTORY 
  Early Period 
  Remote 
  Antiquity. 
  The 
  earliest 
  known 
  inhabitants of Pan Cháka were apparently 
  related to the people of the Three States of the 
  Triangle. In the agricultural districts of the 
  eastern 
  and 
  northeastern 
  part 
  of 
  the 
  protectorate there have been finds of this 
  culture’s characteristic black-on-red pottery, and 
  even occasional fragmentary inscriptions very 
  similar to the undeciphered ones found below 
  Penóm and Úrmish. It is not known whether the 
  region was a part of this archeological culture or 
  whether these artifacts only arrived in Pan 
  Cháka through trade. Dating from a slightly later 
  period, there are also a few Llyáni remains that 
  have been found: red-glazed pottery shards, 
  rare gold coins or medallions, and a couple of 
  statuettes — but these were almost certainly 
  brought by trade and not manufactured in situ 
  by subjects of Llyan's empire.  
   
  Many scholars have noted strong similarities in 
  material culture, social organization, and cultural 
  behavior between Pan Cháka, the highlands of 
  northern Vra, the marshy lower basin of the 
  Putuhénu River, and the Flats of Tsechélnu. 
  Some date the presumed cultural substratum 
  shared among these regions to this extremely 
  early period, though more conservative scholars 
  prefer to suggest it did not exist until later, the 
  final period of the Fisherman Kings and early 
  Bednálljan times.  
   
  Dragon Warriors. After invading the southwest 
  and conquering these poorly-known native 
  inhabitants, the Dragon Warriors set up their 
  famous 
  boundary 
  steles 
  throughout 
  the 
  protectorate, and also many ritual wardings 
  calling upon the Flame Lord and his servants to 
  defend the cleared land and its new rulers 
  against the unholy and frightful demons they 
  believed dwelt in the dark, wet cisterns and 
  sinkholes. Some surviving examples of both 
  these types of artifacts have since been 
  removed to Butrús for display. Remains of 
  Dragon Warrior-period building foundations exist 
  deep under modern Butrús; an old mound of 
  long-ruined fortifications lies outside town. In 
  effect, the Dragon Warriors were the founders 
  of what is now the city of Butrús.13 It was also 
  the Dragon Warriors who established the First 
  Temple of Vimúhla, now located partially on a 
  pocket-plane deep in the jungles of the western 
  part of the protectorate. The history of the 
  worship of the Flame Lord in what is now 
  western Tsolyánu can be traced back to these 
  remote times. However, Tsolyáni scholars are 
  rarely able to distinguish physical remnants of 
  the era of the Dragon Warriors from those of 
  other, later legendary times — the First Empire 
  and the Empire of the Gods. 
   
  In this region, the ruling stratum of Dragon 
  Warriors rapidly fractured into a large number of 
  equal lineages, their chiefdoms following suit. 
  The result was a landscape of small competing 
  peer polities rather than the large and relatively 
                                                  
  13 At least, one can say that the remains of their buildings 
  are the oldest ones known at the site of the modern city, 
  and even in the civilized regions of the protectorate. 
  
  16 
   
  16 
   
   
  centralized “city-states” of Dragon Warrior 
  descendants such as the Vríddis of Fasíltum. 
   
  Bednállja. Soon after the deity Ksárul revealed 
  himself to mankind in the reign of the Twenty-
  Second Fisherman King in what is now western 
  Salarvyá, his priesthood had already constructed 
  an outpost in the form of a fortified monastery 
  in southeastern Pan Cháka (some part of which 
  is said to remain in existence today). This region 
  became one of the main sites of the early 
  religious conflict between the “Red Robes” and 
  the “Black Robes”. Missionizing by the latter was 
  presumably intense, since a strong tradition of 
  worship of the Lord of the Blue Room appeared 
  in Pan Cháka and persists unbroken to the 
  present day. At that time, the town that modern 
  Butrús descends from was known as Álu-Ítkinu. 
   
  Later, after the reign of Nayári and the 
  establishment of the Bednálljan Empire, a 
  temple to Sárku was built at Álu-Ítkinu, and 
  large parts of it remain in good condition today 
  deep underground. The grounds and some 
  monuments of the modern City of the Dead date 
  back to the same mid-Bednálljan period. 
  Remains of simple frog-shaped statues and idols 
  are fairly common from this time (if not earlier), 
  but it is hotly debated whether they represent 
  the folk-deity later known as Smoking Toad or 
  another called Frog Maiden or Maiden On the 
  Green Moon. It appears that in these times 
  Cháka continued to be ruled by the Vimúhla-
  worshipping 
  descendants 
  of 
  the 
  Dragon 
  Warriors, who as a constellation of petty 
  chiefdoms individually swore fealty to the 
  Bednálljan dynasties. However, even early in 
  this same period the lineages and tribes that 
  would later unite as the Íto clan had adopted 
  (and adapted) the worship of Sárku and were 
  prepared to assert their political and religious 
  independence. It is also in this middle Bednálljan 
  period that the toponym of “Cháka” is first 
  attested. 
   
  In Butrús there is also an ancient shrine and 
  associated cult of a quiet feline deity which 
  dates back to the late Bednálljan era; it is now 
  incorporated within the city’s Temple of Hrü'ü. 
  In this same era, the city — its name by then 
  metathesized into Lu-Tíknu, or Lu-sa-Tíknu — 
  was designated as the site of one of the 
  Imperial Repositories, a great and ostentatious 
  warehouse 
  of 
  governmental 
  records 
  and 
  religious texts. Scarcely anything of this survived 
  to the present, despite the claims of the Temple 
  of Ksárul to have preserved it through the 
  millennia. 
   
  Some of the technological inventions made 
  during the First Empire found their way here and 
  were incorporated in some small way into local 
  culture. 
  For 
  example, 
  little 
  noisemaking 
  firecrackers are made out of heavy paper or 
  bamboo joints and a weak kind of gunpowder, 
  for use in certain popular festivities; and 
  woodblock printing 
  is 
  commonly 
  used to 
  produce cheap illustrated chapbooks, public 
  notices, blank governmental forms, and the like. 
  Since the traditional scribal clans control this 
  industry, no commercial disputes over the 
  technology have arisen. 
   
  Engsvanyálu. Pan Cháka was spared most of the 
  religious and civil turmoil of the age of Pavár's 
  revelations and the following generations; it was 
  only gradually and somewhat later that the 
  faiths of Evuén and Ba'álk (modern-day Avánthe 
  and Belkhánu, respectively) and their Consorts 
  spread into the eastern fringes of Pan Cháka. 
  However, there are fragmentary records of a 
  few minor, local messianic movements and 
  enthusiastic 
  frenzies 
  associated 
  with 
  local 
  demigods such as Smoking Toad and the 
  aforementioned “God of Cats”, as well as a 
  number of mystical Vimúhlan prophets and 
  preachers. During the period of Bednálljan 
  decline, 
  before 
  the 
  Priest-Kings 
  had 
  re-
  established a centralized rule over the known 
  world, the real political and cultural center of 
  Pan Cháka was in its far northwest, which 
  together with the rugged southeastern coast of 
  Mu’ugalavyá and the city-state of Heméktu on 
  its green plains formed the uneasy realm of 
  Zru’o, the Land of the Three Kings.14 In these 
  days, the vicinity of modern Butrús was a 
  relative backwater, at least politically speaking. 
   
  It was the fourth Priest-King of the First Epoch, 
  Feleshka'án (r. 1413–1444 A.P.) who divided the 
  Chákas into northern and southern provinces, 
  originally for administrative purposes. However, 
  the prefixes “Do” and “Pan” are not attested 
                                                  
  14 Often confused or conflated with the Three Kings of 
  mythology, Akhoné, Niritlál, and Nimuné (q.v.) 
  
  17 
   
  17 
   
   
  until far later (only reliably from the Time of No 
  Kings). Previous to Feleshka’án’s ruling, it seems 
  that the adjacent forested highlands lying in 
  what is now Mu’ugalavyá were also considered 
  part of the nebulous domain known as “Cháka”, 
  but gradually developed a political (if not 
  cultural) identity independent of the modern 
  Chákas.  
   
  Further changes followed: During the brief reign 
  of Ssirandár VI in the seventeenth century A.P., 
  the old citadel and town were, in the course of 
  pashátl (ditlána), abandoned and rebuilt several 
  tsan 
  further 
  north 
  near 
  Tréklu 
  Süng, 
  a 
  caravanserai-village at a major ford over the 
  Turín River. This site, formally renamed Ti-
  Tirutléklu (soon Tírutlèklu by haplology), but 
  better known as the City of the Nine Walls, 
  served as the capital of Pan Cháka through the 
  rest of the Engsvanyáli period — but not 
  beyond. Nevertheless, even the modern city, 
  back on its original site, still owes a great deal of 
  its underlying fabric to the earliest days of 
  Engsvanyálu. The original construction of the old 
  sewer system, aqueducts, canals, cisterns, and 
  the artificial leveling of the plain on which Butrús 
  stands all took place during this time, before the 
  ditlána of Ssirandár VI. By the end of the First 
  Era, the demographic, economic, and cultural 
  balance in the southern Chákas had shifted from 
  its ancient center eastward to the Turín River 
  valley. The western highlands would never again 
  be the center of power and civilization in Pan 
  Cháka. 
   
  Engsvanyálu made more refined contributions, 
  too. A statue purportedly fashioned by the great 
  Márya (1315-1376 A.P.) that had long been 
  displayed in the City of the Nine Walls was, so 
  the annals say, abandoned there and recovered 
  only after Éngsvan hla Gánga fell. Some 
  volumes of a copy of a catalogue from the early 
  period of the Great Library of Tumíssa, founded 
  by Dhárumesh Mssa I (r. 1501-1543 A.P.), are 
  rumored to exist in the modern library of the 
  Temple of Ksárul, having been left behind in a 
  nearby monastery during the move to Ti-
  Tírutlèklu and rediscovered millennia later, just 
  after the sinking of Gánga. Even after old Butrús 
  was abandoned, Báshdis Mssa VIII (r. 2190-
  2232 A.P.) commissioned several important 
  mausoleums to be rebuilt at the old city, along 
  with new constructions at the City of the Nine 
  Walls — the latter now all lost. Huge stone 
  statues of ancient Engsvanyáli governors (or, at 
  least, 
  they 
  are 
  believed 
  to 
  have 
  been 
  Engsvanyáli governors) that were salvaged from 
  the ruins of the Engsvanyáli city around 800-
  1100 A.S. have been re-erected at the modern 
  city gates.  
   
  With the end of the First Epoch, rapid 
  decentralization of power, and the spread of civil 
  war, Pan Cháka generally fell under the sway of 
  the regime at Tumíssa founded by Teshéngtu 
  Tlekólmü, "the Hammer of the West". It not re-
  conquered until much later, at the beginning of 
  the Third Epoch, when it again joined itself to 
  the Engsvanyáli central government. The Priest-
  King Ssesmúga III (r. 3357-3402 E.R.C.J.V.) 
  sponsored a program of extensive exploration 
  and charting of the caves and cavern networks 
  Pan Cháka, costly in terms of human life and of 
  dubious value; then Mesunénde (r. 3598-3612 
  E.R.C.J.V.) ordered what was to be last ditlána 
  of the city before the end of the empire. The 
  succeeding centuries saw Tírutlèklu fall into 
  decadent obscurity while regional fief-holders 
  and warlords grew in power in the countryside. 
  The Ítos’ might ascended in Do Cháka and 
  began spreading beyond its borders, while the 
  semi-barbaric chiefdoms of the southern Chákan 
  Range grew in power and confidence. Pan 
  Cháka and the City of the Nine Walls were 
  devastated in the reign of Amukánatl Vríddi IV 
  (r. 5400-5459?): during a bloody Páchi Lei 
  insurrection, and again in the epidemic of the 
  Mottled Plague that lingered for years in Pan 
  Cháka and southwestern Tsolyánu. 
   
  The cataclysm at the end of the Engsvanyáli age 
  manifested itself in Pan Cháka primarily as 
  earthquakes 
  (minor 
  but 
  apparently 
  near-
  constant) and volcanic eruptions in the far 
  southern part of the province. Despite their 
  distance, the eruptions spewed ash as far north 
  as Tumíssa, shortening the growing season for 
  years, disrupting the flow of groundwater and 
  surface runoff, and causing widespread famine 
  and depopulation. Páchi Lei, bandits, dangerous 
  beasts, and even Ssu began encroaching on 
  human settlements. 
   
  Time of No Kings 
  
  18 
   
  18 
   
   
  Immediately after the cataclysm, Engsvanyáli 
  Butrús, the City of the Nine Walls — battered 
  and neglected for centuries already — was 
  finally abandoned altogether. Its citizens and 
  rulers hastily moved south to the old site of the 
  Bednálljan city, believing that Engsvanyálu and 
  its later traditions were accursed. As even the 
  valuable river crossing at old Tréklu Süng was 
  destroyed in the geological and climactic 
  upheavals, the Engsvanyáli site was left desolate 
  and rapidly fell into complete ruin. Much later, 
  those ruins were totally destroyed in the Great 
  Storm of 1155 A.S. by flash flooding, massive 
  cave-ins, and subsequent lingering floodwaters. 
  Whatever battered fragments survive now lie 
  under many meters of fractured rock and clayey 
  silt.15 
   
  The city-state reconstituted and centered at “Old 
  Butrús” — actually then called Lu-Tikun (or 
  Tikün) — was frequently at war with its 
  neighbors and often the victim of raids. While it 
  often paid tribute to the lords of Tumíssa and 
  Úrmish and occasionally relinquished de jure 
  independence to them, in fact it retained de 
  facto independence almost throughout the 
  period. A long history of skirmishing and 
  competition with the neighboring polity of 
  Úrmish led to genuine subjugation to this 
  ancient enemy on one occasion; the two cities 
  continue to have a traditional loathing for one 
  another. The Páchi Lei, meanwhile, gradually 
  extended their range over much of the modern 
  protectorate, and had variable relations with the 
  human city and its small agricultural hinterland. 
  Over 
  the 
  centuries, 
  with 
  the 
  rising 
  aggressiveness of the Páchi Lei, the city that by 
  now was often known as Butrús practically 
  became a human outpost in a forest of non-
  humans. The gap between the northern and 
  southern Chákan Ranges, once a long populated 
  and civilized strip of lands lying between the 
  wilds of Pan Cháka and Do Cháka, came to be 
  entirely depopulated and returned to primitive 
  jungle.  
   
                                                  
  15 Scholars outside the Chákas are occasionally left confused 
  (or even embarrassed) by the continuing use of the 
  Engsvanyáli-era nomenclature for the two cities: “Old 
  Butrús” always means the site of the modern-day city, on its 
  pre-Engsvanyáli site; “New Butrús” refers to the City of the 
  Nine Walls, Tírutlèklu, and never the other way around. 
  Internal politics were varied and most often 
  unstable, and several regimes rotated through 
  power. The Íto clan invaded and put an end to 
  the effete and cultured reign of Tlyo Zrang, 
  whose dynasty (the House of the Ink-Flower, 
  named after a rare ornamental blossom now 
  believed to be extinct) had itself deposed the 
  short-lived Chalchái dynasty, which claimed 
  descent from an ancient Engsvanyáli royal 
  house. Rival branches of the Ítos then fought 
  amongst themselves and with other contenders 
  for many generations. Repeated insurgences 
  and resurgences of Vimúhlan clans, legions, and 
  monastic 
  centers 
  complicated 
  the 
  picture 
  further. The Black Theocrat, affiliated in a not 
  entirely clear fashion with Ksárul,16 appeared 
  suddenly and ruled for several glorious, if 
  strange, decades. He was aided in this by his 
  right-hand man, the Flaying General — so-called 
  for his custom of skinning his fallen foes before 
  battle and of peeling the faces off his living 
  captives. On the dim fringes of recorded history, 
  a few tiny polities seem to have taken up the 
  worship of the Goddess of the Pale Bone. A brief 
  timeline is given below for general interest, with 
  relative dates in the modern Tsolyáni calendar. 
   
  -881 to -803 
  Chalchái dynasty. Its obsession 
  with 
  Engsvanyáli 
  descent 
  spurred a race among regional 
  polities to acquire the trappings 
  of Engsvanyáli legitimacy. 
  -803 to -399 
  Ink-Flower dynasty. 
  -399 to -207  
  Kingdom of the Two Chákas. 
  A unified, centralized Chákan 
  kingdom under the Íto clan. 
  -207 to -198 
  Ink-Flower Restoration. A 
  pretender who held only the city 
  itself; 
  devoted 
  to 
  Avánthe, 
  unusual for a ruler in this area. 
  -198 to -52 
  Kingdom of the Two Chákas 
  reestablished control of Butrús. 
  -52 to 11 
  Conquest by the city-state of 
  Úrmish; occupation by military 
  governors. 
  11 to 175 
  Council of Brown and Red. 
  An uneasy alliance of clans 
  dedicated 
  to 
  Sárku 
  and 
  Vimúhla; backed by the Prince 
  of 
  Khéiris. 
  Tentative 
  steps 
                                                  
  16 Perhaps, given his secular ambitions, a member (or rogue 
  member) of the Ndálu Clan? 
  
  19 
   
  19 
   
   
  followed 
  to 
  (re)establish 
  a 
  regional alliance in terms of the 
  ancient Land of the Three Kings. 
  175 to 182 
  Council of Pure Red. Ignited 
  in 
  part 
  by 
  fighting 
  over 
  identification and employment 
  of the Rod of the King of the 
  Left, an internal coup took place 
  (again with Khéiris’ support and 
  direction), following which the 
  aristocratic “Four Red” clans and 
  the temple of Vimúhla ruled — 
  ultimately without the Rod. 
  182 to 185 
  Íto restoration, backed by 
  popular 
  (rural) 
  uprisings; 
  a 
  surviving Íto heir then moved 
  south from Do Cháka and 
  assumed control. 
  185 to 255 
  Warlords of Brrk. Páchi Lei, 
  agitated by recent decades of 
  Mu’ugalavyáni activity in Pan 
  Cháka (though this is likely an 
  anachronism 
  of 
  modern 
  historical 
  interpretation), 
  deposed 
  the 
  Ítos 
  and 
  established a highly regimented 
  oligarchy 
  that 
  attempted 
  to 
  incorporate both human and 
  Páchi Lei settlements, in a 
  regime or social philosophy they 
  called something like “Brrk”. 
  They vehemently rejected the 
  archaicistic schema of the Land 
  of Zru’o then prevalent in the 
  region’s politics, and ritually 
  defiled the King of the Center 
  (i.e., the Prince of Khéiris). They 
  were eventually defeated by 
  local Íto forces (backed by the 
  distant 
  Tsolyáni 
  emperor 
  Trákonel II) after a decade of 
  fighting. 
  Trákonel’s 
  armies 
  withdrew, and no Tsolyáni claim 
  over the region was established 
  at this time. 
  255 to 284 
  Íto Dominion of the South. 
  Not long after its re-accession, 
  most of the native Íto ruling 
  family was assassinated (262); 
  vicious feuding (bordering on 
  open warfare) with Northern 
  Ítos 
  ensued. 
  Much 
  of 
  the 
  conquered Páchi Lei lands were 
  settled by humans, creating a 
  significant 
  agricultural 
  hinterland 
  outside 
  the 
  immediate vicinity of Butrús 
  itself for the first time since the 
  middle Engsvanyáli period. 
  284 to 298 
  Second Council in Red. A 
  Vimúhlan monastic order seized 
  control from squabbling local 
  magnates and the precarious 
  Íto 
  overlords 
  and 
  ruled 
  ineffectually, without support of 
  Vimúhlan 
  clans, 
  mainstream 
  temples, or legions. 
  298 to 309 
  Realm for the Rectification 
  of the Living. A sectarian 
  faction based in the Temple of 
  Sárku in Úrmish fled Tsolyánu 
  and staged a coup in Butrús. 
  Brief theocratic control at great 
  cost to populace; headed by the 
  mysterious but highly public 
  “Son of the Vulture”.  
  309 to 311 
  Íto clan deposed the theocrats, 
  attempted 
  to 
  reestablish 
  control. 
  Envoys 
  from 
  the 
  powerful temple of the City of 
  Sárku were murdered en route 
  just 
  southeast 
  of 
  Tumíssa, 
  allegedly by one of many roving 
  gangs of “Úrmishite bandits and 
  parasite heretics”. 
  311 to 370s 
  Third Council in Red. Ítos 
  ousted; 
  an 
  oligarchy 
  of 
  Vimúhlan clans in control, with 
  backing 
  of 
  the 
  orthodox 
  priesthood.  
  370s to 488 
  Local 
  Íto 
  lineage 
  applied 
  crippling economic pressure to 
  Red clans and became de facto 
  rulers by 390s, though they 
  avoided formally taking charge 
  until the early 400s.  
  488 to 501 
  Warlords of Brrk. Another 
  Páchi 
  Lei 
  occupation; 
  well-
  organized 
  and 
  well-led, 
  but 
  lacking in strategic vision and 
  diplomatic capabilities. It had 
  many human supporters and 
  allies, and generally good inter-
  species relations. 
  501 to 540 
  The Black Theocrat appeared, 
  and defeated the Warlords, Four 
  
  20 
   
  20 
   
   
  Reds, 
  Ítos, 
  and 
  all 
  other 
  contenders in short order. The 
  Black 
  Theocrat 
  engaged 
  in 
  gigantic public works projects 
  and strange mass mobilizations 
  of 
  the 
  population; 
  forced 
  adoption 
  (or 
  at 
  least 
  participation in) a new religion 
  apparently of his own devising; 
  engineered 
  a 
  considerable 
  disruption 
  of 
  clan-centered 
  society 
  and 
  economy. 
  He 
  conducted war with neighbors 
  on all fronts; his diplomacy was 
  based on shocking acts of 
  blackmail. The Black Theocrat’s 
  right-hand man was a Vimúhla-
  worshipping soldier; between 
  the two of them, this may have 
  been 
  the 
  most 
  successful 
  reconciliation of “the Red and 
  the 
  Black” 
  the 
  Engsvanyáli 
  hoped for so long ago. 
  540 to 542 
  Tsolyáni assaults into Pan Cháka 
  ordered by Emperor Horkhúnen; 
  eventually the Black Theocrat 
  was defeated and the region 
  put under brief military rule, 
  while Tsolyáni armies staged 
  raids deeper into Mu’ugalavyá. 
  Later, formal authority in Pan 
  Cháka was turned over to the 
  Ítos. 
  542 to 781 
  Íto Kingdom of the South. 
  An independent state, but a 
  tributary of the Petal Throne. 
  Cool and wary relations with 
  Northern 
  Ítos, 
  which 
  was 
  exploited and exacerbated by 
  the Tsolyáni government. Failed 
  to hold or control territory of the 
  Páchi Lei and of many human 
  freeholders. Endemic banditry 
  and small-scale warlordism. 
  779 to 781 
  Páchi 
  Lei 
  invasions, 
  again 
  supported by outlying human 
  chiefdoms 
  and 
  settlements 
  (except in the north and east); 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  “pacification” 
  threatened; final incorporation 
  into Tsolyánu put end to both. 
   
  Second Empire 
  In 779 A.S., a large force of Páchi Lei moved 
  north and east, seizing great swaths of human-
  occupied territory and threatening Tsolyánu's 
  borders. Many humans in Pan Cháka sided with 
  the Leaf-Eaters and swelled their armies — all 
  sought to overthrow the Íto ruler, though their 
  ultimate goals varied widely. The Prince of 
  Khéiris, joined by the recently established 
  Mu’ugalavyáni government at Ssa’átis, indicated 
  that they, at least, were preparing to take 
  measures to halt the Páchi Lei and return the 
  region to civilized control.  
   
  Imperial troops were quickly dispatched to Pan 
  Cháka, technically at the invitation of the Íto 
  king, and in 780 A.S. the First Battle of Butrús 
  took place. Imperial troops struck at the large 
  Páchi Lei army besieging Butrús and won the 
  day largely through the valor of the Legion of 
  Mirkitáni and the Legion of the Lord of Red 
  Devastation, while both the Legion of Potent 
  Destiny and the Legion of Giriktéshmu were 
  defeated and badly mauled. The Southern Íto 
  king gave up his throne (or his backrest, 
  technically) in gratitude, and Pan Cháka was 
  successfully annexed to the Seal Empire in 781, 
  though as a “protectorate” rather than as a 
  province.  
   
  From that point on, the Four Red Clans grew 
  steadily in power, and the Ítos were never again 
  able to overpower them, economically or 
  militarily. The Treaty of Pagús in 968 saw the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni formally recognize the Petal 
  Throne’s suzerainty over both the Chákas,17 and 
  spelled the end of overt Mu’ugalavyáni backing 
  for 
  Íto 
  independence 
  — 
  though 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni had supported, and would later 
  support again, a number of “bandit kings” of the 
  Íto line. The most famous of them was Jnéshu 
  Ka Íto in the first decade or so of the tenth 
  century.18  
   
  It took nearly a hundred years of low-level 
  military campaigning after the conquest before 
  the coast could be subjected to even minimal 
                                                  
  17 Do Cháka and Pan Cháka were thenceforth formally 
  designated as “trucial dominions” (fátlanyal qámsamogun 
  thammi’ítle), though the common term “protectorate” 
  (hu’uzhán) won out in normal usage.  
  18 The Treaty of Pagús also ruled out recognition by either 
  the Four Palaces or the Petal Throne of Pe Choi 
  independence within Do Cháka, with which they had recently 
  been faced in the form of the “nation” of Etk-mnútikt-ssâ. 
  
  21 
   
  21 
   
   
  Tsolyáni administration, and the deep jungle 
  interior remained terra incognita until the end of 
  the 
  tenth 
  century, 
  when 
  Emperor 
  Nríga 
  Gaqchiké’s theological interest in the Páchi Lei 
  went far towards cementing a sense of 
  allegiance to the Petal Throne. Nevertheless, 
  even such a relatively famous site as Tnothussa 
  of ancient legend remained out of reach of the 
  Empire.  
    
  During the Civil War (1010-26 A.S.) Butrús 
  stayed loyal to the nominal emperor, unlike 
  other western cities such as Tumíssa and Chéne 
  Ho. However, barely a generation later (1045), 
  the Íto Revolt broke out, in which most 
  branches of the clan united in an attempt to 
  regain 
  independence 
  for 
  the 
  Chákas. 
  Mercenaries from Pijéna, Yan Kor, Ghatón, 
  N’lüssa, 
  Mu’ugalavyá, 
  and 
  even 
  Livyánu 
  bolstered the warriors of the Ítos and their 
  vassal clans. In their initial assault on imperial 
  forces in Butrús, they are said to have butchered 
  a thousand officers of the Omnipotent Azure 
  Legion, but the rebellion was quickly and 
  brutally crushed, with large numbers of Íto 
  children taken away and raised by the Empire. 
  Yet Tsolyánu was fragmenting, and not long 
  afterwards (1056-57) Butrús was absorbed by 
  Targholél Nikúma the Usurper, becoming a 
  favored part of his Tumíssa-based “empire”. His 
  successor Kanmíyel Nikúma III (r. 1062-1074) 
  granted much land to the temples of Vimúhla in 
  Pan Cháka, including generous grants of 
  agricultural properties around Butrús. 
   
  In 1155 the Great Storm struck the Five 
  Empires; the Chákas suffered heavy and 
  prolonged flooding, cave-ins of the limestone 
  bedrock, changes in river courses, and great 
  loss of life. The long-abandoned Engsvanyáli 
  City of the Nine Walls (still locally called “New 
  Butrús”, to the confusion of many Tsolyáni) was 
  destroyed, and the temples in modern Butrús 
  were particularly badly damaged. Many viewed 
  the Great Storm's Chákan havoc as divine 
  punishment for diabolism (i.e., worship of the 
  Pariah Deities), which according to rumor had 
  been running rampant throughout Butrús — 
  even (or especially) at the highest levels of 
  society. In any case, the so-called Quick Ditlána 
  was performed from 1158 to 1163 to repair the 
  worst of the damage and cleanse the city of 
  baleful influences. Unfortunately, much of the 
  workmanship proved to be slipshod, and 
  supernatural disfavor seemed unameliorated. 
  Decades of 
  mild drought throughout the 
  protectorate and constant rumbles of volcanic 
  activity in its south — as well as the Summer of 
  Six Earthquakes in 1232, which inflicted further 
  extensive damage upon Butrús — did little to 
  improve 
  matters, 
  and 
  numerous 
  popular 
  religious movements took further hold of Pan 
  Cháka. Some of these may indeed have been in 
  the service of the Pariah Gods. The Five Bushels 
  and Seven Toes Sect (devoted to the dubious 
  Boneless 
  King) 
  had 
  begun 
  growing 
  and 
  spreading in the 900s, and was dismantled and 
  banned by imperial order in the early 1200s; it 
  was definitely suspected of being affiliated with 
  the 
  Pariah 
  Deities, 
  though 
  nothing 
  was 
  conclusively proven. The cult of the Unlighted 
  Germination 
  (q.v.; 
  a 
  peculiar 
  agricultural 
  offshoot of the Ksárulian faith) was founded at 
  the village of Chejálsha, southwest of Butrús, in 
  the 1140s, though it did not number more than 
  a few score adherents until it relocated to 
  northwestern Tsolyánu c. 1230.  
   
  Emperor Tariktáme (r. 1251-79 A.S.) and his 
  court took notice of this history, and so besides 
  the Emperor's funding of the lavish construction 
  of an entire complex of twenty temples in 
  earthquake-ruined Butrús, it was arranged that 
  large numbers of metropolitan temple priests 
  and Omnipotent Azure Legion officers be rotated 
  into Pan Cháka with an eye to rooting out these 
  disorders among the populace. This "Gracious 
  Inquisition", as it is commonly known, lasted 
  almost until the turn of the century and seems 
  to have been remarkably successful overall. Only 
  those local cults judged acceptable by the great 
  priesthoods of Pavár's pantheon were allowed to 
  continue, and the chief folk deities and local 
  demigods were incorporated into the Pavárian 
  temples at this time. Wholesome religious 
  festivals from other parts of Tsolyánu were 
  encouraged in Pan Cháka as well. The following 
  two and a half centuries were quiet and 
  peaceful; the only noted events being the 
  foundation of the Legion of Tangled Root Eaters 
  under Hejjéka II, Hejjéka IV's restoration of 
  greater 
  autonomy 
  to 
  the 
  Chákas 
  and 
  authorization 
  of 
  many 
  local 
  political 
  or 
  organizational liberties (which were accepted 
  joyously and gratefully), and the same ruler’s 
  subsequent famous 1476 offer of independence 
  
  22 
   
  22 
   
   
  to the Páchi Lei, who refused it loyally, if rather 
  stiffly.19  
   
  In the reign of his successor Metlunél V, 
  however, the Chákas were seized by the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni, who proceeded to hold them for 
  nearly three hundred years (from 1566 to 1842). 
  Large 
  numbers 
  of 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  were 
  encouraged to colonize the new province, 
  significantly changing the demographic makeup 
  of Pan Cháka. The Páchi Lei of Butrús were 
  slaughtered or scattered, and populations in the 
  hinterland were also severely repressed by the 
  new rulers, who sought to punish them for the 
  unthinkable offenses commmited against the 
  Principate of Khéiris many centuries before. The 
  Páchi Lei urban diaspora, particularly that in 
  northwestern Livyánu, Vra, and Penóm, dates to 
  this period. The Legion of Tangled Root Eaters 
  quickly reformed in the city of Penóm and 
  played an important role in the re-conquest of 
  Do Cháka in 1711 but did not return to Pan 
  Cháka until much later. Unlike the Tsolyáni, the 
  new masters of the Chákas sought to introduce 
  their civilization to all aspects and areas of life — 
  not only political administration, but also city 
  planning, 
  coinage, 
  taxation, 
  weights 
  and 
  measures, land tenure, law, architecture, music, 
  painting, language, literature, clothing, and 
  food. The stamp of Mu’ugalavyáni culture is thus 
  far stronger today than would be expected from 
  the relatively brief occupation of Pan Cháka. 
   
  The Red Hat ditlána of Butrús (1659-1668, 
  called “the Genuine Ditlána” in Mu’ugalavyáni 
  records) was very thorough and orderly, and set 
  the standard for future renovations even after 
  the eventual Tsolyáni re-conquest. In 1700, the 
  ill-fated Legion of the Sable Lord (9th Heavy 
  Infantry), having supported the unsuccessful 
  Vriggétsu Dnash ("Usurper of the South") in the 
  Tsolyáni succession crisis, was disbanded and 
  permanently struck from the army rolls. Some of 
  these Hrü'ü-worshipping soldiers and officers 
  fled with their families to Mu’ugalavyáni-ruled 
                                                  
  19 It should be noted that this was an offer of independence 
  from the tributary relationship that the Páchi Lei of the 
  southern highlands had entered into with the Petal Throne. 
  They were in no sense directly ruled by Tsolyánu in those 
  days (or even today, for that matter). “Urban” Páchi Lei, 
  dwelling closer to and amng humans, were particularly set 
  against such “independence” for all Páchi Lei, which would 
  have in a stroke rendered them foreigners and aliens, 
  subject to severe restrictions. 
  Butrús, where they settled mostly as middle-
  class urban professionals and eventually evolved 
  into a clan of their own. When Tsolyánu 
  recovered the protectorate a few generations 
  later, they were overlooked.  
   
  The re-conquest of Pan Cháka in 1842 was 
  planned and spearheaded by Páchi Lei in the 
  Seal Empress's service, though human legions 
  played essential roles — particularly the Givers 
  of Sorrow, but also the Sweet Singers of 
  Nakomé, as well as the Legions of Sérqu, 
  Chegárra, and Giriktéshmu. The contribution of 
  legions other than the Givers of Sorrow and the 
  Tangled Root Eaters tends to be slighted in Pan 
  Chákan popular consciousness, while the relative 
  importance between those two is bitterly 
  contested. The siege and battle at Butrús were 
  fiercely fought and severely depleted the 
  Tsolyáni forces, but the Red Hats — preoccupied 
  with a fiscal crisis and power struggles at home 
  for nearly two decades leading up to this — 
  made little attempt to hold Pan Cháka after their 
  initial defeat at Butrús. In short order they 
  negotiated a peace with Tsolyánu and quickly 
  withdrew their forces across the old Pan Chákan 
  border.  
   
  While thousands of Mu’ugalavyáni settlers were 
  forced out of their homes in Pan Cháka and 
  made to relocate back to Mu’ugalavyá proper, 
  many more managed to stay on than is 
  generally acknowledged. There was not the 
  same influx of Tsolyáni settlers into Pan Cháka 
  as there had been when Do Cháka was retaken, 
  but the existing population became fierce 
  enthusiasts for Tsolyáni civilization in the first 
  few decades after the re-conquest. While this 
  slowly faded, it had its lasting effects, and Pan 
  Cháka has probably never been so integrated 
  into the Tsolyáni mainstream than during the 
  last few centuries. It was this openness to 
  cultural influences from the east that allowed 
  Empress Aléya (r. 1872-1931) to have as much 
  success as she did with her missionizing of Páchi 
  Lei for the deities of Stability (particularly in and 
  around Butrús itself). Resultant religious turmoil 
  within the Páchi Lei communities reached such a 
  peak that in the reign of her successor, Ninué 
  Jalésa 
  (r. 
  1931-58), 
  the 
  persecuted 
  new 
  converts petitioned for and were granted 
  permission to form their own military legion — 
  for their own defense as well as that of the 
  
  23 
   
  23 
   
   
  Empire. This gesture of recognition and favor by 
  Petal Throne, perhaps more than the actual 
  military might of the new legion, put an end to 
  the overt disturbances and local-level outbreaks 
  of violence that had been plaguing Pan Cháka 
  wherever Páchi Lei met.  
   
  Neglected for decades by long-reigning Emperor 
  Neshkirúma, both of the Chákas were left poorly 
  defended when their chief legions were called 
  away upon his death in 2015 — the Tangled 
  Root Eaters were transferred to support Prince 
  Jaredayu in the succession crisis, and then sent 
  all over the western empire for the early years 
  of Emperor Gyésmu’s reign. At the outbreak of 
  the Great War of 2020,20 the archers of the 
  Legion 
  of 
  Giriktéshmu 
  were 
  immediately 
  dispatched north to Do Cháka. But Pan Cháka 
  was the first region to fall, when the Governor 
  betrayed the few remaining defending troops 
  and surrendered Butrús intact to the Red Hats 
  after only a few days’ siege. The Legion of the 
  Givers of Sorrow held out in the old citadel until 
  they were wiped out. The following year Pan 
  Cháka was retaken by Tsolyánu and its 
  traditional boundaries reestablished. 
   
  The Second Íto Rebellion took place in 2045 
  A.S., on the millenary anniversary of the first, 
  this 
  time 
  secretly 
  supported 
  by 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni. Páchi Lei troops (along with 
  human forces such as the Legion of the Golden 
  Sunburst) took part in its suppression, and were 
  ultimately successful in hunting down the 
  leadership and key supply camps in the Chákan 
  jungles. While the First Íto Revolt featured 
  extensive conventional warfare (qadárdàli) and 
  ritual battle (qadárni), the Second Revolt was 
  defined by prolonged guerilla fighting. Also 
  unlike the previous rebellion, it was primarily 
  based in Do Cháka where the Íto clan and its 
  clients and the faith of the Lord of Worms were 
  strongest, but fighting did spill south as the 
  conflict progressed. In some respects it was 
  even more fiercely fought in Pan Cháka, perhaps 
  because of the more complicated web of 
  political, 
  localist, 
  religious, 
  ethnic, 
  and 
  “speciesist” interests there. The last guerilla 
  fighters did not give up until well into the 2060s; 
  economic recovery in affected areas took several 
  generations, and the social and cultural effects 
                                                  
  20 Which, of course, actually started in 2018w A.S. 
  of this bitter and lengthy conflict remain evident 
  in many isolated places even today. 
   
  Recent History 
  The last two centuries have been fairly eventful 
  in and around Butrús; a brief chronology 
  follows. 
   
  2111 
  A fire spreads through the city over 
  the 
  course 
  of 
  several 
  days, 
  exacerbated by the disorganized 
  response, lack of resources and 
  manpower to fight the blaze, and 
  political opportunism of the elites 
  and wealthy clans. In the end, over 
  a third of the city’s buildings are 
  destroyed and nearly three quarters 
  of the population flee the city; as 
  many as five thousand people die. A 
  vast cloud of smoke from the fires 
  blankets the entire city for days and 
  can be seen as far away as 
  Tumíssa. In its wake, the old 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  practice 
  of 
  semiprofessional “fire brigades” in 
  each neighborhood is re-instituted.  
  2145-50s 
  Repairs to the city have stagnated, 
  and completed renovations prove 
  unsatisfactory; the possibility of 
  ditlána is raised with Avanthár and 
  eventually approved. 
  2159  
  Reworking of the Lúshmun Canal 
  begins, with the goal of permitting 
  grain barges from central Tsolyánu 
  to reach Butrús directly. 
  2166-79  
  Ditlána is performed for the first 
  time since the mid-1600s. While it 
  goes smoothly enough and all but a 
  tiny minority are highly supportive 
  of the radical new design and grand 
  scope of the city, by the end of the 
  project recriminations break out and 
  secret deals are exposed, revealing 
  both the extent to which the city 
  plan had been overextended and 
  the scale of the priesthood of 
  Thúmis’s domination over the entire 
  operation.  
  2191 
  The revised Lúshmun Canal project 
  is finally cancelled after decades of 
  technical and managerial problems. 
  The decision (by Avanthár) to 
  
  24 
   
  24 
   
   
  disband 
  the 
  project 
  effectively 
  marks the abandonment of the 
  grandiose plans for Butrús that had 
  been entertained earlier in the 
  century. 
  2203 
  During the ritual battle fought in the 
  Grand Plaza every forty years (the 
  “Chastisement 
  of 
  Birds 
  and 
  Correction of Flowers”, q.v.), thieves 
  take advantage of the din and chaos 
  and loot the Temple of Thúmis. 
  Some items are recovered, along 
  with petty thugs and ruffians who 
  are unable to reveal the identity of 
  their 
  ringleaders 
  even 
  under 
  thorough questioning. Many missing 
  relics and valuables have never 
  been 
  seen 
  again 
  even 
  today, 
  despite 
  continuing 
  interest 
  and 
  inquires by the priests of Thúmis. 
  2204 
  A 
  plague 
  strikes 
  eastern 
  and 
  northern Pan Cháka and spreads 
  through Butrús. The epidemic — of 
  a disease informally dubbed “the 
  puking croup” in the southwest — is 
  so serious that the Governor (a 
  notorious hypochondriac) and his 
  court retreat to the old citadel and 
  seal 
  themselves 
  within. 
  Communicating only through coded 
  bells and signal flags, fairly effective 
  rule 
  is 
  maintained 
  over 
  the 
  protectorate in this manner until 
  2221, when a special delegation 
  from 
  Avanthár 
  persuades 
  the 
  Governor to open the gates and 
  return to the public — some ten 
  years 
  after 
  the 
  plague 
  had 
  completely abated. 
  2211  
  An attack upon apparent tomb-
  robbers by guards of the Temple of 
  Ksárul sparks a brief but all-out 
  temple war, after it is discovered 
  the “tomb-robbers” were actually 
  the 
  Tomb 
  Police, 
  pursuing 
  suspected malefactors — who in 
  turn are eventually revealed to be 
  agents of a secret society dedicated 
  to the god Thúmis. Forces from the 
  temples 
  of 
  Belkhánu, 
  Sárku, 
  Dlamélish, and Vimúhla (and their 
  cohorts) also become involved in 
  armed clashes in and under the city. 
  The imperial government intercedes 
  to enforce the Concordat, but not 
  before considerable blood is shed. 
  2215-18 
  The Governor of Pan Cháka funds 
  an expedition to locate a group of 
  giant statues reported to exist at an 
  Engsvanyáli ruin in the north-central 
  jungles, with the intent of bringing a 
  set back to be installed in the new 
  walls of Butrús. While the site is 
  found, efforts to haul the huge 
  figures back do not entirely succeed 
  — 
  only 
  one (the smallest) is 
  dragged back, at great expense, 
  another 
  abandoned 
  half-way 
  through the jungle, and the location 
  of the others is lost when the 
  secretive expedition is wiped out in 
  an ambush by unknown foes. 
  2228 
  “War of the Tsuru’úm”. Beginning in 
  late summer, malign intelligences 
  appear in the under-city — Ssu, it is 
  said — and begin raiding the 
  surface, primarily bent on vandalism 
  and kidnapping. Entering through 
  basements 
  at 
  first, 
  entire 
  households 
  disappear 
  overnight 
  from within bolted gates. Soon they 
  grow bolder, and nighttime street 
  battles break out with the City 
  Guard. The Governor calls upon the 
  garrison 
  legions 
  to 
  assist 
  in 
  sweeping the sewers and accessible 
  tunnels; a cohort of sappers is sent 
  to aid in blocking up suspicious 
  fissures and passages. The intruders 
  disappear after these measures are 
  taken; but over the course of that 
  fall and winter, nearly six thousand 
  citizens disappeared. 
  2240 
  Emperor Arshú’u restores the Legion 
  of the Givers of Sorrow in a huge 
  ceremony at Butrús. Subsequent 
  qadárniyal 
  are 
  successful 
  and 
  produce a large enough crop of 
  sacrifices to soon establish the 
  legion’s 
  new 
  skull-rack 
  in 
  the 
  Temple of Chiténg. 
  2248-49  
  Sewer workers and priests visiting 
  buried shrines report the blocked 
  shafts and sealed passages from the 
  War of the Tsuru’úm have been 
  disturbed, suggesting a return of 
  
  25 
   
  25 
   
   
  the underworld invaders. The newly 
  re-formed Legion of the Givers of 
  Sorrow attempts to scour the entire 
  under-city 
  and 
  simultaneously 
  constructs large ceremonial pyres at 
  their barracks and temples. The 
  high autumn winds spread the 
  flames, and in the unusually dry 
  weather portions of the city are set 
  alight. The fact that there is no 
  further 
  sign 
  of 
  subterranean 
  transgressors 
  is 
  pointed 
  to 
  by 
  supporters of the Flame Lord and 
  the Givers of Sorrow as proof of the 
  intercessory efficacy of the fire. 
  2253-72 
  A slave rebellion breaks out, largely 
  comprised of bearers and porters 
  but soon spreading to other groups 
  of non-agricultural laborers in the 
  protectorate (e.g., miners, loggers). 
  The revolt is remarkably successful 
  and long-lived, in part thanks to 
  good luck and good strategy on the 
  part of the rebels, but also due to 
  the remoteness of many affected 
  regions, 
  the 
  disinterest 
  of 
  the 
  frontier farming communities of 
  western Pan Cháka in the business 
  of 
  “big 
  industry” 
  and 
  “foreign 
  traders”, 
  and 
  an 
  ongoing 
  investigation 
  into 
  financial 
  improprieties on the part of many of 
  the affected clan-owned enterprises. 
  In fact, after the initial alarm, it 
  appears 
  that 
  the 
  Pan 
  Chákan 
  government is more concerned with 
  prosecuting and punishing a number 
  of major state contractors for fraud 
  and 
  embezzlement 
  than 
  with 
  quelling the revolt of their slave 
  workforce. In the end the revolt 
  gradually peters out: After a few 
  ringleaders are eventually captured 
  and 
  executed 
  the 
  pursuit 
  is 
  effectively 
  called 
  off 
  and 
  the 
  scattered escapees ignored, who 
  fade into obscure humble lives or 
  leave the region entirely. 
  2276 
  It is discovered, purely by accident, 
  that the head of the Palace of the 
  Realm as well as the Governor have 
  been under the psychic domination 
  of a strange tentacled monster 
  dwelling in a disused cistern under 
  the palace grounds. While the 
  creature is soon dispatched, nothing 
  definite can be determined of its 
  origins or intent; so rumors fly in 
  the politically divided world of the 
  Pan Chákan ruling class. The Ítos, 
  the Ndálu Clan and the Refulgent 
  Blue Curtain Society, the Temple of 
  Karakán, a faction of the Court of 
  Purple Robes in Avanthár, the 
  Legion of the Mourners in Sable, 
  and the Livyáni are all among the 
  merely human forces rumored to be 
  behind 
  the 
  deed. 
  It 
  is 
  never 
  determined exactly how long the 
  creature had been controlling the 
  two officials’ minds. 
  2283 
  The “Chastisement of Birds and 
  Correction of Flowers” gets out of 
  control in unforseen ways; one wing 
  of the Flowers retreat to the Citadel 
  (leaving the ritual battleground) and 
  are pursued by many of the Birds, 
  who 
  proceed 
  to 
  besiege 
  and 
  partially “sack” it — both sides 
  consciously reenacting elements of 
  the “last stand” of the Givers of 
  Sorrow in 2020 A.S. and also their 
  earlier capture of the Mu’ugalvyáni 
  headquarters in 1842. The City 
  Militia as well as the sákbe road 
  patrols and even the Tomb Police 
  are called upon to restore order. 
  Casualties from the battle itself are 
  unusually great, brawling and illegal 
  duels follow, and internal strife and 
  dissension among garrison troops 
  remain high for months or even 
  years afterward. 
  2291 
  There is a rain of frogs in Butrús 
  and its environs late in the year 
  (Lésdrim 12-13th), followed by a 
  similar deluge of sea-crabs nine 
  days later. No explanation has ever 
  been settled upon, though the 
  religious significance, particularly of 
  the first fall, has been intensely 
  debated. (See Religion, below, for 
  more information on the role of 
  frogs in local theology.)  
  2320 
  A peasant revolt breaks out in the 
  eastern prefectures of Pan Cháka; it 
  
  26 
   
  26 
   
   
  spreads rapidly into neighboring 
  provinces but finds little support 
  west of the Turín. Local troops soon 
  succeed in crushing the rebellion; 
  both legion garrisons and elements 
  of the provincial militia are involved. 
  The taste for pillage, looting, and 
  arson of the western “backwoods” 
  militia battalions called up surprises 
  the commanders in Butrús, the 
  rebels, and the hapless bystanders 
  and 
  townsmen 
  of 
  the 
  eastern 
  lowlands. 
  2323 
  The most recent “Chastisement of 
  Birds and Correction of Flowers” is 
  properly 
  observed and free 
  of 
  unseemly incidents. 
  2329 
  Thousand-year anniversary of the 
  founding of the Legion of Tangled 
  Root Eaters; celebrated with city-
  wide festivities, marred only by 
  frequent scuffles and small-scale 
  mob violence with supporters of the 
  Givers of Sorrow. 
  2332 
  An infestation of small, mite-like 
  insects 
  spreads 
  out 
  from 
  the 
  southern 
  Chákan 
  jungles 
  and 
  plagues the urban and densely 
  populated agricultural areas of Pan 
  Cháka all through the spring and 
  summer. While the little biting 
  insects are not a real threat to 
  humans 
  (their 
  bites 
  are 
  itchy, 
  bloody, 
  but 
  non-poisonous 
  and 
  undiseased) the economic damage 
  is great. A quarantine is quickly 
  thrown up around the protectorate 
  to 
  keep 
  the 
  infestation 
  from 
  spreading 
  (at 
  least 
  along 
  the 
  sákbes) to Tumíssa or Úrmish. 
  Several fruit crops are completely 
  ruined and many thousands of farm 
  animals are driven mad and must be 
  destroyed. 
  There 
  are 
  many 
  outbreaks of violence against Páchi 
  Lei, 
  who 
  are 
  blamed 
  for 
  the 
  swarms. The pests simply disappear 
  in the cooler weather later in the 
  year, and have not reappeared 
  since. Strict border controls and 
  inspections of fruit and produce in 
  particular continue for twenty years, 
  which is a bane to merchants and 
  something of a mixed blessing to 
  smugglers. 
  2339 
  A huge apparition appears in the 
  skies over Butrús; it is roughly 
  shaped like a wingless and bulbous 
  “dragon”, slow-moving and silent; 
  whether it is a beast or a machine is 
  still a matter of debate in the city. 
  When a human wizard descends 
  from it, seeking provisions and vast 
  quantities of strange chemicals and 
  alchemical ingredients, the city goes 
  into a minor uproar. The slightly 
  foreign-accented wizard — who lets 
  it be known he is called Turshánmü, 
  but not the Turshánmü — is 
  cautiously feted by local notables for 
  several days, during which the great 
  silent “dragon” hovers over the city. 
  Little can be learned from the 
  wizard, other than hints that he may 
  dwell in the high mountains of 
  southernmost Pan Cháka, and that 
  he and his “carriage” are en route to 
  the North Pole. They depart within 
  two 
  weeks, before the central 
  government can be apprised, and — 
  according to many gossips and 
  harassed mothers in years to come 
  — carrying off any number of 
  disobedient 
  or 
  naughty 
  little 
  children. The giant flying beast is 
  soon thereafter spotted gliding over 
  the jungles of northern Pan Cháka, 
  but has not been seen since. 
  2345 
  The new Governor, having been 
  appraised of the activities of the 
  Great Brotherhood of the Hand of 
  Ink-Stained Knuckles in Hiding (q.v.) 
  in the late 2330s, determined to 
  stamp them out. He began a 
  campaign 
  of 
  persecution 
  and 
  investigation that drove them into 
  the tsuru’úm — which proved an 
  impenetrable refuge. In 2344, over 
  the objections of many of his 
  advisors, the Metropolitan Prefect, 
  and even the Temple of Chiténg, 
  the Governor orders the storm 
  drains and sewers stuffed with fuels 
  and set alight, in order to drive the 
  Brotherhood above ground or simply 
  smother them. This results in many 
  
  27 
   
  27 
   
   
  small fires spreading aboveground 
  into 
  houses, 
  buildings, 
  and 
  wasteland plots in separate parts of 
  the 
  city 
  simultaneously, 
  overwhelming the various wards’ 
  fire 
  brigades. 
  In 
  remote 
  and 
  undeveloped areas of the city, 
  smoke damage can still be seen 
  today, though the rest of the city 
  has since been scrubbed clean. In 
  the end, many of the Brotherhood’s 
  members escape from the choking 
  drain system and are in fact 
  credited with helping to turn the 
  tide 
  in 
  the 
  fight 
  against 
  the 
  spreading fires. The Governor is 
  dismissed from office the following 
  year and forcibly retired to his villa 
  in 
  the 
  countryside, 
  where 
  he 
  commits suicide in 2351.  
  2346-47  
  Large-scale 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  raids, 
  perhaps preparatory to a planned 
  full invasion. They are routed by 
  General Kéttukal and the Legion of 
  Mirkitáni at the Second Battle of 
  Butrús, early in 2347. 
  2360 
  The present day. 
   
   
  ECONOMY 
   
  Pan Cháka is generally a prosperous region of 
  the empire. The easternmost part of the 
  protectorate is lush, irrigated cropland that 
  produces bountiful grain harvests. Along the 
  river and up the long slope of its western banks 
  one more often finds gardening of vegetables 
  and fruit, as well as vineyards and orchards. The 
  edges of the forest covering the central plateau 
  are used for ranching the great tsi’íl beasts, and 
  where groundwater pools up on the surface or 
  can be reached through wells or deep-cut 
  ravines, irrigated agriculture is practiced. The 
  deeper jungles to the west, and areas without 
  surface water, are home to many slash-and-
  burn 
  horticulturalists 
  (mostly 
  subsistence 
  farmers, relying on rainfall and cycling through 
  several traditional village locations as the soil is 
  exhausted every ten to fifteen years) and to 
  harvesters of forest products — aromatic gums 
  and resins, medicines and spices, raw lacquer, 
  timber, bark, vringálu leather, flame opals, sun-
  bleached white beeswax, colorful feathers, and 
  so forth.  
   
  The 
  region 
  produces 
  medicinally 
  valuable 
  mineral waters collected from dripping caverns 
  and springs; a fine talc or steatite is found near 
  Dzí’an Village and also used in medicine, while in 
  a few places quantities of high-grade marble 
  and limestone are quarried for decorative 
  building purposes. There is a fairly large azurite 
  mine on the rugged coast, tended and supplied 
  by sea. Only the relative purity of its copper-
  bearing ore makes this enterprise economically 
  feasible for its concessionaires of the White 
  Crystal clan. Deposits of cassiterite in the lower-
  lying alluvial southeast produce small quantities 
  of tin. The ancient hematite pits of Pan Cháka 
  (located some hundred tsan southwest of 
  Butrús) have been in decline for generations, 
  however. Today they yield scarcely any iron ore 
  to speak of, and the great smelters and their 
  supporting villages are becoming ghost towns. 
  More productive and significant, however, are 
  the seemingly endless deposits of quicksilver 
  and cinnabar (mercury sulfide) in several 
  regions within the protectorate. Cinnabar, along 
  with minium, is used for red pigment by painters 
  (a black form of mercuric sulfide is also used as 
  a paint) and in potters’ glazes, while quicksilver 
  has 
  many 
  industrial 
  applications. 
  Small 
  quantities 
  of 
  mercuric 
  chloride 
  are 
  also 
  produced, a valuable insecticide and fungicide; it 
  is called “castrated niter” by alchemists and 
  chemical dealers. 
   
  There are still many lodes of silver- and lead-
  bearing 
  ore 
  in 
  the 
  protectorate, 
  though 
  individually none of them are large. There are 
  probably a half-dozen refineries producing some 
  120-180 pse (160-240 kg) of silver annually, 
  through a process of cupellation of galena (lead 
  oxide), at a rate of one or two parts silver to 
  nearly four hundred parts lead. There is a fair 
  amount of silverworking in the protectorate 
  itself, but in fact the bulk of its silver is exported 
  as bullion to jewelers and artisans elsewhere in 
  Tsolyánu. One of the chief exceptions is in the 
  local mirror industry, using silver (or silver-gilt) 
  foil placed over cast bronze forms. (In addition, 
  Butrusséne artisans manufacture the new-
  fangled Mu’ugalavyáni-style mirrors out of 
  “white copper”, an alloy of copper and nickel 
  that 
  is 
  otherwise 
  used 
  extensively 
  for 
  
  28 
   
  28 
   
   
  arrowheads). The old alchemical traditions of 
  Pan Cháka have produced several special forms 
  of silver which are valuable commodities: a 
  paste called “silver tallow” (an amalgam of silver 
  and tin with mercury, used as a tonic); the 
  “yellow silver” used in apotropaic talismans; and 
  “black silver” or niello, made by fumigation with 
  sulfur, in vessels of which drugs of immortality 
  may be brewed. The jewelers of the Chákas also 
  hold the secret of “purple gold” (a rosy-purple 
  film left on gold due to heating it with traces of 
  iron), and it is believed that the art of making it 
  originated in Butrús. Lead itself, while not very 
  valuable, is also exported to western and 
  southwestern Tsolyánu in the form of ballast in 
  barges. 
   
  In addition, Pan Cháka produces Epsom salts 
  (hydrous magnesium sulfate, called "spiky niter" 
  in the trade cant, distilled from 
  impure 
  mirabilite; it is valued as a purgative and a very 
  pure reagent) and niter (“niter of Hnálla”; 
  potassium nitrate, especially important for 
  pyrotechnics and metallurgical fluxing). Around 
  the volcanic fumaroles in the deep south, sulfur 
  and sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) are 
  gathered — by the “wild” Páchi Lei, who trade it 
  through middlemen to the chemical dealers of 
  Butrús and through them, to Tsolyánu. Cups are 
  carved out of sulfur ("fluid yellow"), said to help 
  prolong the life of those who drink from them; 
  sulfur is also considered good medicine for skin 
  diseases. While yellow lead (massicot) is 
  produced in Pan Cháka and used as a fairly 
  harmless cosmetic, the similarly hued orpiment 
  (arsenic trisulphide) is also extracted and 
  exported in quantity. Though orpiment is useful 
  to painters, dyers, and tanners, it may also be 
  used to substitute for massicot as makeup, 
  which can injure the skin. Orpiment is called 
  “hen’s yellow” in trade cant because it is often 
  found associated with realgar, known as “cock’s 
  yellow” (itself a soft orange ore of arsenic 
  sulfide mostly used in tanning, painting, and 
  fireworks), and is known to the alchemists by a 
  number of esoteric names — “blood of the 
  divine lady,” “blood of the yellow feshénga,” or 
  “sperm of gold” — and is exported from Pan 
  Cháka to practitioners of alchemy throughout 
  the Five Empires. The heavy tooth-shaped 
  crystals of litharge (lead oxide) are another 
  product of Pan Cháka found in apothecaries’ 
  shops across Tsolyánu. 
   
  Jadeite and nephrite are highly prized in the 
  Chákas. They are considered to be crystallized 
  light from the planets: Ülétl for yellow and 
  brown jades, Gayél for green ones. Since 
  Bednálljan times jade has been the gemstone of 
  rulership and governance, symbolizing the 
  virtues of upright conduct and benevolence. 
  (The rarer white jade, however, stands simply 
  for feminine physical beauty.) Traditional cuts 
  are rectangular, and yellow-brown colors are the 
  most favored in Pan Cháka. The Ítos, in 
  particular, are fond of such pieces. Famous 
  jades of antiquity, still treasured by latter-day 
  heirs and collectors, include large carved 
  astronomical disks and tablets of accession; 
  possession of some jades — the Rod of the King 
  of the Left, for example — can change the fate 
  of empires. Jade is also preferred for funerary 
  plugs for the elite.21 
   
  Pan Chákan finished goods of note include mash 
  brandy and some other liquors, carved and 
  finished wooden items and furniture, rope and 
  cordage, incense, perfumes, medicines, and 
  spices, lacquerware, paper, printed fabrics, and 
  trained birds and animals. Nests of yellow citrus 
  ants are produced in excess of local need and 
  exported to citrus-growers throughout Tsolyánu 
  and Mu’ugalavyá; while not as good as the ants 
  of Vra, they are still valued for their ability to 
  control the population of red scale insects that 
  can infest the orchards. 
   
  Hlanupén Village, in the farthest southeast 
  corner of the protectorate, is almost entirely 
  devoted to the manufacture of soft toilet tissues, 
  using 
  rice 
  straw 
  from 
  the 
  surrounding 
  agricultural lands; these papers, in several 
  grades, are sold widely across the empire, with 
  the highest qualities in great demand among 
  Jakálla and Bey Sü’s elites. 
   
  The local style of pottery — large, flat, gently-
  sloping plates and dishes, spherical, handle-less 
  cups and mugs (some with built-in drinking 
  straws) and tall, conical, long-spouted pitchers, 
  all with smooth surfaces and nothing in the way 
  of relief or carved decoration — is made with a 
  fairly coarse red clay, slipped in a pale ash-tan 
                                                  
  21 Stoppers or plugs inserted into the body’s orifices to keep 
  internal organs and liquids from escaping after burial. 
  
  29 
   
  29 
   
   
  and decorated austerely with matte black and 
  dark russet geometrical trim and stylized 
  animals, birds, fish, and people. It was once 
  very fashionable in metropolitan Tsolyánu and 
  exported in large quantities, but is now 
  considered 
  provincial 
  and 
  déclassé. 
  Small 
  quantities are still shipped to Livyánu and to 
  Salarvyá. Genuine porcelain is made only on the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni side of the border; despite claims 
  to the contrary the art was never introduced to 
  Pan Cháka nor are the raw materials found 
  there, and buyers should beware of the faked 
  porcelains (sometimes fairly convincing) that 
  unscrupulous locals may try to pass off on them. 
  Kaolin is indeed imported from Mu’ugalavyá, but 
  its role in the production of porcelain is unknown 
  — in Tsolyánu, it is known only as a cure for 
  diarrhea. 
   
  Trade and Commerce 
  A great trade route passes through the 
  protectorate, linking Tumíssa to Úrmish. As 
  Tumíssa is a major entrepôt for goods from 
  Mu’ugalavyá, Do Cháka, northwest Tsolyánu, 
  and the far north, and as Úrmish handles both 
  overland trade from the great central cities of 
  southern Tsolyánu and the seaborne trade up 
  from Penóm, a very considerable amount of 
  cargo passes through Butrús. Compared to this 
  vast flow, the amount Pan Cháka 
  itself 
  contributes and consumes is a trickle. Great 
  merchant caravans pass through Butrús in all 
  but the height of the monsoon season and the 
  peak of the summer heat.  
   
  Smaller trade routes within the protectorate lead 
  through the jungles to the rugged, rocky, almost 
  beachless coast, where scattered villages (of 
  wild and exiled tribesmen, human frontiersmen, 
  and some Páchi Lei) support themselves 
  precariously by fishing and exporting precious 
  shells and coral overland to Butrús. These 
  labyrinthine cliff-lined shores are the source of 
  other prized luxury goods, obtained solely 
  through the hands of the gypsy-like Kóitlan, or 
  “Water People”: "night-shining pearls" (actually 
  the bioluminescent eyes of certain marine 
  creatures) and "ocean silk", or byssus (a golden-
  brown or dull cinnamon-colored cloth produced 
  from the pinna mussel). They also sometimes 
  can provide — at astronomical costs — a very 
  precious 
  pink-tinted 
  white 
  gauze 
  that 
  is 
  impervious to fire.  
   
  Heavy taxes on metal ingots and metalwork, 
  certain classes of pottery and finished fabrics, 
  many industrial chemicals, the famous flame 
  opals, and — perhaps most onerous to the 
  middle classes — ngálu wine, are all imposed 
  upon Pan Cháka by Avanthár for reasons not 
  always clear. Trade in some goods (flame opals, 
  most prominently) requires purchase of a special 
  license, further increasing costs. Given this, the 
  differences in tariffs and government-set prices 
  between the protectorate and its neighbors, and 
  the porous frontier, smuggling is naturally 
  rampant. 
   
  Money, Prices, and Taxation 
  While Tsolyáni currency is naturally the official 
  standard, 
  there 
  are 
  large 
  quantities 
  of 
  Mu’ugalavyáni small coinage in circulation, 
  particularly in Butrús itself and along the sákbe 
  roads. Most merchants and tradesmen will 
  accept a copper qúra as the equivalent of six 
  qirgál without complaint or discount — as long 
  as no Tsolyáni officials are watching.  
   
  While the monetary economy is strong, there is 
  often some shortage of coinage, particularly 
  outside the city of Butrús and the half-dozen or 
  so major prefectural towns. This is in part due to 
  the lack of an Imperial Mint in the protectorate. 
  In rural areas older units of exchange or simple 
  barters 
  are 
  still 
  common 
  and 
  sometimes 
  preferred even when coins are available. Bars of 
  salt, bolts of güdru cloth, two or three types of 
  cowry shell, and small, roughly cast silver ingots 
  (known as "biscuits" in local parlance) are widely 
  used as alternative mediums of exchange. 
  Because 
  of 
  them, 
  Pan 
  Cháka 
  has 
  not 
  experienced as great an inflation in the value of 
  gold coinage as would otherwise be expected. 
   
  A significant amount of food for the city of 
  Butrús must be shipped or hauled from 
  considerable distances, a portion of it even from 
  neighboring Turúnkai and Urudái provinces. 
  Because of this, prices for foodstuffs are 
  comparatively high for a city of its size and 
  location, about one-third more than the norm — 
  on par with a major metropolis like Bey Sü or 
  Jakálla, easily as expensive as nearby Tumíssa. 
  
  30 
   
  30 
   
   
  The government of the protectorate monitors 
  the price of grains and other staples, maintains 
  its own granaries, and intervenes in the market 
  (by selling off its stock) to keep prices below 
  certain levels. This is, obviously, extremely 
  unpopular with the grain merchants of central 
  Tsolyánu, but has been defended by the 
  provincial governments and Avanthár as being 
  necessary for Butrús to remain habitable to the 
  lower yet indispensable orders of society.  
   
  The expense of staple foods for city residents is 
  only partially compensated by the very low cost 
  of real estate in the city — about 15-25% below 
  the usual range for a city of its size. The 
  government has fairly effectively blocked the 
  attempts of outside real estate speculators or 
  “developers” to buy up land in the city by 
  charging a stiff tax on land and buildings not 
  physically occupied by their owner or an 
  immediate relative, and a yet higher rate on 
  those that are entirely unoccupied (one-fifth of 
  assessed value per annum in the latter case). 
  The Foreigners’ Quarter is exempt from this 
  regulation, and relatively large amounts of it are 
  owned 
  by 
  Butrusáni 
  investors 
  with 
  low 
  standards. 
   
  This has had the not entirely foreseen effect 
  that even the relatively poor, lower-class 
  inhabitants of the city will most often own their 
  own dwellings and shops — it is simply 
  unprofitable to be a landlord for the lower end 
  of society, and with a few decades or even mere 
  years of saving, a family group can afford to buy 
  up an existing structure or purchase an 
  undeveloped lot from the city offices. The same 
  regulations and tax codes lead to temporarily 
  disused buildings being simply abandoned, if 
  they cannot be sold off — it is too expensive to 
  keep them unoccupied.22 These constraints have 
  also led to some peculiar legal formalities for 
  members of the upper classes who wish to rent 
  a villa or mansion in the city for a brief period. 
   
   
  MATERIAL CULTURE 
   
                                                  
  22 This in particular has become a standard source of bribes 
  for city officials who must certify the building as being 
  abandoned and ownership negated, lest taxes continue to 
  accrue to the former owner. 
  Pan Cháka and the city of Butrús have been 
  home to many famous objects and artifacts of 
  ritual significance or crudely “magical” powers – 
  the Rod of the King of the Left, the Hell Cup, the 
  Comfortable Kiosk, the Lens of Surprising Depth, 
  the Ghost Lutes and the Running Bells, the 
  Brush of Lies, the Unseen Lash, the Labret of 
  the Five Tongues, the Three Rings of Curial 
  Sobriety and the Four Rings of Bodily Purity, the 
  Five-Ringed Jewel of the Dispassionate Lord, 
  several different important ceremonial masks, a 
  number of ancient “vizier’s wands”, and so forth. 
  Alas, this section will deal only with mundane 
  and common objects, known to all. 
   
  Clothing 
  The well-dressed Pan Chákan woman will wear a 
  sünkhi, or poncho-like tunic, of dáichu bark cloth 
  (less frequently of linen-like firyá), calf-length 
  and open at the sides, with a belt around the 
  waist into which the clan colors are plaited. 
  Open, decorative lacing up the sides of the 
  garment is at the moment becoming a fashion 
  among the upper-middle and upper classes of 
  the city of Butrús. Men wear a kilt not markedly 
  different in cut from elsewhere in Tsolyánu. The 
  Mu’ugalavyáni short kilt, extending only to mid-
  thigh, is the target of particular ridicule in Pan 
  Cháka despite the normally close relationship 
  with Mu’ugalavyáni culture. At least among the 
  artisan and merchant clans in Butrús and the 
  major prefectural towns, the preferred color for 
  the cloth itself is tan or off-white for casual, 
  daily, or household wear, and indigo for public 
  or formal wear — almost regardless of sex, age, 
  clan membership or religious affiliation. The 
  chief exception is that among the clans and 
  lineages traditionally worshipping Vimúhla and 
  Karakán, men’s kilts are ideally solid red, though 
  women’s ponchos may be of any color.23 Despite 
  the low cost of bark cloth in Pan Cháka, many of 
  the poor and rural inhabitants make cloth from 
  bamboo or banana fibers, which is often more 
  readily available (as a byproduct of subsistence 
  agriculture) and even cheaper. 
    
  Headgear is highly diverse: turbans in the 
  western Tsolyáni manner, basketcaps with cloth 
  coifs (a generally Chákan style, mostly now seen 
                                                  
  23 Note that this does not reflect the religious affiliation of 
  the individual wearer, or even his or her family, but only of 
  their clanhouse or lineage. 
  
  31 
   
  31 
   
   
  in Do Cháka), and the headcloths or fillets 
  common to central Tsolyánu and Mu’ugalavyá. 
  One even sees the chlen-hide skullcaps of 
  Pijenáni immigrants on the streets of Butrús, 
  and the great braided and pinned “wheels” of 
  hair of their bareheaded womenfolk. Generally, 
  turbans are a marker of the professional or 
  urban classes, headcloths of recent immigrants 
  and outsiders, and the coifed caps a token of 
  rural origin or old, old Chákan bloodlines. Over 
  the last five hundred years or so, a fashion for 
  wearing an open-topped type of turban, 
  wrapping the sides of the head in a thick coil but 
  leaving the top bare, has grown to be a style 
  that distinguishes an assertively Butrusséne 
  identity. Bark sandals are the most common 
  footwear, and given their cheapness in the 
  protectorate, peasants and even slaves are likely 
  to be shod — if not in proper bark, at least in 
  plaited banana leaves, to maintain their dignity. 
  Outsiders may find their pride in footwear 
  humorous at best, pretentious at worst.  
   
  Women wear their hair long (hip-length, if 
  possible), in a single braid with pins and clips, 
  after the common Mu’ugalavyáni style. For men, 
  the “Prince Valiant” style of straight, trimmed 
  bangs, nape-length in back, that is so closely 
  associated with the Chákas is not, in fact, quite 
  universal. An equally common alternative for 
  men is to shave the sides of their heads, not 
  entirely like the Mu’ugalavyáni, but to crop it 
  short on the sides and let it grow out long at the 
  very top and in the back.24 This is mostly the 
  done by members of clans or families that favor 
  the deities of Change (except Sárku); however, 
  one cannot rely on this hairstyle to determine 
  the clan, religious, or sub-regional affiliation of a 
  man of Pan Cháka. In the hinterlands and tribal 
  territories — and many rural settlements where 
  Vimúhla and Chiténg are worshipped — adults 
  wash their hair with a mixture of limewater and 
  charred hma-dung, which leaches it to a vivid 
  red color. Among such rural people, women cut 
  their hair extremely short until they are married, 
  after which they will not be bothered by the 
  salacious wicked spirits who would otherwise be 
  attracted by their long tresses and become 
  tangled up in them. Such practices as these last 
  two are disdained by civilized Tsolyáni and even 
  by natives of Butrús, but are so widespread in 
                                                  
  24 A sort of ungainly cross between a mullet and a mohawk. 
  Pan Cháka that they are commonly seen in the 
  city, among servants and laborers drawn from 
  the countryside. Some of the urbane and 
  sophisticated people in fact dye their hair with 
  indigo to make it even darker and shinier. 
   
  Men in some backwoods communities are given 
  to using dyes or paints on the skin of the face 
  and upper arms — adult (married) men black, 
  and elders and priests blue; travelers and 
  traders who leave their villages dye their feet 
  black with a mixture of gum and ash as well. 
  Women are not permitted this. These practices 
  are most common among followers of Ksárul 
  and associated deities, but many dedicated to 
  Belkhánu and Avánthe follow the custom as 
  well. Many rural devotees of Vimúhla and 
  Chiténg, on the other hand, tattoo their faces 
  with symbols of the Flame, using a caustic dye 
  that usually produces scarring and keloid ridges. 
  Urban residents do not practice this and 
  consider it irredeemably rustic and crude — 
  albeit pious. The ancient Pan Chákan practice of 
  dyeing the teeth and lips by chewing a certain 
  type of insect is a well-established literary trope, 
  but seems to have been on the wane since 
  before the days of the Black Theocrat, and was 
  no longer seen anywhere in Pan Cháka by the 
  time of the Mu’ugalavyáni occupation.25 Today, 
  the people of the Chákas chew a mixture of 
  cloves and a type of tree gum, in order to 
  freshen the breath; this is said to have been 
  introduced by the god Tírekshen in the quiet 
  years between the Gracious Inquisition and the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni conquest. 
   
  Finally, it is worth mentioning that in the older 
  stratum of the Pan Chákan population, whether 
  tribals or conservative urban families, it is the 
  custom that wearing a white scarf, turban, or 
  headband is a privilege reserved for warriors 
  who have taken a foe’s head in combat. Those 
  who wear such adornments without having 
  “earned the right” (in local eyes, of course) are 
  often subject to much prejudice, and in 
  backwoods regions, open hostility. 
   
                                                  
  25 
  Apparently 
  the 
  wealthy 
  and 
  high-born 
  of 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni city of Pagús still habitually dye their teeth 
  red, but it is not clear whether this is a survival of some 
  macro-regional custom or a conscious archaicism. The 
  southern coast of Mu’ugalavyá, including the city of Khéiris, 
  also had this custom at least until late Engsvanyáli times. 
  
  32 
   
  32 
   
   
  Domestic Furnishings 
  Thanks to the vast and fast-growing jungles of 
  the protectorate, wood and charcoal are always 
  available and cheap compared to the rest of 
  Tsolyánu, and thus freely used for cooking, 
  heating, 
  lighting, 
  building, 
  and 
  craftwork. 
  Lantern-covers made of colored paper are 
  popular, despite the fire hazard; fireflies and 
  luminescent insects are often kept in cages of 
  milky gauze as a safer, if far dimmer, source of 
  lighting. Incense is cheap and readily available 
  even to the poor (albeit in lower grades of 
  quality). A type of clock that burns powdered 
  incense along a graduated track or groove 
  (taking many fanciful forms) is a local specialty. 
  These are considered exotic in Tsolyánu, but are 
  commonly used in Mu’ugalavyá, too. 
   
  Wood is commonly used for intricate marquetry 
  and parquet flooring; internal walls are often 
  faced with mosaics and murals of polished or 
  lacquered wooden pieces, while external walls 
  are more often decorated with stucco bas-
  reliefs. Because of the humid rainy season and 
  attendant mildews, carpets and tapestries need 
  to be replaced or carefully restored every year. 
  They thus tend to be of cheaper and more 
  utilitarian make than elsewhere, and fancy ones 
  less common. Wall hangings in particular are 
  unpopular, not only because of the mildew (and 
  insect life) but also because local feeling is that 
  they make rooms “stuffy” and “dull”. Floor mats, 
  whether for carpeting or seating, are usually 
  made from bark, while coarser grades of the 
  more familiar firyá cloth are reserved for 
  bedding and pillows (the latter stuffed with 
  cotton-like kapok from the ebzál, or ceiba, tree). 
   
  Generally speaking, the Pan Chákan taste in 
  interior decoration is sparse and simple: rooms 
  cluttered with furniture, or overly large pieces of 
  furniture at all, are considered “heavy” and 
  “messy”, and open, spacious rooms are much 
  preferred. (“You want to be able to see a lot of 
  floor”, is an oft-heard phrase in setting up a 
  household.) Plaited and lacquered or painted 
  rattan and bamboo furnish homes with boxes, 
  large baskets, backrests, low tables, stools, and 
  all sorts of lightweight, cool furniture. The same 
  materials are also used to make long low 
  couches that are only used outdoors. The 
  Butrusséne say that it is undignified to sit on 
  chairs or couches inside one’s house, but these 
  chaises longues are pleasantly cool and light 
  elsewhere — verandas, rooftops, courtyards, 
  gardens, and so forth. On the opposite end of 
  the spectrum, the Páchi Lei style of solid, heavy, 
  intricately carved wooden chests, low tables, 
  cupboards, and wardrobes has spread to the 
  human inhabitants, at least in Butrús and in 
  settlements with Páchi Lei populations or 
  contacts. (Their huge carved sleeping chairs 
  have not, though!) Unless they are collectors, 
  humans of Pan Cháka tend not to acquire the 
  beaded basketry of the Páchi Lei that are so 
  popular in Tsolyánu, but are happy to participate 
  in the thriving export business that sells them 
  abroad — particularly overseas. 
   
  Pets are fairly common — caged songbirds being 
  the most popular, followed by goldfish of many 
  varieties (kept in large clay basins and rarer 
  glass bowls), crickets and other singing insects, 
  and also cats. Dogs are more popular pets in 
  rural villages than in the city, though they are 
  still common everywhere. The thelúha is 
  uncommon by comparison, but favored by 
  families with problems with venomous pests (or 
  enemies). Nesting birds, bats, and wall-frogs are 
  tolerated co-domestics, appreciated for their 
  ability to keep down the insect population.  
   
   
  INHABITANTS AND POPULATION 
   
  It may be worth mentioning at this juncture that 
  the natives of Butrús call themselves not 
  Butrusáni, as proper Tsolyáni-speakers would 
  expect, but Butrusséne, in their local vernacular. 
  The latter term is used throughout this 
  gazetteer. 
   
  The city of Butrús is both overpopulated and 
  underpopulated: overpopulated, in that more 
  people live in it than can be supported by the 
  immediate hinterland; underpopulated in that 
  the present city was laid out to accommodate 
  many more residents than actually live in it. The 
  design and failure of the Lúshmun Canal is 
  largely responsible for both situations. The plan, 
  which originated in Avanthár, was to build up 
  Butrús into a major city on the southwestern 
  frontier, a center of Tsolyáni culture and 
  imperial power. It was on this basis that the city 
  was rebuilt after the last ditlána, under the 
  
  33 
   
  33 
   
   
  assumption that the canal system would soon be 
  functional and allow a large urban population to 
  be supplied with imported grain. With the 
  engineering and management problems the 
  canal 
  works 
  suffered 
  even 
  before 
  its 
  abandonment, the city never grew to its 
  intended size of 250,000 residents within the 
  walls. Only about 135,000 actually inhabit the 
  city, according to records from the 2320s. 
   
  Looking at a map of the protectorate, the 
  densest settlement is to be found in the 
  northeast quadrant, the areas east of the Turín 
  River. The environs of Butrús, on the tableland 
  west of the river, are fairly heavily populated 
  too. The borders of Pan Cháka stretch within 
  sight of the walls of Tumíssa itself; that city is 
  truly a headland of Tsolyáni civilization jutting 
  into the half-alien, half-wilderness lands of the 
  Chákas. There is also a strip of relatively settled 
  lands hacked out of the jungle along the sákbe 
  between Tumíssa and Khéiris, mainly to its 
  south; this strip — or perhaps more properly, a 
  chain of settled areas — constitutes the 
  northern border of the protectorate. Outside of 
  these three regions, settlement is sparse — 
  scattered villages of slash-and-burn farmers and 
  loggers in the forest fringes, widely dispersed 
  tribesmen farther within, and to the south, as 
  the Chákan Range rises out of the plateau 
  toward the volcanic peaks of the south, there 
  are only the Páchi Lei. Population along the 
  coast is far too sparse to be demographically 
  significant, though important inasmuch as these 
  settlements control a (potential) western sea 
  outlet for Pan Cháka and Tsolyánu and because 
  of their dubiously piratical habits.  
   
  The distinctive physical characteristics of the 
  Chákan peoples are well-known and easily 
  recognized throughout Tsolyánu: broad faces, 
  slight epicanthic folds of the eyes, wide 
  shoulders and long torsos atop narrow hips and 
  proportionately 
  shorter 
  legs, 
  and 
  skin 
  pigmentation tending strongly to the reddish or 
  coppery. Eye coloration is generally lighter in the 
  Chákas, but the famous gray eyes are more 
  common in Do Cháka than in the south — here, 
  one is more likely to find hazel or even dark 
  green eyes. Some of these characteristics — the 
  brachycephaly, thicker and coarser hair, and 
  ruddy skin tones — are distinctive within a 
  Tsolyáni context, but are shared in common 
  with the people of Mu’ugalavyá as a whole. 
   
  Clans 
  Many of the great empire-wide clans are 
  represented in Butrús, as well as those specific 
  to the western empire and the Chákas. There 
  are many local clans not known outside Pan 
  Cháka proper, and these are even more 
  prominent in the hinterland than in Butrús itself. 
  The following paragraphs describe the clan 
  system by general levels of status. 
   
  Very High: In terms of antiquity and prestige, 
  though not necessarily in membership, wealth, 
  or real political power, the single greatest noble 
  clan in Pan Cháka is certainly the Íto. It is worth 
  noting that while Tsolyáni generally consider the 
  Ítos to be the traditional “masters of the 
  Chákas”, in fact they are based primarily in Do 
  Cháka, with strong ties to a number of ancient 
  sites and settlements there. The spread of their 
  power to the south does not appear to date 
  before the Time of No Kings. Additionally, the 
  Pan Chákan wing of the Ítos26 has been distinct 
  from the northern branches since the early 
  Engsvanyáli 
  period, 
  and 
  is 
  furthermore 
  somewhat estranged from it — ever since the 
  turmoil of the Time of No Kings, if not even 
  earlier.27 In most similar cases the clan would 
  have fissured into two distinct clans by this 
  point, but both are strongly bound to the 
  geographical extent of the Chákas, identical and 
  distinctive religion (a somewhat unorthodox 
  version of the worship of Sárku), and a shared 
                                                  
  26 Variously known as the Misínin, Kláifin, or Dubélinggalu Íto 
  (the Departing, Unripe, or Southernmost Ítos) in official 
  records. In Pan Cháka, of course, they are simply referred to 
  as “the Ítos” and it is the main branches in Do Cháka that 
  call for distinction—usually either as the Ghádrin Íto or as 
  the Tusílinggal Íto (Northern or Farther Íto). To further 
  complicate matters, the Ítos refer to their internal 
  genealogical divisions as “great roots” (nichódàli, or in 
  Chákan vernacular, níchodlè) rather than lineages or 
  branches (dalúm, shawáts). 
  27 It seems possible that the collapse of Engsvanyáli power 
  removed external constraints from long-simmering internal 
  conflict among the Ítos, and their expansion southwards 
  under one branch of the clan was an alternative to “civil 
  war”. Even today feelings can run high, barring the absence 
  of external opponents to unite the branches: the Massacre 
  of 261, in which the majority of the genealogically 
  seniormost members of the Southern Ítos were killed by 
  synchronized assassinations arranged by their northern 
  cousins, is still an extremely sore point. 
  
  34 
   
  34 
   
   
  experience of and interest in resisting foreign 
  (Mu’ugalavyáni, 
  Tsolyáni) 
  influence 
  or 
  domination.  
   
  The eldest member of the Pan Chákan Íto 
  branch holds the title of Hehéllu, “Count”, 
  reconfirmed late in the reign of Hejjéka IV. (The 
  specific title in question is actually Chehó’olan, 
  believed 
  to 
  be 
  the 
  Chákan 
  vernacular 
  development of the same ancient Engsvanyáli 
  root.) The Íto — regardless of genealogical 
  niceties — are today at the head of the 
  hierarchy of precedence within Pan Cháka. 
  Furthermore, despite their internal schisms, 
  regional rivalries, and stiff competition from the 
  worshippers of Thúmis in the north, Ksárul in 
  the south, and Vimúhla everywhere in the west, 
  they are still believed to be powerful, subtle 
  influences behind the scenes in the two Chákas 
  and beyond. 
   
  The Jade Diadem clan is also a great economic 
  power in the protectorate, with relatively large 
  numbers of members and bases of influence; 
  several large estates in the eastern lowlands and 
  some famous mash fruit orchards are owned by 
  this clan. While major landlords controlling a 
  great 
  deal 
  of 
  wealth, 
  they 
  are 
  deeply 
  conservative and parochial in outlook, and are 
  relatively insignificant in politics and “high 
  society”. Disproportionately few of this clan’s 
  Chákan members enter the armies, priesthoods, 
  or bureaucracies.  
   
  The Sea Blue, Golden Sunburst, Golden Bough, 
  Blade Raised High, and Vríddi clans all have a 
  presence in Butrús too, but in a fairly minor 
  way. Only recently, the Might of Gánga clan 
  chose to establish a clanhouse in the city again; 
  the construction is presently plagued by a 
  number 
  of 
  labor 
  disputes 
  and 
  material 
  shortages, and the mansion and gardens remain 
  unfinished. 
   
  One of the Golden Sunburst lineages still 
  represented in Butrús is the Chalchái, tracing 
  descent from a dynasty of the Engsvanyáli 
  Priest-Kings, and later (briefly) the rulers of an 
  independent kingdom at Butrús during the Time 
  of No Kings. Despite their history and the high 
  status of the Golden Sunburst clan generally, 
  this lineage is not held in high personal regard in 
  the Chákas, as an ancient curse is known to 
  hang over the line — turning its best and 
  brightest into vacuous ninnies as they pass out 
  of childhood. A scion of the Sea Blue clan of 
  national note who is originally from Butrús is 
  Hrákash hiSsankólum, a member of the High 
  Council of the priesthood of Karakán and an 
  advocate of relatively moderate policies. His 
  family no longer live in Butrús — they have since 
  moved to a villa north of the city — but the 
  clanhouse in Butrús is still occupied by an 
  opportunistic ne’er-do-well of the same lineage 
  and his scheming family. 
   
  High: The most important clans in this category 
  are the "Four Reds": the Red Sword, Red Sun, 
  Red Mountain, and Red Stone clans. These 
  comprise the real aristocracy of the city and the 
  protectorate, together wielding considerably 
  more wealth and power than any other single 
  clan. While they have equally strong roots in 
  Tumíssa and Turúnkai Province, they are 
  generally considered old, native Pan Chákan 
  clans. The Red Mountain clan in particular has a 
  more Chákan than Tumíssan base, and its 
  mythological “origination place” is situated in the 
  actual city of Butrús itself. In recent centuries 
  the Four Reds have been better able to 
  cooperate with one another than the “Four 
  Greater Blacks” have, which has contributed to 
  their slight but distinct advantage in filling the 
  top positions in local government. Collectively 
  they organize and perform the “Mission to 
  Thurreqáimo for the Sons of Kádlesh” every five 
  years, a great caravan with ritual, diplomatic, 
  and trading functions to visit the Salarvyáni city 
  of Nrikakchné. Entirely staffed by clanmembers, 
  never by slaves, laborers, or mercantile or 
  teamster clients, participation in the caravan is 
  something of a rite of passage for young 
  clansmen, though it can often be used as a 
  polite form of banishment or punishment — the 
  entire itinerary occupies almost two years. 
   
  The Four Greater Blacks consist of the Black 
  Fear, Black Water, Black Moon, and Black Flame 
  clans, all represented in Butrús. These constitute 
  the elites of the Ksárul-worshipping population 
  of the protectorate (though devotees of Hrü’ü 
  and Sárku, and occasionally Dlamélish or even 
  Belkhánu are also to be found). However, the 
  number of members of each of these clans is 
  not great, and their mansions in the city are 
  rather small.  
  
  35 
   
  35 
   
   
   
  The ancient Standing Stone clan, the former 
  masters of Úrmish, have a fine large residence 
  in Butrús and investments in some local 
  businesses, but are treated with polite distain by 
  the old nobility of Butrús — the two cities are 
  well into their third millennium of lazy feuding. 
  The Standing Stone clanhouse is unusually well 
  protected, as fortified as private dwellings are 
  permitted to be in Tsolyánu, since mobs of 
  zealous Butrusséne have been known to gather 
  and attack it — typically after marotlán games, 
  but sometimes on other occasions.  
   
  Other high-status clans in Pan Cháka, in rough 
  order of importance, are the High Pinnacle, 
  White Crystal, Iron Helm, Amber Cloak, and 
  Emerald Girdle. The local branch of the White 
  Crystal clan have traditionally had a large 
  number of devotees of Sárku, but those who do 
  worship the Lord of Worms have favored more 
  orthodox and less regional versions of the faith 
  than clans such as the Ítos or the Dark Stone 
  Tomb. None are particularly powerful; all are 
  overshadowed by the Four Reds and the Four 
  Greater Blacks. There are other high clans as 
  well, though they have even more minor 
  presences in Pan Cháka (typically land holdings 
  or small estates) and may not even have 
  clanhouses in Butrús itself. A purely local clan of 
  this type, though nearly extinct, is the Mat of 
  Truth. 
   
  Medium: Among the primarily agricultural clans 
  of this stratum, the most important are the Red 
  Sky, Red Star, Ripened Sheaf, Green Bough, 
  Broken Reed, Blue Shadow, and Blue Stream. 
   
  Other medium-status clans traditionally given to 
  employment 
  as 
  craftsmen 
  and 
  low-to-mid 
  ranking bureaucrats and priests are the “Four 
  Lesser Blacks” (Black Stone, Black Hood, Black 
  Mountain, and Black Monolith), the “Four Golds” 
  (Golden Dawn, Golden Sphere, Golden Sheaf, 
  and Golden Sapphire), and the Blue Kirtle and 
  Green Kirtle. The Golden Lintel clan, which is not 
  one of the Four Golds and has a wholly separate 
  history, is the sole money-lending and “banking” 
  clan 
  with 
  any 
  inter-provincial 
  (let 
  alone 
  international) 
  reach. 
  Some 
  of 
  the 
  more 
  agriculturally oriented clans listed above have 
  members who work in these fields, too. 
   
  In addition there is the Silver Lightning clan of 
  jewelers and fine artisans, spread across 
  Tsolyánu and supporting their own clan-legion, 
  which is currently based in Butrús. The clan 
  itself has only a small representation in the 
  protectorate, however, and its clanhouse in 
  Butrús is frankly far 
  more interested 
  in 
  decorative metalwork than in weapons of war. 
  Note should be made of the Hewers of Glory, 
  the clan that has controlled the ancient iron 
  industry of Pan Cháka for centuries through 
  licensed operation of the pit mines and 
  ownership of the smelteries; they have now 
  fallen on hard times with the gradual exhaustion 
  of the ore veins. The more widely spread Iron 
  Fist and Iron Hand clans are traditionally 
  armorers and metalworkers, and are still 
  strongly represented in Pan Cháka and faring 
  better. The empire-wide Weeping Stone clan, 
  together with the Pan Chákan Golden Sieve clan, 
  dominates the trade in wine and liquor. The 
  Standing Pinnacle clan, of Kurtáni origin, has a 
  clanhouse in Butrús that is largely occupied with 
  long-distance trade in forest products from Pan 
  Cháka into Tsolyánu. 
   
  The Shading Leaf clan is the most prestigious 
  and wealthy (though not the largest) of half a 
  dozen clans of forest-fringe farmers and loggers 
  limited 
  to 
  Pan 
  Cháka; 
  they 
  are 
  mostly 
  worshippers of Ksárul and Avánthe. Some of the 
  others are the Flowering Shield, Blue Pebble, 
  Standing Shadow, and Verdant Pinnacle. One of 
  the oldest native clans of eastern Pan Cháka is 
  the Joyous Red Forest clan, primarily rural and 
  agricultural (and not especially well-off), but 
  prestigious and respected.  
   
  An old Pan Chákan clan of paper-makers has 
  recently (that is, about three hundred years 
  ago) been absorbed into the larger and more 
  powerful Victorious Globe clan, despite religious 
  differences between the former Frame of Sunset 
  clan and the mostly Thúmis and Hnálla-
  worshipping Victorious Globe. 
   
  Finally, mention should be made of the 
  descendants of the Legion of the Sable Lord, 
  refugees 
  from 
  Tsolyánu 
  in 
  the 
  days 
  of 
  Mu’ugalavyáni overlordship. Cut off from and 
  largely repudiated by their native clans and even 
  lineages, these exiles took their shared legion 
  history as the basis for a new communal 
  
  36 
   
  36 
   
   
  organization, now named the Rising Cloud clan. 
  There are no clanhouses outside Pan Cháka, and 
  few even outside its main towns. Within Butrús 
  there is not a single clanhouse, but about half a 
  dozen smaller establishments. 
   
  Low: Of the dozens of such clans in Pan Cháka, 
  only a few truly stand out. The Eye of Flame 
  clan, devoted to Vimúhla and Chiténg, are well 
  known in Butrús for hiring out as bodyguards 
  and caravan guards, and the clan also provides 
  troopers to many of the lesser-status military 
  and guard forces of the protectorate. The Black 
  Hand clan provides most of the workers and 
  artisans for the mining and quarrying industries 
  of Pan Cháka. The Topaz Elixir is a small local 
  clan of distillers devoted to Sárku, and has over 
  the centuries produced some of the most 
  famous brandies the Five Empires have seen. 
  The Black Stone Tomb clan, while numerically 
  and 
  economically 
  insignificant, 
  is 
  worth 
  mentioning for its continued devotion to the Íto 
  clan; its members in Butrús make up most of 
  the Tomb Police and many of the laborers and 
  attendants in the City of the Dead. A clan based 
  in Mu’ugalavyá, the Balanced Stone, has a 
  clanhouse in Butrús, where it trains judges of 
  tsáhlten and various sports, as well as providing 
  major-domos to the households of the rich. 
   
  A number of local clans of agricultural devotees 
  of Vimúhla fall into this category (or lower), 
  such as the Bough of Sunrise, Carved Stone, 
  Splendid Sheaf, Roseate Shield of Iron, and 
  Weeping Hand clans. Some, such as the 
  Vermilion Lightning and Blazing Breeze clans, 
  are of Mu’ugalavyáni origin. There are several 
  more forest-dwelling clans of low or very low 
  status, mostly worshippers of Ksárul and Sárku 
  (the latter especially in the north of Pan Cháka) 
  — e.g., the Amber Bird, Copper Sun, Black 
  Ridge, Water of the Copper, High Clearing, 
  Flowing Cavern, Jade Bulwark, and Dusky 
  Mantle clans. Finally, there are a few lower-
  status clans of peasants and petty craftsmen 
  found mostly in the eastern lowlands and 
  beyond into Tsolyánu proper: the Fragrant 
  Crescent Moon, Glass Plume, Silver Tiles, Tilted 
  Arch, Turquoise Mask, and White Dust clans, for 
  example. 
   
  Very Low: The most important clan in this 
  stratum is the Artificers of Iron, locally quite 
  numerous and relatively wealthy despite their 
  low social status. Others of note are the clans of 
  the Red Moon, Bright Sword, and Scarlet Planet 
  of Knives, and the Scarlet Sash clan of arena 
  operators. 
  Many 
  of 
  the 
  Chákan-specific 
  agricultural, 
  logging, 
  and 
  forestry 
  clans 
  mentioned above could be counted among these 
  humblest clans. One such local clan is the Ochre 
  Shuttle, of Durritlámish-worshipping weavers. 
  The Muddy Print is another, made up of chlen-
  wranglers and animal trainers and other such 
  vulgar types, whose great claim to honor is that 
  the (locally) famous culture-hero Nug was a 
  member of this clan. Three clans of laborers, 
  canal-workers, and boatmen (for the most part) 
  ultimately from Tsechélnu are found in Pan 
  Cháka: the Lintel of the Sea, Green Reed, and 
  Braided Cane clans. The Company of the 
  Edification of the Soul, the clan of professional 
  torturers and executioners, has one of their 
  largest and wealthiest clanhouses in Butrús, and 
  its members are among the most devoted and 
  vocal worshippers of Chiténg in the city. The 
  clans of the Collar of Bronze (slavers) and the 
  Hand of Compassion (prison guards) are also 
  among the necessary but vulgar cogs of Butrús 
  society. One of the puppeteer clans of the Five 
  Empires has a small, slightly shabby clanhouse 
  in Butrús: the Striding Incantation clan. Finally, 
  the tribesmen of the Pan Chákan jungles and 
  the inhabitants of the scattered fishing villages 
  on the coast could all be considered to be of 
  “very low” clan-status, though it is not always 
  clear to what their relationship to the clans of 
  Tsolyánu proper may be. 
   
  Other clan-like and clan-related issues 
  One of the assassins’ clans is present in Butrús: 
  the Black Y Society. It is relatively small, as the 
  old traditions of Pan Cháka (particularly in the 
  countryside) strongly value personal retribution 
  and clan feuding over hiring third parties for 
  cash. Thus the Black Y Society’s business is 
  mostly with the more cosmopolitan clans and 
  recent immigrant families in the city of Butrús. It 
  also may be involved in the struggle for power 
  within the Temple of Ksárul between the Ndálu 
  Clan and its rivals (on the side of the former). 
  For 
  many 
  generations 
  now 
  the 
  family 
  constituting the Butrús house has specialized in 
  the extremely rare “Tender Companion”, the 
  trained alásh snake from the arid mountains of 
  
  37 
   
  37 
   
   
  Milumanayá. This has possibly encouraged the 
  adoption of the thelúha as a house pet among 
  the wealthy. 
   
  Unusually for the Five Empires, there is an 
  organized criminal group active and relatively 
  powerful in and around Butrús (but with little 
  clout elsewhere in the protectorate), based on a 
  familial organization but apparently sometimes 
  open to recruitment. This “Great Brotherhood of 
  the Hand of Ink-Stained Knuckles in Hiding” 
  claims descent from the secret police of the 
  Black Theocrat. Its members are nowadays 
  variously followers of Karakán and Wurú (!) and 
  all belong to the lowest-status clans. Their 
  motives and loyalties are not always clear, and 
  despite a reasonable expectation of affinity or 
  commonality with the Ndálu Clan, they seem 
  essentially to be an independent gang of 
  criminals and occasional terrorists in frequent 
  conflict with ecclesiastic and governmental 
  institutions. Their chief sources of revenue are 
  believed to be a mixture of extortion, smuggling, 
  coining, 
  illegal 
  gambling, 
  and 
  occasional 
  flamboyant acts of highway robbery, blackmail, 
  burglary, or kidnapping. 
   
  On the side of traditional law and order, Butrús 
  is also home to a few members of the 
  Companions of Holy Thunder, a southern clique 
  of 
  rambunctious 
  young 
  aristocrats 
  mostly 
  worshipping Hnálla, Thúmis, and Karakán, under 
  the loose direction of the temples of the latter 
  deity, with poorly thought out and often 
  conflicting political ideals — and referred to 
  behind their backs as Our Confused Young Sirs 
  et Mesdames. 
   
  Tribesmen 
  The tribesmen of the inner jungles are distinct 
  from the "civilized" men of Pan Cháka — and 
  even more so from metropolitan Tsolyáni and 
  Mu’ugalavyáni. While rarely seen in Butrús, they 
  are frequent visitors to villages in the western 
  forests, where their warriors can be seen going 
  about with curved throwing-clubs and feather-
  decorated longbows. Their 
  womenfolk are 
  famous poisoners, and the men use poisoned 
  arrows in both hunting and warfare. Most 
  horrifying, perhaps, to civilized folk are their 
  teeth, which they file into sharp points as soon 
  as a child can walk. They generally avoid both 
  the coast and the southern mountains, and so 
  are restricted to the jungled heights of the 
  plateau proper. 
   
  Their religious beliefs are unclear; if asked, they 
  will profess their dedication to both Vimúhla and 
  Ksárul, or rather to whatever Aspects of these 
  deities they may recognize in the religious 
  practices of civilized peoples. A few groups, in 
  the northernmost areas, appear to be devotees 
  of Sárku, in his more peculiar and obscure 
  Chákan forms. Nevertheless, in warfare all are 
  dedicated headhunters to an even greater 
  degree than the Pan Chákan priests and 
  warriors of Chiténg. 
   
  They 
  live 
  in 
  longhouses 
  that 
  can 
  be 
  disassembled and moved from site to site; 
  besides hunting and gathering, they practice 
  intermittent and casual horticulture in the 
  jungles. The tribes do occasionally pay tribute 
  (not regular imperial taxes, as citizens would) 
  and more frequently they trade with settled Pan 
  Cháka, exchanging their rattans, honey, furs, 
  skins, feathers, meat, fabric, kapok, whisky, 
  spices, perfumes, drugs, and incenses for grain, 
  salt, pottery, tools, wine, cloth, and so forth. 
  They also extract “tolls” in kind from the scrappy 
  merchant caravans to and from the coast; at 
  other times, they simply plunder them.  
   
  In earlier times — at least since the end of the 
  First Era of Engsvanyálu up until the Tsolyáni 
  conquest of Pan Cháka — there was a more 
  complex political structure to the human 
  societies of the deep forests, consisting of at 
  least a dozen chiefdoms based around central 
  ceremonial centers where redistribution of staple 
  and luxury goods was controlled by hereditary 
  chiefs.28 The intrusion of the Tsolyáni imperium 
  undermined 
  this 
  system 
  and 
  led 
  to 
  its 
  fragmentation into a more egalitarian, less 
  centralized society. Today three main tribes are 
  the Ngottóng, Mlatséi, and Tláwek. Tsolyáni 
  usually refer to these groupings with the same 
  word used to describe the clans of Engsvanyáli-
                                                  
  28 It seems likely that these tribal peoples are the 
  descendants of the settled and civilized people of the Land 
  of the Three Kings of pre-Engsvanyáli times, when there 
  were towns and cities where today there is only deep jungle. 
  Despite occasional attempts by outside powers to appeal to 
  the modern tribespeople on these historical grounds, they 
  seem totally indifferent to the issue. 
  
  38 
   
  38 
   
   
  derived society (dlánmü), but most Chákans and 
  some Mu’ugalavyáni officials, at least, have an 
  understanding that they are not the same thing. 
   
  Foreigners 
  There are quite large numbers of Mu’ugalavyáni 
  citizens in Butrús, mostly merchants, but with a 
  fair number of pilgrims and a few priests and 
  scholars as well. A few Hegléthyal, or “Swamp 
  Folk”, are found among them, but given Butrús' 
  landlocked position they are not very common. 
  In the hinterland there are a number of 
  agricultural villages settled over the last few 
  centuries by immigrants and refugees from 
  Mu’ugalavyá, or likely as not remaining from the 
  days of Mu’ugalavyáni occupation some five 
  centuries ago. While they maintain much 
  Mu’ugalavyáni language and culture, they are 
  considered to be solidly loyal to the Petal Throne 
  — in some ways, more than their “native” Pan 
  Chákan neighbors, for whom the dream of 
  Chákan independence may have a deeper 
  resonance and by whom the Tsolyáni are seen 
  as 
  foreigners. 
  Mu’ugalavyá 
  is 
  officially 
  represented in Pan Cháka by the Envoy of the 
  Prince of the Second (Scarlet) Palace in Khéiris. 
  Besides this noble officer, the consular suite also 
  presently includes a high-ranking priest of Hrsh 
  (and his daughter, a noted wizard) to oversee 
  the spiritual needs of well-born Mu’ugalavyáni in 
  Pan Cháka, and a military attaché — who 
  happens to be the brother of the Prince-General 
  of the Second Palace. The Bronze Oblong clan, a 
  merchant clan of Khéiris, maintains a well-
  appointed compound here due to its large and 
  ancient trading routes in Pan Cháka. While its 
  tenants continually come and go, they remain 
  possibly 
  the 
  most 
  influential 
  unofficial 
  Mu’ugalavyáni in Pan Cháka. 
   
  Perhaps as much as a quarter of Butrús’ 
  populace knows at least a little of the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  language, 
  and 
  quite 
  large 
  numbers of the farmers and foresters in the 
  central and western parts of the protectorate do 
  as well. Despite a long history of military conflict 
  and the present looming threat of another 
  invasion, 
  there 
  is 
  remarkably 
  little 
  anti-
  Mu’ugalavyáni sentiment among most human 
  Pan Chákans. (Among the Páchi Lei, of course, 
  things are quite different.) The average native of 
  the protectorate is actually more disposed to 
  make rude comments and assessments of his 
  rivals and foes from time immemorial, the 
  Úrmishites — or even his neighbors in Do Cháka 
  — than of the Red Hats, all other things being 
  equal. Mu’ugalavyáni soldiers and officials, it is 
  true, are more likely to be greeted coldly when 
  traveling in Pan Cháka. 
   
  Páchi Lei are perhaps not technically foreign, 
  though the exact political relationship of their 
  enclaves to the Seal Emperor is even cloudier 
  than that of the protectorate to Avanthár. They 
  are more common in Butrús than even the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni, and the grave antipathy between 
  the two groups is a constant source of incidents 
  and problems, often requiring the intervention 
  of the militia. Those Páchi Lei that dwell with 
  humanity are often involved with timber and 
  woodworking industries, including construction 
  and engineering projects; others are merchants, 
  taking advantage of the Páchi Lei coastal 
  settlements in Pan Cháka and the sizeable 
  enclaves 
  in 
  Penóm, 
  western 
  Vra, 
  and 
  northeastern 
  Livyánu 
  to 
  ply 
  their 
  trade 
  internationally. The overland portages from 
  Butrús to the Pan Chákan coast are almost 
  always overseen by Páchi Lei, even when human 
  merchants and caravans pass along them. The 
  alternative 
  is 
  to 
  trust 
  the 
  unpredictable 
  tribesmen for guidance and safe passage, which 
  the wise merchant will decline when possible. At 
  the present time the only significant banditry or 
  disorder involving the Páchi Lei in human lands 
  is occuring some one hundred and fifty tsan 
  farther down the right bank of the Turín river, 
  outside Pan Cháka proper.29 
   
  Quite large numbers of Pe Choi are found in 
  Butrús, and sometimes in the hinterland as well. 
  Despite the presence of a large and loyal legion 
  of Pe Choi garrisoning Butrús, the generally 
  excellent relations between the Pe Choi and 
  Páchi Lei, and the fact that most Pe Choi are 
  politically inclined toward Tsolyánu rather than 
  Mu’ugalavyá, there is a certain vague suspicion 
  of them among many human Pan Chákans. 
  Worshippers of Sárku and supporters of the Íto 
                                                  
  29 These problems are centered around the large fief of 
  Firusanra, held by the Giridra lineage despite mounting 
  imperial disfavor. This far northwestern corner of Tsechélnu 
  province is culturally and historically part of Pan Cháka, but 
  has been administratively separate since the Mu’ugalavyáni 
  conquest of the sixteenth century. 
  
  39 
   
  39 
   
   
  traditions (who are not necessarily the same 
  individuals) are all too aware of the Pe Choi 
  history of brutally suppressing both the faith and 
  the Íto cause. Moreover, the coincidental 
  prominence of Mu’ugalavyáni Pe Choi legions in 
  raids and defeats of Pan Chákan soldiery over 
  the generations has also left a sour taste. The 
  “Mandibles of Iron”, Legion XII of the First 
  Palace, have been operating on the Pan Chákan 
  frontier recently, while the “Slayers of Chket”, 
  Legion XIV of the Second Palace, are age-old 
  foes. While people of Butrús are unfailingly 
  polite and tolerant of visiting Pe Choi, they are 
  also often slightly reserved and watchful of their 
  guests. A prejudice exists, however irrationally, 
  that they are not disposed to be friends of Pan 
  Cháka. That being said, there is a handful of Pe 
  Choi families in Butrús, originally from southern 
  Do Cháka, who worship the Black Old One; most 
  have been adopted into the Black Stone Tomb 
  clan and serve in the Tomb Police. 
   
  Smaller numbers of foreigners from further 
  abroad can also be found here: Livyáni (among 
  them the occasional Tinalíya), Shen, and 
  Salarvyáni, for the most part traders. There are 
  also Pijenáni in Butrús, a good number drawn 
  every year to the shrine of the Cat God in the 
  Temple of Hrü'ü (particularly for New Year’s and 
  also in early summer), which apparently is 
  known as a holy place to these dwellers by the 
  far-off northern ocean.30 A small number have 
  remained behind, and operate a hostel for their 
  fellow countrymen — as well as providing other, 
  less reputable services, it is widely believed. 
  There may be a few Yan Koryáni, Saá Allaqiyáni, 
  or Pecháni as well, but these will mostly be 
  scattered individuals and travelers, not regular 
  inhabitants.  
   
  Definitely not foreign, Úrmish nevertheless 
  deserves a note of its own in this section. This 
  city is the ancient rival of Butrús, in the minds of 
                                                  
  30 As a region, Pijéna was invaded and occupied by the 
  Tsolyáni under Metlunél II (1202-51), and it may be during 
  this occupation that knowledge of the cult of the Cat God in 
  Butrús reached that country. Otherwise, it is not at all clear 
  how the custom of pilgrimage to Butrús became established. 
  Some would claim that as a centralized state, Pijéna was 
  created recently and by the machinations of the temple of 
  Hrü’ü. Whether there is any connection between this 
  historical possibility and the presence of a shrine in the 
  temple of Hrü’ü at Butrús that draws many pilgrims from 
  Pijéna is open to speculation. 
  Butrusséne and most Pan Chákans displacing 
  much closer and mightier Tumíssa as “most 
  important neighbor”. Indeed, Tumíssa is more 
  economically significant and probably a source 
  of more migration and cultural influence, since 
  Butrusséne do not have the same ingrained 
  hostility towards it as they do toward Úrmish. 
  Both Butrús and Úrmish have a long tradition of 
  worship of Ksárul and Sárku, though Úrmish is 
  by far the more ancient city; Úrmish, though, is 
  regarded in Butrús as being boring and stuffy, 
  as well as dirty, run-down, and smelly. Even the 
  most chauvinistic Butrusséne, though, respects 
  the good weapons and armor produced in the 
  armories of Úrmish; they merely think they’re 
  wasted in Úrmish, far from the frontier where 
  real fighting and soldiering takes place. 
   
  Language and Writing 
  The Chákas were once home to a number of 
  autochthonous languages, all of non-Khishan 
  stock and perhaps not even all of a single 
  linguistic 
  family. 
  These 
  languages 
  clearly 
  adopted significant amounts of vocabulary from 
  Bednálljan Salarvyáni and early Engsvanyáli, but 
  later underwent a long period of retrenchment 
  as consciously 
  separate idioms, 
  in 
  which 
  loanwords were rigorously kept out. However, 
  Engsvanyáli grammar and syntax continued to 
  influence the local languages throughout the 
  long ages, and the original structures of the 
  languages had become blurred or totally 
  obscured by the end of Éngsvan hla Gánga. By 
  that time, the native tongues of Do Cháka were 
  almost completely out of daily use, and in Pan 
  Cháka they were preserved only in the more 
  remote 
  and 
  culturally 
  conservative 
  areas. 
  Despite a brief resurgence during the Time of 
  No Kings — a few local regimes toyed with the 
  idea of bringing back one or another Chákan 
  dialect as a “court language”, often with a new 
  revision of some half-understood native writing 
  system — they continued to lose ground to the 
  early Tsolyáni and Mu’ugalavyáni languages and 
  their later developments. 
   
  The only fully surviving member of this group of 
  languages is the one now used as the esoteric 
  language of the priests of Sárku. The history of 
  its spread from the ancient Íto-supported cults 
  into the orthodox temples of metropolitan 
  Tsolyánu is too long and complicated to recount 
  
  40 
   
  40 
   
   
  here. Today it is rarely spoken outside of high 
  rituals, 
  but 
  is 
  more 
  frequently 
  seen 
  in 
  manuscripts, despite knowledge of it being very 
  carefully restricted to the “Inner Circles” of the 
  senior priests of Sárku and Durritlámish. Its 
  vertically-written, largely logographic script (or 
  perhaps more precisely, morphemographic, with 
  an inventory of 2120 graphemes) is based on an 
  indigenous Chákan writing system, though 
  extensively 
  regularized 
  and 
  graphically 
  elaborated during and after its transmission into 
  the 
  mainstream 
  of 
  Engsvanyáli-based 
  civilization. 
   
  Nevertheless, the influence of these extinct 
  languages is very strong in the vocabulary of 
  Chákan Tsolyáni. A great many words found in 
  Pan Chákan speech are unknown in Tsolyánu 
  proper, and often not even in Do Cháka; the 
  reverse is equally true. While this is more the 
  case in remote and rural settlements than in 
  urban centers, even the common Butrusséne 
  speech is full of words and expressions deriving 
  from the aboriginal languages of the region. The 
  speech of the tribesmen of the inner jungles and 
  hills 
  is 
  almost 
  incomprehensible 
  to 
  a 
  metropolitan Tsolyáni, hardly less so to a Do 
  Chákan, and still extremely difficult for a native 
  of Butrús to follow. 
   
  In addition to these influences from the 
  substratum, 
  as 
  a 
  somewhat 
  remote 
  and 
  relatively backwater part of the Empire of the 
  Petal Throne Pan Cháka has retained a great 
  number of archaic features in its version of 
  Tsolyáni. This includes not just pronunciation 
  (and spelling), but vocabulary and phraseology 
  as well. Along with the rest of western Tsolyánu, 
  the Chákas are strongly “ü-speaking”; in fact, in 
  some words an i in standard Tsolyáni is rounded 
  to ü. This is actually the more conservative 
  pronunciation of a phoneme that shifted to an 
  unrounded pronunciation and merged with i in 
  modern Tsolyáni. Certain grammatical markers 
  retain 
  archaic 
  (Classical 
  Tsolyáni-like) 
  pronunciations: -yol, -yul, or –you/-yow for –yal; 
  -k or -h for –ikh (in consonant-final noun 
  stems); hü- for hi-. There is also a unique 
  regional survival from Engsvanyáli: the affix 
  used to derive abstractions from noun stems 
  (Engsv. üro-) survives in the form ore-. 
   
  Furthermore, Mu’ugalavyáni has influenced Pan 
  Chákan language for several millennia, and most 
  strongly during the recent centuries of direct 
  Mu’ugalavyáni rule. There are quite a number of 
  villages or village sections in the hinterland 
  where Mu’ugalavyáni is still the mother tongue. 
  Among the features attributed to this western 
  influence are the presence of the phoneme kh 
  (contrasting with k, g, q, and kh) and of long 
  glottal vowels (e.g., a’a, u’u) — which can even 
  creep into Tsolyáni words where they definitely 
  do not belong. Loanwords from Mu’ugalavyáni, if 
  nouns, almost invariably preserve the original 
  number-gender markers (-ish masculine, -a 
  feminine, -el plural, -e’el total plurality). The 
  Mu’ugalavyáni plural in -el has spread to many 
  other noun stems, edging out the reflexes of 
  Classical Tsolyáni –yalu. 
   
  This complex history has rendered even the 
  origins of the name “Butrús” dubious. To most 
  natives, it doesn’t “sound Chákan”, and they 
  may well be correct. Certainly none of the 
  autochthonous languages has provided any 
  plausible etymology (though it must be said, 
  they are only poorly known). Some hold that it 
  is a borrowing from the language of the non-
  human Páchi Lei, which hypothesis has at least 
  some circumstantial evidence — the name 
  “Butrús” (or alternate spellings) does not appear 
  in the historical record until the second century 
  A.S., when organized forces of these non-
  humans were unusually active and began taking 
  control of much of the modern protectorate. A 
  bronze plaque of the early 180s refers to the 
  site of the Southern Íto court as Brrk-Ptuu-
  Hyühr, the “future pride of Brrk” — though it is 
  not known whether the latter phase is meant to 
  be a translation of the alien name or a second 
  appellation, and even then the full meaning of 
  “Brrk” is uncertain. Others, perhaps more 
  plausibly, argue that “Butrús” is ultimately a 
  loanword from a western dialect of Terminal 
  Engsvanyáli 
  that 
  later 
  became 
  Classical 
  Mu’ugalavyáni — pointing to the stem mbu’urtá 
  (meaning roughly “to clear forest and flatten 
  ground for cultivation”) and its derivatives.31 The 
  similarity of endings with the Mu’ugalavyáni city 
  of Pagús has been noted and is likely significant 
                                                  
  31 It has also been suggested that “Butrús” is a 
  Mu’ugalavyáni-style normalization of the Páchi Lei word 
  “Brrk” (above), i.e. with the Mu’ugalavyáni masculine 
  singular noun ending –ish. 
  
  41 
   
  41 
   
   
  — but the etymology of “Pagús” is still unknown 
  itself. The mystery is likely to remain unsolved. 
   
  The normal “accent” or dialect of Pan Cháka 
  contains the following features as well: 
  1) The velar nasal consonant ng is reduced 
  to zero (or at least strongly under-
  articulated), with nasalization of the 
  preceding vowel, when it occurs word-
  finally. 
  Word-internally, 
  before 
  a 
  consonant, it usually shifts to m (before 
  bilabial or labial consonants, i.e. b, p, m, 
  v, f) or n (before dental or alveolar 
  consonants (e.g., t, d, th, dz, tl). 
  2) The laterals l and hl are frequently 
  palatalized before front vowels: e.g., 
  standard Tsolyáni li, le becomes lyi, lye. 
  3) The vowel o cannot follow u in the same 
  word 
  (though 
  it 
  can 
  follow 
  the 
  diphthong au); it will be replaced with u. 
  Thus 
  standard 
  Tsolyáni 
  autsúlto 
  “peasant” is pronounced as autsúltu in 
  Pan Cháka (though in the real Pan 
  Chákan vernacular, this stem is not even 
  present). 
  4) Retroflex ss before the palatal y shifts to 
  sh, and a following vowel is de-rounded 
  if applicable. Thus standard Tsolyáni 
  ssyu “sword” is pronounced shyi or 
  simply shi. 
  5) The stress accent sometimes shifts, 
  usually to the first syllable; this is a 
  habit common to both the Chákas and 
  easternmost Mu’ugalavyá.  
  6) Laryngialization, or “creaky voice”, is a 
  very common intonational feature. In 
  addition, 
  the 
  common 
  Tsolyáni 
  absolutive 
  nominal 
  marker –ikh 
  in 
  vowel-final stems is expressed solely by 
  laryngialization of the final syllable(s). 
  7) In the urban dialect (that of Butrús, its 
  immediate environs, and the largest 
  regional towns), nasalization is very 
  prevalent. Any syllable ending in a nasal 
  consonant (m, n, ng, hm, hn, hng) is 
  nasalized, with the nasal consonant 
  itself often weakening or wholly eliding. 
   
  The typical Pan Chákan is soft-spoken, with 
  much less pitch and volume intonation than in 
  more “expressive” Tsolyánu. Country people are 
  noted for speaking somewhat slowly, in a drawl, 
  with many pauses; they also have a very 
  distinctive falling sentence intonation. City 
  people speak faster, more like most of Tsolyánu, 
  but are still “quiet” by Tsolyáni standards. As the 
  Tumíssans say, “A howling argument fought in 
  Butrús sounds like a boring story told in Bey 
  Sü”. 
   
  Grammatically, the local dialects are not too far 
  removed from standard Tsolyáni. There is some 
  preference for using separate adjectives and 
  demonstrative modifiers over bound personal 
  attitude and demonstrative affixes, where many 
  Tsolyáni would use the latter. Demonstrative 
  pronouns are also sometimes used in place of 
  first and second person pronouns; 
  it is 
  suggested that this helps with the Chákan taste 
  for understated sarcasm, without being blatant 
  or overly offensive. It may actually be due to 
  contact 
  influence 
  from 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  language. 
   
  That said, vocabulary more than grammar is the 
  barrier to easy intelligibility with other dialects of 
  Tsolyáni. There are many loanwords from 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  — 
  particularly 
  dealing 
  with 
  bureaucracy, estate administration, and business 
  and commerce, but found in all domains of the 
  lexicon. There are also many archaic (Classical 
  Tsolyáni) forms that are still in use in Pan Cháka 
  and particularly in Butrús. Finally, there is the 
  large body of vocabulary that is simply alien to 
  Tsolyáni and Mu’ugalavyáni alike, and that is 
  particular to the vernacular of the Chákas, of 
  Pan Cháka alone, or even of a given speaker’s 
  home district. Aside from those mentioned 
  elsewhere in the text and footnotes, a few more 
  will be described below. 
   
  Pan Cháka has a number of “counting series”, in 
  which the normal words for the numbers are 
  replaced 
  by 
  numbers 
  taken 
  from 
  older 
  languages. The most widely known dialectal 
  counting series contains only the numbers up to 
  eight (nsut, nju, sóji, zóchi, társang, gémsang, 
  pran, tlan), though with the addition of some 
  variable extra terms it can be modified into a full 
  rhyming octal numeral system. This series is 
  used, for example, in the “school-names” given 
  to a single generation within a clanhouse. It is 
  also commonly used to number groups or teams 
  of people, chapters or volumes of books, 
  sequences of fields or paddies, or rooms in a 
  house. It is also very widely encountered in 
  
  42 
   
  42 
   
   
  nursery rhymes, children’s play-songs, and 
  lullabies. At the same time, certain types of 
  exchanges and certain entire professions or 
  trades require that the ordinal or cardinal series 
  of Mu’ugalavyáni or Classical Tsolyáni be used. 
  Loggers, among others, use the Classical 
  Tsolyáni numbers in speech; but when counting 
  pieces of timber or planks they use their own 
  private argot. 
   
  The normal Tsolyáni word for “year” (nalün, but 
  also heard as nilün or simply lün in these parts) 
  is used in Pan Chákan speech only when 
  specifying durations of time (e.g., “three years 
  from now”, “last year”). When counting the 
  years in a calendar or chronology or giving 
  someone’s age, other terms are normally used: 
  Tsolyáni or local terms for “rains” or “monsoon” 
  are most common, followed by “harvest” or 
  “burning” — i.e., to prepare swidden fields for 
  planting. 
   
  Some Tsolyáni words have different meanings in 
  the Pan Chákan dialect. For example, in 
  standard modern Tsolyáni, siunél means “to sing 
  (non-religious music)” while terú means “to 
  recite poetry”; in Pan Cháka, though, siyunél 
  means “to chant, to recite poetry” and terú “to 
  chant (religious texts)” or “to sing (in general)”. 
   
  Another oddity in vocabulary is the widespread 
  avoidance of speaking the (current) emperor’s 
  name aloud. Pan Chákans prefer to use the 
  ruler’s regnal title (e.g., “the Stone On Which 
  the Universe Rests”). Among officials and public 
  servants in Pan Cháka, uttering even the word 
  “emperor” (kólumel) is tabooed when speaking 
  about one as a person, living or dead; instead 
  the ancient Chákan euphemism for ruler is 
  employed: “the orphan” (tsávang, tsúgang, 
  sábgang, etc, depending on local dialect and 
  level of speech). 
   
  A final quirk is based on another taboo, this one 
  with specific historical origins. Due to one of the 
  more bizarre edicts of a particularly crazed ruler 
  during the Time of No Kings, it was forbidden to 
  utter or write the pronoun tlúmi (second person 
  plural low-status) in reference to individuals over 
  the age of 64 (including the dead), and also for 
  individuals over that age to use the word at all. 
  Instead, 
  the 
  word 
  lisháng 
  was 
  to 
  be 
  substituted.32  
   
  For reasons not gone into in this short overview, 
  the prohibition survived and adapted, with the 
  term tlúmi now being permissible to write and 
  again used in addressing the dead, while the 
  ban on speaking it has survived and even spread 
  to the word tlúmiyel (second person plural 
  medium-status). 
  Folk 
  etymology 
  considers 
  tlúmiyel 
  to 
  be 
  a 
  pluralization 
  of 
  tlúmi; 
  accordingly, the modern taboo-replacement for 
  tlúmiyel is lishángyòu (usually transcribed in 
  writing as the standardized Tsolyáni lishangyal). 
  Nowadays these two are widely used as general 
  terms of address to any elderly person not of 
  aristocratic or noble status (“Lishángyòu, how 
  are you? Isn’t it hot today?”). 
   
  Written 
  language 
  also 
  has 
  a 
  few 
  local 
  peculiarities. The local cursive form of the 
  Classical Tsolyáni script is now called the 
  “priests’ script”, as it has been preserved in the 
  temple schools and scriptoria. It is also still used 
  by some conservative families, both within the 
  city and elsewhere in the protectorate. The 
  canonical form of the Classical Tsolyáni script (in 
  its strict sense) is found only in inscriptions. 
  With the (marginal) exception noted above, 
  none of the autochthonous writing systems of 
  the pre-Engsvanyáli Chákas are still understood, 
  let alone used; very little of them is even 
  preserved. 
   
  The modern Tsolyáni script is still called “the 
  Secretariat’s script”, as it was first forcibly 
  introduced 
  to 
  Pan 
  Cháka 
  through 
  that 
  government office. As described further on, the 
  calligraphy found in government service in Pan 
  Cháka is of execrable quality; this is an aesthetic 
  judgment rather than a practical one, as it is 
  generally 
  readable 
  — 
  merely 
  crude 
  and 
  uncultivated, 
  to 
  a 
  more 
  discerning 
  eye. 
  Numerals are still written using the older 
  convention (like the Mu’ugalavyáni), in which 
  the series is read right-to-left (in the same 
  direction as the text proper) and the decimal 
  number is written after each digit (e.g., 781 is 
  written as “7 100 8 10 1”). Some still use the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  numeral 
  symbols 
  (mostly 
                                                  
  32 The etymology of this term has been hotly debated in Pan 
  Cháka for centuries, but seems no closer to a definitive 
  solution than ever. 
  
  43 
   
  43 
   
   
  artisans, shopkeepers and small merchants), 
  while the Classical Tsolyáni numerals continue to 
  be employed by many others (particularly 
  artists, writers, and members of the literati 
  classes). Also likely inspired by Mu’ugalavyáni 
  practice is the use of shorthand symbols for 
  many of the most common suffixes (-koi, -kh, -
  yal), prefixes (hi-, tla-), and auxiliaries (gual, 
  muní, mal ul gual). 
   
   
  ELEMENTS OF CULTURE 
   
  Mu’ugalavyáni and Tsolyáni customs are frankly 
  often similar, and in intermediate Butrús there 
  are only a few differences from the Tsolyáni 
  norm that can be attributed to the Red Hats. But 
  there are some local peculiarities that are 
  strange to metropolitan Mu’ugalavyáni and 
  Tsolyáni alike. For example, while births and 
  marriages are usually private events, observed 
  only within the family, funerals as well as 
  birthday celebrations are held relatively publicly 
  in the central and southern Chákas. Some of 
  these will be described below, particularly 
  customs involving the lifecycle.  
   
  Naming 
  Many Chákans have two (and more rarely three) 
  personal names, which are passed on from 
  generation to generation in an overlapping 
  pattern: A B -> B C -> C D, etc. As the second 
  name is generally only taken after the child has 
  been given the name, this should actually be 
  considered an example of teknonymy, in which 
  parents are named after children.33  
   
  Chákans also have more complicated customs 
  for pre-adult naming than the rest of Tsolyánu. 
  Immediately at birth, an infant is given a “milk-
  name”, a nonsense word or fragment of baby-
  talk. It is not until the child is six months old 
  that this is replaced by a regular childhood name 
                                                  
  33 For example, the High Priest of Dra in Butrús was 
  originally named Thagádi hiSsolén; after the birth and 
  naming-ceremony of his daughter, Ra’át, he became 
  Thagádi Ra’át hiSsolén. Ra’át (herself a priestess of Lord 
  Hnálla) has since become Ra’át Nu’úme, after her son. 
  Unusually, Ra’át is a member of a different lineage than her 
  father (the Nyókka), having inherited into her mother’s more 
  powerful family; nevertheless, the choice to add her name to 
  his own was still her father’s to make. 
  (almost universally called the “school-name”, 
  even if the family is not of the educated 
  classes). Often the school-names given within a 
  clanhouse during a single generation are based 
  on one or another of the old numbering series in 
  the ancient Chákan vernacular. It should also be 
  noted that one’s school-name might continue to 
  be used as an adult between members of the 
  literati 
  stratum 
  (e.g., 
  priests, 
  lay-priests, 
  officials, 
  physicians, 
  scholars, 
  poets 
  and 
  essayists, and so forth), so long as they are of 
  the same generation. 
   
  An adult name is given to boys and aridáni girls 
  between the ages of twelve to sixteen, possibly 
  somewhat later than is usual in Tsolyánu; non-
  aridáni women do not receive their adult name 
  until they are married. As with school-names, 
  there is an intra-generational pattern within 
  given clanhouses. In this case, all given names 
  in a generation share one element (usually a 
  single syllable), which when added together 
  over many generations spell out a couplet. To 
  further complicate matters, there is a limited 
  custom of avoidance of personal names of three 
  syllables, based on a prohibition of such names 
  during the Time of No Kings. Legend has it that 
  the grandfather of the last king of the House of 
  the Ink-Flower received a prophecy that a man 
  with a three-syllable personal name would 
  ultimately bring about the downfall of his 
  dynasty, and so he banned such names 
  everywhere in his domain. (Several of the 
  leaders of the Íto coup that toppled the Ink-
  Flowers indeed had such names, including all 
  the first Quincumvirs that headed the resulting 
  new government.) Most Pan Chákans today are 
  still cognizant of this ban and attempt to 
  observe it, though it is not considered to be 
  applicable 
  to 
  people 
  (or 
  families) 
  that 
  immigrated to Pan Cháka after the fall of the 
  Ink-Flower dynasty (399 B.S.). Particularly 
  conservative or superstitious Pan Chákans, in 
  fact, have been known to inquire anxiously 
  about the family history of those they meet who 
  have three-syllable personal names. Perhaps 
  predictably, the avoidance of using such names 
  has become a minor hallmark and point of pride 
  for families to demonstrate their ancient roots in 
  the region. 
   
  Finally, the higher strata of society are given to 
  adding additional special names and sobriquets 
  
  44 
   
  44 
   
   
  for specific functions or spheres: literary names 
  (often a single writer may have several such 
  noms-de-plume), official names (added when 
  attaining high rank in the government, or upon 
  retiring), or religious names (adopted upon 
  entering the priesthood; or in some cases, 
  bestowed upon particularly devout members of 
  the laity).  
   
  Such naming customs are not unknown outside 
  the Chákas, of course; but in addition, Pan 
  Chákans have two additional types of these 
  extra names. The first is “house names”, or 
  “studio names”, which are acquired based on 
  one’s occupancy of a specific dwelling, wing, 
  suite, or office space to which a conventional 
  name is attached. These may be handed down 
  from owner to owner for many years, regardless 
  of family relationship or even friendship. The 
  second is the “ancestral hall name”, sometimes 
  called a “posthumous name”. In those regions 
  and clanhouses that practice ancestor worship, 
  every member of the lineage that participates in 
  the cult practices34 is given a special, secret 
  name upon coming of age. While living, this 
  name is used only within the physical confines of 
  the ancestral temple, during sacrifices and 
  prayers, and only in speaking to the ancestral 
  spirits (never to one’s living family members). It 
  may also never be written down except in the 
  sacred genealogy kept in the lineage shrine. 
  After death it may be used publicly, and it is the 
  name used in tomb inscriptions and monuments, 
  burial rituals and commemorative rites, and 
  even unofficial (literary or personal) biographies 
  and encomia.  
   
  A further point of interest is that the idiom in 
  Pan Cháka has traditionally been to give one’s 
  name as being “from” such-and-such a lineage, 
  rather than “of” such-and-such a lineage, as is 
  the Tsolyáni norm. (I.e. mik- instead of hi-; 
  though in old writings one also finds the more 
  archaic regional variant mok-.) Today this 
  custom has almost faded away except in a few 
  remote 
  villages, 
  among 
  exceptionally 
                                                  
  34 I.e. Adult men and aridáni women born into the lineage, 
  as well as any men or aridáni women who are adopted into 
  it and give up their birth ancestors. Non-aridáni women can 
  only participate in some of the rituals of ancestor worship for 
  the lineage they were born into, which in the vast majority 
  of cases is different from that which they marry into and live 
  with as adults. 
  conservative 
  (or 
  actually, 
  neo-traditionalist) 
  families, and as a wry mock-archaism among 
  the cognoscenti; but one can still often find it in 
  normal use in documents, literature, inscriptions, 
  and other written records that originated in Pan 
  Cháka as late as the seventeenth century. Given 
  that many lineages in the area are unknown 
  outside Pan Cháka, this can cause confusion to 
  an uninformed Tsolyáni reader or listener, who 
  may think that he is being told that the person 
  comes from some obscure village or district. 
  Also, as in some other parts of Tsolyánu, the 
  preposition is frequently altogether deleted 
  when speaking or writing about someone 
  deceased.  
   
  Life-Cycle Observances 
  Birth and puberty parties. Generally these are 
  not that different from elsewhere in Tsolyánu 
  (see Appendix A for details on some of the 
  latter), though one local birth custom is that the 
  new parents exchange red-painted káika eggs 
  with each other and their families, and again 
  when the child goes through puberty rites. 
  Newborns are always swaddled in red cloth (or 
  ruddy-colored bark, if the family is poor); using 
  other colors is believed to risk warping the 
  child’s character and health in later life. In 
  Butrús and a few smaller towns dominated by 
  the Ítos and their clients, a type of windsock 
  called a “worm” is hung on a flagstaff above the 
  clanhouse the first night after a male child is 
  born, and left to blow in the wind for 108 nights 
  thereafter; they are also raised en masse every 
  night of Dohála 12 and left up through the long 
  New Year’s season, being taken down only 
  between Hasanpór 10 and 14. These “worms” 
  are simple tubes of cloth or paper, open at one 
  end and half-closed at the other; they are 
  usually of plain white or tan color, sometimes 
  with undulating or jagged repeating designs in 
  black or ochre paint. This certainly derives from 
  practices of Sárku-worshippers, but is now 
  common to followers of all religions — though 
  many devotees of the Lords of Stability prefer to 
  call these kites “snakes” or “cloud-flags”. 
   
  Weddings. In the morning, the families of the 
  bride and groom perform a brief but formal 
  ritual of touching together long sashes of blue 
  cloth (often plaited with silver threads) while the 
  bride and groom themselves, garbed all in black 
  
  45 
   
  45 
   
   
  or darkest indigo clothes, exchange sashes of 
  this type. At a banquet later the same day, the 
  wedding is finalized when they drink ginger-
  flavored liquor together from a cup made of a 
  two-lobed calabash cut lengthwise. At this 
  dinner-party their parents may yet again 
  exchange red-painted eggs, this time with the 
  new in-laws; these eggs are often further 
  decorated with glued-on designs of metal foil or 
  colored paper. The bride and groom must not 
  lay eye on ropes or cords during the eve or day 
  of the wedding, or the entire event must be 
  postponed until another auspicious date. 
   
  Funerals: 
  Pan 
  Cháka 
  has 
  some 
  funerary 
  practices that would seem odd to visitors from 
  elsewhere in Tsolyánu, and some of the beliefs 
  and customs around burial and grieving seem 
  particularly strange. The most immediately 
  obvious point is that funerals (or at least major 
  portions of them) are fairly public events, to 
  which people outside the family — even 
  neighbors and strangers — are welcomed and 
  invited as a matter of course. The rich and 
  powerful treat them as festival-days or feasts 
  are observed elsewhere, with the doors thrown 
  open to any who wish to come. 
   
  Infants, that is, babies who die before receiving 
  their school-name, are always buried within their 
  clanhouses, often under the main courtyard or 
  kitchen-yard. This is done because their spirits 
  are considered too young and dependent to 
  know where else to go, and it is considered best 
  to keep them around the house where they will 
  be most comfortable.  
   
  As in the rest of Tsolyánu, the family of the 
  deceased holds a feast forty days after the 
  funeral35 as a kind of “wake” to celebrate the 
  soul (báletl) of the deceased’s arrival at the Isles 
  of Teretané (a voyage which takes exactly forty 
  days). Folklore is confusing on this matter, 
  though, as it is also widely believed that at the 
  first dusk after a person has died, the deity 
  called “the Grandfather” (q.v.) appears to take 
  the soul and conduct it into the afterlife — by 
  wing rather than boat, as this entity is distinctly 
  aerial and not nautical. This latter belief has 
  caused no small amount of controversy and 
                                                  
  35 n.b., not forty days after the death. 
  accusations of heresy over the centuries.36 The 
  learned argue that this second belief refers only 
  to the hlákme, or “intellectual spirit”, of the 
  deceased, which is normally considered to 
  remain in proximity to the tomb or physical 
  corpse for eternity, in what is conventionally 
  referred to as “the dreamless sleep”. Over the 
  last few centuries this solution has gained 
  acceptance in the few Tsolyáni circles concerned 
  with the matter, and has been gradually 
  spreading into Pan Chákan popular beliefs as 
  well. Many now believe that one’s “soul” goes 
  off into the Isles of Teretané under Belkhánu’s 
  remit, while one’s “spirit” goes to Sárku’s 
  dominion, said to lie directly below the Chákas: 
  the dim, perfectly still, empty open country 
  outside of Time. 
   
  A further element in funeral beliefs is that the 
  following autumn, during the harvest festivals, 
  the soul of the dead person can return home in 
  the form of a spirit-bird. These revenants are 
  always malicious and evil, even if the deceased 
  was saintly; they are said to be the wicked or 
  angry aspect that every person has. 
   
  Those who commit suicide by hanging are 
  collected by the demigod Hmwú’ukha (q.v.), 
  who whisks not only the soul (báletl) but also 
  the mind (hlákme) and “shadow” (chusétl) away 
  to a special afterlife, leaving only the physical 
  body behind. Accordingly, the dead in such 
  cases receive the simplest funerary rites, with 
  almost no ritual or religious content — they are 
  already gone out of all reach. Those who drown 
  themselves, on the other hand, are usually 
  immediately cast out of their clan and lineage 
  registers (and the bodies hurled into garbage 
  pits), but by then it is usually too late to avoid 
  the shame and divine disfavor they have called 
  down upon their relatives. 
   
  In Pan Cháka, as in Mu’ugalavyá and until 
  recently Do Cháka, there are legal restrictions 
  on the type and scale of memorials permitted in 
  the Cities 
  of the Dead. 
  In addition to 
  specifications of the allowed ground area, height 
  of construction, number of pylons or columns, 
  etc. (all dependent upon the status of the clan 
                                                  
  36 Chákan plays and dramas still rely on the comic figures of 
  absurdly pedantic and abstruse academics and priests split 
  into two warring factions of the “Floaters” versus the 
  “Fliers”; there are also proverbs referring to them. 
  
  46 
   
  46 
   
   
  and the public or official rank of the deceased, 
  of course), there are sumptuary laws restricting 
  the display of long epitaphs or memorial 
  inscriptions on the outside of the tombs. In Pan 
  Cháka, at least, the need that the wealthy and 
  aristocratic feel to compose lengthy funerary 
  biographies and encomia is accommodated by 
  placing them on the interior of the tomb (or 
  burying them directly with the body), with a 
  copy placed in the ancestral-hall temple.37 In 
  some clans and districts, only the copy in the 
  ancestral hall is prepared, and the deceased are 
  put to rest in almost entirely un-inscribed tombs. 
  This can make identification of older tombs 
  difficult, if the name of its inhabitant has been 
  destroyed in the few exposed places it may have 
  been written or carved. The Pan Chákan 
  response to this has been on one hand to visit 
  one’s family graves more often than most 
  Tsolyáni do, in order to perform maintenance as 
  well as pay respects, and on the other hand to 
  put more emphasis on the ancestral shrine in 
  the clanhouse as the most important locus of 
  the spirits of the departed. The lower and 
  middle classes rarely make any effort at an 
  enduring physical tomb-marker, and in fact 
  purposely construct them of wood, often with 
  the posthumous name and qualifications painted 
  on. Worshippers of Sárku, of course, place far 
  more importance on the preservation and 
  endurance of their physical remains and tombs. 
   
  Food and Drink 
  An old Tsolyáni saying has it that a man’s home 
  is in his mouth twice over — that is, one’s 
  accent or dialect and one’s diet or taste in food 
  are the two things chiefly responsible for making 
  the inhabitants of different regions different. 
  Objectively, cooking is perhaps actually the 
  more distinctive; it is also the element that 
  inspires the most pride of place, regardless of 
  the overwhelming cultural prestige of the central 
  metropolises. A man from remote and rustic 
  Kerunán may feel that the sartorial fashions and 
  literary works of his home town are inferior and 
  embarrassing compared to those of Jakálla or 
  Bey Sü, to say nothing of his accent, but will 
  likely defend his native cuisine against its 
  detractors in either city. Wealthy or even 
                                                  
  37 The most common term for these texts in western 
  Tsolyánu is “records of merit”, and the euphemisms and 
  terminology used elsewhere in the empire are hardly known. 
  middle-class Tsólyani who travel any distance at 
  all invariably take a cook with them from home, 
  so they will not be wholly dependent on “foreign 
  fare”. 
   
  The gourmands of the Five Empires — and 
  anyone who travels outside his or her native 
  place — are accordingly well aware of a vast 
  array of regional cuisines. That of the Chákas is 
  generally characterized by roasting and broiling 
  meats and vegetables, often with scented woods 
  or the addition of leaves, bark, or flowers to the 
  fire to create strongly flavored smoke. Pan 
  Cháka in turn has its own particular styles of 
  cooking and serving food, and in Butrús it often 
  is specially contrasted with the cuisine of 
  Úrmish: the Pan Chákan use of sour or salty 
  marinades where the despised Úrmishites use 
  sugary glazes, for example, or even the 
  Butrusséne preference to de-bone meat and 
  poultry and slice it into strips or chunks before 
  serving, compared to the large, whole pieces 
  served at tables in Úrmish. Among more general 
  prejudices, Chákans tend to think of the food of 
  central Tsolyánu as literally being cooked with 
  feces, as the dung of chlen, hma, and hmélu is a 
  widely used fuel in these more deforested 
  regions.38 The use of mincemeat in stuffing 
  whole birds, cuts of meat, or fish, quite normal 
  in Urudái province and much of Tsolyánu, is rare 
  in Pan Cháka, and even meat stuffing in 
  dumplings or pies is considered a bit outlandish; 
  yet certain vegetable, grain, or fruit stuffings are 
  quite normal. The famously elaborate and spicy 
  food of Jakálla, so popular in much of the 
  empire, is looked upon in Butrús as an exotic 
  specialty, not really desirable except for special 
  occasions: Butrusséne complain that they like to 
  be able to taste their food, and not just the hot 
  peppers. 
   
  The main meal is dinner, just after sunset. In 
  Pan Cháka one eats on a mat with individual 
  plates, often of wood or lacquerware rather than 
  pottery — which is used primarily for large 
  serving platters and tureens. Such vessels, if 
  used to hold soup, stews, sauces, or other liquid 
                                                  
  38 In fact, of course, even so food is not cooked directly in 
  dung fires, but other cooking methods are resorted to—
  boiling and steaming, or baking in sealed ovens or griddles. 
  The partisan of Chákan cuisine would counter that this 
  renders food mushy and tasteless, not crisp and sizzling like 
  it should be. 
  
  47 
   
  47 
   
   
  condiments, are customarily placed on low 
  tables or stands just above the floor; the other 
  serving trays and plates are placed directly upon 
  the 
  dining 
  mats. 
  Spoons 
  and 
  hard 
  flat 
  breadsticks are the main utensils.  
   
  Dna is the staple grain, though several strains of 
  rice are widely grown in dry fields throughout 
  the protectorate and in wet paddies in a few 
  locales in the eastern part (particularly in the far 
  southeast). A native Chákan grain (réjür) 
  resembles Terran buckwheat in flavor and 
  appearance and may be directly descended from 
  it. It is less productive and less nutritious than 
  dna or rice; nevertheless, its hardiness and 
  undemanding nature make it an important crop 
  of the tribal peoples and even some outlying 
  civilized villages. In modish Butrús society, 
  porridges or noodles made from its triangular 
  seeds are considered “quaint” and fashionably 
  exotic or rustic; everywhere else, the grain is 
  looked down upon as the food of paupers and 
  savages. 
    
  Other food cultigens include tsü and hlütán, 
  whose seeds and leaves, respectively, produce 
  cooking oils; sweet greenish-yellow ukó melons, 
  yellow kao and large, yellow-shelled, orange-
  fleshed dzíya squashes, bottle-shaped, greenish 
  choqún and chestnut-flavored shiryá tubers, and 
  dmi and mnósa roots (which are processed into 
  sugar, or in the case of mnósa, consumed 
  directly). There are many more, of course. 
   
  Freshwater fish and reptiles are an important 
  food source, and are domesticated along with 
  káika, hmélu, and hma — though the latter two 
  fare poorly in the western region’s dense 
  forests. 
  Neither 
  the 
  climate, 
  forage, 
  nor 
  predatory neighbors there are conducive to 
  large or healthy flocks of these animals. Many 
  Pan Chákans outside Butrús do not have much 
  of a taste for the meat of either beast. Tsi’íl, on 
  the other hand, is raised in quantity in vast, 
  “free-range” ranches of scrub forest in some 
  regions of the tableland. While the meat of the 
  tsi’íl is not considered as good as hma or hmélu 
  to Tsolyáni, it is certainly more available and 
  familiar to the average Pan Chákan. Venison 
  from various types of forest deer are the most 
  prized red meat in the protectorate; except for 
  city-dwellers 
  with 
  daintier 
  and 
  more 
  sophisticated palates, most native-born Pan 
  Chákans would even prefer the gamy meat of 
  the nyar to that of a hmélu. 
   
  A number of recipe-books for Butrús exist, as 
  they do for every city and major town in the 
  empire (even for Penóm, as incredible and 
  unpalatable as it might sound).39 The delicacies 
  of Pan Cháka include melon pickled in rice mash, 
  dried and pounded snake flesh, raw venison 
  sliced paper-thin and half-cooked in a powerful 
  marinade of cloves and acidic citrus juice, 
  smoked and peppered whole loaches, carp 
  marinated in cider lees with anise and steam-
  broiled in leaf wrappers, smoked deer tongues, 
  crystallized honeyed ginger root, dry-roasted 
  bamboo shoots, salted dry plum preserves, 
  black-fried fritters of a type of choqún tuber 
  mashed together with heavy seasoning of chili 
  pepper and garlic, tiny baked “dumplings” filled 
  with honey and dusted with nutmeg, and salted 
  rinds of the thorny lime. A dish of the imperial 
  haute cuisine that is served in Avanthár, made 
  from pure white rice, milk, and camphor, chilled 
  in ice, was originally a Pan Chákan summer 
  delicacy.  
   
  Locally made red ngálu wines are rather poor, 
  though the mash brandies are famous — Pan 
  Cháka is widely accepted to be the source of the 
  finest in the Five Empires, and presumably 
  beyond. These brandies are exported in large 
  quantity, and are customarily served throughout 
  the empire as a postprandial liqueur. However, 
  Pan Chákan etiquette reserves mash (or any 
  other sweet or fruity liqueur) strictly as an 
  apéritif, and regards its misuse as a grave lapse. 
  Particularly 
  upright 
  provincials, 
  or 
  those 
  especially devoted to the appreciation of this 
  beverage, may consider the Tsolyáni use of it 
  disrespectful, possibly even an insult. At parties 
  and banquets, or even informal gatherings, the 
  Pan Chákans share with the Islands and the 
  Flats of Tsechélnu the custom of counting 
  rounds of drinks with little bamboo sticks, often 
  polished, painted, or otherwise decorated; they 
  have the further regional peculiarity (shared 
  only with northern Vra) of drinking their wine or 
  beer through reed straws. 
   
                                                  
  39 See The Wake-Up-the-Courtyard Stove, Master Nikórva’s 
  System of Dining, The Two Chákas Recipe Manual, or the 
  large but somewhat inferior “Far Western” volume of the 
  Heshtú’atl Reign Encyclopedia of Foods and Kitchenry. 
  
  48 
   
  48 
   
   
  Mash (and its various cousin-species of citrus-
  like fruits) is also the basis for several local 
  varieties of tsuhóridu, with the addition of secret 
  jungle 
  herbs 
  and 
  substances. 
  None 
  are 
  particularly famous, or even good — the genus 
  of 
  marsh 
  plants 
  that 
  lend 
  tsuhóridu 
  its 
  characteristic flavors (and neuropathies) is 
  absent from Pan Cháka. Beer is widely drunk by 
  the lower classes, and there are various further 
  special liquors not known outside the province 
  — distilled grain alcohols (generically a’ásh, but 
  in Pan Chákan dialect more often known as 
  snésib or sné’ib) flavored with forest drugs such 
  as vanilla (used ceremonially during celebrations 
  for the new year), ginger (drunk at weddings 
  and funerals), and cinnamon (a seasonal 
  specialty of the early summer months); sugar 
  toddies from the coconut-flower palm (mümülí), 
  “wines” from tree sap and bark (zádhanj), and 
  so forth. Mead (saumkhét) is made by the 
  foresters and farmers of the west, as well as the 
  tribesmen of the inner jungles. It is sometimes 
  made from wild honey, which is itself a powerful 
  (often frighteningly hallucinogenic) intoxicant. 
  While the savages are said to drink it for 
  recreational purposes, in the rest of Pan Cháka 
  it is reserved almost exclusively for use in ritual 
  libations and religious offerings. These same 
  tribesmen also manufacture a distilled alcohol 
  that is similar in flavor to sour mash whiskey, 
  but based mostly on a type of seedpod that 
  grows in the jungle. The Páchi Lei, on the other 
  hand, shun all but the weakest alcohols, and in 
  their place drink only fruit juices that have been 
  slightly fermented. 
   
  The lower classes in the city and country — 
  particularly farther west, and into southeast 
  Mu’ugalavyá — also smoke a kind of dried leaf 
  (sáttsa) twisted and rolled into cigars of various 
  sizes, which is a quite powerful stimulant. This 
  habit has gradually spread to a few members of 
  the urban middle classes whose clans are based 
  in Pan Cháka; in order to add a veneer of 
  decorum and tastefulness, they prefer to inhale 
  the smoke through baroquely wrought hookahs 
  imported 
  from 
  Salarvyá. 
  The 
  far 
  more 
  widespread and socially acceptable practice of 
  chewing 
  reddish-brown 
  blades 
  of 
  narcotic 
  hnéqu, a type of grass, is often lumped together 
  with 
  the 
  use 
  of 
  sáttsa, 
  though 
  their 
  pharmacological effects are quite opposite. The 
  Pijenáni are infamous throughout the Five 
  Empires as heavy consumers of such drugs, and 
  as there is a small population of them in Butrús, 
  they are customarily associated with the use, 
  abuse, and purveyance of these and other 
  drugs. 
   
  Extramural dining and entertainment is more 
  widespread than in most parts of the Five 
  Empires. 
  The 
  imperial 
  government 
  has 
  encouraged this for centuries, believing that in 
  this 
  hotbed 
  of 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  espionage, 
  religious antagonism, clan feuding, and Íto and 
  Chákan secessionism, it is an advantage to have 
  more private affairs conducted in public, thus 
  hopefully discouraging secret meetings and 
  plotting. Private dinners in a clanhouse between 
  individuals or families who are not old friends 
  are considered, in Butrús, to be slightly queer. It 
  follows that the premises of local winemaking 
  clans have extensive facilities for rental and 
  catering. While normally only private rooms are 
  available, 
  the 
  light 
  construction 
  of 
  these 
  facilities, often using folding or sliding screens or 
  even just hanging blinds, makes for a relatively 
  public and exposed setting — uncomfortable 
  and vaguely scandalous or at least undignified 
  to Tsolyáni. The major examples of such 
  establishments, in descending prestige, are 
  those of the Weeping Stone, Topaz Elixir, 
  Granite Lintel, Arch of Heaven, and Bright Sword 
  clanhouses. There are many others, though they 
  are more obscure and in many cases distinctly 
  proletarian. All of these also prepare meals “to 
  go”, usually of certain house specialties and 
  other complicated dishes that 
  one’s 
  own 
  clanhouse kitchen cannot prepare on the spot, 
  or cannot be troubled to prepare. These are 
  delivered anywhere in the city by runners 
  carrying distinctive towering bamboo frame-
  packs loaded with lidded round lacquer trays. 
   
  Entertainments 
  Games include tsáhlten, of course — originally 
  Mu’ugalavyáni, legend has it that this game was 
  introduced to Tsolyánu through Pan Cháka, and 
  it is still hugely popular and has many expert 
  players 
  hereabouts. 
  The 
  lower 
  classes, 
  particularly in farming villages in the north, also 
  play what might be simplified variants of this 
  game, basically like the game of “pick-up-sticks” 
  and 
  also 
  introducing 
  some 
  religious 
  or 
  
  49 
   
  49 
   
   
  mythological components.40 Beyond this, people 
  are especially fond of the old-fashioned ovánsh 
  game of Mu’ugalavyá and the Chákas (similar to 
  dominoes, or a simple form of mahjong), and 
  also play board games like daqú and dénden, 
  dice (kévuk), cards (nárku, and various local 
  variants, mostly still using the antique lozenge-
  shaped cards of the west). Even some humans 
  play the Páchi Lei games of checkers (kahmü-
  bau, in Pan Chákan dialect; perhaps an 
  attempted loanword from Páchi Lei) or treng, 
  ferociously 
  difficult 
  memory-concentration 
  puzzles made of wooden blocks.  
   
  The great popular sport is marotlán and also 
  me'éra, a Mu’ugalavyáni form of the game using 
  a large leather ball (kicked with the feet and 
  legs) instead of a scepter. The standard game 
  requires twenty players, in four simultaneously 
  competing teams of five players each. In the 
  countryside, many youths play me’éra in fallow 
  fields and village squares, who would never 
  think of attending (let alone playing in) a game 
  of marotlán — the game of big-city easterners 
  and foreigners. For some rustic communities, 
  the 
  sport 
  has 
  ritual 
  or 
  even 
  religious 
  connotations, as it does in Pijéna (though losing 
  teams or players are never sacrificed, as may 
  happen in that country). Tree-climbing or pole-
  scaling is another popular competitive sport, of 
  obvious backwoods origins but now invested 
  with a tradition of worthiness even in the city; 
  foot-racing is the other common athletic sport, 
  with competitive games such as wrestling, 
  archery, and club-throwing mostly restricted to 
  certain festivals or fairs and to young men of a 
  military bent. 
   
  As recreation (rather than as subsistence), 
  hunting is popular only among the high 
  aristocracy, and then most often those of non-
  Chákan origin; there is also not much hawking 
                                                  
  40 For example, some of the rural villages where Sárku and 
  Durritlámish are worshipped call the sticks “bones” and 
  “worms”, while some of the farmers to the south, in the 
  forest fringe where the Ksárulian forest-god Mentutéka is 
  worshipped, call them “trees”. In the former versions, there 
  are two types of stick: the “bones” representing specific 
  heroes, 
  literary 
  characters, 
  demigods, 
  or 
  famous 
  personages, and the “worms” representing nameless valets, 
  scribes, bearers, messengers, and so forth; each type has a 
  specific point value. The latter version does not introduce 
  these characters, but instead varies the thickness and length 
  of the sticks. 
  to be had in the protectorate. Hunting is too 
  closely associated with the uncivilized and 
  savage inhabitants of the forest and frontier to 
  be an acceptable pastime for the cream of 
  society — especially those who are conscious of 
  being looked down upon by the sophisticates of 
  central Tsolyánu. The irony that those same 
  Tsolyáni sophisticates consider hunting to be a 
  decidedly aristocratic hobby apparently is lost on 
  their Pan Chákan counterparts — who if 
  anything, take the rare opportunity to look down 
  their noses at the “tribalistic” tastes of Tsolyáni 
  who come to the southwest for hunting. That 
  being said, the old custom of “hunting” human 
  beings on special lands is still practiced in Pan 
  Cháka by a few wealthy aristocrats who are (for 
  the most part) devoted to Vimúhla and Chiténg. 
  The Legion of the Givers of Sorrow has 
  nonetheless 
  vehemently 
  objected 
  to 
  the 
  channeling of prisoners of war to this frivolous 
  and effete pastime, and other factions in the 
  capital of the protectorate have gradually made 
  it increasingly difficult to skim off convicted 
  criminals from the prisons for these purposes. 
  Nevertheless, the inmates of the Sixteen Fields 
  in 
  Butrús 
  are 
  further 
  discouraged 
  from 
  attempting to escape by dark and lurid rumors 
  of prowling procurers for these huntsmen. 
   
  The hirilákte arenas are not so light and 
  harmless as on Vra, but neither are they as 
  bloody and grim as in some other cities. The 
  one in Butrús is particularly used for athletic 
  competitions (footraces, pole climbing, club-
  throwing), and especially marotlán or me'éra — 
  sometimes against teams from Mu’ugalavyá. 
  While these games can become quite heated, 
  passions run at least as high when Úrmish 
  teams visit. Armed units of the City Militia and 
  occasionally garrison troops are needed to 
  protect a visiting side — and sometimes the 
  home teams — after particularly tense games. 
  There is an “official” match every week (on 
  Daunél), and additional games are often held as 
  well — either special matches, or exercise and 
  practice games. The duels and armed combats 
  most often associated with the arenas are also 
  common and well attended in Butrús, but 
  generally do not instill the same mass fervor in 
  their fans and viewers. 
   
  Gambling is popular in Pan Cháka, as elsewhere 
  in the Five Empires; the Butrusséne in particular 
  
  50 
   
  50 
   
   
  are perhaps more than usually fond of wagers, 
  though on the outcomes of competitions more 
  than on 
  indoor games. 
  Weekly 
  marotlán 
  matches, gladiatorial combats and other arena 
  games, 
  incidental 
  qadárni 
  battles, 
  athletic 
  competitions at certain civic festivals, and the 
  annual Kite Festival all see large quantities of 
  money change hands; there are even unofficial 
  (and technically illegal) miniature arenas where 
  humans or trained animals are pitted against 
  one another, despite the constant attempts of 
  the government and their lawful licensees to 
  forbid such gambling. While the Swamp Folk of 
  Mu’ugalavyá are famous as the most dedicated 
  and compulsive gamblers in the world, most of 
  this orderly and law-abiding species who visit 
  Butrús rapidly find they prefer to stay within the 
  sanctioned franchises and venues — the criminal 
  element in the “informal sector” is more than 
  they care to deal with. 
   
  There are several local circles of poets, literary 
  critics, wine connoisseurs, gourmands, sculptors, 
  flower gardeners, butterfly fanciers, songbird 
  breeders, and other enthusiasts and collectors. 
  By old local tradition, the members of these 
  clubs, cliques, or circles all take pen names 
  (typically of ancient Chákans of the Bednálljan 
  era) by which they refer to each other in their 
  role as connoisseurs — thus Zhántlo hiShesánu 
  is known only as “Snéship” within the local 
  clique of enological snobs of which he is the 
  controversial leader at the moment.  
   
  Art has taken on distinctive local forms in the 
  isolated protectorate, and is further influenced 
  by local materials — such as in woodwork 
  (sculpture, 
  mosaic, and especially parquet 
  flooring), 
  lacquerware, 
  and 
  paper 
  crafts. 
  Calligraphy is a cultured pastime, as in the rest 
  of the Five Empires,41 but in the Chákas so is 
  watercolor painting, while lurid woodblock prints 
  appeal to the vulgar masses of the cities. Pan 
  Cháka is well known (and perhaps stigmatized, 
  among the cognoscenti of the Five Empires) for 
  sometimes using bark as a writing material — a 
  fundamentally crude habit, no matter how 
  elegantly practiced.42 Despite this reputation, 
                                                  
  41 Though note the poor level of calligraphy that is prevalent, 
  perhaps even expected, in government service in the 
  protectorate. 
  42 In thoroughly civilized parts of the Five Empires, writing-
  paper is always, and only, made from reed strips; pulp-
  good paper scrolls and loose sheets are made 
  hereabouts, with a wide variety of raw materials 
  being employed — hruchán reed, hemp, kudzu, 
  mulberry, bark of cryptomeria and several other 
  trees, bamboo, and rosewood. A variety of 
  grades and styles are produced, including 
  tissues 
  and 
  cardboards. 
  A 
  whitish-green 
  "needle-stamped" variety is especially prized, as 
  well as several colored, tinted, and perfumed 
  varieties. Pan Cháka also manufactures block-
  printed fabrics and papers.  
   
  The paper industry in Pan Cháka has contributed 
  to sports and games as well: kites are a 
  distinctive local tradition. They are not mere 
  playthings of the young, but used in many local 
  festivities and sporting competitions, and are 
  also exported. Shadow puppets and magic 
  lanterns are manufactured in Butrús and a few 
  neighboring 
  towns, 
  and 
  performances 
  are 
  popular throughout the region; a few performers 
  even take these provincial peculiarities on the 
  road to other parts of the Empire.  
   
  Performing Arts 
  Epic poetry is highly respected and practiced at 
  a good level of polish; there are a number of 
  other schools and genres of performance art, 
  largely of a local character and somewhat lesser 
  prestige, if more popularity. Most are associated 
  with specific forms of music, and so these 
  various art forms are treated together here. 
   
  By ancient Pan Chákan prejudice, women are 
  not permitted to sing, while men are barred 
  from playing instruments with plucked strings. 
  These near-taboos are still powerful, and many 
  teachers will refuse to instruct students of the 
  inappropriate gender, while other Pan Chákans 
  will shun performances and performers that 
  break this custom. As western Tsolyáni and 
  Mu’ugalavyáni tradition is that poems are sung 
  or chanted rather than recited, this has meant 
  that in extremely conservative and status-
  conscious Pan Chákan families, women have 
  been forbidden to perform poetry themselves 
  (though certainly not to compose or write it). 
  This has in turn led to the custom of having 
  female poets choose or designate certain men 
                                                                         
  based papers are reserved for envelopes, wrappers, tissues, 
  and decorative purposes only. 
  
  51 
   
  51 
   
   
  — often siblings or cousins — as “second 
  throats” (as the local idiom has it) for any public 
  performances 
  of 
  their 
  compositions. 
  The 
  prohibition of female singers also led to the 
  development of traditions of countertenors and 
  of castrati singers, in order to reach the higher 
  vocal ranges.  
   
  There is also a similar prejudice against men 
  performing in the popular (secular) stage plays; 
  this is weakened in recent generations but can 
  still be seen to be in effect in several companies, 
  including the hereditary theater troupe of the 
  Governor’s Court. Its influence is strong in most 
  established theatrical schools and repertoires, 
  and the general consensus remains that men 
  simply aren’t constitutionally equipped for the 
  stage. 
   
  Together these two traditions have led to 
  outsiders viewing all performers from Pan Cháka 
  as likely to be sexual deviants of one sort or 
  another. Pan Chákans themselves don’t consider 
  this to be the case at all, despite their own 
  prejudices about such matters, and resent the 
  condescension 
  of 
  depraved 
  Tsolyáni 
  who 
  themselves have no sense of propriety. 
   
  There are many different musical notations and 
  tablatures used in Pan Cháka, depending upon 
  the school or tradition, genre of music, specific 
  repertoire, type of instrument, and period of 
  origin. As in other parts of the Five Empires, 
  several are based on alphabetic (or syllabic) 
  notation, which allows for coding text into tunes. 
  This is complicated by the fact that many of the 
  scripts used for this kind of notation are either 
  archaic or foreign, and often both.43 Unique to 
  the two Chákas are a family of more or less 
  related notations for percussion ensembles; they 
  are often said to be of Pe Choi origin, but this is 
  actually very doubtful — it appears to be a 
  thorough reworking of a short-lived and fairly 
  obscure 
  tradition 
  of 
  choral 
  notation 
  that 
  originated ultimately in northwest Salarvyá and 
  southeast Tsolyánu. 
   
  The musical scales are all diatonic, as in most of 
  the Five Empires; among Pan Chákan musicians 
  there is some specialized vocabulary and 
                                                  
  43 E.g., the main tablature used by the schools of Music of 
  the Palm in Pan Cháka is based on characters drawn from 
  the Dúru’ob script of medieval Livyánu. 
  symbolism surrounding them that may be worth 
  noting. 
  Among 
  other 
  semi-mystical 
  “correspondences”, each of the five tones is 
  associated with one of the seasons: Rains, 
  Spring, Summer, Winter, and Autumn, while the 
  two 
  semitones 
  are 
  associated 
  with 
  the 
  intercalary days and with a so-called “central 
  season”, a period of one or two weeks in late 
  summer of importance to the old Chákan 
  phenological 
  almanacs 
  and 
  folk-calendars. 
  Furthermore, each has a special literary or 
  esoteric name, depending on whether the scale 
  is ascending or descending.44 
   
  Almost regardless of the genre of music being 
  performed, Pan Cháka’s style of singing is quite 
  distinctive — in the words of one urbane 
  Tsolyáni traveler in the reign of Hejjéka III, “the 
  lament of a congested tsi’íl”; his commentator 
  later glossed this as “a nasal wail whose 
  character is fundamentally baritone, but cannot 
  be relied upon as such; it is displeasing to the 
  proper ear”.45 Little has changed in the 
  intervening millennium. The singing of Butrús 
  and most of the protectorate runs to a rather 
  mournful tone (to metropolitan ears), with a 
  wide reach in pitch but generally located in the 
  lower registers (in part due to the traditional 
  prohibition on female singers), and sharing the 
  characteristic 
  nasal 
  quality 
  and 
  breathy 
  overtones of local speech. 
   
  With percussion instruments ranging from tiny 
  hand-drums to giant split-log hanging drums of 
  the forest peoples, Pan Cháka also shares in the 
  regional use of sets of tuned xylophones to 
  produce complicated harmonies over syncopated 
  rhythms. While this is currently considered 
  characteristic of the Pe Choi, many partisan 
  Chákan scholars argue that the syncopated beat 
  is originally of human Chákan origin, which was 
  adopted by the Pe Choi only during the Time of 
  No Kings even as it fell out of fashion elsewhere. 
  Here in the south many of the wooden 
                                                  
  44 For the curious, those for the major tones are as follows: 
  “The Tall Spring”, “The Double Pipe”, “The Middle Spine”, 
  “The Southern Spine”, and “The Responsive Pipe” for 
  ascending scales. For descending scales the symbolic name 
  of the first tone, corresponding to the rainy season, is 
  disputed, but the other four are “The Lady Is Bathing”, “The 
  Well-to-Do Guest”, “The Laws Are Equal”, and “The 
  Unwearied”. The names of the semitones vary according to 
  one’s source and are often ignored in this scheme. 
  45 Sources not cited in ms.; author has not yet clarified. 
  
  52 
   
  52 
   
   
  instrument sets known in Do Cháka are replaced 
  with stone and some bronze instruments, which 
  creates a quite different quality of sound — 
  sharper, harsher, and more vibrant. Up to five 
  players, each with at least one “set” of this type, 
  supported by as many as four players of single 
  drums and gongs, may together form one 
  consort. 
   
  The transverse flute is extremely rare in Pan 
  Cháka, and found only in foreign households 
  and in certain pieces of Engsvanyáli ritual music 
  that call for it. Butrusséne consider the 
  transverse flutes too outlandish, “silly” and 
  “undignified” to be fit even for vulgar, popular 
  music. 
  Contemporary 
  popular 
  songs 
  from 
  elsewhere in Tsolyánu or Mu’ugalavyá are 
  always quickly adapted for more suitable 
  instruments, and even classical epic music has 
  been re-scored for the native equivalents. 
  Instead, vertical flutes are employed in Pan 
  Cháka.46 They are normally made of bamboo, 
  but are almost invariably wrapped in the inner 
  bark of certain trees to prevent splitting, and 
  thus look as though they are wooden; some 
  may also be lacquered. There are always seven 
  finger holes, and there is a codified set of nine 
  different sizes of flute (from 24 chóptse to 39 
  chóptse in length, or approximately 32-52 cm) 
  to allow for harmonization with the pitch of 
  other instruments or the vocal performance. 
  There are only two exceptions to this set of 
  nine. One is the tákhtiu, a thicker, six-holed, 
  extremely long flute (either 48 or 51 chóptse in 
  length, 64 or 68 cm, depending upon which of 
  two traditions is followed) with a deep hollow 
  breathy tone. It requires powerful lungs to play, 
  and is used only in certain pieces of ceremonial 
  music. The tákhtiu is always made of plain, 
  unlacquered bamboo with only thin bands of 
  bark shrunk around each tip to prevent splitting. 
  The other exception is the ninári, also six-holed, 
  thinner, fixed at a length of 20 chóptse (27 cm), 
  with a piercing high pitch, and used only in a 
  (different) type of court music of Livyáni origin. 
   
  The sra’úr, a bowed six-string “lute” of the Five 
  Empires, is distinctly less popular than in the 
  rest of Tsolyánu, and is mostly favored by 
  immigrants, 
  self-consciously 
  cosmopolitan 
                                                  
  46 Note that these are flutes, not recorders, in that they have 
  a simple open mouthpiece with no “lip” to produce the 
  whistle of a genuine recorder. 
  aficionados, 
  visitors, 
  and 
  also 
  in 
  the 
  performance of current popular airs just recently 
  arrived in Pan Cháka from elsewhere. Such 
  imported “popular music”, if it catches on for 
  any length of time, is usually soon re-scored for 
  more locally familiar instruments. 
   
  A local variant of the sra’úr, probably belonging 
  to the same lineage, is an instrument called 
  sepánukhan or di’án in the local vernaculars. It 
  is smaller than the sra’úr, with a much narrower 
  body and an elongated shape (similar to the 
  medieval-renaissance rebec of Earth, but slightly 
  larger); it is carved and molded from a single 
  piece of wood with a smooth taper of body into 
  neck. It has three strings as opposed to six, and 
  uses a disproportionately long bow. It is high-
  pitched, bright-toned, nasal, very forceful, and 
  surprisingly loud. This makes it excellent for 
  public or outdoor performances, though its 
  piercing quality makes it unsuited to accompany 
  other instruments or vocals and so it is often 
  used in interludes or bridges between narrative 
  or dialogue pieces. In modern times (e.g., the 
  last few centuries) it has been used to try to 
  imitate (or at least suggest) human voices in the 
  background or accompaniment to narrative 
  performances. 
   
  The “twinned moon lutes” are short-necked, 
  circular-bodied instruments with four strings of 
  twisted gut. They are plucked with the pads of 
  the bare fingers, which is almost unheard of in 
  the Five Empires and considered distinctly 
  vulgar, almost brutish; on the other hand, it 
  allows their players more expressiveness and 
  nuance than the use of plectrums. Even in Pan 
  Cháka they are very much instruments of the 
  lower classes. One is larger than the other with 
  a deeper pitch and more frets, while the other is 
  smaller and higher-pitched; they are always 
  played in pairs, never individually. Because of 
  their shape and sizes, they are associated with 
  the two moons, and the faces of the bodies are 
  often 
  painted 
  or 
  dyed 
  green 
  and 
  red, 
  respectively. The larger is called múikkil, and the 
  smaller munkága. While they might look to a 
  contemporary Terran like sawed-off banjos, they 
  have a sound quality closer to that of a 
  European Renaissance lute or orpharion (in the 
  case of the múikkil) and a mandolin (in the case 
  of the munkága). This is the one plucked string 
  instrument 
  that, 
  among 
  traditionalist 
  Pan 
  
  53 
   
  53 
   
   
  Chákans, it is acceptable for men to play in 
  mixed company — according to some apologists, 
  because “feminine” plectrums are not used. 
   
  In Pan Cháka, the classical instrument is the 
  ténturen. It even has its own patron deity in 
  Butrús, Menwási (an Aspect of Wurú). The 
  ténturen is 18 hoi (2.4 m) long, and has two 
  separate 
  resonance 
  chambers 
  and 
  twelve 
  plucked strings; different models have nine or 
  thirteen drone strings.47 The strings, all of the 
  same length and spun from a type of güdru silk, 
  are attached parallel from end to end, with 
  movable bridges (usually either of rosewood or 
  ivory) about 6 cm in height placed under them 
  for tuning selection. One player, sitting to the 
  right, presses the fret-points (which, it should be 
  noted, are not marked or ridged on the 
  instrument in any way) and manipulates the 
  strings manually, while the strings are actually 
  plucked by a second player (seated to the left) 
  who wears special metal finger-caps, thimble-
  like with ridges or catches.48 The body itself is 
  carved from a hollowed-out log of paulownia, 
  with the head and tail made of ebony, coral-
  tree, or rosewood, and the six feet and the two 
  fixed bridges at either end fashioned of the 
  same material. The ténturen has a quite flat 
  face, except for the version with thirteen drones, 
  which has a distinctly domed face and requires 
  special practice in order to play. Usually a solo 
  instrument, the ténturen is very rarely (if ever) 
  played with more than one in consort, but is 
  often used with other instruments in ensembles. 
  The instrument is taught in schools of music 
  under the patronage of the temples of both 
  Avánthe and Wurú; the latter is strongly 
  associated with the performance of certain epic 
  pieces that employ the ténturen extensively. The 
  standard general ténturen repertoire consists of 
  about 340 pieces, not counting those that are 
  considered private property of certain temples. 
   
  Another peculiarly local development that has 
  gone in and out of fashion over the centuries is 
                                                  
  47 Roughly speaking, nine in the schools of Yan Kor, most of 
  Mu’ugalavyá, and Tsolyánu west of the Mssúma River, and 
  thirteen in northwestern Mu’ugalavyá, eastern Tsolyánu, and 
  Salarvyá; Livyánu preserves both traditions, though the 
  thirteen-stringed version is currently the more prestigious 
  and considered more ancient (incorrectly, as it happens). 
  48 Some of these can be quite valuable in their own right for 
  their histories and famous owners, as much as for their 
  workmanship. 
  the group of instruments going under the 
  heading of “demi-ténturen” (eshátènturen in 
  Tsolyáni); in the Chákan vernacular, they are 
  known as kembírdi, képürri, or sábadeqèl. As 
  the Tsolyáni name suggests, they are essentially 
  scaled down models of the larger instrument. 
  These instruments were preserved for several 
  centuries as the cheaper, easier alternative to 
  the ténturen, favored by the girls and ladies of 
  middle and upper-middle class merchant or 
  artisan families in Butrús and the major 
  prefectural towns. Several schools of music exist 
  for this instrument, each with different styles, 
  ornamentation, 
  standard 
  repertoires, 
  and 
  reputations; some of these grew entirely out of 
  the merchant classes, particularly those scored 
  for groups of these instruments playing in 
  consort. These “house” schools continue to be 
  intimately associated with or even restricted to 
  specific clans. There are also a few “old 
  classical” schools, generally tiny, fragmented, 
  and fiercely xenophobic, and one or two 
  “contemporary” schools that have built a 
  repertory and following around adaptations of 
  more modern tunes taken either from other 
  regions or from other instruments. The most 
  prestigious, however, is the “new classical” 
  school, founded somewhat over four hundred 
  years ago by Téssure Sráhlan, a priestess of 
  Wurú (d. 1971 A.S.). Téssure collected a vast 
  number of scores and selected 289 of them, 
  which along with her annotations on style and 
  ornamentation became the basis of the neo-
  classical tradition (and also deeply influenced 
  the other schools). In all, the instruments have 
  a total repertoire of about six hundred pieces, 
  not counting those kept secret by certain 
  “house” schools. 
   
  Regardless of the name, these instruments are 
  all very similar in construction. They are smaller 
  than the ténturen, between 10 hoi 5 chóptse to 
  14 hoi (1.4-1.87 m) in length and 17-19 chóptse 
  (22.7-25.3 cm) wide. Their top is slightly more 
  rounded or arched than the full ténturen. The 
  kembírdi has fourteen strings (seven plucked 
  and seven drone, though sometimes two of the 
  drone strings are removed), the képürri either 
  the same or with sixteen (eight plucked and 
  eight drone), and the sábadeqèl only ten (six 
  plucked and four drone). Strings are of silk or 
  metal, and those of a given material are all of 
  the same length. Movable bridges for tuning are 
  
  54 
   
  54 
   
   
  smaller and lower than for the ténturen, and 
  there are very fine small frets placed on the 
  board of the instrument itself. One hand of the 
  musician touches the strings (pressing frets and 
  bridges to change pitch, dampening or cutting 
  off notes, or shaking strings for extra vibrato) 
  while the other hand plucks. Players of the 
  kembírdi et al. use a flat, large plectrum rather 
  than the thimbles of the ténturen proper; 
  different schools or traditions vary the shape of 
  these. There are also two performance lineages, 
  overlapping the boundaries of school and 
  tradition, which are distinguished by the use of 
  vibrato: the “narrow” and the “long” (roughly, a 
  more buzzing versus a more twangy style, 
  respectively). In general, these instruments 
  sound a little like a metal-strung slide guitar, 
  ranging into banjo quality (though played slower 
  than either of those instruments typically are). 
  The demi-ténturen’s rich timbre and subtle 
  articulatory potential makes it even more 
  popular than the ténturen with some music 
  connoisseurs of Pan Cháka; it is certainly 
  becoming preferred over the ténturen proper by 
  performance virtuosos.  
   
  The alshúrran is a hammered string instrument, 
  very similar to an ancient Terran dulcimer, which 
  apparently developed as a fusion of Do Chákan-
  style xylophones and the demi-ténturen. It has 
  only five strings that are played, plus five more 
  drone strings, and it is even smaller than the 
  demi-ténturen. Thanks to its portability, it is 
  closely associated with the performance of 
  puppet 
  plays 
  (both 
  shadow-puppets 
  and 
  enchanted puppets) and other itinerant or 
  seasonal storytellers. 
   
  Regarding the genres and types of music 
  performed on these instruments, Pan Cháka is 
  quite provincial but not conservative. Its 
  musicians continually innovate, but prefer to do 
  so based on their own local stock of styles and 
  musical 
  history. 
  Musical 
  influences 
  from 
  metropolitan Tsolyánu are somewhat resisted 
  and infiltrate only slowly; Tumíssa and Bey Sü 
  are the main points of reference for the elites, 
  but at the popular level influences can come 
  from almost anywhere. Of course, the classical 
  repertoire of Engsvanyáli music is common to all 
  civilized 
  nations 
  — 
  it 
  is 
  merely 
  the 
  instrumentation and ornamentation that are 
  distinctively local.  
   
  For the music accompanying the epic poems, 
  Butrús fairly closely follows the standard set of 
  scores, 
  which 
  are 
  mostly 
  of 
  (putative) 
  Bednálljan, or at least antique, origin. A few 
  epics or sections thereof have variant traditions 
  (whether textual, musical, or performance-
  related), particularly those kept by the temples 
  of Wurú and Vimúhla and those maintained in 
  certain clan traditions (Íto, Red Mountain, etc.). 
  Instrumentation can be a bit unusual too, as 
  Chákan-style percussion instruments (and their 
  more complex rhythms) have replaced the 
  traditional simple drum section. Many epics, and 
  at least portions of all of them, have been re-
  scored 
  for 
  the 
  demi-ténturen, 
  and 
  these 
  bastardized 
  pieces 
  are 
  sometimes 
  even 
  performed in public. 
   
  The “Music of the Palm” (that is, of the palm of 
  the hand) is supposedly the music composed for 
  the entertainment of the kings of the Ink-Flower 
  House during the Time of No Kings. It has 
  always been meant to accompany dances, but 
  there is considerable controversy among various 
  schools about which dance goes with which 
  piece of music, and whether certain dances are 
  in fact “authentic” at all. This music was 
  originally gay and sprightly, and many of its 
  tunes were apparently of foreign origin; they 
  have since been re-orchestrated and arranged 
  to be slower and more solemn, as befits the 
  modern conception of “court music”. Ironically, 
  many of these songs had been re-scored for the 
  lithophones and “percussion consorts” by the 
  Ink-Flowers, but then during the Second Empire 
  were 
  re-re-scored 
  to 
  more 
  “classical” 
  instruments with strings and winds. This has 
  contributed to their strangeness; however, 
  serious scholars have traced down some ancient 
  Livyáni popular airs in this court music. All music 
  of this genre is purely instrumental, though 
  there is an entire specialized vocabulary for the 
  performance of this art (both the dance and the 
  music), which uses a large number of foreign 
  and ancient words, and practically constitutes a 
  secret trade cant. Special instruments are used 
  in this genre, such as mouth organs, certain 
  reeded woodwinds, a non-standard type of flute 
  (above), as well as the ténturen or demi-
  ténturen. It is still a living tradition, with new 
  compositions imitating the style and form of the 
  
  55 
   
  55 
   
   
  old repertoire still being added — though 
  exceedingly slowly. 
   
  The “Music of the Back of the Hand”, also 
  known 
  as 
  “the 
  Southern 
  Music”, 
  refers 
  specifically to the style of syncopated percussion 
  music of the Chákas that is orchestrated in the 
  Pan Chákan (i.e., southern) fashion, using metal 
  or stone gongs and drums as well as wooden or 
  bamboo ones. The Ítos were traditionally the 
  patrons 
  of 
  this 
  music; 
  nevertheless, 
  the 
  repertoire is all ultimately based on folk music of 
  the backwoods farmers and peasants. It is now 
  considered “classical” only because of its 
  antiquity, 
  lack 
  of 
  telltale 
  lyrics 
  or 
  vocal 
  accompaniment, and its long history of noble 
  patronage. During the periods of Pan Chákan 
  independence under the southern branch of the 
  Ítos, this was in fact the official court music. The 
  original lyrics have long since been dropped, and 
  in the majority of cases are completely unknown 
  except for the title of the piece (typically the 
  first line of the lyrics). Even more than the other 
  indigenous “classical” or court tradition (the 
  Music of the Palm) this is still a living repertoire, 
  with new compositions being steadily added. A 
  common form is based around the constraint of 
  a set number of beats or notes in a piece — 
  usually 125. A similar practice is also found in 
  literature for the ténturen, but is not considered 
  so fundamental. 
   
  “Revenant plays” are dramatic performances of 
  a highly conventionalized, formulaic structure. 
  The dialogue (and frequent long monologues) is 
  of course all in verse, but is delivered in both 
  sung and spoken sections, each quite short, that 
  alternate rapidly and rather unpredictably. There 
  is a distinct musical genre to accompany this, 
  possibly the most up-tempo and “cheerful” to 
  the Tsolyáni ear, and thus relatively popular with 
  non-natives. Its orchestra includes three flutes, 
  a ténturen and a sepánukhan or di’án (or two 
  demi-ténturen in some pieces), something 
  similar to a snare drum, one wooden and one 
  metal gong, and a high-pitched metal chime. 
  With the exception of the ténturen, all the 
  instruments’ scores are played fast; very fast by 
  Pan Chákan standards. The fixed plot of these 
  plays is that a traveler (usually aristocratic or at 
  least 
  well-educated) 
  visits 
  a 
  historically 
  significant place and encounters a troubled or 
  distraught commoner there, who reveals an 
  unusual degree of knowledge of the place’s 
  history. The traveler tactfully suggests the 
  commoner is in fact dead, a ghost or spirit of 
  someone connected with the locale’s history, at 
  which point the suspect breaks down. After an 
  intermission, the character of the ghost presents 
  a monologue narrating the key event at the 
  place, while other performers act it out in 
  pantomime. The character of the traveler from 
  the first act is always absent from the second, 
  but that actor either plays the ghost in the 
  second half (“indoor staging”) or the chief 
  character in the pantomime (“outdoor staging”). 
  The main character of the pantomime may be 
  the same “person” as the ghost of the framing 
  narrative, of course; in such cases, the same 
  person is present on the stage in the form of 
  two actors simultaneously. Only some of these 
  plays deal with nearby places and histories; 
  many are tales from elsewhere, even foreign 
  countries. As might be expected, the genre is 
  closely associated with the worshippers of 
  Sárku, and probably originates in didactic 
  performances by priests on holy days. Due to 
  their peculiar cultural policies, the Ítos (and to a 
  lesser degree their clients) look down on these 
  performances, though it is rumored that several 
  have in fact been written by members of the Íto 
  clan under assumed names. 
   
  The Pan Chákan tradition of plays performed by 
  shadow-puppets 
  has 
  also 
  developed 
  its 
  particular form of narrative song and supporting 
  music, even though it has not really acquired an 
  independent body of dramatic pieces or scripts. 
  The “puppet music” has since spread, at least in 
  Pan Cháka, to any performance that uses 
  puppets (including the magical kind) and in 
  some cases even to pantomimes. As the 
  companies performing shadow-puppet plays are 
  normally itinerant, the instruments are all small 
  and portable. It requires a small consort of an 
  alshúrran to produce the main melody, a 
  sepánukhan or di’án for a drone sound and 
  harmony, and one or more hand drums and 
  rattles. Vocal style is the “standard” Pan Chákan 
  one (vide supra) for sung performances; some 
  shadow-puppet plays are entirely recited, or 
  even, most peculiarly, partially spoken in 
  ordinary prose.  
   
  “Lectern tales” are a genre of drama that 
  developed from public readings of devotional 
  
  56 
   
  56 
   
   
  texts by priests (specifically, of the temples of 
  Hnálla, Thúmis, and Belkhánu). These public 
  recitations were encouraged during the Gracious 
  Inquisition, and as their popularity grew, the 
  content of the texts became increasingly less 
  related to purely doctrinal and catechistic 
  subjects. 
  Nowadays 
  this 
  genre 
  is 
  mostly 
  concerned with tales of adventure, martial 
  exploits, swashbuckling, and even the deeds of 
  criminal “heroes” — famous smugglers, for 
  example; peculiar, given its origins. Despite their 
  dubiously improving content, popularity with the 
  masses, and rather austere style, “lectern tales” 
  are now considered a relatively prestigious form 
  of entertainment by the elites of Butrús; some 
  even hire better-known performers to entertain 
  at private parties. There is only one vocal part, 
  delivered by a narrator sitting behind a low desk 
  with a scroll-stand (originally used to hold the 
  scripture), who recites the story in a distinctive 
  style, alternating swiftly between slow, drawled 
  sections and rapid-fire quick delivery. The texts 
  are always in verse, though of a very lax and 
  casual sort; rather than being based on meter, 
  the form relies on line-initial alliteration and 
  internal rhyme. 
  Musical accompaniment is 
  minimal — hand drums and wooden clappers 
  and a few metallophones, which are used only 
  to fill gaps in narration.  
   
  It may also be observed that religious plays in 
  general in the Chákas, regardless of temple or 
  tradition, are always extremely solemn and 
  serious on a superficial level (though perhaps 
  somewhat bizarre to those not familiar with 
  them), but many times conceal humorous 
  elements. These lighter moments are usually 
  missed or misunderstood by outsiders, due to 
  the Chákan taste for dry, low-key, poker-faced 
  humor. Central Tsolyáni are often disappointed 
  or shocked to find the Gods bursting into 
  currently popular street songs at thematically 
  appropriate intervals. 
   
  The genre most often referred to as “new city-
  music” takes its inspiration from on the painfully 
  sentimental, overblown, sugary lyric songs of a 
  certain age in Jakálla (themselves previously 
  adopted from an older wave of Vrayáni love 
  songs), but sets them to Chákan instruments — 
  particularly the twinned moon lutes — and 
  singing styles, conferring a jarringly mournful 
  tone. More cultivated persons look down on this 
  style as a disgusting bastard music, as well as 
  being simple-minded and shallow, but it’s still 
  popular, and a pleasure — guilty or not — for 
  many. Despite the Chákan reputation for 
  understated sarcasm, it seems likely that many 
  actually enjoy the rampant emotionalism more 
  than appreciating the irony of performing 
  saccharine love songs in almost dirge-like style. 
  Unlike the other genres described here, this is 
  almost purely an urban phenomenon, limited to 
  Butrús; Pan Chákans from rural or small-town 
  backgrounds are no more likely to be familiar 
  with this music, let alone enjoy it, than people 
  from Tsolyánu proper. 
   
  Originating in the slow, stylized chant used in 
  the hiriláktes to announce gladiators, duelists, 
  special events, and their noble sponsors, “arena 
  singing” has since spread to become a lower-
  class tradition in the city. In it, the words are 
  enunciated so slowly and drawn out to such a 
  degree that they are practically unrecognizable. 
  “Arena songs” are accompanied only by long 
  wooden clapper-blocks (wielded by the singer) 
  and are always performed solo; they are as 
  close to a purely a cappella genre as one finds in 
  the Five Empires. Particularly famous performers 
  of arena singing can be highly esteemed, 
  whether they are actual announcers at the 
  hirilákte or are pure amateurs. During the 
  heyday of Kékkunu Chu’úra (d. 2318) it was not 
  uncommon for people to go to the arena simply 
  in order to hear his performance of the schedule 
  and major announcements; they would leave for 
  refreshments during the events. 
   
  Staying close to its roots, pretty much any list of 
  things or objects can be turned into one of these 
  “songs”. The subject can be practically anything 
  — members of marotlán teams from famous 
  historical matches, the names of check-stations 
  along the sákbe road to Tumíssa, names of 
  famous folk-preachers and wandering monks, 
  varieties of mash fruit, a famous courtesan’s 
  lovers, etc. The oldest composition of this genre 
  outside the arenas proper is simply a long, 
  extremely 
  slowly-intoned 
  inventory 
  of 
  the 
  various tools used in fighting house-fires; it is 
  considered 
  the 
  “property” 
  of 
  the 
  semi-
  professional fire brigades of the city, who object 
  
  57 
   
  57 
   
   
  strenuously to others performing it in public.49 
  The most recent song of this type is a list of 
  “desert words” — geographical features, types 
  of sand and gravel, weather patterns, special 
  tools and clothing, and so forth — all copied 
  from a popular folk-play of two generations ago 
  that dealt with the tribulations of a poor 
  caravaneer of the Desert of Eyági. (The original 
  play is now best preserved by the Dark Flame 
  clan and largely forgotten by the rest of 
  Tsolyánu.)  
   
  “Work group songs” are derived from songs and 
  chants used by laboring and work parties, 
  especially corvée labor teams; their tempo has 
  since slowed greatly but they preserve much of 
  the 
  rhythmic 
  regularity 
  and 
  leader-chorus 
  structure. As with “arena songs”, the words are 
  stylized, and each syllable is drawn out to such 
  lengths that the original meaning is hard to 
  follow. “Arena singing” is difficult to understand; 
  “work group songs” are almost impossible. They 
  are also less prestigious than the arena songs; 
  only the lower classes of society (urban society, 
  at least) would admit to listening to this music, 
  let alone performing it. The oldest seem to be 
  based on the songs of loggers and timber-
  haulers; the style later spread to the songs of 
  miners, and most recently the work-songs of 
  other regions of Tsolyánu have been adopted 
  into it. For example, a song of the bargemen of 
  southeast Tsolyánu (a “canal shanty”?) which 
  was popular in its own right forty or fifty years 
  ago has been modified to fit this style. There is 
  always one leader or soloist, and a chorus of no 
  more than nine others (often as few as one 
  additional singer). Oddly, drums are never used 
  to accompany this music; sometimes one of the 
  bowed instruments is used. 
   
  Scholastic Learning 
  There are three major temple schools in Butrús. 
  The Crucible of Glowing-Hot Skulls is the most 
  conservative; for example, it still teaches the 
  Classical Tsolyáni script as part of the standard 
  curriculum — although the language itself is no 
  longer used as the medium of instruction, as it 
                                                  
  49 The temple of Chiténg has begun to perform it in 
  “unofficial”, non-ceremonial circumstances, which has met 
  with sharp criticism and a lawsuit may be impending—
  assuming the volatile firemen don’t take matters into their 
  own itchy and brawling-prone hands. 
  was until about a century ago. It is attended by 
  devotees of the two gods of fire and by a few 
  others who disapprove of the Thúmisite and 
  Ksárulian schools. The Pavilion of Vision in the 
  Pearly Clouds is the former of these, and 
  educates most followers of Stability (with the 
  exception of a few worshippers of Karakán who 
  send their children to the Crucible); the Tower 
  of Indigo Thought is its counterpart for the 
  followers of Change. The other temples have 
  only priestly colleges, which do not conduct 
  primary-level 
  education 
  (with 
  very 
  rare 
  exceptions). Some of the larger and wealthier 
  clans have established private academies for 
  their children; the most notable of these is the 
  Colonnade of Ancestral Teachings in the Íto clan 
  compound. While there are very few Ítos in 
  Butrús, the clan not only draws in Íto children 
  from the estates and manors of the countryside, 
  but has opened enrollment in its family school to 
  worthy members of their old clients — such as 
  the Black Domed Tomb, the secretive Striding 
  Incantation clan of puppeteers, and even some 
  humble and rather obscure rural clans. 
   
  The quality of medicine is about average for 
  Tsolyánu, though it is worth noting that 
  dentistry is a specialty of the local temple of 
  Keténgku. 
  Until 
  recently, 
  retarded 
  and 
  malformed infants were usually sacrificed (per 
  the Mu’ugalavyáni custom), but nowadays the 
  temples of Avánthe and Keténgku, respectively, 
  take more of them in. Many ailments are tied to 
  local beliefs that would be alien even to other 
  Tsolyáni, e.g., that fevers are caused by a 
  particular family of nocturnal spirits. Exactly one 
  thousand of these ghosts are birthed each 
  morning by mysterious specter called a “fever-
  auntie”, who then devours them when they 
  return home each night.50 A number of local 
  pharmacoepia exist, but it should be noted that 
  in the Five Empires a “local pharmacoepia” deals 
  with local diseases, not with locally produced 
  herbs or medicines. As it is believed that 
  sickness is caused by demons or spirits, these 
  are considered to have their local and regional 
  peculiarities — just as animals or people do — 
  and thus require treatment that is specific to 
                                                  
  50 For the record, a pharmacopoeia written in the 1400s and 
  preserved in the temple of Thúmis at Butrús notes that a 
  “fever auntie” is about the size and shape of the wheel of a 
  chlen-cart, but is never clearly seen—only heard rustling 
  through the deepest thickets of the forest. 
  
  58 
   
  58 
   
   
  their native place. Thus, the guides to “local 
  medicine” for Pan Cháka completely ignore 
  many native plant and animal preparations that 
  are highly esteemed elsewhere, and contain 
  recipes full of exotic medicines that must be 
  imported from abroad.51 
   
  The city boasts some reputable scholars and 
  collections on military history, Mu’ugalavyáni 
  affairs, the Dragon Warriors, and Chákan 
  regional history. A notable academic feud has 
  been carried on across many generations (and 
  centuries) between two schools of regional 
  historians of the Engsvanyáli age: that of 
  Tumíssa on one hand and that of Pagús and 
  Butrús on the other. While the latter school 
  originated in Pagús and its most famous 
  proponents 
  have 
  been 
  based 
  there, 
  its 
  adherents in Butrús have been diligent, highly 
  argumentative and even more productive, and 
  are generally better known to a Tsolyáni 
  audience.  
   
  Outside of the official writings of the modern 
  government and temples, the native private 
  historiographical tradition has been limited to 
  annalistic formats, where events and individuals 
  are 
  presented 
  in 
  a 
  rigid 
  chronological 
  framework, with no topical arrangement — even 
  biographies of important individuals are almost 
  unknown in, for example, the various Íto clan 
  historical compilations. Archeology is fairly 
  advanced, and over the centuries the city’s 
  academies have produced a fair number of 
  noted “antiquarians with shovels”, as the 
  disparaging Tsolyáni idiom puts it.  
   
  Flower and bird fanciers have reasonably 
  sophisticated taxonomies of their interests; they 
  tend to be loosely under the patronage of the 
  temple of Avánthe and of Ksárul. The fairly well 
  known illustrated handbook for bird breeders, 
  Master Mulákna’s Annotated Portfolio of the 
  Little Gentlemen and Ladies of the Rattan 
  Palaces, was written by a Butrusséne, and his 
  descendants preserve his aviary-studio to this 
                                                  
  51 See Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold or possibly 
  The ABCs of Circuit Listening. Perhaps consulted for 
  entertainment as much as medical wisdom is Mu’ónikh de 
  Parshál Tlakichéngguyal HiButrús par Churé (“How to Tell 
  the Butrús Ailments, ‘Get Out!’”), treating with the sickness-
  demons particular to Butrús. 
  day.52 In a more economically vital field, the 
  most famous agronomic manual for the region is 
  the ninth-century Mu’ugalavyáni Jáishe Fiú’s 
  Handbook of Techniques Essential for the 
  Subsistence of the Commonality; it is considered 
  authoritative for both the Chákas and much of 
  eastern Mu’ugalavyá, and has spawned a long 
  line of commentators and imitators. Mineralogy 
  and speleology are very advanced, in no small 
  part due to the plethora of limestone caves and 
  sinkholes as well as the importance of iron and 
  cinnabar mining in the region. The extensive 
  collected works of a Thúmisite spelunker and 
  poet 
  (Tólungget 
  Dhihrún, 
  2306-2349) 
  are 
  preserved in the city and perhaps worthy of 
  perusal. The Black Theocrat is believed to have 
  employed gunpowder in his bid for power, but 
  the secrets of its use are long forgotten — 
  though accounts of his rockets, mines, and 
  bombs survive well enough, and antiquarians 
  preserve a few strange muskets. The little 
  noisemaking and flash- or spark-generating 
  firecrackers manufactured locally for use in 
  certain festivals of the folk religion are not even 
  recognized as being related to these other, more 
  malign, uses of gunpowder. 
   
  Cartography is slightly more advanced in Butrús 
  than in the rest of Tsolyánu, thanks in large part 
  to 
  lingering 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  influence. 
  The 
  building 
  of 
  three-dimensional 
  models 
  is 
  particularly popular — not limited to the sand 
  tables of military generals, but also used in 
  engineering, water conservancy, and urban 
  planning. The giant scale model of the city of 
  Butrús, housed in the offices of the Metropolitan 
  Prefect, is perhaps the most famous, elaborate, 
  and largest, and is also the most realistic and 
  “lifelike”. It was originally built in the early 
  2150s by the cabal behind the planning of the 
  ditlána and since updated and improved. It is at 
  the scale of 1:400, so the city walls of the 
  diorama barely fit within the building and 
  suburbs such as the City of the Dead had to be 
  excluded. To clean and adjust the model, 
  artisan-clerks are lowered on slings or bamboo 
  platforms from the ceiling rafters; though it 
  draws a fair number of curiosity-seekers as well, 
  they are rarely permitted to do the same, and 
                                                  
  52 No birds remain, but his collection of hand-made cages 
  (the “rattan palaces” of his book’s title) are intact; they are 
  all fantastically elaborate and ingenious, often quite large, 
  and according to some, enchanted. 
  
  59 
   
  59 
   
   
  must content themselves with gazing at the 
  huge model from its outskirts. While the city 
  planners who built this model donated it to the 
  prefectural government, the temples of Thúmis 
  and Keténgku (of which they were members) 
  have continuously sought to have it “returned” 
  to their custody, through legal and political 
  channels. The “suburbs” of the original model 
  were broken up when it was moved to its 
  current location, and their current disposition is 
  unknown. As the model was first built primarily 
  as an aid in surveying and engineering, rather 
  than the minutely detailed and beautifully 
  crafted representational accuracy of its current 
  state, these older elements are probably 
  relatively nondescript and uninteresting except 
  to a collector or scholar. A similar map-model of 
  the 
  surrounding 
  area, 
  using 
  the 
  “Myriad 
  Condensator” scale (1:10,000), was built to 
  assist in constructing new drainage and water 
  supply systems, but has also fallen into 
  obscurity. 
   
  Compass bearings and topographic surveying 
  are widely used and applied to a square grid for 
  mapping; a standard symbol set is used for 
  nonrepresentational maps (a box is a prefectural 
  or district town, a circle a village, a triangle a 
  fortified point, and so forth); modern names are 
  written in black ink and historical or foreign 
  names 
  in 
  red; 
  additional 
  symbols 
  note 
  population, land quality, relative elevation, 
  administrative hierarchy, and so forth. On the 
  other hand, cartography in the Chákas is 
  genuinely hampered by strict adherence to one 
  of only two scales of representation: the Myriad 
  Condensator (1:10,000) and the Three-Tsan 
  Perspective 
  (1:400). 
  Rigid 
  application 
  and 
  teaching of only these two scales has not only 
  made the production of useful maps difficult, but 
  has discouraged flexibility and freedom in 
  applying geometrical and arithmetical principles 
  to practical problems in this field. 
   
  As astrological predictions and justifications 
  have been repeatedly used by rebels and 
  heretics in the Chákas over the past thousand 
  and more years, the practice of astronomy is 
  unusually regulated in both protectorates, with a 
  statutory sentence of two years penal labor for 
  unlicensed 
  teaching 
  of 
  astronomy, 
  the 
  ownership of restricted books or instruments, or 
  for publishing calendars or almanacs without 
  government imprimatur. (If the content of such 
  teaching or publication is found to be seditious 
  in itself, of course, the astrologer will face much 
  more severe charges in addition.) The erudite of 
  Butrús may have a Copernican idea of the solar 
  system, influenced by the doctrines of Hrsh. 
  However, among most of the common folk of 
  Pan Cháka, the Vimúhlan conception of the 
  universe as a "leaf falling into the flames" is the 
  accepted one, even if they do not follow the 
  faith of Vimúhla themselves. 
   
  Timekeeping 
  is 
  a 
  particularly 
  complicated 
  business in the city of Butrús, so mention should 
  be made of the tools used to calculate the 
  passage of time. Sundials and gnomons are 
  restricted to professional astronomers and a few 
  priests of Hnálla and are not available for 
  common 
  use. 
  The 
  main 
  chronometrical 
  instruments in use (both in official life and in the 
  temples) are clepsydra, or waterclocks. The 
  government offices of the protectorate use 
  single-chamber outflow designs, in which a 
  floating measuring rod inserted through a hole 
  in the lid of the main tank drops as the water 
  level falls (hence the colloquial name of 
  “drowning man vats” or, more technically, 
  “sinking rod clocks”).53 For those using the old-
  fashioned Bednálljan horology with the length of 
  daytime and nighttime ténmre and kirén varying 
  during the course of the year, a set of rods of 
  different 
  lengths 
  are 
  required; 
  the 
  more 
  accurate the clock, the more rods must be in the 
  set. Official time for the city is kept on such a 
  clock using sixty rods, switching them each 
  week. The most accurate such clock in the city 
  has a set of 36 rods — each one used for only 
  one day of the year.54 (Note that any given 
  waterclock of the standard type can keep either 
  “eight-the-same” or “four-and-four” time, simply 
  by switching the graduated rods in use.) For 
  private or domestic use, a few wealthy 
  households may have their own waterclocks, but 
  most individuals who feel the need to keep track 
                                                  
  53 Mu’ugalavyá, along with Livyánu, uses more accurate 
  inflow designs of clepsydra, but in this case Pan Cháka 
  follows Tsolyánu and the rest of the Five Empires. Aside 
  from the Mu’ugalavyáni consulate, there are certainly a few 
  examples of the standard Mu’ugalavyáni two-chamber inflow 
  waterclock in private hands in Butrús. Because in this design 
  the measuring rod rises with the water level rather than 
  sinking, they are vulgarly known as “erection clocks”. 
  54 The intercalary days, of course, exist outside of time, and 
  so there are not 365 rods. 
  
  60 
   
  60 
   
   
  of the exact time do so with various hourglasses 
  filled with sand or graduated incense-burners. 
   
  The old Chákan calendar is still known, and is 
  followed by some peasants, remote frontier 
  settlements, and traditionalist urban residents. It 
  is radically different from the basically solar 
  calendar of Tsolyánu and the other Engsvanyáli 
  calendrical systems; it is based on “turns” of 73 
  days. It is known that this unit represents the 
  orbital period of the planet Ülétl, and it is 
  believed by some scholars that this is a survival 
  (and later development) of an ancient calendar 
  used by the Sárku-worshipping peoples of the 
  central and northern Chákas.  
   
  In further perverseness, each of the 73 days of 
  the “turn” is named, not numbered. A full list is 
  not given here, but they include topographical 
  features (Pond, Sinkhole, Mountain, Savanna, 
  Ravine, Burnt Clearing, Slope, Cliff, Spire), 
  specific place names in the two Chákas and 
  neighboring areas, names of trees, plants, or 
  food 
  crops 
  (Bamboo, 
  Rice, 
  Buckwheat), 
  domestic and wild animals (Khéshchal, Dog, 
  Toad, Beetle, Khurruhirrükhú, Snake, Vringálu, 
  Deer, Rényu, Zrne, Carp, Eel), tools or material 
  implements (Flint, Terra Cotta, Axe, Blade, 
  Bronze, Mallet, Hoe), meteorological phenomena 
  (Wind, Cloud, Rainbow, Rain), the planets (both 
  their visible “light” aspects and their “dark” 
  counter-orbitals), stages of life, etc. Even that is 
  not complicated enough: some days have 
  multiple names, such as the one known as Fire 
  or Cardamom Flower in alternating “facings”, or 
  the one called Metal (at night) or Mirror (during 
  the day). 
   
  A numbered sequence of 26 turns constitutes 
  one “facing” of the calendar (1898 days, or 5.2 
  years); two “facings” make up a “unity”, the 
  largest period in the traditional calendar. A 
  bookkeeping convention, to aid in correlation 
  with the Engsvanyáli calendars while avoiding 
  the use of fractions, was a “binding” of ten 
  facings, or 52 normal Tsolyáni years. For 
  mythological and cosmological uses in certain 
  texts and oral traditions kept by the Ítos and 
  local sects, much larger multiple periods are also 
  cited — a “thrill” of nine unities, a “silence” of 
  seventy thrills, a “patience” of one hundred and 
  nine silences, and a “childhood” of twelve 
  patiences — the lattermost being a period of 
  8,560,016 years.55 
   
  Adjustments need to be inserted on a regular 
  basis in order to keep this calendar reflecting 
  the astronomical movement of Ülétl, but this has 
  not been done since the end of the seventh 
  century — once the last Íto-ruled kingdom fell, 
  the calendar lost its only official sponsor, as it 
  has never been accepted by the priesthoods of 
  Sárku proper. Modern discussion amongst the 
  Íto branches and their supporters about the 
  possibility of correcting the calendar have 
  always broken down in bitter disputes over 
  record-keeping, 
  arithmetic, 
  observational 
  methodology, and other, underlying, familial 
  disagreements.  
   
  There is no generally accepted or even 
  widespread starting date for count of years 
  using this calendar. In Pan Cháka, the last 
  widely used one was that of the final Íto client 
  state, which was officially closed in 782 A.S., 
  sometime in its Eighth Turn during the Second 
  Facing of the Seventeenth Unity. By that count, 
  the New Year of 2260 A.S. should fall in the 
  Sixteenth Turn around the Second Facing of the 
  175th Unity; however, no one in their right mind 
  — not even Íto separatists — would suggest 
  using such a date. In event of a Chákan 
  secession under an Íto, or any ruler who chose 
  to re-institute the calendar, the count would be 
  restarted from a new beginning. Those who 
  continue to use the calendar at all simply track 
  the passage of days, starting over after each 
  turn. The day-names in the calendar are often 
  used for selecting names to children born on 
  particular days and for simple prognostic 
  astrology. 
   
  Even the standard Tsolyáni calendar, derived 
  from that of Kazhilo’ób I of Éngsvan hla Gánga, 
  has some local accretions. One is that the 
  names of the days of the week are different in 
  Pan Cháka: though the normal ones are also 
  known almost universally, they are simply not 
  used except in writing, in formal situations, or in 
  dealing with foreigners who don’t know any 
                                                  
  55 The “day”, “turn”, “facing”, and “unity” of this calendar 
  are hági, daunár, lauzhú, and prúdali (literally “a great 1”) in 
  Tsolyáni; kágü, má’u, no’ójun and ü’epre in the local 
  vernacular. 
  
  61 
   
  61 
   
   
  better.56 Another is that each of the sixty weeks 
  of the year is classified as either a “nodal” or a 
  “modal” week, according to ancient regional 
  phenological tradition.57 Nodal weeks are those 
  that occur at major transitions (e.g., arrival of 
  the monsoons, beginning of the ebb in the 
  water table, solstices, equinoxes, and so forth) 
  while the rest are modal weeks. Each nodal 
  week has a descriptive name based on the 
  significant climactic, agricultural, or ecological 
  event that is supposed to take place during 
  those six days; these names still appear in 
  almanacs out of tradition but are generally 
  ignored. Modal weeks are numbered rather than 
  named. The overall nodal-modal distinction is 
  slightly 
  better 
  known 
  than 
  the 
  specific 
  phenological week-names, and some astrologers 
  as 
  well 
  as 
  archconservative 
  farmers 
  and 
  townsfolk take it into consideration when casting 
  horoscopes. 
   
  The intercalary days occur between the twelfth 
  month of one year and the first month of the 
  next. 
  Until 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  conquest, 
  however, Pan Cháka observed these days in the 
  middle of the year (mid-Fésru), included in the 
  “central season” of the ancient five- or six-
  season annual cycle. In those times New Year’s 
  observances were limited to the first ten days of 
  the first month. The Mu’ugalavyáni put a stop to 
  this practice where the Tsolyáni had failed, and 
  forced through calendrical reforms that finally 
  took hold. Rather than cut short the ancient ten-
  day 
  New 
  Year’s 
  celebrations 
  when 
  the 
  intercalary days were moved, Pan Cháka simply 
  extended them — the five intercalary days plus 
  the native ten-day festival. This 
  is only 
  important today insofar as days of the week and 
  month given in Pan Chákan texts written before 
  1577 A.S. do not coincide with those of the 
  standard Tsolyáni (or Mu’ugalavyáni) chronicles. 
   
   
  GOVERNMENT 
   
                                                  
  56 In place of Surúnra, Mugún, Zaqé, Rü’üsá, Tlakál, and 
  Daunél, one hears 
  Sarégeng, Arbéjeng, Zhe’únqeng, 
  Lúttugeng, Áhlujeng, and Chógeng (also written Ch’ogeng 
  and Chougeng in earlier texts). 
  57 The intercalary days are always considered as five (or six) 
  separate entities and never as a week of their own. 
  The highest authority in the protectorate is the 
  Governor’s Court, which blends the traditions of 
  Tsolyáni imperial administration, Mu’ugalavyáni 
  colonial bureaucracy, and the ancient protocols 
  of indigenous kingdoms and chiefdoms. The 
  Governor of Pan Cháka has greater powers and 
  privileges than governors of the central Tsolyáni 
  provinces, but at the same time is bound up in a 
  delicately balanced web of local and national 
  politics and custom that is even more complex 
  than what they are faced with. The work of the 
  Governor is further rendered awkward by the 
  never quite clear legal and ritual relationship of 
  the protectorate to Avanthár. Pan Cháka is not a 
  province, but neither is it any longer a client 
  state or tributary kingdom. While now subject to 
  Tsolyáni law, there are a number of minor 
  variations and exceptions that are permitted by 
  imperial edicts and treaties dating back as far as 
  the eighth century. For example, impalement is 
  replaced by simple beheading for almost all 
  capital punishments; only a few crimes against 
  the empire itself may still be answered with the 
  “high ride”. Nor is it to be forgotten that the 
  chief sákbe highway in the region is a fortified 
  wall on the eastern border, not protecting Pan 
  Cháka from the Mu’ugalavyáni, but guarding the 
  heartlands of Tsolyánu from the half-alien 
  frontier of which the protectorate still remains a 
  part. 
   
  Bureaucracy 
  The customary “Four Palaces” of the Tsolyáni 
  civil service exist in Pan Cháka, answering both 
  to 
  the 
  Governor 
  and 
  to 
  the 
  national 
  headquarters of their respective Palaces. While a 
  confused, corrupt shambles by the standards of 
  neighboring Mu’ugalavyá, the regional and 
  urban administration of Pan Cháka and Butrús is 
  a tightly-run ship, strikingly efficient, staffed by 
  officials both diligent and committed to real 
  ideals of good governance — at least compared 
  to most of Tsolyánu. As this has been so for 
  many generations, it seems likely that it is due 
  not to the mettle of the current office-holders 
  but to the influence of the neighboring nation, 
  and perhaps a desire to compete with their way 
  of doing things, in their own terms.  
   
  It is worth noting that the bureaucracy as a 
  whole, particularly in Mu’ugalavyá but also in 
  Tsolyánu, is actually made up of two distinct 
  
  62 
   
  62 
   
   
  groups. The first is the formal civil service, 
  whose members hold ranks in the system of 
  “circles” (kartu’únyal); the other consists of the 
  unofficial, unranked servants of the government. 
  These latter are often cleaners, cooks, body-
  servants, runners and messengers, and the like, 
  but may be specialized artisans, technical 
  experts, or educated and skilled advisors and 
  assistants. The ranked civil servants are referred 
  to in bureaucratic jargon as those “in the 
  current”, and the unofficial governmental staff 
  as those “outside the current”.58 The salaries 
  and upkeep of those ”outside the current” are 
  frequently not covered by the government, even 
  though their positions are mandated by the 
  administrative codes. The incumbent in office 
  over them is thus responsible for meeting the 
  costs out of his or her own pocket. These 
  private secretariats are colloquially or poetically 
  known as “lily-pad tents”, suggesting the 
  temporary and informal nature of much of their 
  patronage, and the lack of solid foundations 
  supporting them. 
   
  In Pan Cháka, one must be “nominated” in order 
  to enter the formal bureaucracy, and these 
  nominations must come from outside the 
  protectorate’s central government, yet still from 
  within the borders of Pan Cháka. Nomination is 
  a special privilege of certain noble families or 
  lineages, certain temples (that is, specific temple 
  establishments, not a sect as a whole), and of 
  the prefect of each prefecture in Pan Cháka.59 
  An annual quota is fixed for each bearer of the 
  privilege of nomination, and if they cannot put 
  enough candidates forward in a given year to 
  meet their quota they must provide an 
  acceptable written explanation of why no 
  suitable individuals can be found or else face a 
  significant fine. Repeated failure to provide 
  nominations for service constitutes an imperial 
  crime. Officials from Tsolyánu proper who wish 
  to take up posts in Pan Cháka must also obtain 
  a nomination from within the protectorate, 
  regardless of their current rank — though of 
  course, in cases where a high-ranking Tsolyáni 
  official 
  seeks 
  a 
  “sponsor”, 
  the 
  normal 
  relationship of power and patronage may be 
  entirely reversed. The class of person who may 
                                                  
  58 Bruvafái and tsìrebafái, respectively. In Chákan dialect, 
  vruvamái and sírvamài. 
  59 With the exception of the Metropolitan Prefecture of 
  Butrús itself. 
  be nominated — that is, someone of the 
  appropriate 
  clan, 
  lineage, 
  and 
  economic 
  background — is often called by terms such as 
  “headdress and plaque houses” or “collar and 
  pen people” in the Chákas.  
   
  The intent behind this cumbersome system, first 
  established in the ninth century and only 
  occasionally adjusted since, was to prevent 
  “outsiders” (i.e., Tsolyáni carpetbaggers, in the 
  eyes 
  of 
  Pan 
  Chákans) 
  from 
  gaining 
  disproportionate influence in the bureaucracy, 
  and ensuring that outlying areas of Pan Cháka 
  have some chance of getting their people into 
  government 
  service. 
  The 
  central 
  Tsolyáni 
  government is not fond of this arrangement, but 
  it has been a key element in demonstrating 
  imperial benevolence and the expected degree 
  of devolution, and thus helping keep Pan Cháka 
  docile under imperial sway. The fact that once 
  accepted into the service of the protectorate, 
  Pan Chákan officials may move to posts within 
  Tsolyánu proper without any special approval, 
  but not vice versa, continues to rankle their 
  metropolitan peers. 
   
  After a new recruit has been nominated, 
  examined, and accepted for service, he or she is 
  given the semiofficial title of Court Gentleman. 
  These are further divided into three groups: the 
  Outer Gentlemen, accepted for service in one of 
  the four Palaces, usually to be assigned to a 
  branch or local office outside the city; the Inner 
  Gentlemen, with higher personal status or 
  qualifications, accepted for service in the 
  Governor’s Court itself or in one of the Palace 
  headquarters in the city; and finally, the 
  Standby 
  Gentlemen. 
  The 
  latter 
  category 
  contains all Court Gentlemen who have been 
  assigned a substantive post but have not yet 
  taken office; it is also the title is also given to 
  any more senior official who is between posts. 
  The Court Gentlemen thus serve as a reservoir 
  of potential talent and skilled labor, or as a 
  parasitical horde of unproductive wastrels, 
  depending on one’s point of view. (A Court 
  Gentleman receives one-fifth pay for his nominal 
  rank.) 
   
  The thirty Circles of rank, inherited from the 
  Engsvanyáli age, are in the Chákas and southern 
  and eastern Mu’ugalavyá divided into ten groups 
  of three Circles each. These are called Tiers, and 
  
  63 
   
  63 
   
   
  used where individual details of seniority and 
  status are less important — e.g., in setting the 
  necessary range of ranks for different postings, 
  or in assigning 
  sumptuary privileges and 
  arranging court protocols. Confusingly, they are 
  ordered in reverse sequence to Circles, with Tier 
  I referring to the highest ranks (Circles 28-30) 
  and Tier X corresponding to the lowest (Circles 
  1-3). 
   
  By old Pan Chákan tradition, each of the major 
  organs of government is associated with one of 
  the seasons or cosmic forces. Thus the Palace of 
  the Realm is the “Palace of Spring”, the Palace 
  of Ever-Glorious War is the “Palace of Winter”, 
  the Palace of the Priesthoods of the Gods is the 
  “Palace of Summer”, and the Palace of Foreign 
  Lands is the “Palace of Autumn”, while the 
  Governor’s Court is the “Mansion of the Earth” 
  and Avanthár or Bey Sü (the central government 
  and its envoys, in any case) is the “Mansion of 
  the Sky”. 
   
  Thanks to Mu’ugalavyáni habits of rationalized 
  organization and tidiness, the structural units 
  making 
  up 
  the 
  institutions 
  of 
  Chákan 
  government can be characterized as follows. At 
  the highest level are the Palaces, with their chief 
  divisions being the Bureaus. Immediately below 
  them are, in order of size and autonomy, 
  Directorates, 
  Divisions, 
  and 
  Departments. 
  Departments are the most “routine” and are 
  always directly responsible to a higher-level 
  office, 
  while 
  Divisions 
  are 
  often 
  ad-hoc 
  groupings with little substantive power beyond 
  that of their component parts. Directorates, on 
  the other hand, may be extremely powerful and 
  autonomous, and some may even cut across 
  provincial 
  boundaries. 
  The 
  next 
  tier 
  of 
  organization below these is that of the Offices, 
  which go by a number of different titles and 
  sub-gradations; below them in turn are Sections 
  and finally Services. While these three levels 
  (Office, Section, and Service) are almost 
  invariably subordinated to a Department, they 
  may also report directly to a higher level of 
  authority, such as a Directorate or Bureau. 
  There are many variations and adaptations of 
  this general schema; the Governor’s Court is 
  particularly divergent, as it preserves elements 
  of the independent pre-Tsolyáni kingdoms of 
  Pan 
  Cháka, 
  as 
  well 
  as 
  archaic 
  Tsolyáni 
  institutions from before the Mu’ugalavyáni 
  occupation.  
   
  In Pan Cháka, like neighboring Mu’ugalavyá, the 
  quantity and quality of bureaucratic paperwork 
  is greater than that of the empire of Tsolyánu, 
  and far more elaborately developed. For 
  example, just for items issued from the 
  emperor, there are distinct and specific formats, 
  handling and routing protocols, and terminology 
  for proclamations or edicts, for secret edicts, for 
  personally-drafted edicts (those directly from the 
  emperor), for commands, for documents of 
  appointment and investment, and for imperial 
  rescripts (“azure annotations”, as they are 
  written in the blue ink reserved for the 
  emperor’s words). Communications passing up 
  to the ruler or local heads of government are 
  generally termed “memorials” in a variety of 
  types: the ngárshinchkù’u to express gratitude, 
  a júrtlaqùbu to make an impeachment or report 
  an investigation, a qúninchkù’u to express 
  feelings, a tláktek to express dissent or contrary 
  opinion, or a súllante as a policy proposal. Once 
  in Pan Cháka, anyone (even a non-official) 
  could, in theory, submit a “personal memorial” 
  to the ruler. This dropped out of practice when 
  the region became part of Tsolyánu, but such 
  “personal memorials” may still be submitted to 
  the Governor. (Submitting one to the Ítos is 
  considered a treasonous act.)  
   
  A senior 
  official giving instructions to a 
  subordinate issues an “order plaque” but in 
  addressing the public or a wider audience uses 
  an 
  “roll 
  of 
  annunciation”; 
  more 
  informal 
  communications to inferiors or subordinates are 
  “tablets” or “notes”. Lateral communications 
  between officials are termed “conveyances” or 
  “transmittals”, and communications between 
  parallel offices or officials at higher levels, 
  “consultations” 
  or 
  “dispatches”. 
  Everyday 
  documents 
  between 
  offices 
  are 
  “collected 
  information”, but the Grand Councilors instead 
  use “conjoint tickets”. Diplomatic documents 
  and treaties or covenants between clans are all 
  termed “cards” due to the special heavyweight 
  stiff paper they are presented upon. The general 
  Tsolyáni term for a letter, whether pubic or 
  private, is fáshdri, though in Pan Cháka it 
  strongly implies a public document — a private 
  
  64 
   
  64 
   
   
  letter is a sórintlqùnte, or “writing-the-belly”60 
  (i.e., the seat of the emotions and feelings). 
   
  Even the size of paper used is closely regulated 
  in Pan Cháka. A sheet is stipulated as being two 
  hoi (26.7 cm) on a side, with letters and 
  correspondence written on single sheets, legal 
  and court documents on pages made of three 
  sheets glued side-to-side (2 x 6 hoi, or 26.7 x 80 
  cm), and all other government documents on 
  pages made of two sheets glued side-to-side (2 
  x 4 hoi, or 26.7 x 53.3 cm). To manufacture or 
  own written materials of these dimensions that 
  are not governmental documents is a criminal 
  act, punishable by six to eighteen months’ hard 
  labor per half-pse (375 g) of material. 
   
  With all this wealth of documentation, the 
  archives of the protectorate’s government are 
  enormous, and are kept manageable only by 
  classifying each document as either “ephemeral” 
  or “eternal” — the former are destroyed after 
  three years in the archives (though often not 
  before being abstracted for permanent records); 
  the latter are kept indefinitely.61 With changes in 
  government, the old archives are often partially 
  dismantled and discarded — though tax rolls, 
  etc., are usually kept — and some parts may 
  find their ways into private hands. For example, 
  portions of the official archives during the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni occupation now are property of 
  the Temple of Karakán in Butrús, and smaller 
  pieces are in various clan libraries of the “Four 
  Red” clans; the Íto clan, of course, still holds 
  extensive original records of an official nature 
  from its pre-Tsolyáni rule over the region. 
   
  A final note on paperwork: In Tsolyánu, the 
  excellence of a document’s calligraphy is of as 
  great concern as its contents. Clerks and scribes 
  are evaluated on this more than any other 
  factor, and even higher-level officials may owe 
  their careers to having a good hand. In Pan 
  Cháka, unfortunately, the quality of office 
  calligraphy is almost uniformly poor. Working 
  documents are usually scrawled in quick and 
                                                  
  60 The equivalent phrase in standard Tsolyáni would be 
  súrim tlaqúni. 
  61 It is said that in the Chákas, scholars and librarians don’t 
  count the size of their collections or the length of books by 
  the number of pages or volumes, but by weight. This is true, 
  as a matter of fact, though Butrusséne may resent the 
  implication that they’re any less literati because of it. 
  stark penmanship with no attention to form, and 
  even formal copies and final issues are of 
  mediocre quality at best. While most of the 
  officials who are Chákan born-and-bred could 
  care less about this shortcoming — or may even 
  perversely take pride in it — those who seek 
  employment outside the protectorate rapidly 
  discover it is a matter of intense shame, to say 
  nothing 
  of 
  being 
  an 
  impediment 
  to 
  advancement. Bureaucrats from outside Pan 
  Cháka, or other individuals having contact with 
  government papers, are usually appalled at the 
  casual handwriting in use, and are even more 
  disgusted at the cavalier attitude toward it. (The 
  acceptance 
  of 
  low-quality 
  calligraphy 
  in 
  government service does not extend to other 
  spheres, though, and the most illegible and 
  sloppy drafter in the civil service may well be a 
  noted calligrapher of poetry or religious texts in 
  his private life.) 
   
  Unlike in Tsolyánu proper, the Four Palaces in 
  Butrús and the Governor’s Court are open every 
  day of the week, with the exception of major 
  festival days; government also closes down on 
  the five intercalary days. In smaller towns and 
  the prefectural and district seats, too, the office-
  holders are technically expected to work every 
  day not specially designated as a civic holiday. 
  However, in these smaller establishments there 
  is more scope for laxity and shirking duty. 
  Currently the protectorate sets a total maximum 
  of 35 days per year for officials’ holidays and 
  personal vacations, with a maximum of one 
  week (six days) in any given instance. This is 
  more generous than the Mu’ugalavyáni code, 
  but shockingly restrictive to officials used to the 
  slacker and more flexible Tsolyáni practices. 
  Normal hours of work for the government 
  offices are very early: the official day starts 
  several hours before dawn (approximately 3 
  a.m.) and runs until early afternoon (about 1-2 
  p.m.), with only a brief mid-morning pause for 
  food and drink. When necessary, individuals will 
  return to work after a break or siesta of about 
  four kirén (two hours) and continue until 
  nightfall; entire offices may reconvene in this 
  manner. Given the competitive element in Pan 
  Chákan 
  bureaucratic 
  culture, 
  it 
  is 
  often 
  necessary to be seen in one’s office in the 
  evening, or one’s reputation and prestige will 
  fall. Accordingly, Pan Chákan officials put in long 
  hours — 50-60 hours per week is considered the 
  
  65 
   
  65 
   
   
  minimum! As banquets, receptions, and formal 
  feasts are held in the evening and often well 
  into the night, it is quite common for officials to 
  go directly from social events to their office in 
  the early morning and begin work — regardless 
  of their state of rest or inebriation.  
   
  One regular event of some importance within 
  the bureaucracy is the Quintuplicate Collocation 
  of Court Officers, now held five times during the 
  year. All officials of the Tenth Circle and above 
  (or technically, Tiers I through VII), regardless 
  of their substantive post, meet with the 
  Governor en masse in the Broad Hall of 
  Devotion to the State and by turns submit verbal 
  summaries and reports on current developments 
  and affairs in their area of responsibility. This is 
  followed by a banquet, by tradition always held 
  off official premises — usually at one of the 
  winemakers’ and food-preparers’ clans, but 
  sometimes set up as a “picnic” at some suitable 
  location. Under many recent governors, the 
  banqueting has assumed priority over the 
  personal reports. 
   
  Law and the Courts 
  As in all the Five Empires, the legal code is 
  based on the Engsvanyáli-era Book of Golden 
  Signs, by one Mikotlángme of Purdánim. 
  However, as noted above, there are instances in 
  which local laws supersede the standard 
  Tsolyáni legal codes. As in Mu’ugalavyá (and to 
  a degree in Livyánu), there is a sharp distinction 
  between criminal law codes, administrative legal 
  codes, and the implementation of “customary 
  law”. What we would recognize as civil and 
  economic law is covered in part under each of 
  these three categories. To further complicate 
  matters, the court system in Tsolyánu does not 
  correspond perfectly to these “Two Main and 
  One Residual” codes of law, but is divided into 
  “Imperial Courts” vs. “Civil Courts”. 
    
  Criminal law is set out in “Codes” that prescribe 
  an action and punishment for each infringement 
  of the law. These codes are modified and 
  supplemented by “Regulations”, while their 
  implementation is defined in “Ordinances”. They 
  are further altered, expanded, and applied in 
  light of “Precedents” or “Substatutes” that 
  accrue to the general headings of the Codes or 
  to the Regulations. The huge number of 
  precedents and substatutes are collected in 
  compilations for each emperor, called the 
  Itemized Substatutes of the Reign of... An 
  important compilation specifically on criminal 
  cases is the casebook of precedents called the 
  Conspectus on Penal Cases. Finally, there are 
  occasional 
  compilations 
  of 
  specifically 
  Pan 
  Chákan precedent that any magistrate will need 
  to consult: “Provincial Substatutes”, “Local Case 
  Histories”, 
  “Supplementary 
  Regulations”, 
  or 
  “Itemized Substatutes”. The category of criminal 
  law covers, in Tsolyáni terms, not only cases of 
  the imperial courts (with the comparatively 
  wider scope for including criminal cases that 
  they have in Pan Cháka), but also areas such as 
  the proper administration of shámtla, the 
  dueling 
  code, 
  and 
  higher-level 
  precepts 
  regarding military and ecclesiastic law.  
   
  Administrative law is listed as “Statutes” (or 
  “Commands”) at the most general level. As with 
  criminal law, they are also elaborated and 
  specified 
  by 
  Regulations, 
  Ordinances, 
  and 
  Precedents. It mainly deals with the regulations 
  and rules of government and the bureaucratic 
  apparatus, and is rarely relevant to the public. 
  Texts and codices of administrative law are 
  generally organized to mirror the organization of 
  the bureaucracy itself; there are thus separate 
  volumes 
  for 
  each 
  Palace, 
  with 
  individual 
  chapters for the bureaus, and so on. This body 
  of texts in Pan Cháka thus not only sets out the 
  common 
  administrative 
  precepts 
  and 
  bureaucratic practices of the Tsolyáni empire, 
  but also describes and codifies the particular 
  arrangement and establishment of the offices of 
  government in the protectorate. The former 
  component is based on the Todukái Néqo 
  Statutes 
  (formally, 
  the 
  Compendium 
  of 
  Administrative Statutes of the Reign of Todukái 
  Néqo Arranged by Category); the latter, local 
  elements have been written up by Tsolyáni and 
  local officialdom into regulations and ordnances 
  and inserted into the (New) Statutes of Payássa 
  the Viceroy.62 The combined result is the hefty 
  tome entitled Digest of Regulations of the 
  Government Offices of the New Western 
  Protectorate. The specifically Pan Chákan legal 
  codes (but not information on bureaucratic 
                                                  
  62 So named after the Governor of Pan Cháka 1402-1423, 
  Payássa Thashúr, who presided over the compilation; it was 
  necessarily revised late in the nineteenth century but kept 
  the original name with the prefix “New”.  
  
  66 
   
  66 
   
   
  establishments) can also be found, separated 
  out, in a number of compilations under the 
  general titles of “Established Regulations” or 
  “Supplementary Precedents”. 
   
  Customary law consists of those aspects of civil 
  and commercial law that are not covered in the 
  penal Codes or administrative Statutes but 
  which still come before a magistrate for 
  resolution; they also include precepts on 
  peculiarly Pan Chákan institutions such as 
  feuding, Páchi Lei relations (such as the 
  handling of damage, death, or injuries caused 
  by biyúrh), the application of justice to tribal 
  persons, requirements of the ancestral cults, 
  etc., which have not been officially recognized 
  by the imperial government and incorporated as 
  “provincial substatutes” or the like.  
   
  All three legal systems are set out in practical, 
  didactic terms in a handbook prepared for junior 
  magistrates in Pan Cháka: the Collection of 
  Lucid Decisions and Parallel Cases by Celebrated 
  Judges.  
   
  Palace of the Realm 
  The “Palace of Spring” is the largest single 
  governmental 
  institution 
  in 
  Pan 
  Cháka, 
  containing 
  some 
  five 
  hundred 
  ranked 
  bureaucrats 
  plus 
  their 
  servants, 
  slaves, 
  attendants, and other workers “outside the 
  current”. In many respects it is also the most 
  important and powerful; certainly so from the 
  point of view of the average peasant or villager. 
   
  The Bureau of Justice and Punishments is 
  regarded 
  as 
  the 
  most 
  prestigious 
  and 
  “honorable” of the four branches of the Palace. 
  Its head is called the “Kingfisher Gleaner”, due 
  to an old Chákan legend about the origins of the 
  post during Bednálljan times in which a lowly 
  gatherer of kingfisher feathers becomes the first 
  incumbent. Such feathers are still used in the 
  halcyon-blue ceremonial cape of this official and 
  on his regular baton of office. 
   
  In 
  Pan 
  Cháka, 
  following 
  an 
  outdated 
  Mu’ugalavyáni practice, each court has three 
  officials with legal power — the magistrate, the 
  vice-magistrate, and the procurator — as well as 
  a small staff of other officials (a clerk, a 
  secretary, 
  etc.) 
  and 
  numerous 
  unranked 
  servants. The procurator is the investigator or 
  detective for the court system, gathering 
  information on crimes or disputes and assisting 
  the judge in evaluating the truthfulness and 
  completeness of witnesses, testimonials, and 
  evidence presented. The vice-magistrate is 
  usually slightly senior to the procurator and is 
  the magistrate’s direct “understudy”, assisting in 
  the courtroom side of things — legal research, 
  investigation of precedent, and so forth. In 
  practice, the two junior members’ duties overlap 
  considerably, and the magistrate proper will 
  likely also participate in these matters. In 
  principle an official is supposed to have served 
  as both procurator and vice-magistrate before 
  being eligible for the position of magistrate, but 
  in many cases has only held one of the two 
  posts. Regarding the investigative role of the 
  court, 
  it 
  should 
  be 
  noted 
  that 
  private 
  investigations by clans and temples into criminal 
  cases are frowned upon, especially in Pan 
  Cháka, and are rarely admissible in themselves 
  in court. While such parties certainly do involve 
  themselves, they must be cautious and subtle in 
  going about it. Tampering with a court 
  investigation is, technically, a species of treason 
  and punished as an imperial crime. 
   
  The Division of Imperial Courts is a grouping of 
  the four courts of law that handle imperial 
  cases. The seniormost judge from among them 
  is simultaneously appointed the head of the 
  division. The Court of the Realm is a generalist 
  court, and despite being badly overburdened 
  and 
  backlogged, 
  it 
  constantly 
  fights 
  for 
  jurisdiction over cases with the two specialist 
  courts. The first of these is the Court of Crimes 
  Against the Public — broadly speaking, intended 
  to handle offenses against the common interest 
  but which do not involve single specific clans, 
  temples, or the state itself as the plaintiff (e.g., 
  arson or rioting). The other is the Court of 
  Crimes Against the Seal Emperor, which was set 
  up specifically to investigate and prosecute 
  crimes against the government of Tsolyánu and 
  its representatives in Pan Cháka; it handles 
  cases such as espionage and treason. The Court 
  of Imperial Appeal in the Protectorate of Pan 
  Cháka is the appellate court for cases that have 
  been either referred either from one of the other 
  imperial courts in Butrús or handed up from 
  local or civil courts in the protectorate. The 
  Division of Imperial Courts also contains the 
  
  67 
   
  67 
   
   
  Office for the Conferral of Imperial Citizenship 
  (with a Detached Vice-Magistrate presiding over 
  these naturalizations) and the Office for the 
  Registry of Criminals, which is a fairly complete 
  listing of convictions, though not necessarily of 
  criminals — it has trouble tracking them once 
  they leave the court and enter the prisons or 
  public life. It at least keeps record of their 
  origins and immediate family. 
   
  The Division of the Civil Courts is counterpart to 
  the preceding group. It is made up of the Court 
  of the Left and the Court of the Right, two 
  separate chambers that handle general civil 
  cases, with no functional distinction between 
  them; the Court of the Chancery, which 
  specializes in commercial and business disputes; 
  the Court of Conflicts Among the Filial, 
  specializing in personal disputes across clan 
  boundaries and the assignment of shámtla 
  payments. An arrangement of “blood-money” 
  for murder (and any other offenses that are 
  subject to the penal code) which has not been 
  presented to and approved by a court is itself a 
  felony. The recipient of such illicit shámtla in 
  theory 
  should 
  receive 
  the 
  same 
  criminal 
  punishment as the original malefactor would be 
  subject to.63 There is also a fifth court in this 
  group, the Court of Cassation. This last is 
  unusual, in that appeals to higher courts are 
  normally sent to an Imperial court in the rest of 
  Tsolyánu.  
   
  This division also contains the Office of the 
  Aridáni Registry, the Office of the Registry of 
  Persons of Court Attention (a partial list of 
  suspected 
  or 
  known 
  criminals, 
  witnesses, 
  plaintiffs, former convicts, etc., kept current for 
  a period of the last twenty years, with outline 
  records kept for at least eighty); and the Office 
  for Recognition of the Manifesto of Noble 
  Deliverance, at which all duels must be 
  registered. The fee for doing so is not 
  insignificant 
  and 
  helps 
  discourage 
  casual 
  recourse to dueling. Failure to register a duel 
  makes its conduct a felony (i.e., a crime against 
  the empire), in many cases resulting in capital 
  sentences 
  being 
  handed 
  down 
  to 
  family 
  members of the duelists, or even of the duelists’ 
  seconds). 
                                                  
  63 When Pan Chákan judges and officials fulminate against 
  “furtive dealings and lewd exchanges”, as they often do, 
  they usually mean secret payments of blood-money. 
   
  The Trellis-Floored Hall is the court jail, used for 
  holding prisoners undergoing trial before any of 
  the Bureau’s judges. The name comes from the 
  fact that the cells are recessed into the ground 
  and accessed through their ceilings, while the 
  building itself is elevated and its floor largely 
  constructed of elaborate lattices. The Office of 
  Interrogation likewise serves both divisions of 
  the courts, and can even be called upon by 
  other branches of the bureaucracy when 
  needed. It is the home office of the mríyal of the 
  Company of the Edification of the Soul. 
   
  The Department of Punishments handles those 
  individuals referred to them by the imperial and 
  civil 
  courts, 
  as 
  well 
  as 
  ecclesiastic 
  and 
  sometimes 
  even 
  military 
  tribunals. 
  Its 
  constituent units are the Office for Review and 
  Confirmation of Sentencing, the Office for Exile 
  and Banishment, the Office of Degradations and 
  Humiliations, the Office of Brandings and 
  Mutilations, and the Office of Executions. The 
  latter includes the infamously inept Imperial 
  Capital Sentences Section, which handles — or 
  mishandles — all impalements in Pan Cháka. 
  The Office of Demonstration attempts to ensure 
  adequate publicity for all legal punishments, 
  issuing announcements and explanations, and 
  arranges for deterrent examples to be made out 
  of the condemned or of their remains, as the 
  case may be. 
   
  The Department of the Imperial Prison is strictly 
  concerned with operating the Prison of the 
  Sixteen Fields in Butrús, and is made up of the 
  Warden and his personal staff, the support and 
  supply personnel, and the Pan Chákan garrison 
  of the Legion of Ketl, 4th Medium Infantry.  
   
  The Department of Confinements, on the other 
  hand, has a broader authority. It runs the Office 
  of Convict Labor, the Office of Prisoner 
  Transportation and Distribution, the Office of 
  Supervision of Prefectural and District Jails, and 
  the Office of Bodily Debt Reclamation — which 
  holds persons guilty of bankruptcy or unpaid 
  debts referred by a court of law, until they are 
  either redeemed by their clan or sold off to 
  slavers. It also contains the Office of the Royal 
  Prison (i.e., of the protectorate), but as Pan 
  Cháka 
  uses 
  the 
  imperial 
  prison 
  facility 
  
  68 
   
  68 
   
   
  mentioned above, this is a purely administrative 
  unit. 
   
  The Bureau of Revenue is probably more 
  powerful than the Bureau of Justice and 
  Punishments, 
  but 
  is 
  less 
  prestigious 
  and 
  respectable. It is made up of five departments 
  and 
  two 
  directorates, 
  plus 
  the 
  usual 
  headquarters and support units. 
   
  The duties of the Department of Taxation are 
  largely self-evident; it is broken into three main 
  subunits: the Office for the Assessment of 
  Wealth, the Office of Tax Collection, and the 
  Office of Revenue Reporting and Archiving. It is 
  the second of these offices that organizes, 
  contracts, and bonds the semi-feral “tax 
  captains” who perform the actual extraction of 
  taxes in the various prefectures and districts, 
  with the assistance of certain neighborhood-
  level appointees. In Pan Cháka, at least, the 
  Surveyors of the first office are just as hated 
  and feared as the actual collectors of the second 
  — they are, if anything, even more diligent, 
  without even the understandable motivation of 
  immediate, legitimate personal profit from their 
  efforts. 
   
  The Department of the Marketplaces is likewise 
  self-explanatory; it includes the Office of 
  Magistrates of Commerce (a large and important 
  unit, 
  with 
  at 
  almost 
  a 
  hundred 
  market 
  magistrates on the rolls for the protectorate), 
  the Office of Approvals (which issues or sells 
  permits for trading and vending in public 
  markets), and the Office of Maintenance (which 
  handles the cleaning and repairs to major public 
  markets in the protectorate). 
   
  The Department of Imperial Monopolies controls 
  certain industries over which the state has 
  claimed exclusive authority; traditionally the 
  most important of these is the mining and 
  smelting of iron. Other metallurgical and 
  mineralogical industries are also (nominally) 
  controlled by the state, as are certain goods 
  harvested from the jungles and various types of 
  manufactories of luxury goods. Clans must 
  purchase licenses from this department in order 
  to participate in these industries or for their 
  artisans to manufacture such goods; in return, 
  the state undertakes to limit their competition, 
  and also their stiff tariffs on imports help ensure 
  high local prices for many of these goods. 
   
  The Department of Trade and Travel is, 
  generally, in charge of commerce and regulating 
  the merchant classes. Its Office of Standards 
  ensures the weights and measures for use in the 
  marketplace are accurate, and the Office of 
  Stamps and Seals validates and notarizes legal 
  documents of a mercantile nature. The Office for 
  Tolls and Fees collects transit fees at gates, 
  bridges, canal locks, and so forth, while the 
  Office for Commercial Taxation levies sumptuary 
  taxes on exchanges within the protectorate of 
  certain classes of goods (mostly but not 
  exclusively of a “luxury” nature) and on all inter-
  clan transactions over a certain threshold value 
  (depending on the item in question, the 
  location, and even the season). It is equally 
  incorruptible and strict as its sister-office, the 
  Office for the Assurance of Rightly Observed 
  Exchange. This unit inspects every merchant 
  shipment (and even private traveling parties 
  when suspicious enough) that passes in or out 
  of Pan Cháka into Tsolyánu proper.64 When 
  duty-bearing goods are found, it then levies the 
  appropriate tariffs, or confiscates the goods if 
  the amount cannot be paid. It is thus the chief 
  anti-smuggling agency. It is infamously honest 
  and incorruptible, bordering on ruthlessness; it 
  is also powerful, but spread too thin. While 
  regarded as “honorable”, it is widely despised 
  and hated, even by some other officials. The 
  golden era when the larger-than-life Túnu 
  Homénda headed this office and directed an 
  official body of “Tariff Police” is past but still 
  fondly remembered by present incumbents; 
  oddly, smugglers also look back to this period as 
  the “heroic age” of their trade. 
   
  The Directorate of Provincial Finance is little 
  understood and somewhat mysterious to the 
  average citizen. Basically, its purpose is to 
  ensure a stable and prosperous economy for the 
  protectorate by intervening, as needed, in its 
  public financial affairs and markets. It has a 
  huge role to play and a considerable amount of 
  practical power, but little theoretical (let alone 
  methodological) apparatus by which to figure 
  out how to go about its business. Technically, it 
                                                  
  64 Note that it does not have any authority over foreign trade 
  (e.g., with Mu’ugalavyá or by sea from Livyánu). 
  
  69 
   
  69 
   
   
  sets 
  fiscal 
  policy 
  and 
  implements 
  it 
  in 
  coordination with senior Palace officers and the 
  Governor’s Court, but in reality there are few 
  checks on its activity other than its own great 
  caution and quietly simmering internal disputes. 
  Nevertheless, 
  its 
  constituent 
  offices 
  are 
  individually busy and vital to the Pan Chákan 
  economy. The Treasury of the Protectorate is a 
  part of it, as are the Ever-the-Same Granaries of 
  the Protectorate. These latter are primarily 
  intended to buy up and sell off grain as directed 
  by the Stabilization Fund Cabinet to maintain 
  even grain prices; they also serve as a reserve 
  in case of famine. These granaries are quite 
  large, and after a series of impeachments and 
  harsh sentences a decade or so ago, relatively 
  honest and cleanly run. They also stubbornly 
  use Mu’ugalavyáni measures and terminology, 
  as this institution was originally a creation of the 
  Red Hats. The Storehouses of the Protectorate 
  are similar but less important; they warehouse 
  quantities of certain raw or partially finished 
  goods 
  (timber, 
  raw 
  fabric, 
  metal 
  ingots, 
  preserved foods, etc.) for emergency use or 
  possible market intervention. 
   
  The Stabilization Fund Cabinet, ranking as a 
  department-level agency, is the brain, if not 
  quite the heart, of the Directorate. Its members 
  are charged with analyzing the data provided by 
  their subordinates and recommending fiscal 
  policy to the Director of Provincial Finance. It is 
  thus advisory, and has no executive role. Three 
  sub-units support the Cabinet’s activity. The 
  Office for Coinage assays and inspects coins 
  randomly drawn from the markets and treasury, 
  checking for counterfeiting or clipping; it also 
  attempts to monitor the volume and flow of 
  cash in the region. The Office of Price 
  Compilations and Surveillance collects reports on 
  the selling prices of various staple commodities 
  in different regions of the protectorate (in 
  theory; usually only those in the Butrús Circuit 
  are complete enough to be usable). Designated 
  local officials and market magistrates report 
  grain prices every six days; this office makes 
  monthly summaries for use at the level of the 
  protectorate, and submits semiannual reports to 
  Avanthár as well. The Office for the Control and 
  Inspection of Financial Speculators is an obscure 
  group charged with monitoring moneylenders 
  and “bankers”; their real role, though, is to liaise 
  with these businesses to ensure cooperation in 
  case of fiscal crisis. 
   
  A further unit of the directorate is the Office of 
  the Census, which maintains (or at least 
  attempts to maintain) comprehensive registries 
  for each birth, death, and even marriage within 
  the protectorate. While this is quite accurate for 
  the city of Butrús, its environs, the other major 
  towns, and a few of the more densely-settled 
  agricultural districts along major thoroughfares, 
  the results are patchy or simply nonexistent long 
  before one reaches the western coast or the 
  Páchi Lei in the deep south.  
   
  The Directorate of the Bursary-General is, in a 
  sense, the most crucial element in the daily 
  operation of Pan Chákan government: it is this 
  agency that issues funds to each departmental-
  level or higher unit within the Four Palaces and 
  to the Governor’s Court.65 Three separate 
  departments handle budget coordination, payroll 
  disbursements, and operational expenses. In 
  addition, it handles the internal accounting and 
  bookkeeping of almost the entire bureaucracy. 
  Its chief auditing arm is the Department for 
  Deficit Monitoring, which in reality is just as mild 
  as its name — it has little real auditing 
  capability, but merely tracks and reminds 
  various units of their overdrafts. Serious deficits 
  or peculations must be handled by other means. 
   
  The 
  Bureau 
  of 
  Civic 
  Personnel 
  handles 
  appointments, promotions, demotions, merit 
  ratings, honors, and titles for all members of the 
  Palaces of the Realm, Foreign Lands, and the 
  Priesthoods. The Palace of War and the 
  Governor’s Court have independent personnel 
  offices, but coordinate as best they can with the 
  Bureau. 
  Note 
  also 
  that 
  payroll 
  for 
  the 
  bureaucracy is handled by a department within 
  the 
  Bureau 
  of 
  Revenue. 
  Due 
  to 
  severe 
  understaffing, the senior officers of the Bureau 
  have little time to deliberate on or judge the 
  dossiers and petitions put forward for their 
  decision, as they are properly expected to do. 
  The top level of staff has thus evolved in recent 
  decades into a sort of giant rubber-stamping 
  mill, 
  acting 
  almost 
  automatically 
  on 
  the 
  recommendations of its component offices. This 
                                                  
  65 Though in Pan Cháka, the Governor’s office also has some 
  direct sources of official income not normally available in 
  Tsolyánu proper. 
  
  70 
   
  70 
   
   
  causes a certain amount of ill will and lowered 
  morale in Pan Chákan officialdom, and the 
  Governor’s Court has begun to issue some veiled 
  criticisms of the situation as well.  
   
  The Department of Minor Commissions handles 
  promotions and demotions of official positions 
  rated Tiers VIII through X of rank (that is, First 
  to Ninth Circles), while the Department of Major 
  Commissions handles those posts rated from 
  Tier VII (Tenth Circle) on up. The Department of 
  Evaluations conducts, for every official “in the 
  current” serving in Pan Cháka, an Annual 
  Evaluation and the Triennial Scrutiny. Once he 
  or she has completed three scrutiny periods 
  (nine years) in a given post, the Twelvefold 
  Inspection Office makes a recommendation for 
  reassignment or recognition based on a further 
  evaluation of these reports (three “scrutinies” 
  and 
  nine 
  “evaluations”). 
  If 
  not 
  already 
  reassigned within this period, the official will 
  almost certainly be moved to another post after 
  nine years — or at least to the same position in 
  a different prefecture or town. The Department 
  of Merit Ratings deals with promotions and 
  demotions in rank (i.e. “Circles” or kartu’ún) 
  among officials “in the current”. The Department 
  of 
  Honor 
  Awards 
  handles 
  petitions 
  and 
  recommendations for honors and titles to be 
  given to officials of the protectorate (for length 
  of service, good reviews, noteworthy conduct, 
  etc.), and issues them as directed.  
   
  Two smaller groups support these units of the 
  Bureau of Personnel. The larger is the Office of 
  Personnel 
  Records, 
  which 
  maintains 
  an 
  enormous and supposedly confidential archive of 
  complete files on all officials currently serving in 
  Pan Cháka and those retired there, and partial 
  records on those who formerly served there and 
  have since transferred to other parts of the 
  empire. 
  The 
  other 
  is 
  the 
  Appointment 
  Verification Service, which provides official 
  identification documents and seals for each new 
  appointment, demotion, or replacement, tracks 
  the location of each of these important items, 
  and ensures their retrieval and checks their 
  condition when the incumbent vacates the 
  relevant post or rank. 
   
  The Bureau of Works is traditionally considered 
  the least prestigious of the four bureaus, due to 
  its association with manual labor; but is also 
  said to be the oldest and seniormost of them all. 
  It consists of five departments, a directorate, 
  four offices, and a private school, as well as the 
  usual headquarters and support staff.  
   
  The Department of Bridges and the Department 
  of Road Maintenance speak for themselves; the 
  Department of Meritorious Service is the 
  euphemistically named agency that organizes 
  and enforces labor corvées. The Department of 
  Irrigation Maintenance is directly involved in 
  construction, upkeep, cleaning, and emergency 
  responses; it is less supervisory or advisory than 
  its “elder sister” organization, the Directorate of 
  Waterways.  
   
  The Directorate of Waterways oversees regional 
  and local governments in their operation and 
  maintenance of irrigation networks, cisterns, 
  wells, canals, locks, flood control measures, and 
  aqueducts. It contains an Office for the 
  Registration of Boats and Boatmen, an Office of 
  Rivers and Canals (traffic control, dredging, 
  operation of locks, towage), an Office of 
  Hydrometry (measuring and attempting to 
  predict rainfall, monitoring of water levels in 
  rivers, lakes, and certain wells), and an Office of 
  Conduits 
  (i.e., 
  the 
  aqueducts 
  and 
  other 
  arrangements to provide Butrús, specifically, 
  with water). The Section of the Vice-Director of 
  Hydraulic Workings and Devices is also worth 
  noting, as this official and his staff are specially 
  in charge any hydraulic machinery in the 
  protectorate — locks, waterwheels, pumps, and 
  even waterclocks. 
   
  Ranking below the departments and the 
  directorate in the Bureau are the Office of 
  Monuments and Memorials, responsible for 
  erecting and repairing official steles, statues, 
  and the like; the Office of Slaves, in charge of 
  registering all slaves passing through the slave 
  markets of the protectorate, and at the same 
  time controlling the pool of state slaves, who are 
  used 
  particularly 
  for 
  construction 
  and 
  maintenance 
  projects; 
  the 
  Office 
  of 
  Benevolence, which issues contracts to private 
  clans for work on civic projects of any kind; the 
  Office of State Resources, which controls and 
  leases land, properties, and other resources 
  owned by the state in Pan Cháka; and the Office 
  of the Welfare Granaries, keeping reserves of 
  grain in the city and a few other major towns, 
  
  71 
   
  71 
   
   
  which is disbursed to the needy (orphans, 
  widows, beggars, refugees, the clanless) on a 
  regular basis. These granaries are significantly 
  smaller than the other state granaries, judged 
  as less important in practical terms, and are 
  much more corrupt.  
   
  Finally, the Bureau operates the Lumber-and-
  Stone Park, which despite its name66 is actually 
  a small school that trains clerks and scribes in 
  measurement, arithmetic, accounting, basic 
  surveying, and all the other technical skills 
  necessary 
  to 
  obtain 
  the 
  qualification 
  of 
  “Estimator”. This position exists in considerable 
  numbers in the Bureau of Works (obviously), but 
  is also found in the other branches of the Palace 
  of the Realm and even in the other organs of 
  provincial 
  government. 
  While 
  a 
  decidedly 
  humble school (ranked as a mere Office), not 
  fitting 
  for 
  anyone 
  of 
  even 
  middle-class 
  background, it is thus nevertheless an important 
  stepping stone for more lowly but capable 
  officials, and equally important to the state in 
  providing a body of reliably trained and 
  quantitatively educated clerks. 
   
  The Palace of Ever-Glorious War 
  The “Palace of Winter” is the second largest of 
  the Four Palaces in Pan Cháka, and rivals the 
  size of the Governor’s Court itself. It is powerful 
  and busy, being responsible for coordinating and 
  supporting the activities of the legions that 
  make up the armies of the Petal Throne: 
  recruitment, 
  logistics 
  and 
  supply, 
  troop 
  movements, and all operational and strategic 
  issues. It also handles military intelligence and 
  inspects the legions’ training standards, morale, 
  loyalty, 
  equipment, 
  and 
  overall 
  combat-
  readiness. It is further responsible for the 
  operation of the imperial courier service in the 
  protectorate. Its staff are not under the 
  jurisdiction of the Bureau of Personnel in the 
  Palace of the Realm, but are instead treated as 
  an almost “paramilitary” service whose primary 
  difference from soldiers proper is that they have 
  no legion affiliation. (Besides which, of course, 
  they 
  receive 
  no 
  training, 
  equipment, 
  or 
  deployment in combat per se.)  
   
                                                  
  66 Coming from the original location of the school, a 
  storeyard for raw construction materials. 
  In regular provinces of the empire, the militia 
  forces are maintained by the Palace of the 
  Realm, which turn over operational command of 
  them to the Governor when needed. In the 
  protectorates of Tsolyánu, however, the Palace 
  of War oversees them. The militias of Pan Cháka 
  are in theory quite large — far outnumbering 
  the “regulars” of the legions — but in reality 
  they would scarcely be adequate to defend its 
  huge area, even if many units were not of 
  dubious character and loyalties. Simultaneously, 
  the sákbe road guard forces of Pan Cháka are 
  also part of the Palace of War (due to the 
  protectorate’s 
  frontier 
  location 
  and 
  “semi-
  pacified” status), and they are quite numerous 
  and well-trained. They see frequent action 
  against 
  bandits, 
  wild 
  beasts, 
  and 
  even 
  occasional minor Mu’ugalavyáni probes; in time 
  of war they would be called up to serve as a 
  regular, full-strength legion. Their peacetime 
  patrols and garrisons are, however, limited to 
  the Tumíssa-Úrmish sákbe that passes through 
  Butrús.  
   
  The Palace of War is divided into six bureaus 
  and a number of other smaller offices. In 
  addition, there are several special directorates 
  set up to handle more sensitive and less easily 
  routinized affairs. The most important of these is 
  the Directorate of Military Finance, which keeps 
  the War Treasury of the Protectorate and also 
  runs the Office of Military Accounts and Audits, 
  much-feared by other components of the Palace 
  of War and a special terror to the legion 
  commandants in the area. Some directorates 
  run across provincial 
  lines, such as the 
  Directorate for the Defense of the Western 
  Frontier (headquartered in Tumíssa, with both 
  its Southern Division and High Coast Division 
  being based in Butrús). 
   
  The Bureau of Military Personnel is made up of 
  eight sub-units: the Department of Recruitment 
  (which operates the recruitment halls for 
  soldiers of the legions) and the Department of 
  Appointments (for the officers of the Palace 
  itself, not for field soldiers); the Department for 
  the Supervision of Legion Personnel (overseeing 
  personnel issues within the legions based in or 
  posted to Pan Cháka); the Department of 
  Commendations 
  and 
  Decorations; 
  the 
  Department 
  of 
  Discipline 
  and 
  Punishment 
  (handling 
  all 
  Palace 
  officials 
  as 
  well 
  as 
  
  72 
   
  72 
   
   
  supervising punishments issued to soldiers by 
  their legions); the Department of Military 
  Payroll; the Department of Veterans and 
  Reserves (keeping track of individuals either 
  retired from or put on detached service by their 
  legions); and the Department of Domestic 
  Guardians (overseeing and coordinating the 
  private employment of personal bodyguards, 
  clan and caravan guards, etc.). 
   
  The Bureau for the Provincial Militia consists of a 
  skeleton staff, organized into a Department of 
  the Militia Register, a Department of Equipment 
  and Provision (suspected of gross corruption), a 
  Department of Levy and Training, and a 
  Department for Operations and Exercises. The 
  lattermost is in charge of an annual “field 
  exercise” in some part of the protectorate, in 
  which the local militiamen are obliged to 
  participate. On several occasions when this has 
  been done in more remote areas, the militia has 
  resisted its officers, formed into a warband, and 
  gone raiding.  
   
  The 
  Bureau 
  of 
  Operations 
  supports 
  the 
  deployment of troops in the field and the 
  preparation of strategic plans by the regional 
  command. It consists of a Department of 
  Fortifications, a Department of Locations (e.g., 
  maps and terrain), and the much despised but 
  critical Department of Espionage. This last 
  department is loathed even by other members 
  of the bureau, who resent having to be 
  associated with it. 
   
  While individual legions are responsible for their 
  own armor, weapons, and uniforms, the Bureau 
  of Equipment monitors them, assists in certain 
  aspects, and serves to supervise the overall 
  industry in military hardware. The Department 
  of Acquisitions and Purchasing ensures that the 
  legions, as well as the units directly maintained 
  by the provincial government (e.g., the militias 
  or the sákbe road police), are provided with 
  necessary arms, armor, gear, and tack; the 
  Department for Logistical Support arranges for 
  the transport of these items, including spares 
  and expendables (arrows, javelins, etc.) to 
  garrisons, camps, and the battle lines. (Legions 
  in their own barracks are responsible for 
  handling this individually.) The Department for 
  Armories and Warehousing stores and keeps 
  inventories of such supplies until they are 
  needed. Finally, the Department for Trade and 
  Commerce in Tools of War supervises the 
  manufacture and pricing of all weapons and 
  armor in the protectorate. In the interest of 
  keeping stolen or misrouted hardware out of the 
  hands of rebels, bandits, smugglers, foreigners, 
  or other undesirables, the transport of weapons 
  or armor through Pan Cháka requires a bond 
  and a license from this department. It also 
  licenses armories, among other things, and sets 
  quotas for their purchase of chlen hide and iron. 
  In short, this department exercises significant 
  commercial power in the protectorate. 
   
  The Bureau of Provisions is less glamorous but 
  probably more critical; it assures the supply of 
  food and water to troops in Pan Cháka. Its 
  Department of Carriage organizes supply trains, 
  whether by cart, porter, or barge, and also 
  builds aqueducts, cisterns, and wells as needed. 
  The Department of Grain Purchases and Levies 
  obtains the actual foodstuffs from suppliers, 
  always attempting to avoid central granaries 
  with long supply trains out to the field. As 
  provisions cannot always be obtained in this 
  way, either by purchase on the market or by 
  authorized levies, the Department of Foraging 
  has been set up to attempt to regulate the 
  appropriation of foodstuffs and supplies from 
  the countryside. 
   
  The Bureau of Communications is fairly small 
  and often overlooked, but vital. Few realize that 
  the sákbe road guards are only a minor part of 
  this agency, under the Department of Highway 
  Guardians (along with the labor sections that do 
  the necessary cleaning and repair work). 
  Upkeep and supervision of all other roadways in 
  the protectorate are the responsibility of the 
  Department of Roads in the Bureau of Works of 
  the Palace of the Realm. The other subunits are 
  the Department of Signals (regulating the use of 
  drums, flags, and beacon fires to send quick 
  messages over short distances); the Department 
  of Couriers (making regular runs between 
  designated stations, carrying a standard frame-
  pack of official correspondence and small 
  packages) and the Department of Messengers 
  (handling dispatches to specific individuals or 
  special locations, as needed; more responsible 
  and senior runners are chosen for this service); 
  and the Department of Secret Messages, in 
  charge of cryptography and the code-books 
  
  73 
   
  73 
   
   
  issued by Avanthár, and which is also presumed 
  to maintain its own small secret network of 
  couriers or messengers (perhaps employing 
  trained birds, heliographs, kites, and who knows 
  what else). 
   
  The 
  Detached 
  Department 
  of 
  Diplomacy 
  organizes communication with counterparts in 
  Mu’ugalavyá (and more rarely, other countries) 
  on matters of military concern. Its most 
  important function is in fact to arrange for 
  qadárni ritual battles. It furthermore helps 
  smooth over border incursions, coordinates 
  occasional cross-border anti-bandit campaigns, 
  negotiates the exchange of prisoners of war, 
  and even sets up marotlán or me’éra matches 
  involving international teams. Its diplomatic 
  agents and men in the field are designated as 
  “Ushers”, regardless of actual function. This 
  department is greatly resented by the Palace of 
  Foreign Lands, which works to undermine it 
  whenever possible. 
   
  Palace of the Priesthoods of the Gods 
  Due to Pan Chákan tradition, in the “Palace of 
  Summer” the usual bureaus, directorates, and 
  departments are replaced by “colleges”, each 
  with an antique (and at this point quaintly 
  irrelevant) title. A further feature is that from 
  among 
  its 
  ranks 
  the 
  Palace 
  appoints 
  Commissioners of Merit and Virtue, a pool of 
  officials who are approved and authorized to 
  conduct 
  inspections 
  of 
  temple 
  grounds, 
  accounts, or activities. Usually these individuals 
  are vetted informally by the sects in question; 
  the practice is a compromise between imperial 
  insistence 
  on 
  access 
  to 
  the 
  potentially 
  threatening 
  temple 
  institutions 
  and 
  the 
  reluctance of those same powerful bodies to risk 
  undue outside control or disclosure. 
   
  The College for Making the Heart Sincere dates 
  back to the Gracious Inquisition of the later 
  thirteenth century. After unwisely criticizing the 
  sect of Hrsh in the late 1600s, it was curtailed 
  and under-funded by the Mu’ugalavyáni and has 
  never quite recovered its former stature. It 
  consists for the most part of an Office for 
  Inquisition 
  into 
  Alleged 
  Heterodoxies 
  (the 
  investigative and deliberative branch) and an 
  Office for the Suppression of Heterodoxies and 
  Diabolism (the operational branch, carrying out 
  arrests, interrogations, seizures of property, 
  corrective 
  education 
  and 
  promulgation 
  of 
  orthodox teachings, and so forth.) 
   
  The 
  College 
  for 
  Guiding 
  Human 
  Nature 
  organizes, supervises, and underwrites all public 
  religious festivals; it is not responsible for those 
  with military or purely political or civic focus. In 
  addition, it has three technical subunits. The 
  Section of the Court of the Watchers is the 
  official timekeeping agency for the bureaucracy 
  of the protectorate; it operates the devices 
  necessary to accurately track the passage of 
  time, and must regularly report the time to all 
  other officials and public representatives. They 
  thus order the working day of officialdom and 
  much of the military. However, they do not set 
  the official “time of day” for the temples, whose 
  internal lives each run on their own schedules; 
  nor do they set “public time” in Butrús, that is, 
  the pace of life for the regular inhabitants of the 
  city.67 The Section for the Calendrical Arts 
  formulates and promulgates the official calendar 
  and almanac for Pan Cháka. This publication 
  contains a listing of all official or approved 
  holidays, ceremonies, observances, standard 
  numerological 
  prognostications, 
  phenological 
  patterns, 
  astronomical 
  events, 
  important 
  historical anniversaries, and a slew of moral 
  aphorisms and exhortations. The Section for the 
  Observatory Grounds is in charge of upkeep and 
  maintenance of the observatory park (q.v.) and 
  also, in theory, of regulating access and use by 
  the various temples and lay priests. It is so 
  regularly appealed and overridden on these 
  scheduling issues that it barely bothers any 
  longer. 
   
  The College for Moral Rectification contains the 
  legal arm of the Palace. The Hall of the 
  Observation of the Concordat of the Temples is 
  modeled as a court of law and is the mechanism 
  by which inter-temple disputes are resolved, 
  whether by mediation or imperial fiat. Usually 
  the Palace head is its sitting magistrate, though 
  there is also a regularly appointed court staff. 
  This bureau-level organization also operates the 
  Office for the Surveillance of the Ecclesiastical 
  Courts, which conducts judicial review of the 
                                                  
  67 This is instead handled by a small office under the 
  Metropolitan Prefect; it and the Court of the Watchers have 
  disagreed over correct “time of day” for some decades, and 
  bitterly feud over it. 
  
  74 
   
  74 
   
   
  staffing, 
  operation, 
  trial 
  procedures, 
  and 
  sentencing of each temple’s courts. In theory it 
  has considerable power, but it is given little 
  access to the actual workings of these courts 
  and has even less ability to intervene effectively. 
  Moreover, it is badly understaffed. 
   
  The College for Cultivating the Noble Path 
  handles the extraction of wealth from the 
  temples, and generally attempts to regulate the 
  economic power of these institutions. The Office 
  for the Assessment of Temple Wealth is the 
  body that conducts general surveys of temple 
  lands, revenues, and investments in order to set 
  tax requirements; it also has a small audit 
  group, called in as necessary to inspect temple 
  bookkeeping. The Office for the Collection of 
  Temple 
  Tithes 
  is, 
  obviously, 
  the 
  agency 
  responsible for the gathering of those taxes due 
  to the Petal Throne from ecclesiastical estates. 
  Unlike its secular equivalents, the collectors are 
  all ranked officials of the Palace, and the 
  contractual “tax captain” system is not used. 
  The Office for the Warriors of the Gods 
  coordinates between those temples which fund 
  their own legions and the Palace of Glorious War 
  (where they are actually deployed); a primary 
  concern is assuring an adequate bond or cash 
  flow to keep the temple legions solvent, so that 
  the empire is not caught having to make up any 
  shortfall. The Office for the Assurance of Morally 
  Necessary 
  Materials 
  issues 
  licenses 
  and 
  subcontracts to various minor workshops and 
  artisans that manufacture and retail religious 
  goods, particularly sacrificial offerings and 
  funerary or memorial objects. The office is thus 
  quite economically important. 
   
  The College for Venerating the Completed 
  Things is in charge of the City of the Dead; it 
  consists of the Construction Office (handling the 
  allocation of land within the necropolis and the 
  design and building of tombs, mausoleums, and 
  monuments; it also must approve all epitaphs 
  and inscriptions on the public facings of such 
  structures); the Office of Respect (arranging for 
  cleaning, 
  sweeping, 
  gardening, 
  and 
  maintenance, as well as keeping order and 
  standards among the professional mourners, 
  embalmers, decorators, and other professionals 
  in 
  the 
  necropolis), 
  and 
  perhaps 
  most 
  importantly, the Office of the Tomb Police.  
   
  The College for the Extension of Academic Arts 
  supervises education within the protectorate, at 
  virtually every 
  level. 
  The 
  Office 
  for the 
  Supervision of the Holy Colleges oversees the 
  activities of the three major temple academies 
  and the lesser priestly colleges in Butrús and the 
  rest of Pan Cháka. This office keeps registers of 
  the teachers, students, and their progress 
  through the academic ranks, serving as a 
  secular or public validator of temple degrees and 
  graduations. Among other duties, it ensures that 
  seditious or separatist sentiments are not 
  expressed. The Office for the Surveillance of 
  Familial Academies monitors the teachings and 
  staffing of tutors and clan schools; it is 
  understaffed and has little effective regulatory 
  power, and primarily acts as an “employment 
  agency” to match available scholars with clans in 
  need 
  of 
  teachers. 
  The 
  Office 
  for 
  the 
  Accreditation and Correction of Wandering 
  Sages supposedly monitors, examines, and 
  certifies the capabilities of marketplace tutors 
  and teachers, sets their acceptable fees, and 
  handles complaints about them. In fact, it is 
  entirely 
  toothless 
  and 
  notoriously 
  corrupt. 
  Finally, the Office for the Regularization of 
  Calligraphy is a small unit established to enforce 
  the adoption of the new Tsolyáni script after the 
  re-conquest from Mu’ugalavyá in the nineteenth 
  century; up until that point, Pan Cháka had 
  continued using the Classical Tsolyáni script. 
   
  Palace of Foreign Lands 
  The “Palace of Autumn” is surprisingly small, 
  given 
  the 
  protectorate’s 
  location 
  on 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni frontier. One reason is the lack of 
  a major canal, road, or sea route to Butrús from 
  foreign centers; another is that many issues of 
  foreign trade and commerce are overseen by 
  the Governor’s Court and the Palace of the 
  Realm. 
   
  The Department for Recognitions is directed at 
  foreigners; it issues visas (in person or through 
  the consulates) and inspects passports. It does 
  not handle issues of naturalization or acquisition 
  of Tsolyáni citizenship; the Palace of the Realm 
  is responsible for that. The Department for 
  Passports and Departures is its counterpart for 
  Pan Chákans and other Tsolyáni citizens; it 
  issues passports for foreign travel and also 
  
  75 
   
  75 
   
   
  permits for passage from the protectorate into 
  Tsolyánu proper. 
   
  The Department for Boundaries has three 
  subunits concerned with traffic and commerce. 
  The Office of Borders and Checkpoints operates 
  the various stations at which passports, visas, 
  and travel permits are checked and logged; the 
  Office of Tracking and Searching compiles and 
  inspects the data thus collected. The Office for 
  the Regulation of Foreign Goods is charged with 
  inspecting and certifying all shipments of goods 
  into and out of the protectorate from abroad, 
  and levying the appropriate tariffs thereupon. 
  Together with the Palace of the Realm, it thus 
  represents half of the anti-smuggling efforts in 
  the protectorate; accordingly it is both large and 
  powerful.  
   
  The Department for Hospitality handles the 
  practical aspects of foreigners’ travel in Pan 
  Cháka. Its Office of Highway Lodgings inspects 
  the hostels and waystations designated for the 
  use of foreigners along the sákbe roads and 
  elsewhere in Pan Cháka, while the chief task of 
  the Office for the Foreigners’ Quarter is the 
  inspection of the operation of the hostels for 
  foreigners and outsiders in Butrús. In theory, it 
  keeps a record of all lodgers in these hostels, 
  but this aim is rarely attained, and even the data 
  it does have is probably not to be greatly relied 
  upon.  
   
  The Department for the Affairs of the Friends in 
  the High South deals with Páchi Lei issues, while 
  the Department for Guiding and Soothing Those 
  Suffering From Remoteness handles affairs 
  involving the human tribes of the deep forest 
  and mountains. The Department for Maritime 
  Affairs is in charge of all coastal traffic and trade 
  issues, but is woefully ineffective given the 
  distance to the coast and difficult intervening 
  terrain, its sparse settlement, and the unhelpful 
  natives.  
   
  A final unit is the Department of Liaison, which 
  acts to assist, monitor, and control the activities 
  of the various foreign legations and consulates 
  in Butrús. Its most prominent branch is, 
  obviously, the Office for the Four Palaces, 
  specially tasked to the Mu’ugalavyáni consulate. 
  It also operates a Cabinet for Foreign Laws, 
  advising in disputes involving foreign agencies 
  or institutions, or important foreigners, and is 
  consulted on issues relating to the relationship 
  between the protectorate and Tsolyánu proper. 
  The department also runs a Commission of 
  Accompaniment, an ad hoc unit that organizes 
  and furnishes escorts for foreign dignitaries 
  within Pan Cháka; its commissioners have the 
  title of “Escort” (rather than the “Ushers” of the 
  Palace of War). Finally, there is the Translators’ 
  and Interpreters’ Agency, at times used by all 
  branches of government, and the Receptions 
  Service, which assists in arranging formal 
  welcomes for visiting foreign dignitaries. 
   
  Local Administration 
  In Tsolyánu, the largest unit of government 
  below the level of province or protectorate is the 
  “prefecture”, which is administered by a Prefect. 
  Every prefecture is made up of several 
  “districts”, each under a Magistrate. However, in 
  the various protectorates of Tsolyánu certain 
  district-sized regions are instead organized into 
  “commanderies”, under militarized jurisdiction, 
  so as to aid in frontier defense. In Pan Cháka, 
  most of the western forests and coast are 
  organized into commanderies of huge area and 
  scanty population; the Páchi Lei regions of the 
  far south are organized likewise (in the minds 
  and manuals of human officials in Butrús and 
  Avanthár, at least). Only the permanently 
  settled agricultural regions are organized into 
  the familiar districts.  
   
  Each prefecture and district is classified as 
  belonging to one of four grades, reflecting its 
  population, wealth, and general significance 
  (minor, medial, major, or “important”). Certain 
  rural districts or commanderies are further 
  designated as “artisanal”, due to a special 
  concentration of manufacturing or industry in 
  the local economy, or as “urban”, if it is the 
  center of a major town or city. The city of 
  Butrús 
  itself 
  is 
  officially 
  designated 
  an 
  “important urban prefecture”, for example.  
   
  Below the district level, Pan Cháka organizes its 
  settlements into yet further ranks, retained from 
  the days of Mu’ugalavyáni occupation. This 
  system is becoming increasingly uneven and 
  chaotic as the more lax and feudalistic practices 
  of the Tsolyáni empire spread back into Pan 
  Cháka. The system is based on multiples of four 
  
  76 
   
  76 
   
   
  and five, counting neither the clanhouse nor the 
  family as a kinship group, but rather the 
  “minimal household”, or the family as a 
  residential group.68 They are given below in 
  descending order of size, with their nominal 
  count of households: 
   
  Township: 400 households (4 wards) 
  Ward: 
  100 households (5 precincts) 
  Precinct: 20 households (4 villages) 
  Village: 
  5 households69  
   
  A district or commandery is ideally made up of 
  five townships, or (nominally) two thousand 
  households. This would probably amount to 
  some 30,000-50,000 individuals. 
   
  The townships are headed by a triumvirate of 
  locally appointed “officials” — though they are 
  “outside the current” (i.e. they have no 
  bureaucratic rank) and are unpaid positions. A 
  Headman or Elder is in overall charge of the 
  populace in question, particularly in regard to 
  laws, rites, and public morality, assists ranked 
  officials in the exercise of their duties, and 
  arranges lodging and hospitality for travelers.70 
  The Headman is aided by a Husbander (charged 
  with assisting tax assessors and collectors) and 
  a Patroller (responsible for aiding in law 
  enforcement, anti-banditry surveillance, and in 
  participation in the militia system).  
   
  A thorough administrative geography of Pan 
  Cháka must wait for a future publication. 
  However, a brief outline can be given here. The 
  lowlands east of the Turín River are divided into 
  seven prefectures, with a total of forty-eight 
  districts. Roughly, from north to south, they are 
  Órmagai, Etíthi and Archalá, Utléut, Kirékku, 
  Vadhíyi directly across the river from Butrús, and 
  Chamú’e. West of the river, on the cleared 
  farmlands of the Chákan tableland, one finds 
  eight prefectures plus that of Butrús itself; these 
  comprise fifty-seven districts and commanderies. 
  Again running from north to south, these are 
  Cheyárpor, Pógudan, Kagjeyánu, Tló’ome and 
  Si’ínsu to the north of Butrús; Chéreshen in the 
                                                  
  68 A “lintel” is the retained Mu’ugalavyáni term for this; 
  “roof” is what a Tsolyáni might call it, if pressed. 
  69 A village is called a “lane” in urban districts. 
  70 This position corresponds to two different village officers 
  in Tsolyánu proper: the laithtúrunkoi, or chief clan-elder, and 
  the tsorókoi, a clan-elder appointed as a host for travelers. 
  area around the city; Cheyúmpor and Kágsamar 
  to the south. Farther west one enters the jungle 
  belt and more rugged land; districts here cover 
  far more terrain and are sparsely settled 
  compared to those in the east. There are five 
  prefectures here, with thirty six commanderies 
  among them: the vast old domain of Upákhe 
  behind Butrús; Pámhan to the south, bordering 
  on the Páchi Lei enclaves and riddled with 
  abandoned iron mines; secretively prosperous 
  Gíshu to the north, also claiming considerable 
  areas of fully cleared agricultural land; and the 
  two narrow bands of settlement south of the 
  Khéiris-Tumíssa sákbe highway: Ch’ükháne just 
  beyond 
  Gíshu, 
  and 
  then 
  remote 
  Jáwati, 
  stretching out as far as the Mu’ugalavyáni 
  frontier. The vast majority of Pan Cháka, 
  however, 
  falls 
  outside 
  these 
  twenty 
  one 
  prefectures named here: all of Porubél Ta, the 
  Páchi Lei enclaves, the central Chákan Range 
  and the highlands surrounding it, and the 
  distant coastline. 
  The Governor’s Court 
  While 
  nominally 
  the 
  senior 
  imperial 
  administrators in the protectorate, in practice 
  the governors of Pan Cháka tend to be more 
  preoccupied with broader political and policy 
  issues 
  — 
  especially 
  concerning 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni, the Páchi Lei enclaves, Íto and 
  Four Red separatists, tribesmen, and other 
  reluctant back-of-beyond subjects of the Seal 
  Emperor — than with managing the operation of 
  the imperial bureaucracy of the Four Palaces. 
  Nevertheless, they have in principle considerable 
  power to intercede in local governance, and 
  enjoy far greater authority and respect among 
  the common people than the Four Palaces do. 
   
  The governors of Pan Cháka are appointed 
  independently of the usual civil service staffing 
  procedures — as are all rulers of provinces or 
  protectorates in Tsolyánu. In Pan Cháka, the 
  appointment is considered “for life” — the 
  appointee is no longer eligible for lateral or 
  upward promotions (which are in any case 
  scarce at this high level). Governors only vacate 
  their office by death, retirement, or (more 
  rarely) impeachment and removal by the 
  Imperial 
  Censorate.71 
  In 
  reality, 
  several 
                                                  
  71 While the Seal Emperor could directly order a Pan Chákan 
  governor removed from office, this has never happened in 
  
  77 
   
  77 
   
   
  governors have “resigned” and gone into 
  “retirement” only to immediately re-apply for a 
  commission in the bureaucracy within Tsolyánu 
  proper, thus avoiding the “lifetime” tenure of 
  their post and not ending their careers. 
   
  During the first era of direct Tsolyáni rule (781–
  1566), the protectorate was ruled by a “viceroy” 
  (karmizhán), 
  rather 
  than 
  a 
  “governor” 
  (jaithulén). After recovering Pan Cháka from the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni in 1842, Avanthár redefined the 
  position as a governorship — at least in theory, 
  as most of the special privileges, limitations, and 
  peculiarities of the post in Pan Cháka were in 
  reality carried over. 
   
  In addition to his authority over the Four Palaces 
  — limited though it may be in some important 
  respects — the emperor’s representative in Pan 
  Cháka also has several organs of government 
  directly under his own control. These consist of 
  the Grand Councilors, the Chancellery, the 
  Seven Courts, the Five Directorates, the Four 
  Commissions, the Metropolitan Prefecture of 
  Butrús, and the Militia of the City of Butrús. He 
  is also in direct contact with the Bureau of 
  Remonstrance. In addition, of course, the 
  Governor has private and clan-based advisors, 
  retainers, servants, and agents as well.  
   
  Grand Councilors: Senior officers, four to ten in 
  number, 
  who 
  supervise 
  the 
  provincial 
  government and serve the Governor directly in 
  an 
  advisory, 
  planning, 
  and 
  policy-setting 
  capacity. They meet regularly with the Governor 
  in the Administration Chamber of the Center, 
  inside the palace grounds, which gives them 
  considerable 
  personal 
  influence 
  with 
  the 
  Governor. The Grand Councilors have a minimal 
  staff of document-handlers seconded from the 
  Chancellery (the Outer Drafters) and Institute of 
  Academicians. Note that this body is not 
  referred to as “the Grand Council”, but rather as 
  “the Administration Chamber of the Center” 
  after their designated meeting-place. 
   
  Almost all Grand Councilors have dual or joint 
  appointments 
  in other high-ranking 
  posts, 
  whether in the Governor’s Court (often the 
  Chancellery) or in one of the provincial Four 
                                                                         
  practice. Instead, such executive dismissals have always (to 
  date) been arranged through the Censorate.  
  Palaces. A few are drawn from outside the 
  official bureaucracy, normally through prior 
  service as Academicians.  
   
  Titles 
  of 
  provincial 
  councilors 
  throughout 
  Tsolyánu (and their equivalents in the central 
  government) 
  are 
  cumbersome 
  and 
  often 
  irrelevant, and Pan Cháka is no exception. The 
  only difference is the distinctive form of the 
  titles, based on Mu’ugalavyáni models — the 
  nomenclature 
  tends 
  toward 
  the 
  dry 
  and 
  bureaucratic, 
  rather 
  than 
  the 
  poetic 
  and 
  grandiose. Titles as primary posts of the Grand 
  Councilors are limited to the following four: 
  “Director of the Department of Princely Affairs”, 
  “Vice 
  Director 
  of 
  the 
  Vanguard 
  of 
  the 
  Department of Princely Affairs”, “Vice Director of 
  the Train of the Department of Princely Affairs”, 
  and 
  “Executive 
  Official 
  Participating 
  in 
  Determining Matters of the Protectorate”. Any 
  Grand Councilors over this number must make 
  do with their adjunct titles alone and an 
  unofficial designation of “Grand Councilor”. 
  Typically such adjunct titles will include one of 
  the following appendages which indicate holding 
  appointment as a Grand Councilor: “... and 
  Jointly Manager of Affairs With the Secretariat-
  Chancellery”, “... Cooperating With Tier VII 
  Officials of the Secretariat-Chancellery”, “... and 
  Concurrently Participant in Determining Matters 
  of Government”, or “... and Concurrently 
  Participant in Deliberations on Advantages and 
  Disadvantages of Policy”.  
   
  Chancellery: In broadest terms, this organization 
  handles the flow of paperwork in and out of the 
  Governor’s Court: sorting, prioritizing, routing, 
  copying, and filing documents. It is responsible 
  for reviewing, revising, and polishing draft 
  documents. It also has the duties of advising the 
  Governor 
  on 
  the 
  practical 
  aspects 
  and 
  implementation of proposals or orders put 
  forward by higher and lower organs 
  of 
  government. It is the channel through which 
  new laws, regulations, and edicts are finalized 
  and then promulgated and transmitted to the 
  Four Palaces to be carried out.  
   
  It is also the agency that issues and controls all 
  the 
  “registered 
  documents”72 
  in 
  the 
  protectorate. These are blank papers used for 
                                                  
  72 Pan Chákan vernacular: qankhü 
  
  78 
   
  78 
   
   
  verified internal communication, each sheet 
  numbered and stamped with a half-seal; they 
  are issued from a stub-book containing the 
  other half of the stamped seal, the number, and 
  a notation regarding the date and destination of 
  issue. This is a Mu’ugalavyáni device introduced 
  during their rule over the protectorate, which 
  has been retained in local administration despite 
  official Tsolyáni disapproval. 
    
  The Chancellery has a very small staff, 
  considering that it is responsible for supervising 
  and coordinating the movement of all paperwork 
  in and out of the Governor’s Court, both up to 
  Avanthár and down to the heads of the 
  provincial Four Palaces. It is headquartered in a 
  building known due to tradition as the Pavilion 
  of the Gatekeeper’s Songbirds. It is headed by 
  two 
  Directors 
  (literally, 
  “Submitters 
  of 
  Statements”) and two Vice-Directors; some or 
  all of these officers are usually also Grand 
  Councilors. They have a senior staff of six 
  Secretariat 
  Drafters 
  and 
  four 
  Supervising 
  Secretaries, and a junior staff (in descending 
  rank) 
  of 
  Palace 
  Secretaries, 
  Gentleman 
  Secretaries, Chancellery Drafters, Rectifiers of 
  Omissions, 
  Palace 
  Diarists, 
  and 
  Palace 
  Gatekeepers. Officials and occasional civilians 
  called in to serve in the Chancellery on an 
  occasional or ad hoc basis are given the 
  concurrent title of “... Participant in the Drafting 
  of Proclamations”. The outsider should also be 
  aware that the term “Inner Drafters” refers to 
  the Secretariat Drafters or Chancellery Drafters 
  serving in the Chancellery proper, in contrast to 
  those seconded to support the Grand Councilors 
  as “Outer Drafters”. 
   
  Subunits within the Chancellery are limited to a 
  Desk for the Palace of Winter, a Desk for the 
  Palace of Spring, a Desk for the Palace of 
  Summer, and a Desk for the Palace of Autumn 
  (each headed by a Supervising Secretary), a 
  Desk for the Compilation of the Governor’s 
  Correspondence (under one of the Secretariat 
  Drafters, usually), and the Archive of the 
  Secretariat-Chancellery. 
   
  Formerly there was a separate Secretariat, 
  which was largely duplicative of the Chancellery 
  but focused more on recommendations of policy 
  and drafting of documents. It was abolished in 
  recent times and some of its personnel 
  consolidated into the Chancellery. For a time the 
  amalgamated body was called the Secretariat-
  Chancellery, but this has now been contracted 
  to simply “the Chancellery”. At the same time, 
  the Rear Office of the Secretariat was split off 
  into an independent organization and elevated 
  in status: the Remonstrance Bureau. 
   
  The Courts of the Seven Chamberlains. Each 
  Chamberlain was a high official responsible for 
  one aspect of the operation of the king’s and 
  later the viceroy’s offices and entourage; their 
  offices have been preserved to the present day. 
  They are assisted by at least one Aide-of-Court 
  apiece, and may have complex subordinate 
  organizations answering to them. 
   
  The Court of State Ceremonials is in charge of 
  the great governmental ceremonies and public 
  political rituals. Its head, the Chamberlain of the 
  Great Banner, is assisted by an Aide (known in 
  traditional Pan Chákan bureaucratese as the 
  Lower Shouter) and many Directors, each with 
  specialized ceremonial duties and titles: Initial 
  Supplicator, Great Sacrificial Butcher, Grand 
  Director of Ritual Music, Court Prognosticator, 
  First Astrologer of the Southwestern Octant, etc. 
  It works closely with the Palace of the 
  Priesthood of the Gods on these matters; its 
  focus is on those events or aspects of events 
  which involve the Governor himself, or the 
  Governor in his role as direct representative of 
  the Emperor in Pan Cháka. 
   
  The Chamberlain of the Court for Dependencies 
  and Visitations, officially titled the Grand 
  Maintainer of Orderliness, orders the conduct of 
  all officials and visitors for audiences with the 
  Governor and organizes receptions of local 
  nobility and chiefs. The Court also keeps 
  genealogical records of the aristocratic clans and 
  lineages of the protectorate. Its subordinate 
  units include a Private Messenger Office, a 
  Director of Interpreters, and a Supervisorate of 
  Liaison Hostelry (ensuring housing for noble 
  foreign travelers in the protectorate, and 
  housing of guests of the Governor).  
   
  The Court of Attendants is headed by the 
  Chamberlain for the Gentlemen (formerly the 
  Higher Shouter, though this old title has now 
  lapsed). This unit is in charge of all Inner 
  Gentlemen, a title designating the general pool 
  
  79 
   
  79 
   
   
  of individuals both entitled and qualified to serve 
  in the Governor’s Court. It is also responsible for 
  the 
  Governor’s 
  private 
  bodyguard 
  and 
  attendants, for the monitoring of traffic or 
  activities in public areas of the palace, and for 
  providing doormen and greeters (the latter 
  service directed by the Grand Master of Splendid 
  Happiness). 
  Most 
  importantly, 
  though, 
  it 
  examines the candidates “nominated” for office 
  by local officials and worthies each year. This 
  examination takes place in the Pavilion of 
  Fidgets and Anxieties, so named for the open 
  hall in which the new cadets await to hear the 
  results. The Court of Attendants also contains 
  two small professional academies for lower-level 
  officials: the School of Calligraphy (originally 
  instituted to get the bureaucracy to switch to 
  the modern Tsolyáni script, after the re-
  conquest in the nineteenth century; it is now 
  merely a prestigious sinecure and degree-mill) 
  and the School of Mathematics (a stopgap 
  measure to train and improve arithmetical skills, 
  assignment to which is considered a minor but 
  grueling punishment).  
   
  The Court of Shining Banquets is headed by the 
  Chamberlain for Palace Entertainments. 
  It 
  conducts all catering for the Governor’s palace 
  and court, including the practical organization of 
  official receptions and dinners. As the Four 
  Palaces are not permitted to host official 
  banquets or state dinners, this is a special 
  privilege of the Governor. It has a huge staff of 
  cooks, butlers, cleaners, musicians, and so forth, 
  including four subordinate offices specially 
  responsible for different types of foodstuff (the 
  Offices of Sweets, Roasts, the Bakery, and 
  Beverages; service in the Wine Stewards’ 
  Section 
  of 
  the 
  lattermost 
  is 
  particularly 
  prestigious). The Court also includes the Bureau 
  of Joyful Music (the “light” counterpart to the 
  ritual 
  musicians 
  in 
  the 
  Court 
  of 
  State 
  Ceremonials) and the Bureau of the Court 
  Players. For many centuries, the governorship of 
  Pan Cháka has maintained a large body of 
  hereditary (or slave) theatrical performers to 
  entertain at private and public functions — 
  called the Disciples of the Banana Grove, after 
  the garden long ago assigned for use as their 
  stage. There is a growing demand by moralists 
  and economizers to do away with this group, 
  but traditionalists have objected in forceful 
  terms.  
   
  The Chamberlain for the Palace Stores and 
  Granaries is essentially the financial officer of 
  the Governor’s Court, with control over its 
  revenues and budgeting, and charged with 
  providing for the Governor and court’s needs. 
  His office does not have any role in the fiscal 
  operation of protectorate-level government. This 
  Court has a number of offices under it, each 
  responsible for some aspect of the Governor’s 
  entourage and facilities — library, archives, 
  treasury, disbursements, etc. One office of note 
  is responsible for not only the palace granaries 
  but also supervising the Palace of the Realm’s 
  granary maintenance system, particularly the 
  charitable relief granaries.  
   
  The Chamberlain at the head of the Court of 
  Palace Protection is responsible for policing and 
  guarding the palace. The Court’s three main 
  branches are the Document Control Offices at 
  each gate, where passes and permits are 
  checked and logged; the Court Escorts, assigned 
  to accompany officers of the Governor’s Court 
  outside its walls or select individuals within 
  them; and the Patrolling Guardsmen, within the 
  palace grounds. Beyond this, it is in charge of 
  procurement, maintenance, and storage of 
  military regalia for use in state ceremonies. The 
  Chamberlain is the commander of the Hundred 
  Frosted Plumes (q.v.) and as such has the title 
  of “Foremost Aigrette”. 
   
  The 
  Chamberlain 
  for 
  Judicial 
  Review 
  recommends 
  decisions 
  in 
  questionable 
  or 
  appealed cases, and monitors the conduct of 
  major trials at the protectorate level. The 
  Chamberlain is aided by a Supervisor, two 
  Inspectors, and several Clerks and Arbiters, all 
  normally trained litigants and former officials in 
  courts of law.73 The group is divided into a Case 
  Review Desk and a Sentencing Evaluation Desk, 
  each under one of the Inspectors. This Court 
  does not have field agents or investigators; 
  instead, it works closely with the Governor’s 
  Surveillance Commission to gather information 
  from local courts. It also runs the School of Law, 
  with about twenty students at any given time, 
                                                  
  73 The Chamberlain and the Supervisor are also designated 
  the Grand Evocator and the Petty Evocator, respectively, for 
  their right to summarily transfer up to six cases per year 
  (one per season, in theory) to higher courts for review or 
  appeal. The Inspectors have no such arbitrary powers. 
  
  80 
   
  80 
   
   
  aimed at teaching the Tsolyáni and Engsvanyáli 
  legal 
  codes 
  to 
  young 
  bureaucrats 
  and 
  functionaries — especially rural headmen and 
  the like.  
   
  The Five Directorates are somewhat junior to 
  the Seven Courts, and are generally responsible 
  for more mundane and practical aspects of the 
  operation of the Governor’s offices. Each is 
  headed by a Director, with the assistance of a 
  Vice-Director, and in most cases, a number of 
  Administrators who each run an Office. 
   
  The Directorate for Court Manufactories is an 
  umbrella organization that coordinates and 
  supervises the activities of a number of artisans 
  and workshops which produce goods directly for 
  the Governor’s Court (and through it, for high 
  officials of the Four Palaces). These enterprises 
  are each grouped into separate offices: the 
  Fabrics Office (producing or procuring raw 
  cloth), the Dyeing 
  Office (controlling the 
  appropriate coloration of court clothes and 
  adornments), the Office of Brocades and Pins 
  (the tailoring service and wardrobe facility of the 
  court), the Office of Plumes and Feathers, the 
  Ornaments Office (specifying allowed jewelry 
  and accessories), the Foundry Office (producing 
  metal items for the court), the Office of 
  Tributary Trade (controlling and managing 
  procurement of “exotic” goods for use in the 
  Governor’s 
  Court, 
  both 
  from 
  within 
  the 
  protectorate and from foreign countries, and 
  wielding considerable influence in matters of 
  foreign trade and commerce), and the Office for 
  Distributables 
  (manufacturing 
  specialized 
  foodstuffs or small tokens given away in 
  quantity during certain ceremonies and public 
  events). 
   
  The Directorate for Palace Buildings handles the 
  construction and maintenance of all structures 
  belonging to the Governor’s palace and grounds. 
  Among its constituent units are the Office of 
  Verdant 
  Propagation 
  (gardening 
  and 
  arboriculture), the Office of Symmetric and 
  Radiant Sprays (fountains and waterworks), and 
  the Service for Restraint of Denizens of the 
  Azure (bird-catchers).74  
                                                  
  74 The name of the lattermost has been under frequent 
  criticism from many sources due to its suggestion of 
  direspect toward the deity and temples of Ksárul, and at 
   
  The Directorate for Court Service is the office of 
  personnel for non-official, “outside the current”, 
  servants in the Governor’s Court (i.e. those not 
  qualifying as Court Gentlemen). It recruits, 
  trains, pays, disciplines, and discharges the 
  service staff for the entire system of the 
  Governor’s Court; moreover, it directs and 
  manages the slaves owned by the Court. 
   
  The Directorate for the Governor’s Livery is 
  responsible 
  for 
  managing 
  the 
  Governor’s 
  excursions and appearances outside the palace 
  itself. The Director must organize the necessary 
  porters, footmen, standard-bearers, etc. as well 
  as oversee the procurement, storage, and 
  maintenance of official palanquins and carriages 
  for the Governor’s Court. 
   
  The Directorate for the Academicians is more 
  often known as the Institute of Academicians. 
  This non-administrative agency is made up of 
  special appointees, from within or without the 
  bureaucracy, who have been called in for special 
  counsel, assistance in drafting documents or 
  pronouncements, 
  or 
  aid 
  in 
  particular 
  compilations or publications. For someone not a 
  regular member of the Tsolyáni civil service, 
  selection and duty as an Academician can lead 
  to appointment as a Grand Councilor, though 
  this is not all that common. The seniormost 
  member is the Academician Recipient of Edicts, 
  followed by Academician Readers-in-Waiting and 
  Academician Lecturers-in-Waiting; below them 
  are the Erudites of the Institute.  
   
  The Four Commissions. Given the vast extent 
  and rugged terrain of Pan Cháka, as well as the 
  intervening layers of bureaucracy (specifically, 
  the Palace of the Realm), the Governor is often 
  hard-pressed to know what is going on in the 
  outlying areas, much less exercise effective 
  control over them. Thus special, direct control 
  over prefectural and district administration is 
  maintained 
  through 
  the 
  use 
  of 
  roving 
  “commissioners”. 
  They 
  are 
  selected 
  and 
  appointed directly by the Governor, and serve at 
  his or her discretion — though the Bureau of 
  Personnel, the Remonstrance Bureau, and 
  Imperial Censors all may have a say in the 
                                                                         
  times also of Avánthe or even toward the Tsolyani imperial 
  heraldry itself. 
  
  81 
   
  81 
   
   
  matter 
  as 
  well. 
  While 
  provincial-level 
  commissions do not have direct impeachment 
  authority, they serve as a sort of provincial-level 
  equivalent to the Imperial Censorate (q.v.). 
   
  Each commissioner is assigned to a “circuit” of 
  varying geographic extent, and is responsible for 
  overseeing the conduct of government there 
  and reporting back on the situation directly to 
  the Governor. There are several types of circuits 
  with specialized scopes of inquiry, grouped into 
  four general commissions. Active commissioners 
  will have different titles depending upon which 
  commission they belong to and the nature of 
  their current duty assignment.  
   
  The Military Commission consists of Military 
  Commissioners or, in the case of frontier or 
  “aboriginal” issues, Pacification Commissioners. 
  In Pan Cháka, there are five Military Defense 
  Circuits, as well as one Troop Purification Circuit 
  and one Courier Service Circuit, each of which 
  covers the entire protectorate. 
   
  The Fiscal Commission is led by the Fiscal 
  Commissioners. 
  This 
  group 
  is 
  specifically 
  concerned with the operation of tax collection 
  and grain transports; they also conduct audits of 
  local government offices. They are grouped into 
  six Record-Checking Circuits. 
   
  The Surveillance Commission is composed of 
  Judicial Commissioners, more commonly known 
  as Intendants; they supervise the orderliness 
  and proper organization of local courts, oversee 
  the general conduct of judges and trials, and the 
  management of prisoners. They work closely 
  with the Court of Judicial Review. In addition, 
  they are responsible for reporting on the general 
  level 
  of 
  local 
  unrest, 
  banditry, 
  economic 
  conditions, and so forth. There are nine 
  Surveillance Circuits in Pan Cháka.75 
   
  The Supply Commission is staffed by Transport 
  Commissioners or Supply Commissioners. They 
  supervise the local-level management of grain 
  storage and transport and the relief granaries; 
  they also oversee external trade, the state 
  monopolies, 
  state-supported 
  industries 
  and 
  agricultural development efforts. Their lack of 
                                                  
  75 Pan Chákan bureaucratese knows them as the Non-
  Evocators, as they cannot personally transfer cases from 
  lower courts to higher ones for review or appeal. 
  cooperation with the Stabilization Fund Cabinet 
  is 
  notorious. 
  Together 
  with 
  the 
  Fiscal 
  Commissioners, they monitor the forwarding of 
  tax revenues and grain levies. There are three 
  Agricultural Circuits, two Irrigation Circuits, one 
  Waterway Circuit, one State Resources Circuit, 
  and one Roadways Circuit. 
   
  The City Militia consists of about eight hundred 
  troops, organized into eight companies (karéng), 
  with one company permanently responsible for a 
  certain one-ténmre (roughly three hour) watch 
  period 
  and 
  “in 
  support” 
  for 
  two 
  others 
  (rotating), during which time they also patrol or 
  man the city gates and watchtowers, as needed; 
  finally, they are required to be in barracks, on 
  call, for one further ténmre per day.76 The 
  individual companies are thus known by the 
  numeral corresponding to their assigned watch 
  period, and are often referred to by the 
  corresponding time of day.77 The night patrols 
  are easily identified by their rattles (used to 
  announce which of the six kirén it is within the 
  ténmre) and their who-goes-there challenge of 
  “hárri-hárri-hárri!”78 They are under the direct 
  command of the Governor, and their duties 
  include guarding the walls and gates of the city 
  as well as maintaining order and peace on its 
  streets. Their headquarters is physically located 
  in the Palace of Realm, though the company 
  commanders report directly to the Governor’s 
  Court; there are also fortified outstations in the 
  city quarters, where most of the troops 
  themselves are based. The guardsmen also have 
  access to barracks, storerooms, and boltholes 
  within the city walls and gatehouses.  
   
  Within the City Militia there are several sections 
  that 
  have 
  specific 
  duties 
  and 
  fields 
  of 
  responsibility, each of which is represented in all 
  eight companies — e.g., the Stolen Properties 
  Recovery Service, the Missing Servants and 
  Slaves Recovery Service, the Undeveloped and 
  Wasteland Lot Inspection Service, or the Rapid 
  Pursuit and Collection Service (specially selected 
                                                  
  76 The City Militia, unlike every other unit of the bureaucracy, 
  operates on “city time”, in which the length of daytime and 
  nighttime ténmre and kirén vary from season to season. 
  77 Sundown, Evening, Night, and Dawn (the four “nighttime” 
  ténmre) and Sunrise, Morning, Afternoon, and Dusk (the 
  four “daytime” ténmre). Note that the day, according to “city 
  time”, starts at sunset, rather than at noon as per “officials’ 
  time”.  
  78 Literally, “who, who, who?” 
  
  82 
   
  82 
   
   
  athletes chosen to run down and arrest 
  malefactors who attempt to flee). Unlike 
  “policemen” in the Western sense, they do not 
  investigate crimes — that is the duty of the 
  courts. They may be called upon by officers of 
  the courts to assist in apprehending suspects, 
  protecting witnesses, securing crime scenes, and 
  so forth. 
   
  The Remonstrance Bureau scans all documents 
  passing between the Governor’s Court and 
  Avanthár in order to criticize proposals, policy 
  decisions, 
  edicts, 
  reports 
  and 
  requests, 
  recommendations, and guidances. Unlike the 
  editors in the Chancellery who must check 
  documents for correct style, protocol, technical 
  feasibility, 
  accuracy 
  of 
  information 
  and 
  calculations, administrative acceptability, and 
  overall propriety, this office is responsible for 
  editorializing based on the documents’ political 
  merit, or even on their moral and ethical 
  correctness.  
   
  Obviously, this level of policy critique can be a 
  dangerous job. Staff for this bureau are largely 
  drawn from outside Pan Cháka (though many 
  will have had a previous term of service in Pan 
  Chákan government, often in the Chancellery or 
  the Institute of Academicians) in order to 
  provide a check on the Governor, who is 
  normally a local person. They are funded and 
  supported out of the budget of the Governor’s 
  Court, but are appointed and monitored by a 
  sub-agency of the Court of Purple Robes itself, 
  in Avanthár. The Governor (let alone any lower 
  ranking official in the protectorate) thus has no 
  power to remove a remonstrator from office, 
  and only limited authority to discipline them. 
  The Bureau is headed by a Grand Master of 
  Remonstrance, who has a small staff of 
  Remonstrators, Exhorters, and Reminders (in 
  decreasing level of prestige and scope).  
   
  This unit was formerly part of the Secretariat, 
  but has since been detached and established as 
  an independent organization directly serving the 
  Governor. Before the reorganization, it was 
  housed in a wooden building called the Tíu 
  Pavilion, and the modern-day bureau is still 
  casually known by that name. 
   
  The Metropolitan Prefect (Savàlharéto, also 
  translated as “Mayor”) is an office in the city of 
  Butrús whose unusual scope of authority is 
  largely a residuary of the city’s recent ditlána. 
  This official handles almost all aspects of strictly 
  civic administration and is answerable directly to 
  the Governor — not to the Directors of the Four 
  Palaces. This is an unusual situation, especially 
  given that the position technically derives from 
  the city’s recognition as a regular unit of local 
  administration. In effect, this arrangement 
  allows the Governor exceptional authority and a 
  degree of direct control over the main city and 
  seat of government of the protectorate. (Note 
  also that the Governor retains personal control 
  over the City Militia, and does not delegate it to 
  the city administration.) 
   
  Many of the sub-units of the prefectural 
  government are concerned with the material 
  infrastructure 
  of 
  the 
  city: 
  the 
  Office 
  of 
  Aqueducts and Storm Drains, the Office of Offal 
  Removal and the Sewers, the Office of Streets 
  (responsible both for ensuring the streets are 
  swept regularly and for maintaining the avenues 
  of trees lining the main thoroughfares), the 
  Office for Civic Ceremonials (assisting in the 
  organization, 
  orderliness, 
  and 
  clean-up 
  afterwards of all the various public festivals, 
  parades, and rituals in the city), and the Office 
  for the Enclosure of the King, which handles the 
  gardening, landscaping, and general upkeep of 
  the Garden of Tlyo Zrang (q.v.), as well as 
  guarding its gates and collecting fees and 
  donations. Particularly important is the Office of 
  Walls and Gates, handling the repairs and 
  maintenance of the city’s defensive boundaries.  
   
  Reporting directly to the Prefect are the 
  representatives of the city’s neighborhoods, 
  responsible for ensuring the orderliness and 
  proper conduct of their residents, cooperation 
  with the City Militia and other organs of 
  government, and even assisting in the collection 
  of taxes. In theory, the four quarters of the city 
  were to be designated as Townships, with their 
  own “Vice-Mayors”, under each of whom would 
  be about twenty Wardens, each one in turn 
  responsible for and representing one of the 
  giant “city blocks” making up Butrús. Given the 
  realities of post-ditlána Butrús, this scheme was 
  dropped, and instead there is a Warden in 
  charge of each of the (major) city blocks and 
  sometimes its neighboring areas across the 
  dividing avenues; these are designated as 
  
  83 
   
  83 
   
   
  “wards”. The undeveloped and underpopulated 
  regions of the city are also grouped into wards, 
  though they may be much larger (and more 
  irregularly shaped) than those in the more built-
  up areas. Wardens are supposedly elected by 
  the residents of a given ward, subject to 
  approval and discipline of the Metropolitan 
  Prefect; in effect, of course, these “out-of-the-
  current” officials are appointed by the dominant 
  clan in the ward, and are usually a reliable and 
  industrious clan-elder but not a clan-head in 
  person.  
   
  The Office of the Fire Brigades is a supervisory 
  rather than an operational unit; it inspects the 
  various neighborhood fire-fighting gangs, issues 
  authorizing documents and insignia, disburses 
  funding 
  and 
  equipment, 
  and 
  recommends 
  punishment in case of dereliction of duty or 
  failure to cope when fires do break out. The 
  actual work of looking out for fires and 
  extinguishing them before they spread is entirely 
  left to local neighborhood groups, made up of 
  volunteers. Over the centuries these bands have 
  developed a fierce and competitive esprit de 
  corps; often rowdy and macho and given to 
  financial 
  crises 
  due 
  to 
  misspending 
  their 
  equipment and uniform dispensations, they are 
  nearly on the level of street gangs. 
   
  The Market Police of Butrús, on the other hand, 
  are famous for their diligence, deference, and 
  probity, and are widely respected and trusted. 
  Unusually, they are administratively separate 
  from the City Militia, and are under the authority 
  of the Metropolitan Prefect. (Note that the 
  Prefect does not control the market magistrates 
  themselves.) Nearly a hundred of them are on 
  the rolls. 
   
  A final duty of the Metropolitan Prefect is to 
  ensure that the curfew is kept. A small 
  timekeeping section is the basis of this, and its 
  official reckoning of the time has been in 
  disagreement with that of the “officials’ time” 
  kept in the Palace of the Priesthoods of the 
  Gods for many decades. A petty but heartfelt 
  feud over this issue is in progress. At night (40 
  yom, or one hour, after sunset) the Prefect 
  beats a long tattoo in the central drum tower of 
  the city, which is then picked up and repeated at 
  the outstations of the City Militia. At this signal, 
  everyone must return to their own wards in 
  which they are registered as residents. In the 
  morning (20 yom, or half an hour, before 
  sunrise) the signal is repeated, using a shorter 
  and faster drum roll, indicating that the city’s 
  residents are now permitted to leave their 
  wards. In effect, the curfew is observed more in 
  the breach than in adherence; especially given 
  the fact that almost none of the wards are 
  actually walled, it is nearly impossible for the 
  night 
  watchmen 
  to 
  prevent 
  people 
  from 
  traveling as they please. The watchful patrols do 
  generally keep people off the main avenues at 
  night; it has been pointed out that this simply 
  makes curfew-violators and even more vicious 
  criminals keep to the darker, numerous, even 
  less easily patrolled back lanes. 
   
  Avanthár 
  and 
  Other 
  Imperial 
  Representatives 
  The Omnipotent Azure Legion is officially 
  represented in Pan Cháka by a handful of junior 
  officials, led by a captain (kási) of its military 
  arm, supported by a small number of clerks and 
  bureaucrats, with an unknown number of spies 
  and field agents reporting back to him. In 
  general, much of the espionage and counter-
  espionage for Pan Cháka is handled by elements 
  of the regular Palace apparatus and the 
  Governor’s Court, while the Omnipotent Azure 
  Legion monitors and attempts to coordinate 
  their activities. Here in Pan Cháka, the Legion is 
  most often found functioning as investigators 
  and prosecutors for the imperial court system. 
  As usual, their focus is on high crimes such as 
  treason, sedition, conspiracy against the Petal 
  Throne or its government, lèse-majesté, and the 
  illegal trade in zu’úr. They also support the 
  Palace of the Priesthoods of the Gods’ ongoing 
  surveillance and eradication of diabolism, i.e., 
  worship of the Pariah Deities and other 
  proscribed cults. 
   
  The Censorate. Not part of the Omnipotent 
  Azure Legion, but rather a non-intelligence, non-
  military agency run directly from Avanthár and 
  reporting to the High Chancery and the Emperor 
  himself. Its function is to investigate imperial 
  bureaucrats to ensure their honesty, discipline, 
  loyalty, and diligence, and when necessary, 
  impeach them; it also checks their records and 
  accounts and receives public complaints about 
  officials and official activities. This group is run 
  
  84 
   
  84 
   
   
  by the Censor-in-Chief, one of the most feared 
  and powerful officials in the empire — that is, 
  within the empire’s bureaucracy! However, the 
  Censorate is vastly under-manned and unable to 
  regularly 
  and 
  systematically 
  monitor 
  the 
  empire’s bureaucracy, much less conduct its 
  own special investigations on top of that — it 
  must be selective about its targets.  
   
  The office itself is made up of a Headquarters 
  Bureau, an Imperial Court Bureau and a Capital 
  Bureau (at Avanthár and Bey Sü, respectively, 
  handling the concentrations of top-level imperial 
  government 
  in 
  those 
  places), 
  and 
  an 
  Investigation 
  Bureau 
  (consisting 
  of 
  one 
  department for each of the Four Palaces). The 
  entire staff of the Censorate is limited to the 
  Censor-in-Chief and the Palace Aide to the 
  Censor-in-Chief, two Secretarial Censors, twelve 
  Palace Censors, eight Attendant Censors, sixteen 
  Investigating Censors, a Recorder and a Deputy 
  Recorder, and a single Manager of the Censorial 
  Offices. 
   
  The 
  central 
  government 
  (Avanthár) 
  also 
  dispatches numbers of commissioners to the 
  provinces, to inspect local conditions, see that 
  new policies are implemented, and act as ad hoc 
  troubleshooters. These are in addition to the 
  censors, and while separate from the Censorate 
  they are usually assigned a nominal status in it 
  to give them impeachment privileges, though 
  usually just short of the level of censors proper 
  (who can, and occasionally do, have provincial 
  governors removed from office and arrested). 
  The commissioners are usually given a limited 
  geographic and temporal scope (e.g., “provinces 
  X, Y, and Z for the period up until the 
  completion of the next grain tax collection”). 
  Depending on their status, assignment, and 
  desired publicity effect, there are various titles 
  — 
  Touring 
  Commissioner, 
  Pacification 
  Commissioner, Relief Commissioner, Personnel 
  Evaluation 
  Commissioner, 
  Punishing 
  and 
  Scourging 
  Commissioner, 
  Enlightenment 
  Commissioner, 
  Investigation 
  Commissioner, 
  Military Commissioner, Soothing and Calming 
  Commissioner, etc. 
   
   
  RELIGION & TEMPLES 
   
  While the faiths of Vimúhla and Ksárul are 
  strong, even dominant, in Pan Cháka, the 
  protectorate 
  still 
  presents 
  a 
  varied 
  and 
  interesting religious environment. Pilgrims flock 
  to sites holy to Vimúhla, Ksárul, Hrü'ü, Avánthe, 
  and their Consorts, while curious practices and 
  mysterious local deities populate not only rural 
  folklore but also formal religious observances in 
  the city of Butrús. Even the names of the gods 
  and goddesses of Pavár have strange forms in 
  the vernacular speech.79  
   
  This section will describe the orthodox (Tsolyáni) 
  religions and those parts of folk beliefs they 
  have incorporated, the heterodox (local) cults, 
  and some forms of sorcery — or at least 
  superstition — peculiar to Pan Cháka. The 
  reader is also referred to Appendix A for more 
  on religious rites in Butrús. 
   
  The Orthodox Pantheon 
  There are presently three major powers in Pan 
  Chákan religious life: the temples of Vimúhla, 
  Ksárul, and Sárku. 
   
  Mythologically, Vimúhla and Ksárul were the first 
  of the Gods to part ways at Dórmoron Field, and 
  in secular time, an ancient rivalry between the 
  two faiths dates back to the time of the 
  Fishermen Kings. The Black and Red met and 
  clashed particularly in this borderland between 
  their regions of control in the East and West. 
  Even today there are expressions (somewhat 
                                                  
  79 In the general Pan Chákan dialect, the Tlomítlanyal are 
  Hnallá and Tráru (Hnálla and Dra), Kérkan and Chekárru 
  (Karakán and Chegárra), Támirü, Támüresh, or Támresh and 
  Katénu (Thúmis and Keténgku), Owüne and Da’éla (Avánthe 
  and Dilinála; in very old sources, the latter is also seen as 
  Andíle or Ndí’ile, etc.), and Bolkáru and Pan (Belkhánu and 
  Qon; despite superficial appearances the latter is derived 
  directly from Engsvanyáli: Khúan > Kúan > *Kuán > *Kwan 
  > Pan). The Tlokiriqáluyal are Hréhri and Erü (Hrü’ü and 
  Wurú), Voméhla and Chedán (Vimúhla and Chiténg), Ksóru 
  and Kegün (Ksárul and Grugánu), Kúraju and Dórmu (Sárku 
  and Durritlámish), and Dloméla and Hréla (Dlamélish and 
  Hriháyal). In the orthodox temples, of course, the 
  priesthoods will employ the proper modern Tsolyáni names; 
  on the other hand, in sectarian movements, older religious 
  establishments, and divergent shrines and local cults, even 
  the dialectal names given above may not be known and 
  instead yet more archaic or obscure ones employed. 
  Furthermore, the recognized Aspects of the Pavárian 
  pantheon in turn also often have their own dialectal or local 
  names. This situation—not unique to Pan Cháka, of course—
  fuels generations of careers for researchers in divine 
  onomasiology. 
  
  85 
   
  85 
   
   
  ritualistic) of this tension and rivalry, though 
  when faced with threats from outside the two 
  religions quickly bury their differences and 
  cooperate 
  against 
  the 
  intruder. 
  Cinnabar-
  quicksilver alchemy has become a major 
  expression, in ritual and literature, of this 
  symbiosis — and in fact it was originally 
  introduced by the Engsvanyáli Priest-Kings as 
  part of a cynical (and ultimately successful) 
  effort towards reconciling the feuding faiths in 
  Pan Cháka.  
   
  Vimúhla's cult is closely tied to Butrús itself and 
  represents an important focus for civic ritual and 
  sentiment; much of this god’s following lives in 
  the city. Despite the long presence of the Red 
  Robes in Pan Cháka, there are actually not so 
  many adherents of the Flame Lord or his 
  Consort in the countryside; they often dwell in 
  separate, segregated villages. The mysterious 
  First Temple to the Lord of Flame is located in 
  the remote western jungle, but there is also at 
  least one secret monastery of the Society of the 
  Scroll of the Blaze Revealed that is not so far 
  outside the city, and probably others exist 
  elsewhere in Pan Cháka. Butrús is a moderately 
  significant pilgrimage destination in its own 
  right, besides being an important stopover for 
  pilgrims from across Mu’ugalavyá and Tsolyánu. 
  This, combined with vast landholdings near the 
  city and throughout the protectorate, makes the 
  temple a wealthy one indeed. The Pan Chákan 
  “flame opals” are widely used in regalia and 
  ritual implements in the region, and are 
  exported to temples elsewhere in Tsolyánu.  
   
  The most popular Aspects are generally the 
  military rather than the abstract ones — e.g., 
  Pa’lákh the Swath of Red, Dumúggash the Spirit 
  of Battle, Valédh the Flayer (who was the special 
  patron of the Black Theocrat’s anonymous 
  general), and Dikkómtla the Blazing Trident. 
  One exception to this is Chahich’úr the Preparer, 
  the Aspect representing forest fires (either 
  natural or purposely set), and thus paid great 
  homage by all practitioners of slash-and-burn 
  agriculture. Its worship is scarcely known or 
  noticed outside such regions, however.80 The 
  many volcanoes of Porubél Ta and scattered 
  throughout Pan Cháka are collectively the 
                                                  
  80 Var. Chakhich’úr, Chasich’úr, and even Cháshchur. The 
  same Aspect is known in Do Cháka as Chatrettúr, and in 
  eastern Mu’ugalavyá as Satla’ásash. 
  domain of another Aspect of Vimúhla so rarely 
  mentioned by name (due to intense superstition 
  and 
  taboos 
  surrounding 
  these 
  immensely 
  destructive forces) that its proper name cannot, 
  in the view of mainstream Tsolyáni theologians, 
  be given with certainty. The Chákans refer to 
  him indrectly, with phrases such as Showers-of-
  Ashes, His-Snows-Are-Fire, All-Beskirted-With-
  Obsidian, Cougher-of-Foaming-Rock, Tearstains-
  That-Smoke, or Red Weeper. He is also the god 
  of grief and loss, and many rituals to quell 
  volcanic activity and eruptions take the form of 
  attempts to console and distract this deity from 
  his sorrows.81 He is often represented (though 
  not in shrines or temples) as a sleeping dog. 
  Contrary to modern Terran expectations, the 
  Chákans do not associate vulcanism with 
  earthquakes, and the latter are the domain of 
  other spiritual foces (below). 
   
  The western Aspect of Távastu the Bright 
  Serpent is widely venerated in Pan Cháka as the 
  god of drought, scorched earth, and the 
  personification of summer.82 Likewise, Thájiran 
  (or Thánjra in some temples; Thaijír in 
  Mu’ugalavyá) is widely worshipped by traders 
  and traveling merchants under the Vimúhlan 
  faith; he also accompanies the Four Greater Red 
  Clans’ quinennial “Mission to Thurreqáimo for 
  the Sons of Kádlesh” to Nrikakchné. While 
  certainly not Aspects of the deity, one race of 
  Vimúhla’s 
  otherworldly 
  servitors 
  are 
  given 
  particular attention in Pan Cháka — the 
  Chóhrulesh, humanoid warriors with the heads 
  of dragons, clad in plate armor of bronze.83 In 
  ancient times they were closely associated with 
  the local dynasty of Dragon Warriors, who 
  claimed kinship or even (symbolic) identity with 
  them. Statues, murals, and sculptures of them 
  are 
  still 
  extremely 
  common 
  in 
  temple 
  architecture. 
   
                                                  
  81 Numerous stories account for his sadness: the goddess 
  Dlamélish, whom he loved, leaving him to take up with 
  Ksárul; the accidental death of a son of the Engsvanyáli 
  Priest-Queen Tratikánte IV at the outbreak of the Flower 
  Wars (also his lover), etc. The object of this deity’s loss is 
  often equated, on some level, with Vimúhla’s Consort 
  Chiténg. 
  82 Outside the Chákas, in both Mu’ugalavyá and Tsolyánu, 
  this deity is female. 
  83 Presumably identical to the Cholu’arth (or Kholur) of 
  classical texts. 
  
  86 
   
  86 
   
   
  Ecstatic devotees of the Flame Lord often 
  become celebrities in Pan Cháka through their 
  dramatic performances at various ceremonies 
  throughout the year. These holy men and 
  women, coming from all walks of life, perform 
  feats such as breathing fire and walking on hot 
  coals, but also can hold white-hot stone balls in 
  their mouths, toss handfuls of grain in after 
  them, and spit out popcorn for the amusement 
  of children. Their most famous performances are 
  on the first day of the new year and on the 
  nineteenth day of Pardán, when towering 
  ladders with sword-blades for crosspieces are 
  erected and the devotees climb barefoot to the 
  top — often chased by strings of firecrackers 
  attached to the ladders’ uprights. The ladders 
  from the first of these occasions are reworked 
  into the giant “fire trees” that are then paraded 
  through the tenth of the month, concluding the 
  New Year’s festivities. 
   
  Among the fifty-odd clergy in the Butrús 
  temple,84 the Incandescent Blaze Society has 
  seven or eight members, but in general the 
  temple is not a great hotbed of political intrigue 
  compared to Tumíssa or Bey Sü. The strict, 
  “fundamentalist” 
  or 
  scripturalist 
  Order 
  of 
  Devouring Conflagration has at least as many 
  members, though they never leave the temple 
  grounds and monopolize the duties of human 
  sacrifice. There are fourteen scholar-priests in 
  the temple, all of whom teach at least 
  occasionally at the temple academy, the Crucible 
  of Glowing-Hot Skulls. Several are familiar with 
  Mu’ugalavyáni in its modern as well as classical 
  forms, and conversant with the teachings of the 
  priesthood of Vimúhla across the border. 
   
  Chiténg is strongly associated with the favorite 
  local legion, the Givers of Sorrow, and has 
  comparatively little lay or civilian following. He 
  is, however, also strongly perceived as the 
  patron and guardian of the city of Butrús, and 
  special sacrifices and entreaties are made to him 
  whenever the city is in danger from earthquake, 
  flood, 
  storm, 
  invasion, 
  or 
  even 
  (perhaps 
  ironically) fire. Chiténg alone can quieten the 
  volcanic eruptions and destruction caused by an 
                                                  
  84 Not counting acolytes, novices, lay servants or unordained 
  personnel. As a rule of thumb, an urban temple has two 
  acolytes or novices and about twenty non-priestly staff for 
  every full priest it. The Temple of Vimúhla, for example, is 
  home to around 1500 people all told. 
  Aspect of Vimúhla, for it is really he whom the 
  grieving Vimúhla believes is lost to him. He is 
  the patron of the Givers of Sorrow, of the clan 
  of professional executioners and torturers (the 
  Company of the Edification of the Soul), of 
  certain 
  types 
  of 
  exorcisms, 
  and 
  of 
  the 
  neighborhood fire brigades. More than in most 
  regions, then, Chiténg is seen as a protective 
  deity 
  as 
  much 
  as 
  a 
  destructive 
  one; 
  mythologically, he is seen as the “great 
  soother”, capable of intervening with angry gods 
  and getting them, by force or persuasion, to 
  leave the mortal people of his city and legion 
  alone. The exception is the shrine of the 
  goddess called Hard Sister,85 a witch-spirit of the 
  Desert of Eyági who rules its scorpions, 
  tarantulas, venomous lizards, and poisonous 
  snakes. A statue of Hard Sister was brought to 
  Butrús about three hundred years ago, possibly 
  by mistake, and out of wary respect (and 
  uncertainty what else to do with it) the local 
  priesthood began making offerings to it, as a 
  demigoddess believed to grant her worshippers 
  power over the venomous creatures of this land.  
   
  The High Priest of Chiténg at Butrús is ex officio 
  general of the Legion of the Givers of Sorrow. 
  Often this is a nominal post, but the current 
  incumbent, Korikáda hiKurúshma, is an able 
  military leader and is actively leading the legion 
  in the field. His ecclesiastical duties as head of 
  the Butrús temple have accordingly been 
  assumed by the Imperial and Royal Preceptor of 
  the Temples of Chiténg in Pan Cháka, itself a 
  powerful and very ancient position. 
   
  Both temples have large guard forces — possibly 
  more than a hundred each. Besides protecting 
  the great shrines and hierarchs of Butrús and 
  guarding pilgrims and more remote holy places 
  in Pan Cháka, they serve as a training ground 
  and manpower reservoir for the regular legions 
  supported by the sects of the Flame Lord and 
  his Consort. 
    
  Ksárul is widely worshipped among the urban 
  poor and some merchant and artisan clans. 
  Unusually, he is also associated with the natural 
  landscape 
  of 
  the 
  region, 
  particularly 
  the 
  monsoon jungles and cloud forests. There are 
  thus 
  a 
  respectable 
  number 
  of 
  Ksárul-
                                                  
  85 I.e., “harsh, mean” (Tsolyáni zhahlánin). 
  
  87 
   
  87 
   
   
  worshipping farmers and foresters in the more 
  remote countryside. The sect of the Unlighted 
  Germination is described further on among the 
  heterodoxies though its classification as such is 
  open to question at the moment. 
   
  Ksárul’s Local Aspect in the city of Butrús is 
  openly known to be the slumberous, lazy, 
  troglophillic Toad God (usually just called “The 
  Smoking Toad”),86 who is the divine spirit of 
  wells, standing water and cisterns, sinkholes, 
  limestone caves, and frogs, and who is 
  coincidentally also the local patron deity of 
  bankers, pawnbrokers, and moneychangers. In 
  this last role, even the non-Ksárulian banking 
  clans in Pan Cháka pay homage to him — every 
  moneychanger’s shop will have a little statuette 
  of the grinning, heavy-lidded god, with a twist of 
  sáttsa leaf smoldering between its wide lips.  
   
  However, the Smoking Toad has not always 
  been considered an Aspect of Lord Ksárul, and 
  even today some scholars and theologians find 
  this a suspect attribution. Some of the theories 
  aired have been that he is one of the Demon 
  Lords, either one already known but “in 
  disguise” 
  or 
  one 
  otherwise 
  unknown 
  to 
  mankind; an old, discarded Aspect of Grugánu 
  that has been confused with his master; the true 
  Ksárul, escaped from the Blue Room and 
  disguising himself for reasons unknown; an 
  Aspect of the Blue Prince that just wants to be 
  left to sleep in peace, and is trying to avoid 
  being woken up by his “faithful”; a wholly 
  artificial divinity, created out of local frog motifs 
  and superstitions in an attempt to provide a 
  more anthropomorphic and accessible deity for 
  regional devotion; the form that Ksárul took on 
  in order to woo Dlamélish in her Aspect of the 
  Frog Maiden (q.v.); or the aspect of Hrü’ü 
  known as Kaishmá, misidentified. Given that in 
  every other temple to Ksárul the Local Aspect is 
  secret and hidden from the public (and even 
  from members of the priesthood from other 
  cities), it is possible that the Smoking Toad is 
  not even the genuine Local Aspect, but a 
  “cover” for the real and successfully hidden one. 
   
                                                  
  86 Horókkoi Ghurúlmo in standard Tsolyáni, but Chórulmen 
  Lútulk in Pan Chákan dialect, in which horók refers only to 
  small, smooth-skinned water-frogs, not larger terrestrial 
  animals. Those are instead lútul in the vernacular. “Toad 
  God” is the translation of Pan Chákan Lùtul-Mrédlan. 
  In any case, the Toad God is believed to dwell 
  snugly in a huge natural cavern far below the 
  surface of Pan Cháka, lit by eerie blue lights and 
  filled with strange jewels. Legend has it that on 
  the night of the first new Gayél after the end of 
  the monsoon, when the frogs have moved into 
  the rain-filled stone grain-mortars standing by 
  houses all across the land, and the courtyards 
  are loud with the calls of the children of Ksárul 
  and Dlamélish, this deity deep in his limestone 
  cyst produces a single glowing pearl from a wart 
  on his head: a failed elixir to awaken the Blue 
  Prince, always offered nonetheless. Should a 
  mortal be fed this pearl, it is said to restore the 
  dead to life and to make a living man into a holy 
  sage. However, the Smoking Toad hates being 
  woken up...  
   
  Among Lord Ksárul's other and less questionable 
  Aspects, Mentutékka, as the lord of stormcloud 
  and nocturnal forest gloom, is locally very 
  prominent. He is widely worshipped by foresters 
  and loggers, as people who must frequently 
  journey into the forbidding wilderness, and has 
  several special shrines, within the main temple, 
  outside the city, and in the western jungles. 
  While an unusually “warm” and friendly Aspect, 
  he does have a darker side in that travelers in 
  the forests — ideally officials, scholars, or priests 
  — occasionally disappear without explanation, 
  and are only sometimes later found sacrificed on 
  mossy rock benches tucked away here and there 
  in little glens. Invariably their livers are cut out 
  with clean precision and removed without a 
  trace, but the rest of their bodies and 
  belongings left intact. The same fate strikes one 
  hapless resident of any village that fails to stage 
  the proper tug-of-war, firecracker battles, and 
  dances on the intercalary day of Vraháma — he 
  or she simply disappears, a secret sacrifice 
  taken by the Dark Forest God.  
   
  Another important Outer Aspect in Butrús is 
  Nankhétiu the Eager, patron of students and 
  academic competitiveness; its image is that of a 
  young (perhaps adolescent) child, bright-eyed 
  and large-eared, still baby-fat, of indeterminate 
  sex, garbed in miniature robes of the priests of 
  Ksárul but without a mask, holding an ink-brush 
  in one hand and an empty scroll case in the 
  other. One also finds the Prince of Sticks and 
  Straws, patron of parties, picnics, private 
  celebrations and banquets, dinner with friends, 
  
  88 
   
  88 
   
   
  merrymaking, drinking games and party games; 
  at gatherings of Ksárul-worshippers an extra 
  drinking-straw is always put in a full wine goblet 
  for his invisible presence to enjoy, and he is said 
  to preside over fair and honest games and 
  competitions at parties. More formal parties are 
  customarily begun by serving custard-filled 
  cakes made in his image: a flushed and slightly 
  disheveled petty aristocrat, wearing a jaunty 
  home-made headdress of reeds and bearing one 
  handful of drinking-straws and one of counting-
  sticks for drinking games. He is also the patron 
  deity of drawing and painting, particularly 
  sketches and doodles. Pan Chákan temples are 
  also home to shrines of Aspects such as Géthu 
  (patron of certain lakes and of those who fish 
  with hook and line), Nlülu the Rigger, a.k.a. 
  Nlülu Fortyknuckles (a culture-hero with four 
  joints in each supernaturally long finger, who 
  invented bird-snares, mousetraps, and fishtraps, 
  and is the patron deity of trappers, ratters, and 
  animal-catchers), and Tlíra or Tlíra-Zhai (the 
  personification of early morning mist, lightly 
  overcast night skies, and ground fog, and 
  patroness of fame and vanity). There is even a 
  sort of “fire god” in the Pan Chákan sects of 
  Ksárul: Tánti’iki, the goddess of the hearth and 
  kitchen-fires, 
  stoves 
  and 
  ovens, 
  charcoal 
  braziers, chafing dishes, and alchemical lamps 
  and crucibles. (She is not, however, a goddess 
  of “industrial” forges, ovens, smelters, or the 
  like.) 
   
  Pan 
  Chákan 
  temples 
  were 
  very 
  late 
  in 
  repudiating the status of Ge’én as an Aspect of 
  Ksárul. The heresy laid out in the Tome of 
  Mournful Cogitations and later promulgated in 
  Tsolyánu 
  through 
  Nirodél 
  Rarenésha’s 
  translation 
  was 
  definitively 
  refuted 
  and 
  suppressed by the High Synod around 600 A.S., 
  which declaration was not made binding upon 
  Pan Cháka until the Tsolyáni conquest nearly 
  two centuries later. Even then, old practices 
  survived in out-of-the-way towns and villages, 
  and the Gracious Inquisition was obliged to track 
  down and root out remaining shrines and 
  observances to this Demon Lord. A fairly large 
  such place of worship was located in the 
  countryside near Butrús and survives in ruinous 
  condition today. 
   
  The Temple of Ksárul in Butrús is large, with 
  over fifty priests and priestesses (not counting 
  the temple guards), and fairly wealthy. Pilgrims, 
  particularly to the shrine of Mentutékka, are 
  common. Páchi Lei are often counted (and 
  indeed count themselves) among worshippers of 
  Ksárul, though there is wide variation in the 
  orthodoxy of their faith. 
   
  Oddly, Grugánu is under-represented here and 
  has a limited following and small body of clergy 
  (a mere thirteen). However, this temple too has 
  considerable landholdings and is quite rich — all 
  the more so given the tiny establishment it 
  supports. In the Chákas his epithets include the 
  Eldest Burglar and the Great Perambulator,87 as 
  he is usually pictured as ceaselessly prowling 
  about the perimeter of the wardings and walls 
  that imprison Ksárul in the Blue Room. 
   
  The secret societies for which the servants of 
  Ksárul are so well known are certainly present in 
  Butrús. The Society of Blue Light counts sixteen 
  members in the Temple of Ksárul and three in 
  the Temple of Grugánu; the Ndálu Clan has 
  thirteen (known) members in the Temple of 
  Ksárul but only one, perhaps two, in that of 
  Grugánu. It may reasonably be supposed that 
  there are members of the Refulgent Blue Curtain 
  Society in the main temples, but their numbers 
  and identity are unknown. There is, however, a 
  tiny “monastery” of this group elsewhere in the 
  city — not secret, but sealed and secretive: the 
  Priory of the Sapphire Shell. Beyond these, the 
  Páchi Lei of Pan Cháka largely profess to 
  worship Ksárul, but even those that are ordained 
  priests in the urban temples have many strange 
  beliefs and practices of which their human 
  colleagues are mostly unaware, and which to 
  some degree are intentionally kept secret from 
  them. These Páchi Lei — probably less than a 
  dozen in both temples — may be considered a 
  sort of fourth “secret society” within Ksárul’s 
  priesthood. 
   
  The temple guard force maintained by this 
  temple is particularly large (four semétlyal, or 
  eighty troops) and well equipped; these serve as 
  escorts, 
  guards, 
  watchmen, 
  and 
  crowd-
  controllers in the temple grounds and in 
  ceremonial processions. Due to their glossy 
                                                  
  87 He is thus apparently also venerated by professional 
  thieves and burglars, and the obscure Butrusséne demigod 
  Uncle Peeker is also presumably either an Aspect or another 
  nickname of Grugánu. 
  
  89 
   
  89 
   
   
  lacquered armor and antennae-like plumes, they 
  are known as "the Beetles". In addition, a 
  distinct group of students of the martial art of 
  hu’ón exists, whose members are believed to 
  serve as special bodyguards, assassins, and 
  "muscle" to the hierarchs. The number in this 
  group is no more than five or six at any given 
  time, with a wide range in ability; it is widely 
  believed that these warriors have mystical 
  powers. Their "official" duties include menial 
  tasks (gardening, cooking, washing, sweeping), 
  copying, librarianship, and so forth. 
   
  A certain rare type of black-petalled flower, the 
  unmáiyi, grows wild in certain areas of the Pan 
  Chákan forests, and seedlings can be grown 
  (with difficulty) in Butrús. The unmáiyi is used 
  extensively in cultic practices and in devotions in 
  the temple of Ksárul as well as that of Hrü’ü. 
  Another resource of value to this temple is the 
  mirozjulú tree, a mutant species of Diospyros, 
  whose fine-grained black wood is logged and 
  carved into the smiling masks for the priestesses 
  of Ksárul throughout the Empire. While other 
  timbers are also used for this purpose, the 
  southern Chákan mirozjulú is considered the 
  finest material, barring the rare deformed 
  heartwood of a certain tree of the southeastern 
  Forest of Gilráya. Within the protectorate, a 
  piece of mirozjulú is worth half its weight in pure 
  gold; abroad, due to extortionate tariffs, it can 
  easily fetch three or four times that amount. 
   
  Sárku — or Kúraju, as he is known outside the 
  Tsolyánu-oriented city temples — represents the 
  traditions and faith of the oldest (extant) native 
  elites and of the independent Chákan kingdom 
  that dates back to the Time of No Kings. The 
  theology, 
  rituals, 
  iconography, 
  and 
  even 
  vestments and architecture of this deity have 
  been profoundly influenced by the local sect 
  formulated under and long promulgated by the 
  Íto clan. On a humbler scale, Sárku is also the 
  patron of many small agricultural and forest-
  dwelling clans — old clients of the Ítos — and 
  some brewers, distillers, and textile-workers. In 
  ancient times, he was clearly the primary 
  chthonic deity of the entire region, and certain 
  Aspects (of Durritlámish as well) even relate to 
  soil fertility and crop growth. Moreover, he is 
  nowadays generally associated with the local 
  traditions of ancestor-worship, which are ancient 
  and probably originally unrelated to his faith. 
  Despite all this, his worship is much weaker than 
  in Do Cháka, and certain of his Aspects have 
  taken on greater autonomy. They are often 
  considered nearly distinct demigods (almost on 
  a par with Durritlámish) by average Pan 
  Chákans lacking a formal education in the 
  theology of this temple. Peasants in Pan Cháka 
  also tend to have difficulty keeping the traits 
  and characteristics of Sárku and Belkhánu and 
  their Consorts distinct, revering instead a 
  confused spectrum of topically specific demigods 
  and spirits relating to death, burial, tombs, and 
  the afterlife. 
   
  Among the Pe Choi in Pan Cháka there has been 
  since the beginning of the second millennium 
  A.S. a small minority who follow the deities of 
  Change rather than Stability; some of these are 
  adherents of Sárku, though more worship Hrü’ü. 
  Pe Choi worshippers of the Five-Headed Lord 
  are thus a minority within a minority within a 
  minority — but they are mostly clients of the 
  Ítos, and given historical and modern conflicts 
  with other Pe Choi and outside forces, they are 
  more significant than their numbers would 
  suggest. 
   
  The most widely and intensely worshipped forms 
  of the deity in Pan Cháka are Albél the Pursuer, 
  patron of dead (and Undead) women;88 Dijátl 
  the Copper-Clawed, judge of the dead; and 
  Ku’ún the Corpse-Lord, advocate or attorney for 
  the dead in Dijátl’s courtroom. Several of the 
  great Demon Lords affiliated with Sárku, such as 
  Gereshmá’a, are widely regarded as kings and 
  custodians in the land of the dead, and as such 
  paid reverence in certain funerary and memorial 
  rituals or customs. 
   
  Besides these Aspects dealing with death and 
  the underworld, there is also the specifically 
  Chákan Aspect called Kóschi the Fermenter, the 
  god of beer, wine, and distillation, and even the 
  enjoyment thereof; it largely takes the place of 
  the various Aspects of Dlamélish and Hriháyal 
  devoted to liquor and drink. The Aspect found 
  throughout southwest and southern Tsolyánu, 
                                                  
  88 The ghosts of Aridáni warriors and noblewomen who died 
  in childbirth are both said to become servants of Albél after 
  death, taking the form of hawks in the afternoon (when they 
  escort the sun from the zenith down to the Underworld) and 
  more hideous figures during the night, when they lurk about 
  roads, graveyards, and temples, seeking to catch children. 
  
  90 
   
  90 
   
   
  the “banana god” (patron of the coppery-
  colored, black-seeded sweet dessert fruit of 
  these regions), is called Kuráindi in Pan Cháka. 
  The studious, philosophical Gem of Amber 
  Society is locally quite strong, devoted to the 
  Aspect 
  Batha’ák 
  the 
  Eye 
  of 
  Eternity, 
  a 
  contemplative 
  monocular 
  pyramid; 
  devout 
  worshippers are said to return to their temples 
  after death to continue regarding the state of 
  the cosmos, their animated corpses placidly 
  filling certain halls of meditation set aside for 
  them. 
   
  Sárku is directly worshipped in Pan Cháka as the 
  god of earthquakes. Whether as the Great 
  Worm burrowing deep in the rock and soil of the 
  world, or as the master of the still and silent 
  underworld that lies below Pan Cháka who 
  knocks on his roof when his upstairs neighbors 
  upset him,89 he is considered responsible for 
  causing all types of tremors, temblors, and 
  shudders of the land itself. Direct prayers for 
  him to desist are conducted by his devout 
  followers, but most people feel safer in seeking 
  the intercession of the god Chiténg.  
   
  The Butrús temple has a total of forty or forty 
  five priests and priestesses. Five of these are 
  quintuplets, given to the temple upon their birth 
  by their original clan. Despite the sanctity of 
  their birth, they have not proven to be 
  particularly gifted and are only moderately 
  devout. Now in their late twenties, they serve in 
  junior positions as administrative and ritual 
  priests and priestesses.  
   
  Durritlámish's temple is deeply conservative 
  (though not entirely orthodox) and quiescent, 
  with its only strict adherents being the Tomb 
  Guards and a single clan of weavers. Farmers in 
  the hinterland, however, pay homage to a 
  number of demigods that are “officially” Aspects 
  of 
  Durritlámish. 
  For 
  example, 
  Kun 
  the 
  Moustachioed is Durritlámish in the form of a 
  great catfish, devouring harmful larvae and 
  dangerous eels in flooded fields, and is 
                                                  
  89 Not a figure of speech or metaphor; Pan Chákans literally 
  believe Sárku lives underneath them and is bothered by 
  excessive noise, traffic, construction, destruction, or general 
  misbehavior. This conception is largely restricted to the 
  Chákas, though very ancient; some pre-Tsolyáni poems 
  speak of the Itos as “upstairs lessees” and their clients as 
  “subletters”, possibly with reference to this. 
  constantly prayed to by farmers throughout the 
  eastern part of the protectorate regardless of 
  their nominal religion. Even more widespread is 
  the peasants’ folk belief that Durritlámish 
  copulates with the earth when it rains at night, 
  and his "seed", the earthworms, make the soil 
  fruitful and rich. In this fertility role Durritlámish 
  is paid homage in several rural and lower-class 
  rituals, complementing or even filling the role 
  generally attributed to Quyéla (an Aspect of 
  Avánthe) elsewhere.90 Grain fields after the 
  harvest are sown with bushels of crude, tiny 
  figures of worms made from sun-baked clay in 
  order to attract Durritlámish’s vital forces and 
  speed the decay of compost, mulch, stubble, 
  and fertilizers before the next crop is planted. 
  The 
  current 
  High 
  Priest 
  of 
  Durritlámish, 
  however, finds these beliefs both heretical and 
  disgusting and would like nothing more than to 
  stamp it out.  
   
  The temple has a total of twenty priests and 
  priestesses, including a group recently sent from 
  Sokátis or the City of Sárku itself (rumors vary), 
  presumably by Prince Dhich’uné’s minions. 
  Doctrinal and political conflicts within the temple 
  are simmering towards the boiling point, though 
  this is all but invisible to outsiders. 
   
  Other elements of the worship of Sárku and 
  Durritlámish in Pan Cháka are somewhat 
  contentious. What was originally a minor deity 
  particular to the Ítos and their clients has long 
  since spread to become the patron of suicides: 
  Hmwú’ukha, “the Belled One”. She (or he) 
  appears as a thin human of widely variable age 
  (from a toddling child to a bent and gnarled 
  elder), garbed in soft ash-brown robes trimmed 
  with little copper bells, with the round flat face 
  and great feather-rimmed yellow eyes of an owl. 
  Her (or his) main role in popular conception is to 
  watch over those committing suicide by hanging 
  themselves and quickly conveying their souls to 
  a special paradise.91 She (or he) thus overlaps 
                                                  
  90 To the extent the two strains can be separated today, the 
  fertility rituals associated with Durritlámish (or Sárku) tend 
  take place immediately after the harvest, in the autumn, 
  while those stemming from Avánthean traditions are more 
  often in the spring, when the first new shoots and buds are 
  appearing. 
  91 Suicide by hanging is an ancient and respected recourse in 
  the Chákas and also in Vra (where a demigoddess similar to 
  Hmwú’ukha exists, but as an Aspect of Avánthe). It is 
  particularly favored by lovers not permitted by their families 
  
  91 
   
  91 
   
   
  with and often supplants Aspects such as 
  Akhmér and Mrúgga (both Aspects of Sárku) 
  and Mwakh (the Fifth Aspect of Durritlámish), 
  particularly in popular or common belief. Most 
  Chákans believe that the fate of all who hang 
  themselves, regardless of their religion, lies with 
  Hmwú’ukha and the “Garden Beyond the 
  Noose”; even the Temple of Belkhánu in Butrús 
  has formally recognized this, much to the 
  displeasure of its metropolitan colleagues. In 
  Pan Cháka, Hmwú’ukha is officially treated as an 
  Aspect of Durritlámish and is usually female; in 
  Do Cháka, of Sárku, and male. 
   
  The Aspects of these deities relating to disease 
  (Naupál of the Blackened Lips is the best-
  known) are largely overshadowed in Pan Cháka 
  and southern Mu’ugalavyá by a single deity 
  known only by a wide variety of local 
  euphemisms and taboo-names; it has no known 
  “personal name” like other Aspects and gods. In 
  most of Pan Cháka, it is known as Chrysoberyl 
  Bunny, and represented as a handsome, well-
  set-up rabbit with a brilliantly gleaming yellow-
  gold pelt that is tinged with green. It represents, 
  or is lord of, the hordes of unseen disease-spirits 
  that (like rabbits) can multiply and swarm across 
  the land, creating epidemics among men. 
  Gemcutters frequently take old jade jewels and 
  utensils and cut them down into small figurines 
  of a rabbit, which are worn about the neck to 
  provide protection from pestilence and plague. 
   
  A seemingly minor point that is nonetheless of 
  vital interest to those concerned is the material 
  used for face-paint by the priests of these 
  deities. The orthodox position is that treated 
  wood ash is to be used, creating a pale grayish 
  cosmetic. However, Pan Cháka is one of a 
  handful of regions that refuses to do so, instead 
  substituting powdered hulled rice flour — which 
  provides a much whiter paint, but a stickier one, 
  that requires more frequent application and 
  cleaning. In Pan Cháka, and many other locales 
  that follow the “Heresy of Tarasúb”, powdered 
  rice flour is considered a powerful purificatory 
                                                                         
  to marry; such “elopement by the rope” brings honor upon 
  the couple and oddly enough upon their family-appointed 
  mates-to-be too. Hmwú’ukha guarantees that such couples 
  will be (re)united in the afterlife, which the mysterious and 
  perhaps infinitely vast Isles of Teretané cannot offer. Suicide 
  by drowning, however, is considered a special affront or 
  insult to one’s surviving relatives, even a curse upon them.  
  agent, and is used in many other rituals and 
  magical observances, from the highest temples 
  to the most humble peasant household altars. 
  Do Cháka is orthodox, as is Úrmish (another 
  cause for mutual distaste); the Tsechélnu Flats, 
  Thayúri Island, south-central Mu’ugalavyá, and 
  parts of far eastern Yan Kor and beyond are the 
  only other major centers of the Heresy, though 
  individual families and casually persecuted 
  mendicants or sub-sects can be found scattered 
  thinly throughout the Five Empires. 
   
  Belkhánu is one of the chief deities of the 
  peasants and laborers of the eastern rural 
  districts, as is his Consort Qon. Belkhánu's 
  temple at Butrús, staffed by over forty priests, is 
  charged with organizing most of the large public 
  festivals of the dead that are so important in 
  local folk culture, and in most towns and cities it 
  also presides over burials and funerals — except 
  those of individuals who worshipped Karakán, 
  Sárku, 
  or 
  Vimúhla. 
  The 
  temples’ 
  direct 
  involvement in these rituals is somewhat 
  restricted to the middle and upper classes, in 
  part due to the greater expense (compared to 
  “folk 
  religious” 
  practices 
  based 
  on 
  older 
  customs), and in part due to the conception of 
  Belkhánu as a “metropolitan” or “Tsolyáni” deity 
  — that is, slightly foreign and new-fangled. All 
  the same, the funerary-related Aspects (e.g., 
  Aldeyá the Embalmer, Hetláshte the Ferryman) 
  are especially well known and revered.  
   
  Qon in particular is more popular than elsewhere 
  in much of the west, in some senses eclipsing 
  Belkhánu and even incorporating some Aspects 
  properly his. The worship of Qon in Pan Cháka 
  appears much older than that of Belkhánu, and 
  some local theologians go so far as to suggest 
  that 
  the 
  God 
  is 
  actually 
  a 
  secondary 
  development 
  from 
  its 
  putative 
  Consort: 
  Engsvanyáli Khúon (= modern Qon) � *Bal-
  Khúon92 � modern Belkhánu. This directly 
  contradicts the Scrolls of Pavár and thousands of 
  years of commentary, and is pure heresy, 
  actively prosecuted by the ecclesiastical courts.  
   
  A minor Aspect of Qon with a shrine in Butrús — 
  the only one in the west — is Fashésh, god of 
  dead and ruined cities. Locally he presides over 
                                                  
  92 Meaning uncertain, but some claim it simply means “Lord 
  Qon” in the language of the Great Ancients. 
  
  92 
   
  92 
   
   
  memorial services for the City of the Nine Walls 
  and various minor towns and villages of the 
  Chákas lost over the centuries, but occasional 
  rituals are also held in memory of the great 
  ruined cities such as Purdánim. There are 
  twenty seven priests and priestesses in Qon’s 
  Butrús temple. 
   
  A local demigod of unknown origin has become 
  an important figure within the temples of 
  Belkhánu and Qon in the protectorate, and this 
  unusual situation has been strongly supported 
  and promoted by the Empire itself. This deity, 
  called the Saffron Wisp Maiden, is an aerial, 
  cloud-dwelling entity depicted as something 
  between a butterfly and a young girl. This 
  angelic spirit serves as a divine messenger 
  between the Chákas and the Emperor in 
  Avanthár. 
  While 
  her 
  appearance 
  closely 
  resembles that of the beings known as the 
  Voyagers of the Farther Isles, it is not clear 
  whether she does belong to that “species” of 
  sharétl; the similarity her cult bears to that of 
  Nekkudlákte, the Eighth Aspect of Qon, is also 
  suggestive but inconclusive. About two hundred 
  years ago there was a concerted effort outside 
  Pan Cháka to “prove” the Saffron Wisp Maiden is 
  truly an Aspect of Chegárra, but this was 
  ignored by Pan Chákans and successfully 
  contested by the temples of Belkhánu. 
   
  The Guild of Those Who Repel the Dark is a 
  powerful empire-wide group of exorcists; but, 
  strangely, here they work well with the Temple 
  of Chiténg — and even (on occasion) those of 
  Dlamélish, Sárku, or Ksárul. They are dedicated 
  exclusively to the Bednálljan-era Aspect of Qon, 
  Masséfa, a beast-like and somewhat belligerent 
  entity. There are other societies within the two 
  temples, such as the Society of the Yellow Robe 
  (funeral specialists with ten or twelve members), 
  the Light Above the Tomb Society (semi-
  professional hunters of Undead, numbering two 
  or three), and the two general societies given to 
  supporting the powers of Stability — the Cloak 
  of Feathers and the Golden Refulgence Societies 
  (with no more than half a dozen members in 
  each). 
   
  Avánthe is, along with Belkhánu, the chief deity 
  of the peasants of the eastern lowlands of Pan 
  Cháka, and is also worshipped by a significant 
  minority the central districts and in Butrús itself. 
  The Three Sisters (Chikúna, Quyéla, and E’éth), 
  patrons of the crop cycle, are so popular that 
  they are almost considered as a separate sect or 
  cult by the uneducated and rustic. E’éth is the 
  goddess of irrigation and the rains, in particular 
  the great monsoon deluges; Quyéla, of crop and 
  human fertilization; and Chikúna, of the ripening 
  of fruits, grains, and the 
  completion 
  of 
  pregnancies. Of them, E’éth is particularly 
  revered and considered the most important of 
  the “Food-Bearers”; among the less educated 
  and urbane, this 
  “water-spirit” Aspect 
  of 
  Avánthe overshadows any others. She is the 
  personification of the season of spring (i.e., the 
  “rainy” or “monsoon” season). 
   
  Human sacrifices for the fertility of the fields 
  continued in Pan Cháka long after they died out 
  in the rest of Tsolyánu, and animal sacrifices are 
  still fairly common among Avánthe’s worshippers 
  even in the eastern part of the protectorate, 
  despite it running counter to doctrine. Such 
  sacrifices probably derive from older practices 
  that were perhaps based in the rural soil and 
  fertility cults associated with the cult-complex of 
  Sárku in the Chákas and are now uncomfortably 
  incorporated into Avánthean ritual. Drowning in 
  rivers and sinkholes was a particularly favored 
  mode of sacrifice, and inanimate offerings (such 
  as flowers and food) are still often offered to the 
  goddess and her many Aspects in this way. 
   
  More than most of the twenty Pavárian deities, 
  Avánthe’s many Aspects are given separate 
  attention and devotion by the people of Pan 
  Cháka — very often even by those who worship 
  other deities altogether. Some of the particularly 
  widely known and autonomous Aspects in the 
  region include Zerússa of the Roads (especially 
  popular with Pan Chákan merchant porters, and 
  often depicted as a man-headed, human-legged 
  black epéng or other centipede-like beast); 
  Balmé the Healer (whose clergy the followers of 
  Stability increasingly trust over those of Thúmis 
  for medical care); Varému, Protector of the 
  Small (whose solitary priestess in Butrús also 
  has the duty of blessing the weekly Bird Markets 
  and Goldfish Markets); Mékhis the Defender of 
  Harmony (patron deity of the Legion of the Clan 
  of Silver Lightning); and Nionél the Patron of 
  Fragrances. Others, such as Póndu the Keeper 
  of Scales, Eluláiku the Purveyor of Excellent 
  Alimentation, 
  Nikoné 
  the 
  Pillar 
  of 
  Purity, 
  
  93 
   
  93 
   
   
  Chraikála Who Cares for Children, Weltíga the 
  Lady of Scrolls, Ngáchani the Mother of Babes, 
  and Tahelé the Maid of Beauty, are more closely 
  tied to the main temples of Avánthe herself and 
  have less universal appeal. Avánthe herself is 
  directly worshipped as the goddess of running 
  and standing water (lakes, rivers, the ocean, 
  flooding), she is also the goddess of marriages 
  and childbirth, while the domains of family and 
  of pregnancy are left to her Aspects. 
   
  Parnémmi, spirit of waterfalls, rapids, and 
  rainbows, is known throughout the Chákas and 
  eastern Mu’ugalavyá, and in most sources 
  classified as the Seventy-Ninth Aspect of 
  Avánthe. She is usually depicted as a tiny 
  pséppon (the local generic term for small, long-
  billed, 
  darting 
  birds 
  such 
  as 
  bee-eaters, 
  hummingbirds, flycatchers, etc.; 
  literally it 
  means “thorn-wing”), with jade-green and 
  iridescent gray markings not actually found in 
  nature. It is said that rainbows are actually huge 
  flocks 
  of infinitesimally 
  small pséppon 
  of 
  different colors, the courtiers of Parnémmi. In 
  addition, the more fanatical devotees of Avánthe 
  may be insistent that the god of the Lúshmun 
  Canal is a local Aspect of Avánthe, if not 
  Bolénde himself, but this is a minority (and 
  alien) view in Pan Cháka as a whole. 
   
  It may be worth noting that Makórsa, an Aspect 
  related to trees, forests, and hunters, is known 
  only to some clans in the easternmost part of 
  Pan Cháka, usually recent (as such things go) 
  immigrants; Mentutékka (an Aspect of Ksárul) is 
  the only true deity of the forests known to Pan 
  Cháka, while a local hero-cum-demigod, Archer 
  Hmi, is the accepted “patron saint” of hunters 
  and bowmen. Some other well-established 
  Aspects 
  of 
  Avánthe 
  are 
  simultaneously 
  worshipped in other Pan Chákan temples, or 
  entirely replaced by these “hijackers”; for 
  example, Hlikársh, the master of hearth-fires 
  and 
  warmth, 
  is 
  scarcely 
  known 
  in 
  the 
  protectorate, while the temples of Ksárul and 
  Vimúhla 
  both 
  have 
  Aspects 
  dealing 
  with 
  “constructive” uses of fire (domestic in the case 
  of Ksárul, industrial in the case of Vimúhla). 
   
  The temples of both Avánthe and Dilinála are 
  fairly wealthy, but their resources are spread 
  thin. In Butrús, among Avánthe’s forty-odd and 
  Dilinála’s two dozen priestesses there are 
  perhaps sixteen to twenty members of the 
  Sapphire Bough Society, dedicated to blessing 
  the crops, and also a significant number of 
  members of the secretive, sorcerously-inclined 
  Company of the Eye of the Storm. There are 
  only a handful of members of the militant Girdle 
  of Purity Society in the Temple of Avánthe, and 
  no known members of their counterparts, the 
  Sisters of the Cerulean Flower, in that of 
  Dilinála. 
   
  The other deities are honored and revered, but 
  less important in local life: 
   
  Dlamélish is present, but her cult is not 
  particularly 
  large, 
  powerful 
  or 
  otherwise 
  noteworthy. The favored local Aspect of the 
  Emerald Ladies is the batrachian-headed Frog 
  Maiden93 — a sort of celestial amphibian minx, 
  considered to be or to live in the small, slow 
  green moon Gayél. It is not quite clear whether 
  she is properly an aspect of Dlamélish or of 
  Hriháyal, but Pan Chákan myths most strongly 
  suggest the former. This Aspect is also known 
  throughout 
  Vra 
  and 
  in 
  Penóm, 
  but 
  not 
  elsewhere in Tsolyánu. She does appear as a 
  mere mythological figure in many myths known 
  throughout the islands and southern Tékumel 
  regarding the two moons and the relationship 
  between Ksárul and Dlamélish — as well as in 
  more casual, non-canonical, folktales. Other 
  Aspects of special note in the Butrús temple are 
  Teshkána the Musician (who is here the special 
  goddess of xylophones and lithophones and 
  their repertoire, more than of musicians or 
  music per se), Snarél the Goddess of Enhanced 
  Beauty, and also the demoness Pa’íya, who has 
  a shrine in the main Temple of Dlamélish, albeit 
  well-hidden and only open to members of the 
  Inner 
  Circles 
  and 
  the 
  Order 
  of 
  Argent. 
  Additionally, the character of Silly Puppy in local 
  folkore and myth is generally lumped in with the 
  Aspects 
  of 
  Dlamélish, 
  as 
  the 
  spirit 
  of 
  irrepressible 
  and 
  irresponsible 
  gaiety 
  and 
  playfulness. Though lacking a shrine in the 
  temples he is represented in formal iconography 
  fairly frequently. 
   
  In the temples of the Consort Hriháyal, 
  particularly prominent Aspects locally include 
                                                  
  93 Thiálakoi Horókin in standard Tsolyáni, but Hórokke Ndílik 
  in Pan Chákan dialect (or Shan’gayél Andílik, “The Maiden on 
  the Green Moon”). 
  
  94 
   
  94 
   
   
  Chío (patron of fetishes for inanimate objects 
  and of the 27th Unspeakable Act) and Niyunén 
  the Giver of Unlooked-For Wealth (no doubt 
  thanks to the Pan Chákan penchant for 
  gambling on battles, sports, races, and any 
  other competition). In addition, the sisters 
  Kilitána and Hajjána are the objects of devotion 
  at the Monastery of Gleeful Shrieks, a separate 
  establishment with ties to the Company of the 
  Orange Band. The regular rituals of Hriháyal’s 
  Aspects Iyéth and Onuqáimu are normally held 
  on the 3rd and 13th of each month. Perversely 
  and stubbornly, in Pan Cháka they are held on 
  the 11th (Iyéth, of men) and 21st (Onuqáimu, 
  of women). This is due to differences in the 
  ecclesiastic calendars of the temples of the Dark 
  Ladies; the Chákan temples continue to reject 
  the authority of a certain early Engsvanyáli 
  council that promulgated this reform, which is 
  accepted elsewhere in modern Tsolyánu. 
   
  Every ten years there is a special festival in 
  Butrús dedicated to the Aspect Sihári-Mèng, 
  goddess of flowers, games, and dancing. Its 
  celebrants wear elaborate masks in the shape of 
  different flowers, birds, and colorful insects, and 
  conduct elaborate dances94 in the temples and 
  plazas. Great quantities of precious camphor 
  powder is expended in the arrows and darts 
  shot by the priests and dancers during this 
  festival, and the feather robes and capes 
  specially made and preserved over the years for 
  it are some of the most valuable objects in the 
  entire protectorate. 
   
  There is also a special shrine in the main temple 
  to the Obsidian Dagger, which in classical 
  mythology was Ksárul’s gift to his lover, 
  Dlamélish. The gradually developing theology of 
  this shrine 
  is that the 
  Obsidian Dagger 
  represents the primordial impetus to blood 
  sacrifice, the invention of stone knives, and the 
  first human sacrifice to the gods. Given the local 
  weakness of the Emerald Lady’s temple and the 
  strength of that of the Lord of the Blue Room, it 
  seems likely that support of this shrine (and its 
  relatively costly sacrificial needs) is politically 
  motivated — an attempt to foster a link with the 
  more powerful temple. Otherwise, rites in 
                                                  
  94 “Social dances” that draw in common devotees and even 
  spectators, not formal ritual dances by trained specialists 
  alone — though they do, obviously, have a ceremonial and 
  religious meaning. 
  Dlamélish and Hriháyal’s temples are orthodox 
  — sacrifices of silver coins, snakes and eels, and 
  the big, waxy green, fragrant cup-shaped 
  tikánta blossoms. The temple has a profitable 
  sideline in the manufacture and export of ritual 
  instruments and amulets made of obsidian, 
  obtained from the volcanic mountain range in 
  the 
  south 
  of 
  Pan 
  Cháka; 
  this 
  includes 
  manufacture of the temple’s ritual obsidian 
  daggers, as well as the much rarer and more 
  precious sacred sacrificial knives, the dirídza, 
  used in a few secret Inner Rituals. Temple 
  workshops produce these items along with other 
  jewels and specialty goods, such as the plain 
  silver rings used as offerings to the Aspect Chío. 
  The Temples of Dlamélish and Hriháyal count 
  forty and thirty clergy, respectively. About half a 
  dozen of this number may be members of the 
  Order 
  of 
  Argent, 
  an 
  ancient 
  school 
  of 
  demonologists which is known to work with the 
  priests of Ksárul. This cabal is rumored to 
  possess an exceptionally fine nmeréng95 credited 
  with an ancient lineage.  
   
  Worshippers of Karakán and Chegárra are a 
  minority in Pan Cháka, though the size of the 
  priesthoods in Butrús is disproportionately large. 
  Two Aspects of Chegárra are particularly 
  popular, particularly with governmental officials: 
  Mi’irésh (concerned with roads, commerce, 
  traffic, and the marketplace laws) and Qorushái 
  (patron 
  of 
  military 
  law 
  and 
  the 
  legion 
  regulations). Aside from these and other purely 
  martial concerns, the priests of Karakán are 
  primarily concerned with their god’s patronage 
  over the hirilákte arenas and sporting events — 
  particularly marotlán. He is also the god of 
  lightning and those killed by lightning strikes, 
  and he guides the sun on its daily passage out 
  of the Underworld up to its zenith. 
   
  A schism in the well-known Clan of the Sword of 
  Righteousness96 has produced a faction called 
  the Glorious in Scarlet, given to vigorous political 
  activism in support of policies of military 
  expansionism and adventurism, that in Butrús 
  completely dominates the temples of these two 
  deities. Twenty nine out of Karakán’s thirty nine 
  priests and sixteen out of Chegárra’s twenty five 
                                                  
  95 A green fire-opal, used as a ritual instrument in certain 
  sorceries and conjurations. 
  96 A “secret society” or faction within the temples, not 
  literally a clan. 
  
  95 
   
  95 
   
   
  are members of the Glorious in Scarlet, and 
  thanks to their good organization and abundant 
  enthusiasm, this society is actually a greater 
  source of trouble along the Mu’ugalavyáni 
  border and with Chákan secessionists than any 
  other local faction. They are, in fact, more 
  radical and militant even than the Incandescent 
  Blaze Society of the temple of Vimúhla! The 
  Companions of the Holy Thunder (q.v.) are 
  loosely under the patronage of the temples of 
  Karakán in southern Tsolyánu, and a fair 
  number of their higher-clan priests, lay-priests, 
  temple guards, etc. are members or at least 
  supporters. 
   
  Hnálla is favored by a number of officials and 
  their families but has little other following. While 
  they carry on regardless, there are sometimes 
  more priests than laity at the public rituals. 
  Supported by donations and funding from 
  outside the protectorate, the temple has a thirty 
  of priests in residence, and even the little 
  Temple of Dra is home to nine more priests — 
  all but two of whom are members of the arch-
  ascetic “Perfect of Dra”.  
   
  One issue pertains to native Pan Chákan 
  mythology but is included here rather than 
  below: the “Adjustment Men”.97 These beings 
  are special emanations or servants of Hnálla 
  that are sent out in small teams to fix errors of 
  fate and mend irruptions in the Master of Light’s 
  cosmic fabric. In Chákan theological circles, they 
  are considered the Eighth Aspect of Hnálla, 
  collectively; others would simply consider them 
  a type of sharétl, or “demon”, if they even exist. 
  Small and grayish, cold and heartless, these 
  ontological technicians are universally regarded 
  as unwelcome, sinister, and very possibly 
  dangerous (both in practical and spiritual 
  senses). Even worshippers of the Gods of 
  Stability feel this way about them. Their 
  corrections are rarely beneficial to mortals, and 
  after all, most people would prefer to cheat fate 
  rather than suffer it. Superstitious gamblers 
  often carry some small globes rolled from 
  hardened rubber, which are said to drive the 
  Adjustment Men away if hurled at them quickly 
  enough. Nothing else will do; even the mask-
                                                  
  97 Máfkemon Básrimyal in standard Tsolyáni; oddly, there 
  appears to be no vernacular equivalent. The superstitious—
  or unexpectedly lucky—are careful to refer to them only by 
  their initials, Ma-Ba, so as to not attract their attention. 
  wearing dwarves of Zrabísh98 cannot stand 
  against the Adjustment Men. 
   
  Hrü'ü is quite under-represented except through 
  a local minor Aspect, that of the (nameless) Cat 
  God.99 The Cat God is an old and only 
  moderately popular figure in Pan Chákan lore, 
  perhaps representing a pre-Pavárian deity or 
  tribal totem; it is the object of some pilgrimages 
  from the north-central parts of the Empire and 
  also Pijéna. The one other Aspect of note is the 
  Black Old One, said to be the Pe Choi form of 
  Hrü’ü. The image in his shrine in Butrús is 
  considered particularly fine; it is a large 
  lacquered wooden statue representing the 
  Aspect as a black (male) Pe Choi bearing the 
  purple-circle-with-scarlet-slash symbol of Hrü’ü, 
  an iron lightning bolt (not real iron, alas), a 
  serpent, and a obsidian-toothed sword-club (the 
  latter being a transference from the Páchi Lei 
  “Aspect” of Hrü’ü, called Alsh). The gemstones 
  set as the serpent’s eyes are said to be taken 
  from a piece of jewelry sent as a gift by 
  Emperor Nríga Gaqchiké (r. 984–1010 A.S.), 
  who was largely responsible for the origin and 
  spread of the cult of the Black Old One among 
  the Pe Choi. Unfortunately, even in Pan Chaka 
  Pe Choi following the gods of Change are not 
  common and the shrine is sparsely attended. 
  There is no shrine to Alsh itself in this temple; 
  Butrusséne Páchi Lei almost entirely attend the 
  Temple of Ksárul, or else their own shrines in 
  the Foreigners’ Quarter. 
   
  Hrü’ü himself is, in the Chákas, the god of wind, 
  specifically the cool dry-season winds blowing 
  from the north and west. Ever-present in the 
  form of gusts and flurries, he is described as 
  sweeping clean the paths of the planets in the 
  sky and the roads of the gods below the earth, 
  propelling 
  the 
  life-giving 
  rainclouds, 
  and 
  ultimately breathing life and motion into the 
                                                  
  98 Apparently a species of “demon” with five legs, under the 
  sway of Hrü’ü. 
  99 Standard Tsolyáni designates this deity as Mitlán 
  hiTiúniyal, the God of Cats, but the actual native formal 
  equivalent is Tsíu’en Mrélan, more accurately “the Feline 
  God”—the reflex of tíu in this dialect is not limited to 
  domestic cats, but to any species of felidae. The normal 
  vernacular expression, though, is Shi’ikántuyì, “Like a Soft 
  Paw” (perhaps euphemistic). Among its Pijenáni worshippers 
  its name is taboo, and pilgrims from there normally only 
  refer to the deity as “that one over there” (másunja), 
  combined with simultaneously pointing as if to indicate 
  “here”. 
  
  96 
   
  96 
   
   
  entire cosmos. Outside of proverbs, conventional 
  sayings and wisdom, and a few mythological 
  tales, these functions are of little import or 
  interest to Pan Chákans other than the priests in 
  the Butrús temple and a handful of local 
  scholars. 
   
  A small number of urban artisans and merchants 
  are the core of local devotees of Hrü’ü. Many of 
  these are descendants of officers, soldiers, and 
  dependents of the Legion of the Sable Lord, 
  disbanded in 1700 A.S. after backing a losing 
  contender for the Petal Throne. A sizeable 
  number fled to Butrús (which was then under 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  control) 
  where 
  they 
  settled 
  permanently. There is also a small community of 
  Pijenáni expatriates and settlers, most of whom 
  are loose adherents of this faith. Among the 
  three dozen priests of Hrü’ü and the eighteen or 
  twenty of Wurú, there are known to be at least 
  a dozen of the Cusp of Night Society. However, 
  it is reasonably certain that none of the senior 
  priests belong — they regard the Cusp of Night 
  (and its Ndálu Clan allies) as meddling outsiders 
  from the distant and dreary cities of central 
  Tsolyánu.  
   
  The Temple of Wurú is regionally famous for 
  being the home of the lesser Aspect Menwási, 
  patron of the ténturen and its local variants. 
  These musical instruments are used extensively 
  in the rituals of the consort and deity alike. 
  Other Aspects that have their own shrines in 
  Butrús are Diéllunak the Bleak Goddess of 
  Changes 
  and 
  Perturbations 
  and, 
  more 
  importantly, Siunéth the Pleasant One of Mazes 
  (whose shrine is, in fact, a maze), to whom 
  people sacrifice black unmáiyi flowers in order to 
  gain help finding lost valuables or children. Most 
  residents of Butrús know the Temple of Wurú 
  best for its excellent, if solemn, performances of 
  epics — both with players and shadow-puppets, 
  accompanied by feasts.100 These are held in the 
  temple grounds throughout the year at irregular 
  intervals — depending as much upon finances, 
  weather, and the availability and readiness of 
  performers 
  as 
  upon 
  any 
  theological 
  or 
  calendrical 
  matters. 
  Neither 
  priesthood 
  is 
  particularly wealthy; they are probably the 
  poorest of the five temples of Change in Butrús. 
                                                  
  100 The Hymn to Mü’ükané is a specialty of the priesthoods 
  of Wurú. 
   
  Thúmis is considered a distinct "newcomer" but 
  is not actually unpopular as such. The temple 
  has a good library and runs a school that serves 
  almost all of the devotees of Stability: the 
  Pavilion of Vision in the Pearly Clouds. Currently 
  the Temple of Thúmis includes among its nearly 
  thirty priests only a few activists of the 
  Brotherhood of Supernal Wisdom. Generally, it is 
  an apolitical and conservative institution. The 
  Gray Robes in Pan Cháka are not much given to 
  mysticism, philosophy, or theology, but rather 
  concentrate on practical scholarship — medicine, 
  engineering, mathematics, and administration. 
  This orientation may be entirely intentional, part 
  of a long-term plan to win a place for the Lord 
  of Wisdom in Pan Cháka by dint of useful, 
  practical, public results. This sect played a 
  crucial role in the recent ditlána of the city, 
  providing much of the administrative and 
  engineering talent required as well as providing 
  the design of the new city layout. However, this 
  has backfired, as the temple is widely perceived 
  to have “hijacked” the direction of the project, 
  offending many powerful factions in the region 
  and even the Empire. The small clique of 
  Thúmis-worshipping 
  clan-siblings 
  who 
  took 
  control of the great project was made up of 
  undeniably capable and efficient individuals, but 
  their 
  conduct 
  ended 
  up 
  alienating 
  even 
  segments of their own temple.  
   
  The Seventh Aspect of Thúmis, Chokóth the 
  Wanderer, here at Butrús presides over a special 
  collection of gems, strange rocks, and geological 
  scholia from around the known world. The 
  shrine to Meshmúr the Molder of Flesh is larger 
  and better supported, however. This deity, 
  famed for the cure of internal injuries and 
  ailments, is customarily portrayed as a rearing 
  serpent with a large head and a single eye; 
  when its cult was introduced to Butrús in the 
  twelfth century, it was widely regarded as a cult 
  of phallus-worship; or at very least, that a 
  blatant phallic symbol was the manifestation of 
  the Aspect. This led to the expected jokes about 
  exactly how Meshmúr could “heal your internal 
  ailments”, and thus also provoked some poor 
  reactions from the temple of Dilinála, which up 
  until then had been the authority and source of 
  aid 
  for 
  gynecological 
  medicine 
  in 
  the 
  protectorate. Some of this rancor persists to the 
  present day — in the form of touchy priests of 
  
  97 
   
  97 
   
   
  Thúmis, nonplussed physicians dedicated to 
  Dilinála (or even Avánthe), and devotees of 
  Ksárul or Vimúhla with a taste for off-color 
  religious ribaldry at the expense of the Grey 
  Robes. To add insult to injury, the image of 
  Meshmúr has spread into the countryside and is 
  indeed resorted to by uneducated peasants 
  solely as a guarantor of virility and (masculine) 
  sexual prowess.  
   
  Another Aspect of note in the city is a little-
  known one, with only a few shrines elsewhere in 
  Tsolyánu: Ethuví’ish, better known as the “God 
  of Clocks”. This Aspect, of Mu’ugalavyáni origin, 
  is the patron deity of timekeeping instruments of 
  all kinds, as well as those that manufacture and 
  maintain them. Given the complicated and 
  disputatious nature of official chronometry in 
  Butrús, he is often supplicated and called upon 
  by various officials and servants. His image is 
  that of a bald, slightly frowning, middle-aged 
  man wearing a short kilt and holding a gnomon, 
  a sundial’s disk, two different graduated rods of 
  a clepsydra, an astrolabe, and an hourglass in 
  his six hands. A purely local Aspect is Semwáse 
  the Pounder, who is the patron and guardian of 
  paper-makers and also of clothmaking — likely 
  due to the widespread and ancient use of bark 
  “felts” in the Chákas. He is now the object of 
  devotions 
  among 
  weavers, 
  spinners, 
  and 
  embroiderers as well, but in the guise of a 
  female “sub-Aspect” (perhaps having absorbed a 
  lost local Aspect of Avánthe, Mahabét or 
  Ma’abét, who was the original focus of the 
  Sewing Festival in Firasúl). Semwáse proper is 
  paid homage by all manufacturers and dealers in 
  paper products, even those worshipping Ksárul. 
   
  On Ngéshtu Head at the southernmost tip of the 
  protectorate there is a shrine to the Aspect 
  Kànukolúm, 
  the 
  god 
  of 
  navigators 
  and 
  astronomy. It must be supplied entirely by sea 
  and cannot be reached from land (apparently); 
  those expecting a monastic retreat full of sages 
  and priests will be disappointed, as it consists 
  only of a simple temple frequented by sailors 
  and mariners who stop here on the coast to take 
  on fresh water. Nevertheless, it is a spiritually 
  significant 
  place, 
  and 
  Stability-worshippers 
  among the seafaring clans of southern Tsolyánu 
  visit it to pay homage when the opportunity 
  arises. 
   
  As in many locales, Keténgku is the patron of 
  physicians, and most of the Butrús temple’s 
  seventeen priests are pharmacists, bonesetters, 
  surgeons, circuit-listeners, and other varieties of 
  medical men. Many are involved with the 
  “hospital” run by this temple and that of 
  Thúmis; over many years now it has been 
  acquiring a bad reputation for “experimenting” 
  on poorer or indigent patients. Dentistry is a 
  local specialty of the priests of Keténgku, thanks 
  to Butrús being the home of the Aspect 
  Tírekshen of the Sweet Jaws, and pilgrims come 
  from near and far to seek healing for injuries of 
  the mouth and teeth. (Tírekshen is also the 
  patron deity of chewing gum and of breath-
  freshening drugs and medicines.) 
   
  The temples of Thúmis and Keténgku in Butrús 
  have a small number of Páchi Lei adherents, 
  who tend to be unusually devout, and who 
  suffer certain prejudices from the main body of 
  Páchi Lei society. However, the priests are 
  sometimes surprised to find that their pious 
  Páchi 
  Lei 
  parishioners 
  have 
  suspiciously 
  heterodox beliefs and ritual practices. 
   
  Heterodox Cults and Local Myths 
  Heterodoxy in the strongest and worst sense 
  has had a dark history in Pan Cháka. All three of 
  the Pariah Gods have had their worshippers 
  here, even the obscure One Who Is. The One 
  Other, best known for his mythological role in 
  helping imprison Ksárul after Dórmoron Plain, 
  has been particularly active — at the very least 
  in the heated imaginations of the protectorate’s 
  devout 
  Ksárul-worshipping 
  population. 
  The 
  Goddess of the Pale Bone is known to have had 
  small temples and monasteries in the region 
  from Bednálljan times up through the early 
  years of the Second Empire, and after that, 
  networks of underground worshippers at least 
  until the 1200s. It is, naturally, feared that 
  covens of the faithful are still in operation today. 
  Likewise, it is customary for the imaginative and 
  suspicious to interpret any given historical event 
  in the protectorate in terms of the hidden 
  machinations of these diabolical forces; doing so 
  is here left as an exercise to the reader. 
   
  The 
  Empty 
  Sharers 
  of 
  the 
  Unlighted 
  Germination, as the sect’s formal name is 
  usually given, are included in this section even 
  
  98 
   
  98 
   
   
  though the sect is widely understood to be an 
  offshoot of the standard Ksárulian faith. Many 
  consider it to have veered into a wholly 
  unorthodox 
  and 
  heretical 
  path. 
  Having 
  originated in Pan Cháka, it disappeared from the 
  protectorate for centuries and has only recently 
  returned.  
   
  It was founded in the 1140s at the village of 
  Chejálsha (southwest of Butrús) by a moderately 
  wealthy farmer named Kadíjen Tsúnkai. Kadíjen 
  claimed to have received a series of visions in 
  which Lord Ksárul showed him “the formless 
  secret” and urged him to learn from it. Having 
  converted most of his family and a few 
  neighbors, the cult he founded was vigorously 
  opposed by the local priests and never 
  numbered more than a few score adherents. 
  Kadíjen’s grandson, Kóhlumir, relocated the 
  entire sect en masse to the backwaters of 
  Marélmu province in 1230-32. There it grew 
  steadily over the centuries, both by internal 
  growth and slow accumulation of converts, until 
  the segregated, aloof villages of its adherents 
  were 
  scattered 
  across 
  Marélmu 
  and 
  into 
  neighboring provinces.  
   
  The Unlighted Germinators are all farmers at 
  least part-time, and their communities aim at 
  total self-sufficiency. Outsiders are not permitted 
  to settle in them or to lease, rent, or even labor 
  on their lands. On the few occasions they have 
  been obliged to give up any of their land, they 
  have sown the soil with salt and destroyed the 
  irrigation system to prevent others from growing 
  crops on it. Internally, they appear to be 
  organized on a highly egalitarian model, with 
  land and property held communally, decisions 
  made by consent or consensus, strong sanctions 
  against hoarding wealth or goods, and an 
  absolute minimum of division of labor. Their 
  beliefs, so far as they can be ascertained, could 
  possibly be summed up by the term “esoteric 
  agriculture”. 
  All 
  field 
  labor 
  is 
  performed 
  collectively, and all plantings and harvestings 
  are done only at night, during the dark of the 
  moons. The phrase most often heard from the 
  cultists, at such times, is the cryptic “Blessed is 
  the seed planted forever in darkness!” 
   
  In the early 2340s a few members of the cult 
  visited Butrús and Pan Cháka; in following years 
  a steady trickle of families have come to the 
  protectorate from the plains of northwest 
  Tsolyánu, aiming at establishing one or more of 
  their settlements. While no clear attempt has 
  been made to re-settle Chejálsha Village (now 
  mostly deserted), it is a site of frequent 
  pilgrimages for members of the sect, even some 
  from the northwest in recent years. The 
  Unlighted 
  Germinators 
  are 
  not 
  finding 
  a 
  particularly warm welcome in their place of 
  origin: the orthodox temples of Ksárul in the 
  protectorate want nothing to do with them (not 
  wishing to be associated with potential heretics, 
  trouble-makers, 
  or 
  other 
  embarrassments); 
  many priests and priestesses of the temples of 
  Avánthe are dismayed and alarmed at the idea 
  of a bizarre sect of the Black Robes claiming 
  knowledge of what are properly the mysteries of 
  their own goddess. Farmers and rural adherents 
  of both deities are suspicious and unfriendly 
  toward the newcomers. Meanwhile, the College 
  for Making the Heart Sincere is increasing its 
  previously lackadaisical efforts to inspect their 
  temporary quarters in Butrús and their initial 
  farmstead in the country. Strangely, the most 
  tolerant 
  group 
  seems 
  to 
  be 
  the 
  rural 
  worshippers of Vimúhla, who themselves have 
  traditionally lived in more or less segregated 
  settlements and kept somewhat aloof from 
  neighbors following different gods. 
   
  The deity of the Lúshmun Canal101 and its 
  servants or children the “dragon colts” have 
  been mentioned above. More than the other 
  demigods and spirits described below, 
  it 
  partakes of elements of orthodox iconography — 
  that of Ksárul and Avánthe. It also is clearly 
  affiliated with the mythology and ideology of the 
  Tsolyáni imperium, as well as indigenous water-
  spirit lore.102 This being is represented in its 
  single canalside shrine as a kind of simian with a 
  flat nose and a high beetling forehead; it is 
  green of body but white-headed, and has small 
  yellowish eyes. Long ago it was captured by the 
                                                  
  101 Yet another blandly named local god: Méklukoi hiBafaikán 
  Lúshmunin, “the God (literally, Cohort) of the Lúshmun 
  Canal”. Local vernacular is basically the same: Mrélan 
  hüVamáikan Lúshmunne. Even peasants dwelling on the 
  canal itself do not seem to have any special nicknames or 
  avoidance-names for this deity. 
  102 On two occasions, Tsolyáni governors and the priesthood 
  of Avánthe have tried to associate this shrine with her 
  Aspect Bolénde, or one of the lesser local Aspects thereof, 
  but these foreign impositions have always been sloughed off 
  at the earliest possible opportunity. 
  
  99 
   
  99 
   
   
  hero Nug (q.v.), chained up, and lowered into a 
  bottomless pond, in order to regulate the water 
  level in the canal. (This is hard to reconcile with 
  the recent origins of the canal, but legend is 
  legend...). It is said to have been as strong as 
  ten chlen, even though it was only the size of a 
  child at the time — and it is rumored to have 
  grown vastly over the centuries. The other end 
  of its chain is bolted into the side of a small 
  mountain overlooking the canal, and the ruler of 
  Pan Cháka is supposed to haul up the beast and 
  inspect it every hundred years. This has not 
  been done for many centuries, however, 
  perhaps due to the cryptic and alarming notes 
  left by the last officials to have performed this 
  duty, and the prevalence of hair-raising stories 
  and street-plays about its current girth and 
  temper. Nonetheless, legend stipulates that the 
  deity is a loyal servant of the Petal Throne. 
   
  The Goddess of the Turín River is now almost 
  forgotten, and exists only as a figure in some 
  local legends and in a few folk festivals. Up until 
  the Gracious Inquisition, she was actively 
  worshipped in Pan Cháka (at least in districts 
  near the river), with rituals including regular 
  human sacrifice through poisoning in specially-
  built grass shelters on the riverbanks. So far as 
  can be determined, her cult was suppressed 
  only at the request of authorities from the 
  mainstream temples of Avánthe, who were 
  deeply opposed to the human sacrifice and the 
  commonplace attribution of this goddess to an 
  Aspect of Avánthe. Perhaps already fading, the 
  entire complex of cult practices and beliefs soon 
  vanished. 
   
  The Purple Girl is a demigoddess at the heart of 
  a strongly female-oriented folk cult, whose 
  practices center on the handling of grain during 
  the main harvests of the year. The spirit in 
  question is supposedly that of a young woman 
  who was murdered by her mother-in-law and 
  whose body was buried in the mounds of chaff 
  from the harvest. (She is also the protective 
  deity of newlywed brides.) A lurking force who 
  makes her presence known by what is described 
  by the peasants simply as “the feeling that 
  something very heavy is present with you”, she 
  is more feared than loved. The best-known 
  element of this cult is the belief in the 
  “winnowing ghosts” — the souls of the recently 
  departed who return each year at the harvest 
  time, in the form of evil bird-spirits. These 
  ghosts try to seek out their relatives — who 
  abandon their houses for the night and hide in 
  the fields — and will occasionally leave cryptic 
  messages scratched into the fallen chaff. The 
  same “heavy” sensation that attends the Purple 
  Girl’s invisible presence is also felt all during the 
  day before the “winnowing ghosts” come back 
  — or so the peasants claim. 
   
  The Pan Chákans pay reverence to a deity 
  known only as "the Grandfather", depicted as a 
  huge 
  gobbler-bat, 
  or 
  khurruhirrükhú. 
  His 
  function seems similar to that of Belkhánu's 
  Aspect Mórskodel: a psychopomp who receives 
  the soul at death. Gobblers in general are seen 
  as the escorts or footmen of recently departed 
  souls. 
  Despite 
  this 
  figure’s 
  theologically 
  innocuous nature and apparent close affinity to 
  Belkhánu, it has not been formally incorporated 
  into the orthodox faith even during the Gracious 
  Inquisition, but was in fact briefly discouraged. 
   
  A particular type of owl — or rather a spirit in 
  the form of an owl — is the Ghost Carriage. This 
  creature has a tiny body and huge wings when 
  flying, but takes on the form of a normal owl 
  when landed. They perch on rooftops at night 
  and normally crane their heads upward, as if 
  searching for something in the sky. If they 
  should look down on top of someone’s head — 
  especially that of a child — that person’s soul is 
  instantly carried off and he or she will die. The 
  same will happen if their feathers touch a child 
  or its clothes, so it is unsafe to spread out 
  children’s clothes or bedding to air at night — 
  loose feathers from a Ghost Carriage might drift 
  upon them. These Ghost Carriages are said to 
  live in orchards during the daytime, but are 
  invisible and intangible then. Dogs can still 
  detect them, and their barking will drive them 
  away. An alternate or additional part of the 
  myth is that these birds are the transformed 
  ghosts of women who died pregnant, before 
  childbirth, and sometimes take the forms of girls 
  during the daytime — and so owls are 
  sometimes called “wetnurse birds” or “night-
  strolling girls”. 
    
  Green Boy and Red Woman are two unpleasant 
  ghosts or demons who lurk about, seeking to 
  attack children and youths — sometimes 
  separately, often together; usually at night, but 
  
  100 
   
  100 
   
   
  sometimes even at dusk. Their depredations are 
  apparently limited to the immediate environs of 
  Butrús. There are many different tales of their 
  origins, many quite elaborate. They are favorite 
  bugbears of parents to quell their wayward 
  children. 
   
  The Well Visitors or Damp Citizens can now be 
  included in this section of the manuscript, 
  though if what is said about them is true they 
  might just as fairly have been placed under the 
  heading of “Foreigners” along with other non-
  human persons.103 According to the author of 
  the Gazetteer, these entities are a sort of water-
  goblin, perhaps limited to the realm of myth and 
  legend. 
  They 
  dwell 
  in 
  ponds, 
  swamps, 
  waterways, and sodden rainforest groves near 
  pools throughout Pan Cháka, and also in water-
  filled caves and fissures — even (or especially?) 
  under Butrús itself. Their underground warrens 
  are said to connect with the city’s sewers and 
  cisterns in a number of places, but there is a 
  certain natural subterranean stream that they 
  will under no circumstances cross. Their great 
  fondness for melons and squashes and lack of 
  respect for private property often bring them 
  into contact with gardeners; their taste for 
  rotting meat leads them to interact with humans 
  as well, though in less lighthearted fashions. 
  Local children are terrified into obeying their 
  elders (and not playing around wells, for 
  example) by tales of the newt-goblins prowling 
  under the city. Country people are generally less 
  afraid of them; Chiténg worshippers, particularly 
  horrified. In folkore they are represented as 
  being cruel, cynical, and untrustworthy, but also 
  given to occasional acts of kindliness. In most 
  tales they are hostile and practically at war with 
  surface-dwellers — e.g., many versions of the 
  history of the “War of the Tsuru’úm” (q.v.) 
  blame the Well Visitors. Some stories, however, 
  relate that they have sometimes in the past 
  come to the aid of Butrusséne (in the face of 
  mutual threat by outsiders), and according to 
  long-standing urban legend they even pay 
  “taxes” at certain times, to one or another 
  recipient — the Íto clan, the Temple of Chiténg, 
  the Governor, or the Metropolitan Prefect. They 
  are described as small and dark, lank and dank, 
  goggling and hissing, with big webbed hands 
                                                  
  103 The relevant page was missing from the manuscript 
  originally provided by the author. 
  and feet and a lush mane of black hair running 
  down their rubbery backs. That they are 
  supposed to be fantastically strong, their being 
  the “inventors” of wrestling in mythological 
  times, and the scores of needle-like teeth 
  stuffing their wide mouths altogether presents a 
  discouraging picture to the would-be hero. 
   
  The Thunder Lords are another peculiar class of 
  being, difficult to classify as animals, spirits, or 
  possibly even minor deities. Locals insist on 
  referring to them as “gods”, but it is hard to 
  determine exactly why. Their appearance is 
  thoroughly chimerical — a Thunder Lord is said 
  to have fleshy bat-like wings, a cat’s feet and 
  hands, a pig-like head with soft furry horns and 
  a mane of dark green hair, a hawk’s beak, and 
  pitch-black skin; they wear bright red trousers 
  and 
  carry 
  short-handled 
  stone 
  axes 
  of 
  supernatural 
  sharpness.104 
  As 
  the 
  name 
  indicates, they are closely associated with 
  thunder, particularly in the stormy season of the 
  monsoons, when they will signal anger at the 
  human populace by causing dikes and levees to 
  burst and cisterns and reservoirs to crack and 
  drain. They are thus the recipients of the “First 
  Thunder” sacrifices in the month of Hasanpór. 
  Effigies of them are hauled around in heavy, 
  crudely built “thunder carts” during these 
  festivals, and again in the autumn windy season. 
  Dwellers on the coast claim to frequently see 
  them flying out to sea in great flocks and doing 
  battle with akhó, hlüss, and such monsters; 
  tribesmen and Páchi Lei of the central jungles 
  say that they hunt them during the dry season 
  for food — they curl up in little stone cysts 
  underground, and their flesh tastes like rich, 
  juicy tsi’íl meat. There are several other 
  superstitions about them as well. Stone axe-
  heads are often found in the ground in Pan 
  Cháka, and are believed to be thunderbolts of 
  these creatures that were lost in storm-battles 
  and not retrieved. During the autumn typhoon 
  season, it is forbidden to eat fish with hma or 
                                                  
  104 The association of axes with the region of Pan Cháka 
  extends to its etymology, at least in Tsolyáni scholarship: 
  pa’an, meaning “axe”, is said to be the source of the name. 
  Some contrary philologers insist that the name-element is 
  cognate with the modern Tsolyáni stem pal-, “yesterday” 
  (sometimes used to mean “the former, the elder” in names), 
  suggesting that Pan Cháka was considered the older or 
  original of the two Chákas. Many Chákan antiquarians 
  assume the term comes from some long-forgotten local 
  language and cannot now be recovered. 
  
  101 
   
  101 
   
   
  hmélu meat in the same meal, or the Thunder 
  Lords become angry. If a traveler or village is 
  attacked by Thunder Lords — as happens every 
  few years — they can supposedly be driven off 
  by urine, of which they are deathly afraid. Some 
  argue that these are demons affiliated with 
  Vimúhla, partially because of their known 
  antagonism to frogs and toads — locally 
  speaking, 
  emblems 
  of 
  both 
  Ksárul 
  and 
  Dlamélish, who in myth were no friends of the 
  Flame Lord. On the other hand, they are often 
  depicted as battling the Chóhrulesh, a species of 
  “demon” owing allegiance to Vimúhla. 
    
  The Boneless King is an extremely mysterious 
  being, said to have dropped down from the sky 
  during the Time of No Kings and fallen into the 
  waters off the coast of Pan Cháka. He was 
  washed ashore and worshiped by the scattered 
  tribal peoples of the region, eventually gaining 
  his own temple(s) and sacrifices. This cult 
  eventually gave rise to the Five Bushels and 
  Seven Toes sect, which was finally suppressed 
  by imperial order in the early 1200s. This affair 
  was certainly an impetus for the “Gracious 
  Inquisition” later in the century, but very little is 
  really known now about the sect or the older 
  cult. What became of the King himself is entirely 
  unknown. Though Pan Chákan legends do not 
  explicitly make the connection, this story is likely 
  connected to that of Archer Hmi’s wife (see 
  below), at least indirectly. 
   
  Lársang may be an (anti)hero of mythology or a 
  demigod not attached to an orthodox religious 
  tradition; he was a goldsmith and also an 
  assassin, becoming the patron of cold-blooded 
  murder.105 Being blinded by Archer Hmi or 
  Pendárte (or occasionally other epic heroes in a 
  few versions of the tale) posed no impediment 
  to his continued career of remorseless killing, 
  and today people suffering blindness are said to 
  have been stricken by Lársang when they 
  (unwittingly) saw him escaping from the scene 
                                                  
  105 His brother Nínko, also a goldsmith, is in stories if not 
  actual religious practice the “god of correct pronunciation”, 
  cruelly 
  and 
  outrageously 
  punishing 
  characters 
  who 
  mispronounce the language. He especially objects to those 
  who lazily and sloppily say his name “Níngko” (with a velar 
  ng) rather than the proper “Nínko” (with a dental n). Deaf-
  mutes are said to be his victims — at some point either they 
  or their parents (if they were born mute) spoke carelessly in 
  his unseen presence. 
  of some infamy.106 Goldsmiths, and jewelers 
  who work with gold, feel obliged to go out of 
  their way to demonstrate they do not follow in 
  the footsteps of this most famous practitioner of 
  their art. Even professional criminals of Butrús 
  despise and fear Lársang. He is nevertheless 
  propitiated by those planning secret bloodshed 
  and by those fearing it alike, as well as by those 
  who are threatened by blindness. Tiny, well-
  hidden shrines to him are rumored to be 
  secreted about the city, attended by solitary 
  evildoers 
  and 
  psychopathic 
  killers. 
  He 
  is 
  personally fond of seashells and is strongly 
  attracted to them, and they are thus regarded 
  with some horror by superstitious Butrusséne. 
   
  Epic heroes such as Subadím and Hrúgga are 
  certainly well known to every Pan Chákan, but 
  are really close to the heart only of immigrant 
  lineages 
  and 
  the 
  more 
  status-conscious 
  urbanites and elites. The major local culture 
  hero in Pan Chákan lore has the name Nug — 
  humorous even to urbane Tsolyáni ears. Nug 
  was descended from a clan of animal-trainers 
  that exists even today, taking much pride in 
  their ancient clan-brother. It is puzzling that he 
  is not said to be the founder of the clan, as most 
  heroes would be, but so it goes.  
   
  After many gods and would-be heroes had failed 
  to drain away the primordial waters that filled 
  the cosmos, Nug managed to dam them up 
  instead and so create dry land, by using an 
  artifact or a substance — it is not clear which — 
  called the Breathing Earth. The same item 
  (under the name of the Pulsing Mold) was later 
  used by Nug (or Subadím in some versions) to 
  stop up the Eye of the Ocean, which threatened 
  to drown the earth once more. Nug is also 
  credited with having invented the digging-stick, 
  the basket, the adze, the roof, the sickle, the 
  drinking-straw, and the rain-cape, as well as 
  many other implements of civilization. He 
  invented the backpack so that Sárku could bring 
  home his belongings after his little-known 
  “divorce” across the western sea (his mummified 
  minions’ heads had kept snapping off when they 
  attempted 
  to 
  use 
  carrying-baskets 
  with 
  tumplines). Supposedly, Nug also captured the 
                                                  
  106 Those discovering a murder for the first time are 
  supposed to immediately cover their eyes and leave the 
  scene pretending nothing is amiss, so that Lársang will not 
  blind them as he leaves to keep them from identifying him. 
  
  102 
   
  102 
   
   
  god of the Lúshmun Canal and tamed it to 
  regulate the water levels, but this is hard to take 
  literally, given the very modern date of the canal 
  project.  
   
  Archer Hmi is a great hero of Pan Chákan 
  legend, 
  but 
  scarcely 
  known 
  elsewhere. 
  Nowadays a figure in stories and folktales, and 
  the patron of hunters,107 Archer Hmi went about 
  freeing people from a variety of natural disasters 
  and vicious beasts, using fairly direct methods 
  that eventually got him in trouble. His first 
  escapade was a journey to the Plain of Towers 
  in the far west — leaving behind a train of 
  slaughtered bandits and bullies each way 
  (including an unnamed “culture hero” credited 
  with inventing robbery) — where he charmed 
  the “Fairy Queen” that lives there into giving 
  him the elixir of immortality, a magic plum-like 
  fruit. Though he had invented the bow, his own 
  creations proved inadequate to deal with the 
  foes he faced on this journey and his return, 
  and so the “god in the sun” (Hnálla, according 
  to proper Tsolyáni interpretation, but either 
  Karakán or Vimúhla in the local view of things) 
  appeared and gave him his famous red bow of 
  demon-repellent bamboo.  
   
  First he killed the wicked Filetooth (a monstrous 
  personification, maybe, of the tooth-sharpening 
  tribal headhunters of the inner jungle) and took 
  his invention, the shield, as booty. He went on 
  to quell the Great Wind — a huge bird the size 
  of a mountain, perhaps a symbol of the typhoon 
  or tornado — by simply shooting it full of 
  arrows. The next to meet the same fate was the 
  Speckled Snake — a giant serpent with the habit 
  of devouring chlen-beasts right out of harried 
  farmers’ fields — and then its cousin, the 
  quaintly-named Jíyiyiyi, a red-furred, human-
  faced snake a tsan long who preferred to eat 
  humans, except for the small clique of wizards it 
  tutored. He then turned to the Humped Chlen 
  (see below) and dispatched him as well, due to 
  his habit of being rude to passersby. The 
  Jíyiyiyi’s students, meanwhile, had failed to 
  revive their master and petitioned the gods for 
  redress; the Humped Chlen’s parents also 
  objected to Archer Hmi’s crusade, and it was 
  decided by the gods to put a stop to him. He 
                                                  
  107 On an etymological note, it has been suggested that this 
  hero’s name is related to the modern Tsolyáni word hmün, 
  “to hunt game, to track prey”. 
  was banished for eternity to the volcanoes of 
  Porubél Ta, where his right foot, both hands, 
  and his long hair are melted into the trunk of a 
  small tree to keep him from shooting anything 
  else. His later discovery there by travelers is 
  mentioned in at least one Engsvanyáli history. 
  Many Chákans consider him to be the same as 
  or equivalent to the largely Mu’ugalavyáni hero 
  Pendárte, while the Mu’ugalavyáni (especially 
  those of Khéiris, Pendárte’s city) believe the 
  character of Archer Hmi to be a borrowing of 
  Pendárte into the rustic folktales of the 
  disorderly eastern savages. Educated Tsolyáni 
  more and more agree, even going so far as to 
  substitute the name Pendárte when re-telling 
  the legends of Archer Hmi. 
   
  Archer Hmi had a wife of astounding beauty but 
  unknown antecedents and no known name who, 
  while her husband was away making Pan Cháka 
  safe for decent people, took the drug of 
  immortality from its hiding place and escaped to 
  the moon Gayél — thus, according to some 
  interpretations, revealing herself as an avatar of 
  the goddess Dlamélish. Having eaten the now-
  shriveled holy fruit, she planted the pit in the 
  lunar soil, where it grew into a magical 
  cardamom tree. Nowadays she spends her time 
  engaged in abstruse alchemical experiments; 
  occasionally, however, seeds or blooms from the 
  tree fall to earth, particularly during full moons 
  and when certain dances for the fertility of the 
  crops 
  are 
  held. 
  These 
  so-called 
  “moon 
  blossoms” are often dangerous, for they can 
  assume the forms of other deities and otherwise 
  get up to no good, gobbling up offerings 
  intended for other gods (somewhat like Khájju, 
  an orthodox Aspect of Grugánu), causing 
  agricultural implements to come alive and abuse 
  their owners, transforming animals into shape-
  changing spirits, and inducing epidemics of 
  pregnancy in women. The myth of the tricky 
  “moon blossoms” may be a later offshoot of the 
  story of the Boneless King; or it may be the 
  other way around.  
   
  Wiwí is yet another figure of Pan Chákan 
  legends with an amusing name; originally he 
  had the form of a one-legged, three-armed, 
  two-tailed rényu, but invented music and 
  acquired the form of a small wooden drum. His 
  wife was named Yúrchuch or Yílchich (sources 
  differ), but called simply “Woman in Darkness” 
  
  103 
   
  103 
   
   
  — and is generally believed to represent 
  Hriháyal. They had one son, with a name too 
  ridiculous to repeat here, who had a homely 
  appearance and bad manners. Going off to live 
  in the Red Cassia Forest (probably in the eastern 
  lowlands of Pan Chaka), he became known as 
  the Humped Chlen and his poor hospitality 
  eventually got him slain by Archer Hmi — an 
  event commemorated in a local melody and 
  seasonal folkdance called the Red Cassia Forest 
  Dance. Orthodox Tsolyáni scholars find it 
  interesting, if a little puzzling, that this myth 
  complex suggests that Dlamélish (as Archer 
  Hmi’s wife) and Hriháyal (as Humped Chlen’s 
  mother) may not have been on speaking terms 
  at one point.  
   
  The 
  Year-Bearers 
  are 
  both 
  cosmological 
  demigods and heroes in local epics (very minor 
  ones), as well as figures (again minor) in great 
  classical epics. They are more commonly 
  recognized outside Pan Cháka as lesser Demon 
  Lords, servants of Prince Origób: Nimuné, 
  Akhoné, 
  Niritlál, 
  and 
  Nurgáshte. 
  In 
  local 
  traditions they are known as the Three Kings, 
  with Nurgáshte always referred to separately as 
  the Fourth King. In classical legend they fought 
  Hrúgga on his quest at Lù-Ishatúr, but in local 
  mythology they are four “Year-Bearers” who 
  deliver the new year from its esoteric origins 
  beyond the boundaries of time. They also are 
  figures in local legends, primarily as defenders 
  of Butrús in what could nowadays be considered 
  “recent legendary times” — e.g., the defense of 
  the city walls of Tírutlèklu by Nurgáshte from 
  the demonic armies raised by the wizard Isínju 
  during the Second Epoch of Éngsvan hla 
  Gánga.108 The mythological Three Kings are 
  often 
  conflated 
  or 
  absorbed 
  in 
  popular 
  storytelling, folktales, dramas, and fiction with 
  the semi-legendary but historical Three Kings of 
  the land of Zru’o (q.v.), which remains a fairly 
  common subject and setting for modern writers 
  and audiences. 
   
  The “Queen of the Fairies” is a vague figure in 
  several Chákan tales — vague perhaps because 
  she lives so far away, in the Plain of Towers 
  west 
  beyond 
  the 
  farthest 
  reaches 
  of 
  Mu’ugalavyá. Besides owning the secret of 
                                                  
  108 Which incident (if at all factual) is considered by some to 
  constitute the first historical rebellion of the Ítos against 
  “foreign” empires. 
  eternal youth, which she shared with Archer Hmi 
  (above), she is said to visit Pan Cháka every 
  year in Firasúl for the Sewing Festival, to 
  oversee the event and ensure that the season’s 
  love-matches are well made. She may be 
  considered an Aspect of Avánthe, but is too 
  remote and obscure to really be thought of 
  much, outside of a few stories and some aspects 
  of a minor festival. 
   
  There are many legends concerning the Dragon 
  Warriors. For example, the mythical origins of 
  the sub-dynasty that ruled the Chákas and 
  beyond is preserved in the modern protectorate 
  as follows: A local girl was wading across an 
  irrigation basin one day, when she was 
  impregnated by an invisible spirit — a Dragon 
  Warrior 
  wizard-god. 
  Upon 
  discovering 
  her 
  pregnancy, her family drove her from her house 
  and she drowned herself in the Turín River. Her 
  body floated back upstream and washed ashore; 
  her belly was cut open on the rocks of the 
  Narrows of the Black Stones, revealing ten 
  strange eggs within. These hatched out as ten 
  strapping young dragon-boys, who lived in the 
  wilderness. Their father came looking for them, 
  but they were so terrified at his appearance they 
  hid — except for one. Eventually they became 
  less afraid, scarified themselves with flame to 
  remove their scales and become fully human, 
  and married ten girls. The one son who wasn’t 
  afraid of the dragon-god became, perhaps 
  predictably, the founder of the local dynasty of 
  the Dragon Warriors. The story of their mother 
  is often conflated with another legend: that of 
  the two (or three, or seven, depending on 
  sources) young daughters of a Bednálljan 
  alchemist-king who drowned while boating on 
  holiday hereabouts; they are honored by 
  ceremonies held every spring on the shores of 
  large bodies of water throughout Pan Cháka. 
   
  Local Magic 
  Pan Cháka has some peculiar forms of magic 
  and sorcery that are worth noting. In general, 
  the peoples of the Chákas (and of the city of 
  Butrús in particular) are not very “superstitious” 
  in the sense of regulations and avoidances in 
  daily life to appease the forces of the unseen. 
  This is, in fact, one of the (many) facets in their 
  mutual antipathy with the people of Úrmish: the 
  latter are foolish, gullible, and irrational in the 
  
  104 
   
  104 
   
   
  eyes of Butrússene, while the Úrmishites 
  consider their western neighbors practically 
  profane and godless. They are, however, 
  extremely fond of tales and stories of the 
  unusual, uncanny, and bizarre, and on occasion 
  large numbers of people are driven into fits of 
  peculiar dread or even mass panic by the 
  circulation of such stories. 
   
  Paper magic: Paper cutouts of goods are 
  purchased from temple shops and burned at the 
  first funeral to accompany the dead as “spirit 
  furniture”, and entire meals made out of paper 
  may be sacrificed at ancestral rites; paper coins 
  are likewise sacrificed to spirits. These benign 
  superstitions tie in to paper-figure sorcery, 
  especially prevalent in the Chákas, as in the 
  famous case of paper figures being animated to 
  fight in both the Íto rebellions against the 
  current imperial dynasty (in 1045 and 2045 A.S.) 
  Certain wizards have been rumored to carry 
  entire squadrons of bodyguards around on their 
  person in the form of paper cutouts, and 
  disturbing paper slips inserted as place-markers 
  in books — particularly stolen or “borrowed” 
  ones — can be a risky act. Supposedly the 
  techniques of paper magic were invented, or at 
  least rediscovered, by the Black Theocrat, but 
  then almost any strange or dark custom in the 
  protectorate is attributed to him. 
   
  Mirror magic: Local folklore holds that bronze 
  mirrors in the shape of an owl are tokens of 
  fidelity. If the mirror is broken in half and each 
  partner keeps one part, then if one partner has 
  an affair, that half of the mirror flies back to the 
  other to escape the shame of its owner. 
   
  Tree magic: In shunned groves and along bleak 
  ridges, certain types of trees — different species 
  of paulownia, it seems — grow in the shapes of 
  men, or with the faces of men on them. It is 
  known that these are involved in some sort of 
  particularly unpleasant sorcery, especially but 
  not quite exclusively practiced by the tribal 
  peoples of Pan Cháka. Details are not known, 
  and most prefer to keep it that way. 
   
  “Bitterling” magic: A complex of necromancy, 
  poison, and alchemy centered on a type of 
  creature, demon, or spirit known as a Bitter 
  One, or a Bitterling.109 These beings — 
  apparently wormlike or snakelike in form — are 
  kept by men and women of evil nature for their 
  many powers. They live in little pots at their 
  masters’ homes, but invisibly or spectrally follow 
  them around wherever they go, and are 
  inherited through the patriline from owner to 
  owner. They magically clean and keep house for 
  their masters, and require human sacrifices at 
  irregular intervals or else they will turn on their 
  masters and kill them. They will also gladly slay 
  anyone pointed out to them, or sometimes 
  chose to do so spontaneously, and guests in a 
  Bitterling-master’s house are frequently followed 
  and attacked by the little horror after they leave. 
  They kill by causing the victim’s belly to be 
  eaten 
  away 
  from 
  inside. 
  Sometimes 
  the 
  Bitterling seems to take up residence and do this 
  work itself; at other times, it causes whatever 
  the victim eats to come back to life and burrow 
  its way out. The souls of those it kills while in 
  the service of a master become his or her 
  slaves; called “Gold Silkworms”, they can take 
  on tangible form, look more or less human, and 
  serve as the master’s sexual playthings and 
  produce pure gold through some unclear means.  
   
  There are one or two extremely rare plants that 
  serve as an antidote to poisoning by a Bitter 
  One; it is also known that carrying a (live) 
  epéng renders one proof against their initial 
  attack — though not the bites of the epéng. 
  Other than this, the only cure is to catch the 
  subtle “thread” implanted by the Bitter One and 
  give it (and thus the Bitter One) to someone 
  else as a gift. Of course, this tends to make the 
  former victim into a Bitterling-master in turn... 
  Bitterling sorcery is feared and loathed by all 
  right-thinking people of the Chákas, proscribed 
  not only by customary law but by imperial code, 
  and is rigorously rooted out whenever detected. 
  Convicted Bitterling poisoners are executed by 
  being buried in the ground up to the neck and 
  their head encased in thick wax until they 
  smother. The head is cut off and displayed on a 
  high pole in the sunshine, while the body is left 
  to rot in the ground, unmarked and unmourned. 
   
  Mount Chaith stones: According to local folklore, 
  these are named after General Chaith, a semi-
                                                  
  109 Hadhárshemo or Hadhársheni in proper Tsolyáni; in Pan 
  Chákan dialect, Sántash-Kháni. 
  
  105 
   
  105 
   
   
  mythical advisor to an ancient local ruler. A 
  famous figure in legend as a hunter of bandits 
  and burglars, as well as a noted exorcist, he 
  chose to metamorphose into a mountain (about 
  three hundred tsan west-northwest of Butrús) 
  rather than die. Stones with inscription “Mount 
  Chaith Is Here” are placed in front of the main 
  gates of houses and at the beginnings of 
  streets; this is known to block their use by evil 
  spirits (and robbers). It is possible that these 
  stones, and possibly the figure of General 
  Chaith, are a confused and ancient borrowing of 
  the Aspect of Avánthe called Chaith, the 
  Empress. 
   
   
  MILITARY 
   
  Legions 
  The most famous military unit of Pan Cháka is, 
  of course, the Legion of the Givers of Sorrow, 
  but there are many other bodies of troops in the 
  protectorate. An unusually large proportion of 
  these forces are non-human, giving an exotic 
  luster to the region’s long martial tradition. No 
  indigenous legions from the period before Pan 
  Cháka was incorporated into the Tsolyáni 
  Empire exist today. While some legions now 
  strongly associated with Pan Cháka predate this 
  event, they originated outside the protectorate 
  and only later came into it. The Legion of the 
  Givers of Sorrow, in particular, tends to gloss 
  over this fact and presents itself as a wholly 
  native legion. 
   
  After the re-conquest in 1842, the Givers of 
  Sorrow became the protectorate’s senior legion, 
  taking precedence over all others in local 
  protocol, ceremony, and status. Relations with 
  the Tangled Root Eaters, whom they edged out 
  of the “top spot” and who may well have 
  contributed more to the campaign, have been 
  tense ever since. Resentment, squabbles, and 
  duels are not uncommon. The Tangled Root 
  Eaters pride themselves on being Pan Cháka’s 
  oldest native legion, and furthermore disparage 
  the 
  Givers 
  of 
  Sorrow’s 
  habit 
  of 
  being 
  slaughtered by the Mu’ugalavyáni in every actual 
  war (qadárdàli). In addition, a major and 
  ongoing bone of contention is the precise history 
  of the re-conquest and the role of each of these 
  two legions in it. Even Avanthár has been unable 
  to produce an acceptable definitive history of 
  the campaign; the best attempt (c. 2060) was 
  rejected not only by both legions but by their 
  affiliated sects, and even other legions objected 
  to the narrative. 
   
  The Legion of the Givers of Sorrow, Hammer of 
  the Marches (10th Heavy Infantry). The legion’s 
  own historians claim a documented continuity of 
  the legion from the period of the Dragon 
  Warriors clear through to the present day. 
  Outside scholars, however, prefer to put the 
  legion’s foundation at the end of the Engsvanyáli 
  empire, as attested on the Stele of Scarlet Glory 
  at the village of Navái (near Tumíssa; an 
  important pilgrimage site and ritual locus for the 
  legion even today). Apparently always devoted 
  to Chiténg in one form or another, the legion’s 
  involvement in Pan Cháka began with its very 
  earliest modern attestations, in Tsolyáni records 
  of Trákonel II’s invasion of eastern Pan Cháka 
  and defeat of Páchi Lei warbands. It also 
  appears to have taken part in raids into 
  Mu’ugalavyá in 395 A.S., but in 446 was posted 
  to Penóm for the next seventy years (at the very 
  least) 
  as 
  a 
  punishment 
  for 
  backing 
  an 
  unsuccessful contender for the Petal Throne. 
  Emperor Horkhúnen rebuilt it and transferred it 
  to Tumíssa sometime after 517, and it later led 
  the conquest of the Chákas in 780, bearing the 
  brunt of fighting against the forces of the Black 
  Theocrat’s “Flaying General” (who was, perhaps 
  ironically, a special devotee — some say avatar 
  — of Valédh, an Aspect of Vimúhla).  
   
  After this it remained in Butrús as a provincial 
  garrison. Aside from some minor events of the 
  eleventh century, it next saw action in the 
  conquest of Vra in 1115, winning battle honors 
  for its assault on the northern highlands and the 
  final siege of the city of Vra. Only a few years 
  later, however, it was returned to Butrús with 
  the intent of weakening both Vimúhlan and 
  Ksárulian factions through encouraging rivalry 
  between them. It saw no further action until 
  being wiped out — heroically — by the invading 
  Mu’ugalavyáni army in 1565, winning battle 
  honors from the Red Hats themselves (which 
  are still allegedly preserved on the sacred island 
  of Mu’ugállu). Reformed at Úrmish in 1808, it 
  remained there until it took part in the re-
  conquest of Pan Cháka, storming Butrús with 
  
  106 
   
  106 
   
   
  heavy casualties in 1842 and winning its famous 
  title of “Hammer of the Marches”. However, it 
  was again defeated by the Mu’ugalavyáni in 
  2020 after being betrayed by the Tsolyáni 
  Governor, and its soldiers were once more 
  destroyed to a man after a long siege of the 
  citadel. It was not reformed until 2240 by 
  command of Emperor Arshú’u, in a grand 
  ceremony held at Butrús. It has since had a long 
  string of victories in qadárni with Mu’ugalavyáni 
  legions, culminating in a solid defeat of the 
  highly prestigious “Scarlet Battalion” (Legion II 
  of Mighty Ssa’átis) outside Butrús in 2351. Many 
  of 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  legion’s 
  bright 
  red 
  triangular shields now decorate the barracks’ 
  victory shrine and grand hall, and their severed 
  heads fill the skull-rack in the Temple of 
  Chiténg. 
   
  Only recently, its sixteen active cohorts were 
  sent north to Chéne Ho to meet the Yan Koryáni 
  invasion, leaving the Pan Chákan frontier to be 
  guarded by other, lesser legions. It is led by the 
  fanatically devout General Korikáda hiKurúshma 
  of the Red Sword clan, High Priest of Chiténg at 
  Butrús and current Supreme General of the 
  Northeast. A single training cohort remains in 
  the vast and empty barracks. The Director of the 
  Palace of War in the protectorate is also a 
  veteran of the legion, and continues to favor it 
  greatly. 
   
  The Legion of the Tangled Root Eaters (2nd 
  Páchi Lei Medium Infantry) is largely dedicated 
  to Alsh, Ksárul, and Hrü’ü, and composed solely 
  of Páchi Lei. Nevertheless, it has served outside 
  Pan Cháka for the majority of its history. 
  Founded early in the reign of Hejjéka II, the 
  legion fought in his campaigns in Salarvyá, and 
  its alliance with the Legion of Tik-nekw-ket (1st 
  Pe Choi Medium Infantry) dates back to the 
  Battle of Koylugá. After the Mu’ugalavyáni 
  conquest in 1565 A.S. the legion re-formed at 
  Penóm with Páchi Lei and human refugees from 
  Pan Cháka, but did not see major action until 
  1711, when it took part in the re-conquest of Do 
  Cháka — though it was deployed only against 
  the Íto clan forces, not the Pe Choi. Later posted 
  to Mrelú, it was a favorite of the priesthoods of 
  that city. In 1842 it was responsible for the 
  retaking of Pan Cháka, under General Hozzübe 
  G'dar; its troops purged the Mu’ugalavyáni from 
  Butrús (slaughtering many outright), and soon 
  thereafter settled in as one of the chief 
  defenders of Pan Cháka.  
   
  From 2015 until the War of 2020, the legion was 
  called outside Pan Cháka and was unable to join 
  in its defense, though it did fight at the sieges of 
  Úrmish and Katalál and took part in the long 
  retreat to Bey Sü and its defense. As the tide of 
  the war turned, it joined the Army of the North 
  in the Second Battle of Chéne Ho, only returning 
  to 
  Pan 
  Cháka 
  after 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  withdrawal. Like other Chákan legions, it was 
  active in the suppression of the Íto rebellion in 
  2045, moving north to secure Páya Gupá and 
  seeking out Íto strongholds in the forest depths.  
   
  Since that time its headquarters has been in 
  Butrús, with frequent detachments of its units to 
  other locations; at present, though, all twelve 
  active cohorts are in the North, along with their 
  general, G-Gum-Shóggu. Before the outbreak of 
  the Yan Koryáni war, High General Kéttukal 
  hiMraktiné had been advocating the legion’s 
  permanent transfer to Púrdimal as a garrison, 
  thus weakening the power of the Dark Triad in 
  Pan Cháka — an issue of concern to his patron, 
  Prince Eselné. General G-Gum-Shóggu is itself 
  indeed known to favor Prince Mridóbu. 
   
  Legion of the Forest of Hh-kk-ssá (10th Pe Choi 
  Medium Infantry). A strange, secretive group of 
  fanatically 
  Stability-worshipping 
  Pe 
  Choi. 
  Founded in 1900 A.S. at Si’ís as a force of light 
  infantry to oppose the Mu’ugalavyáni, it was 
  actually posted to Fasíltum and the northeast for 
  centuries, including a stint in Saá Allaqí c. 1978-
  2016; it fought in the War of 2020 at the First 
  Battle of Chéne Ho and in the defense of 
  Púrdimal. Subsequently the legion aided in 
  suppression of the Second Íto Revolt and 
  eradication of their forest strongholds in 2045; 
  since then it has been posted to Butrús as a 
  frontier guard unit. Currently it is the largest 
  body of soldiery in Pan Cháka, with fourteen 
  cohorts 
  and 
  its 
  full 
  legion 
  headquarters, 
  commanded 
  by 
  General 
  Mt-trik. 
  While 
  respectful, many Pan Chákans, particularly those 
  who follow the Worm Lord or support the Íto 
  clan, view this legion with some degree of 
  suspicion and resentment. They do not mix 
  much with the local population, not even with 
  civilian Pe Choi or their putative co-religionists. 
   
  
  107 
   
  107 
   
   
  The Legion of the Clan of the Silver Lightning 
  (7th Archers). An old legion dating back at least 
  to the first millennium of the Second Empire, 
  with a splendid record in the Civil War (1010-26 
  A.S.) and the invasion of Vra (1115 A.S.). Its 
  infamous string of terrible luck began as soon as 
  they were sent to Butrús around 1154 — 
  suffering repeatedly at the hands of the Red 
  Hats, the weather, and the Tsolyáni government 
  itself. Subsequent centuries saw repetition of 
  the same unfortunate pattern in Salarvyá, Yan 
  Kor, 
  at 
  the 
  capital, 
  and 
  against 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni once again. Since its rebuilding 
  after the Great War of 2020, the legion has been 
  stationed at Butrús to support the garrison. With 
  eight cohorts presently under its command, 
  General Vroggá Dzh-Urrú (a Páchi Lei) is known 
  as a good planner and warrior and a close friend 
  of the Governor, and is generally believed to be 
  both clever and ambitious, working hard to 
  rebuild the legion’s strength by means magical 
  as well as mundane. However, morale is low, 
  and the gloomy troops continue to refine their 
  ever-changing rituals and superstitious neuroses 
  in the hope of turning their luck. 
   
  Flock of the Flashing Clouds. Remnants of the 
  7th Light Flying Squadron, a group of Hláka who 
  filtered into Pan Cháka during the Mu’ugalavyáni 
  occupation of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
  centuries and turned on them viciously in the 
  Tsolyáni re-conquest of 1842 A.S. They were 
  formed into a legion thereafter by decree of the 
  Tsolyáni Grand Commander, but during the War 
  of 2020 the vengeful Mu’ugalavyáni nearly 
  exterminated them and the unit was dropped 
  from the rolls thereafter. Today they do not 
  appear formally on any army list in Avanthár,110 
  but the Palace of Ever-Glorious War for the 
  Protectorate of Pan Cháka (in Butrús) and the 
  Directorate for the Defense of the Western 
  Frontier (in Tumíssa) recognize them as an 
  active (if tiny) unit, and funnel some basic funds 
  and equipment their way. Though skittish and 
  freewheeling as any Hláka, it is believed that 
  these are likely to stay loyal and relatively firm 
  in the face of any Mu’ugalavyáni invasion, due 
  to a "grudge mentality" that now permeates 
  their community. 
   
                                                  
  110 The last date of formal recognition was in the course of 
  the Reorganization of 2133, in which they were stricken. 
  The Legion of Ketl (4th Medium Infantry). The 
  Imperial prison guards have a full cohort of four 
  hundred men and women permanently stationed 
  at Butrús, guarding the Sixteen Fields. They are 
  also employed in escorting prisoners into exile in 
  Pan Cháka. 
   
  Some other legions are not themselves located 
  in Pan Cháka, but are important to its history or 
  current situation nonetheless:  
   
  The Legion of Deep Green Shadow (6th Páchi 
  Lei Medium Infantry). A minority of Páchi Lei 
  worship Nrg and the deities of Stability, and the 
  legion drawn from and representing them was 
  founded much later than that of the Tangled 
  Root Eaters (above) — in 1947 A.S., as a 
  response to religious persecution within the 
  Páchi Lei communities under Tsolyáni rule. It 
  appears that at least until the War of 2020 its 
  recruits were drawn primarily from urban 
  enclaves of Páchi Lei in Tsolyánu proper, rather 
  than from Pan Cháka. While based at Penóm, it 
  fought at the First Battle of Tumíssa but was 
  ultimately defeated and only re-formed after the 
  war was over, in order to fight the Íto rebels in 
  the deep jungle in 2045. Since then, it has been 
  posted outside Pan Cháka (first in Do Cháka, 
  then near Tumíssa) for fear of provoking further 
  discord in the protectorate. It has been attached 
  to General Kéttukal’s forces since his first 
  invasions of Yan Kor, and its eleven cohorts may 
  be sent to Chéne Ho from its current depot in 
  Khirgár. Its general, Fisa-Brugshmü, is a tough 
  soldier and a well-connected devotee of the 
  Tsolyáni god Thúmis. 
   
  The Legion of the Lord of Red Devastation (18th 
  Medium 
  Infantry) 
  has 
  ceremonial 
  "secret" 
  barracks in Butrús, since the time in the later 
  eighteenth century when Emperor Durúmu 
  ordered the legion to commit self-immolation 
  and some members instead went into hiding in 
  Pan Cháka (at the time, a Mu’ugalavyáni 
  province). 
   
  The Legion of the Night of Shadows (15th 
  Medium Infantry) is newly established at Jakálla 
  under the sponsorship and direction of the 
  Temple of Ksárul, and Prince Mridóbu wishes to 
  move it to Butrús, though the High Priestess of 
  Ksárul at Butrús dislikes the idea. The Prince has 
  also suggested Púrdimal as a possible base for 
  
  108 
   
  108 
   
   
  the legion, and this may be more politically 
  feasible and militarily useful at the moment. In 
  any case, a cohort is being raised from the 
  faithful — or opportunistic — of Butrús, and a 
  small group of recruiters (and, possibly, Ndálu 
  Clan agents) from Jakálla is always present at 
  the hiring hall in the Palace of Ever-Glorious 
  War. 
   
  The Legion of Giriktéshmu (23rd Archers) was 
  sent to the borders of Pan Cháka (then in 
  Mu’ugalavyáni hands) in the first half of the 
  eighteenth 
  century, 
  where 
  it 
  stayed, 
  participating 
  in 
  the 
  1842 
  re-conquest. 
  It 
  remained there with only brief excursions until 
  the Great War of 2020, when it was sent north 
  to Chéne Ho, retreated to Bey Sü, and was 
  present at the Battle of the Temple of Chanis, at 
  which it won its famous and still-treasured Great 
  Standard. Afterwards it helped suppress the Íto 
  uprising of 2045, and sometime during the later 
  twenty-first through early twenty-third centuries 
  it was reassigned to Jakálla, where it remains 
  today. It is still well remembered and well loved 
  in Butrús, however. 
   
  The Legion of the Inverted Hand (27th Light 
  Infantry) served in the Chákas in 1842 and was 
  posted to Butrús for some time afterwards (until 
  no later than the mid-1900s). For reasons not 
  entirely clear, their only enduring mark on Pan 
  Cháka was to serve as the subject of a large 
  number of popular songs involving shameful 
  conjunctions of skirmishers and farm animals. 
  Nowadays many people from Pan Cháka sing 
  the songs without realizing they refer to the 
  27th Light Infantry, which has led to a few 
  altercations. 
   
  The Legion of Lord Laíngsha of Jaikalór (8th 
  Medium Infantry) is very likely to have some of 
  its units posted to Butrús in the near future, and 
  there is a possibility that the entire legion may 
  be sent to the city to bolster its defenses in the 
  absence of its usual garrison. The relevant 
  offices of the Palace of War have been cagey 
  about any developments in this area, hoping to 
  avoid more speculation, contracting battles, and 
  bidding wars among the concerned private 
  businesses than is necessary. 
   
  In addition, there are often small detachments 
  of sappers and pioneers, most often from the 
  Legion of the Slayers of Cities (5th Sappers), 
  temporarily posted to Butrús in order to 
  supervise and assist with fortifications or critical 
  elements of civil engineering — e.g., city 
  aqueducts, the sákbe roads, and key bridges. An 
  entire cohort of this legion was garrisoned at 
  Butrús until 2349 A.S., and their barracks and 
  workshops still stand. In periods of military crisis 
  — at least when there is enough advance 
  warning — units of artillerymen have also been 
  dispatched to Pan Cháka and have manned the 
  walls of Butrús. 
   
  As in every major city of Tsolyánu, one can find 
  in the Hall of Recruitment of the Palace of War 
  recruiters from the Nchesh of the Splendid 
  Slayers of Ssu. This is a legion of Pecháno, 
  largely composed of soldiers of fortune, almost 
  always deployed against the Ssu in the northern 
  part of that country. It is under the control of 
  the dominant Beneshchán family at Mechanéno, 
  though its current general is a Tsolyáni, Taiyán 
  hiMérkkolel of Jakálla. The recruiters for this 
  legion are also involved in helping to bring Hláka 
  to Butrús, and repatriating these non-human 
  visitors when necessary. 
   
  Some 
  of 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  legions 
  that 
  neighbor, and sometimes intrude upon, Pan 
  Cháka are also worth noting:  
   
  Four émishel (“cohorts”) of ceremonial heavy 
  infantry from Legion II of Mighty Ssa’átis were, 
  as mentioned above, decisively defeated by the 
  Givers of Sorrow in a qadárni not long ago. This 
  is 
  only 
  noteworthy 
  in 
  that 
  the 
  “Scarlet 
  Battalion’s” general, Prince Dilitlázish Ko’ól, is 
  the elder brother of the Mu’ugalavyáni military 
  attaché in Pan Cháka, the infamous Ku'ulménish 
  Ko’ól. It is believed that the Prince-General, and 
  presumably his family, will seek a rematch 
  against the Givers of Sorrow in the near future. 
   
  Equally well known is Legion XIV, an excellent 
  legion of Pe Choi scouts and forest warriors, 
  with a good record in qadárniyal as well. Over 
  the last few centuries, the “Slayers of Chket” 
  have been involved in a disproportionate 
  number of skirmishes, probes, thrusts, and even 
  ambushes against Tsolyáni forces in the Chákas, 
  and have hence acquired a strong reputation for 
  poor sportsmanship and malevolence. The fact 
  that they are Pe Choi has even led to this 
  
  109 
   
  109 
   
   
  prejudice spreading, in a weaker form, to be 
  applied to the local Pe Choi serving in the Petal 
  Throne’s armies. 
   
  Legion I, “Destroy in Glory”, is another famous 
  heavy infantry legion that has participated in 
  many qadárniyal against Pan Chákan legions. In 
  these contests, it has a history of being defeated 
  by the Givers of Sorrow and soundly besting the 
  Tangled 
  Root 
  Eaters. 
  Legion 
  IX, 
  “Lightningshaft”, is a crossbow unit based in the 
  forest, with extensive experience, awards, and 
  citations. Its current commander is Commandant 
  Re’ekmáinish Drússa, a famous and much-
  beloved hero in Mu’ugalavyá for his battles 
  against the Tsolyáni in the Chákas (both 
  qadárniyal and “unplanned” border clashes) — 
  and is equally famous as a villainous foe in both 
  Chákas. However, this legion is soon to be 
  posted to Tlálu, in the far northeast of 
  Mu’ugalavyá.  
   
  Other Mu’ugalavyáni legions are well-known to 
  Pan Chákan storytellers and gossips as well: the 
  patient, quiet archers from “Blood-Dart” (Legion 
  XI); the almost supernaturally skilled marksmen 
  of “Invisible Rain” (Legion VIII), sent hither and 
  thither by the Four Princes to wherever trouble 
  can be found; the reckless and foolhardy men of 
  “Sword-Swinger” (Legion VII) and the reliable 
  veterans of “Exalted Flame” (Legion VI); and the 
  unfortunate warriors of “Rise to Strike” (Legion 
  IV), now saddled with a drunk, womanizing 
  commander who avoids going to the field camps 
  even to inspect his troops, let alone lead them. 
   
  The Legions of the Sea I and II (“Tide of Death” 
  and “Blood-Sail”, respectively), based at Khéiris 
  and mostly made up of Swamp Folk, are known 
  to scout the Pan Chákan coast from time to 
  time, and are alleged to land parties of 
  engineers and marines to establish secret bases 
  along the rough cliffs and inlets. Presumably the 
  Palace of War investigates these rumors, but 
  little factual news reaches the public. 
   
  Other Armed Bodies 
  Pan Cháka has a long coastline, along which 
  much sea traffic to and from Mu’ugalavyá and 
  Livyánu passes. Despite this, the forbidding 
  inland terrain and extremely inhosipitable shore 
  — “rare as beaches” is a common idiom in 
  southwest Tsolyánu, referring precisely to this — 
  impede 
  naval 
  operations, 
  and 
  Tsolyánu 
  maintains no flotilla or marine troops in Pan 
  Cháka whatsoever. Naval forces based in Penóm 
  are responsible for patroling the coast and 
  attempting to control age-old problems of 
  pirates, privateers, wreckers, and “wild” Páchi 
  Lei seafarers, from the eastern slopes of 
  Ngéshtu head all the way to the northern cliffs 
  marking the Mu’ugalavyáni border. Often the 
  bizarre ships of the Hlüss are seen wandering 
  off Ngéshtu Head (whether due to currents, 
  winds, or some navigational problem of the Foes 
  of 
  Man) 
  and 
  will 
  engage 
  human 
  ships; 
  occasionally they are found wrecked on the 
  coast there. Recently one such vessel was 
  cornered and captured nearly intact at Dzúruna 
  Bay. It is supposed to have yielded up vast loot 
  — yet Pan Chákan warriors had no taste of it. 
   
  The Temples of Vimúhla and Chiténg each have 
  about an entire company’s worth (a karéng, or 
  one hundred men) of guards, who are genuine 
  warriors and not mere doormen. The Empire 
  and the Governor permit this strength of forces 
  because of Butrús’s frontier location and the 
  special, fierce attachment of these two local 
  temples to the protection of the city. Their 
  equipment and outfit is typical for the Tsolyáni 
  mainstream of their temples; their only “battle 
  honors” in modern history consist of having 
  ensured that Mu’ugalavyáni and Tsolyáni troops 
  did not loot or occupy temple properties in their 
  various invasions and counter-invasions. 
   
  The temple guard force maintained by the 
  Temple of Ksárul, "The Beetles", is also 
  particularly large and well-equipped as such 
  units go. Many hold that this organization is 
  descended from the army or the bodyguard of 
  the Black Theocrat, though this is factually 
  debatable. They wear black-lacquered plate 
  armor polished to a gleam, and visored helmets 
  with twin blue plumes, like antennas; they are 
  armed with spiked, saw-toothed swords and 
  double-ended halberds. This uniform and outfit 
  is exactly the same for all members, regardless 
  of position; rank and duty insignia are simply 
  written directly on the breastplate and shoulder 
  plates using lacquer-based paint.  
   
  The governors’ palace guard unit is called the 
  Hundred Frosted Plumes, a reference to the 
  
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  110 
   
   
  white feathers used in the crests of their 
  helmets. It was originally an elite force of the 
  later independent kingdom of Pan Cháka under 
  the personal command of the Íto king himself. 
  After the final incorporation of Pan Cháka as an 
  imperial protectorate, it was transferred to 
  control of the governors and converted into a 
  palace guard unit. It has lost most of its Íto 
  traditions and no longer has a full complement 
  of one hundred warriors, but still wears its 
  egret-plumed headdresses for guard duty and 
  ceremonial occasions. (In addition, of course, 
  the Governor keeps a private bodyguard as well, 
  for his personal protection.) 
   
  -See also City Militia, Provincial Militia, Market 
  Police, Tomb Police, and Sákbe Road Guards. 
   
  Weaponry and Armor 
  Crossbows are 
  very 
  highly regarded and 
  commonly used military weapons, as in Tumíssa 
  and Mu’ugalavyá, but their use is concentrated 
  among professional soldiers in the appropriate 
  legions and among Páchi Lei. The civilian 
  humans of Pan Cháka tend to favor longbows, 
  made with good local materials, though archers 
  use longer, heavier arrow shafts (somewhat in 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni 
  style) 
  than 
  one 
  finds 
  elsewhere in Tsolyánu. Compound bows are 
  entirely restricted to military use; they develop 
  about the same pull as local longbows, but are 
  shorter and lighter. Short, hardened wooden 
  clubs, however, are the classical ancient Pan 
  Chákan missile weapon; they are oddly shaped 
  and slightly curved, with a ball-shaped head, 
  and are excellently balanced for throwing. They 
  can also be used as melee weapons, of course. 
   
  A common weapon among local toughs is a 
  short, 
  heavy, 
  straight-bladed, 
  single-edged 
  chopping sword or machete. While they are 
  relatively crude weapons, as suited to cutting 
  brush as fighting, practiced swordsmen can 
  wield one in each hand, spinning them in 
  blinding patterns to deadly effect. The sword of 
  the Legion of the Givers of Sorrow is based on 
  this weapon, though with a more elaborately 
  contoured 
  cutting 
  edge 
  and 
  better 
  craftsmanship and decoration. Simple spears are 
  widely used for hunting and warfare; more 
  sophisticated fighters in the region have long 
  used 
  double-ended 
  halberds 
  or 
  polearms, 
  usually fairly short. Finally, the wooden swords 
  of the Páchi Lei should be mentioned. These are 
  longswords made of a certain kind of hard, 
  heavy wood, set with jagged teeth of obsidian. 
  While fairly fragile and requiring constant 
  replacement of the teeth, they can inflict terrible 
  wounds, particularly on lightly armored enemies. 
   
  Shields in Pan Cháka are most often large 
  rounded rectangles of hardened leather on 
  bamboo, or more commonly of lighter bamboo 
  and rattan wickerwork. Páchi Lei in particular 
  use round shields of rattan and bamboo, 
  lacquered in strange patterns of black, violet, or 
  vermilion. Pan Chákan warriors, regardless of 
  religious or legion affiliation, often apply red 
  face paint with black stripes before going into 
  battle, making for a fearsome appearance. As 
  has 
  been 
  noted 
  elsewhere, 
  among 
  the 
  tribesmen of the hinterlands and even in many 
  rural areas, a white scarf or turban is reserved 
  for warriors who have taken an enemy head in 
  combat. 
   
   
  CITY GUIDE 
   
  General Layout 
  Butrús underwent ditlána only recently, less 
  than two centuries ago (2166-79 A.S.), and is 
  thus perhaps the newest, cleanest, and most 
  tidy and planned of all Tsolyáni cities.  
   
  The new layout of city walls and streets is 
  regular and linear. Long, broad paved avenues 
  run arrow-straight from north to south and east 
  to west (nine each); they are thirty dháiba (40 
  m) wide on average, while the central north-
  south avenue is a hundred dháiba (133 m) wide. 
  They are raised slightly for drainage of the 
  heavy monsoon rains; the runoff is channeled 
  into stone-lined gutters along each curb, and 
  thence into the underground storm sewer 
  system 
  and 
  into 
  the 
  river. 
  The 
  major 
  thoroughfares are swept daily; neighborhood 
  officials are expected to arrange for the minor 
  streets and alleys in their ward to be swept and 
  cleaned. The north-south avenues are, at least 
  in original intent, each planted with a different 
  type of tree: purple-blossomed paulownia, 
  scarlet-flowering 
  cardamom, 
  cinnamon 
  or 
  
  111 
   
  111 
   
   
  cassia, magnolia, mimosa, dáichu, ebzál, tíu, 
  and coral trees. As the tíu tend to die off in the 
  local climate, and the small mimosas are 
  ridiculously dwarfed by the size of the street and 
  the broad porticoes and columns lining it, those 
  avenues have been replanted with coral trees 
  and magnolias, respectively. This has led to 
  confusion as the original names have been 
  retained by some residents, while others call 
  them “the second magnolia avenue” or the like. 
  Now being hotly debated in government circles 
  is a proposal to replace one of these duplicate 
  plantings with camphor trees, a popular choice 
  for lining smaller lanes and side streets.  
   
  Each of the hundred (in theory) giant city blocks 
  thus created is somewhat less than 900 meters 
  on a side (roughly 77 hectares apiece). Smaller 
  streets, lanes, and alleys (often unpaved, but 
  usually still fitting a rectilinear grid pattern) 
  further subdivide these blocks. The “wards” that 
  result 
  are 
  largely 
  symbolic, 
  unwalled 
  neighborhoods, marked off from one another by 
  brightly painted pillars supporting emblems of 
  the wards (often mythological figures, animals 
  or birds, and clan emblems of various kinds).  
   
  The design of the city was not only highly 
  regular but also vast in scope. While Butrús is 
  one of the smallest cities of Tsolyánu in terms of 
  population, it is one of the largest physically. 
  The designers planned to leave generous 
  expanses undeveloped and available for future 
  expansion and growth. The unlikelihood of this 
  actually 
  happening 
  means 
  that 
  for 
  any 
  foreseeable future the city will continue to 
  contain large areas of empty lots. Some of these 
  have been turned into vegetable gardens and 
  fruit 
  orchards, 
  while 
  others 
  are 
  simply 
  abandoned to grassy meadows and parkland, 
  tangled scrub, or even small forests in a few 
  locations. As the city has reached the limit of its 
  hinterland’s ability to provide food, it is unlikely 
  to grow to its originally projected size unless 
  major improvements are made to the eastward-
  bound canal 
  system, allowing larger and 
  cheaper shipments of bulk cereals. 
   
  The plain on which Butrús lies was artificially 
  leveled 
  by 
  the 
  Engsvanyáli, 
  with 
  further 
  adjustments by the Mu’ugalavyáni occupiers; it 
  is thus extremely flat and even. Subsequent 
  ditlána has not even elevated this baseline: 
  rubble from the old buildings was used to fill in 
  the cores of the new city walls, rather than to 
  build atop of. There are no slopes or hills 
  remaining in the city, with only two exceptions: 
  the small butte where the citadel is built, and 
  some artificially-constructed low hills and rock 
  piles in the Garden of Zrang. 
   
  Several well-designed and excellently built 
  aqueducts provide an abundance of running 
  water to Butrús in all but the driest months — 
  enough to have running water in certain sewage 
  ditches and underground sewers and to feed 
  many fountains. During the driest season (and 
  in any sieges) great covered reservoirs, filled 
  during the spring monsoons, supply the city. 
  There are five main cisterns: one in each 
  quarter and one in the center of the city. These 
  feed 
  twenty 
  smaller 
  underground 
  tanks 
  throughout the city wards. (Not all these tanks 
  are operable, and some have been sealed off.) 
  Sewers empty into the river, though members of 
  the sweeper clans collect much human waste for 
  use as fertilizer in the fields. 
   
  In general, Pan Chákan architecture is relatively 
  plain 
  and 
  stark 
  by 
  Tsolyáni 
  standards, 
  presenting smooth, mostly unadorned exterior 
  walls divided horizontally by a single broad 
  decorative band. Construction is typically of 
  limestone faced with white stucco and tan 
  wood; because of the ready availability of easily-
  worked limestone and the torrential seasonal 
  rainfall, few Pan Chákan buildings are made of 
  mud-brick, even in the hinterland. Roofs are 
  low-pitched and tiled in brick-red or crimson, 
  though pale slate-gray or deep muddy green 
  ceramic tiles or stained wood shingles are also 
  seen. Because of the amount of land available in 
  the city, buildings tend to be low and sprawling 
  — rarely more than two stories high, except for 
  “pagoda” 
  towers 
  (see 
  below). 
  Clanhouse 
  compounds are always surrounded by a smooth-
  plastered wall, decorated with a band of fresco 
  that identifies the clan and its qualities; the 
  usual 
  complex 
  of 
  courtyards, 
  workshops, 
  cisterns 
  and 
  wells, 
  gardens, 
  residences, 
  storehouses, etc. sprawl out within. In larger 
  and 
  better-constructed 
  buildings, 
  selected 
  structural walls (normally the southern ones) 
  may be thick and hollow, with air flues for 
  cooling during the hot summers. Normally, 
  though, construction tends to be light and open, 
  
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  with many sliding screen doors and lattices, and 
  breezeways sheltered by hanging bamboo 
  curtains that may be rolled up to let in more 
  sunlight. Interior doorways are often in a 
  circular or semicircular "moon door" shape; 
  rectangular or oblong designs are considered 
  either crude and rustic or else a metropolitan 
  affectation, depending on the context and the 
  observer. Small rooftop porches, balconies and 
  windows 
  are 
  usually 
  well-stocked 
  with 
  flowerboxes 
  or 
  potted 
  trees 
  and 
  shrubs, 
  screening trellises covered in bright vines and 
  rattans, flat bowls of colorful fish, hanging wind 
  chimes, paper lanterns, and so forth. 
   
  Pagoda-like towers are popular among the 
  wealthier classes of the city. Pan Chákans prefer 
  fairly short and slightly tapering towers of five to 
  nine sides, each story with a flaring roof-gable 
  extending outward from the wall. Usually only 
  the ground level is built of stone, if at all; the 
  rest is made of intricately interlocking timbers. 
  They are most often found used for lounges or 
  salons, libraries and studies, or private shrines. 
  While Páchi Lei in Butrús do not live in such 
  buildings, it is believed that the design was 
  ultimately derived from them, though through a 
  Mu’ugalavyáni intermediary source. 
   
  Heavy or massive structures, such as city or 
  boundary walls, large building foundations, and 
  raised platforms or terraces, are built with 
  drystone construction, in which larger blocks of 
  stone are fixed in place by smaller pieces cut to 
  shape. This technique provides more flexibility 
  than mortared or jointed masonry and permits 
  the structures and their facings to better 
  weather 
  the 
  region’s 
  frequent 
  but 
  minor 
  earthquakes. These are often given a thin and 
  superficial facing of plaster or stucco to provide 
  a smooth and aesthetically pleasing surface, but 
  mortar or cement is not used in constructing 
  such supporting or foundational structures. 
   
  A final note on the civic architecture of Butrús is 
  the almost complete replacement of stairways 
  by ramps. This was specified and systematized 
  during the last ditlána, based on historical 
  precedent — both from the Butrús of the late 
  Time of No Kings, as well as from the lost City of 
  the Nine Walls during the Engsvanyáli era. For 
  many centuries the city had built simple, normal 
  staircases, and it has only been in the last few 
  decades that native Butrusséne themselves have 
  become re-accustomed to the rampways. The 
  ramps are restricted to public architecture — on 
  bridges, roads, streets, government courtyards 
  and buildings, etc. — and have not spread to 
  private construction. Outside the immediate 
  environs of the city, too, stairs are built instead 
  of ramps — which is probably fortunate, 
  especially on the sákbes, as the smooth sloping 
  ramps can be slippery and treacherous in the 
  monsoon season. 
   
  Suburbs and Environs  
  The lands within about a day's travel from the 
  city 
  are 
  dedicated 
  to 
  intensive 
  irrigated 
  horticulture, supporting the needs of the city 
  itself. There are very few aristocratic villas in the 
  immediate vicinity of the city, since quite 
  generous plots of land were available within it — 
  “rustic” estates are typically maintained farther 
  away, at a distance of several days' travel. 
  There are a few limestone quarries still in use, 
  while there are many more vast abandoned 
  excavations that supplied the last two ditlána (in 
  the seventeenth and twenty-second centuries) 
  with building materials. The landscape is also 
  crisscrossed by canals and by aqueducts from 
  the south and west, and dotted with great 
  irrigation tanks (some of Engsvanyáli origin) and 
  reservoirs — large ponds, partially artificial, 
  outside and above the city, which feed the 
  aqueducts and suburban irrigation system. 
   
  Nearby points of interest include a large knoll 
  that is the site of an ancient hill fort and town of 
  the Dragon Warriors — apparently the earliest 
  signs of urbanization near the modern city, and 
  originally named N’létut. A disestablished shrine 
  to the “Aspect” of Ksárul, Ge’én (q.v.), that 
  dates back to the early sixth century perches 
  forlornly above a basin of mash orchards; it is 
  stripped, barren, empty, and partially defaced, 
  but still occasionally visited by historians, 
  iconographers, and pastoral poets in search of 
  inspiration (however gloomy). The slave market 
  of Butrús is also located outside the city, though 
  much nearer — by the decree of a long-dead 
  Tsolyáni governor, not less than one crossbow-
  shot away from the city walls and not more than 
  two. The market is simple and crude even as 
  such things go: merely a haphazard cluster of 
  
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  sheds and huts around an unpaved, unroofed 
  field. 
   
  River and Riverside 
  The Turín River is only navigable by larger boats 
  and ships as far up as Butrús — and that only in 
  the wet season, with the help of dredging and 
  channeling at several points. Only small craft 
  may pass upriver from Butrús. At Butrús itself, 
  the river averages about 50 meters wide, 
  swelling up the eastern bank to about three 
  times that in the monsoons, and shrinking down 
  to less than half by the end of the dry season. 
  The deepest section, channeled close along the 
  west bank at Butrús, is as much as seven 
  meters deep at the floods, but can drop to half 
  that late in the dry period. Dikes along the far 
  shore keep any unusually high floodwaters from 
  inundating the low-lying farmlands of the 
  eastern protectorate; the higher elevation of the 
  western bank protects it from flooding (at least 
  from the river waters). The Lúshmun Canal does 
  not run through Butrús, but a few tsan eastward 
  through the lowland plains; part of its tree-lined 
  course can easily be traced from the walls or 
  towers of Butrús.  
   
  On the thin strip between the city walls and the 
  river there is an important suburb supporting 
  (and supported by) riverborne trade. There was 
  originally a substantial boatyard here, intended 
  to build and maintain articulated barges for the 
  Lúshmun Canal; it has since fallen into ruin, and 
  its great stone launch slip is a popular children's 
  playground. There are now only a few small 
  boatyards dealing in skiffs, canoes, fishing-
  boats, rafts, and pleasure-boats. (Working 
  barges are mostly constructed farther down the 
  river, particularly at the prefectural town of 
  Chélyumai.) The waterfront itself is lined with 
  boat sheds, small slipways, and stubby stone 
  quays; opposite them are rows of warehouses 
  owned by various mercantile and trading clans. 
  The city's fish market is also located here in a 
  small roofed plaza, and there are a few other 
  businesses as well — net-weavers, rope-
  braiders, a sail-maker, and a general outfitter of 
  boats and barges. Boatmen and towing-gangs 
  can be hired here, too. 
   
  Several large rain gutters exiting from the base 
  of the city walls divide the strip; these are 
  supposed to be covered by stone or ceramic 
  slabs, but local residents often dislodge them. 
  The lower face of the quay is also studded with 
  the large outlets of these gutters, washing away 
  storm runoff and unreclaimed household wastes 
  into the river through the city's underground 
  sewer pipes. These outlets are the same size 
  and shape as the egg-shaped main (east-west) 
  sewage tunnels — two dháiba high and one 
  wide (2.7 m x 1.3 m). Grillwork is firmly 
  fastened into each aperture to prevent anyone 
  — or anything — from entering the system, but 
  it is nevertheless possible to gain access to the 
  city (or rather its tsuru’úm) through these 
  outlets. 
   
  Just at the southern end of the riverside strip, a 
  large stone dam juts out into the river, creating 
  a placid pool even during the summer months 
  when the river is at its lowest. Primarily intended 
  to ensure a head of water to irrigate a group of 
  farms just southwest of the city, it also allows 
  swimming 
  and 
  boating 
  by 
  city-dwellers 
  throughout the year. However, sewage from the 
  drain system tends to accumulate here in drier 
  weather, and the experience is not necessarily 
  pleasant. 
   
  City of the Dead 
  Eastward 
  across 
  the 
  Turín 
  lies 
  Butrús's 
  traditional necropolis. Lying at a lower elevation 
  and with the clear expanse of the river between 
  them, from the walls of the city of the living it 
  presents an impressive vista, particularly during 
  festivals. Its very oldest stratum dates back to 
  the mid-Bednálljan period, though little of this is 
  visible on the surface today. The oldest major 
  relics are one or two very large tombs 
  constructed under the Engsvanyáli Priest-King 
  Báshdis Mssa VIII, followed by some other 
  notable examples of tomb architecture from the 
  middle Second Empire. There are also several 
  other interesting monuments from the Time of 
  No Kings, such as the remaining levels of the 
  low, round Peaceful Tower (an aboveground 
  mausoleum used by both the Chalchái and Ink-
  Flower dynasties), and the quintuple pylons built 
  above the deep shaft-tomb of the Son of the 
  Vulture (a short-lived priest-warlord). Most 
  structures are more recent, however.  
   
  
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  Modern commoners just bury the body or its 
  ashes, then erect either little wooden "ghost 
  houses" or simple wooden slats painted with the 
  name of the deceased and an invocation. When 
  the paint has worn away, the spirit has departed 
  this Plane and its other aspects permanently 
  scattered or settled elsewhere, and mourning 
  visits cease. The bones are later exhumed once 
  to be washed and wrapped, and then reburied 
  forever.  
   
  The necropolis is also site of the headquarters 
  and barracks of the sizeable Tomb Police 
  organization, as well as many of the offices, 
  workshops, and storehouses of the College for 
  Venerating the Completed Things (part of the 
  Palace of the Priesthoods of Gods). The entire 
  City of the Dead is walled only by a low fence in 
  constant need of maintenance.  
   
  Walls and Gates 
  The city walls are low but extremely massive — 
  four dháiba (5.3 m) high and twelve dháiba (16 
  m) wide. Their outer faces slope inwards, 
  forming a plinth or batter to resist siege engines 
  and scaling ladders. Several legion barracks and 
  various storerooms, armories, and boltholes are 
  built directly into them, while their tops are 
  broad enough to conduct troop exercises and 
  drills upon. The long, gently sloping ramps 
  leading from the ground level of the city up to 
  the wall-tops are themselves more massive than 
  the walls of many cities. The walls and ramps’ 
  cores of demolition rubble and rammed earth 
  are faced with whitewashed limestone and 
  trimmed with a geometric design of red 
  sandstone, which is also used for the high 
  triangular battlements. The walls are commonly 
  known as the Course or Pickets of Biyü the 
  Inextinguishable. 
   
  Below the walls there is a moat on three sides 
  (north, west, and south). It is shallow and 
  usually 
  dry, 
  but 
  adequately 
  broad 
  and 
  troublesome 
  for 
  attackers 
  to 
  cross 
  — 
  approximately six dháiba deep and eighteen 
  wide (8 m x 24 m). Broad causeways cross it, 
  each with two flat wooden bridges and small 
  defensive redoubts.  
   
  The enormous circumference of the city walls 
  (seven tsan, or 9.3 km, on a side) may make 
  them difficult to defend in case of siege, at least 
  without an enlarged garrison. Their strength 
  (and the unplanned conversion of parts of the 
  enclosed city to horticulture, which greatly 
  reduces the efficacy of a siege) nevertheless will 
  make up for this potential weakness, perhaps.  
   
  The four main gates are, like the rest of the city, 
  cardinally oriented. There is the East (River) 
  Gate, the North (Tumíssa) Gate, the South 
  (Úrmish) Gate, and leading out to the jungles of 
  Pan Cháka, the West Gate — often called the 
  "Gate of Ghosts" due to the saying (among 
  metropolitan Tsolyáni, not Chákans) that out of 
  every ten men who go out through it, only nine 
  return alive. These gates are huge structures, 
  practically villages in their own right. Troops of 
  the City Militia man the checkpoints and inspect 
  travel passes while tax officials inspect goods 
  and produce brought for trade or sale; their 
  offices and auxiliary quarters are contained 
  within the massive structures. Soldiers from the 
  garrison legions have the honorable duty of 
  manning the watchtowers and walls facing their 
  barracks, but do not involve themselves in daily 
  operation and guarding of the gates. Ancient 
  stone statues of soldiers or governors (no one is 
  quite certain what each of the statues originally 
  represented) that were recovered from the site 
  of Tírutlèklu before it was finally destroyed have 
  been re-erected at some gates; they are so tall 
  that 
  their 
  shoulders 
  and 
  high-plumed 
  headdresses rise above the battlements. In 
  addition to these gates the north, east, and 
  south walls each have two smaller public gates; 
  the western, one. There are furthermore several 
  small postern gates, normally sealed or even 
  hidden, and accessible only through the walls’ 
  defensive structures. 
   
  Only the North and South Gates have the great 
  ramps leading up to the sákbes beyond; the 
  other two open at ground level and connect to 
  the regular road system. Butrús is connected to 
  the northbound sákbe road by the Bridge of the 
  Leaping Worm over the Turín River, immediately 
  north of the city walls. This bridge is a very 
  elegant five-arch construction, built by the 
  Legion of Vrishtára the Mole in the late 2030s 
  and early 2040s, just prior to the Second Íto 
  Rebellion. While a fairly sophisticated feat of 
  engineering, it is not much appreciated by 
  conventional Tsolyáni aesthetic tastes. The Ítos 
  
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  and their clients also object to the fact that the 
  decorative worm-head of the bridge faces east 
  (toward Bey Sü, Avanthár, and the City of 
  Sárku), while mainstream worshippers of Sárku 
  find this entirely appropriate. A similar but older 
  and less architecturally interesting bridge takes 
  the southbound sákbe across the river some 
  eight tsan below the city, there continuing along 
  the eastern bank down to Úrmish. The sákbe 
  forts in Pan Cháka are quite well built and well 
  garrisoned, each containing a troop of about a 
  hundred soldiers. Patrols are as frequent as 
  weather conditions and manpower allows.  
   
  A broad open strip runs all along the inside of 
  the walls, by official decree kept empty and 
  well-graveled in order to facilitate the movement 
  of troops and reduce the threat of damage and 
  fires to city buildings during an artillery 
  bombardment. The width of this avenue is 
  officially set at 40 dháiba (53 meters), and given 
  the city’s underpopulation it has not been hard 
  to enforce. However, near the main gates there 
  is often some encroachment on the cleared 
  space by eager vendors and marketers. It 
  should also be noted that this “avenue” is not 
  officially recognized as a street by the city, but 
  rather as part of the defensive walls. Travelers 
  attempting to find their way by counting streets 
  and intersections should be careful not to 
  include these, or they will get lost. 
   
  Foreigners' Quarter 
  Despite the common name, it is not a literal 
  “quarter” of the city. A genuine wall surrounds 
  this section of the city, unlike most other wards 
  and districts; in addition, there are several low 
  internal 
  walls 
  segmenting 
  it 
  into 
  smaller 
  neighborhoods. Because of its small size, it is 
  one of the most densely populated parts of 
  Butrús, and one of the most “urban” in feel. 
  Shen, Tinalíya, and Pygmy Folk live in the 
  Foreigners’ Quarter as well as the groups 
  mentioned below, though more transiently and 
  in much smaller numbers. 
  1. City Militia station. Strategically located 
  between the Páchi Lei and Mu’ugalavyáni 
  wards, its garrison is frequently called upon 
  to intervene in scuffles and occasional full-
  scale riots between them. It is fortified and 
  fully manned around the clock.  
  2. Palace of Foreign Lands. A smallish 
  complex, but attractive and well built, 
  particularly the main hall. Though not 
  immediately obvious, it is riddled with 
  cunningly built defensive structures and 
  mechanisms, and (barring the use of siege 
  engines) could hold off attackers for weeks 
  with only a tiny garrison. 
  3. Portico of the Perfumed Breeze. A high-
  status hostel. Until recently it was run with 
  pretensions to exotic Livyáni splendor, but 
  the new proprietor is quietly doing away 
  with this. It appears to be highly reputed in 
  Salarvyá (for reasons completely unknown) 
  and wealthy merchants from that country 
  will pay extortionate rates for the privilege 
  of staying here. 
  4. Bower of Floreate Repose. A medium-to-
  high-status hostel. Run by descendants of 
  Mu’ugalavyáni immigrants, and it sometimes 
  accepts Mu’ugalavyáni guests whose social 
  status (and wealth) may not be quite up to 
  the standard required of other lodgers. 
  5. Cloud-Reaching Spire. A medium-status 
  hostel. Distinguished by its unusually high 
  pagoda-tower, in which a large portion of its 
  guests are housed. While the views are 
  spectacular, the long climb is wearying, and 
  during autumn storms staying in the 
  creaking and swaying building can be 
  unnerving, as well as merely drafty. 
  6. Halls of Cool Shade. A low-status hostel. 
  Partially 
  underground, 
  in 
  excavated 
  limestone caves that have been (shoddily) 
  furnished as temporary dwellings. Pleasant 
  in the summer, but damp and chilly in the 
  early spring. 
  7. Den of Distant Home. A low-status hostel. 
  Pijenáni-run and primarily frequented by 
  pilgrims from that country to the Temple of 
  Hrü'ü's Cat Shrine; usually suspicious of and 
  unfriendly toward other guests. 
  8. Triple Balconies of Ge’étkish Ménthu. A 
  large hostel for Mu’ugalavyáni travelers, 
  with appropriate facilities (and separate 
  entrances and staffs) for visitors of lower-
  middle to lower-upper status. Most noted for 
  its very unusual construction, with the outer 
  walls of all buildings (even those facing the 
  street) covered in a web of narrow, twisting, 
  climbing and sinking balconies; there are 
  even flying walkways connecting separate 
  buildings. The founder, whose name the 
  
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  establishment still bears, was an eccentric 
  amateur architect who spent the later part 
  of his life designing, building, and adjusting 
  the peculiar structure. 
  9. Eyrie of the Flashing Clouds. Barracks 
  for the remnants of the 7th Hláka Light 
  Flying Squadron, and now also used by 
  visiting Hláka as a hostel. Its three towers 
  are better designed and built than those of 
  the civilian Hláka (below), but in worse 
  repair; the low “A”-shaped barracks building 
  at their base is in even worse condition. 
  Technically a military installation, though no 
  one outside of a few stubborn bureaucrats 
  in the Palace of War takes this seriously. 
  10. Hláka 
  Towers. 
  A 
  small 
  cluster 
  of 
  somewhat ramshackle four- and five-story 
  wooden pagodas, in which those Hláka not 
  associated with the legion of the Flashing 
  Clouds dwell. 
  11.-12. The Páchi Lei and Pe Choi districts 
  (respectively) 
  are 
  fairly 
  large 
  and 
  considerably intermixed with one another. 
  Of course, Páchi Lei outnumber Pe Choi by a 
  vast 
  margin 
  in 
  Butrús, 
  and 
  this 
  neighborhood is primarily Páchi Lei in 
  character. The Páchi Lei district is distinct 
  for its architecture of low, one-story houses 
  of polished and carved wood — particularly 
  prone to fire. The Páchi Lei living here are 
  the core of old urban dwellers who have not 
  assimilated into human society (e.g., by 
  taking on clan membership) and still live in 
  these segregated quarters. This is not to say 
  that they are newcomers from the Páchi Lei 
  hinterland in the far south; many could trace 
  ancestry going back thousands of years in 
  the city of Butrús. They are basically 
  somewhat intermediate between the “wild” 
  Páchi 
  Lei 
  in 
  the 
  highlands 
  and 
  the 
  “assimilated” Páchi Lei dwelling scattered 
  throughout Tsolyánu proper: they retain 
  their own social organization, religion, etc. 
  (like the former), but are urban and 
  politically subordinated to humans (like the 
  latter). 
  13. Páchi Lei shrines. Each consists of an 
  "exalted shrine" in twin extremely tall 
  pagoda-towers with bare, tiny (single-
  occupant) shrine chambers atop them, plus 
  a low mound with abstract wood totems and 
  dance ground around it. 
  14. Mu’ugalavyáni district. Separated by a 
  low wall, and as far from Páchi Lei 
  neighborhoods as the Quarter’s limits allow. 
  Its architecture is pure Mu’ugalavyáni, with 
  almost no Chákan (let alone Tsolyáni) 
  influences. 
  15. Scarlet Arch. The compound containing 
  the dwellings and offices of the official 
  representatives 
  of 
  the 
  Second 
  Palace. 
  Named after the high, curving roof structure 
  of its official hall (in the second courtyard), 
  covered with glazed red tiles. 
  16. Temple of Hrsh. A very small but complete 
  (and exquisitely built and ornamented) 
  temple. Attached to the main diplomatic 
  compound across the street by an elevated 
  and walled “bridge”, it is part of the official 
  legation in all but name. Hrsh is, after all, 
  the state cult of Mu’ugalavyá. 
  17. Swamp Folk residences. Includes an 
  informal hostelry run by one Yandhá of 
  Tu'únket, which involves putting visiting 
  Swamp Folk up in his own extended 
  household’s sprawling residence. 
  18. Sértsar’s Old House. A large house (by 
  Foreigner’s Quarter standards), dating back 
  to the time of the ditlána and originally 
  owned by the bronzesmith Sértsar. Sértsar’s 
  family obtained Tsolyáni citizenship and 
  moved out of the Quarter, selling the house 
  to a Tinalíya jeweler noted for being 
  reclusive, eccentric, and miserly. Most of the 
  walls, 
  windows, 
  lintels, 
  floors, 
  beams, 
  ceilings, etc. were redecorated by the new 
  inhabitant in the abstract swirling motifs 
  favored by Tinalíya artists; then the servants 
  began to leave, saying the house was ugly 
  and 
  intolerable. 
  The 
  Tinalíya 
  largely 
  withdrew from society, undertaking only a 
  few special commissions from wealthy 
  patrons. About a hundred and twenty years 
  ago, he simply disappeared. Since then the 
  house has changed hands many times; no 
  one — even squatters — will stay in it for 
  long, citing a variety of disturbances, 
  ailments, 
  hauntings, 
  and 
  unnatural 
  occurrences within. It is currently owned by 
  a somewhat respectable landlord who has 
  not been able to find tenants for nearly two 
  years now. It is likely he is seeking to have 
  the city officials recognize the property as 
  legally 
  abandoned, 
  but 
  has 
  not 
  yet 
  succeeded 
  in 
  doing 
  so. 
  Sértsar’s 
  
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  descendants now dwell in the New House 
  near the main bazaar and take a certain 
  amount of pride in the continued association 
  of their name with Butrús’s most famous 
  “haunted house”. 
  19. Mróppyu’s Happy Kiosk. A somewhat 
  seedy wine-shop run by a Pijenáni adopted 
  into the Green Pyramid clan. Its kitchen 
  prepares only Pijenáni-style food and black 
  las tea, aside from its low-grade wine cellar. 
  The common hall, containing half a dozen 
  large, low tables around which guests sit 
  cross-legged on wide stools, is rumored to 
  be a good place to contact thieves, 
  kidnappers, 
  cutthroats, 
  smugglers, 
  and 
  poisoners... though this could be slander. Its 
  private dining room, on the other hand, is 
  visited by a trickle of adventurous middle- 
  and upper-class Tsolyáni seeking a taste of 
  the exotic. Its waiters have recently begun 
  insisting that the clientele (regardless of 
  background) use the three-piece Pijenáni 
  silverware provided for visitors: a metal 
  spoon, a short broad knife, and a two-tined 
  fork. The current sommelier is particularly 
  demanding and unpleasant about this. For 
  the well-born Tsolyáni who would venture 
  here in the first place, this seems to simply 
  increase the frisson.  
   
  Quadrangle of the Students 
  A small, elongated plaza (or short broad 
  avenue) with two temple schools facing each 
  other. It is surrounded by genteel, scholarly 
  shops and detached studios; this is the district 
  where 
  scholars-for-hire, 
  tutors, 
  private 
  researchers, and the better sort of “bazaar 
  sorcerer” 
  keep 
  their 
  shops, 
  despite 
  the 
  rambunctious nature of its young student 
  population. Nearby one can also find the scribal 
  clans’ shops that produce the gaudy, bright 
  woodblock print editions of popular fiction and 
  vulgarized epic tales, which are the frequent 
  target of complaint by better educated classes 
  and the temples. 
  20. Pavilion of Vision in the Pearly Clouds. 
  A single huge low structure with minor 
  outbuildings in a small compound; its walls 
  are of rippling gray stucco, and has a 
  billowing tiled roofline. This is the local 
  school for children and youths following 
  Thúmis and other powers of Stability. 
  21. Tower of Indigo Thought. A long, high, 
  narrow building with an octagonal pagoda-
  tower at one end; it is roofed in spiky blue 
  tiles, and the walls are plastered in a rich 
  plum color. It is local school for children and 
  youths following Ksárul and most other 
  powers of Change. 
  22. Bookman's Lanes. A sub-neighborhood of 
  small shops dealing in the accouterments of 
  a scholar or artist, particularly specializing in 
  papers and writing utensils. There are three 
  ink-makers, two brush-and-pen-makers, an 
  inkstone carver, a famous seal-carver, two 
  scroll-mounters 
  and 
  bookbinders, 
  three 
  paper-dealers 
  (who 
  own 
  large 
  paper 
  manufactories outside the town, both for 
  writing and "industrial" grades of paper), 
  two smaller paper factories, and two general 
  dealers (in discount goods and knick-
  knacks). Several little kitemakers’ shops are 
  in the vicinity as well. The Black Theocrat is 
  said to have housed and operated the 
  “Stones of Lichún” near here. What they 
  were and what they did is uncertain at best, 
  but some claim that their influence is still 
  felt; they may even be hidden somewhere 
  within (or under) the neighborhood. 
   
  Grand Plaza 
  Located in the exact center of the city; it is vast, 
  flat, and empty, deserted and baking hot in the 
  summers and gloomy and bleak in the windy 
  winters and rainy springs. The Palaces of the 
  Empire surround it; in the center there is a 
  broad, shallow pool and a fountain, supposedly 
  in the shape of Avanthár and the Golden Tower. 
  A shallow moat all around the plaza and 
  outlining the Palaces is filled with large colorful 
  carp and crossed by flat bridges of blue and 
  white stone. 
  23. The Palace of the Realm is on the 
  southeast side of the Grand Plaza. Its 
  massive roof-comb in shape of the Petal 
  Throne and the Seal towers over the city; a 
  cluster of attached halls and buildings 
  spread out around it, almost completely 
  filling the grounds within the fortified wall 
  and 
  leaving 
  little 
  room 
  for 
  aesthetic 
  considerations 
  such 
  as 
  gardens. 
  The 
  complex is very large, busy, and well 
  organized. Normal hours of business are 
  from well before dawn until early afternoon, 
  
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  though of course there are officials on duty 
  around the clock. The walls and gates are 
  fortified, though the crowded and warren-
  like construction within would make the 
  compound difficult or impossible to defend if 
  the walls were breached. 
  24. Governor’s Courts. A large and spacious 
  complex of residences and offices on the 
  southwest side of the Grand Plaza. With 
  more land than the other four governmental 
  compounds, the grounds contain some fine 
  geometric gardens and fountains, cool 
  groves, and an open-air theater. A low but 
  strongly constructed and heavily fortified 
  keep is built into the Governor’s palace 
  proper, and would serve as the last redoubt 
  in case of catastrophic invasion. (The outer 
  walls and gates of the Governor’s Courts are 
  also fortified, but internal security is largely 
  dependent on large regular patrols and 
  picked bodyguards.) 
  25. The Mayor's Pagoda is located in a side 
  yard of the Governor’s Courts. It is a short 
  but 
  broad 
  tower 
  with 
  a 
  number 
  of 
  outbuildings, which house the metropolitan 
  administrative offices, archives, and official 
  residence. One attached cavernous structure 
  is entirely dedicated to housing the famous 
  scale model of the entire city. 
  26. Drum Tower. Located in one corner of the 
  Grand Plaza, near the entrance to a long 
  walled passage leading to the Mayor’s 
  Pagoda. It signals the nighttime curfew, at 
  which everyone must, in theory, return to 
  his or her own ward of the city. Whether it 
  is strictly observed or not, it is an important 
  part of local tradition. The tower contains a 
  single huge leather-skinned drum (two 
  dháiba, or 2.7m, in diameter) and a plain, 
  unadorned sheet of bronze placed at the top 
  of an open, simply-built tower of unworked 
  polished logs. The bronze gong is struck 
  during the daytime to mark the passage of 
  hours, while the drum is used to signal the 
  curfews 
  and 
  during 
  the 
  nighttime. 
  A 
  clepsydra is housed in the ground floor of 
  the tower; it is used to calculate the 
  passage of smaller units of time and the end 
  of each hour.  
  27. Palace of Ever-Glorious War. Located on 
  the northeast side of Grand Plaza; it is large 
  and busy. Its outer walls and interior 
  structures are fortified and intended to resist 
  attack if the city’s walls are breached; the 
  main building is strongly built and provided 
  with a stiff array of defenses. While this will 
  be 
  invaluable 
  in 
  case 
  of 
  siege, 
  the 
  necessities of military engineering rendered 
  the interior layout less than optimal for 
  routine operations as the protectorate’s 
  military 
  headquarters. 
  A 
  pair 
  of 
  Mu’ugalavyáni heavy catapults, captured at 
  the Battle of Butrus from Legion X of the 
  First Palace (“Tower-Breaker”), rest as war 
  trophies in the second courtyard. 
  28. Palace of the Priesthoods of the Gods. 
  On the northwest side of Grand Plaza, it is 
  relatively small, and usually quiet. Even this 
  Palace is fortified, like the other government 
  buildings in the Great Plaza, though in this 
  case it is only the main building that 
  contains defensive works, not the outer 
  walls. 
   
  Temple Ward 
  Essentially, the neighborhood containing the 
  Avenue of the Gods — a section of broad street 
  with the city’s temples neatly arranged along it. 
  Emperor Tariktáme (r. 1251-79 A.S.) had gifted 
  Butrús with a complete set of temples to the 
  Ten Gods and Ten Cohorts of Pavár’s pantheon, 
  and 
  this 
  is 
  essentially 
  a 
  painstaking 
  reconstruction of it — in some cases merely a 
  careful re-assembly of the original structures 
  after ditlána. The temples are hence archaic in 
  many architectural and decorative respects. It is 
  worth noting that there is only a single temple 
  for each deity in Butrús: the city is simply too 
  “new” (and orderly) after its recent ditlána for 
  such secondary and duplicate establishments to 
  have arisen.  
  29. The Temple of Avánthe is a relatively low, 
  wide pyramid with a crown of sky-blue tiles 
  and two gold domes (stylized breasts); there 
  are some large murals of shining turquoise-
  colored ceramic and glittering blue crystals 
  on the exterior walls, and one special 
  chamber has a skylight and two walls 
  fashioned almost entirely of blue glass. The 
  grounds contain several fountains (though 
  problems with the hydraulics and water 
  supply keep them inoperative much of the 
  time) and numerous reflecting pools. The 
  latter 
  require 
  constant 
  cleaning 
  and 
  attendance to keep them from turning 
  
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  bright green with algae — a source of much 
  amusement to followers of the Emerald 
  Ladies. Among numerous shrines to her 
  Aspects, there is an unusual rain shrine in 
  the main temple dedicated to E’éth (who 
  normally has no shrines or images); the 
  shrine to six-armed, many-headed Mékhis is 
  frequented by soldiers of the Legion of the 
  Clan of Silver Lightning and their families, 
  and is something of a social gathering spot 
  for them (even those who are not members 
  of this faith). To the west of the main 
  temple is the shrine of Chorisánde, where 
  children born with mental defects are often 
  abandoned to be raised by the priestesses; 
  this is a relatively large establishment, with 
  its own courtyard. There is also a school of 
  the Tumíssan musical academy devoted to 
  Jogái the Songmistress located in an 
  outbuilding. 
  30. The Temple of Dilinála is the "Ginger 
  Lattices", a small domed shrine covered 
  over with flowering epiphytes. The outer 
  sanctuary (open to men as well as women, 
  unlike the shrine itself) is a simple courtyard 
  of blue and white checkerboard marble, and 
  there are three long outbuildings around the 
  low wall that divides the grounds from the 
  Temple of Avánthe. Just as the shrine of 
  Chorisánde is where mentally retarded 
  children are often left, the Ginger Lattices 
  often finds infant girls abandoned on its 
  doorstep, and thus is something of an 
  orphanage for about two dozen girls at any 
  given time. Since the temple’s clerical 
  establishment is so small, the children stand 
  out; Butrusséne like to jokingly wonder how 
  the temple of a virgin goddess produces so 
  many babies. 
  31. The Temple of Dlamélish is centered 
  upon a tall square buttressed building of 
  unusual design, topped by a high egg-
  shaped dome. The dome is made of copper 
  or bronze that has turned a creamy green 
  hue, and is one of the more noticeable 
  elements of the Butrús skyline. This building 
  is 
  mostly 
  reserved 
  for 
  more 
  formal 
  ceremonies. The compound contains other, 
  more familiar temple buildings — in front, a 
  market-like main courtyard, which is a major 
  market 
  for 
  fine 
  clothes, 
  cosmetics, 
  perfumes, and jewels, as well as religious 
  and 
  sacrificial 
  goods, 
  love 
  potions, 
  aphrodisiacs, and various “marital aids”. 
  Behind this is the vast, low, triangular 
  platform upon which are built most other 
  temple 
  buildings 
  and 
  low 
  one-story 
  colonnades supported by heavy pillars and 
  sculpted with various demons, gargoyles, 
  and Aspects; the outer rim of the platform 
  where the buildings do not reach are fixed 
  with statues and inscribed obelisks. A very 
  wide and shallow staircase leads up the 
  platform to the main temple buildings — the 
  public ceremonial theater, the shrines of the 
  Aspects, and finally the grand public hall 
  containing the great alabaster statue of the 
  goddess. The high domed ritual building is 
  located immediately behind this. There is a 
  also special compound that serves as a giant 
  terrarium for the descendants of the holy 
  frogs that fell from the sky several decades 
  ago; portions of this compound are closed 
  to the public and all but a select group of 
  priests, spurring rumors of unusual and 
  perhaps unnatural developments.  
  32. The Temple of Hriháyal is an open 
  pillared court on a low platform with steps 
  up all sides; high columns and free-standing 
  arches upon it are draped with fluttering 
  emerald streamers and cloths, and it is 
  topped by a tangle of further platforms, 
  rooms, porches, domes, colonnades, halls, 
  and the various shrines to her Aspects. In 
  the center is the main shrine, a large, 
  sunken square room filled with images, 
  statues, and incense burners. The giant 
  marble frogs at the gates of this temple are 
  famous landmarks. More than in most cities, 
  these two temples have taken on the aspect 
  almost of an amusement park — albeit an 
  adult-themed one in many (but not all!) 
  respects. There are fairly extensive grounds 
  entirely aimed at children’s amusement, 
  including merry-go-rounds and a sort of 
  Ferris wheel.  
  33. The Temple of Hnálla consists of a tall 
  white limestone pyramid covered in bas-
  reliefs of intricately detailed geometric 
  patterns; within are pure white walls, 
  swirling floor mosaics of crystal and white 
  marble, and high domes covered in bright 
  murals. The structures within and atop the 
  pyramid are centered on a high-arched hall 
  lit by windows of colored glass and precious 
  
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  stones, with white lead-clad stairs leading 
  up to an altar dais in the nave.  
  34. The Temple of Dra is a small enclosed 
  courtyard in the southwest corner of the 
  Temple of Hnálla, surrounded by a flat, bare 
  plaza of white limestone. The semicircular 
  ritual hall has its patio for the Perfect of Dra 
  upon its roof rather than behind it; here the 
  true devotees sit and stare into the light of 
  the sun. 
  35. The 
  Temple 
  of 
  Hrü'ü. 
  The 
  central 
  structure is a low (two story) stepped 
  pyramid of basalt with blank faces; the inner 
  Y-shaped sanctuary is down below ground 
  level, linked by a stairwell in the main nave. 
  The important local Aspect, the Cat God, 
  has its own shrine within the pyramid, near 
  which the famous (if of suspect authenticity) 
  sculpture 
  "Márya's 
  Kitten" 
  is 
  proudly 
  displayed. Beneath the foundations lies a 
  more holy and private shrine to the same 
  Aspect, which dates to the late Bednálljan 
  period. Due to the large number of sacred 
  cats sheltered within the temple grounds, 
  the entire temple complex has a particularly 
  pungent odor. The outer walls of this 
  compound 
  are 
  noteworthy 
  for 
  their 
  plainness and neglect; by ancient custom, 
  they are left alone by the priests and the 
  populace is free — even encouraged — to 
  decorate and deface them as they choose. 
  These walls are thus marked by graffiti 
  ranging from the illiterate and profane to 
  quite elaborate and literary stanzas, and 
  drawings of the same range. Thanks to the 
  large proportion of pilgrims coming to the 
  shrine of the Cat God, many of them 
  unlettered, sketches and impressions of 
  various felines are especially frequent. On 
  the other hand, there are also several 
  famous poets who have debuted their works 
  on these walls. 
  36. The 
  Temple 
  of 
  Wurú 
  is 
  a 
  squat 
  rectangular building just behind the Temple 
  of Hrü’ü; there is a largish courtyard with a 
  permanent stage of heavy teak timbers used 
  for public performances of certain epics. 
  Also noteworthy is a large maze, the shrine 
  of the aspect Siunéth, of which only parts 
  are open to the public.  
  37. The Temple of Belkhánu is an open 
  complex of courtyards and many-columned 
  low 
  buildings, 
  forming 
  a 
  long 
  spiral 
  concourse containing the shrines to the 
  various funerary aspects. It surrounds the 
  Great Nave, in which the Outer Rituals are 
  performed. This structure is all built of 
  yellow granite, and extends around three 
  sides of an especially tall and imposing 
  pagoda (the lowest two stories of which are 
  also of yellow stone). Some levels are open 
  to the elements or even placed on extended 
  platforms. Building exteriors and walls are 
  extensively sculpted with scenes of the Isles 
  of Teretané and the voyages of the soul. In 
  the rear, one finds the embalming shops 
  and workshops for the preparation of 
  funerals. The Temple of Qon is a separate 
  shrine in an adjacent and connecting 
  compound, smaller but similar (though with 
  a long straight concourse rather than a 
  spiralling one). 
  38. The Temple of Sárku in Butrús is 
  unusually pleasant, open, mellow, and 
  studious, 
  with 
  the 
  local 
  demigod 
  of 
  distillation given some prominence. There 
  are no walls, courts, or outbuildings, just a 
  single, 
  solid, 
  steep-sided 
  pentagonal 
  pyramid of polished and gleaming brown 
  stone, 
  topped 
  by 
  a 
  colonnade 
  for 
  meditation, which is in turn topped by a lacy 
  roof-comb in the shape of the Five-Headed 
  Worm. The lower external walls are covered 
  in rather pretty, sprightly murals and bas-
  reliefs of processions of people approaching 
  the sanctuary and the many forms of the 
  Worm. Massive copper-plated gates lead to 
  the antechamber and thence into the 
  columned, multi-story main hall, a great 
  open swirl of yellow and ochre banners 
  hanging from the ceiling and wreathed with 
  spirals of golden-brown incense smoke. This 
  vast nave contains a central dais holding the 
  huge copper ritual horn (below) and the 
  temple's tunkúl gong (above); around the 
  walls are placed great candelabra, idols of 
  the Worm, and shrines to the Greater 
  Aspects. Galleries on three sides and two 
  stories (three stories, including a mezzanine 
  on the rear wall) open onto various 
  dormitories, 
  kitchens, 
  dressing 
  rooms, 
  storehouses, classrooms, a library, and so 
  forth, while from the center rear of the 
  balcony a doorway leads to the narrow inner 
  shrine and the coiled First Aspect. Further 
  copper-paneled gates open out to staircases 
  
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  and passageways down to catacombs, 
  summoning rooms, more ancient shrines, 
  and likely an underground passage to the 
  mid-Bednálljan temple to Sárku, which is 
  known to remain in good condition under 
  modern Butrús and is still occasionally 
  visited.  
  39. The Temple of Durritlámish is simply a 
  small annex in the rear of the pyramid of 
  Sárku. It is in the shape of a long rectangle 
  of descending stepped vaults; in the lowest 
  one, a vertical shaft descends into a ritual 
  underworld below the surface of the city. 
  This shaft (always called a “door” by the 
  priests) is traversed using a simple elevator 
  powered by slaves and aided with counter-
  weights. 
  40. The Temple of Karakán has a simple but 
  attractive design. Within high scarlet-and-
  white outer walls studded with statues and 
  friezes, an outer courtyard-garden faces a 
  colonnaded porch, behind which is a large 
  hall with great pillars holding up a painted 
  and gilded domed ceiling. Beyond, a short 
  passage leads to the inner shrine, where the 
  chief image of the god stands high upon a 
  dais and a series of pedestals. Altars for 
  offerings and sacrifices are arrayed before 
  the image, and murals and bas-reliefs of the 
  god’s heroic deeds at Dórmoron Plain and in 
  other legends cover the walls. Further 
  rooms for various rituals open off from each 
  side of the main hall, and passages lead 
  away from these to robing rooms and 
  shrines for certain ceremonies. A separate 
  building to the west, in the outer courtyard, 
  houses smaller shrines to the 56 Greater 
  Aspects. Chegárra's temple, in the same 
  compound, is a small high-combed pyramid 
  with lacework stone walls and an open floor 
  plan. 
  41. The Temple of Thúmis is of a relatively 
  new style: a long L-shaped stepped platform 
  with columns along the outer edge. The 
  main shrines and ritual chambers are placed 
  atop it in front, and various libraries, 
  classrooms, dormitories, museums, and so 
  forth are in buildings built onto the sides 
  and upper surfaces to the rear. One such 
  “museum” contains a special collection of 
  stones and minerals from all around the Five 
  Empires and even beyond. The grounds are 
  strewn with a thick bed of pale gray gravel; 
  there are few plantings or gardens to speak 
  of, and overall the temple grounds are 
  impressively serene, if stark. 
  42. The 
  Temple 
  of 
  Keténgku 
  is 
  more 
  conventional: a courtyard surrounded by 
  colonnades, with an altar and small fountain 
  in the open court. While still drawing the 
  faithful for worship, the halls of physicians it 
  maintains (together with priests of Thúmis) 
  are not much frequented by patients any 
  more (at least not native city-dwellers), due 
  to the reputation the doctors have for 
  "experimenting" on “expendable” patients.  
  43. The Temple of Vimúhla is the largest 
  religious structure in Butrús. Semi-fortified 
  and 
  almost 
  blank 
  walls 
  surround 
  its 
  courtyards, barracks, dormitories, kitchens, 
  storehouses, and a sturdy tunkúl-gong 
  tower. The main shrine is contained in a 
  high truncated pyramid, on top of which is a 
  towering flame-shaped spire (built of wood, 
  but lacquered and polished to a brilliant 
  crimson sheen); before the base of the spire 
  is the sacrificial altar and flame-pit. Smaller 
  sanctuaries 
  within 
  the 
  pyramid 
  are 
  dedicated to several of the 87 Aspects; it 
  also houses sleeping quarters for the 
  highest ranks of clergy, administration 
  chambers, studies, etc. To one side is a 
  separate crematory furnace and funerary 
  workshop, used by all adherents of the 
  Flame Lord. This temple is also the largest 
  giver of alms to the city’s poor; there is a 
  distribution of bread and some plain fried 
  vegetables daily at sunset, and swarms of 
  the needy congregate to receive this.  
  44. The Temple of Chiténg is adjoining; it is a 
  slightly 
  smaller 
  duplicate 
  of 
  Vimúhla's 
  temple, but instead of the spire atop the 
  pyramid, a low circular roofless building 
  surrounds the Chalice of Fire. The pyramid 
  also has a steeper main outer staircase, and 
  below it is a large skull-rack two stories high 
  for the heads of certain sacrificial victims 
  and slain enemies of the Legion of the 
  Givers of Sorrow. This temple is almost 
  entirely dedicated to the interests of the 
  Legion and the protection of the city. 
  45. The grounds of the Temple of Vimúhla also 
  house the luridly named Crucible of 
  Glowing-Hot Skulls, the temple school for 
  most families and clans devoted to Vimúhla 
  or Chiténg in Butrús, as well as some 
  
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  devotees of Karakán. The name is actually 
  intended to indicate the raw intellectual 
  power of its students illuminating their 
  heads with a blazing aura, but suggests 
  something more gruesome to many non-
  Vimúhlans. It has many students and some 
  respected scholars, along with libraries and 
  residences separate from those of the two 
  sponsoring temples. 
  46. The Temple of Ksárul covers the most 
  land in Butrús. Located on a large plot, the 
  grounds are landscaped with fine gardens 
  and parkland and planted full of dark-leaved 
  tíu 
  trees 
  and 
  deep 
  indigo-flowering 
  rhododendrons. The temple consists of a 
  sprawling complex of low buildings under 
  black-tiled roofs, whose massive gables 
  sweep low to the ground. The main temple 
  building is on a stepped platform with stairs 
  up the south face only; besides its small 
  replica of the Blue Room, it is filled with 
  pillared halls and small, uneven, twisting 
  rooms and passages, seeming larger on the 
  inside 
  than 
  on 
  the 
  outside. 
  Hidden 
  somewhere in the complex — perhaps 
  underground, but quite possibly lost in the 
  warren of courtyards, pillared breezeways, 
  and dim thickets — is the Hall of the 
  Priesthoods of Shadow, the secret shrine 
  dedicated to the Local Aspect and used by 
  the Inner Sphere of the temple (unknown 
  even to Inner Sphere members from other 
  cities), where special local or secret rituals 
  are conducted and plots hatched. 
   
  The old (Bednálljan) Imperial Repository has 
  been restored on its original site with a 
  reasonable 
  degree 
  of 
  architectural 
  authenticity, and now serves as the temple 
  library. The grounds also contain a special 
  gallery where statues of the Six Planetary 
  Aspects of Ksárul are displayed (distinct 
  from the actual shrines to these six 
  Aspects); these are large and exquisite 
  carvings of stone in the shape of frogs of 
  different types. Their origin is unknown, 
  though there are those among the Black 
  Robes who claim them (perhaps in rivalry 
  with the Temple of Hrü’ü) to be the work of 
  Márya.  
   
  The shrine to the Aspect Mentutékka is 
  probably the greatest in Tsolyánu and 
  perhaps in all the Five Empires; it is the 
  principal focus for most of the great 
  numbers of Ksárul-worshipping pilgrims that 
  come to Butrús each year. Consisting of a 
  narrow, single-story octagonal building — 
  hardly 
  more than a corridor 
  with a 
  colonnade facing the inner side — its heart 
  is a large courtyard, planted thickly with 
  living trees, sculpted trunks decorated with 
  artificial leaves and flowers, and thin, 
  towering sculptures of basalt and polished 
  wood. 
   
  Caverns below the park are open to the 
  public, and contain the shrine of the Local 
  Aspect, the Smoking Toad (who is also 
  represented in a small cubical building of 
  roughly-cut lava blocks in the aboveground 
  complex). 
  A 
  pre-Nayárian 
  temple 
  or 
  monastery of the Black Robes is believed to 
  exist somewhere more or less undeneath  
  modern-day Butrús, but little is known for 
  certain.  
   
  47. The strangely-constructed Collegium, built 
  by the Black Theocrat to serve as a kind of 
  huge school to educate and indoctrinate the 
  entire populace, has been preserved and 
  maintained, and most of it now serves as 
  the Temple of Grugánu. It stands entirely 
  within the grounds of the Temple of Ksárul 
  and has no separate compound. The main 
  inner school for the advanced priests and 
  scholars of Ksárul, the Hall of What Is 
  Written on Shadow, occupies another 
  former 
  wing 
  of 
  the 
  Collegium. 
  The 
  connecting structure between the two has 
  been demolished in order to leave a 
  perfectly square building for the priests of 
  Grugánu to inhabit, as doctrine and tradition 
  require. 
  48. Monastery of Gleeful Shrieks. Essentially 
  a sort of interdenominational temple for 
  sado-masochistic 
  sexual 
  rites, 
  a 
  joint 
  establishment of some of the clergy and 
  faithful of Chiténg and Hriháyal; it is linked 
  to the Company of the Orange Band. While 
  some of the activities certainly seem to be 
  recreational, ecclesiastical ceremonies are 
  regularly performed and probable sorcerous 
  rituals are conducted as well. It is located 
  just off the Avenue of the Gods (across a 
  grassy empty lot from the rear of the 
  
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  Temple of Hnálla, in fact) but still within the 
  Temple Ward. 
   
  Military Facilities 
  Not located in a single district, these structures 
  are all located along the perimeter of the city, 
  around the walls.  
  49. Barracks of the Legion of Tangled Root 
  Eaters (2nd Páchi Lei Medium Infantry). 
  Huge, lavishly built, and currently empty, it 
  lies near the Úrmish Gate. It has a gigantic 
  sculptural stele of General Hozzübe G'dzar 
  (who led the re-conquest of Butrús and Pan 
  Cháka); the stele is so tall that it can be 
  seen over the top of the city walls from the 
  sákbe road and the crest of the Bridge of 
  the Leaping Worm approaching the city. It 
  was to this statue that the “Dragon of 2339” 
  (see recent events in the History section) 
  was leashed, a point of outrage to the 
  legionnaires at the time and a point of pride 
  afterward. 
  50. Barracks of the Legion of the Forest of 
  Hh-kk-ssá (10th Pe Choi Medium Infantry). 
  High-walled, quiet, and somewhat secretive, 
  even though this is the largest garrison unit 
  currently in Butrús and is located near the 
  busy Tumíssa Gate. Except for the curious 
  and those doing business with the legion, 
  most Butrusséne ignore it, or even tend to 
  avoid it. 
  51. Barracks of the Legion of the Givers of 
  Sorrow (8th Heavy Infantry). Very large 
  and richly appointed, now empty but for 
  trainees — even most of its administrative 
  personnel are currently in the field. Large 
  parts are contained in the city walls, but it 
  has proper buildings and warehouses too; it 
  is naturally located near the Gate of Ghosts, 
  facing toward the distant Mu’ugalavyáni 
  border. 
  52. Barracks of the Legion of the Clan of 
  Silver 
  Lightning 
  (7th 
  Archers). 
  Well 
  organized and partially built into the eastern 
  wall of the city, it lies just south of the River 
  Gate. The legion’s main target range is 
  located outside the barracks (see below). 
  Hawkers of amulets and fortunes throng 
  outside its gates, knowing the superstitious 
  and insecure nature of the legionnaires. 
  53. Barracks of the Legion of the Lord of 
  Red Devastation (18th Medium Infantry). 
  Ceremonial 
  "secret 
  barracks" 
  entirely 
  contained in the western city walls; unlike all 
  others, there are no exterior buildings or 
  parade grounds attached to it. In reality, it 
  could never house more than a few score 
  soldiers, and any drilling or marshalling 
  would be awkward. It is maintained by 
  veterans and some Vimúhla-worshipping 
  clanspeople.  
  54. Yard of the Sappers. The large compound 
  formerly housing Cohort IX of the Legion of 
  the Slayers of Cities (5th Sappers), which 
  was posted to Butrús until 2349 A.S. It 
  contains 
  extensive 
  workshops 
  and 
  warehouses 
  in 
  addition 
  to 
  the 
  usual 
  barracks, drilling fields, and so forth; it is 
  intact but abandoned, with only a pair of 
  watchmen and their families keeping an eye 
  on the place. 
   
  Other Locations 
  55. Garden of Zrang. Originally the pleasure 
  garden attached to the palace (now lost) of 
  Tlyo Zrang, the last ruler of a petty ruling 
  dynasty during the Time of No Kings. He 
  was fond of whiling away his time here with 
  his harem of foreign concubines and his 
  favorite consort, the Lady Twei, also known 
  as the "Toad Consort" — an epithet 
  unflattering to metropolitan Tsolyáni ears, 
  but she was considered to be an "avatar" of 
  a (regional) Aspect of Dlamélish possessed 
  of lunar and batrachian features, as well as 
  the usual considerable physical charms. It 
  was in this garden, supposedly, that Tlyo 
  Zrang established the cardamom-viewing 
  festival (the Feast of the Red Cloud, also 
  known as the Toasting of the Frog in honor 
  of Lady Twei), and it is the center for its 
  annual celebration today. There is also a 
  certain 
  amount 
  of 
  evidence, 
  both 
  documentary and archeological, suggesting 
  that well before his time (during the early 
  Engsvanyáli period) it was the temple 
  grounds of the first Pan Chákan shrine of 
  Avánthe. The gardens are open to all but 
  the lowest orders of the public and are free 
  to visit, but “donations” are expected, 
  particularly from the wealthy.  
   
  It contains a rococo fountain in the form of 
  mating sro, several pavilions (including the 
  
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  124 
   
   
  Terrace of Morning, with an excellent view), 
  rushing streams, ornate bridges, and placid 
  ponds and canals for pleasure-boating. It is 
  planted with cardamom, lilac, and coral 
  trees; there are also tangerines, bananas, 
  gum trees, and koelreuterias. The ponds 
  and pools contain water lilies, blue lotus, 
  and sleeping lotus, while other plantings 
  hold oleander, hibiscus, jasmine, frangipani, 
  camellia, giant ferns, rhododendrons, and 
  many specialty bamboos, which also cover 
  the many artificial hills and “mountains” built 
  in the parkland. 
   
  While Tlyo Zrang’s cultured indolence and 
  love for his garden certainly contributed 
  heavily to his downfall at the hands of Íto 
  insurgents, stories that he and his favorites 
  were surprised by the invaders in the 
  Garden itself and put to a gruesome death 
  on the spot are probably spurious. There is 
  no respectable support for the suggestion 
  that their ghosts haunt the grounds. 
   
  56.—59. City Militia Stations. Four in number 
  (not counting the additional one in the 
  Foreigner's Quarter); not especially large, 
  but strongly fortified. All have one or more 
  high watchtowers that should be manned at 
  all times — keeping an eye out for fires is 
  one of the most important jobs of the 
  militia. The gatehouses in the city walls are 
  also facilities that are manned by the city 
  guardsmen, of course. 
  60. Observatory Park. Built around a small 
  tower with a broad flat top and surrounded 
  by several sighting-pools; it also houses a 
  fairly 
  large 
  clepsydra 
  of 
  Tinalíya 
  manufacture. While nowhere near as good 
  as the observatories in the Temple of 
  Thúmis at Páya Gupá or the Gallery of 
  Gazing Forth by Night in the Monastery of 
  the Grey Cloak, this is possibly the finest 
  such facility in the western half of the 
  Empire outside of Do Cháka. Formerly it was 
  located just outside the city walls but is now 
  contained within them on a large grassy 
  plot, kept neatly trimmed by a flock of 
  hmélu. Technically it is property of the 
  Palace of the Priesthoods of the Gods, but 
  its use is often squabbled over by various 
  astrologically inclined temple factions and 
  even private individuals. The sighting-pools 
  used to fix the heliacal rising and setting of 
  the planet Shichél are perhaps the most 
  frequented, by priests of Avánthe. 
  61. Citadel. On a low but quite steep-sided 
  bluff (around 8-10 m high), the only 
  remaining elevation of any note in the city. 
  The entire complex is actually not large. It 
  has been much rebuilt, but is roughly in the 
  Engsvanyáli style of concentric rings around 
  the keep; a spiral moat runs around the 
  base, crossed by arching red wooden 
  bridges. The central keep is quite tall, 
  whitewashed, with dark blue tiled flaring 
  roofs, and very pretty. The site of the Givers 
  of Sorrow's famous last stands in the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni invasion of 1565 (when it was 
  burned to the ground) and in the War of 
  2020, it is now a romantic tourist destination 
  for 
  legion 
  members, 
  supporters, 
  and 
  enthusiasts of military valor and worshippers 
  of Chiténg in general. Rumors of hauntings 
  and hidden treasures or lost secrets abound 
  even now. It is not currently an active 
  military facility, but could be refurbished in 
  case of need. Given its location in the 
  modern city (near neither the walls nor the 
  "government district" at the center of town), 
  it may not be useful to do so even should 
  war break out. Originally the site of a 
  watchtower of the Dragon Warriors, it was 
  heavily fortified in the Bednálljan age, and 
  rebuilt early in the Time of No Kings in a 
  regional Engsvanyáli idiom, which has been 
  preserved (with repairs and reconstructions) 
  until the present day. In former times the 
  Tsolyáni Viceroy would move into the 
  breezier and cooler citadel during the hot 
  season, and the buildings comprising the 
  Summer Palace still stand, maintained but 
  empty. 
  62. Hospice of Gleaming Teeth. A clinic run 
  by the Staff of Mercy Society of the Temple 
  of Keténgku and dedicated to the Aspect 
  Tírekshen, specializing in dentistry and oral 
  medicine. It does not share the bad 
  reputation of the main temple's hospital, 
  and is located in a separate building away 
  from the Temple Ward. It is a small, two-
  story structure behind a large, open porch, 
  all atop a low stone and earth platform. 
  63. House of Curious Antiquity. An antique 
  dealership and curio store, easily recognized 
  by its topaz-brown window-shutters and 
  
  125 
   
  125 
   
   
  golden-hued door. The small shop is 
  cluttered with goods and pets, and is dim 
  and heavily shuttered. It opens onto a 
  pleasant but equally small garden visited by 
  unusually dense swarms of moths and 
  butterflies. There are few servants and no 
  assistant shopkeepers, so the business is 
  entirely run by a genial but somewhat 
  reclusive elderly couple. Their origins are 
  uncertain, as are their religious beliefs and 
  even clan 
  membership. They deal 
  in 
  antiquities, lesser and occasional greater 
  objects d'art, souvenirs, and better-quality 
  trinkets. 
  64. Sixteen Fields Prison. Located in an 
  remote area of the city that is otherwise 
  mostly deserted and undeveloped. The 
  official prison of the Kingdom of Pan 
  Cháka,111 and simultaneously designated a 
  Imperial Prison. It is quite large, due to the 
  fact that it is used to house prisoners from 
  elsewhere in the Empire whom the courts or 
  Avanthár wish to keep in some more remote 
  and distant part of the land. A single 
  massive high wall runs all around the prison, 
  studded with bartizans for watchmen atop it 
  and small, almost invisible gates set into the 
  base. Within, the grounds are broken up 
  into several sub-compounds (the sixteen 
  fields of the prison’s name) within which 
  prisoners of different classes are segregated 
  and largely left to their own devices, if their 
  sentences warrant it. There is a “high 
  security” block as well, and of course 
  extensive facilities for the staff, guards, and 
  officers of the prison itself. This includes the 
  Butrús barracks for the Legion of Ketl, and 
  the area of the prison is thus avoided by 
  residents of the city, who fear being 
  impressed into service. 
  65. Priory of the Sapphire Shell. Located in 
  another somewhat out-of-the way, largely 
  residential section of the city, this is a 
  monastic establishment of the Refulgent 
  Blue Curtain Society of the temples of 
  Ksárul. Physically, it is a small, old-
  fashioned, 
  Mu’ugalavyáni-style 
  mansion 
  within a high and forbidding wall. No one is 
  seen to come or go; provisions and supplies 
  are 
  left 
  by 
  various 
  shopkeepers 
  and 
                                                  
  111 I.e., of the Protectorate of Pan Cháka; the ancient 
  original title survives for complicated legal reasons. 
  tradesmen 
  in 
  the 
  small 
  blank-walled 
  courtyard just inside the main gate, where 
  they also pick up written orders for their 
  next delivery. It is not known how many 
  priests are in residence here, let alone what 
  their researches and studies are directed at. 
  The name of the priory stems from an early 
  Tsolyáni interpretation of the beetle image 
  of 
  Ksárul 
  as 
  symbolizing 
  the 
  hard, 
  impenetrable shell of secrecy protecting his 
  inner secrets. 
  66. Armory of Kadláru hiFershéna. A branch 
  of the famous Tumíssan family of craftsmen. 
  67. Armory of Ni’itúmish Chládo of Pagús. 
  The 
  foremost 
  bowyer, 
  fletcher, 
  and 
  crossbow-maker of the city 
  68. Armory of Mürül of Sokátis. The lowest-
  status armory, mostly concentrating on 
  producing 
  workmanlike, 
  inexpensive, 
  practical weapons for militias and sákbe 
  guards. 
  69. Arcades of Whickering Hostility. A 
  crossbow instructor (600-800 káitars per 
  month tuition). 
  70. Field 
  of 
  Strenuous 
  Application. 
  A 
  teacher of the two-handed sword (700-900 
  káitars per month tuition). 
  71. Hall of the Bearer of the Gift. Butrús's 
  greatest dueling-master, and trainer-in-chief 
  to the Legion of the Givers of Sorrow. 
  72. Hirilákte arena. Main events include the 
  weekly marotlán game every Daunél. The 
  avenues immediately around the arena are 
  often the scene of impromptu riots and 
  street battles when unpopular “foreign” 
  teams are in town — or when favored local 
  teams disappoint the mob. Neighboring 
  homes and shops are accordingly provided 
  with heavy shutters, stout doors, and spike-
  topped outer walls. 
  73. Archery grounds for the Legion of the 
  Clan of the Silver Lightning; in a big open lot 
  within the city, nearby but separate from 
  their barracks proper. 
  74. The General's Mound. A large, plain 
  tumulus covered in long grass, said to house 
  the remains of the Black Theocrat's chief 
  henchman, a psychotic military genius given 
  to peeling the faces off his enemies. Many 
  of his troops are said to be buried here as 
  well. It was formerly outside the city walls, 
  and many were reluctant to let it be 
  enclosed in the new city plan. However, 
  
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  126 
   
   
  excluding it would have involved some 
  extreme irregularities in the orderly layout of 
  the city walls, and no one was willing to risk 
  razing it, either.  
  75. Ínjo's Pit. An illegal gambling den, mostly 
  the site of boxing and cockfighting matches, 
  patronized by the lower classes and a few 
  decadent wealthy residents. Attempts by the 
  hirilákte concessionaires to shut it down or 
  to obtain their rightful share of the profits 
  have so far been unsuccessful. Protected by 
  the Great Brotherhood of the Fist of the Ink-
  Stained Knuckles in Hiding, if not in fact 
  their headquarters. The actual location 
  moves intermittently; it is currently an 
  abandoned warehouse.  
  76. Blackie's Top. A gigantic stone head over 
  four dháiba (5.3 m) in diameter; originally a 
  huge Bednálljan or Engsvanyáli statue that 
  was re-carved to represent the Black 
  Theocrat and then repositioned. When it 
  was torn down in 542 A.S., the head of the 
  statue was left in its present position, 
  sneering (at a 45º angle) at passers-by on 
  the street. No one has dared to deface it. 
  77. Arcade 
  markets. 
  A 
  tidy 
  block 
  of 
  colonnaded lanes, housing the great bazaar 
  of Butrús. Several kiosks hold “courts” of the 
  market magistrates, while others, at the 
  entrances, 
  are 
  the 
  posts 
  of 
  officials 
  responsible for issuing hawking licenses and 
  collecting taxes. In a city of this size, there 
  is no single “market day”, of course; 
  however, on certain days of the week there 
  are regular specialized gatherings of vendors 
  and buyers of particular products — the bird 
  market on Tlakál drawing an especially large 
  number 
  of 
  out-of-town 
  traders 
  and 
  merchants. Smaller neighborhood markets 
  also exist, of course, catering to the routine 
  needs of nearby households. 
  78. Ever-The-Same Granaries, operated by 
  the government of the protectorate. Grain is 
  stored in huge single-story warehouses, 
  raised off the ground by heavy stone pillars 
  to improve air circulation and reduce 
  infestation. Other warehouses, two stories 
  high, are built on conventional foundations; 
  these are used to store other foodstuffs and 
  stockpiled goods. There are also two 
  separate buildings containing the offices and 
  records of the granaries. 
  79. Lacquerers' Row. Four great firms of 
  lacquerers, each with their own "damp 
  rooms"; 
  there 
  is 
  some 
  specialization 
  (furniture; eating utensils; decorative and 
  artistic pieces, etc) between the families, 
  which nevertheless has not reduced long-
  standing rivalries. 
  80. Qùruhlóngashèn 
  (the 
  “Anything-At-All 
  Shop”). The closest one gets to a variety 
  store in Tsolyánu. It was established by a 
  mérato (professional “finder”) who is a 
  notorious packrat, in the habit of buying 
  stuff up sight unseen with the alleged intent 
  of later selling it himself. He purchased an 
  old warehouse complex on the cheap, one 
  originally constructed for the last ditlána to 
  store materials and tools. He began using it 
  as a storehouse for his collection of goods, 
  and eventually turned it into the foundation 
  of his new business (with help from his 
  more practical and aggressive wives). He 
  now buys up lots of dry goods and hardware 
  whenever the price is low and stores them 
  here; buyers who need a (relatively) 
  convenient way to shop for such items often 
  come here. Most of his goods are cheap, 
  plain, and often remaindered by their 
  manufacturers who find it simpler to unload 
  them here than to store and try to sell them 
  personally. He has vast array of rattan 
  furnishings, 
  minor 
  pieces 
  of 
  clothing, 
  utilitarian pottery and cookware, simple 
  hand tools and implements, common items 
  of toiletry, and some more obscure items — 
  several score callus-removers carved from 
  pumice in the shape of naked dancing girls; 
  a hundred sets of paper clothing left over 
  from a religious festival, in a no longer 
  authorized color; a box of unfinished bronze 
  mirrors; a few dozen strangely-shaped 
  cushions custom-sewed for a particular suite 
  of furniture that was cancelled; a huge 
  barrel of ship’s caulk; bales of unfinished 
  bark rope 
  originally 
  intended 
  for the 
  shipyards at Penóm, etc. The better sort of 
  person would not be caught dead here, and 
  even the middle classes would prefer to 
  send their servants — but it is still an 
  interesting place, nonetheless.112 
                                                  
  112 Adventurers who might turn to this as a “general store” 
  or as a buyer of their loot should be warned that the 
  Qùruhlóngashèn does not deal in foodstuffs, livestock, armor 
  
  127 
   
  127 
   
   
   
  Tsuru’úm113 
  A. The uppermost level consists of the post-
  ditlána sewers, storm drains, cisterns, and 
  foundations. 
  These 
  are 
  generally 
  of 
  excellent design and construction, laid out in 
  an orderly and regular grid. The main 
  sewers are 2.7 m high and 1.3 m wide, 
  running east to west; feeder tunnels are 
  smaller, but large enough to (barely) admit 
  human passage. Drains and sewage pipes 
  from households are usually too narrow to 
  allow access; drains from the rain gutters on 
  the streets are built to allow entry or exit by 
  cleaners and repairmen, though a block-
  and-tackle is required to lift the heavy stone 
  manholes. The five huge reservoirs are 
  closer to the surface, while the twenty 
  smaller tanks are slightly deeper, and 
  gravity-fed from the main reservoirs.  
  B. Among the private excavations of the recent 
  era, the largest and deepest is that of the 
  Temple of Belkhánu, which constructed a 
  moderately deep catacomb to house the 
  remains of its priests. There is also the 
  “ritual underworld” under the Temple of 
  Durritlámish, 
  which 
  is 
  ornate 
  and 
  complicated but not very extensive; its only 
  access is through the elevator-like “door” in 
  the surface temple. 
  C. Excavations by the Mu’ugalavyáni in the 
  1660s as part of their ditlána still remain. 
  Much of the modern system of cisterns, 
  reservoirs, aqueducts, and drains actually 
  dates from this phase of construction and 
  was merely repaired and renovated in the 
  latest ditlána. 
  D. Tunnels and basements that caved in and 
  were cut off during the Great Storm of 
  1155; some may still be intact but not 
  rebuilt or re-connected to their modern 
  successors. 
  E. Older Second Empire temple elements (of 
  Vimúhla, 
  Chiténg, 
  Ksárul, 
  Hrü’ü, 
  and 
  possibly others) are buried farther away 
                                                                         
  or weapons, full suits of clothing, jewelry or gemstones, 
  bullion, other precious materials, books, relics, or the like. 
  113 This section is so fragmentary and sparse that it would 
  have been omitted were it not for the high degree of interest 
  it is likely to hold for certain readers. The author has 
  indicated that further details and clarifications in this area 
  may become available in the future, and eventually be 
  translated into English. 
  from their modern sites but perhaps still 
  connected by more recent tunneling. There 
  is also a secret library of the Temple of Qon, 
  excavated and expanded gradually over the 
  period roughly 880-1440. 
  F. For 
  many 
  centuries 
  during 
  the 
  post-
  Engsvanyáli era (the Time of No Kings) and 
  even the early Second Empire, Butrús was a 
  smaller town, crowded around a castle 
  complex. 
  One 
  can 
  find 
  cellars 
  and 
  foundations of fortresses of Vimúhlan and 
  Ksárulian warlords; a Temple of Sárku 
  dedicated to the Íto clan; several strange 
  constructions of the Black Theocrat and his 
  military forces, etc.  
  G. Engsvanyáli remains. The Priest-Kings' City 
  of the Nine Walls was farther away to the 
  north, though the leveling of the plain the 
  city now stands on dates to this period, as 
  do several other minor works. The ruins of 
  the Engsvanyáli city were destroyed by 
  massive cave-ins and flash flooding in the 
  Great Storm of 1155. Engsvanyáli ruins 
  under the modern city will all date to the 
  earlier periods of the Priest-Kings’ rule. 
  H. A late Bednálljan shrine to the Cat God, 
  connected to the modern Temple of Hrü'ü 
  and in fairly regular use. 
  I. 
  A mid-Bednálljan temple of Sárku under the 
  modern city, in good condition and still 
  visited through a well-maintained tunnel. 
  J. 
  There may be other small and fragmentary 
  structures of a religious nature from the 
  Bednálljan period still extant underground. 
  K. From the period of the Fishermen Kings (at 
  least prior to the reign of Nayári) there is a 
  supposedly still extant temple or monastery 
  of Ksárul, location uncertain and current 
  status secret (or simply unknown).  
  L. Foundations of buildings of the Dragon 
  Warriors do remain, deep under the modern 
  city. 
   
  
  128 
   
  128 
   
   
  APPENDIX A: FESTIVAL CALENDAR FOR BUTRÚS 
   
  INTERCALARY DAYS 
  I. Ikáner: 
  Ritual of the Garbing of the Lord of the Blue Room  
  Procession of a man-sized statue of Lord Ksárul through streets on a palanquin, 
  led by acrobats, musicians and special standards; candy and miniature silver 
  coins with the crescent-and-beetle image are thrown to children. Upon arriving 
  back at the Temple of Ksárul, the image is solemnly washed, groomed, and 
  redressed in new clothes. The festival is originally from Púrdimal; it was imported 
  in the late thirteenth century and still considered to have a slightly exotic flavor 
  to it. 
  Golden Conveyance of the Great Blue Hymn 
  Ceremony enacting the Saffron Wisp Maiden’s receiving a hymn of praise from 
  the Governor and priests of Pan Cháka and flying to Avanthár to present it to the 
  Petal Throne. Staged in several segments throughout the day. 
   
  When these two events are both completed (just after nightfall), the city’s first barrel of 
  vanilla-flavored New Year’s “wine” is ceremoniously broached by the chief of the Wine 
  Stewards’ Section of the Court of Shining Banquets (q.v.); meanwhile, however, the 
  Governor spends the entire day in prayer at the Temples of Hnálla, Karakán, and 
  Chegárra. 
   
  II. Turugdáshe: Transportations of the Small Paw 
  A set of public ceremonies at the Temple of Hrü'ü, symbolic and abstruse, but 
  apparently with some connection to fertility and/or adolescence. Ritual 
  presentations of kittens to the Temple by the laity, who in return receive other 
  kittens from the Temple, all according to a mysterious schedule. However, most 
  citizens rest and do not take part in any ceremonies or festivities this day. 
   
  The Governor spends the day in rigorous seclusion in the Temple of Ksárul, performing 
  ceremonies to prepare for the new year.  
   
  III. Vraháma: Dance of the Amber Swords  
  Parade of military káingyal (by legions devoted to either Vimúhla or Karakán) by 
  dancing soldiers; spectacular and wild. Simultaneously, mass public exorcisms 
  are conducted by priests of Qon and Chiténg, with teams of stilt-dancers in huge 
  fantastic costumes and ear-splitting firecracker orgies. Tug-of-war using giant 
  ropes representing dragon-monsters or snake-demons. Particularly in the villages 
  and smaller towns of the protectorate, children are divided into two teams whom 
  fight mock battles with rocks, dirt-clods, larger seed-pods, and firecrackers; 
  supposedly, any village in which this is not done will find someone from it has 
  disappeared — a sacrifice taken by Mentutékka (an Aspect of Ksárul). Priests of 
  Ksárul and Hrü’ü are confined to the grounds of their temples on this day. 
   
  The Governor, besides participating in these exorcistic parades, performs difficult ritual 
  dances and songs at the Temples of Chiténg, Vimúhla, and Qon. 
   
  IV. Ngaqómi: (Thanksgiving ceremonies at ancestral shrines) 
  Private rituals, conducted in clanhouses shortly before dawn, notifying the 
  lineage ancestors of the completion of another year and requesting their 
  assistance in the coming one. Together with the five other domestic ancestor-
  
  129 
   
  129 
   
   
  worship events listed below, this is a practice only of native Pan Chákan families, 
  and not even all of those. 
   
  Pageant of Death  
  Durritlámish-themed parade in outlandish, garish costumes of ancient times, with 
  yellow paper lanterns, distributing brown rock candy to children along the route; 
  very popular and fun. Late morning or early afternoon, depending on the 
  weather. 
    
   
  Dance of Flowered Lanterns 
  Public, led by sacred youths of several different temples; lasts from before 
  sundown until dawn the next day. Inspired by, if not directly copied from, the 
  celebrations of Hriháyal in Jakálla, but also likely influenced by the famous 
  ceremonies of Dilinála at Haumá. Falls somewhere between them — a sort of 
  remote, serene lasciviousness. Traditionally shadow-lantern or shadow-puppet 
  shows are put on after dark, though these rarely have anything to do with the 
  ritual dance itself. 
   
  The Governor is faced with yet another full day of sequestered rituals, now in the Temple 
  of Sárku. 
   
  V. Chitlásha: Celebration of Drawing Aside the Azure Veil 
  Rituals of the temple of Ksárul, known (openly) only in Butrús; takes place 
  around dawn. 
   
   
  Farewell to the Aged Year (Funeral of the Late Year) 
  Sárku rituals, combined with an temple festival and feast for the laity that starts 
  mid-morning and lasts until mid-afternoon. The latter spills out into the streets 
  and is attended by many devotees of other gods. Also, many people visit the City 
  of Dead to pay respects to those who died during the year. Best known for the 
  burning of extremely thin long brown candles (called ánret in the local dialect) 
  throughout the day in large quantities. 
    
   
  Celebration of Glorious Triumphs  
  Military parade around city walls and to the Palace of War. Due to the size of 
  Butrús’ walls, runners perform most of the circuit, and the full legions only 
  assemble to march a chosen segment of wall-top and through the city. 
    
   
  Kindling of the New Fires 
  Vimúhlan ritual complex, imported from Mu’ugalavyá long ago but now 
  considered “native”. Includes many sacrifices, as well as special rites in the 
  Flame-dedicated legions and important agricultural ceremonies in rural areas. 
  Starts at noon, when the sun passes its zenith. 
   
  The Governor’s New Year duties consist of long chants and a particularly slow but 
  complicated dance conducted in his own palace; they are performed under extremely 
  close guard and watchfulness, and knowledge of their details treated as a state secret. 
   
  MONTHLY CALENDAR 
   
  Hasanpór (I) Arrival of the monsoons, onset of rainy season. 
  1: 
  New Year's Day (Spring Equinox)114 
  Political pageantry; feasting and gift-giving, particularly among the wealthy and 
  ruling classes. The Governor, together with senior clan-elders and high priests, 
  officially and publicly welcomes the four mythological “Year-Bearers” (Akhoné, 
                                                  
  114 The “waxing split” in indigenous terminology. 
  
  130 
   
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  Niritlál, Nimuné, and Nurgáshte) and thanks them for having delivered the new 
  year to Pan Cháka, and gives them the “keys to the city” for the next ten days. 
  The official calendar and almanac for the coming year is released to the public by 
  the College for Guiding Human Nature (q.v.) at the same time. 
  Purification of the Flame 
   
  Rituals & sacrifices for prosperity in the new year; continuation of the Kindling of 
  the New Fires rituals the day before, concluding at mid-morning. Religious 
  ecstatics scale sword-ladders and perform other feats and spectacles. 
  Renewal of the Count of Hours 
   
  The civic administration resumes its timekeeping duties: washing and cleaning 
  the water-chambers in the morning, recalibrating at noon, paying their respects 
  to the “God of Clocks” in the afternoon, and the curfew goes back into effect at 
  dusk of this day.  
  1-10: 
  Illumination of the New Year 
  Roughly stated, the secular and private round of festivities for the New Year, 
  following those of the more religious-themed intercalary days. Orange and pink 
  globe-lanterns are hung everywhere, representing the new or reborn sun. Clan 
  banquets and neighborhood open-air feasts are held, visits made to family 
  members living nearby and clan branches in the vicinity meet together. There 
  are daily parades of “fire trees”: huge branching structures of silk, paper, and 
  lamps in the shape of birds, sro, serudlá, feshénga, vringálu, and zrne, up to 30 
  m high and hauled on massive flatbed carts supported by cables, managed by 
  teams of their sponsors. Clans, temples, and government offices engage in a 
  competitive display of these, though the cost prohibits all but the wealthiest from 
  participating every year. The extended sequence of the many New Year’s 
  festivities formally ends on the tenth of the month, and any leftover vanilla liquor 
  must be poured out by midnight, or the entire household is cursed through the 
  coming year. The resultant rush to drink down what’s left rather than waste it in 
  the gutter tends to cause severe hangovers and not a few deaths. 
  15: 
  Commemoration of the Death of Pavár 
  Rituals in temples, government offices, and clanhouses; relatively sober and low-
  key, coming after the long and somewhat hysterical festival season. Officials 
  make offerings to the protectors of the Soil (Avánthe or Sárku, depending on 
  whom you ask) and the City (Chiténg) at certain ancient megaliths outside the 
  city walls, led by the Governor carrying a device known as the “Flag of Twenty 
  Tassels”. Clan-elders simultaneously offer prayers for the children of their clan in 
  the coming year. 
  20:  
  Quintuplicate Collocation of Court Officers (The Monsoon Banquet) 
  An old tradition of the Governor’s Court in Pan Cháka, perhaps based loosely on 
  old Íto clan-council practices but given its modern form under the Mu’ugalavyáni 
  occupation. Originally it was “quintuplicate” in the sense of five times each 
  month, i.e. once per week, but it is now understood to mean five times per year. 
  All officials and bureaucrats of the Tenth Circle and above are “invited”, 
  regardless of what actual post they hold — even retired officials or those on 
  leave are usually included. (Though there is no formal regulation, attendance is 
  effectively mandatory.) They meet with the Governor in the Broad Hall of 
  Devotion to the State, in what is supposed to be “casual” dress and manner, and 
  in turn present verbal reports and summaries of current developments and issues 
  in their area of responsibility. This is followed by a banquet, by firm tradition 
  always held outside official premises — usually in facilities rented from a 
  winemakers’ or food-preparers’ clan, but sometimes arranged as an excursion or 
  picnic to some suitably scenic and cultured location in or near the city. 
   
  
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  Monsoon Ceremonies: To mark the return of the monsoons and the heavy rains, which usually 
  arrive by the middle of the month, the Temple of Avánthe rings its tunkúl-gongs for at least a full 
  day, sometimes longer, creating a tremendous din. Meanwhile, the Temple’s priests and 
  priestesses lead processions through the streets during the first torrential downpour, which the 
  public may join in. Special costumes of dyed paper are worn for this, which are destroyed in the 
  process of the participants’ marching or dancing up and down the city’s long avenues until they 
  are exhausted and soaked through. 
   
  First Thunder Ceremonies: For five days after the first thunderstorm of the year (which usually 
  occurs this month), no work is supposed to be done that involves digging, chopping, or 
  hammering. This is only laxly observed except in particularly conservative rural districts, however. 
  Most villages do construct a crude “thunder cart” upon which an effigy of one of the Thunder 
  Lords (q.v.) is placed, haul it around the outskirts of the village and its fields, and make various 
  minor offerings to propitiate these peculiar beings. In Butrús, on the other hand, a sacrificial 
  victim in the Temple of Karakán is fed on special sacrificial meats, and is then struck by lightning 
  on the sixth day of the period.  
   
  Shápru (II) Climax of humidity and the monsoons. 
   
  3: 
  Water Rituals 
  On the northern banks of rivers and northern shores of lakes or pools, girls in 
  long-sleeved robes perform ritual dances while people lower leaf-wrapped fruit 
  and colored ribbons on weights down into the swollen waters to reach the 
  drowned daughters of a long-forgotten king. Special prayers are offered up to 
  the drowned girls by and for pregnant women, and also for the prosperity of 
  textile-producing crops and small livestock in the coming year. Light-spirited 
  festivities follow, in which (among the wealthy) cups of wine are floated around 
  small rivers and winding streams to the banqueters. While under the auspices of 
  the temples of Avánthe and Dilinála, their contribution is largely limited to 
  teaching and overseeing the ritual dances; this is essentially an observance of 
  the folk religion. 
  16:  
  Calling Up the Fertility of the Land 
  Rituals, feasting; visits to limestone caverns and sinkholes, into which celebrants 
  throw flowers. Those who cannot make such visits instead throw these offerings 
  into small excavated pits, which are left standing until they fill naturally. This 
  often coincides with the annual return of migratory birds from the north. In the 
  countryside there is the belief that those with psychic gifts can obtain oracles for 
  the coming year on this day by pouring oil onto the surface of standing water in 
  sinkholes and seeing the future in the patterns it forms. Many also drink a special 
  broth of ginger flowers on this day as a spiritual cleansing agent. According to 
  traditional Chákan calendars, this date marks the beginning of the season of 
  summer. 
  18: 
  Adoration of the Gray Veil 
  This festival honoring the Lord Thúmis is not particularly popular outside his 
  priesthood, despite attempts to encourage lay folk to attend. Even the minority 
  of Butrusséne who worship Thúmis tend to skip this day-long ceremony of 
  hymns, repeated temple processions, rituals, and more hymns. 
   
  Didóm (III) Humid; rainy but less intense; long drizzles (the “ink rains”). Harvesting of winter crops. 
  2:  
  Quintuplicate Collocation of Court Officers (The Rainy Banquet) 
  See above for full description. 
  3-4:  
  Hailing the Glory of the Army 
  Military pageants in which the local garrisons leave the city overnight and then 
  march back inside in decoratively muddied and stage-bloodied but triumphant 
  
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  array, simulating return from a battle. Largely inspired by the cult of Hrsh and 
  Mu’ugalavyáni military traditions. 
    
  19:  
  Touching the Worm of Copper 
  Ancestor worship and visits to graves. Old bones are exhumed, washed, 
  wrapped, and replaced in their tombs — ideally by their living relatives or 
  descendants, but often (among wealthier citizens and non-adherents of Sárku 
  and Durritlámish) by stand-ins hired from among the traditional tomb-tending 
  clans. These practices, and the entire month of Didóm among devout Sárku-
  worshippers, are called “grave-sweeping”. Nobles and aristocrats, meanwhile, 
  visit the shrine of the First Aspect in the main Temple of Sárku and are permitted 
  to touch its copper image. Aside from this last elite practice, the holiday is 
  entirely based in the autochthonous Chákan practice of ancestor worship, given a 
  thin veneer of Pavárian orthodoxy.  
    
  22:  
  Conflagration of the All 
  Minor rituals and sacrifices (primarily to Vimúhla & Chiténg). The Red Cassia 
  Forest Dance, commemorating Archer Hmi’s last victory, is performed in those 
  temples, and other public performances are sponsored by various secular 
  patrons. 
    
  25:  
  Litany of Noble Deeds 
  Minor military rituals (primarily to Karakán & Chegárra), sacrifice of captured 
  enemy soldiers who have been “saved up” for this day. Soldiers (of any legion or 
  religion) receive awards and medals for special valor or victories over the past 
  year; dead heroes are remembered and honored. The Red Cassia Forest Dance 
  is performed again. 
  26:  
  (Private ancestor-worship ceremonies) 
  The “summer” round of rituals in honor of lineage ancestors, conducted in 
  private clanhouses. 
   
  Langála (IV) End of the monsoon season. Summer crops planted. 
  3:  
  Feast of the Lighted Path (Summer Solstice)115 
  Nominally a rural-oriented ritual holiday of the Temple of Hnálla, but the 
  connection between actual local activities and the high priesthood of Hnálla is 
  especially tenuous here in the protectorate. General and generous feasting 
  across the region; special wine spiked with cinnamon bark and ginger root is 
  drunk at boat races and swimming and diving competitions.  
   
  There also is a second layer of native Pan Chákan solar observances at the time 
  of the summer solstice, oriented towards protection and purification. These 
  festivities originally fell on the 5th of Fésru in Pan Cháka, but many were re-
  scheduled in the late thirteenth century by imperial decree. People seek to rid 
  themselves and their houses of poisons, witchcraft and other harmful influences 
  — wreathes of orchids, ginger, and certain “lucky” flowers are draped 
  everywhere, and little red silk bags of anti-demonic drugs are made in the home 
  and hung over doors; red and multicolored ribbons are also hung on doors and 
  sleeves. Both love-charms and poison-brewings alike are said to come to a head 
  during this festival, and the Bitterlings are particularly virulent. 
   
    
  19:  
  Passing over of Souls  
  Belkhánu rituals for the dead, in the temples. A fairly important event for the 
  clergy, not much observed by lay folk except a few very pious devotees of 
  Belkhánu or Qon. 
                                                  
  115 The “sunlit seating” in native almanacs. 
  
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  Fésru (V): A inauspicious month in general, especially for male children born during it — if not killed by 
  evil spirits or simple bad fortune, they are likely to become patricides in later life and malicious ghosts 
  after death. Promotions granted this month are said to be “permanent” — that is, one never advances 
  again afterwards. Souls tend to grow heavy and separate from their bodies during the month, and sink 
  low; thus, by climbing up high and accidentally looking down, one might see one’s own soul, which is 
  said to cause nervous disorders or madness. Many people fast most of the month.  
  5: 
  Preparations for the “Poison Days” 
   
   
  Flowers of sulfur are rubbed on children’s heads and pregnant women’s bellies to 
  protect them from sickness-demons; the word “King” or “Emperor” is written on 
  their foreheads (in Classical Tsolyáni) for the same purpose. Officials and others 
  in public service are served a special stew of owl and frog, which is said to build 
  their filial piety as well as protect them from witchcraft or assassination. People 
  executed for Bitterling sorcery during the year have their wax-encased heads 
  displayed on poles as a warning. Human effigies are woven from flowering canes 
  and lianas and used in ceremonies in which evil spirits are rounded up, marched 
  onto boats and set adrift on the Turín River (as some would say, to float back 
  down to Úrmish, where they belong). 
  6-14: 
  The Nine Poison Days.  
  The most dangerous days of the most dangerous month of the year. Sexual 
  relations are tabooed, and one must be especially careful not to look down from 
  heights (e.g., ladders, stairs, or roofs), because of the danger of seeing one’s 
  own soul left standing below. Upper stories and rooftops are almost abandoned 
  for this period. 
  17:  
  (Private ancestor-worship ceremonies) 
  The “central season” round of rituals in honor of lineage ancestors, conducted in 
  private clanhouses. 
  18: 
  (Beginning of Autumn) 
  According to traditional Chákan calendars, this date marks the beginning of the 
  season of autumn. Usually not marked by any formal observations, though 
  sometimes the occasion for small dinner-parties within clanhouses to mark the 
  end of the “Nine Poison Days”.  
   
  20-21: Offerings to the Foster-Mother  
  Unusually bizarre Hrü’ü rituals of uncertain meaning; also involve ritual combats 
  (often to the death) by humans for the ostensible entertainment of domestic 
  animals and pets. (Some claim this is a Pijenáni barbarism introduced by pilgrims 
  from that uncivil country, but in fact it is definitely an ancient, native tradition 
  within the temples in Pan Cháka.)  
   
  Drénggar (VI) Drier and hotter weather.  
   
  8: 
  Pavár’s Birthday116 
  Ceremonial lustrations and dousings with water, especially of statues and icons 
  — perhaps also symbolizing the deluge that overtook Engsvanyálu. 
  9:  
  Enhancement of the Emerald Radiance  
  Dlamélish rituals; feasting, orgies; an unabashed copying of the famous Jakállan 
  festival. If the weather is still and clear that night, huge numbers of green-hued 
  fireflies are set loose from the Temple of Dlamélish; the longer they stay 
  swarmed over the Temple, the more auspicious the festival.  
  14:  
  Quintuplicate Collocation of Court Officers (The Summer Banquet) 
  See above for full description. Note that technically this should fall exactly one 
  month earlier, in Fésru; because of the extreme inauspiciousness of that date, 
                                                  
  116 According to an older dating tradition now discarded in more modern and “sophisticated” centers. 
  
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  however, it is always “specially postponed” by a rote decree of the Governor to 
  this date. 
  19: 
  Birthday of the (unnamed) human mother of the ten dragon-men, or Chóhrulesh, who 
  founded the Dragon Warrior empire and its local kingdom. Nowadays it is mostly, 
  if not only, celebrated by common prostitutes, which displeases members of the 
  Sword of Fire clan to no end.  
  28: 
  Seating of the Court of the Judge of the Dead 
   
   
  While officially a ceremony of the sect of Sárku, this has become a popular folk 
  festival in honor of Dijátl the Copper-Clawed, who judges the merits of the newly 
  deceased in the Judgment Hall of the Worm and hands down “sentences” for the 
  afterlife. The temple ceremonies take the form of solemn mimed and chanted 
  representations of this court, and of reverences and honors being paid to the 
  high judge. In popular and rural forms of this festival, lay folk may put on a sort 
  of “passion play” where they play the roles of the court staff and selected 
  members of the community who recently have gone before Dijátl. 
   
  Firasúl (VII) The peak of summer; hottest month of the year, relatively dry. 
  4: 
  Autumn Equinox  
  Known as the “waning split” of the year, on the autumn equinox visits are made 
  to limestone caverns and sinkholes (as for the Calling up the Fertility of the Land 
  on the 16th of Shápru). Sweet rice is sealed into bamboo sections, weighted with 
  lead, and sunk into nearby bodies of water to feed the souls of the lost, 
  disappeared, and drowned and to propitiate the serpentine water-spirits. The rice 
  used is a special strain, stuffed with a native fruit resembling the strawberry, and 
  steamed in the leaves of a certain marshland plant; besides being sunk as an 
  offering, it is also eaten by the celebrants. 
   
  7: 
  Sewing Festival 
  Women build structures of multicolored cloth and stick pins in it, seeking to be 
  made good seamstresses by these offerings; at night there are contests of 
  threading needles by moonlight. They also put spiders in little boxes and the 
  next morning open them to see if they’ve spun webs — which is known to 
  foretell whether they’ll get good marriages. (Note that a very similar practice in 
  Katalál is said to foretell whether a woman will become a good weaver and 
  embroiderer.) At the same time, a “Fairy Godmother” visits, supposedly from the 
  Plain of Towers in the far-off west, and love matches are made and entertained. 
  This festival is said to be in honor of Halél, a blue-bodied, sapphire-eyed 
  spiderlike Aspect of Lady Avánthe, but that is probably a relatively recent 
  accretion. At the same time, there is a more casual festival of drying out books, 
  bedding, etc. after the end of the rainy season and replacing what has been 
  damaged beyond repair. 
   
  13: 
  Chastisement of Birds & Correction of Flowers (every fortieth year) 
  A periodic mock battle held every forty years. Regular soldiers of the legions in 
  Butrús, as well as visiting legionnaires from certain other cities invited to 
  participate, draw lots and are sorted into two “armies” and equip themselves 
  with elaborate, garish body paint, armor, weapons, battle-standards, and war 
  regalia — one side portraying brilliantly colored birds and flying insects, the other 
  side gorgeous blossoms and flowers. They then fight each other from dawn to 
  dusk in the Grand Plaza in the center of Butrús. (This naturally brings all 
  government operations to a grinding halt.) While weapons are blunted and 
  unweighted, there are always many injuries and some deaths (often from 
  heatstroke, at this time of year), and at the end of the day a certain number of 
  warriors from the losing side are sacrificed at the Temple of Chiténg (see 
  “Gushing Forth of the Flame”, below). This custom is said to be a “reminder” to 
  
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  that deity so that he will continue to protect the city from all threats. These long-
  term cyclical ritual battles held in the ceremonial center of the city itself appear 
  to date all the way back to the time of the Dragon Warriors, though they have 
  taken many guises over the millennia. The current incarnation appears to date 
  from the late Time of No Kings, though in the last few centuries the costumes of 
  the “Flowers” have taken on a suspiciously Mu’ugalavyáni coloration, and 
  incidents have appeared to “recreate” events in recent Tsolyáni-Mu’ugalvyáni 
  wars. 
   
  18: 
  Naming Ceremonies 
  The date each year on which children in Butrús and most of Pan Cháka are 
  formally given their adult names and accepted into their clans. Fairly typical 
  rituals of this sort for Tsolyánu; there are no particularly noteworthy local 
  variations. This is technically only the date when the clans present rosters of 
  their new adult members and their names to the Palace of the Realm (which is 
  itself unusual; perhaps a Mu’ugalavyáni bureaucratism that has taken root in the 
  protectorate). Some clans in Butrús may hold their puberty ceremonies a few 
  days earlier or later than this; and in outlying towns, often several weeks 
  beforehand, to allow time for their clanhouse’s roster to be sent in to the city. 
  Additionally, clans and families worshipping either of the Flame Gods perform 
  these rituals quite differently and at the winter solstice (Trantór 5th), and those 
  worshipping Karakán or Chegárra (on Trantór 18) despite submmitting their 
  documents along with the rest of the populace on this day. 
  21:  
  (Private ancestor-worship ceremonies) 
  The “autumn” round of rituals in honor of lineage ancestors, conducted in private 
  clanhouses. 
  26:  
  Quintuplicate Collocation of Court Officers (The Moonlit Banquet) 
  See above for full description. Often held as an outdoor picnic for a “moon-
  viewing” party whenever possible, or at least as an excursion to view the 
  cardamom-flowers (see below). 
   
  Feasts of the Red Cloud. At any and all full phases of either moon during this month, parties 
  (involving much drinking) are held to watch the moons and the flowering cardamom trees, 
  especially in the Garden. In honor of King Tlyo Zrang and Lady Twei, particularly the latter; thus 
  also known as Toasting the Frog. 
   
  Pardán (VIII) Summer. Dry, hot, and fairly still. High-altitude winds often blow in dust from the 
  northeast and east, turning the sky a yellowish-gray.  
  7:  
  Fete of Boats 
  Ritual and festival commemorating the date of souls of the dead setting sail for 
  the Paradises of Teretané; copied from the Qonite festival in Bey Sü. Observed 
  only in Butrús and not known elsewhere in Pan Cháka; in more remote areas, it 
  is likely this has never been heard of. Another thirteenth-century importation (or 
  imposition) from central Tsolyánu. Somewhat disconnected from the local 
  conception of the afterlife and proper funerary ceremonies, but still observed 
  seriously due to its glittery charm and cosmopolitan allure. The dropping water 
  level of the Turín River at this time of year can create some practical problems — 
  grounded boats and collisions are fairly routine. 
  18: 
  Offering of Wisdom (I) 
  Presentation of new books to temples and writing tools to young scholars. Start 
  of the “school year” for students in the temple academies. Long ago borrowed 
  from Keténgku rituals at Khéiris and Páya Gupá, yet here observed by all faiths 
  — except that of Chiténg, due to their important rituals on the 19th.  
    
  19:  
  Litany of Blood-Song, Sword of the God 
  
  136 
   
  136 
   
   
  Chiténg rituals and sacrifices, copied from those at Chéne Ho. Mostly confined to 
  the priesthood and some military officers; also attended by the Metropolitan 
  Prefect and other city functionaries (but not the Governor’s suite). Also a 
  secondary adulthood ceremony for those specially dedicated to Chiténg (mostly 
  children of families associated with the Legion of the Givers of Sorrow), who 
  have completed the “Dedication to the Flame” the previous year. A fairly 
  successful transplanted festival, due to the garrison of the Givers of Sorrow and 
  Chiténg’s traditional role as the patron or guardian of the city. According to 
  traditional Chákan calendars, this date also marks the beginning of the season of 
  winter. 
  21: 
  Offering of Wisdom (II) 
  For students specifically devoted to Chiténg and who attend the Crucible of 
  Glowing-Hot Skulls, the “school year” begins on this day, and they are given gifts 
  of pen sets, ink sticks, new books, etc. by their families at dawn. Their 
  classmates who favor Vimúhla, or who are less devout overall, have already 
  begun classes and traditionally look down on the “latecomers”, who are often in 
  an exalted state from the Litany two days earlier — the first few weeks of school 
  are quite rowdy and loud. 
   
  Halír (IX) Late summer and early autumn. Dry, beginning to cool, and windy; occasional typhoons (from 
  the south and west) and tornados (from the north and east) later in the month. 
  7, 9, or 13: Harvest Festivals (Date depends on weather and astrology) 
  Feasts and celebrations of the end of the main harvest season. On the night of 
  the full moons, people climb up onto nearby heights to enjoy the cool clear dry 
  weather of autumn; singing, dancing, and drinking wine decorated with yellow 
  flowers (meant to signify and confer longevity). These observances mix with 
  some agricultural fertility rites going on simultaneously in rural areas. 
   
  On the night of the new moons in this period, spirits of the dead return home in 
  the forms of evil bird-spirits. Villagers sprinkle chaff from the recently threshed 
  grain around their houses and flee for the night; when they return in the 
  morning, tracks left in the dried husks tell them what animal their dead relative 
  has temporarily become. Furthermore, the wise can sometimes read messages 
  left by the dead written with the chaff in antique scripts, and a sorcerer, it is 
  said, can sometimes have his questions answered by these messages from the 
  departed. These “winnowing ghosts” are associated with the myth of the “Purple 
  Girl” — a young woman murdered by her mother-in-law and buried in the chaff. 
   
    
  19:  
  Gushing Forth of the Flame  
  Normally celebrated on the 18th in other parts of Tsolyánu; it may also be 
  postponed until the next new moon of Káshi if the moon Gayél is full on this day. 
  Usually known simply as the “Torch Festival”. Large and impressive 
  performances by fire-walking, flame-breathing, coal-eating, sword-ladder-
  climbing religious enthusiasts. Magical or pyrotechnical “volcanoes” are built, 
  which after spewing sparks and fire shower the crowd with red fruit, crimson-
  dyed nuts, ribbons, and candies. The fire brigades of the different neighborhood 
  wards (almost all devotees of Chiténg, or at least captained by them) hold drills 
  and dances in competition with each other. Meanwhile, within the Temple of 
  Chiténg itself, human sacrifices are decapitated, with the heads bowled down the 
  steep stairway of the main temple pyramid and placed on the Temple’s skull-
  rack; the bodies, meanwhile, are rolled down a smooth slide to a different 
  courtyard where spits and fires are set up, and they are cleaned, dressed, 
  roasted, and devoured by the priests and select devotees. 
  
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  25: 
  Private ancestor-worship ceremonies 
  The “winter” round of rituals in honor of lineage ancestors, conducted in private 
  clanhouses. 
   
  Trantór (X) Autumn. Dry, cool, windy; occasional typhoons and tornados as above.  
  1: 
  (Food taboo) 
  In the countryside and among conservative Pan Chákan families in Butrús, the 
  taboo on eating fish and hma or hmélu meat in the same meal goes into effect 
  on the first day of the month and lasts until the end of the typhoon season, lest 
  the “Thunder Lords” be angered. If the weather has been unusually windy, the 
  ban will be started earlier.  
    
   5: 
  Festival of the Shining Sun (Winter Solstice) 
  Procession to Shrine of Chiráshin Tuléngkoi, the Second Aspect of Hnálla. 
  Observed either on the 4th of the month or on the 9th of Firasúl almost 
  everywhere else, this ceremony is probably scheduled so as to directly compete 
  with the older local Vimúhlan rituals on this day. The winter solstice is an 
  important occasion, in any event, and is known locally as the “shaded seating”. 
  Dedication to the Ever-Living Flame 
  Vimúhlan rituals, military blessings; consecrations/ordinations of new acolytes, 
  priests, and temple warriors. Also the date of puberty rituals for families devoted 
  to Vimúhla or Chiténg; this involves shaving the new adult’s sides of the head 
  and sacrificing the locks in a fire, and in rural areas where these gods are 
  worshipped, facial scarification. Solemn and stark, with little pomp and glory. 
  12: 
  Circle of Self-Enlightening Illumination 
  According to the priests of the deities of Stability, the anniversary of the creation 
  of the world by Hnálla, as a feint in his cosmogonic struggles with Hrü’ü. Pan 
  Chákans think this is, to put it mildly, a load of crock, but even those with only a 
  smidgen of politeness and decorum deal with it by trying to pretend this 
  celebration and theory behind it simply don’t exist. Unfortunately, it is strongly 
  promoted by the Seal Emperor and the imperial apparatus. 
    
  18:  
  Might of Heroes 
  Karakán military rituals and consecration of young warriors. Adulthood rituals for 
  families devoted to Karakán or Chegárra. 
   
  Lésdrim (XI) Autumn and early winter. Driest month of the year; cool to chilly, windy; rare typhoons. 
  9: 
  Birthday of the Seal Emperor (Hirkáne) 
   
   
   
  Imperial pageantry, ritual, military display. 
  10-20:  Return of the Vessels of the Blue Prince (date determined by astrological factors).  
  The date on which worshippers of Ksárul come to the Temple to present small 
  statuettes of the god in one of his mythological forms from the Battle of 
  Dórmoron Plain — blue-glazed clay for the poor, stone for the middle-class, and 
  lapis or turquoise for the wealthy. These are the statuettes kept in the house-
  shrines during the course of the year and worshipped by the family; they must 
  be replaced annually after the inhabiting fragment of the god departs this month. 
  In practice, one simply returns the following day and pays a minimal fee to the 
  priests to retrieve their old statuette. 
  18:  
  Quintuplicate Collocation of Court Officers (The Winter Banquet) 
  See above for full description. Technically this should fall a month earlier, in 
  Trantór, but is always “specially postponed” by the Governor due to the 
  scheduling conflict with the observation of the Might of Heroes and in order to 
  “match” the postponement of the banquet in Fésru.  
   
  21:  
  Reconsideration of the Order of Things 
  
  138 
   
  138 
   
   
  Ceremonial debates in the Temples of Hrü’ü and Wurú, combined with humorous 
  public ceremonies and ritual “reversals”. Also, according to traditional Chákan 
  calendars, this date marks the beginning of the season of spring.  
   
  Dohála (XII) Winter. Cool and windy. Coral trees shed their white petals. 
   
  4: 
  Masque of the Red and the Silver 
  Public ceremonials and dances (glacially slow) performed jointly by the priests of 
  Vimúhla and Ksárul. Extremely obscure and abstract, but believed to symbolically 
  represent the ancient (pre-Bednálljan) conflict between these two sects in the 
  Chákas, and reaffirming the Engsvanyáli-era truce between them. Meanwhile, in 
  both temples secret mystical and alchemical rituals are performed in which red 
  cinnabar is transformed into silver mercury, and vice versa, under the 
  supervision of certain priests of Belkhánu and Qon. 
   
  8: 
  Examination of Candidates for Office 
  Aspiring officials who have received a nomination from an appropriate sponsor 
  are “examined” by the Governor’s Chamberlain for the Gentlemen in the Court of 
  Attendants. Deportment, skill at versification, penmanship, mental capacity, and 
  general education are tested in a series of essays and interviews. The new 
  cadets are informed whether they are accepted for service, and if so in what 
  category of “Court Gentleman”, the afternoon of the following day. 
  10: 
  Accession of the Seal Emperor (Hirkáne) to the Petal Throne 
   
   
   
  Imperial pageantry, feasting. 
   
  13: 
  Private ancestor-worship ceremonies 
  The “spring” round of rituals in honor of lineage ancestors, conducted in private 
  clanhouses. The night before (Dohála 12th), windsocks in the shape of worms 
  are hung above any clanhouse where a male child was born during the past 
  year; these are left up for about a month. 
   
  15: 
  Commemoration of the Massacre of 261 A.S. 
  Semi-public ceremonies, including small parades through certain streets, 
  speeches, and memorial services, held by the Pan Chákan branch of the Íto clan 
  and their clients and supporters, to mark the anniversary of the mass 
  assassination of their leadership at the hands of the main branch, or Northern 
  Ítos — at the time, feuding with them over control of the kingdoms of the 
  Chákas. While the imperial government can usually be counted on to suppress 
  any displays of Íto political memory, in this case it actively promotes the event, 
  in expectation that it fuels dissention within the clan. Accordingly, several high-
  ranking government officials will be sent to attend and take part in the events; 
  on occasion even the Governor has appeared.  
   
  16-21: Kite Festival 
  Kite-flying parties, especially popular with children; perhaps more importantly, 
  there is also a grueling series of competitions, with considerable awards of cash 
  and honors to the victors of each, and attempts to unseat the current “King of 
  the String”. The starting date may be postponed up to three days if the weather 
  should happen to be too calm. 
   
  25: 
  Festival of the Light of Wisdom 
  As in Tumíssa and Sokátis, a great litter bearing the image of Thúmis is carried in 
  a processional march from the Temple of Thúmis to “visit” the Temple of Hnálla. 
  This is another Thúmisite ceremony imported from Tsolyánu that has not wholly 
  caught on, despite the best efforts of the temple and the imperial government 
  (both of which would like to see the priesthoods of Vimúhla and Ksárul less 
  dominant in the region). However, it happens to fall on the day set by ancient 
  tradition for the settlement of all gambling debts from the Kite Festival. This has 
  come to be incorporated into the Festival of the Light of Wisdom, to the extent 
  
  139 
   
  139 
   
   
  that the final awards and title of “King of the String” are bestowed on this day — 
  at the Temple of Thúmis, just before the procession starts out — and nowadays 
  the unwritten law is that all debts must be paid in full by the time the great 
  palanquin enters the outer gate of the Temple of Hnálla.  
    
  30: 
  Lullaby of the Tired Fires 
  Vimúhlan rituals to bank fires. Involves massed choirs of singers (comprised of 
  specially-trained members of the laity as well as the clergy), which in Butrús are 
  enormous (several thousands of singers) and extremely loud — anything but 
  lulling, in fact. 
   
  Perhaps connected, the functionaries in charge of maintaining the public 
  waterclock let it drain at dusk and do not refill it; curfew is not called nor do the 
  city guardsmen announce the hour with their rattles while on patrol, until the 
  completion of the intercalary days. Symbolically, time stops until the new year is 
  “brought” to Butrús and the Governor “takes receipt” of it during the intercalary 
  days. 
   
  For the curiosity of the pedantic, the common Pan Chákan dialectal names for the Tsolyáni months are 
  Hánspor, Shápru, Dídom, Lánglu or Lánggü, Sáthor (or local substitutes), Daréngka, Firsúla, Párdan, Alür, 
  Tanaró, Lísdran and Dóhla. The names of the intercalary days are Ga’ánren, Trúkti’ish, Vrahán, Ngóqma, 
  and Chitla’ásha. 
   
   
  Other Calendrical Notes 
  Almost all known calendars of the literate 
  civilizations on Tékumel place the beginning of 
  the year at the spring equinox. Also, according 
  to the calendars now most commonly used in 
  the Five Empires, each of the seasons begins on 
  the day of the relevant equinox or solstice. 
  However, older and regional calendars (including 
  those of the Chákan tradition) place the equinox 
  or solstice at the middle of the season. This 
  latter system has the minor advantage of 
  putting all the shortest days of the year in 
  “winter” and all the longest in “summer”, while 
  “spring” and “autumn” cover the periods of most 
  rapidly changing periods of daylight. This may 
  be more convenient for those using the “four-
  and-four” system of horology. 
   
  As the actual climatological seasons do not 
  correspond (in almost any part of Tékumel) to 
  the neatly and evenly divided seasons of the 
  civilized calendars, it hardly makes much 
  practical difference which of these two ways of 
  dividing the seasons is followed. Under neither 
  system does the “calendar season” closely 
  correlate to the local temperature or weather.  
   
  Weekly events: 
  Daunél: Marotlán match at the hirilákte 
  arena 
  Tlakál:  Bird market (songbirds, etc.; also 
  some other non-aquatic pets) 
  Zaqé:  
  Goldfish market (ornamental fish; 
  also some other non-avian pets) 
  Surúnra: Flower market 
   
  Horology 
  The gongs of the temples and government 
  offices can be heard across most of the city, and 
  their distinctive notes and punctual schedules 
  serve as a rough public timekeeping device for 
  the inhabitants of Butrús. As described in the 
  section on government, the bureaucratic and 
  public clocks are slightly out of synchronization. 
   
  The standard system, laid out in Engsvanyáli 
  times and widely accepted ever after, is based 
  on a day of 8 ténmre or 48 kirén of equal 
  length; the day begins at observed noon for 
  purposes of timekeeping. This is called the 
  “eight-the-same” system by most people who 
  need to distinguish it from others (though 
  scholars argue endlessly over the proper name 
  for the system, based on who invented it, under 
  the reign of which Engsvanyáli Priest-King, and 
  precedent in various ancient textual sources). 
  This is the time kept almost everywhere in 
  
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  140 
   
   
  Tsolyánu, as well as being the clock used to 
  regulate the work of the government offices in 
  Butrús. While strictly speaking it is only officials 
  who are bound by this timekeeping, its 
  increments can be followed through most of the 
  city: the 60-ton brass gong used to notify 
  bureaucrats of its intervals is one of the largest 
  tunkúl, and perhaps the loudest, in the entire 
  city. While the bell is rung at noon to signal the 
  start of the (horological) day, in terms of daily 
  human activity the “first bell” is rung at the start 
  of the sixth ténmre (approximately 3:00 a.m.) 
  and is called, at least among bureaucrats and 
  their families and servants, the Mustering Bell, 
  as it summons them to report for duty.  
   
  The older system, dating back to Bednálljan and 
  pre-Bednálljan times and still in use in a few 
  locales in the Vrayáni mountains and the Káija 
  Protectorate, parts of Salarvyá, eastern Yan Kor, 
  and the remote northeastern states, is also 
  based on eight ténmre. However, it assigns 
  exactly four ténmre to the daytime and four to 
  the night, with the length of each ténmre 
  varying depending on the time of year. (That is, 
  during the winter the daylight ténmre will be 
  shorter than the night ténmre, while in summer 
  it will be the night ténmre that are shorter than 
  the daylight ones.) Obviously this system 
  requires more complex calculation and daily 
  adjustments in order to keep careful track of 
  time on a smaller scale; its adherents seem to 
  feel that it is worth the complication, and often 
  cite the “unnaturalness” and “awkwardness” of 
  having sunset and sunrise fall in the middle of a 
  ténmre or kirén. It is most often called the 
  “four-and-four” system, to distinguish it from 
  the standard or “eight-the-same” horology. Most 
  modern users of this system (including the city 
  of Butrús) consider the day to begin with the 
  first “nighttime” ténmre, at sunset. Because the 
  normal Tsolyáni custom (and that of the 
  provincial government itself) begins each day at 
  noon, there is some scope for confusion or 
  misunderstanding of “which day it is”. 
   
  In Butrús, the authoritative clock for public 
  purposes is kept according to this latter system 
  — “city time”, as opposed to “officials’ time”. 
  City time is announced by different means: by 
  drumbeats at the beginning of the four night 
  watches and by gongs at the beginning of the 
  four day watches. These signals originate at the 
  central drumtower and are repeated by the 
  watch stations in each quarter. City guardsmen 
  on their patrols carry rattles that they stop and 
  shake at the center of each city block, in order 
  to indicate the current kirén within the watch-
  period. Finally, outside each watch station, city 
  gate, government office, or market magistrate’s 
  pavilion, a plaque or board is placed upon which 
  is written the current ténmre and kirén 
  according to “city time”. The tattoo of the drums 
  and gongs is distinctive and arresting, and at 
  the same time so much part of the background 
  of life in the city that its natives often comment 
  on feeling adrift and disoriented without it when 
  they visit other cities. It is a series of eight fast, 
  three slow, and five medium beats, repeated 
  three times, at the beginning of each ténmre 
  (note that the sequential number of the ténmre 
  is not actually indicated, merely the transition to 
  the next one).  
   
  The curfew drums, on the other hand, are a 
  single long, fast, rolling tattoo that are sounded 
  40 yom after sunset and 20 yom before sunrise 
  (one hour or two “standard” kirén, and half an 
  hour or one “standard” kirén, respectively). The 
  morning drum roll that lifts curfew is shorter and 
  faster than the evening drum. Curfew is not 
  observed during the intercalary days, and the 
  city clock is abandoned until the start of the first 
  day of the first month. 
   
  The usual vigesimal subdivisions of ténmre and 
  kirén into smaller units of yom (90 seconds) and 
  sivél (4.5 seconds) are followed in Pan Cháka, 
  regardless of which horological calculation is 
  used. In the older “four-and-four” system, each 
  ténmre always has exactly six kirén in it; it is 
  only the number of yom and sivél that vary. 
  
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  APPENDIX B: Personages of Butrús 
   
  Ages, ranks, and positions given are as of 2360 
  A.S. Unless otherwise noted, the place of origin 
  should be assumed to be Butrús or Pan Cháka. 
   
  Officers of Government 
  o 
  Mikó Késun Tlanéng hiSáyu of the Red 
  Stone clan. Governor (Jaithulén) of the 
  Protectorate of Pan Cháka (C20). Age 66, 
  and a follower of Vimúhla. From ancient 
  Chákan stock, though raised in Tumíssa. Not 
  handsome or a particularly charismatic 
  public speaker, but genial, diplomatic, and 
  well-liked. Lavish tastes and belives very 
  strongly in doing things on a large scale, in 
  the grandest way that resources permit — 
  limited only by boundaries of Imperial 
  protocol. Appointed as interim Governor 
  after the disgrace of his predecessor; 
  following his capable handling of the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni crisis of 2346-7, his position 
  was made permanent.  
  o 
  Keng Tsayáme hiAvú of the Scroll of 
  Wisdom clan. Senior Magistrate (C17); age 
  49, Hnálla; born in Usenánu but of an old 
  Chákan lineage. Extremely ugly — bat-
  eared, snaggle-toothed, and pug-nosed — 
  and socially inept if not blatantly rude and 
  insulting, but as smart as they come. 
  Considered one of the Empire’s greatest 
  living legal scholars and practical jurists, he 
  has been rusticated to his ancestral home of 
  Pan Cháka after having insulted one too 
  many important people in Bey Sü, his 
  former post.  
  o 
  Hmu hiDlámeja, President of the Palace of 
  Realm (C18), with c. 500 bureaucrats (plus 
  guards and servants) under him. 51 years 
  old, of the Iron Helm clan from Mekú, and 
  vaguely 
  a 
  follower 
  of 
  Ksárul. 
  Very 
  charismatic, likeable, affable; already plump 
  and continuing to grow. With his curly hair, 
  he’s often called “Hma”, which he usually 
  thinks is funny.  
  o 
  Tiláshe 
  hiDmil, 
  Superintendent 
  of 
  Hydraulics. Age 33, Blue Kirtle clan, Thúmis. 
  Pretty, intelligent, athletic, and friendly, but 
  of awkwardly lower-class origins. She is in 
  charge of aqueducts, fountains, and cisterns 
  for the city and irrigation of the immediate 
  countryside.  
  o 
  Hirétku hiMa’ársa, President of the Palace 
  of Ever-Glorious War (C18); age 61, Red 
  Mountain clan, from Tumíssa. A follower of 
  Chiténg and former legionnaire of the Givers 
  of Sorrow. Awkward around people and 
  fairly stupid, but muddles through with help 
  from a loyal staff.  
  o 
  Zhatlásh hiChanalú, a Vice-Director of the 
  Directorate 
  for 
  the 
  Western 
  Frontier 
  Defense. Commonly called “Zha” (as in “Zha 
  and Zu”, below). In charge of the Southern 
  Division of the Directorate, responsible for 
  organizing and training militias, border 
  patrols, and sákbe guard forces along the 
  southwestern frontier. The High Coast 
  Division of his directorate has been without 
  a chief for many years.117 Accordingly, he is 
  additionally saddled with the Acting Vice-
  Directorship of that division and thus finds 
  himself responsible for the defense of the 
  distant coastline of Pan Cháka (which he has 
  never visited). He avoids all reference to this 
  Acting Vice-Directorship whenever possible, 
  especially in official contexts. 
  o 
  Zuságha hiZahagán, chief and leading 
  light of the presently (and hopefully only 
  temporarily) 
  understaffed 
  Detached 
  Department of Diplomacy. Commonly called 
  “Zu” (as in “Zha and Zu”; the two are 
  perhaps the most publicly known and 
  socially engaged officers of their Palace). 
  Among other duties, he is responsible for 
  arranging 
  qadárniyal 
  with 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni.  
  o 
  Msikúre “Timuél” hiDlang-Uth, President 
  of the Palace of the Priesthoods of the Gods 
  (C16). Age 45, Dark Flame clan, and 
  devoted to Hrü'ü. Not at all interested in 
  politics per se, but only in getting her job (in 
  the narrowest sense of the letter of the law) 
  done. Extremely intelligent but dislikes 
  conflict and tries hard to avoid trouble. Laid-
  back and hands-off in her approach to her 
  work. 
  Duties 
  include 
  supervision 
  and 
                                                  
  117 Within the Palace of War, the position is considered more 
  desirable than that of the Low Coast, i.e. the Tsechélnu 
  Flats—marginally so—but a death-knell for one’s career, as it 
  is practically impossible not to be seen failing at it miserably. 
  
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  142 
   
   
  nominal command of the Tomb Police, 
  which are always under the Palace of Ever-
  Glorious War in Tsolyánu proper; those in 
  Butrús tend to like to run things their own 
  way and now have more than the usual 
  freedom to do so. One of the “Gang of Five” 
  of the temples of Hrü’ü and 
  Wurú. 
  Nicknamed after the ritual stiletto of the 
  priesthood of Wurú — slim, deadly, and 
  often poisoned, but in fact usually just worn 
  as a harmless costume piece. Msikúre is said 
  to be the real thing, when drawn. 
  o 
  Víru Cháya hiHuméva, Warden of the City 
  of the Dead. Age 60, a worshipper of 
  Durritlámish and member of the Black Stone 
  Tomb clan, still devoted to the Ítos. 
  Perceptive and thoughtful, but has a mean 
  and nasty temperament, not improved by 
  money problems. Responsible for upkeep of 
  the necropolis and also the head of the 
  Tomb Police (about eighty soldiers). A 
  personal and professional feud between him 
  and one of the watch commanders of the 
  city guard is in its early stages.  
  o 
  Zága hiKru, President of the Palace of 
  Foreign Lands (C16); age 53; Blade Raised 
  High clan from Katalál. A follower of 
  Karakán who somehow manages to get 
  along 
  well 
  with 
  the 
  Vimúhlans 
  who 
  predominate 
  in 
  high 
  places 
  of 
  the 
  protectorate, despite his arrogance, religious 
  priggery, and lack of social skills — and he’s 
  dumb as a rock to boot.  
  o 
  Vennúre hiQu’úrus, Metropolitan Prefect 
  or "Mayor" (Savàlharéto, C13); an office left 
  over from the recent ditlána. Age 49, Golden 
  Bough clan from Thráya; a worshipper of 
  Avánthe. Neither smart nor personally 
  wealthy, and at the mercy of underlings who 
  are one or supplicants who are the other. 
  Handles many aspects of civic administration 
  and is answerable directly to the Governor. 
  The post may be discontinued, which would 
  be a bad thing for the incumbent — he is 
  dependent upon it for money and power.  
  o 
  Írwesh, one of the eight lieutenants of the 
  City Militia. A middle-aged Páchi Lei whose 
  “family” settled in Butrús over two thousand 
  years ago; a member of the Black Mountain 
  clan and an earnest devotee of Grugánu. It 
  is a brilliant detective, but perhaps too gruff 
  and picks its friends poorly. A feud is 
  beginning to develop between it and the 
  warden of the necropolis. It has also been 
  chastised by a number of magistrates for 
  presuming to meddle in their rightful duties. 
  o 
  Captain of the Omnipotent Azure Legion, 
  Dláppa hiSsánmirin of the Jade Diadem 
  clan. A sleek artiste, aesthete, orgiast, and 
  Dlamélish-worshipping 
  gentleman 
  from 
  Jakálla, aged 31. While he holds military 
  rank in the Legion, he has absolutely no 
  discernable military experience or training; 
  nor is he one of the deaf-mute Servitors in 
  Silence. It is thus widely assumed that his 
  brief is one of pure intelligence work. He has 
  successfully persuaded a large number of 
  people that he couldn’t possibly be involved 
  in any real espionage, though, since it’s so 
  publicly “obvious” that’s what he must be 
  doing.  
  o 
  Gusérse hiZhakkél, member of the Golden 
  Sapphire Clan and token worshipper of 
  Thúmis, he is overseer of the city’s slave 
  market, holding a nominal 6th Circle rank in 
  the Palace of the Realm. Notoriously 
  corrupt, he preys heavily on the slavers. His 
  depredations have hurt these despised 
  merchants so much that the supply of slaves 
  in Butrús is becoming a bit scarce.  
  o 
  Makbé Ntóyi hiSsurné, Captain of the 
  Market Police. His character, and that of his 
  troops, can perhaps best be captured by an 
  incident where he personally kicked one of 
  his men to death for corruption. After 
  serving a two-year hard labor sentence, he 
  returned to the force and rapidly rose again 
  through the ranks, this time reaching the 
  top. 
  Tremendously 
  upright 
  and 
  strict; 
  perhaps his only shortcoming is his distaste 
  for Úrmishites (common enough in old 
  Butrusséne families like his own) and for 
  Jakállans (for reasons unknown). 
  o 
  Kwo-Hü-Kú’o, Mkhóqu O-Myess, and 
  Yélyo Bzü’ürh are the three current 
  “Speakers” for the Páchi Lei community of 
  Butrús. While each apparently represents a 
  separate constituency, it is unclear to 
  outsiders how this is organized — it is at 
  least 
  certainly 
  not 
  along 
  residential 
  (neighborhood) lines. Yélyo, with the best 
  attempt at a human-style name, is generally 
  considered the most acculturated of the 
  three, having traveled and lived extensively 
  in other cities of Tsolyánu; the other two are 
  more parochial — with “family” histories 
  
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  143 
   
   
  going back millennia in Butrús, they tend to 
  find less of interest and use in the world 
  outside 
  Pan 
  Cháka. 
  Nevertheless, 
  by 
  standards of the Páchi Lei enclaves of the 
  deep south, they are all highly Tsolyanified 
  cosmopolitans. 
  o 
  Chta-ks-spe, Chief Person (Tii-petk) of the 
  Pe Choi community. Notably, he does not 
  represent the members of the Legion of the 
  Forest of Hh-kk-ssá and their families, who 
  are socially distinct from the “native” 
  Butrusséne Pe Choi. He is a worshipper of 
  the Black Old One, nominally a member of 
  the temple of Hrü’ü for human social 
  purposes, 
  and 
  a 
  furniture-maker 
  by 
  profession.  
  o 
  The Old Man. The power behind the 
  powers of the city’s Hláka community, this 
  reserved and cunning politician is possibly 
  the oldest living resident of the city, having 
  just turned 109 this year. He is a rich 
  repository of the city’s history, gossip, and 
  trivia over the past four or five generations. 
  The eyrie’s nominal “king” (aói elá) is a 
  chattering fool who is dependent on the Old 
  Man for any important decision, and his 
  choice of a “Flight of Death” (war-chief; see 
  below) was determined for him by the Old 
  Man.  
   
  Mu’ugalavyáni Residents 
  o 
  Nishrásish Qefél, Mu’ugalavyáni Consul of 
  the Second (Scarlet) Palace (C16), reporting 
  to the Prince (Dü'ümünish) of Khéiris. Age 
  51. Ugly as sin but a seasoned diplomat; 
  loyal and tactful, uninventive and perhaps a 
  bit 
  dull. 
  His 
  main 
  interest 
  lies 
  in 
  Mu’ugalavyáni history: diplomatic history, 
  naturally, but also the allegedly thrilling 
  topic of land reforms in the Second and First 
  Palaces.  
  o 
  Mno’oyél Ántiu, High Priest of Hrsh (C10). 
  Age 51. Handsome and talented in many 
  polite arts, he is a frequent guest in the 
  mansions and courts of the elite of Butrús. 
  Also 
  the 
  owner 
  of 
  an 
  exotic 
  sword 
  fashioned, apparently, of clear glass, an 
  ancient heirloom of his family. In fact, it is 
  technically treated as a member of his 
  family: his foster-brother, to be exact. It 
  seems to have originated in Pan Cháka long 
  ago, and in his new posting Mno’oyél has 
  learned that its name, Záyeglòku, could 
  come from a Chákan vernacular, meaning 
  “River-Razor” — which is also its traditional 
  nickname within in the family and among 
  collectors and students of weaponry. 
  o 
  Nakhásnya 
  Ántiu. 
  The 
  23-year-old 
  daughter of High Priest Mno’oyél, a Va’álza 
  or “Higher Spellcaster”. Beautiful, very 
  intelligent, and gifted, but shrewish, vicious, 
  snobbish, insecure and generally unpleasant 
  to actually be anywhere near. Her full-
  length, long wide-sleeved robes of red linen 
  are nevertheless frequently spotted at 
  official events and society gatherings. A 
  special devotee of the 21st Aspect of Hrsh, 
  Giugémish, whose sphere is knowledge to 
  be used for the “Expansion of the Flame”.  
  o 
  Ku'ulménish Ko'ól, military attaché and 
  (more importantly) the brother of Prince 
  Dilitlázish Ko'ól, general of Legion II, the 
  Scarlet Battalion, of Khéiris. (The Scarlet 
  Battalion was defeated in a qadárni at 
  Butrús recently). Age 44. Both physically 
  repellent and horrendously idiotic, a disaster 
  on two legs. The other members of the 
  consulate are still desperately seeking ways 
  to get him recalled to Mu’ugalavyá before he 
  causes 
  more 
  unpleasant 
  “incidents”; 
  however, powers that be back home have 
  so far foiled all such plans.  
  o 
  Bárresha Hlaqórish, Professor Itinerate of 
  the College of Phenomenal Philosophy in 
  Ssa’átis. He has come to Butrús to study the 
  twin questions of whether the Páchi Lei are 
  capable of reason or not and whether a 
  state of civilization may be inducedin them. 
  The College of which he is a member is a 
  “scientific” foundation established by the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni government and the temples 
  of Hrsh (lavishly endowed by both); while 
  highly prestigious in Mu’ugalavyá, it is 
  looked down on abroad as a convocation of 
  vulgar engineers and technicians. 
   
  Temple Personnel and Religious Figures 
  The head of each city temple is listed, plus the 
  most talented or senior sorcerer for each God-
  Cohort pair, and any other members of 
  particular 
  note, 
  including 
  protectorate-level 
  patriarchs, who are often based in the Butrús 
  temple complexes as well.  
  
  144 
   
  144 
   
   
  o 
  Zurunár Klálo hiVríga, High Priest of 
  Sárku (C12), age 49, White Crystal clan. 
  Mostly concerned with rituals, tidiness and 
  upkeep of the temple, and in attending and 
  arranging public rituals and festivals, of 
  which he is very fond. Thanks to this 
  dedication, many in Butrús and its suburbs 
  would agree that the Worm Lord throws the 
  best parties. Perhaps not too talented, but a 
  hard worker. Far from a sharp theologian, 
  despite his high office. Homely and too 
  obese for his own good health.  
  o 
  Sságru hiQigór, High Priest of Durritlámish 
  (C10); age 42, from a medium-status clan in 
  Tsa'avtúlgu in Salarvyá, but has lived in 
  Tsolyánu for fifteen years or more. Only just 
  recently adopted (reluctantly, it seems) by 
  the Black Hood clan. Plain but polite and 
  cultured (at least by local standards), and 
  certainly devout and capable. Superficially 
  he seems dignified and nice enough, yet 
  leaves one feeling indefinably sickened. This 
  slimy and secretive affect has prevented his 
  faster promotion, and he is not much liked 
  even by the personnel of his own temple. A 
  vocal 
  supporter 
  of 
  Prince 
  Dhich’uné, 
  presumably with hopes of thereby winning 
  further advancement.  
  o 
  Nzirís Ákhle hiSrírra, Commander of 
  Energies and Powers and a scholar-priest 
  (C6, but only a kusijákto) of the Temple of 
  Durritlámish. Age 52, Black Mountain clan. 
  Very intelligent and the best sorcerer of the 
  two temples; however, he suffers from 
  extreme impoverishment. He quietly dislikes 
  and distrusts the High Priest, but his lack of 
  resources and connections — as well as a 
  lack of concrete objections — keeps him 
  from any overt expression of this.  
  o 
  Horiyór hiBeshkík. Head of the Gem of 
  Amber 
  Society 
  (in 
  Pan 
  Cháka), 
  a 
  contemplative and mystical “secret society” 
  of Sárku’s worshippers, and a special 
  devotee of Batha’ák, the Eye of Eternity. He 
  is 43 years old, of the Copper Door clan, 
  originally from Sokátis, and belongs to a rich 
  mercantile and money-lending family. Jolly 
  and mellow, given to rolling his eyes at the 
  dark, horrifying, and as he says, “ultimately 
  adolescent” aspects of his faith as normally 
  perceived and presented. Holds the position 
  of Proctor (Qùrupengáto) and member of 
  the 14th Circle in the scholar-priesthood.  
   
  o 
  Sranéku Mekhtéte hiUlé’e, Grand High 
  Priest of Vimúhla (C15). Age 51, Sword of 
  Fire Clan, half-Mu'ugalavyáni (on his father’s 
  side). Frankly of only average intelligence 
  and capabilities. Handsome, moderately 
  wealthy, and somewhat prickly and paranoid 
  — though justifiably so, given the schemes 
  of the Priestly Party at Avanthár, intrigues 
  within the Flame Temples, resentment from 
  the Red Clans of the Chákas that he won 
  this position, and the international situation 
  in the west. Particularly distrusted by the 
  Imperial Court and its loyalist adherents, 
  given his clan membership and father’s 
  nationality; they suspect his patriotism. 
  Doctrinal and political blandness combined 
  with his family’s money, however, have 
  permitted him to rise to this sensitive 
  position.  
  o 
  Delákna hiAká, Administrative Preceptress 
  of Vimúhla (C15); age 61, Red Mountain 
  clan from Tumíssa. Responsible for the 
  secular 
  properties 
  and 
  bureaucracy 
  of 
  Vimúhla’s sect throughout the protectorate, 
  not merely the city of Butrús. Canny and 
  politically astute; she manages to be the 
  real power behind the scenes in the local 
  temple, and is even a noteworthy power 
  outside Pan Cháka. Filthy rich, certainly one 
  of the wealthiest individuals (as opposed to 
  families or clans) in Pan Cháka.  
  o 
  Hrkháno Vríddi, Grand Wizard of the 
  Temple of Vimúhla, and a lay-priest largely 
  resident there. Age 52, a Vríddi from 
  Fasíltum; typically arrogant and haughty, he 
  is respected but not much liked. He is 
  homely, nasty, tatty and cheap. He’s also as 
  a consequence actually quite lonely, though 
  he could never admit it.  
  o 
  Narrukóle Chéshet hiBosúga, a mid-
  ranking ritual priest of Vimúhla with harsh 
  and outré views on sacrifice — he takes an 
  extreme position on the purity of the Flame, 
  which he holds should not be contaminated 
  with the bodies or spirits of any but the 
  most devout, worthy, and purified. He 
  advocates fiercely for the cessation of 
  “indiscriminate, foul, disgusting profanation 
  of the Sacred Fire”. This is also an ancient 
  Mu’ugalavyáni doctrine that still has a small, 
  suppressed number of followers in that 
  country.  
  
  145 
   
  145 
   
   
  o 
  Tháte Khesákh hiChúatsu, Headmaster 
  of the Crucible of the Glowing-Hot Skulls, 
  the school of the temples of Vimúhla and 
  Chiténg. An acclaimed scholar as a youth, 
  who traveled in Mu’ugalavyá and brought 
  back several extremely important religious 
  texts and commentaries; he (and others in 
  his temple and field of knowledge) know it 
  was all a matter of luck and political 
  favoritism, and that he’s frankly a mediocre 
  mind. 
  Nevertheless, 
  the 
  Crucible 
  is 
  considered one of the best schools of the 
  Flame Priests in all of Tsolyánu, due entirely 
  to the Headmaster’s late-found knack (he is 
  in his early sixties) for identifying, recruiting, 
  and managing the scholars and teachers to 
  do the actual work. He is a Proctor (C11) in 
  the scholar-priesthood of his sect, as well. 
  o 
  Ámkhon (temple name), or Kshurrghút 
  Beqf (original name, rarely used), a ritual 
  priest in the Temple of Vimúhla (C8), of 
  N’lüss origin. Now in his early thirties, he 
  was a rising star in the temple hierarchy of 
  Malcháiran and on his way to becoming a 
  notable theologian, but left for reasons as 
  much political as professional. After brief 
  stints in temples of eastern Mu’ugalavyá, he 
  emigrated to Tsolyánu and soon wound up 
  in Butrús. Besides having brought a large 
  collection of Vimúhlan religious texts from 
  Mu’ugalavyá, he is now the temple’s chief 
  authority on Mu’ugalavyáni religious affairs 
  (and one of Tsolyánu’s leading experts on 
  the field) as well as occasionally tutoring 
  students in his own language. He brought 
  one wife with him from Mu’ugalavyá and has 
  since acquired a second, Tsolyáni, bride of 
  the Red Mountain clan in Butrús — into 
  which he is due to be formally adopted in 
  the immediate future, having long been an 
  informal member of her family. Widely 
  suspected of being involved in secret 
  conspiracies and political dealings, though 
  conflicting reports accuse him of being a 
  Mu’ugalavyáni agent rather than of a 
  domestic faction. He is faultlessly cultured, 
  though he does not make an undue effort to 
  conform to Tsolyáni high society; he speaks 
  with a flawless Butrusséne accent — though 
  he enjoys doing imitations of Tumíssan 
  arrivistes, Pagús schoolteachers, and the 
  stereotypical “raging N’lüss bumpkin”.  
  o 
  Hlútku Takhím hiMákuru, Royal and 
  Imperial Preceptor for the Pan Chákan 
  Temples of Chiténg (C15). An unremarkable 
  member of the Red Sun clan, by all 
  indications and appearances. The head of 
  the priesthoods and supreme ecclesiastical 
  authority in the protectorate; however, his 
  main concern is with Butrús, where most of 
  Chiténg’s cult is focused, and whose great 
  temple’s high priest is concurrently the 
  general of the Legion of the Givers of 
  Sorrow. The latter post is usually the more 
  demanding, and so the Preceptor effectively 
  presides over this temple as well. He seems 
  to have no particular ambitions, despite the 
  high rank he has already obtained at a 
  young age (he is only 39).  
  o 
  Firígga hiPenála, Abbot-in-Crimson of the 
  Monastery of Gleeful Shrieks. Age 34, Iron 
  Fist clan. Handsome, thoughtful, frenetic, 
  chipper. He is said to be a careful but 
  skeptical student of the Interrogation of 
  Usónesh,118 
  an 
  extremely 
  volatile 
  and 
  delicate subject in Chiténgian theology, 
  particularly in Butrús. The Monastery is a 
  sort 
  of 
  seminary 
  for 
  sado-masochistic 
  ritualism, linked to the Company of the 
  Orange Band and drawing on the temples of 
  both Chiténg and Hriháyal.  
  o 
  Yársa hiHyáguru, Abbot of the Monastery 
  of the Scroll of the Blaze Revealed. Little to 
  nothing is known of this person, who along 
  with his monks dwells in rigorous seclusion 
  from the secular world in the not-so-distant 
  depths of the Pan Chákan jungles.  
  o 
  Pséreng Úhat, a well-known religious 
  mendicant and noted ecstatic devoted to an 
  obscure and antique local Aspect of Vimúhla 
                                                  
  118 The alleged transcript of the questioning of one Usónesh 
  Kátlen Pìlutóda, an apparent nobody accused of theft and 
  embezzlement, by a run-of-the-mill quartet of the Company 
  of the Orange Band in Butrús. While under torture, Usónesh 
  suddenly presented a long and sophisticated statement of 
  esoteric philosophy and cosmology, combined with a number 
  of meticulous prophetic passages, all recorded by the baffled 
  torturers. This visionary state ended immediately when 
  application of torture was ceased, and he appeared to retain 
  no knowledge of what he had said, even when torture was 
  recommenced. What became of the prisoner after the 
  session ended is hotly disputed, and the subsequent 
  histories of the four members of the interrogation team 
  raises difficult questions. The transcript has received 
  intensive but still restricted circulation among priests and 
  sages of the temples of Chiténg and Vimúhla; it is highly 
  controversial, to say the least. 
  
  146 
   
  146 
   
   
  (Muhlumálu, the Flicker of Life). Wanders 
  the countryside — where he is viewed with 
  great respect and fondness — preaching, 
  performing 
  miracles 
  at 
  festivals, 
  and 
  (somewhat unusually) fiercely condemning 
  all forms of soothsaying, prognostication, 
  fortune telling, and even divine prophecy. 
  Having been investigated at least twice by 
  the ecclesiastical courts for heresy on this 
  last matter and having soundly trounced his 
  would-be prosecutors, most recently about 
  twelve years ago, he is now left alone and 
  studiously ignored by the powers that be. 
  His origins are uncertain, as are his clan, but 
  he is clearly of native Pan Chákan origin, 
  from the humbler strata of society.  
   
  o 
  Sherésa hiDuruntláno of the Dark Moon 
  clan, age 33. Grand High Priestess of Ksárul 
  (C14). No mere functionary or politician, she 
  is a skilled sorceress and linguist, and 
  strikingly beautiful as well. A member of the 
  Refulgent Blue Curtain Society and strongly 
  opposed to the Ndálu Clan, she has lately 
  been involved in opposing Prince Mridóbu's 
  plans to move the new Legion of the Night 
  of Shadows from Jakálla to Butrús. Has a 
  tense, 
  conflict-ridden 
  relationship 
  with 
  General G-Gum-Shóggu of the Legion of 
  Tangled 
  Root 
  Eaters, 
  though 
  she 
  is 
  unusually close to Páchi Lei in general — 
  having several of them in her private 
  bodyguard. She comes from a minor and 
  poor branch of the clan in the hinterland, 
  has no surviving family of her own (and has 
  not married), but rose with exceptional 
  rapidity through the temple hierarchy. 
  o 
  Aómu 
  Séru 
  hiSafénya, 
  Senior 
  Commandant of the Temple of Ksárul (C12); 
  age 48, Black Hand clan; a special devotee 
  of the Aspect Mentutékka as well as acting 
  head of the secular administration in Pan 
  Cháka. Regarded as a protector of urban 
  underclasses and an advocate for rural and 
  forest peasantry. Very poor, both by 
  heritage and by personal choice, and also 
  very charismatic. Due to the extent of his 
  involvement in these issues, temples and 
  monasteries of Ksárul outside Butrús proper 
  have a large amount of freedom in their 
  internal administration. Suspected by many 
  of being partial to the cult of the Unlighted 
  Germination, though this is not at all the 
  case. A staunch supporter of the Grand High 
  Priestess Sherésa.  
  o 
  Bussúna 
  hiKhanúma, 
  Commander 
  of 
  Energies and Powers and also a Ranking 
  Scholar (C7) in the Temple of Ksárul. Age 
  36, Cloak of Azure Gems clan, from 
  Púrdimal; 
  a 
  devotee 
  of 
  Ksárul. 
  Very 
  intelligent and cunning, 
  self-consciously 
  good-looking and fashionable, affable and 
  sociable, 
  but 
  in 
  straitened 
  financial 
  circumstances. 
  Also 
  a 
  Ndálu 
  Clan 
  sympathizer, though not necessarily a 
  member; in any case, such an outlook is 
  kept carefully to himself, given the climate 
  in the temple at Butrús. The Ndálu Clan, at 
  least, has realized his money problems make 
  him easily bought.  
  o 
  Hyellé hiZhama’í, High Priest of Grugánu 
  (C11). 
  Age 
  57, 
  Black 
  Stone 
  clan. 
  Pockmarked, ugly, and a social dud, he is a 
  semi-open Ndálu Clan member. He lacks 
  nerve and doesn't dare oppose, or even 
  intrigue against, the Grand High Priestess; 
  instead, he tries to play off all sides against 
  the others. Ever so slightly inept, he is 
  forced to spend much of his time just 
  struggling to keep his head above water. 
  The fact that he is from Úrmish does little to 
  help his popularity among the real natives of 
  Butrús. As the temple is relatively wealthy, 
  given its small size, he uses its resources to 
  bolster his position and manipulate all 
  factions; he uses his own not inconsiderable 
  wealth to compensate for the shortcomings 
  of his private life. 
  o 
  Vrána hiPávu, Rector of the Tower of 
  Indigo Thought (the temple academy for 
  followers of Ksárul, and of the Tlokiriqáluyal 
  generally). Age 48, Sea Blue clan, from 
  Mrelú by way of Bey Sü; a devotee of 
  Grugánu. Funloving and dedicated to his 
  students, totally apolitical and perhaps not 
  too devout in a strict sense. Dashingly 
  handsome, smart, easygoing, and all around 
  a nice guy. Said to have money problems, 
  perhaps due to his free spending and 
  generosity with the school. Some have 
  grumbled that his breezy attitude towards 
  study is all very well for the handful of 
  pupils talented enough to pull it off, but sets 
  a very poor example for all those who need 
  to buckle down and work hard. An amazing 
  polymath, but one of the areas he is most 
  
  147 
   
  147 
   
   
  renowned 
  and 
  respected 
  for 
  is 
  the 
  extremely difficult and confusing field of 
  native Chákan historical annals. 
  o 
  Master Mbeth, so nicknamed after a 
  martial and furry aspect of Grugánu due to 
  his own striking hairiness. An expert hu’ón 
  fighter and trainer of a small group of 
  martial artists and meditation practitioners. 
  While he trains those sent to him with the 
  proper authorization — whether they are 
  worshippers of Hrü’ü or Grugánu, Ndálu 
  Clan or Refulgent Blue Curtain Society 
  members — he also has a smaller cadre of 
  senior students, whom he apparently hand-
  picks and who have no known political or 
  factional ties. No one has ever seen Master 
  Mbeth or his close disciples in genuine 
  combat, only in training bouts: they all 
  swear they are committed pacifists who 
  would never fight an enemy — in fact, if 
  pressured on the subject, they spend many 
  a kirén arguing for the invalidity of the very 
  concept “enemy”. Technically, he is a junior 
  administrative priest (C6) with a position 
  dealing with compiling and auditing the 
  accounts of district and prefectural temple 
  establishments in the protectorate. His real 
  name — known to very few indeed — is 
  Khéskhe Mar, of the Black Mountain clan; 
  because of a bitter feud within his family, 
  split between two lineages, he personally 
  renounced the use of a lineage-name 
  altogether and refuses to be involved in 
  family or clan affairs of any type. 
  o 
  Hóchu’eng hiTsúnkai has appeared as the 
  (default or nominal?) leader or spokesman 
  for 
  the 
  members 
  of 
  the 
  Unlighted 
  Germination sect in Pan Cháka. While the 
  sect’s internal leadership traditions and 
  structure is unknown, most Tsolyáni tend to 
  look to Hóchu’eng to represent his people — 
  he is the direct, lineal descendant of the 
  cult’s founder. Nevertheless, he only came 
  to Pan Cháka a few years ago, being born 
  and bred on the flat, treeless, temperate 
  plains of Marélmu province. He is 34 years 
  old, but is weather-beaten and worn by 
  regular manual labor — disconcerting and 
  embarrassing 
  to 
  mainstream 
  priests, 
  bureaucrats, and scholars who might deal 
  with him. Patient and unfailingly polite, 
  apparently impossible to anger, and like 
  most of his fellow cultists, possessed of an 
  almost 
  supernatural 
  aura 
  of 
  profound 
  tranquility and calm. He is slightly more 
  forthcoming about the sect’s tenets than 
  most of his fellows, and has made tentative 
  attempts at conversion of a few likely 
  candidates. 
   
  o 
  Éptakh-At hiPayál, High Priest of Avánthe 
  (C11). Age 54, White Stone Clan. Plain-
  faced and dull but very competent. Could 
  have gone much farther in his career, but 
  was simply too boring and forgettable for 
  his superiors to bother with. Well-liked by all 
  his underlings. 
  o 
  Tarkúma hiHága, a priest of Jogái, Thirty-
  Third Aspect of Avánthe. Age 40, Silver 
  Collar Clan, from Tumíssa, where he studied 
  and taught for years in the musical 
  academy. Now runs a small branch school at 
  Butrús. Extremely talented and erudite. He 
  has something of a chip on each shoulder 
  about 
  provincial 
  bumpkinness, 
  being 
  alternately contemptuous of the level of Pan 
  Chákan 
  culture 
  compared 
  to 
  that 
  of 
  Tumíssa, and insecure in the face of 
  metropolitan (Bey Sü) tastes and fashions. 
  He is also a good swordman, with at least 
  two duels to his credit.  
  o 
  Kolúkke 
  vuChéka, 
  High 
  Priestess 
  of 
  Dilinála (C10). Age 44, Joyous of Vra clan, 
  from Vra. Pretty, intelligent, and comfortably 
  well off, but sharp-tongued and given to 
  offhand, biting jokes that mainlanders don't 
  think are funny at all. As a result, her life is 
  much more stressful and difficult than one 
  would reasonably expect.  
  o 
  Sáti’um Gerré hiMsha, Commander of 
  Energies and Powers, and a lay priestess. 
  Age 47, Gray Wand clan, of an old Pan 
  Chákan family though she herself was born 
  and raised in Páya Gupá; a devotee of 
  Dilinála. Bony and tall, still somewhat good-
  looking but austere, sullen and stiff in 
  public, often withdrawn; more a deep than a 
  fast thinker. Inclined to mysticism in theory 
  but calculated and ruthless action 
  in 
  practice. Almost certainly a member of the 
  Company of the Eye of the Storm, a 
  secretive sub-sect within the temple. Said to 
  be the lover of the High Priestess, but this is 
  said of practically any two priestesses of the 
  goddess, and these two are rarely seen 
  together outside of formal functions. Her 
  
  148 
   
  148 
   
   
  second (teknonymic) name comes from her 
  adopted (obviously) daughter, who recently 
  joined the Legion of the Sapphire Kirtle and 
  is presently training at Tu’únmra.  
   
  o 
  Fuléngga Vu’él hiKumítle, High Priest of 
  Belkhánu (C12). Age 53, Golden Bough 
  Clan. A very friendly, outgoing, kindly fellow 
  of no particular professional distinction. One 
  of the city’s great numismatists; if his 
  collection is not the biggest or richest it is at 
  least the most public and easiest to view. 
  Gets along quite well with his counterpart in 
  the Temple of Sárku; there is talk of their 
  grandchildren marrying, which would be an 
  unusual alliance.  
  o 
  Ka’ággi hiTéngka, High Priestess of Qon 
  (C11). Age 47, Amber Cloak Clan. Missing 
  one arm and one eye, which are said to 
  have been removed by demons; also 
  scarred about the throat, leaving her voice a 
  menacing whisper. A former “ghost hunter” 
  and “consulting exorcist”. Tends towards the 
  portentous entrance, esoteric inquisition, 
  and 
  ominous 
  utterance; 
  an 
  unsettling 
  person to be around. Elevated suddenly to 
  the position, and not especially suited to it. 
  o 
  Fadiltsúni hiTvósret, lay priestess and 
  sorceress. Aged 30, Sea Blue Clan, well-
  traveled and somewhat rootless. She settled 
  in Butrús only two years ago and it is not 
  certain how long she intends to stay. She is 
  rich and beautiful, but eccentric to the point 
  of frightfulness, and possessed of a family of 
  even 
  more 
  outlandishly 
  obnoxious 
  aristocrats, some of whom visit often.119 
  Nevertheless, an accomplished musician and 
  demonologist, and casual specialist in the 
  Planes Beyond.  
   
  o 
  Peréksudà, High Priest of Thúmis (C11). 
  Age 52, Amber Cloak; a Pe Choi from Do 
  Cháka. He has assumed a human personal 
  name and been adopted into a high clan, 
  but not into a lineage. While naturally close 
  to General Mt-trik, he is more acculturated 
  than most of the General’s legionnaires, and 
  has concerns about the soundness of their 
                                                  
  119 
  Redacted 
  commentary 
  and 
  extratextual 
  evidence 
  suggests this individual may be a cousin or sister of the 
  author’s employer. If this is so, it is puzzling why the author 
  chose to insert this peculiar assessment of the family, 
  knowing who would certainly read it. (– the translator) 
  beliefs and religious practice. He has 
  extensively involved himself in regional 
  politics and is in regular attendance at the 
  Governor’s Court. Has absolutely no time for 
  or interest in the allegations that the 
  hospital run by his temple is mistreating or 
  exploiting its poorer patients. Privately he 
  believes these rumors are part of a 
  campaign by the Temple of Ksárul and its 
  minions to defame the Lord of Gray, but is 
  careful 
  about 
  whom 
  he 
  shares 
  such 
  suspicions with. 
  o 
  Tsákten hiRadáika, a scholar-priest of 
  Thúmis, privately known within the temple 
  as 
  “the 
  Chief 
  Supervisor 
  of 
  External 
  Deaccessions” for his talent at acquiring 
  texts for his temple from private libraries 
  and even from other temples — with or 
  without their permission. He is from an 
  extremely wealthy family in Do Cháka, 
  belonging to the Grey Wand clan; despite 
  his modest temple rank (C5, and a 
  kusijáktosa or senior scholar), he lives up to 
  his family’s expectations and is known best 
  as a high-living young aristocrat. Some of 
  his schemes have been quite elaborate, 
  requiring the use of independent teams of 
  dupes, stooges, and decoys in addition to 
  the 
  usual 
  spies, 
  informers, 
  technical 
  specialists, and “hard men”. Some of the 
  former category who have escaped and 
  survived are likely to hold grudges and may 
  come seeking the source of their sufferings.  
  o 
  Shútesh 
  Ázak 
  hiJainú’u. 
  Caster 
  of 
  Enchantments and Controls and a minor 
  ritual priest. Age 53, Golden Sheaf clan. A 
  devotee of Thúmis and activist of the 
  Brotherhood of Supernal Wisdom; the most 
  powerful sorcerer of the Grey Robes in the 
  Pan Chákan hierarchy, which at the moment 
  is not saying much. Would like to leave 
  Butrús 
  — 
  which 
  he 
  complains 
  about 
  constantly, despite having been born here 
  and never having left the protectorate — 
  and enter one of his faith’s monasteries in 
  the north, but he has so far been unable to 
  secure permission. 
  o 
  Záiru 
  hiChuhó, 
  Headmistress 
  of 
  the 
  Pavilion of Vision in the Pearly Clouds (the 
  temple academy serving Thúmis and the 
  other Tlomítlanyal). Age 38, Victorious Globe 
  clan, from Thráya; a special devotee of 
  Feshmu’ún the Eternal Teacher, Eighth 
  
  149 
   
  149 
   
   
  Aspect of Thúmis. Ascetic and stern, she is 
  best known as a strict, even harsh, 
  disciplinarian. Personally, a scholar of the 
  Dragon Warriors, in particular the history of 
  later 
  splinter-dynasties 
  and 
  their 
  descendants in the early Bednálljan period. 
  o 
  Turgéru 
  hiHáqtlas, 
  High 
  Priest 
  of 
  Keténgku 
  (C14). 
  Age 
  52, 
  Staff 
  of 
  Beneficence clan. Best known as a mercurial 
  bully who frequently explodes in violent 
  rages at his people, then spends endless 
  amounts of time trying to set things right. 
  o 
  Aqirúng hiUlél, Chief of Staff of the 
  Hospice 
  of 
  Gleaming 
  Teeth 
  (a 
  clinic 
  specializing in dentistry, dedicated to an 
  Aspect of Keténgku called Tírekshen of the 
  Sweet Jaws); age 36, Golden Sheaf clan, 
  member of the Staff of Mercy Society. 
  Defensive about the practices and slightly 
  unsavory reputation (among common folk) 
  of the main “hospital” run by the Temple of 
  Thúmis. He has frequently clashed with High 
  Priest of Thúmis, who continues to regard 
  him as nothing but an upstart craftsman, 
  and with his own High Priest, who simply 
  becomes enraged and abusive.  
   
  (The 
  following 
  four 
  individuals, 
  plus 
  the 
  President of the Palace of the Priesthoods of the 
  Gods, are all natives of Butrús and old school 
  chums; they comprise their own little secret 
  society alongside the others — the so-called 
  “Gang of Five” or the “Five Purple Fingers”.) 
  o 
  Buach-Ikwá-Ung, High Priest of Hrü'ü 
  (C10); age 46, Black Stone clan; an urban 
  Páchi Lei. Has a large family, which it is able 
  to support only through a large bequest 
  from a deceased human clan-elder some 
  fifteen years ago. The eldest and most 
  “responsible” 
  of 
  the 
  group; 
  intensely 
  parochial, with little interest in what goes on 
  beyond the walls of Butrús, and none 
  whatsoever outside of Pan Cháka. 
  o 
  Sa’árin hiMráyal. Age 41, Dark Water 
  clan. Possessed of an icy, unflappable calm, 
  a coldly analytical mind, and a photographic 
  memory, 
  he 
  terrorized 
  at 
  least 
  two 
  generations of teachers and now his fellow 
  scholars. While technically a scholar-priest 
  of Hrü’ü (of the 12th Circle, but only holding 
  a Proctorship), he is a special devotee — or 
  at least student — of the Cat-God, which he 
  claims is not an Aspect of Hrü’ü at all, but a 
  non-Pavárian deity. Technically heretical in 
  the eyes of theologians 
  of the sect 
  elsewhere in Tsolyánu, and perhaps under 
  investigation by agents of the ecclesiastical 
  courts — not that that bothers him any, 
  particularly with the protection of his lifelong 
  friend 
  Msikúre 
  in 
  the 
  Palace 
  of 
  the 
  Priesthoods of the Gods.  
  o 
  Tetésh Snémi’u hiTeqúrnu, Commander 
  of Energies and Powers; age 42, White 
  Crystal clan. A lay priest of Hrü’ü practically 
  resident at the temple. Painfully shy unless 
  drunk, 
  then 
  simply 
  painful. 
  Has 
  a 
  stepdaughter from a brief and disastrous 
  marriage in his early thirties, who ended up 
  staying with Tetésh rather than following 
  either of her birth-parents. 
  o 
  Okóme Dijét hiHrken, High Priestess of 
  Wurú (C10). Age 44, Standing Stone; the 
  only member of this set interested in 
  genuine politics on even the level of the 
  protectorate, let alone the empire. Supports 
  the idea of greater autonomy from the Petal 
  Throne, or possibly even independence, but 
  is not known to favor the current Íto 
  leadership, nor the Red Hats. She has failed 
  to rise in the priesthood’s hierarchy due to 
  outspokenness on this issue and others, but 
  managed to win the High Priesthood 
  recently after a concerted and savage 
  intrigue against outside candidates.  
   
  o 
  Pakántu 
  hiChrégar, 
  High 
  Priest 
  of 
  Karakán (C11). Age 39, Red Stone clan. 
  While he gets along well with Vimúhlans, he 
  is 
  violently 
  antipathetic 
  to 
  the 
  Mu’ugalavyáni. Under the strong advice of 
  his 
  temple 
  and 
  certain 
  non-Chakan 
  clanmembers, he has rejected adopting a 
  second name in the local manner. This has 
  become a sore point for his clan relatives in 
  Pan Cháka, particularly as the child in 
  question (Inthátu hiChrégar) is a bright 
  and rising star in the Legion of Lord 
  Khariháya 
  (14th 
  Crossbowmen), 
  much 
  admired for his heroic qualities.  
  o 
  Rayáfe hiAmiyála, High Priest of Chegárra 
  (C12). Age 36, Might of Gánga, from Gánga 
  itself; snobbish and loathes all locals, 
  regardless of status, as barely-Tsolyáni 
  provincial louts. Particularly disdains the 
  local Chalchái lineage of his own clan. 
  Avoids contact with all but the highest levels 
  
  150 
   
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  of society; even then he is still rude to 
  native-born Chákans.  
  o 
  Mne Takhím hiEshói,120 Higher Spellcaster 
  and scholar-priest of Chegárra. Age 37, Red 
  Sword clan. Currently the most powerful 
  sorcerer left in these two temples; others, 
  more experienced and skilled, have left to 
  take up posts in the north, closer to the 
  promise of fighting.  
  o 
  Hrákash hiSsankólun of the Sea Blue 
  Clan, Administrative Preceptor on the High 
  Council of the Temple of Karakán, originally 
  hails from Butrús. He is now 63, and known 
  for being less expansionist than many in his 
  sect (instead favoring consolidation). He 
  lives, of course, in Bey Sü. 
   
  o 
  Ákoleng hiChunmíyel, High Priestess of 
  Hnálla (C12). Age 58, High Pinnacle; a 
  westerner, but not a Chákan.  
  o 
  Thagádi Ra’át hiSsolén, High Priest of 
  Dra (C14). Age 61, Ripened Sheaf.  
  o 
  Ra’át 
  Nu’úme 
  hiNyókka, 
  Higher 
  Spellcaster. 
  Age 
  32, 
  Ripened 
  Sheaf; 
  daughter of High Priest of Dra.121  
   
  o 
  Morkásh 
  hiKirigáyu, 
  High 
  Priest 
  of 
  Dlamélish (C11). Age 49, White Stone clan. 
  Also has the title and position of “Bearer of 
  the Obsidian Tentacle”, which is an ancient 
  artifact of chipped obsidian said to date to 
  early Bednálljan times. It seems to be a type 
  of dirídza, or sacrificial dagger, or at least 
  the blade of one. Ownership and the special 
  rites associated with this object are not part 
  of the High Priesthood, but are handed 
  down in a secret master-pupil lineage within 
  the temple at Butrús. Morkásh is said to be 
  a eunuch; he may be at least sterile, as he 
  has yet to father any children despite the 
  odds. 
  o 
  Ngántho Mképi hiTómuren, Caster of 
  Enchantments and Controls and scholar-
  priest of Dlamélish; age 47, White Stone 
  Clan. Something of a bully, employing his 
                                                  
  120 This name is pronounced, and usually spelled, as 
  Mnetákhim, and is found across the Mu’ugalavyáni border as 
  Mentákhim. The Red Sword clan spells it as two words, 
  however. 
  121 No further information on the personnel of these temples 
  was left after redacting the portion that was not relevant or 
  otherwise not reproducible. It appears that the author or his 
  employer are involved in a series of lawsuits with these 
  individuals. 
  considerable bulk and muscles as well as 
  sorcerous powers to intimidate all those 
  around him and extract flattery and favors. 
  He actually has friends, despite this. 
  o 
  Dívri hiEshársa, better known as “the Bug 
  Man”. A lay-priest of Dlamélish, whose 
  (only?) passion is fireflies. His life goal is to 
  breed fireflies of ever-brighter and ever-
  greener luminescence, apparently out of 
  devotion to the Emerald Lady; he supports 
  himself — being of humble means — as the 
  premiere vendor of deluxe firefly lanterns 
  and glowbeetle lamps to the city.  
  o 
  Halishéya hiSenéru, High Priestess of 
  Hriháyal (C10). Age 45, First Moon clan, 
  from Penóm. Strongly oriented toward the 
  organizational and financial aspects of her 
  position, and openly irritated by the ritual 
  and liturgical requirements made of her. 
  Generally impatient and sharp-tongued.  
  o 
  Shkítla hiBéyilto, Abbess-in-Emerald of 
  the Monastery of Gleeful Shrieks. Age 60, 
  Green Kirtle clan from Bey Sü, and a Chief 
  Ritual Priestess (C8) of Hriháyal. Much less 
  prepossessing 
  and 
  outgoing 
  than 
  her 
  counterpart from the Temple of Chiténg, 
  and far more deeply religious and spiritual.  
   
  o 
  Nópru-Námin (Qlókhez) the Alchemist. A 
  mysterious figure of foreign extraction — 
  Livyáni, 
  Salarvyáni, 
  or 
  Yan 
  Koryáni, 
  depending upon the source consulted — 
  who lives in a large, airy cavern sheltered by 
  Silver Mountain, near Butrús. The cavern is 
  easily visited and in fact is a tourist 
  destination, 
  though 
  the 
  sections 
  he 
  personally inhabits are said to be invisible to 
  mortal eyes. According to local legend, he 
  dedicated himself (with fearful oaths) to 
  discovering the elixir of eternal life and 
  youth — but he still hasn't quite got the 
  recipe perfected yet, five thousand years 
  later. The entire figure and story of Nópru-
  Námin (or Qlókhez, in the accounts claiming 
  Livyáni origin) may just be a local joke, 
  perhaps based on some long-ago visitor.  
  o 
  Vri’ér hiZushái, an astrologer at the city’s 
  observatory park; not a priest or lay-priest, 
  but a semi-professional student of the 
  planets and caster of horoscopes. While of 
  high clan himself (Emerald Girdle), his family 
  fell on hard times when he was a child, and 
  it is tacitly accepted that he must support 
  
  151 
   
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  them by his work. Favored by the wealthy 
  and high-born of Butrús, especially when 
  they do not want to seek counsel from 
  within their own houses or temples. 
  o 
  Sirrúva hiNelívir, a mysterious and highly 
  private sorcerer. Lives on a medium-sized 
  barge converted into a sort of houseboat, in 
  which he travels the rivers and canals of 
  Tsolyánu; attended by three demure and 
  astoundingly gorgeous girls. He is currently 
  docked at Butrús.  
  o 
  The White Man, a performing magician, of 
  the non-magical sort. Known for always 
  wearing white lacquered masks (often in 
  layers) which completely conceal his face; 
  he is normally seen in voluminous white 
  robes as well, and according to some 
  rumors, even to cast a white shadow in the 
  sunlight. Though children are uniformly 
  terrified of him, he is a fairly popular 
  entertainer at parties and soirees of the 
  wealthy; his ongoing series of “Edifying 
  Enchantments for the Everyman” leave his 
  rivals in tears, sorcerers in perplexity, and 
  not a few guests in highly peculiar states of 
  unease.  
  o 
  The Man in Purple Tatters is a well-
  known beggar who haunts the bazaars as 
  well as the temple district, when he is not 
  occupied in working his way through the 
  city, obsessively counting each avenue, 
  street lane, and alley over and over again, 
  checking 
  his 
  numbers. 
  As 
  his 
  name 
  indicates, he is usually dressed in some 
  assortment of rags and cast-off clothing of 
  various shades of purple. He gathers such 
  items compulsively, and wears his entire 
  collection. He is widely believed to be a 
  former priest (or lay-priest) of Lord Hrü’ü 
  who lost his mind after a personal or family 
  tragedy 
  (accounts 
  differ, 
  but 
  all 
  are 
  somewhat vague) and took to the streets. 
  Completely insane and rarely coherent, the 
  only explanation that he can give for himself 
  is that he must keep counting all the city’s 
  streets to make sure that none go missing, 
  or worse yet, that none creep in. He is often 
  somewhat agitated, but rarely at anyone 
  visible, and has never been known to cause 
  any trouble. His clan, as well as his name, is 
  now unknown, and the temples of Hrü’ü and 
  Wurú in the Chákas and neighboring 
  provinces have been unable to find any 
  record of whom he might have been.  
   
  Soldiers and Military Officers 
  o 
  G-Gum-Shóggu, General of the Legion of 
  Tangled Root Eaters (2nd Páchi Lei Medium 
  Infantry), now at the northern front under 
  General Kéttukal. Known to be attracted to 
  Prince Mridóbu’s faction, and thus has a 
  difficult and troubled relationship with Grand 
  High Priestess Sherésa hiDuruntláno of the 
  Temple of Ksárul. 
  o 
  Korikáda hiKurúshma, General of the 
  Givers of Sorrow (10th Heavy Infantry) and 
  High Priest of Chiténg at Butrús, of the Red 
  Sword clan. Currently Supreme General of 
  the Northeast at Chéne Ho under Prince 
  Eselné. A fanatic of his religion, and a 
  member of the Military Party.  
  o 
  Mruláni hiKétkolel, chief sorceress of the 
  Givers of Sorrow’s magical contingent. She 
  is a niece of Kuruktáshmu hiKétkolel, 
  general of the Legion of the Lord of Red 
  Devastation (18th Medium Infantry), in 
  whose ranks she served for nearly a decade 
  before 
  re-entering 
  the 
  priesthood 
  and 
  devoting herself to military magic. She is 
  now 34 years old, a demanding, sometimes 
  bullying, no-nonsense career soldier with 
  three meek 
  husbands and two small 
  children. While a poor spellcaster herself, 
  she is an excellent leader and officer, and 
  has 
  employed 
  the 
  contingent 
  with 
  consistently good results so far. An infamous 
  religious fanatic in her youth, she seems to 
  have lost her interest in religious matters or 
  her sense of devotion over the past few 
  years, and has been reprimanded repeatedly 
  by her peers and superiors in the legion and 
  the temples of the Flame.  
  o 
  "Captain" Háihai of the Flock of the 
  Flashing 
  Clouds 
  (7th 
  Hláka 
  Flying 
  Squadron). He is also the “Flight of Death” 
  (iwáu oú, or war-chief) of the Hláka 
  community in Butrús; this is a position 
  appointed by the Hláka eyrie’s “king” and 
  which in Butrús is almost invariably linked to 
  command of the remnants of the 7th Flying 
  Squadron. 
  Constantly 
  ordered, 
  asked, 
  threatened, or entreated to exercise his 
  authority to keep Hláka from joining in (or 
  even starting) altercations in the Foreigners’ 
  
  152 
   
  152 
   
   
  Quarter between Mu’ugalavyáni and Páchi 
  Lei: minimal discernable results. 
  o 
  Mt-trik (also transcribed as Mt-t-ik), 
  General of the Legion of the Forest of Hh-
  kk-ssá (10th Pe Choi Medium Infantry), at 
  Butrús. Precise on points of protocol, 
  conscientious in his duties, polished and 
  pleasant at social events, and otherwise 
  somewhat aloof and reserved. Possibly the 
  senior general in Pan Cháka at the moment. 
  He may be a “neuter” male, and is 
  approximately middle-aged. Despite the 
  reclusive habits and strange ways of his 
  Stability-following legion, the General at 
  least is known to be devoted to Hnálla, and 
  is regularly found at that temple.  
  o 
  Vroggá Dzh-Urrú, General of the Legion of 
  the Clan of the Silver Lightning (7th 
  Archers), a Páchi Lei who has "differences" 
  with its own people; a good planner and 
  warrior, and close friend of the Governor. 
  Far less superstitious than his troops and 
  junior officers, though still wary of ill omens 
  and dubious prognostications.  
  o 
  The 
  Honorable 
  Little 
  Monster 
  (Qu’úminikoi), the new leader of the 7th 
  Archers’ magical contingent (a small and 
  fairly incompetent group) and formerly an 
  Erudite of the Institute of Academicians in 
  the Governor’s palace. A particularly cunning 
  and perhaps ambitious member of the 
  Pygmy Folk, he draws considerable attention 
  to himself not only for the rarity of his 
  species in Butrús but by his constant 
  scheming and plotting. Beyond his task of 
  trying 
  to 
  hammer 
  the 
  spell-casting 
  contingent into functional shape, he fancies 
  himself 
  a 
  revolutionary 
  tactician 
  and 
  strategist in the mold of the Black Theocrat. 
  His personal name is something like “Thpa’ 
  Qrr-rh” but he has defiantly — or maybe 
  proudly? — adopted as his usual appellation 
  the sarcastic nickname given him by his 
  detractors.  
  o 
  Jíryal hiZaikolé, Liaison and Barracks 
  Commandant of the Legion of the Lord of 
  Red Devastation (18th Medium Infantry) — 
  a formal, ritual post. A one-eyed veteran of 
  the legion, aged 43; Red Sun clan from 
  Chéne Ho. A military historian and a 
  Mu’ugalavyáni agent, among other things.  
  o 
  Linggákch Qriyuqqór and Bákwemu 
  Drashshü, recruiters for the Nchesh of the 
  Splendid Slayers of Ssu. A pair of Pecháni 
  “noblemen” (really more of minor gentry), 
  with splendid mustachios and an infamous 
  taste for carousing, dueling, swashbuckling 
  and 
  derring-do. 
  Their 
  exploits 
  are 
  a 
  considerable advertisement to the young 
  and romantic hotheads of Butrús to join the 
  “Pecháni 
  Foreign 
  Legion”. 
  Despite 
  the 
  difference in surnames, they are close 
  cousins and lifelong friends, whose fiercely 
  competitive nature often leads others to 
  mistake them for deadly rivals. 
   
  Private Individuals 
  o 
  Count Chéksa Ksámri Íto, head of the 
  local branch of the Íto clan. The branch of 
  the clan in Pan Cháka is somewhat 
  estranged from the main clan (which is 
  based in southern Do Cháka); the locally 
  dominant sublineage has been separate and 
  independent since the early Engsvanyáli 
  period. Known to be a non-supporter of 
  Prince Dhich’uné, unlike the Do Chákan clan 
  leaders. Generally he prefers to ignore the 
  existence of the Northern Ítos entirely. 
  Dabbles in many aristocratic pastimes, and 
  is a noted patron of the arts and sciences. 
  One of his cousins and agemates is 
  Nóchikor Íto, a powerful sorcerer at the 
  Temple of Sárku in Pála Jakálla, quiet and 
  reserved, and as famous as a collector of 
  trained animals and menageries as for his 
  knowledge of thaumaturgy.  
  o 
  Zhigáyu hiHómesu, the 53 year-old, 
  Dlamélish-worshipping local head of the 
  Jade Diadem Clan, the second-ranked noble 
  clan in the region in terms of status. The 
  Jade Diadem are major landowners and also 
  represented in government. One of the 
  great sponsors of civic festivities and feasts; 
  he has something of “the common touch”, 
  but probably not to the degree he imagines. 
  Privately a collector of inkstones and ink-
  sticks, one of the more obscure hobbies.  
  o 
  Avuké’e Semt-Snékhi-Pser Jumrigáni 
  hiChalchái of the Golden Sunburst clan, 
  the (Chákan) head of the lineage descended 
  from one of the great old Engsvanyáli royal 
  dynasties, and also one-time rulers of a 
  kingdom in Pan Cháka. Has ambitions — 
  wildly unrealistic — of reestablishing an 
  independent Pan Chákan kingdom under the 
  
  153 
   
  153 
   
   
  Chalcháis. Particularly snobbish about his 
  lineage’s flaunting of the three-syllable 
  personal name taboo among the ancient 
  Pan Chákan families — the point being that 
  his family is so old and they so far predate 
  the origin of the taboo that they hold 
  themselves exempt from it. He is one of the 
  few adult members of his line not a 
  complete imbecile, though some would 
  dispute that. He also claims rightful and 
  legal 
  ownership 
  of 
  numerous 
  ancient 
  artifacts and artworks in the collections of 
  other aristocrats and connoisseurs in Butrús 
  and around the Empire. 
  o 
  Hárida hiMéshene, local head of the Clan 
  of the Standing Stone. While a native-born 
  Butrusséne, he is best known locally as the 
  living representative of the city’s despised 
  ancient rival, Úrmish. Cultured and witty, he 
  gamely enters into the prestige competition 
  on behalf of his clan’s home city against his 
  fellow aristocrats in Butrús. Due to his skills 
  at repartee and extempore versification, his 
  presence is in high demand at parties, 
  particularly those of the Four Red Clans. He 
  himself is a devotee of Ksárul, which adds 
  further color to the ongoing struggle.  
  o 
  Thíolleb Chiúving Aókueth, heir to the 
  Reticulated Foam Balcony (i.e., throne) of 
  Prash. A Livyáni émigré who was forced to 
  flee her home city and country after, she 
  claims, the death of her parents and her 
  unjust dispossession by a wicked cousin and 
  the temple 
  faction backing him. She 
  escaped house arrest and sought help in 
  Mu’ugalavyá, but found herself ignored after 
  a brief flurry of celebrity.122 She then 
  traveled to Tumíssa but ran afoul of that 
  city’s Livyáni legation, which successfully 
  pressured the Tsolyáni authorities to make 
  her persona non grata. After a brush with an 
  assassin presumably hired by her cousin’s 
  agents, she removed herself to Butrús, 
  where she continues to seek official, and 
  increasingly private, aid in returning to 
  Prash and regaining her titles and position. 
                                                  
  122 Details are obviously scarce, but the Mu’ugalavyáni 
  declined to champion her cause against their southern 
  neighbors—they may even have attempted to hand her back 
  to the Livyáni temple faction backing her cousin. Her family 
  is also known to hold an ancient grudge against the people 
  of Neihái (and vice versa), which may have complicated 
  matters. 
  She has attracted a considerable amount of 
  attention in this provincial city, of a cautious 
  sort; nevertheless many young romantics 
  appear eager to take up her cause. Not 
  even seventeen years of age, she is 
  beautiful and charming even to xenophobic 
  Tsolyáni eyes, and with her naïveté being 
  scraped away by her recent travels and 
  travails, she may yet prove to be a shrewd 
  politician and strategist.  
  o 
  Maríddi hiArusá, an official retired from 
  the foreign service of the Petal Throne. 
  Having been posted to Tsámra as a mere 
  clerk at the age of fourteen, he spent all but 
  a fraction of his career abroad, eventually 
  serving as Legate at Heméktu for the 
  decade before his retirement a few years 
  ago. With no close family in Tsolyánu, he 
  chose to settle in Butrús largely on a whim 
  — he had passed through it once long ago 
  and thought it seemed “quaint”. Of a fairly 
  minor branch of the Sea Blue clan, he is 
  nevertheless wealthy (both by inheritance 
  and 
  by 
  personal 
  investments 
  and 
  acquisitions), and has thus chosen to occupy 
  a fair-sized mansion of his own, separate 
  from the Sea Blue clanhouse. He has 
  stocked it with a huge collection of Livyáni 
  manuscripts, artworks, and artifacts of all 
  sorts, much of his devoted official staff who 
  followed him when he retired, a casual flock 
  of 
  handsome 
  and 
  burly 
  young 
  men, 
  numerous 
  stage 
  magicians,123 
  two 
  independent and violently feuding kitchen 
  staffs (both of the highest caliber), and what 
  some consider to be the finest, and certainly 
  the most extensive, private winecellar in all 
  of Pan Cháka. The festivities and banquets 
  for his upcoming sixtieth birthday are 
  expected to be most noteworthy, and 
  invitations 
  eagerly 
  sought 
  among 
  the 
  worthies of the protectorate (and perhaps 
  beyond). 
  o 
  “Boodle” Balkhétish.124 
  o 
  Chóqu “Wébni” hiTiyané of the Red 
  Stone clan, chairman of one of the local 
  circles of poets and authors. 45 years old, 
  from a family devoted to Chiténg and 
                                                  
  123 That is, performers using sleight-of-hand and mechanical 
  or optical illusions to create “magical” effects—a subject of 
  long-standing deep interest to him. 
  124 Redacted under threat of litigation immediately before 
  publication. 
  
  154 
   
  154 
   
   
  nominally 
  of 
  that 
  faith 
  himself, 
  but 
  notoriously 
  impious. 
  His 
  is 
  the 
  “cosmopolitan” circle, given to following 
  recent trends and famous authors from 
  metropolitan Tsolyánu as well as the classic 
  forms; it also permits women to perform 
  their own poems — and for people to recite 
  poems (rather than chant or sing them). 
  They even dabble in works of prose! Tsálu 
  Varshóre 
  “Ífe’eth” 
  hiZírudhan 
  is 
  chairman of the other local poetry circle — 
  the “conservative” one. In this group, 
  female 
  authors 
  are 
  welcomed 
  and 
  considered equals, but are, as old tradition 
  has it, “mutes” — they cannot perform their 
  own works for the group, but must bring a 
  “second throat”, a male (usually a kinsman 
  or family member) to perform it for them. 
  The feuding between Ífe’eth’s group and 
  Wébni’s group has been heating up steadily 
  over the last two or three years, over this as 
  well as issues of genre, meter, and sources 
  of inspiration.  
  o 
  Zhántlo “Snéship” hiShesánu, chairman 
  of the local circle of wine connoisseurs. A 
  local man of the Emerald Girdle clan, 58 
  years old and a follower of Avánthe. Known 
  for his haughty dismissal of Pan Cháka’s 
  famous mash brandies as unworthy of 
  aesthetic consideration by any gentleman 
  worthy of the name. This may simply be a 
  position taken to whip up controversy and 
  attention. 
  o 
  Gáishan & Tulivé Íto — antiquarians, 
  collectors, 
  shopkeepers, 
  and 
  occasional 
  tomb-robbers. Keeping a low profile from 
  the temple of Sárku and to some degree 
  their own clan, they operate a curio shop 
  and antique business, quite respectable. 
  Elderly, tall and thin, with white hair and 
  dark-tanned skin, the doting couple are 
  rarely seen outdoors except on warm and 
  sunny days (when they are often seen 
  basking in the heat). They are actually 
  minor aristocrats of the (Northern) Íto clan, 
  originally from Do Cháka and, in fact, dead 
  these last six hundred years. Having been 
  born — “for the first time”, as the initiates of 
  Sárku’s sect say — around the time of 
  Emperor Kánmi'yel Nikúma the Fifth’s re-
  conquest of Do Cháka, they helped Emperor 
  Durúmu put down the Pe Choi revolt in the 
  later eighteenth century, were involved in 
  the defense of the Chákas during the War of 
  2020, and then helped betray the Second 
  Íto Revolt. Since then, they have lived in 
  exile in Lnóris, Chame'él, Héru, Pelesár, and 
  here in Butrús since the last ditlána. 
  o 
  Kóyeren hiZu’úgga, King of the String 
  (Khéten-Ípehu): the incumbent master 
  kite-flier. He regularly vanquishes local 
  bravos and conducts a bitter, personal, 
  decades-old feud with his counterparts in 
  Úrmish and Tumíssa.  
  o 
  Washáye’e 
  “Khéti-Rèr” 
  hiShesánu, 
  master kitemaker and guru in all things 
  airborne. A 39 year old woman of the 
  Victorious Globe clan, she is a follower of 
  Avánthe. She occupies a detached kite shop 
  and quarters in the Bookman’s Lanes. 
  o 
  Vresésh Vréres hiVrésaka, elder of the 
  clan of the Victorious Globe and head of the 
  Butrús clanhouse — extremely conservative 
  Pan Chákans, from an ancient lineage that 
  was until a few centuries ago an entirely 
  separate clan (the Frame of Sunset). They 
  are 
  almost 
  entirely 
  occupied 
  with 
  papermaking, particularly of the highest 
  grades. Aside from his tongue-twisting 
  name, he is best known as the holder of 
  “Rippled Honey”, a large smooth agate used 
  for paper-finishing and handed down as an 
  heirloom 
  since late Engsvanyáli times. 
  Though this is a well-kept secret, he has 
  been notified that an attempt will be made 
  to steal it shortly, possibly by none other 
  than the Slippery Mótti (q.v.). 
  o 
  Sákuten XI. A castrato choir-slave of the 
  Temple of Wurú, one of the premier 
  vocalists of the age and widely regarded as 
  one of the greatest performers of the epic 
  “Hymn to Mü’ükané” as well as certain 
  religious hymns. Ten or fifteen years ago he 
  was even summoned to Avanthár to perform 
  for the late emperor (Mursun Dlekkumine), 
  as 
  he 
  also 
  had 
  once 
  for 
  Emperor 
  Hetkoláinen in the past, and previously for 
  Hirkáne when he was only a prince. Now in 
  his sixties, his career was suddenly ended 
  by a prolonged respiratory illness five years 
  ago that destroyed his voice. Sákuten 
  himself believes his voice was taken away 
  by his god, as punishment for a certain sin 
  (which he will not discuss); certain others 
  allege — very quietly — that he was 
  deliberately poisoned by a rival, or else by 
  
  155 
   
  155 
   
   
  an imperial agent as punishment for 
  declining to stay on in Avanthár as a singer 
  in the Golden Tower. In any case, he is 
  extremely wealthy (though still technically a 
  slave), still dedicated to his temple and his 
  music (now as a choirmaster and teacher of 
  the epics), has refused suggestions he be 
  adopted into a suitable clan, and continues 
  to train his disciples, including his adopted 
  “heir”, the presumptive Sákuten XII.  
  o 
  Súlmurt hiChállu. A merchant princeling in 
  the making. While a member of the Golden 
  Lintel clan, he is not satisfied to remain a 
  mere moneylender as tradition demands. 
  Forced to leave his home of Si’ís because of 
  politics within his own clan, he resettled in 
  Butrús. Vigorous, enterprising, ambitious; 
  highly innovative. Far too smart to be “just” 
  a merchant, he is frustrated by the 
  complacency and dullness of his peers and 
  interested in new techniques of trade and 
  banking 
  (accounting, 
  letters 
  of 
  credit, 
  bonds, stocks, etc.) A lavish donor (largely 
  in secret) to the Temple of Dilinála, due to a 
  curse or bond he must pay off.  
  o 
  Qumíra hiChu’úru, the “Diamond Widow”. 
  Born into a poor family of the Golden Sheaf 
  clan, as a child she was given as a 
  concubine to a wealthy member of the 
  White Crystal clan, who later married her. 
  He fell into disfavor with his clan and died 
  under a shadow; she was able to keep 
  possession of only a single cinnabar mine. 
  With good management and luck she has 
  been able to turn this small inheritance into 
  the basis of a considerable fortune. Having 
  converted to the worship of Hnálla later in 
  life (she is now in her late 40s), she is 
  extremely devout and sinks the majority of 
  her profits into funding religious works — 
  most recently and famously, a hundred and 
  eleven village and roadside shrines around 
  southwestern Tsolyánu. This is said to have 
  attracted attention in Avanthár, and within 
  official circles it is rumored she may soon be 
  awarded a Notice in the Imperial Hand, or 
  even the Blossom Plume. She lives in a 
  small district town south-southeast of Butrús 
  but visits the city fairly frequently for 
  consultation with the priests of Hnálla there. 
  o 
  Zhrída 
  “Bakhnát” 
  hiHanélmu, 
  the 
  wealthiest 
  and 
  most 
  prominent 
  (or 
  infamous) of the slavers of Butrús; she is 54 
  years old, a recent immigrant from northern 
  Tsolyánu, and dedicated to Hnálla. Also a 
  master breeder and collector of ornamental 
  fish, her mansion is a great water-garden.  
  o 
  Kadláru hiFershéna, a relative of the 
  famous and widespread Tumíssan family of 
  armorers, belonging to the Iron Hand clan; 
  in his late 50s, he worships Karakán and 
  runs a great armory in the city. The next 
  most important such enterprise is that of 
  Ni'itúmish Chládo of Pagús, a bowyer, 
  fletcher, and crossbow-maker — and despite 
  the name, a woman. Around forty years old 
  and devoted to Vimúhla, she continues to 
  operate the family armory after having 
  inherited it from her father, whose name 
  she has taken as her own. 
  o 
  Téngai Mérbukha hiVrinála, the teacher 
  of 
  the 
  crossbow 
  at 
  the 
  Arcades 
  of 
  Whickering Hostility. She is a local, 36 years 
  old, and worships Avánthe. Most of her 
  students are military personnel — either 
  current, or veterans or aspirant recruits — 
  as the crossbow is not much used or 
  respected outside the legions and the Páchi 
  Lei in Pan Cháka.  
  o 
  Vretl Ússet hiZavénnu, teacher of the 
  two-handed sword at the Field of Strenuous 
  Application, a local man devoted to Vimúhla. 
  His fees run up to 900 káitars a month. 
  Another colleague 
  of note is Kténfa 
  Nánketh 
  hiShálane, 
  dueling-master, 
  instructor at the Hall of the Bearer of the 
  Gift, and chief sword-trainer to the Legion of 
  the Givers of Sorrow; in his early forties like 
  Vretl Ússet, he is a devotee of Chiténg.  
  o 
  Srúchche hiChegáni, a tutor of arruché 
  style 
  sword-and-dagger 
  fighting. 
  While 
  hailing from Salarvyá — after, he claims, an 
  action-packed and dangerous stint in Háida 
  Pakála — his family is actually of recent 
  Tsolyáni emigrants to that country, hence 
  his lineage and Tsolyanified personal name. 
  He is fairly competent and a good teacher, 
  but has been forced to cut tuition prices to 
  the point where he is barely supporting 
  himself — arruché is simply not fashionable 
  in Pan Cháka, and is looked upon as “hoity-
  toity” and effete, and simultaneously as 
  somewhat sinister and foreign. Srúchche is 
  wondering whether finding some way to 
  “advertise” more effectively will save him; 
  the possibility of playing up that “sinister 
  
  156 
   
  156 
   
   
  and foreign” aspect of his art to appeal to 
  those with tastes for the same has occurred 
  to him but been rejected — for the time 
  being — as simply too disgraceful.  
  o 
  Ganú’e Nayál hiSrúnel, a noted (rather 
  than merely notorious) professional tout, or 
  mérato. Said to be able to find anything, 
  given enough time. She particularly enjoys 
  sleazy, exotic, or salacious requests, but her 
  normal clientele — the wealthy, aristocratic, 
  and too often “noble” — are all too 
  respectable and decent. Anyone looking for 
  something truly nasty will find a most 
  enthusiastic guide here, though her stiff 
  commissions are hardly likely to be reduced. 
  o 
  Nyánu Húrshma hiHyénaya, another 
  noted mérato, who runs the “Anything-at-All 
  Store” (q.v.); acquisitive, a packrat, sloppy, 
  proud of his weird institution. His three 
  wives (Erúnye [née Chikállu], Sánu [née 
  Kítlaku], and Tlórüka [née Tikéva]) are more 
  practical and aggressive, with far better 
  business sense, and manage to keep the 
  peculiar and dubious enterprise’s books out 
  of the red ink. 
  o 
  Chayúl hiTlénggeku is the gladiator of the 
  day in Butrús; despite a fairly long career in 
  the arenas, his star has only recently risen. 
  While no mean fighter, many suspect that 
  large numbers of his successes are due to 
  pre-fight 
  “negotiations”; 
  his 
  irresistible 
  graciousness, charm, and gift for moving 
  oratory make it impossible for all but a few 
  killjoys to resent this. Ssurídl hiSugáni is 
  considered the greater swordsman but 
  lesser showman; he is less often seen in the 
  arena (being frequently employed as a 
  bodyguard, 
  for 
  “special 
  errands”, 
  and 
  undertaking peculiar expeditions of an 
  independent or amateur nature) and so is 
  not considered a real challenger. Likewise, 
  Trugáya hiTlanátl is too often occupied 
  with the duties and in service of her temple 
  of Dilinála to become quite the hirilákte hero 
  she seems to have the potential for. Fans of 
  the gladiators are still in shock over the 
  recent 
  brutal 
  murder 
  of 
  Hávumar 
  Gírganne, a popular and well-liked fixture 
  for nearly two decades. It is suspected by 
  some that Hávumar fell afoul of the Great 
  Brotherhood of Ink-Stained Knuckles in 
  Hiding, perhaps for failing to throw a fight 
  correctly or pay protection money; this rmor 
  may even be true. A clique of backers 
  attempted to promote local petty aristocrat 
  Mzu’ámri hiGyesü (better known for his 
  stunning good looks and service record as 
  standard-bearer of the Legion of the Givers 
  of Sorrow than for any history in the 
  hiriláktes) in the immediate aftermath and 
  resulting “gap” at the top; this was deeply 
  deplored and the responsible parties were 
  openly ridiculed as opportunistic money-
  grubbers. Mzu’ámri was so humiliated he left 
  for Jakálla or perhaps even the capital. 
  o 
  The courtesan Chíra hiSúyemen is the 
  reigning belle of Butrús, though she has 
  several fiercely competitive and ambitious 
  rivals, such as Ashmái hiChélekem and 
  Puruméi hiPakáillu (from Ferinára and 
  Tumíssa, respectively). The elder courtesan 
  that Chíra edged out, Tlónuka hiSráshar 
  of Bey Sü, remains an influential figure and 
  has retained some key supporters, while her 
  native 
  Butrusséne 
  coeval 
  Chuká’a 
  hiSsúdune has wholly retired to become a 
  teacher of the ténturen and demi-ténturen 
  to young ladies. Among the younger up-
  and-comers Kokíri hiHairáme, a native of 
  Jakálla, is making a name for herself by 
  sheer ruthless inconstancy; she is said to be 
  madly jealous of the equally young but 
  shockingly naïve and romantic Tsúnimel 
  hiNyetl’s unintentional feat of having driven 
  no less than three disappointed suitors to 
  suicide in the last year. 
  o 
  Aváyu “Dlajál” hiJalchéma, probably Pan 
  Cháka’s most famous gambler currently 
  resident in Butrús; her colleague Tren 
  “Hlivín” hiTüpellu is no less worthy, but 
  has made his career mostly in the cities of 
  central Tsolyánu, away from his hometown 
  of Butrús. Both are shining examples of the 
  classic “cool and urbane” Tsolyáni ideal of a 
  gambler. Their fans have long been hoping 
  for a match between the two, playing up 
  tenuous stories of their rivalry — e.g., that 
  Hlivín, as a boy, received a magical 
  gambling-familiar directly from the hands of 
  the aged Markóle Sinjálim (2247-2334 A.S.) 
  on his deathbed, while Dlajál’s mother’s 
  family is descended from the sister of Únuka 
  Kaichén (2095-2133), who is often said to 
  be the greatest and most stylish gambler in 
  Tsolyáni history, and some of whose feats 
  were much later surpassed by Markóle in a 
  
  157 
   
  157 
   
   
  notably spiteful and ungracious manner. 
  Unfortunately for such followers of the 
  gaming 
  tables, 
  the 
  two 
  Butrusséne 
  luminaries have shown no particular interest 
  or inclination in facing off; which is also a 
  sore 
  disappointment 
  for 
  certain 
  businessmen who would like to profit from 
  the enormous volume of side-bets that 
  would be placed on any such match.  
  o 
  Semné Kanái hiMnúye, captain or coach 
  (menátna) of the top city marotlán team. 
  While himself fairly irreligious, he has been 
  known to play up the cult of Chiténg as the 
  guardian and patron of Butrús (and her 
  athletes) for the sake of publicity — or even 
  to foment riots of fans against outside 
  teams, when convenient. 
  o 
  Hérpef hiTru’úna of the clan of the Scarlet 
  Sash, manager of the hirilákte arena in 
  Butrús. An excellent manager of performers 
  and producer of spectacles, but a dire 
  businessman. It is not known how the arena 
  has remained solvent as long as it has. 
  o 
  Granny Kless, of a lowly and vile branch of 
  the 
  Green 
  Pyramid 
  clan 
  that 
  has 
  a 
  notoriously shadowy history; she herself is a 
  cunning 
  old 
  blackmailer, 
  extortionist, 
  smuggler, 
  and 
  all-around 
  gangster 
  godmother.  
  o 
  The Slippery Mótti, an infamous cat-
  burglar of whom very little is known but 
  quite a bit rumored. While many rumors 
  concern which secret patron’s greed the 
  latest daring and mysterious outrage serves, 
  no one actually seems to know how to go 
  about contacting this character if his or her 
  services 
  are 
  required. 
  At 
  first 
  widely 
  rumored to belong to Butrús’s Pijenáni 
  community, the Slippery Mótti’s continued 
  success 
  and 
  amazing 
  exploits 
  have 
  convinced most of the city that the cowardly 
  and simple northerners could not have 
  produced such a bold and cunning rogue.  
   
  
  158 
   
  158 
   
   
  APPENDIX C: NOTES ON THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TÉKUMEL 
   
  Bibliographic Classifications 
  The oldest surviving system of bibliographic 
  classification is called the “Six Epitomes”. While 
  systems of the same name are known from the 
  Engsvanyáli and even Bednálljan eras, what 
  goes by this name today dates from the early 
  period of the Tsolyáni Empire. The six headings 
  of the system are Canons (i.e. religious texts), 
  Poetry, Philosophy, Mathematics, Medicine, and 
  History. It should be remembered that the Six 
  Epitomes 
  are 
  used 
  to 
  classify 
  books 
  in 
  bibliographic writings and scholarship, far less 
  frequently for library catalogues, and almost 
  never employed in the actual arrangement of 
  physical volumes in collections. They are thus an 
  intellectual rather than a practical tool. However, 
  in Pan Cháka the Six Epitomes are used only in 
  the temples of Avánthe, Ksárul, and Sárku. 
   
  The remaining temples, colleges, and almost all 
  private bibliomanes of Butrús instead employ 
  the classification known as the “Four Gates”, a 
  more recent invention of the Mu’ugalavyáni. The 
  Four Gates are systematically subdivided, unlike 
  the Six Epitomes, and furthermore are put to 
  more extensive use — many libraries in 
  Mu’ugalavyá and even a few in Butrús prepare 
  their catalogues using this system; one or two 
  (eccentric) private libraries have even been built 
  as physical representations of this classification.  
   
  The Four Gates and their subdivisions are: 
  I. The Canons 
  a. Epics 
  b. Cosmology & Theogony 
  c. Religious Scriptures 
  d. Devotional Works 
  e. Theology & Hermeneutics 
  f. 
  Mantic & Theurgic Arts 
  g. Bibliography & Epigraphy 
  h. Philology 
  i. 
  Other “classical” works of antiquity 
  II. The Histories 
  a. Standard Histories 
  b. Annals 
  c. Topically Arranged Histories 
  d. Unofficial Histories 
  e. Miscellaneous Histories 
  f. 
  Biographical Works 
  g. Historical Excerpts 
  h. Contemporary Records125  
  i. 
  Calendrics & Horology 
  j. 
  Geography 
  k. Government Institutions 
  l. 
  Edicts & Memorials 
  m. Historiography 
  n. Miscellanea126 
  III. The Masters (Philosophy) 
  a. Logicians & Ethicists 
  b. Legal Writers 
  c. Military Experts 
  d. Agricultural Writers 
  e. Thinkers on Statecraft 
  f. 
  Sorcerers & Thaumaturges 
  g. Practitioners of the Fine Arts 
  h. Medical Experts 
  i. 
  Mathematicians & Geometers 
  j. 
  Miscellaneous Writers & Essayists 
  k. Common Religion & Folklore 
  l. 
  Manuals of Craft (e.g. cooking, 
  gardening, construction) 
  m. Encyclopedias 
  IV. Belles-Lettres (Collectanea) 
  a. Literary Anthologies (of a given 
  period)127 
  b. Collected 
  Works 
  (of 
  a 
  given 
  author)128 
                                                  
  125 One might keep in mind that this includes compendia 
  such as the Complete Collection of Prose from Remote 
  Antiquity and the First Empire, which contains texts of a 
  literary nature as much as a historical one, but is not 
  technically classified as “literature” because it is not in verse. 
  The bulk of this category is comprised of the genre called 
  “Collections of Important Documents”, preserving original 
  official texts from previous reigns or dynasties. 
  126 A given author’s notes, queries, and assorted writings on 
  various topics, in the (nominal) form of a notebook or 
  literary diary. This subcategory also includes contemporary 
  gossip, anecdotes about current events, and even short 
  stories in prose. “Miscellanea” can vary widely from intensely 
  focused scholarly criticism of a specific question to fictional 
  fantasies of the author. They are thus very personal, often 
  much more so than the same author’s “official” literary 
  output. In Mu’ugalavyá, this heading has since been placed 
  under Belles-Lettres, not History; the older location is 
  retained in Pan Cháka.  
  127 Some of the modern “literary canon” is in this category, 
  e.g., the Threefold Collections of Engsvanyáli Poetry, the 
  New Collection of Old Poems, the Old Collection of New 
  Songs, or the Anthology of Ancient Poetry. 
  128 Following its usual prefaces, the normal organization of 
  such a collection is: memorials and official writings; 
  congratulatory 
  poetry 
  on 
  public 
  occasions; 
  prefaces; 
  commentary on events and diaries; letters; commemorative 
  
  159 
   
  159 
   
   
  c. Literary Collectanea (combining the 
  two above)129 
   
  Encyclopedias 
  Literally “Classified Materials” or “Categorical 
  Volumes”, this genre is worth some extra 
  attention for its own merits, for what it might be 
  taken to reveal about the Five Empires’ taste for 
  orderly regimentation on a vast scale, and (not 
  least) for the great value such works have been 
  to the compiler and translator of the present 
  Gazetteer. 
   
  Unlike encyclopedias in the modern Terran 
  sense, the entries in Tékumelian encyclopedias 
  are usually excerpts from existing primary 
  sources. Articles written specifically for the 
  compilation are rather rare, and used most often 
  to fill in gaps. Encyclopedias thus may preserve 
  (in fragments) works that have otherwise been 
  lost. Given the huge size of some encyclopedias 
  and their sometimes poor organization, ancient 
  and valuable texts are from time to time 
  “rediscovered” buried in old encyclopedias. 
   
  The genre’s origins began with primers on 
  political and moral precedent for rulers and high 
  officials. The concept later spread to officialdom 
  and the nobility as a whole; simultaneously the 
  priesthoods began preparing similar volumes (on 
  secular concerns). Such texts spread then to the 
  educated classes, and continued to develop in 
  other directions.  
   
  Most encyclopedias are arranged into twenty to 
  thirty general categories, with many hundreds of 
  subdivisions. An alphabetical organization is 
  entirely unknown to the genre. It is estimated 
  that some 3000 encyclopedias have been 
  written since the beginning of the Engsvanyáli 
  period, and about 400 are currently extant to 
  one degree or another. (There is now even a 
  project underway sponsored by the lords of 
  Chame’él to compile an “encyclopedia of 
  encyclopedia fragments”, collecting and collating 
                                                                         
  biographies, 
  epitaphs, 
  encomia, 
  etc; 
  poetry; 
  family 
  instructions; miscellaneous items. 
  129 The Famous Complete Poetical Corpora of the Second 
  Epoch is the largest, and despite its name includes a large 
  amount of work from earlier and later phases of the 
  Engsvanyáli period, but includes far from every writer of the 
  age. 
  the partially lost or destroyed encyclopedias.) 
  Some of the most famous are the Excerpts from 
  the Books of the Northern Hall (largely 
  governmental and Engsvanyáli in content); 
  Collected Literature in Categorical Arrangement 
  (badly 
  organized 
  but 
  with 
  much 
  ancient 
  information); Writings for Elementary Instruction 
  (basic and background knowledge for beginning 
  students, much used in schools); the Imperially 
  Sanctioned 
  Encyclopedia 
  of 
  the 
  Eternally 
  Glorious 
  and 
  Pacific 
  Age 
  (massive 
  and 
  doctrinaire); Outstanding Models from the 
  Warehouse of Literature; and the Sea of 
  Turquoise (also badly arranged). The author of 
  the lattermost also produced Purple Pearls for 
  the Novice, another pedagogical work of 
  encyclopedic format.  
   
  A description of encyclopedias is incomplete 
  without mention of the “Great Compendium of 
  All Knowledge”, from the height of Engsvanyáli 
  glory just before the Flower Wars of the Third 
  Epoch. Better known to modern scholars just as 
  the Ssemúga IV Encyclopedia, it is by repute the 
  largest unified work ever written on Tékumel — 
  estimated as being some 740 million words in 
  length. It took over four thousand scholars 
  sixteen years of labor to produce, and even in 
  still incomplete form it proved too expensive to 
  reproduce. Accordingly, almost all of it has since 
  been lost. Of the original 11,000-odd volumes 
  only sixty are known to exist now, though there 
  may be as many as two hundred in private 
  hands not available to the public.  
   
  The description of the encyclopedia and its 
  organization is well understood, however, and 
  has served as an influential model for later, far 
  more modest, undertakings. (Among other 
  things, it probably influenced the tradition of 
  bibliographic 
  classification 
  under 
  the 
  “Six 
  Epitomes”, above.) 
  � 
  Matters of the Heavens 
  o 
  The Manifold Planes 
  o 
  The Gods 
  o 
  The Year, Time, and Astronomy 
  o 
  Arithmetic & Numerology 
  o 
  Strange Phenomena 
  � 
  Matters of the Land 
  o 
  The Earth 
  o 
  Political Divisions 
  o 
  Geometry & Measurement 
  o 
  Mountains, Rivers, and Seas 
  
  160 
   
  160 
   
   
  o 
  Foreign Lands 
  � 
  Matters of Human Relations 
  o 
  The Emperor 
  o 
  The Imperial Household 
  o 
  Government 
  o 
  Family Relationships 
  o 
  Social Intercourse 
  o 
  Clans & Property 
  o 
  Clan & Lineage Names 
  o 
  Attributes of Man 
  o 
  Womankind 
  � 
  Matters of Society 
  o 
  Official Service 
  o 
  Agriculture & Food 
  o 
  Trade in Goods & Coins 
  o 
  Ceremonies 
  o 
  Music 
  o 
  Military Administration 
  o 
  Law & Punishment 
  o 
  Industry & Manufacturing 
  � 
  Matters of Thought and Action 
  o 
  Occupations, Crafts, and Trades 
  o 
  Religion 
  o 
  Persons Who Are Not Human 
  o 
  Animals 
  o 
  Plants & Trees 
  � 
  Matters of Morality and Literature 
  o 
  Canonical & Classical Literature 
  o 
  Learning to Conduct One’s Life 
  o 
  Literary Study & Criticism 
  o 
  Scripts & Calligraphy 
  o 
  Past & Distant Languages 
   
  Most recently, encyclopedias have begun to 
  reach the lower levels of society (primarily, the 
  literate 
  middle 
  classes) 
  in 
  the 
  form 
  of 
  “Encyclopedias for Daily Use” or “Expanded 
  Popular Almanacs”. These summarize more 
  practical information for people not directly 
  concerned with high matters of state and 
  religion, but who need some acquaintance with 
  higher culture and finer things as well as 
  practical advice. These works follow much the 
  same arrangement as their more scholarly and 
  upper-class models, but will focus, for example, 
  on travel advice and trade routes rather than on 
  classical works on the weather and seasons or 
  ancient literature about the landscape. Some of 
  the better-known examples of this subgenre are 
  the Correct Path to Ten Thousand Purposes and 
  its confusingly titled cheaper rival the Correct 
  Guide with Ten Thousand Uses; the Wide 
  Gleanings 
  on 
  Miscellaneous 
  Matters, 
  the 
  Complete Book for Daily Purposes of a Thousand 
  Treasures, or the Complete Book of the Variety 
  of Things Necessary to be Done in Life and 
  Home. An eightfold structure is most common in 
  such popular works; one might find eight 
  separate volumes or chapters on (for example) 
  canonical religious and moral texts, non-
  canonical but orthodox texts of the same nature, 
  biographies of famous figures, historical works, 
  literary works, felicitous phrases and graceful 
  language, anecdotes and popular myths, and 
  “indirect reports” (i.e. articles written for the 
  encyclopedia, not excerpted from an extant 
  authoritative source). 
   
  Mu’ugalavyáni Genres 
  A number of works generally known as 
  “Comprehensive 
  Histories 
  of 
  Institutions” 
  comprise a Mu’ugalavyáni genre of historical 
  writing, one that is especially useful for Tsolyáni 
  administrators in modern Pan Cháka. Aside from 
  their value to scholars of later ages, they serve 
  as 
  guides 
  and 
  reference 
  works 
  for 
  administrators of their own time. Three exist for 
  Pan Cháka: The Encyclopedia of Institutions, 
  Comprehensive Notes on Institutions, and the 
  General History and Critical Examination of 
  Institutions.130 
  Together, 
  the 
  “Three 
  Encyclopedias” consist of about 6,000 pages. 
  They are an invaluable aid in sorting out the 
  changing names, titles, and hierarchy of Pan 
  Chákan government. There is also a modern 
  Appendix (bringing them current) and even an 
  Index (though of poor quality). 
   
  The gazetteer is a fundamentally Mu’ugalavyáni 
  genre. 
  Though 
  it 
  has 
  since 
  spread 
  to 
  neighboring countries, as a transplant it lacks 
  the variety and depth of history that the genre 
  has in its native land. Ultimately the gazetteer 
  springs from an extremely old but still current 
  Mu’ugalavyáni governmental requirement that 
                                                  
  130 For example, the lattermost has chapter headings as 
  follow: land taxes, currency, population, service and corvée, 
  customs and tolls, official markets and purchases, local 
  tribute, national expenditures, examinations and promotions, 
  schools, 
  government 
  posts, 
  imperial 
  sacrifices 
  and 
  ceremonies and their deputizations, minor sacrifices, 
  dynastic lineage and rites, other temples and shrines, court 
  rites, 
  posthumous 
  titles, 
  music, 
  army, 
  penal 
  law, 
  bibliography, 
  calligraphy, 
  imperial 
  genealogy, 
  nobility, 
  astronomy, freaks of nature, geography, and foreign 
  countries. 
  
  161 
   
  161 
   
   
  each 
  prefecture 
  must 
  produce 
  its 
  own 
  guidebook — as a resource both for future 
  incumbents in local posts, and for study and 
  reference by central authorities and scholars. 
  This original type of gazetteer, usually just 
  called a “local handbook” or “local gazetteer”, 
  has since been joined by a number of other 
  specialized types of gazetteer — the district 
  gazetteer (focusing on the level of the smallest 
  sub-unit of direct government authority), the 
  town gazetteer (likewise focused on a single 
  urban center), the temple gazetteer (dealing 
  with a single temple, its land holdings, branch 
  shrines, satellite temples, significant historical 
  figures, etc.), literati gazetteers (covering the 
  scholars and students of a given region, whether 
  deceased or alive, famous or obscure), and 
  landscape or scenery gazetteers (treating the 
  notable hills and mountains, rivers, waterfalls, 
  valleys and gorges, overlooks and vistas, 
  towers, pavilions, mansions, castles, fortresses, 
  antiquities, and general curiosities of a region or 
  route). A final outgrowth is the comprehensive 
  gazetteer, which draws on all these other 
  varieties to produce a definitive guide and body 
  of data (official and private) for a specific locale. 
  The present text is, in origin, such a gazetteer.  
   
  The officially stipulated contents and order of a 
  local (prefectural) gazetteer is given below. This 
  has largely been carried forward to other 
  guidebooks and handbooks in the genre, where 
  feasible. 
  1. Preface and general rules (compilers, 
  editorial policy) 
  2. Maps of prefecture; town or city plans 
  3. Changing borders; tables of changing or 
  altered administrative units 
  4. Main topographical features 
  5. Famous places and views; ruins  
  6. Official buildings; city walls and moats; 
  government offices 
  7. Passes, fords, and bridges 
  8. Water conservancy; canals and rivers; 
  hydraulic and irrigation works 
  9. Chronicle 
  of 
  natural 
  and 
  human 
  disasters or omens 
  10. Temples 
  11. Academies and schools 
  12. Office holders (last five to twenty years, 
  depending upon rank; last century of 
  prefectural heads) 
  13. Fiscal information; household and head 
  counts; land and other taxes 
  14. Granary reserves 
  15. Markets, tolls, and barriers 
  16. Products and crops 
  17. Customs and festivals 
  18. Biographies of dignitaries; meritorious 
  officials; wise priests; heroic soldiers; 
  dutiful women 
  19. Military institutions and military men 
  20. Biographies of technicians (doctors, 
  monks, etc) 
  21. Inscriptions and tombs 
  22. Bibliographies and choice excerpts 
  23. Miscellaneous topics and records 
   
  
  162 
   
  162 
   
   
  APPENDIX D: TÉKUMELIAN WORKS CITED 
   
  The following is a list (and where available, brief 
  description) of some of the books that were 
  either used by the original author of A Gazetteer 
  of Butrús or that have been referenced within it. 
  Much of this information recapitulates or 
  expands on bibliographic footnotes in the main 
  text. See also Appendix C. 
   
  � 
  ABCs of Circuit Listening. (Literally, in 
  Tsolyáni, 
  The 
  P-B-M-F-etc. 
  of 
  Circuit 
  Listening.) A medical handbook that deals 
  specifically with the western and Livyáni 
  practice of identifying disease-demons and 
  locating them in the patient’s body by 
  feeling or listening to the pulse, heartbeat, 
  and digestive tract.  
  � 
  Book of Water Control Within the Chákas. A 
  Mu’ugalavyáni work, of an often technical 
  nature and not of much use or interest 
  except to engineers, administrators, or 
  scholars.  
  � 
  Collected Materials on Earthquakes 
  � 
  Collection of Lucid Decisions and Parallel 
  Cases by Celebrated Judges. A practical 
  manual and guide for low-level judges on all 
  three legal systems of Pan Cháka. 
  � 
  Compendium of Administrative Statutes of 
  the ... Reign Arranged by Category (a.k.a. 
  The ... Statutes) 
  � 
  Complete 
  Manual 
  of 
  Benevolence 
  and 
  Happiness. The most famous practical 
  handbook for officers of the court and 
  lawyers. 
  � 
  Comprehensive Notes on the Citrus Estates 
  � 
  Comprehensive Understanding of Flowing 
  Waters. A definitive text that charts all the 
  river 
  systems 
  of 
  both 
  Tsolyánu 
  and 
  Mu’ugalavyá; unfortunately it is not entirely 
  up-to-date.  
  � 
  Conspectus on Penal Cases. Casebook of 
  precedent for criminal cases. 
  � 
  Digest of Regulations of the Government 
  Offices of the New Western Protectorate 
  � 
  Essentials of Taxation 
  � 
  Grand Collection of City Fires,. A recounting 
  of famous conflagrations throughout history, 
  with chronological and geographical tables, 
  several maps, and even illustrations; written 
  by a Butrusséne pyromaniac of some repute 
  (mostly ill). While it is considered to be of 
  very good scholarship, most readers find the 
  author takes simply too much delight in 
  retelling the stories of one city or another 
  burning to the ground. Very little source 
  material is recounted in the text, despite the 
  name “collection”; the author mostly retells 
  the stories in his own somewhat over-
  excited voice. 
  � 
  Green Pillars of Delight. A recent treatise on 
  the growing, pruning, splicing, etc. of mash 
  trees. The work on the topic most widely 
  known in Tsolyánu proper, but often 
  dismissed by Pan Chákan scholars and 
  experts, who rate their private stock of 
  techniques and lore above this amateurish 
  (by comparison) compilation. 
  � 
  Handbook of Techniques Essential for the 
  Subsistence 
  of 
  the 
  Commonality. 
  The 
  authoritative agronomic manual of the 
  Chákas and eastern Mu’ugalavyá; by ninth 
  century Mu’ugalavyáni writer Jáishe Fiú. 
  � 
  Handbook 
  on 
  the 
  Chambers 
  of 
  Jurisprudence. How to operate and order a 
  court, handle its staff, deal with lawyers, 
  and so forth. 
  � 
  Heshtú’atl Reign Encyclopedia of Foods and 
  Kitchenry (Far Western Volume). A (very) 
  large collection of recipes and information 
  from 
  throughout 
  the 
  empire, 
  but 
  is 
  considered a second-rate work by many, as 
  it was poorly edited and badly copied, with 
  many recipes from famous manuals and 
  gourmands 
  reduced 
  to 
  confusing 
  or 
  improbable instructions. 
  � 
  Itemized Substatutes of Pan Cháka 
  � 
  Itemized Substatutes of the ... Reign. 
  Compiled precedents and substatutes issued 
  in any given emperor’s reign. 
  � 
  Local Case Histories of Pan Cháka 
  � 
  Master Mulákna’s Annotated Portfolio of the 
  Little Gentlemen and Ladies of the Rattan 
  Palaces. 
  A 
  handbook, 
  with 
  copious 
  illustrations, for breeders and trainers of 
  songbirds and ornamental avians. By a 
  Butrusséne; fairly well known and regarded 
  throughout the empire. 
  � 
  Master 
  Nikórva’s 
  System 
  of 
  Dining. 
  “Cookbook” 
  by 
  a 
  Butrusséne 
  author; 
  scholarly and pedantic, but infused with a 
  strange enthusiasm and confidence, and 
  widely considered to have the best, if most 
  difficult, recipes. 
  
  163 
   
  163 
   
   
  � 
  Monthly Ordnances of the Protectorate of 
  Pan Cháka. The standard regional almanac, 
  issued annually by the government. 
  � 
  Mu’ónikh 
  de 
  Parshál 
  Tlakichéngguyal 
  Hibutrús par Churé (“How to Tell the Butrús 
  Ailments, ‘Get Out!’”), by an anonymous 
  author of the turn of the nineteenth century. 
  Nominally it is a pharmacoepia specifically 
  for the local sickness-demons of the city of 
  Butrús. It is chatty and entertaining, full of 
  extraneous 
  detail 
  about 
  different 
  neighborhoods, 
  cooking 
  tips, 
  shortcuts 
  around town, musings on interior decoration 
  and choice of furnishings, anecdotes about 
  neighbors and colorful local characters, 
  advice on selecting fresh melons at the 
  market, and snippets of popular songs of 
  the day; perhaps as close to prose literature 
  as there is to be found on Tékumel. It is in 
  fact a translation from a Mu’ugalavyáni 
  original, though few are aware of this today.  
  � 
  New Table on the Practical Affairs of the 
  Land. A regional phenological manual. 
  � 
  Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold. 
  More focused, less wordy, more boring than 
  How to Tell...; a pharmacoepia dealing with 
  the ailments endemic to Pan Cháka as a 
  whole. 
  � 
  Provincial Substatutes of Pan Cháka 
  � 
  Record of Waterways in the Western 
  Region. Oriented towards the educated 
  traveler by water; includes routes, products, 
  antiquities, 
  biographies, 
  and 
  even 
  illustrations of notable landscapes along the 
  shores. 
  � 
  Supplementary Regulations of Pan Cháka 
  � 
  Treatise on Brandy. Written sometime in the 
  eleventh century, with special reference to 
  Pan Chákan mash liquors. 
  � 
  Two 
  Chákas 
  Recipe 
  Manual. 
  A 
  Mu’ugalavyáni composition, in clipped and 
  uninformative prose; technically exact and 
  easy to follow, and extremely thorough in 
  covering the range from peasant foods to 
  formal banqueting, but considered intensely 
  dull and boring to read.  
  � 
  Volcano Manual. A natural history 
  of 
  volcanoes, drawing extensively on ancient 
  and classical texts, combined with a fairly 
  comprehensive listing of active or semi-
  dormant volcanoes in the known world. 
  � 
  Wake-Up-the-Courtyard Stove. A famous 
  and 
  common 
  Pan 
  Chákan-Butrusséne 
  cookbook entirely in rhyming verse, as 
  narrated by a genial and festivity-loving 
  oven. 
   
  
  164 
   
  164 
   
   
  POSTSCRIPT 
   
  My imagining of this region of Tsolyánu bears an 
  obvious debt to classical and medieval China 
  and Japan, leavening the more “Occidental” 
  (Indo-Byzantine-Egyptian) qualities of M.A.R. 
  Barker’s original conception. The Mesoamerican 
  influences have been retained and perhaps in 
  places strengthened. Visually I picture Pan 
  Cháka as a peculiar conjunction of Guizhou and 
  Yucatan; the city of Butrús itself bears obvious 
  similarities to Chang’an and Heian-kyô.  
   
  On a more general level, this version of 
  Tsolyánu presents it as a more strongly 
  centralized state but a much less unified culture. 
  Secondly, it is meant to be closer to “low 
  fantasy”, with magic being far scarcer and much 
  less 
  “technological” 
  in 
  nature. 
  The 
  supertechnologies from before the Time of 
  Darkness, and other science-fictional elements, 
  are invisible or potentially even absent.  
   
  As this document is meant to be a sourcebook, a 
  considerable amount of information within it 
  recapitulates official Tékumel publications. While 
  this has bloated the size of the text, I felt doing 
  so may make it more comprehensive and 
  convenient, rather than supposing all readers 
  will have access to, and be well-read in, texts 
  such as Deeds of the Ever-Glorious or Mitlányal. 
  I have attempted to incorporate not only 
  canonical writings into this sourcebook, but also 
  non-canonical (or perhaps “para-canonical”) 
  sources. This has included articles from The Eye 
  of All-Seeing Wonder and Visitations of Glory, 
  postings to the Blue Room email list and other 
  online discussion groups, private comments 
  from Old Skool Tekumelistas, and bits of 
  information spotted on various Tékumel-themed 
  websites. Ideas and elements created by the 
  many gamers and fans of Tekumel and other 
  settings I’ve known over the past two decades 
  and counting have also percolated into this 
  project as well. My deep thanks to everyone 
  who has provided, however unwittingly, such 
  content. Professor Barker has provided a 
  correction to the Tsolyáni title of the document 
  (which I haven’t been able to implement yet, 
  and so have gone without for the time being). 
  Furthermore, a volunteer proofreader has been 
  invaluable in catching embarrassing numbers of 
  even more embarrassing errors.  
   
  Some of the specific non-Tékumelian sources of 
  inspiration and detail have been: 
   
  Edward Schaffer’s books on material culture and 
  exotica in the literary culture of the Tang 
  dynasty, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand and 
  The Vermillion Bird (particularly the latter), as 
  well as his other works — The Shore of Pearls 
  and The Empire of Min. His final book, on Tang 
  star-lore (Pacing the Void) was obviously of less 
  utility on Tékumel but was still indirectly 
  inspirational. For bureaucracy and government, 
  Charles Hucker’s Dictionary of Official Titles in 
  Imperial 
  China, 
  Hans 
  Bielenstein’s 
  The 
  Bureaucracy 
  of 
  Han 
  Times, 
  and 
  Denis 
  Twitchett’s Financial Administration under the 
  T’ang Dynasty; on technical matters, the various 
  volumes of Science and Civilization in China 
  edited by Joseph Needham et al., and Paul 
  Unschuld’s Medicine in China: A History of Ideas. 
  On the city itself, G. Eugène Simon’s La Cité 
  chinoise and Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt’s 
  Chinese 
  Imperial 
  City 
  Planning. 
  Another 
  secondary source on China I found useful was 
  Charles Backus’ The Nan-chao Kingdom and 
  T’ang China’s Southwestern Frontier. 
   
  Among 
  primary 
  sources 
  that 
  served 
  as 
  background, I drew on Sima Qian’s Shiji 
  (translated as “Records of the Historian” etc.), 
  Ban Gu’s Hanshu, various snippets of Shen Fu, 
  the Ziji Tongjian and the Xin Tangshu, and from 
  among classical literature, the Liji, Zhouli, and 
  Shangshu. Pu Songling’s Liaozhai Zhiyi stories of 
  the weird (translated under titles such as 
  “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”) and Cao 
  Xueqin’s Honglou Meng (English trs. as “Dream 
  of the Red Chamber” or “Story of the Stone”) 
  also played an important part. Some Classical 
  Japanese literature was also an influence: Genji 
  Monogatari and Makura no Sôshi (Arthur Waley 
  translations). For that matter, the Kintaikyo at 
  Iwakuni is, mutatus mutandum, the Bridge of 
  the Leaping Worm. 
   
  For the Mesoamerican element, the two texts 
  probably most referenced were A Forest of 
  Kings (Linda Schele & David Freidel) and the 
  always entertaining Incidents of Travel in 
  Yucatan and Travels in Central America; many 
  
  165 
   
  165 
   
   
  individual journal articles provided the rest. 
  Equally useful for inspiring local color was 
  Kaempfer’s even older (early 1700s) History of 
  Japan, Together with a Description of the 
  Kingdom of Siam. 
   
  From fiction, Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee 
  mysteries, I must confess, and Clark Ashton 
  Smith’s fantasies, particularly the “Hyperborea” 
  and “Zothique” cycles, and his “Martian tales”. 
  Thomas Ligotti contributed a one-liner. 
   
  And — need it be said? — the many works of 
  M.A.R. Barker, up to and nearly including his 
  Klamath materials.  
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Empire of the Petal Throne/Fanworks/Setting/Butrus Gazetteer.pdf